Hi, and so here is another chapter and we begin to get into something that might resemble a plot. This does introduce Isabella to us and she is going to be a very different character to the one we see on the screen mainly because she is not going to be chasing after Robin all the time or lose her mind because he doesn't choose her like she's portrayed in the TV Show. Also I do plan to introduce Prince John who will be a little bit mad, bad and dangerous (because Toby Stephens played him to utter, utter perfection) but also not the villain he is usually portrayed to be.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

And I will do my best to bring you the next chapter sooner rather than later.

The Growing Good Of The World

Chapter 9-Anything You Want.

Marian and Erin have a reckoning. The Outlaws learn just who the woman in the castle is and the Sherriff is on borrowed time.

"GISBOURNE'S SISTER?"

"Shout it a little louder Robin I don't think Gisbourne's sister heard you" Much said with an eye roll and an admonishing look at his friend and former Master.

"I'm sorry" Robin said dropping his voice but his tone of utter astonishment was still there.

"I'm sorry but…since when did he have a sister?"

"I don't know" Kate said with a shrug. "All I know is that while Allan proved a distraction I managed to talk to one of the girls who doubles up as a serving girl whenever the castle has guests and she told me. Her name is Isabella and she's apparently in the inner circle with Prince John"

"Define inner circle?"

"I don't know…whatever inner circle means"

"What Robin means" Carter said from where he was leaning against a tree stump and sharpening his knife. "Is, is she his mistress"

Kate blinked.

"I don't know" she said truthfully. "To tell you the truth I never thought that the Sherriff was into all or any of that, but I suppose anything is possible—"

"Not the Sherriff girl" Carter said with an eye roll. "Prince John. Is she Prince John's noble whore come down to set up house for him?"

Kate flushed but when she met Carter's cool gaze her own was perfectly steady.

"I don't know" she said coolly. "The King's brother tends not to include me in this thinking. And don't call me girl"

Much grinned. Allan whistled. Carter looked Kate dead in the eye and then bowed his head once in the closest thing you would ever get from an apology.

"I don't know" she said finally. "I don't know if inner circle means whore but I do know she's got about sixty gowns and according to Margaret none of them are cheap. And she turned up with a letter with Prince John's private post mark on it. And the Sherriff apparently was not expecting her. He was ordered by post to accommodate her and accommodate her every wish. By order of Prince John, Heir to the Throne."

There was a pause as they all processed that.

Carter hummed once. "Well he wouldn't be the first to take a wife of a noble. Easier that way I suppose. Less damage to the woman and her reputation and the man can be bought off. Never did like it myself but it is the way it is. Way of the world, at least for the rich anyway"

"It might not be that" Tuck said from where he was silent in the corner. "Inner circle might mean that she is in on the plot to assassinate the King. Or wrestle control of his throne by other forces. It might be worth trying to see if you can ask her Robin. See just why she is here taking up residence with a Sherriff that doesn't seem to know her"

"Yeah cause she's going to tell me everything isn't she?" Robin said with an eye roll.

"You don't know until you've asked her" Tuck said quietly. "You never know what might happen unless you try. Buckingham is all put silent, the Prince is coming to Nottingham, nobody has heard from the King in months and even if he was coming home there are rumours about his health, we need some clear direction, do we fight or do we surrender?"

"Prince John is making a move for his brother's throne" Robin said flatly.

"If his brother is on death's door then he doesn't need to" Tuck said quietly and there was something in his dark and wise gaze that sent them all to silence. Outlaws they might be but they had chosen to defend the King even when pardon's might have been available through other methods. And it was worth mentioning (though everyone but Robin already knew) that the King had asked them to remain outlaws rather than giving them the pardon's they needed to do the work that was requested.

And there were other things too Will thought watching his wife put away her medicine into the well worn box that she now always carried with her.

There was back breaking taxation that threw even the better off peasant into turmoil, the lack of interest in his own people, the lack of preparedness of plague or invasion, the lack of an heir to follow him, rumours of persistent affairs with the King of France (not that Will really gave a shit about that considering his brother was openly calling another man his husband) but it was the lack of care that Richard had for England. He had been Prince of Aquitaine his entire life, he had been given the province by help of his mother, he had rebelled against his father more times than any of them could count (according to Marian who had heard stories about it from her own father when she was little).

If truth be told it was hard to be loyal to a man who had never been interested in loyal to him.

He thought that he was going to have to say that at some point. They were at a point where for the first time they had gone into the forest they didn't know what to do. Robin's eyes were littered with shadows from sleeping nights and he knew that his friend and his leader was struggling to sleep. He had a wife and a newborn baby on the way and no clear way of giving them the life that he deserved. He looked at Djaq and knew that the same frustration was building up in all of them. They were outlaws on the edge of a town in a city that had been plundered time and time again. They were small people in a big world and for the first time Will thought it was hitting Robin that there was only so much he could do, that he was a small cog in a machine and that the nobles in London thought he was a common criminal at worse and a nuisance at best.

Robin sighed. "I suppose we could ask her" was all he said and then he looked around.

"Where's Marian?"

"Gone to speak to Erin" Allan said from where he was perched on the tree stump. "And leave em Robin, they have to talk about somethings and there is only so much they can talk about if one of us crashes into the middle of it"

"The woman need to talk?" Robin asked with an eyebrow.

"Yeah I'll say" Allan muttered.

Robin nodded. "Come hunting with me?" he said to Much and Much nodded. Carefully the two of them and went and Much caught Will's eye as they left.

"You think they will talk?" Djaq asked finally as they disappeared over the ridge from sight.

"Yes" Kate said nodding. "I think that Much knows which way the wind is blowing"

"It's been one hell of a ride though" Carter said finally. "One hell of a ride. And we've stopped the Sherriff. If Prince John removes the Sherriff and Buckingham comes through for us then we can get some sort of normality back"

"Will he though?" Will said scepticism heavy in his tone.

"Don't see why not" Carter said lazily kicking his leg up in the air and then using it to throw both feet on the ground pushing himself up.

"It makes sense for him to cut the Sherriff loose. Then he can blame the Black Knights on a renegade Sherriff and his lieutenant whose conveniently dead. Richard might know John's lying through his teeth but the truth of the matter is Richard knows he can't move against John. With Arthur so young and no heir of his own and certainly no intention of making one John is the next King and the next King is going to have support in Parliament, you circle around the heir to the throne as much you can, especially if the rumours of illness are true"

There was a pause as everyone looked at him.

"You really know all there is to know about this" Kate said with something akin to awe in her voice. "You really do. I just…what's it like. Court?"

"Nothing special" Carter said looking oddly pleased with the praise. "It's a lot of waiting around and baking in the sun and bowing and scraping and empty flirting and idleness. I didn't like it, but you had to be there if you wanted more—"

"More of what?"

"Troops, men, armour, weapons, money. You had to be there and you had to play the great game. But there is a growing good in this world that the court will never understand and so this is so much better….breathing in God's clean air and just being you."

There was a pause where all of them watched him for a second and Will rolled his eyes.

"I'm gonna go find my husband" Carter said and then he moved so that he was off the bunk and out the little camp.

"Where is Luke?" Will asked sighing.

"Went to collect firewood" Kate said grinning.

"Great." Will said. "So that's them up against a tree for the better part of an afternoon. I do hope they don't scar anyone for life"

Djaq turned and shot him a look and Will grinned back.

Maybe it was possible for them to have a normal life after all?

Well…as normal as things got in Nottingham.

Marian had caught up with Erin at the stream.

"Can we talk?"

Blue eyes met hers with surprise and then like they had done for so long she saw them look away as if Erin was trying to find something to look at, anything, as long as it didn't involve looking at her.

And Marian couldn't stand it.

"Erin—"

"It's stupid" Erin warned finally.

"Not if you can't look at me, come on we went through hell together you and me and this is what we can't talk about? We were in that cave together, in the castle together, in the bloody Holy Lands together and what suddenly when I become pregnant we can't hold a conversation together?"

Erin struggled for a second her jaw working furiously and then she turned the full force of those blue eyes onto Marian and she felt sick at the pain that was in them.

"I don't know if I can give Allan children" she said finally. "I…the damage done to me Marian…any physician in this country would tell you that I am fucked. So yes, seeing you pregnant is like rubbing salt on the wounds because I didn't even know I wanted children until I considered the possibility that I couldn't. And I see you! I see you with your rounded stomach and the life growing within you and I see Robin and the easy way in which you are together and I want that for myself and because of the trauma and because of the terror and because of the injuries done to me, none of which was my choice I cannot have that so…" she shrugged and then turned away to wring out one of the shirts that she had been washing and Marian knew it was to hide her face.

"Erin…I don't…I don't know what to say"

"Nothing to say" Erin said finally. "I'll work it out with my head and with my heart and that will be the end of it. Allan doesn't seem to mind anyway"

Marian had never really been a big believer in hate. She had never really seen it as an emotion worth having in your heart or in your head. She had never really hated anyone even when the Sherriff had killed her father. But she had never hated in a way that she had hated the Black Knights before. This was a different kind of hate that she felt.

"Have you considered asking Matilda to take a look?"

Erin shot her a long look.

"And what would the point of that be?" she said quietly. "I don't…I don't need to be told what I already know by anyone, physician, midwife, wisewoman. She's only going to tell me what I already know. That a child cannot be born with the damage that was done to me. I remember it, I remember all of it and I don't know how to forget it or fix it."

"Then ask Matilda…look Erin…if Matilda says no then you can go back and know you've tried everything but you saved my life so please let me try and help you rebuild yours."

"I have Allan, my life is rebuilt, and I know I should be grateful—"

But Marian had, had enough and so she did something she had never done before, not even when she was twelve and she had met Robin for the first time when her father had been appointed Sherriff and they had met the young Lord of Locksley who was to become his ward. Robin had been hard to read then, harder to accept help and she had been impatience to grow up. And though Robin had made her think about stamping her foot she had never done it.

And now she had stamped her foot.

Literally. Stamped. Her. Foot.

"Erin. Please. I don't want our friendship which means more to me than words can say suffer because of this. Please let me just get you to Matilda. Nobody has to know. If not Matilda then Djaq. And then…and then one way or another I want you to be this baby's godmother. Because if God forbid something happens to me or to Robin I know you will love this child as if it is your own, regardless of weather or not you have children of your own. I need your friendship, I need your support. We should not accept less because we are woman, we should fight for more. Please tell me that whatever comes next doesn't impact our friendship because I think that would break my heart"

Erin watched her for a long second.

"You'd do that for me" she said flatly and it wasn't phrased as a question. Marian nodded feeling tears come to her eyes. Damn hormonal imbalance (Djaq's words not hers).

"Yes"

Erin turned her face away and then turned it back and this time Marian could see the tears in her eyes, the helplessness in her face and she hated the fact that it was there. Erin who was without a shadow of a doubt one of the best people that Marian knew, who deserved everything that was the best this world had to offer. Erin who over the course of two years had overcome such fear and such trauma and who was as happy as she could be but still had something standing in her way.

Well…not if Marian could help it.

God knows, the good Lord owed them both in this instance.

Erin put down the shirt and then smiled a little. It wasn't her usual smile but it was a start.

"Alright then" she said and Marian smiled too feeling like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

It wasn't a fix it.

But it was a start.

And maybe just maybe…everything for all of them would turn out all right.

Marian hoped so.

Oh, how she hoped so.

And there we go.

Next Chapter-Robin and Much share a moment in the woods when they think about how far their lives have come since first coming back to Nottingham. Otherwise known as that scene where Robin apologises for still being a rather shit friend that we didn't get in Season 3 (because Much deserves everything)