Hi, so here is another chapter and now we are over half way so i really hope that you enjoy. There is some action coming but mostly the remaining chapters will be bits of soft fluff before the sequel will cover Season 2.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine, just the character of Erin.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.

And again some trigger warnings with this story and some language.

Faith Based Initiative

Chapter 12-Riding The Lightening.

Erin wakes up. Djaq and Marian wake up and a moment is shared. Everyone is filled in on the Black Knights—including Matilda who shares a moment with John—and Erin gets her promise.

When her eyes fluttered open again it took her a second to realise that she was still in the forest, that she could still see sunlight and that she was free. For a moment she still felt the chains that had for years been wrapped around her wrist and she looked her hand, her wrist wrapped in peppermint and eucalyptus bandages courtesy of Matilda still surprised to see it free of metal and blood.

For the first time in her life Erin awoke feeling deliciously sleepy. She wanted to turn her head and burrow into the warmth of the furs and sleep for the rest of her life but she could smell meat and for the first time she felt her stomach turn in something that wasn't pain or nausea but was hunger. She never usually got meat.

She turned her head and then gave a little start her legs curling up under her furs and sending a shockwave of pain from her knee to her brain. Two other bunks had been cleared and she saw two dark heads sticking out from under furs one with long hair and one with short. For a moment her brain needed time to catch up and then she started.

Marian. Djaq.

They were here.

They were alive.

She crammed her knuckles into her mouth least she start to burst into tears. Marian and Djaq were asleep it seemed or unconscious perhaps but either way the first thing that they heard when they woke up from the nightmare they had been living in for days was the sound of her sobbing hysterically.

There was movement and a low curse and Matilda came into her vision. She was stirring something in a pot over a low fire and it smelt of lavender and other herbs. Matilda ladled it into a mug and then turned and smiled.

"Gently dear" she said as she saw Erin try to get up. She handed her the mug and then helped arrange a pillow against a tree branch so that she could lean against it and take a soothing breath. Her ribs flared again but she noticed that the pain was dulling where the bandages had gone around and she chalked that down to the herbs that were pressing against each wound and each bruise.

"Drink that. It's for the nerves and your throat. And then we'll get some food down you. At some point I have to return to my cottage but I think I can stay another night or so to deal with these two" she jerked her head towards Marian and Djaq.

"Are they alright?" Erin asked taking a sip and feeling the hot water burn her tongue.

"No" Matilda said sadly. "And it's been touch and go. That sleeping draught you took knocked you out for three days and that's good because I needed them to worry about these two. Lady Marian's been through the ringer, three broken ribs, a bruised knee, broken hand and wrist and three snapped fingers and then a nasty infection from the gash on her arm. That's before you get to the bruises. Djaq…well she's just banged her head but she's cut it and suffered some bleeding which caused a fever and some hallucinations—kept rambling about a woman in red and her sister poor lass—anyway their both through the worst of it now."

Erin let her talk, in all honestly it was soothing. It meant she did not have to think.

"Where are the rest of them?" she asked finally her voice horse from disuse. The tea helped and she took another sip of it.

"Gone back to my house to get me what I need. I got sick of them moping around anyway. I don't have the time to deal with that and I didn't need them peering round the curtain every five seconds. Times like this the menfolk need to be gone. Just like childbirth. They think they can handle it and they become more of a hindrance really."

She tutted and turned to wring out some towels and Erin took another sip of tea.

"Is it over?" she asked staring resolutely at the tree branch opposite it.

"Seems so" Matilda said chopping up some lavender. "Apparently the guards at the cave were all dead when they arrived. Course some are with the Sherriff but no doubt Robin has a plan. God knows that lad always has a plan."

There was a shifting under the blankets and Erin saw Marian shift a little the dark curls quivering almost. Matilda tutted and Erin turned back to staring at the sky while she was helped. Djaq too began to stir almost as if one of them had woken the other but Erin was staring upwards. It was a slightly chilly but still warmish day. There was a breeze on her face and sunlight. Sunlight! Erin could not remember the last time she had seen light that bright.

The camp was bright and filled with birdsong, looking up she could see clouds and blue sky and she could smell wood and grass and the crackling of a fire and the sounds. She snuggled back into the furs and enjoyed the luxury. She was not sure if she was dreaming, she had a sick sense that for a long time she would catch herself in these moments and she would wait to wake up in that cave again.

"Erin?" she turned at the sound of her name and saw Marian sitting up now. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders which were bare and Erin could understand why Matilda had sent her…well…whatever Robin was to her…away. Her ribs were bandaged up tightly like Erin's were and Erin granted did not know what she looked like but she thought if it was anything like Marian then she must have given the outlaws the fright of their lives when they had seen her.

"Hello" Erin said trying to smile.

"That cut on your lip has just healed" Matilda said not bothering to turn around. "So don't re awaken the wound. No smiling until it's completely healed"

Erin nodded dropping her head a little and then she pushed back the fur and stood up. Her knee protested vehemently as it had done before but she managed to place her cup on a small wooden stump that served as a table and she made her way over to where Marian was slumped half in a sitting position leaning heavily on her pillow and Erin staggered a little onto another tree stump that was clearly designed as a chair. Djaq who too was sitting up though her eyes were dull and her hands curled into fists was also watching.

"You were right" Erin said finally. She had not made much of an issue out of touching since the caves but as she reached for her hand Marian with a surge of strength wrapped their hands together,

"We did it"

"No" Marian said she gave a small moan of pain as she shifted but her eyes when she locked onto Erin's were sharp and to the point.

"You did it"

Erin did not think that was entirely true but she was too emotionally past the point of caring. Marian gripped her hand though it was bruised and Erin gripped it back not caring of the ache. It was nice to have some comfort with someone who had seen how bad it was for once.

"We did it" Erin said finally. "I'd have been dead if it hadn't been for you and Djaq convincing me to go through that hole in the sky. They'd have killed me at some point. Now…whatever happens I have a chance at a life"

"What do you mean whatever happens?" that was Djaq which made Erin jump a little because the other woman had been so quiet that she had almost forgotten for a second that she was there.

"You're going to stay with us. I don't presume to speak for you Marian but considering Gisbourne burned down your house I don't think you want to go back to the castle?"

Marian snorted and then winced again.

"So you'll stay here with us, learn to be an outlaw. Learn to be a human. It's what we promised—" her eyes narrowed suddenly and her voice became a great deal shaper.

"Robin has given you that option I assume?"

"To be honest I've not really spoken to him" Erin said finally. "He's been so obsessed with finding the two of you…and…well it didn't seem appropriate. Besides he's seen…well I imagine quite a bit. I'm not sure if he wants me to join his gang"

Matilda snorted. Three sets of eyes turned to look at her as she poured what looked like a generous helping of wine into a cup.

"Good Lord if Robin doesn't personally thank you for what you've done I'll give him such a walloping with my broomstick that it will make the Crusades look like a holiday. Boy owes you more than the world itself and all you want is a bed here? Actually you know what—" and before anyone could stop her she had opened the curtain, stuck her head around and bellowed.

"Oi pretty boy in here—no not you Allan—Robin now!"

Seconds later Robin Hood came round the curtain. He looked exhausted and Erin looked away habitually looking at her hands which were still covered in dried blood and dirt.

"John's the only one who can carry it Matilda and I've just sent Allan to help Will but it's a long haul to the river and if you want them to go three times—"

"No not that—" Matilda said with a impatient wave of her hand. "No. Erin here needs to ask you something. Well Marian and Djaq promised her something and your going to give it to her regardless and if your boys have a problem, I have a knife"

Robin shot Marian a look, Erin noticed he looked distinctly unnerved and she wondered just how much wine Matilda had indulged in.

"Yes?"

Erin stared at him suddenly struggling to speak. She shot a look at Marian who seemed to know exactly why she was struggling and what she was struggling with. It was difficult suddenly to talk to someone she had just met and it was difficult to speak to a man freely when she was used to getting kicked in the mouth (or worse) when she did. Marian's look (through the split lip and the swollen eye) was sincere when she looked at her and Djaq looked as if she understood all the turmoil that she was feeling and more.

"We promised Erin she could stay with us" Djaq said softly. "If she…if she got out. It was a huge risk Robin and she did it. And she doesn't have anywhere else to go"

Erin wanted to speak for herself but somehow she couldn't compute the words and she hated herself for it. She had a voice and she just didn't remember how to use it.

Robin looked between Marian and Djaq with confusion on his face. Matilda passed Erin a cup of wine and she waited fully expecting the conversation to take a sharp turn towards Robin saying thanks but no thanks.

"I thought that was obvious" Robin said finally still looking confused. "Of course we want Erin to stay"

Erin had unfortunately chosen that moment to take a sip of wine. Between the burning feeling and the surprise news she choked. Robin shot her a look that Erin took as concerned though weather or not it was for her health or for her sanity she wasn't sure.

"Good" Marian said settling back on her pillows as if all was done and dusted with the world.

"Then that's settled—"

"Really?"

That was Erin. It was a sense of disbelief that had taken over and she looked Robin in the eye this time and for the first time she did not wonder if she was going to be hurt for her boldness. Instead she met the gaze and took him in for the first time. Despite it all she could see what Marian saw in him, he was good looking, with a body that had been hardened over time but there was also a sense of something dark within him. Erin thought that he might have an inkling of what it meant—the horrors within her own mind reflected somewhat in him but she wasn't sure and certainly she was not going to ask.

"Of course. What did you think I was going to do? My men…you have done us a great service and my men…well…if I was to turn you away John would skin me alive, never mind what Allan would do. And…and I owe you for something far more precious than my own life—" here his gaze shifted a little to Marian and his gaze was so tender that Erin ducked her head again.

Nobody had looked at her like that and nobody ever would.

But there was no point in wallowing in that right now.

Instead she managed a small smile at him and managed to keep her eye contact.

"Thank you" she said simply.

"No" Robin said so softly that she couldn't help but strain to hear him. "Thank you." She didn't know what to say to that so she did the only thing that she could do in the present circumstances.

She nodded.

There was nothing more to say anyway.

Robin took a deep breath and then sat down on another tree stump.

"There is something that I need to tell you about, about the Sherriff, about the knights. There here to kill the King"

Erin had no idea who the Sherriff was so she stayed silent because Marian and Djaq and Matilda all seemed to know who he was because they either shifted, hissed or swore. The idea that the men that she had been a prisoner of were after the King was something else that she had to get her brain around.

"What do you mean here to kill the King?" Djaq asked. Robin launched then into the explanation about what the Outlaws had been doing when they had been underground and Erin struggled to keep up throughout a story that she was sure was involving people and places that she had never seen before.

"Well I'll be damned" Matilda said finally. "Richard might have left us to the plots of his little brother—who was the runt of Henry II and Eleanor's litter if you ask my opinion but at least there was a chance he was coming back. Kill the king is a one way straight to hell."

"Obviously until we have a plan this is secret"

Matilda rolled her eyes.

"Gods above boy it's hardly something you shout at the top of your lungs in the middle of the village is it? If it hadn't been me birthing you I'd say there was something wrong with your brain"

Robin opened his mouth and then shut it again. Erin felt her head throb. A plot against the king was the last thing that she could cope with right now.

Matilda caught her expression and then nodded.

"Well that was frightfully exciting wasn't it Robin? Now go and make sure Allan and Will are doing what I asked them to do and leave me with my patients. I have to make sure that everything is in place before I go home."

Erin felt the overwhelming urge to go back to bed. Somehow, someway, it had all become too much.

She had gone to the stream for a moment alone. The three girls had gone back to bed with a cup of wine and a good sprinkling of poppy seeds to help along with the sleep. Looking at the three heads underneath blankets—the short dark hair, the brown curls and the mass of golden blonde she had felt something inside her shift a little and barking instructions to Much on what to do she had decided to go for a walk.

The stream was protected this side of the river and besides, Matilda was not known to the outlaws at least as far as the Sherriff knew and so she was more than allowed to walk along the river, the shoes in her hand and gathering herbs.

There was a pause where she sat on a rock and watched the water flow and Matilda wiped her fingers under her eyes. She was not a woman to be overcome by a sentimental moment but she was feeling beaten. Three women, each in their own way had been through enough for one lifetime before this had happened. Now the road ahead of them was long and complex, winding and she didn't know deep down if they had the strength to do it.

She heard footsteps behind her and she turned only to see John take seat next to her.

"They alright?" he asked finally.

"There'll live" Matilda said truthfully. "All three of them have survived monster infections that should have killed them but they will live. Robin's allowed Erin to stay with you. Learn the ways of the Outlaw so to speak"

"Good" John said firmly. "Girl like that needs some protecting. God's above Matilda men like that—"

"Filth" Matilda said finally.

"Filth" John repeated nodding.

Matilda turned to look at him. He had in his day she had seen, very handsome. He'd had a way when Alice had been his young wife of still making the village women's hearts melt though that could have been due to the simple way he had looked at his wife. There had been a great love between the two of them and then John had gone to the forest and then that had been the end of that—a great love story gone to the dogs.

He still looked good she thought to herself. Even now he still looked good. There was a moment where she thought about it as John passed her a clean cloth so she could wipe her eyes—all the while not commentating on what it meant—and then she spoke again.

"Do you miss Alice?" she said finally. Bluntness was something she'd had since birth and John knew that because John knew her. Anything else after that was just shit and he knew it.

"Sometimes" he answered because John was nothing but honest even when the question was painful. "But she's happy now. And so's the boy. And that makes it easier for me. Doesn't change the fact that I've had my wife but…doesn't mean I want to die a monk"

Matilda laughed wiping her fingers under her eyes again.

"God John we've made a mess of things haven't we?"

"Aye. Me with the law hunting me down and you showing up with your child and no husband and the men that followed. Hard to believe we live in the times that we do"

Matilda laughed despite herself because it was truthful as well as funny, after all had she not lived her life unapologetically herself? She thought of those three girls (for they were girls compared to her were they not?) in those beds wrapped up in furs with Robin, Will Scarlett and though he might deny it (though he was as easily readable as the books Matilda had studied as a child) Allan pining after them and she hoped that they had more luck.

There was a pause as she sat there John's hand intertwined in her own somehow at some point and then her head leaning against his shoulder. She was old—well she was getting older—and so was he. A bit of comfort was nothing she knew. This felt…well…

She didn't dwell on it. Those kinds of feelings she didn't need. Give her five more minutes and she knew that she would be alright.

John said nothing.

They sat there together in silence for a long time.

Writing Matilda is so fun it's unreal.

And there we go, enjoy and i will try and update as soon as i can.

Next Chapter-Matilda gifts the outlaws one last thing before she departs, Erin receives a gift, Robin attempts to find out more information and Djaq and Will spend some time together.