Thanks for reading and please do review.

I've stolen and paraphrased a bit from Arthur Miller's The Crucible so bonus points if you recognise it.

Olivia and Alex crouched in the long grass beside the road. They hoped that in the darkness of the cloudy night the carriage would miss them. Olivia wondered who would be travelling this deep in the forest this late at night and raised her eyes to stare at the figures who rode past.

There were five men on horseback, dressed in breastplates and the blue livery of the Sheriff. One rode point while the other four surrounded a black closed carriage. The noise of the wheels echoed close to their heads and they prayed that none of the guards saw fit to look down. Olivia stared as they rode past and in the window of the carriage she saw briefly the outline of a boy. She heard Alex gasp beside her and one of the trotting horses snorted at the noise. Luckily his rider didn't seem to notice.

They both waited till the party were both out of sight and sound before they rose to their feet. Alex, Olivia saw, was thinking hard, a million thoughts running through her head.

'You recognised him?' she asked.

Alex looked back at the dirt road twisting through the trees. Yes she had recognised him. The brown hair that curled at the base of his neck; the weak chin; the grey eyes. He'd changed since she last saw him, but then boys were known to do that.

'Yes,' she replied, 'he's my brother.'

'Oh.' Olivia didn't know how to reply. She didn't know how Alex felt, whether she was close to the boy or not and wasn't sure exactly how to ask. Alex's face was giving nothing away. 'Last I heard he was over in Northumbria with some Lord.' She said awkwardly, crossing her arms over her chest.

'Sir John, Duke of Northumbria' Alex corrected quickly, still not looking away from the road. 'He was sent away when he was eight, I was nineteen.'

'I was away then, I think. I'm only two years older than you and I didn't get back from the Holy land till I was twenty four. I knew the Sheriff had a son of course but I didn't learn till later that he was sent away for teaching.' She was rambling which wasn't like her but Alex's stiff posture and her blank tone were worrying her slightly. 'It's not unusual though, you know for boys to be sent away. The nobility have it in their heads that other people are best suited for raising their children. I don't get it personally but then I guess I'm not nobility. It's strange though isn't it, for him to be coming back so soon. He's what, fourteen now, boys don't normally come back till at least sixteen, eighteen. Alex?'

'Hmmm,' Alex had been lost in her own thoughts and was only half listening to what Olivia was saying. 'Yes it's strange.' She said finally turning away from the road, 'I don't know why my father's done this.'

Her forehead was creased in worry. 'Were you close?' Olivia asked.

'No not really. But he was a kind boy. I'd see him from my window feeding the animals and playing with the other children. He may look like my father but he has none of his nature. I was happy for him when he went away.'

'So your father couldn't hurt him like he'd hurt you.'

'My father never hurt me Olivia.'

Olivia said nothing. She'd held Alex crying in her arms not five minutes ago because of the abuse she'd suffered.

'Alex…' she started

'Don't Liv. Don't make more out of what I told you than what it is. I just panicked before, that's all.'

'Alex what he did to you isn't normal, it's not okay.'

'But it doesn't matter. I'm fine. It never hurt me, not really. Other people have it worse.' Alex hated anything that made her different from other people. She couldn't accept that she'd given Olivia another reason to view her as abnormal.

'If you're fine Alex,' Olivia asked gently, 'why are you so scared of your brother coming home.'

'I'm not scared.'

Olivia raised an eyebrow.

'I'm not scared, I'm just…. perplexed. The only reason my father would have for bringing him home early is because I'm not there. He's bored maybe.

'Okay.' Olivia wasn't entirely convinced but let Alex keep her denial. 'Well whatever the reason young William has returned.' She smiled and took Alex by the arm turning and walking with her back towards camp.

They walked in silence for a time when suddenly Alex yanked her arm away and turned towards the road once again. 'I have to go back.'

'Wait what.' Alex was already walking back through the trees and Olivia had to run to catch up. 'Alex what are you doing? You can't go back!'

'Why not. My father doesn't know I helped you. He probably thinks I've been your prisoner. I can say I escaped and…'

'Alex he won't believe that!' Olivia was scared, a cold and determined look had entered Alex's eyes and she wasn't sure that she could convince her otherwise now she had obviously made up her mind. She placed and hand in the middle of Alex's chest and stopped her steps. 'Alex, you just told me what your father did never hurt you and that you're not scared for your brother. What possible reason could you have for going back?'

Alex couldn't bring herself to admit that she was scared her father, without her there, would turn his abuses on his son. She still wanted to believe, and some stubborn part of her did, that her childhood had been mainly normal, that what she had told Olivia was true for many noble women. But the rest of her feared for her brother. She wanted to make sure that he was being treated well, treated kindly.

As she stood there she came to realise that she'd been kidding herself for the past weeks. Olivia said that she could build a family here; that she would become her home but Alex knew she already had a home, had a family. Yes her father might not be the best but he had cared for her, given her clothes and food, taught her everything she knew. He loved her, she was sure of that. And her brother. Her sweet innocent brother. What kind of person was she if she just abandoned him? No, she was sure now that whatever Olivia told her she had to go back. The sight of the teenager, her same grey eyes shining back at her, made her realise that she had a family, she had a place and she had to go back to it.

'I'm sorry Olivia, but they're my family.'

'We're your family Alex!' Olivia was shouting now, fear behind every word. 'You belong with us.'

'That's not true and you know it. That goodness we felt today is not meant for me. Your life is not meant for me.'

'Alex please!' Olivia was now walking backwards against Alex's steps, her hand still over Alex's heart. 'What will you tell him huh? How will you explain why you've been gone so long?'

'That's simple. You've been keeping me captive. Moving me through the forest at night, always a bag over my head, tied to trees and what not.' Alex knew her explanation had holes but hoped that her father would be so happy to see her that he wouldn't question her too closely.

'No!' Olivia said shaking her head, 'you can't do this. It's killing you. You can't be that person again, please.'

'If you're worried that I will give your camp away, don't be. I won't do that to you Olivia. I'm not betraying you I promise; I just have to go back.'

The idea of betrayal had never entered Olivia's head. Yes she had thought it when she had first seen Alex leave but after their whole conversation and Alex confiding in her she trusted the blond explicitly. 'I know that Alex, I trust you, I know you. I don't understand why you think you have to do this.'

'I'm not who you think I am,' Alex's voice had remained calm though Olivia's was choked by the tears pooling in her eyes. 'I told you; you're building this life, this concept, that I can't even understand. They may not be perfect Olivia but those two men at the castle are the only family I've got. God himself tells us we can't walk away from our families, from our blood.'

'What about me!' Olivia played the last card she had. She couldn't bear for Alex to go. Knew that, even if Alex wouldn't admit it, she was too good, too moral to survive the life the sheriff made her lead. Over the months Olivia had come to care for the blond in a way she didn't know existed. She wasn't the Black Cloak to Olivia anymore, she was Alex.

Alex felt herself stop. They had reached the road again and though it was many miles to the castle she was ready to walk them. Olivia's words had hit her hard. She knew that part of her, even if God said it was abhorrent, lusted after Olivia but what she hadn't expected was to care so deeply for her. Olivia, in her eyes, was the best of people. The most caring and loving person Alex had ever met and it almost tore her heart in two to walk away but she knew she had to.

She took a step towards Olivia and placed her hands on either side of her face before bringing her lips slowly down and kissing her. Unlike their other two kisses this one was slow, kind, and through it Alex tried to speak all the words of love she knew would never pass her tongue. She felt rather than saw the tears fall from Olivia's eyes and wet her own cheeks as their tongues moved in sync together.

They broke apart and Alex used her thumbs to wipe away the moisture under Olivia's eyes. 'You're the best person I've ever met.' She started, not looking away from the brown depths of Olivia's irises. 'I know that if I ever get sad thinking about all the dragons in the world, I need only think of you and I'll be reminded of all the knights that are there to fight them. You have your family Olivia and I know you would do anything to protect them. You have to let me protect mine.'

Olivia choked back her sobs as Alex stepped away and walked back down the road. She didn't even know what to call what she and Alex had, they'd barely even touched, but she felt closer to her than she had to anyone. She was dying to run after her and give her another reason to stay, beg her not to go back to a place where everyone hurt her. But she didn't. She knew that Alex thought her leaving proved her depravity. Proved that she wasn't worthy enough to stay with them but Olivia knew that it meant the opposite. Alex was going to protect a boy she barely even knew and in doing so she had found her goodness and Olivia couldn't bear to take it from her.

She sank to her knees and stared after Alex, already lost in the darkness, and cried. Cried for the pain she knew Alex was walking back to. Cried for the pain in her heart at losing someone she knew she was growing to love and cried for the world that was once again going to know the Black cloak and would never get the chance to know and love Alex.