A/N. Thanks to the nice guest review after the criticism. Don't worry I haven't been discouraged, I get it won't be for everyone. Also just in case anyone was worried although things might seem bad now I am a sucker for happy endings.

Thanks for reading and please do review.

Eyes open or closed it made no difference, Olivia could only see darkness. Her lungs were burning as she kicked through the water and just as she thought she couldn't hold on for much longer, sunlight pierced the surface. A hand grabbed at her shoulder and coughing and spluttering her and Elliot swam to the bank. The others were already there, Amanda on all fours coughing up what looked like half the river.

'She okay?' Olivia panted towards Finn who was patting on the blonde's back.

'Yeah, she's fine. You remember what your first time through the rock was like.'

She nodded slowly as Amanda sat back on her heels, breathing heavily. They all looked like drowned rats, hair plastered to their faces, clothes clinging to their skin as the wind quickly chilled them all.

'We have to move.' Only Elliot looked half decent and that was because his hair was short and he wasn't wearing any clothes to have gotten wet. Normally they tried to preserve each other's modesty but in the current situation Elliot's state was the least of their concerns.

None of them disagreed with his statement and without another word, though they were still all in shock from their impromptu swim, they got to their feet and started walking up into the forest. They travelled in silence for the hours it took to make it back to their camp in the hillside. No one but them knew it existed and for now it would be the safest place while the forest crawled with soldiers. About a year ago Olivia and Elliot had created a covering for the hollow. Made of leaves and twigs all threaded neatly together they could attach it to the top of the slope and pull it tight down, nailing it to the bottom. That way it looked from the bottom of the slope as if the hollow wasn't there at all; the only way anyone would know is if they tried to walk on it.

Elliot and Finn nailed it in to place and then crawled under and into the tree roots with the others. The sun had dried them off slightly but they were all still damp and the hollow covering meant that the sun struggled to get through. They sat in the cold, damp shade, feeling their clothes rubbing raw against their skin and trying to understand what had just happened.

He had watched as they rode back into the courtyard, his father and Alex in the lead. They hadn't said anything, just rode off that morning and returned hours later. He was now sitting with Rafael after dinner, playing a game of chess before bed.

'I'd heard the rumours you know, but I thought they were exaggerated.' He'd told Rafael about seeing Alex the day before but it was only now that they had the time to sit down alone and talk about it.

'Rumours have to start somewhere Will. If everyone's saying your fathers a cruel man then that's got to have come from the truth.' He watched as William's face fell and his shoulders hunched forward. 'You're nothing like him. Trust me,' he reassured his friend, 'I only needed one meal with him to know that you're another breed of man.'

'I just wish I could do something to help her. Make up for the shit he's doing you know.'

'Maybe you could go and find this Benson person?' They'd both agreed that the betrayal the Sheriff had been talking about had to be something to do with the Benson character who had supposedly kidnapped his sister.

'How am I, one, supposed to find her, two, get enough time on my own to find her and three get her to trust me when I do?' He swept one of Rafael's pawns off the board and marched his knight forward in aggressive steps. 'There's no way I can help her.'

They sat in silence after his outburst, moving and losing pieces as they played.

'But she's my sister.' William shouted throwing his now useless bishop across the room. Rafael just sat there and let him voice all his frustration- not the first outburst he'd listened to- thinking quickly to himself. 'I don't care what she's done, nobody deserves what he did to her!' William looked down breathing heavily, trying to get his anger back under control. After a couple of deep breaths he moved his knight forward.

Rafael's eyes lit up when he saw that William's piece was now ready to be taken and tried to keep the happiness from his face, playing the game to its conclusion. However, when he looked up and saw that his young friend was fighting tears in front of him his smile disappeared. He'd meant it when he said that William wasn't his father. That he was becoming a good man, with a kind heart who his people would come to love. He'd thought when he went to Northumbria that he would stay for a season then move on; but something about the boy had kept him there and now all these years later he had found that he actually loved him. He wanted to give William everything he could, knew that the boy loved him back and trusted him. After only a week at the castle he knew that his father stood in the way of everything William could achieve. He'd watched as the Sheriff had whispered in William's ear at dinner and dictated what he should learn and vowed that he wouldn't let such a terrible man ruin who William was becoming. He moved his own knight forward, 'there is a way to save her Will; it just depends on what you're willing to sacrifice.' He swept William's knight off the board.

William looked at his friend for a long time, till Rafael was shifting his seat. He was the only true person he knew at the castle, the only person he felt comfortable talking to. He didn't reply just stared before looking back down at the table. He smiled slightly to himself and then picked up his queen, who was before trapped by Rafael's knight, and placed it back down on the board, looking up into Rafael's surprised and somewhat annoyed eyes.

'Checkmate.'

'You gonna tell us what is in the cloak now?' Amanda asked of Munch breaking the silence they had all maintained as the sun slowly set.

Munch lay the brown cloak on the floor and untied the quick knot he had made in it. They all leant forward slightly and stared at what he had been able to save.

'I didn't have much time so I just grabbed what I could.' He, like Amanda, spoke in a whisper. 'I've got everyone's weapons.' He handed out Finn and Amanda's swords, Elliot's axe and Olivia's bow and quiver. 'Sorry Liv I didn't think to get any strings.' She didn't reply, running her fingers through the damp fletching's of her arrows.

'Then the rest of it is just clothes,' he continued, 'I didn't check who's was who's or what I was grabbing though I'm sure you'll all be glad to hear that I think I see some of Elliot's breeches. God knows my eyes I have seen enough.' They all smiled and the tension in their improvised tent went down slightly. Amanda crawled to the back of the hollow and lay down to sleep while Munch divided the clothes before going over to join her. It took a remarkably short time before his light snores could be heard and Amanda's breathing had slowed.

Olivia sat and watched them for a time. As she had walked away from the river her pain had morphed into anger. Elliot had been right, she never should have trusted Alex. She had risked not just her own life but the lives of her friends, people who trusted her. She had thought that people could change, that Alex could change but she now knew she was wrong. Alex had tried to kill them all, had barely been gone a week before bringing hell back with her and Olivia had to grit her teeth against the desire to scream.

She brought herself out of her murderous thoughts to listen to the whispered conversation between Finn and Elliot.

'Why didn't he have the river covered?' Finn asked.

'I told her that she'd drown if she went through the rock face. She must have told him that there was no way out.' Elliot replied.

Finn nodded and the two lapsed into silence for a time, unaware that Olivia was now listening.

'I was stupid to vote to save her.'

'No.' Elliot opposed, 'you did what you thought was right. Liv trusted her one hundred percent and there was a point were even I was coming round.'

'I wish I could go and find her now.' Finn said, a blank dangerous look filtering into his eyes.

'Why don't we?'

'What?'

'Why don't we go to the castle,' Elliot said his anger mirroring Finns. 'We can scope it out, see if we can get in easy now they're focusing on the forest.'

Finn thought for a moment before nodding and reaching for his sword. Elliot smiled and looked round the hollow, freezing when he saw that Olivia had been paying attention the whole time.

'Liv…. We're just going to get the lay of the land.' He lied the smile falling from his face. He didn't know how Olivia felt about Alex any more, whether she would try to stop them from getting to her.

Olivia stared at them both, looking like deer who had just heard approaching hounds. She knew that nothing she could say would stop them and had to think for a moment as to whether she actually wanted to. She remembered what it felt like to hold Alex in her arms, to talk to her and hear her laugh. She ran her palm over the falcon pommel at her side remembering how it felt to kiss her. But then she looked back over to the sleeping forms of her friends, to the empty hollow in the ground they were forced to hide in and felt her heart harden. Alex had chosen her life, she knew the consequences of that.

'Go,' she said to Elliot and Finn, the gloom deepening the shadows on her face. They both got up to leave and crawl out from under the cover. She watched them and just before they had disappeared from view she called out again. 'Elliot,' he turned and looked at her, 'if you see Alex, kill her for me.'