"Casey," said Tuck. His feet appeared on the ground in front of her, making her slowly lift her head to to look at him. "You need to say something to them."

"I... I don't do well in front of crowds," she lied.

"They need you to say something. Congratulate them, tell them that they can return safely to thier lives, and that thier dead are honored."

"But they're not. They're buried in the rumble of Nottingham castle with bodies of Vaisey and his army. We can't do anything to honor them and those people aren't stupid," she said, pushing off the tree and starting to walk away from Tuck. "Just forget."

"Casey," he repeated.

She turned back to him, angrily. "You want something to be said to them, say it yourself. Quit telling me what to do like you know what's best for me. You don't know me!"

"I just wanted to know whether you knew where we could get some candles," he said, calmly.

She and the others went to Locksley manor and collected a crate of candles. They handed them out to people explaining that to honor those who had given thier lives they would light all of the candles at once and send them down the river.

Casey seperated herself from the others, kneeling at the river's edge her candle held delicatley between her fingers. Night had fallen and the candles seemed to glow even brighter as they floated together past where she stood. She drowned away the mixed sounds of happiness and sorrow from the villagers as she started to lower her hands to the water. The warmth of the evening disappeared as she met the surface of the river, which sent a chill up her spine. She let a pained sigh escape her before releasing the candle and casting it out to join the rest. She stood, wrapping her arms tightly around herself, and watched her candle bob up and down with the rest until at last she lost track of hers and turned away.

They returned to the outlaw's camp for the night and spoke not a single word to one another until goodnights were exchanged. Casey curled up in the place where Guy used to sleep, the blankets held a hint of his scent, and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. However, she woke with a start the following morning, her stomach churned. She launched herself from the cot and ran out of the camp. She didn't get far before she threw up. She coughed, pulling her hair away from her face and threw up again. She could figure out what had happened she had barely eaten anything since the previous morning.

Much had surfaced from the camp and rushed over to where she was doubled over. "Oh my God, Casey, are you okay?"

"Does it look like she is?" asked Archer, sarcastically. He took her hair from her hand and twilrled it in his hand holding it away from her head and shoulders as she threw up again. "Go get her a wet rag."

He helped her sit a little ways away from where she stood, releasing her hair behind her back, leaving his arm around her shoulder. Much returned with the rag which she used to wash her face and hands.

"Thank you," she muttered.

"Feel better?" said Archer.

"A little," she said, though her stomach felt as if it was going to explode.

Kate, Tuck, and Little John woke too and joined them outside the camp. They all wore expressions of tired confusion. Much felt Casey's forehead.

"You don't feel like you've got a fever," he said.

"I haven't. I just... I had a bad dream," she lied. Truthfully she hadn't dreamed at all. Something she was extrememly thankful for but she could not even abre to start to explain what she thought was wrong. "Come on, let's just get moving."

It seemed that a general agreement had been raised. They could not stay in that particular part of Sherwood. The Prince would no longer mess with the people of Locksley or Nottingham, so for the time being they were safe from harm. But it was not the only reason they could not stay near the place they all called home. There was so much that they were emotionally attached to, though all of it was just out of reach. Casey knew leaving would hurt but not nearly as bad as staying would. She came to the painful conclusion that sometimes moving on with the rest of her life would start with saying 'Goodbye'.

Casey didn't feel like she had really been able to though. She had watched both of them die but still as she and the others put more and more distance between them and the past the more she felt that at least one of them would run up from behind them begging them to slow thier step so he could catch up.

There would have been silence between them as they walked if Kate had not been talking. Endless talking about things that Casey barely had the concentration to understand. She was lost in her own memories of her brother that she, unlike Kate, could go without having to speak. Mixed in memories of Robin was Marain and Guy. Marian had been right about him all along, there was good in him. He had turned so wonderful towards the end.

"There was something just something about the way he looked at me," said Kate. Archer, who was walking next to Casey, groaned in boredom. Casey wondered whether Kate was no repeating herself.

It was not much farther along when finally Casey could ignore the constant mumble of Kate on the edge of even her deepest thoughts.

"Kate. Kate. KATE! Could you shut up for like five minutes?" Casey snapped. "Because, honestly, your voice is getting on my last nerve."

"Well if someone else wanted-"

"No. No one else wants to talk. And I think that you are just saying things to hear yourself talk becuase its more than obvious that no one is listening!"

"Casey, don't get angry with me. I know that you feel bad. I understand. I mean, he was..."

"My brother. You know supisingly I realized that at some point in the last twenty years, I need not be constantly reminded."

They had all stopped to turn to the confrontation.

"And you don't understand, Kate. You don't understand anything. If you think that just because he kissed you a couple times means that he was in love with you then you have a thing or two to learn about love," said Casey.

"Hark, who's talking," said Kate, temper rising.

"Excuse me?"

"You were in love with a murderer, a monster."

"Don't talk about Guy like that! You don't know him."

"I didn't need to know him. I knew what he had done. He killed innocent people without it scarring his conscience," said Kate.

"You think that he didn't regret the lives he took, you're a fool," she said, advancing on her. "Stop talking about my brother like he was a saint, because he wasn't."

"Robin loved me."

"ROBIN LOVES MARIAN! And he has always loved her. He's probably with her right now and he's probably forgotten all about you becuase he needed her. He didn't need you. It was you who needed him," said Casey. She towered high above Kate in her fury. "You should have chosen Much. At least he would have loved you a bit more."

Kate looked around at Much, whose eyes widened in the suddeness of bieng drawn into the conversation. He turned away tryng desperately to pretend that he had not been listening to the arguement.

"This isn't about me anymore. You're just getting angry because of all you've lost," said Kate. "I get it. Talk about that, it'll help. Trust me."

"Trust you?" said Casey, incredoriously. She could not believe that they had been brought back to the begginging of the conversation. "I don't trust you, Kate! I don't even like you! The only reason I even associate with you is because you are a good figther. So stop pretending we're such lovely friends because I can't stand you."

There was silence. Even the rustle of the wind through the forest stopped. The men exchanged uneasy glances as the two girls glared at each other, unblinkingly. Kate's chest rose and fell quickly in her irritation, while Casey's jaw set raising her chin so that she seemed to be looking down at her opponent. There was a moment where it seemed that a fight was about to break out between them, but when Kate reached for her sword it was to unfasten it from her middle.

"Fine," she said, throwing into the underbrush. "Since it appears that I am no longer useful. I'll just go and find my family then."

Kate turned and started away. Casey and the others watched her go. Much took Casey's shoulder the moment she was out of earshot. "You have to go after her, apologize."

"For what? I meant what I said. Why should I have to take it back? She's going back to her family. She never wanted to be an outlaw in the first place."

"So you're going to allow those words to be the last thing that that woman thinks of you?" said Tuck.

"I could really careless. Let's just go," she said continuing through the forest in an even more dodgy mood than before.

That night they laid scattered on the forest floor, wrapped tightly in the thin blankets they brought from the old camp. Casey was the last one to fall asleep and wake in dreams of the past that suspended her from her cruel reality. And she finally she felt comfortable.