AN: sorry this one's so short and choppy! It'll be longer next chapter when things start happening :3

Thanks for the feedback :D

The road will be long and Robin is tired. He's been tired since the Holy Land, he's been tired since this war with the Sheriff began, he's been tired since the crusades.

It would be easy, he thinks, to just lie here in his beloved Sherwood and just sleep. But he can't. There are too many people who need him.

"Maybe someone should stay here," he suggests, looking over their empty camp. It's a half hearted suggestion, there's only five of them now after all, but he needs to give them the option.

Tuck has managed to acquire them some horses and he smiles across at Robin, "We're with you Robin."

Kate smiles and Much shoots him a fond look while John grumbles as he swings up into his saddle. "For Allan," John says sternly.

Oh, Robin loves them. The lengths they'll go for him.

"What's the plan?" Kate asks, "When we get to York, I mean. Prince John has blamed us for the attack on Nottingham, we won't exactly be low profile."

Robin shakes his head, "We lay low at the inn, meet up with Archer, find Isabella."

"Home by the weekend," John mutters.

"Well at least we'll be sleeping indoors for once," Much says happily. "On nice feather beds."

Robin laughs.

There's a jackdaw on the windowsill preening his dark feathers. When she was younger she loved to bird watch, mother used to help her draw them in a little bound book father had bought her from London. It burnt up with her home in Locksley. Like everything else.

She never liked jackdaws much but there's nothing much else she can do, she's stuck here for another two weeks. Oh, she could leave, there's nothing stopping her. But she can't.

She can hear Vaisey humming to himself in the other room, at least the screaming has stopped. One month. That was the deal. Vaisey gets Guy for one month, then Isabella has her revenge. It sounded so good when Vaisey had whispered it to her in her room all those weeks ago.

This was the man who had sold her to a sadist to save his own skin, who had burned down their home, killed their parents. He had tortured people, murdered them, destroyed lives for the barest hint of power. He was repulsive, weak, evil. He deserved everything Vaisey did to him.

So why, then, does her skin crawl every time she hears her brother crying out?Why can't she leave?

She hears the clatter of the rickety front door, moves in to the lightly stocked pantry and picks at the stale loaf she finds there. Two of Vaisey's guards are in there and she flashes them a convincing smile. Her brother is in the next room, she's not sure why her feet carry through to it.

"Isabella," Guy gasps when his fevered eyes fall on her, and there's blood in his mouth, over flowing. He's choking. "Isabella," he says again. "Please."

She stares at him. He looks like a ghost, pale and bloody. "P-please, what Guy?" She stammers.

"If you- if you have any love...if you ever did for me, please. Kill me. Kill me." He breaks off, coughing wetly.

And no, this shouldn't be happening. This is all wrong. This isn't what she wanted (maybe it was sometime ago when she was still Lady Thornton) but now? What would mother say?

"Please, Isabella," his eyes flutter. "S'il vous plait, Isabella, tuez-moi, s'il vous plait."

"I can't," she mumbles. "I can't."

They reach York by evening the next day, the inn is perilously close to the castle but Robin figures its the last place they'll look for them. Not that anyone is looking for them per se. Much is ridiculously happy with his meagre straw mattress and scratchy blanket and even John seems happy when the inn keeper brings up a hot meal for them (though Robin is fairly certain they're all overjoyed not to be eating Much's shaky efforts - Much included.)

"When do we meet Archer?" Tuck asks quietly, the rest of their band is sleeping, Kate's head in Robin's lap.

"Hopefully tomorrow," Robin replies.

Tuck sighs, "What do you plan to do, Robin? When you find Isabella?"

Kill her, Robin thinks, she'd deserve it, but he knows he won't. But Vaisey? He's a whole different story. "I don't know, Tuck." He says eventually. "But she needs to pay for what she's done."

Archer does meet them the next day, turns up on the windowsill of their room and Robin starts to understand why Marian always looked faintly amused. Archer did look pretty silly crouched out there with a smug grin. He tells them about a house a few miles out of York, had been abandoned until a few weeks ago.

"Want me to come with, brother?" Archer asks.

Robin shakes his head, "This needs to be low key."

Archer nods, "Let me know if you need anything, Robin. Anything, alright?" He presses a piece of parchment into Robin's hand, "Our hideout." He explains.

Robin smiles, "Will do, Robin Hood."

His brother grins and swings himself down to drop gracefully to the street below.

They find the house easily enough, watch it for a few hours to make sure and Much complains so much that Robin almost sends him back to the inn (which he thinks Much was hoping for anyway.)

Then they see a black clad balding man.

Beside him Much freezes, "Is that...?"

"Looks like you were right, Robin," Tuck says grimly.

John growls and makes to stand up but Robin catches his sleeve, "Wait. We don't know if he's alone. I'm not losing anyone else today."

"Fine," John huffs. "But when we get in there, Robin, him we kill. No last minute plan changes."

Robin nods. "Kate, Much, I want you two outside. Anyone who tries to run you take them down. Tuck, John, you're with me. Vaisey won't be expecting us so there shouldn't be much of a struggle-"

Tuck cuts him off, "Robin, Vaisey works for Prince John, he could have any number of guards in there."

"So be careful then," Robin says, standing. "Come on, let's move."