Author note: Hey, this took a little longer to get done than I would have liked, but I'm glad that it's finally finished because I enjoyed writing it and I can't wait to know what you think about it, I think it shows things progressing a bit more. A huge, massive and well deserved thank you to the amazing dares to dream my best (and only) reviewer, who is the reason this story is still on here, much love to you for that! Hope everyone (again most likely my only reviewer) had a nice Christmas. Please enjoy :)

Chapter eight

Outside the Baxter mansion

The five of us sat in silence as we waited for Will to return from scanning the surrounding area and hiding Mark's little microscopic video cameras around the outer wall of the Baxter mansion. Each and every one of us knew how important this job was, we were almost completely skint, a situation which would spell disaster for the whole of the Southside should we allow it to happen. Not one of us wanted to fail in this; the consequences were too painful to even think about, though we did think about them, often. But that said, at the same time I knew that each one of us was filled with single minded determination and I knew, I knew that not one of us would give up until we had made it safely in and out of the mansion and we had that money securely in our hands. We were parked across the road and down the street from the guard house that stood at the foot of the extensive road that lead to the mansion its self. We had been here for a little over fifteen minutes when Will crept back into sight, dressed like the rest of us from head to toe in black and almost invisible against the backdrop of the night, having made one lap of the grounds perimeter and hiding the cameras at irregular intervals along the way. Mark was going to use them to keep an eye out for unexpected visitors via a link to his laptop; it was a precaution we were going to take just in case our impostors or whoever knew so much about us to tell them, showed up, bringing with them the B.A if we were truly unfortunate. Jess and Joe didn't know about tonight (as much as the others and I did trust them, especially John who still nursed a crush on Jess) so we weren't really expecting any company and Will and Jack would be patrolling the outer walls just in case so we ought to be fine, but Mark insisted on being cautious and no one objected, we really didn't need anything going wrong now.

Will nodded, it was only a slight gesture, anyone who might have been watching would have thought nothing of it, it was clearly defined though and we all acted instantly. Will stood where he was, sinking into the shadows once more to avoid detection. Jack shot the rest of us a confident grin before pulling up her hood and covering her dark hair for view, "see you all in a bit," she said before she opened the passenger side door where she was sat and slipped out of the van before heading off towards Will, keeping out of sight as best she could.

"Let's get this show on the road then," John said as he grinned at us, trying to relieve us of the mild tension we all felt and glad that we were getting a move on towards getting some more money. Despite our untied worry we were all buzzing with that familiar sense of joy and adrenalin we all got whenever we went on a mission like this. He then turned the keys in the ignition and his work van purred to life, George, Mark and I sat in the back of the van braced ourselves for the movement, George grabbed my hand as he slid a little on the floor and I laughed at him, Mark gripped his equipment tightly as John span the van around and headed back down the street. As he turned I could just see Jack and Will disappearing into the shadows cast by the mansions stone perimeter wall, about to split up and head off in different directions before patrolling the edges.

As John turned right at the end of the road and headed away from the mansion, this was one of our security measures we were going to drive away from the mansion so that the van wasn't seen loitering around the front of the estate, John was going to park on a back road that ran along side the woods that were located near the west wall of the mansion, meaning we could head in that way. We still had to make our way to the front gate since there was no other way to get in without triggering the alarms, but at least then we wouldn't be seen coming. Anyway, we were putting that part of the plan into action just as the video links from the cameras Will had hidden came up on Mark's laptop screen, the three of us sat in the back could see Will passing the view of camera one and Jack passing camera nine of ten.

"They're on their first patrol round now," Mark told John in the front, who started to speed up, just as my technical friend slipped on a set of headphones (the kind that while in the past, or unconscious or whatever had happened to me then, I had sworn never to complain about again.) and started tapping away at the keys of his laptop "the camera's work," he told Will and Jack.

I turned to George and played with his hand, which I still held as I asked "how much further now, John?"

"We'll be there in about two minutes, max," he said before adding the end bit on as he accelerated more, I could see the dark outlines of trees passing by through the windows and knew that we had taken to the almost deserted woodland roads.

"Thanks," I said as I gripped onto a handle John had installed in the back of the van to keep myself from sliding down the van and gathered up my bow, quiver and an empty rucksack for the money. Beside be George did the same and we were ready just as John's van lurched to an abrupt stop. Mark's equipment slid about some more and he muttered something about how John was had only recently passed his drivers test and Mark wondered how he's managed with such violent driving, John only grinned and rolled his eyes at Mark's complaints.

"Ready?" George asked me as he put in his ear piece and looked at me questioningly, blue eyes shining behind his mask.

"Yep, all set," I said as I pulled down my own mask and attached my ear piece, about to whinge about how uncomfortable it was but remembering my promise and keeping my mouth shut, damn that promise I thought a little sulkily.

"Remember to let us know once you reach the gates, and to let us know if anything goes wrong along the way." Mark reminded us, even though it was hardly necessary as we had gone through the plan half to death before coming out here.

"Ay, and to let us know when you're done, these woods give me the creeps and I want to know when I can get the heck out of here." John added with a shiver, George, Mark and I smirked at him, finding John's fear of the woods funny because of his size and strength, the very idea of John being frightened of anything was hilarious.

"Will do," I said as George and I shuffled past Mark and his equipment so that we could open the back of the van, I turned back to John just as George threw open the doors and jumped out "I'll keep an eye out for the boggy man for ya, John," I teased, Mark and George laughed quietly and John grinned good naturedly, able to take a joke, before adding,

"Hilarious, Robin," in a bored tone though his jovial expression gave him away "you do that."

I smiled at them both and watched as John's expression became a little more worried as he looked out into the pitch blackness and wondered what could be hidden deep within it. My grin widened and I turned to face the open doors outside of which, on the pothole strewn backloads George stood offering me his hand and aid in getting down. I rolled my eyes at him before ignoring his hand and jumping down myself, I turned to look at him, glad to find that he was still smiling at me and not offended in the slightest by my actions, he knew me too well for that, he knew that I liked to do things for myself. I reached up and pecked him on the cheek for his understanding before closing the van doors with an abrupt bang. George was still smiling at me as he disappeared around the side of the van, heading for the front. I spread my feet apart and took a purposeful stance as I focused on my current task and not how much I adored George, I then reached for my screwdriver which I kept in my handy dandy tool belt I used every now and again for occasions such as this one, it homed absolutely everything I could ever need for breaking and entering. Screwdriver in hand I bent down before the back license plate of the van and used it to pop the little caps, the ones that went atop the screws that kept it attached to the van, off before the unscrewing the license plate and removing it. I gathered up the screws and caps along with the license plate before heading towards the front of the van, the window had already been rolled down and George was there handing John the front license plate through the window. I did the same, John grinned at me as he took them but was obviously relieved, he didn't want the builder's yard he worked for getting wind of the late night activities his work van engaged in.

John rolled the window back up and I turned back to George pulling my hood up as I did so, he mirrored the action, it was so dark here that I couldn't make out a single one of his facial features; they were completely hidden by his hood, mask and the night. This was good, though a little upsetting for me as it was hardly taxing looking at George's stunning features, as that meant we had even less chance of being recognised.

"Lets go," I said and George nodded once before following me into the woods, taking the forest path George and I were cautious in our movements, under the shade of the large towering trees the earth had grown muddy and between that and the large rocks and long roots that would litter the path we had to be careful of where we stepped. The woods grew even darker and impenetrable as we walked further away from the van and the road; tall, intimidating trees rose up on either side of us and obscured our vision making it hard to tell if that shadowy shape in the distance was the outline of a foe or only a tree. As I walked I supposed that it wasn't so ridiculous for John to be afraid here, it was creepy and it hadn't been nearly so bad during the day when George and I had come to work out the route. Still, as difficult as it was to see and however spooky the woods were at night I wasn't frightened, I was to determined for that, there was too much ridding on the success of this mission for that.

As soon as we were deep enough in the woods that the van's headlights were no longer visible George and I switched on the torches attached to out head piece. They helped considerably but still only provided us with a little beam of light while we were surrounded by blackness. We needed the torches even though George and I had advanced eye sight, pretty much twenty-twenty and the dark was hardly a hindrance usually, but there wasn't even the slightest glimmer of light here since the trees were so dense and we needed to turn them on. I turned to face George, who was striding over a tree root protruding from the muddy ground, about to ask him how far we had left to go, since he had explored the woods next to his mansion home for years as a child, preferring its untamed wilderness to the flat, rolling lawns of the Baxter mansion. He looked up at me as soon as he felt the torch light hit him and grinned at me, sensing the question on my lips.

"We'll be there in about ten minutes," George whispered, though his voice still echoed through the trees, the only sound other than the animals scurrying away from our advancing steps in the darkness.

"Right," I said, frowning at how he knew what I was going to ask before I asked it, this only made his grin widen of course.

Why was it that he could pick up on when I wanted something like this, like to ask him a simple question, but he didn't have this deep understanding of what I would want when it concerned my humiliation? I wondered as I frowned at the thought of the dinner party earlier, he probably knew I was trying to keep Alice away from him and so made no effort to avoid her anyway, I thought as my brow furrowed. I would never have had George down as a masochist, but surely he must have been if he had let my brat of a sister start telling her stories about me. Usually it was just harmless stuff, like the many times I had humiliated myself when doing something ridiculous, so as much as I tried to avoid instances when those stories were shared I wasn't that bothered. Alice got on with George a lot anyway and had already told him most of these tales, much to his amusement; however, Alice wasn't one for tact and still didn't quite grasp that Adam, my evil ex, was not a topic to discus in front of George, especially if I wanted to prevent my dreams and what happened in the 'past' from coming true. Anyway, I hadn't thought that even Alice would be blunt enough to bring up Adam around George and I was only trying to spare myself humiliation when I made sure that George was conveniently seated between me and Will at dinner and that Alice was sat as far away from him as I could get her. Because really, my friends hardly took me seriously as it was unless I was having one of my rare (don't look at me like that) angry outbursts, and I didn't need the embarrassment.

Anyway, my plan worked like a charm up until dessert, where everyone returned to the table for their rice pudding and somehow Alice ended up sat at George's right instead of Will. I scanned the table for my best friend, who was sitting next to his sister now and flashing me an apologetic look, 'she bet me to it' he mouthed. I tried to engage an amused and uncooperative George in conversation for the duration of dessert, however the masochist ended up, somehow I had no idea how since I was trying my best to stop it, ended up listening to Alice. She was telling the story of my sixteenth birthday last November and how I had been going to the cinema to celebrate it, I knew this story well and so was about ready to bang my head on the kitchen table but still didn't see the issue arising. She hadn't mentioned WHO had taken me to the cinema.

The story basically went like this, Adam and I had decided to go to a late night showing of some film for my sixteenth birthday, I had had a feeling that Adam had other things in mind for afterwards as although he had yet to turn sixteen himself, his birthday was a few months after mine, he had been dropping hints for days about the main thing a person was legally allowed to do once sixteen. If you get what I mean. Anyway, I never made it to the cinema, you see I had coursework due in at school the day of my birthday and had stopped up late into the night making last minute changes to it and then gone to school the next day, by the time I got home I was shattered and operating on about five hours sleep. Adam came to mine, gave me my present and we both caught the bus to the train station and from there were supposed to catch the train to the shopping centre where our nearest cinema was in the next town over. The train was full of commuters however so we didn't sit together; I managed to find a seat at the front of the compartment and Adam one further down. Shattered but relieved that I was sat down I relaxed in my seat and soon fell asleep. I didn't wake up until approximately three stops after the one I had wanted to get off at when the woman I was sat next to nudged me awake so that she could get off. I exited the train at the stop, wandered around the train platform in a dazed and confused manner until I realised that it was late and I needed to be picked up. Alice was at this point in the story, and everyone was listening and laughing along with it, they all knew the story apart from George of course. I was a furious red colour and grinding my teeth down the a fine powder when she said,

"She rang mum and told her that she had fallen asleep on the train and told us where she was, she was about an hour away from where she was supposed to be."

"Forty-five minutes," I corrected stiffly with a glare in her direction, George grinned at me and gripped my hand under the table; I was seriously considering throwing it away until Alice continued speaking.

"so mum said to stay where she was 'cause she was coming to get her, and then Robin gets a message on her phone telling her that Adam," George's grip on my hand tightened and he stiffened, Alice had yet to use Adam's name in the story and I was suddenly worried, no one else noticed the change in George but me though "had left her a voicemail and she had about six missed calls from him. He'd only got off the train when he was supposed to and was mad that Robin had disappeared, he said that she had been a moody cow all day and that if she didn't want to come then he'd watch the film on his own." Alice said laughing at Adam, as well as my, idiocy. The rest of the table were joining in a muttering words like 'idiot boy' under their breath in reference to Adam, Will had a far off slightly angry look about him and I was guessing he was remembering the day of Adam's birthday when he had told me about his unfaithful ways.

I had risked a cautious glance in George's direction and squeezed his hand comfortingly, he had looked troubled for a mere moment more and then his face had become its usual calm and jovial one, it was almost as though he had decided that it didn't matter anymore because Adam would get what he deserved. And that frightened me even more than if George had upturned to table and dashed from the room heading in Adam's general direction. Unlike me when George was angry he bided his time, he was smart about it and thought it through rather than just charging in head first, but I knew that he only stored that pure anger away, that like his father he had learned to hide his emotions (he usually just chose not to) but that also that meant that when George did happen across Adam next, he would have yet another reason to snap. Last nights dream had replayed in my head and I had felt sick. The rest of the evening had passed without any more laughing at my expense though, and George had seemed fine and hadn't said a single word about that particular incident, he still hadn't.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as we walked through the woods, in amongst the dark greens, browns and blacks of the forest we would both be near as damn it invisible were it not for our torches. He looked so calm and peaceful as he stepped through the woods, content and maybe even a little excited at the prospect of braking into his fathers house, but not angry, not angry at all. Maybe, I thought as I stepped over a large grey stone on the path, I was anticipating George's reactions biased on my own, I knew that if our roles were reversed and I was forever hearing about the various degrees of crap some girl had inflicted on George, and still continued to inflict, I would not be able to control my anger. George had a lot more self control than I did though, and maybe he could restrain himself. Remembering George's reaction to Adam in the café that time he publically humiliated me and then the ferocity of the many times I had seen them fight, both in the 'past' and in my dreams, I doubted it. George might have a bit more self control than I did, but when it came to certain things he was just as bad as I was, and I had learnt that one of those things was Adam and I.

Deciding that I didn't want to think about that any more I instead focused on the surrounding area, the mysterious woods were definitely beautiful, there was no way that I could deny that and I could totally understand George's fascination with them as a child. It made me feel a little warm and fuzzy that George and I were walking the route he had walked alone as a child, together right now, kind of cheesy I suppose, but I liked it nonetheless. I thought as I shook my head, who would have thought that I'd end up so soft. However despite its beauty and dark mystery the woods gave me an unsettled feeling in my stomach, I wasn't creeped out like John was, not really, this was something else entirely, I was starting to be overcome by a sense of déjà vue. At first I couldn't quite place it, I started looking around the woods for clues and things to jog my memory, but to the best of my knowledge I had never been here before the last time I came here with George to look around. It hit me then, it wasn't that I had been here in specifically this place before, though I might have been I don't know, it was just that there, immersed by the greenery and wandering around with the intention of stealing money, I was reminded of my stint as the true Robin Hood in the past, or whatever hallucination that had been. I frowned at the solution to the déjà vue my mind had concocted, that wasn't it, not all of it at least. I thought as I carried on along the woodland path, the sounds of the small animals scurrying away loud in my ears. It was day light the last time, I thought cryptically.

"Let's go," George said suddenly repeating my words from earlier but unbeknownst to him repeating his own words from centuries ago, it was the words that triggered the memory; it was the action of him entwining his fingers with mine and leading me forward. This was exactly what Marin had said and done before we watched the soldiers training in the clearing in the 'past', where we discovered the extent of the Sheriff and Prince John's plan and where the mess truly started. I remembered the motion, I even remembered what I had been thinking at the time, I had been wondering why George never grabbed my hand like that back in the present, as I remembered this I fought the urge to laugh out loud, look at how things change, I thought as I gripped George's hand and walked with him. "We're almost there now." He finished and I nodded, glad that I had placed my déjà vue but still not expecting what happened next.

George and I reached the end of the woods soon after that, as a precaution we bent down low behind the bushes and surveyed the scene, the west wall was just in front of us, lined with bushes (In some of which Will had hidden cameras), the no mans land in-between the woods and the walls was dotted with trees that would make good cover for us as well. Neither Will nor Jack as in sight but that was okay, there were no guards here either. I was turning on the switch on my ear piece (which had been oddly quiet so I guessed Mark had been instructing Will and Jack while we trudged through the woods, homing in on only their ear pieces rather than talking to the lot of us, another improvement he had made to them, he could talk to all of us or just to a selected number. Anyway I was turning that on to tell Mark that we had reached the edge of the woods when I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye and to my left, George was crouched to my right using a pair of binoculars to survey the scene further so I knew it wasn't him. I flicked the switch on my ear so that my mic was working but didn't say anything; I turned to the left and scanned the trees, that familiar feeling back, telling me that I had been here before. Clearly I was an idiot, or in denial or both since it took me forever to connect the dots, well actually I didn't realise what was happening until I saw her, I guessed that I had been repressing any idea that what had happened then had been truth and that was why it was so hard for me to realise what was happening. George was already staring at her in confusion when I turned and saw her properly, just like the last time.

To my left, half hanging out of the bushes in her eagerness was a girl, I say girl but really she was probably older than I was, about nineteen probably. She had long mousy blonde hair that was pulled back into a pony tail, had pale skin that seemed to glow in the moon light though her furious red cheeks were just as noticeable, she wore a long button up coat in a deep red colour that made her stand out even more. She wasn't stood very far away from us so we could make out all of this pretty easy even without our advanced senses, she didn't notice our presence at all however as she was glaring at the mansion walls with such determination that I was sure that if she could send out laser beams from her eyes the thick and tall stone wall would be nothing but dust. She looked furious, murderous even, as she glared intently seeming to be gathering her courage together so that she could do this one thing.

"What do you think she's doing here?" George asked me in a whispered voice that I was sure was unnecessary, I doubted she would have heard him even if he had shouted the words since she was so wrapped up in what seemed like anger but I knew to be grief.

I didn't answer George, as the memory of what had happened last time hit me before I had the chance, and at exactly the same time the girl seemed to have gathered all the courage she could find and stepped from behind the bush, heading towards the wall at a run, she was going to try and climb it, and that would set off the alarms. I didn't even have to think about it, I took of after her pushing myself forward with as much speed as I had, I couldn't let her do this.

"Robin?" I heard George question in a frantic hushed tone and he followed after me, I was glad that he did because if memory served me she wasn't going to give in easily.

Though it sickened me to think of someone's pain as an advantage for me, the girls grief was starting to overwhelm her and fortunately slowed her run as she broke down, what with that and my speed I soon caught up with her. "No," I hissed as I grabbed hold of her right arm and yanked her back, she was caught by such surprise that she stepped back without question. At first.

"Let me go!" she all but screamed for the second time in my memory, I frowned though at her loud outburst, I threw my hand over her mouth the stop her from alerting the guards, she shrieked behind my hand and struggled.

"Robin?" George asked as he came to a stop beside me, not sure what to do.

"Please George," I said as I turned to face him with a frantic expression, I remembered what happened next after this and I was not about to let it happen again, I wasn't going to risk George that way "you have to trust me, we need to get her back to the trees before they hear us." I locked my gaze with George's, trying to make him understand that I knew what I was doing and that it was vital that no one saw us here and we got away unnoticed.

Though he looked reluctant George must have seen something in my eyes that made him abandon his ethics for a moment and he grabbed the girls other arm so that together we could tow her back to the trees, gently of course. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you do this, you'll get yourself caught and ruin everything." I told her as I tried to be gentle but she fought against me in such a way that it was hard, my hand covering her mouth sipped,

"I don't care!" she managed to exclaim before my hand covered her mouth once more and her struggling picked up again.

"You would," I told her with such certainty that both she and George looked at me as though to ask how I could be so sure of that, I didn't answer their unspoken question of course, I was barely coming to grips with the possibility that I wasn't mad after all, I was hardly going to tell them why I knew "we wont hurt you and we want to help, so can you not struggle, its really irritating." I added, my voice going towards a hiss by the end, I hadn't meant to sound so edgy but I was getting a bit defensive thanks to this déjà vue and it really was hard pulling her like this. For about a second thought she might actually do as I was asking but then her brow furrowed and angry tears welled up in her eyes and she started to struggle even more.

We soon reach the woods though and although I constantly had to remind myself that it was only the grief making her act like this and that she was really a nice person, as soon as we reached the edge of the woods I said,

"Now, if I'm going to let you go I want you to promise me that you won't do anything stupid or run away yet." I said, not even realising I had pretty much repeated what I had said the last time until the words were out of my mouth.

Just like last time the girl looked defeated and tired, worn down by her sorrow; however his time she only looked sad and shook her head, telling me that she couldn't make that promise. I frowned but understood where she was coming from; I was sure that if I was in her situation I couldn't make that promise either, however I had to extract that promise from her.

"Louise," I said taking a risk here by connecting this girl to the girl that had done this very thing in the past, who went by the name of Eloise and how I had earlier connected her to the girl called Louise that Joey had been out with a few times. I had never met her but I had made the off hand connection that maybe if I wasn't crazy they were one on the same since there had been something going on between Joey and Eloise in the past. Anyway, I took the risk and it paid off as the girls eyes widened in recognition and I knew that was her name "I promise that we want to help you." I said as I took my hand away from her mouth, unable to look at George who was regarding me with something more than confusion now.

"H…how do you know my name?" she asked me, no longer struggling but looking at me in bewilderment.

I don't know what made me say it, especially given our current issue with people finding out more about us than they should, but I told her the truth, or rather, the part of it that didn't make me look like a loon "my name is Robin, I'm Joey Hudson's cousin." I explained, I ignored George's intake of breath and focused instead on the understanding in Louise's eyes.

"Joey," she repeated softly "he spoke of you a lot," she said with a smile before frowning in confusion as she took in what I was wearing and the surroundings before asking "what are you doing here?"

"I suppose I could ask you the same question," I said but not defensively really, it was just a statement. It felt really weird taking to Louise like this, especially since I felt like I already knew her from past experiences, but I supposed that from all that Joey's told her of me she probably feels similarly "but instead I'll tell you the truth," I said and I glanced at George only long enough to see his surprised wide eyes and to watch him shake his head "I'm Robin Hood."

"Robin!" George hissed but I was too busy assessing Louise's response to answer him and explain my crazy behaviour, she looked thoughtful for a moment, she took in both my appearance and the surroundings again before she looked at me and smiled a sad smile.

"I suppose it makes sense," she said.

"Yeah, but now that I've trusted you with my secret, could you trust me enough not to run away and do something stupid when I let you go, setting of the alarms and getting yourself caught wont help anything." I told her, cautiously and persuasively since I wanted this to work.

She nodded but I noticed that there were tears welling up in her eyes again "I'm sorry," she said as George and I let her go, I gave George a reassuring look but he still didn't look convinced, he had that worried expression back on his face, I wasn't worried, for some inexplicable reason I trusted Louise, I trusted Jess and Joe as well. George gave in then, he knew that I didn't give out my trust easily.

"Why?" I asked her as she collapsed on the floor in upset.

"I had to do something, I had to do that, I'm sorry I nearly messed up your plans or whatever, but I couldn't not." She said as the tears began to flow, I watched as George began to soften and smiled at him as he asked,

"Why, what's wrong?"

"My…my dad, Baxter had him killed!" Louise wept, I knew already knew that this was what had happened, my heart went out to her again, I could only imagine what it felt like to lose your dad, how painful it must be. George's face hardened then, with hate and loathing for his father, he reached out to comfort Louise, trying to make up for what his father had done in some way, I knew him well enough to know that was what he had trying to do.

Wanting to get a full understanding of how things differed in the present I asked "why Louise, why did they kill him?"

Louise sniffled and dabber her eyes with her coat sleeve, smudging black mascara on her red coat in the process as she said,

"He was a Rebel," she said and I wondered for a moment why she was describing her dads characteristics, that hadn't happened the last time "he stood up to Baxter so they…they killed him for it." she said braking down there at then end and crying even more "I…I thought that if I could…oh I don't even know what I was going to do if I got in there, I just wanted to avenge him." she said sounding so heartbroken it was actually painful for us as well, I looked at George who was still trying to comfort Louise.

"Don't worry," he said gently "we'll help you, what about the rest of your family, do they need our help too?"

Still drying her eyes Louise shook her head and said "there's no one else, it was just me and my dad and now he's gone I cant see any point in me going back home, I'll never be able to pay the rent either." Louise wept as the thought hit her, that she was going to lose the roof over her head.

"We will help you, I promise," I told her as I looked around us, no one seemed to have spotted up yet "but we need to get out of here first."

"Alright," she said as we got to our feet, George looked at me for a moment before asking,

"Robin, what about our mission?"

"We can't do it now, I'll sort it though don't worry." I told him in what I hoped was a reassuring voice. George nodded and met my gaze; we shared a long look before a sharp screeching sound pierced our ears and both George and I winced in pain and raised our hands to our ears. I heard mine, George's, Jack's and Will's collective gasp of pain as the headphone switched on.

"What, what's wrong?" Louise asked sounding worried, but neither George nor I could answer as suddenly Mark's voice filled our ears.

"Sorry about that," he apologised, "I was having trouble connecting to Robin and George so I had to tweak something."

"And you had to deafen the rest of us, why?" asked an irritated Will and in spite of the ringing in my ears I grinned.

"I didn't mean to so stop complaining," Mark told him before asking "Robin, George, can you two hear me now?"

"Maybe," I replied "when the ringing stops."

"I've said I'm sorry," he said in aggravation before asking "where are you two, has something gone wrong since I haven't seen you on the cameras yet?"

"There's been, a change of plan." I hedged with a look at Louise.

"We can't go in there now," George added coming to back me up.

"And why is that?" Mark asked, George and I shared a look not exactly sure what to say.

"We've found someone who needs our help, we'll have to do this another day because we need to get out of here now, before someone spots us." I said getting a little urgent towards the end there, but I had been here once before and I didn't want to risk history starting to repeat its self any more than it already was, if I could change this, then I could change the other parts as well, and that was vital to me right now.

"Why, have you triggered an alarm?" Will asked.

"No but trust me when I say we need to get out of here, John I need you to get the van back onto the street outside the mansion, park as far away as you can but still close enough that we can get there fast." I said, knowing that Mark would have us on loudspeaker on his laptop so John could hear too, I could hear John chuckling at our pain in the background as well.

"With pleasure," John announced distantly since he wasn't very close to the mic, he sounded relieved to be leaving the creepy woodland back roads.

"Robin?" Will questioned in my ear, probably hearing the distress in my voice, Jack acted on it however and urged Will into movement, even though she was no where near him, with five words.

"We're on our way, Robin." She said and about a second after she said this Will said a little reluctantly,

"Okay Robin, we'll talk in a minute." And I presumed he and Jack were both heading back towards the van now.

"Come on," I instructed George and Louise and together the three of us headed along the edge of the woodlands, just out of sight and down towards the road. I ushered them along probably more than I should have done, but as far as I was concerned there was still time for us to be spotted and I wasn't comfortable with that risk. The last time Adam (Guy) had lead the party that chased us and even though I had fought him instead of George (Marin) I was not going to chance it, I didn't want George and Adam anywhere near each other.

We reached the van after Jack and Will; even though they had a slightly longer distance to cross they didn't have the hindrance of the woods slowing them down. Just like I had asked, John was parked a good distance down the road and away from the mansion, we reached the nondescript but licence-less van and I opened the back doors, letting Louise and George climb in before I did myself and closed the doors behind me. Not even then did I let myself relax. Sat in the back with us on the van floor was Mark and Will, Jack was in the front again with John, as John peeled out of the street on my orders the others looked at me in confusion, waiting for me to explain.

"Where to?" John asked first, I turned to face the front, subconsciously reaching out for George's hand because I felt the need to have him close right now, I felt terrible right now, all of my worry and fear was bubbling to the surface now as the fact that had been keeping me sane these past few months, the belief that George was safe because all of that had only been a dream, an imagining. Now that belief was rocked as I began to wonder that if this could be true then what else could be too. Right now I wanted nothing more to have George close to me, but I knew that wasn't possible right now, that I had other things to do before I could do that and so I stopped myself getting too worried.

"Joe and Jess's house," I answered without a second thought, the others looked at me like I'd gone mad.

"I thought we were going to wait to deal with that?" Will asked and John shot me a pleading look in the rear-view mirror, begging me not to be too harsh.

"We are," I clarified "Louise needs a place to stay for a while, Jess and Joe have a spare room they aren't using and I know their parents won't mind her staying there for a while." The others looked relieved and Louise shot me an appreciative look.

"Is that wise though?" Mark asked, we all knew what he was really asking though, could be trust them with this if they were giving away our secrets?

"We don't have a choice, and besides, I trust them." I said and I watched as Will, George and Jack nodded.

"So do I," John added and I smiled at him before turning to face Mark, who nodded and sent me a small smile, the dark circles still thick underneath his eyes and I guessed he still wasn't sleeping.

I explained everything as we drove towards Jess and Joe's house, well, almost everything, I explained about Louise and her situation, I told them how I knew her and why I trusted her with my identity because she knew Joey, I asked her not to tell anyone especially Joey who I really was and she agreed I even told Louise about how Baxter wasn't in the mansion right now, and therefore unfortunately her plan would not have worked anyway. What I did not discus or so much as even mention was the déjà vue, I didn't tell my friends how even though I've never met Louise before I knew who she was right off, I never told them how I knew what she was going to do and even why she was going to do it. I couldn't tell them that I thought I knew all of this because that was how it happened last time, they would ask what I meant by last time and I would have to explain that while I was knocked out the other week I travelled back in time to King Richard's England and tried to do my bit there and that was where I had met Louise before. They'd have me locked up in a mental institution for sure. And although I sometimes wondered about my own sanity I knew that I wasn't crazy, I knew that I wasn't making this up either, I had a job to do and I couldn't very well do that from inside a white padded cell. So, once again I shied away from telling them, and as guilty as I felt a part of my brain, the part that had told me not to tell them about my dreams when Mark had, told me that this was the right thing to do. But that said, I didn't feel any less low down for lying to them like this. So, as I sat there in the back of the van explaining to them what I could without prompting them to call for a straightjacket, I couldn't help but wonder what this was all about, why I was getting these weird dreams, why I possibly maybe went back in time, and why history was starting to repeat its self. I looked at George a lot during that journey, hoping that my time with him wasn't already starting to run out.

Author note: so what do you think? I'm liking where I see this heading right now and I'm wondering what you think? Thanks again for reading and reviewing dares to dream, and thanks to those of you (if indeed there is any of you) that merely read but don't review this story, I'm not being sarcastic, thanks for reading, I only wish you would review as well and tell me your opinions. Hope you liked it, please review. :) x