Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

The Long Road Home by Ecri

Pt 1E: Familiar Ground

The dungeon was silent as the guards left a few hours later. They'd hung Will from the rafters once more, but they'd left the others alone. That had been his only goal in goading the men, and, since nothing in his life ever went as he planned, he couldn't help but be surprised that this had worked. Of course, since it had inevitably resulted in him being beaten, perhaps it shouldn't be so surprise that it had.

No one tried to speak to him. No one offered a word of comfort, but then most of them were probably shocked at having witnessed the cruelty of the guards.

Will thought perhaps he dozed, or perhaps just slipped into unconsciousness, but whichever it was, he came back to himself when the Sheriff of Nottingham appeared asking about Robin Hood.

Once again, Will acted without thinking. Even as he offered to kill Robin Hood for the Sheriff, amidst cries of outrage from Wulf and the others, he wondered why he was doing it. He didn't think of himself as a killer, though obviously he'd killed some of the Sheriff's men and perhaps a Celt or two before being captured. Certainly, he'd thrown a knife at Robin, though some part of him insisted he'd intended to hit the tree trunk by Robin's head just to give the man something to think about. He'd never know if that were true, or just some sort of wishful thinking, but in any event, this was different.

Did he intend to kill Robin? Would he be able to do it? If hatred were all it took, he'd have killed Robin when he'd first heard him introduce himself back at the river.

Could he then kill his own brother?

Perhaps he was a coward as Robin had said and he did it only for the slim chance that the Sheriff might release him.

It took a bit of conversation, and enough lashes to make him wonder why he'd done it, but soon he was on his way back to Sherwood Forest. The walk was long and arduous for a man who'd slept little and had been through what Will had suffered. Still he walked on, unsure why he'd made a deal with Nottingham other than that he wished fervently to wipe the smug smile off Robin's face.

With Will Scarlett, however, nothing was ever easy. As much as part of him wanted to prove Robin wasn't the man the others believed him to be, another part, a part he knew now had been growing within him for weeks, wanted desperately for Robin to prove him wrong, for him to step up and be the man Wulf above all others believed him to be.

It was only when he reached the forest, seeing the devastation that the Sheriff's men had left behind that his resolve faltered completely.

He had not imagined even as he'd heard it happening that Sherwood would have been so badly damaged. He saw Robin then, and was surprised when the older man called out to him. "Will? I thought you were taken!"

"I was." Will searched for something else to say, but it was then that John attacked. He rained his fury down on Will punching and dragging him forward…screaming at him and calling him a traitor…insisting that no one escaped the Sheriff's dungeons unless they'd lined their pockets. Will fell to the ground, trying to protect his recent lashes and bruises but somehow his tattered shirt fell away from his torso revealing everything.

He felt the stunned silence descend and could only scowl. He hated appearing weak in front of these people he would like to consider friends. Though he was never sure if they truly liked him, they were all he had…all he'd ever had. Piss and wind was how John had described him, and he knew he had only himself to blame for that. He'd never learned to trust anyone. In return, no one trusted him.

"Let him speak." Robin said softly.

As this was the first thing Will had heard him say, and he certainly hadn't rushed forward to try to pull John Bodily from him, Will wondered if Robin would have let John kill him if his shirt had not slipped open.

"I bring a message from Nottingham." When Robin nodded, he continued, though he wondered why he'd seemed to wait for permission.

"Our men are to be hanged in the square at high noon tomorrow."

"And what about my boy?" Fanny's voice held a tenuous hope that Wulf would be spared. Will hated to shatter that hope. He hung his head, unable to look the woman in the eye and deliver the news. Perhaps Robin was right, he thought again. Perhaps I do lack courage.

"The boy, too." Will confirmed, closing his eyes beneath the sheltering curtain of his hair as she wailed. "Ten men in all. The hangings are part of the celebration for the Sheriff's marriage."

"Marriage? To who?"

Bull spoke the question they were all thinking, but Will looked up at Robin. "The Lady Marian." He didn't know what sort of reaction he expected, but the stunned silence and the hint of fear in the eyes wasn't it.

"He takes a bride of Royal blood." Tuck looked as stunned as Robin, though obviously he was thinking more of national importance than personal.

"Aye," confirmed John, "and with King Richard gone, he'll be after the bloody throne!"

Will felt a strange buzz in his head and he wondered what it could be. His own anxiety had grown after John's attack, but it was not brought on by it. No, he'd learned at a young age how to take a beating. The anxiety and the buzz seemed to be telling him something. Like a whisper he could hear but not decipher, it made him once more question his motives in coming here. Did he want to kill Robin of Locksley? The buzz grew louder and he felt a bit faint. Did he want to follow Robin of Locksley? The very thought stoked the familiar rage deep inside him and he glared at Robin.

"You were to use this news to get close to me and then kill me, right Will?" Robin asked the question, though he obviously knew the answer. "What are your intentions?"

Will smirked. Trust Robin of Locksley to make a life and death situation sound like a two farmers discussing the price of seed.

"Well, that depends on you, Locksley," he said as he drew himself up slowly to his feet. He favored one side, and still held one arm protectively across his stomach. , "I've never trusted you, that's no secret. But what I want to know is are you going to finish what you've started? I want to know if he's going to turn and run like the spoiled little rich boy I always took him for."

Will stared into the man's eyes, not daring to admit to himself that some small part of him hoped that, against all odds, Robin of Locksley would indeed be more than Will took him for. The longer he stared at the 'Lord of the Manor' the more he realized how fervently he wished for Robin to be what Wulf took him for: an honest man, not a nobleman, but a Noble Man. A savior.

Say it, Will thought. Either admit you're using us and you're in over your head, or make us believe that you can still make a difference…that you can still make it right.

He watched Robin. The others didn't exist for him any longer. He held his breath waiting for the man's answer.

Instead of answering, Robin walked closer to him asking his own question. He shook his head, his eyes showed plainly his own inability to understand the man who stood before him. "Did I wrong you in another life, Will Scarlett?" His voice was almost a whisper.

"Where does this intolerable hatred for me come from?"

Will turned away. He didn't want to answer. He wanted to run, but something stopped him. He turned to face Robin feeling the tears standing in his eyes, but he refused to shed them. How he knew this was the time to face this man with the truth as his only weapon, he couldn't say, but the buzzing was at its loudest, and he took it for some sort of instinct.

At best, he expected to be called a liar. At worst, well, nobles had been known to kill offspring and relatives that they found as an embarrassment. He was a bastard. He had no legitimate claim to Locksley, their father, or the Locksley land. Taking a breath and promising himself that this was for the best, even if Robin were to draw his sword and slit his throat for the things he was about to say, he told Robin his secret.

"From knowing that our…our father loved you more than me!"

Silence stole across Sherwood Forest. Even the wildlife seemed silent and still if any remained unburned. Will continued. "I'm your brother, Robin of Locksley. I am the son of the woman who replaced your dead mother for a time…" Robin grabbed at Will, shaking him, but pulled back in the next instant as though unwilling to harm the younger man. "It was your anger that drove them apart…"

"It's a lie!" Robin shouted over Will.

"It's not a lie!" Will's insistence silenced Robin. "You ruined my life!"

Silence again. Will Scarlett was reluctant to continue, but he gathered his resolve. "I have more reason to hate you than anyone. But I found myself daring to believe in you. What I want to know, brother, is will you stay with us and finish what you've started?"

Emotionally spent, Will Scarlett looked up at his brother waiting, hoping against hope, that Wulf was right about this man, that his confession had not been a mistake, and that somehow things might yet be put right. Robin just stared at him, and Will found the moment stretching on indefinitely. He wanted to scream at Robin to say something even if it were more accusations of lying and perhaps throwing him out of Sherwood. That would be preferable to this endless silence.

Robin took a half step closer to Will. "I have a brother?" He looked across to Azeem, whose face betrayed nothing but concern for Robin.

"I have a brother!" He repeated the words louder and with more certainty as he pulled Will into an embrace and then pulled back slightly, holding Will's face in his hands. "I'll make my stand with you, side by side. Until the end."

Will looked unsure for a moment, but seemed as though he wanted nothing more than to believe. Whether from relief, fatigue, hunger, thirst, or the result of his injuries, Will's body chose that moment to rebel. Will swayed for a moment bringing a hand to his head. He took a step or two sideways trying to regain his balance, though it was not there to be regained.

To Be Continued