Discmlaimer: I do not own Robin Hood, it is the property of the BBC

Chapter 20

When Robin and Ava were a short distance from the tavern, it occured to Robin that maybe he ought to stop and see that Ava was alright.

True, his first thoughts were that maybe she couldn't be trusted, maybe she would end up being a disappointment like her father, but he soon dismissed these thoughts when hetold himself that she was a seperate person.

He turned around to face the young woman, who was trailing behind him, causing her - as she wasn't paying attention - to walk straight in to him.

' S- sorry, ' she mumbled, enticing his pity.

' Sorry? ' he echoed, cocking one of his eyebrows,' why are you sorry? '

She shrugged - in truth, she didn't know why she'd said it, but she felt like she had to say something. She couldn't help but think that in some way, it might be her fault. Maybe if she had meant more to her father...maybe if she had spent more time with him, rather than Much, on their outings, he wouldn't have had the chance to get away...the chance and the time to betray them.

' I'll understand, you know, ' she continued, ' I'll understand...if you don't want me in the gang any more. '

Robin frowned and tilted her chin up with her thumb and forefinger, to force her to look at him, rather than at the ground, ' Don't talk like that, right? I do not care who your father is...what he did...that doesn't define who you are. You're still you, and nothing's changed. '

' Much...' she said quietly.

Robin offered her a half smile, that did not quite meet his eyes, ' No, I'm Robin, '

She shook her head in all seriousness, ' What will Much think...what if...'

Robin took hold of her hand and began to walk away again, towing her along after him.

' Much won't care, ' Robin told her, ' and we're having no more on the subject,' he added sternly, because he didn't want to talk about Allan. He now had such feelings of dislike towards the man and knew that if the began talking about the man, these feelings would become words, and he didn't want to voice them to the man's own daughter - now matter how much she was angry at him.

When they met back at the clearing, roughly 15 minutes later, John, Djaq and Much were already there.

They had arrived back and wondered where on earth Ava had disappeared to.

Shortly after she left Djaq alone, the saracen had met up with John and Much, who had crossed her path, and now the threee of them had come back to the clearing.

The three of them also wondered about Allan's presence.

It seemed that, in the scattering procedrue, Djaq and Ava had assumed he was with John and Much, and John and Much had assumed he was with Djaq and Ava.

On seeing Robin stride over to them, with a face that was cleary unhappy, and with Ava trailing behind, the three of them were relieved.

Much hurried forward and engulfed Ava in to a hug which she half heartedly returned.

When he let go of her, Much looked in to her eyes and demanded angrily, ' Where the hell were you? You just left Djaq on her own - we thought something terrible had happened to you! For all we knew, you could have been captured and killed! '

Ava averted her eyes from him, and focused on the ground, determined to keep her calm.

Robin decided that - although it was a stupid thing of his youngest recruit to do - this could be overlooked for the time being, so spoke up on her behalf, ' That doesn't matter now. I found her, and she was safe with me. In the scheme of things, it's not the most important thing right now.

' What did you find out? ' John asked.

' It was Allan,' Robin replied coldly.

' Allan?! ' John half shouted, half asked.

' Allan was the traitor,' Robin confirmed,' he has been banished and we shall never see him again.'

There was an awkward silence, broken by Much who nodded triumphantly, ' I knew it was Allan. Always knew what that man was capable of. '

' Much! ' Ava snapped, unsure of why she was defending her father, after what she had said to him.

Much took a look at his beloved, whose eyes were brimming his tears, and looked ashamed of himself. He uttered an apology and went to drape one arm across her shoulders, and pull her close.

' What about Will? ' Djaq asked, her voice laced with worry, ' you banished him, too, and he was innocent.'

' That was a decoy, ' Robin informed them, ' A set up. I told him to meet us back here at sundown, when I knew I'd have taken care of the problem. '

There was another awkward silence - after such a revelation, no one seemed to know what to say. how to react, how to feel.

During this brief silence, Will appeared.

He offered the gang a shy smile, and was relieved when some of them smiled back, as he knew that Robin had informed them of the decoy arrangment.

His eyes flitted around his friends, until they landed on Ava, who still looked distraught, and in thta moment, his heart knew what had happened - although he told him self that it couldn't be.

' The traitor...' he began slowly, unsure of how to say it.

Ava cut him off saying it outright, ' The traitor was my - was Allan ,' she told him.

' But surely, he wouldn't...he couldn't...' Will feebly protested.

' He did,' Ava assured him coldly.

Robin looked around at his gang - so disappointed and down hearted from the revelations, and sighed.

' Let's get back to camp - we're strong and we're going to move on from this.'