Disclaimer: I do not own Robin Hood, as it is the property of the BBC.

This is the chapter I've been needing to write for ages - a proper explanation scene between Allan and Ava, not too sure that it was the best I could have done, but hopefully you'll think it worked OK.

Chapter 26

Ava stomped away from the camp, following her argument with Much, and angrily wiped her leaking eyes on the sleeve of her blouse.

She didn't know where she had really heading for - she just wanted to get away from it all...from him.

How dare he accuse her of this? There was no sense in it, at all! There's no way that she would cheat on him, with anyone - let alone Uncle Will, who was one of his friends too. She loved him...she wanted to be with him...she loved him.

After a few minutes, she reached the stream where the gang would wash when they had the time, and decided that she didn't have the willpower or the strength to go any further.

She sat herself down on the ground at the edge of the stream, pulled her knees up to her chest, and rested her head on her knees, in a sort of despair.

--

Meanwhile, Allan had been walking through the forest.

He knew that he couldn't just walk up to the camp - they'd kill him - but he had to find a way to see her.

He decided that the best bet would be to go down to the stream where they washed and wait to see if someone showed up.

He thought that if he stayed long enough, someone would show up.

If it was Ava herself, then brilliant.

If it was Will - or maybe Much - then he could perhaps convince then to go and fetch Ava for him.

If it was one of the others, then he was most probably out of luck and would have to try again at some other point.

As it was, he approached the stream to see someone was already there.

A figure - who had their back to him - clad in a sort of sky blue coloured outfit, was sat on the ground, shoulders shaking slightly.

Hold on - shoulders shaking? Was she crying? he thought to himself, in a mixture of confusion and anger.

He knew who she was immediatly, by the dark hair cascading down her back and the colour of the dress. It was one he'd bought her himself - well, with a little help from Marian, since he knew nothing about women's clothing - for her birthday. It matched her eyes.

' Ava? ' he called out cautiously, tentively.

Ava raised her head slightly, but kept facing away. The voice - what was he doing here?

' Ava? ' he said again, slightly louder.

This time, she whipped around to face him.

When her eyes met his, he expected her to tell him to leave...or to leave herself.

Instead, she offered him a half-smile - which could barely be classed as a smile at all - and hastily dabbed at her face with with her sleeve.

'Father,' she said softly.

' Hi,' he replied, ' do you mind if I join you? '

She shrugged and replied, ' If you want,'

Approaching her nervously - for fear that she would reject him and send him packing - he sat down beside her.

' I...um...thank you,' he said, stumbling over his words.

She turned to look at him, but kept silent.

He carried on talking, ' For saving my life, you stopped Robin from killing me earlier today,'

Ava simply shrugged, ' I - I had to,'

' But...thanks. Really,' he said, realising that he probably sounded stupid.

She merely looked at him, her piercing eyes cutting in to his as she scrutinised him, as if she were trying to figure out why he was here.

He wanted nothing more than to hold her, and to ask her what was wrong - because he could tell that she was upset, and that she had been crying not long before. But he decided it was best to keep quiet and wait for her to say something...anything. He didn't want to get on the wrong side of her - he knew that she had a bad temper...probably inherited from him, as Will had often told him.

She waited a moment and then spoke carefully,

' I need answers,' she told him, trying to keep her voice calm - she'd had enough of arguments. She just wanted a proper explanation, ' I need to know...why...why you did it. '

' Why I- ' he bgan, sort of trailing off at the end.

She nodded,' If I know why, under what circumstances, when, what made you do it, them I can start to...maybe...start to forgive you. '

Allan sighed and nodded, ' Ok. So it started about 3 months ago. '

Ava was suprised that it had been for that long that he had gone about without getting caught, but managed to keep her face blank so her father could continue with his story without feeling it was too difficult.

Allan took a breath and continued, ' You remember that day when the Sheriff's sister showed up, do you? '

' Yes...' she replied, as she recalled the day that Davina Vaysey appeared, the Black Knights were first discovered by the gang, she and Robin were caught by the Sheriff, Robin was dangled over a pit of snakes, and said sister was killed by her own snakes.

' You, me, Much and Robin were in Nottingham, watching the castle. Much and I had an argument - I don't know if...? '

Ava nodded, ' Yes, I remember, vaguely. He told you to " jigger off " , so you ran away and we let you go - Robin said we should let you go to let off a bit of steam.'

Allan sighed, ' So, I went off to the tavern to try out some of my new tricks. I was doin' quite well, made a fair bit of money for us to add to our funds for the poor...but then Gisbourne showed up. He recognised me and I ended up getting arrested. '

Ava clucked her tounge in annoyance, ' Didn't I tell you that day, that you'd get in trouble, if you continued to spend so much time in the taverns? '

Allan smiled sadly at her, ' I know, and I should have listened to you, my girl.'

My girl - that was what he always called her, and it was nice to hear. Much called her My Love, John called her Little One, the others called her by her name, but her father calling her My Girl was just right.

He continued, ' So I got arrested and they took me to the castle dungeons. Gisbourne started...he knew who I was of course, knew I was an outlaw, and tried pressing me for information on the gang, on the location of the camp, threatened to kill me...'

' So then you offered to sell us all out? That was it? ' she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Allan shook his head vigorously, 'No! No. I didn't give in that easily...it wasn't like that...I have to make you understand this properly...'

Ava shifted to look at him a bit better and motioned for him to continue.

He saw her motion and did continue, ' It went on for a while and I still wasn't giving in. Gisbourne was bored of this after a while and started mentioning things that he knew would make me talk.'

' Like what? ' she asked, eyes widening in anticipation.

' He went out to talk to his guard, and came back in a few minutes late, telling me that his guard had just told him they had arrested another outlaw. Gisbourne told me that they had arrested you...you, my darling daughter...the person I care about most in the whole world...my only family... in Nottingham and they were going to kill you unless I gave them information.'

Ava bit her lip, ' Oh father, ' she said sadly, beginning to understand why he'd done it.

' I was so scared Ava - so scared that the were going to kill you if I didn't give them some information. I...I can't quite describe how it felt...how it felt to even think about the fact that you might die - and I had a chance to save you. '

Cogs whirred around in her brain as she began to think ahead an think aout what Gisbourne might have said.

Allan continued, ' Gisbourne told me that all I'd have to do would be to inform him of some of out plans sometimes...nothing big, you have to understand - just little things that would stop bits of money being stolen and stuff like that. It was part of the deal that no one would ever get hurt. So I agreed to it at once...for you...anything to save my little girl...'

Ava took hold of his hand and squeezed it tightly, ' I don't blame you for that,' she said, ' I guess I can understand that you were doing it to save me. But what about when you realised that I hadn't been taken? '

Allan squeezed her hand tighter as he spoke on, ' When I got back to camp after being released, you told me about what had happenned that day...how you'd been with Robin all day, and I realised that I'd been tricked in to thinking that you were in the dungeons. '

' But you carried on for three months,' she said, trying to make sense of it, yet keeping a hold of his hand.

' Right away, I went to Gisbourne to tell him that I wasn't happy with it...that I wanted out but he was having none of it. He told me that if I didn't keep giving him little bits of information, he really would kill you. So I kept on going back to him, with details of our plans and in exchange he gave me money.'

' Money? ' she asked, raising an eyebrow, her voice also raising a bit.

Noting her rise of volume he quickly said, ' But it was never about the money! Ok, there was money involved, but I swear down, it was never because of the money! Some of the money I put back in the poor's fund, claiming I'd won it in the taverns, but I had to keep some of it because you lot would have gotten suspicious about where it was all coming from...there was no way I could pass that amount off as having come from the taverns. '

' Oh father,' Ava sighed softly, ' I suppose I can understand why you did it, but why didn't you say something to someone sooner? Maybe it could have been stopped if you'd mentioned it before. '

Allan met her eyes again, and held on to her hand even tighter, ' You have to understand that Gisbourne gave me his word that no one would be hurt - no one. I guess in a weird way, I thought what I was doing was protecting you...all of you, really. '

' So all the time, you were trying to protect us? ' she asked hopefully.

' Yes!' he stressed, ' it was part of the deal - all I had to do was give away little bits of information, and although our pans would fail for the most part, no one would be hurt...especially you.'

' If you'd told someone...' she said softly.

' I know, I know - I know that I should have told someone about it all but I thought I had it under control. It's in the pact now, and if I could go back and do it again - well, I wouldn't. No way. I'd much rather still be with you lot than where I am now. '

Ava suddenly threw her arms around Allan's neck and hugged him tightly, which suprised him greatly, but he carefully hugged her back.

' So, what do you think about it all? ' he asked, in to her ear.

Keeping tight hold of him, and taking comfort in his presence, she replied, ' I can understand why you did it, and I know that you can't go back and re-do time - what's done is done and I accept that. I wish you hadn't done it - it was stupid, and..and..stupid - but I...I...I understand. Oh I guess what I'm trying to say is that I forgive you! ' she finally burst out with.

Allan breathed a sigh of relief and kissed his only child's cheek swiftly.

They broke apart and she leant in to his side, as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her close.

' Just one thing,' Ava siad quicky,' are you planning on working for Gisbourne for, like, ever? '

' Not forever, never forever,' he responded, as though he had thought about it before,' I suppose just until I can get the lads to accept me back.'

' You do know that will be a while? ' she sighed.

' Yeah, but I'm willing to wait and in the meantime, I'll work for Gisbourne - I can secretly help you, like Marian does. Though, of course, it'd have to be less than that since the lads wouldn't trust my words.'

' It'll be OK, you know? ' she said, ' it'll all turn out OK in the end - it has to. '

Allan grinned and pulled her closer to him, ' I love you,' he told her.

' Love you too,' she replied resting her head against his shoulder.

Allan then remembered the state she had been in when he first saw her and decided to see what he could do to help.

' Ava? ' he asked.

' Yes?' she replied contently.

' A while ago...before you and I started talking...you were upset. Do you want to tell me why? '

Ava sighed, and lifted her head to look at him. She had been looking forward to the moment when she could tell her father she was going to get married, but now - after the argument - all excitment of that seemed to have sparked out.

She held out the hand which had not been clutching his and showed his the dazzling piece of jewellery that sat there.

' We - Much and I - we got engaged. '

Allan looked down at the ring and back up to Ava, ' Well, um, good for you. When? '

' Two days ago. '

' It's a nice ring - matches your eyes.'

Ava bit her lip and then a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

Allan was alarmed at this and tried to wipe them away with the cuff of the leather outfit he wore.

He frowned at her reaction to her engagement,' So why has this upset you, like this? I don't understand. If you'd told me you were being forced to marry the Sheriff then I'd understand, but your suitor - whom you love - for some reason which is beyond me, by the way - has aked to spend the rest of his life with you,...to love you forever...what's wrong? '

She sniffed, ' Oh it was all alright until just now. We had an argument and he accused me of not loving me, and of having an affair with Uncle Will.'

' What? ' Allan asked incredulously,' what's going on there? '

Ava sighed and nestled further in to his arms, ' It started when Uncle Will and I were talking. We were talking about the wedding, and I said how I wanted you to be there, and then Will said how he thought that would be a bit hard since all of the others aren't...well, you know, too keen on you right now.'

' So how does that go in to you having a giant argument with Much? '

' I told Will that I thought if we waited a while, you'd have made up with the rest of the gang, and you'd be there at the wedding. Then Much called us all over for dinner. He told me, over dinner, that he'd been talking to Robin. And Robin had offered to perform the wedding ceremony for us as soon as we wanted...he could have done it tonight if he'd wanted to...'

' Ah. And you declined the offer? '

' Yes. I told Much that I wanted to hold off for a while...post pone the wedding - though I didn't tell him it was about you, because he's have flipped out. And then...well, you know what Much is like...he doesn't listen...so he thought I was cancelling because I didn't love him, and then because he'd seen me talking to Will juts befire, he accused me off seeing Will behind his back. '

' And then what? '

' Well, that's it,' she replied as if it were obvious, ' I stormed off in to the forest and then you came along. Oh father, it's all such a mess - yesterday I was engaged to the love of my life and now he thinks I'm seeing someone ele! '

Allan sighed, ' Although he's an idiot and I think you're too good for him - you need to talk to Much. Everthing'll be fine.You love him don't you? '

' Yes!' she cried out with passion.

' Then go and talk to him. One poxy argument doesn't mean that you've broken up. '

' You - you think it'll all work out. '

Allan stood up and pulled Ava to her feet by her hands too, he raised a hand to her cheek and brushed her skin lightly, ' It'll be fine...just go back and sort it out.'

' You're right I will,' she replied, feeling sort of relieved, as she gave him another hug.

When they broke apart, she looked up at him with a sad sort of smile, ' When am I going to see you again? ' she asked gently.

Allan shrugged, ' Probably whenever you lot next decide to come up to Nottingham and cause chaos, leaving me and Gizzy to sort it all out. ' Then seeing the annoyed look on er face he continued, ' I'll try and come to see you again soon. '

Ava nodded, ' So - goodbye for now,' she said lamely.

' See you soon,' Allan replied as they went their seperate ways.