Chapter 27

Allan didn't have to wait long before he heard the sound of the guards whispering anxiously at each other in the corridor. "Was that him? The Nightwatchman?" He shot up instantly and crept to the door to listen in on the conversation. "That was him! I saw him," one guard exclaimed. "We gotta go after him!"

"What about that one then?" The other guard asked.

"Fuck him. He's not goin' anywhere. He's Sir Guy's little lapdog." The first guard replied as he heard them rush off after Marian.

Allan bolted out of the room after them with a chair leg in hand from a piece of furniture he had carefully broken apart in the room and smacked one of the guards in the back of the skull as hard as he could. The man went down like a rock and before the other guard could turn to see what the commotion was about, Marian whistled, causing him to turn to face her, and Allan struck him as well.

Marian quickly ran past Allan into the room, lifted her bow and knocked one of Robin's signature arrows on it, and shot it into the broken chair, imagining the scene as though Allan would have been sitting in the chair when Robin supposedly burst into the room. She then shot a second arrow into the bedpost, as though Allan had backed away toward the bed after the chair collapsed underneath him, gripping at the bedding as he went to lift himself up, and shot a few more at random throughout the room, to signify Robin's frenzied rage at trying to trap Allan in the room so he couldn't run away from him.

"Does that look good to you?" Marian asked as she handed Allan a black, hooded cape.

"Yeah." Allan agreed, a bit taken aback by how quickly everything was happening and how effectively Marian had taken charge of the situation.

"Stables then, and hurry. I have to get back to my room before the guards wake up." Marian told him urgently. "Good luck," she added with a small, reassuring smile as she took off in the opposite direction.

Allan immediately felt like an outlaw again, sneaking through the corridors of the castle, listening for guards that just yesterday he had almost considered to be his friends, rushing his way through the place that only a day ago, he had actually belonged. When he finally made his way out of the castle and to the stables and found the horse Guy had prepared for him, he felt like he could finally breathe again at last. He left the cape behind and climbed up onto the horse and took off as quickly as he could get away with without drawing attention.

As he neared the outskirts of town, he noticed the gang hidden away in the shadows, following his every move and staying near enough to intercede if anything went wrong. He'd never told them, but he often noticed when they were sneaking around through the town and the castle. He knew them too well. He knew the places where they liked to hide, he was familiar with the types of disguises they used, and he'd often find himself standing at Guy's side while watching his former friends sneak around the way he used to, never revealing their presence to his new employers. He would sometimes even intentionally distract Guy to make sure they wouldn't get caught in times when certain members, usually Much, got a bit careless. He had never stopped protecting them or caring about them the entire time he worked for the sheriff, not even for one single moment. Not that that matters to them…he thought. But at least Djaq managed to convince them to come back. That's more than I expected. Probably more than I deserve.

He made it all the way through the tree line at the edge of the forest before the gang revealed that they were still following him, emerging from behind tree trunks and bushes like fae creatures, blending in so well to the greenery around them. He stopped his horse suddenly as he realized he was surrounded. Now that the rescue's done, guess it's time for the confrontation. This is probably the part where Robin reminds me of just how low and worthless he thinks I really am and tells me that the only reason they even offered any help at all was for Djaq so I can thank her for saving my pitiful life.

"Thanks, lads," Allan started in as lighthearted a tone as he could manage given his fear and anxiety over the situation. "For the arrows and makin' sure I got out and everything. Marian told me how you helped."

Robin was glaring at him as he dismounted and he braced himself for some sort of hateful quip from his former leader, but it didn't come. Instead, he suddenly found himself faced with a short, Saracen woman grazing her fingertips over the poorly bandaged cut on his arm. Her touch sent shivers through his entire body.

"You're hurt." She said with genuine concern. "We need to go back to camp so I can clean it. I don't want you to take a fever."

Here it comes, the part where someone speaks up to remind me just how unwelcome I am there, Allan thought.

"Alright, lads," Robin started. "Let's go home."

For a moment, Allan was so stunned that he couldn't speak or move a muscle. It wasn't until he felt the gentle tug Djaq gave him that he finally remembered how to make his legs move again. It felt too surreal that he was almost afraid to ask or say anything because it might break the spell of temporary insanity that Robin seemed to be under. Home, he thought. I'm going home. Even if it's just until I'm bandaged up, they're still inviting me back to the camp.

The long walk back to the camp, one he still had memorized, was fraught with uncomfortable silence, though how much of it was due to his presence and how much of it was due to the false accusations the gang had laid on Djaq, he couldn't be certain. He could feel the dirty looks from Will, Much, and John on him, but he kept his eyes firmly pointed forward toward the place he once called home. Robin did the same. He could tell that Robin was probably equally uncomfortable around both him and Djaq, though for very different reasons, so he kept his focus solely on arriving at their destination. Allan led the horse behind them and hoped that the gang would let him keep it when he inevitably had to make his escape to move onto wherever this next stage of life would take him.

That was something he hadn't wanted to dwell on yet, but he knew he would have to consider it now. The gang would never truly accept him back as one of them. He was an outlaw again and could no longer rely on Guy. He had lost his job and any opportunity for a legal way to earn money. He had lost his home twice and he had no friends, save for maybe Djaq and Marian, though he wasn't certain how much of the care they showed him was out of pity or out of honest friendship. He had come to view Guy as a friend, but that friendship had to come to an end. Now he was alone with nothing again, just like he was after Robin turned him out, but he was determined to make a better decision this time.

He considered his options as he walked along in silence. It would probably be best to leave Nottingham, but he had traveled around England before in his pickpocketing days, poaching for food, charming young women for a bed to stay in for the night, gambling with a few tricks up his sleeve to earn a little extra to get by. He could do it again. Though he was used to having his brother around when he lived that way, he had already had to do it alone once before Robin came into his life. And nearly lost a finger...and my life, he thought.

He thought that maybe he could go to a new shire and find honest work, earn a living and pay for room and board the right way, find someone worth marrying and start a family. But I've never been the type to settle down. How long until I mess everything up and then I'm on the run again, but this time I'd end up abandoning a wife and child too? I'd end up like John, hating my life and what I've become with nothing but regrets. He started thinking of all the towns he'd been to before and which one would make the best candidate for where he should go next when they finally arrived back at the camp.

As soon as Robin lifted the lever to open the hidden camp, Djaq immediately pulled out her medical supplies and got to work. Allan watched in awe as she led him to her own bunk to sit down, untied the makeshift bandage from his arm, and began cleaning the wound. The torn piece of bedsheet he had wrapped around it was soaked through with blood and he realized he had lost more blood than he'd intended to, which helped explain why he had felt so lightheaded before. The adrenaline from having to escape the castle took his mind off of it for a while, but now that he was safe and looking at the bloody cut, he felt the wave of dizziness and nausea return. He wasn't worried though, because he knew he was in good hands. Djaq quickly stitched up the properly cleaned cut and explained what she was doing at each step of the process. He focused on the way it felt to have her touching him to keep his mind off the pain of the stitching needle and realized how much he'd missed her.

When she was finally finished, Robin addressed him and asked to speak with him privately for a moment. He followed Robin a few yards away from camp and decided that he would bring up the inevitable topic of him leaving before Robin could have a chance to kick him out again.

"Look, I know you don't want me here, alright? You don't have to worry about chasin' me off again, I don't plan on staying any longer than I have to. Just let me keep the horse and I'll take off after dark."

"I'm not wanted here either." Robin said suddenly. That took Allan by surprise and actually stunned him into silence for a moment before Robin continued. "I made a mistake yesterday, a big mistake, and now I don't even know if I have a gang anymore."

"What does that mean?" Allan asked. Here comes the part where he blames me for everything.

"It means that Will thinks I should leave, Much thinks I should stay, Djaq wants to leave, Will is probably going with her if she does, and John has barely said two words since this whole mess started." Robin sighed in frustration. "I don't trust you, Allan. But Djaq seems to think she can."

"She can." Allan said seriously. "You all can. Look, I know I messed up, alright? I know that. I've told you how sorry I am before. I told you it wouldn't happen again."

"Yes, and then you went to work for the same man who wants us dead."

"I know that, but I was stuck, Robin." Allan sighed, realizing that yet again, this conversation was not going the way he'd hoped. "I love all of you, I was never going to let anything happen to you if I could help it. But I was out of places to go."

"You had a choice, everything is a…"

"I'm not bein' funny, mate, but so did you." Allan cut him off. "You chose not to listen to me, you chose not to give me a second chance, you chose to kick me out and take my money. What did you expect me to do? I never took them to the camp, never told them about Marian, I've stopped them from catching the lot of you more times than I can count and you never saw that. I've probably done more to help you since I've been at the castle than I ever did here. And you chose not to listen to Djaq yesterday too because you think you're always right. Everyone should trust you but you don't trust anyone else. Now you expect everyone to just let it go and fall in line?"

"No," Robin said seriously. "But I want a second chance and I realize that if I expect to get one, I have to be ready to give one." He paused for a moment, considering how to word what he wanted to say. "Do you really want to leave?"

Allan thought about this for a moment. He knew the answer was no, but what other choice was there? Was Robin asking him to stay?

"I never wanted to leave in the first place and I still don't have anywhere to go, but what else is there?"

"You could stay." Robin offered. "Instead of giving Guy my secrets, you give me his. Be part of the gang again...if there's still one to be a part of."

Allan thought about it for a moment. He didn't want to betray Guy, the person who just saved his life, but he did want to come home. And what would Guy think when he sees me with the gang again? That I was lying the whole time? That he saved me for nothing? He'd end up torturing me if he ever caught me again.

"I can tell you how things work in the castle, some of the sheriff's secrets...but I can't and won't do anything to hurt Guy. He's the reason me and Djaq are still alive, Robin. I don't even wanna let him see me with you and make him regret his decision."

"Probably for the best that you and Djaq both lay low for a while." Robin agreed. "Marian's the one that convinced him to help with the rescue, so if he sees either of you with us…"

"He might suspect her." Allan finished. "Though I think you're underestimating Giz's feelings for her; he's blinded when it comes to all things Marian."

"Maybe," Robin conceded. "But there's no reason to help him remove the blindfold."

"So what then?" Allan asked. "I tell you some stuff about the castle, me n' Djaq stay here and lay low for a while, but I'm part of the gang again? You're all gonna let me just be one of the lads again after working for them?"

"If they all agree to it, then yes. If you and Djaq even both want to stay."

"I do if she does." Allan told him.

"Then let's go ask them." Robin said as he walked back over to the gang who looked up at the two former friends with curiosity and addressed them at once.

"I have a proposition for you all."