Denial, Chapter 44; That I Would Gladly Take Thine Place
Title: Denial, Ch. 44; That I Would Gladly Take Thine Place
Author: darkentwisted
Characters/Pairings: Allan/Vaizey Guy, Marian
Rating: R (For mention of dubious consensual sex, M/M)
Genre: slash, angst, dub-con
Words: 1675
Disclaimer: BBC & TA own; I just want to play in their universe
Notes: This continues the 'Round-Robin' fic 'Denial'.
Personally tested and sanitized for your protection by robinfanatic & wastingyourgum poor souls with an unenviable task.
Summary: Allan sacrifices everything to protect Marian's honor.
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Previous Chapters: Summary of previous chapters...
"But I thought I was your boy, Gis?" Allan was near tears as he was led away by the nasty little man to the next room.
"For the next hour or so you're mine," Vaizey purred as he pulled the young man away.
Gisborne sneered as the door shut. He felt disgusted with himself for what he had just done. There wasn't enough spirits in the bottle he held to rinse the taste from his mouth or dull the screams from the next room.
"You are my boy, Allan," he whispered as a single tear fell. "I am letting him do this for us."
He retched into the chamber pot next to him then slid over to the bed and wrapped the pillow around his ears to drown out the horrible noises.
>>>------------------->
The next morning Guy arose from the cot. His head jackhammered in protest as he raised himself.
It was quiet...too quiet. He stared at the door...that door...and he dreaded what was behind it.
Sheer force of will caused him to open the heavy creaking entrance. He held his breath.
Vaizey was curled up in a ball and presumably passed out. The dirty sheets on the bed wadded around him. Blood stained the bed and the washbasin making the black knight's heart sink. What had he done?
"Allan..." he called softly.
"Your little plaything is not here," Vaizey contemptuously muttered. He looked up grinning evilly with his gap toothed smile. "But oh the time we had!"
"I swear if you hurt him..." Guy hissed.
"You'll what? Wish you had joined in?" Vaizey laughed as Gisborne ran from the room.
Guy's heart leapt from his chest. He ran to the tavern, tore open the door and looked at the confused patrons inside. What if he left in the night? he thought. He turned to the stables and into the stall where Marian was being held.
In the dim light he found him. Marian had tossed her blanket over bruised and battered flesh on the former outlaw's back. He was still sobbing as Guy came over.
"What have you done to him!" Her blue eyes flashed.
"I didn't...I wouldn't..." Guy's face was creased with anguish. He reached out his hand and touched Allan's bruised chin. The younger man recoiled in horror and snuggled into the noblewoman's shoulder sobbing harder.
"Don't...you touch him!" Marian glared. "You monster! Don't you ever touch him again!"
>>>----------------->
"How is he?" Marian spat when Guy returned.
"The healer managed to stop the bleeding."
The noblewoman for once was grateful she was shackled to the wall. She was afraid of what she would do to him if her hands were free. "You let that...that maniac hurt him! How could you...?"
"I had to!" Guy glared. "The sheriff was drunk. He wanted me to prove my loyalty to him." His usually cold grey eyes were clouded with the demons behind them. "He wanted to play a game. He told me to choose. I chose you!"
Marian blanched. She knew they were in the presence of a sadist and a madman but the revelation made her blood run cold.
"I couldn't let him do that to you." Gisborne cried as he spoke. "Of all people, not you!" He looked away as he stood up, not wanting to feel her accusing eyes on him any more. "I only hope he forgives me."
"Allan or God?" Marian looked up defiantly.
"Both," Gisborne muttered as he walked away.
>>>---------------------->
Marian awoke to the realization that the carriage had stopped moving. Both Vaizey and Guy were gone and Allan was still huddled into a shapeless mass in the opposite corner. "Allan!" She hissed. There was no response from the quiet grey shape in the corner and she feared the worst. "Allan!"
"Yeah, Maz, I'm here."
"We have to figure a way out of here. You have to get to Robin and warn the gang..."
Allan chuckled an empty, soulless laugh. "Not bein' funny but I'm not goin' anywhere."
"Allan, don't be stupid! You are not their prisoner, I am. You are your own man..."
"I'm not anythin'. I'm a coward. I betrayed the gang. I'm nothing but a common thief and a liar. I don't even have a proper name to call my own. Bein' a man was the only thing I rightfully had left and I let the sheriff take that away from me last night." He wiped away hot tears on a ragged sleeve. "Dunnit matter any more. Soon I won't be anyone's problem but the worms."
"You're talking nonsense, Allan!" Marian paused when she saw the plant in the former outlaw's hand. "What is that?"
The poacher picked the red berries off the small branch. "Djaq called it 'Devil's Cherry'...I think. I found some growin' when I was....well when I was tryin' to... you know." He blustered, "It hurt like hell, Marian! The sheriff, 'e messed me up real good." His blue eyes stood out in brilliant contrast to the redness around them, adding weight to his tortured expression. "How can I live with what he did to me?" He stifled more tears as he looked away from the lady in shame. "How could I have done that to Will?"
Marian became angry. They'd not gotten this far and survived just so she could watch her last chance of returning to Robin take his own life. "Go ahead!" she spat. "Eat them!"
"'S'cuse me?" Allan showed the first sign of anything besides self pity since the conversation started.
The look of disbelief on his face encouraged Marian to continue. "You said yourself. You betrayed the gang. You lied, you cheated." She levelled her eyes at him. "And now you tell me you even turned on your best friend." She looked away angrily. "You...are the lowest of the low, Allan A'Dale. If that is even your real name. Do the world a favour and eat the damn berries. Just quit snivelling about it!"
Allan's eyes watered. She had never seen a grown man about to cry before and her heart sank. It was all a lie and she knew it. But she was desperate.
"I...I thought you cared," Allan gasped.
"I do care. But you want to kill yourself and leave me alone." She motioned outside. "With them!"
Allan looked down at the deadly fruit in his hand. He looked hopefully up at the lady. "There's enough here for both of us. Tom fed some to a sick dog we had once. We won't suffer long."
Marian glanced warily at the easy way out. "I would rather face the sheriff in a room alone. Robin is alive. He will come after us and he will save us! I have faith in that. I would rather go through hell to see him again than die a quick death in the back of a wagon." She looked at the former outlaw. "Allan, you are not a coward. You are brave and good and someday you will see that. What Guy allowed Vaizey to do to you..."
"'E dinnit allow it."
Marian stopped. "But Guy said the sheriff gave him a choice."
"Dinnit matter to the sheriff. 'E wanted us both gone. Gis could watch, look away or participate as 'e did us both." Allan blinked back tears at the memory of the previous night of terror. "I talked Vaizey outta it. I reminded 'im how 'e dinnit really care for lepers anyway. How it would be more fun just to 'ave his way with me all night then finish me when 'e was done." Allan shivered at the memory. "So 'e did. 'E passed out before 'e could finish the job."
"Guy left out that part," she almost whispered.
"He was probably relieved to find you unharmed."
Marian studied the former outlaw for a moment. "Come here."
"I'm sorry."
"Put down those damn berries and come over here!" Marian gestured next to her. "You are my hero and neither of us is going to die today."
Allan brought over his blanket and covered both of them with it.
Marian wrapped her arms around the former outlaw as best she could. "You have repaid the debt you owed me in the castle a thousandfold, Allan."
"What you mean?"
"You have delivered me thus far with my honour intact. I will see to it that Robin knows that."
"Marian...Robin is..."
"No! He is not dead and he will save us." She whispered to Allan as she stroked his hair, "This I believe above anything else."
Allan smiled as he placed his head softly on her shoulder. He released the poison fruit from his hand and it fell away, lost in the coarse straw. "I would gladly take your place and keep you from harm any day, Maz."
"I know, Allan, and that is why I love you."
Before he could respond, the rear door of the carriage flung open, revealing the sheriff's maniacally grinning countenance. "Ahhhhh! You see Gisborne. I told you if we left your little pets alone together they would start breeding." He sneered at the former outlaw. "I thought I beat all of that out of you last night."
Guy stiffened at the comment but the frost never left his eyes. "Allan, move away from the prisoner."
"Gis, she innit a prisoner. She's..."
"I said, back away from the prisoner!" Gisborne guiltily turned away from the frightened accusing eyes on him. "We are about to board ship," he snapped. "Make yourselves ready."
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