[Episode OOM -- "Childhood" 2.03 (1)]
Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI
~*~
It hadn't started out a good day already, all things considered.
Her father had felt too poorly to even get out of bed that morning.
But she'd though it was going to be better when in the morning the Sheriff hadn't been there. Instead of being summoned to the corner to sing, one of his birds in a cage he loved to reference to her with maniacal glee, through his threatening of, and laughing at, of peasants who came to lodge complaints or entreat their mad dictator, his office had been blocked. So she'd waited. Curious, more than confused, and glad of it.
She'd stayed, questioning with interest where he might have gone or when she could expect him to return, so that she didn't end up disobeying his orders or missing him. When both were still the first and only thing on her mind. Aside from where he could have gotten to. It has worked though, both in making it conveniently appear as though she hadn't run immediately from duty to escape and in getting told he was below seeing to more pressing matters.
More pressing matters which turned out to be Daniel. One of the younger boys they'd paid for the work of their table in Knighton. Collected and imprisoned in a different room in the castle. Apparently being held for ransom in Locksley for some newest piece of the Sheriff's property that Robin Hood had stolen from Guy.
With little else to find out or do but stand there, she'd returned to check in on her father. Only to find him even worse off. It'd take the next few hours, sitting with him talking to him quietly, seeing the food was ordering that he could manage. A thin soup, that she'd had to help him sit to eat, because he wouldn't be helped through that and she hadn't the heart to start a fight about it while he looked the way he did. Even when the act of it had exhausted him.
Leaving her sitting at his bedside, with a cool cloth dampening his face and neck, talking of the few beautiful things she could see out of her window. The tops of trees, and the clear blue skies, who was in the square for market and where it looked like were the hottest thing of the day. Rattling, quietly on, about anything and everything she could manage to pull out for him. He'd been falling and out of sleeping for the last hour by the time the arrow whistled in through window.
A sudden thwack, that even in her tired state, couldn't keep her from smiling. Something the day had far too little of, and something Robin seemed to evoke even without being present. She'd run a finger along the fletching before wrenching it free of the four poster of her father's bed. Walking to the window and catching just enough sight of him. A brown cloaked figure gesturing to a certain offshoot of the square.
It hadn't taken that long to figure out how to go down, it was only figuring how fast they could get it all done. She was still under guard at all times. And she was still only allowed down for even the better part of half an hour if she could get a reprieve from the Sheriff. Except that he was busy, and the less she had to pretend to ask of him the better. Which made it easy, and annoying by those means, to figure out how she was going to play this.
Approaching her normal guard directly, and beseeching him to take her down, without the required pass signed by the Sheriff. Claiming that it wasn't for her, but for her father. That she wanted to get him medicine to strengthen his breathing and help him rest better. Bread to soak in wine or honey, that he could eat easier. It meant standing there, and pretending she didn't want to punch him, when he demanded to see her father first.
And thanking some small part of God and the universe, that he managed to stay asleep through all of it. But it had softened the guard, who looked equal part chagrin for forcing her to show him and reluctant to turn down an old man who was ailing. And that it had earned her but five minutes, for the bread and medicine only. Gushing platitudes came easily, without much attention to what her mouth said, as she followed him down dutifully.
Promising she'd take less time than that even if he'd fetch the bread and honey for her, while she saw to the doctor. He'd believed her, and the coins she'd pressed into his hands thankfully. Before she broke off into the right outshoot of the market, looking for Robin. His cloak, wherever he'd been hiding since asking for her attention.
He hadn't been too hard to find, hiding behind sheets where a woman was hanging pieces to dry in the afternoon heat. Sitting there, with his already serious expression. He'd had to wait, but she knew him better than that. It was far more than waiting that weighted down his eyes and the way his hands gripped the top of his bow.
"My guard has gone for bread," she started, drawing one of the sheets down and beginning to fold it blend in, keeping him behind her and off to one side. “We have two minutes. I heard about the boy." Her tone already relating her thoughts and opinion on whatever new trifle Robin had decided to steal to insult Vasey. Leaving her to pick up the pieces of the people -- child, precisely, this time -- caught in the middle. "What do you want?"
"The Sheriff and Gisborne are developing a new armor to make him and Black Knights invincible. We have to stop them."
She'd continued to fold, frowning, even as she pieced that into what little she'd heard. What was the thing they wanted back then? And still the only first important thought, reminder, she refused to let Robin lose sight of was, "We cannot risk the boy."
"I know." There was the pause. The conflicted little hitch in his voice. She could just picture his hands ending up on his knees, leaning toward her, the struggle to keep his voice lowed. "But if the Sheriff defeats The King, then how many more lives will be lost?"
She'd gone to open her mouth, except her guard came already. "My guard." Wanting to rail again the small window, already vanished, she watched the armored man walk in to the air. Beginning to look for her. Beginning to doubt her words and her claims already, his safety and position for losing her, for breaking the rules for her. "I will get the boy out tonight."
"How?" Frustrated incredulity, in Robin's tone. "You are under house arrest."
"I will find a way." She could only glance back, only take one look at him, savor the one second, even marred by her annoyance at his balking, before she was going. Reminding him, strictly, as she ducked out from the sheets, to catch her guard and be ready to be believably apologetic. "That's the whole point of me being here."
Medicine she already, thankfully, had, in the castle. A plan, was what she now had to figure out. And fast.