[Episode OOM -- "Childhood" 2.03 (2)]
Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI
~*~
Coming up with a plan to get herself out of the Castle wasn't actually all that hard. She'd had several those bouncing around in her head since the moment she managed to escape House Arrest the first two times Count Frederick had pushed The Sheriff's hand, after The Sheriff had pushed her on him as entertainment.
Getting out wasn't the problem. Nor was what to do once she was out. But Daniel was being kept at Locksley, and Locksley meant Guy. Which meant appealing to a high grace than she'd never wanted to consider having to use this soon. But a child's life was at stake, and while she did trust Robin, she didn't trust him not to get caught up in the bigger picture.
She knew Daniel. His little crooked grin, and the pack of friends he'd played with. While she had tendency to take most of the things the Sheriff did to any of the people in Nottingham on a personal level (no one, was going to convince her the deaths of the men who built the strong room weren't as much her fault as Guy's), this one hit even closer to home. It felt personal. Even if it had nothing to do with her.
Marian would need a pass sealed by the Sheriff to remove the boy, one someone else would have to use to actually remove him, and the only way she'd get one of them or Daniel, was to get one out of the castle for herself. Which was the same requirement for her to leave the castle at all. Something she hadn't once attempt since being told.
Because to get a pass, she had to have Vasey's stamp of approval on why and where.
And that meant that why and where had to be among the last things she'd ever want.
"My Lord."
She'd taken out one of her better gowns, and her best cloak that could do for both cover and outward appearance. Did her best not be far too edgy as she approached Vasey's main office chamber. Where the birds chirruped in their hanging cages, as he stood in the dark candle lit room, with his back to her.
"My lord, I beg a favor of you. I have prepared a pass for you to sign, and I need your permission to leave the castle."
He'd finally turned at those words, arms crossing as he turned his suspicious surprise upon her. "Why."
Marian feigned for her own confusion. Going with the literal question. "You so decreed it."
And he had. Taking such delight in telling her she might never have a good enough reason.
The irritation was faint, in the way he lifted his hand from cheek and chin, wavering it in the air. Dismissing the answer she'd given and the question she'd chosen to take it as. "No, I mean, why do you need to leave."
Here she forced herself, awkwardly, to begin handling the pass in her hands. As though she needed to, and yet carefully not to mar her secret held therein. Focused on making herself look a little embarrassed, and needy as she said the words she knew she'd have to. "To visit Guy."
Which seemed to tighten his surprise. Marian stood very still as he walked toward her, arms still folded up and tight, save for the one raised hand, looking more shrewd for the subject she'd given her plight. "Gisborne." He took the meandering steps until he was only feet from her. "Well. He's had a bad day. I don't advise it."
"He should have-" He started, annoyed merry, as he took the pass from her hands, beginning to examine it. "-killed some little boys. But he didn't. He let them live. Showed mercy." It was an effort to control her face. Hoping she had been careful enough, that he would not find the second pass waxen sealed to the exact same six as the one for herself. "Compassion," he enunciated with a hiss. "Now it's a mess."
He'd been distracted looking from the pass to her. And she kept herself from straightening her spine when he reached out to pull the front of her clock back. She followed his gaze. Biding trespass, thinking of Daniel. But it had been impossible not to pull back when he leaned in to breathe in the air around her, looking even more displeased somehow.
Only to settle for an indecisive noise as he walked away toward his desk with her pass.
She held herself still. Let him be disgruntled and have the frippery distract him. She had to think of Daniel. To press her hand. Display her weakness, and her sudden need to make right what obviously was her wrong from her wedding.
"Then, perhaps, now, is a good time for me to offer him an apology."
Vasey had seated himself, dropping her pass with a flourish, so he could tap all his fingers on the desk studying her. "At this hour?" To raise a hand as she pulled back slightly, pointing to all of her, with that little circle he made with his pointer finger. "And in your finest silks?"
She looked down, gathering the sides of her dress and cloak in her hands. Enough to look a little embarrassed, a little hopefully, woefully simplistically feminine. Keeping her voice low and sticking a note of hope into it. "I hope to make my peace with him."
Vasey picked her pass back up from the desk. Looking between her and it. And she added the only thing, she knew she would and disliked most to have to. Softening her voice, letting the desperation, the need -- not for Gisborne, but -- for Daniel touch her emotions. "Please."
"Well--" He stared at her, long and silent, before leaning over the pass on the desk. "--missy--" He began to pour the red wax for his seal over the strip hanging off her pass. "If it were me," he drawled out slowly, picking up the huge wooden seal. "I would slap your fickle face. Both of them."
It's almost too tempting to stop.
When she's riding hard through Sherwood, guard-less, companion-less, for the first time in nearly a month. The scent of the forest and the security of the endless dark forest teaming around her. The kind of darkness that could swallow a person whole and never return them. The kind of sanctuary that had wrapped around her like the warmest cloak against a life of winter, for all the years she had known it. Kept from her for all of these passing weeks, while she and her father were under The Sheriff's thumb.
Though her heart might want it, for herself, the need was greater elsewhere, and time clock was short. Having to get to Robin's camp, and then Guy's, and then back, all in a reasonable time that she was sure someone would be posted to report back to Vasey before he would expect her in the morning. The horse was good, but he wasn't used to the forest brush, far off the roads, running hard out flat. Not one of hers. Not trained by the several times.
But they did make it. She slid off, calling out the signal, and waiting until several of them appeared in the dim, Robin along with them. Caustic threat turned relieved and relaxed when they realized it was her. There was little need to lead-up as they'd all been waiting to see if she would come, and she was sure there were other plans in case she didn't. At least she hoped, looking around at their faces in the dim camp, that there had been other plans.
She'd relayed her plan easily, peeling away her own top pass to get in the castle gate, and the bottom pass for Daniel's release -- specifically, requesting that he be released to Nottingham to be questioned by the Sherriff. She couldn't help smiling at how simply, and unhesitatingly, Allan stepped forward to take the task.
That even when she asked him if he was aware of the risks, of what would happen if Guy captured him during retrieving the boy. She meant it entirely, when she said he was brave man. To go so boldly, and unconcernedly, for a child.
Wishing him, and all of them, truly, luck, she ducked off to fulfill the required other half of her ruse. She just hoped it wouldn't take too long to present her wholly unmeant apology to the man who nearly murdered her father, while holding her hand at an altar, and then burned down her house, after making her beg him not to.