Scene Re-write: Something Worth Fighting For, Part 2, TAKE TWO!
Title: Something Worth Fighting For, Part 2, TAKE TWO!
Author: omteddy2006
Words: 710
Rating: PG
Characters: Allan, Archer, Guy, Kate, Little John, Much, Robin, Tuck
Summary: Allan lives!
Author' Note: Another fic written for a hoodland challenge in which we could rewrite any scene that needed it. I knew immediately what I needed to write. Someone later pointed out to me that I had written this scene on the anniversary of Allan's death (date show aired) which freaked me out to no end. Words in bold are taken directly from show transcript at Hoodwinked.
Something Worth Fighting For, Part 2, TAKE TWO!
Nottingham Town.
Little John lays Allan’s body on the ground inside the gates. Much looks down at it with shame.
MUCH
What have we done? We doubted him, John.
Robin and Gisborne come round the corner from the castle on horseback. Much steps back and points at the gate, his temper rising.
He did this. Draws sword and walks round Allan towards the gate. He killed him!
Robin and Gisborne stop by him.
ROBIN
Much!
Much obediently stops, but his ire still shows.
Much, you’ll have time for that.
Allan groans. Everyone stops, immediately silent and attentive.
ARCHER
What was that?
Allan groans louder and rolls his head listlessly.
MUCH
He’s alive!
ROBIN (to Tuck)
You said he was dead!
TUCK
Technically, I didn’t say anything. I just nodded. He seemed dead. I would have checked closer if he hadn’t been staring blankly at the sky. Who keeps their eyes open when unconscious?
LITTLE JOHN
Allan. He’s slept with at least one eye open since he returned from working in the castle.
Gisborne laughs quietly. Allan groans once again and struggles to sit. Much rushes to his side.
MUCH
How? How?...
Allan touches his side painfully and pulls up his shirt.
ALLAN
Lil somethin’ I borrowed from Tuck…as practical as it is pretty.
The gang stares in astonishment. Gisborne lets out a low wolf whistle. Tuck fidgets.
MUCH
Is that silk?
Much touches Allan’s chest gingerly.
ARCHER
Why do you have a corset, Tuck?
All eyes fix on Tuck.
TUCK
It’s not a corset.
ROBIN
Looks like a corset.
TUCK
It’s not! Tuck turns his head to glare at each person in turn. Look. The winter before I returned I stayed in Naples. The cuisine is splendid for the palate but murder on the waistline. I thought I’d work it off on my voyage here, but then I stopped in Paris, a place whose culinary arts make Neapolitan cooking look like table scraps. If I was going to be a warrior fighting for truth and justice, I had to lose the “fat friar” look. Pauses. Actually, quite a few men on the continent wear them. You can pick one up anywhere.
ALLAN
Not like this one, though. Look at the boning. Fine craftsmanship and custom made. Has Tuck’s name sewn right in.
TUCK
Well…
ROBIN (to Allan)
Yes, but how did it save your life? We all thought you were dead!
ALLAN
I’m a much thinner man than Tuck, ain’t I? Got it wrapped round me twice over. Makes it hard to run but the bone ribs of the corset…
TUCK
It’s not a corset!
ALLAN
…are nearly touching they’re so close together. Hardly room for an arrow to penetrate. Couple arrows stuck into the corset and the sheriff’s men thought they were stuck in me.
LITTLE JOHN
If you weren’t harmed by the arrows, why were you unconscious when you arrived at the gate?
ALLAN
Oh, that. Well, I ‘ad to fake being dead, dinnit I? They wrapped me in that smelly sack - I don’t think I was the first “dead” thing in that! Allan pulls a face. Anyway, when they loaded me into the cart, I felt the sack slip. They must ‘ave dropped me right on my head.
GISBORNE
So, no harm done.
On the battlements above, Kate calls down.
KATE
There’s soldiers at every wall. Hundreds of them. The whole town’s surrounded.
ROBIN (to Allan)
Glad to have you back in the land of the living, if only for a short while. Robin ruffles Allan’s hair. Now, give Tuck back his corset. We have a city to defend.
TUCK
It’s not a corset!
ALLAN
Anyone who wants this corset will ‘ave to take it off my cold dead body.
MUCH (to Allan)
But, not today, my loyal friend.
(to everyone)
Today, victory will be ours!
ROBIN, GISBORNE, ARCHER (simultaneously, with obligatory fist pumping)
To Arms!
ALLAN (to Much)
You can stop rubbin’ my chest now.
MUCH
Oh, sorry.
The gang head in separate directions to defend Nottingham Town, their fellow Englishmen, and the cause of justice, but NOT TO DIE, which would be the most tragic misinterpretation of the Robin Hood legend ever imagined. (Seriously…who would do that?)