Last chapter! Well, I think it is anyway! I can be a little indecisive…

Sorry this took so long to update! I wrote it twice, because the first time I wasn't happy with it, and then it took me ages to be inspired enough to read it through…but we did get there in the end. Thanks to everyone who's been reading this! Please review after reading. :D rose4thedoctor4eva x

They woke next morning to people bustling around, hauling sacks from one side of the camp to the other, talking and laughing. It was clear that they were off to do something, yet it wasn't the same as the strained, feverish preparation that had taken place before their raid on the castle. It was relaxed. Nonetheless, it was extremely noisy, and Meg sat up, looking around blearily. Robin was standing at the side of the camp nearest to Locksley, catching sacks that were being hurled in his direction by Kate. Allan was the one doing most of the laughing, chuckling as Kate threw one sack which narrowly missed Robin's face. Meg grinned too as he lurched out of the way just in time, and it was caught by John, who had just deposited another bag at Robin's feet.

Standing up Meg could see that these people were totally different to those she had met before. Now they had no serious worries, they had time to laugh, to muck about. It was nice. Kate had spotted that Meg was awake, and wandered over to her, smiling. She nodded in Guy's direction too – not exactly comfortable with him, but they were getting there.

"We're going to give the last of the supplies to the villagers." Kate explained, jerking her head behind her, where everyone was starting to pick up the bags, and sling them over their shoulders "Though they should do better now there's no sheriff. Coming?"

Meg nodded as Guy came to stand beside her, and the three of them grabbed the remaining bags, setting off towards the village. It was a beautiful day: bright sunlight streamed through the trees, and a light breeze ran its fingers through their hair as they picked their way through the undergrowth. Before long, the village was in sight, the thatched roofs glinting in the sunlight, dust blowing through the narrow lanes. The odd villager was wandering around, and one woman spotted Robin and waved, immediately darting over and engaging him in conversation. The rest spread out over the rest of the village, stopping here and there for conversation, distributing the supplies, smiling, laughing, sometimes nodding modestly when congratulated on the destabilisation of the sheriff. By early afternoon, the outlaws were beginning to leave the village, except Kate, who was with her family. With the absence of a sheriff, Meg wondered if she might stay. But then, remembering how she looked at Robin, maybe not.

She and Guy were on the edge of Locksley, when suddenly she reached out to pull on his arm, so he stopped, and looked at her.

"There's one more thing we got to do."

She led him by the hand back to the village, turning left, then right, pulling him down a narrow lane between two houses, until finally she stopped. He was puzzled at first: there seemed to be nothing extraordinary about the particular house they had stopped beside, it looked the same as many other houses in the village. Thatched roof, little wooden door, and a small area in front of the house where vegetables were growing. He looked at the house. Then he looked back at Meg.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"No." she said cheerfully "But they are my family, Guy, they need to know I'm safe."

"Very well."

The two of them walked up the little path, and stopped outside the door. It seemed to be made of oak, roughly cut and scrubbed. Gripping his hand tighter, Meg raised her fist, and knocked.

It was almost instantly answered by a woman that Guy had no doubt was Meg's mother. She was slightly shorter than her daughter, with bright black hair, but her face was the spitting image of Meg's. The only thing that betrayed her age was the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, as though she spent a lot of time laughing. Her face broke into a huge smile as she saw her daughter, and she reached out, enveloping her in a hug. Meg had to let go of his hand so she could hug her back properly, and Guy stood behind her, feeling rather awkward. When her mother released her, Guy could see tears in her eyes.

"I thought you must have died!" she choked, ushering her daughter inside the house, taking her hand and leading her through it. Guy didn't wait for an invitation, following them both inside, and shutting the door behind him with a snap. He stood in the doorway, watching as the mother bustled around, chattering at break neck speed through her tears, and Meg sat on a chair, looking guilty, and occasionally adding a comment to her mother's tirade.

"…at your execution, I was so scared, I thought you were going to die, but your father said there was nothing to do and you shouldn't have freed him after the sheriff saved you…and I was leaving and I tried to find you, but there was so much fighting, and oh Meg you disappeared…"

"I was fine."

"…and then he said that you may have escaped the axe, but maybe God was punishing you for disobeying him, and I thought you must have died in the forest, drowned, or a tree fell, or someone got you or…"

She finally stopped, shaking her head at Meg, who was sitting there, eyebrows raised at the amount of thought her mother had put into this, and the number of ways she could have died in the forest. Guy chuckled softly at her expression, bringing her mother's attention, for the first time, to himself. She didn't jump backwards, or scream, and Guy admired her for that – probably where Meg got her fearlessness from. She just sort of stood there, looking stunned, her eyes flicking from Meg to himself, back and forth.

"He's the one you helped escape." she breathed "Gisborne…" she turned to Meg, who was trying hard not to laugh, hands over her mouth "How did he get in here?"

Meg couldn't suppress her laughter then, and her mother glanced at her. Meg could see her adding the facts together, and was pretty sure she was going to get it right.

"He followed me in. He was standing right behind me."

Her mother beamed at that, and Meg was almost positive that she had grasped the situation perfectly; she wouldn't smile like that because someone had followed her into the house. She looked like your average peasant, and people forgot that she was bright. She was the one who had kept Meg sane the past few months, supporting her view of wanting to run her own life, and helping her with her schemes to scare away the suitors her father had chosen. Their one difference was that she had always hoped that Meg would find a man who she loved, an idea that Meg had scoffed at, at the time, but that was before meeting Guy.

"Your father's going to be furious." She told Meg "But that's not unusual I suppose." She looked up at Guy, whose face had fallen ever so slightly "It's nothing personal," she added hastily "Just that he's tried to get my Meg all sorts of suitors, and he'd disapprove of any man he didn't choose."

The three of them sat there, as the sun gradually moved across the sky, occasionally talking, but for the most part they kept silent. Selena, as she had told Guy her name was, moved through the house and as evening approached, she began to make food. Meg, much as she liked sitting there with Guy's arm draped around her shoulders, stood up to help her, leaving him to sit there feeling even more awkward than when he had been standing in the doorway. For no other reason than for something to do, he stood up, and went back through the doorway that he had come, stooping so as not to bang his head. It was very simple, with only a few rooms. The kitchen was the largest, and the table showed that they ate in there too. There was one bedroom with a roughly made bed crammed inside. It was directly behind the fireplace in the kitchen, so that it winter they wouldn't freeze. He was just about to walk into the kitchen – maybe to offer a hand so that he didn't feel quite so useless, when the front door opened, and a man appeared in the doorway.

He was quite short – unlike Guy, he did not have to stoop to fit through the doorways, was perhaps three or four inches taller than Meg. His bald head shone in the late evening sun, and only a few tufts of reddish brown hair, the exact shade of Meg's, clung to his forehead. Broad shoulders and muscled arms showed he was once a powerful man, but he was rounded now, and his eyes were slightly sunken. He eyed Guy suspiciously, who ducked into the kitchen. He didn't want to give him a reason to be angry at Meg straight away.

Both women had heard him come in, and Selena rushed forwards to kiss him on the cheek. Almost instinctively it seemed, Meg drifted to Guy's side, squeezing his hand ever so briefly.

"Watch out." she muttered, before walking over to her father, and hugging him. It wasn't like the hug she had given her mother earlier; he could tell that she and her father did not get on half so well.

"Hello father." she said, her voice very careful and polite. Guy grinned in spite of himself behind her. She never talked this politely to anyone. "I just came so you'd know that I'm alive." Meg glanced up at him a little nervously, again something he rarely saw in her. "But we're going now."

"We?"

Meg closed her eyes for a moment, then looked behind her and mouthed "sorry!" at Guy.

"Me and Guy."

"You and Guy?"

"Yeh." Meg spoke quietly and calmly, but Guy could sense that she was starting to lose her temper. She took a deep breath, trying to keep calm.

"Guy of Gisborne, that would be then Meg? I don't suppose you'd care to tell me why he is better than anyone I've chosen for you. Not to mention, if those rumours are true, he-"Her father was shouting by now, rather red in the face. He wasn't the only one that was unable to control his temper, at these last words Meg had flew at him.

"Don't you dare!"

"Meg, no!"

"-is happy killing women who-"

"SHUT UP!"

The room was completely silent and still, a snapshot of time. Selena was backed against a wall, face stricken. The father was looking outraged at his daughter's disrespect, and the daughter in question was standing directly in front of him, fuming. Guy was halfway across the room in an attempt to stop Meg (he hadn't really thought about how) from doing something she'd regret for his sake. All frozen, for just the tiniest moment.

"What did you say to me?" her father breathed. He was no longer shouting, but his voice was soft and dangerous.

"I said: shut up." she told him, in the same low and dangerous voice he had just used one her "Don't you dare talk about him like that."

With one last smile and apologetic glance in her mother's direction, Meg grabbed Guy by the hand and walked out of the house. As soon as they were out of sight of the house, Guy stopped, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking at her, puzzled.

"You didn't have to do that."

"I know." she replied, looking quite steadily at him, all her ire gone. "But I haven't got on with my father for a long time, and like I told him, I don't want him talking about you like that."

"And your mother?"

"I'll miss her." Meg admitted "But we're living nearby, and my father isn't there all the time."

He nodded, and let her take his hand and lead him towards the forest. The sun was setting now, sending an orange glow across the brambles and the ferns, so they looked as though they were made of liquid amber. Two long shadows rippled across the undergrowth, joined together. As they reached the fringe of trees, the taller one bent it's head to kiss the shorter.

The two shadows became one as Guy draped an arm around Meg's shoulder, and she wound an arm around his waist. Their eyes met, and they continued on their way, until the darkness of the trees swallowed them up.