Grey
Warnings: Contains spoilers for Robin Hood season 3 – A dangerous deal.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. I wish I did but alas, no such luck.
A/N: The Robin Hood episode 'A dangerous deal' inspired me to no end! I've cursed myself for being so blind to a character, even though I reasoned many a time that he isn't all about evil.

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I felt the blade ripping my skin, tearing trough my body and cutting away on the inside. I knew I was going to die. I've always prided myself in believing I'm a realist, and I knew that a wound like that wasn't going to let me escape death.
And then he was there, he fought the guard… for me. He swept me up in his arms and ran. He could've gone after Isabella to kill her, she tried to kill him after all. But he didn't. He tried to save me… of all people… me.
The blood was oozing out of my belly and I tried to stop it by pushing my hand to the wound. It stopped the pain a little but it was far from gone and I had to bury my face in his chest not to cry out. He let me, he didn't complain when the scarlet body fluids soaked his clothes. He just held me, and that was all I needed.

He carried me out of Nottingham, away from the crowds, and into Sherwood Forest. I heard his voice whispering in my ear, "Meg. I need you to live. You can't die now. Meg." My name on his lips was absolutely a blessing although it sounded muffled through my hair. He didn't want me to die and for a few minutes I believed that his will would keep me alive. I tried to hold on to that little spark of my soul that still remained, just to see him smile at me. Just so he could say my name once more.
I remember gripping his shirt more tightly when a wave of pain washed over me but I never screamed. I wouldn't scream, not when he was so close to me. I wanted him to know that I could do more than just whine. That I could be strong too, just like the woman he spoke of. The woman he destroyed.

And at that moment I knew he would think he destroyed me too. That it was his fault that I would die and I tried to comfort him. I tried to speak but the words never came. They wouldn't form in my throat and the only thing that past my lips were incoherent sounds. He shushed them away, a sound that was so lonely that it broke my heart.
He didn't destroy me. On the contrary, he made me live again. He made me see that the world isn't black and white. It has a thousand variations of grey. When I first met him I thought all men were bad. That they were incapable of love or compassion. But they're not. He's not like that.
People like Robin Hood say that he is 'evil'… they only see the black. The way he can be but not the way he is supposed to be. They don't see the darkness he fights or the strength he shows. They never saw how he offered me his food, how he listened to me when I was just rambling away.
They don't understand!

If there was one more thing I could do it would be to show everyone that he's not the man everyone says he is. That he carried me all the way to a little pond in the woods. That he held me in his arms… and kissed me.
A soft, tender kiss, only the ghosting of his lips over mine. But perfect nonetheless.
I want to tell them that he cried when I finally passed away.

I don't know if he ever loved me the way I loved him. Maybe he didn't. But that doesn't change the man he is, or the way I feel about him. It doesn't change that he tried his best to save me but ended up losing me. Losing another life because he just is who he is. Because the world doesn't really want to see him.
Robin Hood hates him because he aided the sheriff, for power not for ideals. The Sheriff hates him because he can love, and he himself can't. Isabella hates him because he tried to do what was best for her, even though it didn't work out as it should. The world hates him for existing.
But I love him. And I always will.