All the Time in the World (English)

Chapter 15 - Trapped

Alicia wiped her face with her hand and closed her eyes, leaning back for a moment on Guy's chest before stepping back from his hug. His hold was strong and warm and it comforted her.
"Thank you, dear," she said, smiling between the tears.
"Better?"
The woman nodded.
"You were right, I needed to vent a little. After so many years I should be accustomed to certain things, but the truth is that you never get used to lose a patient."
"Your job at least allows you to save so many lives. Mine often consisted in taking them. Sometimes I think that sooner or later the souls of my victims will come to get me, to ask for a deserved revenge. I often dream them: they are all there, still and silent, and they wait for me..."
Alicia looked at him, saddened by the sorrow she saw in his eyes.
"Maybe you should talk to a specialist. Many soldiers returning from a war can experience your same feelings, there are therapies that could help you to live with what you had to do."
Guy shook his head.
"If I told the truth, no one would believe it. No one thinks I'm really from the twelfth century. How could they help me without believing my words? And why should I stop suffering for my sins? I killed those people, they won't get their lives back."
This time it was Alicia who held him in a quick hug.
"It's a heavy burden to bear."
"Alicia? Can I ask you a favor?"
"Name it."
"Will you be there when they decide about my future?"
"Yes, I'm your doctor, they will ask for my opinion."
"If I'm alive there must be a reason, and I think it's because I have somehow to make up for the evil I did. I don't want to be useless for the rest of my life, I want to do something good, something I can be proud of when I really die. I was proud to die fighting at Robin's side, let me have the chance to be proud again and to look at my image in the mirror without shame."
"I promise you, I will do anything I can so that your wish may be granted."
"Thank you, Alicia."
The woman smiled at him.
"Now let's go back to your room. I rescheduled the appointments with the other doctors, but I still want to examine you."
They went back into the lift and the cabin paused on its way down to let inside an elderly lady, dressed elegantly and with a lively expression on her face.
She stepped into the lift, then she looked at Guy and smiled at him.
"Did you come to visit someone? I brought a cake to my friend Jane who broke a leg falling from the stairs. Poor woman, she likes to eat well, and she hates the hospital's food, so yesterday she practically begged me to bring her something good. What about you? Are you visiting a friend or a girlfriend?"
Gisborne stared at her, somewhat taken aback by that burst of words, and he shook his head.
"No, I'm a patient."
"Really? You wouldn't say that. You look like a young and healthy handsome man..."
Alicia giggled to see Guy's disconcerted expression, and she was about to go to his rescue, when the lift seemed to plummet down and then it stopped a moment later, with a jerk and a sharp noise. The lights went out suddenly, and a few moments later the emergency light, weaker and a little flickering, turned on.
The old woman clung to Guy with a cry of terror and the knight looked at Alicia, worried.
"What happened?"
Alicia tried to hide her own nervousness and to speak reassuringly.
"Nothing serious, probably a mechanical failure of the lift, nothing to worry about."
The old woman let out a groan of terror, tightening her grasp on Guy's arm even stronger.
"How can you be so sure?! We could fall to our deaths! Or we could be trapped here until we suffocate! I already feel that I don't have enough air!"
"We have all the air we need," Alicia said, trying to convey an impression of calm. "And the lift has security mechanisms that won't let it fall down. In the worst case scenario we will just have to wait for a while until someone frees us."
"I can't wait! I have to get out of here right away or I'll die!"
Alicia put her hands on her shoulders and gently, but firmly, forced her to get away from Guy.
"No one will die, we just have to be calm. Now sit down and take a good breath, here, like this. And then another, and another."
The doctor made sure that the woman was a little calmer, then she pressed the alarm button and waited. Shortly after, a voice coming from a speaker answered the call and Alicia explained the situation.
The voice said that they shouldn't worry because the technical assistance would come soon enough to resolve the situation.
"Have you heard? There is no reason to be afraid," Alicia said in a confident tone, then she looked at Guy, a bit worried for him. "Are you alright, dear?"
Gisborne glanced at the frightened and trembling old woman, then he turned to Alicia, his voice low.
"Is there really no danger?"
"Really. Do I look scared?"
"No." Guy stared back at the old woman, crouching in her corner. "She looks terrified, though."
"Some people fear being locked in a restricted space, even though there are no real dangers."
"Dr. Robinson told me something like that a while ago, during the examination when I had to lie down in that noisy tube."
"Doesn't it bother you?"
Guy shrugged.
"I had been trapped in worst places. My sister had imprisoned me in a cage where I could barely move, before I was transferred to the dungeons, while Robin tied me to a tree in more than one occasion. At least nobody here wants to kill me or torture me."
Alicia smiled, then she stretched, rubbing her back with one hand.
"Let's sit down on the ground, too," she suggested. "I have been standing all morning while I was in the operating room, and I'm not so young that I don't feel the strain of it."
"I confess that I am quite sore too, probably I wasn't used to ride anymore. And every now and then the wound still aches."
"It's normal, especially in the case of a wound as deep as yours, but we'll still have accurate checks to make sure it's all right, don't worry."
The old woman, who was shaking in a corner of the lift, recovered a bit in hearing Alicia's words, curiosity stronger than fear.
"What happened to you? An accident? I bet you rode a motorbike too fast. You boys don't know what safety is, always in a hurry and reckless, as if nothing could ever happen to you, but then when you get hurt you cry like children."
Guy glanced at Alicia, and the doctor smiled, as if to invite him to have patience.
Gisborne looked at her and Alicia thought she saw an amused light in his eyes, then the knight turned to the old woman with an innocent and perfectly serious expression.
"How did you guess? That's exactly what happened."
"Did you fall?"
"Exactly."
"But you didn't break any bones."
"No, but I hit the branch of a tree that pierced me from side to side."
The old woman winced.
"Oh, poor boy! It must have been very painful!"
"Yep, but I don't remember if I cried like a baby or not," Guy concluded with a little grin. "You should ask if I did to the doctors who brought me here with the helicopter."
The woman looked at him, sympathetic.
"Now that I think, I remember that I've read the news about it in the newspaper, I think there was also your photo. It happened in York, didn't it?"
"Exactly, in York. You have a good memory, ma'am."
"That's right! I never forget a face!"
The woman nodded, pleased and satisfied with her memory, and Alicia prodded slightly Guy's side with her elbow.
"Don't overdo it," she whispered, so that only Guy could hear her. "Do you even know what a motorbike is?"
"No."
Alicia tried not to laugh at Guy's innocent expression, and she sat next to him on the lift floor. On the opposite side, the old woman got closer and leaned on Gisborne's arm.
"You don't mind, do you? At my age it's so uncomfortable to sit on the floor. Maybe I'm getting too familiar, but you remember me of my grandson, even though he is blond and not so tall. He is also always riding his bike and I'm always worried until he comes home. But I'll tell him what happened to you, so maybe he'll be a little more cautious with his motorbike."
Guy let her lean on him, and spread his other arm, turning to Alicia.
"Lean on me too, and relax: you have to be very tired and maybe we will have to wait for a long time."
The doctor smiled at him and she accepted, grateful, huddling at his side and closing her eyes with a small sigh of fatigue. She would rest just for a few minutes, she said, and a moment later she was already deeply asleep.

The forest was green and thick around her and there were trees as far as her eyes could see.
Alicia stopped to look around, confused, unable to figure out where she was. Something passed near her with a hiss and the woman turned to stare at the arrow that had embedded itself in a tree.
"Who did it?!" She shouted, and a moment later a young man emerged from the trees, with a bow pointed at her.
"Tell me how much money you have with you, and I will take the tenth part of it, lie to me and I'll take away everything."
Alicia winced and hurried to open her purse and to throw her wallet at him.
"I have nothing else!"
The outlaw lowered the bow to look inside the wallet, and he gave her a mocking look.
"And this should be money?" He asked grabbing some banknotes and a handful of coins, then he dumped her purse and started to point the bow at her, nodding in the direction of the bushes.
Shortly afterward a young man with light hair and a funny face approached them.
"Allan, search her."
"I don't want to be funny, but how is she dressed?" Allan asked, looking at Alicia's surgeon's uniform and at her white coat. He took hold of the bag and began to rummage inside it. "Hey, Robin, there are strange things in here."
"Robin?!" Alicia asked, staring at the two outlaws. "Are you Robin Hood?!"
"I see my fame spread. Where are you from, my lady?"
"From Nottingham."
"You're lying now. I've never seen you in town."
"Not yet. There are still eight centuries to go."
"Hey, Robin, didn't you say that Giz told you that he was over eight hundred years in the future? Do you think she comes from there?"
"I'm dreaming, isn't it?" Alicia asked, bewildered.
Robin smiled.
"I think so, ma'am. But is this your dream or Gisborne's?"

Alicia woke up with a start.
"What's up?!"
Guy looked at her and smiled.
"I think that rescue has come. They said that they will soon open the doors."