All the Time in the World (English)

Chapter 28 - Awake

Alicia Little finished stitching the cut on the forehead of the little girl who had arrived at the emergency room shortly before, and she smiled at her.
"You see? I finished. You were very brave, dear. Next time, however, instead of climbing the bookshelf, let one of your parents put the star on top of the Christmas tree for you."
The girl giggled and Alicia turned to her mother to explain how to behave in the following days and when to return to remove the stitches.
Mother and daughter came out of the room, reassured, and a nurse entered.
"Dr. Little?"
"It's me."
"On the folder it was written to contact you... This is about Robin of Locksley."
Alicia looked at the nurse, worried.
"Did something happen to him?"
"He came out of the coma."

Robin looked around, trying to figure out where he was, without success. He tried to get out of bed, but he quickly realized he didn't have the strength. He didn't feel pain, he was just so weak that he couldn't even lift a hand.
Was he dead? The last thing he remembered was that he had said goodbye to his companions and went into the thick of the forest to die alone, but if this was the afterlife, it was really very strange.
Unable to move, he tried at least to look around and assimilate as much information as he could from what he saw, but he couldn't find a meaning in it.
A woman dressed in white had entered the room shortly after he had woken up, and she had asked him some questions that he hadn't been able to understand, still confused by that long sleep, then the woman had moved away quickly and he was left alone.
Robin wondered what he was supposed to do to get out of this troubling situation, but until he recovered some energies, there weren't many alternatives except for waiting for someone to come.
He had been lying there, staring at the ceiling for quite a while, when another woman entered the room, out of breath as if she had run. She was a middle-aged lady with an unusual look, dressed in a pair of trousers and a tunic of the same water-green color and with curly hair, too short for a lady.
The woman glanced quickly behind her back and closed the door, then she approached the bed, staring intently at Robin.
"Finally you woke up. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Robin nodded weakly.
"Do you think you can talk?"
"Yes..." Robin replied in a whisper and he was amazed to hear how hoarse and weak his voice was.
"Don't worry, it's because you haven't talked for a long time, it will pass soon. Probably this place will seem strange to you, but you mustn't be afraid: it is a place of care and we are here to restore your health. Over time I will explain everything, now you have to think about getting better."
"Am I alive?"
"Yes, and now that you have woken up, you will soon recover. Do you remember your name?"
"Robin..."
"My name is Alicia Little and I'm one of the doctors who treated you."
"But it's impossible... There's no antidote... You're deceiving me and this is the afterlife..."
Alicia pushed aside the sheet that covered him and pinched him on the foot.
"Ouch! Why did you do it?"
The doctor smiled.
"To convince you that this is not the afterlife and to verify that you still have sensitivity in your legs. You have it. Good news, don't you think?"
"Why can't I move?"
"You've been sleeping for several weeks, it will take some time to regain your strength."
"I have to... I have to go back to my comrades."
"Guy had told me that you'd be a difficult patient..."
"Guy?"
"Guy of Gisborne. Do you remember him?"
Robin's gaze grew sad.
"Gisborne is dead. He gave his life to try to save me, I hope he is at peace now."
"No, Guy is alive. His injuries were serious, but he survived."
"He died in my arms, of this I am sure."
"His heart has stopped for a while, it's true, but we managed to restart it. It must seem very strange to you, but over time everything will be clearer, I assure you. Now think only to recover."

Guy looked up from the pages of the book to take a quick look at the television: this time the screen showed a choir intent on singing Christmas songs and Guy smiled to himself, looking at the colored lights of the Christmas tree.
Every time he looked at it, he found himself thinking of Miriam, of the wonderful evening they had spent together, and his heart was filled with a warmth that he wasn't used to.
He shouldn't have let himself to be carried away by his feelings, they had already caused too much pain, but he couldn't keep his distance from Miriam, not when the time they spent together was so perfect.
It's wrong. If she's Marian, she doesn't love me; if she isn't her, I shouldn't fall in love with a girl who isn't Marian...
Guy closed the book and put it on his lap, struck by that last thought.
Am I falling in love with her?
The ringing of the phone startled him, and Guy looked worriedly at it.
He had learned to use it, and in the evening he used it to talk to Alicia for a few minutes and tell her about his day, but it was usually him who called, and they had already talked just a couple of hours ago.
He picked up the receiver, hesitantly, and heard the doctor's familiar voice.
"Guy, were you already sleeping?"
"No not yet. Why do you ask?"
"I asked Jack Robinson to come and get you and bring you here. He should be there in about twenty minutes, do you think you can get ready in time?"
"Do you want me to come there? Now? This is about Hood, isn't it? Did something happen to him?!"
"He woke up."

Alicia was waiting for him at the hospital entrance and she looked at his face for a moment, worried, before holding him in a short hug.
They both said goodbye to Dr. Robinson and headed for the lift.
"Are you okay, Guy?" Alicia asked.
"How's Hood?"
"You were right, he's full of resources, even after coming out of many weeks of coma. I don't think he believed a word of what I told him. But I asked how are you, you're pale."
"It's nothing, I'm just nervous."
"It's about Miriam, isn't it? Do you fear that now that Robin has woken up he will take her away?"
Guy nodded briefly, looking away.
"I told you, Alicia, I'm not a good person. I should just be happy for Robin, but I'm afraid of losing her, even though I knew from the beginning that she wasn't mine."
The doctor stroked his cheek.
"I think it's normal, honey. It seems to me that you are getting very attached to that girl."
"Yes. And it's not just because she looks like Marian, I swear. When I'm with her everything seems so simple, talking to her excites me, but it's also so natural. Once it wasn't like that... With Marian it was always a kind of battle, I had the constant fear of offending her, of saying the wrong word that would alienate her even more from me, I always saw the disdain hidden in her eyes."
"And with Miriam it's different?"
Guy sighed.
"Sometimes I find myself wishing that she weren't so similar to her, I wish she were a completely different person and that there were no doubts. And then I feel guilty for thinking that."
"Why?"
"I swore to myself that I would love Marian forever, I was convinced that my love for her would be eternal. But if I feel like this for Miriam, does that mean that what I felt for Marian was so cheap? That have I committed my crime for an ephemeral love?"
"Honey, finding a new love does not mean diminishing the previous one. Many widows get married again, but they didn't love their first wife less because of it. There is nothing wrong with feeling something new for Miriam."
"But if she were Marian? Then it would be wrong. She belongs to Robin."
"You just talked nonsense, Guy. Whoever she is, that girl is not yours and not Robin's, and she is perfectly capable of making her own choices. The only thing you can and must do is to let her make her decisions and respect her will. And it's not at all certain that she will choose Robin."
Guy considered those words and thought that if someone had opened his eyes like that when he courted Marian, maybe things would have gone a very different way. With shame, he realized that a part of what he felt for Marian, at least at the beginning, also arose from the desire for revenge against Robin, from the desire to steal from him once again something that belonged to him.
"Don't think of her now, go to your friend. You're happy he's okay, right?"
"Yes, sure."
"Stay with him, then. I think you'll have to work hard to convince him that you're not in the afterlife."

Robin was lying in his bed motionless, with his eyes closed, and, looking at him, Guy had the impression that nothing had changed, that he was still sunk in his immutable sleep. He approached the bed cautiously and sat down in the chair next to it.
"Hood?" He called in a low voice, and Robin's eyes snapped open.
The outlaw looked at him and Guy looked back, without saying anything until Robin spoke.
"Gisborne. Is it really you?"
"What do you think, Hood?"
Robin looked away from him and stared at the ceiling.
"I thought it would be Marian to welcome me in the afterlife."
"And it would certainly be like you said, if you were dead. You're alive, Hood, and so am I."
"I saw you die. I closed your eyes and I held your body in my arms."
"Come on, Robin, you know me now. You can say anything about me, but I've never lied to you."
"Should I believe that you came back from the underworld?"
Guy lifted the shirt he was wearing, to show him the healed scars.
"Believe what you want, but we're both alive. The doctors who work in this place saved my life and they took care of you too. Alicia will explain to you how they did it."
"Alicia?"
"The woman you talked to when you woke up. You can trust her, she has helped me a lot since I've been here."
Robin looked at him.
"What do you mean? Hadn't we been injured on the same day? How could you have been here longer than me? How is it possible that your wounds have healed? And what do you mean by 'here'? Where are we?!"
"Alicia didn't tell you? You've been sleeping for many weeks. It's complicated to explain, but I'll tell you everything sooner or later."
The outlaw looked at him, frowning. Gisborne had never been a convincing liar and he was sure that he wasn't lying at the moment, but he also had the impression that he hadn't told him everything, that he was hiding something important from him.
"Gisborne? What happened? Speak."
"Do you want to know everything? Even if it will seem impossible and crazy?"
"We should both be dead, and yet we're here to talk. What could be more impossible than this?"
Guy took a deep breath and looked into his eyes so he knew that he was telling the truth.
"We're in Nottingham, but it's not our Nottingham. When you go out, you'll see that it's completely different."
"What does it mean? Or we're in Nottingham or we aren't."
"It means that eight centuries have passed. This is not the time we were born, this is the Nottingham of the future."