Till Death Do Us Part

- DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS FOR SERIES 2 -

Summary: Alternate ending for Series 2, because I didn't agree with the finale. I've slipped some scenes into S2 E13, and continued afterwards. Marian-centric, but features the whole gang, as well at the Sheriff, Guy and some OCs. First attempt at fanfiction, and un-beta'd.

Disclaimer: Robin Hood belongs to the BBC and Tiger Aspect, not me. But I do own my OCs, and (as far as I know) this plot.

~ Nia

Chapter 20 – Raindrops On Roses

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to you… The final instalment of Till Death Do Us Part! (Please make no negative comments about the melodrama in my comments – they will not be well received.)

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"Robin…"

***

The sound of an angel. He whirled round. The face of an angel. Marian. His Marian; an angel. Or a ghost…

"Robin, it's me." Marian. "Robin?" He was silent. "It's me, I am alive." Still silence. "Robin?" she asked, this time louder. "It is me, Marian."

"You cannot be alive," he managed to whisper, his voice hoarse with grief.

"No Robin, but I am. I survived."

"That is impossible."

"It may seem so, but I am as alive as you are," she insisted, her voice scarcely more than a whisper.

"You call this alive?" Robin indicated his haggard self, and then paused. "No, I am imagining this. I am dreaming."

"You are not dreaming!" Marian protested. "Please believe me when I say I did not die. I am here, alive." Robin backed away, slowly shaking his head and avoiding her eyes. Even when she was standing in front of him, he would not – or could not – believe, for he had long accepted she was dead, and had long suffered from his imagination and dreams that she was alive. Losing her again every night was just as painful as losing her the first time.

"No. You are dead. You are dead and long buried thanks to Gisbourne." Robin hesitated. "You are a ghost."

"Do I look like a ghost?" Marian asked desperately, clenching her fists as she starting welling up.

"You are a ghost," repeated Robin. Marian covered her face with her hands, as she could no longer fight the tears. After a few moments she drew her hands through her hair and then dropped her arms to her side.

"I am not a ghost," she pressed. For every step she took forward, Robin took two backwards. With each step he took further away from her, Marian felt her chest constricting in her desperation.

"Robin." Her voiced cracked with emotion.

"You are dead." He paused between each word, as though even talking was tough for him. Everything he did showed Marian another way in which he had suffered: his walk; his speech; his mood; his neglected bow and ignored sword; his ragged clothes; the dark circles under his eyes; the lines showing on his face; his pale, almost sickly, skin colour; his heavy voice; his stooped shoulders; his heavy, careless footsteps; and most of all the emptiness in his eyes, barren of any emotion except sorrow, torment and anguish. He was a broken man. Marian tried again.

"Robin, I survived," she insisted again.

"I saw Gisbourne stab you in the belly!" Robin asserted. "I saw you breathe your last! I saw your eyes close for the final time! Trust me, I saw you die!" Rain began to fall from the black clouds above them as Robin again denied Marian's life. Marian took the opportunity offered by the rain.

"I feel this rain as much as you do," she said. "You can see it landing on me as well as you. Trust me I am no fading apparition and I am no ghost." True, Robin could see that the rain streaming from the sky was falling onto Marian, and whether it was rain or tears adorning her cheeks was impossible to tell as the downpour increased.

"No," said Robin, turning away. "You are a ghost." He would not believe her. Torrents of water were soaking the two of them. Neither seemed to notice. Neither cared. Robin turned away from Marian.

"Please Robin!" Marian cried out, as she threw her last hope into the empty space separating them. "Believe me Robin. I am no figment of your imagination; I am no phantom, no spectre, no apparition and certainly no ghost."

"No, you are no spectre," Robin agreed in a whisper. "You are an angel." Marian's tears only fell faster. She angrily ran the back of her hand across her eyes, wiping away the tears.

"Would an angel cry?" she asked Robin, her eyes glinting with tears, and her hand and face glistening with them. Robin faltered. Marian tried again. "Would an angel be scarred?" She hurried to shed her sodden dress, revealing the under-shirt and trousers she wore underneath. She lifted the hem of the shirt, to expose her side, maimed by Gisbourne. When Robin saw the pale skin traversed by a white scar and a red, half-healed wound, he began to believe. He took one step forward.

"Prove to me that you are alive," he said. Wasn't this enough? Marian thought. She racked her brains for one final way to persuade him. After a while, she walked over to him and took his hand. Robin's arm jerked away with the contact and he gasped in shock.

"Could you touch a ghost?" Marian asked. Robin looked at her, warily, guarded.

"Could a spectre do this?" she asked, taking his hand once again. This time, she spread his fingers, and pressed his palm again her chest. "Would you be able to feel the heartbeat of an angel?" He stared into her eyes and he felt her heart pumping blood. He felt life flowing through her body.

"Marian," he whispered, a smile faintly appearing under his stare of amazement. She shakily jerked her head. "My God. You're alive! You survived!" Her struggle for breath against her tears was the only thing stopping Marian from saying "That is what I have been trying to tell you!" She could only nod. His tears were now of elation, his face lighter and carefree, his position sky-high and his joy unstoppable. His grief cast aside, he was his old self again, and was escorted by his cheeky, sparkling, vivacious attitude once again. Robin looked at her in mock-seriousness.

"What do you think you are doing in the presence of an outlaw milady, wearing only your underwear?" he teased.

She threw her arms around his neck and he pulled her close. Marian half-sobbed, half-laughed into his shoulder while his tears poured into her hair.

"That's my Robin," she mumbled into his shoulder. He laughed, and pulled back from the embrace.

"You are home now," he whispered.

"Yes," she agreed, and put her arms back around his neck as she pressed her lips to his for the first time in five months, with only the rain and the roses to bear witness to their kiss.

***

And there's the moment I've been waiting for (the moment I wrote the whole fanfic for to be honest). I am really happy to say this fanfic is now complete. I really hope it will live up to your expectations, and not be an anticlimax or anything like that. To anyone who believed me when I said I wasn't referring to a Robin/Marian reunion, you are completely gullible to believe me and how could you honestly think I was not going to have one? I couldn't resist finishing the story with a kiss, or stealing the words from the song My Favourite Things from the Sound of Music for the title of this chapter, as I thought both suited the chapter really well. Hopefully you all liked it, so please scribble a quick review to let me know what you thought.

Well that's the story over now, kapiche, khalas, finito etc. I have to say I have never ever ever completed a story I have started, so I want to thank all my reviewers for the encouragement that kept me going.

Thankyou again,

xxx Nia

Response to reviewers for Chapter 19:

littlemissmaster- *sings( Yup I did it again, but it's been resolved now :)

- I agree they deserve to be back together, so I hope you like this reunion

VintageLyre- I know, Robin without Marian is like fish without chips and rock without roll. I don't know what MI-5 is but I doubt the programme will continue without Robin.

pupdawg66- Thankyou for the story, it definitely was a huge improvement to my day previously filled with a German essay :) I agree that the Robin & Marian relationship if one of the vital ingredients in the show, and I was in floods of tears when she died. I am also in denial that she is actually dead, which is one of the reasons why this fanfic was born.

Burnsier- I said I was evil with cliffhangers, and the posture description was initially only to make the chapter longer if I am brutally honest :)

secretroses- Thankyou very much, I do try to have a good story line

Genevieve05- *points to response to littlemissmaster* I love cliffhangers so I couldn't resist slipping another one in. I definitely did get the reviews I wanted quickly (in fact I had to quickly finished this chapter in order to post it and keep my promise that I would post it once I had 83 reviews).

Teenageoutlaw- Very easily – surely by now you have figured that I am a devil when it comes to cliffhangers.

felinegirl121- Begging doesn't make me change my mind, but I've posted this chapter pretty quickly so I hope you won't mind too much.

moonlightfaery- I would normally renew my threats, but since you have reviewed (and it was the one I wanted before I posted this chapter) I will let you off. I am also annoyed that Marian died and Gisbourne lived, so I think you will like the plot of the sequel (not saying any more than that though).