All the Time in the World (English)

Chapter 23 - Robin of Locksley

"Hood! Hood, wake up! Don't you dare to die!"
Guy was leaning over Robin's body and he shook him, trying to wake him up, Alicia knelt on the ground, breathless after the run and she put a hand on his neck.
"He can't hear you, Guy. There is no heartbeat."
"Do you mean he's dead?!"
"It's not for sure. Help me to stretch him on his back."
Alicia put both hands on Robin's chest and began to compress his chest, then she looked at Guy.
"Jack Robinson has taught you cardiopulmonary resuscitation, isn't it?"
Gisborne nodded mechanically, still staring at Robin's pale face.
"Yes. I had asked him to teach me, and he showed me how to do it using a sort of puppet."
"What are you waiting for? Help me, take care of the breathing while I continue with the cardiac massage."
Guy hastened to obey her without discussing, and he followed her instructions, grateful that she took the lead. If Alicia had not told him what to do, he would have stood there, panicked, motionless, watching Robin die.

"What are you doing to him? Leave him, you monster!"
Kate's cry startled both Guy and Alicia, but neither stopped to answer her.
The girl tried to pounce on Gisborne, but Tuck stopped her before she could approach him.
"Wait." The friar looked at Gisborne and Alicia. "Are you trying to help him?"
Alicia raised her face to look at him, without interrupting the cardiac massage.
"I hope so."
The friar nodded to Little John and the outlaw approached Kate and put an arm around her shoulders. The girl hugged him, sobbing, but she didn't try to get closer to Guy.
Archer and Much were still watching, pale in the face.
"He wanted to be alone..." Much said, his voice broken with crying. "He didn't want us to see him die..."
Alicia glanced at him, then she called Gisborne.
"Guy! Let's swap positions! Continue with the cardiac massage, I have to rest for a few minutes."
Archer took a step forward, without taking his eyes off his brothers.
"I still can't believe it..."
Guy smiled at him.
"I'm glad to see you again, brother, I missed you. I missed you all..."
The others looked at him, even more astonished at hearing those words coming from Gisborne's lips. Also because, from their point of view, they didn't have much time to miss him: they had left him for dead in the basement of the castle only a few hours before.
Tuck had remained silent to study the situation.
"Is there anything we can do? Can we help in any way?" He said now.
Alicia interrupted mouth to mouth breathing for a moment.
"Foxglove and belladonna," she said quickly. "Do you have any?"
The friar nodded.
"I know where to find them," he replied, and he began to move away, but he had only walked a few steps when the exclamation of surprise of the others forced him to turn around.
His eyes widened in amazement: Guy of Gisborne and that strange woman were no longer in the clearing and not even Robin was there anymore. His companions were upset, pale as corpses.
"Where are they? Where did they go?!" Tuck asked.
Archer shook his head in disbelief.
"They disappeared, vanished into thin air like ghosts."

Guy closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ward off the feeling of dizziness that had clouded his vision for a moment.
Jack Robinson had not exaggerated when he had explained how to revive a person in cardio circulatory arrest: practicing the cardiac massage was tiring and very demanding and he was beginning to feel exhausted.
Don't die, Robin, don't do this to me! If I have to go back to my time, at least let it be for a valid reason, don't dare to die and leave me here!
He glanced at Alicia to check the situation, hoping to catch a glimmer of hope on the doctor's face, and he let out an exclamation of surprise.
"Alicia! Look at the path, it's paved! And that's a street lamp over there!"
The doctor raised her head to look around, she did another insufflation, then she ordered Guy to continue the cardiac massage and she took the phone.
"It works! We are back in the present!" She shouted, then she hurried to dial the number and call for help.

All Guy's energy was concentrated on continuing to compress Robin's chest, ignoring his tiredness, and he realized that the rescue team had arrived only when Dr. Robinson took him by the arm to stop him and make him step aside to give way to the other rescuers.
In a moment Alicia was at his side to help him to get up. She put an arm around the knight's waist to support him, and she spoke briefly to her colleagues to summarize the details needed to rescue Robin, then she moved a few feet away to keep out of the way, and she sat on the grass with Guy.
She put his hand on his back, massaging him gently to reassure him and to calm herself too.
"You've been good. You did everything right."
Gisborne shuddered.
"If it's true, why doesn't he wake up?"
Alicia stroked his hair, then adjusted his coat, closing it better on the neck.
"You're sweaty, be careful or you'll get cold," she said in a motherly tone, then she took his hand and held it in hers. "Your friend is in bad shape. If we had been delayed even for a few minutes, he would have no hope, and even now we can't be sure that he will recover, we don't know for how long his heart had stopped before we arrived."
"Before, while pressing on his chest, I heard a crack... Maybe I broke a rib... I didn't want to, Alicia, I swear..."
The doctor squeezed his hand a little more.
"It can happen and it doesn't matter. The important thing is to make the blood circulate, then if the patient survives, the ribs will heal without too much trouble. You did everything you could to help him, I was there and I saw that, you mustn't have any doubts."
Guy was silent for a few moments, trying to convince himself of those words, then he returned to look at the rescue team who were trying to revive Robin Hood.
"Did it really happen? Did we go back in my time and we brought Robin to the present with us?"
"Yes, even if it still seems impossible... I have always believed to your words, but to experience it in person is shocking... Poor dear, you must have felt so lost when you found yourself in the present suddenly, without any explanation! Only now I really realize how scary it must have been for you."
"I wonder what Archer and the others thought..." Guy said, remembering the terrified expressions of their faces. "They must have believed that I came back from the underworld to come and get Robin..."
"Instead it is just the opposite. But now don't think about anything and rest, you're exhausted."
Gisborne leaned against her with a sigh of weariness, and again he prayed for Robin to survive. He rested his head on Alicia's shoulder, but he didn't close his eyes, he couldn't afford to fall asleep while Robin was in danger of dying.
"There's a heartbeat!" One of the doctors shouted and the others moved the patient on the stretcher, continuing to ventilate him.
Guy and Alicia got up from the ground and she went to meet Dr. Robinson. Jack motioned for the others to go to the helicopter and he turned to Alicia quickly.
"The heart has started to beat again, but he isn't out of danger. Later we will have to talk, before the police arrive to ask other questions. Aconite poisoning? Again? And who is that man? Don't say you don't know him, because I don't believe it."
"Yes, Jack, we'll talk and we'll tell you everything, it's necessary."
"What name should I put on the folder?" Jack asked, with a sigh.
"Robin of Locksley." Guy said, and the other gave him an ironic look, resuming to walk towards the helicopter.
"That Robin?"
"Yes. Robin Hood."

Alicia yawned and took a sip from one of the two cups of coffee she was holding. The other was for Guy, but as she entered the waiting room, the doctor noticed that the knight had fallen asleep and she preferred not to wake him up. She put the second cup of coffee on one of the free chairs and leaned back, trying to close her eyes too, but she couldn't fall asleep.
She took another sip of coffee, ignoring the cramps in her stomach.
Maybe I should have taken a chamomile.
Guy woke up with a start, and he looked at her, anxiously.
"Are there any news?"
"Not yet. But Jack promised to keep us updated. Also because he will want to know what happened."
"What are you going to tell him? The truth?"
"I don't know." Alicia said, with a grimace of pain, and Guy stared at her, worried.
"What's up? Are you unwell?"
"I told you that eating all those sweets and so many popcorn would give me a stomach ache. And thinking about what happened and how to explain it to Jack doesn't help. But don't worry, the same thing happened to me even when I was a student: every time I had an important exam, I had cramps as well. It will soon pass. How do you feel?"
"Tired. Is there something wrong with me, Alicia?"
"Why do you ask me that?"
"With everything that happened today, I should have to feel a thousand different emotions...
Miriam's kiss, seeing my brother and our comrades, Robin who is here and who could die... And yet I can't feel anything, it's as if inside me there is nothing anymore. I just want to sleep, but I can't: as soon as I close my eyes, I start dreaming of being back in the twelfth century and then I wake up to check if it's true."
"Would you have liked to stay with your friends?"
Guy shook his head.
"Maybe I'm a heartless monster like Kate says, but I don't want to go back. I want to stay here, at this time."
"That's what I hope too, dear."
"Is that for me?" Guy asked, noticing the second cup of coffee, and Alicia handed it to him.
"Yes. It's still hot."
"Thank you."
"Guy? There is nothing wrong with you. Yours is a normal reaction, like my stomach ache. Too many emotions can make you feel empty, but it will pass, you just have to relax. Try to sleep a little, I'll wake you up if there's anything new."

Jack Robinson stopped at the waiting room door and looked inside: he had expected Alicia and Guy to meet him for news, but he found them both sound asleep on the chairs of the room.
He watched them for a few moments before waking them up, and he wondered why such a strong bond had formed between them. Guy was a nice person and certainly his case was interesting, but Alicia had taken him so much to heart that she had began to really believe his story, and now both of them seemed convinced that the new patient was none other than Robin Hood...
He gave a little sigh and that sound was enough to wake Guy. The knight stared at him and stood up slowly not to wake the sleeping woman, but Alicia also opened her eyes.
"Is he alive?!" Guy asked, anxiously, and Jack nodded.
"Yes and he's young and strong enough to overcome the effects of poisoning, with due care..."
"But? There is a 'but', right?" Guy asked, alarmed by the serious tone of the doctor.
"But we can't know for how long his heart has stopped and what damage he has suffered."
"Even my heart has stopped and I'm fine."
Jack wondered if believing he was a medieval knight should be considered 'being fine', but he didn't express that thought.
"Do you have any particular reason to think that he could have been damaged?" Alicia intervened, serious.
"We'll know if he wakes up. He is in a coma."