Work Text:
A Troubling Return
"Are you sure you want to go? You've had quite the week. Well, year, actually. Two, really," Robin said, leaning out of the closet as he buttoned the blue shirt Regina had picked out for him. "I'm sure Mary Margaret and David will understand if we decide to skip out. We can actually get some sleep."
Regina paused as she put in her earrings, having to admit that her boyfriend's suggestion was tempting. Ever since Henry had discovered his adoption paperwork and Mary Margaret had given him the storybook, her life had been an unending series of trials. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to get a good night's rest in Robin's arms, with her head resting on his chest so that his heartbeat provided the soundtrack to her dreams.
She always got the best rest then.
But she shook her head, standing from her vanity. "I think Mary Margaret and I had a turning point after the séance with my mother's spirit and maybe this our second chance. So as tempting as that offer was, I do want to go and be there for her."
"Alright," Robin said, stepping forward and rubbing her arms. "But if we can leave early, promise me you'll take the chance? You need rest."
One of the many things that Regina loved about Robin was that he was a nurturer, always wanting to take care of everybody. It had first manifested in the Enchanted Forest when he was stealing from the rich to give to the poor and now that they were Storybrooke, it grew with the knowledge the first curse had given him to be an EMT. She knew that sometimes she wasn't the greatest at taking care of herself and he balanced that out, making sure she had what she needed to keep going – food, water, an encouraging word, a hug or a good night's sleep.
She nodded. "I promise."
"Good. I'm still concerned about that headache you had earlier," he said, gently pushing some hair from her forehead.
"I told you it was nothing," she replied, though she had to admit it had been concerning at the time. It had come on quickly and had been so intense, her knees had buckled and she almost blacked out. Thankfully Robin had been there to catch her and had talked her through it. While it was short in duration, it had taken her some time to recuperate.
But she was fine now, which she reminded him.
"Alright," he said, grinning as he took her hand. "Let's go get Roland. I'm sure he's getting antsy downstairs."
They headed downstairs to find Roland sitting on the couch with his head against the back and an exaggerated bored expression on his face. Regina reached out for his hand and he hopped off the couch, telling her that she and his papa had taken "forever" to get ready. She apologized and helped him into his jacket before Robin helped her into her coat. As she buttoned hers up, Robin grabbed his car keys and ushered everyone to his car.
It was a short trip to Granny's and they entered as a family, Robin and Regina flanking Roland as they held his hand. Most of the town was gathered in the space and people greeted them as they tried to find some space to claim for themselves, some of them even acknowledging Regina as warmly as they did Robin.
That was an improvement.
"Mom! Robin! Roland!" Henry raced over to them, throwing his arms around her and hugging her tightly. She held him close, cupping the back of his head as she rocked him gently.
He then pulled away and hugged Robin, who engulfed him in a bear hug. "It's good to have you back, Henry."
"I'm glad to be back," Henry replied, eyes lighting up. "Can I come home with you tonight? Please?"
"Of course, sweetheart," Regina assured him, taking his hand. "Your room is waiting for you."
Roland cheered before hugging Henry. "I've missed you, Henry."
"I missed you too, Roland," Henry said, hugging him back. "I'm really happy to be back."
Regina and Robin hugged the boys and they stood in the middle of Granny's, just hugging as a family. As Regina held her boys closer, Robin kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes, still amazed she had finally gotten everything she had thought taken from her back in the stables.
Love.
Family.
Happiness.
"May we have everyone's attention, please?" David asked, standing with Mary Margaret as she held their son.
Breaking their hug, Regina stood with her arms wrapped around Henry and Roland while Robin rested his hand on her shoulder. They turned with everyone as a hush fell over the diner, everyone eager to hear the name of the newest resident of Storybrooke.
After they explained why they chose the name and right before Regina got too antsy, they finally introduced their son to the town. "Please welcome Neal Nolan," Mary Margaret said.
People clapped and so did Regina though she glanced over at Emma, wondering what the woman thought about her parents naming her brother after the man she had a child with. She just kept smiling, though, so Regina figured if it wasn't sitting right with her, Emma would deal with it later.
"That's going to be weird," Henry commented. "When people say 'Neal,' I won't know if they are talking about my dad or my uncle. Oh, wow, I have a baby uncle."
Regina laughed, hugging him. "Yes, you do. And I'm sure you'll figure it out. But it'll be an adjustment for all of us."
He sighed, shrugging. "I guess so. I'm gonna go spend some time with them. Promise not to leave without me?"
"Wouldn't dream of it," she assured him, letting him go. He grinned at her before hurrying off to be with the rest of his family.
Robin reached for her hand again. "Come on. The Merry Men have saved us seats and have already ordered Roland dessert."
"Of course. Because they don't have to deal with his sugar rush later," she said, rolling her eyes. There wasn't much bite in her words, though. She knew how much the Merry Men loved Roland and had even taken Henry in as their own. While it had taken some time, she had managed to build a mutual respect with them during the Missing Year and was almost one of them.
"How are you, Regina?" Tuck asked as they approached, looking concerned. "We heard about your sister. I know she tried to kill you and also erase your very existence but I'm sorry for your loss."
A lump formed in her throat as she thought of her sister. She had always wanted one but it certainly didn't go the way she had hoped. Zelena had opted to destroy herself rather than accept Regina's offer at a new life. Even after everything she had put Regina and her family through, it still hurt.
She reached out and took Tuck's hand, giving it a squeeze. "Thank you."
"I say you deserve some cake," Little John said, holding out a plate with a slice of vanilla cake with vanilla icing. "Cake always cheers me up."
"I think you know what I'm thinking," she teased him, taking the cake from him. Little John laughed in response and nodded.
Robin kissed the side of her head. "Why don't you sit and I'll get you a drink, okay?"
She thanked him and the men shifted so she could sit next to Roland as he enjoyed his slice of cake with a glass of milk. He grinned as he looked down at her own plate. "The cake is really good, Mom," he told her.
"Good to know," she said, taking a bit. It was a bit sweet for her taste but otherwise Roland was right – the cake was really good.
Robin returned and set a glass of red wine down in front of her. He slid in next to her, wrapping his arm around her and started up a conversation with his men. They started to share stories and jokes as Regina relaxed some more.
She really, really was glad her sister hadn't succeeded in her plan and that she could continue enjoying the life she had worked hard to build. And that she got to experience the happiness she had only ever seen in others.
It was a dream come true.
"How are you doing, darling?" Robin asked her, whispering the question in her ear after they had been at the party for some time.
She leaned against him, smiling reassuringly at him. "I'm fine."
"Okay," he said. "But if that changes…"
"I'll tell you," she assured him, patting his knee under the table. She then left it there as Little John continued to regale them another one of their escapes from the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Picking up her glass, she realized she had finished her wine. "I'm going to get a refill," she said.
"Do you want me to get it?" he asked.
"I need to stretch my legs," she replied, motioning for him to move. He did so and she slid out of the booth, looking at everyone else. "Anyone else need a refill?"
They all assured her they were fine and she walked over to the bar, handing her glass over to Granny for a refill. Emma stood next to her, leaning against the counter. Regina glanced at her. "I heard you and Hook had quite the adventure. Or should I call you two Leia and Charles?" Emma grimaced. "Yeah, I hope we didn't really screw that up. We changed the story."
"That's the dangers of time travel," Regina told her, accepting her glass from Granny's with a soft thank you. She then made an important connection and pressed her lips together as she turned her attention back to Emma. "That and the killer headache I suffered earlier."
"Sorry," Emma apologized.
Regina nodded before shrugging. "Well, we're all still here so I guess it's a case of no harm, no foul. You're lucky, Miss Swan."
Emma nodded before shifting from foot to foot. "Regina, there's something else. Hook and I didn't come back alone."
"What?" Regina asked, horrified. Maybe she had been too quick to dismiss their misadventure. "Who and why would you bring him back?"
"I don't know who he is and we didn't bring him back on purpose! Hook and I jumped into the time vortex but when it died down and we were back in the barn, there was another person with us," Emma said. "Hook's with him and we were going to try to figure out what to do once the party was over."
Regina sighed, taking a sip of her wine as she regretted not leaving when Robin asked her. It was too late and too draining a day to deal with this. But now it was dumped on her lap and she would not be able to rest until they solved it. "Where is he now?"
"Hook is on his way with him," she said. "They should be here shortly."
"I just hope you haven't brought back someone who is going to cause a problem," Regina replied, hearing the bell over the door jingle.
Emma shrugged. "He seems pretty unassuming but I guess you never know."
Regina nodded as Emma moved past her to greet Hook. A few seconds later, Emma said: "And this is our mayor. She will help you."
Taking a deep breath, Regina turned around to face the newcomer to their town. Her greeting died in her throat as she took in the man standing next to Emma – tall and lean with brown hair, wearing what appeared to be the usual outfit for a stable hand. When she looked into his blue eyes, she recognized them immediately and was transported back to when she was a teenager and the world was full of opportunities and beauty.
"Regina," he said, his eyes sparkling and his smile radiant. "It's you!"
He pulled her in for a hug, still smelling like the hay of the stables with the hint of sandalwood. It rushed back to her as she melted into the hug, tears forming in her eyes. She never thought she would see him again and now here he was, in Storybrooke.
It was a miracle.
A hush seemed to fall on the diner and she guessed everyone was staring at them, wondering who was hugging the mayor like that. They got their answer when Mary Margaret's voice rang out a second later.
"Oh my god – it's Daniel!"
It still felt like a dream.
And, at the same time, like a nightmare.
Regina emerged from the bathroom, feeling like she was sleepwalking. But reality returned to her as she found Robin sitting on the edge of their bed, looking up at her with uncertainty and sadness in his eyes. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," she admitted, hating to say those three words. She sat down next to him. "There are just so many questions. Daniel just disappeared all those years ago. Mother had claimed to have sent him some place where I would never be able to follow let alone find him but now…I just don't know."
He nodded, knowing her story. She had hidden nothing from him once the curse had been broken. Not that she would've been able to do so anyway – there was just something about him that made it easy for her to open up to him.
Anguish filled his eyes as he asked: "Do you want me and Roland to move back to our old cottage?"
"What?" she asked, surprised. Why would he think she would want that?
"Daniel is back, Regina," he said softly. "You can have your second chance with him. I won't stand in the way of that."
A lump formed in her throat. She hadn't really processed what Daniel's return meant to her and to her relationships. Her love for him had driven every decision she had made for years – from learning magic to casting the Dark Curse. It was all to punish Snow for telling Mother about the plan to run away, which then led to Mother ripping Daniel from her. And she also hoped that maybe the curse would take her to where Daniel had gone so they could be reunited.
It would've been her happy ending.
Now that Daniel was finally back in her life, she didn't know if he was her happy ending anymore. Especially as she had Robin, her soulmate. That was a powerful connection she couldn't deny. She believed it was even more powerful than True Love, which she had always called Daniel.
Rationally, she knew it should be an easy decision but she knew it was not going to be so. Matters of the heart were always messy and complicated. Someone was bound to get her and she had a sinking feeling that either way, it was going to be her.
Especially if Robin could apparently walk away so easily.
"That's it?" she asked, anger flaring up. "I haven't even processed the fact Daniel is back let alone how I feel about it and you're ready to throw in the towel?"
"I'm not throwing anything in!" he protested, his cheeks turning pink.
She stood, glaring at him. "You just asked if you should move back to your old place with Roland and said you wouldn't stand in Daniel's way. Am I not worth fighting for? Is our love not worth fighting for?"
He jumped up as well, angry now. "Of course you're worth fighting for! I love you, Regina, and my heart is breaking at the thought that I might lose you after everything we've been through."
"Well, you know a good way to make sure you lose me? By pushing me away!" she yelled at him.
"But I also know that holding onto you too tight won't work either! I'm not going to be your mother," he told her.
Or her, she thought to herself as she remembered how she had made the same mistake with Henry back when the curse started to weaken. But she knew he would never say that. He understood why she made the decisions she had made as parent who didn't know how to react to her child's rebellion. Robin always understood her.
Which meant he should understand one thing.
"Then don't make decisions for me," she told him. She reached out her hand. "We always agreed we'd decide these things together."
He nodded, taking her hand and showing her his tattoo. "I know. I guess that's what I was trying to do."
"But asking right away if I wanted you to move out?" she asked him incredulously, rolling her eyes.
"I didn't say I did it the right way," he protested, giving her a weak smile.
Some of the tension left the room and he pulled her closer, cupping her face as he looked right in her eyes. All she could see was how much he loved her and how conflicted he felt about everything. Regina knew the same had to be reflected in her own eyes.
"I love you. You are my future, Regina," he told her. "But I also know what a gift you've been given. I can't honestly say things would be different had it been Marian who returned and not Daniel."
A lump formed in her throat and tears filled her eyes as she imagined what it would've felt like had a strange woman embraced Robin while the Merry Men marveled that Marian had returned. How her heart would've torn in two as she watched Robin celebrate having his wife back and how they could now be a family with Roland. And because of that, she would've done what he had tried to do – bowed out gracefully.
While she wasn't sure what Robin would've chosen, she knew one thing about their situation. "Just because he's back doesn't mean it's a second chance for us. It's been so long, Robin, and I'm not the Regina he knew. I've been through so much and I don't know if he'll understand me the way you do."
"That is a possibility," Robin agreed. "But remember how angry you were when you thought I wasn't going to give you a chance to make a decision? Do you want to do that to Daniel?"
"No," she admitted softly.
He nodded. "And let's be honest, Regina, you're the only one he truly knows in this town. He's going to need you as he acclimates to life in Storybrooke. Which means you're probably going to have to spend a lot of time together. Anything can happen."
Tears ran down her cheeks as her heart broke, realizing what had to happen. She threw herself into his chest, sobbing against his shirt as he held her close. "I love you. I love our life together," she told him.
"I know," he replied, rubbing her back. "I know, sweetheart. But you know what they say – if you love something, you have to let them go. If it's meant to be, they'll come back to you."
She pulled away, looking up at him with her vision blurred by tears. "So you're letting me go?"
"With the hope that you'll come back," he told her, kissing her forehead. "But most of all, I just want you to be happy."
"You make me happy. You and Roland," she told him, struggling to breathe. It was as if he was taking the air with him as he prepared to leave.
He sighed, leaning away from her for a few moments before gently wiping her tears with a tissue. "Okay, how about we compromise?"
"Compromise sounds good," she admitted.
"Then let's sit," he said, urging her to sit down on the bed. He took her hand, giving it a squeeze. "How about instead of letting you go, we just hit pause?"
"Pause?" she asked, not sure if that sounded much better.
Robin nodded. "We just pause our relationship and give you a chance to see where your relationship with Daniel goes – if it's just friendship or if it's something more. I won't move out of the house but I will move into the guest bedroom. We won't continue to date but we'll still be friends."
"I guess that's better than nothing," she said, though she was reluctant to agree. She looked down at their clasped hands again before asking: "Can we still kiss?"
He bit his lip. "Maybe we should come up with the ground rules in the morning, when we have clear heads."
"Okay," she said. "So we pause in the morning?"
"Yes," he replied.
She smiled. "Then you'll spend the night with me?"
He nodded before saying: "Just sleeping."
"That's fine," she told him. "I just want to be in your arms."
"Good because I want to hold you in my arms one more time before we pause," he told her.
They pulled back the covers and climbed under them, settling in for the night. Robin turned off the lights before Regina curled against him, resting her head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight, darling," he whispered.
"Goodnight," she replied, closing her eyes.
As they laid together, she held onto his shirt tightly. Maybe the pause would look better in the morning and it would help her sort out the mess her life had become. While she didn't want to lose Robin, she knew he had a point that she would also need to help Daniel. And she didn't know what that would bring for her. Maybe she would find herself falling back in love or maybe they would just be friends. But she knew it wasn't fair to Robin for him to wait around to see what would happen. The pause was still unfair to him but it was probably the best compromise they could come up with.
Exhaustion claimed her body and before she succumbed to what promised to be an uneasy sleep, she cursed Zelena and her stupid time travel spell. It seemed even from beyond the grave, her sister had found a way to ruin her life.