My gift for LovefromOQ :)
Chapter One: The Past
Contrary to public belief, there aren't that many rules to time travelling.
And Regina Mills has tried to abide by all those meticulously over the years.
Number one, you cannot change anything.
Number two, you can't talk to anyone in the past to change anything in the future.
Number three, you can only bring one person as a passenger to go along with the ride.
The first two aren't that hard to abide by, not when the kind of time travelling ability you have is the astro-projection kind and not the one where you can actually be there to do anything. Not that Regina has heard anyone with that kind of time travelling abilities, if she's honest. It's very rare and very difficult, and she's never heard of anyone who has successfully done it in the past.
The last one is a little bit more difficult. Not that she's inclined to bring more than one person per journey at a time, it isn't exactly the easiest thing to travel back and forth in time by herself, much less with a passenger, but the people who don't have the ability to time travel on their own do not know that and they all assume that it's as easy as closing your eyes and snapping your fingers or waving your hand. Teleportation is like that, but time travelling is an entirely different thing. With that assumption in mind, everyone would ask to bring more than one person along, just to have the same experience with, to go along with them along the journey, and she understands that, can sympathize even, but she just can't make that possible for them.
There are just things that she cannot do, no matter how much she wants to, and it pains her more than anything when people ask her to do it—for them, just this one time—but she can't do it. They'd often beg her, but she doesn't really have that much power to indulge this specific request.
Even when they ask her to do it in exchange of a higher pay. She doesn't even want to be paid for it, and usually she doesn't accept payment and only takes along people she knows or in some ways has connections to her, but sometimes, people want to reciprocate the favor they have been given.
It's where she first met Robin Locksley. She hasn't really known him before, but he's a friend of her step sister's husband, they work together in the Environmental department and when Robin had found out of Regina's abilities, he'd convinced her step brother in law to let her help him.
It had turned out that Robin's wife had passed about three years ago and his wish is to see his wife on the day before she'd died, that one moment when they'd been happy and carefree, to let it be the memory he lives by her. It hadn't been a request that Regina had found she can deny, and so she'd agreed to meet him, to let him tell her his story.
She thought she'd found a kindred spirit in him.
Not very different from his is her story, as she'd lost a loved one, too, had found herself going back to that time she'd been last with her deceased fiancé, to get one last glimpse of him, of them, of the time she'd last been happy. She had been able to relate to Robin on a deeper level, had known his pain, and had been—right there and then—ready to bring him to the time he'd wanted.
But then he'd told her of his son, of Roland, and she'd worried that he'd ask her to bring him along. She'd been ready to explain to the complication, the rule of time travelling and that it's only one passenger at a time, when he'd told her that maybe one day he would ask her to bring Roland, but right then he doesn't think he would yet understand.
She'd told him then that maybe, someday, she would, if Robin is prepared to let Roland go alone. It's then that he'd realized the limitations of time travel, and that she cannot bring more than one person at a time, and for a moment she thought he'd beg her, but he'd nodded understandingly.
"Perhaps, it's all about the timing," he'd said.
She'd been shocked but delighted that though he knows nothing of time travel, he'd been ready to accept her word for it. She rarely ever encounters clients like him, and she counts it as a small blessing when they'd believe her, rather than ask her to do the impossible and hate her for not being able to deliver.
Being told that she's useless and not using her gifts for good isn't exactly new to her.
But Robin is different. He'd understood, had asked her questions to try and understand this whole time travelling thing which she'd appreciated. Most times, she'd felt nothing more than a vessel, a ship, for her clients, because they'd been so eager to travel in time and get to where they'd wanted to be that they forget that she's not a machine made for them to use to travel in time.
She understands though, that feelings cannot really get in the way, and after doing this for so long, she doesn't bother with it anymore.
Only, lately, Robin has been able to evoke emotions in her that she had thought long gone. He'd woken her like a volcano that's lain dormant for so long.
She doesn't know how, or why, only knows that he's done it with his dimpled smiles and soft caresses, with his effort to get to know her every time they'd gone on a trip. It's weird, she thinks in retrospect, because she rarely has ever had repeat customers, but Robin had come back, and back, and back again. He'd gone through his memories of his late wife, had told her he's cherishing it to save it and share with Roland later.
She's happy to just go along with the ride, happy to just go with him that after a while, she's the one showing her memories, the one taking him to places, and back in time. It had been nice to have someone there, to share it with, and it is then that she'd fully understood why people wanted someone else to go along the journey with them.
And now…now she wishes she could go back in time and undo it all…she wishes she could change things though she knows it's the number one rule of time travelling
…all because she's fallen in love with him, and she knows he doesn't feel the same.
He makes her feel things, makes her happy just by being there…but she knows she's not meant to have this.
She's never meant to be happy.
…
Robin had been resigned to the fact seeing his wife, Marian, would now be only in his dreams. Since she'd died three years past, he'd learned to just keep her memories fresh in his mind. It had been hard, there had been times in the last few years that he barely remembers what she smells like anymore, and though he'd been told that it's okay, that moving on is part of the process, and maybe he'll forget the little things, but it doesn't mean he'd stopped loving her.
The words had not been enough to stop the guilt from growing inside him, and he'd been frustrated, angry at himself for not being able to remember something that a few years back had been something he doesn't even have to think about.
His saving grace had been in the form of David, his colleague in the Environment and Natural Resources department who had a sister in law who could time travel. It isn't completely unheard of for some people to be able to time travel, but he knows how rare that gift is, and because he's desperate to remember, to hold on to the last vestiges of the memories of his wife, he'd jumped at the change to meet this sister in law.
Robin doesn't know what he's expected, doesn't really know what he's thought he'd meet when he'd requested to see Regina and she'd agreed, but what had stood in front of him with an openly curious look had not been it.
David had mentioned many things about Regina, about how short tempered she could be, and that she's direct and doesn't beat around the bush, but David had failed to mention how truly gorgeous this Regina is.
At first he'd been guilty. He'd asked to meet Regina to be able to get back to his memories he had of his wife, to travel back in time to have at least a glimpse of Marian's smile, and there he'd been openly ogling Regina and how beautiful she is.
He'd been taken by the way she'd paused and bit down on her lip when she'd mentioned Roland and his desire to show him Marian and his memories of Marian, maybe not then because Roland wouldn't even understand much at barely three years old, but someday. He'd been even more taken by the way she'd almost reluctantly explained that she cannot bring more than one person at a time and that she can sympathize with him but it's against the rules of time travel.
He'd understood and accepted, not really questioning it, and he'd almost felt some wall crumble around her, and while she'd been a bit defensive at first or even guarded, she'd been a bit more open when she'd taken her word without questioning it further.
They'd built something that day, something tentative and tenuous, but something is there.
Still he'd struggled with the guilt and the attraction he'd felt for her. So he'd tried to keep everything professional, friendly even, had kept his distance and the growing feelings at bay. He'd dismissed the feelings as just having found a kindred spirit, someone who'd shared the same grief, because he'd seen her eyes, the sadness in them. He understands her because they are the same.
They've both experienced the same kind of loss and had found the same way to cope with it.
So he'd rid himself of his inhibitions. He might not be ready now, or he might still feel guilty for finding Regina ridiculously breathtaking, but he knows pain and he can relate to that. He can relate to her pain, and so he'd opened up to her, told her about Marian, and Roland and all of the dreams and hopes he'd had for their family.
She, in turn and in time, had opened up to him. She'd told him of Daniel, of her father, or Henry—her godson—of the life she's living with this time travelling business on the side. She'd told him of what people thought of her when she cannot grant their request, to go on certain periods of time that is limited to her or she doesn't particularly find easy to travel to, or if they want her to change things in the event and she tells them it's against the rules, that she can't do it.
…that she would have done it if it means keeping the people she loves alive, too.
He'd felt for her and understood her, and long before he'd even realized, he'd fallen for her.
He'd fallen in love with her.
And he'd fallen hard.