"I hope you can look into your heart and understand." Robin promptly got up, and walked quickly to the door. He kept his head up almost looking at the ceiling because he knew he is about to cry. He stared at the ceiling he couldn't look at the office they were in. After all only a couple of hours earlier had they shared the most intimate of conversations Robin thought he had ever had with someone. He tried mechanically not thinking about it but his mind wandered. "It's all about timing," he had said. What a cruel joke fate had played on him. Regina final told him they were destined for each other and now they were ripped apart.
He couldn't see her cry. He had to escape before she started. Robin knew he wasn't strong enough to stay away from Regina if he say even one tear shed because of him. He knew it was selfish leaving her like that but he truly believed in his duty he has to his wife even if he may love another. As he walked away there was the burning image in his head of her smiling and hanging on to that hope that he did truly love her. And he did truly love her. He needed Regina to know that it was real. She had been used and abused so much in her past by Snow White, Rumple, even her own mother; he would be added to the blank space at the bottom of that list. He loved her.
He reached for the door Robin had to get out of her office before he turned around and ran back to her begging for forgiveness and telling her he would never leave. He reached for the door hesitantly…but what about…. no Robin you keep walking you have a wife and child who are waiting for you right now at camp. He had a code for a reason. He had always lived by the motto "good men don't need rules," but Robin wasn't good. He had many rules for himself for this very reason.
He grabbed the door pushed it open and closed it quietly behind him. Then the finality hit him, he collapsed against the door, tears streaming down his face. He wiped his cheeks, it had been years since he had cried, come to think of it, he thought, it was when Marian had died. He had cried for months in his bed at night away from the merry men and especially his son. He had to stay strong for him then but who did he have to be strong for now?
Robin sat there crying silently for a minute. He would allow himself this moment, but he promised to be back at camp in an hour. However, all he could think about was Regina. Was she crying on the couch? Had she poofed herself home? He had to know if she was okay it was essential to his being. He looked down at his wrist seeing the tattoo of the lion on it. Could they really be soul mates, destined to be together when fate kept getting in their way? He ran his fingers over the lion. That when it finally hit him. Robin knew that she was his soul mate, because he left a part of his heart back in that office with Regina.
As he got up to leave after his moment, he heard the smallest of whispers from the other side of the door. "I understand." He froze if he wasn't so in tune with Regina's voice he never would have heard her. Which he thought was probably her intension. He couldn't do it… couldn't get up. His heart was racing from the sincerity of her words. God he loved this woman, Robin thought.
Then he leaned his head back against the door. Was he doing the right thing? He was honoring his vows, if anything Robin was honorable. He knew she was just on the other side of the door, most likely leaning against the door too. He sits there an extra minute, saying in a shaky voice that clearly gives away the fact that he had been crying, "Goodbye m'lady." He couldn't bring himself to say her name one last time it was too much, too final.