True Love's kiss.
Snow is half smiling, watching it happen, hope in her eyes and in her absently wringing hands, David catches one of her hands in his, squeezing, hope is there in him too, it makes Snow almost cry as she turns back to watch Robin pick Regina up off the ground.
Cursed, Snow thinks, cursed, but even the word has lost some potency, True Love's kiss can break any curse, after all. Robin picks Regina up from where she's been lying for some undetermined amount of time, lying in the sloshy mud and rivulets of melting snow water, arms wrapped around her waist, Regina's hands land on his chest, fingers scrabbling until they find purchase, until they clench in the lapels of his no longer needed thick coat.
Archie dances from foot to foot beside David, Pongo's leash wrapped multiple times around his wrist to keep the animal from running to Regina's side, the dog whines and whines.
Regina is shaking, tremors running through her, she'd been alone for long hours, ice in her heart as the battle raged elsewhere with Elsa, her fate unknown until Archie had stumbled upon her unresponsive and blue lipped in a melting snow drift.
Snow squeezes tighter on David's fingers, through their gloves she thinks his knuckles must be aching, but she can't loosen her grip, not as Robin says almost too quietly for her to hear, his words meant for Regina and it's only an odd breeze that bring them to Snow as well, "It'll be alright," he says, Regina's half closed eyes flicker, focus on him under heavy lids, uncooperative legs unwilling to hold her up, "I'm here, Regina." Robin smiles, his dimples deep in his wind burnt features, Snow smiles with him, she smiles for Regina, she smiles because decades after she'd ruined Regina's happy ending, here is another and the smile on Snow's face may never fade.
"I love you," Robin continues, his gaze on Regina's lips as he ducks his head down, as he moves his feet a little to gain better footing on the sloshy icy mud under his boots.
Snow cannot help but think of Marian, though she tries to shake the thought of Robin's wife away because this is True Love, and because it is True Love Regina will be fine, her hair will cease being almost entirely white, there will be no frost on her skin, her lips will no longer be blue, it is True Love between the Queen and the Outlaw and so a kiss will save Regina. But Marian, lost as she'd watched Robin walk away from her, Marian watching confused as David had pulled his cell from his pocket, Marian, surprised as Robin had become more and more agitated as he'd listened to David's half of the conversation with Archie, Marian who loves her husband and her son, Marian who has done nothing wrong.
"But she's the Evil Queen," Marian had called to Robin's back as he'd raced away with Snow and David, leaving his own family behind and joining another to rush to Regina's side.
Snow cannot help but think of the month and a half Robin had spent with Marian, the month and a half that saw Regina thinner and thinner, her features tired, her smiles reserved only for Henry, poor Henry who knew his mother to be strong and fifty feet tall in his newly restored memories, poor Henry seeing her for the first time as the living breathing tortured woman she always was behind the masks.
"Love me," Snow had overheard Regina say one day, Snow had put her hands over her mouth, leaned her ear against the door to the restroom of Granny's and eavesdropped like a little girl listening to her parents fight, burning with curiosity and shame, "choose me," Regina had cried.
"She's Roland's mother," was Robin's hushed reply, the sound of shuffling, the rustle of clothing from the other side of the door had Snow's eyes widening, "Regina, please-"
"She's Roland's mother," Regina voice was strange, before it had been pleading, and now it was strange, "and I'm the whore you fuck in a diner bathroom."
The gasp had escaped Snow without it meaning too, the sound covered by Robin's voice, louder than before, growling, "It isn't like that, you mean more to m-"
Shuffling again, Regina's voice, still strange, hollow, Snow thought and thought on it for days after, it had been hollow, "Don't touch me," Regina said, more shuffling and then the door upon which Snow's ear was planted against thumped, the solid thud of a body meeting the wood, "Get off me," Regina's voice seethed, muffled, her body the one against the door.
The urge to open the barrier between them, the urge to go to Regina, had almost got the better of Snow, but that's when Granny had found her, had found Snow with her ear still against the door, she hadn't been pleased just on principle at finding Snow eavesdropping. The old woman dragging Snow away by a grip on her arm that discolored the next day, the old woman glaring hard and unyielding, even more peeved as Snow tried to explain herself.
The smiles even for Henry dimmed after that.
It's in the past, Snow tells herself. The pain is in the past, Robin had broken Regina like none had accomplished before, Snow doesn't like to think of people as broken, but there is no other word that comes to her, not when remembering the barely hidden loathing in Regina's eyes whenever Regina looked in a mirror to fix her makeup, to smooth her hair, Snow thought she was the only one aware of it, until Henry had sobbed his preteen eyes out to Snow one day not a week ago, sobbing that he was scared for his mom.
But Robin will save her now, Snow thinks, he'll save her because it is True Love between them, it has to be. True Love's kiss will break any curse, Snow repeats in her mind on a loop, squeezing once more on David's fingers.
Robin's lips mold to Regina's, Regina's almost slack mouth, her blue lips, he meets them with his own fervently, Regina's head tips back with the force of it, a huge rush of light erupts from the pair of them, True Love, it is True Love, golden and sweeping, it rushes from them.
Snow lets out a weeping breath, the hand not holding David's rushing up to cover her mouth, her eyes slamming closed as the light sweeps over her. It's after, days after, that Snow learns that every person it encountered felt exactly the same as she did at the magic's touch.
It's not the warm fuzzy feelings you'd think would come from True Love's kiss.
Snow shudders, the intensity leaving her shaking, because it's desperate wanting need, it's wondrous soaring happiness, in the same breath that it is bleeding and infected ridden puncture wounds all along her spine, the kind of pain that leaves one crippled, the kind of happiness men would die for, the feeling of their True Love is the heaviness that comes right before a comfortable sleep in the arms of your love, peaceful and calm, and it is the heaviness that comes from being too long underwater and needing your next breath, burning and frightful, clawing and clawing to get what is just out of your reach.
Gasping for air, but smiling so wide her cheeks hurt, Snow turns her eyes up in time to see Robin lean back, Regina's hair turning back to dark from tips to roots, True Love's kiss will break any curse. But Regina's dark hair does not look as it should, does not look soft, does not curl about her shoulders, Regina's hair has always been Snow's favorite feature, as a little girl Snow had run her fingers through it at every opportunity, and at the sight of it lanky, sweat quickly sprouting at the hair line, the little girl still alive inside Snow, the little girl that still calls Regina 'Mother', that little girl lets out a terrified whimper.
Pongo whines and whines, fighting at his leash, Archie using both hands to hold the animal back.
Robin knows something is not right at the same time Snow does, Snow drops David's hand, ignores the sound that comes from him, some sound of comfort or urge to stay with him, Snow takes a step forward, frown rushing and overpowering her smile just as Robin shakes Regina lightly in his hold, Regina's eyes are still only half open, the frost is evaporating from her skin, but her skin is an unnatural shade, like all the blood has leached from her.
"Regina," Robin says, panic blooming.
Snow gets close enough to hear Regina's answer, but it isn't words so much as a grunt that might have been Robin's name, and then one of Robin's boots slips in the mud as a particularly large dredge of ice slides down the slight slope and hits his ankle, has him sprawling in the mud on his back, Regina on his chest before he dredges up, Regina's body pliant still in his hold, "no, no, no," Robin chants, a hand in Regina's hair, forcing her face up to look at him.
A line of blood falls from the corner of Regina's mouth, her lips no longer blue, but they are colorless, the same unnaturally pale color as her face, the red is shocking as it travels down and down to the edge of her jaw before dripping. Snow turns to David, "Call an ambulance," she shrieks, and he already has his phone in his hands, fingers already punching the keys
Robin has one hand at her neck to hold her almost sitting up, the other runs over her form until it's with a gasp that he must have found the injury, his hand at her abdomen, almost curling around her waist, he keens, Regina's name over and over as Snow lands on her knees beside the pair. Snow looks at Robin's hand, at where he's found the warm patch of blood, her black coat made shiny with it, the wool a little darker, but there is no red on the coat, but red stains Robin's hands as he desperately tries to stop the flow.
More than a curse to the heart had felled her, Snow should have known, Regina is stronger then that.
"Look at me," he says, shakes her again, Regina's eyes flicker, not even a full blink, but her gaze does move vaguely in his direction, "Regina, please," he begs, Snow looks on, unwilling to leave her spot beside Regina, she has one of Regina's limp hands in her grasp, squeezing as hard as she had squeezed David's. "Stay with me," Robin says.
Regina draws in air, a sloshing wet noise where it shouldn't be, a gurgle of blood streaming in that steady line out the corner of her mouth, "go back," she says, her breath hitches, Robin's heavy brow crumples, Snow has hot tears down her face, "wife," Regina gurgles.
Go back to your wife. Snow doesn't think any other words could have Robin flinching as hard as those.
He holds Regina tighter, snarl on his face, "I choose you," Robin says.
Regina's lips twitch, a new stream of blood out the other corner, Snow has always thought Regina was the most beautiful women she'd ever seen, even at her most evil, at her most unhinged, it's the same here, the red of her blood painting her lips, her eyes shiny with tears, it's a tragic beauty now, like it never was before, the air around them weighted with sorrow. Flashing in Snow's mind is the beauty of the girl that had saved Snow a lifetime ago, the girl in her blue coat, a braid down her back, that poor girl, Snow weeps looking back on that poor girl, weeps looking down at Regina in the mud.
Pongo whines and whines, and then he howls.
"Rolan-," hitch of breath, "-ds mother," Regina wheezes, her body spasms, Snow hold's tighter to Regina's delicate hand in her grasp, the hand that had wielded flame and magic, that had killed, is stained with the blood of so many, the hand that had rubbed circles into Snow's back when she was ill as a child, the hand that had held a bottle for Henry as a baby, Snow holds it tightly.
"Regina," Snow doesn't make the choice to speak, her voice squeaks out without thought, Robin turns devastated eyes to her, glaring, as if this time, it might be all Regina has left, is only for him, but Regina is just as much Snow's as she is Robin's, more, some petulant voice cries in the back of Snow's head, Regina is more mine then his. "An ambulance is coming," Snow says, looks over her shoulder to make sure it's the truth and David is there, nodding his head, 'it's coming' he mouths, he's added his hand to Pongo's leash, the dog thrashes against the lead.
"Regina," Snow looks back to Regina, raises a hand to wipe a tear off Regina's cheek, "just hang on, okay?"
But she's already gone.
Shock runs through Snow, mouth gaping open, Regina's eyes half open but no longer seeing, her body heavy, slumping down and down, until Robin pulls her against his chest, Snow's hand forced off as he screams out a terrible wail, but it's more than a wail, it's torn from him, as if his soul is tearing its way free, scratching and clawing every inch up his throat. Snow has never heard such pain.
David's hands land on Snow, on Snow's shoulders, they are the only things that keep her from lying on the ground to weep.
Pongo howls and howls, so loudly, but it can't drown out Robin, who screams and screams, fights for breath and then again, again, holding Regina, but it isn't Regina any more, Snow thinks as if from far away, Robin holds Regina's body to him.
authors note, outlaw queen week over on tumblr, thought I might post them here for kicks.
Disclaimer: never mine