Disclaimer: only the plot belongs to me!

"Here we are!" Tessa 'Tink' Bell, writer on the Storybrooke soap opera True Love's Kiss ran into the dressing room of the star of the show, and her best friend, Regina Mills. "The nominees for the awards have come out. I have no doubt that you'll be nominated for best actress. Not only that, but I think you'll win, too!"

"Of course I will," Regina smiled and looked at the list of nominees. "I always do, don't I? Now I have to work on my speech so that I sound surprised and humble when they announce my name. You write. Will you help me?"

"Sure," Tink nodded. "Don't I always?" She pulled the pen out of her bun and grabbed some paper out of her bag. "What do you want to say?"

Regina crossed one leg over the other and smoothed her long red skirt. "It should go without saying that I'm honored to win the award. Should I say I'm surprised to win too, or would that sound stupid?"

"I would stay away from that if I were you," Tink advised, chewing on the end of the pen and then writing. "You should probably acknowledge your fellow cast members too. It wouldn't hurt."

"But why?" Regina asked. "I'm the one getting the award, not them!"

"True," Tink agreed. "But without their hard work, you wouldn't be able to do the best you do, right? Plus, no one on the show gets as much attention as you do, so it might be nice to share the wealth."

"Oh, all right," Regina nodded. "If you think that will be best, go ahead and write that."

"Good," Tink nodded. "And if you come up with any other ideas, just tell me."


Elsewhere, not everyone else was as excited about Regina's award nomination as she and Tink were.

"Again?" Cried her co-star and self-appointed rival, the beautiful and tempestuous redhead known only as Zelena as she tore up the paper that listed the nominees. "Why does she always recognized? I do work on this show too! Where's my recognition?" She then let out a growl and stormed into the producer's office. "Look at this!" She cried angrily and threw it down on his desk. "Just look at it! What do you see?"

He pushed his glasses up his nose and peered at her for a few seconds before picking up the list and grinning. "Looks like Regina got nominated for best actress again. It's almost becoming a tradition, isn't it?" He cocked his head. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is that it's become a tradition!" Zelena cried. "I demand better storytelling! Surely the audience wants something a little different by now. I get letters demanding I be given more screen time and a better story. Make that happen!"

"You know I would love to," The producer replied. "But I don't think the guys upstairs will go for it. Regina is so popular with the audience."

"Well, that's because you keep having her do things that make her likable," Zelena pointed out. "If you just had her do something horrible, I'm sure they would turn against her, and that would be the perfect time to bring me in." She smiled and took the man's face in her hands. "I promise that if you do this for me, I'll make it worth your while."

The man let out a laugh. Truth be told, he'd always wanted something like this to happen because he found Zelena very beautiful, and, like her, wished that she'd had more to do in the show because she had the talent, much more than Regina, in his opinion. "All right," he promised. "And if we can't make people hate her by giving her a bad plot, we can always make a plot that will cause her to want to leave."

"Oh?" Zelena raised an eyebrow as a slow grin spread over her face. "Interesting. Go on."

"Well, you know we're ending the relationship between her and Graham soon, don't you?" The writer asked.

"Of course," Zelena nodded and sat down on his desk. "Everyone knows that. What about it?"

"She'll need a new love interest, won't she?" the writer continued.

"Yes, but how will this help me?" Zelena asked and crossed her arms. "Remember that the point of this conversation is to help me and not her."

"I know, but just stick with me," the producer said. "You know Regina's been on the soap a long time. About twenty years ago, she had as a love interest a man named Robin Hood. They were the most popular couple on the show, but then something happened that made things end badly between them and she ordered him written off the show."

"Did she?" Zelena asked. "What's he doing now? Is he still acting?"

"Oh, yes," the producer nodded. "It's very sad, though. He's been reduced to doing dinner theater."

"Well, let's save him, shall we?" Zelena smiled. "Give Regina a bit of a surprise."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," the producer replied and then, as Zelena sashayed out of the office, made a call to the producers to tell them about the plan.


"What?" Tink cried when she heard that the network wanted to bring Robin back to the show. "But he hasn't been on the show in twenty years! And for god's sake, you can't bring him back! Aside from the issues this will create for Regina, he died by being decapitated! Tell me how I'm supposed to write for a guy that doesn't have a head!"

"You're a creative writer," her boss, Rumplestiltskin, pointed out. "Create a way to bring him back or I'll create a way to have you fired!"

"Fine," Tink sighed. "But Regina won't like this. I've written every word that woman's ever uttered and she'll probably blame me."

"But you made the right choice, picking your job over your friend," Rumple told her. "I promise. The ratings that will come from reuniting Regina with Mr. Hood are just too good to pass up."

Tink just shook her head. She couldn't tell Regina about this. Not yet. Let her enjoy awards season and then, when it was all over, that was when Regina would know. But not before. It was for the best. It really was.


The awards turned out just as they suspected. Regina won and gave the speech she and Tink had written, although her cast mates didn't seem placated by her acknowledgement of their hand in her success, and muttered unflattering things under their breaths throughout Regina's speech.

When Regina returned to the table, Tink was the only one who was outwardly happy for her. "I'm so proud of you," she told her.

"Thanks," Regina smiled and lovingly gazed down at her award. "I'm so happy that I don't even care that I had to come without Graham tonight. Thanks for taking his place so that I didn't have to come alone."

"No problem," Tink smiled and took her hand. "You know I'm always here for you."

Then, when they got to Regina's house, Tink was all prepared to tell her about her next plot with Robin, but Regina asked her to pause for a moment when she saw the blinking light on her answering machine.

"Let me see what the message is first," she requested with a smile. "It's probably someone calling to congratulate me on my award."

"All right," Tink nodded. "I'll wait."

Still smiling, Regina pressed the button, but when she heard the message, her face fell. "Hi, Regina. It's Graham. I know this is probably a really bad time to tell you this since it's award night and all, but I…I've decided that I need to go home to my wife. We've had our fun, but I just can't live a lie anymore. I hope you understand that, and that we can continue to have a professional relationship. I'll always love you. Goodbye."

"Did you hear that?" Regina snapped angrily as she turned around to face Tink. "A message on the machine! He wasn't even man enough to face me directly!"

"Oh, don't mind him," Tink tried to tell her. "He doesn't deserve you."

"Exactly," Regina nodded. "I don't need him. I can have any man I want." She tried to stay resolute, but then felt herself crumble as Tink took her into her arms. "Tink, what's wrong with me that would make Graham want to go home to his wife? Am I unattractive? It's cause I'm getting old, isn't it? I know I'm not as young as I used to be, but I can still turn heads, can't I?"

"Of course you can," Tink told her. "In fact, let's go to the mall and prove it."

"No," Regina shook her head. "I can't…I can't do that. It's a crutch."

"Are you sure?" Tink asked.

"Oh, all right," Regina sighed. "But this is the absolute last time."

"That's the spirit," Tink told her. They headed to the mall and as they rode up the escalator, Tink, who was a few steps above Regina, suddenly turned around and gasped. "Oh, my god!" She cried as she looked at Regina and smiled. "I recognize you! Aren't you that actress on the soap opera? You're so pretty and talented! Can I have your autograph?" She yelled it very loudly and soon, several people were swarming around Regina, singing her praises and asking for autographs and one even asked her to hold her baby while Tink stepped back and smiled at the way Regina reveled in the crowd's attention. This was her element there was no doubt about it. The look on her face alone gave that away.


Meanwhile, the producer and Zelena had managed to locate the dinner theater where Robin was playing the lead in Death of a Salesman three times a day for an elderly crowd that could mostly neither see nor hear him and had more on their minds than what he was saying.

The only time he was ever happy was when he was alone in his dressing room. But even that had its negative side, especially when the soap opera digest had come out that had the story in it about Regina's win. He hadn't even read the story, just pinned the of the magazine on his wall and then he'd gone out and bought a dart set, making up a game where he got a bulls-eye if the dart landed in Regina's eyeball.

"It's so nice to see that you're successful," he grunted as he hefted a dart, missing her eye, but getting it on the tip of her nose. These things were so much harder to throw than arrows. "I bet you never think of me. Of how you betrayed me and made me be stuck here performing to a bunch of old people eating meatloaf! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

A knock on the door threw off his aim and the dart landed in the wall next to the picture. "Who is it?" He called.

"It's Isaac Fisher from True Love's Kiss," the producer called. "You remember that show, right?"

"Of course," Robin said dryly as he went and opened the door to let Isaac and Zelena in. "It's the show I was so unceremoniously kicked off of twenty years ago. What do you want?"

"We want to give you the opportunity to come back," Patrick told him.

"Yeah," Zelena smiled. "Regina has just been going on and on about how much she misses you."

"Well, I doubt that," Robin said. "But I suppose it would be amusing to see the look on her face when I showed up again. Do you have a script in mind? Or at least how my character is alive again after being decapitated?"

"Yes," Zelena replied and handed him the script. "We do. Go ahead and read."

"No, I don't need to," Robin smiled, putting his hands on his knees and standing up. "An excuse to get out of here is just what I need."

Then there was a knock on the door. "You're needed on stage in five minutes, Mr. Lohman," drawled the stage manager's voice.

"Hood!" Robin called. "For the five thousandth time, my name is Robin Hood!" He turned to Zelena and Isaac. "Quick," he said. "Let's go out the back door. It's faster that way."