AGE 18: Robin and Regina thought they'd have the time of their lives at their senior prom but things didn't go as planned.

There was no American rite of passage more anticipated than prom night. For most girls it was an event almost as revered as a wedding. A night of magic and gowns, music, dancing and with any luck romance. One final celebration of youth before being shipped off to independence and and adulthood.

Regina had been looking forward to her prom ever since she was a child. She wouldn't dare tell anyone - not her friends, especially not her mother - but it'd been all she could think about since entering high school. She'd given her all in every class, on every test, loaded up her spare time with extracurriculars all the while just dreaming of the one night when she'd be allowed to forget her future for one moment and just be a teenager. It was all she'd wanted.

She'd bought a dress, she'd picked a hairstyle. The limo had been rented, the photographer paid. She'd even managed to scrounge up a date for the evening, just some pretty face from the baseball team but still. Everything had been in place and she'd been excited.

But of course, life decided to kick her in the teeth. Or, more accurately, in the leg.

It was prom night and due to her own actions Regina Mills was sitting in a hospital bed with a broken leg, a bowl of green jello and an old static-prone television as her only source of entertainment. She sighed resting her head against the pillow. Her throat grew tight as she glanced over at the clock above her door.

8:15.

Everyone was probably arriving at the venue by now, all dressed up and glamorous, ready to have fun at their "night among the stars" as the planning committee had opted to call it. She cursed under her breath. The whole situation was such crap but it was still… nobody's fault but her own.

Well, that damn cat could certainly shoulder some of the blame.

So stupid.

She'd noticed the fliers, they'd been up for the past week at least. A small grey tabby cat that belonged to her neighbors had been missing. They'd even gone around the neighborhood asking everyone to keep an eye out.

She'd been riding her bike to the store for some last-minute lipstick when she'd seen the damn thing just idling in the street. It was calm when she called out its name, even as it started to walk toward her, but once the car appeared on the road it froze. Her instincts kicked in and she'd gotten it out of the way, but not before the car had knocked her right in the leg.

The driver skidded to a stop and she lay in the road screaming out as the pain of a bone fracture erupted through her thigh, while the cat had scurried off. It showed up in its owner's backyard less than two hours later.

And now here she was, laying in the hospital, watching shitty 1920's movies on TCM while missing out on what was supposed to be the greatest night of her life. Closing her eyes to take a deep breath, she tried not to cry. This wasn't fair.

"Well, looks like somebody's not having a good night."

Her eyes popped open at the voice intruding on her solitude. Immediately, she rolled them when she saw him standing in her doorway.

Of course it was none other than her best friend, Robin. Like something out of a corny movie he stepped into her room, still dressed in his rented tux with a paper bag hanging from his hand while she lay there in nothing but a crinkling hospital gown. He sent her a sympathetic smile as he approached her bed.

"Regretting your heroism?" he guessed.

She poutily lifted her chin and folded her arms. "If you're here to check on me you wasted a trip. I'm just as crippled as I was this morning."

He'd been the first person to visit her in the hospital, after her parents. Him and Granny. They'd both been present to witness her meltdown after the doctor had told her that she wasn't leaving the hospital until the morning. Not exactly her finest moment and, frankly, she was still a little bit embarrassed by how she'd acted.

Robin ignored her attitude and pulled a chair up next to her bed.

"I suspected as much," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I know it's gotta suck being stuck in here."

She took a seething breath as she nodded. "I spent four years waiting for this night. Threw it all away on a damn cat."

"Hey," he drawled, sympathetically patting her shoulder. "It's not all bad. At least you got recognized for your heart of gold."

With a smirk he tilted his head toward the handmade card in her lap and she rolled her eyes.

Her neighbors had stopped by a few hours earlier to thank her for her actions. Their six-year-old daughter had presented her with a card she'd made herself. A simple half-folded piece of paper with the misspelled words "Tanks for savin our kat!" and a colorful drawing of the mischievous little feline under a rainbow. It was cute and if she was honest she'd admit that it had cheered her up for a minute or two. But damn it she was in the hospital, she didn't have to be honest if she didn't want to be.

"I'm throwing it in the trash as soon as I get home," she lied.

(In actuality it'd be pinned to the wall of her dorm all through college.)

Robin shook his head, chuckling to himself. Of course, he saw right through her. Regina eyed him suspiciously.

"Shouldn't you be at the dance," she mumbled. "It's after eight. Thought you'd be on the dance floor feeling up Shaw-na through her dress by now."

She over enunciated his girlfriend's name with her usual disdain and Robin rolled his eyes. Despite her best efforts Regina had never been able to hide her displeasure with his choice of romantic company.

He leaned back in his chair and sighed. "You know, an hour ago I thought I'd be on the dance floor too but…turns out I'm not the funnest person when my best friend's in the hospital."

Her eyes softened as she uncrossed her arms. "Robin…"

He shrugged his shoulders. "It's just a dance."

"It's prom."

"Not without you there, it isn't," he said, shaking his head. "If I can't go there with my best friend what's the point of going at all?"

Her heart swelled at his insistence. If she were a better person, a less selfish one, she'd force him out of the hospital and off to the dance. But she wasn't. Tonight she was not selfless, she was just grateful.

A small smile tugged on her lips. "How did Shaw-na take it when you ditched her?"

"Shawna was much more gracious than you give her credit for," he said, haughtily. "She completely understood why I left. Didn't even put up a fight."

"Aww." Regina tilted her head. "She's pissed at you, isn't she?"

"Extremely," he replied, giving up the ruse. "I may have gotten a smack or two for my sacrifice."

Regina couldn't help the giggles that fell from her at the thought of Shawna pitching one of her vicious fits decked out in her prom dress as Robin abandoned her for the hospital. At least someone was having a worse night than her.

"I'm sorry," she lied.

"No, you're not," he laughed, shaking his head. "I know how much you hate her."

"I don't hate her," she drawled, unconvincingly. "I just think you can do better."

"Sure you do," said Robin, rolling his eyes.

Regina gave up arguing. With Robin it was useless. She'd known him practically her whole life. Hiding her feelings from him was damn near impossible and not usually worth the effort. Instead she nodded at the brown paper bag he'd set next to his chair.

"What'd you bring?"

A sly smile appeared on his face as he lifted it into his lap. "Well," he said, "lucky for you I realized I didn't want to go to prom without you when we were arriving at the restaurant for dinner."

He pulled out a takeout box. "So I figured if you couldn't make it out for prom, I'd bring a little bit of it to you."

She grinned in excitement when she realized that he'd brought her dinner from Gaston's, the fancy restaurant she'd picked out for the night. He set aside her forlorn jello and presented her with a slightly lukewarm steak and a serving of mashed potato and broccoli.

"Medium-well?" she asked.

"As if you'd eat it otherwise," he smugly replied, passing her a knife and fork.

"Thank you," she happily drawled, sending him her first genuine smile of the night.

He raised a hand. "But that's not all."

Reaching down into the bag he added, "No prom night is complete without its court."

He pulled out a cheap plastic tiara, complete with fake rubies, that had her rolling her eyes.

"Congratulations Regina 're officially prom queen."

She scoffed at him. "I'm not wearing that."

"You have to. You're prom queen," he deadpanned.

Grin still plastered on her face she shook her head. "No way."

"Hey I gave up dance floor groping for you," he playfully pointed out. "Least you could do is wear a cheap crown for me."

Groaning, she rolled her eyes and placed the crown atop her head. It sat on her hair barely touching her scalp; it was so light. "There," she said, "How do I look?"

"You look beautiful, your majesty," he said.

"You're such a dork," she laughed.

But he was her dork. Looking over at him she was struck by how good he looked. Robin was not the type to clean up. He was a sneakers and holely jeans type of boy, but he looked good in his tux. All black with a white shirt and black tie, a pink boutonniere peeking out of his breast pocket. No doubt intended to match Shaw-na's dress. He looked older, more mature. And she couldn't help but think he'd wasted his clean up moment sitting in a hospital room with her.

She looked over at him, suddenly serious. "Robin… why'd you come here?"

His smug smile faded away as he leaned back in his seat again. "I don't know. It's just… I was getting ready and we were taking photos and getting in the limo and it just hit me it was prom night. In three weeks we'll be graduating. High school will be over and everyone's gonna go away, even you."

She tilted her head at him, sympathetic. Her acceptance letters had started coming in a few weeks ago. She'd gotten accepted to more than a few decent schools but had settled on Columbia for the fall. Robin had gotten into an in-state college and another one across country, but in the end he'd decided that school wasn't for him. He planned to stay in Storybrooke for a year or two and figure out what he wanted to do next.

Shrugging his shoulders, he shook his head. "I don't know… when I started looking around and it hit me that you weren't there I realized I wanted one more memory of us, before you head off and I lose you to the bright lights of New York."

He forced out a chuckle at the end of his sentence, as if trying to lighten the mood, but she saw right through it. He was worried.

"You won't lose me," she said, tightly grabbing his hand.

He tried to pull a smile on his face but she could tell that he was having trouble believing her. She didn't even blame him. They'd both heard the stories from their parents and teachers. How high school friends would head off to college and simply never speak again. Stories like that had been weighing on her ever since the first day of senior year. Clearly, they'd been weighing on him as well.

Silently, she thought back to all the time they'd spent together since they'd first met.

"Hey, do you remember when were 12 and Granny had just opened the diner so both of our parents sent us to that camp for the summer?"

He nodded, a smile appearing on his face. "Camp Misthaven, I remember."

"And do you remember the rope bridge?"

"Of course I remember the rope bridge."

A blush crept up on the cheeks as she recalled the wobbly, braided rope bridge that had been tied between two pine trees at least eight feet off the ground. The thing had been the bane of her existence for all through camp.

"All summer the counselors kept trying to get me to cross it but I was too scared," she reminisced. "Until that day when you decided to coax me across from the other side. Remember?"

"Obviously," he chuckled. "Longest thirty minutes of my life, I'd seen glaciers move faster than you did."

"Shut up," she ordered. "I'm trying to make a point."

A smug look was still plastered to his face but he stifled his laughter.

"The point is I couldn't make it across the bridge until you were in front of me," she reluctantly admitted. "You made me… brave."

She shrugged averting her gaze. "And as much as it kills me to say it… I still need help with it every once in a while."

"Really?"

"Yes," she said, nodding her head. "Robin, in less than four months I'm supposed to leave this town where I've spent all my life and strike out on my own in New York. In case you haven't noticed I'm terrified!"

It was a truth she'd refused to admit ever since they'd started high school. Robin made her better. She took risks when he was there, she was more confident when he was by her side and truth be told he was really the only friend she had. The thought of going to school hundreds of miles away from him… well it terrified her.

"You're not gonna lose me Robin," she said. "Because I still need you to make me brave. Now more than ever."

Goddamnit he'd gotten her tearing up now.

"I'll always be a phone call away if you need me," he pointed out.

"I know," she said with confidence. "And I'll be emailing you at least once a week."

The weight of their promises filled the room and they weren't empty ones, they knew that. Regina would probably be writing to him at least once a week, and Robin would probably be calling her to fill her in on everything that was happening back home. But it wouldn't be the same and they knew it. They wouldn't have lunches in the quad anymore or movie nights at his house. No walks through the park when one of them needed to clear their head or midnight meet-ups when they couldn't sleep. The thought that things would change was terrifying. Even more terrifying was the thought that they would change as well.

Squeezing her hand Robin softly said, "I'm really gonna miss us."

"Me too," she mumbled.

Sighing, Robin patted the sheets of her bed. "Scoot over. I can't see the tv."

Rolling her eyes, she shifted to the side allowing him to halfway climb into the bed with her. Crown still on her head she let her chin fall against his shoulder. In all the times she'd imagined her prom night she never pictured herself in a hospital bed, splitting a steak dinner with her best friend, watching shitty old movies and staring down the future like the barrel of a gun.

Yet, somehow she couldn't imagine changing a single thing about it.

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