"I used magic," she said, her voice breaking at the end.
Archie felt two things: dread at what she was about to tell him, and sympathy for the woman standing before him. She looked like her heart was breaking, and he couldn't help his own heart for going out to hers.
"Okay," he said, extending a hand to her. "Why don't you come inside and tell me what happened."
He left out a breath of nervous air as she sat down on the couch and he gestured for her to start.
She told him of her previous experience with Dr. Whale in the Enchanted Forest and how today he had succeeded in bringing Daniel, her former lover, back to life. But it hadn't been Daniel, not the way she had remembered him. He had come back dark and twisted, turned into some kind of monster. She described the scene as she and David had gone to the stables to rescue Henry and how she had been forced to reverse the preservation spell on Daniel's body to stop him from hurting anyone. He'd been reduced to a pile of ash by her hand.
She was sobbing by the end of it, and he hesitantly placed a hand on her arm in an attempt to offer some form of comfort. It wasn't exactly standard doctor-patient protocol, and with Regina's tendency for flair ups, it wasn't the safest gesture to make. But he couldn't stand to see her cry while he sat there and did nothing.
"Well, are you not going to say anything?" she asked eventually, drawing her hands from her face to wipe at her eyes.
He sat back in his chair, searching for words. He wasn't sure where to start. Her story had been unlike anything he had expected.
"That's - that's good, Regina."
"Good?" she asked, still trying to control her tears. "My pain is good?"
"No, no," he said, trying to amend his offense. "Pain is just a natural part of letting go of someone we love." He reached behind him to grab a box of tissues off his desk. "What you did was good," he told her as he handed her the box. "We have to let go of our past in order to move forward."
"He said I should love again," she told him, wiping at her eyes with the tissue.
"And you should," he told her honestly. "You deserve to be loved every bit as much as anyone else."
She looked up at him, her face tear stained but otherwise dry. The used tissue was clutched in her hand. "I'm sure most people in this town feel I deserve a lot less."
"I misspoke," he said. "Love isn't something that is deserved - love can never be earned. It can only be received. And it's a gift I believe everyone should have."
"Even someone like me?" she asked, staring at the floor.
"You aren't inherently evil, Regina," he told her. "You love your son. You've loved Daniel for all this time. And you are trying to change. That all comes from someplace good."
She took a shuddering breath. "I like to think I can do this," she said. "That I can put forth the effort and change. But most of the time I just feel like … I can't." She looked up at him. "You seem like the only person in this town who believes in me."
He smiled softly at her.
"Why don't you just throw up your hands like the rest of them?" she asked.
He looked at her as she sat there on the couch. Her body was slumped forward, her forearms resting in her lap as she crumpled and uncrumpled the tissue in her hands. He couldn't help but admit to himself what a beautiful sight her face was. All the sternness of the Evil Queen had melted away. There was a gentleness in her eyes. Underneath the façade he had seen her wear day after day, he found there was another, kinder woman wanting to come through. It was a rare sight, this other Regina, but he longed to see more of her.
"Because I don't see the Evil Queen before me," he told her. "I see a woman who just wants to be noticed and loved. And I believe she should be given a chance."
She laughed. "I guess you would say something like that."
"Do you not believe you deserve a another chance?"
She sighed and rubbed her knees. "I used magic," she said. "I broke my promise to Henry."
"Regina, you did what you did to stop Daniel from hurting anyone," he said. "There was no other way to defuse the situation. You used your magic to help. I doubt Henry could blame you for that."
She fiddled with the tissue. "Maybe." It seemed as though she didn't have any trust in herself.
He learned toward her. "If we're going to continue these visits, then you are going to have to trust me."
"Why?" she asked, lifting her head.
"Because when I say that you can get through this, that there is good in you, that Henry will forgive you, that I can help you … you need to trust that I know what I'm saying and that I just might be right. Otherwise, all this is for not."
She sat silently for a moment, thinking it all over. "I can try," she said at last.
"And you can't walk out like you did earlier," he said. "You're going to have to face things about your past, about yourself, about the people around you that you are not going to want to face. When things get hard I need you to stay and work through it with me. Because I'm here to help you."
"I'll try," she said again.
"And before we go any further," he continued. "You need to want to go through with this. Not because you want Henry back - because then you are only looking for an outcome. You need to want to truly change because you believe you can be and want to be a better person. That's the only way change is going to happen, the only way you are going to fight for it."
She opened her mouth to respond but he held up a finger to stop her. "Think about it before you answer."
She closed her lips and stared ahead of her, not really looking at anything. "I want to be happy," she said at last.
"And are you happy as the person you are now?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Do you believe you can be happy if you changed?"
She thought again. "There is a woman I used to be," she told him. "One that I buried a long time ago when I had my happy ending taken from me."
"But were you happy before?" he asked.
"Yes," she breathed, a single tear rolling down her face.
"And do you want to be happy again?"
"Yes."
He studied her face. There was determination in her eyes mingled with the pain. And he knew that, for now at least, she would work with him. "Okay," he told her. "Then let's get started."
RedCricket is still my OTP, but after learning Regina/Archie was a romance the writers had considered blossoming during Season 2 through therapy sessions and (for whatever reasons) abandoned, I decided I wanted to give it a try myself. Join me as we explore this unusual but apparently not so unlikely pairing.