First encounters, Seconds Chances.
Regina stood there, Frozen, in the middle of the diner. Watching how Robin and Roland reunited with Marian. The pain slowly takes over her heart while tears try to make their way to her cheeks. She took 2 steps back and immediately turned around and made her way through the door. A few steps outside she felt a chill running down her spine. It startle her for a brief moment but was snapped out of her trance the moment she heard the bell rang. She doesn't turn around, she takes a deep breath and begins to walk again. A voice interrupts her, a voice she didn't really want it to hear. Robin calls her name and all she wants to do is disappear into oblivion. He makes his way to her grabbing her hand and making her turn around.
"Don't run away from me, please" he says with a obvious tone of confusion and hurt. "We should talk about this. We cannot just pretend that isn't weird". He doesn't know what else to say, the situation got a really tight hold in his heart.
"What do you want me to do? Hope that you will choose me over her? I'm sorry Robin but I don't have it in me to Hope once more" Her eyes were filled with sorrow and anger. She tries to break away from him but he only makes his grip harder.
"Regina don't say it like that. I know it took a while for you to open up to me…." His word trail off. He tries to get his thoughts in order but Regina finally breaks free and disappear in a cloud of purple smoke.
Robin stands there feeling like part of him is withering away, like his soul is aching for it other half.
The door to the diner opens up again this time revealing Henry and Emma. They make their way to Robin who stood frozen into place. Henry calls his name and when Robin turns around he can see clearly the hurt that his blue orbs he got for eyes reflected. "Where is my mom?" Henry ask with a noticeable distress in his voice.
"I- I tried to stop her… but she left before I could gather my courage to tell her how I feel…" Robin's voice was about to break even more, like it wasn't even possible.
"How you feel?"Emma ask, genuinely surprise at his words. Knowing that she brought his wife back without even knowing who she was. She saw how Robin's face was in a state of extreme sadness. His happiness from seeing Marian really changed quickly with the disappearance of Regina she thought.
Henry looks at Emma and he notice she is truly distraught with all of this. He gives her a small reassuring smile and turns around to continue to talk to Robin.
"Right now how you feel should the least of your worries. You should go to your wife and son. My mom will be okay, I know her." Henry words came out a little stronger than he hope so. "Robin, I know you want my mom to be happy, but right now is not the time for you to tell her your feelings. You might make things worse." He takes another step towards Robin and gives him a little smile.
Robin takes a deep breath a tries to give a look of acceptance to Henry. He makes his way back to the diner. Henry and Emma are still in place thinking about what they should do about all of this. They are so into their thoughts that they don't notice Snow and Charming are there.
"Emma, Henry" Snow calls, worries on her feature. "Where is Regina? We asked Robin but he didn't get a chance to tell us, Marian took a hold on him and didn't let him talk". Snow takes Emma's hand while Charming approaches Henry with concern in his face.
"We don't know. Maybe at her mansion?" Emma says but she knows is not likely that Regina goes to the first they would look and if she did she most likely would put up a barrier to prevent people from going in.
Charming read Emma's face like a book. "No. she wouldn't go home." He shrugged his shoulders as he continue to speak, this time getting closer to her daughter. "She probably would go to a place we wouldn't expect, and that doesn't include her crypt." He finished with a distinct frustration in his voice.
Henry gets exasperated at the situation "We have to start somewhere. We can't let her wonder off alone" His didn't hide the distress and fear his heart was feeling.
They decided to look in her mansion, and every place they knew she would most likely go.
Regina landed at the beach. She knew if she went to her mansion that everyone will eventually get there, Robin would get there. She didn't want to think about him, she didn't want to think about anything. She made her way to the shore and just sat there. Admiring the waves, how they could come and go stronger and stronger every time. Truth is she didn't have the strength to get back up, she didn't have the power to keep her heart open to love. She thought how easy it would be to give into the darkness. "That's really all I have" she said to herself, tears escaping the huge sadness she felt in that moment.
She plunge her hand into her chest and took her heart out of it. "it's true when they say the heart belongs in the rib cage and not on the sleeve.." she thought she said those words in her mind…
"Our hearts are in our chest but they don't really belong to us" Regina heard those words and struck her completely.
She turns around trying to see who spoke. She only saw a shadow, a shadow that was getting close to her. The person speaks again "We go through life looking for that the one person who own the heart that beats in our chest" he gets a step closer and continues "that person got in his/hers chest the heart that truly belong to us. That's love, true love, that's our soulmate". The strange shadow steps into the moonlight, quickly making Regina gasp.
She couldn't believe her eyes. Was she seeing things? Was fate pulling something really cruel to her? She couldn't speak.
The stranger sees the obvious distress in her eyes. "are you okay?" is all that he manages to say.
Regina internally pinches herself back to reality and say the one things she had on her head for the past minute "Daniel?" as soon as it left her mouth another tear rolled down her cheek… How is this even possible?