"Regina?" Mal's voice carries into the laundry room. "What are you doing?"
"I tore my jacket," she calls back. "Just wanted to repair it." Regina runs her hand through her hair, shaking off the sweat. Her leather jacket lies on the washing machine. The left arm is stiff with dried blood. She can repair it with magic, but it won't be the same. It's her blood at least, not the toxic blood of the creature.
It was some kind of basilisk: long claws, snarling jaws. She and Emma defeated it easily enough, but Regina's sore from the tree she hit and bruised from the ground. There's dirt clinging to the sweat on her skin and Emma had to heal the nasty claw marks on her arm.
"How did you tear your jacket in a way that smells like blood?"
Mal leans on the doorframe, one hand resting on her belly and Regina can't drag her eyes from it. Her grey dress hugs her body, just a little tight where the baby's changed her belly, curving her outward. There's something profoundly beautiful about that, how she's different now. Regina's never watched this happen up close. Snow's pregnancies were less intimate.
She thought of that little person, the life beneath Mal's skin, when Emma asked if they should call for backup. How she'd be in danger if Regina mentioned the basilisk and brought them out. They'd come, of course, because they love her and want to protect the town, but they would have been in harm's way.
Emma almost wasn't fast enough. The creature lashed out, wounding her, throwing Emma back, and it could have gone badly in a heartbeat.
It didn't; she's fine. They might not have been. She pictures Robin bleeding or Mal knocked back and her stomach twists into a knot. They're safe here. They had an evening in together, watching some film.
Robin enters the doorway behind Mal, wrapping his arm around her waist and adding his hand to her belly. "You're missing the whales."
"Whales?" Regina asks, hoping the subject change takes hold. "What are you watching?"
"Planet Earth," Robin says. Mal's stiffness and concern carries into him as easily as if she'd spoken aloud. "Which is far less important than what you were doing."
"It's nothing."
"There's blood on her jacket," Mal says. She gestures at Regina's shirt. "That's a nasty mark."
"It's fine."
Slipping into the laundry room, Mal reaches for Regina's arm and Robin lifts her jacket.
"This is not fine," he starts. "This was sharp, it cut right through leather."
"It was a basilisk," Regina offers, keeping her voice even. "There was no real danger."
Mal's fingers wrap around her arm, testing Emma's healing magic, stroking her bloody shirt. "This was deep."
"Emma's healing has gotten so much better."
"That doesn't mean you should trust it with your life, Regina."
"What made you think you could fight a basilisk without us?" Mal asks, her voice as soft as her touch. "They're poisonous."
"It didn't bite me."
"Did it attack you?"
"No, Emma found its nest."
"So you struck quickly?" Robin continues to dig.
"No-"
"You just didn't think it was worth mentioning that you intended to fight such a creature?" Mal strokes her arm one more time then steps back, folding her arms over her chest. "It is the work of a moment to send one of those text messages. Even Roland can send them, dear."
Regina swallows. Removing her bloody shirt, she tosses it aside. It's never been a favorite, not worth the magic to mend it. Standing in her camisole, she stares at her lovers, her heart racing in her chest. They're angry, and it's written all over their faces.
"We could have helped," Robin adds, his forehead furrowed. "As powerful as you and Emma are, it's important to have backup. Your injuries could have been far worse."
"I'm fine."
"So you decided to tell us after it was over," Mal says, and a chill slips into her tone. "You were going to tell us about your adventures after you hid your jacket and snuck through the house, covered in blood."
"It's just my arm."
"How big of an injury does it need to be to merit reporting?" Robin asks, lifting her jacket and running his fingers over the tear. "Would we have only heard something if Emma contacted us to report you were wounded? You'd never tolerate that behavior from either of us."
"Dear, you are upset when I don't immediately inform you of all the details of being nauseated, or my headaches, neither of which pose any danger to my well-being."
"That's different."
"Oh?" Robin presses. "Why would that be different?"
She takes a step back, because they're both staring. Regina can't look at either of them long, because it hurts. Their loving faces just ache. "That's about the baby. Pregnancy in this body is difficult for you; you might not understand what's happening. I don't want you to worry."
"You don't want me to worry, but aren't I allowed to worry about you? I love you." Mal looks to Robin, reaching for him because he hasn't pulled away. "We love you. If you are in danger that affects us."
"I wasn't in danger."
"Bullshit," Robin snaps.
Mal raises an eyebrow. "The thief is right. A basilisk is an incredibly dangerous creature, you could have been killed."
"And we would have known nothing until Emma told us."
"And what? If I'd told you, both of you would have rushed to my side, and been in danger with me." She shakes her head. Why don't they see how awful that would have been? The basilisk could have hurt Robin, hurt Maleficent and the baby. She could have lost one of them, both of them. She couldn't face that, couldn't handle that kind of pain, even knowing they were hurt-
"That's the idea of a partnership," Robin says, and he starts to pace. He can't go far in the tiny room, but the movement only makes him more agitated. "Trust and communication are essential to a relationship."
"Oh, because they served so well in your marriage to Marian?"
"Regina, that's not fair," Mal interrupts. "You know why Robin and Marian didn't work, and it had nothing to do with him chasing monsters."
"Like you know so much about relationships," she retorts, hating the words as soon as she says them. "Maleficent, you cursed the last person you loved."
"And you cursed a realm," Mal says, tightening her knuckles on her arm. "The past isn't important."
"Isn't it?"
Robin runs a hand through his hair. "If we want this to work we have to be honest with each other. You need to tell us when you're in danger. You need to let us help you."
"You wouldn't have been able to help," Regina mumbles, and of course they hear it.
"Because you know so much about basilisks?" Maleficent asks. She rests her hand on the washer. Is she dizzy again? How can she talk of honesty and then hide these things? She couldn't have fought a basilisk, not in this condition. Why is that so hard for her to understand?
"And you do?"
"It doesn't matter what you were fighting," Robin says, dragging them back. "We need to be united, together."
"We are." Don't they understand that? They're alive. They're safe; that's the best gift she can give them.
Mal pushes off the washer, walking towards her, reaching for her face. "We're not. I love you, and Robin, but this- wonderful as it is- has been- will not work if you are not able to trust us."
"Don't be hasty," Robin says, raising a hand. "Be careful."
"Don't you get it?" Regina snaps, backing away. Her blood rushes in her ears, throbbing in her chest and they don't see. They can't understand. "I buried Daniel. He died because I loved him, and that put him in harm's way. I can't do that again. I can't lose one of you, I couldn't face it, I couldn't go on. I couldn't live with myself-"
"Yes you could-" Robin protests, reaching for her shoulder. "You'd have Henry, Roland, Lily- so many reasons to live."
Mal stands there, watching Robin try to reason with her. A tear slides down her cheek and she nods. "Oh, I understand, dear. Even if you're safe, if you and Robin live long, happy lives, I will watch you die. I will watch the children die. Not Lily, or this-" she stops, struggling to find breath through her grief. "But the boys, the sweet, sweet boys. They're human, you are human. Loving you means losing you, and I face that every day."
She didn't think. The knot in her stomach rises, "Mal, I-"
"It's too much." Mal turns her gaze from Regina to Robin, tears flowing from her eyes. She smiles, and that hurts most of all, because there's hope there, and affection, but she retreats, fading to smoke and then she's gone.
"Regina, where did she?"
"I don't know."
"Will she come back?"
"I. Don't. Know," Regina repeats, turning her wrath on Robin. The cold place in her chest burns, sending agony through her that Robin must understand. "You want to talk to her so badly, find her. Send a text message, I hear they're very easy."
"You don't mean that."
She can't listen to him. Can't even look at him. He would risk himself for her, let Mal risk herself for her, and that's not acceptable. That can't happen. "Don't I? What were you saying about the importance of communication? Let me communicate with you, clearly. I will not tolerate lectures from a thief or a dragon about how to defend the town and who I bring with me to do it. I will not be patronized. I have faced the greatest monstrosities in the realms and survived. No pitiful basilisk will hurt me, and if you can't trust that, you need to leave, before I send you away."
He's only on the verge of tears, but they shine bright in his eyes. "If that's what you want."
"I think it's best."
"Then it is what I shall do." He still looks at her, agony written across his face. Robin gives her a little nod, almost a bow, and turns. Unlike Mal, he pauses, holding the frame. "Regina, I am glad you are all right."
She lets him go in silence, holding herself like a statue until the front door closes and she's alone in an empty house. Regina shivers, trembling from the effort of holding back her tears. Grabbing the laundry soap, she throws it, then the next bottle, and the next, they crash into the wall, echoing dully as they tumble down.
They're gone, and other then her ragged breathing, the house is silent. Still as a fucking tomb.
Only then, she starts to cry.
