AN: So this is my first OUAT Fic and it is hopefully not my last! Please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time.

Blazing fires flashed across her eyes. The potential danger of the situation perplexed the last little bit of sanity left in her brain. Her mind was racing with every possibility of escape but there were none. There was absolutely no way that she would be able to avoid the situation without Tinkerbell pushing her in the direction of her supposed true love. The lion tattoo was the dead give away.

The tender look in his eyes when he heard about how she lost her son was enough to make her knees go weak.

But the pain in her heart and the stubborn fighter in her kept her away. Ironically, it wasn't all that different from the first time she saw him. It wasn't the first time she went running for the hills because of fear and it most certainly wouldn't be the last, not that she would let anyone else know that. Despite her tough exterior, she was a mess on the inside, a fault that she had always carried with her. The inner turmoil was enough to keep her up at night, and it has on numerous occasions.

Love again he had said. And she had. She loved Henry and she thought that was enough. Apparently, she was wrong. Perhaps if she had tried harder she could have loved him more. Maybe if she would have spent just a little more time trying to understand him then he wouldn't have wanted to break the curse. Maybe if she wasn't so strict with him he could have loved her. Whatever it was, it just wasn't enough.

The tattooed man kept sending glances her way as she sat against the base of a tree away from the rest of the group. Her eyes were closed but he could tell she was anxious as she sat lost in thought. It wasn't hard to see that the Evil Queen was hurting, at least for him it wasn't. The only one that seem to pay any attention to her was blonde haired fairy and even those conversations ended badly. No one else from the camp even looked in her direction.

He couldn't help but almost feel sorry for the woman. Everything she had was swept out from under her feet. Everyone here had someone but her. Snow White and Charming wouldn't leave each others side. Hook and Tinkerbell were at least friends. Neal was comforting Belle. He had Roland. Everyone had someone except Regina.

There was part of him that told him he shouldn't feel for, that she brought this on her herself. But he knew that look in her eyes, the longing, the sadness, the fear. It was the same look Roland had in his eyes every time he asked for his mother. And her couldn't help but pick a part the layers of her as he watched her from the distance. It was almost as if he could understand exactly what she was thinking based on her facial expressions.

She definitely wasn't known for her subtlety.

She opened her eyes to see him looking her way before she immediately shot her eyes to forest floor. She was stronger than that. She should be trying to get back to her son instead of wallowing away in self-pity, not that anyone else seemed to care.

"You don't always have to act so strong, you know?" Came a voice from beside her. She didn't even notice that he came to sit beside her nor did she seem to care.

Her eyes shot up with the velvety soft voice of the blue-eyed bandit.

"Excuse me?"

"The façade you are so intent on upholding. It's not fooling anyone."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." She lied but the slight glitch in her voice and the way her defenses immediately rose gave her away.

"Don't play games with me, Your Majesty," Robin said sternly. "I know you are hurting and you aren't the only one who doesn't seem to want to be here."

"Again, I have no idea what you are talking about, Thief."

He chuckled. "What is with you? For a woman who was supposedly a good mother, you have an awful way of showing any emotion."

"Don't you dare," she bit off venomously. "Don't you dare, even question my abilities as a mother. I loved my son."

He shook his head in protest. For a woman who ran an entire kingdom, cast a curse that sent her people to a different realm, a truly brilliant woman to say the least, she could act incredibly stupid.

"Then why don't you prove it. You think you are the only on affected by this situation. You weren't the only one that had to leave someone behind with this new curse."

"You have no idea what I am feeling." She threatened. "Just because I don't push my feelings on everyone like the good and true Snow White or because I don't go around waving a sword declaring my intentions, doesn't mean that I don't feel anything."

"Then why don't you enlighten me then, Your Majesty, because if it were my son that was left in another land with the woman who gave him up in the first place, I would be trying to find a way to get him back. I would be angry and frustrated and scared out of my goddamn mind. I wouldn't be sitting here against a tree fighting myself when I should be doing what any parent would do to fight to get my son back."

The passion flickered in her eyes before they quickly dulled.

"You don't get to talk to me like that. You have no idea. You have no idea what it is like to have to give up, to face defeat, to lose your everything. To know that no matter how hard you try, there is no way to ever get back to him. That even if there is even the slightest miracle and I get to that other world, that he won't even remember who I am. I won't be his mother. All he will remember is having a happy life with someone else," She bit off harshly. She tried to hide it but Robin saw the tears in her eyes that she tried to hide.

"Perhaps you are correct. I don't know what it is like to lose my child, to never get to see them again. But instead of hanging my head and pouting like a child, I had to explain to my boy, why he doesn't have a mother. Why it has always just been him and me," he argued. "To know that I didn't try hard enough to fight for what I loved. Perhaps if I could have afforded to have her see a doctor or if I would have taken a deal with Rumpelstiltskin, I could have saved her life and my son would have a mother."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Her already aching heart ached some more.

"It's not your fault, you didn't kill her." Surprisingly that was one life she wasn't responsible for ending. "And Roland is the best thing that ever happened to me. Just as I'm sure, Henry is to you which is why you need to fight for him. He might not have any memory of you if you ever see him again but isn't it better to find him and know that you loved him enough to try to find him than to give up completely and never see him again? To never know if the curse would have broken at some point?"

"You really want to help me?" She looked at him skeptically as nodded. "Why?"

Regina could feel his eyes on her. He shouldn't be helping her. She ruined his life, somehow, someway she took something from him by not entering that tavern. For a quick moment she let herself picture what her life would be like had she gone into the tavern. But then all she could think about was Henry, her son, her one true love. And now he was gone from her life and here was Robin, sitting next to her wanting to help her get her son back.

"Because you deserve your son. You deserve to have someone that loves you. If that little boy was enough to break you to how you are now then you must truly love him." There was a glisten in his eyes as he continued to speak. "Every child deserves their mother and every mother deserves their child. If your son is still out there somewhere then you still have a chance. What good would I be if I didn't help the ones in need get what was taken from them even if it means helping the Evil Queen get her son?"

With that she was silent. Her deep chocolate orbs were filled with sorrow. He was annoyingly right if course. Her situation could be right. She did what she thought was best for him. She had to give him his best chance even if it meant doing to him what Miss Swan had done to him years before. At least she had the chance to love him, to raise him, to let him know that he was indeed her Prince.

Some children were not that lucky.

"Thank you." She whispered softly.

"Anything for you, Your Majesty." The smirk on his face was uncanny. He scooted closer to her so they were sitting side by side. The mood had lightened and she seemed to relax. "So tell me about him."

"What?" she looked over at him.

"Tell me about Henry." His eyes were soft, a complete change from what they were just moments before."

"What do you want to know?" she asked as she tucked a piece of her long dark hair behind her ear.

"Anything. Tell me anything about him that would help me recognize him if I ever had the chance to meet him."

She chuckled and for the first time he saw what a beautiful smile she had.

"Well," she started. "He's smart and witty and incredibly stubborn."

"Wonder where he got that from?" He interrupted. She sent him a look that could kill but smiled anyways.

"He's very brave, always wanting look go after an adventure. He desperately wants to be a hero. He is so loyal it almost hurts."

"All good qualities for a boy."

"And he has a vivid imagination which tends to get him into trouble." She let out a proud sigh. "He was always trying to please me, to make me proud of him. He just never realized that there wasn't a moment that I wasn't proud of him." She paused for a moment. "He's always been my little prince."

It was the first time that Robin saw her let out any emotion other than anger or being completely stoic. A few tears made their way down her cheeks.

He brought an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. Her eyes were closed as she let him hold her. It didn't matter at that given moment that he was supposed to be her soul mate, that she was to fall in love with him. He was there for her when her whole world crashed around her and she finally let herself go.

That's when it finally clicked. Sure she missed Henry and she would do everything in her power to get back to him. But there was something in the back of her mind telling her that the sparkly fairy was right. And that stung more than anything. She shouldn't be happy. Villains weren't supposed to have happy endings.

The sun was beginning to set behind the trees. They had been silent for a while. He didn't ask anymore questions and she didn't object to just being there with him. The a slight wind blew through the trees and caused her to shiver.

"We should get back to camp," he stated softly and could almost feel her eyes roll as if she dreaded it that badly.

"I suppose you are right."

She leaned forward so he could remove his arm from behind her back. He stood and reached a hand out to her to help her stand as well, " Your Majesty."

"Please, it's Regina" Just Regina, she thought.

She gasped when he grabbed her hand and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles.

"Well Regina, how do you expect we get your son back?"

As mad as she wanted to be at Regina for everything she had done in the past, there was something that held her back. She felt for Regina she really did. No wonder she wanted to left alone. Tinkerbell herself had a hard time dealing with losing her wings and her magic, she couldn't imagine what it would have been like to lose everything she worked hard for and the one thing she loved the most.

The lion tattoo that decorated Robin Hood's arm threw her off at first. It didn't even surprise her when Regina looked like she could choke the day lights of her when she finally saw it herself. It didn't even surprise her when Regina walked off by herself leaving the nauseatingly sweet Charming family to grieve by themselves. The last thing any of them wanted was another feud between Regina and Snow White. Not surprising was the fact that no one objected to Regina leaving.

It had been a few hours since anyone had seen Regina. While no one else seemed to mind the free time from the Evil Queen, Tinkerbell was starting to get worried. Not that she doubted the queen but nothing good ever seemed to come from leaving the Queen on her own.

The next step was to talk to Regina herself. If she had to beat the fact that Robin was perfect for her into that pretty little head of hers, she would. Tink had just found Regina when she realized she wasn't alone. Her eyebrows just about reached her hairline when Robin kissed her hand.

Maybe she wasn't needed after all.

"Well Regina, how do you expect we get you to see what has been right in front of you all along?"