For a wild, brief, and wholly idiotic moment, Regina felt a burning, selfish hope so strong that it bubbled up in the back of her throat, nearly choking her. For just that moment when Zelena mentioned Hades, and the baby, and needing to protect the child from the Lord of the Underworld, Regina had an epiphany. Why would he need such a thing as a baby? Moreover, why would he need her sister's baby?
Henry's storybook had revealed all that the Wicked Witch hadn't said. She and Hades were True Loves- and they had been seen together sometime before the witch came to Storybrooke. Henry had woken up before writing out the rest of Zelena's tale, but it had been enough to spawn those flames. Hope. A hope that shouldn't be there, but hope nonetheless.
She felt foolish now, thinking back on all the events of today, leaning over Robin holding his child and commenting how his daughter had his eyes. They were. Bright blue, true... unwavering when they held hers. The babe was sleeping right now, but Regina remembered feeling bare before this tiny thing, feeling as if every black, horrible, terrible deed was spread out before her, and the baby could see it all. The baby knew she was bad.
Part of her ached to reach out, gently stroke her cheek, but she hesitated, then lowered her hand back into her jacket pocket, quelling the urge. She felt a strange bystander in this unlikely triangle- which is even more selfish of her, she knew. She's the reason for all of Robin's torment, for Zelena doing this to him... for this baby that she both loves and resents.
It wasn't that she wished the child gone. She just hoped beyond hope that the baby was the product of Zelena and Hades- that her soulmate hadn't created a child with someone else. Protecting that baby would always be a priority, but maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't feel so completely isolated. The hope had dredged up every hurt and unresolved issue that she'd tried to bury, but all she could do was simmer with it- now wasn't the time. It was never the time.
She stood back as she felt tears well; tears of regret, of guilt, of sorrow, and took a moment to swallow her emotion down before slipping from his side with a whisper of air that her soulmate didn't notice.
