Author's note: Takes place after 4.12. Slight AU: Nobody knows how Snow Queen entered the city, so there is no scroll and the road out of town is pretty much a one way road. Good that there are cellphones though.


He may have deleted her phone number but it doesn't really matter since he has memorized it by heart. The sound of beeping makes him crazy. He has no idea about why it is taking so long, he even doubts that the bloody thing works at all, may be it doesn't, he's no good with the technologies of this world. Anyway, he waits for several seconds but they feel like hours so when the beeping suddenly stops, his heart twitches from a painful thought that this bloody phone is really broken – and then his heart stands still. He hears her.

- Hello, Mayor Mills here, - she doesn't sound cheerful, and there is absolutely no way for him to tell from these short three words how she feels, not with her walls of defense all build up anyway, but he can hear her. It's her, she's alive, she still exists somewhere in this world and it's enough to render him speechless for several moments. Several pretty long moments, judging from Regina's annoyed voice calling for someone on the other end of the line, - Helloooooo.

- Re… Regina, - his thick voice cuts through the silence like a knife through the butter. Regina has to grasp the edge of the table to steady herself as she feels that the ground is cut under her feet. Her eyes are instantly filled with tears, and her voice betrays her as well. She has been only living because she has been hoping for this call to happen; she hasn't believed it would.

Robin is the first to come to his senses:
- H…how are you? – it's a stupid question, and he can feel how dumb and empty it sounds but he has never actually thought through what he's gonna say to her once he dials the number. To be totally honest, he has never thought he actually would dial and she would pick up, so now it is more like a dream come true. He is panting, he wants to hear her soft voice, to feel how it warms him up from the inside the way it used to do but she doesn't say a thing.

- Regina, - he repeats her name almost pleadingly. She swallows loudly so that even he can hear a lump in her throat that she is trying to deal with. She bites her lip in order not to cry and, more importantly, not to sob so that he wouldn't think she is crying.

- F-f-fine. I'm fine, - she does her best to conceal the pain she is in but she fails. She doesn't cry out from the pain though, and it is a huge achievement as well since she really feels like doing it, - And how are you? How is Roland?
She is desperate to reach for the safe ground, to speak about something neutral, to be able to have this conversation at all. Sadly, no topic seems to be safe enough; she mentions the boy she was dreaming of calling her own - just as Henry once - and her heart skips a bit.

- I... I'm... - Robin tries to lie and tell her that he is OK but the word gets stuck in his throat so he strives for the safety of the child topic as well, - Roland asked about you just the other day.

That is indeed a bit too painful for her to bear. Her defenses go high because she just has to protect herself from this torture. She snaps.
- What... What are you doing, Robin? How can you be so cruel? Why are you telling me this?! - she doesn't shout, it's more like a whisper actually but she whispers like a snake, a snake prepared to attack; a hurt snake.

- I'm... I'm sorry, Regina. I was...

- Thinking about yourself only, just as usual, - old habits die hard, so she tries to hurt him the way he hurt her, she wants him to suffer from this burning, antagonizing pain, the same one she feels within.

- I was hoping you would be glad to hear from me, - he continues to make his point, ignoring her accusations the way he has done it so many times before. He is not hurt by her words, or at least he is not hurt as much as he could be because, well, he knows just too well that he is the one to blame. He blames himself every hour of every day for being the reason for her sufferings but it is already too late to fix that. So the least he can do is to try and make her feel better, - That you would be glad to know that I am... I am so happy to hear your.
He thinks he hears a muffled sob while he is speaking and his heart stiffens yet again at the realization of the pain he has caused. He is desperately looking for something to do to help her feel better but he can't do much apart from speaking, so he's looking for some words of comfort – and he is so not ready to what he hears next.

- And I am not glad that you've called me in order to torture me! I am not glad I have ever got close to you! I am not glad I've met you at all! – Regina screams the last words, hits the red button and throws the phone on a couch. Her heart is pounding but apart from this her office is as still as a cemetery on the darkest night.
She looks at the cellphone, no, she stares at it, and the tears start flowing freely down her cheeks. She has never meant to be so cruel to him, she was truly happy to hear his voice, she loves him, for God's sake! And yet there she is, crying in silence because she couldn't stop herself from snapping, couldn't control her emotions, couldn't be the best person Henry wants her to be. She doesn't even make it to the couch, collapsing on the floor right where she stood, buries her face in her hands and cries. For everything that was now lost to her, including her true love. Her true love which she has pushed away yet again.

It takes her a couple of minutes to compose herself and to be able to get to the couch that happens to be much more comfortable than the cold floor. She blames herself for what she has just done, even more, she hates herself for being just a hurt Evil Queen once again. By the look of things, she is doomed to live the rest of her life alone and miserable with no one to blame for it but herself. Well, may be Robin as well. Just a little bit. Thinking about him is unbearable; his voice still sounds in her head, so warm and soothing and… Her phone starts beeping again. She reaches for it – and she already knows. It's him. He always knew how long he had to wait before making another try.


So, this is the first one. I actually plan to continue torturing Regina, yes, even if in a slightly another way. So please read & comment and forgive me for not having this thing beta-read for you (help for the next chapters and upcoming stories would be mush appreciated actually xD)