This is a two shot inspired by the song 'All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You' by Heart. I highly recommend giving it a listen, and the video a watch.
*I am only borrowing the characters and the situation*
•Part One•
Robin wasn't a very lucky person. He never had the winning lotto or raffle ticket, and was always drawn the worst hand of cards- even in snap against his three year old son. So really, with that history, he should have known that the weekend trip he won for archery lessons with the lads, wouldn't end up well. It was all well and good during the festivities (no arrows ended up in the wrong places), but when he woke up late on Sunday with a terrible hangover, he knew his luck had run out.
He couldn't leave until four o'clock, which meant a six hour drive into darkness (he still wasn't used to the length of American car journeys). At least it was New Year's Eve and he didn't have work tomorrow. That would be a real nightmare. In his haste he drove away from the isolated hotel, a strawberry pop tart stuffed in his mouth, the radio on. He didn't realise that the car battery was low and his phone battery just as such. He didn't realise until the car started beeping on an abandoned forest road, and he checked his phone to find a blank black screen staring back.
No, Robin was not a lucky person.
~~~
Regina was glad it was dark so no one could see her white knuckle grip on the steering wheel. No one would spot the deep furrow of her brows as she struggled to hold herself together. The radio churned out the usual pop hits -from Ariana Grande to Adele - while her stomach and head churned simultaneously as she relived her less than enjoyable afternoon.
She supposes it's only fair that she visited Mother today, seeing as she spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Colter's. But, sometimes she wished she didn't have to see mother at all. She hated the visits even more now, without Daniel- which makes her mother even more determined for Regina to get a divorce. Cora Mills had never been Daniel's biggest fan in the first place- her first words when they got engaged were "But he's poor!", before she launched into a speech about how her ancestors (who apparently met George Washington at a party once) would be disappointed in her. Regina had simply rolled her eyes, and squeezed Daniel's knee to reassure him that she wasn't leaving him anytime soon.
That was five years ago, two before the accident. Now, even if she stabbed a fork into her husband's thigh, he wouldn't feel it.
She remembers the day their lives changed forever, like it was yesterday. Ironic that the one thing that brought them together- horseriding- was what almost pulled them apart forever. Molasses (the beautiful blackish brown stallion in question) always spooked easily. This time, Daniel was on his back. She can still hear the crack of his bones sometimes, in her nightmares. And in the silence as she lies next to her beloved in the early hours, she can hear the dreaded words of the doctor. "Paralysed from the waist down".
They worked through it. Somehow. But they haven't been the same since- they couldn't be. The waist down was only too true. Nothing worked down there, no bladder control, no - other control. Plans for a house full of children with his eyes and her smile quickly went out the window. Even if everything was functioning correctly, she wasn't sure how he would cope seeing his child's first steps knowing he would never walk again. Daniel fell into a depression after the accident (being such an active person with so much ahead of him, he found it particularly difficult) which pushed Regina into the role of career over wife.
They were fine now however, still in love, and reasonably happy. Daniel had taken up wheelchair basketball and swimming, as well as giving art lessons to children. Regina was a wife again, and had come to accept his condition. They talked about it sometimes, on the anniversary usually, but the subject of children was never breached. It was too painful for them both.
Of course her Mother never had the tact to avoid sensitive topics. "I suppose I'll never be a grandmother now" and "why are you still with that crippled boy?" was the order of the day. "I love him" came her steadfast reply but it wasn't enough to dissuade her Mother's vulture-like picking at her resolve. "Love?", the old woman scoffed, "pity maybe, but love? Admit it dear, you started to hate him the moment you discovered children were off the cards."
That did it. Regina was out if there within seconds, her tea still warm.
The worst part of it was, there was some truth to that statement. Not anymore, her love for him had trumped it in the end, but at the beginning- yes, she did hate him. The resentment stemmed from a dark irrational part of her, the part that managed to blame him for the accident. That managed to take his depression fueled desire to die as a personal attack on her personality. The dark part that convinced her to stop eating when she was sixteen, and sounded disturbingly like her mother. The voice that she needed a therapist to help quieten.
But it didn't haunt her anymore.
At least, not usually.
So as she sped down the freeway, she tried her best to focus on the song blaring from the radio and not on her Mother's comments. It was harder than she thought it would be. She sighed as it started to snow. Only one more hour until the motel she always stayed in, at the halfway mark between home and Mother.
~~~
It was almost eight o'clock. He was closer to home than the hotel, yet too far from both to make any progress on foot. The darkness only made it worse. But Robin wasn't going to give up that easily. The weather was okay, quite cold but he could manage- he had a coat, except he didn't. He left the bloody thing in the bloody hotel. With a sigh, he gathered up his travel bag and locked the door (not that there was anything to steal inside or that a car without a charged battery could be stolen), before heading down the road in search of help.
As he meandered down the empty road (trying not to shiver), he thought about New Year's, and how it would be the first one Roland would have without both his parents. The divorce was finalised in April, and since Roland spent Thanksgiving with Marian and her new boyfriend, and Christmas at the Locksley's, the great count down to the new year was sans Robin. "You watched him open his presents from Santa, you can at least give me this!"
Robin didn't miss Marian, probably hasn't ever truly loved her- and if she never got pregnant they likely would never have gotten married. So that wasn't the problem. It was seeing Roland's eyes fill up with tears when he asked "when will Daddy come home?"
Because of course, with Robin's infamous luck, Marian was embittered by his request for a divorce (there was only so much of her secret meetings with the Sheriff that he could take), that she used his past in teenage petty thievery, as a mark against custody of Roland. Robin was kicked out, Mr Nottingham moved in, and Roland only visited Daddy on alternate weekends. What a bloody disaster.
He has been walking down the road for about twenty minutes when the inevitable occurred. It started to rain.
"Bollocks" he muttered into the night.
And at that very moment, his luck began to change. He heard it coming, a car - and more importantly, a person in a car. Help. He was saved! He turned around, waving frantically (he was passed caring that he looked like he was insane). The car - which was a lovely black Mercedes Benz that easily surpassed his horrifically orange 2005 Nissan Micra - slowed to a halt. An angel rolled down the window and stuck her head out.
"Would you like a ride? It looks pretty bad out there."
Her voice was nice, soft but a little deep. He blinked, trying to keep the rain from his eyes. When he saw her, his breath caught. She was beautiful. Her raven hair fell around her shoulders in gentle waves. Her coffee hued eyes almost made him melt with their warm intensity. He smiled. "Oh yes please! Thank you milady"
~~~
The stranger clambered into her car, all quiff, British accent and charming dimples. Her breath caught. There was something about him, something mystical. She was drawn to him. She dragged her eyes from him and forced them on the road again. She couldn't believe how he affected her. A man had never done that to her before at a first meeting. Not even Daniel. Her insufferable friend Mary Margaret would say it was love at first sight. Regina would say it was lust at first sight. And that scared her just as much.
It had been a very long time, but she thought that she was over it. However, now it took all her willpower not to jump him right there and then. And she didn't even know his name!
"It was very brave of you to allow me in your car. I could be an axe murderer for all you know."
She glanced at him again before replying "and how do you know I'm not the murderer?", with a smirk
He chuckled. It was deep and masculine and made her suck in a breath.
"If you do plan to murder me, at least the last thing I see will be beautiful."
Shit. He was flirting with her.
"And if I blindfold you?"
Double shit. She was flirting back.
The chuckle again. "You don't strike me as that kind of girl milady."
"Maybe you just don't know me yet."
Okay that's it!! Shut up Regina SHUT THE HELL UP.
"Yet. Is that an invitation?"
"Are you willing to accept?"
At this stage her mouth just stopped listening to her brain. Mary Margaret would say it was her heart taking over. Regina would say it was something far less innocent.
"Maybe I am Milady."
The car faded into silence, well bar the haunting rendition of One Day I'll Fly Away that filtered through the speakers. She coughed awkwardly, finding herself eager to talk to him for some unknown reason. "So, where are you headed?"
~~~
He almost didn't hear her over the thundering of his heart. There was something about her, this stranger who rescued him from the rain. Their banter felt fun, but quickly ventured into territory neither of them were prepared for. His Mum would be scandalised at their risque conversation. He was a little scandalised himself actually.
"I was on my way home. To New York. But it seems I'll be somewhat delayed, what with an utterly useless car. I think there's a motel nearby,- Granny's?"
She nods. "That's actually where I'm headed. I usually stay there on my way home. Boston is a long drive."
He smiled to himself. At least he wouldn't be putting her out of her way. He said as much too. The car drifted once again into a comfortable silence, which was odd as they were both strangers, but it felt like they had known each other for years. He felt safe. And he found himself watching her.
And the curve of her face.
And the curls of her hair.
And the red pout of her lips.
And he thought about kissing her.
~~~
Regina could feel sweat beading on her forehead, or at least imagined that she could. He was watching her, studying her. He was blatantly checking her out. And she liked it.
And his kind blue eyes.
And his deep dimples.
And his soft pink lips.
And she thought about kissing him.
She thought about it a lot. The idea swirled in the depths of her mind until the neon sign for Granny's Motel and Diner shone bright through the hazy mist of rain. In the dark the tiny raindrops on the windscreen looked like stars, as she swung the car into a parked position and turned to look at her hitchhiker. He looked right back.
She twisted her hands in her lap and subtly unclipped her seatbelt, carefully sliding off her wedding ring as she did so.
She made a decision. And even as she decided, and leaned across the gearstick to crash their lips together, she knew she would regret it. But she found that, for now, she didn't care.
In the morning, Robin woke alone, in a double bed, to find a note with a scrawled "I'm sorry" and a Mercedes Benz missing from the parking lot.
Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a comment if you're excited for part two!