Robin sees Regina holding baby Neal and there is longing in his eyes. This doesn't go undetected by his wife. =) Pretty please with fluff and a little angst.

This is more on the angst side…sorry! I just feel that fluff isn't really warranted in the scene at the diner, or when Marian's in the room, at least not right away.

She wants to fight it when Snow walks over to her, after she's calmed down from some of the shock, and envelops her in a hug. She wants to ask why Snow didn't leave her infant with her husband, why she's leaving her husband at all; she has her happy ending. Apparently, though, she's too broken tonight to be as biting as she'd like, too much in need of human contact not to surrender to the comfort, not to let a few tears trail down her face.

"Are our families destined to destroy each other, one generation at a time?" she whispers brokenly, pulling back, clearing her throat, trying to pretend she didn't just let that happen. She looks down at the newest member of their twisted family tree, who she fears will become part of the cycle.

"Regina," Snow sighs, and the Queen's hands close into fists as she fights the urge to shake some sense into her step-daughter, to beg her to speak with more anger and less sadness laced with nauseating hope. "No," Snow swears. "We aren't."
"Why? Eva and Cora…you and me, and Emma, all we've ever done is…compete for happiness. And all it's done is taken something away from each of us that we can never get back."

"We are not destined for that, Regina. You saved us, you saved him," she hugs the baby in her arms close, "you broke the cycle."

Regina bites her lip and shuts her eyes against more tears, and why is it that whenever she tries to love someone it just breaks her heart? It must be her penance for all of the hearts she's taken, the other happy endings she's destroyed in the name of her own. And there's another cycle, in her life, of loving and losing, that started with Daniel, and continued with her father, and Daniel again, and Cora, and Henry, and now Robin and Roland, but she recognizes now that it's always been her fault, her actions that have led to these loses, and it is a cycle nobody can break.

"Here," Snow interrupts, and Regina realizes she's been staring into the distance for some time. And before she knows what's happening, before she can object, Snow's put little Neal in her arms. He gurgles a little, and the instinct from Henry takes over, and she's rocking him in her arms to calm him, her eyes a little teary but the beginnings of a sad smile peeking through. "Hello, little one," she whispers. Who knew the Evil Queen had a soft spot for children. God, why do her memories have to be so persistent? She pushes the phrase away, far, far away, but not far enough for it not to torture her.

"He looks like Henry," she chokes out, and she is too focused on the baby to see it but Snow smiles softly.

"Well he is Henry's uncle."

Regina's lips twitch because it's just so absurd, and fitting for this messed up… family or whatever it is that they are. Neal starts to cry cry, and she begins to bounce him gently to calm him, whispering to him, and it calms her, too. "He's beautiful, Snow," she whispers. She can't help it, though, when her shoulders continue to shake.

_R&R_

Across the room, Robin looks up at the sound of crying. He can't help it; his eyes search for her, and there she is, cradling baby Neal, and all he can see is her profile, but the tear tracks on her cheek couldn't be clearer. Yesterday, he would've pulled her into his arms, told her to relish in the opportunity to hold this baby, to know she deserved it, and the Charmings were so, so thankful to her for protecting them. His heart aches because he knows she won't believe that, knows she'll think it was her price, but he's heard her story and she's paid more than enough.

He remembers her watery eyes and broken voice and heartbreaking smile, I just never thought I'd have this, and for a moment he allows self-hatred for proving her right.

His whole world has come crashing down, and a few months ago he might've said he'd dreamed of something like this, but he has to admit even that isn't true because, for better or worse, his past has made him who he is, and this can't be the answer.

She looks so beautiful, with that baby in her arms, but so broken, and he doesn't know, can't imagine what to do. He's not strong enough to wish he'd never met her.

He hates having to watch other people comfort her, because, he realizes with a start, his arms ache to hold her, to let her cry with her face hidden against his chest because he knows she hates it when other people can see.

Marian looks up from Roland and follows his gaze. "Robin?"

"I…" and what can he say?

Regina looks up then, and their eyes lock, frozen in fear, because it's still there, that undeniable pull between them. He wants to go to her, but he can't, he just can't, and she forces her eyes away from him because she refuses to let him see any more of the weakness she's too hastily laid before him in the past few weeks.

He thinks of her face in front of the fire, of how even happiness makes her sad because she doesn't think she deserves it, and he can see why she believes that she cannot have her happy ending as long as everyone else has theirs, because life's certainly shown her no different. And she may have lost the energy to fight it anymore, but it isn't fair, isn't right that he's helped her move past the darkness, move past all the barriers she's put around her heart, and her reward is this again. More heartbreak.

"Marian, I have to…" he trails off, and he's moving away, until he's a few feet from her, and he isn't even sure what he'd been trying to say. Snow sees him first, and her brow furrows. Regina sees Snow's reaction, and whips her head around.

"Don't," she barks, her eyes set on his, and as always, her attempt to be harsh leaves her sounding broken, the snarl morphed into a half-sob. She hands the baby back to his mother, gently, then whips back toward him violently, and she hates that tears are forming in her eyes again.

He reaches out a hand and she can feel the buzz in the air where his hand and her forearm almost meet.

"Don't touch me."

His hand freezes. Determination sets in, or maybe just the pull he feels to soothe her pain even when he's the cause, and he moves the final few inches to touch her arm. He feels solid warmth for barely a second before a puff of purple smoke clouds his vision.

She's run away from the man with the lion tattoo again, and he cannot blame her.

He glances at Snow, at Marian, feels the eyes of everyone in the diner on him, and wishes he could escape in the blink of an eye, like her, wonders where she's gone. Knows he shouldn't. For what can he do? Marian is back, his Marian, Roland's mother, and he loves her, that is an undeniable part of his being. He looks down at the arm that had been about to grasp hers, feels the ghost of her fingers on his tattoo, destined to be with. He can't handle it, can't think about that, too.

Not today.