Title: Believe
Author: RebelByrdie
Fandom: OUAT
Pairing: FairyQueen
Rating: T
Author's Note(s): This is not Canon Tinker Bell, she is what I lovingly call Fan! Tink. She was created by several wonderful creators, though I specifically blame swanqueengranger. This story is second in a series of three. It is preceded by "Damned" and will be followed by a yet-untitled story (coming soon!) This story was based on a prompt.
Prompt from Anonymous: Would you pretty please do a prompt where Regina sees a hallucination of Cora in Neverland and is ready to give up to be with her mummy until Tinkerbelle pulls her back.
Believe
Regina Mills hated Neverland. She hated it with a passion that went beyond anything else she had ever known, and that was saying something. It was hot, sticky during the day, cold and damp at night, the indigenous insects found her especially delicious and she had long since developed painful blisters on her feet. Her boots, no matter what Nancy Sinatra had crooned, were not made for walking. Especially not through a jungle. She was tired, aching and her entire body buzzed with nerves and magic. She was frantic, terrified and worried to the point of constant grinding nausea. She'd been fighting a migraine since shutting down the trigger. She just wanted to get her son and go home. She do anything to make sure Henry was okay. He was so small and sweet, a frighteningly fragile and inexperienced boy suddenly thrust into a savage world. He was at the mercy of Neverland's jungle and the feral boys who ran wild in it.
She paused and leaned against a tree. Why hadn't she taken him camping? He didn't even know how to start a fire. Of course she had never started a fire without magic either, but she could have read a book or Googled it. She could have let Graham take them both in to the woods. He could have shown Henry how to handle himself. Why had she coddled him so? She could have signed him up for Scouts or karate or anything, anything at all, that could help. Regina pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger and tried to chase the migraine away. The headache was the price of all of the magic she had been using. She had never hurt so much before, never felt the price so acutely. She couldn't stop, though, because magic was all she had to offer. She couldn't shoot a bow or swing a sword. All she had was sarcasm and magic, and the Charmings, Hook and Emma didn't seem to appreciate either. She took out her handkerchief and wiped the sweat and it's stench off of her skin. She would never complain about the bitterly cold Maine winters again. She never wanted to be this hot and dirty again in her life.
She tucked the small and soiled piece of linen back in her blazer pocket with mostly numb fingers, sighed and wished she had brought a spare. A proper lady, her mother's voice sounded off in her head, was never without a spare handkerchief. What if a gallant prince or king needed a favor to carry with him? Another blunt and broad wave of pain rolled through her already aching head. She couldn't afford to fail Henry as she had Cora. She couldn't bear to lose another person she loved. Her heart: small, dark, ugly and broken thing that it was couldn't take any further trauma. She just wanted her son to be safe. She wanted nothing more than to wrap him in her arms and kiss his cheeks and breathe him in the way she had done when he was an infant. She just wanted him to be okay.
"Regina."
She looked up and around, had she fallen so far behind that the Two Idiots or Emma stopped to look for her?
"Hello?"
She looked around her and was met with jungle to the left of her and more jungle to the right of her.
"Regina."
There was no one there. She was alone in the jungle. Always alone.
"Regina, Dear."
Was that? Regina looked around, because either she was finally losing her mind or she had just heard Cora's voice.
"Mother?" The trees rustled to her left, like someone was walking away from her. Had her Mother somehow come back to life again? She had held her mother as she died, she had felt her grow still and cold. Still, though, she had put roses on Cora's grave once before and that had been a ruse. Maybe?
She veered off the trail that David and Hook had hacked for them, determined to find out the truth.
"Mother?"
She crashed through the underbrush and was rewarded for an effort by a flash of royal blue cloak in the distance. Her mother's cloak. She would know it anywhere. She picked up her speed, plowing through tree branches and vines. Thorns and twigs tugged at her hair and clothes but she pushed through them. She wasn't alone. If Mother was in Neverland she would help her. She would help her rescue Henry. Pan wouldn't stand a chance against her mother. Hope, wild and hot, bubbled up in her chest. Her Mommy was alive and she would help. She had a heart and was alive and they could be a family. She was enough, her mother had told her that. She was finally enough for her mother and maybe her son too.
The jungle cleared up ahead, moonlight stole into the thick mass of trees and in the middle of the small clearing was a blue-cloaked figure. She stopped still. Hope and fear battling it out in her soul. Had it been a trick or was her mother really alive?
"Mother?"
She turned and her cloak swirled around her. Her hair was long, lose and wavy, the way it had been the day she had died. Her lips, a bright red, stretched into a wide smile and her arms opened, "Regina."
Tears, the same tears she had been fighting back since she had realized that Henry had been kidnapped, welled up in her eyes. "Mother." She went to her, drawn by forces that she could not deny into her mother's embrace. She went weak at the knees and a warmth invaded her fear-frozen heart. Cora's arms wrapped around her and she felt a soft kiss on the hair that fell over her still-blistered temple.
"Regina," The words were soft and her voice was kinder then she'd ever heard her mother be. "What happened to you, why are you here? Are you injured?" These were all the things she desperately wanted to ask Henry. She rested her aching head on her mother's shoulder, "Everything happened. Pan has my son." She felt a sob shudder through her, "He has my Henry, my baby boy." Tears were flowing now and she stiffened because Mother hated it when she showed such weakness.
"Then we'll get him back." Familiar hands rubbed circles on her back, "We'll burn this jungle down until we find him and then we'll go home." She wrapped her arms around her mother's waist and sank into her, wallowing in the comfort and love that she had found, so unexpectedly, in the jungle. Cora's touch was like a cool balm. It covered her skin and sank into her aching muscles, it was almost like she was sinking into a calm, cooling lake of love and she let herself go limp, ready to submerge herself in the perfection of that moment. She was so tired, heartsick and scared that at that moment, Regina didn't care if she ever re-emerged or not.
Tinker Bell tracked the big damn heroes through the Dark Jungle and it was like watching puppies fall all over themselves. How did they ever expect to rescue the boy when they stomped through the jungle bickering like children? The fact that the one man, his name was either David or Charming she wasn't sure which, had been injured and poisoned didn't help much either. Hook should know better. She knew he did. He was herding them towards her home and that was, apparently, as far as his plan went. Whatever he had been doing since he'd left Neverland had made him soft. Then again, maybe she'd been stuck on the island so long that she was just jaded. She had certainly changed. Would Regina even recognize her?
She watched the woman in question through the shade and shadow of the trees. She had seen the other woman Pan's enchanted fire but seeing her, even from a distance, in person was something completely different. Emotions, long buried and ignored, came alive again.
Theirs had been a passionate and ill-advised affair. They had fallen so quickly and so completely, though, that they had been determined to be together, consequences be damned. She had disobeyed the thrice damned Reul Ghorm and Regina had cuckholded her bastard of a husband. They had stolen long afternoons in a village with no name and hidden away in a cottage covered in sunflowers and dreamed impossible dreams. She still wasn't sure, though she had her suspicions, who had told Blue about her plan to run away with her queen. They were going to head to the south, where Regina still had a few people loyal to her via her father's family name, and then they had planned to hop a ship and go somewhere far away. Somewhere where Regina wasn't a queen and she wasn't a fairy. Somewhere they could be together and find their own Happily Ever After.
That night she had flown to Regina's balcony, the same balcony she had fallen from on the fateful night they had met, and had been met with horror.
Guards, in full armor, were stationed at the outside door. She could see inside, she could see what their love had doomed Regina to. King Leopold, Regina's so-called-husband had one meaty paw wrapped around her arm, shaking her. Regina's diary, the only place she'd had to record her private thoughts and feelings before they had met, was in his other hand.
She couldn't hear what was being said but the tears flowing down her queen's cheeks were more than enough. She surged forward, ready to save the woman she loved, but found herself frozen in the air.
"What did you do, Green?"
The Blue Fairy appeared before her, a scowl on her deceptively beautiful face.
"I told you to stay away from this dark woman, yet you have disobeyed me over and over again."
She had fought against the magic holding her still, especially when he struck Regina across the face with the heavy leather-bound book.
"Let me go!" She snarled at Blue, "He's hurting her!"
She had suffered so much, Regina was strong but even strong people would eventually stop fighting, or worse, start fighting back.
"She's his wife and queen and she was having an affair. Considering that it is, technically, treason, I think he's being very merciful."
Tinker Bell shook her head, unwilling to think about what had come next. Her wings, her wand, her banishment, she had lost so much. Regina had given over to the darkness she'd been surrounded by since birth and now, some thirty-odd-years later, they were on the same damned island. Tink was so close, though Regina had no idea, she could almost touch her. Regina, her Regina, had changed. She was dark, sad and somehow broken. Not that, Tink tugged one of the braids that had fallen over her face, she was the same fairy she had once been either.
She looked so tired, though, and in pain.
"Hello?"
She looked around, her dark hair brushing across her bruised cheek.
Tinker Bell stiffened, she hadn't planned to reveal herself so soon.
Regina didn't see her, though, she kept looking around. Her face, as lovely as it had ever been, was drawn into a puzzled frown.
"Mother?"
Tinker Bell startled at that. Cora, the woman who ripped out hearts, had been sent far away, through a mirror to Wonderland. Even if she had escaped that land, why would Regina sound so happy to see her? Cora had terrorized her as a child and sold her into marriage as a woman. She was Regina's mother, though, and it was a messy, complicated matter.
Regina stepped off of the rough trail that the others had made with their swords and bodies. "Mother?"
Suddenly Tinker Bell understood. Regina had fallen under the spell of one of Neverland's deadliest and most effective weapons. The island's apparitions could appear as anyone at any time. They offered their victims whatever they desired. Love, affection, a kind ear, food, sex, escape. The phantasms would do anything to lure their victims in so they could-
No. She had fought with the phantasms time and time again. She had let herself fall for the gorgeous and ghostly images of her lover and the pain had been so acute that she had often wished death upon herself. She couldn't let Regina fall for their tricks. Pan's displeasure with the foreign presence on the island was more than enough to drive the specters to murder.
"Regina!" Secrecy forgotten, Tinker Bell stepped out the shadows she had hidden herself in, but it was too late, Regina disappeared into the jungle. A patch of white stood out against the mottled brown and green jungle floor and she knelt to pick it up. Regina's handkerchief. She always had two or three of the embroidered linen squares with her. She held it to her nose and inhaled and despite the years couldn't help but recognize Regina's scent: apples and spiced wine. She tucked it into her belt-pouch and pulled her long green cloak around her, she needed to break the hold the illusion had over Regina before she was hurt. She stepped into the thick jungle behind her queen and hoped she would be in time.
Regina was all but running ahead of her, oblivious to the dangers around her. She was chasing the vision of her mother. The desperation in her voice made Tinker Bell's heart ache. She picked up her pace but stumbled to a stop when she entered the clearing.
Moonlight shined off of the many interconnected pools that made up the clearing. The moon's hazy reflection was the only indication that the ground was not what it seemed. Neverland's quicksand was a slow descent into death and Regina had stopped dead in the middle of the biggest pool.
"Regina!"
Tinker Bell's voice echoed but Regina didn't even blink. Her eyes were wide, full of tears and locked onto the invisible woman she thought she was talking to. Her arms were locked around herself, hugging her own waist. Her words, choked with tears, were about her son.
"Regina!"
The woman was sinking, fast. The power of the illusion had made her oblivious to the fact that in less than a minute the sand had pulled her thigh-deep into the ground.
Tinker Bell had limited time and options. She was not a hero, she had proved that much years before. There was no one else around though, and more importantly the Blue Fairy was not around to stop her.
Regina's head dropped and her body went limp, like she had given up all her strength. Though her lack of resistance was actually slowing the pull of gravity, it still worried Tinker Bell. Regina was completely enthralled, perhaps too far gone to pull back to reality.
"Regina." She got as close to the edge of the quicksand as she dared, "Listen to me. Whatever you're seeing, whatever you're feeling. It's a lie, My Queen. You have to wake up and see that it's a lie."
It was probably a beautiful lie that, if her smile was any indication, made Regina happy.
She looked around, frantic now because Regina had sank to her waist and still wasn't moving.
"Stubborn woman."
She looked up to the trees. Nothing could grow in the sand pits but some of the old and large trees of the jungle had branches that stretched over the clearing. A plan started forming in her mind and she flipped her hood back.
The trees had become a second home for her. They gave her shelter, food and entertainment. She would have gone completely insane without something to occupy her mind. Carving wood gave her something to focus on. Not that anyone would ever care about the things she'd carved, small figures and animals mostly, they kept her on a mostly even keel. Now she needed the trees once more.
She kept a wary eye on Regina's slowly sinking form as she found a trust nearby tree to being her ascent. She gathered vines, of the nightshade free variety, and tried to work out what she was going to do. It seemed simple, in theory, but nothing was easy in Neverland. Only a few branches stretched far enough out over the pools and less than half of those would support her own weight. It was a painstaking process but she eventually worked her way over and used the vines as ropes to dangle herself over Regina.
"I must" She huffed to herself as she hung upside down, trusty cloak tucked into her belt, "Thank Hook for all those hours he made me work the rigging."
She was right above Regina and it was almost like flying again. She lowered herself until the rope was taught and reached down. Two feet too short to reach Regina. The woman was now down to her trim waist in the quicksand and a quick dose of panic hit Tink's system. They had not been reunited for her to watch Regina die. Even Neverland couldn't be that cruel.
"Regina!"
No response, not even a blink.
"Regina it's not real! Your mother isn't here, My Queen."
Her old pet-name for the woman fell from her lips as easily as it ever had. Regina had told her that she was the Queen of Nothing. Not to Tinker Bell. Regina was her queen.
"It's me, damn you, It's Tinker Bell!"
Regina's eyelids fluttered, like she was getting through to her.
"That's right. Listen to me, and only me. Remember me. Remember us. Focus on what is real."
"Regina!"
The voice came from far away and she jerked in her mother's arms. Who was calling for her?
"Regina, it's not real!"
Cora's arms tightened around her. It had to be real. Her mother was here, wasn't she?
"Your mother isn't here, My Queen."
Regina blinked at that. No one called her that. Not since Tinker Bell had disappeared. The sweet, kind and beautiful fairy that had almost saved her from herself once upon a time. She had searched for her, in secret of course, for years and had never found her. She had hoped that maybe the woman would appear in Storybrooke, but she never had. There had been a moment that she had thought that the blonde on her doorstep-but it hadn't been her. Tinker Bell was gone forever, just like everyone else she had ever dared to love.
"It's me, damn you, it's Tinker Bell!"
The voice was louder, closer, clearer.
If her mother was here, in Neverland, why couldn't her fairy be there too?
She tried to pull away from her mother, but the other woman's grip didn't loosen. She couldn't move, Regina suddenly felt a shiver of fear, why couldn't she move?
"That's right. Listen to me, and only me."
Though her mother's face was only inches from her, it was blurry now, out of focus.
"Remember me. Remember us."
Tinker Bell had saved her. Literally she had stopped her mid-fall. Had she jumped or fallen? Regina still wasn't sure. She had known that the rail was loose but at that specific moment she hadn't cared. She had just wanted to-she still wasn't sure what she had wanted. She had been relieved when Tink had saved her. It hadn't just been that night, though. Tinker Bell had helped her heal. She had helped close the gaping wounds in her heart, let them scab and scar over a little. Tinker Bell had brought love back into her heart and had made her feel like she was more than a queen of nothing. She had made her feel so many things. Their time together, short and beautiful, had been some of the happiest days of Regina's life. She had never wanted to leave their little cottage, it had been her sanctuary, sanity and the closest thing to happily ever after she'd ever had. Until it had all come crashing down.
"Focus on what is real."
What was real?
She was in Neverland.
Pan had her son.
She had killed her mother (again).
She was the Evil Queen and before that she had been the queen of nothing.
No.
A small, bright light burned in her memory. She had been Tinker Bell's Queen.
Tinker Bell who smelled like the sunflowers that covered their secret cottage and the star shine she flew through every night.
Tinker Bell who had disappeared without a trace.
Tinker Bell, whose voice was unforgettable.
Tinker Bell.
Tinker Bell?
Cora slowly faded away, her face still stretched into the warm smile that she had always craved but only seen once. The overwhelming glow of love faded but the odd, cool floating sensation remained. Vertigo rushed through her and Regina wasn't sure what was up or down and couldn't seem to find the ground beneath her feet. She tilted her head back (to look up?), because that seemed to be the only logical thing to do.
Eyes, bright and piercing green eyes were the first thing she could see clearly. She knew these eyes, she had seen them crinkle in laughter, widen in shock and soften in adoration. The face slowly formed, it floated above her, hovering like a Christian guardian angel. Though not an angel, Tinker Bell had been the only person to ever go out of her way to help her. Tink had been her savior long before the title had become synonymous with Emma Swan.
"Tin-?" Her voice was a raspy whisper, her lungs felt compressed and breathing was far harder than usual. "Tinker Bell?" It had been so long since she'd said that name. So long since she had allowed herself to think of the beautiful blonde who had (momentarily) made her so very happy. Her face swan into focus, hazy at first then clear as, well, a bell. It wasn't exactly as she remembered it. The woman's features, once soft and full, were sharper now. Her hair, once golden ringlets, fell in a tangle of messy braids. Fell, hung, something. The way she was floating it was almost like she was hanging upside down and reaching for her, but that didn't make sense.
"That's right, My Queen, come back to me. Stay calm and reach for my hands."
Two hands, complete with the slender fingers that fit with hers so well, reached for her. "Please just reach for my hands."
She could see it on Regina's face. She saw the exact moment when the woman came back to reality. The look in her eyes, eyes that held more shades and tints of brown than she had ever imagined there could be, told Tink everything she needed to know. Loss, pain, love, fear, and then the panic hit her. Regina could not tolerate being captured and bound. The invisible scars she carried from Cora, the mother that she both hated and loved, ran deep. She began to thrash in a desperate attempt to free herself. Regina couldn't even swim without magic and Neverland's sands weren't just quick, they soaked up magic like a sponge. Regina wasn't just sinking she was being sucked dry.
"Stop!"
Regina's frantic movements only sped up her sinking.
"Stop Regina, stay still!"
She was up to her neck, splatters of the greedy sand marred her face and hair. Her eyes were wide with fear and her breathing was nearing hyperventilation. She slipped down a little more.
"My hand, Regina, take my hand!"
Her voice cracked and her shoulder ached as she stretched her arms down as far as she could. "Reach!"
A shaky hand, coated in filthy brown and gray muck, stretched up towards her.
"That's it, My Queen, just a little further."
Their fingers brushed and slid against each other, Regina's slick with goop and Tink's slick with sweat.
"Just a little further. You can do it. Both hands, Regina, you have to reach for me with both hands."
Regina was desperately trying to tread water with the other arm.
"I can't."
Her voice was tight and panicked.
"Believe in me, My Queen. Just one more time." She flexed her fingers, "Do you believe in me?"
Their eyes met and for a brief second the years between them dropped away.
"I've always believed."
Regina's words were quiet, almost a whisper, but Tink felt the truth of it deep in her heart.
"Then reach with both hands. Believe in me-"
Regina slipped down further until only her face and hands were visible.
"I won't ever let you fall."
She narrowed her eyes and struggled to lift both hands out of the viscous sand. Regina reached up, her hands shaking with fear and fatigue. She reached up and there was a moment, a second's long infinity that their hands hovered, fingers almost touching. Then Regina's hands, warm and supple hands that had run over her body, and face, that had delicately traced her wings, closed around her wrist.
"Hold on tight."
She pulled a dagger from the sheath snugged into her boot. "It's going to be a bumpy flight."
She pulled Regina up as much as she could, her strength was somewhat limited at this angle, and then threw the dagger. It flew from her fingertips and sliced through the vine that she had used to tie down the branch. The sudden release of weight acted like a catapult, the tree branch flew up and pulled Regina free of the quick sand.
It was not graceful and it was not painless. They twisted and fell onto the ground, just a few feet away from the pool. Solid ground met them with a hard crack of flesh and bone on dirt.
Regina's coughs were just as violent as the escape. "We" she sputtered again, "fell."
Tink couldn't help it, she grinned, "Together, though. We fly or fall together, remember."
They were laying side by side on the ground, staring up at the stars and Regina's hand found hers. "You saved me. Again."
There was a touch of wonder in her voice, and it was momentarily lighter and infused with happiness, the way it had been before-once upon a time.
"Yes." She found herself holding in laughter, "we have to stop meeting this way."
"Are you" Regina choked again, "laughing?"
Tinker Bell turned her head to the side and looked at Regina's slime-coated face. "I haven't had a lot to laugh about these past few years."
Regina turned her own head, "Neither have I."
They laid there for a moment, the past draped over them like a blanket. Everything they had never got time to say, everything they had felt, everything was suddenly too much and neither knew how to handle it so they were silent.
After a moment Tinker Bell sat up and offered Regina a hand to help her up.
"Let's get you up and moving."
Regina's soft groan made Tink frown. There was a bruise on her cheek, weariness and pain in her eyes and she carried stress and worry in every fiber of her being. She knew, without even asking, that her worry over her son was what had her on edge.
"He's safe for now. A little roughed up and scared but otherwise perfectly fine."
Regina's fingers tighten around hers so quickly and strongly that it hurts. "Henry?" Her voice carries her emotions the same way it always had. Fear and hope battled in her voice and her heart. "You've seen my son?"
Should she tell her the truth or make her feel better? Tink didn't even pause to think about it. "Pan showed him to me. He had his Lost Boys drag me out of my bed and bring me to him. He knew of my past and expects me to delay your rescue."
"H-how long have you been here?"
Regina's eyes didn't leave hers, "Why did you leave me? I waited and you never came back. I waited by the window and searched for you." Brown eyes flicked over her and Tink knew that she was piecing it together.
"Oh Tinker Bell where are your wings? What did Pan do to you? How did this happen?" Her voice started to waver, "is this my fault?" The way she said it, Regina might have become the Evil Queen and she might be responsible for many terrible things, and some might blame her for her situation. Regina was all too ready and willing to take the blame, it seemed.
Though they had been apart for years the barriers quickly fell. She reached out and grabbed Regina's face, one hand on either of the woman's sharper-then-she-remembered-them cheeks, "No. You didn't do this. Reul Ghorm took my wings and banished me here. Not you." She let her thumb brush down Regina's un-bruised cheek and it paused to caress the scar above her lip. "Never you."
Fire came alive in Regina's eyes, "The Blue Fairy?" Her mouth, beautiful as ever, curled into a snarl. "I'll kill that fiendish little mosquito."
Once, many years before, that would have been unimaginable. Her Regina had been an innocent surrounded by darkness, on the edge of the abyss. She had fallen, though. Who was she to judge Regina, though? Neverland had changed her, hardened her, and forged her from fairy dust into hardened steel. Her hands were just as bloody.
"As much as I would love to see her knocked down a peg or two, our priority is rescuing your son."
She stood, legs apparently no worse for the wear and helped the far less stable Regina to her feet.
"You really want to help me find Henry?"
She could tell that Regina was looking for her ulterior motive or how it benefitted her. Her belief in the kindness of others, which had been tenuous when they'd met, had faded completely.
"For you, Regina, I'd do anything." Truth, plain and simple truth. She kept the other woman's hand clasped in hers, "Now come on, we should probably get you back with your group of-"She paused because she didn't want to say something that might offend.
"The Two Idiots, Hook and Emma, yes."
"Who are they?"
She lead Regina through the underbrush that they had run through before, backtracking towards the trail Hook had hacked through the jungle.
"Snow and Davi-"
"Snow? As in Snow White?"
Regina sighed, "Unfortunately."
Tink remembered their first day out together, "The Little Monster all grown up, eh?"
Regina chuckled a little at that, "Exactly. The rest of it, though, gets a little complicated."
Regina filled her in on her traveling companions and the fact that The Dark One was also in Neverland as they walked and by silent but mutual agreement they were still linked by the hand.
"We should be getting close." She pushed aside the leaves in front of her and was quickly met by swords and a bow.
"Who are you?"
"Where's Regina?"
"Fancy seeing you here, Miss Bell."
Regina stepped, half limped, out of the shadowy jungle. She held up her free hand, "its okay. She's a friend."
She sounded strong again, resolute, proud and regal. Only Tink knew that it was a front, Regina was exhausted, emotionally wrecked and in desperate need of rest and sleep. Her pride, though, would never allow her to appear weak in front of her fellow travelers.
"You don't have friends."
Snow White, the pampered little princess who had helped make Regina's life so unbearable that all it had taken was a loose rail for an excuse to end it, sneered her words.
"Who is she?"
The blonde, Regina had told her that the woman's name was Emma and that she was Henry's birth mother, pointed her sword at Tink's chest. Her fingers itched to pull a dagger but she refrained.
"This is Tinker Bell."
Emma Swan, the so-called Savior, raised both brows. "Really? Tinker Bell? You have got to be kidding me."
"And how" Prince Charming, and wasn't that just nauseating, "do you know each other?"
Tink squeezed Regina's hand in her own, "It's-"They had been friends, lover and Tink was positive that Regina was her soul mate. They had been torn apart by powers both sinister and benevolent. She was a banished fairy and Regina an Evil Queen. So much had happened since last they had saw each other. "Complicated."