"Let me see the ring!" Mary Margaret exclaims. "Oh my god, you must have been so surprised!"

"I was," Regina says with a smile, holding her hand out for Mary's inspection.

"It was a hard secret to keep! I mean, knowing that everyone knew but you, I thought it was so romantic, but I was terrified someone would slip the news!" Mary Margaret laughs, still staring at Regina's perfect ring.

Robin offers her a little smile but says nothing. He knows very well that Daniel was planning to propose immediately before he left for LA. A romantic gesture, in Daniel's eyes, though in Robin's it seemed a bit cruel. Regina had prepared herself for a long distance relationship for months. Daniel was so obsessed with faking her out that he even insisted she not bother looking for jobs in LA, that she should not uproot her life for him.

All part of the misdirect, so when he popped the question, he could say he truly surprised her.

Daniel is Robin's friend, but, well, sometimes he really hates the guy. Often, it seems, when it involves matters of Regina Mills.

She makes her way around the room, but she won't come to him yet, he knows. She will say her hellos to everyone else first, then come over to the little two-top table in the corner he's parked himself at and decompress for a bit with him.

He waits, watches her as she makes her way, that fake smile plastered on her face as she gives hug after hug, continues to hold out her ring finger for those who ask.

"Did you know about this?" Regina asks as she sits next to him. She's sweeping her hair back to the side, a nervous habit Robin finds adorable. Her hair is so long these days, it does tend to go everywhere. It's actually quite adorable.

Robin and a few others were instructed to wait for her here, at the little bar in town. Daniel was to send Regina there after he got on his flight, so she could celebrate their engagement… without him. Fuck, Robin doesn't get Daniel at all.

Robin wants to tell her he knew all along, that he had tried to talk him out of it for months, arguing that it was idiotic, and completely not Regina's style. He wants to tell her when Daniel refused to listen to reason he at least got him to agree to go ring shopping, that the ring on her finger is one Robin helped pick out. And nearly every gift she's ever received that's meant anything has been from him, and he's really tired of it.

But he's a good friend, so he only nods, hands her the old fashioned he had ordered for her and kept waiting.

She sits down and sighs, sitting with her glass of sparkling wine aside.

"I seriously love you for this."

She's pointing to the drink in her hand and drinking it down in heavy gulps. She didn't mean it that way, but his heart still knocks hard at her words.

It's been years since he accepted the truth. She doesn't look at him that way; she never did.

And she's with his friend.

Engaged to his friend.j

He gave her up a long time ago, it's just residual emotion that pings at certain moments, his past crush rearing its ugly head at the worst of times.

"I figured you could use a drink and some quiet," he says with a smile. "I know this really isn't…"

"What I pictured?" she asks. "Yeah, funny, I thought I'd be able to spend time with my fiancé after he proposes. He left ten minutes afterward instead. It's okay, I get it, he's a romantic, he's all about these big surprise gestures, but I thought maybe our engagement would be about us instead of…" she motions towards the room. "All of this."

He nods at her sympathetically. "He'll be back soon. To visit. At least, I'm sure of it." That's the only consolation he can really offer.

"You tried to talk him out of this, didn't you?" she asks, tilting her head in that adorable way she does when she's realizing something.

"He likes this sort of thing. He loves surprising you."

"Mmm," she draws, staring off into the distance. "I know, it's sweet." But she doesn't sound like she believes her words, not at all.

He hates that he's in the position here to talk up and defend idiotic Daniel. He means well, he really does, but he never really understood Regina.

Daniel only ever showed interest in Regina because Robin wanted her first, had yearned for her when things were cooling (but not quite cold) with Marian.

And his attentive efforts had drawn Daniel's eye.

One evening at happy hour, she sat with them for a while, laughed and exchanged coy, flirtatious smiles Robin had stupidly thought were for him. It was a childish thing for a twenty-three-year-old to say, but when she excused herself to the restroom, Daniel had simply turned to his friends and called "dibs" on Regina.

Robin couldn't argue then. He liked her — far too much, he realizes now, but if he had told Daniel that he would have been admitting to everyone (including himself) that he was emotionally disconnected with Marian.

He wasn't ready, at that point.

So he let her go. And it was agony, at first, watching Regina fall for Daniel, watching him exploit everything Robin knew of her, had shared with him. Every thought he shared, every perspective on a fight they might have, only made them stronger. Marian and Robin completely fell apart two months later, and that's when the pain burned the brightest, when he was alone and realizing the relationship he so honorably stayed in was nothing more than a sham.

But that was years ago. The yearning for her is gone, and he only cares for her as a supportive friend.

That's all.

A supportive friend who knows her well. And he kicks himself when he's unable to stop a woman from coming up to hug and squeal to Regina, asking to again see her ring. She does what she has to do, smiles and tries to act giddy and carefree.

When the girl leaves, Regina chugs the rest of her drink.

"I'm really uncomfortable," she whispers, looking around her. "I just… I hate surprise parties and this is a surprise engagement on top of a surprise party, without my fiancé to celebrate it with me."

"You want to fake an illness and get out of here?" he asks. "I'll cover for you."

"No… Daniel went to a lot of trouble," she sighs. "I'm being a brat. This was really nice of him."

"You're not being a brat." He squeezes her hand because that's all he can do. Then he bites his lip to keep from saying anything more.

Then a waiter comes up and hands her another old fashioned.

"I've been told to make sure you're not without a drink the whole night," the waiter laughs.

Regina raises an eyebrow at Robin and he just shrugs.

"Daniel told me to take care of you," he admits with a smile.

.::.

Regina is happy, really. The love of her life proposed to her, something she had once hoped for desperately. To be frank, it's something she had stopped hoping for some time ago.

And that's because Daniel psyched her out, she knew. So when he proposed she wouldn't expect it. It's so very Daniel, he loves this sort of stuff. And all of her friends are so in love with these over the top actions.

She could write about his proposal for a wedding magazine and make an entire population of bride-to-be jealous. But these big grand gestures where all her friends and family are in on the surprise really make her feel… overexposed, instead of excited and happy.

Daniel says she's shy, that she just needs to get more comfortable with being in the spotlight, that it will happen. She feels like she's disappointing him, somehow, by not enjoying this.

She can't share her feelings with everyone but can with her best friend. And Robin is her best friend — he just doesn't know it.

She may see other people more, spend more time with them, even talk to them more. But Robin is the one she shares the most of herself with, has the most conversations of value.

He has been her best friend since their first day at Pan Industries. They work in completely different departments, but when they first showed up at the huge pharmaceutical complex, they shared an orientation tour that led to a deep friendship. She's in the labs, designing and developing new drugs, while Robin works in the marketing department. But they somehow complement one another very well and have gotten along from the moment they met.

Back then, when he invited her to lunches and drinks, she had thought Robin might have been fixing to ask her out. But then she found out about Marian and realized he had only been feeling her out to set her up with his friend, Daniel.

And Robin was right; she and Daniel are a better fit for a relationship. He challenges her, he pushes her to get out of her own shell. He's going to make her a better person.

Robin is more of a supportive friend who is happy with her as she is.

One she will absolutely hate not seeing every day when she moves to LA to be with Daniel.

But change is good, Daniel says, it's good to get out of your comfort zone. And her comfort zone is here, in suburban New Jersey, where there are real friends and real seasons. LA will be different, and it doesn't sound like something she wants to do, but that's only her fear of change talking. She has to get better about that.

"So do you have a plan?" Robin asks. "For, um, how this marriage will work. I know you were doing long distance before he gave you the ring, but…"

"We didn't really get a chance to talk about it," she sighs. She needs to stop sounding so annoyed about this. "He proposed to me at the literal last moment. I had already said goodbye and turned around so he couldn't see my crying, and then he grabbed me, got down on one knee, proposed in that crowded airport, and then had to rush through airport security to make his flight."

She chuckles darkly, taking a swig of her drink. Robin laughs a bit too.

"That sounds like Daniel," he grins.

"Yeah, that's him. He did say he wants me to start looking at jobs in LA so… I guess I will."

"You don't sound very enthused," Robin notes.

"I like it here," Regina admits. "Good friends, good food, a nice, cold winter, and a nice hot summer. Beaches and forest and close enough to the city… and I love my job. What's not to like?"

"I like you here, too," he says, his smile not meeting his eyes. "But it will be good. I'm sure you didn't think New Jersey would be your dream destination, and yet, you had fun here, right? Maybe the same thing will happen to LA."

It's true. When she got the job at Pan she had hoped she'd be working out of the NYC office, and she was incredibly disappointed to find she'd be holed up in a bleak little town in New Jersey.

She was sure she would hate it, yet in a few short months, she decided she never wanted to leave.

"I don't think I'll get this lucky again, but maybe you are right," she muses.

He smiles, then looks behind her at something and frowns.

"Go chat with some people for a bit, then come back here, it'll be your safe spot. If you are here much longer people will get antsy and start interrupting us and coming up to you and it will no longer be your little hideaway."

She laughs at how well he knows her, toasts to him then makes her way through the crowd.

Robin stays at that little two top table the whole night. He doesn't have to — he has plenty of friends here and unlike Regina, Robin is very outgoing, finds crowds exciting instead of draining. He stays there, she thinks, so she always has a place to rest and recharge.

Bless him.

She uses it, making her way back at every chance she gets (she's just not in the mood for all of this, and feigning excitement is draining).

Robin's always there with a sympathetic ear and a cool glass of liquor.

He's the reason she makes it through the night.

.::.

"So how's it going, babe?"

Daniel is on the phone, sounding so upbeat and smug.

"Great. I'm just taking a relaxing bath, enjoying the way my ring looks in the candlelight," she sighs, staring at the brilliant cut solitaire. He did good, with that.

"You be careful with that, don't let it fall down the drain," he warns, and she's happy he can't see her roll her eyes.

It's been two weeks since their engagement day, and they've yet to have a conversation of substance. He's been so busy in LA, and she's been…

She's something, she doesn't know what.

She's suddenly so nervous when he calls, looking for ways to excuse herself.

She's never liked the phone much so it's not a surprise she's uncomfortable. They've never had to do long distance before, so perhaps she never realized how much her phone phobia has inhibited her until now.

But of course, she's also deliberately tried to avoid the conversation of setting a date.

She has cold feet, it seems.

"So how're the job prospects looking for LA? You find any labs in the area looking for a stunning scientist?"

"There are a few places," she sighs, but can't help but adding, "nothing as prestigious as Pan, of course."

"Relax, I'm making plenty of money here. You don't need a job that pays that well. You can take any job at a medical lab, with your resume it won't take long at all. Maybe soon you won't have to work at all. I can take care of both of us."

But it's not about that. She doesn't care about the money. She wants to work on something innovative. She doesn't want to be doing urine tests all day.

"I'm looking," she lies. But she isn't at all. "Maybe if I get some time off I can come to LA to visit? It's weird being engaged and not being able to see your fiancé… I miss you."

"Yeah! That'd be great!" Daniel pauses for a bit before adding, "but you know I just moved, I'm still settling. I guess I kind of thought you'd give your two weeks notice, pack things up, find a subletter, and move here in a month or so. A visit would be great, but maybe it's best you knock everything out real quick and come move over here for good."

There's that sense of dread washing over her in a tidal wave.

A month. He expects her to uproot her entire life and move across the country in a month.

She will have to say goodbye to everything.

And neither Daniel or she really have any ties to the area, so once she leaves, that will be it.

"Daniel, I am not just going to give two weeks notice and be out," she says, trying to keep calm. "I'm on that clinical study for the new trial drug I told you about, and it's amazing and challenging, and I really want to see it through."

"Oh, well how long will that take?" Daniel asks.

"Three months." It may take more than that, honestly. But three months is a start.

"So what, you'd finish up by Christmas?"

"By New Year's maybe."

"Do you really need to stay that long? Surely someone else can take over."

"I don't have to, I want to," Regina all but growls back at the phone. "Daniel, this is a big change. You're asking me to move after months of telling me all the reasons I should stay. And you've never even asked me what I want."

"I did ask. When I asked you to marry me, that was me asking you, wasn't it?"

Her heart beats faster as she realizes he's right. If she didn't want to move, if she didn't want LA, she should have said no.

She loves him far too much to end things. More than the town that she loves, more than all the people in it.

"I want to marry you, I just… I need some time to say goodbye to everything and everyone. Daniel, it's a lot."

His voice is more sympathetic then. "I know, babe. Trust me, I get how hard change is for you. But it will be good. You just need to adjust. What do you need to make this work? I'm here to help."

He's not here, not at all, but he's trying.

"I just need time. For some sense of closure, I don't know. Let me do it on my terms."

She pleads her case, and Daniel is kind enough to grant her what she needs. She can take her time adjusting, getting ready to move on.