Part 2 with some fluff. I couldn't leave you hanging.

She was laughing again, a sound that could only be described as evil coming out of her rotten core. The hilt of Robin's knife protrudes from her abdomen, dark blood slowly staining her gown, but the queen only laughs and laughs as she steps away. Robin's eyes flick frantically between his bloody knife and his beating heart that now resides in the queen's palm.

"Come here," she beckons and his body blindly obeys her command. She pulls the knife out, her magic sealing the wound the moment the blade is free, and drops its back into his hand. "Care to try again, Outlaw?"

"Wouldn't do any good, would it?" Robin raises an eyebrow to her healing midsection as he wipes her blood onto his pant leg and re-sheathes his knife.

"No, but I do admire your efforts, your devotion. Even if it is to the wrong Re-gi-na." She draws out each syllable, tapping his cheek with the point of her nail; the name he adores sounding like a curse spilling from her lips.

"There's only one as far as I'm concerned," he tells her.

"Are we still on that?" she guffaws, throwing up her hands in feigned exasperation. "Can't you see me standing before you? Can't you feel me?" She stretches catlike against him, pressing his heart against his ear. The frantic beating drowns out the noise of the forest around them. He wishes he could calm its rhythms; he wishes the careless front he's trying to show her wasn't so obviously false. "Can't you see I'm everything she's not." The Queen purrs against his heart and he feels the vibrations running through his body.

"I can see that you're everything she hates about herself, everything she regrets," his voice is strained as he fights against her magic's hold.

"I hold your heart, Thief, and you would mock me?"

"You hold the organ, my heart belongs Regina. MY REGINA!" He yells into her face even as she begins to squeeze the enchanted heart in her hand. He will not back down. If this is to be his end, he will die knowing that he stood up to the evil queen and up for the woman he loves in spite of her.

"Get the hell away from him!"

Her voice cuts through the throbbing pain that's consuming him and Robin manages to step back just as fire rips between them. The flame singes Robin's jacket, but that's the least of his worries at the moment. Regina stands to his left, flame blazing in each palm; the queen to his right, still holding his heart although her grip has lessened enough to allow him to breath.

"Regina, dear. Lovely of you to join us. My soulmate and I were just having a little chat about all the finer things in life that you are now lacking," she mocks, carelessly tossing Robin's heart from hand to hand as if preparing for a juggling act.

"I said 'Get away from him.'" Regina launches the flame towards the queen's feet. The other woman doesn't flinch, only sneers at her counterpart as she tramps out the flames with a healed boot. The heat she feels against her foot confirms what Regina had already suspected. "Give me his heart," she demands, calmly walking forward to place herself between Robin and the queen. Her thief's hands instantly circle her waist to pull her away, but Regina won't be moved.

"And why would I do that, dear? You wouldn't even know what to do with it." She's stroking the organ, almost tenderly, but there's an underlying malevolence to the movement, a taunt that tells them she holds his life in her hand.

"Because you want to live," Regina answers flatly as she grabs Robin's knife and presses it to her own throat with on swift move.

The queen's free hand flies instantly to her own neck. She can feel the coolness of the steel, the pressure of the blade, the trickle of blood where Regina nicked her own flesh. "You wouldn't dare."

"You know better than anyone that I would." She feels Robin's arms tighten around her, feels his breath huffing out against her neck. He's murmuring something into her ear, but she forces it aside. She created this monster and she'll be the one to destroy her. "His heart," she demands again, holding out a hand that is far too steady for someone that is millimeters away from slitting her own throat.

The queen holds out for another stubborn moment before screaming her frustration as she vanishes in a cloud of purple smoke leaving Robin's heart to lie in her outstretched hand.

Robin's hand closes tightly around the knife, pulling it from her throat before she realizes just how hard she's shaking. "Are you okay?" she whispers over and over as Robin throws the blade to the ground and turns her toward him.

"Don't ever do that again," he breathes against her face as is forehead rests to hers. There's a small line of blood trailing from her throat to her collarbone and he has to close his eyes against what could have been.

"I had to stop her," her voice still shakes as she stares at the pure heart in her hand. The heart that loves her, that was almost crushed by the worst of her.

"There are other ways than killing yourself." His hands cradle her face as he tilts it up to meet his.

"Maybe not." There's a fear in her eyes as she looks down again. Robin follows her gaze to the dark red stain on her shirt: her blood, still wet from where it began to pour out of her without cause. He steps back from her, horrified.

"You're connected?" It's not a question, but he asks it all the same, scrubbing his hands over his face. It does nothing to get the image of her bleeding out by his hand out of his head. "I could have killed you," he stammers, slowly walking away.

She'll have none of it though, catching his arm and holding, fingers wrapped firmly around his tattoo. "You didn't know. There was no way you could have known."

"You…" his voice breaks into tears that will not let him give voice to what he could have done.

"Are fine," she grabs a hand full of her ruined shirt and jerks it up to reveal her stained, but undamaged abdomen. "I'm fine," she repeats as he runs trembling fingers across her exposed skin. She takes his hand in hers, pulls it away from her blood and brings it to her heart. She feels his own heartbeat slow as she presses his palm to hers. "Let's put this back where it belongs, shall we?"

His eyes dart to the heart she still holds gently in her palm, he'd completely forgotten it missing. With everything that had just happened, its locations seemed irrelevant. He can only nod his assent. What does one say when your heart is about to be put back into your chest? He can't describe the feeling of not having it, (thinks maybe he understands a bit more of her from when they first met in Storybrooke) but he trusts her explicitly.

Once the organ is balanced between her palm and his chest, Regina hesitates. It's ridiculous, she knows. She's plucked and pushed hundreds of hearts to and from their owners in her day. But not his; she's sworn to him, to herself, it would never be his. Robin notices, notices everything it would seem, and covers her hands with his own, urging her to push it back in to place. There's a sharp pain, but nothing compared to having it pulled out. He takes a deep, steadying breath, another, then closes the scant space between them by wrapping her in his arms. "Promise me you aren't listening to anything that vile woman says," he asks with his cheek pressed to hers.

"That vile woman is me." She tries to hide the tremble in her voice. Tries and fails.

"Was you, and even at your worst, I doubt you were that bad," Robin soothes, fingers weaving through her hair, running up and down her back.

"You've never seen my worst," she corrects, tears sliding from her eyes to his cheek, his hands.

"True, but I have seen your best," he wipes at her face, shifts so she's tucked into his shoulder, but doesn't let go. "I see it every day."

She hears him, but isn't ready to believe it. "I killed someone today," she cries openly into his chest. "In front of my son."

"Because you had to. Regina, you know you had to. And so does Henry," he assures, knowing for a fact that her son thinks impossibly more of her after her earlier heroics.

"Still. My first days free of darkness and I killed a man that did nothing to deserve it. She's right. I can't escape it, her, myself." She tries to pull out of his arms, but he holds her in place. The adrenaline of the moment is over; Regina has no fight left in her, so she sinks back into him. "You were right. I never should have done this. I could have gone on with her inside of me, I could have…"

"No, I wasn't." He sees the shock on her face because how could he possibly agree with her now, after everything that's happened and will most likely continue to happen? "Regina, seeing you these last few days…" he starts, then switches tactics for something more honest. "I was never bothered by your darkness, but you were. And while it hasn't changed how I feel about you, it has changed how you feel about yourself and that has been a beautiful thing to witness, Milady." He kisses her forehead, her temple, the tip of her nose, before lifting her chin to gain access to her lips. "A beautiful thing," he repeats against the corner of her mouth before finally capturing her lips. She tastes of tears, but no matter, he'll kiss them away.

She's reluctant at first, won't allow herself to give into the soft, insistent kisses he presses to her lips, but he's a patient man and bit by bit her resolve wears thin. "We'll find another way?" she asks between kisses because she needs to hear him say it one more time.

"We will," he assures, moving down her jaw and back to her lips. "Together."

I've gotten some awesome reviews and encouragement, so this series will definitely continue throughout the season (because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be happy with how they bring Robin back. Hopefully optimistic, but still...) I've gotten a couple prompts already. "Robin being present during the split" is currently being worked on, but if there's ever a scene you'd like to see please please please let me know. My brain needs a creative outlet.

Thank you for reading!