Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time nor its characters.

Chapter 2

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Such a simple, automatic action, but one Regina had to remind herself needed to be performed, for the air had been knocked out of her lungs.

She had found it. Zelena had finally found a way to get back at her sister, hitting a sore spot for Regina and also gifting her with a lifelong reminder that her soulmate had moved on and had sex with another woman after choosing her, after saying he was in love with her.

The fact that, albeit unknowingly, he had done so with her deranged half-sister, whose life goal was to destroy her happiness, did nothing but rub salt in the wound.

She couldn't dwell on this new piece of information now, though. She had to make sure Robin and Roland were safe, first.

"Emma…" Regina whispered, painfully aware of how weak her voice sounded "Do me a favour and get my sister out of my sight before I tear her to pieces. I need a moment with Robin."

"Sure, we'll wait for you downstairs." The blonde grabbed Zelena's arm and pushed her towards the front door.

"Oh, sis, are you sure you don't want me to stay for this little reunion? I mean, we're all family now, even though maybe it didn't happen the way you dreamed it would." Zelena taunted her sister with a wide grin plastered on her face until Emma and Lily managed to get her out of the apartment.

They were alone now.

Regina felt hurt and betrayed but she had to push those feelings aside and just deal with them later.

"Robin…"

The man sat on the couch and she slowly made her way there too, sitting next to him but forcing herself to keep a little distance between them.

"Robin, I'm sorry about this whole thing. Please, look at me…"

"What happened to my wife? Who was that woman and how did she do that? And who are you?" He kept firing questions at her and seeing how distraught he was breaking her heart. All she wanted to do was hold him and comfort him but he didn't even remember who she was, so she took his hand in hers in the hope that it would be enough for the moment.

"Robin, what do you remember? About your life, I mean."

"I–I don't know…" He frowned as he tried to bring back any kind of memory of his life before his life there but finding none "I'm married to Marian and we've been living here with our son for as long as I can remember…"

So it wasn't just her and Emma he had forgotten, it was his whole life in the Enchanted Forest.

"My name is Regina Mills. We've known each other for a while now and we're…" she was not sure how to finish that sentence. Soulmates? Each other's second chance at love and happiness? No, she couldn't tell him that. "…friends."

"Then why can't I remember you?"

"Robin, I want to tell you everything but I need you to keep an open mind. Do you believe in magic?"

"Well, I didn't until today but after what I've just witnessed…"

"We come from a far away, the Enchanted Forest." She stopped to look at him, to gauge his reaction so far. He was just looking at her, waiting for her to go on, ready to absorb any information she had to offer.

"In that land I was known as the Evil Queen" Regina's eyes watered as she whispered those words. This Robin had no idea how many lives she had destroyed, how much misery she had inflicted, so as she revealed her past to him once more, she felt shame wash over her. Robin didn't even flinch, though, so she took a deep breath to steady her nerves a bit and continued "and you were known as Robin Hood. I know it probably sounds crazy but it's the truth. For the people in this world we are just fairytale characters but we are actually quite real and we now live in a town in Maine called Storybrooke."

"If what you're saying is true, why am I here New York and not in that town? And What happened to Marian?"

"It's a long story but what happened is that Marian died many years ago. Emma, the blonde you saw earlier, and Captain Hook traveled back in time and tried to save her by bringing her to the present. We only just found out that the woman they brought back wasn't really Marian. Zelena, my sister, in an attempt to destroy my happiness, killed Marian and she's been posing as her this whole time."

"Oh God…" Robin whispered, burying his face in his hands.

"I swear Robin, this is the truth, no matter how absurd it might sound. I would never lie to you."

"I–I believe you, it's just… I can't believe Marian is gone."

"I'm sorry. This all happened because of me, I was Zelena's target and everyone else became collateral damage."

"What am I gonna tell Roland? He's not going to understand what's going on…"

"Once we get back to Storybrooke, I'll be able to work on a potion to restore both of your memories, then we can use a forgetting potion to go back to before this whole thing happened."

Regina could see he was struggling to accept this reality, which was entirely new to him. Magic, potions, fairytale characters and different realms. It was a lot to take in and she was painfully aware of that. Her only hope was that he'd believe her, even though she was a complete stranger to him, and go willingly with them back to Storybrooke.

"I guess I'll get my son, then…"

She observed him as he got up from the rusty, old couch and disappeared into the bedroom where Roland was fast asleep. It pained her to see how broken he looked and she made a silent vow to herself: she would make sure Zelena paid for what she'd done.

Robin emerged from the bedroom with the sleepy 5-year-old in his arms and Regina couldn't help but smile at the sight. She hadn't fully realized just how much she'd missed him until now. It was evident he had been sleeping soundly until now, the drowsiness still lingered on his heavy eyelids.

"Papa, who is this?" He asked timidly as he tried to hide his face in the crook of his father's neck. She could hear in his voice that the child was probably seconds away from falling back into a deep slumber.

"She's a friend, Roland. Go back to sleep now."

Yes, a friend, she had to remind herself. Just a friend.

"We better get going, it's quite a long trip." She said.

"Lead the way, then."

The trip back to Storybrooke was silent. Regina had asked Emma to take Zelena for fear she would end up strangling the woman on the way, so she took the rented station wagon and traveled back to the small town with Robin sitting next to her, on the passenger's seat, and Roland still fast asleep.

The air was tense, she could feel Robin's distress but she had no idea what to say to him. The feelings she had pushed aside, the pain, the hurt, the sense of betrayal, were begging to resurface and it was growing harder to hide them. She was trying to concentrate on the road but images of Robin and Zelena together kept playing in her mind and a lonely tear silently rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away before Robin could see it, thankful that he was looking outside the car window at the moment.

It was a while later that he turned to look at her and started speaking "I haven't said it yet but thank you. If it weren't for you we'd still be living that lie and, if this woman is as wicked as you say, who knows what she might've done to Roland."

"Don't mention it. I'm just glad you trusted me, despite how crazy everything I told you must've sounded."

"Crazy is an understatement but I have this weird feeling, it's like a voice in my head saying I can trust you."

Just like I trusted you with my heart, she thought bitterly.

"Where we… close?"

"I– Uhm…"

"I know you said we were friends but there was a look in your eyes when I opened the door and, I don't know, it just looked like we had more history than that."

She was debating whether to tell him the truth or lie. He was her soulmate, he was well aware of that, and, still, he had moved on. He had always told her to hold onto hope and he had let go of that hope weeks or maybe mere days after their separation, even if it was Zelena's fault, since she removed any memory of her from his mind.

Still, Regina didn't want to have her heart broken anymore. It had happened too many times already and she was starting to question whether it was worth it, in the end.

"No, just friends."

Once they brought his memories back he would remember anyway and she was sure he'd be apologizing non-stop to her. She just wasn't ready to hear it all now. She needed to be alone. She needed time to process the recent events and deal with her feelings, then they could try to work things out, provided it was possible.

"So, we are… fairytale characters?"

She nodded slowly, eyes fixed on the road.

"And you said I'm Robin Hood. Like, steal-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor Robin Hood?"

"Yap."

"And you're supposed to be the Evil Queen? From the tale of Snow White?"

"Yes, but I prefer Regina."

She caught him smirking out of the corner of her eye and frowned at his reaction "Is that so funny?"

"No, milady." Her heart skipped a beat upon hearing the term of endearment that slipped past his lips as easily as it always had "Forgive me for not believing you but, from this angle, the 'evil' moniker seems somewhat of an overstatement."

And then her heart nearly stopped. They were the exact same words he had told her the first time they had met in Storybrooke, at Zelena's hideout. How could he not remember anything about that moment and yet say those words as if he were quoting them?

"Well, then I guess they're right when they say to never judge a book by its cover. You have no idea how many people I've killed and tortured, how much pain I've caused…" She whispered the last part, even though Roland was still asleep, she didn't want him to hear those things.

"I have the feeling that was a long time ago and that you're not that woman anymore. You saved me and my boy, I don't think that's something a villain would do."

"It wasn't that long ago…" She whispered as they let the conversation die, to be replaced by the uncomfortable silence that lasted until they reached Storybrooke a few hours later.

It was barely past sunrise that they reached the town centre and parked in front of Granny's, where everyone got out of the cars, tired-looking and with stiff limbs after the long drive.

Regina's eyes lit up a little when she saw Henry waiting with the Charmings and Hook in front of the diner. She and Robin got out of the car and, while the man picked up a yawning and stirring Roland, she had to fight the urge to literally run towards Henry. He met her halfway and wrapped his arms around her, which was exactly what she needed to calm down a little after all that had happened.

Eventually, she had to let him go, though, so he could hug Emma as well. As she turned to look at them, she also saw David taking Zelena out of the yellow bug. She was still smiling victoriously, clearly proud of what she'd done and overjoyed at the prospect of everyone finding out Regina's soulmate had slept with her, getting her pregnant in the process.

"We have a sort of psychiatric ward with padded cells below the hospital," Regina told David after walking towards him and her sister, then whispered the code to access said area in his ear "please, lock her up and I'll deal with her later."

David nodded and started walking towards the Sheriff's car, dragging Zelena with him, when she started talking, her voice growing louder as they approached the car so not only her sister but everyone else too could hear what she had to say.

"You know that it's not gonna be this easy to get me out of your life, sis. I won, and you know what the best part is? That your precious soulmate cheated on you before I even gave him that potion. He cheated on you willingly and repeatedly and the child I'm carrying is going to be an everlasting reminder of that."

With a smug grin splayed across her face she turned and allowed David to put her in the backseat of the car.

Regina wanted to give Robin the benefit of the doubt, she really did, but deep down she knew her sister was telling the truth. Her worst fear had been confirmed and she felt her heart being torn to pieces.

Everyone was now staring at Regina in a mixture of shock, confusion and pity that Regina just couldn't bear. There was also the fact that Zelena had called Robin her soulmate right in front of him. Regina briefly wondered how she was going to explain this to him, but decided she didn't care right now. She just wanted to disappear, to hide, so she gave Henry a sad smile, the only one she could master up, before being enveloped in a cloud of purple smoke.