Regina just wanted to walk away. Being away from Robin was killing her, but being near him and far away from him at the same time was much worse.
She felt like her heart was going to break, even more than it already had.
She wasn't sure if that was possible though.
She didn't want to turn her head in fear she'd meet Robin's eyes again; and it was not that she was afraid of many things, she was the Evil Queen after all, but because his eyes were the ones that held all his emotions and it hurt so much to look inside of them. She felt like she was going to drown in the deep blue depths of his eyes that only reflected honesty, bravery and sweetness.
Even when he had practically left her to be with his wife that day, she couldn't hate him. She knew why he couldn't leave her now that she was alive. He loved her. She just didn't understand how he could even look at her now that he knew she was the one that executed Marian in the past.
He should be furious that shehad taken away the love of his life and the mother of his newborn son. But for some reason, there was no anger in his eyes when he looked at her. Why?
How could he ever forgive her for that?
All those thoughts traveled through her mind and all the questions she had remained unanswered as she kept her pace along with Emma, crossing the road to head to Gold's shop. She was so lost in her thoughts; she didn't even hear the loud squeak the black car at the corner of the street made by its driver's efforts to stop it that came crashing into the two women. Because of this sudden winter, all the roads of the town were full of ice and people had no time to be ready for the dangers of it.
Suddenly, the fast driving car caught her attention and she stopped walking, startled. She widened her eyes from the shock but it was too late to do anything. The last thing she saw was a flash of blinding lights in her face and before she had the time to shout at Emma who was looking the other way, she felt a firm arm grab her along with the blonde beside her and shoved them to the other side of the street.
She hit the ground hard and immediately felt a sharp pain from the fall but she wasn't seriously hurt. Her left side had hit the corner of the pavement but it didn't hurt at all as she landed at a pile of snow. She was thankful for the snow lightening the hit but she felt some of it touch her neck and she shivered at the cold contact.
She heard the car crash at a street light a few meters away from her. She realized she had closed her eyes the moment she felt something solid hit her, so she hesitantly opened them again.
The first thing she saw was Emma's figure lying right next to her, groaning as she came to a sitting position rubbing her shoulder.
What the hell just happened?
She figured that whatever it was that shoved them to the ground safely wasn't the car.
Obviously.
Someone must have pushed them away from the car. She noticed the car a few seconds before it crashed and couldn't use her magic quickly enough. So who saved them?
She was still a little dizzy from the fall when she heard Emma's worried voice ring in her ears.
"Robin! Oh my god" she heard her ask and saw her move to another dark solid figure in her other side, where someone was also lying flat on the ground.
She had to replay Emma's words a few times to understand them.
Regina turned her head to the body's direction and knew who it was before she even looked at him.
Robin.
He pushed them out of the car's way before it hit them.
She quickly sat up, which caused her to get even dizzier and the burning pain in her head increased. But she didn't care much. There was something far worse than pain raging inside of her as the thought that Robin was hurt trying to save her burned through her mind.
"Robin?" she asked as she crawled to his still body, fear clear in her voice. His eyes were closed. When she reached his side, she put her palm to this chest to feel his heartbeat.
After a few moments, she felt his steady heartbeats and was able to breathe again.
Thank god he was alive.
She heard him groan in pain and she came closer to him to examine his condition. Fortunately it didn't look severe.
She heard a man from behind apologize and trying to explain that he didn't have control of the car, but she didn't even glare at him. His voice was like it came from million miles away. All she cared about right now was that Robin was alive and… let's say well.
"Regina…" Robin asked breathlessly, looking at her for any kind of wounds from the crash with the kind of concern that made her heart beat a little faster.
"I'm okay, don't worry. You should be more worried about yourself right now" she said with a reassuring smile and stroked his cheek with one hand as she held his hand with her other one. She didn't even realize she did something probably out of line now that they weren't together, but she did it unconsciously.
He didn't seem to mind.
When he squeezed their joined hands, she felt her heart skip for a moment before she made herself focus back to his lying form and search his body for any deep wounds.
"I think I might have broken my arm…" he said with gritted teeth to restrain the pain, reading her thoughts.
"We should call an ambulance" Emma said, bringing them back to reality and breaking the little bubble they had both been in for the past few minutes.
Regina looked around and realized that many passersby had circled them and were gossiping already about the accident.
She felt anger rose inside her but ignored it and addressed to Emma.
"No, it's alright, I can heal him" she said calculatedly.
"I think it would be better if he went to the hospital. Just to be sure" Emma said hesitantly as she pulled her cell phone out of her coat's pocket and waited for Regina's approval to call 911.
"Okay" Regina finally said although she would prefer if she was the one that made sure Robin was safe.
"Are you sure you are okay, Regina?" she heard Robin ask her quietly as he tried to sit up but abandoned his attempts when the pain in his broken arm made him let a sharp breath. He tried not to show it.
"Yes I'm fine" she said again. She remembered Robin was always overprotective of her and his family. It was one of the things she secretly loved about him but would never admit it.
"Thank you" Regina whispered to him suddenly with a warm smile.
Her smile warmed Robin's heart so much; he didn't even feel the pain anymore. Everything around him stopped moving as he looked at her, sitting beside him and holding his hand.
Oh, he had missed her smile so much.
He'd never forget how everything about her changed when she smiled like that, a smile she only kept for him. No one else knew her like he did. It brought out the soft side of her and it made him wonder if she was born to just smile and brighten the world. And even though too many bad things had happened to her to last a lifetime, she still found the strength to smile with hope in her eyes. Most people thought she was a heartless cold creature without emotion like compassion, kindness or love.
He knew better.
"ROBIN!" he suddenly heard someone call desperately from somewhere behind him inside the crowd that had gathered.
He felt Regina's hand slip from his and he missed its warmth mere seconds later.
He turned his head just enough to see Marian who was trying to reach him with worry written all over her face.
"Oh my god, Robin what happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" she shot him with a million questions while looking around to understand what was going on.
When she locked eyes with Regina who was still kneeling by his side, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
Regina's confident and quick responses fell out of the window the second Marian looked at her.
"Don't worry, Robin is fine. A car was about to hit me and Regina when he pushed us out of the way. He must have broken his arm but an ambulance is on its way" Emma tried to explain and reassure her but she seemed to be even more confused.
"A car? Is that the big metal…things you use as horses?" she asked.
Emma nodded awkwardly.
"Papa!" they heard a child's shout from their left and saw Roland run towards them.
"Roland! I told you to stay at the diner!" Marian told him irritably, "You could have been lost on a crowd like this" she added when the boy stopped in his tracks, hesitant.
"I wanted to see if papa was hurt… Are you okay, papa?" Roland asked as he went to his father's side and grabbed his hand in his little ones.
"I'm fine Roland, it's nothing serious. I'm just glad Regina and Emma are okay" he said caressing his son's dark short curls.
Roland then realized who was sitting next to him and a huge smile replaced his worried frown.
"Regina!" Roland practically shouted at delight and hugged her tightly while still holding Robin's hand.
"Hello Roland…" Regina said hesitantly but didn't dare hug the little boy back. The way Marian was looking at her was like throwing daggers to her heart.
She was not afraid of her; she was not afraid of anyone. But she couldn't help the feeling that she had to respect Robin's wishes and stay away from them.
For their sake and hers, too.
"Roland, what are you doing? Come over here. You don't know this woman, you can't hug her" Marian said firmly.
Marian knew there was something going on with the Evil Queen and her family from the first moment she laid eyes on her. Robin seemed to know her well and he kept defending her like she was innocent. And Roland seemed to be quite fond of her, maybe even more than herself. That hurt her and the worst part is that she didn't know the reason. No one told her but she wouldn't ask because she knew the whole object was fragile and her curiosity would trigger Robin's and many unwanted questions on her part about her death would come to the surface. And she didn't want that although he had already figured out she wasn't telling him something. And even after a week had passed, Robin still seemed determined to keep his mysterious relationship with the Evil Queen from her. He never kept secrets from her before. But she now knew he wasn't the same person she remembered. This Robin was different. He was still loving, caring and honest but she could see in his eyes that there was something different about him. He didn't look at her the same way he used to. In the past, his eyes were always filled with pure love when he looked at her. Now, there was a different kind of love, a kind she didn't ecxactly recognize. That and a fair amount of guilt mixed together.
"But I know Regina…" Roland started protesting but he was cut off by the loud sound of the siren from the distance and as they all turned to the direction of the sound, they saw the blue and red little lights of the ambulance stop a few meters away.
"The medics are here. Robin should be fine with his family now. Emma and I have somewhere to be" Regina explained as she got up and left Roland's tight embrace. She didn't want to stay here with Robin's entire family any longer, it was too uncomfortable.
But at the same time she really didn't want to leave.
All she wanted was to take Roland in her arms, take Robin's warm hand and go to the hospital to make sure he was okay. But she knew that was not possible so all she could do was leave them alone and do what she went out on the cold with Emma for, while takingher head off of the two people she had come to care about so deeply.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's go. Keep us posted on the situation. I hope you'll be fine, Robin, thank you" Emma said when she took the hint and got up after her and followed Regina.
"But Regina…" Roland started protesting. What almost killed her was his tone. There was so much hurt in his voice, the amount of which a little kid should not feel.
"I have to go. I'm sorry…" Regina said quietly before she started walking again, this time as fast as she could with only one thought in her mind.
Walking away was the hardest thing she ever did in her entire life.
.
.
.
.
About 10 minutes after they left the car crash scene, Regina and Emma found themselves in front of Gold's little shop at the corner of the street.
"You think he's here? I mean, he and Belle could still be in their honeymoon" Emma said and tried to look inside the dark shop through the door's little window.
"Let's found out" Regina replied and with a quick move of her hand, the door unlocked and opened for them. She just wanted to get this over with. She was in no mood to waste more of her time in town. It was still morning and she was mentally and physically exhausted. She wanted to go home.
The whole car accident situation was still all she could think of. She desperately wanted to be there for Robin and Roland, but couldn't. So she forced the thought out of her head.
The two women walked inside the shop and carefully moved to the counter where they usually found Gold.
"Gold? Are you here?" Emma shouted in the direction of the small room behind the counter.
After a couple of seconds of silence, Gold appeared from the door to the back to the shop with an irritated look in his eyes.
"At last. I started to think you wouldn't come" he said as he moved closer to them.
"So, you've been waiting for us? You know what's going on here, don't you?" Regina said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him.
"Don't tell me you had something to do with this disaster!" Emma said angrily at Gold.
"What? No I had nothing to do with this…As a matter of fact, I suspect that you deary are the one responsible for this threat!" he said with his usual calm voice a stone face, while pointing at Emma for a few moments.
Regina as well as Emma did not expect the answer they got. And Regina knew he was not joking, not even being sarcastic. She actually suspected he was more worried about this new "threat", whatever it was. She knew Rumpelstinskin so well; he could no longer hide his thoughts behind the many masks he had taught her over their years together in the enchanted forest.
"Me? What the hell are you talking about?" Emma asked, this time more hesitantly.
"This sort of magic, I've only seen it one time before in my life. And I can assure you, the person that caused this winter is not very friendly" Gold said. "Her name is Elsa. She has very powerful magic and can control and create snow and ice. She was once the queen of a faraway land, Arendelle. But she lost control of her powers and the last time I saw her, she was trapped inside a magical contain bottle. And I had it in my secret volt, where you told us you went when you were in the past, which means that somehow you brought it here with you when you used the portal. Now she's free and I don't think she's very happy; especially with me" he explained.
No damn way, was all Regina could think.
"Really, Emma? You had to screw up our lives any more than you already did after you came back from your little trip to the past?" Regina almost shouted angrily at the apparently stupid woman next to her.
It wasn't enough for her to have to deal with Marian coming to the future and practically destroying her happiness, she had to bring with her a powerful queen even the Dark One couldn't handle and had to imprison many years ago. Being furious with her was an understatement.
Emma just remained silent still in shock of the words Gold had spoken. Why did she keep making it worse when all she wanted was to help?
Now she knew Regina would never forgive her.
"I-I…I'm sorry" the blonde said when she couldn't think anything else to say.
After a few minutes, Regina regained her control and tried to sound as calm as she could.
"So, now this…Elsa wants revenge from you for something you obviously did, right?" she asked, turning to Gold, only to avoid looking at Emma.
Rumpel just nodded at her, emotionless.
Why did her life have to be so difficult?
One threat after another came upon them and even though she didn't know enough yet, she had a feeling this time they may not be so strong.