Robin had barely left the castle when he found Regina, dressed in the garb of a peasant woman, standing in his path. His jaw dropped. He certainly hadn't expected to see her again, except perhaps at King Leopold's side when he returned.

"You lied to me," he said in an accusatory tone. "You said you were a servant at the castle, not the Queen."

She sighed. "A technicality. Trust me, I'm not the queen in any way that matters."

He doubted that, but he pushed it aside for the moment. There were far more important questions burning in his mind right now.

"What else did you lie about?" he demanded. "Did you set me up to get caught? Because it looks an awful lot like that to me."

At that, Regina couldn't contain a laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"You got yourself caught, you fool!" she said. "If you had done what I said instead of trying to take the golden cage, you would have been fine. How could you be so stupid?"

That was just taking things a bit too far, he thought.

"How exactly was I supposed to do that when the key didn't work?" he sputtered.

"It didn't … no, it should have," Regina insisted.

The shock on her face told Robin she wasn't lying, and all of a sudden, his heart felt lighter. She hadn't betrayed him. She hadn't led him into a trap. She had just been mistaken, and that was much easier to live with.

"All right," he said. "So what are you doing here dressed like that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she replied. "I'm coming with you."

"What?" He couldn't believe his ears, but she just nodded.

"I can help," she said. "I want to help you, Robin. Please."

She grimaced, and he could tell she was swallowing her pride. He raised an eyebrow.

"How could you possibly help?" he asked. "Your 'help' is what got me into this mess in the first place!"

Regina sighed and crossed her arms. "Look, I didn't come out here dressed like this just to let you turn me away. I'm good with horses, okay? I can help."

From the look on her face as she said that, he could tell there was something more to it than a simple talent. But whatever was behind her skill with horses, he wouldn't pry. For now.

"You're really not going to give up, are you?" he asked.

"No, I'm not," said Regina.

"I take it the King doesn't know?"

"Does it matter?"

Robin shook his head. "I guess not. Come on, then."

"What?"

"Well, we need to get moving. It's nearly a day's journey just to the border, and in case you've forgotten, I'm on a bit of a tight schedule."

Regina looked surprised that it had been so easy to convince him, but Robin just gave her a smug smile. To tell the truth, he was more than happy to spend time with this intriguing stranger, now that he knew she hadn't betrayed him.

The further they went into the woods, the more Regina came to life. The cold-eyed Queen on her throne was long gone. With her hair hanging loose down her back, strolling along the uneven forest path, she might as well have been an entirely different person. No wonder he hadn't guessed her true status that night in the tavern. She was regal in her own way, but she didn't have the snobbish attitude of superiority that he had come to expect from royalty. He couldn't help thinking she was better suited to run free in the forest than to be shut up in a stuffy castle wearing golden chains. He found his thoughts drifting to the two of them riding on horseback through the untamed woods, laughing and smiling, kissing in the moonlight, sleeping beneath a blanket of stars side-by-side. He could show her a whole world of adventure beyond the walls of her castle. But then he remembered that she was the Queen, and his dreams flickered out like a dying flame. Whatever her reason for being here was, and however much she might seem to dislike her position, the fact was that royals simply did not run off with outlaws. Getting his hopes up would just end in heartbreak.

"We should stop and rest soon," he said, breaking the silence.

"Why?" Regina asked. "Shouldn't we keep moving?"

Robin shook his head at her stubborn determination.

"Wearing ourselves out won't do any good," he said. "Anyway, there's a creek up ahead. We should stop and drink."

She peered at him through narrowed eyes. "How do you know that?"

"Well," he said, "I do know this forest fairly well. But aside from that … listen. What do you hear?"

He stopped walking, and she reluctantly did the same. She tilted her head and seemed to be listening, but then she shook her head.

"I don't hear anything."

Robin could hardly believe that. From the chirping of birds to the rustling of leaves, the forest was alive with sound.

"Close your eyes," he said. "And listen."

She hesitated, eyeing him with suspicion, before slowly closing her eyes. For a moment, she was still, a small smile spreading across her lips. Then she let out a soft gasp and her face lit up, and he knew she had recognized the gentle trickle of water.

"Oh, I can hear it!" she said.

Robin placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. For a moment he wanted to tell her that he would teach her everything about the forest. How to hunt with a bow and arrow, how to navigate the stars, how to hide and disappear among the trees … they could have a life together out here, where the King could never find her.

But that was silly, so he settled for a simple "well done".

"You can open your eyes now," he added, and she looked up at him with a new light in her gaze. She didn't look cold or angry right now. She looked happy.

You could make her happy, said a voice in the back of his head. You could bring that smile to her face. But he pushed those thoughts away. He knew better.

Drinking from a creek was new to Regina. Cora, who had barely tolerated riding lessons, would never have allowed such a thing, and King Leopold's bride certainly wasn't permitted to romp around the woods like a commoner. She grumbled as Robin told her that "Sadly, I didn't bring along a golden goblet for Your Majesty, so if you want water, you're going to have to drink it the way us common folk do". But as she knelt down beside the little stream and cupped her hands, she thought that this was the life she had wanted. Not luxury and jewels and golden goblets. So she scooped up water in her hands and brought it to her mouth, surprised by how cool and fresh it tasted. She glanced at Robin, smiling and thinking that she couldn't remember the last time she had felt so free.

"Not so bad after all, is it?" he asked, chuckling.

She was grinning like a lovesick idiot, she knew. She hadn't felt this way since … oh. Since Daniel. Suddenly her joy evaporated, and she was left sitting there, on the edge of a creek with her supposed soul mate, thinking of a lifeless body hitting the ground and the ashes of a heart falling from her mother's hand.

"Are you all right?" Robin asked in a soft, concerned tone.

"I'm fine," Regina said coldly, trying to pull herself together.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as she stared out at the forest, blinking back tears and wondering what it would have been like to be here with Daniel. Finally, Robin interrupted, telling her they needed to get moving again, and she nodded and pulled herself to her feet.

They didn't speak for a while as they walked through the forest together. Regina was in no mood to start a conversation, and Robin seemed to realize that. But as time passed, Regina began to wish the awkward silence would go away. The journey was more tiring than she had expected, and having nothing to distract her from the depressing turn her thoughts had taken made it far more uncomfortable. Finally, Robin broke the silence.

"So aren't they going to miss you at the castle?" he asked.

Regina couldn't contain a chuckle at that. Privately, she thought of magic lessons with Rumple and trips to far-off realms in Jefferson's hat. Once she had spent the better part of two days in Oz and returned to find that no one had known she was gone. But she couldn't tell Robin about that. If he knew that she was learning magic from the Dark One, he might not want anything to do with her.

"I doubt that," she said simply. "They don't take much notice of me."

He must have noticed an undertone of bitterness in her voice, because his eyes softened in sympathy.

"Is that what you meant when you said you weren't really the Queen?" he asked.

She nodded. That was exactly what she meant.

"Queens are leaders," she said. "They have power, they're respected or … or feared. I'm Snow White's nanny and the King's wife – although that might be too kind a term – but trust me, things would be very different if I was in charge. Not that I ever wanted to be Queen in the first place. I didn't even have the power to say no when he asked. I lost everything because his bratty daughter needed a new mommy!"

In her frustration, words came pouring out that she hadn't meant to say. Something about Robin made all her natural defenses go down. She saw a look on his face like he was wondering just what exactly she meant, but he was polite enough not to ask.

"I'm sorry, milady," he said. "I really don't know what to say."

But "I'm sorry" meant nothing to her. Just empty words that no longer gave her any comfort. So she shrugged her shoulders and trudged on, awkward silence falling over the two of them again.

As the sky was beginning to darken, Regina, who by this point was longing for a hot bath and a soft feather mattress to collapse into, caught sight of turrets on the horizon. She pointed to them excitedly, and a grin spread across Robin's face. He wrapped her up in a celebratory hug as their destination loomed on the horizon. They had arrived at King George's castle.