Life goes on she supposes. It's been nearly two months. It's supposed to be June, almost July, and she's trapped in a winter wonderland.
Elsa doesn't come hunting for her or Rumple but the snow keeps falling, to an almost comical degree. But at the same time it's terrifying. Roadways are blocked, power supplies are wavering. It's too cold. There's too much snow and Regina is surprised when Leroy of all people offers to help bring her groceries to her car.
There are no words. Just deafening silence. She spies Little John and Marian across the street carefully picking their way through the precarious drifts. John smiles and waves at her, other hand carefully placed on the maid's lower back as he guides her.
Even as Leroy deposits her groceries in her trunk she catches a wane smile from Marian, and the scar on her palm burns; because the woman who smiles quietly at her has one too; as do all the Merry Men. And she doesn't deserve it.
"Is it true what they say, Mills," asks Leroy gruffly slamming the trunk closed, "frozen hearts need acts of true love to thaw?"
"I don't know, dwarf." She sees less of Robin now and it's easier to breathe. "I don't know."
Of all the unexpected things Regina had ever anticipated happening in her life, having coffee with the Mad Hatter at her kitchen table was not one of them. At this point the freezing ice and rain has knocked out most of the utilities in Storybrooke and only the combined magical energy of her, Rumple, and Emma was managing to keep the school, convent, hospital, Granny's and her own home heated and lit. Many of the residents were being forced to evacuate their homes to one of those locations and in a surprise twist Jefferson had shown up on her doorstep first. Though his statement that she owed him was mostly accurate as she begrudgingly let him in.
"I've never realized how huge your house is," he comments as he sips tea across from her, some exotic blend that smells revolting but he appears to greatly enjoy.
"I will also point out that it's empty."
He sends her a wry glance over the rim of his cup. "So was my apartment. Nothing quite like being the outsider looking in, eh?" She hears Grace and Henry upstairs studying because even though they are literally buried in snow life must go on, and Henry, she's so happy he's tutoring the girl in math and he's got those dream filled eyes that remind her of youth and happiness. He is growing up so fast. "If we become in-laws," Hatter says suddenly already having observed many of their children's interactions. "I shall eat my hat."
"It may taste better then whatever it is you're drinking," she states dryly drinking her warm apple cider.
"Shh," murmurs Jefferson petting the tea cup, "she didn't mean that." Regina rolls her eyes.
"I am sorry…for what I did to you."
The man across from her raises an eyebrow and stares at his cup. "Perhaps this is more potent then I thought. I'm hallucinating."
"Ass." He lifts his glass towards her before lowering it.
"At least your heart gets broken in style. Wife back from the dead classy."
"Ass." The shrill ring of the doorbell halts the conversation and the monarch suspects it must be the Charmings and all of Snow's shoes outside in the snow.
"Allow me, majesty," chuckles Jefferson standing and giving an exaggerated bow. It doesn't hurt as much to be called such, it aches, but it's bearable and nice in a way. She could love Hatter. She could if she really tried. It'd be easy and safe. They're cut from the same deceitful cloth and she doesn't have to pretend around him. She finishes her cider. Her life would be so much easier if she could love someone else.
"Who are you?" She freezes at the suspicious yet painfully familiar voice, completely flummoxed at why Robin of all people is standing outside. There's a scuffle and then Robin stalks into the kitchen and the Queen sits there staring at him.
"You're getting snow on my floor," she notes waving at his slush covered shoes. He pointedly ignores the comment.
"Is…" Robin looks wildly around the room as if Regina might be hiding something, "is this a date?"
"Gods, no," laughs Jefferson clapping him on the shoulder, instantly regretting it when his hand is forcefully shrugged off, "just libations between friends." Robin looks at her for some form of confirmation. He's looking in the wrong place. She's not above making a man jealous, especially when she's done nothing wrong. She doesn't have to explain herself to Robin Hood. Hatter sends her an impressed look over the larger man's shoulder.
"Still got them begging on their knees." He mouths. Regina resists the smile that the comment elicits especially as Robin takes another dangerous step forward. He appears angry, almost looks betrayed, she smirks vindictively. Good let him be angry. He could use something going wrong in his perfect little life, a life where he gets what he lost back. She blinks back the evil grin that threatens to engulf her face. She's not that person. She won't be.
"Be that as it may," says Regina. "Why are you here, thief?"
"I came to talk to you about accommodations." He responds warily as Jefferson goes to stand beside the brunette.
"You're staying at the convent."
"No," states Robin stubbornly stepping half between her and Jefferson. "We're staying here." She's already promised rooms to the Charmings, Emma and her pirate, naturally Henry, and Rumpelstilskin and Belle; she has more then enough room for Robin's family and his men provided some are willing to sleep on the floor. However, there is an underlying current to this conversation and she does not appreciate his assertive attitude when she is still struggling to get a grip on her emotions.
"Why?"
"Because the witch is out to get you."
"And you're going to what? Defend me with pointy sticks? Besides you just said it, Elsa wants me. You need to stay as far away from me as possible. You can't risk your family." Robin shakes his head.
"And is he to defend you? The Merry Men and I, we are your allies!"
"If we are getting technical, I knew the Queen first," interjects Jefferson inserting himself into the heated conversation. "Since I will be staying here as well as the Charmings Regina will be more then looked after."
"You'll be staying here?" Is the suspicious yet quick response.
"Yes." Jefferson simpers and Regina honestly wonders why he is antagonizing Robin. He radiates the aura of an overprotective brother and the Queen wonders when he adopted such a role; given their previous relationship. "Perfectly PG." Robin does not appear to understand the reference as he narrows his eyes.
"I will be returning with the men in half an hour," his tone is even and definite, "or less." He intensely looks between them eyes alert appraising them before he leaves the room with heavy steps.
"You," she snaps rounding on the soon to be re-beheaded asylum patient, "you did the exact opposite of what I wanted!" Robin's gone off to apparently collect his tribe to move into her house and Jefferson had incurred it.
"Did I really?" he asks smugly sitting back down and picking up his cup again.
"Yes!"
"Well," he says contemplatively, silly wide grin adorning his face, "we'll see then shall we."
Many strange things have happened to Regina over her lifetime but finding her home host to basically every single one of her enemies and awkward acquaintances is pretty disconcerting. Perhaps what is more disconcerting is of the two rooms Regina had prepared for the Locksleys - one for Roland and one for his parents - their sleeping arrangements appear to be Robin and Roland in one room and Marian alone; but even as she watches them settle into separate rooms Regina cannot shake the feeling that this is all too convenient and that hope is not something she should let fester.
So instead she busies herself with hosting her guests: cooking, cleaning, planning, telling the Merry Men to stop dragging snow across her floor. Never had her dining table actually been host to more then two occupants but now it is crowded with too many chairs being dragged from every available room making the space more warm and inviting then she had ever thought possible.
The situation with Elsa is terrible, miserable in fact, but she can't help but indulge in the merriment a house full of people brings and after dinner two nights following everyone's arrival all her meticulously placed furniture is stacked in the corner creating a space for some of the couples to dance, which is fairly amusing as Hook enjoys the way Emma dances (grinds and writhes) to up-tempo songs but fails to catch on to the completely cheesy dance moves, like the macarena, which even the Charmings appear to have mastered. That's what she gets for landing Storybrooke in the 80s.
But the stiff lipped Queen does not participate in the festivities instead clearing dishes and smiling as Roland tumbles and bumbles between adult legs in a happy dance of giggles and laughter. A child's laughter has been desperately lacking in her life and she feels an immense sense of comfort as she flits between rooms at least until she stumbles into her darkened living room and finds Marian engaged in a loving lip lock with the male occupant of the couch.
To her credit Regina does not make a sound merely pressing hands quickly over her mouth to hold back her exclamation. She's frozen taking in the scene before her, mind running miles a minute as she tries to process everything, tries and fails to breathe properly. But a gentle hand encloses her wrist and tugs her backwards out of the room, moving the couple away from her line of sight and too stunned to even begin to process her emotions she turns and finds the gentle, blue eyes of Robin Hood.
"Your best friend is kissing your wife." Regina gapes at him the words vomiting forth from her mouth.
Robin sends her an amused eyebrow raise. "At least it is not Friar Tuck, I do believe as a man of the cloth such an exchange would raise questions about his faith."
"How can you joke about this?" she hisses dragging him backwards into the kitchen, away from the oblivious couple. She feels the hot coals of betrayal stoke in her stomach; perhaps for her but more so for Robin, good, perfect, loyal, Robin who loved his wife so much he would walk through hell for her. "That is your wife and she is sucking face with your best friend."
He shrugs. "We have already established this." Regina wants to scream at him, wants to yell and slam him back against the counter, and ask him how can he be so blase about this, how can her being good, stepping aside, lead to this? He's mocking her.
"Can't you keep a hold of your woman!?"
"I do have a hold of her." Regina stares at him mouth agog as she feels his arm cross the right side of her body before his open palm rests securely on her left hip, pulling her backwards into him. "Strong one at that." Her mouth opens and closes in stunned amazement.
"Now Regina," he smiles and she can't see his face but she can feel his lips, as the smile presses against the sensitive skin behind her ear, "are you really together with that Hatter fellow?"
She squirms in his grip but he holds firm dragging her more securely against his body. "Marian and I talked."
"I can't do this," she snaps irately breaking his hold with a sharp pinch of his hand and moving away. She can still hear the music in the background some sort of incredibly cheesy romantic song, from the 80s, and the words she can't hear mumble through her head as she stares and stares at Robin. "I gave up."
"I hope not," he states taking a step closer and suddenly she is trapped between him and the marble countertop and her mind goes blank from the closeness, "because I have not m'lady. Marian has always been a gentle soul she suits Little John now more so then I."
"What are you talking about?"
"I mourned my wife and never doubt her return has brought me happiness but I can't love her. I can't see her as a companion to weather whatever the future storm holds for us because I am a different man, one who faced a hell of loneliness. I have killed people. I have blackmailed and hurt others. Marian never knew me as a killer, as someone who was hardened from life. She's the easy choice, naturally," Regina stiffens in his embrace, "but we don't fit. She can't understand. She has never experienced a loss so deep; when we converse it is like we are speaking different languages. I personally thought I'd never find another person who understood my guilt, who accepted my imperfections, and loved my son. To be sure I am ruggedly handsome," she shivers against him, "able to satisfy my physical needs but majesty," he rasps against the shell of her ear, "Marian belongs with someone who can show her the same love she offers and that person is not me. And I, I deserve the person I love."
She is at a loss for words but she realizes bitterly she's crying and she's shed an ocean full of tears over Robin-bloody-thief-Hood so how can she possibly be crying even now…She is buoyed on salt water and her heart beats erratically in her chest, uneven and rapid, and hurts so much it leaves her gasping.
"Now that Marian is settled and she has found companionship in a man that can give her the world she deserves it is time I seek out and steal my own fortunes and Regina I dare say you have the unnerving tendency to get yourself into life threatening situations on a peculiarly often basis and I'll be damned if I lose you again." She softens taking a tentative step forward and letting him draw her into him. "As I have said, you have a partner, even if you didn't ask for one."
"Outlaw," she drawls moving closer but not close enough for him as his hands drop to her waist and pull her forward; hers drop knitting their fingers together at her waist before she steps out of his embrace. "I'll need time."
"I understand."
"Do you?"
"I am not a patient man Regina but for you I will be. I have learned that if one cannot be honorable to one's own heart then everything else means nothing. So I will wait and watch and protect you until you are ready to let me in again. It is what I deserve."
"Neither of us deserve this," she spits spitefully anger resurfacing at the memory of the massive detour their relationship has taken; of how she can no longer trust him with her heart.
"I like to think of this as another opportunity to steal your heart."
"You lost it last time." His smile does not quite reach his eyes but the tension between them is slowly evaporating and she gestures to the counter at the empty glasses. "Dishes?" They move and stand side by side as they perform the rudimentary task.
"Who ever told you, you were ruggedly handsome?"
"A rather boorish Queen said it while doing very devilish things to me once."
Regina thinks back on Little John and Marian locked together in embrace. They had looked happy and content and she wonders if she can again have that too. Again cling to her second chance. "Marian appears to appreciate facial hair."
"Are you saying my stubble is not enough for you, majesty?" quips Robin in mock-hurt rubbing at his chin self-consciously. She whips him with the wet dish rag and he has the good mind to look amused before he grins and grabs a rag of his own.
It's freezing. Perhaps Regina would be more appreciative of the Snow Queen's interior design choices if she wasn't frozen to the floor and sitting on a high backed chair formed of ice.
"They call you the Evil Queen." Elsa says. The last time they had seen each other in this manner Regina had been no more then seventeen and Elsa already a Queen, who was called a monster by her people.
"They do," she confirms trying to ignore the biting numbness that is settling over her body.
"There is a story there."
"Yes, but we're not here to chit-chat about my exploits we're here to discuss your powers and how to control them."
"They can't be controlled!" The woman wails standing up and blasting Regina and her chair halfway across the room in her anguished fury.
"You've kidnapped me as a bargaining chip to get revenge on Rumpelstilskin, right?" Regina questions as she lays sideways on the floor head spinning.
"Don't be mistaken. I hate you too," the blonde ekes out.
"Fair enough, but let's say that while we wait for the un-Charmings and their brood of heroes to "attempt" to rescue me you at least let me try to help you."
"That's very uncharacteristic of an Evil Queen."
"You'll find that in this realm Elsa I am full of surprises."
Longer then usual because it might take me a few days to update and I didn't want to leave you without a taste of jealous Robin, outlaw queen, and Elsa. I hope you enjoyed it.
Shipper-nut: I hope that I managed to alleviate your confusion about Regina/Robin/Marian relationship. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
PrincessofSea: I hope you continue to enjoy :)