A/N: Thanks for all the feedback on this story! Loving it. I'm enjoying writing this more than I'd originally thought I would.
This chapter unfolds a few more things, gets deeper into the story. Hope you enjoy!
G.
/
/
"He's sound asleep." She says softly, standing up and folding her robe back over her body again. She looks back at the boy, whose head of curls was laying on the arm of the chair. "I'll go home while he sleeps. If he wakes and wants someone to be with again, just let me know." She says, turning from his office doorway, planning on going back to her apartment.
"Hold on." Robin says, standing up from his chair and walking out with her to his hall. "Can I get your number? I don't have the time to be going over and getting you."
Regina immediately rejects the thought of giving him her number, so instead she just shakes her head. "No, just send him over. We can watch Netflix on my couch while you finish working." She says, turning away again and, this time, making it to the door before he stops her with his hand on her arm. "What the hell do you want now, Locksley?" She groans, pressing her weight all over onto one foot. "Can't I just enjoy my Saturday without you?"
He shakes his head. "No." He says sternly. "I wanted you to tell me something before I just send my son over there with you. After all, you did say I was a stranger to you, so that means you are to me, as well." He states.
The thought makes her want to growl, but she knows he's trying to protect his son, even though it's his way of getting her to talk. "Fine," She says, "What do you want me to tell you?"
"I want you to tell me if you have a son." He says, "Or a daughter."
"No." She says, turning to grab the door known, but of course he stops her again.
She rolls her eyes, and he says, "Then why do you love my son so much?"
She looks at him with softer, more sad eyes than before. "Because I had someone who was very close to me, Robin. He was practically my son, yes. I raised him from a newborn through law school, he was my best friend and I loved him dearly."
"What happened to him?" Robin asks softly, his voice tender and sweet again.
She swallows the shakiness back in her voice before clearing her throat, "His mother took him back." She says. "And that's all you need to know?" She asks, "I just care for your son, okay? I love kids. Some people are lucky enough to have them, I'm not. He's the only decent thing in this city that I ever look forward to." She admits.
He seems to be taken aback a bit, but he nods. "That's all I need to know. I'll bring him over when he wakes up." He says softly.
"No, here." She says, grabbing his hand and a pen from the nearby table. "Just text me. I'll come get him." She says softly. "And if I receive a text about anything other than Roland, you will not receive a pretty reply, Locksley. Mark my words." She hisses at him, finally getting out of the door this time and through his apartment, making her way into her own place.
She leans against the door once she shuts it, rubbing her face gently. She thinks about Henry, and about how he would definitely love Roland too. He likes all the same movies Roland likes, and they both love sports, too. She just wishes he were here...
He'd make everything better. The snow, the ice, the horrible traffic...Henry could make anything better right now. If only.
/
"Henry." Robin says, standing at her doorway. She opens it only because she hopes he's brought Roland over. "That's your boy's – well, the boy you kept – that's his name?" He asks.
She furrows her brows, moving to slam the door in his face before asking, "How the hell do you know that?" She asks, feeling uncomfortable more than she felt angry. She was truly beginning to be afraid he was stalking her, finding everything about her life.
He must see her shift, because he shakes his head and sighs. "I didn't mean to come off...creepy." He admits, "I-"
"Well you did." She interrupts, "Robin, I just wanted to help you out and keep your son, something that helps you and I both out. You, so that you can work, and I, so that I won't be so depressed in this weather." She says. "Now, please go home and stop asking me questions, and figuring out my life. It's scar-" She stops herself, not about to admit to him that he's scaring her. That's something she never does, and she's not sure why she feels okay enough to tell him, especially when she feels he may be stalking her. It's just something inside her that's driving her closer to him, unfortunately.
"I only know that because I saw you pick your phone up when it was ringing, you got really happy and Roland asked if it was Henry." He explains, trying to make himself sound less frightening to her. "I promise you, I'm not stalking you. I just...I feel bad for you. And I know you're the type of person that doesn't want pity, but I can't help pitying you-"
"Stop." She says, interrupting him again. "Please, just stop." She whispers, tears wanting to form in her eyes, pricking at the whites and burning them. She's been fighting them back ever since he told her how he found his name out.
He sighs and shifts, loosening his body language a little, hoping to stop scaring her so badly. "Regina, I just...don't you want a friend? You seem so lonely. I want nothing more than to be your friend, I don't have bad intentions. I have a son for goodness sakes! A son who loves you a lot already. I would never, ever do anything to hurt anyone, let alone someone my son adores." He explains, shaking his head a little bit. "Please just stop being so cold to me. I'm just wanting to help you. I see how depressed you are, and if you don't wanna tell me why you are, that's fine. But let me just help you."
"I don't want, or need, your help, Mr. Locksley." She grits, reverting to using his last name like that.
He closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Why?" He asks finally, after a few moments of silence. "Why don't you want a friend?"
"I lose everyone." She says bluntly. "I don't make friends, because I'll lose them in the end. It makes no sense to-"
"That's dumb." He interrupts her this time, shaking his head. "You're going to push people out of your life before they're ever really in it, just because you have a fear that they'll leave, or you'll leave them or some stupid shit like that?" He asks, losing his cool slightly and using words he never uses with Roland anywhere near.
"Or some stupid shit like that?" She repeats, somewhat mocking his British accent as well. "My best friend died when I was eighteen. My father died when I was twenty. Henry was taken away from me after me raising him for five years. You don't think Roland will eventually be taken or forget about me, too?" She asks, shaking her head and placing one hand on the doorway, the other still resting on the door. "He will." She hisses. "Because everyone forgets about me, or they lose me, or I lose them. I had a few, not so close friends in Miami, but I got the job here and had to leave them. I had a boyfriend in Miami, his name was Graham. But guess what? When I told him I was leaving, he dumped me, said the relationship wouldn't work long distance because he needed someone to screw while I was gone, and then the next day he got hit head on in traffic and died instantly." She says, the tears that were once forming, now spilling over and down onto her cheek after her rant is on pause. "I lose everyone and everything, Robin."
He looks down, almost seeming guilty to her but at the same time, he was just writhing with pity for her too. "Regina, I didn't know you'd gone through all of that." He says softly, picking his head back up to look at her. "But you know what? I can promise you, that I'm never going to forget about you, and neither will Roland. You found our dog, you're more than just a neighbor to him, especially, because you're his superhero right now. And he doesn't just forget people like that." He explains, straightening up a bit more to look her in the eye. "And, I can promise you we'll never be an item together, but if we were ever to date and you moved, I'd never say something so cruel to you like that." He admits.
She rolls her eyes. "Don't even bring the subject up of me dating you." She quips, shaking her head. "I-"
"That's not the point." He says, cutting her off. "My point is, that I'd never leave you like that. I'm healthy, I don't have enemies that should want to kill me or whatnot. I don't know how your best friend and your father died, but it sounds like it was a sudden type of thing. So-"
"What are you? Some kind of shrink?" She snaps, becoming angry again.
He fakes a chuckle and shrugs. "Definitely not." He says, "I'm just someone who cares a bit more than you think." He says, "And someone who would like to take the time out of his busy work day to just sit down and have a decent lunch with his neighbor, thanking her for saving his dog and for being so kind to my his son." He says, looking at her with pleading eyes.
She looks down and away – those eyes are just like Roland's in the way they make her melt, but the only difference is that Robin's are blue, Roland's are brown. They both have the sad puppy eyes down to a tee. She grips onto the door so tightly out of anger that it makes her knuckles turn white, "Fine." She says through clenched teeth. "Only if it's pizza."
"Pizza it is. I know a wonderful place." Robin says, managing a smile for her.
She sighs, looking back up at him and swallowing hard. She's been wanting a good pizza since she arrived here. New York is supposed to be a place known for their pizza, but she's had three so far from three different places and she's hated all of them. She's hoping he has good taste in pizza. "And wings." She adds.
"Wings as well." He says, nodding toward her. "By the way, Roland is awake if you'd like to come over and watch another movie with him. Or I can send him over here until the pizza is here, if you'd rather."
She looks back into her apartment and nods softly, "Here is fine. I have Netflix." She states.
He smiles at her again, "I'll order the pizza." He says, turning and making his way back to his apartment.
/
She loved the pizza, dammit. It was so good that she even ate an extra piece (something she never does, especially in front of other people and with wings, too). Roland was cuddled up on her hip, fast asleep again. She had given him some children's Tylenol earlier, and it made him a bit sleepy. Robin assured her it would be fine if he slept through lunch, since he likes cold pizza anyway.
Robin is wiping his face with his napkin, something Regina noticed he started doing more of after she had gotten onto Roland that night at her office. "So, uh..." He starts off, swallowing hard after taking a drink of soda. "Do you mind telling me about Henry? If not, that's okay too, I just-"
"I suppose I don't mind, since you've already pushed your way into knowing." She states, giving him a stern and solemn look. She takes a deep breath before looking back down at her plate that only had a few crumbs left, "Emma, his mother, was pregnant at eighteen. She had just gotten a job – or I guess you can call it a job – doing...'adult' movies. Henry was an accident." She says, sounding bitter as she looks down. She was an accident too, and her mother made it well known to her that she was never supposed to be here. Regina has always felt that anyway, she didn't need her mother telling that to her too.
"Henry was the result of a porn movie?" Robin asks, a bit astounded.
She nods in reply, sad and a bit distanced now, thinking deeper. "When she went into labor, she was a month earlier than her due date. But Henry...he was such a healthy boy. She never wanted him, so she signed him over legally to me when he was only three hours old." She states. "I shouldn't be telling you all of this." She breathes, swallowing thickly and snapping out of her deeper thoughts.
He shakes his head quickly, "It's fine...it's fine." He assures softly, sighing a bit. "I can clearly see he's someone you love so much."
"So much." She repeats, looking down and nodding. "I raised him until he was five. Emma decided that she wanted him back when she settled down with some idiot that plays a pirate in an amusement park. Hardly the ideal family for Henry, but because she's his birth mother, she-"
"She gets to do whatever she wants." Robin finishes for her, swallowing thickly. "Marian – my ex...she does that too." He says sadly. "She likes to take Roland away from me at random, because she's the one who gave birth to him and the judge sees her as more fit, somehow." He says. "There's nothing wrong with her, necessarily. She doesn't put him in harm's way, but neither do I. We should have equal rights to Roland, but we just...don't." He says, now being distanced as well.
Regina looks at him sadly, letting out a soft sigh. "Enjoy the time you get with him, Robin. I know it's hard giving him back whenever, but at least you know you get him back eventually, too. I don't get my baby back." She admits, swallowing thick again. "He may not be mine biologically, but I love him just like my own."
Robin looks back at her again, biting his lip softly. "I'm sorry." He whispers, "You deserve to have him after all this time. But you also deserve to have one of your own – that way no one can ever take him or her."
Regina nods sadly, looking down. "I wish." She whispers, just barely audible to him. "But I can't, my job is too demanding to be pregnant and I don't have any man to meet the standard." She says, shaking her head and shrugging. "It's fine. I'll just be depressed and lonely in this stupid city for the rest of the time I live here." She states.
He frowns, about to say something before the weather change outdoors catches his eye. "It's snowing again."
"What a joy." Regina says dryly.
Robin almost rolls his eyes, but then gasps a little. "Come here." He says, standing up quickly and grabbing her up, being careful to not wake Roland up. He drags her all the way to the balcony door, then outside. He closes the door shut behind them, then chuckles. "Since you're from Miami, you've probably never experienced the fun part of the cold." He says, looking out across the city. He steps closer to the edge of the balcony, grabbing the cold railing (with just his bare hands), and leaning over. His tongue comes out, his head tilts back, and he lets his mouth hang wide open. "Try it!" He says.
She just looks at him like he's some kind of alien creature, but sees him laughing about it all. It makes a smile crack onto her lips, so she steps forward begrudgingly and freezing, doing just exactly what he was doing.
He laughs a bit, standing up straighter. "Try to catch ten." He says, "Ready, set, GO!" He says quickly, trying to catch ten as quickly as he could.
Regina realizes, just then, where Roland gets his competitive spirit from – Robin, who already has five snowflakes and Regina hasn't even started. She starts, then, though, and tries to get as many as she can before he announces he's made it to ten.
He looks over at her, smiling big, about to taunt her for losing and being such a slow poke, she's sure of it. But instead, he must see her shaking, because he steps behind her and wraps his long, strong (stronger than she'd thought) arms around her, "You're freezing." He says softly, in a friendly and caring manner. "Let's get back inside, we'll save snowflake catching for another day when you're not such a rookie to the cold." He teases, and it makes her unable to keep from laughing.
She laughed at his joke for once. What's gotten into her?
/
/
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! If you have any questions or anything (literally anything), just leave a review, drop a PM, or message me on my tumblr which is gypsysfeather dot tumblr dot com (. instead of dot, of course).
Thanks!
G.