A/N: Here's one of the final chapters to this story! Thanks for coming along on the journey. I'm not sure how many more there will be. Maybe one or two. Three at the very most.
I've added Zelena and Cora into the story, and while Regina's mother is about the same here, we will see a vastly different side to Zelena, one that is quite ironic, given the current situation she has with Outlaw Queen on the show. Oh, how the tables have turned here with Greenie.
I hope you all enjoy!
Regina slumped against the wall in shock, staring at the positive pregnancy test in her trembling hands. This couldn't be possible. There was no way she could be pregnant. She buried her head in her hands, gripping strands of her hair between her fingers as she tried her best not to lose it.
Here she was, pregnant, with the child of a man she no longer wanted in her life, no matter how much she loved him. They were now bound together in a way Regina had never thought she would be bound to anyone. She didn't know how she was going to manage this, telling him she carried their child, being forced to live a life with him around because it wasn't fair, it wasn't, for her to let him have no idea that she was carrying such a precious bundle.
Or was it?
Robin had lied to her. He had made her feel safe and loved when in all reality, he had kidnapped her and planned to kill her at the first chance he got. He had taken advantage of her. He had used his son, poor little Roland, as a pawn to make him seem trustworthy. Maybe if she kept the baby a secret, she would be saving it from a father who had gone to prison for something, to be unjustly broken free to do the very thing he had been accused of.
Regina's mind was made. Robin would never know. As soon as she got out of the hospital, she would move in with her mother – yes, her mother, but Regina was desperate – until she could get a house of her own, preferably far away from the state of Maine. She had always wanted to live in a warmer climate. Maybe her child would enjoy growing up in a nice place like Georgia or Florida.
Regina stood up shakily, wiping the unshed tears from her eyes. She slowly made her way outside of the bathroom, where Astrid was waiting on her, still clutching the positive test in her hands.
"Well, Miss Mills?" The nurse asked as Regina approached her.
Regina didn't give an answer, simply handed the nurse the test before slinking back into her bed with a heavy sigh. She would let Astrid see for herself.
There was a moment of silence as Regina got comfortable, Astrid seeming to sense her distress. She offered Regina a small smile. "Congratulations," she said.
Regina felt tears pooling in her eyes again, but managed a smile despite her quivering lips. "Thank you," she said. "And please, don't tell anyone. Especially Robin."
"I won't, ma'am. You have my word," Astrid said before leaving Regina alone in the hospital room.
A few days passed after that and Regina was still hospitalized long enough for the doctors to run tests and make sure she and the baby were healthy. The child was a miracle, as, with a higher chance of miscarriage, she hadn't lost it during the traumatic events that had taken place weeks ago. John came by with Roland the day Regina was able to leave the hospital so that she could bid the boy goodbye.
"Daddy is in the car. Do you want to say goodbye to him?" Roland had asked with his round eyes shooting right into her very soul. She wanted to say yes, but upon thinking of the child inside her, she just couldn't bring herself to do so.
"I can't, Roland. I must go. My mother will be here to pick me up at any time now," she had said gently. "But you can tell your daddy goodbye for me."
"Gina, will you ever be back?" Roland asked, his eyes suddenly becoming teary.
Regina leaned down and gently wiped his eyes, feeling tears pool in her own. "I'm afraid I can't come back, Roland," she had said. That wasn't true. She would be back for trials and court hearings, but not to see him or Robin. "I must go on my way."
A tear slipped down Roland's cheek, his lips quivering. "But...but Gina... Daddy and I love you," he had said. "Don't leave us."
Regina had thrown her arms around Roland and pulled him close to her side, rocking him slowly back and forth in her arms as he cried into her shoulder and she into his. "I'm sorry, Roland. But I must," she said. "Maybe I'll come visit one day." She couldn't stand to see Roland this way so she had made him a promise, a probably empty promise, if only to make the both of them cheer up.
"Okay," Roland had replied and wiped his tears as he pulled back. "Goodbye, Gina."
"Goodbye, Roland," Regina murmured before getting up and leaving without a second glance back at him. She couldn't bear to see the sad look on his face anymore.
She signed out of the hospital and left with her mother, climbing into the passenger's seat as her mother started the car.
"How're you feeling?" Cora asked, her voice hollow. Regina knew that her wellbeing wasn't truly what her mother cared about. She wanted to know why Leopold wanted to kill her and would assume it was Regina's fault.
"Fine," Regina replied, heaving a heavy sigh. "Still a little under the weather," she said, wrapping her arms around her stomach, wondering if she should tell her mother that she was with child. Cora was smart. She would find out eventually, especially if Regina would be staying with her for a while.
"You've had a rough few weeks," Cora replied as she pulled out of the hospital parking lot. "And some more to come with the trials. Why did this happen? Why did he want to kill you?"
"I don't know, Mother," she said with a frown, shaking her head.
"There had to be a–"
"Any reason he had wasn't a sane one," Regina snapped bitterly, turning to glare at her mother. Whether it was her hormones causing her lack of short temper or just the sole fact she didn't want to be blamed for this, Regina wasn't sure. "You forced me into a marriage where I was abused... Physically, mentally... In every sense of the word. Leopold was a cruel, evil man. He did a number of bad things without reason. And in his sick, twisted mind, maybe he had a reason to kill me, but it is not one I know or ever wish to."
Cora scowled, her hands tensing around the steering wheel. Regina bit her lips, surprised at her bravery to stand up against her mother after so little poking and prodding.
There was a silence that fell over the two of them for several long minutes, Regina working up the courage to tell her mother of her condition. She decided she would start from the bottom up. Her mother may not like the news of her having a child out of wedlock (and spoiling the good Mills name), but maybe finding out how vile Robin Locksley was would have her less focused on that matter.
"Leopold would have gotten away with what he did," Regina said, drawing patterns on her jeans. "He was going to have another man do it. That man kidnapped me and planned to kill me, but not before toying with me first. He made up a story about how he had saved me and used his son to make him seem trustworthy. I... I began to fall in love with him and then the night came that Leopold dropped by to do to the deed himself because this man was taking too long. He saved me from Leopold, but probably just to gain my mercy."
"You didn't press charges?" Cora asked, her brows drawing together in a disapproving scowl.
"I love him," Regina replied quietly. "And I love his son. I didn't want the boy to grow up fatherless. He had already lost his mother."
"But, Regina–"
"And I'm pregnant with his child," she blurted, not wanting to hear her mother's words.
She truly believed Robin wouldn't hurt her now, she did, and she knew he loved his son very much and wouldn't risk it, but she was so angry at him for his lied and false security when her life really had been in danger, and she couldn't go back. She would let him go free of charge but she wouldn't let him have her back. She wasn't even sure if his I love you's had meant anything.
Regina was glad they were approaching a stoplight because Cora slammed on the breaks, her eyes latching onto Regina like a predator's teeth would on its prey.
"You're pregnant?" Cora asked in complete shock, anger in her voice. "You let that son of a bitch get you pregnant?"
"Mother... I had no idea who he was–"
"Which is why you shouldn't have slept with him in the first place!" Cora exploded, her eyes wild in fury. Regina should have never told her. She expected this. Why has she told her mother? "Now what are you going to do? Let the man responsible for your near-death and four week hospital stay back into your life so you can raise this baby?"
"Mother," Regina said sharply. "I did know him. Or thought I did. He was convincing and it had been a while since we met. I didn't know to expect anything. He was so sincere..." She trailed off, biting her lips. "And he isn't going to know about the child. As soon as the trials are over, I'm moving far from here and I'm taking the baby with me."
Cora huffed angrily and stepped on the gas, her car zooming down the busy streets of Portland. "I can't believe you, Regina. How did you not think–"
"You know very well that the doctors said conceiving would be hard," Regina hissed. "I didn't think any of this would happen. As far as I was concerned, Robin was going to help me get a divorce from Leopold, I'd probably end up living with him and his son in Portland for a while... And I figured everything would work out. He'd ask me to marry him. We would live together with Roland happily."
Cora scoffed. "This isn't a fairytale, Regina," she said harshly. "Of course it wasn't going to be like that."
Regina frowned and looked out her window to hide the tears that were springing into her eyes once again. "I know that and I was foolish to not think of that beforehand. Nobody has ever made me feel the way Robin did."
"That should've been your first sign that not everything was going to turn out like–"
"Rainbow kisses and unicorn stickers, I know, Mother. I know. And now I'm living with the consequences," Regina finished for her, tired of hearing her mother's scolding. "I'm not a child, anymore. I can handle myself."
"And that's gotten you far," Cora replied bitterly.
Regina clenched her fists, feeling her nails biting into her skin. She flexed her jaw, trying to reign in a bout of unfiltered words she would have liked to tell her mother, but she reminded herself that Cora's house was the only place she had to stay in until she could find somewhere for her and the baby to live so she would have to watch her mouth. Cora had kicked her out before and Regina knew that she was already on the brink of doing it again.
"Your scolding me like a child isn't going to take back what has happened," she stated in as cool and calm of a voice as she could. "What's done is done and you know, as hard as this is going to be, I've gotten the one thing I have always wanted for myself out of it." In a way, this baby was a blessing in disguise.
Cora rolled her eyes and gripped the steering wheel so hard, her knuckles turned white, but she didn't reply to Regina's comment. Somehow, though, while she may have won their argument for now, it wasn't over yet.
Weeks began passing by. Regina spent most of her time looking for places to live outside of the New England area. She wanted a nice town to raise her child in and a place where she could get a teaching job again. She was also going to frequent doctors' appointments to make sure everything was developing properly and that the baby wasn't in any danger. She also had to make trips to Portland for court hearings, to state her case against Leopold. There, she would see Robin, who would testify with her, but she refused to talk to him. She would leave as soon as everything was over to return to her mother's house.
She and Cora got into many arguments about the entire situation. Typically, it was about Robin's innocence in the ordeal. She wanted her daughter a to press charges, but Regina would refuse to do so, always keeping little Roland in mind.
Christmas came and went during that time as well. Zelena brought her family in from the west, her husband, Walsh, and their baby girl, Kelly, who was only four months old. Regina was bombarding her sister with many questions about babies, and she mustn't have been very subtle, for Zelena managed to guess that her little sister was expecting a child of her own. Since she had heard the news stories, Zelena instantly dismissed the thoughts of Leopold being the father (and even added that she knew Regina would never get pregnant by that old slime ball to begin with).
"So you didn't bring Daddy along with you?" Zelena asked with a raise of her brow as she bounced baby Kelly on her knee. The baby was smiling up at Regina with bright blue eyed that mimicked her mother's.
Regina fiddled her with her hand sin her lap. She didn't have the strongest of relationships with her sister. Zelena was like Cora in many ways, but unlike her in others. She had a better relationship with her than she did her mother, but she wouldn't call it a strong one and she wasn't sure how Zelena would react to the story of her pregnancy.
"We're not exactly... together," she said.
Zelena adopted a frown. "Did you tell him about the baby and he left you?" she asked. "Because if that's what happened, then I'll turn him into a flying mon–"
"That's not what happened," Regina said, cutting her off with a frown.
"A one night stand?" Zelena guessed next. "Regina, I thought you were better than that."
"No, not that... Well, not really. I mean, it was just once but..." She trailed off, taking a deep breath. "He tricked me into thinking he was someone he wasn't. He kidnapped me and used a story and his son to hide behind. I began to fall in love with him... and when I found out the truth from Leopold himself, it was too late."
Zelena just stared at Regina in shock. "Regina, that's awful," she said. "Please tell me you're throwing his ass in jail."
"I–I can't," Regina replied. "He has a son who's already lost a mother. He can't lose his father, too."
"Have you told him about the baby?" Zelena inquired.
Regina simply shook her head. "No, I have not and I don't plan on it. I'm staying here until I can find a place far from Maine to move. Somewhere where I can be safe in case Leopold still manages to send someone after me and somewhere where the father of my child won't find me."
"Do you think he'd hurt you... the father?" Zelena asked.
Regina heaved a sigh and shook her head, her shoulders slumping as she looked away from her sister, staring blankly out the window at the snow that gently cascaded down from the sky, covering the ground in a thick blanket of white.
"No," she replied after a few moments of silence. "He wouldn't do that."
"Do you think he would have really killed you?" Was Zelena's next question.
Regina felt tears pricking the corners of her eyes but she quickly blinked them away, which was a difficult task, considering that she was thinking of Robin and his gentle smile, warm laugh, and soothing words... And his lies. But would he have killed her? Regina often wondered this. After that night where she had almost lost her life, after all the danger he had gone through to save here she supposed that, no, he wouldn't have gone through with it, even if it had been his original intent.
"I don't think so," she told Zelena.
Her sister sighed. "So why won't you tell him about the baby, then?"
"Because, he lied to me. He betrayed my trust, and he made me feel things that he probably doesn't feel in return. He probably doesn't even want the baby," Regina replied.
"Regina," Zelena said with a soft sigh. "It isn't fair to him or to the baby to grow up without a father. You didn't want his son to grow up fatherless, what's different with your own child? If he poses no threat and it's his child, he deserves to at least know about it. How you two work it out isn't up to me, but at least be forgiving enough to let him know and maybe be in its life if he so chooses."
Regina considered her sister's words, knowing them to be true. She knew she had to tell Robin. Zelena was right. It was his child and he deserved to know and be a part of its life because, after all, it was his baby, too. And their child did need a good father. Robin was one. He hadn't lied about that much. Roland adored him.
"I know," she replied.
After the festivities died down and her sister had gone home, Regina went about her normal routine, giving great consideration to her sister's words. She knew Zelena was right – this was Robin's baby and he deserved to know and be a part of its life and it was only fair to the baby that he got this chance as well.
So, after one of their court hearings, Regina caught him just as he was about to leave the courthouse. He had known the drill. He never got to talk to Regina, she ran away too quickly.
"Wait, Robin!" she called.
He whirled around, curiosity in his eyes. "Yes, Regina?" he asked, sounding so hopeful it almost made Regina cringe.
"I need to speak to you. It's important."
