Flashback: Camelot 4 weeks ago

Robin sighs deeply as he sits on his bed and runs his fingers through his hair. Regina comes up from behind him and rubs the middle of his back trying to comfort him. She places a chaste kiss on his lips, "what has got you riled up?"

"Its nothing. I'm fine," he replies and forces a smile.

"No you are not fine. Why are you shutting me out?"

"I'm sorry, love. I have just been stressed out about a lot of things lately. I just didn't want to bring you into it because you already have so much on your plate."

"You can tell me anything no matter how busy I am. I will always be here for you. You are my soulmate remember?"

Robin chuckles lightly, "I do remember. I love you so much."

"I love you too. Do you want to talk about what is wrong? You have been a little distant and I am really sorry if that's my fault. I just don't want us to grow apart because I'm so busy and rarely get to see you," Regina says, her face filled with concern.

Robin takes a hold of her hand, "trust me we will never grow apart. You are the love of my life and I couldn't imagine my life without you. You have changed my life in ways that I cannot explain. I don't really feel like talking about what is stressing me out right now, but I promise you I will tell you tomorrow when I am a little less upset."

She gives him a weak smile as she says with a waver in her voice, "alright."

"Do you not trust me?"

Regina's eyes go wide with shock, "of course I trust you. Why would you ask me something like that?"

He rubs the back of his neck as he replies, "I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't know what made me say that. I know that you trust me. I'll be right back. I need a minute to clear my head."

"Robin, I'm sorry," Regina says, her voice laced with worry.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I'm the one who needs to think before I speak. I'll be back soon I promise."

"Okay, I hope that you are feeling alright. You have no need to be sorry Robin. I understand that you are not feeling well and I know what it is like to be in your position. I just want you to know that I will always be here for you."

Robin gives Regina a weak smile as he walks out of the room. Regina frowns as she wonders what has made him feel so down. Her stomach knots with uncertainty, thinking that she could have possibly done something to make him feel this way.

Moments later Robin meets a woman named Merida and follows her back to her cabin. He tells her things that have been worrying him that he has not quite yet told Regina. Guilt laces through him when he realizes that he should not be here talking to this random stranger that he has just met about his problems - he should be with Regina. He was about to tell Merida that when she moved in to kiss him. Robins eyes went wide with shock and he quickly pushed her away. His body went rigid. "What the hell are you doing? You know that I have a girlfriend that I love dearly," Robin shouts as he quickly stands.

"I- I'm sorry. I must have misread this situation," Merida stammers.

"Yes you did," Robin says firmly as he storms out of the cabin and heads back to Regina's castle.

End of flashback

Regina wakes up breathing heavily, her shirt drenched with sweat. She woke up from a nightmare, but realized that this nightmare was also her reality - Robin cheating on her. She still cannot believe that this is true. She doesn't want to believe it. Out of all the people who could of hurt her why did it have to be Robin, she silently questions. "I knew that all of this was too good to be true. Villains truly never get happy endings. Why would I ever believe that I would be an exception to that? Love is unequivocally my weakness," Regina murmurs to herself. She feels tears trickling down her cheeks before she realizes that she is crying, again. Regina inhales deeply and shoves her feelings inside of her like she was taught to do and quickly wipes away her tears.

She glances at the clock and realizes that it's only 5AM, but she knows that she wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep if she tried so she rises out of bed with shaky legs and walks downstairs to make herself a cup of coffee. The coffee machine hissed as a fresh brew filtered into the pot. She sees the bottle of vodka out of the corner of her eye and thinks about drinking it just to ease a little bit of her pain. She shakes her head and quickly rushes those thoughts out of her mind because she has kids to look after. The only thing at this point that is keeping her happy is her two boys that are upstairs. She feels guilty that Henry heard everything that went on last night. She doesn't want him to have to endure any of the pain that she has felt.

While Regina's coffee is brewing she walks upstairs to grab her phone. When she turns it on she notices that she has received a voicemail from Robin and her hands begin to shake. She is not sure if they shake with fear, sadness, or anger. Regina hurriedly goes to her voicemail and presses play and Robins voice commences, "I know that on this voicemail I am not going to be able to say all that I want to so I am going to try and keep this short. I'm so sorry - I know that I have said this so many times that it probably doesn't have any meaning, but I will say it until I take my last dying breath. I can never forgive myself for what I have done and I am positive that you could never either. I don't deserve you or your love. I am going to come pick Roland up around 7AM and I promise you that will be the last time you will see me. I don't want to enkindle anymore pain upon you. I won't put you through anything like this again. You can go on with your life without any more interference from me. It can be as if I never existed. I have come to terms with the fact that I will never love someone as much as I love you Regina," the voicemail cuts off and Regina body wracks with deafening sobs. This is not at all what she wanted. How dare he think that she could ever live as if he had never existed. She snarls with anger as she tries to stop sobbing. She feels weak.

Regina angrily marches downstairs and grabs the bottle of vodka without thinking. "Screw it all. I should have listened to my mother," she screams before she takes a drink. Her better judgement tells her to stop drinking so she can take care of the kids, but her heart isn't listening to that as she takes another large gulp of vodka and feels the sweet burn of the liquid travel down her throat. Regina drank with a purpose. She chugged down the vodka to forget the sweet taste of Robin's lips and the way she got butterflies every time he walked into the room. She wanted to forget his name and the way that he looked at her and the way she felt when he touched her, but as the vodka filled her veins it just became more painful. She begins to wonder why the hell wasn't she enough for him. Was she not pretty enough? Was her love not enough? As those thoughts fill her mind, she gulps down more vodka, but that makes her think about him more. Her mind is consumed with thoughts and memories that she just wants to forget for a little while. Before she could even think about it, she is picking up her phone and dialing Robin's number.

The line rings four times before he picks up and groggy voice booms through the phone, "Regina?"

"Hello b-baby," Regina slurs.

"You're drunk."

"No I am not. I have been thinking about you a lot. I miss the way that you make me feel," Regina purrs as she giggles.

"Regina you are drunk and I know that you are not thinking straight right now, so I'm going to hang up. I'm coming to pick Roland up right now, because I don't want him to see you this way. If you would like me to I will bring Henry with me," Robin says firmly.

"Robin wait don't hang up," Regina pleads.

"What do you want Regina? I don't want to hurt you anymore. I am trying to distance myself from you, but right now you are making it so damn hard."

"Why did you cheat on me? Is my love not good enough for you? Am I not good enough for you," Regina croaks as she voices her insecurities.

Guilt pierces through Robin as she asks those questions. He also wonders what went through his head to make him cheat on her. He pauses for a moment before he replies, "I wish that I could tell you the reason that all of this happened, but I know one thing for sure and it is that this is not your fault. Don't ever think that you are not good enough for me. Honestly you are too good for me and right now I feel like I don't deserve you. So don't for a second think that it was anything that you did. This is my fault, not yours."

Tears fall silently down Regina's cheeks. Her mind is screaming at her to hang up and listen to his words to forget about him, but how is she supposed to forget someone who meant - no means the world to her. Why did this have to happen, she silently screams. She stays silent for a long time before she replies curtly as she holds onto the phone tightly, "she must of gave you things that I could not. And to answer your question, yes I would like you to pick up both of the boys."

"Regina-"

Before Robin can get the chance to say anything else she abruptly ends the call. She downs another shot of vodka and rubs her temples with her index fingers. What the hell was I thinking. Calling him just made things worse, she quietly reprimands herself. Regina has gotten through Daniels death, even though it lead her to do terrible things, but she has never felt this type of pain. It feels like her world is crumbling down around her. Her ceilings are cracking and toppling onto her, crushing her until she can barely breath. She feels as if everything that has happened between them is a lie. The alcohol she has consumed doesn't help her forget him. All it did was make her think of how much she is losing.

She feels the darkness creeping towards her, beckoning to her and holding out its hand like an old friend. The darkness is comforting, kind, and waiting for her with open arms, trying to caress her pain away. She wants to grab its hand and never let go until it takes her down into the depths of evil. Regina's thoughts go back to the time when she was the evil queen and feared by all. She craves that power again. The darkness moves closer to her. She feels as if its breath is tickling her neck. She is so tempted to go back to her old ways. She wants to put all of her walls up and never let anyone in again so she won't ever feel this pain again. All of a sudden she thinks of Henry and Roland and how harshly this would affect them and in that moment she shoves the darkness away.

Regina stands up with wobbly legs and stumbles over to the counter and sets the bottle of vodka down. She catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror and notices how broken she looks. "I am so weak," she murmurs. She slowly walks up the stairs to wash her face and make herself look a little less destroyed. After a few minutes she hears knocking at the door. She stumbles down the stairs and opens the door. She gasps and hisses, "Zelena."

"Hello sis. You don't look too well," Zelena replies with a wicked smile and walks right past Regina into her house.

Regina's face hardens as she sternly says through clenched teeth, "get out of my house."

She cackles, "Oh don't worry sis, I will be gone before your precious robin gets here."

"Wait- how did you know Robin was coming over?"

Zelena shrugs nonchalantly, "lucky guess."

She scoffs, "I'm sure it was. Get to the chase witch. Why are you here?"

Zelena placed her hand over her heart and feigned hurt, "such crude words and accusations. What have I ever done to you?"

Regina laughs harshly, "It would take me days to list everything that you have put me through. Now tell me, why are you here?"

"You seem a bit tipsy sis. What has got you down in the dumps?"

"Stop stalling and cut to the chase," Regina all but screams.

"You're not even going to offer me a glass of apple cider?"

"No! What the hell do you want?"

"Fine, you get your way for now sis. Yesterday I met a young woman at a bar and she was very distraught. She decided to confide in me and tell me about everything that had happened to her last night and now we are allies. Luckily we have a common enemy, you. If you haven't guessed already, this young woman that I am speaking of is Merida. It is clear that Robin has cheated on you in Camelot and I really don't understand why you are still communicating with him. Is love clouding your judgement, sis? Merida and I have come up with a proposition for you. After today, you are not to see Robin or Roland anymore-"

"This is absurd," Regina hissed.

"Will you let me finish? Anyways as I was saying, you are not to see them anymore. If you so much as talk to them I will personally make your life a living hell. I will hurt them and Henry in ways that you cannot even imagine. You are not allowed to tell him this information and if you do, the consequences will be grave. As long as you stay away from them everyone you love will remain safe. Trust me you will never get away with talking to them. You cannot get anything past me."

"So this isn't a proposition at all. This is you and Merida forcing me to stay away from almost everyone I love," Regina spat.

Zelena smiles widely, "now you're getting it! Honestly why do you even still love Robin? He cheated on you."

"Love just doesn't go away that easily. Not that you would ever know. You will never have love in your life," she sneers.

"You never know. With Robin's record, maybe I can get him to love me," Zelena snickers.

"Why are you doing this Zelena? What is wrong with you?"

Zelena throws her head back in maniacal laughter, "why am I doing this? What a silly question sis. Isn't it quite easy to figure out. I want to ruin your life. I want you to have to go through the pain that I went through. You don't deserve happiness Regina. You never did and you never will. I have places to be. This is the last day that you can be with your loved ones. Try to make it worth it." And with that Zelena vanished.

Regina's mind is still clouded with alcohol and she storms outside and lets out a painfully loud scream as tears stream down her face. "What the hell am I going to do," she sobs.

Note: thisistruelove asked me a great question and I just wanted to make it clear that I am not including Zelena's pregnancy is this. I am sorry if that upsets you. It is easier for writing purposes and I personally do not like that story line. I'm sorry that it has taken me almost a month to update. I have had so many essays to complete. I really hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Do you think I should continue with the flashbacks? Please review and tell me what you think. Thank you!