"Turn on the news!" Regina ordered, pushing past Will and addressing Robin who was half awake and sitting at his kitchen table, even though it was nearly afternoon . "Something has happened that you need to see before anyone can ask you about it. I just fought off a horde of reporters wanting to know my thoughts."
"What did you do to him now?" Will asked, arms crossed. "How much more do you have to put him through?" He, of course, knew every detail about what had happened, even the stuff that hadn't been in the papers or on TV because Robin had told him everything.
"It wasn't me this time," Regina said. "I swear. It's Zelena now." She turned on the TV and said, "There you go." On the entertainment news, Zelena was holding a press conference to talk about how she'd been impregnated by Robin and that as a star and a woman, she felt it had been her duty to come forward and tell her story about what had happened.
"Why does this always happen to me?" Robin groaned and threw himself into a surprised Regina's arms. "Really. Can you please explain to me just what it is that I've done to deserve all this?"
"Well, we know that in your case, it's a lie, isn't it?" Regina asked.
"Of course!" Robin nodded. "Do you really think I would sleep with her?"
"I would hope not," Regina replied. "But don't get all snippy with me. I don't know your bedroom habits." She then sighed and held him. "We can't let Zelena know how rattled you are about this. The important thing is to make sure that Sarah knows none of it's true. We just started working on being a family and I won't have it ruined!"
"Good," Robin nodded. "Cause I really don't think I can handle this by myself."
"Can I do anything?" Will offered. "Want me to find this witch and mete out some justice?"
"As tempting as that is, don't," Robin said to him. "We don't want her to have proof of something that she can sell to the papers. I can just see it now: You beat her up and the next headline would be 'deadbeat father sends goon to assault innocent pregnant woman' or something like that. I'm the victim here and it needs to come across that way. What you and I need to do is go talk to Sarah and see what she thinks of this mess." He looked at Regina. "Do you think she's heard by now?" His phone rang and he looked to see who it was. "Yep, she's heard."
"What's this all over the news about you getting Zelena pregnant?" Sarah asked. "Why do you think she would make up such an unbelievable story?"
"You-you don't believe it?" Robin asked, filling with relief. "You know she's lying?"
"Yes!" Sarah said. "Were you afraid that I would think it was serious?"
"Well, yes," Robin nodded. "I mean, I hoped you wouldn't, but you never know."
Sarah growled into the phone. "I have never wanted to kill someone so much! Who does that woman think she is?"
"She's someone who wants attention, nothing more than that," Robin replied. "And while I'm very touched by your outburst on my behalf, I really think there are better ways to deal with it. Next time you see Doctor Hopper, you really should talk to him about your anger issues."
"Maybe I will," Sarah replied. "Or maybe I'll just stay angry, who knows?"
Robin got off the phone then and Regina asked, "What anger issues? Nothing to do with us, right?"
"No, it's more about Zelena now," Robin replied. "But has she always been an angry child? Or is this something that's popped up recently?"
"I'm sad to say that it's more of a recent development," Regina replied.
"Well, like I told her, have Doctor Hopper find some way to help her deal with it, would you?" Robin requested. "We don't want it to blow up in our faces and make more problems than we already have.
"Yeah," Regina nodded. "No kidding."
Over the next several days, Zelena shot to prominence on the soap with several plots being changed so that the audience could see more of her. And along with that, her campaign against Robin continued.
"You want me to tell you what's in your mail?" Will asked as he made his way into the house. "Or do you just want me to throw it all away?"
"Have you looked in the envelopes?" Robin asked. "Do you know which ones are death threats and which ones aren't?"
"Well, all of it is either death threats or bills and I figure you wouldn't want to deal with either," Will told him, a smile on his lips.
"Put the bills on the table and throw away the letters," Robin instructed. "Wasn't there anything nice at all?"
"Let's see," Will answered as he flipped through the various envelopes again. "Oh!" He smiled. "I think this might be something you'll like."
Robin hesitantly took the envelope from his friend and then let out a sigh of relief when he saw his daughter's return address in the corner. "How nice," he said. He opened it and smiled as he read her brief message:
Keep your chin up, Dad. I love you.
Sarah
"Sweet girl, isn't she?" Will remarked as Robin put her note in a special place where he could always take it out and read it when he needed to.
"Yes," Robin agreed. "She really is. I don't relish being Zelena, though. I have a feeling when Sarah gets near her, she's going to make her very sorry, even though I specifically told her not to."
"She gets that from you, you know," Will replied. "I mean, the king told you not to steal and you did it anyway cause you thought it was right. The urge to help the downtrodden in the face of an overpowering evil. She has to avenge you. It's in her blood."
"That's not me, that's my character on the soap," Robin reminded him. "Why do you always get them confused?"
"Because you're such a good actor," Will replied.
"Thank you for thinking that," Robin told him. "It's nice to know that at least someone does in all this mess."
"What do you mean you won't do anything to stop what Zelena is doing?" Regina raged at Isaac after she told him of how Zelena had been harassing Robin and how her histrionics had encouraged her fans to do the same. "You can't just let her get away with it! You're rewarding her for being a-a-a total monster who's stopping at nothing to ruin a man's life and advance her own career."
Isaac raised an eyebrow. "You do realize how you sound considering what we just found out about you, right?" He asked.
"Yes, but at least I can admit I was wrong," Regina replied. "And for another thing, I was actually pregnant! Zelena's just making it up. Robin is adamant that he didn't sleep with her, so she has to be lying."
"Actually she's not," Isaac replied. "She showed me the pregnancy test herself, and there was no question it was positive."
"I don't believe that!" Regina shook her head. "Something fishy is going on here. I don't know what it is, but I know there's something."
"And the men upstairs have told me to keep going with Zelena's storylines," Isaac continued. "She's popular. We're getting all sorts of letters. Ratings are through the roof! We can't quit it now!"
Regina shook her head. "I thought that's what you would say. I hoped you wouldn't, but I was prepared. And I just want you to know that as bad as what I did to Robin was, what you and Zelena are doing to him is worse."
"It's nothing personal," Isaac told her. "It's just business."
"How you could expect any of this to not be taken personally, I have no idea," Regina told him, and stormed out of his office, slamming the door behind her.
A few minutes later, there was another knock and Zelena came in, sitting on Isaac's desk. "Well, that was quite the tantrum Regina threw, wasn't it?" She asked.
"Yes, but I have to wonder if she has a point," Isaac replied. "How long are you going to let this go on? You know perfectly well that the baby is mine and not Robin's. What are you trying to accomplish?"
"Exactly what's going on right now," Zelena replied and put a hand on her belly. "This little one is making me a star. And thank you so much for your help, by the way. You know I couldn't have done it without you."
"You know I don't mind," Isaac told her. "But you should also know that this isn't gonna go on forever. Soon your belly will be obvious. What you can do will be restricted. And when you go on maternity leave, well…let's hope you love that child enough that it'll be a comfort after Regina has to pick up the slack as you bond with it."
"They wouldn't do that to me," Zelena gasped. "Would they?"
"I'm not saying it's a guarantee," Isaac replied. "But it's a possibility. And playing coma or brain tumor is a hell of a lot less interesting than what they've got you doing now, that's for sure."
A few days later, Regina and Sarah were at Doctor Hopper's with Tink again.
"Okay," Regina told her friend. "Explain to Archie what's been going on at work."
"I just…you know Zelena's popular, don't you?" Tink asked him. "Do you watch the show?"
"I know my way around it well enough," Archie nodded. "You and the others do marvelous work."
"Thanks," Tink replied. "But I just…I'm at the end of my rope! I can't work like this anymore! Regina's been pushed aside and everything that I write is for…" her mouth twisted. "Zelena."
"And I can see very clearly that that makes you angry," Archie noted as he wrote on his pad.
"Yes, it does, damn it!" Tink cried, every muscle in her body clenching. "I don't want to write "A" list material for someone like her! I want to write her in a coma and then have her out of the show! That's all I want."
Archie went to his closet of stuff and pulled out a bobo doll. It was about five feet tall, inflated, and designed to look like a clown. It was also weighted so that whenever you punched it, it would just bounce right back. "Hit it," he instructed her. "It will make you feel better."
"Oh, with pleasure," Tink grinned and began punching the doll furiously. It bounced back and forth and finally, Archie put a hand on her shoulder. "Do you feel any better?" He asked.
"Yeah," Tink panted. "I think I do. At least for now, anyway. It probably won't last forever, but thanks."
"You're welcome," Archie told her and then he eyed both Sarah and Regina. "Either of you need a turn?"
"No, but it probably wouldn't hurt to buy one for my dad," Sarah told him, having made peace in her own way with her anger. "Where can we get one of those?"
And to last chapter's anonymous reviewer, I am so gratified to hear that you enjoy the chapter, and it means a lot that you took the time to review and tell me so. Thank you so much!
