She woke up startled, dimly aware that there was someone knocking on her door. A thin line of sweat ran slowly dawn her spine and there was a yelp stuck at the back of her throat trying to force its way out.

She has been dreaming again that awful dream, the one she couldn't quite remember once her eyes were open but that left in her a sense of dread that would last all day long.

Now it might be that she could not remember, but she was pretty much sure it was always the same dream; it has been haunting her for a few consecutive nights now.

The knocking came again in a rampage and she could almost feel the door trembling with the force of the blows. Someone was in a rush to speak to her.

Swallowing down hard and waiting for her heartbeat to calm down to its normal rate, she ran a trembling hand along her forehead, unconsciously feeling with her fingertips for anything unusual.

For a brief moment she thought she was going to remember, but whatever recollection she had faded away when someone called for her insistently.

"Regina! Open the damn door right now!"

Rolling her eyes, the brunette grunted when she recognized the voice of the person who was about to break down her door if she didn't made haste. But she was still groggy from sleep and she had to fight her way out of the tangle of blankets that had her imprisoned before getting to her feet.

Once able to free herself, she climbed out of bed and on bare wobbly feet she walked to the entrance. As she made her way to the soon to be broken barrier, she looked around the room for a sign of his arrival. There were none, but it was not like she had expected any.

"I'm coming." She replied harshly and once she was to the door she opened it to find an extremely mad-looking Ruby.

She looked wild, almost feral.

"What now?" She asked in annoyance as she turned around. She didn't want to deal with a pissed off Ruby, it was too early for that and she hadn't even washed her face; she wanted to wash her face.

Meaning to do just that, she walked away from the visitor because if there was something Regina has come to know by now was that the young woman's mood soured every time she was left behind to tend The Enchanted Forest's needs from her seat in the Council.

The fiery girl claimed she would rather be out on the field than on a seat, but when reports of a disturbance in one of their villages came a week ago it was her turn to stay.

Snow stayed too. Robin, along with the rest of the Council and some of their more trusted warriors left, they were still yet to arrive.

"I want to speak to you." Ruby said through clenched teeth while following her into the room.

"So speak, I am listening." Regina eased herself into the washroom to rinse her face and mouth, hoping that the cool water would at least rush her out of sleepiness.

"Have you been plotting against us? If so I want you to tell me who had you been talking to and what exactly have you planned?"

Regina sighed tiredly. Here we go again... "Sure, I've been having secret correspondence with the King himself-"

Ruby grabbed Regina's arm and forced her to turn around, her fingers digging into her flesh cruelly. "I'm being serious, Regina so don't be cheeky with me." She hissed, her eyes were ablaze with anger, they were even shooting daggers at her.

Knitting her brows, the black haired woman gasped and tried to yank her arm away from the grip. It was a futile attempt, the Outlaw was not going to yield.

"I don't know what you want me say. We've had this conversation before and every time you come here I tell you the same. I am not talking to anyone and I am not plotting anything."

Not that she could even of she wanted, because even though she was given free reign to wander the city as she pleased, the true was that she was never left on her own for too long.

Snorting, Ruby let go of her arm, but her fiery eyes still held her gaze. "Well someone is, and if it's not you then it is your mother."

"My mother?" She blew out a breath. "For crying out loud, she's in a cell and she has been there for a fortnight. How do you think she could be plotting against you if you don't let her out like you said you would? Maybe you are seeing shadows where there are none."

"Shadows? Ruby laughed a bitter laugh. "We were lead into an ambush. Someone from inside helped The King plan a surprise attack, one that left The Apprentice dead and others wounded so how is that for seeing shadows?"

Blinking several times as the words registered in her brain, Regina found herself aghast. It took her a while to react.

The Apprentice dead… an ambush by The King… someone from inside… when was everything going to end?

"What about Robin?" Regina hurried to ask. She didn't like the thought of him being hurt and much less dead. Just thinking about it constricted her throat and made her heart clench.

She has tried not to feel like this, to withstand the growing feelings that had been evolving in her for this past fortnight, but by then she already knew that fighting it was pointless.

Now, she was very well aware that their marriage was an arrangement, an association if you will and her mind emphasized on it every time she found herself waiting for the night to come; but it was hard to separate what her brain knew versus what her heart felt. Especially when he came to her every single night.

Because yes, even when his days were spent at the Council or at the field and even when she knew how wrong everything was, his nights belonged only to her.

Not that each one of those nights were spent like the first one, not at all. She still remembered that when he came to her that second night into their marriage with no apparent intention to touch her, she was a little disappointed. But he came with a deck of cards and the intention of teaching her a game that was apparently popular amongst Outlaws and that was how the spent the night.

It started a tad awkward, but by the end she felt comfortable enough.

By the third night they were back at giving into the tension that consumed them and that was how the essence of everything that he was managed to crawl into her skin in a way she still couldn't quite comprehend.

To that day she still couldn't understand how she has let herself be carried away with it, by him, but the fact was that even when she has meant only to give him her body, he has become owner and master of everything that she was.

The whole thing was unlike anything she imagined in her life and most definitely not how she envisioned the aftermatch of laying with a man being.

She didn't know if it was because she always thought she was going to marry Leopold and that has done nothing for her curiosity to pick up over the matter, but the thing was that Robin and the feeling of giving herself to him was something she couldn't describe with words.

He was capable of making time stand still with just a kiss, he dominated all her senses just with the way his eyes settled deep into hers and she just didn't know what to make with the overwhelming feelings he provoked other than to just letting sensation swept over her.

That she surrender herself to him was a never-ending circle.

That has been until he left. A week has gone by and there was not much that she could do but wait, because waiting was what she did best and by now it had become her specialty. She was used to it, but she hated it.

"Is he alright?"

"He's unharmed if that's what you ask." Ruby responded in a dry whisper and Regina found herself able to breathe again. "As of now he's at the Council interrogating your mother."

"He's here?" He was there and he hadn't come to see her. For some reason she didn't like that at all, but then her mind slapped her internally and went on to think about Cora. "And why is he interrogating my mother?"

"I told you; chances are that someone who's inside this city, someone who came from the Kingdom is plotting against us and we need to find out which one. They don't think it's you and Graham is with your father so it can't be him either, so that only leads to her."

Regina shook her head, meaning to say it couldn't be her mother. But no word came out because truth was that she didn't know for sure. The only thing that she knew was that she didn't like this new turn of events.

"Regina, The Apprentice is dead; he wasn't just a member of the Council but also our mentor and our brother so we can't let this matter unresolved. If what happened was because of something your mother did you know what we have to do."

That, she liked even less and she shuddered. Plotting or not, deservingly or, Cora was her blood, she was her mother and despite their differences she loved her.

"Let me talk to her. If she is indeed plotting I can get the name of the person she's conspiring with." Now, because of the circumstances, Regina doubted her mother had anything to do with any of that, but it might be that she could prove it to them if she talked to her.

Ruby looked at her through half closed eyes, as if considering her. "Fine, but make haste before it's too late." With that she turned and left the room.

Regina hurried and changed clothes, put on her boots and followed The Outlaw outside and on to the Council's building.

Everything that happened next was like a bad dream she couldn't wake up from. She got to the building and went in, her legs automatically carried her to the room she so desperately wanted to go.

Cora was there, once again sitting in a chair in the middle of the salon. She was disheveled and gone were the silks and velvets that characterized her way of dressing, she was in a plain cotton gown that somehow made her look smaller.

The Council had refused every petition of letting her see the older woman ever since that first night she was brought in, and now that she got the chance to see her, her heart broke a little at the sight of her.

She was unrecognizable; she looked a complete broken woman, only the shadow of her former self. They had her in chains and her head was being forced down unto a table by none other than Snow.

The Outlaw had her fingers entwined into Cora's hair and every once in a while he would lift her head close to her face so that she could talk into her ear.

To all that, Cora just laughed, almost manically and Regina flinched at the sight of her mother in that state.

Robin was there as well, unharmed as Ruby had said. He was silently watching the exchange between Snow and Cora and it came into her mind that he had yet to know she was there and she decided to take a moment and think about what could she really do in that situation.

They all seemed unharmed but The Apprentice's absence was enough proof of what had happened out there and that wasn't good.

Scanning her surroundings, she noticed the rest of the Council. Charming was standing at Hook's side, supporting his weight with one of the biggest swords she had ever seen, it was bare for everyone to see, the metal glowing in her eyes.

A bare sword was never a good thing in a situation like that one and she looked around some more until she realized that Hook also had a sword in hand. The tension was palpable and it could only turn for the worse.

Back to Robin, he was just standing there, two steps behind the other two men and exactly as she noticed before, he just stood there observing the scene with a calmness that was too eerie to observe.

Ruby, who just got into the room along with her, went straight to Snow; she leaned into her fellow comrade and said something in her ear, Snow nodded but her eyes remained on Cora.

She was occupied absorbing her surroundings, trying to think of a way to stop all the madness when Cora's laughter interrupted her thoughts. It was coarse and cruel and nothing like her mother's behavior.

"Nothing you can do will prevent it. Your city will not only fall, it will burn and each one of you will die."

At those words, Regina could feel her body tense in anticipation, and with horror she saw as Snow lifted her mother's head and then slammed it to the table.

"Enough of this. Give me the sword, Charming."

The blonde man stepped in; anger had taken over his features as it had done with the others.

Had she come to late? Had her mother admitted already?

Before Charming could even lift the sword off the floor to strike, Regina rushed forward. She wasn't aware of when she did it or how but she now found herself standing in front of Charming, pleading to him as his eyes burned a hole through her.

"Please don't do it." She said when she found her voice.

Cora turned her head to look at her and Snow grabbed her by the hair again and forced it down. She didn't look at her, her eyes were glued to Robin's once Charming turned his back on her and walked away.

And Robin? He was looking down at her with something close to anger.

"Don't you dare beg, Regina, don't you dare they are nothing and they will die as nothing." Cora spat, her voice raspy and quite off. "You don't have to lower yourself for these brutes so don't you beg. Haven't I taught you well?"

"How would you like to die looking at the sweet face of your daughter?" Hook hissed.

Regina blocked his words and the others out of her mind, only Robin mattered.

His blue eyes were hard on her, the same eyes that gleamed into hers when they were in the brink of passion held nothing but hatred now, but was it for her?

"Someone take her out of here." Robin's voice was flat and devoid of any emotion. His tone was cruel to her ears and she shivered at the memory of those same lips whispering her name in ardor behind closed doors.

"If you kill her everything will be lost." She wasn't sure what she meant by that but it felt like the right thing to say. "This has turned into a cycle of recycled revenge and if you kill her it will never end." She felt someone grabbing her to make her back off a step, but she refused letting her eyes break away from Robin's.

"Take her out." Robin rasped and looked away from her.

She felt a wave of numbness hit her hard as she was lead out of the room. She wanted to say something, to do something but she just couldn't. She looked back at the person who was walking her out, maybe she could convince that one. It was Charming, and she knew there would be no point.

XxXxX

The waiting never seemed to end. An eternity has passed by since Charming left her in her room and still no news of her mother's fate was reported to her. She could always go back there and find for herself, it was not like she couldn't walk out. But she was afraid to do so.

So she had remained in the room looking out the window.

Now this room gave her a sense of solace and she didn't want to leave it. It was his room, now converted into hers. But it was still his too; his possessions were all over the place.

She was the only one occupying it as of late so did that make it hers alone? She wasn't sure and she didn't care. If he had killed her mother there was no way she could ever share anything with him, not ever. She would have to move… but where to and would they even allow that?

The door began to open and she got up from the chair she had been sitting in. It was him; he went in without spending a glance at her and went straight to the washroom.

She followed him to find him stripping out of his shirt.

"Did you kill her?" Her voice was surprisingly even as she observed him splashing water to his face. She made a point of watching his bloodless hands, that could be considered as a good sign but Hook could have done it instead, even Snow… or Charming when he got back.

"No, I didn't." He responded in the same flat tone he used earlier.

"Did somebody else do it?" She found a bit of relief in the fact that he hadn't done it, but even Ruby could have done it.

He dried his face, turned around and they were face to face, blue eye to brown eye. "She's alive" He brushed past her and strode into the chamber, leaving her behind.

Regina closed her eyes, letting relief wash over her. She stood there for a few moments before walking after him.

He was sitting at the edge of the bed; his head was cradled into his hands and his elbows resting in his thighs. She didn't like seeing him like that and she couldn't help but to feel for him, after all he had lost a dear friend not long ago. The Apprentice didn't get his second chance as Cora had just done.

"We changed our plan." He said without shifting his position. "We are going to keep your mother and send you back to the castle instead."

Regina has been making her way to him when he had spoken. She froze right on the spot as the words registered in her brain. "What?"

He had the decency to look at her. "Keeping you here was The Apprentice's idea, now he's gone and we don't see why we should carry on with it."

"You'll send me back…" She said it just to savor the words. They felt bitter and spoiled in her mouth.

"If we let Cora walk out of here this war will never end, she would go to The King and talk your father into gathering his remaining warriors and keep on with their antics. We can't allow that to happen… We have a better chance at ending this with you back at the castle."

She has wanted to go back to the castle since the moment they had chased her into the forest; she had dreamed of the moment when she get to see her three ladies, her father... So why she was feeling this emptiness now that she finally had the chance to get her dreams come true?

She swallowed hard, running her fingers through her hair. "So why did you agree on marrying me if you had your mind set on getting rid of me as soon as the chance came?"

"The Council voted on it." He said flatly, as if it was not big deal for him.

He had married her and ruined her life for a majority vote. How could she go back to the castle wed to a an Outlaw and expect her father to receive her with open arms? She was damaged goods for all he would care, and even if they broke the marriage and he accepted her back no one would take her tainted.

She didn't want anyone else either.

She let out a bitter chuckle, her eyes prickled but she blinked the feeling away. Her mind was dancing in victory, but her heart was shriveling and dying in her chest. "When do you plan to send me home?" Home, she barely remembered the meaning of that.

His eyes were on her and she found it unbearable to look at him, she looked away.

"We are going out on the morrow to look for Leopold. We already know where he's at and after we get him and judge him accordingly you'll be sent back. We all agreed that sending you back with him on the loose would be a serious mistake."

"I see you have it all planned out." Her voice was restrained; it was an effort to force the words out her throat.

He didn't respond; he just stared at her and remained in silence, motionless.

"Fine then." She turned around and walked slowly towards the washroom.

She wanted to run, but she forced her legs to a slow pace, a pace worthy of what she was, a Princess. Somewhere along her way she had forgotten that, but no more.

"Regina…" He called for her but she ignored him. She closed the washroom door behind her back and once in the solitude of the room she let the tears wash down her face.

TBC