AN: So sorry for the extra long delay. A mix of keeping up with DOQ week (I have another story that is filled with the one-shots if interested), vacation, writers block -as per usual, and a health dose of laziness on my part. Thanks for staying with me. Here's the next installment.

Also, I know how I'm ending this. unless of course something happens between now and then that makes it change but I know what is gonna be end-game. And no, I'm not telling. ;) As always, thank you to my beta, Temera, for the quick turn around. Enjoy!


Chapter 12

Monday came around faster than Regina had hoped it would. The weekend had been filled with anything and everything that would keep her mind preoccupied. Her friends made sure of that. They didn't want her sulking around from the heartbreak. She didn't want to either. She read the signs wrong, but she could have sworn that their last time together was different. It was different. There was something about it, but maybe that's just how she always ended her trainings.

Regina got up and showered to get ready for the day, she wasn't scheduled to be at the Forbidden Fortress until this afternoon and she had classes beforehand. Starting with chemistry lab. She inwardly groaned at the thought of lab, she wasn't a fan. This wasn't her forte, but she had to take it; general education, aka the cause of student burnout.

She grabbed her book bag and a cereal bar from the pantry and left. The others were either still asleep or already gone. She got to lab with a few minutes to spare and took her usual seat in back, the TA came in a few minutes later and started writing on the board. He explained the experiment they would be doing today and performed a demo before letting them start. She was pretty good at getting these labs completed early enough to turn in and leave, but today seemed to be lasting a little longer than usual; it wasn't working. She was getting frustrated.

She grabbed her lab book and walked up to the desk, where the TA was sitting reading a book. He was pretty lackluster in his teaching, but that's probably because he was also a student. He did see her approaching and looked up at her.

She never noticed how blue his eyes were until she was close enough, truth be told she never noticed anything. She was too busy in her own things to pay much attention. He smiled as she walked over to his desk.

"Need help?" he asked knowingly.

"Yeah," she laid her book on the table so he could look, "I'm doing everything by the book, but I'm not getting the reaction it's saying I should. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"Did you measure out all the chemicals?"

"Of course I did." She was appalled that he would think she didn't do something that simple. She was a girl and true she didn't care for chemistry, but she could easily do this.

He raised a hand to show a sign of peace, "I didn't mean it like that." He looked like he was trying to hold in laughter as he walked around the table. "Come on, let's go try it together."

They went back and tried it a couple times before realizing the centrifuge, she was using, wasn't working properly and causing the skewed results. After changing the machine, she got what she needed and was able to turn in the lab report before class time was up.

As she was leaving, the TA called out to her. She stopped and turned around to see what it was, thinking she may have missed something in her report.

"Did I miss something?" she asked walking back half way.

"No, no, you didn't," he replied, "I actually was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee or something sometime."

"Oh," she wasn't expecting this, he was a grad student what would he want with an undergrad. "I guess that would be okay." She figured it wouldn't hurt and it wasn't like she was currently paired up.

"Great, how about tomorrow, 3:00?"

Regina nodded slightly, "Okay, 3:00." She smiled slightly and ducked out of the room.

Regina went through the rest of her classes and met up with her friends for lunch before she had to go catch a train into the city.

"Hey," she said as she sat down on the grass near the tree they always sat at.

"Hey you," Ruby said as Regina sat down. "What are you up to?"

"My chemistry TA asked me out. I think."

"Whoa, what?" Emma said, turning her focus to Regina.

Regina shrugged. "Never even talked to him before today really."

"He just asked? Out of nowhere?" Ruby inquired.

"No, I mean I needed help with something and then after that he asked," she explained.

"Are you going to go?" Mary Margaret asked.

Regina shrugged, "I said yes."

"Good for you." Emma commented, "You know the whole get-her-jealous thing made plenty of sense when we were all drunk, but moving on might actually be a better choice."

"So you don't think I should go today?"

"I didn't say that, I mean do whatever you want. Just don't sleep with someone for the sole purpose of making a dominatrix jealous."

Regina furrowed her brows, it was a little ridiculous trying to make her jealous. She'd only known her for a month why was she even considering going through with this. She bit her lip contemplating what to do.

Ruby squeezed her shoulder, "There's nothing wrong with doing that too, you know. Whatever you felt, wasn't on a whim; it was real."

Mary Margaret nodded, "Besides, you can go in and have a conversation with her if you really don't want to go through with it. She did say it was up to you right?"

Regina nodded, "Yeah, I guess I'll see when I get there."

"When are you going?"

"In another hour."

"I'm sure you'll know what to do when you get there."

Regina nodded and the subject changed to the football game that was coming up and spiraled into other conversations before Regina ultimately had to get up and leave to catch the train. She rode the subway into the city, lost in her thoughts about what she was doing. A month ago she would have thought she was mental for doing something like this, yet here she was.

She arrived at the Forbidden Fortress a lot faster than she had anticipated and was making her way up to the floor.

"Hey, Regina," Ella chirped as she saw the brunette walking towards the desk.

Regina smiled at her, "Hi, should I go back or…?"

Ella quickly scanned her computer and smiled up at Regina, "She said she'd come get you today. I'll let her know you're here."

"Thanks, Ella." Regina walked over to the seats and sat down placing her bag on the floor next to her. She drummed her fingers against her thigh waiting for a certain blonde to come out and see her. The same blonde that had drove her wild the last month only to crush her in a way she didn't realize could hurt so bad. She was starting to rethink this. Seeing her wasn't going to be easy, especially not this soon, but there was no turning back now, was there?

Regina was waiting a few minutes before she caught a glimpse of blonde hair in her peripherals. She turned her head to see Mal walking towards her. She was in her business like attire, with her hair pulled over her left shoulder, exquisite! Regina bit her lip as she got closer.

"It's good to see you," Mal said, sitting down on the chair next to Regina.

Regina nodded slightly, "You too."

"That wasn't very convincing," Mal raised an eyebrow.

Regina scoffed, "Do you want me to be perky, Mistress?" She asked giving her her best innocent look.

Mal looked at her amused, "I had a feeling this side of you would come out at some point. Sucks it wasn't sooner, I kind of like the sass."

"Not enough to get a drink though," Regina muttered.

Mal reached over for her hand, a little surprised when the young girl didn't fight her off. She ducked her head a little to look into her eyes, "I know you're still upset. I'm sorry, sweetie, I really am. I wish we hadn't ended things the way that we had…"

"You didn't have to end them," Regina whispered, hurt clearly still evident in her voice.

Mal looked at her softly, "You're better off without me, Regina. Trust me."

"You don't trust me, do you?" Regina challenged, "I think you'd be better off with me, but clearly there's no trust here for you to think so."

Mal narrowed her eyes, "Careful."

"Or what? You're not my dominatrix anymore. Or anything else for that matter." Regina spewed, that was harsher than she had anticipated, but it came out before she had a chance to stop it. She didn't miss the look that crossed Mal's face, she couldn't tell if it was just shock or if there was a degree of hurt mixed in.

Mal was taken aback, she wasn't expecting this conversation. She let go of Regina's hand and straightened her spine. If that's how she felt, she was going to keep things professional. "You're right, I'm not. Your new dom is waiting in my office." She stood up and looked down at the girl, "Shall we?"

Regina stood up and grabbed her bag. She followed Mal back through the doors and down the hall to her office. Mal looked back at her once more, before walking into her office.

"Regina, this is…" before she had a chance to finish both of them gasped.

"Robin?!"

"Regina?!"

They both stared at each other in a mixture of shock and the need to run out and forget this ever happened. He was the last person Regina had ever expected to go for this type of thing!