Robin knew he was going to fuck things up the moment he walked into Neal hosing Regina down.

Yes, as soon as he saw what was happening, he just knew that one way or another, he was going to dig himself deeper into the hole he already made for himself.

He sensed it in his gut, he felt the knowledge swept into his brain and hell, he even saw it coming.

It was as if a collage of images started dancing in front of his eyes and among the many scenarios on display, he clearly visualized himself punching the man square on his jaw.

In his mind, that happened right before grabbing a very wet and vulnerable Regina to get her out of there, far from any harm and as soon as he saw himself doing such a thing, he also imagined how easy it would be for him to take her far away from all the chaos that seemed to follow her around.

True, that right there would be such a silly way to mess things up, he knew it, but for a wild second he made peace with the repercussions that his actions would provoke and he was ready for it. To lose his job, to end up in jail himself and yeah, losing a friendship that went back years…

Fortunately, he didn't do any that; he wrestled against that innate feeling of wanting to protect the woman and for a little while he managed to act composed and to a certain degree, professional.

During that short amount of time he has been more or less able to keep respecting her wishes of not pushing too hard and of that he was proud.

Why? Because it was for the best. After all, no matter what it was that he felt for her, the fact remained that she was an inmate and he a correctional officer so she was definitely something he needed to forget.

He couldn't keep pinning after her, so the best thing for him to do was to leave her alone.

It was what he has been doing since they fell apart anyway so yeah, he was determined to carry on.

But somehow, someway, his premonition of him cocking things up became a reality and he just… well, he simply slipped on dry.

He wasn't sure how the hell he let it happen; how he went as far as having sex with her, in solitary of all places… and during one of his bloody shifts. But he did, and not only did his resolution of staying away from the woman crumbled into a big pile of dust, but he also got carried away into getting off inside of her.

Yes, he irresponsibly didn't pull out when he should have and damn everything straight to hell, because that felt too good to regret.

He wouldn't know how to explain the feeling as sex was definitely something he rarely did bareback and even less spilling inside, but with Regina it felt as such an intimate thing to share that went beyond all sexual aspect so when she gave him the green light, he just went for it.

Now, ever since it happened, he hasn't been able to think of anything else but her.

What could he say? Regina was like a magnet to him and he obviously couldn't stay away. They way her warm chocolate eyes would dig into his stare, her skin, how she smelled… how she felt opening up for him… her legs spread to give way to him and her heat receiving all he had to give.

She was simply becoming a very dangerous vice and he didn't know what to do anymore.

He got more than his fix that day and in the aftermath of the experience, he didn't know what to do.

He knew she wasn't someone he should pursue but still, all he wanted in that moment was to go back to prison and find a way to talk to her… to see her.

Shit… it hasn't even been a day and every fiber of his being already longed for her.

That's how he knew he was screwed…

Dragging a hand down his face, the correctional officer blew out a breath, his mind taking a journey out of his body so that he could keep going in circles around what was happening with him.

It was as he thought about that when he was startled with the sound of a distant horn drilling into his brain.

The sudden blare shook him, disconcerted him and yes, why not admit it? It definitely made his body jerk abruptly into his seat as his thoughts slowly retuned to his body.

Now, going back into full alert mode was gradual, his body sat up straight as his hands automatically curled around the steering wheel of his car; but still, for a couple of seconds he remained disoriented… lost, the notions of time and space all distorted in his mind.

It wasn't until a few rays of light hit him full force in the face that an idea of what was going on and why he ended up spacing out in his car started to settle in.

He was parked in front of the hospital… yes, after realizing that staying home thinking about Regina was not an option, Robin drove there, his intention clearing up his mind by paying a short visit to the woman who started it all. Emma Swan.

Well, to be fair, the woman wasn't exactly the whole reason why he ended up there but yes, she played a big part in the whole thing.

Actually, she played a huge part, because if it wasn't because of what she told him about the brunette that has come to invade his psyche in each and every one of his waking hours, he wouldn't have ended up there.

It was simple, as the FBI agent was being taken out of prison so that she could be treated accordingly, she told him something… a simple little thing that at first didn't quite register for him, but that then made his mind swirl around it over and over again until it made him wonder…

And now he was there, ready to get some answers.

With that in mind, he finally climbed out of his car and with the calm of those who lived without hurries, he walked into the building, ignoring the bitter memories hospitals always evoked in him and simply making his way to Swan's room.

When he got there, he almost swirled around and walked back the same way he came in though, because as it happened, the blonde wasn't alone and he didn't want to interrupt.

"I told you already so don't be a pain in my ass." Emma groaned in her usual annoyed tone and Robin almost cringed.

No, she wasn't alone, and judging by the way she was hissing bitterly, he was going to guess she was in the middle of a heated argument.

"And you stop being such a whinny little brat and eat this up."

As soon as the man who was with the Federal Agent said the words, Emma's head tilted up and her eyes immediately fell on Robin. It made him freeze on the spot and his plan of escape got canceled.

"Locksley? What the hell are you doing here?" She said, her voice nothing but a raspy whisper.

Forcing what he hoped was an amicable smile on his face, Robin nodded slightly as he bit hard into the inside of his cheek.

"Hey. I just came to check how you were doing, I'll drop by later on though."

"No, no, no… stay and see if you can get this one off my back already. Tell him that what happened back there wasn't so bad."

The man, who has been sitting by Swan's bed got to his feet and walked his way, determined; but there was no threat in the approach so Robin just watched.

"August Booth, this hot-head's partner; at least when she's not playing at Orange Is the New Black." He said, ignoring the blonde.

"Robin Locksley, I'm a CO at the prison." The blue-eyed man responded, shaking hands with Emma's partner.

"So you're the one who has been dealing with this one, uh?" He chuckled, shaking his head as his eyes shone bright. "I don't know why but I feel like I should apologize on her behalf. I know she can get a little… intense."

"Seriously?"

Drawing in a deep breath, Robin observed the way Swan rolled her eyes as she pushed away the Jell-O her partner has been apparently trying to make her eat.

"Intense is a good way to describe it, yeah."

"I figured. So, tell me how it was that she ended up here, because she swears that nasty mark all around her neck and that sudden raspy tone is nothing."

Not one to sugarcoat things, Robin twisted his lips and arched an eyebrow. "She almost got lynched at the showers. A few more minutes and she wouldn't be sitting there rolling her eyes at us."

"See?" Scoffing in a very unamused way, August turned to Emma and threw his hands in the air. "I knew it, you think you are the only one who can spot a lie?"

Groaning almost petulantly, she closed her eyes. "It was nothing, I'm alive, am I not? I've had worse things happening to me and you know it."

"Bullshit, Emma. I think almost being lynched in the showers of a prison tops it all. I told you not to push too hard, but do you ever listen to me?

"I'll come back later." Robin interrupted awkwardly, but before he could go, August waved him off.

"No man, don't mind us. This is the only way we operate; but just because she never listens. Anyway, I'll leave you two alone so you can talk. Now you…" Before finishing the sentence, he shot Emma a look that to Robin screamed more than partners and then he was gone.

"He's an ass… no more than you though. So what is it? Because I know why didn't come to chit-chat."

Lifting a hand to the back of his neck and scratching furiously on the spot, Robin walked closer and siting in the chair August just vacated, he tried to formulate a way to ask what he wanted to ask.

It didn't flow naturally so he tried to soften things a little first.

"I didn't. But first of all, are you feeling better?" And really, he wanted to know.

Pain in the ass or not, when he and his team busted into those showers, the woman was half dead… and apparently she would have been way before that if it wasn't because of Regina… at least judging by what she told them.

Shrugging and scrunching her nose, the woman looked at him. "I'm alive. God knows I shouldn't be but here I am."

Seeing her words as his window of opportunity, Robin cleared his throat and decided to keep easing his way to where he wanted to get. "So what the hell happened there?"

"Ah," She started to say. "I guess it was just what August said. I pushed too hard and got burned. But fuck, Locksley. I was so close to some vital info and now this. It just… pisses me off. And okay, I know I get carried away and that most often than not I do shitty things that make me deserve being hanged… but if you only knew what it would mean to get Gold behind bars you would get it."

Nodding because he has seen firsthand how hard the woman pushed but also what Gold was capable of doing, he kind of understood.

"Info on Gold?"

"Yes… but now I lost that source so I'm back at fucking zero."

As Emma confessed to that, Robin's mind went to the infamous pen drive he had in his apartment and all the times Emma has told him that was the missing piece in all of this puzzle.

What if she was right? What if by giving away the pen drive to her, he could get Regina out of jail and also eliminate the menace Gold represented?

That would be ideal, like killing two birds with just one stone so this was something he needed to seriously discuss with Regina.

"I need to get back into that prison, Robin. Something big is cooking up in there and I can't sit it down."

And there, right where he wanted to get, he thought… the perfect opportunity to dig into what she mentioned back when she was being taken away.

"That's what you meant when you said Mill's time was running out?"

Sighing out loud, Emma closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Mills… I hate to admit this but I owe a big one to that bitch. Listen… I don't have all the info yet, but I have sources and they all point out that Gold is not too happy about his men not being able to eliminate Regina and he feels this calls for immediate action. Cruella is probably not the only one working for him and I can't let whoever he has inside get to her before I find out what is it that she knows or what she has on him."

"So you think she's in danger?"

"She has always been and she will always be, as long as Gold is out there, Regina has a price on her head. As awful as you think I was to her, I'm her best bet to walk out of this unscratched… okay, not completely unscratched but yeah, you get it..."

Knowing that Regina was never going to confide what she knew to the woman and unsure if he was back on her good side just yet, Robin shifted on the chair.

Maybe if Emma tried another approach… "If you want her to talk, why don't you…" Before he could go on, his phone started to ring and looking down at it, he noticed it was Mary Margaret. "Sorry, I need to take this." Motioning the woman to give him a second, Robin answered the call. "Locksley speaking."

"Robin, I know you are off duty but I need you here as soon as possible. We have a situation."

Narrowing his eyes, Robin looked at Emma, who returned the stare in the same fashion.

For some reason, what his boss just said tingled all his senses on alert so he put the call on speaker, wanting for Emma to listen to whatever was happening.

"What kind of situation?"

"It's a damn mess. The library caught on fire and it's spreading to other parts of the building. There's a lot of unrest among the inmates and well, we will probably have to evacuate them so I need you all here."

"Shit, shit…" Emma began to mumble while climbing out of bed.

As she did that, Robin heard the rest of the details before telling Mary Margaret that he was going to be there as soon as he could.

He said that in automatic, his mind swirling around one thing and one thing only; that the library was where Regina was assigned to work… shit.

Hanging up, he immediately got to his feet, his intention rushing back to the prison.

"I'm going with you." Emma said as she got dressed. She did it quickly, and just when they were about to walk out the door, August walked in.

"Where the hell do you think you are going, Swan?"

"Prison. It's on fire and I bet on anything that this is on Gold. If he has the building evacuated, he'll have access to Mills and you know what will happen."

"But… you can't leave, you haven't been cleared out yet."

Rolling her eyes, the blonde grabbed the man's face and planted a kiss on his mouth, shutting any complain with the smooch.

"Then be a darling and do that for me, okay?"

Instead of quickly replying with words, August grabbed the back of her head in the same fashion and kissed her back. The scene made Robin sigh out loud in exasperation because he couldn't be wasting so much time watching those two kiss.

"So all it took for you to finally kiss me was a hanging? Okay… I can roll with that.

"You know I need to be there. I've worked too hard on this one to let it slip through my fingers like this."

"Yeah I know. Oh, but Swan, if you get killed this time-"

"Yeah, I know, you'll kill me."

Turning around as they kissed yet again, this time longer and probably deeper, Robin started to walk to the elevator. Emma caught up with him there after a short while and all the way to the car she chatted about how Gold was behind this and all the ways he could get to Regina.

Robin barely listened, as his mind was somewhere else.

After all, the prison was on fire and Regina was in there…

Accelerating his car, Robin chewed on his lips, feeling antsy as hell, the sensation that something was about to go terribly wrong gnawing on his guts and making his apprehension soar.

Once at the prison, the feeling only increased as the first person he identified in the small multitude of firefighters and rescue team settled outside was none other than Gold himself.

Sure, he has never seen the man live and in color but he has seen him on TV and numerous photos and that was definitely him.

Why he was there, he wasn't sure but there he was, resting against a cane and watching with a bored expression the numerous buses pulling in front of the prison.

"Did you see that? Fucking shit I need to call on my team right now."

With that said, Emma disappeared and Robin, curious and pissed as hell, walked closer to the man that wanted Regina dead and yeah, closer to the bloody bastard that almost got him killed in the crossed fire…

He didn't get too close though. In fact, he stopped on dry all of a sudden when he was halfway through.

It came into his mind that he couldn't just go to him and beat the hell out of the man so instead, he turned around and made it inside, the smell of smoke and fire hitting him hard.

Not that he minded too much, as had one priority, and she was at the other side of the wall.

"Fill me in. How did the library caught on fire?" He asked while gearing up once he was in front of Mary Margaret.

The woman, who was watching as firefighters would come and go to the affected area shrugged as if in shock. "We're pretty much sure it was intentional."

"Anyone hurt?" Clenching his jaw and holding his breath, he looked at the woman dead in the eye, dreading the answer but needing to know.

"Not so far. We have the inmates at the backyard waiting for back-up. We can't just load them into those buses and take them away but Robin… if this fire is not controlled soon, we will need to start on our own. The smoke is getting everywhere."

Not needing to listen to much more for now, Robin nodded. All he knew was that he couldn't let Regina get in one of those buses if the vehicle wasn't escorted. But for now, he just needed to see if she was alright.

With that in mind, he turned on Mary Margaret and then he was walking out the door, his destination? The backyard.

When he made it there, it was Mulan the one he found first, watching on the inmates as they all knelt or sat on their heels, their hands to the back of their heads as the CO stood armed in front of them.

"I leave for half a day and you let someone try to burn the place to the ground?" He said, his tone as easy going as it could come but his eyes frantically searching for Regina.

He spotted her easily enough, sitting on her heels, head bowed down in a way that her hair was half hiding her face. She looked alright… in fact, it looked as she was talking to the two women around her, Mal and Ruby.

"Don't blame me on this one. Today was my day off and here I am, chocking on this hideous burning smell and trying to keep these bunch from rioting."

Moving his eyes to his co-worker, Robin squinted his eyes. "Rioting? I see them laying low."

"Yeah, because I fired a few rounds into the air and threatened to blow a few heads if they didn't quiet down. They are getting restless… and I guess they are in all their right, that's a nasty fire and it's not safe here."

Biting on his lips, his eyes returned to Regina as he tried to think on a plan to get her out safe and sound.

"Hey, pretty-boy. Are you going to let us burn in here or what?"

Recognizing the voice as that of Ursula, Robin looked at the woman. It was a passing glance though because before he could take a good look, out of the corner of his eyes he saw what it looked like a man in full riot gear step into the backyard from behind, rifle in hand as he pointed it towards the inmates.

"Nobody move!" The new comer yelled and just like that, Robin knew the man wasn't from his team.

He wasn't the first to realize because Mulan immediately pointed her own riffle at him and shot. No questions asked… and just like that, everything went to hell.

In a matter of nothing, the man fired back and no, he didn't hit Mulan or Robin who was by her side but the exchange definitely provoked the inmates to start screaming and getting to their feet in a panic.

From being in order and somehow controlled, everything became a damn chaos.

"Fucking shit, Mulan." Robin hissed, losing the man in the multitude. He also lost Regina and not liking any of that, he groaned.

It all happened way too fast. Back up was called and the other officers came in as a tumult erupted everywhere.

Grabbing his own gun, the blue-eyed man made his way into the crowd. He could see Neal and Mulan doing the same but whereas they were probably looking for the man, he was looking for Regina.

He looked and searched all around and nothing, so he looked a bit more. The other COs already had a few of the women back in control but none of those were Regina.

The man wasn't there either and no, he definitely didn't like any of that. That's why he decided to venture the same way the man came in, which was to the back of the fenced area and back through a corridor that lead into the laundry.

He did it on full alert and as fast as he could, gun drawn and one of his arms covering his nose not to inhale too much of the heavy smoke.

His visibility in there was poor, but through the dense smoke he saw the silhouette of someone moving… a woman by her small frame.

"Stop right there."

The person did, turning around with her hands in the air. But it wasn't Regina, it was Ruby Lucas and she was coughing.

"You are heading into the fire, come here." He said as calmed as he could even though he had that awful feeling eating him inside out, the one that told him something wasn't quite right there.

"I can't."

Taking a step in the inmate's direction, he meant to ask if there was someone threatening her, but before he could do such a thing, a shot was fired and a burning sensation immediately took over his entire right side.

It rocked him, made his body jerk back with the sudden impact and it wasn't until his back hit the wall and his hand went to the affected area that he realized he has been hit.

Shit… he has been shot and because he was not wearing a bulletproof vest this time, the blood started to flow immediately.

"No! No what are you doing?"

In the daze of the moment, he didn't recognize Regina's voice until she was by his side, her brows furrowed and her eyes in full distress.

"Oh my God, Robin…"

Groaning, he slid to the floor, the combination of the pain and the smoke invading his lungs a bit too much for him to bear standing.

"Are you okay? Are you…" The woman started to say as her hand went to cover his over the gunshot wound. "Can you stand? We need to get you out of here."

"Regina, we need to go."

Looking up, he saw the mystery man, rifle in hand standing through the smoke. Mal and Ruby were also there with him, looking way too pale but apparently unhurt.

It took him only three seconds to pull it all together and he laughed bitterly, defeated. "You are fucking escaping." Yes, she was… and he got bloody shot for it. "Jesus, Regina."

"Can you get up? I'll get you back into the yard, okay?" As she said that, she actually tried to make him stand up, and when the man told him they needed to go she actually yelled at him to shut up.

It was a ridiculous thing, actually, but when he tried to snort, he just chocked and ended up coughing.

Grabbing his face, Regina sucked in a breath. "Robin-"

"Go, Regina… Gold is out there and I'm sure if he gets to you, you will never make it out."

"I won't leave you here." She shook her head no, her eyes blinking rapidly. Then, before he could even blink himself, she was kissing him.

Closing his eyes and ignoring the pain taking over him, Robin kissed her back, indulging in the feeling off her soft lips on his one last time.

Then, it was him the one pulling away. "Go. You asked me not to stop you… if the time ever came, so go."

"I can't Robin." She nearly sobbed so wanting to reassure her, he kissed her again.

"I'll be fine."

"Come on." It was Mal the one who stepped forward and grabbed Regina, making her stand up.

She did, her eyes glued to his as she disappeared through the smoke.

Robin watched after her, until he could no longer see her. It was only then that he closed his eyes and allowed the pain to take over him…