Imposter
"who are you?" Regina repeated when Brianne just stood gaping at her
"what?" Brianne replied taken aback by the sudden coldness with which the brunette addressed her,
"you heard me" the Mayor continued danger emanating from her every pore causing Brianne to visibly recoil
"I don't understand, you already know who I am" the blonde replied her feelings of alarm growing rapidly with each passing second
"Don't play games with me" Regina's voice dropped dangerously as she struggled to maintain control
"I'm not" Brianne pleaded unshed tears threatening to spill from her eyes at any second "please you're scaring me"
"scaring you?" the brunette let out a low unnerving laugh "I haven't even begun to scare you yet, you have no idea of what I'm capable of, so don't test me or you might just find out, now tell me who you really are and why you're here, did somebody send you?"
"TELL ME!" she shouted when the blonde just stood starting at her with fear in her eyes,
"n nobody sent me, p please Regina tell me what's h happened" Brianne stuttered, choking back the tears that were beginning to fall
"I SAW IT" Regina shouted
"you saw what" the blonde looked so genuinely confused that the brunette began to feel somewhat uncertain.
"Oh for god sake, don't pretend you don't know" she continued, shaking the uncertainty off "the lion tattoo on your shoulder, I saw it"
"so, what about it" the blonde asked brow still furrowed in confusion
"don't try and pretend that you don't know, now either you are messing with me or someone else has sent you to mess with me, which is it?" she demanded,
"why would you do this to me Brianne?" Regina's tone sounded almost defeated "what was the game, is it some kind of revenge plot for something I did? You make feel this way so that you can leave me more broken than when you found me, is that it?" she asked blinking back tears
"Please believe me Regina" the blonde timidly approached her "I'd never do anything to hurt you, I L"
"STOP LYING TO ME!" the brunette yelled cutting the other woman off mid-sentence "tell me is anything you've told me true? Or is it all lies"
"I've never lied to you about anything" Brianne insisted "please tell me what this is about,
"It's about you having an identical tattoo to Robin, the man I loved, why do you have it?" she demanded calling a fireball to her palm an action that she immediately regretted when she saw the blonde eyes widen with terror as she tripped over her shoes in a bid to retreat as fast as she could eyes glued to the fire dancing in Regina's hand, disgusted with her loss of control upon seeing Brianne cowering in front of her Regina extinguished the flame and fled from the room her stomach churning, barely making it to her bathroom on time.
Exhausted she cleaned herself up left her bathroom and collapsed onto her bed and tried to think of her next move, try as she might she couldn't think of any genuine reason for Brianne to have that tattoo, It was special, and It was Robins, it was what led her to him in the first place and that was common knowledge by now, she was sure that somebody was playing a twisted game with her, but who and why?
She knew that she had caused a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people in the past so there could be any number of people out for revenge but she truly believed that the people in this town at least knew that she had changed and didn't wish harm on her anymore even if she hadn't fully earned all of their trust back, it was a working progress that she understood and respected, the whole town was still healing just like she was and she couldn't blame anyone for being a little cautious of her still,
but for someone to go out of their way to plant Brianne in her home, give her that tattoo knowing what It meant to the brunette, have the blonde get close to her only to betray her and break her heart, what did anybody have to gain from that? She pondered the possibility that Gold was playing a game or maybe he was just trying to distract her from something that he was plotting right under her nose, she still couldn't place all the pieces but she wouldn't put anything passed that little imp and had almost made up her mind to confront him when a timid little tap on the door interrupted her train of thought, she blinked stupidly as the door slowly opened and a tentative Brianne cautiously peeked around the door,
"can we talk?" she asked hovering nervously in the doorway
"Fine" Regina sighed looking down at her hands, her curiosity to hear what he blonde had to say for herself getting the better of her,
"you knew Robin?" the blonde asked eagerly, throwing caution to the wind as she moved to sit near Regina on the bed eyes shining with excitement
"I loved Robin, but then you already knew that didn't you" the brunette stated sadly without looking up
"No but I wish I had" the blonde smiled "because you see I loved Robin too"
Regina's was sure that her jaw had dropped in surprise as her head snapped up and she finally met Brianne's eyes with her own, the blonde's eyes continued to shine with excitement but there was also a little tinge of sadness hiding in there. Whatever she thought that the blonde might say it definitely wasn't that,
"Not the same way that you did of course" Brianne chuckled "Robin was my big brother"
"what?" the Brunette continued to gape like a goldfish "But how, Robin would have said if he was of noble descent" she reached desperately into her memory "and besides" she said when she had remembered something relevant "you told me that you only had one brother and a sister, Charlotte and Boe"
" that's right" the blonde nodded impressed that Regina had remembered that, "Boe was a nickname that I gave to Robin" she smiled fondly, "you know because of how good he was with his bow and how he was never without it, I used to tease him that he'd end up married to that bow", she laughed shaking her head "but I see that he found something much more appealing" she trailed off casting a longing look in Regina's direction, It was a look that wasn't lost on Regina but she couldn't allow herself to there no matter how she felt, could she? I mean this was Robin's sister, would that be too weird, of course she hadn't known that when she had begun to fall for the blonde, but she knew it now, and it explained a lot, like why Brianne had seemed so familiar to her, it was so obvious now that she knew, that the brunette couldn't understand how she hadn't recognised it before, the blonde had been telling truth, they really hadn't ever met, but those eyes, those beautiful blue eyes almost the exact same shape and shade as her big brothers, Regina had gotten lost in a pair of eyes so similar so many times before, and those eyes were the reason that she now knew that Brianne had been telling her the truth the whole time, they really hadn't every met before, Regina had simply recognised the traits that the blonde shared with her brother and now she was finally able to make the connection.
"did he ever tell you about his tattoo?" Brianne suddenly asked startling Regina, the brunette tore her eyes away from the blondes shaking her head sadly it was one of the many things she hadn't gotten around to asking him about and now she never would,
"It's our family crest" Brianne explained "Robin had his done just before he was kicked out, it was done in an act of defiance" she laughed "when our Aunt and Uncle first started to deny him as being a member of our family in their bid to disinherit him and get their hands on the family fortune, he got himself tattooed with the crest, a permanent reminder of who he was and of his place within our family, of course he flaunted it constantly, It drove our Aunt and Uncle crazy just like it was supposed to. Then after the fire when we were on the run I got a matching one, by then they had taken on a new meaning, they were special just for us, we quickly shed our last names when we were on the run, for a while we were just Boe and Bri, but the tattoos were always there to remind us of who we were and where we had come from, wherever we were and whatever we were going through we would always be Lionne's"
"can I see It again" Regina asked tentatively
"Sure" Brianne smiled turning her back to the brunette and pulling her t-shirt down to reveal her bare shoulder, goosebumps prickled and spread as she felt Regina's finger make contact gently tracing the familiar design as she had done so many times before on Robins arm "of course they tried to use this to catch us after we ran" Brianne whispered as the brunette continued to trace her fingers over the blondes exposed skin "a thousand silver pieces for the person who could bring them the man with the lion tattoo, a fair few were caught too" Regina stopped in her tracks dropping her arm in surprise "our Aunt and Uncle travelled far and wide to collect their prisoners convinced that this time they had found Robin only to discover that every-one of them were fakes" she chuckled as she pulled her shirt back up over her shoulder before turning to face the brunette again "that was another of Robins genius ideas" she continued "he discovered a glamour spell and used It to create tattoo replica's on the arms of all the men in our camp, there were quite a few by the end, the men travelled to every corner of the enchanted forest before exposing their tattoo's and allowing themselves to be caught just long enough for our Aunt and Uncle to arrive and realise that they had been tricked again, by then our men were more than ready to escape and would flea before our Uncle had a chance to get his hands on them and exact his wrath, the tales they used to tell when they got back" she laughed heartily "of course Robin and I always kept our own tattoo's covered up in those days so they never even came close to capturing Robin and didn't discover that I had one at all, we regularly watched them pass through the forest on their way to the next prisoner though, they were the first people we ever robbed, Robin made a game of stealing the bag of reward money that they always had with them, ready to pay the person who had found them their man, they never did know that it was us and eventually they saw enough fakes to realise that using the tattoo as a means to track Robin was a pointless feat so they gave up and we continued on our way"
"so there were loads of men with Lion tattoos?" Regina asked brain working overtime
"Not really" Brianne replied wiping tears of laughter away "The glamour always wore off after a couple of weeks, Robin was the only man who ever truly had the tattoo and I the only woman, you must have loved him a lot" she continued "I mean you could only have known him for a few weeks and it was such a long time ago and yet your love for him is so strong that it still affects you greatly to this day, I'm surprised he didn't mention you to me, I guess it must have been too painful for him to talk about" she sighed
"it wasn't that long ago?" Regina stated brow furrowed in confusion, before realization slowly set in,
"but you thought he died years ago" the brunette continued connecting the dots "which I guess, would mean, that you must be thinking that I was with Robin just before the fire" Brianne nodded in confirmation frowning a little "but Robin didn't die when you thought he did" Regina pressed on "He and I were together here in Storybrooke, look" she reached into the drawer in her bedside table and pulled out a framed picture of her and Robin smiling together outside of Grannies.
"Boe" Brianne whispered tears rapidly gathering in her eyes as she traced over the picture with her thumb, "does this mean he's still alive?" she asked hope shining in her eyes, Regina dropped her eyes unable to bare seeing that hope die, especially when she was going to be the one to kill it as quickly as it had come to life.
"I'm so sorry" she whispered shaking her head sadly tears flowing unchecked as she took a deep shuddering breath and continued "He died just before you arrived in town, sacrificed himself in fact to save me, there's a wish realm version of him but believe me when I tell you that no matter how much he looks like him, he's not our Robin" she concluded guilt gnawing at her as silence stretched between them, eventually Regina slowly built up the courage to look at the blonde again, and the sight that greeted her broke her heart, Brianne looked utterly devastated, she was still looking down at the picture in her hands but her vision must have been completely obscured by silent tears that were running down her face and splashing onto the glass that covered the photo,
"All this time and I just missed him" she sobbed shoulders heaving, wordlessly the brunette gently took the picture from Brianne's hands casting it to one side as she wrapped her arms around her holding her close, the two women crying over their profound loss together.
"but" Regina smiled wanting to offer the blonde a bit of happier news, as she finally pulled out of the hug sometime later and reached into the drawer that still stood open selecting a small stack of pictures these ones unframed and handed them to the blonde "you're an Aunt"
Brianne looked in awe at the first picture which showed Robin and Regina posed with Henry and held a small curly haired boy between them "he looks like my father" she smiled "but where is he, why haven't I seen him, why isn't he here with you?"
"because I'm not his mother" Regina replied her heart aching a little, his mother died a while before Robin did, and Roland chose to return to the enchanted forest with the rest of Robins camp, they are his family as much as I am, maybe even more so and being back there with them makes him feel closer to Robin"
"oh" Brianne's eyes dropped saddened at the prospect of not being able to meet her nephew, her eyes lingered on his happy face for a little longer before she moved the picture aside to the look at the next one, "This is your sisters baby" she noted looking at another picture of Robin and Regina, this time Regina was cradling Zelena's new born daughter wrapped in the same pink blanket as she had with her in the diner, she moved to cast it aside believing it to have ended up in the pile by mistake,
"yes" Regina said reaching out to stop her "and it's a bit of a complicated story but she's also Robin's, she was born just before your brother died so my sister decided to name her after him"
"Robyn" Brianne whispered gazing at the picture in renewed awe as she remembered the time she had spent with the baby, her niece she realised, the previous evening and of how much she had reminded her of Charlotte at that age. The remaining pictures showed Robin, Regina, Henry and the children in different places around town, in the forest and at home together, sometimes other people appeared namely Emma, Hook, a woman with a short dark pixie cut, and a blonde man with their infant son, that's Emma's parents and baby brother, they live in town Regina explained as she selected a few of the pictures of Robin and his children offering them to the blonde to keep.
"thank-you" the blonde whispered gratefully tears of happiness in her eyes as she continued to look at her pictures, "you all look so happy" she smiled
"we were" Regina replied "but it feels like a different lifetime, which is strange because I only stopped crying when you walked into my life" the statement hung poignant in the air as they met each, others eyes both subconsciously leaning closer to the other closing the gap between them, Regina felt Brianne's breath on her skin, their lips almost brushing together as she leaned further into the imminent kiss, then just as they were abouts to make contact a shrill ringing sounded from Regina's bedside table startling them apart, damn it this had best be important Regina thought as she picked up the phone,
"check your mobile" Emma's voice sounded urgently from the other end of the phone the second she bought the receiver to her ear, "Henry's found something, sort of, anyway I've sent you a picture have a look", fumbling around the brunette grabbed her phone and opened the link that Emma had sent her, what looked like a picture from one of Henrys story books appeared on her screen, Miriam was smiling out of it with her children standing in line beside her,
"Yes I know Miriam has a lot of children, what of it?" she asked patience wearing thin,
"look whose missing" Emma prompted
Regina scanned every little face in the picture several times but however many times she looked at them all one face remained resolutely missing "Ollie" she breathed looking again to be sure "he's not there, But that doesn't really mean anything, he could have been born after this picture was drawn" she reasoned, not entirely convinced,
"that's what I thought at first to" Emma agreed "then Henry told me he that he drew that today with the help of the authors pen, he's positive that, that is Miriam now back home with her children safely back home, she's looking rather happy considering one of them got left behind don't you think? And there's more scroll down"
Regina scrolled, dread setting in as she did, the families names were written beneath their images, she quickly located the name Ollie last but one in the line, and scrolled back up to see the image above, a cheeky looking chubby little cherub with dimples, blue eyes and golden curls looked back at her, he was the polar opposite she thought to the brunette, dark eyed boy who was currently sat watching cartoons in her lounge.
If this was the real Ollie then who was the imposter that had been living in her house and what did he want?