I will finish this story one day! Thank you to all of you who are still so patiently awaiting updates. This one is a little bit more of a transitioningg chapter than anything, I am hoping to do a double update today and wreck your shit lmao! We'll see!
Regina was trying to be kind and trying to be understanding and trying to just be steady even though she was upset that he was leaving her again. Every part of her ached with the wish that David just wouldn't go, that he could just stay. For she still didn't trust him entirely and the thought of him leaving her alone once again stoked the anger and frustration within her that she had worked so hard to quell. But she knew he had to leave just one more time. They had agreed.
She carefully buttoned his coat for him, tried to smile her way through it even though she was biting her tongue and on the verge of tears, tried not to let it show that it was killing her to let him go back to his wife, even if it was simply to tell her he was leaving. Because what if he got there and changed his mind? What if he stayed?
David was not oblivious. His blue eyes watched her closely, watched the worry in her eyes and the tension in her flexing jaw. He watched how precisely her fingers worked with his jacket, watched her keep her temper in check with so little effort. Something that had been impossible for her just a few short years ago. Months ago even. He admired the progress she had made and the strength she carried. He watched her in silence, fascinated and enthralled in her, just as he always was whenever he was in her company.
She finished the buttons with a soft exhale and then gently pat his chest with a forced smile "there. All handsome and ready to go," she tried to tease but the fact that she had just dressed her lover for his wife really set in and she could not look him in the eye. So her hand lingered miserably over the buttons of his coat. She was trying to be good, trying to be strong. She was trying to do the right thing. But it was just so difficult. In the long run it would be better. If there was a long run at all.
David frowned at her and after a moment, he pulled her in to a hug. Reluctantly she tipped in to him, slowly relinquishing her restraint and then buried her face in to his neck and hugged him as tight as she could in an attempt to just hold him there with her forever. "I will see you soon," he reassured as he held her tighter and nestled his nose in to her hair and took a deep breath.
"I'd better," she warned with a light laugh but there was no humour to be found in her tone or demeanour. He was going to Snow for no other reason than to tell her he was leaving. To tell her that he had fallen in love with someone else. With her. But what if he didn't return? What if the moment he laid eyes on his wife, he changed his mind and decided to stay? What if she was right and David would never be hers?
"I should only be a few days. If I will be longer than a week, I will send word," he told her but she didn't let go of him. So he pressed a kiss to the side of her head and rubbed her back and shoulders as he spoke softly against her ear, "I am not leaving you, I am yours, I will return to you," he reassured but he couldn't say if she believed him.
Regina sucked in a long slow breath through her nose and then let it out just as slowly as her fingers twirled through his hair at the nape of his neck, "Snow should have let me die at that stake," she breathed.
Frowning, David questioned, "why?"
"It would have been so much easier. So much less anger. So much less pain. The world would be a much happier place without my presence in it."
"Perhaps in the short term. However, now, I can guarantee that the world is a far happier place with your presence in it. And without you in it now, there would be far more anger, far more pain, and far more difficulty. I, for one, am most relieved that Snow stopped the arrows."
"You would be far less troubled without me."
"I would also be living a life far less full," he told her and pulled away just enough to look at her.
"You wouldn't know."
"No. But I am glad that I do," he told her and when he placed his hands on either side of her jaw, she curled her fingers around his wrists and let out a quiet sigh. Her sad brown eyes left his gut twisting as he gave her a comforting smile, "I am yours, my queen, do not doubt that."
"I do," she told him bluntly but softly and his comforting smile was tainted with sorrow as he cocked his head ever so slightly. And then the next thing she knew, he had pulled her head forward to meet him in a kiss that took her breath away in one fell swoop. It knocked the air straight from her lungs and her arms wrapped around his shoulders and back.
She let him tilt her backward just enough for her to hold on to him tighter, let him trick her in to believing for just a moment that they were going to be together. He made her heart soar and her soul warm, he made her forget that evil filled every bone in her body. He made her feel loved.
And then he parted and kept his forehead tipped against hers.
"This is not goodbye, I will see you soon. I love you."
"I love you too."
...
Richard had been hoping his children were mistaken. That the black horse and royal emblem he had described to them countless times and had taught them to do nothing but run from it the moment they saw it, was there at Regina's door. Despite knowing his children would never mistake anything belonging to the Evil Queen, he could only hope that they had. Just this once.
He had wasted no time in rushing to her, hadn't even hitched the wagon to his old donkey, simply threw on the bridle and took off bareback toward the woman's borrowed property, hissing under his breath that he should have bought his daughters the horse they had always wanted. And as he worried for Regina's wellbeing, he tried to imagine why the queen would have any business with her.
It felt as though it took hours but in minutes he came to the edge of the tree line around the perimeter of the house and he took a moment to take in the situation before urging his donkey any further. For there, just as his children had described, stood the queen's black stallion. A horse so proud and magnificent it could belong to no one else. Even if he had not been wearing his royal tack, the beast was impossible to confuse.
Wary of him, Richard slid off his donkey's back and tied him to a tree to ensure his safety from the battle ridden stallion watching their every move. And then he approached the house, entirely unsure of what exactly he was going to do to fend off the Evil Queen herself. But he couldn't leave Regina helpless under the queen's wrath. So when he saw the pitchfork propped up against the side of the barn, he took it and continued his silent approach.
Then he paused next to the open door of the house with his back to the wall and the pitchfork in his grip and took a deep breath. He heard nothing inside but that didn't mean anything. So with one more breath to centre himself, he turned and lunged in through the front door and saw her. Standing with her back to him, looking out the window over the counter where Regina had prepared all her meals, a black leather coat cinched tightly around her waist before it fell to the floor, long dark hair falling in loose curls, her hands clasped loosely behind her back. She didn't move, only acknowledged his presence with the slightest turn of her head but not enough for him to see her face.
"Where is she?" He growled and she blew a single soft laugh through her nose as she shook her head.
"That is very kind of you," she told him softly with a smile and waited for him to recognize her voice before she turned to face him. The utter confusion on his face was almost comical as his pitchfork drooped with his unfocused grip, "coming to save me. Although, I don't believe a pitchfork would be much defence against the wrath of the Evil Queen," she teased lightly as she stepped toward him.
"Regina?"
"Yes?"
"I...I don't understand...you-...is this some sort of joke?"
"No."
"You are wearing her face!" He concluded sharply as he raised his pitchfork to her throat once more, "trying to catch me with my guard down! Where is she, witch?!"
"I am wearing no one's face but my own."
"Lies!"
"I wouldn't lie to you."
"Regina is nothing like you! She is no monster! Tell me where she is!"
"I told you I carried a dark past, Richard. Dark and complicated and terrible. Your neighbours will be returning tomorrow and I will be leaving today. But I could not leave without giving you the whole truth when you have given me so much of yourself. You and your children were so kind to me, so good to me, I could not leave without showing you just how much you have done for me."
"I don't believe you," he snarled but felt tears pricking his eyes for deep down he knew she was who she said she was. That the woman who had made his life such a joy, who had given his children a motherly figure, the woman who he had quickly grown to adore, was the Evil Queen.
"I think you do," she argued softly and watched the frustration build within him. But she reached up nevertheless and gently pushed the pitchfork away from her throat. He never once looked away from her, "I am sorry that it feels as though I have betrayed you. It wasn't my intention," she frowned softly, feeling further away from him than ever before even through they stood just barely out of arm's reach from one another.
"I don't understand," he insisted, his voice firm and unforgiving as his mind whirred with all the information.
"I was banished to spend the rest of my days in loneliness and misery. But Snow White and her charming prince decided to give me one last chance. He stayed with me on and off for almost three years trying to get me back on my feet, trying to get me to see the light, to find a reason to live again without cruelty. And when he believed me to be ready, he and Snow White procured this little piece of quiet paradise. A place of peace, a place with work, a place that gave me purpose. And unknowingly, a place with the very kindest of souls ready to help me every chance they got," she told him with a shake of her head as her throat tightened with the desire to cry.
"But my time here has come to an end and now I must leave. However, I simply could not leave without showing you what you and your family have done," she told him with a shake to her voice and tears glossing her eyes. "Even after the prince had put so much time and effort in to me I was still so angry, so broken, so tired of the world and I just wanted to watch it all burn. And while I felt better here, I was not cured. But then little Sarah wandered over and insisted I show her every one of the animals on the property and give them all names," she shook her head and gave a teary laugh that verged on a tired sob.
"I know she didn't know who I was but that innocence and complete lack of fear was so completely foreign to me, I had no idea how to respond to it other than to just do as she said. A four year old leading the Evil Queen around a farm by the finger, naming every single animal, can you imagine that? And then you came to fetch her and I thought for certain that you were going to recognize me. I believed with every fibre in my body that you were going to fear me and hate me, that no matter what I did in this life there was no escape for me, no chance at a new life. But you know what you did?"
Affected dearly by her teary eyes, Richard swallowed and nodded and replied softly, "I said hello."
"You said hello," she confirmed with a nod and then laughed with a shake of her head, "you said hello with the biggest smile anyone has ever greeted me with. And for the rest of the day and every day following, I have believed for the first time in my entire life that I will be okay, that I can start over. It gave me hope, it gave me faith that there are good people in this world, that not everyone is as cruel and selfish as I have experienced.
You and your family have healed me in ways no one else has ever been able to get close to accomplishing. And while I know you are aware you have helped a broken woman find her footing, I needed you to know that you took the Evil Queen herself and made her happy. That you gave her something to look forward to every day. And that is no small feat," she told him with a grateful smile and he stood there in silence as he soaked in and analyzed every word.
And then he drew the connection she didn't expect him to draw, let alone bring up.
"David," he started and she didn't react, only waited for him to continue, "you have fallen in love with Snow White's prince," he surmised and she dropped her eyes to her fingers she began to fiddle with.
"Prince Charming and the Evil Queen. A relationship doomed to fail," she shrugged softly and tried not to believe her words, tried to hold faith in David's promise to her.
"Maybe. But crazier things have happened," he dismissed as he carefully leaned the pitchfork against the table and her eyes followed the movement. "That being said," he began as he stepped toward her and her eyes met his and stayed there as he lifted her chin with the very gentlest touch of his fingertips, "if it should turn for the worst. And if you ever find yourself able to look at me as I see you look at him, I do hope you do not hesitate to come back here," he told her, his fingers still beneath her chin as her brow furrowed ever so slightly and her wonderful dark eyes showed her confusion without mask.
"What do you mean?" She asked softly and his kind fingers danced along her jaw.
"I don't think I have ever come across a day more disappointing than the first day I met David and saw the way you two look at each other. As soon as I saw that, I knew I didn't stand a chance. So, if by the smallest chance you find yourself over him, promise me you will come back?" He asked and she still didn't quite understand him. Or didn't believe him. He didn't imagine an Evil Queen would believe anyone telling her they loved her.
He leaned in carefully, with his fingers on her jaw creeping in her hair at the back of her neck, gently bumping his nose alongside hers before he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. Tender and sweet, lingering for only a moment before he pulled away but stayed close and let his thumb run over her cheek.
"But I am the Evil Queen," she protested in confusion, unable to understand how he could do such a thing, how he could feel such a thing now knowing who she was. He shook his head.
"Are you? Or were you?" He questioned and she took it.
"I was the Evil Queen," she agreed at a whisper and immediately there were tears in her eyes and he nodded.
"And now you are Regina. And you will be missed, my darling friend," he told her and she crumbled before his very eyes. She slumped in her posture and he pulled her in to a hug without hesitation, sighing softly as she nestled her face in to the crook of his neck and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
"I hope everything works in your favour," he told her in to her hair as he held her tight. "Know that we will be here for you should you ever decide to return. I do expect you to at least visit," he noted and she let out a shaky laugh and hugged him tighter.
"Of course I will visit," she promised with a smile.
"Good," he nodded and then let her go from his hug, "I have a question."
"Yes?"
"What is with the war horse on the front lawn?" He laughed with a shake of his head and she laughed with him, "were you trying to scare us all to death?"
"Everyone knows the Evil Queen loves a good show," she teased and he laughed, "but no. No, I needed something to ride home as I have every intention of gifting your daughters with Rocinante," she told him and the house fell silent with the gravity of the offer. Even Regina herself felt her heart sink saying it aloud.
"Regina-," Richard shook his head, "Regina, you don't have to do that, I know how much she means to you."
"She means a great deal to me," Regina agreed and then smiled, "she also adores your daughters and they adore her and you all mean a great deal to me. So she is going to stay with you and keep those two girls happy and riding. Besides, it is all the more incentive for me to come visit," she teased lightly and while Richard smiled, it was small and reverent and he stepped toward her to hug her just once more.
"I wish you would stay," he told her softly.
And she almost considered it.