A/N: Hi everyone! Here is the new chapter. I'm having a very important presentation tomorrow and I'm super nervous. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!
I would like to thank the wonderful waterbaby134 for betaing and the lovely mysterious-song for her advise on this chapter. I really hope you like it. It's somewhat the calm before the storm so I can't wait to find some time and write it.
Big hugs and enjoy!


(6)

It was early in the afternoon when the van with the nine men finally arrived at the paintball field. They were all dressed in camouflage trousers, crisp white shirts and fitting forest green jackets which would provide a good mimicry depending on the area they were supposed to play on. The trousers and jacket were made of a thick material, which would serve as their combat suit and protect them from the hard paintballs. They would be wearing full head protection helmets later, too, since one of the instructors had repeatedly told them their safety came first.

"Go out there, fight. But don't really fight. This is a romantic program, not a survival show. We don't want anyone going to the hospital today, so play fair." Fair. Ha! Playing fair would turn out to be quite hard when nine men were fighting for one woman's attention.

Robin was already annoyed with everything - the dressing up, the make-up, the short interviews where they had to tell the audience how excited they were about the group date, what they planned on doing, what their strategy was. He didn't have a strategy, hadn't even thought about it before the interviewer asked him. Right now, he didn't even remember the answer, which had not been something entirely clever. That much he could remember. Fact was, Robin wasn't the least bit excited for today.

This whole thing here was still a bad idea to him in some ways. It would blow up in their faces rather sooner than later if they weren't careful. He was looking forward to seeing Regina, but he could do well without the whole paintball thing. Yes, Robin was a good shot with his bow and arrows, something the interviewer had asked him about, whether he thought this was an advantage for today's date. In the end he thinks he'd have rather stayed at the mansion with the other guys. Let someone else play this silly game.

Robin didn't consider shooting people, shooting the other candidates and perhaps even Regina - god he really hoped he wouldn't have to do that - as an appropriate date, even if the shooting was not real but with paintball guns.

No, not guns, markers. Their guns were called markers because they didn't shoot people, they marked them. The instructors had been very clear about that. Still, this was not Desert Storm, this was the Bachelorette.

On their drive to the area, it had turned out Graham was the only one of them who really knew how to use a gun and shoot. Of course, he was working with the police; he should know how to handle a gun properly. He'd revealed earlier how he'd felt the first time he'd killed someone on the job.

David had joked how he could beat them with numbers but he wasn't a good shot at all. The others didn't reveal much about their abilities. They seemed rather excited about the whole thing, all except Jefferson, who despised anything to do with guns for a reason he wouldn't tell the others. Hans had made fun of him, had teased him about it. The guy was a real dick, but Robin was glad Killian, David and August had stood up for Jefferson. A smile crept about Robin's features. He might not enjoy shooting at people, however now Hans could be sure to have some long lasting bruises as a reminder not to mess with Jefferson or anyone on the team.

Jefferson had actually been cool about the whole thing. He mostly kept to himself in the mansion, didn't care about what the others thought of him. This was why Robin was all the more glad he'd somewhat bonded with Jefferson this morning after they'd watched the video of Regina. Afterwards when they were told they had an hour until the interviews started, both of them had headed for the phone room.

He'd wanted to call Roland and Will, needed to hear his son's voice. He'd promised the little lad he'd try and call at least once a day. Leaving his son had been hard, much harder than he'd expected which was the reason why he found himself slightly pissed at the fact the phone room had been occupied by Sidney. Jefferson had been shortly behind him, also slightly annoyed. It had turned out Jefferson had a young daughter waiting for him at home as well, who, like Roland, took his absence none too well.

"Damn, can't this guy hurry up for once?!" Jefferson sighed annoyed, his feet kicking against the wall next to the door. His arms were crossed in front of his chest, his posture stiff. "He's on the phone all the time! There are other people in this house, too who need to make calls."

"Did something happen?" Robin asked. He didn't know Jefferson, they hadn't exchanged more than a few hostile words last night, but he knew exactly what the man was talking about.

"Nah, it's just… I have to call someone and it's urgent." He slumped down on the floor on the other side of the hallway, his one hand gripping his hair in a manner that looked slightly painful to Robin. He took a good long look at Jefferson, wondering whether it was his right to get involved in this. This man was a stranger to him, however he knew this behavior, knew a man only behaved like this when it came to people who are very important to him.

"Mother or child?" Robin asked. He sat down next to Jefferson whose gaze shot up, surprised.

"What?"

"You're desperate, man. Either it's about your mother or a child." He smiled at the dark haired man, waving his hand around. "David told me this morning this is not Big Brother and he's right. If you need to talk…"

"I don't even know you. Aren't you supposed to be my rival?" Jefferson eyed him with slight distrust, releasing his hand from its grip on his hair as he straightened himself.

"I guess what I am or will be is up to you, mate. We're kind of sitting in the same boat here. I think it would be a waste to become part of this format and not make any friends along the way. But hey, it's up to you." Robin shrugged it off dismissively, wondering why he even bothered.

A deep sight later, Jefferson finally answered. "Child. A daughter, Grace. She's eight and doesn't take my absence too well. I left her with my sister, but… it's difficult. You wouldn't understand."

"In fact I do," Robin mumbled. "My son, Roland is with my best mates at the moment. I know they would do anything for him, that he's safe there, but I still miss him even if it's just been three days that I'm gone."

"You have a son?" Jefferson asked surprised. Robin nodded.

"He's four. My friend Will made up this whole story about me being off to fight dragons to bring home a princess so he wouldn't worry too much. I think he actually believes it and it makes it easier for him to deal with my absence. I think right now I'm missing him more than he's missing me."

Jefferson cracked a smile at him. "It's easy when they're this young, but Grace doesn't believe in stuff like that anymore. She… She's been suffering from light depression and fear of abandonment ever since her mother died. I'm scared she thinks I abandoned her for this show."

"Has she said so?" Robin wanted to know. His heart ached at little at the mention of Grace's mother being dead. The poor child.

"No, she hasn't, but I know she thinks so. I… I think it was stupid of me to come here. I don't even know why I did it. Perhaps I was hoping to find a new mother for my child, but it feels like all I did was break her little heart a bit more. She probably hates me now."

Robin leaned forward to put a hand on Jefferson's shoulder. The other man looked up, slightly confused, his eyes full of guilt. "Listen to me, Jefferson. Your daughter doesn't hate you. She loves you very, very much. You must do what you think is best."

"Do you think I should leave?"

"That's up to you to decide. But whatever you'll decide, I'm sure it'll be the right decision. I don't know how long I'll stay here. Perhaps I'll be kicked out by the end of the week; perhaps I'll make it a little longer. I'm not telling you to stay or to leave, but if I were you, I'd give all of this a chance. I'd give Regina a chance. She's lovely with children and she has such a good heart. She…" Robin stopped himself before he revealed too much. Jefferson didn't seem to notice; he was deep in thought about what Robin had just said.

They were interrupted by Sidney Glass leaving the phone room, telling them he was done. He shot a narrowed look their way and mumbled something so low they couldn't hear him. Not that either of them cared. Robin pumped his fist lightly against Jefferson's shoulder, a supportive smile on his face. "Go and call your Grace. I'll wait to call Roland tonight."

It was the only annoying thing about the show, the no-cell-phone-policy. Robin missed talking to his son dearly, was disappointed he couldn't just go and call any time he liked and that every conversation he had with Roland or Will and John would be recorded. Even though David had pointed out this morning they weren't living in the Big Brother house, the surveillance and constant thought he was watched made Robin feel uncomfortable.

He wanted to tell Will about Regina, he needed the advice of his best friend - okay if he was honest, he even needed someone to yell at. Will and John were responsible for his misery after all since this whole video thing had been their idea. Robin couldn't do it though. He couldn't yell at his best friends, couldn't tell them about Regina, about how even after ten years she was still the most stunning woman he'd ever come across, no. Instead he had to deal with all of this by himself. Would he ever be able to talk to Regina in private, to ask her where this was going? Probably not.

Robin sighed. Perhaps this whole paintball game wasn't such a bad idea after all when it came to blowing some steam off.

"What do you guys think we will be doing here?" Hans asked curiously.

"It's a paintball field, mate. It's quite obvious what we'll be doing today, but let me point it out for you once again: You get a gun with little paint filled balls and try and shoot the other ones. There you go, not that hard, is it?" Killian mocked in an annoyed tone.

Hans shot him a look, which was more than clear. "If I were you I wouldn't take that big mouth of yours too far, otherwise one of these paintballs might accidentally land in your face."

"Guys, enough," David groaned with a hint of amusement. Killian had had a quite uneasy relationship with a few of the other men right from the beginning, and seemed all too eager to pick fights if these men annoyed him. Even though most of the time the others let his comments slide, Hans was one of the candidates who got offended easily. If he'd only dismiss Killian's teasing, it would be no problem, but he did not.

"Oh you know what David, make someone happy today and mind your own business."

"If Regina knew how childish you're acting right now she wouldn't even consider dating any one of you," Graham groaned. Robin locked gazes with the other man and nodded in approval.

"Nobody asked you, Graham. Didn't mommy teach you to keep your opinions to yourself?!" Hans rolled his eyes at the other man, who clenched his teeth. "You think my behavior is childish? The moment I give Regina a good thorough fuck she'll be done with you guys anyways. Then let's see who'll be the childish ones." Everyone was holding their breath. There were no cameras in the van; otherwise Hans would have never said these things out loud.

It was Daniel who finally overcame his shock and spoke up: "If that's the only reason why you're here, Hans, I don't think you're in the right place."

The man in question laughed. "Oh please. I can't believe any of you actually buys that shit about her looking for love. The bitch is just looking for a few good fucks and a little fun."

Robin couldn't hold it in any longer. He was fine as long as the men stuck to insulting each other, but he wouldn't let this asshole drag Regina into it. How dare he speak about the most precious and gentle woman he knew in such a manner! How dare he! If he could, he would have punched Hans straight in the face, however he was sitting in the far off back, sandwiched between David and Killian.

"Don't you ever talk about her like that again," Robin hissed with a low and dangerous growl.

"Or what?" Hans wanted to know.

"I don't think you want to find out," Robin shot back angrily and a few of the other men nodded in approval. Oh, how he wished he could beat the shit out of him. It was David who squeezed his balled fist, giving him a reassuring look.

"Everyone has the right to be stupid but you, Hans, are abusing the privilege and taking this whole thing to a complete new level."

Thankfully, before Hans could reply, the van stopped in the middle of the game zone. It was a wide clearing, surrounded by forest with somewhat medieval themed bunkers that formed some kind of a village. The huts were built out of wood with roofs made of straw, splashes of bright colors splattered across them here and there from former paintballs that had missed their targets. There was a well built out of stones in the middle of the village, right next to it, a bucket. Furthermore, there was an abandoned oxcart with loose hay upon it, small fences and several tools lying around to give the scene even more detail. All in all, it looked pretty realistic, Robin concluded. Add some animals and appropriately dressed villagers and they could be shooting a movie here.

They got off the van in a hurry, the mood had become rather uncomfortable after the verbal fight in the car, and waited for further instructions. Waiting, waiting, waiting, all they did on this show was wait. Waiting for the cameras to be ready, waiting for the make-up artists to finish, waiting for… well now they were waiting for Regina, which made Robin more than nervous. He was glad Killian and David had held him back after Hans shot him a sly grin, otherwise he couldn't have guaranteed for anything. The only calming thought was that he would be seeing Regina again in a few moments. She'd looked incredibly beautiful in the video they'd seen this morning. She was so much more than any of these men, including himself, deserved.

However he was not prepared for the moment she exited one of the huts. Regina moved toward them gracefully, still clad in her camouflage clothing, however her hair was down in a single side-braided braid now. She had a cheerful smile upon her face, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. If Robin didn't know any better, he'd say she looked like some kind of modern warrior queen. Graceful, regal, a don't-mess-with-me posture. The knot in his stomach tightened. She was beautiful, always lookedso beautiful, right there in her combat clothing, she looked beautiful even with messy hair and sleep deprived eyes in the morning after, or all muddy and wet after they'd been running through the storm in search of shelter. When the memory hit him, he had to force himself to look away from her.

"I told you it was going to start raining, but no, Mr. 'It's-just-a-cloud' knew better as always!" Regina wiped the wet strands away from her face while increasing her walking pace. She was mad, had been on the edge the whole day, so when Robin had asked her to join him for a nice, calm walk in the woods he thought it would calm her down. However the weather of all things ruined their plans. It wasn't supposed to rain, but it did. It was pouring now, so hard she almost couldn't see her hand before her eyes and if Robin wasn't careful, he'd lose sight of her, too.

"It's what the weather forecast said this morning," Robin defended himself. It was a lame excuse, yes, but where was the point anyway. He learned early not to mess with her when she was upset or angry. The rain was annoying him, too. He'd planned a picnic on top of the hill, had made her favorite sandwich with ham, cheese and avocado. Their mood was ruined now and each one knew they shouldn't let the other one feel it, let alone, make the other one responsible for it, but they were never good at it. This was their relationship. Bickering at one moment, and acting completely normal as if nothing had happened in the next.

"Yeah well we should have turned around when I told you it would start raining!" Regina argued.

"You could have turned around, I wouldn't have stopped you."

"You came up with this stupid idea, you came up with this stupid walk in the forest and look what happened! We're soaked to the bone now!" He was certain she was yelling at him, but over the noise of the storm it merely sounded like an angry whisper.

"Yes well sorry for trying to cheer you up. I tried to make this a lovely afternoon but I am not in charge of the weather. If I were, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. You've been moody and annoyed since I picked you up and you refuse to talk to me. You don't want to tell me what's wrong? Fine! But you know what? Next time, when all you can do is complain and insult me and my ideas, let's just cancel out date!"

They had reached the car at the edge of the forest by now. Robin shoved his backpack onto the backseat and waited for Regina to get into the car. Once they were inside, the car dulled the noise of the rain. Both of them were soaked to the bone, both of them were angry, tired and cold, so when he reached for his keys to start the car he was surprised when Regina covered his hand with hers.

He looked up into her face that was covered in sticky wet stands of dark hair and little sprinkles of mud. God, she was incredible. Her lips formed a firm line while her eyes had this pleading expression, the one he knew all too well. She wasn't good with excuses; it was something he'd learned in the few weeks he spent with her. So Robin waited… and waited, and waited for her to say something. Despite the cold rain, her hand was warm on his, her grip firm as if she was looking for comfort.

"It's not the rain who's ruined today. It was me and for that I'm… I'm sorry, Robin." She was looking at him, looking for a sign she was forgiven, her eyes pleading for him to say something.

Robin sighed. He covered her hand in both of his, bringing it close to his mouth to press a kiss into her palm. "Apology accepted. I said some things I didn't mean, too. But Regina, please. Tell me what's wrong. Why are you so upset today? What happened?"

She closes her eyes for a moment, enjoying the tickling feeling Robin's kiss left on the inside of her hand. "I… I'm… Can you kiss me?"

His eyebrow shots up in surprise. He knew she was drawing attention to another topic to avoid answering him, but who was he to decline? He'd get behind the reason for her bad mood eventually. He'd learned early not to push her, since pushing her only meant one thing: Regina dragging incredibly high and impermeable walls up around her.

Sighing, Robin closed the distance between them and locked his lips to hers. In comparison to her hand, her lips were ice cold and made Robin wonder how she wasn't shivering. Just then he realized she was- not that her lips were trembling, but the rest of her soaked wet body. Their kiss was desperate, within moments they were clinging to each other like to a lifeline and none of them seemed like they would let go any time soon.

It was the need for air that let them finally break the kiss. Robin wiped away the wet strands of hair from her face. Her lips were lightly swollen from their kiss and the dark look in her eyes was replaced with a light sparkle. "God, you're beautiful."

"I'm completely soaked and messy. I can imagine there are mud sprinkles all over my face, silly."

"Like I said, beautiful. You're the fairest of them all." Before she can complain, Robin leaned in once again to initiate another kiss.

Xxxxx

Regina felt more than exhausted after a night of few hours of sleep, the early get-up and the shoot of the video. She'd really hoped she wouldn't have to encounter Robin on today's group date, however the odds hadn't seemed to be in her favor. It was stupid! She was the Bachelorette, she should be the one to decide who was going to go on a date with her, but she had no say in the matter. So when they'd given her the list of the men who would accompany her today she'd groaned silently. Most of the guys were okay. She wouldn't have picked Eric and Hans for this particular game but in the end she would have never picked a paintball game zone for a group date either. Nevertheless, the production company was in charge and she was supposed to do what they told her.

She stuffed the remains of a half eaten cookie into her mouth, receiving a slight scowl from her make-up artist Ruby, who had to reapply the nude lipstick she licked away. "Stop destroying my work, Regina. First the hair, then the microphone, now this!" She poked Regina playfully in the side. "Now listen. I'll put the lip-gloss into your pocket here. I know you'll probably forget to reapply it, but for the record, I told you to do so. Now, we're already late. Get out there to your boys you lucky bitch."

Regina simply raised an eyebrow, earning a cheeky grin and a wink from Ruby. She emerged from the hut, walking straight over to the nine men who were waiting for her in front of a big black van. They were in similar attire like her. Now, she really had to admit some of the men filled out their uniform quite nicely. Apparently the same went for her, since some of them stared at her with open mouths and wide eyes, making her feel quite a bit uneasy. God, could they please stop undressing her with their eyes?

For a moment she looked over at Robin, who seemed to be desperately avoiding her gaze. Great. He couldn't even look at her. Regina forced her smile not to falter when addressing the men.

"Sorry I'm late," she announced, "the damn microphone wouldn't stay in place."

"A lady is never late, it's the gentlemen who are too early," Hans exclaimed with a drippy grin that made Robin, David and the rest of the men roll their eyes, their faces strained with annoyance. Regina thanked him politely, though a little stiffly, her gaze locking with Graham's for a moment. He made a face at Hans' comment that actually made her laugh out loud.

The cameras were ready to shoot and so were the candidates. They had been instructed how to use and refill the marker with the paint balls, since each of them had 120 shots. Belle had stopped by for a short visit to explain the rules of today's group date. Actually there wasn't too much to explain, the goal was quite obvious, the rules were simple. The men were separated into two groups. One went with Regina; their task was to protect her from the other group. The men of the other group had to hunt her protectors down first and then the one who managed to hit her with a paint ball would be the winner of tonight's dream date. In case all hunters were wiped out, Regina was allowed to choose one of the protectors for the dream date herself.

While it made her feel a little uneasy to become the prey, she was mostly happy about her advised team including Robin, Daniel, Jefferson and Hans, even though she could feel the tension between the men. Anyway, she had no doubt they would give their best to protect her.

"Are you ready then, guys?" Belle asked cheerfully. "You have ten minutes to scatter around the area and when you hear the signal the game starts. Good luck to every one of you."

"Let's go then, we need to figure out a strategy on how to protect our queen," Daniel grinned, grabbing Regina's hand pulling her behind him into the forest. Her teeth bit playfully into her lower lip as she followed Daniel. He was so… different from the others. Whenever he said something like this, she actually believed he was honest about it. He wanted to think of her as a queen right now? Well who was she to stop him? While Hans and Jefferson followed closely behind, eagerly laying out their strategies, Regina didn't notice how Robin was falling behind them.

A note in personal matters. As probably all of you, I was extremely shocked by what is happening in this world. Paris, Lebanon, Japan… It's just crazy. But in these dark hours we have to stick together and most importantly we must not be afraid. We have to show courage and support to everyone. Please keep this in your mind and prayers. There will be peace one day, we must believe and we must fight for it. Every one of us can help in making this world a better and safer place.