Robin woke the next day with some trepidation. He knew that what Regina had arranged for Roland, allowing him the opportunity to go to school, was the best thing for him, despite the risks, but he still worried. Given how easily he himself had almost said something that would immediately make Regina even more suspicious of them than she already was, the chances that Roland would say something that someone would recognize as amiss were high. He knew he could not rob the boy he loved as if he was his own of this chance, though. After all, attending school may be normal in this time, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Roland. The fact that lessons were free as well… It was mind-boggling, but in the best way. Society had come a long way over the centuries, at least in the United States, the once-New World, and he had to admit that he loved it, that it was progress that should have happened long ago. It was proof that men like Nott no longer held sway in society as much as they used to, and it made Robin relieved.
He was, however, a little nervous about what plans Regina had in store for him today. She wanted him to find a job, that much he had surmised. He did not know how that would be possible, though. After all, he had been asked by Regina for Roland's birth certificate and social security card, whatever those things were. From what he had gathered, if she had needed those things for Roland, he would need them to work as well. And while she may want him out of her way, bothering her as little as possible, he was not so sure she would go to such great lengths to help him find something to do in this world. She did not have the best impression of him, after all.
He heard footsteps on the stairs and guessed that just like the morning before, Regina had woken first. Sure enough, when he sat up on his elbows, he could see her slim frame coming down the steps before she stopped at the foot of the couch he was still lying on. "How did you sleep, milady?" he asked her.
She sighed. "Okay. It's kind of hard to sleep when I have so much on my mind." A horrified expression came over her features. "Never mind. Forget I said that. I'm perfectly capable of handling my position, after all. In fact, I would go so far as to say I'm the only one who can do my job adequately."
He couldn't help beaming at her, awestruck by the changes a century or so had brought to a society born from a country that was once dominated by men. He remembered Roland's teacher calling her the mayor as if it was her title, and from what he had gathered, that meant she was the head of the little town he and Roland had found themselves in. The concept was encouraging. If life had improved so much for women, what other changes had occurred in the past century or so to make life better for people? "It's all right, milady. You do not have to pretend to have your life under control around me."
She snorted. "Oh, I have my life under control. Who said I didn't?"
Robin sighed. There were times that he felt he had to choose words so carefully around her. Not that he did not understand that- they had only just met, after all- but there was a wall between their styles of communicating that he wanted to just disappear. "You just admitted that you have a lot on your mind, thoughts that may be keeping you awake at night. I was simply trying to say that I would be a willing listener if that is what you want at any point."
She sighed and sank down into the nearest chair. "You'd be the only one."
"Truly?" he asked, sitting across from her, sensing that this might be a long conversation. "I thought you had Emma? You were at her wedding, were you not?"
"Yeah, but…" she trailed off, much to Robin's dismay. "There's only so much Emma can understand. She doesn't have a kid, even though she's the first person I call when Henry needs a babysitter, and she's not the mayor, so she has a lot more free time than I do. And she makes me feel guilty for every time I tell her I can't go to whatever plans she's made without asking me first, and…" she groaned. "It's just frustrating. You'd think the woman I call my best friend would at least try a little harder."
"Is there anyone else you can turn to?" Robin asked. What he really wanted to tell her was that she needed better friends, but that would be an extremely insensitive comment, one he knew would be most unwelcome.
She shook her head. "I've tried over the years, especially when Henry was little, but those women…" She laughed. "They're all so preppy. Not a single one of them is down-to-earth. It's hard to relate to when you just want what's best for you and your son." She glared at him now, her eyebrows narrowed. "Not that you can understand that either. From the sound of it, you just take Roland whenever you want instead of having any actual responsibility. Why don't you just adopt him?"
"Adopt?" he asked.
Too late, he realized he shouldn't have said anything. His question would raise many more questions than it would answer. "Have you really never considered it?" she asked. "Really? With as much time as you spend with him, you really should just adopt him. Not that you'd be able to, with your lifestyle. No one would ever agree to that."
Robin stared at her, still dumbfounded. He would regret his next words, he was sure, but he had to know. "What does adopting mean?"
Her mouth fell open. "Wow. You really have lived in the woods all your life, haven't you? Forget it. No one would ever agree to let you adopt him anyway."
He sighed. He was trying to be patient with her, he really was, but she made it so difficult. "Can you tell me what it is?" he asked in as even a tone as he could. He truly was curious, and he was trying to get on her good side- although that was proving to be much more difficult than anticipated. "I do genuinely wish to know."
His words, and hopefully the sincerity behind them assuming he was conveying it well enough, made her sharper edges soften, a soft smile now on her lips. "It's the process here for getting kids who are homeless off the streets. There's foster care too, of course, but adoption…" Her smile was brighter than the sun, and in that moment, Robin knew (if he hadn't already) that Henry was her whole world. He felt the same way about all of the people he helped, especially the children in Granny's orphanage, but none so much as Roland. "It's the difference between renting a house for a month and buying one, between bringing a dog home or leaving it to fend for itself on the streets. Foster kids are a meal ticket so often that they can grow up feeling like they're not worth anything to anyone- or at least, they're nothing more than a way to get some extra cash. Adopting a kid, though… they're yours to love and cherish for life."
Robin's eyes widened. Why adoption didn't exist in his time, he had no idea, but when he managed to find a way back, he was making it possible to adopt Roland. In the meantime… He would never tell her this (after all, he had a feeling she would never let him forget it), but she was right. He needed to take greater responsibility for him, and he would take steps toward that now. It would mean changes to his lifestyle, and he would have to figure out a way to both take care of him and the people who relied so much on him, but it would be worth it.
Regina apparently could see the thoughts running rampant in his mind, because she started shaking her head at him, one hand on her hip. "Don't even think about it. You shouldn't adopt Roland unless you're serious about it, and you know the responsibilities you'd be taking on. Something tells me you aren't prepared for that."
"On the contrary, milady," he countered. "I just might be a bit more responsible than you think." He went on to describe some of the good he did for the people of Nottingham: redistributing the wealth so people like Granny and Roland had what they needed to survive, making sure people had food… he tried to stay humble about it all, of course. After all, he just wanted to do some good in the world.
As he finished, to his dismay, she was shaking her head. "Do I want to know how you get all the things you give away?" As he opened his mouth to answer, she waved him off. "Never mind, I don't want to know, do I?"
"He was robbing them blind," he protested. "I was trying to make sure things were a bit more evenly distributed. Don't orphans deserve it more than him?"
She sighed and looked to where the steps led up to the room where the boys were sleeping. "Yes, I suppose they do." She sighed, then smirked at him. "You just think you're a regular Robin Hood, don't you?"
He grinned and bowed. "At your service." Whether she would figure out he was being serious or not was anyone's guess, but hopefully she wouldn't have an adverse reaction to the revelation.
She sighed and cleared her throat, clearly hoping he would become more serious again. "You may want to rethink those activities if you want to adopt Roland. No judge would approve."
He nodded. "I'm aware, and I do intend to curb them a little bit. I have a group of associates. If I adopt him," or do as close to that as I can in my time he added silently. "I would rearrange things so he would be my top priority. I'm not as irresponsible as you may think, and I do care about him."
"I know," she breathed. "I'm sorry, it's just…"
Before she could say anything else, the boys came rushing down the stairs. Robin was surprised to see that they were both already dressed for school, and wondered how on Earth that had happened until Roland informed them cheerfully, "Henry helped me get dressed, Robin!"
"I can see that," he replied, scooping Roland up in one arm and holding the other out for Henry, pleased when the boy let him pull him in for a hug. "What do you say to Henry, Roland?"
"Don't worry, he already thanked me," Henry chimed in.
Robin saw the approval in Regina's eyes, and he sent thanks to whoever might be listening for Granny being in Roland's life. He tried to teach Roland proper manners whenever he could, of course, but the older woman spent much more time with him, and therefore was better positioned for the task. "Well, would two such polite boys like some breakfast?" she asked.
They nodded eagerly, and as they ate, Regina turned to Robin. "We have to find you a job today. You have to start improving your life, especially if-" Her eyes darted over to Roland and back, and Robin knew the end of her sentence: especially if you want to adopt Roland. Why she hadn't said the words out loud, he wasn't quite sure, but she probably had her reasons. "And after our conversation this morning, I have a couple ideas."
Henry's face lit up, and it made Robin smile. Dealing with Regina might be an… interesting… task, but knowing Henry was nothing short of a delight. "He could be a private investigator! Or a park ranger!" His eyes were bright with the possibilities running rampant in his mind, and Robin loved him for it. He didn't know if getting a job was the best decision, given that he needed time to be able to figure out a way to get him and Roland back to their own time, but he would do what was necessary to make Regina happy. He didn't want her turning him and Roland out on the street, after all.
"Well?" Regina asked, turning to him. "What do you think?"
"What- what are all of those things?" he asked hesitantly. He had to figure it out somehow, and there was no other way to do it but to ask, but Regina must be getting more suspicious by the minute. He could see it in her eyes, and he did not know how to avoid it without a web of lies. Given that he lived by a code, lying to anyone here was the last thing he wanted to do.
Regina sighed. "Henry, why don't you let Robin and I figure out what he should do while he's here." She grabbed a black rectangular thing sitting on the table. "Why don't we turn on the news instead? I want to know what the weather's like today."
Judging by Henry's expression, something about Regina's actions was out of the ordinary. "But you never like me watching TV when we're eating."
(********)
Busted. She needed a distraction though, something that would help distract her, distract Henry, from whatever was going on here until she had a chance to figure out what was going on all on her own.
Roland was sweet, of course, maybe just as sweet as Henry had been at his age…maybe. The more time she spent with him, the more time she wanted to spend in his company. Robin, however…the more she was around him, the more suspicious she became. His speech was antiquated, of course, but her suspicion was based on more than that. Judging by their conversations so far, she suspected that the number of things he didn't know was remarkably similar to Roland's, or maybe Henry's. Add to that the fact that he had actually admitted that he lived a vagrant's life… Something was up here, something more than just the fact that he was homeless. She hadn't figured out what it was yet, but when she did, she would confront him about it. Even with his lack of a stable living situation, there was no way he had gone through life for so long without even knowing what adoption was. Not to mention, the way he had hesitated when she had suggested enrolling Roland in school was suspicious as well. There was simply no way the poor child had avoided going to school for so long, even if he was so young. She knew that pre-K was mandatory for children Roland's age, so how he had managed to avoid it- how Robin supposedly cared about him and yet had seemed amazed when she suggested sending him to school- she had no idea. It honestly made no sense. She kind of doubted that Roland's lack of an education up to this point was because Robin didn't want him to learn and grow like all little boys should. No. He may be unusual and out of the loop where modernity was concerned, but even though she hadn't known him for more than a couple of days, Regina was positive that he didn't mean for any harm to come to Roland- and, other than depriving him of an education, she knew he hadn't done anything to him in the past.
August's voice whispered in her ear that there was a reason for Robin's lack of common knowledge, that someone from another time wouldn't know many of the things she would expect any 21st century American citizen to know. England, she knew, was pretty much like them in terms of technological advancement, so his accent and the different nationality that it implied weren't the reasons behind the differences she saw.
That was another thing she needed to ponder. For a man who seemed to have such limited resources available to him, how had Robin managed to get both himself and Roland all the way from England to Maine? It seemed impossible, and yet, he had somehow managed it… It was possible, of course, that he had snuck the two of them on a plane bound for the States, but somehow, she didn't think that was the case. No, however he had gotten here was a mystery to himself as well as to her, so a thief's tricks of the trade weren't the answer to that particular puzzle. No, something else was going on, something she hadn't put her finger on quite yet.
It was only then that she realized Henry was looking at her strangely, and it was only in that moment that she remembered he needed an answer. "Just for a minute to check the weather," she said. "Then it's going off again. And if you could stop questioning me, Henry, that'd be great." She was being a little harsh, she knew, and inconsistent at that, both of which she tried not to do in her parenting. Robin and Roland's presence in their lives had put her off-kilter, though. It was no excuse, however. She needed to get Robin a job- and get both man and boy out of her house, as sorry as she would be to see Roland go. Once that was settled and they were out of their lives, everything would go back to normal, and she'd never have to think about this perplexing man ever again.
She pressed the power button on the remote and the TV turned on. On screen, Leroy and Sidney, the newscasters, were sitting behind a desk, the title of the show, Good Morning Storybrooke, in white letters on a blue backdrop behind them. Regina tried not to let her cringe show. Sidney had always given her the creeps, ever since he had tried to get her to date him in high school. Trying to keep her son's screen time limited wasn't the only reason she so rarely turned on this channel, despite the fact that as mayor, she needed to be aware of what was going on around town. She worked with Mr. Glass when she had to for her job, of course, but other than that, she tried to stay as far away from him as she could.
"Believe it or not, Sidney, it's been an eventful day in Storybrooke," Leroy informed his cohost. "It's kind of unusual."
"Try really unusual, Leroy," Sidney corrected. "We've had ten robberies in the last twenty-four hours alone, and there were even more the day before that. It makes me wonder what the police force is doing if they're not solving crimes."
"Not working, that's for sure," Leroy snickered.
Regina raised her eyebrows, remembering now one of the other reasons why she stayed far away from this station during Henry's waking hours. They were supposed to keep it PG for the kids who would likely be listening. She was sure the innuendo would go right over Roland's head, but Henry, much to her dismay, was rapidly approaching the age when those comments would no longer go unnoticed.
She quickly turned the TV off. "Apparently, there's more important things to talk about than the weather or any actual news. All right, boys, time to get you to school."
As she helped Roland put on one of Henry's old jackets, her mind couldn't help going back to what she had heard on the news. Something was clearly going on in the sheriff's department that she didn't know about that was causing serious negligence. Gold might fool around with Belle, but they did get the job done (partly because she made sure David kept an eye on them)- which was why they were still the sheriffs. Something else was going on, and as mayor, she had to figure out what it was, or Storybrooke, her beloved town, would suffer the consequences.
(********)
"So," Robin asked once they had dropped the boys off at school. "Where to next?"
The look she gave him looked like it had balls of fire coming out of it. "Well, some of us need to go to work- and find you something to do as well. You have me as a resource. If you're smart, you'll take advantage of that- for both finding a job and adopting Roland."
He nodded, seeing that while she wasn't entirely correct about his circumstances, of course, she did have a point. He wanted to learn more about this adoption concept, wanted to have the responsibility of taking care of Roland day in and day out. He was a man of honor, and he could think of no higher honor than acting as Roland's father. The job, though… It would only make things more difficult if he committed to something, and his code would hate if he didn't follow through. He did want to see what was out there though. He would have to do something with his life other than live a life of thievery if he followed through with adopting Roland, so this would be a good opportunity to see what options were out there. He had been a bit hesitant to tell Regina about his past, what he did with his days (and, more importantly, nights). He was honestly surprised she hadn't turned him in already. Come to think of it, she may do just that first thing this morning once they got to her office. Not that anything would come of it, given that he was from a different time, but of course, they wouldn't know that. He sent a fervent prayer up, knowing that his friend Friar Tuck believed in a higher power. He himself wasn't sure if anyone was listening, but it was always nice to think that there was something better waiting for him after this life. Not that he didn't like his life, not at all. Sure, he didn't have all of the things they had in this time that seemed to make their lives easier, but life still wasn't bad by any means. He spent his time helping people to the best of his ability, and that was all he could ask for.
Much to his relief, when they got to her office, there weren't a bunch of sheriffs there waiting to arrest him. Instead, Regina sat down behind her desk, asking him to sit in a chair across from it. She rummaged in her desk, finally extracting a rather large binder and hanging it to him. "Here's a list of jobs that we have available in the county. Some of them are already filled, but I have enough money in the budget that I can create a new position if you want me to. Think you can flip through while I get started on some things?"
Robin looked at the pages before him, flipping through them aimlessly, his heart sinking. He hadn't even thought about this obstacle. He had grown up on the streets after his parents had died of serious illness when he was five, and they had never had much money to afford a tutor, but his mother had grown up in a wealthier household, so she had taught him his letters. However, stringing those letters together was something he had never quite mastered, no matter how hard he tried. He was able to read dates because those mostly involved numbers, but that was all he could coherently read.
The letters swam before him now, a school of unfamiliar fish in the sea of the pages before him, and he had to fight down the urge to put his head in his hands. He knew he had to confess his handicap and the obstacles it posed to Regina, but how? It would only make her more suspicious of him and his situation, which was, of course, the last thing he needed.
However, it seemed that she had caught on to at least some aspect of the dilemma he faced. She folded her hands on her desk and from her frown and the roll of her eyes, she clearly knew something was amiss and was annoyed by the inconvenience. "What's wrong now?"
"I… I can't…" he stuttered helplessly, looking down at the packet before him. "I can't read," he finally admitted in a whisper filled with mortification.
Her face softened, and there was a very masculine part of him that hated the pity in her eyes. "Okay. Good to know for helping you find a job." She came around and sat in the second chair across from her desk. "Do you want to work as a park ranger? There is some paperwork involved, but you'd be working with Graham, and he can do all of that. Or you could work at the shelter. That would help you get a better idea of what to do to adopt Roland and the way the foster care system works, as well as adoption." She pursed her lips, her hand on her chin as she thought. "Since you're not legally his guardian, I should be putting him in the foster care system He's so young, though, and you're the closest thing to a guardian he's known, right?"
"Well, me and Granny," he specified. "But yes."
"Your grandmother or his?"
"Neither." He smiled, thinking of the older woman who was a mother to so many. "She is…" He paused, trying to think of a way to explain without making her even more suspicious of them than she already was. "She owns an orphanage. It is one of the main places I help with my efforts."
She nodded. She was smiling, but it was a smile that did not quite reach her eyes. She was more suspicious the more he revealed, he knew, but he also suspected she would hate it if he lied to her. There did not seem to be a happy medium. "Anywhere I would've heard of? I don't recall ever hearing of a shelter where the owner had everyone call her Granny."
He shook his head. "No, I do not think so. It's rather far away, you see."
She nodded slowly, but Robin could tell she was skeptical, and he did not blame her in the slightest. "I see. Well, I think the first thing we need to do is enroll you in a class that'll help you be able to read, and then we can work on these papers," she suggested, reaching out to take the stack from him.
He cocked his head to the side. "Why not use these papers as a way to teach me to read? It would certainly give me an additional motivation to learn, would it not?" He knew the hassle of enrolling in a class wouldn't be worth her time or effort, not when he had no idea when he would be going back to his own time, if he could ever figure out a way there. He needed time for that, too, and a class would take time away from that goal.
"Good point," she acknowledged, her hands now folded on top of her desk. "We'll do that at night then, after the boys have gone to bed. Actually," she considered, biting her lip in a way that Robin found tantalizingly attractive. "Henry is an avid reader, and he would absolutely love to help teach you. So maybe it's best if we do that in the evenings, after he finishes his homework?"
"That sounds like a good plan," Robin readily agreed, adding, "I'm always more awake the earlier it is, anyway. A side effect of living in the forest, you might say." He was sure some people might be mortified by the fact that they were going to be taught one of the simplest of tasks, reading, by someone so much younger than them, but Robin did not feel that way at all. He was simply grateful that he had people willing to teach him a valuable life skill, one that might help him be even better at helping those in need.
"Great," she said, her hand now under her chin. "The question is, what to do with you in the meantime? You can't look over paperwork… Oh!" she realized, her eyes alight with realization. "Would you like to meet with someone in the Parks and Rec department, or maybe one of the people in charge of the shelter? That might help you decide which is a better fit for you, and it wouldn't involve filling out anything."
He nodded. He did have one question, though. "Rec?"
She sighed. "Recreation." She fixed him with a stare, one he instinctively knew no one was able to escape. "All right, this has gone on long enough. I buy some of what you've said about your situation, but surely, you have to know some of these things. What's really going on here? What are you not telling me?"
He swallowed hard, not knowing where to begin, all the while knowing she very likely would not believe a word he said anyway. "You would never believe me if I tried to explain with the truth."
"Try me," she challenged, her eyes living flames.
He sat there in silence for a moment, contemplating his response and, more importantly, assessing her, trying to figure out what reaction she would have. He did not want to reveal what he had figured out without some guarantee that she would not think he was crazy.
Who was he kidding? Of course she would think he was crazy. Who would not, in her position? If he had not seen the date on that newspaper (and each one after it every day since he traveled in time), and had proof over the past few days that he was in fact on the same planet but in a different country and different century, he wouldn't believe it himself. With trying to learn more about adoption so he could give Roland a home at last, he did not want to do anything that would jeopardize his chances (even if he intended to go through with it in their own time period), and telling her the truth would surely ruin the small amount of goodwill she had harbored toward him for Roland's sake over the past few days. The way she was looking at him now, though, was open, inviting. Did he dare jeopardize everything?
Seeming to sense his hesitation, she coaxed softly, "You can tell me."
"Are you sure?" he asked, his eyebrows raised. "This is… rather unbelievable. I hardly believe it myself, and Roland and I are the ones who experienced it. And if you think I am crazy and you try to take Roland from the only thing he knows here…" He shook his head. "I simply cannot take that chance."
She held her hands out. "I promise, on my honor, that I won't intentionally do anything to separate the two of you- and I'll keep it from happening to the best of my ability. Like you said, you're the one thing that's familiar to him. I know something weird is going on here, so you can't hide it from me anymore."
He sighed, taking a moment to look at her. Her hands were folded on her lap, her face serene, focused. It was the face of someone who was, in fact, ready to listen, and he supposed that was as close as he would ever get to guaranteeing the best conditions for sharing this information with her. "You already know that I'm from England. However, you are not aware that I'm from the past. The nineteenth century, to be precise."
Her mouth dropped open and, seeming to realize it, she closed it again. "Seriously?"
He nodded.
"How on Earth did you end up here then?" she asked, suspicion laced through her tone.
He shrugged. "I wish I could tell you, but your guess is as good as mine. I need to find a way back-"
"Why would you want to though?" she asked. "We have so much more technology than I'm sure you did back then. Isn't life much easier here?"
Realizing that she had a point to a certain extent, he laughed. "I suppose so. However, you have seen the news, and I have seen Henry's book about me. My being from the past… I think that somehow, it's changing things."
Her mouth was wide open again, her mind still clearly in a state of disbelief. "I- You're crazy." He could see the wheels in her brain turning, trying to figure out whether he was lying or if she should turn him in to the authorities for questioning.
In that moment, Robin wished he had Henry's book with him. He knew she had been reading the book about him to Henry though, and he remembered her remarking how unusual it was that the story had ended so abruptly. In his mind, the two went hand in hand, the blank pages proof that what he was telling her was the truth, but he knew that she would likely see it differently. One thing he had definitively learned about his hostess in the past couple of days in this time was that she wasn't the type of person who believed in fantastical things like magic. The idea that the very fabric of time had shifted, allowing him and Roland to come here? He honestly could not blame her for not believing him. If he hadn't been living the adventure himself, he wasn't sure he would believe what was currently happening to him either. One thing he did notice though, was that she hadn't called for the authorities to escort him to whatever passed for the prison in this time, and for that, he was thankful. She had kept her word when he had been convinced she wouldn't- why, he wasn't quite sure. Maybe reminding her of those blank pages would help her understand and see that he was telling the truth. "Remember those blank pages from Henry's Robin Hood book? What other explanation could there be other than my story?" He certainly could not think of any.
She shook her head. "I don't know exactly, but that type of thing has happened before. I've heard about books missing pages, pages not being in the right order… publishers do their best, I'm sure, and something like that certainly doesn't indicate that they're a good publishing company. However, it also doesn't automatically mean it's a result of some kind of time travel either." She threw her hands up in the air. "Do you realize how crazy that sounds?"
"Impossible, I'm sure," he replied, his heart sinking. She wasn't easily persuaded, that much was obvious, and he wasn't quite sure what to do about it.
How was he going to get her to believe him?