Cora Mills does not know how to deal with emotions very well. Perhaps, that could both deemed as strength and weakness at the same time.
Life has taught her to never flaunt her heart on others as it only leads to pain and suffering for her. It was a hard learned lesson, one she never forgot.
Growing up as a farmer's daughter was difficult. She never minded the work but to do it all alone was the bane of her existence. Her father never bothered to lift a single finger to help as her mother helplessly succumbed to an unknown illness. The farm was not doing well enough to send her to the hospital. It barely made enough to feed all of them let alone buy any sort of medications for her.
In the end, Cora had to bury her own mother. She worked three jobs in order to pay for all the expenses while her father drowned himself in alcohol.
Love eventually came her way and she thought it would be her ticket out of her miserable life. As it turned out, her beauty happened to be a curse too. The bloke only wanted her body…not her heart. She was so naive to believe that anyone could ever love a simple farm girl such as herself and therefore, she vowed to never love again.
She reinvented herself.
Working herself to an early grave, she managed to get out of their farm and her lousy excused of a father to live in the city. She worked during the day and studied at night.
Eventually, she stepped up into the world. No longer a farm girl but a professional working in a corporate world.
There, she met Henry Mills.
It's not love and they are both aware of that. It's more of a companionship. They became good friends and decided to settle for one another.
Cora was living the life. The company was thriving and she was living a life that's far from where she came from. She could not ask for more until Regina came into her life.
The little girl shattered all her walls, broke her vow of not loving anyone else again because one look at her brown eyes, and Cora knew she would give her life for her in an instant.
It was a scary thought because she does not know how to love very well. Everyone she loves either died or left her. She does not want that to happen with her daughter.
Regina was a smart and beautiful girl. Everyone in their circle took notice of the young Mills. That set an alarm in Cora's mind. Such beauty…oh, she's aware of what burden it presents.
Wanting for her daughter to never suffer the same fate she endured, she taught her how to be tough, how to be clever enough to wriggle herself out of any situation. She taught her that emotions are weakness…that love is weakness.
Of course, her daughter did not understand her lessons. How could she? She grew up in a privileged life. She never knew the things she did.
Still, Cora persevered. In her mind, Regina could hate her all she wants as long as she is safe and comfortable in life.
It's always been like that for the two of them. A game of tug and war. Cora constantly yearned the attention of her daughter so even though she knew sometimes that calling her would only result into an argument, she still reaches for the phone.
Graham had been a sore subject.
There's always that voice in her head urging her to believe her daughter but her irrational self did not want to.
Somehow, she felt indebted to the man whom she thought made her daughter happy for years. He had been kind enough to include her in their lives despite Regina's protests sometimes.
Now, standing by the door of her daughter's hospital room, she searches her brain trying to find where she has gone wrong.
How did she let it all come to this?
She is aware that she's a crappy parent but she always thought she's doing what's best for Regina. She justified it in her brain that all of the things she did, it made Regina who she is today.
Her daughter became a brilliant lawyer, one of the best. She became an independent woman who does not rely on anyone to survive. She thought she did a good job raising her.
That was a joke.
Her eyes could not leave the sight of her daughter lying on the hospital bed. The evidence of abuse she had been telling for years marring her daughter's skin.
It's all screaming at her how failure of a mother she is. Despite of all the things she did for her, she failed at one thing…protecting her daughter. Regina came to her, asked for her help, begged her to believe her and ignored her. There's no coming back from that.
When her daughter let her know what she truly feels back in her house, she had been too stunned to react. It was her chance to apologize to her, to try and make up her for her failures but she walked away and left.
If she hadn't…Regina would not ended up on that bed right now.
She first heard screaming when she reached the front door. She had it all rehearsed in her head. Apologizing is not her strong suit but she is willing to try for Regina.
Finally believing her daughter, she braced herself and opened the door but what she saw drained the blood from her body.
There was Graham standing over her daughter. She could hear Regina's labored breathing as Graham bellowed on her daughter. He was screaming bloody murder, blaming her for everything that went wrong with his life.
She was left frozen because she may have heard of it from her daughter, but to see it actually happening…it was too shocking to even comprehend.
When her daughter suddenly moved from the floor and launched against Graham, she finally snapped.
Graham groaned in pain before kicking Regina away from him. Her daughter's head hit the foot of the counter, knocking her out in an instant.
Cora's feet moved on its own. Her hand found a vase, surely a very expensive one, on top of the table before mustering all her strength and smashed it on top of Graham's head.
The cruel man fell on the floor before she rushed to her daughter's side.
Blood…
It's the first thing she saw. There's a lot of blood.
"Regina! Regina! Come on, baby. Mommy's here",
It's been so long since her daughter called her that. It was her actually who made Regina stopped because she thought it was too informal. In that moment, all she wanted was to her Regina call her that one more time.
"I'm going to get some help. Yes, help. Just…I'll be right back, honey. I promise",
She ran towards the door and screamed for help. Storybrooke was a pretty quiet town and she thought no one would be able to hear her.
Finally, a police car stopped in front of her and a blonde woman rushed to her.
"Hold on. I'm Sheriff Swan. What's going on?"
"My daughter…she's hurt. She's not waking up. You have to help her…please…"
The blonde eyed her first before calling the other man by the car and they all went inside the house.
"Oh my god…Regina", the blonde sheriff rushed to her daughter and immediately checked her pulse. "She's alive. I'm calling 911. Is that?"
"Graham? Yeah…he's alive too although I'm not sure for how long with that thing sticking into his guts", the man supplied.
It was only then that Cora saw the shard of glass pierced on the man's body. Regina did that. She did that to defend herself.
"Is he going to die?" Her question came out with a huge amount of venom.
"I am not taking my chances. He's going to be patched up at the station", the man answered.
"They're on their way. Paramedics will look after Graham. You sure you can deal with him, David?" The blonde asked her companion.
"Yeah…just make sure Regina gets through. Oh…and call Robin",
Robin…that's right. He's the man her daughter fell in love with, the reason why she went there in the first place.
Love…
She used to think of it as a weakness but now, seeing the same man sat by her daughter's bedside, willing with all his might for her to wake up, suddenly made her rethink that mantra.
Maybe her daughter did find true love after all, not the same ones that she found all those years ago.
"He loves her", Mal suddenly appeared next to her.
She has met her daughter's friend a couple of times before.
"I can see that and my daughter loves him too. That's why it scares me", she admitted.
"Oh, believe me. When I realized how serious they are, I was scared to death. Regina loves with all her heart and after Graham…I was so scared that she will find herself in the same hell hole but Robin proves to be different. He knows everything about her and he is still here. He fought for her…continues to fight for her. Your daughter learned her lesson the first time around. I think it's time you put your trust on her",
"I think you're right", she muttered.
Regina has been unconscious for three days and it is starting to scare them. Dr. Whale reassured them that there's no brain damage from the concussion she suffered and that her body is simply taking its time to heal.
Cora only left her daughter for a few hours to shower and change. Henry is in London closing a very important deal so she has to be there for Regina.
Robin also stayed there as much as he can. At some point, his family came to visit. She could tell that it's also the first time they learned about Regina's history and that she has been married before but they did not say anything else on the matter.
"I don't think this new information sits well with your family", she could not help it.
In fact, it's been bothering her since his family left.
"They'll get over it. I love Regina. It's her I want to marry. I don't care about tradition and whatnot", the man said.
So, they do have a problem with that.
"Good. My daughter is very keen in marrying you and I intend for her to get what she wants",
Robin then turned to her with a surprised look on his face.
"Does that mean…are you giving us your blessings? You're okay with me marrying your daughter?"
She scoffed.
"It's not going to matter whether I am okay with you marrying my daughter or not. She loves you. That's all that matters so if she wants to marry you then she will marry you",
The man smiled as he pressed a kiss on her daughter's hand.
"Thank you", Robin glanced at her with a frown. "Thank you for loving my daughter especially during the times when I failed to do it properly",
"She loves you too, you know", she shook her head. "I mean it. She does not talk much about her family and she expressed how different her upbringing was but all it took was one phone call from you and she came back to your house. If she does not love you, she would not even bother answering your calls, Mrs. Mills. Trust me. Your daughter loves you more than you know and I can tell that you love her too",
She smiled at the thief who stole her daughter's heart.
"Well…I must tell you that I already have a few ideas for your wedding", he's about to protest but she lift a finger to shut him up. "It's not up for debate. I may like you for Regina but I don't trust your taste in organizing a proper wedding my only daughter deserves so…I'll handle it. Don't worry. It's going to be perfect",
She cannot decipher whether he is amused or annoyed with that but he did not protest any longer. They sat in silence before Regina finally stirred.
"Is she waking up?" She found herself asking.
"I'm calling Dr. Whale", and with that Robin disappeared.
She held her daughter's hand and waited for her to open her eyes. It felt like it took forever but then finally, she saw those brown eyes she fell in love in an instant the day she was born. She smiled so widely.
"Hey there, sleepyhead", she greeted in a voice she has never used in a long time.
Regina blinked a few times.
"Mommy?"
Unable to hold it back, Cora started crying. She never thought she would her, her daughter call her that again. It made Regina frown.
"Mommy, what's wrong? Are you alright?" Her daughter asked.
She shook her head as tears fell from her eyes uncontrollably.
"Nothing…nothing's wrong, sweetheart. I am just so happy you're finally awake",
Robin finally returned with Dr. Whale and the doctor took over to check up on her. Robin stood next to her with concern written on his face.
"What happened?" He asked.
Cora smiled as she stared at her daughter.
"She called me Mommy. My daughter called me Mommy again", she answered.