It's time.

Regina looks at the room where she spent the last two years of her life, in which she slowly healed and overcame the death of her soulmate.

So many things have happened during those two years it feels like it was eternity, but she cannot wait to go back to the life she left behind and find back both her son and her lover. Roland as well, as he will obviously come live with them once they are back to Storybrooke.

She can't wait.

This is a dream come true, a blessing she doesn't really deserve, but welcomes with open arms anyway.

She only has one thing to do first…

Closing her eyes, she walks to the drawer where she has put the ring Robin had offered her, and turns it between her fingers. She remembers the moment she took it off as if it was yesterday…

FLASHBACK

She's looking through the window, a small smile on her lips as she still can't realize how things turned out.

He's taking her on a date.

Andrew.

Technically, her boss. But also, and mostly, her friend, the man who helped her on the path to recovery that even her own son failed to lead her to.

It was unexpected, and somehow it isn't. They grew really closer lately, and if she wasn't the one to initiate the first kiss, she answered it immediately, enveloped in the warmth of his embrace, the softness of his gesture, the respect he showed towards her.

That's why she made that decision. No matter how much this means to her, she cannot fully move on if she clutches to the fragments of her past.

"I'm not mad at you, you know."

She closes her eyes and shudders at the voice she knows so well, that comforts her but also reminds her of her grief, and she turns around to face him.

"You need to move on, Regina."

"I know," she whispers, revealing in a trembling voice, a bit stunned by this realization. "I think that maybe for the first time, I'm ready."

Robin walks to her, smiling so his dimples are on display, making her heart melt the way it always does. She will never be able to forget this man who helped her change for the better, who made her feel love and cherished when she was full of self-loathing. And she needs him to know that, even if he's nothing but the result of her imagination.

"Thank you, Robin. For everything."

His hand rises and stops next to her cheek, and if he was tangible, she knows he'd have cupped her face in the gentlest way, like he always did.

"It was my pleasure, Milady. I guess this is a goodbye."

Her brimming eyes are staring at him, and Regina suddenly feels a tug in her stomach at his words. "What do you mean? Do you plan on leaving?"

"I have to. You are ready now. You don't need me in your life anymore."

Feeling the panic rise in her, Regina steps forward. "But—"

"I will always be here, my love. Even if you don't see me."

Unprepared for this, unsure all of a sudden, Regina hesitates. She didn't think of this, that removing her ring would make him go away, but as her mind calms down and she recalls the past two years, she understands that his presence around her was not only a support, but a guide that helped her on the path to recovery. And now that she's finally letting go of her last barriers, now that she's ready to put her remaining wounds into someone else's hands, she indeed doesn't need to see Robin's ghost anymore.

Nodding but unable to avoid letting a tear slip free, Regina puts her fingers on the ring, ready to remove it. She locks her brown eyes with Robin's blue and loving ones, unwilling to let him out of her sight until the very end.

"Goodbye, Robin," she murmurs as she removes the ring, and watches his image disappear in front of her, more at peace now than she was two years ago.

END OF FLASHBACK

Biting her lower lip as she fights a smile, Regina takes a deep breath before putting the ring on her finger again. A shiver runs through her at this moment, a feeling of wellness, and the sensation of being finally complete invading her. Invigorated by this feeling, she raises her head, and leaves her room, finally ready.

Andrew is waiting for her in his office, looking up warily when she steps in the room. It's been three days, and she can sense that he is tense, how far from oblivious of the problem hanging between them that she wasn't able to voice before he is.

She gives him a small smile, and sits across from him. She notices the way he almost sends his hands forward, but doesn't, and her heart clenches as she reads in his eyes that he already has a good idea about where this conversation will lead to.

"You're leaving, right?"

Regina isn't really surprised by his statement. He's a smart person, and by pulling away so suddenly when her son came back while there was not a cloud in their relationship, she kind of hinted things clearly.

"Yes."

He clicks his tongue against his palate, looks down and shakes his head as he lets out a sigh. "I knew that day would come, but..." He looks up at her, frowning, probably to hide the way his eyes water. "When did you make the decision?"

"Yesterday," she confesses. "But Andrew, you have to know that it's not because of you." She grabs his hands, squeezes them between her fingers and feels him clutching to her as well. "I mean, I was always supposed to go back, you know that, but something changed and..." She takes a moment to find the words, to explain to him how her supposedly dead fiancé was brought back to life to someone who doesn't know that magic is real. That's how she misses the frown on his face as his thumb suddenly brushes over her ring.

"You put it back... Regina, are you alright?" he asks, his voice full of concern as he leans forward and clutches her fingers.

She understands then that he worries she may have regressed, fallen back into despair, so she covers his hand with hers, reassuringly gazing at him. "I am, Andrew... Remember those dreams we talked about, in which we get them back?"

"I do, but-" His eyes widen as he frowns and pulls back a little. It takes him a second, maybe two, before he tilts his head in both confusion and realization. "Regina, what are you saying?"

"He's alive, Andrew," she confirms, her eyes falling on the ring again, drawing his own gaze there. There's pain written in it, but not only, and that other feeling, she can't quite decipher what it is at the moment. "Robin, the man I loved and whom I lost... or so I thought. Henry came back with him to tell me that he was alive."

As she reveals the truth to him, she can see his eyes shine with something that resembles relief, when she was fearing to face disappointment or jealousy. "What? How? Regina, that's great news!"

"It is," she admits with a blush, relieved to see that he seems to understand. "That's why I needed some time, to figure things out. It's complicated, I don't have all the details, but the important part is that he's alive and-"

"And you have to go back to him!" Andrew cuts her off abruptly, squeezing her hands. His enthusiasm throws her off a little, she didn't expect him to send her into Robin's arms in a blink. He must sense her confusion, because he explains, "Regina, if this were my wife, I'd already be gone. I'm not a hypocrite who will pretend that two months with me matter more than the man whose death crushed you so much that you went to the length of leaving your son behind. What are you still doing here with me?"

Leaning back a little, Regina feels a weight being removed from her chest, finally allowed to give way to her happiness in front of this man who became her friend over the last two years, and bursts out laughing.

"I still have to pack my things, and say goodbye to the kids. I am going to miss you guys."

"Maybe, but you'll be busy catching up with your son and your Robin," he teases her, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles. "When are you leaving?"

Regina shrugs and scrunches her nose, saying tentatively, "In a couple days? If me spending a few more nights here is okay with you of course. The road back home is long and I'm not quite packed yet."

Andrew gets up and walks around his desk, places his hands on her shoulders when he faces her as she stands. "Take all the time you need. Damn, Regina, I'm really happy for you."

She beams at him, relieved. "So you're not mad at me for quitting out of the blue? For leaving you?"

"Nah, it's fine," he says nonchalantly, a bit too nonchalantly for her taste. "I mean, I'm sad to see you leave, the kids and I will miss you a lot, but it's for the best. Plus, thanks to you the kids have completely changed, so even if the nanny I found for this week can't continue, it won't be the same struggle as before to find someone else. Although I have to admit that I might never find someone better than you to take care of my children."

Regina blushes a little, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. And then, freed from the anguish that was smothering her, she wraps her arms around his neck, and pulls him to her for a grateful hug.

Once back into her bedroom to start packing, she grabs her phone with the intention to call Henry and Robin to tell them the news, and is surprised to find it exploding with dozens of phone call notifications from Henry's number. She fears the worse, confused, frowning, her excitement fading as her trembling hand dials her son's number, and she expectantly and anxiously waits for him to pick up. It doesn't take long, he picks up on the first ring, except that Henry isn't the one who answers.

"Regina?"

"Robin? Is there something wrong?"

She's shaken by the urge in his voice, her heartbeat quickening in her chest because she fears the worse, that something happened to Henry. But the words that slip past his lips shatter her entire world, and also brings the light to so many unanswered questions about the past two years.

"Regina, I remember! The past two years, when you were seeing me even though I was dead, when you left Storybrooke, your grief... I... I remember everything."