How does a former villain, an Evil Queen, who has committed so many crimes and barbarous acts against humanity, get to reach her happy-ever after? Purgatory. The place where a sinner must truly atone and request forgiveness. Regina finds out what that entails...
The Underworld
It felt like Regina had been in the Underworld, or Purgatory as she'd been told, for at least a year. And she was thoroughly fed up!
Robin said he'd spent three weeks here, but that was five long years in Storybrooke! In one of her lonelier moments, she'd worked out that if that was the ratio then over 86 years would have passed by for Emma, Robin and her family since her own death! That couldn't be right, could it? If it was, then everybody she knew, apart from Robin, would probably be dead. What's happened? Would she ever get news about them? Would they even arrive via here when finally they did pass over?
"Someone looks glum?" The taller brunette placed a cup of strong, black coffee into her hands once she'd propped herself up. "Want to talk about it? Or should I just leave you alone?"
She looked up into the kind eyes of the woman who had been her only source of comfort here, her rock, over…god knows how long. "Thank you. I'm just missing them all. It feels like I've been here forever. Robin said it felt like three weeks for him, but for everyone living it was five long years! So that means..."
"Don't use that as a guide, Regina, it really doesn't work like that. If it did, it'd mean everybody you knew, even our Roland, would have died, and I'm pretty sure I would have heard something by now!" Regina was always touched that, since they'd been here, Marian had always referred to 'our' Roland and 'our' man, for Robin. Plus, she had to continually remind herself that, though the woman was helping her, she still had part of herself in the afterlife. "But I'll put out the word, and see if anyone's passed over? As I've said so often since you started this, think of this place as being a sort of 'time trap', until the job gets done? You'll see them soon enough, I just know it!"
~oOo~
Previously...
When they'd first arrived in the Underworld, Marian had been the one to arrange meetings with everyone the former Evil Queen had been involved with, so they could meet again, and Regina could start the long process of atoning for her crimes and hopefully, be granted forgiveness. It was one hell of a trial, because there were just so many! Upset to find out that she could only meet people who had never forgiven her (that ruled out seeing her father, Daniel, Snow and David), her first awful meeting had been with Graham Humbert, the former Sheriff of Storybrooke; and before that, one of her guards, a huntsman and soldier.
Even though he'd spoken as a witness at her trial, in purgatory it was like he was a completely different person. A rather terrifying one, it turned out. And the way he treated her gave her the first indication of what atonement for her past sins really meant!
"So…you just want me to accept your apology? Just like that, so you can move on?"
Regina wasn't surprised by his aggression. It was more than justified, after all! "Graham, you're the first person, apart from Marian, who I've met so far, and I'm not sure how I even do this! I can apologise and beg your forgiveness; but I can't actually give you anything, or help in any way that's going to make up for what I did to you!"
"So, what do you THINK you did to me, Your Majesty, that you need me to forgive you for?"
Wasn't it obvious? "I killed you, didn't I?"
"Anything else?" he looked ready to explode.
"Well…I took your heart in the Enchanted Forest. I made you obey me!"
"YOU CONTROLLED ME, YOU HEARTLESS BITCH!" Without warning, he suddenly exploded, stepping right in front of her, lowering his face to an inch of hers. "You ripped the heart out of my chest, because I didn't murder Snow White! You controlled me for five long years, before you took me to another realm, leaving my mother and brother behind! And for what? Just so one spoilt, pampered bitch can put a curse on another spoilt, pampered bitch? I had a daughter, Mills! I only found out she was still alive thanks to the Merry Men finding her! Then you raped me!" Marian froze at the news, realising the task she'd undertaken wouldn't be an easy one.
"Then, just because Emma Swan broke the curse, and told me she liked me, you crushed my fucking heart to dust!" He roared into her face in fury.
Regina bowed her head in shame. "I know! I'm…I'm so sorry."
"OH! You're sorry, are you? Oh…oh well, that's all right then! Let's forget all about it? All water under the bridge…"
She knew she was treading on eggshells. "You…you don't mean that."
"OF COURSE I DON'T FUCKING MEAN IT! he bellowed, specks of spittle now coating her face. "You destroyed my life! You left my daughter fatherless! Why should I ever forgive you, you vile, odious, selfish cunt?"
"You're right not to..."and I'm everything you say." Her words were almost a whisper. "But I don't know how I can make it right?"
"You can't! But you still need to be punished for what you did! Put out your arm - now!" he ordered.
"My arm? I'm sorry, I don't understand…" Both Regina and Marian looked up, alarmed at the way this was quickly turning.
"YOUR ARM! REST IT ON THE TABLE! YOU WANT MY FORGIVENESS? EARN IT!" As he yelled, he reached over his shoulder, producing a short-handled axe from his back strap. "You took my heart because I wouldn't cut off Snow White's head with my axe! So now I want you to know what pain feels like! Your arm!"
"Mr. Humbert, please?" Marian begged him. "There has to be a better way?" The taller woman stood, moving closer in an attempt to get a hand on the axe. But Regina watched as her body now appeared to suddenly freeze before she could get close enough, only her lips moving. "Please - don't do this?"
Graham completely ignored her, looking at a now terrified former queen. "You want forgiveness? That's my price! Your willingness to sacrifice your arm! I wasn't even given a choice."
Was this a test? Proof she meant what she said? However, seeing the overwhelming rage in his eyes, she didn't argue. Just prayed that he was bluffing. Reme mbering she was already dead, she slowly nodded, before kneeling in front of the coffee table, then laying her lower left arm across the surface, holding still and closing her eyes, as she heard a distressed Marian still try to stop him.
"Mr. Humbert! Graham…please? I beg of you!"
Regina's jaw trembled as she kept her eyes tightly shut. It may have been a bluff, but it was still terrifying.
Within moments she heard a tremendous 'thump', followed quickly by the most excruciating pain in her arm; agony greater than any pain she'd ever experienced! It was absolute torture! A moment later, Marian's ear-piercing scream went straight through her skull. "REGINA!"
The pain was so intense, that she had no choice but to open her eyes.
THE HAND WAS GONE! It lay still, close to the damaged coffee table, now awash with so much blood!
"AAARRGGHHHHH! Make it stop!" She screamed, as the searing pain scorched through her entire body. She saw Marian, now unfrozen, ripping off her own cotton blouse, quickly winding it, to make a temporary tourniquet, which she now started urgently wrapping around the bleeding stump. "MARIAN – DEAR GOD! PLEASE MAKE THE PAIN STOP! PLEASE?" she begged.
As the brunette bound the bloody mess tightly, she yelled across to a young man now looking at the commotion from behind the bar. "YOU! Don't just stand there gawking? Bring a bottle of vodka over here, and any towels! NOW!" she bellowed. The moment the boy came over, she ripped the bottle from his hands, smashing the top against the remains of the table, and pored the neat alcohol straight over Regina's raw open stump, making the other woman cry out in even more agony and terror. "NNNNGGGGHH!" she winced, as Marian poured the rest of the bottle into her empty water glass.
"SWALLOW IT BACK! QUICKLY!"
Within seconds, Regina starting shivering uncontrollably, as the indescribable pain raged through her entire side. As the bleeding slowed, she felt unbelievably cold. Having finished nursing the wound, Marian quickly sat down close beside her, before physically lifting the smaller woman up by her waist and onto her own lap, pulling her tightly against her and forcing her to rest her head on her now naked, blood spattered, shoulder. The woman's blouse now wrapped tightly around her stump was completely saturated in blood. "Just don't look at it!" she ordered. Regina was in too much pain to argue, as she tried to nuzzle herself against the woman in a desperate attempt the relieve the agony. "Okay, Regina, sit still a moment. When you've calmed, I'll go see if there's any sort of doctor or medical assistance I can get! Just…just try to rest and fight it?" As Marian looked around her, she now realised that Graham Humbert had disappeared.
Looking down, Regina had indeed gone very quiet, her lifeless damaged stump falling down beside her. That's when Marian realised – she'd fainted!
"Oh thank god for that!"
~oOo~
As she slowly regained consciousness, it took a little while for Regina's senses to kick in. She felt herself lying on a mattress, a light cotton quilt resting over her. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the calm, smiling face of Marian Locksley sitting close, staring straight back at her. "Good morning! Feeling better?"
That first night Regina arrived in the Underworld, her Purgatory, to begin atonement, she bonded almost immediately with Robin's first wife. Apart from being a very assured, capable woman, Marian had a lighter touch to problems than herself, much like Robin. She was also a tremendous flirt, who made no secret of the fact she found the former Evil Queen 'interesting'! In her distant past, Regina had often used her looks, and body, to flirt and toy with people, to get what she wanted. Though now she was old, grey and wrinkled, those days were but a distant memory. But Marian seemed to be a master at it, using her own femininity too, and, having died early in life, had preserved her beauty forever. One of the many gifts of paradise. Regina rather liked the mutual flirting, thinking it flattering and a comforting distraction, considering what she was going through. Nothing happened between them of course, save for the odd peck on the cheek. But she still couldn't understand how Marian could possibly find an old crone like her...attractive. However, she had explained that, having seen the old queen's beauty in her past, it would be restored to her in the future, in the afterlife. If she ever got there? And that's the view that Marian said she saw now.
As her memories came back, Regina looked down towards her left hand. It was still there! Also she had no wound, no dressing, no…
"Did I just dream that? Graham Humbert cutting my hand off?"
Marian collected the hand in question in her own, sitting on the bed. "Sadly, no Regina, you didn't. It happened right in front of me! I dressed the wound, but you fainted from pain and blood loss shortly afterwards. You never woke again. I put you to bed, put your severed hand on ice in the bar fridge, and decided that, because I was worried what would happen when you woke up, I climbed in here beside you…"
"I don't understand. He cut my ruddy hand off with an axe! I felt it, Marian! It was real! Then I wake up to this?" She waved her hand around, "But it's as good, albeit very wrinkled, as new. What's going on?"
"It seems to be part of the atonement. Graham wanted you to suffer, physically, just like he had! He died, when you crushed his heart, so…I guess he needed to make you know how it felt?"
A horrible thought came to her. "So…what if everyone else they send me, wants to do something like that? I've killed hundreds, Marian! I don't think I could take that sort of pain every day, even if I do wake up all repaired afterwards. It's going to be torture! It's going to be-"
"Atonement? That's the whole idea, Regina? Nobody said it was going to be easy!"
"So I'm to be spending my time here getting my limbs chopped off, skewered and god-knows-what? Going to sleep in screaming agony, before waking up all good to go again? Hell I-" her eyes started to redden and she started sobbing.
"Hey, hey! Come here…" Marian pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her, forcing her head onto her shoulder as she cuddled her. "It'll be okay. I'll be here to help you through it!"
~oOo~
That painful first confrontation, in what felt like over a year ago, with someone the Evil Queen had previously harmed, was only the first of many horrible experiences. It also wasn't the only violent episode, and over many weeks, Regina found herself being attacked, bludgeoned, stabbed, horsewhipped, and almost blinded, by one ferocious former guard she's once transformed into a snail and stepped on. One former royal guard she had previously abused actually raped her back! Penetrated her! And as though still alive, she felt every pain and every indignity. Yet after each incident, many ferociously painful, she'd wake up in the same room, in the same bed, unharmed, and having to start the process all over again. In one case, an old woman farmhand had launched a pitchfork straight through her chest! If Regina had been alive, she would no doubt have been killed outright at least three dozen times during her daily trials and torments. However, she stuck to it, regardless, knowing there was no alternative other than eternal damnation.
Her only reprieve, and one she begged for each day, was the time she woke each morning, to the sight of Marian Locksley bringing her tea or coffee in bed.
It felt like more than a year since her appearance in the Celestial Court, though it was impossible to judge. She estimated she must have faced at least three hundred different former victims of the Evil Queen when, one morning, she woke up to Marian's beaming face, wreathed in a smile. "Regina, I have news!"
"Don't tell me - I get a day off from being raped and killed?" snarked the old woman, as she sipped her coffee.
"No, sadly, but it's still good! Emma passed away, is in the afterlife now, knows all about what's happened to you, and what you're going through right now, and wanted me to assure you that it'll all be worth it in the end!"
"Emma's dead?" She sat up with a start, alarmed; but then picking up on something she'd said. "Wait – 'she wanted to assure' me? You mean you've spoken to her?"
"I met her, a little while ago!" Marian seemed almost as excited as her. "My, she's a beautiful woman, isn't she?"
"What?" This was confusing. Emma was only a few years younger than her!
"She's not the old woman you left, Regina. Remember what I told you? In the afterlife, you're the age you want to be! I'd say she looks about mid-thirties. Bubbly, bright blonde hair, great legs. You're a lucky girl, aren't you?"
"So what's happened back home? How's Robin? What-"
"All in good time! When I met her, she was with her parents, David and Snow. She's only just arrived, so everybody's mobbing her and she's transitioning. And she doesn't know how to split herself yet! Anyway, I'll find out what's happened soon enough; but she wanted me to give you a message. She told me, to tell you, that she misses you so very much! That you were gone about five years when she passed over herself. I told her what you're going through right now, and she wanted me to tell you she's so proud of you, that she's very much in love with you, and can't wait till she finally, 'gets her hands on you'! Her words, not mine."
Regina chuckled, her first laugh in a very long time. "That sounds like Emma!"
"Oh, and she took me away from her folks, and specifically asked me to give you something else…from her."
"Give me something? What could-" But her words were cut off, when the taller woman placed her hands on either side of Regina's face, tilting her head back and to one side, before latching their lips together! It took a moment for Regina to realise what was happening, though feeling the first real affection she'd received in so long, she automatically brought her own arms around Marian's waist, pulling her closer, before finally opening her mouth wider to accept the kiss fully. "Mmmm," she groaned. Her lips feel like heaven!
They held each other a good minute, before finally separating. "That's exactly what she wanted me to do to you! And, frankly, I've wanted to do that for ages." Marian grinned. "But I wouldn't have done that without her or Robin's permission, of course. Hope you don't mind?"
"I'll get over it, but I want you to take a message back from me. So shut up, and kiss me again!"
What felt like three days later, the pair sat, side-by-side, on the bar stools, Regina impatient to just get yet another horrible former victim ticked off from her list of people she needed to grovel to.
Last night she had finished the evening, as she had so many others previously, with her being painfully killed. If a dead woman can be killed? This time, by her being choked unconscious, strangled with a towel, by a former maid she'd once thrown out of a tower window, to her death, using magic. It was getting to be a familiar pattern.
Marian's eyes were on a young, handsome, well-built man, who appeared to be working behind the bar.
"He's rather nice, isn't he?" She whispered in Regina's ear. "You recognise him?"
She followed her gaze. "You're right, he is very handsome. Can't say I recall him though…"
It was then the pair heard a rich, deep, and somehow familiar voice, close behind them. "Hello Regina!"
Her head spun, to see a sight she thought she'd never see ever again. The most important man in her life for so many years! The man who loved her, no matter what cruelty she inflicted on him, or others. The man who'd tried, unsuccessfully, to keep her on the path of good, for so long!
She felt she suddenly couldn't breath. "Pa…Papa?"
She launched herself off the stool, jumping up to him. "PAPA? IS IT REALLY YOU?"
"It is, my love!" He had a tear in his own eye now, as he pulled his daughter into his arms, forcing her head to his chest before kissing her brow. "I'm so very proud of you, my Regina, for going through everything you have here!"
Regina was now shaking with emotion, folding herself into his loving embrace, never wanting to let go. It took a while for her to calm, but eventually, she managed to pull back, looking into his eyes, making no attempt to wipe the tears raining down her cheeks.
"Papa, is it you I'm supposed to be seeking forgiveness from today?"
Prince Henry Mills, the original, smiled back at her, with nothing but love in his eyes. "No, my little dove. I forgave you a very long time ago. I've come to take you home with me. You're done here. I'm taking you to Emma."
Marian moved closer. "You've done your time. Look into that mirror over there, Regina. Tell me what you see?"
Regina looked across, her jaw dropping instantly at the sight. In her reflection, between her father and her friend, she no longer saw an old, wrinkled, slightly hunched woman; but a familiar dark-haired, brown-eyed one, seemingly in her late thirties, looking straight back at her!
"You've been judged to have atoned enough, Regina. You're moving on to Paradise!"
Storybrooke
To those still alive, it was a full year since they'd buried Emma. Six years since Regina's passing.
Robin sat in the refurbished dining room of the Earl of Locksley, surrounded by his now grown-up children. He'd just spent a couple of hours with an unusually frail Merlin and Maleficent.
"Can you imagine what it must be like?" Hope, Robin's youngest daughter, now a mother to grown up children herself, looked at the elderly couple. "They've lived for not just hundreds, but thousands of years! And now they're actually happy about dying?"
"I can, my love," said her father. "They had immortality, and Merlin has been able to pass into the Underworld from time to time. He's got hundreds of children, and nearly fifty wives over all that time, and he sees them all! But now he doesn't want to just visit. He wants to stay with them. Maleficent too. She couldn't travel across, so for the first time, she'll see family that passed away thousands of years ago. For them, dying is a real blessing!"
"So why are you telling us all this, dad?" Roland asked. His former wild-haired, wild-natured son, now a grey-haired grandfather in his sixties, even if he looked younger than his years. "You asked us not to bring the kids or the grandkids. What's happening?"
Robin took a slow breath before he started. "You remember I told you all, that I was an immortal now? That I would have to outlive you all?" His six grown-up children all nodded. "Well, so not to arouse suspicion, I'm going to need to 'change' soon. My face, my character. Everything that made me 'Robin Hood'!"
"Like Merlin did, after he left Camelot? He was a handsome, quite young, black guy. Next time I saw him, just after Zeus sent you back, he'd changed to an old, grey-bearded, white guy..." Henry reminded them.
"True. It's so he didn't arouse suspicions outside the magical world. Now the barrier's down on the town line, I'm going to need to do the same thing soon. I'm going to need to be seen to have died! I'll still be with you six, of course, but to all intents and purposes, Robin Hood will need to be seen to die, like everyone else who gets old. We'll have to arrange a fake death, possibly a funeral. I'll still be here for you of course, but I'll look and sound…different."
"So what about the kids, dad?" asked Honour. "Do we just tell them you died?"
"I think you should. Only you six will know my new identity, and who I really am. And then, when they're old enough, and mature enough to keep a secret, you could possibly tell them, if you want."
"I hate lying to them, but…I kinda see the point." agreed Faith. "But you're going to stay with us, aren't you dad? You're not going to up sticks and leave?"
"Apart from when Zeus calls me to do him some service from time to time, I'll stick around you right up until you've all died, hopefully just from old age! I know that sounds morbid, but death should come to us all. After that, your two mums, in Roland's case, three mums, will be there to welcome you."
The rest of the group were quiet, mulling over things, before Margot thought of something else. "Dad, when were you last allowed in the afterlife to go and meet them?"
"Just before Emma passed. I'd hoped to see Regina, but Marian told me she was in purgatory, seeking atonement and forgiveness. Roland, it's really hard to explain how this works but, your own mamma, Marian, has made great friends with her. She's helping her through whatever it is they do there, until she gets sent to the better place."
"So when can you go again?"
"Oddly enough, I'm planning to go next weekend, when I visit Blue."
The Convent
Although everyone in Storybrooke and Sherwood, apart from Robin, had got older and more frail with the passing years, the fairies all seemed to remain the same. Some, like Nova, had left to marry, or be with humans, some had sought to work and travel, but a small coterie had stayed at their old convent.
As Robin lay down on a large mattress in one of the guest bedrooms, he looked up at Reul Ghorm and Tinker Bell, as they watched him get himself comfortable. "You know, that wedding of yours was something else! I had no idea there were so many fairies around?"
Tink smiled down at him, plumping his pillow, before stepping back and holding her wife's hand. "One for every human. At least, that's how we start! Most fairies prefer to stay in the shadows or woodland once their human godchildren grow up. Which reminds me, if my own particular human has been allowed in there yet, I need you to tell Regina that her own fairy godmother misses her very much!"
"And the same goes for me, Robin." Blue nodded. "Tell Snow I'm thinking of her, and I pray she and David are happy. Bring me back any news you can?"
"I'll do my best; thank you, miladies. Keep your fingers crossed, that I see at least one of them?"
With that, he closed his eyes, settling his hands over his chest and brought on the silent spell to put himself into a deep coma.
Paradise
The moment the mists evaporated, Robin stepped into the ampitheatre, for the first time since before Emma had passed away, peacefully in her sleep, over a year ago.
The former Saviour had had a difficult three years since Regina died. Already in her late eighties, Emma's health had deteriorated, her asthma worsened, and her legs gave out, leaving her wheelchair-bound, for the final year of her life. A cruel reminder of the frailties of old age, despite a lifetime of fitness.
As he stepped into the white forum he recognised from his last visit, someone was already there, ready to greet him.
"Hello, my chick, it's wonderful to have you back."
"Mamma," Robin took his mother into his arms, hugging her tightly. "I would have come sooner, but-"
"I know. The rules still apply to us all, my love! I understand. By a strange, happy twist of fate, your timing seems to have been perfect. There's not one, but two, very special people here who have been waiting to meet you?" His mother twirled a finger, indicating he needed to turn around. He did as asked, gasping as he took in a most wonderful sight.
There stood Emma and Regina, an arm wrapped around the back of each other's waists, as they stood side-by-side, staring back at him. Not the two grey-haired and partly-infirm old ladies he'd said farewell to, but the stunningly beautiful couple, who had captured his heart so long ago, when Zeus sent him back.
"My loves! Gina, you're back?" He almost stuttered when he saw the pair of them. They both looked sensational, the last forty years having fallen away. All the grey and wrinkles of age had gone. Emma appeared to be wearing some sort of pale-blue toga, her gorgeous long, blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. Regina wore a similar style, but dark purple, her hair up in some sort of bun. They looked relaxed. Happy.
"Hmm. What do you think, Gina?" A delicious smirk played on Emma's lips. "Was he worth all the trouble?"
"Always - come here, you!" Regina stepped forward, pushing herself onto him, and latching their lips immediately, desperate to savour the man she'd missed for so long. Robin groaned into it, unsurprised when he felt a warm tongue quickly pressed past his teeth, demanding entrance, which he gave immediately. The moan that rang from both of them was very, very primal.
"Ah-hem?" Emma interrupted, when she felt the moment had dragged on too long. And frankly, she was feeling a little left out. "Oy, Locksley? You've got more than one wife around here, you know?"
Regina released him, sniggering as she let his other wife get to him.
"My darling Emma! You look-"
"Hot? Bloody sexy? Not crippled? Yeah, I know!" She interrupted. "It was nice getting my legs back! My turn, I think?" she dragged him into her own arms, giving him a kiss as ferocious as Regina's, as she wife watched, chuckling at the raw passion the pair could squeeze from just one kiss?
"You better not be feeling too tired, thief? Because I assure you, we don't sleep up here, and you're not getting any sleep anytime soon!"
He grinned like a Cheshire cat, his arm reaching out to pull her back into their hug, the reunited trio beginning their old 'shared-lips' routine, regardless of others, as each held the other two tight.
"Aaaaand, with that, I guess I'll leave you for a while?" Said yet another voice to his side. "Ladies, please go easy with him? I'd like him in one piece till he can split?"
He turned to see Marian, sporting an odd smile as she stepped back. Feeling awkward, knowing his very first ever love had just spotted them. "Marian! I'm so sorry, I-"
"Making up for lost time? Don't worry, I quite understand! You three need some quality time together. Just…think of me when you're ready? Then we'll talk." She didn't seem upset.
"No!" said Regina, stepping back from them to stop Marian leaving, taking her arm before she left. "Please?"
As Marian turned to face her, Regina collected her free hand with her own, before, to Robin's surprise, placing a gentle kiss on Marian's lips?
He looked at Emma, to see if she's seen it too, but the Saviour didn't seem in the least bit bothered.
"Robin..." Regina's eyes never left the taller woman's, "I could never have survived the Judgment without Marian. Without her, they would have sent me to Hell! She stood by me all the time though Purgatory, patching me up and keeping me going when I felt like giving up. She's your wife too, just as much as Emma and I. So why don't you say hello to her properly?"
"You – you don't mind?" he asked, bewildered. He stepped in front of Marian. "You did all of that – for Regina?"
"Of course. We love you, as does Emma, and true loves should never be parted! You'll begin to understand, when you finally get to stay here!"
Smiling down on the remarkable woman who gave him Roland, he lowered his lips onto hers, sealing them together with a much-needed, long overdue kiss. His arms enfolded her, as she became fully immersed. God, he'd missed her. Missed all of them! As lips finally unsealed, he looked up to find Emma was giving Regina much the same treatment, his later wives holding each other. His mind went back to their younger, more energetic days, when seeing them like this was a regular, but still beautiful sight.
Finally, Emma released her hold. "Marian, come join us?" Regina offered. Robin wasn't quite sure what she was inviting her to join?
"Not now…" she released Robin. "But very soon, okay? And before he goes back. You three need to spend time together. However…" she winked at Emma. "I'm not against us all spending more time together fairly soon, and see wherever that takes us? I'll see you later…" With that, her body seemed to evaporate in front of them, leaving them alone.
Robin's jaw dropped in astonishment. "Did she just suggest…erm, what did she just suggest? What exactly did you suggest?"
Emma laughed aloud. "Don't worry about it. Things are just different here. Different…but wonderful!" She stepped back into him, wrapping an arm around his back. Regina mirrored her again, on his right side, as she and Emma wrapped arms around each other to continue their cuddle.
"I'm beginning to see that! So…what should we do first now I'm here?"
"That..." Regina kissed his cheek. "Is an unbelievably stupid question!"
~oOo~