I don't even want to think about how long it has been since I updated, I apologise, I just hope that you haven't lost interest in this story. Anyway without further a do enjoy and please let me know if you do. :D xoxoxox
A month had passed since the masquerade and the incident with Graham, life was bliss for Regina and Robin, they spent practically all their free time together, fitting in enough time to spend with one another alongside their busy schedules. They were practically living together with Robin staying over at hers most nights, although some of the time they would stay at his apartment which was less common because of Lenny. Whenever she would go over to his she would take Lenny with her, that also meant taking him to work, but he was a well-behaved cat and she was her own boss so she could do what she wanted, if she wanted to bring her cat with her she would.
Today was one of those days, Lenny was curled up in his bed that was situated by the window, he watched her as she worked and every now and then she would turn to look at him, her boy was good and would sleep most of the day and if he didn't sleep he would play with the little toy mouse that she had for him. After all he was an indoor cat, mainly because he was scared of cars, other animals, noises and practically everything that you could think of that would be outside.
She tucked her hair behind her ear as she ran her eyes over the latest copy of her magazine that had just come to them from the printers after having been distributed to stores around America and to certain overseas countries. It looked good, but she always made sure that it did, it had to be perfect before it hit the shelves, she couldn't afford for anything to be out of place, she had to have everything just how she liked it. A sense of pride ran though her every time they got an issue out, it was as though that whole month of working on something had finally come together to create something successful that would be read by over a million people across the globe, if that wasn't an achievement she didn't know what was.
Her magazine had made it into the top spot for the most issues sold and she couldn't be more excited about that, not only did it mean increased revenue for her which was always a bonus, it meant that she could afford to pay her employees more, after all they worked their asses off each month to provide the content, the least she could do was give them wage rises every now and then. It also gave her more leeway on where to take the new magazine that she was starting up, the one that Robin had pitched her and was going to help her establish.
This opened up so much new potential, she knew that they were going to have to start hiring new people to work on it, luckily there would be enough room in her current building, it wasn't exactly small it was literally an entire high rise in NYC, she had started with two floors but a few years ago the owner had put the lease up for sale and she had decided to use literally all the money she owned and all her inheritance to buy the building along with another two businesses, a law firm and a product marketing company.
They had built up studios for fashion shoots and rooms for other art purposes that might be needed, a whole floor was dedicated to fashion, a floor in which Mal ran and she trusted her completely to do it right, her friend had the best eye for fashion, she chose what was in and what wasn't and Regina very rarely questioned her judgement.
She had just reached the end of the magazine, finding it to be without fault as she would expect, when Tink came into the room, "so then boss."
Regina rolled her eyes, why must her friend insist on calling her boss? Regina knew that she could tell her till she was blue in the face but the blonde still wouldn't listen to what she said, Regina just found it annoying, the thing was though that Tink knew that and it was why she continued to do it because she wanted a rise out of her, she wanted her to tell her off like she always did? No she wasn't going to do it this time, wouldn't give her the satisfaction, she wasn't going to response in her usual way, she was just going to let it go. "So then Katrina."
Tink scrunched her nose up before sitting down in front of her desk, "eww."
"Eww what?" Regina smirked, knowing full well what her friend was referring to.
"Eww to that name," she scoffed before her face softened and she leant further over Regina's desk, "so, how's the latest copy?"
"It's good," she nodded handing it over so that Tink could look at it.
"Pleased with it?"
"Aren't I always? Trust me I would not have let it go to the printers if I hadn't been pleased with it."
"Always the perfectionist," the blonde chuckled sitting back in her chair and putting her feet up on the desk as she flicked through the pages, Regina rose her eyebrows and cast her a judging looked.
"Make yourself at home why don't you," she tutted standing from her chair and moving over to the ornate full length mirror that was placed in the corner, she checked over her appearance, straightening the burgundy tube skirt before making sure that her white blouse was tucked in adequately. Nodding her head she moved closer to check her makeup, running a finger over the indentation on her top lip, the slight scar she had been left with; with a sighed she reached over to grab her lipstick and touched it up, she found that the darker her lips were the more it took the attention away from the mark, with one last flick of her hair she turned to look at Tink, "I hate that bastard," she muttered picking up the file from her desk.
"Mumbling about Graham again?"
"Well he did leave me with a permanent reminder of the tosspot he is."
"Tosspot?" Tink frowned.
"Robin's words not mine," she shook her head, not missing the slight smirk that her friend cast her, Regina rolled her eyes and picked up the file, "so I have a meeting now, do you think you can hold down the fort here or are you too immersed in that magazine?"
"I'm only expanding your clientele."
"Expanding my clientele? I don't seem to remember you paying for that magazine so tell me exactly how you are doing that?"
"Oh come on Gina, best friends benefits."
"Fine, but I want these files sorted by the time I come out of my meeting, also would you please keep an eye on Lenny for me?"
"You brought Lenny!" Tink turned around and stood to move and pick him up, "I didn't even know you were here mister."
"Okay so I'll leave you with him then," Regina stated holding the door she was about to go through open with her ass.
"Such a good boy, such a good boy."
"Okay bye," she waited for a response but her friend just continued to talk to her cat, maybe she liked Lenny better than she liked her, "see you later Tink."
"What?" Tink turned to look at her.
"I said goodbye."
"Okay good luck with your meeting," she waved her off before finding a toy mouse and beginning to play with Lenny. Shaking her head, she moved out of the room and headed towards the elevator, she could feel the beginnings of a headache but it wasn't anything yet so she would just ignore it and hoped that it would go away.
The meeting was successful but her headache had worsened, her skull felt as though it would split apart as the blood pounded at the front of her head making her feel slightly as though the room was spinning, she needed a tall glass of water and some aspirin if she was going to be any good for dinner with Robin later that night. If the pain carried on like this she would have to call him and tell him that she couldn't make it, she wasn't any fun when she had a migraine and she was pretty sure that Robin wouldn't want to have to deal with her when she was all groggy and bleary eyed.
As soon as she stepped out of the elevator onto her floor she sensed something was wrong, there wasn't the usual quiet and calm resolve in the main office like there usually was when they just got an issue out, everyone seemed much too frantic and she immediately started to panic. Picking up the pace she hurried through the door seeing that people were even crawling on the ground, what the hell was going on?
She collared one member of staff who was heading towards the exit, "urm, Nicole?"
The young woman's eyes went wide as she looked at Regina and she immediately averted her gaze, "Miss Mills."
"What's going on?" Regina asked, her eyes narrowing somewhat as she continued to observe the goings on inside the room.
"I… um… I."
"Lenny where are you?" Upon hearing her friends voice she suddenly began to see the reason for everyone panicking, they had lost Lenny?! Really?! She gave Tink two jobs, two things to do, watch her baby boy and do the files, she had a funny feeling that she had done neither.
With a flounce Regina hurried towards the blonde who was currently crawling across the floor calling Lenny's name, when she reached her she nudged her nearly knocking her over, "Tink what the hell?!" She snapped, "what have you done?"
"I took my eyes of him for a second, it was only a second I swear and then when I looked back he was gone and I'm so sorry Regina, I don't know where he is."
"You lost Lenny! You lost him!" She felt her chest tighten somewhat at the idea of her cat going missing, he was like her baby, she screwed her eyes shut and shook her head, "we need to find him!" She rushed towards the front desk alerting Jeffery the receptionist.
"Miss Mills," he smiled before properly looking at her and furrowing his eyebrows, "madam? Is everything alright?"
"No," she breathed, "can you please make an announcement over the loud speaks telling everyone to keep on the watch for a cat."
"Cat?" He questioned, obviously not having expected her to have said about a cat.
"Hmm, my cat, I need to find him."
"Of course, mam," he nodded picking up the loud speaker and putting out the call as she scurried back into her own area and through the doors into her massive office.
"Lenny come to mommy," she called, she was heading to her desk and opening the top draw to grab his treats when she spotted something on the surface of the desk, his little collar with the bell broken open and what looked like blood coating the purple tartan. She gasped, her hand coming to cover her mouth as she reached out and picked it up to look at it, then she noticed a note...
'Poor kitty, his mommy didn't love him enough to protect him'
She felt the throbbing in her head worsen as she let out a squeal and dropped to her chair, tears coming into her eyes as she began sobbing uncontrollably, someone had taken him, someone had done this to her, but the question was, who? She didn't want to think about what had happened, she just wanted him back, she needed him, she buried her head in her hands and she cried against the sleeves of her blazer, her face pressed against the desk. Where was he? She just craved to hold him in her arms again and hug him.
"Regina?" Tink came to the door and Regina looked up at her, her bottom lip trembling as she shook her head, "oh my god Regina," Tink hurried into the room and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tight, "it's okay we'll find him, I promise you."
"I think someone took him," Regina sniffled, wiping her eyes before pulling back from Tink and passing her Lenny's collar that had been left on her desk, along with the note.
"Shit, who would take him like that?"
"I don't know," she whispered looking around the room as though she was going to find him or any other clues to where he might be, she was just praying that he was alright and that this was all some huge joke, "I just want him back Tink, I need him back."
"We'll get him back Regina, I know we will. Come on let's go and look for him," the blonde tucked her hand in Regina's and led her out of her office as they continued to look for Lenny.
After a couple of hours Regina was beginning to think that she wouldn't see her cat again, she had a full-blown migraine and just moving a little made her head pound terribly, but she was trying to put it out of her mind and concentrate on Lenny and finding him, because he was more important than she was, she didn't matter, she just needed to know that he was okay, that he was safe.
"Regina you look awful," Tink stated worriedly as she ran a hand over her arm, "I think you should maybe sit down for a little while, maybe grab a drink of water or something."
"I can't, not until we find him, I can't…" she felt her legs wobble underneath her and grabbed onto the edge of a desk to hold herself up, closing her eyes as she swayed somewhat, "I…"
"Gina sit down," Tink pulled out a chair for her, but Regina shook her head, she didn't want to sit down, she wanted to carry on looking for her cat. She moved to walk forward, but in that moment her legs gave way and without warning she dropped to the ground having to practically hug onto the leg of a table as her eyes closed and she pressed her head to the cool metal, "I'm gonna call Robin," Tink stated, hurrying off before Regina could stop her, she didn't want to worry him.
"Miss," Jeffery came towards her holding some water, he passed her the bottle, she took it from him and tried to bring it to her lips but her hands were shaking far too much for her to steady the bottle so she lowered it again, tears welling in her eyes, at this point she didn't care if her employees saw her like this, she didn't care about what they thought about her in that moment.
"Regina," her eyes flickered to the doorway and she spotted Mal awkwardly walking in with her cat in her arms, "urm, I think this might belong to you."
"Lenny," she cried reaching out for him as Mal placed him in her arms and she hugged him tightly, "my baby," she sniffled looking him over checking for any injuries, somewhere he was hurt, somewhere that the blood that was on his collar could have come from, but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, he looked perfectly fine, the only difference being his missing collar and little bell that would rind notifying her of his presence. Seemingly he had missed her as much as she had him because her was burrowing himself into her, rubbing his head against her, "Mal, where was he?" she whimpered.
"Seemingly he found his way to the faux fur section, he was hiding in with the coats, I don't know how he would have found his way up to fashion on his own."
"He didn't," Regina shook her head, "someone took him there, they left me a cryptic note," she hugged her cat closer and moved one hand to rub her temple, her hands still shaking she didn't know if it was because she was ill or because she was relieved that Lenny was okay.
"Okay sweetie, let's get you up shall we," Mal hooked her arms under Regina's and lifted her from the ground, wrapping an arm around her and leading her to her office, allowing her to flop onto her couch with Lenny still in her arms. Mal sat down also beside Regina, stroking her hair gently, "how are you feeling?"
"Like death warmed up," she breathed.
Tink made her way gingerly towards them, "Regina, Robin is on his way, he's gonna pick you up, he just has to cancel his afternoon meeting."
"No Tink there isn't any reason for him to do that," she shook her head, she didn't want Robin having to leave work early to take care of her, she didn't expect him to, she was a grown woman she could care for herself.
"Babe I couldn't have talked him out of it even if I had wanted to…" Tink paused for a moment before coming around to take hold of Regina's hand, "I am so sorry Regina, I went to the bathroom and I had thought that he would be fine for a couple of moments," she sighed scruffing Lenny's head.
"This wasn't your fault, someone targeted me, they took Lenny which means that they must have been watching me, watching my office," she shuddered thinking about the idea that someone was watching them, maybe she was going to have to up security measures on her building, unless it was someone inside the office, but she highly doubted that. Turning to Mal she squeezed her hand her eyes closing as she stroked her cat, "please can you ask Jeffery to look at tapes to see if we can find out who took him?"
"Yes of course," Mal stood form the couch and straightened her pant suit, "don't you be coming back to work until you are sickness free, do you hear me, you've given assignments, we've gone over the next issue, please rest up, I can help run things here until you come back."
"Thanks Mal," she sighed as the blonde left the room, Regina buried her head in one of the cushions that was laid on the couch as she pulled her legs up and curled into a foetus like position, Lenny was snuggled against her chest and she felt Tink move closer and tuck her hair behind her ear. She wasn't angry at her anymore, not now that she knew that it wasn't exactly her fault.
"Do you need something?" Tink whispered, carefully laying a blanket over her, Regina felt completely drained and simply reached out for her friend, bringing her to sit beside her as she found herself drifting off.
Upon receiving the call from Tink, Robin had become worried, something was wrong with Regina and apparently Lenny was missing, he knew how much Regina loved her cat and he had come to love him too, Lenny liked to snuggle with them when they watched movies and even curl up on the bottom of the bed whilst they slept. The first time that had happened Regina had protested that she needed him there because he warmed her feet for her when they got cold at night.
He had his assistant cancel his meetings with the message that he would reschedule them for a later date due to a "family situation" which it technically was, Regina was his girlfriend and he classed her as family, so sure it might have been a small white lie, but if she needed him he had to be there for her. He didn't exactly know what was going on, but he had every intention of finding out. He was slightly surprised that Regina hadn't called him herself, he would have liked to have known that he was the first person she came to when she needed help but for all he knew Tink could have been told to ring him by Regina.
His driver pulled up outside her building and Robin stepped out of the door before rushing to the main entrance, hurrying inside he smiled at Jeffery gesturing in the direction of Regina's office, the man nodded in motion with him to proceed. Robin walked across her floor heading towards where he thought she might be and pushing the door open. Straight away he spotted Tink sat on the sofa and then his eyes flickered down to his girlfriend who was asleep with Lenny curled into her. He let out a sigh of relief and stepped closer smiling at the blonde as she carefully stood up, "I'll leave her with you," she whispered squeezing his arm friendly as she left the room.
Robin sighed and stroked Lenny before he brushed his fingers through Regina's hair lowering his head to press a kiss against her temple, "what are we going to do with you hey?" He whispered watching her laboured breathing, it wasn't usually so heavy when she slept, that was the first sign that she was poorly, the second that she was a hell of a lot paler than she usually was, a sickly pale colour that made him shudder somewhat, he knew that he was going to have to get her straight to bed once they arrived at his apartment.
"Okay then your majesty, you gonna wake up for me?" He asked, just continuing to stroke her hair gently. He saw her eyelids flicker as she opened her eyes to meet his, "hey there princess."
"Am I dead?" She croaked, her voice hoarse as she reached for his hand and pulled it to her chest, playing with his fingers gently.
"No baby you're not dead," he chuckled, "you look it but you aren't."
"Hey," she groaned, struggling to keep her eyes open as she clung to him, "I feel like it."
"Come on, lets get you out of here and you can go crash on my couch or in my bed whichever is easiest."
"I can't move," she whispered.
"Well babe I would carry you but you have Lenny." He was right, she was going to have to stand up, slowly she moved her cat to the ground and pushed herself up off the couch holding onto him so that she didn't wobble and fall over, "where's all your stuff?" Robin asked, making sure he had hold of her as he looked around her office and spotted some bags by her desk, her purse, overnight bag and Lenny's carrier. He got them over to it and picked up the bags, watching her as her eyes drooped and her head fell to his shoulder, her body sagging by his side. "Is there anything else you need?"
"My phone, it's in the draw and that file."
"File? Honey I don't think you're in a fit state to do any work."
"Robin the file," she tried to sound authoritarian but she wasn't really pulling it off, her voice croaking over her words.
Not wanting to argue with her he placed it in her bag, not that he was going to let her do any work once she got to his place, she was going to rest. When he moved the file, he spotted a piece of paper with blood on and furrowed his eyebrows, he picked it up and ran his eyes over the words, "Poor kitty, his mommy didn't love him enough to protect him." Robin gasped and shook his head, someone had targeted Regina and Lenny, Tink hadn't told him that, he had just thought that Lenny had gone missing, now though he was worried, someone had been able to get that close to her that they had been able to take Lenny. With a sigh, he shoved the note in his pocket and popped Lenny in his carrier before holding Regina closer, "come on madam," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple and walking her out of the office.
Regina groaned, her body was aching like crazy, despite the soft mattress she was laid on, she curled further into the soft bedding which had a lingering pine scent, she breathed it in and rubbed her eyes, she felt so cold as though her skin had been dunked in a bucket of ice and she were freezing. She pulled the duvet right up holding it to her trying to feel warmer.
She screwed her face up and tried to stop herself from shaking, but it didn't really work, "Robin," she breathed, her mouth felt as dry as the desert and she needed a drink desperately, "Robin!" she cried a little louder this time. The door opened and he came in looking at her with wide eyes.
Robin was shocked, he thought that putting her to bed and letting her sleep for a while would have made her better, but apparently that wasn't the case because she was sweating like crazy, clearly burning up with a fever, "I'm here," he moved to sit beside her, placing his hand on her forehead and seeing how warm she was, "baby you're boiling."
"I feel so cold," she shivered grabbing Robin and pulling him closer to her.
"No, honey you aren't cold," he soothed playing with her hair which was slightly damp due to her temperature, he moved into bed, pushing the duvet off her only for her to reach for it, "Gina you're too warm." She was shivering in his arms and he picked up the phone from the bedside table and dialling a number, it rang three times before the person on the other end picked up.
"Caroline Locksley what can I do for…"
"Mum."
"Robin, so lovely to hear from you my darling, how are you?"
"I'm fine thanks, Regina on the other hand… how do you get a fever down?"
"She has a fever?"
"Yeah, I had to collect her from work because she's ill and I put her straight to bed, but I came to check on her and she's burning up, but she says she's cold."
"Okay sweetie, she probably has the chills, you need to cool her down, maybe see if you can get her into a lukewarm bath."
"Yeah, okay, right, thanks, I'll call you back in a bit."
"Good, if she gets worse take her to the ER."
Robin ended the call and hooked his arms around Regina, "come on baby, I need to get you into the bathroom."
She clung to him as much as she could but couldn't really grip anything, shaking his head he lifted her up bridal style and held her tight before heading out of the room and pushing the bathroom door, he sat her on the closed toilet allowing her to hold onto the sink as he ran the bath making sure that it was only lukewarm like his mother had told him. Once he was happy with the temperature he moved over to her and carefully took hold of her pyjama top going to take it off, "no!" she complained pushing his hands away.
"Babe, you have to take it off to get in the bath," he stated, stroking her cheek gently, "can I get you in the bath?"
"I don't want to," she whimpered, finding his hand and holding it, she was so warm though and he knew it was the best thing for her.
"Regina, you have to in order to get better, we need to make sure we ward off this fever before it gets more serious," she nodded reluctantly and he took her shirt off, before moving to her bottoms and taking them off too, then helping her over to the bath, he had a jacuzzi type bath which had jet streams, but they most certainly weren't being turned on today, what she needed was the water and nothing else. Carefully he lifted her over the edge, she was so weak that she couldn't get herself over the rim, slowly he lowered her into the water, but as soon as she was sat down she let out a little squeal.
"Robin! It's cold!" she cried curling her body towards him as she grabbed his arm. He had never seen her like this before, never seen her so vulnerable and it was scary because this wasn't who she was, this was because of the flu that had taken over her body.
"I know sweetheart, but it's good, it'll help you," he slowly began to pour the water over her, to him it wasn't too cold, but he knew that to Regina it probably was. He held her up in the bath before washing her body with the flannel, lathering up the vanilla shower gel that she kept at his place, "I've got you," he whispered washing her gently. This had to be the first time he had seen her naked where he hadn't been turned on, seeing her in such a state actually upset him more than anything, she had been her usual self when he had last seen her a couple of days ago and now she was a shaking mess.
"What's wrong with me?" she mumbled tucking her legs to her chest as she buried her head in her knees.
"You've got the flu," he informed her.
She turned her head to look at him a hand coming to wipe her eyes, "flu?"
"Yeah."
"You shouldn't be near me," she whispered, "I don't want you to catch it."
"Don't worry about me, I had all the shots, I'll be just fine, it's you we need to worry about," he kissed her temple and once she was fully washed along with her hair which he used her apple shampoo making sure that he removed all the suds before grabbing a clean fluffy towel and holding it up for her, she stood up wobbling a little and he wrapped it around her before lifting her out of the bath and drying her. "Do you feel any better?"
"Some," she trembled as he found a bobble in a little pot she had in his cupboard and carefully tied her hair up before leading her out of the room and finding her a fresh pair of nightclothes which actually proved to be quite the problem because most of the ones she kept at his place weren't exactly designed for comfort and more for being sexy as hell. Instead he found one of his short-sleeved t's and pulled it over her head before laying her on the couch as he changed his bed sheets, he wanted them to be all clean for her as she had been sweating quite a lot, not that she would ever confess to that, in fact he had recalled her saying to him one time that she didn't sweat instead it was a light sheen that washed over her skin, ever the Queen.
When he came back into the sitting room he saw her curled up asleep on his sofa with Lenny and a purple blanket covering her legs, he sighed and sat beside her placing her head on his lap and simply sitting there running his fingers through her hair until it was completely dried and her curls were formed around her face.
When Regina woke up her eyes flickered open wearily and she felt Robin's fingers playing with her hair, a weak smile came onto her face as she groaned and tilted her head to look at him, her stomach growling in realisation that she'd had nothing to eat since the previous night, skipping out on breakfast, "hello," she whispered her voice croaking.
"Baby, you're awake, how are you feeling?"
"Tired, aching, downright awful," she groaned snuggling closer to him, her tummy making noises again.
"Hungry?"
"That too, but I don't know if I can stomach anything right now," she found Robin's hand and brought it to land on her waist, their fingers threaded together.
"How about some soup and toast?"
"Soup and toast sounds perfect, thank you," she sighed.
He placed his other hand on her forehead, "you still feel very warm."
"Hmm," he picked her head up gently and slipped out before moving into the kitchen to make her something to eat. She watched the him move about the kitchen, she was having trouble keeping her eyes open, especially when Lenny was snuggling against her face, "hello bubba," she cooed stroking his little head a pained smile forming on her lips. "Are you helping Robin look after mommy?"
"Oh yes," Robin chuckled, "it seems that Lenny has been very worried about his mommy, just like his mommy was about him earlier this morning." He came over to Regina with a tray holding a bowl of chicken soup and some seeded toast that he had cut up into soldiers, "here we go baby, can you sit up."
She pushed herself up and rested against the back of the couch before spotting something in the corner of the room, a smile coming onto her face, "what's that?" she asked.
Robin followed her gaze as he placed the tray on her lap, "I thought since you had stayed here a few times Lenny might need a bed here, so I got him one."
"And a scratching poll?" she hummed picking up the spoon and stirring the soup bringing it to her lips before taking a small bit of it between her lips.
"Well I figured he might want to scratch something," Robin laughed.
"You love him," she smiled taking a small bite out of her toast.
"I love you."
"Thank you for looking after me Robin," she whispered.
He leaned in and kissed her lips lightly, "always."
