For OQPrompt Party using prompts: 138. Reunion 147. Robin and Henry bonding 218. First time Robin says "I love you" to Henry 252. Deathbed confession 294. One of them almost dies before they get together. 293. Angst with a happy ending
"Robin, Robin, wake up. Robin, come on…" a frantic male voice calls, and all Robin can do is groan.
His head is fucking killing him, and he wants to keep sleeping, can't bear the thought of opening his eyes. The light he can barely see above his eyelids is torture as is, he can't imagine the pain of full light.
What the hell happened to him?
"Robin, Robin, what happened?" That's Henry's voice, Henry is shaking him. Henry is awake.
It all comes back.
He sits up with a groan, opening his eyes hurting even more than he expected it to. When he is finally able to focus, Henry is right there, somehow looking both anxious and relieved.
Robin scans the room for Regina, but she's nowhere to be seen.
"Where is she?" he croaks, and Henry sighs.
"I was hoping you'd have the answer to that. What happened here?"
"Facilier, he. Oh god, Rumple. Fuck, if he has the dagger this is bad." He tries to stand up but his head spins and bile rises.
Henry stands, offering him a hand, and helping him to his feet. "Where is Rumple?"
"Back room," he stutters, thankful to find the key is still in his pocket.
Henry helps him stagger back there, one arm looped around him just in case. "When we get this sorted I'm going to need to hear how you came back." Henry goes more serious, "I am really happy you're back. It is you, right? Not the Queen's Robin."
While he is also a Queen's Robin, he knows what Henry means. "It's me, and it's quite the story, one I'm looking forward to telling our whole family."
Henry stops for a second, "I really missed you, Robin."
He's touched, has to take a moment to find a clear voice before he can return the sentiment.
Henry tries to open the door but it's still locked, and Robin passes over the key because he's still off-balance and dizzy.
Rumple is inside, sitting on the bed, seemingly unharmed.
"The dagger?" Robin asks frantically, and Rumple frowns.
"Safe. That's all I'm telling you. Can't take any chances."
"Facilier didn't come back here?"
Rumple's eyes narrow. "He was here?"
Robin nods, "He knocked me out, and now Regina's gone. We thought he was here for you."
"Either she's led him astray or I was never the target of this."
"What do you mean by that?" Henry demands.
Rumple sighs, "Regina made a deal with him, and she broke it. If he gets his hands on that magic the results would be catastrophic. She would have gone to great lengths to hide it from him."
"How do we find her?" Robin asks.
"I can't help you with that. If she's taken him somewhere she'll find some way to let you know. But if he has her, well I'm sure he'll also let you know. For now, all we can do is wait."
"I'm not doing that," Robin says firmly. "You can stay here sitting on the sidelines, but I'm going to look for her."
"Robin," Henry pleads, "You're injured. Stay here, I'll go find Mom."
His head is starting to settle, it's not the worst injury he's ever had, he's survived worse, and he will not be sitting on the sidelines now.
"When we find Regina she can heal me if need be. Besides, I'm the only one of us who has broken into Facilier's before."
They don't end up needing to break in after all. They can hear noises in the apartment as they approach, so Henry knocks to see what will happen.
Robin hides off to the side, out of view. They don't want to take any chances with Facilier.
"Can I help you?" Robin hears Regina ask, and he longs to show her he's okay, but doesn't want to blow whatever cover she has going on.
Henry must have the same thought because he doesn't acknowledge her as his mother, instead asks, "Are you okay?"
"If you are looking for Samedi, he's out."
Is that a clue they can drop the act? But no, if Facilier isn't there then there is no reason for her to be acting like this.
He needs some answers, so comes out of his hiding place and asks, "Regina, what is going on?"
She frowns. "Who are you talking to?"
She doesn't look angry, but there's no recognition in her eyes, nothing to tell him what is happening right now.
She doesn't seem angry at him for blowing her cover so he pushes on. "Regina, love, what happened with Facilier?"
She steps back and starts to close the door. "I don't know who you two are, but you've got the wrong apartment."
"Wait, Mom? Come on." Henry warbles.
"I'm not your mom, kid," she says, about to close the door in their faces until she eyes curiously and asks tentatively, "Archer?"
Oh no.
"Roni?" he asks, and tries to channel his cursed persona. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question. Are you in business with my boyfriend?"
Given the chance, he will kill Facilier. The man knows what Regina's been through and yet he still cursed her to be his significant other against her will. If the man so much as laid a hand on her, he is dead.
Robin shakes his head and tries not to show how angry and concerned he is. "No, you were right, we have the wrong place. Sorry to bother you, Roni. Goodbye."
He starts to walk away then, half hoping she will chase after him, that Roni feels the pull to him that his cursed persona had to her, but instead he hears the door shut.
"What the hell was that?" Henry hisses as they walk away, and Robin waits until they are outside and he's surveyed the area to speak.
"Facilier must have taken the magic. He's cursed her again. We need to get back to the bar, if Facilier realizes Rumple is there, we will be his only protection."
"Okay, let's go, but first we need to stop at my apartment."
"Henry, we don't have time."
"We need to make time, trust me."
Robin is antsy the entire car ride to Henry's but when Henry pulls a bow and arrow set out of his messy storage locker, Robin could just about cry.
It's been so long since he's handled a bow, but it still fits in his hand easily, feels like it belongs there. They may not have magic here, but he is a damn good shot, and Facilier is not immortal. With this, they might actually have a chance.
"Okay, Henry, if we find Facilier I'm going to take the shot. I'll provide the distraction, you go for the necklace. Without it, he's powerless, and while he's stronger hand to hand there's two of us, one of him."
Henry sighs, "What's the point? He probably already has the dagger. With it he's unstoppable."
He puts his hand on Henry's arm. "For this to work, Henry, you have to believe. Do not underestimate how powerful your belief is. You have the heart of the truest believer. You are the only person who has broken all of the curses. If you don't believe in us then we have no shot."
Henry swallows, and his face goes set, defiant and determined. "You're right. We can do this. Good always wins. We will win again."
That's the spirit, god, Robin hopes they can pull this off. They have to.
When they get back to the bar, Facilier is waiting for them.
"Did you enjoy your visit with Roni?" he asks from behind the bar, a spot he should not be. The amulet is hanging around his neck, and Robin feels a surge of anger. He spares a quick glance at Henry then holsters his arrow and takes the shot. He aims at the necklace, and it almost hits but Facilier sends it boomeranging back toward Robin with a pulse of magic.
Robin tries to dodge it, jumps out of its path onto the floor, but it's been enchanted and strikes him right through the back into his heart.
He doesn't feel it yet, must be in shock like the last time he died. The pain will come, but until it does, he has to tell Henry something.
He props himself up on his hands and knees, and it's hard to speak, hard to breathe and there is so much blood. He knows he is dying.
"Henry... " he stammers out, and there's the pain, sharp and lancing through him, but he doesn't let it stop him. "I love you. I'm sorry we didn't have more time together. Please, tell your mother it was all worth it."
Henry bends down beside him, his tears falling onto Robin's back and head. "No, Robin. You have to hang on. Good has to win. It's like you said if we just believe." Henry's face lights up as Robin feels his eyes droop shut. "I believe, and I love you too."
Something warm connects with the back of his head, and he feels the magic flow through him as the curse breaks.
Henry kissed him. True love's kiss. He hears Regina's It's always been parent-child, and he warms at the realization Henry must see himself as Robin's son, just as Robin does.
Henry did it. They did it. His son saved them all. His death will not be in vain.
With that thought he lets himself be pulled under.
Waking up for the second time during the curse is slightly less disorienting for Regina, but only slightly.
She's in Facilier's apartment, that bastard had taken down Robin, preying on her pain and panic at the sight of him on the floor, unmoving again, to steal the necklace.
At one moment she was holding Robin, trying to find a pulse, praying Zeus, the god she now knows exists, to let him be alive. It was her worst fear realized, and again she froze before jumping to action, and it was the wrong action.
She should have protected the necklace, protected Anastasia's magic, but she let him take it in her despair over Robin and ended up cursed again as Roni, but this time Roni who was sleeping with Facilier.
Thankfully, his scheming hadn't left him time to act on that part, but the fake cursed memories he'd given Roni still make her skin crawl.
She needs to get back to Henry and Robin. She has her magic now, she can transport to them, but where are they?
They'd be at the bar she realizes as she's scanning for them. They'd have gone back to protect Rumple at all costs.
Sure enough, when she transports herself to the bar there they are. But the sight is grim and not one she ever wants to see.
Henry is covered in blood, holding Robin who is face down on the floor, an arrow sticking out of his back.
She has to fix this. This cannot be unfixable. Robin's life cannot end like this. He will not die on her again. She refuses.
She retches the arrow from him, tossing it aside as she reconstructs all of his tattered blood vessels. There are so many holes, that arrow had punctured so much, and she is fighting a losing battle against the blood loss, but she refuses to quit.
She pumps more blood into him as she works, and she doesn't breathe until she finishes. She's exhausted from that, but there's another battle to be fought. Facilier hasn't even bothered to do anything, and why should he, he's got his own magic, and Anastasia's power, too. Only Rumple could overpower him like this, and Rumple is incapacitated at the moment.
Robin is breathing slowly, steadily, but is not waking up. She needs him to wake up, he has to wake up. She cannot lose him again. Not like this.
"You," she growls, turning to Facilier. "You did this!"
She sends a fireball at him which he dodges, and another and another and another, but he turns them to dust and hell no.
She knows she cannot win this fight but she has to try. Maybe she can damage him, inflict an iota of the pain he has caused her.
He cannot get away with this.
She sends blast after blast at him, and he returns them with equal force. This is a game to him, he could hurt her right now if he wanted to but he is holding back and maybe, just maybe that arrogance will cost him.
Henry pops up out of nowhere and grabs for the necklace, is thrown back against the wall and her rage swells, as she finally lands a hit on Facilier.
No one hurts her family.
Facilier looks impressed with her, and she volleys an equally powerful attack, but this time he's ready and turns it into a flock of birds.
She aims another strike at him, and he bounces it back at her seconds before an arrow hits dead centre of the necklace, shattering it, destroying Anastasia's magic, and his advantage.
He looks down in horror and gets a full burst of her magic. He throws up a shield, and she hits him again and again, his shielding weakening under her attack. When he aims a strike at her, a second arrow flies into his chest, and he falls to the ground.
She knocks him out with a sucker punch, payback for what he did to Robin earlier, and watches as his head smacks against the floor and he bleeds out.
She should feel bad, should feel anything but the relief she does as she watches the life fade from him.
"Did he hurt you?" Robin growls, his bow still strung, an arrow aimed at Facilier's head.
She knows immediately what he means and she assures, "He didn't, he didn't have time to act on his curse."
She wraps herself around him, inhaling his forest smell—it's tinged with the scent of her magic and she tries not to picture him back on the floor dying. The tears fall of their own volition and he clings to her just as tightly, his hands striking through her hair, and down her back, as he soothes, "Shh, love, it's okay, we're safe. It's over now. I'm okay, we're all okay."
"Mom," Henry calls, and she pulls out of Robin's arms so she can embrace her son again.
"Henry," she manages to get out between tears of relief. "I love you so much. Are you okay?"
He nods, "I'm fine, Mom. You did it, you saved us."
She clings to him for a few minutes, not wanting to let him, before pulling away only slightly to ask, "How did you manage to break the curse?"
It's Robin who answers that as his hand lands on her lower back. "Henry gave me True Love's Kiss."
She looks from Henry to him, at her boys who love each other even more than she'd realized.
"I'd always considered him my dad," Henry breathes, and that's all it takes for the dam to break again.
She grabs Robin awkwardly with one hand, pulling him into her back so she can be surrounded by them both.
She never thought she'd have this, and she is never letting go of either of them now that she has her family back.
She doesn't know how long they hold each other for, but long enough for Robyn and Alice to enter, Jacinda and Lucy not far behind them.
She watches as Robin embraces his daughter as her father for the first time since she was a baby, while Henry and Jacinda share a soft kiss, and she basks in all the happiness until she looks at Alice.
Alice, who doesn't know she can be with her father again.
Though they don't know each other well, she greets Alice like a daughter, and tells her excitedly that they've cured them, that she can see her father.
Alice is surprisingly strong, grabs her in a fierce hug and spins her around as she thanks Regina unnecessarily for it.
"It was Rumple," she tells Alice once she's been put down. "He took your curse. Thank him."
Alice smiles, "I will, but first… I'm going to hug my papa."
Hook is hovering in the doorway, and Alice bounds at him, scooping him up in the same way she had Regina, father and daughter lost in their own little world.
Robin comes back to her side, and they look at their family, all happy and embracing.
They are just missing one member, one important member, and she's about to interrupt Henry and Jacinda to ask if they have cursed Roland's number when he walks into the bar.
Unlike everyone else, he enters hesitantly, but once he sees his father his whole demeanour changes.
She cries as Robin and Roland embrace, everything finally how it should be.
Then after ten minutes with his father, Roland approaches her, and her stomach leaps into her throat. She abandoned him, and she will never forgive herself for that.
"Regina," he breathes, "I've missed you."
She lets out a sob and lets him hug her, as she marvels over the kindness. She doesn't deserve this affection, but she's going to earn it back. Life has given her a second chance with her family, and she's not going to waste a moment of it.
