"You what?"
Standing completely still, her curls blowing in the cool breeze, Regina could only blink and watch the almost equally tall brunette walk over to her.
"Zelena Green? Bout this tall, red hair, green eyes." Dorothy listed. "...Unless you're a different Regina Mills with curly hair and lip scar?"
"You-! Yes! Where is she?!" Regina urged. "How do you know her?!"
"Zelena and her daughter have been with us for a little over a year now I think." Dorothy explained. "She has a photo of you all she keeps with her, you look younger in it...but definitely still you."
"The picture of us at the stables?" Regina gaped.
"Yeah that one!" Dorothy smiled.
"And-and Robyn? She's okay? She's alive?"
"Yeah. The fiercest little archer I ever saw." Dorothy chuckled.
The tall grey haired man, the skinny blonde, and the third chunky guy with an impressive beard and glasses walked up to stand behind Dorothy.
"That's Jackson." She pointed to the grey haired guy holding the axe. "That's Russell." Then the skinny blonde guy with pointy nose. "And this is Theodore." she pointed to the third man with the impressive head of hair and a beard.
Regina just nodded her head and politely smiled at all of them, before turning back to Dorothy.
"My sister and my niece. Can you take me to them?" Regina asked.
Dorothy looked back at the three men, Jackson and Russell both shook their heads while Theodore still looked apprehensively at them. Behind them a biter limped through the trees, Russell stepped over and easily took it down.
"We can do that." Dorothy nodded.
Regina smiled and looked over to Ruby.
"But only you." Dorothy said.
Regina turned her head and looked back at Dorothy confused. "Why only me?"
"We don't know you, or your group. We have a lot of kids in our group with us, we're not taking strangers with big guns around them." Theodore spoke up as he looked at the others climbing out of the trucks holding their rifles.
Regina looked back quickly and back at Kristoff. "Go tell them we're fine." she ordered and turned back to Dorothy.
"Listen we stay about an hour's drive away from here. We left our camp to come out this way and search for supplies."
"You won't find anything out this way. We've been over this whole area." Russell spoke up.
"How many are in your group?" Ruby asked looking at Dorothy.
"How many are in yours?" Dorothy questioned with her brow arched.
"113." Ruby arched her brow too.
Dorothy and the three men's eyebrows all shot up.
"You have 113 people?" Russell awed.
"Yup." Ruby nodded her head once.
"Where do you live? A community?" Dorothy asked.
"A prison." Ruby answered simply.
"A prison?!" Theodore spoke up again.
"Yes, a prison." Regina a answered. " I told you before, we are good people. I can vouch for all 106 other people at the prison and the seven of us here now. Since I lost my sister and my niece, I've met all kinds of different people looking for them. We found the prison, we cleared a few sections out to keep everyone safe and we've been there for the last 10 or 11 months."
"So you spent the winter there?" Jackson finally spoke up, his voice was deep and husky.
"Yes. After losing my sister and traveling around for about 9 months we found it. When we took the prison we only had less than 20 people, many of them were elderly."
Regina explained and the other four members walked over from the trucks, Mulan and Jefferson were still holding their rifles though. Regina looked back at Kristoff and he just shrugged, mumbling that he tried.
"So in 11 months you managed to keep 106 other people safe?" Dorothy asked.
"Yes." Regina simply answered. "And clothed and feed."
"How many are in your group?" Ruby repeated herself and Dorothy turned to her.
"With the four of us, all together...36 people plus a dog." Dorothy revealed.
"And where have you been staying?" Kristoff asked.
"We managed to get inside of a nice sized church to stay alive and warm during the winter." Jackson said. "Before that we were in a school but it got over run by the dead."
"Can we speak about this more on the way to the church then?" Regina urged. "I haven't seen my family in almost two years. I promise you my people are good, we will not harm anyone."
Dorothy looked back to Jackson and he looked over all seven of the new strangers, before he shook his head once. Regina smiled and the all walked back to the two trucks. Each truck could seat five plus the beds of the truck, but those had their rifles, hunting game, and a few supplies they'd found.
Regina got into the drivers seat of her truck, Dorothy sat in the passenger, while Jackson, Russell and Theodore got into the backseats. In Kristoff's truck, the blonde man drove with Mulan in the passenger and Ruby, Graham, Philip and Jefferson all squeezed into the backseats.
"Mulan I clearly called shot gun." Ruby sneered.
"Should have been quicker than that." Mulan chuckled and shrugged.
"Ok one of us needs to sit in the bed." Ruby groaned elbowing the men around her. "Jesus Graham you're so fat! What the hell?!"
"Hell. No. It's cold out there, you wanna get in the back. Be my guest." Jefferson grunted as she elbowed him. "Quite moving around so much, Ruby. Damn!"
"All of you shut up. I'm driving." Kristoff huffed.
"Too much for your tiny brain, pebble boy." Ruby fake pouted and mocked, leaning forward on her knees.
Kristoff rolled his eyes and slammed on the breaks sending her jolting forward and back quickly, hitting her head.
"ASSHOLE!"
Over in Regina's truck, Dorothy looked through the rearview mirror. Dorothy was leading them down the long road to the church but if you weren't paying attention you would miss the turn.
"Um are they alright back there?" she asked.
Regina looked through the mirror too, and could clearly see Ruby and Jefferson and Graham arguing with each other and Mulan laughing hysterically at them through the windows.
"We ride in separate trucks for a reason." Regina chuckled. "They act like children themselves sometimes, and not 28 to over 30 year old adults."
"So are you the leader of this group then?" Jackson asked from the back seat, holding the handle of his axe.
"People at the prison do typically come to me more about issues happening around the prison. But I never make a big decision without consulting the six of them first." Regina explained. "Like I said earlier there are a lot of older people in our group. People of all ages are with us, children too, the youngest is my kid he's only two."
"You have a kid?" Theodore asked
Regina blinked and gripped the wheel at her slip up, she called Henry her kid. She just smiled and shook her head yes, in a way...Henry was her kid.
"His name is Henry." she nodded.
"That's nice." Russell nodded.
"You said you had a lot of children in your group." Regina looked at Dorothy.
"26, if we're including your niece." Dorothy sighed and sat back in the seat. "The oldest seven are teenagers, about 16 years old, then six of them are 12 - 13 years old, and the remaining twelve of them are 9 year olds. Robyn is the youngest one there."
"She should be 6 now. " Regina bit the inside of her lip.
"Yup the fastest bow in the west." Russell chuckled.
"She started taking those lessons as soon as she could stand up straight on her feet." Regina smiled.
"She teaches some of the older ones how to do it properly." Dorothy laughed. "It's quite funny to watch."
"And you found all of them at the school you were staying in?" Regina asked.
"Yeah. It was just the 9 of us plus my dog before we found those 25 with your sister and niece." Dorothy nodded.
"Zelena was taking care of 26 kids by herself?" Regina looked over at her.
"For about three months before we found them, yeah she was." Dorothy confirmed.
"That marker right there. That's the turn." Jackson pointed out to her.
Regina turned on her left turn signal for Kristoff and honked the horn. Turning left down another dirt road, Regina could see a church hidden in the trees. She felt her heart rate speed up at the sight of it, and the closer they got the more nervous she got.
Pulling up in front of the church, Kristoff pulled up next to her and they parked. Immediately two women holding guns came out of the church aimed at the trucks. Regina let out a small "hmmph"
"That is not something you would see of the world wasn't turned to shit."
Dorothy hopped out of the truck followed by Jackson, while Russell pushed at Theodore to get out.
"Karen! Glinny! Hey put those down, it's alright." Dorothy reassured them.
"Who are they?" The blonde woman asked.
Regina hopped out if her truck and turned to watch, laughing at Ruby as she pushed Jefferson out of the backseat.
"RUBY!" Jefferson growled as he stumbled.
"Were they arguing the whole time?" Regina asked Mulan.
"It was very amusing." Mulan nodded and laughed as they started hitting each other.
"Children." Regina rolled her eyes and turned around.
As she did she saw the blonde woman walk away and go into the church.
"Regina, this is Karen Norton." Dorothy introduced the older looking woman.
Regina walked up to the bottom of the steps to the church and reached her hand out. "Regina Mills."
Karen put her hand gun away into the hostler on her hip and reached out eyeing Regina and the people lining up behind her.
"That other woman with the shot gun was Glinny she went-" Dorothy started to say before the door pulled back quickly and red hair and a tall body rushed out the door.
Zelena stopped in her tracks seeing Regina standing there at the bottom of the steps, a smile as wide as the sky spread across her lips and she moved quickly, going down the five steps and throwing her arms
Regina grunted and wrapping her arms around Zelena's torso, her hold tight, looking up at the cross at the front of the church with tears in her eyes. She lifted Zelena off of her feet, and had to remind herself to breathe as she took a big breath and slightly sobbed.
"Zelena." Regina gasped and squeezed her eyes shut, tightening her hold.
Zelena pulled back and touched the sides of her face repeatedly, smiling as she cried and laughed openly.
"Regina! You're here! You're actually here, you're alive!" Zelena cried.
Regina smiled back at her, laughing with watery eyes as she put her feet back on the ground. Bringing one hand up to wipe Zelena's tears away.
"Where have you been?...Come here." Regina wrapped her arms around Zelena neck pulling her in again.
"Where have I been? Where have you been?!" Zelena laughed and buried her face into her sister's shoulder.
Behind them Ruby wiped a tear and the rest were watching the sweet moment adoringly. Dorothy and the other two older women smiled, as an old woman walked out holding a little girls hand.
"I found you. I have been looking for you for so long! Z!"
Regina had her forehead pressed to Zelena's as they embraced and asked each other a million question. She pulled back to look Zelena over again and her gaze turned to the door of the church. Zelena looked back too and smiled through her tears as she saw Robyn.
"Auntie Gina?" Robyn walked out more holding the old woman's hand and let go of the hand, as she quickly recognized her Aunt. "Auntie!"
Regina laughed and couldn't help but cry more, stepping to Zelena's side as Robyn raced down the first two steps and jumped off into Regina's arms.
"Oh mi armor, come here!" Regina sniffed from her tears and kissed Robyn's forehead over and over, holding her tight.
Her hold still tight on Robyn, Regina wrapped her other arm around Zelena, kissing her forehead as she closed her eyes. Opening them again she looked up at the cross, silently thanking every God there was.
Inside the church, everyone had moved inside from the cold air. Regina asked the team first before offering three of the many squirrels and rabbits they'd caught earlier that day, so they were going to cook them over a fire. Graham skinned the rabbits outside and put them onto skewers, putting the hides in the bed of the truck. The kids all watched him through the window as he gutted the nice sized rabbits, Ew-ing and gagging when they saw him take out the intestines. Graham kept the heart, liver and kidney though, those were all edible.
It was getting dark outside, Regina was sitting next to Zelena with Robyn in her lap in one of the aisles. Regina and Zelena were sat close together, and she listened intently as Zelena told her everything that happened that day after they were separated.
"Where did you go?" Regina asked.
"After I got Robyn...I just kept running and I didn't stop. When I finally stopped we were outside of this little abandoned dinner. There were only two dead ones inside so I took them down easy enough. And we stayed there for a few days." Zelena looked down at their linked hands. "I waited to see if you had followed or...I wanted to go back but that herd was just too big."
"I went back to the city after making sure father was okay. I went back and I looked for your...your bodies. That's how I knew I had to keep looking for you." Regina squeezed her hand, "I guess I was just looking the wrong way."
"You went back into that herd?" Zelena questioned.
"Yes." Regina nodded, "I had to look for you. My mind wouldn't let me leave until I knew for sure."
"How did you get around them?"
"Not the most sanitary of ways." Regina scrunched her nose and snickered.
"What did you do?"
Regina looked down at Robyn and covered the little ones ears.
"I...I took a biter out and I...cut open the stomach and rubbed it's internal organs all over my clothes and my body to mask my scent."
"And that worked?" Zelena asked a horrified look on her face.
"It did." Regina nodded, "They couldn't tell the difference. I just walked straight through."
Regina and Zelena kept talking about everything that had been going on for almost two years before Kristoff called them over. Three rabbits was enough to feed 36 people plus a dog when cut up evenly. Out of the 36 people, there was Dorothy, Jackson, Russell, Theodore, Karen, Glinny, Dorothy's Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, this man named Ozzie and then Zelena. Robyn and the 25 other kids brought them to 36, plus ToTo, Dorothy's dog.
Regina introduced the group to everyone and everyone introduced themselves. After getting their pieces of rabbit everyone broke out into little groups. When Dorothy's Uncle Henry introduced himself, Regina smiled.
"That's my father's name." She told him.
"Yes Zelena has told me a lot about him." Uncle Henry smiled.
"Don't forget about Little Henry." Ruby spoke from behind Regina chewing on rabbit liver, Graham sitting next to her. Everyone else was spread out around the church.
Zelena looked at Regina with wide eyes, Regina quickly clarified.
"My girlfriend's son is named Henry." Regina explained. She hadn't gotten to that part yet before they were interrupted.
"Basically her son." Ruby shrugged.
"Ruby." Regina warned.
"Oh you know it's true Gina." Graham rolled his eyes. "You love that little grimlin and he loves you just as much."
"Don't call him a grimlin." Regina squinted her eyes.
"You didn't mention a girlfriend. Well what's her name?" Zelena asked.
"I hadn't gotten to it yet." Regina laughed. "Her name is Emma."
Ruby and Graham both made kissy faces when she said Emma's name, and Robyn looked at them over the back of the bench and giggled. Regina narrowed her eyes at them.
"Go on tell me about her!" Zelena urged.
"Oh Yes, Captain! Please. Regale us of your enchanting love story with the fair Princess." Graham leaned forward and batted his eyes.
Ruby leaned in and did the same, cupped her fingers behind her ear. Robyn giggled more at them and Regina put her hand out and pointed towards the others.
"Get." Regina huffed. "Go on now."
Graham and Ruby snickered, chuckling as they got up and did as she said.
"How long have you two been together?" Zelena asked.
"About 2 or 3 months now but she and her brother August and her son, have been with us at the prison for about 5 months."
"You have a girlfriend Auntie Gina?" Robyn asked from her seat between them.
"Yes, I do." Regina nodded and smiled.
Regina went on to telling Zelena all about Emma and whats she had done since coming to the prison.
"Mal hasn't been causing trouble for you has she?" Zelena asked.
"No not anymore." Regina confirmed. Mal was not the happiest walking around the prison when word got out about Regina's relationship.
Kristoff walked over to her and smiled at Zelena and Robyn.
"Captain um it's getting dark out and we need to get this meat back to the prison before it goes bad." Kristoff rubbed his hands together.
Regina looked out through the window and saw the sun was definitely gone, time had gone by quickly. Regina bit her lip and thought it all over, after speaking with all the adults it was clear they should go to the prison. And Regina welcomed them to but they weren't ready to leave tonight, the prison was over an hour away they had to find some way to get everyone there.
There was an old bus in the courtyard that they found parked in this big shed of the prison. Gus the mechanic was super close to getting it up and running again but had to break because of the harsh weather and then they needed enough gas.
Regina didn't want to leave Zelena even if the were coming back.
"Take my truck and go back to the prison, I will stay here." Regina handed Kristoff her keys.
Kristoff took the keys slowly, he was fine with leaving Regina here but others would not be.
"Speak to Gus about getting the bus prepped and then come back once he has it up and running." Regina ordered.
"...What about Emma? And your father?" Kristoff asked carefully.
Regina bit her lip and sighed, "Tell her and my father what happened and they will understand, Emma might be a bit bothered by it, maybe even a little pissed but just reassure her that I am ok."
Because she was, she was on top of the world right now. She finally found her family! Emma would definitely be pissed because they were supposed to be back 4 hours ago.
Walking the team out to the trucks, Regina grabbed her rifle and little pack with some snacks in it. Dorothy came out and pinpointed on the map just where they were and they saw how far the prison was, over 50 whole miles away. Regina hugged everyone and they all got into the truck, Ruby was the last to hug her and she pulled back and looked Regina in the eyes.
"I'm really happy you found them Regina." Ruby grinned. "Now if your girlfriend comes at my neck for leaving you here, I expect some form of reimbursement for whatever wrath is to be unleashed upon me." she joked.
Regina snorted and kissed the top of her head, their breaths floating around them in the cool nights air, she pushed her into the drivers seat. They waved to her as they pulled back and drove down the road, the red lights on the trucks shining behind them.
She watched them go until they turned right and headed back the way they'd came. It's not like she didn't want to go back home to Emma and Henry, she wanted that to happen she just couldn't go back without Zelena and Robyn.
Zelena walked up next to her and Regina looked over at her, wrapping her arm around her shoulder.
"Come on, come tell me more about this big new prison family."