Hi so here is another chapter, I hope you enjoy this small filler chapter and for those of you wondering where Robin is he will be appearing very shortly.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.
This is not cannon correct to the episode but then very little is, the same with the dialogue.
And please read and review and let me know what you think.
Old Scars, Future Hearts.
Chapter 6-In The Altogether
Everyone returns to Storybrooke. Roland adjusts to the modern day world. Regina adjusts to another child in her house. Short chapter set the night before the new curse.
They landed in the sea surrounding Storybrooke with a bump that set them all skidding backwards and (though she did not want to admit it) had it not been for Gold (always unflappable—the bastard) they would have lost the shadow to the blue skies. It was daunting actually, seeing blue sky and white clouds after so many days where there was nothing but darkness, stars, moon and dark green trees and the humanity—that had really fucked up her hair beyond belief—but Regina was good adapter and after sending Hook a glare for the bumpy landing she straightened up pulled her coat around her and looked for her boys.
She had another jolting moment when she realised where her thoughts had gone again. Roland was not her son, he was another man's son, another woman's son even if his mother was dead. There was a pause as she stood there considering what her slip up meant and then she shook her head. Her son was alive, Pan was captured, she was home. She was in need of a long bath with a strongly scented bath bomb, a decent meal and a strong glass of white wine not necessarily in that order. Of course that wouldn't happen right away she thought sardonically as she descended Roland in front of her, Henry off with Emma with a round of hugs from the townspeople. She tucked Roland in by her side and watched her step daughter and her son and his mother and felt amused rather than irritated at the sight of them which she supposed was progress.
Regina thought about her bed almost longingly in that moment but time had taught her both in this realm and the previous one that the chances of a quiet night was not going to happen. She would be expected to play her part, she would have to smile and drink and talk about what they had gone through, more than often she would have to take the snide comment that came with her name. And then to cap off a long night she would have to see her son walk away with Emma to a mattress on the floor of her step daughters apartment as she looked at her husband with love in the eyes that Regina still felt an urge (though she admittedly controlled it better) to scratch out.
Part of it was her position within the town, within the realms that the residents of Storybrooke seemed to always have one foot in and one foot out of. Another part of it was her pride which was something Regina drew back on whenever she was wounded. A part of her knew it was to keep her head held high and to stop the whispers that came when she left a room about what the Evil Queen had done and weather or not she had sold them out to help Pan as all evil beings were known to do and perhaps even more worrying—who was that boy with her?—so far she had kept curiosity away from Roland but she would be damned if she had the Charming's knocking on her door because some townsperson had suggested that perhaps tonight it wasn't safe for a child to be in her care.
So it was calculation that took her to Granny's but also her training (so to speak) as well. She had been raised the daughter of well respected (if not physically able or intimidating) prince. She had been the daughter of one of the worst women the magical community had ever produced and she had been a Queen in a court where the attention had been on another younger girl and an old man who had wanted something to control, to pet and to humiliate with the memory of his former wife. Regina had learnt to live with that within a court that was highly competitive, with a man who had no interest in her other than physical (and wasn't that a story never worth speaking about) and she had held her head high and plotted her revenge trying to pretend her body, her heart and her very soul weren't aching for something more.
She sat at Granny's folding her legs underneath her and tucked Roland into her side. She waved a hand and a bottle of white wine appeared. Granny too busy fawning over Henry didn't notice but she caught her old mentor's eye and felt his smirk without seeing it. She had to smother one of her own in response. Sometimes it was just too easy.
Roland gave a little smile at the sight of magic and she paused. It had been too long since she had been in the Enchanted Forest, she had never set foot in this Sherwood place that Roland seemed to have come from (nor had she heard of it but she would tackle that problem for another day) and even when she had been in the Enchanted Forest she had always ate like either a Princess or a Queen. Eating like a peasant was something that she had never done before.
Roland was looking at the menu. Clearly the boy could read but he was biting his lip and looking confused and Regina recognised the signs of a child who had no idea what was going on and was very soon going to get cranky.
"Would you like me to order for you?" she asked gently and Roland nodded. Regina gave the menu a quick scan and tried to remember what was good and what wasn't and perhaps most importantly of all, what Roland would recognise.
"Would you like some eggs?" she said and was rewarded with a grin. She decided on the getting him the basics because while it wasn't the healthiest of meals she was putting together she also knew he would at least recognise eggs, bacon and sausage and after a quick conversation with Ruby which involved a lot of eye rolling and two threatening gestures she got what she wanted. She wouldn't eat of course. Regina had felt the after effects of Granny's cooking too many times. She would make herself some soup when she got home.
Roland ate with gusto, he drank the milk that she got quickly and then another glass and Regina watching thought that perhaps he did deserved a treat and conjured some chocolate ice cream. While Roland didn't know what ice cream was he did know (naturally) what chocolate was and he ate with gusto smearing it all across his face (forcing her wipe it in a way that reminded her intimately of Henry) and then when he was full he leaned back against the padding of the bench and closed his eyes and Regina just knew that if she didn't get him into a bed soon then he would fall asleep there and then in the middle of the dinner. Gently she helped him up.
"Come on Roland" she said gently. "I have a bed waiting for you at my house if you'd like."
It was either a mark of how much he trusted her or how tired he was that Roland simply nodded and went along with this plan and Regina hoisted him so that his weight (which was not insignificant) was on her hip wincing as she got used to it.
It seemed she thought wryly looking her son over, that it had been a long time since she had once held a baby on her hip.
She was about to kiss Henry goodnight used to by now the sadness that came when she knew he was going to spend another night at Emma Swan's but before she could do so Henry was piping up that he wanted to spend the night with her. Something he had not done since before the First Curse had broken and it was enough for something within Regina to break as well just at the thought of it.
It was odd, perhaps if she had been thinking like an Evil Queen in that moment rather than a mother she would have realised how odd it was. But she didn't, after all why would she? She had her son, another little boy who looked at her without fear in her care, a house full tonight when it was usually empty. She had triumphed it seemed over her enemy and her friend the great Emma Swan who looked as if she had been slapped by Henry's acknowledgement that he had another woman and she was for once in the ascending.
It was a heady feeling and perhaps that had been the problem. Perhaps that was why she couldn't see what was in front of her. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking on her part. Who knew? For certain when she did know it was too late to do anything about it. It had cost her dear. Dearer than she could have ever imagined.
But that night Regina did not know it.
That night she did not know anything.
That night was the last night before her world blew up again.
But that is a story for another time.
Roland barely remembered his head hitting a pillow before he was asleep. It was a new thing he was sure, a pillow, a bed, the last time he had been that high above the ground had been in the Dark One's castle but Papa had been on the other side of him in the same bed and Roland had always had the comfort of finding his Papa if he was plagued by a nightmare. His Papa had always seemed to know when that happened and had been there with a comforting smile and a hand on his head lulling him back to sleep with tales about how he had taken on the vile and irritating Sherriff of Nottingham and had made him pay for his cruel taxation of the poorer people who couldn't afford it.
Those stories had always been the ones that had lulled Roland to sleep and he had gone to bed in a silent strop wondering how on earth he was going to go to sleep again. But sleep he did and he woke up to see sunlight streaming through the curtains. He dozed on and off intermittently and at one point he thought that he sensed someone stroking his hair. The gesture was one so like his Papa that Roland ignored what his mind was telling him and decided to focus on the touch alone and he fell back into sleep.
He woke sleepily his eyelids forcing themselves open and he rolled over stretching feeling all the little bones in his body ache and pull and pop at the sensation and he staggered upright still clad in his dirty nightshirt, and padded down the stairs padded with the wonderful springy fabric under his toes to the room covered in white marble where Regina was fiddling with something that smelt like bacon.
There was no sign of Henry. He had gone to spend time with his other mother apparently and Roland didn't care. He liked it if truth be told if Regina was focused on him. He wouldn't admit it but there was something about Henry that made his stomach twist a little and he couldn't understand why.
He sat down and listened as he ate the sandwich with bacon and a side of eggs. She explained gently about 'cookers' 'carpet' and the town of Storybrooke where the things that Roland had thought were strange carriages with no horses were in fact something called a 'car'. He ate as she explained and tried to understand but he could not help but long for the simple things that came with the world he remembered.
Nonetheless he would ask Papa if they could get some of that chocolate ice cream in Sherwood. And the chocolate milk. And the hot chocolate. That was the kind of thing that Roland liked to hear about. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and you could have as much as you wanted.
And then Regina with a look that said she knew that he was going to be difficult.
"Bath"
And then—even worse—
"Lice check"
Roland shuddered. He had his head checked for lice when Papa said twice a year but it still sent a shudder down his spine. Lice combing meant sitting still while his head was pulled this way and that. Any child in Sherwood grew up hating the blasted thing.
The bath was a huge white tub quite unlike the tin one that Roland was used to. It was shiny and new and Regina with a grin brought out several strange looking sphere shaped objects and told him to pick one. Roland picked a blue one and Regina placed it in the bath where it fizzed, crackled and popped turning the water a dark blue shade and Roland couldn't help but giggle at the sight swirling his hands in the water.
Regina was a hard taskmaster when it came to the bath. She let Roland wallow in the water for a time and then scrubbed him raw, even right behind his ears! She ran something through his hair that made white suds appear and then rinsed him until his hair was the matted black wet mess it usually was and then put something else in that made his hair soft and smelt faintly of banana. She then wrapped him in a towel and sat him down where she ran a comb through his hair briskly checking for lice and other nits. Once that was done with his hair smelling faintly of nutmeg she passed him a cream that smelt of lavender and told him to rub it into his skin which he did. Then she rubbed something over his face winked at him and had him go back to his room where there were several new and strange clothes waiting for him. The shirt and the jacket were easy as well as the hat and the underwear but the jeans as Regina called them were new as was something called a 'zipper'. Once he knew how to do it he told Regina that he was ok and she smiled at him that special smile that was reserved only for him or so he liked to think.
There was something about Regina, something about her that made him want to trust her regardless of everything, indeed in spite of everything. He wanted to believe that soon he would be back with his Papa though he had to admit (and he didn't think Papa would mind) that it would be ok if he spent another night in that wonderfully warm and soft bed before he did. He was five after all. He liked being nearly a foot off the ground.
"Now Roland" Regina said once he was sat at the table. "I'm going to do my best to get you back to your Papa. But until I do, do you mind staying here with me?"
Roland shook his head. He thought that perhaps he could be her very own Merry Man—after all Papa always said that he was going to be a good one.
"Thank you" he said softly and Regina smile seemed to get a little softer as if she understood just what he was thinking off.
Whatever it was she was going to do next however was interrupted as there was a banging on the door. Regina waved a hand and it opened and the one handed pirate came through his hair windswept and his eyes wide as if he couldn't quite believe the news that he was here to deliver. Roland felt himself stiffen with the habitual feeling of fear. Whatever this was it was not good.
"Your Majesty we have a problem" he said by way of a greeting. Regina stood up and Roland watched tucking himself behind her and peering at the pirate. Regina waited her eyebrow raised but something in the way she was standing told Roland that maybe she knew what was coming.
Hook didn't waste any time elaborating, he just said the words that he knew would get Regina's attention every time.
"It's Pan and it's Henry. Emma sent me to get you. I think we have a really big problem"
And there it is, I hope you enjoyed this and I will do my best to give you the next chapter sooner rather than later.
Next Chapter-Regina attempts to foil another curse and in doing so loses the one thing she loves above all else. Meanwhile a man is trapped in another realm living day by day as he tries to find a way back to his son when he hears news that some people have arrived...as if by magic.