Hi all, here is the final chapter of 2020 and i hope you all enjoy it. I wish you all a very happy 2021 and a better year than the last.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
Please Read and Review.
Old Scars, Future Hearts.
Chapter 11-There's A Fine, Fine Line.
Regina wakes up in Storybrooke with no memory of what has happened in the last year. Henry is also back in town with no memory. People are disappearing and Regina meets a man that claims to have lost his son as she attempts to deal with her emotions (slight deviance from previous chapter).
Regina woke up in Storybrooke.
She did not open her eyes at once. Sleep for her was a hard thing to come by and she wanted to savour the moment. She wanted to savour the chance to sleep on soft sheets underneath a thick coverlet and she wanted to enjoy whatever moment she had before she was forced to wake and realise that all she had in front of her was a life without Henry. It was a dazed kind of sleep she thought as she turned from her side to her back and she felt the silk of her pillowcase hit her. It did not immediately force her awake (she was a Queen after all, silk pillowcases were not exactly a luxury) but finally the sound of the damned clock awoke her and she turned to stare at her ceiling wondering if she could hit the damn thing with a firebolt from her room when it hit her.
For a second she stared at her ceiling, at the cracks on the wall and the dust that was dangling from her light. She stared for a second and breathed in stale air and she swallowed. She forced herself to her feet and felt from the lack of weight that her hair was short again. She was dressed in her silk pyjama's and she had slept well it seemed. Certainly she had the vertigo of someone who had been forced to wake before their body was ready—or the vertigo of someone who was slightly hungover and though she could not remember what had happened she was sure she had not drank enough to gain this feeling.
And then it hit her again.
She had been at the town line, what she could remember of it anyway. She had been at the town line seeing her son off into the care of another woman with the knowledge that the chances of seeing him again were not going to happen. She had resigned herself to that—and to the pain that she knew would follow and then—
And then another thing hit her.
Roland.
She lurched out of bed and down the hallway to the bed she had put him in when they had disembarked from Neverland. She forced open the door to see a mass of brown hair peeking out from under the bedclothes. She bent over him as careful as she would be with her own boy and peered. He was sleeping on his stomach his arm under his head and she gently extracted it before he got a dead arm. He was breathing in and out softly and he seemed unharmed and for several moments Regina sat on the bed her legs resting on the edge breathing in and out into the knees of her silk pyjama's and forcing herself to calm down and control her emotions that were so wild she could barely breathe.
There was a movement under the covers and she managed a smile on her face as Roland came up out of the bed with a dark mass of curls. He clearly did not remember that they were supposed to be somewhere else and Regina distracted him by promising chocolate chip pancakes. He had no idea what pancakes was but he understood what chocolate was and he was thrilled that he got to have it for breakfast. Regina followed going through the motions but she thought that she could hardly taste what she was eating.
She didn't even want to look at her phone. The Charming's she knew would be in full town-rousing mode and she was not in the mood for a meeting where she would be viewed with suspicion at best and hostility at worse.
However time did not stop because you wanted it too and as she sent Roland upstairs to get changed and to re-brush his teeth she heard a knock on the door. It was a harsh and heavy pounding and she winced. Reaching for the bottle of vodka she kept under the sink and pouring herself a generous measure she waved her hand to open the door. There was no need to fear a mob on her doorstep. She knew exactly who was banging on her door and she also knew she was not in the mood to deal with them.
She was right in the sense that David came through the door his hair slightly askew and patterns on his face that told her that he had woken up in much the same state that she had. Regina was about to ask him to keep his voice down (or ask him if he wanted a drink—if she was being honest with herself she wasn't sure yet) when Snow walked—or perhaps the better term would be to waddle in.
She was pregnant.
Actually she was beyond pregnant Regina thought staring at her with the glass of vodka half to her mouth in shock. She was nearing the end. It must have been…well at least eight months must have past depending…oh she was getting a headache.
"What happened?" David asked and Regina shrugged feeling the burn of the liquid hit her throat. For once she had no idea what had happened but she knew that it was nothing to laugh about. Whomever it was had interrupted her curse, or perhaps they had just broken it, and had restored the town of Storybrooke and taken all their memories in one fell swoop. Regina loathed to give anyone other than herself credit but she had to give whomever this was credit. Indeed had she not known it was impossible she would have said the one person she would have thought had the skill and the power to do this was…Rumple…
"I have no idea" she said finally. "But I think we might be in trouble."
It was a nightmare of a day that followed but Regina had not known why until the day after.
Roland had been staying with her. Regina had not forgotten her promise that she would reunite him with his father and she would ensure that happened but she also knew that with each curse came new people with new agendas and she was not going to have Roland caught in the middle of that.
She had explained to him as best as she could have done what had happened. She had explained that there had been a hiccup in what they had planned to do and that they were stuck in the town for the time being, she had promised to find his father and she had told him that for the moment it was best for them to stay indoors until it was safe.
Roland had nodded and gone back to his colouring book (it seemed somethings were the same regardless of what realm you were in) and Regina had gone to her couch and had sat there the whole day wondering what it was to have a nice, quiet, peaceful, normal life as opposed to what she was having to deal with.
The second day she had gone to the diner and that was when it had happened.
She'd turned trey in hand to see Emma Swan looking at her with wide eyes. For a second she had stared into the eyes of the other mother to her son and then she had turned a little to the left to see him sitting there without a care in the world.
Henry.
Regina dropped her tray.
Actually considering what she was feeling inside that was a rather tempered emotion all things considered. At least she didn't set the building on fire.
But that was not the most chilling thing.
The most chilling thing was the way her son looked right through her.
And just when Regina had thought she didn't have anything left in her to break.
Finally, after what had felt like an age Regina had gone back to the privacy of her own house. She had slept little this time but she had slept and Roland had been safe and sound tucked up in the room next door. She had placed charms on her door and had she was not ashamed to admit cried herself to sleep a little. She had ignored her phone, tossed somewhere under her bed and had been curled up in bed with a strong glass of gin and several headache tablets (between the booze, the lack of sleep and the crying she was going to have one hell of a headache in the morning) and she felt like she was finally on the cusp of something that could possibly be described as sleep when the banging on her door started again.
She swore contemplating what she was going to do. If she had been herself (or if she'd bene Rumple) a healthy dose of fire would have seen the intruders away from her door but she had a feeling that, that was not going to happen this time. If it was the Charming's and it was not a matter of life and death then she was going to be annoyed beyond all measure.
If was Emma then she supposed if she had news that would help Regina be reunited with her son that would be better. But if it wasn't…
Checking that Roland was still asleep (she was beginning to think an army of the dead wouldn't disturb that child) she opened her door.
For a second she stared at the man in front of her and a part of her (the part of her that she had learned with a hard hand and a hard word to keep away from Cora) wondered if this was finally the universe gifting her for all the suffering.
He was a man and though he was dressed in the traditional grab of this world he was staring at her doorbell with enough suspicion to tell her that he had originated from either her world or a world close too it. He was tall with a body that you knew if you leaned on would just prop you up and as she opened her door his face was thrown into sharp contest.
He had a sharp pointed chin and dark hair that had a habit of falling down his face a little. His eyes were bright blue and had that effect of stopping you in your tracks. Regina looked at him and knew that had she still been the Queen of a kingdom she would have found a way to take him to bed and use him for an enjoyable while.
But all joking aside there was something about him that made her pause.
There was something about him that she thought she could recognise.
It took her a moment before she could put her finger on it.
There was an edge of desperation to him that reminded her only too well of her own feelings towards the son that was here in her town but didn't remember her, that saw her as a stranger. That was effectively gone from her forever.
"Can I help you?" she asked her tone as cold as the air. She was a Queen, this was her home and it was gone midnight and she was really not in the mood to entertain no matter how handsome the man on her doorstep was.
He stared at her for several seconds and then he seemed to realise that Regina drumming her nails on the wood of her door frame was a warning that she was so very, very, close to slamming the door in his face.
"You're the Evil Queen?"
He sounded surprised. Regina rolled her eyes heavenwards. The corsets and the hats and the long hair and the incredibly high boots might have caused her utter pain and misery but there was something to be said for creating an image. Her in her silk pyjama's with no make up and her hair a short mess did not help she knew to convey that she could destroy with one flick of a finger.
"Yes. What you were expecting horns?"
He looked as if he was going to say something but the look on Regina's face was perhaps too frightening to say anything else. She had moment of complete and utter pride and amusement but she quickly refocused on the task.
"My name is Robin of Locksley M'Lady. I was told that…well I was told you had a small boy by name of Roland residing with you?"
Regina raised an eyebrow though she had a sinking feeling that she knew what this would mean.
"And if I do have a small boy of the name of Roland with me? I can assure you if your hear for any nefarious means I shoot with a fireball to kill"
There was a moment where his face registered shock for a second before it was replaced with a flicker of what she thought was true amusement. Regina ignored it, and she also ignored the fluttering in her stomach because…well…that was probably due to the gin she had downed with and without tonic.
"He's my son"
Regina raised another eyebrow and ignored her feelings on this matter. She was not going to show the fact that her heart was breaking for the…well…who knew how many times in how many days. Instead she was going to conduct this matter like Cora's daughter, like Rumple's apprentice. Like a Queen.
"Yes" she said once she had time to control her emotions. "He lives with me. Do come in"
She opened the door and let him in. "If you will give me a moment I will get him" she said effectively cutting off whatever it was that he was going to say. Regina turned on her heel and was up the stairs before she realised that a known thief (if Roland was to be believed) had been alone in her hall.
Perfect.
She shook Roland awake gently. She told him only what he needed to know, that there was a person here to see him and that he was to tell her if it was someone that she did not know. Roland a little sleepy, a little bemused and dressed in the pants and old t-shirt of Henry's that she had magically shrunk had followed her down the stairs.
He had rubbed his eyes once and then…
"Papa!"
He had launched himself into his father's arms who had let out a noise that was more a sob than anything and had collapsed clutching his son on her carpet. Regina watched them and felt the urge to cry herself though for what reasons she was not sure.
She watched the reunion for a second and then she pulled herself together.
"You can spend the night" she said smacking the door shut. "I'll be in my room. I serve breakfast at nine."
And with then she turned and walked up the stairs back to her room and was proud of the fact that she managed to shut not only her own door but her en-suite bathroom before she broke down into her silk pyjama's and for the second time since she had woken up in Storybrooke—had broken down into floods tears.
And there you go, please let me know what you think and i will do my best to bring you the next chapter sooner rather than later.
Next Chapter-Regina and Robin have another meeting at a Farm House. Regina learns her mentor is alive. The town suffers a loss and a tattoo is revealed.