Cracking the door open to August's office, Regina thanks whoever is up there that he is alone and she won't have to face the embarrassment of more than one person hearing this. He raises a hand and beckons her forward with a smile, motions to his phone and gestures that she take a seat. Nervously, she tries to press out the wrinkles in her skirt and tugs a small fraying thread from the hem of her blazer as she waits.
"Regina! It's good to see you, how's everything going?" August slides down into his chair, and gives her a far too cheery grin. His kindness is so obstinately painted on his sleeve. She swallows heavily before doing her level best to match him with an equally warm smile lest he know her anxiety is about to bubble and pop over. "Alright, thank you. It's been a busy week."
He cocks a brow, "Getting on alright with Royce and Sidney?"
She nods, though everything inside her wants to recoil, "It's been fine."
"Only fine? Is everything okay?"
There is no chance in hell she is going to admit that the pair of them make her skin crawl and that she has a hunch something big is being hidden between them. She thinks back to watching Royce shrug off David's plea of innocence, his own lawyer not believing in his alibi. It all seems off to Regina, but what point is there in telling August when she can't be certain? If word got out, well surely she would be hauled out on her ass by Gold in a second.
So she lies, smiles and tries to let the tension slip away in her shoulders. "Everything is fine so far. They are quite the team and I am just trying to keep up I suppose." August's eyes frown a touch as he watches the way Regina fiddles with her sleeve once more, and she knows he doesn't believe her, not really anyway. "You're a smart woman, Regina, I have no doubt you'll catch up quickly."
She swallows against the lump in her throat, debates if asking is really necessary, if August will look at her like an incompetent idiot for not having a penny to her name. It would expose everything about her and perhaps it's not worth it. She's already committed acts in her past she isn't proud of for money, it wouldn't be the first time with Jefferson anyway.
The memory of the other night fills her, sharp, putrid whiskey and heavy, suffocating hands on her skin. She has dealt with it before, but what had probably been the most embarrassing of the entire situation was the fact that Robin saw the bruises. She saw the look in his eyes, the pity that was there, the questions on the tip of his tongue she knew he wanted to ask but didn't, it all made her feel small and weak under his distressed gaze.
Robin thinks she is someone brave, which she isn't. Robin assumes she has her life together, a blatant lie on her part not correcting him. Robin believes Regina is someone greater than who she really is. And Regina wants to keep it that way in all honesty. The less he truly knows about her, the better he is for it.
So this, asking August for this favor, it will keep the lie she presents to everyone going.
"I was actually hoping to ask you for an advance on my paycheck?" She chews her lip and prays that he doesn't ask why, not that she would tell him the truth anyway. It's Friday, which means her stay at the motel is technically due and there is no chance Regina is letting Jefferson come anywhere near her again if she can't help it.
In two months, that's her internal deadline to get out of that place. In two months she'll have enough money saved to hopefully move into a different motel, one that is safe, or at least in a better area of town without a manager groping her at every chance. Two months. She can survive for that long. But if she doesn't get this advance… well, Jefferson made it quite clear what he expects from her in order to stay.
August tips his head, scanning her curiously before he frowns, "Jas is our bookkeeper and she left about an hour ago unfortunately."
Shit. She is fucked. Her stomach rolls uneasy and she tries to will the desperate tears away as she nods and goes to make a quick exit. But August reaches across his desk and grabs her hand gently, "Are you sure you are alright, Regina?"
She won't tell him the truth, she can't. He would fire her in a second if he knew. Instead she musters up the last of her courage and smiles, tells him she is fine, it's no big deal. But his eyes soften and she knows he doesn't believe her. "I'll tell you what–" He slips open his wallet, "Take this, and I'll deduct it from your pay next week." He hands her three hundred dollars and squeezes her hand. For a moment Regina is stunned, frozen to the spot as she stares down at the money in her hands. Three hundred dollars. That is more money than she has had in years.
She shakes her head, tells him it's not necessary, but August's eyes are far too perceptive. His fingers close over the money in her fist, squeezing gently as he smiles and tells her that he insists, he won't be taking it back, technically she has earned it anyway. And that has heat building in her eyes. She has earned it, has been seen by another person for her value, a sentiment that has long been forgotten to Regina. It's probably bad form to cry in front of her boss in the first two weeks, but the tears begin to slip anyway before Regina can catch herself.
Three hundred dollars. She is holding three hundred dollars in her hands right now. That's enough to pay for 10 days at the motel and still have nearly fifty dollars left over for food. August probably isn't even aware how much food fifty dollars can buy a person. How simple life is when money isn't a worry.
"Are you certain everything is okay?" August asks once more, and Regina wipes away a quick fallen tear. "You can tell me if there is something going on, Regina. I want to make sure everyone who works here is happy, and that includes you."
She sniffs, tells him he doesn't have to worry, she is just very grateful. He nods, and lets her hand go, "Have a good weekend then, yeah? Any big plans?"
It's a simple question, one that should come with an easy answer, but the thing is, Regina hasn't had a "plan" for years. There hasn't been dinner dates, or friendly company afternoons since Henry got sick. Her plan is to take all the files in her office home and drown herself in figuring out David Shepherd's case. Not exactly a whirlwind of excitement. She slips the money into her pocket, breathes out a sigh of sheer relief at the weight of it, and smiles, "No real plans, just work I think."
August chuckles as he slings his bag over a shoulder, "Don't work too hard now, enjoy life, we only have so much of it." Regina's eyes follow him heavily as he walks out the office door, leaving her there to be consumed by his truth of his words.
*3.5 Years Ago*
This place smells like death. Even through the bright colours and happy stickers adorning the walls, death is everywhere, a looming, creeping shadow that steals into space without regard. It makes her nauseous, this sterile bleaching of the air, it clogs her airways day by day. She hates this place, hates what it means, what is happening behind the painted sunflowers and joyful dinosaurs. They mock her with every step. Every minute that ticks by, she swears their colours begin to darken and she refuses to acknowledge why. Even if she knows what they mean.
Henry is dying. At just six years old he is being stolen from her, this disease is unbeatable no matter how valiant and brave he has tried to fight it off. She can see it now–in the sickly grey colour of his skin where pink life used to flush through, the sunken hollowness that grows in his once sparkling hazel eyes, and now it's in the shaky crackled breath he takes. Twice before she thought she was going to lose him and he came back to her. He has always come back. But not this time, and she won't say it outloud, but she can see death wrapping his arms around her son, and no matter how hard Regina tries to pry it's fingers away, the grip is too tight.
Faith is all she has, dwindling, barely there faith. It's the only thing she clings to as she creeps slowly into Henry's room. It's nearly ten, and he should hopefully be sleeping soundly, but the plethora of medications are wearing on his little body, and sleep does not come so peacefully as it once did, when things were so much easier, less complicated. When Daniel was here, before the doctors found Henry's cancer, when Regina still felt like life was something spectacular.
It's not. Not really to her anymore. All life has given her is torment and pain, one after the other, constant, relentless and torturous. No. Life is not some wonderful fairytale for her and she knows this part of the story is quickly coming to a shattering end. But she won't say it outloud, not to Henry, not to anyone.
Quietly, she settles into the chair beside his bed, one that has become her home for the past few months, and with a heavy, measured breath she draws her eyes up his small dwindling frame. It makes her stomach clench, he's so frail, she can see the sharp protuberances of his bones, the way his skin looks as though it will soon flake away. Gently, she draws his hand into her own, presses a soft kiss to his tiny palm and begins her nightly routine of watching her baby's breath draw in and out. Always in and out. It can't stop, she won't let it. Trembling and cracking, but it's breath, it's Henry's breath.
He has too many tubes connected, too many IV's coming in and out of his body now, a little oxygen mask settled over his mouth and nose, and the forever beeping of his vitals beside him. That sound is her lifeline, the repetitive, incessant beeping is the only thing proving that they are both still alive.
Her fingers draw up along his arm, smoothing up and down, hoping to provide him some sort of reprieve, some sort of comfort, though whether it's for Henry or herself, she still isn't certain. Minutes go as they always do, passing in silence as her hands move across his fragile chest, up and over to the weak beating of his heart and around, from one side to the other, back and forth, up and down, around and around. He isn't quite as warm as he used to be, a thought that Regina quickly shoves deep down and refocuses on his breath, in and out, flimsy and unsteady.
A sharp cough has her eyes popping open (she hadn't realized they'd closed in the first place), and she is quick to help Henry lift off his oxygen mask as his lungs rattle and shake. It's this green milky, murky substance that ends up in the tissue bin as she rubs his back and hushes into his air to Get it all out, sweetheart, but Regina knows better, Henry's doctor had told her a week ago that his cancer had metastasized into his stomach, and at this point, there wasn't much more they could do for him but make him as comfortable as possible until it was time.
That's all she has. Dwindling time. Not enough time.
They didn't tell Henry, Regina didn't want to scare him, and maybe the doctors were wrong anyway so why trouble his little soul? But she knows that he has only a few more sunrises to see, and only a few more nights to watch the Avengers on repeat.
Reaching for the plastic cup of water, she smooths his soft hair back, tries to not think how sweat ridden a small coughing fit makes him, the sheer exhaustion in his dull hazel eyes that blink blearily up at her. He sips slowly, even this is draining for him. "Okay, sweetheart?" She strokes through his hair, down to drift the backs of her fingers ever so softly against his cheek as he nods wearily. "Can I lay down with you for a bit? Help you go back to sleep with a story?"
Again her brave boy nods, and Regina carefully slides in beside him, minding all the cords and tubes that slither over his body. She smiles so he can't see her heart bleeding, dots a few kisses across his face until she feels a light tremble of laughter shaking him. With one last eskimo kiss to his nose, she draws up the blue soft blanket around his shoulders, shifts so he can nuzzle into her chest, and she is thankful he can't see the way hot tears begin to line her eyes with the way one of his hands comes up to weakly clutch a lock of her hair.
She won't cry. That will not be how she spends these last days with her son. She refuses to do so. He has been brave and so can she. It hasn't escaped her these past few months just how light and small he is now, probably the same weight at six as he was at four. He should be growing, not shrinking away. But that is neither here nor there, she promised him a bedtime story.
"Once upon a time, there was–"
"Mama?" Henry's feeble voice slices through her, "Can I ask you something?"
Swallowing the rock in her throat, she tips her chin down, pretends that she can't smell the sterile shampoo of his hair but rather the sunny orange scented one he used to use. "Of course, baby." Her fingers gently trace up and down his back, "What's going on in that brilliant brain of yours?"
It takes him a second, and then all the air is sucked out of the room as she hears him ask her in a small, scared whisper, "Does dying hurt?"
Everything inside her screams, and she has to beg the tears that build rapidly to disappear as Henry waits patiently for her answer. It takes everything and more to keep her voice from shaking as she does her best, "No, honey. It doesn't."
She can feel the questions broiling inside her son, a thousand of them she honestly doesn't know she can answer without breaking down. "It's just like falling asleep." She kisses the crown of his head, wants to hug him but is too afraid of injuring his already brittle bones.
"Just like falling asleep?" Henry breathes against her chest, "But I don't wake up, so where do I go? Is it a good place or a bad one?"
Here comes death, creeping closer and closer, sitting on the edge of the hospital bed and Regina hunkers down into her baby and takes a slow, measured inhale, "You get to go see Daddy, which has to mean it's the best place." Her smile is weak and wet against his forehead as the picture of her husband holding her son once more floods in. They had the exact same eyes, the same slender nose; she could see Daniel in every look Henry had, the scrunch of his brow deep in thought, that cheeky mischievousness in their smiles – It's all burned into her memory.
She hears Henry sniff, feels him shake his head against her collar bone, his little fingers pressing faintly against her skin. "What's it like where Daddy is?"
Heaven wasn't really something in Regina's early life; she'd given much thought to after Daniel died, however, there was no other option for her. He had to be somewhere, was without a doubt still around in some paradise, waiting for her, watching over her and Henry. He had to be, he wouldn't abandon them completely, she just knew it.
Combing through Henry's hair, Regina sinks down against the pillow, slipping down the bed until she is nose to nose with her son who is waiting curiously through tired eyes. Her finger bops the end of his nose as she smiles, "It's like when we used to go to the Mariners games with Daddy, and it's sunny and warm. You can eat all the hotdogs and cotton candy you want." Softly, she cups Henry's hands into her own, smoothes her thumbs over his little knuckles, and with a grin, she gently swings their arms out, "And Zunino hits a homerun every single time."
"Every time?" Henry giggles lightly, "Even against the Dodgers?"
"Especially against those dirty Dodgers."
Henry giggles again, and Regina wants to crumble into a pile of dust. There are only so many more times she is going to hear that perfect beautiful sound before it too is nothing but a memory. It sears and burns her even as she tries to smile at this little bit of happiness Henry is having. A flicker of joy that ends as quickly as it started when Henry sighs and leans heavily into Regina once more.
"Can I bring my dinosaur too?" he asks her hopefully, reaching out for the little red T-Rex on the side table, one that Regina is quick to grab and tuck into Henry with a nod that of course he can bring the stuffed animal, because why not?
"Can you be there too, Mommy?"
Her smile falters, heart dropping into her stomach as Henry peers up at her. Gently she strokes through his hair, over the curve of his cheek and swallows heavily, "There is nothing in the world I want more than to be with you and Daddy again."
The thought has crossed her mind more often than not these days. What is tying her to this place once Henry goes? Is there even a point of waking up when her family is completely gone? Honestly she isn't sure there is, and it could be ever so easy to follow Henry when his time is up.
"I'd miss you if you weren't there." Henry nuzzles into her chest, and Regina breaks just that much more. "I'd miss you too, baby, but you don't have to think about any of that right now, sweetheart." She kisses his forehead, hugs him a little tighter, and slowly rocks her baby back and forth, hoping he can't hear her start to cry, "You just keep staying strong, okay?"
He nods, but she can feel the exhaustion in his soul, she can feel him slipping away with every moment. "Okay, Mommy, I'll try."
And for two long days, Henry tried, but death was inevitable and not even Regina could stop it.
It's warm on her back as she makes the walk through a nearby park towards the train station, a sandwich in her hand that makes her mouth water, but her brain already knows that she can only have ½ tonight for dinner, the other to be saved for breakfast tomorrow. Three hundred dollars is a lot of money and though the idea of splurging on two meals taunts her dangerously, it can't happen. She owes Jefferson for the motel, and Regina will be damned if she lets her hunger get in the way of that.
After leaving the office, she had made a stop at the DMV, spending what felt like hours there explaining why she had no legal documents to help ascertain a new license. She doesn't have an old drivers card, or a birth certificate anymore, and she needs a new license to open a bank account, to have a place for her money, one that is more secure than the motel icebox currently being used.
Thankfully, Daniel used to grind on Regina about memorizing what she thought was unnecessary information like her social insurance and drivers number. She can remember hearing his voice out of the blue ask what their credit card numbers were, what the account numbers and passwords to their insurance were and a hundred other things, just to see if she could recite it back, just in case something ever happened.
It saved her. Being able to rattle off all these numbers that are imprinted in her mind, that had the manager letting go a relieved sigh when she began to pop up in their system from years ago.
It had taken two assistants and a manager, what felt like a thousand questions and far too many cocked eyebrows her direction but finally Regina was able to fill out the necessary paperwork and have her photo taken. They gave her a slip and a time of five business days to wait for the license to arrive at her law firm. Five days and she would have proof that she is a real person again.
The train ride is short, and she spends the majority of it fiddling with the dollar bills in her bag, the ones that are going to save her security for nearly another two weeks. She can't help but smile at that. A smile that only solidifies when she spies Jefferson in his office, his drunken, smug face falling into irritation when she hands him two hundred and fifty dollars, enough to cover ten days at the motel.
Courage builds inside her as he grumbles and stuffs the money into an envelope and reaches for the bottle of whiskey on the desk. He can't touch her, can't bribe her and they both know it. It feels like the very step towards something better, towards a real life where she is in control, towards freedom from her old life. She leaves him to sour his mood with the last of his whiskey, a triumphant bubble bursting in her chest as she passes the vending machine and doesn't even think about needing to swallow down stale cheeto's once more thanks to the sandwich in her hands.
Even as she clicks the motel door open to the dingy room, it seems a bit brighter almost, as though a flicker of life runs through it now. Tucking the extra forty dollars into the ice cube box, Regina settles down on the bed, toes off her shoes and takes a deep breath before the tears begin to slide down her cheeks.
She has food for the next two meals.
She was able to pay for ten days of safety.
She still has nearly sixty dollars in the ice cube box.
Today is a damn good day.
That thought lingers as she slips into bed, the smile not quite leaving her lips as she drifts off and dreams of the day she will walk out of this motel forever.
Exhaustion streams through her bones on Thursday. The entire weekend she had spent pouring over every note in David's case and it sits heavy in her gut that something is still off. He didn't murder Archibald, she knows that in her heart. But the issue is saying it aloud to Royce and Sidney, who have apparently made it their prime goal to drop even more work on her desk without a second glance. Most of it isn't even applicable to the case, and she doesn't understand why they are pushing her in a different direction. She assumes it's because they don't think she is competent enough and they are trying to show that to August. So her job is on the line, and if she has to go through a thousand files to keep it then so be it.
For four days she has read the most unnecessary things, where David went to camp in his junior year, what position in baseball he played, all the background of each teammate, his first job at fourteen working on a ranch. It's not important details, but she reads them anyway.
Reads into the night and falls asleep most times at an awkward angle in her office chair. She'd had the good sense to bring an extra shirt just in case, something to change into lest the rest of the office notice she's been wearing the same clothes for four days now.
Last night, when the pounding in her head had begun to make her eyes water and the ache in her back made it near impossible to sit comfortably, she noticed it.
It had been a small notation on a bank draft from nearly twenty five years ago. A hefty cheque with a signature she's come to recognize. It stunned her and for a good few minutes Regina was pretty certain she was hallucinating it.
And yet here it was, the further she began to dig into old files and preliminary draw ups of Midas' business plans, options for stakeholders, investors, the more she uncovered.
Royce was a primary investor in Midas Corp. In fact he was one of the largest initial stockholders in the company, owning nearly ⅓ of it, under Raymond Gold, instead of Royce but it is there clear as day. For over thirty years, Royce was a part of the empire in secret. Or what seems to be secretive to Regina, he hasn't once mentioned that he was directly involved with the Midas Company and it's owner personally. Nor has he ever spilled the notion that a good portion of his own wealth would come directly from Archibald's company.
It's all very strange and completely off to Regina. She can't do anything about it yet though.
Maybe everyone does know except her. Maybe Royce is clean as a whistle. Maybe he doesn't believe David's innocence for the simple fact that he was too close to Archibald and is seeking revenge on his murder. There are so many what if's. Too many alternative explanations and Regina will be damned if she jumps too quickly and ends up losing everything because she is certain that if Royce knew she was looking into him there wouldn't be a job left in this office for her.
It eats at her though.
Knowing something is going on beneath the surface and she can't figure it out yet. For now, she tries to smile at her partners when they unload another three boxes of meaningless files this morning on her desk, demanding she go through them all by Friday unless she wants to be let go from the case.
And so she does. Working for extended hours, making duplicate sets of notes, ones that hide what she has found out about Royce, another with what appear to be simple citations that relate to the murder. Truthfully, she doesn't know what she will do, it's like a ticking bomb in her hands.
One that could blow up in her face if she isn't careful.
Her stomach grumbles at half past two, her back aching from sitting for so long, and the sunshine outside begs her to bask in it for a few minutes. Setting aside the latest file, Regina stretches, massages out a kink in her neck for a moment and decides if it's worth spending the six dollars for a salad nearby or if she should just grab an apple from the office kitchen. Seems a shame to spend money when there is a free meal right down the hallway.
It's with a begrudging ache in her stomach she opts for the fruit, only to be met by Belle in the kitchen with a stack of mail in her hands. She likes Belle. The girl is kind and sweet to Regina, doesn't ask a lot of questions but is all too willing to uphold the conversation about her own life instead. And Regina is ready to listen once again about the girl's ambition of working at a library instead of a law firm when an envelope is slid into her hands and her heart beats frantically when she feels the corners of a card inside.
She does her best to listen to Belle for a good twenty minutes, tries desperately not to rip open the letter and see for the very first time a brand new license that shows the world she is an actual person. It seems silly, but it is everything right now, and Regina silently sends a thank you up when Belle's phone rings and she bids Regina a quick goodbye before running from the table.
Gingerly, Regina grasps the envelope, lets out a shaky breath and decides that perhaps she will take that walk right now lest someone see her about to cry over a drivers license.
The park is buzzing as she sits down on the bench with the letter in tow. It feels rather surreal even just feeling the outline of the plastic card within. For a second Regina wonders if the picture looks half decent, no stray hairs or smudged make up, something presentable hopefully.
With a deep breath her fingernail slowly tears open the paper.
"Is this seat taken?"
She jumps at the voice behind her, a hand flying to her chest as a pair of pretty blue eyes and deep set dimples grins down. "Jesus, Robin, you scared me." She laughs a touch breathless, her heart still racing as he apologizes bashfully and he takes up residence beside her.
He looks good today. Though Regina muses at the fact he always does. She can remember sitting in the train station seeing him walk down the steps in tailored suits and clean shoes. Her favorites however had become Fridays, where clearly a more casual attire was allowed and he'd come jogging down the concrete stairs in dark denim, a fitted sweatshirt and a pair of blundstones. Honestly, it suited him more, she had always thought.
But today, a tinge of heat trickles along her skin at the sight of him in steel blue dress pants, dark brown dress shoes and a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looks good, damn good today, as he reaches for her hand and drops a quick kiss to her knuckles. It's a sweet affection that makes her blush and she knows Robin can see it when his smile grows just a smidge more.
For a few minutes they talk about easy topics like the weather and Roland and his upcoming birthday party which Robin is still so far behind on planning it makes Regina chuckle. It's hard being a single parent, she knows that too well. He asks about her job, and for a second Regina isn't certain she wants to go down that path, being unsure over Royce's involvement yet and half of her also just wonders if she is reaching for something that isn't actually there. It would be rather embarrassing to dive into it with Robin and it turns out that she was completely wrong the entire time.
So she tells him half truths, that everything is going fine, the case is building up for the first deposition and she is working ridiculously long hours to make sure she hasn't missed anything.
"Do you think David is guilty?" Robin questions with a sip of his coffee and cocks a curious brow her way, one that makes Regina sigh as she runs a hand through her hair. "Honestly, I don't know."
"Well walk me through what you do know." Robin shrugs and turns towards her, and it doesn't miss Regina that his fingers brush along the ends of her hair thanks to his new position. He seems so comfortable with her and it still perplexes her as to why he would even want to sit here and ask about her life when he is so clearly above her league in every aspect.
There is a lot she doesn't understand right now, but Robin's eyes are soft and inquisitive, and maybe it will help to talk out what she is thinking with someone other than Gold and Sidney. She makes Robin promise to not talk about it with anyone else however, she'd lose her job more than likely and he rather adorable holds his hand up and crosses his heart in a vow of silence for her. It's cute, and Regina laughs lightly at how ridiculously charming he can be.
She starts at the beginning, the visit to the prison with David, Robin knows most of it already so she prattles quickly through until it comes to the fact that Royce is a primary investor in Midas Corp, a note that has Robin's brows lifting high and regina sighs with a shake of her head. "I know, it's crazy but I think Royce is hiding something and that's why he is so adamant that David killed Archibald."
Robin chews his lip, scratches through his scruff and finally drops a hand on her thigh instead of his own leg and Regina tries to not notice the fact she doesn't shy away from the contact. "It's definitely odd but I don't know what Royce would gain by sending David to jail if he is innocent."
"I know. It doesn't make much sense." Regina groans, "I am probably just grasping at straws."
"Well, I don't know about that. You're a very smart woman Regina, and if your gut is telling you something is off with the case, then I'd suggest you follow that instinct and do a bit more digging."
He says it so easy, like it wouldn't completely upend her entire world and god forbid Royce find out. There is so much at stake and it's not like she has a laptop or anything to do this extra searching on. It would all have to be at the office and that is like walking through a minefield given the fact that Sidney is always hovering around her.
Robin seems to understand her hesitation around that as he blows out a breath with a nod. They fall into a quiet silence, his hand still on her leg, absently rubbing his thumb in small circles against the outside of her thigh. It's nice. A little too nice, Regina thinks but again questions herself as to why she doesn't just move her leg away from his reach, or when it appears her own fingers had found their way onto his forearm, and why he hasn't shifted back from that contact.
If she lets herself linger on the thought, it nearly feels like Robin has leaned closer into her instead. Close enough she can smell the soft cologne he wears, close enough that she could easily drop her head onto his shoulder and close her eyes for a few much needed moments of rest. It might be nice. To have Robin's arm wrap around her shoulders and curl into him. It's been years since she has even thought about cuddling into another man's side, or anyone's for that matter and yet she really, really wants to right now.
"DMV letter? Didn't get a ticket did you?" Robin chuckles and Regina frowns a touch perplexed at his question until he nods down at the envelope beside her. She had completely forgotten why she was at the park with him being so distracting and all. It's his damn pretty eyes. Reaching for the letter, she thumbs it over twice, nerves budding in her stomach before she passes it over to Robin who cocks a curious brow.
"It's my new driver's license." She shrugs and tucks a fallen lock of hair back anxiously, "I am finally a real citizen once again." The smile doesn't quite reach her eyes, and Robin sets the letter down and reaches for her hand instead, "Why do you look terrified of it then?"
Blowing out a breath, Regina cards her free hand through her hair, "I suppose it's just odd to think that I am an actual person again. It's been three years of me being a nobody on the street." She swallows against the thickness in her throat, "I guess it just makes it all a little bit more real that I am leaving a past behind where I was basically nothing." Her fingers quickly wipe away a stray tear as she musters up a wet chuckle but doesn't quite find the courage to look Robin in the eyes. At least not until she feels his fingertips on her cheek, drawing her towards him and there are those pretty blue eyes once more looking at her with such soft reverence, "You, Regina Mills have never been nothing."
It's so easy for him to say, and impossible for her to believe given what she lived through. But the sentiment is sweet and Regina can't help but lean into his palm a little more, "You are far too kind to me Robin."
He shakes his head with a small grin, "Nonsense. I am just getting started in fact." His dimples deepen and it has Regina biting back a smile over the fact he really is adorable and she doesn't deserve it in the slightest but is willing to take whatever she can. It's nice to be seen. He goes to hand the envelope back but Regina just smiles and shakes her head, "Open it for me? You know in case the photo is horrendous."
Robin smirks, "Impossible, but as you wish M'lady" and drops an arm around her shoulders. Warmth spreads through her belly at the feeling, a smile tugging on her lips when he hides her license for a moment from her eyes, pretends to thoroughly inspect the photo with all the sternness he can and it all just makes Regina feel a little oddly giddy. Flirting with Robin comes a bit too easy and the fact that he flirts back is just as bewildering as it is amazing.
"Oh!." He scowls at the card, "Well this is very interesting."
Regina reaches for the license, "What? What's interesting?", but Robin is quicker, tugging it out of her reach a second before her fingers close on it. "Robin! Let me see it." She huffs, "Did something get spelled wrong?"
He just shakes his head dismally, or rather theatrically as he throws his hands up, with a dramatic sigh and hands the card over. Regina's eyes quickly scan over the information, and it all seems to be fine. She had used her old address, her father's current one and for a second she thinks maybe she got the zip code wrong, but she isn't sure. "I don't get it, what's wrong with it?" She blinks up at Robin who looks far too amused with himself and it has Regina's brow drawing together in suspicion.
He leans in with a knowing look, drops his gaze down from hers to the license and back up again. "I now know that your birthday is in exactly eighteen days." She stares at him perplexed, but Robin only smiles with a shrug, "Well it is only fair that I get to take you on a birthday date."
A date. He wants to take her on a date. He wants to celebrate her birthday. A day she hasn't even thought about in years.
"You don't have to look so stunned." He laughs with a squeeze of his hand on her arm, "It's your birthday, we should celebrate, unless you'd rather not?
"No, it's not that." Regina stares at him, "I just, you want to take me out on a date?"
For a second Robin doesn't say anything, simply toys with the ends of her hair and gets a little pink in the cheek. "I want to take you out on a thousand dates in all honesty, but I would be thrilled to even just have one."
She is stumped. Baffled, bewildered, and completely stunned. Robin wants to date her, actually date her. The CEO wants to take the previously homeless woman on a date. A guy who has everything together is asking her who is the complete opposite out on a date. Her heart thumps hard against her rib cage as she tries to figure out when this is all just some silly joke he is playing on her.
But he just sits there looking a little shy, and far too hopeful.
"You do? Seriously?"
He bites his lip and Regina blushes furiously when his fingers lace through her own. "I know there is a lot going on for you at work and such, so I understand if you would rather not, but yes, I would very much like to take you out on a date Regina, seriously."
For a minute she just looks at their hands folded together and tries to calm her heart that is thundering. This is not at all what she thought was going to happen today.
"Okay." She smiles bashfully, and it all seems so ridiculous and improbable but there can't be any harm in saying yes to a slice of birthday cake. The heat in her belly builds when Robin beams back at her, drops a kiss to her knuckles and lets out what seems like a sigh of relief as he leans back against the bench with a dopey smile on his lips, "Can I take you out this weekend?"
She laughs, and drops her gaze down to the license in her hands. It's a bit overwhelming but it really does begin to settle in her that she is a real person again, a person who is seen and apparently a person who a certain handsome man wants to take out on a date.
"Saturday works for me."
"Perfect."
Quietly Regina says a quick rather grateful thank you that it's already Thursday and she doesn't have to wait too long. She is going on a date with Robin. Not a sentence she ever thought she'd say but it feels rather nice as it settles in her heart.
TBC.