A/N: Welcome back!
"Where's our baby Regina?"
Immediately, her blood ran cold. "What?"
"Where's. Our. Baby?"
Her fingers dug into the bar counter as she gripped it for dear life, knowing the moment she let go her legs wouldn't be able to hold her up.
Meanwhile, Robin poured himself another shot of vodka. "I talked to Cruella at the dance. She was drunk… and chatty." He paused. "I know you were pregnant at graduation. So I am asking… what happened to our baby?"
She couldn't look him in the eyes. If she did, she'd never be able to stop trembling. "You… You don't get to ask me that."
"I don't get - I DON'T GET TO ASK?!"
"NO YOU DON'T GET ASK, ROBIN!" she exploded. "That's what happens when you leave!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Robin stared at her, stunned. "You walk into my bar and yell at my face, call me a liar, call me selfish and I don't get to ask questions?" He came out from behind the bar. "No, that's bullshit. You got answers. I want mine."
"Leave me alone," she ordered, walking away from him. She headed for the door, wanting desperately to just go but she knew that wouldn't be happening. Not with the way, Robin was on her heels.
"I know you were pregnant. Ursula basically confirmed that."
"What?" She whirled around to face him. Ursula sold her out?
"So what happened to the baby?" he asked again. "I know you didn't get rid of it. You would never do that."
"Don't pretend you know me," she warned, jabbing a finger in his direction. "You haven't known me in years, Robin."
"Well, that is crystal fucking clear, because the girl I loved would've never hid a child from me!"
"Well, the girl you loved was stupid enough to love you back so what the hell did she know?!" Her voice started to shake as she gritted her teeth, running her fingers through her hair. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and tried to squash them down. This couldn't be happening. "I can't believe I am here, ten years later, still letting you make me feel like I am crazy! Would you just stop?!"
"No, I can't! Because if I have another kid out there, I deserve to know!" he desperately shouted. "So tell me the truth. Did you give them up for adoption? Raise them on your own? You said it wasn't Henry but maybe you lied about that too?"
"Don't talk about my son. He has nothing to do with this," Regina hissed, turning toward the door. She had to get out of there."I'm done. I'm not doing this with you."
He cut off her path to the door. "You are not going anywhere until I learn what happen to my kid! What happened? Where are they?"
"Stop it!" she cried. Her face grew hot and red as he hurled question after question at her. She couldn't answer him. She couldn't talk about it.
"For god's sake, just answer me!" he desperately begged. "Who are they? Where are they? Was it a boy? A girl?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" she screamed. "I don't know… because I lost them." A dam broke inside of her and tears started to well up in her eyes. "I didn't tell you because I lost our baby, okay?"
And just like that all the heat left the room. In its wake, a cold dread seeped from Regina's stomach and spilled into the air. Shuddering as she lowered herself into a chair, she could feel tears falling down her face, one after the other. She let her face fall into her hands, wiping them away. Silently, she wondered just how much heartbreak was she meant to endure that night.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Robin's face had gone white as he sunk into a chair at a different table. "When.. when did it happen?"
"When I was at school," she whispered. "I was five months along. I… I'd started to feel kicks. and I still didn't know what to do. I couldn't make a choice. So God made one for me."
Robin swallowed, absorbing all that she said. Suddenly, his eyes went hard. "How do I know you're not lying?"
Spikes of anger rose under her skin as she slowly turned to glare at him. "Fuck you, Robin!"
The vitriol she felt for him in that moment was enough to bring her to her feet and push her towards the door.
Robin called after apologetically. "Wait, Regina! I'm sorry."
"Yes you really are!" she shot back, wiping the tears from her face. "I am here, crying to you about the worst moment of my entire life and you call me a liar!"
"You know what? Yeah, I did," he replied, with a nod. "But it's been a long time since you've been honest with me. You lied to me about Harvard, you didn't tell me you were pregnant. So I don't know how honest you're being with me right now."
"Well how honest would you like me to be Robin?" she asked, her voice cracking. "Would you like me to tell you how terrified I was when the plus sign showed up? Or do you want to hear about how I woke up one night with blood all over my legs? Or how Mal had to peel me from my bed and take me to the hospital so I could hear the worst news possible? Would you like for me to start from the beginning or the end? Which awful, visceral part will make you believe me more?"
For the last decade she'd done everything in her power to push back the memory of that night. She never expected to mind to regurgitate it like this, in short, hateful spats at the one person she swore she would never tell. It was getting hard to breathe. All she wanted to do was escape but with Robin blocking the door, that hardly felt like an option. So she went for the next best thing.
Alcohol was probably the worst thing to throw into this already emotional moment, but if she didn't get something to calm her down she would explode. While Robin absorbed her words she lifted a bottle of whiskey from the top shelf behind the bar counter. She'd barely finished pouring herself a drink before he joined her.
"You know… I'm not the only one who hid things," she growled at him.
His eyes bugged out of his head. "That's not fair. You cannot compare what I did to what you kept from me."
"You said you didn't love me!" she reminded him. "You called me a burden and said being around me would be too much work. How the hell was I supposed to talk to you after that?"
"You should've found a way! No matter how badly I hurt you or how scared you were. It was my kid and you should've found a way."
"And what difference would that have made? I still would've lost the baby, we still would've been broken up. What would've changed?!"
"Everything would've changed because I would've been there!" he cried. "If you had told me, I would've known and I would've been there."
Her heart clenches at the sincerity she sees in his eyes. Gripping her glass of whiskey, she scrunches her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Robin… I tried, okay? I started dozens of letters. I picked up the phone a million times but I could never say the words. I didn't know how… and that's the truth."
He looked at her and she could see the hurt shining in his blue eyes. "I can't believe you kept that from me all this time."
"Well now you know the whole truth." She shrugged. "Feels good, doesn't it?"
Robin's jaw clenched at her words and guilt swirled in her stomach. She sniffed, dropping her gaze down to the whiskey in her hand, wishing she could drown in it. Heavy silence surrounded them, quickly becoming unbearable.
Regina set her drink on the counter, not wanting it any longer. "I'm going home. Please let me."
She crept from behind the bar counter and headed for the door, relieved when she didn't hear him following her.
As soon as she walked out of the Golden Arrow, a cold gust of wind hit her as did the realization of what had just happened. Robin knew the truth… about everything.
She walked home, arms wrapped around herself, replaying every moment of their conservation. The fiery indignation she had when it started, the chilling dread when he'd asked about their baby and the emotional wreckage when she'd told him the truth. By the time she got home, she'd run through it a million times.
Yet, it was only when she was in the safety of her own bed, in her childhood room that the tears finally started to fall. Muffling her sobs with a pillow, she cried over the pain of her past, wondering if it would ever truly stop haunting her.
A/N: So what do you think happens next? Leave a review and let me know!