After Robin is shot on the job, Regina wants him to quit his job with the police force. However, Robin wants to go back to work leading to a late night fight.
They always knew it was a risk, him being hurt on the job. But the thing about a risk like that is it never feels real until it happens to you.
It was in the middle of the school day when she was called from her classroom. A sub showed up for the kids and she didn't think anything about it til she walked into the receptionist office and saw those two uniformed officers waiting for her. The sight of them knocked the air right out of her lungs. It was like someone had taken a bat right to her gut and for a brief second she was sure they were here to tell her that her husband had died. Relief swept over her when they said that he had been shot but was still alive… for now.
The rest of that day is a bit of blur but the moments that she does remember, she remembers vividly. She remembers the look on all three of her children's faces when they met her at the hospital. She remembers how heavy her words felt when she explained to them what happened. But what she remembers most is the beeping of that damn heart monitor. Even now it echos in the back of her head. The soft steady beating that told her Robin was still alive.
His surgery was a risky one. She'd made sure each of the kids had a moment with him before he went in, and of course she'd taken one for herself. Those six hours were the longest of her life but he'd pulled through with flying colors according to the doctors. Hearing that he was going to be okay was the first time she'd felt like she'd been able to breath in days.
When Robin woke up from surgery they were all there, all happy, all relieved but from that moment on a cloud had hung over them.
Regina had never once considered asking Robin to leave his job. He loved it too much, it was a part of him and she knew that. Her husband was a cop and for almost sixteen years that had never bothered her.
But seeing him in that hospital bed had changed things. She'd been terrified and she never wanted to feel that way again. She never wanted the kids to feel that scared either.
When she brought up the idea of him leaving the force he'd been apprehensive, which wasn't a surprise but still he'd promised that they would talk about it. He still had months of physical therapy to go so they had time before making any final decisions. She'd thought she'd had time to convince him… but imagine her response when she discovered that he'd already been making plans to go back to work.
It took all the restraint she had to wait for the kids to go to sleep before confronting him. Oh but when she did things quickly got out of hand. Within minutes she was reaming him out. Calling him selfish and pigheaded. It was like all the fear and frustration she'd felt since the shooting came pouring out. She didn't even realize she was yelling until he pointed it out to her.
"Lower your voice! I don't want the kids hearing this!" he hissed, gesturing towards the voice.
"Hearing what? Hearing how you almost died?" she shoots back, her voice breaking a little. "They don't need to hear it Robin, they saw it! They saw you, hooked up to a breathing tubes and heart monitors. They spent hours laying across hospital chairs wondering whether you were gonna be alive the next day or not."
"I know that and I am sorry. I really am," he says, sincerely. "But what else do you expect me to do? It's my job!"
"Then quit your job!" she begs. "You can do anything else in the world. Why do you have to do this?"
"Because it's who I am!" he earnestly replies. "It's a part of me. I love it too much to give it up."
Her hands go to her hips as the tears well up in her eyes. "More than you love us?"
He immediately shakes his head. "Do not put that on me. That is not fair!"
"It's not fair? My words aren't fair? You know what isn't fair Robin? The fact you can put on that uniform and take all the risks you like, knowing that I'm the one who has to explain them to our children. That I am the one who had to pull them out of school early and tell them that their father was shot in the chest and might not make it."
A tear runs down her face as she remembers the moment she saw their faces, so confused and afraid. She doesn't understand how he can even think of putting them through that again.
"You want so badly to be a hero Robin," she whispers. "Why isn't being our hero enough?"
A guilty sigh falls from him as he looks away from her. He wants so badly to give her a simple answer, one that will wash away all her fears and worries. One that will convince her that everything will be okay. Always.
But he doesn't have an answer like that. All he has is the truth.
"Regina… I have been a police officer since the day you met me and long before. I don't want to be anything else."
She sniffs a bit, before nodding her head. "So that's it then? You're saying that you're just gonna go back to work like my feelings don't matter?"
"I'm saying that I will go back to work eventually," he replies. "And I can wait until you're comfortable and put it off for as long as I can but it's gonna happen. I am going back to work."
His tone is gentle and apologetic, but hear in his words and see in his eyes that he's left no room for arguments. Her husband is keeping his job and there's nothing she can say to change that.
She licks her lips, letting out a seething breath, before jutting her chin out at him.
"Fine."
Gruff and angry, it's all she says before walking out of the room, leaving him calling after her.
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