Regina and Robin discuss Split Queen and their family.

Day 2 cont.

God she could watch him like this all day.

Sitting in a rocking chair, feeding the baby in his arms. It was a sight that would never fail to take her breath away.

They were in the nursery together. Robin in the rocking chair, her sitting across from him on the daybed she'd conjured only hours before. She kept her eyes on him, on them. Him and his daughter. As she watched them she felt a familiar ache in her belly. An empty space crying out to be filled. But she squashed it down as soon as it rose up. She didn't need a pregnancy to be a mother, she silently reminded herself. She was Henry's mother. And that was enough.

She sighed as she watched him burp his little girl and lower her into her new bassinet, pressing a kiss to her forehead, smiling as he did so.

She'd always loved that Robin was a father. It had been the first redeeming quality she'd allowed herself to see in him. The way he'd been with Roland during the missing year, it'd reminded her of her early years with Henry. It'd been painful to see but it was the first thing that helped her let him in.

Oh Roland, she thought to herself.

How were they going to explain this to him?

Standing from the bed she walked over to bassinet and approached Robin's side. Peering down she smiled when she saw baby Robyn drifting off to sleep in her crib.

"I think she missed you," she said softly.

Robin let out a deep breath. "I can't believe I've missed so much time with her."

"It's only been three months," she said, shaking her head.

"That's nearly all her life," Robin grumbled. "And look how big she's gotten."

Regina grimaced as her gaze drifted down to the crib again. When Robin had died, he'd left behind a newborn with eyes that barely opened. There wasn't a newborn in this crib. There was a baby. One with wide, bright blue eyes and a quickly growing mop of brown hair. He'd missed more than any decent parent would be okay with.

"Why wasn't she with you?"

"What?" His words broke through the haze she'd put herself in.

"Why wasn't she with you?" he softly repeated, his eyes desperately searching her face for an answer. "I thought… I thought that if I wasn't here… then she would be with you."

Regina pressed her lips together as she struggled to answer his question. "Zelena was her mother… and we agreed to give her a chance."

"A chance, not my daughter," Robin painfully shot back.

"She saved my life," Regina whispered. "She killed Hades to save me. She was trying to be better. I didn't have the right to take Robyn away. Not after that. And they were both supposed to move in with me but then things got… complicated."

She was babbling now, trying to explain why she'd kept baby Robyn at arm's length for so long. She wanted him to understand but there wasn't much to say.

"And Roland?" he softly asked, his voice rough and unsteady. "Why isn't he here?"

Regina nervously licked her lips before answering him. "After your funeral there was another emergency with the Dark One, Henry ran away to New York to try and destroy magic. I had to follow him and while I was gone… the Merry Men took him back to the Enchanted Forest." She paused before adding, "I didn't get to say goodbye."

Robin clenched his jaw but remained silent. He was angry with her. She could tell.

"Robin… I'm sorry."

He sucked in a sharp breath before speaking. "They were supposed to be with you," he gritted out. "They shouldn't be –" He paused to take another breath. "They shouldn't have been separated and left alone! They were supposed to be with you! When I- when I did what I did I thought you would've taken care of them!"

"I would've!" she tearfully insisted. "I was going to! But then…"

"But then what?" he interrogated.

"But then I couldn't take care of me," she softly cried. "I lost you. I was devastated. And I'm sorry I couldn't keep our family together. But I couldn't even keep me together. And that's not a figure of speech Robin. I literally tore myself in half after you died."

Robin narrowed his eyes at her, confused. "What are you talking about?"

She takes a deep breath as a tear rolls down her cheek. Tightly crossing her arms she turns away, unable to look him in the eye. "While I was in New York… I found your letter. The one you wrote but never sent."

She paused waiting for his reaction. When he remained silent she continued.

"You'd said that you fell in love with the hero in me," she said. "But after everything that happened I felt like the villain in me was the reason you were no longer here. If I hadn't been who I was, done what I'd done… maybe the universe wouldn't be trying to punish me so much. Maybe it would've taken you away from me."

She sighed before finally turning to face him. "There was a man, two men actually. Hyde and Jekyll. They used to be one person before he, or they, managed to split themselves apart. Jekyll, the doctor, came up with a serum to separate the darkness himself and it became Hyde. The serum wasn't perfect but… it worked for him. And when Snow said she had a dose of it…"

Robin's eyes turned soft. "Regina…"

"I couldn't do it anymore," she said tiredly. "I couldn't live with… her… insider of me. Not when I thought being her was what had cost me so much. So, I took the serum and forced the Queen out. I tried to get rid of her."

Her gaze dropped to the ground as she shook her head. "I didn't know how else to make the pain stop."

He stepped closer to her then, took his hands into her own, rested his forehead against hers. Not saying a word but offering all the comfort he could.

"It still didn't work," she whispered. "She followed me back here, ran rampant for weeks before I was finally able to suck her back inside of me."

"Where she belongs," he softly responded.

Regina shook her head. "Robin…"

"She's a part of you," he whispered vehemently. "A sad, tragic but important part of who you are. I love every part of who you are Regina. Every single piece, not just the pretty ones. Not just the ones that are easy to deal with. Your rough edges make you who you are. I love them. I don't want them smoothed… not ever."

He meant every word. The letter might've said that he loved the hero but the truth is the heroine wasn't who he'd fallen in love with. The woman Robin fell for wasn't a hero. She'd been a sad, angry queen who'd just wanted to be with her son but couldn't. That was the woman he'd fallen for first, not the heroine.

She swallows hard. "I should've fought harder for our family."

"I wish you had," Robin admits, "but knowing what I know now I think you needed to fight for you first. Even the greatest mothers can't do their jobs if they're half a person."

She lets out a tiny scoff. "You sound like Henry."

A small smile tugs on Robin's lips. "He helped you?"

She nods.

"Good man," he says, with a proud look in his eyes.

Regina blows out a deep breath before her gaze drifts back over to crib. "Our family's still broken up," she says softly.

Robin nods his head in agreement. "Then let's put it back together."

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