through my fingers.-

About Regina´s and Robin´s daughter wedding day and how to recognize true love.

A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down! (Heard that one before? :p) And right now we need it. This is sugar. You´ve been warned.

Hope you like it. Review please.

The only character I own is Lorelay, sadly.

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Her beloved and only daughter, Lorelay Locksley, was getting married today. Did that mean she would lose her forever? Regina placed her right against the door and rested her head over it. She hoped not. Years hadn't been easy for the Locksley women. All Regina wanted was to spare her daughter everything Cora had done to her. Lost. Hurt. Betrayal. Anger. Loneliness. A life of feeling wrecked. She didn´t even protest when the girl started dating Neal Nolan. How convenient was that. Of course Snow was beyond excited. And now her baby was going to marry him. From all the people in the world, Snow White was going to be her daughter´s mother-in-law. Karma was really a fucking heartless bitch.

At least they were friends now, Regina and Snow. Family after all.

Lorelay had been such a sweet girl. Despite how much Regina loved Henry and Roland, both as if she had given birth to them, Lorelay became her little companion. The one who dressed like her, helped her bake cookies, went to all kind of shopping trips. All those things she would have wanted to have with her own mother. But then she grew up, out of the blue, she started drifting apart. Slipping through her fingers. And the first time Lorelay went mad at her and called her Evil Queen for something Regina didn't even remember, she had cried all night long. Robin yelled at Lorelay the next day and that made it even worst. Since then, that was how she called her every time Regina forbid something her daughter didn't understand. Every time she skipped school and received a lecture. The time she planned a trip out of town with Neal her mother didn't approve of. She was glad Snow had fixed things up that day and they never left. Henry and Roland where so much easier. Lately, they were the ones she spent more time with. It was great.

But she missed Lorelay terribly.

She wanted to open the door and talk to her, but… she dreaded this would be the day she would lose her daughter forever, and her rejection would have been more that her heart could bear. But she had to try. She never gave up on those she loved. And this was surely a last chance. She had hoped all her life that being a horrible mother wasn´t something she would inherit. She still did. Blame Snow, but she hoped a lot of things. Took the habit of it.

"Come in" the Queen heard the girl mumble after the soft knock, so Regina walked in. First, she saw the dress hanging from a window pane; silk, lace and pearls glowing white in a long cascade ready to be wrapped around an angel. And there was the garden behind it. All red roses. The sweet smell. And her apple tree. Finally, her eyes found Lorelay. Her heart broke anyway when she saw her daughter was crying. The girl wiped her tears and looked up at her.

"Mom…" she whispered, curled up in her seat and wearing a green Brave nightgown. Her adorable baby girl. "Would you help me get ready?"

Regina sat next to her daughter, wrapped and arm around her shoulders and rested her head against hers. Lorelay had Robin´s green eyes, but otherwise the Queen would have said she was reflected on the mirror twice. She didn´t wish for her daughter to suffer as she had, but she wanted her to be as happy as she had been with her outlaw. And truth is… the course of true love never runs smooth. She hated the fact thinking so made her sound like Snow, and gave a little smile to her baby. She couldn´t save her from the journey, but she could be by her side.

"Why is this beautiful girl crying in such a glorious day?" the Queen finally asked. Lorelay sighed and wrapped her arms around her mother´s waist.

"How did you know, mom? How did you know dad was the one for you?" the voice came, and she was still her little girl, so small and delicate. So soft when she wasn't angry. Did she know there was not a single thing her mother wouldn´t do for her?

"Well… I´m going to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a Bleeding Queen. She had her heart broken because someone she loved very dearly was dead. She was angry and lost. All she wanted was revenge. The Dark was having a feast on her soul. Then a fairy showed up, that fairy told her it was possible to love again. But the Queen´s heart was so shattered she was afraid that if she let go of her hurt and her anger, there would be nothing left of her, no pieces to pick up. It was all she had. So she ran away from her soul mate, because she was scared. Then, he bumped onto her years later, and she was still afraid. But everything around her pushed her towards him. She took the leap of faith and, even when there were times she suffered, she never regretted it. A leap of faith is all the transportation you need" Regina said, staring at her daughter through the mirror. "Love is strange, but also powerful. It never runs smooth. And it is all about timing".

"Timing?" Lorelay asked, gazing directly at her mother. The mother pondered her answer well, she had been there and knew those feelings were not quite unusual.

"Yes. It´s something you can´t rush. It´s something you can´t be wrong about when you´re listening to your heart. And believe me, yours will yell as loud as mine did, Princess" Regina smiled, grabbing the brush to comb her daughter´s long ebony hair.

"You never call me Princess" the girl gasped, looking down sheepishly. "Only daddy does".

"But my Princess you are" Regina smirked, soothing her hair to lace it with the little daisies that were already waiting on the dressing table. "You know I´ve been through this more than once. You know I´m not any sort of love expert. I was never very good at loving, though I try my best. But what I do know is that the most important moment tonight will be when you walk into that church and see him staring at you as if you were the most precious thing in the world, even if you feel you don´t deserve so. That look that means everything that matters… is you. If you are looking forward to that, believe me, you´re making the right choice" Regina said, without a shadow of a doubt. It was what did it for her, what finally rendered all of her heart to her husband. It made her vulnerable, but for the first time in forever being vulnerable felt good.

"I love you, mom" Lorelay said, swallowing a sob and hugging her tightly. "You are a wonderful mother, you´re not an Evil Queen. I´m sorry I ever said that to you, because… I want to be like you. It´s all I ever wanted, but I´m afraid I´ll never be enough. I´m not you. But we are more alike than I care to admit. Don´t you think?"

Regina nodded, speechless, hugging her daughter with all she had. Who would have said the Evil Queen would live to see her loving husband give their daughter away? The Bleeding Queen, she remembered herself.

"I love you too, baby. Beyond right and wrong, beyond words. Be yourself, my darling, my path was too dark and lonely for you to walk upon. And don´t think, for a single moment, that you can ever disappoint me… or your father" Regina whispered into her daughter´s ears. "Now, I think he is going to have a hard time giving you away…" she added, remembering the restless sleep Robin had had the night before and all the ministrations needed from his wife to put him to sleep in the first place. She laughed inwardly, her daughter didn´t need to know about that. The two women in the mirror were all he had eyes for.

"I´ll miss you all. Your lectures, dad´s archery lessons, Henry´s stories, Roland´s teasing… all of it" Lorelay said in a low voice. "Sometimes I think I don´t even want to leave".

"Maybe you will, but we will always be around the corner. And whenever you want, we can bake those chocolate chips you used to love so much together again" the Queen offered, still working on her daughter´s hair. "Believe me, we will soon become boring again, and you will be asking me not to stop by that much".

"You always know how to make me feel better…" Lorelay smiled for the first time, mouth and eyes. "And I will never ask you to stop coming by".

"I thought that was your father´s prerogative" Regina winked, as she finished the hairdo and looked around for the dress.

"Not all the time. You will always be my mom".

There was a soft knock on the door and it opened immediately afterwards. Robin popped his head in and smiled at them. Regina smiled back. The sight of her husband always melted her heart. Even after all the years they´ve been together. She was glad she voiced her regrets to Tinkerbell about that night in front of the tavern before marrying him. She knew there was nothing to be sorry about. It was really all about timing, and as usual, he had a perfect aim into her heart.

"Here you are, I´ve been looking for you all around" he said, walking in. Lorelay ran to him and hugged her father tightly before placing a soft kiss to his cheek.

"I love you too, daddy, I might have found my Prince, but you will always be my King".

Robin hugged her back and kissed her hair, Regina noticed he closed his eyes to fight back tears too. She watched them for what seemed an eternity. It was a picture she wanted to carry in her memory forever. The one thing she could think about when sadness hit again, it sometimes did. Until Robin released Lorelay and came to her with shinning eyes that made her light up completely. She didn´t know how a heart that once held so much darkness could be so full of love. Maybe because all that darkness was born of lost love anyway.

"I think the King deserves a proper reception from his Queen too" he said, extending his right arm to help her up, the one with the tattoo. She launched herself into his arms, finding shelter against his chest, the place where she fitted and belonged so perfectly. With his arms around her and hers around his neck, she slowly found his lips for a soft kiss. He tilted her backwards and kissed her more deeply, then spinning her around. And sunlight flooded in through the window. And everything was full of color. Alive. She was alive and so was her heart, stronger than ever.

"I have a new name for you" he whispered to her ear. "Now on you are the Queen of my heart".

Queen of his heart. That was it. Not Evil Queen. Not Bleeding Queen. Just his Queen. She liked it, and she felt like yelling it to the world. But through years she understood that love was actually about secrets of two. Those little things they didn´t share with anyone else. "It suits me. It´s the most valuable thing I´ve ever had".

When she rested her head against her husband´s chest again with a contented sigh, Regina caught a glimpse of their daughter. She was staring at them in awe and had a hand over her heart. The Queen then knew her baby girl would be just fine, because that´s what mothers do.

They know.

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If you are nice enough to leave me a comment, coming up next that convo with Tinkerbell and what was it all about (I´m sorry the My turn to be brave piece will have to wait).

You can leave me prompts if you want! I´ll do them all!

xoxo