The time has come for a time jump, so now we have Regina, Robin and Roland back with the others, and things are set in motion, approaching the casting of the Dark Curse. Hope you enjoy the build-up! I'm glad to get to write a little Tinkerbell at last, and Roland makes an appearance, too - he's just a joy to write.

The train of her robe trailed after her as she walked, rustling on the marble floor. As she passed the door and turned a corner, Regina slowed her pace, listening. Sure enough, the pitter-patter of steps, muffled slightly with great effort, followed her on. Like every morning for months now, it brought a smile on her face.

The first time he'd done it, she'd freaked out at being followed like that - until she turned and found the spy was none other than the littlest Hood. He'd clung to her for the rest of the day, despite her brooding mood. Even when she settled down in the library to seek solitude and rest from the bustling life of the palace, Roland had slipped through the huge door after her. He climbed into the armchair next to hers and pulled a large tome from the discarded pile on the table between them, opened it on his lap, and gazed onto the pages with earnest interest. As Regina watched him, sitting with his legs sticking out in the air in a chair much too large for him, holding a book also too large for him, all her broodiness dissipated.

From that day on, Roland had taken to following her around the palace, his little feet trying to keep up with her. At some point, it had become a game they played. She'd pretend she didn't hear him at first. Then she'd occasionally wheel around with a great flourish of her gown to give him time to hide behind a corner, a door, or a suit of armour, only to stare foolishly into an empty corridor. Sometimes she'd hear him giggle at her supposedly futile attempts, and she'd snatch him from behind a statue and tickle him to fits of laughter. At other times, she'd wait for him to reveal himself, pretending to be scared out of her wits until he climbed into her arms and placed a sloppy kiss on her cheek.

So he was right behind her today as well. Except her impish side seemed to be awake this morning. It was time to change it up on him a little. With a grin, Regina turned a corner and pressed herself against the wall. Roland soon emerged and walked on a few steps before he noticed his target had somehow disappeared. He looked around, tugging at his green camisole thoughtfully. Just when he was about to spot her, Regina rushed to him from behind, scooped him up in her arms and turned around a few times. Roland whooped and cheered her on, his laughter - and her own - setting the corridor a-ringing.

"G'morning, Regina," he called breathlessly as she set him down, and craned his neck for a kiss, which she willingly gave.

"Morning, sweetheart." Regina adjusted his clothes while he fidgeted impatiently.

"Will you come riding with me today?"

He'd ask her the same question every day. Robin had started giving him lessons, since Aurora and Philip happened to have a pony in their stables, and Regina had once mentioned to Roland she'd had her first when she was just about his age. Regina had never before given in to Roland's pleading, though, never once joined them on the practice field. She was spending plenty of time with Roland, but very little with Robin - and that suited her. At least that was what she kept telling herself.

"Let's have breakfast now, alright?"

The hall was empty when they entered. Regina liked it that way, and anyway it'd fill soon enough. The table was already set, and Regina got some porridge and fruits for Roland before she helped herself.

The door opened and Robin walked in. Regina tensed immediately, yet at the same time her eyes refused to leave him as he made his way to Roland sitting next to her.

"Papa!" the boy called gleefully as Robin picked him up and tossed him in the air.

"Almost ready for riding practice, eh?" Robin ruffled Roland's hair once he'd deposited him back on the bench and glanced at his plate.

"Regina's coming with us today," Roland announced innocently.

When had she said such a thing? She was always careful not to make the promise to him, since she'd never intended to keep it in the first place. No, she§d most certainly said no such thing.

Her stomach gave a jolt when Robin's eyes rested on her. These chance meetings still unnerved her, even though they only happened rarely - or was it because they were so rare that they unnerved her all the more? Once Robin had caught up on her blatant mission of avoiding him a few months ago, he'd stopped seeking her out. It had taken a change in strategy she didn't really understand - she was no longer cold and unpleasant, but simply uncompromisingly evasive. For some reason, it worked. Not once had they been alone since they arrived to the palace and joined the others.

Now their eyes were locked for a longer while than they had been in ages, and Robin's searching look roused a tremour she'd almost forgotten but now felt come alive again with renewed force. This was all wrong, this wasn't supposed to be happening. After so long, she'd come to convince herself that whatever she'd felt for Robin before was surely gone by now. Until now - until this intense look of his rekindled a spark of...of something she'd worked so hard to put out. Was that a hopeful look he was giving her?

"I never- I didn't-" she stuttered, looking from Robin to Roland. How did she make it clear to one that she wasn't changing her mind about their current non-relationship, without hurting the other with her repeated dismissal?

A shadow crossed Robin's face at her words, but he just nodded and didn't comment. He gave his son a smile and sat down to eat.

Roland began chattering away to the both of them, but Regina's mind was someplace else. Clearly Robin was no longer looking her way - so why did she still feel those blue eyes on her? Was he judging her?

Or was she in fact second-guessing the cowardly way out she'd chosen - again?

The creak of the door salvaged her from further thought. Snow White made her way through with Aurora in tow, the two of them chatting animatedly, each with a hand resting on her very pregnant stomach. Were they aware of it at all? The gesture seemed to come naturally, instinctively, unconsciously. Regina wouldn't know, of course, she'd never been pregnant herself.

But she had a baby out there nonetheless... Her little prince, a son who didn't remember her, who lived his life somewhere unaware of the chunk of heart he was carrying around wherever he went - the heart Regina had given up to him so willingly twelve years ago.

Regina fought to push the tears back, to get the room back in focus.

Charming and Phillip followed their wives in, and moments later, the hall was full of Merry Men as well. Little John and Mulan were missing - it must have been their turn to patrol the forest. They still kept doing that, even though it had been weeks since the last suspicious activity.

Regina's fingers began hitting the wood of the table in a distraught, agitated manner.

The last few months had been wasted in fruitless attempts to locate the Witch or her army, or gather evidence of her plans. There'd been a few successes along the way, but nothing Regina found even remotely satisfactory. The Charmings had managed to raise a humble army while she and Robin were away, but by the time they had, suddenly there was not a single Cyclops to fight. Belle and Neal had gone off on their own, intent to find out more about Rumpelstiltskin's demise - or lack thereof, as they apparently still preferred to believe. They hadn't heard from them ever since.

Regina had spent some time perusing the palace's library, even though it was by no means a magical one in the way Rumple's was. She'd come across a few books that held interesting information on mythical monsters and even a few that included traces of magic a non-magical person would never uncover. Still, it was nothing of importance to their present situation.

Meanwhile, an abandoned village was set on fire once in a while, but even this was happening with much less gusto, apparently. No one had, to their knowledge, fallen victim to the stolen sleeping curse. Whatever plan the Witch was brewing, the quieter she was the more Regina believed they had cause to worry.

"Regina," a small hand tugged at her sleeve. "Regina, come on, it's time to go."

A pair of brown eyes stared up at her with a plea issuing from them. Normally she managed to juggle this fairly well, but today it seemed it wasn't meant to be. Today, he'd probably be crushed. Wouldn't it be better if she joined them after all? For Roland's sake, of course. She glanced at Robin only to catch him looking at her with unguarded anticipation. That changed everything. Perhaps if he hadn't looked, she would have give in to this urge, but now she couldn't lie to herself. The idea was dangerous, and she had no choice but to remain reasonable, stick to what she'd resolved herself to a while ago.

"Roland," she sighed, "I don't really-" Roland's face began to fall, and Regina cursed fate for having put her in this situation. She fought the urge to check the effect of her words on Robin, and stroked the boy's cheek instead. "Roland, sweetheart, I-"

Miraculously, Regina was spared the rest: the door swung open once again, and this time all heads turned - they were all gathered in the room with no one missing. Whoever the newcomer was, their arrival could mean some breaking news at last.

There was a collective gasp when Belle stumbled into the hall, dishevelled and exhausted. She was alone, and she looked ghastly. Her face must have gone unwashed for days, and tracks of tears had drawn clearer paths in the dirt on her cheeks. They were getting news after all - but none of it good.

After the initial shock, chairs scraped as multiple people jumped out of their seats, rushing to Belle. In moments, she was seated at the head of the table with bowls of food set before her, but she touched none of it. She only reached for a cup of wine and drained it in a heartbeat. She poured herself another, and it disappeared like the first. Her thirst seemed unquenchable. No, not her thirst - her misery.

Regina shuffled in her seat. Rumple had been dead for a while, and no one except Belle and Neal, who had of course been closest to him, had seemed to believe otherwise. Yet Regina felt an unpleasant stab now. The thought of the Dark One gone had felt odd then, and it felt odd now. She couldn't have said how it made her feel, but it definitely wasn't happy. They'd had so much history, and twisted though their relationship had always been, it had been too often that she'd only had Rumple to turn to.

Belle reached to refill her cup a fourth time, but this time the jug was pried away from her. Regina's chest burned at the sight of Robin setting the jug aside and patting Belle on the shoulder. They'd known each other from before, Robin had told her that, of course - apparently Belle had helped him once to escape Rumple's prison. Belle put the the cup down, and Robin gave her hand a squeeze before he went to sit at the nearest vacant spot a few places down the table.

A sting of pain in her finger made Regina look down. She'd never known when she started scratching the table with her nails digging into the board, and now there was a splinter lodged right under one of her fingernails. She threw Belle a dirty look, then gave herself a mental shake. What the hell was she doing? One glance at Robin, and she closed her eyes briefly. Pull yourself together. Robin wasn't in any way hers, so even if the gesture towards Belle had meant something, which it hadn't, Regina would have no reason to be jealous ... which she most certainly wasn't.

Still she felt a chill down her spine when Robin looked her way, until in fact she understood the look was meant for Roland. Once Belle started her recounting of her journey, Roland had better not be there to hear it. Regina looked around - would Robin take him or would it be someone else? As if in answer, Alan-a-Dale approached them and lifted Roland from the bench. So Robin didn't want to miss this either. Not that Alan was any happier to - he looked positively frustrated, even though Roland tugging at his lute did charm a smile onto his frowning face. Regina grinned inwardly - Alan would be deprived of a first-hand report of what could be a heroic song in the future.

As Alan left with Roland, though, Belle was still sitting with her face in her hands. This didn't bode well.

"Rumple's back," Belle muttered at long last.

Despite the relative distance and her muffled voice, the words came across clear in the perfect silence - everyone seemed to sit with bated breath. Something heavy seemed to have fallen off Regina's chest, but not for long. This should be good news - yet for some reason it wasn't.

"The Witch has his dagger."

Regina groaned. A collective murmur rose around Belle. Everyone seemed to want to say something or spill questions at her. Regina knew perfectly well what this meant, though. The Witch was one thing, but now they had the Dark One against them, too, and that was a much bigger problem.

"Everybody calm down," Charming's voice boomed across the room. "Belle, where's Neal?"

Belle stared ahead for a while, raised the empty glass to her lips, then set it down again. Ruby, who'd been sitting next to Belle all the while with an arm over her, poured her a glass of water, which Belle eyed with disinterest.

"Dead." Her voice sounded much the same.

It all went downhill from there.

Before being escorted to a chamber to wash up and get some sleep, Belle managed to tell them briefly about their journey to Rumple's castle, their discovery of an enchanted candelabra, how it had led them to the Dark One's vault, how Neal refused to listen to Belle when she discovered the candelabra's lie, and how he had paid with his life for bringing Rumpelstiltskin back. Technically, of course, he was still around, sharing a body with his father, but he was as good as dead.

And the Wicked Witch controlled the Dark One, and they still had no clue what her ultimate endgame was or how to stop her.

Regina's fingers twitched. Another council was about to commence - another hour, or more, spent playing the guessing game. The same ideas would be brought up over and over again with the same amount of supporting evidence - none. On a good day, someone would chip in with a new theory, usually involving a ridiculous notion of the workings of magic, which Regina would refute: with annoyance in the past, nowadays merely with a touch of apathy.

After an opening pep talk from Charming - a very unsatisfactory one, so apparently the Charmings, too, were running out of incentive - a dispirited discussion started. It involved increased patrols around the castle and in the wider forest area in hopes of collecting more information now that the Witch had clearly gotten closer to attaining whatever she was after. It was agreed that Ruby and Granny Lucas, utilising their superior wolf senses, would each lead a small group of scouts.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Robin stood up to speak.

It wasn't so much the fact that he wanted to speak that was so unusual; it was his demeanour about it. He swallowed several times, his eyes darting from person to person in turn but never meeting hers. Regina leaned forward in her chair involuntarily - Robin actually looked nervous. He'd never had trouble speaking in public before, so it had to be something else, but he couldn't possibly have new information - where would he have obtained it? Then his eyes lingered on her, and Regina's stomach dropped. He seemed positively repentant, apologetic, even. A foolish fright overcame her for a moment. What on earth was he going to say?

Robin's eyes wandered to the window.

Heads turned just as a bright blue light materialised from thin air and morphed into the Blue Fairy. Regina suppressed a groan - this meant more bad news. The fairies hadn't shown up in months now, not since they'd set to the task of stacking up as much fairy dust as possible to use against the Witch when the time came. If the Witch had learnt about this, she'd definitely have made sure to try and foil their attempts.

"Blue," Snow breathed. "What happened?"

"The fairy dust is gone."

As unsurprised as Regina was, it was still a slap in the face. This Witch always seemed to be ahead of them, no matter what they did.

"We thought maybe," she floated above the table and turned to Regina, "the Queen would know something about this."

Regina's jaw dropped, and it was a moment before she remembered to close her mouth. Indignation bubbled up in her and disappeared, replaced by something worse, a sinking sensation she'd felt before but not in a while - the horrible feeling of being misjudged and outcast. It was all the worse now because she'd come to not expect it anymore, after all these months of being treated - well, like part of a...a team.

"No one's accusing you of anything, Regina." A hand rested on her shoulder. Regina winced and turned around, utterly vexed, but Tinkerbell's sympathetic expression gave her pause. "Blue just meant, maybe you can think of some reason the Witch might want it."

"A reason?" Regina said sarcastically, her umbrage leaving its mark on the tone. "There are countless possibilities with all the ways fairy dust can be utilised," she looked the Blue Fairy in the face, "as you very well know."

"Of course I know," the fairy nodded with dismay, "but as to other fields of magic, you're the only asset we have. With the Dark One on her side..."

Had she just been called an asset? An asset. It could be a compliment if it hadn't struck a different note - an asset was an object, a tool you used when appropriate, then disposed of it when no longer needed. The wretched fairy didn't even bother with her choice of words: she didn't say Regina was their best asset - no, she was their only one, suggesting that if there were other options, Regina wouldn't even have been considered. No matter how hard she tried to distance herself, to keep a straight face, this still felt like a punch in the stomach.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you." She rose from the table. "I have nothing to offer. I hear the Dark One's library is free for usage these days if you're looking for a reference book on magic."

Tinkerbell made a feeble attempt to hold her back but Regina twisted her arm out of her reach and marched out of the room, slamming the door shut.

Regina stormed through the palace, whipping up a rage she could blame the burn in her eyes on. The door of the hall banged shut in the distance, and she quickened her pace.

"Regina!"

She gritted her teeth - Robin was the last person she wished to talk to right now.

"Regina, wait," he called just steps behind her.

How in the hell had he caught up so fast? She should have just poofed herself to her chamber.

She turned to him abruptly. "I don't wish to ta-" she spat but stopped mid-sentence, thrown by how close they were. Robin's breath practically mingled with hers. Their eyes locked for a moment, he drank in her face, but before she had time to collect herself and react, Robin took a step back.

"Look," he said insistently, his hand flying up to the back of his neck, "the Blue Fairy made a mistake. I-"

"I don't care, alright?" It was almost true - a part of her stirred at his words. So someone had noticed. Someone actually wasn't blaming her for once. But in the end, it did nothing to change her mind. "I'm not going back."

Robin shook his head. "I'm not asking you to."

Regina couldn't help her attention being sparked a notch. What had he come running after her for then? Her stomach flipped. She'd been avoiding him and, though unwillingly at first, he respected that. Was he going to reopen the door she had so hastily closed after making barely a step towards the promise it held?

He took a deep breath before he continued. "But I need to talk to you."

Regina's alarm went off, and a pinch of annoyance crept in, too. "I don't want to talk, Robin, all this fruitless talk drives me crazy. I want to be alone."

He looked at her closely, and she rearranged her features into a neutral but unrelenting expression. Robin's fingers twitched briefly, as if he wanted to reach out to her, and he fiddled with a pouch on his belt instead. "This...might be important."

"Might be?" Surely if it were truly important, he'd know. This sounded like another piece of crazy guesswork at best. "That's not good enough for me right now."

For a moment, his shoulders relaxed and he almost looked relieved, then he tensed again. "Maybe later, then."

"Don't count on it."

As soon as the door closed on her chamber, Regina lost the heavily guarded mask and let her frustration out on the stone wall, slamming her fist on the cold surface. The accursed Witch had more leeway over them than ever before, they were losing on every front, and now the preposterous Blue Fairy had decided to lose all the fairy dust and blame it on Regina? After just one punch, though, exhaustion overcame her, and she dragged herself to the bed, only to find someone already sitting there.

"What- How did you-?" Regina frowned in frustration. The fairy had magicked herself in, of course. Would Regina never have a moment of peace and quiet around these people?

"Regina, you really shouldn't storm out on people like that. We-"

"You came all the way here to lecture me?"

"No. If you'd given us a chance you'd have seen that." Tinkerbell shifted on the bedside. Regina sat down with a sigh. Heavens, was she tired of the whole wretched situation. Tink laid a hand on her shoulder. "Blue wasn't very tactful."

"Well, the wording was quite unfortunate, but I assume that's exactly what she meant anyway."

"Not everyone agreed."

"No one objected."

"After you left, Snow confronted Blue. She said-"

"It doesn't matter." But that was a lie - it did matter. At least someone had bothered to stand up for her, even if it had been too late, and it was Snow White of all people.

"And Robin Hood?" Regina's breath hitched at the name. If Tinkerbell was to start with this now, she might just have to storm out of her own chamber for a change. Tinkerbell was either oblivious to her tension or it was precisely that which prompted her on. "He doesn't matter, either? He dashed off after you the moment you were gone. What did he say?"

"It doesn't matter." This wasn't about Robin. There was something else, something that'd been nagging at her for montjs with more and more ferocity, something she hadn't voiced once, not even to herself - and the pent up frustration spilled over. "Don't you understand? I have nothing!" The startled look on Tinkerbell's face at the sudden outburst made her take a deep breath befofre she continued, a little calmer but still upset. "This isn't about me simply being offended. The threat is real, I'm well aware of that, and the priority remains to end this Witch. The trouble is," she hesitated, looking Tinkerbell in the eyes. She saw nothing but sincere interest there, maybe a notch of sympathy that left her uncertain whether to appreciate it or be annoyed by it. "I have no idea what the Witch wants. I have no more idea than any of you. And Blue's right about one thing - if anyone should know, it's me. But I don't."

Regina's frustration came from a vulnerable place - it wasn't all injured pride or sensibilities. It was worse than that - she felt like a failure. Everyone was chipping in in their own ways in the search after the foe, and they were all coming up empty-handed, just like her. But Regina was different - magic was her field of expertise. It was her responsibility to defend them, to figure out the uses to which the Witch was putting magic, and she was certain it would be her to overcome it with magic of her own eventually. She was the logical candidate to do all these things. She wasn't an eternal optimist like Snow White, or a leader of people like Charming, she lacked Robin's self-possession or Granny Lucas' sharpened senses. The only way she was useful to anyone was her magic. And now it was failing - she was failing.

"Well, it's not like we have many clues, is it?" Tinkerbell shrugged, smiling wanly.

Regina breathing a little more easily. She had it off her chest now, and Tinkerbell made for quite a nice listener. Even years ago they'd stricken up quite a nice and pleasant rapport. Perhaps that was something to build upon, though how exactly that was done Regina had yet to learn.

"Maybe I should have returned to the Dark Castle weeks ago," Regina voiced a long debated thought. "But books won't help me find motive, and motive is everything. It tells you how determined the foe is, or how desperate, and to what lengths you can expect them to go."

"The Witch seems pretty determined to me. So do you, by the way."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I saw the tattoo."

Regina groaned. She couldn't deal with this right now.

"So you did know about it." Tinkerbell shook her head in incredulity and gave her a hard look. "Regina, are you running away again?"

As a matter of fact, she was. There was no point glossing things over for either the fairy's or her own sake - she'd practically been on the run from Robin for months. The admission tasted bitter on her tongue, but fear tasted worse. And having new, fragile shoots of hope shattered, that was the worst. Tinkerbell didn't understand the agony of that, but Regina did, and it was more than she was willing to risk.

So Regina averted her eyes. "I don't want to talk about it."

But Tinkerbell was unrelenting. "Are you sure?"

The actual doubt in her voice made Regina want to scream. Why was Tinkerbell acting so condescending with her? The fairy laid a hand on Regina's shoulder. Regina fought back a flinch. In the end, it wasn't a bad thing - maybe one day she'd learn to fully appreciate such gestures without recoiling in consequence of her unhealthy past relationships.

"Because it seems to me that's just what you need," Tinkerbell went on, "to talk to a friend."

Regina wasn't sure what the word had stirred in her. Tinkerbell had called her a friend once before, just before Regina had shattered any friendly sentiment the fairy might have harboured for her by pushing her away - even friendship had seemed unattainable and threatening at the time. How about now? Was she seriously going to throw this away, too? Had she not learnt anything? She chanced a glance at the fairy, who gave her an encouraging, though somewhat anxious half-smile. No, she didn't want to hurt her the way she had striven to back then. But the bonding topic wasn't to her liking at all.

"There's a Witch breathing down our necks," Regina mustered, "and you want to gossip about boys?"

"Don't try to deflect." Damn, Tinkerbell seemed to see right through her this time. Well, she wasn't stupid. "The Witch is not here, we have no clues to work with, and it's just a few minutes anyway."

"This is no time for romance," Regina said feebly, knowing she was coming up short but playing for time.

"Amongst all the chaos there is always room for love."

"Love?" Regina bristled. This was yet another buzzword that made her back off in alarm. "There's nothing between us, and there won't be. We're just - friends." Were they, though? Well, she had no better word for it, they were most certainly not enemies and they'd worked themselves past mere acquaintances, too. For what little she knew of friendship, Robin had indeed been a friend to her - for as long as she'd let him, anyway.

Tinkerbell pulled back a little and surveyed her. Regina shrunk back uncomfortably under her searching eyes.

"But you have feelings for each other," Tinkerbell said slowly.

"How can you possibly be so sure?"

"I'm not blind, Regina. I saw the way the two of you look at one another."

"You did?" How did they look at one another? And when? Oh, just all the time, a mocking voice peeped inside her head. It was true. She had been stealing glances at him, and sometimes - often - she'd catch him doing the same. "It doesn't matter." But it did, of course it did. The more she insisted it didn't the more it mattered. Her stomach tightened. Suddenly, she was that girl from years ago again, standing in front of the tavern the fairy had pointed out as the location of her soulmate. "I can't deal with this," she blurted in a strained voice. "I just can't."

Tinkerbell squeezed her shoulder. "Why don't you at least try?"

"What if it doesn't work?" She meant it, she knew straight away. What if it doesn't work had effectively joined her biggest worry of what if she finds they have something and loses it again.

"What if it does?"

Regina scoffed, but her eyes burned. "What are the odds of that?" Things didn't exactly have a way of working out that well for her - especially not in the area of relationships of any kind.

"You'll never know if you don't even try. He seems like a good guy to me."

Oh, you have no idea.

"Is there anything wrong with him I don't know about? An extra toe? Or some vital part missing?"

Tinkerbell's attempt to make light of the tense atmosphere was a nice touch, but it wasn't enough.

"No." Regina stared at her hands.

Robin did seem like a good guy. He was kind and loyal and had a strong moral code, yet he wasn't judgemental and didn't moralise. He was brave and he had honour. He was neither a wolf nor a sheep, but something in between, or a bit of both - he didn't fit into Regina's simplistic model of the world. Indeed, he'd successfully uprooted what remained of a view she'd already come to suspect was faulty. He was a constant challenge to her sharp tongue, matching her taunts with clever comebacks of his own. He respected her boundaries, even when it clearly didn't suit him.

So how was it possible that he'd managed to ever so gently push those boundaries out of the way an inch at a time? He'd even undermined some of the unfavourable notions she'd nurtured about herself - or he'd tried to. No, there was nothing wrong with Robin Hood.

"Not with him," she whispered.

"Regina, you need to give yourself a chance at happiness." The fairy paused and inclined her head. "You deserve it."

"Do I?"

"Yes." Tink's answer was sincere, she could see that - the fairy had always been an open book, and she wasn't playing at anything this time either. Regina's eyes stung as Tinkerbell smiled at her. "You do."