Author's note: A little late, I know, but it's getting a bit harder to write at this point in the story. But fear not, I am determined to finish it in a timely manner for you all. (: You thought perhaps Regina letting Robin go was the last they'd see of each other? Think again! (I know none of you probably thought that, haha.) Enjoy!

Three months.

It had been three months since Regina let the thief go.

But who was counting, anyway?

Try as she might to forget, day after day the image of the lion tattooed on his forearm haunted Regina. She convinced herself that there are plenty of men with lion tattoos, pixie dust does lie, she's perfectly happy living in hatred and revenge.

Still, it seemed as though that lion crest wasn't so much tattooed on the thief's forearm as it was on the inside of Regina's eyelids.

Ever since Regina had released Robin Hood, there had been no sign of the thief. She was intrigued that he actually obeyed her command to stay out of her sight.

(Not that he actually stayed out of her sight whether he was physically present or not.)

Regina groaned in frustration that she was even thinking about this. "Driver!" she shouted out the window of the carriage. "Aren't we there yet?"

"The next inn is in a few short miles, Your Majesty!" the driver yelped, whipping the horses along. Regina huffed. After three months of fruitless Snow White searching, at last she had decided to take a personal vacation to the eastern sea. Just a few weeks, she told herself. It would be like she wasn't even gone. In fact, in order to ensure that hardly anyone knew she was gone or even traveling, she made sure to travel in a smaller carriage as opposed to her typical large, very regal one, and avoided using the royal road.

"Your Majesty, you've never taken a personal vacation since you began the search for Snow White," the Mirror had said as Regina paced about her chamber.

"Which is exactly why I need one! It will only be a few weeks. I need this time to rejuvenate and reorganize. When I return I will be more fresh and determined than ever before."

At least, that's what she had told the Mirror. And herself.

But if she were honest, she knew that this trip was to try and take a moment to just relax and forget about the past and what could have been. She needed to take a while to remember why she did what she did, chose what she chose.

As she stared out the window of her carriage at the slowly darkening forest blurring past, Regina couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, and she began to feel drowsy. But she dared not dream in fear of the thief appearing once more.

Not that that was a common occurrence or anything.

Yet somehow, amidst the rumble of the road and the less-than-comfortable arrangement of this common carriage, Regina drifted into a much more familiar place surrounded by the scent of hay and the soft thump of hooves on dirt. The warmth of an embrace as she, young and hopeful, fell into the stable boy's arms. The feeling of his hand against hers as they turned to run out of the stable, the metal of the makeshift brass ring he had given her cold against her finger. The terror that shot through her soul at the sight of her mother. The utter distress as Cora stepped forward and plunged her hand into Daniel's chest and ripped out his heart.

"Mother no!" Regina cried out. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but when she reached out to stop her, Cora was nowhere to be found, and it was Regina grasping the heart. And when she looked up at Daniel, his face was no longer his own, but the thief's.

"No! No!" Regina sobbed, dropping the heart to the ground. She curled into herself, falling to her knees as the thief stared at her with that same furrowed brow.

"Daniel!" she shrieked. "Daniel…"

Regina's eyes shot open and she lurched forward, breathing frantically. A beat passed. A dream, Regina realized.

But something was different. Instead of the familiar bump and roll of the carriage, everything was dark and still. The carriage was no longer moving. Regina called out to the driver. When she received no response, she reached for the door, but it swung open before she could touch the handle.

A blur of dark figures piled into the cramped carriage, surrounding Regina. Still groggy and disoriented, something grasped Regina's arm and slung her out of her seat in time to witness several shadowy figures in the trees land with a collective thunk on the carriage roof. Regina moved to stop them, but her hands were being held behind her back tightly by whoever had dragged her out of the carriage.

"What do you think you're doing?" Regina commanded, but her voice was still slow and rough from sleep, and the figures continued to scour her carriage. She was being robbed, she realized. What was she doing? She should be making trees fall on these insolent bandits. Regina took a moment to orient herself before stomping hard on her captor's foot. He screamed out in pain as Regina began a complex hand motion to begin the spell.

"She's got magic!" someone cried out, and before she could crack a single branch, she heard a distinctive twang, and a sharp pain exploded in Regina's thigh. She fell to her knees with a screech. When Regina looked down, a long wooden arrow had found its way into her leg. She reached down to touch it and was met with a handful of blood.

Regina tried to stand up, but the pain was too great. Someone had taken hold of her hands again, and for the first time in a long time, Regina felt utterly helpless, and it drove her crazy. She was the queen, a powerful sorceress, and here she was watching tired, injured, and defenseless as a band of thieves looted her carriage when all she wanted was a vacation.

After a while, Regina began to feel feverish and lightheaded from blood loss. She had long given up on resisting her captor, and things were becoming gradually quieter as one by one the thieves made off with, well, everything. At last, only three figures remained. One was large and fat, the other tall and skinny, and the one in the middle well-built. Regina clenched her teeth, ready to spew every insult she could with the little energy she had left.

"Apologies, Milady," came a familiar, accented voice, and Regina nearly fainted right then and there. "We wouldn't have robbed you if we'd known you were a magician. Luckily everything worked…" the thief trailed off as he approached Regina and she raised her face to the moonlight to stare right into those powerful pale eyes.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

Three months.

It had been three months since the queen had released Robin and he and his men left Sherwood Forest for the time being.

Three months of restless nights trying to understand the complexity of this woman, trying to figure out why she'd let him go after seeming so bent on killing him as soon as possible.

Three months of trying to simply forget about her and follow her order never to let her see him again.

And yet here he was, staring straight into her eyes, tired, but still sharp as ever.

"Surprised to see me?" she said in her usual tone, only Robin could tell she was weak and tired. When he glanced down, he saw the arrow lodged in her thigh and the blood slowly staining her clothes and the soil beneath her. The arrow he had shot.

"You're injured," was all he could think to say.

"I'm… fine…" the queen panted, but she was swaying on her knees and promptly fell to the ground unconscious.

Robin chewed his lip, a strong sense of guilt settling over him.

He really had tried to stay out of the queen's way, but that wasn't going to stop him and his men from doing what they did best. So when a rather wealthy looking and unguarded carriage came rumbling down the road, Robin never imagined that it could be her inside. And of course at the mention of this being a sorceress they had robbed, Robin knew better then to let her use that against them, so he let his arrow fly without a second thought.

But, as it turned out, he, the honorable thief, had stolen from the queen, again, and injured her as well, and now she lay unconscious. He couldn't help but feel pity for the great and terrible Evil Queen so completely vulnerable at his feet, and all his doing.

"What shall we do with her?" asked the Merry Man who had been previously restraining her. They all knew who they were dealing with now. "I'm sure the whole kingdom would benefit if she were to go mysteriously missing – "

"No," Robin said firmly. "I… I did this. I shot her, and now she can't even stand up."

"What are you saying, Rob?" Little John asked incredulously. "We should nurse her back to health?" He chuckled.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Everyone stood silent.

Friar Tuck was the first to speak. "Robin, I know you may feel as though you owe her some debt, but this is the Evil Queen, we're talking about – "

"Not just the Evil Queen," Robin insisted. "This is a woman whom we – I – attacked and injured. Evil Queen she may be, but she showed me mercy when I didn't deserve it."

"Robin – "

"No! I will hear no more of it. Are you a thief with honor or not? We may steal from the rich, but that doesn't mean we leave them to die, no matter who they are." Robin looked pointedly at each one of the surrounding men. "Take her back to the camp."

When no one budged, Robin braced to repeat himself, but something stopped him. He looked down and took a deep breath, realizing with a pang that this was his responsibility.

Slowly, he bent down and positioned his arms under the queen's body. He heaved her up, careful not to disturb the arrow protruding from her thigh, and walked briskly into the woods, knowing that time was of the essence.

The remaining Merry Men followed behind at a distance. Robin's arms grew tired along the journey, but he managed to carry the queen nonetheless, and when they arrived at the camp, he was quick to take her to his tent and lay her on his bedroll.

"Go get Arthur," Robin instructed Friar Tuck. Arthur, being a former apothecary, was about the closest thing they had to a doctor.

Friar Tuck turned to leave but hesitated. "Robin… are you sure?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," Robin replied. "And no one is to lay a hand on the queen while she is here. If they do, they will answer to me. Do you hear that?"

Friar Tuck nodded before ducking out of the tent. The next thing Robin knew, he was alone in his tent with an unconscious queen. He couldn't exactly leave her there, he thought, but the whole situation felt utterly strange.

It was dark, but by the moonlight streaming through the tent he could barely make out her face, and all he could think was that without the scowl she constantly wore, she didn't look particularly evil.

Regina awoke with a start. She was surrounded by a low green cloth illuminated by white sunlight seeping through an opening. The air was chilly, but a thin blanket covered her, and she realized she was wearing different clothes from the night before. Her ornate black gown had been replaced by a simple brown dress. Her whole body was hot and shaky, and when she tried to sit up, a sharp pain shot up from her leg, and she screeched.

It was only a moment before someone rushed into the tent. Not just anyone, of course, but the familiar built figure shrouded in his signature green. The previous nights events came rushing back.

"You!" Regina spat upon the seeing the thief. She tried to push herself away from him, but it only made the pain worse, and she cried out.

"Milady!" the thief shouted, kneeling down beside her in the cramped space. "Please, calm down! It's all right, I won't hurt you!"

Regina scoffed, swallowing back the pain. "I'm not afraid of you," she sneered.

The thief frowned. "Then why are you trying to get away?"

Regina managed to wipe a stream of sweat from her brow and shook her head vigorously and shutting her eyes tight, mind racing to think of anything but the answer. "What's going on? Where am I? What are you doing to me?" she said, changing the subject.

She spared a glance at the thief, who cast his eyes downward as he spoke. "Last night… We ambushed your carriage, remember? And I… I shot you with an arrow. And then you passed out."

Regina's face grew hot with shame at how that must have looked. And here she was now, which meant someone must have carried her.

Regina avoided all thought of who was granted such a task.

"Anyway, now you're at our camp."

Regina thought for a moment. "So… you cared for me? Why?" She had tried to kill him, after all. Threatened villages in his name. Ripped out his heart, even, though in her defense she put it back.

The thief rubbed his neck nervously. "I…" He sighed. "I didn't know it was your carriage. I didn't know it was you," he admitted. "I shot you, and… I owe you a debt."

Regina frowned. "A debt? After I tried to kill you?"

"But then you let me go, though I'm still not quite sure why."

Regina sat silently for a moment, and then began to sit up. "Well, it seems I'll have to be going then," she grunted. She shifted her leg to stand up and again a fresh and harsh pain shuddered through her body, and she cried out. When she glanced down, she found that the arrow from the night before was gone, and when she lifted her skirt just high enough, she saw that it had been replaced by several tight strips of cloth wrapped around her thigh, a red stain seeping through them.

"You can't travel in your condition, Milady."

Regina huffed and shifted uncomfortably for a moment before glancing back down at her leg. "Who did this?" she asked, gesturing to the bandage.

"That would be Arthur. He's… something of a doctor. It's a good thing you were unconscious, or else you would've had to endure the pain of his removing the arrow."

Regina's eyes grew wide. "Something of a doctor? I'll be lucky if my leg doesn't fall off!" she groaned.

The thief threw up his hands. "Well then why don't you heal yourself with some sort of… spell or something!"

Regina froze for a moment letting out another exhausted sigh as she pressed her palm to her face.

"What is it?"

Regina ground her teeth for a moment and took a deep breath before replying. "I'm not exactly fluent in healing magic," she said flatly.

The thief raised an eyebrow. "But you're a skilled sorceress… shouldn't you be able to– "

"I know, I know! I just always spent more time inflicting pain than taking it away, okay? Oh I knew I should've listened to Rumplestiltskin when he said to always know it just in case…" Regina massaged her temples, more annoyed at herself than anyone at this point. And man who shot her was standing in the tent.

"So what, you don't have any spell books you can just look at?" the thief enquired.

"Yes," Regina replied. "In my castle."

The thief pursed his lips. "Well. This changes plans."

Regina almost laughed. "Oh, sorry for ruining your week when you robbed and then shot me!" She sat back, her frustration doing little to help her ignore the pain. She sat up once more. "Wait, my carriage, we can take it– " The thief shook his head. "What is it this time?" Regina demanded.

"You really think the carriage simply remained untouched overnight?"

Regina let out a long breath. A million things ran through her mind at that moment, but in the end all she could think to do was simply lie back down once more. After a long pause, she said through clenched teeth, "So now what?"

The thief sighed and examined the ground for a long moment. "Now… I suppose you'll be staying with us until you can travel."

Regina balled her hands into fists and stared at the canvas of the tent above her. "I can't believe I'm stuck in a camp of peasant merry freaks, no less with the thief who has robbed me twice now, even after I let him go and hoped never to see again."

She expected him to make some remark about her having to deal with it, but he caught her off guard with, "Why did you let me go?"

Regina froze, at a complete loss for words. Oh, that was just because I felt like something was physically stopping me from crushing your heart, and then I saw your tattoo, and, well, there's a chance you're my soul mate and well it freaked me out so here we are. Yes, that would bode well.

After a long silence, she played with the skirt of her dress and changed the subject. "And where did these rags come from?" she asked.

The thief narrowed his eyes, clearly noticing that she hadn't answered his question, but he didn't push her further. "The Merry Men are not completely lacking in female companions," he explained. "That was Dave's wife's. Arthur changed your clothes when he tended your wound. He said your gown was too blood soaked and constricting."

Great, she thought. Live with the peasants, look like the peasants. "How long? Until I can travel?" Regina asked, hoping to leave as soon as possible.

The thief sighed. "Arthur said it would be a few weeks." Well, there went her vacation. "And," the thief continued, taking on a more serious tone, "if you use an ounce of magic on anyone while you're here, you can forget about us helping you."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Thief. You won't have to worry about me." Another moment of silence, then, "Well, aren't you going to feed me something?"

The thief looked at her for a moment before at last bowing his head. "Yes. Of course, Milady."

"It's Your Majesty."

The queen was proving to be rather… difficult. Amidst the constant complaints, the insults, the threats, Robin had to remind himself quite often why he was doing this. Because it's the right thing to do, he thought again and again.

It had been only a day since the queen had become the resident invalid, and she wasn't taking it well. She asked to be moved into a larger tent, and when Robin informed her that this was the largest they had, she demanded to at least be moved outside. In the end, she wound up beside a tree beneath a small canopy. Robin was at least thankful that he got his tent back, though when he slept in it that night he found that it still had her scent (sweet like apples, but with a bit of spice).

The Merry Men had been handling her relatively well. Of course, without Robin's strict orders, there would likely be chaos, but they knew better than to test their leader's resolve. He had to admit, however, it was hard when the queen was constantly bombarding them with references to their 'dishonest' profession and mistrust at what she considered feigned nobility. Robin managed to brush it off, but he wasn't sure how much longer his men could take it. Arthur, in particular, could be found murmuring profanities under his breath every time he stormed away from a check up on the queen.

On the bright side, once her needs were met, the queen remained relatively out of the way in her little corner of the woods. That's where she was now, anyway, appearing to be deep in thought as Robin gathered bits of firewood nearby. He knew better than to speak to her – the queen seemed to hold a particular grudge against him for some reason. Of course, he had robbed her twice and injured her, but she treated him with particular animosity when she wasn't avoiding him altogether.

Still, it was strange that the queen of the kingdom was taking up residence in his camp. In the brown dress, she could almost pass for a peasant, he thought, providing she didn't speak. Her regal tone gave her away.

"Thief!" she called out. Robin turned towards her, surprised. She hardly ever addressed him.

"You know, I do have a name, Your Majesty," he informed as he approached her curiously.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, Robin Hood. Anyway, I think I have a plan."

Robin blinked in surprise. "A plan? For what, dare I ask?"

"To get me out of here!" she said as if it were obvious. He supposed it was.

"Oh? Did you remember a spell?"

She shook her head. "No, but I remembered something else. If my bearings are correct, then not far from here there should be a waterfall. Legend has it that this waterfall has healing properties. Nothing major, but at least enough to speed the healing process of my wound along, if not heal it completely."

Robin pondered this for a moment as he knelt down beside the queen (close, but not too close). "Okay, so I simply journey to this nearby waterfall and bring some water back?"

The queen sighed. "It's not that simple. The water only works when it's rushing down the waterfall. Otherwise don't you think I'd be exporting it by now?"

Robin blinked. "So…"

"So I must come along."

Robin shook his head. "No, no, no, Your Majesty. I told you, you're in no condition to travel."

The queen slammed her hands down in frustration. "It's not like we're going all the way back to the castle!" she griped. Her shoulders rose and fell as she took a moment to collect herself. "Look, I told you, it's not that far. A few miles. I can manage. Slowly." She grabbed one of the nearby sticks Robin had been collecting. It was rather long, and it smoothly curved flat at one end to form a sort of T. "Perhaps with this," she said. "As a crutch."

Robin let out an exhausted breath as he began to stand back up. "Your Majesty, I simply can't—"

"You can and you will!" the queen demanded. Her lips were pursed and her eyes intense. Even without her usual severe makeup, her expression was commanding and difficult to disobey.

Robin shut his eyes and clenched his teeth for a moment before looking back at the queen. "Very well," he conceded. "We shall leave in the morning."

The queen grunted in disgust. "I'd rather not have to spend another night in this filthy peasant commune."

"The feeling is mutual."

But as Robin walked away, though he felt he should consider the queen's accelerated departure a blessing, he couldn't help but feel a strange emptiness at the idea.

I hope you enjoyed it! Next up is the spiritual journey of bonding. Please review so I know what you think!