I'm so sorry it took me so long to update, my beta had a busy life (thank you again, Fi!)

Hopefully you'll forgive me.

Chapter Seven

She stood in front of him, completely speechless. "I..." she started.

Robin stepped towards her, placing his hands on her upper arms. "Regina," he began carefully, "Is it true?"

"I don't know," she answered sincerely, her throat tight. "It is... possible."

"What do you mean it is possible?"

"I hurt many people, Robin. Marian wouldn't be the first nor the last."

Robin stared at her, aghast, his mouth hanging open in disbelief and his blue eyes wider than ever. He still hadn't loosened his grip on her, though he appeared so shocked she could probably vanish in front of him and he wouldn't notice. However, Regina fought the urge flee, to hide from everyone and everything, to hide from the voices in her head, shouting she had been a fool to believe she could change, to believe even for a second that she could turn her back against evil. She couldn't run away from her past, it always caught up with her in the end.

She could cleanse herself from all the dirt that burdened her heart, fake a lovely smile to cover up the rottenness inside her, but she would never be able to get rid of the darkness.

Deep down, she had always known that this day would come, the day in which the pressure of her past would be too much and Robin would snap like a cane. Her past was a cold, merciless wind, and Robin was only a fragile human.

"What, are you still here?" she burst out harshly, snapping out of her thoughts. Why didn't he berate her, shout at her until his lungs went weak and his head started spinning? Why was he still there, how could he bear to stand so close to the woman who had destroyed his happy ending?

"Where else would I be?" he sounded genuinely confused, something which irritated Regina. How could he be so naive?

"Anything but here," she replied and, for a moment, her voice sounded miserable. "The question is not where you would, but where you should be, Robin."

"Regina -"

"Why don't you just leave me be? I've messed up your life enough as it is."

"You didn't -"

"Yes, I did!" she shouted, not caring if they were in the middle of the street for everyone to hear. "I fucking ruined your life! I killed your wife; I'm the reason why Roland is an orphan, I'm the reason he doesn't even remember his own mother!"

He stood quiet for a moment before replying, "Roland is not an orphan anymore."

Regina snorted loudly. "Robin, I ruined your life from the moment I set eyes on you, that day at the tavern. I chose vengeance and hatred over love and forgiveness. If I had met you that day, you wouldn't have become an outlaw, you wouldn't have..." she took a deep breath, trying to steady her voice. "I made both my life and yours a living hell."

"You didn't." She opened her mouth to retort but he squeezed her arms to prevent her from interrupting him again. "Regina, your choices didn't define my life. It was I who chose to become a thief. I made my choices, you made yours. And don't start over again with hatred and vengeance because I know very well what you're talking about."

"No, you don't," her tone was icy cold.

He threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "Please stop acting like you're the only one who's ever known darkness!"

"Excuse me?"

"You always judge yourself so harshly, like you are the only one who has ever walked down an evil path... well, you're not."

She arched an eyebrow, her upper lip curling in outrage. "And I suppose you know what darkness is."

"It wasn't easy for me when Roland and I lost Marian. I sought revenge; I thought I'd find comfort in hatred. I had changed so much my men found it hard to recognize me; I wasn't Robin anymore, just a grief-stricken man driven by anger and regret."

Regina swallowed hard at his words. She knew exactly what he was talking about: for years she had been another woman, mercilessly driven by anger and bloodlust. She wasn't Regina, but the Evil Queen. Her grief and power had erased her identity, her compassion, her naiveté. There wasn't room for Regina anymore in a world of darkness and hatred.

"You see, that's the problem," she started, once she managed to recover. "You're Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, who robs the rich and gives to the poor - the kind-hearted and brave Robin of Locksley! People will always love you despite what you do, evil or not, but the same doesn't go for me."

He opened his mouth to reply but she interrupted him. "In spite of my attempts at changing, people will always see me as the Evil Queen: the merciless woman who tortured and killed their loved ones, the tyrant who made their lives hell."

She lowered her head and stepped back from him. The whole situation was becoming unbearable, she had to get away before she broke down and poured out her whole heart in front of him. She had already opened herself to him once and look where it had gotten her. He shouldn't see her so vulnerable again.

"Not for me. You aren't that to me." The simple sincerity in his words made her feel like crap.

"Why are you so adamant about trusting me, Robin?" she snapped at him. "I'm a terrible person. I deserve nothing but to be left alone!"

"Because I love you." His response was so quick she hadn't the time to brace herself. It hit her like a train at full speed, knocking the breath out of her.

She gasped aloud, stumbling back. "You can't," she babbled. "You can't possibly... love me. I'm... I'm..."

He approached her and took her by the arms. His touch burned her skin, despite the freezing weather. "You are not. All those monikers do not apply to the Regina I know."

"Oh, they do, "she snuffled. "Apparently you don't know me that well," she added in a cold, distant tone. There it was again, her walls, rising at incredible speed between them. Suddenly she didn't feel so hot anymore, only numb... and tired. She stepped away from him, putting space between them.

"Regina, don't do that again," his voice pleaded.

"Do what?" she asked him rudely.

"Run away."

"I do not run away."

"But you are, right now. You are running away from me and from everyone else."

"I -"

"You don't need to. Not with me."

Of course I do. "You don't know what you're talking about," she replied instead.

"Regina, don't."

"I killed your wife, Robin! Doesn't it shake you even for a bit?"

"Yes, it does. Greatly," he admitted unwillingly.

She sucked in a breath. "Then you have your answer. I'm not the one for you."

"Regina, you didn't let me finish," he started.

She ignored him. "It's time for you to go, Robin. I had enough."

But he hadn't. To him it was never enough, it was never over. "If you think I'm going to let you shut yourself away from me you're wrong!"

"Watch me," she challenged in a slow, dangerous tone.

She turned to walk away from him but he caught her arm, spinning her to face him again. She protested loudly, yanking her arm from his grasp with a violent tug.

"Regina, please. I don't want this."

"And you think I wanted this? Oh yes, I couldn't wait for my happy ending to be taken from me AGAIN!" she was practically screaming hysterically now. "Don't you dare speak to me about what you wanted or not because you know what, Robin? You have everything. You have friends who love you, a son for whose love you never had to fight tooth and nail and you even got your long lost wife back, why could you possibly want more? I'm just a side bump on the road, a flaw in the whole process!"

"You're not!" he protested angrily. "You stubborn, infuriating woman, don't you see how much I care for you? Why do you keep pushing me away, like you did in the Enchanted Forest?"

"Because you lost the right to care for me the moment Marian returned." She sounded so heartbroken while uttering those words that his heart shattered to pieces.

Regina walked away determined not to turn to look at him, determined not to let him make his way into her heart ever again.
He called to her and she slowly stopped walking, a furious fight going on between her head (screaming not to turn back) and her heart (pleading her to run right into his arms).
In the end, she turned wordlessly to him, her face an unreadable mask.

"Please, don't let me lose you again."

She shook her head sadly. "Oh, you haven't lost me, Robin. It is I who lost you."
With that she was gone, leaving a hollow emptiness in his heart, where she had been.

Robin walked through the forest feeling a great sense of void inside. His conversation with Regina had left him speechless, shaken. He still couldn't believe that, more than thirty years before, she had been the one to kill Marian.

He had told the queen he had lost his wife during a job; however he had omitted that she died while trying to help Snow White. He hadn't told Regina that because he didn't want to displease her and make her feel guilty. Back then he thought black knights had killed Marian because she stood in their way, helping Snow escape, but he would never have imagined that the queen herself had ordered Marian's execution.

The mere thought made him shudder violently. It was a cruel joke of destiny: his soulmate killing his wife, it was as if his future had tried to erase his past.

Robin thought about Regina's expression when she learned that yet another bad deed done in the past had caught up with her. She looked so miserable while she anxiously waited for him to break up with her, to cast her aside and disregard her as a monster, a killer, a tyrant.
But he could never do that. The old Robin might have, the angry, violent and drunk Robin he had been during his first months without Marian. However, despite her past action hurting him now more than ever, he knew he could never judge her. Not when he knew her so deeply and intimately, not when he knew what she had been through to live up to the expectation of others, not when he knew how much she had suffered and lost.

The Regina he knew now would never be capable of this. The Regina he knew was a woman broken by the innumerable challenges and losses of her life, a woman who fought every day against the darkness trying to drag her down. The Robin of today knew how hard it was to fight against something much stronger than oneself; despite what Regina claimed, he had been, once, in the same situation. If only she would let him in.

Letting out a deep sigh, Robin continued walking until he reached camp. He knew there was a lot to do today as he had made plans to move his family and band of Merry Men to Granny's.
Friar Tuck was the first to meet him, his round, ruddy face lightening up in a jovial smile at the sight of the archer. He was telling him everything was ready for them to move from camp when a small presence hit Robin full force in the legs.

"Papa!" his little man squealed.

"Hello Roland," he greeted, crouching down to muss his curly hair. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

Roland nodded, "Yes, I eated with Mama. She said you was out on a job. Do you want breakfast, Papa?"

"I'd like to, little man. Where's your mother?"

"I'm here, Robin." Marian emerged from the trees wearing a sheepish look on her face.

"Good morning," Robin greeted in a low, careful tone.

Tuck, who had been watching the exchange, took Roland by the hand, asking him to help with the packing. When their child eagerly accepted, the friar disappeared in the midst of the tents, leaving them alone.

"Robin, I'm sorry for what happened last night," Marian commenced, not tearing her eyes away from him for one moment.

"Yes, I'm sorry too."

"No, I... I behaved really badly. It's just that I do not trust that woman at all."

"You made it perfectly clear," he assured her with a half-smile, trying to make humor of it.

"Can we take a walk?" she suggested seriously.

Robin seemed taken aback by her suggestion, "Of course".

They walked through the woods, Marian keeping a respectful distance from him. "I can see it, you know," she started after a long silence, broken only by the rustling and creaking of leaves on the ground.
Robin didn't speak, waiting for her to go on, his eyes staring at the ground like he wanted to bore a hole into it.

"You are acting strangely since we found each other again, Robin." She stopped, forcing him to look directly in her eyes. He could see so much of Roland there.
"I know you care for me but... you also care for her, don't you?" she asked gently, all the irritation and snappy comments of the previous night long gone.

"I do care for Regina, yes," he replied truthfully.

Sorrow filled his wife's eyes, though she did her best to hide it. He reached for her, squeezing her hand. She wasn't looking at him anymore now. "This doesn't mean I don't care for you anymore, Marian," he said softly.

"I know you care. It's just that... you don't seem to care as much as you once did."

He let out a helpless sigh and the sound of it pierced her heart painfully.

"After you died I... I couldn't bear to live without you."

"So it is true, what Emma said to me. I died."

"Yes," his voice came out in a broken whisper.

"She killed me." She delivered in a flat, matter-of-factly voice. It wasn't a question, but a simple statement. It made his blood run cold.

"It is possible. We will never know."

"Because I'm here, now. And I shouldn't be here. I should be dead."

"Don't speak like that -"

"How long have I been gone?" she asked in a strained voice, her eyes shimmering with tears.

"Marian -"

"Answer me, Robin," she interrupted him softly.

When he replied, his voice trembled and his hands were shaking. "More than thirty years."

He heard Marian's sharp intake of breath and his heart clenched painfully in his chest. He spoke with difficulty, his voice overwhelmed by emotion. "I know it is difficult to believe but the population of the Enchanted Forest went through many a curse: time has been stopped, time has been altered. That's why Roland is still four when he should be thirty-something, that's why you feel as if only a few days have passed instead of thirty years."

His wife looked at him at a loss for words; he knew it was a difficult thing to swallow. He felt that maybe breaking the news of his entanglement with Regina would be a bit too much information for her to cope with, although she had certainly sensed something about it.

He stepped closer to reach for her but she backed away from him. "I need some time alone, Robin."

"Marian, I'm sorry -"

"Please," she emphasized.

"Yes, of course," he relented. She turned her back to him.

"I'll come for you when we're ready to go." She only nodded in response.

He hesitated for a while but, since Marian didn't change her mind, he made to leave.

He had walked a few paces when she called him back. "Robin," she whispered, alarmed. He turned swiftly towards her. She was pointing at the trees, as if someone was there.

Robin stepped further towards her in order to see what was happening, hands ready to grasp an arrow.

What he saw left him open mouthed, staring.

The trees started turning white as the ice enveloped them in its crushing embrace, their leaves shriveling for the cold. A tall, slender girl had just emerged from the woods, her head held high although the fearful light in her eyes betrayed her regal composure.

Robin released the breath he didn't realize he was holding.

They had found Elsa - or better, she had found them.

Sooo, what do you guys think of it? Please drop me a line! ;)