Author's Note: Just a short little chapter full of Outlaw Queen and Regal Believer feels. Hope you enjoy it. As always, I would love to know what you think. All reviews are very much appreciated!

Robin holds a sleeping Regina in his arms, unable to find any rest himself this night. Regina is joining him in Marian's guest room, not because it had been a bad day but because Henry is at Emma's tonight and Regina had been home alone. It had been Marian who insisted that Robin call Regina and tell her to stay over for the night, knowing that even on good days, Robin still struggled with a multitude of feelings that he refused to burden Marian with. So Marian made it clear that she has no desire for Robin and Regina to hide a relationship of which she is very much aware.

Regina had shown up with a pain relieving potion for Marian and an apple pie for all of them to share before bed. Though sharing a house with Robin, Marian, and Roland proved exceptionally odd, Regina decided it was really not all that much stranger than her weekly dinners with the Charmings.

Regina had tried to stay awake to talk to Robin once they settled into bed, but she had been exhausted and asleep in a few moments, leaving Robin to stare out the window lost in his thoughts.

He is pulled from his rumination by Regina's restlessness. It begins with her kicking him and the sound of soft, almost pained moans. Robin tries to calm her, rubbing her back and whispering to her. If anything this seems to make Regina more agitated.

"No, no, please. Please don't! Please Mother, no." The words, the panic, make Robin's chest ache. And then Regina is crying in her sleep, and he needs to wake her, needs to pull Regina from the dreams that are tormenting her.

"Regina! Regina!"

She bolts up. A dream. It had been a dream. Her mother's face fades. The cold dead faces of Henry and Robin fade too. Her mother's taunting voice, telling Regina that she deserves to be punished. She deserves to lose the people she loves. It's her fault, she's evil. She as good as killed them.

Regina lets out another sob, and Robin is beside her, so very close. Alive. He's alive.

"Regina, it's all right," he promises.

She blinks at Robin, her eyes wide and wet. Robin isn't sure if she's seeing him yet. She looks around the room frantically taking in her surroundings and then her eyes settle back on Robin. He smiles at her softly, but still fear settles over her face and she moves to leave the bed.

Robin reaches out for Regina's arm, only after he's taken it realizing how this might frighten her terribly. "I'm sorry!"

But Regina just stares at his hand and then back up to his eyes. And there is fear, but not fear that Robin will hurt her, and he feels grateful for that. "Regina," he whispers pleadingly, letting go of her arm. She looks so torn between running away again and staying. Robin stares at her and feels like he's watching her wage a silent war between the comfort that she obviously craves and everything she has ever learned. "Come here," Robin coaxes, seeing her eyes watering, staring at him so longingly. He reaches his arm out for her, and slowly, so slowly, looking so much like a wild, trapped animal that it startles Robin, Regina moves to him, sitting back against the pillow and letting him wrap an arm around her shoulders.

"You're safe with me," Robin promises and Regina manages a small nod, still getting used to the feeling of his arms. She looks uncomfortable, and Robin is fairly certain that is because of him. "What can I do?" he asks, hating the idea of causing her more pain. "You know that nothing will change how much I love you, don't you? There's nothing that you can tell me, nothing you can do to make me feel any differently about you. I know who you were in the past and who you are now, and I love you. I just want to be here for you."

"I know," Regina says, sounding frustrated, "It's just…"

"What?"

Regina shakes her head.

"You've held me while I've sobbed," Robin tells her. "You've seen me completely fall apart. Do you think less of me for it?"

Regina glares at Robin. "Of course not."

"Then why do you believe that I would think less of you?"

"I'm trying Robin," Regina says, new tears seeming to form in her eyes. "I'm really trying."

"Trying to do what?" Robin asks gently.

"I'm trying to fully be in this relationship and be a partner to you. I want that Robin, I promise I do." Is that fear, Robin wonders. Could she possibly believe that this would drive him away? "I just…I've never had it, and I don't know how."

Robin smiles so patiently, and Regina just doesn't understand how she deserves this, how he could think she is worth the trouble. "Then we'll figure it out together. I didn't mean to scare you Regina. I just hate to see you in pain, and if there's anything I can do to lessen your pain then I'll do it."

"I don't think I can talk about my dream right now," Regina apologizes.

"And you never have to if you would prefer not to. But if you want to talk then I am here to listen without judgment."

Regina studies Robin, his face full of understanding and love, and she still can hardly believe that she has him in her life. But she does. And maybe Snow had been right when she told Regina that others had forgiven her for the things that she struggles to forgive herself for. She's trying though, she's trying so hard, to let herself accept these gifts that she's been given. Regina leans over and kisses Robin. It's soft and tender, and Robin makes her feel so constantly cared for and loved. She just feels so loved with him.

"Can you tell me what you usually do after nightmares?" Robin asks. "Would you like to try to sleep or do you stay awake?"

"I generally can't fall asleep again, but I think…" Regina's cheeks flush at the words she's about to say. She feels like a ridiculous, weak child. She can hear her mother's voice mocking her. "I think with you here I'll be able to."

Robin smiles at first, looks so touched. But that look of fear is back on Regina's face, and he hates it so much. "Why does that frighten you so?"

Regina shakes her head, feels utterly ridiculous. How can she explain to Robin how terribly weak she is, how if she lets herself need him too much, she will shatter when she loses him.

"You can depend on me Regina, just as I depend on you." Robin's eyes bore into her, so much sincerity and love, and she's falling and falling, and she thinks she's so far gone already. She pushes the fear away and tells herself to be brave, to please, please not ruin something that is beautiful and makes her so happy.

"I'd like to try to sleep," Regina tells Robin, leaning her head on his shoulder and he takes the hint and slides down to lie flat with her. "I love you," Regina whispers. She needs Robin to know that her fear has nothing to do with him, but she needn't have worried because he's kissing her hair and telling her that he loves her so much.

Regina lies with her head pillowed on Robin's chest, and lets him wrap his arms around her. It's safety and love and these are things that Regina has always told herself that she was too strong to need from anyone else. But this feels so good, and she closes her eyes and tries to push her mother's voice from her head.

Henry is already home when Regina arrives with a bag containing two of Granny's chocolate chip muffins.

"Hi sweetie," Regina says, setting the bag down on the kitchen counter next to Henry. She presses a kiss to his forehead and marvels and how close her son is to her height now.

"I told you I was fine. You didn't have to come home," Henry tells Regina as he removes the muffins and hands one to her.

"Do you think I'm that easily fooled?" Regina asks, raising her eyebrow and tossing a piece of the pastry into her mouth.

"You should have stayed with Robin."

"He knows that you always come first to me, just as Roland does for him. I couldn't be in a relationship with someone who didn't understand that you will always me my first priority. Now tell me what's wrong."

Henry shrugs and picks at his muffin for a minute. Everything feels wrong about last night. Every interaction with Emma felt wrong and he hadn't known how to change that. The first thing Henry manages to tell Regina is: "I don't want Emma to call herself my mother."

"Why's that?" Regina asks, trying to keep her voice neutral. "I thought that you considered her as such."

"Look, I get that it's my fault, but I don't know how to take it back. You're my Mom, and I want Emma to stop acting like she is."

"I didn't mean that it was your fault. I'm just wondering what's changed."

Henry looks at Regina, and finally he thinks he understands how wrong he had been for years, how much of what Dr. Hopper had said when he was in therapy was true. "When I thought that you didn't love me, I really needed to believe that Emma was my Mom. But I know that you love me now and you wouldn't ever leave me."

Regina wants to cry and apologize over and over for how badly she hurt Henry, but she knows that isn't what he needs now. "I'm so happy that you know how much I love you Henry, and that I will always be your Mom."

"Emma is so different from you."

Regina smiles at Henry, trying to be encouraging, trying to let him have Emma in his life, even though so much of Regina screams with joy that her son might be rejecting the other woman. "That's ok. I think there's more than one way to be a mother."

Henry shrugs. "Maybe, but there isn't more than one way to be mine."

A few tears slip down Regina's cheeks, because Henry is telling her that she is the only mother that he wants, and that means absolutely everything to her. "Oh Henry," she whispers, reaching out to cup his cheek. "I love you so much my little prince."

Suddenly Emma doesn't feel like a threat, doesn't feel like an enemy. She's just the woman who gave birth to Regina's son, and Regina needs to do what she hadn't been strong enough to do the first time Henry asked about his birth mother.

"Do you know what you do want your relationship with Emma to be? Because I know you love each other very much."

"I don't know. I guess she's more like a big sister or a cool aunt or something." Emma isn't any of those things, Henry knows. She's something far more complicated, but right now he just needs for her to stop acting like she has the right to be his mother. "I mean, I want to visit her sometimes, but this is my home. And I just want her to know that she doesn't get to make decisions for me. She tries to do that all the time, and I hate it."

"What kind of decisions?" Regina asks, cautiously. She better not hear one more story of Emma trying to take Henry out of Storybrooke, of Regina is going to have a very hard time acting civilly.

"Anything!" Henry exclaims, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated and unsure of how to make right of this situation. "I just want things to go back to how they used to be."

"Everything will be ok," Regina soothes. "Think of everything we've faced. We can handle this." Henry nods nervously, and Regina just smiles at him, wanting to ease his fears. "I want you to remember this conversation when we are fighting about your math homework not being done," she tells him with a grin.

"Moooom," Henry whines.

"Music to my ears," Regina says, leaning over and kissing Henry.

"Would you like me to talk to Emma?" Regina asks.

"Are you two going to fight?"

"No Henry. We are going to do what we should have years ago and have a civil conversation about what you need."

"So you'd tell her that I can see her for dinner or maybe stay over once a week?"

"If that's what you want."

"I think so. I know that I want to live here with you."

Regina's beaming at Henry, so happy that he wants to be with her, and so full of love. And Henry can't believe that he once thought that she didn't love him, because it is so clear to him now that his mom loves him more than anything and would do anything for him.

"Ok, I'll call Emma and we will find a time to sit down and talk."

"Maybe you can call her later, so you can give me a little more time to think. It's just that I told her that I was looking for an apartment for us, and it's kind of my fault that she expects me to live there."

"Emma will understand that you've changed your mind," Regina reassures him.

"It's not changing my mind exactly. I kind of…well…I kind of lied about what I wanted."

"Why?"

"I wanted Emma to stay in Storybrooke, and I thought that maybe she would stay if she thought I needed her. I don't want her to leave me again." Henry doesn't realize the words until they're out of his mouth and his mother is looking at him with so much sadness.

"Henry," she sighs. "I wish I could make that promise for Emma."

"I know Mom. It's ok."

"It's not sweetheart. I wish I could make everything better for you Henry."

Henry wraps his arms around Regina, and relishes in the way she hold him tightly and rubs his back, just as she has since he was small. "I love you Mom."

"I love you too Henry."

"I know you do," he says, pulling back a bit to grin at Regina. That smile and that certainty, no matter what else Regina has done in her life, she thinks she has done something right with Henry. It matters more than anything else ever will.