This guided me

more surely than the light of noon

to where he was awaiting me

- him I knew so well -

Uggh. Walking...walking and walking and...

"How the hell do you stand it?" Regina asked Robin.

"Stand it? I love it," Robin replied. He patted a tree appreciatively, "I'm at home in these woods."

"Even when it's so dangerous?"

"Especially when it is dangerous," he grinned.

"Huh!" Regina grumbled. Men. "In our world men go bungee jumping, or snowboarding to get a rush. Nobody ends up dinner for some monstrous beast."

He shrugged. "This is my land. My world."

Yes. His world. Not hers anymore. Her world was where Henry is.

"But I will give credit where it is due," he continued. "You have won the point about putting that side of me more on hold, at least until Roland is older."

Regina smiled, "So something positive has come from all this."

"Yes," he answered, but looked away.

Stupid double meanings.

She continued hastily, "Children come first. Always."

"And you'll be with him soon," Robin squeezed her hand. He couldn't just let the moment pass, could he? Yet she was a little disturbed by the temptation to hold it there. He seemed to hesitate too, but then let go. "What's his name?"

"Henry," she replied, not being able to stop the smile that came over her face.

"A popular name," Robin noted. "The man from your world whom I helped had a son named Henry too."

Regina felt her lips pressing together. "Oh, it's the same boy."

He halted thunderstruck, "You and Neal?"

"Oh, hell no!" Regina exclaimed.

Robin frowned, "I don't understand."

"I'm sure he told you about Emma."

"Aw, yes. That was his mother, Emma."

"Emma was the name of the girl that he ... got in trouble, if you catch my meaning."

He looked as though he were mulling that over, "It's starting to make sense. Neal said he had many regrets."

"Oh, I'm sure he does!" Regina sniped.

"So, then you?"

"I am Henry's mother!" She said firmly. "I adopted him."

"Then he is your son," Robin said matter-of-factly.

"Well, in the other world it's not so simple," she let a breath of air out. "There are always… loopholes. And there was a heck of a one with me."

He began, "So when you came here…"

"I left him with his birth parents," Regina looked down. "I came here to stop a new curse, and if I fail, Henry will be fine. If I succeed, well, there's no guarantee he'll be mine, even though Emma and I agreed to share." She winced at how that sounded.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Regina assured him. "I am beginning to think it would be easier for him. Simpler."

"Simple isn't always better," Robin noted.

"I'll worry about that when the time comes. Now I know what I need to do. Make sure Henry has a world to be safe in… as for the rest…."

"Do you not have an advocate?" he asked.

"No," Regina laughed bitterly. "But then, I am the Evil Queen. Do I really deserve one?"

"That's for you to answer." Robin sighed, "As horrible as losing Roland's mother was, at least I know to whom he belongs."

"Yes. He has his father."

"I should be more grateful then, maybe." Regina shrugged. Robin placed a hand on her arm. "I hope it does work out, once you're home."

"Thank you," she allowed herself a small smile.

Then something made everything stop.

Looking back later, it all seemed to happen so quickly and yet seemed to take forever, that moment when the flying beast swooped on them. Regina ducked immediately, grabbing Roland and without a second thought placed a protective shield around him.

But that meant over nobody else.

She looked away from the boy just in time to see Little John and Robin picked up in its talons, then, disappearing.

Oh sh-!

And then it was over.

One of the men ordered. "We move on to the next marker, make camp, and then search."

Nobody said a word. Just obeyed.

Regina went up to the man.

"Please," he said. "Don't say anything. We'll look. Then we make decisions. If you think about it, you'll go mad. We've lost too many."

Regina nodded. That was the world they lived in.

As they walked on, Roland asked where his father was. Regina told him he was searching ahead.

It was as though it hadn't happened, except when they did set up camp, some left to search.

But gone. Just like that.

How could he and Little John fight off such a beast? Not without magic. She went over the scene again and again in her mind. She could have used magic to stop it, but her first thought was for the boy. As before. For Roland.

And that might have cost him his father.

Cost her.

Yet Regina went through the usual routine with the boy. As she started to sing him to sleep he asked after Robin again.

"In the morning," Regina soothed, "he'll be back in the morning." She couldn't do otherwise. If the worst was true, he was young. He would not hold the lie against her. He had such trusting eyes. He trusted.

He trusted her.

As she continued to sing, a forbidden thought came.

Her happy ending.

According to Tinkerbell, Robin was her happy ending. But these things are never clear.

Maybe, just maybe, in a way she never knew, the happiness was through Robin in the boy before her. She had grown attached to Roland and he to her. When they reached Rumplestiltskin's castle, it would be easy to take him with her.

To Storybrooke. Be her son. Completely hers. No parents to come later and make a claim. She would give him everything, a comfortable life, a world with antibiotics that wouldn't take those he loved with the slightest fever.

Hers.

How quickly it all changed.

Roland fell asleep, and she went to the fire. The fire where she and Robin would speak for hours. She stared blankly into the flames. Every spark gone. Every indulgent moment with him, just a memory. She looked beyond the flames then, into the darkness. In the darkness….she could find her love. With a new son. Finally.

Darkness.

And she felt horrible. Horrible first for her thoughts of taking Roland, and then because she began to miss that spark with Robin. That warmth. It was steadying. It was…

She wasn't sure what it was, but she would miss it.

Gone.

It wouldn't be the first or the last death. And she just had to move on. Move on. And then…

She heard uproarious talking, laughing.

Laughing!

Regina stood up and sped walked to the sounds. The Merry Men were surrounding Little John and Robin, both rather beat up, but in great spirits. Replaying blow by blow how they fought and killed the beast.

"Oh my God, I've never felt more alive!" Robin exclaimed.

That did it.

Her brain completely saw red. Yes. It was really was red she saw.

Red. Hot. Rage.

Regina strode right up to them. Robin halted when he saw her. Relief on his face.

She was now seeing white.

Blinding white.

"What the hell is this?" she hissed.

All stopped in their tracks.

"What's what?" Robin asked.

"What. The. Hell!"

Regina vaguely saw the men melt away, nervously retreating.

It was just the two of them now.

She advanced upon him. "Your son is asleep, and by the gods, if you wake him up..."

Regina pointed him to a safe hearing distance from the camp. She was seeing stars now.

Maybe it's true. A person's head can explode from rage.

"What the hell!" She was shouting now.

"I don't quite know, Regina," Robin said slowly.

"While you were off getting your testosterone fix and fighting the effing beast, I was back here with your son! YOUR SON! I put him to bed, and I lied to him. I lied!" And thought about kidnapping him. "I said his father was just fine. I said that you would be back for breakfast. Do you know what it's like to put a boy to bed knowing the next day you're going to have to tell him his daddy isn't coming home? Do you know what I had to do? Do you know?"

He was still as stone. Expressionless.

"And then you come back, all fine, and happy, and ….." Regina fished for the words. "And alive!"

She wasn't sure how loud she was by now. And she didn't care.

Finally Robin stirred and spoke, "My apologies, m'lady. The next time I am carried off by a foul beast, I will be certain to die."

Regina's chest was heaving and she felt her eyes spark fire. But she was calmer.

She straightened. "Thank you. I'm glad we got that sorted out."

"No, it's not sorted," Robin said, his voice dangerously calm.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I would have you know that I was nearly bloody well killed," his voice was building to a climatic shout as hers had, "and then I come back alive, only to be greeted by a shrieking woman!"

"Shrieking? SHRIEKING?"

"Yes, dammit!" Robin threw down his bow.

"Well what the hell did you expect?" Regina spat.

"Maybe I bloody well expected that I would be greeted as any sensible woman would, with the kiss I deserve!"

"Oh, well, wouldn't you like that….Isn't it always…" She abruptly stopped. Looked at him. "What?"

"You heard me!" He looked rather terrifying.

Regina's mouth opened. Then shut with a clack. Robin's chest was heaving too. She had never seen a man so furious. His eyes were on fire. Like he was about to commit murder.

As she felt. And…

And yet he had said… Had he?

Then she must have taken another step because Robin was closer. So close, they were nearly touching. Or had he moved?

This was insane.

Regina looked up, and he was looking down.

Screw it.

She stood on her toes and kissed him.