"Bleeding Through"
Be still, deadening north
wind; south wind, come, you
that waken love,
breathe through my garden,
let its fragrance flow,
and the Beloved will feed amid the flowers.
Regina was driving Roland out to the Merry Men's camp.
"Mommy?"
"Yes?"
"Why don't we leave flowers for my mommy in Heaven?"
Their routine.
Before the year they lost.
They didn't have a place for Marian because…
Regina let out a breath. She just didn't have time for the emotion, but glancing in the review mirror, Roland was earnest.
"We leave flowers for her at your home in Sherwood Forest, sweetie."
But Roland was still frowning.
She sighed, "Would you like us to do it here?"
He nodded.
"Then we will," Regina told him. "Next time we'll..." Find a place, make up a little headstone? Something. Sometime?
But not now.
She'd talk to Robin about that later.
Regina dropped the boy off with Robin and then headed home, only to find a basket of green apples waiting for her on the doorstep.
And returned to the camp minutes later, frantically, even though she knew it was already too late.
She saw Robin clutching his son to him, and didn't need to ask, but did anyways, "What happened?"
Robin set Roland down, sending him off with Friar Tuck. "I'm sorry. It's gone."
"Was anyone hurt?" she looked to Roland.
"Luckily, no." His eyes followed hers.
She knew.
"Again, I must apologize," Robin continued none-the-less. "You trusted me and I let you down."
"No, you didn't," Regina said. "Nothing's worth the loss of a child." She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and then, "But now we have a problem. I'm alive."
"I don't follow." Robin's brow furrowed.
"She has my heart," Regina explained. "Gold's taken it for her. And since she hasn't crushed it and killed me, that means she wants it for something far worse."
"Worse than murder?" Robin asked incredulously, "What is she planning?"
"It doesn't matter, because I'm going to stop her."
And she whirled around without another word and headed made a bee-line for Gold's Shop.
Late that night, every single nerve shot straight to hell, Regina was back, but she skirted the camp when she saw that Robin was not there. Snow's words still echoing, a brief search brought her to a fire and Robin staring into the pit. When he saw her, he jumped up and again began to apologize. Regina stopped him with a kiss, and things almost went where they had to. But they stopped, only for him did she. And then she let her Lover hold her again.
"We can't go on like this," she whispered.
"I know."
"When the witch is gone."
"Yes. "