A/N:

Hey Guys!

As promised here is an update for you! This chapter is shorter than the last one (sorry!) but contains some pretty exciting information that's going to rock the boat a bit...just not quite yet. It starts off after the dream, but this time from Regina's perspective. This is the last chapter where we'll be jumping around in time...

The next update will probably be Thursday, as i won't have time to update before then thanks to work and New Years.

Thanks for all the views, favourites and reviews. Criticism/ideas are always appreciated!

Enjoy!

Rosie xx

Fairytale Land 2013

There was a chill in the oppressive stone walls of Regina's castle when she awoke, as opposed to the usual warmth of her insulated and heated house back in Storybrooke. The light sheen of cold sweat that layered her body also wasn't doing her any favours. She pulled the sheets tighter around herself as she attempted to return her breathing back to a normal rate.

She had seen Emma. As Regina well knew, dreams worked differently in her current realm than in the world where the blonde was, but something about Emma's magical abilities, even when lying dormant, had allowed a dual dream to occur. It was like Henry and Aurora's shared dream. They were either experienced purposely, one person seeking to find another in the dream realm, or subconsciously. Regina suspected that her thoughts of Emma had prompted their dream, and her thoughts about Henry too. One thing she was sure of was that Emma had experienced the exact same thing, wherever she was right now. She had felt her presence. The blonde she saw the previous night had been the real Emma, not a figment of Regina's mind created from memories of the woman.

Seeing Emma, although it had been distressing and emotionally draining, had also been wonderful. There was part of her that had truly been sure that she would never see the other woman's face again, and now she had, all she wanted to do was to see it once more. The moment she had laid her eyes upon Emma her heart jumped into her throat ferociously but that feeling was shattered when Regina realised that the blonde didn't know who she was. It was heartbreaking. It had only been two days, realistically, but Regina missed the woman more than she cared to admit, and she missed her son more than she could put into words.

She had an awkward morning encounter with the Merry Men that featured the supposedly "Evil" Queen practically running – albeit regally - across the yard away from them in order to avoid a situation she didn't think her fragile psyche could cope with at the moment. It wasn't like she would ever admit that she was feeling fragile; but Regina just didn't have it in her to fight that day. Last night's dream had left her psychologically drained and the Charmings – mostly Snow - had been exasperatingly annoying at every possible moment. She inadvertently started walking towards the stables, all she wanted to do was go out for a ride and clear her head, escape the noise of the castle, but the only horses they had were packhorses and she couldn't exactly gallop them through the woods. Zelena was also lurking somewhere in area, and after this thought Regina resigned herself to the conclusion that there wouldn't be any riding in the foreseeable future.

She needed to talk to David and Snow about the Merry Men and it was almost evening; she had been putting it off all day. Regina wasn't entirely sure why she was pursuing this whole tattoo fiasco; it was probably something to do with the fact that she was driving herself up the walls already, and really didn't have anything better to do. Nothing could be done at this moment to help reunite her with Henry and Emma, so this was the only thing she could thing of to distract her thoughts away from the two of wasn't sure how to bring the subject up without the Charmings wondering why she was so curious and for a few seconds she contemplated telling them the truth, but this thought fled as quickly as it had arrived.

Her feet lead her to the courtyard where her favourite apple tree had once stood, the huge circular plot in the centre was now hollow from where the curse had magically uprooted the tree and taken it to Storybrooke. She wished she could have brought it back with her this time, but there hadn't been a spare millisecond to think about how to do so because her mind had been clouded with the emotion of leaving Henry.

Lost in her thoughts, Regina didn't notice David come to a stop next to the white marble bench she was resting on and take a seat silently next to her. They both sat in stillness for a number of minutes, the brunette now noticing who had taken up residence beside her. She glanced at the tall, broad man next to her. She had always been much more amicable with Mr. Charming than with Mrs; he usually didn't share his wife's penchant for meddling and recently, the similarities between he and Emma had been more obvious to her than ever before. She and Snow had too much history for Regina to see any of Emma in her, and they were so vastly different, but the blonde seemed to share an increasing number of characteristics with her father. She was bold and brave, good looking and gallant, confident, a little bit cocky, and Charming in every way he was. Maybe that's why she was contemplating opening up to him.

You have nothing left to lose at this point Regina. Just ask him.

Before she spoke, she steeled her face into the most perfect version of her mask. She couldn't deal with the humiliation of what her questions may imply, or let him know that she actually might care about what the result of this whole mess was going to be.

"May I ask you a question?" Regina requested politely as she turned her body to look at the Prince side on.

Ever the gentleman, he gave her a short but reassuring smile and answered, "of course you may Regina." That sounds like something Emma would say.

She almost stopped herself, but the emotional trauma of the last few days had forced her guard down and she found herself speaking before her brain could catch up with her mouth.

"This is going to sound strange, but please don't question why I'm asking. I had wondered about your involvement with the Merry Men," she asked formally, then added, "and I am curious about the lion head tattoos."

"Strange questions Regina…but regardless," he began his story, starting from years before Snow or Regina knew him, years before he was even a prince.

"I was living on the farm at the time, with my mother. This was before King George, long before I became Prince James; I was only thirteen or so. We were struggling desperately for money and it was getting so dire that it looked like we might lose our home. I was out in the field one day when Robin and his men came out of the forest. They stopped me and asked if there were any large homes or castles around, or any roads that were commonly travelled by the wealthy aristocracy. Of course, I told him that we were just a small village of farmers with nothing to our names other than the animals we tended. I asked who they were, and they introduced themselves as the Merry Men, they told me that they stole from the rich and gave to the poor…and of course we were desperate, so I asked if I could go with them. Long story short, I left my village and rode with Robin for almost two years. I can't say I was proud of what we did, but we were kids back then, Robin was only my elder by four years. We did what we could, and I returned home every few months with money for my mother. It was shortly after I left them that King George found me and my alias as Prince James began." David stopped for a moment, letting Regina ask any questions she might have.

Dusk was beginning to settle over the immense stone parapets of the castle. The sun now lay low in the sky behind one of the towers, casting the courtyard into shadow. It wasn't cold yet, but the chill of the night crept in around then slowly.

Regina had to admit she was vaguely impressed by David's story. She realised then that she didn't really know all too much about David's past before Snow, and it made her insides glow to think that Snow White's charming prince wasn't always the goody-two-shoes that he was now. She smiled a shit-eating grin…internally of course.

"I had no idea you were such a miscreant Mr. Nolan. Do continue, what about the tattoos…?" she asked hesitantly.

"Well, Robin had the tattoos created with a spell, I'm not sure by whom. They appear on the body once you are fully bonded into the Merry Men. I gained mine after about four months of travelling with them." David moved to continue, but Regina interrupted him before he had the chance.

"You say that they're magically created? I have heard of such a thing before but they stay forever, and I may be mistaken but I have never seen a tattoo on your arm."

"As I was going to say Regina…", he said looking at her accusingly for interrupting him, "I gained mine after four months, but when I left them and was adopted by King George he forced me to have it removed. He said although the crest looked remarkably like his own, the tattoo itself was related to the notorious band of thieves, which is understandable, I suppose. So he took me to the blue fairy and she was able to remove it because a fairy had created the spell in the first place; one who wasn't as powerful as she, so she managed to undo the magic successfully."

"Do you know who this fairy was? The one who created the spell?"

"I have no idea I'm afraid, but I'm sure Robin would still remember. Why did you want to know about this Regina?" he asked, not managing to stifle his nosiness at why the Queen was asking him such specific questions about his past.

Regina rose to her feet then, turning to David before speaking;

"No reason at all, I was just interested. Thank you very much." She said curtly before swishing her dress train and striding across the courtyard, heels clacking emptily on the stone path as she made her way inside the castle.

Regina spent the next day sitting in her chambers, reading up on several things including magical tattoos and true love, the latter being something that she hadn't realised until now that she didn't know all that much about. The prospect of being sociable today had been too much for her, so instead she watched the interactions of her fellow Storybrooke residents through her magic mirror, all the while keeping a watchful eye out for Zelena.

She sat, waiting for something interesting to ripple across the glass. When she saw Robin and Tinkerbell speaking together in the Great Hall she immediately halted the rotation of mirrors with a click of her fingers. This could be interesting; she wasn't aware that Robin and Tink knew each other, so what could be happening here, she wondered.

Their faces were slightly warped by the undulation of shiny surface, but it was clear enough that Regina could make out their facial expressions, and luckily they were close enough to the mirror that the brunette could just about make out what they were saying.

A look of pure shock covered the woman's face as she began to listen and heard that the two characters in front of her were not strangers…they had met before.

"Well, it certainly has been a while Tink," he said fondly, reaching out and pulling her into a short embrace. "It was such fun when you used to come and ride with us… I will always be upset that you had to leave."

"Oh Robin," Tinkerbell replied in her accented voice, her hand still resting on his upper arm. "I have missed you, and the men. I like to think I broke most of their hearts the day I left," she chuckled.

"You were the Merry Men's own fairy mascot," he said teasingly, "and yes, you almost certainly did, some more than others," he said, remembering the day she left; young Will Scarlet was miserable for weeks. He had been terribly in love with her and her abandonment of the group had almost torn him in two.

Tink grabbed Robin's arm then and admired her handiwork from all those years ago. She ran her fingers over the flesh gently; tracing the lines of the design and using what little magic she had now to make them slightly sharper.

Robin looked up at her then from where he had also been staring at the tattoo.

"It still looks as good today as it did when you created the spell, its barely changed."

The breath Regina had been inhaling caught in her throat and choked her. The anger immediately bubbled up inside of her and she felt the purple power within her crackle with wrath. With a flick of her wrist the mirror was dark.

She reached to the table next to her and found her flask of wine from the previous night. She poured herself a large glass of the rich, red liquid and drained it in two gulps, pouring herself another before she allowed herself to contemplate what she had just seen.

Tinkerbell created these tattoos. She created them beforeshe used the fairy dust to find Regina's true love. Regina's mind's eye flashed back to that moment outside the tavern with Tink and she felt humiliated. Tink might not have known which member of the Merry Men was sitting there, but she knew who they were; she knew that it was one of them. Regina was beyond furious. Since Neverland she and Tinkerbell had been getting on well, but now all she could wonder was whether Tink had known all along who her true love was and not said anything. She needed to find out. And the fairy needed to pay. It did cross her mind that she shouldn't care this much, but it was a welcome distraction. It wasn't like she really cared that much about having a true love, and she didn't really want anyone, other than the pair that had been missing from her life for four days now, she just wanted to know who it was to satisfy her own painful curiosity.