Bridging the Distance

by DoubleL27

Storybook, Maine is the perfect seaside town in which to raise your kids. The pace is slow, the townsfolk knows everyone and the tourists keep things afloat in the summer. The illusion is shattered when two boys go missing on their way home from school. Now their parents must work together to find them and figure out who is behind their disappearance.

4. Chapter 4

Darkness surrounded her and her mouth felt as if she'd tried to drink sawdust. Regina pushed her hands against the bedspread and groaned, stretching . She wasn't in her own room and she was sleeping on top of the covers. It wasn't like her. What had happened to her last night?

She blinked, trying to orient herself in the dark room. It was the robot on the desk, next to the computer that brought everything crashing back. She was in Henry's room. Henry wasn't here.

He was…

He was…

Regina couldn't think about where he was. She didn't even know.

Opening her eyes, Regina forced herself to bring herself back to reality. On Henry's bedside table stood a glass of water, with a sticky note reading "Drink Me" in Mary Margaret's loopy handwriting. Sometimes, it was nice to have a family member who loved you no matter what. Katheryn's cookies sat next to the water. A matching "Eat Me" sign was stuck to the edge of the plate. Regina grabbed the water and took a heavy gulp, hoping to ease the dryness of her throat.

Doing so, however, left the image of Daniel's smiling face looking back at her. Regina stilled, the glass half way from her mouth. When she returned the water to the table, she reached behind and picked up the oak frame with the pale, happy face looking back at her.

"Oh, Daniel, I wish you were here."

Daniel had always had a calm that Regina had admired. Perhaps that was why she had fallen in love with him so easily. Daniel was rarely ruffled. Even in the face of Cora's disapproval, he was unflappable, while Regina was often enraged. She was certain that he would've been able to handle this situation better than she was.

She needed him. While she wasn't sure how exactly he would respond to the news that their son was missing. She tried to picture what it would mean to tell him this painful truth. Daniel had loved Henry, even if he had never met his son. The nights where he would rub lotion on her growing belly and talk to their baby, of all the things he hoped for their future, all that they would never do with each other. He would have been devastated but he would have been with her the entire time.

If Daniel were here, he would have put a hand on her back and rubbed it, the same way he would with an upset horse. He might have been upset, even cried with her, but he would have emanated the calm she needed. Closing her eyes, Regina tried to call up his smell and the sound of his voice, but after twelve years, she couldn't quite pull them to mind. He was a ghost hovering on the fringes of her memory.

Henry had a lot of Daniel's characteristics. Hopefully, Henry would be calm as he often was when something disrupted their lives. Her son liked to take care of her, just as his father had. Still, he was just a boy, her boy.

She was going to bring him home. This house would be filled with the sound of boys shouting and playing again. There would be snow days next year with hot chocolate and snowball fights. Regina would face down the specter of a teenaged boy and the terrifying choices that would open to her son as he pulled away from her. She would not be her mother, determined to control him. She made the silent promise to Daniel's picture and hoped that if he was somewhere better, he would help her bring their son home.

Regina stared down at Daniel's beloved face. He had been gone for twelve years and she wondered if the life that she was giving Henry was the one he also would have wanted for their son. If Daniel were alive, who knew if she would've even become mayor. Henry would have been home if she wasn't. Of that Regina was sure.

"They took him because of me, Daniel," She admitted aloud to his picture.

Tears streamed down her face like a waterfall. Mayor had never been her goal. It had just been school committee when Henry was four and about to enter the schools, because her son deserved the best. Somehow that had lead to the council and eventually mayor.

Although, Cora had been proud. She had wanted to help. Regina had received the undivided attention of her mother. The approval in her mother's eyes for something Regina chose to do and not something her mother had pushed her on. Maybe she had gone too far. Maybe she had wanted too much. But she was good at it.

If she weren't good at it, no one would have thought to re-elect her. If she weren't good at it, Henry wouldn't be gone.

"I'm sorry," she told Daniel, finally, unable to think of anything else to say. He couldn't answer her, though. Not that it would help Henry. What Regina needed to focus on was trying to bring her son home while keeping her town intact, despite the forces working against her.

Returning Daniel to his vigil, Regina pushed herself off of Henry's bed. She smoothed the plaid duvet out under her hands and watched the wrinkles disappear. There was a meeting this afternoon she had to be prepared for. People still depended on her, even if her world was crashing down.

Mother would be proud, she thought to herself bitterly as she headed into the hall. Shower would be first, then checking her phone and email. Maybe something had come to light overnight. If she were lucky, Henry would be home in time for dinner tonight and it would be like he had only been sleeping over at Robin's.

The laugh in her head sounded too much like Mother's. Regina had never been that lucky.

The wind blew in briskly off the land, making Regina's hair dance about her face. Robin slid out of the cab of his truck, gravel crunching under his feet and began making his way across the rocky beach to the woman who stood still as a pillar in the face of the harsh wind, a black pea coat wrapped tightly around her while her jewel-toned gloves poked out from behind her elbows.

Once he was close enough to ensure that his voice wouldn't get stolen with the wind, he placed one hand on her shoulder and said, "Regina."

She jumped and turned, brown eyes full of surprise while her hair continued to whip into his face. "How long have you been out here?"

Robin shrugged, not wanting to tell her that he'd been out here all night, not really sleeping. Instead, he stuffed his hands into his pocket and rocked back on his heels. "Wasn't sure when you were going to get my message."

Her eyes darted about them furtively. Thin lines folded away from her eyes at the corners and her brow creased together. "I'm being watched," she said finally, her voice nearly blending into the wind around them.

"I'm not surprised. It's why I picked the beach. The wind will make it nearly impossible for anyone further up the shore to hear us." Robin put his hands on either of Regina's arms, "We're just two people, missing their kids, talking on the beach."

Robin needed her to believe it. They couldn't look too suspicious while they were out here. He hoped she could understand that not only was he comforting her but he wanted it to look like that was all he was doing. Whispering about how they were going to find their children by thwarting the kidnappers was not something that would help them in the long run if they were caught.

"They don't want me to call the police," Regina told him, although he swore he could hear the silent censure of Nottingham's ability as a sheriff. "Still, I don't think I can just sit by and do nothing. Or just give into their demands. It's not who I am."

Robin nodded, agreeing. "I think we need to take care of this on our own."

She huffed, clearly frustrated with him. That was not exactly accurate, or fair, Robin realized. Regina was frustrated with the whole thing. "How do you propose we do that? We don't have much information to go on and we're being watched."

"We know a few things, whoever took them, isn't one of the usual local criminals, even if someone in town paid for the kidnapping. The boys are alive and they're in the woods."

"How do you know that?"

"I have friends from my time on the force. And I got this last night."

Handing over his phone wasn't easy. The message from Roland was the thing keeping him moving forward despite everything else. Robin understood that Regina would need to read it for the same reason. Her eyes yesterday when Henry called still haunted him.

This time, hope filled her eyes, warming them and adding a light behind them. Regina looked at him with wonder and he couldn't help but think about what else might put that light in her eyes. "They have a phone. Oh, Robin, I swear-" Robin noticed her fingers itching over the buttons. "Have you contacted him?"

"I want to but I don't -" Robin sighed, taking the phone back and looking at Roland's message again. Would his son blame him for not getting back to him? Did Roland even know if his message had been read? "Their captors can't know about the phone, or they wouldn't have it. If I message him and the phone is discovered…" Robin could only imagine terrible things happening and it would be his fault. "I'm going to wait for Roland to try again when they're alone."

Regina nodded and Robin could see her shoulders creeping up towards her ears. He understood the sentiment clearly. There had to be more that they could do.

"We need to come up with a list of suspects, Regina, of who might have taken the boys. Someone has them and they're leagues ahead of us because they know they have them and know who we are. Without knowing that, we'll only be playing catch-up."

"I just...I can't imagine who would dare to take a child. It doesn't make sense."

"Most crimes don't make sense at face value. It's hard to make sense out of something that growing up you learned was wrong. Still, there are reasons people do what they do. Let's think about the facts and who would want to hurt either one of us."

"Who would want to hurt me, Robin. It's kind of you to suggest that the kidnappers could be targeting you, but I'm the one they have contacted. This person is coming for me and the town. They want me to reduce taxes on rental properties and businesses."

"Which you said would cripple the town. Who would be interested in that?"

"Gold, my step-father, ex-step-father. He's been looking for a tax decrease since I took office. He's not thrilled I haven't complied. I hate to say it, but my brother-in-law could be using Henry and this to get me out of office. He's on the advisory board and he hates that he's lost to me, twice."

"So, Mr. Gold and your brother-in-law. Is that it?"

"That comes to mind." Regina ran a hand through her hair and a bitter laugh burst from her lips. "It feels like far too many."

There was one person whom came to Robin's mind regarding his own lost child. "It's something," Robin told her. Picking your life apart like this, was painful. If he was going to ask her to do it, he should at least return the favor. "The person I can most think of wanting to take Roland is Nottingham, if it's to punish me. Still, after all this time, you'd think he would have given it up."

"He really doesn't like you."

It wasn't a question and Robin supposed it didn't have to be. Anyone who watched them interact could see it. "No. We were deputies together. Eric had feelings for Marian; those feelings were not reciprocated. He has held me accountable for stealing her, for gaining the praise of Sheriff Williams, for her death even."

"Cancer took Marian," Regina said matter-of-factly.

He heard his own laugh turn bitter. Robin didn't want to look at her face and see what happened as he told her the whole story. "Ah, yes, but she was diagnosed while pregnant with Roland and avoided chemotherapy until he was born. I killed her, in his opinion, by getting her pregnant."

"Robin."

The lump was back in Robin's throat. He tried to swallow past it, past the despair. Nottingham was crazy, but there was a part of Robin that believed the story. Marian had always said they might not have found it as quickly if she hadn't been pregnant. It still hadn't been quick enough to save her, in the end.

"Well, I told her that I'd rather have her than a child, which seems ridiculous now that I have Roland. Still, she wouldn't pass up the chance. It was ovarian cancer. Marian knew that it was her only chance to have a child she gave birth to. She couldn't bear to miss that. She fought for nearly six years, though."

"Robin."

He swallowed, pulling back the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. He was not going to cry here on this beach over things that he couldn't change. "Other than that, I've mostly kept to myself the past seven years. I run my business, pay my bills, keep tabs on my son."

Her leather-clad hand landed on his shoulder. Robin could almost imagine the warmth of her skin floating through to his. "You're a good father, Robin. Roland couldn't ask for better."

Finally, he turned and looked at her, managing a smile from somewhere he couldn't quite name. Perhaps Robin had gotten so good at faking it, he could manage a smile just about anywhere. "You're not a bad parent, either, Regina. Lord knows, I've trusted you with my son more than anyone else."

"And I you." Her fingers tightened on his shoulder. "You know it's not your fault that they went missing on their way to your house, don't you? They could have easily been on their way to mine."

"I could have looked for them earlier. I didn't leave the workshop to make sure they made it home on time."

"Robin, I wouldn't have been home for another hour after when you came to tell me what had happened. We would be that much further behind."

The boys were older now. They had begun trusting them with unsupervised time. Three years ago, Robin would have taken time off to go pick up the boys. He watched as waves pummeled the beach, rolling the pebbles smooth in their wake. "Maybe," he acknowledged, not willing to absolve himself yet.

Taking his eyes off of it, he met Regina's worried brown eyes. "You should go home. I'm going to check on some leads."

"I'm going into work." Robin opened his mouth to say something, but she raised a hand to quell him. "I have to work so I will not go crazy. Not to mention, these kidnappers seem to be interested in my job. I am not ready to cow to them yet."

Robin nodded, sensing the determination that lay beneath the worry. He would go out of his mind if he stopped moving. "Well, you know how to reach me if anything comes up."

"And you, me."

Robin gave one more curt nod, before giving her a quick hug. "We'll find them," he promised, unsure if he was telling her or himself.

Before he could think on it too long, Robin stepped back, shoving hands in his pockets and turned towards the parking lot. Long strides carried him back to his car.

They had shared the king bed rather than forcing one of them sleep on the couch or the floor. There'd been an argument and finally Henry had sighed and said, "Don't be stupid, Roland. There's no reason to be uncomfortable when the bed is big enough for both of us. We've shared one before."

They had, but it had been years ago. Well, at least four years ago, maybe more. Now there was usually sleeping bags and air mattresses and other things. Still, as the chill had set in at night, it hadn't been bad to be sharing a bed, a pillow stuck between them because...well, because.

Roland hadn't really slept. He wasn't at home and he wasn't at Henry's and he had never really tried sleeping anywhere else. His mind kept going to his dad and what he was doing. Would Robin Locksley be asleep with all of this madness? Probably not. He dreamt of trying to go home, of searching for his parents, but not being able to find them. The entire experience had left him restless and annoyed. A milk-less bowl of Cheerios had not helped.

Now that he was trapped in this house, with nothing to do but stare at the walls and avoid Hamhands, Roland was slowly going crazy. "I am going to die of boredom."

A swift kick was delivered to his thigh from Henry. His best friend was frowning at him. "Don't say that."

Roland sunk his head back against the couch and peered out the window where sunlight was struggling to peer at them through the trees. He had been awake since the birds had started at six this morning and he had no real clue of what time it was. "Henry, we have been here for less than a full day and I am ready to pull out my eyelashes for entertainment."

"Don't talk about dying," Henry snapped.

The fear hiding behind Henry's eyes hit Roland hard. "We're not going to die. You're too valuable."

Henry nodded. His fingers were twisting and untwisting, just like yesterday, and his eyes were focused somewhere that Roland couldn't quite make out. "Mom and your dad are going to figure it out," Henry said definitively. "They'll come for us. You sent him a message."

"Hopefully it went through."

"It had to," Henry said with a conviction Roland wished he felt. "And Mom's the mayor and your dad used to be a cop. They'll find us."

Roland thought of the uniform that still stood pressed in his father's closet carrying dust. He had been asking about it for as long as he could remember. His jaw clenched as he saw the look that would come into his dad's eyes whenever he asked. "My dad was a deputy a long time ago. Mom asked him to stop before she died. I mean, he had to give up the job while she was really sick, it's just...she didn't want him to go back to it after. She said I shouldn't be an orphan."

Roland often thought it would have solved a lot of problems for them if his dad had just gone back to being a deputy rather than making his living as a carpenter. The jobs came as they came and never really offered any consistency. Roland would have liked a bit of normalcy, a little bit of trust in when they would have money and when they wouldn't. He couldn't always ask Henry to front him, even if he did live in a mansion.

His dad would be counting on him though. They were a team. Dad always said that, particularly when things were hard. "I could try it again."

"I thought you were low."

"I am." Roland weighed the idea of using the phone again in his brain. "I put the phone on airplane mode just to keep the battery life and I didn't want my dad texting us with Hamhands around."

"Good idea. Do you think we should try again?"

Roland thought carefully about what Henry had just asked, and he rolled the other idea he had been having around his head. There was a better answer. Roland knew there was. He decided to try it out on Henry to see if his friend would go along with it.

Glancing again at his friend, Roland tried, "I think we should try to escape."

"What?"

"Henry," Roland sighed, frustrated. The cabin got smaller and smaller every minute he was here and he just wanted to go home. If they left, at least they would be doing rather than sitting. "We can't wait forever."

Henry shook his head, vehemently, making Roland's heart sink. "Our parents are going to find us. We need to stay safe."

Roland could see the speech welling up in Henry's eyes. Closing his eyes, resting his head back on the couch, Roland began to imagine Henry's expressions and hand movements. A speech from Henry was nearly like having one from Henry's mom. "We have no idea where we are. Even if we didn't get caught, which is highly likely, it still drops to below freezing at night. We also don't have coats or sleeping bags. If we get lost in these woods, we could easily end up dead."

"It would be something."

"We can't get ourselves lost or killed. It's like getting lost at the mall. We just have to stay put. Can we charge your phone while he's gone?"

Roland frowned at Henry. Without Henry's approval the plan wouldn't work. He was going to have to wait his friend out. Eventually, Henry would cave. He tended to see what Roland wanted in the first place. "Charger's in my backpack. Who knows what they did with it."

"Maybe we can go with your plan of trying to contact your dad again. This time he might get back to you."

Roland sighed, "Maybe."

Henry continued to stare at him with that defiant stubborn streak that Roland loved best when it wasn't turned on him. "Alright, I'm going to head to the bathroom. Texting is best from there."

Tension leached out of Henry, Roland could see it, as he was gifted with a smile. "Ok. I'll cough if he comes back."

"Thanks." Roland headed off to the bathroom, flipping airplane mode off his phone as he went. While he was in the bathroom, he could always test the bathroom window. There was no rule that said he couldn't. Best thing to do is to have a solid exit strategy if they needed to leave. No one could argue with that.

The stark black and white of the mayor's office had always been comforting. Regina had redone the entire space, with her own money, from the terrible 70s wood paneling and heavy furniture. The modern office was clean and allowed her to focus only on her thoughts and objectives for the day. Today, the contrast illuminated all of her thoughts and kept her from being able to distract herself. The budget was before her but her eyes kept crossing and she kept seeing Henry instead.

Clicking on the circular button on her phone, Regina sighed in frustration at seeing no new updates.

"Regina," Trina's head was poking in around the door. "There's someone here, but I can-"

The door was shoved wide and Trina was pushed out of the way. "Hey," her secretary chirped angrily. "No one said that you could come in here. The mayor is busy and she will see you when she sees you."

Moe French didn't care much what her secretary had to say. He barged right in while she chastised him. The grin on his face was sinister and she wanted him out of her office. Still, she was his mayor even if he had never voted for her. She managed a polite smile.

"Mr. French, what can I do for you?"

"Heard about your boy."

All of her strength went into not having her face move at all. She instead stared blankly at him, holding her rage back. Regina was her mother's daughter and she was not going to allow a bully to upset her.

If Moe French had heard that Henry was missing, then her mother and sister must have heard. Funny that she was seeing a man who hated her before her own flesh and blood. "Are you here to offer up information, Mr. French? If so, I appreciate it, but please take to the police as they are looking for any leads."

"How does it feel, Mrs. Mills? To lose your child?"

Regina blinked, trying to understand what the pudgy, disheveled man was getting at. "Excuse me?"

His teeth clenched together and Moe's voice was a growl as he asked again, "How does it feel to lose your child?"

Regina arched her eyebrow up, giving him a look that her mother had taught her to perfect. "Are you suggesting you lost your child?" She allowed a derisive snort to escape as she looked back at the budget before her. "Last I saw, Belle was here running the library. She might even speak to you, but I wouldn't know anything about that."

"My daughter moved in with your monster of a step-father and you wouldn't prosecute him."

Regina sighed and put her pencil off to the side. "Your daughter moved in with him after she graduated from high school, Mr. French. She had been 18 for almost a year. There is no proof that they began a relationship before she turned 18. Trust me, my mother wanted nothing more than to have his head on a pike and if she could have sent him to prison for sexual abuse of a minor she would have. Also, my office does not run the prosecutor's office or the sheriff's department. If that wasn't enough, your daughter never pressed charges against Mr. Gold.

"That being said, your daughter moved out, to my understanding, because you forbid her to see her boyfriend, even if he was close to your age. While I don't blame you, that is very different than having your child snatched off the street for whatever insane reason a person has to kidnap a child. Your daughter was visible around town during the two years she lived with Gold. My son is missing."

"My son is missing," she repeated, gritting her teeth together and keeping the venom in her voice. "He has been taken by criminals and while you and I agree that my former step-father is likely a criminal, you had the ability to hold on to your daughter. My son was walking home from school. Your daughter was an adult, legally. My son is twelve."

If she could burn him with her eyes, she would have. As it was, she picked up her pencil, refusing to let him bring her to her feet or truly see her shaken.

Looking down, she glanced over the documents with unseeing eyes. The words were blurs that looked like a foreign tongue. "You will leave my office or I will throw you out." Regina was proud of the calmness that existed within her voice.

After a few moments, with not a sound, Regina looked up to see him still standing there. She felt the fire light in her eyes again. This time, her voice was a low growl. "Do it now."

Her hard gaze followed Moe French as he scrambled backwards out of her office, her heavy white doors closing behind him. Regina felt the tears forming behind her eyes. She was not going to let the bastard take her off track for the day. Facing Gold and Walsh at the budget meeting was not what she was looking forward to. She would do it, however, because she had a town to run. Regina was not about to let anyone push her off course.