Hi, so here is the first chapter of 2024! I hope you enjoy this chapter and this story and please let me know what you think (see previous chapters for more notes)

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

Storybook (Every Version Of You)

Chapter 5-Back Footed

In Storybrooke Regina stumbles across a man with a crossbow and a charming smile. Pity she doesn't have her memory.

God she was fat. Pregnant and fat and hungry all the time.

And since when did pickles taste so good?

She took a bite of another one and then wiped her hands on her napkin. She had taken to eating in the forest. Dangerous though it should be with this Wicked Witch around Regina prided herself on her dignity. And if she was being honest she wanted to be left alone. She didn't want to face down the town. People looked at her as if they expected her to have the answers, her son didn't look at her at all or when he did he looked at her as if she was a complete stranger. Emma Swan looked at her as if she still blamed Regina for causing all this pain and Snow White…well…Snow just looked like she wanted her baby.

And look…it was not that Regina didn't get it. Snow had wanted with all her heart to have another baby, Regina had not. The small part of her that was still the girl so very, very in love with the stable boy was rather gleeful that the shoe was on the other foot but right now she was tired and aching and hungry and fat and emotional and totally alone.

And she was now walking down a cobbled road in high heels (her feet might hurt but Regina had standards. Cora had taught her that much) and her belly was out in front of her and she was looking at that little cottage where the Wicked Witch had been hiding…where Gold had been hiding.

She didn't know what to make of that either.

A part of her was amused. The other part of her was exasperated. Naturally she was glad that her mentor had survived. Rumple as sad as it sounded was her oldest friend and the closest thing she'd had to…a kindred spirit. In some cases he a teacher, a friend, her father and a lover. Oh so they had never gone there but more than once both of them had considered it. The second Belle had gotten on the scene he had not looked twice at her and if she was being honest with Gold there had always been a part of her that wondered if he'd seen her or seen her mother…and God only knows what else he was hiding away from this time.

She was genuinely happy the man was alive…in her own way. She wanted to be happy that he was alive more. But the fact was that he was clearly being held captive. She didn't know what Gold might have done to avoid death, she didn't know what kind of rules he might have twisted or what laws of magic he had accidentally broken or broken on purpose.

And she didn't know how the Wicked Witch had gotten him.

As she walked down the path her hand on her belly under her coat feeling the steady thrumming kick of her infant she felt the crack of a twig that was most definitely not her.

Regina stopped dead (pardon the pun).

There was something here…someone here…she could feel it. It wasn't Gold either and she was sure it wasn't magical but magical didn't mean for anything in Storybrooke. If Emma Swan could have powers then anyone could have powers in Regina's book.

But not for nothing was Regina the daughter of Cora, and failing that the Evil Queen. Heavily pregnant or not she was not one to run away from a fight.

"Come out here and face me yourself" she shouted and then the whooshing noise hit her and she grabbed what whizzed past her ear without even thinking about it.

An arrow.

Before she could do anything other than stare at the bloody thing—since when did the Wicked Witch use arrows?—a distinctly male voice came out of the shadows.

"Apologies my Lady…I assumed you were a flying monkey"

She looked up and swallowed harshly.

The man stalking towards her was tall, sculptured with hard muscles and a jawline she wanted to nibble for some mad reason. She stared as he came forwards shaking the greying dark hair out of his eyes which were green and bright and staring at her intensely. He was stunning…she could not deny that…he was a stunningly good looking man and she felt her heart pound a little faster as he came towards her hand outstretched. She dropped the arrow into his calloused palm taking in the fingertips and she felt the strangest urge to ask him to put those hands on her for reasons she could not ask why.

Her baby inside of her was kicking away and away and away suddenly hitting her from all sides as if he or she knew that this person was important too her but Regina could barely speak. She could remember far away, long ago that she had heard stories of love potions that would drug a person and make them mute and deaf and blind and dumb and she had always laughed at them, thinking such things were beneath her, penny potions for stupid children and teenagers that could be made up by people in their kitchen hearth.

Now she thought she had really misunderstood the power of such things.

"My Lady?"

She stared at him and then suddenly the world was rushing up to meet her and she fainted in his arms.

When she woke up she was leaning on a bed that was worn and seen better days and there was warm water on her brow. It was a nice feeling, her coat was missing but her shoes were still on and she forced her eyes open as her baby was silent. She looked up to see the strange man still staring at her face creased into worry and a terrible concern that she wanted to soothe out of him.

"Hello" she said pushing herself up but the dizziness hit her and she had to lean on him.

"Easy there" he said helping her into a sitting position. "Easy My Lady. You fainted"

There was a pause as Regina leaning on his arm and battling dizziness and nausea sat up and stared at him and then.

"Well that was humiliating wasn't it?"

She meant it as a joke but it was too raw and she was too hormonal and damn emotional right now to master it well.

"Ah none of that" he said gently rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand. "None of that my lady. Pregnancy is a hard journey, when my wife God rest her soul was pregnant with our boy she was sick too. It happens…it is not a sign of weakness"

She nodded running a hand through her hair and sitting up straighter.

"Thank you for coming to my assistance. I thought…I thought you were a flying monkey"

He smiled and it showed a series of dimples that stretched across his face. He was stunningly handsome and she wanted to do nothing more than to scrape her hand across the stubble of his cheeks but she knew that he could still be a threat. Trust did not come easily to Regina. It would not come easily now.

"Not a flying monkey…but one of my men was turned into one by him…I wanted to make sure that this house held no cure to what had happened to him and I wanted to make sure that it was secured—"

"I thought Emma did that"

"I don't trust those gun thingies" he said with a grin.

"I take it then that you are from our Land?"

"I am…my name is Robin…Robin of Locksley…or as my enemies called me…Robin Hood"

Fuck.

She didn't know him from the Enchanted Forest…even if she did she wouldn't remember it but she'd like to think that she would. Certainly if she'd met him in her Queening days she would have had him up the backstairs and into her bed quicker than you could have said Snow White.

Actually no…not Snow White…talk about a turn off.

"My name is Regina"

"I know"

"You do?"

"I hear things" he said brushing aside the fact that she was the Evil Queen with a wave of his hands.

"Okay."

"Are you well enough to stand"

"I am" she said even though she was not wholly confident in what she was saying…

"I heard that you had woken up pregnant but had no knowledge of how you'd got there" he said cheerfully. "I…I can only imagine what the shock of that must have been."

"Thank you"

"I am not working with the Wicked Witch" he said finally. "Rest assured My Lady—"

"Regina"

"It's not really appropriate is it?"

"Please" she said standing up. She winced as her boots hit hard floor and then she felt herself steady. "I don't want to ruin this bubble of yours but I am hardly the woman I once was. I just…I appreciate your help. Call me Regina and I will call you Robin and we will call an end to this entire humiliation"

"It's not a humiliation"

"For me it is. I don't do weakness"

He rolled his eyes.

"God help me" he said to the ceiling. "Another stubborn woman"

She raised one eyebrow but then…

It hit her suddenly and a fear gripped her the likes of which she had never known before outside of Henry being in danger. She gripped his arm her nails digging into his skin and he turned to look at her green eyes widening as he took in the expression that was no doubt plastered on her face.

"What? Regina what?"

"My baby"

"What…oh God it's not coming is it?"

"No…it's not moving…before…it was kicking away and I—"

"Okay" he said and this time he did cup her face in his hands and forced her to look at her. "Okay don't panic—"

"But—"

"STOP PANICKING" he said firmly. "They pick up on it oaky…now you fainted…so maybe the baby got dizzy or something…it takes time…we don't panic okay…can I touch you?"

She stared at him her eyes wide with panic and then she nodded. It took her a second to realise that she was somewhat surprised that he was asking her for permission.

She was not used to people asking that.

His hand on her belly was warm and loving. The touch was heavy and delicate at the same time and she wanted to rest her head on this man's shoulder and let him be the protector for a while.

His fingers sped out on her belly, one hand was still wrapped around her chin and his eyes met hers and she wondered why he was so invested in this…or she would have done if she would not trembling at the thought of something going wrong. This baby was her happy ending, she knew it, with Henry it was the icing on the cake and vice versa but…this baby…this little miracle inside of her was all she had to love that would love her back.

She bit her lip with a sob enclosed and then…

"There you go" Robin Hood said quietly his face was slack with relief. "Kicking"

She took her hand down from her side and placed it where he said it and she felt it kicking away.

The relief that hit her was like a train and she shuddered leaning forwards into his arms burying her face in his neck and breathing in and breathing out.

"There you go" he murmured into her hair.

She pulled back wiping her eyes and he smiled at her and then pulled his hand off her bump. There was an oddness to the movement as if it pained him to do so. She didn't know what to make of that either. So much of this meeting felt like it was on the edge of something more. A prelude to a relationship of what should have been,

She didn't know.

"Thank you" she said wiping her eyes. And then…

"Can we start again?"

He smiled at her and she noted that his eyes were rather wet too.

"Sure we can" and then he held out his hand.

"Robin"

"Regina"

And the rest they say…or they would say later…was history.

And there you go I hope you enjoyed. I will try and update soon.

Next Chapter-Robin's point of view of this chapter (Chapter 5)