And here we go!
A lot of italics are flashbacks meant to be Regina's memories from previous parts of this story. Skip if you dont like.
Usual disclaimers
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And only four more to go!
Storybook Love (Every Version Of You)
Chapter 16-Affair Remembered
Back to Storybrooke and Henry and Hook are bonding, until the flying monkey's arrive. And Regina cannot stop herself from telling her son that she loves him...and we all know what happens next. Flashbacks Included.
She had been at the diner brushing snow of her coat when Emma announced that Killian was at the docks with Henry and that Zelena was on her way. There was something else about time travel but Regina was both too tired and too annoyed to ask more. She had slept very little in the last two days even after the whole Ariel coming debacle and she found that her nerves were shredded so much so she had started biting her nails again and it was not a good sign when she did that.
Living with Robin and Roland was a new thing, they both slept on her pullout and most of the time they were up before she did. Getting them used to the modern world was something…showers Robin got easily, coffee he didn't like, ice cream Roland would go mad for but he didn't get the TV. Bugs Bunny was something that she had to explain because he got very upset when he thought the rabbit actually got hurt all of the time which meant that anything involving the black and white cat and the damn yellow bird was not going to go down well. But it was nice to have something or rather someone to share her house with, to share her life with.
Robin had taken to getting the house set up for the baby in her absence. He was quite good with his hands he told her helping her assemble a mobile and Regina had, had to make an excuse and gone to…well you know…take care of something quickly while she imagined his hands on her body smoothing down her skin. She couldn't help it, he was too good looking for his own good and he delighted it seemed in spending time with her even when she was hideously unqueen like and glamourous.
But he helped in other ways too. Pizza was an easy thing in their house now and it hurt because she should not be calling it 'their' house. Pizza and bathtime, Roland eating cake and getting excited when the bath bomb changed the water a different colour. Chocolate milk for breakfast—that had happened once and then Robin had put his foot down because he had figured out that contrary to his son's personal opinion it was not healthy for a growing boy—and eating out of a carboard box. It was normal and though her heart broke for the son that looked through her she found that Roland and this baby, that Robin was something off the edge of the pain that kept growing with each passing day.
And if she heard Emma Swan speak to her son like that again she was going to rip that blonde hair off the head and set fire to it. She did not know what Emma was planning because she could barely see past the end of her pregnancy but she knew that she was planning something and that worried her. Emma and her had the match of the other woman it had been their way since she had first arrived in town and that had been that but the other thing to consider was that if she was defeated by Zelena or God forbid held up in bed for her then that would be the end of that. Emma could do what she wanted and there was nothing that anyone could do to stop her. Regina knew this, she knew everyone around Emma wouldn't stop her, it was just her.
And so that was just one more thing to add to the pile of worry.
But Robin helped take the edge off. He would sit and talk to her about whatever was bothering her or just listen sometimes. He asked her once about baby names and she had confessed that she didn't know and so he had left the next morning and come back with a book on baby names and had picked out his top ten for both girls and boys which were actually quite good. She had been looking at that list more than once and had concluded that she liked several names on that list.
But she didn't know still what she was having, this baby was a blessing and if this baby was born safe then that was an extra blessing and she did not care what she was carrying. She told herself that over and over again but she had to concede that if she was being picky she would like a boy…she knew what she was doing with a boy, she had raised one and she liked to think she had done a semi good job even if Emma Swan liked to pretend that she didn't.
But that didn't change matters. She and Robin had been eating breakfast at the dinner when it was annoyed that Hook was with Henry and that Zelena was after them.
It didn't take long for them all to spring into action. The dinner was alarmingly full and the snow was sticking on the ground. It was all the grounds for a dramatic battle.
Zelena was Cora's daughter just as much as Regina was, she too would have her eyes on the aesthetics of the murder.
When she arrived she saw the flying monkeys and Hook and Henry with their backs up against the wall.
"Oh hell no" she heard David Nolan cry out and for once she could agree with him.
She turned to shoot another fireball at one of them, she didn't care she thought as she saw him burn to a crisp, if that monkey had once been a human being, right now that thing was standing between her son and safety and so he had to die.
And die he would.
She fired another fireball at another one and then another and then when the dust had settled she turned around heart hammering baby kicking away inside of her to see her son looking at her with those wide expressive eyes. There was no distrust in his eyes, considering what he had seen there was not even a thought to question her about it instead her sweet little boy reached out and touched her arm as if he didn't have a care in the world and said very sweetly.
"Are you alright, is the baby okay?"
Regina stared down at him her eyes filling with tears and she was aware that Robin snapping another arrow in his crossbow coming to stand next to her. She couldn't…she didn't know how to take her eyes off her son however and so she bent her head and kissed him feeling the tears threaten against her eyes.
She loved him, she loved him so much and he didn't remember her but he cared about her, he always cared about her and his little brother or sister and there was nothing, nothing other than her children that she cared about.
"I love you Henry" she said into the skin and she felt the warmth of his hair that smelt of a shampoo she had not gotten him under her nose. She could feel how he had grown under her skin, she could feel how he was changing from boy to man under her fingers.
And then suddenly…
And then, in the depth of her despair and misery and agony, fate decided to throw her a bone.
A shuddering wind flew through the pier staggering her backwards into Robin with the force she turned around fingers still twisted in a death grip in Henry's hair to face Emma Swan who too had silent tears dripping down her face standing just at the end of the pier watching though why she was crying Regina honestly didn't know.
And then something moved under her hand.
Henry was moving under her hand.
"I love you too" Henry said beaming and then she dragged him into a hug.
Nothing else mattered she found, her son was back, her son was back in her arms and then…
And then it all hit her.
Robin.
Robin.
"I'll be good" he said softly. "I promise you"
"Just as long as you remember it's me"
She meant it as a joke but he smiled at her softly gentle rather than amusing.
"Oh I don't think I'll be mistaken" he said softly. "I don't think I can forget about you"
And before she could say anything else his mouth was back on hers and she found herself awash with pleasure.
It was nice she realised. Graham had been the last man in her bed and he had been lacklustre at best. Daniel and her had never gotten that far…not really and Leopold was a memory best left forgotten. She had never had a man between her legs that had laid there solely interested in her pleasure, in her, in the entire thing. She did not know weather or not she wanted to dive in deeper when it came to her feelings about Robin but right now she was living through the moment and the moment was living through her. She loved him, it was odd to think that after such few weeks together but this was what she thought anyway. When she had lost Daniel she had thought that she had closed the door on that part of her life but now Robin Hood was forcing it open with his charming smile and his twinkling eyes and the fact that she was utterly enjoying it.
They spent every night together now, he would come and join her once his son was down for the night and they would fuck like rabbits until she was quite sure she didn't know what her own name was. He knew that her soft spot was being eaten out. Daniel had never done it, Leopold would have never dared to dream to do it, and Graham had never bothered to worry about anyone's pleasure but his own and the last few times she was under the impression that he was fucking Emma Swan in his head.
When Robin had asked her hand tapping on her thigh if she didn't like it she had, had no other recourse other than to tell him the truth. That she didn't know what it was like to have someone's mouth down there.
Robin Hood had stared at her for a moment as if he was stunned into silence. Regina did not like to think what kind of rumours had been spread about her over the course of the years that she had been in a fight with her insipid stepdaughter but the truth was she did not go through life fucking every solider she met.
And then he had grinned and that was when Regina had known that she was well and truly fucked. Robin had a dark side that came out when he was in bed and she was rapidly learning it now. It was a dark and dangerous side and so her lover had lowered his head between her legs and that was the last thought that Regina had, had in a long, long time because when he was done her thoughts were scattered to the ends of the Enchanted Forest and back again and likely not to be found for a long, long time.
Damn him.
She'd got him back. Sinking to her knees one night to take him into her mouth his eyes blown wide open as if he'd had no idea that Queens even did that. When she had quipped that she could also put the Crown on her head if he wanted her too he had shot her a look that had been the definition of pure and utter filth.
And wasn't that a challenge that he could expect the Evil Queen to rise too!
She had licked and sucked at him until he was biting down hard on his lip refusing to let any sound escape. Then she had taken him all the way down to the root and that had been the end to any hope that he had, had of remaining the silent stoic warrior. Robin Hood from that moment on was at the mercy of Regina, The Evil Queen and she wouldn't have had it any other way.
Afterwards they had tumbled to bed and the nights continued in much the same way as they always did. It was there little secret. Only if his son was in danger could anyone come to the door and Regina had never been more relieved to see that her magic worked as well as it did in those lazy days where she went through the day pretending that she was fine and in reality she was not, instead just waiting until the nights came so she could listen to his knock, slip him into her room and then be with him until sunrise crested their bodies.
It was love for her she knew.
What it was for him she did not know.
It was all so dangerously frightening. She did not know weather or not she was able to separate her feelings from this man from the lust. Did not know if she could meet his son and play nice happy families.
The whole thing was an aching mess.
So she took the stolen nights and made attempt to make them enough even though she knew that they were not enough.
The sickness plaguing her was an odd phenomenon. There was no two ways to describe it Regina DID NOT get sick. She came from a time where medical advancements were primitive no matter what and sickness in a child's younger years often meant death just as much as war meant death to an older one. It was par for the course really but she had never been sick as a child. It might have been because she had grown up with the best of things but more than likely it was the magic. Or maybe it was just because Cora did not allow people to get sick. Any kind of sickness that Regina had, had when she was a child would have been banished away probably taking three village children for the price of her own life.
She was not sure really how much of Zelena's story she believed in but she did have to concede that she would not put it past her mother to believe that one child's life should prioritise the other.
As she sat there breathing through her nose intimately acquainted with her chamber pot she found that she was shaking somewhat. She dragged herself to her bed and wrapped up in the furs. She was tired and aching and alone. Robin had gone back to his men with his usual trademark wink and it took her a moment to realise that she never asked him to stay the night. Maybe he didn't want to but she never asked and he never asked. It was one of those silent things that kept them going throughout their arrangement. If that was what it was.
She was not so sure for her that was what it was anymore.
It had been a long time since she had felt like this.
There was a pause as she shivered with the aftereffects of throwing up and then the vertigo was back increasing the nausea. She sat up and pulled the stack of paperwork at the side of the bed to her looking over her engagements that she had. There was a very little if she was being honest but it was a routine that she had used as wife, as mother, as Mayor and it kept her going now as Queen of a half kingdom that was not her own.
She sighed looking over the dates and then she paused.
She had kept the same thing that she had done in Storybrooke. The same routine and so on the day that her period was due to start like she had done in Storybrooke she had marked it with ink. Now she was staring at the underlined note and she realised dimly that she was over a month late.
A month.
Well…she supposed that it could be stress. If one was to look at this like a rational person then she supposed that she had been to hell and back…quite literally…recently. Netherland must have wreaked havoc on her body and then there had not been a chance to relax between coming home and coming back here. So she was a month late. It wouldn't have bothered her that much if it wasn't for the fact that she knew she had gone straight from the Enchanted Forest to Storybrooke the first time and everything had been running like clockwork. Had carried on running like clockwork despite the fact that she had managed to upend a world and create a new one.
There was a pause as she looked back down at the book and then she frowned.
A month late? That was odd for her she had to admit.
The more she thought about it the more that she came back to the same thing, a month late might be explained away by a fluke or magic or anything else that she might be able to describe but the truth was she was having sex. Actually to hell with that she was having quite a bit of sex. And the one thing that she had never considered was weather or not her contraception worked post realms. She had never really bothered with it, once Henry had been born times for something other than herself were few and far between and even then she had timed it down to a quick ten minutes before her baby had needed her again. With Graham she had used a pill. With Robin…
Oh hell.
With Robin she had not thought to use anything.
She dropped her quill. There would be a huge ink stain on her sheets but she did not care nor did she care that it was going to be a mess to clean out. Suddenly her world had taken her to a place she had not been sure that she could go.
Pregnant?
Pregnant?
But she had yet to tell Robin. Actually…scratch that, that was what she was going to do right now. Tell the baby's father.
It didn't matter she told herself sternly as she looked at herself in the mirror. It didn't matter if he thought that she was bad, too bad to have a child. It didn't matter if everything that she had heard up until this point from him had been a lie. What mattered was this baby. Regina was a strong, powerful, confident woman, she was totally unafraid of raising a baby by herself…hell she had done it for ten long years and though she knew that Emma Swan liked to pretend that she had been the one who had made Henry into the strong teenager that he was when she had seen him last Regina knew that deep down it was her. For better or for worse it was her.
And just thinking about Henry, thinking about Henry's reaction to becoming a big brother or sister was enough to make her stomach churn and her heart heave in a way that she knew had nothing to do with either sickness or heartburn. To think about her son while she was pregnant was nothing short of pain upon pain upon pain.
So simply she didn't think about it or think about him unless she had to. There was no magical way out here, no beans or portals or anything that Gold had built his world upon. There was no curse left to cast unless she recast her original one and the two things that she loved the most was Henry and this baby and she would never lift a finger to raise them. So here was raising one child while trapped and separated from the other and she knew there and then that she would do whatever she had do to protect this baby and if that meant not thinking about her son with every waking movement then that was what she would do. This little life inside of her was her priority now and she didn't need a man to tell her that.
But…Regina could not help but admit that she wanted him involved. She wanted him full stop. He was the first man since Daniel that had made her feel something, made her think that she was worth something, had loved her and touched her and kissed her for, her and not for the crown upon her head or the chance however futile to get an heir between her legs. He made her laugh, he had an adorable boy that called her Gina, he came to her and breathed a new life back into her, the broken woman and told her time and time again when she didn't think that she could tell herself anymore that there was hope for a reunion with her son.
"I'm pregnant Robin"
There. She'd said it.
For a second he stared at her and then he took a step backwards and looked her up and down eyes and mouth moving simultaneously. Here she noticed that his eyes were very green and like some lovesick idiot she thought wouldn't it be nice if her baby had those exact same shade of eyes.
Robin Hood gazed at her for a second and then.
"Okay" he said nodding he cast his gaze around the room and then nodded.
"Okay" he said again and Regina stared at him.
"Okay" she repeated and he turned to look at her and then he grinned. It shone through his face as though he had been holding back from her, all the joy and all the magic that he had been holding back on her. For a second she stared at him wondering if she was misreading the signs but then he was grinning and kissing her as if this news was the best thing that he had heard in a long time and she had admit…it was throwing her a bit.
Regina was not used to people looking at her like that.
"Were having a baby?" he said and she nodded. He grinned and she thought that he looked eons younger than he was and then before she could stay anything else he picked her up and spun her around as if this was the happiest thing that he had ever heard off.
"Oh"
He dropped her immediately and stared at her eyes dimming a little.
"Your not happy"
"No I am" she said smiling "I just…I wasn't sure that you would be happy. I mean there's the baby and all but…well…there's me and…" she trailed off but he kissed her long and hard and slow his hand cupping the back of her neck threading into her hair and she melted into his touch.
"I love you" he said quietly. She jerked backwards in surprise and he smiled as if he understood that and more. "I know" he said carefully. "That you don't trust that yet, I know that you are not ready to say that yet. But know that I love you and I love this baby and that I am quite prepared to keep saying it until you believe me"
She stared at him and then she nodded slightly stunned, even if Regina had been an optimistic woman—she was not—she would not have imagined it going this way.
Robin was grinning though and it was Robin and not some enchanted monkey, it was Robin Hood telling her, Regina Mills that he loved her no matter what, that he was here for her and their baby and that they were going to be okay.
It took a lot to shock her but he had done it, he'd manged to find a way under all the defences that she had slammed up and make her happy, make her feel young and trusting again. She wanted to trust him. Actually if he fell short of this trust then she was sure that he was going to destroy her.
(And who knows? Maybe one day in the not too distant future with her baby in her arms and her son by her side again she would learn to say it back?)
(She thought so…she hoped so…)
But maybe that was love? Total trust in your partner. And she did trust him and as he swept her away on this strange vision of them being a family she found that she was actually starting to believe it, found that she was actually wanting it and that the cracks that had battered her heart for so many years were finally starting to heal, wrapped up in the promise of a family and a happy ending that could not be taken away.
She remembered now.
She remembered now.
She remembered…the onslaught of memories hit her and she nearly fell over with it.
The baby, her baby,
Robin.
Robin.
She turned and saw him standing there and then he looked at her and his eyes were full of love.
"Regina"
For a second she stared at him and then she took a step forwards and another and then his mouth was on hers his hands were on her face and his mouth was down on hers and she felt herself melt like sugar in a sauce pot.
Robin.
It was all that mattered.
Because she remembered now…
And there we go, onto the final slew of chapters.
Next Chapter-Robin remembers Regina, Regina remembers Robin but there is still an evil witch out there which doesn't help matters when labour finally begins.