It is dark when she comes, shadowed by the night, the tiny amount of land that stretches in front of their little cottage before it is swallowed whole by the thick woods is illuminated in the moon's ethereal glow, patches of grass blown gently by the night breeze has the sleeping mother rousing from her sleep. The skin beneath the palm of her hand is warm where it lays against his bare chest and she is more than comfortable tucked away in the crook of Robin's arm, his soft breath's blowing back errant strands of her sleep mussed hair before they are falling back into place ready to begin the process again.

Often she has awoken in the middle of the night, especially in the first few months of living here, pulled into awakening by the sounds of animals roaming the night, cawing birds searching for their mates, grazing doe using the cover of night to allude being hunted whilst munching happily on their grass but tonight...tonight is different, too quiet, tonight has her lifting out of Robin's embrace so gently, holding her breath until she is standing, barefoot, at the end of their bed, looking back to see him just as deep in slumber as when she was close to him, smiling gently when he turned in his sleep, seeking her warmth and thankfully settling for the ghost heat she had left on her pillow as well as her scent, his nose burrowing deeply into it. He would wake soon, would notice her absence and would most definitely come looking for her but she hoped it wouldn't come to that, that she would alleviate her fears and return to his arms, sleeping the rest of the night away.

It is with her smile still in place that she walks the short distance across the room to check in on her son, moving her long curls over her shoulder in order to see properly, a gentle laugh shaking her chest at the absolute mess his hair always becomes in the night, no matter how still he remains, his tangle of hair always seems to grow wilder. She had once joked that perhaps little pixie's stole into their cottage in the night and played little games within it, hiding from their friends beneath thick curls that he had most certainly inherited from her. His little mouth was open, lips parted gently in sleep as he took soft, deep breaths, the twine she had enchanted not long after his birth remained around his tiny wrist, the spell she had learned also allowing it to grow with him, too many protection spells woven into the material to count...should she or Robin ever be away from him for some reason, should they find it hard to get to him and he be in danger, well he would be protected and that was possibly the only reason Regina found she could fall to sleep at night, knowing her boy was safe no matter what.

The fine hairs on her body stood on end once more as she walked out of their bedroom and into the rest of the cottage, a little area set aside for the meals she would prepare for them, still learning as she went for she had never had to cook for anyone, herself included, until they had fled. Robin still took turns in showing her different things, those times always managing to bring a smile to her face as she recalled how he would stand so close behind her, guiding her hands with his own on top, pressing praise filled kisses to any patch of skin he could reach when she would do something correctly, revelling in the laughter that would spill from her at his attentions.

She then looked over to find the sitting area just as they had left it, toys for Roland that Robin had expertly whittled from logs of wood lay in his little corner along with an assortment of things the boy had gathered himself from the surrounding area, things that sparked an imagination that his mother was deeply fascinated with, she often found herself to be watching him sometimes, just watching and listening at the little things that he pulled from his mind, how she wished she could see what he saw sometimes as he sat playing.

She was about to turn back, to return to Robin's warmth content that they were in no apparent danger when she felt it, the change in the air, the magic sparking to life in her fingertips automatically, ready to defend her family. Her hand had shot out even before her head had turned, a freezing spell spilling forth and latching onto the intruder. A soft yelp was heard as it reached it's target...though she was not prepared for who she found when she did turn, when her eyes adjusted to the figure standing only feet away from her.

"Snow..."

"I've been searching for you for so long step-mo-" and she cuts off then when Regina's sharp look lands on her, reminds her of what they had discussed earlier, "Regina..." she corrected softly, a flash of disappointment sparking through her at Regina's denial of what they had once been but, with all she knew, with all she had discovered over the years after the woman's disappearance, she could understand why, did not want to but...she understood.

Regina was sitting across from her, just as beautiful as when Snow had been a child though the younger woman could see that there was a change in her, something different in dark eyes, something that hadn't been there before when she would roam the castle grounds, spending hours locked away in her garden, Snow could see a light there that hadn't been before and she found herself smiling at it even though her former step-mother was looking anywhere but at her, furtive glances thrown behind now and then to a room Snow couldn't see into.

"Why have you come here?"

The younger woman frowns then, her eyes softening as she looked at Regina, the soft lines of the woman's face only confirming her earlier suspicions. She'd seen the rope tied to a thick branch just as the woods opened out into the little clearing, a thick piece of wood fashioned into a seat tied to the end of it, swinging softly in the breeze, clearly made for a child. Regina didn't appear to have given birth, her figure just as lithe and strong as ever and it had Snow wondering if the woman had grown big with the added bump she knew come with a pregnancy, she longed to hear tales of how the brunette practically had to waddle to get around...she wanted her step-mother back. "I've come alone, if that is what you're afraid of."

And Regina scoffs at that, her eyes rolling as she looks only to the wooden table Robin had fashioned as a gift to her the previous year, 'we've been together for four years today my sweet,' he had whispered into her ear, hands held over her eyes as she had giggled, the feeling of Roland close to her side, giggling himself at his father's antics and she'd felt in then just as she did every time she looked at her boys, happiness, pure unadulterated happiness. And she would let nothing take that away from her. "I'll ask you again," she spoke steadily, her tone just on the edge of calm, a little bite breaking through as she brought her dark eyes up to look at the younger brunette, sick of the way in which she was looking at her having almost forgotten what such unabashed hope did to her, how it irked and annoyed her. "Why are you here?"

"I thought you to be dead," she whispers then, her doe eyes dropping to the hands she has fidgeting in her lap and Regina practically gags back the urge to scold her as she had done in her childhood, the instinct still there no matter how she hates it, no matter how it burns. "After you disappeared, every time the guards would return with no news, each time my father raged at them for having not found you...I believed his heart to have broken, the desperation in his eyes each time he would allow me to join the search...I thought that he loved you so much and so I helped for a while, I would assist the guards myself when I grew old enough, they would teach me to defend myself should we ever be ambushed and I would help them track, something my mother had taught me when I was a little girl..." and she trails off a little then, her face scrunching with nausea as she recalls something, "but my father forgot something very important, no matter how loyal men may be, they still talk...and when they spoke of you, of what had happened to you, the nights they'd been posted outside of your...of his chambers when he'd..."

And Regina is swallowing thickly then, fighting back the tears stinging at her eyes as Snow brought back memories she had long since learned to push away into the darkest depths of her mind. "Stop," she whispers, hearing the way her voice shakes just as Snow's had when she spoke, "please just..."

"I'm sorry," the younger woman replies, her head shaking gently as she looks back up to Regina, aching to reach out and cover the brunette's trembling hand with her own, knowing that such a move would not be welcome, not now. "Regina," she speaks with complete conviction in her voice. glad when dark eyes looks up to her own again, guarded but attentive, "had I known what was happening to you," her bottom lip is trembling but she continues, "had I known the torture you went through in living at the castle..."

"There was nothing you could have done Snow," and it's the first time since she had arrived in the house, the first time in a long time that her name had been spoken by her step-mother with something other than poorly disguised disdain, "you were a little girl, still are too young to understand-"

"I'm older than you are when you married him."

And that has Regina silent, has her throat moving with the thick swallow she has to perform in order to keep the sob from ripping from her because that really is the horrible truth.

"She's quite the woman," Snow laughs then as she reaches for a scrap of the bread Regina had pulled from her makeshift kitchen and placed upon the table, two flagons of stream water by the side of their plates.

Regina's own laugh was melodious and Snow was sure she hadn't heard the sound since the first day she had met the woman, the day Regina had saved her life and sealed her own fate. "That she is."

"Is she always so..."

"Straight? Forthright?"

"Protective." Snow settles on and, joking aside, Regina can't help but nod her head in agreement. "She loves you," the girl continues, playing with the crumbs left behind on her plate whilst watching the tender smile cross her former step-mother's face. "Alma loves you very much Regina."

And the older woman hummed in acknowledgement, a warm sound in the back of her throat that has Snow smiling gently with her, loving the way her dark eyes lit with the mention of the other woman. "And I love her right back," she says softly, head nodding gently as she seems to consider something, conflict breaking her thoughts as she fights her own mind and heart. After a moment she seems to decide, leaning forward just so and beginning the tale of what she knows Snow has come to hear.

"That last night," she begins, her voice low and eyes darkening as she recalls the final night she spent in the palace, "that final night, after your father had heard of my dalliance within the tavern, after he had exacted the punishment he saw fit...I enlisted the help of a good friend," for that was what she considered Tinkerbelle, still considered the fairy, especially now as she looked back to see her boys still slumbering soundly, "to take me back to my 'soulmate' as she had referred to him, I was going to say goodbye, to release him from the burden of knowing me..."

"Well what stopped you?" Snow asks, her lips downturned with the re-telling of what she'd heard from different mouths, mouths that had no right in speaking of Regina in the way they had, graphic retellings of her father's attack and the things he had done to the young queen, had been doing since after their wedding night.

And Regina smiles then, her eyes brightening once more before she speaks ever so softly, words Snow had never thought would ever leave her mouth ever again. "True love did." and then, with a smile as warm as her eyes she whispered "and a little pixie dust."

Tink's hand is warm in her own, clamminess telling of the fairy's own nervousness. They would have to be quick if she really did want to ensure his safety for the King would notice her absence before the long, the tavern being the first place he would look for her and she can't, under any circumstances allow him to know of Robin's existence nor his meaning to her...he would surely kill the man and make her watch before possibly killing her too...but that wouldn't matter, death would be a far more favourable outcome to the prison sentence she would have to endure the rest of her life, stuck within those walls, a doll for Snow White to play with when she chose and a body to keep his bed warm whenever the fancy, or the alcohol, struck him.

The place was just as lively as it had been the last time she had been there, laughter ringing out from every corner, the freedom of such emotion was just as hard to swallow as it had been previously for, especially now, she would never know such a feeling.

"Do you see him?" Tink whispered, her face impossibly close to Regina's in order to be heard over the excitement of the tavern, gripping tight when some would come a little too close by, she seemed just as shaken as the young Queen felt. She sighed deeply as her eyes tracked over the figures of man sat on the thick wooden tables that filled the place, hunched forms that bore no resemblance to Robin.

"I don't think he's-"

"Ah!" both women jumped at the exclamation, Regina's body tensing as warm hands came to rest upon her shoulders, squeezing gently as a familiar scent filled her nostrils. "I had not expected to see you back so soon my love."

Her dark curls fell further forward as she lifted a hand to scoop some behind her ear, forgetting the marks marring her face for a moment as she turned to face Alma. "I just couldn't stay awa-"

"Regina!" she gasped the instant the younger woman turned to face her, purpling bruises shadowing her lovely face, dark, deep crimson blood dried on her upper lip, an inch long line visible there. "What happened to you girl?" she asked, hands coming to cup her cheeks though she remained gentle, turning her face this was and that as she tutted softly before pulling the brunette into her arms, a hand moving up to hold her head to her.

"I..." she stuttered, her bottom lip trembling at the feeling of being in Alma's arms, the pure maternal sensation that seemed to wrap around her even as she clutched at the material of the woman's dress, burying her head in deeper as she sniffled, choked back sobs that she'd held in since Tinkerbelle had come to her room.

"Shh," Alma soothed as she rubbed soothing lines up and down Regina's shuddering back with her free hand, rocking them gently back and forth before pulling back enough to turn and press a soft kiss to a pronounced cheekbone that remained unmarked save for the lipstick it now bore. "Robin will pitch a fit when he see's this," she mutters into Regina's hair, "I have never seen such light in the boy's eyes since the night he met you. Come along," she pulled back completely then, wiping at Regina's tears with gentle swipes of her thumb before capturing her hand in a strong grip, pulling her without consent.

"He's here?" and she hated the hoarseness of her voice, the way it cracked with the prospect of seeing him after believing him not to be here, resigning herself to the belief that she'd just dreamed the wonderfulness that had been that night but, as she continued to be pulled along, Tink shuffling just as uncertainly behind her, she couldn't help the feeling that arose within her when she heard his voice, his laughter.

He was sitting, obscured by men standing around a table in front of his, talking to the man Regina assumed to be Little John for her was exactly as Robin had described him, in no way little at all.

He seemed to have said something amusing for Robin's bark of laughter, Regina almost laughing herself when a rag of cloth was thrown at the man's face before Robin uttered something that had his friend chuckling in return. They had almost reached the table now, a couple moving out of there way bringing John's attention to them, a smile thrown Alma's way and, quite kindly, one directed at her...before his face was morphing, the marks on her face becoming more visible the closer she got. Something in his expression must have alerted Robin for her was then turning too, brow furrowed as his eyes searched for what had his friend so concerned...and then he saw her.

Time seemed to have frozen for a moment, the minute their eyes locked all else seemed to fall away. Sounds faded into nothingness as only the beating of her fragile heart was audible, figures blurred into the background as she fell into the depths of his blue eyes and a small smile graced her face at the sheer sight of him again though he did not return the expression.

An instant later he was on his feet, her surroundings coming back with a startling sort of boom as he reached for her, calloused hands cupping her face just as gently as Alma's had though his were like a different sort of balm, a balm for her heart as well as her skin. "Who did this?" he asked with urgency, blue eyes tearing with the sight of her, the sensation of her leaning into his touch, her eyes fluttering closed as she brought up one of her own hands to cover his, her fingers cold where his were warm. At her silence he prompted again, "Regina, who did this to you?"

And if she'd seen the way Tink's eyes had widened with the sound of the tavern door swinging open, if she had heard the galloping of hooves echoing throughout the streets leading to her then she would have fled, would have left before any knew she had even been here but, as it were, they were here, the King's men had found her and they would surely kill both she and Robin for acts of treason they had certainly not committed, for wrong doings they had not done...but it was with a confused frown that she turned to face her fairy friend when she gripped her arm tightly, it was with parted lips that she watched as the woman's hand disappeared into the satchel at her hip and it was with desperate hands that she turned and grasped at Robin as the pixie dust fell over them before pulling him close and whispering "think happy thoughts." almost sobbing at his whispered reply of "I'll think only of you then." and then, they were gone.