A/N: Thanks to BabyLawyerOQ for beta reading this chapter, as well.

She curses herself for the moment in which seeking professional help crossed her mind and seemed a good idea. Not only it hasn't helped a bit, but also things have gotten worse since she left Dr. Locksley's office last Wednesday.

A week has passed since then, Regina is still anxious, and the medication Dr. Locksley prescribed her hasn't helped at all. Well, being honest it might have helped if she had only one problem to deal with at the same time, but since now she has another motive to feel anxious, she suspects those meds aren't enough to do the job.

She has endured the whole week feeling like shit, and she doesn't know if she should attend this second session with Dr. Locksley …er …Robin or just call to cancel. That man has shaken up her entire inner world, memories, feelings ...everything just after she heard his voice with that accent which reminded her of a night twenty-seven years ago.

She thinks she's overreacting, but still, the anxiety refuses to leave. So, she decides to analyze facts, real ones, and she finds that besides that accent and those dimples …Oh! and those eyes, yes, those blue eyes, she has no evidence that might lead her to think her shrink is the man she had a fling with more than two (almost three) decades ago and, worse, the biological father of her son. How many people living in this same town have a British accent, dimples and deep blue eyes? Hundreds.

Also, there's the fact that he, himself, confirmed not remembering her. Shit, how mortifying! And, actually, what are the odds that she gets to come together with a man she knew from one only time and who lived in another continent? Zero, she answers herself.

So, there's nothing to worry aside from having made a fool of herself asking him if he thought they had met before, which clearly he denied, or didn't remember at all.

She feels embarrassed for having had that theory stuck in her head for a week, and for making her son worry with her stress. In fact, that's exactly what has made her examine the facts objectively, and realize there's no reasonable evidence supporting the theory that has been torturing her for seven long days.

Henry's 'mom are you feeling well? should I call Roland?' has made her feel worse. She should be looking after her son and not the other way around, and that's the reason that makes her want to attend a second appointment with the man she has mistaken for a former one night stand.

...

Regina arrives ten minutes in advance of her second appointment with Dr. Robin Locksley and has time to clear her head while she waits for her turn, and when she stands up to walk towards his office, she has already shaken off the thoughts that have been bothering her for a week. If she didn't know any better, she wouldn't think she sheltered those absurd ideas that long, making her anxious during the days and keeping her awake during the nights. She even feels stupid each time she remembers her concerns during that time, and she's sure people can see her blushing because of the ridiculousness of her suspicions. Anyway, blush or no blush, absurd thoughts or not, she finds herself walking to an office for a second session with a man that for whatever reason has been in her head for more time than what she would have thought when she first decided to seek for help.

As she walks inside to take a seat in the very same couch she rubbed her hands out of nervousness, and that witnessed her reaction when she thought she recognized a familiar voice (and accent ...yes, the accent), she evaluates the ins and outs of opening up to him.

On one hand, if there's someone that can be on her side is this man, she's paying him, it's his job, one that Dr. Hopper said he is very skilled at, even if -up to now- it doesn't seem he knows what he's doing. Maybe she just needs to give him a chance. On the other hand, she doesn't feel like opening up yet, she needs to build a relationship based on trust with her therapist, and she still isn't there. She hopes she can get there soon, but it won't be today.

She sits on the couch across of him, and this time she feels more relaxed. Having analyzed real facts over mere suppositions was a good thing to do, she reminds herself and sighs in relief, and Robin must notice something different in her because of the 'I see you are better, Regina' that he says just after greeting her. And yes, she feels better, yet not because of him, but merely because she decided to assess things differently. She smiles satisfied at that thought and even lets a little giggle escape.

The session runs smoothly; she's relaxed; she isn't afraid anymore that he might recognize her because it's clear now that they don't know each other and have never met before. She looks at him in another way; she finds him attractive, very good looking, and sexy; she's always had a thing for men with hair with silver tones, and her doctor is no exception, so when he puts on his reading glasses to check some information on her chart, she finds him more attractive even. She thinks how worried or uneasy or uncomfortable (or all of the above) she must have been on their first session because she didn't notice him wearing those glasses and he definitely must have put them on when he went through her form, something he did more than once, actually. So, during this session, she finds different reasons (and more pleasing ones) to be distracted than those that avoided her to focus during last week's appointment.

And, even if she doesn't get to talk about the exact things that are bothering her lately, she is surprised about the amount of information she, willingly and easily, shares with him.

She doesn't imagine that the sensation of confidence and relief of having disregarded the absurd idea that this man is his father's son and former lover, will soon disappear.

The next weeks pass by differently for Robin and Regina.

Regina's life is almost as always. She splits her time among her weekly therapy sessions, trying to spend some time with her sons, her daily routine at the gym (she won't skip a day if it is the last thing she does), and the demanding project she's working on. Changing the graphic line of an important company is a big deal, and she needs to meet with different people involved in the process: web designers, marketing advisors, digital illustrators, her client, her staff …

However, although her activities are the same as they had been during the last years, there's one thing that's different: a sudden and increasing interest on Wednesday's sessions with Dr. Locksley. Yes, she noticed it a while ago, after the second or third session with him. She attends those sessions happy, and she has yet to discover if that eagerness has to do with the help she is beginning to receive or because of the feelings she has started to develop towards that man.

And even though if by her second session she had already disregarded the thoughts that she might have spent the weekend with this man twenty-seven years ago and that he might be her son's father sometimes those ideas come back all of a sudden to plague her mind and test her, triggered by random circumstances. When he speaks some expressions sound so familiar to her. The same happens when he shows those dimples every time his smile appears in his face, and she sees the resemblance with her son, only to think seconds later that a pair of dimples is exactly the same in everyone, isn't it? And, with the way she feels his expressive blue eyes seeing through her right into her soul, rather than looking at her.

She still doesn't know if the moments in which she thinks he's the man she sought for months and the one she has been thinking about more time than she'd want to admit are provoked by real memories. Is it solely the desire to replace a man she once met and whose company she enjoyed far too much (well, being honest she enjoyed more than his company ...er ... his hands, mouth, tongue …and other parts of him), with the man she has in front of her every Wednesday afternoon for the last six weeks? A man of flesh and blood replacing a ghost of the past, a memory ...maybe that's what's behind the feelings she has been experiencing for some time now, and the reason she hasn't been able yet to trust him with her problem.

In fact, her problem seems to be the tip of the iceberg and not the only issue that needs to be addressed, and ...well, Regina is a human being after all, and has decided to begin discussing the easier topics, leaving the real shit for later. However, she knows there's only one way out of her problem, and she needs to be prepared for Roland's reaction whenever she decides to tell him the truth, and for Henry's whenever he finds out.

Therefore, during these six weeks, she had been able to open up about several circumstances of her life. She shared with him how she struggled with the sensation of abandonment she felt when her father died during her teen years, leaving her alone to deal with her mother. She allowed some tears to fall, remembering the sudden loss of her husband, and the fact that she became a widow, in a blink of an eye, with a son in college and a pre-teen in the house, each of them dealing differently with the loss of a husband and father. But, she failed to mention Roland's biological father.

Nonetheless, all along with her confessions and sufferings from the past, these six weeks had also been about anticipation, excitement, and, why not, soft smiles, subtle...very subtle flirting (they are doctor and patient, after all), accidental touches, nice chats that sometimes lasted far more than the official fifty minutes of her session (those are the perks of being the last patient on schedule).

Six weeks, six sessions and six hours in his company. She tells herself it's not much time to develop anything for anyone and that, definitely, she has confused things for what they aren't. She is well aware she knows nothing about this man, he most likely is happily married, and she understands there's no point in encouraging any interest in him. It's her desire of wanting and needing to give some answers to her son, and it happens that this man and the father of her son just have some points of coincidence.

That's all.

...

Things for Robin are a little different. His life these last weeks has been far from ordinary.

Each Wednesday afternoon after finishing the session with Regina, he watches her leave. He stands by his door, lingers there until she's gone. He waits until he sees her disappear into the elevator after the doors close, expecting when she might startle him anytime with one of her questions, just as she did on their first session. But, there's no need to wait for a question from her to be surprised because he's already astonished by her and there's no point in denying that he has met her before. He's more convinced each time their session ends, after an hour listening and watching her, that she's the woman that has been in his dreams for the last twenty-seven years: his Queen.

And after every single session he's had with her, he hurries home (it seems now he does have a reason to leave quickly from work) and goes to check his early nineties photographic albums with the expectation of confirming his suspicions. He thinks someone that was with him that night must have taken a picture of her ...or of both of them.

He was part of a huge group of people, at least a party of fifteen: six were his friends and the rest, some people they met during the last part of their two-month journey through different countries. They all had decided to go to this bar, The Rabbit Hole, Robin and his friends were returning home that Tuesday, and it was a Friday night, the night before Halloween, that he remembers well. It was the perfect chance for a farewell, to say goodbye to the people they had met during that vacation or adventure trip, or whatever they wanted to call it. The bar was crowded. It was one of the most popular spots in Maine; someone had said it had everything: good music, nice drinks, a fancy decoration ...and her. It had had everything, indeed.

Each time he goes through those pictures, he thinks about the circumstances of their encounter and tries to chase away those memories because he needs all his concentration and strength to examine them and has found out it's an exhausting task. And, in fact, it is because rather than albums labelled and organized by the date, he has random pictures in several boxes somewhere in a dusty room in his apartment that serves as storage for useless stuff.

He has to search for those boxes and check every single one of them and all their contents just to figure out if the pictures match those of 1992, the year they met.

He's trying to find an answer to an encounter that happened when there were no cell phones with integrated cameras (well, actually no cell phones at all), and no social media to post what life was like. He and his friends had cameras, they were on a trip that began in South America, so it was kind of an exotic destination, one neither of them was going to return soon, so they had wanted to capture each moment of their adventure. They had taken a lot of pictures, but he saw none until after his return home. There were no digital cameras, so they had to develop the pictures, take them to the photo lab, pick them up, and when finally he had the pictures with him the locations were all mixed up ...shit! He finds that some of the pictures have, in one of its sides, the date printed, others have a little brief on the back side, but still, with that information, it's very tiring and he has to deal with feelings of disappointment each time he closes a box with no clues about her.

For weeks he has gone through these shitty boxes with pictures and pictures of years long gone; of old friends, some of them still good friends, others no longer around; of places that might be different now or don't exist anymore, like The Rabbit Hole ...but, there's no trace of her.

He doesn't know yet, but he's looking in the wrong place. He doesn't imagine he has always had the exact place that would help reveal this mystery in front of his eyes …every Wednesday afternoon. Let alone, that another set of pictures, not so far away from where he is now, will be the ones bringing him a revelation that would change his entire life.

Robin checks his watch eagerly and knows she's late. It's odd. She's annoyingly timely, but today something must have gotten in the way because she's late ...and he's desperate to see her. This will be the seventh Wednesday on a row she has come to a session with him and with each week that passes, the time between sessions has become excruciatingly long for him, and this additional five minutes he has already waited for her, aren't helping at all.

His thoughts are interrupted by his secretary announcing Ms. Mills, and he sighs in relief and anticipation.

They have worked an interesting dynamic: she enters his office, greets him and heads to the couch, where she sits. He remains seated at his desk as he grabs his notebook, pen, and her file, while they make small talk and those five or ten minutes have become very useful to develop some trust, to get to know something about each other, something different from Regina's anxiety and past. And well, maybe he knows more about her than what she knows about him and his life, but he's the doctor, and he's the one who gets to ask the personal questions, and not her.

So, Robin listens to her as she talks about random stuff: the traffic, the meeting she had earlier, or the weather ...anything. But, this particular Wednesday is different. First, it is that Regina is late; then, he notes she seems agitated, and it's not because of the weather, it's spring, middle April, so no, not warm weather yet, but since she stepped into his office and after her 'Sorry, I'm late' apologizing for her lateness, he noticed she's unsettled and definitely not comfortable. She must have been in a hurry and entered the building walking quickly to arrive in time (or at least not too late) because it seems she's feeling hot with her jacket on for the way she puffs delicately in a failed attempt to freshen up (something that he finds delightful). She's carrying that crimson briefcase, yes, the one that she hasn't failed to bring with her to every session, which this time seems to be heavier than usual. So, as they both begin talking about everything and nothing, in particular, he watches her standing up from the couch, and taking her jacket off, revealing a nice cold shoulder blouse, which exposes her beautiful shoulders and upper arms to him. It's the first time he gets to see that much of her; the weather has not helped the prior sessions, and even if it's not helping this time, he won't complain at her apparent turmoil.

Robin watches her taking her jacket off, as he pretends to find his pen in a drawer alternating his gaze so that he can check her out from time to time, and, when she turns around so that she can hang her jacket in the hanger, he spots something he'd recognize everywhere.

On her right shoulder blade, he gets to see the tattoo that's been haunting his dreams: a delicate design of a five point-crown in black ink. He thanks God that she is still hanging her jacket and is unaware of the realization that just hit him because he is paralyzed and unable to react. However, even if he can't talk or think about what to say next, his body is the one responding to that revelation and is experiencing some physical effects due to his discovery. He feels his heart begins beating so fast, he's afraid he'll have a heart attack at that moment; the temperature of his body is raising, and he can sense an unbearable heat all over his cheeks. He knows what this means (he's a medical doctor after all): his blood pressure must be in the clouds, at least he's glad he took his daily medication for this condition.

Regina is already seated on the couch (and he didn't even notice) when she realizes something's happening to him, because of the way she asks him "What? ...Is something wrong?"

He doesn't know how to answer to a simple question like that and debates whether to tell her what he just found out or to try to mask his feelings and continue with the session the best way he can. And this second option is a very challenging one because he needs to pretend there's no excitement, or anticipation, or concern, or nervousness, and that's simply too much for him to handle at once.

It's the first time in his life where he doesn't know how to approach a complicated situation, and he has had several ones, considering his field of practice. He decides to go with what his gut tells him.

"Regina ...er ...hmm ...I ...I lied to you," are the only words that come out of his mouth as he watches her expression changing in seconds from one of comfort and relax to one of shock.

"What do you mean? How could you have lied to me? When?" she asks showing surprise.

"Hmm, well, actually I said a half-truth," Robin replies and watches her for any reaction, but she's just looking at him attentively, so he continues "Hmm...at the end of our first session you asked me if I thought we could have met before, and, well, I said that no, that I would never forget meeting you."

He watches her and notes how she tenses. She changes her position on the couch, and for a second he thinks she is going to stand up and leave, but no, she just stands up a little and sits in another position, one which denotes alertness. She's not relaxed anymore, and he curses himself for that, but what worries him most is that he reads fear in her eyes. She remains silent as if waiting for him to continue, and so he does.

"I lied when I told you I didn't think possible we had met before, but I told the truth about being unable to forget you," he finishes and feels lighter after saying those words. However, what doesn't make him feel any better is that it seems he has just passed the weight he carried directly to her.

"Wh ...what do you mean?"

And instead of answering her, he lifts the right sleeve of his shirt, showing her the image of a lion tattoo stamped in black ink in his forearm.

He watches how she opens her eyes in disbelief ….and only hears her say "I …I'm sorry ...I ..." as she stands up and rushes to the door running away from him …briefcase, jacket and session left behind.

To be continued ...

Any thoughts?