The Life We Left Behind

It's all coming back to me

The three men, Rogers, Henry and Nick, were sitting at a table in the corner of the bar ordering not their first round of drinks of the night.
Margot – or Robin, Zelena's daughter – had just made a glorious comeback from Phuket, just in time for what would inevitably become some sort of big showdown between good and evil. It was palpable. Things were changing faster and faster in the Heights. Magic was slowly returning. Regina could feel it. A tingling sensation in her fingertips now and then, an uncontrollable tremor of her entire body, or a much too vivid dream at night. The end was drawing nearer, it wasn't long now. The curse was about to be broken. She remembered this feeling so clearly from Storybrooke, so many years ago.
„What happened to Rogers?", Margot whispered to her mother as she returned from serving them and joined her behind the counter, „Man, he looks bad... really bad."
„Why don't you ask our dear Roni here? It appears that she broke his heart."
„What?? Why?"
Regina rolled her eyes with a sigh, then explained, as if for the 148th time: „Detective Rogers and I were dating – very briefly! But in the end it didn't work out between us."
„What she's trying to say is that she dumped him", Zelena said with an innocent smile.
„Oh no!", said Margot, „The poor guy! Why? He's so nice and pretty hot and cute too."
Regina responded: „Well, in life quite often it's not enough to be nice and pretty hot and cute. As I said, we hadn't even been together for that long. I don't know why he's still pouting about it. As if he has nothing better to do finding this Candy Killer of his..."

„So what's your poison, Rogers?", asked Nick over at their table, „It's like your mood turned sour since the moment we walked in here."
Henry sighed: „I'm afraid the reason for that has a pair of pretty brown eyes and is pouring drinks."
He nodded towards Roni who briefly caught his eye.
„Roni? The bartender?"
„Aye...", said Rogers.
„You like her?"
„I do. A lot."
„But... from your miserable look on your face I'm guessing she doesn't like you?"
He shook his head. „It doesn't make any sense. She does, I know it! Or... at least she did."
Henry explained: „They were dating for a while but then, completely out of the blue, she broke up with him."
„How odd... So it appears we're not only mending your broken heart tonight, but also his?"
Henry put up his hands in defense. „Hey, I'm making strides with Jacinda. Nevermind me here!"
Rogers took a deep sip of his beer, then lifted his hand to point a finger at Nick. He was already pretty drunk, more so than he had been in a long, long time, and he had trouble articulating himself. „You know what's the problem, mate... it's not that she completely changed her mind 180 degrees apparently from one moment to the next. She's a woman, sometimes that's what they do, right? The problem is, that it hasn't even been two weeks since then and she's already prancing about all over town with this fancy-schmancy investor business guy Whatshisface. I mean... what does she want with him? He's not even her type!"
„How do you know?", asked Henry.„Because I am her type!", he nervously ran his fingers through his hair and emptied the rest of his beer in one go.
„Alrighty then, shall we keep dwelling on the past...", Nick took out a pack of cards and threw them on the table in between them, „or see who's gonna pay for the next round?"

Later, when Zelena kindly asked the remaining few guests to pay their tabs and leave as they wanted to close for the night, Rogers fell behind.
„Kelly...", he slurred his speech, he'd had way too much to drink tonight, „Can I talk to her... please!"
She pulled a face and waved her hand in front of her nose. „You're drunk, Rogers! You reek of alcohol."
„The lass is running a bar, I'm sure she should feel right at home around the smell of it."
„The ‚lass'? What is it, Talk Like A Pirate Day today?"
„Aye, and if so? Can I talk to your friend or not?"
She opened her mouth to tell im off, when she heard Regina's voice behind her: „It's alright, I'll take care of him. You go on ahead, Margot's asking for you."
Zelena looked unconvinced. „Are you sure?"
„I can deal with it, I promise."

When she passed him on the way upstairs, she shot him a careful look and sharply moved her fingers from pointing at her eyes to his, indicating that she was watching him.
Regina took one of the cleaning rags and starting finishing off the counter. „You heard her, Rogers. You're drunk, you should go home. This is not the time for a serious conversation."
„Not before you tell me the truth."
She sighed and put down the rag. „The truth about what?"
„About what's going on here. And why you're acting so strange."
„How am I acting strange?"
„The breakup..."
„Oh, please!", she interrupted him, „Please save the both of us any further discussion about this, don't start again!"
„It still doesn't make any sense to me, Roni! You loved me, I know it! I saw it in your eyes. And now, barely a few weeks later, you start frolicking around with this Samdi dude, this investor guy? In a suit?"
He spoke the last word as if he was personally disgusted by the existence of suits. Much like – indeed – the old Roni probably was.
„Are you jealous?"
„And what if? Getting dumped is bad enough alone, but seeing you hook up with the next best guy right away, and after your big speech of how you're some independent lone wolf who just doesn't do well in relationships, that is torture! Or maybe that thing between the two of you even started while we were still together? Maybe he's the reason you dumped me?"
He was slowly but surely talking himself into a rage, and Regina raised her voice appropriately, matching his threatening stare.

„You don't know what you're saying, you're drunk! I'm not gonna ask you this nicely again. Please go home!"
„What has he got that I don't have, huh? Two hands? Is he better in bed?"
„Shut up and go home! This conversation is over."
She turned around to walk away, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. She tried to wriggle herself out of his grasp and yelled at him: „Ouch! Let me go! Don't you dare touch me!"
„There are murders happening on the daily, Belfrey is dead, people, like her daughter, are disappearing, or reappearing all at once, Kelly, her daughter... Tilly is going crazier by the minute. And I just can't ignore the feeling that you have something to do with all this. You know what's going on and you're not telling me. You're lying to me! Now tell me the truth!"

She felt threatened and jammed into a corner. He frightened her, even though she knew he wouldn't hurt her... he wouldn't right? She knew Rogers was harmless, but Hook was capable of quite a lot if he set his mind to it...
Finally, she tried collecting all her energy to respond appropriately to his aggressive behavior and yelled one more time: „Let me go and leave me alone!!"
With one big shove she pushed him away from her, and then it happened. He didn't just stumble backwards for a few steps – he flew. Ten, twenty feet through the air until his back crashed against the opposite wall of the bar. Regina watched in shock, then looked down at her hands. How was this possible? It was like... magic! It was coming back to her, to this place. She knew it all along!
Then she remembered the victim of her attack lying on the floor, moaning in pain, pushing himself back up, and she ran towards him.
„Oh my God, are you okay?" She knelt down beside him and checked him quickly. He seemed alright, except for his state of shock.
„What the hell was that?!"
„Nothing. You're drunk, you're imagining things. You won't remember it tomorrow. Go home now, will you? You must be exhausted."
She grabbed his arm and put it around her shoulder, then helped him get up and carefully pushed him out the door. Both of them were still shaking, and he still seemed at a loss for words, completely unable to wrap his head around what had just happened. He looked at her with the same confusion, puzzlement and slow, dire realization that she should see in his eyes again, just days from now, after their whole world had been turned on its head.

The curse had been broken, Gothel and her witches had been defeated, and the people of Hyperion Heights finally remembered who they really were. Hook's poisoned heart had gotten the best of him as he had desperately been trying to stay close and fight next to his daughter Alice, and he was tended to by the medics. He wasn't able to participate in the joyful reunion when family members and old friends were finding and hugging each other and celebrating their victory.
It was then when Regina looked over to him lying on a stretcher just before being taken to the hospital that she saw that exact same look on his face.

Hook was back. And he remembered.