A Thief and a Queen

Skeletons Are Supposed to Be in the Closet

Written for Spooky OQ Day 3: Bones

Roland was the one who found the puppy trapped in a hole in the woods with a broken leg, starved and dehydrated. Concerned, Roland had run into the Merry Men camp and dragged his father and Little John over to help the little dog. Together, the men got him out of the hole and Robin decided to bring him to the animal shelter.

That night, Roland begged Robin and Regina to keep the puppy. He promised to help take care of him and to love the puppy forever. "Please," he pleaded, hands clasped and wide brown eyes on full blast.

"We'll talk about it," Regina said, caving under his doe eyes. Surprised, Robin agreed to that.

The whole family went to pick up the puppy the next morning. Roland dubbed him "Lucky" and attentively listened to the worker at the animal shelter explain how to care for a dog. He promised to do everything he could and then beamed at Lucky, his smile melting Regina's heart.

Lucky quickly became part of their family, though he was mostly Roland's dog. The boy fed him every morning and night and made sure to play with him whenever he could. Henry, Robin and Regina all helped him walk the dog since he was too young to do by himself but Roland happily cleaned up after his dog. At night, Lucky curled up on Roland's bed and the two slept together.

It fell to Regina and Robin to train him, though, which they didn't mind. She realized she couldn't expect a five-years-old to know how to housebreak a dog but Roland watched his parents carefully as they trained Lucky not to use the bathroom in the house and not to chew up everything he found.

The training worked and Lucky was a good dog—except for one thing. No matter what they did, they couldn't get him to stop digging holes in the yard. He was proud of each one he dug, judging by his bright eyes and wagging tails, no matter how many times right after he was scolded or sent away so one of them could fill the hole back in.

One day, though, Lucky surprised them all when he ran in with a bone in his mouth. Regina frowned as he placed it on her clean kitchen floor, dirt flying off it as he gnawed at it. She hurried over to him, pulling on the bone. "Lucky, drop it."

The dog thought she was playing and pulled back at it, tail wagging. She frowned, making sure to use her mayor voice as she repeated: "Lucky, drop it."

With a whine, the dog released the bone. Regina gave him one of his treats and tossed a toy bone into the living room for him to play with. She frowned as she turned over the bone she had taken from him in her hands, identifying it as a human femur. Where had he gotten it?

"Robin!" she called out. "Meet me in the backyard. Now!"

She hurried outside, her soulmate meeting her as she exited the back door. He frowned as she approached. "What's wrong?"

"Lucky found this." She held up a bone.

Robin frowned as he took it from her. "Is this a human leg bone?"

"Yes, it is. The question is...where did Lucky get it?" she asked, scanning the yard. She found dirt strewn about a far corner and headed toward it, Robin following her.

They got to Lucky's newest hole and gazed in. Parts of two other bones stuck out from the dirt, only slightly disturbed from when Lucky picked up his prize to take back into the house. Regina frowned, confused. "I don't get it. Why is there a skeleton in our yard?"

"So it's not from your past as the Evil Queen?" he asked, trying to process the sight.

She scowled at him. "If I killed someone, I didn't hide their body in my yard. And the only person I killed here in Storybrooke was Graham. He certainly isn't buried in my yard."

Tears pricked her eyes as she thought of the late huntsman. She felt sick as she recalled the anger and jealousy that had driven her to crush his heart, driven to kill him more because he was choosing Emma over her though telling herself it was to keep him from uncovering the truth. Graham had deserved a lot better than what she had given him but he had had a proper burial.

Robin sighed as he looked down at the hole. "Okay, so now what do we do?"

"I guess we call Emma and dig this poor soul up," Regina replied, wincing at the utter destruction about to be wrought upon her lawn. "Maybe we can find a clue as to who he or she is."

It took most of the afternoon, but they were finally able to dig up the entire skeleton. Emma laid it carefully into a body bag she had brought from the sheriff's station before zipping it up. She was going to transport the bones to Whale for him to look over in hopes he could at least tell them the sex and age of the mystery person.

"I think we can also possibly do some facial reconstruction, but we'll have to see," Emma said. "Until then, maybe there's someone who didn't realize a loved one was missing because they thought they were still in the Enchanted Forest. Once we let the news out, maybe they'll come forward with a possible identification."

"I hope so. It seems sad to think no one would ever know who he or she was, to not honor them properly," Robin said, wrapping his arm around Regina.

Emma nodded. "Well, if this is the biggest mystery in town, I'm glad. I definitely wouldn't want another curse."

"I think we all agree on that," Regina replied, her mind turning. She still couldn't place who the skeleton belonged to and why it was in her backyard. But she decided to leave it in Emma's hands and not worry about it anymore.

Someone—or something—else would end up having other plans.

To be continued...