OQ One Shots (#OQPromptParty)

Prompt 70- Regina Being With Young Robyn

Regina

I could only stare at the car seat with the little girl bundled inside. I could see the tufts of strawberry blonde curls that peaked through her cap that only haunted me further as I thought of my sister. Annoyance filled my entire body as I glared at the small child, trying my hardest not to nitpick the entire situation and how I had gotten to this point.

I had been awoken to a loud bang on the door, the young sheriff on the other side with her idiotic father, holding the car seat with somber expressions. There had been an accident, the witch had gotten ahold of the keys to the lime green station wagon, and the slick, thawing ice on the toll bridge had caused her to veer off the road and into the shallow, rocky lake.

Luckily her daughter had been left with the librarian while she attempted her secret mission, doing God knows what in this horrific town. I felt confusion run through my head as I tried to figure out why I hadn't felt grief, why I could only fixate on the fact that my niece or stepdaughter was now sitting in her car seat on my counter.

The chubby baby opened her blue eyes and smiled up at me, eagerly reaching her hands out to me, but I couldn't bring myself to hold her in my own arms. I had watched on as Robin cradled her protectively against his heart, to symbolize her worth being equivalent to his own life. Zelena had fumbled with her, keeping her at her breast at all times, her bond with her baby a natural one, and she never had an issue keeping her on her hip, or cuddled against her chest. However, I was always the onlooker, brushing a finger over her foot while keeping my distance.

This distance didn't go unseen either, Robin and I had many discussions regarding my boundary issue, and most of them only ended in frustration for the both of us. I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I couldn't stand to be close with his daughter, that every time I saw him hold her, it made me want to burst into fits of tears, that it felt like my heart was being torn from my chest and seared to dust. I couldn't tell him that for the short time that they were in each other's lives, and she would sleep in the bassinet beside our bed, I would lie awake and stare at the bed that my son used to sleep in, and my first instinct was always to scoop her out and lay her in the giant crib that I had purchased just so that I didn't have to see her in my own bedroom at night.

My problem wasn't that I looked at this baby and saw simply a baby, I saw my sister and soulmate joining together in a way we never would. I saw them sharing something so intimate and personal as sex, something that I felt he only had the ability to share with me. I saw him standing by her hospital bed, watching their baby being born. But the worst, the absolute worst was watching them expect me to act like this was all okay, that I was supposed to accept it all without a hint of betrayal from either of them.

Robin understood my pain, and tried his hardest for us to work through it, without feeling shame towards his daughter, whom was very much a part of our lives. Zelena, on the other hand, was a completely different story, her mixture of constant gloating and complaining in the beginning, was an insufferable mix, and made me want to throw her back into the asylum indefinitely, but after seeing her arc of sacrifice and motherhood, I was now balancing on a very thin tightrope, destined to fall at any moment.

But now they are both gone, one mangled after being hurled through a station wagon windshield, the other obliterated for the good of his loved ones, and I was the one left with his children to take care of. Roland was still a matter that I was in the process of working out with Little John, but Robyn was a sudden shock dropped on my plate.

The chubby baby was now crying as she reached out for me, her screams increasing as she managed to scoot on her padded bottom and cling to my jacket, begging for me to pick her up and into my arms. I carefully placed my hands on her cheeks, trying my hardest to gather myself and soothe her in another way that didn't require me to take her into my arms.