A Happy Beginning Now is Ours

"Secrets and Truths"

Continuation from my OQ Fix It Week fic "Second Chances," which can be found in A Thief and a Queen.

"Happy endings come after a story with lots of ups and downs."-Unknown

Rex loved Roni. He believed he had from the moment she woke him up and offered him a job in her bar. How could he not love her? Even had she not been his guardian angel, she was a vivacious woman with a big heart she tried to hide behind an even bigger attitude. She fought for her community and the people of Hyperion Heights looked up to her as a leader. Rex counted himself blessed to be in the small number of people who Roni let see her softer sides. He knew she cried during movies that featured animals doing amazing things, she had a soft spot for children and that she loved to cuddle. Rex cherished everything about her, even the parts that got on his nerve. She could be too stubborn for her own good and sometimes shut him out when she got too stressed. But he was always patient with her, waiting for her to come to him for help or comfort.

Even his patience, though, had its limits. And he was approaching them when it came to her.

It started after Henry Mills had come into their lives, helping to take down Victoria Belfrey and end her reign of terror over Hyperion Heights. Her daughter, Ivy, had offered to help them and in the process, had discovered a picture of a woman who looked just like Roni standing with a younger version of Henry. It had thrown everyone for a loop, especially with Lucy insisting that it meant that Roni was really Regina Mills—the former Evil Queen of Snow White fame and Henry's adoptive mother. Roni had then also confessed she had tried to adopt a baby but they decided that she was unfit to be a mother just when she was about to get her child. He had held her as she cried for the child she would've raised and comforted her as she dealt with that pain again.

However, she started to pull away after that and began to act weird. She often stared at him as if she had seen a ghost and when he tried to find out what was wrong, she just brushed him off with nothing. There were times she started to call him by another name and then stopped, correcting herself. He tried to ignore it but something just didn't seem right to him.

Then she left for San Francisco with Henry and came back with her old friend, Kelly. Roni explained that they had had a falling out a few years earlier when she had given Kelly's daughter Margot a job while she decided what to do after college. Margot had wanted to explore and help people so Roni had recommended she join the Peace Corps. She had done just that, much to her mother's displeasure. Kelly and Roni had argued about that before Kelly had ended the friendship and moved to San Francisco.

Now she was back in Seattle and had reconciled with Roni. He wondered if that was why his girlfriend had been acting weird but the strange behavior continued, just now with Kelly included. They often spoke in whispers and would stop whenever he came around. And they were also doing something in one of the backrooms. He wasn't allowed into it so he had no clue what was going on in there.

And then there was Baron Samdi, a local businessman who had taken an interest in Roni. Rex didn't consider himself a jealous man but he saw green every time he looked up to find Samdi standing close to Roni. Like Kelly, she often spoke in whispers with him and would stop as soon as Rex approached. He didn't want to see the writing on the wall but it was like a flashing neon sign—he was losing the woman he loved.

He found an ally in Margot, Kelly's newly returned daughter. She explained she returned from the Peace Corps to reconnect with her mother. Yet she found her mother more secretive than usual and was confused by the fact Kelly even avoided her own fiancé, Chad. Like Rex, the whispered conversations between Roni and Kelly ended whenever Margot was near. She was frustrated by it and told Rex that she wasn't going to stop trying to get answers from her mother, so he shouldn't give up doing the same with Roni. Bolstered by her support, he took Roni out for a proper date and decided to once again broach the subject.