Crossing Paths

Chapter 14

Regina handed me a glass of her already famous apple cider and I took a sip before I cleared my throat. She sat down beside me and looked intrigued at me, patiently waiting for me to talk.

"What do you want to know about me?" I questioned, but I knew what she was going to say.

I'd been rather secretive about my past dating life and I knew that, even though it was a sore subject, she was still curious.

"Whatever you want to tell me."

"My former husband?"

"For example."

I swallowed and took another sip of the strong drink, letting the liquid burn on my tongue. I hissed and shook my head curtly before I set down the drink.

"Two years ago, there was this serial killer in Storybrooke. Nothing ever happened in the town, except for then. Killian, my work partner and husband at the time, and I worked our asses off to get the guy behind bars."

I inhaled deeply and looked at Regina. Her gaze was serious and she was solely focused on me.

"Then one day, Killian woke me up saying we'd received a message from the killer. He wanted to meet with us. We agreed and went on our way, not forgetting our guns. He wanted to meet somewhere in the woods, not the safest place, but Killian and I were desperate to catch the man who'd caused so much harm."

I kept quiet for a moment, regaining more courage to continue talking. It was hard to talk about this moment in my life and I already felt the tears stinging my eyes.

"He told us he'd go to jail, once he'd killed his final victim. "The Grand Finale", he'd called it. "The person who deserved it the most". Killian slowly stepped forward, wanting to cuff the man and arrest him, but before he could take another step, he..." A tear rolled down my cheek and Regina immediately wiped it away with her thumb. I saw she herself had a hard time controlling her emotions as well. "He was stabbed in his stomach. The murderer wanted to stab again, but I- I shot him before he had another chance."

I was sobbing loudly, now. Tears rolled down my cheeks as if they were the Niagara falls.

No one but Belle had ever heard this story. I'd even refused to tell the doctors at the hospital this, because "what difference would it make?".

Lots of people had encouraged me to go to a therapist to talk about my husband's passing and me killing the murderer, but I'd never even considered that.

Talking about my feelings to a stranger seemed ridiculous, yet here I was, spilling my darkest secrets to Regina and it felt natural.

"We were deep in the woods and Killian was bleeding to death. We were quite unreachable, but some doctors managed to come our way. They carried Killian to the ambulance and some men took care of the killer, who was dead. I held Killian's hand all the way to the hospital, but when we arrived there, he'd already..." I pressed my lips firmly against each other to stifle a loud cry. "He'd already passed away."

I had grabbed Regina's hand and squeezed it tightly. I'd cried before in front of Regina, but this time was different. This time, I actually felt like I was exposing myself. I felt vulnerable.

"I've been so angry for so long," I confessed and Regina nodded understanding. "I was angry at everyone and everything. Angry at the killer, angry at Killian for sacrificing himself for Roni West, angry at... What's wrong?"

The look on Regina's face, worried me more than ever. Suddenly, all the color had seeped away from her face and she was pale. Her hand became sweaty, but was ice cold and she swallowed thickly, but didn't reply.

"Regina? What's wrong?" I repeated and I felt my heart pounding louder, in fear.

Tears started rolling down her cheeks and I quickly wiped them away with my thumb, like she'd done with me, but she was quick to reject my touch.

She moved back on the couch and started breathing heavily. "Regina? Stay calm, okay? Regina, breathe steadily. In... And out... And in.... And out."

Regina seemed to calm down the slightest after listening to my breathing exercises, but she avoided my gaze at all costs.

I was waiting for her to explain this sudden change in mood, but she apparently had a hard time processing whatever was in her mind.

"My parents were quite old when they met. My dad had already been married once before and had a daughter from that marriage," Regina started, but the tears didn't stop. "Zelena and my mother did not get along. My mother found it hard to show love and Zelena already hated her for breaking up a family. It wasn't true, but Zelena needed to blame someone."

I wondered where she was going with this story, but I let her talk. We had talked a lot already, but we both needed time to talk about our deeper feelings.

She was closed off, just like me, but she was it in a much subtler way. The energy she held made it seem as though she was an open book, when really, she wasn't at all.

This moment of her talking was a rare moment, I figured. It was evident that Regina had a hard time opening up to me.

"I loved Zelena. I loved how she used to play board games with me and how she would read bedtime stories at night. Despite her not liking it at home, she and I had a great bond. Or so I thought. When I was six, Zelena ran away from home at age fourteen. She probably ended up in the system and she broke all contacts with the family. I never knew why she didn't go to her birth mother, but she must have had a reason for that as well."

Regina swallowed and wiped away her last tears. She finally seemed as though she'd fully calmed down, but I wondered for how long that was. Talking about past memories was really hard at times.

"When I was fifteen, I found out she worked in this bar in Storybrooke. So, one weekend, I paid a trip to Storybrooke with my saved money and offered to work in the bar for the weekend. The owner of the bar seemed quite confused and even though I was underage, he let me work there. I wasn't ready to talk to my sister, not yet. I just wanted to see her first. But I knew she'd recognize my name, so I came up with a fake one."

Tears escaped her eyes again and I stiffened. I had a feeling where this was going, but so long she didn't speak the words, it didn't become real.

She'd avoided my gaze the entire time, but now she looked up at me. Her eyes were red and puffy and I saw something on her face I'd never seen before. Fear.

Regina was scared to continue talking.

"I'm Roni West," she whispered.

Hearing the thoughts I'd had for the past minute become reality was as though someone had stabbed me right in my heart and was twisting the knife real good.

My husband had sacrificed himself for Regina.