Twist of Fate

Chapter 1

Regina, standing in the sterile white hall outside the delivery room, can feel a sense of anxiety take it's place in her stomach. Every second, her eyes make their way to that hospital room door in front of her, a pang of sadness hits her. She can't help but think of how she's gotten to where she is now.

"I can't believe it's come to this. Am I really helping Zelena?" Regina scoffs staring intently at the hospital's pristine floors her reflection staring back at her.

"It's the right thing to do Regina," her stepdaughter reassures her.

As quick as they came out, Regina can feel the support in Snow's words.

"Are you ready to meet the newest member of your family?" Snow asks the brunette, empathy evident in her voice.

"Honestly...?" Regina inhales slowly, "I don't know," she says as she exhales, on the verge of tears.

Her eyes are now rimmed red and glossy, and the brunette looks away quickly, drying any evidence of her tears with a quick swipe of her hand across both of her cheeks.

I have to be strong. I have to get over it, It'll never happen, Regina tells herself. To Regina, it felt like just yesterday she was swallowing the contents of the potion that would take away her ability to conceive a child; or any children for that matter.

It's then that she hears the cry of the newborn child pierce the silence around her, and she can't hold in her tears any longer. She instantly walks as quickly as she can out of that hall, making her way to the bathroom, for the fear of being vulnerable, for the fear of anyone seeing her with her walls down.

She thinks she hears Snow call for her, but just continues to walk. She feels as if she's been submerged underwater, like every sound around her is now muffled. She eventually finds the hospital's bathroom, and makes her way into one of the unoccupied stalls, slamming it shut as she enters. She begins pacing the bathroom floor, thoughts of sorrow and jealousy overtaking her mind. She begins to daydream about what it would be like if she was the one to conceive and eventually give birth to Robin's child. How it would feel to carry them, feel them move inside of her. But as quickly as the thought enters her mind, she pushes it away because she knows that that can never be. That she will never be able to give Robin children, that she will never be able to conceive a child, and it breaks her heart to pieces.

She holds on to the porcelain sink until her knuckles turn white, willing for these thoughts to leave her mind. But they don't, and she doesn't think they ever will. It's as if they have lived inside of her mind since that night at the bar in New York, and they are just now coming to the surface. She looks at her reflection in the mirror. Staring back at her is the face of a woman who has lost much, but has also gained much throughout the years. This woman who has slowly began to pick up the pieces needed to become a better person than what she was decades earlier. A sense of nausea overtakes her, and she quickly turns on the faucet, splashing her face with water, hoping that the cold can help her clear her mind and calm her nerves. She rests her hands on the porcelain sink swaying back and forth inhaling and exhaling in a calm manner, hoping to force the nausea away.

As she feels her nerves drift away. she turns off the water, dries her face, steps out of the stall, and makes her way towards the delivery room, an unwavering hint of sorrow still remaining inside of her. But she has to overcome this Regina thinks to herself. As she approaches the room she realizes Mary Margaret is nowhere near the room like she was previously.

Regina, seeing the delivery room's door is open, nervously approaches it. She is under the door frame, and is about to knock on it, when her eyes catch sight of a small bundle in Robin's arms swaddled in pink fabric. Her heart instantly skips a beat.

"Robin," the brunette utters from the doorway, a forced smile plastered on her face.

Robin quickly looks up at Regina with tears of joy in his eyes.

"Regina... I have a daughter," he chokes out, smiling, as the tears start streaming down his face.

She walks into the room hoping that Robin cannot see through her facade.

"That's wonderful," she replies approaching him and the tiny baby girl held protectively in her father's arms.

As soon as she lays eyes on that baby with her button nose and 'o' shaped mouth, her smile becomes genuine. This baby is pure, and innocent, and she looks just like her father; well, her facial features, to Regina's relief; a small pink cap covers the baby's head concealing any hair that the baby possesses, and she hasn't opened her eyes yet.

It's then that it happens.

A blinding headache pulses in her head like a hammer beating against her skull. She can hear Robin's voice repeating her name, until he is yelling as black spots begin to enter her vision. She looks at him seeing double before she is falling onto the hospital room floor. The last thing she sees is Robin handing the baby over to Whale, catching her before she makes contact with the cold floor, the mischievous smirk on her sister's face before she sees Emma comes into the hospital room, and with a wave of her hand, poofs Zelena out of the hospital bed and out of the hospital room before Regina is succumbed into darkness.