A Thief and a Queen

Not Just Another Day

Regina stood, grabbing her coat and purse. She stormed past her assistant, barking: "I'm going out for lunch."

---

Granny's was closed.

Granny's was never closed.

Regina stood outside the darkened diner, staring at the red and white "We're closed" sign with an incredulous look. In fact, she was pretty sure her mouth was hanging open in a way Mother would've scolded her for. But Storybrooke had been around for thirty years and except for their little trip to Camelot, Granny's had always open. She used to drive around with Henry when he was teething, ending up here for a cup of coffee to get her through the long and sleepless nights.

Closing her mouth, her eyes narrowed. Something was wrong. And she was going to get to the bottom of it.

Even if it took her all day.

At least she would have something to do.

She went around to the bed and breakfast check in, surprised to see Aurora working there. The princess looked up and shrank back a bit. "Is something wrong?"

"Is Granny in?" Regina asked.

Aurora shook her head. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Do you know why the diner is closed?"

"Granny mentioned something about fum...fumi..." Aurora frowned, struggling with the word.

Regina took pity on her. "Fumigation?"

"Yes! What is that?" Aurora asked, confused.

"It's just to make sure bugs don't invest the place. It has to be done every so often." Regina sighed, the mystery solved quickly and rather disappointingly. "So Granny is out?"

Aurora nodded, pulling out a pad and pencil. "Do you want to leave her a message?"

"No, thank you anyway," Regina said, stepping toward the door. "Have a good day."

---

Her head was spinning.

Regina sat down on the bench by the lake in the park, which was iced over. She knew it wasn't thick enough to support a skater and wondered if she could use her magic to make it so. Skating would at least give her something to do, something to keep her mind off one important fact:

No one had any time to spend with her on her birthday.

In some ways, it was her own fault. She never really marked the day in any special way. The first time she had celebrated since childhood was when Henry was five and it dawned on him that while he had a birthday, his mother didn't. So he asked her and asked her and asked her until she broke down and told him it was February 1st. He then made her burnt toast, soggy cereal and orange juice and gave her breakfast in bed for her birthday. Regina hugged him and shared it with him. That night they made a cake together and Henry sang her happy birthday.

After that, she and Henry celebrated her birthday low-key until he was ten and the whole storybook mess came along. Since then, there had been no time to celebrate. In fact, it now seemed a bit selfish to expect them to want to celebrate her birthday. So she would go home, make dinner, spend time with her family and then go to bed with Robin like it was another ordinary day.

She was used to ignoring the pain.

---

Regina spent the rest of the afternoon working and trying to numb the pain with endless paperwork. She ignored the passing hours or how dark it got outside her window, waiting for the day to be over.