Teaching Love

Chapter Ten

There was no right or wrong reaction to have for this kind of situation. Thoughts were swimming through his head even though he couldn't grasp at something to say to her. All he could do was stare into her sweet brown eyes that were darting around the room. She wasn't focused or paying attention to him, it looked as if she was in the room by herself. Her chest was rising slowly and she would occasionally let a tear slip past her eyes.

"Regina?"

The call of her name brought her back to reality and she moved from her spot on the chair in the room. While she was telling Robin the story of her and Graham, she found it hard to stay in one place so she often moved around. Robin watched her slowly walk up to him and wipe the tears from her eyes before wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a hug.

"Hold me, please," she said and in seconds his arms were around her waist and pulling her close into his chest.

For a few moments, they stayed there in each other's embrace. He was paying attention to the feel of her strong heartbeat against his chest and the smell of her vanilla shampoo. She was always soft and feminine whenever he held her, it was one of the things he loved about her.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked him softly as she pulled away from him just a bit.

"Hm, there's not just one thing that I'm thinking about. I'm currently thinking about my feelings about you and how strong you are," he said as he moved his hand to brush a tear from her cheek. "You're such a beautiful woman, heart and all."

A breathtaking smile spread across her lips and it brought a smile to Robin's mouth as well. "Thank you, truly. I'm just curious to find out what your thoughts are."

"Well," he said before taking a deep breath, "I don't think that my thoughts matter. Someone else's thoughts shouldn't affect how you feel about something that's happened to you. I don't know how to think. I'm just happy that you're here with me. You're all safe and sound in my arms."

Regina gave him a little smile before kissing his lips and moving to sit on his lap. With the change in positions, she ended up placing her head against his chest as his hands wrapped tighter around her waist.

"Am I? I don't think I'll ever feel safe. I know you'll try to ease my worries but he's at my job, Robin. That's the place where I work and I love my job and all the children there. Henry makes me smile every time he walks into my classroom. How can I feel safe knowing he can pop up at any time and ruin my happiness?"

"Your happiness has nothing to do with him. You may say that he's trying to ruin your happiness but he can't and I won't stand and watch him do that. We'll try and get him fired for sexual harassment. I don't even think Principal Gold would even allow someone like that to-"

"Graham is Gold's nephew. If anything was to ever happen, I would be the one fired. Don't you think that I've thought about reporting him?"

"They're related? The more information you end up telling me the more I get confused. I've never known they were related. They hardly act like they like each other," Robin said as he wiped his furrowed brow.

"Could we talk about something else?" She pleaded with him after grabbing his hand and linking their fingers together. "We could go exploring in the area or we could talk about us and what we want to do together."

"We can," he agreed. "I just think that this is the kind of topic we have to revisit. Like you said this bastard has access to you. I want you to be safe and to feel safe wherever you go."

"I feel safe with you. The fact that I feel safe with you was the reason I told you about Graham. I've never told anyone about us. Only Ruby and her grandmother know about it. I want the people I hold close to heart know about what happened. Now you're stuck with me, you can't ever leave me," she told him with a bop to his nose.