Chapter Text
That peace and quiet she's been hoping for finally comes after dinner. She leaves David, who'd made good on his promise to keep the sympathizers at bay while she ate, and walks around the lake for a while, relearns the lay of the land. Carefully avoids anyone and everyone. By the time she heads back to her cabin, it's almost dark and she feels better. A lot better. About everything.
She loves this place, this camp, loves the respite it provides from her usual life. Particularly after two weeks spent with her parents. And she can tell she needs it, needs to be here, in this place, where there's so much of Daniel. Her therapist had told her it would be good for her, coming back, and for once she thinks he was right. He'd told her it would help her let go, and when she steps back into Monarch, she carries an odd sort of peace with her. She'd made her rounds, visited all their favorite spots, and it hurts, it does, but it's different than it was even a few hours ago.
Softer.
She feels the loss of him less keenly than she had in all those months at Yale, when she'd reached for her phone out of habit, hoping he'd have texted her, only to remember that no, he hadn't, he couldn't, he was dead. It was worse months ago, when her friends were planning their spring break trips, and she'd been almost relieved that her father's favorite cousin had died, that they'd had to go to Puerto Rico for the funeral. A week with family and the beach had been a good distraction from all the thoughts of Daniel, and how they'd talked of going to Paris and Versailles, and how he'd said he would kiss her under the Eiffel Tower if it was the last thing he did (it wasn't, the last thing he'd done was take her sailing, the two of them and his best friend and best friend's fiancée, and she will never sail again, never, not ever, not when she can still remember the sight of him, dead, can still feel herself screaming his name).
Regina swallows, and squeezes her eyes shut. Maybe she's not feeling him less, after all.
Still, she thinks this summer will be good for her. Help her heal more fully, and she's going to start with tonight. With taking some time for herself, to decompress before everything really gets rolling in the morning. She settles into her bunk with a pillow at her back and her iPad in her lap, but she's only four pages into The Book Thief when she hears a knock on the cabin door.
"Knock, knock," a familiar voice sing-songs, and Regina groans.
She'd known she couldn't escape Mary Margaret forever, but she thought maybe David would have been kind enough to actually pass along her request for privacy. It looks like she misjudged him - or maybe his girlfriend just didn't listen. Either way, Regina is in no mood. She'd been perfectly fine with her plan to read until midnight and then turn in. Alone. Unbothered.
Instead, she gets an ambush.
They pour into her room, clutching pillows and blankets and dressed in what could be considered pajamas (sweats and yoga pants and short shorts, tank tops and t-shirts) - Mary Margaret, and Ruby Lucas (who greets her with "Guess who's hosting the first-night sleepover?" It's not a question, not really, so Regina doesn't answer), Isobel Tinker and Emma Swan, and they're all grinning at her like she should be happy about this, but she is not.
"No," Regina sighs, watching as Emma strolls in like she owns the place and tosses her blankets on the farthest bottom bunk. Ruby is toting three bags, and sets them all down on the bed across from Regina while Mary Margaret unfurls the blanket she'd been wearing like a cape and drapes it over the one right next to it. Didn't they hear her? She repeats herself, says, "No," more forcefully, and then, "I am not being ambushed in my own cabin."
"Sure looks like you are," Emma smirks, easily catching the portable speakers Ruby tosses her way while Tink sets the plastic carton of cupcakes she's been juggling on the floor in the center of the room, then claims the bed next to Regina.
"You need to cheer up," Tink tells her, and Regina rolls her eyes. Hard.
"No way," she protests, flipping her iPad case closed and glowering at the petite blonde. "I am not having some sort of teary, bare your soul, group therapy slumber party."
Mary Margaret waves her hand, shaking her head. "David already told me," she assures, overly kind. It's not quite pity, just Mary Margaret's particular brand of warmheartedness. Still, Regina finds it grating. She was so looking forward to her book. "There is a complete moratorium on all talk of Daniel for the rest of the night. But it's been a year since we've all seen each other, and who wants to sleep all alone in their cabin, anyway?"
Me, Regina thinks darkly, but doesn't say.
Emma has finally gotten the speakers hooked up, apparently, because the room fills with music - Arcade Fire - and when Regina moves to the end of her bunk, she finds that Mary Margaret is already popping open the container of cupcakes - and ripping open a bag of chips, peeling the cover off a carton of dip.
How did she completely lose control of this situation?
Tink reaches for Regina, grabs her by the hand and tugs her from the bed. "C'mon, Regina. Up you go. You're not getting out of this."
She lets herself get pulled to her feet, then reclaims her hands and crosses her arms over her chest, leaning against the end of her bunk and eyeing the other girls suspicously. "No talking about Daniel? You all promise?"
"I don't really give a crap about your pain, Regina," Emma assures (the sentiment doesn't smart; they're not what anyone would consider close friends, and Regina is grateful that someone, at least, is willing to leave her the hell alone), snagging the pillow from her bunk and dropping it onto the floor. As she sits down on it, she says, "I'm just here for the cupcakes."
The blasé dismissal of the topic she absolutely doesn't want to stick on almost makes Regina smirk, but then Ruby pulls a bottle from the tote bag slung over her shoulder and adds, "And wine."
Regina's eyes go wide. "Ruby!" she hisses, lowering her voice as if the walls have ears and stalking over to the other girl. "You are not seriously planning on drinking that in my cabin."
But Ruby's already pulled a Swiss army knife from her pocket and pried out the corkscrew. "Lighten up, Regina," she sighs. "There's one bottle and five of us. It's not like we're gonna get drunk."
"Half of us are underage," she reminds - only Emma and Tink are actually old enough to buy liquor. "Faye could fire us all. Maybe you all have a happy home to return to, but if I get kicked out of here, I'm back with my mother, and suffice it to say she is not my favorite person right now."
"When you put it that way, I'm with Regina," Emma chimes in, and Regina remembers she's not from a happy home, either. Still, she's reaching for the cupcakes and plucking up a chocolate one, peeling at the wrapper and biting into the cake. So much for solidarity.
Undeterred, Ruby is twisting the corkscrew into the top of the bottle. "We'll only get in trouble if we get caught, and she's not going to do cabin raids on the first night. Camp doesn't even officially start until the orientation meeting tomorrow."
Regina eyes the bottle warily, watches Ruby pull the cork out and drop it to the floor.
"I had plans," Regina attempts, but she knows she's already lost. Mary Margaret is halfway through her first cupcake, and Ruby is already sitting down. "I was going to read."
"Great! You can read this," Ruby announces, pulling a stack of papers from her tote and holding them up to Regina.
"Camp rosters?" Emma questions, reaching forward and snagging a sheet. The other girls all lean in interestedly, and Regina sighs and resigns herself. Moves to the empty space they've left for her on the floor.
"Yep," Ruby confirms. "I... liberated them from the office computer this afternoon." She shifts to her knees and says, "But first..." She raises the bottle in her hand, "To Camp Storybrooke."
She takes a swig, then passes it to Mary Margaret, who holds the bottle up and says, "To old friends," then drinks, passes to Emma. She has a mouth full of cake again, and points mutely a Tink, who takes the bottle and lifts it.
"To this week of grace before the children descend," drinks, and passes it to Regina.
She takes the bottle with a frown, and swallows down the urge to be the good girl. It looks like they're doing this, whether she wants to or not.
So she takes a deep breath, toasts, and says, "To a whole summer away from my mother," and then sips. It's red, and pretty cheap, but it's not bad, and Regina licks the taste of it off her lips before passing the bottle back to Emma, who's finally free for a drink.
She lifts, and declares, "To hot, new, foreign camp counselors," then takes a long drink while the other girls laugh.
"Ugh, and there are several of them this year," Ruby informs dreamily, dropping a handful of dixie cups into the snack pile in the center and then stretching out on her belly, shuffling through the papers in front of her.
Emma grabs the cups and pours, and passes, until each girl has her own little portion of contraband wine.
"Who?" asks Tink, shifting onto her knees.
"Well, Graham is back, but he's not new," Ruby concedes. "He's with me this year, in senior camp."
Regina frowns. Graham had been with the middles last year. He was a nice guy, she was hoping for a familiar face just down the hill - one a little calmer than Jefferson. "Who replaced him in middles?"
"New guy," Ruby informs. "Robin Locksley - he's from London. I met him today, he's cool."
Ruby thinks most people are cool, though, so it's not a terribly ringing endorsement.
"Wait - English?" Emma asks as Regina reaches forward and steals a cupcake. "Tall, dark, and scruffy English?"
"Mmm," Ruby's face screws up a little, debating, "Not really all that tall, kinda blondish, but dark blonde, and yeah, kinda scruffy."
Regina blinks. Beatles t-shirt. Ray Bans. Watching her arrive looking like she was about to go shopping for Prada instead of hiking to camp.
"Oh, he was at my table at dinner," Mary Margaret pipes up. "He's doing archery with me, right?"
"Indeed he is," Ruby confirms, moving the papers around and finding another one.
"He's really cute," Mary Margaret admits, pushing her long, dark hair back over her shoulders, and when did camp talk devolve into boy talk? Is this how they're going to spend their whole evening?
"Aren't you practically engaged?" Tink asks, only a hint of accusation in her voice. "Leave the cute ones to the rest of us."
Emma smirks. "Yeah, hey, what's the deal with that? Has David asked you yet?"
"No," Mary Margaret says, deflating comically. "And I have no idea what he's waiting for, he knows I'm going to say yes." She flops back dramatically, somehow managing to snag her pillow on the way down and drop it beneath her head to cushion the fall.
"Maybe for you to be of legal drinking age at your own wedding?" Regina supplies, snarkily, earning an appreciative smirk from Emma.
Mary Margaret tips her head up, and scowls. "I'm twenty. We could push the date." She draws her ankle up to her knee and says to the ceiling. "Anyway, if I can't have the cute English guy, one of you should." She waves a hand dramatically, and says, "I leave you to fight it out."
"He was ogling Regina earlier," Ruby supplies, and Regina frowns. Suddenly, it's all eyes on her.
"He was?"
"Mmhmm," Ruby teases. "I was giving him a tour, he saw you talking to Jefferson. Started asking questions."
In all the things she'd considered that might make camp in the wake of Daniel a challenge, it had somehow never occurred to Regina to consider camp hook-ups. Great. One more thing she has to deal with.
She shakes her head, lifts her wine, and just before the cup reaches her lips, declares, "Not interested. Dating is the last thing I want to do this summer," before taking a deep swallow.
"I neither encouraged, nor discouraged," Ruby tells her, and for that Regina is grateful. Encouraging him would have meant she'd have to shut him down, discouraging him would have probably meant Ruby telling him about Daniel. And that's the last thing she wants - more people, strangers especially, knowing about her private pain.
"Well, if you're not interested," Tink smirks, "And he's as cute as Mary Margaret claims, I don't mind taking one for the team and distracting him."
"Be my guest," Regina tells her, before taking a bite of her cupcake. She tries to picture him in her mind - Robin Locksley, from London - but she'd been so angry she can't remember any of the details. Not that they matter. She needs time, and space, and solitude, and campers. Not romance.
"If you've got Graham, who'd I get stuck with?" Emma asks, already pouring herself a second glass of wine - or what she can manage of one. She up-ends the bottle and gets maybe half a pour, and Regina watches the last few red droplets fall as she chews.
"Umm..." Ruby flips back to another page, comes up with the answer. "Killian Jones. Also of England. And there's another English girl..." She flips. "Zelena Green - but she's with the littles. I haven't met her yet."
"Looks like it's the British invasion this year," Tink says, pulling the entire bag of potato chips into her lap.
"There's still you and Belle representing the Southern hemisphere," Regina points out, and Tink says True, true... and reaches into the bag.
Regina watches her pop a chip into her mouth longingly. She'd dig in, too, but she's already had dinner and a cupcake, and she's most of the way through this glass of wine, and that's plenty of junk food. Regina hears her own thoughts and frowns. She's at camp. She's at camp, and it's first night, and there's cupcakes and chips and someone has unearthed a bag of mini Snickers and thrown them in the pile, and that voice - that voice telling her she should hold back - it sounds suspiciously like her mother.
Annoyed with herself, Regina reaches over and thrusts her hand into the bag, grabs a chip and shoves it straight into the top of her chocolate cupcake. She smiles, satisfied, then bites and it's salty-sweet and delicious. Her mother and her calorie counts can go screw themselves.
"Where is Belle, anyway?" Mary Margaret asks, pushing herself to sit up again. "Shouldn't she be here by now?"
"Family emergency," Ruby supplies. "Something with her father. She's coming in tomorrow afternoon."
"She's still in middles?" Regina asks, and Ruby nods around a mouthful of Snickers, then just shoves the paperwork at Regina and waves pointedly.
Her intention is clear: Just read them all.
"Ms. Mills, care to give us this year's camp assignments?" Mary Margaret asks her, and Ruby points at her best friend as if to say yes, yes, that's exactly what she'd meant.
Regina downs the last of her wine and shifts, straightens her spine and clears her throat as she finds the appropriate pages. "Alright," she begins. "For the Littles, we have Mary Margaret with the Does, and David with the Bucks - that's disgusting, they even gave you matching animals this year."
"I know, right?" Ruby mutters, smirking.
Mary Margaret's lobs two mini Snickers, one at Regina, one at Ruby. Both hit their marks, but while Regina just lets hers fall, Ruby unwraps hers and pops it into her mouth.
"Shut it, both of you," she reprimands with no heat whatsoever, and Regina chuckles at her.
"Also with the Littles," Regina continues, "Zelena Green with the Monkeys, Aurora with the Mermaids and Philip with the Colts."
"They actually are engaged," Tink pipes up, earning a scowl from Mary Margaret and an interested brow raise from Ruby. "I ran into her this afternoon. Rock's the size of a moon."
"Ten bucks says she loses it in the lake by week four," Emma offered and Regina laughs at her.
"I'd take that bet, but you're probably right," Regina's tells her, then continues with her recitation. "Middles are me in Monarch, Robin Locksley with the Jacks, Jefferson in Foxes, Belle with the Dragonflies, Tink with the Sparrows and Neal Cassidy with the Wolves. Senior house one is Emma and Killian Jones. House two, Ruby and Graham."
Tink has picked up one if the staff directory pages, skims the list, and then says, "Oh, hey, Astrid's back in the infirmary?"
Ruby nods eagerly, says, "Oh my God, yes, and Leroy was here with little Nova yesterday, and that kid's unreal. So cute. They're renting a place down on Second now, I think."
BANG!
Regina startles at the violent opening of the cabin door, and Mary Margaret's wide eyes and slack jaw are all she has time to register before she feels a cold jet of water hit her back. She spins around, perhaps the worst thing she could do, because the next jet hits her right in the face, water flooding over her cheek into her eye, flushing mascara into it painfully. She cries out, more indignant than in pain and tries to push herself to her feet amidst a shrieking chorus of curses and scrambling from the other girls, and laughing from the guys she can't see. But her sneaker slides in a damp spot on the floor and she slips, her knee rapping hard against the floor when she hits it. Her eye still stings and she wipes at it foolishly, just makes it worse, both eyes squeezing shut out of reflex. Shit. She curls in on herself - one of those laughs is Jefferson, she'd know it anywhere, and he will show no mercy at the first sign of weakness. Sure enough, she takes jet after jet of water into her side - a sitting duck.
It's over in minutes, with Ruby hollering WHITE FLAG and Jefferson hooting his triumph and calling, "Alright, men, the ladies have surrendered. Ease off."
Regina uncurls and surveys the damage. A thick strip of her ponytail is plastered wetly to the side of her neck and shoulder, there's water in her ear (she tilts her head, shakes it out), and her eye's still smarting, but getting better the more she blinks. She dabs at it with the dry side of her tank top, growling her annoyance. The right side of her tank is wet from shoulder to hem, and she's soaked all down her back. The denim at her hip is so wet it's almost dripping. The other girls haven't fared any better.
A hand drops into her view, and she looks up to meet blue eyes and deep dimples. He's smiling apologetically, and says, "Sorry," and "Had to be done." Beatles t-shirt and jeans, she notes, and a gigantic Super Soaker hanging loosely in his grip. Robin. Who thinks she's worth ogling. Great. Was he the one responsible for her impromptu shower?
Regina ignores the hand he offers and pushes herself to her feet, glowering. "The face shot was a bit uncalled for."
"That wasn't me," he assures, and she finds herself believing him, particularly when he points at Ruby and says, "That was." She's wet, but not quite as wet as Regina. When she looks back, he's still holding his hand out for her, offering a handshake now instead of a lift up, and he makes this innocent face, his brows lifting slightly, so Regina lets her fingers slide into his cautiously. His hand is cold, but his grip is firm, and he introduces himself, "Robin."
"Regina," she answers in kind, before dropping his hand and pushing back her wet hair.
"Seriously?!" Emma gripes, pulling at the sky blue cotton plastered to her front. Her dark bra is now clearly visible underneath. "That was awfully hostile. Half of you are new!"
She's right - there had only been four of them. David and Jefferson, Robin and some guy she doesn't know. Dark hair, black t-shirt. He smiles at Emma, still brandishing his water gun, and rocks on his heels. "Killian Jones," he introduces, then he points toward Robin, "and Robin Locksley. Now we're not quite so new, yeah?"
"Initiation," Jefferson declares proudly, looking to David. "I think they did quite well, don't you?"
They did, Regina has to admit. She's hard-pressed to determine who got the worst of it. Mary Margaret, maybe, which means she defintiely wasn't David's target - he'd have shown more mercy than that.
"It was an admirable showing," David agrees, settling down onto the floor next to his girlfriend and kissing her cheek. Annoyed as she is, Mary Margaret can't help but smile. Regina feels a pang in her chest and looks away.
Robin steps closer, into her space, and confesses conspiratorially, "I'm fairly certain that shot to your face was Killian."
She looks at the other guy, frowns at his expression. Overly pleased with himself, smiling with smug glee. (Checking Emma out.) She can already tell he and Jefferson together will be trouble.
Regina's lips turn up into a tight smile as she turns to Robin, points at his gun. "Can I borrow that for a sec?"
He shrugs, hands it over without question, and Regina grins, lifts it quickly, aims, and fires a few jets right into Killian's face before he can react.
"Oi!" He shouts, lifting his arms to fend off the sudden attack.
Regina smacks the gun back into Robin's belly, ignores his oof! of surprise and berates Killian, "You're new here. We don't do super soakers to the face at camp. It's supposed to be fun, not painful."
His face twists into something that is somehow both a smile and a grimace, his head ducking contritely. Some girls might find it charming, she thinks. She doesn't. "Sorry, love," he tells her. "But look at how effective it was at bringing you down."
"He's right," Jefferson says, and, "Don't be a sore loser, Regina."
She watches as he steps closer to where they'd had their little pow-wow on the floor and scoops up the camp rosters that are now dripping wet.
"What do we have here," he says delightedly, dropping his water gun to the floor and collapsing onto the closest bunk with a loud whine of the springs. "Not fair keeping secrets from the rest of the class, Ruby."
The battle seems to be over, Killian and Robin finding dry places on the ground, leaning their backs against the bunks and Regina doesn't see any reason she should stay in these wet clothes, especially not when she catches Killian looking her up and down appreciatively. It seems he's an equal-opportunity ogler.
With a sigh, she walks around her bunk and digs into her duffel for something dry, then escapes to the bathroom.
She changes quickly, peeling off her soaked bra and tank top, shoving down the wet jean shorts and slipping into grey yoga pants and a deep purple camisole. Her hair is still half-wet, half-dry but it's warm enough that it'll dry on its own, so she pulls out the elastic holding the long locks back, wrings out the wettest parts, and then returns to the impromptu party in her bunk.
In retrospect, she should've seen it coming, but somehow she doesn't.
When she walks back out, Jefferson is standing right there, two feet away from the bathroom door, water gun in hand.
"That's cheating, Regina," he says simply before he unloads on her.
"Oh, come on!" she hollers, trying to evade, but he gets all up in her space, chases her into the corner, and she's just glad the gun is half empty or the pressure might actually hurt from this close. "Stop it! For fucks sake, Jefferson, I just changed!"
"Exactly," he tells her gleefully, and his next shot hits her right in the boob - and that one actually does hurt.
"Ow!" She swats at the gun, as he cackles maniacally and then he's shouting indignantly and spinning around.
There's a big wet splotch on the back of his t-shirt.
She expects to see Ruby or Mary Margaret coming to her defense, but it's Robin standing behind him, water gun in hand and aimed square on Jefferson. Huh.
"Oh!" Jefferson cries, sounding grievously offended. "Friendly fire?"
"Let the lady be," Robin says gallantly, tipping his weapon to the side. "I think she's quite wet enough."
He looks at Regina, then, and smiles kindly again. It's a nice smile, she thinks vaguely, but she's not some damsel in need of protecting.
Still, she appreciates the back-up, so she tilts her head and smiles back. "Hmm. Looks like chivalry isn't dead, after all." His kind smile widens into a grin, but she doesn't want him to get any ideas, so she reaches around Jefferson and pulls the trigger hard, unloading a single spray of water right into Robin's chest.
He startles, his jaw dropping, stunned, and Regina smirks with satisfaction as she steps around Jefferson. "Of course, there's something to be said for loyalty, too," she sneers, patting Robin patronizingly on the shoulder as she passes him. "And you've betrayed your team twice now."
Jefferson is laughing behind her as she flops belly-down onto her bed - if they're not gonna let her stay dry, there's no use in changing again.
As she reaches for another cupcake, she hears Jefferson tell Robin, "Don't ever think Regina Mills can't take care of herself."
"It's a mistake I won't make again," Robin grumbles, although he doesn't sound terribly upset. Sure enough, he's smirking when he finds his place on the floor again.
"All's fair in camp pranks and war," she retorts with a shrug, reaching for another cupcake as Jefferson asks if it's too early in the year for a kitchen raid. Tink reminds him they had dinner barely two hours ago, and Killian says something about how they should've gotten that pizza after all.
When conversation moves to the camp rosters, Regina licks at the icing on her cupcake and just listens. Observes. Tries very hard not to think about Daniel.
She's wet and her cabin is too full of people, she won't be sleeping for hours, if at all with this crowd. It's not at all the evening she had planned for herself - but as she watches Jefferson scoff and shove at the back of Ruby's head when she makes a joke at his expense (and watches Ruby turn around and whack him right back) she realizes that this? This is even better.
It's good to be back.