Event Two: Character Development
Day Four: Journal Entry or Drabble
Prompt: Write from your character’s POV about someone they care about.
It was Wednesday, and as was her custom on Wednesdays she was visiting her father’s grave. It was after dinner now, David was at home looking after Henry, they usually both let her go alone respecting her need to grieve privately. She placed the bouquet of flowers she’d brought this week temporarily on one of the shelves. Then she took the dying flowers from last week back up the main path and down a side path to the caretaker’s shed. She left them in the usual place for him to add to the compost in the morning. After emptying the old water into the grass, rinsing the vase and refilling it with fresh water from the hose, she returned to mausoleum and placed the fresh flowers in the vase and the vase in it’s customary position.
Occasionally after that she might head down and flip through a spell book, spend some time with her gowns from her old land, visit Daniel, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights. She’d given up visiting Daniel when she’d realized she was in love with David, she’d exhausted any hope that any of the spell books had something to help her with her Emma Swan problem, and the gowns were not needed at the moment for an emotional pick-me-up. She could have gone, there was no reason to linger...she’d already paid her respects. Still, she stayed her hand moving to gently stroke over the coffin.
“I brought fresh flowers daddy,” she announced after a long moment. She didn’t know if he’d like them. She couldn’t recall if he’d ever liked flowers or if he had, what kind. In many ways her father had been a bit of a mystery to her, but she’d always known the most important thing about him, that he loved her. That had to be the most important thing he wanted her to know because he told her often in his words and as often as he could with his actions. “I miss you,” Regina whispered after a few moments more of silence
The mayor wasn’t under any delusion that her father was here or that he could hear her. Oh how she would have liked to have believed there was some happy afterlife where loved ones watch over the ones they’d left behind, but she’d seen too much misery to believe there could be good. It was silly for her to come here to mourn anyway. She must have somehow screwed up when she’d set the curse into motion...she’d followed Rumple’s directions perfectly, but for some reason neither her father nor her mother’s bodies had made the trip. It was odd really, Daniel had made it, but the others more recently deceased hadn’t.
Regina had even sent Ruth’s body over as a courtesy to David and though he had a mausoleum to visit and mourn, there was no body. She’d checked thinking she’d accidentally sent everyone into the same mausoleum by mistake, but she hadn’t. Perhaps it didn’t matter that her father’s body wasn’t here, it was just a place to mourn. Still, she felt foolish speaking to a coffin that was entirely empty and hiding the entrance to her secret crypt. Daddy wasn’t here, he was gone and it was her fault. Some part of her would never stop feeling guilty for her actions, did she regret them? No because it had brought her here to her happy ending. She did feel guilty though.
“Henry’s growing up so fast...he’s ten now, I think I told you that one one of our previous visits. I wish you could see him daddy, you’d love him, and he’d love you,” she carried on trying to shake away her earlier thoughts. Daddy really would love Henry, he’d spoil him, and love spending time with him. Of course, that would be after he’d put him in his place about the way he’d been treating her. Daddy had tried on rare occasions to put mother in her place, to stop her cruel treatment, but he’d always stopped short. Mother was an incredibly dominant personality and daddy eventually submitted to her will on most if not all matters, but Henry wouldn’t be as much of a challenge.
She could just picture her father and her son together and that made the guilt pang stronger. They’d have read together, played chess, gone riding. They’d likely fish too if daddy did fish...she couldn’t recall ever seeing him do it. She supposed if he didn’t, Henry could teach him and that would be even more fun for both of them really, and something David could get involved in too. What a picture, the three men she loved together in the same room. If only it could be a reality. If only they could all sit down together and have a family dinner together, but it could never happen. She’d killed that dream when she’d killed her father, but without his death she’d never have gotten David and Henry. It was hard to reconcile that there was not way she ever could have had the best of both worlds.
A deep sigh slipped past her lips as her gloved hand came to rest over her father’s name. “You’d have loved David too, he’s such a good man. Better than I know I deserve and he treats me with such love and respect. Always a gentle hand, a loving word, and he’s never demanded more of me than I’m willing to give,” she offered and her eyes closed for a moment to hold back tears. David was nothing like Leopold and she was so incredibly happy for that. She wouldn’t compare him to Daniel though, they may have had some things in common, but she loved them for their differences too. Daniel had been her perfect fit when she was younger, David was her perfect fit now.
“We’re trying to have a baby daddy,” she smiled with the announcement and her eyes opened once more. With time moving, this time wouldn’t be like the other times. This time they may actually conceive, and if they didn’t, they could undergo tests or fertility treatment, whatever they needed to do because the curse’s magic would no longer be holding them back. “Actually, we’ve been trying a few weeks now. We both really want to expand our family, we’ve wanted to for a while and this time we’re really hopeful.”
Regina sighed again, if only her father could be here so she could voice the fears she held in her heart. He wasn’t though, so the fears stayed where they were never to be voiced. “Maybe next week when I come to visit I’ll have news in that department,” she offered as she pulled her hand back and started towards the door. She opened it, but paused just in the frame, and whispered, “I’m sorry,” and she truly was sorry. She couldn’t undo what she’d done, but at least her father hadn’t died in vain she thought as one of her hands settled over her lower abdomen as she left heading back up the path to her car and home to her boys.
