Written for Day 7 of OQ Prompt Party using Prompt #7: One (or both of them) is in a coma, and they keep meeting in their dreams and Prompt #39: Regina is thrown from her horse, Robin is the one who helps her.

"How are you today, Regina?" Dr. Hopper asked, settling into his chair.

Regina smoothed the blanket covering her legs, more a nervous habit as it wasn't wrinkled at all. She then admitted: "Better than yesterday. I still feel broken but like I'm slowly being put back together. All the king's horses and the king's men are doing much better with me than with Humpty Dumpty."

The therapist chuckled at her joke. "I can see and hear you are in better spirits. Is it because you're getting discharged today?"

"Yes," she said, hearing her relief in her own voice. "While everyone has been lovely to me since I woke up, I'm really looking forward to being back in my own house and getting back to my normal routine."

He nodded. "That's good. Though I do remind you that it won't be a total return. Not yet."

"I know," she said, rubbing her weak legs. "I'm doing better at walking now but still only for short distances. And I'm definitely not cleared to ride again."

"We haven't really talked about you getting back in the saddle," he said, leaning back.

She shrugged. "This isn't the first time I've been thrown from a horse. I learned a long time ago that the best thing to do is just get back up there. You can't let fear control your life."

"Very wise words," he said, a proud smile on his face. "Now, what are the plans for once you're back home?"

"My sister is moving in to help take care of me and Henry," she said.

He nodded, jotting that down. "And are you close?"

"Honestly?" she replied. "We're working on it. I just learned about her a couple years ago. We share a mother and she gave her up for adoption before she met my father. She didn't tell any of us about Zelena until she came looking. We didn't get off to the greatest starts—she was jealous of the fact that I was the wanted daughter and she was the unwanted one—but we've overcome that and are trying to be sisters."

"Given what sounds like your complicated history and the fact that I can tell you are an independence-minded woman who prefers to take care of herself, how do you feel about her taking care of you?" he asked her.

She took a moment to recover from how easily he had understood her from their few sessions before answering him. "I'm a bit nervous. Zelena has never struck me as the nurturing type or much of a caregiver. But she's been really stepping up since my accident and Henry seems to be fine, though I suspect Mary Margaret and David have played a role in that as well."

"And Mary Margaret and David are…?" he asked, frowning as he looked back at his notes.

"Mary Margaret is my best friend from college and David is her husband," Regina replied. "They are pretty much my family and are Henry's godparents."

He nodded, jotting that down. "Are they going to help you once you're home too?"

"They are," she confirmed. "Mary Margaret is a teacher and David is a cop, so they are going to check on me at different times to make sure everything is going well and that I haven't killed Zelena."

Dr. Hopper laughed. "And what about your plans to continue your recovery?"

"The doctors here at the hospital and rehab helped us find someone through an agency that can do my PT at home and apparently has a nursing background too, so she can take care of me as well," Regina replied. "And Henry talked with someone while he was at the Y and apparently they have a program that will help me continue my recovery as well."

"It sounds like you have a very solid plan and a good mindset," he said. "I think you'll be fine after you leave but I still want to see you a few more times to monitor your progress, okay?"

She nodded before picking at the blanket. "I've enjoyed our sessions together, more than I thought. I was taught that getting help of this sort was a sign of weakness and that was absolutely not tolerated by mother."

"A lot of people have that mindset." He tilted his head, growing solemn. "You've mentioned your mother a few times and never in a positive way…"

"My mother and I have no relationship anymore and it's because of how she was. She wanted to control my life and essentially force me to live the life she had wanted to live, regardless of my wishes or what made me happy. In the end, it took a lot but I finally cut her out of my life—for my sake and for Henry's," she explained.

He nodded, saying: "I see…"

"I could probably fill many sessions with the ways my mother fucked me up," she continued. "And for the first time, I wouldn't mind doing that…"

Dr. Hopper paused, a small smile on his face. "We can keep meeting as long as you want, Regina. I take on private patients as well as those recommended to me by the hospital."

Relief spread through her. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome. I look forward to working with you more," he said. He then paused before asking: "Have you had any more of those dreams?"

Sadness replaced her relief and she shook her head. "I haven't had a single one since the coma. Is that normal? Or am I just odd?"

"There's a lot we still don't understand about the brain," he replied. "And especially what happens to a person when they are in a coma, even a medically induced one like you were in. The dreams could absolutely be normal."

"They just felt so real," she said, twisting the blanket in her hands. "I know I was lying in a hospital bed but it felt like I was really sitting on a bench next to a lake with Robin."

He jotted that down. "And you're still sure you've never seen Robin before?"

She shook her head. "Never. I thought that the brain could only produce images of people you know?"

"That's just a theory," Dr. Hopper replied. "And it's more so people you've seen. So you could have someone who was in an ad you saw for a passing second appear in your dream because the image is stored in your mind."

Her heart sank a bit. "So Robin could just be some model in a billboard I walked past?"

"As I said, it's a theory," he repeated. "We really don't know."

She nodded before admitting: "I hope that isn't the case. Robin was just so kind and gentlemanly. I felt so at ease with him and talking with him. I'd hate to think he was just a figment of my imagination."

Dr. Hopper paused. "We haven't really talked about your love life, Regina…"

"Not much to talk about," she said, tensing up. She hated talking about this and decided to plough through it quickly. "I lost the love of my life and we were still young. He was killed in a car accident. I dated a few others but they flamed out quickly. I realized that I had my great love affair and so decided to focus on other types of love. I adopted my son and we've been happy ever since."

"And you haven't considered trying romance again?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I've accepted it's not in the cards for me. Henry is all I need."

"But you've fallen for your dream guy."

Regina frowned, her stomach flipping at that question. She wasn't sure if it was because of how absurd it was or because of how true it was. "I wouldn't say that."

"You've always spoken of him with warmth and awe in your voice, the same tone you often use when talking about Henry," Dr. Hopper pointed out. "Your body language also changes and everything about you softens."

"I can't fall for someone who isn't real," she pointed out.

"You can fall for the idea of someone," he said. "And from what you've said about this Robin persona, he seems like he'd be a great partner."

She pressed her lips together. "But he's just a dream. Surely someone like him doesn't really exist."

"You never know," he replied. "But we can always unpack that at another session. I'm afraid our time is up."

Regina glanced up at the clock in his office and her heart sank. She swallowed and reached out her hand to shake his. "Thank you, Dr. Hopper. I'll see you in a few days."

"I look forward to it," he said, shaking her hand. He then stood and retrieved her wheelchair from where the orderly left it. Dr. Hopper let her steady herself on his arm as she transferred from his couch to her chair. Once she was settled and her blanket adjusted, she thanked him again.

He smiled. "You're welcome. And I hope that your dream man really does exist, if just for the hope that good, kind, honorable and caring men still exist in this world."

She chuckled as the orderly came in to wheel her back to her room. "You and me both, Dr. Hopper. You and me both."

Being back at home was an adjustment for Regina. Her legs had been broken in the fall and she had been placed in a medically induced coma to allow swelling on her brain to go down. She had been out while her legs mended so she hadn't experienced the worst of it. But when she iwoke up, her muscles had experienced some atrophy and she was unable to walk. She had been sent to rehab to go through physical therapy to help regain the muscle mass she had lost and regain her strength to walk. For the most part, she still used a wheelchair to get around though she tried to walk with aid of a cane a few times a day. She still couldn't go up the stairs, though, so she was confined to a downstairs guest bedroom instead of hers.

The wheelchair prevented her from doing some of her usual tasks, like cleaning and laundry. Zelena and Henry helped her with the chores and her sister helped her with her baths since she couldn't stand in the shower. He was just relieved to have her home and that she was okay but he was clingy at the moment, wanting to spend as much time as possible with her. She didn't complain—he was twelve, almost thirteen, and so she knew it was only a matter of time before he was too cool to hang out with his mom. Regina happily cuddled with him as they watched movies, enjoying having her little prince by her side.

During her first couple days home, she was hardly alone. Zelena and Henry tended to hover as did Mary Margaret when she came to visit. David was willing to give her a little bit more space but he kept checking up on her constantly. She was touched that so many people cared about her but she longed for some solitude.

Her mind then often wandered to the place she had gone when in her coma. It had been a peaceful lake set in a clear in the middle of a forest. Trees had surrounded her and she could hear the leaves rustle whenever a breeze blew through the area. She always sat on a bench by the lake, watching the ripples in the water and the small waves that lapped at the shore. It was quiet and beautiful and it made her feel calm.

Whenever she thought about the lake, though, she couldn't help but think about Robin. He was as permanent a figure there as the bench and lake. Sometimes it was day with bright sunshine warming their skin and other times it was night, with the light of moon reflected in the water. But no matter what time of day it was, he was there. They would talk about everything and anything, conversations flowing easily until everything faded away for a brief period of time. It would then come back and they would pick up as if they hadn't had break at all.

That was one of the reasons she wondered if Robin was only a figment of her imagination. He was always there and shared a lot of things in common with her. Like her, he had found the love of his life at a young age and married her. Robin had then lost her tragically, much like she had lost Daniel, and the most important person of his life was now his son. Unlike Henry, his son Roland was his biologically. But it didn't mean that he was real then. It could've just been her subconscious trying to create some differences so he wasn't exactly a mirror copy of herself but in the end, she really was just talking to herself.

However, if that was the case, why hadn't he been back in her dreams since she woke from the coma? Or was it just that the medicine she was given to keep her sedated helped her mind conjure him? Was that why she hadn't seen him or been back to that lake? She wished she had the answers and feared she would never get them.

"Regina?" Zelena appeared in the doorway. "The physical therapist is here for you."

"I'm coming," Regina said, turning her wheelchair around and wheeling out of her temporary bedroom. She rolled into the living room, where she spotted a figure in green scrubs setting some familiar tools up. They were items she had used at the rehab facility, meaning the person was familiar with her plan.

Zelena lingered. "Do you want me to stay?"

"I think we'll be fine," Regina said. "Thank you, Zelena."

Her sister nodded. "You're welcome. And if you need anything, I'll just be in the kitchen."

She walked away and Regina rolled herself closer to her therapist. "Perhaps we should start with introductions?"

"Actually, I feel like we've already done that," the person said and she realized for the first time it was a man. A man with a very familiar British accent. Her heart sped up as he straightened up, turning to her. "Hello, Regina."

He currently towered over her as she was sitting down but she knew that he really stood about a head taller than her. Blond hair was combed back though a few pieces still fell onto his forehead. It was cut closer at the sides and she could see the familiar spattering of gray hairs there. Familiar blue eyes took her in and when he smiled, there were the dimples that had made her weak by the lake.

"Robin?" she asked, not believing her eyes.

"At your service," he replied, holding out his hands. "It's very nice to meet you in the person and to know you are real."

Her mind seemed to have stopped working and she continued to gap at him. "How…How is this possible?"

Robin shrugged. "I don't quite know, especially as I was pretty sure you were just a figment of my imagination."

"I thought the same," she admitted.

He grinned, his tongue darting out to lick his lips for a moment. "Well, clearly, we're both very real."

"Clearly," she replied dryly.

Robin reached out his arms to her and lifted her out of the chair. She fell against him, her hands gripped his bare arms. Her fingers curled against his toned muscles and she bit back a groan. There was already a change in the air around them as if it had been charged with electricity. She felt a stirring deep inside her that she hadn't felt in a long time and wondered how she was going to survive him being her aide.

The moment passed and he straightened her up. "Well, you're paying me to help you regain your strength, not make a pass at you, so let's get to work."

She nodded, both glad and disappointed that he was a professional. Leaning against him, she admitted softly: "I've missed you."

He paused before confessing: "And I you. Those dreams were my favorite part of the day and I hated that they ended just as unexpectedly as they began."

"I woke up," she replied. "That's the only explanation I have."

"Well, I'm glad for that then. And it's much better being able to actually touch," he replied, leaning closer. He then realized what he was doing and cleared his throat. "I promise I'm a professional."

She laughed. "I believe you. And I know you are an honorable man. I trust you."

He smiled and his tongue peeked out again, a quirk she found downright sexy. Robin glanced at her. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied. She smirked as she then said: "But I can't say I can say the same about me. I might be the one to jump you before this over."

Robin let out a bark of laughter before saying: "Well, I'd say this might be my most interesting and favorite job yet."

He started to guide her through some of her exercises, focusing on strengthening the muscles in her legs. His touch was light but supportive. She knew he wouldn't let her fall or get hurt as he watched her, this time with the eyes of a caregiver. Regina still couldn't believe that the man in her dreams was not only real but now even closer than she had thought. Maybe romance was still possible for her after all.

But she wasn't going to rush anything. While they had gotten to know each other in their dreams, she knew there was still some work they needed to do before they got to that point. And with her therapy scheduled for three days of the week, they would have plenty of time to work toward it.

There was no time like the present to start, she figured. Smiling, she looked up at him. "So…how's Roland?"