#mom outright lied to get me to agree to work today a few weeks ago

[lunar-fey]

im going to kill someone today

[queen-of-the-merry-men]

The Pill {Planted in Pain verse}

Written for day 2 @oqpromptparty, is based off prompt #236 where Regina sneaks their daughter birth control pills and Robin finds out.

Read at Ao3.

————————–

“We need to talk.”

Regina sighed unclipping her hair from the bun she’d thrown it into for work. It was a Wednesday afternoon and she came home to find Robin waiting for her in their bedroom. A sight which might’ve excited her had it not been for the look on his face and the fact that she’d just spent the last 9 hours dealing with 30 middle schoolers still riding their sugar high from leftover halloween candy. Honestly, she was dead tired and simply looking forward to a night where she could just pop a frozen lasagna into the oven and relax with her husband and daughter.

So imagine her disappointment when she came home to find him waiting for her, still dressed in his uniform and clearly ready to thrown down. And not in a good way.

“Can it wait Robin, really?” she begged, slipping off her heels. “I’ve had such a long day and I’m sure whatever it is can be talked about in the morning.”

Normally she wouldn’t be so nonchalant with him but she was tired. Besides what could he possibly have to be so upset about. As far as she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“No it can’t wait until the morning,” said Robin, standing from the bed. “I’ve got something I need to discuss now.”

Blowing out a tired breath she raised her eyebrows at him. “Fine. What is it that’s so important?”

He stared her down. “I stopped by the pharmacy today.”

Oh shit.

Regina straightened her back as she realized just why he was so upset. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Robin nodded at her. “I called in a prescription this morning, my back was acting up again. Funny thing though when I got there to pick it up, they mixed up my order. Turns out there was another order put in a little while ago under the name Locksely. A prescription for birth control.”  

Regina shut her eyes. Jesus Christ.

Crossing his arm, Robin continued on. “Now unless I’m mistaken you haven’t been on any birth control since we found out we couldn’t conceive. So either you’re hiding one hell of a miracle from me… or it’s the worst case scenario.”

“Robin…”

“Because the only other person in this house who could possibly need those is our fifteen year old daughter,” he bit out, with flares of anger in his eyes. “So Regina… please tell me there’s a secret miracle.” 

She took a deep breath before planting her hands on her hips and looking him in the eye. “Robin… Lizzy came to me a few weeks ago…”

“No…”

“We sat down and had a talk…”

“C’mon….”

“And we decided that she should go on the pill,” finished Regina. Ignoring her husband’s indignant moans, she pressed on. “So I took her to the doctor and got her a prescription.”

“Are you kidding me? Behind my back?”  

“Only because I knew you would react this way,” she pointed out.

“How else am I supposed to react? She’s fifteen years old!” he replied, raising his voice an octave. Nervously tapping his police belt, he sucked in a sharped breath. “Is she… I mean has she ever…?”

He trailed off, unwilling to finish that sentence, unwilling to imagine his little girl even thinking of doing such things. She was so young, too young. She didn’t even have a boyfriend goddamnit! At least not one that he knew of.

A relieved breath left him when he saw Regina shake her head.

“No she hasn’t,” she mumbled, crossing her arms. Her eyebrows knit together. “A least I don’t think so.”

Robin’s eyes went wide. “You don’t think so?”

“She said that she hasn’t and I believe her,” clarified Regina. “Our daughter keeps many secrets Robin but she’s not an outright liar. You know that.”

“God,” he sighed, stressfully running his fingers through his hair. He was sure this conversation alone would give him two more patches of grey.

“Fine if she’s not having it then why does she need the pills?” he stressed.

“I don’t know that she actually needs them Robin. I think she just thinks that it’s best that she have them,” explained Regina as gently as possible. “She wants to protect her body. She’s just trying to be proactive.”

“Proactive,” scoffed Robin. “Who needs to be that proactive?”

“Our daughter,” Regina forcefully drawled. “Remember the one who wrote out a meal plan for the first three weeks of kindergarten?  And who asked for two raincoats in the fourth grade, just so she could keep a spare one at school just in case? She’s just trying to think ahead. And you know what? After what happened with Roland maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

He lifted a dissenting finger in her direction. “What happened with Roland was… well I don’t know what happened there but it wasn’t the same as this. Lizzy isn’t Roland.”

“No she isn’t,” agreed Regina. “Because Lizzy is a girl and has a lot more to worry about than the boys when it comes to sex.”

“The hell she does,” Robin humorously chuckled. “She has nothing to worry about because it’s not happening. Because she’s not getting those pills.”

Regina threw her head and groaned. “Robin…”

“I mean it Regina. I’m putting my foot down.”

His wife tilted her head at him, a fire suddenly lit behind her brown eyes as she stared up at him. “Excuse me Robin? You can put your foot down all you like but I am not gonna allow you to micromanage our teenage daughter’s body like you’re a fucking member of congress. She asked for the pills, she’s getting them. End. Of. Discussion.”

Before he could even think of a response she spun on her heel and marched into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

So much for a relaxing evening.

————————

They say you shouldn’t blink when you become a parent. You blink once and you’ll miss your kid’s whole childhood, it’ll whizz past you in a flash, leaving you in an empty house wondering where the hell all the time went.

Robin used to roll his eyes at that sentiment. He’d been so arrogant then.

It seemed like only yesterday he was chasing after his kids, changing their diapers, making sure they didn’t fall down the stairs or get into messes. With all three of them it felt like those days would never end.

Then he blinked.

His kids grew up. Henry and Roland were already gone, the former only two months away from getting his bachelor’s degree and the latter, half a world away traveling through Europe. The only one left was Lizzy, his princess. And even she was slipping through his fingers.

He knocked on her door later that night and slipped into her room while she was studying. Looking around he sighed. When they’d first brought her home the walls had been pink, there were stuffed animals everywhere and a bassinet against the wall. He’d used to spend long nights sitting in a rocking chair next to her closet singing old Britney Spears songs to get her to sleep. Things had transformed quite a bit since then. The bassinet was replaced with a full size bed. The pink walls were gone painted a painted a cool green when she was in middle school and plastered with old posters of role models and movies she’d picked up on the way. It was a young woman’s room now.

Looking up from her book, she eyed him suspiciously as she took a seat on the side of her bed.

“Hey daddy,” she drawled, narrowing her eyes. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” he lied, shrugging his shoulders. “I just wanted to check in on you. Feels like we haven’t had any alone time in a while.”

She tilted her head at him. “Okay…”

“So… what’s new?” he ventured.

Lizzy searched his face, her blue eyes scanning him for five seconds at most before she rolled them and reluctantly set her book aside. “Mom told you about the birth control, didn’t she?”

No one in the house had ever been able to keep a secret from Lizzy, yet somehow it always took Robin by surprise how quickly she was able to cut through the bullshit.

He hesitated as she looked at him expectantly, crossing her arms as she did so. Finally, he sighed and came clean. “She didn’t tell me. I found out on my own,” he revealed. “You’re not the only one who can sniff out a secret around here.”

“True,” she said, nodding her head appreciatively. Looking away, she mumbled, “I didn’t want you to know.”

“Well, I do,” he replied. “And I got to admit, I’ve got some concerns.”

Subconsciously she tugged on on the end of the braid that fell over her shoulder. “Are you mad at me?”

“No,” he immediately assured her, reaching out to give her hand a squeeze. “I’m not mad, bug. I promise. I’m just confused, and a little worried about you”  

Lizzy let out a reluctant huff. “Well you don’t have to. I’m not having sex Dad.”

Despite his relief, Robin still tried not to wince at her bluntness. “Then why do you feel the need to take the Pill? Are you thinking of… it?”

“No!” she, said twisting up her face. “It’s not like I even have a boyfriend to do it with.”

Before Robin couldn’t even relish a second of relief she added, “But I might… someday soon. You know the guys at school aren’t great but one of them might mature enough for a second look.” Nervously averting her gaze she continued. “Dad I’m just trying to be responsible for me. You know I talked about it with Alice the last time I saw her and she thought it was a good idea.”

Robin’s eyebrows rose at the mention of Lizzy’s birth mother. “Alice suggested you get on birth control?”

“Well, yeah,” said Lizzy, as if it should be obvious. “C’mon you really didn’t think it was Mom, right?”

“I had a feeling it wasn’t,” he mumbled, knowing he’d probably have to eat crow for his wife over the next few days. He’d also need to have a serious conversation with her birth mother about boundaries.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” said Lizzy, shaking her head. “You gave Henry and Roland condoms when they were my age.”

“No I didn’t.”  

Lizzy sent him a disbelieving look identical to Regina’s. “Dad… you put them under the sink in the bathroom… that I use… two inches away from where we stored the spare toilet paper. I saw them every day. Did you really think I didn’t know what they were?”

Robin cursed under his breath. He’d warned the boys to be stealthy about where they kept the box. “Well… that was different.”

“Because they’re boys?”

“No because… they were dating,” he floundered. “And you aren’t.”

“Oh,” she sarcastically drawled nodding her head. “So if I did get a boyfriend, then could I have birth control?”

Robin sucked his teeth, clearly uncomfortable with the turn of their conversation. Lizzy just grinned at him triumphantly, always pleased to needle her father with the flaws of his own logic.

“Going through all these hypotheticals isn’t going to get us anywhere,” he deflected. “I just… I’m not so sure that I’m comfortable knowing that you’re taking them, right now.”

Lizzy sighed, annoyed. “Does it really bother you that much, Dad?”

“A little bit sweetheart,” he admitted.

“Fine,” she said, shaking her head. “Then I won’t take them.”

“You won’t?”

“Nah,” she mumbled. “It’s not like I really need them, right now anyway. I just wanted to be extra careful. It’s not worth it if it’s making you act all crazy.”

“Crazy?” Robin twisted up his face indignantly. “I think I handled this fairly calmly, thank you very much.”

Lizzy snorted, sarcastically nodding her head. “Yeah, you were super chill. Not at all crazed.”

Robin sent her a small smile. He wasn’t naive enough to think she wasn’t disappointed but he still felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Sighing, he reached out to pat her leg. “Listen bug… you know I just want you to be safe, right?”

“I know,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“You’re only fifteen years old, you’ve got other things to worry about and I just don’t see the need to pile anything else on to that,” he tried to explain. “Especially things you’re not ready for.”

“You mean sex.”

Again with the bluntless. “Yes I mean sex,” he sighed. “You don’t have to say it.”

“Feels like I do,” she laughed. “It makes you blush dad.”

“I’m not blushing.”

“You are,” she said, smirking at him with a chuckle.

He smiled at her before standing from the bed, and giving her a kiss on the top of her head. “Love you, bug.”

“Love you Dad.”

—————————-

Almost sixteen years ago Robin confronted a teenage girl who followed him home one night. She’d ended up giving him her baby.

Though they’d always left the door open for her, Alice had always left a wide berth between herself and Lizzy. At least initially. She’d always stood on the other side of the door, happy to remain there with nothing but the rare letter and yearly photos. Six years ago, Lizzy had walked through the door herself, showing up at Alice’s home without so much as a warning or a heads up.

It could’ve been a clusterfuck, blunt and painful with his daughter’s birth mother saying she wanted nothing to do with her. Robin would always be grateful that it went the other way.

Alice had welcomed Lizzy with open arms. Answering all her questions, reminding her that she was always loved and free to see her whenever she liked as much as she wanted. It was the best thing that could’ve happened.

And Robin tried to remind himself of that when he showed up to see her the next day.

He didn’t know why he’d come to see her. He’d already laid the issue to rest the night before, not that Regina was too pleased to hear about it. Yet, somehow he found himself heading downtown on his lunch break and pulling up to the building where Alice she taught life painting.

It didn’t take him long to find the right classroom, Lizzy had taken a class their last summer and the number hadn’t changed. He’d slipped into the back just as she was finishing up with a class, all her students, young and old, setting aside their canvases for the day and heading out of the room.

She looked up in surprise when she saw him standing there but a smile quickly appeared on her face - wide, eager and unsuspecting.

“Robin hi!” she said, greeting him with a warm hug. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too,” he muttered, forcing a smile on his face.

Robin liked Alice. It was hard not to, knowing what she’d given up to make sure Lizzy had a good home.  He knew she was a good person with a sweet heart. She’d come a long way since that night when she’d asked him to take her baby. She was older and happier now. Smiled a lot more than he’d remembered and no longer dressed like a runaway. Thirty three years old she was Lizzy’s mirror in almost every way except hair color. While Lizzy’s hair was a deep chestnut brown, Alice’s was golden blonde. It made her easy to spot in a crowd.

“What are you doing here?” she curiously asked. “Is everything okay with Lizzy?”

“Everything with Lizzy is fine,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “It’s just that I had a talk with her last night about birth control.”

He didn’t know what type of reaction he expected from her. Maybe something apologetic or nervous. Or maybe just something more than the nonchalant shrug that she offered him.

“And… are you putting her on the pill?”

“No,” he said. “We decided against it.”

Alice nodded her head, thoughtfully, before turning back to her student’s area. “Okay. Well I’m sure you know what’s best.”

“We do,” he said, more forcefully than intended, following her as she picked up the stray paintbrushes her students left behind. “The problem is when I talked to her about it she mentioned that you told her that she should get on the pill. Is that true?”

“It is,” she said, plainly turning to face him, her eyebrows raised questioningly as she stared at him with innocence in her eyes. “Problem?”

Robin took a deep breath trying to control the flare of irritation he could feel rising inside him. “Alice… Regina and I love you.”

“I know.”

“We’ve always been willing to let you have a place in Lizzy’s life.”

“I’m aware.”

“Ever since she found you we’ve always done our best to make sure that the two of you know each other in a way that we’re all comfortable with, especially now that you and Robyn J. have April. You are an important part of my daughter’s life and I don’t want that to change.”

Alice sucked in a deep breath, knowing what was coming next. “But…”

“But you’re not her parent,” Robin gently explained. “Regina and I are her mother and father, and that means that there are certain topics and boundaries that belong to us.”

“Like birth control and sex?”

“Like birth control and sex, yes,” he repeated. “I can’t have you contradicting the things that we say and the values we’re trying to instill in her. Regina and I already spoke to Lizzy about sex and the fact that she’s not ready for it, and probably won’t be for a while.”

Alice crossed her arms, letting out an indignant huff. “Oh yeah I’m sure, you gave her an excellent talk about waiting for love and marriage. My dad gave me a talk too. It was super effective, clearly.”

Clenching his jaw he bit out. “This isn’t a joke Alice.”

“I never said it was,” she replied. “Trust me I know how real this is Robin. If anyone knows how real it is, I do. Especially since I was only two years older than her when I had to shoplift my pregnancy test.”

Her voice started to shake and she pressed her lips together, sucking in a deep breath.

Robin remained silent, thrown by her sudden show of emotion.

“What was I supposed to say to her Robin?” she mumbled. “‘Just don’t worry about it Lizzy. I never did and things turned out okay.’”

Regret filled her eyes as she looked up at him. “I just wanted her to know that she had a safety net. Something that could save her if she fell down my path.”

“Lizzy is not gonna fall down your path,” asserted Robin. “She’s not… you.”

Alice smiled, not even a little offended. “You’re right, she’s not me. She’s smarter. She reached out. She came to you. Which is all I wanted her to do anyway.”

“Really?” said Robin, suddenly feeling sheepish.

“Yeah,” said Alice. “I only told her that if she really felt worried she should talk to you guys about getting on the pill. Not go off and get it by herself.”

“Oh,” drawled Robin. Sighing, he leaned back against one of the student’s desk. “Well, now I just feel like an ass.”

Alice let out a chuckle, shaking her head. “You’re not an ass Robin. You’re a concerned dad, one of the best concerned dad and I should know that. I picked you.”

Tapping his fingers against his belt he shook his head. “I just feel like she’s too young for all of this.”

“You’re not wrong,” replied Alice. “She’s just a kid but, and I hate that I can say this, she’s not wrong to be thinking about protecting herself. I mean… I had friends who were having sex at her age.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Wish I was,” sighed Alice. She turned to him skeptical. “C’mon you must’ve known kids in high school who’d done it when you were her age.”

Robin scoffed. “I knew guys who’d bragged about it but I just always assumed they were full of shit.”

“Well some of them probably were, some of them probably weren’t,” she said, tilting her head back and forth. “I waited ‘til I was 17 and I had people screaming at me that I was prude.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“That’s high school,” she laughed. Throwing her head back she groaned. “God, April’s only three I’m dreading the day I have to send her.”

“You’ve got eleven years. You can stretch ‘em out,” joked Robin. “Worst comes to worst just homeschool her.”

Alice offered him a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry if I crossed a line for you Robin. I really am. I just want her to be safe.”

Robin nodded. “We both do.”

————————-

He’d been getting a chilly reception from Regina ever since the whole pill debacle had come up. By the time they got into bed that evening, she still hadn’t warmed to him not that he expected her to. When his wife took a stand she tended to dig her heels in, especially when it came to their children.

Putting on his pajamas he climbed into bed next to her, staring at the profile of her face as she read one of her novels. Nudging her arm he whispered, “Can I ask you a question?”

She hummed affirmatively, not looking up from her book.

“How did you lose your virginity?”

Regina’s head whipped toward him, her attention captured. “What?”

Robin shrugged his shoulders. “I just kind of realized that we’ve never really told each other about our first times.”

“We’ve never really had a reason too,” she softly replied, closing her book.

Leaning back against their headboard, Robin sighed thinking back to his college days. “My first time was with Marian.”

Regina nodded her head, unsurprised. “I figured.”

“Yeah, I was 20 years old, we’d been together for four years by then.”

“Four years?” repeated Regina, clearly incredulous.

Robin turned to her and smirked. “What can I say? I was a gentleman.”

Regina let out a sharp laugh as she rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll pretend to believe that.”

“It’s true,” he said. “I never wanted to push her, or make her uncomfortable. I’d known her my whole life, was afraid I’d lose her if I screwed things up.” He paused. “But then she came to me, said she was ready and we spent the night together in my dorm room.”

Regina hummed. “I feel like I’m gonna regret asking this but how was it?”

Robin shrugged his shoulders. “I thought it was okay at least. Not sure the same could be said for her because three weeks later she told me she was gay.”

Her eyes widened. “Three weeks later?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head acceptingly. “I’m pretty sure I was the final nail in that coffin.”

Regina couldn’t help the giggle that fell from her lips as she reached out to comfortingly run her fingers through his hair. “Oh Robin… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he said, shaking his head. “It was what it was and I don’t really have any regrets about it.” Again he nudged her shoulder. “What about you? What was your first time like?”

Regina licked her lips, hesitant before speaking. “It wasn’t great,” she admitted. “I ended up doing it with my next door neighbor, he was a year older than me. Said he liked me and I felt flattered by that. He was nice boy, kind of awkward but sweet. He asked me on a date one day and I said yes. So I lied to my mother told her I was working a double shift at the mall but I went to the movies with him instead. Then we ended up doing it in the backseat of his car.”

They way she spoke about it, so deliberately steady and emotionless, tugged at Robin’s heart. “How old were you?”

“Sixteen,” she said, regretfully. Pressing her lips together she thought back to that day. “I remember that I was the one who brought it up, made sure he had a condom, checked the expiration date and everything. Even after all that I was still terrified that I was pregnant.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t relax for weeks. It felt like I was walking on a tight rope and someone was waiting beneath my feet for the chance to trip me.”

“That’s awful,” mumbled Robin.

“It was what it was,” she said shrugging her shoulders. “It wasn’t great but I think the worst part about it was that while I was freaking out I felt so… alone. Zelena was off at college. And I sure as hell wasn’t gonna tell Cora. I knew she’d crucify me. I just wish I’d had someone I could’ve reached out to. It would’ve made things a lot easier.”

She looked over at him with her dark brown eyes and he sunk into their sheets letting out a deep breath as he did so. “You still want Lizzy to go on the pill.”

Regina paused, carefully thinking over her answer. “I want Lizzy to feel like she can come to us about anything, especially the big stuff. I don’t want her thinking that we’ll condemn her or judge her for any of it.”

“I wasn’t trying to make her feel judged,” stressed Robin. “I just didn’t want to feel like I was giving her the greenlight to start doing stuff that she’s too young for.”

“It’s not a green light Robin. It’s a sign of trust,” she explained. “Not just from us to her but from her to us. She’s including us in her decisions because she trusts us not to freak out about it.”

“Trusts you at least,” scoffed Robin.

Regina rolled her eyes. “For the sex stuff maybe but I remember being pretty low on the list when it came time to started thinking about what colleges to go to.”

Robin chuckled. “That’s because you always go overboard with college research.”

“Because I’m the only one who knows what to look for,” she said. “But that’s not the point. The point is I want us to continue being in the  loop with her. I don’t want her to feel like she has to deal with these things without us. Especially not now. I want us in her loop.”

“But we weren’t in her loop,” said Robin. “You were. And Alice was and Lizzy was. The only person who wasn’t in the loop for this was me. I was excluded. And from what I could tell nobody had plans to change that.”

Regina knit her eyebrows together, finally picking up on the fact that he was hurt that she’d kept this from him.

Robin sighed. “I know you thought I wasn’t going to react well, and maybe I proved you right, but that doesn’t mean you get to keep things about our daughter from me.”

Regina nodded understandingly. “You’re right and I’m sorry I left you out. That was unfair.”

“Thank you,” he replied, satisfied with her apology. “And for the record, I’ve given it some thought and I think you should go ahead and give her the birth control pills.”

Regina raised her eyebrows surprised. “Really?”

“Yes,” he reluctantly. “I still think she’s too young for all of this, she’s just a kid. But I realize that kids can sometimes make bad choices. Hell, kids making bad choices is how we got our daughter in the first place. And as much as I trust her to know better… if she wants to have a safety net then I think we should let her.”

Regina tried to hold back a smile. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he said. “So long as I get to stay in the loop.”