"Wait," Emma said as the group stood outside the diner. "I... I'll be back." Snow and Charming looked at each other confusedly as she began to jog back. Breifly she turned back to point at Ruby, then Henry. "Keep an eye on, him, okay?" As she continued to jog off in the direction from whence they came Mary Margaret called out "Emma, what...?" to which Emma responded without turning "I'll be back!"
Charming turned to Snow. "Why didn't she tell us to watch him?"
"What were you saying about a stable and a zombie?"
"Miss Swan? This is a surprise. I thought you were having dinner with your family." Regina turned from where she'd been cleaning up after her sleeping curse-making with a guarded expression.
"Yeah, I um... I'll get back to that," Emma panted, catching her breath from her run over. "I... I wanted to talk to you first. I, I have a question."
Regina crossed her arms and leaned against the worktable with a raised eyebrow. "Yes? What is your question?"
Emma took a deep breath and slowly released it to curb her panting. "Back there, at Lake Nostos, Cora tried to take my heart."
Regina blinked as a look of surprise flitted across her face but said nothing.
"I mean, really she tried to take Mary Margaret's, to give to you. But I jumped in the way and she had her hand in my chest and she had my heart but she couldn't take it."
"What?" Regina's tone was confounded as she uncrossed her arms to place them on the table on either side of her. "She just couldn't? Physically unable...?"
Emma nodded. "Yeah, yes, she just... she tugged and pulled but it just..." she thumped herself on the chest over where her heart lay. "... just wouldn't come out. Then there was this flash of like white light and she just... disappeared."
Unbidden, Regina's fingertips reached out to brush over where Emma's heart lay as a wondrous expression crossed the brunette's face. Brown eyes met blue with a small genuine smile. "She... There's something special about you, about your heart. Something protected you."
Emma looked down, a bit unnerved. "But... but what? Why?"
Regina withdrew her hand, cradling her right with her left. "True Love, I suppose. Snow and Charming... There's a reason it was you who broke the curse, and it apparently gave you some... magical imperviousness."
"So that's why Gold wrote my name on that paper, why he prophesied that I would break the curse, when I was twenty-eight. I'm... I'm special."
Regina held up a hand in the "stop" position. "Wait, he prophesied that you would break the curse? He brought Henry to Storybrooke, he had the book, he brought magic... He wanted the curse enacted, then broken. Why?"
Emma looked to Regina with a furrowed brow. "He wanted it enacted?"
"Who do you think taught me magic? He had the curse enacted, then he had it broken."
"He played us both," Emma agreed.
Regina's gaze again fell to Emma's chest and she slowly reached out a hand. "May I...?"
"What, try to take it out? No! You tried to poison me!"
"I also removed the trap Gold placed that would've fried you!"
Regina watched Emma place both hands protectively over her heart and sighed. "Here."
Emma watched with astonishment as Regina closed her eyes, reached into her own chest, and pulled out her heart.
Regina, panting, held out the glowing heart to a flabbergasted Emma. "Here. Collateral."
Emma slowly and reverently took it, turning it over in her hands. "You... you just pulled out you own heart. And handed it to me. It's... it's beating in my hand. I... how do you know I won't just crush it or something, or run off with it? Or like, use it to control you or something?"
Regina steadied her breath before replying. "If you wanted me dead you've had several chances to just... not save me. Besides, you wouldn't know how to use it to hurt me. Not what 'good' people do anyway."
Emma gestured to Regina with the hand holding the heart, squeezing it unintentionally. "Hey, how do you know..." She cut off, aghast, when Regina doubled over clutching her chest. "Sorry! Oh god, I didn't mean... I... Sorry!"
With some controlled breathing Regina regained her composure, resting a hand on Emma's shoulder as she recovered. With one last deep breath she looked up and placed a hand over Emma's heart. "Now, may I?"
"I, uh, yeah. I... go ahead." Emma took a deep breath to steel herself as Regina's fingers slowly slid into her chest. She looked down, the quickly looked away with a small shiver.
Regina's eyes slid shut as her hand slid around Emma's heart, beating in her grasp. She gently felt it, causing Emma another shiver. She opened her eyes to meet Emma's gaze. "Ready?"
Emma's only response was a hurried nod.
Regina gently tugged on Emma's heart and immediately felt an opposing force propel her hand out of Emma's chest with ferocity. A small circle of light radiated from the pair as Regina shook her hand and Emma clutched her chest, Regina's heart still in her grasp.
"White magic," Regina gasped as she shook the shocked feeling from her hand and inspected it for damage.
"What?" was Emma's panted reply.
Regina simply gestured to her own chest, then to the heart in Emma's hand. Emma, in response, pointed to herself. "Me?" she mouthed as Regina nodded, bracing herself against the worktable and looking pointedly at her chest.
Emma nodded and took a deep breath, readying herself for something she was sure was going to be weird. Slowly she held out the heart, closer and closer to Regina's chest, until her hand was actually going through Regina's chest to replace the organ. Quickly she withdrew her hand with a gasp and wide eyes, catching Regina as she pitched forward.
Regina panted on Emma's shoulder for a moment before standing upward with a few calming breaths, straightening her clothing, and patting her chest over her heart reassuringly.
Emma, panicked expression still on her face, nodded to Regina. "Did it...?"
Regina nodded. "It's back, it's fine."
Emma nodded, her expression still looking utterly weirded out.
"It's white magic," Regina said. "Your heart is protected by some powerful white magic, probably from the whole True Love thing and all."
Emma nodded. "That's uh, that's good to know. Clears some things up." Awkwardly she held out a hand to a rather bemused Regina. "Um, thanks. For the help."
Regina shook, nodding. "Your welcome." She turned her back to Emma, picking up an Erlenmeyer flask and placing it in a cardboard box. "Take good care of Henry, okay?"
Emma rubbed the back of her neck as she took a step backwards. "I will. I mean, I'll try. I'm... I'm kinda new at this, you know?" Receiving no response, Emma nevertheless jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "I'm going to go back to... yeah." Emma had her hand on the doorknob before she paused, then took a couple steps back.
"Hey, Regina?"
Wordlessly Regina looked over her shoulder, pipette in hand.
"You... you wanna come?"
A smile grew on Regina's face as she placed the glass tube on the table and turned. "I'd like that."