Affair of the Heart

Written By: poisonapplesandwine

Beta: deartomysoul

Rating: M (primarily for later chapters)

A/N: Hello. So, this is my multi chapter SQ fic that I was writing. Just as a warning, this is going to be a kind of slow burn SQ, and there is a bit of CS and OQ in here, but mainly serving for the plot line, as it is set after the S3 finale. But Swan Queen is endgame, I promise. In the meantime, happy reading! I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time, as much as I wish I did. I mean no infringement by this, I just wanted to make an alternative storyline. Which brings me to the next thing, which is that I do own the story. I'm a nice person, but when people steal my stuff, that kindness lowers significantly. So don't do it. Other than that, enjoy lovelies.


Chapter One

Apologies

I love you.

Emma had the chance to say those words long ago, but she never did. But then again, she had never been sure about those three words until they flew out of her mouth. She was in love, and she couldn't stop. If only she wasn't about to lose the person she loved.


SEVERAL WEEKS BEFORE:

"Regina, wait!" Emma yelled and pushed the door to exit the diner, trying to chase after the brunette haired woman.

Regina ignored her cries though, and walked onward, tears slipping out of her eyes one by one. She had just lost who was claimed to be her soulmate to his old wife, courtesy of Emma, of course. Not only was she heartbroken, she was angry as well; and the fact that Emma had decided to chase her to apologize, or something along those lines, it made her even more angry. Emma had no intention of giving up though, and soon caught up to Regina and grabbed her hand gently, but strong enough to withhold her from walking away.

"Regina," Emma huffed, trying to catch her breath from running, "can you please hear me out? I promise it'll take less than five minutes. Just, please."

Regina swiped her hand away from Emma, but didn't walk away. "Of course it will take less than five minutes. Because it's not going to happen. You've said, or should I say saved, enough."

"Regina, please. I didn't know she was Robin's wife. I was just trying to do the right thing. You have to believe me." Emma pleaded, all she wanted was for Regina to at least give her a chance to say what she needed to.

"I don't have to believe you, and as innocent as your intentions may have been, your actions have caused me much pain. You're lucky I haven't killed you by now, Miss Swan." Regina snapped, causing Emma to be taken aback for a second. Surely Regina wasn't going to kill her over this, it had been an accident, nothing more, nothing less.

"Regina, I would never mean to hurt you like that. Think about it, after everything we went though, and now we've just become friends, why on earth would I ruin everything just to screw you over?" Emma's tone was soft, but stern, "The answer is that I wouldn't. Not on purpose. Not now or ever."

"And how are you going to fix this exactly?" Regina replied, not letting the ever so apologetic look in Emma's green eyes get the better of her, "Because I don't see a way you can, princess."

Regina had never used that term for her before, and Emma knew for certain she was in deep trouble. She looked at the ground, then back at Regina, because she didn't have an answer. She had no bright ideas to fix it. She couldn't just go back in time and then not bring her back, she wasn't capable of such a thing, nevertheless would do such a thing, But she had to say something, otherwise everything she had with Regina would dissolve back to square one. And there was no way Emma was going to let that happen.

"Look, Regina, I don't have an answer right now." Regina almost walked away after that comment, but Emma grabbed her hand again and made her stay, "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to stop saying sorry. It's not going to mean I'm going to regret saving Marian either. What it means is that I'm going to make it up to you, I just don't know how yet. But I promise, I will make this up to you. I swear."

She gently let go of Regina's hand, allowing her to walk away, but Regina didn't move. Instead of running off in a huff, she grew a weary look on her face, but it soon became her sighing and returning her face to normal. "Oh Emma, you really are a Charming, aren't you?"

Emma didn't have a chance to rebuttal, as Regina walked down the street and turned the corner, Emma only able to watch. She was almost oblivious to the sound of footsteps coming her way, which caused her to turn around, only to find a certain pirate heading in her direction.

Just great, She thought, the pirate was the last thing she needed right then, as she knew she was going to have to play along with the love affair game.

"There you are," Hook began, "your parents said you went on a chase after Regina. What happened, love? You okay?"

He tried to be cozy with her, but she just shrugged it off. "I'm fine, and nothing happened. I just tried to apologize is all."

"That's a bold move on your part Swan, considering she was about ready to chuck one of those fireballs at your head." he joked, but Emma didn't laugh, "Okay, nevermind. Did she accept your apology? Or did she curse you to damnation?"

"She didn't accept," Emma sighed, "but she didn't not accept it either. I swore I would make it up to her, and she just made some comment about me 'being a Charming' and walked away." Emma looked back to the corner, half hoping Regina would come back around, but it didn't happen, "So I guess that's an effort."

"Sounds like Regina to me," Hook said, wanting to move on from the matter, "How about we go back to the diner and forget about her, okay? I'm sure some rum would make all your troubles go away. And I'm sure your parents want you around for your baby brother, Neal."

As inviting as it sounded, Emma didn't want to go. She just wanted to be alone with her thoughts, try to think of ways to keep her word on the apology she had just made. But, she knew Hook was right, and that her family was waiting for her back at the diner. She couldn't just blow them off like that. So she would have to suffer through Hook being flirtatious with her, and maybe having some rum in her system wasn't such bad of an idea.

"Okay," Emma finally answered, and started making her way to the diner. She flinched a bit when Hook placed his arm around her, but the man didn't notice at all. Why did she have to kiss him earlier? She wasn't one to send mixed messages, but Killian would have to suffice as an exception.

When they finally arrived back at the diner, it seemed like no one noticed she was gone except Hook. Everyone still had their full attention on her parents, and her little brother, of course. Which was a good thing for Emma, at least no one would have noticed as she would be slowly getting intoxicated over the course of time.

"Hook," she said and shrugged his arm off of her, "Can you get me something to drink? I'm going to check in with my parents."

He responded with a simple head nod, and then walked over to the counter. Emma walked over to where her family was seated, Henry playing with baby Neal while Snow and Charming cast cozy in the booth, not able to notice Emma coming their way until she said something.

"Hey." She simply said, which caught her parents' attention.

"Oh Emma," Snow said, half startled, "you're back. Is everything alright?"

"Everything's just fine. We can talk about it later." Emma said while sliding next to Henry in the booth, the cold leather of the seat soothed her as she did so. Henry looked at his new uncle with joy, which kind of reminded Emma of the expressions he made when he got a new game system back in New York. It made her happy thinking of those memories, but then soon shaking them out of her head when she remembered that most of those memories weren't real ones. Damn Pan for making her have to go to New York, and having Regina give them a happy life that mainly consisted of lies.

But when you're the savior, you don't get very many options when it comes to happy endings.


Emma watched Henry continue to play with his uncle as Hook returned with four glasses of alcohol and then set them on the table.

"I only wanted one," Emma said quietly, still not feeling quite right about sitting in the same diner as the man Regina loved, along with his wife and child, who were now sitting two booths down, as happy as can be.

"Oh, I did get you one, darling," he said, and then moved two of the glasses over to her parents, and then got two puzzled looks in response, "Those are for your parents. Figured everyone deserved a round after the week we've all had."

"Wow Hook," Snow began, plainly staring at the glass and the golden yellow substance that was inside, "that was very nice of you. And since I'm not pregnant anymore, I guess I'll take this."

"As long as there's no poison in this, I guess that I'll accept your offer as well." Charming said, raising the glass to the center of the table, "Here, how about a cheers to the newest addition to our family, and to happy days from now on?"

"Cheers!" they all said simultaneously, even Henry, who had lifted his soda can to join himself in the cheer. The only one who wasn't that cheerful about it was Emma, who's eyes kept looking back to the other happy family while her family and Hook chatted and shared some laughs. Her mind kept constantly wondering back to Regina throughout the entire night, and what she would be doing, how many dishes she broke, how many glasses of wine she had downed already, or how many ways she had planned to extract her revenge by then.


The answers to those questions were quite simple. Regina sat in her study, who had already moved on to her second glass of red wine, hadn't broken any dishes, and had already planned more ways to extract her revenge than she could count, even if she had been sober. But the main feeling she had felt wasn't anger, it was sadness. She finally had a chance at a happy ending, and it was ripped away from her, just like it always had ended up. First Daniel, and then Henry a few times, and now Robin. She still didn't know she could fall so hard so fast, then have her heart broken amended and then broken even faster than she fell for the man.

I'm such an idiot. She thought to herself, bringing the rim of the glass back to her lips, Why did I think I could have a happy ending? They're all right, I'm a villain, and I don't get happy endings. No matter how much I change. If it wasn't for stupid fate…

Her thoughts were be interrupted though, as a familiar voice rang through the study.

"Don't get so upset dearie," Rumple said, which caused Reigna to almost spill her drink, "This is nothing to waste, or should I say spill, wine over."

Regina set the glass down on the nearest table and turned to face Rumple, who had a smug look displayed across his face. "What do you want, imp?"

He rolled his eyes at the comment, only being coy while doing so. "It's not nice to call people names dear, someone's feelings could get hurt." he teased, only to make Regina's anger increase.

"I asked you a question, and I want an answer. In case you didn't fully comprehend the first time, what are you doing here?" Regina snapped, not in the mood for any of Rumple's sick games. "Shouldn't you and the bookworm be well on your way to your honeymoon?"

"Tsk, tsk, someone's being quite rude. But I'm going to ignore that." Rumple sat down in the chair across from Regina, putting his pointer finger up to silence her before she objected. "Yes, I should be on the way to my honeymoon with my wife, Belle, but, I wanted to bid you a goodbye before doing so. Too bad you didn't get to witness the wedding dear, I bet you and your new lover would've enjoyed it."

Regina shot him a warning look, but Rumple only laughed, "Oh that's right, he's with the other woman. What's her name… Mary? No, wait, I believe her name is Marian."

The count of dishes broken had risen from zero to one; as Regina chucked her wine glass at him in her state of anger, but the imp dodged it, only luckily. "I'm going to ask you one more time you obnoxious bastard, why the hell are you here?"

Rumple knew to stop playing games, or at least get to the point anyway, as he finally drove Regina to the breaking point. The last thing she needed was Rumplestiltskin making a mockery of her in her state. He sighed deeply before he continued, "I'm here to tell you that I can help you fix that little problem of yours. And no one will prove that either of us did it."

That had gotten Regina's attention.

"You see, you can kill this Marian woman, and get the man who has been claimed to be your soulmate back, if you do a simple spell. It's not that complicated, actually, not at all." he stood up and walked towards Regina, who now had his undivided attention, "All you have to do is cast a voodoo spell. One lock of her hair, one needle, one doll that you enchant to control her, one stab to the heart, or a couple if you feel like, unenchant the doll, and then burn it. No one will ever know. It'll make it seem like a heart attack, and then when she's dead, you can have your precious toy back."

"That's all I have to do?" Regina said quizzically, not entirely sure she was okay with the whole plan.

"Yes, that's it. Simple and easy. If you need the enchantment spell, there's a spell book in my shop, right under the cash register." he replied as he tried to manipulate Regina into doing as he pleased.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because deaire, I know you." he whispered, "And I know you're one to fight for what you want. I'm just handing you the shortcut."

Rumple walked backwards and started to head out the door of the study, but decided to make one last remark before he went off to his new wife. "Be careful dear, mishandle it, and you could give up your happy ending."

And with that he walked out to the car that had been awaiting for him to return, an anxious Belle who resided inside. Regina thought hard about his words, and everything she could lose if it all went wrong. But if the spell was her only chance at a happy ending with Robin, then she had to take it.

But things don't always end up the way they're planned.


A/N 2: Well that was the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Nice reviews, favourites and follows are greatly appreciated, but you reading this alone still makes me happy. I will try to update when I can, school starts back up in six days for me, so I don't know how much time I will have on my hands. But I promise I will finish this, and it's going to be quite lengthy, so prepare for that.

So that's it for now. Until next time lovelies!