A/N: Post "The Doctor". It has been done to death, but I just had to write this. EvilCharming friendship, if you squint.

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COLD COMFORT

one-shot

He had his arms around her and most of her weight was against his body, as she openly sobbed. Anguished cries and fat tears. Wracking sobs and clawing hands desperate for something to hold on to. Trembling body and growing despair. There was so much feeling in her, more than he had ever been privy to in the past. So much... Too much.

Seeing her like this was breaking his heart and there was nothing he could do, but hold her, arms strong and steady as she needed them to be. It seemed her pain was never ending as she mourned the loss of her love, a man she had already lost once before. How much pain, he wondered, until your sanity was put to the test?

Still she sobbed.

Still he held her.

David hesitated a moment, hand midair. Emotions and conflicted thoughts and logic were making his head spin as he watched Regina sleep in her bed. A strand of hair was draped across her face and he had been reaching to brush it away, when the realization hit him full force. Though vulnerable at that moment and asleep from pure exhaustion, this was still Regina. This was still the Evil Queen.

He pulled his hand away.

His legs remained as they were, though, frozen in place, as his eyes followed the path he had denied his hand permission to thread. David could see the lines in her forehead, a perpetual frown in place. He saw the wetness of her eyes and cheeks and couldn't help the tug he felt in his chest, knowing she had been in such pain. He might have been looking at the Evil Queen, but in that moment, he couldn't see her as evil, or as queen.

She was just a broken little girl, who had lost too much.

There were no caresses as he pulled a comforter over her still dressed frame. There were no words of comfort to be offered. He simply accepted this moment as real and left her to rest on her own, feeling nothing like the hero Henry believed him to be.

Henry watched his grandfather pick at his food, gaze absentmindedly lost at some spot on the counter they were sitting at. He wasn't really hungry either. And even though he was still a boy, even though he was quite aware that there was much people didn't tell him, much he might not even understand, Henry wanted to know about that man at the stables, about his mom and about that worried frown David had put on and forgot to take off.

"Grandpa?" It took a couple of tries for David to register his call and even as he glanced his way, Henry could see that he hadn't his grandfather's full attention. "Grandpa?"

"Yes, Henry?" His voice sounded normal and Henry found he didn't know what question to ask. He was afraid to ask the wrong one.

"Who... was that man? Yesterday..." Henry watched his grandfather, looking for the smallest clue in the way his face moved.

"I… Maybe it's best…" Whatever he had meant to say, David apparently changed his mind because his mouth dropped shut and a long sigh escaped him. "Henry… has Regina ever mentioned the name Daniel?"

Henry knew the name would be important and he made sure to repeated it over and over again in his mind, trying to remember it and trying to connect it with something. In the end, it was unfamiliar, so he shook his head.

"Daniel… he was Regina's True Love. And he died. He was murdered." David sighed again and ran a hand over his face, seeming tired and a bit lost. "That man at the stables… That was Daniel".

"But how?"

"Dr. Whale brought him back, but he wasn't… He was not really Daniel. He was in pain and out of control. And in the end… Regina…. your mother", he paused, unable to say the words without clearing the lump from his throat. "She had to send him away. For good."

Henry nodded once, swallowing his own lump off his throat. He knew what David meant and he knew how that would hurt his mother.

"I hadn't known… I never knew she had a True Love…" It was Henry's turn to pick at his food.

"Me either."

Henry had insisted and David didn't think it was something he could say no to, for both the mother and the son's sake. So, after a breakfast they didn't really eat, they had gone to see Regina at her home, where he had left her the night before. There wasn't much to say as they walked up the entrance and used the spare key to open the door. His grandson didn't need to search for his mother to know she would still be in bed.

David lingered downstairs for a moment, unsure if he should follow or not. In the end, he reasoned that Henry might need him if Regina was too much indisposed, so he tackled the white marble stairs, one at a time.

Regina's bedroom was at the end of the hallway, as he had learned the night before. He walked towards it and didn't need to push the door open, as Henry had already done that. Regina was exactly as he had left her, her white shirt wrinkled, hair mussed and comforter up to her shoulders. Her son stood at the side of the bed, gazing at her broken figure and David approached, putting a hand on his shoulder.

For strength.

For comfort.

For all the words he couldn't seem to form or say.

"I…", Henry raised his head, eyes sharp and watery. "I don't know what to do."

"Right now, maybe Regina just needs to rest. Be alone for some time". David saw the boy considering his words and then dismissing them.

"No. She's always alone. She needs not to be alone", his grandson whispered, as he pulled his bag from his back, dropped his coat on the floor and kicked his sneakers off. With a gentleness that moved David, Henry crawled up the bed and snuggled into his mother's arms. He was near the edge of the bed and looked ready to fall out.

So David found himself sighing for the tenth time that day and reached around the slumbering woman to slide her body further into the bed, thus creating more space for her newly acquired companion. She was warm and surprisingly light and so human that the veneer of the Evil Queen he had carried around since the day of his failed execution faded completely from his mind.

It was probable that he would never look at her like that again.

Maybe this was how Snow saw her, the layers behind the layers of masks. Maybe he finally