A/N: From a tumblr prompt, "In Neverland, Regina goes with the gang inside the Echo Cave. She needs to reveal a secret as well, a secret she desperately wish Snow didn't have to hear..."

Regina stood in the back of the group as each of them announced their secrets and a bit of the bridge formed. She didn't even want to be here, it was a distraction from saving Henry, and she certainly didn't want to share a secret. Everyone else in the group turned to her, and she raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Your turn, your Majesty," Emma said. Their fight about saving Neal still raw.

"This is stupid."

David chuckled, "Funny, after seeing so many of your crimes I never thought there would be one you'd be so ashamed of that you wouldn't advertise it."

Snow folded her arms, and looked at her with the pain and pity she had since Regina had stuck Rumple's knife in her and she'd failed the last test. Once upon a time Snow had looked at her with very different eyes, but no one in this small group remembered that. No one else but Regina knew how long she'd struggled. The horror she'd had as her own hate grew.

Snow spoke up, "There is nothing that you can admit to that will change our opinions of you."

Regina looked at Snow and for a moment everyone else in the group wasn't there. She understood the magic of this place. She'd felt it as the others had shared their secrets. She had to say this to Snow and she hated it.

"I love you." And that was enough to stun everyone into silence. "I hated myself for loving you. Everything was your fault. You were selfish and petty and I couldn't stop myself from loving you."

Regina pressed her hand to her stomach and tried to look away from the stunned look on Snow's face. "I told the Huntsman that I needed it to look like I wasn't involved for political reasons but the truth was no matter how many people I killed I couldn't kill you. And the more I tried to kill you the … more proud I was of you. Pain and grief destroyed me but it made you stronger. A better person."

Regina shook her head.

"It proved to me …"

Emma spoke up, her parents too stunned and Hook mostly confused. "It proved to you how weak you were."

Regina practically growled, "Yes."

And behind them the bridge finished forming, Emma paused looking back at Regina before running to Neal.

Snow White looked at her stepmother stunned, and David reached to hold her hand but she pulled away. His own secret raw still.

She wanted to proclaim it all a lie. To dismiss this as yet another trick of Regina's. But this was the Echo Cave, and the cave had accepted her secret. And the truth was somehow harder to take than a lie.

Because Regina had loved her and she'd given up on Regina.

And the Evil Queen was not the only one who felt shame at her weakness.