Regina pulled her dressing gown on at the sound of the commotion from downstairs. Normally, she would have just stayed in bed, assuming that she wasn't wanted, but with Leopold and Snow away she figured that she should at least show interest in whatever was happening. She hurried down the hall and halfway down the stairs before her mother's voice sounded in her head. "Slow down, Regina. A lady never rushes." And while Regina imagined that her mother would be too astounded to see the young queen in such a state of almost-undress to notice her pace, she slowed anyway. She descended to the main hall as gracefully as she could in slippers.

Not that it mattered. No one seemed to see the queen as they dealt with whatever emergency was at hand. She felt rather like a ghost, especially given her white nightgown and robe. Everything in her wardrobe here was bridal white, even though the wedding was long over.

Maybe it was better that no one noticed her, since that kept anyone from seeing the look of shock on Regina's face when two guards passed her with a stretcher between them. On it, bleeding from a wound to her head, was the fairy she'd ordered out of her bedroom not two hours ago. Tinkerbell.

Regina followed after the stretcher, her footsteps silenced by her slippers, undetected until the guards reached the infirmary doors. It was a maid, of course, who found her, the young sort of thing who was never noticed herself. "Your Majesty," she said, stunned to see the queen and dropping into a curtsy.

This delayed Regina enough that the infirmary doors closed before she reached them. Not that she knew what she would do if she did. Demand that they put Tink back where they found her? "What's happened?" she asked the maid.

The girl didn't know any more than Regina, but a guard overhead the exchange and approached Regina with a slight bow. "The girl was found unconscious in the garden, my Queen. We are sweeping the grounds to find whoever injured her."

Regina didn't mention that there was, in all likelihood, nobody running around the gardens hitting girls over the head. That, being a fairy, Tinkerbell might have fallen from some height. But she didn't dare suggest that she knew anything about Tink. Every moment they'd spent together had verged on treason.

The guard recommended that Regina return to her room for safety, but she remained downstairs until the royal healer had finished with the fairy. Then she went into the infirmary herself and stood over Tinkerbell for a long time, replaying the past few days as she watched the unconscious fairy. She wasn't sure if she should feel angry or guilty. But she certainly felt tired, so she sat in a chair by the fairy's bed and, after a while, drifted off to sleep.

The talk in the servants' quarters had been primarily about the unknown girl and her unknown attacker, but the little maid added a new strain: that the queen was watching over that girl, that the queen might have a heart after all.

Tinkerbell had always been told that fairies weren't meant to love. They weren't meant to feel much of anything, really. There was a small range: loyalty, disappointment, hope... Definitely not love.

She'd never been much of one to follow the rules.

But she hadn't realized that there was some truth to what the Blue Fairy had told her about feeling. Humans felt things so keenly. And when Tink awoke in her now-human body, it was overwhelming. The ache from hitting the ground the night before was unlike anything she'd ever felt. The searing pain on her back where her wings had been was worse.

She opened her eyes to take in the strange room, and then she saw Regina. The air slammed out of Tink's lungs like she'd been hit hard, and she sat straight up, ignoring the pain.

She'd certainly known that she cared for the young woman, but not this much. She should be angry, she knew she should be angry, but that emotion didn't come. Everything was both soft and painful as she studied the sleeping queen.

Had Regina been this beautiful the night before? And then the anger came, but not for Regina. For herself. Tink couldn't believe that she'd been so ready to give the young woman away to a stranger.

Blue, for once, had been right. Love was so much more than Tinkerbell had ever dreamed.

She held her breath as Regina jerked from sleep, looking around in surprise as she tried to remember why she was sleeping in an uncomfortable chair and in the wrong room. And then their eyes met, and Tink knew instantly that Regina wasn't sitting by her side out of love or even fondness. Tink was no expert on anger, but she knew that the look in Regina's eyes couldn't be anything else.

She sank back down into the pillow, closing her eyes. She must have dozed off, because when she opened them again Regina was gone. In her place was a round-faced little girl, peering at the former fairy curiously.

"She's awake, Father!" the girl announced cheerily and way too loudly. Tink rubbed at her aching head, willing the girl away.

"Give her space, princess," a kindly male voice said, and Tinkerbell was thankful to see the girl hop out of her chair and disappear from view. The fairy tilted her head to see the source of the voice, a graying man in rich robes and a crown.

Regina's husband, Tink realized, and he looked old enough to be her father.

"I am terribly sorry that your visit to my home has started out so terribly," he said as he sank down into the chair that had Regina and Snow White before him. "King Leopold, at your service."

"Tin…" Tinkerbell caught herself, not wanting to give her identity away in case Blue came looking. "Tindra, Your Highness."

He smiled warmly, and Tink forced herself to smile back. "Well, Lady Tindra, I will see to it that you are well looked after while you recover." He clapped, and a young maid hurried in and curtsied to both of them. "See our guest to a more comfortable room, will you?"

Tink followed the little red-haired maid upstairs and was shown to a room nearly as spacious as Regina's. The girl bathed her and dressed her in clothing much less revealing and sparkly than her old fairy attire. Tink was just sitting down to a small breakfast, finally left alone, when a door at the back of the room opened.

The blonde turned, a slice of apple halfway to her lips, to see Regina. The young queen was still in white, but in a splendid gown set with tiny glimmering jewels, a small tiara set in her long dark hair. She was somehow even more impossibly beautiful than ever before.

Tinkerbell dropped the apple slice into the folds of her skirt, barely breathing.

"You need to go," Regina announced before turning on her heel.