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When David found her there was magic flowing from her hands, swirling around her and filling every inch of the desiccated village she stood in the center of. One of the many she had destroyed in her vengeful hunt for his wife. The Prince dismounted and cautiously approached the queen, his hand on his sword ready for a fight. He stopped when he was close enough to see the tears running down the cheeks of the Evil Queen. David watched her for several moments. Her eyes were screwed shut in concentration; the hamlet around her coming back to life under her magic. He wasn't sure how he felt about her anymore. The last few years had been so different than the lives they all led here in the Enchanted Forest. Here, he had hated her, feared her, would have murdered her if not for Snow's insistence that she was more than the cruelty and malice she released on all who crossed her path.
He'd seen glimpse of that more in Storybrooke: her grief at losing Daniel again, fear at the vengeance of the town, but mostly her unyielding love for Henry. Then in Neverland David saw the fierceness of a mother in her and thought perhaps that was the woman Snow knew as a child; the one that read her stories and soothed her nightmares.
Regina slumped forward, her hands rested on her knees until those too bucked and she folded into the dirt, her heavy skirts billowing around her. David fought the urge to go to her the moment her magic stopped flowing. He knew something was wrong, but he also knew that Regina was a private person and she might burn him alive if he invaded her space. "If you're going to continue to lurk in the shadows you might want to move. The sun will be setting soon." Regina sat back on her heals. There was no point in avoiding the inevitable confrontation and she was too weak to put up a fight at the moment. "Why did you come after me?"
"Because you stormed out for some unknown reason and no one, especially the person the Wicked Witch is after should be out here on their own." David approached her. Her raised eyebrow let him know she wasn't buying his story. "Snow was concerned," he confessed.
"Of course she was," Regina sneered, exasperated. It was a sweet gesture, Regina couldn't deny that. Her step-daughter had surprised her by having the king's chamber remodeled for her, wanting her to have her privacy in the spacious rooms. She had no idea that Regina was the one that sealed them so long ago or that she hadn't set foot in them since the night the king was killed.
"What are you doing out here anyway?" David helped her to her feet and walked them to the newly flowing water fountain in the center of the court. Regina wavered slightly with each step and she was grateful for David's steadying hand on her elbow. It had been quite a while since she'd used her power this way and she'd forgotten the toll it took on her body.
"Not everyone wants to stay in the castle," Regina explained. "I've heard people talking. I was just trying to repair some of the damage so I didn't have to listen to the whining." Now it was David's turn to raise his brow to her unconvincing answer. "I've trapped us all here; I can at least try to give people back their homes." Her sincerity shocked him, but then again it didn't. Hadn't she been trying to repent? Hadn't letting his daughter and grandson escape the curse been the ultimate proof?
"Why did you run?" David needed to get back to the point. They both needed to get back to the castle before dark.
"Because I didn't want your precious Snow White to—" The thought stuck in Regina's throat. "Do you know why I trust you, David?"
The sudden change caught him off guard. "I didn't know you did, so no, Regina. I have no idea why you trust me."
"Because you've never forgiven for me for what I've done. Because you still hold me accountable for this." She waved her hand encompassing the remnants of a home her magic had not yet restored. "For Emma." Her voice grew quite at the mention on the Savior's name; the woman who was now the sole mother of their son.
"I lost friends, the woman I love, our daughter, 30 years of my life!" David was up and facing her. "I don't know if I'll ever let that go. I'm sorry I'm not as forgiving as my wife. You destroyed everything we had for no reason!" The fury David had held at bay came rushing back at the mention of his daughter: the child he never knew and the woman he'd never see again.
"You were happy!" Regina seethed. "You had everything! No matter what I did, no matter how much pain I caused you were still so infuriatingly happy!" Regina rose to face him, never one to back down from a fight, but this was a fight she wasn't sure she wanted to win.
"Why did you run?" David yelled again, his breath hot on Regina's face. "You owe me at least that answer: that one answer." David wasn't even sure why he cared. Snow cared, that should be enough of a reason for him to go chasing this infuriating woman through the forest, but it was more. Regina was right. He would never forgive her past. But did he want her to suffer? She'd lost her child, they shared that pain now. The paralyzing fear that your child is out there and you can do nothing to protect them. It bonded them together somehow, their children being together, but lost. And he couldn't deny his concern for the broken woman before him.
"Promise me you'll never tell her." Regina seemed so much smaller than he had remembered; the elaborate dress and makeup looking more like a costume than a regal wardrobe.
"I can't do that." David sat back down, motioning for her to join him.
Regina sighed as she joined him. She trusted him after all; she couldn't go back on that now. "When I married Leopold, he was mad with grief. He never saw me as anything but a replacement for his precious Ava. But I was never her, never good enough and he never let me forget that." Regina stared hard at the ground. She was lost in a faraway memory. David remained silent at her side, waiting. "And the older Snow got, the more she looked like her mother. The more he saw his wife instead of his daughter." Regina could taste the bile rising in her throat. She forced herself to look David in the eye, not bothering to hide the prickling tears. "I was afraid for her, David. I was afraid he'd hurt her like—" She turned away unable to finish the thought, leaving David to figure out the rest. "I used Sydney to kill him because I was too much of a coward to do it myself."
David exhaled deeply. He stood again and began to pace the courtyard, processing the confession he'd just heard. Despite their tumultuous past, he knew every word the queen said was true. "How old are you, Regina?"
"What?" Regina scoffed. "I'm trying to confess my sins to you and you ask me about my age?" She was walking away from him, but then decided not to give him the satisfaction. "If that's all you care about, Charming, I honestly don't even know how old I am. Between the curses and traveling through the realms, I've lost track. Old enough not to waste my time trying to explain my actions to a shepherd!" She was now the one taking charge and let her devilish grin spread wide when the mighty prince took a step back.
"Regina, wait!" David was quickly losing control of the situation. This wasn't where he intended the conversation to go. He grabbed her arm before she could saunter off again. "When we met, you and I, when we spent all those years trying to kill each other…we were all adults, but Snow talks about you before. When she was a child and you were her step-mother. When you braided her hair and sang her lullabies. When you loved her. I suppose I always assumed you used a spell or a—"
"When you're 10 years old, 17 seems so much older than it is," Regina spat out, but the venom was out of her voice. She sank back down as David released her arm.
"Seventeen," he repeated as Regina looked off into the distant. "You were only seventeen?"
"It doesn't excuse anything I did."
"No, it doesn't. But it makes it a little easier to understand." David's hand gripped her shoulder.
"I can't stay in those rooms," she looked at him, her eyes practically pleading. "I know she meant well, but I can't. I just can't." The tears were back, blurring her vision and Regina wondered how long it would take until her body simply quit producing all these drops of grief.
"Okay." David smiled and it was suddenly just that easy. Regina couldn't help but laugh a little at the ease of 'goodness' the prince possessed.
"Thank you." David looked at her questioningly, not understanding what he was being thanked for. He'd forgiven nothing and she knew he never fully would. "For not telling her," she answered his unvoiced question.
"I never said I wouldn't," David said plainly.
"You didn't have too. You love her David, and you don't want to her hurt either." Regina knew she was right, knew David would keep her secret. They were interwoven now, their love for Snow, Henry, even Emma, tied them together no matter what pulled them apart in the past.
"Will you come back to the castle with me?" David asked, offering his hand in a genuine act of chivalry which, of course, Regina blatantly ignored.
"I'm not done here yet," she stretched her arms and flexed her fingers. "I want to finish so the peasants can return to the forest where they belong."
"Of course, Your Majesty." David laughed as he mounted his horse, circling Regina slowly. He watched in awe for a moment as the magic flowed from her once again. "Regina," he said loud enough to get her attention. She opened her eyes to meet his. "Be careful."
The not-so-evil queen nodded and continued her work; she was bringing life back to the devastation she'd left behind. As David made his way back to the castle he hoped Regina could someday repair herself as well.