A/N: Not sure how many chapters this will be, but I've got part of 2 and 3 written already because this idea kept bugging me. Also partly writing to mark the 300th follower of Be the Change - thanks to everyone for reading! This one is going to be decidedly darker.


Intervention – Chapter 1

Emma blinked at her ringing phone. She couldn't think of one good reason why she would be calling. And she wasn't exactly brimming with excitement at the prospect of answering. Not after what happened earlier that day with Henry. She'd nearly had a heart attack when she'd been threatened with a handful of eager flames.

Still, she was grateful the woman had been there in time to stop him from blowing himself up.

"If she hadn't been there…" Emma shook the thought away and leaned against her patrol car, resigning to her fate.

"Hello, Regina."

"Sherriff." The woman took a deep breath as if she were about to launch into something but Emma cut her off before she could begin, unwilling to hear the details about just how much she'd offended her this time.

"Look if this is about today, I'm sorry, but can you understand why I was scared to see you with Henry? We haven't exactly been on the same side. And before you say it, I didn't mean to call you a bad person – I mean I didn't actually say it directly, and yes I know it's more complicated than the black and white, good and bad bullshit but I was terrified and then you –"

"Miss Swan!" Regina's voice shattered her speech. "If you would take a moment to let me speak, I think I have something that will concern you a little more than your own attempts to soothe my ego."

Emma blinked, dumbfounded. "Okay…" She replied slowly, wary of more subterfuge.

"Your mother was just here."

Emma paled. She stood up straight. They'd been keeping her mother safe in the apartment – Gold was supposed to be watching her still, keeping her protected from the very woman on the other end of the line. "Mary Margaret was – why? Why did she go to you?"

"She asked me to kill her." Regina's tone was flat, nearly disinterested.

"She WHAT?"

"I refused, of course. A lot of good that would do me."

Emma heaved a sigh of relief. "So then what happened? Where is she?"

"Well I did not respond very well to her goading," Regina said.

"Big surprise there," Emma interjected before Regina continued.

"And I may have said a few things, taken her heart out to show her she's corrupted it. Nothing out of the ordinary," Regina said flippantly.

"Jesus Christ, Regina! Really?!" Emma's heart picked up a rapid pace again. At this rate, she'd have a heart attack before she could make heads or tails of this royally fucked-up situation.

"Shut UP, Miss Swan! That's not the issue – the issue is that she ran from my house, left her car here, and went in the direction of Kidder's Cliff. I think she's planning to do something very, very stupid." Regina finished the rest in a huff.

"She – oh my god. Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" Emma dove into the patrol car and started it with a fumbling, shaking hand. "Where is it? The cliff – how do I get there?"

Regina started listing off directions like she was reading a grocery list but Emma could barely hear the words. She'd never be able to remember the turns and street names.

"Never mind. You're on the way – I'm picking you up and you can show me how to get there."

"Excuse me? I did not plan on–"

"Regina! I don't have time to argue with you and I am fucking panicking and I can't believe I'm saying this but please come with me. I need your help and I can't find her alone." Emma blinked tears out of her vision and picked up speed. She was nearly at the mansion now and she needed an answer. "Please." She said again when there was a too-long hesitation.

A loud sigh came through. "Fine."

The line went dead.

The patrol car screeched to a halt at the end of the driveway on Mifflin Street and Regina stepped out of her house, not bothering to lock the door behind her. She padded quickly down the pavement to the car and dropped herself into the passenger's side.

"Go straight and then take the third left."

Emma put her pedal down.

Regina gripped the door handle and glanced over, visibly uncomfortable.

"I understand you're worried, but if you kill us before we get there we'll be of no use to your mother. She walked, Miss Swan. The speed limit is fast enough."

"Like hell it is," Emma muttered but she eased off the gas slightly. There were too many trees and not very much room to maneuver on the narrowing road. "How much of a head start does she have?"

"I called you as soon as I saw her take off." Regina said dryly.

Emma glanced at the woman. Well that was surprising.

"You wanted to kill her. Earlier today. And now you're warning me so I can try and stop her from–" Emma couldn't finish that thought. "Why do you care?"

"Because it would hurt my son." Regina said without hesitation. "Stop the car up here. We'll have to go the rest of the way on foot."

Emma did as she was told and Regina jumped out of the car at the first possible moment, heading down a dirt path that wove through the trees.

"How far?" Emma asked.

"We're almost there."

The trees started to drop off, now only scattered around the path and Emma could see a figure standing at the top of the hill. She took off running.

"Mary Margaret!" She shouted when she was close enough for the woman to hear. Her mother whipped around, her eyes wild and drenched in tears. Her eyeliner was carelessly smudged. Emma stopped a few metres from where Snow was standing, two steps from the edge.

"What are you doing?" Emma said between panicked breaths.

"I have to do this. If I don't I'll just hurt you – I'll hurt everyone." Snow sucked in little gasps of air amidst her sobs.

"No you won't! That's not you! You can come back from this. Please, just come over here," Emma tried. A few hot tears spilled out over her cheeks.

Snow shook her head. "I saw it, Emma. I saw what I did to my heart. I saw what I'm going to become."

"You don't have to become anything. Not if you don't want to. We can make it right, please."

Snow's eyes drifted to a space behind Emma and her face paled even further. "What is she doing here." Emma glanced back to where Regina was standing stiffly a few feet behind her.

"She told me you were coming here and I didn't know the way so she showed me." Emma spilled the explanation as quick as possible. It was a pointless detail, insignificant at the moment. All that mattered was getting Snow to come away from the edge. Snow just nodded, as if she understood it all.

"Right. So she can keep me alive. Make me suffer. Make everyone keep suffering."

Regina rolled her eyes.

Snow laughed darkly. "What? That is why you're here, isn't it?"

Regina ventured closer, standing beside Emma now. Her hands were in her pockets, looking oddly casual for the situation.

"I'm here because you are no good to anyone dead." Regina said. Emma's mouth fell open, somewhat stupefied by the answer.

"I'm no good to anyone alive." Snow said quietly. Her sobs were slowing, her face drying into a stony expression of defeat. "You said it yourself. I'll destroy everyone – I can't let that happen. I won't."

"I only said that to scare you, dear. I didn't realize it would make you try something as idiotic as this."

"Regina," Emma hissed. "Not helping."

Regina ignored her. "You're not going to destroy everything, Snow. You're not me. What you did was… terrible. But this is not the answer you think it is."

Snow shook her head, her eyes flickering with something like relief. "Yes it is."

Emma tried to leap forward and restrain her mother, but she was too late – Snow fell backwards over the cliff, wind whipping through her short hair.

But Regina had jumped forward too and was standing right at the ledge, her hands curved downwards towards the beach below, her face stoic. Emma leaned over cliff, tears already falling from what she knew she would see. Her eyes went wide when she realized what was really happening.

Snow's body was still in midair. It had never hit the ground.

Emma turned to look at Regina then back down. Snow was being lifted back up to the edge. Her small features were twisted in confusion; her arms were held tight to her sides. Regina gave one last gentle turn of her wrist and deposited the shaking figure on the firm ground. Emma had Snow in her arms in seconds, holding on so tightly Regina thought Snow might die after all: squeezed to death in the arms of her overzealous daughter.

"You're okay, you're okay," Emma repeated the words like a mantra into the woman's ear, more for herself than for the almost-victim. Snow's arms rose up and wrapped limply around her daughter.

As Regina watched the scene, her features clouded over. She recalled holding her own mother, watching the last light fall out of her eyes, the last breath fall from her lips. Regina had just saved the person who'd wrought her death – and for what?

"For Henry." She reminded herself. The idea didn't comfort her this time.

Emma was still holding Snow, but her eyes flicked up to the woman still standing a few feet away, stiff as a board. Emma caught Regina's eyes and smiled. She mouthed the words "Thank you," and Regina nodded dimly in return.

Emma pulled back from Snow's arms. "We should get out of here. It looks like it's gonna rain."

Snow managed a nod and let Emma guide her to her feet. They headed back to the car in silence, Regina following a safe distance behind, and slipped inside just as the first rain dotted the windshield. Snow was nearly catatonic in the passenger seat. None of them spoke. Regina lost herself in the only sound: the dull thumping of raindrops all over the car. She slipped out as soon as Emma parked, stepping into the downpour without waiting for a goodbye.

Tucked back inside her hollow mansion, Regina stood dripping at the window, watching the patrol car disappear.

She had saved Snow's life for the second time. And for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to feel anything at all.