I

The room was dark, the candles had died out hours ago and neither of them stood up to switch the lights on. It was better this way, because they could both hide their feelings from each other. Emma moved an inch in her chair and the wood creaked, cutting through the silence like shattered shards of glass on a marble floor. Her marble floor. The stainless chequerboard.

Regina was seated in the sofa across the living-room. When Emma squinted she could perceive the vague outlines of her body. The elegant line of her crossed legs, wrapped in the softest black nylon. The slender feet, one firmly on the ground, the other impatiently rocking in the air. The slightly muscled line of her crossed arms. The little curve of her dark brown hair, her head bent to the side. It could have been a famous still-life.

"Regina... I'm sorry, I didn't intent to cause you pain," Emma finally said. She'd repeated the words over and over, first in her head, then a dozen times out loud. They were becoming worn and meaningless. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Regina bit her lip, and looked the other side. A single tear ran down her cheek and landed in her lap. She didn't care, her make-up was ruined anyway. All kinds of emotions surged through her: anger, because of the unfairness of the situation and because Emma had lied to her, confusion, because she couldn't get her head around it all, disillusion, because it'd been too easy and too good to be true. But the worst feeling of all was the overwhelming sadness, the knowledge that she would be alone... again.

"Just say something..." Emma tried, resting her head in her hand. "We've been sitting here for ages."

"What do you want me to say?" Regina uttered hoarsely. Her voice was shaking, and her throat hurt like hell. "All I can say is that your intentions really. don't. matter."

"I told you, I planned to tell you, sooner or later, but I had so many things on my mind. And you were never home early, I just never saw the opportunity to-"

"Don't put this on me, you had plenty of chances to talk about this! But no, instead you thought it was wiser to keep rolling around with him and to keep it from me," Regina interrupted bitterly. "I thought I was more important to you than that."

She quickly sniffed and shifted her legs. How had it ever come so far? Sure, it'd been a bumpy road since day one, when Emma appeared in her frontyard with Henry, but they didn't weigh against all the good memories.

"You are important to me, Regina. And I hope we can still keep contact, if only because Henry still needs you. You're his mom, and he'd be heartbroken if you'd shut him out because of me," Emma said softly.

She stood up and reached out to the whiskey bottle that Regina had left there earlier. With trembling hands, she poured herself another drink. The amber liquid was almost gone. Her patience too. Suddenly, her phone lit up, it was three in the morning.

Ems, did u tell her? Hope ur ok. Hook

Emma rubbed her hands together, thinking of an appropriate answer. Was she alright? What did she feel? It was all unclear.

"It's him, isn't it?" Regina asked, her voice reduced to a whisper.

Emma sighed, looking wearily at her. "Yeah, he asks how it went. I don't know what to answer. Clearly it went as bad as could be, but-"

"You know what? Just go, miss Swan... I don't want to see you again in my house, just go, go, I don't mind!"

"Regina, I don't want to part in the middle of a fight. Can we at least-"

"Go to him, kiss him, make love to him, for all I care! Do give him my sincerest greetings when you'll lie in his arms!" Regina said, suddenly raising her voice.

"Regina! Be reasonable, I-" Emma forcefully began.

"If he cares to stay up all night... I bet he's been waiting, waiting to claim you, waiting to propose to you? Is that it? Are you going to marry? Have children? Walk to your happily ever after together? Maybe you are already expecting? All under my nose!" Regina started yelling.

She suppressed her outrage, she'd suppressed it up to the point where her big bubble of anger had to burst. And now she was getting beside herself. She didn't care if she lost decorum now, nor if it would ruin her reputation. What was reputation but a stupid label, made up so that some people had a reason to hate you.

"Regina, if you only cared to listen, it's none of those things. Not yet, in any case! Jesus, woman..." Emma said, running her hair through her blonde locks.

Regina fell silent, and she studied Emma for a few seconds. The words "not yet" rang in her ears. She was trembling from head to toe, she couldn't bear to be in the house anymore. All the memories surrounded her and blew-up in her face. Eventually, in one blast of purple smoke, Regina fled the house.

The poppies in the grass were gently swaying in the nightly spring breeze. It was cold.