"Why does everything have to be so complicated for me? First you bring back his wife, then he has to go over the town line with her, and when it turns out that she's my sister and not Merian... she has to be pregnant with his child!" said Regina with exasperation and frustration in her voice, trying not to wake Lily asleep on the back seat of the car.
They where going back to Storybrook after Robin's rescue mission, it was really late and exhaustion was starting to catch up with her. Their "road trip" had been an intense one.
"Maybe he is not your soulmate anymore… and the universe is trying to make you see that." Was the answer she received from Emma while yawning and trying to stay vigil while driving. She was tired too, Regina could see that.
"Pixie dust doesn't fail." replicated Regina in a monotone voice.
"You used pixie dust before you…"
"Before what, Emma? Before I became the Evil Queen… a villain? And we know villains don't get a happy ending." There was anger now in her posture and in her low voice.
It wasn't a surprise to Emma, she understood her, she always had.
So she bended her head a little and turned it towards Regina for a moment to meet her eyes.
"That's not what i meant. When you used pixie dust, over more than thirty years ago, it led you to Robin, but you're both different persons now. And in that moment, if you would have chosen that path, he could have been your soulmate, like you said pixie dust doesn't fail. The thing is, you didn't. So you went trough your Evil Queen phase, you cursed everyone to Storybrook, you got Henry, you saved everyone, you've been to neverland and saved Henry, then you had to let us go away after peter pan curse…" she hesitated a moment after this, turning her head towards Regina again, who was looking at her with deep, big, chocolate eyes. Turning to the road she continued: "A lot happened to you over thirty years, and all of that changed you and made you grow up, it made you who you are today. A mother, a woman that knows what she's capable of, a woman with a great strength and the most resiliant heart, with her vulnerabilities that is no so afraid to show anymore, a really good friend…" said Emma smiling a little, and than on a more serious note. "You're not that girl you told me about anymore, the one who only had anger to hold on to. A lot happened to Robin too, he met Marion, he had a child…What I'm trying to say is that maybe if you used pixie dust now it wouldn't lead you to Robin, because you've changed and what was good for you back then isn't good anymore right now"
Regina turned her face towards the road leaning her head against her hand while her arm was resting on the car door. She was calmer now and was pondering about what Emma told her. There was silence for a while.
"To whom would it lead to? Who else would love the Evil Queen?" a single tear escaped Regina's right eye, her voice lower but steady.
"You're not the Evil Queen anymore…" said Emma always turning to Regina, doing her best to comfort her while not being in a good mood herself.
"Yes, you can see that, but everyone else…" Regina wiped away the tear and straightened her posture, while toying with her gloves in her lap.
"Everyone else will see it… Regina if you want to be with him because you think no one else would want to be with you, then you're terribly mistaken, anyone would be really lucky to have you on their side and to be loved by you. And if you do love him… then pursue him." She paused a moment and then continued "But sincerely, Regina, he keeps choosing someone that is not you…" Emma glanced to Regina and took away a hand from the steering wheel to take Regina's hand in hers squeezing it a little, then smiling to the brunette "You deserve a lot better than that."
Regina, loosing up her posture a bit on her seat, squeezed it back but didn't let go.