Regina could always be found in the same place. By the apple tree, watching the sun rise and the birds start to chirp and the flowers wake up and the grass far below thaw out. Frankly, she wouldn't rather be anywhere else, except the obvious. But it was hopeless to dream.
One day, after she had already walked the walls and watered the plants, someone sat next to her by her apple tree. Regina felt inclined to move but she really couldn't face the reality she was living in, down there where the people snatched away from time and space for twenty-eight years were now roaming around, right back where they started. Not that she cared at all for them, but it was strange. They remembered.
They were both silent for some time. Regina was content with this, but she knew the other woman was not. So she waited.
"How do you do it?" said Snow White. There was so many things in her life that that question could apply to, it was almost laughable. But Regina knew she was talking about the Spell.
"It's different when you have nothing to lose," she said looking straight ahead. Nothing to lose and nothing to gain.
She could see Snow nod slowly out of the corner of her eye.
Regina felt very odd. Here she was, the woman who had caused her so much heartbreak and anger and desperation in her life. She could kill her right now. Snap her neck, rip her heart out and feed it to the birds. Or she could push her off the ledge of her precious father's castle. She could kill all of them, really. Charming and the rest. No one would find out. Regina was never going to see Henry again, she was positive about that. And yet… here she was, just sitting. It was uncomfortable yet soothing in a way that even she did not understand.
Suddenly she wanted Snow to go. She was sick of her, and this feeling. But the other woman wouldn't move, she was deep in thought. "Even…"
Even the one thing I love most? "Yes." Regina interrupted sharply. It was too soon to hear anyone say his name. "What else could I do?" She quickly glanced sideways. Snow had a child too, but she didn't understand, not really. These people had family.
She could feel Snow watching her in pity or sadness, both emotions that were the last thing she needed right now. It made her want to throw up.
Regina watched Snow reach up and pick a dangling apple off of her tree. She started to move in protest, but then she spoke. "Do you remember that woman who saved my life so many years ago?" Snow said, squinting down at the fruit.
"…I think she's coming back, Regina."
That was it. A second after she finished her sentence, the queen stood up, shot her visitor a dirty look, and poofed out of there as fast as possible.
She couldn't let anyone see her weaknesses, wanted no one to break her walls. But she was touched.