The alarm went off, and Emma slammed her hand down on the snooze button before reaching over to the other side of the bed to drape her arm around Regina. They'd been dating for a few months now, and it was intoxicating. Maybe it was cliché, but Emma had never felt this way about anyone before.

But she would never say that out loud. And neither would Regina. They skirted around the subject; they didn't need to say I Love You to know that it was true. Or at least that's what Emma told herself. If she were honest, it would be nice to hear those words out loud, or to say them. But Emma had never been one for admittances or feelings or love.

Regina, though…she took it to an entirely different level. She hid from her feelings almost like she was afraid of them. Afraid of what, Emma wasn't sure. But she knew by now to expect the laughter to suddenly stop, the light in her eyes to dim, her smile to drop, the shutdown of emotions and the quick excuse to leave the room. She needed to help Henry with his homework, or she needed to go to her office for a little while, or she'd just realized they were out of milk and it was imperative that she go out to get more immediately. And Emma knew better than to offer to come along.

So when her arm hit nothing but mattress, Emma wasn't surprised. She wasn't hurt or even disappointed, really. Regina had a habit of doing this just when they were starting to become closer. Just when Emma felt she might be on the verge of hearing those three words. Maybe that was why she left: she was afraid of saying them.

Regardless, Emma didn't feel like sleeping anymore. She turned off the alarm, pulled on some clothes, and headed downstairs. Henry had already left for school, so it should be just her and Regina. If Regina were actually home. She glanced down at her phone, wondering if she should shoot her a text.

It wasn't necessary. Regina was sitting alone in the kitchen, wearing one of her weirdly sexy pantsuits, papers spread out across the table. She didn't look up when Emma entered the room.

"Regina?" Emma said.

"Oh, good morning," Regina said. She still didn't look up. Emma stood there for a second, frowning. She wasn't sure whether to press this or to just leave it be. Normally it was the latter. Regina always came around eventually, but lately this had been happening more and more often, and Emma wasn't sure how much longer she could take it. She'd handled rejection all her life, but she wasn't used to this constant back and forth, this constant wondering if Regina wanted her or if she didn't. Maybe it was time they talked about it.

"What are you working on?" Emma asked.

"Oh, you know," Regina said vaguely. "Just boring mayoral duties. Nothing for you to concern yourself with."

The icy tone in her voice almost made Emma give up right then and there, but once she'd made up her mind, there was no stopping her. "Really? It's a bit early for that, don't you think?"

Now Regina turned to look at her. Her face was cold and unmoving. "Since when are you concerned with how I spend my time? You don't know anything about what I do. Being mayor is a 24-hour job, Miss Swan."

Regina hadn't called her that in months. 'Miss Swan?' Really? That's how you're going to address the woman you're sleeping with? Emma could feel herself getting angrier. "Well, why don't you tell me about it, then." She walked over to the kitchen table – or maybe 'stalked' would have been a better word – and straddled a chair in exactly the way she knew Regina hated most. Petty? Probably. Whatever.

Regina's eyes narrowed. "I don't think you could possibly understand the importance of what I'm doing."

"Yeah?" Emma said, narrowing her eyes right back. "So what are you doing? Signing marriage licenses? Approving land grants? Tell me, what is so important that you're up at 7:30 to do it?"

"You know what?" Regina snapped. "It's none of your business what I'm doing." She stood and started to gather up the papers. "Thank you for interrupting my very important work. I suppose I'll have to go to my office if I want to get anything done."

"Nope," Emma said. She reached across the table and managed to grab a few papers before Regina could pick them up.

"Give those back," Regina demanded. "Those are mine."

"What is this?" Emma asked, ignoring Regina entirely as she shuffled through the papers. "This is – "

"I said, give them back," Regina snarled. At first Emma thought she might actually leap across the table, but instead she started walking around it. The look in her eyes was like nothing Emma had ever seen before. Emma had never really been scared of Regina, not even when she'd seen her as the Evil Queen, but now? Now she was downright terrified. But she'd be damned if she was going to give up now.

"This is gibberish, Regina," Emma said, holding up the pages. Her voice was shaking, but out of anger more than fear. "These are just random webpages. Photocopies of pages from different books. You couldn't even have made it look real? It's almost insulting."

Regina ripped the pages out of her hands. Emma let her. "I told you, you wouldn't understand. It may not look important to you, but –"

"Enough!" Emma was almost shouting now, and Regina looked startled. Her icy composure dropped a bit as she leaned backwards. They'd been almost touching, so close that Emma wasn't sure if she wanted to argue with her or kiss her. "Stop lying to me, Regina! You woke up early to avoid me. You've been avoiding me on and off for weeks, and you've started going to ridiculous lengths to do it. Like really? Printing off random stuff to make it look like you were working so I would leave you alone? So why, Regina? What's going on?"

"I…" At first Emma thought she was going to finally admit her feelings. But the icy expression returned almost as quickly as it had vanished. "I'm not avoiding you. You just don't understand the concept of occasional personal space."

"Occasional?" Emma snorted. "Regina, this goes way beyond personal space. You wake up before me, sometimes hours before, and you go to work and stay there until after Henry and I have already had dinner. But sometimes you don't go to work at all because you want to spend the day with me. And some days you're all over me, but sometimes I touch you and you stiffen and make up some excuse to leave."

"That is the very definition of personal space, dear," Regina said, enunciating each word like she was talking to a child. "Some days I need it. Other days I don't."

"Then why haven't you talked to me about it?" Emma asked. "Why can't you just say 'oh hey, Emma, gonna be at work late today.' Or even just reply to my texts asking when you're coming home. Why are you making me guess whether or not I'll even be seeing you on any given day? Why do you have to ignore me completely instead of just giving me a heads up? Or do you even know when you're going to need some personal space?"

"Because I…" Regina looked trapped. She didn't have an answer, and Emma knew it. "Fine. Maybe I am avoiding you. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Why?" Emma demanded, ignoring the question. She wasn't sure what Regina thought she was going to gain by finally stating the obvious after weeks of feeding her lies upon lies.

"Well, why do you think, Emma?" Regina said, voice dripping with ice. "What possible reason could I have to want to avoid you?"

"No," Emma said. "You're not going to turn this around on me. You're going to give me your reason." Now she was afraid again, but not of Regina. Afraid of what Regina was going to say. Could she have been wrong about what feelings she was trying to hide?

Regina leaned in and practically spat, "Because I don't want to be with you."

And maybe that was true or maybe it was just Regina trying to dodge her feelings, but it hurt. It hurt worse than feeling abandoned by her parents for 28 years, it hurt worse than Neal abandoning her to have a baby in a jail cell; it hurt because it was Regina, the person she cared about as much as she'd ever cared about anything.

The hurt must have shown on her face, because Regina's expression dissolved in an instant. "Emma – "

"Don't," Emma said. She didn't want to hear anything else Regina had to say. She didn't want to hear her say she didn't mean it, or that she was sorry, or – god forbid – that she really had meant it. And she wasn't sure why she was shaking her head so hard, and she barely recognized the tears running down her cheeks as she slammed her eyes shut. Emma Swan wasn't one for feelings, or love, or crying. But it was happening, and she knew she had to get out of there. So she turned and she ran for the door.

"Emma, no, wait." She could hear Regina behind her. "Please wait."

Instead, Emma slammed the door in her face. She knew it wouldn't really stop her, but damn if it didn't feel good. Her eyes were blurry, and she almost tripped running down the steps.

"Emma!" Regina called again. The note of desperation in her voice caused Emma to turn around. Regina had stopped and was standing on the porch, bracing against a pillar like it was the only thing supporting her. "Please. Come back inside."

"Why?" Emma asked. She ran her sleeve across her face to get rid of the tears. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I…" She paused. Emma knew it was hard for her to get the words out. She waited. "Because I didn't mean that. I do – I do – you know…please come back inside." Regina was so pale that she looked like she was going to either cry or pass out.

Emma shook her head. "No. I don't care if you didn't mean it. You said it, Regina. You said it and you didn't care how it would make me feel."

"But I –" Regina started.

"I don't care!" Emma said again. She knew she was going to start crying again if she didn't get out of there fast. "Regina, I told you, I don't care if you didn't mean it. I can't be with somebody who thinks it's okay to say something like that. With somebody who avoids me half the time and plays with my emotions like I'm some kind of a game."

"What are you saying?" Regina asked quietly.

"I'm saying…" Emma paused and took a deep breath. She knew what she needed to say. She just didn't want to say it. "Regina, I don't want to be with you."

And she could feel the tears welling up again, so she turned and she walked to her Bug. Regina didn't try to stop her. She didn't speak. But as Emma drove away, she saw her still standing on the porch, tears falling down her face.

Emma was grateful that Mary Margaret didn't ask any questions when she knocked on the door to the loft. She knew how she must have looked – barefoot and dressed only in a nightgown, eyes red and puffy. But her mother just guided her over to the couch and let her sit down. Emma knew she should have thanked her, but all she could seem to do was stare numbly at the wall. She barely even registered her mother sitting down next to her until she felt a hand on her shoulder and jolted at the touch.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mary Margaret asked softly. Emma shook her head.

"No. No, I…no." How could she talk about it? She'd just ended what was both the best and the worst relationship of her life. And that choice was absolutely on her. Regina had asked her to come back and she'd said no.

But she knew she'd had every right to. What Regina was doing to her, the way she was treating her, it just wasn't fair. It was bound to happen eventually. Emma could handle not saying I Love You – in fact she almost preferred it. She loved relationships where the connection was so strong, so palpable, that they didn't need words to know it was real.

She'd thought she had that with Regina.

Mary Margaret nodded and gave her an encouraging smile that Emma was just not in the mood for. "I understand. If you change your mind, I'll be here."

Emma barely even registered her standing up and walking away.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there for. All she could think about was Regina. She missed her already. She'd missed her from the second she was out of sight. And she couldn't help but wonder if she'd made a mistake. There was no denying that what Regina was doing was ridiculous, but maybe she hadn't given her enough of a chance. After all, this was the first time Emma had let on how much it was bothering her. She'd let it fester until it was too much.

Maybe if she'd just stayed, Regina would have listened.

"Emma?" Mary Margaret's urgent tone snapped her out of it, and she looked up at her mother. "Emma, Henry just called me. He says we need to go to Regina's right away."

Emma shook her head slowly. "No. No, he just wants to…no."

"Emma, I don't think it's about you," Mary Margaret insisted. "He seemed really worried. I asked him to come here instead, but he said he didn't want to leave her."

"Leave her?" Emma repeated. Worry overruled her heartache, and she stood. "What's going on? Is she okay?"

"Henry doesn't know," Mary Margaret said. "But he sounded very upset. He said he needs to show us."

Emma nodded. Her head was spinning with emotions and she didn't even know if she could handle this, but she couldn't just stay here when Regina might be in trouble.

And Regina had better be in trouble, because if this was just some attempt to get his moms to reconcile, Henry was going to be the one in trouble.

"All right," she said, hoping her mother couldn't hear the tremor in her voice. "Let's go."

Everything seemed normal when they pulled up to the mansion. If it weren't for the pounding in Emma's ears drowning out all other sound and making it impossible to think, she could almost have been returning from a grocery run, or from Henry's school, or from –

Henry was racing across the lawn towards their car, grasping something in his hand. It was obvious that he'd been waiting for them, and Emma noted that he did look very worried. She was out of the car before Mary Margaret even turned off the engine, and Henry did a double take upon seeing her. Emma realized she looked worse than she thought, and winced at the thought of Regina seeing her like this.

"Mom," Henry said. "Grandma. I'm so glad you're here."

"What's going on?" Emma asked sharply. She cast a glance towards the mansion. Regina's office was visible, but Regina wasn't in it. Henry frowned, studying her face. He looked like he wanted to ask questions, but something else was more important.

"When I came home from school, she was in the kitchen. I came home from school early because this speaker we were supposed to have didn't show up, and she didn't notice me come in. Her back was to me, and I saw her drink something."

"Okay?" Emma said, knowing she sounded more abrasive than she should. "So what?"

Mary Margaret gave her a look and said quickly, "Okay, Henry, what next?"

Henry looked from one face to the other, clearly still trying to figure out what was going on. "So I don't mean she was drinking a glass of her apple cider. I mean she was drinking this."

He held out a vial that was empty except for a bit of blue residue. Emma took it, frowning, and held it up so it glistened in the sun. "A potion?"

"Yeah," Henry said. "And I don't know what it did, but something's really wrong. She isn't acting like herself. I went backwards, really quietly so she wouldn't know I was there, and made a lot of noise coming in like I'd just gotten home. She smiled at me, but it wasn't like a real smile. It was like the smiles she used to give me when…you know, and she said hello and then just walked out. I could see her holding the vial behind her back, and I don't think she even realized I was following her. She put it down in her office and I waited in the dining room until she got up, then grabbed it and called you."

"Well, we don't have any way of knowing what it is," Emma said. "But we should find out. Maybe we can just, you know…ask her?" The thought of seeing Regina so soon terrified her, but Emma couldn't just let her gulp down a potion that did god-knows-what without making sure she was safe.

"That won't work," Henry said, shaking his head. "I told you, she's not acting like herself. She'll never tell us. She probably wouldn't even tell us anything if she hadn't taken whatever this is."

"Wouldn't tell you, maybe," Emma said. She didn't tell him that she didn't think Regina would normally tell her either, but given the events of this morning, it was far more likely she'd get some honesty out of her. "But I think she'll talk to me."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Mary Margaret said.

"Mom, it'll be fine," Emma said, turning towards her. "I can take care of myself."

"No. It's not that," Mary Margaret said quietly. "I think I might know what it is. Hand it to me." Emma handed it to her without a word, and she and Henry watched as Mary Margaret slowly raised it to her face and sniffed.

Then Mary Margaret gasped, and her face turned pale.

"What?" Emma asked urgently. "What is it?"

"It's – " Mary Margaret started, but she was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.

"Henry?" Regina called. "What are you doing out here?"

Emma was struck by how composed she looked. If Henry's reaction to her had been indicative of anything, she looked a horrible mess. And it was unsurprising, given she'd been sobbing uncontrollably for the past five or six hours. But Regina didn't look like she'd been crying at all.

And if Emma's heart was pounding as Regina walked down the steps and towards them, Regina didn't seem to take notice. In fact it seemed like she didn't even notice Emma at all.

"Mary Margaret," Regina said curtly, stepping between her son and Emma.

Mary Margaret pressed her lips together, staring at Regina with what could almost have been fury. "Regina."

"…Regina?" Emma asked, voice shaky.

Regina turned to face her, looking her up and down with a sneer curling up the corner of her mouth. "And you are?"

What? Emma was so shocked she didn't know what to say. What was going on? Was Regina still playing games? She'd thought that would have ended with the events of this morning.

"Mom?" Henry asked uncertainly, looking from one parent to the other.

"Never mind," Regina said, turning back to Henry after another moment of staring at Emma. "Come on. Let's go back inside."

"But – " Henry started to protest, looking at Emma and Mary Margaret with fear and confusion.

"It's fine, Henry," Mary Margaret said quickly. "Just go."

"As if he needs your permission," Regina snorted. "Good day, Miss Blanchard, and...whoever you are."

With that she turned, and Henry allowed himself to be led up the steps, looking back at the rest of his family all the way up until Regina practically slammed the door behind them.

Emma, mouth agape, turned to her mother, who was grasping the vial so tightly her fingers were turning white. She'd been expecting tears, the cold shoulder, maybe outright fury, but not this. "What was that? What just happened?"

"It's a memory potion," Mary Margaret whispered, staring at the bottle in her hand. "She has no idea who you are."