The second glass coffin was built much stronger than the first. The dwarves had built Snow's coffin like a jewelry box, more for display than protection. But the one they built for Regina was to be an eternal prison, an airless cell, a fortress of glass. Not that they ever expected Regina to wake up. But if she did somehow: no word, no magic, no breath would escape. Snow walked around the coffin appreciatively as the dwarves set it down in Regina's front hall. Snow had suggested they all move in to the house now that Regina, in her glass coffin, was going to be moved into her family crypt.

"It's Henry's house now, after all…and we could sure use the space."

Emma tried not to let the flicker of disgust register in her face. Her young mother flicked her raven black hair, Emma tried not to think of ravens picking at fresh blood on the road, on the side of the highway.

Rumple hadn't been seen for days, not since he had cast the spell that had incapacitated Henry the week before. As far as the Charmings could uncover, Rumple had been convinced Henry meant his undoing. Not wanting to kill Neal's child, not wanting to die himself, he had somehow gotten Henry to stab himself on his spindle. Emma remembered seeing Henry's small body in the hospital through the glass doors, her heart in her throat, frantically kissing his forehead, his cheeks. No response this time, only Henry's hearbeat growing slower on the monitor next to them.

"Somebody do something- SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!" Emma shrieked. Her father and mother stood, arms at their sides, puzzled, tearful, already resigned. And then she heard Regina's voice ring out.

"There's a way to save him." Only Regina looked as wild as Emma felt. "You already broke the curse once you can't do it again. But I can use magic."

"At what price?" Snow sneered.

"I'll pay it." Emma kept her eyes locked with Regina's, the mutual love for Henry binding them in a common, focused panic. "You know I will. Just tell me what we do."

"It's not you that will have to pay the price." Regina sat beside Emma and laced her fingers through their son's much smaller ones.

"Goodnight, my baby boy." She whispered to Henry, as a purple smoke seemed to lift out of the young boy's body in a cloud of magic. Emma watched, horror stricken as the dark particles were drawn into Regina's sparkling black eyes. Regina's rigid shoulders dropped, her head fell back exposing her long white throat. Her perfect red mouth went slack and she fell across Emma's lap, in a sleep as deep as death.

Henry blinked and pushed himself into a sitting position,. "You saved me!" he smiled at Emma.

"No- she did." Emma looked at the woman in her lap, suddenly transformed from the Evil Queen to a small, girlish figure, her black hair fallen over her face, her expression so peaceful and untroubled, and felt another wave of panic wash over her. Snow and Charming were embracing Henry, laughing with joy.

"It's over." Snow embraced Charming. "This is the happy ending we've been waiting for."

Emma started shaking her head silently, but was unable to draw her attention from the figure in her lap. She swept the hair from Regina's cheek, and gathered Regina up in her arms, looking with anguish at Henry, who was already choking on a sob.

"Wha-mom- my mom-"

Charming pulled Henry away, and Snow shot a glance at Dr. Whale, who drew closer to Emma, kneeling to whisper, mere inches from Regina's unconscious form.

"This could be our chance." Whale said under his breath, glancing between Snow and Emma. "We could put enough morphine in her that she…it would be painless. Quite humane. And we would never have to worry about the curse ever breaking."

"Are you out of your mind?" Emma stood, still holding Regina in her arms, like a sleeping child. Regina's head fell against Emma's chest, and she caught the smell of perfume and freshly washed hair. The thought of Regina putting on perfume every day when no one stood close enough to her to smell it made Emma's fingers clench around the delicate frame in her arms.

"Her true love died a long time ago." Snow said to Dr Whale. "There's no chance of it breaking anyway."

"What?" Emma snapped. "What are you talking about?"

"This is an unprecedented opportunity." Dr. Whale's voice rose to a sputtering hiss. "She is a threat to everyone in this town and before we had no chance of getting her at a disadvantage. We should just end this now. "

"We're not murdering Regina, you sick son of a bitch." Emma growled, and pushed past Dr. Whale, shoving him with her shoulder as she moved past him hard enough to knock him to the hospital bed. Snow raced out behind her daughter, her eyebrows pulled together, her voice shrill.

"Emma- Emma wait-"

"We're not killing her- it's so- it's so incredibly wrong. Not after what she did for Henry. I won't-" Emma couldn't understand why her throat was constricting. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Okay. No one is going to kill Regina. But what are we supposed to do with her?"

The town meeting took two nights, the arguing went on so long. Or so Emma heard, she refused to attend. She holed up in a room at Granny's, pulling a chair across from where Regina lay, on top of the bed quilt, still in the tailored black trench coat and silk dress she had worn to the hospital. Emma had another chair wedged under the bolted door handle to prevent anyone from forcing the door in, and strode from time to time to the window, peering through the drawn blinds for the first sign of a mob. She'd taught Henry a little knock for when he wanted to come in and hold her close and cry over Regina. He was full of ways to save Regina, Operation Cobra back in full effect.

"We can get Rumple and make a deal- we can find August, he'll know what to do- or maybe…"

His frantic planning always ended with him crying too hard, guilty tears cascading down his face, and Emma calling Ruby from the diner to walk him home. Emma was terrified that if she left the sleeping Regina for a moment, someone would steal in. Stab Regina. Take her away. Wreak some terrible mischief on the woman no one would bother to revenge. Maybe it was the sleeplessness, but Emma continually smelled that first breath of perfume that had wafted from Regina, and now-did she only imagine it?- its sweet, intoxicating tones filled the room, as a bouquet of flowers sends its smell more and more powerfully, more beautifully, as it wilts away.

+++

"They've voted to seal her in a glass coffin. Kharma's a bitch, right? It's what she wanted for Snow. Then they'll seal that up in her family crypt, with all her creepy hearts." Ruby watched Regina warily as she spoke, sidling around the as if it were a coiled cobra, and not a sleeping woman, laying on the covers. "The only thing is it might take the dwarves a while to make the coffin. They're talking about mixing in fairy dust and enchanting it so it's unbreakable. Which, you know, great, but it could take a couple weeks…Are you going to stay with her here or…?"

"I'll take her back to her house." Emma's voice was dull, hollows under her eyes. "Henry has the latchkey somewhere. I'll make sure she stays safe until she can be sealed away from them." Emma stared down at her worst enemy. And the mother of her son. And a friendless woman, not much older than herself, whose long lashes hadn't so much as fluttered in three days. Emma slid her arms under Regina's shoulders and knees and lifted her from the bed.

Faces stared out from windows, people stopped walking on the sidewalk to openly gawk at the golden-headed Saviour, striding down the street, her face absolutely grim, the Evil Queen held aloft in her arms. She walked the double yellow line in the center of the main street of Storybrooke, with slow unhurried steps, careful not to jostle Regina. Regina's dark head was turned into Emma's shoulder confidingly, and trailing behind them was Henry, his pinched, swollen face more sad than tears could make it. Emma locked eyes with everyone as she passed, daring them to stop her. Her fingers tightened and she whispered, in a daze, "I'm so sorry Regina."

No, it's alright…

The words, in Regina's voice, swam through Emma's head. "Holy crap!" Emma almost stumbled, looking down at the heart shaped face in its cloud of black hair just below her own. Regina was just as asleep as before.

I can hear you, Miss Swan…

Emma kept walking, all the blood draining from her face, her heart racing. "You can hear things?"

Just you…the tone was almost annoyed. The voice sounded fainter, as though coming from a great distance.

"Oh my God, I'm going crazy." Emma groaned. "I've finally snapped."

I think it's the magic in me that lets me feel the magic in you, talk with it…converse with it…And I'm pretty sure the day you snapped was the day you took a chainsaw to my apple tree.

To be Continued….