Heart's Desire

"Regina! I know you're in there! Where's Henry?!" Emma shouted as she knocked on the door of Regina's crypt, the one that Henry once showed to her a few weeks ago. The door was intricate, and maybe Regina couldn't hear her but she had to try, didn't she?

She wasn't going to let Henry go without a fight.

"Regina!" Emma yelled again, pounding her almost-red fists against the door.

She took a step back, thinking of other ways to get inside, but was surprised when the door opened by itself. She looked to the inside of the crypt, wondering if Regina or another one of her hooligans was lying in wait to trap her. The thought made her bite her lip nervously. It was dark, and she couldn't hear a thing. But this was Henry, and she didn't want to waste precious seconds just because her hair was standing on end.

With a deep breath, she crept through the door quietly and down to the basement whose entrance was hidden by the stone coffin. Maybe Henry is bound and I shouldn't be so noisy. Or maybe he just fell asleep while playing here. Heck, maybe Regina didn't even steal him from school this morning and it was all just an honest mis—

"I don't recall inviting you here, Sheriff." Regina's sharp voice, which came from behind Emma, could have cut through glass.

Emma whirled around. Across the room, she watched as Regina came out of the shadows and stood in front of her, close enough to hurt her if Regina wanted to do so.

Emma's heart started racing. "Where's Henry?" she asked. She took a swift glance behind her and noted the distance to the wall. It was safe for her to take a step back and put some distance between her and Regina.

"I don't have him. He's staying with you now, isn't he?" Regina arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, her red lips almost forming a smirk, taunting Emma's seeming incapability to keep Henry safe.

Emboldened and made angrier by Regina's taunt, Emma took a step forward, almost nose to nose with the queen. "All I know is that he said he was going to drop by your place today after school but he hasn't arrived yet, and it's been thirty minutes already! Give him back, Regina."

"Do you think I'll purposely harm my own child?" Regina said coldly. "Henry must have been waylaid by one of his friends, or probably at that diner. Did you even think to check before you came accusing me of something like that?" she shot back.

Emma's mind started racing, going over the possibilities. It was true—she didn't think to check Henry's other usual haunts; instead she had become quickly sure that Regina must have imprisoned him so he couldn't go home to her.

"Why are you so quick to accuse me, Emma?" Regina's voice, smooth as silk, sounded like a caress, even with the underlying threat Emma felt in her words.

Emma took a step back, feeling agitated by the lack of space between them. She miscalculated and hit the wall, causing some of the potions on it to dangerously rattle in place. Before either she or Regina could react, one of the purple vials dropped to the floor, and mist swirled around them.

"You dropped the potion for Heart's Desire! Do you know how rare that potion is?! You stupid—" Regina's tirade was cut as something like a scene from a movie appeared through the mist.

"Look, Regina, we're going to get through this okay, alright? Just you and me, and Henry, like it has always been," mist-Emma said.

Emma and Regina stood riveted in the mist as they watched a visibly older version of Emma come up from behind mist-Regina and wrap her arms around the worried-looking queen.

"But what if—" mist-Regina said.

Mist-Emma turned Regina around and put a finger against the other woman's plump red lips. "Shhh. Stop worrying. We can get through this. We can defeat—"

Then the mist evaporated, leaving the real-life Regina and Emma staring at each other.

Emma was the first one to clear her throat. She looked down at the shattered pieces of the purple vial on the floor. It looked so innocent; like it didn't just change something between Regina and her. "Did you just say that potion was called Heart's Desire? As in it reveals the desire of the heart of…"

"One or both of us, yeah," Regina answered softly.

Emma lifted her eyes and looked Regina in the eye and took a tentative step forward. Regina didn't move away.

Maybe she wasn't all alone in her feelings after all.