She knew this day would come. Half of her had expected it sooner. She had prepared herself for this moments over the past year, but now, all her preparations were a waste. Her mind went blank except for the man on his knees in front of her holding out a diamond ring.

"Regina, will you marry me?"

She felt her eyes begin to water and a fresh tear rolled down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away. "No."

One year ago

...

The doors of the Rabbit Hole flung open as the mayor strutted inside taking a seat at the bar. "Scotch." She told the man behind the counter. He turned around to the wall of beverages and then pulled a bottle off the shelf.

"Scotch, really? I took you a wine person, but you are full of surprises, your majesty."

She turned to see the pirate she had spent a great deal of her time with over the past few months who was, judging from the stench of his breath, well past the point of drunk. "Make it a double!" She yelled to the tender.

"Shouldn't you be with you son? You got home but a few days ago, I do believe you would like to get your life back to normal."

Regina swiped the glass of alcohol off the counter and took a large swallow. "So you haven't heard." The pirate shock his head and Regina took another swig from the glass. "I now have no custody to Henry in any way what so ever." The pirate plopped down on the tall chair next to her. Regina quickly turned away. "Leave me alone Hook."

He opened his mouth to say something, but he knew she wouldn't want to her it. Reluctantly he got up from the seat he had taken next to her and walked back over to the pool table he had been using before he had seen her walk it. Regina quickly drank down the rest of the glass and handed it back to the tender along with the payment. She felt his eyes on her even when she wasn't looking at him. She knew he was looking at her. She grabbed her purse from the counter and turned to leave. They made eye contact, if only a moment. His bright blue eyes beamed across the room past all of the less important people. She choose to ignore him yet again and walked out the doors. "Regina!"

She stopped abruptly and sung around. "What do you want!"

It was silent for a moment as Hook tried to come up with something to say. In a last effort, he spotted her car keys held tightly in her hand. "You... you shouldn't be driving."

"I am perfectly fine to drive." She yelled dropping her keys to the sidewalk with a loud clink.

"Not if you can't keep those... those..."

"They are called keys."

"Right keys... You can't even hold them." He held out his right hand to her. "Come on, I will walk you home."

It was a strange sensation, her hand in his. Not something she would have done usually, but she needed to be with some one tonight. Henry's room had been emptied this morning. Now she was truly alone. Henry wasn't coming back to her. And this, it felt right. She couldn't explain why it did, she didn't quite understand either. Blame it on the scotch. "What is wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" She then noticed a tear had fallen from her eyes and landed on her coat and many more were covering her face. She frantically wiped them away, but she found they were immediately replaced by fresh ones.

They had stopped walking, and although only feet away from the front gate of her massive house, he patiently waited for her to collect herself. She soon stopped all of the tears from flowing, but was still whimpering. Without thinking twice, he wrapped his strong arms around her and squeezed ever so lightly. She eased into the hug, letting her head rest on his shoulder. "You will be alright."

"I don't know if I will be."

"What are you talking about."

She let go and started to walk faster toward her mansion. "I am alone."

"Well that is quite insulting. I am right here you know."

She began to walk up her driveway when she turned to face him. "Your humor is not amusing right now. Now if you will excuse me, I need to-"

He pressed his lips against hers hard causing her to stumble back a few steps. She quickly kissed him back and allowed him to deepen it. He tasted of whiskey, something she wished she had right now. Why would she want to kiss him? And why was she enjoying this? Soon he pulled away. "You talk too much."

"So are we dating now?" Hook asked as Regina prepared him another drink.

She picked up the glass from the platter and handed it to him. "If that is what you think this is, then you could say we are dating."

They had been keeping each other company over the past month since they had first kissed. No one else seemed to want to see them, so they found it best to spend their free time together instead of alone.

"Then you would be okay if I did this?" He said giving her a soft kiss.

She blushed a bit, tipping her head to hid it from him. "Yes."

He quickly kissed her again, putting down his glass to weave his fingers through her hair, pulling her closer.

Flashes of Daniel went through her head. Her kissing him, her in his arms, her loving him. She pulled away and grabbed her glass taking a sip off the top. He followed her lead and drank a few swallows of his drink as well. He then kissed her again, this time trailing them up her neck. She threw her head back and kissed him again. More images of Daniel flooded her memory. It felt so right, yet so wrong.

He began to notice her hesitation when they kissed. She had told him of her past love who was ripped away from her in a way so much like how his Milah was taken from him. It wasn't fair, for them both to be pleged with their memories of love lost. He felt it, the love when their lips met. He loved her stronger then he knew even possible. But yet, he couldn't help but feel sadness at the feeling, for he had felt the same with Milah.

Yet it had been a year and he knew that the feelings he had for her were not going to go away. He had a ring that he had for Milah over one hundred years ago waiting in his pocket. It belonged on Regina's fingers. "Would you like to go for a walk?"

"Yes, just let me go get my coat." She said grabbing her favorite black trench coat from the coat rack.

He had only made it to the porch, but her couldn't wait any longer. He grabbed her hand and got down on his knee. He rummaged through his pocket until he finally got a hold of the gold band and held it for her to see. "Regina will you marry me?"

He watched as she wiped away a tear. "No." He gasped as she began crying even harder. "I'm sorry Killian." she said running from her porch.

She had to get away. For a day, a week maybe. She just needed to clear her head. She knew of many cottages she could stay in that remained empty in Storybrooke's forests. She quickly made her way down the end of the street and ran across the side walk when a flash of bright light met her eyes. Then an impact, and everything was sudenally dark

A/N What do you think? Should I continue?