Set before Snow finds out about Cora and Regina.

Spoilers for 2.10 to 2.13

Disclaimer: I still don't own OUAT.

Most of Storybrooke still evaded Regina like the plague. They'd sneer and mutter and even cross to the other side of the street sometimes. There were a few that didn't. Charming just pushed his way through everything in life and that didn't change with his dealings with her, at least Snow kept him on a short leash for his own good now that she was back. Snow didn't sneer or mutter or cross the road, but she didn't exactly seek Regina out. Emma did though, and it was annoying because really all Regina wanted was to see her son, not the woman who took her son away from her. She didn't see Henry. He was just never around whenever someone else from the Charming family tree turned up to badger her about something (and really you couldn't throw a spell without hitting someone Snow was related to somehow).

Ruby wasn't bad. She and Granny still served her and occasionally Ruby made small talk. Most of the time she seemed too preoccupied. Regina imagined it wasn't easy for her to work in the diner with her wolf senses. She'd pick up all the overpowering smells and noises. One day Regina left a packet of cigarettes with her tip. Ruby had smiled at her the next time she came in. At least cigarettes didn't smell like raw body odour from days of not showering after heavy labour. All the dwarves eating at once must just about make Ruby faint.

Archie was the same as he had always been, which was slightly disconcerting seeing as she had been blamed with his murder. He still greeted her with a happy 'beautiful day, isn't it?' no matter when or where they ran into each other but he had been much busier once everyone was back in Storybrooke. Things needed planning and supervision and people needed to deal with the fact that they were trapped. Who better than the psychologist with a PhD from 'Dark-Curse University'? He was a good man but sometimes he pushed too much and Regina wanted nothing more than to tell him her deepest darkest secrets and to scare him so badly he'd stop asking her when she was coming for her next appointment. She hadn't gone since his supposed death. She didn't want anyone thinking that she would actually complete the job her mother had framed her for. They'd probably start watching her closely if she so much as had a conversation with Archie and really, Regina couldn't be bothered with that. There was one drawback though, and that was Pongo.

Regina liked Pongo. She generally liked animals, particularly since she had learnt how to listen to them. It had been a weird thing to learn. It had started with Daniel teaching her how to talk and listen to horses. It had been second nature and once Regina found herself spending all her spare time in the White Palace with nothing to do (practising magic in the palace would have been suicide) she had started seeing if she could communicate to other creatures the same way. It was easy enough to apply the knowledge onto other animals. Birds were plentiful and the occasional cat found its way inside the palace through the kitchens or one of the ground floor windows. The royal hunting dogs were nice once Regina got to know them and tended to be bettered behaved around her, at least when they got to stay with her in the same room. It had annoyed some of the soldiers that whenever they tried to train the dogs and she walked past that the dogs would bound off to find her and only stay when she ordered them to. They never reported it to Leopold though; they didn't want to be seen as lacking in talent.

Rumple had been surprised when she had refused his lessons in communicating to animals had had assumed that Cora had taught her when he found out she already could. She had never seen fit to correct him. So yes, Regina missed Pongo. Which was why she had been glad that most of the times she saw Archie while walking down the street he was on the other side. It didn't stop the low whines Pongo made as he called out her name, but it was easier to ignore him. She didn't want to ignore him, but in the long run it would be easier.

Eventually Pongo made it so that Regina couldn't ignore him. The pounding on her front door interrupted Regina's morning. Reluctantly Regina answered the door to find a rather frazzled Archie as well as Ruby and all the Charming family excluding Emma and Henry, who were still out of town. She looked at them blankly, the surprise most definitely not showing on her face.

"Who have I supposedly killed this time?" Regina said with a snarl.

Archie flinched and Regina would have felt bad about it but whenever she had to share the same space as Snow she tended to be a bit more apathetic to other's feelings. And really, they were interrupting her morning at her house so they could all deal with a few nasty comments.

"Ah, no it's not anything like that. It's just that Pongo's missing."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry but I fail to see how this concerns me. He's your dog."

Archie blushed slightly. It was kind of overkill to have Ruby and the Charming family with him but he had been frantic when Pongo had darted away and down the street refusing to come back when Archie had called for him. He hadn't known what to do so he had almost run to Granny's to find Ruby. The Charmings had decided to tag along as soon as Ruby had agreed to track Pongo down. Ruby had followed Pongo's scent across town to a rather isolated area that all of them knew rather well.

"I tracked him to this area and your house is the only one nearby." Ruby said quietly. The mayoral manor really was quite large and took up plenty of land.

Regina sighed. "I doubt you'd just take my word for it that I don't know where he is?"

Archie and Ruby shrugged while James just glared at her.

"Isn't that just too bad? I have other things to do and you're all wasting my time."

There was a loud bark from down the driveway and everyone turned towards it. Pongo happily bounded up the driveway towards them before sitting down next to Regina.

"Well," Regina said quickly. "there he is. You can leave my house now."

Pongo let out a happy bark and darted inside the house. Regina spun around and glared at Pongo's tail as it disappeared around the corner in the hall.

"Don't you dare get your dirty paws on my furniture!" Regina said with a scowl. She turned back to the group on her porch. "It seems like you might just have to come in. As much as I'd like you to leave me alone, Pongo has other ideas."

Regina entered her house with everyone following her. She headed down the hall towards the living room. It was annoying to have them all in her house but there wasn't anything she could do about it (well, she could magic them all away but Henry wouldn't appreciate it). She sat at the armchair and Pongo quickly moved towards her to rest his head in her lap and look up at her sadly.

"If you're going to act like a pup about it, you can leave right now."

Pongo let out a sharp bark and Regina just raised an eyebrow and scratched Pongo behind the ear.

"Regina? What's Pongo doing here?"

Regina refused to look up at Snow. "I've never claimed mind reading to be one of my abilities, Miss Blanchard. But if you really want to know, I can ask him. It would be much more accurate than whatever Miss Lucas could pick up on, and certainly more accurate than your magical abilities."

Ruby sat up. "Hey, I'm fine at communicating to Pongo."

Regina snapped her eyes up to Ruby her hand resting on Pongo's head. "Recent events would prove otherwise. Just because you're a mutt doesn't mean that you can communicate with dogs. If you could then you would have been able to ask him about Dr Hopper's so-called murder."

David jumped up from his seat as Ruby just stared at Regina with her mouth slightly open and a soft blush on her cheeks. "Hey you have no right to talk to Ruby like that!"

"What?" Regina spat. "Sarcastic? Mean? Truthful? I'd say I have every right to be angry at her seeing as her false confidence in what she saw led me to being framed for murder. There are very few people in our world who can talk to animals and neither Miss Lucas nor Miss Swan are among them. I fail to see how either of them were qualified to take an official police statement from a dog. It is a skill that must be taught or figured out and Miss Swan has done neither. Just because Rumple could show you a few memories doesn't mean that you can understand them."

David snorted. "And you can."

"Of course dear. Who do you think taught your wife to talk to her annoying little birds? She never could manage the larger mammals. They didn't respect her enough."

Regina repositioned herself slightly and looked disdainfully at Snow. "And before you ask Miss Swan, no it is not magic. It is a skill. Once you learn to listen to animals it becomes easy enough to talk to them."

"So, why's Pongo here?" Ruby asked quickly.

Regina looked down at Pongo. "Well?"

Pongo sat up, lifting his head from Regina's lap as he barked and whined at her. After a few minutes Regina stroked his head and he quietened down.

"It's okay Pongo. I don't blame you and I wasn't avoiding you. I was staying away from Dr Hopper, not you."

Pongo barked happily a few times.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me, dear. Now are we quite done with this?"

In response Pongo lay down on Regina's feet and rested his head on his paws. Regina sighed. "Apparently not."

"Regina," Snow said slowly. "what was that?"

"Pongo apologised to me for leading you to believe that I had killed Archie. He hadn't realised that you wouldn't pick up on my scent in the memory you shared."

"Your scent?"

"Yes, my scent. Pongo is a dog and I'm sure even your proper princess education taught you that dogs are well known for their extraordinary ability of smell. Pongo knew I hadn't killed Archie because the 'me' that he saw didn't smell right. He feels as if he is partially to blame even though it's not his fault that no one actually asked him if it was me."

Charming looked a combination of shocked that no one had thought to ask Pongo if he was sure Regina had done it (or at least seen his reaction to her) and defensive about Regina's insult to Snow's upbringing. Archie just stared at Pongo sadly. Obviously he knew that Pongo had been bothered by this for a little while now.

Snow frowned. "How did Emma not pick up on the smell? Pongo obviously remembered it."

Regina scoffed loudly before anyone could reply and stood up. "Miss Lucas wouldn't have been able to do it and you want Miss Swan to? Despite your tendency to treat her like one, Miss Lucas is a werewolf not an actual dog. I commend her abilities in human form but even she is not dog enough to assume smell is the most important sense unless she specifically needs to use it, particularly when memory is involved. So until you start thinking about identifying someone with only smell and ignoring the visual evidence, don't go criticizing your daughter for doing the exact same thing that you would do. If Ruby had no chance at figuring it out, what chance did Miss Swan have?"

Regina glanced down at Pongo. "Dear Lord, you've got me defending that woman."

Ruby stared at the ground, her checks red from embarrassment of being talked about in such a way, but a slight smile on her lips gave away that she kind of agreed with Regina.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry that I accused you of killing Archie. I guess I still felt a little bit resentful for the walk comment, and well, you don't have the best track record. But I know you're trying to change." Ruby said slowly.

"Don't be dear. There is plenty of blame to spread around for this unfortunate incident and very little of it falls at your feet. At least you didn't believe a dog over me, you believed yourself, even if you were miserably wrong. No offense meant, Pongo. Now, if it's okay with you, I have other things to do. Get out of my house."

Everyone stood up and sort of awkwardly shuffled out the front door with Regina following them. If there was one thing to come from the day it was that they had all sort of dealt with things badly (Well, Ruby learnt that she kind of wanted to learn how to talk to animals too). The Charmings left quietly but waited at the bottom of the steps for Archie as he stood awkwardly in front of Regina. Ruby stood slightly behind him with Pongo.

"You know, Regina, I'm always free to talk. Even if it's just when you see me on the street." He smiled at her and turned around.

Ruby muttered a quiet 'thank you' before following him. It wasn't clear if she meant for standing up to the Charmings about their treatment of her (even if they hadn't really listened and she wasn't going to follow up on it) or if it was for Regina telling Ruby she wasn't to blame. Either way, Regina nodded her head at Ruby.

"Funny isn't it?" Regina said quietly as if to herself. "The only real heart felt apologises that I've believed have been from a dog and the woman who really didn't need to bother. I guess 'charming' is just a name after all."

Snow turned quickly pointing a finger at Regina. "I apologised!"

"Excuse me if I find the apology lacking when half a second later you turned around and told me I had no right to know where my son was, let alone when he left town."

David slowed his step and started to turn around. Regina quickly stepped back and shut her front door. She didn't want to deal with pity apologises. And if the Charmings wanted to look like they had less manners than a dog that was their own prerogative.