A/N: Aaaand we're back. Sorry about the wait, life kind of punched me in the face a bit. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. (Famous last words, yeah yeah...)

Also, the rating is changed to M in this chapter, just so you know.

Thanks for all the comments! Everything will be revealed in due time. Happy reading :)


Emma woke up the next day, sweaty and frustrated. The dream had felt real, to say the least. Regina, writhing and thrashing beneath her, giving up her body completely to Emma's greedy touches. God, Emma could even remember the taste of her. Her tongue shot out to wet her lips, as if hoping that the taste would still linger on her lips.

"Fuck it," she muttered and shoved her hand down between her legs. It felt wrong, getting off to thoughts of someone she'd apparently blackmailed, but she wouldn't get anything done the whole day if she didn't scratch this particular itch. And really, who would find out? Sighing, she relaxed down into her pillow, imagining that it was Regina's fingers rubbing her between her legs. Just the thought of it sent Emma's arousal to new heights and she couldn't hold back a whimper.

"Enjoying getting some attention from your Queen, do you, Emma?" Regina said, her grin only widening at the obvious effect of saying her name had on Emma. She kissed and nipped at Emma's collarbones, neck and shoulders, setting Emma's skin on fire while her fingers worked tirelessly to rub her sex. "So needy, Emma," Regina whispered, her breath hot against Emma's ear, before pushing a finger inside the writhing blonde, chuckling at the wanton, needy little noises Regina pulled out of her.

"Regina," Emma half moaned, half whined, pushing her hips up against her hand. Images from the dream the day before, lying in Regina's lap, mixed with the dream she'd just awoken from and she bit her lip, feeling how embarrassingly wet the mix of domesticity and raw sex was getting her. She tried to keep her mind on "safe" things, like sex and Regina's gorgeous body, but her mind wouldn't cooperate. Images of waking up beside her, coming home from work and cuddling in front of the TV came up, and fuck it was hot.

She barely had the sense of mind to slap her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming Regina's name, before her body arched off the bed, shivering with pleasure as shocks of a much needed orgasm tore through her body. It left her boneless and panting and she only wished that she could have had a certain brunette next to her to curl up against.

"Fuck," she sighed when her mind started working again, this time at the whole shitty situation with Regina as the previous lust left over from the dream faded away. Nothing made sense. Not the memory loss, not the blackmail and especially not the ring.

Okay, so maybe the fake relationship kind of made sense, since in theory it should be the only way to get rid of Hook besides murder. And the more she thought about it, she was pretty sure she wanted a relationship with Regina. Besides the obvious attraction, she was intrigued by Regina, by her mind and, well, her, even if something with Regina only was possible in her fantasies.

In any case, she wouldn't figure anything out by lying in her bed. Sighing, Emma slowly got out of bed, her legs shaky from her orgasm.


Breakfast was quickly taken care of with Emma too busy mulling over what she knew about the last month to have that much of an appetite. The top priority had to be to get back her memories, she decided, and the second to find out where and why she'd gotten that ring.

Which meant finding Regina.

She was already halfway out the door when she remembered that she didn't remember where her car was. Asking someone else to drive her was out of the question ("Hey mom, could you drive me to Granny's? I kind of forgot the whole last month so I don't know where my car is. Thanks!") unless she wanted to make her memory loss into a town-wide mission.

Luckily, her magic lessons with Regina had actually payed off, so she had another option. She closed the door and let her magic course through her body. A moment later, she appeared outside Regina's mansion in a cloud of smoke.

"What the actual fuck?" she snapped, staring at the air around her. She couldn't believe her eyes; her goddamn smoke was pink. Fluffy cutesy cotton candy pink. "This is not– I'm going to kill someone."

A movement in the corner of her eye made her turn and she saw an elderly couple standing a few feet away, looking as if they were ready to run.

"Oh, no, I– uh, not you," Emma stammered, a little flustered. "Or anyone else, of course. It's just– my smoke, it's– yeah, uh. Never mind. Have a nice day." She flashed them a wild smile before turning to flee up to the mansion's porch, leaving the traumatized couple behind.

"Pink," she muttered and banged on the door a few times. "I want my old smoke back."

After a few minutes, it was getting increasingly obvious that no one was home. Maybe Regina was at Granny's. Either way, Emma still needed to ask Ruby about the ring; hopefully she knew something. Emma hadn't said anything to Henry about it since she found it and she didn't trust her parents to keep quiet and not make it into a big deal, so that left Ruby.

She poofed to a secluded alley near the diner, not wanting to make a grand entrance since her smoke was still the same awful shade of light pink. She glared at it as it dissipated. Someone was going to pay for that.

Just as she entered Granny's, Hook was about to leave. She attempted a neutral smile but judging from his dark expression, she failed spectacularly.

"Swan."

"Hook."


"You really think too little of me if you think a little romp with the Evil Queen is going to deter me." His smirk was firm in place but Emma could see a flicker of anger – or was it sadness? – in his eyes.

"Seriously, Hook, you need to get a new hobby." He was like a bad rash. "I've told you, nothing's going to happen between you and me. I'm with Regina and even if I wasn't, I wouldn't want to be with you. I'm sorry." It was blunt but he needed to hear it. If he was going to understand it was a different thing entirely, though.

"Well, lass, we both know that she isn't exactly long-term material. She can't give you the stability that I can. When we're married, you'll see it, even if you're too stubborn to understand it now." He shrugged, a careless gesture very much in contrast to the fire in his eyes. "I'm a patient man."

"What the– married? You're proposing?" Emma stared at him, barely believing her ears. She wasn't sure if what she disliked most, his presumption that they would get married or his casual way of mentioning it. "Look, this is why it's never going to happen. I want to be with someone who lets me be who I am and who doesn't treat me like a fucking trophy." She turned to leave but he grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him.

"I'm not giving up on us, Emma. You can run as much as you want but when you finally get tired of it and come back to me, I'll be here waiting. With a ring."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen. Wait as long as you want."

"You think your little thing with the Queen is going to last?" Hook sneered. "I've seen who she really is, lass. She'll tire of you in time and then she'll be off to find another plaything."

"You don't know shit," Emma hissed, tearing her arm free. "She is worth fighting for. This," she gestured between them, "is not. Now get the hell away from me."


Hook waved a hand in front of her eyes and she blinked, shaking her head. What had that been? "Are you even listening to me?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Emma replied slowly, regarding him with furrowed brows. Had it been a flashback? A memory? "What were you saying?" She shook her head again and tried to focus on the pirate in front of her. The pirate who was currently holding up a ring. "What the–" she began, looking from the ring, to Hook and then back again. It was nothing like the ring that still lay in her pocket, instead a simple golden band without any remarkable features. "You know what, I don't have time for this. Find someone else to marry."

"Emma, you can't just–"

With an annoyed flick of Emma's wrist, Hook disappeared in a cloud of smoke and appeared on the street outside the diner, disoriented and even more irritated than before. Luckily though, he took the hint and stalked away without another glance behind him.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," came Granny's mutter from behind her. "It scares away the customers."

Emma sighed and sat down heavily on one of the stools. "I promise I'll only do it to Hook."

"I suppose that's fair," Granny nodded. "If it was Ruby he'd been after, she'd have torn of his other hand by now." Giving Emma a pointed look, she proceeded to wipe the counter down.

"Well, I need to set a standard, you know. Sheriff and Savior and everything." Looking around in the diner, she noticed how the younger werewolf was conspicuously missing. "By the way, where is she?"

"Ruby?" Granny scoffed. "She's got the day off, doing who knows what. I'm not sure I want to know."

Emma leaned her elbow on the counter, her chin in her hand. If she couldn't ask Ruby about the ring, there weren't a whole lot of options left. The fairies were far too shady to ask, except maybe Tink. Belle was okay but it wasn't guaranteed that she wouldn't spill the beans to Gold. Regina and her parents were both obviously out of the question.

Granny's grumpy voice shook her out of her reverie. "Are you going to order something or are you just going to sit there, pondering the meaning of life or whatever it is you're doing?"

"Oh, right. Just coffee, please." After a few moments, Emma asked, "could you help me with something? I'm kind of running low on people to ask."

"I can't if you're being vague like that," Granny huffed, not bothering to look up at Emma.

"Sorry, I'm just– I need to show you something but it really can't get out what it is, okay? Not a word to anyone, not even to Ruby and especially not to my parents."

Granny eyed her, sizing her up. "Are you pregnant?"

Emma's eyes grew large as plates. "What? No!"

"Then I won't tell anyone," Granny shrugged. It was good to know what her priorities were. "What is it you want to show me?"

Fiddling with the box inside her pocket, Emma managed to get the ring out without showing the box to anyone; everyone knew what a box like that meant, after all. "I found this in my room and but I can't remember where or how I got it." She held out her hand only to quickly snatch it back with a "oh, wait". A few seconds of concentration and a subtle flick of her wrist later she handed the ring back over to Granny. "I just cast a little glamour spell on it. Now anyone who sees you will think you're staring at a rock." For a split second, she wished Regina was there so she could see just how far Emma had come with her magic studies, but then she remembered the last 24 hours and her pride withered away. She would have to revert time before Regina would be proud of her again.

Granny held up the ring in the light and inspected it closely. "It's a ring, but I guess you already figured that out," she muttered, turning it over to read the inscription. "And there's a text I don't recognize. No famous quote I know at least. Actually, I can't tell you anything about this ring, except the material." She handed it back to Emma who quickly put it back in its box in her pocket. "I'm surprised you didn't smell it."

"Smell it?" Emma asked, raising an eyebrow. "How am I supposed to smell what metal it's made of?"

"It's not made out of a metal, it's made of magic," Granny huffed. "Pure magic."

Granny handed her a cup of coffee and left to take care of other customers, but Emma barely noticed. The ring was made of magic? That only raised even more questions. It was as if she had a handful of pieces from a 3000 pieces puzzle; she could see that they had to fit together in some way, but how? Pulling out a pen from her pocket, she begun scribbling down what she knew on a napkin. Maybe writing it all down would let her see something she'd missed.

Memory loss, probably magical, one month

Fake relationship with Regina, one month

Emma frowned at her messy scrawl. Right there, those two time frames were far too similar to be coincidental. Regina had to be hiding something. Had she somehow had a hand in the memory loss?

Weird ring with wings made of magic

Pink smoke

Those two weren't necessarily connected, but they were clearly related to magic and that was reason enough to suspect some kind of connection. As to what kind of connection, Emma didn't have the slightest clue. Did she put all her non-pink magic into the ring or what?

Weird flashbacks/visions

Now that one was strange. Either she was hallucinating or she was actually remembering stuff from the past, like pissing off Hook and cuddling with Regina. The latter didn't make flashbacks a very plausible theory, though.

Blackmailing Regina - with what?

She underlined the "with what" several times. What could possibly be enough to blackmail Regina and, more importantly, blackmail her successfully? Regina hadn't killed her yet, so obviously it had to have been a pretty damn foolproof plan. Henry? Running off to New York? Emma couldn't get her head around it.

Suddenly, the bell above the door pinged and Emma was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts by Snow's voice. "Emma!" She had just enough time to shove the napkin down into her pocket and turn around before her mother walked up to her.

"Hi Mom," she said, managing a fairly genuine smile.

Snow cast a glance at the half empty cup on the counter in front of Emma. "I'm having breakfast and it was a while we had some mother-daughter time. Would you like to join me?" she asked with a hopeful expression.

"Sure, it'd be nice," Emma replied, scooting off her stool and following her mother to a booth, coffee cup in hand. It wasn't as if she was getting anywhere with her detective work anyway.

"So, how are things?" Snow asked when Granny had taken her order a few minutes later.

Emma shrugged, her smile dimming slightly. "So-so, I guess."

"Problems with Regina? I noticed how you two were a bit odd yesterday."

"You could say that. I guess things aren't so good between us right now." Emma gazed down at her cup, once again wishing that she could remember the last month. At least then she could focus her efforts on mending things with Regina instead of having to play Cluedo with barely any clues at all.

"Oh, honey," Snow said, covering Emma's hand with her own. "I'm sorry. But you'll work it out, just don't give up."

"I'm not sure working it out is possible this time," Emma mumbled, fiddling with her cup while avoiding her mother's gaze.

"Every couple have ups and downs, especially when the honeymoon phase is over. Even me and David, or you and Regina. The important thing is to not give up." She squeezed Emma's hand. "Like you said, she is worth it. You fit together, Emma."

At that, Emma looked up. "You really think that? I mean, that it could work, me and Regina?" It was stupid to believe any of it, Emma knew that, but she couldn't help the tiny sliver of hope that entered her mind. Maybe, at least their friendship could be salvaged, even if anything more than that was impossible.

"Please," Granny scoffed as she came over to them with Snow's breakfast. "You two have been everything anyone has talked about the last few weeks. 'The perfect romance', blah blah blah. Ruby has practically been squealing every time you've come in here." Stopping next to Emma, she fixed her with a stern stare. "So don't you do anything to mess this up, you hear? You two are good for each other." With that, she walked back to the counter, muttering things under her breath.

"That was... interesting," Emma mumbled, rubbing her neck. She wasn't entirely sure if she should be terrified or happy that Granny was looking out for them. "Anyway, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to fix things. Right now I'm pretty much the last person Regina wants to talk to."

"Oh, you know Regina. When she's hurt, she retreats. You just have to get her out of her shell and talk to her and you'll get it sorted out in no time." Snow gave her a reassuring smile. "And if anyone can coax her out, it's you."