Holy crap guys, I've never been so flooded with so many follows, favorites, and reviews in such a short time. Thank you guys so much. I'm really glad you've liked the story so far. I hope this next installment pleases you as well.

Regina awoke this time to a pressure on the end of her bed. The need to look up was overridden by her body's weakness. She was even worse than before. She barely had the energy to move her eyes and breathing actually took conscious effort. The pain was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was like red hot needles were being shoved into every part of her body.

It was like she was dying. Was withdrawal really like this? Was she supposed to almost die before she broke her habit? Whoever was on the end of her bed better kill her quickly. It would be a blessing.

A whimper escaped her mouth. This was not how to imagined dying at all. Her fist clenched weakly, fingers barely curving into her palm. She always thought that she would go out in the glory of battle, fighting for her last breath while her life blood flowed out of her with a slew of dead enemies surrounding her. She was nowhere near that right now.

"God, Regina, you're a mess." A wet washcloth settled itself on her forehead.

Her eyes snapped open to see Emma hovering above her.

"Oh, you're awake. How do you feel?"

"Death would be preferable, Miss Swan," she rasped out after swallowing half a dozen times.

"The kid told me you were bad off, but I didn't even think he meant you were this bad. You need to be in a hospital."

"No," she stated as emphatically as she could in her current state. It was more of a whisper than anything.

"No? Regina, I know you're stubborn, but it looks like you really are about to die. What's going on?"

"And if I went to the hospital, Miss Swan, I'd be dead within the half hour. Or have you forgotten the whole town wants me dead because of what I did to them?"

Emma looked down at her, green eyes taking in everything. "No, I haven't forgotten. I've stopped three mobs from coming here this week. So, I get it, but tell me what's going on so maybe I can find a way to help you without the hospital, ok?"

Regina tried to pull her hands from under the covers but didn't have the strength. She scrunched her eyes shut. Some things really were worse than death.

"Look at my hands, Miss Swan," she instructed the other woman.

Emma got up from the end of the bed and stepped towards the top. She gently drew back the covers from Regina's body and stared at the purple sparks arching from Regina's hands.

"What the hell is going on, Regina?" Her eyes were wide open, still staring.

"Magic. Henry asked me to stop using magic period, not just dark magic. I agreed. This is apparently what magical withdrawal looks like."

"Regina, when did Henry ask you to stop using magic? When he was over here for dinner last?"

Regina nodded.

"Regina, that was a week ago. Withdrawal doesn't last this long."

"A week? It hasn't been a week. It's only been three days."

"No, Regina, it's been a week. Henry came and got me three days ago. You've been asleep all that time."

Regina just stared at the other woman. "You mean to tell me I've only woken up twice in the last five."

Emma shrugged. "Apparently. You see why I wanted to take you to the hospital. I hadn't before because I didn't know how stable you were and I didn't want to fuck you up worse."

"Language, Miss Swan."

"Really? You're on the brink of death and you're telling me not to curse? You really have your priorities straight." Emma shook her head. "That's beside the point. Regina, this can't be withdrawal anymore, you past that point a long time ago. Whatever this is, it's totally different."

Regina glanced down at her hands. "Then I don't know what it is."

Emma sighed heavily. "And the only person who would know anything tried to kill you last week. Alright. Peachy."

Emma swooped down and took her hand, holding it up to her face and inspecting it closely. The sparks calmed somewhat. Regina stared at her hand. With everyone else the sparks had increased, why had they decreased with Emma?

A strong surge of magic travelled up her arm and into her hand. Emma dropped her hand just as it reached her.

"Ow, mother fucking son of a bitch! Jesus, Regina."

"I didn't do that, at least not voluntarily."

"Christ, that didn't feel like any other magic I've felt." Emma shook her hand. "What are you some sort of living Taser?"

"For all I know I could be right now, Miss Swan." Regina closed her eyes. Speaking was beginning to exhaust her. She didn't know how much longer she could stay awake with her energy waning so quickly.

"That's not like my magic at all. Ouch."

"Your magic? You have magic?" Regina opened her eyes wide and her fists clenched. No, Emma couldn't have magic. Magic destroyed things. Emma was the savior. It didn't make any sense.

She stopped and thought about it for a few seconds. It did make sense. The way that Emma had touched her in Town Hall and managed to spark her magic…it would only make sense if she had magic of her own to kick start Regina. Plus she was the child of a rather sickening example of true love.

"Yeah, apparently being the child of true love comes with some magic perks." Emma shrugged. "As soon as everyone figured it out that it was me screwing with the lights every time I got angry they enlisted the Blue Fairy to help teach me some control. And let me tell you, my magic does not feel like whatever the hell just came out of you."

"The Blue Fairy? That incompetent twit is who's teaching you magic." Regina rolled her eyes. A wave of vertigo overtook her at the action. She wouldn't be doing that again any time soon. "Please, she couldn't magic her way out of a bag."

Emma snorted. "Yeah, I'll agree with that, but she taught me what I needed to control it, so."

Regina sat silent for a while. "I'm not exactly fond of the way my magic is right now, either, Miss Swan."

"Not normally like a high powered Taser?"

"No, but just try having to keep magic like that contained. That's what's wrong with me. I'm sure it will be fine though."

"I'm not sure Regina. This sounds like something different. Maybe you should keep using magic."

Regina opened her mouth to protest but Emma cut her off.

"I'm not saying use dark magic or anything. I'm saying use a spell to style your hair or something benign like that so you don't end up like a magical ticking time bomb, because that seems to be where you're headed right now."

"I promised Henry I wouldn't use any magic and I intend to stick with that promise."

"The kid doesn't know what he's talking about, Regina. And he won't if you don't tell him that this is hurting you and might be killing you."

"I am fine, Miss Swan."

"No, you aren't. Regina you can't even fucking sit up right now can you?"

Regina glared and Emma and hoped that maybe, just maybe, laser beams would shoot out of her eyes and hit the blonde. At least then no one would be bothering her. She was going to keep this promise to Henry come hell or high water.

"Yeah, Regina, that's what I thought. I'm going to go get the kid and you're going to explain to him that this is hurting you."

"There's no need to go out of your way, Sheriff."

"He's downstairs, Regina. I thought it would be a better idea for him to put away the groceries since he was the one who actually knew where everything went."

"Groceries?"

"Yeah, the kid mentioned that you couldn't go to the store because you were afraid people would try and harm you. So he and I went to the store for you. We tried to pick up everything you would if you would have gone. It's probably not completely accurate, but at least you have some food now to tide you over. I'm fairly certain the kid slipped a few things in there that wouldn't meet your approval, but I did at least stop him from getting every sort of cookie there was in the store." Emma shrugged and walked out of the room.

Regina just stared after the woman wondering what in the world was going on.

Five minutes later Emma came back with Henry in tow. Emma sat down on the end of the bed again and Henry cautiously crawled up beside his mother. Regina saw Emma smile at the picture out the corner of her eye. She bit the inside of her mouth questioningly, but it didn't matter now. Her son was in front of her willing to be near her for the first time in months.

"So…what's up? Are you ok, Mom?" Henry finally asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I will be, Henry. It just seems that abstaining from magic completely has consequences I didn't know about." She nodded down at the sparks coming out of her hands. "And it seems that those consequences aren't symptoms of withdrawal like I thought. Or at least that's what Miss Swan is telling me."

"So, if they aren't withdrawal symptoms what are they?"

"I'm not quite sure. The theory right now is that the magic is building up in my system because I'm not using it and it's hurting me and everyone who comes close to me."

"Well, how do you stop it?"

Regina paused for a minute. This was going so well, but she was about to hit the point where Henry would withdrawal again. She would give anything to stop this conversation right now.

"Listen kid, the only way the two of us can think of to help her right now is for her to start using magic again. Not the bad kind, just the regular everyday kind to clean the room or whatever. That way she doesn't blow up."

"NO!" Henry shouted as he hopped off the bed. "She can't use magic. Magic made her evil. If she uses magic again she'll be evil again! She can't be evil!"

"She's not going to be evil, Henry. I don't thinking tidying up the room like she's Mary Poppins would be considered evil by anyone. She's not going to curse anyone."

"You don't know that!"

"No, but right now you're going to have to trust us Henry. This magical build up is killing your mother. Can't you see that? She can't even sit up Henry!"

Regina watched the exchange in abject horror. How was this even happening? The savior was defending her. It made her head hurt worse than before.

"She told me it was withdrawal! I looked it up, Emma. She'll be fine she just has to get through it!"

Emma stopped and stared at Henry. "No, Henry, this isn't withdrawal. That would have ended a couple of days ago."

"How do you know?"

"Because Henry!" Emma exploded. She took a deep breath and softened her tone a little bit. "Because I've had a little bit of personal experience with withdrawal, ok? And that is not what your Mom is going through right now. Withdrawal makes you feel like you're going to die and you feel like crap for a while, but you never ever get so weak you can't sit up and you sleep for days on end."

"But it's magic withdrawal. How do you know it's the same?"

"I don't, Henry, but until we can figure it out I think it's better that your Mother doesn't die, right? So she needs to use magic."

"No! You just don't get it Emma!"

Emma closed her eyes and clenched her fists. She looked like she was visibly having to restrain herself from going across the room and slapping some sense into Henry. Regina was glad that Emma had some form of self-control. She wasn't in any state to defend her child, and she would defend him no matter how uncooperative and stubborn he was being. A small smirk crossed her face. He was just like both of his mothers.

"I do get it Henry. I get withdrawal. I get magic. Because I have experience with both."

"You're the savior, you can't have magic!"

"But I do Henry. Why do you think I've been spending so much time with the Blue Fairy? She's teaching me to control it."

"No! You can't use magic either! You'll turn evil!"

Regina saw Emma's fist clench harder. "No, I won't Henry. The most evil thing I'll do is make a grilled cheese appear out of thin air." A slice of cheese appeared in her hand. She glared at it for a second. "That was totally not what I was going for here." A second later the cheese disappeared.

"Anyway, the point is, how is that evil Henry? Who is that hurting?"

"It's like a gateway drug, Emma! You do magic and then you'll escalate to dark magic."

"Kid, you don't know what you're talking about."

"But I do. I did the research Emma!" Henry advanced on Emma, face red, hands flailing. "You start with one drug that isn't so bad but then you decide that others don't seem so bad either and you start doing them instead. So you do harmless magic, but then you get skilled enough that you can do dark magic, and why not hurt someone. It's a gateway."

Regina saw the moment that Emma snapped. Her fist unclenched, her whole body relaxed, and she stared down at Henry like she was going to kill him with kindness. Regina knew that look, and she knew it well. Henry had just push Emma past the point of sanity. If Regina could have moved she would have put herself between Henry and Emma.

"You want to know something about gateway drugs, kid? You think that internet research tells you anything? You think that research can tell you about what it's like to be strapped down to a table and shot up with god knows what just so your foster father's buyers can see what his new product does? Do you? Because you know what, I haven't seen any articles about that, kid. I don't think there's anything either about trying to fight the high because you're disgusted with everything that's happening to you. Neither does the internet talk about how disgusted you become with yourself after you inevitably give into the high, because let me tell you, it was not weak shit that that bastard was selling. And then eventually after he did that to you enough times that you got addicted you felt disgusted at how you had to go beg him for more, does the internet talk about that? Or how it took me six months to finally convince myself to run away from that place because it took me that long to convince myself that I would survive without the drugs? I know the internet does tell you how horrible that withdrawal, but words do not even begin to describe that hell. Your body revolts against you. You think you're going to die, but the end never comes. I'm sure the internet says that kid, but until you've lived through it you don't get to talk to me about it. Because let me tell you, withdrawal is bad on its own, but add in the fact that I was lying in a back alley for two days while I went through withdrawal with rats crawling all over me, lying face down in a puddle filled with god knows what, surrounded by abject filth, while strangers tried to cop a feel because they thought I was out of it, well kid I don't even think you can begin to imagine that hell.

"You wanna know how I'm sure that magic isn't like that? Because I've felt drugs in me and I've felt magic, and you know what? Drugs are a poison, you can literally feel them breaking down your body cell by cell from the inside out. Magic isn't like that. Your mother and I were born with magic. Magic is a natural part of us. It can be used to harm people, sure. But that's the same as anything that's a part of us. I could use my hands to murder someone the same as I could use magic. Magic is not an addiction. Magic is like another limb. And cutting off another limb hurts and if you do it wrong it could kill you. Even if you do it right it could kill you.

"Look at your mother kid. What you are asking her to do is killing her. So why don't you get your head out of your ass and let her make fucking cheese appear out of thin air for god's sake. God knows she has enough people who want to kill her; you shouldn't be one of those people too."

Emma's chest was heaving at the end of her rant. Regina sat stunned just looking at the blonde woman. Her childhood had been a lot worse than she thought.

"You're just like her," Henry finally said quietly.

Emma looked down at him. "Maybe I am kid, because she's a shade of grey. We all are. You just haven't realized that."

Henry turned on his heel and ran out of the room. Emma made no move to go after him. Instead she slipped her phone out of her pocket and typed out a text to someone before moving back over to the bed.

"So, guess that's a no from him."

Regina just stared at her.

"Well I guess you were right about not wanting to talk to him." Emma sighed. "Sorry. Guess I shouldn't have pushed, but you weren't exactly going to try to help yourself without him saying it was ok."

"You just verbally assaulted our son in the crassest, rudest way possible and you thought it was going to help you case? Miss Swan you seem to be even less intelligent than I thought."

"Uh, yeah that last part I wasn't really thinking about helping our case. I wasn't really thinking at all."

"I would say so, Miss Swan."

"I just wanted him to get his head out of his ass. Everything isn't black and white. You aren't the Evil Queen anymore. You're just Regina. You're the woman who raised him, and raised him well I might add, for ten years. He needs to see that and he needs to see that his selfish demands are killing you. There was probably a better way to go about that, but I'm not the most eloquent or level headed person, so that's what came out instead."

Regina snorted. "I think you may have hurt your cause instead, Miss Swan."

"Yeah, well, Snow's on damage control so hopefully it won't blow up in my face too bad."

Regina cocked an eyebrow. "Snow knows about what you went through as a child."

Emma shrugged. "Well, Mary Margret did, so by default Snow does too. I had to explain why I avoided cold meds like they were poison, so."

"You don't take cold meds?"

"I try to avoid uppers as much as possible now. I never want to feel that way again. If a stuffy nose is the price for that, then so be it."

Regina regarded the other woman silently. It seemed that she and Emma shared much more in common than she realized. It was a scary thought.

"But seriously Regina I think you need to cast a spell. And don't give me that Henry bullshit. As much of an ass as he's being right now he doesn't want you to die, so just do it."

"Would you like to slip anymore curses in there or are you done?"

"Nah, I'm good. So. Spell."

Regina glared at her but closed her eyes. "I'm only doing this until we can find another way for me to stop using magic."

"And if there isn't?"

"Well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there."

"I can talk to Gold for you."

Regina opened her eyes once again and narrowed them, thinking. She sighed once before saying, "I suppose that's the only way that I'll get any information. Fine, Miss Swan, but I'm only letting you help because I would rather not die at the hands of that imp."

"Whatever you say Madam Mayor. You know you can cast a spell any time now."

Regina cocked an eyebrow before magically changing her clothes into pajamas. The wave of relief was instant. She let out a soft moan as her muscles relaxed a little bit for the first time in days.

She immediately cast another spell that cleaned her head to toe, leaving her body tingling and feeling more sanitary than she had in days. Her body relaxed even further. Her muscles felt like jelly now. God she had forgotten what not being in pain had felt like.

Another spell to change her sheets and the purple sparks stopped flowing from her fingers. One last one to conjure a glass of water and all the discomfort stopped. She chugged the water and flopped back onto her fresh pillows. Now she was more tired than she ever remembered being in life, but she felt oh so good. She hadn't realized a painless existence could feel this amazing. She would take it though. She closed her eyes and sank down into her bed intending to sleep off the rest of it.

"Uh, Regina?" Emma's voice came from the same spot as before, questioning and a little worried.

She cracked open her eyes just enough to see a blurry outline of the woman, too tired to open them anymore. "What Miss Swan?"

"I'm in a set of your pjs? And I'm pretty sure I've seen this blanket on the back of your couch. And why am I holding a glass of water? And why the hell am I all tingly?"

Regina fully opened her eyes. Emma was indeed in a pair of her pajamas, her favorite pair actually, a midnight blue silk shirt and pants set that complemented the blonde's complexion. She stopped her thought process. She must be more tired than she thought to have such thoughts.

And that was the quilt from the back of the couch in the family room. And there definitely was a glass of water in Emma's hands. She also looked cleaner than normal. Regina scowled. She didn't have the brain power for this right now.

"I guess whatever spells I did on myself also manifested on you. Must be because of the overabundance of magic." Regina shrugged. "You were the nearest target I guess."

"Well, that's just great. Where are my clothes?"

Regina gestured across the room. "In the clothes hamper of course."

Emma walked over and pulled her clothes out, looking them over to see if they were harmed. Once she was satisfied she slipped off the pajamas quickly, her back turned to Regina and changed back into them.

When she was done she turned towards Regina again. "Ok, so that was really weird, but whatever, everything is weird anymore. But do you feel better? That's what matters right now."

Regina nodded. "Yes, I'm fine now. I just need to sleep."

"Good, I'll stick around for a little bit just in case ok?"

"There's no need, Miss Swan I will be fine."

"That's what you said when there were purple sparks shooting from your fingertips. Forgive me if I don't believe you."

Regina scowled but was too tired to argue. "Fine, Miss Swan but if my house is harmed in any way I will hold you personally responsible for the damages."

"Yeah, Regina, whatever you say."

"I'm serious, Sheriff," she mumbled into her pillow, eyes drooping shut.

Regina thought she heard Emma laugh quietly, but she couldn't be sure. She was asleep a moment later.