The bell over the door pinged when Emma exited the diner, starting down a random direction, letting her legs move on their own while she thought back at the talk she'd had with Snow.

With practically everyone she knew – at least according to Snow – believing that her and Regina's relationship was real, Regina's assertion that it wasn't seemed less and less likely. Even Henry and Ruby believed it, and both of them were usually good at calling out – or at least noticing – people's bullshit, especially Henry when it came to his mothers. Besides, hadn't Emma's lie detector pinged when Regina had said it was fake the first time? Somehow that had been buried in her mind and half-forgotten when all the talk of blackmail came up.

Then, of course, there was the tiny detail of a heated make-out session between that Granny had told her about, to Snow's rising embarrassment. About a week earlier, in the diner's bathroom, Emma and Regina had apparently been making out like horny teenagers when Ruby had come in to tell them to take it someplace else. Why would they fake that when no one else obviously was supposed to see? Yeah, the fake relationship theory was sinking fast.

Emma huffed and shoved her hands down into her pockets. Missing making out with Regina pissed her off even more than forgetting a month in general. Still, the way her missing memories made her feel confused and without control irked her to no end. There were too many possibilities, too many things she couldn't trust and too much she just didn't know.

Turning around a corner, the sight of the Town Hall made her stop. She had no idea why she'd walked here, but for some reason she'd actually managed to find Regina. She was with her beloved apple tree outside Town Hall, tending to it and picking a few apples here and there. Upon seeing Emma, she flinched, pulling her lips up into a stiff smile. "Miss Swan."

"Hey." Emma hesitated, not quite sure how to begin.

Regina's smile slowly faded away as the silence drew out. "Do you have something to say or are you just going to stand there all day?"

"We need to talk. What you said about me blackmailing you–"

"Still stands," Regina snapped. "I'm not going to let you do that to me again."

"But... I don't understand," Emma sighed, shoulders dropping. "I mean, a month ago we were on good terms. I'd say we were pretty close to being friends. And then – what? I put a gun to your head or threatened to take Henry? Why would I blackmail you?" She stepped closer to Regina. "Just – I don't know – give me a reason. I need to understand why I would do something like that."

Regina scoffed. "Really, you watch too many trashy movies. Of course you didn't threaten me like that; not even you would be that stupid. But consider this: someone holds a thing that has incredible value to you. They'll give it to you, but only in exchange for something that would benefit them. Does that not fit into your narrow definition of blackmail?"

"Wait, I– that's what I did?"

Clenching her jaw, Regina crossed her arms and looked away for a brief moment before meeting Emma's bewildered gaze. "It was an example, Miss Swan. Don't think I'd give you the answer that easily. Or at all, for that matter," she sneered.

"I'm... I'm sorry," Emma stammered. "I–"

But Regina wouldn't have any of it. "I trusted you, Emma, and you used me," she said flatly, although Emma could hear the hurt in her voice. "I'm not sure why I expected anything else; after all, you are your mother's daughter. I suppose it runs in the family."

"Please, Regina, I..." The lump in her throat felt like it was going to suffocate her. "Let me fix this. Please. Whatever I did, I didn't mean to hurt you. I can't have," she pleaded.

Regina watched her for a moment, a shadow of sadness passing over her eyes. Then it was gone and she spoke, her voice cold and calm. "No." Her eyes had become hard as flint and her mouth was a thin line. "I've had enough of your family. If you know what's best for you, you'll stay out of my way and out of my life from now on."

"Regina, you can't end it like this," Emma insisted, growing more and more desperate. "Just give me a chance–"

"Goodbye, Miss Swan." And with that, Regina was gone in a cloud of purple smoke.

Emma just stood there, shell-shocked. She felt so cold, as if she'd fallen through the ice of a frozen lake. What had she done that had messed things up this badly? Regina's words replayed in her mind, over and over again. "I trusted you and you used me." Her eyes landed on the apple tree – the one that she butchered with a chainsaw a few years earlier – and she fled, eyes burning with tears she refused to shed.

They were walking down Mifflin Street together, close enough that their arms and hands brushed. Emma was itching to take Regina's hand into her own but their relationship was still new and she wasn't sure how comfortable either of them were with showing anything more than friendship in public. The simple fact that they were on good terms with each other had already turned the rumors into a storm of the century.

Emma wet her lips and decided to throw caution to the wind, brushing her hand against Regina's and tentatively linking their pinkies together. When Regina didn't pull away, she moved her hand further and slowly interlaced their fingers. Regina's eyes darted down to their linked hands, up to meet Emma's eyes and then back again to the road ahead of them without a word, but Emma didn't miss the sliver of a smile that played on Regina's lips.

"I like this," Emma mentioned when they arrived at the mansion's porch.

"Holding hands?" A brow rose in question. "Last time I checked, you were slightly older than Henry." She leaned closer, a smirk on her lips. "And I believe we've done things you've enjoyed much more than this."

"That too – both of them – but I was talking about this." Emma gestured between them with her free hand. "This, us. Doing... stuff. Together."

"How very eloquent."

Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, Emma let go of Regina's hand so she could open the door. "You know what I mean. Not just, you know, sex and stuff. We're good together." She met Regina's dark eyes with a hopeful expression, not entirely sure how she'd react.

After a moment, Regina's face softened, smiling fondly at Emma. "Promise me one thing, Emma?"

"What?"

"Never become a public speaker."

Emma frowned at her but couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, no worries. Not going to happen." A few seconds passed, Emma awkwardly shifting her weight from leg to leg. "So... I guess I'll be going."

Turning around in the foyer, Regina raised an eyebrow at her in silent question.

"Well– you said you couldn't stay up late because you had stuff to do early tomorrow, so I figured–"

"There are other things to do in a bed, Emma. Like sleeping." Her pointed look said more than a thousand instances of "you have a filthy mind".

"Oh." Emma could feel a faint blush creep up on her cheeks. "Right."

"And we can't have the town koala sleep on her own without anyone to hog the covers from, now can we?"

"I don't hog the covers," Emma indignantly insisted. "And I'm definitely not a koala."

"Of course not, dear," Regina replied with a infuriatingly condescending smile. "My mistake. It must have been someone else that clung to me like I was their personal teddy bear yesterday morning."

"Not my fault that you're so much comfier than a pillow," Emma mumbled as she followed Regina inside.

"Hard at work as always," someone said and for a delirious moment, Emma thought it was Regina. But no, when she blinked at the light she found her father entering the sheriff's station with a lazy smile. "Regina would be proud."

At the mention of the ex-mayor's name, Emma groaned and let her head fall back to rest at her desk. At least the last vision/memory/flashback pretty much confirmed the theory that their relationship hadn't been fake. Regina really didn't seem like the type to cuddle with just anyone. It didn't make the fact that she couldn't remember cuddling with Regina any easier to deal with, though.

"Things are a bit rough between you?" Emma heard how David pulled out a chair nearby and sat down.

Emma sighed. "I messed up. Big time," she said in a small voice and lifted herself up from the table. "She won't even talk to me."

"Oh, honey," he murmured, his face dropping. "I'm sorry. I'm here if you want to talk about it."

"Thanks." She sighed again. It would be good to talk with someone, but she doubted David would be much help with her actual problems: the ring, the amnesia and the new color of her magic. She needed someone who had knowledge about magic, but not shady enough to use her lack of memory against her. Someone like... Belle. "Maybe I'll take you up on that later, but I think I'll just get some fresh air right now." Giving him a faint smile, she stood and grabbed her jacket. "But really, thanks."

"Anytime," he nodded, returning the smile. "I'll hold down the fort."

Outside, Emma pulled out her phone and made a quick call.

"Belle? Yeah, it's me, Emma. Are you at the library? Yeah? Do you have time over? I could use help with some... magic stuff. Mhm. Yeah. Great, be there in a few minutes. Bye."

Belle greeted her with a warm smile. "Emma! It's good to see you."

"Thanks, you too." Emma shot a few glances around the library, not seeing anyone else but she didn't want to take any chances. "Could we, um, go somewhere more private? I don't want this to get out."

"Oh, sure." She led them into a room in the back where the walls were covered with bookcases filled with old looking books. "I convinced Rumple and Regina to lend the library many of the magic books they own, actually," she explained when she saw Emma's unasked question, "at least the ones that aren't too dangerous. No spell books, for example."

"Nice," Emma mumbled, nodding to herself. "Didn't think they'd part with them that easily."

Giving her a pointed look, Belle chuckled. "I never said it was easy. But I managed to convince them," she said with a hint of pride in her voice. "Anyway, what did you need?"

"Right, that." Emma scratched her head, wondering what to begin with. "It's three things, actually. And I really need you to not tell Mr. Gold or anyone else about this."

Belle gave an understanding nod. "My lips are sealed."

"Okay. So, basically, I've forgotten the last month. Completely gone." She started pacing, gesturing with her hands as she spoke. "As far as I know, I haven't had any injuries – and Regina told me it was my own spell that did it – but since I can't remember anything and Regina is acting all weird and not telling me the truth, I can't be sure."

"Regina said you cast an amnesia spell on yourself? That's odd. If anything, I'd say Regina is the most capable magic wielder when it comes to memory manipulation," Belle mused, her brows furrowed. "After all, she gave you and Henry new memories and she gave me an entirely new set of memories."

"Well, I–" Emma stopped dead in her tracks as she remembered what Regina had said to her. "'It's the result of a spell'," she repeated out loud. She blinked, her mouth opening and closing uselessly. Then she laughed, a cold, hard sound. "I'm an idiot. A complete idiot. Even Henry figured it out before me."

Narrowing her eyes, Belle minutely turned her head. "I don't follow."

"She never said I cast the spell; she barely even implied it." Shaking her head, Emma frowned. "She played me, knowing exactly how to get past my so-called 'superpower'," she scoffed. "And I was too caught up in everything else she said that I didn't realize that she basically said that she cast the spell."

"Ah, well, she does know you quite well and if there's one person who's well-versed in manipulation..." Belle let the words hang in the air.

"Yeah," Emma agreed, nodding, a grim expression on her face. It made sense, at least the amnesia part. They got together, something went south and Regina wanted their whole time together erased. The explanation, though, did nothing to help with how disgusted and violated she felt. "Let's just hope that she doesn't do it again when I confront her about it or I'll be back where I started. Again."

"That's not something I think you'll have to worry about," Belle assured her. "While memory spells and curses are easy to cast on unsuspecting people, trying to cast them on a prepared magic user would be difficult, at best. Just be on your guard."

"Oh, I definitely will. There was another thing, by the way." With a heavy sigh, Emma sat down on a chair. "My magic... it's changed color."

"Changed color?"

"The smoke. Look." She poofed a few feet away before poofing back to her chair, leaving two pink clouds of smoke behind. "It's pink," she muttered, unable to hide her distaste.

"That's odd. I didn't think magic could change color like that. Didn't it use to be white?"

"A month ago, it was. What's happened since, I have no idea." Her eyes snapped up to meet Belle's as a thought hit her. "You don't think it's, uh, darkening or anything? I mean, if you'd darken this pink some more, you could get to Regina's color. Maybe."

Belle's unsure expression wasn't exactly reassuring to Emma.

"Because, the last thing I did before I forgot everything was to drive to Regina's for magic lessons, and then I managed to do something really awful to her this last month. If it blackened my heart..." she trailed off.

"I doubt that would be enough to darken your magic, or your heart either for that matter," Belle tried to assure her. "In fact, I'm not even sure if the color of your heart has anything to do with the color of your magic."

"But you can't be sure."

"Well of course I can't be certain. Regina or Rumple would know much more about this, but I could do some research if you don't want me to ask them."

Emma didn't want to wait, not if her heart had blackened. It couldn't have, could it? She hadn't killed Hook, hadn't punched anyone or anything else like that. She didn't feel any different than she had a month earlier. Still, she had to know, and there was a simple way to find out. Standing up, she said, "thanks, but I need to find this out now." With that, she pushed her hand inside her chest, wincing at the unusual feeling. At least it didn't hurt nearly as much as it did when Cora had tried.

"Emma, what are you doing?" Belle exclaimed, watching her with wide eyes.

"It's the quickest way. I pull it out and see what it looks like," Emma argued. "I have to know." Grunting, she carefully pulled her hand out, her heart resting in her palm.

Both women's breaths hitched as they stared at the glowing heart, neither of them knowing what to say.

"Belle," Emma murmured, a quiver in her voice. "It's... not supposed to do that." She shot a bewildered look at the librarian. "Is it?"

Belle opened her mouth to respond but couldn't find words, instead shaking her head and pulling up her hands helplessly.

"It's not supposed to do that." Emma stared at her heart again, eyes wide as saucers. "Why is it doing that."

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it," Belle whispered.

They both went silent, staring at the heart. It had no black spots, but instead glowed in a strange color. Its glow was purple, bright purple.