She'd glared at me then. I swear, I thought her big brown eyes were going to burn a whole in my face.

"What are you doing here?" She sneered.

"You two know each other?" Lefty, ever the curious leader.

"Not necessarily." I had told her, and I wasn't lying. I didn't even know her name. Before I could say anything else to her she walked off. I wasn't going to let her get away that time, so I followed her down the hallway.

"Hey! Wait up!"

"Leave me alone!"

"Please, I just want to talk to you!" I grabbed her by the elbow and swung her around. She looked like she was going to hit me.

"Let go of me." Her voice was mean and harsh.

"Just relax, okay? I just want to talk to you, that's it."

"Why? Why the hell do you want to talk to me so badly?" I finally saw it then, the vulnerability in her eyes. She looked angry, sure, but there was something else. Her eyes glistened like she was going to cry.

"Why did you run away from me last night? Why do you keep running away from me?" I took a long hard look at her face. I could see her face clearly then, not like the night before. The smudges of dirt and traces of tears were now gone. She was so beautiful, like no person I had ever seen before. Big brown eyes, full red lips, which held a small scar on the right side of her top lip. I had wondered how she had gotten it. "Just leave me alone." "I can't do that."

"Why not? You don't even know me!"

"I just can't, okay? I can't do that." She stared into my eyes, like she was trying to decide something.

"What do you want?" The halls started to fill with nurses then.

"Is there somewhere that we can talk in private?" She nodded.

"Follow me." She had led me up to the roof. The sun shined bright in the sky, clear as day. We sat on one of the plumbing pipes and stared out at the city below.

"So what do you want?" She asked me again. I didn't understand why she thought that I had wanted something from her.

"I don't want anything."

"You must want something, why else would you would be so persistent?"

"The only thing I want is to know you. No hidden agendas, that's it."

"And why should I believe anything you say?" She looked at me with that deep stare again. It was scary yet enchanting.

"To be honest, I don't know. I don't know why you should believe me or trust me. But I swear I'm not trying to screw you over or get you into any trouble."

"Then why? Why do you need to know me so badly?"

"Because last night I felt something that I haven't felt in years. When I heard you play, it just . . . I don't know, it just changed something in me. I know it sounds stupid, but I don't know how to say it any other way. You make me feel things that I've never felt for anyone else, and I don't even know you. It's crazy, and I don't understand it at all, but that's why I can't just leave you alone." There was a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Emma," I smiled at her then.

"Your name is Emma, right?" She had remembered.

"Yeah, Emma Swan."

"Well, Miss Swan, I still don't trust you."

"Okay, that's fine, but at least let me try?"

"And why should I?" She was a tough cookie, and I knew that it would be a long while before I did actually gain her trust.

"Because I care enough to make an effort."

". . . . . Regina Mills." Her name. That was her way of letting me know that she was giving me a chance, no matter how small that chance was.

"Well it's nice to meet you Regina Mills." I think I smiled the biggest smile I ever had in that moment.

"Yes, I suppose it is."

"Wow, you're so modest."

"You wish." Her eyes twinkled as she had smirked at me.

"Actually, speaking of modesty and wishes, what's up with the playing piano in abandoned warehouses?"

"What does that have to do with modesty and wishes?"

"I was wondering why you would play where no one would hear you, which is modesty, and I wish that I could hear you play again."

"I appreciate the compliment Miss Swan, but I'm going to have to decline."

"What? Why?"

"It's not a show, it's supposed to be private, just for me. I won't let you take that from me." It was strange, how she'd kept thinking that I was there to take something from her, to ruin her. It made me even more curious about her, who Regina Mills really was.

"I'm not trying to take anything from you, I just . . . I like to hear you play."

"My answer is no."

"Oh come on! That is total crap."

"No it's not, it's my time. My sanctuary, the only real peace that I get in this god forsaken world." A dark look had clouded her eyes, like she was remembering a terrible memory. "Okay, how about if I help you?" Glaring, lots of glaring on her end.

"I did not ask, nor do I need your help Miss Swan."

"It must be hard to sneak out every night, and dangerous too. I mean really, sneaking out in the middle of the night in Boston? You could get hurt."

"What are you suggesting?"

"I'm suggesting that if you agree to let me hear you play, I will help you get in and out every night. I'll also make sure you're safe."

"Safe?"

"Oh yeah, trust me. I was a bounty hunter before this, and the things I've seen in Boston would make a grown man cry." Regina still didn't want to trust me, I knew that much. She thought that I would use her in some way, hurt her. But she was wrong, so very wrong.

"So let me get this straight, you're saying that if I agree to let you hear me play you'll help me sneak out whenever I want, and make sure that I'm safe?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying." Regina tried her hardest not to smile.

"My safety concerns you because . . . . ."

"Because you concern me, Regina. Whether you like it or not, I have made you a concern of mine." Had that been the hint of smirk I saw? To this day I still think I won her over with that line, even if she hadn't said it then. "Do you expect my gratitude, Miss Swan? That I'll simply fall at your knees because you've said that I concern you?"

"Why are you so complicated? Why can't you just accept what I'm saying?"

"If you can't handle me then by all means, please make a direct exit from my life."

"Hold on a second there kid, I'm not going anywhere. You may think that your hard ass façade is working for you, but it's not gonna work with me. I don't buy that for a second." " . . . . .I'm not a kid." Clearly not.

"What are you, like nineteen?"

"I'm twenty-one!"

"Well, you're a kid to me."

"And how old are you, Miss Swan?"

"I'm twenty-eight." The pouty face she made was so adorable.

"Wait, you're only twenty-one? What the hell are you doing in a place like this?"

". . . . ."

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me, I was just curious." She looked at me with sad eyes. "I want tell you . . . In time." I had smiled for what must've been the fiftieth time that day. Regina was saying that one day, she would trust me.