Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back. Did you miss me? *cricket chirps* That's what I thought. I apologize for the long break between updates. I had a huge exam that I spent all week studying for yesterday, and now that it's over, I decided to celebrate by finishing Mirror, Mirror. This last chapter was very complicated because there were a lot of strings left to tie up, so I apologize if it's not perfect. It came out differently than I expected, but I'm still satisfied with the result. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or future story prompts, please PM me and I will try to respond in a timely fashion. Please review this chapter or this story, I would love to know what you all are thinking in order to improve my future writing. I am also open to the idea of doing a sequel if enough people want it, but the only way I will know is by reading your reviews.

Disclaimer: I have begged and pleaded, and ABC refuses to let me co-own Once Upon a Time. Same goes with Harry Potter. The only portions of this I own are my own plot. None of the publicly recognizable characters, dialogue, settings, plot, etc are owned by me.

Regina traced that now familiar path once again through the shop, pausing once more at the door behind the counter to check for Mr. Gold. When her search came up empty, she sighed in relief, and wriggled through the door. It was easier this time, as she had learned how to maneuver her body through it. Once she was in the room, she stopped. Was she ready to go through with this? Would she be able to accept the implications of whatever she saw, take the good with the bad? She grimaced, remembering what going after her last wish had gotten her.

Having Mr. Gold procure Henry for her had been the best decision of her life. This is how she felt when she reflected on it five years later. Her lovely baby boy had grown up to be a laughing, joyful child. He was never as boisterous as the other boys, preferring to sit quietly in the park and observe the butterflies and the trees surrounding him rather than run around playing cops and robbers with the rest of them, but Regina was okay with this fact. Honestly, Regina preferred Henry like this, contemplative instead of rambunctious. She could keep him close to her, and she would never have to worry about him getting hurt like all the other children were, scraping their knees and skinning their elbows. She would always sit contentedly in the park, watching her little boy play quietly on the grass, a smile beaming with love gracing her features. He was absolutely perfect, everything she had ever wanted. Everything had been in place until the day she finally had to let him go and send him to school. Then she had ruined everything, just as she always did. Mary Margaret Blanchard. Everyone thought she was so sweet, so kind, but Regina saw her for what she really was. A life ruiner. Since day one, it seemed the woman had made it her mission to personally destroy everything Regina loved. It had happened before, and now it was happening again. Regina could only watch helpless as that wretched woman took Henry under her wing and gave him that awful book, turning him against his mother. After that day, there was nothing Regina could do to regain his love. He was convinced that she was the Evil Queen, not without reason, she thought, and he had rejected her completely. It broke Regina's heart, what was left of it, to see him like this, her precious son that she had poured all her love and affection into. But the fact stood that he wasn't hers anymore, not the way he was before. He had betrayed her, just like everyone else did. Sometimes, she would pull out her old photo albums from when Henry was small and leaf through them, one solitary tear trailing slowly down her face as she smiled softly, reminiscing about the good old days when Henry would let her take care of him. The times they had been to the park together, the times she had nursed him back to health from sickness. It was all there, the good and the bad, like a photographic journey through their lives. All of their memories had been perfectly preserved, inviting Regina to revisit them at her leisure, and she did, the times growing more frequent with the years as she watched him slip further and further away. The pages had grown dog-eared as she marked her favorites, carefully creasing down the corners for future reference. The pictures were no longer pristine, but yellowed with age, a testament to the length of time she had spent without his love.

Finally, after years of this, Regina had learned to accept it. She would give him her love, desperately hoping for reciprocation, and instead meet a black hole, a void sucking all of her happiness into it, never to be seen again. Her acquiescence had been slow, a gradual sort of giving up. In the end, she had almost stopped trying. She would give him her bare minimum, the pain of rejection too acutely strong to bear, and it was this that had truly pushed him over the edge. There was nothing more she could do. The bond had been broken, and could never be returned.

Even this, she had been able to accept. She had forced herself to numb her heart to the pain and keep on loving him anyways, to prove to herself that she could. But then that…she wasn't sure if woman was the right word, came storming into her town. Emma Swan. The very name left a bad taste in her mouth. She just burst in, uninvited, to try and physically take away her son from her. The audacity! Who did she think she was, waltzing in after ten years of neglect? She wasn't Henry's real mother, DNA evidence aside. Regina was. Regina had been the one to take care of him. She had changed all his diapers, soothed all his fevers, weathered every tantrum. She had also held him as he learned how to walk, received every flower he presented to her with a smile, and lovingly read him his favorite bedtime stories for the millionth time. That was what being a mother was about. Being there, for her son. It wasn't merely the act of carrying him for nine months and then giving birth to him, although Regina ached with the fact that this experience had been stolen from her. She had been there for Henry, for the good, and the bad, and Emma simply hadn't, so she had absolutely no right to try and impose herself on their lives!

Regina exhaled as she came back from this latest flashback. The emotional intensity of it had been almost unbearable. Losing Henry…that had been the most terrible experience she had in a long time. I do love you, she had told him through her tear-stained face, her eyes begging him to believe her, but he had just turned away from her…toward Emma Swan. Did she really want to go through with this again? Would she be able to handle whatever it was the mirror had showed her? Yes, yes she would. She steeled herself and walked forward. She could do it…one last time.

Her steps were small, cautious, as she neared the mirror. She wanted to, needed to, see what it held for her, but at the same time, she wasn't quite ready yet. She sat down on the floor in front of it, crossing her legs in a very unladylike manner, and bowed her head in her hands, eyes closed, to compose herself. After some time, she finally felt that she could look up, and cautiously raised her head, facing it. The sight took her breath away.

She saw herself, yet slightly different. Her dark hair had grown out, now curling around her shoulders and framing her face nicely. The suits she had worn as mayor were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a simple sky blue sundress that hung on her body, elegantly hugging her curves yet not uncomfortably tight, ending right above her knees. Her usual stilettos were gone, brown strappy sandals covering her feet instead. Judging by her surroundings, it was summer, and she was in the park, standing in the grass and enjoying the sunshine. She had never seen herself looking so happy, so free.

She smiled warmly, happy to see herself in such a state, but was not content. There had to be something more to this vision. It could not simply be that a few cosmetic and sartorial changes and some warmer weather were the key to her happiness. If this was so, she would have found this happiness a long time ago. She kept on looking, and gasped audibly at what she saw next.

Emma Swan was walking toward her, crossing the park with an enormous smile on her face. She was wearing signature cherry red jacket, a fact that caused both Reginas to roll their eyes, a white tank top, and dark wash skinny jeans. In other words, her usual, distasteful outfit. Regina's lip curled up in disgust as she watched. What was she doing in her fantasy? This was supposed to be Regina's happy ending. Why was Emma Swan there?

Emma had finally reached Regina and hugged her around the waist.

"Hey, you" she said playfully. "You ready for our picnic?" She was having a picnic with Emma Swan?! Did she bump her head and get amnesia, or was this simply a compromise to please Henry? As the question rushed through her mind, she heard her reflection ask it aloud.

"Where's Henry?" she asked, laughing.

"He's with Ruby. This afternoon is just for us." Well, that made no sense at all. Why would she willingly spend time with that horrible woman? The scene unfolded before her eyes as she kept on watching. Emma took out a woven picnic basket, and from the basket she pulled out a red and white checkered tablecloth with a flourish, waving it around like a victory flag. She spread it on the grass and began taking out various foods: cheese, grapes, sandwiches, and, Regina raised an eyebrow at this, a bottle of what looked like very fine red wine, complete with two wineglasses.

"I must say, I am impressed at your preparations. How did you manage?" Regina asked, genuinely impressed.

"Oh, I have my methods" Emma smiled warmly, and gazed at her with what could only be described as love. Wait, what?! Love? That was impossible. Emma didn't love Regina, and Regina sure as hell didn't love her back.

"And yet, you couldn't wear a more tasteful outfit?" Regina questioned. Finally. That sounded more like her old self. She sighed out in relief.

"Please, you know you love it" Emma winked and uncorked the wine bottle. "Now sit back and relax" she said as she poured out a measure of the scarlet aromatic liquid into each glass.

"Wait" Regina said, stopping Emma before she could do anything else. "I want to say something". Now normally, Emma would have teased that she could, since she usually went ahead and did it anyway, but this time she stayed silent, sensing it was important.

"I want to thank you. Ever since you came to this town, I couldn't get you out of my head. At first I thought I hated you. You were infuriating, with that stupid jacket, and the trying to take my son from me, and I was angry at you." Regina began.

"You sure know how to get on a girl's good side" Emma joked, which earned her a smack from Regina.

"Maybe if you let me finish, you'll see why I'm saying this." Regina stated pointedly, looking at Emma with challenge in her eyes, but not in the way it had presented itself previously.

"But, when Henry…" Her voice broke off here as she choked up with emotion. She swallowed hard and continued. "Well, you know. And then you saved him. I realized that you did care about him, and you weren't just trying to take him away from me to hurt me." She paused at this point, looking up at Emma to ensure that the other woman was still listening. "And then you saved me. You showed me who I really am, and that I do have a choice. I can stop hurting people, and love them instead. You were always meant to be the savior, Emma, a fact that terrified me because I thought it signified my destruction. But it didn't, because in the end, you were my savior. Thank you, Emma." Tears flowed silently down her face as she beamed at Emma, transmitting pure love through her reverent gaze.

"Oh, honey" Emma wrapped her arms around Regina and held her gently. "You know that you can always count on me. I love you, baby." She picked up her wineglass and raised it in the air. "To our anniversary!" Regina laughed, a melodious tinkle cascading through the air, and met Emma's glass with her own. "May it be the first of many." Their glasses clinked and they took a sip, smiling at each other all the while before starting in on the bounty Emma had brought.

The image dissolved before Regina, becoming wavy like a bad transmission and then fading away into glass. She stared, stunned. Her mind was reeling. It was a good thing she had chosen to sit, or she would have passed out from the shock. How was this possible? She didn't love Emma. She hated her. And Emma would have been her destruction if she had not fallen into that hat, although Regina remembered with a pang of guilt, that it had been to save her from the wraith. She couldn't believe this. Was the mirror playing some kind of cruel trick on her? Yes, that could be an explanation. Although, it had never lied to her before…

She thought back to the other two times she had visited the mirror, when she had seen Daniel and Henry. The connecting factor between them had been love. Regina longed desperately to love and be loved. She knew this now, and accepted it. But this love, it couldn't come from Emma. It just couldn't.

Why not though? She thought back meticulously, remembering every interaction she had with her. Emma had attacked her, sure, but only when she felt threatened. And then she had saved Regina's life, twice, and had promised to keep on doing it, because that is what good people do. That certainly fit the definition of a savior. Maybe Emma really was meant to be Regina's savior…maybe she was the answer.

At this, Regina sank even lower into the ground and began to sob. As much as she wanted to accept this, she just couldn't. It was too much to reconcile with everything she had experienced. This mirror was telling her that Emma was her true love. Reality told her that she abhorred the woman, and her stupid jacket at that. But what if she had been wrong? The emotional intensity was there for sure; what if she had merely misjudged the direction? Mistaking love for hate? It was a fine line, as they say. And the jacket…as silly as it looked, it was somehow reassuring, like a security blanket, to know that she will always see it. It gave her a level of stability she hadn't experienced since Daniel…Daniel! No! What was she even thinking? He was her true love, not Emma Swan! She felt guilty at even considering the matter and thought back to her last encounter with him. Seeing him after all these years, it brought back a torrential flood of emotions she hadn't been prepared to deal with. She still loved him, with all of her heart. Yet, like everything else in her life she held dear, he was gone. His parting words to her echoed in her mind, repeating over and over again like a mantra: Then love again. Daniel wanted her to move on. He would be okay with her being with someone else. It wouldn't be a betrayal to his memory.

Her heart was breaking into a million pieces, and she wept. How could it be true? Her and Emma… Her thoughts swam around her head incoherently as she tried to make sense of everything. One thing she knew for sure. She couldn't keep going like this. She needed love. She needed redemption. And even if it came from Emma Swan…

A small part of her was relieved. It was as if her entire life was a suspension that had finally been resolved, the dissonance giving way to harmony. The more she thought about it, the bigger that part of her grew, and the more logical it became. She wept bitterly at her resignation to this fact, and at the knowledge that her potential true love was trapped in another world when a soft click came from the back of the room.

Regina was too absorbed in her internal conflict to notice that Mr. Gold had entered the room. He made his way quietly across the room and stopped, after seeing the state she was in. He observed her in silence until she finally looked up from her hands and turned around. Her eyes grew wide in fear, then narrowed defensively.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She asked, hostility dripping from every word.

"Funny, I feel that I should ask you the same question" he said calmly, yet his eyebrows rose in challenge. "Seeing as it is my shop you are trespassing in."

She glared at him. Her eyes were pitch black with anger, yet the tears that had glistened there only moments before softened the effect, leaving them as smoldering coals. "I needed to find out some information. Your shop was the only place I could do that." Her defenses, lowered fully by the vision she had seen, were now back up with a vengeance.

"I'm not a fool, Your Majesty. I know what the mirror that you're standing in front of shows. So tell me, Regina. What is it that you want?"

Those last six words broke her completely. She began sobbing again, her defenses shattered as if made of glass. Did he know what he was asking of her? The enormity of its implications? Of course he did. He was Rumpelstiltskin. She threw her face into her hands, letting the tears consume her until every ounce of emotion had been exhausted from her body. It was some time before she looked up.

When she finally gave her answer, because, oh, she would not give him the satisfaction of besting her yet again, her voice was soft, ravaged by the tears. She looked at him squarely, and whispered so quietly he would have to strain to hear her.

"I want Emma."