Author's note: A bit of a long chapter, but things are starting to heat up! Hope you like it!

Now that Regina knew Emma had been shadowing her, there was no reason for Emma to stay in her car as the other woman enjoyed breakfast in her apartment. She might have preferred to, though, after last night.

Regina had read Emma's attraction to her as soon as she had felt it herself. Emma was proud of the way in which she had turned the tables on the seductress, but she was disappointed that she had given anything away in the first place. Now Regina would be insufferable. She was always at her worst when she thought she was winning.

Once in her apartment, Emma avoided the woman by taking a very long shower, but in her sleep-deprived state, she had neglected the obvious fact that Henry would need to use the bathroom before he left. Crossing the dining room in a towel in front of Regina was the opposite of how she had wanted the morning to go, but it wasn't the most challenging part.

That came when Mulan suggested that she could take Henry to school, leaving Regina and Emma alone to talk.

"I do have some questions about your current investigation," the mayor explained.

Emma struggled for words. She couldn't be alone with her right now. She needed a reason Regina had to leave. She had a list of reasons. She'd spent the night making reasons. Reasons she needed to write down before they all slipped away from her under the woman's determined gaze.

"At the park," was all that came out.

Regina raised an eyebrow. Condescending—that was one! Condescending, condescending.

"I'll have answers by then. Thursday, when you bring Henry for his babysitting gig," she tried to elaborate. "I'll meet you there after school gets out and we can chat while Henry takes the kid around the park."

Mercifully, Regina agreed and the house cleared out, leaving Emma alone at last. There were a few slight distinctions between being alone in the house and spending the night alone in her car, the most important of which was privacy. She scurried to the door to lock it and, though she'd never done so before today, she checked that there was no view of her bed from the street outside. She usually needed a while to get into the mood in the morning, but Regina's voice was still echoing up the stairwell when her fingers found their rhythm.

"Nice touch," Mulan said, eyeing the bouquet in Regina's arms the next morning.

Regina smirked and rummaged through Emma's cupboards until she found something resembling a vase. She placed the bouquet on the counter and admired her handiwork.

"Sorry yesterday didn't turn out," Mulan said, readying the plates and pans for what was becoming an increasingly elaborate breakfast coordination ritual.

Regina adjusted a flower. "It did."

"You got a moment alone with her? When?"

"The point wasn't to get a moment alone with her," Regina said with a smile, taking up her station at the stove. "The point was to remind her that I am trying to seduce her."

Mulan reached past her to grab the spice box from the top of the stove. "I thought you were trying to convince her she's your soulmate."

"Ah, you don't know her as well as I do. Miss Swan needs to want to believe something is true before she'll accept that it is."

Mulan nodded. "Well, if it helps, I put in a good word for you when she ducked into the station yesterday."

Regina turned to the woman, rapt. "What did you say?"

"Nothing too obvious," Mulan said with a shrug. "I told her you made the best breakfasts."

Regina smiled and eyed the breakfast cooking on the stove. Now that Emma was returning to her apartment before Henry left for school, she could taste it for herself.

"That did have some unintended consequences, though," Mulan added, rubbing her cheek.

"Like what?"

"I had to give Robin a black eye."

Regina was stunned. Before she could decide between mirth and incredulity, Mulan continued.

"I went out to my squad car, and he followed me and attacked me. Kept asking where my tattoo was."

"He thinks we're together?" Regina asked. It didn't make sense. Why would he suspect that her soulmate was a woman? "I never told him I was leaving him for a woman."

Mulan shrugged.

"He should be suspended for attacking you," Regina advised her.

"No. I dealt with it, and I feel bad for him. He's going through a hard time. I'm used to a few cuts and bruises. Doesn't hurt much."

Regina looked closely at her friend, noticing the scrapes on her cheek for the first time. They had looked so appropriate on the warrior's face that she hadn't thought to question how fresh they were. She felt an acute swell of rage.

"Robin thrives on pity," she spat. "That's how he gets through life." She stepped closer to Mulan and brushed the woman's hair out of her face so she could examine the wound more closely. It wasn't serious, but she still wished she could heal it with her magic. She felt partially to blame. "You should tell Emma."

The door closed behind them. "Tell me what?"

Regina stepped away from Mulan and finished the breakfast preparations.

Her friend sighed. "Officer Hood may be in need of some disciplinary leave."

"I've been thinking the same thing," the tired sheriff said, sidling up to the counter.

Regina put a plate of food in front of Emma and was shocked to recognize the key to her house in the woman's hand.

"I was on my way here when I saw his beat-up truck heading towards your place," Emma explained. "I confronted him when he came out of the house and he said he was just picking up his gym bag. I couldn't arrest him because technically you gave him an open invitation by giving him this key, but I made him hand it over. I suggest you change your locks." She picked up her fork and dug into the food. "Thanks for the breakfast, you two."

Regina squinted at her. "So Robin is the reason you've been staking out my house?" She smiled. "You think I'm in actual danger from Robin Hood? He's a thief—and he doesn't go to the gym, so I'll have to figure out what he's been stealing from my house. But you're mistaken if you think that little man can harm me."

Emma sighed and put down her fork. "Look, I didn't want to say anything until I had some definitive proof, but I'm worried that he's working with the fairies." Regina frowned, and Emma elaborated. "Blue, Tinker Bell, and Robin. They've all been hiding something and covering for each other, and I think it has to do with you."

Regina chuckled. "Well, would you look at that? My false soulmate is conspiring with the fairies who orchestrated our pairing, one of whom has always had a personal vendetta against me." She paused briefly before amending, "Actually, it's possible that Tink hates me too. Or maybe even never liked me..."

"Well, maybe you wouldn't be in this mess if you were more likeable," Emma snapped. "Think about that."

Regina smiled. Emma was so cute when she was being petulant. "You like me," she teased. "That's enough for me."

"This is serious, Regina. I don't know what Robin was doing in your house. He may have been stealing something, but he may have left something behind, too. Something magic, from the Blue Fairy. Something that could hurt you."

"Are you saying I should stay here tonight?" Regina asked, the straight face she was attempting crumbling at the sight of Mulan rolling her eyes.

Emma glared at both of them. "You two seem to be getting along so well, why don't you stay at Mulan's?"

"No," Mulan objected. "I am not having another coworker take out their jealousy on me." She left the kitchen and put on her coat, leaving Emma and Regina stricken at her sudden change in mood. "You're soulmates. A conspiracy threatens to keep you apart, but you overcome an unnamed danger together and find love in one another's arms. Get over it and find me when you're less nauseating."

"What's her problem?" Emma asked after the door slammed shut.

"She doesn't have a soulmate yet."

Emma leveled a glare at her, but she didn't insist she wasn't her soulmate this time. Progress.

"What was Mulan talking about?" Henry croaked as he clomped down the stairs. "Are you guys in love or something?"

"No!" Emma said.

"Maybe a little," Regina answered.

"You're not in love with me," Emma argued. "You just think you're supposed to be. It's not the same."

Henry groaned in the background and shuffled into the bathroom while Regina thought about what Emma said.

"I did think I was supposed to be," she admitted. "I thought you were supposed to be in love with me, too. I made it a challenge." She reached over the counter and touched Emma's hand. "The thing is, Emma, I think I do love you. I love all the challenges you and I have posed to each other. I love every moment of every silly conversation, and I love who I've become because of what I've learned from being with you." She took a moment to sigh and blink the moisture from her eyes. "I love playing with you, and if I'm honest, this is the type of relationship I'd look for even if I got to choose my soulmate myself."

"Why are you saying this?" Emma murmured, withdrawing her hand. "I get the feeling you're trying to get me to fall in love with you just so you can test out your theory."

Regina tilted her head and grinned. "Is it working?"

"Ugh!" Emma groaned, pushing away from the counter.

Henry emerged once more, determined to ignore them both as he ate his breakfast. Regina kissed him on the top of his head and chuckled, her eyes sparkling as they followed Emma into the bathroom. She didn't even flinch when the blonde slammed the door.

As was apparently now standard for her morning fantasies, Emma kept imagining Regina running back up the stairs, barging into the apartment to grab something Henry left behind, and finding her in bed, her fingers deep inside herself. As soon as she imagined the look of desire on the woman's face, she would come, and she would soon after succumb to sleep. She was moments away from the part where Regina would find her when a knock came at the door.

"Good feelings gone!" she said to herself, jumping out of bed and searching for her shower towel amongst the clothes on the floor.

The knock came again, this time followed by a voice that made Emma blush and cringe all at once.

"Emma? It's me," Regina called through the door. "I've left my purse, and my car keys are in it. I know you're still in there."

Shoddily wrapping the towel around herself, Emma scampered to the door and unlocked it, fully prepared to find the scheming woman with a smirk on her face. The look Regina gave her was more like something from a nightmare than her fantasy—shocked and embarrassed.

"Sorry to interrupt," Regina mumbled as she cast her eyes around the room for her handbag.

Emma felt a wave of disappointment settle over her, followed by anger. Who did this woman think she was fooling? She talked big and she knew how to instill desire in others, but when it came down to it, Regina didn't actually desire her.

Overcome with resentment, Emma said nothing, allowing Regina to grab her bag and scurry out of the apartment without exchanging further words. She rested her head against the door and listened for the sound of heels descending the stairs. Nothing came. Regina was still standing outside the door. Emma's fingers paused on the door bolt, and she took a step back, leaving it unlocked. She let the towel fall to the floor as her hand traveled back down her body.

"The door's unlocked, Regina," she called out. "You like our little challenges, here's one: open it."

She imagined the woman's hand on the doorknob, compelled to turn it and push the door open, imagined Regina in her sleek black coat, throwing her bag to the ground and reaching for Emma's body, imagined the woman's warm mouth on her cold naked breasts, her hands frantic to replace Emma's own, her fingers slipping into Emma before her mouth traveled down to join them.

Emma knew her breathing was getting louder, her voice escaping her throat as she pictured the incorrigible woman outside her door in front of her on her knees, humming against her with desire, pulling her down on top of her, careless of the wet marks she would leave against her still-buttoned coat as she pressed against her, so close they might never come apart.

She wanted to feel Regina's teeth on her neck, her own naked back against the cold wooden floor, she wanted the woman to abandon her heels as she struggled for better traction against the floorboards, pushing into Emma harder, fucking her—

The sound of heels on the stairs outside broke her concentration.

Regina had left.

Emma removed her hand from between her legs with a sigh, bitterly unfulfilled.

####

Emma had hoped Regina would have the good sense to leave her alone with Henry at the park after that, but there she was on Thursday afternoon, waiting on a bench with an extra cup of cocoa for Emma.

It didn't help that Emma was still mildly sleep deprived, having stubbornly continued her stakeout of the woman's house, despite Regina's flippancy about the danger she was in. Without an appropriate fantasy to get her relaxed enough to sleep after she came home, she'd spent nearly an hour tossing and turning in bed each morning, still fuming over Regina's rejection. And now here she was, with only four hours of sleep under her belt, enduring silent moments on a bench with hot cocoa and an infuriating woman.

"You haven't been at breakfast," Regina started.

"Don't talk to me, Regina." Emma's eyes remained focused on Henry, gently pushing her parents' replacement baby on the kiddie swing. "Henry!" she called. "Not any higher than that, okay?"

"He knows," Regina told her.

"I know!" he yelled, scowling.

Emma could feel her irritation growing, so she stood from the bench and walked a few feet away from Regina.

"It's not that I didn't want to, Emma," Regina spoke, just loud enough for her to hear.

She spun to face the woman, seething. "Drop it, Regina. This whole act. Just drop it."

"Do you know how many people I've had sex with?"

Emma turned away from her again. "I don't care."

"Neither do I. That's my point." Emma shook her head, and Regina continued. "You are different, Emma. You're special."

She was good, Emma thought. Her voice actually sounded emotional.

"I believe you are my soulmate, and I love our story," Regina said.

She was really throwing that word around.

"I want our story to continue naturally," she added, her voice low and broken like it always was when she was genuinely confiding in Emma. "I like flirting with you but I don't want to just jump into bed with you because we're going to end up together anyway and we might as well get started."

"But that's exactly what you're doing with every other thing!" Emma interrupted, mentally reprimanding her heartstrings for allowing themselves to be tugged by the woman's voice. "You want our story to continue naturally? Why don't we go back to barely putting up with each other and just see where that takes us? You've decided I'm your soulmate, you've decided that you suddenly love me out of nowhere—"

"I see your point, but the fact is—"

"No!" Emma shouted. "This is bullshit, Regina. And, you know what," she added, chucking her unfinished cocoa in the trash, "I don't give a damn if it is a conspiracy. You're not my soulmate, and you know why? Because I decided you aren't."

High on the thrill of finally telling Regina off, Emma stormed over to Henry on the other side of the park. She grabbed the car seat off the baby's stroller and marched back to her car to install it. The sooner Henry and the littlest Charming were in the car, the sooner she could leave Regina behind.

Fiddling with the tangled web of safety straps on the car seat wasn't helping her mood at all. Lying prostrate across the back seat of the car, her legs sticking out of the door, swearing a blue streak, she didn't hear the giant sports car until it was too late.

She looked up and her whole body went still at the sight of the hunk of metal speeding straight towards her.

It was upon her.

She felt like she was disintegrating.

The world went purple.

####

She was lying on the grass in front of the bench in Regina's arms, Henry's hoarse voice calling her name, getting closer.

Emma looked down at her legs. They looked like they were intact, but she couldn't be sure. She both felt and didn't feel the impact of the car on her body. The pain was there and not there. She tried to turn her neck at the sound of the sports car peeling away, but it hurt to move. She could only look up, where she saw the twisted expression on Regina's face as she passed her hand to the right. She heard the sound of a car crashing into trees down the road, heard the screech of folding metal as Regina's hand squeezed into a fist.

"Mom, stop!" Henry called, only feet away.

"They hit her!" Regina cried, the high-pitched worry in her voice quickly melting into something vengefully low. "They hit Emma, and then they tried to run." Her fist squeezed tighter, and Emma heard the car crunching in the distance.

"Don't kill them," Henry pleaded, finally close enough to grab Regina's hand, unfolding her fingers. "You don't know who's in that car, and you don't know why they did this."

The kid was good at crisis management, Emma decided, still unsure as to whether her body was crushed to smithereens under her clothes.

A baby cried in the distance.

Okay, maybe he wasn't that great.

"Henry, go get the baby from the swing," Regina stated, slowly coming out of her rage stupor. "I'll take care of Emma."

Henry obeyed, and Emma heard the sound of his feet pounding across the grass toward the crying.

"I didn't poof you in time, did I?" Regina asked.

"Am I alive?" Emma asked.

"Damn. A split second earlier and you would've been fine." She sounded disappointed, but not distraught.

"Am I alive?" Emma repeated.

"Yes, you'll be fine. I poofed you out just as the car was hitting you, so your body isn't sure if it's been crushed or not."

"You poofed me."

"Fixing it isn't complicated, but I'm not great at healing magic." Regina sighed. "The Blue fairy is not an option right now, which leaves Gold—."

"No," Emma interrupted. "I'm not owing that man any more favours." She reached for Regina's arm, cringing at the pain that shot down her spine at the movement. She placed the woman's hand on her stomach and croaked, "Try."

Regina focused on her hand, but Emma didn't feel anything.

"Hmm." She grabbed Regina's wrist and held on. "Try it again."

Warmth flooded into her limbs, dulling the pain.

"Did that work?" Regina asked. "Does it feel better?"

"Better, but not completely." She tried to sit up, but found she still needed some help getting completely upright.

Regina ushered her into the passenger side of her car and Henry hopped in the back, the baby's car seat already magically transported and installed next to him. Emma looked at Regina, her nostrils flared in anger as she stared down the road at the totaled sports car. She placed her hand over Regina's.

"It won't be hard to track them down later," she told the woman. If they weren't already crushed to death, she thought to herself.

Regina's hands twitched on the steering wheel, wanting to sweep everyone in her path off the road, wanting to crush every car that stood between her and her destination. Whenever rage clouded her vision, vengeance cleared it. Henry had stopped her from completing her revenge on the occupants of the sports car, and now she could hardly see the road ahead of her, imagining instead squeezing the offending car into shrapnel.

"Regina, you're drifting," Emma reminded her.

She drew the car back onto the right side of the road and took a deep breath.

She knew if she took her three passengers to the mayoral mansion, the two idiots would probably get confused and end up breaking down her door brandishing weapons, but Emma's apartment was too open for the woman to rest while the baby fussed in the next room over. Swallowing her discomfort, Regina parked in front of the Charmings' house, ready to take Emma inside.

Once she and Henry got Emma into the guest room bed, the boy turned to his babysitting duties and left the two of them alone to work their magic.

Regina's mind never strayed as her hand trailed along Emma's legs, focused as she was on healing the woman. She had never experienced touch magic quite like this. Emma's pure-hearted magic traveled through Regina's body and out her fingertips with no effort on Emma's part whatsoever. For Regina, it was a revelation in magical practice more than the intimate petting she feared it was coming across as to Emma.

"It is working, right?" Regina asked.

"Yeah, it feels like my legs are definitely whole now, if a little unstable."

"I think that's all we can do for now," Regina said, patting her leg. " You should rest. Call me if you need anything. I'll be downstairs until your parents get here."

She withdrew her hand from Emma's body. It would be wrong to keep it there any longer than was magically necessary. She was desperate to caress Emma's arm, to run her fingers through the blonde's hair, petting her until they both felt calm and loved, but that wasn't what she had with Emma. It wasn't what Emma wanted from her right now, or possibly ever.

"Thank you, Regina," Emma croaked. "Sorry for yelling at you earlier."

"No, I understand," Regina said. "I probably would have yelled too. I know you don't believe in this, and that's okay. It doesn't change the way I feel about you."

Emma looked up at her with a tight smile, but the skepticism in her eyes was still there. Regina knew she could no longer tease the woman about her theory—she had felt the light in her heart threaten to go out when the sports car crashed into Emma. Her love for the saviour was in earnest territory now, and she had seen how Emma had reacted to the male suitors who had pressed their case in earnest. She would not demean herself to win a pity kiss from Emma, nor would the woman she had come to know and love learn to love her if she did.

"I'll let you sleep," she said, placing what she hoped would come across as a platonic kiss on Emma's forehead before she stood to go.

She kept Henry and Emma Number Two company in the Charmings' kitchen until they arrived home, beaming with the afterglow of a baby-free dinner date. Neither Henry nor Regina had thought to interrupt their dinner with news of Emma's near-death experience, so Regina was apprehensive as she filled them in on the afternoon's events.

Snow made the mistake of asking if Dr Whale had been around to take a look at Emma yet, resulting in an awkward fight between the lovebirds about Snow's judge of character when it came to medical professionals. After two minutes of their nonsense, Regina interrupted to remind them to lower their voices and let Emma rest undisturbed. Of course, this only prompted the haughty prince to storm up the stairs into the guest room to check up on her.

"I'm sorry, Regina," said Snow. "About David. Sometimes he can't see past his own determination to be the white knight to notice that someone else already has the situation under control."

Regina almost softened toward the woman at the apology, but was spared the agony of that particular fate when Snow added, "I think it would be so different if Emma would just find a man already. With the baby and all, David and I can't be there for her 24/7, and I think he'd feel a lot better if he could pass the reins to someone else."

"Yeah," Henry scoffed, appearing behind them. "Emma has no idea how to cope without you and gramps there for her 24/7. Oh wait, you never were, so nothing has changed." He turned to the baby in his arms and cooed, "Who's a little reset button for really bad parents? You are! You are!"

"Henry!" Regina scolded him, taking the baby from his arms while Snow stood staring at him, mouth agape. The glorious sight of her old foe's expression was marred by the venom she recognized in her son's voice.

"No, mom!" he yelled, "They act like they're better than you, but you know what? I never felt like Roland was your Henry Number Two, not ever. Emma is the product of true love soulmates who had pure hearts when they made her. You'd think that would give her a life full of love, but they didn't even fight for her. They put her in a tree because they heard it was her destiny, and now they get a neat little do-over. It's no wonder she doesn't want to think you two are soulmates—look how destiny worked out for her last time!"

"Henry," Regina interrupted, uncomfortable with his simplification of Emma's problems. "Full disclosure: I would have killed her if they hadn't."

"Soulmates?" Snow questioned, staring at Regina.

"I don't think you would have," Henry insisted, ignoring Snow. "When you were at your worst, I couldn't imagine you killing—or even abandoning—a baby, even if you knew that baby's destiny was to ruin you. Love is more important than fate and you know it, even though that thought never occurred to Snow White and Prince Charming."

"Who's soulmates?" Snow asked.

Regina leveled a glare at the woman. She was truly awful.

Henry continued his diatribe. "I think it's ironic that this town's perfect example of true love somehow finds a way to rob everyone else of it! Look at her!" He gestured to Snow. "It's like she can't stand the idea that someone other than her and David might experience love!"

"But your soulmate is Robin Hood," Snow told Regina, shaking her head. "Emma's not your soulmate. Emma's straight!"

"Seriously?" Henry shouted. "That's what you take away from everything I just said? Emma's straight?"

"And you were my step-mother!" Snow cried, removing the baby from Regina's arms.

Regina threw her hands up. "I'm also the mother of your grandchild! And his great grandfather is Peter Pan! Who cares anymore?"

"I care!" Snow yelled. The baby's mouth started to quiver.

"That's the thing," Henry interrupted in a soothing tone, smiling at the baby as he spoke. "You never care about the things that make other people happy, you just care about yourself." He turned to Regina. "For what it's worth, I think you and Emma should be together."

Despite the tense situation, Regina smiled. She knew it. "You do?"

Snow scoffed.

"Yeah," he reasoned. "This way we can both move into your house. I really miss having a room with a door, but I don't want to leave Emma all alone in that apartment like some other people."

She didn't know whether to be offended at his unsentimental answer, proud of his compassion for Emma, or elated at his merciless rebuke of the Charmings. She didn't want the boy to be consumed with hate like she had always been, but it was gratifying to see that her son's personality was not entirely based on biological inheritance.

"What's going on down here?" David asked, treading lightly down the stairs.

"Well, apparently Henry hates us and Regina wants Emma to be a lesbian!" Snow cried. "Now I need to go sit down!" She stormed out of the room with the baby.

David raised his eyebrows and sighed, looking at Regina and Henry for further explanation.

Regina raised her hands in surrender. "Let's just skip to the part where you cast me out of the house and I go solve everything on my own as usual and hunt down the person who did this to your daughter."

David scoffed. "And who is that?"

"Robin Hood," Regina spat with a sneer.

David's frown cracked into a smile and he laughed. "I get that you and Robin are having problems, Regina, but why on Earth would he want to hurt Emma?"

"Because he found out that Emma is my real soulmate."

The silence that loomed over the room was broken by a quiet chuckle.

Regina looked at her giggling son, who beamed back up at her.

"This is fun."