It's as she's unlocking her apartment door that she has a hard time remembering if it was decent enough to have guests over. Ruby's kind of lazy herself so Emma usually doesn't mind having her over when the apartment's less than pristine like Mary Margaret left it.

But Mary Margaret has been gone for a long time and it didn't take long for Emma to realize that Snow isn't exactly like her cursed counterpart.

Especially with Henry around full-time now. She'd usually be able to keep it decent with spending most of her time at the station anyway but now she realizes why Regina always looks so damned pissed if one thing in her house is out of place.

Her eyes sweep the living room quickly before Regina starts pushing her into the warm apartment anyway. It's cold and the former mayor complained about desperately needing a good cup of coffee on the way over.

She's content with the way it looks, aside from the burnt mark on the carpet, so she allows Regina access. "Sorry about the mess," she's not really sorry and it's not that big of a mess but she supposes that's usually what people say when they think their house is clean but knows other people wouldn't agree.

Regina's place is disturbingly organized so she expects some sort of criticism from the woman even if the evil part of her is raging around town somewhere else.

As they get deeper into the apartment Charming exits the bathroom. When he sees Regina his eyes narrow furiously and then he's pressing a strong arm against her throat unexpectedly and she's scratching at it and gasping for air.

Emma hears the sounds of shuffling and cut off intakes of breath behind her and turns immediately. "What the hell!" She's trying to pry her father away from Regina. "David get the hell off of her!"

"What are you doing here?" he demands angrily.

"She's-,"

"I told you I wouldn't hesitate if you came back!"

A coughing Snow exits the same bathroom nursing her bruised neck. "Charming what are you doing?!" She looks just as surprised as her daughter.

"This woman attacked you!"

"Enough!" Emma stomps both her feet in the kind of way that would seem childish but her father goes flying across the room into the coffee table and instantly everyone knows that was her doing.

He lands on the rectangular table in the middle of the living room and it crashes beneath him. Everyone stares at her in surprise but it's not until she follows Regina's eyes that she realizes there's a soft yellow glow around her hands.

"Did…did I do that?" she gulps.

"How did you do that?" Snow croaks from her side.

All sets of eyes slowly shift to Regina and she looks like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes are innocuously wide and she looks almost worried but the look shifts quickly and she stares back at them all like they should know what's going on, even if she actually doesn't.

"You're the product of true love, of course you have magic." She says with an already sore throat.

"Yeah but before now all I used it for was to see into Pongo's memory. I've never had active power like that…"

Regina thoughtfully nods. "Defense magic is far different from all other magic. Far more aggressive because it's triggered by the body's natural instinct to protect itself or others around you. Let's just be grateful you didn't throw him out the window or worse."

"That doesn't explain what you're doing back here," Charming reproaches as he gets up from the floor. "It'll be you flying out the window or worse if you don't start explaining."

The former mayor opens her mouth but Emma steps between them and answers for her. "Actually I can explain that one. Regina's not the one that was here before."

"I saw her with my own two eyes." Charming rebuttals assertively and she rolls her eyes at him. "She tried to kill your mother, Emma. Whatever she's told you, she's lying."

"Well…first of all what are you even doing in my apartment?" she looks at her mother but dismisses it quickly because it's not important…but she's not exactly letting it go either. "Second of all I've been with her for a pretty good portion of the morning. She hasn't been out of my sight since I woke up this morning. The woman that attacked Snow is The Evil Queen."

David laughs and signs his daughter off as delusional or just plain wrong but Snow inspects Regina curiously.

"There is something different about you," she notes aloud. "Yesterday you would have already killed him, and probably the rest of us, for even touching you."

"Don't think I'm not considering it," Regina rubs her injured neck.

Emma wants to laugh because she knows now that the Evil Queen isn't attached to her; Regina's all bark and no bite.

"This is some sort of trick," Charming pulls his wife out of Regina's reach protectively. "She's fooling you, Emma."

"Do you think I'm stupid David? I know it sounds crazy but it's true," she crosses over to the living room and picks up the book beneath the rubble of broken wood. "Ruby and I stupidly cast a removal spell on Regina last night and it kind of backfired or maybe it didn't. But this isn't the Evil Queen. This is Regina."

"You're…" Snow turns to the queen. "Are you the one that saved me as a girl?" she searches Regina's eyes for sincerity, for truth, for a yes and she hopes, foolishly, that this woman doesn't hate her down to her core.

"Of course not," Regina waves her off, not irritably, and all the hope in Snow's face scatters quickly and shame replaces it with a bright red color in her cheeks. "I'm not that girl anymore. I'll never be. However I am what she might have turned out to be had your father and my mother not forced a certain lifestyle upon me. Had you not told my mother-,"

Snow stops her then. "Alright I get it."

"She's not exactly evil." Emma explains. "But she's not exactly nice either."

That kind of hurts Regina but she doesn't let it show. Not out of pride but because she knows she'll never be considered nice. She was never meant to.

Emma sees the hurt look before Regina hides it and she mouths an apology that her parents miss. "She's not our problem, as you probably already know." She continues to Snow and Charming. "But she's willing to help us…"

Not precisely help them, Regina wants to correct, she just wants to save her son.

"How can we trust her?" David asks breathlessly for some reason now and Emma considers it might be from keeping his chest squared with Regina around. God, he's such an idiot sometimes. Snow's at his side now and has forgotten all about her sore throat.

"Because I do," Emma says. "And we've tried things your way when it comes to trusting Regina. We're doing it my way this time."

"But sweetheart," Snow's voice is soft and full of something Emma can't quite isolate. Part of her doesn't even want to try. If it's an emotion she can't recognize right away it'll only cause trouble for her. "The entire town is at risk. Henry is at risk."

"Henry is safe." Regina states. The coffee maker dings and she goes to it.

Emma watches her as her mother continues. "And how do you suppose we get rid of her?"

Regina's digging in the cupboards for coffee mugs. She pulls two white ones out. "I'm just going to undo what your daughter has done."

David's caught his breath and slides into conversation again. "Wouldn't it be easier to just kill her? Get rid of the Evil Queen once and for all?"

The former queen tenses in the kitchen and a look of uncertainty and panic crosses over her. She looks to Emma for help.

"You love her…" the sheriff realizes.

Regina's fingers clench and unclench over coffee pot's handle for a moment. She swallows thickly. "She's been part of me all of my life, of course I care about her."

"Can you guys-," she turns to her family.

"Absolutely,"

"Absolutely not."

Both of her parents respond immediately.

"She cannot be trusted." David continues, glaring at Regina in the kitchen. "Until I've seen both of them side by side I will not believe she's the good one. If there even is a good one."

Emma's had it with her father's insinuations. "She's not evil." She finalizes once and for all.

"Charming…" Snow puts a hand on her husband's chest. "Let's go."

He looks like he wants to defy her but she pushes him softly upstairs to Emma's bedroom and he doesn't protest…much.

Emma looks at Regina sympathetically and for once the other woman doesn't yell at her for it. Instead she scoots the other cup of coffee towards her and they sit silently for a moment as they each take slow sips.

"She has been my only friend for years," Regina explains as she leans her back into the counter by the stove. Her arms are over her chest protectively. She feels vulnerable, Emma realizes. "We weren't distinct in my head. My thoughts were her thoughts. But I lived inside my head for a very long time. Mother never let me have friends so I found comfort in myself. When your mother came along, I thought I could trust her. We were very different in age but she took me out of my comfort zone. We were friends…"

She sips her coffee once more and the hot liquid burns her tongue. She draws out the physical pain to keep herself from feeling the emotional pain of how deep Snow hurt her.

"Then your mother told my mother about Daniel and I never trusted her again. I never trusted anyone again. But she loved me so much still. Even when I asked the servants to keep her away from me. She would find ways to send messages to me. Through the help, through her father, through the birds. She was very persistent…and resourceful. But all I had was myself. I was my only friend. I picked myself up when things were difficult. When getting out of bed seemed like the most exhausting thing I could do."

"I never got to mourn Daniel's death. I was married before he was buried into the ground properly. But she allowed me to feel something other than pain. She showed me that I could be more than upset. I could be angry. I could be strong. I could be so much more than my mother conditioned me to. If it weren't for her I would have eventually forgiven Snow and died an unhappy woman married to her father."

"I know she's an evil woman. And much like my mother, I know she needs to be dealt with." She breathes in slowly. "But I'll be losing myself. And that's all I've had to cope. It unsettles me in ways that I shouldn't be unsettled."

Emma's fingers crawl across the island in a reach for Regina but the other woman doesn't meet her. Instead looks at the sheriff's hand then to the blue eyes washing her with compassion.

"I understand." Emma promises in a low voice.

Regina's brown eyes fall to the floor. "If we kill her we may be killing me. And I'm not as heroic as you and your family, Miss Swan. I want to live. The only person that knows enough about this may try to kill me the moment he sees me. The closest we'll get to vanquishing the Evil Queen is by putting her back into my body. It's not ideal or perfect but I kept her from attacking your mother."

Emma licks the coffee off her lips. "No."

The brunette looks at her interestedly. "No?"

The blonde nods once. "No. She's not going back inside of you, Regina. You were miserable with her. You don't need her. Some friends you just gotta let go."

"But-,"

"The Evil Queen doesn't love you like you love her. She thinks you're weak and she'd probably kill you instantly if you got in the way of her destruction. We'll find a way to save you but we're killing her."

"I can handle her Miss Swan."

"You don't have to do this on your own." Emma looks at her with pleading eyes. "You're not alone anymore, Regina."

The weight, the sincerity, of her words silences both of them abruptly. Regina, dreadfully, wants to believe that she doesn't have to be alone anymore. But she's had that hope, that idea, taken away from her. The moment Daniel was killed, she lost the hope that she could count on anyone but herself.

"She's finally out of your head," Emma continues, motivation for Regina to believe her, to agree with her, interlacing with her words. "Maybe you should get out of your head too."

Then suddenly Emma's not sitting across from her anymore. When Regina looks up there's a cloud of dark purple smoke quickly evaporating in the area she was just in.

"Miss Swan?"

Emma doesn't answer.

Instantly Regina knows, the Evil Queen has her now.

A/N: I know I set dates for the new chapters but some personal stuff has come up so I'm working on the stories people seem to be most interested in. The others will be updated by the end of next week.