Regina laughed bitterly as tears streamed down her face, "That's where you're wrong. Everything that happens in Storybrooke is my fault. Surely you ran into some of my constituents on the way over?"
"I don't like to judge someone based on other people's opinions," Bo answered, deftly avoiding the question.
"Everyone calls me the Evil Queen, including my son. I just want to show him how much I've changed. I'd do anything for him," Regina confessed. She hated that her love for Henry made her vulnerable. She hated that the only person who cared about what she thought was a complete stranger. Most of all, she hated that she was trusting someone when she knew that only led to pain.
Taking hold of Regina's hand, Bo held her gaze, "No one who loves as strongly as you do could possibly be evil. We all have regrets, but making mistakes and learning from them is a part of life. Now, how about you escort me to the beach so we can look for the missing kids and, if we're lucky, find a clue for a possible portal location."
"The beach?" Regina inquired, trying to remember the contents of the file. It was a good thing she had an excellent memory. Most of the missing children were orphans and juvenile delinquents thought to be living on the streets, but she recalled a few who had homes: Ava, Nicholas, and Paige. The three kids had apparently skipped school and gone to the beach where they mysteriously disappeared. The lifeguard hadn't been much help in the investigation, but then, David Nolan was the one trying to do the investigating, and he couldn't pick up a clue if it hit him in the face.
"Yes, but I must warn you I left my swimsuit at home," Bo winked. She loved getting a reaction, and the color on Regina's cheeks indicated that she had gotten her message across.
"I just might have an extra…although the sheriff would have difficulty enforcing public decency laws seeing as how she's in another realm," Regina thought out loud, letting her mouth turn up in a smirk. It seemed that her new acquaintance did have sex on the brain 24/7 regardless of whether it was appropriate to the situation at hand and that this condition was contagious. She had just poured her heart out to a relative stranger, which under normal circumstances was something Regina Mills just would not do, and not thirty seconds later, she was flirting and daydreaming about what Bo would look like skinny dipping in the ocean.
Bo grinned, "There's the smile I've been waiting for."
"Ms…" Regina started, realizing that she didn't know the other woman's last name.
"Dennis," Bo supplied.
"Ms. Dennis, I expect you to accompany me to my home so we can get you properly attired for our upcoming excursion," Regina shifted easily into a business-like tone. Keeping things strictly professional was usually her forte, and she was trying her best to save face.
"Great. We'll take my car. Oh, and Regina, don't take too long locking up," Bo replied, slightly nonplussed by Regina's apparent change in demeanor.
After an awkwardly silent car ride where Regina deigned to look anywhere except Bo's exquisite assets and a visit to the mansion where they gathered appropriate attire—ok, so Regina had picked out two rather skimpy bikinis, who could really blame her?—the two were finally walking along the beach. As people stared in their direction and voiced a few catcalls, Regina found herself immensely attracted to Bo's confidence. It reminded her a bit of herself during her reign as the Evil Queen in the Enchanted Forest.
"So, if you were a child playing by yourself, where would you most likely be?" Bo mused aloud. She scanned the beach, frustrated that all she seemed to see was adults sunbathing. While this awakened her sexual hunger, she had to stay focused on the case.
Pointing off to the right, Regina offered helpfully, "When I would take Henry, he loved to play by that sandcastle over there."
"It's as good a place to start as any," Bo smiled thoughtfully, now seeing a few children playing in the sand where Regina had directed her gaze. She allowed Regina to lead her toward the sandcastle, looking for clues along the way. She was so intent on her objective that she didn't see a toy shovel buried in the sand until she had tripped over it, "Ow!"
"Are you ok?" Regina asked worriedly.
"Yeah, my ego's just a little bruised," Bo smirked. When she stood back up, she saw the entrance to a cave about 5 feet directly ahead of them. As Kenzi would say, her 'Spidey' sense was tingling, and she motioned to Regina to keep quiet as she put her hand to a dagger she had kept hidden in her shorts.
The cave was dark and had a stream trickling through it that led to a swampy pond filled with muddy water. Bo heard Regina muttering a few words under her breath and then saw a light emanate from her hands: a fireball. The illuminated cave looked slightly less desolate, although the stalagmites and stalactites were of far less importance than the metal cage in the corner. Bo's eyes grew wide with the sight of the emaciated children who had been chained to the rocks with duct tape across their mouths. She heard Regina's anguished cry, "Paige!" before turning back to her companion to remind her that surprise was key.
Unfortunately for them both, the ground rattled beneath them as a creature rose from the pond. Even as Bo drew her dagger and Regina aimed her fireball, the serpent's stench overwhelmed their senses, causing them to expend extra energy to keep down their previous meal. The creature's multiple heads-nine if Bo had counted correctly-came at them all at once. Boy, did Kenzi know how to pick a case-the creature was clearly an underFae similar to ones she had encountered when investigating missing college students at a sorority; well, similar in that it did not have the power of speech and was slimy and terrifying.
"A Hydra," Regina breathed. When Bo looked at her for answers, Regina continued, "From Greek mythology, Hercules defeated a Hydra and used the venom to cover the tips of his arrows."
Bo dodged a head skillfully, "So, it's killable then? How do we kill it?"
"I'm trying to remember," Regina racked her brain for the details. "Eight of the heads that he severed all grew back, but there was one head that he couldn't cut off with his sword, so he had to use his bare hands, and when that one head was torn from it's body, the serpent was no more."
"So we have to find the one head before I can impress you with my mad butch skills," Bo breathed heavily. She noticed the creature was moving one of the heads less than the others and lunged for it, "Or I can just pull a Hail Mary."
Dodging the heads, Regina tried to distract the creature by singeing it with her fireball and created the illusion that there were multiple copies of herself so that the creature would not know where her real self existed. Her efforts were a success because within minutes, she watched Bo wrest the serpent's head from its body with her bare hands in a clearly inhuman feat of strength. She cheered as the Hydra shuddered and fell back into the abyss, having taken its last breath.