Chapter 7

"Honestly Regina you want to go the whole revenge route?" Mary Margaret asks as she stands up in the middle of the room. Regina soon gets to her feet as well.

"He's taken my son. You expect me to just stand by and do nothing?" Regina asks furiously.

"I'm just saying that this whole routine has never worked out well for you in the past and you have worked so hard to reform yourself for Henry. Now you just want to jump on the "I shall destroy you" thing again?"

"I cannot help that my heart has been blackened. Darkness is all I have known since I came to learn magic. I can't simply... un-learn it. You know nothing of magic and its pull and it's not about revenge anyway. He did threaten me. He threatened me physically. I would think it only fair to exact some sort of justice."

"Regina... what he did was cruel. He had no right to torture you that way but he's also not well. Revenge is not justice."

"So you'll simply excuse away what he did?" Regina asks with a pain stricken expression.

"No. I know how it hurt and I can't even imagine the depth of it as you were nearly left for dead on that table." She says with a shake of her head.

"You could have gone after him and left me there. I don't know what possessed you to save me. You've always been nothing but a foolish girl." She mutters lowly.

"Well I'm sorry!" Mary Margaret practically shrieks as she tries to fight off angry tears, taking quite a threatening stance in front of the other woman. "If I could take anything back it would be getting on that horse because it was the start of it all. I'm sorry that horse ran away with me. I'm sorry that you were put in a situation to save me. Okay? I'm sorry."

Regina shoves her away. "Stop apologizing to me you pathetic woman! Stop making this about you." She purses her lips and swallows hard before she says now in a low voice. "It... it wasn't even the fact that you got on that horse. I think..." She hesitates for a moment as she thinks back to that day. "I think my mother may have manipulated the whole thing. I mean I never got her to tell me how exactly but she did not argue when I rationalized how your presence in our field was not a coincidence."

"What?" Mary Margaret asks in a confused whisper. "I don't... I don't understand..."

Regina scowls at this. "Do I have to spell it out for you?" She asks as her brows meet together. "You were put in danger on purpose. The whole encounter... it was her doing."

Mary Margaret stares off to a wall as she tries to process this new information. Her eyes then scan the room aimlessly. The sound of heavy footsteps can be heard from behind her but she speaks up anyway, "You're telling me that even... even after learning that your mother was responsible you chose to blame me for ruining your life?" She asks in a whisper and when Regina at a loss for words only frowns she laughs mockingly. She shuts her eyes and frowns. "I... have been blaming myself all this time feeling sorry for what I thought I did. I've spent all this time trying to make amends for something that wasn't even my fault?" She asks as the pain is clearly written on her face. Regina merely stands there gaping but offers no reply. Mary Margaret then pushes past Emma and David who had apparently heard that whole thing.

Emma looks to David and quickly offers, "I'll go talk to her. You..." she looks in Regina's direction, "... stay here." Before he can argue with her she rushes off after her mother. He stands there stunned and clears his throat.

"You don't have to babysit me like some helpless child. I'm fine if you want to run along and console your wife." She says as her head jerks in a way that indicates how annoyed she is by this whole situation.

"It's not about babysitting you it's about keeping you involved..." He starts to say before she interrupts him.

"Oh I swear if you say "because we're family" I'm gonna hurl." Regina says in a growl as she rolls her eyes.

"Is that true... what you just said about your mother?" He asks. "This whole time you've been taking out your anger and trying to get revenge on Snow when in truth you never would have met her had it not been for your meddling mother?"

"Oh... she's as much to blame as my mother." Regina offers as she comes to stand before David in an ever menacing way.

"But to a slightly lesser degree. She didn't kill Daniel your Mother did. While I understand that she told your secret she did not do it on purpose."

"So she has said but that does not make her blameless." Regina says with a snarl now. "She... she ruined my chance at a happy ending. I trusted her with a secret that I never would have shared with anyone else. I told her not to tell my mother and that was the very person she went to."

"She was a child." David barks back.

"Sure she was a child but she wasn't very much younger than I was then. That didn't stop my mother from marrying me off to some old man! I trusted Snow and she betrayed me and that betrayal cost me the only person I have ever loved."

"Regina..." David says with a hint of warning in his tone. "You..." he has nothing to offer and she knows it.

Regina lets out a humorless laugh, "You can't find anything to defend that can you?"

"No and the thing that has me the most confused is that even after you were married to the King you were not satisfied. You could have been Queen and lived your life in comfort wanting for nothing." He offers.

"Were you not in an arranged marriage yourself? Did you not fight to be with the one you loved? I did not have that option. The only way out for me was to have the King killed off." She says but did not actually mean to reveal that. "I... mean..."

"You had her father killed?" The shocked question leaves his lips. "So... so you lost your true love and then married Snow's father and then killed him? Did it never occur to you that you had somehow gotten your revenge on her at the same time? Does she know about this?" He asks in a panic.

"I... no... I mean I don't know." She says with a pained grimace. "I... just assumed she'd have heard it or figured it out. I didn't... I didn't have him killed to hurt her I just... I just wanted to get my life back. I didn't... I didn't want to live that lie."

David puts a palm to his forehead and sighs. "She deserves to know." He says as he finally lowers his hand. "I have to tell her." He says as he turns to take his leave.

"No!" Regina shouts at him grabbing him by the arm. "No you can't tell her that. Not now..." She trails off for a moment. "I'll do it. She..." She struggles to make her point. "She needs to hear it from me. She's..." She laughs at herself. "I need to fix this. If you tell her she's just going to resent me even more than she does at this moment. If I'm going to... to do this... to be better for Henry I guess I have to start with the person that I've done the most damage to." She throws her hands up in exasperation never before considering this as an option. To reform she would have to eventually make amends.

David nods in understanding. "Fine." He says and then as an afterthought, "You know she is the only reason you are alive now don't you?" She meets his icy gaze. "I was perfectly content to leave you on that table and chase after Greg Mendel but she stopped me. She was too upset finding you the way she did." Regina remains silent. "She didn't want to leave you so she had me carry you off and take you back to our home because you see..." He drops his head before finishing. "There's just something about you she'll never let go of and though you fight her she has and always will consider you family."

"Oh... there it is. That magic word." Regina says sarcastically. "I knew you'd get it in to the conversation eventually." An angry frown spreads over her face.

"Believe it or not there is a bit of magic in having a family. That sort of magic might be the very thing to purify your blackened heart." He says in the most pompous way possibly. It didn't matter that he had been raised as a Sheppard he held his head high and made no room for arguments. "I think I might go check on my wife and daughter now if you think you are capable of keeping yourself in check until someone gets back. I don't want to give Gold a chance to rile you up."

"What is it with you both thinking I have no means to defend myself against that man? My mother had him under her thumb I can have him under the heel of my boot just fine." She mutters angrily.

"If it's all the same to you I'd rather not have him under anyone or anything. While I'm gone why don't you take this time to get your thoughts together? You'll have a lot to talk over with Mary Margaret once she's calmed down." He says as he starts to make his way out.

"Ah yes... how I love these little talks." She mutters to herself as she sinks back down to sit in the bunk once more. "I should have thrown myself overboard when I had the chance."