Short chapter, mostly just to draw out some of the conflict from last time. Things will be moving from here on out- there is one chapter left to Part III (heartlines is comprised of parts iii and iv so that makes no difference to you) and then I'll do a brief interlude (a flashback to Snow's birth! featuring several tiny children you may recognize and some weird sexual tension between Eva and Cora, probably) and then take a break to iron out the details of the fourth and final part of this. ANYWAY. Here we go~

Brief trigger warning for some baby complications, all v vague.


They linger in Agrabah for nearly a week; partially as a welcome respite from the tension back home, partially because no one's been willing to approach Regina after that first day. Mulan sends Emma reproving glares masked as dispassionate disagreement when she avoids tracking her down, and Lancelot is only slightly more understanding. "Whatever you started, you don't have much time to work it out. Is this really how you want the world to end?"

He pats her on the shoulder and she grumbles, "Who says I started anything?" Mulan and Lancelot both smirk, unconvinced, and she stomps back toward the gardens to find Al.

Regina, meanwhile, has been standoffish and cool toward anyone who dares speak with her, and Emma most of all. "I have nothing to say to you," she hisses once, whirling away, and Emma can't…clarify, or apologize, or yell some more…or whatever the hell she wants to do.

Which she should really figure out sometime.

The only people Regina has made an exception for are Jasmine- who actually seems to like her, just as Emma had once assured Jasmine she would, even when Regina walks around draped in layers of rage and resentment- and Aziz, who's taken to her with all the energy of a boy who knows a mother when he sees one.

On their last day in Agrabah, Emma finds Regina sitting crosslegged opposite Aziz on the rug in his room, concentrating hard on a scorpion that walks between them. Aziz is lying on his side, fascinated by the creature, and Regina has it walking along the patterned center of the rug. "I bet Genie couldn't handle that," he gloats.

Regina cocks her head. "You'd be surprised just what a genie can do." A secret smile is playing at the edge of her lips, one that stiffens into a grimace when Emma clears her throat. "What now, Swan?"

"We're heading out in an hour. I thought you might want to pack." She manages a smile for Aziz, who scowls at the announcement.

"So soon?"

Regina softens at his consternation. "Our kingdom is in grave danger. We have friends back at home to protect," she says gently. "If we succeed, we may be back again someday."

"Maybe with Henry," Aziz offers, bobbing his head with tentative hope. "I know you'll see him again soon."

Regina shakes her head, but she kisses him lightly on the forehead as they rise and he wraps his arms around Emma. "Maybe someday," she promises him, and for a moment, she can catch Regina's eye and see the same pain and longing mirrored in her gaze. No, there won't be a someday, not for them and Henry.


The trip back is agony, tension settled upon their carriage and dragging them all down. It's a relief when they're closer to the familiar trees and castles of home and Emma has something to look at other than the side of Regina's face, stiff and weighted with still-simmering fury, and even more a relief when they pull in front of the castle at last and are greeted by Red. "Emma! Regina," she says, breathless. "The sentries said they saw you."

"What's going on?" Red is wild-eyed and fearful and Emma leans forward, whatever glower she might've had on her face gone. "What happened?"

Red shakes her head, her eyes clouding up with worry. "It's Snow. They say she might be losing the baby."

They're running upstairs as one, the two of them stumbling with legs unused to moving as they wind around the staircase and down the hall to Regina's quarters. Snow is in her bed, head tilted back and tears slipping down her cheeks, and Emma shoves past Regina to take her hand. "I'm here."

"I'm here," Regina says sharply, circling the bed to take her other hand, and Snow blinks up at them through reddened eyes.

"Kalla hasn't come yet. This could be labor, if labor was so…Oh!" She doubles over, coughing and coughing until blood splatters over Regina's dress.

Regina doesn't budge. Instead, her hand trails across Snow's abdomen and she closes her eyes, struggling to sense something beneath the surface. "I can ease your pain," she offers. "Once Kalla is here…"

"Thank you." Snow wrenches her hand free from Emma's to hold onto Regina with both of hers, and Emma stands awkwardly on the other side of the bed, not sure what to do with her hands. "I can't do this. I can't…Regina, you promised me." Her voice has a hint of a whine in it, plaintive like she's only a child begging for her stepmother's help.

And Regina must hear it too, if only from the way there's sudden discomfort on her face that she wipes cleanly off as she sits down beside Snow. "I meant it," she says darkly. "You will make it through this. Your baby will…" Her voice trails off and Snow lets out an agonized whimper.

"I know your baby is going to be fine," Emma lies, and Snow looks back at her with sudden hope. Emma deflates guiltily.

Regina agrees with that reaction, if the dark look on her face is any indicator, and she grabs Emma's hand and yanks her into the corner. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Giving her hope," Emma hisses. "She's Snow White. She exists on hope. And you're a fucking storm cloud right now, so if you're going to terrify her into losing that–"

Regina's eyes flash. "Oh, do not make this about us right now."

"I wouldn't if you weren't being so…" Emma makes a frustrated noise and wheels around, catching sight of Snow in her bed with her eyes fixed on them. She's groaning with pain but her face is even paler and she's croaking their names nearly soundlessly. Emma hurries back to her and nearly slams into Kalla as she enters.

"No," Kalla says immediately, glaring at both of them. They shrink back, shamefaced. "One or both of you is leaving this room right now. I won't have any disruptions while Snow is struggling."

Regina glares at Emma. Emma glares at Regina. Snow whispers, "Why does it hurt so much?" and lets out a long, agonized moan.

Regina is hovering over her in an instant, her hand pressed to the top of Snow's stomach as Kalla begins to inspect the rest of it, and Emma sags and backs out of the room, dismissed by default.

She hangs around in the doorway until Kalla gives her another warning glare. Snow is still getting pains and Regina is filtering them through as best as she can, and Emma swings around to the back of the room, remembering an old secret passage that leads from Snow's room to the kitchens below.

It's locked now, but Emma can still peer into the room and check in on Snow silently without disrupting the women with her. Regina has calmed in her absence, her eyes fixed on Snow, and when Kalla announces, "Baby's heartbeat is still steady. A bit faster than it should be, but I'm guessing that's just because you're in distress," Emma exhales, leaning against the door in the wall as Snow cries with relief.

Kalla cleans up and gives Snow some herbs to help her heal, promising to return soon with something else for the pain. "No stress," she warns Regina, and Regina glowers and says nothing.

Snow murmurs, "No, tell me. I need…I need to think about something else. What happened with you and Emma? I thought you were finally getting along again."

Emma slinks back, uncomfortable at spying on this, when Regina sighs, sounding more drained than furious, "So did I."

"Emma called it off?" Snow is gaping up at Regina in surprise. "But she loves you."

"She told me that I make her her worst self. So apparently not." Regina stares studiously at Snow's abdomen, her magic still working as it fluctuates against Snow's skin.

Emma longs to say something, to make her presence known and explain what's all muddled up in her head, fears and guilt and frustration, but all she can do is watch as Snow shakes her head, disbelieving. "I don't understand."

"Do you think I do?" Regina's voice is even, tempered to be soothing without giving anything away. Emma is glued to the door. "I've spent…so much of my life respecting Emma for being…brash and stupidly stubborn and so impulsive and brave. And now she's lost all of that and I don't know why or how this happened but I'm not going to sit by and let it twist what we had into…into…" She clenches her jaw and Emma shuts her eyes, unwilling to see her face anymore.

And then Snow says, soft but firm, "If it isn't true." Regina makes a strangled, threatening sound. "If it isn't true," Snow repeats, "Why do you think that Emma would believe it?"

Regina is silent. Emma stays still with gripped indecision. Finally, Regina says, "I don't know," and it sounds so small and uncertain that Emma aches for her. "Henry–"

"Not Henry," Snow says with fond exasperation. "You both have to stop pretending that every issue can be traced back to Henry, no matter how easy a scapegoat that can be."

Regina huffs. "Then what, O Wise Snow? What the hell do you know that I don't?"

Snow shrugs, pain clearing from her face at the movement. "Don't you know it too? Tell me, how do you see Emma?"

Regina opens her mouth, eyes dark and unamused, and Emma flees down the steps to the kitchen before she can hear another word.


Whatever Snow had said to Regina, it changes nothing, and they're both snarling at each other over the war council just days before the curse is due to arrive. Snow sends them outside to take a breather and Emma glares at Regina's apple tree, fantasizing about taking a sword to it and hacking off some branches.

"Must you be such a child?" Regina demands, and Emma notices suddenly that she's holding an apple in her hands and squeezing it.

"Must you be such an asshole?" she retorts, which isn't her strongest comeback but probably the most accurate at the moment.

Emma clenches her fists and Regina sighs dramatically and yeah, fuck it, they're kind of both acting like children. Emma has too much bottled up inside her, too much she can't explain to Regina anymore, and maybe she'd wanted distance but she hadn't wanted this perpetual sniping. It's exhausting and it's heartbreaking and, "Don't you ever feel like we're just going in circles?" she says finally. "This is all so fucking pointless."

Regina stares silently at her, You started this written across her face.

Emma sighs. "I just…we're running out of time to the curse. If we can't stop it–"

"Zelena isn't getting my heart," Regina snaps, turning away from her. "And I'm going to use my mother's reservoir of magic to protect everyone. Don't worry, you'll have plenty more time to castigate me in peace."

"I didn't mean to castigate you!" Emma drops the apple to rub at her temples. A headache is coming on, and it feels like a bad one. "Not everything is about you, okay? Most of this isn't about…Regina, you changed. You gave up on the murderous despot thing and you became some kind of hero." She grabs Regina's wrist and Regina freezes in place. "And you never did any of it for me. What am supposed to think? What good have I ever been for you?"

Regina's free hand is stiff at her side, her spine perfectly straight and only her head bowed the slightest bit toward the ground. Emma says, choked up and cursing herself for the vulnerability tugged out by Regina's cool silence, "I was never enough for you."

Regina turns back, jerky and impassive at once, and her eyes bore holes in Emma. "You never said," she says, her voice unreadable.

Emma hangs her head, flushing wildly, and hates the note of pleading in her voice. "You were better off without me," she whispers. "I tried to tell you."

Regina stares at her for another long minute and then walks past Emma toward the castle doors, her face very, very still.


On the day before the curse is scheduled, they all spread out across the kingdom, armed and ready for a conflict from Zelena. There are no reports of Zelena, no alerts by bird or any other message, and Emma is riding alone across the western border while Mulan takes the opposite direction.

She doesn't know what to expect- if Zelena's promises had been only bravado, if there's some last-minute attack on its way that'll take down every safeguard they have, if the army surrounding Regina right now is about to be felled. She looks to the east anxiously, catching sight of something hovering in the sky.

It isn't a flying monkey and it isn't a messenger bird, and she squints until she sees telltale green below a witch's hat. "Zelena," she hisses, and turns Beetle around.

She has her bow nocked and ready by the time they're zooming toward each other and she fires once, then again, and then Zelena has passed her with a cackle. "Get back here!" she snaps, heels tightening against Beetle. Beetle turns and Zelena circles her again, tighter and tighter as she goes around, and Emma finally gives up and dismounts from Beetle for better maneuverability. Beetle is moving almost lethargically, worn out from all the circles they've been running in, and Emma pats him and nocks another arrow.

"So where's your big leverage?" she demands. "How are you going to get your hands on Regina's heart now?"

Zelena throws back her head and laughs, diving down a little closer, and Emma runs through grass and flowers to follow her, infuriated. "You have no idea, do you?" She stops in place, hovering above orange blossoms, and Emma stalks forward to follow her, worn out and drowsy and furious. "You'd rather spend weeks on some wild goose chase and never imagine that Regina's greatest weakness in all the realm is right here."

She smiles wickedly, gesturing down to the flowers around them, and Emma stumbles as she catches a whiff of the poppies. Poppies, that can put anyone to sleep. "No," Emma says. "You overestimate my importance to Regina."

"Do I?" Zelena hovers lower, careful to remain out of the reach of the poppies. "I told you that she would hand over her heart willingly. And she will, if your life is on the line."

"She won't," Emma says, certain at least of this one matter. "You're wrong." She's woozy now, even Beetle ducking his head and closing his eyes, and her legs are suddenly heavy, too heavy to support her. "You're wrong," she says again, and feels them give way under her.

"We shall see," Zelena hisses in sibilant triumph, and Emma can feel the world fade away as she falls.