Author's Note: The song Emma and Regina dance to in this chapter is Bad Blood by Taylor Swift. Their dance is based off of Derek Hough and Anna Trebunskaya's Paso Doble to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. The song their team dances to is Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Their dance isn't based off of anything.

WEEK 6

Oh, it's so sad to think about the good times, you and I
'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood
You know it used to be mad love
So take a look what you've done
'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood

Come on, dance
Jump on it
If you sexy then flaunt it
If you freaky then own it
Don't brag about it, come show me

They get to the rehearsal studio at almost nine o'clock. Emma is exhausted both physically and emotionally, but she also knows that she is a team captain and no matter what is going on with her and Regina right now, she needs to help step up and lead this team.

Their song is Uptown Funk and Emma's actually kind of excited about it. It's a popular song, which will work in their favor and there's lots of room for group parts and their individual solos. They're able to dance freestyle, which Emma also appreciates.

The pros all get together right away to start listening to the music and figure out group choreography, which leaves the celebrities to mill around with each other.

"Okay, so, we need a team name." Emma says, because she needs to feel productive.

"We could always go Team Uptown." Walsh offers.

"Or Team Funk." Jim says and Ruby quickly nods along.

"Yes! Team Funk."

"Alright." Emma nods. "I think we've got a team name."

They actually get a lot done during the first rehearsal. They've got their name decided upon, plus costuming ideas – red and black are their colors of choice and they're thinking red suits with black shirts and fedoras for the guys and red dresses with black accents for the ladies – thanks to the celebrities and the whole first second of group choreography thanks to the pros.

Emma likes getting to see how everyone works together and she enjoys everyone on her team. But the time comes when everyone has reached their limits for the evening and is readying to go, so they decide to work on individual solos during their regular rehearsals and come back to put it all together on Friday's group rehearsal.

Ruby, Peter, Jim, and Kathryn all head out pretty quickly once that decision has been made, but Zelena grabs Regina and takes her off somewhere. Emma knows that she could – and maybe even should – just leave now, but she ends up staying around.

Walsh offers her a smile. "You were incredible tonight, by the way. And I'm really glad you picked me to be on your team."

"Thanks." Emma nods. "I'm glad you're on my team. I think we're going to be great."

"With you and Regina leading us, I'm sure we will. You guys make a great pair."

Emma's heart aches at those words but she still smiles. "Thanks."

"Alright, my pretty," Zelena says as she sweeps back into the room, hugging Emma and kissing both her cheeks, "we shall see you later. Get some sleep and don't let my sister wear you out."

There's something to Zelena's words, an added tone, but Emma's too tired to figure it out. She just smiles at Zelena and nods. "Bye."

Then Zelena and Walsh are gone and Regina has still not come back. Emma considers just leaving, but finds that she can't. She needs to at least tell Regina she's leaving, so she heads out of the rehearsal space and starts searching for her.

She isn't in the kitchen or in any of the other dance spaces, so Emma heads for the bathroom. Before she's even the whole way into the door, hands are grabbing her arm and dragging her in, then throwing her across the room.

"What the hell are you doing?" Emma shouts as she collides with the wall.

"Me?" Regina asks, fire burning in her eyes. "What the hell am I doing? What the hell were you doing tonight?"

"Are you kidding me?" Emma spits, her anger suddenly boiling over. "Are you fucking kidding me, Regina? I was dancing. What I came on this show to do! What were you doing? Oh, that's right – you were living your goddamn dream with Robin!"

"Don't you throw that back in my face," Regina stalks closer and there's a warning in her voice. "Not when you're out there doing lifts with Killian."

Emma laughs, and it's a bitter sound. "That's what this is about? That I did lifts with Killian? So what, you're allowed to do whatever you want with your new partner, but I can't?"

"You practically fucked him on the dance floor!" Regina shouts.

The tears that she's been fighting all night rise up in Emma's eyes and she shakes her head. "You know what, Regina? I'm not doing this. Not tonight."

She goes to move past her and out of the room, but Regina blocks her path. "No. You don't get to run away. Not until you tell me why."

"Why?" Emma says incredulously. "Why I did lifts with him? What does it matter?"

"You told me you didn't want to do lifts." Regina tosses right back. She'd wanted to do lifts with Emma a few times, but Emma had said no. "But suddenly with Killian –"

"Killian is a man. He's stronger than you. I knew I wouldn't hurt him if we did a lift. That's all it was." Emma moves into Regina's space, until they're just inches apart. "And just so you know, I wasn't sure about the lifts. I wanted to ask you what you thought so I came to you. But you were too busy with Robin doing god knows what at your house and looking at me like I was dirt on the bottom of your shoe that I never got the chance."

"You showed up at my home at nine o'clock at night. How was I supposed to explain that to Robin?"

Emma blinks. "What did you have to explain? I'm your partner. I was coming to talk to you. You didn't have to explain anything. You didn't owe him anything."

"And I owed you?"

"I'm your partner! Or at least I was, until you got to work with your dream partner."

"Oh don't do that." Regina scoffs.

"Do what?" Emma demands.

"Play the foster child card. I'm not your parents, Emma. I'm not going to send you away just because something better came along!"

Just because something better came along. The words hit her with the force of a physical blow and Emma feels her legs give out on her. She falls back against the wall, starting to slide down it before she steels herself. She will not crumble in front of Regina. She will not give her the satisfaction.

She doesn't know who it is she's seeing in front of her right now, but it's not her partner, the Queen of the Ballroom. This is more like the Evil Queen.

"Well," She manages, her voice shaking just a bit as she stands up tall, "you don't have to worry about that, because I'm done. You can have your something better."

And with that, she pushes past Regina and walks out the door.

There's a CD by Regina's things when she grabs her own bag. It catches her eye in her haste to leave and when she registers what it says, Emma starts to laugh out loud.

Their individual song for the week is Bad Blood by Taylor Swift.

Emma laughs the whole way to her Bug.

Then she cries the whole way back to her apartment.

Lily isn't there when Emma gets home and she doesn't know where to be glad or upset about that.

On one hand, she won't see her totally breaking down over the dance partner that Lily had once teased her about falling in love with. On the other, Emma could really use a shoulder to cry on right about now.

She's just about to fall into bed, smudged makeup and all, when the pounding on her door starts. "Emma! Open up! Now!"

Emma's heart jumps to her throat when she hears Regina's voice and she considers for just a second not even opening the door. But the banging persists and Emma doesn't want her neighbors calling the cops. That's all she needs right now.

So Emma opens the door.

Regina has her turned around and slammed against the door in five seconds flat.

"You," She says, right in Emma's face, "do not get to walk away. You are not leaving me!"

And Emma wants to say something – goes to say something – but then, she's stopped by Regina's lips against her own.

For a minute, she thinks this is all a dream or a hallucination. But then Regina moves against her, pushing against her tighter, and Emma knows that it's real. It's more real than any of the other times Regina's body has been against her.

"Regina." She rasps out when Regina pulls away, trying to search her eyes. Regina just shakes her head and kisses her again, a kiss that is needy but passionate. Emma clings to her, getting lost in the kiss.

And then they're moving. They're moving together and it's almost like a dance that Regina has choreographed, they're so in sync with each other. They make it to her bedroom and their clothes fall away and then it's just them, just them and this dance that their bodies are doing.

It's fluid and sensual and sharp and powerful all at once.

If there were judges there to score them, it would be a perfect ten.

"I panicked." Regina says later, her voice cutting through the silence that has settled over the room. She's wrapped around Emma, her head resting on Emma's chest. Emma prepares herself for the blow that she's sure is about to come.

"I saw you at my door and I just panicked. I didn't know what Robin would think. And I shouldn't care. I don't care. But I just – I don't know." Regina admits. "I don't know what's going on. I'm not – I've never – but with you –"

Emma presses a soft kiss to her forehead and shushes her. "It's okay."

"It's not." Regina whispers. "I care about you, Emma. And I'm sorry that I hurt you."

Emma doesn't tell her it's okay this time, because it's not. She'll forgive her – she'll forgive her anything – but she won't say that it's okay.

"The package was bullshit. I don't even remember saying that. And I never wanted to dance with Robin. The only reason I came back to the show was because of you. There isn't someone better."

Emma lets those words wash over her, lets them sink into her skin and work towards mending the gashes in her heart.

Regina kisses her, then sits up, the sheets pooling at her waist. "I want to keep dancing with you, Emma. I want to win the mirror ball with you."

Emma does smile then, sitting up to meet her. "I want that too."

Regina nods and looks down, entwining their fingers together and then looking up at Emma. Before she ever speaks, Emma knows what she's going to say. "We can't do this again. I don't regret it. We're both adults and – I need you to understand how I feel. But I'm not – we can't do it again."

And Emma is in love with Regina Mills. One hundred percent. So she just nods and acts like she agrees, because she'd do anything to make Regina happy.

The paso doble, which is their dance style this week, works best when there is a tension between the two dancers. Based on bullfighters going into the ring, it's a dance that should show power with a hint of aggression.

It fits their moods this week perfectly.

Although they haven't spoken any more about what happened – either with their switch partners or with each other the night before – things feel resolved to Emma. She feels like she has her Regina back, which is really all that she wanted.

Still, it's very easy to call upon all her frustration and anger to bring to this dance. She wonders just how much the producers know about what's happening behind the scenes.

Regina choreographs two lifts into the routine.

They're rather simple, compared to the ones that Emma did with Killian. All Emma has to do is kick her leg up straight and the hook it over Regina's arm while they're in hold. Then Regina lifts her up and spins them around before putting her back down. The second one is an easy spin out lift where Emma's feet barely come off the ground.

Still, Emma is delighted and practices them with her over and over until she feels like they're perfect.

She also films a clip of them doing the first lift in practice and tweets it out with the caption ' ReginaMills is sweeping me off my feet'.

On Thursday, Emma convinces Regina to do a Dubsmash with her.

She tries to get her to do the lift scene from Dirty Dancing, just to show Regina who she'd really like to do lifts with, but Regina refuses. Instead, they end up doing the 'Spaghetti Arms' scene, with Regina playing Johnny.

Emma sends out a tweet with the video attached to this caption:

EmmaSwan You gotta hold the frame.

On Friday, they have their second group dance rehearsal and Emma is able to enjoy it much more than the first one.

The pros go through the choreography with them, changing things as they need, until it's a tight dance. Everyone's individual solos look great and fit them and the music. It's upbeat and fun and Emma thinks that they will definitely win the competition. She doesn't see how Mary Margaret's team could top this.

There's a lot of laughter as they work through everything and Emma is pleased to see that Regina and Zelena seem to be getting along better than they had on Friday. It's so interesting to watch them together and see their dynamic. While Regina says that they aren't close, Emma can see a desire to be in both of them.

After they've finished rehearsing, Emma insists on a group shot of all of them to tweet out. They've gotten permission to tease the song and the group name, so Emma sends out the picture with the text saying '#TeamFunk is ready to funk you up'.

Dress rehearsal goes badly when it comes to their paso.

She and Regina were both planning on wearing the long flowing skirts to use in the dance, but it quickly becomes apparent when they've got them on for the first time that it isn't going to work. They get too tangled together, so Regina's skirt has to go. She ends up in tight black leather pants and a black bikini-like top that is similar to Emma's top.

Emma isn't sad to see the skirt go. Not if it means she gets to see Regina's ass in those pants.

"Hey." Emma grabs Regina's arm and pulls her into the bathroom – the only place without cameras and sound equipment – before they head down to the dance floor.

"Emma, we have to get down there." Regina protests.

"You always tell me not to watch the package. I'm not watching the package." Emma grins at her.

Regina rolls her eyes. "Idiot." She whispers affectionately.

Emma pulls her close. "I just wanted to say that I'm really glad that I'm dancing with you tonight. And for the rest of – well, the rest of my time here."

Regina smiles genuinely then. "I'm glad too."

Emma leans forward and presses their lips together.

"Emma." Regina says, sounding a bit reprimanding.

"I know. I know. But I just had to." She winks and then steps out of the bathroom, heading for the dance floor.

The paso goes perfectly. (Or almost perfectly, according to Gold.)

Emma feels it as they move through the dance – this is the perfect show of their relationship. It's the push and pull that they go through as they dance. There's a struggle and an intensity to it and Emma loves it. Everything feels right when she dances with Regina like this. Everything clicks into place.

The audience goes absolutely wild when they finish and Emma laughs as Regina pulls her into a hug before they walk over to the judges.

"Regina, darling, you are back where you belong!" Jefferson gushes. "You two were perfectly in sync, you showed the passion and the intensity of the paso and it was brilliant!"

"I could feel everything that you were going through in this dance tonight – the frustration, the anger, the love. You went through every emotion and conveyed it perfectly. I believed that you were in the middle of a fight in your relationship. It may be Bad Blood, but this was a great dance!" Astrid exclaims.

"I liked the passion and the drama of it. I think you could've had a few more traditional paso doble elements to it, but I appreciate what you were doing. Overall, though, I liked it." Gold tells them, to the boos of the audience.

"They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and I think in this case, absence makes the dancing better. I agree with Jefferson, Regina, seeing you this week, it is obvious that you belong with Emma on this dance floor. You two are a force to be reckoned with." Lacey finishes.

They earn 39 points once again – and damn it, Emma will get a ten from Gold if it kills her – and quickly rush off to change into their team dance costumes.

"You ready, captain?" Jim asks as they take their places back stage. Emma laughs at him as she leans over to adjust his tie.

"Of course. We've got this in the bag."

Mary Margaret's team – Team Sweethearts, and wasn't that just gag worthy? How on earth did Killian ever agree to that? – had done their freestyle to I Really Like You by Carly Rae Jepson and it had been good, but far too sugary sweet for Emma's tastes. The judges had given them all nines and Emma feels confident that they can beat them.

"She's right you know." Zelena smirks. "We could beat those goody two-shoes with our eyes closed."

"Just don't get too cocky, sister dear." Regina reminds her.

"Let's go funk this place up, shall we?" Ruby says as their team is introduced and the music starts.

They absolutely kill it.

The audience is on their feet, clapping to the beat and cheering the entire time. They are all perfectly together and all of them are having a blast. The group sections are tight and the solos are all awesomely done to show off their different skills. At the end, they've thrown in old school dances like the sprinkler and the lawn mower and it's just so much fun. Emma loves every second of the dance and getting to do it with these people.

The judges must feel what Emma is feeling, because they're all complimentary – even Gold. And in the end, they walk away with a 39 out of 40 (damn it, Gold) to take the win.

Emma can't help but feel gleeful that they've beaten Robin, and based on the look on Regina's face, she feels the same way about Killian. It really is the best possible outcome for both of them.

The outcome for Walsh, though, isn't the best possible one. He gets voted off at the end of the night.

It's getting hard to lose people now that relationships are forming. Emma's just glad that she doesn't have to lose Regina yet.