A/N: Okay, so remember last chapter when I said that it was really long...This one's even longer. Lol But I think if you really like this story, then you'll really love this chapter. Please leave a review and share with your DragonQueen friends. ;* Love you, guys. MWAH!

Chap 10

"So, this is the top floor penthouse, huh?" Regina joked after a few moments inside Mr. Gold's hotel suite with Maleficent.

"It looks just like yours." Maleficent replied, a bit confused, remembering seeing a glance of it when she and Gold knocked on her door this morning.

"I know. I know, I was kidding." Regina smiled.

"Oh." Mal chuckled.

"I've always loved the view from up here." The brunette walked out onto the balcony and she looked out at the skyline.

"Oh yeah. It's nice." Mal said nervously.

"Come out here with me." Regina offered. "You can see how small everyone is below us."

"Uh, no thanks." The blonde was watching the other intently, hoping she wouldn't fall.

Regina looked back inside at Maleficent sitting in a chair by the glass door that led to the balcony. "Why not?"

"I, uh...I don't do heights very well." She put her head down, expecting Regina to laugh.

"You're afraid of heights?"

"I didn't say I was afraid...I said I didn't do them very well." Maleficent corrected, not wanting to sound weak.

"Ah." Regina smiled to herself. She thought for a moment and decided to tease her newly found friend. She smiled at Mal who was looking at the room service menu. "Hey, look at me." Regina waited for Mal to look. "So you're saying that if I started to fall, you wouldn't step out here just to save me?" The blonde gave her a suspicious look. "Look, no hands." Regina teased and she put both hands in the air, waving them around a bit, leaning over the ledge.

"Cut it out." The blonde reprimanded with an annoyed smile on her face and returning her attention back to the menu in her hands.

"Whoa." Regina faked a quiet sound as if she were falling.

"I mean it, cut it out." Mal refused to look up, but she could see in her perefural vision that Regina was perfectly fine.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry." The brunette walked back inside, amused at Maleficent's fear.

"So, what do you want? I think I'm gonna have some macaroni and cheese with the mashed potatoes and greens." Mal said at the dining room table.

"I'll have the same." Regina replied upon joining the other woman at the table.

"Okay." Mal got up and walked over to the phone to dial for room service. She made their order and slowly walked back, sitting down at the head of the table as Regina sat at the seat beside hers. "So, how did it REALLY go last night?" She wondered about the 'blind date.'

"What?"

"Oh, come on. I could tell you weren't serious when you said it went well."

"Well...No, actually it was pretty good." Regina answered, and when Mal gave her the 'I-don't-really-believe-you' look, she continued. "Really. David is very charming and he was pretty respectful."

"But?" Mal could hear a 'but' approaching.

"But it was kind of ruined because our mothers both decided it'd be better if they tagged along with us."

"Oh dear, no!" The blonde began to laugh. "That's horrible."

"Yeah. I felt like I was in seventh grade again. Ugh! So humiliating!" Regina chuckled. "But that's my mother."

"Well, his too."

"Well, no. There were times when Ruth tried to leave, but Cora wouldn't let her. I'm positive it was my mother's idea in the first place."

"Oh, man. Of course it was." Maleficent laughed once more. "I'm so sorry about that."

"It's fine." Regina smiled. "I don't really see me marrying him anyway."

"Why not? I thought you said he was-"

"Charming, respectful, nice. Yeah, but I need someone less involved in politics."

"Oooo...politician?"

"Well, he works for his father, but he doesn't really like it. His dad wants him to be governor, or president some day and I could tell that his heart wasn't in it. But his dad is exactly like my mother...there's no getting out of what they want."

"Mmm…" Mal nodded. "I hate politics."

"I mean, I always thought being like, in the Senate, or like a local leader like a mayor would be pretty cool, but I would never go beyond that. They just have too many problems on their hands...and I have my own personal issues to deal with, I can't deal with a whole town or city's as well. Let alone a country."

"Yeah." Mal agreed.

"And, I feel like David is too good for me."

"What do you mean?" It suddenly got deep.

"He's practically perfect and he's never done anything wrong."

"Well, I'm sure he's done something wrong."

"Nuh uh. He's a freaking angel." Regina answered sarcastically and she laughed causing Maleficent to join in. "He's probably still a virgin." Mal almost choked and she cried a few tears from laughing.

"Well, I'm sure you haven't done anything too terrible."

"Huh?"

"Well, you're so sweet and you don't seem like you've done anything that bad either." The older of the two wanted to kick herself for opening her mouth, remembering the conversation she and Gold had this morning.

"Well…" Regina began. "I've made some mistakes." She looked down, as if she were ashamed and she almost began to cry.

Saved by the….knock on the door, Maleficent got up to bring in the tray of food for them. "That was quick." She said to the man bringing it in.

"Yeah. Well, we're supposed to be fast, so we do what we can." He sounded a bit out of breath and Mal gave him a pretty generous tip, feeling sorry for him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Peter." Mal read his name off of his name tag and she smiled at him, closing the door behind him as he left.

She brought the food over to the table and set Regina's plate down in front of her, noticing that she had the same look on her face as before the food came. She felt terrible and she put her own plate down at her seat before setting the empty tray on the counter by the door. She returned and sat down, handing Regina some silverware.

"Is it hard being a single mother?" Regina randomly asked, before picking up her fork and fiddling with her food.

Mal looked at her for a moment before figuring out how to answer. "Well, I'm not really a single mother if you think about it. Belle is a big help and she now goes to preschool, so it's not as hard as it was when she was a newborn. I hardly worked when she was just born, so it was only Belle bringing in some rent money, so that was hard...but it's not as bad now because when she's at school she doesn't need anyone to watch her." She took a bite of mac and cheese.

"But it's Summer right now." Regina said, having a bite of mashed potatoes.

"I don't work much. This is the longest I've been away from her. But Belle and I usually take shifts. We never work at the same time because someone has to be watching her, you know?"

"Well, if you ever need someone to watch her...I can do it." Regina suggested, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Really? Thanks." Mal smiled at her, noticing the depressed look on her face. "I'm sure she'd love that. You were wonderful with her." She continued to take another bite of her food.

Regina sniffled. "I wouldn't say that."

The blonde lifted her head in shock. "What do you mean? You were great. She loved you."

"I don't know. I've never really been that great with kids."

"Are you kidding? You were the only one to notice that her drawings were of dragons. And...she let you pick her up this morning...She never lets anyone pick her up unless she really knows you. Or in your case, likes you. I think you'll be a great mother some day. I really do." She took a sip of her iced tea.

"Oh, I don't know about that." Regina let a tear fall down her cheek. "I was a mother once."

Maleficent dropped her fork. "What?"

"I was gonna name him Henry, after my father."

"What happened?"

"My mother never approved of his father….I should've listened to her."

"Regina…" Maleficent held the young girl's hand on the table.

"I was seventeen when we met. He was nineteen, but he was so nice and he helped me get over my friend when she and I-Well, anyway...We dated for a little bit and things were good at first...but then all of a sudden, he would just get so angry so fast. We got into a lot of fights and one day, I had had enough of his yelling, so I tried to tell him that we were done, for good…" She weakly smiled. "He didn't like that very much." It was silent for a moment while Mal tried to process all this information. "Anyway, I got pregnant and six months later, I found out it was a boy and I was gonna keep him and go to fashion school as a single mom, like you." Regina smiled for only a second, wondering what her life would be like. The smile slowly faded. "But one day, I went into the bathroom, and he was gone...Just like that." It wasn't until Regina finished speaking that she realized Maleficent was squeezing her hand.

"I'm so sorry. Did your mother know-"

"That he raped me? No. She didn't care. She never listened. But my father knew...and that's why he's never treated me the way she does. After the miscarriage, I started to hang out with the wrong people. With other girls that knew how I felt as teenage moms themselves. But it turned out they were the wrong people to seek help from. They hooked me into the partying life. I finished high school, went to college, and partied like crazy. Until one night I drank too much, had all kinds of drugs in me, and a whole group of guys took turns doing whatever they wanted with me. When they were finished, the mixture of drugs and alcohol had rendered me unconscious." She chuckled. "They thought I was dead, so they drove me out into the middle of nowhere and dumped me on the side of the rode. Literally, just threw me out of the car. The doctors said it looked like they didn't even slow down or stop to throw me out." She shook her head. "I still remember waking up in the hospital wondering where the hell I was and why I felt like someone's punching bag. A few days went by in the hospital and my sister flew in from New York. She got me clean and then I finally realized why my mother was always more proud of her than me." She pulled her hand away from Maleficent's and took a bite of her greens. "So, yeah. David's too good for me."

"Regina, that was all in the past. You're a changed person now. If he really is as good as you say, then he won't care. He'll be proud of you for how far you've come now."

"Psshhh...No one's proud of me."

"I am."

Regina was the one to drop her fork this time and her eyes looked right into Maleficent's. They just sat for a moment, staring into each other's eyes and they both weakly smiled. Suddenly, they were startled by the ringing of Regina's cell phone.

She gasped and took it out of her pocket, breaking the eye contact as she did so. "Shit." She answered it and put the phone up to her ear. "Mother, what it is it?...Okay….Yes, mother, I will be home in about twenty minutes…..I promise….I know, I know….Bye." She hung up and Mal got nervous, expecting it to be Cora yelling at her for not being home yet, even though it was only about 1:50. "We don't have to rush anymore." Regina smiled at her plate, confusing Maleficent.

"What?"

"My mother just got invited to a very snooty lunch and she said she won't be back until around 4:30."

"Oh, so she said you can go home later?"

"No. Of course not. I'm just gonna stay here for a few more hours and I'll get back before she does." Regina nonchalantly continued to eat her food and Mal got even more nervous.

"What if she's just testing you?"

"Oh, relax. She wouldn't lie about getting invited to this thing. She's wanted to go for years and this is the first time they asked her to go...Trust me, she's really leaving."

Maleficent loosened up a bit and smiled at the young girl who smiled back at her as they both continued to finish their lunch.

They finished eating around 2:15ish and they sat down in the living room for a bit to talk. "Awww, is this you and Lil?" Regina picked up the photo from the coffee table.

"Oh, yeah. That was when she was about four months old, I think."

"Wow." Regina whispered to herself. "So beautiful."

"Yeah, she is." Maleficent said, assuming she was talking about Lily.

"Can I ask you something? And you can't get all defensive and stuff?" Regina wondered, setting the picture back down.

"Yeah, sure."

"How old are you? I mean, you knew that I was twenty the day we met. It's been three days and I still don't know how old you are."

Mal sighed. "I'm 38."

"You are not." Regina refused to believe it.

"No, really. I am."

"You look amazing."

"No, stop it."

"No, seriously. I'm twenty and I don't have the courage to wear what you were wearing when we first met. You honestly look awesome for your age. I mean...you're almost 40."

"I know, I know. Don't remind me."

Regina smiled at the picture on the table. "I can't wait to get older." She said more to herself than to Mal.

"Oh, yes you can."

"No, I can't. Because then I'll be done with school and I'll be able to get my own place and I won't have to deal with my mother so much."

"Ah. Well, you do have to admit she has a good reason to be so worried about you all the time."

"Yeah. You're right." She thought for a moment. "I still wish she'd let me love who I wanted to love though."

"Like whom?"

Regina hesitated, not wanting to tell her. "Well, there was this guy. Just before college. His name was Daniel and he was my everything. I actually calmed down on partying for a bit when we were together."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We were actually engaged for a while."

"Engaged?" Maleficent was shocked and a little impressed. "What happened?"

"Well, as you know my mother...she didn't really approve of him much. She drove him away and he transferred schools to go to Harvard, all the way over in Massachusetts."

"Awww."

"Yeah. But it's fine. I mean, maybe I should just be focusing on school. Hey, maybe I should tell her that to get her off me about David. I'm going to this school for her in the first place."

"Where are you going?"

"UCLA to study law."

"Law? What about studying fashion?"

"Like Cora would ever let me do that. Yeah, I really wanted to go to F.I.T. in New York City, but she wanted me to study something with 'more stability.' Man, sometimes I wish I could show her some 'more stability.'"

Maleficent giggled. "I came here to be an actress."

"Really? Wow."

"Yeah, but that dream never came true."

"What happened?"

"Life happened. You know, there's always someone out there who's better than you."

"Awww. I'm sorry."

"Then I met Belle and she kinda got me into what I do now and, yeah. I got pregnant. I don't even know who Lillith's father is. But it's alright. She doesn't need him."

Regina thought for a moment. "Maybe you should go to New York."

"What? No."

"Yes, yes. I mean, people are bitches here in California. Go to New York City and I'm sure you could find a great acting job there. Or, you could go to Chicago or Canada. I hear Vancouver has a ton of possibilities up there."

"I don't know."

"Come on, you have to. Mr. Gold is paying you good at the end of this week, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Then go."

"I don't know. I'm 38. Don't you think that's a little late to start an acting career?"

"It's never too late for anything. Go. Don't limit yourself. Always set your heights a little higher and you'll accomplish a lot."

Regina's excitement made Mal very giddy and she started to dream again. She smiled at Regina and held her hand. "Maybe I will."

"Yes, and Lily would love the snow in any of those places. Kids always love snow."

"I like talking to you." Mal said, not aware that she was even thinking that.

"So do I. It's nice to have someone to just listen." Regina agreed, smiling.

Suddenly, the sun began to shine even brighter than it already was outside and they both turned their attention to look out the large penthouse windows.

"What a nice day." Maleficent exclaimed.

"Yeah. Come on." Regina stood up and grabbed Mal's hand. "You have to come out on the balcony at least for a second."

"I don't know." The blonde nervously said as she was being pulled off the couch. Regina got her to the door that led to the balcony and she stopped, pulling her hand away from Regina's. "I can't do it."

"Oh, yes you can. You have to get over the fear some time." Regina stepped out onto the balcony.

"No I don't."

"Yes you do. Just think of it like New York. Or like when you left home and came here. It's the same thing."

"Uh, I don't think so."

"Yes, it is. You have to reach for the stars and you can't do that if you never get high enough." A large gust of wind blew and Regina put her hands up in the air as if she were flying.

Maleficent smiled at her enthusiasm, but still didn't budge. "Yes, I can. I'll just call room service to bring them down for me."

Regina put her arms down and she looked at Mal as if she were being ridiculous and she giggled a bit. "Fine. But you have until the next wind blows and I fall right off this ledge."

"Don't you dare." Maleficent said as Regina jumped up and sat on the ledge that made her a few inches taller than Mal even when she was standing. The blonde nearly had a heart attack. "No! Get down! You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"Not if you come and save me!"

"You're crazy!" Mal laughed.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not." Regina leaned back just a tad. "Um...Uh...Uh oh!"

"I'm not falling for that." Mal put her hands on her hips.

"I feel another blow of wind coming." Regina playfully gasped and she leaned back again, this time a little bit more as Maleficent jerked everytime the young girl pretended she was going to fall. "Oh no. Oh no."

"Stop it." Maleficent said. "If you die it's gonna be your fault."

"If I die it'll be because you didn't save me." Regina corrected as she leaned back again. "Oh. Oh. Oh. Here it comes."

Maleficent looked at the leaves on the apple blossom trees on the other balconies around the hotel. The shook just a bit as a new gust of wind was approaching. She looked at Regina leaning back and she held her breath before quickly stepping out onto the balcony and grabbing both of Regina's hands. The twenty year old, who was looking up to the sky, was shocked at the contact and surprised that she actually did it. She looked down at Maleficent standing below her and Mal looked up into the sitting woman's eyes. She slid her hands down Regina's sides, holding her waist and helping her down off the ledge. As Regina got down, she felt her back sliding against the marble stone of the ledge, but she felt as if her feet never touched the ground staring into Mal's eyes and feeling her hands still around her waist. The brunette found herself holding the other woman's shoulders as support when she got down, but surprisingly, she never let go. Maleficent forgot that she was on the balcony for a moment until the new gust of wind finally came.

She quickly let go of Regina and stepped back inside, as the young girl felt the warmth in her cheeks. She put a hand up in her hair as she looked down at the ground and cleared her throat before joining Mal back inside.

"You did it." Regina said slowly, as Maleficent kept her back to the twenty year old. The younger of the two walked around the other woman to look into her eyes again. Suddenly, she remembered what the blonde had said to her at the table earlier and something urged her to say it back. "I'm proud of you."

They let it happen. Neither of them wanted to, but they were too weak to stop it. The second Regina said those four words, they kissed and they each knew that they were getting into a lot of trouble falling in love.

Feeling the soft, lingering touch of Maleficent's lips, Regina's heart beat increased. Maleficent felt dizzy and she had no idea what was happening until the younger woman broke the kiss. "Shit." Regina said, stepping away from Mal and looking at the floor. "Shit!" She repeated louder, this time grabbing her head with both hands.

Maleficent watched her walk away as she held onto her own lips, tears filling her eyes. She had never thought of herself loving another woman before. Never in a million years did she see it coming. Even in her "line of work," she had never felt this terrified or inexperienced before. She didn't know what to do, had no clue how to process her feelings. The only thing she felt right now was electricity floating through her body. It caused a pain in her heart, yet she liked it. She desired more. Suddenly, she was snapped out of her daze as she realized Regina was about to explode and she was about to leave. "Wait. Regina, wait!"

"I can't." It was then that Mal realized Regina was bawling. "I have to go. This-" The brunette sobbed. "I'm-I'm sorry."

Maleficent jumped when the door shut and she grabbed the chair closest to her in the dining room before sliding down into it. She hugged herself, feeling the long lasting butterflies in her stomach and the terrible pain in her chest that lingered. Her breaths became short and heavy as she found it difficult to breathe. What was happening? She couldn't believe what she was feeling nor what she was thinking. Seeing how hard Regina took it horrified her even more and she closed her eyes, remembering the sensation during the kiss. She thought once more of exactly how it happened and suddenly, her eyes quickly shot open as she replayed Regina's reaction over and over again. "Shit!" she heard her saying. She closed her eyes once more and this time, she cried, still hugging herself and she was sure her breathing had stopped.