Okay, kiddies, this is super quick because i'm already running late for work and don't even have time to proofread again.

The start of this chapter was written last night. That's right, LAST NIGHT! Everybody was so looking forward to a confrontation between Daniel and David and i hadn't actually written one so i went back and put a scene in. Not entirely sure how i feel about it, but here it is, on time, as promised.

Now i can go back to writing about runaway horses and mama bears :D

More on that later.

Again, thanks for all the feedback, it's been ace of you guys to take the time and effort. I hope this chapter lives up to everybody's anticipation (forgive me any errors) and I'll catch you guys either by PM or on Friday.

Read, love, review :D

Chapter 11 – Cups Running Over

David eyed Daniel and didn't lower his sword.

Regina's words, her worries over what might lie in Daniel's chest, pounded in David's head. He licked his lips and pushed Regina even further behind him.

Daniel's eyes dropped with the movement of Charming's hand and burned with their intensity when he saw David's hand cup Regina's hip and push her even further behind the bulk of his body.

Daniel's chin tilted up, his jaw tightening to a line of granite. He rolled his shoulders under his jacket and met David's gaze head on. His fists tightened so hard they crackled. He had the obscene urge to wrap his hands around David's head and squeeze until red spurted between his fingers. He muscled it down and watched David.

"Well?" The growl that had taken up residence in his voice made it sound like it belonged to someone else and he gentled himself when he saw a hint of Regina's flinch. "Am I going to get an answer?"

"Nothing's going on." David finally spoke after a long moment of waiting for Regina to chime in. "Just bringing Regina home."

"I can see that." Daniel prowled forward and stopped when David shifted with him, keeping himself between Regina and Daniel. Daniel's head tilted. "Well, this is new. Prince Charming offering to protect the Evil Queen. What will the little villagers say?"

"I don't want any trouble."

"Marvellous." Daniel bared his teeth in something like a smile. "Leave and there won't be any."

"Henry, take your mom inside." David didn't turn to look at his grandson and Henry –despite his pathological need to meddle- wisely kept his mouth shut and scooted forward to take Regina's hand.

"Round the back, Henry." David's arm stretched out to bar them from coming around his side. "Go round back."

"David…" Regina's voice was weak behind him but David still didn't turn, even when her fingers tightened on his sleeve. "Please."

"It'll be fine." David reached blindly back and herded her away. "Let Henry take you inside."

"Right." Regina caught on eventually and looped her arm around Henry's shoulders, trying not to lean too heavily on him as he escorted her around the side of the mansion.

If things went South and –judging by the look on Daniel's face- they might well do, David wanted to put as many obstacles between Hyde-lite and Henry as he could. Bricks, mortar and Regina if at all possible. He knew she would give everything she had to protect her son and –weakened or not- if she had beat Hyde as a monster, she should be able to beat the shadow in Daniel's chest.

If one even existed.

Daniel stretched up on his toes to watch Regina disappear around the side of the house, one arm hugged around Henry and the other around herself, before his gimlet glare filleted David.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on." David finally lowered his sword a little. "You just startled us is all."

"Startled was five minutes ago when all you could see was my shadow, you're afraid of me. Why?"

"Regina and Henry might have forgotten what you're capable of, but I haven't."

Daniel jerked as if David had swung for him and blinked.

"I'm not…I'm no danger to anyone."

"We both know that's not true." David prodded carefully.

If he had to take on monsters at all, he'd have preferred his nine millimetre to be on his hip and perhaps a shotgun on his back for good measure, but his sword had gotten him through enough hellish scrapes in the past not to be discounted. Regina and Henry were out of the way, the Mills Mansion was far enough removed from other homes…he'd been in worse situations.

Now all he needed was for Hyde to show himself.

If he was even in there.

David resisted the strong urge to growl. This was ridiculous. Regina's paranoia was infectious. He had only her crazed ramblings to go on and –half the time- she made things much worse for herself than they needed to be. If she just relaxed and acted like a normal person for five consecutive minutes, he'd bet her life would run a lot smoother.

Still, there he was, standing in front of her fiancé, preparing to run him through if his grin was too wide.

"I'm sorry I hurt Henry and I'm even sorrier for hurting Regina but, I swear to you, I would die a thousand times over before I hurt either of them again." Any trace of malice left Daniel and he looked at David with the simple truth in his eyes. He shrugged helplessly. "And I'm one of the few people who knows exactly what he's saying with that statement."

David huffed a laugh despite himself and scrubbed a hand through his hair. He heaved a sigh. He rallied himself to dislike Daniel, to make this easier, but it wouldn't come.

Hell, he couldn't even hate Regina properly anymore.

He did like being David, like the softer aspects of his character, the way he more easily said what he felt, but goddamn that stupid swithering spinelessness of his.

"I believe you," David nodded, "but we both know it wasn't you that tried to throttle the woman you love."

Daniel clenched his jaw and looked away.

"I just want to see her." Daniel couldn't look as he had to speak of it to a nearly complete stranger. "She was to be my wife, does that count for nothing?"

"No. Not for nothing." David felt that treacherous empathy corrode his steely resolve. He'd chew through brick to get back to Snow had they been parted as long as Daniel and Regina had…then again, Snow's meltdowns didn't come with a nuclear setting.

"Then let me by. I'm not a warrior, I'm unarmed, I cannot force you to step aside but…I implore you…let me see my woman."

David clenched his jaw and fidgeted with the gleaming blade of his sword. He stopped when he realised it might be misconstrued. He shook his head.

"I can't. Not tonight. She's not…she's been through the wringer tonight. She and Henry had a…thing."

"What's he done to her now?"

"He hasn't done anything! He's never done anything to deserve being made to think he was crazy!" David snarled suddenly and then hauled himself under control again. He couldn't get mad around Daniel. Not if there really was a monster under his skin just waiting to come out and play.

"He's one of the only people that can hurt her."

"And you're the other!" David stepped forward, toe to toe with Daniel and looked him right in the eye. He had to look a little up as well. Daniel was about three inches taller than he was. "Do you get it? She's hanging on by a thread. She was scatty enough to begin with and then she brought you back and her control is completely shot! She has no idea what to do with herself, never mind you. She's trying –desperately trying- to believe that her own son can love her and she can't do that with you around. When you're around, all she can see is you. All that's in her heart, is you, all that's in her head, is you. You're her entire world, Daniel, and –tonight- that's not good for her."

Daniel swallowed hard and looked away from David. He looked sick to his stomach and David could identify. He hated playing people and he was nowhere near as good at it as Regina was but…but it had to be done.

"Just give her tonight. Let her be with Henry, let her be his mother again, just for tonight." David shrugged helplessly. "They both need it."

Daniel was staring –glaring- at the path beneath his feet and seemed to turn to stone he was so still. David was on the verge of poking him with his sword to see if he was still conscious when Daniel's head lifted and his eyes burned.

"Again." The words seethed from him. "Again and again, it's asked of me. To be parted from her, to give her up for the betterment of her. To let her go and live her life and be with someone else, to MARRY someone else, to be SOLD to someone else to fill the BED of someone else, to be anything but mine. Such a cruelty you weigh on me. Such a penance for the sin of loving her." Daniel spun away and paced, tunnelling his fingers through his hair.

"How can it be? How can it be that everyone else gets their true love? How can it be that True Love absolves all past mistakes bar hers?!" Daniel whipped his arm out, pointing to the light burning in the window above them. "She waited in hell for me. For life without me was hell for her. For forty years she tempered herself in the fire of hell, her soul on fire, her heart blackened by it and now –here I am- and you stand between us again?"

"I'm just saying one more night…" David would have given anything for him to stop talking. Anything to let him go to Regina, as if it was that simple, but it wasn't. Daniel going to her now…there was no way it could end well.

"I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!" Daniel thundered loud enough to startle birds from their roost in the nearby trees. They applauded into the night sky, clapping into the silence that stretched taut between the two men.

"Now, listen to what I say and think about your next words." Daniel spoke quietly and urgently to David. "Imagine that she's Snow. Imagine having been parted from her, having finally returned to her only to find her shattered and broken. Not evil, because you know that's not in her, she can't be evil. She can do it, any of us can, of course we can, but she in herself is NOT evil. You feel it with every fibre of your damn body that she isn't the monster people paint her to be but she just won't let you close enough to get her to believe that you believe, that you KNOW you'll never stop loving her…and now she's brought someone else into it. Now she's brought in this good man to help her hoard her pain, a good man she knows you won't hurt because you're a good man yourself. She could have gone to Rumplestiltskin, she could have gone to any of her allies, she could have hidden with them but she didn't because she knew you'd tear them apart with your bare hands to get to her."

Daniel stepped closer and pleaded with David, he was past pride now. Past anger or fear or any of those other selfish emotions and all he wanted now was to help Regina.

"And this good man, quite because he is a good man, is protecting her with everything he has because he thinks it's the right thing to do. Even though it's quite possibly the worst thing he could do to her."

"She's not Snow." David finally mumbled.

"No, she isn't, but if she were…would you leave?" Daniel held out his hands. "So ask me again, Prince Charming, virtuous hero, ask me again to leave the woman that needs me. Ask me to abandon her to the likes of your better judgement, because judgement is all she's ever going to get from you. Ask me again to be parted from her one more second than I have to. Ask me again and know that you are wilfully hurting both of us, crushing us with the foolish weight of your good intentions, ask it of me again and I will go. I'll go without a backward glance...but you should also know that you've revealed to me exactly what kind of man you are."

Daniel dropped his hands to his sides and waited.

David pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He wanted badly to stab something just to make himself feel better…but good men didn't go around doing that sort of thing. That was the kind of shit that had gotten his brother killed.

He looked up at Daniel and opened his mouth, prepared to tell him to leave anyway, but it never happened.

"I'm not going to ask you to leave."

Daniel blinked, clearly surprised that he'd managed to get through to the prince.

"I'm going to ask you to come back."

Daniel frowned.

"It's not my intention to part you. I think –if Regina ever manages to get over herself for two damn minutes- you're probably the best thing for her, but not tonight. Not right now. So, come back. Tomorrow. Come back to her when she can actually face her. You know her, she's so damn proud, she can't stand anyone to see her hurting or weak, least of all someone who matters to her. So, come back in the morning."

Daniel snorted, a rueful and sad smile tugging at his mouth. He shook his head and reached out, clapping his hand on David's shoulder.

"Pretty words, Charming, but I see you for what you are."

Then, true to his word, Daniel skirted David and headed out of the garden. He closed the gate quietly behind him and strode off down the street. His head was down, his hands stuffed in his pockets…and he didn't once look back.

David's jaw clenched.

"Shit."

The Next Morning…

Regina awoke to knocking.

Her eyes snapped open and her body tensed. She had grown so used to the silence of the huge house that –for a moment- she forgot that she hadn't been alone last night. For the first time in weeks, she'd had other people in the house with her.

One of which was latched around her waist like a limpet.

Another frisson of panic went through her at the weight but it faltered into nothing but befuddlement when she looked down and found Henry beside her.

The knock sounded again.

"Come in." Regina sat up, smoothing her hair as best she could.

"Mmf." Henry grumbled, shifting with her, apparently not interested in releasing her in the slightest.

The door was opened hesitantly and David cautiously poked his head into the room.

"Hi." He said awkwardly.

"Good morning." Regina blinked rapidly.

She wasn't well enough for this. She resigned herself to being vulnerable in his eyes. She'd threaten him with unspeakable torments, so that he never told another living soul, later.

"Good afternoon." He offered her a lopsided smile. "You slept the night away and, uh, Daniel's here."

Regina stilled, tensing again, but was saved from having to supply an immediate reply by Henry.

"What time is it?" He yawned and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"A little after one."

Regina froze in the act of smoothing down Henry's bedhead and levelled a look at Charming.

"Shouldn't Henry be in school?"

"He didn't sleep last night." David's voice was flat, laying the blame for it fully at her feet. "He was worried about you and couldn't rest unless he was close enough to protect you."

"Oh." What the hell was she supposed to say to that? "Thank you, sweetheart." Regina smiled at Henry and he offered her a faintly embarrassed one in return. They all knew Henry had been the one that had needed protecting, even if Regina had been unconscious, he'd still had faith that she could drive the nightmares away.

Nightmares that were getting worse and worse lately. At least last night they hadn't been in the red room and they'd stopped when he'd come in here to sleep.

Henry didn't appreciate lying in general but he did like that his Gramps had bent the truth a little. Knights weren't supposed to get scared and need to sleep next to their moms in order to keep the bad dreams away.

"Are you hungry?" Regina distracted him. "I can make you some breakfast…or lunch now I suppose."

"I'll make it!" Henry almost hurled himself from the bed, desperate to be of some use. "You're sick. I'll make it. What do you want?"

"Uh…" Regina glanced over the top of Henry's head at David who nodded subtly. He'd help as best he could.

Her mouth twisted at her comments yesterday disparaging his culinary skill. Still…she supposed she owed him some common courtesy for handling Daniel the night before. She dreaded to think what kind of impression Daniel now had of Regina and David's relationship –Charming had sounded more than a little protective and possessive when it came to men lying in wait on her doorstep- but Regina had been up for neither facing Daniel in her condition nor sending him away. David had taken care of it for her while she hid behind him like a child clutching at their father's coattails.

"Surprise me." She smiled at Henry and was engulfed in his arms for a bone creaking hug before he dashed for the door, skipping through it when David held it open for him.

"And Daniel?" David studied her. "I can try and send him away again but he's pretty determined to see you. I don't think I can put him off much longer." Something flickered in his gaze, whatever he had said the night before to get Daniel to leave had sat ill with him.

Oh well, probably best to get this over with sooner rather than later.

"You can send him up." Regina fidgeted with her bedsheets. "Try and keep Henry occupied, this probably isn't going to be pleasant."

"You're going to be okay?"

Regina met David's eyes and considered every layer of that question. So few words and so many meanings. She nodded after a moment.

"I'll be fine." She'd decide later if that was a lie.

"Alright, I'm right downstairs. Shout if you need me."

"Will do." Regina heaved in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

It wasn't even half a minute before the door swung open without even a knock and Daniel strode in.

Wow.

Power, anger, rolled off him in waves. He strode into the room, his gaze landing on her like a physical thing, scouring her from head to toe. He didn't say anything, just prowled to the foot of the bed and glared at her with those dark eyes of his. His chest was heaving with every breath, his eyes burned with emotions so many and swirling she couldn't name them all and his lips were pressed together so tightly they were lined in white.

She had never seen him so furious before.

Then again, he had always been gentle to soothe her in response to her mother's cruelty.

Regina was at a loss for words. He stunned her with his vitality. He was SO alive. He was brimming with it. A crackling energy that she could feel from all the way across the room while he paced back and forth trying to get himself under control.

"What's going on?" Daniel finally turned to her, having whittled his myriad of demands and questions down to something that was almost civil.

Regina looked at him and he could see her plotting. Trying to figure out how best to handle him. How to keep him at a distance.

"And don't lie." He growled.

Again, she chose her words carefully. He was sure he was about to get the truth, but he wasn't entirely certain she was going to be honest.

"Henry and David are making me breakfast."

"That's not what I mean and you know it. You're ill. What's going on?"

"I made a promise to Henry that I wouldn't use magic. It's causing me some problems."

"What kind of problems?" He was at her side in an instant, studying her intently. "You look awful."

"Thanks for the ego stroke." Regina smirked.

"Don't." Daniel sat down heavily on the bed and glared at her. "Don't laugh this off. What's going on?"

"My magic is turning on me."

"You're downplaying this."

Regina felt a flash of irritation when she couldn't just lie to Daniel like she did everyone else. Her masks were slipping. She used to be able to switch between them at will, becoming who she needed to be in order to get what she wanted, but she was becoming known. Even Charming could sense when she was lying now. She had seen it in his eyes yesterday.

"Alright, fine, it very well might kill me. Feel better?"

"Kill you?" Daniel stared at her. "There's a cure, isn't there? Tell me there's a cure." He moved closer, seizing her by the shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes.

"It's more complicated than that."

"Then you'd best start breaking it down for those of us who are apparently too stupid to know better."

Regina sat back, tugging herself from his hold and glared at him.

"Well?"

"I don't even know where to start. There are so many layers, so many factors, and I may not even be right."

"You mean to tell me that you started playing around with forces so far beyond your ken that you can't even explain them?"

"I didn't say that!" Regina snapped at him. "It's just that trying to explain to…it's like having a whole other sense, being able to see another colour that no one else can, it's like smelling with your ears, you can't really explain that to someone!"

"Try." His voice was so flat and his stance immovable. She wasn't getting out of this.

Regina huffed a sigh and ordered her words. Considering how to explain for long moments.

"It's like…whenever you use magic, it takes from you. There is a sacrificial component to every spell, you have to give something to get something. That's why the ingredients for potions are often so rare, it's because you went to all that effort to make this stew of valuable things that will henceforth be rendered useless, that is what powers the spell. You have to give something to get something."

Daniel settled himself on the bed and watched her. Not saying anything and thinking intently. She might have taught him to read herself, but he'd never been stupid. Once he'd learned the skill, he'd thrown himself into it and had devoured every book on every subject she'd given him. He was incredibly clever. If she was only a good enough teacher, he'd get this too.

"Of course, there comes a point when eye of salamander and the sixth finger of a seventh son just doesn't cut it anymore. As you progress, you try bigger things until no amount of potions are going to be able to fuel your spells…at least, not by themselves." Regina pressed her lips together and studied her hands. "It's like a wooden doll. Starting off solid and being slowly eaten away by the magic. The more that is hollowed out, the more magic can in turn fill that space and the stronger your spells can be because there are more internal reserves to draw from."

"What does this have to do with not using magic? Why is it hurting you now? Shouldn't you just be full of it?"

Regina huffed a laugh. A lot of people had told her she was full of it recently.

"The problem is; I was at the height of my power when I cast the curse. The peak of magical strength. I'd reached the plateau. I would never be able to cast a greater spell than that curse. Never be able to muster more power than that."

"Well…kidnapping the entire world is pretty damn powerful. That's maybe a good thing."

"Arguably." Regina tilted her head. "Of course, using that much power, completely hollowed out the doll. Since then, however, I cast a greater spell. One more powerful than I could handle. I was able to do it because I was desperate, because I had no other choice" Regina plucked at the bed covers and searched for another analogy. How could she properly convey how such fierce emotion had so completely eclipsed her body's weaknesses and limitations? "Like the stories you hear of mothers lifting toppled carriages off their children. They don't feel the damage at the time but they often have dislocated limbs –if they're fortunate- after."

"What does that mean?"

Regina could tell by the look on Daniel's face that he already understood. He knew fine and well what she meant but he needed her to say it. He needed her to make it real before he could set about fixing it.

"It means there's too much magic in my body. No place to put it. It's starting to eat the doll itself to make space." Regina was frustrated at such vague explanations for a very precise thing. She knew exactly what she meant, it was happening to her, she'd have been able to explain it perfectly to Rumple or Maleficent but to anyone who didn't use magic, it was like trying to teach a dog music.

"Well, use it then." Daniel frowned at her. "If you have too much, get rid of the excess."

"It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't think that will help. It's a case of whatever doesn't kill me will make me stronger. Using such a spell drained me and the magic is returning bit by bit but I no longer have the capacity to hold such a well of power. It will start to consume me physically instead of just…spiritually?" That wasn't the right word but it was the closest one she had. "I'll either be able to absorb this much magic, to adjust and improve and be all the stronger afterward, reach a new plateau and survive or I won't. All I can do is wait."

"There's nothing we can do?"

Regina shook her head.

"This is because of me, isn't it?" He looked stricken. Horrified that he had caused her pain.

"This is because of me." Regina told him firmly. "I knew the risks, even desperate and maddened with grief, I knew the idiocy of the spell I was conjuring."

"And you did it anyway?"

"Of course." Regina shrugged helplessly and looked away from him. "What else could I do? Let you die? Let you live on in constant agony? A monster not in control of your own actions?" Regina's voice was hoarse for the last. Of course, Whale might have damned him to that anyway.

She made a mental note to flay the doctor when she saw him next. With a spoon.

"At the cost of your own life?" He looked angry with her.

"That's how true love works." Regina dredged a smile from somewhere. "You love someone so much that you'd die for them without a second thought."

"So you admit it."

Regina arched a brow at him and he grinned suddenly.

"You love me. Truly."

Regina looked away from him. She didn't look at all happy about it.

"Yes." She said to the window. "Unfortunately, for all concerned, I still love you with everything I have."

Daniel was quiet for a long moment, thinking to himself.

"The spell you cast, to save me, what was it?"

"Why does it matter?"

"I'd like to know. I want to understand this."

Regina heaved a sigh and thought about how to explain. He was supposed to be angry. He was supposed to rail and shout at her. Rage she could handle. This gentleness of his, his want to understand, to help her; it was so alien to her now. At times, she'd rather he hated her. At least that she was familiar with. Her mouth twisted.

"It's a transference spell. I took your pain."

"What did I get in return?"

"My health." Regina managed a wan smile.

Which was why she was so certain she wouldn't even survive to see Hyde again –if it was even his heart that had brought Daniel back. She'd been in good physical condition –a little stressed but that was to be expected- when she had cast the spell to take Daniel's pain and he had been in mortal agony. Switching the two around and then swallowing the magic that had come along with it…survive one of the two? Sure, probably, she wasn't a weakling.

Surviving both at the same time? The odds were not in her favour. Hell, the odds were that she'd have a closed matchbox funeral rather than a closed casket.

"So…you cursed yourself? Horribly."

Regina frowned.

"Well…I suppose it could be seen that way." Regina yelped when Daniel seized her suddenly by her waist and hauled her closer to him so that she was nearly in his lap. Daniel tunnelled his fingers through her hair and drew her mouth up under his.

Contact.

The magic, a sparkling shockwave of it, crackling with white lightning and black sparks, washed out of them. It thundered like a breaking sound barrier, heat and the stench of ozone rolling before it. The entire house shook, windows cracked, car alarms went off.

Daniel braced himself against the headboard, not caring, and deepened the kiss.

The magic finally waned when the explosion of true love died down to something decidedly earthier. He could feel the crackling of energy between them. Magic arced between their bodies like lightning, sparks trailing from her skin when his hand slid under her shirt and splayed against her back.

Regina's wide eyes fluttered closed as she let him kiss her. Her hands had fisted in his shirt, intending to push him away, but had ended up drawing him closer instead. Her lips parted, letting his tongue thrust into her, taking possession of her. Her arms twined around his neck and it was a good few moments before she registered the yelling.

"Mom!" The sound of thundering feet on the stairs. "Mom, are you okay?!"

Regina pulled back from Daniel, her lips burning, and blinked up at him. Completely stunned.

He was grinning at her.

"I thought so."

"You…?"

"Mom!"

Regina twisted around, releasing Daniel and bracing herself when Henry barrelled into her, knocking her backward so that Daniel had to catch them both.

"What was that?" Henry looked up at her, arms still locked around her waist. "What happened? It was like an earthquake and there was this big rainbow that blasted through the kitchen."

"Uh, that was…a spell. To make me feel better."

"Really?!" Henry rocked back from her to look up at her more easily. He grinned from ear to ear, far from the reaction she would have expected at the pronouncement of her using magic once more. "Using magic helped?"

"Sort of." Regina looked down at her hand, blinking, causing her eyes to change colour to a royal purple with the spell. Her brows shot up at what she saw.

Light.

She hauled up her sleeve and examined the magic thrumming under her skin. Channelled along her body in a similar way that blood was pumped through veins but…she'd never seen so much of it in one person before. Seeing magic had been one of the first things she had learned from Rumple, seeing it in a way that no one could cover, it would help her gauge the strength of an opponent with a single glance.

Rumplestiltskin's was like the cracks in a shattered windowpane. Splitting his already golden self into smaller pieces. Cora's was a tree branching out from the core of magic in her chest, spreading over her chest with wells and pools of it attached to the branches like fruit. Regina's, for she had learned the spell on herself, had been a delicate lace pattern. Intricate and thin but latticed over her entire body, a fine harness that she could hitch her spells to and take the energy uniformly from everywhere at once rather from one specific part of her.

Rumple had even complimented her on it once, saying it was sinfully good and all the better for being naturally occurring.

There were practitioners that changed the pathways in their bodies to a more favourable configuration, to one like Regina's, but it was usually more costly than it was worth. Even Cora –the branch and well configuration of her power being taxing on certain parts of her for particularly large spells- hadn't ever attempted to change hers.

Still, the delicate lace was gone and –in its place- rivers of light flowed through Regina's body. Just as widespread and latticed as before, just as beautiful, but so much brighter, so much stronger. Regina could feel it then, the power rolling under her skin, begging to be used. She had never felt so strong. Not even when she had cast the curse had the power been so magnificent so…so natural.

"Sort of?" Henry brought her back to the matter at hand and she looked down at him. "Your eyes have changed."

Regina's eyes went wide when she looked at Henry. She had never had call to use the spell when it came to him. Had never thought she'd need to but…oh my.

"Mom, you okay?"

"I'm fine." Regina closed her eyes tightly and –when she opened them again- they were back to their regular chocolate shade. "I'm…wonderful, Henry."

"Really? You feel better? The spell worked?"

"Yes." Regina twisted to look up at Daniel and didn't know what to feel. She pressed her lips together and then looked back down at her son. "I think I'll be okay now."

"Prove it." Henry's face hardened. "Do magic. Show me you're okay."

"Not now." Regina softened her tone when he looked mulish. "Never spell where you sleep, dear. You don't want magic getting into your dreams, I assure you."

"Where then?"

Regina thought for a moment and then smiled.

"We'll go somewhere after breakfast." Regina promised him and inhaled deeply. "Which seems to be burning."

"Oh no, David!" Henry spun and dashed downstairs again, shouting to his grandfather to flip the pancakes.

Regina slowly turned to look up at Daniel and found him studying her intently, a smug smile tugging at his lips.

"You needn't look so pleased with yourself. We could have torn the house down!"

"I knew the earth would move when I kissed you." Daniel smiled at her again. It was a softer smile, the love in him plain for her to see.

"Henry could have been hurt."

"I wasn't thinking straight, I'm sorry." He leaned in closer and rested his hands on her shoulders. "If you forgive me for this, I'll forgive you for nearly getting yourself killed over me."

"We both know I need forgiveness for so much more than that." Regina looked away from him.

"Not from me you don't." Daniel reached out to her and studied her eyes. He knew she wasn't going to stop whipping herself just yet, which just made him ache for her all the more. "Will you give me the chance to prove it? Prove that I really do love you, no matter what you've done."

"Daniel...you still don't know me. Not the woman I am now. This…broken, hollowed out doll I've become."

"I know you, the core of you, you're my other half. You make me whole. That's all I really need to know."

"I can't be her anymore. I can't be that naïve, weak, little girl. I won't let myself. My world is far too dangerous for her, there's a reason I became a crazed monster. I've made more enemies than I have ever made friends and I need to be strong enough to protect Henry from them should they take it into their heads to try something stupid." Regina reached out and rested her hand on his chest hesitantly. She could feel the thud of his heart –much stronger than it should have been- kicking against her palm and the pulsing seam of his silver scar on his chest thrumming against her hand even through the material of his shirt.

"I love you, Daniel." She smiled when she felt his heart quicken at her words. "I always will, but I love Henry too and I can't be who you both need me to be."

"It's not me or him, Regina." Daniel reached up and took her hand in his, bringing it to his mouth and kissing her fingers. "I don't need you to be anything but you and I'm going to hang around like a bad smell until you figure that out."

Regina managed a laugh and cupped his face in her hand when he pressed it to his cheek.

"Give me a chance, Regina. I know you're scared, I know you believe that I can't love all of you, but I can. Just let me show you."

"What if you don't?" Regina's voice was barely a whisper. "If you see me, the real me, and you hate me I…"

"Have a little faith." Daniel tugged her into him and wrapped his arms around her. "I left you once, never again. I'm with you no matter what. Sickness and health, better and worse, I'll be with you." He dropped a kiss on top of her head and his tone was almost teasing when he murmured into her hair. "Though try not to go straight to hell because I'll be right there at your side."

Regina sobbed a laugh and buried her face in his shirt, willing herself not to cry. She felt like she'd done nothing but cry lately. She let him hold her for a moment. Absorbing what had just happened. How he had so casually changed her and was now asking her to change again.

She pressed her lips together. People didn't change. Not really, not truly. There had always been the darkness in there, nurtured and coaxed into maturity by her mother, but it had been in the core of her anyway. It was not in Regina's nature to trust or to depend on other people but…she was supposed to be redeeming herself, right? She was supposed to have a second chance.

Couldn't she at least try?

Regina lifted her head from against his chest and looked up into his eyes. She worried her lip a moment with her teeth and gathered her words. She let out a shaky breath.

"Would you…would you like to stay for breakfast?"

Daniel grinned and squeezed her tighter for a second before nodding.

"I would like that very much."