Author's Note: Wow you all really surprised me with all the reviews. I was so moved by all the kind words that I wanted to put this chapter out early. I had a lot of fun writing it so I really hope you all enjoy it! I should still be on track with this story so I anticipate being able to put the next chapter up on Sunday. If not then it will probably be Monday. So again, a huge thanks to everyone for all the support you've shown.

As always, I own nothing Once Upon A Time related.


Chapter Twelve: It's All About Perception

Cleaning and bandaging the blonde's hands was a task completed in relative silence. Occasionally, Regina would sneak a glance up at Emma but what she found disturbed her in ways she couldn't express.

With her brows scrunched firmly together and her bottom lip pulled between her teeth, it became increasingly evident that the younger woman was entirely consumed with her thoughts. Regina knew without a doubt that Emma was replaying her most recent hallucination in her mind. But it was the silence that was most disconcerting.

She wanted to ask Emma about it again, as her first request was clearly ignored. But she knew full well that there was a possibility that Emma had seen something so horrific, something so repulsive that it could potentially break her sanity. And to speak of what happened, to vocalize it is to bring it to life. It was for that reason Regina remained quiet as she tended to Emma's wounds.

There was an unmistakable look in her eyes, however, that caused a twinge of unease to invade Regina's mind. If she had truly seen something so irrevocably damaging, Regina doubted the Sheriff would have been able to keep her composure as well as she was. This led her to believe what Emma witnessed was more phantasmagoric than horrific. And that was cause for concern.

"Damn…" Emma breathed, catching the Mayor off guard as she was so wrapped up in her thoughts.

Regina lifted her eyes to meet Emma's, eyebrows arched high in silent question.

"I dunno...it's just you, you're really, really beautiful," Emma whispered then chuckled lightly, shaking her head as though her disclosement should be taken with a grain of salt.

The Mayor said nothing, flicking her eyes back to Emma's expertly bandaged hands before rising to her feet and discarding of the extracted shards of glass in the trash can. She then looked at the mess taking up residence in her normally immaculate bathroom. Fighting the urge to turn around and scream at the younger woman for creating such a disaster, Regina forced a small smile and turned to look at Emma's disheveled form sitting lazily on the toilet.

"You must be hungry, Miss Swan, though I am fairly certain that your lunch is no longer hot," Regina mused, "you should still try to eat."

The quiet compliment to her beauty was the last thing Regina thought would have escaped Emma's mouth. As unexpected as it was, she couldn't help but be slightly endeared by it. However, that endearment was quick to become the catalyst to anger as she felt a slight tug on her heart.

Even more maddening is the reason why those words seemed to have such an effect on her. It had been in the back of Regina's mind practically all morning and she hated to confront the thought. The thought that someone had finally managed to slither through a miniscule crack in her foundation. And the fact that those words had been uttered in honesty and not forced by magic or other means.

It was real.

It was honest.

Emma nodded, wanting to apologize for her earlier remark, but couldn't find it in her heart to do so. It's not as though she were lying. If anything she was more embarrassed at having vocalized her thoughts than anything else. An apology wouldn't fix that. It wouldn't erase those words and thus, Emma concluded, there was no reason to apologize. Because in the long run, it would probably just anger the brunette more. Why? She had no idea. But that's how Regina seemed to work; getting angry over quotidian idioms and frivolous gestures.

"What about the mess?" Emma motioned to the broken glass and blood strewn across the floor.

Regina shrugged. "I'll deal with it later," she dismissed the blonde's concern and crossed the room until she was standing in front of Emma once more. "Coming?" she asked, again with an arched eyebrow of expectation.

The pair sat on the guest bed, eating in an uneasy silence. With each bite Emma took, Regina could clearly hear the unpleasant popping noise Emma's jaw made. She tried to ignore it, but much like the hands on a clock during an exam, it was obnoxiously loud and impossible to ignore.

"Have you ever considered orthognathic surgery?" Regina griped, dropping the plastic fork to into her carryout box. "Honestly," she breathed in irritation.

"What the hell? Did you just make - that's not even a real thing!," Emma protested, knowing all too well that Regina was referring to the noises her jaw made. "Oh, wait…wasn't that a dinosaur or something?"

Regina scoffed. "I assure you it is a very real thing. Anyone with a basic grasp of the English language would know that."

"No one would know what orthog-whatever means, Regina," Emma snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Au contraire, ma chère."

Emma nearly laughed at Regina's flawless mimicry of a french accent. Regina allowed for a brief smile to grace her lips before continuing.

"English is merely a conglomeration of Greek and Latin. Ortho is a Greek word meaning straight and gnathos meaning jawed," Regina explained as though she were speaking to a child about the difference between circles and squares.

Emma nodded with a skeptical look on her face. "Uh huh," she muttered. "You're telling this to the girl who thought circle was spelled s-r-k-l." Emma pronounced each letter individually.

Regina busted out with laughter. "Seriously?"

Again, Emma nodded but this time wearing a brilliant smile. She had come to terms with how ridiculous it sounded. But what did she know? As a child living with a foster family that couldn't give a damn about education, Emma was left with naught but a children's illustrated dictionary to learn from.

"That's nothing compared to my math skills," she quipped.

"Well that certainly explains your excessively erroneous budget reports."

Emma narrowed her eyes, not particularly fond of Regina's insults, but the second the brunette's lips widened into a joking smile, Emma couldn't help but reciprocate.

"Yeah well," Emma paused, searching for a clever comeback, "I may not be able to perfect budget reports but I sure as hell can use use a mean ass quadratic equation in the grocery store."

Regina met her cheekiness with a blank stare.

"Why would you use a quadratic equation in the grocery store?" She asked seeming thoroughly perplexed.

"You know...for uhh...cost efficiency?"

"That makes no sense, dear."

"Yeah I don't even know what a quadratic equation is," Emma shrugged, popping a honey mustard drenched piece of chicken in her mouth.

"Regina?" Emma asked after a moment of silence.

"Yes, Miss Swan?"

"Can I ask you something?"

Fighting the urge to retaliate with 'you just did', Regina resigned herself to nodding.

"Can you tell me about the sky?" Emma worried her bottom lip.

Her rationality begged to ignore the vivid hallucination, knowing that it was nothing more than an illusion meant to break her. But she couldn't get over the nagging feeling that perhaps the pseudo-Regina was right. About everything.

"I'm sorry?"

"The sky, you know, the thing with the sun and shit -"

"I am very well aware of what the sky is," Regina interrupted.

"So tell me about it," Emma begged quite frantically. "Please…"

The desperation in the blonde's final inflection caused Regina's eyes to soften. Yet her keen mind was quick to understand that her outlandish question must, in some way or another, tie into the recent speculum adventure.

"Have you heard the Legend of Caelum?" Regina inquired. The blonde shook her head, just as the Mayor expected. Nevertheless she continued.

"Many thousands of years ago, when the world was in the stages of infancy, there was a beautiful deity named Caelum. Her beauty was unparalleled; all that laid eyes upon her were captivated, instantly falling in love. She was worshipped, exalted, gifted with the most luxurious treasures from all corners of the world."

"Somewhere in the hidden shadows of the world, four hideous witches watched as Caelum received all the riches and love that they themselves desired. And for hundreds of years they watched, waited, their anger slowly becoming to a boil until one day, their hatred and for the beautiful woman grew to be too much. Together, the witches enacted a curse that would banish Caelum from the world."

"Her curse was imprisonment into the drab expanse of space above the earth; destined to wander through the abysmal nothingness without love or adoration, to be forgotten and to live alone for eternity. No one again would set eyes upon such beauty."

"That's...kinda fucked up," Emma interjected. "I mean, that's pretty harsh because some old hags were jealous."

Regina narrowed her eyes, feeling a spark of anger ignite within her veins. Empathy was something the Mayor rarely felt, however as she told the tale of Caelum, she couldn't help but notice some similarities between herself and the deity.

"Perhaps. Though I dare say that you may feel differently had you been forced to look upon and subsequently be denied the thing you most desperately craved," Regina replied a bit more harshly than intended. "For centuries."

Emma shrugged, taking that thought into consideration for a moment before shaking her head and waiting for the brunette to continue.

"The witches curse, however, backfired. They had managed to imprison Caelum in the grey nothingness above them, but Caelum was narcissistic beyond reason. She refused for an end to come to her adoration. And so, she killed herself, expelling her soul out into the world, painting the grey expanse with prism of vibrant colors."

"Thus, Caelum's beauty lived on above them for eternity. According to the legend, the colors we see are Caelum's moods; tumultuous and ever-changing."

Regina concluded her story, clasping her hands in her lap and raising her chin slightly upwards appearing to be satisfied with another display of her perpetual knowledge. Emma's eyes were trained on the floor, her brow creased in thought.

"Do you really believe that?" Emma asked, curious green eyes finding cryptic chocolate.

The Mayor smirked, "Do you?"

"C'mon Regina, you can't answer a question with a question," Emma complained but a small smile formed nonetheless.

"I can and I will, dear," Regina's smile was nothing short of sinister as she leaned in just a little closer to Emma.

"Whatever," Emma's eyes rolled dramatically. She placed the nearly empty carryout container on the nightstand beside the bed, and repositioned herself so that she was sitting cross-legged just a foot or two away from where the Mayor was sitting, all prim and proper with her back straight and ankles crossed.

"It's kinda hard to believe ya know?" Emma said, chuckling slightly. "I mean, c'mon Regina...I can't believe that the sky - the fucking sky - is the like eternal incarnation of some spoiled brat." Pale hands ran through her messy blonde hair almost nervously.

"Then tell me, Sheriff, since you are so knowledgable, what is the sky?" Regina inquired hastily, lips turning up into a snarl as she leaned forward.

She watched as the pupils of those pellucid green eyes expand as they focused on Regina's sudden proximity.

"I, well...I uh I dunno," Emma shrugged. "That's like some science shit."

"Yes."

"Yes, what?" Emma asked, snapping her attention towards the Mayor once more. She had uncharacteristically tucked her legs under her body and leaned forward on her arms, looking graceful and paradoxically dangerous like a deadly lioness stalking her prey.

"I do believe the story about Caelum," Regina admitted with a smile.

Emma laughed. "Well then you, Madame Mayor, need to get your head out of the clouds. Excuse the pun."

"Perhaps, Miss Swan, you should put your head in the clouds." Regina retaliated.

"What, why?"

"Is it so difficult for you to believe in something fantastical? To think outside of that impossibly thick skull of yours? To believe, that thousands of years before we were ever brought into existence, that things were different, powerful...magical…" Regina trailed off.

Becoming startled by the brunette's passion, Emma backed away slightly. "Because this thick skull has never known anything remotely fantastical or magical!" she unintentionally yelled.

Emma hadn't meant to snap at the woman, but she was still feeling rather morose after the encounter with the Regina from her hallucination.

"Regina...I'm sorry, I -"

"It's quite alright." Regina dismissed her concern, pushing the wayward strands of hair back into place.

"So you really believe it?" Emma asked full of sincerity.

"I do."

"Why?"

"Because, as I've previously told you," Regina said, looking Emma in the eye. "Things are not always what they first appear to be."

The blonde thought on this for a moment, turning her attention towards the window,pulling her cheek between her teeth and biting it nervously. Her fingers picking at the sheets as a means of distraction.

"Have I said something to offend you, dear?" Regina inquired, wanting nothing more than to push the blonde's hair behind her ears, but knowing that such a tender act may put the Sheriff in a state of discomfort.

She shook her head, fragments of blonde waving wildly. "No, not - it's just…" Emma sighed, "nevermind."

"Emma…" The words fell too easily from luscious red lips. The warmth of the words even surprised the Mayor herself. Though she found she couldn't pull herself out of this.

She couldn't stop.

Mesmerized.

Her hand instinctively crept forward, slowly, visible shaking until the tips of her fingers passed through the strands of errant blonde that fell in front of her face.

Emma looked up, saccharine orbs shimmering behind a threatening wave of tears. And though she desperately wanted to smile,she couldn't help a frown from tugging at her lips. Refusing to cry in front of the Mayor, again, Emma turned away, pulling herself to her feet and putting some distance between them.

Oh no, - fuck - not another hallucination!

Emma groaned inwardly at the thought. She had barely had anytime at all to recover from the last one. There was no way in hell she could be slipping into another.

"No!" Emma shouted, putting her hands up in front of her face. "No, no, no...this is not happening," she cursed, pulling her lips into a tight line.

Regina raised one of those perfect arches until it was nearly lost behind her hair.

"Miss Swan, stop acting like a child," she scorned.

"No - fuck you!"

"Emma?" Regina's voice grew with concern. She pulled herself into a sitting position, finding herself becoming increasingly alarmed with the Sheriff's outburst.

Emma backed herself against the wall, still holding her arms out in front of her and swinging her head back and forth as if searching for something, anything to protect her from darker woman.

"I don't want to hear anymore. I don't want to hear anymore. I don't-"

The blonde was shaking her head back and forth, hands cupping her ears in a desperate attempt to drown out the hateful words she knew were bound to come.

"Emma," Regina exhaled, desperately trying to make contact with her soberself before she was too far gone. But she was losing the battle quickly as the blondes ramblings only quickened in their pace.

It was going to take more than words to save her from the psychosis of the poison pillaging her body. She had to do something. Soon.

Damn you Emma Swan, must you make everything so difficult!

Regina's jaw set as she ground her molars, both irritated and strangely uncomfortable with how easily her feet carried her across the floor to the woman in front of her. And how, no matter how much she wanted to berate the blonde once more for being so idiotic as to take - and subsequently drink - the contents of a bottle handed to her by some stranger in a goofy hat, she found...she couldn't.

Instead, she found herself standing right before the blonde woman, her fingers entwined with her's, guiding the blonde womans arms around her waist, giving her something to hold onto. An anchor of reality.

The Sheriff gasped at the unexpected, extrinsic display of behavior...snapping her mouth shut as silent tears trailed down her cheeks. Emma's arms froze in place, wrapped around the slender waist of the most powerful woman in all of Storybrooke. And that power didn't stop with political influence. Regina was powerful enough to bring Emma's body to a halt. The only muscle able to perform it's appropriate function was her brain. A brain that chose now, of all times, to not only incapacitate every muscle in her body but to fire off an endless stream of questions that would never have plausible answers.

"Shhh," Regina coaxed quietly, bringing her hands up to hold the Sheriff's tear stained face. "Emma, calm down," she instructed in a hushed tone.

Emma stared with fear and confusion waltzing behind the glistening veil of tears. The deep confusion causing her eyes to quickly dart around the face of the woman in front of her.

"It's me, Emma….just take a deep breath," Regina whispered, smoothing her hair while offering her a reassuring smile.

The blonde woman did just that. She breathed. Inhaling deeply, only to exhale a breath that came out more as punctuated gasps than a long stream of relief.

"R-Regina?" Emma questioned with quivering lips.

The Mayor nodded, smiling, and giving her hair one last stroke before backing away from the blonde.

A thousand questions ran through Regina's mind at a pace close to a million miles per hour. That surge of tenderness, of affection came so suddenly that it took many seconds before Regina could even understand what was happening.

So naturally.

"Prove it," Emma accused. Her mind was twisted into a studding sail tack bend, her stomach fluttered like a hundred butterflies, and her muscles became rigid with anxiety bordering on fear.

"And how do you propose I do that, Miss Swan?" Regina sniped, locking her hands on her hips, glaring accusingly at the Sheriff.

"Tell me…" Emma whispered, "t-tell me wh-what you see when you look at me."

"If you're fishing for compliments I must say Miss Swan, that is an incredibly juvenilistic display of behavior, even for you -"

"Shu-ut up," The blonde groaned in exasperation. "For once in your damn life Regina just...just stop playing politician and answer the damn question."

Regina raised her hands as to gesticulate the incredulity of the blonde's request, but having opened her mouth and finding no words to say, her arms fell limp at her sides, her hands slapping noisily against her thighs.

"Fine, okay," The Mayor relented. "You're like - jesus Emma you're like a god damn bull in a china shop! Stubborn...impulsive like a child in a candy store and relentlessly annoying much like a swarm of flies on a horses ass on a hot summer day. You've got the mentality of prepubescent jock and you have all the grace of a rhinoceros."

The Mayor smiled, and took a step forward.

"But when I look at you...I see a woman that's been shattered into so many pieces you've become a puzzle struggling to solve itself. I see a woman who hides so much behind a mask of false emotions that all she can see in the mirror is a complete stranger. Someone so hurt that you run from the first signs of intimacy out of fear."

Regina closed the distance between them, lowering her voice so that she spoke just higher than a whisper. Her words becoming raw as each one poured from her lips.

"And despite all of this, you are brave; so ready to charge headfirst into any situation knowing the odds may not be in your favor. You're intelligent and...resourceful and observant; even if you pretend not to see what is right in front of you, even when you try to ignore it until it goes away, I know you still see it."

"You've got this passion...this vigor….this...intensity," Regina searched for the right word, only to find that there wasn't a right word to explain what she wanting to say.

The brunette sighed, dropping her hands defeatedly and looking right into glassy chartreuse orbs, "When I look at you Emma, I see myself; a beautifully broken woman, searching for answers, struggling for a sense of belonging, but finding that it always seems to slip right through your fingers, no matter how hard you squeeze it."

Emma didn't think, only reacted on impulse, gripping the darker woman behind her neck and pressing her lips to the Mayor's in a passionate, searing kiss.