Snow sat on a bench looking out at the pond, a bag of bird seed next to her which she tossed unenthusiastically at a group gathered a few feet away.

"You must be poor company right now if the birds aren't even gathering at your feet," David said as he approached.

"I asked them to keep their distance," she answered with a rough voice, unable to hide that she had been crying.

"May I sit? I heard what happened with Red and Regina." He gestured to the other end of the bench. "I wanted to see if you were alright."

"I... I'm not alright," was all she could manage.

He reached over and squeezed her shoulder, "I can't pretend I think you made the right choice by wanting to stay with Regina... but it's really not my call. Or anyone else's. But the two of you are going to have to accept that it's going to be harder now that people remember who she is, and who you are."

"And that we both remember." She nodded. "David, the look of fury in her eyes..."

"Is Regina," David responded. "If you love her you are going to have to help her deal with that rage. Because you are right. She can't go around attacking people just because they insult her. You two are going to be insulted until people come to accept it. And that may be a very long time."

"You are being awfully understanding about this." Snow said confused.

"Maybe," he tilted his head, "I realized that I wanted to keep my best friend even if I didn't get to keep my wife."

She smiled at that, "I'd like that."

He gave her a smile, "You realize Ruby almost certainly set Regina up."

She nodded. "Ruby hasn't been happy with me since I wouldn't move back in with you. But... David... I I'm not sure I'm strong enough to be by Regina's side. She needs someone to be strong for her. To help her understand she doesn't need to be the Evil Queen anymore. I don't think she wants to be. I'm not sure she ever wanted to be that woman. But when I tried to talk to her about what ... what she did with you... I just remembered why I was in love with her more."

David shrugged, "That was not an encounter I enjoyed, or want to repeat, or want her repeating with anyone else, but I ... think she was trying to be reasonable."

"By ripping out your heart?"

"It didn't start that way. I just said something dumb because I was so angry at her."

"She didn't know when we fell in love."

"Of course she didn't," David laughed. "Regina has been many things to you but making herself vulnerable wasn't her style. I realized it immediately I was just... not very good at loosing. After all, true love is supposed to last forever."

Snow smiled a little, "Maybe true love does last forever. Just not marriages." She reached over and squeezed his hand, "It seems to me you are doing something right now that qualifies as much as a curse breaking kiss."

David smiled, "I'd like to think so."

"David... I don't know what to do about Regina."

"Show her that she doesn't have to afraid of losing everything."

"That's what you think is happening?" Snow asked confused.

"It's how I felt when I was picking up my sword."

"But ... I don't understand... I told her I choose her."

"Do you think she believed it?" Snow sat stunned and David smiled, "I think that is your answer."

There was a quiet knock on the door to the mayor's office. It was late, though she'd abandoned work hours ago and was sitting on one of the couch facing a fireplace, a tumbler of scotch in her hand contemplating if she'd destroyed yet another thing she loved. She didn't answer, but heard the door open quietly.

"I'm not in the mood for a fight."

"Well that's good," Mary Margaret said behind her.

"Or a lecture."

"Good thing I'm not here to give one of those either," she said as she trailed a hand long Regina's back as she rounded the sofa to sit down next to her.

"What did the dog tell you?"

"Ruby confessed that she provoked you," Snow put an emphasis on her friends name. "And I came to apologize."

Regina shook her head, "You haven't done anything that you need to apologize for."

"Yes... yes I have." She took hold of Regina's hand. "I've been letting you fight for our family alone. I should have been helping you so you didn't feel like you had to fight."

"Mary Margaret, you'd be better off with David." She finally confessed what she'd known since Emma walked through their gates with Henry.

"Why would that be the case, when I am in love with you?" She smiled and touched Regina's face. "I'm in love with all of you. The woman I got to know at Granny's with a young son she desperately wanted to be a good mother to, and the woman who saved me on a horse when I was a child."

"And the woman who spent so much time trying to kill you?"

"I never stopped loving her. I just ... didn't expect to love her the way I do now. But I'm not about to stop loving her." She touched her face. "Regina you don't have to fight alone. This is going to be harder than the first time, but you know what? I'm a scrappy fighter, and you..." She looked deep into Regina's dark eyes as they began to tear up, "You need someone to fight for you as much as I needed you to fight for me."

The kiss that came was not a surprise, as their lips met and all of the weight of the world seem to fall away, and the queen melted as she broke the kiss to lay her head against her wife's chest and cry. Snow White said nothing else but just let her cry, gently stroking her hair.