Snow woke up in Regina's bed alone, the sound of the shower running in the adjacent master bath. She stretched and saw snow falling outside and slid from the comfort of the bed looking around at the warm and comfortable bedroom, almost the exact opposite of the warmth of Regina's rooms in the Dark Castle where she'd last woken up in the Queen's bed. She was wearing some borrowed pajama top of Regina's and regretted the lack of bottoms with how cold it was when she finally left the bed.

Regina was washing her hair, Snow could see through the translucent shower curtain.

"I should get back home, Emma will be worried."

"There is two feet of snow on the ground outside and more to come. You aren't going anywhere." Regina answered without stopping what she was doing. "You texted your daughter last night and told her you were staying in my guest room."

"I did?"

"Well, your phone did."

Snow shook her head with a chuckle and unbuttoned her pajama top setting it to the side and slipping into the shower with Regina, unable to stop herself from inhaling at the slight of her lover's lean body wet with soap cascading down her nearly perfect from. She began to message the shampoo into Regina's scalp and the Queen's hands fell away. They were both used to being bathed by others and there was a casualness to it.

"You know given who you are and who I am I should be a little disturbed that you can just pretend to be me that way."

"You slept in my bed last night and what you are worrying about is that I pretended to be you in a text to your daughter." Regina chuckled, "I know you find your illicit affair with me exhilarating but perhaps it is time to move past the idea that I might kill you after a night of love making?"

Chastened Snow looked down, and Regina turned around, touching her chin to tilt her head up.

"I'm still mad at you."

"Have I destroyed this with you too?" Just as she had with David? "I can't... I can't be without you."

Regina tilted her head and gave a small smile, but all Snow could look at was the deep scar on her lip that she'd never managed to get up the courage to ask about. Knowing what she knew now it couldn't be a happy story. Regina had no happy stories of her childhood.

"You cast the Dark Curse with his heart. Or are we still forgetting that?"

Snow looked down. Regina said nothing at first but reached for some shampoo and began to gently message it into Snow's short cropped hair. "I long ago accepted that I would love you more than you would ever love me."

"I thought that was my line," Snow said quietly.

Regina chuckled softly, "Perhaps once. But you see Snow, someone once told me that I feel things deeply. Hate and love."

Snow smiled, "With your whole soul."

"And that sometimes means I have to accept that some of the people who love me will never love me as much as I love them." She smiled and looked into Snow's eyes and something in that look hurt like an arrow or a knife.

"No."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"No. You shouldn't accept it. And it's not true. I do love you."

"But not enough to leave him."

"David left me." Snow said quietly.

"Which would be my point dear." She kissed Snow gently on the lips, whistfully, before she stepped out of the shower and left Snow to finish her own. She stayed in the bathroom drying off while Snow stood under the showerhead letting the warm water cascade down her.

It was minutes before she could speak again.

"I couldn't leave him because if I did... if I left David I'd have to admit that I wasn't who I said I was."

Regina laughed, "I could have told you that. Your little hero persona was unsustainable."

"Says the woman throwing white magic around, giving true love's kiss to her son and still putting up walls to the world to tell everyone to keep back, stay away, Regina Mills is a dangerous bad woman."

Regina grunted, "Fear is an effective tool."

"It's not who you are." Snow said as she finished washing herself and turned off the water.

"Just as you are not the happy hero full of hope? Careful the commission will come looking for their quarters."

"Regina," Snow said with less of a warning so much as resignation.

"You keep making this about me. I'm not the one whose marriage has fallen apart," she said as she offered her a towel.

Snow sighed and buried her face in the towel.

"When do you think he'll tell everyone why?"

"He won't."

"You sound sure."

"That comes from being sure," Regina said as she slipped into her robe. "David and I decided that we weren't going to take that particular burden from you. You are going to have to explain to your friends and family what happened. He and I are not going to fight each other for your attention and the collapse of your marriage will not be his fault or mine. Perhaps you should have told him when I asked you to months ago. Then I might have played my role and taken the blame."

"But ... you said ... you said I was yours."

Regina smiled gently and touched her chin again before kissing her in a not at all gentle way. "You are. And this is the price for not having given into that months ago Princess. This time... you get to be the villain."

Regina gave her a sweet smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Come downstairs when you are finished and I'll make you breakfast, dear."