A/N: I am completely overjoyed that you all have been joining me on this little adventure. Here is the promised chapter. Enjoy.

It had already been a long day when she got the phone call from Regina. She expected the other woman merely wanted to ask her how she was progressing in getting the guns back, but something in Regina's voice told her that wasn't the case when Regina asked her to come to her office.

It was already after five and she was supposed to meet Hook at 7 p.m. for dinner, but she knew Regina wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important. Regina left the outside door open for her – something she planned on lecturing her about as you never leave a door like that unlocked after hours especially if you were due to be killed soon. She walked in and found Regina standing by the window behind her desk looking out of it.

Regina hadn't seemed to notice her so she cleared her throat. Regina turned toward her. "Miss Swan, thanks for coming."

"Sure," she said approaching cautiously. There was something not right about this. Something in the way Regina was holding herself. Her shoulders seemed to be lower than normal as if she was giving in under some weight. It was the strong, straight posture that Emma was used to seeing from her.

She took a seat but Regina made no move to sit or to speak.

"I made progress with the guns," Emma said. No reaction. "Yeah, I um I got Dr. Whale's mostly because he hadn't registered it and I threatened to arrest him and honestly I think he only turned it over because he had a date tonight that he didn't want to miss."

"Jefferson's was a little harder to get. His wasn't registered either, but he didn't seem to care about that. I asked him why he even had a gun, and he wasn't very forthcoming with an answer, not that it is surprising. Anyway, I finally told him that he could either turn the gun over to me until he got it registered or I could confiscate it for good because he didn't have it registered and either way I wasn't leaving until he did so. He still said no, so I simply waited until he was picking up Grace from school and made a point of letting him know that the whole school and his daughter would know about that gun if he didn't give it to me. It was a low blow but I didn't know what to do. I followed him back to his place and he gave it to me."

"What about the third gun?" Regina asked, her voice flat and emotionless.

"That is a problem. The reason the shop owner bought the gun was because he had been robbed and wanted to have a sense of protection, although the man is so timid I doubt highly he would have ever loaded it much less shot it. Anyway, ironically the gun was stolen from him. It's unaccounted for."

Regina fell silent again.

Emma got up and approached her. "What's wrong?"

"Future you was here earlier."

"Did she upset you? Did she do something to you?"

Regina's eyes went to the floor and then she looked out the window once more. "I asked her for proof, proof that the things she was saying about me and her were true."

"I can't imagine what proof she could possibly offer up."

"Nor did I. Imagine my surprise then when she offered up proof."

"She had proof? How?"

"She says when the timeline changed it stayed with her – maybe because she had it on her, because she always had it on her."

"What was it?"

"A ring. Specifically, the ring Daniel gave me when he asked me to marry him."

She opened her hand and Emma saw the small, simple ring lying on her palm for a moment before Regina closed her hand around it once more.

Emma wasn't sure what to say. She knew what that ring must mean to Regina. She hated herself for asking the next question, "Are you sure it was the actual ring?"

Regina stepped away from her and Emma felt like complete shit.

"Yes," Regina said finally. "It was his ring. I had lost it you see, lost in an effort to get rid of you."

"So that's it then, she was telling the truth the whole time," Emma said. She didn't like conceding the point because she had been so sure that her future self was more than a little shady.

"No," Regina exhaled. "The ring is proof she was not telling the truth."

Regina took a seat at her desk and Emma moved around to sit in front of it. She was trying to think how Regina came to this conclusion and trying not to be too happy about it.

"How does this prove she is lying?"

"I refuse to believe I would give it to her, no matter how charming I may have found her," Regina said. "She has to be lying which makes her even more dangerous than you may think she is."

"How so?"

"Magic. She doesn't get this ring without magic," Regina explained. "It is bothersome to me that she could find this, just as it is bothersome to wonder how exactly she got back here in the first place. Did she really think that she could come back here and succeed in, what get me to date you? I am still at a loss as to what her goals are here."

"She wants to keep you alive," Emma said.

"Then why not just go after whoever kills me?"

"Maybe she doesn't know who did it."

Regina shrugged and Emma noticed her eyes again went down to the ring.

"Did you tell her that you didn't believe her?" Emma asked suddenly.

"No," Regina smiled. "What would be the point in that?"

"If she thinks you are still on her side that could help us determine what she is up to."

"My thought exactly."

"How would you recommend I con a con artist?"

"Difficult," Emma said. "But not impossible." She looked down at her phone; she needed to leave soon to meet Killian for dinner."

"Do you have someplace to be?"

"What? No," she said. "I just need to make a phone call. I am just going to step out a moment when I get back let's map out our next move."

She went outside and dialed Killian.

"Hey love," he answered.

"Hey," she said. "I know we were supposed to do dinner tonight, but something came up with this case and I have to take rain check."

Pause.

"This must be a very important case," he said.

"It is or I wouldn't cancel,"

"Yeah, well let me know when you have time Swan," he said before hanging up.

She felt bad about canceling but she had to work on this with Regina. She was bothered by the point Regina brought up – why wouldn't her future self try and stop Regina from being killed by going after the person responsible? She may have been right when she said the killer's identity may not be known, but what if she wasn't right?

She walked back into Regina's office, "Do you know how to make one of those astral projection potions?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because I need another glimpse at the future."

"To what end?"

"You want to know how she got back here; I can make that happen and maybe get some other answers."

…

Future Emma stood in front of the mirror and waved her hand across it after seeing her younger self cancel her date with Hook. She used her magic to spy on her younger self, and now there was a smile on her face. This could be an opening for her.

She had left Regina's more than a little disconcerted. Despite Regina's "niceness" to her, she sensed she overplayed her hand with the ring. It was a risk introducing an object that Regina had a major emotional attachment to, but it had to be done. She had to offer Regina something when she asked for proof.

She couldn't think about her mistakes right now. Right now she had a date with Hook she intended to keep.

She could only hope that one day Regina would understand that everything she was doing was for her. She wasn't going to lose her, even if meant taking more risks.

She belonged with Regina and she wasn't going to let anything stop her.

…

Emma watched Regina as she began to prepare the astral projection potion. They were back at Regina's house. Emma had brought pizza and they along with Henry had eaten dinner. If Henry thought it was odd that Emma was there, he didn't say anything.

Now they were alone with Henry upstairs.

"Were there signs that she was lying that you noticed before you went into the future?" Regina asked.

"Nothing major. One of the things I noticed is she didn't have any sort of line on her finger to indicate she wore a ring. If she were really married for several years you would think there would be some sign that she wore a ring."

Regina considered it, but didn't say anything.

"I don't know, her whole attitude from the very beginning has bothered me," Emma said.

"Is that because of her fixation on me?"

"That was part of it, I admit."

"At least you are honest about it."

Regina continued to work on the potion thankfully not offering to teach Emma how to make it. After this experience she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be eager to learn anymore magic.

"Do you have any idea when my death happened? I mean the exact time?"

"Not an exact time. The coroner said it was 24 to 32 hours before your body had been found. Why are you asking?"

"Curiosity."

"A morbid curiosity."

"If this is about preventing my death in the other Emma's eyes, then perhaps it is my death we should be concentrating on."

"What do you think I have been doing all day? I have all the guns except the one that Gold has and the one that is unaccounted for. I hate to say this but I don't really see Gold bothering with a gun if he chose to kill you, which means it's the other gun I need to track down. The whole point of me doing this again is to try and get more information, including about your death."

"Yes but what if your future self doesn't know who killed me, then we probably aren't going to get a lot of useful information about it. There is however one way we can assure we do know who kills me."

"How is that?"

"Seeing it happen."

Regina picked up the glass Emma had just watched her pour something into. She thought she was getting ready to mix it, but then she realized what was happening.

"Regina, don't."

"Watch over Henry," Regina said before swallowing the potion as Emma yelled no. Emma reached her as she fell to the floor unconscious. She knelt beside her.
"What have you done?"

Future Emma walked up to Hook's boat. "Mind if I come aboard?" she asked.

One look at her and she knew that Hook wouldn't say no. She was wearing a short blue dress that left little to the imagination.

He walked over and leaned against the railing. "I thought you had a case to work on."

"No," she smiled. "I just wanted to surprise you."

He smiled back at her, "In that case come aboard love."