Regina marched away from the wooden hut she shared with the infuriating blonde Sheriff.
She is just like her idiot mother! She is always making decisions about my life without regard or concern for me! The look on her face said it all! She knew burning the book was wrong, but she tried to do it anyway! She must have gotten Charming's simpleton genes and burned the wrong book! How dare she!? Who the hell does she think she is?! All so I wouldn't find out about her little lie? As if I would be angry at her for lying about her feelings for me!
No, not angry, but disappointed in her, yes…
Disappointed that they were lies.
A lie she tried to cover up! Is caring for me so shameful? That she would go through such lengths to get rid of its mere suggestion?
Regina rolled her eyes at her inner dialogue and continued to berate herself for letting other people put ideas in her head when she knew the truth. She knew, under no uncertain terms, what the savior did not, could not, feel for her.
She stopped and rested her hands against a wooden fence that surrounded the training yard and hung her head in defeat.
This is so messy! She doesn't trust me. After all we've been through! I thought she was my friend…
The Queen startled when a warm hand touched her ever cooling shoulder. She hadn't realized she left the cottage in nothing but a thin cotton nightgown and she was yanked back into the present, which included the chilly morning air.
"Are you okay, dearheart?"
Regina rolled her eyes before turning to face the dark Amazon healer. "I am quite alright," she replied forcefully, not entirely believing her own words as they left her mouth. "I am in no need of your meddling this morning, dear," she added with contempt.
"Regina, I..." Magdalus could see that the brunette was in turmoil, and her heart ached for the woman she'd gotten to know, but also knew if any of the Mayor she knew were still left in this woman, she would not be forthright with detailed information regarding what was troubling her.
"No, I must get back, I hadn't realized how cool the mornings here truly are," Regina waved the woman off and spun around trying to get her bearings on where she was in relation to where she needed to be.
"No, come to my home, I'll make you some tea and get you in something warm. I promise very little meddling," the woman said with a warm smile.
Against her better judgment, and really only because she wasn't sure which direction she came from, Regina agreed and followed the older woman the short distance to her home.
She sat down on the leather-covered rocking chair in the seating room and was instantly covered with a thick blanket by her host. The healer threw an extra log onto the fire and put on a tea kettle to boil.
Maggie asked with a smirk, "So what did she do this time?"
"I believe I was promised no meddling dear," Regina replied mirthlessly through chattering teeth as her chilled body started to warm.
"I believe I said, very little meddling," the healer smiled warmly. "You are out in the middle of the village in your nightwear at the crack of dawn. That reeks of Emma Swan."
Regina hesitated but faltered under the weight of the older woman's gaze, "She lied to me."
"So you remember?"
Regina shook her head no but explained in detail what she meant. She went over the do-gooding Charming bloodline and the fact that the Sheriff had the unfortunate circumstance to be cursed with both Snow and Charming's idiot genes. Once she started the beratement of the Sheriff, it seemed she couldn't stop, and she included, much to her surprise and consequential dismay, her own thoughts and feelings about the situation she found herself in. Up to and including the Sheriff's nightmares and her own flights of fancy. The floodgate was pried open, and as uncharacteristic it was for the Mayor to open up to anyone, it was even more so to trust a virtual stranger with confidential information such as her personal feelings. Yet, here she was, with this soft-spoken Amazon, pouring out her heart. She felt a familiar wave of kinship with the woman which settled her growing anxiety about exposing herself in such a raw way.
Maggie listened to the woman, some of what she said, the healer had heard before, but she didn't dare stop her from telling her story for fear the brunette would clam up and stop.
It was healthy for the brunette to get what she was feeling off of her chest and if she couldn't talk to her little blonde Sheriff, Maggie was pleased the woman could come to her. She hoped the brunette had regained some of her memories from the last couple of lunar cycles, but it seemed as though the healer would need to rebuild their relationship from scratch.
She liked Regina and felt the woman was worth the effort. She put the sentiment out there and told the Mayor in not so many words how exactly she felt about her and their situation.
She wasn't exactly clear on why the blonde would burn the Mayor's diary. Regina knew Emma best, so she decided to ask her thoughts on the matter.
"So why do you think she burned the book?"
Regina sipped her tea and gently rocked as she contemplated her answer. "I think she is embarrassed that she lied to me about her feelings in order to control my poisoned self. I'm not judging her for it. I assume it was warranted. I think she feels bad she violated my privacy and went through my diary and when she saw how my imbecilic-self fawned over her, she decided to burn the evidence of her deception."
Maggie swallowed thickly; she hadn't expected that honestly, and so she nodded and pondered how to correct the brunette's thinking. "What if..." Maggie started not making eye contact with the surly brunette. "She didn't violate your privacy. What if the last iteration of your ill-self told her what was in there."
"You sound like you are stating a factual statement and not a hypothetical," Regina replied peering at the woman carefully.
"I did overhear you tell the Sheriff intimate details of what was written in your diary, dearheart."
"Fine, perhaps she didn't violate my privacy, she still tried to hide her lies in a burning inferno!" Anger flashed in the Mayor's dark eyes, and the healer recognized the danger and backed down.
"Fair enough," Maggie replied and got up to refill their teacups. As she stoked the fire in the hearth, she asked a question nonchalantly. "If she lied to your ill-persona, why would she care if you, her friend, found out about it? I mean, she cared enough to burn all of your experiences since you've been here, not just the one instance of apparent untruth?"
The Queen's eyelashes fluttered as she tried to consider what the Sheriff's motives were and decided on a simple stock answer, "She's an idiot."
Maggie chuckled as she refilled the Queen's cup with fresh tea and agreed, "Perhaps."
"Why don't you just say whatever it is you are thinking darling, you are giving me a headache beating around the bush." Regina rubbed her temple to prove her point.
"Do you really want to know what I think?"
"Not particularly, but that hasn't stopped you from expressing your opinion before, has it dear?"
Maggie chuckled as she bowed to the woman's fortitude. "Fair enough." She cleared her throat and sat back and got comfortable. "I think the Sheriff is in love with you and burned your book because she told your ill-persona the truth, thinking you would forget and hadn't realized you would immortalize said truth in your diary. I think she panicked when you informed her of that fact and she burned the book because she believes you couldn't possibly feel the same for her. I think your friendship means everything to her and she would rather have you in a platonic capacity than not have you at all." Maggie shrugged at herself and took a deep breath in relief.
All the good feelings the healer was feeling went out the window when the brunette burst out laughing. To the average person, the woman would look like she was sincerely amused at the healer's wild guesswork, but Magdalus had spent a significant amount of time with the Mayor and could see the terror in the woman's dark eyes.
"You don't think she could love you do you?" Maggie asked a little astonished, and when the Mayor instantly stopped laughing, she knew she was right.
"I think that is quite enough meddling for today, dear," Regina stated and made a motion to get up and leave the healer's residence.
"Why do you think that book turned up unscathed?" Maggie asked quickly trying to come at the issue a new way.
Regina stood and began to fold the blanket she was using. "She burned the wrong book. What other explanation is there?"
"The gods interfere with mortals all the time. The question I would be asking if I were you is why? Why would a god take the time out of their immortality to resurrect a burnt diary?"
Regina rolled her eyes; she was finished with this asinine line of thought. "I don't think your gods had anything to do with it. I think Emma is an idiot, not that it is her fault, her parents are idiots, and I just thank my lucky stars the idiot gene skipped a generation because my son is brilliant." She side glanced the healer who held the mirth she felt in her kind eyes. The Mayor rolled her eyes and tried to straighten out the Amazon so she would never have this conversation ever again.
"You think she cares for me because you do not know me. You do not know our past," she placed the folded blanket on the chair and began tidying up the tea mess, but continued to explain. "I killed her grandfather, I hunted her mother for years and tried to kill her on more than one occasion, I cast a dastardly curse that ripped her from her loving parents and forced her to grow up alone and unloved and when I met her I tried to curse her and ended up nearly killing our son. She is the Savior. She saved our son from the brink of death, she saved the kingdom from the Evil Queen," she pointed to herself angrily, "she broke my curse. She is a hero, and I am the villain." The Queen's eyes welled up with tears as she spoke, but she willed those tears not to fall. "No Maggie, I'm sorry, but you are simply wrong. She could never care for me. Evidently not even as a friend." She clenched her jaw muscles and held tight to her emotions; she would not cry in front of this woman.
Maggie could see the fear had not left the dark eyes of the Mayor, so she relented, once more. "I respect you Regina enough to no longer argue my belief." She peered at the woman standing tall and proud in the middle of her greeting room and continued, "I do, however, disagree with you, because I did know those things about you, some of which you told me, others the Sheriff herself did. I have spent time with the both of you, I have grown to care about both of you. I believe that you each are broken in the same exact way, neither of you believe you are worthy of the other's heart. However I have said my peace, I will not meddle with you any further. The choice is yours, Your Majesty."
"Yes, it is," Regina replied raising her chin in defiance. The healer's words struck home with the Queen and even if she wasn't quite ready to buy into any kind of future with the Savior as anything more than a co-parent or at best, a friend, she did admit that perhaps the Amazon made some valid points she would need to consider. Later. When her mind wasn't spinning like a top.
The healer asked off subject in an attempt to persuade the Mayor to stay a little longer, "How are your headaches dearheart?" She didn't want to leave the woman alone with her own self-destructive thoughts and perhaps if they spoke on something more pleasant her words would sink into her thick skull.
Regina spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon in the company of Magdalus, much to the healer's delight. It was a chance to reacquaint herself with the Mayor, and although the woman was much the same, she was also extremely different in many ways. They spent the time renewing their friendship and, as promised, did not revisit the subject of the Sheriff's secret affections.