A/N:This turned out much darker than I had planned but I stil hope you like it! Thanks for the reviews. Keep 'em coming, they make my day

The next night we went out. It wasn't midnight when we walked into a bar and I waited in a small table, sat in a stool, while Regina ordered our drinks at the counter. The music was high and everyone seemed to be having a great time dancing around. I pulled out my phone to check the text. I answered Ruby, Mary Margaret (who had met David and were getting along) and my mom. I hesitated with the last one because of the late hour but tomorrow is Regina's birthday and I will forget about it for sure. I pressed send and tiptoed to see where Regina was; she was still trying to catch the waiter's attention.

When I turned there was a big man on the other stool. "Hello babe," he drawled. "What's a pretty girl like you doing here alone?" His lips twitched in something I think were aimed to be a seductive smile. He was young but I could see he was already losing his hair and his shirt had more buttons opened that should be allowed with that body; his belly, not so prominent but visible wasn't something nice to see.

"I'm not," I said in a clipped tone, looking around. I thought he had got the message but he still insisted and stepped closer. "You are now"

"I won't be for too long." He reached to touch my arm but I dodged it.

"The kitten is a tough cookie," he chuckled reaching for me again. It was too early to be so drunk; this guy must have been drinking since the afternoon.

"The kitten is not alone. Go away." When he stepped clumsily towards me, I rose from the stool and stepped away from him. "C'mon babe, don't resist. I know you want it."

I took a step backwards and searched for Regina but people didn't let me see. I shouldn't have done it because he took the chance to grab my wrist and pulled me with him through the bar. "Let's go to a more private space."

"Let me go!" I protested, pushing back all I could and trying to take his hand off me. He growled and his hold grew stronger. I looked around us expecting someone to notice and help, I even grabbed someone's arm but they shook it away. Everyone was minding their own business.

I searched for Regina between the tons of people but as I opened my mouth to call her name, he pushed me outside through a backdoor, making me stumble and fall. I landed on an alley. I was still taking in where I was when he straddled me, holding my hands down with his knees. I struggled but his weight was too much.

I was trapped beneath him.

He smiled lasciviously and leaned down. His nauseating breath almost made me vomit and I turned my face to one side to avoid him but his mouth got dangerously close to my neck. Every attempt I made to get free didn't work.

I didn't stop the tears.

Memories I had blocked started to come back and I tried to distract myself thinking of something else like how to get him off me. His lips touched my skin and I felt the bile in my throat as flashbacks from my childhood started to play in my head like a DVD but I couldn't find the stop button. I was scared; truly scared.

His length was pressing against my stomach and when I moved in a lame attempt to stop him, he just smiled again and took it like an encouragement. I closed my eyes and bitterly accepted what was going to happen. All my defenses were down. I felt alone.

Suddenly, all the weight that was over me disappeared. I rose to my elbows confused and saw something very blurred through the tears. I made his silhouette in the dark lying on the floor and someone was on top of him. The light was too poor. I took a moment to calm down before going to see what was going on; whatever was happening, they seemed to have forgotten about me.

Narrowing my eyes a little, I got closer to them with caution and recognized the other person. "Regina?" My voice sounded too low; she didn't hear me. She was hitting him. Her fists inveighed with his jaw, his nose, his eyes. Everything.

I fell to one knee and took her shoulders, "Regina, stop!" And she did. She stilled, breathing heavily. It was like if I had wakened her up; she seemed confused. He stood and I saw the blood on his apparently broken nose and the purple in his eye. I'm pretty sure he lost some teeth too. He ran away scared.

My hands were still on her shoulders when she looked at me. We hugged in unison, tighter than ever. "Are you okay? When I saw you I….I didn't know what to think…I don't know what happened." I didn't say anything because I didn't know if I felt ready. We just hugged each other, waiting for our heart rate to come to a normal rhythm.

In our room, Regina washed her hands; her knuckles were bruised. I turned and tossed what it seemed hours to me but I just couldn't sleep even though I felt really tired. Then, the weight of the mattress changed and I saw Regina's silhouette sat on the bed. Her face was between her hands.

I rose and slid in the sheets next to her. I soothed her back calmly and her body tensed but then relaxed. "You can't sleep either?" I asked lowly as if no one could hear us. She sighed and dropped her hands, shaking her head. She didn't look at me but to her hands.

"I almost kill him, Emma. If you hadn't stopped me, I don't know how far I would've come."

I didn't speak. What could I say? It's normal? It's not. I had seen the determination in her eyes; she was right. I just couldn't come up with anything to say so I kept soothing back and forth, plunged into silence. My mind came back to the alley and to a little dreadfully pink room.

"There's something I haven't told you." I have to. I need her to know.

Regina looked at me and I just told her everything. I told her how a man adopted me when I was 8 and how he came into my room many nights; how he touched me and made me kiss him. I told her how I got to run away one night and how I had to live on the streets for 2 days because I didn't want to come back and how the cops found me and took me back to the orphanage. I told her how the cops just made him a few questions and he got away with easy lies. How he gave me up claiming I wasn't what he was looking for and how for the next year I couldn't sleep because with every sound I though it was him again. And how I learned to block those memories. And how they had come back.

"Remember I told you I wanted to be a cop? Bastards like him should be locked up forever. No one should to go trough that like I did. Ever." I swallowed and she looked at me straight in the eye. I thought she would feel disgust.

Regina separated her lips and murmured, "I'm so sorry, Emma."

I shook my head. "Don't be. It's in the past."

"I…didn't know it."

Unexpectedly I laughed and she tilted her head. "I know you didn't. That's why I told you. I've never told that to anyone. I was ashamed. I am ashamed. But it made me who I am today and I can't change the past so I just got over it."

One of her hands was grabbing her other arm and she hesitated. I knew she would feel this way, that this would push her away. She must feel pity and I hate when people do that.

But she didn't. Regina just looked at me and said "I love you."

I couldn't explain how I felt in that moment. It's like when a wave overtakes you all of the sudden. There was no pity in her eyes but admiration. I smiled, "I love you too. And I would still do even if you had killed him."

That made her smile. I looked at the clock and leaned to kiss her. "It's 4 am."

"So?"

"Happy birthday."

She looked at it too and smiled, "I had forgotten! When will I be getting my first gift?"

I hovered over her and she leaned down until her back hit the mattress. A playful smile was on my lips as I said, "I can give you one now."

"I'd like that."

Kissing down her neck, I felt a strong feeling in my chest. This is what the true love must feel like.