AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, lovely readers! How are you all? (Serious question! Feel free to chat me up!) I'm leaving this note to point out that this chapter contains mentions of rape. Now is the time, if you haven't read the first part of this story, One More Try, to at least check out Chapter Two, where the event between them is explained (in some pretty rough detail). I apologize if this triggers anyone or if this turns any of you off to the story, but I believe that this event in the plot is crucial to the character development of both Emma and Regina, as well as the development of the story as a whole. Again, thank you all for reading and reviewing. I hope you're all having wonderful days!

Later that night, after a quick run to the grocery store, Emma returned to find Amelia sleeping soundly in her crib, Henry reading alone in his room, and her wife sitting, crying on their bed.

"Baby, what's-"

"We need to talk about this."

"Talk about what?" Emma asked anxiously, sitting beside the brunette and touching her shoulder.

But Regina pushed her away, shouting, "Talk about my fuck-ups! Talk about the way I fucking abused you!"

"Regina, that was ages ago. That's all in the past now. And you didn't abuse me. We just-"

"Don't. Emma, don't fucking lie to me. I know you remember that night."

"What night?" Emma asked dumbly, trying to touch her wife once more but being pushed away again.

"The night I fucking told you I wanted a divorce, Emma! Don't play fucking stupid like you've magically forgotten! I know it tore you up. I know I fucking broke you. I fucking-"

"No, Regina. I was hurt, yes, but-"

"EMMA!" Regina screamed, then lowered her voice and hissed, "I fucking raped you!"

The blonde stared, dumbfounded, but couldn't stop her eyes from flooding with tears.

"That's not... That's not what happened. We were-"

"You tried to stop me, and I forced myself on you. I was fucking cruel, Emma. Evil," Regina said. "I've always been evil."

"You are not evil! Your heart is-"

"CORRUPT. Black. Loveless. DESTROYED."

"No!"

"Yes, Emma. You need to fucking face reality. I fucking raped you."

Regina's wife could hold back the tears no longer, and she burst into sobs, then got off the bed and stormed to the other side of the room, where she slammed both fists down on the glass desk.

"I don't care!" she screamed, crashing her fists into the glass once more.

It was too thick to break, and it absorbed most of the sound, but Regina could sense the woman's rage, even from the other side of the room. She could hear it in her voice. The pain. The desperation.

"Emma, I'm so sorry," Regina said, crying through the words.

"I don't care," Emma repeated, this time in a whisper. "I fucking love you, and I don't care what you did to me. I love you. If I could change it all, I wouldn't."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Maybe you did want to hurt me. But you regret it, and I think... I believe that you do love me. That you wanted - and still want - this child with me. That you want to keep our family together, and not just for the sake of the kids. I think that if you really didn't care, you'd have taken Henry from me and stayed gone. That you never would have had another child with me. That you wouldn't be crying right now."

"I do love you," Regina sobbed. "I love you so much, and I am so, so sorry for everything. Even if you're not."

"I'm not," Emma assured her, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I'm crying because I hate seeing you so upset. It breaks me to hear you cry. All I want to do is take away your pain and help you heal from all this."

"I just want to get better. For you. For Henry. For Amelia. I want to be a good mother to our kids, and I want to be a good wife to you."

"You are an amazing wife, and an even more amazing mother. You show love more deeply than anyone I know. I treasure you, Mrs. Mills, and everything you are. Even your struggles."

"Struggles," Regina laughed through the tears. "That's putting it lightly."

"Regina," Emma sighed. "This is just a difficult phase you're going through. It will pass. I promise we'll get through this."

"I don't want you to leave me, but I'm so ashamed of what I've done. I was so scared to face it, but I just couldn't keep it in anymore. It's been boiling over in me for a long, long time. Since I had Amelia, it's been at the front of my mind. I was terrified that if I brought it up... if I reopened that wound... that you'd relive it all over again, and that you'd leave."

"I will never leave you."

"Emma..."

"Yeah, baby?" the blonde asked, sitting back down beside her wife as she wiped away the woman's tears.

"I'm so sorry about Spot."

"What?"

"The dog. The dog I made you get rid of. I'm so sorry. To you and to Henry. I know how much it meant to you, and I completely ruined it. I know you were crushed and I'm so sorry."

"I'm surprised you even remember that."

"It hurts me more than you know. Knowing how much I've hurt you breaks my heart every day. It's such a heavy weight to live with..."

"Let that go, Regina. Let go of that weight, and just let me love you."