AN: I have a terrible writers block, like almost as bad as the one that led to this story being on hiatus for two years. Nothing I write works for me, but I'm trying my best.

Emma was lost. Everything that had happened the past twelve hours was almost too much to process. Just the image of the beaten Regina collapsing into her arms would haunt her for the rest of her life. She'd known it was bad with Regina's mom, she'd known. She'd been in abusive homes as a foster kid and knew how to read the signs, but she had ignored them.

Se should have gone with her, she should be with her now. But her dad had figured that maybe Regina would be more willing to talk if Emma wasn't there. And Emma understood, she did. She knew Regina well enough to know how hard it is for her to be vulnerable. And especially now, especially in the state their relationship was.

Emma was still mad that Regina didn't tell her why she broke up with her, she still hadn't. Not like Regina had the chance to say much after she passed her. Her father had called an ambulance for her, and Regina had mostly muttered things about her mom. But it was enough for Emma to put together, if not all, then most of the pieces.

Emma knew that despite appearances Regina's life was far from perfect, but she hadn't known, maybe hadn't wanted to know how bad it was.

"Emma, what's wrong?"

Emma hadn't even heard her sister come home, she couldn't even quite remember where she had been. On a date? At practice? A match? Emma's mind was fried, and all she could think about Regina.

"Uhm, I..." Emma struggled with the words, everything that just happened had brought back a lot of memories and feelings and she was struggling with figuring out what was her feelings, her memories and what happened with Regina. She knew she needed to call Archie, but she also knew she needed to figure out her own thoughts first.

"Hey..." Mary Margaret said, and moved slowly towards Emma, knowing that when she acted like this, Emma usually needed space. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Emma said, "Physically, at least." She managed to say. "It's Regina."

"Did she do something?"

"In a way, yes."

"What does that mean?"

"She uhm. She came out to her mom, and…" Emma paused, her thoughts finding their way where they needed to be. "Her mom really hurt her, MM. She showed up here and then passed out in my arms. She was bleeding, and it was clear that someone had beat her really bad."

"God, Em… Where is she now?"

"Dad took her to the hospital, and I am assuming maybe he called the cops. I wanted to go with them, but dad said that maybe it was better for Regina if I didn't…"

"He's usually right about stuff like this, unfortunately, he's dealt with abusive parents a lot." It was clear that Mary Margaret was doing her best to calm Emma, but it wasn't working.

"I know, but I'm worried." Emma said, "And I feel guilty. I love her so much, and I didn't see this. She told her mom about us and it nearly killed her."

"This is not your fault." Mary Margaret said, and pulled Emma in a hug that nearly suffocated her.

Logically, Emma knew that the one who was to blame in all of this was Cora. Not her, certainly not Regina. But just because she knew this, doesn't mean she felt it like this. She blamed herself for a million things. She blamed herself for pushing Regina out of the closet, for not realizing that Regina was actually scared of her mother, that the fact that she didn't want to come out didn't have anything to do with not having the money for college. She should have realized that bruises weren't from falling off her horse, and that her unwillingness to tell her mother about her self-harm and drug abuse went beyond being embarrassed about it.

She blamed herself for not pushing harder, she blamed herself for pushing too hard. Nothing made sense, yet everything seemed to suddenly fit.

"Then why does it feel like it is?" Emma felt helpless and on the urge of tears. She wasn't the one in pain, she wasn't the one whose mother had beat her nearly to death. So why did she hurt so much? She was no stranger to pain, but like this? It felt different.

"Because someone you love is in pain." Mary Margaret said, "I think this is something new for you." Mary Margaret took her hand and squeezed it. "Your life hasn't been easy, but your pain has always been yours. "

"How do I make it stop?" Emma said, the tears no longer a threat, but a fact.

"You can't." Mary Margaret said, "You can just be there for them, and hopefully that is enough to help both of you. She is going to need you, Emma. She needs to know that this doesn't change anything. She needs to know, that no matter what her mother told her, that it was lie. And until Regina feels safe enough to tell you, you have to be patient with her."

"I love her so much," Emma said, "And my love caused this."

"No, it didn't." Mary Margaret said, "It didn't." She just repeated the words, mixed in with "it wasn't you fault." Over and over again as Emma fell apart in her sister's arms. Emotionally exhausted, terrified about Regina and what this would mean for her. She was heartbroken, but in a completely new way from how she'd felt since the breakup.

"I knew she was keeping something from me." Emma finally said when she finally stopped crying and managed to think of full sentences again. "Fiona told me after I confronted her about why Regina broke up with me that Regina was scared of her mother. I just didn't put the pieces together."

"Emma, you're a sixteen-year-old girl. You're not responsible for saving the people around you, you're not responsible for the hurt caused by other people." Mary Margaret said, "Look, I know you feel like you owe the world something because it gave you us when all statistics and reason tell you that a twelve-year-old with a juvie record will not get adopted." She paused to look Emma in the eyes, "You don't owe anyone anything."

"How can I not?" Emma said, "I got lucky. I got so lucky with you and dad, and my girlfriend was abused by her mother for god knows how long and I had no idea. I was so angry at her for breaking up with me. Even though I knew something was wrong."

"She broke up with you." Mary Margaret said, "And she lied to you about the reason. You had every reason to be mad. I haven't known Regina very long, but I know enough to know that she doesn't show vulnerability very much. She had walls that are stronger and higher than anyone I have ever met, and yes that includes you."

"I love her." Emma said, "I just love her so much and I couldn't see how much she was hurting."

Emma was used to pain, though thankfully it had been rarer since she moved in with Blanchard's. But she remembered the feel of palms against cheeks, of going without food for longer periods, of not feeling at home anywhere. It killed her that Regina might have felt like this for years and no one suspected. Everyone in Storybrooke believed that Regina Mills had the perfect life. She had money, she had a huge house, she got early admission to several great colleges, she would never have to worry about paying for them, she was student body president, and everyone respected her.

But no one had known that the reason why she disliked her mother was that she was abused, not her, not Fiona, not Graham. The people who swore they loved her, no one had known.

"Because she didn't want you to." Mary Margaret said, "Look, you can blame yourself for not seeing this, just as I can, just as I am sure Fiona and Graham will when they find out what happened. But there is just one person to blame, and that's Cora. Cora was the one who nearly beat her daughter to death when she learned that she was dating you. You didn't do this."

"Do you think I should call Graham?" Emma asked, not sure what to do. Who to tell. What Regina needed now. Graham was her best friend, but there was also a lot complicated history that and Emma didn't know what Graham knew about the self-harm or what actually happened in Europe. She didn't know how much of her broken parts Regina actually wanted Graham to see, and now, what Regina wanted was what was the most important.

"Not tonight." Mary Margaret said, "There is nothing he can do now, except worry and I think you should talk to Regina before you tell anyone. I know Graham is her best friend, but Regina doesn't exactly keep her heart on her sleeve and this is something that should come from her when she is ready."

"I know you're right, I just feel like I have to do something because if I don't, I'll fall apart and then I'm no good to anyone."

"Hey, you need to feel what you're feeling and if you need to fall apart, fall apart. You just saw someone you love collapse in front of you, you're allowed to be scared and worried. I am, and I wasn't even home, but Regina means a lot to me too, and you mean everything to me."

"God, Mary Margret, how am I gonna help her through this?" Emma said, "We're kids. No one of should have to go through this. Her mom put her in the hospital. I'm not sure they're gonna let her come back tonight, she looked so hurt."

"There is nothing we can do but worry." Mary Margaret said, "Let's just sit down, watch Mamma Mia, and just wait, okay?"

"Okay." Emma said, and hugged her sister, "Thank you."

The brisk cold made her shiver, but she needed the air. The stars were thankfully out tonight, and it made her smile despite everything. Nothing centered Emma like looking up on the starry night sky. It put things in perspective for her. It always had. It didn't make her feel small or insignificant, but rather it made her apricate how vast and wonderful the universe is. How she is just a tiny part of something so much bigger.

It brought her comfort in a way nothing else ever had, and she needed that tonight. When she was six, she'd used the stars as an escape from her own life, as a promise that somewhere things could be better for her. Tonight, the stars were a promise that things could be better for Regina.

She remembered the night of Regina's birthday, when she had told her about what stars meant to her. Why she was so drawn to the night sky. The first time she'd told Regina that she loved her. It had been fitting it was under starry night sky, a fulfilment of the promise the sky had held when she was just a kid. She was loved, whether Regina had told her or not. She had someone who wanted her, she had a family, a house, a home and she had friends.

That weekend, under the stars with Regina, she'd realized that everything she had dreamed of, when she was little girl, sneaking off onto the roof to look at the stars and hope for better things had come true.

Sometimes this still surprised her, her life didn't always make sense to her. It had been four years since the adoption had been finalized, and yet sometimes when she woke up in the morning she wasn't sure where she was. Like a small part of believed that she'd wake up and realize that the past four years were just dream. Kids like her rarely leave the system, they don't get happy endings.

But she had, well, as much as an ending you could have when you're a sixteen-year-old, with hopefully her future ahead of her. But just the fact that she had a future was still something she couldn't believe. Four years ago, she was on a track that probably would have ended her in jail, but her dad saw something in her. He believed that she was worth something. And she went from having nothing, to having everything.

Her dreams are only limited by her, she could go to college if she wanted, and she was starting to think she maybe did. Maybe somewhere near UPenn or Princeton, or somewhere between Maine and Pennsylvania, so that she'd be close to both her friends and her sister.

If Regina were even still going to UPenn, she didn't know. She didn't know anything anymore. And nothing seemed to matter the same anymore either. She'd come so close to losing Regina, and now nothing made sense anymore.

Well, almost nothing. She knew she loved Regina, maybe more than before. She knew she wanted Regina wanted Regina to be safe more than anything, she needed her to be okay. And she could only pray that Cora hadn't left any permanent psychical damage. Mentally was a whole other problem, that kind of physical and Emma could only imagine mental abuse that Regina must have suffered. Emma couldn't even believe that Regina had made it all the way across town before collapsing.

God, she wondered if anyone had called her dad. Did her dad know? Would he have abandoned her here with her mom if he's known? Regina always talked about her dad with such fondness, and a way that felt so different from the way she talked about her mother.

Emma wasn't sure she would have felt the same way if she'd been in Regina's position, if her dad had left her with an abusive mom and barely came home from Christmas. But she wasn't Regina and she had no right to dictate how Regina should feel about anything.

All that matters what that Regina was out of that house, and she wouldn't have to go back. And Emma hoped that Regina realized that. She didn't know what Regina plans were, because she hadn't told her. They were broken up and then there she was beaten and bruised and telling her that she'd told her mom and then she collapsed.

She wishes she'd gone with them to the hospital, but she knew it would just make things worse for Regina. But she hated not knowing, not being able to see Regina, to know if she was okay.

It was way past midnight by the time her dad brought Regina back. She looked broken in ways that couldn't just be explained by the slowly forming bruises on her face and arm. She looked defeated, like she'd finally just stopped fighting.

"Hi." Regina said faintly when she saw that Emma had waited up for them. As if there was any other possibility. There was no way Emma would be able to sleep without knowing that Regina was okay, without seeing her again. To make Regina realize that no matter what happened to her, whatever will happen, Emma will always be there. Emma wanted Regina to realize that Emma was a safe place.

"Hi." Emma said, trying to convey all that she was feeling into that little word, "Are you going to be okay?"

She knew better than to ask if she is okay, there was no way she could be.

"I don't know." Regina said, and Emma had never heard Regina sound so vulnerable before. Not even when she had told her about the self-harm and rehab. Not when she told her what happened with Fiona. Emma just held her, she didn't have words for what had happened or what Regina needed. She just wanted Regina to know she was safe.

"You waited up for me?" Regina said, and Emma's heart just broke for her. She seemed broken in a way that Emma never expected. She knew that a lot of what Regina put on for the world was a mask, but she'd never seen her seem this resigned. So far away from everything she'd ever showed the rest of the world.

"Of course, I did." Emma said, "There was no way I could go to bed without seeing you again."

"Thank you," Regina said, "I really don't deserve this. I was so cruel to you."

"Yeah," Emma said, "But I shouldn't have let you. I knew was wrong, I even bullied Fiona into telling me. She didn't say much, but enough to make me doubt you. Enough that I should have known this wasn't about me at all."

Emma had known, she'd even told Mary Margaret that she knew something was wrong. She'd known it when it became clear that Regina was hiding from her friends and from her, she'd known it was she confronted Fiona and when she'd seen Regina at school. But she's been so mad that Regina didn't trust her, that Regina threw her away like so many foster parents had done when she was kid. She was so hung up on her own dysfunctions, that she didn't see Regina.

That she didn't remember the easy lies about the bruises from last thanksgiving, or the way Cora had looked at her that time they met, that she hadn't thought about all the demons that Regina clearly had. She'd been so focused on her own demons, that she'd forgotten that Regina was still living with hers. Though, more literally than she thought.

"I should've trusted you, though." Regina said, "But she threatened to have your adoption dissolved, and cost Leo his job and I couldn't do that. It was like she knew exactly where to hit me. Like she knew that I was immune to anything she could do to me, but she did something to you? God, I was so scared. You have a family that loves you, and Leo has been so kind to me, that I just reacted. To protect you. I thought."

Regina paused, and Emma had the feeling it was to keep herself from crying some more. Her eyes were red, and puffy and whatever she had told her dad, and the doctors, and Emma suspected the sheriff department, it had taken a toll on her emotions.

"Hey, we don't need to talk about this now." Emma said, "It doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you're safe."

"It matters to me, Emma." Regina said, "I was used to not trusting people, to not let them see me, that when this happened instead of telling you or Graham, I shut you all out. I shut down, all I could see is what I used. It's what I did with Fiona, it's probably what I would have done with Graham if I hadn't spent last summer in rehab. I run when I get scared."

"So do I." Emma said, "We're quite a pair you and I." Emma tried to smile, and touched Regina's face gently. "Because we are pair, you know, that right?"

"Even after all of this?" Regina said, and Emma broke at the hopefulness in her voice. As if she expected that Emma would turn her back on her now, that she was too broken for Emma to love. Emma recognized that look so well, it was how she'd felt when Leo asked if she wanted to be adopted. It was a mixture of disbelief and hope, that someone could actually want her.

"I love you, Regina." Emma said, more forcefully than she expected, but she needed Regina to know that Emma wasn't one to bail on someone when things got hard. She wanted to be with Regina, all she'd wanted was to be with Regina. "That doesn't change just because you made a mistake, I know that's hard to believe for you and I know love doesn't come easy to you and neither do trust, but trust that I love you, please."

"I just don't get it, why do you want to be with me?"

"Because you cry when you watch the Lion King, and you get a long with my dad, and my friends adore you. Because you know you made a mistake with Fiona and you apologized for it, because you send me cute text messages on days where I disappear for no reason, because you're really good at cooking and you know how I like my pancakes. Because you laugh at my stupid jokes, and you hold my hands in the halls."

"I wish I could see myself as you see me."

"I do to." Emma said, "Would it be okay if I kissed you?"

Regina just nodded slightly, and Emma kissed her, hoping to convey everything she just said. Convey ice skating behind her house, and the first time they slept together, their first kiss and their first unofficial date. She tried to make Regina feel everything in that kiss, everything that Emma felt. She heard her father's footstep approaching, and she broke the kiss.

Not that she minded her dad seeing her kiss Regina, but it had been a really long for all of them, and Emma knew that Regina still felt a little off center. And whatever they had just now, was private. It was for them. It was Emma to make Regina realize that this didn't change how she felt or make her love her any less. Something happened that was outside of Regina's control, and Emma didn't blame her for any of it.

"I know you probably have things to sort out, but I think it's time for you to go to bed." Leo said as he approached them, "Especially you, Regina. You need to sleep. You have a concussion so I'll be waking you every hour or so to check on you, but you need rest no matter what. Your body has been through one heck of a trauma and rest is the only thing that is going to hope."

"Thank you, Mr. Blanchard," Regina said weakly, "We've been through this Regina, it's Leo."

Leo smiled at her, in that way that made Emma trust him the first time she'd ever met him. This angry, broken twelve-year-old girl, who everyone abandons sooner or later, and Leo looked at her and smiled and Emma felt like she could trust him, that this was someone who would look after her. It wasn't creepy or anything, she'd heard stories from other girls about cops or social workers that seemed to friendly and acted inappropriate, but it didn't feel like that at all.

Leo genuinely wanted to help her, and he just had a way about him that made Emma believe him when he said it, even if everyone else in her life had lied and abandoned her, Leo saw something in her that was worth saving. And now he saw it in Regina, Emma could tell. He saw a kid who needed help. Just as he had that day, and Emma had never been more grateful.

"Dad, I know that…." Emma began, trying to find the best way to ask her dad if Regina could sleep with her tonight. The idea of letting Regina out of her sight, even if she was going to stay in the guest bedroom was unacceptable, it had been one thing to let Leo take her the doctors while she stayed behind. She'd understood why he'd done that, she knew that ever Regina had been through, telling that story with Emma there would be near impossible.

She knew that the last thing Regina would have wanted was for Emma to see just how hurt she was, and to hear everything that happened before Regina had the proper chance to progress it herself. Regina's life had changed, in momentous ways that night. No matter what comes next, Regina's life won't be the same. And Emma intended to be there, every single step of the way.

"Yes, Emma. Regina can stay in your room tonight." Leo said as if he'd read Emma's mind, he knew that neither girl could be alone that night, and Regina would probably benefit from being with Emma. She might even feel safe for the first time in a while.

"Thank you." Emma said, and moved over to hug her dad. "I love you."

"I love you too, kiddo. Now you two, get some rest."