A/N: Thanks so much to HKYVR for giving me this prompt! I've never done a post-break-up fic before so it was a fun new challenge!

Regina heard the door to Granny's chime open, but she didn't pay much attention to it. Her day was about to begin, and for the past few weeks work had been the only distraction she had in life. She was grabbing the coffee that would set her up for the next few hours, so the fact that a line was forming behind her wasn't of much interest to her. She was the mayor, after all, and although she'd perhaps gone a little soft in previous years, that had all changed now.

"Hey, can you hurry up?" Leroy demanded as she continued talking to Ruby. She turned and shot him a look so venomous that his face turned the same shade as her lipstick.

It was only when she'd finally taken her coffee and moved away from the counter that she realised who exactly had just walked in. When she saw Emma standing by the door with her wide, green eyes glued to the woman just leaving, her stomach plummeted.

She forced herself not to show it. She eyed Emma up and sneered, "Miss Swan."

Emma visibly flinched at the old nickname, but still smiled. "Hey, Regina."

"If you'll excuse me," Regina said, ignoring the fact that her heart had automatically tugged at the change of expression on Emma's face. "I have to get to work."

She knew plenty of people were watching them, so she lifted her chin and strode toward the door. When Emma stepped toward it and blocked her path, she thought she might spit.

"Move."

"Regina," Emma said pleadingly. "Please. It's been a month. Can we talk?"

But after what Regina had been through, she had no time for talking anymore. She had no time for anything except going to work, staying far too late, and getting home to find that Henry was out yet again. He was 17 and about to leave for college, so although his constant disappearances were upsetting, they weren't surprising. All Regina could do about it was check he was safe, have dinner by herself, and then go to bed replaying the same moment over and over again in her head until her stomach ached.

"It's funny," Regina said, her voice turning icy in a way it hadn't in a few years. "How your loyalty to Granny's Diner every morning is so much stronger than your loyalty to other people."

Emma's face turned ashen. She didn't manage to summon a response before Regina pushed past her, threw open the door and vanished down the street.

Trying to ignore the fact that every person in the diner was staring at her, Emma slipped through the room and headed toward the booth at the back. August was there waiting for her, his eyebrows raised.

"Wow," he said. "Glad to see you two are making amends."

Emma slumped miserably into the seat opposite him. "I know. Progress is great."

"You seriously haven't been able to speak to her in weeks?"

"She won't let me. Any time I show up at her house she just slams the door."

"What about sending a text?" he suggested. "You can explain it all. She needs to know what actually happened."

"I know that," Emma snapped. August didn't flinch at her tone. "I tried that too. Each time she just replies saying that she deleted my message without reading it because she doesn't want to hear my feeble excuses."

August groaned. "God. She's even more stubborn than you are."

Looking down at her empty hands, Emma swallowed through the painful lump in her throat. Over the past month, she'd missed Regina more than she'd ever thought possible. The first few days had been awful, but she'd been distracted by the other things going on and had still hoped Regina would come around eventually. After the first week, it became increasingly clear that wasn't going to happen.

She looked up to find August watching her pitifully. "You were trying to protect her, Em. She needs to know that."

"Yeah, except that if I actually manage to get her to believe me, she'll probably go storming off to get some justice and end up putting herself in more danger." She sighed, dropping her head again. "I love her. I just want her to be safe."

August had nothing to say to that. Instead, he reached across the table for her hand and squeezed.

Emma knew everyone in the diner was still watching and silently judging her, but for a second, she didn't care. She longed for that comfort, and she smiled gratefully. She squeezed back, ignoring the scoffs of disbelief from behind her.

Regina slammed the door to her study and collapsed into her desk chair, ignoring the faint ring of shaking glass from behind her. She'd thought she would be used to seeing Emma again by now, but it seemed she wasn't - not at all. Every time she caught sight of her slightly ashamed, slightly hopeful face, she was torn between the urge to drive her fist directly into her eye socket or to pull her close and kiss her just like they used to. So far, she'd managed to skate by on doing neither, but she wasn't sure her self-restraint would last much longer.

Please. It's been a month. Can we talk?

She nearly spat. Talk about what? She knew what she'd seen. She'd been betrayed enough in her lifetime to recognise it when it was happening right in front of her face. She could remember it as clear as day - walking up to Emma's porch and finding the front door unlocked, because for some reason the town's sheriff had no regard for her own safety when she spent so much time fixating on everybody else's. Regina had rolled her eyes and pushed the door open, hearing a noise from the other side of the living room and immediately smiling as she prepared to lay eyes on her girlfriend.

Instead, what she saw was her girlfriend wrapped around someone else. As Hook backed her up into the wall, her eyes were wide open, like she was so enamoured with this moment that she couldn't possibly miss a second of it. Hook was kissing her hard, groaning with relief, and Emma's hand had been reaching down between them. Rummaging for something. Grabbing for it.

Regina's entire life had frozen, but through the haze, she'd managed to leave. She'd heard Emma calling after her, but she had avoided her ever since.

What she couldn't understand, then, was why Emma seemed so adamant that she could talk her way out of this. Emma was many things, but she wasn't naive. Life had drilled that out of her a long time ago. So why, whenever she saw Regina walking toward her and recognised the moment as a chance to tell her the story in full, did she always look slightly relieved? What lie had she concocted that she seriously thought Regina would believe?

Right then, there was a knock at the door. Regina sighed - she'd been sitting at her desk for nearly an hour, clenching her fists and causing an ache to build in her jaw. Something she'd learned over the past month was that time passed both terrifyingly quickly and painfully slowly when she was reliving that moment over and over again.

Heaving herself to her feet, she headed for the hall and yanked open the door. As soon as she saw Emma waiting on her porch, she tried to slam it shut again.

"Regina," Emma groaned, stopping it with her foot. "Please. I'm begging you."

"Just like you begged him that day, I guess?" Regina snarled. Emma flinched, her cheeks going red.

"No," she said furiously. "You need to let me explain this to you. Please. I've tried so many times and I know you hate me but I just need you to see my side."

"Your side?" Regina demanded, wrenching the door back open and glaring directly into her terrified face. "Why would I ever want to hear your side? I saw what I saw, Emma. I saw you with him, kissing him, having the time of your life even though you knew I was on my way over for dinner. Were you enjoying yourself so much that you forgot I was coming?"

"No," Emma replied miserably. "I promise. I never forgot."

"Oh, even better. So you knew I was coming but you didn't care. Maybe you wanted to get caught, because you were so sure I'd take you back anyway." It was something Regina had been repeating to herself over and over for weeks - that Emma knew her better than anyone, which meant she knew how little she thought of herself. It meant, when push came to shove, she'd probably forgive Emma for absolutely anything as long as she had someone to make her feel loved again.

"No," Emma replied more forcefully. "God, Regina. I get why you think the absolute worst of me right now, but I'd never do that."

Regina scoffed in sheer disbelief. "I caught you cheating on me, and you still expect me to believe that?"

She waited for another feeble defence, but Emma suddenly deflated. Her eyes were slightly watery, and she took a step back.

"Look," she said in a steady voice that told Regina she'd been rehearsing this for some time. "I know you don't want to hear excuses from me. If I were you, I wouldn't either. But if I can show you what happened - then will you believe me?"

Regina blinked. In the moment of silence, Emma pulled out a dream catcher from behind her back and nervously held it forward.

For a second, neither of them spoke. Then Regina snorted and said, "And how do I know you haven't altered the memory in there to suit your story?"

"Regina," Emma half-laughed. "Come on. You've seen me failing to use magic to heat soup. You really think I'm capable of that?"

Regina didn't reply, because she knew she was right. Eventually, Emma stepped forward. She couldn't force the dream catcher into Regina's hands since she knew she couldn't stand to touch her, so instead she bent forward and leaned it against the door frame.

"I know you don't want to relive it," she said as she straightened up. "And I'm so sorry for trying to make you go through it again. But, please - I really think it'll help. Even if you don't forgive me, I just want you to know that I wasn't trying to hurt you."

She turned and left then, scrubbing her cheek as she went. Regina waited until she'd vanished from sight before she collected the dream catcher from the floor and took it back into the house with her.

Days later, it was still sitting on the dining room table. Regina had hoped Henry wouldn't notice it since he hardly ever came home for dinner anymore, but she'd misjudged how much of his childhood nosiness he'd carried with him into adolescence.

"Mom," he said flatly as he walked into the kitchen. "What are you waiting for?"

Regina looked up, blinking. "For the pasta to cook."

"I mean the stupid dream catcher sitting in the other room. Why haven't you done anything with it yet?"

Her cheeks burned as she looked away again. "Who says I haven't?"

"Because if you had, you'd be round Emma's again by now."

"And who says that?"

"Me," he replied flatly. "She told me it explains everything."

Slamming her wooden spoon down on the counter, Regina asked, "Oh? And you know all about what's in it, do you?"

"No, of course not. She wouldn't tell me. But I know Emma and I know she doesn't hope for the best unless she has good reason to." After a beat, he moved further into the kitchen and added, "She really wants to explain, Mom. If she was totally ashamed of herself, she wouldn't bother."

Regina glared at him. "Well, she should be totally ashamed of herself."

"And you should look at the damn memory."

"Language," Regina reprimanded halfheartedly. The truth was, she'd been hiding from it for days. The only reason it was in the dining room was because it was the least-used room in the house - she would have stuffed it in the laundry room if Henry didn't keep bringing his clothes home smeared in mud after soccer practice.

When Henry didn't respond to her pathetic attempt at changing the subject, she sighed and turned the stove off. "I just... don't especially want to see it again."

"I know. Of course you don't. But Emma loves you and she wouldn't force you to sit through it again unless she had a good reason."

Regina scoffed. "Or because she's even stupider than I thought."

"Well," Henry replied lightly. "We both know that's not possible."

When his mother smiled but didn't respond, he reached for her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "She would have given up trying to explain by now if there was nothing to say. Please, Mom. Just trust her for another minute."

After he left, Regina touched her shoulder. As much as she loved having her son make contact with her, she couldn't help but miss the way Emma used to touch her even more.

She waited until the house was empty before she sat down at the dining table. Just the fact that the dream catcher had been in Emma's hands made her reluctant to touch it, but she forced herself to pick it up and will the memory to appear.

When she found herself in Emma's head, it was with a wash of relief. Somehow she could smell her and feel her - half confident, half totally unsure of herself, bumbling around with coffee spilled down her sweater and her curls already knotty even though it was only 10am. Emma was walking through town, her eyes on a figure in the distance. To Regina's sickening dismay, she realised it was Hook.

But the feeling in Emma's chest wasn't lust or longing or regret - it was suspicion. She was following him because she knew he was up to no good, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. Her phone rang, but she ignored it.

She slipped further down the street and followed him to the docks, hiding behind the Storybrooke Cannery as he approached another figure by the water. She'd never seen them before. The man had a white beard and a captain's hat, and he didn't smile as Hook approached.

When he handed over an object that was wrapped in black satin, Emma's heart lurched. She ducked away before either of them could turn and spot her.

The memory faded, momentarily placing Regina back at the table with her palms itching, before returning to another day. Emma was in her house, cooking something on the stove with her eyes continually darting toward the clock. Regina recognised her outfit at once and realised what evening it was. Her stomach sank.

Emma turned off the heat and pushed her hair back from her face, then approached the kitchen sink. As she washed her hands, she happened to look out the window. There, on the sidewalk, trying to hide behind some of the unkempt bushes that she hadn't had time to attend to all spring, was Hook.

Glancing at the clock again, Emma headed for the front door and yanked it open.

"Killian," she called out. The figure at the end of the driveway had vanished, but there was rustling coming from behind the nearest bush. "I know you're there. I can hear you."

A second later, he reappeared. "Oh, hey. How are you doing?"

"Good. Is there any particular reason why you're skulking around outside my house like some kind of pervert?"

"Emma," he snapped, looking around. As he moved, Emma noticed that he was holding something beneath his coat. "Can you not yell stuff like that down the street, please?"

"Then tell me what you're up to."

"I'm walking."

"You're loitering. Come here and tell me why."

Hook huffed to himself but eventually started to walk toward the house. Regina recognised the sick feeling in Emma's stomach as he approached her: he had a slightly manic look in his eye that she'd never liked. He'd worn the exact same expression when Emma had broken up with him six months earlier.

"So," she said, trying to sound cheery. "What can I do for you?"

"What? Nothing."

"Then why are you here?"

"I told you, I was just going for a walk."

"Killian, we dated for nearly two years and you never went for a walk once. What's going on?"

"Nothing," he said more loudly, glancing behind him at the empty path. "Anyway, isn't Regina coming over? I don't want to get in your way."

Emma faltered. "How do you know she's coming over?"

"She always does on Friday nights."

"And how do you know that?"

Hook smiled vaguely. "I notice things."

Emma felt sick to her stomach by this point. She forced a smile in return and said, "Right. So, I'll leave you to your walk then, I guess?"

"Great," he replied, stepping back. "I'll see you."

As he went to walk away, Emma waved her hand and magicked the thing he was hiding beneath his coat into her own palm. He stammered, lunging forward to try and snatch it back, but Emma had a tight grip on it.

"What the hell is this?" she asked, examining it closely. It was some kind of wand - dark wood with strange etchings along the sides, and a glass bulb at the end that appeared to be empty. For a horrible second, Emma wondered whether he was trying to bribe her back with sex toys.

"It's nothing," Hook snapped, trying again to snatch it away. "It's mine."

"It looks shifty. And there's magic in it. Why have you even got something like this?"

"None of your business."

"You're on my property. That makes it very much my business."

Hook scowled, then looked behind him again. It was like he was waiting for someone to join them.

Suddenly, Emma realised. Her stomach plummeted.

"...what were you going to do to Regina?"

"What?" Hook laughed hollowly. "Nothing."

"Killian. What were you planning to do?"

Finally, the fake smile on his face subsided. He sneered at her, pushing his greasy hair back from his forehead.

"You left me no choice, Swan," he snarled. "This is for both of us."

"Excuse me?"

"You're only with her because she's powerful," he hissed. "I've always known it. You want her because she's got magic and can protect you with it."

Emma blinked at him, her mouth opening slightly. "Are you crazy?"

"But this," he continued, gesturing violently to the object in her hand, "will fix that. When she doesn't have magic anymore, you'll realise she's worth nothing."

Looking down at the wand, Emma took in the empty glass bauble at the tip once more and realised why there was nothing inside it. It would be filled with something pretty soon.

"Killian," she said slowly. "I don't love Regina because of her magic. I mean, I have my own, for starters - why would I need hers?"

"Because you're scared of being weak," he snapped. "If you're weak, people leave you. If you're dating the most powerful sorceress in the world, no one would dare."

"You're not making any sense."

"No?" he demanded, then lunged forward for the wand yet again. Emma staggered back into the living room, holding it out of his reach. "Give it to me."

"Get out, Killian."

"Give it to me."

"You're acting crazy - I'm not coming back to you," she replied, walking further back. Hook followed her into the house, slamming the front door behind him. "Just go home and calm down. We can talk properly once you're not acting insane anymore."

Hook just laughed, striding toward her until she collided with the far wall. "Give. It. To. Me."

Finding herself backed into a corner, Emma glanced down at the wand. The chances were Hook wouldn't even know how to use it properly - whoever that man at the docks had been, he probably hadn't been too clear on the instructions - but that didn't mean she could leave it to chance. Whatever he tried to do with it, Regina would get hurt. And Emma had promised a long time ago to never let that happen again.

She could break it with her magic. She was sure of it. But she needed a few seconds to do so, and with Hook looming over her with a glob of spittle in the corner of his mouth, she didn't stand a chance.

So she sucked down her nausea and lunged toward him. Their lips met, and she instantly felt him relax.

The wand shattered in her hands after less than a minute, but Hook was too distracted to notice. His tongue was in her mouth - delving too far back, just like it always had - and his good hand was on her waist, pushing her into the wall. Emma grimaced and dropped the shards of wood to the floor, then placed both hands on Hook's stomach and abruptly shoved him away.
When she regained focus, she realised they weren't alone.

Regina was in the doorway, blinking frantically. Even from the distance, Emma could see she was about to cry.

"Regina," Emma blurted out, pushing Hook harder. He staggered back a step, giving Emma a painfully clear view of her girlfriend standing in the doorway with one hand clasped over her stomach.

She turned and ran a second later. Emma nearly tripped over the couch in her haste to follow.

"Regina!" she shouted out the front door, but she was already in her car. Behind her, Hook had noticed the broken wand and was cursing loudly. "Please, let me explain."

The car vanished. Emma's throat hurt.

Behind her, Hook was turning on her instead.

Regina's mouth tasted metallic when she pulled herself from the memory. She could feel Hook's unkempt stubble against her lips and chin, and she automatically lifted a hand to wipe her mouth clean.

For weeks, she'd been refusing to listen to Emma's story. Her stomach had ached and twisted just imagining her excuses. She hadn't once considered that maybe Emma had been telling the truth.

Grabbing her purse, she ran for the door and jumped into her car. It was her first time going to Emma's house since the night she'd just relived.

Since Emma never locked the front door, Regina gingerly pushed it open. She half expected to see Hook there again, frantically kissing Emma in the corner of the living room like he always was when she closed her eyes, but the room was empty. From the kitchen at the back of the building, she heard a creak.

Taking a breath, Regina walked slowly across the living room and pushed open the next door. Emma was there, her hands clasped around a cup of coffee. There was a pile of broken wood and glass sitting on the table in front of her.

As soon as she saw Regina, her face lit up hopefully.

Regina gestured to the broken wand. "Have you been waiting for me to show up?"

Emma smiled weakly. "Yeah. I've been waiting for weeks."

With a sigh, Regina sat down opposite her. She could feel Emma's green eyes on her, taking in every twitch and movement like she was worried this would be the last time she'd ever be able to see them.

After a few moments of silence, Regina quietly asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

She was surprised when Emma laughed. "Regina."

"What?"

"I tried to. I've been trying to tell you for weeks. All those texts I sent that you deleted, I said it all there. I even tried to project myself into your dreams once or twice, but I'm still not very good at that and I think I ended up a few houses over by mistake."

Regina laughed lightly. "I'm sure that was a nice surprise for my neighbours."

"Oh, definitely. They haven't looked at me the same way since."

They smiled awkwardly at one another. The atmosphere in the room was horribly different to how it had been a month or two ago - Regina recognised the old uncertainty from Emma's first year in town, and their mutual suspicion of what the other person might be about to do. Compared to the gentle kisses and soft hand touches of a few weeks before, it was painful. Regina felt her eyes filling again.

"I'm sorry," Emma said eventually. "I need you to know that I don't love him. Not at all. I don't even want to think about him. He was just... He was going to hurt you, and I couldn't let him." When Regina didn't reply right away, Emma added, "I'm sure you would have thought of a better way to get rid of him, but I was scared and confused and I just did the first thing I could think of that would buy me some time. I'm really, really sorry."

And suddenly the fact that Emma was apologising to her hurt Regina more than anything that had happened over the past few weeks.

Without warning, she swept the broken wand out of the way and reached for Emma's hands. Touching her again filled her with warm, comfortable relief that could have sent her to sleep.

"Don't apologise," she said firmly, holding her gaze. "Please don't. You saved me and you protected me and then you tried to explain it to me, but I wouldn't listen. I was so busy feeling hurt and sorry for myself that I didn't want to consider that there might be more to the story."

Emma smiled weakly. "I think you're being too hard on yourself. I know what it looked like. I never blamed you for being upset."

"No?"

"Of course not. If I'd walked in on you and Robin kissing I would have ripped his dick off right there."

Regina barked with laughter. "I've missed your poetic way of talking."

She watched as Emma's eyes filled with relieved tears. "I've missed everything."

Without thinking, Regina got up from her seat and walked round to Emma's side of the table. She crouched beside her, cupping her chin with one hand and sinking internally when she felt a tear rolling down into her palm.

"Thank you for looking out for me," she said quietly, "and for saving me, yet again. I'm so sorry I ruined it."

"You didn't ruin anything. I just... I couldn't stand knowing that I hurt you and that you didn't trust me anymore, and all I wanted was to clear things up, but I knew you didn't want to see me anymore and..." Emma suddenly choked on a sob and had to pause to compose herself. "I told myself maybe it was for the best, because if you knew the truth and what Hook had been trying to do, you would have gone after him and gotten yourself hurt. Maybe you ending things with me was just what it would take to keep you safe."

Regina stroked her wet cheek with her thumb. "I understand. But I won't do anything to him."

"You won't?"

"No. You fought to keep me safe. I'm not going to do anything to ruin that."

Emma's next smile was brighter. "You mean, you don't feel the need to wring his slimy little neck?"

"Excellent choice of words. And yes, I do," Regina replied coolly. "But I won't. He's nothing to us." For a second, that tiny shred of worry that still lived in her stomach flared up, and she tentatively added, "Right?"

"Right," Emma replied at once, gripping her hand. "Nothing at all."

Rising to her feet so she could fiercely kiss Emma's cheek, Regina let out a long sigh of relief. The smell of Emma's wild hair crept into her nose once more, and the feel of her skin against her lips made her bones go loose.

"I missed you," she muttered into her hair. She felt Emma sink with gratitude.

"I missed you too. So, so much."

When they went to bed that night, they settled into their old positions without a word. After moisturising her body from the pot of expensive lotion that had been waiting for her in Emma's bathroom, Regina slid between the sheets and curled into Emma's side. An arm found its way around her shoulder and pulled her closer. A kiss landed on the top of her head.

"I forgot to bring the dream catcher with me," Regina muttered sleepily after a while. She had her ear pressed to Emma's chest and could feel herself getting hypnotised by the soft thud of it beating for her.

Emma laughed to herself. "Burn it. We don't need to see that again."

"The time when you saved my life by kissing a pirate?" Regina asked. The sentence still hurt, but it was a different kind of pain now. It hurt her stomach, but her heart felt like it was glowing. "I think it's a souvenir we need to keep."

"Don't play it at our wedding, Regina."

"No promises," Regina replied. A second later, she was asleep. Emma sighed, kissing her soft, dark hair once more, and settled into the only place she'd ever felt at home.

THE END

A/N: Worth mentioning that I can't for the life of me remember how the dreamcatcher/memories thing worked in the show, so I took a guess. If it's wrong then I can only apologise (or pretend to) x