"I was waiting for you, Mama," Emma beamed into the mirror, holding up the hairbrush, expectantly.

And Regina watched, but not from in front this time, from behind. She wasn't in the mirror, she was in the room. She was in Emma's bedroom. How did she get here? She couldn't remember how she got in.

She said nothing, and stepped across the floor, closing the distance between herself and her waiting victim. It was so simple now, Emma's neck was right within her reach…

Or she could just rip her heart out, hold it in her hand and order the child to stand before her parents, and crush the life out of her as Snow White watched, in horror, unable to do a thing to save her darling princess.

Perhaps she could just slit her throat, and leave her in her bed, letting her bleed out and die slowly, and painfully. Let Snow suffer exponentially more, when she thinks about how if she had just gotten there a moment sooner…

But she didn't do these things. She took the hairbrush and sat down beside the princess, and started to brush the silken locks.

Emma closed her eyes. "I love when you brush my hair, Mama. You're so gentle to me."

"Perhaps we should braid it?" Regina suggested. She wasn't sure where the words are coming from, as they escaped her lips. "Then we could go riding, just you and me."

"Will you teach me?"

"Anything you want, Little One. You know that."

Regina shot up in bed, sweating and panting like she'd had a nightmare. She hadn't dreamed even once in the twelve years since Emma was born. Sleep had been a mindless, thoughtless escape from the travesty that her life had become, and she had come to welcome the numbness that it brought to her.

So why was she dreaming again now?

She told herself it must be a coincidence. She had watched Snow brush Emma's hair before going to sleep, and it had spurned a dream. That's all it was.

She knew she was kidding herself.

She got up and walked back to her mirror, unconsciously, and waved her hand to bring Emma's bedroom into view, once again. She did it so often, she didn't even think about it anymore.

It only took a moment to realize Emma's bed was empty. She swiped the image away, knowing Emma was likely snuggled in between her doting parents once again, and she was not in the mood to watch the happy family.

She didn't want to sleep, either. She wanted to scream, or break something or snap someone's neck. She needed an outlet. In twelve years, she had barely had the desire to leave her palace, but right now, all she wanted to do was run. She wanted to run to the White Palace, tear down the wall, and grab Emma with her bare hands and then… Well, she wasn't sure what then.

It should be obvious: kill her. But would she do it? Or would she brush the girl's hair and coddle her and let her call her 'Mama' like a common peasant? Where were these thoughts coming from?

"My God, am I going insane?" Regina asked herself, out loud.

She needed to get out. She needed to get away from the palace and her mirror and Emma and clear her head. Twelve years cooped up was taking its toll, and if she didn't stop it, she'd wind up losing her mind, just like Rumple had.

With a wave of her hand she was dressed in clothing she hadn't worn in years: her riding clothes. Tight black leather pants, boots up to her knees, and a black velvet riding jacket that hugged her curves in all the right places, even though it was still dark and she didn't plan on seeing anyone on this trip. It didn't matter, she was still a Queen in her own right, and she was still regal, even galloping through the woods like a madwoman in the dead of night.

And she rode fast, the horse tearing through the brush, and she felt the cold air hit her face, and fill her lungs with a sense of life that she had thought had left her years ago. She felt eighteen again, free and happy, with Daniel. She was making plans to have a family and escape the life she never wanted.

And she felt twelve again, in the fields, racing with her father. He was telling her how proud he was, even as her mother watched on with an ever-present scowl. She didn't care, because she's riding Rocinante again… and suddenly she was reminded why she hadn't been on a horse in so long. The memories were just too painful. She slowed the horse down to a light trot, but she felt like she was the one who couldn't get her breath back, like she was the one who had been running and running and running.

She wondered, again, why Emma hadn't yet learned to ride. She wasn't sure why it bothered her enough to dream about wanting to teach her, but it did. She shook her head roughly, as if trying to throw that thought straight out of her brain. Why should she want to teach the little brat anything? That child was nothing to her, and what good was it for Emma to learn a new skill when she had a death sentence hanging over her head?

She continued to ride, at a slower pace, until she came across something peculiar. Wandering in the middle of the road was a small boy, no more than seven or eight, alone and seemingly lost. Regina slipped silently off of her steed, and approached the boy.

"Are you all alone, little boy?" she asked, as she reached the child.

The boy jumped and turned, his eyes wide, but his face no more fearful at seeing her than he might have been at seeing any other stranger in the night. Given his age, Regina guessed there was a good chance he didn't even know who she was. Even better.

Regina smiled sweetly as the boy nodded. "My parents are dead," he said, tentatively, "and the family I was staying with are poor and they sent me away."

"Oh, what a sad little tale," Regina consoled, "but fear not, my boy, for I'm here to help you."

"You are?" the boy asked. "Are you my fairy godmother?"

"In a manner of speaking, I suppose," Regina agreed. "Now tell me, what is your name, boy?"

"Seth," the boy said, proudly.

"Seth," Regina repeated, smiling at the name. "Well, my boy, you shall now be known forever as Sir Seth, the Queen's most noble and trustworthy Knight."

Before Seth had a moment to process what Regina was saying, her hand delved into his chest and pulled out his heart, glowing red in the night and illuminating Regina's wicked smile as she gazed on it. She only allowed herself to revel for a moment, before turning her dark eyes back on Seth.

"Now, my boy, you will walk to the White Kingdom and tell them of your orphan status, and ask to seek refuge within the palace walls. Snow White will not deny a small child. Once inside, you will befriend the princess Emma, and you will report back to me everything you learn of the princess and the Kingdom, whenever I request."

Seth nodded and turned, and headed off in the direction of the White Palace.

"Safe travels, my handsome young Knight!" Regina called after him, before slipping the heart into her jacket and mounting her horse, back to the dark palace.

When morning arrived, Regina got up and went to the mirror straight away. What she saw surprised her: Emma was already at her mirror, tapping away at the glass as though she could call Regina back that way. Regina let herself appear.

"Good morning, Little One."

Emma gawked at her for a moment, before tilting her head, thoughtfully. "I was worried you wouldn't come, but I thought I could make you appear," she said, as though her thoughts had just been confirmed.

"I'm never far from you." Regina smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Tell me, my darling, why are you not out and about the palace this morning?"

Emma scowled. "There's a boy here. Seth."

"Ah, a young suitor, perhaps?" Regina suggested.

"No! A child," Emma insisted, as though she were not one herself. "An orphan boy."

"And this bothers you?"

Emma pouted. There was that petulant princess Regina had always known she'd become. "I don't want him here."

"Perhaps you could leave, then?" Regina suggested. Emma's eyes grew wide, and for a moment, Regina wondered if she was pushing her too quickly, and the girl was about to scream any moment.

"I don't want to leave, I want him to leave!"

"Well, my dear, perhaps if you ran away, your parents would send him away to get you back?"

"I can't leave."

"Why not?"

"The Queen will kill me."

In that moment, Regina realized something she hadn't known before: Emma didn't know she was the Evil Queen. Emma certainly knew Regina was a Queen, as she had made no qualms about addressing herself as such. And Emma had believed that it was the Evil Queen in her mirror when she was ten, but Regina realized now that Emma thought she was more of an imaginary friend, and not the Queen who was out to kill her.

She thought she might actually win this time. Finally.

"I wouldn't let the Queen harm a hair on your pretty head," Regina promised.

"You're not real," Emma shook her head. "You're just my imagination. You can't really protect me."

Emma did not run away that day, nor in the days or weeks or months that followed. She did, however, accept young Seth's offer of friendship. Regina watched as Seth dragged Emma to all corners of the palace. Emma thought they were playing a game, but Regina knew Seth was really mapping the grounds out for her, looking for her way in.

The more interest Emma took in her new little friend, the less attention she gave her imaginary Queen in the mirror.

Regina watched as Emma began to blossom into a young woman. She grew more beautiful with each day that passed, and Regina found herself as equally mesmerized by the girl as Emma had been with her when she was twelve. But Emma barely paid her any attention now. She was becoming a young woman, and far too old to indulge in imaginary friends.

And Emma stopped telling her mother of the Queen's visits, on the increasingly rare occasions that Regina would let herself be seen, rather than just watch Emma in secret. Emma, it seemed, didn't want to be labelled as insane, and decided to keep the Queen in the mirror that she thought only she could see, to herself.

At Emma's fifteenth birthday party, Snow White and Prince Charming announced their daughter's impending engagement to Prince Michael of the Silver Kingdom on the other side of the mountain range.

Regina sneered at the mirror as she watched Emma's thin smile and melancholy eyes. She was still a child, what was Snow thinking? She wondered what protection Prince Michael's family was able to offer that made Snow so eager to betroth her daughter. Perhaps the Silver Kingdom was shielded by magic, in which case, Regina knew she'd have to act fast.

That night, Emma pounded on the mirror, for the first time in nearly a year. Regina refused to let her presence be known. She watched as Emma flung herself dramatically onto her bed, and bawled. She picked up Seth's heart.

"Tell her to run."

In mere moments, Seth was in Emma's bed chambers. Regina knew that Snow had forbidden him to enter Emma's bed chambers alone once he had turned ten and Emma fourteen, but Emma didn't look concerned. Snow and her husband were still entertaining guests at the party.

"Emma, what's wrong?" Seth asked.

"I don't want to marry Prince Michael!" Emma wailed.

"But why?

"Because I don't love him!"

"You should run away."

Emma sat up and looked at Seth through bleary eyes, as if she were seeing him for the first time. "I can't. The Queen will kill me," she reminded him.

Tell her the Queen is dead.

"The Queen is dead," Seth said, automatically. "You didn't know?"

Emma swallowed back a sob in her throat, as she looked at her mirror. It was just a mirror. "I haven't seen her in a year," she whispered to herself.

"Seen who?" Seth asked.

"My Queen." Emma blinked, suddenly aware of what she was saying. "No one. The Evil Queen, she's dead? And my parents want to marry me off, anyway?"

Seth nodded, solemnly.

"Then I will run," Emma vowed, wiping her tears on her sleeve. "You must cover for me, until morning. By morning, I will be far from the palace. Tell my mother I will return when the engagement is called off."

Regina grinned maliciously as she watched Emma sneak from her room, and out of the palace, and through the courtyard, to the weak spot in the wall that she and Seth had found, months ago. It was there, just waiting for the right moment. And so were Regina's knights.

And now, all she had to do was wait.

"Where is she!" Regina thundered, as more knights returned, empty-handed. Emma had been gone for hours, and they had yet to retrieve her. The White Kingdom was already on alert, and Snow's knights were everywhere, racing to find the girl as well.

"Your Majesty," she heard the Huntsman's voice behind her. Regina's scowl turned to a dark smile as she spun around to see what he had to present her with.

And when she saw her, it was better than she ever could have expected.

"Princess Emma," Regina smiled, tasting the girl's name on her tongue. "Welcome home."