The moment Regina slammed Emma's door, she regretted her over-reaction. She leaned her back against the hard wood and cringed as she listened to Emma's fists pounding on the other side. Any progress she had made thus far would surely be lost now.
In truth, it wasn't even Emma she was angry with, it was herself, for leaving the door open and for falling asleep with the girl in her room. And it wasn't like the girl could even go anywhere, not with the spell she had placed on the hallways to cause anyone wandering without her permission to become lost.
Regina sighed, and cursed her own impulsiveness and temper. She had thought her time alone in the palace had taught her patience, but she realized now that was only because she had no choice but to be patient.
Having the spawn of Snow White in her home was trying as it was, as Emma reminded her so much of the insipid brat that had ruined her life. Panic had set in when she discovered Emma missing as her mind had raced with a hundred different ideas of how that child could be double-crossing her somehow.
That child. She's a goddamn CHILD. Regina breathed a heavy sigh when the reality of how completely ridiculous she was being. Even if Emma had any intentions of betraying her, she wouldn't succeed anyway. She couldn't get out of the halls to go anywhere, and even if she knew how to use her magic, Regina had complete control over that now too, with the necklace.
Regina crossed the room to her mirror and brought Emma into view. She was on the floor on the rug trying in vain to remove her necklace. Regina smirked. She didn't have a hope in hell of getting that necklace off of her neck, not with the enchantment spell Regina had placed on it.
Regina watched as Emma curled back up on the rug on the floor, and tried not to let it get to her. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't go back on the punishment she'd doled out, or Emma was going to think she was weak. She waved the image away from the mirror and changed into her own nightgown. She crawled into her own bed, deciding that sleep would help. Everything would be different in the morning.
But she couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned and couldn't get her mind off the girl in the other room. Her thoughts raced as she thought about the potential in Emma's magic, or the way her body had looked when Regina helped her change into her nightgown. She knew the girl was still too young – well, not really, since Regina knew she'd likely already be married off by now, if not for the ever-looming threat on her life that made her an undesirable choice for suitors - but Regina knew she would never overcome the guilt of stealing Emma's innocence at the age of fifteen. Mostly, though, she thought of how comfortably Emma fit into her arms, like she belonged there. Nothing since Daniel had ever felt natural in Regina's life… not until Emma.
And now, it might all be ruined.
After an hour of not being able to sleep, Regina couldn't take it anymore. She got up and walked over to Emma's door. She cracked it open and peeked inside. Emma was sleeping, curled up on the rug by the window.
Regina sighed and walked over to her. Crouching down, she ran her fingers over Emma's shoulders down her back. Emma jumped, and blinked up at Regina, clearly confused and looking more than a little apprehensive.
"Come," Regina said, holding her hand out for Emma to take. Emma's eyes grew wide in apparent fear, and she didn't move a muscle, just continued to stare at Regina.
"You'd prefer to sleep on the floor, then?" Regina asked, tersely, before withdrawing her outstretched hand. "Very well then."
"No! Wait, please!" Emma cried out as Regina stood. Emma quickly scrambled to her feet and came face to face with Regina.
For a moment, Regina considered just wiping Emma's memories of the past few hours. She could return her bedroom to its previous state, and convince the girl she was sleepwalking as she returned her to bed. Then nothing would be ruined.
But she reconsidered. She knew at some point she was likely to lose control again. She couldn't just erase Emma's memories every single time she flew off the handle. Emma was just going to have to learn to accept the bad with the good, if she wanted to be there.
Not that it would matter if she didn't, anyway.
Regina held out her hand again, and this time, Emma took it, albeit it very timidly. Regina could feel the girl trembling and she led her back into her own bedroom.
Once she brought Emma into the room, she flicked a hand to magically light one of the sconces, and lifted her other hand to Emma's chin, tilting her cheek into the light.
"I didn't even leave a mark," Regina commented. "Hardly worth all the tears and theatrics."
"I'm sorry," Emma whispered.
Regina smiled thinly as she stroked Emma's cheek. Perhaps all was not lost, after all. She had been right about the girl being eager to please, but it disturbed her that Emma was so quick to relent. "You are forgiven," Regina sighed, as she took Emma's hand again and led her over to the bed. "It's very late, princess. Time to get some sleep."
"You want me to sleep in your bed?" Emma asked, her eyes wide.
Regina sighed. "Magic takes energy, and I'm just too exhausted to bring your bed back," she lied. She wasn't that tired, at all. She could have easily brought Emma's bed back, but she had a hell of a lot of damage control to do.
Emma's wary eyes didn't leave Regina's as she stepped around the side of the bed and tentatively pulled back the covers, still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Regina was unpredictable, to say the least, and Emma wasn't really sure what was happening right now.
Regina studied the young princess as she finally crawled into the bed, and extinguished the lone sconce before finally joining her. Only the moonlight through the large window illuminated their faces now, as they each lay on their sides, facing each other.
It was Regina who spoke first, when it was quite obvious that Emma had no intention of closing her eyes and going to sleep. "I hope you understand why I reacted the way I did," she said.
Emma furrowed her brow in confusion. "Not really, no," she admitted.
"It frightened me when I awoke to find you missing. I told you before you could easily become lost in the palace, and that's why you shouldn't be wandering alone at night. Since I found you crying on the floor, I would assume it's safe to say you did become lost." Regina knew for a fact that the girl was indeed lost. There was no possible way she couldn't have been.
"You were frightened so you punished me?" Emma asked, still not quite sure what Regina was trying to tell her.
Regina just blinked a few times, at a loss for what to say now. "Go to sleep, Emma," she said, finally.
But still, Emma made no attempt to sleep. She seemed to be studying Regina's face intently, and Regina found it rather unnerving how her deep green eyes seemed to see right through her. It was as though Emma could see through ever mask and every layer, right down to her core, and that terrified her more than anything.
And Emma's mind was working, trying to piece together all the clues she had discovered today. She was ever searching for a mystery, or an adventure, something to do with her time and her mind. She had wanted to explore the palace, but she was now coming to realize that there was much more to be explored in Regina, herself.
She thought again about Regina's reaction, and how she had not only physically punished her with the slap to the face – which hurt a lot more than she was ever going to admit, since Regina seemed to think she was being over dramatic – but she had also used magic to punish her. Magic and fear. Emma thought back to the bedtime story Regina had told her just hours ago.
She knew she should just close her eyes and go to sleep, but she couldn't quiet her ever-curious mind. She needed answers.
"Did your mother ever do that to you?" she asked, almost in a whisper.
Regina inhaled sharply, as the question took her by surprise. "Do what, dear?" she asked, though she knew very well what Emma was referring to.
"Take your things away and lock you in a room? With magic?" Emma elaborated.
"She did far worse," Regina said. Those four words filled Emma's mind with a million more questions to ask, but Regina's tone had an unmistakably dismissive finality to it, and Emma knew the conversation was over. At least for tonight.
"Good night, Regina," Emma said, finally. "I'll be better behaved tomorrow." She still didn't believe that she had done anything wrong, and her words were simply to appease the Queen, lest she agitate her into a raging fury again tonight.
"Such a good girl," Regina smiled, stroking Emma's cheek with the back of her hand. "Sleep well, my little swan."
As a result of the turbulent night, they slept later than Regina would have liked. When she awoke, the sun was already fairly high in the sky, and she knew it was almost noon. She didn't have much time before Snow White would return to her daughter. She glanced at Emma who was still sleeping soundly, and shook her lightly until she woke.
"Good morning, princess," Regina said, with a smile.
Emma blinked at her a few times, trying to wake herself up fully. She was confused, trying to remember why she was sleeping in the Queen's bed. There was a dull ache in her jaw, and in mere moments, the memories of the night before flooded back to her. "Good morning," she whispered back.
Regina reached over to brush some stray golden locks back behind Emma's ear, before trailing her hand lightly over Emma's cheek. It was still a little pink, and Regina could distinctly see her hand print there. Perhaps she had stuck the girl harder than necessary – certainly harder than she had realized. She couldn't send her home with a mark on her, so she let her magic heal Emma's skin.
"Does that feel better?" she asked, as she trailed her hand down the side of Emma's neck, over her shoulder, and down her arm until she found her hand. Emma simply nodded at her while Regina laced her fingers though Emma's. "Good. Now I need to talk to you about something important, before you get ready to go home, alright?"
"Yes," Emma nodded, not sure what to expect. At this point, she'd given up trying to even guess what might come out of Regina's mouth at any time, since nearly everything took her by surprise in one way or another.
"I told you a story about how your mother couldn't keep a secret," Regina started, as her eyes took on an almost frightening intensity. "But I think you are different. I think you can keep a secret. Can you keep a secret, Emma?"
"Yes," Emma nodded, slightly more enthusiastically.
"Good girl. I need you to keep what happened here yesterday a secret. Can you do that for me?"
Emma tensed up at the question. "You mean, my punishment?"
"I mean everything, Emma. I don't want you to tell them anything that happens while you are here," Regina explained.
Emma wasn't sure what to say. She told her parents nearly everything, and she knew they would be asking her what happened the moment she returned to them. How was she supposed to understand what was happening if she couldn't talk to her parents?
"If you need someone to talk to," Regina said, as though she was reading Emma's thoughts. Emma found it disturbing how she seemed to do that quite often. "Talk to Seth. He's a good boy, and he will listen and keep all your secrets. But your parents, they will never understand. Promise me, Emma."
Emma opened and closed her mouth a couple times, unsure of what to say.
"If you can't promise me, I can always put an enchantment spell on your lips, so you can't tell them anything," Regina said, nonchalantly. It bothered Emma how Regina treated magic and Emma's free will so flippantly, and she wondered if that was something else she had learned from her mother. "I just thought you might have liked the opportunity to prove to me what a good girl you are."
"I won't tell them anything," Emma said, suddenly, before her mind could fully process the promise she had just made.
Regina smiled. She knew the girl's eagerness to please would get the best of her, as it usually did. In reality, it didn't really matter to her if Emma could keep the secret or not, since she was fairly sure Snow White would not risk her daughter's life to renege on the deal she had made. But she wanted Snow to fret and wonder what had gone on, and she wanted to test the limits of Emma's loyalty.
She guessed it wouldn't take her long to break, and she figured she would probably be telling her mother everything before sundown that night.
"What if they ask about my necklace?" Emma asked, drawing Regina out of her thoughts.
Regina waved a hand to place a glamour over the necklace. "It's a spell," she explained, before Emma had the chance to ask. "No one will be able to see it except you and I."
Through the window, Regina could see Snow White's carriage arriving, and she sighed. Emma turned and looked to see what had suddenly upset Regina, and when she saw what it was, she decided to keep her mouth shut.
Emma got changed quickly when Regina sent her back into her re-furnished bedroom, and they headed out together to greet Emma's parents. Regina didn't say a word, and didn't take her eyes off of Snow, as she and Emma approached the magical barrier.
She stopped Emma right in front of the barrier, and turned her by the shoulders to face her. "I had a lovely time with you, princess," Regina cooed, before placing a kiss on Emma's forehead. She smiled to herself when she heard Snow gasp and Charming draw his sword.
Idiots.
Regina turned to face Snow, choosing to ignore Charming completely as he stood with his weapon ready to attack, even though her magical protection barrier made it completely useless. "Bring her back in two weeks from today," Regina said, as she gently pushed Emma through the barrier with a hand on the small of her back. "Same time as yesterday. I think I'll keep her a few days longer next time."
"How long?" Charming asked, as Snow pulled her daughter into a tight embrace.
Regina looked at him, feigning surprise, as though she had only now realized he was even there. She gave a dismissive shrug. "I haven't decided yet. Good bye, Emma," she said, before poofing back into the palace in a cloud of purple smoke.
Regina stood on the balcony of her bed chambers, watching as Snow's carriage took Emma away, and she felt an unexpected pang of loss in her chest. She couldn't explain the feeling, it made absolutely no sense, so she tried to brush it off.
And yet, she still couldn't stop thinking about Emma, and replaying every moment – the good and the bad – over in her mind. She cursed herself for telling them to wait two weeks, but at the same time, she knew she needed time to recollect and regain her patience. She had been too eager, too impulsive, to get Emma back as quickly as possible after making the deal, and she betrayed herself with her over-reaction the night before.
Deep down, she knew it was only a matter of time until something like that would have happened, but she would have preferred it not be on the first night with the girl. It was going to take time to rebuild Emma's trust, but Regina wasn't too worried. She had a secret weapon, after all.
Regina smiled as she pulled Seth's heart out of the protective box she kept it in on her vanity. She may have made mistakes along the way already, but she still had complete control over every word and action of Emma's only friend in the world.
All was not lost.