Chapter 1

Honestly

"Make me listen to the truth even if it breaks me." -Kelly Clarkson, Honestly

The cool air danced along the exposed skin of Regina's hands and neck like it was rehearsing for a Sunday matinee. This matinee would, however, not happen because she quickly wrapped a soft scarf around her neck and began pulling her gloves along her slender fingers.

Life was not perfect, but it was hers. Sure, her son thought she was evil, and Emma had been constantly prying about, but she knew that she could take it one day at a time. Day by day, she'd make it through.

Her actions had become more and more misguided. She felt the burning embers of anger every day, but they were only stoked by the deep winds of pain and lost love. Where there was once a soft, beating heart, now resided something Regina didn't recognize. Most days she didn't know why she did what she did.

Except, that wasn't true. Every action Regina had taken was for Henry. This charade started as a curse, but it was now just reality. It wasn't what everyone wanted, but it was what everyone got. She could never regret it, because it brought the dark haired woman her sweet son. She wanted to be good for him, and she would be. But the closer people came to the truth of who they were and who she was the more she felt reality and her life with Henry slip away.

If she could just get Henry to give up the idea of The Enchanted Forrest…everything would be fine.

As she continued her march out of Archie's office she felt a small tinge of guilt settle in the back of her mind over how she just treated the painfully kind man. Well, not necessarily the treatment of Archie, more so about how he would soon be treating Henry. Seeing Henry in pain, being told he was wrong when he was the only one who knew what was right, hurt her in a way she could not bear to describe.

However, it had to be this way. There was no other way around it. She briefly pondered telling him the truth. Henry had such a pure heart that he may understand why she did what she did. Now that Emma was in his life, though, he had someone else to run to. She knew he would run to her, and it stoked the ember's of her anger just enough for her to no longer feel guilty about her decision to have Archie stop entertaining Henry.

Surely this was the right decision and no one could change her mind.

"We both know the repercussions of killing Miss Swan." Rumple almost whispered, as if to taunt Regina's predicament.

"The curse would be broken." They said in tandem, Rumple's voice full of resoluteness and Regina's full of challenge.

"That's because you designed it that way." She continued, stepping forward. Her feet struck the wooden floor of the antique shop, every step adding a dramatic flare to her words. By the time she reached the desk separating them, she had taken on a softer tone. "Undo it." Rumple laughed almost as if to mock her.

"You know, even if I wanted to, I couldn't." He teased. "Magic, well, is in short supply around here." He turned towards her to make their predicament all the more apparent before turning back to his trinkets. "And dwindling by the minute."

That is when it hit the raven haired woman. Rumple was all but an accomplice. She considered him more of a mutual beneficiary. The key word being 'beneficiary'. She didn't understand the words that came out of her next, she only knew them to be true:

"You want the curse broken." It wasn't a question, just an acknowledgment of a fact. A fact she felt she was owed an explanation for. "Why?" She demanded, her tone still soft but taking on a more acquisitory tone.

"That's not something I care to discuss." Rumple kept himself guarded, but didn't deny his complacency with Regina hurling towards exposure. Before he could fully finish his thought the dark haired woman began marching towards him, done with the banter.

"Don't bother. You can shove your reasons." She didn't have time for his games, but knew how to play them. "I want to strike a new deal." She proposed as a knowing smirk crept onto her face. A man is only as strong as his biggest weakness.

Rumple seemed to hesitate, though he stayed silent. She could tell he was taking her more seriously now, and she didn't want to waste the window she had been presented with.

"One where I can get rid of Emma without shattering the curse." She knew this sounded dangerously close to begging. While she had a minute tinge of optimism, she was sure he wouldn't give in so easily. Rumple seemed to be on a similar page as he seemed to become even more disinterested in the conversation than he was before.

"Unfortunately for you, a negotiation requires two interested parties. And I'm already planning a trip." He made his way past her, signifying he was no longer wanting to be entrapped by what he saw as desperation.

Regina had no interest in stoking his ego by proving him right, but then she remembered her sweet Henry, and why she was even here in the first place.

"I'll give you anything." Her demeanor stayed strong, her words a promise rather than a proposition. While her tone did not beg, her heart did. What was left of it anyways.

"Oh," Rumple began, ready to strike back and call the woman's bluff, "You no longer have anything I want, dearie." He looked her straight in the eyes, as if to inform her she truly had no cards left on the table. "But I will give you a piece of advice, free of charge. I'd plan a trip of your own." There was no concern in his voice, but it headed like a warning. The smug man continued:

"Because once people waken up and remember who you are and what you did to them," he paused to laugh. He could've slapped her in the face and it would've stung less. "They are going to be looking for blood."

He spun the globe on his desk and while the sound was soft, it was too loud for Regina to bear. Going to Rumple was her last ditch effort, she had no other plan to fall back on. She felt the familiar wind of pain stir within her, and she felt oddly comforted that the flared flames of anger it invoked would help her make a plan.

Little did she know she actually had struck a bargain with Rumple. However, Rumple was now Mr. Gold and didn't require consent to the gift he was giving her. He saw it more as an act of charity. She would thank him one day, or not. It wasn't up to him. All he knew is that he gave her exactly what she needed, and the price she is paying to him is her suffering. He considered it a debt he was owed from the woman. Soon, she would pay.

Emma certainly had her moments. She was everything Regina feared- and Regina loved and hated it all at the same time. Unfortunately, today, she hated it. While the dark haired woman was not pleased with what she was doing, she was absolute.

Her nimble fingers worked the pie dough as if this was her true job. Maybe in another lifetime she could've baked sweet treats and brought people happiness. An audible chuckle broke through the air around her and she rolled her eyes at herself because it truly wasn't funny. Every day it seemed Regina could only wonder how she got here.

How did she go from a hopeful girl to someone who was making a dessert to kill her son's birth mother? She could ponder the thought for an eternity, but there was no use, and simply, there was no time. The curse was weakening. Once people found out the truth about their origins they would surely want blood.

However, their vengeance was not what she feared. She only feared the loss of Henry. She was already losing him, and the curse being broken would just be the final nail in the coffin. Her will to not lose Henry permanently was strong. Much stronger than the guilt from what she was about to do to Emma. Her son would be sad and probably find a way to blame her for some time, but sadness can be soothed and she could shoulder the blame. After all, the blame will be hers to bear whether he knows it or not.

Before long, a beep sounded throughout the kitchen signifying the oven was preheated. She finished up her preparations and put the apple turnover within its heated confines. She accepted her place as the villain in this story. It is one she will finish, with this special turn over being the grand finale. A period at the end of the book. An end that justified the means.

She didn't have much time to contemplate the moral implications of what she was about to do. She had done it to Snow before, but this didn't feel the same. For some reason she found herself hesitating on what her next actions would be. These feelings were not foreign to her, but they did seem much more intense than usual.

For a moment, she wondered if the curse weakening was causing her to feel more than she normally allowed herself, but didn't have time to ponder the thought long. A ring of the doorbell broke the silence and echoed throughout her home.

As she approached the door she felt a warm buzz wash over her body as if she had stepped through a waterfall. Her body tingled from head to toe, feeling pricks of static in the tips of her fingers and shooting down the back of her neck. If she didn't know any better she would be inclined to believe it was the feeling of magic. The feeling was fleeting and faded away almost as soon as it danced within the woman.

It didn't take magic to feel the impatience building behind the door. Regina opened it and was met with just the woman she wanted to see.

"We need to talk." The taller blonde woman asserted. What she lacked in tact and grace she made up for in determination. In this case, she seemed determined to get on Regina's nerves and, as usual, was successful.

The younger woman filled the room with vulnerability and honesty. The blonde's words and proposal of her leaving Storybrooke seemed to rid the room of gravity. They both would float away if they weren't careful, as reality was not holding them down while the two women pondered what their lives would look like with Emma gone, but still in Henry's life.

For a moment, Regina felt herself considering agreeing to the terms being proposed to her. After all, Henry would probably be happier with both women in his life. There was even a chance he would hate the brunette less if she could give him what he wanted: both of them.

Then the moment was over. There were too many uncertainties leaving Emma in the picture. Sure, the blonde felt convicted to leave now, but what happens when she again wants to start spending more time with Henry? What if she tried to fight for custody? As long as she was around, the curse was at risk. So too, her reality and her family were at risk, and Regina hated to gamble.

"A little something for the road?" Regina smiled, playing along and feigning agreement to Emma's plan. As the shorter woman carefully placed the apple turnover into a container she felt a pull to touch the blonde. Perhaps it was to further convince Emma that she would participate in the proposed arrangement. More realistically, it probably stemmed from guilt making her want to say goodbye. She handed Emma the container and placed her hand on the blonde's arm.

As soon as her hand made contact with the taller woman's skin, all of Regina's breath expelled from her body in a pained huff. However, there was no pain, just visions. Snippets of moments that hadn't happened played one after another in the queen's mind. Her brows furrowed in confusion while her eyes seemingly focused on nothing. She could vaguely hear Emma saying something to her, but the words were unintelligible through the motion picture unfolding before her.

It was happening too fast for her to process it all, but some moments of it were clearer than others. She saw a child running towards her, presumably Henry, with arms outstretched and her heart swelled. However, she noticed she wasn't alone. There was someone next to her, but she couldn't see who. It was clear whoever it was Regina felt a deep connection to. A lover perhaps?

The vision was blurry, but she saw herself leaning in to kiss her companion as the child wrapped their arms around her legs. She could feel the happiness she was experiencing in the scene that played out before her. Regina's head was obscuring the other person's face, but as she pulled back from the kiss she gasped at who she saw. The vision became crystal clear and there was no mistaking the person she had just kissed was Emma.

"Regina?" A concerned voice pulled her away from what she was seeing. There was concern on the blonde's face and when brown eyes met green- that is when panic settled over her. She quickly shoved past the taller woman, grabbing her coat and exiting her home leaving Emma confused in her wake.

"What the hell did you do?" Regina's voice boomed through the air, almost busting the door to Gold's antique shop off the hinges as she pushed it open with a force unmatched by a giant. Gold's skin was still that of a human, but it may as well have been grimy and glittering with gold.

Regina was fuming and the anger had spread to her skin. It felt so hot that she was sure if there was still magic left she would've burst into flames. How dare he put such thoughts in her head? Did he want the curse broken so bad that he would use what was surely the last remaining magic to fill her head with lies?

"I did nothing, dearie." He stated, lying through his teeth. Regina made a mental note to take his sparkling pearly whites away from him once this was sorted out. He shouldn't get to hide behind a mask of normalcy. Everyone should see the man for what he truly was. The brunette's thoughts were running away from her when his smug voice brought her back into the conversation. "Well...I did nothing that should upset you." He elaborated.

Regina pursed her lips in frustration, squinting at the weasley man before her. What she wouldn't give to squash him like a bug… She took a deep breath through her nose and expelled it slowly to calm herself down. Anger would only fuel his games further.

"Care to explain?" the woman asked, her neck tensed in a still simmering anger.

"Oh, no… No, no, dearie." He said, feigning disappointment before perking up and moving closer to her. She only let him approach on the off chance that he'd get close enough that she could kick his cane out from supporting his weight. He stopped at a safe distance- his stance laced with skepticism of how the next few minutes would unfold. "But you can." he proposed.

Regina's brows furrowed in confusion and disbelief. Before she could release any threats or rants, Gold lifted his hands as if surrendering.

"I did make you see something." He confessed which led to Regina throwing her arms up in exasperation. She didn't have time to contest before he continued. "But I don't know what you saw. Tell me."

"No." Regina asserted, matter-of-factly. Her arms were folded across her chest and it was clear she was not interested in being toyed with any further.

"I will tell you where what I showed you came from, if you tell me what you saw." Gold seemed genuinely curious. He almost looked like a performing seal who knew it was snack time. Regina didn't want to entertain his curiosity and toss him the 'snack' he so badly wanted, but she needed to know.

"Fine." She rolled her eyes, resigned to her fate. She uncrossed her arms and held her hands together at her waist as she began to recall the evening's events. "I used the last of my magic, well…Jefferson's magic, to retrieve something I could use to take care of Emma." Gold's eyebrow raised, asking a question to which she obliged: "An apple. One of my apples."

"A sleeping curse?" Gold inquired, "Genius." Regina wanted to smirk at the compliment, but was too annoyed to take his words as one. She shook her head, as if to remove him from it, and continued.

"Yes. With Emma out of the picture, but not dead, the curse would go back to how it was before she arrived here in Storybrooke." Her thumbs tapped together as she recounted the chain of events. "I was making a dessert with it for Emma to consume, but before I could deliver it to her and fake amends, she came over first. She told me of her plan to leave Storybrooke."

"Which is what you wanted." Gold questioned how any of this was a bad thing. Regina rolled her eyes at the interruption.

"No." She shook her head and his eyebrows raised slightly. "Well…yes. But she wanted to remain in Henry's life. With him still believing in the Enchanted Forrest and having already run off once it was just too risky to even entertain accepting the offer. So I gave her the apple turnover."

"So then what's the problem? Did you grab the wrong apple?" He teased her. If Gold didn't look confused before, it was written clearly across his face now.

"It started before that. Before I answered the door I felt…something." Her hand traveled to her forehead to rub her temple and then push her dark locks out of her face. "It felt like magic, but different somehow. It washed over me for a split second and then it was just…gone." The woman sighed, clearly exasperated.

"I still don't see the problem, dearie. Weren't you just in here hounding me for magic earlier?" If looks could kill, Gold would already be six feet under.

"The problem," The brunette began, "is that you won't let me finish." Her words cut through the air like knives. "Whatever it was wasn't of my doing. It was being inflicted on me. I didn't have control over it. And when I- " Regina bit her lip, taking a sharp breath in. She didn't want to admit what was coming next. Gold's eyebrows raised in anticipation, his face colored with impatience.

"Something made me want to touch Emma. I thought it was just a goodbye. Hell, I even thought it might be guilt from the curse weakening." The feeling of distress swirled within the woman as she continued. "It was what happened when I touched her that was the problem. That's when I saw it."

"And what was that?" Gold coached.

"Her!" She began to raise her voice, "Henry, me, and her. There were so many things happening, but it was like a vision. I could feel these moments that were playing out. I felt…happy. The only moment I could see clearly was Henry running to hug me. And then we…" Regina was avoiding eye contact with the man. She felt vulnerable and she didn't want him to have any more advantage over her than he already had. "I kissed her."

Realization washed over Gold's face before his eyebrows raised.

"Ah, interesting." He acknowledged before turning his back to Regina so he could properly be surprised without her seeing. His intention was only to show her the path to Henry's happiness, which was not killing Emma. He had used remnants of magic ingredients he had around the shop to make the spell possible. He wasn't a master linguist, but he was fairly certain he used the right spell.

"Interesting?" Regina's tone demanded a different reaction from the man. She collected herself before moving on. "So what did you do? Some kind of manipulation spell? What was your goal here?"

"You said you felt magic. Did it come to you slowly or all at once?" Gold was deep in thought, not even listening to the woman's questions.

"All at once…" Her answer was almost a question. She wasn't sure what he was getting at, but she didn't like his uncertainty.

"And did it feel like you walked through it or like it came to you?" He further inquired.

"Walked through it." She answered surely, "It was almost like walking through a waterfall."

"So, you experienced a brief moment of magic after walking through some sort of magical barrier. Upon touching Miss Swan's skin you saw visions of an…immersive nature." He was thinking out loud, allowing Regina a chance to think of all the events in order rather than all at once.

"Very immersive." She mumbled and licked her lips. She still felt the kiss lingering on her lips. Her mind had clearly been poisoned, but thinking of sharing a kiss with Emma was making her breath hitch. Regina had not realized she had spoken out loud until she looked back at Gold and he seemed slightly perturbed. He looked at her as though she was an alien. "Your point?" She asked harshly.

"The magic you're describing…" he began, "You didn't just see visions, Regina. You saw moments that had yet to pass." The woman was thinking so hard that it made the air around them feel heavy. She wasn't understanding what he was getting at.

"What are you saying? That Emma and I…?" She laughed, realizing what he was insinuating. "You think you showed me my heart's truest desire? As if. You've been out of the Enchanted Forest too long. You clearly are losing the last marble you worked so hard to hang on to."

He was speaking absurdities, sure the spell that had happened to her had similar…markings…of a heart's truest desire revelation spell. There is just simply no way her heart's truest desire was to be with Emma. Sure the blonde was attractive and strong willed. But she was also painfully arrogant in her abilities. Not to mention she lacked anything resembling grace or poise. They could not be any less different. If Regina was the day then Emma would be the night.

As it hit her that day could not exist without the night, she heard Gold speaking, but the words he said weren't clear.

"What?" She asked, genuinely not having heard what he said.

"I said maybe you're right. There is one thing that doesn't make sense." Regina did not know what to do with this sudden shift in gears and her eyes widened- willing him to elaborate further. "You fully intended on carrying out the sleeping curse, correct? Before the magic hit you?"

"Yes, it was ready to go." The woman confirmed.

"Then the moments you saw… Miss Swan wouldn't have been able to be in them. If she was under the sleeping curse, she wouldn't be in the equation for you to see. So either you weren't going to go through with the curse- "

"I was." She interrupted, not liking being questioned. Gold nodded his head softly, agreeing that was most likely not the case.

"Or the universe didn't intend for your special dessert to ever be eaten by Emma." He said matter-of-factly and Regina scoffed while rolling her eyes.

"That's ridiculous. No one can resist my apple turnovers. They're literally made to be irresistible. It's a problem actually. I couldn't keep Henry away from them if I tried." She chuckled, remembering how much he loved her treats. Within the same moment of feeling fondness towards the memories of Henry asking for her to bake him something, her heart dropped to the floor.

"I never saw Henry's face in the vision." She mumbled.

Realization seemed to hit both Gold and Regina at the same time. His face grew worried and her eyes widened and began to fill with tears.

"Oh my god, Henry!" Regina nearly yelled before turning to exit.

"Wait!" Gold called out and the woman wanted so desperately to ignore him.

"What, Rumple?" She said, her voice laced with exasperation and panic. He didn't seem to react at all and she looked at him incredulously.

"Here." He said while fishing something out of his pocket. He tossed something towards her and it landed with a small metallic clink in her hands. "My cars out front."

Regina wasn't one to say thank you but if she had ever been close, it was in this moment. She gave him a soft smile before bolting out of the door- ready to find her son and keep him far away from her gift to Emma.

A/N: Hi friends! I've been working on this story and am incredibly excited to share it with you. I have some more already written- but wanted to go ahead and introduce it to you! Please let me know what you think and if you'd like more. I'm so excited for Regina and Emma's journey!