Hi! This is maybe a bit of a boring chapter since it follows the show's events but I hope you like it anyways. Let me know what you think :)

"Ouch!" Regina startled and brought a hand up to her head. She'd bumped it into the open hood of her car. In the middle of main street, it had broken down. First it had started sputtering wildly, and then it stopped driving altogether. Luckily Regina had parked it on the side of the road before that happened, or she would be standing in the middle of the road right now, blocking other traffic. The engine wouldn't turn on again and Regina was left staring at the inside of her car, pretending to know what it was that she was looking for. The newly restarted ticking of time was even starting to catch up to her beloved Mercedes, it would seem.

"Regina!" She heard from a little ways away. She turned around and saw David heading her way. He looked good; wearing dark washed jeans and a button down flannel. The flannel wasn't really Regina's style, but somehow he made it work. He stilled next to her and put a hand on her elbow while asking her: "Are you okay?"

Smiling up at him a little Regina reassured him that "it's fine. Just having a little car trouble. I'll have to call a tow truck."

David looked down into her car for a minute, and then probably realised that he, too, had no idea what he was looking for in there. "Well, can I give you a ride home? No need to stand here waiting for the truck to come and pick up your car, right?"

True to his reputation, he couldn't help his need to save the day. Regina was no damsel in distress, though. Turning to him so they were standing centimeters apart from each other she told him: "There's no need. I can walk home, it's not a long way from here."

David looked into her Mercedes, seeing the bags of groceries she'd stuffed in there. A little embarrassed, Regina remembered the four cartons of ice cream she'd bought and hoped he didn't see those. But, what could she say? It was buy one, get one free. He turned his gaze back on her and, ducking his head, said: "Well, unless you want a bag full of melted rocky road, you're going to have to walk fast." Regina chuckled and looked away from him for a moment. The hand that had already left her elbow earlier returned to it and squeezed a little. "Really, Regina, it's no trouble. I insist, let me drive you and all of your ice cream home."

She blushed. Like a schoolgirl, Regina blushed. Regina doesn't blush. Never does. Not since her mother killed Daniel and her heart became a little blackened thing who didn't care about other people's thoughts about her enough to blush when she felt self-conscious. God, what was this man doing to her. Ignoring her flush-ness, Regina thought about David's offer and agreed to it with a, "well, if you insist."

David smiled a little victorious smile and leaned forward. Regina held her breath and looked a little alarmed. What was he doing? For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her. Kiss her, here, in the middle of main street. But then he brought his hand up and to her face. Regina followed it with her eyes curiously and confusedly. When he moved his fingers over her cheek toward her ear, tucking a piece of hair behind it, her eyes snapped back to his. It was a sweet gesture, one that was foreign to Regina. Had someone ever done this for her before? Probably. Maybe her father, or Daniel. She couldn't remember, though, with his thumb still on her cheek, warm and soft. It felt nice, very much so.

And then it was gone. And so was David. In a flash, he'd moved himself away from her and to her car, ducking down to get her groceries from the back of it. With a little bit of a befuddled mind, Regina helped him carry all her bags to his newly acquired truck. Standing beside it with the passenger door open, Regina wondered for a minute how she was going to get into that thing gracefully. She was wearing a dress, after all.

Seeing David already climbing in on the driver's side she figured she'd better hurry up before he saw her contemplate this and decide to come help her. She didn't need him that close again, not so fast after she was just blushing and getting all dazed for him. So, throwing grace out the window, she put one foot in the car, one hand on the seat and the other on the passenger door, and hoisted herself up and into the truck. David laughed under his breath but because of the look Regina gave him, said nothing.

She instructed him to her house while calling the car service to tell them to come pick up her car, explaining exactly where it was parked. Regina made it very clear that she expected it to be fixed as soon as possible, and preferably even sooner than that. When they promised that they would look at it today, Regina was satisfied and hung up. By that time they'd already reached her house and were parked out front. David was watching her home from his seat with an open mouth. Evidently, not having any memories didn't stop a person from recognizing that this wasn't just a house, it was a freaking mansion.

Like the gentleman he apparently was, David commented nothing but helped Regina carry her groceries inside. Once there, she instructed him to put the bags on the counter. "As you can see, I brought more than enough groceries," she chuckled. "Why don't you stay for dinner?" When Regina saw him hesitate, she added: "I'm making lasagna."

The decision to ask David to stay for dinner had come out of nowhere. There was no conscious choice to ask him. The words had left her mouth before she even knew she was forming them. She didn't regret it, though. David had proven to be much more pleasant company than she had first thought. Her judgements of his character when she only saw him as Prince Charming had been wrong. The last few days Regina had even been looking forward to the times when he would show up unannounced again, seemingly coming up with more excuses to spend a few minutes with her.

That is why she was both disappointed and confused by the fact that he seemed to be thinking about her offer, instead of just accepting and saying 'yes'.

After a few more seconds of Regina smiling up at David from her place leaning against the kitchen counter, he smiled back at her and accepted, "I'd love to, if you're sure it's not too much trouble."

Regina's heart skipped a beat-what was that about?- and she smiled wider. "I'm sure. I'm cooking for two either way, so there's no trouble adding a third." Thinking of cooking for three, Regina thought of Henry and remembered he must be coming home soon. Although he'd been distant lately, even more so since he brought Ms. Swan to town, Regina loved their dinners together. Any time spent with her son was held dear to her heart, and she'd learned to appreciate it even more so, now that she got less of his time.

She reached forward and asked for David's coat, feeling his warm hands on her cold ones when he handed it to her. She walked back to the foyer to put the coat away, and saw something on her way back to the kitchen. A note on the dinner table. She hadn't seen it the first time she'd walked past it, too preoccupied by the bags of groceries in her arms and David right behind her. Regina walked to the table slowly, already feeling a sense of dread. She didn't know why, but she felt like this note, which must be from Henry because one, he was the only one who lived here with her and two, because MOM was written largely on the front of the piece of paper, held no good news.

'Mom, I'm having dinner with Emma.'

Regina bit the inside of her cheek, pouting her lips in a gesture that was mostly done to distract herself from the pain she felt inside when she read it. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she would not let them fall. Clearing her throat and holding her head high, she walked back into the kitchen to David, and threw the note on the kitchen island on her way back to the counter. She put on a smile, which was now rather fake.

"It seems Henry is not joining us for dinner tonight, so it's just the two of us," Regina looked at David standing there, a little uncomfortable with his hands in his pockets. "I hope that's okay."

At this his hands left his pockets and, maybe just because he felt like it, or maybe because he could see her sadness at not having Henry with her tonight, he put one of his hands on her upper arm. "Of course that's okay." He smiled. "You know, since you're my only friend, you're automatically my best friend. Don't best friends have dinner together alone, all the time?"

Regina raised her brows for just a second, processing the best friend card. In a way, it was nice. She meant a lot to David, so much so that she was his best friend. But on the other hand, Regina didn't want to be David's best friend. If she was going through with her plan to seduce him to hurt Snow White, which seemed more alluring by the minute, he could absolutely not see her as a friend only.

Regina showed her teeth in a polite smile and agreed. "Why don't I show you the living room so you can make yourself comfortable while I prepare dinner?"

Of course, David had declined, insisting on staying in the kitchen with Regina to 'help' her. He had no clue what he was doing, though, and the one task Regina had given him which was to stir the sauce seemed to be too much for him. An hour, a few glasses of wine and a lot of spilled lasagna sauce later, dinner had finally been ready to be put into the oven.

Although doing it on her own would have been a lot faster, Regina had liked David's help in the kitchen, and most of all his company while preparing dinner.

Now, they sat at the dinner table, finished eating but not yet finished talking to each other.

David leaned back into his chair, saying: "That was the best lasagna I've ever had."

"Oh, please," Regina scoffed and rolled her eyes at him playfully, "you don't even remember the last time you had lasagna before this, never mind if it was better." She grabbed her half empty wine glass and took a sip.

David huffed, "Still, I'm convinced this is the best I've ever had." Then he smirked and added: "It must be because of my great stirring skills."

Regina gathered up their plates and stood up, nodding at him sarcastically. "Yes, that must be it. This wouldn't have been the best dish you've ever had in your life because I'm such a great cook, but because you are such a good stirrer. Nevermind that you stirred half the sauce right out of the pan and onto my stove." Then she walked away with their dirty dishes, swaying her hips a little as she went.

Following, David pointed out that "I never said this was the best dish I've ever had, just the best lasagna. Don't take too much credit."

Regina shook her head and, while he couldn't see as he walked behind her, smiled. She put the dishes in the sink and turned to face David again, hands behind her on the counter top. "So, you do admit the lasagna was great because of my exceptional culinary skills, and not yours?"

He smiled and handed her her wine glass, which he'd taken along with his back to the kitchen, "I do."

"Good."

David chuckled and put his own glass of wine on the counter, stepping up to it to begin doing the dishes.

"David, what are you doing?" Regina asked as he began rinsing the dishes and grabbed for the soap.

"Doing the dishes."

"First, you save me from a car full of melted ice cream, and now you're doing my dishes," Regina murmured, "doesn't seem right."

"Please, this has been a really hard time for me and you've been there every step of the way. It's the least I could do." He glanced sideways at her and smiled softly.

"Well, I can't help but feel responsible for you. Especially since I've found you, twice now." Regina lied to him. She didn't feel responsible for him, and she didn't find him twice. Just the one time, a little over a week ago.

"You know, I still haven't heard the whole story."

"About what?"

"About how you found me. The first time, that is."

"That's probably because I'm the only one who knows it." Regina chuckled and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the lie. She didn't really want to lie to David. She liked him and contrary to popular belief, she didn't like lying, especially not to the people she didn't loathe. But, she had to. Regina looked up from where she'd been staring at the glass of wine still in her hand, and caught David's eye.

"I was working late," she started, "it was a cold night, must have been ten below." David now stopped the pretense of still doing the dishes, and turned so he was leaning against the counter just as Regina was, still holding her gaze. "And, on my drive home I realised I'd left my phone at the office. I remember thinking just to forget about it, I didn't really need it, but... something inside me told me to turn around and go back."

"That's when you saw me?"

Regina nodded. "You were on the side of the road, unconscious, so cold you felt like ice," Regina stopped here for a second, adding a pause for drama's sake. "The doctor said if I'd found you ten minutes later, it would have been too late." She shook her head a little, as if in disbelief. "Amazing, isn't it? If I hadn't forgotten my phone, I wouldn't have been on the road, at that time."

David, who had looked down somewhere during her story, looked back up. He frowned a little, scanning Regina's face. "It's almost... almost as if the universe wanted you to find me."

This was her chance. Regina thought, as she looked at him, this was her chance to kiss this man, bring him to her bed and separate that flake of snow and her husband forever. She put her nice feelings for him aside, and separated from the part of herself that liked him in her life, the part that liked his company. If she was going through with this, she needed to see her goal of revenge clear before her. So, she did.

Looking down at David's lips, she leaned forward, intent on catching his lips with hers. Before she could do just that, though, he put his hand on her upper arm to stop her and leaned back.

Regina looked back up to his eyes, confused. "I hope you didn't get the wrong idea," he told her. "This... is perfect, as it is."

Backing up, Regina looked down, hiding her embarrassment. Or, trying to. She didn't have much experience with rejection in this area, and she didn't know how to act now that she was being rejected. "Oh, I'm sorry-" she started before David cut her off.

"You don't need to apologize, Regina."

"I just got caught up in the moment," Regina lied. She bit her lip, a nervous gesture she thought she had under control but came back in situations like this, where she didn't know how to act.

"It's okay." David said, backing up further, taking several steps toward the exit of the kitchen. "Maybe I should go. Thank you, again, for a lovely meal."

Regina looked back up to him and smiled a hopefully convincing smile, "of course."

When David left, her smile, which had been more like a grimace, fell. Regina felt conflicted. The moment David had pushed her away, she'd felt a stab to her chest. She told herself it was because of her plan for revenge falling through. Surely, she wasn't feeling pain because David didn't want her. Why should she care about what he thought about her? She didn't.

The only reason she might feel a little sad about his rejection, was because he had turned out to be decent company, which she wouldn't be getting from him anymore. Clearly, after a situation like this, they couldn't just go back to how things were before. Surely he wouldn't want to spend time like that with her anymore, now that he thought she might want more from him, because of her approach.

Regina pushed herself from the kitchen counter and walked to the foyer, turning to face a mirror. She looked at herself, eyes red-rimmed and a sour expression on her face, and felt disgust. This is what she had come to? Playing house with Prince Charming? Being rejected by him? And feeling sad about it?

Suddenly, anger took over her emotions and she threw the glass of wine that was still in her hand at the mirror, which positively shattered.

She saw her distorted image in the remaining pieces of mirror that remained intact, and scoffed. What a failure.