"Tell me something, Regina. What the hell is this about?"

Emma all but stormed into Storybrooke Mayor's office, her boots colliding against the floor in a steady, violent rhythm. Completely unbothered, Regina did not even look up from her work. Rather, she simply focused on going through the information filling up her laptop screen. Tabs opening up and then being minimised. There was almost too much for her to even begin to fathom. She paused upon seeing a notification for her personal email. She raised an eyebrow when she opened it. Scanning down the page, anger began to pluck at her, and her fingers smacked down onto her desk. She was unsure if she spoke it aloud or not, but the words that came to mind were far closer to those of her best friends than of herself, under normal circumstances that was. Fuck! Are you fucking kidding me? She was starting to shake, barely aware of it. To her surprise, two strong hands grabbed her shoulders to hold her steady. She finally looked up, and found Emma to be holding her still. Unexpectedly to her, however, was how startled the blonde bounty hunter looked.

"Regina, what is the matter with you?" Emma eyed her oddly. "First, you tell me just about everything that Henry has been saying is true, then you go and put my juvenile record out in public in this town! And, now, you look sick and won't answer a damn word I have to say. What is going on?"

Regina hesitated. "Take a look at this," She finally said, pushing the still open computer screen towards her.

Emma glanced between her and the computer but, after a moment, nodded, leaning in to get a better look at the screen.

CLASS OF 2055 GRADUATION INFORMATION

Parents of students of the Class Of 2055,

The graduation ceremony will occur in the centre campus courtyard on June the 12th, 2055 at 14:30. Students must arrive an hour beforehand to ensure everyone has finished their final preparations for the ceremony. The following students must be present two hours beforehand as they are receiving additional honours…

Emma rolled her eyes, scrolling further down the list of names, two catching her eyes, and one causing her stomach to sink.

Lynnetta Mary Anne Mills, graduating top of her class, attending Princeton following a two year gap; Mills will begin at Princeton on full scholarship for psychology and criminology in September 2057. Mills will not be required to stand nor walk for the entire ceremony, considering her disabled leg from a 2052 car crash.

The ceremony will be in the memory of Arianne Leah Watson, the best friend of Mills, whom fell into a coma a few years prior. Watson is the daughter of Stephen Watson, and Dr. Leah Watson, a decorated professor at Dartmouth. Petition from the Watson family and friends have come to the agreement with the school board that this graduation ceremony will be held in the memory of Arianne Watson. Watson remains on life support by the choice of her parents, quoted as stating they will never give up on the hope that their daughter will be given the chance to continue living her life. We…

"Who the hell thinks this a good idea?" Emma exclaimed. "Aria was charged and convicted of negligence, nevermind that she is actually guilty of attempted murder! How can anyone think this makes sense, or that this is okay?"

"They can buy anyone's feelings," Regina said irritably. "And they clearly have."

Emma sighed. "I can't say I appreciate you releasing my juvenile record to the entire fucking town, but I will say that I understand why you're angry. This is disgusting."

"It is," Regina bitterly agreed. "And you weren't even there in the courtroom to hear her try and talk her way out of it."

Emma turned to her in surprise. "If you don't mind me asking," She began, curiosity overwhelming her self restraint. "What on earth did that bitch say?"

Regina managed a small smile. "I'm surprised to hear you call a teenager a bitch."

"She is," Emma replied with half a smile of her own. "Anyone who thinks it's okay, that it's a good idea to try to murder someone, much less because they just don't like them anymore - whatever that means - is a bitch. Nothing more, nothing less."

Regina glanced between her computer, and the bounty hunter.

"Okay," Emma said, breaking into the silence. "So. What the hell did she say?"

"A lot," Regina said darkly. "And enough people believed at least some of it to get her off."

Images had been flashed up on the monitor. The courtroom had gone silent apart from some gasps of horror. The prosecutor had flicked on the laser of the powerpoint clicker. On the stand, Aria had looked down at her hands. Across the courtroom, her parents had turned slightly to scowl at the queen. Regina Mills had looked back at them, just about feeling the way they were staring at her. Her fingers had curled, and she reached over with one hand to hold onto her daughter's. Lynn had startled but all but jumped onto her mother, clutching onto her. Leah and Stefan had scowled at them, and Regina had scowled back, resisting the urge to flip them off. She had swallowed back the words that kept rising in her chest, some of them which were rephrasing from her best friends. Her only two friends. Regina had looked away from them, and towards their daughter. Aria had shivered when she met the gaze of the queen. The woman who had cursed her. The woman who had cursed their entire world. The woman who had murdered hundreds of people by her own hand, crushing their hearts in her hand. That was what her parents had told her. And the queen was, now, the one staring at her. Aria had been certain the queen would, if she still had magic, rip her heart out of her chest, and crush it.

"Arianne Watson tried to murder her best friend," The prosecutor had said, her heels clicking against the floor. "This was the state she left her in, the state that Lynnetta Mills arrived in hospital. She was inches away from death. Had she been out there without medical treatment a few hours longer, Mills would be dead. And Watson had been counting on that."

"Objection," One of the defence attorneys had said. "Prosecution is mischaracterising the nature of the injuries presented in the photographs taken as medical intervention was in progress."

"Sustained."

The prosecutor had paused, clicking to the next slide. Another set of horrified gasps had rung out through the room.

"Miss Watson, do you recognise these?" The prosecutor had said, her laser pointer lingering on the image at the top of the screen. "These are text messages sent between you and a classmate the day after you left Lynnetta Mills. Did you send these text messages?"

Aria had sniffled. "Were they retrieved from my phone?" She said with a whimper.

"Yes," The prosecutor said flatly. "And also from the phone of your classmate to confirm they were from your mobile number."

Aria had let out a dry sob. "I must have sent them, then."

The prosecutor had let silence hang over the courtroom for a minute.

"Miss Watson," She finally said. "Please read the text messages on the screen."

Aria had looked up, rubbing off the tears streaming down her face.

"It says…" She had sniffed again. "We really did go for it, and she's not going to be back at school."

"Next."

"Lynn is such a brat, but her mother is like a serial killer."

"Next."

"If there were an easy way to get rid of her, I'd take it. But she's just so clingy."

"Next."

"She's going to try and blackmail us just because she has that stupid fucking picture of herself with me and Cinds fucking in the background."

"Next."

"Lynn's gone nuts. She got mad at that cheerleader for being a bitch, and wrote on a paper in lipstick or something before shoving it in that girl's face. And you know what it said? It said 'I want to see your blood drip. Drip, drip, drip!' What kind of psychopath does that? Lynn's going to become a school shooter, I swear."

"Next."

"Do you ever just wonder about like disposing of a dead body?"

Aria had started crying again, and the prosecutor's lips flattened into a cold line.

"Miss Watson, it seems more than apparent that you had no intention of continuing to have any sort of relationship with Lynnetta Mills. Is that accurate?"

Aria had nodded. "She's a liar," Aria's voice had wavered. "She's lying about everything because she doesn't know how to drive and nearly got us killed. She wants to make me suffer because I started to see her for who she really is. And I was frustrated! Of course I was! But how can any of you possibly think that I wanted to kill her? That's not true! It's ridiculous! Lynn is violent! I never tried to hurt her, and never would! She even -"

Emma's hand slammed angrily against Regina's desk, startling them both.

"Sorry," The bounty hunter said, taking a step back. "I just can't understand that! How monstrous can one person be?"

"It takes a special kind of person to be willing to kill someone for things that have absolutely nothing to do with them," Regina bit her lip. "I can understand why someone would want to kill me. I can even understand how someone could justify killing me. But Lynn has never wanted to harm anyone, and was completely defenceless. None of it was justifiable. It seems every day that new justifications are made for this girl, but the worst are the ones she had to say for herself."

Emma sighed. "Listen, Regina," She hesitantly began. "I can't speak to who you were before you ended up here, and, frankly, I don't want to. But the person you are, at least from what I can tell, since beginning life in this world is not worth killing."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Miss Swan -"

"I wouldn't say that if I were being insincere," Emma cut in, sending her a pointed look. "You and I aren't exactly friends, Regina. Do you honestly think I would say something to you so serious and not mean it?"

"I suppose not," Regina said tiredly. "Though I can't say I'm not suspicious as to why you would -"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Emma eyed her strangely. "I'm just saying something simple. No one should want to kill you. How is that so hard for you to accept, when -"

"Perhaps years of being told that my daughter would be better off without me could indicate that for you," Regina snapped. "Or, if you need further examples, being faced with execution. Did Henry not mention that to you?"

Emma took a small step back.

"I don't think he knows."

The two women stared at each other in silence.

"He doesn't?" Regina's voice wavered. "Do…"

"Do I think he would see things differently if he knew you had nearly been executed?" Emma uncomfortably bobbed up and down on her toes. "Yeah, I think he would."

Another moment passed in silence.

"Why?" Regina said softly. "Why?"

"Because Henry knows that you're not a complete monster," Emma replied, shaking her head. "Don't get me wrong, you're someone I feel sorry for much. But you don't deserve to die, and you never have. And Lynn especially does not deserve to die. She never has, and she never will."