Regina was the first to move back once she realized how close she was standing to Emma and what she had been about to do. For a brief moment there she had thought about all the strife and the drama that existed between her and Emma and still she had almost kissed her.

"We should probably return to town," Regina said.

"Yeah," Emma said, glancing over the town line. "We probably should."

They started to walk back to their cars, neither woman saying anything, but both keep pace with the other as they proceeded side by side. Emma's vehicle was first and she stopped at the hood, which prompted Regina to also stop.

"Thank you," Emma said. "For that back there. For coming here. You didn't have to, so thank you."

"I did have to," Regina said. "I should never have let you leave the other day without explaining who Neal was."

"Why didn't you?"

This time it was Regina who was glancing over at the town line.
"I don't know," she said. "Maybe I thought it would be easier for me if you believed that because if you did then you would avoid me and I wouldn't have to deal with this, with us."

"Is that why you never come home?"

Regina moved so she was leaning against the car and Emma did the same.

"Yes," Regina said. "And no. You know I've been restless about this place for years. I never felt like it was the right place for me to be. I always felt this pull to be out there somewhere in the world. But even out there, no place has ever felt like home. Philly has been the closest thing to it and a lot of that has to do with Neal. In a way, he reminds me of you."

"How so?"

"He's just fearless. He just lives life and he's always at ease with himself and who he is."

"That is like the complete opposite of me," Emma said, earning her a look from Regina. "Come on, how long have I let my mom dictate things in my life? If I was fearless, I would have been able to walk over that town line, I would have come after you all those years ago like I knew I should have."

"Is it fear? Is that what you feel when you get close to the town line?"

Emma shrugged. "It's hard to explain. I don't know why I can't just leave. I get this feeling the closer I get to it that I can't do it, that I'm not supposed to do it like there is some cosmic force telling me that here is where I have to say," she said. "It sounds stupid I know and you probably think I'm crazy or making excuses …"
"No, I don't think that," Regina interrupted. She had seen Emma out there frozen in place. She didn't understand it, but she knew Emma was telling the truth when she said she couldn't cross the line. "I do think we really should leave here, I mean, go back to town."

Emma nodded. "Have you eaten yet?"

"No."

"We could go to Granny's, get something to eat," she suggested.

"Now you are just pressing your luck, Miss Swan."

Emma groaned. "Can you not call me that?"

"Ok, Emma," Regina said.

"So, about that dinner?" Emma said hopefully.

Regina paused, she still wasn't sure about any of this. "Ok," she said and Emma's face lit up.

…

At Granny's, neither woman said much as they ordered their food.

"We need to talk about what happened out there," Regina said.

"I know," Emma said. "Again, I'm sorry. I don't know why that happens, why I can't just leave."

"Maybe you don't want to leave," Regina commented, keeping her eyes on the placemat in front of her.

"That's not it," Emma said quickly. "I swear. I keep thinking over and over how things could have been different between us if I had just gone with you to Michigan State. I would have a completely different life. And I would hope that life would be with you."

She paused and then said, "I still want that."

Regina's breath hitched and she looked up at Emma. "I think we have a lot to talk about before we …"

"Yeah, I know," Emma interrupted. "It's just that I thought I should put that out there upfront. It's always been you Regina, and it always will be for me."

Regina didn't know what to say. It had always been Emma for her. She had never wanted anyone like she wanted Emma, but she was afraid too. It hadn't worked out before and now here they were years apart and she at least wasn't the same person she once was. Yet Emma was sitting in front of her like nothing had changed.

"I don't even know where to begin to talk about things," Regina said. "But I guess the one thing I would say that you need to understand is that my life is out there past that town line. I am going to have to leave again once my father is ok. I'm supposed to be moving to Savannah to start a job down there."

"Well, I can be a police officer anywhere," Emma said.

Regina could scarcely believe that Emma could still act exude any optimism, but that is how she was. Even when Emma's mother had forbidden their relationship, Emma was always optimistic that it was something they could get through.

She was about to say something that even her mind hadn't decided what it would be yet when someone said her name. She turned and saw Neal approaching them.

"Don't get up," he said to her. "Just slide over. Hi, you must be Emma." He shook Emma's hand and Regina noticed a slight hesitancy on Emma's part before she shook Neal's hand.

Regina had slid over and Neal sat beside her, she immediately saw that Neal appeared to be nervous. Could he be nervous about meeting Emma, she wondered.

"I take it that you two have cleared things up about me," Neal said looking at Regina who nodded to him. "Good. I'm sure we will get along great. Has Regina told you how we met?"

Dinner came and Neal also ordered something and he dominated most of the conversation, telling Emma about how they met, and then asking her about herself.

Regina and Emma hadn't gotten the chance to say much to each other once the meal was done and Regina announced that she needed to get back home.

"I will walk you to your car," Neal said.

"Good night Emma," Regina said as she got out of the booth.

"Yeah, good night."

"We will talk later," Regina said. "I promise."

She turned and left with Neal right on her heels. When she got to her car, Neal lingered by her door. Again, she seemed nervous.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said, a little too quickly for her taste.

"Then why are you nervous?"

"I'm not nervous."

She gave him a look to say that she didn't believe him.

"Look, I just …I guess I'm a little anxious. Small towns aren't for me. I just can't wait until we get back to Philly and then head down to Savannah."

"What happened to I should take my time here?"

"I'm not saying we leave tonight or anything," he said. "So, what happened with you and Emma?"

"We talked a little bit," Regina said. "But there is still a lot for us to talk about. You sort of interrupted."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Neal said. "My bad."

"Don't worry about it," she said. "She and I will clear things up before I go."

She paused. "She still wants to be with me."

"Is that what you want?"

"I don't know. I don't know how any of this is supposed to work," Regina said. "This isn't how I thought things would be when I came back here. I never imagined that she and I would ever be together again, but … I see her and I … God, how is it possible that I still love her?"

"You can't control who you have feelings for," Neal said.

"I suppose you are right," she said. "I really do need to get home. I will talk with you tomorrow."

"Good night," he said.

Once Regina drove off, Neal went back into the diner and saw that Emma was still sitting there so he took the seat across from her. Neither said anything at first.

Neal had wondered about Emma long before he came to Storybooke, long before he knew that this town was nothing but a curse. Regina loved her – still loved her apparently – and Neal had wondered what it was about this woman that made Regina unable to move on from her.

Now that he knew that this was Regina's true love it made more sense.

He was still reeling from the idea that all of these people were from the world he grew up in. Here was the princess of the realm, nothing more than a sheriff's deputy.

"Do you love her?" Emma asked.

If he was surprised by the question, he didn't show it.

"I do, but not in the way you love her," Neal responded. "She is just my friend."

"That is what she said."

"And you don't believe her?"

"No, I believe her. I just needed to know from your end if it was just friendship," Emma said. "You are important to her and I don't want to mess with that."

"I appreciate that," Neal said, still studying her. "I hope we can be friends too."

"Yeah," she said, standing up. "I hope we can too because you are important to her and she's important to me. Good night Neal."

"Good night Emma."

After she left, Neal continued to sit there. Shit, he thought, what was he going to do here. He couldn't let Regina and Emma kiss and break this curse because it would give his father his magic. But at the same time, how could he keep Regina from her true happiness? He loved her because she was the first person in a long time that understood him. He had been alone for so long and then along came Regina.

That night he tried to steal her car, when she had pulled over and let him go, when she pulled away, he thought she was one of the most uptight people he had ever met. He had walked home to the small apartment he had been renting, thinking that there was a woman who needed to get laid.

He couldn't even explain why he went back the next day, only that he felt bad for her. Here was a woman who needed to learn to relax, so he showed up at her car and somehow he managed to charm her.

She had made it clear that she wasn't into his anatomy at all. And he was good with that because he wasn't interested in her in that way and never had been.

They fit together weirdly. She would come home from long hours at work and he would have dinner for her before he would leave to go play at one of the clubs where he was a regular.

One thing she had laid down the law on when they moved in together was that he couldn't do anymore stealing. He had to go straight and she wasn't going to compromise on that.

In a way, she had saved him.

He had hit rock bottom before meeting her. This had not been the life he had envisioned when he made the decision all those years ago that to save his father he needed to get him away from magic. When he had gone through the portal and his father hadn't, he had felt lost.

That wasn't how it was supposed to be.

Now all these years later, his father was in this world with a plot to get his magic back.

A plot that Neal now needed to find a way to stop it without Regina getting hurt.

…

When Regina got home, there were no lights in the front of the house that she could see from the outside. It was still early that her parents should be up. As she stepped inside, she saw a light from the far hall and she walked down to where her father's home office was, surprised to find her mom in there.

"Mom?" she said.

Her mother who was sitting on the small couch that was in there, looked up at her.

"You're home late."

"Not so late, is something wrong? Is dad ok?"

"He's fine. He just got a little tired – a lot tired earlier and went to bed," Cora said. "He's so eager to prove that he can get back to work and be mayor and … well he's not ready yet."

"Ok," Regina said. "We'll just have to make sure he knows there is no need to hurry back. We'll make sure he rests like the doctor said he should."

"That could take a while," Cora said.

"Ok."

"Ok?" Cora said. "And what brings on this change of heart?"

"What do you mean? I came here to make sure father was ok. I'm not leaving until he is."

"What about your job, your life out there?"

"It can wait."

Cora stood up and set aside the book she had sitting in her lap when Regina first walked in. She walked up to Regina, studying her. "Why are you getting home so late?"

Regina took a step back from her, "I just worked late. You know how it is."

Cora smiled at you, "You still haven't learned to lie to your mother. So, where were you, Regina?"

"I … I was with Emma."

"Well, some things haven't changed," Cora said. "Come, sit. Tell me what brought this on?"

She led Regina back over to the couch, where they took a seat.

"How did you end up spending time with Emma this evening?"

"I needed to talk to her about … Neal," Regina said. She ended up telling her mom about she had gotten together with Emma a few days ago and the impression she had left her with. She told her how she had tracked Emma down at the town line and how Emma had made a ritual out of going out there ever since the day Regina had left for Michigan State.

"I don't know, I just spent so much time hating what happened between us and now, now, I don't know what any of this means," Regina said. "She still wants to be with me."

"What do you want?"

But Regina didn't know how to answer that question. Did she want to be with Emma again?

"What do you think I should do?" she asked Cora. She couldn't remember the last time she had asked her mother for advice.

"Honey, you need to do what is right for you," Cora responded. "No one but you knows where your happiness lies."

"Do you think it's possible that she and I could …" she didn't finish the thought, not even sure what she was going to ask exactly.

Still, her mom answered. "When two people are truly in love, anything is possible."