It was the morning after Henry and Regina had been attacked by the townspeople, Henry was in his room and Regina had just gotten up from taking a rest. She had been lying down upstairs but hadn't yet had time to fall asleep when she had gotten a text from Emma saying she was on her way back.
Regina was in the kitchen when she heard the key in the front lock, and went to greet Emma as the blonde entered the house.
"Hey," Emma said.
"You sound tired." Regina observed, folding her long cardigan more fully around herself. "You've been working nonstop since yesterday morning, you need to rest."
Emma sighed, rubbing her eyes with her hand. "I know... but things have just been so crazy out there. I was so not prepared for this. I'll take a break when things are more normal. What I really need right now is a coffee."
"Come into the kitchen, I just made a pot."
Emma sighed happily as she followed the brunette down the hall. "You're a life saver."
Regina practically rolled her eyes. "Hardly."
"So where's Henry?"
"He's upstairs."
Emma nodded, almost hesitant to ask the next question. "How's he doing?"
Regina folded her arms again, glancing upwards. "He's been quiet but I think he's okay... he's a bit discouraged though. He didn't realize they would turn out to be like this."
"Yeah well, neither did I. But I'm still hoping this will all die down soon."
"I'm not so sure about that." Regina said as she passed Emma a mug from the cupboard. "I don't think they'll ever stop, not until they see me buried six feet underground."
"Regina come on," Emma said gently. "Stop saying things like that. That's not going to happen."
Regina chose not to respond. She had a troubled expression as she leaned on the counter and watched Emma fix herself a cup of coffee.
Emma stirred her drink and then took a sip, closing her eyes briefly in appreciation as the warmth spread through her.
"Henry's been really eager to help." Regina said. "He keeps asking if he can go into town with his grandparents, but I just can't see past the dangers of it."
"Is that why he's hiding away upstairs instead of down here with you?"
"I don't know." Regina replied quietly. "I think he understands why I don't want him to go, but that doesn't change the fact that he still wants to."
Emma nodded understandingly. "I'm sure he's not upset with you. He knows you're just looking out for him."
"I hope so." Regina breathed a heavy sigh as she stood up straight again. "I told him what you suggested, about going back to Boston for a while until things settle down."
"Oh yeah? What did he say?"
"He doesn't want to leave, and I can't say I blame him."
"He doesn't want to leave because he doesn't know how badly you need a hospital. He needs to know how serious your condition is."
"I know... He deserves to know the truth. And I will tell him."
"When?"
Regina wrapped her arms around her own waist. "Today I think. I've kept the truth from him for far too long." She heaved another tired sigh, shaking her head softly.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked. "I mean, I know I wanted to tell him sooner... but you had your reasons, you just wanted to protect him."
"No it's not that... It's Henry, he's much braver than I am."
"What do you mean?"
"They almost killed him yesterday, and now he wants to go straight back out into the line of fire."
"Or he just doesn't understand how risky it is."
Regina nodded thoughtfully. "What happened to him yesterday was an accident, but it could have just as easily been intentional. If I let him go into town and something happened to him, I would never be able to forgive myself."
"I know. I'm worried about him too. But Regina, some of the townspeople may be acting like monsters, but that doesn't mean they would go to those lengths. They might hate you but I don't think they would lay a hand on Henry–not intentionally anyways– no matter how badly they know it would hurt you."
"That's not a chance I'm willing to take."
"No... neither am I. But what can we do? We can't keep him locked away in here forever."
"I know." Regina agreed softly.
"You either for that matter. You've been in this house way too much lately."
"Emma..." Regina said tiredly. "The moment I step outside–"
"The moment you step outside you'll be safe. I'll make sure of that. We can't let them stop you from living your life."
"But what kind of life do I have to go back to? My options right now are between a slow death under self-imposed house arrest, or a slightly quicker death – and a likely more painful one – at the hands of the townspeople."
"No. You have a long life ahead of you, and a happy one I'm sure."
Frowning, Regina folded her arms. They had had this discussion far too many times for her liking, and it always ended the same way. She was tired of having this disagreement and so she decided to change the subject. "So... what were things like in town today? Is there any news?"
"Bad news actually now that you mention it." Emma responded. "Apparently there's a problem down by the town line."
Regina's eyes narrowed. "What sort of problem?"
Emma took another sip of her coffee, swallowing before answering. "According to Leroy, once someone crosses the line they lose their memories. Or, well, re-lose their memories I guess."
"Their memories of the Enchanted Forest you mean?"
"Yeah. And even worse, coming back into Storybrooke doesn't fix it. A lot of people are pretty pissed off about it."
"How did they figure this out? Someone must have crossed over."
"Yeah... Mr. Clark from the pharmacy. Now I think he thinks everyone else has lost it."
"Was it an accident?"
"Not exactly. The uh... you know, the dwarves... were testing the town line when it happened. Now that the curse is broken they wanted to see what would happen once someone crosses it."
"I see. Well it looks like they got their answer." Regina sighed. "And I suppose everyone blames me for this?"
"You suppose right. Was it not part of the curse?"
"No... At least it wasn't supposed to be."
Emma's brow furrowed in thought. "I wonder what could have caused it then? They think you've trapped them here for some dark evil plan. Keeping them here so you can kill them all one by one or something. You're not planning on doing that right?" Emma finished a little teasingly.
Regina gave her a look of disapproval. "But I had no idea this would happen." She said defensively. "They should be blaming Gold, he's the one who designed the curse after all! No one seems to remember that."
"Didn't you put a barrier around the town to stop people from leaving?"
"Are you on their side now?"
"I'm just saying maybe it has something to do with that." Emma responded patiently.
"But that should have been broken with the curse."
Emma gave a half-hearted shrug, not having an answer.
"Well if I could remove it I would." Regina said a little ill-temperedly. "I really couldn't care less anymore if people want to leave. But unfortunately for everyone in Storybrooke, I don't have the first clue how to do that. Although I'm sure no one would believe me. And would I be right in assuming that Gold is free to strut around the town as he pleases during all of this?"
Emma bit her lip, nodding. "I think everyone's also a bit afraid of him though."
Regina gave a forced laugh of disbelief.
Emma's phone suddenly started to vibrate on the counter beside her. "Hold on..." She said, looking down to check the ID. "Sorry, I should probably take this."
"Of course, go ahead."
Regina paced the room slowly as she listened to Emma's half of the conversation. Whatever was going on, it didn't sound good.
"Thanks Mary Margaret, but be careful out there okay? ... Yeah... Yeah I will... Okay... Yeah, talk to you later."
"Looks like our bad situation's just worsened." Emma said, putting her cell phone down and slumping forward against the counter to rest her forehead against its cool surface.
"What is it?" Regina asked.
"That was Mary Margaret on the phone–"
"That much I gathered, yes."
"–And according to the dwarves, there are groups of armed townspeople guarding all of the roads out of town in case you try to escape."
"What?" Regina's eyes widened.
"I know this sucks... this complicates things a bit. I mean unless you want to try driving over them to get to Boston. Which, depending on who it was–like for example Spencer–I'd be willing to do. But for now it looks like we're stuck here until we come up with a new plan."
Regina gave a troubled sigh. "Well, the plan was never set in stone, but now I suppose we have no choice but to stay."
Emma's shoulders sagged at Regina's tone. No matter how many times Emma assured her she was going to survive this, Regina still refused to believe her.
"Why don't I call Mother Superior?" Emma suggested. "She can help heal you, I know she can."
"She's not going to help me." Regina insisted tiredly, they had had this conversation before as well.
"Regina, she put the protection spell around the house for you! I know you think she did it for Henry but she didn't. You weren't there when she cast that thing, I was. She put it there to keep you safe! I think because so many people have hurt you in the past, you just don't want to believe that there are still lots of people who are genuinely just good people!"
"She's not the saint you make her out to be!" Regina snapped. "You know her only from this world. Back in the Enchanted Forest sure, she would grant people their wishes, give everyone their happy endings, but only so long as it suited her. She could be quite selective about who she believed was worthy of help. Just ask your mother's friend Leroy and see what he has to say about it."
Emma breathed an angry sigh. "Okay, let's say she was like that... but Regina you don't get it, she's already helped you once! That means she'll do it again, I know she will!"
"Emma..."
"Are you afraid she'll say no? Is that it? Because if you don't even want to try just because of that then–" Emma glanced at her phone as it started to ring again. She breathed a frustrated sigh. "It's the station. It's the emergency line..." She said warily.
Regina somewhat bitterly gestured for her to take the call, and Emma lifted the phone to her ear. "Emma Swan."
Regina folded her arms, watching Emma's expression as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the line.
Emma sighed. "Fine, alright... I'll be right there." She said, hanging up.
She looked at Regina again. "Apparently Main Street's finally gone to hell. They need someone to come down and mediate."
"What happened?"
"Honestly, who knows anymore. All I know is that if someone doesn't stop all this we're going to have much bigger problems on our hands."
"If it's that bad you shouldn't go alone."
"Are you volunteering?" Emma said lightly. "Because no offence Regina but I think your being there would just rile everyone up again and make things worse."
"No not me, but perhaps your parents. If anyone can calm an angry crowd down, I think it's them. They've barely ruled a day in their life but for some godforsaken reason, everybody chooses to trust them."
Emma subconsciously played with her phone as she considered this. "Yeah, I guess you're probably right. I'll give Mary Margaret another call. You and Henry just stay put here, I'll be back soon. Don't let anyone in while I'm gone."
"Emma I'm not a child, I don't need to be given ground rules in my own home."
"I know, I'm sorry. Just... be careful okay? I mean I know you will but–"
"You don't need to worry Emma, I'm not leaving." Regina said, her voice had a tired edge to it again. "I have nowhere to go anyways and this is the only place I feel even moderately safe right now."
"Well, it's my job to change that." Emma said, grabbing her keys and phone and heading towards the front door.
Regina took a few slow steps forward but did not follow Emma into the hallway.
"I'll see you later," Emma said to her before disappearing from the room.
Just then the doorbell rang, and Regina hated the way her whole body seemed to fill with dread at the mere sound. She remained in the kitchen as Emma answered the front door; Regina knew Emma would call her if the newcomer meant no harm.
She waited a few moments, trying to make out the conversation.
"Yeah she's home." Emma's voice said. "I'll just go see if she's feeling up to having visitors."
Regina heard the door close again, followed by the sound of Emma's boots coming back up the steps and towards the kitchen.
"Who is it?" Regina asked once Emma entered the room.
"It's Kathryn. She wants to talk."
"Kathryn?" Regina's expression changed. "That's a bit unexpected. Of course she can come in."
"Okay," Emma said breathily, glancing towards the front of the house. However she didn't make any movement to return to the front hall. Her brow was furrowed in thought as she seemed to be having an internal debate of her own.
"Emma?"
"What if this is some sort of trap?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, what was Kathryn really like back in your world? You don't think the townspeople would have sent her in to you know... infiltrate the place do you?"
Regina gave her a look. "Infiltrate?"
"Let's be reasonable here. You did separate Kathryn from her boyfriend for twenty-eight years. Now, in my book that's totally something a lot of people would want payback for."
"He was her husband actually..." Regina responded. "I was at the wedding."
Now it was Emma's turn to give Regina a look.
"Look I'm sorry, I wish I could take back what I did to her but I can't."
"And you still really think she's here on friendly terms?"
"Back in the Enchanted Forest she was prone to being a bit moody, but I don't think she would try to hurt me."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes."
"Regina–" Emma said uncertainly.
"Especially not with Kathryn's Storybrooke personality mixed in. She was my friend." Regina placed her hand on Emma's arm. "I honestly don't think she's here to try to kill me. Let her in, she deserves an explanation."