Following her encounter with Belle and subsequent show down with Gold, Regina was withdrawn, emotionally exhausted and unwilling to talk about it.

She and Daniel went grocery shopping before going back to her father's house, where she found Henry at the kitchen table with his grandfather, doing his homework.

"Hi muffin." She greeted him, wrapping an arm around his head and kissing the top of it despite his protests. "Ah, I'm not a muffin, I'm a man." Henry corrected her, fixing his hair as she let him go.

"My mistake." She conceded, her mood cheering slightly a she bantered with her son.

"How was your day?" She asked her father as she began preparing lasagne for dinner.

"Splendid, thank you Regina." He replied, avidly doodling on Henrys homework. "Just golf with the fellows at the club."

"That's good." Regina fastened an apron around her waist and starting assembling her lasagne.

"Have either of you seen Damon?" She asked as she slid their dinner into the oven.

"No, can't say I have." Her father hadn't seen him, neither had Henry.

"I'm going to call him, I'll just be outside." Regina decided, her brow furrowed, as she took off her apron and headed for the front door, the idea of the crisp evening air very appealing to her.

She pulled out her cell phone, scrolling through her contacts for her oldest sons name as she stepped outside, closing the door and almost stepping on her wife.

Emma was huddled on the step, red leather jacket and white woollen beanie on, her blonde hair flowing freely down her shoulders.

Regina stepped back in surprise, almost immediately tearing up a she drank in Emma's beauty, longing to wrap herself around her and feel her slender arms around her again. But she couldn't. Because this wasn't the woman she'd married. This was the woman who'd broken her heart.

Her expression hardening Regina crossed her arms and glared down at her soon-to-be ex-wife.

"What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you." Emma informed her, getting to her feet and wiping her tear stained cheeks.

"If you wanted to talk to me maybe you shouldn't have cheated on me for a year with my intern." Regina snarled, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Emma held up her hands, her expression one of genuine sorrow and desperation.

"I am not here to defend my actions Regina. You owe me nothing. I never wanted to hurt you, but I have and now we have to deal with that." Emma sniffed pitifully and gestured at the door. "Can I please come inside and talk to you, face to face, about where we go from here?"

All Regina wanted was to hurt Emma, hurt her like she'd been hurt, make her feel some of that pain. But she had to be better, even if slamming the door in her face would feel a lot better than talking would.

"You're not coming inside. You have five minutes." She permitted her ungraciously, stepping past and sitting down on the frozen step, her eyes fixed on the snow in front of her. "Shoot."

"I really miss our kids Regina. I miss them so bad. Can you please let me take them to the lake this weekend? It's frozen and I always take the boys skating. I just, it would mean so much to me."

Emma was pleading with her, unashamedly. She knew she had no right, that Regina owed her no favours. She wasn't demanding. She was begging.

And it was piercing Regina right in the heart. She hadn't stopped loving Emma, she couldn't just turn it off, and watching her soul mate suffer brought her no joy, despite the hurt she'd inflicted. In fact Regina had to fiercely remind herself of just how deeply Emma had betrayed her to keep herself from scooping her up and holding her tight right there and then.

She was so angry, so frustrated, but she was rational, and even though she let it was unfair to have to share with her, Regina couldn't bring herself to be the kind of person that used her children as weapons.

"Alright, you can have them this weekend, if they want to go. And you better not send that whore to me with any more lists or I swear to god I am going to set her, or you, on fire."

Emma's face initially lit up in a smile before crumpling in confusion. "Who? Whore? Oh Belle, what list, what are talking about?"

Regina rolled her eyes and spoke scathingly. "You sent her to my office with a list of things I supposedly stole from you when I moved Emma Swan, don't you try to deny it."

Emma looked genuinely confused and irritated by this information. "Regina, I know I was shitty about the glasses but I'm over it, they're yours. There's nothing else I've even noticed is gone. God, I know you're pissed at me, and I know I deserve it, but do you really think stuff matters to me that much, really Regina?"

"I don't really know what matters to you anymore." Regina said. "I just know that I don't. So if you'll excuse me, I have people I'd rather spend my evening with."

Regina stood up, one hand on her belly as she supported herself, and let herself back into the house, locking the door behind her and walking away from it without looking back at Emma. She couldn't look back, it would have made her cry again and she was sick to death of crying. It'd been years since she'd felt this vulnerable and weak, and she was not enjoying the experience.

Emma had distracted her from her original task, of finding her oldest son, a fact she was reminded of as her phone started ringing in her hand.

She recognized the number and her heart sank as she pressed answer.

"Hello."

"Hi, Regina, its Sherriff Nolan, any chance you can come down to the station? We've got Damon in custody."