Something was wrong. Regina knew that Rumple had taken Henry somewhere safe, but the Dark One himself was nowhere to be found. Neither was Belle, which probably meant that she was with Henry, but where was Rumple? He had either run away or was in hiding, neither of which boded well for her. If her mother had managed to scare off Rumplestiltskin, then it was only a matter of time until she found a way to Henry.
And of course, there were no heroes in town. None of the ones that were annoyingly good at winning, at any rate. For the first time in her life, Regina found herself wishing that Snow White was here. Her infuriating habit of rescuing everyone would have been welcome in this situation. No Snow. No Emma. Even Prince Charming was out of play, under a sleeping curse that she had created herself.
On top of everything, there was a stranger in town. The fact that the town was now vulnerable to outsiders was concerning, and without anyone to lead them properly, it was incredibly difficult to get people to keep their identities to themselves. She was pretty sure she had seen a man made entirely of wood sneaking away from Granny's B&B, and the Mendell man would certainly have some questions about that if he had seen it.
The fact was, things were bad. Given that everyone in town hated her, she couldn't even work to fix anything. It was pure desperation that led her to seek out the cricket.
"The town respects you. Isn't there anything you can do to make sure people hide the truth from this outsider?" She had explained the situation, and if anybody could get the town to listen, it would be their so-called conscience.
"These people spent twenty eight years pretending to be people they weren't. I can't just ask them to go back to who they were forced to be, Regina." She huffed with frustration.
"Didn't Charming give a pretty speech about being both? I don't see you shutting down your therapy practice to do… whatever you did when you were a cricket." She searched the man's face for some understanding, any sign that he understood what she was asking. "I'm not forcing them under another curse. They just need to make sure Storybrooke looks like any other small town."
"Not everyone had happy alter egos here. As a doctor, I can't ethically tell them to go back into harmful mindsets."
Regina could feel a headache building.
"Then they don't need to live as their cursed identities. But they can't go around talking about magic. Outsiders in this world are more likely to dissect them than try to get along. Surely even you can see that their lives are more important right now."
"You're not listening to me." Archie looked over at the clock and sighed. "I have a patient coming in a few minutes. It's probably best that you leave now."
She let herself be shepherded out the door, muttering under her breath, "No, you're not listening."
But he had already moved on, and she knew a lost cause when she saw one. There had to be someone else that the town would rally behind. She began to pass by the diner, but then stopped. Maybe this was where she would find her hero.
The little werewolf had stood up to her a few times before, so she had guts. Close enough to Snow White that the people might consider her a valid surrogate. She had certainly stepped up when the curse had first broken… Yes, perhaps Ruby was the right choice here.
She pushed into the diner, spotting the brunette at the counter.
"What can I get for you?" Ruby got straight to the order, not bothering with the niceties that most customers got.
"I need your help."
"Unless it's help deciding between the lasagna and the meatloaf, I'm not sure there's much I can do for you." Ruby put down the pad she'd had out for orders and moved past Regina to clear the empty tables.
"The town is in danger. Surely that matters more than your hatred for me."
"Hmm. I'm not sure it is, Your Majesty. You're the biggest threat I see."
Regina raked her hands through her hair. Why was it so hard to make the supposed heroes do the right thing?
"My mother is in town. She is far worse than I have ever been." Ruby paused, seeming to consider it. Snow had known enough about Cora; maybe she had said something. But then Ruby just turned around, heading to the kitchen with the used dishes.
"I have work to do."
"Wait!" Regina jumped in front of Ruby. "I will wash the dishes. Or take orders. Whatever it takes. Just listen to me."
That made her pause.
"Fine. You wash these, I'll give you five minutes." Ruby dumped the tray of dishes into Regina's hands. It was a bit of a balancing act to get them all safely to the kitchen, but she managed.
The water was scalding. Good for sanitation, she supposed, but not good for her hands. She could have sworn Ruby laughed as she cried out from the burning water, and it took everything in her to keep her temper in check.
"My mother is in town. If you think that I'm bad, it is nothing compared to what she might do."
"And why should I believe you?" Ruby asked. "How do I know you're not just trying to recruit me to hurt an innocent woman?"
"Maybe because she is here, and Snow and Emma are not. They were fighting her back in our land, and they lost. Shouldn't that tell you something?"
Regina plunged her hands back into the water to pick up the next dish to scrub. Anybody who knew her would know that resorting to this kind of work was proof enough that she was serious.
"You missed a spot. Just there." Ruby pointed to a smudge on the glass she was cleaning. Regina had been coming here daily for twenty-eight years, and was relatively certain that smudge had always been there. But if this was what it took to get an ally, then she would do it.
"I need somebody to help me stop her," she admitted. She scrubbed some more at the glass before dropping it back into the sink. Maybe it just needed to soak. "On top of that, I need somebody to step up as a leader. With that stranger in town, we need to act normally, and nobody is going to listen to me."
"How are you so sure that you know what will keep the people of Storybrooke safe?"
"Because I was queen from the time I was twenty. I have been mayor of this town for twenty-eight years. Like it or not, I actually do know how to govern." She had finished up with all of the plates and bowls and began working on the silverware.
"You know how to kill and torture people. I'm not sure that's the same thing." Ruby sighed. "What exactly do you want me to do?"
"Talk to the town. Get people to tone it down with the magic stuff in public. And let me know if you see my mother."
She set aside the last of the dishes, satisfied that she'd at least lessened the smudge on that last glass.
"I'll think about it." Ruby tossed a dishtowel at Regina to wipe her hands off and walked back into the diner. Regina dried her hands, ignoring how red they were, and followed after her.
"You know where to find me?"
The werewolf nodded, "Your house is kind of hard to miss."
That went better than expected. Certainly better than it had gone with Hopper. Regina sent herself back to her house in a puff of smoke, kicking off her heels beside the couch, and headed to the kitchen for a glass of cider.
"Rough day, darling?" She paused, hand on the bottle.
"What are you doing here, Mother?"
"I told you before. I'm here to make things up to you." Regina turned around to face her mother and found that she wasn't alone. Greg Mendell, the stranger she had been trying so hard to work around, was lying unconscious, bound and gagged on her kitchen floor.
"What did you do?!" She rushed to the man, checking to make sure he was still breathing. "How is this supposed to help anything?"
"I've been spying on him." Cora crossed over to take the cider bottle and poured herself a glass. "He is here to destroy you, my love."
"What are you talking about?"
"Does the name Owen Flynn mean anything to you?" Owen? She looked over his features, and maybe there were familiar traits there. That was… not her best moment. Probably one of her worst since coming to Storybrooke, actually.
"What are you planning to do to him?"
"Nothing. He is my gift to you. Do whatever you want with him."
There was a right decision here. Not the hero decision, but the kind of decision you had to make to keep people safe, even if they wouldn't understand it. Strangers could not be allowed to expose Storybrooke to the world, particularly not strangers with this kind of history.
"What are you planning?"
"I'm afraid I don't understand—"
"Yes, you do. You're planning something. But as I have already made abundantly clear, you are not welcome here. So tell me what you want so you can be on your way."
Cora crossed the room, leaning against the counter and gesturing for Regina to join her. Instead, she just stood over Greg—Owen's—prone form. Her mother could get used to disappointment.
"I want my daughter back. I'm sure that's a feeling you can understand."
"That is not the same. I have never done anything to intentionally hurt my child. That's something you certainly can't say about yourself."
"You're telling me that there is nothing I can do to change your mind? No task to complete, no words I can say?"
"Even if there was, it's not something I should have to tell you how to do. Forgiveness has to be earned. I have done everything in my power to earn my son's trust. I deserve the same level of effort."
"Of course you do." Cora took a sip of her cider, one of the better stalling tactics Regina had picked up from her over the years. "But I have never known how to love the right way. I'm afraid I don't know where to start."
"You start by listening to me when I tell you that I need time. You start by leaving this town alone. You have spent my entire life sacrificing my needs for your dream of being royalty. If you really want to prove yourself, you start by doing what I tell you, even if you don't want to. How does that sound, Mother?"
"That… Sounds like something that I can do. I really was trying to give you your space. But when I heard this man saying he was going to hurt you, I could hardly just let him go."
"I'll handle him." She was already planning what to do with him. Too many people roamed around the forests these days, so she would have to make sure he was buried deeply. Perhaps she could bury him beside his father. There was some goodness in that. "Now, it's time you leave. I'll let you know when I am ready to speak with you again."
"Very well." Her mother pushed off from the counter, leaving her half-full glass of cider on the island. "I hope that we can see each other again soon."
Cora sent herself away in her signature purple smoke. Turning to the man laying on her floor, Regina contemplated the best way to handle him. Crushing his heart was probably easiest. Easiest, but painful. She didn't want to cause him pain; something like that would disappoint Henry. But she had to protect the town from him. Perhaps a poison, then. The right one would be painless, and he would never even know it had happened.