A small bar on the edge of town, with a lonely woman nursing a drink. It's a run down place, the owner's lucky that it hasn't been shut down, but it does it's job alright. There's a soft beat in the background, but it's nothing pounding, not like the nightclubs she spent so much time in back in New York.

"Hey there, pretty lady. Can I buy you a drink?"

She hid a smile, because she knew the voice. How many nights has that voice spoken to her? How many days had she spent remembering that voice?

"I thought you weren't going to be home until tonight, stranger."

"I wanted to surprise you. Imagine my surprise when you weren't at home."

She turned around to face him, looking so strange in his civilian cloths but also so natural, as if he were a young boy again. The humor on his face was gone, replaced with worry. For a moment, she felt a stab of guilt, but it was momentary and faded away. If she'd known he was going to be home, then she would have stayed home.

"You shouldn't be drinking, Regina." The unspoken words between them hung in the air. He knew why she was drinking. Daniel was anything but stupid. She had wanted to call him when it happened, but it was so strict whenever he was at training, and she certainly hadn't wanted to disturb anything that might one day save his life. The fact that she was here told him what she'd wanted to tell him before, but couldn't.

"I lost the baby." She meant to say it realistically, to tell him without any emotion, but the slight crack in her voice told him what he needed to know. He sat down across from her, put his hand out on top of hers, and offered a sad smile. So sympathetic. He'd always been good at that. There was always moments where he would have total sympathy, ever since they'd been children. Twelve years old with a found bruise, fourteen with a quiver in her voice, eighteen with her running to his house. Always sympathetic. Always wanting to fix.

"I know. I'm sorry that I wasn't here."

There was no fixing this, just as much as there was no fixing her past. They couldn't run past this and pretend that they had another chance, because twice this had happened and every other attempt had been a failure, they were running out of options.

"What are we going to do, Daniel?"

Sad eyes. A reminder that he, too, felt lost. He didn't know.

"We can try again, Regina."

"So I can fail you again?"

So much hurt in his eyes. He ran his fingers through her hair, never losing eye contact.

"No. You aren't failing me. I love you. And for all we know, it could be me-"

"It's me, Daniel. You know it's me."

The beat of the music was the only filler.

"We can always adopt. That's an option. You know my parents adopted Matt, and it was fine. It was great. He got a new home and I got a new brother."

"What if it's a sign? That I'm not supposed to…That I'm not good enough to raise a child?"

His eyes hardened.

"You know that isn't true."

"What if I'm just like her, Daniel? What if the universe is telling me I shouldn't because I'll be just like her, and our child will end up just like me-"

"There is nothing wrong with you, Regina. You aren't her. So stop."

A lonely bar with only the bar tender and the pair, suddenly less lonely but still desperate. The soft pounding of music in their ears. Dusty floors and dustier bottles. The unspoken promise of a soldier and a medic. A war that was both far away and oh so close to home.

"We'll figure something out."

A reminder that, at the very least, she was good enough for him.

"I don't think this is quiet what Henry meant when he said improve my comic book knowledge!"

"I don't think my son realizes that comic books don't exactly count as fun for me either, but what he doesn't know certainly won't hurt him."

The music was pounding in their ear drums, and they had to shout to talk. The bar was crowded, and even though this made Emma feel uneasy, as though she were back at her own job, it wasn't exactly unpleasant. With so many people, it was easier to blend in, it was easier to act as though she were simply another person in the crowd.

"Why the hell is this place so crowded, anyways? There's got to be a hundred bars in this town and everyone comes here?"

Regina looked around, almost lost for a moment before she turned her attention back to Emma.

"It's a real success story. This place went bankrupt about twelve years ago, and then David bought it up. Fixed the place up, made it nice. Now no one will go anywhere but here unless they're looking for someplace without a crowd."

Regina ordered them two drinks, and her voice was lost in the crowd. When she handed Emma the glass, Emma wasn't even sure what it was. Had Regina asked her what she wanted? It was so damned hazy in here she wondered if it was infiltrating her mind.

"It's the house special. It's good. Give it a try."

A fruity thing, something that drowned out all traces of alcohol and yet somehow managed to burn her throat. Emma wasn't so sure that she liked it, but she didn't hate it, and she wasn't about to turn down whatever Regina had to show her.

"It's okay!"

Regina nodded. The two of them were quiet a pair. Emma was still wearing parts of her uniform, and Regina looked almost as though she had just rolled out of bed. Fine for a place like this, where people didn't seem to matter, it was all about the crowd.

"So tell me about yourself, Miss Swan. Unless you really want to talk about comic books. In which case, I have a wide array of knowledge."

They had spoken about each others past in passing, and the fact that Regina was asking her to offer up something of herself in this setting was rather amazing. Regina herself didn't look relaxed, as though she were waiting for something to happen, but her attention was mostly turned to Emma.

"Uh. Like what?"

"Anything. Tell me your favorite breed of dog, for all I care."

"Okay. Uh. I was born and raised in New York. I was…I wasn't a stellar student, I guess, but I was really good at basketball. Joined the Army at 17 with my foster parents permission."

"You were a medic?"

"Yeah. Basically asked which job had the highest joining bonus and that's what was up at the time. It was that or nuclear, and lord knew I wasn't about to deal with nuclear shit."

Regina snorted softly, hiding her mouth with her drink.

"Did you graduate high school?"

"Got my GED and then left for Basic, basically. I mean. Not a lot of options out there for me. College was out of the picture."

"Why's that?"

"Didn't have the grades, didn't have the money. I was going to try for a sports scholarship but never did."

Regina nodded slowly.

"Why didn't you go to college?" Emma asked, almost a challenge but not quiet.

"What makes you think I didn't?"

"Well…I don't know. You seem like the business woman type but you aren't at some big corporation. And you aren't a doctor, which is what I would have assumed if I didn't know you at all."

Regina pondered this for a moment.

"I went to two years of school to become a medic with my husband. I'd always assumed I would go to get my bachelor eventually, though I couldn't tell you in what. I was set to go to Harvard Business school, which is what my mother had wanted, but I never really wanted to be in an office all day. In the end, I suppose going to finish everything just didn't happen. I was happy with where I was at and I didn't see the point in changing it."

"Harvard?" Emma exclaimed.

"Yes. It's not all it seems. My mother had contacts and my grades were very good. But it wasn't as though it was what I wanted so much as it was what my mother wanted."

"And you became a medic instead?"

"Yes."

"Why? If you were slated to be a businesswoman, what made you chose that? I can't imagine you had an upbringing around EMS."

Regina hesitated, and for a moment Emma regretted asking. It seemed like a sensitive topic that she had just breached, like she shouldn't have touched it at all. There were certain topics that she was learning she shouldn't touch, and perhaps she would have to add this to the list.

"My husband joined the reserve when he was 17, and came back with the bright idea that he wanted to be a fire medic. And I, idealistic as I was, thought I should follow him. Everyone thought we were slotted for failure. We moved in together when we graduated and went to school together. Somehow, it almost made our bond together stronger. We finished schooling and ended up partners in New York."

"Sounds like the ideal love story."

Regina hummed softly, finishing off her drink and setting it down.

"It was..Interesting. I wouldn't call it ideal. We weren't perfect. No one is. But we made it work. We were young and in love. We didn't think anything could take us down."

Emma hid her own lack of words by finishing her drink, letting it burn as it slid down and settle deep in her stomach. Regina held up a hand as though to order another one, and Emma's thoughts wandered to how much this night would cost if they were going to get drunk.

"If you don't mind me asking…Where was he stationed when…"

"Afghanistan. I don't know a lot about the base. I know that apparently the food was bad and there were a lot of IEDs on the road near their base."

"Sounds like everywhere," Emma said, and she found herself smiling just a little bit.

"You were in…"

"Afghanistan. Honestly, it sounds exactly like my base, but they were all very similar from what I heard."

Regina raised a brow but nodded. Their drinks capped, she took another to fill the silence.

"I wasn't lying when I told you that there are more than enough open spots at the station, Miss Swan. If you ever wanted to get your medic, we'd be more than willing to help pay it off. Assuming you'd want to go back to school, of course."

The quick change in conversational tone caught Emma off guard, and she had to think twice to try and figure out if she'd heard right. Such a jump.

"I…I wasn't lying either. I'll consider it, but right now I have a good gig going."

She nodded, and Emma was almost amazed with the speed at which Regina was drinking what she had ordered. Already gone.

"Should you take it a bit easy on that after today?"

"I can certainly handle myself, Miss Swan. Don't worry about me."

For some reason, she felt like she had to, like she had some obligation. Still, she couldn't tell that to Regina for fear that all hell would break lose if she so much as mentioned it.

Regina started to raise her hand again, but Emma put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. For a moment, she saw a spark of anger in Regina's eyes, but she wasn't trying to stop her so much as she was trying to say something fairly important.

"I tried your drink. How about we give one of mine a go?"

Amusement.

"Are you attempting to get me drunk, Miss Swan?"

She wasn't sure if that was the goal, but suddenly she had her own urge to drown away the day, and if they were going to have fun than they might as well have it done right.

"Perhaps I am."

Regina lowered her arm then, still amused, but waved as though giving her permission.

That was the go ahead, and she more than willing to indulge.