A/N: Hello again everyone!

I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and sent messages after the last chapter. It makes me so happy to know that something I wrote made such an impact.

As always, emlovesyouu got this chapter ready for publication. I can't imagine what it might have looked like without such an awesome beta!

I claim no ownership of the show, characters, plot, settings, or dialog, or the Billy Joel lyrics, even as I borrow them.

Enjoy!

Chapter 6

...To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along

19 October 2014

"Is something wrong with your chicken, Henry?" Regina gently probed, watching her son push his paella around his plate. Ever since Henry came back to live at the mansion, she'd taken to making him a rotation of his favorite meals. He'd been quiet throughout dinner. Not sullen, exactly, more pensive.

He startled as her question shook him out of his thoughts. "Oh, no. The chicken's delicious."

Regina furrowed her brow, puzzling over his unusual attitude. An intelligent boy, Henry still never usually lost himself that deep in his thinking. "What's the matter, then?"

"It just seems like something's missing," he mused.

"I meant to get to the store for the saffron, but I haven't had time with recent events being what they were," she explained, hating how weak her explanation sounded.

Henry shook his head. "No, the food is fine, just as delicious as ever. I mean something else is missing."

As Regina watched her son go back to poking at his food, she tried to keep the conversation going, but every time she brought up a new topic, Henry just shook his head and went back to being silent. She noticed that he seemed to be looking away, casting his gaze on the empty chair to his other side.

Then it dawned on her. He wasn't speaking of something missing from the food, but from the meal. Henry was pointedly looking at the chair Emma Swan usually occupied on 'family dinner' nights. He wanted Emma there. Still, she wasn't ready to give in and acknowledge the gap yet. "Do you mean Robin? You were thinking he and Roland would be joining us? He went back to the forest with his wife. I'm afraid it would be highly inappropriate."

The eyebrow raise she got in answer was enough like her own that Regina thought she was looking in some weird mirror. She had to suppress a shiver at how much of her he'd picked up over the years. "No, Mom, I wasn't thinking we should've invited Robin."

Regina pretended to be in the dark about what he meant, to avoid the conversation he so obviously wanted to have just a bit longer. "I don't know who else you might mean. Ruby? Belle? Your," she tried not to sound too obviously disgusted, "grandparents?"

He just sighed. "Mom, how long are you going to keep being mad at Emma? You're starting to act like some of the girls in school."

Meal forgotten, Regina stared at her son. "I'm what?"

"You're freezing Emma out over an honest mistake she made. The girls at school do that to each other all the time. They're always ganging up on one, and it's always someone different. Drives me crazy."

"And you think that's what I'm doing with Miss Swan?" she laid her fork down before looking at him.

"I don't think; I'm almost positive it is. I know she upset you, but this can't go on forever!"

Regina swallowed. "I admit I overreacted to her, but I'm not ready to kiss and make up yet, Henry. I'm still dealing with the loss of someone the pixie dust foretold was my true love. I said some pretty awful things to her, so I don't even know if she'll be ready to hear my apology yet anyway," she explained, hoping she explained enough for Henry to understand, but vaguely enough to not expose him to the intricacies of adult relationships.

"You're going to need her help to beat whatever is keeping us trapped by the ice wall," Henry pointed out.

"You're right," she sighed. It was hard to admit defeat in the face of early-teenaged logic, but she couldn't very well deny what he was saying. "I'll text her tomorrow morning to test the waters, okay?"

Her answer was apparently what he wanted to hear, as she was rewarded with a genuine smile that warmed her to her core. "Thanks, mom."

Much later, after she had finally banished the doubts and worries of how to make amends with the Sheriff occupying her consciousness and found a fitful slumber, the shrill ring of her cell phone dragged her back into wakefulness.

"Y – yes this is Mayor Mills…What?...She did what?...I'll be right there."

Regina made her way down the stairs into the Rabbit Hole, figuring that would make for a more dramatic entrance than teleporting herself. She was there on a mission, not to enjoy herself. In the more than thirty years she'd lived in Storybrooke, she could not count any other occasion she'd been called on to perform this particular duty. Hopefully it would be a quick in-and-out and she could be home without Henry noticing anything amiss.

There were a few occasions before she adopted her son that she patronized the establishment, but afterward, she never saw it as the choice a responsible, loving mother would make. Her drinking became confined to the Mansion after Henry was asleep.

Looking around, she took in the somewhat unfamiliar décor. Some places around Storybrooke had started to change after all the curses with the Rabbit Hole leading the way. With the breaking of her curse, its drywall and plaster interior with bizarre abstract art had swiftly given way to exposed brick arches which somehow didn't clash with the backlit glass display shelves they housed. Away from the bar, groups of tables were clustered close, but not too close to each other to allow patrons some privacy. Regina rolled her eyes at the entirely unsubtle nod to the suits of cards on the tablecloths.

Off in the corner, two pool tables took up the space near a large stone fireplace that looked like locally-sourced stone. The bar itself wouldn't be out of place in any of the shows she'd seen on television. Looking around, she could see why the young-adult crowd enjoyed it so much.

The clinking of glasses rose over the low hum of conversation from around the interior, punctuated occasionally by shouts of triumph from the pool tables or bark of laughter from a table.

All in all, the Rabbit Hole was a good place to go for a drink.

Craning her head to find the bartender, Regina found his disgruntled expression similarly searching for her. With a jerk of his thinly-bearded chin, he indicated the corner of the bar where Regina saw a familiar flash of blonde hair above the particular shade of red she had grown to know so well. Heart sinking at the thought of this particular confrontation about to unfold, she gritted her teeth and made her way over to Emma's bar stool.

When she approached, she noticed the group of men her call had warned her about, all glowering at the back of Emma's head. Regina narrowed her eyes, making sure they didn't pose any renewed threat. On closer examination, each member of the cluster of approximately six men were gingerly rubbing areas of their bodies that were presumably bruised. One rubbed an ugly contusion on his face, two were gently massaging their hands, and two more were rubbing their legs. The one among them who was having the most trouble keeping up his glare was Doctor Whale, who was alternating between bending over at the waist and grimacing as he readjusted his slacks. Ha! Emma got him in the balls. She may have done the female population of Storybrooke a service by taking that horny bastard out of commission for a while, Regina gloated to herself.

With the wry thought that she didn't want to bear witness to the further drunken beating of six Storybrooke residents, Regina moved to intervene. She waved an imperious hand at the group of men, who bristled at the gesture, but receded a few feet, allowing the Sheriff's boss to take control of the situation.

Emma hunched over her glass, with a pool cue laid out in front of her, ignoring her surroundings except the bartender. He'd said on the phone that the Savior was getting royally shitfaced and beating up any male bar patron who got too close, but she seemed to have settled down for the most part.

As Regina worked up the fortitude for the coming scene, Emma broke her silent staring contest with the tumbler in front of her by waving the bartender over. Deciding to remain incognito a bit longer to learn what she could of Emma's mental state, Regina focused her magic and cast a glamour spell, disguising her as a woman in her late twenties that would blend into the background in a place like this. If she got the spell right, she could almost pass for a golden-blonde Ruby Lucas. She held the bartender's eyes for the entire transformation, so he knew who she was.

She took the seat two over from Emma and gestured for a drink of her own, which the bartender slid to her before addressing Emma. "What can I get you, Princess Swan?"

She growled at the title, forcing Regina to hide a smile. It was technically true, but Emma Swan was as uncomfortable with the thought of being a princess as anyone had ever been. She wasn't exactly born into it, and Regina had watched with some amusement as the blonde struggled with the idea of being the daughter of royalty. When the Sheriff responded to the bartender, her voice was slow and halting, as if it was taking more than the normal effort for her to form words.

"Poor me…poor me…pour me another shot of whiskey!" she grinned to herself, speaking faster the more she got into her request. "I don't even like country music that much, but I heard that one on the radio in my car once."

"Hilarious," the man grunted as he filled her glass.

As he slid it over to her, Emma reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Hey, w – wait a minute. What's your name? We haven't been properly inyr…intra…we haven't met yet," she finished after drunkenly stumbling over her words.

Regina rolled her eyes, finding the blonde's inebriation more amusing than she expected. Coming into the bar she'd planned to rip into the irresponsible woman, chastising her for setting such an awful example for their shared son. Seeing the crowd of men she'd literally beaten back, and watching her stumble over her words was endearing, rather than irritating.

The man behind the bar stuttered at the odd request, but Emma didn't give him any time to answer her. "I've got it! Your name is Jim, right? Jim jiminey, chim chimney, chim chim cher-oo. Ha!" she slapped the bar, celebrating her assertion. "Wait! Is that like, a thing? Was Mary Poppins a real person in the Enchanted Forest? She was a Disney character, too, right?"

Barely able to stifle her groan, Regina watched the bartender shake his head, mutter something that only he could hear, and pour Emma's refill. He turned to move off to handle another patron, but she slammed her drink in one gulp and grabbed his wrist again.

"Leave the bottle this time, you stingy bastard," she snarled, but her tone lacked any real malice. Emma snorted before downing the amber liquid.

"Rough day, Sheriff?" the bartender asked as he refilled her glass, only setting down the bottle of what Regina could now see was a non-premium Irish whiskey at what must have been her glare.

"Oh, no. Not at all. I'm just peachy keen, jelly bean," Emma let out a giggle, "Just out for a drink with my good friend Paddy here," she retorted, gesturing to the bottle.

"I only ask because most folks don't take four feet of good pool cue to a few of my best customers and then go back to drinking themselves into a stupor for shits and giggles," the man replied.

Mood suddenly somber, Emma's chuckles ceased immediately. "After the last few days that I've had, I'd think drinking and defending myself would be a step in the right direction," she said, voice so low Regina had trouble understanding her.

He didn't even bother hiding his chuckle. "That so? The daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming having a bad day?"

It was apparently the wrong thing to say to Emma Swan at that moment. "Yeah, I fucking am!" she growled before ticking off her points on her fingers. "Let's see: I walked in on my ex-boyfriend cheating on me just this afternoon."

It was fortunate that Emma was so lost in her thoughts that she took no notice. Regina's eyebrows rose almost to her hairline as she almost choked on her drink. Captain Guyliner had been so focused on the Savior that she never expected infidelity from him.

"Ouch," Jim – it was as good of a name as any, since he wore no name tag and hadn't introduced himself on the phone, Regina decided – commented with a wince, "How many pieces did you leave him in, then?"

Emma's dark chuckle mirrored Regina's internal humor at the question, knowing that the Savior never would have killed anyone for anything other than defending an innocent. "Part of me really wishes I'd done something like that. I just couldn't even bring myself to care that much. I guess it was just nice that he noticed me enough to try for as long as he did. I wasn't exactly winning any Girlfriend of the Year awards, you know?"

Regina's first reaction was disbelief at hearing the depth of Emma's insecurities. They'd been at each other's throats long after their first meetings, and then Cora, Neverland, and Zelena had taken their attention, but any guy would be lucky to be allowed to date Emma Swan. Intelligent despite her lack of formal education, stunningly beautiful despite a diet that seemed to consist mainly of trans fats and carbohydrates, and loyal to a fault, the Savior was a remarkable woman.

The more she thought about Emma's words, the more Regina remembered what she knew about how awful Emma's childhood had been and connected the dots. For someone like Emma to believe she was someone to be merely tolerated until someone better came along spoke volumes to how she had been treated in the foster care system, to say nothing of being abandoned as a pregnant teenager and sent to jail for her boyfriend's crimes as he skipped town. They knew more of the story now, but it hadn't broken down her walls completely.

The bartender shook his head, breaking Regina's reverie. "Okay, whatever. You get that one. What about being royalty? The daughter of Snow freaking White and Prince freaking Charming? That's got to make up for a lot of shitty days."

Feeling increasingly like a fly on the wall, Regina took a sip of her drink and kept her eyes trained on the mirrors behind the bar. There was no way the blonde would be this forthcoming with anyone she felt was in her inner circle, and despite the slight niggling doubts at invading someone's privacy, she couldn't bring herself to interrupt.

"Are you kidding me? My parents have replaced me with my own brother. Traded me in for a newer model like a damn car. They shoved me through a wardrobe to break the curse and bring back everyone's happy endings – you're welcome, by the way – but to do that I had to grow up a foster kid, sent out to families and returned like a fucking ugly sweater, always told I was never good enough. Never enough for anyone to love," she trailed off, looking into her glass before throwing the liquid back and refilling it.

"That's a shitty way to grow up, but you're here now, right? You've got your kid, and you're friends with the Mayor. There are worse things than being a small-town sheriff," Jim persisted.

"Yeah, and I've been most of those things. Trust me, I know," Emma muttered just loud enough to be heard as she picked at the whiskey label, "but the whole besties-with-the-mayor thing is on a temporary, maybe permanent, hiat…hia…break. She pretty much hates my guts for an honest mistake. I get that it had a pretty bad impact on her life, but it wasn't anything I was trying to do. And the absolute cherry on the crap sundae that is my life, my son has chosen to move back to the mayoral mansion because he doesn't want her to be lonely."

Regina sat immobilized by the shock waves coursing through her system. She had believed that her relationship with Emma, while frosty to begin with, had thawed over time, eventually becoming one of the more solid friendships she could count after Neverland. Hearing the blonde identify her as her best friend, though, was unexpected. She searched her memory, but in all her years of isolation, first in a childhood where friendships were considered distractions and then as the magic-wielding Evil Queen, she could never come up with anyone else who had willingly applied that term to her. She fought off the smile, but was entirely unwilling to stamp down the warmth spreading through her.

The only thing tempering that warmth was her surge of guilt. She had behaved terribly toward Emma when she returned from the past. Although her anger clouded her judgment in the moment, she acknowledged later that there was no way her friend could have known who Marian was and what effect bringing her back from their shared past would have on Regina's life.

She could remain silent no longer. It was time to begin repairing her relationship with Emma Swan. Clearing her throat, Regina got up from her seat and moved directly behind the blonde. Taking a breath, she removed the glamour and stood as herself. "Emma?" she began.

The effect would have been comical to anyone watching from the outside. Every muscle in the blonde's body stiffened at once. She sat up ramrod straight – albeit with a slight sway in her posture – but didn't turn around right away. The bartender, who could see Emma's expression, gave Regina a wince.

Emma made a slow, careful turn of her upper body, keeping her seated position on the stool. When green eyes met Regina's, the older woman saw relief, affection, wariness, embarrassment, and finally anger parade across her face. "Regina? What the hell are you doing here?" she asked with caution coloring her tone. Anger feeding aggression in Emma's demand, distracting from the embarrassment she must have been feeling at Regina overhearing even some of her confession.

Regina pursed her lips, deciding on a reality check to defuse the unexpected tension in the air. It was easier to remain aloof, remembering the primary reason she was angry with Emma, than admit concern and vulnerability. Old habits die hard. "Well, I received a call about a public disturbance involving one of the town's employees, so I thought it advisable to investigate. Would you care to tell me exactly how much alcohol you've consumed this evening?"

Emma turned her body to fully face Regina, and for the first time she saw just how glassy the younger woman's eyes were, even as she snorted her indignance. "No, as a matter of fact I damn well would not. I'm a grown woman, and I can spend an evening with my good friend Paddy if I damn well please."

Momentarily taken aback at her defensiveness, Regina caught movement in the corner of her eye. The bartender was holding up the bottle of whiskey, gesturing to the level of alcohol remaining. "A little over half the bottle, Your Majesty," he informed in a quiet voice, knowing he was going to catch hell.

And he was right. Emma turned so fast her curls swung around her head. The movement was just a bit too much for her inebriation, as it took her a few seconds to stop wobbling on the stool. "Traitorous bastard," she snarled, sending him on his way with what must have been a glare that would have made the old Evil Queen proud.

As she slid the glass away from her, Emma's red jacket caught on the pool cue, which rolled partway across the bar. "Oh, Emma," Regina shook her head, disappointed in how far the Savior had allowed herself to fall that night and using essentially the same tone as she did when Henry broke the rules as a child.

It was the absolute wrong thing to say. The glassiness was gone from Emma's eyes in an instant. "Look, lady, I don't know who you think you are, but you have no right to barge in here and tell me what a colossal fuck-up I am. I know how to hold my booze. I used to live in Boston. You think I haven't had a shit-ton of nights like this?"

"Drinking yourself to death, beating up random bar customers, and verbally attacking someone who shows concern?" Regina shot back, eyebrow perfectly arched.

"My apologies, Your Highness," Emma snarked, stumbling off her stool and quavering her way through an awful curtsey, "but after my real parents left me on the side of the road like trash, etiquette when in the presence of royalty wasn't something my foster parents were big on teaching when I was a child. They were more focused on beating the kids who whined about being hungry or cold. But you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

Regina gritted her teeth, prepared to call a fireball to sober up the blonde irritant, but before she could even form the flame Emma forged ahead. "You know what? I'm glad you're here tonight, even if I don't have a fucking idea why you are. I have a bone to pick with you, Regina, Mayor, highness and Majesty, whatever the fuck your other titles are: I'm pissed off!"

"Yes, dear, I think I managed to divine that fact," Regina drawled, unable to stop herself from goading Emma through a show of superiority.

"Well it's your damn fault!" Emma hissed.

Making a show of raising her eyebrows, Regina put her hands on her hips and regarded the Sheriff. "And how exactly is your anger this evening my fault? Should I apologize to the cretins behind me that you so obviously maimed? Should I beg forgiveness from the good bartender back there for your frightful attitude?"

"I WAS HAPPY," Emma almost shouted. Her increase in volume appeared to surprise her even through her drunken haze, and after a beat she continued in quieter, if no less forceful, voice. "I was happy before all this fairy tale shit!"

"You may have been content, Emma Swan, but please don't insult me by claiming that chasing bail jumpers and living hand-to-mouth all on your lonesome brought you any real happiness. Our conversations on Neverland alone give lie to that absurdity."

"It was all I knew. And while I had it, I was happy on my own. Now I've met my son and my parents, gotten to know a bunch of really cool people, even made a best friend, but here I sit, alone again. And it fucking sucks! I used to be happy by myself! I didn't need anyone or anything to complete me. Now I feel like a needy mess and I hate it and it's your fucking fault!"

Emma was almost in tears by this point of her diatribe, but as much as Regina wanted to pull the other woman into her arms and soothe her like Henry during his childhood tantrums – shaking off the wayward thought that if she did that, through the vagaries of her time-stopping curse and her brief stint as Snow White's stepmother, Emma would be the third generation of her family she'd play that role for – all she could think of when she saw Emma clumsily swipe tears from her face was their confrontation outside Granny's.

"You still haven't told me how this wretchedness is my fault, dear," she said, feigning disinterest by looking at her nails.

"You cast the fucking Dark Curse! That curse made my parents think they only had one choice, which was to abandon me. Then it was your overbearing mothering that drove Henry to find me and show me everything I'd been missing, and it's your anger at me after the accident in the past that's pulling everything back away from me. Is this like, some part of twisted revenge against Snow White? Make the Savior miserable?"

"And is this vitriol you're currently spewing somehow supposed to make me feel bad?" Regina shot back, unable to stop the words from escaping.

Emma's response was slurred as she tried to correct a slight wobble. "I don't give two fucks what you think, lady. You've been nothing but a gigantic bitch to me for the past…," she tried counting on her fingers but gave up after 3, "however many weeks since I got back from the fucking PAST. I'm tired of being your punching bag whenever you lower your nose enough to even notice me. Maybe if you took that stick out of your ass, you'd remember that humans make mistakes!"

Incensed, Regina raised her hand without thinking, ready to slap the blonde across the face. She stopped herself short when she saw Emma wince and shrink back, the instinctual reaction of someone accustomed to physical abuse. Appalled at the horrors the other woman must have endured as a child for such an ingrained reaction, her hand lowered as shame coursed through her at the thought that she would be just one more person in a long line to inflict physical pain on Emma.

Behind her, the men Emma had apparently fought with were regrouping, taking strength from Regina's presence. Emma noticed their moves and escaped the confrontation with Regina by grabbing her pool cue once more and holding it like the baseball players Regina saw on television when she was learning about this new world she inhabited. "Ready to rack them up again, boys?" She snarked.

"With that attitude and self-destructive nature, Miss Swan, you'll get plenty of chances to be happy all by your lonesome once more," Regina declared before raising her hands. The look of pure, unadulterated anguish marring Emma's green eyes was the last thing she saw before her magic teleported her back to the mansion's foyer in a swirl of purple and black smoke.

Regret and remorse rose up to choke the breath in her throat. There was almost no way that situation could have gone worse, she realized as she made her way into the living room and sat heavily on the sofa. Instead of offering comfort to a friend in abject misery the way she'd intended, she had allowed drunken aggression to goad her into putting her own walls back up, lashing out in true Evil Queen style and adding to Emma's pain.

When she was able to breathe without feeling sick to her stomach, Regina grabbed for her cell phone and dialed the one person she never thought she'd have to call, especially for something like this. Hello, Snow? Yes, I'm sorry for the lateness of the call, but there's a problem…Your daughter is drunk as a skunk and causing trouble at the Rabbit Hole…Why would I go down there? She's not my daughter; I'm just passing along a message I got as her boss…No, I have no idea why they didn't call you first…Yes, she should still be there, but I have no idea for how much longer. Good luck; you're going to need it."

Ending the call, Regina made her way back to her bedroom, changing back to her pajamas with magic. As the events of this disastrous evening replayed in her mind, she got into bed and curled up in the fetal position.

She didn't even try to slow the tears coursing down her face. I'm so sorry, Emma.

"You know," Emma said to no one, "Before I came to this crazy-ass town, saying that someone poofed out of an argument was never literal." The bartender had taken to completely ignoring her After Regina vanished, the guys at the bar took another look at her pool cue and decided discretion was the better part of valor, backing down. Emma was left to turn to the whiskey bottle and continue drowning her sorrows, adding the confrontation to her already long list.

"Way to go, Emma Swan. You had a perfect chance to start making things right, and you fucked it up as only you can," she mumbled to her glass.

Twenty minutes and three more glasses of whiskey later, she felt another presence behind her. Taking a breath, she turned and saw…"What the hell is that?"

Snow covered Neal's ears as he hung asleep in the baby carrier secured to her waist. Looking at her daughter, disappointment dripped from her features. "Oh, Emma," she groaned, "Is this what you call setting a good example for your brother? Not to mention your son!"

Knowing she looked like a sullen child, Emma folded her arms. "I wasn't thinking of setting an example. I was thinking about getting totally fucking wasted, Mom."

"Regina came here to get you home," Snow continued, ignoring Emma, "but the two of you had some kind of fight, and she called me to come get you. Your father is out on patrol, so I had to wake Neal up, get him strapped into the car, drag him down here, and bring him into this bar, not to mention Elsa had to come too! All so we could put an end to this little snit fit of yours and get you home!" By the end of her scolding, Snow's eyebrows had met in the middle of her forehead, she was so angry.

Emma stood, mouth agape, at being on the receiving end of a 'disappointment' lecture from Snow White herself. She had heard the talk plenty of times from foster parents, but hearing it from her real mother, knowing who she was, cut her to the bone.

Turning to pay her bill, Emma was stopped short when Snow approached, waved Jim over, and settled up for her. "Get in the car," she ordered, marching out of The Rabbit Hole without a backward glance.

Elsa put a comforting hand on Emma's shoulder as the two blondes followed in silence.

A/N: Poor Emma. But like I said, my goal was to back her into a corner and see how she reacted. She's not quite there yet.

Reviews are most appreciated!