A/N: This story is set in the immediate aftermath of the Cora plot, Regina took Snow's heart recently, and although it departs from canon this is the same time that in canon she was deciding to kill everyone in town and return to the Enchanted Forest with Henry. This is late season 2 Regina. Regina is not redeemed at this point.

Emma sat down on the bench uninvited this time and without asking for permission.

"You know I could light you on fire."

"That is a neat trick of yours. How do you not burn your clothing?" Emma asked casually as if the mayor hadn't just threatened her. She held out a cup of coffee to her. On the side of the cup was scrawled 'her majesty'.

Regina raised an eyebrow and opened the lid to look inside. "I don't light myself on fire because I'm not some kind of comedy wizard from a Warner Brother's cartoon. How did you know how I took my coffee?"

"I asked your secretary. She's weirdly loyal to you, you know."

"Despite what your parents might want to think, I was not universally hated and they were not universally loved." She drank from the cup and seemed satisfied.

"Where did you start making jokes about Looney Toons. Or are they so old that they showed them in the Enchanted Forest."

Regina rolled her eyes. "I do have a 12 year old son. I'd say I know more about cartoons than you do, but you are a child."

"I'm not ... christ how old are you?"

Regina turned to look at her. "Is this some sort of strange punishment, Miss. Swan, or are you here for a reason?"

Emma shifted a little and folded one of her legs under her, and took a sip from her own coffee. "Why do you hate my mother?"

"Ask your mother." Regina said dismissively.

"I did. She just looked sad and started to cry."

"I understand that's her normal state of being these days. That's what happens when you construct your entire self worth around being good and righteous and fail to live up to your own propaganda."

"You sound disappointed in her."

"I don't care about your mother."

Emma shook her head. "I tracked down criminals for a long time Regina. The kind of single minded obsession you had for her doesn't come from lack of feeling."

"So now I'm a criminal?" Though for some reason the question lacked actual hurt feelings.

"I'm pretty sure you qualify, technically, though everything is bigger in the Enchanted Forest. You murdered a lot of people, I got that from the book."

"Queen's don't murder, they execute."

"Well that's a creepy distinction."

"Miss. Swan, what do you want?"

"I told you."

"Ask your father than, if your mother is too ashamed to admit it."

"He told me to ask my mother."

"Well I'm glad to know this circular conversation isn't for naught..." Regina kept her eye on Henry. "You should get him to wear gloves. It's getting colder and he always forgets them."

Emma nodded and mumbled an okay. It hadn't even occurred to her, and part of her felt ashamed that Regina had to point it out.

"Why wont you tell me?"

Regina drank her coffee. "You wont understand. Perhaps I'd prefer to be thought of as capricious and a sociopath rather than ..."

Weak. Emma knew instantly that was what the mayor was thinking. She wasn't sure how. But she knew this woman so much better than either wanted to admit.

"... besides, your mother gave me all the more reason to hate her last month."

"I was going to ask what happened in your family mausoleum, but I thought I'd start with the original story. Because it's not because she was prettier than you."

Regina chuckled and Emma thought it might have been genuine. "Careful Miss. Swan, I might think you didn't hate me."

"I don't."

Regina looked over at her with those big dark eyes she'd sometimes looked down at her with during sex the previous year. As if she was about to ask something really important. But Emma had learned the question would never come.

"Henry said he enjoyed dinner."

"And what did your spies tell you?"

"That you actually ate french fries."

"Henry likes them."

"Regina... I'm trying to understand."

"And what if I don't want you to understand?"

"I'm just going to keep coming back until I understand anyway."

Regina was silent for a very long time. Emma decided that she'd wait a few more minutes before leaving. It was fun watching Henry play with his friends. She could understand why Regina came here every day.

"Be careful of Gold."

"What?" Emma was surprised, the comment seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Be careful of Gold. I know he's playing dotting grandfather right now, but I've known him for a long time. His heart is as dark as mine. Maybe darker. He's always working an angle."

"Neal doesn't trust him either."

"He's got good reason for those feelings I'm sure. But children love their parents even when they shouldn't." Emma was sure that Regina was speaking from personal experience. But was she talking about Henry, or about herself? "But I also meant you should be careful."

"Me?"

"Your magic."

"I'm not interested in it. You said it, magic comes with a price."

Regina chuckled, and smiled. "Ignore it if you want. See how that works out for you." And with that Regina stood up taking her coffee with her.

Emma was drinking in the Rabbit Hole, mostly because Henry was with Neal for the evening and David and Mary Margaret had finally learned the sock trick. Ruby sat down next to her with a glass of something bright blue, and probably even stronger than the Jack Daniels in Emma's glass.

"You look like you could use a friend."

"Aren't you my friend anyway?" Emma smiled.

"Which is why I came over." She nodded to the glass. "I figured you were more the drinking at home sort."

"Mary Margaret and David are ..."

"Catching up on lost years." Ruby finished with a sage nod. Ever since the curse broke her friend seemed to become more perceptive. Mature.

"So why the drinking. Men problems?"

After all it was a small town and Neal was new and thus the subject of a lot of curiosity and gossip.

"Good god no. Neal and I... that was over a long time ago."

"Snow will be disappointed."

"My mother is trying to set me up with my ex?"

"She can't help it."

"Maybe I should feel glad that she's up to match making."

Ruby just nodded. Mary Margaret's depression was concerning to a lot of her friends.

"So if it's not boy problems is it girl problems?"

"Not exactly. Regina."

Ruby inhaled, seeming to decide if she wanted to speak or not. "I think in your case she qualifies."

Emma gave her a look.

"You two were using the B&B... don't worry. I've never told anyone. Not even Snow."

"It's been over for a long time."

"I should hope. But for what it's worth... I do understand. She's not an unattractive woman. And coming from one monster about another..."

"You aren't a monster. You just have... a condition."

Ruby just smiled and shook her head a little. "There is a reason I love you Charmings."

"I'm really not sure I want that family name."

"Too late. So what has Regina done lately? Besides eat more greasy food than I've ever seen her eat in her entire life."

"She wants to please Henry."

"He does seem happy when he has dinner with her."

"He says he is." Emma drank from her glass. "She's his mom."

"So are you."

"Sort of."

Ruby sighed again. "What about Regina?"

"I asked her why she hated Mary Margaret."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "What did she say?"

"Ask my mother."

"And what did she say."

"She started to cry."

Ruby ordered another drink, and Emma looked over at her. "Don't look at me. I never knew. None of us did. Even after Snow bit the apple. There was this rumor it was all about vanity, but really, Regina is many things but not that shallow."

"What do you think it was?"

"I'm... not sure. The Queen... not the one you know. Remember I grew up in her kingdom. She had these intense eyes. And she was so cold. And after I met Snow... did she ever tell you how we met?"

"She said something about you teaching her to track."

Ruby smiled. "I caught her hiding in our chicken coop and stealing eggs. She was ... Oh Emma she was so well mannered and polite and it was the dead of winter and she barely seemed to know how to survive. I figured that anyone who could hate someone like that must have had a heart of stone. And then we fought her and Regina... the Queen... she was terrifying. I never understood Snow's fundness for her."

"She told me she saved her life once."

"Snow's said that to me too."

"Why wont either of them tell me what happened. Their stupid vendetta shaped my entire life..."

"Does it really matter? It's in the past."

"It matters because I feel like it should matter to someone."

I feel like her pain should matter to someone, Emma added silently to herself.