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.

There was a knock at Regina's door as she finished rolling out the pie crust. She wasn't sure who she was making it for really. It's not like she had anyone to share it with. But it was in season and Henry had always loved it, and making it made her think of him.

She supposed he'd never eat something she baked again.

No one would.

You curse one turnover and offer one poisoned apple ...

Even she knew why no one would be eating the pie. Because no one came to her house.

The knocking persisted and she sighed, taking off the apron. It was either Emma or a lynch mob and she really didn't want to be wearing a flowery apron to greet either one. She got to the door, inhaled and schooled her expression before opening it.

And her mouth fell open just a little.

"Hello Regina." Kathryn Nolan, dressed impeccably was standing on her porch for the first time in months... since Regina had betrayed and tried to have killed the only friend she'd had in nearly thirty years. "I was hoping I could come in and we could chat."

Regina recovered her senses and nodded. "Of course. I'm baking if you don't mind the kitchen."

The blond woman smiled and nodded. "Apple pie?"

Regina raised an eyebrow.

"I can smell it... and you'd enjoy making people squirm when you offered it to them."

Regina frowned just a little and led the other woman into her kitchen. "I like apples." She mumbled.

Kathryn sat at one end of her kitchen island and Regina tied her apron on again and continued laying the pie crust. There was silence for a time, "Are you just going to stare, is this some sort of punishment?" Regina asked after it had gone on too long.

"I'm not really sure what it is. I was just... I just needed to know if it was all an act. Being my friend. Because I thought it was real and I hate the idea that I was just some sort of pawn in your obsession with Snow White."

"Everyone was a pawn in my obsession with Snow. We're in Maine after all." Regina admitted as she spooned apples into the crust. "But... you were my friend. I just..." She sighed. "I can count the number of friends I've ever had on one hand. Maybe even on Hook's missing hand because I'm not sure I should keep counting Maleficent."

Kathryn nodded. "I learned early that people who wanted to be my friend wanted my father's gold."

"Your father's curse destabilized the entire economy of the Enchanted Forest. We spent forever trying to deal with the inflation."

Kathryn chuckled. "Yeah, his advisers kept trying to tell him that. Sometimes I think his skull had been turned to gold it was so thick."

Regina didn't comment.

"I've been thinking about you since we got our memories back."

Regina didn't look over at her, but kept working.

"I know I'm mad about what you did to me. Don't mistake this conversation for me not being mad. But I keep thinking... my father was determined to marry me off to his best advantage. If he'd been alive I probably wouldn't have been allowed to marry Frederick. Not enough political advantage even though I loved him. I don't have magic, but I think I can imagine how I might have ended up like you."

Regina shook her head. "I don't need your pity."

"You don't have it. You are a powerful, dynamic woman who ripped apart a world and built a new one. You don't need pity... but I think you might need understanding." She inhaled. "And maybe... a friend."

She took something out of her purse and slid it across the kitchen counter. A wedding invitation.

Regina looked down at it. "You really don't want the Evil Queen at your wedding."

"No, I'd rather not have the Evil Queen. But I think I would like Regina. And maybe we can find out if we can be friends again."

"I tried to have you murdered." Regina said sadly.

"Yes, I actually really want to know why... was it about David and Snow..."

Regina looked away, "You said I wasn't your friend."

Kathryn looked confused, and then remembered the context. "You don't take rejection well, do you Regina?"

"Do you really need to ask that question?"

Kathryn actually laughed and reached over to take one of the cooked apple pieces she was putting in the pie and ate it. It might have been rude. Or reckless. Or a show of trust. But it actually made Regina smile a little. "Don't be late this time. And maybe something that isn't black?"

Regina actually smiles back. Just a little. "I have something for you..."

She had tried to slip into the back without anyone noticing. She'd picked a lovely purple dress that she didn't think looked too much like something she'd have worn as the Evil Queen and she arrived with just enough time before the ceremony for people not to start whispering before the processional music.

They whispered anyway. She ignored them, instead focusing on the back of Henry's head sitting next to Emma five rows in front of her. At least until Anton the giant blocked that view. She considered moving but she had promised herself that she'd stay for the entire ceremony. Probably not the reception. Definitely not the reception.

Town wide parties didn't work out for her.

But Kathryn was a beautiful bride, and even Regina had to admit her knight made a handsome husband. She'd kept them apart of course, and there was a pang of guilt somewhere in her dark heart, but she had hurt a lot of people and this was hardly her biggest crime.

And she didn't really care anymore about redeeming herself to the town. That had been a pointless exercise. They would never forgive her.

But just as she had shook Kathryn's hand in the receiving line and Kathryn had given her a hug and thanked her for coming, and she was thinking about walking... not running... back to her Benz and avoiding everyone as they went to the reception...

"Mom... you came."

Henry. He was happy to see her. For maybe the first time since ... before her mother. "The bride invited me. It's been a long time since I was actually invited to a wedding so I thought I should come." She gave him a smile and resisted the temptation to reach out to touch his face. To hug him.

She'd learned the hard, heart breaking lesson that it was best to let him hug her. Because when she did he just broke away and it destroyed her. But he was smiling at her now, and that ... that might be enough.

"Are you coming to the party?" He asked with the kind of enthusiasm that she couldn't turn down. "They're calling it a ball. I've never been to a ball before."

She smiled, and lied, "Of course I was going to come to the party, my little prince. Would you consider dancing with me?"

Henry looked a little unsure. "I don't know how to dance like that."

"Oh, but I don't think it matters. I'm sure you are a natural."

One dance, she told herself. She'd stay long enough to dance once with Henry. And then she'd leave. She stayed along the wall of the town meeting room that had been converted through a lot of she was sure Mary Margaret's hard work into a space with white roses and gold accents. She didn't see it at first, but she even noticed that her wedding gift to Kathryn was being used to decorate the high table.

People were whispering of course. The last wedding she'd attended had a rather different impact. But even Snow seemed to get over the shock once Kathryn had told a few people in a slightly firmer voice than she might have otherwise used that Regina had come because she was invited and anyone who didn't want to be at a wedding with her was welcome to leave.

She got her dance with Henry. I was a simple box step mostly, but she told him how to it and they even did a (very awkward because of his height) spin. "May I break in, Prince Henry?"

She was surprised at the voice and saw Charming standing behind her. "Of course." He smiled and before she realized it she was in David's arms and they were starting to dance properly. He didn't say anything as they danced, but they dipped, and twirled and glided across the floor with the other couples. Or rather the few other couples that had not noticed the Prince and the Queen dancing enough to stop and stare.

Snow had started dancing with Henry, and after a time they were the only couples on the floor as the others gradually stopped. At least until Kathryn dragged Jim out onto the floor as well. When the music finally stopped David bowed. "You are very good Regina, you should dance more often."

"There hasn't been a lot of call for it. You aren't bad yourself. For a shepherd."

"I was bored and had a lot of time to practice with sheep." He had a twinkle in his eyes and Regina was momentarily not sure if he was serious. They parted and he, of course, found his wife on the dance floor. Regina made her way back to Henry who had found Emma in the crowd who had ringed the dance floor to watch.

"That was cool!" Henry said.

"I haven't danced in a very long time." Regina said quietly.

"You could have fooled me." Emma added.

Regina glanced at her eyes before deciding not to say anything in reply.

"I should... really go. I've been distracting enough from Kathryn's big day."

"You could stay. People stopped talking when Kathryn threatened to punch Grumpy."

"I bet your mother loved that. She's overly attached to those dwarfs."

Emma gave her a look.

"I should leave," she repeated, but she brushed a bit of Henry's hair from his face. "You need a haircut. Perhaps Emma could take you to Joe's and tell him to give you a number 5." Regina glanced over at Emma to see that she'd gotten the message. "Thank you for the dance, my little Prince."

She couldn't resist this time, she gave him a light kiss on the forehead. And this time. This time he let her.

She was sitting in her back yard, a blanket wrapped around her and a hot mug of apple cider in her hands. It had been a good day. Perhaps her best day in a very long time. She'd wanted to leave before she did something to ruin it. To poison the memory. And now... now she just wanted to replay it over in her head again and again as if maybe that would erase other memories.

"Can I join you?"

It was Emma, coming around the side of the house with a bottle in her hand. Wine not whiskey.

"If you bought that at the gas station you may not." Regina said sternly.

"I did not. Swiped it from the wedding. Or rather Kathryn Nolan send me home with it. I thought maybe I'd share it since wine isn't my thing and you are the only one I know who would appreciate it."

"You are such a philistine. Let me go in and get some glasses."

Emma took that as the yes it was intended and when Regina came back she was curled up in one of the other wrought iron chairs. "That was a brave thing you did today."

"Go to a wedding?"

"Go somewhere you knew people hated you. You handle it with so much grace I had a hard time keeping my eyes off you."

"The intense stare was probably what reassured a lot of people. That the Savior was keeping an eye on the Queen." She opened the bottle and poured them both a glass before handing it to her.

"Does it always have to be about all that history? I mean, can't you all just live in this world. In the now."

Regina smiled. "The history defines who we are Emma. You said it yourself. Everyone knows what I am."

Emma shook her head. "I was an ass for saying that."

"It doesn't mean it wasn't true."

"It wasn't true."

"And you might be an ass for lying now. But the effort to make me feel better isn't unappreciated."

Regina sat down and swirled the wine before tasting it. Kathryn had excellent taste in wine.

"You saved my mother's life once. She told me."

"I did." Regina agreed.

"Would you tell me the story?"

She wanted to say no. She should say no. She'd been refusing to tell this story for a long time. Except to Snow. Because it was between the two of them.

Except it was between the three of them now, if she had to admit it.

"I was eighteen and your mother was ten. I had sneaked away from my mother to meet Daniel. He was the love of my life..."

Regina knew she had a sad little smile on her face, and she could feel the tears coming.

But she pushed on, and she told the story anyway...

Because Emma had been right. It was how it all began. And what had led them all here. And had once upon a time, a lifetime ago it seemed now, even led Emma to her bed. And Regina knew the other woman wasn't going to stop asking until she understood.

And Regina desperately needed someone to understand.