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 met up with Mary Margaret at the dinner the next morning. She and David had been... busy... when she got back to the loft and it hadn't been the time to ask about what Regina had said. Emma couldn't escape the feeling that Regina Mills had a loose relationship with the truth, and she wasn't inclined to trust her account of what had happened all those years ago.

Though part of her wondered if her suspicion that Regina was a natural liar had as much to do with the fact that she had fooled her lie detector the previous year. Not that the Mayor had ever promised anything, or made any pronouncements of feelings, but Emma had started to wonder if maybe something more real than casual sex could have been built from what they had.

And then she'd gone on a sociopathic plot to frame her best friend for the murder of a woman that wasn't even dead. And that rather killed any chance for a serious relationship.

And then she'd turned out to be an evil fairy tale villain who had tried to curse her into a magical coma, which as far as crazy ex's go, put Regina Mills on the top of Emma's very long list. Not that she was about to tell that to her mother. She was rather certain that Mary Margaret would have a heart attack if she ever found out she'd slept with Regina.

"You ... look well." Emma commented.

"Yes, well, David gets excited after weddings. And fights."

"That's an interesting combination."

"Well, you'd kind of have to have been at our wedding to understand."

"The three of you were well behaved yesterday."

"The three of us?"

"You know... you, David... Regina." Emma sipped her coffee.

"It wasn't my wedding or my place to object to Kathryn's desire for her to be there. She behaved... so I don't think I can complain."

"David danced with her."

"She's a good dancer. We don't get to do that kind of dancing much anymore."

"I had a hard time imaging her doing things like that... dancing... weird lace making... it all sounds so very..."

"Medieval?"

"Something like that."

Mary Margaret smiled. "I know we all seem strange to you, you didn't grow up in the Enchanted Forest, there are just some things a lady of a certain rank learned how to do. Dancing, embroidery, lace... to Kathryn, or Regina, or I... it's a bit like driving a car or using a telephone."

Emma just nodded, and tried to slip it in casually, "I talked to her last night. After the party. She told me about the horse... is it true?"

Mary Margaret got the same far off expression Regina had had. "She wouldn't lie about that."

"There is this thing I don't get... you were what? Ten? How could she blame you for what her mother did?"

"Oh. So she told you about Daniel too."

"It took most of a bottle of wine to get it out of her yes."

"She was in love, Emma. I'm not sure we, either of us, can understand what it would be like to have your love's heart crushed in front of you by your mother."

"But she knows Cora was crazy. At least think she does."

"She's still her mother." Mary Margaret always looked guilty these days at the mention of Cora. "It was a mistake I made... Regina never trusted her mother, she always knew she was dangerous, but I didn't realize that she could not trust her and still love her."

"Are we talking about 40 years ago or last month?"

"Both maybe."

Emma shook her head a little. "Regina once told me, back when she was framing you for murder, that getting your heart broken could make you do unspeakable things."

"She would know."

"Was she ever... I don't know..." Emma searched for a word. "Human?"

That made her mother laugh, surprisingly to Emma with a certain amount of genuine affection. "Regina is... a terrible monster, capable of truly horrible things. Things I don't think you even understand Emma. But many monsters are human, and Regina is a terrible monster because she is deeply human."

Mary Margaret looked sad and into her cup of coffee. "Regina taught me some of the most important values of my life. I've tried... I've tried to live up to be like the woman she was when I met her. But... she was lost a long time ago. I waited for her to return and she never did. Now ... now I try and respect her memory by protecting everyone I can from being hurt by the shell of a woman that is left."

"That's a rather dark view of things, coming from you." Emma observed. Normally she was the fatalist.

Mary Margaret actually flinched, but shook her head. "Regina hurts everyone she touches. I'm not even sure she means it. If I could keep you and David and Henry away from her I would."

Emma stared at her for a long time.

"You've been encouraging me to keep Henry away from her."

"Where he'll be safe. Besides... you are his mother."

"I'm ..." Emma paused, searching for words. "I gave birth to him, Mary Margaret. That doesn't make me his mother."

"Of course it does."

Emma shook her head, as if having a sudden realization she should have perhaps had a long time ago. "You are afraid that if I'm not Henry's mother because I didn't raise him, you aren't mine because you didn't raise me."

"Emma..."

"There is a difference you know. Between you and me. You wanted to be a mother. I know I couldn't be. I ... I'm Henry's mother right now because he wants it and she's not in a good space for him to be living with her. But having him with me has just taught me one thing. She's his mother. I hope you wouldn't keep them apart just out of some ... vendetta from the old country."

Mary Margaret looked offended, "Emma... you don't know her like I do. She ... she's a masterful actress. She can make you feel like she loves you. But her heart is black as coal."

"I'm sure if I saw her heart it would be black." Emma said it as if the fact that she might actually see Regina Mills' actual heart someday wasn't very weird. "But I've seen her. She loves Henry more than life itself. When..." She paused, trying to decide if she even wanted to say this to her own mother given her fragile state of late, "When I was a kid in the foster system, I dreamed of having a mother who loved me as much as Regina loves Henry."

"Emma!"

"That's not an insult to you. You and David did what you had to do. I just... you can't just make me Henry's mother in hopes that you can erase those ten years she gave him. I might be his mother... but ... I think she's his mom."

Mary Margaret was stunned into silence, and Emma decided to push on...

"I don't know what she is to you, or you are to her, but the two of you need to work out your issues. Because otherwise you'll both just tear apart this town finding new and horrifying ways of hurting each other."

"I'm not..."

"Are you pretending you didn't do what you did with Cora's heart in order to hurt Regina?"

"She... you were there Emma. You know she had to die."

Emma nodded in agreement. "So why didn't you crush her heart."

"It was easy..."

"It wasn't easier to use the candle than to crush her heart."

Mary Margaret looked white as a sheet.

"You did it because you wanted to hurt her?"

"I was trying to kill Cora, of course I wanted to hurt her."

"Not Cora. You did it to hurt Regina."

Mary Margaret was silent for a very long time. "Cora killed my mother. Regina killed my father."

"Is that why there is a shadow on your heart?"

"How do you know about that? Regina told..."

"No... David did."

Mary Margaret looked like she wanted to protest, to deny, to object, but her shoulders just slumped. "I don't know how to stop the darkness, Emma."

"I wonder," Emma ventured, tilting her head to the side, "If Regina would say the same thing."