Things were quiet in town for almost a week. The most excitement to be had was when Pongo got loose and Emma, David, and Archie had spent four hours chasing him all over a residential neighborhood. One could almost think that it was back to the small town where nothing happened that Emma had moved to almost two years before. Well... except it was no longer cursed and the inhabitance were all displaced fairy tale characters. But something like small town normal. She took a giant bite of her burger, double cheese with bacon when she heard a loud crash from outside.

She glanced over at Red, who nodded and Emma ran out leaving her lunch behind.

The sound of broken glass came from a few shops down the street. Leroy was pulling himself out of having obviously landed in the front window of Storybrooke Shoes. How he got there was clear a moment later when Regina Mills, her trench coat open but her eyes fixed on him was walking across the street out of the bakery across the street.

There was a look of pure rage in her eyes Emma had only seen glimpses of before. The battle of Gold's shop certainly. A couple of her foster homes had people with those kinds of eyes, but she knew that this was much more dangerous.

"Regina!"

Emma drew her gun, but with a contemptuous and casual flip of her wrist, Regina made that fly out of her hand and over the roof of the dinner.

"The Evil Queen...!" Leroy started to shout but Regina held out one of her gloved hands in a vice grip and his voice choked away and he started to raise into the air. The speed that he was starting to turn blue alarmed Emma and she moved closer, wondering if she should stay behind cover.

Everyone else on the street seemed smart enough to make themselves scarce.

"Regina, please put him down..." But much to her horror she saw that her other hand was making a sweeping motion, her fingers wiggling the broken glass in the street collected itself in the air behind her all pointed like hundreds of knives at the dwarf.

Emma was sure if she didn't act quickly he'd be dead.

"Regina, you can't do this to Henry."

The queen looked like she might contemplate turning the glass missiles on her. She'd promised herself she wouldn't use their son as a leash or a stick, but it was the only thing she had right now. "You were just starting to build something. He's been so happy to see you in the mornings. How am I supposed to explain it if you kill a man in cold blood."

Leroy was still making strangled sounds, but Regina seemed to be listening at least, and at least he was still alive for now.

"I'm not going to sit by and have my enemies disrespect me to my face."

Emma winced, and dearly wished she knew what had started this. Because it was entirely likely Leroy had said something... but then again Regina had been on the knife edge of a rage since her mother's death so perhaps it was inevitable.

"Well, than perhaps the first person who should respect you is you, Regina. Because I know this isn't who you want to be."

The terrifying monster who looked for all the world like death standing in the middle of main street.

She needed to defuse this quickly, because she'd just seen David and Mary Margaret sneaking up the other side of the street.

"Or I could just make an example, and people wouldn't make the same mistake."

Emma shook her head. "Regina... I know you don't want to be a monster. You just need to believe you can be something else. Henry wants you to be. I want you to be it for him... be the woman who he looks forward to seeing in the morning."

Emma was sure she hadn't gotten through, that she was about to watch a man die in a gruesome and painful manner, but there was suddenly the sound of glass shattering as all the splintered pieces fell from the air onto the ground. The same casual flip of her wrist that had sent Emma's gun uselessly away sent Leroy flying landing with a painful sounding thud at Mary Margaret's feet.

"Better send your dog to obedience training, Snow. The next time he barks at me I'll rip his tongue out."

Leroy wasn't moving on the ground, and David was leaning over him, "He's alive."

Emma exhaled, realizing for the first time she was holding her breath. She came up to Regina, "Madam Mayor... I need you to come with me to the police station."

"What for..."

"Can we at least pretend I can arrest you for assault? If for no other reason I don't think either of us wants Henry to think he can beat people up without consequence. Besides you can tell me what just happened here."

"I think, Sheriff Swan, I'd prefer to exercise my right to remain silent."

But Regina did let her place her in the back of the squad car, even if Emma couldn't help but feel like her dignity made it seem more like an honor than a punishment.

Regina had agreed to a few days in jail, mostly because despite how annoying it was to her, Emma was right. She had an 11 year old son and she couldn't... wouldn't let him think that you could beat someone up with no consequence. She had poofed a pillow and less scratchy blanket from home, but decline to allow Henry to visit her.

He'd already seen her in jail once and she had no intention of allowing it again. Emma agreed, but mostly because they both knew she was only in the cell because Regina agreed to it. Two days into her self-imposed punishment Regina woke up to a darkened police station but the feeling of being watched.

She sat up and Snow White was sitting in a chair facing the cell.

"You're here to watch me sleep?"

Snow smiled. "I could be returning the favor."

Regina groaned, but had to admit to herself she had invited that one.

"Grumpy has three broken ribs and a bruised larynx. He won't be able to talk for two weeks."

"I'm sure that many in town will be relieved."

"Regina..."

"Snow, how do you fit both yourself, and your self-righteousness into a room at the same time..."

"You could have killed him."

"That's what I was trying to do."

"No, it wasn't." She shook her head. "If you wanted to kill him you would have snapped his neck and it would have been done before Emma could have talked you down."

"Maybe I wanted him to suffer."

"Maybe." Snow granted, "What happened? He can't talk, and no one else seems to understand what provoked it."

"There are people who understand. They just aren't willing to talk to you."

Snow seemed taken aback by that. "I know you were in the bakery, that there was some sort of scuffle between you and the baker that he stepped into..."

Regina laughed, "Oh no wonder the stories in the book read like they do if that's how people get information."

"If that's not what happened why don't you tell me."

Regina pushed herself against the wall and casually watched Snow. "You really want to know?"

"Yes, I do Regina."

"Her name is Rachel."

"Who?"

"The baker. Her name is Rachel. She was one of my dressing maids. I was quite fond of her, and made sure she had a nice life here. A business, a comfortable home for her husband and children. She always greets me as Your Majesty when she sees me, and she has special bread behind the counter for me. Your dwarf friend took offense because he thought she was ignoring other costumers to take care of me. He said something about her... and I made sure he wouldn't make that mistake again."

"You were... defending her honor?"

"Snow, she wasn't a black knight. She didn't hold anyone down while I made them lick my boots. She laced me into my corset every day. I won't stand by while someone is abused simply because they were loyal to me."

Snow was quiet for a time, but she actually smiled.

"Something funny?"

"Just thought I saw something I hadn't in a very long time."

"Don't count on it."

"Of course not. So does Rachel make good bread? I think I may need to find a regular supply of fresh bread now."

"She's very good."

The two of them sat in silence watching each other for a very long time. Long enough for Emma to walk in holding two cups of coffee and a small paper bag. "Ah... are the two of you alright?"

Perhaps she was thinking one or the other of them had hostile intentions.

"We're fine Emma. I was just leaving. You should let Regina go. I'm going to go talk to Leroy about dropping the charges."

"Shouldn't I wait until he actually drops them?"

Snow looked directly at Emma and spoke with more certainty than Emma had heard from her in a very long time. "He'll be dropping them, I promise."