Emma was sitting at the counter at Granny's drinking a beer and watching the few night owls who came to the diner late at night. The Rabbit Hole might be a more traditional watering hole, but it also attracted the kind of people who assumed a woman drinking alone was looking for a man to drink with. Or go to bed with. And the Sheriff of Nottingham, while handsome, was not her type. So she was drinking in Granny's and pondering how much she could drink before she had to walk home.

She'd probably drink less if Ruby was working that night, she tended to slow her down with conversation.

"Do you need me to call someone for you?" Granny asked quietly, with a bit of kindness, "Or you could stay upstairs for the night."

"I'm fine. Not driving and Henry's staying at Regina's."

The older woman nodded, "The Queen on your mind?"

Emma gave her a quizzical look.

"Ruby isn't the only one with wolf sense. No matter what I thought of your taste it wasn't my place to judge." She shrugged. "Regina has her charms when she wants to display them."

"I thought you hated her."

"Oh, I dislike her intensely," she agreed easily, "Your mother came to stay with us not long after she'd had to run from her home. She was a sweet scared young woman. Hard to see why anyone would hate her. I had thought that someone like Regina would have sympathy for that. But I suppose a cold black heart will do that. Predator's go after the weak."

As strange as it sounded, Emma didn't think the last comment was a judgment. Wolves were predators, "Someone like her?"

"Married off at the age she was..."

"I've tried to talk to her about it. The marriage to my grandfather. But she always changes the subject."

"Why do you keep asking her?" Granny said as she wiped the counter.

"It seems... important somehow. Like there is a bit of her still with him. Trapped." Emma shook her head. "Does that sound crazy?"

Granny shook her head. "It was the way it was."

"What was?" Emma said exasperated. "Everyone expects me to understand what no one will actually talk about!"

The other patron, Dopey, ignored her outburst and kept drinking. Granny shook her head, "I suppose we all forget sometimes. What you do and don't know."

"I don't even know what I do and don't know." Emma grumbled.

"I saw her on her wedding day you know." Granny said.

"Regina?"

"It was a royal wedding and most of the kingdom came. She was about yay big from where I was standing holding Red up." She made a small space between her thumb and forefinger. "They said she was beautiful. I'm sure she was. Beauty was never her problem. There were already grumblings. Her father was a prince, but her mother was a miller's daughter. Was she good enough for the king? He was beloved and Queen Eva even more so. I just remember how young she was. And how scared she looked. King Leopold had a taste for young brides. Eva was older than Regina when they married but he was still many years older than she was. Regina was practically a child. Some of us called her the Child Queen."

Emma listened to the story, trying to comprehend it. "No one thought to stop it? If it was that much of a farce?"

"Who stops the King? And besides, her family approved of the match."

"Cora was a nut case."

"She was a monster. As is Regina. Sometimes monsters aren't born. They're made." She nodded to her own arm and the scary looking scars that she so often covered with long sleeves.

"Can you love a monster?" Emma said quietly.

Granny's eyes got big, as if she wasn't expecting it to have gotten that far. But she nodded. "You can, little one. Are you in love?"

"I don't know." Emma said with a sigh.

"That usually means yes."

"She won't even talk about it with me."

"Maybe she's scared? Wolves attack when they're scared."

"She's not a wolf."

"Of course she is. And so are you." Granny smiled at her, "Go home. Do not go to her place. You are too drunk and too love sick to make wise decisions tonight."

"I am not..."

"Don't give me that look young lady."

Emma grumbled, paid for her beer and got up to leave. She did walk home via Mifflin Street, stopping by the gate to look at the house. She could see the light on in Henry's room, and the top of Regina's head. She was leaning over... to kiss him goodnight?

How could you love a monster?

And could a monster like Regina love you back?

Emma waited a few days, sorting out the conversation with Granny and her own confused feelings in her own head before she acted on them. When she did she decided to avoid Regina's office, and the mansion, instead opting for what she thought was neutral ground. The bench that they watched Henry play after school. It was far enough away that she wasn't even sure he knew they did it.

At least he had never said anything. Though it wasn't like they were subtle and Emma wondered how often Regina had watched her and Henry without her noticing. She didn't even need that mirror trick Mary Margaret had warned her about.

She silently handed Regina her coffee and sat down next to her without asking permission. They watched Henry for a long time in silence before Regina spoke. "No."

"What?"

"I can hear the hamster in your head wheezing at the exercise. Whatever it is that you are about to ask me, no."

"Those are pretty high walls you have put up." Emma said quietly.

"I told you..."

"That you hold on to tight? You know you really didn't need to tell me that."

"You don't seem to be listening."

"Do you want me?" Emma said quietly. "Because I'm starting to feel like a fool. Or like I've been misreading you this entire time. And I'm really good at reading people."

"Your second superpower?" Regina mocked.

"Survival skill. And you didn't answer. You just keep saying no." Emma said calmly, regaining her composure and refusing to let Regina divert this conversation for once.

"I..." Regina sighed. "I don't have the right to take everything I want."

"Aren't we all sitting in Maine because you thought you had that right."

"That was more taking away everything everyone else wanted." She said quietly.

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Aren't I allowed to learn a lesson from my mistakes?" There was a certain amount of desperation in Regina's voice.

"You are. What you aren't allowed to do is protect me from you. I... think ... that people took so much from you without asking that you've forgotten that sometimes you can want something the other person wants too." Emma stopped talking when she was sure she sounded like a babbling idiot. It would be confirmed in a moment when Regina mocked her.

She didn't. Instead she just watched Henry. "I'd say I don't want to hurt people anymore. That me loving someone always hurts them. But a big part of me does still want to hurt people."

"Are you proud of that part? Do you think you have a right to hurt people?" Emma asked quietly, trying to find some common ground of humanity.

"I've never been proud of that part, Emma. Not even when I was ... well... not even when I was at my worst."

"I've seen your worst."

"No Emma... you haven't. You keep thinking you have, but what you've encountered is a very watered down version of what I can be."

Emma reached over and put a hand on top of Regina's. "You aren't taking anything when I kiss you."

"I don't have a right to it."

"To what?"

"Love. I don't have a right to love you."

Emma was surprised at that and it took her a moment to regain her ability to speak. "Regina... did you just say you were in love with me?"

"No." The former mayor snapped. "I said I didn't have a right to love you. To force it from you, or Henry or anyone else..."

"Regina..." She shook her head slowly. "You aren't forcing anything from me. You are, as far as I can tell, running away from me as fast as you can and I am trying to tell you that I'd like you to stop running."

Regina turned to look into her eyes, searching for something. Emma took her hand in hers. "You aren't the King. You aren't your mother. You aren't forcing me into anything I don't want. Do you think... maybe... we could just try it out and see if there is anything there without the fighting and the hating and the trying to kill each other?"

"How?"

"We could try dinner. Without Henry. And maybe a movie."

"You want to go on a date?" Regina asked incredulously.

"Why not? I understand that's what normal people do."

"Neither of us is normal, Emma." Regina said with a surprised and disbelieving smile.

"Eh, we can still eat things and see a movie. How about it, Your Majesty?"

Regina gave her a dirty look, but seemed to be thinking it over.

"Take a chance Regina." Emma said quietly, and finally the other woman nodded. Emma grinned, "See, it's a start."

"A start to what?"

"Who knows what..." Emma stood up suddenly with more energy than she'd had in forever.

"Don't get too excited, Emma, I always find a way to mess things up." Regina said quietly.

"Not always. You did a damn fine job raising our son."

And both women looked towards the playground.