Regina was working in the mayor's office early the next day. She hadn't slept at all the night before and sitting around her big empty house reminding herself of the disaster wasn't going to do her any good at all. The first text from Emma had come in at 7:30 in the morning when she'd already been in the office for an hour. Henry's school schedule was waking her up early even on weekends, Regina was privately pleased. Not that she blamed what had happened on her.

It had all been her fault.

The problem with using work to distract her from the disaster of her personal life was that her secretary wasn't there on the weekends so there had been no one to play gate keeper when he'd come storming into her office.

"What the hell did you do to Emma?"

He was brave at least. She wondered if he got that from his mother, because it was certainly not one of Rumple's defining characteristics. "Hello Mr. Cassidy. Would you like to start again with a greeting rather than an accusation?"

Her calm response seemed to take him off guard and she walked over to a pitcher of orange juice and offered him a glass. He looked at her and at it.

"I know poisoning is my style but I really do prefer more theatre when I do it." When he took the glass she poured herself one.

"Emma came back from her date with you crying. What did you do to her?"

"I'm really not going to share the details of my personal life with you, Mr. Cassidy." She moved over to a chair and sat down. She wasn't sure why she was inviting this conversation instead of poofing him away, but she was.

"You aren't denying she was with you."

"It would seem rather pointless to deny. Did Henry tell you?"

"You told Henry?" He was surprised, and she was actually relieved that her son hadn't told this person his mothers' secrets.

"We didn't want him to be upset or feel like we were lying to him. But I would appreciate your own discretion. This is a small town and I don't want Emma to experience any fallout from her..." Regina couldn't even figure out what she wanted to call it. From her misguided attempts to be friends with her perhaps. But friends weren't what they were trying to be the night before.

"You care about her." Neal said surprised.

"Villains get to care about people, Mr. Cassidy. You should know that more than anyone. Your father loves you."

"My father's love for his family always came after his love for his power." He said simply.

She chuckled. Something about that statement surprised her. Not it's truth, but that he's say it to her. "Rumple's capacity for self interest is infinite." She agreed. "If I told you I was different it wouldn't much matter because I'm sure you'd decide I was lying."

He narrowed his eyes and watched her for a moment, "The fact that you would care if I think you are lying or not is interesting. You were one of my father's students."

"He taught me everything I know, but I'm not sure I'd call myself his student. More like his ..." She had too much pride to finish the sentence. "Well... something else."

Neal nodded his head slowly. He didn't need her to say it.

"Is Emma alright?" She asked quietly after a long and awkward silence.

"She was upset when I left last night. What happened?"

Regina shook her head. "What happened is what always happens. Everything I touch turns to ash."

"That... is a more poetic way of saying you always fuck things up. Which is what I usually say. Emma deserves more than that you know." He observed quietly. Somewhere in the conversation his attitude towards Regina seemed to have shifted and she had no idea why. But she wasn't going to object.

"Well, I was raised a lady and I'm a Queen. Poetry is part of the training."

"I'm just a fuck up. And... I know I fucked it up with her. I just don't want you to hurt her more."

"Mr. Cassidy, the last thing I want to do in the world is hurt Emma Swan."

He watched her for the longest time. "I believe you."

"And I still have no intention of telling you my personal business."

Neal nodded. "Thank you for not ripping out my tongue for that."

"I thought about it." She admitted.

"That's not entirely helpful for my changing impression of you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Would you be even more hurt if I told you I don't care what you think of me as long as you do what I tell you with regard to my son?"

He chuckled, "I'm following the rules. Peas and carrots. Two vegetables. Two colors. And whatever happens between you and Emma... as long as you aren't playing games with her you are right. It's none of my business."

She nodded, for the first time deciding that he wasn't the complete fuck up she'd assumed. Even if she still hadn't forgiven him for what he did to Emma. As he was getting up to leave she called after him, "How.. how was Emma last night?"

He paused, as if deciding what to answer.

"She looked guilty. Like she'd done something wrong."

Regina sighed and her shoulders sank a little. Her phone buzzed again.

"I know you don't want my advise... but talk to her. I didn't and that's what destroyed my chance with her."

Regina just watched him without saying anything, the thoughts in her own mind tumbling in conflicting feelings, but she managed to just give him a nod.

The text came in at half past three. A request to meet at their regular spot. The park bench where they normally watched Henry playing after school. He wasn't there of course today. It was a weekend and he was out with his grandmother learning how to fire a bow and arrow. Something Regina probably would object to if she knew, but Emma wasn't exactly about to announce that. An argument about pointy objects and their eleven year old son was not really what she wanted to get into. Especially not when she wanted to understand what happened last night.

She passed a cup of coffee over to Regina as she sat down. Neither of them spoke for a long time before Regina broke the silence.

"It wasn't your fault Emma... it was mine." Emma instantly wanted to reach for her hand, to disagree with her, but Regina wouldn't let her. "I've not had a lot of sexual partners Emma. And most of them weren't ... what you would call intimate."

"My grandfather..."

Regina laughed but without humor, "I'd really appreciate if you didn't refer to him that way. I don't want to think of him having anything to do with you."

"I've never asked... how old were you?" The scenarios playing out in Emma's head right now were all rather nightmarish and she wondered why she'd never put those pieces together before.

"My eighteenth birthday was a fortnight before I first met your mother."

"When you saved her life." Regina nodded. "You disassociated from me last night. Is that how you handled sleeping with him?"

There were tears forming in the corners of Regina's eyes and Emma wished she could hold her. But everything else about the mayor's demeanor said that she shouldn't.

"Does my mother know?" She wasn't sure why she asked that. Mostly because the hellish life that played out in her mind of an eighteen year old girl and a much older man was one Emma had seen play out a dozen times in her life. It was never good. And she knew Regina had had even less ability to escape it.

"Your mother... was a little girl. And I was not about to allow her to see me like that. Like I was after the King ordered me to his chambers."

"You were protecting her?"

"I've never claimed that my feelings about your mother were simple. You've just always assumed they were." Regina took a drink from her coffee. "But as to your broader question, I doubt she's really thought about it much. It wasn't abnormal in our world. A wife is the property of her husband. More so if he's a king. It took me a long time in this world to understand what had happened to me. And that here it would be considered wrong."

She looked out across the pond into the distance and Emma silently condemned herself for missing all the signs.

"We've had sex before Regina. Why last night?"

"Last night I wasn't trying to dominate the Savior." Regina said with a humorless chuckle, but for some reason Emma found that funny.

"Is that what you were doing back then?"

"You surely didn't think it was healthy?" Regina asked in surprise.

"Oh, no. I knew it was a bad idea at the time. But mostly you were my hot bitch of a boss and I make many poor life choices."

That actually made Regina smile. "You do. And this is still one of them you know that?"

"I do..." This time she did reach over and take Regina's hand. "And I have no intention of stopping now. We'll... learn from last night."

Regina looked into her eyes and she looked like she wanted to cry even more. But then she let go of her hand and looked up at a bird flying over head. Her eyes lit with anger and she stood up from the bench.

"You! Down here now!"

Regina was pointing up at the sky and yelling at the bird, which... at least to her credit, came down to land in her out stretched hand. She took a hold of it a little rougher than Emma expected. "Regina... what's going on."

But Regina wasn't talking to Emma now. She brought the bird up so she was looking at it in the eyes. "You don't think I know what you were doing? You think you could do that without me noticing?"

The bird squawked a bit, seeming distressed. But not nearly as distressed as Emma was watching this exchange.

"Oh of course you could have said no." Regina's voice was low and threatening. "You are not too small for me to reach into your tiny chest and rip out your heart with my fingers if you try and stick your beak into my business again."

The bird still seemed distressed but Regina wasn't letting up despite how big Emma's eyes were.

"Regina you just threatened a bird."

"I know what I did, Emma."

"A bird."

"Yes." She continued looking at her pray. "Do you understand?"

"No!"

"Not you, Emma. Him."

The bird actually nodded. Or Emma imagined it nodded.

"Now go off and tell the rest of your feathered friends that I will not be so kind to the next little spy I catch." She let go of the bird and it, rather sensibly Emma thought, flew away very quickly.

Emma was silent for a long time, trying to decide if a relationship with this woman really was advisable all the sudden. "What was that about?"

"Your mother."

Regina said with a sigh.

"My mother?"

"Your mother is trying to find out who you are dating."

"My mother sent an avian army to spy on me?"

"The Charming air force."

Emma held the bridge of her nose.

"I'm reasonably sure she's going to find they're less interested in talking to her for now."

"Because you threatened a bird."

"Because he's going to tell his friends. And I'm a lot scarier than she is nice."

"Well... that's one way to put it."