Emma let Will do all the talking with Tink because she wasn't really sold on this plan of dousing Regina with fairy dust. She was pretty sure that she had already offended Regina and doing this wasn't likely to curry her any favors. Although she did believe Regina would have a hard time rejecting her once she knew for sure that she was indeed her soul mate.

"I would like to help," Tink said. "But I can't. As I told Emma, my supply of fairy dust is quite low. Even if it weren't, I would not feel comfortable in forcing Regina to see Emma as her soul mate when she is clearly not ready to see it."

"Wait," Emma said, suddenly more interested in this. "Didn't you essentially force Regina to see Robin as her soul mate the first time around?"

"Yes, but at the time I used the fairy dust on Regina, she was ready for it. She was at a crossroads in her life. She was ready to choose a direction. Did she choose the one I had hoped for? No. But it was her choice. It was her choices and really your choice to save Marian that led us to where we are now. I think we can all agree that Robin is no longer her soul mate because of those choices. What you are asking me is to force her to see you as her soul mate in hopes of making her choose you. I am afraid that is something you will have to get her to do on your own."

"Great, so I am still screwed," Emma said. She got up and walked out.

Tink looked at Will. "I really do wish I could help her," she said.

"It's ok," he said. "Those two will get together eventually."

"You don't seem upset since you were the one who was supposed to be going on a date with Regina."

Will shrugged. "I don't want any part of messing with soul mates. I can't imagine it would end well if I did. I mean the sheriff does carry a gun."

Tink smiled at him. "Try and talk Emma out of doing anything rash – to you or anyone else. I am going to go talk to Regina."

"Do you expect that will make a difference?"

"I do not know. Regina and I have an interesting history."

….

Tink was a little nervous about knocking on Regina's door the next day. She had given thought to how to broach the soul mate subject with Regina and each time she did, she didn't think it was going to go well.

After all, it didn't go well the first go around with the two of them.

While they seem to have put all of that behind them, Tink was still nervous.

"Tink?" Regina said after opening the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping that I could talk with you about something."

"Sure," Regina said. "Come in."

Tink followed her into the house and they settled down on the couch in the living room after Tink turned down an offer of something to drink.

"So what can I help you with?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Emma actually."

Tink watched as Regina's features hardened a little. "Did she send you here?"

"No she did not. I am here on my own to talk about this situation with you or just listen if you want someone to listen."

"I appreciate the offer," Regina said. "But I don't want to talk about it." Regina stood up as if the conversation is over. "There isn't anything to talk about anyway. I mean this is absurd. I don't know what Miss Swan was thinking. Why would she even come to you for fairy dust? And how do we know it worked and she even saw anything? It makes no sense. She and I – it makes no sense. I am the reason she was raised without her parents. She and I were at war practically. Sure we have been getting along but soul mates, no, it's not possible."

"Why isn't it?" Tink asked.

Regina looked at her like she was had just suggested the world was flat. Yet Regina didn't respond at first. In fact, she sat back down in silence.

"You know if I had just walked in and introduced myself to Robin all those years ago, things would have been different. I wouldn't have become who I became and maybe when Snow met her Prince Charming they would have gotten married, had Emma and raised her there at home. All because I didn't embrace the idea of my soul mate back then, it changed everything."

Tink reached over and put a hand on Regina's hand. "You don't know that and thinking about it won't help matters."

"But what if I make the same mistakes all over again?"

"That won't happen because you aren't the same person you once were."

Regina seemed to consider it. "Do you really believe she saw me as her soul mate?"

"I don't know why she would lie about it," Tink said.

"Neither do I," Regina conceded.

"I can't believe I am going to suggest this, but do you want some fairy dust to discover if she is your soul mate?" Tink asked.

….

Emma hadn't seen Regina since that disastrous evening where she tried to apologize to her. She had asked Henry how Regina was doing when she picked him up from school on that Friday since it was her weekend with him. Henry told her that Regina had been quiet all week, but not in an angry or depressive way, but more like she had a lot on her mind and was thinking it through.

Emma supposed this was better than an angry Regina.

The weekend passed by and Emma was now driving slowly toward Regina's house to drop off Henry. She was planning on parking her car on the street and letting Henry out. She figured avoiding Regina was probably for the best right now. She hadn't given up on the idea of her and Regina being together, but she also figured that it wasn't the right time to approach Regina again.

They arrived and she parked the car.

"I will see you Wednesday," Emma said to Henry.

"Yep," he said getting out of the car.

Emma was watching him which is why she noticed Regina walking toward them. She didn't figure this was going to be good. Henry was out of the car and walking toward his other mother and they paused briefly next to each other. Emma watched as Regina said something to him and then strode forward once more.

Crap, Emma thought, this was definitely not going to be good.

She was surprised when Regina opened the passenger side door and took the seat Henry had just vacated.

"Hi," Emma said as Regina hadn't said anything and was actually looking straight ahead and not at Emma.

"Ok," Regina said.

"Ok, what?" Emma asked in confusion.

"I will go out on a date with you," Regina said. "Pick me up at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Don't be late."

With that Regina exited the car and walked away. Emma sat there too stunned to move for several moments.

It wasn't until her mind registered what Regina had said that she was able to concentrate long enough to put her car in gear.

She was going on a date with Regina. She was going on a date with her soul mate.