AN: As the final chapter in this story, all of the important conversations happen here. Be warned, however, it is a monster of a chapter! I hope those who read this story enjoyed it as much as possible considering the subject material. And in general, I hope everyone had a blast reading all the Red Queen stories. Since I've been so busy editing and writing this week, I haven't got to read any, so I'll be doing that myself over the coming weeks! =)

Also I want to include one last shout out to the organizers of Red Queen week for setting up this awesome event every year and giving me goal post to aim for as a writer and a plethora of juicy stories to fuel my imagination as an avid reader. Love from me to all of y'all! And now, on with the show...

Standard Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me, which is a good thing else I might never get anything done. They are Adam and Eddie's. Please, guys, don't sue me!

"All of my devils are free at last / And all my secrets revealed / And your permission is all I need to heal" - "Permission" by Sixx A.M.

Chapter 8 - Free At Last

After returning inside, the first thing Regina does is to look in on Henry. True to her word, she tries to treat him more like an adult by sitting him down to, in as diplomatic a way as she can, discuss the encounter she just had with his biological mother. While she obscures the true nature of Emma's advances on Ruby, she does not sugar-coat the fact that the newest Dark One crossed a line she shouldn't have.

Furthermore, fear for his safety prompts her to forbids him to be in Emma's vicinity without herself, Ruby, or one of his heroically inclined grandparents to supervise, and while he seems to understand her point of view, she can tell he is itching for the chance to reach out to other parent.

"I know you're going to find a way to talk to her with or without my permission because you think you can handle her," she tells him as she sits down next to him on his bed. "Just...proceed with caution. Emma is further gone than I had anticipated, and I can't be one hundred percent certain she will not leverage you against me." When he starts to retort, she interrupts him. "I'm not saying Emma is going to hurt you. I know she won't. And what's more, we will save. But until then we cannot afford to underestimate her or her intentions or the intentions of whatever evil presence resides within that accursed dagger. She's simply too dangerous right now."

Henry sighs, but nods just the same. "I get it, Mom." When Regina raises a brow, he reiterates, "I really do. It's just...hard. Emma is supposed to be the Savior, not the enemy. This is so wrong!"

Sympathy for her sons situation prompts Regina to rub his knee with a practiced and gentle maternal touch. "I know, sweetheart. I'm having a hard time, too. Emma is my friend. I don't want to fight with her, but if she threatens us or tries to manipulate Ruby again..."

"Do what you have to do, Mom," Henry says, surprising Regina. His expression is grave. "If what she tried to do to Ruby is half as bad as you made it seem, we have to protect her. She's family now. Just promise me you won't hurt Emma."

Proud of him for including Ruby in their family now, Regina reaches up to smooth a hand over his cheek. Out of respect for his slightly increased aversion to physical affection of late, she does not allow it to linger but is nonetheless pleased that he seems to accept her motherly gesture. Upon removing her hand, she pats his folded ones laying in his lap before mirroring his posture to further encourage him.

"I will do everything in my power to avoid hurting Emma," she promises, meaning every word.

Regina does not want to hurt Emma if she doesn't have to. But another proposition to Ruby along the lines of the last one will mean she has to take the gloves off to protect what's hers. And as hard as she has fought in the past for Henry (and will do the same in the present), she is willing to go every bit as far for Ruby. If no holds barred warfare is what it takes to keep Emma away from Ruby, so be it. She just hopes bloodshed can be avoided. Words, while weapons that can be wielded to harm, cannot do irreparable damage.

After discussing Henry's upcoming school project to get his mind off of Emma's plight, Regina retires to her bedroom, but not before bidding him goodnight and sneaking a kiss to her son's forehead. She smiles on her way out the door to the sound of his protesting whine, "Moooom."

Upon entering her bedroom, Regina finds Ruby pacing beside the bed like a caged animal. "Oh, thank God," she huffs upon spotting Regina walk through the door.

"She's gone. Everything's alright," Regina tells her worried girlfriend. "I'm sorry I wasn't back sooner, I needed to get Henry settled. Did you not hear me come in or speaking to him in his room?"

Ruby stops pacing, confusion etching across her features. "No, I didn't. I guess I was too worried about you for my senses to pick you up, or maybe I'm still out of whack from being stuck in the pages of a book for God knows how long. How is he by the way?"

"Coping," Regina says as she moves in to stand close to Ruby. "It's not easy for him to deal with his Savior of a mother becoming the living embodiment of evil."

Sympathy lines Ruby's features. "Poor kid. He's been through a lot in a short time."

"Yes, he has," Regina says. "Which is why I forbade him to seek Emma out on his own. If I'm not here to chaperone, you have to watch out for him, Ruby."

"I will." Ruby's solemn expression gives Regina all the assurance she needs. But then Ruby crosses her arms protectively over her chest, and Regina knows the topic is about to change. "Speaking of Emma. What the hell happened to her?"

Regina has nothing to tell Ruby but the truth. "Aside from her becoming the Dark One, I'm not exactly sure. We are all missing our memories from the trip to Camelot."

Ruby gapes in disbelief. "You're joking."

"If only," Regina sighs. "Another Curse was cast."

"Another one. Wow. Is the casting of the Dark Curse going to become an annual event in this town from here on out?"

Ruby's deadpan delivery elicits a small chuckle from Regina which is not at all appropriate considering the subject matter. It is humorous, though, in a tragic and almost perverse way that three separate Dark Curses – each of which represent a great deal of sacrifice – have been cast to transport various populations of the Enchanted Forest to this world.

In response to Ruby's question, Regina says, "Not if I have anything to say about it." However, because the Curse, as worrisome as it is, is not her primary concern, she veers the topic to one still relevant but in a more personally way. "About earlier, are you alright? She didn't try anything untoward did she?"

Ruby shakes her head in the negative, which relieves Regina even though she didn't think Emma had done anything wrong...yet.

"She just wanted to talk. I don't think you got here long after she did. Her visit was pretty much just to pitch me that offer to become her concubine...well, hers and Hook's."

"Did she give any indication as to why she was interested in you?" When Ruby tilts her head as if she's insulted, Regina quickly amends, "Not that you are undesirable, darling, because obviously you are."

"Why, thank you, milady," Ruby replies with a wink, but then she grows more solemn and her brows furrow in contemplation. "But no, she didn't really give a reason, and I find that strange. Emma never gave any kind of indication she was interested in me that way before, and believe me, I woulda known if she was. My gaydar is pretty on point."

Regina chuckles at the Rubyism. It is true, though, that Ruby has a sense for such things as sexual orientation. Before Ruby, Regina had never told a soul she skewed bisexual, but after they got together Ruby had up and informed her one day that it was obvious to her.

"I've known since the day you first waltzed into the diner and saw me in my uniform. You eyed me like you were a starving lioness and I was a bloody steak that just got tossed into your cage," she'd said, and Regina could only blush because it was an accurate assessment of the leering she'd thought was rather subtle. "I thought for a while that you'd eventually make a pass at me, but you didn't, so I let it go."

"Why didn't you say anything?" was Regina reply as she fidgeted in a vain attempt to dissipate the heat flooding her cheeks and chest.

Ruby had just stared as if the question was preposterous. "Are you kidding? You intimidated the living hell out of me! Still do sometimes, but it's a good thing now, 'cause since we're together I find it kinda hot when you get all Queenly on me."

Regina flushes at flashes of the many highly memorable occasions she has gotten 'all Queenly' on Ruby. Sometimes literally. When she catches Ruby grinning like the Cheshire Cat, she clears her throat and steers herself back on target.

"Although I don't question your 'gaydar'," she says using air quotes, "I'm not so sure your read on Emma is completely accurate."

Ruby frowns. "Why do you say that? Did she say something else to you?" Regina nods her confirmation. "What did she say?"

"She extended the offer to me as well."

Ruby's brows raise nearly up to her hairline at that. "Why, that little…wait a second. So first she propositions me while you're not here and then you when the two of you were alone outside. Is it just me or are you getting the feeling she was trying to drive a wedge between us?"

"She was," Regina agrees.

Emma hadn't said as much, but Regina knows the way people with evil agendas think. The best way to destroy any relationship is to turn people against each other and let them do all the difficult work. That Emma had approached Ruby while she was alone suggests that the Dark One is trying to plant seeds of doubt in Ruby's mind while at the same time pursuing a more insidious objective. She'd known Regina was listening and put on a show meant to provoke Regina's disreputable nature in order to separate them.

As the pieces of the puzzle start falling into place, Regina says, "While I think there may be some genuine, largely suppressed, and very messy feelings there for Emma, my current theory is that she is trying to tempt me into becoming...her again. Jealousy has always been one of my weaknesses, of which she is well aware."

"You have nothing to be jealous of," Ruby insists, drawing a tender smile from Regina.

"I know, and neither do you." Regina offers her hand to Ruby, who takes it and gives it a squeeze. "That's why she won't succeed."

Ruby matches her smile. "I'm glad to hear that."

"That said, she won't give up so easily. Emma is persistent above all else."

Ruby makes a face at the idea of being solicited again. "If you think that's the case, this needs to be resolved quickly. She wasn't violent tonight but she wanted to be. I know that look. I see it in the mirror when I get frustrated during Wolf's Time. The monster was begging to be let loose." After stewing on her emotions a second, Ruby's expression turns inquisitive. "She needs help before things go too far. Do you have any idea how to fix her?"

Regina frowns at the question because she doesn't have a clue how to resolve the situation, or if she does, she doesn't remember. "If I could reclaim our time in Camelot? Maybe. What happened there is anyone's guess, but it's possible we found a solution that Emma rebelled against by wiping our memories and bringing us all back, much in the same vein as my sister did."

Ruby takes the news better than expected. There is no worry to be found in her as she pats Regina's hand affectionately before releasing it. "Well, while I'd love to solve this latest crisis tonight, let's not dwell on it any more. You'll figure out a way to help Emma. You're the most resourceful person I've ever known."

Ruby's confidence is a much needed bolster to Regina's ego, which has taken a beating over the past weeks. She gently cups Ruby's cheek, smiling when Ruby leans into her touch.

As she brushes her thumb over Ruby's lower lip, she says, "Your faith in me is astounding and unwarranted, but I'll take it."

"Good," Ruby replies, eyes creasing with a smile of her own. "Can I have a kiss now? I need to get the taste of Emma's unwelcome advances out of my mouth."

It is a request Regina is happy to oblige. She leans in and presses their lips together, keeping it sweet and loving but chaste out of respect for Ruby. Although Ruby insists she just needs some time to reconcile fiction with reality, Regina knows her lover is not yet ready for intimacy. It will be a while, she thinks, before either of them feel comfortable making love. For now, they need to take things slow without regressing.

When they part after a minute or so, Regina takes Ruby by the hand to lead her over to the bed.

"Listen, there is something we need to talk about," she says once they are seated, having angled themselves toward each other so that their knees are brushing. "When I was eavesdropping, I heard Emma refer to what happened in Heroes & Villains. Am I missing context here or is there truth to her assertion that it happened more than once?"

For a moment it looks like Ruby is about to deny the truth, but thinks better of it when Regina raises a sable brow as if daring her tentative girlfriend to lie. Abashed and visibly unsettled, Ruby ducks her head down to peer up at Regina through her lashes. "You're not missing anything. Evil Snow didn't stop the...abuse after that first time. She left the guards out of it, though, so there's that to be thankful for."

Regina pales, a whoosh of air leaving her as if her lungs are being forcibly compressed. A long silence passes before she recovers enough to tip Ruby's chin up to meet haunted green eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asks, voice tremulous.

"I didn't want you to feel guilty." When Regina looks confused, Ruby clarifies with a wince, "because of Graham."

Regina pales for the second time, this time shrinking back as if struck. Emma's comment from earlier echos through her brain, and she can't help but fear that this is the moment she's dreaded since this relationship began. An unpleasantly tight knot forms in her stomach over the likelihood that Ruby will soon leave her.

Her voice is nearly inaudible when she speaks. "You know about that?"

Ruby nods, her superior hearing having picked up the faint question. She nibbles at her lip twice before replying, "I always knew." Regina's eyes widen dramatically. "It's hard to fool a werewolf when sex is involved," she goes on to explain. "Even a cursed one. Graham's arrangement with you never quite sat right with me. It was like he hated you but at the same time couldn't quit you. I knew something was off but didn't understand exactly what that was until the curse broke. Wasn't hard to put the pieces together after I had my memories back. Your penchant for collecting hearts was your claim to fame, after all."

Regina gapes, unable to formulate a response. The guilt and shame that has riddled her conscience since being freed from Isaac Heller's story comes flooding through the dam she'd temporarily erected to hold it at bay.

"Ruby," she breathes after a minute of uncomfortable silence. "I...I don't know what to say."

"You did something awful. There's really nothing to say."

Ruby's response is blunt, but her tone is neither angry nor hurt, which somewhat confuses Regina. She'd expected to be lambasted verbally, or even to be roasted upon a spit and then consumed whole by the wolf. Ruby's measured response is so bewildering that she doesn't quite know what to think or do or say. She does feel that she would prefer vitriol to this controlled response because at least then she would know where she stands.

Even if occupying a tentative position, Regina knows she has to say something. She owes Ruby that much at least. After taking a deep preparatory breath, she rips the band-aid off.

"You are absolutely right. I did something unforgivable, and while I know it's no excuse, I need you to know that I only forced him with his heart once before the Curse. I swear I did not make Graham sleep with me here."

Ruby's eyes slice into Regina, delving beyond the surface down into the depths of her heart and soul. It is like she is reading a book made of flesh and bones and deciphering it with the ease of a practiced translator. The feeling that gaze produces in Regina is disconcerting to say the least, and her unease is only intensified upon Ruby's subsequent query.

"He felt compelled just the same, though, did he not?"

Regina grinds her teeth against the truth, but in the interest of salvaging what she can of their relationship, she has to be brutally honest. Ruby is still here for the moment, but Regina knows her girlfriend will leave if lies start being told.

"Yes...I-I," she stutters, fighting against her instinct to lie while trying find the right words to convey what happened to Graham under the Dark Curse. "The Curse was not of my design, but without his heart, I suppose he defaulted to witless obedience."

The look of disappointment that crosses Ruby's face sends Regina's heart into her stomach. She's said the wrong thing.

"Don't do that."

"What, dear? Tell the truth?" Regina replies, reverting to sarcasm out of habit. She is reeling and feeling defensive. "I thought that's what you wanted."

Ruby growls, although it is not menacing so much as an expression of her frustration. "It is! Keep telling the truth, Regina, just don't demean Graham with your words. He was a good person. He wasn't witless, he wasn't a slave, and he didn't deserve what happened to him, just like I didn't."

Rather than allow herself to crawl further beneath the shell of snarky defiance, Regina takes the correction for what it is: an admonishment from a place of love. "You're right," she concedes, and it feels strange but right all the same.

Were it any other person Regina is sure she wouldn't feel this way, but with Ruby, she feels safe enough to receive criticism knowing it is purely for her benefit. Ruby wants to help her be a better person without seeming like a self-righteous, holier-than-thou, know-it-all. And aside from that, isn't improving herself been what she's worked towards since the moment she adopted Henry?

"You're right," she continues, "and I'm sorry, I truly am. What can I do to prove that?"

"Well, Graham is dead, so I don't see how it's possible."

Regina flinches, but gets the gist of Ruby's argument, even if her question was misconstrued. "I meant to you."

Ruby's expression softens at that. She reaches for Regina's hand, grasps it between her own, then rests them in her lap. "You have nothing to prove to me, Regina. You have never hurt me and I know you never will on purpose. I do have a question for you, though. Have you owned up to what you did?"

Ruby's reassurance is welcome, but her question hits the mark, setting Regina's stomach into a nauseating churn. "N-no, I suppose I haven't. Tonight is the first time I've spoken of this with anyone."

"Don't you think it's time, then? For what it's worth, what happened to me has nothing to do with what you did to Graham." Regina gives Ruby a doubtful look, which prompts Ruby to duck forward and run the pad of her index finger tenderly down Regina's jawline. "It doesn't," she reinforces. "From my perspective, the events are not in any way related. It was not some karmic punishment aimed at you. But you don't see it that way, do you? You're starting to associate them." Regina nods sorrowfully. "Well, don't, because I can't get through this with you stuck between the past and the present. I need you here with me now. Is that selfish? I guess so, but..."

"It's not selfish, sweetheart," Regina interjects. "After what you've been through, you deserve my undivided attention. But you're correct that I can't give you what you need unless I acknowledge my hypocrisy. It's time to do that, I suppose, but as you said, Graham is dead. I can't exactly make recompense to him."

"But you can to Emma."

The suggestion catches Regina off guard. Perhaps her guilt is impairing her perception, but she can't fathom how apologizing to Emma will make her feel better about what she did to Graham.

"How so?"

"She loved him," Ruby explains, "and I think she was the only person who ever did. Losing Graham changed Emma, it shaped her into the woman she is today almost as much as being stuffed into that wardrobe with Pinocchio did. Graham may not be here to accept your apologies, but as much as was possible without a heart, he loved Emma back, and she is still here."

What Ruby is saying makes sense, but there is an obstacle that has been overlooked. "But is she? In such a state as she is now, Emma is half present at best. Confessing to -" unable to bring herself to use the appropriate word, she grits out a deflection, "that...will be meaningless or even worse, a weapon to be used against me. I can't face her until she's herself, Ruby."

"I agree. I just…" Ruby sighs and then gestures between them. "I just want us to work, but we can't with this baggage coming between us. For us to move forward, I have to let go of mine and you have to let go of yours."

Ruby has been avoiding Snow like the plague due to what happened in Heroes & Villains, but her statement gives Regina a hope that she feels awful in acknowledging given what she's just confessed to. But she needs it desperately, so she clings to it. "You mean..."

"As soon as this mess is over with Emma, I will do my part," Ruby confirms. "I'll talk to Snow, but only if you promise to talk to Emma. And no holding back, okay? I'll know if you do."

Regina cannot express how much she does not want to face Emma about Graham, but she had to acknowledge that Ruby was right, as his death was a point of axial shift for Emma. In the weeks that followed, on the few nights during which Emma was not working herself to the bone, she would loiter around the Station to mope inside the Sheriff's office. And during the day she often could be found lingering mournfully at the deceased Sheriff's fresh grave.

Regina had mostly avoided Emma during that time, but when their paths finally crossed Emma stared at her with so much loathing that Regina momentarily considered the possibility of Emma having figured out the truth. She'd quickly dismissed the idea as absurd, but in retrospect she knows Emma's remarkably keen intuition was making connections her conscious mind could not.

After the Curse was broken, life became too hectic for Emma to confront Regina about the slain Sheriff, which hadn't bothered Regina in the slightest. Any reprieve from having to deal with Emma's wrath was welcome since she'd been so single-mindedly focused on both staying alive and winning back her son's trust. The longer time passed without a mention of what she'd done to Graham, the more she began to relax. She shouldn't have. Emma was simply biding her time.

On the first anniversary of Graham's death, the great showdown finally happened. Quite coincidentally, it occurred within the cozy confines of the Storybrooke Sheriff's Station – in the Sheriff's office at that. Regina, not thinking at all about the date, had made casual mention of her preference for Graham's style of decoration, which was a terrible mistake, as the location combined with the still-burning torch Emma carried for him had set her off. During the subsequent flurried exchange of vicious remarks, a crass comment resulted in Regina being slapped across the face. It took all of Regina's restraint not to return the favor, only with a fireball instead of her hand.

Slaps, however, would be the least of Regina's worries upon Emma discovering the other heinous crime the Evil Queen had visited upon a helpless Graham. More than anything, Regina feared that Emma would end their friendship and sever all but nominal ties with her over it. Because she needs Emma's friendship almost as much as she needs Henry and Ruby's love, losing it now would be a devastating blow from which she might never fully recover.

And yet for Ruby's sake, she is willing to sabotage the only true friendship she's ever had. There is no choice to be made.

"I will," she promises, meaning it despite the pangs of sorrow in her heart. It is almost as if she can feel Emma slipping away already. She hides her sadness, though, not wanting Ruby to know how much this is affecting her. You are not the victim here, she reminds herself, then says aloud to Ruby, "Thank you for being so understanding. I don't deserve it."

"No, you don't." The curt response knocks the wind out of Regina for the second time in a short span. But then Ruby squeezes her hand in reassurance and continues, "But does anyone, really? All of us have done terrible things, Regina, including me. The Bible got one thing right, at least: we are all sinners in need of salvation. It's just that, as I said, I can't offer you absolution for Graham because it's not my place and he's not around to do so for himself. Emma is as close as you can get, and what she'll do is anyone's guess at this point. But beyond her, Regina, you have to forgive yourself."

"I don't know how to do that, Ruby," Regina confesses, eyes watering with emotion. "And even if I did, I don't know if I can."

"You can if you just let me help you!" Dropping Regina's hand, Ruby cups her face with both hands, thumbs just in front of her ears, and draws Regina forward until their foreheads are almost touching. So close, she can smell the strawberry sweetness of Ruby's shampoo and see the love shining in those expressive green eyes.

"Listen to me," Ruby continues, her voice authoritative but tempered by those vast stores of compassion that never cease to amaze Regina. "I love you unconditionally, but that also means I know you. There are people in town who think I've had the wool pulled over my eyes for me to be with you, but I assure you I did not enter into this relationship blindly. I know who you are, Regina, and I know what you've done.

"But you see, that monstrous part of me that is the wolf craves the darkness in you, revels in the way you treat me when you're in one of your moods. I would be lying if I said I don't look forward to you breaking out the leather and the riding crop after tying me up to the bed, or that I don't love to get in your face when you're so angry unadulterated hellfire is blazing in your eyes. 'Cause I do, Regina. I get off on you being bad sometimes, and you know what? I wasn't ashamed of that before that damnable book, and I refuse to let myself be shamed now because two megalomaniacs tried to escape the consequences of their atrocious choices in life. I am who I am, part of me being an honest to God wild animal.

"But you know what? That other part of me, the part that is a human girl? Well, she loves the light that is in you. Your motherly way with Henry is so beautiful to me, Regina, and so is your selflessness in saving this town over and over again. You have made friends of your enemies in a way that I once would have thought impossible. But most of all I love the way you love me.

"No one can ever compare to you as far as I'm concerned. You are my perfect mate. I don't want anyone else, and I don't expect you change either. I love you just the way you are, both light and darkness, and the best parts of both at that. What I do want is for you to let go of the past and embrace the future – our future – 'cause from where I'm sitting, it looks pretty freakin' amazing."

It is hard for Regina to think let along breath due being awestruck at the angelic woman who has so passionately declared a love for her that she'd thought she would never experience again. When Daniel died, Regina had believed his like to forever have disappeared from the world. But she is so glad, so very, very glad to be wrong.

"I think so, too," she says in reference to that future, once dimming by the second but now illuminating the horizon of Regina's imagination again. Smiling through her tears that Ruby wipes away with careful strokes of her thumbs, she softly says, "Thank you, Ruby. Again."

"For what? Loving you?" Ruby asks rhetorically. "That is something you never have to thank me for. I will always love you, Regina. Always."

The incredible smile that overtakes her face is so bright that it lifts Regina's spirits from the dark, swampy morass into which it had earlier sunk. Hope and love blossom within her chest in equal measure, and she revels in their warmth and in their ability to banish the shadows for a season. And although Regina knows they will eventually return, she now knows Ruby will be there with her to shine that brilliant light of her to dispel them, just as she has tonight.

"Yet I still wish to," she counters, feeling a touch cheeky from the return of her good humor. "So I would very much appreciate it if you would just shut up and take the compliment. Stubborn pup."

Ruby chuckles in amusement. "Well, missy, if you want to thank me so very badly, why don't you come here and give me a kiss?"

Regina straightens her shoulders with a flourish, but Ruby does not let go of her face. Instead she draws Regina in even closer so that Regina has but to whisper for her to hear.

"Your wish is my command."

It has been two months, a week, and five days since Regina returned from Camelot. So much has happened in that span that her head spins even thinking about it. Purging Emma from the reforged Excalibur lead to a trip to the Underworld to rescue Hook who, after absorbing the power of every Dark One who ever lived, sacrificed himself in perhaps the most heroic death Regina has yet witnessed.

In the Underworld Regina was reunited with her father only to lose him all over again. Her only comfort had been that he passed on to a better place, much as Daniel had. At the same time she was dealing with that loss, she'd faced off with her mother one last time. The happy ending to that story was in no small part due to Cora, whose unfinished business wound up involving reuniting her feuding daughters. She accomplished this astounding feat by restoring memories she'd taken from both Regina and Zelena in their youth, a time in which they had met and loved each other like true sisters should. Feeling that warmth for Zelena again had been an unexpected boon for Regina, but it was soon tempered by Ruby's painful experience.

Regina had pleaded with Ruby not to accompany her to the Underworld, but her stubborn wolf refused her every attempt by citing Regina's near death experience in Camelot. That Robin had stepped in front of a blade meant for her only made Ruby more determined.

"If anybody is going to die for you, it's going to be me," she'd said, which was an absurd point of view, and Regina told her so. "I don't care!" she'd replied hotly. "You left me behind once. I won't be sidelined a second time, not when I can help." When Regina started to argue, Ruby's eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm going whether you want me to or not, the only question is where I'll be sleeping when get back home." There was no need for Regina to interpret that statement.

Since coming back from Camelot, Ruby had sort of migrated into half-living at the mansion, which was to Regina's benefit in many ways beyond the obvious. Having the woman she loved in her arms almost every night was amazing, and frankly if Ruby had continued living in her apartment full time, Regina wouldn't have slept a wink with so much distance between them and the memories from Heroes & Villains still relatively fresh in her mind. Having Ruby at home with her a majority of the time was a luxury she had grown to rely on, as well as one she didn't ever want to be deprived of again. Thus, she had rather pathetically agreed to Ruby's demands.

Before leaving for the Underworld, Regina was so busy worrying about Emma's state of mind and saving Hook that she hadn't dwelt much on the possibility of encountering lost loved ones. It was only once they arrived and had a moment to breathe that she thought of her father and of Daniel. As she visited their tombstones, Ruby mentioned wanting to check a few for herself. To their mutual horror both Anita, Ruby's mother, and Peter, her deceased boyfriend, had yet to move on.

While Emma searched for a way to resurrect Hook, Regina helped Ruby face her greatest fears. The confrontation with Peter had been easiest for Ruby, as his unfinished business was simply to tell her that he loved and forgave her. He'd known she would blame herself for his death and could not move on until she let go of her guilt, whether in life or in death.

The depth of his love for Ruby and the support he'd shown for their relationship was remarkable, and as they accompanied Peter to the bridge leading to his better place and shortly thereafter Ruby said goodbye to him, Regina couldn't help but be reminded of Daniel. Part of her longed for the kind of closure Ruby got, but the other part of her was so very glad he had not lingered in that place so long for her, which seemed to her a validation of just how well he knew her.

After the emotionally trying experience with Peter, Regina and Ruby set off in search for Ruby's mother. As it turns out, in Underbrooke (Regina's alias for the Underworld Hades had constructed for Zelena) Ruby's mother was employed as a game warden, so they'd had to venture out to an outpost in the woods to find her. Unfortunately, Anita was lying in wait and sprang at Regina before she could react, knocking her out cold with a blow to the head from the butt of her gun. There was to be no reconciliation for Ruby and her mother as there was for Regina and hers, for when Regina came to, Ruby was cradling her mother's bloody and broken body in her arms.

According to Hades, who appeared to taunt them at precisely the right moment, a person who dies by the same hand in the Underworld as in that of the living becomes a tormented soul trapped forever in limbo between worlds. The news further devastated an already grief-stricken Ruby. Nothing Regina said or did helped to quell Ruby's sadness as she grieved her mother a second time. On the contrary it was Ruby's selfless ability to put others before herself – namely for Regina after her mother moved on – that snapped her out of her depression. There was no time after that for Regina to seek out the one other person with whom she had unfinished business, and that, she decided, was fine with her.

Meanwhile Hades increasingly proved to be an annoyance, and although the entire company from Storybrooke managed to escape the Underworld, their troubles did not end there. For Hades, unbeknownst to Regina, had wormed his way into Storybrooke with Zelena's help and then proceeded to plan a hostile takeover. And although he was killed in the attempt, Robin died saving Regina from being stabbed by the Olympian Crystal, which Zelena had then used to kill her own True Love.

Robin's funeral was an oppressively sad occasion for Regina, as there was much she had left unsaid to him. She'd never got the chance to apologize to him for moving on while he was in New York, though the compassionate way he'd handled her relationship with Ruby told her he didn't need or want her to. Most importantly, Robin died not knowing how grateful she was to him for opening up her heart to the possibility of loving someone again, and it broke her heart into a million tiny pieces.

The only reason she managed to get through it was both for the sake of little Roland and with the support of those who loved her – Ruby, Henry, and Zelena foremost among them. Afterward Regina convinced Henry to go home with Emma so she could have some privacy. It had surprised her that she didn't ask Ruby to give her time, but somewhere between the graveside and the car she realized going home to an empty house to stew on her guilt and sorrow alone was a bad idea.

Once back home, she went through the routine of undressing and then sliding into more comfortable attire consisting of black slacks and a white blouse, mostly ignoring Ruby as she did the same. She'd put away her dress next, and as she was sliding it into the closet in its carefully assigned space, she caught sight of one of Robin's jackets on the shelves that he'd neglected to collect. After fetching it with trembling hands, she held it up to her nose and inhaled deeply to take in the gentle scent of the forest lingering upon it.

"It's okay to miss him," Ruby had said, breaking the silence.

Regina turned to see her girlfriend sitting on the bed in a pair of washed out jeans and a low cut v-neck cami-top with an enormous crescent moon shaped pendant hanging between her breasts. There was an understanding to her expression that made Regina feel comforted even though all she wanted to do was scream until her lungs gave out.

"I miss Peter, too," Ruby then continued. "Seeing him again..." she trailed off a space, eyes watering as she remembered their encounter in the Underworld. "It was wonderful, and I'm so glad I got to say goodbye to him. But even then, I still miss his face and his smile and the silly way he'd knock on my window in the middle of the night, risking Granny's wrath just to get a kiss. He was special and I loved him, just like you did Robin. It's okay to miss him, Regina. It's okay."

That afternoon, Regina fell apart in Ruby's arms and then they fell asleep together on top of the covers with Regina half atop Ruby held secure by her lover's deceptively strong arms. The next day, life was a little bit more normal, and a little more the next day after that. Soon enough, Regina was back into the swing of daily life in Storybrooke, having found a rhythm alongside Ruby that worked for them.

Now a month and change later, that life has settled back into a some semblance of normalcy, and only one thing remains for Regina to face. With Emma free of the Dark One curse, no excuses remains with which to avoid the inevitable confrontation. And while many problems remain in Storybrooke to be dealt with, such is par for the course for a town populated by fairy tale characters and steeped in magic. Since the moment the first Dark Curse was broken it has been one emergency after another, and Regina knows the peace is unlikely to last much longer. With that being the case, the time for delaying the inevitable is over. She has put this off long enough.

Dread coils in her chest like a viper ready to strike as she drives to the Cemetery and then walks the foreboding pathway to a grave she has not visited in years. With butterflies in her stomach, she peers down at the slate gray stone Emma had paid for out of pocket and had etched with the simple but poignant epitaph: "Here Lies Sheriff Graham. You Were Loved."

Lifting her head toward the sky, she inhales a bitter breath, the cooling autumn air biting unpleasantly at her lungs. The chill fits her mood perfectly.

"I don't know how to do this," she begins. "I don't know how to apologize to someone who doesn't exist anymore, and I don't know how to begin to let go of this guilt that's been eating me up since being imprisoned in that infernal book. All I know is that I am sorry, Graham, so very sorry.

"I'm sorry that I put you through those things, that I abused you, that I killed you in a fit of pointless jealousy. The moment I crushed your heart, I regretted it, because despite of my actions, I did care about you, just not like you deserved. Above all, I wish that I wasn't talking to a tombstone and that you were here for me to say this to. It's the least I owe you. What I did...it was..."

"Deplorable? Atrocious? Unforgivable? Shall I go on?"

The familiar voice of Storybrooke's resident Savior startles Regina and robs her of the ability to breathe. Hand over her heart, she chokes out, "Emma, I didn't..."

"No, no," Emma raises a hand to stop Regina's reflexive apology, "I'll stop there since you were just getting warmed up. That was a nice little speech you had going and I'd hate to be the reason you lost your momentum. By all means, carry on."

Regina blinks several times, unsure of how to respond to Emma's scathing sarcasm. "Emma, I..."

"You're what, Regina?" Emma again interrupts. "You're sorry? Yeah, I heard. For what it's worth, I actually believe you, but that doesn't change the fact that you are a rapist."

Something in Regina snaps at being assigned that label, however accurate it may be. "And a murderer, don't forget," she says, irrationally furious at Emma while also hating herself so much that she barely knows what to do about it. "Also I am a King-slayer, and a usurper, and a war criminal, and..." For the third time, Emma interrupts Regina, which only fuels her irritation.

"I'm not here for a laundry list of your crimes. There's just one I'm interested in."

Regina grinds her teeth together until her jaw aches, then spits out, "What do you want me to say then? Yes, for a time in my life I was a completely depraved lunatic who forced a good, innocent man into my bed. I am guilty of being a horrible person. I still am. Is that what you want to hear?"

"I want to hear you say the word!" Emma explodes, her entire body taut as a drum and her green eyes lit with the flames of righteous indignation. "I want to hear you admit to being the very thing you accused my mother of being, only she had no choice in the matter!"

Regina scoffs derisively. "Oh, so this is about poor wittle Mommy? Tell me, is Snow still at home curled up in a ball sobbing her eyes out due to her guilt over Ruby? She should be. You are aware, aren't you, that an Author cannot compel a person to do things which they are incapable of in reality? Somewhere deep, deep down inside, your innocent mother has hidden some very naughty proclivities. The book merely plumbed those depths to their fullest extent."

Emma's face turns red the longer Regina goes on, which gives Regina a measure of satisfaction that it probably shouldn't. She is supposed to be feeling remorseful and apologetic in this situation, not provoking the woman to whom she should be directing said feelings.

"Stop deflecting, Regina," the angry blonde replies. "This is about you, not Mom. And anyway, isn't there an old saying that goes something like, 'takes one to know one'?"

"Well, I am a monster, Emma," Regina says in a casual tone, "and a sexual predator. No one is pretending otherwise here, even me. I am what you say I am, but do not forget that I was manipulated into becoming said monster."

Emma throws her hands into the air, completely exasperated now. "Oh, my God, Regina," she groans, "quit assigning blame to everyone else. Just woman the hell up and admit it, damn you! Say the words!"

Irate to the point of snapping at being antagonized, Regina steps up into Emma's space. "Fine!" she shouts. "I took Graham's heart and I used it to rape him!" The very instant those words leave her lips, something breaks inside Regina. That pitifully weak dam she'd built has suddenly formed cracks, which rapidly deteriorate into a gaping holes so that all too soon she is being flooded with waves after wave of repressed guilt that slams into her with the force of a thousand meteors. "I...I d-did it," she gasps, stuttering around bile and the choking pressure of years worth of repressed shame being unleashed in a moment. "I r-raped Graham, oh my God..." Shuddering from head to toe, Regina stumbles away from Emma, leaning heavily upon a large upright tombstone nearby to support her weight.

Emma follows Regina with her patented doggedness. "There it is," she taunts. "Finally. There can be no more hiding after this, no more convincing yourself it didn't happen or it was 'another world'. You raped Graham, Regina, and you're going to have to come to terms with that. So how does it feel to be honest with yourself? Or better yet, can you even live with what you've done now that you've admitted it?"

And that was the question wasn't it? Watching Ruby suffer as Red in Isaac Heller's world had awakened Regina to the true, unspeakably hideous reality of what she had done to Graham. She can still vividly remember how ferociously she'd hated Evil Snow, how she'd wanted to rip the woman apart limb from limb for what she did to Red, but now that hatred is turning in on herself, a malignant emotional tumor that threatens to destroy the hard-won progress she's made.

As she struggles with the insidious spread of self-loathing, she can't help but wonder if she'd worn the same psychotically smug smile as Snow's on her face while she'd personally destroyed what remained of Graham's humanity? Had she laughed like Snow did while Graham screamed inside his own head, trapped and unable to do anything but comply to Regina's every perverse pleasure?

"I don't…I-I don't know..." Sick to the point of vomiting, Regina gags and then bends over at the waist to expel her breakfast. By the time the waves pass, she is dry heaving painfully. She hears the Savior groan as she tries to recover her breath.

"I should hate you, Regina. I really should," Emma says as Regina spits out the sick in her mouth, then wipes at her lips with the sleeve of her jacket. Although the blood rushing in her ears nearly drowns out all ambient noise, she manages to catch Emma next, incredibly vital words, "But I don't. I just don't." Emma pauses to draw a breath, and Regina watches her, wide-eyed and almost disbelieving at the direction things appear to be going. At best she had expected for Emma to swear her off forever, while at worst she'd considered it a good possibility that Emma might try to kill her if enough of the darkness from the dagger was loitering in some hidden crevice of the Savior's psyche.

But as if privy to Regina's secret thoughts, Emma reaches out to brush a bead of sweat away from her damp brow. She gasps at the tenderness of her touch.

"Besides the fact that I love you and you're my friend," Emma then says in low, undeservedly compassionate tones, "you've done worse things that I was already aware of. How can I hate you for what you did to Graham when I don't for the hundreds of people you slaughtered? Is rape a worse crime than murder? I don't know, I'm not an expert on such things, but what I am an expert on is you. And I know that you are not that woman anymore."

"Yet I hate myself all the same, and more than you ever could," Regina replies through a throat that is dry and scratchy from the acidic bile that recently passed through it. With her defenses destroyed, honesty pours out of her and she makes no attempt to stop it. "Before I was forced to watch Ruby be r..."

Trailing off at the word that had triggered her recent sickness, Regina's eyes clamp shut and she braces herself as another surge of sickness swirls within her stomach. The wave passes after a moment, but still she squeezes the next bit of excruciating truth through a tight jaw.

"Before that, what happened with Graham was just another dirty move in my game of life and death with your mother. Watching it happen to her, though, to the one person I love almost as much as I do Henry...it changed me. It wasn't real, I know that, but I remember it as if it was, and I'll never forget the helplessness in her eyes, or the sound of her screams, or the sight of her arms shredded to pieces from thrashing against the restraints. It makes me wonder if...if Graham felt the same way Ruby did, or if I looked as joyful in my insanity as she did."

Externalizing her recent thoughts proves more cathartic than she'd anticipated. And while she still feels like a disgusting human being, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, however dim it is, that she might some day wash herself at least partially clean of her multitudinous sins. The stink of some of those acts will never fade, but that is the price of being alive, she decides, and it is one she can live with if it means she doesn't lose everyone she loves and everything she has built over the past few years. And while that attitude is grossly insensitive, it is one she has to adopt in order to survive. Healing is one thing, but it is impossible for a crazy person to heal, and that is what Regina will decay into if she lets herself continue to swirl down this very dark and very deep rabbit hole.

As Regina considers her admittedly bleak but not yet hopeless future, Emma says nothing, her face betraying none of her thoughts. But then her brows crease and she ducks her head to stare at her feet as she kicks at the grass around the stone. When she looks back up, her expression is troubled.

"For what it's worth," she says, then sighs and turns her eyes skyward, "I wondered the same thing of myself."

Beset by confusion, Regina forgets her own woes for a moment. She crosses her arms over her chest, hands over her forearms that she rubs at to warm herself up against the increasing chill in the air.

"I'm sorry? I don't follow."

"It's yet another reason I can't hate you," Emma replies, appearing subtly distraught as if struggled with some secret sins of her own. Regina's perception proves accurate upon Emma's subsequent confession. "The night you caught me with Ruby wasn't the last time I was alone with her. While you and my parents were commiserating how to stop me one night, I came back. It was late and she was asleep."

Regina stiffens at hearing of this nocturnal visit Darth Swan had paid to Ruby. But before she can voice her premature accusations, Emma goes on emptying her conscience. Ruefully, Regina thinks that if she had known this visit to the Cemetery was going to turn into such an occasion for them both, she would have arranged for a priest to accompany her – though she isn't sure there is a cleric upon the face of the earth willing to endure hearing the kinds of things she for which she could seek absolution.

"I...I stood there at the foot of the bed for the longest time and just stared at her," Emma continues, looking conflicted. Perhaps the darkness is not so gone after all, Regina thinks. "She was so beautiful and serene and pure. So deliciously corruptible. Something about Ruby was beckoning to the darkness, singing a siren song so feral and powerful and irresistible that I was intoxicated. It felt like that animal always lurking just beneath the veil of her goodness was communing my own, and the longer I stood there, the more I wanted to claim her, to possess her with or without her permission and then share her with Killian just like we'd fantasized."

Regina assumes this commiseration with Dark Hook happened some time after Emma restored his memories and somehow talked him over to her side. For a while, the heroes of Storybrooke had been fighting two Dark Ones. But then Hook had a change of heart, went rogue, and forced Emma to seek help from those she'd been so adeptly pushing away.

But while she would like to scold Emma for plotting to seduce Ruby into a some kind of poly amorous relationship, Regina remains silently while listening and watching the disquieted Savior.

After a deep breath, Emma shuffles her weight from one hip to the other. "Only the small part of me left that loved Ruby kept me from acting on my desires." Her eyes then fix upon Regina, and they are so terribly intense that Regina feels a chill corkscrew into the base of her spinal column. "But Regina...if Hook hadn't turned on me and distracted me, it would have only been a matter of time before I took what I wanted. If I had, I would have thoroughly wrecked her, and that kills me."

Regina gapes at Emma in utter disbelief, not quite sure what to make of this information. On one hand she is tempted to berate Emma for even thinking about violating Ruby in such a way. She nearly does just that before she remembers that unlike Emma and without the influence of the most evil magical instrument ever created, she had not listened to her better angels. That Emma had done so only out of necessity does not matter.

With her indignation at Emma quelled, all Regina can manage to do is emit a string of colorful expletives as she laments the probability that no soul in Storybrooke over the age of accountability is unsullied. If even the Savior can fall victim to such heinous impulses, she thinks, what chance do the rest of us have?

"Yeah," Emma agrees to Regina's curses. "So you see, to condemn you would be hypocritical."

Regina laughs miserably at being let off the hook upon such a tragic technicality, and the part of her that desperately needs to be held accountable refuses to accept the out.

"While I'm relieved at your sympathy, fantasy is a far cry from reality. I, unlike you, actually did what you stopped yourself from doing."

"True," says Emma, head tilted thoughtfully and infuriatingly lacking the loathing that had so recently characterized her. "That doesn't change the fact that I'm not going to judge you for it. I can't and I won't. For one, as I said, it would be hypocritical, but also, I am not Graham. Were he ali..."

Pausing, Emma turns her face and takes a shuddering breath as a lone tear trickles down her cheek. She harshly brushes it away before returning her attention to Regina.

"Were he alive today," she continues, "it would be up to him to decide whether or not you have earned forgiveness. As far as I'm concerned, you coming here and admitting this...it says a lot, means a lot to me. For all of the reasons I've stated I won't hold this against you, but at the same time I can't forgive you for a crime you committed against someone else."

Regina's voice is small when she asks, "Where does that leave me then?"

Again Emma shifts her weight, though this time she risks moving a step closer to a visibly skittish Regina.

"It leaves you to figure out how to forgive yourself. And I guess I'm going to have to do the same, because I still have a hard time looking Ruby in the eye. Lucky for us, we have some pretty amazing people in our lives who love us unconditionally and want to help us through our guilt. I'd suggest for both of our sakes that we try to let them."

Regina takes a drawn out breath, then shakes her head uncertainly. "I'm not sure I know how to let myself be helped, but for once I see the wisdom in your words, Swan. I've got to try."

"Oh, Regina, how can you doubt yourself even now?" poses Emma as she carefully clasps Regina's elbow. "The woman I first met was nothing short of a cold, calculating bitch. But the one I see before me today is braver than she gives herself credit for. You've proven yourself to an entire town that hated you and made friends out of the people you once swore to destroy. Ignoring my obvious bias, you raised Henry to be thoughtful and kind and loving. And now you've opened up your heart to one of the most selfless and loyal people on earth and are learning how to love her the way she loves you. I think you do know how."

"Well, I hope you're right," Regina replies, trying to sound like a hardass in spite of the warmth bubbling in her chest. "Ruby deserves better than what I've been giving her."

"Ruby deserves what she wants," Emma gently admonishes, "and for whatever reason she wants you, wrinkles and warts and all. I know for a fact she is one of few people who understands you on a molecular level, and yet she loves you with everything she has."

Somehow, Regina manages to chuckle. She hates that Emma has made her feel better, but is so damned grateful at the same time. Internally, she is awed at her good fortune at Emma Swan being a part of her life while externally replying, "It is a mystery, isn't it?"

Emma's counter comes quickly. "No more than Belle and Gold I'd say."

"I suppose." Regina concedes the point even though she is loathe to be compared to the imp and his Stockholm-stricken maid.

For a period of several seconds, both women remain silent. While Emma chews at her lip tentatively, Regina allows her vision to wander over the area, looking but unseeing as she attempts to recenter her thoughts. As her eyes linger on her family mausoleum, an image surfaces of lying abed with Ruby in her little hut as Regina the bandit and Red Riding Hood.

That memory is one of few she is determined to hold on to from Heroes & Villains because it is the most reflective of her true relationship with Ruby. The unparalleled intimacy they had established, their ability to get so lost in one another that all else seems inconsequential, is something that has persisted since emerging from that fictional prison, and it is something Regina is determined to hold on to.

Being close to Ruby, she has come to believe, is like being transfigured into a moon in orbital decay. Arrested by the inescapable gravity of her beautiful and brilliantly luminous planet, any distance is too much to endure, so she spirals closer and closer and closer until they collide, merging together in an explosion of molten emotion too complex to explain and yet too simple to misconstrue as anything but the most extraordinary kind of love in all the universe.

When all is said and done, Regina is convinced that the love she shares with Ruby is cosmically ordained, and in considering the profundity of those feelings, she begins to doubt whether or not Tinkerbelle had been right to name Robin as her soul mate after all. How could he have when Ruby has so easily eclipsed him? For while Robin was a lamppost in the darkness, Ruby is the sun itself.

"Say, while we're being honest, can I ask you a question?" Emma's voice pierces through Regina's contemplations, wrenching her from thoughts quite violently. "It's personal, but I think it relates to both of us and our current conversation."

"Alright..." she drawls, not quite sure whether she wants to entertain Emma's line of query. But because Emma has been more understanding than Regina had any right to expect, she allows it.

"When you married my grandfather..."

Regina snaps her hand up, eyes widening from the onset of panic at the mention of her late husband. Leopold is a topic Regina does not broach lightly, and even then only in dire circumstances.

Truth be told, she wishes she could take a steel brush to the part of her brain containing her memories of him. As much as Regina blames Cora for her failings as a mother and her literal inability to be a decent human being as well as exposing her daughter to darkness at such a tender age, it is Leopold who had the heaviest hand in turning Regina into the Evil Queen. Cora had plowed the field as it were, but it was Leopold who sewed the seed. Regina's lips curl in disgust at her own internal metaphor.

However, she is not angry with Emma if only because she is pretty sure she understands the connection Emma is trying to make.

"Stop right there," she interjects, proud of herself for not sounding overly harsh. "I know what you're going to suggest and it simply isn't true. Although I certainly would not have chosen to do so had circumstances not been as they were, I nonetheless entered into the union with your grandfather of my own volition. There was no coercion, Emma. I am not a victim here."

"Sure," Emma replies, "but as you said, you didn't choose him. Tell me something, when you climbed into his bed, did you ever once want it?"

The current line of questioning having entered dangerous territory, Regina cuts Emma a warning glance. "Careful, Swan. Some wounds are best left unprodded."

As if ignorant or otherwise unconcerned of Regina's turmoil, Emma rolls her eyes dramatically. "C'mon, Regina," she whines. "You've done so well today. Don't stop now. This is the last truth that you need to face before you can finally, truly, start to move on from your past."

Regina huffs dubiously. "And what makes you such an expert in Psychology?"

"My time as a bail bondsperson for one," Emma offers with a shrug, and as she launches into her subsequent speech, Regina is transfixed into utter silence. "But I learned the most during my time in prison. Did you know that they have books there about all kinds of subjects, including Psychology? I read them because let me tell you, that place is hella boring.

"Anyway, I learned something in that place critical to my understanding about abusers that changed my entire outlook. And I didn't read it in a book, I heard and saw it every day in the way my fellow jailbirds would commiserate about their experiences. You see, most of them were abused themselves, and they simply didn't know how to deal with that trauma. When people get broken like that, they become tragic mirrors that transform them into the very thing that broke them in the first place. So I ask again, Regina, did you ever once want him in that way?"

That Emma has deconstructed her using such an indirect but completely accurate method completely unnerves Regina. She feels a tremble pass through her limbs as her deepest scars are bared to the perceptive eyes and the sensitive heart of the Savior. After a moment of enduring Emma's discerning compassion, she stutters out a response.

"N-no...I didn't."

"Then is it fair to say that you were taught that kind of behavior is acceptable if there is a crown on your head?"

Emma's follow-up inquiry hits home in way that completely undoes Regina. She feels herself unraveling in reverse from the inside out rather than from the outside in, and her head begins to spin as she realizes what Emma is trying to help her realize.

Still, after years of programming herself to bear the ignoble cross of villainy, she is stubborn in her unwillingness to surrender it. "That doesn't excuse what I did."

Emma does not waver in her kindness, evidently feeling as determined to get through to Regina as Regina is to remain obstinately in denial of a legitimate explanation as to why she became a truly despicable person.

"I'm not excusing you, Regina, I'm understanding you," Emma counters, tone as patient as her expression. "And I'm trying to help you understand yourself. You treat Ruby like she's made of glass because of violations that occurred in a fake world. Why will you not allow yourself to grieve for what you went through in a very real one?"

"Because I can't!" Regina shouts, heart hammering in her chest. "If I start then I'll never stop!"

"That's not true at all. Regina, you have friends and family here who love you. You have a son who wants more than anything to help you succeed. And don't forget the woman waiting for you back at home who worships you in a way that frankly makes me a bit jealous. If you want to get past this, if you want to truly become the hero I know you can be, you have to open yourself up to the hurt. You have to bare the scars and let us be the salve that soothes the ache. And you can do that, Regina, because you can trust us! You can trust me. Haven't I proved that today?"

The heartfelt words rend Regina's heart, and her body shudders from the cold and her turbulent emotional state. "Of c-course you have E-Emma..."

"Then stop being a sissy and let it out."

Emma's hand raises from Regina's elbow to her shoulder and then smooths gently back down her arm. Up and down, up and down, she repeats the action, her face open and earnest and so affectionate that Regina feels the last barriers of her resistance crumbling. She gasps, slapping a hand over her mouth to hold in a sob.

"That's it," Emma encourages, still rubbing Regina's arm gently, though her other hand has now joined in on the comforting action upon Regina's other appendage. "Let go of all that pain. Scream, cry, whatever you need to do, but purge it here and now. Bury it here where it belongs so that you don't carry it back home with you. Graham is dead, so is my Grandfather, but Henry and Ruby and me and Mom and Dad, we are all alive. We are here, now, so live for us, and let the past die once and for all."

Unable to hold back, Regina cries out, collapsing forward into Emma. She tucks her face into the crook of Emma's neck as strong arms wind their way around her lower back to secure her and hold her upright, her entire body having turned into so much jello.

It hard for Regina to reckon how much time passes as she releases out all of her pent up anguish onto Emma's skin and the collar of her white sweater. All she knows is that when her sobs transition into stilted hiccups, the sun has dipped noticeably in the sky.

"Feel better?" Emma asks, now rubbing Regina's back at her shoulders. Regina nods, but does not withdraw. "Think you can make it back home?"

"I think so," she croaks, then finally pulls away. Emma's hands linger on her arms as she composes herself, sniffling the snot away from her nose then magicking a handkerchief to wipe it clean. She peers up at Emma, sure her eyes are bloodshot, and smiles. It is hesitant and tiny, but there, real and heartfelt. "Thank you."

Emma beams back at Regina before giving her arms a squeeze. "You're welcome. Now, what do you say we get you back home to that pretty lady waiting for you? And then tomorrow, I'll bring Henry over and we can have a family dinner. Who knows, maybe it'll be the start of a tradition."

As it is Emma's week with Henry, Regina's entire countenance brightens at the chance to see her son.

"That sounds lovely," she says, smile intensifying.

And with that, Emma steps back, forms one of her arms into a crook and then offers it to Regina. "Shall we?" she asks, grinning as if they have not just finished one of the most excruciating conversations imaginable. But that is Emma being Emma, forever the Savior, and even better, a good and faithful friend.

And as they walk arm in arm down the pathway leading out of the Cemetery, Regina swears to endeavor never to take Emma for granted again, for in weathering this tempestuous storm of hurt, their friendship has proven stronger than Regina could have ever imagined. Emma is a vital part of her life that needs to depend on more regularly, and Regina knows Ruby will agree.

And besides, Regina owes Emma now, because her blonde friend had been correct earlier. With all of her sins having been aired and her traumas exposed, she finally feels like she will be able to heal. As a consequence, that future Ruby mentioned over a month ago suddenly does not seem so impossible or so far away. Happiness is tangible for perhaps the first time since Daniel's death, and it is almost too wonderful to comprehend.

But one final surprise remains, for as they near the gate leading exiting the Cemetery, Regina hears a howl in the distance. Neither mournful nor anguished, it is rather the trumpeting of a joyful occasion. When the hairs on the back of her neck rise up, she cuts her eyes toward the forest only to catch sight of something that stills her heart and steals her breath away.

There, just outside the fringes of the tree line, is the specter of a man and his ghostly wolf companion. They are walking parallel to Regina and Emma, but the bearded and handsome profile of a man long dead is instantly recognizable to Regina. A new ache settles in her chest as she stares at him with disbelief.

But then he turns to face her, revealing a face that is neither tormented nor happy. He seems content and at peace, and there is not a trace of hateful censure to be found when he meets her eyes. His gaze lingers only for a moment, and just before turning away to resume his trek into the forest, she watches to her amazement as the corner of his lips arch up after which he gives her a nod of tacit approval. It is a boon that Regina hadn't expected or asked for or even dared to hope for, but she latches on to it with all of her might. And as he disappears into the forest, she gasps aloud in wonder, drawing Emma's attention.

"Regina? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Regina says after a moment. Her heart is thundering so fast it feels ready to leap from her chest. But at the same time she feels light, as if those burdens she's been carrying around for decades have been lifted once and for all. "I'm fine," she repeats, her internal buoyancy now leaking into her voice. And for the first time since she can remember, she actually means it.