AN: This chapter is very short, and basically an in between point A and point B. So I apologize for that, but this is to insinuate when and why Snow decides to go to the Enchanted Forest with David.


When I eventually leave Regina's mansion, the night much later than before, I take my time walking, getting lost in my own thoughts. It seems that I have found myself in love with my destruction, just as I was when I was a simple child born of a king. The entire kingdom paid last time, and I have no guarentee that it wont happen again. It will spread like a disease, like it always does. I love her, but she doesn't love me. Just as before.

When I get home it's close to dawn, and I have worked my stomach up in knots with my thoughts, still lost in them as I open the front door to the apartment. Emma is awake, reading in the living room. I freeze in the doorway when I see her, surprised and feeling my knotted stomach sink. She, on the other hand, doesn't look very surprised to see me, only gently putting her book down on her lap and looking at me with tired eyes and just a shadow of a smile. It makes dread settle in me, but I shake myself out of it, finally letting go of the door handle to come past the threshold and shutting it silently behind me.

"Hey." She says simply, so I distract myself by hanging my coat up.

"Emma, what are you doing up?" My voice purposely doesn't take an authoritative or accusing tone, just simple, casual, trying not to shake as I feel my face grow warm.

"I was gunna ask you the same thing." I pause facing the coat rack for a split second before turning to face her, with a light smile.

"I was just out for a walk, I couldn't sleep." It's convincing, I suppose, how easily I can say the words now, even though I can still smell Regina all over my cloths. I make my way to the kitchen to grab a water, and her eyes follow my every movement.

"You've been having a lot of nights like that." Emma stays on the couch, her voice still quiet, but I can hear her. "You never used to."

"The curse breaking, it's made things…" I pause before going into the fridge for a bottle of water. "Confusing." With a sigh, I grab a drink and turn back around to face the couch. Emma's standing now, looking tired and awake all at the same time.

"Does walking help?" Something about her tone, makes me know that she knows. Her unwavering expression that hinted towards anger and pain, staring me down, and we stay that way for a long time. She knows.

"No." It comes out as a sigh, and I place the unopened water bottle on the counter and leave the living room without another word, going back into the bedroom and slipping into bed with my sleeping husband.


The next morning Regina comes into the diner looking like hell. Her outfit is flawless, make up perfect, but her eyes are bloodshot and narrowed to the light of the day. It's not very noticeable, but I see it like a slap in the face, and it's pretty obvious she's hung over, probably using magic to make herself look so presentable.

I'm sitting with David at one of the back booths, mostly lost in my own self-loathing and contemplation, but when she walks in the door my body goes on full alert, as if the chime on the diner door woke me up. My seat makes me face her as she walks in, not even looking around to see me, and I see my husband notice my look, and he knows who just walked up to the counter, without even turning around.

Granny gives her a suspicious glower, but goes to make the former mayor's daily regular all the same, actually sparring her usual sarcastic and snippy comments. I can't stop staring at her, even though I feel David's eyes on me, even though she's not looking back, even as obvious as I'm making it. I can't stop.

While Granny makes her coffee, and she taps her well-manicured nails absently on the counter tops, Regina turns to finally meet my eyes. Her fingers stop tapping, then continue, a slower and shorter rhythm, as her eyes grow dark on me. I feel the air start to get thinner around me as I look down slightly to see her tapping fingers, now only her first two fingers, tapping slow and purposely. Quickly I look back at her face and a smirk almost appears until David takes my hand from across the table, and it makes me almost jump from the sudden movement. My head snaps to him to see his annoyed sideways glance towards Regina.

"Ignore her. She's just trying to rile you." David tells me, with a comforting squeeze of my hand. I shoot an awkward smile towards him, because he's not wrong. She is trying to rile me.

I do glance back to see her dark eyes turned red, and her tapping fingers turned into a fist. In that moment though, Granny is handing her the coffee and Regina is all but storming out of the diner.

Not a minute later though, I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket, and I don't know whether to roll my eyes or be excited when I see her name on the caller ID. Regardless, I'm excusing myself from the table, telling David it's one of the fairies calling me. When I make my way towards the back of the diner, a secluded corner by the bathrooms, I answer with a timid 'hello'.

"I should kill him, you know." Is the only greeting I get, cold and almost childish, and I do roll my eyes at that. "For ever laying his hands on you." I hear the distant sound of the street in the background of the call, and I figure she must be sitting in her car.

"You can't kill David." My tone tries not to be patronizing, but I don't know if I pull it off well.

"No dear, I can't kill you…" A warmth starts to fill in me, as if she just gave me some great compliment. And perhaps she did, perhaps a twisted one, but from Regina I expect nothing less. "I have no problem killing him."

"You looked hung over when you came in for your coffee." I try to change the subject, and then I wonder why she called at all, why we're having idle chit chat. Why am I doing this to myself?

"Sometimes, I think about you." Her voice is more of a sigh, the tone low and rough and it sets me on fire, a pressure building in my lower stomach. "…and then I try to drink myself to death."

I sigh at the pain in her voice, and I wonder why she does this to herself.

"What do you remember of last night?" A hesitance, a fear maybe, settles in me. It's selfish that I wish she doesn't remember me coming over, she doesn't remember that I'm in love with her. There's always the fear that she'll use it against me. She almost did once before, and I would have let her. There's a serious danger when it comes to being in love with Regina.

"Practically nothing." She mumbles, and I almost breath out in relief. "It was a welcomed miracle." Then her voice clears, and her tone grows strong and suggestive once more. "Come over tonight. It's been long enough, hasn't it?"

My eyes shut tight at that for a moment.

"It's barely been just a few days." I whisper, knowing that this is spiraling more and more out of control

"Long enough." Regina leaves no room for argument. "I may not be able to kill you, but I know you would die without me." At that, the call is disconnected and I try to gather my breath, as if I was just hit in the gut. I do die without her, and Regina dies with me.

It's killing her, taking so much out of her, the hate and anger, the memories I bring forth from our damaging past. I wasn't the only one in love with their destruction, apparently. Hers wears my face, but it's not me.

When I put my phone back in my pocket, I look over to see David staring into his coffee cup. It will spread like a disease, like it always does. She'll hurt Henry, and I'll hurt Emma, and everyone will suffer once more. I'm reminded once more than love is only strength when it's mutual. Soon, very soon, I'll have to choose the strength of my family, over the weakness she brings.