Henry was released from the hospital and Regina took him home several days after the incident. Regina had allowed him to stay home from school because he had yet to really talk about his feelings on what happened, Despite home visits from Dr. Hopper, the boy was still quiet and sullen. She was in the kitchen and was making them sandwiches for lunch. Henry came in quietly and sat at the kitchen island. "Mom?" Henry goaded her attention as she had stopped preparing their meal and was standing looking out the window blankly. She turned her attention to her son. The makeup she generously applied that morning didn't quite hide the bruising, but she had taken off the bandage that had held her nose straight after being broken. Even though the swelling had gone down significantly, Henry felt for the pain he knew his mother was still in. Not just the physical pain she felt, he knew the attack had harmed her emotionally. She had been having nightmares, and he could hear her cry at night. He didn't want to add to the woman's discomfort, he knew she wasn't handling things as well as she outwardly appeared, but he had questions that Archie hadn't been able to answer.

"Yes sweetheart?" She answered him with a caring smile.

"Why did Emma hurt you?" he asked carefully.

"I don't think she meant to dear." she answered and quickly busied herself with finishing up their lunch preparations.

He instantly got angry at how she was placating and making excuses for his birth mother. "It is all my fault." he said teary eyed.

"Gods Henry no! Sweetheart how could you think that?" she exclaimed stopping what she was doing and rushed to his side.

"I should have never have brought her here. She wouldn't have hurt… you. I never wanted her to hurt you Mom!" he started to cry and she took him into her arms and pulled his head into her chest and soothed him by rubbing his back. "No baby, she is the… savior… she needed to break the curse, just like you said. She is a hero." She swallowed hard at the blonde's title keeping the bile that was threatening to come up at bay.

"Heros don't hurt people the way she hurt you mom!" Henry insisted.

"I'm okay Henry. We are okay." she stroked his hair and held him.

"As long as she is in jail and pays for what she did, we will be okay. I never want to see her ever again!" Regina's heart caught at the boy's declaration and she knew she should argue against his decision, but right at that moment, she didn't have the fight in her to do so. What she did was tell him that they were okay and they would work through this as a family.

She knew deep down she meant the three of them. The things the dark one had said to her had been resonating with her over the last few days. She knew this thing that happened to her and her son, it happened to Emma as well. She was just as much a victim in this as Regina was herself. She calmed the boy down enough for him to eat his lunch and sat back and picked at her own dish and thought about who would do this to her. To Emma.

Someone did this to my family. Someone did this to all of us. Who? She thought to herself. Unfortunately she was coming up blank. She instantly didn't feel safe anylonger. She needed to talk to the blonde. The woman who sat in a jail cell for a crime she did not consciously commit. Today was the day that changed. She felt stronger emotionally and needed to go down to the sheriff's station while she felt this courage coursing through her.

Emma Swan laid on her cot as she had done for the last few days. She had stopped communicating with her parents, had completely refused to eat anything and had basically retreated into herself fully. Snow White had taken a leave of absence from her job at the school and was sitting just outside the bars of the jail cell trying to get Emma to eat the sandwiches she made and brought from home. Regina stood at the far side of the station and looked on at the blonde huddling in a ball on the cot. The click of the former Mayor's heels drew the attention of Mary Margaret who instantly rose to meet the woman at the entrance of the station.

"Regina!" Snow exclaimed as quietly as possible as to not call attention to the queen from her daughter. The state of Regina had shocked the younger brunette and her eyes glistened and she covered her mouth with her hand to keep it from gaping. "Oh Regina!"

The former queen put her hand up stopping the pixie haired woman dead in her tracks. "I am not here for you to blubber over Snow. I am here to speak with your daughter."

"She wouldn't have hurt you like this Regina." Snow tried to defend Emma's actions straight away.

"Don't you think I know that?" the queen spat. Her irritation evident in her tone.

"Then what are you doing here Regina?"

"I'm here to check on her." she nudged her chin toward the listless blonde in the jail cell. "I'd like to speak with her."

"She hasn't spoken in days. She hasn't eaten. I don't know if she will talk to you."

At that, the queen had heard enough. "Leave us." she dismissed the princess with a flick of her wrist and walked around Snow with purpose.

She picked up the keys off of the desk, unlocked the jail cell and carefully stepped inside. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest and she felt a cool sweat break out over her skin. She could see the sheriff's signature blonde curls sticking out from beneath the covers and Regina stopped her momentum forward as bile started to make its way up her throat. She turned away from her son's mother and rested her shaky hands on the cool bars on the far side of the cell. While she collected herself she heard a soft sob escape from the woman behind her. She turned back towards her friend, steeled herself and walked over to the cot the blonde was laying on. She shoved the woman's legs over towards the wall to make room for her to sit and made herself comfortable.

Emma had yet to turn to face her or even say anything so Regina sighed loudly and placed a hand on the woman's hip. She noticed immediately how thin the already lithe woman had become and she worried her lip when she remembered Snow mentioning the woman hadn't been eating.

"Miss Swan." Regina started unsure of how to proceed. She got no response back from the blonde and as she was deciding how she was going to say what she needed to say an unusually cool hand snuck out from beneath the blanket and a pinky was clasped around her own. "Emma, are you okay?" the messy blonde head shook a definitive no.

"Will you talk to me?" Regina asked cautiously. Emma nodded her head yes.

The grip on her captive pinky tightened and Emma cleared her dry throat. "I hurt you." she said quietly. "I am a monster."

"Are you?" the mayor asked knowingly. Emma turned for the first time in days and laid her perfectly clear green eyes on the brunette sitting on her jail bed. The condition of the brunette startled Emma and her face crumpled into a blubbering mess. "Oh Gina!" the blonde gasped as she sat up and went to lay a shaking hand on Regina's cheek. She pulled back just before contact as the brunette flinched at the sudden movement.

"I-I'm sorry Gina, I didn't mean… I mean… " the blonde stammered. "This must be horrible for you! Why would you come here?" the blonde was visibly shaking as she pulled her hand away from Regina. The brunette reached out and grabbed Emma's hand pulling it into herself and allowing her to cup her own cheek.

"It is clear to me Miss Swan, that who did this, wasn't you." Regina said softly. "I knew... during… the altercation… that you wouldn't… you couldn't.." she took a deep breath and steadied herself. "You are a hero Miss Swan. I knew it then, I know it now. You are simply not capable of harming anyone." she finished with certainty.

"That doesn't change the fact that it was my face you saw. My body." Emma started to cry and pulled back from her son's mother, disgusted with the actions that brought them where they were. She hid her face behind the palms of her hands. "How can you even be here right now?" she asked weepily.

"I'm here because I need you Miss Swan. I need you because your son and I are not safe. I need my savior so you need to buck up and be the hero I need you to be." Regina sat and waited and Emma didn't move a muscle. "Right now Swan. Let's go." She smacked Emma on the thigh and stood herself up encouraging movement from the girl.

"How do you know you can trust me?" a small voice asked from behind the queen.

"When I'm in danger Miss Swan, you are who I want in my corner."

"But I hurt you." Emma reminded as if the woman before her needed the reminder, all she had to do was look in the mirror.

"You did nothing. You were accosted. And whomever accosted you harmed me and your son. We need you, so are you coming?" Regina tried to sound impatient but her heart was not in it.

"What happens if they accost me again?"

"You're going to take my cuff off and we are going to start magic lessons for you Miss Swan so you can protect the people you love."

Love? The people that I love… could she know... that I…

Regina noticed the dumbfounded look in the savior's face and added, "I'm assuming you desire to protect your child and your parents if need be Miss Swan?"

"Oh.. them. Yeah."

"Yes of course them.." Regina pulled a face but brushed off the comment. "So are we good to go?" the blonde nodded silently and hunched over as she felt herself stiffen in her pants. She followed the brunette but dipped into her office to grab her cellphone and a sweatshirt. Regina noticed the girl was limping almost and when she came back out of the office the former mayor commented, "It isn't that cold out Emma."

Emma internally cringed as her name passed over the mayor's lips. God my name never sounded so good. She thought to herself, followed quickly by, Stop it right now. You raped her naught a week prior!

Emma cleared her throat and said, "I'm chilly." She unlocked her phone and texted her father on their way out to the car. "Where are we going?"

"Home dear."

"Right." Emma told her father she was going to the mansion.

David called her almost immediately and started to give her shit.

"You can not go over there. Whether or not you did this, hasn't she been hurt enough? Regina made it clear she wanted you behind bars so that is where I put you until we can figure out what the hell is going on!"

"No no, she's…but… Dad… I know...but..." Emma stumbled as David cut her off once more and Regina said "Put him on speaker dear." Emma stopped trying to explain herself and did as she was told.

"Deputy Nolan, this is Regina Mills." The queen said in her politician voice.

"Regina?" David sounded surprised and wary as to what she would do to his daughter in retaliation for the assault.

"I have released your daughter." she stated the fact plainly.

They both heard the man gulp, "What are you going to do to her?"

Regina rolled her eyes at the all too predictable conclusion and Emma gasped "Dad!?"

"David, I assure you I will not harm your precious daughter. I've come to the conclusion the altercation perpetrated upon myself and my son was not something Sheriff Swan knowingly did. This means the person or persons who have committed this crime are still on the loose, unless you have any leads you have yet to share with me?"

"No. but…"

"There for my son and I are still in danger. Whomever did this, David, did this to your daughter as well. She was forcibly intimate with someone beyond her control."

Emma cringed as her mind invented possible scenarios where she and the mayor were intimate. Her stomach flipped and she huffed "Pull over Regina!"

The mayor slammed on the brakes and swerved to the side of the road and Emma flung open the door and dry heaved. The mixture of what she knew happened to her son's mother and her own desires of the woman in question made Emma physically sick. I am a fucking monster! How can I even think about wanting her after what I did! She will never want that from me! Not after… what happened. I should be grateful she is even capable of being in the same room as me! Regina took the deputy off of speaker and continued her conversation whilst rubbing the blonde's back as she had done for their son on numerous occasions. Emma heaved until her sides ached, grateful she couldn't be seen by the brunette as pain stricken tears fell from her she gasped for breath.

"For her safety and mine, I am bringing her to the mansion until this matter has been sorted. She is free to come and go as she pleases, but her top priority, as well as mine, is that our son is safe."

Regina looked down at the woman who she knew would stop at nothing to protect her son, and perhaps even her, and a warm feeling enveloped her. A sense of belonging, family even, perhaps even love. The edges of her lips quirked up in a quick smile at that thought. She then returned to her phone call. "I will contact you if we find any leads, I understand the dark one has been procured to do some research which I am certain he is pawning off on his little stepford librarian."

Emma chuckled at Regina's snark, wiped her mouth and sat up. Regina dug out of her purse a wet wipe pack and handed it and a small travel size bottle of hand sanitizer over to the savior.

God she is such a mom! Emma thought as she took the items to clean herself up with and mouthed 'thank you' to the brunette.

The kid is so lucky he has her. Her mind added thinking about the dozens of "mothers" she had over the years. Regina Mills blew them all out of the water. Not that they ever stood a chance at competing against super mom here.

"Once the book worm has found anything useful I will contact you because you are our action man. But for right now, I would feel much safer with the savior in my midst."