Officially deviating from the canon.

"Good morning Miss. Swan."

Before she'd even had the opportunity to take her jacket off in the Sheriff's office that morning the phone had rang and she'd been forced to trek out to Mr. Gold's shop. He had refused to elaborate on what he described as 'property damage' but now that she was here she could see he was completely justified in calling her. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside one of the display cases. The main aisle of the store was completely covered in broken glass and the case's contents were littered amid the wreckage.

"Wanna try to explain to me why I've gotten more calls from you than almost anyone else in town since I've gotten here?"

"What can I say? I lead a life of interest."

"That's a nice way of saying lots of people want to do bad things to you."

"Being powerful means having enemies."

Emma pushed some of the glass around with the toe of her boot; he hadn't even made an attempt at sweeping it up which she knew was on purpose. He had wanted her to see the wreckage at full effect.

"Okay, so mind telling me which enemy decided you needed to do some redecorating?"

"It was Ms. Mills that paid me a visit last night."

The crunching noises caused by Emma's fidgeting stopped completely.

"You're sure?"

"I was in the shop when it happened, it was her. She was in something of a state, shouted at me and then took issue with my display case. I wanted to make sure it was you who dealt with it as I wouldn't want her doing any more damage."

"Since when are you concerned?"

Gold's lip quirked.

"Do I really seem so disinterested?"

Emma took the question as rhetorical partially because she had no way of knowing how to answer it, sometimes Gold seemed eerily invested while others it was as if none of them meant a thing to him. Even now his concern perturbed him.

"So what do you want me to do?"

His brow furrowed as if the answer should have been obvious.

"I want you to arrest her."

"Really?"

Since the curse had been broken they'd tended to use the jail cells in the Sheriff's office more for protection from angry mobs than a place for actually detaining criminals. Not to mention she didn't know if they even had a functioning court system for prosecution, she was really more of a 'keep the peace' kind of sheriff.

"Yes, I want her brought in on charges of trespassing and destruction of property and I should add that it isn't the first time."

Honestly she couldn't see what good might come of it but as the wronged party and a man in his right she couldn't deny him, in any other town not inhabited by fairytale characters she would probably have been arrested a long time ago.

"If you say so."

Emma had left her car parked by the Sheriff's office, the walk to Gold's was a short one and she had been worried lately that all of the three block car rides were taking a toll on her battery. It was no wonder so few other people in town actually drove a car. Of course the upside of doing so meant not running into your son on your way to arrest his adoptive mother.

"Hey Emma."

"Hey kid, what are you doing walking around by yourself?"

"I was looking for you, David said you went to investigate a break in at Gold's and I thought you might need my help. Do we have any clues?"

There was no way she was going to tell him, the entire point of the past couple of days had been to foster a sense of security between the three of them, even in just a fragile one. Telling him she was about to go slap cuffs on Regina meant starting over at zero.

"Uh, doesn't look like it."

He looked disappointed; he had been anticipating an adventure.

"But Gold might have given me a lead, how about this? I run it down and when I get back I'll debrief you and we can bring coffee back to Mary-Margaret and David?"

Henry wasn't buying it, "Why don't I just come with you?"

"It, uh, might be dangerous."

"You mean it has to do with Regina."

Crap, Emma sighed, "Listen, I don't know why your mom went after Gold but I'm gonna try and help her out."

Henry was looking at his feet, his hands wrapped around the straps of his backpack, which he was carrying around despite it being a Saturday.

"Emma, it's okay."

"No, it's not. We're doing good, yesterday with the magic advice thing. I think we're on to something, I'm sure she has an explanation-"

"And what if she doesn't?"

"I'm sure she does."

It was weird to be the one trying to testify on Regina's behalf but seeing Henry so dejected made her want to force Regina to be a better person if it killed the both of them. By this point they were nearly at Granny's, out front Ruby was writing out the day's specials.

"Hey Emma, hey Henry."

"Morning Ruby, hey, I know it's early for favors but could you keep an eye on Henry for a half-an-hour while I go do sheriff things?"

"She means arrest my mom."

Ruby looked immediately concerned, "What did Regina do?"

"Nothing, she did nothing because it's part of an on going investigation."

As she stressed the end of the sentence she looked to Henry as a reminder that going around implying that Regina had done something wrong could get people panicked. Apparently this didn't reassure Ruby who still looked worried, but nodded.

"Come on Henry, we'll get you some French toast."

She opened the door to let Henry go inside, for a second she held it, looking at Emma, "Are you sure you'll be okay going alone?"

"I'll be fine."

Ruby nodded, somewhat assuaged by her confidence but still her eyes lingered in concern before following Henry into the Diner.

Emma sighed and knocked again, in a sense she was relieved. After the confrontation yesterday the last thing she wanted to do was try and arrest Regina but her dodging confrontation with Gold was only going to make everything worse for her. Intent on following through with that 'helping Regina be a better person' thing she wasn't being discouraged so easily. Peeking through the set of windows on the right side of the door she saw into the foyer and a glimpse of some of the rooms was offered up. Something was wrong, the furniture that Emma could see looked as if it had been destroyed or broken, even without trying she could see debris by the floor of the stairs. Panic crept into her chest; Regina being hurt was suddenly a possibility. Emma threw her shoulder up against the door, it was solid but not the hardest she'd knocked down. By the second charge she thought she felt it splintering but as she pulled back for a third go the lock clicked and Regina opened it, her momentum already charged Emma blew passed Regina and falling shoulder first onto the hardwood floor.

She groaned and rolled over onto her back, looking up at Regina was like staring into a tempest of rage.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You didn't answer," Emma wondered later if she could have picked a worse answer.

"Which would mean, to any sane person, that I wasn't home or maybe, that I didn't want to come to the door and deal with whatever. Idiot. Was. Knocking. It would not be taken as an invitation to knock the door in like a thug."

Her volume increased with each word, Emma had seen Regina angry before but it had always been in some way reserved. Her rage was often clever and expressed subtly; Emma's intuition said there were other factors in play. Bringing them up now however would probably be a mistake. Emma scrambled to her feet; Regina standing over her was making her uncomfortable.

"Your furniture."

Being at a loss for words was not assisting with justification, Emma looked behind her. From inside the house she could see the damage done to one of the adjacent rooms. It looked like a tornado had come through.

"Is none of your business, now, would you mind explaining why you nearly cost me a new front door?"

She really didn't want to do this.

"Gold sent me to arrest you, he said you came by his store last night."

"He's lying."

"He's pretty sure he's not and I saw the damage. Look, I don't want to arrest you. Explain it to me and I'll find a reason not to."

Regina looked at her with the rare look of surprise applied when Emma treated her with favor. It was an uncommon look and Emma thought not just with her, she wasn't used to having somebody on her side.

"Why?"

"We both know Gold's trying to railroad you, tell me why."

Regina's rage had subsided in the face of amity and she crossed her arms over her chest, "I have no idea."

"I can tell when you lie."

Regina scoffed, "Right because you have a super power? Honestly, telling Henry garbage like that."

Emma rolled her eyes, "You always look away from me when you start lying."

That gave her pause but Regina took the opportunity to look her right in the eyes, "I don't know."

"Now I know you're lying because of the superpower. Just tell me what happened."

"Or what, you'll arrest me?"

It was a dare that hung between them for a few tense seconds.

"If I have to."

Calling her bluff Emma reached to the side of her belt and produced her handcuffs. Regina thought better of pressing it.

"Okay, look, tell Gold I'll pay for the damage."

Her hand holding the handcuffs returned to her side, "Good, okay."

"Now, if that's the only business you had with me I'm going to ask you to leave."

That was fair enough and if Gold was unhappy with her police work she could call him out on harassment. Regina hadn't closed the door yet; she hadn't intended to let Emma stay long enough to have to but in the doorway Emma wanted to say one more thing before forfeiting her audience.

"Regina, about yesterday-"

"No, I am willing to be civil with you when your intentions are professional but that discussion is closed."

"Fair enough."

For now, she wasn't going to push it and left with more grace than she had arrived. Regina stood in the foyer for a moment in thought.

"Should I anticipate her being a problem?"

Behind her Cora emerged from the parlor.

Regina cleared her throat, "Sheriff Swan? Hardly, she can't see something until it hits her in the face, or she hits it at it were."

"Hm."

"What?"

"Nothing. If you say she's not a problem, than of course I believe you."

Belle, Ruby and Henry were at the counter huddled around something, Emma could hear bits of the conversation as she entered the store.

"No, gold kryptonite takes away his powers, blue only hurts Bizarro, it heals Superman from Red kryptonite."

Ruby looked dizzy but Belle seemed to be keeping up with his explanations.

"Did he start explaining to you how the Flash can run through time yet?"

The trio looked up from what Emma had correctly guessed was a comic book; Ruby wasted no time.

"How'd it go?"

"Good, better than expected, she offered to pay for the damages."

Everyone was relieved.

"I'll get you those coffees."

"It's okay Ruby it can wait a second, Belle could I talk to you?"

Belle couldn't remember how many conversations she'd had one on one with Emma that weren't about some sort of crime taking place but could say with confidence that it was less than five.

"Uh, yeah, what's up?"

Ruby took the cue to ask Henry about Wonder Woman allowing Belle and Emma a bit of privacy a few stools away.

"You're smart right?"

"I'd prefer the term well-read, but it sort of depends on what you're talking about."

Belle still looked kind of bewildered by being needed for conversation.

"Magic?" No matter how used to it she'd gotten she still felt kind of ridiculous saying it, "Or curses, whatever you want to call it."

She pressed her lips together and nodded as if she knew exactly what kind of questions she was about to be asked, "I've read a bit on the subject, cursed is kind of my type."

Her eyes could not help but flicker past Emma to where a wide-eyed Ruby was trying to understand the 'true essence' of Wonder Woman's golden lasso. Emma followed her line of sight.

"Whoa, okay, well coming back to that later. Do you know anything that might make someone, I don't know, glow?"

Finding the words to explain exactly what had happened or what magic looked like was still difficult for her.

"Glow?"

"Yeah, like…"

Emma tried to sum up what it had looked like in a hand gesture that involved holding her hands a few inches off her chest to mime some sort of aura, "Full body glowing."

"Depends, what was going on?"

If she lied there was a good chance she would get an answer that wouldn't help at all but trying to explain why Regina had had a hand in her chest didn't sound fun.

Screw it.

"How about if someone's trying to remove a heart?"

Belle's face immediately shadowed with worries, "Emma is everything okay?"

She tried to look unconcerned; "Yeah, yeah I have it all under control, just, do you have any ideas?"

Thinking, Belle exhaled, "Well, removing hearts requires a powerful dark curse and there's only one thing I know that can break any curse."

"What?"

"Come on, you of all people."

Emma's eyes widened and she started speaking in a loud whisper, "Are you saying true love? Like Regina and true love?"

The ridiculousness of the idea disarmed her, Belle looked just as surprised.

"You're the one saying Regina," She paused, "Wait, did Regina try and take your heart?"

Trying to explain herself was no longer really a concern, she was too preoccupied, "It's- No, it's fine, I asked her to," Belle's concern deepened, "Long story, but Cora couldn't remove my heart either."

"I-I don't know, I'm sure there are other ways to break curses and you're the product of true love and everything but the glowing is….more complicated."

Emma looked like a woman witnessing something equally terrifying and miraculous.

"But that's, I mean, there has to be another explanation," She was grasping at straws, "It must be Henry."

"What?"

"We both love Henry, it's a connection. Tell me that could be it?"

"Theoretically, I mean I've only ever read about stuff like this. But then, I mean, it could be a shared affection for anything, do you like apples?"

"Not particularly."

"Strike that off the list then."

"It's got to be Henry."

"What's got to be me?"

Henry had somehow summed up everything about Wonder Woman, or at least that's what Emma could figure from the dazed look on Ruby's face.

"Nothing kid, you got the coffee? Let's get these home to Mary-Margaret and David. Thanks Belle."

Emma, apparently, was not going to stick around to listen to any more reason, she had already made up her mind on the true way of things as was her habit. She grabbed the tray of coffee and her son and headed out, still looking like she was trying to stave off any unpleasant realizations.

Ruby moved down the counter.

"What was that about?"

"Regina tried to take Emma's heart and she started glowing."

"What?"

"I don't know."

"She started glowing?"

Belle raised her eyebrows, "Apparently."

"What does that even mean?"

Belle finally looked away from the closed door to Ruby, "I'm not really sure, it could mean nothing. Then again, maybe magic knows things before we do."