A/N: This update is shorter than the past couple, but I wound up needing to break this chapter into multiple parts. Also, shorter chapters mean faster updates for y'all.

Quick policy note now that the show has restarted (yay!): I won't have any spoilers for episodes after Queen of Hearts in this story (even in the authors notes) just in case people haven't seen them yet. For those that have, any resemblance in this story to the Episodes 2x10 and beyond is the result on me picking up on the OUaT writers' superb foreshadowing (or coincidence).

xxxxx

Henry was relieved when his mother and David finally emerged from the stables. It hadn't taken him very long to clear off the middle seat of the truck so that all three of them would fit, but he had obeyed David's unspoken request to stay outside anyway. He had just been considering going in to check on them, though, so he was glad they were finally outside.

His mom looked back to normal. Her movement looked right, even though she seemed exhausted and kind of looked like she was carrying something heavy, even though she wasn't holding anything. And she and David appeared to be arguing about something.

"You need to see a doctor, Regina," David insisted.

"No, I don't," she replied resolutely.

"Look in the mirror," David challenged her, indicating the side mirror on his truck. "Look at your neck, and tell me that you wouldn't have Henry hospitalized if any part of him, let alone his neck, looked like that."

Henry, while alarmed at the red welts that circled his mother's pale neck, felt better when his mother glared at his grandfather. If she was glaring like that, she was going to be fine. Especially since it wasn't her Evil Queen glare. It was the glare she only used on him and David. The glare where she just wanted to seem mad, but really wasn't.

Regina huffed in annoyance as she examined her neck in the reflection. Looks like she would be spending the next ten days in turtlenecks. Even her high-end concealer was not going to be able to cover this, especially when the red turned to purple in a few days. She would have to go shopping. She only owned one or two turtlenecks, and she was pretty sure they were both blue. Damn it.

She abruptly turned to David. "I refuse to see Whale."

David nodded. "Just as well. He's in the hospital."

Regina quirked an eyebrow in question.

"Someone ripped his arm off," David said.

"Good," she replied tersely.

David took a step closer to her. "You know what he did?"

Regina seethed with repressed rage, "Yes." She then looked at Henry, forced herself to calm down, and looked back at David. Her message was clear: No more discussion in front of my son.

David nodded. "Let's get going," he said, opening the passenger door for Regina.

"I can drive myself. I'm not an invalid," she said.

David rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Regina, just get in."

Seeing that Henry was already buckled up in the truck and knowing she could always jog or walk back to retrieve her car, she gave another huff of annoyance and climbed onto the seat.

"Thank you," David said with exaggerated patience, shutting the door and walking around to the driver's side.

Instead of starting the car immediately, however, he picked up his phone to make a call.

"Grumpy?" he said. "Hey, it's David."

The prince gave a small chuckle at the dwarf's reply. "Yeah, everything's fine. No need to worry, but I do need a favor. Would you mind if I dropped Henry off in a few minutes to spend the night at your place?"

"Yeah," David continued after another inaudible reply from Grumpy. "I'll fill you in later. Regina and I just have some details to go over, and we're not sure how long it's going to take."

"Thanks, Grumpy," David said. "We'll be there in a few minutes."

"I don't need a babysitter," Regina stated as soon as David hung up the phone and turned the key in the ignition.

"I know," he replied. "You're going to have one anyway."

Regina was about to protest when she her son interjected.

"Please, Mom," Henry pleaded. "I don't want you to be alone."

Regina sighed in resignation, and the insufferable prince had the gall to smirk. He knew she wouldn't refuse Henry.

She conceded, but she didn't have to like it. "Fine," she said, reaching around Henry to smack David lightly on the arm. She would have hit him harder, but he was driving, and her son was in the car.

xxxxx

"Thanks again, Grumpy, Astrid," David called as he climbed back in the truck. He and Regina had reached the same unspoken conclusion that she should remain in the car when they dropped off Henry. The injuries to her neck were obvious, and explanations were best avoided.

Henry gave them both one last wave before disappearing into the house with Grumpy and Astrid. He didn't like that he couldn't be with his mom right now, but David seemed to know how to take care of her.

"Where are we going?" Regina asked. David was driving into the center of town.

"To have your neck looked at," he said, avoiding her gaze by keeping his eyes steadily focused on the road.

"At your own risk, Charming," Regina replied snidely.

"You're injured," he insisted. "You need medical attention."

"I'm also an extremely powerful and extremely angry sorceress," Regina snapped. "The last time I was this angry, I put you in a twenty-eight year coma. I'm trying really, really hard not to do anything so horrible again, but I am sorely tempted."

Her anger transitioned into pleading and she placed her hand lightly on David's arm, their familiar magic calming her somewhat, as she asked, "Please, please help me not murder Whale." She grasped his arm a little tighter. "Because I really want to," she stated, dropping her hand.

She then looked out the window, and it was with the tone that David recognized from the Evil Queen that he next heard her say, "The good doctor, with ways so much more powerful than our mere magic, does dearly deserve it." Her voice dripped with venom, sarcasm, and a history that he didn't think he wanted to understand. An ominous shiver ran down his spine.

Okay. They wouldn't go to the hospital.

xxxxx

"Granny's?" she asked incredulously as he put the car in park. "What, have you been spending so much time with Henry that you think a chocolate milk shake will heal my wounds?"

"No," David responded as he exited the car and walked around to open her door. Though he made a habit of opening doors for women and anyone with their hands full, in this case, it was less of a chivalrous gesture and more of a nonverbal insistence that she get out of the car.

"Granny is the best non-doctor I know at assessing and treating injuries," he told her. She was still buckled into the passenger seat.

He reached across her and released her seat belt. "Now, get out," he directed. "Please."

Seeing that she was still debating whether to argue with him, he said, "I'm willing to spring for that chocolate shake, if you'd like to give that a try too." The stubborn set of his chin and his hands on his hips clearly demonstrated that resistance would be futile.

Noting this, Regina slowly and deliberately exited the car and stepped in front of him in her full Evil Queen posture. "That won't be necessary," she said, turning and heading toward the diner. "I'm more of a root beer float kind of girl," she said matter-of-factly.

David just smiled, shook his head, and followed her into the diner.

He walked up behind her and placed his hand at the small of her back. Even without the familiar magical current, she would have known it was him. He leaned forward over her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Why don't you find us a table in the back while I find Granny?"

Immediately understanding the soundness of his logic, Regina nodded and set off for an available booth in the back. She moved as quickly as she could without drawing more attention to herself. She wasn't eager for the town to notice her injuries and begin to gossip.

She was even less eager to tell them the truth.

Anger flashed through her. They didn't know her. They didn't care about her. And most of them never even knew Daniel existed. She wasn't about to let them mangle his memory by calling him some kind of monster.

She sat down in the booth as anger coursed through her veins. A monster created by Whale.

That man would pay.

Only he wouldn't. Because she had made a promise to do better for Henry.

"You have the greatest capacity to love of anyone I have ever known."

Daniel's words echoed in her mind, and her grief swirled with her anger. All she wanted was to lash out; to radiate her pain in a silent, tangible scream. Anything to propel it out of her. Feeling this way made her feel like she was splitting apart.

"Regina," she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder, and she looked up irrationally expecting to see Daniel.

But the kind eyes were the wrong color.

xxxxx

A/N: I hope I did justice to post-Daniel Regina—but don't worry, I'm not finished with her coping yet! As always, reviews are treasured.