Part 3

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"Well, well. If it's not the family Charming come to pay me another visit," Regina stated coolly from the doorway, her lips curling at the sheepish expressions on all three faces.

"Yeah," Emma said awkwardly. "I wanted to come and apologize about the other day."

"Is that so? And you needed mommy and daddy along for protection?"

Emma frowned and shifted awkwardly, knowing the woman had every right to be as snarky as she wanted.

"Regina…"

"That's enough Regina," David said moving to stand protectively beside Emma.

Regina scoffed. "Oh please," she mocked, ignoring the faux Prince's posturing.

Emma fought the urge to tell David to back off. "Look, I know I messed up," she admitted. "I believed you at first, I really did, but then I saw what Pongo saw and…"

Regina held up her hand. "Yes Sheriff Swan, I'm aware that you saw me…or who you thought was me. It was a logical assumption to make, although I would have thought that the fact that the device you used was one of Mr. Gold's magical toys might have raised a few flags."

Emma exhaled in relief and then offered a tentative smile, hoping that this meant Regina's walls hadn't been completely thrown back up. "I know, it should have," she acknowledged guiltily, "I was just shocked and I overreacted. I just can't even tell you how really sorry I am. I'm glad you understand."

"Now that that's settled," David spoke up impatiently, "we need your help defeating your mother."

Regina's eyes narrowed and sincerely wished she could transport him past the border. "Hm," she said thoughtfully. "I'm afraid I'm no longer in the redemption business," she said too pleasantly for anyone's peace of mind. "So, good luck and goodbye." Regina stepped back into the house.

"What? Regina wait," Mary Margaret called out before Regina shut the door.

"What is it Snow? I'm busy," she lied.

"Why are you being this way?" Mary Margaret asked quietly. "We said we were sorry."

"No, actually Emma said she was sorry," Regina corrected.

"And I meant it. You said you understood," Emma argued.

"I do understand." Regina said dangerously as she stepped off the porch and approached the bane of her existence, "I understand that your feeble apologies were meant only as a way to get me to help you. Let me assure you that I am no longer anyone's little puppet."

Emma rolled her eyes in frustration. "Oh come on Regina, you know that's…"

"Save your breath Sheriff. I said that I understood how you could believe that I killed Archie and I do. My mother can be very…convincing. I did not, however, say I've forgotten everything else you said."

"Regina, I was upset," Emma winced and tried to explain, hearing the horribly and purposely cruel things she'd thrown at the other woman, playing over and over in her head. "I thought we had started to become friends and then when I saw you kill the kindest man I've ever met, I lost it."

"Yes and that's when you so kindly reminded me that all my efforts to redeem myself for Henry were pointless. So either that's what you truly believe or you were simply going for the jugular. Either way that sort of tarnishes your White Knight reputation doesn't it?" Regina mocked, lips curled in the cruel sneer Emma hadn't seen since before her trip to the Enchanted Forest.

"Damnit Regina, this isn't a joke," David interjected, stepping into Regina's personal space, "Cora is here and we need to stop her before she kills anyone else."

"I very strongly advise you to step back," Regina said with a deadly calmness that had David quickly doing what she ordered.

"I am well aware that my mother is here," she continued stiffly, "but I will deal with her on my own. I don't need your help nor do I have any intention of helping you."

"Is that what Henry would want?" Emma bit out, starting to get angry. She'd all but groveled at the woman's feet for nothing. "You're acting like a child Regina."

Emma swallowed as she saw Regina's fingers twitching and knew she was lucky to still be standing. How had a simple apology gone so wrong?

"Don't you dare speak to me about Henry," Regina hissed. "You convinced him I killed Archie. You've seen to it that he'll never see me as anything other than how that damned book portrayed. You have finally taken my son away from me."

"No I haven't," Emma protested earnestly, her chest aching with the pain that was seeping through the rage in Regina's eyes and hating the fact that she was the one who'd caused it this time. "He wants to come see you on the weekends."

What was let of Regina's heart began to crumble into dust and it was all she could manage to keep her emotions firmly under her control.

"The weekends?" she laughed bitterly, forcing the tears from her eyes. "You actually have the audacity to stand there declaring oh so nobly, that I get to see the son that I have loved and raised all alone for ten years only on the weekends and expect me to be grateful?"

Regina cast a disgusted look at Mary Margaret who was, as always, standing with that insipid, 'what do I do' expression on her face before looking back at the second generation of White women to destroy her. She was almost moved by the stricken look on the blonde's face. Almost.

"At least now I see the mother daughter resemblance. Neither one of you can keep a promise worth a damn."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Emma retorted defensive anger warring with regret.

"Your mother swore to keep a promise about my fiancé yet spilled her guts at the first opportunity," Regina replied, sneering at her shamed-faced stepdaughter. "You swore you had no plans to take Henry away from me, yet here we are," she said with a mocking gesture. "I suppose that both of you can now proudly boast to the hypocrites of this town about how you've succeeded in taken away the only people the Evil Queen has ever loved. Maybe they'll throw you a parade."

Emma didn't know whether to scream in frustration or cry with the truth of Regina's words. It seemed that her 'family' was destined to save everyone while doing everything in their power to hurt Regina.

"Regina, please can't we talk about this?"

"No, Sheriff. You've said what you came here to say, so it's time for you and your doting parents to leave. My mother is not here for anyone but me and I'll take care of it. The only thing you need to worry about is protecting Henry."

"But…"

"Now, unless there's something else you plan to arrest me for today, I'll say good day."

This time when Regina went inside, nobody stopped her.

"Jesus, I couldn't have fucked up any more if I'd been trying," Emma said, her eyes stinging as she realized she'd just lost something she hadn't even really known she wanted.

"Emma we all thought she was guilty. She's never given us any reason to trust her."

"She's done everything in her power to prove we can't," David added coldly.

"That's crap," Emma snapped. "We all know that no matter what she's ever done or said Regina loves Henry unconditionally. She was trying so hard to be better for him and I knew...I KNEW she'd never risk that, but when I saw it…"

"You felt betrayed," Mary Margaret finished knowingly.

"Yeah I did and I found the cruelest words I could think of just to hurt her the way I was hurting. What the hell kind of good person does that?"

"A human person," Mary Margaret said sadly, wrapping an arm around her daughter and leading her away from the house.

"Yeah," Emma muttered unconvincingly.

"Well at least we know we can expect her to be working with Cora which means a hell of a lot of trouble is coming," David said with disgust tinged with a barely hidden fear.

"Seriously David?" Emma snapped incredulously. "You don't know that. I think we owe it to her to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one."

Mary Margaret and David shared dubious looks. "You're probably right Emma," Mary Margaret said cautiously, "but you don't know Regina like we do, especially when she believes she no longer has anything to lose."

"I think I have an idea," Emma replied drily, thinking cursing an entire population to a new world, erasing their memories and separating people from their loved ones, not to mention attempted poisoning, were all pretty good clues to the lengths the woman would go to when desperate.

"Alright Emma. We'll follow your lead on this," Mary Margaret said as the trio walked away from the Mayor's mansion, "but we still need to stay on our guard. An angry Regina is dangerous. An angry Regina teaming up with Cora is deadly."

Emma had to agree, but she'd be damned if she'd give up on Regina again.

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A sharp rapping on the passenger window had Regina jumping nearly out of her skin. Logically she knew her mother wouldn't bother with knocking on her car window but still she knew a visit was coming and she wasn't sure she was prepared for it. She had indeed grown weak. Expecting to find yet another townsperson wanting her head on a platter, she was surprised to see Ruby glaring in at her before opening the door and sliding into the passenger seat.

"I don't pick up hitchhikers," Regina greeted, though her tone was oddly devoid of any venom.

"Yeah, well you apparently don't listen either," Ruby said angrily, not caring if she pissed off the perpetually bad-tempered sorceress.

"Is that so?" Regina asked, more amused than irritated by the woman's nerve.

"Yes that's so," Ruby returned mockingly. "I told you I'd be back and when I showed up you were gone. I've been looking for you for hours, not knowing what the hell happened to you. God Regina, I thought Cora had shown up and it scared…" she clamped her mouth shut, not about to reveal any more of her feelings that Regina could use as ammunition.

"You were worried? About me?"

The pure disbelief in Regina's voice nearly broke Ruby's heart. It was painfully sad to know that a woman as strong, independent and inherently deadly as Regina Mills was shocked that someone would worry about her "Well duh," she muttered, knowing Regina wouldn't appreciate any hint of pity.

Regina was totally unprepared for Ruby's admission and had no idea how to respond, so she fell back on the dismissive attitude that had helped her survive for so long. "Miss Lucas…Ruby, we've been over this. I have magic. A lot of it and I've been taking care of myself for a long time. Longer than you know."

"Yeah, well…so?" Ruby muttered, irritated that she had no argument. The irritation vanished almost instantly when she saw the slight lifting of Regina's lips.

It went against everything she'd trained herself to be, but Regina realized she didn't want to hurt Ruby. She shifted in her seat so she was looking into the eyes that were far more innocent than Ruby's life story would have indicated.

"Your persistence confuses me," she said seriously. "I don't like to be confused." Suddenly Regina's mind went blank and her mouth went dry as Ruby's lips lifted in a slow, wide and incredibly sexy smile. It was true that Ruby had no problem showing as much skin as she could get away with, but how had Regina not seen the subtle sensuality that lay beneath the obvious exterior.

"That's good to know," Ruby said and then swallowed hard as Regina's always-penetrating gaze dropped to her lips. She vowed then and there she would not be getting out of the car without kissing Regina Mills again.

"How did you find me?" Regina asked breaking into her thoughts.

Ruby shrugged but kept her eyes on the inscrutable woman next to her. "I just thought of the one place nobody would expect you to be and here you are."

Regina found it oddly amusing that between her former Stepdaughter, her son and the woman who's career it had been to track people who didn't want to be found, only Ruby Lucas could figure out where she was. "I didn't hear that noisy car of yours. Did you walk all the way here from town?"

"Ran, actually," Ruby admitted.

Regina was both surprised and impressed. "But we're miles from town."

"Let's just say distance running and speed aren't that much of a problem for me anymore."

Regina's eyebrows lifted. She was curious despite herself. "Really? Is it a wolf thing?"

"Kind of, though I'm still not sure how. Now stop distracting me," Ruby ordered. "Why did you take off? I told you I was coming back."

"Yes, well people tell me a lot of things, Miss Lucas," Regina retorted, clinging to her bitterness like a life preserver. "Very rarely do they prove to be reliable."

"Is that the reason you're sitting here at the town border?" Ruby asked, having no doubt that Regina was talking about what Emma had said to her. Suddenly Ruby realized the full meaning of finding Regina at Storybrooke's town line and she became very afraid that the woman very few people in town liked or wanted, had had enough.

"You're not planning to cross are you?" She asked anxiously.

Regina smirked before leaning back in her seat and staring out at the Storybrooke sign. "Well telling you would ruin the surprise wouldn't it?"

"Regina, answer me. Why are you here?"

"Just thinking about choices," she replied almost automatically, only briefly wondering why she hadn't transported the suddenly interfering waitress out of her car.

"From before?" Ruby asked carefully, not wanting to push Regina into raising her walls again.

Regina scoffed. "Hardly. What's done is done Miss Lucas and there's really no point in revisiting things that can't be changed. No, I'm thinking about a choice I have very little time to make."

"Which is?"

Regina turned her head to meet the curious eyes. "My mother is here," she said bluntly, "and she's coming for me. If I stay, she will do anything and use anyone she can to get to me. Including my son."

"We won't let her hurt you or Henry," Ruby insisted.

Regina's lips twitched, touched despite herself at the earnest tone. "You really won't be able to stop her Ruby, but that's not the issue. The truth is, if I leave Storybrooke, my mother will have no choice but to come after me and when she crosses the border, she'll most likely lose her magic and no longer be a threat to anyone."

Ruby frowned. She hadn't thought of that but it made sense, she had to admit. If Cora was off chasing her daughter and if she lost her magic, then the hundreds of innocent people living in Storybrooke could finally feel safe. That realization didn't make Ruby as happy as it probably should have. She grimly suspected if the townspeople or even Snow and Charming thought of it, Regina would be shoved over the line so quickly her head would spin and most likely, they'd use her promise of no magic to Henry to make her do it willingly.

"I don't want you go," Ruby stated as her mind continued to play different horrible scenarios.

"For a wolf, your auditory senses seem to be fairly limited," Regina stated, fighting to retain her composure at Ruby's words. "Did you not hear me? If I leave," she repeated slowly as if talking to Henry, "everyone you care about will be safe."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "That attitude doesn't work on me your majesty," Ruby grinned impertinently before turning serious. "Yes I heard you, I just think it's bullshit."

"Oh really," Regina taunted. "And just why is that?"

"First of all, because one of the people I do care about will be in the biggest danger of all," she admitted almost angrily. "Also, if you leave, I'm assuming you won't take Henry." Ruby's heart hurt at the blatant pain that crossed Regina's face before she looked away.

"No, I won't, which is another reason…"

"Regina, think about it," Ruby interrupted. "It's been over twenty four hours since Archie was supposedly murdered. That means your mother has been here for at least a day. If she's truly after you, why hasn't she contacted you?"

Regina knew the answer to that as well as Ruby. Her mother did nothing without a plan. "What's your point Ruby?" she asked tiredly.

"My point is, if your mother is as powerful and as smart as I've heard she is, then she's already discovered the truth about the border, which means she won't risk losing her magic to cross the line. And you know she'll go after Henry to bring you back."

Regina sighed and leaned back against the headrest. "Yes Ruby, I am aware of that and that is one of the reasons I'm not halfway to New York by now."

"What's the other reason?"

Regina didn't look at her but her lips lifted in the arrogant smirk that Ruby hadn't known she'd missed until just now.

"The other reason, my dear, is that while I may be many things, I am not a coward."

Ruby let out a soft sigh of relief. Up until a few months ago, Ruby assumed she would have been just as thrilled as anyone to see the last of the Evil Queen, but now…she couldn't imagine Storybrooke without the haughty, condescending and beautifully vulnerable woman in it.

"No you're not," Ruby agreed, brazenly studying the totally fascinating woman beside her. "You're the strongest woman I've ever met."

"Why are you here Ruby?" Regina asked abruptly, turning to look at the woman watching her so intently. The light from the quarter moon shining through the window caused Ruby's eyes to gleam beautifully and the fanciful part of herself that she rarely acknowledged, thought she could almost see the currently sleeping wolf hiding inside and she found that remarkably arousing.

Ruby planned to offer a smartass reply about having nowhere else to be, but then she caught Regina's suddenly hungry gaze and her heart flipped at the mesmerizing mixture of desire and vulnerability staring back at her.

"Because I want to be," Ruby whispered.

Nearly desperate to escape from whatever tricks Ruby was playing, Regina fell back on one of the most lethal weapons in her arsenal. With a deliberate slowness, she leaned forward and ran a finger slowly down Ruby's jaw. "Oh really? Is that all you want?" she purred seductively, refusing to let the warm softness of Ruby's skin draw her into her own game.

Ruby had no doubt what Regina was doing and had she not been so turned on by the low throaty voice and disappointingly brief contact, she would have laughed at the obvious ruse. "Not by a long shot," she answered honestly.

"I know what you're doing Regina," she continued.

"And just what would that be?" Regina sneered, pulling back and feeling a definitely unwanted pang of rejection.

Ruby grinned at her. "Regina, it was hardly a secret in the other world that the Evil Queen preferred to seduce her prey into her clutches."

"I beg your pardon," Regina said feeling offended by that remark and not entirely sure why.

Ruby rolled her eyes and laughed. "Really Regina? That's the thing that offends you?"

Regina scowled as she waited for the younger woman to stop laughing, though she had to admit, it was a beautiful sound and Ruby's smile was captivating to say the least.

"Are you finished?" Regina asked when the laughter finally stopped.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said wiping her eyes, "but god damn, you just fascinate the hell out of me."

"I'm not in the mood to be made fun of Miss Lucas so perhaps you need to find another way home."

Ruby moved so fast that Regina had no time to react before she found herself being kissed to within an inch of her life. Her hands instantly went to Ruby's strong biceps in response but the thought of pushing away never crossed her mind as she parted her lips, letting Ruby think she had control…for the moment.

Good God, Ruby thought reverently as she gave herself over to the heart stopping sensation of kissing Regina Mills. The woman kissed the way she did everything; with a deep passion and thorough sensuality that could send the most powerful kings, fearsome warriors and apparently deadly werewolves to their knees. She groaned as Regina's hands slid slowly up her arms and her tongue slipped hotly between Ruby's lips.

Eventually Ruby needed more. She needed to taste, to scent Regina's soft skin more than she'd ever needed anything. She reluctantly pulled her lips from Regina's, shivering at the groan of protest, only to slide them across her jaw, placing gentle nips along the way and then moving to her neck, where she thrilled at the feel of the pounding pulse beneath the warm skin and Ruby instantly became addicted. There was no perfume to distract her from the indescribable and unique taste that belonged solely to Regina Mills and she knew from that instant on, there would never be anything to compare.

"Jesus Regina, you taste so good," Ruby murmured before once more burying her face in the former Queen's neck.

Regina only briefly considered warning Ruby that she wasn't a wolf snack but then Ruby began to bite and suckle at her neck and that totally erased her ability to speak. Her hands gripped the red tinged hair painfully as Ruby trailed her tongue up the column of her throat before she once more captured her lips.

"This is why your seduction tricks won't work on me," Ruby said breathlessly once she was able break away from Regina's beautiful mouth. "I've wanted you for longer than I can remember." Suddenly afraid she'd left herself wide opened for a lethal Mayor Mills insult, she turned her face away.

Regina swallowed hard, affected more than she would have ever believed possible by the strange young woman's unexpected confession. She placed her fingers on Ruby's chin, turning the pretty face back to hers and then gently stroked her cheek.

"You don't know what you're saying," Regina said far more gently than she probably should have.

"Probably not, but that's never stopped me before," Ruby replied with a shaky smile unable to keep from placing a gentle kiss into Regina's warm palm. She carefully removed the hand, startled to feel the trembling in the fingers that had pulled the hearts out of so many people.

"Regina, I know exactly what I'm saying. I know that trusting people is not something you do, but giving up isn't something that I do. Not when it's something that I truly want."

"Careful dear, you're beginning to sound like me," Regina said, though the smirk was only half hearted this time as she fought to make sense of this woman she barely knew, a woman who had stood by her despite what she'd seen and when she had absolutely no reason to do so.

"If you leave here, I'm coming after you," Ruby said firmly, ignoring the other woman's comment.

Regina's eyes widened at the determination in Ruby's voice. "You can't," she argued more calmly than she felt. "If you step over the border, you'll lose your memories." It caused an ache in her heart knowing what Ruby was willing to do for her.

Ruby shook her head. "Maybe, but if I understand how this curse thing works, we only lose our memories of our Enchanted Forest selves. So I won't be Red anymore. I'll just be Ruby and Ruby remembers you."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're obnoxiously obstinate?" Regina sighed, trying hard to ignore just how very sweet Ruby's words were, especially to someone who'd recently been told she'd always be evil.

"Granny may have mentioned it a time or two," Ruby grinned.

"I'm not leaving town Ruby," Regina reaffirmed. "Even knowing I'm putting everyone at risk…and even knowing my son…Henry doesn't want me, I can't leave."

This time, it was Ruby's turn to cup Regina's face. "Henry will come around after everything settles down and the 'excitement' of the curse breaking finally wears off," she said trying to reassure the dejected mother. "He will remember what an amazing mother you are and I plan to show him, to show everyone, what an incredible woman you truly are. If you'll let me."

"Ruby…" dozens of cruel and heartless rejections ran through Regina's mind. She knew better than anyone the futility of trusting anyone but herself, but as she looked into the painfully expressive eyes watching her with an innocent hopefulness, she couldn't bring herself to say any of them. Her eyes flickered to Ruby's lips and her own began to tingle with the desire to taste them again.

"Perhaps we should go back to my home and discuss things a little further," she said, her voice thick with suggestive promise.

Ruby swallowed the knot that jumped into her throat at the husky tone. Regina Mills could arouse a garden gnome just by talking to it. "Far be it from me to argue with royalty," she replied, her own voice slightly breathless as she and Regina fastened their seatbelts and Regina turned the car around heading back to the town that no longer felt quite so empty.

The End.