Thanks for the reviews. If there is anything you would like me to do or improve upon please let me know and I will try my hardest. I won't go on to long, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
I don't own anything.

The sun rose quickly in Oz, its rays shining down brightly, with no forgiveness. Regina opened her eyes squinting slightly, sitting up she saw Hook's sleeping bag was empty.

"Hook?" Regina called quietly as she stepped out of her own sleeping bag, folding it up slightly.

"Ah good morning Regina, beautiful day is it not? I was just getting some water." Hook said as he climbed up the slight drop off that went to the bank of the stream.

"Ah yes, good idea we should probably bring some with us, we don't want to be tethered to stream, we need to get back to the road up there."

"You mean the yellow brick road?"

"Yes, that."

"You can say it you know, it is what it is called after all."

"I don't want to, I'll just go take care of getting some water, why don't you pack up the sleeping bags?" Regina said as she headed down the same drop off Hook had just come before waiting for an answer.

"And where do you except me to put them…" Just as Hook was asking his question a large back pack appeared at his feet, and a slight whimper came from the bank of the stream.

"Regina?"

"I'm fine, just hurry and pack up, we shouldn't waste any time." Regina called back. Hook rolled his eyes and did as he was told, like mother like daughter, both so stubborn to the point where they wouldn't listen to reason.

"Are we ready to go?" Regina called as she started to climb up the bank, with a bag slung around her shoulders that seemed to be filled with water bottles.

"Yes your majesty all packed up." Hook responded as he walked over and extended a hand to Regina. She accepted after a moment but winced when his palm met her own.

"Regina what is wrong?" Hook asked, steading her once they were standing side by side.

"Nothing, now come on we should be going." Regina replied as she started to head back into the woods towards the direction that she guessed that the yellow brick was.

"Regina wait." Hook said catching her by her arm, "show me your hands."

"Don't grab me…who do you think you are." Regina replied, her voice laced with venom.

"I don't know, a man who is trying to save the magical world from a bunch of crazies, but in order to do that Regina we need to be a team. Now please show me your hands."

Regina took a breath and head her palms open to him, angry small burn marks dotted her hands.

"Where did that come from?"

"The magic here it is different, I'm still getting a handle on it."

"Regina."

"We needed water Hook, end of conversation."

"Yes and I suppose we needed a big fancy back pack too."

"You could just say thank you." Regina said as she headed back in the woods again, leaving Hook several paces behind.

"It's not worth it." He called.

"I will be the judge of what is worth it and what is not." Regina called back, maybe agreeing to come on this quest with him was a bad idea.

"Regina I will not have you getting hurt on my account, I mean honestly does stupidity run in your family along with magic."

Regina stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Hook with a look of anger and despair all mixed into one, "No…you don't get to talk about her."

"Regina, I'm sorry." Hook said as he raised his hands, "I might have overstepped a bit there."

"You think?" Regina replied.

"I never understood your relationship…the first time I met you, you sent me to kill her, and then she was going to kill you, but…after time I…she cared about you."

"I thought I told you not to talk about her…that is two warnings, I suggest you don't push it."

"Fine." Hook replied, "My lips are sealed, on to the Emerald City?"

Regina simply nodded. And headed back, she could see the trees thinning ahead and annoying gleam of yellow bricks.

The sun had shifted higher in the sky, bearing down on them, Regina could feel a bead of sweat rolling down her back and reached into the bag and took a sip from one of the water bottles, her burns tingled when the water hit her throat, but the green glow had gone away for now. Regina had hoped the sweat or heat or pain growing in her feet would somehow distract her from the thoughts that had been invading her mind since her spat with Hook earlier this morning. Thoughts of her mother; her mother scolding her, her mother telling her she had potential, her mother accepting the King's proposal, her mother falling through the looking glass, thinking her mother was dead after she had sent Hook to kill her, her mother's actual death. The look she gave her after her heart was returned, her final words.

"You okay?" Hooked asked, noticing that Regina was starting to fall behind.

"She never loved me." Regina muttered under her breath

"What was that?" Hook asked.

"You said my mother cared for me. Maybe, I'm not sure, but she never loved me, well not until the end."

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"She didn't have her heart." Regina said with a shrug, "because love is weakness and she couldn't have any weakness…but I loved her."

"Regina…" Hook said sympathetically.

"You would have been enough…I mean what kind of shit is that. That is that last thing she said to be by the way, after I returned her heart, and she died in Rumplestiltskin's place. I would have been enough. Apparently it wasn't necessary to ridicule me, and force me into a marriage with a man more than twice my age. I would have been enough."

"She just wanted to be your mother…I mean she might have not been the warmest woman."

Regina laughed slightly.

"But she wanted to be close to you, she crossed realms after all."

"To break me…she framed me for Archie's murder, to turn my son against me."

"We all make mistakes."

"Yes, yes…and I know I'm no angel. But at least I'm trying to make up for it."

"Because you have your heart."

Regina chuckled, "yes, as dark as it may be I still have it."

"And you got her love at the end…not everyone gets that privilege."

"Are you speaking from experience Hook?"

"Why don't you tell me more about this story of the Wizard of Oz I can't help but feel you are at some sort of strategically advantage to me."

"Well there was the farm girl Dorothy who got stuck in Oz and she went to meet the Wizard because she wanted to go home, and along the way she picked all these characters, they were pretty pathetic really. All missing some part of themselves, and they thought the Wizard could fix them somehow. There was the Scarecrow."

"Henry's favorite."

"Yes…I mean I can see why Henry liked him, he was funny sometimes and had some hidden wisdom."

"And what other characters did this Dorothy come along?"

"There was the Cowardly Lion, looking for courage. And there was the Tin Man who was…" Regina drifted off, the thought of her mother returning.

"Regina? And the Tin Man, what was the Tin Man missing?" Hook asked.

"The Tin Man was missing his heart."