Regina woke up the next morning, feeling more exhausted than the day before. She looked around her and saw that all the others had left the room, except for Ruby, who was still asleep. She stayed a few more minutes lying down on her mattress, she didn't want to see anybody. She heard some voices coming from outside, the discussion seemed heated. She got out of bed and headed to the group. "What's going on ?" she asked

"Well, apparently you've been replaced" Leroy replied.

"What ?" Regina asked, not understanding what this dwarf was implying.

"Grumpy !" Snow exclaimed.

Regina sent an interrogative look towards Tink who seemed to be the center of attention when she came towards them.

"I just went to the nearest village with Blue and … well, it seems that some witch came to the Enchanted forest some time ago and is now living in your old castle. Apparently, she's terrorizing the population : she killed some people and burned a lot of houses" Tink answered.

"Wait, what ? Who is she ? Do we know what she wants ?" Regina asked.

Tink seemed embarrassed and replied "Well, first of all I don't know who she is. But I do know that she's kind of … special"

"Special ?" Regina was confused about everything the fairy said.

"She's green !" Grumpy cut off. Regina looked at Tink, expecting her to confirm what Grympy just said.

"Yeah, she is … And about her motives, well … Apparently she's looking for someone …"

"Who ?" Regina asked, fear in her voice. She was pretty sure about the answer but she needed to hear it.

"You" Tink said, with sadness in her voice.

"Who is she ? What did you do to her ?" David asked, accusation in his voice. He was more than sure Regina had did something wrong to her, as she did for so many people.

"I don't know …" Regina answered. When she saw the look on David's face, she was pretty sure he didn't believe her. "It's the truth ! I don't know any green witch !"

"So why does she has something against you, love ?" Hook asked

"I … don't know" Regina said, looking at her feet. She wasn't able to face their looks anymore. She really didn't know anything about this woman.

"Look, it doesn't matter. Right now we need to find a way to defeat her" Tink said after a while "Blue and I are going to look for the other fairies. We'll need help from the dwarves to gather as much fairy dust as we can"

"Tink is right, we need to prepare ourselves" Snow stated.

"If we want to prepare ourselves, we need to find out who we're up against" David added.

Everybody nodded to what David said, except Regina who was deep in her thoughts. She really didn't know what to do. Was she supposed to help the Charmings ? Did she really care about what that witch was doing ? She could just let her terrorize those people, she didn't care about them, really ! But then she remembered her son, his hopeful face. And then she remembered his last words "You're not a villain, you're my mom". Then she knew what she had to do, she was determined. She was going to defeat whoever that green witch was, for her son. Because, even though he didn't remember her, she wanted to think that he would be proud of her if he did.

"I'm going to find out who she is and why she's looking for me" Regina said.

They all turned to her, not knowing what to say.

"Are you sure you want to do that ? That could be very dangerous" Snow stated.

"It's not something I want to do but something I HAVE to do … for Henry" Regina said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Ok, but you shouldn't go alone, we never know what she would do to you" Snow said, worry in her voice.

Regina sneered "Dear, this is exactly why I should go alone. Where's the last village she went to ?

They debated for some time, trying to change Regina's mind but she there was no use, she wasn't going to go there with someone else because, first of all, she needed some time alone, she couldn't stand the major part of the group. And second of all, she didn't want to have anyone else relying on her. She was going to go to that village the next day and find out who was that witch and why she was looking for her.

XXXXXX

A few hours later, Tink and Blue left to find the other fairies, while the dwarves headed to the mines to find some diamonds to make fairy dust.

David, Snow, Neal, Belle, Granny and Ruby wanted to get ready to defend themselves if the green witch went to attack them. So they all left to the village nearby to find weapons.

Hook and Regina were staying at the castle, they were supposed to try to make order in the castle so they'll all be able to use the other rooms. But it there's no use to say that they didn't really care about that, they had others issues to deal with.

Regina was deep in her thoughts, she was thinking about how she was going to do to gather as much information as she possibly could without getting caught by the witch. She thought about a shape shifting spell but she wasn't sure if it will fool her. But what other choice did she have ? Now, how was she going to do to approach her close enough to be able to know why she's looking for her ?

While she was passing back and forth in the main room, trying to come up with a plan, Hook entered the room and came close to her "Are you sure you want to go there alone ?" he asked.

Regina was taken aback by Hook's presence, she was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't even assumed there was someone else in the room. "Sorry, what ?"

"I'm not sure you should go find that witch all alone"

"Why do you care ?"

"Listen, I know how you feel, you lost your son and I don't want you to make something … stupid."

"What are you talking about ?"

"Listen" Hook said while grasping her shoulders "I feel like you're going on suicidal mission and I have to admit, I'm rather concerned about you"

"And why is that ? You usually don't care for anyone else than yourself."

"Maybe you're not the only one who wants to change. You know…, I'm not really proud of what I did to you, I mean the whole torture thing… I would like to make it up to you. I can come with you and help you"

"Listen, coming with me will not help me at all, I want to do this alone, I don't want anyone to rely on me ! I just need some time alone to … figure some things out. To …"

"Relieve the pain ?"

"Yes" Regina admitted.

"Maybe I can help you to do that" while he was talking, he came closer to Regina and stared into her eyes. After a while, he came even closer to her, if that was even possible, and started to kiss her. Regina was surprised and didn't move right away but after a few seconds she stepped back "What the hell are you doing ?"

"Trying to help you relieve the pain." Regina didn't know what to say, she just stared at him for a while and then kissed him. She knew she needed this to feel something, to feel alive, and so did he. After everything they've just been through, they needed to find comfort in each other, even if it was only for a short time.

"We shouldn't do that" whispered Regina. She didn't want to be caught by anyone in this moment of weakness.

"Don't worry, we have time before they get back" Hook said while pushing her to her mattress.

There were no feelings, it was only a way for both of them to cope with their loss.

They weren't used of dealing with their problems and fears like any other people. Usually, they needed to hurt people to soothe themselves. But they knew they could no longer be the people they used to be. They needed to deal with their issues differently. And this was one way to deal with them, without hurting anyone.

And for a short time this day, they were able to forget all their worries and pain.

I don't know what you'll think of this, but I was a Hooked Queen shipper and I just wanted to bring a little bit of this in that story. But don't worry, this was a one-time thing, this is definitively an Outlaw Queen story.