The house was quiet, and the purr in Regina's voice set Emma's teeth on edge. She recognized that sound. She'd heard it several times in the recent past just before Regina had made a move to make her life even more difficult. Emma suddenly felt as though she'd walked right into the lion's den, and she needed to get out right then.

Clearing her throat, she swiftly rose, setting the glass down atop a coaster on the coffee table. "Before you say anything, I need to get something to show you." She licked her suddenly dry lips as her eyes darted nervously around the room. "I picked it up at the library today."

At the skeptical look from Regina, the blonde rolled her eyes. "What? You know I read. God," She rolled her eyes and walked quickly to the exit. "Give me a few. I'll be right back."

Regina slowly sipped her wine as she waited, wondering what could be so important that Emma would rush out of the room to retrieve it before the evening had even begun. Her questions were answered when she saw the book in the sheriff's hand.

"Where did you get that?" The brunette said, voice suddenly tight. Despite her relaxed position, her body vibrated with tension.

"Belle found it for me." Emma kept hold of the book and retook her place across from Regina. "It was sitting a shelf in the library with a bunch of other old, dusty, rundown looking books."

Regina's voice was flat. "How much did you read?"

"I started with The Rise of Queen Regina and ended somewhere around Prince James and Snow White's Climb to Power. It's an eye catching read." The young woman carefully opened the book to a page she had marked earlier. Clearing her throat, she read a passage. "Though it's no longer a commonly known fact, Princess Regina was considered by many to be a bright, vibrant, intelligent, and gentle young woman with a giving heart and a kind countenance. What is even more uncommon knowledge is how often the young princess found herself being attended to by the court physician, who treated her for all manner of cuts, scrapes, brakes, and bruising caused by what her mother, Cora, cited as injuries due to various accidents while riding. The court physician, Sir Garth, however, was quoted as saying that such wounds as those on the young girl could not have all been made via riding accidents, and he was certain Princess Regina had often been subjected to some type of physical punishment that ended in many of the wounds on her body. Sir Garth was never able, or perhaps willing, to substantiate his suspicions, and his services were discontinued shortly after Princess Regina was married to King Leopold."

She shut the book. "It's not what I'd call hardcore journalism, and it reads a little better than a history book from school, but, Regina, is this all true?"

The older woman pursed her lips in thought. The evening was suddenly not going as planned, and she considered her options carefully. She drained the glass and set it down next to Emma's still half full glass before she said a word. When she did speak, her eyes looked away into the distance, and her face was as impassive as a Grecian marble statue. "That book was written by a foolish woman who went by the name of Lysandra. I remember the day she came to me to propose the writing of that book. She spoke of writing the history of my greatness so future generations would know, and I liked the idea so much I decided to spare her life for interrupting my morning bath. I gave her permission to write the book and to speak to whomever she felt she needed to in order to complete it. I gave strict orders that anyone she spoke to would be honest about my greatness." She raised an eyebrow at the phrasing of her sentence to accentuate the unspoken threat to her subjects that said they were not to speak ill of her.

Taking in a deep breath, Regina turned her gaze back to the blonde. "I also recall the moment I finished reading the first copy of the book. She didn't have a chance to register what had happened before her heart was in my hand. The fool," she scoffed. "Instead of writing of my greatness, she had written a book showing my weaknesses and highlighting everything that is better left untold. It never occurred to me to ask her how many copies were circulating before I declared her sentence for crossing me." She closed her eyes and slowly shook her head from side to side. "She told me while she begged and pleaded with me for her life that she thought telling the truth about me would be a way to set me free from the prison I had placed myself in." She opened her eyes again, and they held the same harsh judgment then as they did the day the unfortunate author had uttered those words. "Hubris. For one whose name means liberator, the only thing she freed was my extensive anger and wrath." Regina reached forward and took Emma's glass of wine, taking a small sip from it as she leaned back against the arm of the sofa.

"So, what you're telling me is," the sheriff tried not to let out the frustrated sigh that was threatening to escape, and her face twitched with the effort not to show both her disgust and her sympathy, "that you killed her because she wrote a book that told the truth about your childhood all the way up to the war?"

Regina inclined her head to confirm.

Emma blew out a long stream of air as she ran a hand over her face. "You're a piece of work. You know that?"

"I've been called far worse," Regina answered between sips of wine.

The sheriff waved a hand in front of her as if to say they should move on. Staring ahead for a time, she thought about everything she'd learned as she let the silence linger. It took a moment for a thought to fully form in her mind, and, when it did, it surprised her. "Why didn't you try to kill the Blue Fairy? She's as much to blame as anyone, isn't she?"

"What do you mean?" Again, Regina pursed her lips in thought.

"She's the fairy that comes down when you wish upon a star, right?" Emma winced. The sentences she found herself saying these days just kept getting stranger and more uncomfortable. "I'm certain you wished on a star more than once for help dealing with your mother and the situations you found yourself in that you couldn't get out of, which means the Blue Fairy heard you and didn't answer. So, why not blame her for some of this?"

The brunettes eyebrows shot up, and her face actually displayed true surprised. "I'd never considered that before."

"I hope I didn't just give you another target," Emma grumbled.

"We've been through this, Ms. Swan. I don't do that sort of thing any longer. However," Regina tilted her head to the side, "you bring up a valid point. I suppose I thought I must not have been worthy of help. If what Mother said was true, and I was truly as disobedient and awful of a child as she said, then that would mean I would get no help from a being like the Blue Fairy. She only helps those who have a good heart and untainted soul."

Emma shook her head in disbelief. "You do realize what you just said, right? You basically just called yourself unworthy of saving, even as a kid. That's bullshit, Regina. If this book is accurate, then you were not a bad kid. You were a good kid who was in a really crappy situation with no one there to help you out of it, no one you could ask for help who would or could help you, and no way to get away from your situation."

Regina's voice was thick with sarcasm. "Are you making excuses for me, Ms. Swan?"

"No. I'm just running down the facts. You don't get off that easily. You could have chosen to do a few things differently. I'm still not convinced you really had a choice in most of it, but, until I learn otherwise, I'm going with what I know. And what I know is that you had a crappy childhood with a lot of things happening that were way beyond your control. It sort of makes mine look like a rose garden." She snorted.

"Roses have thorns," Regina countered, "and I'm aware of what you went through as a child. I've seen your record, and I've seen the records from the foster care system. Sydney is nothing if not thorough." She frowned at the memory of her now institutionalized lackey. "If you and I are going to speak honestly with each other, then I think we should be frank about both sides of this. Based on how you grew up, you could have easily turned out to be just as… questionable as I."

"Yeah… no," Emma shook her head. "I always had an advocate of some kind, whether it was an active social worker or a school teacher or a foster parent who cared about me but couldn't keep me. Even at the worst of times in my life, there was always someone fighting in my corner even when I had stopped fighting for myself, and, when I was out of the system, I lost my way. You've seen my record. You know I was in jail, and I didn't get there because I was living a perfectly law abiding life. But, for a lot of my life, I had someone there, and that sort of keeps a person grounded. Who did you have?"

"My father." Regina looked away again, this time rolling her eyes up to stare at the ceiling. "I had my father."

"No offense, but, according to this book, he wasn't much of an advocate," Emma said as gently as she could manage.

"Perhaps not, but he loved me regardless of who or what I became. He was there for me. He supported me, and he never judged me." Regina visibly gathered herself together and looked back to the blonde. "I loved my father very much, and he loved me unconditionally."

"The book doesn't say what happened to him, but I know he has a tomb here, so I assume he died." The younger woman glanced uncomfortably around the room. "Frankly, I'm afraid to ask."

For the first time since Emma had known Regina, the former mayor looked physically ill and truly emotionally fragile. A very long, tense instant struggled by as she waited to see what Regina would say or do, and she was completely thrown when a tear slide down the older woman's cheek.

"I've done some truly despicable things, Ms. Swan." Regina's voice quivered slightly. "I believe most would think the curse that sent us all here would be the worst, but that's only because they don't know how the curse was enacted." She ran a finger under her eye to wipe the single tear away. "In so many ways, I could argue that the curse wasn't as much of a curse as many are want to believe. People like your friend Ruby or like Dr. Whale have gained a second chance they never would have had in their own worlds, and I would argue they are now thriving where, in their respective past lives, they would have likely only fallen further into despair." The brunette pulled her legs closer to herself, sitting the second empty glass on the coffee table as she did so. "It gave me a second chance, too," she said, her voice soft. "But, to get here, the sacrifice had to be large."

Emma slowly licked her lips and swallowed the lump down in her throat. "How large?"

"When he first gave the spell to me, Rumplestilsken failed to fully explain that to me, or, perhaps I truly didn't care." Regina gave a halfhearted shrug. "I think I didn't care. There were others that warned me. My only friend, Maleficent, told me enacting the curse would leave a hole in my heart that could never be filled, and my only response at the time was, 'So be it." She gave a mirthless laugh that sounded so pained that Emma winced at the sound. "My own hubris."

"Regina, you don't have to tell me this if you don't want to."

"Someone should know. Why not you?" The brunette took in a deep breath and began in a strong but wary voice. "The curse said I had to sacrifice the heart of the one I loved the most. I had a horse, my prized steed. I thought his heart would do. He was one of the very few animals or people that I held in any regard at all. I'd had him when Daniel was killed, and that horse was one of my only connections to him. I sacrificed the horse's heart, but the spell didn't work. When I went to Rumplestilsken, he told me that my sacrifice had to be personally as large as the curse." Her eyes moved to the top of the coffee table and remained on the empty wine glasses. "I spoke to Daddy about it. I told him what the imp had said. I told him I was conflicted, that all I wanted was to be happy. He told me we could start over somewhere else away from everything, and we could be happy together somewhere else."

Despite her best efforts, another tear feel, and Regina did nothing to stop it. "I was too far gone, too wrapped up in my need to destroy Snow White and too caught up in the power of the magic I was dealing in. I wasn't strong enough to walk away from it." Her eyes moved back to Emma's. "I honestly didn't think I could. As far as I was concerned, there was only one way out for me."

"I truly loved my father, Ms. Swan, but I loved myself, my greed, and my need for magic more." She again looked up to stop the threatening tears from falling. "I took his heart, killing him instantly, and I used it to enact the curse."

The air was heavy, and Regina waited to see what Emma would do with this new piece of information.

Emma sat in the chair and leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees as she steepled her fingers together in thought. The book now rested on the ground before her, and she let her eyes remain on the darkened, aged leather as she let her mind process. Minutes ticked by, and, still, she didn't say a word.

Regina watched her, taking in the intense expression on the blonde's face. Her eyes caught the throb at the blonde's temples caused by the slow grinding of her teeth as she thought, and she listened to the younger woman's breathing as it increased a notch.

Slowly standing from her place, Emma carefully walked over to Regina and held her hand out to the seated woman. Confused and curious, Regina placed her own in the blonde's and allowed the younger woman to pull her to her feet.

It was a stilted and uncertain motion, but Emma managed to pull the brunette to her and wrap her arms around the tensed body of the other woman, giving her a hug as she whispered quietly into Regina's ear, "I'm sorry."

The tears finally escaped Regina and flowed freely. For the first time she could recall, Regina allowed herself to be held as she cried for the loss of her father, and, in a different sense, for the loss of self that had slowly happened to her as she struggled through life in the Enchanted Forest.