Mary Margaret had left just after reminding Regina about Henry's ability to leave Storybrooke. Mainly because Regina had thrown her out, angrily hissing "get out of my sight" while dragging her to the door. But the slamming of the door and the teacher's absence gave her no relief. Dark thoughts continued to swirl in her head.

August had promised redemption if she opened herself up. But once again, opening herself up to someone - to Snow, which made it burn and ache all the more - had only set her up for more heartbreak. Now she had the way to get Emma back, to regain what she had lost, but she would lose something more precious in the process.

Her relationship with Henry was already hanging on only by a thread. If she sent him after Emma, she would have to admit that he was the only one who could leave, which would prove all of his theories true. And then he would hate her more than he already did. He would leave and never come back and she would be alone, left without anyone just as she always had been.

That's what it all boiled down to in the end. Everyone left her. They either abandoned her - as her mother and Snow and Emma had done - or were ripped away from her - as her child and lover had been. But she was always left behind, with the ruins of the relationships and the knowledge that she would never truly be happy.

And then there was the other revelation - Emma was Snow's daughter. No matter how much she tried to deny it, she knew that if it had been in Henry's book it had to be true. It was the perfect irony really - the child that she had adopted to try and fill the aching hole in her soul was the grandson of the woman she held responsible for that hole in the first place. And the woman plaguing her - awakening thoughts and feelings she'd considered long dead - was the daughter that she had planned to steal away until magic had taken her first. It seemed that the entire family - the entire White line - was destined to make her feel, make her care, and then tear out her heart without a second thought.

Pressure built up behind her eyes until Regina felt like her head would explode. With a low growl, she stalked out of her study and headed for the backyard and the apple tree. She needed to clear these thoughts and the apple tree had always been a source of comfort - even if it was also a source of a pain.

But when she reached the backyard, it was to find Mary Margaret leaning against the tree. Anger flared within her once again. How dare she stand anywhere near Regina's tree?

Mary Margaret looked up and offered a smile, but it did nothing to quell Regina's anger. "I know you wanted me to leave, Regina, but -"

"Get. Away. From. My. Tree." She spat, her hand already closing around the teacher's arm in a grip hard enough to bruise.

Mary Margaret's eyes widened as she tried to step away from it. She didn't understand Regina's anger. She knew the tree had been important to her, but it had been important to Snow too - and to their relationship - from what the older woman had said.

"I'm sorry." She stammered, looking to Regina for some sort of explanation.

"Yes." Regina sneered. "You're sorry. You're so sorry now. Now that the damage has already been done."

"Regina -"

"Stop sniveling!" She hissed. "At least when you were her, you never sniveled."

"But I'm not her!" Mary Margaret yanked her arm away, fire dancing behind her eyes for the first time as she stared at Regina. "I'm not her because of you! You did this, Regina. Not me. So stop blaming me for your mistakes."

The sound of flesh meeting flesh cracked through the air as Regina slapped her. Mary Margaret jerked back, staring at her with wide eyes brimming with tears. "Feel better now?" She asked, her hand covering her cheek.

Regina closed her eyes. "Yes." She whispered, but when she opened them and took in the sight of Mary Margaret, she shook her head. "No."

Mary Margaret let her hand drop and nodded once. "I know that you're angry - and god knows you have a right to be - but you also remember everything, you know everything. I don't. And I'm trying here, but sometimes -" She looked at the tree. "I thought that the tree was a good thing between us. And I know how much you love it. I knew you'd come here eventually and I thought we could talk about everything. I know I put a lot on you - probably unfairly but -"

"It was a good thing between us. In the beginning." Regina turned away, walking back to the tree and placing her stinging palm on the rough place where Emma had taken the chainsaw to it. That had cut her more deeply than Emma could ever imagine. "But it's also - Emma already desecrated it. And seeing you there -"

"I am sorry, Regina." Mary Margaret spoke clearly, doing her best not to snivel or sound weak. "I do truly mean that. I know what I told you - what I'm asking of you - "

"No." Regina's voice was just barely a whisper. "You don't know. You do not know what you're asking me." She turned to look at the teacher. "Because you are asking me to send my child - the only thing I have left - to go get your child and bring her back. And if I do that - if I do that, then I lose Henry for good and once again you get everything."

Mary Margaret stepped forward. "I'm not asking you for me. I'm asking for you." She held up her hand before Regina could protest. "I miss Emma dearly, that is true. But you know as well as I do that if she is my child, I don't remember her. I don't remember carrying her or giving birth to her. I feel a connection to her, yes, but at this point, it is only as a friend, not as a daughter. I've missed her, but I've been able to go on without her. It's you who has had the trouble. You said so yourself. I didn't tell you about Henry being able to leave for me. I told you for yourself. Because all of this started because you wanted Emma back here. You wanted to redeem yourself. I gave you a way. And I know it seems impossible, but you told me the truth and I'm still here. What's to say the same won't be true for Henry?"

"You and I both know that it won't be, Mary Margaret." It was the first time that Regina had ever called her by her name.

"It could be. If I'm with you - if we tell him the whole story - make him see the other side of it -"

Regina shook her head and Mary Margaret stopped. She looked at the mayor and then sighed softly. "I'm going to go. It's your decision to make and I know that I'm only making things worse. I told you that whatever was said was between us and I meant it. I won't tell anyone else. If you decide you want to tell Henry, I'll be there if you want. If you decide not to, I won't blame you."

Then the schoolteacher walked away with Regina watching her, feeling more conflicted than ever.

Regina spent the better part of the rest of the morning trying to push all of her thoughts and feelings away and pretend that the night before and that morning had never happened. She went into her office at Town Hall after trying to coax Henry out of his room, only to get a listless reply that he didn't want to go anywhere or do anything and that Regina should just go to work like he knew she wanted to. The words hadn't stung that much - she was used to far worse refusals and accusations - but the dead tone he'd used and the lost look in his eyes had hurt. Why was it that she could never be enough, that she could never do enough? Why couldn't anyone love her and stay?

Almost as soon as she stepped into her office, she knew it had been a bad idea to come. The stacks of paperwork on her desk taunted her (you're stuck, you're trapped) and the phone began to ring almost as though whoever it was had been waiting for the moment she stepped through the door, knowing that Leslie wouldn't be there to field the call for her.

With a sigh, she picked it up. "Hello?"

"Mayor Mills, it's Dr. Hopper. I'm calling about Henry."

Regina frowned and glanced down at her desk calendar. Henry didn't have a therapy appointment scheduled today, so why was Archie calling? "What about Henry?"

"I'm… concerned about him."

"Why?" Regina's voice was deadly.

"Well, he's stopped talking about his fairy tale ideas." Archie said hesitantly.

"And how is that a bad thing? Isn't that why he is in therapy in the first place, to cure him of that -" she nearly choked on the word, "ridiculous notion?"

"Yes." Dr. Hopper replied quickly. "And if he had stopped talking about them and moved on to other things, I would be incredibly pleased. But he hasn't, Mayor Mills. He's just stopped talking altogether."

"What?" She knew that Henry was sullen around her, but she assumed it was just because he blamed her for Emma leaving.

"He won't talk to me about anything. I've even tried engaging him by talking about the fairy tales," She could hear his flinch across the phone as he admitted that, "but it doesn't garner any reaction. I've tried getting him to write or draw his feelings, but it's had minimal success. He did write one letter," and again, she could hear him preparing himself for injury, "to Emma but -"

"What did it say?" Regina demanded.

"Mayor Mills, as Henry's therapist you know that I can't divulge -"

"What. Did. It. Say?" She repeated, her words deadly.

Archie actually whimpered. "It wasn't very long. It talked about how he felt abandoned, how he didn't understand how she could leave him again. How he just wanted her to come back, even if she didn't remember him. Regina, I really think that Henry needs to have some kind of contact with Emma, even if it's only through letters or a phone call or -"

"I'll take that into consideration, Dr. Hopper. Goodbye." Regina slammed the phone down, her hands shaking.

She looked at them for a few seconds before she suddenly stood up, using her arms to sweep everything off her desk. All of the paperwork scattered and everything else crashed to the floor. She stood over the destruction, staring at the mess she had created. In the center of it all laid a picture frame, its glass shattered. Henry's smiling face was supposed to look out from it, but it just looked distorted and ugly now - a reminder of just how much she had ruined.

Tears filled her eyes, making her vision swim, as she stepped through the mess and left the office, slamming the door behind her.

Henry was still in his room when she arrived home, lying on the bed staring blankly at the ceiling. He didn't acknowledge her when she walked into the room at all and she couldn't stand his silence, so she left the room and headed for her own.

She collapsed on the bed, feeling exhausted, and quickly succumbed to sleep. But it wasn't the peaceful sleep she'd been hoping for. Instead, she was once again plagued by dreams. Only this time, Emma didn't feature in them. Henry did though.

She found herself back in Leopold's castle, only this time, it wasn't her being dragged away kicking and screaming as Cora watched, it was Henry, and Emma was watching. The guards had him in their grasp, pulling his tiny body away as he yelled out for help. "No! Emma, help me! Emma, don't leave me here! Please! Help!"

"Henry!" She heard Emma yell back, and it was only then that she realized that unlike her own mother, Emma was trying to stop the guards and get to Henry, but she was held in place by an invisible force, unable to move. An invisible force that she herself was creating. She was stopping Emma from reaching Henry. She was causing Henry to feel abandoned and alone, just like her own mother had done to her.

She tried to lower her hand, but found that she couldn't. She couldn't stop herself, couldn't stop the evil thing she was doing.

Suddenly Mary Margaret was beside her, only she wasn't Mary Margaret, but Snow White. "Regina, stop. Please." She implored, but Regina couldn't.

And then August was beside her, repeating the words he had spoken in her office that day. "As for things of value, sometimes you need to let them go and trust that they'll come back to you."

Snow moved towards her and reached out, trying to take hold of her hand.

August's voice echoed. "You need to let them go and trust that they'll come back to you."

"I can't. I can't lose anything else." She begged, looking from August to Snow and back again. "I can't."

"Trust that they'll come back to you." Snow's hand grasped her own, the grip breaking the spell that had been holding Emma in place. She fell to the ground with a thud, but then quickly stood up, racing after the guards and Henry.

Regina tried to move too, to go to them, but found that now she was rooted to the spot. "No. Please."

"Trust that they'll come back to you."

Regina gasped as she sat straight up, tears streaming down her cheeks. The words from her dream as well as her other conversations that day continued to swirl in her brain.

"Trust that they'll come back to you."

"Henry can leave Storybrooke."

"He felt abandoned."

"Emma, don't leave me here!"

"Trust that they'll come back to you."

"You wanted to redeem yourself."

"Henry needs to have some kind of contact with Emma."

"Even if she's my daughter?"

"Trust that they'll come back to you."

Regina reached and grabbed her phone, her fingers already dialing a number. It wasn't until she heard the automated voice pick up that she realized what number it was that she had dialed. With a shake of her head, she ended the call, and forced herself to focus. This time when she dialed the number that she didn't even realize she knew, it rang until a voice picked up. "Hello?"

"Miss - Mary Margaret," Regina said softly.

"Regina? What's wrong?"

"I - I was hoping you would come to the house at your earliest convenience. I'm planning to… discuss things with Henry."

"Regina." Mary Margaret gasped. "Of course. Of course, I will. I can come over right now or…" She tried not to sound too eager or excited, knowing that Regina was probably having a very difficult time with everything. "I can come over whenever you need me."

Regina closed her eyes against those words. She didn't want to need Mary Margaret. She didn't want to need anyone. But it turned out that this redemption thing wasn't as easy as she'd originally thought. "Whenever you can come will be fine."

"Okay." Mary Margaret glanced over at the clock. "How about if I stop by Granny's and pick us up something for a late lunch and then come over?"

"That would be acceptable."

"Okay. I'll see you soon then." Mary Margaret hung up the phone and Regina just stared at hers, wondering once again if she wasn't about to lose everything.

Henry hadn't spoken much through lunch. He'd eyed Mary Margaret and his mother - sitting side by side at the dining room table - warily and eaten without comment. Even the hot chocolate with cinnamon that Regina had allowed Mary Margaret to make him had not gotten a reaction. The teacher had tried to draw Henry and Regina into conversations, but he had only answered with one or two word answers, never meeting his mother's eyes. The atmosphere had been awkward and tense the entire time.

As soon as he cleaned his plate, Henry stood, intending to slip back up to his bedroom, but his mother's voice stopped him. "Henry, sit back down, please. There's something I need to discuss with you."

Henry eyed her but eventually sank down into his chair after looking at Mary Margaret. "Am I in trouble?" He asked again. "Did I do something? Because Miss Blanchard said -"

"No." Regina shook her head and reached out, grasping Henry's hands. "You're not in trouble, Henry."

Henry frowned, but didn't pull his hands away. "Then what's going on? Why did you drop me off at the Nolans last night and then not come back? Why did Miss Blanchard pick me up this morning instead of you? What is she doing here now? What's going on?"

Once again, Mary Margaret could see the worry that Henry tied to hide. She hoped Regina could see it too.

"Henry, I -" Regina's throat closed up for a moment, but she forced the words out. "I know where Emma is."

Henry's head snapped up to meet her eyes. "What are you talking about? She's in Boston."

"No." Mary Margaret said softly. "She's not. She left there and disconnected her phone. No one could get in touch with her, until your mother found her."

"But why would you try to find Emma?" Henry asked, still confused. This wasn't at all like his mother.

"Because I know how important she is to you." Regina glanced at Mary Margaret. "And because I realized that she might be important to me, too."

Henry couldn't process the second part of what she said, so he ignored it, forging on. "Where is she?"

Regina laid an index card on the table. "She's in California."

He grabbed the card and stared at the address. "So we can go get her!" He exclaimed to Mary Margaret. "We can bring her back!"

"No," Regina spoke softly and Henry turned, angrily.

"Henry, listen," Mary Margaret told him, cutting off his rant.

"We can't go get her, Henry." Regina said, trying to keep her voice steady, even as she felt like she was going to break down or be sick at any moment. "Only you can."

"Wh-what?" Henry frowned. "But why -"

"You're the only one who can leave." Regina admitted and Henry's eyes widened suddenly.

"But - but that means -"

"Henry -"

"It's true." He said, his eyes burning into Regina. "It's all true."

He stood up so quickly that his chair toppled over backwards.

"Henry, please -" Mary Margaret said as Regina stood too, moving towards Henry.

"You really are the Evil Queen." He gasped, stepping back.

Regina reached out and grabbed his arm. "Henry, please, listen. I can explain. I can -"

"Don't touch me!" Henry yelled, yanking his arm away from her as though the touch alone would burn him. "Get away from me! You - you're nothing but - but an evil witch!"

He raced out of the house before either woman could react. The slamming of the front door reverberated through the room and Regina collapsed to the floor.

It wasn't until he had reached his destination that Henry realized his castle wasn't there anymore. The place he had always gone to hide away had been destroyed by Regina, just like everything else. His heart pounded as he sank down into the sand, tears pouring down his cheeks.

He'd always believed it to be true and wanted proof somehow, but now that he had it - it hurt too much to think about. Ever since Emma had told him that day that it couldn't be true, that the things Regina had done weren't evil, the thought that maybe he'd been wrong about everything had been niggling at the back of his mind. He'd started to remember those early years with Regina - the way she had held him and sang to him and laughed and played with him - and he'd started to wonder if maybe it all had been real. If maybe she had loved him like she claimed - like Emma claimed. But now he knew it was all a lie.

She was the Evil Queen. And the Evil Queen couldn't love anyone, least of all Henry - the son of the Savior and the grandson of Snow White. He'd known that - ever since he got the book he'd known that. So why did it hurt so much now?

He pulled in great, gasping breaths as he continued to cry, not knowing that back at the house, Regina was doing the same.

"Henry?" A voice cut through his cries, causing him to tense. But when he realized it wasn't Regina, he looked up, taking in August's form above him. "What's wrong?"

"It's all true!" He cried. "She told me so. She's the Evil Queen. She cursed everyone and trapped them here and - and -" He trailed off, once again taken over by sobs.

"Oh, I know." August confirmed with a nod.

"You - you know?"

"I've known for a long time. And you're right. She is the Evil Queen. Pure evil that one. Not a redeeming quality about her."

Henry frowned just a bit at that. No one had ever totally agreed with him about Regina before. Even Emma had told him that Regina wasn't really evil.

"I mean, she tried to kill Snow White. And she cursed everyone from fairy tale land to here. And she was a horrible mother to you." There was a glint in August's eye that Henry couldn't see through his tears.

Henry frowned again. "Well, I don't know if she was horrible -"

"And she forced Emma to leave town after the accident that she caused by cutting the brakes in her car."

"She didn't force Emma -"

"And she let you suffer here without Emma and didn't even try to find her and bring her back -"

"But she did -"

"And everyone in town hates her. No one would want to be her friend or defend her."

"But Miss Blanchard -"

"She's pure evil, Henry. You're right to run away from her."

"No, wait -"

"No?" August raised an eyebrow. "But isn't that what you've been saying? That she's pure evil? And now you have proof. She told you so herself."

"But -"

"But?" August knelt down. "But what, Henry?"

Henry's brow furrowed as he thought about what August had said. "But she didn't do all those things you said. She wasn't a horrible mother and she didn't cause Emma's accident or make her leave and she did find her. She told me -"

"But Henry, if she's evil, then that means that she's evil. It's black or white. Either she is or she isn't."

"Well then, she can't be." He said suddenly.

"But you said that she told you she was The Evil Queen." August reminded him.

"She did." Henry frowned again. "But she said that she could explain."

"Oh? And what explanation did she give?"

Henry looked down at the sand. "I don't know. I left before she could explain."

"Ah. I see." August rocked forward so he was sitting in the sand on his knees. He said nothing else, just waited quietly.

"August," Henry said finally, "do you really think that it's all black and white? People are either evil or they're not?"

"Well," August looked over at him, "that's what the fairy tales would have us believe."

"But do you believe it?"

A ghost of a smile spread across August's face. "No, Henry, I can't say I do."

"But then how - why do the stories say that?"

"I think for the very reason you just said. They're just stories. And you're a smart kid, Henry. You know that every story has two sides - even if the authors don't always tell us that other side. Someone who may seem like the villain to one person, may not seem that way to another."

Henry nodded slowly. "Miss Blanchard said something about that earlier today. Only, I didn't understand."

"Miss Blanchard is pretty smart."

"She's Snow White. But -"

August looked at Henry, but didn't question him.

"But she brought lunch over today and she was talking with my mom and my mom was being sort of nice to her and… they're supposed to be enemies."

"Snow White and the Evil Queen? Sure. But Miss Blanchard and your mom? Who says they have to be?"

"But they are Snow White and the Evil Queen."

"Are they really, Henry? You said that no one in town remembers their past, except for your mom, right?"

"Right. Or at least, I think so."

"So if they don't remember, then doesn't that make them different people?"

"I guess. But then - my mom does remember. So that would mean that she still was the Evil Queen."

"Hmm." August nodded. "I guess you're right."

"Only - Miss Blanchard said something else this morning. She asked me what if The Queen wasn't really evil? What if she wanted redemption? Do you think - do you think maybe that could be true?"

"I think it's very possible, Henry." August smiled at him.

"But - but if that is true, do you think it's possible? Could she be redeemed?"

August's smile grew. "I think redemption is always possible, if the person wants it."

Silence again reigned over them as Henry considered August's words. "What if she doesn't? What if this is all a trick?"

"Well, she gave you Emma's address, didn't she? And told you you're the only one who can leave Storybrooke?"

"Yes." Henry nodded.

"So go." August shrugged. "She can't come after you. And if you truly do believe that she's evil and this is all just a scheme, then you can escape from her clutches with no way for her to get you back."

August stood up, brushing sand from his knees. "But think about it Henry - if she truly was evil do you think she would've tried to look for Emma - even if she didn't know that she was Snow White's daughter - and told you where she was and that you could leave?"

The question that August asked, as well as others that had been asked of him, swirled through his mind.

"What if The Queen wasn't really evil?"

"Henry, if your mother is evil, if she honestly wanted me gone, then why did she pull me out of that car?"

"Can you look me in the eye and tell me that she's never shown you any kind of love before?"

"What if something happened to make her behave the way she did? And what if she wanted redemption now?"

"If she truly was evil do you think she would've tried to look for Emma - even if she didn't know that she was Snow White's daughter - and told you where she was and that you could leave?"

By the time Henry looked up to answer August, the man was gone. He looked around, but there were no traces of the man anywhere. Knowing what he had to do, Henry pushed himself up and started his walk back home.

It was only when the mayoral mansion came into sight that he realized that he'd never told August that Emma was Snow White's daughter or that Regina had given him her address and told him he was the only one who could leave Storybrooke. So how had the older man known? Henry pushed those thoughts away with a frown as he came to stand on the front porch. He had other things to worry about right now.

Henry entered the house quietly, surprised to hear crying coming from the direction of the dining room. He stopped in the doorway, taking in the sight of Regina crumpled on the floor crying and Mary Margaret kneeling next to her, talking softly and trying to calm her. It didn't appear to be working though, as his mother was still sobbing rather wretchedly.

He'd never seen her cry before, Henry realized suddenly. In the hazy memories he had of the first years of his life, she was always smiling and laughing, and in the more vivid and recent ones, she was stern or angry, but never sad. She'd never shown that emotion to him before, even when he'd pushed her and purposely tried to hurt her with his words. It was part of the reason that it was so easy to believe she was the Evil Queen, because if she lacked emotion then she couldn't have a heart or soul.

But now he was being presented with an entirely different picture. An Evil Queen who did have a heart, who did show emotion, who was crying over him. The word redemption rang in his ears again. Maybe his mother had been the Evil Queen, but this woman before him now certainly wasn't.

He took another step into the dining room. She had lied to him - lied to the whole town - and tried to take away everyone's happiness. That knowledge still hurt and everything was still confusing, but the thing that hurt most of all right now was seeing her like this.

"Mom?" He whispered and watched as both women's heads snapped up at the sound.

Mary Margaret's face flashed with happiness and concern as she looked at him, her hand still on Regina's back. But he didn't even notice it. All he could see was his mother's tear streaked cheeks and red rimmed eyes that were dull and almost dead. She stared at him incomprehensibly. "Henry?"

He moved closer to her, dropping to his knees in front of her. He reached out and touched her cheek, feeling her tears slide over his skin, as he searched her eyes. "Mom." He whispered again, and this time the word pulled a broken sob from Regina as her own hand reached up and covered his.

"Henry." She gasped, clutching his hand tightly.

He wanted - needed - her to explain things, to make it all make sense - if she even could - but at that moment, he knew that it wasn't about what he needed or wanted, it was about what she needed so desperately. It was spelled out all over her face.

So he pushed all the thoughts and questions he had out of his mind and carefully pulled his hand away from her grip, only to wrap both of his arms around her in a hug - a real hug. "Mom." He said against her hair, and he felt her wrap her arms around him and hold tightly, her body shaking with sobs again. And when he felt Mary Margaret shift and put a comforting hand on his back - rubbing slow circles to sooth him - he allowed himself to cry too.