It didn't end up taking that long to see Regina again. Call it whatever—Emma knew guilt, the orphanage nuns had instilled in her enough Catholicism to regret picking dollar bills off the ground (but not, oddly enough, doing drugs or driving getaway cars—a bit of a lapse in her moral education). The thing that compelled her to visit Regina early, on a bright and warm Wednesday while everyone was still working and learning, didn't feel like a guilty conscience. It was more like a tense muscle. She knocked on Regina's door and Regina answered and it was like she'd popped a kink in her neck. Ahhhh…

"Sheriff Swan," Regina said uncertainly, but cheerily enough. "Is there a problem?"

"No, no problem. I was just wondering if you'd like to… hang out."

"Hang out?" Regina repeated, brandishing the phrase like it was the name of a sex act Emma had just suggested performing on her.

"Yeah, like, ya know… bros." Emma nodded, as if she were 100% on-message.

Regina tilted her head, considering it. "What did you have in mind?"

Emma had actually been trusting in Regina's type-A personality to fill in the blanks there; 'I'm painting the house, Emma, so I suppose you can do the blue trim if you're not too pathetic about it.' But that was old Regina. New Regina was all… cuddly. It was disconcerting despite itself. Maybe that was just the fact that it was Emma's fault.

"We could go for a walk," Emma said, out of the blue. Unlike most things that came out of the blue to her, like what exclamation to use in front of Henry when she had just hit her thumb with a hammer, this one she liked. "I know you're kinda on lockdown, but I'd be there, so it's no big deal. If you get confused, I'll just put a leash on you."

If Regina was taken aback by that joke, she hid it well. "Why, Sheriff Swan, I didn't know you'd read Fifty Shades of Gray."

"Shut up, would ya?"

After a brief pause for Regina to throw on a jacket (unnecessary for the balmy weather, but it tied her ensemble together) and force some tea down Emma's throat (also unnecessary, but it tasted good), they were on their way. Regina's manor was a little ways out of town, superior by its isolation. Emma wondered what had stopped her for putting it on a mountain overlooking Storybrooke when she'd enacted the curse. Was the housing market bad even for magical spells?

They soon came to the end of the sidewalk and set out into the woods. Emma consulted her iPhone and saw they were miles from the mystical 'city limits'. The dwarves had spray-painted and even fenced in the boundary. No one was taking any chances with it, not after what it'd done.

"Not much conversation for a social call," Regina commented from up ahead. Emma sighed. Her brooding was getting to be a thing.

"Sorry. Maybe I just wanted some company."

"I wasn't criticizing. It's nice, having someone to share the fresh air with. And…" Regina reached out to take Emma's hand. Her skin was surprisingly warm, like it'd been in the light long enough to absorb all of the sun's rays. Emma felt the heat rise up her arm. "Keep me from wandering off," Regina finished.

Emma smiled to herself. Goddamn, this Regina was friendly. Almost an improvement. Well, no, wait… shit, here came the brooding again.

"So what do you do all day?" Emma asked, eager to change the subject. She'd have to stop comparing Regina to the person she'd been. It wasn't fair to anyone.

Regina was taken aback by the question, but she didn't show it. She just squeezed Emma's hand a little. "Well, I knit. Catch up on my reading. Watch some TV shows whose names I will not divulge."

Emma grinned. "TLC, right?"

"I cannot confirm nor deny…"

"It's not Grimm, is it? Tell me it's not Grimm."

"Quit before you lose access to my DVR."

"Didn't know I had it."

"Well, if you need to record something and Mary-Margaret also wants to watch something, and David wants to record something also, I suppose you could watch your show over at my place. I really bought that TV for Henry. Without him, it's being wasted on… Derek's abs."

"Oh my god, Teen Wolf, you ho."

"Well, I suppose it's best that comes out now rather than the next mayoral campaign." Their walk took them over the old toll bridge, the wooden planks doing their usual song and dance underfoot. Regina clung a little tighter to Emma, bringing her other hand around to steady herself on Emma's upper arm.

Intellectually, Emma should've been disgusted—the Evil Queen was pawing at her. But she just wanted to put an arm around Regina and keep her even closer. That was guilt. Had to be.

"I remember this place," Regina said distantly. "David Nolan." Her voice quickened. "This is where we found him. I remember him finding me on the street and asking me for directions back here. I suppose it was his and Mary-Margaret's 'spot'. I could've recommended a good bistro."

And Emma's body caught up to her intellect. It felt wrong being here with Regina, in someplace special to her parents. It felt like having sex in your parents' house—not that the houses she'd… christened… had belonged to her parents, but she recognized the feeling secondhand.

Off the bridge, she took a turn and steered them downriver. Regina relaxed her grip, instead settling her arm firmly into the crock of Emma's elbow. Emma felt all Victorian, like she was a Jane Austen character out for a stroll with her BFF, talking about how tight Mr. Darcy's ass looked in dem pantaloons.

Alongside them, the river sparkled and bubbled. Regina's eyes seemed drawn to it, like a kid visiting a zoo. Emma didn't know what was with her. Surely, she'd seen a dinky creek before, right?

"You want the truth?" Regina asked.

"Uhhh…" Emma replied eloquently. She half-expected Regina to start telling her about some shrunken heads in her freezer or something.

"I've been thinking of redecorating. Spending so much time in my house lately—having nothing to distract me—it doesn't seem suitable anymore. I walk around and it doesn't feel like my home. It's more like… a movie set, and someone's filming a biography of my life, but it's not me playing me, it's some actress and she's doing a bad job, the script is—" Regina raised a hand to her head, warding off a migraine. "It gives me nightmares, some of the things in my house."

"What do you mean?"

"Just the ambiance. It's so imposing. And that's not me, is it?"

"Nah. You're a kitten."

Regina grinned at the tease and Emma wondered when she had gotten to the point of sticking her head in the lion's mouth. The last time they'd sparred like this… "I realize I can be intimidating, Emma, but not once you get to know me. I may have some power, or I did, but my first concern is for my son. My second concern, of course, being the people of this town. And then there's little old me. There's not much in there to cause someone harm."

"As long as you have your priorities in order."

"Oh, they are. I will be reunited with my son, and to that I will get better, and to do that I will take any drug, complete any treatment, do any exercise… I will not leave Henry in the lurch."

As much as Regina's words were focused away from her, Emma still felt a shooting pain, this time wholly guilt. There was no telling how much of this might've been avoided if she hadn't given Henry up, if she'd been clean instead of addicted, if only, if only. Or would she have had Henry in the first place? Would she even have come to Storybrooke?

It was funny to think about, her and Regina, never having met, off in their own little worlds… equally miserable.

Regina's hand touching Emma's cheek was shockingly intense, not so much the gesture, but the contact. Emma had never known Regina to touch people. She could toy with them, string them along with little flirtations that promised more, but even with Henry, she'd been closed off. As a result, Emma and Henry had been like strangers living together, going days not knowing how to touch or talk, just feeling each other out like new roommates. They'd sorted it out, settled into a new routine, but Regina had raised him and yet a part of her had never come to terms with loving someone who wouldn't hurt her back.

And now here Regina was, making the kind of simple gesture that Emma knew she hadn't been capable of before. It was like seeing a bird underwater. "That's not to imply, of course, that you did anything except what was best for Henry. You did the best you could. We both did."

"Yeah. What makes me worry is whether our best is good enough."

Regina's hand lingered, the back of a finger drawing over Emma's cheekbone as it left. "Do you think I turned out alright?"

Emma didn't know quite what to say. "I think you're a work-in-progress."

Regina grinned, more pleased by the diplomacy than she would be by a little white lie. "And aren't we all."

"But I think the result is going to be spectacular."

Regina smiled. Emma had never seen that before either. She'd seen tight, controlled grins—smirks—even simpering—but this was the first time Regina had released herself enough to express a kind of joy. Or maybe it was just something she hadn't felt in the time Emma had known her.

The sheriff was a little embarrassed. It wasn't that much of a compliment. She looked away, biting her lip, and felt her cheeks burn. Christ, why had she even said that? She sounded like she was asking someone to the prom.

"Well," Regina said, traces of happiness in her voice, "there wasn't much 'work done' on me for a long time. My mother died when I was very young."

"I'm sorry."

Regina waved her off. "My father took care of me. He was very supportive, very loving. He called me his little princess. His death is what inspired me to get into politics. I wanted everyone in this town to have someone that looked after them the way my father looked after me."

"That's very noble."

"It was," Regina hesitated, "ambitious. To lay claim to that much love. An entire town looking up to me. Maybe a father's love wasn't enough. Maybe a son's love wasn't."

"Well, I think it's good. That you have such happy memories, I mean, not that people died. Even though I assume they died very peacefully and not, you know… Saw IV."

Regina blinked calmly. "The more you're with me, the more tongue-tied you seem to get. Funny, you never had any trouble coming up with things to say to me before." Not true. Emma had had plenty of trouble coming up with things that were acceptable to say within earshot of a child. "Perhaps it's good that I'm no longer mayor. Imagine how it'd look, you tripping over your words whenever we have to work closely together."

"It's a price I'd be willing to pay."

Regina tried that smile again, but there was too much sadness there to pull it off. "I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat. I'd give you my happy memories for a chance to make new ones. It's hard to talk, knowing that this conversation could slip away any moment."

"Regina—" Emma wanted to confess. Right then, right there. Tell Regina everything, even if it meant she herself ended up facedown in that river. "You're going to get better."

"I know. I have to know. No matter how many times I've done this, I have to keep believing that this time will be different. I just can't forget that this moment is all I have. And what I feel in it, I can't keep to myself. Or it will be lost. To everyone."

Regina took a step closer and God, she'd never been intimidating when Emma had just thought she was a corrupt mayor with a crime lord in her pocket. Or even the wicked witch of the west. Something in Emma's gut was twisting, cold and scared and desperately anxious. And still Regina came, closer and closer, her hands kneaded together. Unsure what to do with them until she was right next to Emma and then they parted, opening wide and coming down around Emma to pull her in close, her chin fitting to the other woman's shoulder like a puzzle piece, her breath coming shallowly as Regina embraced her. Like the woman was squeezing the life from her.

"You're such a good friend," Regina said, hugging her. "I should've let you be my friend earlier. It would've been so nice, being able to look back on our friendship, instead of just me being a bitch."

"Regina…" It was like the name was a fish-hook, pulling out anything else Emma could say. And, out of the blue: "Let's do this tomorrow. Ride bikes. It'll be fun."

"I'd like that." Regina wasn't letting go. "I haven't biked since I was a girl."

"Good thing is it's like something else that's like riding a bike. You never forget."

Corny joke, but Regina was nice enough to laugh. They broke apart and Emma took Regina's hand again, feeling her own warmth added to Regina's.

"You going to walk me home, Swan?" Regina asked, no longer beaming, but cheery enough. The sadness at bay. "You're more gentlemanly than some dates I've had."

"I also put out more."

Regina giggled. It was a lovely sound.