Here's the next part :) hope you enjoy. As always reviews very much appreciated.

Enjoy x

"So, have you guys found anything?" Ruby asked, once she had served the new arrivals their meals.

"No," Regina spoke up, shaking her head. She carefully dabbed at the corners of her mouth before continuing. "We looked through all of my books and while there are a few instances of forcing people to tell the truth, I don't know if any of them fit our situation, at least not without understanding a bit more about its affects or cause."

"How do you know?" Charming cut in, eyeing Regina suspiciously, like he thought she knew something else but was holding it back. The other members of the booth, and its accompanying waitress, all rolled their eyes at the blond man.

"Charming!" Snow exclaimed.

"What?" he asked in reply.

Snow was about to continue her berating of the prince when Regina cut in instead.

"It's alright Snow," the Mayor said softly. "I completely understand your suspicion, Charming."

The others all raised their eyebrows in shock at her words.

"I have, in the past, cost you and those you hold dear, a lot of pain. I have manipulated and lied, betrayed, tortured and yes murdered." She paused and they could all see the pain clear on her face. Whether it was pain at having to share her secrets or at having to relive her horrific past they weren't sure, perhaps it was both. Not caring about who was watching, Emma reached her hand forward and placed it on Regina's, giving it a gentle squeeze for comfort. After a moment, the Mayor squeezed it back, then rolled her shoulders composing herself, and continued. "Therefore, I completely understand why you would be sceptical of me. However, I am now incredibly sorry for the pain that I have caused you. Whether any of us like it or not, I consider you my family, and I protect my family. So, Charming, I can assure you that I am telling you the complete truth."

At her words, Emma looked proud, Snow and Ruby surprised. Charming, however, still seemed unsure, especially when he noticed her silent interaction with his daughter.

"Oh honestly, Charming," Regina snapped. The fact that the 'holier-than-thou-shepherd' never seemed to believe her always got on her nerves. "If you don't believe that I no longer wish to do you wrong, which I did tell you whilst under a truth spell in case you have forgotten, how about the fact that I, perhaps more than most people, have absolutely no desire to be under a truth spell any longer than necessary."

Charming seemed to ponder this for a moment, and Regina was sure she could see the stress the thinking was causing him. She was about to comment as much, when he nodded. Without a word she returned his nod and went back to picking at her meal.

"I asked around," Snow piped up, after a moment of silence. "It seems like everyone in the town is under the same affects as us. Does that help you Regina?"

"There are a few spells that I read about that could have caused mass truth speaking," the Mayor replied. "However, most of them involved massive amounts of magical energy. The only people I could imagine being able to pull something off would be Gold or myself, and no, Charming before you jump to conclusions, it wasn't me. Theoretically the fairies could have the power if they used their dust, and Emma could as well, but in both cases I'm not sure they would have the motive to do so. In fact, I don't see why anyone from within Storybrooke would do this."

"So what do you think our next move should be?" Ruby asked.

"As much I hate to admit it," Regina started, "I think that we should go and speak to Gold. He may be a nasty, manipulative imp, but he does know a fair amount more about magic than I do, and I fear we may need that."

"What about the fairies?" Snow asked.

"I may not trust Gold, but I trust the fairies even less," the Mayor replied. "I would prefer not to go to them unless absolutely necessary."

"I agree with Regina," Charming said, effectively freezing anyone in earshot. Noticing the affect he had had on the surrounding area the blonde prince looked up, "what?"

"You're agreeing with Regina," Ruby stated, shock evident in her voice.

"Yes," Charming replied. "I know I practically never agree with her, to be honest that's mostly on principle rather than actually not agreeing with what she's saying, but she does have a point. I have never really trusted the fairies, especially Blue. She always seems like she has an agenda. At least with Gold it's clear that he's a manipulative bastard."

"Well done, Charming," Regina said with a smirk, and for some reason perhaps a hint of pride.

The rest of the table was silent for a moment, not really sure what was going on.

"Emma," Snow said eventually, turning everyone's attention towards the blonde currently wiping the last remnants of ketchup from her plate with a couple of fries. "You've been awfully quiet, what do you think?"

The Sheriff looked up, flicking wide eyes between Regina and Snow. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but then closed it quickly again.

"Emma?" the pixy-cut woman asked again, this time slightly worried at her daughter's silence.

Just then Regina flung a hand forward, as if swatting away a fly, accidentally knocking over her glass of water.

"Oh my gosh!" Snow cried and leapt, as fast as her rotund frame would allow, out of the booth, Charming jumping up quickly to assist her.

Regina and Emma both stood up, while Ruby rushed forward with her cloth to tidy up the mess.

"Thank you, Miss Lucas," the Mayor said.

"Thanks, Rubz," Emma muttered. She gave a little start when sound came out of her mouth. Sure, she had felt the small surge of magic when Regina had flung out her hand, and was fairly certain it was undoing the silence spell. After about five hours, however, of not being able to speak, the words came as quite a surprise.

Once the table was back to some semblance of normal, Snow repeated her question to Emma.

"I think that unfortunately Gold is our best bet at the moment," the blonde said. "We just don't have enough information to fight this thing yet, whatever it is, so we need to get more from Gold. Hell, for all we know he's behind it, and I for one do not appreciate it."

With that she stood up and, followed closely by Regina, made to leave the diner.

"Okay then," Snow said, "you two go and see Gold. Ruby and I'll keep asking around and Charming will continue with his patrol. Why don't you come back to the apartment once you're done, we can discuss what we've all learnt and have some dinner with Henry, as a family?"

Regina rolled her eyes, remembering that she was the one who had said that they were all family, but she and Emma nodded at the pregnant woman's proposal. They turned to leave but Snow stopped them again.

"Regina, why did you knock over the water?" she asked and the Mayor froze in place knowing that she would have to answer, and that her answer would definitely not be taken well.

"I was undoing the silence spell I put on Emma," she muttered, then hurried out the diner as quickly as her 4 inch heels would let her.

"She did what?!" Charming bellowed, at the same time that Snow rushed over to her daughter and started to look her over for any obvious signs of harm.

"She put a spell on you?" Snow asked, fawning over her daughter.

"She put a silence spell on me Snow," Emma stated, brushing her mother's codling hands off of her. "Don't worry I'm fine. It was just so I wouldn't ask her any embarrassing questions. Which reminds me ..."

She trailed off to a very cheeky, very wide grin. Giving a small chuckle, she rushed out of the diner.

There you go :) thanks for reading. I have my dissertation to write in the next couple of weeks so may not be able to update soon, but I'll try to put the next part of the story up as soon as possible.

Next is the meeting with Gold. Could be fun? ...