**Author's Note: In many ways, my version of Regina is a combination of 'canon' and 'fanon' (canon as we Swan Queen fans would like to see it). I have always seen Regina as a complex, tortured and struggling individual. I believe that at the point she decided to be good for Henry's sake, her life changed. As a fan, I'm very interested in a character's evolution. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Now, on with our story, which is far, far from over!**

Regina held Emma while she cried, suspecting there was more to her tears than simple fear and frustration. She knew there was a great deal of guilt and uncertainty as well. She also knew that Emma felt a great deal of pressure to live up to her "Saviour" and "White Knight" roles that half of Storybrooke, including their son, had painted her as. The demands, tension and stress all built up, and usually Emma could work it off by running or working out with the kick boxing bag. Here, she had been focused on keeping them alive, which only added pressure. But even Emma Swan had her limits.

Gradually, Emma's tears ran out and her sobs gave way to the occasional hitch in her breath. Regina held her for as long as she needed, until she felt Emma sigh heavily and begin to step back.

"Thanks. I guess I needed that."

Regina nodded and went to sit on the bed, facing Emma. "You did." She nodded. "You can't expect to carry the responsibility that you do and not crack some time. You needed to let some of the pressure off. I told you before, I'm here for you."

Emma leaned against the wall and crossed her arms as she looked at Regina. "Even if we never get home?"

Regina nodded. "I have every confidence we will get home. Of course I have no idea when, but I know we will."

"How can you be so sure, Regina?" Emma was beginning to sound exasperated.

Normally, Emma was the impulsive one, but Regina had a feeling and she went with it. She stood up and crossed the room to where Emma stood and took the blonde's hands in her own. "Because you are the most stubborn woman I have ever met, perhaps even more stubborn than I am. Between the two of us, we have already achieved things others said could not be done, and I know we'll do it again."

Emma nodded and continued to hold Regina's hands.

After a minute, Emma sighed and gave Regina's hands a small squeeze and she let go. She returned to the wicker chair and took a drink of rapidly-cooling coffee. "I had an interesting chat with the owner of the diner here."

Regina raised one eyebrow. "Oh? What do I need to know?" She started making the bed.

"Well, that woman that gave us a ride to town has no concept of privacy. Told Charlie all about you and I."

"Wait, Charlie?"

"Well, her name is Charlotte, but everyone calls her Charlie. She seems to understand I don't want everything blabbed all over town, but anyway, Cam told her about every second of our ride in, so Charlie has you and I figured out. She assured me that she wouldn't spread it all any further, but..."

"If Cam told her, then she's told everyone." Regina added.

Emma nodded. "We're probably the biggest news to hit Desperation Lake since the internet. So we've been invited, hell, I was all but told to bring you, for lunch, I mean. Whitefish, apparently. Which I've agreed to cut and stack wood for. I hesitated and I guess Charlie thought I hesitated out of financial concern."

Regina sat on the freshly made bed, looked at Emma and raised one eyebrow. "Why did you hesitate? Are you worried?"

"No, I couldn't remember if you liked fish. Anyway, Charlie offered a trade. Lunch if I split and stacked a bunch of wood. I agreed. It seemed fair."

Regina nodded. "Indeed it does. I think anytime we can do something like that, it might be wise."

Emma nodded. "I think so too. Breakfast should be ready soon."

"I should get dressed." Regina retrieved a change of clothes and moved toward the bathroom. Just as she stepped by Emma's chair, the blonde reached out and snagged one of her hands. "Regina...thank you. I'm actually glad that it's you and I this time. I mean, I hate that we're in this situation, but..."

Regina smiled at Emma. "I understand. I am too."

Emma smiled back.

When Regina had closed the bathroom door behind her, Emma looked carefully at her hand. It still tingled from their contact. No doubt about it, she had definite feelings for Regina, family history be damned. Apparently that was obvious enough to be the topic of conversation in a town they had only recently arrived in. She wanted to take Regina in her arms, she wanted to feel those red lips on hers again...but ...

Emma got out of the chair quickly and picked up the book on magic. She wasn't much of a reader, but perhaps that would have to change. She drained her cup and opened the cover.

A few minutes later, Regina re-appeared. "Emma, the bathroom is yours if you'd like to take a shower."

Emma glanced up and felt her mouth suddenly go dry. Regina was wearing a cream colored button down shirt, tucked in to very snug jeans. Of course, her hair was perfect.

"Miss Swan, is everything all right?"

"Regina...you look..."

Emma stood suddenly, crossed the room and put her hands on either side of the other woman's face as she kissed her firmly. Then she stepped away.

"I couldn't wait any more. You look pretty damn amazing." Then she plucked her clothes from the dresser and left Regina still standing in the middle of the room.

When Regina could finally regain her train of thought, she glanced down to see what Emma had been reading. The book on magic. Ah.

Regina planned to study it carefully, making notes along the way so that she could experiment and hopefully reach some kind of middle ground between this worlds magic and her own, however sluggish. But even as she resolved to find a magic solution, one had to assume they might be stuck here for even a short time. She paced slowly as she considered their options, but it was too soon to know exactly what their options were. She heard the shower start as her eyes fell on Emma's cell phone. It occurred to her then that neither of them had tried to call home. So with shaking fingers, she entered the number for the Mayor's office.

We're sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please check your number and try again.

She took a breath and dialed her home number and got the same recording.

This couldn't be right! Her phone had always worked perfectly.

The woman who had cast the curse and brought an entire town into being had a chilling thought, right there in the middle of their room.

What if Storybrooke had ceased to exist?

She shook her head a little and pondered how egotistical it would be if, once she had left the country as Emma had said, if Storybrooke had simply vanished.

Regina went to the window, opened the curtains and looked outside as she thought. Although Jefferson was the one more skilled at travelling between worlds, she knew that many worlds existed side by side. She wondered if that was the case here. Regina heard the shower shut off, but stayed where she was. Her mind travelled back to the kiss. There was no doubt they both felt something for each other. But as much as Regina wanted more, she also wanted things to proceed at a reasonable pace. There could be no mistakes, no hurt feelings. She had begun to suspect that her companion was very close to a break down of some sort, an emotional tsunami. For an entire year, she had done what everyone else expected of her, putting her own needs on hold. Now that they had been transported somewhere unfamiliar, Emma was beginning to feel the strain, as much as she was trying to hide from it. Regina knew that she needed to be strong for her now, she needed to be both her champion and her rock. They would get home only with both their magic, and for that to work, Emma had to heal. Unstable emotions would only make things worse. Magic was based in emotion but without proper, stable direction, high emotions could be prove as fatal as a flash flood.

The bathroom door opened and the blonde woman stepped out freshly scrubbed and still damp.

Regina turned to face her. "Emma, we have a couple of minutes, I've been thinking."

Emma nodded and sat on the bed. "Okay."

"I need you to hear me out." Regina sat on the bed beside her. "There's a couple of things I've been mulling over. I don't know how much you've been told about alternate worlds, but basically, there are other worlds out there besides the one we're familiar with. Like Wonderland and Fairy Tale Land. Different, parallel, but separate from our own. Your Boston has technology, Fairy Tale Land has magic. Think of them like threads, laying beside each other. They lie together close, but touching only rarely, if at all. Magic allows them to both be accessed, even if the people in each world don't understand it."

Regina looked at Emma to gauge how much she understood. She seemed to be accepting the explanation so far.

"I suspect that this is the case here. I believe that portal deposited us into an alternate world quite similar to what you were used to before Henry brought you to us. While you were in the shower, I tried to call home. I called my office as well. Both times I got a recording telling me the numbers were out of service. Cell phones are wonderful technology, but even they cannot call other worlds."

Emma rose quickly off the bed and Regina reached out to snag her hand. "Emma, listen, please. You need to keep an open mind."

The bounty hunter turned Sheriff turned and faced Regina, sighed and waited.

"I'm not telling you this to upset you, but rather to underline the potential of our going home. But I suspect it will take both of our magic to make it happen. It took both of us to get rid of the Wraith in your office, and a portal was made. It took both of us to stop the trigger down in the mines, and we saved the town from annihilation. I believe it will take both of us to make another portal to get us home. Which means we need to refocus on you learning magic, and at the same time, we'll learn what works here and what doesn't."

"How are we supposed to do that?"

"Research, trial and error. We spend time here doing what we would have done back home, only with a few more challenges thrown in."

Emma went to turn away, but Regina wove her fingers between Emma's own.

"No, I'm not done, you need to hear me out. Sit down here beside me, please."

Emma sat.

"Now, if this whole town thinks you and I are a couple, I'm fine with that. Neither of us can truthfully deny that we have feelings for each other. You can't deny that you've been feeling a lot of pressure lately. I need you to understand that I want to be your friend, and a whole lot more, Emma. I want to lie beside you at night and hold your hand. I want you to feel safe enough with me that you can cry if you need to. If you need to talk, you need to know I'm a very good listener. I know you've been distant with Snow since you found out she's your mother. You need a friend, and I'm saying that I'm here for you. Now, all that being said, I also think that our plan to get home may take some time. Magic rarely works as we would like it to. We're going to be asked why we don't just go home. I suspect we could buy ourselves some time if we used my identification as an excuse. I imagine it takes time to replace such things, yes?"

Emma nodded.

"So we use the replacement of my identification as our excuse for not going home right away. In the meantime, we make ourselves useful here in Desperation Lake. It is my thought that we work on our magic here in our room, away from prying eyes. We wouldn't want to be working on our magic in the woods only to have some bear hunter come back here and tell stories."

"Or Cam." Emma added

Regina made a face. "Or Cam. Now, I've said my piece. What do you think?"

Emma looked at their intertwined fingers in her lap. "I think I like the idea of us being a couple. I need some time to figure out the alternate worlds and everything, and I think I'm starving. Can we go down for breakfast and pick this up later?"

Regina chuckled. "Some things never change, no matter what world we're in. Of course we can. Let's go eat." Regina lifted their hands to her lips and kissed one of Emma's knuckles. "Think about everything I've said. I'm here for you."

Just then a knock sounded on their door and Callie's voice floated through the wood. "Regina? Emma? Mom says breakfast is ready."