Regina sat behind her desk, pen in hand and hovering over a mountain of paperwork. She had a ridiculous amount of work to do. Storybrooke's annual Fall festival was only a few days away, and there were still preparations to be made to ensure it went over without a hitch. She should've been working. She should've only been thinking about her responsibilities as mayor. Instead, though, she couldn't seem to scrub the image of a crying Emma Swan from her mind. Everything else seemed trivial in comparison.

God, how does she do this to me? Regina thought, pinching her brow and frowning. Ever since she arrived to Storybrooke, Emma had always had this power to consume all her thoughts and energy. At first, it had been focused on getting rid of her. Plotting to get her out of town and away from Henry. Now, though, it was different. It had been for a long time, if Regina was honest with herself. Because, as much as she had tried, it really was impossible to hate Emma. She was like a puppy. Too kind and good-hearted. She was too funny and cute.

"Cute?" Regina repeated out loud, eyes wide. "Where the hell did that come from?" While she certainly admitted to Emma's physical beauty-she wouldn't be sleeping with her if she wasn't almost uncontrollably attracted to her-the term "cute" had never come into play. Somehow, it was more intimate than beautiful. When Regina said cute, she wasn't just talking about how Emma looked. She was talking about who she was. How she would crack a sarcastic joke in even the most stressful of situations. How she fawned over Henry, loving him and teasing him at the very same time. How she had done continually worked to ease the pain and tension Regina had felt since splitting herself. She was considerate and sweet. She'd put her life on the line for her family as well as those she didn't even know more than once. She was compassionate and loyal to the people she cared about.

And somehow you fall into that category.

It was true. Regina knew that Emma cared about her-the woman didn't really put forth much of an effort to hide it. She'd told her as much before. It was Regina who fought against it. She was the one who buried her emotions down under a mound of fear and resentment. She pushed away anyone who tried to care for her with the sole exception of Henry. It was such a foreign feeling to her, though. Something that she hadn't felt in such a long time. The idea that anyone would want to be with her. Would care for her. Would love her.

Her mind shot back to Emma's words that morning. She'd cut herself off. Maybe she thought Regina didn't notice it, but she had. The word 'like' was not the one that Emma had first intended to say. Or perhaps she hadn't intended it at all. Perhaps the beginning of a much bigger four-letter word had just slipped past her unguarded lips. Perhaps it was a mistake. Whatever the case, Regina couldn't get the sight of Emma's wide, red-rimmed eyes when she'd said it out of her head.

"I was too hard on her," she sighed to herself, dropping the pen and abandoning all pretense of work. "I said those hurtful things, and she didn't deserve it. " While Regina still felt Emma had been incredibly foolish and careless to spend any time with the Evil Queen, not to mention get drunk with her, she knew that she'd overreacted. Emma was safe, after all. It'd only taken one look into those green eyes to tell her that the queen hadn't placed her under any kind of enchantment or curse. She was Emma, and she was fine. Not a scratch on her. Just a headache caused by her own self-indulgence. Regina had blown things out of proportion. What she couldn't understand was why.

"You were jealous."

Regina rolled her eyes up from the sleek, white stone of her desk to the woman who stood in front of the fireplace. She looked around the office with glinting eyes a moment before plucking an apple from the bowl on the table and slicing into it with one sharp fingernail.

She smiled at Regina. "Excellent taste in decor, dear. Good to see at least part of me hasn't been destroyed in this land."

"What did you say?" Regina narrowed her eyes at the Evil Queen, standing to her feet.

"You were jealous," she answered. "You were jealous that Emma spent time with me and had fun. You're jealous that she likes me. That's why you reacted so harshly this morning." The corners of Regina's mouth pulled down, and the queen's smile widened. "I'm in your head, dear, remember? I know exactly how you think."

"I'm not jealous," Regina huffed.

The queen tossed her head back and laughed. "The funniest part of that is that you actually believe you're convincing when you say it. You've been greener than our dear sister ever since me and that other one showed up here in your beloved town."

"I'm only thinking of Emma's safety," the mayor maintained. "Anything could've happened last night."

"Anything could've happened," the queen nodded, "but nothing did. The Savior and I only talked, and we both enjoyed ourselves." She peered at the apple still poised in her hand, expression softening slightly. "She's quite the conundrum. I'm the very woman who has tried to kill her parents on numerous occasions. I've murdered and tortured more people than I can even keep track of. I'm the one who cast the curse that made her an orphan and caused all her problems. Yet she still shows nothing but compassion and kindness towards me. She even claims to believe in me to be good beneath it all." Her eyes flashed back to the mayor with a grin. "Hard to imagine she comes from Snow White." For all her hope speeches, the idiot Snowflake had never had faith in the queen to be anything more than evil.

"What all did she say to you last night?" Regina questioned.

The Evil Queen smirked. "Now, dear, that is between me and Emma."

"Well, I'm you, so tell me."

The queen laughed again. "If you truly believed that, I wouldn't be here anymore, would I?"

Regina pursed her lips. "No. I suppose you wouldn't. Just... promise me something. Promise me that you won't hurt her."

The Evil Queen stared at the mayor a long moment, her expression totally blank and unreadable. She didn't look like the queen then, even with her over-the-top gown and wild makeup and hair. There was no malice in her eyes, no vicious smile. She just looked like Regina. "I would never dream of hurting her."

The mayor paused, dragging her voice out of the back of throat. "You love her, don't you?"

The smile that graced the queen's lips wasn't devious. It was knowing. "Funny, dear. I was about to ask you the same thing."

With that, she disappeared in a purple mist, leaving nothing behind but the sweet, spicy scent of lingering magic. The mayor sighed exhaustively and sank down into her seat, fingers resting on her temple.

When Emma got back to the apartment, she was no longer crying, but she did have a serious case of the sniffles, which was almost worse than tears to her. She felt like a dumb kid, rubbing her at her running nose, her breaths shuddering. Her hangover was little more than a memory. The pain she felt as she pushed the front door open and stepped inside was cutting into her chest like a knife. Regina's words kept playing over and over in her head. She was an idiot, and she was inconsiderate to never think of how people would react to her going out with the Evil Queen. And she could kill her drunk self for calling Regina. That had only made things worse. Even with all that, though, she couldn't make herself regret spending time with the queen. Despite everything, she'd had fun, and she'd probably do it again. Because time with Regina was still time with Regina, even if it was with one of her split personalities.

"Emma!" Her parents nearly drowned her in a hug as she walked inside the apartment. "We were so worried about you."

"I'm fine," she said to them both, sniffling and keeping her head down so they wouldn't see how red and puffy her eyes were.

"What did she do to you?" Mary Margaret demanded. "What kind of spell did she put you under?"

"She didn't put me under any spell," Emma shook her head.

"Then why would you ever go out with her like that?" David asked, brow furrowed. God, Emma thought as she fought the urge to roll her eyes, sometimes you two are as dense as Regina says.

"Because I wanted to go out and blow off some steam," Emma replied. "I wanted a friend and someone to talk to, and that was her. She's fun, and I like hanging out with her. That's why."

"But, sweetheart," Mary Margaret shook her head, "she's the Evil Queen. She's evil. It's literally in her name."

"The name you gave her," the blonde argued. "She was the queen first. You decided to label her as evil. And I'm not saying that you didn't have cause for it-I mean, she has done some pretty terrible things, and there's no denying she could benefit from a few sessions with Archie on anger management. But nobody's all bad. No one is beyond saving. Isn't that what you always tell me? There's hope for everyone."

"She is passed that, Emma," her mother maintained.

"Why?" Emma demanded, anger rising up in her chest. "Why is she the only one you think is so bad she can't change? You didn't think that about Hook when I was dating him." Mary Margaret frowned. While she hadn't initially thought the pirate was the best choice for her daughter, she was still confused and irritated that Emma had broken up with him. "I mean, Jesus Christ, Gold is the goddamn Dark One, and you still see something worth redemption in him. Why have you given up on her?"

"She killled my father, Emma," Mary Margaret said. "Your grandfather-she murdered him."

"Oh, you mean the man three times her age she was forced to marry?" Emma countered. "If I was basically a child bride of a neglectful husband still hung up pm his dead wife, I might do the same thing." Mary Margaret gasped. "And if we're talking about parent-killings, you're not exactly innocent in that category either."

"That was different," the pixie-haired woman said darkly. "Cora had to be stopped."

"So you get a pass for murder for what reason?" Emma snapped. "Because you're one of the good guys? Can you seriously not see how hypocritical that is?"

Mary Margaret frowned angrily. "Why are you defending her actions, Emma?"

"I'm not defending her actions," the blonde shook her head. "I'm defending her emotions. Wrong is wrong, no matter what it is or who does it. We all have darkness in it, and we're all capable of evil. My job as the Savior is to restore the happy endings, and that's including Regina's, whatever the hell it is. We've given everyone in this town second chances-it's time we do the same for her."

"Why are you taking this so personally?" David questioned in a soft voice, hoping to calm his daughter. However, the question had the exact opposite effect on Emma.

"Because I've been where she is!" She yelled, and the tears couldn't be battled this time. They flowed freely from her eyes, streaming down her cheeks. "I was the kid nobody understood or wanted-the one they all said wasn't worth the time or effort to get to know! I was the kid everyone thought was rotten and bad! No one ever took the time to think I was worth caring about or loving! That is the worst fucking feeling in the world. All I ever wanted was for someone to look past the scars and the anger and the pain to see that I was just a scared, lost little girl. To prove to me that I was actually worthy of love-and nobody ever did. No one should have to feel that way, not even the Evil Queen." From the nursery in the back room, Neal cried out, waking prematurely from his nap. Emma scrubbed at her eyes. "I'll get him. I really don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Emma-" Mary Margaret started, her own eyes glistening with wetness. Her daughter brushed past her, though, moving briskly to the nursery and closing the door behind her. Mary Margaret's shoulder slumped, and her husband wrapped an arm around her. "I didn't know. I knew she had a bad childhood, but I didn't know how bad." She shook her head. "I'm a terrible mother."

"Snow, no," David whispered to her, kissing her hair. "You're a great mother-to both of our children. Neither of us knew the extent of Emma's pain. We couldn't. Hell, we didn't even know her until recently."

"What can we do?" Mary Margaret questioned.

He paused. "I don't know. I really don't know."

Emma picked her baby brother up out of his crib and held him close, rocking him in her arms.

"It's alright," she whispered down to him, one finger stroking his soft, chubby cheek. "It's alright, buddy. I'm here. Big sister's here." His cries quieted down after a moment or two, and he stared up at her with big, slate-gray eyes. A soft coo left his lips, and he smiled. Emma grinned down at him, cheeks sticky and salty from her tears, and stretched herself out on the small bed that had been placed in the room for Neal once he outgrew his crib. Her legs hung over the edge, but she made herself comfortable anyway, nesting into the pillows with her warm, sweet-smelling brother in her arms. "You always know how to make me feel better, Neal." Then, her smile faltered. "You know, I'm always going to protect you, right? You're a very lucky kid-you've got a lot of people who love you, and I'm one of them. You're never going to have to feel unloved or unwanted, because I won't let it happen. Even if you've got nobody else in the world, you're always going to have me, and that's a promise." She pressed a kiss to his forehead. "I love you, and I'm always going to." She brushed a solitary curl of hair back out of his face. "Can you keep a secret?" He let out a small gurgle that she took for a yes. "I'm going to tell you, because I feel like I've got to tell somebody before I explode. It's pretty big, so get ready." She took a deep breath, lowering her voice slightly. "I think I may be in love with Regina." A big grin broke out across Neal's face, and he giggled excitedly. Emma smiled at him. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

While the Savior and her baby brother drifted off to sleep together, neither of them heard the quiet gasp from other end of the room, nor did they see the pair of wide, forest green eyes gazing through a crack in the door.