A/N: Hi, guys! I can't believe we're so close to the end of the fic! I'm surprised I'm even getting this chapter up since it's also super close to the end of the semester and it's hella busy (and stressful). I kinda feel bad for my portrayal of Regina in this fic since I love her so much all redeemed as she is in the newer episodes and seasons, but I also really like season one Evil Queen Regina! Plus, she's just also lots of fun to write! How is everyone's school/work/daily lives going? Feel free to talk to me, in my PM or in the comments! I'm nice, I swear. As always, the OUAT characters do not belong to me. Only Vicky, Katie, and Lauren belong to me!

Snow and Charming shared a look over Vicky's body. She was lying, unconscious, with her head in Snow's lap and Snow brushed a curl out of her face, feeling guilt seize her heart. So much had happened to Vicky and her daughters already and it was all because they'd been nice enough to let Snow—and then Emma—into their home and their lives. She felt tears well up in her eyes and quickly blinked them away. Vicky wasn't dead, which meant that Regina was holding off. But she had said it herself, she wasn't at all a patient woman and clearly they were running out of time.

"We don't have time to run around the entire town looking for the Dark One. We need to find Regina and the girls now and deal with her in whatever way we can." Which is giving myself up, she thought but didn't say so aloud to Charming.

He nodded grimly, reluctantly. "What will we do with Vicky?"

"Take her to the church, with the fairies. Their magic might be able to keep her safe." Snow said, turning to a few of the people who had come out to accompany them on their short-lived search for Rumpelstiltskin.

As Vicky was taken from her lap, Snow made her a silent promise. I will get our girls back.

Graham, still with them, decided to break his long held silence. "I've just thought of something. I think I might know where Regina might be."

"Even if we could find her like we said before, she could just disappear."

Graham shook his head, a small smile on his face. "Not if she thinks I'm there to help her."

"Emma," Lauren cooed to the giggling infant. The purple glow of the heart shone on her face and illuminated her eyes. It was strange to watch the pulsing of it in her tiny grasp and even stranger to think that it was her mother's heart.

"Can I have the, uh, heart, please?"

Emma looked up at her and smiled. Lauren was familiar. Lauren was good. Her eyes flickered over to Regina, meeting the hard glare being leveled at her from the barrier erected. She was bad, she was a stranger. Reluctantly, she let go of the squishy toy, relinquishing it to Lauren who cradled it in the arm that wasn't being used to hold Emma.

Lauren breathed a sigh of relief and sunk to the floor, resting against a large filing cabinet that seemed to take up the entire wall. She tried not to think about the things might be inside the tiny cabinets.

"So. You have no heart and you barely have us. Just give up now." She said reasonably.

Regina sneered at her, her intense anger having faded to a cold fury. She'd had time to cool down and to think and to silently test the magic of the barrier. She'd been thrown off guard, but an infant's magic couldn't stop her own for long. Or even very much. And eventually Emma would grow tired and her concentration would wane.

"You think a minor inconvenience like a baby will stop me? You're terribly mistaken, child."

Where Emma's magic had produced puffs of white smoke, Regina's made for dark obscuring clouds that blinded them temporarily. Emma began to cry, startled, and while Lauren tightened her hold on the baby, she didn't think to reach out a hand to her younger sister.

When the smoke abated Katie was by Regina's side, on the other side of the barrier.

Regina tsked, mockingly sympathetic. "What a shame. And I almost liked this one. She certainly knew her fairytales." She turned to face a trembling, wide-eyed Katie. Her hand was halfway in the young girl's chest, a scream on the latter's lips, when Lauren cried out.

"Wait! Please! Don't. W-what do you want?" She sounded utterly defeated and tired, a sound so beyond her years.

Regina felt something in her relax and slowly she removed her hand from the little girl's chest cavity. Hers would have been the youngest heart she had ever held and she hadn't exactly been looking forward to her, no matter how she had seemed outwardly.

"I'll tell you what, I'll make it simple. You give me the baby and I'll let both your mother and your sister live. How's that for fair?"

Lauren looked down at Emma, smiling innocently and gumming on her tiny hand. She teared up and shook her head. "I can't. She's a baby and she never did anything to you. We all haven't done anything to you. Please just let us go home."

"Gladly. If you give me Emma."

Lauren's head continued to shake as if it moved of its own accord. "I don't even know that you're telling the truth. You might hurt Katie anyway and then poof away my mom's heart."

"Trust me, I'm not interested in any of you. Only Snow and this brat here."

Lauren thought of the days and nights they'd spent playing with Emma and growing to love her. She thought of sweet Snow, always so kind and forever helpful even if she was a bit confused about what microwaves and TVs were. And then she thought of the times she'd spent with her own mom and with Katie, years and years' worth of memories that far outnumbered any memories she had of Snow and Emma. They could forget them and go home. They could be safe again, all together. They could pretend like the past few months hadn't happened.

Fear was a good persuader, whispering in the mind the rewards of cowardice and betrayal. How easy it would be to save her little family, to give up only a near stranger in return. Emma clearly had magic—she could protect herself. She looked down at the infant and forced a smile, but her voice shook as she spoke.

"Emma, sweetie, can you put the barrier down? We have to let Katie back in, see?" She motioned toward her sister, still in shock and possible pain her dark eyes blank and her mouth shut tight.

Emma's bright eyes followed Lauren's hand and the air in front of them seemed to shimmer. Lauren stuck out a hand and felt air where before things had been silent. Guilt, like nausea, churned her stomach and clawed its way up her throat. She wanted to be sick but she fought it down.

"Thank you." She breathed. Katie seemed to come to her sense and raced over to her, and the sisters embraced one another tightly, Emma in the middle.

Katie took the infant from her older sister's arms and held her protectively. "Lauren, you shouldn't have done that! You can't do it! It's Emma! She's a baby! And what about Snow? The Evil Queen will hurt them both—" Though her mouth continued to move, only silence flowed out in lieu of words.

Lauren turned to look at Regina and she shrugged. "What can I say, I don't like the voices of children. We have a deal, correct. Now, give me Emma and I won't bother with your sister or that heart."

Lauren had to wrench Emma away from a silently sobbing Katie as she ignored her own tears and placed the too trusting infant in Regina's arms.