"You have to talk to her," Emma was saying to Tink. "She won't let me anywhere near her."

"I've tried," Tink said as the two of them sat in Emma's apartment. "She is adamant that she will not go down the path of true love with you."

"This is ridiculous. I am not going to die just because I happen to be her true love."

"She doesn't see it that way. Whatever this thing is that happened to her in the past, it has her scared."

Emma got up and walked over to the wall, wanting to bang her head up against it. Instead she leaned against it. "How did the doctor's appointment go?" It was what she had meant to ask when Tink had first gotten there, but she found she was still so upset by Regina's rejection of her that she hadn't asked.

"Good. Whale took the sling off and had her move her arm a bit. She has to be careful with it still for the next couple of weeks. He gave her some instructions on some exercises to help redevelop the movements and muscles. He gave her a different prescription for pain medication and some prescription sleeping pills."

"Why? She had pain medication already and why would she need sleeping pills?"

"I think the pain medication was a lower dosage more like the over-the-counter stuff. He said she didn't need to take the others unless she had severe pain. As for the others, well she hasn't been sleeping well since that night. I think she is afraid to sleep."

Emma ran her hands through her hair. She needed to see Regina, but every effort she made was rebuffed. She couldn't help but see the irony of how she was the one wanting to avoid Regina when this all started, but now Regina was avoiding her. Regina had, from what Tink said, accepted that Emma was indeed her true love. She hadn't doubted it like Emma had, but she couldn't get this notion out of her head that it meant Emma was going to die and she would be left alone.

She had told Tink that she would rather be alone and know Emma was alive and safe than the alternative. She had lost one of her loves already, and she felt she couldn't go through that kind of pain again. It wasn't as if Emma didn't understand this. She knew Daniel's death was a major turning point in Regina's life that she hadn't been able to let go, but she didn't understand why Regina was equating what happened to Daniel to her.

Emma needed that information so she could prove to Regina why she was wrong about this.

…

Regina was continuing to catch up on her work. It gave her something to concentrate on if nothing else. She needed to distract herself from this ache in her heart – an ache that had been there since Emma had kissed her and she had realized that Emma was her true love. She was sure she was doing the right thing in order to protect Emma, but it didn't make it hurt any less.

She reached for her water as she reviewed some city payroll paperwork. She double-checked the figures and then looked at payroll projections for the following year as calculated by the city treasurer. She was so engrossed in what she was doing it wasn't until she reached for the water again that she realized that she had drank all of it. She threw the empty bottle away and got up, walking over to her small fridge and pulled out another drinking half of it there before going back to her desk.

With an hour left to go at work she was yawning. She hadn't taken any of the sleeping pills that Dr. Whale had prescribed her yet, but tonight she thought she might. She hadn't been sleeping for more than a couple hours at a time. Her mind was too restless to let her actually rest. She was sure every time she closed her eyes that she would be back in that room with Rumple and her mother. It was the last place she wanted to be.

She had gone through more of her mom's spell books looking for the AD notations. She found them by other spells – one a memory manipulation spell, which she wondered if that was why she had not remembered being sick in the first place. There was another notation by a spell that she had herself had used before but she wasn't sure what it meant in connection with the Altered Destiny curse when it came to her. The spell essentially magnified emotion. She had used it once to magnify the emotion of fear in a person so they would tell her what she wanted to know.

It made her sick just thinking about what her mother may have done to her.

When she was done for the day, she stopped and got a pizza to eat – not feeling like cooking anything. As she pulled in, she saw Emma's car out front. She wasn't in the mood for another confrontation. Henry was home, so she wasn't surprised to see Emma was already in the house. She came up and relieved her of the pizza. "You need to take it easy," Emma said. "Even if you have the sling off there is no reason to overdue it."

"Miss Swan, what are you doing here?"

"I came to check on you and I was hoping maybe we could talk."

"We have nothing to talk about."

"I disagree, but why don't we sit and have dinner with our son. You got pizza, so I must be rubbing off on you a little bit, whether you want to admit it or not."

Regina didn't argue with her. She didn't want to get into it in front of Henry. Despite saying she would be upfront with Henry, she hadn't told him about what happened with her and Emma. Assuming he would be ok with Emma and her being together, she didn't want him to get his hopes up since she planned on keeping her distance from the blonde. Obviously, Emma wasn't going to make that easy.

They ate in the dining room, Regina feeling more comfortable with eating now that she didn't have her arm constantly in that one position. It still hurt a bit – mostly after she did the exercises –but she'd rather it hurt from that than be in that sling a moment more. When Whale took the cast off her arm, she asked to keep it. Not that she wanted reminded of it, but the kids' signatures that were all around it meant a lot to her. Things had been much different for her as far as the way people treated her. The other parents in town at least were no longer shying away from her and it made her smile every time she saw one of the kids who were in the hospital, knowing they were ok and she had something to do with that.

She ate very little for dinner and she noticed Emma studying her anytime she wasn't talking to Henry. After dinner Emma helped her clean up, telling Henry to go on upstairs and she would see him before she left. Emma followed her out to the main room where Regina sat on the couch. She expected Emma to take the chair but instead she sat on the couch as well.

"How are you feeling?" Emma asked. "I noticed you drank like two glasses of water during dinner, are you sure you are ok?"

"I am ok," she said. "This medicine just causes a little dehydration."

"I just want to make sure you know that you are ok and everything."

"I am," she said even as she felt a slight headache she had earlier getting worse.

There was silence between them for several heartbeats.

"We have to talk about this," Emma said finally. "You can't keep pushing me away."

"Yes I can."

"Ok, I guess you can, but why would you want to?"

"Emma …"

"Don't tell me this is about keeping me alive or whatever. I am not in danger because I am your true love."

"You don't know that."

"Then tell me why it is that you think I would be. Is it because of this memory you had? Because your mom isn't a threat."

"And what about Gold? If you don't see him as a threat then you are sadly mistaken."

"He has changed too. He wouldn't do anything to harm me because Belle wouldn't let him. And what possible reason would he have at this point. The curse is broken. Whatever reason he had for helping Cora with it is surely not an issue anymore. There is no reason for him to interfere with our lives. Regina, you can't ignore this, ignore me."

"Why? You tried. Or am I wrong about that? You could have told me immediately what happened in the stables instead you lied to me."

"I know, and I am sorry but I was caught off guard by the whole thing. I admit it; I wasn't ready to accept it. I thought there was some other explanation."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. You thought you were kissing Daniel, so I thought maybe your belief in that was enough to break the curse. I didn't even really believe that but I was trying to come up with some explanation because I wasn't ready to face the fact that I was your true love, but I am ready now. I'm sorry for lying to you."

Regina had always felt a certain pull toward Emma, even when they were fighting. She felt that pull infinitely more now. She knew this woman sitting only inches from her was her true love and she longed to feel those lips on hers once again. She pushed those feelings aside though.

"I won't risk your life," Regina said finally. "I am sorry, but I can't do it."

"I don't accept that."

"That hardly matters. This is my choice and I am asking you to respect it."

"No," Emma said and moved in closer. Regina could see where this was headed and found she was unable to move. Once Emma's lips touched her she didn't want to move. They kissed softly at first, but quickly there came a new urgency in each kiss. Regina knew they had to stop, but she couldn't break it off. There was no denying that she wanted Emma.

Still she pulled away from her stood up – too quickly as it turned out as a wave of dizziness hit her. Before she knew it Emma was there steadying her.

"Are you alright?" Emma asked.

"Yes I just got up too quickly."

"Let's get you back to the couch."

"I'm fine. I think it's time you leave."

"Regina …"

"No. Don't. I need you to leave. Please."

Emma looked at her. She could tell Regina was tired and wondered if maybe she had pushed a little too much. She sighed, "I told Henry that I would say goodbye before I leave."

Regina merely nodded.

She went upstairs and knocked on Henry's door before entering. He was in bed reading a book. "I am taking off," she said sitting down on the edge of the bed. "You keep an eye on your mom for me, ok?"

"She's getting better."

"I know. I just don't want her to be taking on too much. She still needs to rest up until she is 100 percent."

"It was nice having dinner tonight, just the three of us."

"It was," she said giving him a big grin. "Maybe we could do more of that kind of thing in the future. Would you be ok with that?"

"Like as a family?"

"Yes as a family."

This time he smiled, "I would like that a lot."

Emma said good night and went back downstairs. Regina was waiting by the door and Emma walked up to her. "Call me if you need anything," she said. "Even if that happens to be me."

"Emma, I … a couple of kisses doesn't change anything. I meant what I said; I won't risk your life."

Emma cupped Regina's chin and kissed her just the once. "We're going to figure this out," she said. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily."
"When has anything ever been easy between us?"

"See, that's the spirit," she smiled before stealing another kiss and then leaving.

Regina stood there a moment looking at the closed door. She wanted to open it and call out to Emma not to leave. Instead she locked it and turned off the lights downstairs and headed up to bed. She made a quick stop to say goodnight to Henry and then went into her own room.

She changed clothes, and then opened the two prescription bottles. She took the pain medication first hoping it would do something for the pain in her heart and then downed the two sleeping pills. Once in bed, she lay there for nearly 30 minutes feeling the affects of the pills creep into her body.

Just before she closed her eyes for good she touched the other side of the bed and wondered what it would be like if Emma was lying there beside her.