Update today 10/13/15 - Please make sure to check out the Author's Note at the end of the chapter.

This concludes this part of the story, please check out Part 2 under my stories. Thank you!

Chapter 28

We decide to get an early night's sleep since it had been quite a stressful day.

I know it felt silly to do, but I still insisted on tucking Henry into bed, and I think he needed it as well because he didn't even fight it.

I sat on his bed for a while just looking around at how different his room was in this reality.

All of his childhood books and toys, even some gadgets had been taken down. The room felt a lot barer now, with his desk only holding some school books and a small laptop computer.

The walls had been painted a darker color then I would have liked, but I guess a lot had changed.

There were some posters of rock groups I hadn't heard of, and there seemed to also be some unfinished projects lying around.

I was sad to know that the boy I knew was mostly gone now, he had lost one too many people in life to stay that ever hopeful kid.

But as I kissed his forehead, and whispered 'good night' I saw a little sparkle in his eyes as he smiled at me. I'm guessing the other me may not have done this in quite some time.

"Mom we will find a way, I promise." He says lowly as I'm getting off of his bed.

I turn and look at him and try to smile.

"Henry, I know we will try, but please just don't get your hopes too high." I tell him out of fear of letting him down yet again.

"I know Mom, but the thing is…." He says sitting up for a moment, "I knew something was off." He says to me.

"What do you mean?" I ask, coming closer to him again.

"I just knew that this couldn't be our life. I mean, I don't remember all of what you told us today, but as you were telling us things I began to remember." He says and I just nod at him to continue.

"We didn't go through all that, you mom, you didn't go through all of that to just end up here with nothing." He says with determination and a little bit of fascination in his voice.

"Oh honey, I have you and you will always matter most to me." I tell him and I go back to the bed and sit very close to him.

What kind of mother was I to make him believe that?

"I know, but I still think that you deserve to be happy mom, and so do it. And it will only happen if we are together as a family with Emma. I've missed her so much, but I've missed you too, because I know you try to be happy and fine for me, but I know you are just so sad all the time." He says looking into my eyes, but it feels as though he's looking into my soul.

I stay quiet and just continue to look at my son, and how I will always be proud of him, no matter what reality I am in.

"I think you should try to take some of those pills tonight mom, you know the ones that help you sleep." He says.

"Henry, I don't know if that's a good idea." I tell him.

"No, you might not know this, but I know you take them, and they seem to help. But what I mean is maybe take a few extra tonight. Maybe you will be able to finally get back there…" He says hopefully.

"I don't know if there is anything to go back to. It seems like so much has changed." I tell him as I touch his hand again, and then get up and walk to the door.

"Sleep well dear, I love you so much Henry." I tell him as I turn off the light.

"I love you too mom." he says turning and then closing his eyes.

…

Once I get back to my room I see that Ruby has a large bag on the bed and she is packing.

I exhale loudly as I make my way to the other side of the room and look at myself in the mirror.

I don't even feel like myself, and I noticed that my hair is even longer than I've ever left it before.

So many things changed that I never noticed.

I don't know what to say to her. I feel bad that she has to uproot her life, a life that she seemed happy about this morning, until I ruined it yet again.

I try to pretend I'm busy at my vanity, but I see her looking at me in the reflection and her eyes are red.

"Oh Ruby, I am so sorry." I tell her as I whip around and begin to approach her.

"No… No its okay. I honestly don't even know why I'm crying, I mean I knew that one day the other shoe would drop..." She says, her shoulders shaking more as the tears start flowing down her face.

I'm caught between wanting to console her and awkwardly just standing and watching her.

"I… " I close my mouth, because what can I really say? I know now that had been there for me in my hardest times.

"I don't blame you, you know. I just thought that I could make you happy, that we could one day make each other happy." She says, looking down for a bit while wiping her face.

"Oh dear, I am sure you could have, but you see I could never be all that you need. You are an amazing person Ruby; do not think it's your fault." I tell her as I slowly approach her.

"I am trying to be better Regina, but part of me hates Emma sometimes for getting to you first." She says laughing to herself coming closer to me and cupping my face.

"How did I not see how amazing you were sooner? Maybe I could have helped you raise Henry, and you could have loved me. Even after the curse broke, I couldn't really stay angry at you, not once I realized how much you went through in your life. And it only made my love for you grow." She says smiling at me.

I pull back and out of her grasp.

"I often wish things had been different for me as well. So many years after Daniel died all I wanted to do was go back and change things. But then I think of Henry and how I wouldn't trade knowing him and loving him." I tell her. "So you see it was not meant to happen." I tell her gently.

"I know. I just wish.." she doesn't finish her statement, she just zips up her bag and moves it closer to the door.

"I am sorry Ruby, you could never know how much I appreciate everything you have done for me. You have been a great friend to me, and I want you to know that I value that so much." I tell her as I walk up to her.

"If tomorrow I awaken still here then I hope you know that I want us to remain friends and I hope that you do too." I tell her hoping she will agree.

"I'm sorry Regina, but I am going to need some time. I am going to Granny's tonight, but after that I will start looking for my own place and trying to start a new path for myself. I don't know if I can be here anymore, in this town where there is nothing for me." She says looking completely deflated and discouraged.

I hug her then, pulling her in and holding her tight for a few minutes. I feel her shaking a bit in my arms after the first minute but I just hold her tighter.

She eventually slowly pulls out of my embrace but cups my cheeks and looks me in the eye, "I love you, and I just…" she starts to say tearing up again.

It breaks my heart to see her this way so I close the gap between with a chaste kiss and then pull back and wipe the tears from her eyes.

"I know you will find your way Ruby, and if you ever need me I will be here." I tell her as she just smiles at me, but I see her face crumble as she turns as makes her way out of my bedroom and out of the house.

…

After I've changed and I'm in bed I think about Henry and what he said. I wonder what I really have to lose, so I get up and grab the pills he spoke of earlier.

If by some chance these pills knock me out and I can get back to my real time then it will have been worth the risk, right?

But what if I just wake up here again tomorrow, in this hell without her?

I shudder at the thought and quickly put 6 pills in my hand, looking around I see a photo of Emma and I sitting on my vanity. I get up and go to it.

I guess even though I was with Ruby, I never did let go of her.

"I hope to see you again my love" I touch her face and then go back in bed and take the pills.

I lie awake and wait for it to take effect.

I think about my life before Emma came into town and I remember the loneliness.

I never want to go back to that again. I never want to live in a world where Emma doesn't exist.

It's the last thought in my mind as I drift off to sleep.

…

I am still lying in my bedroom when I wake up, but it is not yet morning if the light in the window is any indication.

I sit up and look to my vanity, and that's when I see that the photo is gone.

I breathe a sigh of relief that I am no longer in that hell.

Then I look down and see that I am wearing clothes that I do not recognize.

Panic shoots through me as I quickly jump out of bed and run to the restroom.

Everything in here looks to be the same, but different at the same time.

I quietly walk down the hall towards Henrys room, and as I open the door I see that the bed is empty.

I walk in further and see that his room is back to how it was when he was younger. But I see not pictures in his room either.

Something is definitely off.

I go back to my room to retrieve my phone, but I cannot find it.

Frustrated I go back and sit on my bed, trying to remember Emma's phone number from my memory, but it won't come.

"Dammit!" I shout.

I hear something move in the corner of my room, "Who's there? Show yourself." As I try to conjure up a fireball that doesn't come.

The person doesn't say anything and since my magic doesn't work I need to grab a weapon quickly.

I reach for my nightstand drawer when she finally comes forwards.

"Regina, stop. It's me; please just hear me out okay?" She says walking out of the shadows and closer to the bed.

For a minute I am speechless, but then I realize that it's been her all along. She must have done this and the fury in me grows.

"What the hell Tink? What is happening?" I yell at her.

She just stares at me, too scared to utter a word.

"You better start speaking or so help me…" I say again, growing angrier with every passing moment as I approach her.

"Please… Regina, please can we just sit down. There's so much to be discussed." She says in a very timid and frightened voice.

"No! I cannot believe you! How could you mess with my emotions like this? My life? What have I done to you that would warrant such a backstabbing?" I ask her, my voice rising again as I feel the heat reach my face.

"Just hear me out… please.. I never meant for this…" She continues on, coming closer to me and reaching out to grab my shoulder but I pull away from her and rush down the stairs and away from her.

"Where is Henry, and Emma? I must see them. Tell them this was all some sort of joke, some little fairy's doing…" I tell her over my shoulder, just so anxious to see them.

"Regina you can't!" she yells this time and it stops me mid step.

I turn around to her and see tears streaming down her face.

"What?" I say loudly, already tired of her riddles.

"You cannot see them because they are not here." She says rushing towards me now.

"And where exactly is here?" I say as I wait for her to reach me, because even though I am beyond upset with her, there is still a small amount of trust between us.

"We are between times right now, you are not really here, and I don't know how long I can hold you here… there is so much to discuss, please just let me explain." She says as she finally reaches me and takes my hand.

Suddenly I am too tired to fight. I just want this nightmare to be over so I nod my head and let her lead me to the couch in the livingroom.

Once we are seated I see her trying to figure out what to say, and as my patience runs thin I finally ask.

"What did you do? Why?" I say, and it seems to break her out of her thoughts as she looks over to me.

"I owed you Regina, for we were friends once, and we had gotten close again. And after everything with Robin I was just trying to help." She rushes out, pushing herself further into the couch and turns to face me. I know she is not lying when she looks into my eyes.

"Well we've seen what good that caused you in the past." I say to her, and I know it's a low blow when I see her physically flinch.

"All I ever wanted to do was help you Regina. And this time, I really thought that it would work, I mean I knew as soon as I saw you two together in Neverland." She tells me, and then smirks a little as her enthusiasm shines through even now.

"What do you mean?" I ask, although I have a feeling I know where this is headed.

"You and Emma, once I saw you two, the way you fought to get your son back, when I saw that spark in your eyes I knew that she was the one." She looks down then, at her hands in her lap.

I take her hands, "Why didn't you say anything Tink? Why do all of this instead?" I ask her, almost begging her to explain her actions.

"Really Regina, would you have believed me? You still hated me, or felt guilty about stripping me of my livelihood. I knew you wouldn't listen to me, plus I was pretty upset with you as well." She says looking away again. "I will admit that I wanted nothing to do with helping you, especially all that had happened between us." She said.

"Then what happened?" I ask her because I just don't understand, Neverland was so long ago, had she been holding on for this long knowing that Emma was to be my..

"Honestly I figured that once we got to Storybrook that you two would have figured it out. But then Neal happened, and then Hook. Ugggh Hook was just such a horrible choice, I never thought that would last so long." She admits and I just stay quiet while she continues.

"But then that year went by and you finally met Robin, and things were looking up so I just figured that if you didn't have her then you could atleast have one of your true loves. "

I look away at the mention of Robin because I honestly had not thought about him in so long. If he was truly my soul mate then shouldn't I have missed him more? Felt more?

Something had always felt off with Robin, like I was trying to convince myself of something that just wasn't there.

"Regina, you must know that he wasn't the one for you?" Tink asks me and it's almost as though she can read my mind somehow.

"What?" I don't need to verbalize the rest of my question as she is already answering.

"You two were destined to meet way back, in that Tavern. But when you didn't go in, your life shifted and veered off into another possibility, the one that would one day lead you to Emma." She says to me.

"How do you know that?"

"I felt it, when I finally met him in the diner that day before Zelena arrived. I felt it when I looked at you two. You were looking at him with such hope, but that spark, that love just was not there." she tells me and it makes me feel relief, even though I never admitted it to anyone, let alone myself.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I tell her, hurt that she could let me live in that fantasy.

"We were under attack, and after all that happened with Zelena, you were so dejected and I saw how happy you seemed to be when you believed he was the one. What could I say Regina? Plus it looked like you and Emma were never going to find your way to one another. I just hoped it may work itself out." She tells me this and I realize that she is right, I had been hopeless for so long that when Robin came along and he seemed like a good man I just latched onto the notion that he and I were destined, that I could finally be happy.

"How does this all lead to where we are now? What did you do?" I ask.

"I never meant for this to happen."

"Then how did it happen?" I say loudly, "Help me understand" I say, frustrated.

"I gave you your second chance Regina! After Emma ingested the Dark Curse, I saw you and how broken you were, and you didn't even know that she was the one for you. I had to do something… So I came to you after you had passed out." She tells me, but I can see the fear in her eyes.

"Please Tink, just tell me. I have been going mad trying to figure it out." I plead with her.

"I sent you back to before it all happened. I sent you back so you could see what you hadn't the first time. I thought that if you were able to see what could have been that things would change here for you. But I didn't know it would go wrong Regina. I didn't understand all that was at stake." She continues, "I knew it would take time so I made it so that every time you were under a deep sleep you would return to be able and slowly change things. Which did happen, but something went terribly wrong, and I realize now that I should have always seen It." she says looking at me with tears in her eyes.

"What did you realize?" I ask, scared of the answer.

"That no matter what reality you were in she would always risk her life for you, she would do it with no regard for her own life every single time." She told me and my blood ran cold as I realized that she was absolutely right.

"So what do we do now?" I ask her hoping there is some light at the end of this very long and dark tunnel.

"The rest, I'm afraid, is up to you." She says looking just as broken as I feel and I fear that my journey is only just beginning.

…

End of Part 1

Whew! I know it's been a while since I've updated, but I'd like to thank you all again for sticking with this. When I started writing this story I never imagined it would turn out this way and I have to say that I am happy with it, and I hope you all are as well.

I am ending the story here, and have already posted the first chapter of Part 2.

I have always said that this was Regina's journey to finding herself, and so I apologize that Emma was not in it as much as I would have liked, but this is not the end, trust me.

With that said the next part will contain a lot more of Emma and Regina as well as the rest of the gang!

I hope you enjoyed it!

As always, your reviews are what keep me motivated to keep going with this. And I'd like to send out a special thanks to Firedancer34 for your encouraging words.