A/N: this is a really short chapter compared to all of the others because it was originally going to be right at the end of chapter 29 - so I'm posting it much earlier than I normally do to make up for being an annoying inconsistent little bugger :)

Also, I know that a few people didn't like Regina's little slip-up with Emma's phone in the last chapter, but basically: I missed jealous Regina. Plus she does tend to do pretty stupid, weak things when she's feeling threatened. So fuck it. My story, my silly decisions.

Chapter Thirty

August's expression didn't flicker when the door to Granny's opened and Regina walked through the door.

She made her way over to his table and calmly sat down opposite him, her eyes never leaving his. After a moment she pulled off her leather gloves and laid them neatly on the table in front of her. August watched her without blinking.

After a few moments of cold silence she bit out, 'So. It would appear that you know.'

August's wicked smile never faltered.

'Yeah. It would certainly look like it.'

Narrowing her eyes, Regina leaned forwards against the edge of the table and glared at him.

'I don't trust you, Mr Booth,' she said quietly. 'I hope that you know that.'

'I'm not sure that I trust you very much either, Your Majesty,' he said calmly, watching as she gritted her teeth together. 'But I'm guessing that you're probably not here to talk about either one of us.'

For a moment Regina's face seemed to soften. She paused, opening her mouth, and then slowly closed it again.

'No,' she said with a sigh. She pulled her hands together on top of the table and clenched them into one fist. 'I suppose I'm not.'

August's smile slipped. He watched the nervous fluttering of her eyelashes before he glanced down at her hands: he realised that he barely recognised them. Nails that were usually so obnoxiously well-manicured had been bitten down into stubs and her skin was cracked and raw around the nail beds. He frowned.

'This is about Emma,' he said in his lowest voice, mirroring her position as he leaned forwards against the table. 'And, other than Henry – she's probably the only thing that we've actually got in common.'

Regina snorted. 'You might say that.'

Ignoring her, August continued. 'I'm here to stop her from getting hurt, Regina. That's all.'

'What?' Regina asked, her throat forcing out a dry laugh. 'So you're not going to go and tell her that I'm evil through and through and she needs to stay well away from me?'

August shrugged. 'No.'

He watched as Regina faltered. '...no?'

'No,' he repeated. 'You did some bad things, Regina. Some really messed up things that hurt a lot of people – but I don't think that you're going to hurt her. Are you?'

Regina straighted her spine and replied, 'Not if I can help it.' She said it more vehemently than she had said anything before in her life.

August nodded, apparently satisfied by this.

'Besides,' he said, leaning back and taking a sip of his coffee. 'It's not like I've never done any bad things myself.'

Regina scoffed. 'Have you ever had an entire village slaughtered, Mr Booth?'

She watched as August raised his eyebrows at her over the rim of his cup.

'You're not exactly helping your cause here, Regina,' he said. Regina rolled her eyes at him, but she let him continue. 'No, look – here's the thing: you did some bad stuff. Some really bad stuff. I get that. But I was a kid when all of that happened – I got sent away from it all. This world is the only one that I've ever really known and so I don't really see the point in being angry about stuff that happened in another one.'

Regina narrowed her eyes.

'Really.' She didn't bother to hide her suspicion.

August grinned at her again. 'Really. I've had a pretty good time in this world, Regina. I have no complaints about any of that.'

He chose not to mention the bad times, right after he had arrived there. He didn't mention Emma and the bad times that she had had.

He continued talking, but after a moment his smile started to dim. 'You did separate me from my father though. You separated a lot of people. And I do very much hate you for that.'

Regina didn't flinch. 'I think that I can live with that.'

'But I'm going to fix it,' August continued, ignoring her. 'I'm going to meet my father, Regina – because the curse will break. I may be here to help Emma, but that fact doesn't change. You do realise that, right?'

Regina gritted her teeth. That same horrible feeling that something was about to fall and crush her was niggling away at the back of her skull again.

'Yes,' she muttered, looking down at the table. 'I do realise that you and my son and quite intent on making that happen.'

August laughed, stretching his arm out across the back of the booth.

'"Intent" is definitely one way of describing him,' he said. 'I would have gone for "terrifyingly stubborn".'

Regina frowned. 'About the curse?'

'Partially. But not just that.'

'Then what?'

August smiled. 'You and Emma, Your Majesty. Ever since you became friends, it's all he's talked about. It's all he's worried about. And then when he worked out what was really going on between you two… all he cared about was making sure that neither of you got hurt.'

Something sharp hit Regina's between her ribs. 'It… it was?'

'It was,' August nodded. Then he laughed again, rolling his eyes. 'He's even got a new scheme all lined up for keeping you two together.'

'He does?' Regina said, her smile watery. 'What is it?'

'He's calling it Operation Lobster,' August told her. He watched as the mayor's face crumpled with recognition.

She took a deep breath, her eyes on her tightly clenched fists, and waited for the feeling that she was drowning to subside slightly.

'I've told Henry, you know.'

She was painfully grateful when she heard the surprise in August's voice.

'You did?' he asked, frowning. 'About you and Emma?'

'Yes,' she muttered. 'And about… about the other issue.'

August's mouth fell open slightly. 'When?'

'Two days ago,' she said, finally glancing up. 'He didn't tell you?'

August felt a surprising swell of pride in Henry's decision to keep his mother's secret as he replied, 'No. He didn't.'

A silence fell between the pair of them. After a moment Regina cleared her throat, looking back down at her hands and examining the damage done to her nails over the last week.

'You have to tell Emma, you know,' August eventually said.

Regina didn't look up.

'I know,' she said flatly. There was no hope whatsoever left in her voice. 'And it will kill her.'

August considered this for a moment before he said, 'Well. If you can even get her to believe you in the first place, that is.'

He jumped when Regina's eyes flicked back up to meet his; dark and hard and firm. 'I will make her. Even if it kills me, I'll get her to believe me.'

August swallowed. A sudden roaring sound was filling his ears - one that was unfamiliar in the cold, empty diner and that cold, empty town.

'You're… actually planning on telling her?'

After pursing her lips for a moment, Regina said, 'Yes. I am. Because she needs to know, Mr Booth – she needs to know who she's fallen in love with. Otherwise I'm just another darkened room that she's stumbled into and I can't have that. I won't let her feel like that anymore. Even if... even if that means losing her.'

She leaned back in her seat and released a shaky breath.

'All magic has a price,' she said sadly, slipping her hands beneath the table and clutching them tightly between her knees. 'Maybe I just haven't paid mine for casting the curse yet.'

Somewhere deep inside of himself August felt his determined resentment of her weakening; sharply and suddenly.

She was the Evil Queen. Except she obviously wasn't.

'Regina…' he said slowly, his blue eyes piercing into hers. 'You do realise that, if you did tell Emma the truth… if she did believe you, and if she did somehow forgive you… that could very well break your curse. You… you do understand that, don't you?'

Regina looked flatly back at him. He could see the terror that was ricocheting through her eyes, even though she was stubbornly refusing to let it show on her face.

After a long pause, she sighed.

'I do,' she said, so quietly that he almost didn't hear her. 'And I know what that will mean… for me, and for everyone. But, to be quite honest… I've come to realise that there are worse things.'

'Worse than being hunted down by an entire town?' August frowned, leaning closer towards her. 'Worse than being run out of your own happy ending?'

She smiled weakly. Her eyes were surprisingly dry.

'Yes,' she sighed, shaking her head. 'It's taken me far too long to admit it, but I think that I've known it all along: I would rather have her than have this curse. So if she breaks it – then so be it. That's the price that I will pay for her.'