Sorry it took me so long to update! Life got in the way, and I got pretty stuck near the end. I think you guys will really enjoy this chapter with some good one-on-one between Emma and Regina. Thank you all for the comments, follows and favourites! I love you all, and please enjoy!

Regina tore back the covers, feverishly scratching at her throat, chest and biceps. She could still feel the magical cords bound too tightly around her body, and Regina stumbled from the bed, flinging her body toward the master bathroom. One of her palms managed to mash the light switch until it snapped upward. She staggered to the sink counter, bending low over the basin, running the water as cold as it would go.

She sloshed it over her hot, sticky skin, feeling it soothe the nightmare and burning sensation from her body. Unfortunately, the violent, unwelcome emotional trauma caused her stomach to heave, and sharp dribbles of bile slipped from between her lips and caused pain to slice through the gash inside her cheek.

"How long are you going to let these nightmares haunt you, my love?"

"They're not exactly simple to fight," Regina bit out after rinsing her mouth with water. She massaged her damp hand over the back of her sweaty neck.

"Perhaps, but you know that these aren't regular nightmares, Regina."

"Just as you are no regular delusion, I suppose," she said wearily, glancing up into the mirror, seeing the handsome stable boy a few paces behind her and to the right, smiling softly, but always with an edge of sorrow.

"Your stubbornness has served you well in the past, but that will not aid you in this future. You must lay your past to rest...like me."

"How can I, when it is your face I see at every turn, and your voice I hear in all of the silence?"

"You tell me. You are the one who brought me here."

"If the past were so easy to cast aside, none of us would be here, Daniel. I just don't see how I can turn from you."

"By looking to the future, my love. You know the way in which the fates are converging...it's time to grasp what is yours to come."

Regina reached her hand out, tracing her fingers down the reflection of her late fiancée's form, leaving staggered, wet smears on the glass. "I don't want to take it, because I love you, Daniel. It's only ever been about you! I don't love her!"

She heard the faint chimes of the clock in foyer floating up through the house. After it played its brief tune, there was a silent pause, followed by two more chimes. Regina rubbed her eyes, careful to keep her fingers clear of the painful contusion adorning her cheek.

"Two 'o clock."

"It's late..."

"Or early... Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Yes. My bed."

"That's not where you used to be found at this hour."

"There is no need to go back there, Daniel. She's vacated her room...thanks to me."

"And how did you feel in those moments? In those times spent in that dark room?"

Regina slumped slightly, squeezing her eyes shut. "I felt...free." She winced, feeling as though she had just betrayed her love and memory of her lost lover yet again.

"Yes. It has been far too long since I have seen you smile for anyone other than Henry, Regina. But when your touch made her heart race..."

"It did so to mine as well. I know, and I hate myself for that."

"I don't. Happiness is all that I have ever wanted for you. If I cannot be the hand that brings it to you, then so be it. But I refuse to let you run from the one who can. It's 2am, Regina. You have somewhere to be."

Regina slowly exited the cover of the woods, killing the lights on her Benz to ensure that she didn't alert the blonde to her arrival. She gathered that the woman was probably a heavy sleeper, but in moments such as the one the mayor found herself in, it was best not to take chances.

She inched the car forward at a snail's pace, wincing slightly every time she heard the gravel crunch or a twig grind underneath her tires. When the infernal yellow bug came into view, illuminated brightly under the light of the waxing moon, the brunette felt tempted to slam on her brakes and turn around. She didn't. Instead, she pulled up along side it, killing the engine.

Many long, silent minutes passed, and Regina sat in her seat, gripping her gloved hands around the steering wheel so hard that it started to get painful. The heat was rapidly leaving the cabin, and she began to see her breath misting in the air. Winter was soon to be upon them.

Regina blew out a long breath, momentarily watching the way the blast of air fanned out in a dull fog against the inside of her windshield. It was 2:27. No more hesitance. She was going to visit the blonde, see that she was still alive, and leave. Simple, clean, easy to follow. Her fingers groped for the handle.

The cool air bit at her nose, and she was grateful that she thought to grab a scarf and gloves along with her wool pea coat - all black. She snuggled her chin into the warm, satiny fabric of the scarf wrapped loosely around her neck, the ends tucked neatly into the front of her jacket. Her low-heeled boots crunched softly into the half-frozen earth.

She paused before rounding the corner of the tiny cabin, letting out another soft exhale, eyeing the swirls her chilled breath formed in the air. The mayor stuck her hands in the pockets of her coat, taking those few steps around the side of the building to see the rickety front porch.

Regina stopped, rooted to the ground, staring open-mouthed ahead of her. All the lights inside were off, the cabin lit only by moonlight. However, it was what was on the porch steps that had the brunette frozen like a deer in headlights.

She saw none other than the flaxen-haired sheriff, sitting on the steps, hands clasped together, forearms resting on her thighs, staring wordlessly out across the lake before her. The lunar light cast Emma's pale skin aglow, her blonde locks almost bleached looking under the pale wash of the moon. Her hideous, red leather jacket stuck out brightly against the blunted colors of the environment around her.

Regina watched as small puffs of air misted languidly around the blonde's face, and she knew she shouldn't stand there staring. Her dark attire afforded her a better disguise in the night than the Savior's, but if the woman bothered to take even a half-decent look her way, the brunette knew she'd be caught.

The universe had a unique way of messing with her. Emma was supposed to be asleep, sprawled out somewhere within the cabin. Regina was supposed to sneak in, pay her visit and leave. Why was the other woman awake? A rather hypocritical question to ask, considering her own state of consciousness, but Regina had simply failed to take into account the consequences of the possibility that Emma wasn't sleeping.

Tears were already tracking their way down her cheeks, offering only a moment of heat before the chill stole it away. She didn't want to see Emma awake. She didn't want to deal with the tempestuous woman. A sleeping Savior would be easier to handle, and even easier to pretend as though she were still under the Sleeping Curse. Her breathing was short and ragged, panic quickly seizing her, not unlike the way the sheriff did not so long ago.

A choked gasp involuntarily escaped her throat, and fingers pressed immediately to her lips. She saw the slight tilt of a blonde head, and dashed to hide along the side of the cabin, not wanting to know if she had been caught or not. She pressed her back against the bulbous curves of the logs that made up the siding, jamming her leather-clad knuckles into her mouth to try and keep quiet. Her knees gave, and the mayor landed softly in the dewy tufts of grass growing around the edges of the building.

She bit down harder, unable to fight the sobs consuming her, feeling a slight pinching pain in her hand. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Why had she been such a fool to listen to a hallucination, to be so weak as to give in to her perverse feelings?

Regina stared out ahead of her, but she didn't see moonlit forest stretching before her. She saw enraged, emerald eyes, white teeth flashing under thin lips, felt clammy, trembling fingers crushing her throat. The brunette clawed at digits that weren't there, tears flowing freely over skin twisted into a mask of terrified pleading, desperate for release.

Regina felt Emma's hot breath filling her gasping mouth and flared nostrils. She begged, begged to be let go, to be allowed to breathe again, and the mayor found her hands clamping over her ears, hearing the ragged roar of the blonde's words echoing in her mind.

"YOU'RE A FUCKING PSYCHOTIC LUNATIC! YOU TRIED TO FUCKING KILL ME, YOU MURDEROUS ASSHOLE!"

"No...no...no...no," she gasped, hands still trying to block out the cacophony deafening her ears. Everything was so loud, and so muffled, Regina didn't hear the quiet, stilted thump of boots around the corner.

"YOU'RE FUCKING EVIL, REGINA. AND THIS TIME, EVIL NEEDS TO DIE!"

"Emma, stop!" she managed to bark weakly. "Please..." Regina pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her forehead in the little crevice between them, wheezing out thick coughs and moans.

"Please... H-Henry needs..." The brunette shook with silent sobs, too tired, sore, and aggrieved to vocalize any more.

Emma sat just around the corner, eyes wet and pressed into the heels of her palms. She paid no mind to the tears splashing onto her thighs or tickling down her throat as they descended her jaw and neck. She brought her right arm around until her hand clasped at the back of her own neck, burying her mouth into the crook of her arm. She was trying so hard not to sniffle too loudly, that she missed the last line of what Regina was babbling about.

"I need you..." the mayor rasped into her knees.

Emma wiped some snot from her nose, drying her eyes on the collar of her shirt. She tilted her head back, resting it against the cool wood. "What the fuck have I done?"

Regina gasped, flinching upon hearing the voice without the body. Frustrated with the onslaught of hallucinations she's had to deal with, she angrily snapped out, "Go away!"

Emma took another steadying breath and leaned around the corner. She saw the mayor sitting on the ground, legs pulled up to her chest, one gloved hand scrubbing at her eyes, the other clenched in a fist atop her knee. Regina turned her head, glaring hard at the blonde. Even in the dim light of the moon, Emma could see in those darkened eyes a lack of focus, haunted, distant even. She only recognized it from having seen it in her own once-hollow gaze many years prior.

"That is not leaving, Miss Swan! None of you seem to listen to me when I need you to."

"Apologies, Madame Mayor, but it is you who is on my ground."

Regina scoffed bitterly. "Please...You are in my office, dear. You've stepped into my territory."

"Regina, we're not..."

"What do you want from me, Miss Swan? What torture do you plan to inflict this time? Can I have no rest from you? It's all that everyone has for me! Demands, tricking me into speaking the truth, tormenting me with that which I cannot have, and all that I ever wanted..."

Emma recognized that the woman was rambling again, lost in whatever reality she seemed to be trapped in. Maybe if she asked her the right questions, she could steer her back to the present? "Regina, why are you awake? It's late as balls."

"Or early," came the quiet response.

Emma blinked, too exhausted to even work out that simple turn of phrase. "And why are you here?"

"You know exactly why I'm here. All of you know the answers to your own questions! 'It's 2am, Regina. You have somewhere to be,'" she recited from earlier.

"I don't know what that means," Emma said bluntly.

"Yes you do. I'm tired of all of these games. What else did you want to shove in my face tonight, Miss Swan?"

The blonde wracked her brain for something to ask, and due to her tiredness, it took her longer than usual to come to the question that had been nagging at her for days on end. "Did you visit me in the hospital?"

"As dim as the real thing. You know the answer."

"Yes, but...I want to hear you say it."

"What good would that do, dear?"

"What've you got to lose?"

Regina's eyes narrowed at the sheriff who had slowly inched her way around the corner. Emma situated perpendicular to her, sitting cross-legged in the gravel. "Yes."

"Really?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

"I've been having these dreams...nightmares really. Every night since the coma thing. Actually...even when I was in the coma, I had the worst fucking nightmares I've ever had in my life. It was like I was being made to relive all of my mistakes and regrets over and over again.

"But here's the thing. There were these moments when it wasn't bad. There were these moments when the dreams stopped, and I felt...okay. When I was in the coma, during those moments, it was just blank periods of nothingness, which was a godsend in comparison to what was usually happening in my head.

"However...after I woke up, I was still having those scary fucking nightmares, but there's a kind of...I d'know, presence? That kinda makes it better. It was a kind of shadow thing, and I know you're gonna laugh, but I called him my Dream Savior. Lately, though, I have reason to believe that it's you.

"My Dream Savior would say things, and I could never understand him. They were just muffled, garbled murmurings, but I knew he was saying something comforting...something sweet, because I felt safe. And whenever he touched me, almost always just my hand, but occasionally my face too, I would feel warm again. I haven't been able to feel warm since before the coma. But lately...my Dream Savior has had your voice, Regina. And tonight...tonight it had your face. What is that about?"

"I'm sorry...what?" Regina stared intently at the other woman, a slight crease between her brows.

"It's why I couldn't sleep tonight," Emma answered plainly.

"You couldn't...s-sleep?" Regina's frown deepened.

Emma had begun to catch on to the brunette's reason for speaking so honestly to her - or, as honest as the woman would get with her. "Regina? Why do you think I'm a hallucination?"

"Why do you think you're not? I'm alone...it's dark. What perfect circumstances for causing me more pain, don't you think? It always happens when I'm alone..."

"You see me?" Emma's frown was beginning to match her visitor's.

"Not usually, no... This would be the first time."

Emma nodded, the corner of her mouth turning upward. "Seems that tonight's the night for firsts, regarding each other, that is."

"So it would seem. Usually when one of you show up, the air gets warmer."

The blonde thought back on that same phenomenon happening every time Graham made his presence known. She felt like that should surprise her, but instead felt only a sense of understanding instead.

Regina scrutinized her even more intensely. She leaned to the side, closer to the blonde, and then paused, as though waiting for something. "I don't feel it," she murmured.

Emma leaned forward on her forearms, barely speaking above a whisper, "Feel what?"

The brunette scooted a little closer, now only a couple short feet between them, still frowning deeply. "That sensation," she whispered. "Tingling...warm...just, a feeling. Unique. The closer I get, the stronger it becomes. But I'm getting closer, Emma." There was now barely a foot between the two women.

"And what about right now?" Emma's eyes searched the brunette's face, eager to know more of the inner-workings of the complex mayor's guarded mind.

"Cold," Regina said quietly.

"Yeah, I'm always cold these days. Maybe I've got brain damage from that stupid coma?" Emma joked meekly.

"I'm sorry," Regina breathed morosely. "I didn't want that for you...I miss your warmth." She brought up her free hand, cupping Emma's cheek. Her blood ran cold.

The blonde unconsciously leaned into the touch, gasping at the marvelous heat blooming outward from the tips of the mayor's fingers, rippling all the way down to her ten, chilly toes. She brought her own hand up to cover the back of the one caressing her face.

"I'm touching you," Regina said in horror, shuddering at the familiar chilly sensation of the Savior's flesh against her own. Emma only hummed in contentment, soaking up the feeling of heat in her body once more, not caring as to why the woman's touch would do that to her body.

The mayor withdrew her hand as though she had been stung, pressing the closed fingers against her chest, cradling it with her other hand. "You're...you're real?"

"Yes."

Regina jerked backward, scrambling away. Emma made no move to give chase, but held up her hands in cautious surrender, trying to show that she was no threat.

"Don't come any c-closer!" the mayor tried to command, but it came out as more of a terrified shriek.

"Okay," came Emma's hurried response.

"Are you going to h-hurt me?" Fresh tears stained her blanched face.

"No, Regina! God no-"

"How much did you hear?!"

"What? I don't...?"

"How. Much?"

"Everything!" the sheriff blurted.

Regina's hand clasped over her mouth, eyes wide and flitting back and forth, unseeing. She started muttering a constant string of, "No, no, no, no, no." under her breath, chest heaving with short, ragged gasps. Emma saw the signs of a new panic attack, and slowly took a crouched step forward.

The brunette did not miss the advance, and uttered a small rasp of terror that was supposed to be a scream before actually scrambling to her feet, trying to run to her car. The blonde remained rooted to her spot, unable to decide whether or not to pursue her guest. She cringed when she saw Regina bent, doubled over, hearing the tell-tale coughing of someone emptying the contents of their stomach - something the sheriff had become overly familiar with.

Regina clutched at her abdomen, throbbing pain making her vision swim with hot tears and little white spots. She spit the bile from her mouth in a most uncouth manner, continuing her short trek to the Mercedes, fumbling for her keys in her coat pocket. Her fingers trembled so fiercely that she heard the little bundle clink against the gravel near the front, driver's-side tire.

She cursed loudly, slamming her fists above the window on the Benz, leaning forward and resting her forehead against the cool metal, letting her tears flow freely. She wished she could stay like that for a long while, or at least until her weeping stopped, but Emma was still close. Too close.

She pulled her head away and turned to look at the ground for her keys, but she saw a pale hand swiping them up with a soft scrape of metal on rock. Emma backed up a couple of short paces, leaning heavily on her cane, a sheepish, unsure expression across her scabbed face. Her eyes brimmed with insecurity and...concern? Both women stood completely still, staring at each other, each tensed like an animal ready to flee.

"Here," Emma said, and she extended her arm, holding out her index finger, the keyring dangling from it, glinting in the dim moonlight.

I have to extend an enormous, squishy thanks to my best Beta, Jasmine. She really gave me all of the inspiration for this chapter. You can find her awesome self at obligatory-regal-name. tumblr. com and please find me at Writers-Dilemma. tumblr. com I love to chat, so don't be shy with anything!