Hi again! So, I wasn't sure how I was going to do this chapter. Originally, I was planning on it being one, /long/ piece. But when I finished this section, I knew that it was another two-parter. But don't worry! I promise it won't be another month for the follow-up. Hopefully only a few days!

I wanted to thank all of you who kept reminding me (AKA begging) to keep up the work. As I said, a lot of changes have been happening in my life, and it's been difficult to find the time and motivation for me to write.

Here's the first part of an exciting climax! Enjoy!

It was 2:33am, and Regina Mills sat on the lounge in her study. She was in her warm, satin pajamas and soft, cotton robe. Her hair was limp, and shadows crept underneath her eyes. Her right hand was resting casually on her thigh while her left elbow was perched on the armrest, her forearm standing straight up.

A soft, slow breath drifted from her nose, and she watched the clock ticking on the wall. Everything in her world was wrong at that very moment. There were so many things that were supposed to be happening in that hour, which seemed like habit. Yet, all of them felt old, and not old as in tiring, but more like dusty, unclear memories. The ones we all look back on in the later years of our lives; the ones that make us feel a little sad, even though we can't remember why.

In the normal, sane routine of her life, Regina would have been asleep. Having seen Henry off to bed, and finished up any lingering paperwork of the day, she'd have gone to bed, resting for the next day to come. But after the turnover, the brunette would have been in the hospital room at this late hour. She would have been hearing the blonde's heart speed up, and she would have been touching ice-cold flesh.

After she kissed the sheriff was when all the complications began. She had kept her mouth shut. About everything. The truth of Emma's situation, the attempt to remove her from Henry's life, how she was awoken. Why she was woken that way. Most importantly, Regina kept her feelings far away from Emma. The former Queen had found a way back to the part of her heart she had buried a lifetime ago; back to the warmth and tenderness of a time spent in stables, or picnicking under the shade of a mighty, lone tree, back to the time when she smiled freely and with love in her eyes.

Regina had finally found something true, and inherently human in herself when she had spent all that time with the cursed Savior. However, she couldn't let that part be seen or known by others, least of all the object of her strange affection. After all, love was weakness.

The woman sat in the dim light of the study, wondering if things would have been different if she had been honest with Emma. What if she had stayed in the room with her after the kiss? What if she had been braver? Would any of this have happened?

Perhaps it would have saved her from a brutal beating, but what would have resulted? What would have been different? Another sigh crossed her lips. It seemed more likely that it would have driven the woman away. Emma was notoriously commitment-phobic, and she didn't even have feelings for Regina anyway. Well...none that she was consciously aware of; an aspect of True Love that the brunette genuinely despised.

True Love didn't give you a choice. You were going to love them, no matter what happened. Control was the mayor's addiction - in lieu of having her magic - something she needed since she was robbed of it in the old realm.

She was being forced to fall in love with the nettlesome blonde; forces beyond her own formidable powers had already determined its occurrence. Savior and Queen were destined to come together, to meet and love in one lifetime or another. Whether in this realm, or in any of the infinite others, Emma and Regina would have found a way to come together. Just as Snow and Charming would always love each other, and Cinderella and her prince, and even Rumplestiltskin and Belle. All of them were drawn to each other, compelled to find what made them...whole.

She knew that Emma felt something. The poor woman's confusion was evidence enough of that. The blonde was completely bewildered by the fact that she couldn't harbor feelings of hatred for the woman who tried to hurt her...in more ways than one.

Regina knew that those feelings were locked away deep inside the Savior's heart, buried in the place where her Belief was also shrouded. The obvious solution was to make her see that she had those feelings, but there was one, important problem: The Evil Queen didn't fix things. She hunted, killed, and destroyed. This was neither the time nor the place for any sort of sick courtship. It was her move, and she couldn't see the board or the pieces. She was blind.

The brunette sat up from her seat, slowly, groaning as she did so. She glanced at the clock again. It was 2:48am. Late. Far too late. She walked slowly out of the study, padding her way up the stairs. Her eye twitched slightly as her feet twinged on every stair.

She recalled the deep, painful gashes on her soles, and she recalled why they were there to begin with. It was, once again, all due to her cowardliness and her fear of her heart. She had put herself and Emma in danger, all for her own fear and selfish desire to see the illusion of a man long dead. She sighed heavily, stooping over her bed to pick up something tucked carefully between her pillows.

Object in hand, Regina quietly strode to Henry's room, opening the door silently - a skill only parents seem to know. It was dimly lit by his little rotating lamp. The curtains were drawn, and the sound of her son's even snores greeted her ears. She smiled sadly, seeing his mop of nut-brown hair sticking up over his mussed pile of blankets. He was perfect.

She swallowed nervously, approaching his bed. When she sank down onto it, placing a delicate hand on his thigh, the boy stirred but didn't wake. She whispered his name, giving his leg a gentle shake. Henry groaned, rolling onto his back, eyes still squeezed shut.

"'S matter? Nibbles stuck in the lamp again?" He threw his arm over his eyes, reluctant to leave the dreaming world.

"No, Henry. This isn't a dream, my little prince." Regina used a tender voice, the kind she really only reserved for times when Henry was sick, or scared of a nightmare.

The boy rubbed groggily at his eyes. "Mom? How come you're here?"

"I need to talk to you."

He peered with bleary eyes at his alarm clock. "Couldn't wait 'til morning?"

"Henry..." Regina started, but her voice broke, and she cast her eyes down to her clasped hands.

The lack of strength, of confidence - qualities which were synonymous with the name Regina Mills - immediately piqued the boy's concern. "Mom? Are you okay?"

The older woman's knee-jerk reaction was to assure the young man, the light of her life, that she was, indeed, just fine. But it wasn't true, so silence replaced those hollow words of reassurance. After a beat, she said, "No. Henry...this life I have given you...all the lessons you've learned, the love you've had, and everything you have known up until now..." She opened her mouth to continue, but the words felt stuck in her throat.

Henry finally sat up, facing his mother, brow furrowed. "What? What are you trying to say?"

"I...you know that I've only ever wanted to do what's best for you, right?" She met her son's gaze, and her expression was open, vulnerable even.

Henry looked at her skeptically, but he nodded nonetheless. "I-I know, Mom...I really do."

"And you've know about the truth, the Curse, for a long time. When...when you started talking about it, I did everything in my power to discredit you." She looked away, her cheeks coloring with shame, but it was too dark for Henry to see. "I want you to know that even adults make mistakes. Rather, especially adults make mistakes. No one is immune to their own humanity. We're flawed, all of us, right from birth.

"You discovered what this town was, and I tried to make it seem like you were crazy, or just touting a child's fantasy. I won't ask your forgiveness for that. It was something I never should have done to you. As a person, and as your mother. I was selfish and scared."

"Scared? Of what?" he asked, continuing to frown at the older woman.

Regina steadily met his gaze. "Of you, my dear." Henry blinked, cocking his head in confusion. "I was scared of how you saw me. Not as your mother, or even caretaker. You only saw the Evil Queen. A woman who perpetrated countless, abhorrent atrocities, as someone, quite frankly, inhuman.

"I missed you calling me 'Mom,' and looking at me with love and affection. I missed that you needed me, and that I would always be there for you. I was blinded, and spent a lifetime doing all the wrong things..."

"Mom, slow down. You...you're scaring me. You're talking like you're gonna die or something. People only have these kinds of talks in books right before something really bad happens."

Regina grimaced at his words, thinking, I may very well die, and it would be a death I deserve.

"Mom?" He looked scared.

"Henry...I have tried to be so much for you. To be the parent you needed. To love you unconditionally. But...I am the Evil Queen."

"Mom..."

"You've only read a fraction of what I've done in that book of yours, but even that small window is enough to see the horrors I've done, the lives I've stolen and ruined. I am the Villain."

"Mom," Henry interrupted again. "What are you trying to get at? Why are you saying these things to me? Why...why are you making yourself less?"

Regina squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating on evening out her breaths, quelling the great wave of emotion crashing through her. "Because, Henry," she said softly, opening her eyes. You deserve better. More. No one cheers for the Villain. No one is there to take the bullet for them, to defend them when their hour is darkest.

"There won't be anyone to come protect me, Henry, because I am the reason why this town exists. And I have hurt everyone in it-"

"I will protect you!" the boy said fiercely.

Regina smiled a sad, knowing smile, and she reached out to gently cup her son's face. Her heart soared for a moment, basking in the warmth she felt when he didn't pull away at her touch. "I know you would, my little prince, but we must all pick our battles. This is one you absolutely cannot fight."

"But-" Regina pressed her fingertip to his lips.

"This isn't a matter of persuasion, Henry. Or belief. These people won't abide by this world's laws, and justice is very different for them."

"So...so you're gonna do it?" he asked, his voice suddenly small. "Break the Curse?"

The brunette pulled her hand away. "It's time."

"You're...you're saying goodbye, aren't you?" His hazel eyes bored into her own, and she felt her heart just about split in two.

"Which is why I brought you this." She held out the object she took from her bed.

"You're trying to give me Stuffles?" Regina thought she heard a waver in his voice.

"To keep you safe, just as he kept me safe, like you promised he would." She held it out to him, but he pushed it away.

"No. No, I won't take him. I don't need to be kept safe! You have to keep him. You have to be protected. You're...my mom. And I need you to stick around a be my mom." He launched his small body at her, pressing his head firmly against her chest, his arms wrapped securely around her middle. He felt the tiny pat of a teardrop land in his hair, followed by the pressure of his mother's cheek to his head.

"I would never willingly leave you, Henry," she said, voice thick with emotion.

"Then stay. Don't go," he responded with a stubborn edge.

"You know I have to. You know the Curse has to be broken, and Emma..."

"Is it 'cause you love her?" He pulled away enough to look the brunette in her teary eyes.

Regina drank in his young face. A face that was beginning to mature a little, but his boyish youth still shone through. His eyes were wide and imploring, and she found she could no longer lie to him and wondered how she ever did in the first place.

"Yes. I...love her."

"And this is the only way to make her see...to make her believe..."

"Yes," she answered in a small voice.

"It's not right," he said, his lip jutting out in a pout. "Why do you have to do this?"

Regina smoothed his sleep-tousseled hair. "You've been chomping at the bit to have the Curse broken. Why the change of heart?" she asked tenderly.

"Because...no one's supposed to die. You shouldn't have to..." He averted his gaze, biting the corner of his lip; a display that Regina knew meant he was fighting back tears.

"My brave boy... You've read that book cover to cover. What is it that is always said about magic?"

Henry paused, obviously trying to recall what he knew. "That...all magic comes with a price?" She nodded once. "Oh..."

"Someone has to pay it."

"Why you? Why can't someone else? Or why does it have to be with your life? Why can't people forgive?"

Regina smiled proudly at her son, though the sadness still clung to her face. "Why can't people forgive? Your compassion knows no bounds, my dear. Forgiveness is much harder when you're caught up in anger, hatred..."

"But it's not impossible, though...right?" Hope shone in his eyes.

"I...I suppose not, but, Henry...holding out for that kind of miracle will only leave you with bitter disappointment."

"We don't need a miracle," he said quietly, musing more to himself than anything. "We just need to believe. You just need...the Savior." He looked earnestly into Regina's eyes. "Emma! Your True Love is the Savior, Mom! There's no way she'd let anyone hurt you!"

"A fine idea, but..." She smiled, her face pained, and it spoke volumes of a hurt Henry had never seen in his mother before. "I thought that about True Love once...it was naive, and cost me more than I care to tell you..." She swallowed painfully, her throat suddenly thick.

The boy looked to his mother, hurt and defeat waging a fierce battle with the hope he still clung to. "But...she's the Savior. She has to... She's gonna bring back all the happy endings...even yours."

Another tear slid swiftly down the brunette's cheek. "I cannot afford to think like that."

"So...so you're gonna break the Curse, and make Emma see that she's your True Love, just so her and I can watch you die?" Regina began to cry in earnest, tears flowing freely down her face. Henry reached up and tried to smear them off of her cheek. "You know that's not right!"

"No...it's not..." She reached for the box of tissues next to her son's bed, plucking one out and dabbing at her face.

"But...you're still gonna do it..." Anger tinged his words.

"I don't expect you to understand, Henry. But yes. I-I have to."

"Are you scared?" His question was simple, but it felt personal, almost profound, like a small child asking if their parent was ever afraid of the dark or the monster under their bed when they were young too.

"Yes," she whispered.

"Me too," he replied in an equally-small voice.

Regina pulled her son in for a tight, emotional embrace. He buried himself into her arms, and she pressed her lips to the top of his head, inhaling his unique scent. Neither made any move to break the moment, so they simply stayed together, cherishing the feeling of a repaired relationship.

"I love you, Henry. So much. I will never regret every single moment I spent with you, and watching you grow. Your presence in my life was the only good thing to come of this Curse. You made me feel whole again." She held him a little tighter.

"I love you too, Mom," he whispered into her chest. "I'm sorry...for everything." His voice broke a little, and he sniffled.

"No, my dear. I'm sorry that I ever gave you reason to think I was evil..." He squeezed her tighter, to the point that it was almost uncomfortable, but neither felt the need to protest. Reluctantly, she pulled away, and placed a firm, lingering kiss to his forehead.

Henry picked up the discarded Stuffles, placing him in his mother's hands. "He's your protector." She gave him a watery smile in return, and he threw himself at her for one last hug.

"It's time, my little prince."

Henry sniffled again, wiping at his nose. "Mom, promise me you'll try to believe? To believe that Emma can save you? Please?"

Regina reached out and trailed her fingers slowly down his face. "For you, I will." She knew that if she didn't leave right at that moment, she might never. She placed one more kiss in her son's hair, stood up, and left, turning to look at him as she was closing his door.

Their eyes met, and thousands of unspoken feelings and words flowed between them, a deep, heartbreaking understanding coming to settle heavily in the space separating them. And then the door closed.

As always, a huge thanks to my beta, Jasmine. She helped me a whole lot with the planning for this chapter, and the motivation to actually /write/ it. I couldn't have done it without you! 3