A/N: I think I finally know what to do with this fic! Very exciting - for me, haha - as I was a bit unsure where to go with it now that the original premise has sort of settled, but I didn't want to end it just yet, so plan to tie some bits up while exploring new circumstances. This will continue to go slightly AU as I don't want to include the storyline of the Black Fairy etc as I don't think it fits this story, so the plotline in terms of referencing the show will end with Hyde. That's all I plan to say for now, but I hope you like this chapter as it starts pushing towards the next step of the story, and updates shouldn't be as excruciatingly sparse now that I feel a little more confident in where this is going :) Reviews would be really lovely as I always look forward to hearing what you guys think and I have been so slow at updating due to a mix of personal reasons and just feeling really unsure about this story for a while. I've missed you!

Also, if anyone wants to throw any buzzwords/ ideas into the ring for my Christmas SQ one-shot/ short, please feel free to do so! :D

"Regina!"

David grunts in surprise when he almost bowls the Mayor over as he makes his way down the stairs of his apartment building.

"Sheriff."

She greets him sarcastically, gesturing towards the badge pinned to his jeans, and he rolls his eyes with a good-natured grin and corrects her.

"Acting Sheriff. At least for so long as Emma remains on her deathbed or just too lazy to get up."

He shakes his head with mock despair, and the brunette suffers a brief, malicious urge to tell Charming several things he definitely wouldn't care to hear, before shrugging away her darker desires and matching his smile with her own.

"She'll live, just about."

"Good. And yourself?"

"I feel fine. Better than I have in a while, to tell the truth."

The Queen admits, and David raises a brow and tells her that she does, indeed, look well.

"Snow's just putting Neal down, and Henry's watching cartoons. He made cookies earlier, and they're probably safer than whatever Emma cooked last night."

A wink, and Regina frowns for a moment before recalling what the blonde had told her of her rather inelegant ruse. Shrugging slim shoulders in the pretty, fitted jacket she'd changed into at her mansion before heading back out, she muses silkily

"Miss Swan has many talents, but cooking certainly isn't one of them."

Recalling the mess the blonde had made when instructed to serve her.

Recalling raw meat and bloodied lips.

Recalling the sly flicker of pointed velvet in the early hours of the morning while musing that the Sheriff possesses several delectable talents indeed.

Clearing her throat, she smiles at Charming, whose brow has climbed even higher upon hearing such open praise for the Saviour from the brunette without a hint of malice.

"Well, next time, maybe you should take care of dinner."

David chuckles, and the Mayor nods and bids him farewell as he leaves to man the station, replying simply

"I will."

Continuing up the stairs to the schoolteacher's apartment, she knocks on the door and is met by Henry who peeks out at her before allowing her in.

"Isn't Emma with you?"

He frowns, offering her a brief squeeze, and she sighs as she recalls the days when he would embrace her waist firmly. Now, they stand at almost the same height, and there is something frighteningly grown-up in the way he grips her shoulders which becomes shattered when he pads back over to the television set in the corner to oversee the doomed escapades of cat and mouse.

She can't help but appreciate the irony as she watches the screen while pulling off her jacket; observing as each character tries to one-up the other only to suffer for their arrogance and be met with fresh torment.

"Regina."

Snow smiles as she descends the steps from Emma's old room, the smell of fresh paint still heavy in the air.

"What did you decide on, then?"

The brunette greets, and the younger woman frowns before catching on and pulling an old shirt from the back of one of the stools surrounding the kitchen island to show the Mayor a splatter of paint colouring the cuff.

"It's called duck-egg. Sort of an understated blue."

Mary Margaret wrinkles her nose as she picks at the dried paint, before assuring swiftly

"I made sure Henry wore one of Charming's old sweaters."

"Good, and I didn't think understated was really your style?"

Regina smirks, meeting Snow's confusion with a pointed look of disdain as she thinks back on the blown crystal and fussy wallpaper that had adorned Emma's nursery back in the Pale Queen's Palace. Finally, Mary Margaret cottons on with a roll of her eyes, and the Mayor bites the inside of her cheek as she experiences a brief wave of smug glee that is swiftly replaced by a stab of remorse. She imagines, with time, the fluctuation of her mood will even out, and she's simply glad not to suffer the rollercoaster of hate, turmoil and grief she'd experienced last night upon waking.

"Things are different here."

Snow reasons, and Regina nods, adding gently

"And it wouldn't do to create such a gaudy shrine to your newborn in Miss Swan's old room, whether she had anything to say about the previous colour scheme or not."

"No."

Mary Margaret agrees uneasily, and the brunette shrugs, appeasing her one-time nemesis softly

"I mentioned you were painting. She showed no signs of being overly upset over the matter."

"Emma never shows signs about that kind of thing."

Snow sighs, and the Queen challenges the schoolteacher's certainty with a shrug.

"She does to me."

"I-"

"-She doesn't want to upset you, and the subject of her brother is rather close to home for the lot of you. I am somewhat removed - for once - when it comes to your family drama, and so she feels able to express certain feelings towards me that she might not share with yourself."

Regina muses, and the younger woman nods in acceptance of this fact.

"Well, that's good."

Snow smiles, padding into the kitchen nook in order to brew them some tea, before stilling in the act as she catches the look of distaste that finds fine features.

"I'm guessing you'd prefer a coffee?"

She grins, and the Mayor nods, taking up a seat on one of the stools at the kitchen bar and watching as Snow goes about fixing them drinks; a stack of hand-written essays piled on the counter for her to look through with the school closed for Veterans Day.

"Is Emma still feeling unwell?"

The younger woman asks over her shoulder, and Regina shakes her head as she decides she's probably permitted to skirt around the truth and explains

"No, she just had something she needed to see to."

"Well, at least she's not still in bed!"

Snow chuckles, before raising a brow as she turns from adding milk into the jug set to froth it as she knows the Queen prefers.

"Did you see her this morning, then?"

"Yes."

Regina answers simply, offering no more on the subject, save for an inward sigh when the schoolteacher accepts her response without question. She wonders how Emma might be fairing in her conversation with Hook and whether he might ask the blonde the same thing. She supposes it doesn't really matter given that the Sheriff has expressed her decision to come clean about the fact that they've explored one another in ways friends oughtn't, and she feels a mingled sense of guilt and perverse intrigue as she yearns to be privy to that particular conversation, not out of any fear that the younger woman might speak out of turn, but simply... She wants to hear the blonde's words and watch her face as she explains just what it is that they've done.

She wouldn't appreciate it, nor do I imagine it will be an especially salacious take on the true depravity of the situation.

No, but, as Emma has accepted and seconded her wish that her Evil side's role in recent events be kept a secret, she supposes any excuse this might have leant the Sheriff is off the table, leaving her only with the truth: that she'd rather be with another.

She strives to cling to the sympathy she'd felt when leaving the younger woman's house and bidding her good luck, and finds only smug elation over the fact.

It was inevitable, after all. Perhaps not if one of us had been thrown by the other's admissions when discussing the matter in Daniel's cottage, but when we each met the other's confession of attraction with tentative surprise and little else, I suppose we must accept that this has been a thunderstorm looming for several years now.

"And storms can be magnificent as well as dangerous."

She murmurs.

"Pardon?"

Mary Margaret raises a brow as she hands the Mayor her coffee, and the darker woman shakes her head.

"Nothing, dear, just talking to myself."

"You've been spending too much time with Emma."

The schoolteacher smirks, and Regina shrugs as she warms her hands on the sides of her mug.

"Maybe so."

"Yet, between the two of you, you still haven't figured out what Hyde wants... Nor have we."

Snow laments, and the brunette purses her lips before taking a chance; understanding that her suggestion may appear reckless, but finding herself entirely done with the matter of the curious individual that set her on the road to destruction in the first place.

"The man appears not to know what he wants himself, and forgive me for saying so, but I believe we have more than enough to oversee in our small town without dealing with his riddles and confusion. We have Rumple for that, and hell knows how many others that have entered into the mix since the breaking of the Curse. Do we really want to fret over a stranger?"

"I believe the rest of us were of a similar opinion when it came to your sister..."

"And, maybe you were right! I love Zelena, but she causes her fair share of stress without a doubt, and if she weren't my sister, I might have grown rather tired of it by now. I have enough to contend with, what with running into my own, personal nemeses any time I want to grab a coffee and suffering through the cooking of my appointed sworn enemy when it's her turn to humour our son."

"Then what do you suggest?"

The younger woman frowns.

"We let someone else deal with this one."

Regina states simply, meeting Snow's uncertainty with a measured look as she sighs

"The stragglers that have entered Storybrooke from the Land of Untold Stories have sought refuge, and until we are met with evidence of foul play, I suppose we must allow this as we have many times before. But Hyde... Hyde, we've seen fit to keep locked away while harbouring in hopes of figuring him out, when the man seems nothing short of bipolar at times. He speaks of goodness and then takes on a darkness, and let's be honest, that's my role in our unwilling circus!"

"Well, I know you're not a fan of being upstaged, but what would you have us do? He helped you, don't forget, and while he's undoubtedly obscure, I would argue that punishing the man when we know so little may be taking it a little far..."

"I never said anything about punishment. There's a way to banish him, nothing more. A way to banish him without hurting him or causing any pain. A way to simply make his tentative clutch on reality someone else's problem."

"That's not what we do..."

Snow shakes her head, and the Queen narrows her eyes as she suffers the urge to scold the schoolteacher for her stupidity, and she pushes it back down with some difficulty. After all, she'd come over this morning for coffee and conversation and nothing more than that, but, as she finds herself challenged on the matter of their queer fugitive, she finds an uneasy feeling growing in her gut; wondering if Hyde might be able to tell what has become of her since her decision to rid herself of her Evil, and fearful that he might divulge the secret she has placed her trust in Emma, Rumplestiltskin and - begrudgingly - Lily to keep.

"Maybe we should start. How many lives have we lost trying to aid those we had no obligation to help? How much stress and hardship have we suffered when we were due a break from all of that? I know I'm not exactly innocent when it comes to the first twenty-eight years spent over here, and I'm sure neither you nor David has especially fond memories of me from back home, but I've paid my toll. I've helped and I've lost, and I've done what needed doing when called upon. We all have. You have a newborn son you should be enjoying, yet you're trying to divide your time in order to see to Storybrooke's newest dilemma when we could just... Let this one go."

"You're the one out of us that owes that man for his aid."

Snow points out, and the darker woman offers her a complicated look before considering her coffee.

"If so, surely it's my business to decide whether or not I consider myself indebted or not."

"...You regret what you did?"

The schoolteacher asks uneasily, taking up a seat beside the woman she'd once feared that she now calls a friend and studying her earnestly. In the corner, Henry turns down the volume on the TV and looks up at his mother worriedly.

Worried for me, not of me, and that's an important distinction to make!

Regina muses, offering her son a smile and shrugging her shoulders as she turns back to Snow.

"I can't answer that. Or, rather, I don't want to. But you know me and trust me, dear, and I, in turn, trust that you will allow me my private feelings on the matter to back an opinion I have now made public."

"Of course... I just-... Alright, let's say, for argument's sake, that I'm willing to go one step further and support you fully in your suggestion, what do you mean when you say you've found a way to banish him without causing harm?... That's never been an option before."

"No, well, we never asked the right person before."

Regina laments honestly, wishing for several reasons that she'd considered asking her old friend for tricks and tips, yet knowing that it's only now that she might be offered such aid for free. Now that Maleficent has her own obscure family to manage; her dragonian child surly and unruly, yet offering a curious advantage in vying for favour with the witch due to her tie with the Saviour.

Why is it always Miss Swan?

The Queen grumbles internally, before hiding a smile, as she imagines Emma feels much the same way.

"What do you mean?"

Snow frowns.

"We've turned to Rumple in times where you and I might not know the answer to the problems facing us in other lands, but there are others in this town just as powerful as the Dark One and I... No offence."

"None taken, believe me. Though I'll remind you you're adding my daughter into the fray by use of the title alone, and it's too late to take back any accidental praise."

The schoolteacher grins, and Regina shrugs as she finishes her coffee and confides simply

"I have no intention of doing anything of the sort; Miss Swan's powers may still catch her by surprise now and then, but she's learned fast and she's learned well."

"Hm. Are you sure you're not still feeling unwell?"

Snow chuckles, gesturing towards the coffee pot to ask if the Mayor wants a refill and pouring her another cup accordingly.

"So, who did you ask?"

She inquires in a more sombre tone.

"Mal. She informed me of a way to journey between the realms with relative ease and minimal hardship. Of course, as we're speaking of magic, there's a catch."

"Which is?"

"One may open a portal between one land and the next using a mirror. By adding a blood seal around its perimeter, they-"

"-I thought you said it was painless!"

Snow interrupts.

"Nothing is painless. I said it wouldn't do any harm; it wouldn't be dangerous. In a healthy adult, blood is plentiful; a small incision is all that's needed to create the seal in this case, nothing more."

The brunette assures, massaging her forearm subconsciously as she watches apprehension fade once more to curiosity on the schoolteacher's face.

"So, what's the catch?"

"The catch is that the portal acts as a door to the desired place. A room that the person casting the spell can summon from memory. A room with a mirror large enough to climb through."

"That doesn't seem like much of a problem?"

"It's not. The problem is that if this door were to close, it may never be opened again."

"How would it close?"

"There are two ways, but only one that matters in this instance."

"How so?"

"To cast the spell, there's a second element. A charm placed upon a candle so that it may act as a beacon back to the realm in which the spell was cast. If one were to use the portal to aid them in a quest with the intent of returning, then they might use the Gift of Sevens on the candle's flame. Seven drops of blood for seven hours through the portal. Seven hours of light, no matter the size of the candle or whether such a thing should be possible, before the flame burns out, and the portal closes... I see no reason to shed any more blood in this instance. So long as the mirror is sealed, the portal exists. Once Hyde has entered through it into the world he came from, we simply cease the enchantment. The way back will be forever closed to him, and I would like to think he might refrain from finding his way back using alternative methods in our lifetimes."

"... So that's it? That's all? We could have travelled across the realms all those times before now so easily?!"

"Mm."

Regina sighs, catching a similarly outraged look from Henry to the one Snow offers her as she stirs her peppermint tea.

"To say that I found Mal's insight infuriating would be putting it lightly! However, there is one more thing, and perhaps this may have proven problematic after all should we have utilised this method in that past."

"There's always something."

The younger woman mutters, and the brunette nods in agreement.

"With magic, there must be a price. We have all come to learn how true that old saying really is. In this case, it's important to remember that to cast a spell, one must have magic to begin with. Hyde has shown no signs of possessing power, so he won't be able to open the portal himself. One of us will have to do it for him; one of us with the skill to do so... In doing so, when the door between realms closes, the magic used to manifest it in the first place remains in play. It will forever be trapped in an incomplete task, thus it will cause a perpetual drain on the one to cast it. Not a large drain as I understand it, but it's something to consider nonetheless."

"... The fact that you've come and told me all of this suggests that you've already considered it."

Snow muses uneasily, and Regina raises a brow as she replies honestly

"Only now that the subject of Hyde has been raised, but I don't believe the brevity of my consideration impacts my conviction that it must be done."

"I... I mean, I'll have to run it by David and Emma..."

"Consult the buffoon if you must. I'll run it by the idiot, but I doubt I'll be met with much of an argument in this case."

"Hey! And who-... Nevermind. By all means, run it by Emma. She's bound to agree if it's your idea."

Snow rolls her eyes, and the Mayor feels a pleasant warmth creep across her cheeks as she knows the Fair Queen speaks the truth.

"It's not just an idle whim, dear. I believe this is what's best for all of us."

"Which is why I will consult my buffoon."

Mary Margaret sighs, before crossing her arms over her chest and asking uneasily

"Why did Maleficent tell you all of this, anyway?"

"I was asking for her help with something and it came up. If I'd known she was in possession of such knowledge, I would have asked sooner, but... It is what it is."

"Help with what?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"I told Emma I wouldn't."

Regina shrugs, only half lying as this is indeed the agreement she'd come to with the blonde, but when she catches a hint of alarm touching the schoolteacher's brow, she assures her swiftly

"That sounds much more ominous than it is. There are simply certain things I've discussed with your daughter recently that I would rather not have to air out in a self-appointed town leaders' tribunal. I do, occasionally, like to have some privacy, you know."

"I wasn't saying-... Fine. So long as Emma's okay."

"And myself?"

"You can handle yourself, Regina, I know that better than anyone."

"Mm. I'm not sure Miss Swan would appreciate the implication."

"Well, don't tell her I said that! And you know what I mean... I worry, that's all. I'm supposed to."

"Yes, well, so do I now and then, but I must confess, I believe Emma's ability to handle herself matches my own uncannily."

"Is that so?... Well, now I'm worried about both of you, as you've never admitted to such a thing before!"

"I didn't know how true it was before."

The Mayor shrugs, glancing over her shoulder at the iron steps leading to Emma's old room as Neal begins to cry in his crib.

"I'll be back in a second."

Snow advises, and Regina shakes her head as she pushes herself from her seat and takes her mug over to the sink.

"I'd better be going, actually. There are a couple of things I need to see to at home - cleaning for one! - and I haven't been grocery shopping for a few days. Are you coming too, Henry?"

The Mayor asks, hoping that her mention of cleaning might convince the boy to stay and play babysitter, and hiding a grin when she's proven right.

"I said I'd help David pick out some pictures for Neal's room, and then I might go over to Emma's to see if she's in a better mood."

"Oh?"

Snow interrupts tersely, and Regina jumps in quickly to set her long-ago foe's mind at ease.

"She was a little short with Henry the other day, nothing terrible... I think she has a lot on her mind at the moment. I would maybe give her some space, dear, just for today."

She directs this last part towards her son who frowns at her uncertainly

"Shouldn't I go see if she's alright?"

"She's fine, she just needs to take care of something... I'll go over later to make sure."

"Okay."

Henry agrees, sounding unconvinced, and Regina focuses her attention purely on her son so as to ignore the look of open surprise offered up by Snow in light of her suggestion.

"Why don't you make the most of the holiday and see if you can help out with the horses today, dear? I'm sure Violet would like to see you, and I imagine her father might approve of another pair of hands."

"Really?"

"So long as you've done all of your homework for tomorrow?"

"I have!"

Henry assures her, and Regina smiles and pulls on her jacket.

"Good. I'll see you later."

"What are we having for dinner?"

"Good question. Let me run it by Emma and maybe we can sort something out with the three of us."

"Please suggest that you do the cooking this time."

Snow smirks, and the Queen nods in agreement although she suffers a pang of regret as she'd thoroughly enjoyed watching the blonde mope around the kitchen in her apron.

"I will. Run what I've told you by Charming when he gets back, and I'll have a chat with Emma this afternoon."

"Alright. Why don't you come over tomorrow evening to discuss it with all of us present? I'll message Emma and see if she's around and if she plans on bringing Hook before deciding what to make."

"It will just be the four of us. Five, if you count Henry."

Regina grins at the boy as he opens his mouth to speak up.

"... I better check, just in case."

Mary Margaret frowns, and the Mayor splays her palms as she tells the younger woman to do as she pleases and bids her farewell; the latter disappearing upstairs to see to her son.

Turning to Henry, Regina wishes him a fun day at the stables, assuring him with a smile

"I'll message you about dinner when I know what's happening, so make sure you keep your phone on you. It might be a little later than usual as I just want to make sure Miss Swan managed everything she wanted to sort out, but I'm sure she'll be happy to see you... Don't worry. I will be the one cooking."