One week after Snow White's funeral:

"She's gone!" Regina heard David say as he laid in his bed, clinging to the sheets with one hand, the other holding a bottle of beer.

After shutting the apartment door, Regina walked over to Charming, leaned over the bed, and snatched the bottle out of his hand. "I know but you can't treat yourself like this. Snow wouldn't want this. Emma and Hook has to take care of your own son because you are too lazy to do it yourself!"

"My wife is gone!" He screamed in anger, shedding tears. Regina could swell the alcohol on his breath as he embraced her, unbalanced. "I don't know if I can even live without her."

"You have to. Emma and Neal won't have a father."

"Maybe it's best that way."

"No! Don't say that! They need you to be strong! They just lost their mother; they can't lose their father as well. David, if you hurt yourself it just might put us all under. Emma couldn't go on much longer if something were to happen to you as well." She took a deep breath. "Be strong for Mary Margaret and Emma."

He stood up, pacing the floor, anger boiling inside. "I can't! She's gone! She's dead! Snow is dead!" He yelled in fury. suddenly heard a bottle crash to the ground and Regina becoming panicked. She took rapid breathes, backing up in alert from the man's presence. He looked back as he saw tears flooding her eyes in fear.

She thought as her vision became blurry and she heard the noise of Jefferson screaming back at her. Is it him? It can't be him. He's gone!

David's furious expression faded as he slowly approached her concerned. With each step he took, Regina took another back. "Regina, what's going on?"

It's only David! What the hell is wrong with me?

She calmed herself in relief as she recognized his voice and appearance. "You shouldn't have seen that."

"What is going on with you?" He asked a second time.

"Nothing. I just got startled. I'll clean the mess up."

She used magic and in a second the broken glass disappeared. "It won't happen again."

She glared back up at him. He opened his mouth but no words came out. Instead he glanced at her hands which were shaking. "Your hands are shaking-"

Regina sighed as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "It's okay."

David replied softly grasping her hand to stop it from trembling as she turned away. "No, something's wrong? Is it about Snow?" He was surprised to get his hand pushed away. Instantly, the woman slapped him violently across the cheek. "Regina! What the-"

She looked at him for a moment and suddenly realized what she had done. "I'm so sorry." She panicked once again. "I wasn't thinking. I thought you were- Are you alright?"

He nodded softly. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"I didn't mean to- I freaked out-"

"It's alright." The sting still was present as he lifted his hand to his cheek.

"I should go." She responded. Before he could reply she said. "And visit Emma." She then walked out leaving David.

Later that day:

Later in the evening at Regina's house, she heard the door bell ring. She opened it and to her surprise, it was Charming. "Hey. I was hoping we could talk?"

"Sure." Regina replied, leading him inside. Both sat on different couches across from one another in silence.

Charming made a long sigh. "I was hoping we could talk about something."

She cleared her throat. "About what?"

He flatly admitted. "I don't know." There was a long pause. "Maybe about Snow. I tried talking to Hook and Emma about her but they just weren't in the mood to-"

"I see. I guess I'm good with talking about her." There was awkward silence until David spoke up again.

"Did she ever say anything to you?"

Regina uncomfortably asked. "About what?"

"Said anything about wanting to kill herself? If there was something I could've done to help her? If-"

Regina let out a sigh as she stared down at the floor, trying not to look at him. "I guess but it was just small things here and there. Just about how guilty she felt about what happened with Emma and Hope." She paused and took in a breath. "Moments before she died she told me that she had wondered what death felt like- if it was better than living."

"It's just-" he paused, continuing to sob. "I couldn't help her. Why couldn't I help her?"

She left the room silently to bring back two cups of apple cider for both of them to drink. "Here. I got a drink for you."

He took it, casually drinking a sip and then sat it down on the table. "Thanks."

"I also wanted to come to ask you about what I noticed this morning. You were acting different."

Regina cleared her throat as she felt a rush of anxiety. "Yes." She said sitting down on the couch beside him. He faced toward her, noticing worry in her eyes.

"I want to know what's going on with you. Regina, you and I never have gotten along but I don't want you to have the same fate as my wife."

She nodded. "I'm not going to end up like her. Neither is Emma."

"I just have a feeling. I know for years we've never liked one another but you were there for Snow throughout this rough time. I know she would want me to help if her friend was going through something."

Tears formed as she could feel her heart beating faster knowing she would have to change the subject or express herself. That could never happen.

"Regina, I want to help you. We can talk about anything."

I don't have the strength to tell you.

"There's not much to talk about." She took a breath as tears formed. "It's just I've been having nightmares lately. Plus, thinking about anything to do with that house worries me. I can't escape Jefferson. Maybe he'll always have a hold on me."

"That was what Snow said days before she died." He responded. "Are you sure you are okay?"

He asked as he stared into her eyes. She gazed back. "You can tell me the truth."

"Truthfully, I don't know if I'll ever be alright." She told him, dreading the words that slipped out of her mouth.

Two months later:

For the past two months, all Charming had done was stay in his apartment. It was much like Snow when she killed Cora and before she died. Emma, Killian, Henry, and Regina would take turns coming to the apartment to check on him. Neal had been staying with Emma and Killian for a while since he was unfit to raise the boy by himself in his state. David wasn't too keen on that but he put up with it. He didn't communicate at all with the outside world. He never went to Granny's or any public place for that matter. He was too saddened by the death of his true love. One day Emma, Killian, and Regina came with Neal to his apartment together. They finally let him see his son.

"You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, Charming!" Regina told him.

"Yeah, dad. You have barely seen your son this month."

"Because you all won't let me." He replied.

"Because you are here depressed about life. Is my adventurous dad gone?"

He became frustrated. "Do you not understand, Emma? When your mother died a part of me died with her. No, practically all of me!"

"We don't believe that, lad." Killian said to him. "Now get up." He told him as he went to the bed and forced him up on his feet.

Emma announced. "We are all going to my house and then going to Granny's. After that we are going to come back to this apartment and clear this whole place up." Emma sighed as she looked around the dirty area. "We gave you two months to mourn, dad. Now, it's time to get off your lazy butt and go on with life."

"Snow's dead. My wife is dead! How do I even go on when my whole future is ripped from me?" Anger and sadness filled him. "I don't care anymore. I don't even care about my life. If Snow won't be in it, what's the use?"

Regina spoke this time. "You think I got over my first love easily? Instead of living my life, it stopped. Instead of being depressed, I became ruthless and cruel. I became the Evil Queen. I used revenge as an escape from the pain but the truth was I didn't want to go on with my life without Daniel. I had a choice with Robin, David. I could have been depressed, revert to my old ways, or go on with life. I chose to move on. You should too."

"She's right, dad. You need to move on. She shouldn't of died. She was so distraught on what had happened the last year, it slowly killed her on the inside. She tried to move on but she felt stuck with no way out. The least we can do is go on for her and live. It is what she would have wanted."

David wiped his tears and sighed. "Do you understand why she killed herself? She knew everything wouldn't matter in the end. If she didn't feel like living why would I want to?"

"Mate-" Killian responded but only heard David continue.

"How could he hurt Snow to the point where she wanted to die?" He asked.

Both Regina and Emma could feel the lump in their throats and eyes watering. They wanted to say something but they couldn't find the right words.

David continued. "What kind of man would do such horrible things to cause her so much pain?" He looked back at the other two women, sobbing. "Jefferson was the one that took her from me."

He wiped his tears and then demanded. "I want to see Neal!"

"I don't think you should." Killian said. "You need to calm down, mate."

David sprang up in front of Hook. "I want to see Neal. I need to see him!"

Killian also came closer. "If you are going to act like this, then I prefer not!"

Emma and Regina could tell the argument was getting heated every second it went on. Emma quickly defused the situation, separating them by getting between the two, pushing them back from each other.

They eventually deescalated the argument and David decided to go to Emma and Killian's to see Neal there with Henry. David smiled as he held his son.

"Now we are going to Granny's." Emma said to her father.

David sighed. "I don't know about this."

"Come on, dad."

Emma, Killian, David, Regina, Henry, Neal, and Hope all went into the diner and as soon as they did, everyone was staring. The people all around gazed at Charming with sympathetic glances. As David sat in a booth, he saw the people turn to him giving him sad gazes. "I can't do this!" He pushed himself out of the seat, walking out of the diner.

Emma sighed as she started to chase him down. "I'll go talk to him."

"No. He has to listen to someone who won't pull any punches." Regina ran out to see him walking on the sidewalk away from the restaurant. "David, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm leaving."

"You have to come back!"

"And what do you know about all this?"

"I know enough. You can't run. You have to face this town, even though it hurts."

"All they do is stare. They feel sorry. I don't want people to feel sorry for me the rest of my life."

"Well then show them. Show them you can live without her." Regina replied.

"I can't."

"Well they are always going to stare. They will always feel sorry for you. David, when Robin died I thought I would never move on but I did. You can too with Snow White if you just try."

"But I just can't. What is Prince Charming without Snow White?" He asked.

"Listen Charming, you can go through the rest of your life feeling sorry for yourself and having others feel sorry for you or go on raising and spending time with your children. Do you really want to spend your whole life in that apartment depressed?"

He said nothing as he sighed and thought. "I don't care what I do now because it doesn't matter without Snow." He paused as rage filled his voice. "As much as it is wrong, I still imagine myself tearing through his chest with my knife. His blood spilling and his dying body. He killed the love of my life! He destroyed everything, including my own wife and daughter!"

Regina knew exactly who he meant, the Mad Hatter.

"When I was the Evil Queen all I cared about was revenge and it corrupted my heart-"

"I don't care if it corrupted my heart. He murdered my wife, my true love! I would have slit his throat right then and there if I got a chance. I would have made his death long and painful just so he knew that what he did to y'all was so cruel."

"But you didn't." She then said. "Killian shot him and it was over with."

"I wish I was the one that shot him. I wish I did something right. For a year though, I did nothing. When Snow was gone at first I had strong motivation to find her but then I thought she was dead. Hook was the only man who continued looking. He saved y'all. I was the one who failed. I couldn't protect my own wife and daughter from that psychopath!" He sighed once again. "I didn't tell you what happened."

"What? What happened?"

"I had gotten Rumplestiltskin to use a location spell on one of Snow's belongings. I followed it and it led outside near Jefferson's house. It had landed on the street right in front of his mansion. The next thing I knew the Mad Hatter came and I asked him if he had any idea where y'all were. He told me that he didn't know but he knew what the locator spell was directing toward. He said it meant that the owner had left Storybrooke. He said anytime the locator spell led to an empty space in the town it meant they were outside the magical realm. I asked Mr. Gold and he told me the same thing. So I started looking for you all outside of Storybrooke but it had been for nothing. I searched in New York and Boston. I had no idea I was so close. Don't you see? I failed."

"No. You did not fail! You helped Snow every moment she was here. That's a noble thing to do."

"And look what happened. She's gone!"

The man sped off as Regina sighed and then went back inside the diner.