I have no excuses for the unfortunate time that has passed since I last updated. Hopefully this chapter is enjoyable enough to forgive me :)

When David woke, Regina was still sleeping, tucked into his side with her head on his bicep. He watched her, his eyes tired despite having slept so well beside her. Eyes tracing her face, he smiled at how serene she was as she slept, her thick, dark lashes laid against her smooth skin beneath her eyes. Her lips were parted just barely, her breaths soft and steady against his side. David tried to bring his arm up to wrap around her shoulders only to find that he couldn't because the limb was asleep, dead weight. Chuckling, he bent his neck, pressing his lips softly to hers. He watched as her eyes fluttered open and the edges of her lips pulled back in a smile.

"Good morning, Regina," he whispered. The way he said her name shot a shiver down her spine and she shook her head slightly.

"Good morning to you too, David," Regina answered. "You don't usually wake up before me."

"No. But… you have a really heavy head and I can't feel my arm," he teased, grinning at her.

Narrowing her eyes, Regina pushed her palm flat on his chest and pushed herself up off him. "Fine. Maybe I'll just send you back your own bed for tonight."

"Hey, nobody said that was necessary. I'll take an asleep arm any morning if it means waking up to your face."

She smiled at him, sitting up and sighing. "I really don't want to start today just yet."

David sat up, leaning against the headboard and gripped her hips, pulling her toward him, sitting her in his lap. Regina chuckled and let herself straddle him, her knees pressed against the bed on either side of his thighs. Cupping his cheeks, she grinned when he leaned forward and caught her lips against his, kissing her slowly. His hands found her waist, then slowly dropped until he was holding her ass in his hands and pulling her harder against him.

She pulled away and shook her head. "David… no touching. Not like that."

"Seems like you like it."

"I do," Regina groaned. "David, I do. It has been far too long since I've been touched so willingly. But you touching me like that is going to lead to more touching. And if you keep touching me that way, I'm not going to be able to stop." Her fingertips ran down his jaw, her thumbs touching his neck.

Leaning into her touch, David pressed a chaste kiss to her mouth as he traced his hands up from her ass to her back, letting his fingertips run along the smooth line of her spine. He pulled back and smiled at her, saying, "So… touching is the gateway drug to sex?"

Regina let out a snort and pulled off his lap, chuckling while she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, see… now you can feel free to touch me all you want and I won't even be tempted to sleep with you. Because you are a child."

Chasing her as she moved away from him on the bed, David leaned forward and pinned her to the bed, her hands beside her head and his chest against her stomach. He smirked at her and grinned. "Okay, I promise I won't touch you in a way that feels like I'm pushing too far."

"You didn't say uncomfortable."

"No, because I can tell it doesn't make you uncomfortable. It makes you want, and you don't like wanting me."

"Because you're married. You have a wife and a daughter and I have a son who will hate me if he finds out that I slept with Snow White's Prince Charming. David, we could sleep together every day and you could stay with Snow, still, and somehow if she found out, everyone would hate me even more than they do."

"They would hate me for cheating."

"Sure, but you're forgivable. You're their dopey, adorable and brave prince, if somewhat of an idiot."

Shaking his head, David tilted her head up and pressed a kiss to her soft lips, parting them with his. He let his tongue slide between her lips as she opened her mouth to him and met his tongue with hers. The kiss was over too soon, and Regina dropped her head back against the bed with a smile that she couldn't hold back.

"I should… probably go start breakfast," she whispered, his bright blue eyes staring at her. "I can't go to the kitchen with you on top of me, dear."

Chuckling, David nodded. "Why don't I go start breakfast, and you stay here, warm and pretty. I'll bring you something to eat when it's done."

"You don't have to."

"No, but you don't have to cook every meal for us either."

"I'm still not sleeping with you."

"I'm still not asking," David answered with a light laugh, pushing off Regina with a kiss to her cheek.

When Regina was in her room that afternoon preparing for her quick trip to Rumplestiltskin's castle, David was sitting on her chaise, watching her.

"Are you sure you're going to be safe? I can come with you," he insisted as he watched her pace, considering exactly what she needed to do.

"David, I'll be fine. I need you to stay here."

Sighing, he stood and walked over to her, grasping her upper arms and stopping her from pacing. "You're going to burn a hole in the floor if you keep going back and forth. You're concerned about something. Let me help," he pleaded.

"I can't let you help. You need to stay here. If something happens to you, I won't be able to go to Storybrooke and I'll be stuck here with my mother, okay? I need you to be safe, and that means you need to stay here."

"Fine. But the second it's done, once the wards are set… you'll come back here to rest?"

"I promise," she answered, eyes switching between his.

"Ok. Be safe." Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, he then sat back down and watched as she gathered her things and disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.

Regina landed outside of Rumple's castle, some ward not allowing her to send herself directly into the castle. Taking a look around, she began walking quickly to the door of the gloomy structure. Less than five steps from the wooden door, Cora appeared, causing Regina to take two steps back in surprise.

"I figured I might find you here soon," Cora said darkly.

"What are you doing here, mother?"

"I'm here for you, my dear child."

"And what is it you want with me mother? You haven't wanted me at any other point of my life, why start now?"

"I've given you everything! I was married to your incompetent father so that my child could have royal blood!"

"Don't you dare talk about daddy that way!"

"He was incompetent and foolish! He was a weak, pathetic excuse of a man!"

"Stop it!"

"You didn't love him!" Cora shouted with a half chuckle. "Why are you defending him?"

"I loved him very much! More than anything in the world for quite a long time."

"Yet you killed him to make yourself happy," Cora shot back.

Holding her head up and turning it to the side just slightly, Regina tried to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes. "I know what I've done. I wouldn't have been put in that position if you hadn't raised me so horribly. What could you possibly want with me now, mother?"

"I'm here to help you. We can be together. Abandon Snow's prince to find his own way home and come with me. Together we can rule all of the people of this land."

"I've never wanted to rule anyone! I wanted to be free and to be happy! I wanted Daniel's love and you wouldn't let me have it!"

"You're foolish! Love is weakness!"

"You were my weakness!" Regina screamed, waving her arms and sending Cora away. She stormed into the castle and hurried to build wards around all of the entrances in order to prevent Cora's entry. Holding herself together, she traveled around the castle, setting wards against all the walls and rooms, making sure their stay would be safe. The castle had been looted, but thankfully that would no longer be an issue, and she believed her wards, plus the small ones against magical beings that Rumple had set previously, would keep Cora out. With a satisfied nod, she sent herself back to her castle.

David's head shot up when Regina reappeared less than two hours after she had gone. Standing, he rushed over to her and felt her forehead, then took her arms in his hands and held her a moment, looking her over.

"You look ok. You're safe," he said softly, his voice more relieved than it should have been. Pulling her into a hug, David smiled into Regina's dark hair, breathing in her scent. "You're safe."

"I'm safe. I'm… fine." Her word broke on the last word, her eyes dropping as she pushed out of his hug and dropped her bow and quiver of arrows, followed by her satchel, to the floor. Moving away from him, Regina started a fire in her fireplace and began pacing slowly. David knew better than to ask her what was wrong before she was ready, so instead he sat down back on the seat he'd been in since she left for Rumple's and waited, watching her cross in front of the fire, over and over.

Finally, after nearly ten minutes of silence, Regina let out a growl between her teeth and looked straight at David before she began pacing, raising her arms and clapping them down against her sides as she rambled. "El nervio que tiene! She treated me like a pawn my entire life and now she wants me to go to her? Ella quiere ser parte de mi vida? Absolutamente no! As if I would choose her over my son! Ella es una persona horrible y me hizo la persona horrible en la que me convertí. I'm just now figuring out how to be better… Como ser mi misma. I'm just now figuring out how to deserve henry! And she comes and tries to ruin me all over again."

"Uh… Regina… I, uh, I don't speak Spanish," David said, tilting his head and standing to walk to her. He put his hands on her shoulders, stopping her once more from pacing. "You've gotta talk to me."

"Cora."

"Yes. Your mother."

"She was there. Outside the castle," Regina explained.

"What?" David yelled. "I knew it was a bad idea to let you go alone! What did she do to you? Did she hurt you?" He began to check her over again, despite her body looking completely intact when he checked the first time.

"Nothing but my feelings, David."

Nodding, he pulled her against him in a hug, his jaw resting against her temple as he held her tightly. "Are you ok?"

"No. Not really."

He didn't respond, he just held her for a long time, waiting for her to hold him back. Eventually she did, wrapping her arms around his waist and closing her eyes against his chest. "David?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"Anytime."

The next day, when the entire group arrived to Rumple's castle, they appeared outside of the doors, just as Regina had when she arrived on her own. This time, Cora was not in sight, so Regina led the other three into the castle and showed Mulan and Aurora into a room with two beds. Leading David down the hall, she pulled him into a room with two balconies and a bed, but not much else.

"I didn't figure there was much sense to giving you a room of your own. I assumed you would just sneak in here anyway," Regina told him, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

"You figured right." David pulled her closer to him, dropping his head to kiss her tenderly. He knew their kisses were getting too intimate instead of just being about companionship and scratching half the itch they both wanted to tend to so badly. Still, he couldn't find himself minding. "So, where do we start?"

"The library, of course," she answered, setting her traveling pack down and waiting for him to follow suit. Leading him out of the room with a gentle hold of his hand, Regina pulled him to the library.

"Wow… this is huge," he whispered. "How are we supposed to find what we need in here?"

"Belle managed it, I'm sure there will be some type of organization to it."

"Belle? Was she… is she the one who was his True Love?"

"Yes, the one and only."

"How did she die, do you know?"

"Um… she didn't actually die," Regina answered, guiltily dropping her head. "I took her and locked her away."

"So is she in Storybrooke?"

"Yes. That's why he marked me for the wraith to take. I had her locked in the asylum."

"Damn it, Regina, You can be quite the piece of work, you know?" David said, his tone angry. "What reason did you have to take her?"

"The same reason I took you. To hurt her True Love. I took her to hurt Rumple, for when it would be most beneficial to me."

Sighing, David shook his head. "How… how can you be so normal right now, as you are, when you were so… you were a damned psycho as the queen."

"I am well aware of that, Prince Charming," Regina snapped. She felt his anger and that bothered her. David being upset with her never would have bothered her before that first kiss, and especially not before they were brought back to this land together. "Go look at some books, I'll search over here, that way you don't have to be near such a cold and heartless person." She moved to the opposite side of the library from the direction he went, and exhaled a heavy breath. With a quick turn to see him searching book bindings for titles, Regina began to do the same, her shoulders dropping and her heart clenching at what she felt was the loss of her only friend.