Emma awoke feeling quite refreshed, until she didn't recognise her surroundings. Sitting bolt upright, it only took her a few moments to remember last night. At least her headache was minimal. It suddenly occurred to her she fell asleep next to Regina, but the brunette was nowhere to be seen. It was 6:30am. Springing out of bed and pulling on the dressing gown that Regina had worn last night; Emma found her gun and slowly left the room.

She paused by the door, not seeing anything. She then heard clanking noises coming from downstairs. She crept down the spiral staircase as though she were auditioning for a 1980s cop show, following the sound with her gun at the ready. It was coming from the kitchen and the door was closed. She could only hear scuffling and clanking, there was no indication as to who was there or potentially how many people.

She slowly pushed the door open, creeping around it, with her gun at the ready.

"Emma! What the hell are you doing?" Regina stood half bemused, half amused, with a coffee cup in her hand. She was already showered and ready for work. Emma took another glance at the clock -6:40. She released a breath and lowered the gun.

"Nothing." Lilted from her lips as she tried to sound as casual as possible. Regina found it amusing as she half-cocked a smile.

"My hero!" She offered in return. "Coffee?"

"Hmm, please." Emma sat herself down on the breakfast bar as Regina poured them both a cup. "What time do you usually get up?" Regina shrugged.

"Depends, never past seven, but I wanted to get in early today." She sat opposite Emma and took a sip of her coffee, sighing into the warmth. "Thank you Emma, thank you for coming home with me last night." Emma smiled warmly.

"You're welcome. How come you're going in so early?" Regina merely stared into her cup for a few moments as Emma's brain began to wake up further. "Are you trying to avoid him?" Regina shrugged nonchalantly again. She was not normally a 'shrugger,' but found herself utilising them a lot recently.

"What can I say, I just can't be bothered with a confrontation today, not that I'm sure he'll bother, I'd just rather not risk it and I do have a lot of work to do as well. It's win win really."

"Hmm…" Emma took a thoughtful sip and purposefully placed her mug back down, locking eyes with Regina's for a moment. Reading her was still very, very hard. "Tell me honestly, are you that scared of him?"

"Well, with your friend around I can't exactly roast him and it is pretty much my only form of defence." Emma read straight through her sarcastic tone.

"Why would you need to fireball him?"

"What!" Emma refused to back down.

"You heard."

"I… I doubt I will, but if I did need too, thanks to you and your earthly friend, I can't just do that now." Emma disappeared for a few minutes, leaving Regina to drink her coffee in peace. When she returned she handed her a small can of pepper spray.

"Seriously?"

"As you say, just in case." Nevertheless Regina pocketed it. Emma took it as a small win.

"Listen about last night…" Regina turned away as Emma began and started fussing around in the sink.

"I said I was sorry Emma. What more do you want?" She continued to faff around, over washing the few items that were there.

"No, and that's fine. I get that, I just want you to be honest with me for a bit longer. Did you have sex with Robin?" Emma heard the splashing of things being dropped in the sink."

"Emma, one does not talk…"

"Nope, not happening Regina. It's just you and me and this isn't the fucked up Enchanted Forest... Please just answer me." Regina recognised the pleading in her eyes for what it was.

"Of course I did, we were dating."

"Okay, okay and that's fair enough. Did you want to?"

"What?" Internally, Emma wasn't sure whether or not she wanted bash her head or Regina's against the wall. But externally she kept calm and as neutral as she could. A part of her was just thankful Regina hadn't poofed away yet.

"Regina, when you had sex with him, did you want to?"

"Well, I mean…" Regina began to fidget with her hands, totally removing eye contact.

"It's not a hard question."

"Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, why does this matter? I'm going to be late." Regina began to move. Emma gently placed her hand on her arm, praying she didn't vanish.

"Even if you leave now, you'll technically be two hours early. Anyway, I will get dressed soon and we can go together. We need to have his conversation Regina." When Regina didn't move, at all, Emma continued.

"When you didn't want to, did you still do it?"

"Of course Emma." The way she spat out her name told her that Regina was probably rolling her eyes right now.

"Did he ever force you to?" There was a good few moments of silence. You couldn't even hear them breathing.

"Once, but he was drunk and it wasn't long after we'd arrived here. I think the shock and change in pace was too much for him, at least… that was what I thought, but that was when I knew I couldn't do it anymore." She let out a small, nervous giggle. "I've been trying to end it ever since." Regina finally turned back round to face Emma; placing her hands against the counter behind her to hold on to as though it was some sort of anchor. Emma was reeling, but didn't let it show. She wanted to pick every plate up and smash it into something, but she just stood there instead, still taking steady breaths. There was a million things she wanted to say right now, but she had to try and get into Regina's head.

"Okay. Let me say something and please, let me finish okay?" Regina eyed her suspiciously, but eventually nodded. Emma took a deep breath before beginning. "I am going to make some assumptions here, based on what I know about your life, which I admit, isn't a great amount. You can correct me at the end. I happen to have a good idea of what your mother was like. I also know she trained you to be a queen and wife, amongst many other things, but I think these two are the important ones here…" She took another deep breath, making sure she ordered her thoughts. She could not afford to screw this up.

"I also know the Enchanted Forest was quite traditional and that when you did marry, it was to the King. A marriage that, incidentally, you happened to not want, to a man possibly four times your age. I believe you were told and trained to expect and do certain things. I.e. please your husband, be subservient, possibly even never say no and certainly don't complain." She noticed Regina was watching her with great interest, she hoped that meant she was on the right track. She looked back down not daring to look Regina in the eye right now.

"I'm even going to dare to say that on your wedding night you were petrified beyond words. That it hurt, that you cried and even begged for it to stop when it became too much, but were probably put in your place." She looked back up at the brunette and felt sick at the tears that now snaked down her face. She was clearly on the right track. She looked down again, refusing to give in.

"I am going to tell you now, that that was wrong. It never should have happened and it never should again. I am now going to tell you what a loving mother should have said to you, and what you would likely say to Henry, or at least hope he would understand. This is just for you though Regina - no-one else gets these words." She took Regina's hands in hers, but couldn't bring herself to look up, as she really needed to get through this.

"Regina my darling, you have so much potential. You can be anything you want to be in this world. You have so much love to give and such a very kind heart, but you must be careful my sweet. There are many people in his world who are not as kind or loving as you. All you came into this world with is your body and it's all you have when you leave. You must respect yourself, it is your most valuable asset, one that you should hold dear and entrust to only the person you love the most, and only a person who loves you, will truly respect you." Emma came out of 'mom' mode for a moment, being brave enough to look Regina in the eye as she continued.

"Regina, it is not okay what the King did to you and it is not right. Robin also did not respect you. It doesn't matter if you are dating someone, engaged, even married, if you don't want to have sex, you shouldn't and no-one should ever, ever make you. It's not right ever and in this land, it is not legal. I don't care if the rights were all in favour of the King simply because of the fact he was your husband and King, it still does not make it right. You need to know that. Do you understand?" Regina gave the slightest, teary eyed nod as Emma moved in to kiss her forehead.

She then moved around Regina, to continue the almost non-existent washing up, if only to step out of the thick air and give Regina some time to digest her words. She didn't really know what Regina would do though. She finally allowed her tears to flow as she turned to see the brunette slowly walk out of the kitchen.