Reasons

"You can leave town?" Emma asked surprised.

"Well, yes, I didn't have an alternate personality so I wasn't hindered by the curse," Regina replied in a voice that said she should have been able to figure that out by herself.

"So you've always been able to come and go as you want?"

The brunette's brows shot up in a 'really, Miss Swan, how dense can you be, we just went over this' way that made her feel equal parts irritated and embarrassed.

"How else would I be able to adopt Henry? It's not like Storybrooke was on any map."

Emma's lips moved down into a frown as she tried to wrap her head around this new information.

"So you could cross the line without anything happening?"

Now Regina crossed her arms and pursed her lips in irritation. "I know the two idiots birthed you, but even that shouldn't manage to make you this slow."

She shot her a sour look at the jab. "It's not that. I'm just trying to figure out why the hell you haven't just taken Henry and left a hundred times already." She looked expectantly over at Regina, waiting for some biting or sassy comeback. Nothing came. Instead, the woman looked somewhere between surprised and thoughtful.

Emma figured she might as well go all the way since she had already started. "And while we're on the topic, if there's always been a trigger that could make Storybrooke go away, why the hell didn't you use it? You could have just taken Henry over the town line."

Regina sent her a withering glare. "I should think you and everyone else in this town should be happy I did not."

"Of course, but that doesn't explain why you haven't." She couldn't help but notice that the topic was clearly a sensitive one for the former mayor if the vein on her forehead was anything to go by.

"It simply wasn't the right time," Regina replied haughtily, doing a very good job of pretending that she didn't care.

"I call bullshit."

The brunette wrinkled her nose in distaste at the profanity. "Well, I can hardly tell you what to believe, can I? But I don't see why I would, I had won after all. Why would I give that up?"

The satisfied smirk she delivered after her statement was, Emma had to admit, a very convincing one. She would have probably even believed her if it wasn't for the fact she had stopped taking Regina's words at face value a long time ago. It was always her eyes that told the truth. And her eyes were not saying the same thing as her mouth.

"You know what I think," she started, giving a knowing look that made Regina's face morph into one of apprehension. "I think you wanted the curse to be broken."

The woman's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief and had it been anyone else, she was pretty sure there'd be a jaw hitting the floor to.

"Excuse me!" Regina exclaimed incredulously. "Have you fallen and hit your head recently?"

Emma ignored the insult entirely. "I think that years and years of the same day made you grow bored. And I think you were scared to leave because you'd be in a world you knew nothing about."

For long moments they stared hard at each other, refusing to blink and daring the other to break first. And then Regina tipped her head back and laughed. It sent chills down Emma's spine and not the pleasurable kind. It was a laugh filled with condescension and amusement on someone else's behalf.

"For the sake of propriety I'll pretend you'll actually bother to listen to what I have to say. I'll admit that I'm not really sure why I didn't go through with it. Most days I think I just couldn't be bothered. "

Regina gave Emma a withering look and lowered her voice to a deeper, more dangerous register as she stepped closer to the blonde so she could intimidate her.

"But never for a second think that my reasons were cowardice. I am the Evil Queen. I can crush every person in this town, burn Storybrooke to the ground, and I'd feel nothing."

"Were," Emma supplied casually, as if she hadn't just felt chilled to the bone at Regina's display of her former role. But it was all a charade, wasn't it?

The brunette took a step back in bewilderment at how unaffected the sheriff seemed. "What?"

"You were the Evil Queen. But not anymore. I don't think you have been since the first time Henry was placed in your arms."

Emma raised her brows in a way that said 'I dare you to contradict me,' and the vein in Regina's forehead became pronounced once again, but she didn't deny the statement.

For long moments they just looked at each other. And then an almost imperceptible sigh left Regina's lips. "Sometimes I don't know why I even bother with you," she said in clear exasperation, before she promptly turned on her heel and power-walked away.