CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Bound

A storm raged outside, the darkened clouds swirling above the mansion as rain pelted against the windows with all the force of its inhabitant's anger. Regina closed her eyes for a moment, listening to the sound of it pound within her eardrums as she immersed herself in it, thankful that for once, her fury wasn't manifesting into an uncontrollable fire or shattered glass. Regardless, she knew it wouldn't be allowed to last as a loud crack of lightning echoed through the courtyard, and the door to her bedroom hesitantly cracked open.

"…Regina?"

Regina opened her eyes, but did not turn around. She heard Emma's footsteps pad against her carpet, and when gentle fingers touched her waist the storm began to dissipate as quickly as it had come. "It was comforting," Regina told her softly, wishing Emma hadn't made her stop. "It drowned everything else out."

"I know," Emma responded softly, almost apologetically. "But if someone were to see it, it would probably cause one hell of a panic. The storm was only above the house; it was obvious it was magical."

Silence followed as Regina watched the dark clouds became a nonthreatening white again, the torrential rain turning into nothing but a light drizzle before it disappeared completely. She sighed heavily, leaning against the window sill as Emma kept a light hold on her, obviously not wishing to upset her by inserting herself where she knew she hadn't been invited.

"I'm sorry I had to ignore your request for space," Emma apologized. "If you… if you think you can get a handle on yourself, I'll leave again."

"No," Regina murmured softly, realizing that perhaps, she didn't want to be alone after all. "No, you don't have to leave."

Emma pursed her lips for a moment, staying silent as she just watched Regina, no doubt waiting for an invitation to talk about it. When none came however, all she said was, "I asked my parents to keep Henry for the night. I thought it… I figured it might be better for you if you didn't have to worry about your emotions fueling your magic and accidentally hurting him. This way, he's safe and it gives you time to learn to deal with this on your own."

Regina nodded, wishing she wasn't so unstable in that moment that Emma had to make sure their son was elsewhere, but understanding it all the same. It was just a lot to process, and at the moment she was having a difficult time trying to accept that this had actually happened. She had known, ever since Gold suggested it, that she would be the one, but she hadn't actually fathomed that it would have been because of her.

In a way, she felt almost betrayed by it. Which was foolish, as that was no doubt the reason this curse was cast on her in the first place.

"I should have known," Regina said after a long moment's silence, still staring down at her backyard. "I was surprised, when there had been no repercussions. I thought her ridiculous emotions caused her to lose her touch; how foolish I had been."

"Who?" Emma asked softly, her arms now sliding fully around the brunette's waist as she rested her chin on her shoulder. Regina inhaled a deep breath, and exhaled it as a long sigh as she stared out at her apple tree, finding herself remembering days long past. Days that she hadn't thought mattered anymore.

"Maleficent, dear," she answered softly, before turning her head a little to better face the woman behind her. "You honestly hadn't guessed?"

"Wait a minute, your ex?" Emma asked, sounding surprised for some reason as she pulled away just enough to be able to move around to Regina's side to catch her gaze.

"Did you miss the part where Rumple clearly stated that I would have had to be intimate with the caster to distinguish whose magic it had been that cursed me? I may have taken many lovers in my time, dear, but only a few had ever been able to wield magic. I would've thought you'd have figured it out."

Emma blinked, recognition dawning on her features. Apparently, she had forgotten, but she was clearly remembering it now as her expression went from surprised, to angry, to momentarily jealous before it ultimately tried to rest on sympathetic. This was why Regina hadn't wanted to involve Emma; it would no doubt be uncomfortable for her when she knew that the brunette's ex-lover was involved.

"Curses had always been her forte," Regina told her softly, turning once more to look out the window. "The one I used on your mother; the one I tried to use on you? It was created by her."

"Awesome," Emma responded dryly, obviously not keen on the mentioning of such things. But Regina just shot her an apologetic look before she crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I'm sorry, I know you don't like talking about it, but we can't pretend it didn't happen either."

Emma sighed softly, running her fingers through her hair. "I know. I—I know. Sorry. Just keep going; I'm listening." She moved then, coming to sit next to Regina on the bed, and after a moment's hesitation she reached out and gently took the brunette's hand in her own. Regina looked at it for a long second, weaving their fingers together before she finally continued, her eyes never leaving their clasped hands as she let out a small, disbelieving laugh.

"Is it completely ridiculous that I feel so immensely betrayed by this?" Regina asked, needing to know if she was being irrational with her feelings. "I treated her terribly; barely even considered her a confidant of mine, more an asset than anything else that I used and manipulated for my own benefit. And yet, in her eyes, I was her best friend. Perhaps her only friend; and if I was being honest, she was the closest thing I had to a friend as well, as sad as that may seem. I did care for her, in my own twisted way; or perhaps I merely relied on her for the company. It seemed I had grown used to it, and it did bother me when I no longer had it."

"So wait a minute, what did you do to her?" Emma asked, apparently confused about the reason that Maleficent had cast the curse on her in the first place, even though Regina believed that answer to be fairly obvious.

"What did I do?" Regina repeated, surprised at the question. "I already told you once what I did, dear; she fell in love with me, and I broke her heart. Not in the most delicate of ways either."

"No, I mean besides that," Emma responded, waving that off like, for some reason, that was inconsequential. "Like did you kill her family or cause her to lose her kingdom or something? I mean what the hell caused this whole crazy, curse-you-to-never-be-happy-again vengeance thing she has going on?"

Regina's eyebrows knitted. "I didn't do anything else to her, Emma; that was it. Do you believe that not enough?"

"No, I mean—okay, like I watch SVU and stuff, I know some people do fucked up things when their heart is broken, it's just…" Emma trailed off then, her eyebrows knitting like she was trying to figure out why this seemed different to her.

"It's just what, dear?"

"It's just so…" Emma began, before realizing the word she was looking for, and ended with, "human. It's almost petty, in a way, and it's just… it's very human."

Regina's eyebrows rose. "You don't think of any of us as human?"

"No, that's not—" Emma tried, but seemed a little frustrated by her own lack of an answer. She still seemed to be having trouble processing it. "I mean, I see you here, Regina, and I know you're human. I know you're flesh and blood, like my parents – like Snow White and Prince Charming – even though before, I thought you all were just stories. But that's the thing, you know? I guess a part of me still views your past like it's a… fairytale." Her expression washed with apology then, and she finished, "I'm sorry, I know that probably makes me sound like an ass."

"You're still disassociating," Regina told her, understanding the other woman's train of thought despite not truly getting why this was still difficult for Emma to process. "But you need to realize, Emma, that we're all still people; our tragedies and our triumphs may have been reduced to nothing more than something of entertainment value to the people of your world, but to us, they are very much real, and very much a part of our lives. Nothing is black and white, and nothing is ever as simple as evil versus good. Your world may not seem to care in your storybooks about what caused evil to exist in the first place, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a reason. There's always a reason."

"I know," Emma responded softly, sounding ashamed of herself for regressing a little bit from her acceptance of what her reality had now become. "I know and I'm—I'm sorry, Regina. I didn't mean to make it sound like your pain, or even hers, wasn't enough of a reason to do the things that you did."

Regina was silent, but nodded, accepting Emma's apology. The blonde grasped her hand a little tighter then though, and told her, "But this is a good thing, right? I mean—obviously not the fact that you're cursed, but that we know who did it. So I can just, you know, arrest her ass or something and we can force her to undo it. Where—wait, I mean, she's… she's here right? The curse, it brought everyone over, so she has to be here."

"Yes," Regina murmured, although clearly not as optimistic as Emma was about the 'simplicity' in the solution, as she knew the true extent of it. "She's here."

"So where is she?" Emma asked, beginning to grow confused as she realized things weren't adding up as smoothly as she thought they would. "I'd figure after the curse broke she'd be out for vengeance like everyone else, or at least show her face and kick up fuss, but I haven't heard a single thing about her. Do you think she's just lying low or something?"

"…Of a sort."

"Regina," Emma responded, looking at her lover who was refusing to catch her gaze. She was starting to realize that the brunette wasn't being entirely forthcoming. "Where is she? You know, don't you?"

Regina sighed softly. "Yes," she admitted softly. "Yes, I know where she is, but I don't— getting her to cooperate will bit more complicated than I'm sure you would expect."

Emma's brow furrowed. "Why?"

"…Because she's a dragon."

Emma laughed at that, apparently thinking that Regina was joking, until she realized Regina wasn't laughing with her, and her expression fell from amusement into utter disbelief. "Wait, what?"

"I turned her into a dragon, dear. And seeing as she does not have access to magic, it is unlikely that she can turn herself back into her human form. Besides," Regina continued, sighing softly as she ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm incredibly wary about being near her again, which is why I locked her away in the first place. We're blood bound; a foolish ritual I participated in at the beginning of our relationship before I truly understood the repercussions of it, and it may have disastrous ramifications should she get her hands on me; especially should I be touching you at the time."

"Jesus, okay, I'm gonna—we'll go back to that in a second," Emma began, looking a little overwhelmed by the amount of information she was receiving that she had yet to understand fully. "But I'm still stuck on the fact that there is a dragon somewhere in this town. How the hell haven't we heard about this yet?"

"Because she's locked beneath the library, dear; she's quite harmless down there unless we were to release her, so there's no need to worry. At least not quite yet."

"Right, okay, dragon beneath the library; totally normal," Emma responded, still sounding a little frazzled by it before she exhaled a long breath, puffing out her cheeks as she paused for a moment, trying to let all of this sink in. "Okay, past it," she informed her, moving on. "But what the hell do you mean you did some kind of ritual with her?"

"It was…" Regina began, before sighing heavily and pinching the bridge of her nose. "It was one of my more foolish mistakes."

"Yeah, getting that by the look on your face. What was it for?"

"It was… a ritual to invoke an exchange of power, in the simplest of terms," Regina answered, before lightly chewing on the inside of her cheek. "However, blood magic is a very particular form of dark magic that requires one to steal the life essence of another in order to work. For most people, that is simply their blood; hence the name. For magic users, however…"

"So what, she can steal your magic?" Emma asked, looking at the brunette in disbelief. She was well aware by now that should one be drained completely of their magic, they would die; they already had that little scare once before while in New York. "Why the hell would you ever agree to that?" But then she seemed to realize something, and her face drastically paled. "Oh my god, it wasn't like—that wasn't a suicide pact or something, was it?"

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous," Regina answered, brushing it off despite knowing full-well that Emma already knew she had struggled with those kinds of thoughts long ago. Still, that wasn't what it was about, so in that context at least, it was rather ridiculous. "And the bond between us goes both ways, so I wasn't entirely at a disadvantage, beyond my lack of proper knowledge on the subject at the time. I found out later what it was primarily used for, but at the time, I… well, was more focused on another use for it."

"Which was…?" Emma prompted, looking at Regina expectantly. The brunette flushed, feeling rather moronic for having to admit something like this out loud as it… well, it did not paint her in the best light; or rather the smartest light.

"…Sexual," Regina quietly admitted, her voice barely above a mumble. Emma's eyebrows rose, and Regina was quick to continue, "And yes, I realize how utterly moronic it was, to bind myself to someone for no other reason than physical pleasure. But at the time, I honestly believed that was all it was for; or rather was too distracted to think much about it at the time. It wasn't as though she was offering this over tea, dear; my attention was… elsewhere. And she deliberately left out the part where it was permanent."

Emma's nose wrinkled in distaste, no doubt not entirely pleased about hearing the details of the other woman's sex life before her. Regina couldn't blame her; this wasn't exactly a comfortable conversation to have with her current lover. "I'm—okay, I'm probably gonna regret asking this, but what exactly did it even do?"

Regina pursed her lips, trying to think of a way to explain this to her. "To put it into terms you'd understand, it was…" she began, searching her brain for the right words, "almost like magical asphyxiation. You understand why I like when you choke me, I assume? It was like that, only we took turns draining each other of magic just before we were about to… release, and it intensified the feeling. Substantially."

The blonde just stared at her.

"So you're basically bound to someone in a really fucked up way for what, better orgasms?" Emma asked after a long pause, her tone utterly disbelieving, if not a little jealous that someone else held a part of her that she did not. That couldn't be an easy thing for her swallow.

"Did you miss the part where I said I was deliberately misled?" Regina shot back, her temper rising due to her own shame over her mistakes. "I thought it was just about sex, Emma, and so I allowed it. Should I have thought it through before accepting? Yes, of course I should have. But I am certain I am not the only one in the world who has allowed their hormones to cloud their judgment. I made a mistake, and I'm sorry if that upsets you, but I cannot change the past."

"I'm not—!" Emma began a bit testily, but seemed to catch herself and repeated in a calmer tone, "…I'm not upset."

"And yet, strangely, you bear striking similarities to someone who is."

"Look, I'm not because—because it's not about me, okay?" Emma tried, her voice clearly frustrated, and at least she respected her enough to tell the truth. "You're the one who's cursed, you're the one whose life this affects, and so I'm not upset because if I was, then it'd be selfish, alright? And I'm just—I'm trying very hard not to be selfish right now."

Regina pursed her lips, glancing over at the woman next to her. "Emma, it's…" She sighed softly though, deciding to go a different route before she even really began, and admitted instead, "If the positions were reversed, I'd be upset too. It can't be easy, to find that the woman you're bound to is bound to another. But I assure you, it's not the same."

"I know that," Emma answered, exhaling a small breath as she pushed the hair back from her face. "True Love is obviously way different than some kinky blood magic ritual, but aren't the end results the same? You can syphon magic from me because of our connection, and she can syphon magic from you because of yours. I know it's different, I know it is, but that—that similarity bothers me for some reason. I don't know why."

Regina chewed on her bottom lip, knowing precisely the reason as she told her softly, "Because you thought it was special."

Emma sighed; it was long, defeated. "…Yeah."

The look on the blonde's face broke her heart, and Regina reached for her.

"Emma, you need to—you need to understand something," Regina tried, facing the woman next to her as she gently placed a hand atop her thigh. "What you and I have, it is special; and it's rare, and it's beautiful. What Maleficent and I did, it was just a spell; a spell that, generally, was only used by those who practiced blood magic regularly and needed sacrifices for their magic to work. They bound themselves to people they captured in order to drain them remotely. And that—that's incredibly violating, Emma; do you understand that? It's robbing someone of the very essence of who they are, and more often than not, ended up killing them in the process. What you give me, is just that; what you give. There is a big difference; as if you didn't want me to have what was inside you, I would never be able to touch it."

Emma chewed the inside of her cheek, mulling that over for a moment before she finally nodded, understanding the difference. But then something seemed to hit her, and her hand shot out to touch Regina's arm. "Wait a minute, if that stuff could be done remotely—"

"No, I—I understand what you're concerned with, but it's different when it's magic that you're trying to steal from someone, dear," Regina explained. "There needs to be a physical connection, because magic needs to reside within something living in order to survive; if it at any point was not, then it would cease to exist. It cannot just travel through the air unbound."

Emma looked a little confused by that, but nodded anyway, as she at least understood enough to know it wasn't an issue, and that was all that mattered. "And the… blood thing, she wouldn't be able to do that to you either; drain you, or whatever, if we got close?"

"No," Regina assured her. "My magic protects me from that aspect of the spell, as it does her; otherwise I would simply kill her from here and be done with it. It works very different for those who are magical, and those who are not."

"But she doesn't have magic," Emma tried to reason, apparently forgetting some very important factors, and only seeing the surface of things. "I mean, not right now, right? Cause Gold didn't, so why would she—"

"Gold may not be able to reach for it at will at the moment, but he very much does have magic," Regina explained patiently. "It's a part of him, as it is a part of her. It's just dormant right now because of the curse; as is my own, unless I am either in this house, or touching you."

"Right," Emma responded, remembering now what had happened the last time Gold was in this house. "He accidentally destroyed your chair. Sorry, I just— I knew that. Sorry." She ran a frustrated hand over her face then, shaking her head like she was silently chiding herself for not thinking before she spoke.

"Don't apologize; I know this is a lot to take in right now. Magic can be very complicated, and the instability of it in this town makes it even more so."

"Yeah," Emma agreed softly, sighing once more before she straightened her spine and sat a little taller; encouraging herself to get back on track. "Okay, so… what's our game plan here? Because right now I'm not seeing many options other than me going down there and figuring out a way to kick the shit out of a dragon, which… doesn't exactly sound like it'll go well."

"It won't, and you're not," Regina told her firmly, her tone implying that she was leaving no room for discussion. "I will not have you go down there alone and risk your life for me; that's completely moronic."

"Well it's not like you can go down there, Regina; if she touches you she could get her magic back, and then… well and then we're probably all fucked, because I doubt she's gonna use it to remove the curse. Cause I mean, if I was trapped as a dragon for twenty eight years? Probably wouldn't be that forgiving about it."

"She can't drain magic from me unless I am using magic, and I cannot access my magic without you," Regina reasoned. "So you are not coming."

Emma looked at her incredulously. "Are you fucking—is that a joke? What the hell are you gonna do without your magic against a dragon, Regina? You'll get yourself killed."

"Emma, this isn't up for discussion—"

"Don't 'this isn't up for discussion' me, Regina; I'm not your kid, you can't just shut me down like that," Emma shot back, furious that she would even attempt something like that on her. "There's no way I'm letting you go down there alone; you could get hurt, or worse."

Regina's tone turned haughty then, and she snapped, "And you think you could do better?"

"No, I don't," Emma stressed, looking at her like she was insane for even thinking that. "The idea of taking on a dragon? Honestly makes me want to shit my pants. But at least I know how to use a weapon that isn't magic, okay? I can just… I don't know, shoot her, or something."

Regina side-eyed her. "Unless you have silver bullets on hand, they will not pierce a dragon's hide. The only thing your little gun will manage to do, dear, is enrage her. And then you will die. I will not, under any circumstances, allow that to happen."

"Silver…?" Emma repeated, then blinked. "I thought that was for werewolves."

"Pure silver will work on many beasts, Emma; not just werewolves. However, that is neither here nor there because even if you do manage to acquire some, I'm not letting you go down there. It's far too dangerous."

"Alright, just—" Emma began, holding up her hand to stop them both from exhausting that argument dry. And perhaps it was for the best, because with how stubborn they both were, they could be stuck in that circle for hours. Regina knew she certainly wasn't going to budge on the matter, and she doubted Emma would either. "Okay. Maybe we're just looking at this the wrong way, you know? Maybe the whole dragon thing doesn't even have to be a factor."

Regina furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if you just turn her back into a human?" Emma explained, looking at her expectantly. "And I don't mean so we can reason with her to try to get her to lift the curse, because even if she said that she would, she'd still have to… I don't know, drain us both just to get enough magic to even do it, right? So that's obviously off the table, because there's no way we could trust her to keep her word and not kill us outright."

"But as a human, she'd be relatively harmless, right? She'd be an easy—" But Emma stopped then, and noticeably blanched before she could say the word 'kill.' Regina had been waiting for this, for Emma to realize what their options truly were, and her lips turned down into a sympathetic frown as she watched the horror play out on the blonde's face. "Jesus," the blonde breathed, her eyes widening. "We're just—we're just sitting here, casually talking about murdering someone and I just—fuck, I need a minute."

Emma rose from the bed then, beginning to pace as she ran a shaky hand through her hair and seemed to be coaching herself to breathe. Regina's stomach twisted uncomfortably in her gut at the sight, as she knew that, logically, this was what any good person would feel when confronted with the necessity of murdering someone. She, however, did not feel any sort of sickness, or even horror by it. If anything, the only thing that bothered her about it, was that it was Maleficent.

In some odd way, despite everything the woman did to her and how much Regina used her in turn, she did have some sort of strange attachment to her. She was her friend once; or she was as close as, anyway. So the thought of killing her? It unsettled her, but not enough for her to not want to do it. In the end, Maleficent's life was meaningless when confronted with the bigger picture.

Her family's happiness; her happiness.

"Emma, I know that you're—I understand that you're struggling with this right now, but you should know that what you suggested, it isn't an option."

Emma swallowed, rubbing the back of her neck as she turned towards the woman on the bed. "Why?" Her voice came out cracked; strained. It pained Regina to hear it.

"Because I didn't… personally turn her into a dragon; therefore I have no way of undoing it."

Emma's brow knitted. "But you said—"

"I know, and it was a poor choice of wording," Regina interrupted, letting out an exasperated breath; not at Emma, but at herself. She should have been clearer. Or perhaps she should have cursed Maleficent in a different way; that certainly would have made things easier. "Maleficent had the ability to turn herself into a dragon in our world," she explained. "And I simply… kept her trapped in that form in this one. I wouldn't know how to undo it; that's not magic I'm well-versed in."

"So what, we're back to me shitting my pants over having to fight a dragon, and you stupidly thinking that you can stop me?" Emma asked, sighing heavily as she slumped against the far wall. Running her hands over her face, she asked in a muffled voice, "Is it totally fucked up that I'm way more comfortable with the thought of killing a dragon, since she won't look like a person when I do it? It seems more justifiable, even though it isn't."

Regina pursed her lips, and pointedly said nothing on the subject of murder. "Perhaps it's far too premature anyhow, to think about any of this right now," she tried instead. "Neither of us are going down there without a plan, and we're certainly not attempting this until after Henry's birthday. I won't have him visiting us in the hospital or worse on the day he turns twelve; that is completely out of the question."

"Your faith in our ability to succeed with this is astounding," Emma responded dryly, lightly banging her head against the wall again.

"I'm not saying we can't do this, Emma, but we need to be better prepared before we attempt it," Regina explained, sighing softly. She wasn't exactly experienced with being practically useless, and it was not a feeling that sat well with her. "Without my magic, this will be… rather difficult. Perhaps I should speak to Rumple, see what weapons he has stored away from the old world; I'm sure if nothing else, he'll at least have a sword we could use. Many in our land were made from silver instead of steel, for purposes such as this."

"Because slaying dragons was such a regular occurrence?" Emma asked, sounding a little disbelieving as she glanced at her.

"Perhaps not a 'regular occurrence', no, but many kingdoms were still prepared should they ever have to face one, or any other beast that requires silver-tipped weaponry. It was rare, but not unheard of. In the meantime," Regina continued, looking up at the other woman as Emma fidgeted uncomfortably, rubbing incessantly at her neck. She hated having to suggest this, as it went against everything she was trying to stand for, but in the end, she had to look at the bigger picture; and unfortunately, the bigger picture had Emma defying her wishes. It was just in the woman's nature. "It may be pertinent to ask your father for lessons in swordplay."

Emma threw out her hands, looking exasperated by the suggestion. "It'll probably just end up being a shit show like my mom's attempt at teaching me archery; I mean, I'm not exactly white knight material here, Regina."

"See, that is where you're wrong, dear," Regina responded softly, looking at her like she couldn't understand how Emma didn't see her own potential. Not only was she the Savior, but she was a Charming; ridiculous acts of heroism were in her bloodline. "Like any other harebrained hero I've run across in my time, you're both utterly foolish and incomprehensibly brave."

"Yeah, I'm real brave here, Regina; practically fucking pissing myself over the thought of fighting a goddamn dragon."

"Bravery and a lack of fear do not go hand in hand, Emma; your insistence to assist in this, despite being terribly afraid, is exactly what makes you brave. And immensely foolish, but I digress."

Emma pursed her lips, keeping silent for a moment as she glanced at her. "Five minutes ago you were telling me you weren't going to let me come along," she mentioned, crossing her arms over her chest. Her voice was tinted with suspicion, believing this to be some kind of trick. "Now you're telling me to get swordplay lessons from my dad and to prepare myself. Kinda contradicting yourself there, Regina."

Regina sighed heavily, running her hands through her hair before she picked herself up off the bed and crossed the room to gaze out the far window. Silence washed between the two women for a moment before Regina took a breath and explained softly, "Do I want you to come along, to risk your life for me? No, of course not. I will try to stop you; with all the power that I have, I will try to stop you from being the brave idiot I know you're going to be. But am I naïve enough to believe that it'll work? No."

"And I know that because…" she continued, but Regina found she had to pause for a second as her heart clenched in her chest, and her throat tightened just enough for her to have difficulty swallowing. "I know because, should the positions have been reversed, I would follow you without a second thought. That is—it's just what you do, for someone that you love. And I both utterly adore and despise you for it at the same time."

Emma's eyes softened.

"I merely…" Regina glanced at her then, emotion swirling behind her chestnut eyes as she wrapped her arms around her midriff. "Should you follow me, when you follow me, I just need for you to be prepared. I cannot lose you; not over anything, but especially not over this. My happiness is not worth your life."

Emma exhaled a small breath at that, and moved to be at her side. As the blonde gently touched her waist, Regina looked away from her and set her gaze back out the window, staring idly at her apple tree below as Emma placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder. "Part of me wants to tell you that it is; that it is worth my life," the blonde responded softly, keeping a gentle hold on the woman in her arms. "But nothing is worth Henry being parentless, and so we both—we need to be careful; research dragons, learn to fight with swords, whatever. And if we do this, then only one of us can go; you said yourself that us going together will be too dangerous."

"I can't—" Regina tried, and her voice cracked. She cleared her throat then, trying to suppress her onslaught of emotion as she continued, her voice stronger, "I will not let you go alone. I won't. That's out of the question, so please stop pushing for it."

Emma sighed softly, resting her chin on the brunette's shoulder. "So then what do we do?"

Regina shook her head as she leaned back into the other woman's embrace. "Perhaps we should just ignore it; leave things the way they are. The risks are too great."

"We can't do that, Regina," Emma tried, her fingers gently grasping the fabric that covered the other woman's waist. "I won't let you be miserable for the rest of your life. And… and besides, this isn't just about you, you know? Henry, he… he needs to be able to see his family, and unless we break the curse, he won't be able to. You know never seeing his grandparents again would devastate him."

Regina pursed her lips, but stayed silent. No solution she could think of sounded ideal, and that worried her.

"Look, maybe we can just… let's just talk to my parents about it, alright?" Emma suggested, still trying to sound optimistic despite their severe lack of options. "Maybe they can give us a different perspective, okay? Or maybe Gold will have a better solution than just charging in and trying to take out a dragon. We don't need to get all stubborn and sacrificial over each other just yet."

"No one is being sacrificial," Regina responded fiercely, not accepting that outcome in the slightest, but Emma quickly shook her head and tried to backtrack in order to explain what she was referring to.

"No, I just—I meant, you know, the whole 'trying to protect each other' thing. I say I'm going in without you, you say you're going in without me, when we both know in the end we're gonna be down there together like huge idiots anyway, despite the risks it poses. I don't know; maybe we'll just have to be careful not to go near one another, so nothing magical happens. We'll figure it out. I mean… in the end, we're probably stronger together anyway, right? Two against a dragon is better odds than one against a dragon."

Regina was about to dispute that, as she didn't like the idea of risking both of their lives and possibly leaving Henry parentless, but Emma placed a hand on her arm and spoke before she could. "Look, I know it's not ideal. I know there's so many fucking problems with this tentative plan I don't even know where to begin really, but like you said, we don't need to think about this right now. We'll talk to my parents, talk to Gold… we'll figure out a better way, Regina. I promise."

Regina exhaled a small, defeated breath, and allowed herself to slump back completely against the other woman's chest as the blonde held her. In the end, she knew they were most likely going to do this; it was just how that was still up for debate. Maybe there was an easy solution they just hadn't found yet, and as Regina looked out her window at her yard below, she prayed that they would be able to; because she knew, despite how hard she once fought for such a thing, she would never be able to live with herself if Emma ended up getting herself killed over something so…

Over something so stupid as Regina's happiness.

TBC…