"I hope Regina's glasses are just for show, love," said Killian as they approached the mansion, having opted to walk since Emma's car was a rather distinctive giveaway.

"What do you mean?" frowned Emma.

"I'm standing next to you and I can hardly read that sign."

Emma looked down at the sign in her hand. Maybe the writing was a bit small...but she just had so much she wanted to say. "You really think it's that bad?"

"I think it means we're going to have to get you damn close to that window."

Emma blinked back tears at her first sight of Regina in almost three weeks. The bruising on the brunette's face had started to fade, but still served as an ugly reminder of just how cruel Cora could be. As she came closer to the house, she saw Regina start as she did a double take of just who was walking up the drive.

She gestured frantically at the blonde. "You can't be here! You need to go!" she mouthed, gesturing wildly, even as she desperately wanted the blonde to stay.

Emma shook her head, smiling up though her tears, a watery smile on her face as Regina pressed a hand to the glass, almost trying to reach out to her. Moving to hold up her sign, Emma watched as her girlfriend frowned and squinted. It looked as if Killian was right. She held it up a little higher, but with no better results.

Turning back to Killian, she gestured for him to come forward. "I need a leg up."

"What?"

"I need a leg up," repeated Emma, rolling her eyes as he continued to look clueless. "Just help me get into the damn tree!"

Regina's gaze cooled, until it became positively icy as she regarded Killian. She didn't like that he was involved in any of this, and could only guess as to why Emma had ever involved him. She hated him, and yet here he was, helping her as she clambered into her mother's apple tree. She winced as the blonde displayed her usual poise and grace, almost falling from the tree a moment after managing to clamber onto the lower branches. She watched as the blonde regained her balance before reaching down to take her sign from Killian.

Emma was careful to keep her gaze on the braches she was climbing, rather than the gorgeous girl she was trying to reach. Finally settling on a branch close to the brunette's window, she raised her eyes as she held up her sign. She watched Regina's face as she read the words on the sign that the blonde had laboured over. Fresh tears gathered in the brunette's eyes as the flicked over the heartfelt words.

When chocolate brown pools looked up to meet her own, Emma let the sign rest on the branch in front of her. "I'm not going anywhere," she breathed, reaching her hand out to lay on the outside of the glass, where Regina's was pressed against the inside. "I love you."

"I love you too," smiled Regina, her face close to the glass, and hating the barrier it created.

"Your mother isn't going to keep us apart," said Emma, loud enough that Regina could hear her through the glass. "I swear. I'm gonna get a plan together, and it's all going to work out. You just wait and see."

Regina could only trust in the girl she loved. By turning up today, the blonde had already given her something she had lost the day her mother had dragged her home: hope. Emma had never let her down yet, and in her heart, as unlikely as it seemed, she knew this wasn't going to be the first time.

As a loud electronic chime cut through the silence, Emma startled, losing her balance. Ruby's signal that Cora was leaving the town meeting. She crashed to the ground in a mass of flailing limbs, with Regina helpless to do anything but watch on in horror. Letting out a loud groan of pain, Emma nonetheless made an effort to sit up quickly, giving Regina a pained smile in reassurance as she put her thumbs up.

It was clear she was in pain, however, as she let Killian help her to her feet. Grabbing her fallen sign, she plucked the marker that had managed to stay in her back pocket, scribbing, in rather larger lettering this time, that she had to go since Cora was due to return, but that she would be back. Mouthing 'I love you' she hobbled backwards down the drive, smiling thought her tears as Regina mouthed it back.

As she was forced to turn around before she fell off of the pavement, she smiled through her pain, knowing that she would gladly fall out of a hundred trees to have Regina say she loved her. Falling for that girl was worth falling any height.

Regina stood at the window, staring at the spot where Emma had disappeared from view some time before. She almost couldn't believe the blonde had come. She had been terrified that whatever her mother had said to Emma had been enough to convince her to stay away. She knew the woman had a sharp, and often vile tongue in her head, and like to use it to devastating effect. And while she had known Emma cared for her, after all the blonde had confided in her, Regina knew she was far more fragile than she would ever admit.

They needed each other. Needed each other to be there for one another. She touched her hand to the glass, where Emma's had rested on the other side. It had been so long since she last touched her. Tears gathered in her eyes. All she wanted to be held. To feel Emma's arms around her, holding her close. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop the flow of tears that now made tracks down her cheeks.

The sound of her mother's car in the driveway was the sobering sound she needed. Turning from the window, she quickly wiped her eyes, darting into the bathroom to fix her appearance as best she could. She heard the sound of heeled footsteps on the stairs, and took a deep breath before returning to her room, and busying herself with the work on her desk. Wincing at the sound of the lock to her door being opened, she fought to school her expression into one of indifference.

"Regina dear, I do hope you've been behaving yourself," said Cora as she let herself in.

The younger woman let out a sigh she simply couldn't contain. "Of course, mother. What else am I to do?"

"I might suggest your school work, as a start."

Regina gestured to the neatly stacked pile of notes and textbooks. "All ready for you to take in tomorrow."

Cora smiled slyly at her daughter. "All done already? Well, just look what you can achieve when you don't have silly little distractions." She reached out a hand to touch Regina's cheek, but the younger woman flinched back, the memory of how she came by her slowly healing bruise still fresh in her mind. Cora, however, didn't seem to care. "Well, dinner is ready, if you're in the mood to join me." She started towards the door. "And do be a dear and bring those books down so I don't forget to take them with me tomorrow."

"Yes mother," replied Regina, knowing that not to would only result in her mother snapping at her. She had no desire to spend any time in her mother's company, but being locked in her room all day since breakfast, she couldn't deny she was hungry. She closed her eyes, picturing Emma as she had been earlier, perched precariously on the branch outside her window. That was what she had to hold into if she was going to get through this. That Emma still loved her. That she was there for her. And that somehow, just somehow, things were all going to turn out all right.