Late afternoon sunlight trickled through the windows, casting long shadows on the hardwood floors of the entryway of Regina's home. She stood at the base of the stairs, looking up, one hand on the bannister. She wore her red dress - the one she'd worn when she defeated Zelena - because it reminded her of the person she was trying to become. She wore little makeup other than red lips to match the dress, and her hair, combed back, showed signs of needing a good wash.

"Don't forget your toothbrush!" she called just before the doorbell rang, her voice raspy and weaker than normal. Her high heels struck a strong cadence as she descended the final steps to the door. She opened it to reveal Emma, clad in her usual jeans and red jacket, her sheriff's badge clipped to her belt, with a hesitant look on her face, as if she still expected Regina to try and rip her heart out at any moment. Regina motioned for her to come in with a roll of her eyes, and closed the door behind her.

"Thanks for letting me have Henry for the weekend," Emma said, her voice soft and sincere. She couldn't believe Regina had agreed to it in the first place. After what had happened at Granny's, Emma thought Regina would turn back into the bitch she'd met when Henry first brought her to town.

"Just because you destroyed my second chance at happiness doesn't mean I would make Henry suffer because of it. He wanted to spend the weekend with you and his grandparents, despite my warnings regarding the sleeping habits of infants." Regina's voice is cold but not threatening. It had been three days since Emma had brought Robin's wife back from the past. Three days since Regina had seen or spoken to him. Three days that she'd endured her heart breaking all over again. She'd barely slept and had eaten little, and it was starting to show in the dark circles under her eyes. "I can hardly blame him. I haven't exactly been good company lately."

Henry thundered down the stairs as if on cue, his backpack over his shoulder, an overnight bag in his hand. He joined his two mothers, and Regina pulled him into a tight hug. He looked to the side and caught Emma's eye, his expression showing confusion at the enthusiasm of the gesture.

"It's only a couple of days, Mom," he said, his voice slightly muffled by her shoulder.

"I know." She released him only to take his face in her hands and look down at him. It was not lost on her that the last time she'd given her son to Emma, she hadn't seen him again for over a year – and he'd forgotten that she even existed. "I love you, Henry. Never forget that."

"I won't. I love you too," he replied as he pulled out of her grasp. He opened the front door and trotted down the sidewalk toward the yellow Beetle parked at the curb.

"We'll see you first thing Monday morning," Emma said, wondering exactly why Regina had tears in her eyes. It wasn't as if they were being permanently separated again. It was only a weekend. Under other circumstances she would have asked Regina if she were alright, but Emma already knew the answer to that question. Regina was not alright, and wouldn't be for a while, and it was Emma's fault. Regina had been right in what she'd said at the diner - she had not stopped and fully evaluated the potential repercussions of her actions. Killian had tried to tell her not to do it, but she hadn't listened, and because of it Regina was suffering. Emma hoped that she knew it had not been an act done intentionally to hurt her.

"Make sure he does his homework," she says, her voice audibly shaking. Emma nodded and followed Henry out the door, where he was already waiting in the car. Regina closed the door and spun around to lean back against it. She exhaled a long, slow breath before disappearing in a puff of purple smoke.

She reappeared in a similar cloud, this time in the attic of the farmhouse Zelena had recently occupied. Regina's eyes traveled around the room, over the furniture and across the floor, searching for a particular item that belonged to her.

"If I were an insanely jealous psychopath, where would I hide what I didn't want my enemies to find?" she asked the empty room. She started with the wardrobe. She opened the doors wide and pushed the clothes to the left, then the right, feeling the back wall and bottom for hidden compartments. Looking up, a black dress with sparkling collar caught her eye.

"I wondered where that went," she muttered before closing the doors. It wasn't there. Next came the trunk, sadly empty. All that was left was the dressing table. With each passing moment without success Regina grew more and more enraged. She yanked the drawers out and shook their contents onto the floor. Baubles, trinkets, garbage of no use to her hit the floor and scattered. She tossed the last one across the room and slammed her hands down on the table, looking at her reflection in the shaking mirror. Breathing heavily, cheeks flushed from her efforts, Regina's eyes traveled downward and a slow smile began to spread across her lips. A vase filled with flowers, now withered and bent with age and neglect, sat atop the table. She reached in between the dead blooms and pulled out what looked like a finely ornamented stick - a hairpin, to be exact.

Her smile now one of triumph, her other hand passed over the pin and it glowed a soft purple for a brief second, showing her that the curse she'd placed on it over a year prior was still potent. Nobody knew about the curse except her and the one man she never expected to see again. There would be no one to stop her from using it this time.