A/N: This is the last chapter of this fic. While the rest of the Emma chapters are set between 1.08 and 1.16, this one occurs after the events of 2.17 and leads directly into the events of my story A Moment Deferred where the fallout of this relationship is explored.

Regina was sitting in the dark, a glass of scotch in one hand, and her other alternately lighting a small fireball and snuffing it out. It had been hours since she'd kicked Snow White off her porch. Hours since she'd seen the darkness in her rival's heart. She should be happy. She had smiled and laughed and done all the appropriate villains things... but the truth was her heart ached when she saw the darkness.

Once it starts there is no stopping it. No slowing it. No backing away until it consumes you. Part of Regina didn't want that for Snow. And the rest of her wondered where that part came from.

The sound of the door knocker echoed through the empty house and Regina debated not answering it. After all, it wasn't going to be Henry and he was the only person in all the realms she really cared to see.

Not true.

He was the only person in all the realms she'd admit to wanting to see. Still she snuffed out the flame, and put down her glass of scotch and walked to the door, schooling her features before she opened it.

"Sheriff."

"Regina." Emma said quietly. The two women stared at each other for a long moment in silence. "Can I come in?"

"Are you here to kill me?"

Emma blinked. "Why do you keep asking me that?"

"I keep asking you that because it's a logical question."

"In what world is that a logical question?" Emma asked perhaps louder than she intended.

"The world in which I nearly killed your mother today." Twice. Regina added to herself. "Would you like a drink."

"I shouldn't." Emma answered.

"Of course you shouldn't. But you shouldn't be here. Would you like a drink?"

"Yes." Emma leaned against the door frame of the study while Regina fixed the drink. "I called you a bad person today."

"I've been called worse. After all... I am a bad person." Regina handed Emma her glass and retrieved her own.

"I shouldn't have said it in front of Henry."

Regina looked at her, "No you shouldn't have." She moved to sit down and let Emma do whatever Emma would do. "Why did you?"

"You were trying to kill my mother."

"That's the kind of relationship Snow and I have."

"You didn't." Emma said tilting her head. "Kill her."

"The great Charming observational powers." Regina said quietly.

"Why do you have to be such an ass?" Emma asked with frustration. "We could be friends. I'd like to be friends."

"You rather made your feelings for me clear a year ago." That day at Granny's when she'd broken it off.

"Yes, well, I thought you had murdered Kathryn." Emma said as she finally sat down.

"To be fair... I thought I had murdered Kathryn."

Emma shook her head, "Not helping."

"Helping what? Make it easy for you to forget what I am Emma? Make your attraction for me easy?"

"No, you aren't helping make it easy for me to walk away from you."

"You've already done that once." Regina said quietly.

"You were too focused on your revenge against my mother to care."

Regina chuckled. "Not the first time I let go of someone because of that."

Emma raised an eyebrow but didn't ask for clarification. They were quiet again for a long time, the two women as they drank their scotch. Finally Emma broke the silence again, "Henry said magic makes good people do bad things."

"He's right. It can. And you are right. It can make bad people do them as well."

"What about my magic?" She asked quietly.

Regina smiled a little, but it wasn't a mocking smile, but rather a wistful one. "Why not ask the fairies... or Rumple."

"Because I'm asking you. I know when you are lying."

Regina finished her glass of scotch and took a long time to answer. "It's not the magic that makes you do bad things. It's... it's the emotion that fuels the magic. Henry, your parents, the entire town thinks my problem is magic."

Emma tilted her head, "And what do you think?"

Regina smiled briefly and shook her head, "My problem is that I let the light slip from my life trying to grasp the darkness. I let love fade so that I could have my revenge. And now... "

She gestured around the empty house, "And now all there is, is darkness."

"That's more self aware than I expected from a woman who went on a rage filled revenge quest today." Emma observed.

"Maybe I saw something that reminded me about how it all started." Regina put her glass down. "Why did you come here today?"

"I wanted to thank you."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "For not killing your mother? She's going to destroy herself on the path she's on."

Emma gave her a dirty look for that comment, but shook her head, "For choosing Henry over anger."

Regina smiled just a little. "It's too bad I couldn't choose you over anger a year ago."

Emma shook her head, "I'm not sure that was possible. What we had was all about anger."

Regina nodded, but knew differently. "You should go home, Miss. Swan. Your family will be worried."

Emma put her glass down and nodded. "Good night, Regina."