When Emma's eyes drifted open, all she could make out was a strangely good-smelling, varnished wood surface. "Ow," she mumbled against the floor, as the soreness of sleeping face down on a hard surface rushed into her body. Moving to place her hands on either side of her, Emma pushed herself off the floor and sat back against the couch she recalled tumbling off of in the night. Emma shook her head as she remembered the long argument that had erupted between her and Regina when it came time for bed.

"Ms. Swan, please. You are my guest and I won't have you sleeping on the couch."

"Aw, you got a soft spot for me, Regina?"

Regina spluttered for a minute before snapping, "No, I just happen to know what simple manners are."

It had continued on for another half hour before Regina finally gave in, mostly it seemed out of pure discomfort with the conversation.

Emma scratched the back of her head, her face falling passive again and she frowned in concern. She had a big task ahead of her in trying to figure out why Regina was really abandoning her life in Storybrooke, and then convince her that she was wrong. Problem of course was, Emma had no idea what was stirring Regina up so much.

She knew something was wrong from the moment Regina opened the door and looked at her with a mix of shock and horror. And then of course, there was the incident with the ring. Emma had spent the entire night lying awake with that image playing over and over again, and Regina's words: "I wish you didn't have to forget this. But you do." Emma ran her hands through her messy bed head in frustration. She had fought the urge to corner Regina about the memory last night, as she wasn't sure if questioning the brunette about it would help or hurt her attempts to bring her back with her.

The part of her that worried about scaring Regina off was stronger than the one that was furious with Regina for erasing something from her memory. And what had she erased? Emma let out a loud groan in frustration and she nearly jumped out of her skin when a low voice said, "I'm assuming your night on the couch wasn't as comfortable as you thought it would be?"

Emma stumbled sleepily to her feet while Regina, who was showered and fully dressed, examined the blonde with a curious eye as she sipped at a mug full of, what Emma could only assume to be, coffee, the smell invading her senses. "It was fine, I just fell off sometime in the night."

"Charming," Regina commented, taking another slow sip from the mug.

"Any, uh, coffee for your guest?" Emma tried, offering the brunette an apologetic smile.

"There's plenty more in the machine. Help yourself." Regina was already moving off down the other hall of her apartment. "I'll be in my office."

"You have an office in here?" Emma mumbled to herself as she moved to get herself a cup of coffee. She took a seat at the snack bar and pulled today's copy of the Boston Globe towards her. It all felt very reminiscent of her life in Boston before Henry came to shake things up for her. Within Emma's five minutes of sitting there, Regina had reappeared, her heels clicking on the hardwood, a purse slung over her shoulder.

"Going somewhere?" Emma asked as the brunette moved to the front door.

"I actually have a job, Ms. Swan, that I need to be getting to," Regina replied snidely. "I'm sorry I can't babysit you all day."

"Oh," Emma replied. She hadn't even thought that Regina may have found a new job for herself already, and that reminded her as to the fact that no one was running Storybrooke back home.

Regina looked to be waiting to see if Emma would say anything else before she said, "Well if you'll excuse me, I should be going."

"Wait, Regina!" Emma said, jumping off the bar stool.

"Yes, Ms. Swan?" Regina sighed in exasperation.

Emma opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the words to keep Regina there. She wasn't willing to let her out of her sight until things were clearer. "I uh...could you take today off?"

"I'm sorry, but just because you are fine with abandoning your job to deal with personal matters, doesn't mean I'm going to."

Emma rolled her eyes at the jab and tried again. "Regina, please just forget about work and—"

"I can't do that, Emma, I need to go," Regina interrupted, turning to walk out the door when Emma stopped her in her tracks.

"I know what you did."

"Excuse me, Ms. Swan?" Regina questioned, turning slowly. On the outside, she held up her cool exterior while inside she was on full alert, scared to death that she had underestimated what the ring had done to Emma last night.

"I know you did something...to me," Emma repeated slowly.

"I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about," Regina replied cooly.

Emma's shoulders slumped as she sighed and avoided eye contact as she murmured, "Look I guess...never mind, but Regina, please, just take the day off." She looked up again, her begging eyes connecting with Regina's panicked ones.

"I…"

"For me?" Emma added.

Regina turned back towards the door, and froze, her eyes on the hallway outside. All she wanted to do was run away, to get away from this woman who had such an effect on her. But then she realized, she had already tried that. She ran off to Boston to escape Emma Swan and yet she had caught up with her. Running was pointless. If she wanted to let her go, she would have to allow Emma to give up on her by her own free will. At least that was reassuring, Regina thought. Everyone always gave up on her, so Emma would be no different, and by the end of the week, Emma would walk away just like everyone before her.

Taking a deep breath, Regina slowly shut the apartment door and turned around. "So I'll just call in and let them know I'll be gone through the week, shall I?"

Emma breathed out a sigh of relief, a bright smile on her lips.

Regina just nodded, her lips curling upward against their owner's will as she turned away to the phone.

"Thank you, Regina," Emma said after the brunette turned back.

She simply gave a steady wave as if to say "no problem."

Regina raised an eyebrow as Emma raised a hot dog, that was loaded with every possible fixing, to her mouth, and internally worked out a way to take a bite without getting the toppings all over her face. "So this is your idea of well-spent vacation time?" Regina had asked the question at the most inopportune moment as Emma took her first sloppy bite and was now munching happily.

"This is the only way to spend your vacation time," Emma mumbled through a mouthful of hot dog, causing a look of disgust from the brunette. She smirked and looked down at the bare dog that went untouched in Regina's slim fingers. After she'd finished swallowing she added, "Please tell me you've had these guys's hot dogs since you've been in Boston?"

Regina's eyes flickered in annoyance as if it was the most ludicrous question she'd ever heard, and her lack of a response, told Emma that she had definitely not.

"Come on, these are the best dogs you'll ever eat in your life."

"This is a vendor," Regina hissed, eyes flashing back to the workers behind the stand. "I doubt it's the best of anything."

"Well yeah, if you neglect to put anything on it like you've done," Emma rolled her eyes. "Here," she said, raising her hot dog to Regina. "Try mine."

"I will do nothing of the sort," Regina muttered, physically retreating, nose ruffled in disgust.

Emma sighed in exasperation. "Come on, Regina, I've seen you eat crazier things in Neverland than this!"

"Yes, well that was because I had no other choice."

"Well you don't know what you're missing out on," Emma said before happily taking off another large bite of her hot dog. She frowned as some of the toppings slipped down onto the front of her shirt and she swore through the food still in her mouth.

"Yes, I can see I'm clearly missing out," Regina deadpanned as she offered Emma one of her napkins.

"Thanks," Emma replied as she accepted it and started dabbing at her front with her free hand. Regina scrutinized Emma's movements, until the blonde suddenly looked up and said, "Not the sexiest, I know."

With that, her eyes snapped away from the stain and up to Emma's bemused expression. She felt a heat rise in her face as she looked away and muttered, "Honestly."

Emma continued to smirk as she motioned for the brunette to follow her. "Let's walk, come on."

"Are you sure you can handle walking and eating at the same time?" Regina scoffed, but followed Emma's lead nonetheless.

'She certainly woke up on the normal side of the bed this morning.' Emma thought to herself. Regina had hardly said one nasty thing to her the previous day, but it seemed the brunette had returned to her harsh demeanor today. However, Emma knew better. Regina always resorted to taunts when she was trying to cover up her hurt or true feelings about something. 'So what's she trying to cover up right now?' Emma asked herself, taking another bite of her hot dog and sneaking a look over at Regina who walked stiffly beside her, surprisingly still clinging to her bare hot dog.

"What convinced you to stay?" Emma questioned, breaking the silence.

Regina glanced over and replied, "I don't follow."

"Today, what convinced you to stay with me?"

Emma watched as Regina's eyes flickered through multiple emotions before she replied vaguely, "Maybe I wanted a day off."

"But you took the entire week off."

"Maybe I wanted the week off," Regina retorted swiftly.

Emma sighed. "You're going to have to start giving me real answers sometime."

"I do?"

"Honestly Regina, it's like you don't want to hear me out at all," Emma vented in frustration.

"Maybe I don't," she replied shortly.

Emma stopped in her tracks, Regina pausing beside her, but kept her eyes straight ahead. "Regina, I know you think that whatever you're doing here is for the best, and maybe nothing I can say will convince you otherwise deep down, but I want you to at least listen to what I have to say."

Regina blinked rapidly. "And what if I don't like what you have to say?"

"What do you mean?" Emma asked, shifting her weight.

The brunette turned and scorched Emma with the intensity of her gaze. "What if what you think I want to hear, isn't?"

"I'll only tell you what you need to hear. Not what you want."

Regina smirked, eyes pulling away again, "You don't know what I need."

Emma opened her mouth, but closed it again, looking down at her feet uncomfortably, realizing perhaps she didn't know what Regina needed. Silence ensued as the two women stood awkwardly, one staring off down the street while the other scrutinized her feet. Emma glanced up, eyes catching the hot dog still held in Regina's hands. "You know, there is one thing I know you need, Regina."

The brunette looked up startled at Emma's words. "What's that?" she asked curiously.

"To take a bite of that hot dog," Emma smirked. "I'm sure it's getting cold."

Regina's eyes narrowed down at the sausage she held in her hand. Sighing, she turned to begin walking while raising the hot dog to her mouth. Emma followed, stunned into a smile, but her victory was short-lived as the meat swerved suddenly in a detour towards a nearby trashcan.

"I paid four dollars for that hot dog," Emma sniffed as Regina clapped her hands free of crumbs.

"That was your first mistake," Regina said.

"Please?" Emma begged while Regina's eyes were trained on the television set as she steadily clicked through the channels.

"No," she said calmly for the fourth time that evening.

"Why not?"

"Because I said 'no'."

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of anything."

"Then why won't you try?"

"I know how to speak to my son," Regina hissed, fingers punching the 'next' button on the remote as she continued to move through stations.

"Then why won't you?"

"Because he doesn't want to hear from me."

"Of course he does!" Emma cried out in aggravation.

"I know what you want, Ms. Swan. You want me to call him, and then when I hear how much he 'misses me' I'll instantly want to hop into your rolling deathtrap you call an automobile, and ride all the way back to Storybrooke with you tonight."

"Well of course I want that!" Emma practically shouted, receiving a death glare from the brunette. "Regina, he does miss you, and I know if you just heard him you would understand just how much. Our son needs his family back."

Regina set the remote down, not paying the slightest attention to which channel she'd left it on but allowed it to babble away softly in the background. "You're right, Emma. Henry does need his family back."

Emma's mouth fell open, surprised Regina had given in so quickly.

"That's why you need to be on your way back to him as soon as possible," Regina added and Emma's face fell and she let out a huff of frustration.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," she hissed through gritted teeth, stomping to her feet and off down the hallway.

Regina let out a sigh of relief, soothed by the fact that Emma had temporarily given up. She was only remaining so adamant because she knew Emma was right. She would give in and be on her way back to Storybrooke as fast as she could if she spoke to her son. Henry was her real weakness in all of this. Her reasons for leaving, when involving her son, had been incredibly selfish. She hadn't thought for even a second that Henry would miss or need her in the way Emma had described to her, so she had taken off without looking back, assuming it would hurt her, not Henry.

"Okay, so just hear me out, Regina…" Emma began slowly as she returned from the bathroom.

"No."

"Come on, Regina! Just one five-minute phone call!"

"Are you quite deaf, dear?" Regina retorted. "I am not calling Henry."

"What if I—"

"You are not calling Henry and forcing me to speak to him either."

Emma collapsed with a huff beside Regina again on the couch, glaring furiously. "Honestly, Regina, you are the most stubborn person I have ever met."

"Shall I direct you to the mirror? You may find someone even more stubborn looking back at you."

"Ha ha," Emma said pointedly. "If I was actually more stubborn than you, I might have actually succeeded in getting somewhere with you today."

"I think you're confusing stubbornness with simply knowing what I'm doing is right," Regina replied, setting her chin upon her hand as the food network pulled in her gaze.

"Hardly," Emma snorted. "This has stubbornness written all over it." Regina kept her eyes carefully trained to the television until Emma's hand suddenly grasped her chin with a surprisingly gentle force and pulled their gazes together. "Because for whatever reason you left, Regina, you've allowed that reason morph into, not just your own belief, but a fact that you can't understand to be proven wrong. But here's the thing, I'm going to prove it wrong and I'm going to make you believe it with every fiber of your being."

Regina's mouth was dry as she murmured, "You don't even know what the reason is."

Emma's eyes searched hers for what felt like hours before her hand fell away into her lap and she said quietly, "Maybe. But you won't keep it from me this time."

A/N: Whoa did someone mention slow burn? Haha, I apologize for those of you who don't like this talky slow stuff, but that's what this story is turning out to be. Hope you guys are enjoying nonetheless! Reviews are welcomed as I always want to know all of your thoughts! Thank you!