A/N: Post ep for the Bear and the Bow...eh, roughly canon. Kind of. Pre-SQ. Mentions established relationships with Robin and Hook.

"I hear you refused your lunch," Regina states as she enters the padded room, the heels of her shoes clacking against the ground. There are impossible to miss lines around her eyes and there's an almost resigned weariness to her that Zelena finds disconcerting.

Because the first time she'd met Regina, she'd been like this. Tired and worn down.

At the end of her rope and ready to end it, to end herself.

She'd needed a fight then, and though it hadn't let to anything good for her in the long run, Zelena has to admit that she had ended up being exactly what Regina had needed.

Back then, anyway.

"It wasn't appetizing," Zelena replies with a flick of her hand. "But I did appreciate the book."

"Really?"

"Very informative. Me and the Little One have been having quite the talk about it."

"I bet. You need to eat, Zelena. To keep up your health. And the baby's. You know that."

"Then feed me something I actually want to eat. Kale salad might be your thing, but I have a naturally fast metabolism and don't need to watch what I eat to keep my ass…you know." She wiggles her eyes suggestively and she can tell by the tightening of Regina's jaw and the vein that's suddenly pulsing in the younger woman's forehead that it's working; whatever had happened today had pushed Regina off her game and right now, she's not hiding her irritation as well as she usually does. Right now, getting under Regina's skin might actually be…easy.

And perhaps a little bit fun, too.

"That's not how this is going to work," Regina grinds out, practically stomping down on every word with the petulance of a young child. "You see, you don't get to make the rules –"

"But I could. If I wanted to, I mean."

Regina snorts derisively at that, but there seems a lack of enthusiasm in the sound, a bit like she's just going through the motions of the fight. "The cuff on your wrist says otherwise."

Zelena shrugs. "Your precious Dark Swan didn't seem to have much issue with it."

"What?" Regina demands, stepping towards her. Ah and there's the fire. Perfect.

Zelena sits up straight, her face breaking out into a large mischievous grin because finally she has something that Regina will fight her for…and lose. "Is there a problem? You seem…upset."

"What did you mean by that? What did you mean about…Emma."

"Oh! Oh, yes. Well she came to see me today. We had ourselves a lovely chat."

"About what?"

Zelena shrugs, like it means nothing at all. "She offered me my freedom."

"Zelena," Regina growls and then she's right up in front of her.

"Easy, Sis," Zelena coos. "You want information, I know. I want a bit of space."

"This isn't a negotiation."

"Oh, but it should be. Because your fallen Savior is willing to pay my price."

"You're lying."

"Am I?"

"Yes. Because if she'd have been willing to give you your freedom, you'd be free now."

"Perhaps."

"Zelena, I don't care if you're pregnant or dying of a brain tumor, if you don't start talking, I will rip you apart limb by limb and then bring you back to life so I can do it all over again."

"Well that's rasher harsh, don't you think? I am your one blood relative you haven't yet managed to kill; I'd think that you would be a bit more protective over me," Zelena pouts.

"What did she want?" Regina hisses out, the words practically coming from between her teeth.

"Well for starters, to feed me better than you are."

"She dropped by to feed you –"

"Onion rings. They were delicious. Though a bit salty. Could you perhaps speak to the old bat who runs the Diner about that?"

"No. What happened then?"

"Well then we talked. If you want to know what about, you'll either have to pay my price or you'll have to ask her. But I didn't get the impression that the two of you will be taking any road trips anytime soon." Zelena grins. "In fact, I'd say she'd be happy to let me have whatever I want as long as it hurts you." Her eyes glitter maliciously. "Some best friend there, Sis."

"You have no idea what you're talking about."

"I know that she offered to fight with me. Against you. She offered to help me defeat you. But if you want to know more, then you're going to have to give me something that I want. Hm?"

Regina's nostrils flare. "I'm not giving you your freedom. You know that I won't do that."

Zelena laughs. "I'm ambitious, perhaps even crazy, but I'm not stupid. I want something from you, Regina, and I'm well aware that you're just stubborn enough to say no to spite me. So I'll keep it simple: I want two hours a day out of this room. In the park, by the lake. Somewhere."

"One. And I'm with you every day."

"One and every now and again, I get someone other than you to babysit me. You are quite the bore, Regina. How did that happen? How did the Evil Queen become a giant nagging ninny?"

"Call me that again and you get five minutes in the bathroom by yourself and nothing more."

"Fine, fine. My apologies for wounding your ego. So one hour, then?"

"One hour and I'll consider the second part of the request. But obviously, the cuff stays on."

"Obviously," Zelena responds with a roll of her eyes.

"And Robin is off-limits for the…accompaniment."

"Like I want your boring boyfriend to keep me company. All he'd do is glare, anyway."

"He might have good reason."

"Are we going to talk about your lover, Sis? Or about the one whom you wish were your lover?"

"Don't be an idiot."

The red-head shrugs, but there's a smile crossing her face, a devious twinkle in her eyes even as she mock innocently says, "What? It's not like everyone doesn't know about your little crush on –"

"What did Emma want?" Regina interrupts. "Enough games or the deal is off completely."

"You never let me have any fun."

"It's your idea of…having that has you in this room. Perhaps if you played –"

"Nicer?" Zelena laughs. "You really aren't as impressive as you once were, are you?"

"Last warning and then I walk out of this room and you get four solid walls. And kale salad."

"All right, all right. She wanted me to wield Merlin's wand for her." Zelena waves her hand around dramatically, as if to show off how she'd do it. "Your Swan has something that she's up to and apparently, something to do with that wand is her escape hatch. But I told her no."

"Why?"

Zelena leans in. "Because no one is taking you out besides me. It's you and me, Regina."

"Mother would be so proud," Regina drawls. "Was there anything else?"

"Nope. Just that she doesn't seem all that worried about your little Henry forgiving her."

"She's not quite herself these days. If she were, she'd be terrified that he won't."

"So you think. Or maybe you hope she doesn't hate you as much as she seems to."

Their eyes meet and then Regina is turning away from her, her jaw clenching.

"Our deal?" Zelena asks.

"Starts tomorrow. I'll be here at eleven in the morning."

"And I was hoping for the hot Prince Charming. He's quite beautiful."

"Keep hoping."

"So protective. It really is a shame that they don't love you as much as you love them."

"Once again, you don't know what you're talking about."

"So you think. But I see things, Regina. You fairly scream your feelings."

"You remember what I said about you not needing your tongue to give birth?"

Zelena smirks at her. "Say hello to dear Emma for me when you see her. I do see what you see in her, though I have to admit, I'm perplexed by what she might see in you especially with as...wicked as she's being these days. Oh well."

Regina slams the door behind her, trying to ignore the sound of Zelena laughing.

Unaware that the laughter fades within moments of the door closing.

Unaware of the suffocating silence that fills the halls after she's gone.

"Emma Swan. Emma Swan. Emma Swan."

"You don't sound happy, Regina," the typically blonde woman comments from behind her; they're both standing on the dock now, a dock which has seen far too many moments between the two of them, most of them thick with emotion and anger and entirely too much hurt.

Regina figures that this one will just add to that pile.

"I hear you had a conversation with my sister today," Regina snaps out at her. Her breath rises in front of, a cloud of white on an icy cold evening which will very soon become almost frigid.

"I did. She told you?"

"Yes."

"Everything?"

"You mean about how you offered to fight with her against me?"

"We all have our needs, Regina. For once, yours don't come before mine," Emma drawls, leaning casually against the rail, her dark coat lightly fluttering in the cold night breeze.

"I don't need mine to come before yours, I just need you to tell me what I did to you."

"I did; you failed me."

"How?"

"So eager to know. Do you really think you could ever make it up to me?"

"I know I can't if I don't know what I did."

"Assume it was terrible."

"Considering your nature these days, Emma, I'm not sure that I'm going to take your perspective on things as the gospel truth. You're not exactly an objective bystander."

Emma chuckles at that, the sound cold and empty. "Perhaps not, but I have a good idea when the person who I asked to help protect me…failed me." She steps closer to Regina. "You did."

"Get over it."

"Excuse me?"

"You broke your son's heart and you sent me to die."

"You survived just fine."

"His heart is still broken."

"He'll forgive me."

"You're putting a lot on faith."

"I know my son."

"He's not your son."

"Back to this, are we?"

"Hardly. I still acknowledge that he's Emma's son. But you're not Emma."

"I thought you said you could see the good in me, Regina. The real Emma," she mocks, suddenly drawing even closer, enough so that they're almost breathing the exact same cold air now.

"I thought I could. But then you did what you did."

"I did that back in Camelot."

"Before or after you had me share the dreamcatcher with you?"

Emma freezes, eyes wide for a moment.

"That's what I thought," Regina growls. "So whatever I did to you, you're hardly a victim."

"I had my reasons."

"I'm sure I did, too. But you took those away from me."

"You –"

"Enough. You want to team up with my sister again me, then do it, Swan. But if you want to declare war on me, know that I am more than happy to return the favor. I never believed you when you said you wanted to be my friend, but if you want to be my enemy, we can do that."

She turns to walk away.

"What are you angry about? Me working with Zelena or me not standing beside you?"

Regina turns back. "I believed you. I trusted you. I actually thought you were my friend, Emma."

"Things change, Regina."

"So they do. Zelena -" she laughs. "She called you wicked. But it's Zelena, right? It doesn't mean much. And those words don't mean much. Evil. Wicked. Unless you let them mean something. Unless what you do with them makes them..." she trails off, her chin wobbling, her emotions bubbling through her.

"I'm not evil, Regina. And believe it or not, I wasn't lying. You were my friend," Emma says in response. The words are said almost sadly, quietly.

"And now I'm your enemy?"

"Now I have things I need to get done."

"And to hell with anyone who gets in your way?"

"That's how it has to be."

"If you try to hurt Henry again –"

She's slammed up against the rail again before she even has a chance to get the words out, the bar biting forcefully and painfully into her back, Emma practically bending her. "I wouldn't."

"I should believe you as you're trying to realign my spine?"

There's fury in her eyes, something she can't even begin to control; something maybe she doesn't want to control.. "You think you know me so well."

"I think I know evil."

"I'm not evil," Emma says again.

Regina shoves her off. And then brushes her clothing off. "Tell yourself whatever the hell you need to, but if you lay your hands on me again, I will light you on fire. I might not be the Dark One, Emma, and you might be able to outmatch me in magic, but trust me, I will fight you to my very last breath."

"I know and that's how I knew that you'd find a way to survive," Emma says quietly. "I just needed to push you."

"And if I hadn't?"

"I knew you would."

"You'll excuse me if I'm not touched by your faith in me," Regina snaps back.

Emma shrugs. "Are we done here? I've got a long night ahead of me."

"I bet. More dreamcatchers? More hearts to rip out? Or just more scheming to do?"

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you? Your Majesty?"

"We're done with this; if you want to pull all of our dirty laundry out and have a go at it, Miss Swan, call my secretary and put it on my schedule. Otherwise, stay away from my family."

"Your family," Emma muses. "And who does that include? Henry? Robin? Zelena? My parents?"

"All of the above."

"But not me."

"You took yourself out of the family."

"You let it happen to me."

"Like I said, get over it."

Emma glares at her, but then, like a switch has been flipped in her mind, she suddenly changes tracks, a cruel but oddly knowing smile crossing her red lips. "Tell me, Regina, why protect Zelena so intensely? Because she's your sister or because she's caring your lover's child in her?"

"Both."

"You should be happy to let her leave. Pretend like your precious Robin Hood –"

"Stop."

"He's not worthy of you."

"And your pirate isn't worthy of you and yet even as the Dark One, you chase after him."

Emma's eyes blaze with anger. "I do not chase after –"

"You know, I always thought that Dark Ones were supposed to be cool and collected and completely in control of themselves, but it turns out that they can be pathetic and –"

Regina grunts when she hits the deck, her left shoulder slamming painfully against the wood; for a moment, she's certain that it's been shoved out of the socket, but a roll tells her it's okay.

"You've always had a death wish," Emma snarls at her.

"You would know since you used mine against me."

"You betrayed me first," Emma reminds her as she leans over Regina and then yanks her up, showing now emotion when Regina lets out a small gasp of pain at her shoulder being jarred.

"Just kill me if you're going to, Emma; if that's what your big plan is, just kill me."

Emma's hands move around, and then they're touching Regina's face, her palms cool against Regina's warm cheeks. "I don't want you dead," she says in response to the confusion there.

"Then why all of this? Why offer to team with my sister against me? Why try to hurt me?"

"We do what we have to do to protect the people we love."

"And I'm in the way of that?"

"No. You're one of those people."

Regina hits the deck with a thud a moment later, her shoulder popping, gray smoke in the air.

"You're awfully quiet today," Zelena notes, glancing over at Regina as they sit on the bench, the pond in front of them full of ducks and fish, but otherwise peaceful and quiet on this afternoon.

"Were you expecting conversation? Perhaps some pleasant small talk? Shall we discuss how you have spent the last year and half that we have known each other trying to destroy me?"

"Oh you're in a pleasant mood," Zelena chuckles. "Shall I guess you confirmed my story with Emma? I take it what she told you didn't settle your troubled heart. Trouble in paradise? You know, I hear that there are various forms of therapy that can help lovers get back in sync."

"Shut up, Zelena."

"Mm, well I guess that answers that; didn't kiss and make up, then. Shame. I bet you two –"

"What the hell is your obsession with me and Emma?" Regina snaps, turning towards her. "You know that there's nothing going on between us. Both of us have other…partners."

"No obsession. Just pointing out that you're madly in love with her. Which is problematic."

"I'm nothing with Emma."

"Except troubled by her darkened state. Such misery to be found there."

"You have thirty minutes left on this bench. I already got what I needed from you, Zelena; try to remember who I am and what I'm capable of. I don't have to actually keep my deal with you."

For a moment, the humor flows out of Zelena. Then she smiles, "Oh, but you will."

"And why's that?"

"Because you know I'm not wrong. You love your thief but you also love…your other thief."

"Robin is my soulmate, and I do love him."

"And Emma is your –"

"Friend. I know you're unaware of what those are."

"Perhaps, but I do have a clue what heartbreak looks like, and you're heartbroken over her."

Regina looks away from Zelena, out towards the lake. The one she'd almost died at a few weeks earlier; she'd known that night what Emma had been doing and had still walked right into it.

Believing she couldn't let Robin die for her own sins, for her own price. She still believes that.

But that doesn't change the hurt and betrayal that she feels.

She rolls her still very sore (and very bruised) shoulder.

"I finally have something that you don't, don't I?" Zelena asks, her voice oddly quiet.

"What's that?"

"I was right about what I said before, wasn't I? You actually do love these people." She laughs in disbelief, almost a snort of derision. "Imagine that. Your once enemies, you now adore."

"You think that gives you something more than me?"

"I think it makes me stronger than you. I have nothing holding me back. You do." She smiles, but it's not as victorious as one might assume even if her voice is high and energetic. "You could find a way to get the Dark One's dagger and destroy Emma, but we both know you won't. You can't because you love her. However you want to believe it, you love her. And her parents. You love them and the idea of hurting any of them…it's made you weak. It's frozen you in place."

"Love isn't weakness, Zelena," Regina replies, sounding so very tired.

"It is when it can be used to defeat you. To ruin you. And Emma is doing both of those things."

Regina stares ahead at the water.

"She will destroy you. Take everything from you. Including your heart. And your love. You were better off when you were like me, Regina. When you were able to fight without caring."

"No, I wasn't. And I won't go down easily. You know that."

"I do," Zelena admits, a hand over her belly.

Regina ignores it, focuses on the things that actually matter right now, the things that she can actually do something about. "As for Emma…apparently, she thinks she's protecting us. Me."

"And you believe her?"

"It doesn't matter if I do or don't; I have to proceed like I don't."

"So you're going to stop your beloved Swan? Try to kill her?"

"No, but I am going to try to stop her." She moves to her feet. "Up. We're done here."

"I have ten more minutes."

"You forfeited them by talking about my love life."

Zelena makes a face. "Is it my fault you want to be naked with your former stepdaughter's daughter? I mean, I would think that would be something you'd be discussing with that little bug friend of yours, yes? You know the one with the curly hair that he never quite combs -"

Her words cut off abruptly; Zelena rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"I hope you enjoyed your first and maybe last day out, Zelena; I know that I sure did."

They appear seconds later back in the padded cell; Regina walking away a moment later.

Zelena's not at all surprised when she sees Emma standing there as soon as the sound of heels has faded. She looks up and says, "You have to know Regina would be expecting you to return."

"Of course; I know Regina."

Zelena chuckles darkly at that.

"I still won't help you. You want to wave your wand around, find someone else to do it."

"Oh, I will. I'm not here about the wand. I'm here about Regina."

"Who will probably be appearing in just a moment."

"She's a bit distracted at the moment. Fire bad. Very bad."

"Oh, and here I thought the idiot with the mop burned something again."

"Afraid not."

"Well, you two really need to get a relationship counselor. One that isn't me."

Emma smiles at that, the expression a bit on the predatory side. "Tell me everything she said."

"And what's in it for me?"

"I'll owe you a favor."

"Fair enough." She leans in. "But really, it would be just easier to fuck it out. Get it out of your systems, you know? That way you can return to your pirate and she can return to her –"

Emma's eyes narrow dangerously. "Just tell me what I want to know. Tell me what she said."

"About?"

"Me. Tell me what she plans to do about me."

"What does it matter? You're the Dark One. She can't stop you."

"I like to know what I'm going against."

"No, you want to know what you're going to have to do to her."

"Tell me."

Zelena laughs. "She plans to try to stop you. But don't worry, dear; she won't try to kill you."

"I know," Emma says quietly, almost sadly. "I know."

Somewhere in the distance, a fire alarm goes off.

-Fin