A/N: This is a story in three parts that takes place during 6A, starting around "Street Rats" with dialogue and references from especially "Dark Waters" and "Wish You Were Here". There's mentions of Robin Hood, and Hook is obviously present, just so everyone is warned beforehand. It's a Swanqueen fic though, because of course it is. The title is from Madonna's "Live to Tell".

HOW WILL THEY KNOW (IF I LIVE TO TELL)

PART ONE

"What do you mean I'm not there? Am I dead? Or am I the figure under the hood?"

The words slip past Regina's lips before she has any sense to stop them. She's pretty sure that Emma can tell by the look on her face that she's upset, even hurt at the insinuation that Regina would ever do such a thing to her – honestly, Regina had thought that they were beyond that. Perhaps not with Snow or David or anyone else who doesn't matter anyway, but she and Emma – she and Emma – they have come so far, much further than this inane idea that the blonde has alluded to. Regina knows this, and Emma does too, which is probably why she's watching Regina with an almost embarrassed look in her eyes.

Which, good, she should be embarrassed, because Regina honestly thought that she was done being presented as the bad guy by default. There can be plenty of reasons why Regina isn't present in Emma's vision – which she's still mad at the other woman for hiding, idiot – like Regina said; she could be dead or she could be otherwise occupied. It's not like she follows Emma Swan around like some lovesick little puppy all the damn time. She sometimes has her own things to do, like a wicked sister and a baby niece, thank you very much. It's not like she's a rum-soaked pirate.

Emma opens her mouth to say something, but Regina gives her a look. "Don't even start with me, Emma," she says, and the hurt is evident in her voice, even to herself, as she lifts her hand into the air and transports herself to her vault.

—-

She's only been stewing and reading up on tremors and visions for twenty minutes when Emma makes her appearance. Regina notices the familiar scuffle of boots and the characteristic scent of Emma's magic, but she ignores the other woman in favour of leafing through the book in front of her, determined to find something useful, to make sure that Emma knows that she could never be that figure, that she'll always, always, even when she hates it, be on her side.

Emma's words still cut deep, or perhaps it's more the things that she didn't say that cut, even now, when she's trying to figure out this thing with Emma's hands, and the thing with her own other half, and her own words hurt too, the words that Emma chose not to answer – but out of embarrassment or out of fear? Regina hates that she even has to contemplate this.

So Regina tries to pretend that it doesn't bother her when Emma enters the vault, and she tries to pretend that she isn't hurt that Emma would even consider the possibility of her being the figure under the hood. How many times does she have to prove her loyalty? How many times does she have to show the Charmings – especially their infuriating offspring – that she's changed for good? She even cut herself in two, determined to nip evil in the butt once and for all, and still Emma thinks that… that Regina would ever, ever, do such a thing to her.

And the truth about Emma's visions has her wringing her hands and contemplating murder. Not now, not after all this time, is it okay for some evil villain to get the better of Emma Swan in a fight. The blonde idiot has managed to stay alive through everything so far; barrelling straight into dangers with no sense of her own well-being, being sucked into portals and consumed of darkness. No, this simply will not do, not now, not after all these years, will Regina accept for someone to kill Emma Swan.

So she ignores the cut of unspoken words and barrels straight ahead with renewed determination.

"Hi," Emma finally offers after a good five minutes of Regina ignoring her, and Emma standing sluggishly against the cold stone wall of the vault.

It's all easier if Regina ignores the earlier incident in the Charmings' loft (even if its burns, burns, burns) and focuses on what's really important, which is finding out how to help Emma. "I can't seem to find anything about vision-induced tremors in any book," she shakes her hands in frustration and runs them through her hair.

Emma shrugs. "You will."

Turning her eyes back to the book, Regina doesn't feel so sure. "I'm afraid I won't," she runs a finger down the margin where she recognises both her own handwriting along her mother's. "Maybe we should talk to Blue, or maybe we should," she pauses, uncertain, "Maybe we should just find another way. We always find a way. This doesn't mean you're going to die." She adds the last part as she looks at Emma, and she doesn't know who she's trying to convince most; herself or Emma. Emma might be frustratingly oblivious and prone to idiocy, but she's Emma for goodness sakes, and Regina can't just – she can't just…

Emma bites her lip, legs tangled in front of her, crossed at the ankles. "But isn't that how the stories of all saviours go, huh? Someone has to defeat them in the end, someone has to finally win."

Regina marks her book and closes it in front of her. "No," she says, confidently, "because you're not just the saviour, are you?"

Pushing herself off the wall, Emma crosses the small distance between them and perches herself against the table. "Well if I'm not just the saviour, then who am I?" The question is asked so easily, slipping off her tongue and into the air between them, like it is something she's been thinking a lot about lately, and perhaps it is. Regina knows how Artie's sessions can be.

"How about Emma?" Regina suggests, brown eyes darting across the other woman's face as she watches her.

Emma shrugs again, so frustratingly indifferent all the time. "You sound like Artie right now."

Regina simply arches an eyebrow and opens her book again, finding her place on the page. She's not about to guide Emma through her little identity-crisis, even if she can somehow understand where the other woman is coming from. She'd ridden herself of her evil half recently, and she kind of wants to be just Regina right now.

"I just," Emma pauses and Regina looks up at her, unable to stop herself from giving the younger woman her attention when Emma so clearly needs it, "it seems like everyone expects all these things of me, y'know? Like, I'm the saviour and I'm supposed to help people. All these people in this town probably wouldn't even, I dunno, care about me if I wasn't the saviour."

Flashes of a similar conversation strike Regina; Emma buried into her side at the Jolly Roger, on their way to finding Henry, whispering small truths of worry and hate, truths about loathing the title and the expectations. Regina had kissed her then, buried herself in the other woman and understood exactly where she was coming from, and they'd been wrapped together on a small cot on the ship and never talked about it again. After, there'd been Neverland, Pan's curse, New York and Zelena. It's like they'd never quite gotten a possible moment to dwell into that and now it hardly has a point. Time has passed, and Emma has Hook now, and Regina she's… she's trying to protect her the best she can.

With a sigh, Regina closes her book once more and reaches a hand out to clasp it around Emma's wrist. "I'd care about you," she firmly says, just like she's done before, and green eyes shoot up to look at her in surprise, "I'd go as far as to say that I care about you despite of the fact that you're a saviour. I don't care much for that. I just care about you being Emma."

Emma offers a small, tentative smile and her wrist is warm beneath Regina's fingers. "Sometimes I think you're the only one who does," she murmurs, and Regina wants to ask about the pirate and whatever he's said now, but somehow the words get stuck in her throat.

"I think you're so much more than just the saviour, Emma," she reassures her, because for some reason she's started to really loathe whenever Emma gets that look on her face; the look where she's hurt, but doesn't say it, doesn't argue it, and Regina misses that – misses the fire that Emma used to carry with her wherever she went; misses the fire in which she'd fought tooth and nail for Henry; taken down the tree in Regina's garden and been the first person in nearly three decades who stood up against her.

Now all Regina sees in the other woman is compliancy. She's wearing something that might very well be out of her mother's closet, and that godforsaken leather jacket almost never hangs on her back anymore, not since they returned from the Underworld. All she sees is Emma putting all of her faith in a guy who doesn't deserve it, following his every whim and wish like he's the most precious thing in the world. Honestly, Regina can't even explain why she went on that inane rescue mission to begin with, or yet – she can. Because she did that for Emma.

Who is Emma doing all of this for? Sometimes it appears to Regina that she's just doing what her parents want her to do, and it's so unlike Emma, and Regina loathes it. Loathes this lesser version of Emma who stands in front of her now, watches her with wide eyes and slightly parted lips. It's not her Emma, the Emma who-

"Do you regret it?" Emma whispers next, turns her wrist over and lets it slip through Regina's hold, their fingers brushing instead.

Regina watches their skin against each other, the blunt nails at the end of Emma's fingers. "Regret what?"

Emma licks her lips. "Separating yourself? I mean," she pauses, eyebrows knit together as Regina looks up at her, "isn't it kind of… weird? Do you miss her?"

"I don't miss being constantly at war with myself," she honestly replies as she tries not to notice the fact that their fingers are now interlocked and Emma has made no attempt to move hers. "She always tried to get me to do things that I don't want to do anymore, and it was," she searches for the right words, "exhausting to be on my toes all the time."

Nodding, Emma says, "But she also had some good sides, yeah?"

Regina nods. It's kind of hard for someone else to understand, she expects, but if anyone is to at least understand it a little bit, it is probably going to be Emma, because Emma had experienced the darkness. She hadn't let it consume her, but she'd felt it. "I miss her… passion, I guess. I miss how she loves and hates so fiercely."

Emma's free hand comes up to rest against her cheek; warm and comfortable, and so very loving. "So do you. I don't think that's limited to only her."

She can't hide her smile, and Emma stands in silence next to her, as Regina bends her head to continue searching for a solution. She'll be damned if she lets some figure under a hood get the better of Emma Swan.

—-

The Evil Queen wants to tear them apart, and really, it should come as no surprise to Regina, because if there's anything her evil half knows, it's how to strike where it hurts. And now Regina herself is on the other end of that wrath; the wrath that threatens to take her family away from her because she knows she can.

And no matter what Snow and Charming say to assure her evil other half that it is never going to be possible, Regina is worried. The Evil Queen just tricked Regina into killing another – admittedly not innocent – person, but Regina did it, because it was Snow and Charming, and damnit if she doesn't care about them now, too.

What has her life become?

She has worry chipping away at a knot in the pit of her stomach now, worry that the Evil Queen might just succeed in some way or other. That she might rip away the first semblance of family that Regina has in many years. Snow and Charming, insipid as they are, is family. And Henry, her son, who doesn't deserve wedges and fairytale characters ripping apart his life, and Emma, her- God, Emma. Emma.

Regina has no idea what she will do if the Evil Queen manages to split their family into pieces; a family that finally, after years of fights, of he's my son, no he's not he's mine, of curses and witches, of darkness consumed and taken, of always working, always trying so hard —- if she takes it away, what will Regina have left?

That is why she wanted to get rid of her darker half to begin with; why it hadn't needed much consideration and the serum in Emma's hands, and Regina had done it. Hoping to finally rid herself of the parts of her that threatened, constantly, to betray her, to spill out, to give into anger and vengeance and forget that she really isn't interested in crushing Snow White's heart to dust between her fingers anymore. That all she wants is Henry, family dinners, Emma's stupid idiocy and a peaceful – for once just peaceful and happy – life with her son and his other mother in Storybrooke.

But how foolish had she been to think that it can really be that easy. That life can hand her goodness for once, instead of just misery and loneliness. And instead of having the Evil Queen inside of her – where she might wreck havoc on Regina's mind, but at least only on Regina's mind – she has now released her into the open, leaving everyone else to deal with her, too.

Emma seems busy with the one-handed pirate, and for some reason that annoys Regina more than it does Snow and Charming, so she's left with the two of them, trying to goad Zelena onto their side, to show her sister that the Evil Queen isn't the better choice between them. Oh, and to help free Artie, of course. Snow is very adamant about that.

Of course the Evil Queen finds it pathetic that Regina's even there with the Charmings, and she regards Regina with that evil sneer and fire gleaming in her eyes.

"Oh look at you," she says each word carefully, slipping closer in her high heels and skintight leather. Her cleavage dips dangerously low, and Regina raises an eyebrow. "What have you become, Regina? On the Charming team now. Pathetic," she spits out the last word, lashes fluttering against her powdered skin.

Snow straightens her back and says, "Regina's finally chosen to be on the right side, and I can promise you that we won't let you ruin this family. We've fought too hard for it to watch it fall apart because of you."

The Evil Queen snaps her head to the side and watches Snow carefully. "You think you can prevent this from happening?" She steps closer, reaches her hand out and lets it hang in front of Snow's chest in a silent threat, "Regina throws me away like yesterday's trash. I decide to ruin all of the things she cares most about."

David takes a step closer, vainly attempting to protect his wife. "You can try all you want, but we don't have secrets from each other, not anymore. Emma told us about her visions, and we're working to fix that."

"And look at us," Snow adds with a set jaw, "we're no less together after you tried to plant that seed in our minds."

She laughs; the Evil Queen laughs and flips the long tail on her jacket, blood red lips ending in a sneer as she stares down at Snow. "That," she whispers carefully, white teeth glinting in the sunlight streaming in through the windows in Zelena's small farm house, "was just the beginning."

Regina sighs. She's just about done with this conversation now, because no matter what they say, her other half is not going to give in so easily. They got what they came for, Artie is safe, and Zelena is still pissed, so Regina will have to worry about that at another time. "If you don't have anything more to add, I think we'll be on our way."

The Evil Queen snaps back to look at her. "Oh, I know things you don't even want to think about, dear Regina," she whispers, her finger reaching out to stroke carefully across Regina's set jaw. Regina shivers at the contact. "Don't forget, you and I used to be just one until very recently."

"What are you talking about?" Regina asks her. Her heart beats steadily against her ribcage, and her head is cradled in the Evil Queen's hand. She stares at her with hard eyes.

The Evil Queen tuts. "Are you sure you want me to talk about that in front Snow White and Prince Charming?" The lilt in her voice suggests that Regina should probably be afraid of whatever the Queen knows, and she feels her throat tighten.

David steps forward, a hand pressed to the sword on his hip. "What?" he asks, "What is she talking about, Regina?"

Regina stares at her counterpart, eyes locked on the exact copies of her own, except these doesn't hold the warmth she has grown accustomed to seeing when she looks in the mirror. "I don't know what she's talking about," she tells David and Snow without tearing her eyes away from the other woman.

The Evil Queen tilts her head and drops her hand. "Ah ah aah," she shakes her finger dismissively, lips curled in a disappointed sneer. "I thought you guys didn't keep secrets from each other anymore." She steps closer, eyes gleaming. "Now, why would you lie to them then?" She places her finger on her chin and makes a thinking face.

Snow side-eyes them. "Regina…"

Regina narrows her eyes and flips her hair. "You've got nothing. She's making things up." She says the last part directed at Snow and Charming, but there is a steady beat inside of her chest and a feeling of dread creeping up her spine. How would she know? How could she know? It's a part of Regina that has nowhere near touched the evil side of her; a part she has buried away and tried to ignore, only let out when she's her most fragile and content.

The Evil Queen laughs, "You keep forgetting," she repeats, "that up until very recently you and I were the same person." She steps back, throws her arms out and looks so out of place in Zelena's small kitchen. "I have all your memories. I know all your secrets."

David turns his head slightly to look at Regina. "Don't listen to her, she's trying to mess with your head."

Sighing, the Evil Queen fingers a piece of hideous knick-knack on the shelf next to her. "I know all your feelings," she continues and picks up a porcelain monkey in front of her. She holds it daintily between her fingers and watches it carefully as she speaks. "I know who you have them for. What you think about late at night with your hand down your pants."

Regina stiffens and tries not to notice the way Snow's cheeks tinge red and David looks awkwardly towards the ground. She sets her jaw and knows, just knows, that the Queen is so very aware of what she's doing and who she's doing it in front of, and everything; everything with her is carefully planned out and executed, and she wills her mind away from blonde hair and fair skin and eyes that are so very, very green.

"Yes," she croaks out, narrowing her eyes and keeping a cool demeanour, even if she is crumbling apart on the inside. The Queen might know, but if Snow and David find out —- she'd rather bury herself. "So I take care of my own needs. There's nothing shameful about that, we all have them." She arches an eyebrow and snarls, "At least I'm not seducing Rumpelstiltskin."

The Queen's eyes narrow too, a mirror reflection of Regina herself. "Watch it," she spats, stepping closer once more. "I can so easily let slip who their precious," she spits out the words slowly, pronouncing each with the uttermost care, "reformed… Regina has feelings for. Who she longs for, who her heart beats for."

Holding out her hand, Regina makes a fireball and wishes – dreams – to throw it at her lesser half, but she knows it will be to no avail.

Snow's hand comes to rest on her elbow and the faint touch of her once-enemy makes the fire fizzle out. "Regina, ignore her. We got what we came here for. Let's just leave it and go find Emma."

"Em-ma," the Evil Queen whispers, blood red lips tasting the name as it slips across them. "Yes, why don't you go find her. Your precious Em-ma." She directs the last part at Regina with a pointed and perfectly raised eyebrow. "I'm sure Regina will just love that, won't you?"

David offers her a look and says, "What do you mean?"

The Evil Queen sneers at him and whips up her hand. "I think I'll let Regina explain that for you," she finishes, and then she's off in a cloud of purple, leaving behind a pair of very confused Charmings and a seething Regina.

—

Of course Snow White – being Snow White, of course, and thus an insufferable, insipid… Snow White – will not rest until she knows what the Evil Queen was talking about, and therefore she finds plenty of excuses to find Regina on her own. Even if they are in the middle of far more important things than Regina's… she flinches at the thought… feelings.

"Regina, you can just tell us, you know," she whispers as they stand in the kitchen in the loft, preparing sandwiches for everyone, while David is busy with Baby Neal, and Emma and Hook are on the couch, sharing whispers and looking all together too cosy for Regina's stomach. "Is it because you're still upset about losing Robin Hood?"

With a frown, Regina freezes near the sink. Robin Hood? Goodness, she hasn't thought of him since before New York and portals, and she feels guilty for a second, because Robin was a good man and she cared so much for him, but he's not- he could never be- no. "This is not about Robin Hood," she whispers, her eyes meeting Snow's ever concerned ones.

Snow stands impossibly close to her, eyes expressive and wide. "But Regina, she was being serious. I know the Evil Queen, she wasn't just messing with you. And if she's trying to tear us all apart, don't you think we're allowed to know what she's talking about?" Snow watches her carefully, eyes never leaving Regina's face, even if she is supposed to be slicing up tomatoes.

"Snow," Regina firmly says, and she wishes so desperately that Snow White would just, for once, stop obsessing and meddling in things that she shouldn't obsess over meddle in. Like Regina would tell her a secret. Obviously not, which her other half very well knows. "I'll ask you to please let it go. For once, just let it go." She turns to the side again and wipes her hands in a dishtowel, waiting for Snow to finish with those damn tomatoes.

Snow turns to her tomatoes with an indignant huff. "Not if it concerns all of us, Regina, then no, I won't let it go," she firmly says, and of course that's the moment that Emma decides to appear in the kitchen, as if Regina isn't having enough troubles handling one Charming at the time.

"What concerns all of us?" Emma asks and picks up a slice of tomato from the cutting board, which one, makes Regina want to reprimand her for snacking before dinner, but two, really pleases her because Emma's eating a vegetable. The blonde pops it into her mouth and studies Regina with careful eyes.

Regina says "Nothing," at the same time as Snow says "Regina has feelings for someone," and Regina drops the dishtowel and turns to the fridge while Emma snacks on another piece of tomato.

"Woah, Mom, why would Regina's," she pauses, eyes turning to Regina once more, flickering slightly as the brunette determinedly stares into the fridge as a means of avoidance, "feelings concern any of us?"

Closing the door to the fridge, Regina turns to Emma with a stiff smile. "Thank you," she says, before moving back to the cutting board to finish the sandwiches. A hungry teenager will be arriving soon, and she does not want to disappoint him.

Snow is not giving up though, as always, she wants to get on Regina's nerves as much as she can. "But it's about us, about this family, and if it's something that can tear us apart, don't you think we deserve to know?" Her voice turns higher and higher, and Regina feels herself grow more and more annoyed. Why again is it that she's now considering this insipid woman her family? Oh, Henry. And Emma. Henry and Emma, she reminds herself.

Emma's eyes flicker towards Regina's once more, and Regina looks at her as she tries to understand the look in her eyes, the way that they carefully trail over Regina's face and her jaw seems to set. There's something there, something unreadable that Regina might have wanted to contemplate further if she was a person who entertained silly ideas and hopes. "I just don't see how Regina's love life can have anything to do with all of us," Emma finally says as her eyes move towards the first sandwich Regina assembled and her teeth dig out to bite her lip.

"I don't know," Snow muses, finally putting the knife down, finished with the tomatoes, "The Evil Queen just said that," she freezes in her movements, something clearly occurring to her, and she gasps and turns to Regina with surprised eyes, "No," she whispers, and Regina knows instantly that Snow knows, that she's figured it out in that love-infested brain of hers, because of course she has, because of course none of her secrets are ever safe from Snow White. "No," she repeats, and her head tilts to the side as her eyes lock onto Regina's.

Confusion is written clearly on Emma's face at this point. "What?" She demands to know, her eyes moving from her mother to Regina and then back to her mother again, "What am I missing here?"

Snow takes a tentative step closer to Regina, hand outreached to touch her. "Regina, why haven't you said-"

And Regina grabs her hand and transports them upstairs in a purple fog, landing in what used to be Emma's bedroom, and before Snow can say anything or even realise what has happened, Regina has closed the door with a flick of her hand and is leaning against the wall with stiff shoulders and dread creeping up her spine. She wishes that her life could hand her something more than just this; that life could be something other than disappointments and heartbreak and her own pathetic despair. Not even ridding herself of her evil half has changed the outcome, not that she had really believed it would be that easy.

"Regina!" Snow hisses loudly and sits down on the bed with a red face and judging eyes. Regina is uncertain whether she is upset about the revelation or the fact that she just magicked them upstairs.

"For the love of God," Regina rasps and casts a glance towards the closed door, "please do lower your voice, Snow!"

Snow crosses her arms in front of her chest and stares up at Regina. "How long have you been in love with Emma?" is the first thing that pops out of her mouth; her face is unreadable, and Regina lets her continue, "Now that I know, why haven't I seen it before? So many things make sense to me now, like New York and your dislike for Hook, and-"

Regina cuts her off, "I don't dislike Hook," she lies and taps her heel slightly against the wooden floor.

Snow gives her a look like really? and says, "Please, Emma told me what you said to her in the Underworld."

She knows instantly what Snow is referring to, the part about Emma being too good for Hook, but Regina pretends that she doesn't and flicks an invisible dust bunny off her blazer. "Alright, so I might have a slight dislike for the rum-soaked pirate, but he tortured me," she argues, even if the torture is the least of the problem.

Patting the spot next to her on the bed, Snow says, "Come sit," and Regina follows orders without blinking and it feels like she's about to walk straight into some speech about True Love or always finding each other or something else entirely hopeless like that, and why does it feel like Snow tries to mother Regina, even if she's older than her? "Why haven't you said anything?" Snow whispers quietly when they're right next to each other.

Regina stares at an ugly throw pillow on the bed. "There's nothing to say," she answers, "I don't believe it's something all of you deserve to know."

"Does Emma know?" Snow asks next, because of course she asks the golden question that Regina's not even sure she knows the answer to. Has she told Emma? Certainly not. But that doesn't mean that Emma doesn't know.

She shakes her head. "I don't think so," is her answer. "I mean, she has Hook and I had Robin Hood, and…" She's not quite sure what her point is supposed to be, so she lets it hang in the air between them as she turns her head and looks at Snow beside her.

Snow's brow furrows in such an Emma-like fashion that Regina can't help but feel fondness for her. "What was that even with Robin Hood then? Did you have feelings for Emma when you were with him?"

Regina fidgets with the blanket beneath them, eyes trained on the triangular pattern as she muses it over. "I cared deeply for Robin," she honestly says, "but in retrospect I believe that us being soulmates was more of a… friendship kind of thing." She looks up again, meeting Snow's eyes as she licks her lips, "I've had feelings for your daughter for a very long time, Snow."

Snow's smile fades in understanding and she reaches a hand over to gently clasp it with Regina's. "I think," she begins, her voice melodic and soft in the small space between them, "that it's a shame that Emma doesn't know that she has options."

"Options?" Regina asks in confusion, brow furrowed as she looks at Snow, "What do you mean-?"

The other woman squeezes her hand comfortingly. "I just mean that Emma," she pauses, "might want something different if she knew that she could have it." She looks at Regina so expectingly, and Regina just stares at her, not sure if she's reading this conversation correctly. She opens her mouth to say something, but Snow beats her to it, "You," she firmly says, "I'm talking about you as an option, Regina."

Regina just blinks at her. Did she just-? But how? She feels her palms grow sweaty. "Is that honestly your reaction to finding out that your once mortal enemy is in love with your daughter?" she hears herself ask in disbelief, "That it's an option?"

Snow's lips curl into a smile. "Call me romantic, but yes. I think Emma would love to know that she has options," she offers.

She can't help the feeling of hope that floats through her body at that; at the thought that Snow wouldn't hate her – doesn't hate her – for the feelings that she has harboured for their True Love child (a child that she once wanted to kill), but kept hidden in a tightly locked jar inside of her. It doesn't mean that it will ever be anything, because Emma has Hook and their hollow house, and there's currently a death-sentence hanging over Emma's head because Regina still hasn't figured out what to do about the tremors and the figure under the hood. But still, it's a nice thought, a feverish dream, that she'd ever deserve Snow's blessing and Emma's love, but she hopes and dreams and tries to imagine a life where they hadn't gone to the Underworld to bring back Hook and Regina had had the guts to face her feelings.

She doesn't tell Snow about whispered truths in the hot night at sea, of bodies pressed together, of Emma's kisses and wandering hands. She doesn't say anything, because she's never talked to anyone about that, and now is certainly not the time.

Regina sighs and says, "Snow, it's very kind of you, but I don't think anything good would come of telling Emma anything. What we have works for us and Henry, and," she draws in a breath and straightens her back, "she's got a lot to deal with now anyway. I wouldn't want to burden her."

"She wouldn't see it as a burden," Snow responds and she gives Regina's hand another squeeze before she stands up from the bed and moves towards the door, "Just think about it," she adds, the door closing with a soft thud behind her.

Regina stares out the window and thinks and thinks and thinks.

A/N: So please let me know what you think? There'll be more Swanqueen interactions in the other parts, though it obviously mostly deals with Regina's emotions towards Emma and the fact that the Evil Queen can mess with that.