A/N: Thanks again to SouthForWinter for the beta!

And Merry Christmas and/or 25th of December! Cheers!

Her resolve crumbled as she stood staring at the house.

From the exterior, there was nothing extraordinary about the dwelling. It was a modest colonial structure that could be found in any subdivision in Maine. The shingles and siding had seen better days, but the property was neatly maintained and nicely, if frugally, landscaped.

Regina was terrified. Maybe she was a coward after all.

But maybe this wasn't necessary. Maybe she should just leave a note. Or maybe she should just leave well enough alone. Why was she here anyway? She hadn't been invited. And it's not like they didn't know how to find her if they wanted to. This was probably a huge mistake. She should just go.

"Are you going to come in or not?" a matronly woman asked from the front stoop.

Regina's voice failed her, but she squared her shoulders and slowly walked along the short path to the base of the porch stairs.

The woman was in her mid to late fifties, but her olive skin glowed with good health and the streaks of gray accented rather than detracted from her dark hair and set off her bright blue eyes.

She descended two steps and then slapped Regina across the face.

"I just don't understand what happened," Snow murmured over her oatmeal.

"I know," Red replied quietly.

"We were so in love," Snow continued.

Red nodded in support of her friend.

"I mean, he woke me up with True Love's Kiss," Snow stated in complete incomprehension. "If that isn't love with a capital 'L,' what is?"

Ruby hummed noncommittally.

"Why are you being so quiet?" Snow snapped. "Why aren't you jumping in talking about how evil she is and how we can destroy her and save James? I used to barely be able to get a word in edgewise, and now you're humming like one of my father's diplomats. What is going on?" Snow asked angrily. "What the heck happened while I was gone?" Sensing unease in her friend, she pressed her advantage. "Tell me what you know, Red."

Ruby sighed. She loved Snow; she really did, but she did not want to keep talking about this. After the bisque yesterday, Ruby had received a call from Emma, who asked her to get Mary Margaret out of the loft, since she was coming home with Henry. Agreeing with her, Ruby had convinced Snow to crash at her place, but not before her friend had consumed several fingers of rum and waxed un-poetic about True Love and Meant-To-Be and Happily-Ever-After. Given that she had eaten her Meant-To-Be before they even had a chance to have a Happily-Ever-Anything, Ruby was admittedly not the ideal person to provide sympathy and compassion. At least they'd had some time together. They'd gotten to love each other. And at least they are both still alive. Yeah, not the ideal empathizer.

But it wasn't about her today; it was about Snow. And Ruby didn't want to hurt her, but she didn't know what to say. "I slapped him," she blurted.

"What?" Snow asked, confused and somewhat amused by her friend's sudden disclosure.

"David, I slapped him. Hard," Ruby clarified, proud that she had stuck up for her friend.

"You hit James?" Snow asked. "When? Why? How long have you known about this Red?" she asked suspiciously. She couldn't believe Red knew about James and Regina and just let it happen.

"Well, umm . . ." Ruby stalled. She hadn't thought about the fact that Snow would have awkward follow-up questions.

"Was it after he kissed her in the diner?" Snow asked. She hadn't wanted to think about it when James told her about it in the hospital, but that would explain Red slapping him.

"Oh, you already know about that—thank goodness," Ruby babbled, relieved. "And it wasn't really in the diner, more the doorway, and technically she kissed him—"

"So it is her fault!" Snow exclaimed, excitedly. "I knew she'd done something to him; he'd never leave me for her otherwise! Maybe there was some kind of potion in her lipstick—have you ever noticed that it's the same shade as those evil apples of hers?"

"Snow, no," Ruby interjected quietly but firmly. "I wish I could tell you that Regina pulled some of her Evil Queen shenanigans and that David was just tricked or trapped, but she didn't, and he isn't."

"What makes you so certain?" Snow asked. She had believed David in the hospital, when he told her that he wasn't bewitched, but part of her wasn't willing to accept that truth. And, as much as she wished to stay in denial, her curiosity demanded that she know every single detail of her husband's romance with her step-mother.

"Snow, no," Ruby protested. "You don't want to hear all of this. Not right now, not today. Let's talk about something else."

"Something else," Snow scoffed humorlessly. "How about how the real curse is that the curse has been broken? I've finally found my family, but it doesn't exist anymore. Under the curse, I pined away for a married man, but at least he was pining back for me. Now he's my married man pining away for the woman who—" her voice broke when she fruitlessly searched for the words to describe what Regina was to her. Giving up, she continued, ". . . and under the curse, I didn't remember that she forced me to shove my child in a tree and grow up without me. Under the curse, my daughter was my friend; we had a relationship. Now . . . now she can barely talk to me, let alone allow me to be her mother. So, okay, Red, what would you like to talk about?"

Ruby struggled to find a topic that wasn't off limits, but everything was rife with too much meaning. Desperate to prevent a depressing silence, she asked, "Umm . . . how was the weather in the Enchanted Forest?"

Snow snorted laughter at her friend's pathetic attempt to salvage their conversation, "That's the best you can do? 'How's the weather?'"

Ruby laughed; the combination of the intense and the banal was too much. Grateful that Snow had laughed as well, though, she said, "Well, I don't know. Maybe dark curses leave behind global warming or something!"

Snow doubled over, her stress interacting with their silliness and giving her a fit of giggles, "Oh yes, I'll call the government scientists right away and let them know—forget the ozone layer, my step-mother causes global warming!"

"Watch out, Polar Bears!" Ruby added, and the two friends burst into hysterics.

The force of the blow caused Regina's eyes to well up with unshed tears, but she did not cry out. "Hit me again," she spoke quietly. "I deserve it."

But the other woman didn't move or speak. She just looked at her without a sign of emotion.

Regina nodded in understanding. She had been stupid to come. She silently turned and began to walk back up the front path to her car. She was nearly to the picket fence when she heard the screen door swing open, and a familiar voice say, "Hannah? What's going on?" Then the voice stopped abruptly and said with joyful curiosity, "Regina?"

She turned back around but kept her eyes on the ground. She couldn't bear to see the disapproval in his eyes too. "Hello, Mr. Joshua," she said quietly and formally, barely resisting the urge to curtsey politely.

"None of that, my dear," he said, striding down the walkway and pulling Regina into a big bear hug. At 6'4", the older man dwarfed the former queen and, when his thick arms engulfed her, she practically disappeared.

It felt good. It felt a lot like love.

Love she didn't deserve.

"You weren't leaving, were you?" he asked as he released her.

Regina glanced at Hannah before meeting Joshua's gaze. "I'm afraid I can't stay. I have business to attend to."

"Surely you didn't come all this way to leave immediately," Joshua said. "Please, come inside for a cup of coffee." He turned to his wife on the stoop, "Hannah, tell her that she needs to come inside for a cup of coffee."

"Of course," Hannah said politely. And then more kindly, "Come in, Regina."

"There, see," Joshua said with a huge smile and a friendly pat on the back that nearly sent the small woman sailing through the air, "you've got to come in for a bit."

Regina smiled nervously in response but allowed Joshua to guide her into the house.

After the niceties of fixing coffee and taking seats in the living room, Joshua broke the silence and asked, "What took you so long to stop by, Regina?"

Regina shifted uncomfortably. "Everything has been . . . hectic since—"

"Since your curse broke," Hannah stated matter-of-factly. "I imagine people were out for your head. I'm a bit surprised it's still attached. Did you have to kill many of them?"

"Hannah!" Joshua reprimanded.

"Josh, I love you, but we all know that The Evil Queen is the elephant in the room here—I'm just getting it out in the open," she replied.

"She's right," Regina said with a sad smile to Joshua. "I'm The Evil Queen, and that's never going to change," she said. "But, no, I didn't kill any of them," she answered. "But I killed many others, and I inflicted a great deal of pain and suffering, and I cast this curse," she continued, not meeting either of their eyes. "And I did it all in the name of your son. And for that—for all of it—I am so sorry." Her voice strained and broke.

She felt the silence descend as her throat closed up, choking off the possibility of further speech and making her lungs prickle from neglect.

"All I know," Josh said, his voice thick with emotion, "Is that my Danny loved you. He loved you like the stars love the moon, and he wouldn't love anyone 'evil.'" He reached across and grasped Regina's hand, ducking to meet her gaze. "He would forgive you, so I do too. I'm just glad that you're back with us."

Regina blinked back tears, overcome with his generosity.

Joshua looked at his wife, who was resolutely stone-faced and staring into her coffee mug, and then looked back at the distressed younger woman. Perceiving that a great many things remained unsaid, Joshua gave Regina an encouraging pat on her shoulder as he stood, "This is my cue to go and clean up the kitchen."

And he left the two women alone.

A/N: Please review!