Henry came out of his mother's home office and returned the tray to the kitchen where his grandmother was after making sandwiches and insisting that Henry interrupt the gathering currently going on in there to make sure they ate – and maybe to spy a little bit.

"Did it seem like they are making progress?" Snow asked him.

"Hard to say," Henry said. "When I first went in there, they were all huddled around the desk talking in low tones. They did seem to be all getting along, which I took as a good sign."

Snow considered this, especially after hearing loud voices in there when they all first gathered together and agreed it was a good sign.

In the office currently were Regina, Emma, Zelena, Maleficent, Gold, the Blue Fairy, and Tink – all magic users in some way. Regina had called them together as part of her strategy to extend the magical border of Storybrooke. There had been immediate debate on whether it was even possible, but Regina believed it was possible – at least temporarily.

Regina said it wasn't something she could do alone though.

"Storybrooke was created by a curse and that's not a possibility here," Regina said, after making her pronouncement that they should extend the border. "But with the amount of magic we have here, extending the border out should be possible even if it doesn't last long. All we need to do is get it out to that camp of theirs and I can transport in, grab Hannah, and come back, then we drop the border back to its original form."

It sounded simple enough but immediately there was a dispute among the magic users about how it would work. It wasn't the only argument Snow had heard coming from the room.

Emma was arguing against Regina being the one to go into the camp and get Hannah. Regina argued it was her responsibility since she was the reason Hannah had been captured in the first place. Emma however with a surprise ally in Mal, said that since the Home Office was after Regina it would be best if they kept her as far away as possible.

Snow didn't hear how the argument ended, but she suspected there was no way that Emma was going to let Regina do it – at least alone.

It was a couple of hours later when Emma came out of the room with Regina close on her heels.

"Let me go with you," Regina was saying.

"No," Emma said, as she put her jacket on. Neither woman seemed to notice that Snow was still there. "You need to stay here because Wendy needs to believe that you are not in control here. Besides she asked for me."

"You don't know her like I do," Regina pointed out.

"Which is why it should be me speaking to her," Emma said. "You have to admit that you are more personally invested in this because Wendy has your girlfriend."

"I get that you think I'm risking a lot in trying to save her, but she wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for me," Regina said. "I would have thought someone so eager to lecture me on personal responsibility would approve that I am trying to fix this."

"I have no issue with you trying to fix this, what I have an issue with is that every time something arises your first instinct is to offer yourself up to the Home Office because you somehow think that fixes it," Emma said.

"They are here because of me."

"No, they are here because they have this weird cult thing going on about magic," Emma said. "They are here because they think the rest of us shouldn't be here. So no, you aren't going out there with me. I will go speak to her. I will come back and tell you how it went."

"Hey, you all are the ones who said I should take the lead with all of this," Regina pointed out. "I am trying to do that."

Emma took a step closer to her but lowered her voice. "You are leading us, but leading doesn't mean sacrificing yourself. If nothing else, Henry, can't lose his mom again this quickly, so will you just let me handle this?"

Regina paused but nodded.

"Thank you," Emma said and she turned and left.

"What's going on?" Snow asked from the doorway of the kitchen where she had been cleaning up.

"One of the deputies called, Wendy is at the border wanting to speak with Emma," Regina said.

"Oh," Snow said like she just hadn't heard that conversation. "How are things going with the plan?"

"We're close," Regina said. "We have it figured out for the most part but we are discussing now where to have the magic users in place and how long we can hold the border expansion. It won't be long so we have to time this just right, and your daughter won't let me go despite the fact I have been teleporting a lot longer than she has been."

"I highly doubt that it has anything to do with your ability to teleport," Snow said. "She wants to keep you safe. Would letting her do that be such a bad thing?"

Regina looked over at Snow.

"I just don't like being told what I can and can't do."

"Oh, I know," Snow smiled. "Compromising isn't such a bad thing, however. Especially when working toward a common goal. Now, I am getting ready to head out unless you need anything else from me."

"I do not," Regina said, turning to go back into the room, but then stopping and turning. "Thank you for handling lunch."

"You're welcome," Snow said.

…

Emma got out of the car and waved off the deputy who was standing guard at the border. Wendy was sitting in a chair that she now stood up from – and another man who was standing behind her took the chair and walked off.

"It took you long enough," Wendy said.

"I am not one of your servants like that guy," Emma said, pointing to the man who was retreating with the chair. "Seriously, you have queen issues or something? Is that why you are interested in Storybrooke? Do you want to unseat the queen so you can have the throne?"

Wendy laughed. "It seems like you are the one who unseated the queen."

"Well, I couldn't have her doing anything stupid like letting you step foot in this town," Emma said, crossing her arms. "You taking Hannah for leverage is meaningless to me and the rest of this town. Regina was your only option there."

"Do you think that was my only play here?" Wendy smiled. "I admit I was surprised by you taking Regina's heart, but short of killing her, she will be mine again."

"Really? Because she escaped you once already."

"She didn't escape, I let her go," Wendy said. "She believes she escaped but that isn't what happened. She and I had reached an impasse you could say so I needed to shake up things, and what better way than to let her think she was in control? Just like you think you are in control now."

"What is your endgame here? What do you want?"

"I want Regina."

"Then why not grab her while she was in Florida if you knew she was there? Why not grab her before we got back into Storybrooke?"

Again there was that arrogant smile. "Here is the thing I fear you are not grasping, sheriff. Things happen as I want them to happen. I am in control. Now you say that Hannah is meaningless, well I disagree. I came here to tell you that you have until 8 p.m. tonight to bring Regina here, with her heart intact so she can drop the barrier."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I will shoot Hannah right in the head in this very spot and her dead body can be a reminder to you of the lengths I will go to for what I want," Wendy said. "You are on my clock, so don't be late."

Before Emma could respond, Wendy turned and walked away.

Damn it, Emma thought, this would speed things up considerably. Because she could tell, Wendy wasn't lying.

…

"We aren't ready for this," the Blue Fairy argued when Emma returned to tell them about the ultimatum.

"We don't have a choice," Regina said. "We know how to extend the border."

"In theory," the fairy argued. "We were supposed to try testing it."

"We no longer have that luxury," Regina said. "We can do this, together. Our magic combined, I have no doubt it will work."

"I am less concerned with will it work and more concerned with how long it will work," Mal said. "Zelena and I won't be at full strength. We haven't had time to recover from using our magic as much as we did. We are going to have to do this quickly."

"Are we going to wait and do it at the border when she brings Hannah closer?" Tink asked.

"No," Regina said. "Wendy will be more on guard at that time and have others with her to come into Storybrooke. We need to take them by surprise, which means hitting them before the deadline."

"That doesn't give us much time," the Blue Fairy said.

"It also gives us less time to worry or argue over it," Regina said. "She gave us till 8, we hit them at 6:30."

The Blue Fairy gave her the side-eye but no one disputed her.

"Emma will transport to the camp, grab her and transport back," Regina said, looking at Emma. "We can handle the border from here, but you should be closer to the border's edge when we extend it to cut down on the amount of space you have to traverse."

"How will I know when it worked and the border is extended?" Emma asked.

"You would be able to sense it if you knew more about magic, but I don't have time to teach you so use walkie-talkies," Regina said. "You have your sheriff's one, you just need to set up another one here and we can verbally tell you when it worked."

"Ok," Emma said. "Let's do this."

…

Emma had her dad bring over one of the spare walkie-talkies. All the magic users had left to get at least a couple of hours of rest before coming back to the mansion. Emma set up the walkie-talkie and showed Regina how to use it.

"Shouldn't you be resting too?" Emma asked asked once she was done.

"I can't," Regina said. "I am not sure the others can either, but at least they can try. Besides, my magic doesn't need recharging. Maybe now would be a good time for you to tell me what else Wendy said to you."

Emma cocked her head.

"I could tell you were holding back," Regina explained.

"It wasn't a real long conversation but she said that she let you escape," Emma said. "She said you had reached an impasse and so she decided to make you think you were in control by allowing you to escape."

Regina seemed to think about it a moment. "That actually makes a lot of sense," she said. "Damn her."

"How did you escape?"

Regina took a seat and indicated to Emma that she should as well.

"Wendy had a habit of making sure I knew when it would be a couple of days before she would see me," Regina said. "During those times, I noticed that her people got a little lax. Normally if someone was bringing me something to eat, another would stand at the door on guard. When she wasn't around, only one person ever came in with no guard. One day when I knew Wendy was gone, a guy came in to give me a plate of food and some water. I purposely dropped the water bottle and used the distraction to toss the plate of food at him, but not before grabbing the fork which I used to stab him in the side of the face then I ran and closed and locked the door. From there I just ran."

"And no one chased after you? Didn't you think that was suspicious?"

"I was chased," Regina said. "Even got grabbed once, but I kicked the man where it would hurt. Once I got outside I kept running. It took me a while to get my bearings and I assumed that that since Wendy had earlier shown me where a pocket of magic was it would be guarded so I avoided it."

"Where did you go?"

She paused. "I went to a hospital."

"Were you injured? Did they do something to you?" Emma asked, an edge to her voice.

"Where I was being held at … it was in a magic zone," Regina said.

"Then why I didn't … you couldn't do anything could you?"

"That is why Hannah reacted so strongly to you using a stun gun on me."

"Sorry," Emma said. "I didn't know."

"I know," Regina said "The hospital had an officer talk to me because they thought it was an abuse case because I had marks – electrical burns. They were also concerned that my heartbeat was a little off, but I refused the chest X-ray they wanted to do. I can only imagine their reaction to such an X-ray."

Emma couldn't help but block a smile. "Sorry," she said again. "Lily was weirdly asking when we were in Florida what it meant for you to have half a heart and how that worked in terms of things like X-rays."

"If I had my magic it wouldn't have mattered because I could have made them see what I wanted them to see," Regina said. "After I left the hospital, I risked going to the magical zone, and from there I was able to procure a vehicle and I drove down to Florida, stopping along the way in some other cities where there were magical zones."

"How did you know they had them – did you sense it?"

"I can sense them, yes, but to start, I knew where some were because Wendy had shown me a map."

"Let me guess, a map of the Eastern seaboard?" Emma said.

Regina nodded. "It would appear she led me straight there. And I didn't suspect a thing."

"Why didn't you come home?" Emma asked.

"You know why," Regina said.

Emma shook her head. "You could have come home. Or stayed when you did – just a minute more and you would have seen me tell Killian no. If you had just …"

"Just what? Again, what would have changed if I had come back?"

"I don't know," Emma admitted, standing up as she was feeling a lot of things at once. "But you didn't even give me the chance. You blindsided me with that letter. What you wrote, I wasn't expecting that. I went out there looking for you, again and again. And I told Killian, I was doing it for Henry, but he knew it was more that. Hell, even before he read the letter he knew it was more than just for Henry. I was looking for you Regina. I was looking for you because you don't get to drop a bombshell like that and walk away. You're right, I don't know what I would have done or what would have changed, but you never gave me the chance. That's all I want, is a chance."

"A chance at what?" Regina asked.

"A chance to figure this all out," Emma said, as she moved over to the couch where Regina sat down. "I know we have a lot to do with the Home Office and everything, but I'm going to ask you now – when this is all over, will you stay? Don't go back to Florida. Stay here and give us both a chance to figure this all out."

Regina could see the intensity in Emma's eyes as she said this, and she took a breath and released it before answering. "I do need to go back temporarily, but only because I should probably handle a few things given what I doing down there, and of course, I want to see the completed orphanage but, yes, after, I will come back here. I haven't handled things well, I know that, and I need to make it up to Henry, and you."

"Thank you," Emma said.