foot taps out a beat as the doorbell fades into silence for the second time. If it were Henry he would already be inside. If there had been a major emergency both Emma and herself would have their cell phones glued to their ears. So, no, she doesn't care who's behind the door. Even if it's Snow White.

Especially if it's Snow White.

But she does care about making a show. And being in control.

Which is why she waits until with the third ring of the bell when Emma's head pops round the corner of the dining room arch.

"You gonna get that?" She asks. Her smile could be seen as sweet and innocent, if it weren't for the cookie crumbs around her mouth.

"If your mother is on the other side of that door I swear to –"

"Okay." Emma interrupts which in itself is a bad move, then steps out from her hiding spot. Now she's just asking for a well placed fireball. "If that is my mother, you only have yourself to blame."

"Me? What on earth did I do?"

"Uh, if I remember correctly you had a conversation with her on the phone. And all you did was speak in innuendos."

"It is not my fault your mother has a dirty mind and took what I said the wrong way." Regina crosses her arms. She may have redeemed herself but that didn't mean she should stop enjoying riling up Snow. She just made it so easy sometimes.

"Ugh, just answer the damn door!" Emma yells. And now there's no way Regina can claim she's not home. Glaring at Emma one last time she turns and pulls the door open shocking the brunette on her doorstep.

"About time."

Regina can't hide her shock at the snarky comment from Belle.

Bookworm certainly had teeth.

"So, can I come in?"

"Sure, Belle! Nice to see you." Emma chimes in now standing beside the door with a grin.

"This is not your home! You can't just invite people in."

"Just did." Emma smirks winding an arm around Belle shoulders and leading her in. To top it all off she winks at Regina over Belle's shoulder. She walks Belle to the study leaving Regina to wonder if Emma meant the wink to be as flirtatious as it looked.

Regina watches Emma pull Belle down on the couch and grab the books from her arms. Emma opens the top one before her brow furrowed and turned to the waiting librarian.

"It's in Elvish."

"You know Elvish?" Belle's surprise was short lived by the snort from Regina. Emma glared at the smiling woman. Regina shook her head, leaning over the couch. She ignored the warmth from her cheek as it almost rested on Emma's as she grabbed a book.

"She can recognise it. Read it? She cannot."

"It's not like you took the time to teach me." Emma folded her arms and sunk back into the couch. She was sulking and looking more and more like Henry than Regina had realised in the beginning.

"So, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I heard about your... situation and I thought-"

"You heard? From who?" Regina's face darkened at the knowledge that someone was talking about the situation. "If Miss Lucas told-"

"Ruby knows?!" Emma interrupted jumping up from the couch and glaring at Regina. "How!?"

"She's a werewolf." Regina said, rolling her eyes at Emma reaction. "She heard you talking to David."

Emma deflated at the comment. "Oh."

"Yes. Oh." Regina mocked. "Now, who told you about our... situation?"

"Rumple." Belle shrugged reaching for one of the books she'd brought. "He was giggling like a little schoolgirl so I asked him."

"And he just told you? Simple as that?" Regina sat down watching Belle.

The librarian hid a smirk before meeting Regina's eyes. "It's never as simple as that."

"Clever girl." Regina whispered after a pause matching Belle's smile. Emma sat down with a huff as they both turned to her.

"I'm totally missing something." She grumbled. Her eyes flickered back and forth between the two brunettes who, by all accounts, shouldn't be getting along this well.

"It's nothing." Belle waved away Emma's concern while flicking through the book in her lap. "All you need to know is that I know about what's happening. And I plan on helping. Unless... you don't want my help and want to remove the bracelets on your own?"

"Any help would be greatly appreciated." Regina smiles. She avoids eye contact with Emma. Knowing the blonde expected a much brasher, louder reaction to the possibility of... consummation.

"Right." Emma claps her hands together, rolling her shoulders as though she's about to fight someone. "I'll leave you to your book club."

"You're not staying?" Belle asks, fingering the pages nervously. Time alone with Regina has dwindled with the curse breaking and release from prison. And while she is desperate for answers to so many questions she isn't sure she has the guts to ask. Though she has grown a great deal after spending years in Rumple and Regina's company - unwilling as it may have been - she learnt from them. Little did they know that they sharpened the bookworm's teeth.

"Nah, I'd just spend all the time asking questions and annoying Regina." Emma shrugs as though Belle should have known this. She really should have, that's all their interactions ever seem to be.

"Oh, okay." Belle hides her face by looking down at the book. Regina watches Belle fall into herself with guilt. There are many things she wishes she could take back, but she thanks god she never killed her.

"I'll be upstairs. Play nicely." Emma says with a false seriousness lightening the situation immediately. Regina fakes annoyance at the pointed look sent her way from the blonde. Emma walks backwards smiling brightly at Belle and giving her the thumbs up in encouragement. Regina never heard Belle laugh genuinely at that moment. And looking at the surprise on her face, she wonders how long it's been since Belle heard it either.

The ease Emma exudes when she's in a room disappears with her, leaving tense silence in her wake. Their eyes fall to the books in their laps but no pages move. Regina forces herself to relax in the chair watching Belle grip the pages tightly.

It's a long minute before Belle takes a deep breath and turns the page. There is an instant change in her posture as she become absorbed in the words on the page. Her faces opens, her expression greedy at the knowledge laid before her.

Regina loses herself in thought as she turns back to the book. It's only when Belle voice calls her name that she looks up, at the clock and realises more time has passed than she expected.

"Did you find something?"

"... Not exactly." Belle says quietly, face to the book but her eyes watching her closely.

"What is it?" Regina braces herself for another confrontation. She clasps her hands over her book, shoulders tensing, and her magic begin to pulse in her veins.

"Why did you tell me those things?"

"What things?" Regina falls back on denial automatically. Defence mechanism, one of many. Archie would have a field day delving into her psyche.

"You know what I mean." Belle snaps meeting Regina's gaze dead on. Her eyes are harder than Regina's ever seen and match hers glare for glare. Regina sighs leaning back into the armchair.

"Because you were the only one who would listen."

"Because you never gave me a choice!" Belle hisses. And she's right. In her dungeon she'd silenced Belle and made her listen to her rant and rave and plot and scheme. She'd been Regina's sounding board. And then here, in Storybrooke, she'd been the only person Regina could talk to about fairy tales. Who would believe the girl in the asylum when she calls the mayor crazy?

"And I'm sorry for that." Regina's sincere in her words. It feels strange but right. And that makes her feel weirder because she feels like she's going to turn into Snow White.

"You know, sometimes I thought we had switched places. You talked of Snow White and Rumplestiltskin as though they were real people. You sounded crazy. And I felt normal."

Regina's speechless. And uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. She was never the person people revealed things to, yet she was never meant to be the one to reveal those things either. She did. To the woman sitting on her couch lost in thought.

"I don't know why you told me those things. I don't think I ever will because I don't think you know why either. But... did it help? To talk to someone, to me, did it help?"

Regina's jaw works for a moment before it shuts and all she can do is nod her head.

"Do you... do you want to talk now?"

And that's all it takes for Regina to talk of the situation she's in. Her horror of another unwanted marriage, no matter who she's married to she hates it. Belle understands. She'd heard what it was like with Leopold. Cast aside for a ghost, never more than a decorative arm piece for parading around, mother to a child she hated, alone. Once again, she hadn't been enough.

Regina talks. And talks. And talks.

Belle listens, willingly this time. She hears about Emma handing over the fairy dust after two months of silence - only after she'd appeared at Emma's door and simply said 'I forgive you' before vanishing again. She hears about where the dust had lead and how she'd stopped herself from falling into another predestined thing again.

She had finally decided to make her life her own. It didn't matter that she had some feelings for Emma that had only grown during their night of drinking and Emma doing her best to make her smile.

She finishes talking and falls back in the chair. Exhausted.

"Wow." Is all Belle has to say and then they're laughing. They're laughing so loudly that Emma stumbles into the room, bed hair and a weary expression.

"What happened?" She rubs her eyes and blinks repeatedly as though she's hallucinating. Belle catches Regina's eye, which starts them laughing again.

As she wipes the tears from her face and smiles with Belle she thinks she may have actually made a friend.

It feels good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN: Hope that clears up some confusion from the previous chapter.