A.N.: This fic is not in any way connected to my other fic "What if."

Chapter 1

A shooting star crossed the midnight sky. The ringing on the clock tower declared the start of the new day.

A dark figure stood in the moonlight and just looked at the forest lying in front of the castle.

'Oh, the only thing I always wanted on this day was to have a loving family by my side… But I suppose, it's just not meant to be…'

I woke up, but just kept on lying in my bed without opening the eyes.

Yesterday I lost the only thing I treasured most in my life. My son. My little boy. I had no choice but to let him go. Let him go to never see him again. To never see him grow up, to never see him finish school, university, to never see him get married, start his own family. To never hug him, ruffle his hair, see his smile.

This was slowly and tortuously killing me. I wanted to turn, bury my head into the pillow and just stop breathing. Stop this pain from eating me alive. But strong hands wrapped around my waist didn't let me do this.

'Wait, strong hands?'

I immediately turned around and looked at the stranger in my bed. Only it wasn't a stranger. Far from it.

Here in front of me was lying the father of my son with his hands possessively wrapped around me, pressing my body closer to him.

I jumped up in the bed, in the process tugging the blanket to my chest and successfully waking the man up.

Emmet Anthony Swan blinked a couple of times, wrinkled his nose in distaste and squinted at me.

"'Ginaaa…" he groaned. "'s too early…" with this said, Emmet tried to pull me back to him. "Come back here."

I was rendered speechless by his arrogance. Not only he was in MY bed, but now he was trying to drag me back to said bed with him. Luckily I managed to dodge his grabby hands and get out of it.

"M-Mr. Swan! What are you doing here?!" I screeched, piercing him with my gaze. It's a pity my glares never really worked on him.

Well, at least it got his attention. Emmet fully opened his eyes, rolled to my side of the bed and swung his legs over the edge.

"Ok-ok, I'm up. See?" he whined. Then he stood up and I had a chance to fully look at him. His blond hair were tousled over his head, his sea-green eyes shone with affection and lopsided smile graced his lips. He stretched and I noticed that he had no shirt on. My eyes involuntarily ran over his chiseled torso, until I remembered who I was staring at.

However, before I could comment, Emmet embraced me and whispered in my ear.

"I see, you're not in the mood, so I'll go make some breakfast," he pecked me on the cheek, squeezed me one more time, smirked and walked out of the room.

To say I was shell shocked was to say nothing. 'What the hell did just happened here?'

Yes, my relationship with Emmet drastically improved after the trigger incident and during our time in Neverland, but it didn't give him a right to sleep in my bed, hug me and kiss me and take charge in my own house nonetheless. 'Who does he think he is? Invading my home and crawling into bed with me?' I was starting to fume.

And then one fact downed on me. We were in my house. In my house in Storybrooke. I rushed to the window and threw open the curtains. The Mifflin street was right in front of my eyes. But it just couldn't be. I destroyed Pan's curse through destroying Storybrooke altogether. I should be in the Enchanted Forest now and Emmet should be over the town line without any memories of this life. He should be with Henry.

'I clearly remember seeing them of at the edge of the town. Then we were enveloped by the smoke. After that nothing,' I tried to remember anything, but it was in vain. Nothing came to mind. 'I must find out, what is happening here…'

With new determination I went to the door, fully intended on interrogating Emmet. However, when I opened the door, I collided with a solid chest.

I looked up: in front of me stood somewhat familiar young man. He was at least 17 and was really tall, taller than me by approximately a full head. His lean frame was still dressed in his pajamas; this smiling face and this amber eyes were so familiar, but I just wasn't able to put my finger on it. 'I have a feeling that I must know him from somewhere… Who is he? What is he doing in my house?'

My thoughts were interrupted by a deep voice. "Morning, Mom," and I was embraced for the second time this morning. 'What is it? Hug Regina day?'

'Wait… Did he just say, what I think he said?' I slightly pulled away from him, but still kept my hands on his shoulders.

"Henry..?" I gasped. This day was getting only more and more strange with every passing second.

"Yeah, I know you really don't like this day, but still…" his smirk only grew wider. At this moment he looked so much like his father. "Happy birthday, mom," and Henry squeezed me so hard that my feet left the ground.

I didn't expect it, so I cried out in surprise. In my mind Henry was still my little boy, who wasn't towering over me and definitely couldn't pull off picking me up from the ground. "T-thank you."

Henry only laughed at my reaction. "I'll go wake up Ollie," said my not so little boy after he put me back on the solid ground. "We'll be down in a moment." Henry kissed me on the top of my head and went down the hall.

I couldn't keep my eyes from him, until he turned the corner. My heart warmed with love for my boy: he was so grownup. And I missed all of this. I missed at least 6 years of his life. 'Was I asleep all this time? No. It's absurd. It must be something else.'

A theory started to form in my head, and if my assumptions were right, the curse must have somehow sent me to the future and I need to come back to my own time as soon as possible. 'But first I need some answers, and I know exactly where to find them…'

Upon entering the kitchen I felt a strong smell of the waffles. My mouth instantly watered and my stomach rumbled. I've never had such a strong reaction to the food before, but this heavenly smell… I exhaled loudly 'First, answers, then food,' and I headed to the man standing at the stove.

Emmet didn't notice me and was humming some tune under his breath. He still had only his sweatpants and an apron on, and you could clearly see his muscles contracting as he was cooking.

I leaned on the counter behind him and cleared my throat, not willing to wait for him to spot me on his own accord.

Emmet jumped a little and turned around. When he saw me, his smile only widened.

"Regina," he put away the knife and wiped his hands with the apron. "Breakfast will be ready in a sec. Decaf or tea today?" Emmet asked and took a cup from the cupboard.

I was slightly confused by his proposition. 'What's wrong with normal coffee?' But I decided not to pay it too much attention. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

"Tea," he turned back to me and put a cup on the counter. "Mr. Swan, I need to as…"

"What's the deal with Mr. Swan? I thought we were over that," Emmet smirked, mischief shining in his eyes. Then he put his hands on my hips and angled closer to me. "And Happy Birthday, my love," he tried to kiss me, but I stopped him with a finger on his lips.

I really didn't want to think about the status of our relationship now. Didn't want to think about the meaning behind him sleeping in my bed, trying to kiss me and navigating my kitchen without any difficulty. It was too much to comprehend.

"Tell me, what year is it?" I demanded. Confusion flooded his eyes. He had absolutely no idea, what was going on.

"Nice joke , Regina," he asked.

"Just answer me," I growled.

"Okay, okay. Just don't stress out. It's not good for the little one," his right hand slipped from my hip to my belly and he gently caressed it. "2020."

"Little one?" I stepped away from the man. Now I was seriously furious. How could he say something like that to me? "Is this some kind of sick joke? I can't bear…"

"Regina, you're scaring me. I know you couldn't, but now…" Emmet stepped closer to me and tried to put a hand on my forehead. I swatted his hand away. "Are you feeling unwell? Is something wrong?" His voice was laced with concern.

"Mr. Swan. I'm perfectly fine. It's you, who is in need of medical attention," I took a deep breath. This won't be easy. "I… Listen to me. The last thing I remember is stopping the Pan's curse."

This time it was Emmet who took a step back. "But... but it happened 7 years ago," his voice was rough with emotions. "You… You don't remember anything?" He looked at her with desperate questioning eyes.

I shook my head. For some odd reason I didn't like seeing him like that, I wanted to soothe him somehow, but I just couldn't. Now was not the time. I needed to go back to my time-line. "I don't. But I need your help to get back to my own time."

Emmet shook his head and ran a hand through his hair as if trying to collect himself. "Yes, yes… You're right. We need to find a way…" Booming noises came from the stairway. Emmet's eyes widened and he stepped back to the oven. "We'll talk after the breakfast, okay?" I nodded and stepped closer to help him.

I took three plates out of the cupboard. "One more plate," Emmet said and I looked at him quizzically, but did as he asked.

"Regina, one more thing," I looked into his sad eyes. "Please, try to play along. I don't want to worry kids."

I didn't have time to answer him.

The sound of small feet running to me resonated over the room. A little boy rushed to me and crashed into my legs, clutching them in a dead grip. His big russet eyes looked at me with such adoration and love that I couldn't help but put one of my hands on his back, pulling him closer to me, and the other on his head, running through his soft dark blonde hair.

"Mommy," my heart skipped a beat at that. "Happiest B-day."

A.N.: This was some kind of experiment for me, 'cause I rarely write in narrative mode. So your input, opinion and advises would be really appreciated.

It would be a two-shot. I'll try to post the next chapter tomorrow or on monday. And I'm currently working on the next chapter of "What if", so it should be up soon.

Right now I'm looking for beta so if anyone is interested drop me a line or two.

Elia