A/N: This story begins the morning before the Pilot Episode. Regina and Mary Margaret have been married for 5 years.
Mary Margaret Mills woke as the stream of sunshine came through the windows and hit her face. The sound of birds, the few that hadn't yet flown south in the fast approaching New England winter made her smile instinctively and she reached her hand out to touch her wife only to grab a handful of high thread count sheets. Turning she saw what she knew the moment before, that Regina wasn't there, she frowned a bit and made her way out of bed, grabbing her robe and making her way down the stairs to the sound of her restless partner in the kitchen.
There was bacon on the griddle, pancake batter ready to drop when people wanted it and coffee already made. Mary Margaret came up behind her and kissed her on the ear. "It's Saturday, Henry isn't even up yet. Why aren't you in bed?"
"Not all of us have our own personal natural alarm clock," Regina said with a little smile. "I'm making his favorite, cinnamon chocolate chip pancakes."
"You mean my favorite," Mary Margaret chuckled as she pulled down a mug from the cabinet.
"Side benefit."
Pouring herself some coffee she sat at the island watching Regina work, "You know he's still mad."
"I know. I asked how long he was going to keep it up the other day and he told me a bagillion years. I think perhaps I should start questioning those in charge of my son's education if he thinks that's a real number."
Mary Margaret made a pondering face, "Sounds legit to me."
"His science and math teacher must be an idiot," Regina said over her shoulder with a smile.
"Or his mother is pedantic."
"That too..." Regina said with a laugh, but it didn't reach her eyes. There was always something about Regina that was profoundly sad, like she couldn't quite hold onto happiness even when it was within her grip.
"You should have waited for me to have the adoption conversation with him." Mary Margaret said quietly.
"Yes, well, it wasn't like he was going to be put off. And I... do what I always do." Regina said with a shrug.
"Sometimes I wonder how you manage to be a politician." Mary Margaret teased.
"Fear is an extremely effective tool."
"Have you considered perhaps tin plated dictator suits you better than small town politician?"
Regina smiled as she headed out of the kitchen. "If only I had an army. I'm going to go wake the little prince. Maybe he's talking to me today."
Mary Margaret stole a piece of bacon and was pondering a second when she heard the scream from upstairs...
Henry had gone for more than a day and Graham, Mary Margaret and Regina had searched every square inch of town it seemed. The woods were next and Regina dreaded the idea of that. Storybrooke was an isolated town and there were wild animals in the woods, and it was cold at night in late fall...
Henry was smart but did he know how cold it would get at night? She wanted to go back out again but Mary Margaret and Graham had told her she had to at least eat. Which mostly involved her pushing food around on her plate until she noticed an unfamiliar car pulling up out front just as Mary Margaret's cell phone rang.
"It's Archie, he says that Henry's..."
"... home..."
Regina got up from her chair and started running to the front door. She grabbed Henry in a hug but he quickly disentangled himself and ran past her into the house. She stood slowly and looked at the blond woman she hadn't even noticed when all she could see was Henry. The echo of what Henry had said finally hitting her.
"You're Henry's birthmother?"
"Hi..." The blond gave a small smile and Mary Margaret came up beside Regina, "Are you alright, Regina. You look like you've seen a ghost."
Regina turned to her wife and nearly lost her balance as a flood of memories came back to her. A hillside. Daniel. Mother. Years of loneliness. A wedding. Snow White.
Ten years before she had taken a potion to ease her worries about the coming Savior, and instead of just her worries she'd forgotten everything but Storybrooke. A single mother, a career woman, with a town to run and a son to raise she'd found herself drawn to a mousy school teacher who had a back bone of steel hidden deep under mountain of uncertainty. They had dated for years before finally deciding to marry and raise Regina's son together. Somehow, fate in its warped sense of humor had decided that in that ten years she would fall in love with and marry the woman she hated the most in the world.
"I'm ... I'm fine Mary Margaret. Ah... would you like to come in for a drink?" Regina managed to ask Emma Swan. "I make the best apple cider in all of Maine."
"I think I'd prefer something a bit stronger."
Regina just nodded and Mary Margaret slipped a hand into the small of her back for support. She needed a drink very badly herself.