A/N So this story is set several years in the future of Storybrooke. I am going to be writing as if Neverland and Pan happened but Zelena did not, mostly because it helps me bypass Hook and Robin and also it means that I don't have to write baby Neal into the story because I do not have the energy for that.

It does start off a little sad for our leading ladies but then again when is anything easy? As always please please please let me know if you like it by following, reviewing etc. Enjoy!


While Regina surveyed herself in the mirror, she was faced with a harsh reality. She was absolutely devastated. She looked the same as she always did, her posture strong and her chin tilted defiantly but she had changed too much to be able to fully commit to the image. The last few years had meant a lot of changes, at that moment she was not the Queen she was in the past and she could never be again. She was a loyal friend, a devoted mother and a loving wife. And she was in a lot of pain.

She gasps a fist clutching at her heart and the pain ripped through her chest. She had spent the morning clinging to the idea that she was overreacting and that it was not as bad as it seemed. After all Regina did have the tendency to be dramatic at times.

She was dressed for a day in the office, and knew that she had to leave within the next five minutes to make it on time. They had plans for today, she was taking a half day and Henry was coming home for the weekend, then they were spending the Monday together. Except it was unlikely any of that was going to happen now.

Then suddenly she heard a key in the lock, and before she could muster her pride she was running down the stairs. A taller figure ducked its way through the door, but it is not who she was expecting.

"Henry," She whispered and her stomach bottomed out, he was not meant to be here until the afternoon and he was certainly never meant to see her like this. "Why are you here?"

Despite the fact that Henry now towered over her, she was still an intimidating woman so he shuffled this feet nervously.

"I thought you would be at work already…why aren't you?" Henry asked, "I thought I'd beat traffic and have a nap while you and Ma were at work."

"You skipped class to miss traffic!" Regina burst out, hands on hips. "That is unacceptable behaviour Henry Daniel Swan-Mills."

Henry at least had the good grace to at least look ashamed of himself, so he looked at his shoes and mumbled an apology.

Regina sighed, "I do not have time right now but do not think you are off the hook young man."

"I know," He said, shouldering his bag, "how about I get you and Ma lunch at Granny's?" He grinned cheekily, because it had been well over a year since Henry had paid at Granny's. Apparently he had made a much better waiter than Ruby had when she was his age.

Regina realised that there was no way they could hide this from Henry, even if she somehow avoided lunch the second he walked into the kitchen her cover would be blown. She had made quite a mess the previous night. Besides the pain was just too fresh for her to ignore. The small smile had she had held in place while talking to Henry dropped and unbidden a small sob burst through her lips.

Henry immediately dropped his bag and enveloped his mother in a hug. His big stature dwarfed her, and before she could protest he was leading her into the kitchen, mumbling something about hot chocolate.

"Wait…Henry" She tried to say just before he could cross the threshold, but it was too late.

"Shit mom," Henry breathed as he took in the kitchen, "did you do this?"

Regina winced and nodded. She was always telling Henry had he had to learn constructive way to channel emotions but it was not something that she had ever managed to get the hang of herself. Thankfully, Henry never said anything merely stepped over the smashed plates and glasses in order to pull two of the remaining mugs from the cupboard and carefully began to make hot chocolate.

"So was it magic?" Henry asked after several moments of silence. All the judgement was gone from his voice, a few years of joined therapy had led to this. Magic was not something that Regina could ignore, it was built into her system, both an addiction and an integral part of her makeup. Not using it was equally, if not more dangerous, than using it. Over the last few years they had set up sanctions on magic use in the town and Regina was as strict as anyone when it comes to using them. There were times and places for taking the edge off of her magic build up and her kitchen was not the place. Still mistakes happened.

"Yes. It had been a while since I blew off steam and well…I lost my temper." Regina conceded,

"How are you feeling now" He asked, having experience first-hand what the over exerting herself with magic could do.

"I am exhausted and sore" She replied honestly, because her whole body was aching and her she felt emotionally raw "Give me a moment Henry, I will call the office and inform them that I will be working from home today."

She leaved the room and made the call. Her secretary did not complain, Regina was good enough at her job that she did not always have to go into the office and she did not have any meetings scheduled for that day. Once that was done, she took several deep breaths because this situation had spiralled out of control fasting than she would have thought possible. It was not Henry's job to be cleaning up their mess, she had thought she would have time to at least figure out how to tell Henry this.

She knew that he would start to worry if she were anyway for too long, so before she really has time to decide what she is going to say to him she is walking back into the kitchen, her face impassive.

"Mom you can drop the act, I know you're a mess." Henry said with a smile as he handed her the hot chocolate. She took it gratefully, breathing in the scent of cinnamon, despite the fact that it was not her favourite addition to drink, she was almost always given hot chocolate with it in it. It was just outside of Henry's comprehension that not everybody loved it as much as him and his mother.

"So are you going to tell me what happened or are you going to claim you just got tired of our crockery and kitchen appliances?" He laughed a little as he spoke, but it did not reach his eyes nor did Regina even crack a smile.

"Your mother and I had a fight." She said tightly, while she surveyed the damage of the room around her. The majority of the damage was situated at the opposite end of the room, because she had been stood almost exactly where she and Henry were now sitting. So her target at been at the other end of the room.


"Regina, Christ will you just calm down!" Emma had screamed across the room, she ducked again as a plate smashed just above her head. Regina paid her no mind flicking a wrist that sent several glasses flying in Emma's direction.

"Why should I?" Regina had screeched back, the cupboard doors shaking as she tried to contain her anger. It had been too long since she had gotten some magic out of her system and she was paying for it now. She was very close to losing control. Her eyes flashed purple and tears had streamed down her face. She had been terrified, because it had been so long since she had felt so out of control and longer since being out of control had felt so good.

"Do you want me to calm down so you can justify your actions?" She shouted, sending the waffle-maker smashing against the wall, "tell me saviour, tell me how this links to you being the oh so pure hero!"

"No!" Emma had pleaded, her own face a matching picture of anguish, "no, I fucked up. I just need you to calm down."

"I will not calm down!" Behind her the toaster had blown up sending shards everywhere a few of them had landed in Regina's hair and she seemed to not notice.

"Please, 'Gina!" Emma stood opening her hands in a gesture of peace, "Please, I know that you hate me right now and you deserve too. But you are going to hurt yourself."

"So now you care about hurting me?" Regina had shouted but her voice was cracking as the anger was making way for the sorrow that had been threatening to overtake her since this whole incident had begun.

She raised her hands again, several more of the plates raised themselves into the air. Emma did not move but continued to appeal to Regina taking steps forward.

"Regina…you need to breathe." Emma had implored as Regina raised her hands further, but just before she sends the plates racing towards Emma her hands dropped. Causing the plates to crash around her as she fell to the ground, a deep and heart-wrenching sob overtaking her system.

Emma had raced to her without minding the debris that lay around the kitchen, but Regina had shook her head.

"Please," She had begged her voice breaking uncontrollably, "just go."

Emma had stood for several minutes watching Regina cry before she had eventually nodded and left the room.


"Are you going to tell me what you were arguing about?" Henry asked as he watched his mother zone out, she shook her head. This was for her to figure out and she would not damage him by putting him in the middle.

"But it was a big fight?" He asked almost nervously, his mothers were known for bickering, part of what made them so great was the fact that they were always challenging one another. So small fights were nothing to talk about. She nodded, but chose not to elaborate.

"So do you want to go to Granny's for breakfast and we can clean in here later?" Henry asked, desperate to cheer her up a little and perhaps figure out what had gone on between his mothers.

"No." Regina snapped loudly, which caused Henry to jump. She took a deep breath "No, perhaps we can go for an ice cream or something instead."

"Sure," Henry said slowly, picking up the mugs and taking them to the sink, "but mom, you might want to fix your hair before we go anywhere."

Regina's hand flew to her hair and she felt how mussed it still was after her sleepless night. She agreed with Henry and told him to get his stuff out of the car as he was doing so.

He had just dumped his stuff in his room and made his way back to the kitchen to at least begin to tidy some of the mess when his phone began to ring.

His eyes widened when he saw the name on the ID and he answered without any hesitation.

"Kid, where are you?" Emma whispered frantically down the phone the second he picked up.

"Where am I?" Henry snapped, "I'm at home, where you should be!"

"Shit, I'm at your dorm room I thought I could surprise you and we could drive back to Storybrooke together." Henry took a deep breath, he had not had the chances he had with Regina to get to understand her but that did not mean Emma did not have issues of her own. Where Regina had a constant battle with magic and a blackened heart, Emma had issues with not running from problems. Obviously whatever had happened the night previous was a big problem, for both of them.

"Ma…" Henry began, but was cut off.

"I know, I know kid, I just fucked up okay? I'm on my way back now, look after your mom until I get there."

"Of course." Henry said before he hung up. He began to sweep up the beginning of the debris. His mom sure had made a mess of the place.

"So are you planning on telling me that your mother is on her way back or are you planning on just letting me found out when she is sitting on the doorstep?" The dry tones of Regina caused Henry to jump and swear, he ignored the glare from his mom at his use of language and chose to answer her question instead.

"I hadn't decided yet. It's always fun to see her on the doorstep." He smiled her but Regina was tight-lipped in return. It was almost a running joke in their household, every time Emma had done something wrong she would often wait on the doorstep for Regina to return from work, normally armed with flowers or other ways to woo her back. Not that she normally needed to woo Regina back, despite her frosty demeanour she was normally putty in Emma's hands.

"I don't think this can be solved by a kiss on the porch dear." Regina spoke softly as looked at Henry sadly. "I'm sorry."

Henry shrugged, his mother's argued a lot but they never said things like that. It was part of a decision they made many years ago, since both of them had extreme abandonment issues, they never threatened to leave each other no matter how bad it got. If his mom was saying things like that it meant it was bad. Worse than it had ever been before. Just as Regina did not like to show her weakness in front of Henry, he did not want to show her how much this upset him it would destroy her to cause him any pain.

"Hen," Regina reached up to ruffle his hair, "you know that no matter what happens between the two of us. It in no way lessens out affections for you?"

"I know," He replied giving her a reassuring smile, "I was just looking forward to spending a relaxing weekend with you."

"I know," Regina replied, "tell you what it will take the idiot a couple of hours to get here. Why don't we go get breakfast by the docks and I will quiz you about your love life, grades and berate you for skipping your classes."

"You know if you are splitting up, I don't think you can call her the idiot, it's rude." Regina glared at him, thunder in her eyes. "Okay, okay I'm sorry. Sounds like a deal."


Despite the circumstances they actually managed to have a pretty good morning together. Regina quizzed him good-humouredly but incessantly about his life at college. What he ate, when he slept, what his roommate was like, and most importantly what his love life was like. He tried to dodge those questions and laughed when his mom pointed out that he was acting very suspicious. She had almost forced him into a barber's chair to get his hair coat when his phone buzzed in his pocket announcing Emma's return.

Regina had instantly gone silent and he had been unable to get another word out of her the whole way home. She had even allowed him to drive which had never happened before.

The drive back was perhaps the longest of Henry's life, which was saying something as they often walked to the docks during lazy weekends so it took less than five minutes to drive. Never before had he seen his mom so pale, she was actually nibbling at her bottom lip a habit that she absolutely abhorred.

Just as he expected Emma was sitting on the front steps when they pulled up. She stood when she saw them. Henry kissed his mom on her cheek before exiting the car. He moves to Emma, who immediately enveloped him in a hug.

"I'm sorry that you are caught up in this kid," She whispered giving him one last squeeze before releasing him. Henry said nothing but looked back at his mom, who was still sitting in the car, staring straight ahead. He clapped his Ma on the shoulder, before heading inside because he did not want to witness this. He had already decided he was going to message Grace because he knew that she was also coming home this weekend.

Once he was in his room, he immediately berated himself for packing his laptop rather than just putting it on the seat next to him as he drove as he his moms voices made their way into his room. Because moving inside the house and not displaying all your problem to the street was far too normal for these two.

"Will you just give me a chance to explain myself?" Emma sounded like she was crying but when Regina replied it was with the worse voice in her arsenal, the cold and detached one.

"I do not see how that is necessary. After your actions last night I do not see a situation in which I will be listening to your half-baked excuses again."

"Regina, don't I'm not making excuses, but I am apologising I am sorry. Can you hear me? Sorry."

Henry began to rummage frantically in his bag for headphones anything that will stop him from having to listen to his mother's arguing.

"I hear you Emma! That's the problem I always do and like always I believe you, but I had a wonderful evening planned for us yesterday and I ended the day by almost destroying our home because of you. So I hear you, but I don't to if I can forgive you. Not just yet."

There is a deafening silence, and despite his earlier desperation not hear this discussion Henry paused realising just how important the next words out of his mothers mouths were. He opened his window, knowing that the next words spoken would float easily up to him.

"Well…" Emma spoke, "What are we going to do then?"

"I don't know dear," Regina admitted her voice had lost its cold edge, and sounds tearful.

"Okay," Emma said a sob breaking out from her lips, "I guess I'll go stay with my folks for a few days."

"That would be best I think."

Henry listened as gravel crunched, indicating that Emma was walking away from Regina. Tears fell silently down his cheeks, he did not know what had happened but he had been sure they were each other's happy ending.

That was when the screaming began.

It was not the screaming of heartbreak or sadness but the scream of terror when pain rips through you so badly you will as if your entire body is going to explode. Regina began screaming first, and Henry only just heard Emma call out to her when she began screaming herself.

He launched himself down the stairs as the agonised screams of his mother's filled the air. He jumped the last half a dozen and landed in the foyer with a heavy thud, just as the screaming came to an end.

Racing outside he discovered both of his mother's out cold on the path, their hands stretched out to one another. Their finger's not quite touching.

A/N Don't worry I am not trying to cause you unnecessary pain and if you keep reading you will find out what Emma did, although I would love to hear your theories.