The mug shattered. "Oh, uh, I'm- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." Tears quickly filling her eyes, Regina turned in attempt to flee.
Emma rose from the table. "Regina! Regina, we need to talk." She started to follow and was taken by surprise when the waitress beat her to it.
Ruby's eyes had widened as soon as she realized Regina was there. Of course, by then it was too late. The damage had already been done. She abandoned post and went after the mayor, gripping her forearm gently and guiding her into a back room. "Regina, you need to breathe, okay?"
Regina's voice matched her haunted eyes, "He looked right through me."
"I'm sorry, I thought you'd still be at work, if I'd known you were coming – "
"He looked right through me!" Regina's voice broke.
Ruby pulled her into her arms just in time for the tears to fall. "Ssh…" She stroked her fingers through Regina's hair. "I know. I'm sorry, I should have called or – I'm sorry." She gently tilted her chin up, closing the distance between them with a kiss.
It was at that moment Emma Swan found her way to the back room. "Reg – woah! Woah, when did this happen?" was her completely inappropriate reaction.
The kiss broke and twin glares were sent Emma's way, one a bit more watery than the other.
"Okay, okay." Emma held up placating hands. "Easy. That didn't exactly come out right. Regina, I was going to find you, I swear. I'm so sorry about what happened out there. I wanted to warn you, Henry…doesn't remember you."
"But you clearly do." Regina sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "Why are you here?"
"Storybrooke. A new curse. Missing year. What do you think?"
"What I mean is," Regina clarified, "how did you know to come back? I gave you and Henry a new life. New memories."
"Hook found me," Emma answered. "He gave me a potion to make me remember. There wasn't enough for Henry."
"How convenient," Regina scoffed.
"Look, she didn't cast that curse, if that's what you're thinking," Ruby spoke up, holding Regina closer.
"The thought did cross my mind…" Emma admitted. "Okay, I don't know how to ask this without coming off as incredibly rude, but – I know for Snow, she just woke up one day suddenly full term pregnant. Did you just, I mean, did one of you wake up in the other's bed one morning?" Emma ducked her head, prepared for the verbal assault that was surely coming.
Instead, they laughed.
Emma slowly lifted her head back up, confused. "What, was that actually right?"
"Not exactly," Regina answered vaguely.
"Alcohol helped," Ruby supplied.
Regina nodded. "Not magic."
Emma's eyebrows flew up and hid in her hairline. If she understood correctly, Regina Mills had a drunken one night stand and managed to build a relationship off of it.
"Don't judge, Em," Ruby scolded. "That's your judge-y face."
"I'm not judging!" Emma defended.
"She's totally judging." Regina pecked Ruby's lips.
"Well, hey, if it makes you happy, sure, I'm 'judging'." Emma shrugged. "But, um…there's a little bit left of the potion, Regina, if you want to try…I don't know, cloning it or something, for Henry. New York was great and all, and all those fake memories leading up to it, but Henry deserves to remember his real home. And you deserve him to remember you."
Regina's eyes grew misty again. "You really think he should remember all this? All you wanted was for him to have a 'normal' life."
"Normal's boring…besides, I'm starting to think that just doesn't exist for us. I nearly married a flying monkey."
"Better that than the pirate," Regina mumbled under her breath.
"What was that?" Emma asked.
"Nothing," Regina answered, a little too quickly.
Ruby pressed a kiss to Regina's cheek. "Can I tell her?"
Regina's eyes went wide. "Ruby - !"
"Come on, Regina. She should know. So…can I, can I, can I?"
Regina's face turned a shade of red that would make her apples envious.
"I should know…what…?" Emma asked, not sure she even wanted to know, very confused by the different reactions they were having over presumably the same thing.
"Not here." Regina impulsively grabbed Emma's wrist and wrapped her other arm around Ruby's waist, purple smoke taking them back to her mansion.
"Woah…" Emma stumbled, a bit dizzy. "So that's what that feels like."
"What Ruby is so antsy to tell you is that…" Regina paused and took a deep breath, heavy blush no closer to fading. "ImayhaveaccidentallyprojectedyourimageontoRubythatfirstnight," it came out all in a rush.
Emma shook her head, sitting on the nearest cushiony surface. "You did what, now?"
"And then I may have purposely had her project it onto herself for the second round," Ruby added.
Emma blinked. "Woah, woah, wait a second… Are you telling me my body, or at least the image of it, has basically been in a threesome with the two of you and I had no idea?"
Regina actually hid her face in Ruby's shoulder.
The smirk on Ruby's face was all the answer Emma needed.
"And you…wait, why exactly do you think I needed to know that?" Emma asked.
"Oh, please, Emma." Ruby rolled her eyes. "I could smell your jealousy the second you saw us kissing."
"You could smell my – oh, the wolf thing. Okay. Still weird." Emma thought of something and stood back up. "Regina…" She carefully tried to pry her face out of Ruby's shoulder so she could see it by gently pushing Regina's shoulder until she turned. "When you said…when you said you had to say goodbye to the thing you love most…you weren't just talking about Henry, were you?"
Regina bit her lip and shook her head.
Emma looked at Ruby. "And you…all those you gave me something 'on the house' or those mysterious orders that popped up that I didn't place…you were trying to get my attention."
Ruby nodded. "Even before the curse broke. Remember when you let me be your Deputy? I tried getting you to see it so hard…"
"Well, do you…have room for one more?" Emma wasn't prepared at all for the fierce hug she received from both women, cheeks and neck being covered in kisses. "So, uh…I guess you missed me?"
"Shut up, Swan." Regina kissed her hard. "And yes."
Ruby took her turn kissing Emma. "Everyone did, but not as much as us."
Emma wrapped her arms around both of them. "Okay, we're gonna get Henry's memories back, and we're gonna find out who cast this curse and why, then we're gonna kick their ass. Then maybe this town will calm down long enough for us to enjoy this new development without interruption."
Ruby laughed. "'Without interruption', yeah right."
"I second that." Regina nuzzled her nose into Emma's neck.
"A girl can dream…" Emma stated with a blissful sigh. "By the way," Emma looked to Ruby. "You did get my attention. I just thought it was wishful thinking on my part. And you." Emma looked to Regina. "I love you, too."
They both tightened their arms around her.
Emma pressed a kiss to Ruby's lips, and then pressed one to Regina's. "I'd love to stay here, but Henry and my parents are still at Granny's…continue later?"
The answer was the sudden reappearance by way of purple smoke back in the back room of Granny's Diner.
"You need to warn people when you do that," Emma lightly scolded Regina and pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Sorry. You have that potion?"
Emma handed the vial with the miniscule amount of liquid to Regina.
"You have to go back to work," Regina told Ruby. She pressed a kiss to her lips. "I'm going to work on replicating this. Thank you, Emma."
Emma nodded and reluctantly separated herself from the two of them, exiting the backroom to return to her surely confused son and clueless parents.
Ruby pouted at Regina. "I don't wanna go back to work," she whined childishly.
Regina rose an eyebrow. "Granny will probably kill you if you don't, and I'd rather not attend your funeral." She physically turned the brunette around. "Now go." She punctuated it with hands on a perfectly rounded butt pushing her forward.
Once the other brunette was out of sight, Regina poofed away back to her office, vial in hand. She was one potion away from her true happy ending. She had Ruby, she had Emma, all she needed was her son back.