The portal took root and wrapped around Regina. She offered Emma a sad look and mouthed "good luck." As angry and disappointed as she was, she couldn't help but love this Emma with all of her flaws. Emma swiped the tears from her eyes and wrapped her arm around Henry.

"Thank you."

With a flash of light, the spell completed and their Regina stood in front of them looking shocked. To their surprise, Regina was wearing jeans and to Emma's amusement an old t-shirt of hers.

"Emma? What happened?" she asked confused, until her 13 year old son barreled into her.

"Mom!" he said, wrapping his arms around her. "I've missed you so much." She held him for a long moment before pushing him back to get a good look at him.

"I've missed you, too Henry."

"Even with super rad old Henry? You still missed me?"

"Of course."

"Isn't that Emma's shirt?" Henry asked and Emma stared at the soft blush.

"Regina," Emma said quietly. Regina looked up from Henry and blinked at Emma. No one said anything as the two stared at each other. It was clear that so much had changed between them. They searched each other's eyes trying to figure out where they stood with each other. It was clear that this wasn't the Emma of the other world. Regina straightened her back and pursed her lips making her decision.

"Miss Swan."

SQSQSQSQSQ

"Miss Swan."

Emma's heart dropped into her stomach. Regina was back and she hated her. She swallowed the lump in her throat. Miss Swan had to be better than the terse Swan she had be left with.

"Regina," Emma started again and hesitated.

"Yes?" Regina sniffed, stoking Henry's head.

"Um, we need to talk."

"I'm sure, but if it isn't important, I'd rather it wait. I haven't seen my son in weeks." She looked down at his head. "You are so tiny."

"Mom," Henry whined. She gave him an indulgent smile. It felt so good to have him in her arms again. Teenager Henry had been such a shock and found great pleasure in their height difference. She squeezed him tighter against her and to her surprise he matched her strength. It made returning to this unhappy time so much more bearable.

"Are you okay?" Henry asked.

Regina swallowed. "Better now."

Emma cleared her throat. "It is important," Emma said. Regina looked at the gathering, but they offered her nothing. "I promised the other you that I would talk to you right away." Regina narrowed her eyes. "In private," Emma finished. Regina let out a loud sigh and looked at her son reluctantly.

"I'm staying with you tonight," he said, grinning. "Mom… er the other one made us dinner so you wouldn't have to cook or go out if you didn't want to."

She smiled softly at her son. "How thoughtful of her." She turned back to Emma. "Fine," she said, releasing her son. "Snow, Charming, it's surprisingly good to see you." They grinned at her and she smiled at them before marching away from the observers without waiting for Emma.

She wondered how much they knew about the other world. Their smiles were all so hopeful and she noticed that Robin and Hook weren't in attendance. Ruby and Tink were off to the side watching and she felt a softer smile tugging at her lips. She didn't know how she felt about the other Regina mending bridges for her, but right now it felt like a comfort.

When Ruby gave her a little wink, she knew she was keeping at least one of her new friends. The look on Ruby's face gave her a good idea of how much the girl knew. She gave her a weak smile in return and the girl's face burst into a wide grin.

She shook her head, but couldn't help her smile from turning into something more real. Discovering Ruby Lucas, best friend to Snow White, had befriended the Evil Queen had stunned her, but she quickly began to value the other woman's counsel.

Once they were out of earshot for of anyone without a wolf's hearing, she turned on Emma. "What do you know?"

"A lot," Emma said, trying to convey as much as she could with a look.

Regina winced. "She told you," she said, looking up at the sky. She expected as much. She already knew she would have to compete with a version of herself that was self realized, but she had hoped she wouldn't have to compete with the love the other Regina had for Emma. If it was anything like what the other Emma felt… it would be hard to start fresh.

Emma looked down. "Yesterday."

"Only yesterday?" she asked, shielding her eyes from the sun.

"She didn't want to screw things up here. I figured it out and um. forced her into a corner."

"Of course you did," Regina said, with a smile that was more fond than she ever remembered giving this Emma Swan.

Emma, of course, missed it. "She was hiding things!" she asserted. too desperate to be in the right for at least a part of this conversation.

Regina rolled her eyes. She hadn't meant it as an attack, but Emma's response put her on the defense. "You obviously haven't learned from your turn at messing up the past. Did you wonder for even a second that she was hiding it for a good reason or is everything I do here still suspect?" Regina asked, cocking her eyebrow at Emma.

"She wasn't you," Emma said as if it excused everything, as she waved her hand around. "She appeared out of nowhere and you were just gone. How could I know I could trust her?"

"I'm surprised you didn't think it was just a ploy I cocked up." Emma closed her eyes and looked down. "Ah you did," Regina said. It hurt. This wasn't how she planned their reunion. She'd thought she could play coy and maybe a little flirty and yet here they were, fighting again. To be fair, twenty minutes ago she was lazing on a couch reading a book and now… well. This Emma wasn't the one she wanted and it hurt. "Why can't you ever leave well enough alone?" she asked, sadly.

"Would you trust an Emma doppelgänger with our son?"

"I did."

"Different Henry," Emma snapped back. Regina just sighed again. Emma shook her head. "Look… she just… she looked at me with such…"

"Love," Regina finished, thinking about the other Emma. She hadn't been good at hiding it either. Even knowing she wasn't the right Regina, she had looked at her sometimes in a way that made her want to forget ever going home.

"Yeah," Emma breathed out.

Regina looked away. "So?" she asked.

"So?"

"What do you want me to say?" Regina asked. She didn't know what this Emma thought about the whole mess. She looked down. "We aren't them. Robin never made it out of the Enchanted Forest in that world."

"She didn't like him much," Emma said, snottily and Regina wondered if it was jealousy.

She gave Emma a thoughtful look. "Really? You… the other you was a little worried. Scared of competition from across worlds."

"A soulmate is a valid concern," Emma said, with a shrug.

Regina felt worried for the other Emma for a moment. "They didn't…?" she asked.

Emma's face twisted. "Definitely not." She met Regina's eyes reluctantly. "She did like him, but more as a sidekick like…" She snorted. "Like Robin. You know Batman and Robin."

"Hilarious," Regina replied.

"You admitted Batman was the only good thing about DC. I thought you'd like the reference."

"I forgot Wonder Woman? I'm ashamed." They smiled at each other and some of the tension seemed to fall away. Regina took a deep breath. It couldn't be that easy. "Is this what she wanted you to talk to me about?" she asked, hoping for the best. Maybe the other Regina wanted to play matchmaker. It seemed out of character, but in the moment, she hoped.

Emma looked away, but Regina caught the flash of guilt in Emma's eyes. "No, it isn't."

Regina felt her face fall. The Emma Swan she had grown close to in the other world had been… everything she hoped for in a partner. They'd been able to sit down and talk, a luxury this world rarely afforded them. She almost told Emma not to tell her, but she trusted…herself. If she thought she should know, than it really was important. More important than Emma knowing they were lovers in another world.

Regina followed Emma's eyes and to their ragtag family. They had moved closer to Granny's and were watching them anxiously. Over the last few weeks, it had been hard to refute they were here family. Even at her most belligerent, they had been there for her.

"Please just get it over with Emma," she pleaded. She hated how desperate she sounded, but she was back in the world where everything went wrong and she needed the blow to be swift.

"You know, I thought she hated me for awhile or that I was dead or something. She wanted nothing to do with me," Emma said, her voice breaking slightly at the end.

Regina closed her eyes, bracing for impact. "Smart woman," she bit out.

"Yeah," Emma said. "She was… I should just jump to the point."

"I thought I'd made that clear from the beginning."

"Rumplestiltskin told her about a wand."

Regina nodded, looking at her. "There was a wand in the other world. I tried it, but I wasn't at the point of origin so it didn't work. We hoped she would get it from him, but then time passed."

"He didn't have it here." Regina's brow furrowed and Emma wanted to cry, but she pushed on. She had to. "I had it," she said, watching as Regina's face crumbled immediately realizing the implications. "It's what brought me back to the present when I time traveled with Hook. I took it with me through the portal. That whole thing never happened in the other world so he still had it over there, I guess."

"It wasn't Rumple that kept me there over some deal. It was you," Regina said, looking down the strangely quiet Main Street. She tilted her head back and looked at the sky. It was worse than she thought. "Do you really hate me that much?" she asked.

"I don't hate you," Emma said, "I was afraid."

"Who would have thought the legendary Snow White and Prince Charming would produce such a coward," Regina said.

"Regina, I wasn't…"

"How long did you know about the wand? How long did you keep me from my son?" she demanded, stepping into Emma's space.

Emma wilted under the glare. "You had the other Henry," she offered. "You had a me that loved you."

"How long, Emma?"

"A few weeks. Pretty much since she found about the wand. She asked the whole town about it," Emma mumbled. Her body was positioned away from looking at her family. Clearly, they hadn't been a part of the deception.

Regina felt nauseated. In the other world, she had found herself thinking about starting a future with Emma while Emma had been actively keeping her away.

"I'm sorry," Emma said softly. Her head was bowed and she looked like she meant it.

Her nausea retreated and anger filled her veins and burned through her. She grit her teeth and blinked. "You're sorry?" She snorted in disgust. "Did you want to keep her or just keep me away? Did you think she would love you like she loved the other Emma?" she asked, as she pushed up close to Emma. "You are nothing like her. She never would have done something like this." Regina looked at their anxious family for a moment before meeting sad green eyes. The tension in Henry's shoulders had her relaxing and stepping back. "I understood how I could fall in love with a woman like her. You," she spat out, "She never would have loved you."

"I never meant for it to go so far," Emma pleaded. "I was going to hand it over to her, but then…"

"Shut up, Swan. The more you talk the more disgusted I get. I… I'm going home with," she paused and tilted her head and bit out, "our son." Her eyes found him down the street. He looked so small next to Snow. Somehow she had grown used to him towering over her in the few weeks away. "Henry can contact you about his living arrangements."

"We can stick to what we had if that's okay with you." Emma said, her head still hung low. It eerily reminded her of the times she let the guillotine fall. She hated it.

"If you remember correctly, I went on a little vacation and I have no idea what was decided in this world."

"Oh, yeah," Emma said scuffing her shoe against the pavement. "Well, we…"

"I'll have Henry explain it to me and let you know if I have any complaints," Regina interrupted.

"Did you share custody with Neal?" Emma asked as Regina moved to leave.

The thought of Neal made her exceptionally sad for a moment and she stopped. Abstractly, she had always known that Neal was dead. She watched as his casket was lowered into the ground. Well, she watched Henry as his casket was lowered. She knew now that Neal wouldn't have expected anything less of her, but now she wished she'd be able to mourn the man as well.

Neal never treated her with kid gloves. He went at her full force from the beginning. He made her laugh. He sang along to Hamilton. He distracted her.

There was no need to make time for Neal in their arrangements any more and it overshadowed her anger for a moment. She could still hear his voice. It hurt. She didn't even get to say goodbye to him before she had been whisked away and now he was gone forever. Dead. Because of her sister.

She swallowed and looked at Henry. "He should have known him. He was a good man."

"You should have trusted my judgement after the Blue Fairy like the other Regina," Emma said.

Regina's eyebrows lifted. "You have no idea what you are talking about." They had analyzed Pan's plan to death in the other world when they figured out where their timeline diverged. It seemed they hadn't done the same here.

"Enlighten me then," Emma said, "because all I got was that life could have been a hell of a lot better if you hadn't been so focused on being Henry's favorite parent after Neverland."

Regina scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'm always to blame even when I'm not."

"Who else can we blame for Pan?" Emma asked.

"I blamed you." Regina looked away.

"What? What did I do? You let him get the scroll. If you just listened to me when I told you something was wrong…"

"Did you ever think that maybe you did something different there to get me to listen?" Regina shifted, crossing her arms over her stomach. "She appealed to me… her as a co-parent. She didn't forget working together in Neverland. She actually respected that I had been his parent for ten years." Regina shook her head. "Even if it had been a manipulation on her part at the time which it wasn't… if you actually trusted me, I'm sure our world would look a lot more like theirs," Regina said, meeting Emma's eyes for a moment before looking away. "I felt threatened," she said quietly.

Emma watched her, seeing some of the other Regina in the soft admission."She just said she trusted me," Emma mumbled.

"You gave her good reason to trust you," Regina said. "You didn't give me one. After all we'd been through together in Neverland, it suddenly felt like a waste because you were back to thinking that you knew best for Henry and that I knew nothing. She probably assumed I was just stubborn and refused to listen to your heartfelt plea. It wouldn't have been entirely out of character, I suppose."

"This was my fault?" Emma asked in disbelief.

"Well, that is where the time line diverged."

"Neal would be alive."

"We don't know that," Regina said. "That place is… You chose differently there, but who is to say I would have listened here. We aren't the same. Just because we know what could have possibly been doesn't mean it would have actually turned out that way here."

"I guess," Emma said, frowning. "It must have been amazing over there though."

Regina's eyebrow lifted. "It was more peaceful."

"Some peace would be nice. New York had been peaceful," Emma said.

"And Henry lost that, too. Did you know he told me that it was lonely there and that he wanted a family."

"He did?"

"Yes. I told him someday he would have more family than he knew what to do with "

"I thought he was happy," Emma said.

"He still knew deep down what he lost." Regina looked over to Henry. "Does he know that Neal lived?"

"Yeah. She talked to him about it."

"That helps, I suppose. I don't know what I'll say to him."

"We can figure it out."

"We?" Regina said, tilting her head to look at her.

"I know I messed up, but you're back now. I gave her the wand. Can't we get dinner or something? Granny's?" Emma asked, hopefully. "We were starting to become friends before all this, weren't we?"

"Friends," Regina sneered. "If this is how you treat your friends, I want no part of it. I am keeping my calm right now for Henry's sake, but right now I am utterly repulsed by you. If I had to sit across from you and play happy family I don't think I would be able to stop myself from…" She clenched her fists against her sides.

"Just give me space." She shook her head and gave Emma one last sparing glance before pasting on a smile and returning to Henry and their happy family.