Disclaimer: The characters of Once Upon a Time don't belong to me (if they did, I would give Prince Charming up for adoption). I just borrow them, dress them in jeans and flanel, and make them do stuff they never dreamed of doing (well, maybe Emma did dream of some of this but she'd never tell). No copyright infringement is intended, and no money earned, either.

It was the night before Christmas... actually, it was the day before Christmas and David and Henry had set out early to get a Christmas tree. Since Storybrooke was a special place on the map of Maine, trees could be felled in the woods around town and would (magically) regrow within the year. David and Henry had gotten a beautiful tree, and it was fortunate that the apartment the 'Charming family' shared had a high ceiling because it was also tall. While the 'men' had been out in the woods, Emma and Snow had gotten everything they would need to cook a traditional Christmas dinner. This far, they hadn't come to the actual cooking yet, Snow was still brewing over recipes and Emma had no idea how to cook, she would just do what her mother told her to.

Emma had kept busy with making popcorn and putting it on strings - and eating a lot of the popcorn in the process which earned her nasty looks from her mother.

"You will ruin your appetite," Snow warned.

"Appetite for what, frozen turkey?" Emma smiled charmingly, reminding Snow of that irresistable smile David often wore. She couldn't scold Emma. "Maybe we should just go to Granny's later," the blonde suggested.

"Do you actually think that Granny's will be open tonight?" Snow asked her daughter skeptically.

"We can't be the only ones who can't cook..." and mumbling: "... with all the princesses around this place."

David came out from under the tree, having secured it in a heavy foot he had bought for the occasion.

"May I remind you that you're a princess, too?" He asked, smiling. Emma made a face.

"No," she answered blatantly and Henry giggled.

He was spending Christmas with Snow White, Prince Charming and his mom, and they didn't seem to have had a decent Christmas between them. He had been lucky that way, he pondered, his mom... Regina, she was a traditional person and she wanted everything just so for any holiday. Looking back, Henry thought that maybe she had tried too hard, on the other hand, they had had a rich and tasty Christmas dinner, they had had a beautifully decorated tree in the hall of the mayor's mansion (his granddad's tree was beautiful, too, it also had a slight angle Henry didn't have the heart to point out to David), and there had been many presents under the tree. The tradition Henry had liked best, though, was the roasting of marshmallows over a fire these last two years. His mom, Regina, had tried to come up with something new, something original they could do and had asked him what he would enjoy doing. So, before he went to bed and before Regina would go to the Midnight Mass, they would sit in front of the fireplace, roasting marshmellows. He wondered if he should tell his mom, Emma, about this. He also wondered if he should stop thinking of Regina as his mom - but then, that's what she'd been for eleven years of his life. And, he had to silently confess to himself, she hadn't done such a bad job, either.

"Maybe we shouldn't have gotten turkey, it needs like a thousand hours to cook," Snow huffed and threw another recipe book on a pile that was already lying on her kitchen counter. "This is the first time I am having my family around in 28 years and I can't even feed them because I spent the last 28 years of my life eating microwave dinners at Christmas. I'm lost here," he exclaimed, frustrated.

"Hey." David walked over to his wife and lay his arms around her. "It's okay, you know that you'll never get lost when I'm around. 'Cause I'll always find you." They kissed.

Emma rolled her eyes. They were doing it again.

"And I'll always find you." Snow answered, and they kissed some more.

"It would help if you got lost first," Emma mumbled and Henry who had been the only one hearing it giggled again. His mom grinned at him. She got up off her comfortable perch on the couch and brought the strings of popcorn over to the tree. She started hanging them.

"A little help here, Henry?", she asked her son but then noticed his skeptical expression.

"Something wrong?" she asked and he frowned.

"This is not how you do it," he answered and she looked at him questioningly.

"Why not?"

"You first hang the ornaments and stuff, the popcorn is the last thing you hang on the tree," he explained like every kid knew the basics of Christmas tree decorating. His face was serious and Emma knew by the way he described it, it had been a traditional thing with his other mom. He didn't like to tell her how Regina would do things, and he had come up with ways to say things that he didn't have to bring her up, like he felt that the mention of his life with the mayor would hurt her. It didn't - most of the time - but it reminded her that she had missed ten years of his life, ten years in which - by all that Henry knew, did, took for granted - Regina had presented Henry with perfectly traditional holidays. She had given him what few kids got: a sense of how a childhood should be, the way it was in stories.

Emma saw that she was failing at this. She looked up at the tree on which she had hung one string of popcorn so far, it looked desperate. And she remembered now that she hadn't even thought about buying any other Christmas tree decorations, no lights, no ornaments, nothing. Their tree would be a popcorn tree and by the amounts of what she had already eaten, it wouldn't even be very well decorated. She turned toward her parents to ask whether they had any decorations stored somewhere, but they were still cooing and kissing all over each other. Emma sighed.

Henry came over to her and tugged at the sleeve of her red-checkered flanel shirt. She crouched down to him.

"It's okay, you know. I'm just so glad that you are here now, I don't need a Christmas tree or a turkey, or any of that," he said earnestly.

She felt tears threaten to flood her eyes at the sweet words but she wasn't one to cry.

"Tell me something, Henry," she said and he nodded. "Before you got the book from... your grandmother, did you think there was something amiss in your life? Was there ever a moment when you felt that your... Regina, that she didn't love you?"

Henry contemplated this, wondered if she wanted a straight answer or an answer that wouldn't hurt her feelings.

Emma saw the conflict in his eyes. "The truth now," she demanded.

He shook his head.

"I know that my mo... Regina, that she loves me. When David...," he shook his head as if to clear it. "When granddad came to take me home, when she said it was okay that he should take me, she said that she wasn't very good at loving but that's not true. She has always loved me. I just thought, y'know, after I read the book that people who were evil... that they couldn't love." It sounded like a confession, he didn't know if the outcome of so much truth would be good.

Emma nodded.

"She is a good mom, though, isn't she?" And it wasn't easy for her to ask it. But if she knew one thing about the mayor, ex-mayor, she knew that she loved Henry, fiercely loved him. She thought about Regina for a moment, the fact that she was spending her first Christmas since Henry's adoption alone, that she was probably missing her child. They had run into her, earlier when they were grocery shopping. Regina had shopped for a very traditional dinner but it was a dinner for one.

"Yes, she is," Henry roused her out of her thoughts and she nodded.

"Would you like to spend Christmas with her, Henry?" Emma asked and a panicked look came over the boy's face.

"And not with you? But I want to spend Christmas with you, and grandma and granddad. It doesn't matter, mom. I don't need any of that stuff my mo... Regina does," he had tears in his eyes and she hugged him close. "Don't you want to spend Christmas with me?" He asked through tears.

"Of course I do, Henry. I just...," she held him at arm's length again. "I thought... I know she misses you, and I think you miss her, too. And maybe..."

"Maybe we can all go over and celebrate Christmas with her," Henry suggested. His face lit up.

That hadn't been what Emma had wanted to say, though she wasn't sure what she had been about to say. Henry's words and the smile on his face knocked the wind out of her: Christmas with Regina Mills? Was that the answer? Or was it mere madness?

"No way," she heard from behind her. She looked into her mother's eyes, it seemed that her parents hadn't been as wrapped up in each other as she had thought. Snow must at least have heard the last part of this conversation.

Emma stood and faced the martriarch, because, make no mistake, that was exactly what Snow White was now; she was protector, she was nurturer, she was in charge. But Emma was a mother, too, and she looked down at Henry's hopeful face, her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it.

Emma went over to the counter, she took paper and pen and wrote down a few things. She would do what was best for Henry, and she had to explain it that way to her mother. That meant, getting rid of David and Henry for awhile.

"I think we have forgotten some things at the grocer's, dad. Would you and Henry go get these?" She handed her father the list.

David looked unsure from Emma to his wife, he knew what was going on, he wasn't that dense, but he didn't know whether he should stick around and put in his five cent's worth of wisdom.

Snow rid him of this insecurity when she nodded and David turned to Henry: "Come on, buddy, let's see if we can get this real quick so we can eat sometime today."

Henry smiled and nodded. They set out but not before Henry repeated what he had already said to his mother before: "It's okay, I just want to spend Christmas with you."

She hugged him once more and then the Charming 'men' left.

Emma turned to Snow once the door closed behind her father. She came around the counter to her mother's side, took her hand. It was strange how these interactions had ceased to be awkward while they were in the Enchanted Forest, but was probably also the reason she didn't feel quite at ease with David. He hadn't been there, they had yet some bonding to do. And Emma surmised that they would, still, the bond between mother and daughter was already stronger.

"Regina will be alone on Christmas," she said.

"She's the Evil Queen, Emma, don't you think there should be some kind of punishment for that?"

"She's also the woman who raised Henry, mom. She..." Was she actually defending Regina? Emma shook her head, she'd be damned but she did. This was so weird but it was still what was best for her son, she knew that in her gut. Eleven years of a mother/son relationship didn't just vanish even if she preferred it did, even if her whole family was determined to forget about it.

"With everything you have seen in the last eleven years, has Regina been a bad mother to Henry?"

Snow looked stubbornly at Emma but still answered her daughter's question with a shake of her head.

"Did he seem unhappy in those years... before you gave him the book?"

"I gave him that book..." Snow started to defend herself but Emma silenced her with a squeeze of her hand; she hoped it was reassuring.

"I know why you gave him the book, mom, and I'm not saying that it was a mistake, okay?"

Snow nodded then she said:

"No, I don't think Henry was unhappy. It wasn't easy for him being the only one to get older. It's gotten better since the curse has been lifted, he socializes more."

Emma nodded.

"Mom, I know how you feel about Regina and believe me, if it was just about me or you - we wouldn't have to have anything to do with her. But she was... is his mother, too. She has cared for him, fed him, clothed him for eleven years. And she has loved him, still does. Without her, we might not have made it out of Fairy Tale Land. She's... the Evil Queen but she is also Regina Mills, mom. Dad said it: we are both - or rather you are both since I have never been a fairy tale character."

"You were in the Enchanted Forest, darling, which would mean you were a fairy tale character for a while," her mother smiled and brushed a lock of hair out of her daughter's eyes.

"Yeah, well, I think I failed the princess test, nobody invited me to a ball," Emma smirked but then sobered. "Regina's not just evil, we both know that. She tries to better herself, Henry told me and Cric... Archie confirmed it. I think she... deserves SOMETHING for her efforts, don't you?"

"Can't we send a gift certificate?" Snow pouted but her daughter shook her head. "I still don't think it's gonna work, Emma. I mean, even if I... were to overcome my... feelings, strong feelings of aversion against her, she will never do the same. To her, I'm responsible for her True Love's death. And now I get to have my happy ending with Charming and you and... her son."

Emma contemplated this and she knew there was only one solution.

"Then Henry and I will go alone," she said.

Snow's eyes went round at this, she shook her head.

"It's our first Christmas together, Emma. We..." but Emma interrupted her by taking her mother's other hand, looking at her.

"And we will have it, mom. Henry and I will go over for dinner, we will eat, Henry can open a few presents and then we'll come back here and have our own Christmas. I'm doing this for Henry, mom, because I think he wants it, or needs it. Even though he doesn't want to say it. We'll be back later, I promise, and we'll also have tomorrow, the whole day tomorrow."

Snow looked sad but she knew her daughter was right. This was about Henry, he was the child, he had to be protected. Emma could take care of herself, and they wouldn't be gone forever, there would still be enough of Christmas left.

Still, it hurt her that Emma would spend even the tiniest amount of time of this family holiday with the woman... who had done so much evil. But Emma was indeed right, if everyone else was two persons now then Regina was not just the Evil Queen, she was also the woman who had let this town for the last 28 years, who had organized things, who - though she had never been a friend - had been a provider. And a good mother to Henry. She could have been warmer, of course, there was a certain formality in her that could be called coldness... but Snow remembered the girl she had been and how much she had loved Daniel. Regina was capable of love, maybe she just needed someone to remind her of that.

Snow nodded slowly.

"You are right. It's for Henry and maybe it'll be good for Regina, too." The short-haired woman cocked her head at her daughter. "You're not just doing this to get a decent Christmas meal out of it, do you?"

Emma smiled

"Would I do that?" Emma feigned innocence but Snow didn't buy that act for a second.

It was almost an hour later when the doorbell to the mayor's mansion rang and Regina looked up from the book she had been reading. In truth, she hadn't been reading at all, she had stared at the words to Henry's favorite Christmas story with tears in her eyes because she wouldn't be reading it to him - for the first year since he'd come to live with her.

This day had already been a nightmare and every little detail she remembered of Christmases past only added to a growing pile of depressing thoughts. She had been in Henry's room earlier, that had almost been her undoing. She felt such sadness and at the same time such anger at the Charmings that she had wanted to lash out, to hurt them somehow. But she knew that what hurt them would hurt Henry - and she couldn't do that. She couldn't do anything. She was weak like her mother had said, weak.

The bell rang again, she had almost forgotten about it. She got up and went to the door, wondering who it would be. If it was that quack who wanted her to talk about her feelings some more, she would give him a magical awakening. She wasn't in the mood. Then again, maybe it was another mob - was it already Tuesday again?

Regina smiled at the cynical thought but it faltered when she opened the door and encountered Emma Swan... and Henry.

"Hey, mom. Merry Christmas." Henry stepped toward her and she automatically kneeled and pulled him into a tight hug.

For a moment she closed her eyes as if this was a dream she wanted to hold behind them but when she opened them again, Henry was still there. And so was Miss Swan. She looked up at her and saw the slight smile on the other woman's lips. And, for once, it wasn't sarcastic or condescending, it was honest.

Regina let go of Henry and cleared her throat. She tried to clear her voice of the emotions she felt but it was no use. Her "Merry Christmas" cracked and new tears formed in her eyes, happy tears.

"This is a surprise," she finally got out. "To what do I owe this visit?"

"May we come in?" Emma asked and this was another surprise for the mayor, yet she wasn't sure if it would be another good one. Still, she nodded and pulled the door open.

"Henry, why don't you bring these into the kitchen?" Emma handed her son the bag of groceries her dad had bought and he went into the kitchen with it.

He smiled at both his moms before he went and that brought another smile to Regina's face.

'She's quite the beauty.' The thought flashed unbidden through Emma's mind but it was certainly true. When Regina Mills didn't frown or sneer at her, she was probably one of the most beautiful women Emma had ever met. This seemed quite remarkable considering that they lived in a town with several fairy tale princesses.

"Miss Swan?" Regina roused Emma out of her reverie and looked at her questioningly. "Why are you here?"

"Because of the kid. Henry wanted to spend Christmas with you."

The simple revelation brought renewed tears to Regina's eyes but she turned away from Emma to not have her see them. It was a lost battle, there were emotions all over her face and body and Emma had no trouble seeing them all.

"Did he say that?" Regina wiped at her eyes.

"Not with so many words but... it was plain that he misses you, so, I thought..."

Regina turned fully back to her visitor, looking at her curiously.

"I thought we could have dinner together." Emma put forward and saw an eyebrow rising in another yet unuttered question. She knew what it would be and Regina didn't surprise her with its utterance:

"We?"

"Yes, we. Henry, you and I."

They looked at each other for a long moment, seizing each other up, reliving some of the more antagonistic moments of their acquaintance. It felt impossible but then Henry came sauntering back into the hall, looking curiously at his two moms, and Regina nodded.

"Well, I hope you have brought some more potatoes. We'll need them." She straightened her shoulders and went into the kitchen, laying her hand on Henry's shoulder and taking him with her. Henry looked back at Emma who shrugged out of her red leather jacket and followed mayor and son.

Cooking turned into an awkward enterprise. Regina obviously knew what she was doing, Emma - equally obviously - wasn't. Regina gave her the potatoes and told her to peel them. She at least did a decent job with it, but it took forever. Henry lend a helping hand and he was actually much better at it than his birth mom. It seemed that Regina and Henry had spent some time together cooking in the past. Emma was surprised but it was a good surprise. Meanwhile, Regina expertly turned the kitchen into a cave of smells, sizzles and flavors. She truly was in her element.

"Who taught you to cook like this?" Emma asked amazed but it wasn't really a welcome question, she could tell by the look on Regina's face.

"My mother hired a chef to teach me."

'Stepped right into that one,' Emma berated herself silently.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Not at all, Miss Swan, cooking was one of the things I have always enjoyed doing. If you're finished with the potatoes would you please wash them? Don't hold them under the water too long, we don't want to drown out their flavor."

Emma did as Regina told her.

"Good, could you start with the carrots? I hope you like mashed potatoes?" Emma smiled in the affirmative.

'If this gets any more polite we will exchange bows and curtseys next,' the thought almost made her laugh out loud. To cover she put a frown on her face. The thing was that this was rather comical. Who would have thought? She was cooking Christmas dinner with the woman who was responsible for her having been sent through a magical wardrobe to this world - and this had just been the beginning of their complicated relationsh... acquaintance, they didn't have a relationship. Emma shook her head. The steam in the room was making her head all fuzzy and idiotic.

"Is everything okay, Miss Swan?"

"Do you think you could actually start calling me Emma?" There was an annoyed edge to the question and Henry looked up anxiously from where he was washing some vegetables. Emma mumbled another "sorry" this time to both of them.

"Emma then," Regina added some red wine to the sauce she was heating, then pulled two glasses out of one of her cupboards and filled them with some more of the same wine.

"Here," she held one out to Emma and the surprised woman took it automatically.

"I'm Regina," and then she clinked glasses and drank.

Emma blinked slowly but then followed the other woman's example.

"Does this mean we're going to do this again?" Emma smirked.

"What are you doing Easter?" Regina gave back and Emma had to laugh.

Regina smiled, there was a mischivous gleam in her eyes, the woman actually had a sense of humor. Nothing could have surprised Emma more, until she noticed that she was staring through dark eyes into a soul that was...

"Mom, the sauce," Henry called out and Regina swiftly turned and took the pan from the burner.

"It's not burned," she exclaimed while Emma tried to regain her equilibrium. What was going on here?

They ate, then they cleaned the kitchen together. Apart from the awkwardness that still persisted between Emma and Regina it was quite a domestic scene: family is having Christmas dinner, family is cleaning kitchen before happily settling into the living room to open presents. Emma felt herself propelled into some 50s movie; she could just imagine Regina wearing pearls and some burgundy dress, very classy, also dressy; she herself in a man's suit, pipe in her mouth, stealing a kiss on the little woman's cheek while their son, perfectly coiffed in a flattop, smiled on.

Emma shook her head, this was getting out of hand. It was probably best to leave. As she looked around the room, she noticed that Henry had already done that, he had left his two moms together in the kitchen.

"Where's Henry?" she uttered confused.

"He just ran upstairs, he wanted to get something from his room," Regina told Emma in a voice that told the other woman that she should have known since Henry had told them before he left. "Are you sure everything's all right, Emma? You seem a little out of sorts."

Emma nodded brusquely in reply.

"Yeah, I'm good. I smell apples," she added after a moment in which she became aware of the enticing smell from the oven.

"Apple pie," Regina informed her. "What were you expecting? Plum pudding?"

"Isn't that the more traditional dessert?"

"Not in my house."

Emma probably shouldn't have been surprised, apples were kind of Regina's signature fruit, if a person could actually have a signature fruit. Like Eve in the bible. A picture of a naked Regina, a snake languidly wrapped around her body, holding out an apple to her, flashed through Emma's mind. She turned away from her hostess so that the other woman wouldn't see her blush.

What was wrong with her tonight? Why was she seeing all these strange images in her head, why was everything Regina did suddenly tinged with an innuendo?

'Ridiculous,' she scolded herself. 'There's no innuendo, nothing is tinged, everything is just awkward and we should probably go soon - after we had pie.'

They both heard Henry coming back down the stairs. He didn't rejoin them in the kitchen but instead went into the living room.

"What is he up to?" Emma asked but Regina only shrugged.

"Only one way to find out," she said and went in search of her son.

Emma followed, noticing for the first time that Regina was wearing jeans. She had never seen her in anything than power suits, this woman was born to wear them. But then those jeans sure fit snugly, and Emma realized that she was staring at Regina's shapely behind. This was not good, this was actually very bad. Not because Regina was a woman, Emma had gone out with women, had wooed them and slept with them. But those women hadn't been evil queens, they hadn't been the other mother of her son, they hadn't been Regina Mills, in short. Regina Mills was... all kinds of bad but most certainly bad news.

Emma shook her head for the umpteenth time that evening, trying to control her thoughts, to come back to the moment. What had they been doing just now?

Emma saw Regina standing in the entrance to the living room looking at their son who... what was he doing? Emma joined Regina.

"What's he doing?"

Regina looked over at her, almost as if she had forgotten Emma was still in the house. Once again tears had filled her eyes, and they made her look vulnarable and... beautiful.

Emma stared.

"He's reading his favorite Christmas story. I used to read it to him... every year," the dark-haired woman whispered, not wanting to disturb Henry.

Emma looked back at her son, he seemed quite enthralled with his book, a small smile playing on his lips.

"I wanted to thank you, Mi... Emma," she heard Regina say in that same low voice.

"For not breaking any of your dishes when filling the dish washer?" Emma asked and Regina smiled.

"No, for... this," she pointed at her son.

There was so much love, so much joy still left in this woman. Why hadn't anybody seen that before, why hadn't anybody tried to reach for it and heal Regina's wounds? Had someone tried, had she not let them?

Emma felt overwhelmed with the woman she had gotten to know this evening, someone laid back, someone passionate and vulnerable, someone who loved her son more than anyone else. This woman wasn't the woman who had wanted to take happy endings from everybody, this woman was eager to give, not take. She had grown; Emma wondered how much and if the growth would keep her from hurting anyone else yet. Was it possible to redeem oneself?

Emma thought of herself and she looked back at her son. All he saw was the woman she was now but that wasn't who she's always been. Her past... she hadn't been good, some would say she was a criminal - the law certainly did say so - but she had pulled her life around, had put it back together. Who could say that Regina wouldn't be able to do that if she tried? Emma thought Regina was determined enough to do anything she put her mind to, she had certainly proven so time and again since Emma had come to Storybrooke.

Henry looked up and smiled at his moms, then he grinned.

"Look," he pointed at something over their heads. "a mistletoe."

Both women looked up at the same time, seeing the offending tradition-inducing green ornament with the red ribbon around it.

"You have to kiss," Henry told them.

Emma blushed, Regina blanched.

"Henry," she softly berated her son but he interrupted:

"It's bad luck if you don't," he said.

"Where does it say that?" Emma wanted to know.

"It's a tradition. If a tradition is broken with, it's bad luck," he explained.

"He's got that line of reasoning from your side of the family," Emma quipped and turned towards Regina. The smaller woman sighed.

"At least my side of the family provided him with brains," Regina gave back.

"Ouch."

"It's just a kiss," Henry said. "Don't be so squeamish about it." He rolled his eyes in obvious imitation of Emma.

"He's got your pushiness, though," Regina said which elicited a small laugh. "Well, if we must." She then said and stepped toward the blond woman.

Emma wasn't certain how to approach this. She had kissed women before, of course. So she went about it as she usually would, her hand was going up toward Regina's face but was caught by Regina's who put it back at her side but didn't let go as she just leaned forward and kissed Emma's lips. It was just a kiss, and Emma was sure it wasn't supposed to burn her so completely, take her breath away and make her dizzy. It was the most chaste kiss she had probably ever shared with an attractive woman but it still set her on fire.

And she was sure Regina felt something, too, because there were sparks when they looked at each other... and purple fog rising from where their hands still held each other.

"Damn!" Regina cursed and pulled her hand away from Emma. "Why did you do this, Miss Swan? It's magic!" Regina turned and fled to another room to which the door had been closed all evening. She slipped through it and closed it behind her.

"Is everything all right?" Henry asked and came over to his mom who was still staring after Regina.

"I don't know, Henry. There was this purple stuff again, the magic..."

"She doesn't want to do magic anymore," Henry said and Emma nodded.

"I know. Hey, how about... is there something you wanted to do tonight, do you want some apple pie...?"

"Marshmellows," Henry burst out.

"Marshmellows?"

"Yeah, mom... Regina and I always roast marshmellows in the fireplace on Christmas," he explained.

"Really?"

Henry nodded happily.

Emma would never have thought to even imagine Regina doing that, then again, there were many things she didn't think she would imagine Regina doing, yet tonight she had.

"Well, why don't you get the marshmellows and set up in the living room. But don't start without us, okay?"

Henry ran toward the kitchen where he knew his mom would probably have stashed the white sugary treats.

Emma, meanwhile, followed Regina into the room that turned out to be her home office. Regina stood at the window, looking out into the snowy darkness.

"Is everything alright?" Emma asked from the doorway.

Regina didn't turn around.

"How could this happen? I promised Henry I wouldn't do any more magic," she explained. "Why is it that..." Regina now turned. "... that whenever we touch... there's magic. Is it our personalities clashing, good versus bad? What is it in you that... makes me lose complete control over my powers?" The dark-haired woman seemed angry but more at herself than Emma.

"My mother was right, I am weak," she finally exclaimed and turned back to the window.

Emma went over to stand beside her.

"I'm not sure your mother was ever right where you were concerned. You aren't the... monster she is. You can still love."

Regina looked up at Emma with a question in her eyes and Emma said: "You love Henry."

"Yes. Yes, I love Henry."

They turned back to the window, staring into the dark yard that now began to show some snowy outlines since Regina hadn't bothered to turn on any lights in the room.

"Do you think there are different kinds of magic? One good and one bad?" Emma asked Regina about her earlier supposition that their different kinds of magic clashed when they touched.

"Gold... Rumpelstiltskin always said that all magic came at a price. He doesn't seem to make any difference."

"Maybe because he doesn't know," Emma suggested.

Regina shook her head.

"I don't think there's anything that... man doesn't know about magic." The way Regina stressed the word 'man' suggested that she had other words in her mind to fill its place.

"When we first did it - magic... when we tried to get rid of the wraith, we condemned a man to lose his soul," Emma recalled the consequence of opening a portal to the Enchanted Forest. "His name was Phillip. We wanted to do something good - to protect the people we love - but it backfired," she said.

"Then there is no good and bad magic, there's only magic. And everybody must pay their price for using it," Regina surmised.

"But what about the fairies?" Emma asked. "From what I read in the book, they seem fairly happy with using magic whenever... turning mice into horses and all that stuff." She couldn't quite believe she was theorizing over fairy tales but then again fairy tales had become her reality. She had actually been to the Enchanted Forest, and even before that she had killed a dragon...

Emma once again shook her head. Maybe the trick was to not think about all of this too much.

Regina seemed to think about the question but Henry was the one who answered it from the door:

"It's because of the fairy dust."

His moms turned.

"Henry, haven't I taught you that it's bad manners to eavesdrop?" Regina scolded.

"Sorry, but it's still the fairy dust, isn't it? It's what makes their magic different from yours or Gold's," he explained.

"Mr. Gold's, Henry," Regina said automatically but her face turned thoughtful.

Emma could see that there was some logic in what Henry had said just by looking at the other woman's expression. But she didn't say anything and after a while Henry asked:

"Can we roast the marshmellows now?"

Regina smiled at this.

"Of course, do you want some pie, too?"

Emma watched as Regina went over to her son who now smiled happily. Marshmellows and apple pie, that sounded kind of classy. She followed them out of the room.

Emma was stuffed. She had had a delicious dinner, she had had pie that was to die for (and the best part was that it didn't kill her or put her to sleep - yet), and then there had been marshmellows and hot cocoa - with a splash of cinnamon on top. It had been Christmas as it should be - the kiss under the mistletoe included. The kind of Christmas she had dreamed of as a kid in foster care. No wonder, Henry had wanted to come here... had she had this kind of Christmas in her life she would still be coming back to the place where this kind of thing was possible.

Emma felt a tiny twinge of guilt because of how late it was and how disappointed her mom would be that they didn't make it back earlier, to be with her and David.

Emma shrugged into her jacket, they were leaving.

Henry had unpacked all of his Christmas presents earlier and was now carrying a backpack full of new stuff. But he had left some, too. He would be coming back, at least for visits and Emma could see how happy this made Regina. And it was probably for the best for everybody. Maybe they could work something out, maybe they could behave like adults and give Henry what he wanted most rather than indulge in a feud that would just make everybody more miserable. This had been a first step in the right direction, Emma hoped that Regina thought so, too.

Henry hugged Regina and then opened the door. He left the house in front of Emma but Regina touched the sheriff's arm.

"Emma?"

The blonde turned back to her. She thought that maybe Regina wanted to thank her again but her face was very earnest, the thoughtful expression was back.

"Do you know how dwarfs reproduce?" Regina asked and Emma looked at her with a comically shocked expression.

"Erm, I can't say that I do - or ever wanted to think about it," she answered and Regina smiled for a short moment.

"Miss Swan," she scolded and Emma had to confess to herself that it was kind of sexy the way she said it. It wasn't her high and mighty I'm-in-charge persona Emma now got a glimpse of but somebody who could be playful.

"Dwarfs actually breed their... well, not their young because dwarfs are never really young. They are bred in eggs from which they spring fully grown. As I understand it, there are a couple of days when they get accustomed to things but then they go straight to work in the mines. All they ever do is mining, and eating and sleeping. You know what they're mining, don't you, Emma?"

Emma nodded.

"Fairy dust."

"Precisely. But... do you know the life span of a dwarf?"

Emma could now see where this was heading, where the dark-haired woman was going with this.

"It's not very long, is it?"

"I don't have any numbers, we didn't concern ourselves with this kind of thing back home. Looking at it from... well, from the perspective of a mayor, I can only call it slave labor. The fairies use the dwarfs for this and the dwarfs don't know any other life. But here in Storybrooke they've become part of the community, they live their lives with friends - I'm not sure if there is any kind of... sexual interaction with any of the other people in town but... well, the point I'm making is: they have started working in a mine under the city to do what they have always done - mine fairy dust." Regina gave Emma a meaningful look.

"Which means they will probably... die. It's the price for the fairies' magic, isn't it? And then there won't be any more dwarfs," Emma surmised and Regina nodded.

That was when a snowball hit Emma in the chest. She looked up at a grinning Henry. "I will get you for this, kiddo!" she warned but he only laughed.

"Are you coming?" he called and she held up a hand to tell him that she needed another moment.

"I'm not saying this because I think we should start thinking of how to breed dwarfs, Emma. I'm more concerned about Leroy and his friends. I think they know what this means but they do what they've always done. It's what they were bred to do."

Emma nodded.

"I will talk to mom about this and then we should talk to Leroy and the others. If you asked me, life in the Enchanted Forest wasn't all sunshine and roses for most of the people living there."

A cynical little laugh escaped Regina.

"And you're only just finding that out now? Not everybody can be a princess or a prince, Emma, some people are little girls who get lost, others are mice that get turned into horses for one night. There are poor farmers, 'little people' who fight wars they haven't started. I'm not sure if many people in this town would agree but I, for once, prefer life here. You have no idea what a luxury a central heating system is when you have been living in a drafty castle."

Emma gave a small smile, she had seen the ruins of her parent's home and maybe it hadn't been all good. But that didn't mean that Regina had been right to cast a curse at all of them and take their lives from them, their happy endings. There should have been a choice in this, and she herself would have preferred to have had her parents around, two people who would have loved her, even if it meant living in a drafty castle.

"Well, good night, Regina. Thank you for the wonderful dinner," Emma finally said.

"Thank you for giving me the chance to... cook for you," Regina answered and they shared a little smile.

'So weird,' the sheriff thought once again. For a second, she wondered if she should hug the woman, or just lay a hand on her arm, in some companionable gesture, or maybe an acknowledgement that they had shared a kiss but she remembered the magic and didn't want to freak Regina again. So she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket and just nodded at the ex-mayor.

Emma trudged after Henry who stood at the gate waiting. They both turned and waved at Regina once before they set off down the street. Regina looked after them until they turned a corner and were gone. She felt a curious smile tug at her lips and she touched them once, softly.

As Emma and Henry made their way through the quiet streets of Storybrooke, Henry talked excitedly about his presents. Emma smiled, she had bought some cool gifts for her son as well and was looking forward to his excitement the next morning when he opened them. She also thought about Regina a little, and the things she had learned about magic, about dwarfs, about life.

When they turned the corner at the diner, Emma was surprised to see the lights on at Granny's. She looked through the window and had to laugh. She pointed for Henry to follow her line of vision and he joined in her laughter. There were Snow White and Prince Charming, Granny, Ruby, and some other people, all assembled around a table that consisted of the many tables of the diner, and had Christmas dinner.

"Come on, let's join them," Emma said.

"I don't have to eat anymore, do I?" Henry made a face, he was just as stuffed as his mom and she shook her head.

"Not if you don't want to, kid."

"Good," he seemed relieved.

Before they entered, Emma held Henry back by the shoulder, she had just remembered something:

"Henry, about that kiss under the mistletoe..." Henry looked curiously up at his mom. "... we should probably not mention that."

"Why not?" Henry asked and Emma flinched a little.

"Well, it's... y'know, it's... your grandma would probably have a heart attack, if she knew." Emma grinned and Henry answered in kind.

"A secret?" he asked.

"Yeah, a secret. I don't want you to think that it's bad, or anything, though. It's not. Just... your grandparents wouldn't understand."

"They didn't have a tradition like that in Fairy Tale Land?" he wondered.

"That's right, they didn't," Emma agreed and hugged her son. "I love you, you know?"

Henry laughed.

"I love you, too, mom."

And this time Emma let a few tears fall, they were good tears, they were happy tears. And there really was no shame in being happy.