Regina felt Mary's hand on her shoulder. The woman beamed down at her with a cheerful smile. From across the table sat Emma and next to her, Henry. "Go on mom, open it." Henry pushed his present across the table.

"Aren't we supposed to eat the cake first?" David asked. He for one was looking forward to the ice cream cake. The last time he'd had it was at his own birthday last year.

"Not this year." Henry replied. "I really want to see her open my gift."

Regina nodded as she took the small, shiny box in her hands. She set the lid aside and drew out a small necklace. It was crafted of shiny black string, and on that string dangled a small pendant. A tiny crystal apple, dotted with glitter.

"I made it myself. It was kind of hard, I looked all over the place for that jewel." Henry stated.

"It's wonderful, Henry." Regina smiled, she slipped the necklace over her head.

"And here I only got you a card." Emma grumbled.

"A card will do just fine, Emma." The mayor waited for Emma to slid her gift across the table. When she did at last, Regina came to see the most Swan-style card one could set eyes upon. The words happy birthday were scrawled rather messily in crayon. And right beneath that Emma had written, "Happy 30 something birthday…wait a minute how old are you? Never mind. I hope your birthday doesn't totally suck." 'Suck' was underlined a few times. And the rest of the card looked as if Emma had splashed glue all over it and then dipped it into a bowl of fairy dust. Wedged between the two pages was a five dollar bill and a note reading, "buy yourself something nice. I suggest a waffle from Granny's."

"Thanks for the tip, Emma." Regina closed the card and placed it with Henry's.

"You hate it don't you?" Emma asked.

"No, no! I do like it, really. It's…I can tell exactly who gave it to me even though you didn't sign your name."

"Ah crap." Emma muttered.

"Maybe next year." Hook gave her a pat on the back.

For once everyone seemed to be in good spirits. It was refreshing. Truly refreshing.

Epically after years of wasted birthdays spent trying to rid herself of Snow, seeing the woman smiling and laughing as Regina struggled to blow out her birthday candles was refreshing. She had wasted so much time on her quest for vengeance. It was a relief to be done with it. And at last she could look up and see people who truly cared for her, all trying to make this day special for her. They had succeeded. For the first time in a long while, Regina's birthday felt truly wonderful.

With Henry hugging her tightly, Emma cracking immature jokes for all of her guests, and Snow laughing joyfully, indeed, Regina finally felt at home in the world. Finally caring and being cared for. Even Granny had cooked her a special birthday meal. On this particular birthday she had come to realize that it would all be okay.