Hello! So I know I'm currently in the middle of another story, but this popped into my head last night and wouldn't leave! I'm actually really excited for this story. This will be my first SwanQueen fic. Rated M for future chapters. I don't own anything, and I earn no profit from manipulating these characters and their story's. All I ask for is support, and reviews would be great!

Trigger warning: Mention of car crash, not explicit.

Regina Mills sat up in bed gasping. Sweat poured down her face, whimpers exploding from her chest in gasps. After another shuddering deep breath, she shook her head before softly comanding herself to relax.

She stood from the bed, walking over to the full length mirror in the corner of her room. Regina forced upon herself composure. A panic attack was not needed right now. Yet the nightmare had been terrifying.

Not a nightmare, she corrected herself, but a memory.

One she relived far too often.

Four years earlier

"No!"

The cry split through the evening, tumbling from the full red lips of a striking brunette.

"Please Daniel, just leave us alone!" Her eyes were pleading, but her spine remained straight. She refused to bend under his watchful gaze, nor under the weight of her beautiful baby boy. Little one year old Henry was perched on her hip, his face buried in his mother's neck.

It was already late, past seven, and the boy was tired. Regina wanted nothing more than to get him home and tucked into bed. Her ex however was making it damn near impossibe, and worse, was frightening her with talk of her worst nightmare. Him taking Henry.

"Regina, he is every bit my son too. I will gain custody of him, and thats why you're scared. You know I'll win."

The fact that he felt they should have this conversation in the parking lot of the grocery store infuriated her. How dare he threaten to take their child. She took a deep breath, and cringed.

The man was intolerable. His breath smelled of alcohol and he leered at her. Daniel's eyes, which used to look at her with love and kindness, instead glared through the dusk at her. It seemed he wished to steal the child from her arms as he leaned towards her.

"You can have the house, the money, everything Daniel. But please don't try to take Henry." The womans tone started soft and pleading but quickly hardened, turning cold. Wrapping her arms more firmly around her son she turned to get in her car.

Placing Henry in his car seat and buckling him in, she ignored Daniel's stream of profanities. After locking the boys door, she closed it, and turned to face the man she once vowed to always love.

"Daniel, you can't have him." She whispered the words softly, as if that would soften the blow. "You wouldn't care for him, give him the love he needs. I would know," she gestured between them before continuing, "and I need him."

Daniel shook his head in rage, but before he could think of an appropriate response the fiesty brunette was pulling out of the lot. Desperate to catch up and convince her to give him the boy, Daniel jumped in his own vehicle and peeled out of the lot.

It was only a second. A bright light in Regina's rearview mirror. The sound of tearing, screeching metal. Daniel's name a silent scream on her lips.

And she knew it would be a moment she would always regret.

Regina looked herself over once before checking the time. 6:00am blinked back at her. Ugh, she thought, so much for sleeping in. Today was Sunday, Regina's one day off. She had been hoping to catch up on sleep after the long week she had filing paperwork in the office.

Being mayor of a small town was far more work than she had thought. But she prefered her life in the sleepy town far more than her previous one in New York. She knew everyone and trusted most of them.

Henry adored his kindergarten teacher, a pixie haired brunette named Mary Margaret Blanchard. Regina had a best friend in Kathryn Nolan, a blonde sales associate with a tendancy to sass everyone around her. Best of all though, she had escaped her old life. Her controlling mother, memories of Daniel, her disappointing childhood.

At lease she thought she had escaped it.

This nightmare unsettled her though, she had thought that she moved past all this when she left New York. Stretching up on tiptoes she let all her muscles extend, lifting her arms to the air and pointing her toes to the ground.

Regina got ready quickly. Showered, changed, and finished with makeup, she went to go wake her son. Henry was her sunshine, and just one smile from him would calm her still too fast heartbeat. Her little prince would make everything better.

As she opened the door a ball of five year old boy crashed into her. "MOOMMM!"

He reached his arms up to her and even though he was getting much too big for her to hold him, she scooped him up.

"Good morning Henry, how's my baby boy?" She asked the question every morning, and was waiting worriedly for the day when he scrubched hjs nose up at being called a baby. This morning though he just flung his arms around his mothers neck.

"I'm fine Momma." He said it softly, burrowing his face in her neck and tangling his hands in her hair. She hugged him back, holding him close.

"Come on baby, I've got to stop by the office this morning. Then maybe we can go to Granny's for breakfast?"

"Yeah!" Henry was already scrambling down from her arms and running to his room. She smiled and leaned against the doorframe for a few minutes as she watched him scurry around.

He was just growing up so fast.

###

A half hour later found them at Granny's Bed and Breakfast, really the only decent diner in town. Henry loved their wagfles. Regina placed him up in a barstool and sat next to him. She placed their orders with Granny, getting a soft smile from the tough older woman when Henry asled with a smile and please.

"Good manners he's got. A fine job Madame Mayor." with that she swooped off to place their orders.

Regina smiled at Henry before pulling out the files she picked up at the office. They were in need of a librarian and a sherriff. The deputy couldn't comtinue holding up order on his own. And the library under the clocktower was too beautiful a place not to share. She sighed, looking over at Henry. This would mean longer hours next week.

Suddenly the bell rang out announcing someones entrance to the diner. Regina turned and then froze.

In walked a tall blonde. Gorgeous ringlets framed an angled, fair toned face. But the most startling feature were the womans deep emerald green eyes, which swept over the small crowd of regulars. Her form was practically wraped in tight skinny jeans, boots, a tank top, and a bright red leather jacket. The last article Regina felt she would have hated normally. But the blonde pulled it off with ease.

She sauntered toward the bar.

"Hi. Do you have a room available?" She spoke quietly, and still her voice carried through the room.

Granny scurried off to find an available key. Regina decided to introduce herself to the blonde, who was still leaning against the bar a mere three feet from where Henry and her were seated. Henry for his part was staring at her in awe.

Regina stood and cleared her throat softly. Extending her hand she found herself eye to eye with the woman.

"Good morning, I'm Regina Mills. The mayor.

the woman shook her hand before replying. Her skin was soft, and her shake firm.

"Pleased to make your aquaintance, Madame Mayor," the blonde said with a smirk, "I'm Emma Swan."

Regina could tell that thUs particular woman was a pckage of secrets and sass. She couldn't wait to figure them out.

The mayor sent a smirk right back at her. "Welcome to Storybrooke, Miss Swan."