AN: No one's written anything for this episode/sneak peek yet and that is just unacceptable so here you go!

"Don't!" Regina protested when she spotted which drawer Emma was about to open next, even standing up at its urgency, but it was already too late.

Emma had already opened the drawer and picked up what Regina had so desperately wanted to remain hidden. It was that 'alternate path' picture of Regina and Robin sharing a kiss, as they probably would have if Regina hadn't run away from the tavern the night Tinkerbelle showed it to her. The one she had tore apart after saying goodbye to Robin forever at the town line, scattering pieces on the ground as she walked away.

She'd gone back though, in a state of utter weakness, she found all the pieces and taped them back together in a way that was almost perfect, except for the obvious fact it had been taped. She'd hidden it away almost immediately after doing so, feeling disgusted with herself for being so weak. He was married and had a child and was now outside of Storybrooke and would never be back. The ridiculous self-pity had to end; she was the reason why Marion had died in the Enchanted Forest in the first place. Still, she couldn't part with it. As long as she didn't look at it again, she would be fine.

Until now. "What's this?" Emma asked, turning to face her once more.

Regina was sure she looked like a wounded animal as she shrunk in on herself, not wanting to answer. Answering would just bring back those painfully bittersweet memories.

"You take it from the book?" another question from Emma.

"It's not from the book," Regina finally made herself answer, albeit vague. She straightened her posture a bit but cast her eyes downward. She didn't want to see it and she especially didn't want to see Emma holding it. She may as well be holding her fragmented heart. "Robin found it," Regina clarified, digging herself deeper into the hole she was trying to claw her way out of, looking up once more. "Before – he left with his family, it appeared to him."

"It's not your story. What is it?" Of course Emma wanted to more. She'd signed on to Operation Mongoose, after all. She wanted to help Regina find happiness almost as much as Regina herself did.

Regina's eyebrows drew together and she could feel the slightest pricking in her eyes, a sign of oncoming tears. She answered anyway, "Robin thought it was hope. A sign that – " She sighed. "Things would work out for me." She smiled with another accompanying sigh, this time more of a sharp exhale through her nose, a smile that wasn't very happy at all. The threat of tears was only growing stronger.

Emma cocked her head and looked down at the piece of taped up paper she held once again.

Regina glanced down briefly, breaking her rule and sneaking a peek before raising her eyes again, along with her eyebrows. "Turns out it was a cruel joke."

Emma's expression looked like disappointment for half a second before it brightened. "Have you heard from him?" she asked as she handed the paper over to Regina.

Regina looked down at it again and felt her eyebrows knit together again, her lip started quivering, and she could feel a thin layer of tears settling in her eyes at this point. She shook her head lightly a couple times before looking up and shaking it a bit harder. "No," she answered. Her voice cracked and wavered with just that one word as she put the paper down on her desk, facedown. She was fighting it, but it was inevitable, she was going to cry.

She sank back into her chair and a squeak-like sob escaped her as she landed.

"Regina, I-I'm sorry –" Emma stammered her apology. She hadn't meant to upset her.

"D-Don't…Don't –" Regina stopped and tried to get more control over her voice. "Don't," it came out sternly. That was better. "Don't apologize for him doing the right thing. For once. He shouldn't be trying to get ahold of me." That was the last of her strength before she cried harder.

"That's not what I…" Emma trailed off. She didn't want to end up pissing Regina off on top of upsetting her. Not after they'd just gotten to an okay place again. She cleared her throat. "I'll, uh, I'll just go. We've probably done enough for today, anyway. Like you've said, it's been dead end after dead end." She was just going to give her her space. Regina telling her that her attempts to help only made things worse was still fresh in her mind. She turned and started to walk toward the door.

"No." It was quiet, but it was there.

Emma turned back around slowly. "You don't want me to leave?"

"No," Regina confirmed. "If you do, I won't."

Emma tried to figure out exactly what that cryptic answer meant. "What does that mean?" She moved to sit in the chair in front of Regina's desk. "You don't want me to leave because you'll recluse again? Or…worse?"

Regina sniffled and nodded.

"Okay." Emma stood up and took the paper off the desk, putting it back where she found it before sitting down again. She rested her arm on the desk, extended towards Regina. "Take my hand." Regina didn't question it. "Now, look at me."

Regina rose her gaze to meet Emma's, even if all she could see was a watery distortion of colors.

Emma squeezed Regina's hand gently as she held her gaze, brushing her thumb across her knuckles. "I am not going anywhere. You won't be locking yourself away again if I have a say, and apparently I do, or else you wouldn't have stopped me."

Regina was surprised that it felt good, and even a bit soothing, to have Emma hold her hand like that. The only other time they had held hands they were both wearing gloves and were positive they would never see each other again. Plus, they were positive that Emma wouldn't remember her once she crossed the town line. Even then, the contact had been less about them and more about Henry. This was more personal.

"I know right now it looks like we're never going to find the author," Emma told her. "But I'm not giving up. There was a time you thought you were saying goodbye to Henry, and me, forever, but look at what happened. We found our way back. Sure, we had a little help, but we're here. Took much less time than forever to get here, too." Emma smirked.

Regina cracked a small smile. "Snow's optimism has rubbed off on you."

Emma made a face. "Ugh, please don't say that. I don't like the image of myself running around in the forest singing with birds."

Regina snorted. "Here's to small favors." She didn't even think about it before squeezing Emma's hand.

"Was that a laugh?" Emma smiled. "Of course! Duh, obviously making fun of my parents, specifically my mother, is what will cheer you up. Wow, I'm slow. Okay, so this one time when she was still pregnant she was using the baby bump as a table for a tub of ice cream, and then she fell asleep. Obviously, the ice cream that was left inside began melting, and she woke up at some point needing to go to the bathroom, totally forgetting there was a tub of ice cream on her, and stood up, which dumped the whole thing all over her, a sticky, mostly liquid mess. She started wailing and woke everyone up, and we all came down and she was saying things like ice cream was her new sworn enemy and started pelting pillows at Charming saying it was all his fault and the baby was probably going to come out with a third eye or something equally horrible because of it."

Regina blinked a few times. "Oh my." She started laughing. "Trouble in paradise?" She smirked and laughed harder. "Of course it's anyone and everyone else to blame but herself."

"Oh, it gets better."

Regina's eyes nearly popped out of her head and her eyebrows high, almost into her hairline. "It does?!" she exclaimed through her laughter.

Emma nodded. "It does. So, that sticky, melted ice cream mess got all over her clothes and they had to be washed. They came out of the dryer about a quarter smaller than it started and had turned pink. She gave everyone the silent treatment for the whole week and glared at the washing machine and dryer every time she saw them."

Regina laughed harder, even to the point of uncontrollable snorting. That made Emma laugh as well.

Finally, the two caught their breath.

"Wow, I feel…" Regina tried placing just how she felt. "I feel great now!"

Emma smiled. "Glad it worked."

"It's…there's more, though." Regina tilted her head to the side, a tad puzzled. "This is the best I've felt in years."

Emma's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah," Regina answered. She laughed softly to herself. Then she looked straight into Emma's eyes, no tears to blur her vision anymore. "We have been two very idiotic people, Miss Swan. Which says a lot, because the only two people deserving the title of The Two Idiots are your parents."

"We…We have?" Emma asked, her eyebrows drawing together.

"We have." Regina looked pointedly at their hands, which had without their knowledge interlocked together.

Emma followed her gaze. "Woah, when did that happen?" First it had been Regina's hand on top of her own, now their fingers had laced together.

"I don't know, either. However, I do know what it means."

Emma thought about it, she could just sense what Regina was getting at. "Ohhhh."

"The pixie dust was wrong. Or at least Tink's interpretation of it was. But once again, there is a third party to consider."

"No, there's not," Emma corrected smugly."

Regina's eyebrows drew together. "Yes, there is…"

"If you're referring to 'Captain Guyliner', that's over. I just didn't tell you because, I don't know, I thought it might make you think that if the Savior didn't get to have forever with someone, then you wouldn't either. I didn't want you to give up on Operation Mongoose."

"Oh." Regina blinked, surprised. "How long ago?"

"Shortly after I joined Operation Mongoose. He's always acted like he's better than you, which pissed me off, and the final straw was him calling me the wrong name. It wasn't even something close like Emily, it was Milah."

Regina made a face. "Ouch. Are you okay?"

"I will be," Emma answered with a smile. "Are you?"

Regina nodded, "I will be, too. So long as you still don't plan on going anywhere." She again looked pointedly at their hands.

Emma got out of her chair, managing to walk around Regina's desk without letting go of her hand, until she was standing in front of Regina. "I'm not leaving you unless you want me to."

Regina's breath hitched in her throat. "Say that again," it was almost a whisper.

"I'm not leaving you unless you want me to." Emma knelt so they were face to face, their hands coming to settle in Regina's lap.

"Do you mean it?" Regina let herself reach out and brush a strand of Emma's hair behind her ear.

"Regina, can I tell you something?"

"O-Okay." Regina snapped her hand back, heart thudding in her chest.

Emma could see the panic in her eyes. "It's not bad, I promise you. Remember Neverland, when I was caught in that ridiculous triangle between Neal and Hook?"

"That was rather annoying."

"Tell me about it. I was focused on Henry, of course, as we were all supposed to be. But if I had the chance, if I thought there was any chance of mutual interest… I wanted to pick you. I was so relieved when you didn't die in the mines like you were willing to. The magnitude of that relief and the size of the lump in my throat when I watched you contain that energy told me that I wanted you. I wanted to know you, to hug you, to show you that yes, you matter, but Henry was gone and I just never got the chance. When you had to send Henry and I away, I wasn't just crying for Henry, or losing my parents again, I was also crying for you, for never having that chance." Emma felt tears well up in her eyes as one simultaneously rolled down Regina's cheek.

"Idiot," Regina whispered. "I brought you and Snow back from the Enchanted Forest even though I knew absorbing that energy could have killed me, because I wanted you back. I missed you more than I imagined I ever possibly could, and the fact that we share Henry made me think…but then I did all that work to get you back, and nobody thanked me for it. I had to feel Henry let go of my hand and walk away from me with everyone, including you. That told me nothing would ever happen, so I almost made a forgetting potion to forget, but that would make me forget you completely and that seemed a worse path, you being Henry's other mother and all."

Emma stroked Regina's tear away. "What do you want to do now?" she whispered.

Regina searched her eyes. "All I can think about now is kissing you."

Emma leaned in closer to her, clearly giving permission, and Regina wasted no time in catching her lips. Emma pulled Regina up out of the chair and into her arms, kissing her softly as she held her close.

What they forgot was that the door to Regina's office was unlocked, and Henry soon burst in. "Moms – Moms?! Uhhh…"

They broke the kiss to look at him, but kept their embrace. "Consider Operation Mongoose a success," Regina told him with a bright smile.

Emma nodded. "Yup, mission accomplished."

Henry's eyes were wide as he looked between the two of them. Then he ran over and hugged them. "My mommies are finally together."

Both rose their eyebrows, simultaneously asking, "You wanted this to happen?"

"I was hoping it as soon as Emma joined Operation Mongoose."

They smiled.

"You always do seem to have this tendency to get what you want." Regina kissed the top of Henry's head.

"Now you need to get married and give me siblings."

Emma laughed. "Woah, kid! One step at a time, okay? We literally just had our first kiss."

"You're so much better for each other than Robin and Hook, anyway." Henry kissed each of their cheeks. "I can't wait to see Grandma's face when she finds out!"

Regina paled. She hadn't been thinking of that. "It would be best to wait a while before telling her…"

"Mom, when she told you at that séance or whatever to follow your heart, she was talking about Emma, duh."

"She was?" both women asked.

Henry nodded. "Of course."

"Woman could've been more clear," Regina mumbled.

"It worked out, though! This way you know Emma will be here for you when you're hurting and not just when you're feeling generally okay, and now Emma knows how to make you hurt less instead of more."

"How old are you again, twelve going on thirty?" Emma teased Henry. She smiled at Regina. "Look at this smart kid we made." They did make him, with their combined efforts. Emma's biology, Regina's raising, and then the presence of them both sharing him were all important factors in the person he'd become.

"I love you, Moms."

They brought Henry into the hug. "We love you, too."