Disclaimer: All dialogue from OUAT is, of course, theirs and not mine. Furthermore, all stories from other fanfictions referenced are not mine either. The idea of writing this is that no matter where they are, Swan Queen always end up canon. I thought it would be more fun to base it in yet another AU rather than in the world of the show, but yeah, anyway, read it, and please tell me what you think!

POSSIBILITIES

Chapter 1: A Tale as Old as Time

Regina swirled the house whiskey around her ice-free plastic "glass". There had been no other whiskey. There had been no ice. She leaned back against the bar taking shallow breaths of air flavoured with the pungent club aroma - alcohol, bodily secretions, machine generated smoke. Her black leather dress stuck uncomfortably to her toned figure. She ignored the chafing, knowing she looked phenomenal. Her dark hair was perfectly coifed, her full lips were a luscious scarlet, her eyes were smoky and inviting… Her disdainful expression gave her just the right sense of belonging. She hoped she didn't look too out of place. She was surrounded by bulky, tattooed women with half-shaved heads and adventurous piercings. She wondered if there was a manual. How to Lesbian, Chapter 1: T-shirts with rolled up sleeves and baggy, saggy jeans.

She sighed. This had been a ridiculous idea. She wasn't even gay. A cacophony of voices in her head snorted at her. But she wasn't! She had friends, close friends, one friend in particular- But the point was, friends! So why was she here? Regina groaned and gulped some whiskey. It burned her throat. She ordered another. It was cheap. Very cheap. Not that money mattered.

She was here because… Because she wasn't gay. She was proving it. And it was working. The women in this club did nothing for her. She wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. However, she had to admit she would not be inclined to go anywhere near men who frequented such establishments, either. She thought about her previous relationships, how they had started… Robin, her most recent, had been a set up by her meddling, pixie-like friend. He had turned out to be married. Not a good marriage, but a marriage nonetheless. Regina had romanticised it at the time but it had been little more than a fling. She thought about the sex. It had definitely been exciting. And satisfying, for a time. Always quick. Regina liked to say that she wasn't a snuggler, but the truth was, she had never really had the opportunity to find out whether she liked snuggling or not.

Robin had un-separated from his wife and moved out of the city with his family. Regina had cried over him, real tears, but after a day or two her main emotion had been relief. Before Robin there had been Graham. Regina sometimes wondered if she had broken his heart. But similarly to Robin, it had been all about the sex. Before him, long before, there had been… That. And before that, Daniel, her high school sweetheart. Daniel had been a good thing, but after high school there had been no future in it. And they had been so young, Regina wasn't even sure it counted. She considered the pitiful list, wondering if any women really did better. Divorced, alone, with a twelve year old son who had only just begun not to hate her, now doubting her sexuality-

I'm not doubting it! Regina screeched in her head. She was just getting the ridiculous notion out of her system. She stood up straight and swayed a little. Shit. Her phone buzzed.

"You're still not back. How's the adventure?"

The babysitter. Or birthmother. Whatever. Miss Emma Swan. Regina wobbled forward, depositing her glass and heading out of the club. She was done. She needed fresh air. She stumbled outside and pressed "Call".

"Regina? You okay?"

Regina rolled her eyes to the empty street.

"Yes, Miss Swan, I am perfectly alright. I do not like texting," she slurred.

Emma chuckled on the other end of the line. "Right. Kid's sleeping, we had a blast. You coming back soon?"

"I am on my way now."

"You're not driving, are you?"

Regina practically growled. "I am not an imbecile. I did not even bring my car."

Emma kicked herself for implying Regina would be so careless. "Want me to come get you?" she offered.

"In that deathtrap of yours? I would be safer… skateboarding."

Emma laughed loudly at the image of Regina Mills on a skateboard. In her tight dress and six inch heels. "Come on. I recently saw this movie with this psycho cab driver who kidnapped people and tortured them and-"

"Miss Swan. Please stop."

"Not until you say I can drive you."

"Fine. You can meet me at the 24 hour Starbucks. I am going to get a coffee now."

Regina ended the call and wondered if she really sounded drunk. Emma was probably teasing her. Miss Swan loved to tease. The Starbucks was quiet, the clubs hadn't closed yet. She ordered a grande latte and sank into an armchair to drink it. Her phone pinged.

"On my way."

"Do not text and drive, Miss Swan."

"At a red light, Ms Mills."

"It still counts!"

"No it doesn't."

Regina scrolled through the emoji keyboard her son, Henry, had installed the other day. She had refused to use it until now, but there was a little angry face that was perfect. And typing all the correct letters was proving difficult.

Emma laughed out loud when the little face appeared on her screen. One handed, still driving, she found her favourite emoji to respond with.

Regina narrowed her eyes at Emma's reply. The expression could only be described as… seductively smug. She didn't answer, slightly worried that Emma really would compromise her driving by using her phone at the same time. She sipped her coffee. Emma would be getting such a kick out of this, being her knight in shining armour, rescuing her from drunken despair… A scene floated into her mind. She closed her eyes as it took over more of her brain, its story drawing her in like an unavoidable dream.

She's in a mansion, a huge white house with marble floors. She's wearing a tight grey dress, Graham's there to distract her but she's worried out of her mind. She hears someone outside. Her favourite little voice- She pulls open the door and runs down the steps.

"Henry! Henry…" She grabs the boy in her arms, sighing as she holds him. He wriggles; she lets him escape to arms length, demanding to know if he is okay.

"Where have you been? What happened?" She looks up to the woman who has brought him back to her, the woman to whom she owes everything.

"I found my real mom!" Henry says angrily, running into the house.

Regina looks up, teary eyed, to the uncomfortable looking blonde.

"You're Henry's birth mother?"

"Hi," the blonde says awkwardly, smiling a little.

Regina continues to talk with the woman, inviting her inside, offering her a drink. A lot of this dream life is real, it's what happened… But why is she in this house? Why aren't they at her apartment, like when it really happened. And why is she… There's a bowl of apples on the coffee table and Regina thinks of a tree, an apple tree, in a world that isn't even, isn't even America. She's wearing a dress, black, tight, like a… Like a queen. An evil queen. And suddenly she knows, that's who she is. Memories flood to her, a life in this feudal society, a life of nobles and peasants, hunters, drastically sub-par bathroom facilities… She is the evil queen, she rips out hearts and came to this world to have a son who hates her-

"Earth to Regina Mills…" Emma said, waving her hand in front of her dazed friend. To Emma, that's what they were. Friends. Emma had never found the idea difficult to cope with. It wasn't that she had a lot of friends. In fact, Regina was kind of the first one… But it had never been hard for her to admit, even when she first showed up and Regina hated her and there was all the crap with the kid. Even then. Emma thought they'd done a pretty awesome job of making a working family out of a messed up situation.

"Emma! Sorry, I was-"

"About to KO? Yeah, I can see that."

Regina finished the dregs of her coffee and ignored Emma's hand, getting up unassisted. She made it to her feet, but Emma had to grab her waist to stop her from falling right down again.

"Woah, there. How much did you have?"

Regina shrugged. "Not much."

Emma guided her out of the coffee shop and into the car. "You're a terrible liar."

Regina slumped in her seat. "It was relative."

"Oh, I get it. Not much relative to the ocean."

Regina rolled her eyes, but smiled, too. Emma grinned, going round to her side. They sat there; she didn't start the engine.

"I… I imagined something," Regina said, still bemused by the vision, so bemused that she wanted to share it. "I imagined that… Well, it was mostly the same, but we lived in a small town, I was the mayor-"

Emma laughed. "Mayor? Now that sounds like you."

Regina thought about her real job. She ran a fashion magazine. "Really?"

"Well, think about it. You basically rule over Fantasy. What was my job?"

Regina tried to remember. She hadn't "dreamed" for long, but it was as if she had been filled with a whole other life.

"You were a bail bonds person."

"That's not much different from a cop," Emma said.

"But it was so strange… There was a book, a book of fairytales-"

"I think your research for the fall issue is getting to you."

"No, but… I was… I was a queen."

"I thought you said you were a mayor?"

"I was a mayor, I was just also… Never mind."

Emma looked at her apologetically. "I didn't mean to make fun of you. I just… It sounds confusing. You've had a lot to drink."

Regina blushed, then nodded. "I know. It was just so real." She kept one last piece of information to herself. In her dream, she had gotten to know Emma. They had spent time together, a lot of time. They had fought. And… And she had felt-

She pressed her thighs together, trying to ease the ache that had started between them. Emma started the yellow deathtrap.

"Why yellow?" Regina asked.

Emma was about to answer when her mind flashed to another scene, racing along a road, being chased by a giant beast, hell bent on having them for breakfast, Regina turning to her and asking the same question. She gave herself a shake and chose not to share the thought. It would only confuse her drunken companion. She felt as if she remembered the whole day, mixed up with Regina's dream. The car screeched to a halt, the beast was vanquished, Regina was somehow outside and she looked back and Emma was out of the car and in their eyes was… Emma blinked, then concentrated on the dark street in front of her. She couldn't think about Regina like that. Things were complicated enough. And she had a boyfriend. Killian. He was great. Not perfect, but he cared about her. He had said he loved her.

"You are uncharacteristically silent," Regina said, sounding a little nauseous.

"I was thinking about Killian," Emma said truthfully.

"Ah, the wannabe rockstar. I've been meaning to ask him for some eyeliner tips."

"Shut up. It's cool."

"If you say so."

"I talked to Henry about him today, while you were out," Emma admitted.

"Oh yes?" Regina asked, pinching the bridge of her nose. She still wanted to throw up.

"He… He doesn't like him," Emma said sadly. "But I guess he's not going to be a huge fan of any boyfriend. He was asking about his dad. I kind of wanted to make something up."

"Emma, you didn't do anything wrong," Regina said gently. "It wasn't your fault. In such a situation, I would have found it very difficult to keep the baby too."

"Maybe. But I couldn't tell him that. So I just said I didn't know, and that I was too young to be a mom. I said, like I said when I met him, that I wanted to give him his best chance."

As she said the words, Emma had another flash. A flash of her parents. Parents. Real people, people who were alive, people who weren't meth heads. People from fairytales-

"That damn magazine! I swear, it's getting in my head too." She couldn't help it this time. They were at Regina's place.

"I'm gonna take you upstairs," Emma told her.

"What do you mean, about the magazine?"

"I… I just imagined my fairytale life, I guess."

"Were you a princess?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Hardly. Well, technically, I guess. But… It's kind of funny to think about. A different life, an alternate universe. All these different possibilities."

Regina let herself be half-carried into the elevator. "I suppose every life has almost infinite possibilities. Every choice leads you down a different path."

Emma smiled. "I'm glad we picked this one."

Regina looked up. Emma's hopeful green eyes were glittering at her. "We are not friends, Miss Swan. I needed a babysitter."

Emma just laughed. "The kid is twelve, not six. I know you like me." She batted her eyelashes.

"I suppose… I do not hate you."

Emma punched the air. The elevator pinged.

Emma used her key to let them into the apartment, then helped Regina to her bedroom.

"You get changed, I'll fix you some water and aspirin. Do you want anything to eat?"

"No, thank you," Regina said, hurrying into her ensuite, stripping off her dress and throwing it out of the way just in time to vomit spectacularly into the toilet. Emma heard her and ran in, trying not to think about the black lace underwear. She held Regina's hair and rubbed her back. Regina shuddered. Emma held her as another image came to mind.

"I feel like this has happened in one of our alternate realities, too," she said, when Regina had finished emptying her stomach. Regina turned to her, looking like death.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, like… You said about your dream? And you were weird and drunk. But now I think about it… I often think about other lives for us. Like, if we'd met in a different way. If Henry hadn't decided he hated you. Or even if… If I hadn't given him up."

"If you hadn't given him up, why would you have met me?"

"I don't know, maybe I work in a bar and your car breaks down and you come in to use the phone," Emma suggested, getting a wet towel to wipe Regina's face. "Or maybe… Maybe I come into your life sooner. See the kid when he's little."

"I think I finally know what you do on these alleged stakeouts. You sit around eating donuts and fantasising about bizarre possibilities for your life."

Regina thought about Emma's answer to why she would be in their lives if Emma had kept Henry. It had been so easy, so simple. As if Emma took it completely for granted that no matter what happened, they would be together. It made her smile. Emma handed her a toothbrush, already loaded with an excessive dollop of toothpaste.

"It'll make you feel better," Emma promised. Regina stuck it in her mouth and began to brush. She realised after another minute or so that she was dressed only in her underwear, and that she was sitting in a very unladylike position on her bathroom floor. She tried to adjust herself to appear more dignified. Emma unhooked her fluffy bathrobe from the back of the door and wrapped her up in it.

"We're all girls here," she joked. "Don't worry about it."

"That's very heteronormative of you, Miss Swan," Regina said through her toothbrush. Emma helped her up so she could spit.

"So it was. I apologise. I was totally checking you out."

Emma grinned all the more because it was true. Then she blushed, thinking of Killian. Was it cheating to find her friend attractive? Women could appreciate beauty in other women without being lesbians! They were just friends, they had fun, they had-

She hurls Regina into a shelf of supplies. It falls, Regina stumbles but Emma grabs her, whirling them around and slamming her into the opposite wall.

"It's true, isn't it?" she demands, seething with anger, pressing Regina's body so hard she knows she is hurting the woman.

Regina's face is pure anguish as Emma repeats the question. Regina's eyes fill with tears as she admits something she never thought she would.

"Yes."

It was Emma's turn to do some thigh adjusting. Regina rinsed her mouth out.

"Thank you, Emma, I feel a lot better now."

Emma helped her into the bedroom.

"Okay. Call me if you need anything. I'll be round tomorrow for Friday night dinner."

Regina smiled. It was her favourite evening of the week. She got into bed, relaxing into white cotton sheets. She listened to Emma let herself out of the apartment, then closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Henry is three, her son, hers. She remembers carrying him, giving birth to him, holding him in the hospital. She has friends, she is close with her mother, her father is still alive. Her friends are trying to set her up with someone, she goes on blind dates and there's a babysitter, a young, blonde babysitter who eats popcorn with Reese's Pieces and goes to the museum with them and they make friends, they make a family, and then-

Regina sat up in bed, red faced and horribly frustrated. Had that… Had that been Emma? In a… In a sex dream? A beautiful, wonderful sex dream with a flawless plot, a heavenly story, but a sex dream nonetheless.

And it had been so vivid. Even now, wide awake, she felt as if it really happened. It couldn't have happened, she knew Emma was a cop, she knew Henry was twelve and in the bedroom next to hers. But… It still felt so real. She checked the time. 6am. She had to get up soon anyway. She went to the bathroom, turning on the shower and slipping out of her robe and underwear. She felt as if she was sweating whiskey.

Emma woke up in a similar state of confusion. She had been thinking about her training in the police academy as she did her regular before-bed workout, but her sleeping mind had turned it into army training, she had been a soldier, she had been alone but she had written letters and then she had met a family, a stern brunette with an adorable son…

She checked her phone. It was early, but she had work so she got up anyway. She texted Regina, despite her friend's dislike of the communication.

"Possibilities."

Regina saw the message when she came out of the shower. Somehow, she knew what Emma meant.

"For us?"

"Yeah. I like them."

Regina chuckled. The thing was, in all the possibilities, in every scenario, those she dreamed, those she had started to imagine (like the one in the shower a few minutes ago) she and Emma were… More than friends. A family, a family with Henry. But also-

She huffed out her breath. This was ridiculous. She just needed to get laid. That would calm her thoughts, too. Mm, Emma- No. A man. She dated men. That was who she was. There was nothing wrong with lesbians, they were just the same as anyone else. But Regina Mills was not a lesbian. She was straight, she had always been straight. She sighed.

"I admit, I am enjoying thinking about them too."

Emma didn't have to know she was referring to what she'd done in the shower.

"Makes me think… We're meant to be. Even though I know you used to hate me."

"I never truly hated you," Regina lied. The intent was true, at least. Thinking back over the last two years, it had been pointless to hate Emma. They got on too well.

"You started this, you know. I'm never going to get any work done, I'll be imagining us in every position I can think of."

Regina stared at the message. Another appeared beneath it.

"I didn't mean sex ;)."

She rolled her eyes.

"Enjoy your day," she responded. She dressed for work, then went to make Henry's breakfast.

Emma looked at the message, cursing Regina for being so strict with herself. She never texted from work, they wouldn't talk until tonight now. Emma sighed. She could hardly remember her life before Regina. She didn't really want to.

She thought about Regina's fairytale world, Regina as a queen. Emma imagined black, corseted dresses with ample cleavage on show. She imagined herself in red, she imagined them dancing, meeting as teenagers… Wait. Were they friends here, or lovers? She gave herself a shake and put on her uniform. They would have had fun in high school together. Regina would have hated her. She had been a typical foster kid, worn out clothes, no friends to speak of… but she had studied hard. Regina would have been a straight A student and a cheerleader to boot. Emma could just picture her, ponytail swinging, perky little unifrom-

Enough. She had work. She downed her coffee and set off. She had time to take the subway; she took in the city, enjoying watching everyone scurrying to work. Her phone pinged. She looked at it, wondering who was talking to her.

"Is Mom hungover?"

She laughed out loud. Oh, Henry.

"Ask her," she advised, knowing Regina would kill her for spilling her secrets.

"Knew it," came the prompt reply. "If she wasn't, you would have just said no."

Emma cursed the boy and his smarts. "Go get ready for school and don't make her mad, then," she told him.

"I am ready. See you later?"

"Of course. It's Friday."

"Yay! Love you, Ma." It had been decided that they would take on different "mom" names to avoid confusion. Emma quite liked being Ma. It brought out the Brooklyn in Regina when she said it.

That had been her father. Emma wished she knew more about Regina's childhood, but she was so private and Emma didn't want to push. It was funny, Emma thought. She could imagine things… But the things she imagined were all so awful. She wondered what it was about Regina that seemed to scream "abused". She was such a good mother, so kind and loving and caring. And she wasn't compensating, it was just the way she was. And yet Emma felt as if she knew that there were secrets, skeletons in Regina's closet that haunted her at night. There were so many things that could have happened, so many ways the story could be told. Emma felt as if it had been, as if… As if she was just one tiny possibility, as if their lives were just a random manifestation of the same story.

The same love story. Emma rolled her eyes. A tale as old as time. They should watch that, Beauty and the Beast. Henry loved Disney. Regina would like it too. She always pretended not to, but Emma had seen her tearing up when they saw Frozen at the theater.

Emma had arrived at work. The thing was… Well, one of the things was, Regina was not her girlfriend. Killian was. Her boyfriend. Killian was her boyfriend. And the other thing was, maybe it didn't matter what story they were in, whether she was a cop or a bail bonds person or a princess, whether Henry had been in her womb or not. In all the stories, they were both Henry's mother. And in all the stories, they were a family. Like, in a platonic way, Emma added quickly.

A/N: Reviews are love! Thanks for reading, it needs more to really develop but please let me know what you think, even just of the concept.