Author's Note: I got a lot of favorable responses that really encouraged me, so here is Chapter Two. Just another reminder to continue at your own risk.


Chapter Two

"What's wrong with you?" Regina asked Emma looking confused when she walked into the den, Regina had let her in with magic when she had called her on the phone to ask if it was her at the door. Henry had been feeling well enough after his sleep for them to cuddle up on the couch and play space paranoids together. Regina was winning to her chagrin for a while, but then as usual she made sure that Henry took the lead, this was after all supposed to be an enjoyable activity for him.

Emma huffed and sat down in the arm chair and propped her booted feet up on Regina's coffee table. Henry and Regina both tensed up at the move, but Emma didn't seem to notice. Regina noticed that a familiar dust came off them.

"My parents don't think it's such a clever idea for me or Henry to be over here." Henry paused the game as Regina stopped playing. They both looked at Emma.

"Why not, I haven't really seen mom in a year, and I like it better when she takes care of me," Henry admitted. Emma tried not to look hurt, but it was evident on her face.

"I know kid, but…" Emma sighed and took a deep breath before she turned to look at Regina. "I should tell you this before it takes you by surprise."

"You're taking Henry," Regina said darkly as she discreetly gripped the controller from the game console.

"No, the reason why my parents are a little more up in arms lately and I'm sure you noticed." Regina just shrugged. "Marion wasn't the only one I brought back to the future." Regina's entire body stiffened.

"So, I wasn't hallucinating at the diner," Regina said in such a low voice. "That was him, that was Leopold." Regina started to pick at a point on her sleeve without noticing.

"Yes, I didn't mean to bring him back even less than Marion, I know with Marion you never got the chance to even see if Robin…" Emma started.

"Can't miss what never was Ms. Swan, so my guards lied to me he didn't die in the inn fire like we thought." Emma shook her head.

"No, my magic came back and saved us all," Emma told her. "He was supposed to stay, Rumple was supposed to erase his memory and take him back to the castle, you should have been able to find another way to kill him and right the timeline." Regina let out a long breath.

"But you're not going to hurt him now are you mom?" Henry asked worried. "You said you were trying to change, and you've been so good lately." Regina seemed to come out of her thoughts as she gave her little prince a smile.

"No, of course not honey, I don't want to kill him." She patted his head. "I should start on dinner, you said something about chicken meatballs and pasta." Regina stood up and handed the controller to Emma before she pushed her feet off her table. She bent over and met Emma's gaze with a stern look that always made Henry behave.

"We don't put our feet on the table in this house Ms. Swan, we take our shoes off at the door, so I swear if I detect this dust that you seem to track into my foyer, my kitchen, and onto my coffee table every time you've apparently snuck into my house, I will make you scrub this house from top to bottom with a tooth brush to make up for all the times I went crazy looking for the source of this dust. And I can only assume you're the reason my tree has a big gaping hole and why I had unripened apples in my basket. I thank you not to touch my tree again, you've done more than enough damage to it." Emma blushed super red and, she was very scared of Regina. It had taken nothing for Regina to reduce her to feeling like an eight-year-old misbehaving.

"I…." Emma started.

"No, Ms. Swan that is not the correct response, Henry please inform Ms. Swan of what she is supposed to say now."

"Emma, you're supposed to say yes ma'am," Henry told her quickly.

"Yes ma'am," Emma replied.

"Yes, ma'am what?" Regina asked.

"Yes ma'am, I will not touch your tree again without your supervision, and I will take my shoes off at the door."

"Good job Ms. Swan." Regina stood up straight and walked out as Emma quickly took her shoes off and put them by the door. She wasn't surprised when there was cleaner waiting for her as she wiped down the table.

"Why is she so scary kid?" Emma asked him.

"Mom doesn't like a dirty house without reason," Henry told her. "We never put our feet on the table as you can see it leaves dirt." Emma nodded. "Why were you in mom's house?"

"Netflix and playstation kid," Emma told her.


Regina stood outside as she took a swig from her non-alcoholic cider. By putting it in her free crystal decanter she was going to trick herself into thinking it was the alcoholic stuff. And honestly if she were home alone, she would have indulged herself this early finding out this news. He was back in her life and she was possibly trapped here in storybrooke. Did her mother's border spell return in full effect? She had no idea but moving would be the best solution here if it were possible. She didn't want to share the same state as him. And if he came here, she didn't know how she would handle that, there was no way she could pretend that everything was okay that he hadn't been just another nightmare after her mother. She finished the bottle, God she was really going to need to cut tonight, or maybe after dinner was on, she could already cut. She went inside and just tried to pretend like everything wasn't all wrong. She was making dinner for her son and wife who had zero relations to her abuser. In fact, she didn't have an abuser, she was just Regina a happy house wife. She conjured up all the ingredients she needed and soon the smells of Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs filled the house along with chicken noodle soup. She set the table perfectly as she cleaned around her cooking food, Emma was a little shocked seeing as Mary Margaret always left the kitchen an absolute mess.

"Oh, kid that soup looks great, Regina can I have some of that too?" Emma asked already laying on the puppy dog eyes.

"Help yourself Ms. Swan," Regina told her. Emma quickly went and filled two bowls. Regina looked surprised that she had even brought her back food. No one had ever given her more food before, rather took it away. She already had a small portion of pasta. Emma had two times her amount maybe more.

"Oh, and by the way your lasagna was great although I regret it got cold by the time I was done with my parents," Emma grumbled before she bit into her pasta. "Oh my god this is as good as I had hoped if not better." She tried the soup next. "Oh God I am never leaving your dining room table if this is the kind of magic that appears on it."

"I told you mom is a much better cook," Henry told her. Regina beamed at her son.

"So, are you going to tell me what you were doing in my house when I was not home?" Regina asked trying to focus on other things than that her son had been around her abuser and thought her one act of bravery stemmed from the root of all evil. "I feel as if I deserve an explanation Ms. Swan, don't you?" Emma blushed.

"I wasn't snooping or anything like that I swear. If anyone trusts you in this town it's me," Emma told her. "It's just it's boring at the loft, one can only take so much time staring at one another before you go insane. And they have flat out refused to buy a television or rather keep the old one from when there was a curse. So, my mornings off I like to come here when I know you're at work and watch television, specifically your Netflix or play games, sometimes I go through your movie collection. But I have never been upstairs, I use the guest bathroom down here, ate your apples sorry, and watched television. Maybe danced around to your music collection once."

"Oh, so you're why I almost blew my ear drums out this one day?" Regina asked. Emma looked sheepish. "I don't understand why you didn't ask like a normal person?" Regina shook her head. "I thought we were on good enough terms you could at least ask first." Emma frowned at herself. "I can understand what it's like better than anyone to get bored staring at Mary Margaret all day."

"I thought you would say no, I do see us on better terms yes, but we are hardly friends." Regina nodded as she thought carefully. Maybe she could use this to her advantage especially as Emma was feeling like she owed Regina a bit.

"I'll make you a deal, Ms. Swan, we actually co-parent, this whole visitation rights bullshit has to stop despite your stupid parents. Henry is my son, and you have seen your actions of bringing up the timeline as giving you extra time with Henry, but you've stolen time from me, you took away our last few peaceful years and left Henry feeling like I abandoned him for a year." Henry looked between his mothers' wondering if this would result in an all-out fight. He had been angry with his mom for a while but being home had certainly been great. "So, Henry comes home as I don't really want him under the same roof as Leo, you enjoy free access to the television, your own Netflix profile, and free access to food. Since I don't trust you in the kitchen that means containers marked Emma with food in it just for you to take as you please that will include lunch and dinner since I hardly ever see you skipping your morning bear claws. Besides it's incredibly wrong that someone was in this house and starving."

"Can I stay over in the guestroom sometimes so I can wake up and have breakfast with Henry like on Fridays?" Emma asked. She would miss waking the kid up with a wrestling match, besides she wanted to know what kind of magic Regina made for breakfast. She knew for sure she wouldn't be disappointed.

"It's yours, who am I kidding no one ever sleeps over here," Regina told her as she pushed her food around having already taken one bite to taste her work, she took her second bite just to give the appearance of having eaten. She swallowed as Emma was cheering feeling like she got a win and talked about all the possible foods Regina could cook plus her usual. "Oh, one more thing Ms. Swan."

"Yes?" Emma asked already dreaming about freshly baked breakfast mufffins.

"Absolutely under no circumstances do you let your parents or her father into my house, I don't care if there are monsters chasing them and this is the only safe place in town, you can let the entire town in, but not them. Well I amend that, if it's really bad you can let the entire town in plus David, poor man has been trapped long enough in that idiot sandwich, and Favorite charming is better off with that half of the family."

"Got it they don't come in," Emma told her with a chuckle. "And I thought I was your favorite charming?" Emma chuckled some more at her own joke.

"No, definitely will be Neal hands down," Regina told her. "But I also don't view you as a charming. Thankfully the idiot in both strains of DNA skipped two generations."

"What an oddly back handed compliment," Emma said not knowing how to feel.

"Mom is good at those," Henry laughed. Regina smiled at him, it was so good to hear his laugh. Dinner conversation returned to their new-found status as co-parents agreeing that they would discuss all plans or concerns with Henry together. If he was sick or simply just spent quality time which would take place in the form of quiet evenings at home, dinner was always included, and movie nights. If Regina or Emma wanted to hit up the arcade or go bowling or anything alone, they just simply had to plan with the other. Soon it was time for Henry to get back in bed after he did vomit up his dinner after all.

"Mom, are you really going to be nicer to Emma now?" Henry asked wondering if this was all a ruse. "I don't want to not see her anymore." Regina nodded and kissed his forehead.

"I'll do better to get along with her, but you Henry belong home in your own room, and need to be a kid, not being influenced by the idiots." Henry laughed.

"They aren't idiots mom," Henry told her. Regina chuckled.

"It's best we agree to disagree my prince. How's your stomach?"

"Better now," Henry told her. She nodded stroking his head, his fever had gone down after some willow bark tea.

"Good, now get some sleep my little prince." She kissed him goodnight and tucked him in. Emma had already said goodnight. She stood up and turned out the light making sure the waste basket was near him if he had another fit of throwing up. She went back downstairs and began to clean up. She found Emma in the kitchen eating leftovers.

"You're still eating?" Regina asked her, wondering how Emma could keep packing it in. She could barely continue eating anything after two bites. Hell, she had barely had dinner as it was, she felt so fat for having both the pasta and the soup, but only because it would be noticeable if she didn't eat the soup. She wished she hadn't made something new that she would need to try in order to discern what she needed to do differently next time. Although Emma assured her it was perfect, she thought perhaps it would be better done with shredded chicken meatballs instead of the ground chicken which she was not a fan of. Emma assured her she would eat it either way.

"It's so good I can't stop, I'm a little bit sad I won't even have leftovers for lunch now," Emma complained.

"You're more than welcome to take mine, I'm not a fan of my meatballs in ground chicken form, I was just going to force myself to eat it anyway."

"But what are you going to eat?" Emma frowned. Regina waved her off.

"There's still plenty of soup, or lasagna or I can make something else, I love to cook remember and I'll be home with Henry." Emma nodded as she bounced happily as she went to the refrigerator and switched the tops on the container that now held her name from a label maker. She beamed at the little label and placed it back in the refrigerator. "Why does having a little container with your name on it make you happy?" Emma turned to face her again.

"Because no one ever bothered before, it makes me feel included. I mean Mary Margaret doesn't even make sure I've had lunch or even make dinner for me if Henry's not home. A few times I came home and asked if she had also made enough for me before she just looked guilty and went back to feeding her stupid baby. She always makes sure he eats." Regina nodded in understanding.

"She was always self-centred, kind of hard to ignore favorite charming, without a nanny she can't afford, so don't beat yourself too much. She's only feeding him because he'd scream otherwise." Emma chuckled.

"So, I know I put my feet on the table today, but can I please have ice cream now that the kid is in bed?" Regina raised an eyebrow at Emma.

"What are you a child?" Regina asked her. "You don't have to ask me if you can have ice cream, not that there's any in the house, but if there were feel free…." Regina paused. "Oh, or do you have this infantilism fetish, although why you would reveal that to me, I don't fully understand, but then again I am the real adult here and seem to be the only one bothering to correct your manners." Emma blushed super hard.

"No, I…I don't like to be a baby or wear diapers or anything like that," Emma murmured. She wondered how Regina had even heard of such a thing, she had barely heard of such a thing.

"So just a little kid then around five or so?" Regina asked. Emma got even redder, so she nodded taking it as fact.

"No, no, I'm not blushing because it's true!" Emma cried. "Oh my God, I'm going to bed." She hurried out of the kitchen leaving a confused Regina as she didn't see anything wrong with it if Emma did like that. She was after all deprived of her childhood, hell if she didn't like to be in control so much, she could see herself wanting to go there. But she could thank Leopold for putting her off such things. While she thought fetishes were completely normal, Leopold had turned the idea of his sick version of infantilism a form of torture for her making her ask permission for every little thing including even going to the toilet. Once or twice he had made her wet herself on purpose instead of allowing her to use the chamber pot. She had disguised her old nanny as a trusted servant to help her get cleaned up when he didn't allow her the luxury of cleaning herself and hiding her shame. She made a noise of disgust and decided the entire house was dirty just like she was. Once she had scrubbed everything it was already one in the morning. So, she finally went upstairs to bed and took a hot shower. Her wounds didn't sting but that didn't matter it was time to produce fresh ones on her thighs. She ran her hands over her thighs and the ugly redness was replaced by smooth olive skin, with not a scar in place. It was time for a smooth canvas on which to work with. She pulled out her razor and sat down on her bathroom floor. Finally, she was going to get some relief over Leopold at least for today.

"God you're so fat," Regina told herself in disgust as she pinched thigh. She had eaten too much today. She would have to skip all three meals tomorrow and exercise, maybe tomorrow night, she could get a run in too if Emma stayed with Henry, but she wasn't sure if she had the nightshift tomorrow night. It didn't matter, she'd find time to also get a run into her workout. Glaring at her thighs, she put her razor to the side for a moment, some things just had to be taken care of first and foremost. She paused though going to her door she used magic to quietly shut her door for the moment, it was open so she could hear Henry, but he didn't need to hear her right now. She had learned early on that if he heard her vomiting, he immediately thought she was sick, so she learned to hide it. But then again, the vomiting wasn't usually often, normally only when she lost control of her diet and the very rare occasion she binged. God she hated the times in her life where she binged, they were rare but each time was more awful than the last in her opinion. He didn't realize how essential purging was to her keeping her weight together especially now that time was not frozen.

She stuck a finger down her throat and with practiced ease what had yet to be digested came up at once, but it wasn't enough she had waited too long to purge. She was going to gain so much weight by tomorrow she just knew it ever since the curse broke, she gained weight entirely too easily.

"You're a disgusting pig, Regina," Regina muttered to herself as she shoved herself back into her spot against the wall and picked up razor. It was dull tonight as it dragged across the skin of her thigh and snagged in places. It made her press down harder and she only stopped when she realized she was way too close to cutting the artery in her thigh. She used magic to sharpen the edges. Regina let out a long sigh and hissed at the pain.

She cut herself in anger at, how out of control she had been that day with meals; it was so unlike her. Normally she was perfectly in control of her diet but today she had lost control. She didn't cut herself as much as last night at least she had her baby boy back in her house and away from that fucking prick. Suddenly Regina was grateful her mother was dead and not playing nice until she gained the upper hand over the Charmings. Regina suddenly felt nauseated thinking about how she'd be all smiles and positively all over the man. She made another cut letting out a sigh of bliss. She only made a few cuts on each thigh that night feeling that was enough, her baby boy was home away from the real monster and that was all that mattered in that moment. Tomorrow was a new day and even though he was sick it would be spent cuddled up to her true love.


"Hey Regina, I'm off to…work now," Emma finished lamely as she opened Regina's room door without knocking and saw the mayor clad in only her bra and panties. Emma's eyes bulged out of her head for two reasons, one the mayor was smoking hot, she had already known that but seeing her without any clothes left her at a loss for words. And two Regina's arms and her thighs were covered in cuts, and the ones on her thighs were fresh.

"Ms. Swan get the fuck out now!" Regina cried angry and ashamed. The last thing she wanted was for it to get to Imbecile Snow and her idiot puppet as well as that monster she called father to ever know she was cutting. Well Leopold already knew she was a cutter, he knew what she did to herself, relished in it even. Even so he didn't need to know she still did it, was still cutting in some way because of him.

"No!" Emma yelled back. "If you think I am leaving now you are out of your damn mind!" Emma slammed Regina's room door behind her. She should have knocked, she didn't even know why she hadn't, but she was suddenly glad she hadn't.

"Moms?" Henry asked hurrying into the room.

"Henry no!" Regina screamed but it was too late he was in, he saw the cuts just before she went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. The tears were spilling down her face as her body shook, her prince was never supposed to see how broken she really was. She was no longer just his mom, not only was she the Evil Queen, but now she was this pathetic and broken mess he would always be ashamed of. At least the Evil Queen was finding some sort of redemption publicly, but this part of her could never be redeemed.

"Kid go back to your room," Emma ordered firmly.

"No!" Henry yelled looking just as sick as yesterday, they had hoped it would be a twenty-four-hour thing, but it seemed he'd only had a few good hours. His face was flushed and if Emma had any knowledge, she would see it meant his fever was back. "What did you do to my mommy, you're supposed to be good!"

"I didn't do anything to her," Emma yelled back upset.

"Then why does she have all those cuts, you came in without knocking and hurt her!" Henry accused. At that moment the door opened back up and Regina came out this time covered by her thicker bathrobe one she used to stay warm out of the shower, but not lounge around in to cover her night dress which was silk.

"Mom!" He hurried over to her and hugged her. "I'm sorry Emma hurt you." Emma looked at Henry seriously offended that he thought she would do something like this.

"Your fever has scrambled your brain if you think I did that," Emma grumbled.

"I'm fine Henry see look, they're all gone, I healed myself and don't blame Ms. Swan she didn't hurt me. I hurt myself," The last bit came out in a whisper, but she showed Henry her arms, the cuts were all gone as if they were never there. He looked at her arm closely making sure she had indeed managed to heal herself.

"So, you just had an accident?" Henry asked her to be sure as he sniffled. Regina just nodded better he thought she had an accident and not that she was a cutter. He was too young for such things especially now. Normally he would be about twelve, but thanks to Ms. Swan that wasn't the case, and he hadn't retained any of his past memories because for him time had simply reversed, he wasn't in a different time line so to speak, he was too young in years.

"Yes, I got up early and was checking on what looked like a bad branch in my apple tree, I fell and scraped my arms is all. Ms. Swan was just startled by how angry it looked and I was just upset she didn't knock." She sent a glare at Emma to show that everything was fine and normal. Henry looked between them suspicious as Emma nodded her agreement that she was just startled is all and hadn't known the full story just like him.

"So, Emma's not evil?" Henry asked.

"No, love, she's not evil, come on you have some more medicine you're all flushed from fever, and get back into bed and get some more sleep. When you wake up again, I'll get you something to eat if you're up for it." Henry nodded and gave her another hug before she got him some medication. He took it willingly and let them both tuck him back into bed. He was out almost immediately though Regina, had helped him on his way a bit. Regina went back to her room and she wasn't surprised that Emma followed her and shut the door a lot more quietly this time.

"Where are the razors?" Emma asked her firmly.

"I don't know what you're referring to Ms. Swan," Regina told her as she began to get dressed in another pair of leggings and a looser dress with shorter sleeves, no reason to hide her arms today.

"Regina cut the bullshit and this Ms. Swan act. I know what I saw, and I know you didn't fall out of your apple tree, you got up the same time as I did." Regina ignored her as she went about making her bed again. Emma growled and immediately went to Regina's phone and took the case off.

"Hey what do you think you are doing?" Regina asked.

"Looking for your razors," Emma told her frowning when they weren't in her phone case, that was a common place, no one else was going to take your phone case off and that way they were always with you. She searched in, under, and on the side of the drawers in her bedroom. Between the mattress and over the entire frame, she found one that Regina had forgotten about early on in the curse. Emma didn't stop her search though as she looked under lamps, behind picture frames. There were only two. She even looked behind the dresser and the mirror before her vanity. She checked her jewellery box, and inside her closet in places Regina had never thought about hiding as before the curse she had never really gone into her closet, the servants did. Then Emma headed into the bathroom, and Regina finally managed to put up a fight again, but it was too late Emma had found the two blades she was currently using.

"Is this all of them?" Emma asked her as she held up the three. Regina nodded quietly as she just simply retreated to a corner in her room and slid down as the tears came and she tried to hide her face. Emma just to be safe did another thorough check of the room.

"I won't pretend to know why you do this, but I do know this has to stop. I won't tell anyone, but you do need to speak to Archie this isn't healthy Regina."

"I know," Regina whispered. Emma sat down in front of her.

"Look I know you must have a lot going on inside of you to do this, but I want you to know I understand the depression and anxiety, I've never wanted to self-harm, but I know what gets you there. So, I want you to know that if you feel the urge to cut please just call me, I'll come sit with you until the urge passes."

"Can I have my blades back?" Regina whispered. Emma sighed.

"Oh, Regina you know that can't happen, call Archie today please, I'll stay home tomorrow if Henry is still sick while you go to your appointment." Regina just nodded quietly. "Did you heal your thighs too?" Regina shook her head. "Heal them please, I don't want the pain to keep reminding you to cut there some more." Regina healed her thighs and Emma was only satisfied when she showed her the skin.

"Please go Ms. Swan," Regina whispered. Emma nodded.

"Call Archie, I will call to check in on you two, we'll talk about this more later, but I want you to know I'm here for you Regina, you don't have to do this alone. You're Henry's mother, and I would hate to see anything happen to you." Emma leaned in and gave her a hug and to Regina's surprise planted a kiss on the side of her head. The kiss left a feeling of warmth within her, no one had ever been caring like Emma. Leopold loved seeing her cuts and pressing on them. And her mother always beat her further for such things. But no one had ever cared for her wellbeing before. Emma eventually let go and stood and left. She heard her leave and only when she had been gone awhile did Regina tearfully clean up her room again putting everything back into place, Emma had done a very thorough search. Once that was done she went downstairs and made herself a pot of coffee.

"Oh she didn't take her lunch or eat breakfast," Regina frowned. She warmed up last night's dinner and put a spell on it to keep warm before she made Emma a delicious breakfast quiche and muffins, before pouring coffee into thermos she sometimes used. Regina then added milk and sugar the way Emma liked it before she sent it all to Emma via magic with a note that she had forgotten to eat breakfast and left her lunch. She had to get through today and today she was just ordinary house wife Regina who made elaborate meals for her happy family. Cooking was the only thing that gave her a slight sense of peace when she couldn't cut.


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