'It's a little too late,

I'm a little too gone.

A little too tired of

Just hanging on.' - Toby Keith

When you go to the Enchanted Forest you lose time. Its why most of the towns folk never wanted to go back. They didn't want to lose what they had already built in the new life that was presented to them. Regina also never thought she'd be back here. Rebuilding her life from the ground up in the realm she once ruled with an evil iron fist. But here she was, living in a two-story farm house with her sister and niece.

Three days in the Enchanted Forest equaled one in Storybrooke. And it had already been a good month and a half since Regina left. Which meant it was close to two weeks that had passed in the real world. There were times Regina thought about going back but Zelena was determined to keep her there. Just long enough to allow herself to mend her broken heart.

There was a loud knock on the wooden door. Zelena was putting baby Robin to bed while Regina was downstairs cooking. She figured her sister would answer it, but something told her neither of them had expected anyone, so she shut the door quietly and rushed down stairs only to stop in her tracks when she saw who stood there with a wide smile on their face.

"Henry?!"

"Hi mom, Hi aunt Z,"

The red head woman broke from her shock quickly as she walked over to him and engulfed the tall boy into a tight loving hug. When she released him, Regina was there ready to hug the boy with all her might.

"How'd you get here?" Zelena asked.

"Well," Henry stopped long enough to enjoy his hug with his mother before pulling away to explain. "You know that well in the middle of the woods behind Storybrooke?" He asked them both. They nodded. "For some reason there's magic there and I tested it out and it brought me here,"

"Wait..." Regina held a hand up. "You mean to tell me you jumped in the well without knowing for sure it really did lead here?"

Henry raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Yeah, sounds about right to me."

"Henry Daniel Mills! That was dangerous and foolish. You could have been hurt or worse, lost in a completely different realm!" Regina hissed at him in true motherly form. Henry missed it. So much he leaned in and gave her a great big hug.

"I love you mom," he whispered in her ear. It instantly made Regina calm down and her heart squeezed tight in pure sadness as she let the tears spill over.

"I love you too son," she sniffled.

"Alright, now that we got our boy back why not sit down for some dinner. I'm starving and I'm tired of seeing this sappy ass moment." Zelena piped up out of nowhere. Henry looked at her over his mother's shoulder and saw the sweet smile she gave him. She's so secretly a softy.

They ate together quietly. Henry seriously missed his mother's cooking it was something he craved. Snow was an okay cook but nothing quite like his mom and he was happy to be having it now. They kept the conversation light and in no way possible heart wrenching. Which meant Henry didn't talk about Emma and Regina didn't ask. Which was good for all of them because Henry could see his mother had started her healing process and she looked good. Not quite happy but that took a lot of time. For sure.

"How long will you stay?" Asked Zelena. She missed the boy, not that she'd admit it to him. Or to Regina.

"Well, I figured a few days wouldn't hurt. I told..." He stopped long enough to make Regina know exactly who he was referring to without saying the name. Her heart did this little back flip that quickly landed in the pit of her stomach. "...well I told Grandma Snow that I'd be over at a friend's house for the weekend but she's expecting me back for dinner on Sunday,"

Zelena saw Regina playing with her food slowly. She looked to Henry and asked, "Does Snow know?"

"I think so." Henry poked at his potatoes. "She came over to the mansion the other day wanting to talk to mom about something she needed help with and I told her she wasn't here. She had asked where and I just told her you left town for the week, after that she left the mansion and I hadn't heard anything else from her about it."

Regina took in a deep ragged breath before letting it out slowly. She loved Snow, she really did. They put their differences aside and she saw the real Girl who all but wanted a mother figure in her life. But she also knew Snow couldn't keep a secret even if her life depended on it. "She'll find out. Snow won't keep it to herself long and she will tell..." Regina let the words fall and she stopped talking completely. She stood from the table, about to leave when Henry reached out and grabbed her wrist gently. Her eyes caught his and she felt like crying but the smile he shot at her made it all better.

"Let's go take a walk for a bit, before it gets dark,"

Storybrooke Time]

"Emma?"

"In here mom!"

Snow walked up the stairs to her daughter's room in a slow pace, she didn't want to have to be the one to tell her daughter the truth but no one else was going to. She knew Henry was keeping it a secret from everyone because Regina had asked him to. To be honest she didn't really understand why she was even going to tell Emma in the first place, her daughter was happy with Killian and she was happy for them both. So why did she feel the need to even bother with telling? She knew the moment Emma heard wind that Regina had up and left she would be out there trying to get the woman back, so why? She rounded the corner of the stair case and walked directly into Emma's room where the woman was sitting on her bed with her phone in her hand, typing out a message to someone.

"Hey sweetie?" she began. Emma looked up from her phone at the beginning of her mother's tone and knew the text was going to have to wait.

"What's wrong mom?"

"Have you heard from Regina since you've been back?"

She knew the answer.

"No, I was in the middle of messaging her because she hadn't answered my phone call." Emma looked down to her phone for a split second then back to her mother. "Well, you see. Regina actually isn't in town anymore," Snow let it out slowly, trying to end this as painlessly as she could.

Emma furrowed her brow at her mother. "What do you mean?" Emma couldn't quite fathom the feeling she felt. Her heart kind of ached but her stomach felt as if someone had dumped a load of rocks inside. "Mom, where is she?"

"I don't know for sure, but if I'm not mistaking it I think she's back in the Enchanted Forest,"

"What makes you think that?"

"Zelena isn't here either and she's told Regina many times that she had decided to go back,"

Emma felt her jaw drop open, she began to feel slightly sick to her stomach. "Are you saying that she might have went back with Zelena?"

"It is possible." Snow nodded.

Enchanted Forest Time]

The air felt brisk and cooling against the skin. The perfect time for a walk or even a horseback ride. Something Regina knew she was going to have to pick back up now that she was home. She glanced over to her ever-growing son and felt her heart melt just a little bit. He resembled Emma way too much but not so much that it would pain Regina to look at him. It was a good resemble.

"Are you going to move on?"

"Huh?"

She was caught off guard by the question and had to stop to look at him.

"Are you going to stop waiting around for mom?" he asked again. Regina sighed, and they picked back up on their walk.

"I know I should, it's the main reason I even came back here,"

"But…?"

Henry knew better then to think his mother would even let go, even after she's lost.

"But I can't just move on when she holds the other half of my heart. Every time she even gets near it I feel it pound." Regina knew she shouldn't have given it to Emma, it was the worst mistake she had ever made.

"I love her so much I told her one night, well the night after Robin died, I told her to keep. Lock it up and never let anyone else have because I was done hurting. But had I known that the moment she touched it that all my suffering, every single tear and rip and break that its endured would be healed, I would have told her the truth that night."

Henry looked at her as if to ask what she meant but she kept going.

"She wore gloves when she held it, so it didn't happen right away. It wasn't until the night she and Hook got into a huge fight that she held it. I was asleep and this overwhelming sense of warmth and pure happiness over took every fiber of my being that it woke me up with a jolt."

"I thought it was a dream, but the feeling continued well after I woke up. The other half that I still possessed was screaming for me to call Emma. But I didn't, instead I sat in bed the rest of the night and let the feeling wrap around me. When she put it back wherever she hid it, the feeling stopped but a little bit of the after taste lingered."

Henry stayed quiet throughout the entire thing, he was excited to hear just what kind of impact his mom has on his mother.

Storybrooke Time]

By the time Emma's mind had caught up with her body, she found herself in Regina's old office. It was left the same way as the last time she had been in there. Leaning against the door, Emma let her mind wonder. Why had she left? She seemed happy, after everything that had happened to her she finally looked happy. So why leave? Was she not happy here in Storybrooke? If so then she could have at least said bye. Pushing from the door, Emma walked over to the desk slowly and took in a deep breath of air. It smelled just like Regina. An ache settled in the pit of her stomach again, but she pushed it aside.

There was a mirror sitting on the desk. Maybe she could use some magic to get in contact with Regina. Picking the item up Emma took a seat in the chair behind the desk and slowly twirled in it as she thought up of a spell that would work. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and took in a deep breath before letting it out.

"Dare to see, wherever Regina may be,"

Her reflection began to swirl and distort only to reveal two figures standing near a pond. As the mirror became clearer on its reflection Emma could make out Henry standing next to his mother.

"Henry?" Emma whispered as if she couldn't believe that he was in the Enchanted Forest with Regina. Wait. How in the hell did he even get there in the first place? She looked further into the mirror and saw that they were talking but she couldn't hear them.

"Gah! Stupid magic and it's great need to be specific," she threw her hands in the air when she realized that she asked the mirror to see Regina not hear her. Suddenly, her phone started ringing in her pocket which startled her, and she pulled it out to answer it, still watching the mirror like a hawk.

"Hello?"

"Swan?" It was Killian. "Where are you?"

"I'm over at Regina's office, I needed to grab something from here,"

"Is Regina there with you?"

Emma could hear a suspicious tone in his voice as if she were doing something terrible by being there in the office.

"No, she's actually not. I'll be home in a little bit,"

"Alright, I love you,"

"Yeah," Emma sounded distracted as she said her goodbyes. "You too," and hung up the phone.