Chapter Two

"I thought you and mom would be back together now," Henry commented as they watched morning cartoons. Regina paused in grudgingly eating her snack of carrots.

"You know Emma, she's got some explaining to do, so should be a fun awkward few days," Regina told him. "It's fine though." Henry muted the television, and looked at her crossing his arms.

"Really it's just fine if she takes her time telling Hook it's over or Grandpa?" Henry asked.

"Yep," Regina told him eating her carrot.

"No really what gives?" Henry told her. Regina lifted her shirt.

"This gives way too much, it's not sexy when there's no baby, and this is after the fairies worked their magic." Henry chuckled.

"I'm sure mom won't mind," Henry insisted.

"Well I mind," Regina grumbled. "So, eat all your junk at your grandparents, because it won't be here. No pie either unless you get sick, I can't tempt myself."

"Not even Red vines?" Henry asked teasingly pulling up the pack he'd been hiding. He waved them in her face.

"You know you're not the author, you're clearly the devil," Regina pouted. "Who tempts their poor mother like that?"

"Me, I just don't want you to starve," Henry told her.

"I'm not starving I just need to be even healthier than normal is all," Regina told him. The doorbell rang, and Regina stood up and went to the door. She opened the door easily and let Emma in, but her shoulders were slumped forward as she walked in. Emma leaned into Regina as she patted her back.

"What's wrong babe?" Regina asked her easily. It was easy to say babe it wasn't her familiar term of endearment for Emma, and it kept her a little bit emotionally close and yet distant. Emma didn't like it from the frown playing on her lips a bit, but it gave Regina exactly the emotional space she needed in her words. Emma had to prove she was all in if they wanted them to work at all.

"I'm not allowed to stay," Emma moaned. "Dad's really mad at me for lying, and as my first order of penance, I'm babysitting Neal so that my parents can have a night out to recuperate from Issac. And my dad wants a formal dinner, so we can all talk he said he wants to know your intentions." Regina laughed.

"Right, so just a ploy for me to cook, and just bring Neal over with you, he can have fun with his nephew."

"But what about you?" Emma asked looking up at her with wide eyes, but her shoulders were still slumped. Regina patted her back some more gently.

"It's fine, Neal's my favorite Charming, so it's all good," Regina answered her truthfully. "It also helps he's not like a newborn, so…" Regina trailed off.

"Hey, I thought I was your favorite Charming?" Emma pouted. Regina kissed the pout off her lips too chastely for Emma's taste.

"Nope," Regina answered with an evil grin. Emma groaned.

"You tease me too much. All right, Neal and I will be over before dinner then to give us a chance to settle in, plus I wanna play this new video game with Henry and there hasn't been time." Regina chuckled and nodded.

"Such a kid," Regina teased.

"Shush, all right I have to get back, and I'm still working on telling Hook, I just thought I best tell Dad first so I don't have to sneak out to come here. Plus honestly my Dad deserves to really know way before Hook and I admit I really don't know where he's been the last day or so."

"Well you're halfway there, no rush," Regina told her. Emma paused at the door.

"Is this a test?" Emma asked her. "Test my commitment?"

"No," Regina told her watching her as she stood staring at her.

"I don't believe you," Emma got out. "You were so eager for me to just dump him before you didn't care if it was gentle or not."

"I still don't," Regina told her. Emma pursed her lips.

"So, this is a test for me then," Emma frowned.

"No, it's not a test honest," Regina told her.

"She thinks she's fat, and wants to lose weight before you're here twenty-four seven and see her body, and this way you can't be here all the time because of Hook," Henry said walking by as he went to the kitchen. "I'm tired of you two not talking."

"Oh well if you want I could like work out with you," Emma suggested. Regina's eyes went wide.

"So, you think I'm fat?" Regina asked her but they both knew she was and wasn't looking for an answer. Emma's eyes went wide now, not knowing how she had just put herself into a hole.

"No, she doesn't, mom just has no tact, she meant that in a she wants to help you meet your goals kind of way not in a yeah you definitely need to lose weight kind of way," Henry told them walking by with his last pepsi.

"Yes, yes that's exactly what I meant," Emma told her quickly.

"Okay then I start my run at five, I need motivation and a food smacker," Regina told her.

"I can food smack and eat it before you can too if necessary with the best of them," Emma told her saluting her. "How do you think Mom has lost so much weight?"

"Good then we're going to make a great team," Regina told her happily. They high fived each other. Emma frowned that it wasn't a kiss or a hug.

"Great, but I'm a terrible exerciser," Emma blushed. "Five in the morning is just too early in the morning."

"Well thank God for Robin or Maleficent," Regina told her.

"Oh Good I thought you were really going to force me to run," Emma laughed. Regina chuckled and evil grinned.

"I am," Regina told her. Emma moaned.

"Oh but Regi," Emma pleaded.

"So, you do think I'm fat and you won't really help me work out like you said," Regina replied. Emma moaned again.

"No, no I'm going to work out with you, I can stand to do so myself," Emma told her raising her hands defensively.

"Good," Regina replied with a grin.

"All right I have to go, I've also been charged with cleaning my room, but I told Dad I had to go to the store first just so I could come over here and get comforted." Regina chuckled and rubbed her back.

"See you later," Regina told her.

"See you," Emma replied. Loudly she said, "See you at dinner kid!"

"Bye mom!" Henry yelled back. Regina watched Emma go back to her yellow bug and drive off with a wave.

'Just give her a minute Regina, she told her dad, and with it openly out to Henry now as well, she'll be hard pressed to keep dating that shit pirate for real. So she'll just avoid him like Walsh for a bit hopefully not forever.' Regina thought. Meanwhile Emma stopped at the store and got the orange juice she had deliberately spilled, and went back home.

"Are you really sure about watching Neal?" David asked her when she had put it away and he had hugged her.

"Oh yeah definitely, you and mom need some alone time, in fact, I'm actually going to take him over to Regina's for a family dinner." David looked at her surprised as he grabbed his mug of tea.

"Oh wow, so she's feeling pretty nice even after Charlotte or did she invite you over to poison you?" David asked with a chuckle.

"Dad," Emma groaned. "Regina is not going to poison me."

"Really, because I'd understand if she tried, after you were such a dick and then lost her baby, gave birth to her baby, and then left her with the aftermath of the pregnancy to deal with her body." He sipped his tea. Emma just stared at her dad for a long moment before she put a hand on her head and shook it.

"I didn't leave her with the aftermath, it just magically went back on its own, believe me, I would have rather looked pregnant myself, so she could attempt to distance herself from what happened."

"Hmm…and how does Hook feel about all this, he wasn't in the mood to talk with me at all when you went after Regina to New York," David commented.

"I don't know he won't talk to me about it, not more than to say he's sorry Regina lost her child, and that I had to go through that, but then again we aren't talking."

"Honey, part of being in a stable relationship is talking things out, he can't stay mad forever that you cheated on her with him, and then back again." Emma huffed.

'I really need to tell him today since Regina thinks he knows now.' Emma thought as she made herself some tea of her own. She was supposed to have told him already as it was. Hook she may be willing to be lenient on because she was feeling fat. But her parents were a different story.

"No, I'm mad at him, he's been quite forgiving because of the magic involved," Emma told him.

"Why are you mad at him?" David asked curiously.

"As much as I appreciated his support and as much as I did indeed try really hard to distance myself from Regina and Charlotte, having to carry Charlotte while Regina was sick, just created this bond I couldn't shake in the end. And when it all went down, I rather wanted him not to be there for Charlotte's still birth. It might have been one thing if she was coming out alive, but I felt like I had to hide in that moment, hide that pain. Since I had been so adamant, and I was angry that when Regina asked him to leave and he refused. This moment should have been more private knowing that this wasn't going to be a happy ending." David was silent as he looked thoughtful.

"You're right this was a tough moment for everyone and as much as he would have felt pushed out like he wasn't your boyfriend, in that moment the best thing he could have done was just step aside and let you two grieve together." Emma nodded.

"Exactly, I think that's why she pushed me away so hard after that day, we should have been together, and by forcing Regina to almost be on the outskirts of Charlotte entering the world. I felt like it could have been him and I in there for our kid, and Regina was there as a friend. It shouldn't have been that way. And I was hurting so much I couldn't even push him away I ended up gripping him in the contractions, I was so angry at myself." David let out a long breath.

"That's heavy and that's definitely a conversation to be had." A cloud of purple appeared on the counter next to them, as Mary Margaret walked in with baby Neal from a walk.

"Oh what's that?" Mary Margaret asked as she parked the stroller and lifted Neal up.

"An invitation," David commented. He turned it over. "It's Regina's seal."

"Hmph, interesting, what's the invitation too, Emma's death?" Mary Margaret asked. David and her laughed a little.

"She's not going to poison me, stop making jokes," Emma cried blushing. They laughed some more as David broke the seal. The invitation folded outward beautifully in four triangles, and Regina's elegant hand writing was revealed.

"It says Least favorite Charming and Snow, you are cordially invited to a formal family dinner tomorrow at the residence of the Mayor…"

"She did not write least favorite Charming," Mary Margaret laughed. "Not on a formal invite."

"She totally did," David told her. Emma took Neal as her mother handed him over and they watched their parents grinning at each other now. Mary Margaret tried to take the invitation from him but he held it up and she tried for a moment before they both laughed and kissed before he gave it to her.

'Fuck so I definitely have to tell him I'm a liar now,' Emma thought.

"I knew it said David," Mary Margaret told them. "Anyway I can't believe she wants to have a family dinner, she even said Neal can stay until tomorrow, but did I miss something, why would Neal stay until tomorrow?"

"I'm taking him over there with me tonight," Emma told her. Mary Margaret's eyes went wide.

"So she's letting you over tonight really?" Mary Margaret asked. "You sure you wanna take Neal, she might stab you." David laughed.

"I thought it would be poison so she could sit and watch her choke," David told Mary Margaret who laughed as well.

"Seriously come on that's not funny at all, God one would think you wouldn't be upset if I died tonight."

"Oh Emma come on we are just poking fun, besides if you had pushed Regina too far and she went back to her old ways, the chances are is that she really would wait for tomorrow so that we're there too to watch you die. She knows how painful it is to watch someone you love die, so we know you would actually be safe tonight. Plus, Neal really is like her favorite Charming, I tried to avoid the topic of him when I was over, but really I know she secretly kind of enjoyed hearing about him." Emma huffed.

'I should be her favorite Charming,' Emma grumbled in her head.

"It's still weird, I mean I'm being serious now, what if this is just a ploy to kill us, and keep Neal?" David asked. "He's the only one I'm sure she's not trying to kill."

"I trust her," Mary Margaret said glancing at Emma before turning to take Neal. She patted Emma on the shoulder. Mary Margaret had already been aware of Emma's plan to officially tell David the secret or not so secret really.

"Just like that after Charlotte?" David asked skeptical. Mary Margaret nodded. "No Charlotte is like a thousand times worse than Daniel though."

"That's true, but we have other assurances," Emma told him. David watched them.

"Someone want to clue me in?" David asked them. Emma took a deep breath.

"God, why is this so hard," Emma grumbled. David just waited patiently. Emma took another breath. "Okay first let's just start with that I told Regina to invite you over for a formal family dinner."

"Okay, which brings me to the question is why is she even talking to you enough that she'd agree to put in all that work, because no way you're cooking."

"Fair question," Emma told him as she clasped her hands in front of her tightly and fidgeted. He nodded as she rocked back on her heels. "I…I…never really liked Hook, he was just an excuse me to further distance myself from Regina."

"Yeah, well everyone knows that except him," David told her. "I'm not even surprised you're using Charlotte to break up with him or at least try, pretty sure you not talking to him or even having the faintest clue where he's at…" He looked at Emma for confirmation of that little fact she thought he didn't know. " yeah, than I'm more than sure he's not figured out you're breaking up with him." Emma nodded.

"Yeah, the thing was, when I got my memory back, I freaked out, because I had two versions of Regina clashing and then I thought that for Henry she'd do anything including deceive me. I mean she didn't have her memories of the last year and I had none at all, so from her point of view, it could have very well been that Henry might never know her again as his adoptive mother."

"Right, and she did that, which was totally uncool of her even for Henry," David said. "But I get it Emma, the sex was good, you had a hard time stopping and you were also foolish."

"While half that is true, it's not true that she was faking it," Emma told her father. "I didn't help that narrative by being in denial, but the truth is she loves me a lot and has loved me a lot since before I was even born. And the same goes for me about her."

"I'm sorry what?" David asked pausing in drinking the last of his tea.

"I love Regina Mills, my mother's stepmother, the Evil Queen, Regina, I love her a lot and not as a friend. Dad, what we have is true love, before we went into the book, Regina and I actually finally shared true love's kiss because we were finally able to be raw with each other the walls were gone. I can't explain it, but my point is, is that growing up every day was like torture for me, but somehow fate or magic or whatever reached out and connected us in our dreams. Growing up I always longed for a home, I always wished for a home, and that wish turned into a dream and that dream took me home to Regina. Our relationship is both so new and yet so old, there are things I know about her that people take years to learn why when even when outwardly she was at her most untrustworthy I could tell you for sure if she were lying, why I could give her the benefit of the doubt when you couldn't, it's because I've known her my entire life."

"….." David looked as if he wanted to speak. "…She hates you though aside from the sex."

"Yeah, a little bit we're working on that, but that's because at some point we both lost sight of each other in our hearts, and we realized that the day we met for real was not going to be what either of us thought. Especially when we had Henry between us which is one battle, but also the battle between Good and Evil, and she honestly expected that she would die trying to protect her happy ending which for her involved Henry. And by letting Henry stay here I did exactly what she thought."

"No, no, you're going to keep dating the pirate, at least he follows you like a puppy dog and will do whatever you say, and it keeps him from his evil ways," David told her.

"Daaad," Emma told him taking a breath wondering if she should tell him, she was being respectful by telling him. "Come on don't be like that, I know you have a long history together and a lot of it is not good, but I'm talking about making a new history a good one."

"She would have killed you if I hadn't gotten you in that wardrobe," David reminded her.

"I like to think she would have looked me in the eyes and been seized with regret at casting her dark curse and stuffed me in the wardrobe herself," Emma told him seriously. David pursed his lips.

"No, no I don't think she has good intentions where you are concerned. I'd rather make her Neal's guardian if we died, because she'd still have better intentions for him then you."

"Ouch," Mary Margaret muttered.

"And you, why are you so quiet about this?" David asked Mary Margaret.

"I already knew for a while now, I'm her mother I notice these things," Mary Margaret told him. "And I told her she should go for it and not ignore fate, its love David, Fate has been driving these two together since before Emma was born."

"No," David said. "Your Stepmother cannot be with your daughter, her step granddaughter it's weird."

"Dad please try to accept her as my girlfriend, if it weren't for Regina, I can honestly say I wouldn't be standing here in front of you today. You'd still be cursed."

"Why do you say that?" Mary Margaret asked curiously.

"When I told you about the dreams I left out something, because I knew you would freak out." Both her parents were watching her and Neal also looked at her cooing. "After I gave up Henry I fell into a deep depression, my lack of a home, the sting of Neal leaving me, and no Henry, well it just killed me inside. I gave him away to give him his best chance, but I also worried constantly if I had been his best chance. Fate kept me from being adopted by a family so that I would always seek you, but I didn't know that. I thought what if Henry has my luck?"

"Oh no honey, you made the right choice for him, you weren't in a good place yet," Mary Margaret told her. "You had things to learn."

"Maybe, but I was hurting Mom. So, I went out and stole a bottle of sleeping pills, and I took them all, the entire bottle. As I was lying there waiting for them to take effect Regina was there next to me, the pills allowed for some crossover I guess. And I don't know she loved me so much that she was able to call the ambulance through me. I would have lay in that motel for six days dead and alone if she hadn't dialed 911. And I knew it was her in my heart that had saved me, I knew she was by my side in her heart, the entire time I was out I felt her there even if she didn't remember. And she left her address for me, and I wish to God fate had made me drive to it sooner, but I thought this place wasn't real." Emma was crying now. "Because of her, I woke up and remembered that someone out there loved me and waited for me. She even screamed at me that she had our son, that he was safe. I didn't know or realize that it was Henry, but my heart knew, and I suddenly found the strength to live again. I never stopped searching not for you guys, not for her, not for Henry in my heart."

"Oh Emma," David said hugging her as he wiped his own tears. Mary Margaret sniffed and got in on the hug.

"She didn't have to save me, I know she didn't know I was the savior, but imagine if she had just let me die thinking it was just a bad dream, that I wasn't real."

"All right, I'll give her a chance; I suppose that's why we're having a family dinner." Emma nodded into his shoulder.

"Yes, I told her you were mad at me cause I lied, so she'd be amendable to the family dinner, I didn't wanna tell her I couldn't tell you yet at least. So I kinda lied about already telling you and suggested a family dinner to help smooth things over. She was expecting me to tell you last night well three days ago, but I chickened out. So, if she asks it was totally your idea for me to watch Neal and have this dinner." They all laughed.

"You really have a lying problem," Mary Margaret told her.

"Yeah, but I didn't want her to think I was being stupid again, I'm all out of chances to get this right," Emma told them. "I would be out before I started."

"You do have to tell Hook though," Mary Margaret reminded.

"Apparently not, as she's feeling fat, so to keep up appearances I'd have to not be at her house all the time." Mary Margaret laughed. "Don't laugh, I've been charged with exercising with her at five in the morning." Emma looked down sadly. They both laughed at her.

"You'd better get up, she might be mean if you don't wake up on time," Mary Margaret reminded her. Emma groaned.

"She's going to kill me on Saturday." They nodded.

"Yeah she's going to exercise you to death probably," They laughed.

"Come on if you are staying the night with Neal, I need to properly prepare including you taking his bed. Even if Regina already got a baby bed which she likely did not, I wouldn't want her to use it on Neal at this moment." They all nodded and went over what they would need to take with them to get through the night.

"I'll help you take it over," David said later.

"Uh no, you're angry remember, mom's coming, Regina already knows mom is cool," Emma told him.

"Oh right, and I am by the way, you should have been more honest a lot sooner young lady."

"Yes, Dad I know and I'm really very sorry, but I love you for being supportive." He hugged her and kissed her forehead. He helped them load up the back of his truck though deciding that Emma should leave earlier so he and Mary Margaret could nap before their date. Emma strapped Neal into his car seat and in her bug while Mary Margaret drove David's truck. David kissed them all goodbye and went back inside to prepare for his alone time with his wife.