Regina put her head in her hands she had been walking around the mall, in heels none the less, for over three hours. She was sick and tired of Emma and Mary Margaret's constant talking and indecisiveness, couldn't they just find a present and buy it instead of coming up with yet another idea. Roland had been a sweetheart as usual, but it was a bit of an issue trying to find presents for certain people, I.e. Robin, with a little boy tagging along. Presently she was sat in the food court staring at her phone, waiting for Robin to check in with her, she had split up from Emma and Mary Margaret because Roland had said that he was hungry; but she wasn't feeling like eating, stress managed to make her feel that way, Roland looked up at her and pulled her out of her day dream. "Do you think we could get ice cream?" He asked sweetly.

Rolling her eyes she smiled and tickled him "Don't you think you've had enough today mister?" She asked.

Giggling he shook his head "Nope."

"Okay then, what flavour would you like?"

"All of them."

"All of them? I don't think your father would be too happy if I brought you home and you were ill for eating too much."

"Okay then, chocolate."

She nodded "Good choice." Picking her bags up off the ground she took his hand in hers. To her surprise when she stood up he hugged her, melting her heart, she bent down and took him in her arms. "What's that for?"

All he replied with was "I love you."

She felt tears prick at her eyes, she was so touched by his sentiment, those three words had the ability to effect her so profoundly. "I love you too." she replied pulling back and wiping her eyes "Now, shall we go get that ice cream?"

Walking up to the counter Roland looked at the ice cream astounded by the choice, she chuckled at him and shook her head. The lady behind the counter smiled at them, thinking how adorable mother and son were. Grinning back Regina turned to him and asked "Are you going tell the lady what you want?"

"Yep. Please may I have a chocolate one?" He stated in the sweetest voice.

"Of course you can young man." She turned to talk to Regina "Your son is so cute, and how polite."

"Thank you, oh please may I have a latte to go as well?"

"Sure thing."

She lifted him onto a bar stool with a view out of the window into the rest of the mall, where he sat and ate his ice cream. Regina passed him her phone, allowing him to play on a game that he loved , he managed to however flick it onto the camera and he began to giggle as his face appeared on the screen. She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him, "I see you found the camera. Do you want me to show you how it works?"

He nodded and she clicked the button, which captured a shot of the both of them looking intently at the camera "See." He took it from her and clicked the button as they both smiled, then they pulled a funny face. After that they made their way to the department store where they had planned to meet up with the others. Walking to the toy section, Roland went to look at something, she didn't let him out of her sight. Then her phone rang, looking at the caller ID she smiled "hello" she answered.

"Hi beautiful." She shook her head, glad to hear his voice even though it had only been a couple of hours since she had seen him that morning. "How's your shopping trip going?" He asked.

Turning to look at a display and spotting something that she thought Henry would love she stated "Don't even get me started, if I ever suggest shopping with them two again remind me of today."

"That good huh? How's Roland?" He inquired, chuckling slightly at her, she had told him that she was going to be completely drained after today.

"He's fine." She turned around to check on him "Absolutely per..." She stopped mid-sentence, where was he, he had been there, he was looking at the dinosaurs completely content. How could he have just vanished? He wasn't the type of child to just run off, he always had to make sure that he had someone with him and hated to be alone, so the fact that he wasn't there really worried her.

Sensing something was wrong, Robin began to panic "Regina, what is it?" When she didn't answer he stood up and ran his hand through his hair "Regina? What's going on?"

"Robin, I'll call you later." She cut him off and slipped her phone into her pocket.

"Regina!" He shouted down the line, what was wrong something had clearly happened. Killian and David looked at him in question, they had been concerned when they heard him raise his voice somewhat over the phone, knowing that he had been on with Regina. "I don't know." He replied shaking his head "I don't know."

Once she had put the phone down, she frantically began shouting for him "Roland! Roland where are you?" Walking down display after display she reached back in her pocket for her phone she shaking let dialed Mary Margaret. It was her fault she had looked away, although I had only been for a couple of minutes she had looked away and in that time Roland had gone. Robin had trusted him to her, trusted that he would be safe with her, but she had lost him.

"Regina." Mary Margaret answered.

"Snow, he's gone, I don't know where he's gone." She rushed stumbling over words.

"What do you mean? Who has gone?"

"Roland, he was just there, I was talking to Robin and turned my back on him for one second. I can't belie..." She stopped again, no sooner had she lost him, she found him, staring at the Santa's grotto, "Never mind." She stated cutting her phone off, she ran over and hugged him. "You scared me half to death, don't do that again, I didn't know where you were." She spoke, her voice full of no anger at all but worry.

"I'm sorry." He stated looking down for the briefest minute before looking back up and pointing "Look at that."

Shaking her head she took hold of his hand, "I think your daddy wanted to take you to see Santa later, I need to ring him now and let him know that you're safe."

She was a little worried about telling Robin after all she had lost his son, not that it was her fault, but would he ever be able to trust her to look after him again? "Regina what is going on?" He asked answering the phone almost immediately.

"He's fine, he just spotted Santa's grotto that's all." She said casually and as calmly as possible in an attempt to cover her true feelings.

"You really had me worried there." He stated sighing in relief.

"Sorry, I over reacted a bit, but when he wasn't there I completely panicked."

"It's alright, it happens to the best of us, how many times did you lose Henry when he was a kid?"

"Good point." Henry had travelled all the way to Boston at the age of ten to find his birth mother, so Roland looking at the Santa's grotto was hardly a big deal. She was amazed by how calm he was, she could hardly say she was surprised though, that was just the kind of person he was. She knew though if anyone else would have lost Henry like that when he was a child, she would have personally made their life a living hell, that was who she used to be, she wasn't that person anymore, she wasn't the evil queen.

"Children, they get easily distracted and forget that they need to tell us where they are going. Anyway, I'll let you get back to it and see you when you get back home and we'll go get that tree."

"Okay, I love you." She whispered.

"I love you too."

Robin chuckled, so Roland had done a disappearing number on her, he felt sorry for her really, knowing that it most certainly wasn't her fault that she had lost him, Roland was attracted to pretty things and bright lights. He knew that Regina was more than capable of taking care of him, there was no questioning that, he love her and trusted her to take care of his son, and losing Roland for a couple of minutes wasn't going to change that.

Emma and Mary Margaret met up with them and they all looked for a joint present for Dr Hoper. "What about a new umbrella?" Snow suggested.

Roland tugged on Regina's dress and she looked down at him "I'm tired." He complained rubbing his eyes.

"I know, sweetheart, we won't be much longer now, come here." Emma kindly took her bags from her and she picked him up allowing him to rest his head on her shoulder. "Can we just buy the umbrella?" She asked feeling tired herself, she felt for Roland, they had been shopping for nearly six hours now, luckily managing to purchase the majority of the presents.

"Is that enough though?" Snow asked worrying as usual.

"We could get him a new briefcase to go with it?" Emma pointed out.

"Yes a new briefcase, let's do it." Regina stated, she quite frankly didn't care what they bought as long as they got out of there.

"I'm not sure."

"I don't know either now you mention it, is it too much?" Emma asked, knowing that this was really going to push Regina's buttons.

That was the last straw for Regina "Get a god darn briefcase! Here." She stated grabbing her purse from her bag and almost throwing it at them "I'm going to go and sit in the car with Roland, allow him to sleep." Taking her bags back from Emma she strolled out of the shop, holding the little boy in one arm and all the bags on the other.

"Wow look at her, she's a professional." Mary Margaret muttered, part of her was jealous, she could never manage with Neal and her bags, she would always drop something and that was in flats, never mind in three inch heels.

"She's so annoyed at us." Emma stated struggling to hold back the laughter. "I don't think she was expecting to be here this long."

"No I suppose she wasn't, how long have we actually been?"

"Geeze, five and a half hours."

"Really? How did that happen?"

"We've got presents for everyone. I don't blame her for being frustrated, she'd already got most of her presents she was only picking up a few last minute bits."

"Okay let's find a briefcase and hurry back as quick as we can, I think we may have pushed her a bit far." Snow stated keeping hold of the umbrella and making her way to the baggage section.

Regina put all her bags down and searched for her car keys, Roland still on her hip, "Ha." She stated grasping them and opening the car, after carefully placing Roland in the back seat she put the bags in the boot. She was about to get in the front until she heard his quiet voice "Sit with me." He begged his arms outstretched "Please."

She once again couldn't say no to him and slid into the back, he crawled onto her knee and snuggled up to her, she flicked her shoes off and hugged him back, putting her feet up on the chair and leaning back. Suddenly she felt extremely tired, her eyes fluttered and soon both she and Roland were asleep.

Emma and Snow walked up to the car and immediately noticed that Regina wasn't sat in the front seat. Furrowing her eyebrows Emma looked at her mother "Where is she?" She asked, moving closer the spotted them both asleep in the back seat. "Look at that."

"Awe. Where did she put the keys? I don't want to wake them."

"She left them on the seat." Emma pointed out.

"Okay, let's just get home."