"I did it!"
Regina smiled at Emma's success and enthusiasm, but wiped her face clean of admiration and pride before the blonde turned her exhilarated face towards hers. She cocked a practiced eyebrow.
"Very nice, dear, but perhaps next time your death grip on my hand won't be quite so painful."
Emma jerked her hand out of Regina's, having forgotten that they'd been holding hands while Emma poofed them from Gold's office into the empty living room of Mary Margaret's apartment. Overcome by the rush of magicking them safely halfway across town, the utter relief of finding out that Regina hadn't lied to her and hadn't killed Archie, and the desperate heat that was threatening to drip down her legs with the knowledge that the former Queen had breathed her name while masturbating, it was Emma's turn to raise a cocky eyebrow.
She stepped into Regina's space, breath tantalizing the older woman. Tongues flitted out to moisten lips as Emma breathed, eyes not leaving Regina's, "Oh, so there'll be a next time we hold hands, Your Majesty?" Her eyes danced with promise and her breath hitched with barely contained desire.
Brown disappeared from Regina's chocolate eyes as they blackened with the keenness of her arousal. Before she could answer, they heard a clambering outside and jumped apart. Henry came bounding in the door, backpack already half-off, accompanied by stricken-looking grandparents.
"Mom!" Henry exclaimed loudly, his backpack hitting the floor as her rushed forward. Regina cast her eyes down, trying desperately to keep them dry: the last time she'd heard him shout like that, it was Emma's arms he had run into, not hers.
She gasped with soft surprise, then, as she felt his firm, fluffy little body rocket into her midsection. She raised shocked hands to put around him. Emma beamed a glowing smile as she put one hand on Henry's shoulder and one on the only part of Regina's waist that Henry wasn't attached to.
Henry stayed connected to Regina but lifted his head. "What's wrong? Something's up, I can tell, but Mary Margaret and Gramps won't tell me. They said you wanted to," he finished, turning his head to Emma, whose smile had vanished.
Snow looked shocked and mildly horrified to see Regina in her living room. "Yes, Emma, I think you owe us all an explanation," she said slowly.
The Savior sighed deeply. She locked eyes with Regina over Henry's head. Archie was dead, and Cora was in Storybrooke. She hadn't the faintest idea where to begin telling her son. "Help me," she mouthed, almost desperately, at the boy's other mother. To her slight surprise, there was no sense of triumph in the older woman's eyes: trying to change she may be, but Emma had still half-expected Regina to relish Emma's lack of parental know-how. She didn't.
"Henry," the brunette said softly, not missing a beat, taking him by the shoulders and removing his jacket, gently guiding him to a chair. "Honey, something terrible has happened. I'm here - Emma and I are both here -and we're all going to get through it." She hesitated and gave Emma the most fleeting of glances. She took Henry's hands. "Together."
Henry had shed tears, shouted his denial, whined in agony, asked questions, sobbed, clung to both of his mothers as though they were about to disappear, and sobbed some more. Emma had been helpful - "I loved Archie too, kid, but he'd tell us to remember the good times, right?" - but she had been deeply moved by Regina's soothing ability to always seem to know just how to calm Henry, just how to comfort him.
Regina, for her part, was impressed deeply by Emma's patience and her honesty, her maturity and her sensitivity. She found against her will that they made a good team, one always stepping in when the other was at a loss for words or had too many tears in her throat to speak.
Snow White, looking on, tried not to think too much about how in tune her daughter and the Evil Queen seemed.
"What do you mean it was Cora?" Snow exploded. "Emma, you saw - "
Emma sprang up abruptly from where she and Regina had been kneeling next to Henry, grabbed her mother by the elbow, and led her and Charming deeper into the kitchen, whispering forcefully as Regina continued to explain matters to Henry.
"I know what I saw, but I also know what Regina is capable of, and I saw Regina's memories: she didn't do it. Her memories weren't fake, and no, I'm not going to tell you what they are. I'm not asking you to trust Regina, but I'm asking you to trust me. She didn't do it: it was Cora. And Regina's going to help us stop her. I've got a plan."
Snow stared at her daughter unblinkingly. James, after several failed attempts to form a sentence, asked, "So, what is this plan?"
"Yeah, Emma, what's the plan?" Henry, eyes still red, but relatively dry, had appeared at her side. Regina stayed back, several feet away from the family, hands awkwardly in her dark jacket pockets. Emma gestured for her to come closer, but Regina shook her head with the barest of movements, heartbreak and fear back in her eyes.
Emma sighed and looked down at Henry. "We can't let Cora know we're onto her, kid. That means we have to let everyone else think Regina's guilty. We have to pretend we think your mom did it, Henry, and we have to do a really good job at making everyone - especially Cora - believe that we think it was Regina. And when Cora thinks Regina's hurt enough to take her side, she's gonna go to her. But it won't be Regina she'll be talking with."
Emma's words were met by three confused stares and one slightly panicked, somewhat enraged, "Emma, don't you dare - "
The Sheriff turned to face the former mayor, her face set. "But I do dare, Regina. You know she'll try to kill you when you resist her too much. We can't let that happen. You can teach me how to do that chameleon thing she does, make her think I'm you. And if she thinks I'm you... I'll be fine, Regina, because she can't take my heart. I know you, I know I can act like you enough to pull it off. I just need you to tell me everything you can about you and her if we wanna give this thing its best shot at working."
"And what makes you think that I'm alright with this plan?" Regina stepped into Emma's space aggressively as Henry gulped and Snow studied the fierce determination in Emma's eyes. "Me sitting, hiding, somewhere while you pose as me and expose yourself to my mother's wrath? What makes you think she hasn't found a way to compensate, to succeed in taking your heart? I will not have you risking your life like that for me, Emma Swan. I won't."
The women's breaths danced together between their lips as Regina's protectiveness burst through Emma's heart with the force of a long dormant volcano. She took a deep, steadying breath, fighting the absurd impulse to kiss the older woman into submission.
"I understand I'm asking a lot of you. I know it won't be easy t o tell me everything I'll need to know or for you to wait on the sidelines. I get it. And if you have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. But we need to sort this out quickly, Regina: we need to get Henry to Gold's and then we need to start whatever it is you decide to do. I'm willing to take the risk if you don't have any other ideas and are willing to be strong enough to trust me and wait it out." She lowered her voice. "Henry can afford to lose me, but he need you. You raised him, you know him, you love him. He can't lose you."
"And I can't lose you." The words that slipped from the brunette's lips were so broken, so soft, that Emma swore she imagined them. Unsure of what Regina had actually said, she simply put her hands gently on Regina's forearms.
"If we do this right, Cora won't suspect a thing. My magic will throw her off when she tries to take my heart - and she will - and then we can use that ink Gold told Henry about. Please, Regina. It's the best plan we've got. We just have to act like we hate you for a while, to convince her we think you did it. I think we've fought enough to pull that one off, don't you?"
Regina forced a smile and stepped out of Emma's space, but found, frustrated, that she couldn't escape the younger woman's aura. She nodded her consent to Emma, knowing the blonde was right: it was the best plan they had.