Throughout the next day, they all checked in with Emma. Nobody who was out patrolling had found anything, no vampires, none of the missing residents, no strange mansions, nothing. Archie called her mid-afternoon to let her know that he couldn't find the Blue Fairy, none of the other fairies knew where she went. Emma added Blue's name to the growing number of missing people, hoping that she wouldn't turn up dead, there would be a panic if she did. She was supposed to meet with Regina about the town meeting, but was trying to procrastinate. Emma knew that Regina would be annoyed if she was late, but she wasn't sure how much longer she could go without talking to Regina about what had happened. What Emma didn't know was that a certain Mayor was having similar feelings about their meeting.
A knock on Regina's door interrupted her thoughts. "Yes?" The door opened and Henry came into the office. "Henry!" Regina got up and walked over to Henry to give him a hug. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going with David after school?"
"I was, but he was acting weird. I think I saw him eat a bug. Besides, I wanted to ask you something before you met with Emma."
"Is there something wrong?"
"No, I just wanted to know if we could invite Emma over for dinner after the meeting tonight." Ruby had recruited Henry to help her and Faith get Emma and Regina together. The plan was to get them to spend as much time together as possible, starting with dinner.
Regina wasn't surprised by the request, Henry had asked before and she usually came up with some reason why it wouldn't work. "I don't know, Henry."
"Come on, Mom, please?"
Regina had trouble saying no to Henry since he had returned from New York, "Alright, I'll ask her. But she may have work to do, this is a big case that she's dealing with, it's requiring a lot of her attention."
"Thanks! I'm going to Granny's until the meeting is over." He hugged her and practically ran out of the room.
A few minutes later, her assistant knocked on the door to tell her that Emma had arrived.
"You're late."
"Sorry. Paperwork."
"Does that mean it will actually be on time this month?" Regina gestured to the chair in front of her desk, "Have a seat." Regina waited until Emma was seated to speak again, "What do you suggest we tell people about Dracula?"
"As much of the truth as we can, I don't want to start a panic, or give Whale a reason to get a mob together." They both shuddered at the memory of Whale threatening a powerless Regina. "I think we just tell them that there's a threat and they need to stick to the curfew. Really, most of the people who would give us trouble about it already know what's going on. Without them, there shouldn't be much resistance. Oh. And tell them to use the buddy system."
"What if people do argue? What will we tell them?"
"We tell them there's an unknown threat and that all we know is that people are disappearing after sundown."
"Very well. Will Faith attend the meeting?" Regina thought about asking Emma why Faith felt it necessary to threaten her the day before, but she didn't want to open that door.
"I think she should, don't you?" Regina nodded, "If she doesn't, then people may start to accuse her of being the threat. Most of the people here don't take strangers well."
"Only when they knock down the town sign," Regina said with a smile. She looked at the clock. "We should head over there, people should be arriving soon. By the way, Henry wanted to invite you for dinner afterwards, would you like to join us?" She noticed Emma's hesitation, "I made lasagna, and I promise I won't poison you. Henry would love if you joined us."
"Sure, I'd love to. I haven't seen much of him lately. Thank you." Emma was silent for a couple minutes but then asked, "Would it be alright if Faith came along too? I'd kind of like her to meet Henry, if that's okay with you." It was a sorry excuse to avoid time alone with Regina and Regina noticed.
"If you don't want to come for dinner, you don't have to. Nobody is forcing you." She was upset but trying not to show it.
"I never said that. I just thought it would be nice to invite her. She's helping us out a lot." Emma heard Regina mutter something, but didn't catch it. "What was that?"
"Nothing. Just let her know dinner is at 7. Now excuse me, I have to speak with Sydney." Regina made a beeline for the reporter, leaving Emma standing alone in the hallway, feeling like an ass. However, she still texted Faith to invite her for dinner, and got an immediate "yes" back.
The meeting went as expected, the townspeople accepted the curfew with little argument, putting their faith in Emma and her parents. There were questions about what killed the art teacher, and if they had any leads on the others, but they were able to answer them fairly easily. Nobody stuck around after the meeting, they were all anxious to get home and make sure that their loved ones were safe. Regina left immediately after the meeting was over, making some excuse about starting dinner, and leaving Faith and Emma alone.
"What the hell did you do? She looks upset."
"When she invited me for dinner with her and Henry, I took a minute to answer and I think it hurt her feelings. Then I kinda made it worse when I asked if you could come too."
Faith chuckled, "You've got it bad, E."
"I don't know what you're talking about"
"Yes you do. You have go to talk to her. I don't know what happened with you two, but you have to talk about it."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Keep telling yourself that and see how you feel. Keep trying to convince yourself that you don't have feelings for her, even though anyone with eyes and half a brain can tell you do." Emma didn't have a response for Faith, because she was right. "I don't know what you're scared of, but get over it before it's too late." Faith started to walk away.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"Gotta make a phone call, I'll meet you at the station. I'm still going to dinner, wanna see what happens."
Emma checked her watch and realized that if she wanted to make it to the mansion before 7, she had to leave. She still had a few things to finish up at the station and had to get her bug.
Emma and Faith made it to the mansion with minutes to spare, it was the first time she had actually been on time for Regina. Although it had a lot to do with Faith standing over her as she worked. Henry didn't wait until they got to the door, he ran out and tackle hugged Emma, which made Faith laugh.
"You must be Henry." He nodded and Faith stuck out her hand, "I'm Faith, it's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you."
"Nice to meet you too, I heard you're a superhero!"
Faith looked at Emma, surprised and Emma shrugged, "It wasn't me. I just said you were a friend."
The group made their way into the house, "Aw thanks, E."
"It was Ruby! She told me that you're a superhero and that you kill vampires!"
Regina appeared, "Remind me to talk to Miss Lucas about appropriate conversations with an 11 year old."
"She wouldn't tell me anything else." Henry said, trying to defend Ruby. He turned his attention back to Faith, "Do you have any stories?"
"I've got about 14 years of them, all about vampires, demons, and the world ending." Henry's eyes got big and Regina cleared her throat, "But uh, all age appropriate, very little violence."
They saw the smallest smile from Regina, before she announced dinner was ready. Henry asked Faith question after question about being a Slayer, which she tried to answer with as little cursing and violence as possible. Regina and Emma stayed relatively quiet and kept stealing glances at each other when they thought no one was looking.
"Wife? You're married to a woman?" Henry and Ruby had practiced this, to help show Regina and Emma that he'd be okay with it.
"Henry!"
"Kid!"
Faith laughed, "He didn't say anything wrong, he was just asking. But yes, and that's a good story. We kinda started out as enemies and now we're expecting a kid." She saw a look pass between Regina and Emma and stopped herself from smiling at them.
"That's cool! I love having two moms!" Emma choked on her drink and ended up spilling wine everywhere, earning herself a small glare from Regina. Faith caught Henry's attention and winked. Everyone at the table was silent until they finished eating and they made it to dessert without any issue. Immediately after finishing her pie, Faith excused herself.
"Thanks for dinner, Regina. I gotta get out to patrol with Tink, I don't wanna leave her by herself for too long." She ruffled Henry's hair, "Nice to meet you, kid." Before Emma could get up and use it as a reason to leave, Faith stopped her, "I can walk, I've been in more dangerous situations. Besides, I need the exercise after all that good food. I'll text you if I find anything. See ya later, E."
"See ya." Emma checked her watch, "Hey Henry, it looks like it's almost bed time, maybe you should go get ready."
"Aw man, I wanna stay up." He looked between his two mothers, trying to figure out who would break sooner. Ever since they got their new memories, Emma was stricter with bed times and the like.
"Emma told you to get ready for bed, maybe you'll be able to stay up and read with one of us a bit, how's that?" Henry realized he was beat and slowly went upstairs.
Emma stood up and started clearing the table, "Thanks for inviting me to dinner." She almost dropped a glass, causing Regina to jump up and start taking plates from her.
"I've got this." Regina took the plates into the kitchen, and Emma followed.
"Is there anything I can help with?" She picked up a towel, "I can dry. Without dropping anything." Regina looked at her skeptically and Emma amended, "I can try not to drop anything." Regina brought the rest of the dishes into the kitchen and started washing, letting Emma dry. "Hey Regina?"
"Yes?"
"Can we talk?"
"Is that not what we're doing?"
"You know what I mean."
A loud thud announced Henry's arrival back downstairs and seconds later he was in the kitchen. Emma cursed inwardly at her son's terrible timing. She lost her nerve by the time Henry was settled in bed.
Emma and Regina went into the sitting room. Regina offered her a glass of cider, but she declined. "You wanted to talk?"
"Oh. Um." Emma was trying to think of something to bring up, but her mind had gone blank. Regina looked at her expectantly. Finally, she thought of something. "How's Henry doing with the death of that teacher?"
"He's coping. He never had him, but he knows some people who did, so he's been helping them talk through it."
Emma smiled, "That sounds like him. How has he been doing since we got back?"
"As fine as he can be with two sets of memories. You do know he can stay with you, right?"
"I know. I wanted you to have him for a bit. You didn't get him much after the curse broke, I'm sorry about that by the way."
"Thank you." Regina sipped her cider, contemplating on asking Emma what it was that she wanted to talk about. Even though she already had an idea. "So how did you meet Faith?"
Emma shifted in her seat, this was almost as uncomfortable as talking about her feelings for Regina. "We were both in the system in Boston, we were both in some crappy homes. She taught me how to read people, how to survive on the streets, how to defend myself. I owe a lot to her. She was my best friend, until she left." Emma trailed off, leaving a lot up in the air.
Regina didn't know what to say, Emma didn't talk about her life in the system. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I turned out okay, didn't I?" Emma checked her watch and noticed it was around 11, a reasonable time to leave and not be weird. "I should go, it's getting late and I want to get to the station early tomorrow. Thank you again. Have a good night, Regina."
"Goodnight, Emma."