Hi everyone! Apologies for the delayed update, things got a bit busy with life but I'm back now and I have the chapter with me! We'll be going back to Regina's POV.

Also, I want to thank each and everyone of you who read, reviewed, followed and favorited this story so far! It really does drive me to make this story better and better!

On to the chapter!

PS. Beta is still away so all mistakes are my own. Hopefully there aren't too many.

Graham is late. Was the very rare and very irritating thought that was echoing inside Regina's head as she stood in front of the large mirror by the door. She had gone to check on her hair and makeup for the fourth time in seventeen minutes, something she hated doing.

She hated being iffy.

She hated being late.

Where the hell is he? She thought to herself again as she pursed her lips together to spread the lipstick evenly.

It was unlike Graham to be running late without a word, especially not for such an important trip. When they had reached Henry's school, Regina had send him back to Oz to find out more about the paparazzi incident the night before but she didn't expect him to take so long.

Had he found anything out?

"Momma! Help!"

The horrified cry from Henry immediately send the brunette running up the carpeted stairs towards the room where she had left him. "Henry!" As she ran, her mind flew from one thought to the other, had henry gotten hurt? Where was Mulan? Had gotten through the locked door to the balcony? "Momma!" Henry cries out just as Regina reaches the door. The woman practically swings the door off it's hinges as she ran into the room, panting and slightly out of breath.

She noticed the room was a mess, all the cushions of her couch were missing, her pillows were gone and there were chairs all over the room; Regina immediately went to search for her son, "Where are you?" she asked breathlessly. For several agonizing second there was no answer and then a soft giggling slowly drifted from where her bed was.

At first Regina was confused, she couldn't find Henry and there was a long white sheet hanging above her queen sized bed. "Henry?"

There's a small movement just inside the blanket and then Henry's flushed and smiling face peaks out from between the fabric, "We made a pillow castle!" He announces happily as Mulan appears from behind the tent, timid and her eyes on the floor.

"He's very persistent, Miss Mills." She says quietly.

Regina should have been angry; her room was a mess, so was her hair and she could feel sweat from the sudden adrenaline rush dripping down the side of her head.

She should have been but Henry's face made it impossible. "We gets to be a Queen and a King!" He chimes happily.

The brunette smirks then shakes her head, "That's alright, Mulan. Leave us. I have to have a word with my son." she says before taking a seat at one corner of the bed.

Not a second later the Asian woman darted out the door, leaving Regina and Henry alone in her room. The brunette sighed softly as she watched his son crawl out from the blanket tent that they had set up.

Regina was amused at how Henry's expression turns from gleefully excited to confused and worried that he had done something wrong, "Did I do bad, Momma?" He asks innocently.

For a four year old, Henry Mills was a very perceptive kid. Regina like to think it was because she had always talked to Henry like an adult; explaining, correcting and teaching him as soon as he muttered his first word. Of course genetics also played a part on it, how he was treated while in the womb and what sort of voices and music he heard. Still Regina couldn't be more proud.

"That depends, dear." The mother answered as she began to brush the thick brown hair away from the boy's flushed face, "Why did you do all this?"
Henry immediately dropped his gaze and began fiddling with his hands, "You were gonna leave, Momma."
Regina's brows furrow in confusion, "Yes, Henry. I told you this morning while we were eating breakfast-" Suddenly, Henry throws himself towards Regina, the woman barely catching the child in her arms as he wraps his arms and legs around her torso, "I don't want you to go, Momma. I missed you." He mumbles into her hair.

The simple answer and loving gesture both made Regina's heart swell and crack at the same time. She has been busy with the proposal as well as managing the company in Miami as well as their business in Fort Lauderdale, but she did make sure to tuck Henry in whenever she could; to cook him meals and get him ready for school.

What she realized though, was that aside from that she hasn't had the chance to spend quality time with her son.

Regina pulls away from his son, slightly teary eyed at his son's request, "I'm sorry Henry. Tell you what, Momma's going to stay home today and we can go to the beach?"
He softly shakes his head then points to the mess on the bed, "We can stay here and go camping in our castle!"
The brunette nods, a smile on her lips, "Deal. I have to make a few calls but why don't you go to Mulan and tell her to look for Graham?"
Henry bounces on the bed twice before slipping off the bed and out the door, shouting for Mulan and how their plan worked.

Once the door closes, Regina pulls out her phone from her pocket and dialed her secretary.

"Miss Mills?"
"Mary Margaret, cancel all my meetings for today." She says simply as she began to undress, kicking her black heels off before carefully untying the belt around her gray dress.
There's a pause on the line before the fair skinned woman spoke again, "Are you alright, Ma'am? Is it the scratch on your leg? The one from the angry rat?" she asks worriedly.
Regina laughs, actually laughs, at her concern, "No. That turns out that was just from one of Henry's toys."Without seeing her secretary and from her silence, Regina knew Mary Margaret would probably have that furrowed-confused look on her face, "I'm going to spend the day with Henry." she adds as she stands just in front of the door to her walk in closet that was thankfully blanket and castle-free.
"Oh! That's a wonderful plan, Miss Mills. I'll be happy to cancel your meeting." Her secretary says happily.
"Please make sure that Sidney isn't sitting around doing nothing or worse, flirting with the interns."
"I will."
"Good." She says before disconnecting the line.

Regina stood in front of her closet in her black lace bra and panties, debating what she should wear today since they would only be staying home. She couldn't wear her exercise clothes because she was scheduled for the gym tomorrow and she didn't really have another pair of dri-fits.

Definitely not jeans or a skirt. That would be uncomfortable, let alone silly.

Was it too early to wear her pyjamas?

As soon as Regina unclasped her bra, the door swung open to reveal Graham; like some cosmic joke.

It was like the woman was frozen for a second as she watched the man approach her, his eye low and locked on some papers in his hands, "Miss Mills, I apologize. The meetings ran a little late but I did- Oh." Only when Graham had looked up at her did Regina find her voice. "GET! OUT!"

"Did you do bad too?"
"Uh… You could say that."
"What did you do? Is Momma mad at you, Graham?"
The man sighs, burying his nose deeper into his bowl. "I really hope not, Kid."
"You should have knocked, what kind of man simply barges into a woman's room?" Mulan says quietly before taking another spoonful of cereal.

Graham glares at the smaller woman but wisely chose to stay quiet; much to the amusement of Mulan.
Light footsteps padded along the hardwood floor of the small mansion as Regina approached, she enters wordlessly in her gray silk pyjamas and fluffy white slippers. Mulan and Graham nervously glanced at each other, both their mouths half full with cereal and milk, neither wanting to chew or make a single sound.

Regina makes her way to the refrigerator and pulls out a small box of strawberries before taking a seat beside Henry, placing a soft kiss on the boy's head. As she does, Mulan quickly reaches over and beats Graham in grabbing a new bowl and spoon for their boss; the man glaring daggers into her head.

"Here you go, Miss Mills." The smaller woman says quietly.
Regina nods, "Thank you."
"Thank you!" Henry giggled, standing from his seat and moving to his mother's lap. Regina hummed as she wrapped an arm around his waist, filling her bowl with Corn Flakes and milk with her free hand.
"Mulan. Graham." She says once she fills the bowl, both adults sitting up in attention.
"Yes, Miss Mills?" They asked at the same time.

Instead of answering, Regina plucked a strawberry from the small box and began to nibble on it. Truthfully, she was also trying to control herself from blushing in front of Graham, she had never had such an experience and to be seen like that by a man she spends everyday with was something from the twilight zone as far as Regina was concerned. After several agonizing seconds and Graham's butt going numb, she spoke again. "We're going to have a lazy day with my son. No suits." The woman says with a sly smirk tugging at the corner of her lips.

A few hours later and a mandatory change of clothes for Mulan and Graham, and the four of them could be found on the floor of Regina's home. Well, Graham, Mulan and Henry were on the floor in front of the large television; Regina was sat on the stark white couch behind them.

"I don't understand…" Mulan mumble, catching the attention of the two other adults in the room, "If the mermaid could not speak, why not just write a note to the prince and tell him of her predicament?"
That had Henry and Graham scratching their heads, "You know what? I don't actually know." Graham shrugged. "Maybe she couldn't write?"
Mulan shook her head, "She signed her name in impeccable penmanship on the contract with the octopus."
"A plot hole." Regina answered in return. "Besides, the movie would not have been as enjoyable if Ariel simply wrote a note. They had to discover love for themselves." she adds before taking a sip of her apple juice.

Mula and Graham nodded, so did Henry. "Frozen!" He yelps excitedly.

"Henry we watched Frozen twice before we watched Little Mermaid." Graham grumbled but the young boy was unfazed, "I wants Olaf, Momma!" he whines, turning to the brunette.
"Alright,you and Mulan can watch while Graham and I get us lunch, okay?"
"But I don't want to eat."
"You barely ate your cereal this morning and it's almost lunch time. You have to eat." Regina says gently as she ran her hand through Henry's short brown hair.
"Oh-kayyyyy." He drawled before turning back to the TV where Mulan was selecting his movie.

Graham and Regina slip out from the room and towards the kitchen, the man's posture reverting back to being stiff and professional. They could hear the movie begin to play as Regina moves around the kitchen, procuring some chicken breasts, tortilla wraps and vegetables.

She works quickly and cleanly around the kitchen while Graham stands only a few feet away, the man waiting for any instructions from her.

Do you wanna build a snowman?
Come on let's go out an play
I never see you anymore
Come out the door
It's like you've gone away.

"Any news on the incident?" Regina asks while slicing the chicken breasts to the right size.
"No one who works at the club seemed to have called them, but there was one whose story didn't seem to fit." He says plainly as he pulls out a small notepad from his breast pocket. "Her name is-"

"Do you want to build a snowmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan?!" Henry screamed from the other room, making Graham chuckle lightly.

"Her name is Emma. She's a dancer. Before going to work, other people had seen her on the phone talking with someone. She said it was her best friend's grandmother."
"A lie?" Regina asks and the man simply nodded, "how can you be sure?"
"Instinct? Also, she was too stiff. Too tense during the whole thing.

She hums thoughtfully as she dips the chicken breasts in batter before throwing them into the fryer, once they were cooking, Regina began to prepare the warps, laying out the tortilla wrappers and vegetables in four neat piles, "That's not enough to go on, you know that."

"I know. I'll gather more information on her; I have her picture and some basic information but that's all I have for now." He agrees before showing the brunette his phone. As soon as she took a good look at the screen, Regina's eyes widen. There staring back at her was Anna.

"I'll have August run a background check on h-"
"No." Regina cuts him off, placing his phone on the counter.
Graham's eyes furrow at that, "No?"
"No." She repeats, "She couldn't have done it for some change, there must be another reason."
"Miss Mills, the papparazi-" "Were all there. If she wanted to make the most money, she would have called one or two, or even took the pictures herself. No, there's more to this and I'm going to find out what."
"How?"

Regina pauses, placing both her hands on the counter in deep thought, "We play along. Keep her clueless, that shouldn't be too hard. Once we find out who's pulling her stripper strings, we'll make our move."

That was the only time that they had talked about anything regarding the incident or work, of course the fact that Anna might have something to do with the paparazzi and the upcoming proposal for her project was in Regina's mind but she was not going to allow anything to ruin her day with Henry.

After they had lunch, Henry only managing to eat half of his, they stayed in Regina's room. Just mother and son. Reading and telling stories about Henry's fictional world for hours on end. His world was of his mother as the queen and him as the brave and powerful prince that says dragons with tree branches.

Eventually, Henry fell asleep with his head on Regina's chest and his hands wrapped around his mother's waist. Soon, the combination of warmth and comfort that her son brought defeated Regina's need to always be moving, knocking her out as she held her son close.

While the two slept peacefully, Mulan and Graham were busy cleaning up the chocolate smeared bowls and plates when Mulan's phone broke the silence. The smaller woman quickly fished her phone from her jacket pocket and read the new message, her brows furrowing as she did so.

"Trouble in paradise?" Graham asked with an amused smirk.
"I received the result for Emma Swan's phone records." She states simply, successfully wiping the smirk from his face.
Graham quickly set the rest of the plates into the dishwasher before walking up the the woman, "and?"
She lays her phone down on the table and zooms into the email where the most recent calls were displayed.
"What am I looking at?" He asks cluelessly.
"Emma Swan hasn't called anyone for the past two days. She didn't call the paparazzi, someone else did. My guess? This one." She adds as she points to a single, reoccurring phone number.

Graham checked the time of the calls and nodded in agreement, "He called around the time they saw Emma talking with someone and then another call the next morning. Checking that their plan worked?"
"Possibly."
"Then let's find out who this number belongs to."
Mulan shakes her head, "It's a disposable SIM card. There will be no names or address or maybe not even a record of the calls in and out of this number."
They pause for a second before sighing together, "Regina will not like this." Graham whispers quietly

"I know but at least we're not completely empty handed. We start with Emma Swan and find out who she's working for."
"There has to be something more we can do."
"Perhaps. Call your people, I'll call mine. Let's keep it quiet, alright?"

Graham nods and the two of them begin to call all sources they believe could help them. Once they had both done and contacted who they could, Mulan and Graham met back in the kitchen where they simply sat at the counter rubbing their heads. "Any luck?" Graham asks and Mulan simply grunts, "yeah me neither." He adds.
"What are we going to tell Miss Mills?"
"We could-" "Yes, I am very curious to know what the two of you have been up to?" Regina's voice floats from behind them, causing Graham to whip around and Mulan's head to snap up in her direction.

Their boss walks in wearing her silk pyjamas but still walked as gracefully as ever, taking a seat at the counter between the and clasping her hands together on the the table, "Well?"

The two glance at each other nervously and it only causes the anxiety to build in Regina's mind, "Is one of you going to tell me or will I have to force it out of you?" she asks, agitated.

Mulan was the first to break from their locked gazes to answer her boss, unwilling to find out what Regina would actually do to them, "We strongly believe that this Emma Swan was talking to the person who called the paparazzi." she blurted out.
Graham sighs before adding, "we didn't want to bring it up yet because our information isn't complete."
Regina's shoulders tighten as she answered, "Graham, I told you not to run a background check."
"And we didn't. Her phone records show suspicious activity days before your meet up at the club." He explains. "That means whoever paid her, knew you were coming." Mulan chimes in before pulling out a piece of paper. "Who else knew of your meeting, Miss Mills?"

Her brows furrow, they were right, the timing was too perfect to have been coincidence. "Aside from David, Eric and Philip? Only the essentials;my secretary, Mary Margaret and the two of you."

"Mary Margaret, it is." Mulan nods, "She's the only one besides Graham and I that knew-" "No. She wouldn't do this. She's smart, she knew only select people knew and that we'd be on to her in no time; she wouldn't risk it. There has to be someone else, maybe on David's staff? or Eric's? Philip's?" Graham chimed in, cutting Mulan off mid-sentence.

Regina nods as she think of all possible angles, "He's right, Mulan. We can't assume that it's Mary Margaret. Try to get more information on this mystery caller." She tells Mulan who nods in response, "Graham, you and I are going on a little midnight trip." Regina adds before getting up from the stool and heading for her room.
The man's blonde brows furrow, "Where are we going?"
"Oz!"

Just like the first time, the sheer aesthetics of the place took Regina's breath away as soon as she stepped through the emerald green drapes at the entrance. The music boomed out from large speakers around the club, driving the bass right into her chest as she walked inside.

This time, Regina was far more careful to avoid being noticed. Going with a simple ensemble of a short black dress, black pumps and a white blazer.

"Miss Mills! Welcome back." Zelena greets subtly as she reached her client, "I must say, I didn't expect you to be back here so soon." she smirked before leading the woman to the closed-off VIP section.
When the two women reach the back and most isolated section of the VIP lounge, Regina takes a seat on the couch against the wall so she had the full visual of the club. "I'm sure Graham filled you in no why I'm here." she says, glancing at the man standing beside her.
The Englishwoman nods, "Of course. I've asked Emma to come in today under the guise that one of our dancers had injured herself. She should be here any minute."
Regina smiles politely before turning to Graham, "she can't see you or she'll know we're on to her."
"I'll be in the car outside, if I see any hint of trouble, I'm coming in to get you." He answers quietly, completely serious.
It makes the brunette shake her head, "that won't be necessary. She won't have time to call anyone."

As if on cue, Emma enters the room through the back entrance. Tonight she was wearing a red corset and black ruffled skirt with red trimmings, black lace stockings that had small ribbons at the top that went all the way up to her thighs, red pumps and a miniature black top-hat on her head that's tilted slightly to the left.

"Leave it to Anna to make an entrance." Zelena muses in an amused tone as men left and right turn towards the blonde.

Regina simply watched her, closer than she had the first time. Despite her appearance there was a perceptible sluggishness in her movements. Her shoulders drooped ever so slightly and her eyes weren't as bright as the first time Regina saw her; her baby blue hues seemingly darker and duller.

"Let's go, Miss Malvagio. Time to make our exit." Graham says before offering his arm to the redhead who gladly hooks an arm around his.
"My, my…" She purrs before turning to Regina with a sly smile. "I guess chivalry isn't dead after all." Zelena says playfully before following Graham out the door and to somewhere Regina did not even want to know.

As she sipped on her wine and watched Emma, she couldn't help but notice the woman constantly looking over her shoulder, like she was expecting someone to come up behind her. It piques the woman's curiosity and as she takes another sip, Emma turns just enough to meet her deep chocolate gaze.

'Alright, Regina Mills.' she thought to herself, 'Showtime.'