Regina wakes to the scent of something delicious wafting up from the floor below. It is the first sign that she is not at her home - if it could even be called that - in Boston. The second is the feeling of the bed beneath her. Unlike the hard and lumpy mattress on her cramped single bed, this mattress is deliciously soft, yet firm. The Egyptian cotton sheets felt wonderful against her skin and she considers just rolling back over and going back to sleep for a while.

But she can't do that. She needs to get up and get Henry and get out of this place. So she climbs out of the comfortable bed, her body aching in protest, and pulls yesterday's clothes back on.

She checks the room next to hers where Henry had slept the night before, but it is, unsurprisingly, empty. At least his backpack is still laying at the foot of the bed. With a frown, she heads down the stairs and into the kitchen where the delicious scent is coming from.

Emma is standing at the stove, cooking breakfast of some kind. She is wearing an apron over a pants suit that makes her look every bit the mayor she is. The night before, Regina couldn't imagine it, but now it's easy to see Emma's authority. The clothes really do help make the woman.

Emma turns on her high heels, taking in the sight of Regina. "Good morning." She says with a smile. Regina does not answer. Instead, she looks at the stove and counter tops.

"I made breakfast, if you're hungry. Apple cinnamon waffles and bacon." Emma offers by way of explanation. "Henry asked for them, so…"

"Where is my son?" Regina asks, feeling her anger rising already. The woman was obviously trying to sway Henry by spoiling him and giving him whatever he could possibly ask for.

"He's outside." Emma nods her head towards the large windows and the glass doors of the kitchen that look out onto the backyard. "Picking some apples for you both to enjoy on your car ride home."

Regina moves over to the doors, taking in the sight of Henry, happily pulling apples down from the trees and tossing them into the basket. Her hand reaches for the door, ready to go gather him and leave this place, but Emma's voice stops her.

"Miss Mills, please, at least eat some breakfast before you go. Have a cup of coffee or something."

Regina turns to protest, but her stomach growls, effectively shutting down any argument she might've given. "Fine." She huffs, moving over to grab the plate that Emma has already set out for her.

"I hope the waffles are okay. Henry seemed to enjoy them, but ten year old boys tend to eat whatever you put in front of them… I would imagine." Emma frowns a little as she tends to the bacon frying on the stove. "It's been a while since I made waffles from scratch though. I was an absolute disaster in the kitchen when I first moved to Storybrooke. I probably would've starved to death if it wasn't for Granny teaching me how to cook." She pauses for a breath and looks at Regina, who is watching her with something that looks vaguely like amusement. At least it's not open hostility anymore. "And now I'm rambling. Sorry. Shutting up now."

"Henry does that when he gets nervous." Regina comments softly.

"Yeah?" Emma asks, trying to keep her voice from breaking. She focuses on flipping the bacon.

Regina nods her head. "I take it that it runs in your family?"

Emma's hand stills, a piece of bacon dangling from the turner. "Oh. I, uh" she clears her throat, "wouldn't know." She shakes herself, flipping the piece of bacon and jumping back a bit as grease pops at her. "My parents… left me on the side of a highway the day I was born, so…"

Regina's eyes widen at the confession. "Madam Mayor, I am sorry. I didn't mean -"

Emma turns then, a dazzling smile on her lips, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "Don't be sorry. If they could only see me now, huh?"

Silence descends on the kitchen then, neither woman knowing what to say after Emma's confession. Regina samples the waffles and can't stop the small moan of pleasure that slips from her lips at the taste. The waffles are delicious, which just makes Regina hate Emma even more. Is there anything Henry's birth mother can't do?

Emma moves the frying pan off the burner and begins to clean up the kitchen, her eyes darting back and forth from Henry outside to Regina still eating the waffles in her kitchen. The little boy's words have been echoing in her head ever since he left her office last night. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and even after she'd taken her morning run around the town, she still can't shake them.

"You're my mother! You're supposed to help me!"

"Miss Mills?" She finally ventures, once Regina's plate is almost clean and she knows her limited window is just about closed.

Regina looks up at her and Emma feels her stomach flip. This shouldn't be hard. She's the mayor of the town, for god's sake. Bringing up the idea of Regina and Henry staying in Storybrooke shouldn't scare her so much. But she's already way in over her head here. Still, what's the worst that can happen? Regina's going to take Henry either way.

She clears her throat and stands up a bit straighter, looking Regina directly in the eye. "I think that you and Henry should stay here in Storybrooke."

Regina's eyebrow raises. "Excuse me?"

Emma isn't willing to back down though. "I think that you and Henry should stay here in Storybrooke. It's a great town, safe and -"

Regina pushes herself up so that she's standing at full height. There's a fire in her eyes. "I don't know what kind of game you're playing here, Madam Mayor, but Henry is my son and he is going home with me."

Emma watches as Regina moves toward the kitchen door and something snaps inside of her. "Oh, and what home would that be? Because from what I hear, it changes every week or so."

The action is so quick that before she can even blink, Regina is in her face, gripping her arm and shoving her back into the stove angrily. "You know nothing about it! Nothing!"

Emma winces at the pain that shoots up her spine when her back hits the stove and is well aware of the heat radiating off of the burner she'd been using earlier. "I know more about it than you think," Emma tells the other woman, "and I would thank you to kindly let me go, Miss Mills."

At Emma's tone, Regina does release her grip, moving back to allow the mayor to step away from the stove. But the fire does not diminish from her eyes. "You think I don't see what you're doing here? You think I'm too stupid to realize that you're setting me up so that you can take my son away from me? Trying to prove that I'm a bad mother, that you're so much better because you live in this perfect house in this perfect little town with this perfect job."

"Oh for god's -" Emma huffs, rolling her eyes. "My life is far from perfect, dear. And I do not want to take Henry from you. There isn't any vendetta here. The only reason I'm even doing this is for Henry, because he asked me to. But I'm about to just give up the ghost and let you take him back."

"Henry asked you - what are you talking about?" Regina demands, making sure to stay in Emma's personal space. She's not letting up on this.

"Why do you think he ran away and came to me in the first place? Henry's worried about you. He's petrified that one day you aren't going to come home. And he thinks that I can somehow do something about it."

"What?"

"The kid isn't dumb, Miss Mills. He sees that you're coming home from work injured." Emma gestures to the bruises that are still visible on her arms. Suddenly Regina wishes she would've pulled her leather jacket on before coming downstairs. "It's not a far leap for a kid's brain to think that you might not come home one day. Plus, as if that weren't worrisome enough, you're constantly moving around. He's got no sense of stability or -"

"Henry's life is perfectly stable!"

Emma raises an eyebrow at Regina. "Don't lie to me, Miss Mills. I can tell when people are lying to me."

A bit of the anger goes out of Regina at that, but she refuses to back down. "Okay. Fine. So maybe it isn't as stable as it was before Dan -" Regina's voice catches for a moment, "before my husband died. But I am doing the best that I can to take care of my son and if you think that you can look down your nose at me for that, you got another thing coming lady."

Emma softens at Regina's words. "I'm not looking down my nose at you. Believe me. I - I am just trying to help Henry - and you - here. That's all."

"Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to help us?" Regina sounds tired and confused, all the fight drained out of her now.

Emma swallows before she admits what she's only ever told one other person before. "Henry was… he was born…" she closes her eyes and then opens them again, locking her eyes on Regina's. "I had him while I was in jail."

Regina's eyes widen, but she manages not to say anything.

"So I know what it's like to hit rock bottom. And to think that there's no way out. After I gave him up and I got out of jail… I thought that was it, you know? I thought it was all over. But then I showed up here and the people took me in and gave me a chance. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here right now, I can tell you that. But they helped me - not by giving me handouts, but by supporting me and helping me when I needed it. And that's what I want to do with you. Because you need it and because Henry needs it. And for the first time since I gave him up, I can actually give him what he needs."

"Mayor Swan -"

"One week." Emma cuts her off. "Just stay one week. See what you think. I'll stay away from you and Henry if that's what you want. And if at the end of the week you don't think this is the place for you, then you can take him and go and I won't try to follow or find you or have any other contact with him again. I promise."

"One week? And you'll stay away from Henry?" Regina's eyebrow lifts.

Emma nods. "One week. I'll have my friend Kathryn draw up a legal agreement if you want."

Regina inclines her head in acknowledgement of Emma's comment, before she frowns. "And where, pray tell, am I to stay during this week? What am I to do for work?"

Emma almost says that they're welcome to stay here, but she stops herself. "Granny's got a bed and breakfast that's nice. You could stay there. Or Kathryn lives in a great apartment building, and I think there's some openings there." That's more of a long term situation, and they both know it, so Emma glosses over the suggestion and continues answering Regina's other question. "As for work, I know Granny could always use help at the diner."

Regina's nose wrinkles at that, but she doesn't comment. Emma smiles. "Or, if that's not really your speed, my sheriff is in need of a deputy. It's not exactly like what you're used to - much calmer, I'd think -" and safer, but she doesn't say that, "but your expertise would be helpful. If you're as good at finding runaway dogs as you are runaway people, you'd be doing us all a huge favor."

It's at that moment that Henry comes back into the kitchen, his basket full of apples. "Check it out, Mom! Emma let me pick some apples to take with us." He grins, holding up the fruits of his labor.

Regina looks at him, his wide smile, and thinks of what Emma has said.

Henry's worried about you. He's petrified that one day you aren't going to come home.

"One week." She says softly, her eyes meeting Emma's.

"One week." Emma smiles back at her, trying to look reassuring. She has no real right to be reacting at all to this news, let alone trying to convey that Regina has made the right decision, but it's for Henry and she can't seem to help herself.

"One week, what?" Henry asks, looking between the two.

Regina takes a deep breath and then turns to look at Henry. "I have decided that we will remain here in Storybrooke for one week."

"Really?" Henry rushes over and hugs her tightly. "That's awesome, Mom!"

Emma watches them with a smile, but when Henry pulls away from Regina and plows into her, hugging her just as tightly, she shifts uncomfortably in his embrace. "Listen, Henry, I'm really glad that you're staying for the week, but -"

"But," Regina interrupts, before Emma can tell Henry that they won't be able to see each other, "Mayor Swan needs to get to work. After all, she has a whole town to run. And we need to go to the bed and breakfast to see about getting a room. You'll be able to see her later."

"Yeah?" Henry and Emma wear matching expressions of questioning mixed with hope and Regina feels her heart clench. This could backfire horribly and cause her to lose the only person that matters to her anymore, but seeing Henry happy is enough to make her throw caution to the wind - at least a bit. She will speak to Emma about a legal agreement later. She won't be giving up her son without one hell of a fight. And Emma Swan may be mayor of this town, but she's never come up against Regina Mills before.

For now, she nods her head and offers her son a small smile. She pretends she doesn't see Emma mouth the words 'thank you' as she gives Henry's shoulder a small squeeze.

And she doesn't see Henry's widening grin as he looks between the two women, more than pleased with the outcome of his little adventure so far.

Phase 1 is complete. Now it's time to start planning phase 2.