DISCLAIMER:: do not own

A/N:: still have absolutely no clue where i'm taking this. right now, just writing what flows out of my head as it gets there. thank you for all the interest and support. i appreciate it.

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"Emma?" Henry stumbled into the kitchen lights, which were harsh compared to the darkness of the rest of the house. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. His hair was mussed from its time on his pillow.

Emma looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar or, more accurately, an adult eating apple pie right out of the tin at two thirty in the morning. "Hey kid." She set the fork and the pie tin down beside her on the counter, which she had, much to her surprise, been able to lift herself up onto.

"Late night craving?" Henry walked in and leaned against the fridge with a smirk. "Mom's gonna kill you."

Emma looked down at the pie, once whole but now a quarter gone, with a look of resignation. "At least she'll wait until after the baby comes."

"That's the third one this week." Henry looked at his mother. Her bump had grown minimally, maybe a couple inches more, despite the fact that she was only a month and a half from her due date now.

"Yea, I don't know where it all goes, but this little girl loves your mom's apples. Hell, she loves your mom period. I want a kick, no sir, but just stand next to Regina and she's hopping around like a bunny in there."

"It's the connection to the Enchanted Forest."

Henry walked over to the cupboard, removed a glass, and set it on the counter. He pulled out the orange juice from the fridge and poured himself a cup. He was acting perfectly normal, despite the fact that Emma was looking at him like he was crazy.

"What you talkin' 'bout Willis?"

"My name's Henry." Now he was looking at her as if she were crazy.

She rolled her eyes. "Pop culture reference, kid. Before your time." She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by it being her connection to the Enchanted Forest?"

Henry took a sip of his juice and looked at her. "She doesn't respond to this world. Both her parents were born there."

"So, what are you saying?"

Henry all of sudden seemed to think he was going to die of dehydration, the glass flew to his lips so fast.

"Henry!" She wasn't as good at it as Regina, but she could manage a pretty decent stern parent voice when she tried.

"Another one Emma? Are they ever going to make it to dessert?"

Emma nearly jumped out of her skin and gave the woman in the doorway her best 'please don't kill me, I'm too cute' smiles before shrugging sheepishly. "I can't help it your apples are baby crack."

Regina walked over, grabbed the pie tin and scooped a forkful of the pie into her own mouth. She glared at the blonde, but there was no hostility behind her gaze. "Your lucky I don't punish you by making you eat it all."

Emma put a hand to her stomach. "Don't make promises you won't keep, junior's already doing a happy dance."

Regina smiled and put free hand to the small stomach. Emma wasn't lying. "She's feisty."

Emma's mouth turned down. "Great, just what I need, another you."

Regina socked Emma's arm.

Emma held the sore spot and leaned away from the brunette. "You better watch it or I'll sign up for one of those 'Stop Domestic Violence' PSAs. Then everyone will know how I suffer." She stole the fork from Regina's hand and popped the chunk of pie on the end of it into her mouth.

Henry pushed his way into the fray and stole the fork from her, scooping up a new chunk of pie and eating it.

Emma chuckled and ruffled his hair.

And that's how the Mills household welcomed the dawn, sitting on the counter eating apple pie out of the tin.

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"What are you doing here?" Henry looked up at Emma curiously when he joined her in front of the school. She didn't normally pick him up. That was Regina's job.

"I thought we could make a walk of it. It, oddly enough, seems to help the more I exercise. Go figure." She shrugged, still stumped by this fact that every doctor tells you, but you still always refuse to believe. "I wanted to continue our conversation from earlier. I know we got interrupted by Regina."

"You have to hurry and break the curse." Henry stated as they turned onto Main Street.

"I'm not talking about Operation Cobra here, kid."

"Yes, you are." He looked to her stomach. "She's a part of it now. She's in the book. And the book said…" He trailed off sadly.

"The book said what Henry? Tell me."

He looked up at her with apologetic eyes. "The book said if the curse doesn't break and you don't get back to the Enchanted Forest before she comes, bad things are going to happen."

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"Regina?" Emma stared at the mayor as she got ready for bed and then slipped in under the sheets beside the blonde.

"Hmm?" She turned off the lamp on the bedside table.

"Do you know how to break the curse?"

The lamp on the bedside table instantly came back on and Regina sat up, looking at her suspiciously. "Excuse me?"

"The curse… that brought everyone to Storybrooke, I was wondering how to break it."

"I have no idea what you're…"

"Henry said she's in the book. Since both her parents are from the Enchanted Forest, she has to go back there to be born or else something bad will happen."

"Both her parents?" Regina looked confused. "You're from Arizona."

"Not originally."

"Emma… if Henry's book were true, why would all the other fairytale characters end up in the same town in Maine, and you'd end up in Arizona?" She reached for the lamp to turn it back off and end the conversation.

"Because my parents shoved me in a magical tree."

Regina's arm froze. "You're lying." Emma couldn't see her face, but the tone of her voice was lethal.

"Oh, if only I were." Emma sighed. "God, it really is real, isn't it?"

"If I am who you truly think I am, why would you stay?"

Emma had asked herself the same question over and over again. The deeds of the Evil Queen, as cataloged in the book, were grave and numerous. If she wasn't afraid for herself, she should be afraid for her children; they were related to Snow White too. Except, she wasn't. Fearing Regina seemed an absurd concept. "Probably because I'm in love with you."

Regina finally turned to look at her, a darkness in her eyes Emma had never seen before. "Dangerous words when you consider who you're dealing with."

Emma shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"If you knew everything I've done… I didn't stop with the curse. I…"

"Killed my daughter's father?" Now it was Emma's turn to look away.

"You knew?"

Emma nodded. "That's in the book too."

"But you've said nothing."

Emma shrugged. "What happened with Graham was the product of loneliness and one too many beers… I didn't love him Regina. One day, you'll have to answer to her for that crime, but until then, you don't have to worry about me."

Regina remembered the speech she'd overheard Emma giving Henry. Obviously the blonde practiced what she preached. Maybe she could too. Maybe her hatred could end with Emma's mother. Emma never knew the woman, was never influenced by her. No, Regina couldn't hold her responsible for the sins of the mother.

"I know you don't love me Regina, but I also know you do love her." She looked down at her stomach. "I'm not asking for my sake, but for hers."

"I don't know how to break it." Regina frowned. "I'd tell you if I did, for her sake."

Emma slowly nodded and slid down into the sheets, turning on her side so she wouldn't have to look at Regina.

Regina leaned over and turned off the lamp. She laid back down, facing the blonde's back. "You're wrong Emma, I do love you."

She saw no indication that Emma had heard her, and just as she was about to give the blonde up as asleep, a hand grabbed her arm and pulled it over to rest on a swollen stomach. Regina smiled and snuggled closer, pressing softly into Emma's back, her arm draped protectively across their daughter.

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The bell above the door jingled softly as she entered. She barely had time to close the door before he was there behind the counter, smirking at her as if he'd known she'd end up here all along. Maybe he had.

"Ah, Miss Swan, what a pleasant surprise."

"I assume you know what I'm here about." She glared at him, keeping most of the length of the shop between them. "Surely you remember everything from the old life."

He inclined his head in acknowledgement. "You want to know how to break the curse."

She nodded.

"You do know everything comes at a price."

Again she nodded.

"There is something I seek from the Evil Queen's vault. A heart from a woman by the name of Ehzia. Bring me that heart and I will tell you how to break the curse."

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"Absolutely not!"

Emma followed her up the stairs. She had accosted Regina the second the mayor had opened the door, not the best plan, but she was desperate. She needed that heart. "Why? Who was she?"

Regina shrugged. "A servant girl of mine from a distant village. Nothing of serious consequence, but I don't deal with that… with him. The fact that he wants her means there's some value she has that I have yet to discover." She pushed into her in home office.

Emma froze just inside the door. "I…" She didn't finish her sentence, just turned and left the room.

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Regina stared at the pile of clothes being tossed out of the open door and onto the bed. "What are you doing?"

Emma stepped out of the closet with a duffel bag. "I think it might be best if I go stay with Mary Margaret for a while."

Regina's mouth involuntarily fell open in shock. "You're leaving?"

Emma crossed her arms across her chest and glared at Regina. "Oh no. You don't get to take that tone with me! Let's act like I'm the one being selfish here!"

"I'm not the one moving out for no reason!"

Emma shook her head sadly. "There is a reason… you're just so blind you don't even see it."

"See what?"

Emma shook her head and turned back to the bed to start stuffing clothes in the duffel. "I thought maybe… I don't know… that if I loved you enough, I could overpower the part of her that still lingered."

"Who?"

Emma paused her packing. "The Evil Queen."

"Don't go Emma."

Emma rolled her eyes. "There's nothing left for me here. I thought even if loving me was a lie…"

"It was not a lie! Do you realize how hard it was for me to admit that? I haven't let myself love anyone since…" She couldn't even utter his name aloud, even after all these years.

Emma stopped packing and walked over, pulling Regina into a hug. "Loss never goes away. Absence is always felt. There are days where it doesn't hurt so much and days where it's the most agonizing pain you could ever imagine. It comes and goes, like a tide. Your pain doesn't make you heartless Regina, it makes you human."

Regina clung to Emma, afraid she might fall if the blonde let her go. "Don't go Emma." She nuzzled the blonde's neck. "I still don't believe Mr. Gold's help is ever the answer, but I'll give you the heart. I'll give you whatever you want. Just don't go. I need you."