"Are you sure you don't want to stay here tonight, Henry? Your bedroom is just waiting for you."
To her surprise, tears swam in her son's eyes. She's never seen him so torn, and regretted asking him to stay.
"If you don't think you'll be ok, I'll stay with you, Mom. But I'm afraid of pushing things too fast... Operation Phoenix is a sensitive mission! But just remember, if we're successful, we'll live like a real family..."
The doorbell rang, and Regina grimaced. "Remind me why I couldn't have just dropped you off?" She looked at her son's face.
"Oh, right, the Mary Margaret thing." Her words were flippant, but her tone was solemn - almost regretful. Henry squeezed her hand.
The doorbell rang twice more in rapid succession. Regina rolled her eyes as the two stood up and Henry suppressed a grin. "Commencing stage two," he murmured.
Henry opened the door to his blonde mother, who was awkwardly waiting on the porch. Regina hovered hesitantly in the background, her heart in her throat. Emma's entire body visibly tensed when she looked at her.
"Do try to relax, Ms. Swan; we wouldn't want you injuring yourself."
Emma's eyes flashed, having missed the affection in the brunette's tease.
"I'm sorry, Regina, it's just that it was only a few hours ago that you swore to kill my mother. Forgive me for tensing up around you."
Henry groaned as he heard his adoptive mother step forward behind him. He silently willed her to remember Operation Phoenix, but he knew her pride wouldn't allow her to refuse a challenge.
"That's not quite the apology I've been expecting from you, Sheriff." Henry's heart quaked as he detected the pain in Regina's statement, the bitter abandonment she'd felt when the blonde stopped believing her about Archie's death, hoping against hope that Emma heard it, too.
She didn't.
"Yeah, it was so hard to believe you'd murder an innocent man! Shocking, really, especially when you consider how you just killed a woman who'd done nothing wrong just to torture my mother!"
Regina visibly flinched when the blonde brought up Johanna. Her eyes flared, but her tone was surprisingly quiet.
"That was my mother's doing." It was almost apologetic. Emma, coming from spending a few hours trying to talk her mother out of death wishes, was too incensed to notice or care.
"Yes, that's right, your mother! That wonderful woman you're so furious at Mary Margaret for stopping!"
Henry opened his mouth to cut this off, but Regina's tear-soaked voice rose first.
"She didn't have to curse her heart, you wretched little bi-" She glanced down at Henry's wild eyes and stopped herself, closing her eyes and swallowing as Emma raised her chin defiantly, an action she's unconsciously taken from Regina.
"She could have encouraged me to put her heart back without cursing it first," Regina finished in a defeated murmur.
Something stirred deep in Emma's heart. Something painful, something... compassionate. She blinked slowly, staring at the woman who had been so broken that she built herself back up in all the most lethal ways, and now was ripping all the self-made stitches out, trying to remake who she was. Again.
"And you could have stopped Cora from murdering Johanna," Emma whispered. It was a statement, not an accusation.
"You don't know my mother, Ms. Swan," was all Regina offered in response.
"Maybe not," the younger woman conceded, her voice so soft Henry almost leaned forward to hear it better. "But I thought I knew you. Like you thought you knew her."
Emma turned on her heel and walked briskly away. "C'mon, Henry," she called, without turning back.
The boy hugged his mother, hard. "Don't give up, Mom. I believe in you. And I believe in Operation Phoenix," he whispered. Then, louder, so Emma could hear, as he trotted down the path after her, "See you tomorrow, Mom!"
The blonde suppressed a groan. The innocent school teacher was suddenly suicidal and her son was now gung-ho about spending time with Regina, all a few hours after the former Queen had threatened to kill her mother and curse her son. Why am I even letting her see him?
A glance down at his thoughtful face reminded her. For better or worse, Regina was his mom. She supposed she was happy he was finally realizing that. Like she'd be happy to plant her face into her pillow when they got home.
Regina watched them leave; alone. She forced Henry's words to keep ringing in her ears. She stepped outside as their footsteps died away and stared up at the stars, losing herself for a moment, minutes, hours. Eventually, she shuddered, chilled by the night air, and closed the door. She finished her cider alone in bed, wondering if the rest of Operation Phoenix would go better than the first part of stage two had. She thought of Cora, and tears slid idly down her cheeks as she fell asleep.