A/N: Just a quick note. I know it seems like this story is finishing rather quickly and I allowed Emma and Regina to overcome the Hook and Cora obstacles easily but this was actually a prompt for a one chapter fic. I want this longer version to wrap up so I can get onto my new project which is writing Missed SwanQueen Moments Part 2! Check out Part 1 if you haven't already - basically lots of smutty inserts for Season 1.


Emma walked slowly, keeping her eyes glued to the lake floor. Anything that might have the remnants of water inside it was their ticket home. More snail shells, an old knight's helmet, a rock pool. Anything. The blonde glanced to the other side of the lake and watched for a moment as she saw Regina bend down to pick something up. After a few seconds, the brunette appeared to toss it away in frustration and continue walking.

Emma sighed and resumed her own search. They were so close. So close to getting back to Henry. So close to getting back home. The past few days had been torture. Not being able to see Henry, talk to him, laugh with him, spend time playing games with him. Emma hadn't realised what a big part of her life her son had become until suddenly he wasn't in it. She couldn't wait to wrap her arms around him again, to tell him she loved him. She never wanted to be apart from him again.

And her parents. She supposed they needed to talk. She had barely had time to get her head around the fact that her parents were Prince Charming and Snow White, that they were alive, that she had found them, before she and Regina had tumbled into the Enchanted Forest. She didn't even know how she felt about it, about them. How was she meant to feel? All her life she had believed her parents had abandoned her on the side of a highway. Unwanted. Was what Snow and Charming had done any different? OK so they believed she would find them again one day. But they still abandoned her. They still put her in the wardrobe and sent her to a different land. As a baby. Was she supposed to forgive them for the horrible childhood she had endured? And how was she supposed to act around them, Mary Margaret in particular? They had lived together as friends for months now. Was Snow going to become all motherly? Was Emma meant to act like her daughter? They were the same age for goodness sake.

And Regina. Henry had been right all along. She was the Evil Queen. She had murdered thousands of innocent villagers. She had tried to kill Emma's parents. She had tried to kill Emma. But she had a reason. True, her reaction to Snow's betrayal and Daniel's death was a little over the top. What was it Regina had said that day during Mary Margaret's interrogation? Emma frowned as the words floated back to her. She is a woman who has had her heart broken. And that, that can make you do unspeakable things. Regina regretted her actions, for that Emma was sure. She had never intended to become the monster depicted in Henry's storybook. She was a woman who had been hurt. She felt deeply. She felt powerfully, strongly. Magic had merely allowed that sorrow and pain to manifest itself into something dark. Regina wasn't dark. Her magic was.

"Emma!"

The shout pulled the blonde from her thoughts and she looked up from her search of the ground to see Regina gesturing her over. Jogging towards the former Queen, Emma grinned widely as she saw another snail shell in the brunette's outstretched hand.

"You found water?" Emma called out as she approached.

"Yes, that one handed pirate was good for something at least," Regina nodded. "Do you have the bean?"

Emma unfastened the leather pouch and passed it to the brunette as she reached her.

"We're really going to go home?" Emma questioned, looking with trepidation at the minute amount of water shimmering inside the shell.

"One drop is all we need," Regina assured as she tipped the shrivelled bean from the pouch into her hand.

Both women stared at the two objects for a moment.

"Ready?" Emma asked, holding out her hand to take Regina's.

"Can you give me a minute?" the brunette asked as she glanced over her shoulder towards her mother's lifeless body.

Emma nodded her understanding and stepped a little further away as Regina placed the bean and the shell carefully on a small rock nearby.

Regina turned around and looked over the dry ground to the bundle of dark robes she knew to be her mother. The older Mills had taken so many lives it was unsurprising she met her demise in the way she had. But at her daughter's hand? Regina had never meant to kill her mother. She had never wanted her dead. Despite years of neglect and abuse, Regina loved her mother. She couldn't help it. She loved deeply and she loved fiercely. Daniel had felt that love. So had Henry.

Except with Henry, that love had become warped by fear, jealousy and paranoia. How was she ever going to win her son back after what she had put him through. Did she even deserve to get him back?

"I didn't mean to hurt him," Regina whispered.

"Who?" Emma asked. She hadn't meant to listen in but the stillness of the dry lake basin made it impossible not to.

"Henry," Regina said, turning to look at the blonde standing a few feet away.

"I know you didn't," Emma assured.

"But I did,' Regina sniffed, willing the tears not to fall. "I drove him away as soon as I refused to indulge in his fairytale fantasy life."

"It wasn't a fantasy," Emma pointed out.

"I know," Regina nodded. "And I couldn't risk him discovering that. I never wanted him to know all the terrible things I'd done. I love my life in Storybrooke for two reasons: Henry and the fact that people don't know what I've done. I blackened my soul, my heart, the moment I swore revenge on Snow White. I did it for Daniel and all I accomplished was to wreck multiple lives. Daniel is still dead. I'm still heart broken. And now my son hates me."

"I told you," Emma said, stepping forward and taking both of Regina's hands in her own. "Henry doesn't hate you. He's hurt and confused but he doesn't hate you."

"He'll never love me," Regina said. "Not the way he loves you."

Emma looked into tear filled brown eyes and her heart broke a little at the pain she saw there. "He does love you. He loves us both. Equally. You're his mother. You raised him, Regina. You took care of him when I couldn't and I will always be grateful to you for doing that. You were the mother he deserved whilst I was rotting in a cell. I'm happy he found you. I'm happy you found each other."

"Really?" Regina asked, eyebrow raised.

"I know our relationship has been difficult," Emma shrugged. "but all I wanted was for Henry to find someone who loves him. And you do Regina, so much."

"How do I get him back?" she asked, her voice shaky.

"We'll do it together," Emma assured. "But first, let's return to our world. What do you say?"

Regina nodded and gave a watery smile. Without thinking, Emma raised her hand and wiped an escaped tear from Regina's cheek. The brunette froze at the touch and Emma's own eyes widened slightly as if surprised by her own move.

Clearing her throat, Emma stepped backwards and reached to pick up the shell and bean.

"Ready?" she asked.

Regina nodded.

"Wait, how do I do this?" she asked, looking up from the two tiny objects in her hand and realising she didn't know the first thing about opening a portal.

Regina laughed and took the shell from Emma's fingers. "We have to think really hard about where we want to go back to when we do this, OK? Our thoughts will guide the portal." Emma nodded her understanding.

Placing it on the dusty ground, Regina reached up to take the bean from Emma too. Slowly, she tucked the bean into the shell and stepped back quickly. Both women watched as the bean slid out of sight. There was a moment of silence before the shell pulsed purple light.

"It worked," Regina breathed, reaching out to grasp Emma's hand as the shell glowed brighter and began to spin. A dark purple hole opened up, widening by the second as the magic swirled through the air.

Glancing once more at Emma, Regina smiled encouragingly and the two women jumped forwards into the abyss. Henry's face was all each thought of as the purple light engulfed them.