A/N: I'm really unsure about the writing of this chapter, but I have a final exam later today, and my sleep deprived brain insists on posting this now, so happy Tuesday. The next update should be posted by Sunday and I think ya'll are gonna really like it :)

Thanks again for all of the reviews/favorites/follows. It's really an awesome feeling to know that my story means something to you guys.


Opening the gate to Regina's property, Emma had a faint sense of deja vu. She was doing her best to not force herself into Regina's life any more than she had to be, but lately she had been spending a fair amount of time with Henry. Probably more than Regina wanted, she thought with a grimace. She should probably talk to Regina about it, make sure that she wasn't stepping over any boundaries.

She knocked on the front door then crammed her hands in the pockets of her jacket. A few moments passed before it was opened, Henry appearing in the doorway, a huge smile on his face. "Hey, mama, come on in." He opened the door wider for her to enter, but she hesitated.

"How about you just tell your mom that we're leaving?" The last thing that she wanted was to intrude on Regina's privacy, not after what had happened the last time she had gone into the house unannounced. She could still see the look of vulnerability in Regina's eyes after Emma had caught her playing the piano.

"Actually, we're not leaving." He gave her a Cheshire grin.

"What?"

"You're coming in and the three of us are having a family game night." He informed her, leaving no room for argument. The look on his face reminded her of a distinct look Regina had given her countless times over the years.

"Oh, we are?"

"Yeah. Mom agreed and if she did, you have to, too."

Hesitating, she remembered the last time Henry told her that Regina wanted her involved in a family event. When he had been lying. "She really did agree or you're just saying that to get me in the house?"

"She really agreed. She even said the two of us could pick out the game together."

She studied the look on his face, searching for any signs of deception. When she found none, she shrugged. "Well, that sounds great. What should we play?" She asked as she stepped over the threshold.

She heard the door close behind her and Henry answered, "Battleship, duh."

"Oh. Of course." She climbed the stairs into the foyer, hearing his footsteps echoing behind her.

"It's my favorite."

Guilt flared in her chest. It was one more thing that she hadn't known about him. "It's a great game." Suddenly remembering their earlier phone call, when they had made plans for the afternoon, she spun around. "But wait- I thought you wanted to go to the movies? That you were dying to see the new Happy Feet movie?"

"It can wait." He said simply and headed past her towards the dining room.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." She quickly crossed the foyer, following after him. "That was not what you said this morning." Glancing around the room, she noticed that the game was already set out on the dining room table but Regina was nowhere in sight. "Where's your mom?"

"She's upstairs. We're supposed to call her down when we're ready to play."

She lowered her voice, leaning in closer to her son. "Okay, what's really going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"You really were dying to see that movie, and now you're perfectly happy to stay in and play Battleship? What made you change your mind?" She stared him down, hoping to make him realize she wanted answers, real answers, not more attempts to duck her questions.

His eyes lowered in defeat. "I just thought it would be fun for the three of us to do something together, like we used to, and maybe it would make mom happy again. She used to love it when we all three did things together."

There was a distinct ache in her chest. "Oh, kid... I'm sorry..." She reached up and put her hands on his shoulders, giving them a squeeze. She should've known that was the real reason. The only thing Henry seemed to have on his mind lately was Regina's well-being. "Game night's a really great idea. This'll be fun."

His eyes met hers again, shining with hope. "You think so?"

"I know so." She offered up a gentle smile. When it was returned, she added, "we'll make sure that she has a good time tonight, ok?"

"Ok."

A noise from upstairs broke through the foyer. Emma watched as Henry's features schooled themselves back into place, as though he hadn't just been upset. She pulled away from him and turned in time to see Regina coming down the stairs. Brown eyes met green. Emma swallowed hard then forced herself to speak. "Henry tells me that we're playing Battleship."

Regina nodded slightly. Crossing the foyer, she said, "that we are."

An idea popped into her head. "And that the two of you are teaming up against me." Regina's eyebrows raised towards her hairline. Emma gave her a smirk, saying confidently, "you are so going down, Mills."

Regina froze in place for a moment, surprise crossing her features, but the look was masked almost as soon as it had appeared. The corners of Regina's lips turned upward, a glimmer of arrogance in her eyes. "Oh, I don't think so, Swan."

Her heart skipped a beat. It had been a long time since she'd seen the competitive side of Regina. Before she could respond, Regina's attention focused on their son, a soft smile crossing her face. "I'm gonna go get the snacks from the kitchen. You two can get started without me, alright?" Henry nodded, and Regina headed into the next room.

Henry settled into a chair on one side of the table, one half of the game set up in front of him. Emma smirked then settled down into the chair opposite her son. She tried to remember the rules of the game that she hadn't played since she was Henry's age, but her memories of it were hazy at best. The one thing she really knew for certain was that it wasn't a game you could play in teams. Softly, she asked Henry, "so how exactly were three people going to play Battleship together?"

Henry's eyebrows furrowed, his gaze meeting hers over his game. "I don't know... I never thought about it, but it's always what me and mom play for game night."

"Oh," she said softly. His attention went back to setting up his board, but she continued to stare at him. She really had missed out on so much. Every time she realized how many moments she hadn't been a part of, an ache settled into her chest and her mood was ruined for the remainder of the day. And the worst part about it was, no matter what happened the rest of their lives, she knew she'd never be able to make up for those four years to him or to Regina.

The door to the kitchen opened behind her and she heard Regina re-enter the room. A tray of crackers and fruits was sat down on the table next to her. She looked up to find Regina standing next to her chair. A small smile was already on Regina's lips; a warmth was in her eyes that Emma hadn't seen in such a long time. Before she could say anything, Regina turned away and headed over to Henry's side of the table. Pulling a chair around to sit next to him, her attention focused on his gameboard.

Once the game started, Emma took to studying Regina and their son more than she paid attention to actually playing. She watched the way that Henry leaned into his mother each time he settled back into his chair after moving a piece, how Regina instinctively put her arm around his shoulders, the way she would whisper suggestions into his ear causing him to break out into a devious grin. Before Emma even knew what had happened, Henry had called out the game winning shot.

She looked up to him and smiled at the excitement on his face. Shaking her head, she said in a somber tone, "you sunk my battleship."

"Yes!" He turned to Regina and held up a hand. With a laugh, she gave him a high five. "You rock, mom!"

Regina chuckled then said, "thank you, sweetheart. You 'rock' as well."

Emma's heart swelled watching the two people in front of her. When Henry began pulling pieces out of his gameboard to start a new round, Regina's gaze met hers, a smile still playing on her lips. She expected Regina to look away, to find the intimacy of the moment to be too much, but Regina only smiled wider at her, genuine happiness in her eyes. Emma took in a deep breath, her heartbeat racing in her chest.

It had been five years since Regina had looked at her like that, and suddenly it felt as if the divorce never happened, like they hadn't spent half a decade apart. It was just another perfect moment together spent with their son, being the family that they were always meant to be. When Regina's attention was pulled away by Henry, Emma let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

...

Emma pulled the quilt up the bed and tucked it gently around Henry. Kissing his forehead, she prayed that the fever that had set in the past few hours would disappear by daybreak. She sat down on the chair at his desk and watched him sleep. Their family game night had been going well until Henry had complained of a stomach ache. It went downhill quickly after that, first with nausea, then vomiting, then the fever. He had only fallen asleep some fifteen minutes ago, a few hours past his normal bedtime.

"He finally fell asleep?"

Emma turned and found Regina standing just a few feet away. "Yeah," she whispered.

"Good." Regina's eyes lingered on Henry for a while, giving Emma time to observe her ex. The anxiety that Regina had been trying to hide all evening was now more evident than before. All Henry had was a simple cold, probably some twenty-four hour bug he picked up from a classmate, but Emma knew that to Regina it was so much more than that. Brown eyes met hers. "Thank you for staying with him while I cleaned up downstairs."

"No problem." She had a feeling that Regina wanted to ask her to leave, but no such words came out of her mouth. Instead, Regina yawned, quickly covering it with her hand. When her eyes met Emma's again, Emma said, "how about you get some sleep?"

Regina shook her head, saying, "I don't want to leave him alone. Not when he still has a fever."

"I'll stay with him." She offered, causing Regina to eye her carefully. "And if his fever gets much higher, I'll wake you up, I promise." Emma watched as Regina looked back to Henry, seemingly considering her offer.

"But don't you want to get some sleep?"

Emma smiled and shook her head. "I'll be fine. It won't be the first time I've pulled an all-nighter to take care of him." Regina looked back to her, still clearly uneasy with Emma's idea. "I promise I can take care of him."

"I know you can," Regina whispered. "I remember how you were with him when he had colic."

Emma chuckled at the memories, most involving her panicking while Henry cried uncontrollably in her arms. "Well, that was a long time ago. I'd like to think that I'm a little better at controlling my swearing now."

"I wasn't talking about that," Regina said, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "You did get pretty overwhelmed a few times, when his crying was the worst, but really, you were incredibly patient and loving. You handled it a lot better than I did."

"Oh, please." Emma had to keep herself from rolling her eyes. "You handled everything perfectly. From the first day we brought him home, you were flawless. I was always amazed at how easy everything seemed to you, while I always felt completely clueless."

Regina's eyes wandered back to Henry for a few moments. "You want to know the truth?" She looked back to Emma, earning a nod from the blonde. "Ever since the day I found out that you were pregnant, I've been terrified. I worry constantly about everything that I'm doing that affects him. I may have seemed like I had everything under control, but deep down I've always been a mess."

Emma hesitated, surprised by Regina's sudden candor. "I had no idea," she said softly. "You never told me you were scared." She watched as Regina looked back towards their son, taking in a deep breath. Hesitantly, Regina looked back to Emma, forcing a nervous smile at her.

"I didn't want you to think that I couldn't handle raising him."

"I would've never thought that."

Regina hesitated then shook her head. "I know you wouldn't, I just... I've never been very good at letting go of control, you know that better than anyone... Telling you how scared I was, that would've meant surrendering, exposing my deepest fear. I didn't know how to do that."

Emma nodded, unsure of how to respond to that. They stared at each other in silence for a long moment. When Regina broke eye contact, she moved closer to the side of Henry's bed, her focus turned on their sleeping son. Emma watched as Regina ran her fingers through his hair a few times then kissed him gently on the forehead. When she straightened up and looked back to Emma, she gave the blonde a smile.

"You're sure you don't mind staying up with him?" She asked in a whisper.

"Not at all."

Regina nodded once, holding Emma's gaze, then headed towards the door. Emma looked back to their son, still sleeping peacefully. She wondered if her connection through him to Regina would be enough to bring them closer together again, back to the place that Emma knew they belonged.

"Emma..."

Her heart skipped a beat. "Yeah?" She asked, turning around to see Regina standing in the doorway, the light from the hallway illuminating her frame from behind.

"Thanks for taking care of him tonight." Regina gave her a genuine smile and she immediately returned it.

"You're welcome."

"I'll see you in the morning."

"Sleep well."

With another nod, Regina disappeared, leaving Emma breathless.