Oh, look at me. Gotcha much sooner than I expected. :) I'm jumping a little bit of time here so we can get to the meat of the story. The next chapter will have the big reunion. So stay tuned!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 10: Panes and Plans

New York
"Alright, I guess we should get up and do something productive today, don't you think?"

Emma closes the book and watches her son shrug and snuggle down further into the blankets.

"Come on," she nudges him, looking over to the alarm clock. "It's almost lunchtime. What do you say we go out for some pizza, then maybe window shop some houses?"

His eyes light up at the suggestion. "Alright, alright. I'll get up."

"Good boy," she teases, ruffling his hair, and moving to place the book on his night stand.

He stops her right before it lands. "How about we put this back up there?"

She gives him a confused look, but agrees. "Whatever you say, Hen."

"And mom?"

"Mhm?"

"Try not to call me 'Hen' around any of the guys, alright?"

She grimaces and sucks her teeth. "The guys? Right, right. Oh, I see, you're trying to hide the book."

She stands on her tiptoes and pretends to reach for it, earning herself a swat on the arm. "...just in case one of 'the guys' were to come over and see..."

"Mom, seriously."

"What? You mean I can't have it out on the coffee table along with your naked booty baby pictures?"

She watches her son's face turn red. "Moooom."

"Alright! I'll stop. Go ahead and get ready. We'll leave in ten."

_.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._

Storybrooke
"What do you mean 'he's in the Enchanted Forest'?"

"I mean, brilliant Charming, that he is in the Enchanted Forest," Regina shakes her head. After going through what seemed like a million spells and potions, she finally got her locator spell to cross realms and was currently watching Gold with the rest of Storybrooke's finest through her enchanted mirror.

"Well, what's he doing?" Mary Margaret chimes in, bouncing the baby in her arms.

Regina leans in closer to the mirror, studying his movements. "It looks like he's going back to his castle."

"...look, now he's casting a spell!" Robin points out. Regina wants to roll her eyes because, yes, that's quite obvious. But she refrains. She knows her irritability doesn't stem from him, but from the situation at hand.

David folds his arms and leans against the wall in Regina's vault. "It looks like he's... is that- is that a phone?"

"Why in the world would he-?"

The entire group turns to face Belle, who is playing on the floor with Roland when her phone begins to ring in her pocket. She stands up, her mouth gaping. "What do I do? I-" She fumbles with the phone, her hands trembling.

Regina stomps over to her and takes the phone and waves her hand over her throat.

"Hello?"

Belle looks at her, shocked, as she hears her own voice coming from the woman standing in front of her.

"Rumpel? Is it really you? Where are you? Are you safe?" Regina rolls her eyes and bites back the bile rising in her throat. "The Enchanted Forest? Why? Rumpel, I don't understand."

She listens intently to his response, but before she can ask anymore questions, he hangs up. The group stares at her expectantly.

"Well, he's there. He sends his love. And he's probably not coming back."

Robin's face falls. His heart.

"Why do you say that?" Belle takes her phone back and kneels back onto the floor and Roland, but never takes her eyes off of Regina.

"There's been a change of plans. He's attempting time-travel, but not to where, or should I say when, we originally thought," she sighs, rubbing her temples in a rigid, circular motion.

Mary Margaret cocks her head to the side, looking like a confused puppy. "You mean he's not going back to try to save Neal?"

"Oh, he's going back alright, but he's going back to when Neal was just a child."

"What?!"

Regina shrugs. "Why wouldn't he? It's his second chance. He can attempt to prove to his son that he's not a coward and never let him go to a land without magic alone."

"I guess that makes sense, but what does that mean for all of us?" David walks to his wife and child and puts his arms around them protectively.

"We don't know for sure. Perhaps he never becomes the Dark One, he never teaches me dark magic, which means I never banish you all here, Neal never meets Emma..." She trails off as her pulse quickens. It hits them all at once.

"Henry."

Mary Margaret runs to Regina, reaching out to her, pleading. "You've got to go get them back. Emma is the only one who can fix this. She has to. If not, Henry could disappear forever."

Regina can't seem to function right now, even with Mary Margaret shaking her. Robin finally steps in between them and cups her cheek in his hand.

"You have to do this. For your son."

She nods, absently. "But- but, they won't know me. They don't know this place or magic. I've never even been outside of Storybrooke. I don't know what's going to happen. How do I convince Henry that I, a perfect stranger, am his mother?"

"Henry is the least of your worries, love. He has the heart of the truest believer. Go to him, he will remember. Emma, on the other hand, will prove to be most difficult. Young Henry will have to convince her, somehow, to come back here and find a way to stop Rumpel."

Regina slumps down onto the stone bench, pressing her hands in between her knees.

"You're right. I have to go."

Robin nods and turns to the group, gesturing silently that they perhaps need some time alone.

"I'll take Roland with me," Belle says, still obviously shaken from the phone call.

"Thank you," Robin replies as he kneels down in front of Regina and pulls her wringing hands away from her body.

"I will go with you. I will protect you with my life."

"No. No, you can't. You have no idea how the outside world works. Storybrooke was confusing enough for you. I can't ask you to do that."

"You didn't ask. I am offering my service."

Regina stands and moves her hands away from him, agitated. She puts them on her hips and paces around the vault.

"What do you think you are going to do? Pull out your bow when a taxi passes us by?"

She watches his mouth quirk into a frown.

"God, I'm sorry, Robin. This entire thing is a disaster. I'm not sure what the best next step is. And, as you know, I'm not very skilled at being vulnerable or helpless."

He puts his strong arms around her. "That's why I will go with you. We'll bring them back here, together. I promise."

She nods and rests her head against his shoulder, just thankful that she has something to physically hold her body up right now.

_.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._

New York
"What about that one?" Henry questions excitedly, his mouth full of pizza, as they drive through the community Emma has had her eye on for quite some time.

"Too small."

"That one?"

"Not enough yard."

"We don't really need much, Mom. It's just you and me."

She shrugs and smiles a bit. "I know that. I mean, for now anyway."

"Oh."

She glances over at him, then slows the car to a stop on a vacant side street.

"What was that 'oh' for? I thought you wanted a bigger family. Maybe a baby brother or sister?"

He doesn't look at her, just keeps on eating his pizza as though he never heard a word she said.

"Hen, look at me."

He finally sighs and drops the pizza back to the open box on his lap, chewing as he trails his gaze painstakingly slow across the windshield, the steering wheel, and then, finally, to his awaiting mother.

"I mean, I guess. Some day. Not anytime soon, though, right? I'd like for it to just be me, you, and the dog for a while."

She smiles warmly, her voice soft. "There's that hypothetical dog making another appearance. Of course not anytime soon. I don't even date, for crying out loud."

That perks him up. Because it's true. After her sudden breakup with Walsh a few months back, she hadn't even mentioned another potential suitor.

"Well, you could always adopt."

"That's true," she nods in agreement "and perhaps fitting, depending on who I decide to settle down with."

"Yeah. Mom, if that's the case, please don't adopt a girl. I don't think I could live with three women!"

Emma flashes him a toothy grin and a wink before pulling back out onto the main road. She's so proud of the young man her son has grown up to be. She had never explicitly said she was more attracted to either gender, but she had always been open with him about everything. And he was totally okay with it. He never stopped to question her even once.

They drive on for a few more miles, even further outside of the city before Emma comes to an abrupt halt.

"That one!" They both shout in unison.

They park the car quickly and jump out, crossing the road to the house's front lawn. Emma pulls the brochure out of the capsule attached to the "for sale" sign and begins to read aloud while Henry peeps through the windows.

"Built in 2002, two bedrooms, one and a half bath, full unfinished basement..."

"Man cave," he throws out, nonchalantly.

"Or another bedroom and bathroom," she laughs.

"That's boring."

"Yeah, well..."

She folds the paper up and shoves it in her back pocket, following Henry around to the side window, peering in.

"It definitely needs some updating."

"We can do that ourselves, right?"

"Sure. You have your contractor's license, right? Bonded? Insured?"

She hears him groan and nudges him playfully.

"I'm kidding. It looks like it just needs some cosmetic work. A woman's touch, if you will."

"Yeah, but where are we going to find one of those?"

"Damn. You got me. That one was pretty good."

"What can I say? I learned from the best."

Emma smiles proudly and hooks her arm in his. "Come on, kid. We'll see what we can find about this place online, then maybe give the realtor a call next week."

_.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._

Storybrooke
Finally being left alone, Regina can now truly test out her improvised locator spell. Sure, it had worked from Storybrooke to the Enchanted Forest, but both places contained magic. Its real test would come in seeing if it could locate those in a land without magic- say perhaps New York City.

She chews on the inside of her cheek as she douses Henry's scarf with the potion. She waits.

Nothing.

"Come on," she pleads, dripping a few more drops of liquid onto the material.

Nothing.

She throws the bottle across the room, smashing it into a thousand tiny pieces. Although her son has only been away from her for a little while, she is starting to panic. She doesn't know if she can deal with it as well as she did last time he went away from her. And if it hadn't been for Robin, she surely would have offed herself then. She can't lie now and say that the thought hadn't crossed her mind this time as well.

One defeated sigh later, she is making her way towards the exit of her vault when she feels something brush her arm.

The scarf.

"It worked! It's working!"

Rushing back to the other side of her vault, she gets as close as she possibly can to the mirror, willing it to show her son.

And she waits.

And waits.

And finally, two hours later, Robin is entering and telling her she needs to rest. She's hesitant, but finally gives in.

Just as she is locking the door behind them, she hears it. Henry's laughter.

She pushes the heavy door back open only to be grabbed from behind. "It will be here tomorrow."

She struggles against him. "No! What if it's not? I can't go. I can't risk it."

Her eyes plead with Robin's to let her go, which he eventually does, and she dashes back inside, smiling through her tears as she comes face-to-face with her precious boy.

Her fingertips gingerly touch the glass and trace his features. She knows it's insane, but he looks as though he has aged in the short time he has been gone.

"Henry," she whispers, finally taking a seat in front of the mirror.

Robin realizes it's a losing game and bids his goodnight to her.

Regina watches intently as Henry moves around the dining room, setting the table for two, talking with Emma.

"Did you call the realtor yet?"

"No, Hen," she laughs.

Regina feels her stomach sink.

"Well, why not?"

"Well, how about first I actually spend at least one day on the job before we go spending all of this money we don't yet have. Besides, they're probably going to require some massive down payment that we'll have to save up for."

Regina's face falls. She didn't realize they would struggle financially. Here, in Storybrooke, they always had more than enough.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm just excited. That place was perfect."

"It really was," she agrees, placing a large pan of lasagna down at the center of the table.

The brunette smiles wistfully. Of course they'd be eating lasagna.

"If we do get it, how are we going to decorate? I think we should do like movie posters and maybe like comic book heroes or something cool."

Emma raises an eyebrow and takes her seat, finally coming into full view.

Regina's breath catches in her throat. It all looks so natural, this life they have there. This life without her. They don't need her. Did they ever really need her?

She gulps audibly and turns away for a moment. She's not sure how much more she can take. She just really wanted to know he was alright.

"We'll probably have to hire an interior decorator."

"A what?"

"You know, some fancy person to come in and tell me that I need exposed brick and industrial fans to be cool or something. Or maybe some weird giant horse statue in the foyer."

Henry's nose crinkles up. "Whatever you say, mom."

Regina finally looks back at the mirror, a light bulb coming on in her brain.

That's it.

So maybe she couldn't just barge into their lives and force them to remember her, but she could, just maybe, ease in, gain their trust, and convince them to return to Storybrooke.

Of course she could.

She was Regina Mills, after all.

...and she did always have an eye for design.