A/N Hey guys, I just have seven days left of uni and then I'll be free to write as much as I want XD so I just need to ask you guys to be patient for a little longer and I also want to thank everyone who stuck around through the lack of updates :)

Chapter eleven

"Where are you taking me, Miss Swan?" Regina asked in faux frustration as she allowed herself to be led by the blonde woman who she had allowed to blindfold her.

"Patience, madam mayor," the sheriff chuckled, dropping her hands from her girlfriend's shoulders to her waist as brought her closer and continued to lead her forward.

"I do not enjoy being blindfolded, especially when I was forced to get into the metal death trap that you claim is a car."

"I didn't force you to do anything Regina," the blonde replied with a smirk, "if you were really against it, you could have just singed off my eyebrows out of protest."

"I would never singe off your eyebrows, Emma," the brunette chuckled, "I am rather partial to your face."

"You are so charming, your majesty," the saviour whispered close to her ear and Regina felt a shiver go down her spine at the contact.

She smiled, and after a few seconds, she felt the blind fold being taken off her face and her facial expression went from confusion before it became clear where they were.

Her smile widened and she turned in Emma's embrace so that she could see her face, "I was under the impression that you hate horses…"

"I'm…not fond," Emma replied, "but you love them, so I should really learn to tolerate them…"

Regina tilted her head and quirked her brow in amusement, "tolerate?"

"That is the most you will get out of me…" the blonde smirked, "I more than tolerate you if that helps…"

The brunette shook her head, and leaned forward to capture the other woman's lips in her own, before she leaned back and replied, "you are a ridiculous human being, Emma."

"Emma, are you okay?"

Said woman sat up quickly and looked around her. She blinked a couple of times, taking in the fact that she was currently in her bedroom, the one that she shared with her girlfriend, Elsa.

Looking up she took in the confused expression of the blonde and tried to shake off the fact that Regina was still currently filling all of the senses, you love Elsa.

The blonde nodded and slowly got up from the bed, stretching as she crossed the room so that she was standing in front of the other woman.

"I'm guessing my nap was longer than planned," the sheriff chuckled while she brought up her hands to rest on her girlfriend's waist and tried desperately to push aside the thought that this had felt so much more natural with Regina.

Elsa smiled half-heartedly and nodded. After their magic lesson, she had felt so bad and it was only made worse by the fact that all Emma wanted to do was go home and take a nap. It was for this reason that the princess has been so anxious to come and see if she was okay after the hours that she had promised she would be asleep for.

"No it was exactly an hour," Elsa chuckled weakly, "but your mother called and asked if we wanted to meet her for dinner…"

Emma's shoulders slumped and she felt the usual pang of guilt in her stomach for her instinct to not spend time with her parents. There was just something that made her so angry whenever she was around them and the fact that she couldn't figure it out was more frustrating than anything she could imagine. At first she had thought that it was part of her abandonment issues, but that just didn't seem right somehow. Which was why she had been spending much of the past seven months pretending everything was fine between them. She would hate for Henry to miss out on the chance to have grandparents just because she had this irrational anger towards them. Today, however, she just didn't feel up to it.

"Maybe we could just stay in and have dinner together? Henry can go with my parents…"

Elsa tilted her head in confusion before she just nodded.

She had often wondered why her girlfriend seemed so uncomfortable around her parents, but she never felt that it was her place to ask about it for some reason. She decided against it once again simply because Emma was asking to spend time with her, which was not something she would be passing up considering the burning jealousy she had felt whenever she saw the sheriff with the mayor.

"That sounds wonderful," she replied with a tight smile, taking the opportunity to lean forward and capture Emma's lips in her own as she had done many times before.

The other woman stayed frozen for a second as her mind immediately began to compare this kiss to the one she had just experienced in her dream. For some reason that she could vividly imagine the kiss with Regina. She could see herself breathing in through her nose and instantly becoming intoxicated with the smell of spiced apples as their mouths moved slowly against one another.

When Elsa pulled away, Emma felt a pang in her stomach when she realised that she had basically been picturing Regina throughout the entire kiss.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Elsa asked with a furrowed brow.

Her fellow blonde swallowed hard and nodded, "I was just thinking that we should get pizza…"

With that she began walking out of the room, adamantly refusing to look at her girlfriend who just followed behind her with a frown.

-Seven months ago-

Regina looked around her, triple checking that no one would be witnessing the establishment she was about to walk into.

Her son and his grandparents already didn't trust her, so being seen going into the local pawn store certainly wouldn't help her case, not that it would matter if the owner agreed to her plan.

Snow's words had been playing on her mind since the night she had broken up with Emma, but it

wasn't until they were repeated by Henry that she knew what she had to do.

It was a rather elegant solution in her opinion.

All of the issues that were occurring in the Charming family at the moment were all her fault. She knew there was nothing natural that she could do to convince her ex-girlfriend that she should start being a mother to the reason they had broken up.

Henry had managed to get what he wanted, but he still looked miserable, which was not something she would ever be able to deal with, especially when he had told her what it was she could do fix everything.

She knew for a fact that there were many spells and curses designed to rewrite memories. All she would have to do was tweak the course of history slightly, so that she never adopted Henry, meaning that she never would have been asked on a date by the saviour. She had actually spent hours working through all of the details to ensure that everything would be as it should be, including finding a plausible reason why Emma and Henry Swan would have stumbled upon Storybrooke.

With a deep breath, the brunette hardened her resolve and pushed the door open, the bell instantly ringing out to announce her arrival.

To her surprise, Mr Gold was already looking expectantly at the door with a smirk on his face.

"I was wondering whether you would ever decide to come in, dearie," he chuckled as she made her way over to the counter.

Regina rolled her eyes in irritation and gritted her teeth. No matter how many dealings she'd had with this imp in her life, he never seemed to get any less insufferable.

The man raised his eyebrows at her lack of counter quip and he took a moment to inspect her. She looked utterly drained and resigned which was not something he had ever expected to see from Regina Mills. He had witnessed her experience almost every emotion, but never resignation, she had always been far too resilient, even in her darkest times.

"Judging by your expression, I would say that you wish to make some kind of deal…what will it be today, madam mayor?" he asked trying to keep up his smirk, he certainly didn't want to admit that there was a part of his mind that had always felt bad for what he had done to this once innocent woman. Before she had even been born, her fate had been decided by him when he had devised his plan to have the Dark Curse enacted.

Regina blew out a breath and replied, "I believe I have found a rather elegant solution to…my current issues…"

"You mean the sheriff's issues?" he replied with a slight smirk, he may have felt a small amount of remorse, but he was still the Dark One, which meant he just couldn't resist.

The brunette rolled her eyes and just nodded minutely before she continued, "Emma is unable to see that she should be moving on from our relationship and it is impacting her ability to be Henry's mother…Henry deserves to be raised in a home, free from hatred and resentment…"

"I agree, your majesty, but it does seem as though the saviour truly does love you, you cannot honestly expect her to just move on so quickly…You of all people should understand what it is like to not have been allowed to mourn for a relationship," he said, and the brunette looked at him in shock for a second. She often forgot that Gold was once a mortal man who understood emotions perfectly, but every so often he would show a glimmer of humanity that had some people questioning whether he was quite as dark as he first appeared to be. Then he would do something despicable and she would completely forget why she had ever doubted his darkness.

"Which brings me to my plan," she said with a sigh.

The man just nodded, resisting his urge to say some kind of quip. He could guess what she was about to suggest and he instantly had an idea of how it could help him.

"By rewriting the memories of everyone in town, everyone would be able to get what they want…"

"Expect for you, this is uncharacteristically self-sacrificing of you, madam mayor," he chuckled, mostly because he was somewhat happy that his assumptions had been correct.

"Curses require sacrifices, in this case, it will have to be that I will remember," she replied while actively avoiding eye contact, for fear that his smirk would make her change her mind.

"Excellent plan, but pray tell why you have come to me."

Regina bit her lip and replied, "I need your help to write the curse to ensure everyone is effected…I also wanted to make sure that Emma would be able to move on."

Rumple raised his eyebrow and said, "so you're just here to discover whether this precious curse of yours will be successful?"

The brunette slightly inclined her head and waited for him to do what they both knew she wanted. Slowly, the Dark One picked up the closest reflective item and held it up. A moment later, it began to shimmer to reveal an image of two blonde woman standing in an embrace. One of the leaned back and captured the other's lips in her own in a sweet kiss.

Regina instantly winced when she recognised one of the blondes as her ex. She came to the conclusion that she didn't know the other one, so she looked up questioningly at her former teacher.

Rumple felt a small twinge of guilt at the woman's expression, but as always he was able to quickly move passed it. After all, it wasn't his fault that she must have been harbouring some kind of foolish hope that Emma Swan would somehow never be able to move on.

"Her name is not important, the point is that she will be able to provide your dear saviour with the happiness that you cannot. Simply write her part into the curse and everything will fall into place."

Regina narrowed her eyes at the man, suddenly becoming very aware that he was seemingly all for her plan. She had honestly expected him to mock her and for him to tell her that her love life, or lack thereof, was of no interest to him.

"What do you want?" she asked suspiciously.

The man's eyebrows shot up and he couldn't help but smirk at the brunette in amusement, "you do realise that you came to me your majesty?"

The brunette just shook her head and looked at him expectantly until he admitted:

"I see no reason why this little rewrite of yours cannot benefit both of us. You wish for your love to find happiness with another and I wish for my love to forget that she has already done so."

Regina clenched her jaw and took a deep breath as she took this, "your price is that I take away Ruby and Belle's happiness?"

Rumple nodded and replied, "if Emma can believe that she is happy with this woman, then surely Belle can believe the same with me."

"You're despicable," the former queen sighed, resisting the urge to place her head in her hands. She couldn't quite believe that she had already accepted his offer in her mind. Ruby was one of the only people who seemed willing to accept the legitimacy of their relationship and now she was going to be taking away her girlfriend. "Fine," she finally ground out, "…as long as Archie is allowed to retain his memories."

Rumple tilted his head and looked at her questioningly for a moment; however, he quickly decided that he didn't actually care and with a flick of his wrist, a contract appeared in his hand.

"Sign here and you will get all of the misery you could ever need," he chuckled while handing the brunette a pen.

Regina stared blankly at the words for a moment. She quickly scanned the words, not instantly seeing any kind of loopholes that the imp could be planning to capitalise on. So instead, she fixated on the clause that detailed just how happy Emma would be without her.

Swallowing hard, she clutched the pen tightly and just about managed to neatly sign her name on the bottom.

Henry stared blankly at the sheet of equations in front of him.

After his talk with Archie, he had decided that he was far from ready to unravel everything he had been told. It was one thing to believe that his boss was the adoptive mother that he had driven over the edge, but it was another to completely come to terms with that fact. When he thought the word 'mom', images of Emma still popped into his head. However, now when he imagined Regina performing the same tasks that the saviour had in his memories, he was far from repulsed by the idea. He could see Regina comforting him when he was sick, reading him comic books just before bed, telling him off for running in the house. It all felt so right, which was why he couldn't really see any reason that he would have wanted it to end.

Shooting a covert look over to the kitchen area, where his grandparents were preparing him dinner and once he decided that they weren't really paying much attention to him, he reached down and pulled out the notebook he had found earlier that day.

Swallowing hard, he ran his hand over 'Operation Anti-Swanqueen'. It was so strange to see that the words were so obviously written in his hand, which was one of the reasons that he had been so afraid to open it to discover what the actual operation had involved. He felt a pit in his stomach at the thought that he was the reason that Regina was always alone and so unhappy. Even after spending a very small amount of time with the woman, he had found that he had some kind of bond with her, but at the same time he detected that there was a certain discomfort about her.

Taking a steeling breath, he turned the front page to be met with a mind map. He blinked a couple of times before he realised that these must have been his theories as to why Regina would date Emma. His past self seemed to have put a lot of thought into the idea that Regina had taken Emma's heart, but there was also a theory that she had made the blonde fall in love with her just so that she could destroy her by ending it.

The brunette boy took a deep breath, wishing that he could berate this version of himself that he couldn't remember. Though he himself had some theories about the way that the mayor felt for the sheriff, the new information had put into better perspective what he had seen at the station. Regina had looked devastated at the sight of his blonde mother and Elsa making out and at the time he had found the whole thing too gross to even consider that it was jealousy. But now that he thought about it, there was more behind her expression than sheer envy, there was also resignation.

"Henry?"

The brunette snapped the notebook shut and looked up rather guiltily to see Snow and David staring at him with questioning expressions from behind the counter.

"Did you hear me?" the brunette of the pair asked with a slightly worried expression.

Henry shook his head and quickly put on a reassuring expression, "I guess I was zoned out…"

Snow looked over at Charming, silently asking him if they should question this further or just take the boy at his word, and at her husband's nod, they both agreed to go with the latter.

"Dinner's ready, you can finish your homework after you've eaten," the princess said as she picked the dish of salad she had prepared and walked over to place it on the table.

As she did so, Henry covertly placed the notebook back in his bag, carefully watching Charming, who was pouring drinks for them, as he did so. Once he was satisfied that he had gotten away with it, he followed his grandmother's lead as she sat down for her food. Charming followed suit a few moments later and the three of them fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence as they began to eat.

Every so often, the youngest of the three would look up at them as he considered the question he wanted to ask them. He had no doubt that they must have had some issue with Regina and Emma, since it didn't really make sense that a young boy would have the power to make decisions for his parents without some other adult influence. For a few moments, he continued to consider how he could ask his question without rousing suspicion.

Finally, he decided that he would just have to try and hide who he was talking about, as he said, "do you think that villains should get happy endings?"

Snow looked up from her plate, looking somewhat dumbstruck at the random question and she looked over to her husband to see if he knew what had prompted this, but he looked just as confused as she felt.

"Of course they can…" she replied, sounding somewhat unsure.

"So why does Mayor Mills always look so sad?" he asked, "I mean, she does really seem that bad…"

His grandmother swallowed hard and considered his question.

To be honest, she hadn't really acknowledged the fact that Regina existed since she had been told that she had saved Emma's life and now she felt a twinge of guilt. The last thing her 'nemesis' had done of note was to save her daughter's life and she hadn't even bothered to say 'thank you'.

"I…suppose that she hasn't really had the chance to have her happy ending…yet…"

Henry frowned as he inspected her torn expression, he could tell that she wasn't sure whether she wanted the Evil Queen to have her happy ending, but at the same time, a lot had happened since they were in the Enchanted Forest.

"So you wouldn't be against her being happy?" he asked, knowing that it wasn't quite the same as asking if she would be okay with the Evil Queen being with her daughter, but at least he was laying the ground work.

"I…no…" the princess replied, "after all this time, it would be nice to finally be able to end our feud…"

"Hasn't it already ended?" the boy said with a thoughtful tilt of his head.

Charming raised his eyebrows and Snow replied, "not formally, but I don't think either of us have held any grudges for a long time…"

Henry smiled happily and leaned forward to pluck up a piece of lettuce to place in his mouth, "maybe you should tell her that?"

The other brunette bit her lip and shot a look over to her husband, who still didn't seem to know exactly what was going on.

"What prompted this, Henry?"

The boy shrugged and replied, "I was just thinking that it's not fair that Mayor Mills always has to be alone when she's so nice…"

The princess nodded slowly and said, "she has changed significantly…"

"So you'll talk to her?" he asked hopefully, sitting up straighter in his chair.

Snow looked at his expression for a moment, before she nodded and watched as a huge smile spread across her grandson's face, and she couldn't help mirroring it.

When he looked down at her plate, the smile fell as she realised that she should probably start planning what she should say to the former Evil Queen.

Reviews would be much appreciated XD