A/N: I'm late again, I know! I'm so sorry for the delay once again, but life is tough and its finals season so my entire life revolves around working, studying and writing essays right now. However, I am trying to find some time in between to write, but it's going to take a while to adjust to a solid routine. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please, don't forget to review. The more reviews I get, the more determined I am to write my next chapters. If the response for this one is good, then I'll probably post the next chapter sooner than we all think! So, enjoy and don't forget to review!

-thanks!

Chapter twelve:-

"Welcome home!"

The entire diner erupted with cheers, whistles and laughter. Had it been her past self, Emma probably would have run to the counter of the diner, grabbed a beer and joined in on the fun. But it wasn't her past self. This was the new her – the Emma Swan that had been through hell and back for the past two years. She couldn't really remember how much confidence she had actually had before moving to New York with Henry, but as she looked out towards the people she knew to be her friends, Emma felt every single drop of self-confidence she had ever had drip from her like a broken tap.

She appreciated the gesture of a welcome home party, sure, however, standing in front of such a huge crowd being expected to smile and have a good time was asking far too much for the blonde. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since Regina burst into her apartment to stop Ryan from laying another hand on her, so she was still in a slight haze of what was happening around her.

Noticing exactly what Emma was going through, Regina slipped her hand into the blonde's once more and addressed the diner with one of her infamous political smiles.

"Emma isn't feeling too good right now, but I'm sure she will join in with your festivities once she has had a little food inside her." She gave Emma's hand a light squeeze and ushered her towards one of the empty booths along the side wall of the diner, followed closely by the Charmings.

Belle and Ruby remained standing in the doorway of the diner, receiving a beer in their free hands that weren't wrapped around each other's waists. From where Emma was sat, she could see how much it hurt Ruby to see her moping around like a kicked puppy (talking in technicalities, thats exactly what she was), but Emma just couldn't find it in herself to even attempt to enjoy the little get together they had thrown for her.

Henry, on the other hand, was clearly having a blast, to which Emma was glad. After all, he had spent the previous two years watching his mother getting beaten and abused on a daily basis and that wasn't exactly an ideal lifestyle for a young teenager to be living. Emma regularly mentally kicked herself for her stupidity of putting Henry through such a dangerous situation. It wasn't entirely her fault that she had gotten into the mess and there was no clear path out of the relationship without at least one of them getting even more hurt than they already had been. She was just glad she Regina had shown up when she did.

Regina's arrival was practically on the brink of Emma's patience. She knew all too well that if the other woman hadn't shown up when she had, Emma probably would have thrown back the orange tub of pills she kept in her sock draw and emptied the bottle of jack in the cupboard as her way out. Yes, that meant leaving Henry, but the boy was smarter than that. He could run. Hell, he could have crossed the hall and told Trina, her neighbour, exactly what had happened and she would have taken him in. Trina never really liked Ryan anyway.

But that hadn't happened. The pills remained in her sock draw and the bottle of jack still remained untouched. Regina had shown up and saved their asses from the vile man she had stupidly fallen in love with within a fortnight. It was even stupid to think that she had let her walls down so easily and so fast for a man she didn't even know. It wasn't something she had done since Neal, and that scared her.

"Emma, are you okay?" Regina asked as she nudged the blonde a little, noticing that she had become lost in her own little world.

"Uh, yeah. Just a little overwhelmed, I think." She replied with a sigh. "It's a bit too much for me right now."

"Do you want to go home?" Regina offered, already grabbing her purse from by her feet. "I can drive you to your parents' apartment if you want me to."

"No." Emma quickly snapped, surprising Regina and her parents for her abrupt reply. "Sorry. No, I think I should stay, just for a little while anyway. I mean, Henry is having a good time and they've put a lot of effort to do this. I don't wanna be rude." Emma's voice had practically turned into a whisper and Regina had to lean closer to hear exactly what she was saying.

"Then at least let me know when you want to leave, okay?"

Emma nodded and offered the brunette a gracious smile.

"Did you really break the curse with True Love's kiss?" Snow quietly asked after a long break of silence. "I mean, were your instincts true, Regina?"

"Yes," Regina smiled, feeling like a child that had been caught out on her secret crush for the first time. "I didn't think it would work and I kind of got caught up in the moment..."

"Are you going to try this whole thing out? I mean, True Loves aren't exactly a set rule of life or anything, it just means that you were made to be in each other's lives." Charming offered, still not feeling entirely comfortable with his daughter's True Love being the Evil Queen and all.

"We are," Emma took Regina's hand on the top of the table, but kept her eyes down in her lap. "We both felt something before I left, but we never got the chance to understand what it meant, so I want to give it a try. We want to give it a try."

Regina couldn't even care about the gigantic grin that had just been plastered over her face. She knew that Emma wanted to make this work, but she really didn't expect the blonde to tell her parents so soon, let alone even be willing to try so soon.

"You're going to take it slow though, right?" Charming quizzed, sounding quite nervous of his daughter's answer. "You need to make sure you're making the right decision, of course."

"It is the right decision and we're going to take every day as it comes." Emma stated as though she wanted end the conversation there and then. The Charmings, however, had different plans.

"Well, we're supportive of whatever you decide to do, sweetheart," Snow smiled sweetly at her daughter, causing Regina's smile to slowly fade. She knew Charming wasn't entirely pleased about all of this but she knew that Snow would find a way to convince him into supporting their daughter.

"Mhmm," Charming agreed unconvincingly. "Anyway, Emma; what was life like in the big city?"

Regina shot Emma's father a warning glare in the silent gap that the blonde had left. It wasn't long until Emma gave in and attempted to create a pretty picture for her father.

"It was different, that's for sure. It was nothing like Boston. I don't think Henry liked it too much."

"Were you working at all?" Charming seemed to genuinely believe Emma's short statements and had completely overlooked the worried glances both Regina and Snow seemed to be sharing.

"Yeah, I had a little job for a while, but the curse gave me quite a fair amount of money for the two of us to live off, so I spent as much time with Henry as I could." Regina knew for a fact that only half of that sentence was true. She couldn't give Emma any money before the curse was cast, so the blonde left Storybrooke with nothing but the triple figures in her bank account, her car, their son and a bundle of fake memories.

"It sounds like you had a relaxing time in New York. Hopefully you're not too used to it, Ems – Storybrooke is going to need its sheriff again!"

"I think I'm going to take a short break from that for a little while, dad. At least until I start to feel more at home here again." Emma muttered to her father and glanced around the diner, looking for just the smallest gap to take a breather for a second.

Not missing a thing the blonde was going through, Regina broke the silence that had fallen over the group.

"I think I'm going to go freshen up," She said, giving Emma a look that practically told her to join.

"Uh, me too," Emma stood from the table and flashed her parents a quick and believable apologetic look before heading towards the diner's bathroom with Regina on her heels.

Once inside the small cubical of the diner's bathroom, Emma let out several sudden gasps of breath. Regina stood and watched as the blonde attempted to calm herself from the internal panic attack she was clearly having. Not knowing what to do, she stood by Emma's side and drew soothing patterns on the blonde's back with the lightest touch of her fingertips. Doing such reminded her of the ways she would soothe Henry as a child. It was reminiscent, but it was also rather scary since she was doing it to a thirty year old woman who was in the middle of a panic attack.

When Emma's breathing finally steadied, and the blonde appeared a lot calmer, Regina rested her hand on the other woman's cheek. She watched as Emma leaned into her touch, slowly letting her eyes close at the comforting gesture. Simple acts of kindness weren't exactly things Emma had become used to over the previous two years. In fact, she had never really been on the receiving ends of such acts. For her entire life, Emma had been on the receiving end of rather brutal, pointless and selfish acts that left her hurting and aching for days later.

"Are you sure you don't want to leave?" Regina questioned as she caressed the blonde's cheek with her thumb. "We can leave your parents here to watch Henry and take you home. I know you've been through a lot today; I don't want you to push yourself too far."

Emma let out an exhausted sigh as she stepped out of Regina's touch. "This is just... It's all too much. And my dad clearly doesn't understand that I don't want to discuss it. I can't sugar coat it forever, Regina."

"And I don't expect you to," Regina kept her distance from the blonde, not wanting to put her on edge with the lack of personal space. "If we go back out there, I'll change the subject whenever he attempts to bring it up, okay?"

"And then what happens tonight when I'm alone at their apartment and they want to know every single detail of what happened in New York? What do I tell them then?"

"Your mother knows," Regina stated quietly, hoping that Emma wouldn't be too annoyed at her for telling her mother what had happened. "She won't let him question you, dear."

"Wait, you told her?!"

"Emma, two weeks ago, your mother watched you confidently cross the town line willing to give up everything just to save everyone. Don't you think it's a bit of a shock to her system now seeing you like this?" This time, Regina took her step forward and gently wrapped her hand around the blonde's upper arm. The last time she had done such a thing, her hand met tensed muscles, this time, her hand met nothing but skin and bone. "She's your mother, Emma. She's going to help you get through this."

"And what about you, huh? Are you just going to leave like everyone else just because you got a better offer?"

"Excuse me?!" The vein in Regina's head pulsated through her flesh, emphasising the annoyed look in her eyes. "Miss Swan, I think you're forgetting that less than twenty-four hours ago, I transcended realms with the Wicked Witch of the West just so I could find you and bring you home. What in the hell makes you think that I'm just going to leave the only people I have been able to love since Daniel?"

"I... Regina..." Emma stuttered, unable to fathom why on earth Regina Mills, of all people had actually fallen in love with her.

"No, Emma," the brunette held her hand in front of the blonde to stop her from continuing. "I'm not going to leave you to deal with this on your own. We're in this together now."

"You don't mean that, Regina. As soon as I get too much for you, you're going to leave and never look back. Don't worry, I get it. I'm used to it. I'll make it easier for you and leave before you can." Before Emma had even finished her sentence she stepped around Regina and headed directly for the door.

Regina grit her teeth and grabbed Emma by the wrist, instantly turning the blonde to face her. Without leaving any room for Emma to retaliate, Regina pulled her into a bruising kiss. As Regina wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck, she completely missed both the smile that quirked on the other woman's lips and the internal battle she seemed to be having before finally giving into the kiss. As their lips crashed together and Emma's hands wrapped around Regina's waist, the two practically merged together, constantly pulling the other closer, as if the minute gap between them was like an entire world.

Their first kiss had been gentle and sincere — one that memory-less Emma had no idea was necessary — but this one, this one was real. Both women were grabbing onto the other as if they were a life support machine keeping them alive. Emma made the next move by swiping her tongue across Regina's bottom lip, asking for entry which was immediately given. Their tongues caught in a dance that was followed perfectly, as if they had danced it a million times before. A little moan escaped Emma's lips as Regina pushed the blonde against the bathroom door and tangled her fingers in a mass of curls with a light tug.

Neither realised how passionate their kiss had become until they both had to pull away to catch their breath. With their foreheads and noses touching, both women were incredibly happy to be inside their own little personal bubble. Or diner bathroom. Either way, they both felt the loving aura that they seemed to emit when they were together.

"We should probably rejoin your parents and the rest of the party," Regina suggested through a stiff chuckle as she lowered her hands from Emma's neck to her waist.

"Will you take me home?" Emma's voice was quiet and barely audible as she trained her eyes to the floor (which actually looked as though she was staring right down Regina's cleavage, since their foreheads were still pressed tightly together), but Regina caught it nonetheless.

"Of course," Regina pressed a light kiss to Emma's lips and raised the blonde's chin with her index finger. "I'm sorry, was the too much for you?"

"No."

"Then its the party that's too much, isn't it? Why on earth didn't you say anything, Emma?!"

"Because...ugh...it's because I didn't want you to see me like I wasn't trying to handle this!" Emma almost shouted as she let herself fall back against the bathroom door.

Regina bit her bottom lip in complete sorrow. She hated seeing Emma so defeated. "Are you kidding me? Emma, how many times do I have to tell you that I don't expect you to suddenly jump back into being your old self? It takes time. It's going to be incredibly difficult too, but you can do this. You're so much stronger than you think you are, don't you see that?"

Emma merely shrugged and shook her head. Regina remained silent and watched as the blonde attempted to avoid eye contact at all costs. After a short while, Regina took Emma's hand and pulled her away from the door to allow her enough room to open it.

"Come on, I'm taking you home."

Leaving the diner was a lot harder than Regina had hoped. The Charmings were completely understanding, Granny offered them both a sympathetic smile and two hot cocoas to-go and everyone else: well, they were all determined to party with their saviour. They had tried to make a swift exit out of the front door, but with everyone they passed, the pair were pulled into either an awkward embrace or an entirely forced dance. It had taken Regina twenty-eight years to begin to see how good so many of the townsfolk were, but at that moment, she really disliked how idiotic they all became when they believed they had something to celebrate.

Luckily enough, Granny managed to draw everyone's attention towards her with the use of free beer just so Emma and Regina could slip out of the door. Regina would have felt entirely grateful if she didn't know that Widow Lucas was about to put a round of drinks for the entire town on her tab.

"That's twice you've done that," Emma said as she dropped onto her parents' couch after a long and silent walk to the apartment from the diner. The silence had been far from awkward. It was reassuring. Neither Emma nor Regina felt the need to voice anything as they walked with their hands tightly clasped together and their fingers entwined.

"Done what, dear?" Regina sat on the opposite arm of the couch from where Emma was sat. She simply wanted the ability to look at the blonde. Before the second curse, she would instantly chastise herself for allowing her gaze to linger too long.

"Taken me from somewhere I really didn't want to be."

Regina simply smiled at the blonde, knowing all too well that she had done exactly what the other woman would have done if their roles were reversed.

"Thank you, Regina." Emma smiled and patted the couch beside her to ask Regina to sit with her, and without hesitation, Regina did exactly that.

Emma and Regina had barely been alone in the apartment for an hour before Henry and the Charmings came bounding through the front door. By this point, Emma was already fast asleep with her head in Regina's lap and the brunette's fingers were tangled in the mess of blonde curls sprawled out across her thighs that looked like a halo around Emma's head. For Snow and Henry, the scene was completely heartwarming. Charming, on the other hand, shifted slightly behind his wife and his grandson as though he wasn't entirely sure if he approved of whatever seemed to be happening between his daughter and the woman he once swore to be an enemy.

Charming's slight distaste for the match had nothing to do with who the woman was now, but who she had been before. Snow knew exactly who Regina truly was deep down from meeting the brunette when they were both young, but Charming never had the honours to meet the young and vulnerable Regina, so seeing his daughter snuggled into the once terrifying Evil Queen made his stomach churn a little.

Putting his love for his daughter over everything else, Charming plastered an honest smile on his face before approaching the two women on the couch. "I'll put her to bed," he muttered to Regina as he picked his fully grown daughter up and off Regina's lap before carrying her towards her old bedroom without another word.

The loss of the blonde's weight in her lap wasn't a comfortable feeling for Regina. The contact was somewhat reassuring; after never being able to have such an intimate contact with Emma, the feeling was overly welcomed. The position that they had been in allowed Regina to keep a strong watch over Emma as she drifted in and out of consciousness before she finally fell into a deep sleep. It was clear to Regina that the woman was having some sort of internal battle over what she had been through in the past two years, and more importantly, what she had been through in the last twenty-four hours.

Emma had always been pretty good at masking whatever she was feeling, so the facial expressions she made as she fell asleep spoke more to Regina than any words could have. Some fearful expressions that painted Emma's face were fairly recognisable for Regina, for she had already experienced those herself. So as Emma tossed and turned for a little while, Regina simply hushed sweet nothing's to the other woman in the hope that they would help her as they had helped herself.

Without having the weight of the sleep deprived blonde in her lap, Regina couldn't fight away the anxious feeling she had growing in the pit of her stomach. Not being able to watch every emotion Emma was feeling as she slept, reign constantly worried that the woman would wake up crying and alone, so feeling like the love-sick teenager she was acting like, Regina really didn't want to be away from Emma for any time longer than an bathroom break.

"Thank you, Regina," Snow said as she joined the other brunette on the couch when Charming and Emma were out of earshot. "Thank you for bringing us home. You didn't have to and you know that, but now I see how much you have changed. If you were still 'that' woman, I'm pretty sure that the rest of us would still be locked away in those cells."

Snow had attempted to make light of the matter and Regina definitely didn't miss it, but she couldn't help but feel as though Snow was surprised at her actions. She had been on the road to redemption for over a year and no one, besides Emma and Henry, had seemed to notice.

"Yes, well, that woman died around thirty years ago, dear."

"Of course, but what you did: it means a lot. Thank you."

"It was my pleasure." Regina's smile was genuine, even though it didn't entirely reach her eyes. "Think of it as a sort of apology."

"The entire town does, Regina. No one wishes to go back there again, so you have definitely won everyone over with your apology,"

"Hmm," Regina bit her tongue from saying anything else to the pixie-cut brunette and abruptly stood. "I do believe that is my queue to leave."

Snow nodded in surprise and stood with the older brunette, following her to the door where Henry still stood.

"Goodnight, Henry." Regina kissed her son's forehead and held his cheek before continuing. "How do you feel about going to the docks for ice-cream tomorrow? Maybe you could tell me what you've been up to over the last two years."

"I'd like that," Henry pulled his mother into a tight hug and whispered in her ear quiet enough for only her to hear. "I've missed you so much, mom."

"I missed you, too. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Without another word, Regina slipped out of the apartment and headed home to the oversized, morbidly silent mansion. She had wanted nothing more than for Emma and Henry to join her, but she knew more than anyone that she needed to prove that she was trying. She needed to let the Charmings have her son and Emma to themselves as much as Emma could stand.

Rather than lingering around her house and waiting for her body to collapse out of exhaustion, Regina locked the front door immediately and climbed the stairs to her bedroom. Leaving company and going straight to bed was easier than moping around around her house to emphasise how lonely she felt. True enough, Regina had always felt lonely, but in the previous few months, she had began to feel more connected to the people around her than ever before. Henry was home regularly, she would fight with Emma on a regular basis (but the blonde's presence was always there when she needed it) and she had even began to greet her fellow citizens in the streets as she passed them.

For Regina, a lonely life was an easy life. That was of course, until Emma stumble into her life. The blonde had gotten so far under her skin that Regina couldn't help but feel as though she was always there with her. When she had realised she was in love with Emma Swan, of all people, that was when Regina truly felt that she had welcomed the company of the other woman far too much. It felt as though the company of Emma was her life line - as though she would die without having the ability to acknowledge the other woman's presence.

The brunette fell asleep fairly quickly after her head landed on her pillow; she had, afterall, had an incredibly trying day. Within twenty-four hours she had transcended realms, coerced Elphaba into falling asleep in an alleyway, terrorised Emma's jailer and rapist, defeated the witch, rescued Emma and Henry, travelled from New York to Maine, survived a rather daunting conversation with the Dark One and kept Emma from having a complete mental break-down in the middle of the diner. Anyone would believe he had gone through an incredibly successful day, but Regina knew better. This was just the start of something big.

Three hours after falling asleep, the cell phone on her bedside table rang and vibrated violently, instantly waking the slumbering brunette. The a groan, Regina reached out to her phone to check the time before answering it. The time was just after midnight and the Charmings were calling. Just great.

"What?" She snapped, sounding a lot more annoyed than she really was. In fact, annoyed wasn't the word for it. Concerned fit the bill a little more comfortably.

"Regina, come quick, please," Snow's voice was thick with sleep but it failed to cover how scared she really was.

"Why, what's going on, Snow?" Regina instantly became frantic and threw herself out of bed and attempted to dress with her cellphone still pressed to the side of her face. "Are Emma and Henry okay?"

"Henry is fine. It's Emma." In the background, Regina heard a muffled cry and a few sobs with Charming attempting to hush someone. "She's having a night terror and we can't wake her. Henry insisted we called you."

Before Snow could even finish her sentence, Regina appeared before her in a whirl of purple smoke.

"Where is she?"

Snow pointed to the bedroom that was closed off by nothing more than a flimsy curtain. She could heard Emma tossing, turning and sobbing unconsciously and the knot in her stomach did nothing but tighten. Even the sound of Charming attempting to encourage his daughter to wake up made her feel sick with nerves.

"Ems, you have to wake up. It's just a dream." He would chant as he shook her shoulders and wiped away the tears That fell from her eyes.

Without saying a word, Regina walked into Emma's make-shift bedroom and placed a gracious hand on Charming's shoulder. She knew she wouldn't have to say anything to ask him to leave, but she did know how reluctant he was to leave his daughter in the hands of his once sworn enemy for comfort. He kissed Emma's forehead before joining Snow behind the curtain wall and waited.

They waited for Emma to stop crying. They waited for Regina's deep voice to be hushed and reassuring. They waited for their daughter to wake from her vicious nightmare.

It took a while.

In fact, it took Regina an entire hour to wake Emma from her draining night terror. For the entire hour, Regina had her arms wrapped protectively around Emma's entire torso in an attempt to keep her from thrashing around as she wailed and attempted to fight whatever was in her dream. Occasionally she would react to Regina's hushed tones and soft voices, but the majority of the time, she was in too deep to even allow her body to acknowledge them.

"Emma, you have to wake up," Regina had muttered several times in an attempt to keep her tears at bay. "Please wake up. I need you to wake up."

When Regina felt like she could hold back her annoyed yet terrified tears from stinging her eyes any longer, the brunette squeezed Emma as tight as she could before gently kissing the blonde on the lips. If the kiss hadn't woken Emma, she had intended to slap the blonde into a stupor, with the kiss being a pre-apology, of course.

Seconds after her lips met with Emma's the thrashing stopped. Emma's breathing evened and the violent sobbing came to an end. Regina pulled away as fast as she could and held Emma's face in her hands.

"Hey," Regina said when the blonde's eyelids has finished fluttering open to adjust to the darkness of the room.

Emma's mouth couldn't form a response. She simply lay in Regina's lap with her mouth opening and closing like a fish, making Regina so wrongly chuckle as she wiped the treacherous tears that still threatened to fall from her eyes.

"It was all just a dream and you're completely safe, okay?"

Emma wasn't okay and Regina knew that, but the blonde refused to admit it. She would always refuse to admit it. "Where am I?" She asked as she glanced around the dark room the were sitting in.

"Your bedroom at your parents house."

"Oh," Emma's voice almost sounded disappointed. "Did I wake you?"

"Your mother did, dear," Regina pulled Emma closer as she felt the blonde begin to panic that she had done something to upset someone else. The movement was hard to watch, but Regina knew she needed to be stern and strong with the other woman.

"I'm sorry," Emma's voice practically proved the entire point completely, making Regina give her a comforting and dismissing squeeze as she held her against her chest. Emma waited a little while before she spoke again. "Had you gone home?" She asked as if she already knew the answer to her question. And she did. She knew that Regina had gone home to her own bed and left her with her parents, but that was the plan anyway, wasn't it?

"Yes. When your parents arrived home, you had fallen asleep, so your father brought you in here and I went home." Emma nodded in understanding as she began to feel more comfortable in Regina's arms and snuggled into the brunette's chest. A comfortable silence fell between the two of them before Regina finally asked the question she had been dying to ask since she found out that Emma was having a nightmare. "Will you tell me what your terror was about?"