"Emma, slow down," Ruby ordered from the bathroom stall. Emma was leaning on the sinks, her arms crossed on her chest as she bit her nails. The sound of Ruby flushing the toilet broke the silence before she opened the door, still zipping up her skirt. "Start from the beginning because I don't understand a thing you're telling me."

Ruby leaned to wash her hands while Emma turned next to her. "I heard Henry asking Regina if I was his new mom."

"What?" Ruby asked looking up to meet Emma's gaze on the mirror. "You should definitely have started there."

"I told you."

"Uh, no. You told me you had heard a conversation you were not supposed to hear," Ruby reminded her, shaking her hands to dry them. She turned to Emma and, as she dried her hands on her skirt, she inquired. "What did she say?"

"Nothing really?" Emma shrugged. "She didn't out right deny it, but she didn't say yes either. When I came back she was kind of zoned out."

"And that scares you?" Ruby carefully asked, placing her hands on her waist. She knew for a fact if Emma loved something it was running away from commitment, and maybe she liked Henry, but becoming his mother was a whole new level.

Emma crossed her arms again and came back to the position she was before. "Not really? I don't know, I haven't give it much thought but the more time passes, the more I feel like it's a big elephant in the room waiting to be addressed. And then there's this guy."

"What guy?" Ruby wondered, raising an eyebrow.

Emma shook her head and grimaced. "No, it's not a guy. It's that creepy dude at Granny's party. The one that offered me a drink, remember?"

"Vaguely so." They had been taking shots since 9pm, so that party was a little of a blur. "Wait, the one that asked about your job?"

"Yeah, that one. I come into Regina's office and he's here, sitting on the chair and talking to her about hiring us. And do you know what he did?"

"What?" Ruby asked, although suspecting the answer.

"He did! He saw me and he was all 'what a coincidence to find you here, I'm signing the contract', so weird," Emma shook her head. "I think he was lying about the coincidence."

Ruby's eyebrows knitted together. "And what does this have to do with Regina?"

"Nothing," Emma deadpanned. "I just wanted to tell you in case I'm found murdered by a stalker."

Ruby took a step forward and placed her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Don't worry about the Regina thing. She will tell you when she's ready and you don't have to have an answer right away. Just remember you're always allowed to be wrong. I'll be here for you whatever happens."

Emma's lips twitched in a little smile and nodded slightly.

"As for the stalker, if he ever oversteps a line, I'll be here to send him to the hospital. And I'm sure all your friends will be here too." She paused and raised an eyebrow. "Not that you need defence. One good hook at his jaw and he'll be KO."

Emma burst in laughter and Ruby smiled, hugging her. "Thank you," the blonde whispered into her friend's hair.

They pulled apart, an arm away to look at each other. "Just enjoy it, Ems. I mean you got one hell of a catch," Ruby said biting her lips. Emma slapped her arm playfully and the brunette raised her arms in defence, laughing.

Emma took Ruby's advice and tried to let the issue go. She was happy with Regina and she just let things flow. Christmas decoration was put down and things came back to normal. Soccer on Tuesdays and Thursdays when she didn't stay late at the office, dates with Regina on Fridays and time with Henry on the weekend. It had become almost like a routine and one night, after going out to the cinema, they decided to have a glass of wine at Regina's.

They were on the second bottle when the clock struck 1 in the morning. "Shit," Emma swore when she glanced at it. "It's late. I'm sorry, you must be tired."

She started to rise from the couch, untucking her leg from beneath her body and feeling the cramps shooting down her leg. A hand on hers stopped her and, when Emma turned, her eyes met Regina's. The grip was gentle, almost feather-like, and the message was clear in chocolate brown orbits, but still Regina whispered.

"Stay."

And that's how Emma had spent the night in Regina's large bed, cuddling the brunette in one of the corners and leaving more than half of the mattress empty. Their bodies were naked; they had been too tired to dress again after tracing lines on each other with their tongues.

An insistent horn and the sound of an ambulance driving through Regina's street was what woke her up. The first thing she felt was the smell of Regina's shampoo brushing her nostrils. A finger lazily drawing fingers on her hand, placed in Regina's stomach, was the second thing she felt.

The warmth in her chest was the third.

Regina turned in bed when she felt Emma shifting in the bed and greeted her with sleepy eyes and a lazy smile. "Good morning." Her voice was raspy; from the deep moans she tried to hold the night before and had erupted in her throat or from the early morning, Emma didn't know.

"Amazing morning," Emma whispered, her voice still adapting too, as she returned the grin.

"Flatterer," Regina rolled her eyes but curled up closer. "How did you sleep?"

Emma stretched her back and a moan reverberated in her throat. "So good," she smiled when she laid down again. "You?"

"So good," she repeated with a teasing smirk. In the stretching motion, the sheets had slid down Emma's torso and Regina's eyes travelled down her neck to shamelessly check her out.

Emma noticed the dilated pupils before Regina leaned forward to press her lips against the blonde's. She answered with the same eagerness and, at some point, Regina moved to hover over Emma. Hands flew, squeezed and pressed while soft moans travelled from mouth to mouth through their ragged breaths.

Regina sneaked a leg between Emma's and landed her whole body down, pressing against the blonde's thigh to gain some friction. In a sudden move, Emma raised her leg and brought Regina forward, swallowing the gasp in her mouth with a kiss.

They rocked their bodies against each other, but this time it was slower. Regina's forehead fell upon Emma's and the brunette closed her eyes. Emma, however, kept them open. She had witnessed Regina's face many times by then, but this time it felt different. Their moves were gentler and slower, still in the morning haze. A halo of slumber still hovered over them with the chill air and the sun that was starting to bring light into the room behind the clouds.

Regina's hands found Emma's and brought them above the blonde's mane, holding them tight as she rode both of them to the orgasm. Emma felt the tingle building up inside her, spreading through her body. It was when the orgasm ripped through her body that she figured out why it was different that time from the others.

It was cosy. It was familiar. It was a life with Regina Mills; waking up to her smile and morning lazy sex. It was a kiss on her forehead before Regina collapsed over her body. It was home.

After a while, Regina moved from above her body and Emma felt the loss of warmth immediately. The brunette kissed her cheek and stretched next to her before sitting up. She got up of the bed with the elegance of a cat, her curves outlined by the sun rays.

"It looks like it's not going to rain today. What do you think about going for a walk with Henry?" she asked, passing a hand through her hair to fix the mess. "We can bring the kite."

"Sure," Emma agreed, her eyes still glued to the other woman's figure.

Regina turned and smirked, raising an eyebrow, when she saw Emma still lying down. "Are you going to be in bed all morning?" Emma rolled her eyes and Regina chuckled, turning to the bathroom.

After a moment, Emma heard the sound of the water running in the shower and Regina emerged from the bathroom, leaning on the door. "Are you coming or what?"

Smirking, Emma jumped from the bed and joined Regina, giving her a kiss before they entered the shower.

Emma didn't have any clothes, except for the ones she had wore the night before, so she borrowed Regina some jeans and a blouse. When they entered the kitchen, Regina pressed a button of the coffee machine and it sputtered to life, instantly spilling coffee into a pot.

"I should get one of those," Emma said as she took a seat on the table, still looking at the machine.

Regina pulled out two mugs and set them on the table, taking a seat next to her, at the head of the small table. "Emma, can I ask you a question?"

"If it's if I like my coffee with sugar, then yes please. 3 pumps," Emma quipped. She waited until Regina's eyes rolled to the back of her head to nod, "Of course you can."

There was hesitation and Emma could feel it in the way Regina rearranged the mugs in front of her. "You're always saying I have a lot of money and expensive clothes, toys, gadgets and I couldn't help but notice that you barely have anything in your house. I know for a fact how much you get paid every month and it's more than what you would need to live how you live."

She paused and Emma waited, but the only sound in the room was the coffee machine. "So, the question…?"

"What I mean is that you have enough money to buy this machine. You don't give yourself to fancies although you could," Regina considered out loud. There was still no question, but Emma guessed she was asking for a reason.

The coffee machine shut down and the kitchen fell silent. She shrugged. "I was used to live with nothing."

"But you deserve everything," Regina whispered, reaching for her hand but not quite meeting her eyes.

"I have what I need," Emma smiled. "Besides, I do treat myself. I've got the PlayStation."

Regina softly laughed and before she could say anything else, Emma kissed her, squeezing her hand to let her know it was all good. They only parted when a few feets away from them, they heard, "Ew."

They whipped their heads to find Henry at the door, brushing his eyes, his sleeves falling too long for his little arms. He took a seat on the other side of Regina, climbing the chair, while the women laughed.

Regina stood up to pick up the coffee pot and also some juice from the fridge. "Henry, would you like to go play out with the kite today?" she asked while she put two slices of bread on the toaster.

He turned to look at her and nodded energetically. "Yes!" He was on his knees, looking at his mother, but turned again to face Emma. "Are you coming too? I want to show you a new trick I learned."

"Sure kid," Emma smiled. Regina placed the toasts in front of Henry, who sat and his mother pushed the chair forwards so he could reach the plate without staining his pyjamas on the process.

They fell into what it seemed like a routine conversation for Regina and Henry about what he had done with the babysitter the evening before while they ate breakfast. They included Emma, talking about the G rated version of the movie they had seen. When they finished, Emma offered to clean up the table while Regina helped Henry get dressed for the day.

When they came back to the kitchen, Emma was drying her hands and turned to find them all ready to go. Henry was wearing a yellow raincoat and Emma stifled a laugh. "He looks like he's starring in a horror film. A red balloon and voilá," she whispered Regina while they put their coats.

Regina shushed her. "It's his favourite coat."

"Let's just hope he doesn't look into a drain," Emma murmured, chuckling at her own joke and earning a roll of eyes from Regina while they left the apartment.

The weather rebelled and, against Regina's prediction, it started raining after a while. They folded the kite and, since they were closer to Emma's than to Regina's, they decided to walk to her apartment under the umbrella Regina had brought, surprising Emma.

"I thought you had said it wouldn't rain today?" she asked, snuggling closer when the drops fell on her face. Her beanie was wet and it felt heavy on her head. In front of them, Henry was playing with the puddles, the hoodie of his yellow raincoat covering his head.

"Rule number two of a mother: always be prepared," Regina recited.

"What's number one?" Emma wondered, looking at her.

Regina smiled and looked at Henry, "Love them no matter what."

Emma's lips drew a smile on her face as well, inevitably thinking of how soft Regina was when it came to her son. A thought came to her mind and she asked, "What if your son ends up being a criminal? Rule number one still applies?"

Regina glared at her, raising an eyebrow. "I was trying to make it nice, Emma."

"Okay, okay," the blonde laughed and nodded. "Did you always want to be a mother? Because you're really good at it," she praised.

"Not really. Actually, Henry wasn't planned," she revealed.

"Accidental pregnancy?" Emma asked carefully, aware of the change in the air that the intimacy created beneath the umbrella.

Regina shook her head. "My mother had always been oppressive, both with me and Zelena. My sister was born from another father, so she was kind of always left aside, but me? I was the promise of the family. They expected me to get to places, to even join politics and even get to be president some day."

Emma remained quiet, listening to Regina while she opened her heart. The brunette's eyes were fixed on the floor, like if she was reading the story written in the street walk.

"I only wanted to study advertising and, after years of fighting, I finally got to get free and went to college. I put some distance between my family and I, except from Zelena, and after that experience being a mother wasn't really in my future." She paused and when she continued Emma almost didn't hear her. "I think I was afraid I ended up like my mother."

Emma wanted to tell her she was the best mother she had ever seen, and she had lived with quite a few. But still remained silent, waiting for Regina to finish.

"I dove into my job, trying to get higher, better. Then I started to date Daniel. He was good to me, but he wanted a family and I wasn't ready yet. Still, he convinced me to start seeing a doctor to plan it, only for the future he said." Regina glanced down and sighed. "After a few weeks we discovered I couldn't have children. It was a big deal for him and although we still tried to keep together, I felt he was becoming more and more distant until we broke up."

Emma glanced at Henry with a frown. If Regina couldn't have kids….

"He's adopted," Regina finished her thought. "I wasn't planning on it but during a work trip, there was a fire in the hotel I was staying in. A few people died, Henry's parents included. He was just a baby when the fire fighters found him, crying in the room. I offered to take are of him for a couple of days until they filled the papers to put him on the system. By the time it was all ready, I had already grew fond of him, so I adopted him. It's been the two of us ever since."

"That…is…You're amazing," Emma breathed. Lots of thoughts were flooding her mind, but she couldn't bring herself to articulate how amazed she was by Regina's story. "Henry is really lucky to have you in his life. And so do I," she added with a blush.

"You love to exaggerate," Regina shrugged. "Henry knows. I didn't want him to grow up living a lie."

"That's very honourable," Emma admitted. "I still don't know what happened to my parents so I guess knowing it helps you."

They arrived to Emma's apartment and they called for Henry. It was the first time he went there and Emma hoped she had left it at least clean enough to make a good impression. Thankfully, when she opened the door, it was so she inwardly patted her past self on her back.

After a while, hunger started to kick in, but Emma realised she didn't have anything eatable on her house, so she proposed to order a pizza. Regina, however, wasn't happy with that choice, so she proposed to go to the nearest grocery store and cook something. Henry and Emma didn't really stand a chance against Regina, so they all ended up picking up a cart at the grocery store.

Henry kept putting all kinds of sugary food into the cart, while Regina kept putting them out. While the brunette studied the vegetables she needed to cook the recipe she had in mind, Emma and Henry started to play tag around the store. When the blonde caught Henry, he was laughing so hard he had to hold his belly. She picked him up and carried him on her back, approaching Regina.

"Mooom, are we done?" Henry asked. "I'm hungry."

"I would go a lot faster if I didn't have to keep an eye on you two." She finally decided for the vegetables and grabbed a plastic bag.

"She's grumpy because she's hungry too," Henry whispered into Emma's ear, making her giggle. Regina rolled her eyes and threw the bag into the cart.

"Okay, we got everything. Let's go," she stated.

After paying for everything, they came back to Emma's and this time they helped Regina cooking, turning on some music on the background to swallow the sound of rain. When they finished lunch, Henry asked Emma to teach him how to play with her game console and she chose the most innocent game she had, one that didn't involve killing other players, just in case she earned a glare from Regina. In the end, Emma taught both of them and watched them play with a smile on her face. It was that rainy day, after spending so many time with them, when Emma glanced over at Regina and realised she liked that. A lot.

And it was that moment, when Regina's eyes met hers and she smiled at the blonde over Henry's head, when Emma realised that she loved Regina.

Emma couldn't wait to talk to Ruby about her latest revelation. She had waited until Monday to tell her, leaving the rest of the weekend to gather her thoughts about the matter. She still had to wait to lunch to be able to see her friend, since she had a meeting with the creative team about Mr. Jones' campaign.

When she arrived to the meeting room, expecting to find Regina there, she was disappointed when she found Killian instead, sitting back with his boots on the table. He lowered them to the floor when he saw her and rushed to the door to greet her.

"Swan, it's a pleasure to see you again," he said with a side smile.

Her colleagues entered the room and she returned the smile politely but wishing to step away from him. He was the boss of a big company that dealt with most of the fish market, and although he worked on the office, he always smelled like fish.

They took a seat around the table and discussed the details of the campaign, specifying what Killian wanted and what they could offer. When it was finished, and before she could leave the room, he assaulted her again standing by her side.

"You really are one of the best around here. Regina wasn't wrong about that," he said.

"Uh, thanks," she murmured gathering her things to leave. "She's rarely wrong."

She turned to walk away, but he blocked her way. "Actually I was wondering if we could meet some time to talk further about this. I think your mind is brilliant and I would love to listen all the interesting stuff you have to say."

"We can arrange a meeting if you want to. I'll talk to my team and we'll communicate you when we decide to see if you're free," she said.

"I meant a private meeting," he clarified, lowering his voice. "Like a date."

"Oh," Emma stopped. "Uhm, I don't think that would be very much professional." Says the one dating her boss, a little voice whispered in the back of her head.

He looked disappointed but he seemed to recover himself, smiling at her again. "Well, in that case I'll keep in touch with you to arrange that meeting. If you ever change your mind, my offer still stands."

"Thank you, but no," she repeated. He took a long look at her face one more time before stepping aside to let her go. Emma rushed out of the room, taking a breath of fresh air. She thought she would vomit if she stood next to him for one more minute.

Emma texted Ruby to ask her if she was okay for lunch, and when she got the positive response, she stood up and grabbed her wallet before heading towards the elevator. When it arrived, the little arrow pointing up lightened up, and Emma was heading down, but she didn't really care. The doors opened and when she raised her head to step inside, she saw Zelena and a man whose face was familiar to her.

"Emma!" the red haired smiled when she saw her. She leaned to give her two kisses on her cheeks, "It's lovely to see you again."

"Yeah, I'm getting that a lot today," Emma murmured.

Zelena frowned at it for a second before shaking her head and waved her hand. "I'm not sure if you met Robin here at the New Year's Eve party?" she asked pointing at Robin, who smiled politely.

"I don't think I had the pleasure. I have heard about you though. Emma Swan, right?" he wondered offering a hand. Emma took it and shook it, nodding. "I'm Robin Woods, but everyone calls me Robin Hood."

"He's in charge of the largest archery company in the city," Zelena informed her. "Maybe you've heard of it? It's Bows&Arrows."

"Original," Emma deadpanned. The other occupants of the elevator laughed and Robin nodded.

"I asked my son for a name and he came up with that. It was so simple that I instantly loved it," he explained with a smile.

Zelena turned to Robin. "How's Roland?"

His face changed a little and the smile faltered. "He's with Marian this week. It's her turn."

"Oh," Zelena falsely pouted at him before changing her expression to a smile. "Well, when he is back to you, he can meet Henry. I bet they will have a lot of fun together, especially if they end up being half brothers."

"What?" Emma asked all of the sudden, but it went unheard by them.

Robin scratched the back of his head and smiled, "Well, we shouldn't jump into conclusions just yet. Regina and I have only seen each other once."

Zelena slapped his chest and laughed softly. "That's why she'll love this surprise. I can't wait to see her face when she sees you again. Besides, I confess I watched you two while you were talking during the party and I swear she wouldn't stop looking around, trying to find a place for you two to be alone," she added with a wink.

The elevator bell chimed and it stopped abruptly before the doors opened. "See you around, Emma! Keep it up," Zelena said over her shoulder.

Robin smiled at her. "Nice to meet you, Emma."

Both of them exited the elevator and Emma didn't say a word. She watched them walking away down the hallway and when the doors closed, she still didn't move. She hadn't pressed the floor she was heading to, so the elevator didn't move either.

What had she missed?

Note: I know that Roland is a lot younger than Henry in canon, but at this point who cares about the show.