After a few brief words from Emma before she left, Henry planned to keep his other mother occupied while Lettie was out of the house. He knew it would be difficult for her – he remembered the way she had been when he first went to kindergarten, and even his first day at school. He was proud of her for letting go, for trusting Emma, even if she'd set a time limit. An hour, that was all it was.

"Have you done your homework?" she asked when he wandered into her study when Emma left.

Watching them leave would have been too hard, she had kissed Lettie once she was sure Emma had a few essential items and then retreated to her study. That way she wouldn't hear the door close, or run to an upstairs window to watch them as far as that view would allow. Emma's cell was fully charged, there were two spare diapers, a spare bottle of milk, a first aid kit and baby wipes in the small bag she had used with Henry. The blonde had refused to take any more, reminding Regina that they would only be gone sixty minutes.

"Most of it. I needed a break and thought you might want to play with me, there's a great new racing game..."

Regina raised an eyebrow, "you know the rules. No games consoles until all the homework is complete."

"There's nothing left that's due in tomorrow. I've got plenty of time."

"Finish your homework first."

"I thought you might want a break too. We could play something educational."

"Did Emma buy anything that could be classed as that?"

Henry had to think for a moment, then shrugged, "teamwork's educational, so if you helped…"

She understood then why he was asking. "Just for an hour?"

"Then I'll finish my homework. Promise."

It took Regina a little while to settle into the game, but eventually she picked up the desire to win and gripped the controller until her knuckles turned white. Henry was a little glad he'd avoided the racing game; he didn't want his mom to get to the top of the leader board the first time round. He knew she was still sneaking glances at the clock to check the time and as the hour drew closer to an end, he found himself listening for the sound of Emma's car pulling into the driveway, or the front door opening.

In the end, it was Henry who ran to the front door when Emma returned. Regina made herself count to ten before heading after him, but her eyes were on Lettie as soon as Emma carried her inside.

"How did it go?" Regina asked, trying to sound casual.

Emma handed Lettie over to her and smiled, "not too bad. We're not late are we?"

"No," Regina lied, it was only ten minutes and she wanted to show Emma that she trusted her.

"What have you been up to?"

Henry grabbed her arm, "you've gotta come see, mom and I have been playing that new game…"

"Homework, Henry," Regina reminded him.

"Oh… Let me just show Emma the scores, please?"

Regina nodded, hoping to send Henry upstairs so that she could talk to Emma. She had relaxed as soon as she held Lettie in her arms. After taking a moment to look at her daughter, to reassure herself that everything was okay, Regina followed them.

Henry was chatting away to Emma, scrolling up and then down the score page, revealing the highlights for her. She allowed them five minutes before reminding him about his homework. Once he was upstairs, and she had placed Lettie down to sleep, she sought out Emma and went to find out how her evening had really gone.

The blonde smiled as she entered and pointed to the kettle that had just finished boiling, "tea, coffee, hot chocolate?"

"Hot chocolate, please."

"The orange flavour, right?"

Regina nodded and sat at on one of the kitchen stools, surprised Emma knew. She had started drinking the sweet hot drink when she was pregnant, not wanting too much coffee in her system. The decaffeinated coffee just wasn't the same, and until she didn't need an early night – Lettie seemed to know when she stayed up late – real coffee after 3pm was out.

"Thanks for today," Emma finally spoke once the two drinks were ready and she had taken a seat opposite Regina.

"I didn't do anything."

"You didn't make a fuss about me taking Lettie out on my own for the first time to my parents – I was expecting a list of 'do's and don't's' at least, possibly you waiting in the car outside the apartment..."

"I trust you."

Bundling Emma off so quickly hadn't given her much time to think about what she was doing. If the visit had been delayed things might have been different.

"Most of all, you were there for me. You let me talk about this thing with my parents and you just listened without judging or telling me what to do."

"You're a grown woman, with your own mind."

"Regina, I'm trying to thank you here."

"You're welcome," Regina tried to brush off the uncomfortable feeling she had every time Emma said those two words, other than teaching Henry to say them they hadn't been directed at her for a long time. "Now, why don't you tell me how it went – if you want to – and then you should check your diary for the best day to go shopping. Granny said as she's the boss she can take practically any day off, but the other waitresses want Christmas shopping days too so I can give her your list tomorrow."

Boston.

Regina kept close to Emma, afraid of being lost in the mad rush of people. Christmas decorations were up, assorted cheerful songs were blasted from every shop doorway and everyone carried at least two large bags of presents.

She had planned on the shopping taking an hour or two in Storybrooke, already having some ideas of the shop contents and the presents she wanted to buy, but somehow Emma persuaded her to leave the little town and head to Boston where the journey and larger stores would keep them away almost the whole day.

Emma seemed like a different person, more confident than when they were in Storybrooke. She knew large cities, she'd lived in this world – Regina understood that while on the surface Storybrooke appeared to fit in, really the place and its inhabitants had no idea what it meant to exist in this world – and Emma had no trouble elbowing her way through the crowds, or grabbing the best bargains off a shelf for her inspection before another shopper finished reading the price tag.

They had agreed to buy the presents together, splitting the cost of each one was the only way to avoid the awkward 'better-present-buying-parent' drama on Christmas morning. So far Emma had chosen ten of the fourteen presents for Henry and six of the nine presents for Lettie. Regina had also picked out presents for a handful of Storybrooke residents, surprising Emma.

"Jenny was my secretary for thirty years, it's just habit," she explained, "and the others I knew back in the Enchanted Forest and they've visited me since the curse broke. Have you thought about presents for your parents?"

"What do Snow White and Prince Charming want for Christmas?"

Regina smiled, "lumps of coal in their stockings?"

Emma shook her head, "that better be hunger talking. We should stop for lunch, I know a great place nearby…"

"I'm serious, you could use your magic to sneak into the loft and replace whatever sickly-sweet gifts they've gotten each other with lumps of coal. We could watch their reactions in one of my enchanted mirrors… I can't believe I didn't think of it during the curse years. Those skeleton keys were wasted."

"Hmmm. Lets take the bags back to the car, so we're not carrying them around longer than we have to. How many presents do you usually buy Henry?" Emma headed down a shortcut, leaving Regina to follow.

"It depends. Before he started liking expensive games and things I'd get clothes to fill up space under the tree and little toys – the kind you pick up with pocket-money – for his stocking. Now though, I think he understands that Santa only brings a couple of presents from his wish list and I get the rest."

"That sounds like a lot of wrapping paper."

"We recycle."

"I mean, you need a lot to wrap all those presents."

"It takes time. Usually I get bits and pieces over a couple of days or weeks, then I can wrap them while he's at school. I don't think we need a lot for Lettie, it's her first Christmas but she won't really understand it. A few presents from Santa, and a few from us and that's it for this year."

"Did you buy Henry a lot of presents for his first Christmas?"

Regina smiled at the memory, "I might have overdone it a little, but I soon realised he preferred looking at the paper and scrunching it up in his hands more than the presents. We'll buy her more next year, I promise, and she already has everything she needs."

AN: Attending a wedding this weekend, and helping my sister move into her new place - dreading the first and feeling proud about the second. Might write/post another chapter soon, writing helps get me through all the drama...