A/N: Sorry for the wait and the fact that this is really short compared to a majority of my updates for this fic. I just think the chapters are better separated this way. Hopefully the chapter is still good enough no matter how long that you still leave a review and tell me what you love, like, or don't like. :)

Also, any time I separate "scenes" with asterisks it means that it's happening at the same time as whatever part came before it. The line breaks are used to establish the passing of time.

Enjoy!

Chapter 26

Panic. Fear. Guilt.

Emma felt all of those emotions full force as she frantically insisted to Dr. Whale that Henry had taken a bite out of the turnover she held up to him in a sealed sandwich bag.

Dr. Whale argued the turnover couldn't have caused the boy's illness.

Frustrated, Emma continued to ask what could have brought on Henry's sudden health decline while she went to his backpack and dug through it for any other explanation. When she turned it over and dumped out the bag's contents on the foot of the hospital bed, Dr. Whale said something that stuck with her and gave her a moment of true clarity.

"It's like..."

Emma stared down with wide eyes at Henry's book of fairy tales. She slowly, hesitantly, reached out for it as she remembered what Henry had told her about belief before he ate the turnover.

"Like magic."

The second she held the book out in front of herself, she jolted in reaction to the strangest and undefinable shock followed by flashes of memory.

Snow White and Prince Charming saying goodbye to their daughter, Henry's constant reminders that she was in his book and that she was the Savior, Prince Charming placing Emma in a tree trunk – the wardrobe – and saying, "Find us."

As soon as the memories stopped passing through her mind in bits and pieces, her breathing shallow and erratic, Regina worriedly called out to Dr. Whale upon entry to Henry's hospital room.

"Where's my son?"

Emma's expression changed from shocked speechless to wildly enraged. Instantly, Emma spun toward Regina as the woman approached Dr. Whale.

"You did this," Emma growled.

Wordlessly, Emma grabbed Regina's arm and yanked the brunette out of the room. She emitted a predatory growl and threw Regina into a nearby medical supply closet.

Regina stumbled into a supply rack and turned to face Emma. She defensively held out her hands, but it didn't do her any good.

Emma gripped Regina's biceps and violently pulled her away from the rack to slam the other woman into a row of lockers between the supply rack and the closet door.

"You did this," Emma viciously repeated.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Emma pinned her to the lockers with her forearm pressed horizontally across Regina's chest. Her right hand gripped tightly to the lapel of Regina's blazer.

"Stop this," Regina loudly begged. "My son-"

"He's sick because of you. That turnover you gave me. He ate it!"

"What?"

No more than a whisper, Regina could barely voice the one word through her shock. After a moment, she gained volume.

"It was meant for you!"

"It's true, isn't it," Emma asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's true, isn't it," Emma yelled. After a moment, she dropped her tone until she was barely audible. "...All of it."

With tears in her eyes ready to fall, Regina thudded her head against the locker behind her out of defeat.

"Yes."

"Why couldn't you just leave things alone," Emma cried.

"Because as long as you believed I wasn't the Evil Queen, you could never truly love me. But I knew the curse would break. I couldn't fight it. And then I thought I could go back and fix it. I thought if I changed the past by going back to the Enchanted Forest, I could make sure you never had to know what it's like to be alone. You wouldn't have to grow up the way you did and I just...I didn't want you to be hurt."

"Everything...was a lie?"

"Not everything," Regina pleadingly tried to assure her.

"No, just the part about who you really are," Emma bitterly said.

"I didn't want it to come to this," Regina confessed even through the pain she felt. "I figured all I needed to do was put you under a sleeping curse and you wouldn't feel pain anymore and I wouldn't lose Henry, the curse would remain intact."

"You fix this. You wake him up!"

"I can't!"

"Don't you have magic?"

"That was the last of it," Regina sadly said with a lack of hope.

A few seconds later, Regina pushed Emma's arm away.

"It was supposed to put you to sleep."

"What's it gonna do to him?"

Regina shook her head.

"I don't know. …Magic here is unpredictable."

"So...so he could-"

"Yes ," Regina gravely said, terrified while her eyes were filled with self-loathing and anger.

Emma breathed heavily as she cried. Her lashes were thick from the tears that had rolled down her cheeks. She rarely cried in front of anyone, but when it came to Henry and Regina, she didn't do anything she usually did.

"So what do we do?"

"We need help," Regina walked past the blonde to remove the option of Emma pinning her against the lockers again. "There's one other person in this town who knows about this, knows about magic."

"Mr. Gold."

"Actually, he goes by Rumpelstiltskin."

The bell above the door to Mr. Gold's pawn shop clanged with a new arrival.

"Do my eyes deceive me or is that the look of a believer," Mr. Gold said as he wiped off his counter and looked up to see Emma, followed by Regina, as they headed straight toward him.

"We need your help," Emma said.

"Indeed you do. It seems quite a tragic ailment has befallen our young friend."

Gold looked at Regina before he continued.

"I told you magic comes with a price."

"Henry shouldn't have to pay it," Regina shook her head.

"No, you should, but alas, we are where we are."

"Can you help us," Emma asked, slightly hopeful.

"Of course. True Love, the only magic powerful enough to transcend realms and break any curse. Luckily for you, I happen to have bottled some."

"You did," Regina asked, surprised and also a bit hurt that her magic mentor had apparently kept secrets from her.

"Oh, yes," Rumple said as he barely took his eyes off Emma. "From strands of your parent's hair. I made the most powerful potion in all the realm. So powerful that when I created the dark curse, I placed a single drop on the parchment. Just a little safety valve."

"That's why I'm the Savior, that's why I can break the curse," Emma breathed out her realization.

"So you get it," Gold asked with an impish grin.

"I don't care about breaking the curse, all I care about is saving Henry," Emma boldly said.

"Which is why it's your lucky day. I didn't use all the potion."

Regina seethed. Her features softened with slight shock at Rumple's confession.

"I saved some. For a rainy day," Gold added.

"Well, it's storming like a bitch. Where is it?"

"Where it is, isn't the problem. Getting it...is what should worry you."

"Enough with the riddles. What do we do," Regina asked.

"You do nothing. It has to be Miss Swan," Gold informed them.

"He's my son. It should be me," Regina argued.

"All due respect, but he's her son and it has to be her. She's the product of magic. She must be the one to find it," Gold somewhat haughtily said with a sense of pride and pleasure.

"I can do it," Emma flatly said with a straight face.

"Don't trust him," Regina warned Emma with a concerned tone.

"What choice do we have," Emma asked, tired and still a little frustrated.

"That's right, dearie, what choice do you have?"

Regina, practically in the shadows considering the way she stood behind Emma, looked down at the ground. She knew the answer to his question, which was why Gold looked at Regina knowingly, but she didn't want to take that risk. She never had been able to do it before, even when she had considered letting the curse break.

"Where is this magic," Emma spoke up when Regina remained silent.

"Tell me, Your Majesty, is our friend still in the basement," Gold said as he looked from Emma to Regina.

"You twisted little imp. You hid it with her," Regina asked, angry though she desperately wanted to believe he was lying.

"Oh, no, no. Not with her," Gold corrected. "...In her. I knew you couldn't resist bringing her over."

"Who's her," Emma inquired.

"Someone you should be prepared for," Rumple warned as he cleaned the top of the long, thin case in front of him on the counter. "Where you're going...you're going to need this."

Gold opened the case.

Regina was not pleased with what she saw when she looked inside it.

Emma stared down into the case, confused.

"What is that," Emma asked.

"Your father's sword," Rumple answered.

Emma approached Henry's hospital bed with his book of fairytales in her hand. She sadly smiled at him as she came to stand at his bedside.

"Henry, you were right about the curse. I should have believed you. I'm sorry."

Emma tucked the book under Henry's pillow.

"For when you wake up," she told him, his eyes closed as he laid unconscious in the bed.

Emma turned and headed for the door when Regina cautiously entered the room.

Regina's eyes were focused on Henry, sad to see what she had done to him.

Emma was beyond pissed off, but she was also a little scared of what she had to do. She wasn't sure what to expect and had only a vague idea as to why she needed Prince Charming's sword. She didn't show her fear, however. She never did. Although, she'd let Regina in more so than she'd let anyone in since Henry's father. She fell for it all. Again.

When she passed by Regina, she had planned to leave the room without saying a word. Regina, however, needed confirmation so she stopped between Henry's bedside and the door and spoke.

"Do you know where to meet?"

Her tone betrayed the strength Regina preferred to show, especially in her weakest moments. She sounded sad and hurt. There was also a hint of self-loathing that told Emma that Regina knew she deserved whatever cold- and bitterness from the blonde given the circumstances.

"Yeah. Don't be late," Emma furiously growled and left.

Regina walked up to Henry's bedside and leaned over him.

"I'm sorry," Regina said through choked back sobs as she tried to refrain from crying, though it was clear that was all she wanted to do.

She truly was apologetic and for more than one reason.

As she stared down at Henry and thought about how much she'd screwed everything up, she didn't even notice the shadowed figure standing in the corner.

"Pity, isn't it," Jefferson said as he started to walk toward Regina. "There's...nothing harder than not knowing whether you'll ever see your child again."

"Jefferson, now is not a good time."

Jefferson came up to the other side of Henry's bed.

"Well, for me it's the perfect time," he told her. "I'm here to collect. Where- Where is she? Where is my daughter."

"Em-ma was supposed to eat that apple and she didn't. As far as I'm concerned that makes our deal null and void," Regina growled.

"I did what you asked. You're not going to screw me over again."

He mirthlessly chuckled, though it sounded more like a huffed out sigh.

"Look at it however you want, Jefferson. The fact is I'm done with you."

"But I-I'm not done with you," Jefferson said like a petulant child that wanted to play longer and would either pout or scream or resort to a temper tantrum to get what they wanted.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? I know you want to, but I also know you can't."

"Do you?"

"Yes. You don't have it in you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to save my son."

Regina left the room without pause and thankfully wasn't stopped by the mad man.

Emma stood outside the closed down and boarded up Storybrooke Library. She rocked back and forth on her heels with Prince Charming's sword in her hand and did an impatient dance as she waited for Regina.

Regina walked up to the library from the other direction with the keys to the town in her hand. The second they were inside and Regina tured on the lights-

"What is this place," Emma asked as she looked around at the newly lit up room.

"Would you like a tour or shall we just get to it-"

"Lead the way," Emma cut her off, irritated.

Regina followed Emma's command and headed toward a wall with a mirror in the shape of an apple tree on it, complete with star shaped mirrors above the tree.

"What the hell is with you and apples," Emma blurted out as she gripped the hilt of the sword tighter.

Regina stopped in front of the mirror with her back to Emma. She had tensed when she'd stopped and hesitated for a moment before she slowly turned to the blonde.

"If I explained, would you even care," Regina asked.

Emma rolled her eyes.

"I'm not the one who lied about...everything! Fairytales are real, you really are the Evil Queen, and I...I basically poured my heart out to you!"

Regina looked down at the ground, ashamed.

"I'm sorry. I... There was no other way," Regina quietly confessed.

"No other way?! You had to poison me. That's it? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"So many things, dear," Regina morosely said.

Emma sighed and shook her head.

"Whatever. Let's just...do this."

Regina fell back a step and looked as though she'd been physically hurt on top of the emotional hurt she felt whenever Emma brushed her off. She took a few seconds to collect herself as she turned back to the mirror then pressed her hand to one of the branches.

The wall opened upward like a garage door and revealed a bolted up wall with a slit through the middle. The cogs that kept the wall closed turned and unlocked the wall before it split and opened to reveal an old elevator complete with rope and pulley.

"Whoa," Emma exclaimed as she stared wide-eyed at the contraption.

Regina turned her head to look straight at Emma.

"Get in," she ordered.

"After you," Emma nervously insisted.

"It's a two man job. The elevator's hand operated," Regina started to explain. "I have to stay up here and lower you down."

"And I'm just supposed to trust you," Emma asked.

Regina clenched her jaw tight, angry because of Emma's hurtful question.

"I don't think you have much choice in the matter, Miss Swan."

"This battle I'm supposed to fight, who is it? What isdown there," Emma asked as she tried to look down the elevator for a peek as to what was to come.

"An old friend."

"Then why don't you go talk to them?"

"Because her punishment here was different than anyone else's. I trapped her...in a different form, "Regina slowly said. "She doesn't want to hear from me. You have to trust me on that."

"Okay. I will go down there. But let's be clear about something," Emma said as she stepped closer to Regina. "Your Majesty."

She stopped right in front of the brunette and the two of them breathed the same air.

Regina almost cringed at the way Emma used her formal, Enchanted Forest title. It had been completely different than the last time she'd used it after she'd been...knighted.

"The only reason you're not dead is because I need your help to save Henry. He dies, so do you," Emma finished.

"Well then, let's get on with it."

Regina slowly raked her eyes over Emma's body from head to toe. She almost faltered as she remembered what the blonde looked like as she writhed beneath her, moved above her, how Emma kissed her, and how it felt to be tangled up with Emma sexually and otherwise. She flicked her eyes back up to meet Emma's gaze and opened her mouth to say something else, but Emma stopped her.

"Was any of it real," Emma timidly asked, afraid of the truth.

Regina took a deep breath and decided to finally be honest right away with the younger woman.

"None of this, aside from Henry, was real until I met you. ...Now here's what you're going to have to do."

Mary Margaret sat on the edge of Henry's hospital bed and read to him. She finished a scene from the story of Snow White then closed the book and let it rest in her lap before she spoke to Henry.

"I gave you this book because I know real life doesn't always have a happy ending, but I thought..."

She trailed off and Henry's heart monitor started to beep frantically.

"Dr. Whale," Mary Margaret yelled, on the brink of tears.

Dr. Whale rushed into the room and checked Henry and the machines he was hooked up to.

"Dr. Whale, what is that? ...What- What's wrong," Mary Margaret asked.

"Nurse, get her out of here. Now," Dr. Whale barked.

"What is it?"

"His heart rate's falling. Come on, Henry. Henry?"

A shadowed figure walked out of the room, unnoticed, while Mary Margaret was escorted from the hospital room.

A motherfucking dragon.

That's what had awaited Emma in the library basement.

She had defensively held up the sword when she cowered away from the flames that erupted from Regina's scaly friend before she looked at the useless silver and tossed it aside.

Because who in their right mind would think a sword would work against a dragon?

Anyone in their right mind that didn't have to slay the damn thing.

Emma had pulled out her gun and tried to shoot at it, ever the cop slash former bounty hunter. She emptied her clip into the dragon and the area that surrounded it. Without any more bullets, Emma threw the gun away and ran from the dragon.

It was when she hid from the dragon behind a pillar of some sort that she spotted the sword as its silver glinted in the faint light of the library's basement. She had darted out and grabbed it as she rolled across the dirty cement to avoid the fire the dragon had breathed out.

Finally, after a few more perilous seconds spent coming up with an impromptu plan, Emma hurled the sword at the dragon and defeated it with the long blade stuck in its chest.

She got back to the elevator and called out to Regina to let her up. Within seconds, the elevator lurched to life and she was headed back up to the main floor of the library, a golden egg in hand.

After a short amount of time, the elevator abruptly stopped and nearly knocked Emma onto her knees.

"Regina! What the hell was that?"

Silence.

"Regina!"

"Miss Swan," Gold asked as he peered over the edge of the open elevator shaft. "You've got it?"

"Mr. Gold, what are you doing here?"

"I've come to check on you. And I'm glad I did. Regina's abandoned you, sabotaged the elevator."

"What," Emma asked, utterly shocked. "I'm comin' up."

She started to climb onto the top of the elevator when Gold quickly spoke up.

"No, there's- there's no time for this. You can't possibly scale the wall and carry that."

"Yeah? Well, I can try," Emma said and continued to make her way up the elevator shaft.

"No, just toss it up. Henry's going to be fine. I promise. We're running out of time. Toss it up."

Emma stared up at him with wide eyes and a worried expression.

"Okay," she softly agreed.

She wanted to believe he'd actually help.

"You hold on to it. I'll be right up," she said as she tossed up the egg.

Gold caught it and grinned then disappeared from the top of the shaft.

Emma hurried the rest of the way up the elevator and managed to hoist herself back onto the tiled library floor.

Regina moaned and called out through duct tape as she struggled against rope bonds around her wrists and ankles. She fidgeted in a wooden chair as she looked over her shoulder at Emma with sheer panic written all over her face.

"Regina!"

Emma jogged over to the brunette and immediately ripped off the duct tape.

"He tricked you. How could you give him that," Regina said, half on the verge of tears and half-furious to know Emma had more easily put her trust in Gold over herself.

"Where is he," Emma asked as she finished untying Regina's wrists then bent over to untie Regina's feet.

"Gone," Regina said as she angrily pushed off the chair, ready to find Gold and kick his ass. She didn't even notice how unbelievably close Emma's head was to the waistband of her dress slacks.

"Gold," Regina growled as Emma started to untie her other foot. "He manipulated all of this."

"He can't be that far," Emma said as she completely freed Regina, who immediately stood, and flung the rope aside.

The two of them tried to rush for the door when both their phones rang.

"It's the hospital," Emma breathed out as she looked from her phone to Regina, heavily concerned, then answered.

Emma and Regina ran up the hospital stairs as fast as they could with Emma taking them two steps at a time in front of the brunette. Both of them kept looking at how far they had to go to reach the top of the stairs, their hearts beating rapidly with fear and pain and hoping against all odds they would get to Henry in time.

Unfortunately, when they both came to his room and Emma burst through the door, they heard Dr. Whale confirm their worst fear as mothers.

"We did everything we could."

"I'm sorry," Mother Superior said to them. "You're too late."

It seemed like the air left Emma's lungs and time slowed down as she sadly stared at Henry. He was only a few feet away in the bed, but he was the palest Emma had ever seen him.

He was shirtless and several wires ran across his tiny frame, his eyes closed and mouth agape as one nurse pulled off the oxygen mask and another started to remove the defibrillator patches from his chest.

Regina, still in the hall when she heard the tragic news, trudged toward the glass divider between Henry's room and the hallway. She had never felt so much regret in her life as she had when saw the same thing Emma did. Henry: Pale. Lifeless. Gone. She pressed a hand to her stomach and let the tears fall.

Gold limped toward the only well in Storybrooke not too far from the town line. His cane crushed several wood chips, dirt, and leaves on the forest floor. He stopped in front of the well and reached into the inside pocket of his dress coat. From it, he retrieved a clear vile filled with two glowing strands of hair.

He smirked as he held up the vile at his eye line between his middle finger and thumb. He leaned toward the well and dangled the vile over the blackness below. His smirk widened and after a second of pause, he released the vile and allowed it to plummet to the bottom of the well.

Emma's cheeks were stained before she even reached his hospital bed.

Regina joined Emma in the room and shook her head as she looked over at Henry.

"No," Regina cried then emitted a strangled sob.

Regina instantly turned and leaned into Emma's side as she clutched the blonde's leather jacket. "No."

Emma thickly swallowed and her expression went from sad to angered as soon as she felt Regina touch her. The anger dissipated after a moment and she allowed Regina to cling to her, though she never returned the embrace.

Regina cried into the crook of Emma's neck and tugged on the jacket as she attempted to burrow her face further into Emma's neck.

"I'm sorry," Regina cried and held onto the younger woman tighter. "I didn't- I'm so sorry. Emma-"

Regina choked on her tears and barely managed to finish a sentence.

Emma broke away from Regina's hold and sniffled. She struggled to take a deep breath as her legs carried her to the side of Henry's bed. When she stood beside his limp form, she brushed his hair out of his face and more tears slid down her cheeks.

Emma leaned over him and the tips of her blonde hair brushed against the right hand corner of his bed as well as the side of his pillow.

"I love you," Emma said and placed a kiss on his forehead.

She squeezed her eyes shut tighter and a tear rolled down her cheek. It dropped onto his forehead next to the place where her lips remained pressed to him and a rainbow light burst from the point of contact.

The light swept over the entire room and expelled throughout the entire town. It hit every single person with a wave of love and memory.

The only thing that mattered to both Emma and Regina in that moment, however, was Henry as his eyes popped open.

"I love you too," Henry said to Emma before his lips curled into a warm but tired smile. "You saved me."

"You did it," Regina said as she stared at Emma, amazed.

Emma looked from Henry to Regina then back to Henry, confused.

"Henry, what's going on," Emma asked.

"The curse. I think you broke it," Henry replied.

"That was True Love's kiss," Mother Superior, or rather the Blue Fairy, slowly informed everyone in earshot.

"No. No," Regina's anger started to rise to cover up her true feelings, her genuine worry about her not being the one to prove her love for Henry. Or anyone else for that matter.

"If I were you, Your Majesty, I'd find a place to hide," the Blue Fairy sternly suggested.

Regina looked around the room from the Blue Fairy to Emma and finally, to Henry.

Regina took a few swift, long steps toward her son and lowered herself almost into a kneeling position in front of him, his legs draped over one side of the hospital bed while his hands gripped the edge of it.

When Regina spoke, she did it slowly and paused to ensure her attention never turned to Emma, though she still saw the blonde in her peripheral vision. She couldn't look at the woman she just knew was rightfully glaring at her.

"Henry," Regina pleadingly started as her eyes flickered back and forth as she fought to keep them solely on her son. "No matter what you think, no matter what anyone tells you..."

The last four words she spoke were the hardest to say. She wanted to make sure Henry wasn't the only one who heard her loud and clear. Even though he and Emma were side by side and right in front of her, she wasn't sure Emma would understand all the ways she meant what she was about to say.

Without wasting anymore time, the words then flowed past Regina lips.

"I do love you."

Regina didn't stay long enough to see Henry's reaction and started to back away from him as soon as the words left her lips.

Just before she turned near the door to walk forward through it, she glanced over at Emma one last time. She looked at Emma for the briefest of moments, but her gaze held an immense amount of emotion. If words weren't enough, she would use her final look at Emma to convey what she hadn't been brave enough to say until she wasn't just saying it to Emma. She hadn't been able to admit her feelings until that very moment, the moment she was suddenly running away from. But at least she'd said it. Maybe a little too late, but she'd finally said it.

And Regina knew she meant it.

Waiting to say it was just one more regret to add to a black-hearted Evil Queen's long and shameful list of deceit, loathing, and regret.

Clouds of purple frothed from the well after Rumpelstiltskin dropped the vile into it. The smoke gushed out like water in an overflowing bathtub and cascaded over the ground. It slowly swept across grass, dirt, and concrete as it made its way from the well to the surrounding woods and further into town.

Rumple grinned as he watched the purple clouds dance across the town and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and reveled in the power the smoke gave him.

The usually gray town of Storybrooke was blanketed with purple smoke within twenty minutes as it sped up the closer it got to the center of town.

No one knew what it was, but it was large, ominous, and imminent.

Snow White and Prince Charming had finally cleared the Mary Margaret and David fog that had kept them away from each other for twenty-eight long years. They called out to each other as they walked down Main Street in opposite directions, lost in thought until they saw each other. They stopped themselves before they became ships passing in the night and smiled when their eyes locked.

They crossed the street and met each other halfway as they eliminated the distance between them. Instantly, they wrapped their arms around each other in a loving embrace and kissed.

Only when they separated to stare into the familiar eyes of the other did they notice the purple cloud that seemingly threatened all of Storybrooke. They quickly rushed into another embrace and Charming shielded Snow from the storm as they hugged in the center of the street.

In the hospital, Emma ran her fingers through Henry's hair and smiled at him when a nurse dropped a metal food tray. It clattered on the hospital floor and startled both Emma and Henry.

"Are you okay," Emma asked as she hurried over to the nurse who stood as still as a statue and stared out the window with wide, fearful eyes.

Henry padded over to join Emma in the socks provided by the hospital that had the grip pattern on the soles. When he came to check on the nurse himself, the woman slowly raised her hand and pointed at the window.

Emma and Henry followed the direction of her pointed finger and saw the purple smoke approach them.

"What is that," Emma breathlessly asked.

Regina paused in the doorway of her own bedroom as she stared at her bed and replayed moments with Emma in her head.

She vividly remembered the way Emma arched her back and bucked her hips. She saw it clearly in her mind all the moments Emma gave her everything with just one expression caused by Regina's pleasing hands.

She pictured it. The way Emma scrunched up her face for a split second before she came undone in front of Regina. The way Emma relaxed whenever Regina coaxed her down from her sexual high and gently brought her back to reality.

Regina then envisioned Emma under her on the mattress, not from memory but from desire for more. A fantasy.

She imagined Emma's blonde hair fanned out around the younger woman's face on the pillow as Emma smiled up at her. She imagined leaning in with a smile of her own plastered on her face and kissing Emma's lips, chaste but filled with love.

She imagined doing everything she should have done. Like telling Emma the truth or pushing Emma away. Running Emma out of town or not getting involved with Emma.

But all those options left her mind as quickly as they came.

It only took the sight of Emma's lopsided smile burned into her brain and stuck on pause like a freeze frame for Regina to make a startling realization.

That realization led her to Henry's room.

She slowly made her way to his bed and sat down. She grabbed his pillow and hugged it tightly against her before she finally let herself cry in the way she reserved for when she was alone.

She cried and cried as she played the same thought over in her head like a broken record.

I lost my family.

It wasn't until she noticed the light change in the room. Even with her eyes closed, Regina had noticed the brightness from outside that came through the window start to dim and darken.

She opened her eyes and stared out at the approaching clouds. Tear tracks glistened on her cheeks as she removed herself from Henry's bed and came to stand in front of the window.

When she saw the color of the clouds as they washed over the town, she grinned.

It took another minute before the clouds engulfed her house, but it felt good when it finally passed over her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath like Rumple had earlier. She felt what the purple smoke had to offer and basked in it as she opened her eyes.

Her usually brown eyes glowed with purple sparks for a few long seconds before they faded back to their normal color.

Magic was back.

Note: Next chapter starts to deviate a tiny bit from canon once again. I'm really hoping all of you like how I plan to change the events of season 2 while still keeping them relatively the same. :D

And I do have a reason for Regina and Emma not kissing to break the sleeping curse, but I won't tell you why for quite a few more chapters. Sorry.

Let me know what you think!