I am trying to get back in the groove here lol! I've got the next chapter planned out, all I need to do is write it :) please review! Seriously I live for your reviews! I write for you guys and I want to know what you think :) Enjoy!

"What's on your mind?" David questioned kindly after a long stretch of silence as he drove.

"Stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Mum said you wanted to talk to me. I don't want to talk to you," he grumbled and kept his attention out his window.

David let a breath out his nose and watched Henry for a little bit before turning his eyes back to the road. "I know that this is a lot to take in, Henry," he started sympathetically and glanced over to the boy but he did not meet his gaze, "even I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am with your mother..."

"What about Snow...?"

"What about her?"

"You are her true love! That's the most powerful magic of all! How does it just disappear like that?!"

"It didn't disappear, Henry."

"Well then what happened?! I don't get it!"

David took in a deep breath as he crossed his jaw with thought and then started with a nod, "alright let's see if we can figure out how to make sense of this," he offered and glanced once again toward Henry who was watching him unhappily. "Here's what I've got so far. True love isn't just one definite thing. It applies to a lot of things. I don't think it is only possible to have one true love, I think you can have more than one in a life time."

"I don't think so," Henry argued with a frown.

"No? Well how do you explain Emma waking you up in the hospital? She truly loves you and you truly love her. You think now you will never find a girl you will truly love because your true love is Emma?"

"...that's different though."

"How so?"

"Cause she's my mom!"

"So? Do you love Regina any less?"

"No!"

"Then who's to say she couldn't have woken you up as well?"

"No one! But that's not the point! If true love can break any curse then why are so many curses left unbroken? If true love is so popular then why is it so precious?"

"I wouldn't say it's popular. It just so happens that in our family everyone has a great capacity to love. We are capable of loving more than one person at a time. Now you can love everyone on the entire planet but there will only be a select few that you will truly, truly love. There is a difference between love and true love. As for breaking curses I think curses are intelligent in a way. Particularly the dark curse. I don't believe a curse can be broken by any kiss of true love, I think it has to be a certain pairing. The pairing with the strongest bond of true love.

Some may argue that because Emma woke you up, you love her more than you do Regina. Now I do not entirely think that is correct. I've seen you and Regina together and the pair of you are thick as thieves. The dark curse had to be broken by Emma. There was no other way. So I think that no matter how true the love between you and Regina; Emma was the only one who could wake you up. Even if Regina was the stronger option."

"Okay but what about you and my mom and Snow? You're getting off topic."

"I was not off topic. I was making the gears turn in that clever head of yours. I love Snow and I will always love her there is absolutely no question. However the love I feel for your mother is so much stronger than anything I have ever felt. I am convinced that if I so happened to fall under some unbreakable curse, Regina would be the only one who could break it. I believe that the love found between your mother and I will easily trump the love between Snow and I."

Henry frowned at him and then looked down at his fingers as he fidgeted with them in silence.

David looked down at him as he turned his truck around a corner, "what's troubling you now?"

"Did you hear what you said?"

"Which part?"

"That my mom is now your True Love."

"Oh..." David whispered dumbly and moved his thumbs over the steering wheel as he drove. No he didn't quite catch that when it left his mouth. He knew he was saying it but he didn't really catch the full blow of the meaning behind it. "Yeah I uh...I guess I did say that."

"Do you mean it?"

"...yes I do."

"You hesitated."

"No I didn't hesitate. I just freaked myself out a little. It's one thing to know you love someone completely and it's another to say out loud that they are in fact your True Love...it's always been Snow and me in my head and while I said it was over between us it was never really over. There was always a thread of doubt in my decision. It's gone now though," he added quietly and thoughtfully. And then after a few moments of silent thought he smiled and nodded to himself.
"I still don't like it."

"That's alright."

...

Regina swatted indifferently through the clothes hanging on the rack looking for something else for Cora to try. She was not having fun to say the least. She was rather cranky in fact. Store after store, hour after hour, she could not get a rise out of Cora. How she had gone from the woman she knew, the woman who would correct the smallest of things, the woman who was heartless and stern and so angry she could easily be titled vicious and almost sociopathic, to this...thing...that ignored all of her attempts to get her to lash out and fight, she hadn't the slightest clue.

She couldn't make any sense of it. It wasn't even a gradually change, it happened within hours; minutes even. She clamped her mouth shut when she caught herself mumbling incoherent words under her breath and instead pulled a jacket off the rack and looked it over.

"The clothes in this world are very...different," she commented as she walked out of the small dressing room feeling the thin fabric of her shirt. She was used to heavier materials and many different layers of them.

"It is a very different world," Regina deadpanned and handed Cora the burgundy blazer and she gave it a quick once over before putting it on. Black leather boots under dark bootcut jeans, a black top with subtle detailing around the gently swooped neckline, and then a burgundy blazer without buttons. Regina gave an approving nod as she stepped forward and tugged at the blazer to assure its straightness.

She felt Cora's eyes on her but she didn't look up. She was hoping for some explosion of anger for her behaviour but Cora remained neutral and content. With a sigh out her nose, Regina nodded back toward the dressing room as a signal to try on something else. She didn't get the chance to move an inch however for a certain blonde suddenly appeared at Regina's side.

"God damn it!"

"Miss Swan!" Regina jumped at the sudden appearance and voice of the blonde, "where-"

"This has been happening all day, Regina! I'm losing my mind! I can't-!"

"Shut that big mouth of yours unless you want the entire world to know what you are dealing with," Regina hissed in a stern whisper and immediately Emma snapped her mouth shut and fidgeted with her fingers. When panicked green eyes flashed past her and focused on something over her shoulder, Regina closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers with a long sigh.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"You must be Regina's mother, Cora," Emma greeted politely and tried to ignore the sudden and powerful desire to run from her presence.

"Yes. And you are?"

"Emma Swan. We uh spoke on the phone for a second."

"Oh yes. You are not how I expected."

"You spoke on the phone?!" Regina exasperated as she turned to face her mother.

"Yeah Henry called me to apologize after he ran off in the middle of the night and she must have walked in the room or something. Regina I really need to talk to you about this...thing."

Regina shook it off and waved her hand at her mother and once she turned and left, Regina turned to Emma, "what the hell are you doing here and where is Henry?"

"He's at the diner, he's just fine, he's probably going to be wondering where I went though in a few minutes."

"Why did you leave him there?!"

"I didn't mean to! That's the thing! This magic shit is going haywire! I've been poofing around town all day with no control and it is freaking me out! I told him I needed to call someone real quick as an excuse so he wouldn't see the fact that I'm terrified! What if I hurt him, Regina?!"

"Calm down, Emma," Regina whispered steadily and Emma worked at trying to even out her breathing.

"I went outside to get some fresh air and I started thinking about you and what you told me about staying calm before I snapped someone's neck and then I thought about how you would know what to do and poof here I am!" She threw her arms out at the end of her breath and felt her chest heave with ever breath after it, "help me," she whispered and cursed at the tears she felt burning behind her eyes. Tears of exhaustion, worry, panic, and stress. "Please, Regina, I don't know what to do."

"...why are you coming to me for help?"

Emma let out a tense laugh and rubbed her hands over her face before folding her arms over her chest, "why am I coming to the woman who tried to end my existence? The infamous Evil Queen? The woman who tore apart my family twenty eight years ago and finished the job a couple months ago?"

"Yes."

"Because I trust you a whole hell of a lot more than I do Rumple-fucking-stiltskin!" She laughed and hugged herself closer, feeling a little reassured when Regina smiled a little.

After weighing out her options, Regina took a deep breath and gave a shrug of her shoulders, "I suppose I could help you," she agreed and then moments after she was tackled by the blonde with a tight hug. "Miss Swan," she scolded but the woman only started laughing quietly in an attempt to ward off her tears of relief. Regina said nothing of it for she understood the feeling. Not the laughing part but the relief part. The relief of something heavy being lifted from her shoulders.

She understood that.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," she whispered kindly with a gentle nod of her head.

"And this hug never happened!"

"I know not of what you speak," Regina shook her head in mock ignorance as Emma pulled away but she smiled just a bit when Emma breathed out a laugh. "Meet me at my family's mausoleum tonight at five and I will get you sorted with a temporary fix before we start working."

"Sounds great," Emma nodded with a smile and the brunette gave a single curt not back.

"Stop getting yourself worked up and you'll be fine."

"This dress seems very whorish," Cora frowned as she smoothed the navy blue dress over her stomach.

Emma took one look at the dress that had three-quarter length sleeves, a straight square neckline, with a length that hit Cora just at the knee and quickly covered her mouth and started laughing.

Regina rolled her eyes and motioned to Cora, "that is a very classic cut, it is not whorish!"

"It is so short and thin-"

"Oh for god's sake!"

"Why is she laughing?!"

"Because she is stressed and thinks your opinion of the dress' length is absolutely ridiculous."

"I'm sorry, Cora," Emma apologized and swallowed her laughter, "the dress looks great on you. Regina knows what she's doing when it comes to clothes. And for future reference; in this world 'whorish' doesn't come in to play until skirts hit a good few inches above the mid thigh range and are made of fake leather."

"...really?"

"Welcome to the twenty first century, mother."

...

Regina ran a hand through her hair as she crossed the foyer in to the dining room and Cora went upstairs with her new clothes. She didn't really mean to but she jumped at the sight of David in the kitchen. He simply smiled in greeting and she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, "I keep forgetting you live here."

David let out a quiet laugh and watched as she shook her head clear and walked to the cabinet for a glass, "how did it go?"

"Fine."

"That bad huh?"

Regina's mouth curled in to an irritated smile as she filled her glass with cold water, "she won't fight back."

"And that's a...bad thing?" He questioned but didn't receive an answer. She simply stood there staring in to her glass before taking a drink. "I thought you didn't want to fight. I thought you wanted her to change," still she didn't say a word and instead kept her eyes on her glass. After a small sigh out his nose he tried again, "Regina-"

"I have to go."

"You just got back?"

"I just have one more errand and I couldn't bring Cora with me," she excused plainly and as she walked passed him only to have him follow.

"Can I come with you?"

"No."

"Regina I've been stuck in the house all day without you. I'm bored."

"I shouldn't be long."

"Regina," he whined and she turned around with her hand on the doorknob and a displeased glare in his direction, "where are you going?"

"I am going to terrorize the town and build an army."

David breathed out a lighthearted chuckle and shook his head, "very funny."

"Don't believe me?"

"No not at all."

"Well perhaps I shall go kill Snow White then. She no longer has her airhead of a body guard at her side. Should be quite simple really."

"Seriously where are you going?" He smiled and she shrugged her shoulders.

"What does it matter?"

"I'm curious. And I love you."

"Well neither of those things require me to tell you. However Henry's presence requires you to stay here."

"Henry's not here," he shook his head and she countered with a raise of her eyebrows and opened the front door, taking a few steps forward causing him to take some backward. When he looked out the door over her shoulder he saw Emma walking up to the door with Henry in tow, "how did you do that?"

"I know when my son is near," she nodded at him with a smile before she turned around to greet him quietly, "hello sweetheart."

"Hi mum," he smiled as she bent down to his level.

"I just have to run out real quick but I will be right back. Okay?"

"Can I come with you?"

"No, honey, I have to do this alone. It's a secret project."

"Is it bad?"

"No. It's sort of a surprise," she smiled and he hummed a disappointed laugh, "I shouldn't be more than an hour. How about you come up with a name for it for me? You can tell me when I come back."

"Okay...you have to give me something to work with though."

"Well it's a secret. And it involves magic. And...birds."

"Birds?"

"Yes. Birds," she smiled and nodded, "think you can come up with something?"

"Sure," he nodded in agreement and she ran her fingers through his hair.

"Thank you. Behave for David and stay away from Cora."

"Okay."

"Miss Swan," she greeted in differently as she walked past her.

"Regina," Emma nodded in reply and proceeded to purposely ignore the woman to avoid suspicion from David and Henry, "see you around, kid," she smiled and gave him a push in to the house. Then more awkwardly she pushed her fingers in to her front pockets of her jeans and started backing away with a shrug of her shoulders, "bye David."

"Bye Emma," he smiled and she turned on her heels and walked away. He turned and looked in to the house but it seemed Henry had already gone up to his room. So David left the house and closed it behind him and jogged down around the side of the house to the driveway to check and see if Regina had driven away yet. She hadn't. As a matter of fact she stood leaning against the side of her car waiting for him with her arms folded over her chest and a smug smirk on her mouth as he rounded the corner just as she had apparently expected him to. He laughed low in his throat as he walked up to her and her smirk grew a little wider, "you're a little arrogant sometimes."

"I'm sure that the fact I'm always right doesn't exactly help the matter," she rocked her head in playful mockery as she looked up at the sky with her lips pursed.

"Shut up," he grinned and heard her laugh through her toothy grin before he pulled her head in to his and kissed her, easily pinning her against her black Mercedes. Her fingers lazily hooked in the waist of his jeans and she smiled happily through the kiss. He hummed against her through his smile and as he pulled away he moved his thumbs softly over her cheekbones just to feel her soft skin.

"I love you so much," he whispered softly and tucked her hair behind her ear as she hummed a happy loving sound.

"How do you say it like that?" She asked quietly in curiosity as his fingertips retraced their steps pushing her hair behind her ear.

"Like what?"

"So sure and convincing," she whispered and tilted her chin up and caught him in a single soft kiss.

"Because I am sure," he smiled and placed a finger on her chin as he pulled back enough to see her in focus, "and you still need to be convinced," he whispered kindly and she smiled up at him a little. "Now," he nodded with a smile and dropped his hand, "you need to go do your secret project so you can come back home," he reached down beside her and pulled on the door handle so the door clicked open and Regina looked down and to the side to smile at it, "to me."

He opened the door for her and she couldn't help but breathe out a small laugh at the gentlemanly gesture. "Thank you," she nodded in playful amusement and lowered herself in to the car.

David smiled as he folded his arms on top of the car door and then rested his chin on his arms as he watched her start the car. Her bright royal blue blouse stood out brilliantly against the dark car and her dark hair and black pencil skirt. A pop of colour that brightened her happy expression when she looked up at him. Her eyes were creased with her closed smile and those eyes were starting again to fill with life and joy instead of cold grief and misery.

"Such a pretty little thing you are," he smiled and let out a content sigh, smiling wider when she bowed her head a little to hide her smile, "see you soon."

"Goodbye David," she laughed under her breath, unable to wipe the smile from her face as he closed the door for her. She felt light with happiness and that was something she was still getting accustomed to feeling. It was so different from what she was used to feeling. She loved it.