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"Why didn't you ever put your heart back in?" Henry inquired curiously like any other eleven year old boy would.

"I did once..." She replied quietly and then looked up at him as he sat on the counter beside her while she stood and stirred her dry ingredients together in a bowl.

"When?"

"When your mother was a baby. Only a few days old. I gave myself one night to truly love my little girl. She was so little," she smiled in to her large bowl and then glanced up at Henry to find him smiling right back and listening attentively. "So little and so beautiful. Only a few days old and I knew she was going to grow and be the most beautiful woman," she smiled and let out a single quiet laugh under her breath.

"She is really pretty," Henry agreed with a smile and Cora hummed while her smile grew a little more. But then it faded and she started shaking her head as she slowly stirred, dragging the wooden spoon around in the mixing bowl.

"To this day I don't know how it was possible for me to have such a beautiful thing. I certainly didn't deserve her. I don't deserve her this present day either," she shook her head one final time and watched the contents of the bowl move with her stirring. "I have so much guilt and so much regret. I am a horrid mother...I took it back out because I believed I had sacrificed too much already, that I was too far in to simply turn around and use my heart once more. I believed that love was weakness until recently. After watching your mother with you and with David I have finally realized what she was trying to make me see."

"And what was that?"

"That love is strength," she answered quietly with a small smile at the boy and it quickly faded when she looked back in to her bowl.

Henry watched her intently with a smile of his own and she kept her head down, "you were a horrible mother," he pushed and her dark eyes lifted to meet his, hopeful and pained, "but there is still lots of time to make up for what you did. My mom has a good heart. It's a very forgiving heart for the people she loves. And she does love you," he smiled and Cora gave a long and nearly silent sigh. Then he looked past Cora over her shoulder to his mother and smiled at her, finally acknowledging her presence after letting her listen in on his and Cora's conversation.

Cora watched as his focus moved behind her and when he smiled she turned to see who it was directed at. Her heart leapt in to her throat when her eyes found Regina for what seemed like the very first time. She looked absolutely terrified. Arms folded tightly over her chest as she seemed to cower backward and away from her.

Silence hung in the air for a few seconds before it was broken by Cora's voice, "Regina," her quiet voice cracked and Regina's tears started to fall as she drew in an audibly shaky breath.

She didn't know what to do and her voice was lost entirely. She wanted so badly to run away, she hated being vulnerable. But she willed herself to be brave and hold her ground however timidly. She tried to steady herself as Cora started walking toward her, placing her bowl on the counter as she passed it. The smile that was on her face was so big and so bright and so...happy. Regina didn't know how to respond to it. Her teary eyes merely flicked across the strange expression and the tears shining in eyes that were now so opposite of their once cold and empty appearance.

"Regina," she said again and stopped in front of her, unsure of what to do, of what could end up pushing her away. She gave a small laugh that was filled with joy and tears as she looked over her daughter for what truly seemed like the first time. "You are so beautiful," she laughed and felt a tear roll down her cheek while Regina opened her mouth as if to speak but no words left her mouth and tears fell instead.

The guilt and the betrayal and regret were so incredibly strong in her heart as she looked at her daughter but she could not look away from those tortured dark eyes. She felt sick to her stomach but she forced it down and reached forward to hold her head between her hands. Immediate with the contact she had tears falling down her face and she was both crying and laughing while Regina stood deadly still. Only her her tears were falling.

"My beautiful darling daughter," she whispered and shook her head with a pained expression and a broken heart. "What have I done to you," she shook her head and furrowed her brow, her voice low and shaky and hurt. When Regina shifted her weight and softly sucked in a small cry, Cora wasted no time in pulling her in to her and stepping in to her as well so she could hold her close. She thought there might be a delay between her holding Regina and Regina holding her back but there wasn't one at all.

Regina's arms were quickly clamped tight around her and one hand took a fistful of hair while the other took one of the back of her shirt as she buried her face in to her neck and shoulder and started to truly cry. She couldn't choose only one to focus on. She felt the overwhelming guilt and regret and pain along with the joy and love and relief that Regina would still have her. So her voice was heard in a messy combination of sobs and laughter as she held Regina as tight as she could.

"I am so sorry, my love," she cried against her soft dark hair and Regina merely continued to cry in to her, "I am so sorry. I love you so much, Regina. I love you so very much. Thank you for not giving up on me," she cried and smoothed her dark hair as her own tears fell from her closed eyes, "I love you with all of my heart you precious, precious girl."

She tried not to but she started choking on her breaths a little and she opened her hands only to take another fistful of both her hair and her shirt. Everything hurt but it felt so good. It was a welcome hurt and she tightened her arms as much as she could as she pushed her face deeper in to her mother's neck. The shaky and meaningful words kept flooding out of her mouth but Regina was only half listening to them now, focusing on what it felt like to have her mother finally hold her.

"I don't want to let go," Regina whimpered quietly and then sucked in another cry.

Cora let out a teary laugh and hugged her even tighter as she shook her head, "you don't have to, my darling Regina," she laughed and kissed the side of her head, "you don't ever have to."

She felt like a small child crying to her mother. But she didn't really care. She held on tight and kept crying quietly in to her neck and when her arms started to shake with fatigue she loosened her grip only enough to allow her to pull back and look Cora in the eye. Cora smiled a bright and beautiful smile at her but Regina was unable to return it, her face still creased with pain and heartache as she cried through her teeth and moved her hands to hold Cora's face.

Cora moved her hands so they held Regina's over the sides of her head and she gave a teary laugh but Regina eyes kept searching for the lie and the pain. She supposed she didn't really expect anything else from her poor daughter. "Will you ever forgive me?" She breathed out in a pained whisper, her smile and laughter gone as she squeezed her daughter's hands and those broken eyes moved quickly over her face. She let out a shaky rush of breath she didn't realize she was holding when Regina's lips formed into a small smile and she gave a small nod.

"Of course," she breathed out and Cora closed her eyes with a soft cry that broke Regina's heart. Cora's head hung forward a little and leaned in to her right hand ever so slightly and Regina dipped her head forward a little as well so she could rest her forehead against Cora's. "I love you, mother," she whispered and swallowed down a cry as Cora's shaking hands took hold of her wrists.

"I love you so much, my child," she laughed through her tears and pushed her forehead heavier in to Regina's. Her next words caught her by surprise and she believed that they were a rather unplanned announcement on Regina's part as well, a spirit of the moment sort of thing.

"I'm pregnant," she whispered and gave a teary laugh when Cora pulled her head back so she could look her in the eye with an excited grin, hopeful that she had heard her correctly.

"Really?"

"Yes," she nodded and felt more tears fall as she smiled and laughed.

"You're pregnant!" She laughed and held Regina's head between her hands.

"Yes."

"Wait you're pregnant?!" Henry snapped his head to his mother and she shot her eyes to his and he was not oblivious to the sudden panic in her eyes and on her mouth. She must have forgotten he was in the room, "that's awesome!" He cheered with the widest of grins and a surprised laugh and his mother relaxed with her relief at his excitement, "that's the coolest news ever!"

"I am so proud of you!" Cora laughed and kissed Regina's cheek before pulling her in to a hug that Regina eagerly returned, "I'm so happy for you! Congratulations my darling girl."

"I'm going to be a big brother! I'm so excited right now! Is it a girl or a boy!? You have to tell me when you know, mom!"

...

"How you holding up?" He asked softly as he came around the back of the couch with two mugs of hot chocolate, one for himself and one for Cora upon her odd and amusing request. She had wanted to know if it tasted different with her heart back. What had brought it to her mind he had no idea but he offered to make her some all the same.

"I'm alright I think," she smiled and nodded and when he offered her her mug she took it with a quiet 'thank you' and then smiled at the way it warmed her hands. "It's all so different," she shrugged a little and David smiled as he sat down on the floor a little askew from her seat on the couch so his head was in line with Regina's. She had fallen asleep on the couch with her head in Cora's lap while Cora played with her hair. It warmed her new heart and every time she looked down at her daughter she couldn't help but smile.

"She's beautiful..."

David hummed in agreement and nodded with a smile as Cora ran her fingers through Regina's hair above her ear, "yes she is."

"You love her."

"Very much," he smiled and Cora smiled a little more while she watched her fingers move through Regina's soft dark hair.

"I can tell," she glanced up at him with a smile and he breathed out a soft chuckle in to his mug before he took a sip, "and you have a baby coming," she nodded with a growing smile and she didn't think she had ever seen a smile as joyous as the one that crossed his face as he looked in to his mug and she took a sip of her own.

"If I had been told in the Enchanted Forest before the curse came that only months after it was broken I would find myself happily living with Regina and she was pregnant with my child, I would have been furious and called them a god damn lunatic before I threw them in an asylum," he chuckled with a shake of his head and then looked down to his sleeping love, "but now I can't think of anything I want more than her and this baby."

Cora smiled quietly as she watched David look over her daughter so tenderly and with such love it would warm anyone's heart. "May I ask what had you switching from loathing every breathe she took to loving her very being?"

David gave a single soft laugh out his nose and shook his head a couple times as he looked at Regina and she remained asleep, "what had me falling head over heels for the woman who left massacres in her wake? Who single handedly made my life a living hell?"

"Yes."

"Many little things," he answered quietly and tilted his head a little as he watched Regina, trying to compare her now with the woman she was before.

"Like?"

"Her smile, her fear, her vulnerability, her strength, her respect for me, her trust in me, her laugh, the way the gift of a single flower can make her smile like a giddy teenager, her incredibly clever mind, the way she holds the string of her bow against her lips before she lets the arrow fly, the way she bites her lip when I've made her laugh and she desires a kiss, her boldness, her shyness when it comes to showing affection in public, her will to try, the way she calls me out on my shit," he chuckled quietly and Cora bummed a quiet laugh of her own, "even that raging temper is something I've grown rather fond of," he shook his head and smiled up at Cora before looking down at Regina again.

"But the thing that takes away every single inkling of that menacing queen is in the dead of night when she is fast asleep and she rolls over in search of warmth and nuzzles her face right in to my neck and wraps her arms around me and doesn't move again until morning," he smiled and tilted his head the other way, "and when she wakes up and she's still sleepy and groggy, she gives me the best smile and tells me she loves me before she settles herself back in my arms with her nose in my neck. It makes her human," he smiled and shrugged his shoulders up as he looked to Cora and found her smiling down at him, "she's changed."

"To win the heart of the valiant Prince Charming, she'd have had to have changed," Cora replied quietly with a smile and David gave a quiet laugh through his closed lips.

...

David dropped down in his chair with a long sigh and a mug of coffee in his hands. He spun his chair around and lifted his feet on to the edge of his daughter's desk only to be scolded as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Feet. Off." She swatted halfheartedly at his feet.

He breathed out a chuckle as he put his feet back on the floor and rolled his chair forward so he could rest his elbows on its surface to mirror Emma's position and look out the window in to the rest of the sheriff's station and jail cells he still had to find time to fuck Regina against. Quickly pushing that delicious thought aside he asked curiously, "what are you looking at, Squinty?"

"Cora..." She replied and squinted her eyes further when David gave an understanding hum and took a lazy sip from his coffee and looked out the window where Cora and Henry were playing a game of slaps. When Cora was too slow to pull away and got the tops of her hands smacked by Henry she gave a surprised yelp and a good laugh while Henry laughed victoriously and they both put their hands back in to position. Emma simply shook her head and took a sip of her own coffee, "it's not right..."

"It's certainly new," he nodded slowly and bit back a laugh and a smile as he took another sip of hot coffee.

"She's so...smiley..."

"Mhhmm..."

"And laughy...that woman never laughs...unless it's at someone's stupidity."

"She seems...happy."

"Yes...why?" She whispered slowly and squinted her eyes further as she took a longer sip of her morning drink. Cora gave a shout of success followed by another bout of joyous laughter when she managed to get Henry back and Emma shook her head slowly, "did Regina drug her?"

The effort it took not to snort out a laugh and choke on his coffee was that of immense proportions at his daughter's baffled but serious tone, "not that I'm aware of."

"You sure?"

"Yes I'm rather sure."

"Hmm. You think she's been replaced? Her body snatched by another life form?"

"Aliens?"

"Hey now, given the shit that has happened in the past few months aliens is not all that far fetched."

"Fair enough," he nodded and smiled in to his coffee as he took another swallow.

"Has Regina noticed?" She asked suspiciously as she watched Henry and Cora play through her squinted eyes, "what does she have to say about it?"

"Don't know. Cora doesn't live with us anymore remember?"

"Right...do you think perhaps she fell on her head?"

"Well...she is rather old. I suppose she could have fallen down the stairs or something."

Emma turned her head from Cora and Henry with a laugh and looked at David, "that's so mean!" She laughed and he laughed with her.

"It could happen!" He defended with a growing laugh, his heart bursting with joy over how easy it was now to spend time with his daughter.

"Doesn't mean it's not terrible thing to say!"

"Oh like being abducted and dissected by aliens is any kinder!" He laughed and she rolled her eyes and shook her head as she laughed.

"Okay seriously?! Look me in the eye that and tell me that's normal! I dare you!" She pushed her hand forward and David looked out the window to see Regina and Cora smiling at one another while Cora held Regina's face between her hands and Regina held her hands over her wrists with a happy laugh.

"No I suppose it's not normal," he agreed and she nodded and dropped her hand so it smacked lightly against her desk. He breathed out a light chuckle in to his mug and took another drink of it before he shook his head and started to stand, "I guess what we should get this thing started hey."

Emma watched him carefully through partially squinted eyes as he stood and held back his growing smile, "you're totally screwing with me right now aren't you. You know exactly what is going on with her."

"Maybe," he grinned and walked to the door with his coffee in hand.

"Awe come on! Throw a dog a bone!" She whined and laughed as she stood and he held the door open for her. David merely chuckled and said nothing more as she walked passed him and they joined Regina, Henry, and Cora.

"Miss Swan," Regina greeted with a smile and a nod and Emma crossed her jaw and pursed her lips as she looked between her and Cora who was standing just behind her with Henry, "what?"

"What's going on here?" She lifted a hand and pointed between her and Cora and Regina tilted her head in a question, "what's with all the laughing and the smiling and happiness?"

"What are you Scrooge now?" Regina chuckled and got half a smile from the blonde's pursed lips, "no joy in the work place?"

"Oh you're one to talk," Emma laughed and Regina laughed through her teeth.

"Mom put grandma's heart back in her and now she can feel things again," Henry laughed and spun around in his chair.

Emma looked at him incredulously with a disbelieving laugh, "seriously? That's the best you've got? My alien body swap theory is more believable than that."

"It's true!"

"It is," Cora confirmed with a smile and Emma furrowed her brow and looked her up and down before looking to Regina.

"Wait seriously?! I thought it was just a figure of speech when you said you had a heartless mother! I didn't think you were actually being literal!"

"Well I was," Regina shrugged a little and Emma huffed out a surprised breath, "but we can get more in depth on that topic later."

"During Operation Penguin," Henry chimed in as he continued to spin on his chair.

"Operation Penguin?" Emma asked curiously, "it that what we are calling this one?"

"No," Henry chuckled and paused his spinning, "Operation Penguin is whatever you and mom are doing together all the time. Black and white, Saviour and Evil Queen? This one I'm calling Operation Raptor!"

"Oh?" Emma chuckled and put her hands on her hips and Regina rolled her eyes in amusement.

"He's been watching Jurassic Park," Regina laughed out and Emma nodded and laughed as well.

"They're awesome! They're clever and sneaky and they're hunting method is pretty fantastic," he nodded and laughed as he started spinning his chair again, "I figure we could totally use it on that Greg guy."

"And he is right," Regina nodded seriously and Henry grinned, "getting Greg focused on one thing while everyone else plays their part and with the right timing, we rid this town of him and he's none the wiser until it's too late and he's outside the town line and Storybrooke is out of reach once more."

"And you have this all planned out already?"

"No but it's certainly a plausible theory."

"And what about this whole immune to magic thing? Is that really that big of a deal? I mean I saw you take down a bunch of giant ogres with nothing but an arrow and personally witnessed you kicking David's ass with a sword," she shot a thumb over her shoulder and David laughed with a playful 'hey!'

"Well I can't very well carry around a sword or a bow and quiver of arrows with me all day now can I? And what little hand to hand combat I do know is not going to do me any good at all against him if he were to attack me."

"He's not going to attack you, Regina," David frowned.

"You don't know that, David."

"Well what about a gun? You could stick it in your bag and no one would ever know," Emma shrugged and Regina shook her head and laughed quietly.

"Do I look like I know how to use a gun, Emma?"

"No but that's the point," she motioned toward her and Regina cocked her head and furrowed her brow as she listened intently, "he's not going to expect you to be armed with such an ordinary weapon. It's small, easy to conceal, powerful, and will most certainly give him pause if you were to pull it on him."

"But I don't know how to use it, Emma," she laughed irritably and pushed her head forward as she shook it.

"Well I'll teach you then," she offered and Regina paused, caught a little off guard, "a little return favour for all you're doing for me in Operation...Penguin or whatever."

Regina mulled it over quietly and when she heard no protests from her people and came up with none herself she nodded and Emma nodded in return, "but where will we do this? We can't very well go running down Main Street with guns blazing."

"We'll have to find somewhere secluded. If need be we can leave Storybrooke and go to an actual shooting range, I don't know. We'll figure it out."

"...what is a gun?" Cora asked curiously from her place behind Regina as she leaned against a desk with her arms folded over her chest and Henry laughed as he sat in his chair beside her.

Emma breathed out a laugh and took her gun from her hip and made sure the safety was on before she handed it to Cora to look at, "it's a weapon. It shoots a hunk of metal called a bullet and it hurts to get shot and can easily kill a person if you hit them in the right spot."

"Hmm," she hummed shortly as she examined the black weighted device, "do many people use them?"

"Depends on what state you live in," Emma chuckled and shrugged her shoulders, "but yeah I guess a lot of people use them. Not many in Storybrooke though I imagine."

"David stop worrying-"

"How can I not worry, Regina?" He whispered a little harsher than he intended and she huffed a frustrated breath out her nose, "all this talk of being hurt or attacked or kidnapped and you being defenceless-"

"Those are just possibilities, David. There's no saying that it is actually going to happen."

"Well I don't like that they are possibilities!"

"And I don't like that there is the possibility of you getting hit by a car on your way to work everyday!"

"That's different, Regina! I don't actually have someone plotting to hurt me!"

"I've spent the majority of my life with people plotting to kill me! This is no different!"

"It is different!"

"How is it different, David?!"

"Because you have people who love you now, Regina!" He snapped, their voices still in raised whispers so as not to disturb Henry, Emma, and Cora who were just down the hall getting a snack in the staff kitchen area, "you have people in your life now! You have me, you have Henry, you have Cora, you have Emma-"

"I hardly believe that Emma holds any form of affection toward me."

"You are her friend, Regina, and that matters to her," he argued and she rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. And then he quieted his voice and moved his hands to hold her sides and his thumbs moved over her stomach, "you also have a little one to look after."

"I am perfectly capable of dealing with this Greg character, I'm not yet a whale."

"No but you still have someone else to care for that no one else can for you," he reasoned sternly and she huffed furiously.

"I swear, David, if you're going to be like this the whole pregnancy-!"

"I'm not, Regina! But you can't go galavanting around waving guns in the air and taunting a mad man who's out for your head when you have a family to care for!"

"This family is exactly why I have to do this! I need to keep you all safe!"

"You're pregnant?"

Both David and Regina snapped they're heads to the door with wide eyes and partially opened mouths at the sound of Snow's quiet voice. Silence filled the room and it was absolutely deafening. David could feel his heart aching in his chest at the devastation in her expression, "Snow. How long have you been standing there?"

"Um..." She shook her head and looked down as she swallowed back her tears, "not all that long...I was just waiting for you two to stop arguing...I...how long have you...?"

"Not long at all," Regina answered quietly and then glanced at David when he looked at her.

"You weren't supposed to find out this way..." He apologized quietly and she gave a sorrowful laugh.

"And how was I supposed to find out, David?" She shook her head and looked up at him, "were you going to sit me down and give me some big spiel of how much you love her and how sorry you are that I have to watch her grow? Or were you just going to put it off until you're darling mistress could no longer hide her size?" She laughed bitterly and Regina gave a half hearted roll of her eyes and David shook his head.

"No, Snow, I-"

"Save it, David," she snapped with a shake of her head and he closed his mouth with a regrettable sigh, "I came here to tell you and Emma that two more people have entered the town. I saw them at the diner over lunch and I figured you should know and take that in to account for your master plan or whatever you guys are doing in here when your not doting on Her Majesty's every whim," she bit out and Regina looked at her entirely unimpressed and bored, "have a nice day, David," she pushed out as she turned on her heels and left the office.

"Snow," he called after her and Regina granted her permission for him to go after her with a light push on his chest and he placed a rubbing hand over her arm as he left as a motion of thanks, "Snow!"