A/N: Happy Sunday!


Whatever Emma had imagined when she pictured the moment she confessed to her son, the reality hadn't come close. It had by far exceeded her expectations. No, that wasn't fair; she had underestimated her son. Or perhaps she had overestimated Henry's awareness of what she had really done.

No, maybe she was underestimating him again. He wasn't a child, after all. But perhaps with the reassurances of both Regina and Emma that his future was not and would never be compromised ensured that he was focused not on what Emma had done but, finally, on the truth.

Henry deserved to know. He deserved to know not only about the jeopardy in which Emma had put his college fund but also what had happened to his mothers' relationship. To his family. Because their separation had been a shocking disruption to his life. It had come out of nowhere. There had been no explanation. For eleven years, every day, he had lived with two mothers, then one afternoon, he was told one was moving out. And he was left in the dark as to why. At least now he knew. At least now it made sense.

Of course Henry deserved to be told what had happened. Emma had always known that. She just hadn't expected to do it that night. And she hadn't expected it to go quite so well. Yet Henry had accepted her explanation, accepted her flaws. He still loved her. Her heart had swelled when she'd realised that. She hadn't lost him. In fact, perhaps she had found him again. No more secrets, no more hiding, no more denial.

After dinner, Henry had suggested they watch a movie. Emma and Regina readily agreed, allowing their son to choose the entertainment. Which was how they ended up sitting through two hours of a subpar story about some superhero they'd never heard of, saving the world which was being threatened by a poorly animated alien invasion.

But Emma didn't care. All she cared about was the fact that she got to sit on the couch with Regina snuggled into her side, Henry at the far end, chomping loudly on popcorn neither of his mothers wanted to deny him, despite the fact that his sugar content that night was bordering on dangerous.

After the movie had finished, Henry announced he was going to play games on his cell phone upstairs. His preteen behaviour was, they knew, a glimpse of what they were in for over the coming years. He no longer wanted to be around them all the time as he had as a young child. And that was ok; that was healthy. He was maturing; becoming his own person. And now they were going to need to steel themselves for the upcoming few years when he didn't even want to be in the same house as them, let alone sitting together for movie night.

So they wished their son goodnight, Emma calling out that she loved him as he retreated from the room. The boy, to her delight, echoed her words, albeit without turning around. Regina, however, repeated them in her ear, pressing a kiss to her neck before snuggling even closer.

Emma didn't think she had ever been happier as she tightened her grip around Regina's shoulders and switched off the TV where Netflix was trying to tempt her to watch some other drivel she had no interest in. She and Regina didn't need anything in that moment, except for one another. They settled into the warm body beside them, content to do nothing but be.

"I should call Kat," Regina said quietly ten minutes later, not wanting to break the silence but realising that she owed her friend a phone call. There had been a text on her cell when she'd glanced at it after dinner. The preview included the word sorry at least three times. She knew her friend would be kicking herself. It had been an honest mistake and she should put her out of her misery.

"Sure. Tell her no hard feelings, ok? I know she didn't mean to say what she said. It's not worth falling out over. I mean, we only just made up, right?"

"Agreed," Regina replied. "She didn't mean to put her foot in it in quite such spectacular style."

"I know. I bet she's kicking herself right now," Emma said. And while she had no desire to reignite her feud with Kat, the thought of the blonde wallowing in self-pity for a few hours wasn't entirely unwelcome. After all, it was Kat's fault that she had had to have such an uncomfortable conversation with her son, unprepared. That said, it had gone rather well. And, as Emma had realised, she was now free from that terrible secret she had been keeping from her son.

"Hey, can you tell Kat thanks from me?" Emma called after her wife who was walking out of the room and towards the kitchen where she'd left her cell phone.

Regina paused in the doorway. "Um, sure," she said slowly before recommencing her journey when it became obvious Emma wasn't going to elaborate.

By the time she returned, twenty minutes later, having listened to Kat apologise profusely and then having explained what happened when they told Henry, Emma was lying on the couch, lost in her phone.

"Well?" Emma asked when Regina sat back down and she recognised her presence once more.

"She feels awful, even after I told her how well it went. And passed on your thanks," she added with a quizzical expression.

Emma shrugged. Which is a difficult thing to do sitting down. So she pushed herself upright before sliding over towards Regina and resuming the position they had enjoyed throughout the movie. "She did me a favour," Emma explained. "I needed to tell Henry and if I hadn't been pushed, I would have just kept putting it off over and over again. I wouldn't have been surprised if I'd have confessed on my deathbed had it not been forced on me before that moment. And that's assuming I'm lucky enough to have a deathbed. So, I guess I owe Kat for this evening."

"You're very sweet. And perhaps it is best we've got it over and done with. How are you feeling?"

"Relieved. Lighter. As if I can finally breathe again, to be honest. Do you think he's really ok with it?"

"I don't think he truly grasped how big of a deal it was, to be honest," Regina sighed, stroking her fingers up and down the back of Emma's bicep, feeling the toned muscles beneath the skin. "He's never worked a day in his life. He doesn't understand the value of money. So the fact that money he didn't know he had is no longer there is, I suppose, intangible for him."

"It's not intangible for me. Or for you."

Regina heard the uncertainty in the woman's voice and wondered to herself whether Emma truly would believe that Regina had forgiven her.

"You're paying it back. I trust you never to do it again. You know you did wrong and you're not going to make that mistake again."

"I wish I had your confidence in me," Emma whispered, her own self-doubt showing itself in a moment of vulnerability.

"Maybe I have enough confidence in you for the both of us. At least until you have that confidence in yourself which you deserve."

Emma let the words wash over her, wrap around her, fill her up. Was it enough? Maybe it would have to be, at least for now. She was working on feeling confident in herself. She was determined to feel confident in herself. She was determined to beat this, to overcome this, to recover. Or, at least, to work on her recovery in such a way that she was confident in her own capacity to keep her addiction at bay.

"You're amazing, you know that?" she murmured.

"Oh, I'm well aware of that, my dear," Regina replied with a low, throaty chuckle.

That laugh, that tone, did funny things to Emma's stomach. No, not her stomach. Lower.

"Bed?" she asked. It was only nine thirty but she realised she was unable to wait any longer to lie with her wife in their marital bed. Luckily for Emma, Regina's thoughts were heading in the same direction. After months apart, they were still making up for lost time.

Regina shifted beside her before getting up and extending her hand towards her wife. "Let's go."


Monday morning dawned cool and bright, the springtime warmth not yet having burned away the dewy chill from the night before. Emma and Regina revelled for a few more minutes underneath their cosy duvet before giving into reality and getting up. It wasn't that either of them disliked their jobs; on the contrary. But that didn't mean they'd rather go to work when the other option was lying, naked, wrapped in one another.

The rest of the weekend had been nothing special, with Sunday spent together in their house doing chores and relaxing. It was refreshing to not leave their home by choice, rather than because it was unsafe to walk outside. And its normalcy, its lack of notability gave Emma an inkling of hope.

Her presence was no longer a novelty. Their weekends together had become standard, expected. Even though, in reality, it had only been a few weeks since their reconciliation. But both women, and their son, had settled back into the familiarity of the three of them being together. And that gave Emma hope.

"Bye Ma. See you on Wednesday," Henry called from the hallway before slamming the door shut on his way to school.

Oh yeah, Emma remembered. Not quite normal yet. She still didn't get to see her son every day and now she would have to wait until mid-week when it was her turn to look after Henry. She listened to the crunching of gravel under his ever-growing feet as he trudged down the driveway before turning back to her cereal, looking rather despondent. Regina watched her wife over the rim of her mug, her heart breaking at the expression she witnessed.

"Hey," she said softly. "You want to talk about it?"

Emma shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

"Well, I'm not."

At that, Emma looked up, face filled with concern. "What's wrong?" she asked, immediately forgetting her own wallowing.

Regina smiled gently and lowered her mug. "Emma, I want you to come home. It's time."

There was a long pause while Emma tried to process the words. Sure, they were words she'd dreamed of hearing for months but the two of them hadn't discussed a timescale for Emma's return to the family home and she hadn't been expecting them quite so soon. No matter how loved-up and happy they were, she knew there was still some way to go.

"Already?"

"If you're ready, I'm ready," Regina nodded. "I miss you when you're not here, Emma. And so does Henry. But I'm not just saying this because we miss having you around. You belong here, with us. We're your family. We belong together and I don't want to spend another night apart from you."

"I … I didn't know we were there yet," Emma confessed.

Regina wrapped her hands around her half-drunk mug of coffee and gazed into the inky blackness. "Well, maybe you're not. And that's fine. I'll wait if you're not ready. But I am."

"No, I'm ready," Emma said quickly. "I'm so ready. I've been wanting to move back in from the moment I left. Of course I want to come back. Not just because I miss you but because I think we can work on any of our problems better when we're together. And, yes, of course I get to spend more time with Henry too. So yes, Regina, if you're sure, I'll move back in tonight."

Regina beamed and stood up, making her way towards Emma just as the blonde did the same. They met, or rather collided in a hard kiss, sealing their commitment with a primitive but heartfelt display of passion for one another. Both were glad that their son had left for school because within moments Regina found herself perched on the edge of the dining table, Emma's fingers pressing between her legs with Regina's skirt hoisted up to the top of her thighs, the blonde's nose nudging her blouse open to lick and suck the warm skin of her breasts.

They were late for work.

And they didn't care. Because their marriage was back on track. Because their lives were back on track. It wasn't over. Emma's addiction would never be over. But they'd be together for whatever the future may hold. Together with their son. Their compassionate, understanding, forgiving son. Who deserved both his mothers. Who wanted and needed both his mothers. Under one roof. Who was going to be very happy when he came home after school that day to discover the news.


A/N: So, I've decided this is the penultimate chapter. That means next week will be the last one. Sorry! But I've been so busy recently that writing has become difficult and I'd rather wrap everything up neatly than drag it out with less frequent updates and probably poorer quality writing. Tune in next week to see how Henry reacts and, perhaps, a final NSFW scene for our ladies. Any requests for sexy time stuff, drop it into a review.