"Come. I have someone I wish you to meet." The queen stood up from the paperwork that she had been studying for the last hour whilst Emma amused herself with a pack of cards.

"Who?" Emma queried as she neatly knocked down her wobbly house of cards into a pile on the table. Regina ignored the question.

"Do you remember a couple of months ago telling me about your son?" Emma nodded as the pair strode through a tangle of corridors. "Well I think it's time you met my son."

"You have a son?!" Emma exclaimed in surprise.

"Of a sorts."

"What's that s'pose to mean?"

"If you don't interrupt I'll tell you." The Queen smirked at Emma who bit back her response, too intrigued to jeopardise this display of trust. "Nearly a decade ago I was out riding in the woods at the edge of my kingdom. Not far from where I discovered you Bachelor Knight. I heard a noise from a ditch at the side of one of the lesser riding tracks; I drew my horse to a stop and listened to the muffled cries of an infant. Intrigued I dismounted and went over to locate the source of the noise. In the ditch I found a child, a baby, wrapped in a thin blanket, red faced from bawling, possibly for hours. I picked the infant up, knowing that it had been abandoned. The child was cold, confused and hungry; I held him close to me and conjured a bottle of milk. Here's the part you will find most amusing Emma, I sat on the cold, dusty, dirty ground and feed the child, keeping it warm. At last the child was content enough to fall asleep. I took him back to the palace with me.

I named him after my late father, Henry. I knew I couldn't formally adopt him because it would cause conflict among my advisors and conflict over the throne at a later stage. However I did keep him as my own. I had many trusted advisors who took care of the day to day running of the kingdom so that I could spend time with my son. It became easier as he grew older and started schooling. I would see him when he wasn't with his tutor and perform my royal duties whilst he was learning.

I used to see him everyday but for a while now, perhaps a month before you arrived, I have only been seeing him once or twice a week. He found out that he was adopted, well I say found out, mostly he just pieced it together, it's not too difficult to do, he doesn't look enough like me and by listening to rumours he could gather that the only man the servants think I have been with is Graham, and he doesn't look enough like him anyway. He hasn't been talking to me in more than monosyllabic answers ever since."

Emma slid her hand briefly into the Queens and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Regina moved aside a tapestry to reveal an archway in the stone wall, they continued along it for about ten minutes before it opened into a clearing with a little house surrounded by woodland.

A woman's voice called from inside the house "Henry if you've got my crossbow again I swear I will…" She didn't get to finish the threat as a little blur of light brown hair raced out of the woods and through the door. "No Granny, I haven't gone near your crossbow since last time." Emma glanced at Regina and saw a small smile on her face, something told her she knew all about this 'last time'. An old woman appeared in the window, her hair done up in a bun, she nodded curtly at the Queen.

"Henry you have visitors." The boy trudged out of the house and allowed himself to be embraced by Regina.

"Hello Henry. It's lovely to see you."

"Mom." was his only response. He pulled out of Regina's arms and looked questioningly at the woman his mother had brought along with her, usually she came alone.

"This is Bachelor Knight Swan." The little boy stepped in front of Emma and looked at her with a critical eye. In that moment Emma could see him clearly. She gasped and looked over the boys head to Regina who gave a slight nod. The kid had Emma's eyes, her Mother's chin, Father's eyebrows and there were undoubtedly some features that she recognised as Baelfire's, such as his hair.

"Hey kid." Emma said, bending down to his level, he looked levelly into her eyes before giving a satisfied nod.

"I didn't know Mom had any girls in her knight ranks."

"Emma's currently the only one." Regina replied.

SQSQSQSQSQ

"He talked a lot." Emma commented. It was true; he had talked about every minor detail of his day.

"Yes, I think it helped that you were there. He likes you."

"Yeah and he loves you Regina, no matter what, you're his Mom." Regina nodded and turned her head slightly but not before Emma could see the smile gracing her lips. "So, is he really? When did you work it out?"

"Is he really what Swan?"

"Is he my Son?"

"He's my son!" Regina snapped.

"I know and he always will be. But is he mine as well?"

"Yes. I started investigating after you told me. I had almost given up on ever hearing word on your child when I was looking at some portraits done of the two of us and it suddenly struck me how similar you were. Then I magically checked."

"I'm guessing he doesn't know."

"No, not yet." Emma picked up on that particular phrasing but chose not to comment.

"I am currently passing a law that will mean that he will succeed me."

"What does that mean for the White Throne, as I'm sure you're aware by now, I'm not having another kid."

"Well they are already missing their heir apparent, they must already have put a contingency plan in place, otherwise they are even bigger idiots than I thought."
"Hey! That's my parents you're talking about."

"The parents you ran away from because they were not listening to you." Regina pointed out, lying down in her bed. Emma fell down beside her and both stared up at the ceiling.

"What's going to happen, Regina?" Emma asked in a small voice. Regina moved a hand over to clasp one of Emma's.

"The Ogre Tournament is soon. You've progressed through the ranks of Knighthood quickly; you would be an even higher rank now if it were not for your specific duties."

"You do realise that the more often you refer to this arrangement as my 'specific duties' the more you fuel the rumours that we are bedding each other." Regina let out a snort of amusement, even this most common sound could be turned regal by the Queen. Emma forced herself not to think of other noises the Queen could make, especially after her last comment.

"Either way I would be more than happy to champion you, and you're popular enough with the other Knight's, none would stand in your way and try to take your place as champion."

"Only because they think we're in love."

"Aren't we?" Regina turned over so that she was facing Emma who refused to meet her gaze.

"Don't do this to me Regina. I've already said I want more than just you bedding me."

"I know." Regina said softly, running her thumb over Emma's hand. "You want emotions. Emma for weeks now you have slept beside me as opposed to in another bed."

"Because you don't want your nightmares."

"Because I want you close to me. If it was still just about nightmares surely I'd have pushed you for more again. We have a son."

"You said that he was your son." Emma pointed out as she rolled over to meet Regina's eyes.

"I might be willing to share. I told you that I would provide for you and your son if you ever found one another, I meant it."

"I know you did." Emma said softly. Regina slowly and cautiously leaned in and placed a chaste kiss upon the princess's lips.

"Night Emma." Regina rolled over to hide her wide smile and settled herself against Emma before clicking her fingers to put out the lights.

"Goodnight Regina and thank you for looking after our son." Emma whispered back, her mind racing with the possibilities the Ogre Tournament could bring. Regina's smile only widened as she felt Emma press a sweet kiss to the back of her neck before the Queen fell asleep.

A/N: Please let me know what you think and if you found this a bit rushed, I just got a bit excited about the idea of Henry and couldn't be bothered to go through the ins and outs of everyday life for months. Thank you to everyone who's reading, following, favouriting and reviewing X