A/N: Hello again! Thanks to all of you for following/favouriting/reviewing, we're reaching the halfway point now!

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You should never fight

With a lover for your life

You deserve the sun

Just as much as anyone

And someday you'll make up

For all the time you've lost

- Hurray For the Riff Raff, I Know You

Emma lost track of the time, caught up in the regularity of spending time with her son. Though she was truthfully still getting used to being a mother, she'd soon realised how normal, how natural it felt being with him. Children, especially Henry, could love unconditionally, and Emma felt a sense of relief in participating in a relationship which she knew would be almost impossible to fracture.

As a result, it was dark by the time she pulled up outside the house, a paper bag with Regina's food in one hand and a card from Henry in the other. She turned the key in the lock with trepidation, cautious of waking Regina if she'd been able to sleep nightmare-free while Emma had been away.

Turning on the hall light, Emma heard Regina call to her from the front room.

"Emma? Is that you?"

"Nope, just a burglar. With a key." Emma kicked off her shoes, and bustled in to the room, where she saw Regina, tucked into the sofa with a blanket pulled around her and a tired complexion. "You got any sleep today?"

"Some. Thankfully, peaceful. It took me a while to drop off though, so it was most of the day lost." Regina smiled wanly as Emma passed her her food, and the woman took the seat next to her.

"Henry got you a card."

"He's very sweet. Does he want to see me?"

"He's been begging me for weeks. He really misses you."

"I think… maybe I could try it. You don't think I'd disappoint him, do you? I'm not his mother, not now."

"Honestly, this wouldn't faze him. He loves you, memories or no memories. You're the same person, you're still his mom."

"I'm not. I can't be. I'm not anyone like this, I can't be what he's expecting of me."

"I just told you, Regina, he's not expecting anything! He just wants to see you!"

"No, I can't. I'll destroy it, like I am this." she signalled between herself and Emma. "I can't control how I am, and I don't want to fracture our relationship if it's in a good place for if I get my memories back."

"You're doing it again. You're sabotaging yourself! Not two seconds ago, you wanted to see him, and nothing has happened to change your mind! If you keep on like this, not wanting to take any risks, pushing people away, you aren't going to get better."

"I can't push people away if they weren't in front of me to begin with." Regina responded coolly, a glaze forming over her eyes. Emma went to grab the woman's hand, but pulled away quickly when she felt the heat emanating from it, and the sparks forming at the woman's fingertips. "I'm scared, Emma." The woman crumpled once again, and Emma wasn't sure what she wanted her to say.

"I know. Me too." she offered eventually, raising a hesitant hand to stroke Regina's hair that was resting in front of her ear. "Come on, go and get some sleep."

Regina stood up shakily, steadying herself on the arm of the chair. "Are you coming?"

"No, I'm going to stay down here for a while. Unless you need some help getting upstairs?"

"I'm fine." This seemed to be both women's go-to statement recently. Emma turned to Regina's liquor cabinet, seeking out a bottle of whiskey, and found it as she heard Regina's soft padding get more and more further away.

Emma didn't want to get drunk. She wasn't trying to drown her sorrows, or block out her thoughts. She just wanted to sleep. She was more tired than she had ever been; tired of everything. Her mind had gotten foggy, and drink had always brought sleep fairly easily for her. She poured herself a tumbler, before settling to drinking the liquid straight from the bottle. Pulling the blanket that Regina had been using on the sofa, Emma lay down on the cold, uninviting floor. As idiotic as it was, with empty bedrooms lying over her head, this was the furthest that Emma could get from Regina in the house.

Being far away from Regina meant that Regina would be able to sleep too, free from the nightmares that accompanied Emma. Realistically, she knew this wasn't a viable solution. She couldn't simply sneak away from Regina each night and sleep on the floor, but Emma's mind wasn't in a viable solution type of place right now, and the floor would have to do.

"Emma…. Emma, get up."

Emma was awoken the next morning by the agitated whisperings of Regina in her ear. Opening her eyes slowly and adjusting to the broad daylight, she saw Regina leaning over her. She felt a trail of wet on her cheek, and wiped it quickly off with the back of her hand as she sat up, still disorientated.

"What time is it?"

"Just after 11. I have a check-up at the hospital at midday, and I thought you would want to be up for work." Regina swayed on her knees, and stood to steady herself.

"I can't go in, I need to take you."

"No, you don't. I've called the hospital, and one of the nurses is going to come and pick me up. You can either stay here, or you can go to work." Regina said, somehow walking the line between firm and affectionate. "I slept through last night. Did you?"

"Yeah, I did. Floor was a little cold, but it's probably good for me. Somehow."

"Why didn't you come up to bed?"

"I was just tired. Figured you could use a bit of space." Emma checked her appearance in the mirror on the wall to the side of her and groaned. "I need a shower."

"Yes, you do." Regina took a shallow breath. "It was strange, you not being there. I think I got used to your incessant bed-hogging. Really, did no-one ever teach you how to share?"

"Wasn't really a priority in the homes. As long as the money was coming in, I could have been learning how to saw off shotguns for all they'd care." Emma cleared her throat. "Sorry, a little deep for this time."

"No, don't apologise." Regina stared at Emma for a long moment, frowning a little as she tried to judge whether admissions such as that were normally offered so casually by the woman. "Now please shower, before I have to spray you endlessly with one of my many bottles of perfume."

"That's the best insult you've got? That I smell? Wow. I'll be expecting a better one by the time I get home later." Emma smiled the briefest, brightest smile, filled with innocence and truth, if that was possible, and it sent a rave of déjà vu through Regina. Brief, but there all the same.

"Goodbye, dear."

"Hey, good luck." Emma paused to speak as she left the room, once again leaving Regina smiling.

The nun who came to pick up Regina, inexplicably named Patience, delivered her to the hospital with a stern attitude to match her stern expression.

"Do you think you could perhaps speed it up a little? We're already running late, and we wouldn't want the Doctor to cancel your appointment."

"Need I remind you that it was you who showed up late, Sister, and as the mayor of this town, I'd advise you to treat me with a little respect." Regina responded fiercely, attempting to stare the woman down and eventually succeeding. "I can't go any faster; hence why I'm on my way to the hospital."

"Of course, Miss Mills." Patience remembered Dr Whale's instructions to be cautious of aggravating Regina into performing any magic, and so reluctantly decided to hold her tongue.

Without much further incident, the two women arrived at the hospital, with Regina flat-out refusing a wheelchair on their arrival. She walked with trepidation down the bleach-smelling hallway, until a woman with a furrowed look of concern and carrying a small baby approached her.

"Regina! Are you here by yourself?"

"Yes, I am." Regina didn't say any more, feeling a little overwhelmed by the woman's tone.

"Gods, sorry. I'm S… Mary Margaret. I'm Emma's mother."

"Were you still an embryo when you had her?" Regina couldn't hide her surprise, and Mary Margaret wished that she'd lead with anything other than family history.

"You're flattering me." she said brightly, covering her tracks. "I just bought the little one for an appointment."

"I see. I'm sorry, I was expecting somebody a little more… grandmotherly." Regina excused her reaction.

"I suppose not everything is how you expect it to be. It's so strange seeing you here, I guess I never really appreciated that you wouldn't remember until I saw you myself." Mary Margaret saw a flash across Regina's face. "Sorry, that's self-centred, isn't it. You and I have known each other a long time, Regina. It doesn't make me happy to see you like this."

"How long?"

Mary Margaret chuckled. "A very long time. We've had our differences, Regina, I can't lie to you about that."

"That seems to be the over-riding sentiment."

"But I care about you. You've always meant a lot to me, even when I didn't want you to. Please, take care of yourself. I told the same to Emma, but call me if you need absolutely anything." Mary Margaret touched Regina's arm, and smiled at her sympathetically, before exiting the building.

Regina continued to stand in the hallway for a few moments, disorientated from being out by herself. After a while, a nurse took pity on her, and she was led into a side room, sitting herself down on the cheap plastic chair which was presented to her.

She had to admit to herself that without Emma by herself she was feeling a little lost. She knew nothing of where she was, and without this childish reliance on everyone around her, she would be stranded in this room for the foreseeable future.

"Regina, good to see you again." Dr Whale sauntered into the room with his ever-present air of arrogance, debating holding his hand out for Regina to shake before changing his mind. "Now, before we do some tests, I just wanted to get a general feel from you of how you are. Any memories came back to you?"

"Nothing concrete, but I've had flashes, especially in the last few days. A sense of déjà vu, but never actually remembering."

Dr Whale begins to make notes as he continued to bombard Regina with questions. "Any headaches?"

"Sometimes."

"Nausea? Dizziness?"

"Sometimes."

"Depression?"

"Sometimes."

"Has Miss Swan taken you to see Dr Hopper at any time? I noticed that she was staying with you.."

"Yes, she is. I've spoken to him once, but in more of a friendship capacity from what I could understand."

"Right. I'd recommend that you begin seeing him for sessions perhaps every week, or every couple of days if there's the potential of you starting to get memories."

Regina looked taken aback. "You.. You think I could be starting to remember?"

"The longer this continues, the less likely it is that you'll regain full access to your long term memory store, but this is a good sign."

Regina's face lit up, partially in hope, and partially in disbelief, just as she had when Whale had made a promise to her all those years ago. "Ok." was all she responded, the gravity of the news laying on her shoulders.

When Emma arrived home from work, she heard clattering around in the kitchen, and entered to the foreign sight of Regina bent over the stove.

"Hey. What are you doing?"

"I wanted to make us dinner. I walked up here, and tried to make without thinking about it. So we're having lasagne, apparently."

"You're remembering?!"

"Dr Whale seems to think I am, very gradually. I'm trying to speed it along a little."

"That's… that's great." Emma hesitated, and pulled the still-frail woman in for a hug before she could see the disappointment on her face.