Happy new year! Here's a nice welcome to 2015 from me. :)
Chapter 12
Henry refused to go anywhere but home with Regina and Emma for the next three days. He wasn't all that upset with Neal, but he wasn't ready to spend even a few hours at a time away from his moms. He stayed for Emma really, and he figured Regina might want or need help with the blonde even if she didn't, or maybe never would, ask for help.
During the time he continued to stay at the mansion, they filled their days with board games, card games, family dinners, movie nights and not much more to do than try to find other ways to keep busy. They were successful, and even became creative during more their more festive endeavor of further decorating the family room, but their success wasn't instant. Henry and Regina had celebrated the holidays in a small, cursed town for years. They did cookies and decorated and sometimes did a few things around town, but they had no other suggestions.
With only ten days left until Christmas, Regina thought the house looked a little baron in the way of holiday cheer and spirit. It was more decorating. It was all Regina and Henry had to offer to keep them all busy, but Emma seemed more than happy to put in the work to transform the family room from every day regal-ness to red and green all over. They spent the afternoon lining the ceiling with white garland and Emma helped hang up Henry and Regina's stockings. The only set back with that was when Regina mentioned they were missing a stocking. Emma said she didn't want one and then Henry shared a look with his brunette mother. They knew Emma was only pretending not to care. They'd heard a few more stories about Emma's past over the last three days and knew the teen had never truly celebrated a holiday, not even one.
Emma moved past that moment with a decoration idea of her own, one she said Henry might really enjoy. She asked Regina for red and green construction paper and when she got it she cut a few papers of each color in half then showed Henry how to fold the cut paper into rings and attach them to each other.
"Each paper ring counts as a day," Emma explained. "You make as many rings as there are days left until Christmas. Every day that passes, you rip off a ring and throw it away."
"So it's a Christmas countdown," Henry asked.
"Yep."
Regina watched the two of them coil red paper rings to green paper rings to more red paper rings, the colors alternating every other ring until there was a string of ten rings altogether. When it came time to put them somewhere, she offered Emma and Henry a push pin and they hung the rings along one side of the family room archway. It hung vertically on the wall on the way to the Christmas trees from the room's entrance and Henry really seemed to like the concept of the countdown.
"They were really into Christmas at the group home so everyone there had a decent holiday at the very least since none of them had families," Emma told Henry, which Regina easily overheard and quickly felt sympathetic.
During all the decoration, Regina noticed Emma's tree didn't have much on it and once the countdown rings were hung, Emma had no other decorating suggestions left. Regina assumed Emma had a reason for avoiding adorning her tree with decorations and even though Regina had yet to understand why, she already had a plan in mind to make the teen's tree brighter.
A little later in the day, Emma and Henry were in the living room flipping through channels while Regina started some dinner preparations. There wasn't much on TV for at least another hour when all the holiday movies played at the beginning of prime time and after another minute of scrolling through the digital TV guide, Emma pulled Henry's attention away from the screen with a question.
"Do you know what kind of stuff your mom likes?"
Henry looked both confused and suspicious and lowered the remote, the search for something to watch completely abandoned, when he tuned to looked at the blonde.
"Why," he slowly asked, the word drawn out due to his suspicion.
"I want to get her something for Christmas. She deserves something nice and it'd be another way to thank her for all that she's done for me," Emma answered. "Maybe you could get her something too."
"Oh," Henry lit up. "Yeah, that sounds awesome. But…I thought you wanted to avoid stores."
"It's for Regina. It's worth the risk that something might come up and ruin my day. She's done a lot for me."
A smile, though it curled more into the form of a grin, slowly spread across Henry's face.
"I might have a few ideas," Henry said.
They turned the TV off and went into the kitchen with poorly concealed smiles.
Regina chuckled when she looked between them and eyed them with curiosity.
"Well don't you two look like you're up to something," the brunette rhetorically asked and received two much bigger smiles in response.
"We're gonna go out for a little bit to find something to do," Emma said. "There's nothing on right now and we thought going for a drive would be nice."
Regina looked them over like she was looking to detect a lie, which she truthfully was doing. Seeming satisfied, she nodded.
"Okay, but be careful."
"Will do," Emma promised.
Henry and Emma left Regina to her cooking and headed straight for the Bug. They slid in and smiled at each other before they drove off. Interestingly enough, their smiles barely faded between and upon their arrival to the first department store.
"Perfume is good," Henry started to give Emma gift ideas as they walked into the store. "She's always wearing it. One year, Graham gave her a bottle and she was happier than ever. Like, she was usually strict and tired and easily frustrated, but the perfume he gave her made her smile and relax."
Emma scrunched up her face in rejection to the idea.
"I don't want to get her something some guy gave her in the past. Hey, she doesn't still wear the same perfume, does she?"
Henry thought about it for a moment then shook his head.
"She used a different perfume than the one he got her, but it still made her happy to get a bottle from him. She wore the one he bought her for a while, but eventually she ran out and never gave her another one so she went back to the one she used before. Or maybe she switched to a new one. I'm not really sure. I just know she doesn't wear the same kind of perfume he got her."
Emma sighed with relief. It wasn't all that strange that she was relieved by that information, though it certainly wasn't a typical reaction for most people, but Emma really liked Regina's scent and she loved that it lingered on the coat she borrowed from the brunette. She hated thinking, even for a moment, that the scent had anything to do with someone else. She liked Regina. She didn't want anyone else with the exception of Henry to continue to leave their mark on the other woman. She didn't want what she really liked about the coat and Regina to be tainted by someone's memory. She liked Regina's scent because it was one hundred percent Regina and she wanted it to stay that way.
"I think I'll skip the perfume. Any other ideas?"
"Shoes?"
"Okay. And?"
"Um, I don't know. I really thought I had more intel," he frowned.
"It's okay. I'll just…have to think outside the box."
For a while, Henry and Emma walked through the store and looked at almost every single thing available. Without anything specific in mind they were lost. They had no idea what to get Regina because for starters she seemed to have everything. Secondly, neither Henry nor Emma knew what she really wanted. As they passed the jewelry section, however, Emma beamed and dragged Henry with her over to the earrings. She was more excited by the success than he was, but he was a twelve year old boy that had never shown interest in earrings or dresses or anything society depicted as feminine.
"She prefers dangling earrings, right," Emma asked as she browsed the selection in front of them.
"I don't know. I don't really pay attention to that sort of stuff."
"Dangling it is," Emma decided.
She scanned the display for a few minutes before her eyes landed on the perfect pair for Regina. She nearly gasped at their breathtaking beauty. They were labeled as marquise drop earrings. Emma wasn't certain of the name's meaning, but all she needed to be certain of was that they were everything that described Regina. There were three different sized almond-shaped pieces that stemmed from the diamond-filled, almond-shaped stud at the beginning of the earrings' design. The stud was silver and the diamonds were clear cut while the next piece of the earrings, linked directly to the stud, displayed black spinel like the final piece of the earrings and the small piece that hung between the second and the third piece of the earrings. The second piece was pure sterling silver and linked to it was the small piece that resided between the second piece's end and dangled within the center of the third piece. As intricate it sounded when described, it was elegant in its simplicity yet held a deeper meaning Emma found within the exquisite jewelry. Diamonds and spinel, each earring both light and dark and the two colors blended together, and the dark parts were more prominent than the light, but the light could easily outshine the dark given the chance.
"Whoa," Henry breathed out and his eyes widened at the sight of the earrings. "Those are awesome!"
"Right? They're the ones," Emma smiled at the earrings through the glass case that separated them and several other earrings from grabby hands, her tone filled with confidence about her choice.
And if she wasn't sure enough about the decision, a sales clerk stepped up behind the counter with a polite smile and offered to unlock the case after she asked if there was a pair Emma was interested in. It was perfect timing for the perfect pair of earrings for a flawed but incredible woman. Emma pointed to the earrings she wanted and the redheaded woman behind the counter retrieved them for her.
When Emma held them in her hands and traced the outline of each curve with her fingertip, her smile grew and she fell into a temporary trance. The smooth silver and the rough edges of the diamonds' and spinel's cuts wonderfully contrasted each other just like the roughness and softness of Regina did. Though Emma had recently seen only Regina's softness, Emma knew there was more to the brunette's story from what she'd heard from Snow and Charming. She also knew from the occasional empathetic looks Regina gave her. There was sadness and a hint of pain in her chocolate eyes when she gave Emma those looks, looks brought on by the hurt Emma felt when she dealt with her parents and with Neal.
"How much," Emma asked.
"One fifty," the redhead replied.
"What," Henry practically shrieked the question. "That's more than the family tree!"
"Henry, not now," Emma sternly attempted to silence him then pulled out a wallet and riffled through some cash.
"I'll take 'em," Emma said as she handed over the money.
"Where did you get that," Henry asked her.
"That day I was out in the rain when your mom brought me back to the house I stopped by my apartment," Emma explained while the redhead rang up the earrings. "I grabbed the money and I was gonna leave town. I was gonna run like I always do."
"But you didn't. Why?"
The redhead handed Emma her receipt for the earrings and handed her a small black pouch for the closed, black velvet box the earrings lay in. Emma accepted the receipt and twice over concealed earrings then thanked the woman behind the counter before she answered Henry.
"I had a reason to stay."
Emma smiled at Henry who brightly smiled back. She threw an arm over his shoulder and pulled him along as they moved on to another store, satisfied with their first purchase and having seen and disapproved of everything else available in that particular store.
"I didn't know you made that much money," Henry said before he and Emma walked into the next store a few blocks away from the previous one.
"I make more than that. I saved it," Emma shrugged then quickly added, "at least I think that's what I did."
Henry nodded and didn't think twice about her answer.
"So are we just looking for something I can get her now?"
"That's the plan, but if something else catches my eye I might just get it. We'll see how the rest of the day goes."
So they looked at classy heels and fancy dresses and ventured into silky sleepwear and thin but comfortable cotton robes. Henry stopped in front of a rack of neutral colored robes, some white, some gray and some black and all of them thankfully still available in in small, medium, or large.
"She likes robes," Henry mentioned as he flitted through the light and charcoal gray robes on the rack. "She's been wearing the same one for years and I think it's time for a new one."
Emma chuckled.
"Alright. Then I guess you should pick one out."
He picked out a charcoal gray robe and Emma carried it while they looked through the rest of the store. As they walked down the glossy tiled aisles, Emma looked over the robe draped over her arm.
"I thought your mom's favorite color is black. Why not a black robe?"
"Because she has a gray robe now and I can't remember a time when she hasn't worn a gray one. The one she wears now is light gray. I thought I'd get the darker gray so it's not really the same as the one she already has and that way it's not black or white like I used to think everything was."
"You really are too sophisticated to be twelve. Are you sure you aren't an exceedingly well-aging man already in his fifties?"
Henry laughed and when he relaxed he said, "Before Neverland, you and Mom showed me that not everyone is a hundred percent good or a hundred percent evil. And then Neverland happened and I believed in the wrong person and then you and Mom worked together. You two saved me and then it made sense that Mom really has changed and that you had to do things Savior's don't usually do just to get me back."
"I'm sticking with the well-aging fifty year old theory," Emma responded.
Henry flashed his teeth in a wide smile.
As the next few minutes passed, they walked by more jewelry and stared a little too long at necklaces that neither decided to buy. The necklaces they saw were as captivating as the earrings, but both Henry and Emma agreed that Regina didn't often enough wear necklaces—at least not in the last month—for them to find the right one for her. Even if they tried to look for a pair that would match the earrings Emma bought for her, they wouldn't come up with anything. They were in a different store with differently designed jewelry and different brand names. So they moved on to other areas of the store for the next half hour and after Henry had offered to split the difference of the robe with Emma since all he had was limited allowance money, they headed for the exit. Before they could even walk through the theft detectors, however, Emma's head whipped to the side and her gaze landed right on another perfect gift. She smiled, slow to form but bright and wide in appearance once it did.
"That," Emma said and pointed at just what she saw.
Henry turned to see what had Emma freeze in place, but just as he noticed it Emma walked toward it. He shuffled after her and stopped in front of the rack.
"What do you think," Emma asked him as she ran her fingers over the material.
"It's…nice. But why would she need or want it?"
Emma's smile grew.
"Let's just say I owe her one," Emma cryptically replied then pulled the right size and color off the rack.
Emma and Henry waited in line for the second time at that store and Henry's eyes almost bulged out of his sockets when he heard how much it cost Emma, and the teen didn't even blink at the amount. The price wasn't more than the earrings, but the total of the two items together made Henry strongly consider asking for a raise in allowance once Emma was back to her usual, adult self. Apparently, the blonde had been holding out on him.
The purchase was placed in a zipped up bag and handed back to Emma over the counter. With the two gifts from Emma and one from Henry, the two of them were content and finally headed back to the mansion after a couple hours spent on their gift search.
"We did good today, Kid," Emma said on the drive back.
"You did good. And I think the word you should be using is well."
Emma rolled her eyes and tried to not take it personally that she'd been corrected by a twelve year old like she'd once been corrected by foster parents that had only seconds before told her she was going back to the group home.
"Whatever, Old Man," Emma responded, and Henry smiled. "I think we've got stuff that will make your mom's Christmas so much better than she's ever imagined any of her Christmases could be."
"With the money you spent on her? I don't doubt she'll be happy with what she gets."
"It's not about how much money I spent," Emma corrected his way of thinking. "It's the thought that went into the gifts. You had your reasons for getting her the robe and I had my reasons for getting her what I got her. She'll appreciate that more than any price tag."
"But you've got to admit, the money you spent on her gifts is definitely her style. She told you her closet was expensive and you just bought her some pretty expensive things to match."
"Would you have settled for something cheaper both in looks and in value if you'd had to make that choice," Emma asked. "I didn't plan to buy either of the things I bought, but I saw them and immediately thought of Regina. I didn't look at the cost. I just knew there wasn't anything better to get her. They're perfect."
"You really like her," Henry noted. "Like really, really like her."
"She deserves the best and I got her the best, which thankfully I could afford."
"Yeah. That actually sounds like more than liking her. Do you lo—"
"She's done a lot of favors for me, Kid. I'm just trying to pay her back for them."
"She doesn't care about you paying her back."
"I know, but…I needed to do something. You might not understand, but the best way I can put it is that when someone's got your back you make sure they know you've got theirs. Buying nice and expensive things doesn't really say that, but it's a holiday season and I figure the gifts are a good way to tell her I don't take what she's done, what she's still doing for me, lightly. I want her to know that I really appreciate her for all of that."
"I think she'll get the point," Henry smiled, and less than a minute later they pulled up to the curb outside of the mansion.
"Alright, I don't know where she is in the house, but we've got to hide these somewhere and make sure she doesn't know what we got."
Henry nodded in agreement while they grabbed their bags and the velvet pouch for the jewelry and got out of the Bug.
The chilly, early evening air blew past them and caused both Henry and Emma to shiver. Their coats flapped open in the wind and they tried their hardest to bundle up while they carried their presents up the pathway. They clumsily stumbled through the door and when Emma tripped over her own feet, the two of them laughed. She caught herself before she could hit the ground and she turned to Henry to make sure he didn't make the same mistake.
"I take it you went shopping," Regina asked from the family room to the left of the entryway where Emma and Henry stood and laughed.
Both whipped around to face Regina as she got off the couch and sauntered toward them. Their expressions were less amused and more deer-in-headlights then.
"What? Uh, nothing," Emma lamely replied.
"Nice," Henry sarcastically said.
"I mean, yeah. We went shopping," Emma changed her answer. "We'll be right back."
Emma dragged Henry with her away from Regina and toward the stairs. She smiled at Regina so the brunette didn't think anything was wrong and at least only thought things were strange. Emma knew it looked like she and Henry were up to something, but she was willing to let Regina have suspicions. She knew the woman was smart enough to figure out why they went shopping and wanted to keep it a secret, but she wanted the presents themselves to be a surprise when they actually celebrated the holiday.
Emma took Henry up to the guest room and they stuffed the presents into the back of the closet.
"We'll have to get wrapping paper later if there isn't already some in the house," Emma told him. "And we'll wrap all this stuff within the next couple days so that even if Regina finds them, she won't know what they are."
"Yeah," Henry agreed. "Okay."
They didn't wait around in the guest room much longer and went back downstairs to properly greet and talk to Regina instead of just fleeing to the second floor after a display of odd behavior.
"Everything okay," Regina asked with a quirked brow and a subtle but knowing smirk.
"Yeah. Yeah, everything's all squared away," Emma confirmed with a quick nod.
"Good, because I was thinking we could go out tonight instead of staying in and watching a movie."
"Really," Henry asked with some excitement and some disbelief.
"Yes. While you two were out, I looked into what's going on around town and found that they just opened the skating rink for the season. Apparently, it's cold enough for them now to maintain the ice."
"Awesome," Henry exclaimed. "Let's do that!"
"Wait, 'maintain'? 'Cold enough now'? Is this an outside rink," Emma asked.
"Yes," Regina answered and then frowned. "That's not a problem for you, is it? I thought it would be something fun for all of us to do."
"Well, I mean, outside? In this weather? That seems… I mean, won't we be cold?"
Regina chuckled.
"Emma, even if it was an indoor rink they'd have to maintain the ice there too. It would be cold inside, colder where the ice is, but cold in general."
"It's just…I'm not….I haven't…"
Emma fidgeted in place and kept twisting up her face while she struggled to get her words out.
"You don't know how to skate," Henry surmised with eyes wide in realization.
Emma's non-verbal reaction and change in facial expression immediately confirmed Henry was right.
"Oh," Regina said, at a loss for any other words for a moment. "That's not really all that bad, dear. We can teach you."
"Yeah, it'll be fine. And fun like Mom said," Henry reassured her.
Emma took a deep breath and sighed.
"Okay," she quietly and shyly agreed with a bit of nervous reluctance.
Regina and Henry smiled at her then smiled at each other.
"Dinner's almost ready," Regina informed both Emma and Henry. "After we eat we can throw on a bunch of layers and head out. Sound good?"
"Yes," Henry happily hissed while Emma nodded and dubiously smiled at Regina.
"Don't worry," Regina started to say to Emma while the three of them headed toward the kitchen. "We'll be with you the entire time. I promise nothing's going to happen to you."
"I trust you," Emma truthfully confessed.
Multi-colored lights hung from the telephone poles that surrounded the large, oval-shaped chunk of ice near the center of town. Street lights were lit, but it still felt like a winter wonderland with the decorative lights. There was a gazebo placed in the middle of the rink and twinkling white lights were wrapped around the pillars. Only about an inch of snow remained on the ground around the rink after the plow came through the streets every morning during the harsher weather season.
Even though Emma wore a thermal undershirt, a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie underneath her borrowed coat, the teen shook as she watched several families and couples skate around the ice rink. Both Regina and Henry knew her shaking wasn't entirely from the cold. Emma's nerves were a wreck and her apparent unease started to consume her.
Regina reached out and comfortingly rubbed circles on Emma's back.
Emma looked away from the rink and big, green eyes locked on Regina's chocolate brown. She took a deep breath, gulped, and slowly exhaled before she nodded.
"I know. It's not bad and you'll be with me the entire time," Emma repeated Regina's words from earlier in the evening.
Regina smiled and wrapped an arm around Emma's waist. She squeezed the blonde and the action pulled Emma closer against her side.
"I'm telling you," Regina started to say. "You'll be fine."
"I know that too," Emma said when she looked at Regina.
"Then why do you look so worried?"
Emma shrugged.
"Guess I just don't want to fall on my ass. And I definitely don't want to look like an idiot."
"You'll only look like an idiot if you don't go out there," Henry teased.
"It's fun, Emma," Regina reminded her. "I think after all the things you've gone through recently you're the one who needs to let loose the most."
"Even after you found out I can't skate you thought this would be the best way for me to do that?"
Regina rolled her eyes and smiled.
"It's not going to kill you to learn something new," Regina said and started to pull Emma toward the rink. "I'm sure you'll learn very quickly. The important thing is you're here. You're with us."
Henry walked alongside Emma and the trio went up to a table in front of the rink where skates were given to those that didn't have their own pair. Regina gave her size and Henry's then had to nudge Emma so the blonde would give hers. Regina paid for the rentals and the three of them went to one of two sets of metal bleachers positioned at the openings between the pavement and the ice. On the first row of bleachers, they switched out their shoes for the skates and set their shoes against the wall that separated the bleachers from the ice rink along the row of shoes already lined up against it.
Regina ensured Henry's laces were tightened enough for him so he wouldn't wobble around and break an ankle and then, because Emma had never gone ice skating before and also because by then Regina was used to taking care of her, she tightened Emma's laces for her. To do so, she took one foot into her lap at a time and asked the blonde if it felt too tight.
Emma's eyes remained glued to Regina while the brunette tied her skates. She pulled her borrowed coat tighter around herself and tucked her mouth and chin beneath the collar. When Regina removed one foot from her lap and replaced it with Emma's other foot, the younger woman's eyes instinctively went from Regina's eyes to her hands. Suddenly, Emma was riveted by how Regina's fingers moved as they fluidly weaved through the laces and then riveted again when she watched Regina tug at the laces with a delicate sort of strength in those same hands the teen watched. Her cheeks turned red and the new, rosy color had nothing to do with the chill or the occasional gusts of wind that struck her and the others.
Regina carefully removed Emma's foot from her lap then smoothed out her pants. She easily put on her own skates in less than two minutes then stood and held a hand out to Emma. She smiled at the blonde as Emma remained on the cold, metal bench of the bleachers.
Henry clomped around Regina in his skates and stopped at her side with a smile directed at Emma.
Emma looked between Regina and Henry and though she hadn't and might not ever voice the thought out loud, she felt safe with them. Ice skating wasn't a big deal and there really wasn't any danger in what she was about to attempt for the first time, but the safety didn't just come from their promise to help her on the ice. She felt safe because she trusted—she knew—that when Regina said they would be with her the entire time that it was the truth. They weren't going to leave her. They came there together and they would leave there together and Emma was safe with them. If she fell, they would catch her. If she bumped her knee against the wall or slammed it down on the ice on accident, they would tend to her until she was better and they would make her as comfortable as possible. If she wanted to stop, they would take a break or take her home.
There it was again. That word. Home. In all the places she'd lived, she'd never once called any of them home. Even if that's not how Regina and Henry felt about it yet or ever, Emma knew she had found her home regardless of the family drama that surrounded her on that holiday.
Emma flashed a small smile at Regina, warm despite the cold and not all that visible but still completely there, and took the woman's hand. She directed her smile at Henry next and all three headed out to the ice not too far from where they previously sat.
Cheery, upbeat Christmas songs and some of the slower, original versions of Christmas songs played through several speakers set up around the rink. Families laughed together while they skated and some couples and even a few friends together on the ice sang along with the music. A waitress from Granny's skated out to the gazebo with a carry-out drink tray and served steaming drinks in to-go cups to the people inside.
Emma took it all in while Henry encouraged her from his place on the rink a few paces in front of her. While he tried to wave her out there to join him, Regina rested a hand on Emma's upper back, but didn't nudge or push her toward the ice. Emma quickly and tightly gripped either side of the little doorway in the wall that surrounded the rink then let go and stepped out onto the ice.
Henry gave a little cheer and Regina followed closely behind Emma to help when she started to flounder on unsteady feet.
"Straighten up," Regina instructed from behind her.
Emma held out her arms in a desperate attempt to help maintain her dwindling balance.
Henry remained in front of her with his hands at the ready to grab hers if she fell forward.
Emma inched forward on the ice with more assistance from her skates than her actual desire to move forward and she had yet to fully straighten up as told. She flailed a little and lost footing so she instinctively leaned forward even though she was already bent at the waist. She started to fall toward the ice, but Regina swooped in and positioned herself on Emma's left side. She placed one hand on Emma's sternum and the other on the blonde's lower back. She guided Emma into an upright stance and kept her hands in place until Emma stopped leaning forward every time she struggled to keep her balance.
Once Regina removed her hand from Emma's sternum, Henry skated up beside Emma's unoccupied side. Regina took one of Emma's hands in hers and Henry took the other.
"Whoa," Emma exclaimed with wide eyes. "Are you sure we're ready for this part?"
"You mean the skating part," Regina asked with audible amusement in her voice. "Yes, dear, I think we're ready for this part."
"But I didn't even make it more than a few steps onto the ice before I almost face planted!"
Henry chuckled beside her and Regina smiled wide enough to show teeth.
"But you didn't," Regina reminded Emma. "Because we're here."
Regina looked past Emma and made eye contact with Henry. She motioned with a slight tilt of her head for him to move forward. He nodded in response then slowly started to skate away from the doorway and further onto the ice. Regina did the same.
"Whoa. Whoa!"
Emma squeezed Henry and Regina's hands for dear life as she shakily glided forward in between the other two. She kept her feet tense and still and allowed Regina and Henry to skate for her.
Regina laughed to herself as she watched Emma's expression change from nervous to scared to freaked out about being on the ice. Henry wasn't nearly as bad when she'd first brought him to the rink. He'd been younger than Emma was and he also repeated the same words over and over again with bulging wide eyes until he finally centered himself and figured it all out. As she watched and helped Emma through her struggles, she was hit with a wave of gratefulness. Given enough thought, Regina realized just how lucky she had to be for her to have witnessed both Emma and Henry as they tried to learn something for the first time. Because when they learned they looked so beautifully innocent and cute and it was a sight that warmed Regina's heart every time. It wasn't a Mom thing, not entirely. It was just being able to share in such sweet moments with two wonderful, enchanting human beings she thanked the gods for more and more the longer she was with them.
"You look like a little foal when they try standing up for the first time," Regina said and let out the laughter she had kept to herself for the last couple of minutes and could no longer contain.
"Ha ha. Yes, Emma Swan: not actually the savior, but Queen Regina's personal court jester for around the clock entertainment," the blonde grumbled.
That was when Henry laughed. Emma shot him a glare, but he kept laughing.
As soon as Regina gained control of her laughter, she gave Emma a few tips about balance and how to kick out with the skates to get a good stride. The three of them slowly but surely made it around the first loop of the rink before Emma found balance and managed to glide forward on her own, though Regina and Henry continued to hold her hands.
As they all approached the halfway point between the two loops in the rink, Emma moved forward just a little faster and Regina and Henry let go of her hands. The teen swept across the ice with a few confident strides while Regina and Henry leisurely skated at a close distance behind her. She stood up straighter and slowed down before she looked over her shoulder and met Regina's eyes with hers.
"I did it," Emma exclaimed with bright eyes and an equally bright smile.
Regina was instantly overwhelmed with a couple of small but powerful moments she'd experienced with Emma, overwhelmed with "you did it" when Emma broke the first curse and "we did it" when they'd combined their magic and stopped the trigger from destroying the town.
They'd never vocalized that they'd also managed to save Henry from Neverland, but it was another accomplishment of theirs. Even though they weren't the only two on the island on a mission to save Henry, they had been the ones to rescue him more so than anyone else. Together. Regina had done most of the physical work, but Emma had allowed her to do what was necessary to get their son back and sided with her and her plans when necessary.
Regina gasped when the memories flooded her mind, but a brief moment later she smiled back at Emma. The smile was happy and proud and then she gasped again for an entirely different reason when Emma hit a rough patch of ice and slipped.
Regina grabbed Emma by the teen's borrowed coat and pulled the blonde backward toward her. It happened a little too quickly so Emma lost balance a second time and stumbled her way back against Regina's front. The two roughly collided, but Regina wrapped her arms around Emma's waist and chest in a secure embrace. Another memory ran through Regina's mind just then as well. Another time when they'd been in a similar embrace, but their positioned were reversed and Emma had a sharp object to her neck while Regina and her mother had tried to steal The Dark One's dagger together.
The memories were somewhat irrelevant, but the fact was that she and Emma seemed to fall into place one way or another. As strange as things were right after Emma had cast the spell on herself, everything still seemed to make complete sense to Regina in a way she'd never really been able to fully comprehend. Even then, when she understood that she and Emma always seemed to fall into place, she wasn't sure why that was. Maybe it was their connection to Henry or maybe it was just how well they worked together in more ways than one. The thing was, it didn't have to make sense. It just was.
"Uh, Mom? I think you can let go now," Henry broke Regina out of her thoughts.
The brunette suddenly realized she still had Emma in a koala-like hug and she wasn't sure how long they'd been like that. They certainly weren't the only ones at the rink, but apparently Regina had a knack for forgetting herself in public whenever she was around the blonde.
"Right," Regina said as she released Emma from her grip. "Sorry, Emma."
"Hey, don't apologize. You saved me," Emma said as she turned around to look Regina in the eyes. "Thanks."
Emma smiled at her again and Regina smiled back while she gave a nod almost like a silent way of saying, "You're welcome." She then cleared her throat and looked around only to see that their little display had gathered some attention from a handful of townspeople.
"Alright. Let's move on," Regina said to Emma and Henry and offered her hand to Emma again. "Do you think you're ready to skate around by yourself?"
Emma's smile spread just a little bit wider and she took Regina's hand without giving a verbal answer or confirmation that she was either fine or that she still needed them.
Regina didn't question Emma's lack of an answer and instead gave the blonde's hand a gentle squeeze before the two of them looked to Henry.
Henry started to move forward beside Emma and Emma and Regina skated beside him, both on his left. After a few strides forward, Emma held out her hand to Henry and he took it with a smile.
It didn't take long before Henry and Regina figured out that Emma had learned enough to skate on her own, but they all stayed linked at their hands and went around and around and around the rink again.
Just as The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole came on, the three of them skated their way to the gazebo and took a break. A different waitress than the one Emma had seen serve the others earlier in the night came up to them and asked if they wanted anything.
"Hot cocoa with cinnamon, please," Emma replied.
"Yeah, I'll take one, too," Henry said.
The waitress nodded then looked to Regina for her order.
"You wouldn't happen to have any warm apple cider, would you," the brunette asked.
"I think we might have some. I'll have to ask Granny," the waitress responded. "Is there something else I can get you if we don't have any?"
"I suppose I'll have hot cocoa without the cinnamon if there's no cider."
"Okay," the waitress smiled at the three of them. "I'll be right back."
When she skated off to the stand outside the ice rink and only several feet away from the skate rental table, Emma, Henry, and Regina were alone in the gazebo for the time being.
Emma looked from Henry to Regina before she commented on the rink.
"This is amazing. Do they have this every year?"
"Well, Granny didn't always have a stand out front," Regina explained, "but after the first couple of years that the rink was operational she decided to spare a few waitresses to get as much business as she can during the season. If there aren't big crowds of people here, they're most likely at the diner when they're out and about this time of year."
"Smart," Emma said. "So, if you're the Mayor and always have been, does that mean you had to approve all of this? I mean, how do you find ways to let people have a skate rental and then have Granny set up shop. Plus, the cost of keeping up the ice."
"A lot goes into it," Regina replied. "The first year the rink was just the dwarves adding cold water to the iced over pond at the park."
"They took a hose and sprayed the pond every half hour to make sure it was solid so no one would fall through," Henry piped up. "It was like having rest periods at a community pool except with ice skating."
Emma laughed.
"It wasn't the best of conditions, but everyone seemed to like it. The first town meeting in November some people stood up and asked how they could improve the rink," Regina continued.
"It was all anyone talked about," Henry lit up. "They talked about it during the meetings, but most of what people worked out to fix up the rink was mentioned on the way to work or picking kids up from school. It was so cool how everyone thought it through and shared their ideas."
Regina fondly smiled at Henry while he helped her tell the story they'd unwittingly started to divulge about how the outdoor rink became what it was.
"The second year produced a few positive results from the improvements," Regina continued. "It was still on the pond, but the dwarves had figured out a way to smooth out the ice without using something heavy like a Zamboni. They worked it out with Marco and Michael. Marco worked on the design that basically was only as heavy as the engine and the person operating it and Michael worked on the mechanics."
"And the dwarves used a lot more water on the frozen pond so that there were more layers of ice just to cover their bases in case the handcrafted Zamboni was still heavier than they accounted for," Henry added.
"Two years after that," Regina picked up from where he left off, "Granny thought to see to it that people had hot food and warm drinks to fight off the cold.
"The rentals were free the first three years, but the nuns thought it would help if they started charging for them so the money could be donated to the school and the parks and recreation funds for the town. They started to split the profit sixty-forty and whichever needs more attention in the upcoming year gets the larger percentage of money from the rentals."
"And now it's this well-oiled machine," Emma noted as she looked around at the lights and the people and the speakers that allowed them to enjoy holiday themed music.
"This is only the seventh year we've had it up and running," Regina informed her. "I think it's impressive how everyone still works at it."
"Wait, only five years? This town was cursed for almost thirty years, right," Emma asked. "Why five?"
"No one thought to do it sooner. Well, I never thought to do it sooner," Regina answered. "And after the curse broke people were all over the place. No one was concerned about the rink. When I first thought of the rink, though, I kept seeing these holiday movies from this world and saw how happy it made everyone in the movie. I didn't want people to be happy. I brought them all here so only I could be happy. But then there was Henry and I started to reconsider."
"Okay, so you started all of this for the kid," Emma incredulously asked.
"Most of what I've done that seems out of character for an Evil Queen was for him. Not everything I tried was the right thing, but I tried. I'm still trying."
Regina bumped foreheads with Henry who sat beside her, between her and Emma, and then she flicked her eyes to Emma's.
"I'm gonna remind you again," Emma said as she kept her eyes on Regina for a moment longer then looked at Henry, "you're one lucky kid."
"I know," Henry warmly said and beamed.
Just then, the waitress returned with their drinks.
"We actually did have some cider. Apparently it was made from the last batch of apples you gave to Granny."
"Ah, so she got them. Good. Thank you," Regina said as she accepted her cider.
Emma and Henry grabbed their cocoas and as soon as they simultaneously took a sip, they both moaned in delight.
Regina chuckled and watched them while she paid the waitress. When the waitress was gone again, Emma spoke up again.
"When did you give Granny a batch of your apples?"
"When I called her to watch Henry while I went out to look for you that night you ran off in the rain," Regina said then took her first sip of her cider. "Delicious."
Regina licked her lips for any remnants of the cider then continued to answer Emma's question. "I'd had a basket full of honeycrisps that I'd picked before you cast that spell. I told her where to find the basket in the house and said if she watched him she could have it. I didn't see her with them when she left so I wasn't sure she got them."
"Oh," Henry said as realization dawned on him. "Yeah, I was wondering why she was carrying apples out to her car. She was over for about twenty minutes before she took them. Then she made herself comfortable on the couch for a while and started knitting."
"Oh my god. How weird did that look to you," Emma asked. "And you never said anything?"
Emma and Regina chuckled and Henry smiled and shrugged.
"I was more worried about you than what Granny was doing."
"Aww. Thanks, Kid," Emma said and wrapped her arms around him in tight hug. "I think I'm starting to feel as lucky as you are."
"And don't forget you are," Henry responded and finally hugged her back.
Regina dramatically cleared her throat.
"Excuse me, but don't I deserve to get in on this hug?"
Emma laughed and let go of Henry with one arm that she swiftly wrapped around Regina. The two of them squished Henry between them in a group hug and when he started to squirm and said the hug had gone on long enough, the two women just laughed and held him a little bit tighter.
"Moms! Not cool. What if people from school see me like this?"
"Don't care," Emma said.
"Never cared," Regina clarified.
"Okay, but I'm really close to spilling my cocoa all over one of you."
"Henry," Regina playfully scolded while she and Emma started to pull away from him.
"What? I didn't mean on purpose."
"Sure you didn't," Emma dryly said with a smirk then ruffled his hair until it looked like a wild case of bedhead.
Henry sighed and finger combed his hair back into place.
"Having two moms is so difficult," he said seriously, but they all knew it was a joke.
Emma and Regina immediately looked at each other, smiles that had been directed at Henry only seconds before still on their faces when they locked eyes.
And just like in Neverland, when Henry's heart had been returned and he'd gasped for life before they hugged him because he was safe and he was alive, there was so much emotion in the way they looked at each other. All either of them could think as they stared at one another over the top of Henry's head in that gazebo was, "This is ours."
Henry wasn't a "this", but he was included in what "this" encompassed. The moment, their little family they made regardless of blood ties and past feuds, their happiness. All of it wasn't just one woman's or the others. It all overlapped. Just like they fell into place, they also shared these things. Things no one could or would take away from them.
I won't let you if it is the last thing I do, Regina completed the statement in her mind.
You won't be able to come close enough to even touch it, Emma completed it in hers.
As if they read each other's minds, a moment later their smiles widened while their eyes remained fixated on the other.
A/N: I still have a few more chapters planned out at this point, but I don't know when the next update will be. I was only trying to make decent progress with updates for this story because it was the holiday season. Now that Christmas and New Year's is coming to close, I'll be trying to keep up with ALL of my SQ stories and not just focus on this one. So thank you for bearing with me so far. I hope you'll continue to stick it out. Thank you so much for reading, reviewing, following, and all the favorites. I can't tell you how much your response to this story means to me. Every notification email I got over the holidays just brighten my days that hadn't always been filled with holiday spirit. So again, thank you! And hello 2015!