A/N: Decided to give this a rating bump to M for a scene in here that really isn't as descriptive as I could have made it, but isn't quite T rated either. Here's the final chapter. It's been fun to write this and share it all with all of you.
Open up.
Two words. That's all Regina gets in a text message from Emma as a preamble to the blonde's arrival.
It's just after eight, the lights of the city the only source of light outside while a crescent moon hides behind clouds and pollution in the sky above the populated area. Regina hasn't heard from Emma all day and at that point in her evening, she's already dressed down for sleep and wrapped up in the blanket she'd previous lent Henry when he'd slept on her couch. She's been in front of the TV for the last forty minutes and she can't imagine why Emma greets her at the door with an energetic looking smile and a paper bag that crinkles and pokes out in places like there's one too many things inside.
"Hey," Emma says and walks inside without an invitation. "I brought wine, cheese, some stronger alcohol because wine doesn't always do it for me, lots of chocolate, and a couple of great movies."
"Did we have plans," Regina asks with a furrowed brow, completely thrown off and confused by the other woman.
Emma makes it sound like this was a girls' night in they've discussed on at least one occasion before, but Regina doesn't remember it ever having come up.
"No, but I figured we were due to a night to ourselves," Emma answers. "Henry's at a sleepover so I'm alone and I've never heard you talk about any of your other friends so I figured it was a safe bet you were alone tonight too."
"Nice," Regina sarcastically replies.
"I didn't mean to offend you. Relax, Regina. It was just wishful thinking on my part. I really didn't want to be the only one not doing anything tonight and it would've sucked if my best friend already had other plans while I moped around with nothing to do."
Regina's eyes widen the slightest bit at the title. She knows they're friends, knows Emma's her only friend, but she's never heard Emma refer to her as her best friend. Not until that moment.
"Then by all means," Regina motions to the main area of the apartment Emma's already made herself comfortable in for the night.
Emma sets the bag down on the coffee table and takes out the movies. She quickly looks through her small selection and comes to a decision then sets the others down and puts the chosen disc in Regina's DVD player like she lives there.
They've known each other a while now and Emma's spent plenty of nights at Regina's place with Henry watching movies. So it makes sense that she's so familiar with Regina's space, but the brunette can never get over how nice it feels when she witnesses it. Truthfully, Regina's never had anyone other than Henry move around her place with ease. Before New York, she's never really let anyone past the threshold unless it was important or a manipulation tactic to let someone in just before she got, or attempted to get, rid of them.
"If you don't like any of these, we can always watch Netflix," Emma says. "I just want you to know you have a choice. I'm not just, like, forcing my favorites on you."
Emma smiles at her and Regina almost laughs at how Emma cares a little too much about the smallest of choices the woman can give her in their friendship. During one of their latest movie nights, when Henry was also a guest, Emma had insisted Regina try her twist on hot cocoa but made sure Regina knew she didn't really have to even though Emma's exact words were: "You have to try it. I'm telling you." She was so sweet and considerate and Regina just knew that if Emma ever did remember her, she'd also remember all the choices she'd given her during their time in New York. She'd remember how careful and kind she'd been to the once Evil Queen and how it might have been just a little too much, a little too nice for someone who's tried to kill her and her family. But she tries not to weigh herself down with thoughts like that, because Emma's here and she doesn't remember anything except the beautiful progress they've made in recent months to get to a point where Regina can call the blonde a friend and not hate that she actually likes her former enemy Snow White's spawn.
"I'm sure whatever you've brought over will be fine," Regina assures and brings a corkscrew and two wine glasses into the living room with her before she sits down next to Emma on the couch.
Emma picks up the green blanket Regina left there when she went to get the door and smiles as she looks first at the blanket itself and then directs her eyes upward to make contact with Regina's.
"Sharing is caring," Emma says.
Regina rolls her eyes.
"Please. With how often you're over, this is starting to feel like a common law marriage and half of everything I own is already yours."
Emma chuckles and drapes the blanket over both of them while the DVD menu plays. She tucks her legs under herself, Regina keeps her feet rooted on the floor, and then she leans forward and takes the remote from the coffee table to press play.
The movie starts and Emma hands Regina the bottle of wine, which she carefully opens with the corkscrew from her spot on the couch beneath the warm blanket.
Regina pours them both a glass and hands one to Emma while the blonde's eyes focus on the movie. She sits back with her own drink after Emma accepts her glass and for a while they both enjoy the movie and their wine in comfortable silence that's occasionally filled by little laughs at something that happens on the screen.
After almost two glasses of wine for each of them and a movie and half later, Regina's feet are still on the floor, but Emma's legs are no longer tucked under herself. The blonde's position has changed a few times since they first sat down, but now Emma's legs are folded in front of her with her feet off to her side while her knees gently rest on half of Regina's lap under the blanket. Emma leans against Regina's side and one of her fists is closed around Regina's lounge shirt between her chest and hip. Her hair tickles Regina's neck and collarbone as she has her head nuzzled in the crook of the older woman's neck.
Regina tries not to stiffen beneath Emma because she doesn't want the other woman to ask her why she seems tense, because Emma would indeed do that, but she's utterly unprepared for the way the blonde leans on her. She's never been this close to someone—not including their son, but that's different. No, she's never cuddled with anyone since Daniel, and even then she had been in Emma's position while Daniel sat back against the tree they met at when they were able to get away from the stable. He'd stroke her hair and rub her back and they'd talk about their plans for the future or they'd sometimes share about their pasts. He'd compliment her riding from her earlier lesson that day and she'd say it was all because of her cute and very helpful instructor.
With Emma, everything's different and much more complicated yet not so complicated all at the same time. She's Henry's other mother and the Savior and Snow White's daughter so it's all very complex and nothing about them being together would ever be easy. But here, on the couch, in her apartment in New York, she's Emma's neighbor and best friend and the woman who's good with Henry whom Henry likes way more than anyone else Emma's ever welcomed into their lives. So everything can just fall into place and be that simple.
When Regina thinks she's momentarily stopped breathing while she's been trying not to tense up, she exhales and then Emma squirms against her side, and it feels good, so good. She doesn't hesitate, leaves herself no time to second guess her actions, and moves instinctually as she lays her head on top of Emma's while the blonde's still rests in the crook of her neck. She thinks she hears Emma hum with content, but maybe it's her that hums or maybe it's in her head. She never finds out because she's too distracted by Emma's roaming hand.
Emma's hand releases Regina's shirt and glides across her torso. The touch is enough to cause Regina's muscles to ripple like still water disturbed by a pebble or a strong wind. She knows Emma feels her reaction because it's an extremely noticeable reaction and Emma's hand moves with her as it happens. Emma's hand as it crosses from one side of her torso to the other feels like a handful of butterflies excitedly fluttering this way and that inside her stomach, and now it's Regina's turn to squirm because she's almost too sensitive to the touch.
"Are you okay," Emma asks and lifts her head from Regina's shoulder.
Regina tries to take a deep breath and calm herself, but she's still reeling from the effects of Emma's devious hand.
"Yes, I'm fine," Regina lies with a slightly raspy voice.
Emma seems to accept the answer and lowers her head back down onto Regina's shoulder. A moment later, her hand drops to Regina's hip and it's all Regina can do not to let a soft and stifled whimper escape.
Her back arches, however, so it complete gives her away that Emma's piqued her libido's interest.
"Are you sure you're okay," Emma asks, but doesn't lift her head a second time.
Apparently, the effect Emma has on Regina is accidental because Emma doesn't move her hand again and there's no teasing in her tone or words.
She's cuddler, Regina reminds herself. This is just how she is when she's comfortable with someone.
Comfortable is far from what Regina feels, however. She's aroused and kind of nervous and she doesn't know what it all means. She likes Emma, sure, but she didn't think she's grown to like the blonde to the point of a physical response.
Thankfully she doesn't have to give it any further thought past that point because Emma's hand stays put and Regina eventually gets use to its placement. She's able to relax, so much so that she falls asleep in that exact position before the third movie ends.
"Te extraño," Regina purrs with need and an emotion that goes much deeper than lust.
Emma stands before her in only a tank top and her lacy underwear. She licks her lips in response to Regina's words and though Regina knows she doesn't know what they mean, Emma looks at her in a way that makes Regina throw caution to wind, her words as important as what time it is or what's happening beyond the apartment walls, which is to say they aren't important at all right now.
Regina grabs Emma by the waist and pulls her in, kisses her with everything she has and feels a rush of warmth between her legs when Emma almost immediately moans into her mouth. She presses her body flat against Emma's and pleasurably sighs into their next kiss as she curls her fists into Emma's tank. She tugs at the material and holds Emma as close to her as she can before she turns them and starts to back Emma up in the direction of the bed.
Emma's hands run through Regina's hair before one of them travels down and cups the back of her neck. The other hand slides down even further and unbuttons Regina's pants. She lets go of Regina's neck to use both hands when she pushes down Regina's pants. She exposes black lace and Regina steps out of her pants so she and Emma have an equal amount of skin revealed.
The back of Emma's knees hit the edge of the bed and the blonde almost falls backward, but Regina pulls her closer for a moment then peels off Emma's tank top. She breaks their kiss to get the tank over Emma's head and doesn't go in for another kiss once the garment is fully removed. Instead, she removes her own top while Emma watches with hungry eyes. Once her top joins Emma's on the floor, Regina gently shoves Emma backward.
Emma falls onto the bed and bounces a little after impact then smiles up at Regina while the brunette grins down at her and crawls up the younger woman's body. Their lips meet in slow and steamy kiss that makes both women wonder why they'd never tried this before, why they'd stayed angry at each other for so long when they could have been doing this, doing this a lot of different ways for a lot of different reasons.
"Regina," Emma half-breathes out, half-moans when the brunette pulls back from the kiss so she can give the other woman's neck some attention.
Regina almost has an orgasm solely from the sound of her name coming from Emma's mouth. Emma's said her name plenty of times before, but when she says it this time and every time after, she says it like she knows Regina, really knows her. Because she does know her, she remembers her. Emma remembers everything and she's still here, still beneath her on the bed, and wants to keep going.
She stops at Emma's plump, bra-encased breasts and smirks before she places a kiss on the rounded flesh of each one then slides her hands under Emma and unhooks the clasp. She throws the bra aside without a care as to where it lands and puts all of her attention on the freed breasts and hardened, rosy nipples right in front of her.
Emma's legs spread a little wider as Regina sucks a nipple into her mouth. Regina's stomach is already pressed up against the woman's underwear and the mouth on Emma's breast causes the younger woman to buck her hips. Her covered center presses firmly and grinds against Regina's torso and Regina feels how damp the material is that remains between them.
Emma feels good against her, so good. Regina doesn't want to stop, doesn't ever want to stop. She revels in every sound Emma makes, moans every time Emma says her name in the one way Regina's been most desperate to hear her say it for months now. It's all coming together, they're coming together in more ways than one, and Regina's happy.
She looks at Emma again as her hands start to wander down, down to places Emma makes certain Regina knows she wants her to be, and she smiles. She smiles and sees the happiness she feels matched in Emma's gaze, feels the familiarity between them that she's missed longer than she's been in New York.
"Te extraño," Regina repeats as she leans in closer with a hand between them almost exactly where Emma wants it, needs it. She kisses Emma as her fingers set a steady pace below, and kisses her again and again and continues to say, "Te extraño" between each one so Emma knows.
"Te extraño."
Regina breathes in and smells a familiar yet unfamiliar shampoo. She's smelled it before, but she knows it's not hers. When she opens her eyes, she sees that it's a new day and that she slept on the couch in a seated position. Her cheek rests on Emma's head, which is on her shoulder and starting to move so she lifts off the other woman.
"What's that mean," Emma groggily asks as she starts to shift and sit up.
Emma stretches and yawns then rubs her eyes before she looks expectantly at Regina for an answer she still hasn't received.
"What does what mean," Regina asks as it sets in that she wasn't the only one to fall asleep on the couch last night.
"Te extraño," Emma replies with an accent that isn't as bad as Henry's was at first, but still doesn't have quite the right sound to it.
"Oh."
Oh.
Did she actually say it out loud? If she did, what else about her dream has she accidentally let slip?
"It means 'I've missed you,'" Regina says, her gaze directed at the coffee table so she doesn't have to look at Emma when she says it. "Where did you hear it?"
"From you. Just now. You kept mumbling it in your sleep."
"Did I say anything else?"
Emma shakes her head and Regina's relieved.
"Who do you miss," Emma asks as she stays close, too close, to Regina on the couch.
Regina can't tell her the truth. She doesn't even know a variation of the truth to tell her at this point. She's missed Emma. That much was clear from the way she looked at dream-Emma when she'd said those words in the fantasy realm of her mind, but she couldn't tell that to real-Emma. Real-Emma doesn't know they've known each other beyond the months they've spent together in the city. Real-Emma doesn't know Regina's attracted to her. Real-Emma isn't really real at all and Regina gets it now. She thought she understood what Emma meant at the town line about her and Henry's lives not being real with fake memories. And she did understand it back then, still does understand it, but now she gets that everything she's been through with Emma and Henry since her return from the Enchanted Forest has happened, but it won't be entirely real until they know the entire truth.
And then Regina finally answers Emma's question with a form of the truth, which is the exact opposite of what she should do if she wants any of this, any of what she now has with Emma and Henry, to mean to them as much as it means to her.
"My son," is Regina's form of the truth.
"Oh, right," Emma nods. "How is he? I mean, have you talked to him at all since you've been here?"
Regina nods, and smiles because Emma's treading carefully. It's a sensitive subject, or at least it would be if Regina didn't get to see her son most days of the week, but she sees him and talks to him and bonds with him all over again like he's only a baby and she just wants to know what he wants from her that will get him to stop crying.
"I have," Regina replies. "He's doing really well, actually."
"That's good."
"Yes. Yes, it is."
"Uh, I'm sure…I'm sure he misses you too," Emma says, and it comes out awkwardly enough that Regina thinks Emma's not sure how to approach the subject with her since Emma still has her son.
"Thank you," Regina continues to smile at her and even risks certain emotions bubbling up on the surface just to touch Emma's knee to show she's sincere.
Emma smiles at Regina so brightly it reminds Regina of the way a puppy wags its tail when it's happy or excited. It's cute, so cute, and Regina knows with absolute certainty it's not just attraction she feels for Emma. It can't only be attraction.
Emma's phone rings and she goes to get it.
"It's Henry," Emma tells her before she answers. "Hey, Kid. You ready? Yeah, I'll be on my way soon."
When Emma hangs up, the smile she gives Regina looks more like a mischievous smirk.
"You want to come with me to get Henry from his sleepover? He and I are gonna grab some breakfast at our favorite place."
Regina pushes down her feelings for a moment, because Emma's made it so easy for her to say what she says next.
"I thought my place was your favorite place," she teases.
Emma chuckles and extends a hand to Regina, helps her off the couch.
"Okay, our second favorite place," Emma corrects.
"You should come inside," Henry suggests when they all stand outside of Emma's door after breakfast. "I want to show you my book."
Regina looks surprised.
"Your book?"
"Yeah," Emma smiles as she unlocks the door. "Kid's a sketch artist with a good book series on his hands."
"You know about it," Henry reminds Regina. "The one with the main character that speaks Spanish? Oh, but…uh, it's not really finished."
Henry looks away from Regina to direct his next words at Emma. "A few more details came to me last night."
"Really? That's great. What details," Emma asks.
"I think I figured out how the queen should look."
"There's a queen," Regina asks, unsure of just what Henry's been writing since they parted last year.
"Yeah," Henry says and dashes off to his room then returns with his sketch book and a pencil.
He sits down at the kitchen table and opens the book up to a specific page then starts to add to the scene.
Emma goes past the table, into the kitchen and starts to make them all drinks while Regina approaches the table and looks over Henry's shoulder. The page he's adjusting has a picture of a scene Regina remembers all too well and she gasps at the sight of her goodbye to Emma and Henry at the town line.
"You okay," Emma asks with a frown and stops what she's doing to focus on Regina.
"Y-yes. I just…I didn't realize how talented Henry is," Regina says and fakes a smile.
Emma stares at her for another moment before she says, "Okay" and goes back to making them coffee and making Henry a cup of hot cocoa.
Regina slowly sits down beside Henry and watches him work. He's driven and focused as he draws out the missing features from the queen's face, features Regina recognizes as her own. After a few minutes he has a rough sketch of Regina's face as she looks sadly yet somewhat hopefully at a mother and son that look remarkably like him and Emma. He has everyone's face and placement on the paved road out of town almost exactly right, but he can't remember all of that because he still looks and talks to her like he doesn't know any of it actually happened.
He knows more than he thinks he does and Regina is amazed and curious and she wonders if she might have accidentally implanted the faintest idea of herself into Emma and Henry's new memories.
Emma brings Henry his cocoa and before she can go back for the coffee that Regina can hear brewing in the background, the blonde looks over what Henry's come up with.
"You know, she looks a lot like Regina," Emma comments on the drawing. "Did you dream about her last night?"
"Yeah, she was in every one of the moments I've been dreaming of since I started this thing. They all kind of flashed through my dream like a flip book with the animations drawn out frame by frame in the corners of, like, a pad of sticky notes or something."
"You sure you aren't just imagining her in the place of the queen because we've been hanging out with her a lot?"
"I'm sure. Last night's dream felt as real as all the other ones. She fits."
Emma smiles at Henry then looks over the top of his head at Regina and shares that smile with her.
Regina's in an odd haze. She's happy he somewhat remembers her in his own way, but doesn't know if that's a good or bad thing. She gives Emma a smile that isn't entirely faked, but isn't entirely certain either.
Emma's satisfied enough with her nonverbal response that she leaves Regina with Henry and heads back into kitchen.
Regina watches Henry shade in a few shadowy areas before he flips back a few pages and draws the same new features on the faceless queen of a previous sketch. She gives herself a moment before she finds a safe question to ask that may give her the answer as to whether or not what he does but doesn't really remember is a good thing.
"I see there's a boy in all these pictures. He looks like you," Regina says. "Do you just see yourself in his place or are you actually him?"
Henry scrunches up his face and thinks about it.
"Well, when I have these dreams, they all feel real. They're more like…memories and not dreams. And when I dream, I see him and he's me so…I guess it's me? But I know I can't be him because I don't have two moms."
Regina cringes. Well that hurt.
"I wish I could be him, though," Henry adds.
Regina relaxes a little.
"Why do you wish that?"
"Because he's got all these people around him and they all love him. I know my mom loves me and I like our little family, but…this kid has a huge family. It's like everyone he knows is related to him. It's crazy, but… I don't know. Wouldn't you want to be surrounded by so much love you don't know how you got so lucky to have so many people in your life that care that much about you?"
More than you know, Regina thinks.
"And I know Mom loves me more than anything and I love her too," Henry continues, "but all my friends have two parents, divorced or not, and they usually have aunts and uncles and grandparents. Mom and I only have each other, which is fine, but it's kind of lonely sometimes."
"Oh, Henry, I think you underestimate just how many people care about you in this world," Regina says as she reaches out and cups one side of his face while she strokes his cheek with her thumb.
It's an affectionate and motherly gesture that came out from years of soothing him and for a second, she almost freezes and thinks to retract her hand. But Henry just smiles at her and subtly moves into her touch and she thinks he doesn't mind it, he's known her long enough now to be okay with this type of affection from her.
Emma's glowing as she carries two mugs of coffee to the table, beaming as she looks right at Regina, and Regina's not sure what to make of it other than she likes it. She likes how Emma's looking at her in that moment and maybe she doesn't need them to remember. Maybe this would be enough.
"Big families are overrated," Emma says, and now Regina remembers.
Regina remembers that Emma's never had anyone but herself and then, after eighteen years of waiting, Henry in the life Regina's given them in New York.
"They can be a pain in the ass, always fighting or criticizing each other," Emma adds as she sits down next to Regina and sets a mug in front of the brunette. "The more people there are in your family, the more people there are to let you down. Why would want all of that when what we have now is really good?"
Emma smiles at Regina again when she finishes the question, like it's her subtle way of letting Regina know she counts as part of her tiny family with Henry now.
"They don't always let you down," Henry argues. "And even if they screw up, sometimes they fix it. They can get better."
"Are you saying I'm not enough for you," Emma asks, though she's not upset. She's only curious.
"No, you're enough," he replies. "Sometimes though, especially recently, it just…it kind of feels like there's something missing."
"Gee, thanks, Kid."
"No, not like that. I just mean…maybe our family has room to grow. Maybe it's not just supposed to be you and me against the world."
Regina's heart skips a beat.
"Well," Emma throws an arm around Regina's shoulder, "maybe our family's already grown."
Henry's eyes widen.
"Seriously? Are you two really dating now?"
"Not dating," Emma says, still smiling with her arm around Regina. "But she's close enough to us to be family, right?"
Henry narrows his eyes and studies the two of them.
"So she's family, but she's not your girlfriend."
"Hey now, she's a girl and she's my friend so she is—"
"Whatever," Henry cuts her off and she chuckles. "Are you ever gonna date each other?"
"Do you think we should," Regina asks, suddenly desperate to know what's going on in his head.
"I think the only reason you're not living with us yet is because you live right down the hall," Henry honestly says.
Emma laughs again, louder, and pulls Regina just a little bit closer.
Regina's expression is an open and readable display of shock and internal debate.
"It doesn't matter if you ever date her though," Henry tells Regina, and Regina gets out of her head. "I still agree with her that our family's already grown. Because you're family now."
Everything inside her screams with delight. She smiles and she wants to cry, but holds it in because she can't cry. That would be too emotional of a response. It's been a year, a very long and painful year without them, without belonging because everything she belonged to and belonged with was in New York. And now she's spent the last several months learning to be happy instead of hurt and angry and hell-bent on finding a way out of the land she'd once called home, before Henry, before Emma, before she realized her father's forced sacrifice wasn't all for nothing after all. She's spent the last several months becoming Emma and Henry's family all over again.
It's not "our son" and "our magic" and "our best chance is together", but it feels just as powerful. In this world, in this city, in which Emma and Henry don't remember all that she does, it's just as powerful in its own right.
It's then she sees, she knows, what needs to be done. They are family and she's more certain than she's ever been that she loves them. Them. And they have more family to welcome back into their lives and their hearts. Henry wants it, thinks it's how things are supposed to be and he's right. That's exactly how it should be, as crazy as it all is.
He's sketched out every last detail of a life he doesn't know he used to know. And Emma's still so cynical about families and having other people in her life because she doesn't remember a life she used to know with parents and a reformed villain as her co-parent and a son that brought her to an all but fictional town and made her believe in fairy tales and happy endings.
They need to remember. As much as it may hurt both Emma and Henry to remember that Emma hadn't always kept him, they need to remember. All the pain of being given up and all of the insane villain chases and portal jumping, they need to remember. Life is made up of good and bad moments. Without the bad, how can you ever truly appreciate the good? And while their life in New York is dream come true, a fairy tale, a happy ending, it's only a small piece of the puzzle. It's a puzzle that will never be complete if Regina doesn't return what's rightfully theirs.
She doesn't want the dream to end, doesn't want her own happiness to end, but it isn't fair to keep them away from all the other people back home that love and miss them. Just because Regina thinks Snow and David are having another baby that give them a do-over after Regina screwed with their first chance at parenthood, she's recently been screwing with Emma's second chance at having parents.
Love isn't selfish, Regina thinks.
"Regina? Oh god, are you okay?"
Regina blinks and Emma's arm isn't around her anymore, but the blonde looks at her with deep concern. She blinks again and she feels something leave a trail down her cheek. Emma's concerned because she's crying and as far as Emma and Henry know they haven't said or done anything that could possibly bring about tears.
"What's wrong," Emma asks and wipes one of Regina's tears with the pad of her thumb.
"I'm sorry," Regina says. "This might be too forward right now, but if I don't do this before… If don't do this now, I might lose my only chance."
Emma's more confused now than she was about Regina's tears and that's the last thing Regina sees before she closes her eyes and kisses her.
There's a surge of magic and a flash of light she only sees from behind her eyelids and one of them gasps, or maybe all of them do. When Regina opens her eyes, she doesn't know what to expect, but she she's ready to come up with a lame excuse to get out of there and then return later with the memory potion. When she looks at Emma, though, she knows instantly that she doesn't need it anymore.
"Regina," she says, and she says in that way, that special, special way.
"You remember," Regina breathes out.
Emma just stares at her with her mouth wide open. Regina thinks for a moment that Emma remembers and that means it's all over. They'll go back to Storybrooke and the way things were before and her happy ending will forever be in a part of New York that stopped existing the moment she kissed Emma Swan.
"Mom!" She hears Henry yell her name so, so close to her ear only half a second before he crushes her in a hug from behind her where he'd once been sitting and now stands so he can wrap his arms around her shoulders and nuzzle his nose into her neck.
"Henry," Regina warmly says with a smile, and a few more tears fall as she places her hands over his arms.
"Wait," he says when they pull apart and then he walks around Regina's chair so he stands between his mothers. "Was that…? Did you just…? I remember. But we're not supposed to remember and then you kissed…"
Henry looks at Emma and she's still in shock.
"Emma," Regina carefully says her name like a question.
"What… I… You…" is Emma's response.
"Okay," Regina slowly says as she makes a decision. "I'll talk first."
Emma just tries not to stop breathing after being so overwhelmed.
"Over the last several months, as difficult as it was just to be a neighbor and friend to both of you, I've been trying to figure out what to do. I…I was supposed to come here and see if there was any way I could get you to come back to Storybrooke without simply forcing a memory potion on you the second I could finish one.
"After some time, I started to think maybe I could just stay here, with both of you, but then Snow kept asking about you and I knew I had to figure something else out. I didn't… I knew that I was growing to like you, Emma, but I didn't know… How could I know?"
"Is it true," Emma slowly asks once she's less catatonic. "Was that kiss…? It's true, isn't it?"
Suddenly, it's like they're back in that hospital supply closet and Emma's questioning the validity of Henry's tall tales about curses and an Evil Queen while she pins Regina to the wall until she gets an answer.
"Yes," Regina confesses.
Emma's shoulders sag from their previously tense position and she exhales. It almost looks like relief, but Regina can't be sure.
Not until Emma leaves her seat, leans forward, and crashes her lips against Regina's. Their first kiss was a peck, a chaste expression of what Regina felt in that moment, and only ended so quickly because of the magic that burst forth from the contact. Their second kiss, this kiss, isn't as chaste or as quick. In this kiss, she doesn't feel the burst of magic, but she feels the emotions that spurred that magic on in the first place. This kiss is the kind of kiss that should be able to transcend realms and break any curse.
When they separate, Emma rests her forehead against Regina's and they each take a moment to breathe. They hear a chuckle and both women turn to see Henry with a phone in his hand with the small lens near the top directed right at them.
"I finally have the final scene of my story," he says. "You were right Mom, the Queen and the Savior are in love."
Emma rolls her eyes and Regina laughs.
"You knew before I did," Regina asks Emma. "I find that very hard to believe."
"I guess it was easier to see from a kind of object person point of view," Emma says and pulls Regina up so they're both standing before she shuts the brunette up with another kiss.
Before things can even get the slightest bit closer to PG-13, Regina's phone rings and they break apart.
"Thank god," Henry says. "I thought I was gonna have to leave the room soon."
That time Emma laughs while Regina rolls her eyes before she answers the call, but doesn't check the caller ID.
"Hello?"
"You did it," Snow says on the other end.
"What?"
"They remember, don't they," Snow asks, but it sounds like a statement.
"How do you know that?"
"Who is it," Emma asks.
"We felt it. The power of True Love's Kiss," Snow tells Regina.
"You felt it," Regina asks a little louder than intended. "All the way through the cloak over the town?"
"Yes."
"Regina, who is it," Emma asks again.
"Your mother," Regina finally answers her.
"Is that Emma? Can I talk to her?"
Regina sighs and hands Emma the phone.
"She's been dying to talk to you from the day I got your number at the park," Regina says as Emma takes the phone.
Emma smiles, and that smile is what assures Regina she's done the right thing.
Henry calls her Mom again and she leaves Emma to the phone call while he hugs her and tells her he loves her. And that hug paired with those words, words he means and understands why he wants to say them before he then says them, is what assures Regina she hasn't lost her happy ending.
"Are you gonna date her now," Henry asks as they pull out of their hug, and she wraps an arm around his shoulders and laughs.
"If she still wants me around," Regina replies while she looks at Emma as the blonde continues to talk to her mother.
Emma catches Regina's gaze and there's a glimmer in her eyes as she smiles at the brunette again. Not only does she remember, but she's still happy. Remembering hasn't ruined anything for her, hasn't ruined anything for Henry either.
As she holds Henry close and looks at Emma with a smile to match the Emma's, Regina knows this isn't the end. It's only just the beginning. Her happy ending in progress.