"Regina!" Snow said as she entered the door, running up to her and giving her a hug. "Where have you been?"

Regina was about to pull the child's arms off of her when Emma, who was right behind her, cleared her throat. Regina looked back at her, only to receive a silent please from her.

"I was busy," Regina said, moving away to break the hug. "But I left you in capable hands, or so I thought."

"I got new clothes, do you want to see?" Snow asked excitedly.

"Let me take care of dinner first," she said.

"Oh, I had the captain take care of that already since Emma abandoned her post," Snow said.

Regina's eyes went to David, who shrugged. "I ordered pizza to be picked up at 5:30."

"See, I had it taken care of, just like you would have done," Snow said, clearly trying to impress Regina. "Can I show you my clothes now?"

Emma meanwhile was silently praying that Regina could keep the snark level at a minimum as she waited for the other woman to reply.

"Of course," Regina said, giving what was obviously a forced smile in return. Snow took her hand and lead her up the stairs, but not before she gave a backward glance at Emma.

"Where was she all day? Did she find anything out about what was in that vial? Can she return my wife to adulthood?" David asked.

"Sort of," Emma said walking around her father and going into the kitchen as he and Henry followed.

"What do you mean sort of?"

"She knows what happened," Emma said. "But, no she can't reverse it."

She could tell David was trying hard not to have an outburst.

"There has to be a way to reverse it," he said.

"There is," Emma said. "Sort of."

"I'm going to ask you to stop saying that and explain to me what the hell is going on," he said. "I need my wife back, you and Neal need your mother back. Now if there is some way to reverse this, I don't care what it is, I will see it done."

Emma cleared her throat. "There isn't anything you can do, at least not that I can think of. You see …" she trailed off, not knowing how to explain this to her father. "it's complicated because the magic, there is no way to reverse it but if the magic runs its course, does what it's supposed to do then she will return to normal."

"What's the magic supposed to do?" Henry asked before David could speak up again.

And here is where she was stuck. She had no idea how to tell the truth about this. Hell, she didn't even know how she was going to get Regina and Snow to let go of their past animosities. The only thing she really knew about it was a story from Henry's book, but she had already come to believe the story was much more complicated than that.

"Emma?" David said when she continued to be silent.

"Regina and mom need to start getting along better," she said, hoping that was an answer that would be somewhat convincing without getting into the whole truth. "Once they do, mom will return back to normal."

"They already get along."

Emma gave him an 'are you serious' look.

"Compared to how they used to be, yes they get along," David said.

"Well, they need to get along better," Emma said.

"And that is all that is needed?" David said.

"From what Regina could find out, we think so."

"So, Regina is going to make an effort?" David asked.

"It's not just her," Emma said, already feeling like she made a mistake in telling him. "It's both of them, both of them need to get along and really put the past in the past for once."

"But Snow doesn't even know they have a past," David said. "How is this supposed to work?"

Emma didn't have an answer for it.

That was a part of what Emma didn't understand about this magic – why turn her mom into a child? If the point was for Regina and her mother to get over the past, why put Snow in her past form? It didn't make sense to her and she hadn't really gotten the chance to talk to Regina about it in order to get her take on it.

It was a conversation she was dreading but one she knew she needed to have. She couldn't do this without Regina's help, but how to tell Regina that the reason this was happening was because Emma had wanted to make a clear path to being able to date her.

This could not get any worse.

"For right now, I say we just do all we can do to give Regina and mom a chance to work through some stuff," Emma said. "Let's try not to cause any undo stress for either of them."

David nodded even though Emma could tell he was not down with this plan at all.

Emma decided that was enough talk and it was time to check on Regina and her mom to make sure they were both still alive. David and Henry left to go get the food and Neal was taking a nap so Emma walked up the stairs and she could hear her mom speaking on high speed to Regina from the guest room.

Taking a peek in from the doorway, she saw Snow twirling around in one of the dresses they had bought, going on and on about the shopping experience itself. Regina was sitting on the edge of the bed, her arms crossed and looking like she would rather be anywhere else.

"Do you think next time you can go with me?" Snow asked.

"Hopefully in a matter of days, it won't be necessary and everything will be back to normal," Regina said.

"We're going home?"

"Sure, let's go with that," Regina said, getting up. She made to leave and Emma stepped into the doorway and gave her a look. Regina turned back to Snow. "The dress looks lovely on you."

Emma saw Snow beaming at the compliment. It wasn't even a great compliment but Snow's expression was one of ultimate gratitude. She obviously idolized Regina, which made Emma wonder why things went so badly between them. How could Regina see how Snow looked up to her and still have done the things she had done? Why couldn't fate have left them alone to heal on their own?

Regina stepped around her and left the room.

"Did you show her all that you got?" Emma asked her.

"Not all," Snow shrugged.

Damn, Emma thought, Regina had been gone for like 30 seconds and already Snow was depressed.

"Can I ask you something?" She waited for her mom to nod yes. "You asked me earlier if the queen was upset with you when she left, why would you think that? Has she gotten upset with you before?"

There was another shrug and Snow took a seat on the bed. "I thought she would be happier being queen, being my stepmom, but she doesn't seem happy and nothing I do …"

"Hey," Emma said, taking a seat beside her. "You aren't responsible for anyone's happiness but your own."

"But I want her to be happy."

"That's nice of you," she said. "I want her to be happy too, but you need to understand you can't just make another person happy."

"Maybe she will be happier when we get back home. I want to see father again, and I know he probably misses Regina as much as she misses him."

"Yeah, well, maybe we shouldn't go mentioning the king around her."

"Why not?"

"You said it yourself, she probably misses your father so she might be sad because of that."

Emma felt sick to her stomach for saying that and she was pretty certain she bought her herself a one-way ticket to hell for it.

"Is there anything else we could do to make her happy?"

"I don't know, but if I think of something, I will be sure to include you."

….

When she left the guest bedroom, Regina went to her own and shut the door. She wanted to be left alone for a while. As much as she wanted to believe that Emma meant her no harm with whatever this was, being around young Snow was like its own form of torture.

That first year as queen was the worst year of her life. She would shudder every time the king would beckon to her. Sharing a bed with him …

She closed her eyes, trying to think of anything but that.

Now young Snow was here and she was just like it was before. She remembered how Snow would often want to be in her presence there in the beginning. She was completely oblivious to the pain it caused her, and oblivious to the fact it was all her fault.

She took a deep breath, again trying to keep her inner demons at bay.

It hadn't always been like that.

There was a knock at the door, and while Regina knew she shouldn't be nervous because the king never bothered with a knock, she was still slow to open the door.

"Hi Regina, story time?" Snow asked as she held the book out in front of her. She was dressed in a nightgown, clearly ready for bed, but this had become something of a routine with her. It wasn't as if Snow needed someone to read to her, she could read on her just fine, but Regina had learned early on that this was not about the story, it was about the comfort that the young girl got from the ritual of it.

"Of course," Regina smiled.

Snow smiled back and followed her inside. They got up on the bed and Regina took the book and began to read. She only got through a few chapters before she looked down and saw Snow was asleep.

Brushing a piece of hair back from Snow's face, she watched her sleeping. She had dreamed of one day having a child with Daniel, maybe even more than one. They would be a family and they would be happy.

This is not how she had planned on having a child.

Knowing what Snow had done in telling her mother about Daniel, she had wanted nothing to do with this girl when she first came here, but she also wasn't given much of a choice. It had been made clear to her early on that she was a replacement mom for the Snow. She was merely here to provide a service whether it be to the daughter or her father.

Despite what Snow had done, she knew she hadn't done it vindictively. She was just a child. She had no idea the consequences of telling Cora about Daniel would be.

She was still looking down at Snow when she heard the door to the outer chamber open. By the time the door to her bedroom opened she was on her feet standing beside the bed.

"Good evening Regina," Leopold.

"Good evening, your majesty."

He walked over the bed, seeing his daughter lying there asleep and bent over to shake her awake. Snow opened her eyes with a yawn.

"Father," she said.

"Hi honey," he said. "Why don't you scamper off to your own bed?" He gave her a hug once she got off the bed and then she came around to the other side where Regina was standing. She held her arms out for a hug but Regina merely bent down and handed her the book she still had in her hands.

"We'll finish it another night," she said, and stood back up before Snow could attempt a hug.

"Night father, night Regina," Snow said before she left. As the door closed behind her Regina felt like it might as well have been the closing of a jail cell.

A knock on her real bedroom door knocked her out of the memory.

"Yes?"

"Dinner is here," Emma said through the door.

"I'll be down in a moment."

She waited until she heard Emma walk away before standing. She went into her private bathroom off of her room and washed her hands – more to delay going downstairs than anything else.

Somehow, she had managed to forget that she hadn't always had an antagonistic relationship with Snow. She had tried, she really had tried to accept her fate in being queen, but there were too many nights like that one when Leopold would call upon her company.

She shuddered at the thought of it.

Whatever Emma had done, she may have given her 48 hours to fix it, but Regina wasn't sure she could handle Snow for that long.

Emma couldn't help but laugh a little under her breath as little Snow was introduced to pizza. She hadn't really thought much about how pizza would be another of those things that they didn't have in the Enchanted Forest.

When Snow saw David and Henry eating it with their hands, Emma thought Snow was going to throw a fit. Clearly eating with your hands was not something that one did when they were royalty. Snow followed Regina's example of using utensils and despite never using a fork on her pizza before, Emma followed suit.

The meal was again fairly quiet as the adults in the room couldn't seem to think of any safe topics to speak of and so far Snow didn't see Henry as anyone worth her time to speak to. Snow continued to tell Regina about the shopping trip and the rest of things she had seen today that were different from "home."

Regina listened but she didn't comment much at all. Emma had gotten good at reading Regina over the years and she could tell that Snow's presence like this was wearing on her. She was part way through the meal when she excused herself saying she had a headache and was going to go lay down. Snow got sad immediately and looked at Emma as if willing her to do something to make it better. But it was only a couple of minutes after Regina left that Snow also declared she too was done and left.

"How are those two supposed to get a long if Regina is going to take off every time she is around Snow for more than five minutes?" David asked.

"I don't know," Emma replied. "Ok? I don't have all the answers. I don't have any answers. All I know is this is my fault and I have no idea how to fix it."

"Well Regina should never have had dangerous magic just lying around in her vault," David said.

"No, she probably shouldn't have, but it doesn't change the fact that this happened because of me, not her. I want mom back just as much as you do, but you trying to blame Regina for this, putting it all on her shoulders isn't helping matters either," Emma said. "Maybe you should consider trying to get along with her as well."

Emma angrily got up and also left. She didn't really know where to go but she needed to blow off some steam so she got into her car and went for a drive.

It 90 minutes and two texts from Henry that caused her to finally return. She hadn't been driving the entire time, in fact she stopped at the Rabbit Hole and had a drink. Then she went home to grab a change of clothes and some other items as she planned on staying at the mansion until this was resolved.

Before this had happened, she really had thought things were going well. It had been quiet around town, she was learning to control her magic and she had gotten to spend more time with Henry and Regina.

Now she feared that not only would her mom be stuck as a child, but that Regina was going to resent and hate her once more. She knew Regina deserved to know the truth of what she had "wished" for, and when she returned she had decided that putting it off any longer would be foolish.

When she entered the home, she found Snow was in the main room sitting on the couch, staring with complete fascination at the television. Emma would have laughed at the scene as Snow was watching Sleeping Beauty, but she was not in the mood for laughter. Henry was there with her as was her father, who was holding Neal. When he saw her, David got up and indicated they needed to talk. She followed him into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry for my little outburst earlier," Emma said, hoping to stave off any lecture from her father.

"I'm sorry too," he said. "You are right. Regina has changed a lot and I don't give her enough credit for it. I do get stuck in the past when it comes to her, and it's time we all move forward. Whatever you need me to do in order to get your mom back, I'll do it."

"Thanks," Emma said. "I think I need to speak to Regina some more. Has she come out of her room at all?"

"No."

"Keep an eye on the kiddoes will you, while I go talk to her."

"Sure," he said. "Nothing I enjoy more than Disney movie marathon with my wife."

Emma smiled at him, at least he could keep a bit of a sense of humor about this.

She left the kitchen and went upstairs, stopping in front of Regina's door and listening a moment before knocking.

"Come in."

Emma opened the door to find Regina standing next to the window. She didn't turn when Emma entered and closed the door behind her.

"Are you alright?" Emma asked.

"No Miss Swan,"

"I don't suppose saying sorry will help matters," Emma said, putting her hands in her back pockets. Even though she had been determined to have this conversation with Regina, she was still on edge about it.

How to tell this woman in front of her – a woman who right now probably had every right to hate her – that the reason all of this was happening now was because she wanted to date her.

"It doesn't help," Regina said, turning toward Emma. "But it's appreciated."

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen," Emma said. "And I certainly didn't want you getting hurt."

"But you do know why this is happening," Regina offered up. "Are you ready to tell me why you are so interested in me making nice with your mother?"

"Yeah," Emma said. "It's the only way for her to be turned back to normal. You see, right before I dropped the vial, I was thinking that it would be nice if you and my mom could get along, and get past your past."

"I sort of gathered that part on my own. The question is why the sudden interest in whether or not your mom and I can be friends?"

Emma took a deep breath and exhaled. "Because I thought it would be easier if you two weren't at odds, easier for me to ask if you would like to um go out on a date with me."

For several breaths neither woman said anything, just looked at each other.

"I'm sorry," Regina said finally. "Could you repeat that?"