A/N- Sorry to update again so soon, but I have another fic in the works that I'm super excited about but am trying to break the cycle of unfinished WIPs so am trying to finish this fic first! I would love to hear what you think so far, reviews are really motivating!

Chapter Fifteen

They had everything that they needed.

Emma tried one more time to convince Regina to have one final 'conversation' with their son, but the stubborn woman insisted that there was nothing to gain from it.

Despite her reservations, she almost agreed.

With how devastated Henry was, there was no way that discussion would end with him being comforted.

But what was Emma supposed to do when she returned home?

How was she going to know what to say to him without Regina telling her?

And what about all of his teenage milestones?

She'd been secretly hoping that Regina would somehow be the one to give him 'the talk'. He would certainly need her help to figure out college applications and the woman had thrown around 'trust fund' like Emma really had any idea what that meant.

Still, Emma found herself back in Regina's vault standing at the alchemy set and mixing ingredients as if it wasn't a task she thought was relegated to her RPG characters.

Periodically, she glanced up at her companion and her concern grew as she noted very little emotion radiating from her. It was more unsettling than any of the scowls, frowns or tight-lipped smiles.

Lifting the phial of blood, Emma hesitated before placing it back down.

She couldn't put it off anymore, this was officially their last discussion.

Henry may not be able to say what he wanted to her but she would be damned if she didn't take the opportunity that no one else in town would ever have.

"Regina…"

The former Evil Queen blinked, staring at Emma's incomplete concoction.

"What were you about to say while we were at the station?" Regina asked.

A shock went down Emma's spine and she had to grip the edge of the alchemy set, it was not at all what she was prepared for.

"Well…" Emma said, uncomfortable under the unerring eye contact from the former queen, "You remember that day? We had an appointment for the crime report?"

"That was a rather eventful day for me," Regina quipped and Emma had to resist running her hand over her face with a growl.

Instead, she tried to put herself in the shoes of the woman from that morning. The one who cared so much about what she was wearing that the sheriff was later to the scene of an active school shooting. How desperately that woman wanted to allow her feelings to spring forward so that she no longer had to live in a kind of purgatory.

If Jefferson had chosen any other day, where would they be? Perhaps she would have refused to leave her girlfriend's side in the hospital and would have been there when the heart monitor failed? She could be at Milfin Street right now tending lovingly to the injured woman.

Instead, she was faced with the spirit of said woman, who had her heart set on no longer being tethered to her.

"I…was so nervous about that meeting," Emma said, laughing almost wistfully.

Regina furrowed her brow and replied, "Well I imagine you would have left more angry than nervous. It was a pretence to give you the adoption dissolution papers."

Emma sighed, "That would have put a damper on what I wanted to tell you."

"And what was that?"

Emma stared into Regina's soft gaze and she craved to be touching her cheek as she made her big admission.

"I…wanted to tell you that I've been planning to ask you on a date almost every day since the curse broke. I wanted to see if…if you would have dinner with me."

Emma's stomach fluttered as Regina's smile grew progressively larger with each word she rambled.

"So in the station?" Regina prompted.

"I was trying to…say that…I'm pretty sure that…that I love you, Regina," Emma admitted, "I didn't want to start with that before we were dating though."

"Dating?" Regina breathed.

Emma's eyes widened and she shook her head, "I know that I'm making some pretty big assumptions here…."

"If you had asked, I would have said 'yes'," Regina replied and never before had Emma felt so close to spontaneous tears, that was until Regina added, "I am almost certain that I love you too."

The tears crashed down and Regina stepped towards her, just outside her personal space.

"Oh Emma, please don't cry," Regina said softly which only seemed to add fuel to the fire.

"I…" Emma said brokenly, "I am just going to miss you so much."

"And I you," Regina replied, making to touch her face but her hand came short of her skin and Emma was hyper-aware of the cold that licked at her rather than the heat that she had envisioned.

"Then stay," Emma begged.

Regina smiled sadly and Emma wished that she could circle her waist and kiss her senseless until she had no choice but to stay, to embrace this second chance that they had been given.

Unfortunately, Regina always had an answer for everything, "You cannot date a ghost, Emma."

"Why not?!" Emma demanded, "We spend all of our time together, even share a bed, you can tell me how to help Henry!"

"We spend all of our time together because we have to, I believe that you love me Emma, but twenty-four hours a day is not the makings of a healthy relationship," Emma looked like she was about to protest, but Regina ploughed ahead, "And we may share a bed, but I am incapable of sleeping. There are only so many hours that I can watch you rest, Emma. I don't belong here anymore."

Emma blushed under her tears. How hadn't she considered what Regina did while she was asleep?

How selfish had she been?

Seeing that the Saviour was at a loss for words, Regina continued, "If you want to touch me half as much as I want to you, I'm sure that you would agree that this wouldn't work. I would never wish to be the reason that you are denied the intimacy and love that you deserve."

Emma sniffed and hung her head listlessly.

Feeling oddly like a whiny child, she whispered, "I don't want it if it's not with you."

"Emma, don't say that," Regina replied, "You deserve more than the Evil Queen and I have no doubt that you will find it."

Emma moved her hand and did something that she'd never tried to do before now, touch Regina Mills.

Her olive skin shimmered under her fingers and Emma hissed, snapping her hand away from the freezing sensation.

Was Regina right? Was any chance of a relationship taken away with something as mundane as a gunshot?

"I had six fucking months," Emma muttered, "Why didn't I just talk to you? Why didn't I just grab you and kiss you?"

"As much as I would have loved either, we can't change the past," Regina replied.

"True Love can do a lot."

Regina gasped lowly but Emma didn't back down from her suggestion. It would explain the tether and it could explain why finishing the spell was going to be the hardest thing that she would ever have to do.

Regina recovered and replied, "True Love can do a lot, Emma, but it can't heal a bullet wound."

"It would have been worth a shot if I wasn't such a coward," Emma lamented.

"You, Emma Swan, are anything but a coward."

"Doesn't feel like it right now.

Regina swallowed hard and replied, "Before…Jefferson, I was planning to cross the town line. I didn't think that anyone would miss me and you have no idea how grateful I am that isn't the case, but I refuse to be the reason that my son and the woman I love are miserable. You have to let me go, Emma, I beg you. Please be my brave saviour."

Emma's eyes fluttered closed, praying for just one chaste kiss. Was that really too much to ask after everything she had done for other people?

Scrapping her arm across her face, she tried standing straighter in a manner befitting a princess and asked, "Henry…What do you want me to tell him?"

"Just tell him that his mom loves him," Regina replied, her voice finally cracking, "and…tell him that none of this is his fault."

Emma tried for a half smile as she inclined her head but was really dragging out the seconds to stare into the mesmerising hazel. It allowed her to see every missed opportunity, everything that the saviour and Evil Queen could have had against all of the odds.

As Henry would say, it would have made an awesome story.

"I will tell him," Emma promised, "Thank you for saving our son, Regina, I'll try my best to make sure that he becomes someone who deserves it."

"I have no doubt that you will," Regina replied.

With nothing left to say, Emma turned back to the table and plucked up the phial, staring contemptuously at the blood of the man who killed the woman that she was certain was the greatest love of her life until she powered it into the solution.

The red bubbled up into it and it inexplicably became a powder, upon which Emma returned to face the spirit.

She still was far from ready, but she didn't see how she could be and she had no interest in holding Regina against her will, even if she wished that they could have shared the admission so much sooner.

Pouring the dust into her palm, she said, "Goodbye, Regina Mills, I love you."

Almost serenely, Regina replied, "And I love you, Emma Swan."

Allowing the words to wash over her and hopefully give her some remnant of Regina to hold onto, Emma threw the dust into the air where it sparkled around them, slowly floating to the ground.

Emma's eyes slipped closed.

She couldn't handle watching Regina disappear from this world.

Counting to ten as she made plans to sit among Regina's things for a while longer, Emma opened her eyes but gasped at the frowning woman that was still in front of her.

"Regina?" Emma asked tentatively.

"It didn't work," Regina confirmed and Emma's shoulders slumped, though she couldn't exactly pinpoint which emotion caused it.

"Well…this is awkward," Emma said.

s

"Good afternoon, Regina, I hope that you had a good week."

"I haven't used magic if that is what you were really asking," Regina replied, crossing her legs regally as she stared anywhere but at her therapist.

Therapist.

She hated that word, she hated that she had to see him, but most of all she hated that Dr Archie Hopper was the closest thing that she had to a friend. Even if she was paying him, she did almost get the sense that he really did care about her.

The soft look on his face right now was yet more evidence of this, though she had to wonder whether she would get anything close to that without the checks she had been writing for the last six months.

If it wasn't for the fact that this was literally her only non-professional human contact, she would have been very tempted to point out that this was hardly making her life better. Objectively, no one in town was trying to kill her anymore but that was an extremely low bar to judge what should have been her happy ending on.

"Regina," Archie sighed, "I know that you haven't used magic since Henry asked you to and you know that I am already incredibly impressed."

"Because your approval is what I live for, cricket," Regina scoffed.

A silence passed between the pair until Regina ran a hand over her face as she reminded herself that he was potentially her friend.

"I'm sorry, Archie, I…"

"It's okay, Regina. I understand that it must be difficult to do something for Henry when he has been unwilling to engage with you," Archie replied.

"Unwilling? Wouldn't he have to remember that I exist to be unwilling?" Regina grumbled.

"What is it that makes you so sure that he doesn't remember that you exist?"

Regina dragged her teeth over her bottom lip and dug her fingers into the arm of the couch, "Because…I spent my birthday alone for the first time in a decade."

"Oh, Regina…"

"I am not here for your pity, Archie," Regina said, too resigned for it to come out as biting.

"Then why is it that you booked this extra session?"

"I have been thinking…" Regina replied, "If Henry were to ever want a life outside of Storybrooke…Would it not be made easier if Miss Swan were to be his legal mother?"

"Regina…that is a huge step. You promised Henry that you wouldn't give up on him, this is not something to take lightly."

"Believe me, I am not taking this lightly!" Regina snapped and shot to her feet so that her heels clicked as she paced, "Henry is my son, I have known that since the moment I met him! Do you believe that I want to live in a world where he isn't?! But just because I believe it with my whole heart, it doesn't make it true for him! He has his real mother and I have seen no indication that he needs anything more than that. His life will run much more smoothly if he is the son of the saviour instead of the Evil Queen, it's what he has always wanted and I see no reason that I shouldn't give him what he wants."

Archie watched her pace, an incredibly sad expression breaking through his therapist's facade, until he replied, "And what will you do once this is done?"

"Does it matter?" Regina grumbled.

"Of course it matters, Regina, you say that you want to do this so that Henry can live whatever life he wishes to, but you have to remember that you have your own life as well and perhaps it is time to make a plan?" Archie ventured.

"My life is…tolerable as it is," Regina pointed out.

"Tolerable? Is that really what you want?"

"Of course, it isn't! I want my son and I want to tell Emma…" Regina clamped her mouth shut and ran her hand over her face.

"Tell Emma what?"

"It doesn't matter, it's irrelevant," Regina said.

"You know that nothing is irrelevant here."

Regina huffed and finally sat down, allowing her head to fall into her hands to cover some stray tears.

After a few seconds, she sniffed and pulled her head up to give her therapist eye contact.

"Perhaps once I am sure that Henry's legal status has been settled, I can cross the town line and at last leave these people alone?"

"You would lose your memory and become a different person! It would be as if you died!" Archie argued.

"Which would be easier for everyone involved," Regina replied tight-lipped.

Archie released the heaviest sigh yet and asked, "Do you not think that you should at least discuss this with Henry?"

"No!" Regina snapped, "This is difficult enough, I cannot see myself reacting well to his excitement."

"You think he would be excited?"

"Or indifferent, either option would be untenable."

"Are they really the only two options?" Archie asked.

"It's the only two that I deserve," Regina admitted through her fingers.

"I'm not so sure that's true."

"Henry is very sure and he is right. If the last six months have proven anything to me it's that he is better off without me."

"Regina…I urge you to really think this through," Archie insisted.

"I have! I have had nothing else to do but to think about this!"

The recording spun to a stop, but Henry had already released the recorder.

The tears from the cemetery had hardly gotten the chance to dry before they were replaced the moment that he'd rushed into his room and tore open the files.

He needed to know why it didn't work, but reading about Regina discussing her mother, Daniel, Leopold and Snow were enough to make him snap them shut.

It felt intrusive. They were not things that he should get to know about his mother until he was much older when they could sit down together and have a real heart-to-heart about what led to her becoming the Evil Queen.

Why hadn't he offered her that opportunity? Why had he ignored her?

Because of Isaac, none of this was anything that he wasn't already aware of so he instead turned his attention to the recorder and hesitated for a full minute before pressing play.

If he thought that hearing her voice was difficult before, hearing her cry was so far beyond any pain that he had felt that he dropped down to his pillow and curled up.

She said that he was his son! She explained so succinctly the way that she acted that it was as if she knew that he would one day be hearing it.

Every time that he'd seen her around town over the six months flashed through his mind and he imagined what would have happened if he smiled at her.

If he'd asked to come to dinner at home.

If he acted on the surreal feeling of not talking to her on her birthday!

He saw a version of the school incident where his mother used magic to incapacitate Jefferson because she wasn't afraid of her son believing that she was evil. Then she and Emma would take him to get ice cream because they would be so worried about how he felt about the event.

He sniffed hard as he pictured how she would have wrapped him in a strong hug and reassure him that everything would be okay.

The woman in that recording, though, was so convinced that he didn't care about her. Was so convinced that he would have no issues with her leaving town that she died believing that he didn't love her?

But then, if her spirit was really in the mansion that day when Emma found him clutching her pillow so hard, how could she still have doubt? Was it that her body and spirit were completely separate now or was it that it was simply too little too late?

This swirl of thoughts drew a cascade of tears from him, never before had the Truest Believer felt quite so hopeless.

The sound of the front door opening did have him rising and perking up his ears.

The conversation was muffled but he was sure that it was Emma talking to his grandparents. They were probably telling her exactly what had happened at Regina's coffin, sharing their deep concerns and maybe thinking of ways that they could 'fix' the situation.

Would Emma tell them that she'd had a way to do so all along? That she could have, from the start, told him that his mother was not quite as out of reach as he thought.

That even before that point, she had the authority to force him to talk to his mother before she ever started thinking about adoption dissolution and crossing the town line.

He had no desire to be involved in that conversation, but he did desperately need to know; was she gone?

Should he have snuck out and searched for Emma and stopped her from whatever it was that Regina had convinced her to do.

He held his breath as he waited and it became progressively more painful until the door at last opened and closed again and Henry could bolt from his bed, sure that his prying grandparents wouldn't be interrupting his impending pleas.

His heart clenched with each rushed step. What if he had missed his chance?

He found Emma standing unsurely by the table that Snow had cleaned, neither smiling nor grimacing (though her eyes were noticeably puffy) and he demanded, "Did it work? Did you break the tether?"

Emma sighed and replied, "No it didn't work, we're figuring it out…but kid Snow just told me…"

"That doesn't matter right now!" Henry interrupted, throwing his hands up as his body was engulfed in the purest form of relief, "You don't need to figure it out, you need to talk to Isaac! I think he has a way to bring her back!"

"Who?"

"He's the Author, he's been appearing for a while…"

"Who the hell is Isaac and why has he been talking to our son without your knowledge, Emma?!"

Henry stood bolt upright.

That voice.

It was tinged with even more anger than the recording, the kind of concerned raspiness that came out when its owner was at her most maternal.

All thoughts of figuring out how to contact the Author fled from his mind and he swivelled around slowly. He released a wet gasp as his eyes confirmed what his ears had heard.

Regina dragged her eyes away from Emma upon finding that the saviour was suddenly dumbstruck.

She gasped as she saw that she was receiving eye contact from her son.

"Mom!" Henry shouted and barrelled towards her only to crash straight through her and onto the couch.