A/N: As of right now, Emma doesn't know that she has magic.
I did google what type of injury Emma would have, I made it become more serious.
I was going to end this at Chapter 10, but when I looked at my notes, I realized that Emma still has more to say.
The next morning, I heard a noise that roused me from my sleep. Henry was at the side of my bed and scared the bejesus out of me! I fell of my bed and made a face as I landed on my cast. I wasn't sure what hurt more, the fact that I landed on my injured arm or the fact that my cast had hurt like a mother.
"Henry, you can't do that to me!"
"Sorry Ma, I was waiting for you to wake up."
"Why? You going to show off your skills again?"
"No, Mom wanted me to get you up."
"It's like too early for me, Kid! I shouldn't be conscious right now."
Henry held onto my good arm to help me up.
"Mom said you have to wake up for breakfast or she won't feed you."
"If she doesn't feed me, then I can just go to Granny's Diner."
"Nope, Mom called Granny and told her not to serve you."
"Oof, that's pretty cold."
Henry laughed, "Seriously, get ready! You have to see me off to school."
"You really want me to?"
"Yeah. I mean, I know I can walk myself to school, but I wanted to show you off."
"Hey, I'm not a show-and-tell!"
Henry rolled his eyes, "Hurry up."
Henry walked down the stairs while I got ready.
Since I fell on my arm, this made it so damn hard to put on my jeans. I was so pissed that I thought I would just rip it off.
I heard a knock at the door and Regina appeared.
"I got concerned when you didn't come down for breakfast. I usually can't keep you away from food."
"Haha." I said as I was lying on the floor in defeat with my jeans around my ankles.
"Do you need help?"
"Please."
"Stand up."
I would be embarrassed by someone helping me get dressed, but I trusted Regina.
I had her kneel before me and I used my hand on her shoulder to steady myself. I stepped into one pants leg and then the other.
Regina had slowly pulled up my jeans, "Do you need help zipping it?"
"Yeah." I said while blushing. Was it out of embarrassment or because Regina was touching me in such an intimate way?
I heard the zipper go up and her fingers brushed against my stomach as she buttoned my jeans.
"It's time for your tank top, right?"
"Please hurry up Regina, I need some pancakes."
Regina rolled her eyes.
"Arms up, Emma."
I lifted my arms and she easily slipped my tank top on.
"Thank goodness you wore a bra last night or else Henry would have seen you without it."
"Jeez, thanks for having faith in me."
Regina stopped the tank top halfway.
"Ahh, Regina, stop that! I'm stuck! This isn't how you hold someone hostage."
I actually heard Regina laugh and it was such a beautiful sound.
She finally pulled the tank top down and I held my breath as her hands came into contact with my sides.
"Henry said you fell on your arm this morning."
"I'm fine, Regina. There's nothing that I can't handle."
"Oh I know that. Can I take you to Dr. Whale?"
"No, I'm not going near him again!"
"Why not?"
"He's creepy."
"Emma, he's the only doctor we have, if we can even refer to him as that."
"He has pervert written all over him."
"Emma."
"Look, I'll go if it gets any worse, okay?"
xxx
I was wolfing down the pancakes as though it might be my last meal. I had to learn how to be left handed and I hated it. I still somehow was able to shovel it into my mouth.
"Ma, where are your manners?"
I had syrup dripping down my mouth and I pointed my fork at him, "Listen Kid, nothing keeps me away from my food, not even a damaged arm."
Regina wiped the edges of my mouth to get rid of the syrup, "Henry's right, you need to work on your manners."
"Thanks, Mom."
Henry laughed.
"You two better hurry up or Henry will be late to school."
Henry and I jumped out of our seats and were ready to run out the door when Regina said, "Dishes!"
We went to put the dishes in the sink and bolted out of there.
xxx
Henry and I were walking side by side.
"I feel so out of place here." I said.
"Well, you shouldn't be. You belong here, Ma."
"I haven't even see my parents, Henry. Snow might have a heart attack if she saw me."
"Grandpa understood that you weren't ready to come back to your job until your arm heals."
"Did you know that this isn't the first time I have been in a cast?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. When I was little, I climbed up a tall tree at the orphanage to prove to the boys that I was better than them. Well, I climbed so high that I had trouble coming down. It ended with me falling out of the tree and breaking my arm."
Henry winced when he heard that I broke my arm, "That sounds brutal."
"The lady who looked after me was super pissed at me."
"How long did it take to heal?"
"A few weeks or longer, I think."
"So how long will that take?" He said when pointing to my arm.
"No clue, but it totally sucks right now."
"I really am sorry."
I stopped walkin and put my hands on either side of his face as our foreheads touched.
"Like I said before Kid, it was an accident. When I get my arm fixed, I will show you how to really game."
"Yeah right!"
"We gotta pick up the speed or your mom would rip my head off if you're late."
"Race you there!"
xxx
Henry had just barely made it inside when the bell went off.
"I'll see you later."
"Wait! Can you walk me to class?"
"Henry, you're sixteen, you don't need me to."
"I know, I want you too."
"Alright, I'm coming."
xxx
Henry entered his classroom and I hesitated because this classroom was where my mom taught.
"You can do this, Swan."
I opened the door and heard my mom talking about something. When she saw me, she dropped her book and ran over to hug me tightly.
"Emma!"
"Mom, I can't breathe."
She still clung onto me anyways, but didn't hug me as tightly.
"Your arm is in a cast! Charming told me that you were hurt. Why didn't you come to our home?"
"Because you were going to smother me to death."
My mom heard Henry trying to stifle his laughter.
She brought me out into the hallway, "Emma, you belong with us, not with Regina."
"There's nothing wrong with me staying with Regina."
"She's the Evil Queen! After you left, it showed how cruel she truly was."
"Mom, she's changed!"
"How do you know? She could just be tricking you and…"
"Mom, you don't know her the way Henry and I do. All you know her as is the Evil Queen, not as Regina Mills."
"Well, you don't know what she did in the Enchanted Forest."
"So? You're not there anymore! You're in Storybrooke, Maine. You have to learn how to let go of the past."
"Just like you did when you left Henry?"
I sighed, "I had to leave, Mom. I knew that he would be taken care of by Regina. She took care of him for eleven years, so what was another five?"
"It was like she had him under lock and key."
"Maybe she did in the beginning, but look at her now! Henry is happy since I got back and he even treats Regina like a human being. Henry isn't the type to lie. You have to give Regina a chance."
"She tried to murder me and your father!"
"Yeah, like a billion years ago."
"We're not that old!"
"My point is, you need to treat her like a human being. She feels rejected by this town. Yeah, she probably didn't treat people well at all before, but that was five years ago. Weren't you the one that taught me that people can change?"
"The Evil Queen doesn't change."
"You're wrong."
I walked away from her as she stared at me in shock.
xxx
I was standing in front of the Sheriff's station and saw my dad leaving.
The moment he saw me, he hugged me close to him, but not as tightly as my mom did.
"How are you, Champ?"
"I'm doing okay minus my arm." I said while waving my cast in the air.
"Yeah, Regina told me about what happened."
"Regina talked to you?"
"Yeah, we've been talking."
"That's weird."
"Why?"
"Mom acts like she's the Antichrist."
My Dad sighed, "Regina did try to kill your mom."
"But that's in the past, where all that should be!"
"You're right, Emma."
"Why was it easier for you to accept her as Regina?"
"After you left, I saw how it affected Regina. She seemed crueler than before, but I could tell that she was just lashing out. Regina never had an easy life, just like you. Cora, her mother, never treated her like a person. She treated her as a means to an end."
"How did you know?"
"Regina actually told me herself."
"That's really odd."
"You're telling me!"
"What happened over the past five years though?"
We started to walk towards my parents' apartment.
"She eventually isolated herself and let Gold take over being mayor temporarily."
"What?! She would never do that!"
"She did, Emma. She was so lost…"
My Dad had let us into the apartment and he immediately got to work making us hot cocoas.
I sat down on a stool at the island, "Did everyone hurt her when I left? I knew there was a mob outside of her home."
"No, I wouldn't let them hurt her. I told them that they were better than that. Two wrongs don't make a right."
"Two rights make a left."
My Dad laughed, "You need to stop watching television during your free time."
"Dad, Cosmo gives great advice."
He sat down and slid one of the hot cocoas over to me.
"I wish Mom saw Regina the way you do."
"You know that you can't force anybody to do anything. She'll eventually come around, Kid."
I felt like a little child at this moment, "You promise?"
"I promise, Emma."
xxx
I left my Dad about an hour later and headed to Granny's Diner to say hi to Granny and Ruby. Today was not going to be the day where I sit on my ass, I had to get out into the real world again. I could only stand being cooped up in the house for so long.
"Hey Ruby!"
Ruby had the brightest smile on her face, "What took you so long?"
"I had to spend time with my family."
"Family as in Regina and Henry?"
"Yep, they're a part of my family after all."
Ruby nodded and sat me down at a booth that had a sign saying, "Swan-Mills Family".
"What's up with the sign?"
"Well, the sign used to say "Mills Family", but the moment I heard you were coming, I changed it. Regina and Henry eat there, so this booth is reserved for them, permanently."
"Wow, I can't believe you did all that for them."
"I did it for you too, you know. Welcome back."
I heard someone come out of the kitchen and Granny had her hands on her hips.
"Welcome back, Emma Swan. Do you know how late you are?"
"I didn't know that I was late to anything."
"This one was so excited that you came back that she almost gave the wrong order to a customer!"
"You can't blame me, Granny."
Granny cracked a grin, "No Pup, I can't."
Ruby plopped herself on the other side of the table, "Boy do I have some news for you!"
"Uh huh, like what?"
"I met someone."
"Who's the lucky person?"
"Belle."
"Finally!"
"What do you mean?"
"I saw the way that you wanted to ask her out. You don't really like reading books and you were in the library checking them out. We both know that you weren't checking out the book, but checking her out."
"Shhh, don't say that out loud!"
"How long have you been going out for?"
"For about four years now."
"Damn, you going to ask her to marry you or what?"
Ruby grinned, "Soon, actually."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, I mean, I want my happy ending if you got one too."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, you really have brought a spark back in Regina's life."
"How am I the only one that hasn't noticed this?"
"It's because you're brain dead, duh."
"Haha, very funny."
"So Tinkerbell said that Regina's true love would have a Lion's tattoo. She thought that this guy named Robin Hood might've been her true love, but turned out that he wasn't. The lion tattoo was the wrong design."
Ruby paused, "Do you have a lion tattoo?"
"Uh…"
"I take that as a yes. Where is it?"
"On my ass."
"No way!"
"I'm joking, it's not on my ass!"
Ruby let out a sigh of relief.
"Where is it then?"
"Someone...private."
"Ooo, Regina's going to have fun discovering your tattoo."
"Shut up, you're talking about Henry's other mom!"
"Oh come on, Emma! You have to ask her out to dinner at least."
"How do you even know that I like her?"
"Aha, I was right!"
"What?"
"I wasn't sure if you liked her, but now I know."
"That was cheating."
"Nah, it was good sleuthing."
I rolled my eyes.
"Emma, you should ask her out on a date. Henry's been talking about doing that since you came back."
"You're joking."
"Who do you think came up with the sign?"
"He's too smart for his own good sometimes."
"You sat your butt here long enough, go get her!"
xxx
I was standing in front of Regina's office door and was fidgeting as I held onto our lunches.
"I buzzed you in, Emma." The receptionist said.
"Thanks."
I opened the door and closed it.
Regina had a smile on her face the moment she heard my voice.
"What brings you here?"
"I just wanted to see you, Regina, and I brought lunch." I said as I held up the lunch bags.
She took off her glasses and used her hand to indicate that I should sit down.
"I'm surprised that you're bringing me lunch. You know that I can get it for myself."
"Yeah, I know, but I didn't want you to eat lunch alone."
"I'm used to it, Emma."
"Yeah well, I don't want you to ever eat alone again, got it?"
Regina finally looked up at me with a smile that could melt anyone's heart.
I sat the bags down on her desk as I sat down in the comfy seat across from her.
"I know that you don't like greasy food, so I brought you a salad. Ruby said you ordered it. I also brought some apple cider too. Don't worry, it's non-alcoholic since you're on the clock."
"Thank you, Emma, that was really sweet of you."
I grinned, "It's the least I can do for you putting up with me for these past few weeks."
"I wasn't 'putting up with you', Emma. I was happy that you came home."
Regina noticed that she had said the word 'home' as though it was normal.
"Yeah, I'm happy to finally be home too, Regina."
We started to eat our lunch and talked about how our days were going.
"So I heard that you had Gold take over your mayoral duties."
"I had more important things to attend to."
"Henry?"
"Yes, and now, you."
"Me?"
"Yes."
Regina had a confused look on her face, "Why are you so surprised?
"It's not everyday a gorgeous woman like yourself cares about someone like me."
Regina blushed, "Nobody has complimented me like that since Daniel."
"Well, you better get used to it because you might become my future girlfriend."
"Oh?"
"I mean, if you say yes. I have to get your consent first, you know."
"Yes."
"Woah there, that was too quick! Give it some thought, would you?"
"I did. I have been thinking about it for the past five years.
