A/N: Neal Cassidy is introduced as a character in this chapter. This is not a Swanfire fic and he will not function in any way as a romantic interest for Emma.
A/N: This story is set in the immediate aftermath of the Cora plot, Regina took Snow's heart recently, and although it departs from canon this is the same time that in canon she was deciding to kill everyone in town and return to the Enchanted Forest with Henry. This is late season 2 Regina. Regina is not redeemed at this point.
Regina tapped her fingers on the table as she waited for Emma. Granny's wasn't neutral ground, but at least their coffee wasn't horrendous. She had a cup sitting in front of her, half full. The wait staff didn't ever rush to fill up her cup. Their way of not encouraging her to stay.
The tables around hers were empty and a few patron's kept glancing in her direction. The Evil Queen wasn't that unusual a sight, but much like a lion or a tiger or any other kind of dangerous predator that happened to be in the room with you, it was always best to keep an eye on their location.
Emma arrived 10 minutes late, and gave her what she assumed was supposed to be an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Goldilocks got booked for B&E against last night and I had to go to her bail hearing."
"Well it's good to know the criminal justice system is back at work."
"After a fashion." Emma inhaled, "Listen... thanks for coming over the other night. I know it couldn't have been easy dealing with my mother and ..."
"Not trying to kill her?" Regina said dryly, raising an eyebrow.
"I sometimes want to kill her."
"How very un-Charming of you."
Emma gave her a look.
"You said you wanted to talk."
"Yes. Your living accommodations for my son are unacceptable."
Emma stiffened and narrowed her eyes. "I hardly ..."
"I've let you and ... that person... play parents for too long and the other day it could have been worse than an upset stomach. I called the school... do you have any idea how many days Henry's been absent this term?"
Emma at least had the good sense to look sheepish. "I'm surprised they talked to you..."
"In case you forgot, I am his legal guardian. They aren't technically supposed to talk to you. And I suspect you'll find they've not been terribly comfortable with your signing things for him anyway. Aside from the fact that that apartment is not big enough for three adults, I will not have my son sharing a room with an adult woman, even if she is his ..."
"Mother."
"Biological mother."
"I see we're granting that now?"
"I'm willing to grant the light show and the curse breaking gives you something but it still doesn't give you the right to pretend you are his mother. I'll go along with it because it's what Henry wants and I'm trying to repair my relationship with my son, but I don't really care about your feelings in the matter."
"You never did."
Regina actually felt herself growl, but she calmed herself. She and Emma had an unspoken agreement that neither talked about ... the thing... that had happened the year before. "I want to see evidence that you are planning on getting your own living space before the end of the month."
"And if I don't?"
"If you want to persist in playing little happy family with your parents, he can move back home."
"Yeah, you tried to kill us all a few weeks ago, that's not going to happen."
"Well than you'll have extra incentive to find your own space."
Emma looked like she wanted to fight some more, perhaps just for the sake of fighting, but Regina knew defeat when she saw it and decided to push further. "And I want Mr. Cassidy to make his visitation arrangements through me."
"Well, Your Majesty, it's nice to want things." Emma shook her head.
"You gave him up. You had no right to waltz back into his life. That man... what he did to you... I don't like his influence on Henry. And I certainly don't want Gold anywhere near him."
"Gold's better."
"Gold's faking, dear. He's as self interested as he always was. He wants his son, and playing happy grandfather to Henry furthers that goal." Dear was always a sign she held someone in real contempt.
"Regina, you aren't controlling Neal's visitation. Try again?"
Regina wanted to light something on fire. But she gritted her teeth and instead wrapped her fingers around her coffee mug and let the liquid heat back up to an acceptable temperature. "I want him eating better Emma. Not the way you eat. I know you eat like a 14 year old boy but 11 year old boys shouldn't actually eat like 11 year old boys want to eat."
Emma managed again to look sheepish, and Regina wondered how she managed to defuse her anger so easily with just one of those looks. But at least it seemed to be getting through.
"Oh..." Regina reached into her purse and handed Emma a bottle of multicolored gummies. "He should take his vitamins in the morning."
Emma picked them up and looked at them. "I didn't know they made Avengers candy."
"They're not a snack, dear. They're vitamins. Don't even try it." Regina looked off out a window and mumbled for the first time not using her mayor voice, "Henry likes the Captain America ones though."
And this time it was Emma looking off into space.
Emma was sitting in the police cruiser when Henry got out of school. Maybe it wasn't an appropriate use of town resources. She'd get a memo from Regina about it if she knew, but for some reason today she felt like she had Regina Mills Super Mom sitting on her shoulder and so she'd taken the Bug in to have its breaks fixed.
"Hey kid," Emma smiled, "How are you feeling."
"Better." He nodded happily as she started the car. "I'm sorry... maybe I should have told Dad about the strawberries."
"You should definitely should have told him, and me, about them." Emma tried to look serious to get her point across, but something else was worrying her now. "And... I'd rather you didn't call him that. Neal."
"Well... he's my father and you and he ..."
"He's the man who got me pregnant. And I want to give him a chance to be in your life... but Henry there is more to being a parent than just having a baby." And somewhere in the back of her mind that mini-Regina was cackling. "Neal is..."
Emma didn't want to badmouth him. But Henry tended to have sky high expectations of people. Which... given the adults in his life maybe that wasn't so crazy. But it royally sucked when you failed to live up to them.
Just ask Regina Mills.
She tried to clear her head. The conversation with the mayor that morning had rattled her, and she was feeling just a bit more unready to be a parent than she had the day before. And she really felt unready the day before.
"Neal is... fun to be around. And he wants very badly to do right by you. He didn't abandon you... but he did abandon me. He doesn't always make the smartest decisions and its really better if you don't put too much pressure on him to live up to too much."
"Like my mom?"
He'd been calling Regina that again since the curse broke.
"Your mom is a complicated woman."
"People keep saying that. But she is just back to evil."
"No... she's just... not trying as hard as she was before. Henry, changing yourself... who you are. It's really hard. And you can't do it without help. The thing about your mom, is she lost her way a long time ago, and it's going to take her a while to find her way back. We made a mistake. When we didn't believe her... I made a mistake," She corrected. "And it made her slip back. But that doesn't mean something in her doesn't want to be that person she promised you."
"Shouldn't you help Neal too?"
At least he started using his name. "Letting Neal find a place in your life is his path back with me. But..."
"You aren't going to get back together with him." Henry sounded desperately disappointed.
"Oh Henry... he hurt me very badly. And... being with someone is about trust. I am not sure I could ever trust him that way again."
Henry seemed to think about this, but finally nodded.
"Come on, David said he wanted to take you riding today."
There was a knock on the door to Neal's room at the B&B. He half expected his father. He was the sort to show up unannounced. He muted the football game, and came to answer the door.
"Regina..."
"Ms. Mills, to you." She was dressed impeccably in a suit that he was sure he'd seen on a few high powered bankers in lower Manhattan, tailored perfectly, with a pair of heals high and pointy enough to be considered a weapon in some countries. She moved passed him as if she had been invited in.
"I thought it best we have a conversation about your time with my son."
"He's my son."
"That's... debatable." She looked at him as if she could look through him. He'd seen evil before. He had even seen evil in a parent before. But he at least never felt like his father was a direct threat to him. This woman-the Evil Queen he reminded himself people didn't get names like that without good reason, royals were often evil without picking up a prefix-she didn't have any attachment to him and in fact had good reason to want him gone. She made him just a bit nervous.
From her coat pocket she pulled out a piece of paper. "These are the rules for your time with Henry."
It was neatly typed up, on Storybrooke, Maine city letterhead. Office of the Mayor.
"You've got to be kidding about some of these. Two vegetables of different colors? And fries don't count? Does beige not count as a color? I suppose cauliflower doesn't count?"
Regina did not look like she was in a joking mood. Or knew what a joking mood was that didn't involve decapitation. "I could turn you into a cauliflower and then you could see."
He continued down the list. Bed times, a list of forbidden foods, only 3 hours of screens a day... a list of video games he wasn't allowed to play. Which ... though half of them were on his shelf he could understand most of. "Something against the Sims?"
"It isn't a good educational tool for running a kingdom."
"What?"
Regina didn't answer though. "Those are the rules, it's not a negotiation. I've reached the end of my patience for letting you and Emma play house with my son."
"I'm not sure you have ..."
"Finish that sentence and you'll learn a few of the tricks your father taught me."
Neal fell silent, but nodded. "Alright. You're the boss."
Regina smiled a wide toothy grin that reminded Neal of every con artist he'd ever known. "I knew you'd see it my way."
Neal showed up at the Sheriff's office after her shift was technically over. "Never thought I'd be visiting you in a cop station."
"At least on this side of the bars." Emma said with a bit more anger than she intended. "Is that a bottle of bourbon? I could use a drink. It was the dwarf's birthday today and for a bunch of workaholics they sure know how to throw a disruptive party."
"It doesn't help that they all hatch at the same time."
Emma was digging out glasses and paused mid-motion. "Hatched?"
"You know from eggs."
She blinked a few times, and remembered to close her mouth. "Alright than."
She let him pour the amber liquid into the bottle.
"I had a visit from Her Majesty the Royal Psychopath."
"I called her a sociopath once. I don't think it really fits. What did she want..." Emma was afraid to ask. She should have known Regina would go to Neal if she didn't get what she wanted from her. He passed her a sheet of paper and Emma recognized a memo from Regina's office. "Rules."
"What he can eat, where he can go, how late..."
"She's his mother."
"You're his mother."
Emma inhaled and sat back in her chair and shook her head. "You once told me fake it and no one will know. That's mostly what I've been doing."
"He's a good kid."
"The fact that he's a good kid has absolutely nothing to do with me... or you."
"Genetics mean something, Em." Neal ventured.
"If they meant that much he'd be a juvenile delinquent." She read over the list. "What's the matter with Civilization."
"Something about an improper education for ruling the world. That was the weirdest part of a very weird conversation. Well that and when she threatened to turn me into a cauliflower."
"Threats are Regina's way of communicating. Don't take it personally."
"When should I take it personally?"
Emma flipped over the page to read the back. "When she offers you food."