Regina glanced at the clock in her office, it was almost 11am. She's late.

She disliked many thing in people but lateness was a trait she particularly despised. Her time was precious, she didn't have the luxury nor the will to wait for people.

She heard footsteps and saw the door of her office being unceremoniously swung open suddenly. A dishevelled head was facing her, hands full of files.

"I'm late I know." Snow's voice was hoarse but Regina could still recognize the annoyance in it.

"Thirty minutes late." She pointed out looking at the clock once again.

"Well that's the best I could do." Snow said unwilling to make an effort. She was tired, and pissed off at herself for being late. She turned to put her files down ignoring the former Queen. When she didn't hear the older woman join her, Snow turned to face her and realized the woman was still sitting at her desk, looking at her.

"What?" asked the former Princess sullen.

Regina raised one eyebrow at the younger woman's tone. "Well first, when late, one would be expected to offer an apology. Second, you're late and you're giving me attitude which really doesn't bode well for this meeting."

The reprimand was not lost on the former Princess, she looked away for a second before mumbling an apology. Regina sighed but chose to ignore the barely worded apology. She stood up from her desk, her eyes still on Snow. The woman's usually well kept pixie hair were so untamed today that from afar it made her look like a young child. For a second Regina froze, the sight not unfamiliar to her. In fact, she could remember a number of times having seen Henry sporting the exact same unkempt dark hair. How easy it was, she thought, to forget that her son and step-daughter shared DNA.

"Did you misplace your hairbrush this morning?" She asked fighting herself not to settle the mess that was her stepdaughter's hair.

Snow frowned. She was tempted to answer with a witty remark but refrained from it, it was not the moment to antagonize the woman. Indeed, she had woken up feeling awful probably catching the cold that had plagued her son the week before. Taking a look at herself in the mirror, Snow gasped at the extent of the damage, with hair all over the place. She tried to make it better but had to stop when a bout of coughing erupted from her throat.

It was Regina's turn to frown, not liking the sound of the woman's cough. "You're sick." She said almost accusatory.

Snow waited for her cough to subside to answer. "I must have caught Neal's cold. I dozed off this morning, that's why i'm late."

"You should have stayed in bed." The Mayor said with a frown.

"We work" The younger woman said before blowing her nose, "then I'll gladly go back to bed."

"Work can wait." said Regina standing straight, arms crossed, showing the younger woman she was serious. "Besides, I'm not going to sit there while you cough up your microbs."

Unfortunately for the former Queen, Snow White was still as stubborn sick as she was when in perfect health, "And I'm not going home until we finish the budget review."

Regina almost smiled, half-expecting the woman to stomp her foot like she would have done if she had been twelve again.

They both stared at each other, the silence only broken by Snow's constant sniffing.

They kept staring at each other for a minute or so before Regina relented. "One hour. Then I take you home."

Snow nodded. If she had not been sick she would probably gloat right now that Regina gave in to her demands, a rare occurrence in the decades they had shared together. They sat down together and started to work.

Since Regina took back the job of Mayor, Snow kept a foot in the game. The last few months, the Mayor had given her more and more responsabilities, so much so that everyone in Storybrooke viewed Snow as Regina's deputy. People were of course enthusiastic mainly because Snow White was a much more amenable person than the former Queen was. On her side, Regina was satisfied by the turn of events, the younger woman was a hard worker and she was glad to have found a buffer between the people and herself.

A few minutes into their meeting, Snow stood up in search of tissues for her runny nose. The former Queen watched her walk around her office as if it was her own. This attitude would have bothered her not so long ago but now a strange bit of happiness was all she was feeling. She was indeed happy that Snow was feeling comfortable enough now to not think twice about her behavior around her. It took them decades but at last they had reached a point where they trusted each other.

Finally, Snow sat down a box of tissues in her hand. They went back to work. Regina was trying hard not to say something as the former Princess coughed in front of her. It was her turn to leave the table in search of a glass of water hoping it would quell Snow's cough. When she came back, the woman was sprawled on the table, her head between her arms. She looked up though when she heard noise in the room.

"Okay" said Regina fed up by the situation "That's enough."

"What?"

"I will not sit here while you keep these in your nose." said the former Evil Queen pointing at the tissues left hanging from the woman's nose probably because she had become tired of blowing it herself.

Regina approached her and put her hand on the younger woman forehead. Feeling the woman burning up she sighed. "This meeting is adjourned."

"We still have a half hour." Said the stubborn woman.

"We barely did anything the last half hour. It's a waste of time. And you have a fever. Get ready, I'm taking you home." But the woman wasn't moving. "Now Snow" she said an edge to her voice.

Reluctantly, Snow stood up and walked to the door.

"I think you're forgetting something" Regina said pointing at the files on the table. Snow brushed the woman off, "I'm too tired." And with that she was off.

Breathe, Regina said to herself unwilling to let the younger woman get under her skin.

When she got out of the building, Snow was leaning on her car, waiting for her. "Emma is home so I can't go there. I don't want her to catch what I have. I love her with all my heart but she's insufferable when she's sick."

"I wonder who she got that from."

The Mayor made the mistake of looking at her step-daughter. Her tousled hair, puffy eyes, red nose plus her signature pout were too much it seemed for the former Queen, once again giving in to the demands of the younger woman. "I swear sometimes it feels like I was the one being cursed."


A couple of hours later, Regina was already full of regret for giving in to the former Princess.

Snow had turned her salon upside down with blankets and tissues everywhere.

"I'm not cleaning up after you Snow."

The woman was laying on the couch covered by a pile of blankets. "But I'm sick."

"Not sick enough apparently." Was Regina's retort eyeing the box of ice cream Snow had stolen from her freezer. If she had the strength to get up and fetch the ice cream, she certainly could put her things in the garbage. "Did you eat anything?"

Snow raised an eyebrow pointing to the ice cream.

"I meant real food"

"This is real food."

"It's sugar." Regina said taking the box from the young woman's hands. She saw the woman was about to say something but stopped her in her tracks, "If you're unhappy I can send you home."

The threat seemed to work for once. Snow went back under her pile of blankets.

"My house my rules."

"Your rules have not changed for the last three decades." Snow's voice was muffled but Regina heard her nonetheless.

"They work."

"They're outdated."

"Still on with the jokes about my age I see." She shook her head. "You seem to forget that you're just 8 years younger than I am."

"And I'll always be younger, until the end of time." She said in a sing-song voice before her nasty cough caught up to her.

"Try not to suffocate yourself while I cook something."

They ate in silence. After cleaning up behind herself, Snow thought she could clean herself up too. She joined Regina on the couch after an hour feeling refreshed.

"Feeling better?"

"Much."

"Emma called. She's coming here with Henry."

"I told you I didn't want her to catch something."

"She shared Neal's space and didn't catch anything." Regina said calmly. "I told her to keep her distance. Same goes with Henry."

"I'm warning you, if she comes down with something, you take care of her." Snow said covering herself with a pile of blankets.

"I'm not going to care for your daughter everytime she's sick Snow. I have other things to do."

Snow didn't answer she was too busy trying to find a comfortable position. She felt a bit better after her bath but still her body ached and her nose and throat were hurting.

"You'd be more comfortable in a bed." Regina said frowning at the most likely uncomfortable position the woman must be in. Her couch wasn't made to sleep on it, there was no need for that considering the more than enough bedrooms in the Mayor's house.

"There are no TVs upstairs and I'm bored."

"I'm starting to regret agreeing to having one in the house at all." The thing was a waste of time and of space. She couldn't figure out the appeal there was to it.

"I'm surprised you relented to Henry."

"Who said I did?"

"The fact there is a giant TV in your living room is pretty much the proof of that."

It took a lot of self-control to not answer back but Regina managed it. The truth was that Henry was not the one she had relented to.

A month back, Robin had asked Emma if she could keep Roland for a weekend so that he and Regina could have some alone time. It had been a great weekend as far as Regina was concerned until they went back to the mansion where Emma, Henry and Roland had chosen to stay. There she had found a giant TV standing in all its glory in her salon. The Mayor had a heated explanation with the Sheriff about the rules in her house and explained in no-nonsense terms that the thing had to go. At the same time, Henry and Roland were showing Robin how the thing worked. Since then, Robin had been absolutely fascinated by the piece of technology and refused to get rid of it, he was of course supported in his decision by the other members of his family.

"It is temporary." Regina finally said unconvincing. At least Emma didn't dare ask to be reimbursed for the thing.

They spent the next hour in a comfortable silence, Regina keeping up with her mayoral workload and Snow keeping up with a very strange tv show.

"Who are these people?" She finally asked her step-daughter after spending the last few minutes trying to understand what was happening on the screen.

"I'm not sure." The young woman answered.

"You've been watching this for the last hour."

"Yes."

"And you still don't know who they are."

"They're famous. The eldest daughter of the family at least is."

"Famous for what?"

"She did a video."

"A movie?"

"Something like that."

"So she's a movie star?"

"No."

"Are we playing a game of Guess Who?"

"No." The look of exasperation on the older woman's face at the lack of straight answers was not missed by Snow. "She did a video with one of her exes. They filmed one of their night spent together."

"A sextape." The Mayor said casually. She couldn't miss the utter shock on the former Princess' face. "Don't look at me like that. I'm the one who should be shocked that you know what a sextape is."

"I have an adult daughter who grew up in this world, I know a lot of things I wish I didn't."

Snow kept watching very aware that the Mayor had let go of her paperworks to concentrate on the tv show.

"The older woman is the mother." Regina said more as a statement than a question. There was something about the woman that she disliked right away.

"Yes. She built a family business on her daughter new … reputation."

"She made something out of a potentially embarassing situation. My mother would have respected her."

That was not a compliment, thought Snow refraining from laughing. And here I thought our family was strange...She thought to herself.

"I'm sure glad we didn't have that kind of technology back home. We dodged a bullet there."

"You married a shepherd Snow, that was embarassment enough."

"And you're unmarried and sleeping with a thief."

The cheeky answer surprised both of them. Regina slowly turned her attention toward the former Princess who was watching her out of the corner of her eye probably weighing her reaction. They may be on good enough terms now but there were things that were still off limits when you dealt with the former Evil Queen.

"You're lucky you're sick" Regina said trying to sound threatening but barely managing to hide a smile. The woman was mostly lucky that they were alone or she wouldn't have found the jibe so funny. She may not be the Evil Queen anymore but she still very much expected people to not forget she was still the Queen … or at least the Mayor in this world.

They kept watching the show, this time in silence until they heard Emma and Henry enter the house.

"What are you two watching?" Said Henry smiling at the two women. Snow had finally found a comfortable position on the couch with her legs extended on Regina's knees. Henry exchanged a look with her mother who shook her head signaling he better not comment on the whole situation. He didn't, they looked so cozy together that he didn't want to break the moment.

"Keeping up with the Kardashian." Said Emma with surprise. Unlike Henry, no one had to tell her to not make a remark on the whole homely atmosphere she entered upon. She was doing her best to not look too much at her mother, lying down on the Mayor's couch covered by what seemed like all the blankets of the house, with her legs held securely by the former Evil Queen. The vision was of strange familiarity, something that she never thought she would ever say to describe the two women relationship. "You've finally succombed to the call of Reality TV." She said trying to hide her slight discomfort.

"Who are they?" Asked Henry curiously.

Emma made herself comfortable on her chair, "Rich and famous people."

"Famous for what?"

"For making a video."

"A documentary?"

Emma smiled at her kid candor. For some people it might have been a way to learn a thing or two so, "Kind of yeah." Her amusement was cut short by a pillow thrown in her face. "Stop it." She heard her mother say to her. She glared back at the woman. It was not like Henry would understand the joke, she thought to herself. Her kid seemed incidentally very amused by the exchange. Smiling at him she took the pillow and threw it at him, his eyes twinkled with mirth when he threw it back.

"You started this." Regina said sending Snow a look.

Snow sighed getting the message. Her body screamed when she stood up. I need to exercise, she thought to herself. She walked to her daughter and grabbed the pillow before the woman was able to throw it at Henry. "You're going to break something."

"Arrows." Emma said pointing at her mother, "Fireballs" she added pointing at Regina. "We have good aim in the family."

"I'm not even going to dignify this of an answer." Remarqued the Mayor.

Snow went back to sit on the couch, this time Regina couldn't stop herself and started to rearrange the younger woman's hair. "Stop that" said Snow pushing the woman aside.

"It's all over the place." Regina said trying to reach for a strand of hair but even sick, Snow was fast.

"Who cares, it's just the four of us." She made sure to keep the woman at a distance.

Henry and Emma were having a hard time hiding their laughs. "Mom does the exact same thing with my hair Grandma." Henry said smiling widly.

Having escaped Regina's attack on her hair, Snow went back under her blankets. "We're not kids Regina, we don't need our Mom to do our hair anymore. Besides, I think we look cute with unkempt hair, don't you think?" She asked Henry. The boy was looking at her funny. "What?" She finally asked when he didn't give her much of a reaction.

"You just called Mom 'Mom'." He said beaming.

"What?"

Henry was definitely excited by this new development. "You called my Mom, 'Mom'!"

"I did?"

"You did." Emma interfered a little weirded out by the whole thing.

Three heads turned as one toward the former Queen, one hopeful, one cautious and one expecting a sharp rebuff from the older woman.

"It's better to stick to our first name dear. I'd rather avoid having Storybrooke's entire population outside my door holding pitchforks claiming I cast a curse on you. Again."

Snow let out a breath, relieved. So far they had spent a great day together, the last thing she wanted was to ruin it because she had not stop to think before speaking. She lied down again exhaustion creeping up on her.

The Mayor glanced at the younger woman who was obviously fighting sleep. "There are perfectly good beds upstairs you know."

"I'm good here." Frankly, the couch was horrendous but at least here she had company. She felt Regina move to put her legs back on her knees and smiled. She relaxed again, happy to have insisted for coming here today.