When she got home that night, she found Henry in her kitchen, head and shoulders buried in the freezer. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "I thought you were staying with Emma this week."

He emerged from the depths of the freezer, a lone sleeve of frozen thin mints clutched triumphantly in his hand. "I was," he replied, "but she's been following Lily and Maleficent around all day, and I don't think she's going to come home anytime soon. I figured I could either stay at the loft and change diapers, or come here and eat cookies. So, here I am."

Regina smiled at her son. "Well, I'm flattered. And I hid those for a reason."

"Not very well." He popped an entire cookie in his mouth. "You should have put them in the bag of frozen brussels sprouts."

She laughed. "One more cookie, and then we make dinner. Deal?"

"Deal." He hopped up on one of the kitchen stools as she began pulling pots out of the cabinet. "So," she asked, "how is it going with the tail of our new friends? Has Emma found anything yet?"

"I don't think so," he answered. "She didn't really have much to say when she stopped by after school. She said that Lily and Maleficent were just doing some talking, and some hugging, and a lot standing around looking weird at each other." He paused for a second, fiddling with the basket of apples on the counter. " I don't think she's really expecting to find anything just yet. I think she's just avoiding going home so she won't have to talk to Grandma and Grandpa."

"Well, that wouldn't surprise me. Right now, I really don't think she has any idea what to say to them."

"That's better than yelling and snarking at them, I guess." Henry commented.

"Henry, she's going to forgive them. When Lily threatened them in Massachusetts, Emma nearly took off her head. She loves them, and she'll find a way to forgive them. It's just going to be…really, really uncomfortable around their dinner table until she figures it out."

"Mom? Did you think Emma was going to turn dark while you were on your trip?"

"No." Regina said without hesitation. "Henry, there's a huge difference between being angry and blackening your heart. Emma is good at angry. Believe me, I know - I've been on the wrong end of it more than once. I was worried that she'd do something she'd regret, but I didn't think she'd fall off that cliff. It takes more than finding out that your parents lied to you to make you welcome that kind of darkness."

He considered her answer. "Can I ask you something else?"

"Of course, honey. Ask away."

"Were you afraid that you were going to turn dark again?"

She took a deep breath. "Yes. I was."

"But you didn't, right?" he asked. "What stopped you?"

"You, of course. Always. And…well, me, I suppose." She pulled out a cutting board and lined up carrots, zucchini and mushrooms. "It was easy, before, being the villain, because I had absolutely no idea of the consequences. I had nothing to lose. And then I cast the curse, and you came along, and everything became so much more complicated and fragile. It took almost losing you to make me realize that I wasn't invincible, and that was a lesson hard learned. I don't intend to forget it."

Henry reached over and grabbed a freshly julienned carrot stick. "I'm proud of you, Mom."

She laughed. "Don't be too proud just yet. Like I said, there's a difference between being angry and being evil. And right now, I've got a whole lot of anger just waiting for Zelena to get within arm's reach again."

Her son frowned as he chewed. "So they're going to come back here, aren't they?"

"Mouth full, Henry." He swallowed and began again. "Robin and Zelena. You're going to bring them back, right? To stop her?"

"Yes, they're coming back. Emma and I were going to wait until after the baby was born, but it looks like Robin has decided he wants to come back now. He doesn't want to wait to see what Zelena will do when they're left alone."

"He thinks you can protect them."

"He does." Regina nodded.

"Can you?"

"I can. At least, I think that Emma and I together can. It's going to be complicated, though. She'll have magic as soon as she crosses the town line, and that's not going to be pretty."

"How are we going to stop her when we have to worry about Maleficent and my other grandpa?" he asked.

"I don't know, Henry. But I do know this," she said, and covered his hand with hers, "heroes always win."

Regina picked at her plate of stir-fry while Henry inhaled it by the forkful. He was growing so fast, getting taller by the minute. Not for the first time, and not for the last, Regina thanked whatever power was guiding her fate that she had found him.

Almost as if he were reading her thoughts, Henry looked up and announced that they needed to discuss Operation Mongoose. "With Robin coming back, we need to make sure your happy ending is safe."

Regina put down her fork. "Henry. My happy ending isn't the priority right now."

"Sure it is. It's all part of the same thing, right? We find the author, and he writes your happy ending and makes sure that Mom doesn't turn evil. If it's in the book, it can't be changed."

The book. Regina was starting to hate the book.

"Gold has the author, Henry. I don't know how we're going to get close enough to him to get him away from your grandfather. And I can guarantee you that if I go near Gold, he'll try to rip out my heart. He's…none too pleased with me right now."

"Yeah, but he can't be with the author all the time. Maybe we just need a distraction to get him out of the way."

"Right now, Gold is a heartbeat away from getting exactly what he wants. I don't think it's going to be that easy." Regina sighed. "If there's one thing I know about Gold, it's that he'll follow through on his plans. Whatever the cost."

"Yeah, well, so do you," Henry said with a smile. "So let's make a plan."

Make a plan. Regina sat at her desk in her home office, staring at a blank sheet of paper. Make a plan. Figure out the outcome. Marshal resources. Find the weak spots. Regina was good at planning. She picked up a pen and began to write.