Regina awoke to a quiet bedroom. She looked around in confusion and realized she was at home, somehow in her silk pajamas. She tried not to think how that happened as she slowly sat up. The familiarity of her own bedroom should have been a comfort but the emptiness loomed around her ominously. She sighed out and took in her condition. She was intact, just exhausted. Apparently it took more out of her than she thought to extract the dark one from her mind and let the Savior in.

Emma. The reality and the embarrassing truth of what had transpired seeped into Regina's mind, and she suddenly realized why she was alone. Emma was probably mortified at learning what secrets lie hidden in Regina's subconscious, and most likely took Henry as far away from her as possible.

These thoughts caused an uncomfortable knot in the pit of her stomach, and Regina pushed the covers off her body and stood up. She tied her robe around her waist and opened the bedroom door. When Regina reached the top of the landing she was surprised to hear clinking and chattering coming from the kitchen. Regina furrowed her eyebrows and carefully made her way down the stairs and to the kitchen.

Regina stopped dead in her tracks as she entered the room. Her mouth fell open to see Snow and Henry leaned over the counter, various ingredients and utensils scattered about. She saw David in one of the bar stools cutting apple slices. There was never a more surprising sight, to have her former enemies making themselves at home in her mansion, not to mention the fact that at this moment for Regina it was a much welcomed sight. However she noticed that Emma was nowhere to be seen.

"Mom! You're awake!" Henry lunged himself at Regina, burying his face into Regina's chest. Regina's heart leapt as she clutched onto her son. She looked up as Snow and Charming smiled at her.

Regina leaned over and kissed Henry on top of the head. She smoothed his hair back as he smiled up at her. "You're here!"

Henry looked at her like she was crazy. "Of course I am. I was worried about you. We all were," Regina looked up curiously at Snow and David who nodded in agreement. "I figured you might be hungry when you woke up, so grandma and grandpa said they would help me make you breakfast."

Regina tried to ignore the uncomfortableness of having two people who's lives at one point she had all but destroyed treating her with such compassion and sighed out. "Breakfast, huh? How long was I out for?"

"Just about eight hours. We brought you back here since you weren't really in need of medical attention, and decided we should stay with Henry until you woke up." Snow paused as she saw Regina look around the room, clearly looking for Emma. "Emma was here too. She left a little while ago to check on Hook." Snow reached into her pocket for her phone. "I'll just give her a call, she'll want to know that you-"

"No, that's alright," Regina interrupted. She swallowed and tried not to look as though Emma's absence bothered her. "Let her be. I'm just fine, I don't need another Charming doting on me." Regina saw that this comment offended them both and quickly backtracked. "Not that I don't appreciate what you're doing. I do. It's just, there's no need for her to leave Hook." The double meaning behind this statement wasn't lost on any of them. They stood in silence for a moment until they were saved by the buzzing of the coffee maker.

David cleared his throat and picked up the carafe. "Coffee?" Regina smiled and reluctantly took a seat at the bar, amazed at the bizarre scene unfolding in her kitchen.

XXXXXXXX

The Charmings stayed through breakfast and left about an hour later after Snow insisted on cleaning up the kitchen they had destroyed. Regina was thankful to not have awakened to an empty house but was happy to have some quiet time again. She had just flopped onto the couch when her phone buzzed. She felt her mouth go dry as the words "SHERIFF SWAN" stared back at her. This wasn't good. Emma didn't even want to see her. With a deep breath Regina hit the talk button.

She paused a moment before, "hello?"

There was a silence on the other end as Emma clearly was just as nervous. "Regina. Hi. I heard you were awake. How are you doing?"

"Hi, yes, I'm awake. I'm fine, just a bit wiped out is all." Silence. "And you? How are you? Any residual side effects from the dark magic?"

Emma paced in the hallway of the hospital, barely noticing nurses and orderlies scurrying by her. "Ah, no, I don't think so. I came out of this pretty unscathed, surprisingly. It's definitely gonna feel good to hit the sheets tonight though." Emma bit her bottom lip as again there was silence. "Listen, Regina, I wanted to thank you. I don't think I could have beaten that thing without your little pep talk."

Regina looked at the floor as she gently squeezed the phone. "Well, you saved me from the daggers power first, I suppose it was only right that I return the favor."

Emma nodded to herself. "Yeah, well, I guess we're even then."

"I guess we are," Regina said softly.

Emma hesitated before saying, "I wanted to be there when you woke up, but I felt like I should be here with Hook. I feel really bad. I hurt him." Emma hoped that Regina would pick up on exactly what she meant. She tried to push back the emotion threatening to bubble over, making her voice shaky. "I didn't want to hurt him. I don't want to hurt him anymore. I don't want anyone to be hurt."

Regina swallowed. "Of course not. I understand completely. You are right where you should be."

There was something ominous about this next silence, like Regina knew Emma was about to drop the uncomfortable other shoe.

"Regina, listen, about what happened," Emma started but Regina stopped her.

Regina knew in her heart that Emma would reject her. That's why she had kept her feelings inside to begin with. Something in her knew things would never be that way between her and the Savior, that's why it had been so hard to push away the dark one. She could accept the fact that her and Emma would never be more than friends at best, but hearing it from Emma's lips would be far too painful for her to bare.

"There's nothing to be said, Emma. The dark one manipulated us both. It...took possession of both of our minds and tried to lead us down a ridiculous path that in the end would only have destroyed us both." Regina couldn't see Emma's shoulders drop in disappointment. "It...made us both think we wanted something that we didn't. That's all it was, just the trickery of dark magic, and if we never talk about this again it will be quite alright with me."

Emma was surprised at how Regina's words stung. Wasn't this what she was about to say anyway? Why did she feel so terrible about Regina saying that none of it was real? Why did Emma find her heart sinking to her shoes at Regina saying a relationship between them would be poisonous? Isn't this what Emma wanted? For them to forget it ever happened? Then why did she feel like her heart was breaking?

"Yeah, yeah, that's...exactly what I was thinking," Emma hoped Regina believed that because she sure didn't.

Regina was glad Emma wasn't there to see the tear tumbling down her cheek that would have betrayed her. "Well, good then." Regina pretended to try and be upbeat. "Now that we have that settled, we can move on. Now, go tend to your boyfriend who I'm sure his ego is more bruised than any other part of his body."

Emma bit back her emotions as best she could. "Yeah, don't remind me. I feel bad enough that I'm the one who did this to him."

"You didn't. The dark one did. Didn't we just go through this?"

Emma shook her head. "Yeah, I know, I know. It just, doesn't make me feel any better. I'm glad you're alright Regina. Thanks again."

Regina squeezed her eyes shut. "You're welcome. Goodbye, Miss Swan."

To Emma this goodbye sounded much more permanent than she liked. She barely whispered into the phone. "Goodbye, Regina."

Emma hung up the phone and stood motionless in the hallway. She felt like a hole had just been torn in her chest cavity. She let one tear fall before brushing it away and walking back into Killian's room.

Regina let her head fall back onto the cushion of the couch, feeling like a vital part of her life force had just been sucked from her body. She rolled her head to the side and saw one of the empty story books Henry had taken from the sorcerer's mansion. She pulled it onto her lap and flipped through the empty pages. She picked up a ball point pen and wrote in large flowing cursive across the page. "And Regina lived happily ever after."

Regina sighed and tossed the pen on the table. "If only it were that simple." She violently ripped the page out and crumpled it, tossing it across the room. She slammed the book shut before getting up and walking back to her bedroom.

XXXXXXXX

Henry came into the study looking to see if his mom was still up. When he didn't see her he figured she had gone back up to bed. He was just about to walk back out when he saw a crumpled piece of paper on the floor. Curious, he walked over and picked it up. As the page began to unfold, a colorful picture just like the ones from his story book started to reveal itself. Henry sucked a deep breath in and raised his eyebrows.

"Woah!" He said as he looked down at the picture. There was an artists rendition of what was clearly Regina, smiling down at a baby in her arms. Henry saw himself standing behind her, smiling over his mother's shoulder. To her side was Emma, holding Regina in a loving embrace, kissing her on the temple.

The caption read, "and they lived happily ever after".

Henry slowly lifted his head up as a huge grin formed on his face. "Operation Swanqueen? It is SO on!"