Several hours later Regina was making dinner and there was a loud obtrusive bang on the door. She pulled the front door open to find a frantic, wide eyed, Emma Swan still dressed in her patrol uniform. Regina's breath caught in her chest at the sight as her eyes slipped down the lanky blonde's length appreciatively. Only to be followed quickly by, Oh she wears a uniform now that Mommy is the boss.
"Have you seen Henry?"
Regina was puzzled and shook her head, "Of course, he is here."
Emma jumped on the offensive as anger flared in her forest green eyes. "You can't just pull him out of school whenever you damn well feel like it without telling me Regina! I was worried sick!"
Regina's features darken and Emma took a step back.
"Listen here Miss Swan," the former mayor squared her shoulders and hissed, "I don't know what you think happened here, but Henry said you knew where he was! I didn't take him out of school, he showed up! Perhaps you should keep a better eye on MY SON!"
Emma was the first to lower her guard at this new piece of information and she looked at Regina with remorse for jumping to conclusions about the woman, yet again. She knew that it was her fault that the brunette had 'turned to the dark side' when Cora came to town and she internally chastised herself for yet again thinking the worst of her son's mother.
"I'm sorry" Emma said. "I didn't know where he was and the school called and said he hadn't shown up for a couple of his classes and…"
"He ditched school?" Regina interrupted her but before Emma could respond Regina turned on her heel and marched back into her home leaving the front door open. Emma guessed the brunette meant for her to follow so that was what she did.
"Henry Daniel Mills!" Regina yelled startling the boy on the couch. "You ditched school?"
"I missed you?" he said as his defense.
"I'm sorry was that a question?" Regina yelled.
"I wanted to see you!" He yelled back at her.
"When did you think it was okay to start lying?! Miss Swan had NO idea where you were! You can't just take off young man!"
"You lied to me for my whole life!" he shot back at her. "You are my child and I want you to be better than me!" she defended and he lost his momentum, quickly coming up with something he was sure would get him out of the trouble he knew he was in. "Yeah but I want to move home and Ma wouldn't let me!" his eyes suddenly saucered as the blonde in question stepped out from behind his adoptive mother her mouth a gape and exclaimed, "What? You never said you wanted to move back here! What is this about Henry?" she was stricken by the lie of course but hurt he would so quickly throw her under the bus if it meant getting his own ass out of the fire.
Regina, wanting to believe her son actually wanted to live there and that Miss Swan wouldn't let him turned on his side and peered at the blonde. Emma jumped to her own defense, "Woah, hey, I never said that Regina!"
"Then can he?" the woman asked point blank.
Emma took a step back and shook her head a little to process what was happening and said, "Well. Yeah. I mean, if that is what he wants. Then of course."
Regina looked at her skeptically and raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow "Alright. What's the catch?"
Emma sighed at the power struggle the women have between them. It gets oh so tiring. Emma replied calmly trying to persuade the brunette of her honesty. "There is no catch Regina. If he wants to live here, he can live here. But he is grounded for talking back to me and I took away his video games for a week." she pointed toward the game console he was currently playing.
Regina turned around and said to the boy, "OH you're grounded hmm? Well mister, turn that game off right this instant and get up to your room!"
Henry started to protest "I just need to get to a save point, hang on."
"No, now." Regina insisted with her hands on her hips watching him carefully.
"I'll lose all my progress if I don't save mom!" Henry snapped. The bite to the words was a wrong play and Regina marched over to the console and unplugged it. "I said now young man!"
"Mom!?" Henry practically screeched then screamed toward Emma, "You're ruining everything! I hate you both!" as he stormed up to his room and slammed the door.
Regina watched unphased as her son had a temper tantrum and looked back at Emma who looked like she was going to cry. "He'll get over it Miss Swan." Emma blinked back her tears and cleared her throat and nodded in response.
Regina walked over to the blonde who still appeared shell shocked and put her hand on the woman's arm. "I didn't know, Miss Swan. He told me you knew where he was. I did ask."
Emma saw sincerity in the eyes of this woman who had been her achilles heel since she had known her. Regina had a pleading look to her, hopeful the blonde could see her sincerity.
Regina offered Emma a tea or a coffee to try and get her to stay a bit longer, wanting to discuss their son's living arrangements. Emma declined, still put off by the harsh words of her child.
Regina said "I'm making dinner, would you like to stay? It is just about ready."
Emma tried to decline that as well by saying she didn't want to impose, but Regina put up a hand and cut her off. "Really, there is no trouble at all Miss Swan. If Henry is going to be living here once again, you are his mother too. We will need to start being cordial to one another don't you agree?" She turned and walked back into the kitchen and Emma followed her, not knowing what else to do with herself.
Regina went back to minding the stove and said, "While you were in the Enchanted Forest, Henry did everything in his power to help you get back. He loves you very much Miss Swan. You are his birth mother, you have a connection that, well despite my best efforts to thwart, seems to be solid."
Emma scoffed and Regina smiled wide knowing the blonde understood her gentle teasing and took it for what it was. Regina turned off the stove and focused her attention back toward the blonde in her kitchen. She leaned over the island and said, "I know you and I have some issues we need to work out, but I want you to know that… the day that Henry ate my apple turnover…" Regina broke eye contact and Emma could feel the remorse pouring off the woman and Emma held back her snarky comment about the apple turnover that killed him and was meant for herself.
Regina continued. "That was the worst day of my life Emma." Regina looked up to meet the blonde's gaze, "And I saw on your face. It was the worst day of yours as well. That was the day I knew you were his mother." Emma gave a quick side smile at the brunette's recognition of her parental status, uncertain why it felt so important to her what Regina thought on the subject.
"That was the day I knew, that I trusted that you weren't going anywhere. That you weren't going to walk away from us." Regina added. "I of course was afraid you were going to break my curse, but I was afraid you were going to break my son more. I am not terribly proud of some of the things I did when we first met Emma, but I am trying to change."
Emma sat quietly listening to the woman spill it all out to her. Her brow pulled in tight while she mulled over the brunette's words when Regina added, "We, you and I, need to work better together. Henry needs structure to avoid situations such as these, we need to communicate. He is getting out of control."
Emma looked up at the warm brown eyes studying her for any resistance to her proposition. She received none. Emma smiled and nodded, "You're right. Two against one. It's how it was meant to be."
Regina smirked and said, "So in the spirit of co-parenting our preteen son how about you tell me why we have grounded him?"
Emma rolled her eyes and told Regina what the boy said about school and how he thought they would be going back to the Enchanted Forest. Both women scoffed at the pure lunacy of it and Regina said, "Over my dead body!"
Emma chuckled harder "No to ogres yes to beds and hot water!"
Regina nodded her head emphatically in agreement. "He doesn't understand. He's never had to boil water for a warm bath."
Emma murmured under her breath, "Or take a cold bath in a river." realizing the woman before her was a Queen and had probably never done such a thing. She rolled her eyes to herself.
"Why does he think we would be going back?" Regina asked suddenly concerned that might actually be an issue. She had no desire to return to that awful realm and the terrible memories it held.
She may not be mayor anymore, but she lived well, back in the Enchanted Forest she would be dethroned and she couldn't live life as a peasant. Not to mention she was rather fond of electricity and indoor plumbing.
Emma saw the worry in the older woman's eyes and she instinctively reached out her hand to comfort the brunette, to reassure her that she wouldn't be taking her son from her to another realm and she wouldn't be forced to go back if she didn't want to. Emma remembered suddenly the woman's words from earlier in their conversation.
'I trusted that you weren't going to walk away from us …'
That's a weird phrase, why did she say us? Didn't she mean him?
She realized in that moment she was still holding Regina's hand & realized how soft the woman's hands were. She started to feel uncomfortable with how long she was offering comfort to her son's mother, but didn't want to pull away suddenly either. The conversation they'd been having was the most real, most honest conversation they had ever had with one another and although being vulnerable herself was a foreign place for Emma Swan it was another galaxy for Regina Mills and Emma knew it. So she continued to stroke the back of the petite queen's hand.
Regina cleared her throat to steady her voice before she asked, "Are your parents going back there?"
"David, or uh prince James… wants to reclaim the kingdom but Mary Margaret, after our little trip, I think she decided she's happier here. She wants the quiet life. She wants to have babies and not worry about ogres. She just doesn't have the fight left in her."
Emma felt Regina's muscles tense momentarily and the emotion that passed by the brunette's eyes was that of shame. The blonde was at a loss for why the woman was looking so sad.
"Are you worried about your kingdom? I mean if they don't go back?" Regina who had been thinking that she had finally broken the fight out of her step daughter suddenly looked up and shook her head no to the question posed.
Emma figured as long as they were opening themselves up she might as well say something she had been wanting to say for a couple of weeks.
"I um…" Emma started poorly. "I wanted to come by before, to um…see how you were. You know?" before she could conclude her broken thought Regina pulled her hand away and she took a defensive stance. "No I don't know Miss Swan. I am fine. I have no evil plans to wreak havoc on the town. Rest assured!" she said with bite.
Emma flinched as the woman did a 180 emotionally and Emma tried to back paddle. "Your mom, I just thought…"
"You thought wrong, just because she is dead and your mother murdered her doesn't mean I need to be checked up on! Isn't it bad enough I am confined to my home? Stripped of my magic?" her voice started getting louder as she let her irritation and frustration completely consume her.
"Stop." Emma said and stood up and walked around the island and put her hands on the brunette's shoulders to captivate her completely.
"Stop." she said less forcefully and looked into brown eyes swirling with emotion.
"I wanted to check on you because you lost your mom. No matter the circumstances. No matter how or who she was, she was your mom and she's gone."
Regina, unwilling to let go of the emotion she felt most familiar with sneered "Don't pity me Miss Swan."
"I'm not pitying you Regina." Emma sighed and let go of the brunette and huffed in annoyance, unwilling to muffle her irritation at the brunette's insistence they continue their power struggle. Emma turned away from Regina but didn't walk away from her. She just stood close and spoke quietly from the heart. "I know what it's like to lose. I know what it's like to be alone in the world." she reached to her side and hooked her pinky around Regina's. A small gesture that broke through the brunette's defenses. "Just know, you aren't, and never will be, as long as I'm around."
Against her strong will, chocolate eyes brimmed and a single tear rolled down over the apple of Regina's cheek. The brunette leaned into the blonde's shoulder and rested her forehead against a strong bicep. Emma didn't turn into the semi embrace. She hadn't wrapped her arms around the woman the way she wanted to. She knew it would be too much for either woman to handle and so she grasped her pinky firmly, enunciating her silent support.
"So will you be staying for supper Miss Swan?" Regina asked quietly after several moments of just exchanging strength between the two women in comfortable silence.
"I'd love to Mayor Mills."
Regina scoffed as she turned towards the oven to retrieve the chicken parmesan. "I am no longer Mayor, Sheriff."
"How shall I address you when I'm being snarky?" Emma asked with a wide smile.
"With caution…" the queen replied and Emma rolled her eyes.
"Don't hold your breath. But, seriously, 'Miss Mills' doesn't quite hold the weight as Mayor did. I guess I could call you, 'your majesty' can't I?" Emma chided.
"You most certainly may , I am still a Queen." Regina said with her chin tilted high as she handed the blonde place settings for the table. "Queen of all you see before you!" Emma laughed out loud as she took in the Queen's royal posture noting she was very much still a Queen. A Queen who could laugh at herself a little. This was a side of the Queen few had ever seen and Emma felt as though she had been let in a little. Given a glimpse at the woman behind the crown.
She liked what she saw.