A/N: This chapter does not jump around in time. We are back to a more traditional narrative.
"May I speak with you for a moment?" Regina asked Granny after approaching her at the register.
Granny gave her that familar assessing gaze, and, once again sensing disquiet rather than aggression, nodded. "Come on back," she said as she led Regina to the storage room. It didn't take someone with wolf perception to sense that the former queen sought a private counsel.
"Thank you," Regina said. "I need a favor," she stated directly. She didn't think Granny would appreciate her dancing around the matter.
"It's not really for me," Regina amended. "More for Henry."
When Granny didn't immediately reject her request, she pulled two envelopes from her purse. Regina held both in her hands and contemplated them for a moment. Resolved, she then held them out to Granny.
"Would you please give these to Henry?" she asked.
A look of surprise flitted across Granny's features as she accepted the envelopes.
"The thinner one is for sometime this week," Regina said, avoiding eye contact and still looking at her envelopes. "The other one," she paused, regaining control of her voice, "the other one is for when he's older."
At this, she looked at Granny, the tears in her eyes betraying her. "I was thinking, maybe," Regina berated herself as she felt a tear slide down her cheek, "maybe, when he turns sixteen?" She looked to Granny, almost as if asking the older woman's advice.
A moment later, however, and Regina recollected herself and brushed the tears away. "But I trust you to know when to give it to him," she said, composed. "I think you'll know when he needs to read it."
Granny nodded in comprehension and acceptance, having recovered from her surprise.
"You're planning to die," she stated.
Regina's posture straightened, as if daring Granny to find fault with her decision, "I'm planning to protect my son," she said. "I would expect you, of all people, to understand that."
Granny remained expressionless, but she did, indeed, understand that. Making difficult choices in order to protect the ones you love was something she understood all too well.
"All right," Granny said finally.
"All right?" Regina asked, surprised at how quickly Granny agreed to her request.
Granny nodded.
"Thank you," Regina said with a small, grateful smile. "I'd like you to have a copy of this as well," she handed Granny the large envelope labeled 'Legal.' "It's custody paperwork for Henry," she explained. "As much as Ms. Swan or her mother might think that they have rights to Henry free and clear, those rights are still legally mine."
When Granny didn't protest, Regina continued, "I hope you don't mind, but I included you on this list. If something happens to only me, custody will transfer to David. If both of us are killed, Grumpy and Astrid are next. Then, though, I listed you. It seems unfair to ask you to take on such responsibility when you've already raised your own children and Ruby, but I know that you have the courage and kindness to take care of him."
"I'd be honored," Granny said. "Why not include Emma and Snow in this list, though?"
"I don't know if we'll be able to get them back," Regina replied. "And, if we do, I trust you, David, Grumpy, and Astrid to make the right decision about including them in his life. I'm not on a mission to keep Henry from his biological family, as undoubtedly easier as my life would have been without Ms. Swan in it. The fact of the matter is that we simply don't know what they will be like if we get them back. We don't know what they've been through over there. I can't take the chance that they might not be fit parents when they return."
Granny nodded. It was an unpleasant possibility, to be sure, but it was a reasonable one. "What about after me? Now that time is ticking, I might be crossed off the line of succession quicker than other people in this town."
"Don't say that," Regina protested. "You've years in you yet."
"You'd better hope so," Granny replied. "The way I figure it, we're the same age."
"Really?" Regina quirked an eyebrow.
"Mmm, hmm," Granny hummed affirmatively. "You had your years in the Enchanted Forest, plus the twenty-eight years of the curse. That puts you around my age."
"Oh, and those twenty-eight years don't count for you?" Regina rejoined.
"Nope," Granny replied. "You were aware of them. I wasn't. The way I see it, we're the same. You just had Magic-induced Botox."
Regina chuckled. She knew she liked Granny. "Archie, Kathryn, and then Ruby. Ruby would have been higher on the list, but I didn't want to saddle her with motherhood unless I had to," she explained. "But try not to let it come to that, will you?" She gave Granny a small, but genuine smile.
"How about you try not to let it come to that either?" Granny countered.
"Yes, well," Regina smoothed her clothes, unwilling to discuss her decision further. "One last piece of paper," she said. "This is for whomever takes custody of Henry. It's his medical history as well as a list of people that are never, ever to be trusted because of how much they—probably justifiably—hate me."
Granny nodded in understanding and tactfully withheld comment on the length of the list.
"I think that's everything," Regina said, wrapping up. "Thank you," she said earnestly. As she turned to leave, she heard Granny's voice.
"What is this?" Granny asked, indicating the thickest of the original two envelopes.
"My story," Regina replied and continued to leave.
"You listed David as first to take custody of Henry. Does that mean that you don't expect him to die too?" Granny asked abruptly.
Granny's tone did not contain a hint of accusation or anger, but Regina remained turned away from her as she shook her head, "No. I don't."
"Why, then," Granny asked, "are you giving these letters to me instead of him?" She watched the queen carefully for any kind of reaction. "Wouldn't it make more sense to give these to the boy's grandfather?"
"Maybe it would," Regina replied briskly as she reached for the handle of the storage room door.
"He doesn't know, does he?" Granny demanded.
At this, Regina turned around and snapped in her best Mayor Mills fashion, "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."
But Granny had lived too long to be deterred by something as feeble as an angry tone. She stepped closer to Regina and said, "David doesn't know that you are planning on sacrificing yourself for Henry and his family, does he?"
Interpreting the queen's silence as confirmation of her theory, Granny continued in a softer tone, "Don't you think he deserves to know?"
"Why would he?" Regina asked. Her tone had lost its aggressive edge, replaced with a wistfulness Granny had never heard from her.
"Well, if you insist on being dense about it," Granny replied gruffly. It wasn't her place to sort out whatever mess the prince and the queen may have created between themselves.
Regina gave an involuntary smirk at Granny's benign insult. She had picked the right person to have custody of her letters.
Then, looking at Granny seriously, Regina said, "I don't want him going all 'Hero' on me and doing something foolish."
"What? Like getting himself killed?" Granny asked in a tone of mock-confrontation.
Regina narrowed her eyes. "Yes," she hissed. "Like getting himself killed."
"Because it would be pretty stupid of a person to get him or herself killed," Granny said innocently.
"All magic comes with a price," Regina responded.
"And is this the right way to pay it?" Granny challenged.
"It is," Regina replied with conviction.
"What makes you so sure?" Granny was not going to let this go. She was not categorically opposed to suicide missions, but she was not convinced that Regina had exhausted their other options.
"Henry will be reunited with his family," Regina said simply with a brief shrug of her shoulders.
"And what about you?" Granny asked. Regina was Henry's mother too, even if the boy sometimes took her for granted.
Misunderstanding her question, Regina responded, "I suppose I'll get what I deserve." She then left the storage room. She had already said more than she'd intended.
David was entering the diner as Regina was leaving it. Ruby had called him to tell him that Regina was 'wigging out the other customers' by staring into a cup of coffee for hours. He'd decided to leave Henry with Mowgli at the shelter and to come check on Regina. He knew she was still exhausted from all of Henry's magic the day before, and he knew she'd accept more help from him if Henry wasn't present.
He was about to speak, but his words caught in his throat at the look on her face.
Regina looked up at the man holding the door open for her and was suddenly overcome with . . . everything. It was all too much.
Just once, she thought. Just for this moment, I want something good. Of course, the last time she'd had thoughts like that, she'd enacted the curse, but this was nearly harmless. All right, it would upset Snow White, but Snow White would have her whole life to get over it.
And Regina would be too dead to care.
Instead of continuing out the door, she turned to face her gallant doorstop, stepping close enough so her body brushed his. Before he could translate his confusion into words, she grabbed his lapel, pulled him toward her, and claimed his lips with her own.
Their humming magic was background to the sheer sensation of their connection. Regina slid her arms around David's neck as he pulled her flush against him, feeling her mouth open underneath his.
Desperation radiated from Regina, and David matched it with his own. They both poured everything into their kiss as they hungrily attempted to communicate all they'd left unsaid. The fear, the assurance, the hope, the fidelity they had built between them flowed torrentially through their kiss.
They were here. They were real. And they were holding onto each other. Tightly.
After several moments, they pulled apart, breathless and still within each other's embrace.
For a moment they just looked at each other, David trying to understand what was going on with Regina and Regina trying not to tell him.
A customer trying to exit the diner reminded them of where they were, and the stunned looks on all of the diner patron's faces reminded them that this was their first loss of control in public.
And the knowing grin on Granny's face reminded Regina that she needed to leave.
She would apologize for putting David in such an awkward position—and abandoning him to the fallout—but, well, she wasn't sorry. And she respected him too much to offer him an empty apology. So, with a quirk of an eyebrow, her trademark smirk, and another quick peck to his lips, she walked away.
David hadn't even had a chance to say hello.
A/N: Feedback would be lovely.