A/N: Full author's note at the end. This chapter picks up where Chapter 32 left off, so, since this author has been incredibly delinquent, you may want to re-read that first.

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"—And there was cake EVERYWHERE," Henry said as he entered the house with Emma close on his heels.

"Really?" Emma was finding all of this difficult to believe. Especially the idea that control-freak Regina would allow any kind of mess in her pristine house.

Regina noted the skeptical, but exhausted expression on Emma's face and spoke while Henry took a much-needed breath. "Henry, please go put your backpack away," she directed. "Then, if you'd like, you can help me make—" she commandeered David's wrist to read his watch—"A late lunch or an early dinner—whichever you would prefer to call it." When she saw that Henry was about to protest the mundane activities, she continued, "I'm sure Emma is tired and needs some proper food." She then turned to a startled Emma, "Would you like to stay and eat with us, Miss Swan? I promise not to poison you."

"Ha!" Emma blurted, Regina's bluntness surprising her. "But, yeah, okay." It had been a while since she'd eaten, and she was sure Regina was a good cook, if only because that was one more way she could be better than Emma.

"Am I welcome as well?" David asked Regina, a teasing grin at the corner of his lips.

"I was in the hospital today," Regina acknowledged. "So I suppose you can stay," she concluded, as though his attendance was a huge imposition.

Henry rolled his eyes. David and his mom were so silly. He almost liked it better when they were trying to hide the fact they liked each other. Almost. "All right," he said, adjusting his backpack. "I'll be right back," he said as he headed to the stairs. "Don't say anything without me!" he called over his shoulder.

Regina smirked fondly. Something was going to have to be done about Henry's nosiness. But not today. Today she was going to enjoy the fact that they survived and they were together.

After a moment where all three adults watched the boy ascend the stairs with various expressions of affection on their faces, Regina gestured toward the kitchen, "Shall we?"

The adults were silent. They were not as concerned with abiding by Henry's request as they were disinclined to speak. Regina was piecing together the events of the morning and considering their implications as she moved about the kitchen preparing dinner. At the table, Emma was crashing from a three week spike of adrenaline and oscillating between trying to stay awake and resisting the impulse to scream with frustration—why did everything always have to be so damn complicated? And David was watching them both contentedly. His two favorite women were safe and healthy. And, as a bonus, they were in the same room and weren't exchanging blows.

He was a lucky man.

"What did you eat over there?" Regina asked Emma, breaking the silence.

"Chimera," Emma replied, making a disgusted face.

"Any proper birds? Berries? As I recall, Snow was a skilled huntress and forager," Regina continued.

"Yeah, some berries. And a really bitter green plant. No birds though. Snow mentioned something about a thinning bird population due to all the ogres. I guess birds are too loud and get eaten a lot or something," Emma replied.

Regina nodded in understanding, filing away the ogre comment for later analysis. Chimera was iron rich, so that was good. A chicken and vegetable stir-fry should do the trick.

Henry came thundering into the kitchen, "What'd I miss?" he asked breathlessly.

"Henry," Regina chided. "Slow down. You're going to fall and break something."

"Okay, okay," Henry replied. "But you could fix it if I did, so I don't understand what the big deal is."

Regina sighed and turned off the burners. She guided Henry to a seat next to her and across from Emma at the table. "Henry, I need you to listen to me very carefully."

"Okay, Mom," Henry said, becoming more serious in response to her tone.

"We got very, very lucky today," Regina said. "Do you understand?"

Henry nodded, but his irrepressible optimism shone through.

"I'm serious, Henry," Regina said. "I think I know why I'm awake, but that does not change the fact that magic cannot fix everything and that, even when it can fix something, sometimes it shouldn't be used. Selfish actions always have a cost, Henry, and that is true in magic as well. And often, because the selfish action is greater when it's magical, so is the cost."

"So how did I wake you up?" Henry asked.

Regina sighed. Apparently Henry was not going to be receptive to her magical safety lecture until after his one-track curiosity was appeased. She patted his leg, "Dinner first. Then theoretical magical discussions."

"Yes, please," Emma groaned. "Food first." All the philosophical magic-talk was making her head hurt. And she was beginning to wish she could just eat, go to sleep, and wake up in the loft, back when she was enjoying Henry's company and Mary Margaret was just her sweet roommate. Funny how she still hoped that Storybrooke and Henry were real, even if she wished for her pre-curse-breaking state of ignorance. She's sure one of the several shrinks she'd been forced to see as a foster child would call that progress, if she'd ever talked to any of them.

"Okay, Emma," Henry agreed. She did look tired and hungry. And Mom had agreed to talk after dinner. He liked that she actually talked to him now. Not like before. "I'll set the table," he volunteered. His mom looked good, and her magic was a brighter purple now, but she had been in the hospital today. As the man of the house, he should help her as much as he could.

"Thank you, Henry," Regina smiled, and turned the burner back on to heat the skillet. With Emma, David, and Henry staying out of her way, she could have dinner ready in less than half an hour.

"I sure am glad you're back," David told Emma. "Storybrooke can rest easier with the proper sheriff back in office," he said, returning her sheriff's badge.

"I'm sure you weren't that bad," Emma replied.

"Oh, I was," David said with a laugh. "I don't know what I would have done without Regina and Henry. Without them, I would have been buried alive underneath a mountain of paperwork."

"You have Sebastian to thank for that," Regina corrected mildly.

"And whose idea was it to find an assistant?" David countered.

Regina quirked an amused eyebrow in response as Emma asked, "Umm, who's Sebastian?"

"He's your new assistant," Henry offered brightly. "You know, from The Little Mermaid?"

"You have a crab doing paperwork?" Emma asked skeptically. "Wouldn't his claws, like, shred it?"

"He's not a crab here, Emma," Henry replied with exasperation. "He's a good assistant. He was trying to impress Mom with his new cross-referencing system."

"He certainly was," David looked meaningfully at Regina, causing her to blush slightly.

"You can always fire him if you don't like him," Regina told Emma. "Though, if nothing has changed, you have the money in your budget for an assistant, and Sebastian is well-suited to detail-oriented tasks."

Emma waited for the inevitable barb that should follow Regina's analysis: 'Unlike you,' or 'So now you won't have any excuse to do your job properly.' But it never came. Off-balance from the lack of animosity, Emma merely replied, "Okay. That sounds good."

"I can introduce you tomorrow," David offered.

Emma nodded. She wasn't thrilled about spending more time with David; it was bound to be awkward and uncomfortable, but she could deal with that tomorrow. Right now, she just wanted food, a few answers, and then some sleep. Preferably three or four day's worth.

"Guess what?" Henry asked, excitedly.

"What?" Emma replied.

"I've been training to be a knight," Henry told her.

"Really?" Emma replied, amused at Henry's enthusiasm.

"Yep!" Henry replied. "Ruby's been teaching me how to track animals in the woods, David's been teaching me how to fence—see, my arms are strong!—and Mom took me to the stables—" Henry's voice trailed off as he realized he'd never actually received his riding lesson. Instead, his mom had to re-kill her fiancé.

Emma instantly noted the shift in the mood. Henry looked guilty and worried, Regina had gone still, and David had strode to her side, placing his hand on the small of her back and silently stirring the vegetables until Regina reclaimed the spatula from him with a strained smile. David kissed the side of her temple and backed away, though he didn't return to his seat at the table but remained leaning at the counter, close to Regina.

"But yeah, Ruby's really good at tracking," Henry resumed talking, trying to recover from his faux pas. "But I guess that isn't surprising, since she's a werewolf, and all."

"What?" Emma exclaimed. "Ruby's a werewolf?" Just when she thought things couldn't get weirder. "I thought you said she was Little Red Riding Hood," she questioned Henry.

"She is," Henry was much more comfortable now that they were talking about his book. "But she's also the Wolf."

"Whoa," Emma said. "But I thought the wolf ate the grandmother?"

"That's just one version of the story," David interjected. "And I'm sure Ruby would not appreciate us speculating about what is fact and what is fiction of the story of her life."

"Sorry," Henry whined. He knew he was supposed to remember that these stories were based on real people, real people that were hurt, changed forever, or killed, but he often forgot about the real people in his excitement to unravel the mysteries of their stories. They were just so interesting.

"So she changes into a wolf on the full moon?" Emma asked after a couple moments of silence.

"Yep!" Henry confirmed.

"Cool," Emma said.

"Dinner is served," Regina announced, as she and David set the serving dishes on the table.

"Thank you, Regina," Emma said. "This looks wonderful."

"You're most welcome, Miss Swan," Regina replied. "I'm just glad you're back safely," she said quickly, the sentiment uncomfortable to express, even though she mostly meant it. Henry would have been devastated if Emma had been killed, and Regina didn't want Henry to be devastated. Even if part of her whispered that he would have gotten over it. "Please, help yourself, Emma. You must be starving," Regina said, cutting off her the dark turn of her thoughts.

Emma did not need any further encouragement and heaped her plate with the chicken, vegetables, and rice. Her mouth salivated as she took a huge bite, groaning nearly obscenely from satisfaction. Regina may be evil—or not, everything seemed different now—but she was definitely a good cook.

Before she knew it, Emma was seated in the living room. The four of them had eaten quickly with minimal conversation. Apparently performing magic and dealing with family drama could work up an appetite. The clean-up had been swift as well. Henry had cleared the table, while Regina washed and David dried. Henry then put away the utensils, Regina the dishes, and David the pots and serving dishes that belonged in places too high for Regina or Henry to reach. Emma supposed Regina must have used a step-stool or kitchen chair pre-David. She'd never really noticed how short, how little, the mayor actually was before. But now, seeing her in oddly casual attire—jeans, a bright blue turtleneck and relatively low heels—and her height only reaching David's shoulders, it was almost difficult to remember how imposing and intimidating Regina could be.

"Okay, Henry," David spoke from his place on the couch beside Regina. "We need another mission name. The purpose of this mission is to protect you and your mom from people that would want to use you for your magic."

"Like Mr. Gold?" Henry asked.

"Yes, like Mr. Gold," David encouraged. "But it could be anyone. Maybe even people we would normally think of as friends."

"Like Ruby?" Henry asked.

"Probably not, but maybe," David said. "Magic does not always bring out the best in people, so we need to be careful who we talk to about it."

"So this mission is about keeping our magic a secret?" Henry asked distastefully. He didn't like secrets. The curse was a secret, and it almost destroyed his mom. Secrets were Not Good.

"Yes, Henry," David replied. "But not from the people in this room, just from people that don't need to know."

"What are we even talking about?" Emma interjected, frustrated. Her full stomach had eased some of her frayed nerves, but it had also returned her fighting energy. "Everyone knows Regina has magic. That's why they all hate her. So what is the big deal?"

"That was kind of harsh, Emma," Henry told Emma.

"Sorry," Emma told Regina sheepishly. "But would someone please fill me in?"

"I have magic," Henry replied. "Big magic. Accidentally-woke-Mom-up-and-did-something-to-her- magic Magic."

"That white at the hospital was you?" Emma asked with shocked disbelief. Even though Henry had told her that he performed the spell to bring her mother and her back to Storybrooke, she hadn't accepted that her son had access to magic. And now she was forced to confront the reality that he didn't just have access to some magic, but to some Mega-Magic. "Explain," she demanded of Regina with irritated anger. Now that she had nutrients in her system, she had enough energy to be really, really ticked off.

Regina kept her face carefully neutral as she felt David squeeze her knee in support. "I don't think I need to explain to you, Miss Swan, why it would be best if no one else knew about Henry's magical ability."

"Secrets," Emma paraphrased. "Fine. But just what are we talking about here?" As long as she was in on the secret, keeping it didn't much bother her.

"When Rumpelstiltskin unleashed magic in Storybrooke, he used your parents' true love as the foundation," Regina said. "This is why magic here behaves differently from magic anywhere else; true love has never been used as a magical base before—"

"Skip to the punchline, Regina," Emma said, her patience depleted.

"As you wish, Miss Swan," Regina replied formally. "Because Henry is Charming and Snow's grandson, his magic is extremely powerful in Storybrooke." Regina allowed Emma to digest this news before continuing in an off-hand matter, "And I suspect yours is too. Be careful, Rumpel will expect this, and sooner or later he will try to manipulate you for his own ends."

"I'm not easy to manipulate," Emma replied with defensive arrogance.

Regina smirked. "Of course not," she replied condescendingly. "But Rumpelstiltskin has had centuries of practice, so the usual rules do not apply. Just a friendly warning," she said breezily.

"Friendly, right," Emma scoffed.

"Emma," David cautioned her, reminding her of Henry's presence. Henry could pick up on the tensions between the three adults regardless of the words spoken, but there was not any need to be uncivil in his presence, or anytime, really. "How did you wake your Mom up, Henry?" David asked. He assumed that the bright light in the hospital and Regina's health were due to Henry truly loving her, but he was still uncomfortably with the whole magic thing, and he wanted to make sure he wasn't going to lose any of his family members to some kind of magical catch. Not if he could help it.

"I'm not sure," Henry replied. "I remember that I was in her room, and I was talking to her. And I was . . ." Suddenly shy, Henry stopped speaking. "I just wanted her back. I wanted my mom to come back," he said, speaking more to his shoes than to the people in the room. "I gave her a hug and then felt, like, a good explosion, and then she was awake," he spoke the last part in a rush.

"Thank you," Regina said to her son, her voice thick with emotion and her eyes brimming with repressed tears.

Henry gave her a small smile. "You're welcome," he replied.

David couldn't help a smile at the demonstration of affection, and he held Regina close to his side, more grateful than ever that her son loved her as she loved him.

"A 'good explosion'?" Emma asked, confused. "How can an explosion be good?"

"I don't know," Henry said. "It just was."

"Any theories, Regina?" David asked her, a teasing glint in his eye.

"Of course," she responded with a smirk and a wink. "Henry, I assume your diamond charm is no longer in existence?"

Henry grasped the chain of links around his neck, immediately noticing that the familiar weight was gone. "Yep," he confirmed. "It's gone."

"I think," Regina began, "that Henry accidentally tried to heal me. But, because I was still buffering for his magic through the linking charm, his magic trying to heal me caused what remained of my existing magic to deplete almost completely. And, since I was born with magic, the loss of it would have killed me, which Henry's magic knew. Ignoring the dangers to Henry, his magic attacked the buffering charm, while my magic, placing Henry's well-being above all else, tried to maintain the buffering spell. Henry's magic won, blasting the buffering charm and my magic into oblivion, killing and reviving me in the same moment. He essentially pressed a reset button on my magic. He restored it to the way it was when I was born—the way it is intended to be."

"That's why your magic is brighter!" Henry exclaimed. "I smashed the darkness out!"

Regina nodded, happiness brimming beneath her skin. "You did, Henry. You smashed the darkness out."

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A/N: I truly apologize to all the readers that have been following this story, and especially to the group of loyal reviewers and PM-ers. When I wrote that Regina was going to make David wait six months, I had no intention of making the readers wait that long for an update. It has been quite a year. This chapter wasn't where I wanted it to be, but I'm committed to finishing this story, so I posted this to get the writing going again. It will be at least a week before another update, but I do intend to update again in November (at least once). My apologies again, and I hope this installment didn't disappoint too badly. Love, Your Prodigal Author