"When will I get to see you?" Henry asked Regina as Emma shuffled awkwardly and David tried to impose as little as possible by the foyer wall. Henry didn't understand. Operation Boomerang had worked. Emma and Mary Margaret were back. His mom was awake and one of the good guys. Why couldn't they all just be together?

Regina adjusted Henry's coat, trying to distract herself from the reality that she was not only allowing her son to walk out the front door with Emma Swan, but that she had orchestrated and encouraged it. "We'll still see each other Henry," Regina assured him with a forced smile. "I'll pick you up from school on Wednesday and we'll finally start your horse-riding lessons."

"That sounds fun," Henry smiled brightly. "But we don't have to go to the stables if you don't want to," he backpedaled. He didn't want the stables to make his mom sad.

"I want to," Regina assured him. "I want to teach you to ride," she said earnestly. "And I can't leave all of your knight lessons up to David and Ruby, now can I? What kind of Queen would I be if I neglected the training of my finest knight?"

"Thanks, Mom," Henry rolled his eyes and smiled as he gave Regina a hug. "I'm glad you're okay," he whispered.

"I love you, Henry," Regina said, giving her son an extra squeeze.

"I love you too, Mom," Henry replied before backing out of her arms. "I'll see you Wednesday," he said with a small smile and a wave.

"Okay, kid," Emma said. "I guess we should go." She turned to Regina, "Thanks for dinner," she said awkwardly. "And I'll call you about figuring out . . . " Henry. Mary Margaret. Town Government. Trying you for your crimes. " . . . Everything," Emma finished, not knowing where to begin with the list of issues that remained unresolved with her son's adoptive mother.

Regina stared at the closed door for a long moment after Henry left with Emma. And David had the graciousness not to intrude on her inner solitude. When she finally let out a long breath and turned toward him, he stepped closer to her and grinned at her lopsidedly. "You did it," he said.

"Let my son leave the house?" Regina quipped. "Yes I did. Considering past history, I suppose that does deserve a gold star."

"That's not what I meant," David responded, chuckling quietly as he closed the distance between them.

"Oh?" Regina replied, suddenly irrationally nervous. For the first time since they began to work together, the Prince did not have any reason to talk to her, except to talk to her. Emma and Snow had been returned to Storybrooke. There was not any immediate threat to Henry's safety or the security of the town. She was even out of the hospital. The Prince wasn't in her house due to a quest or a misguided sense of chivalry. David was in her home because he wanted to be. For her.

"You came back to us," David said.

Regina nodded mutely. His intense kindness was overwhelming.

"Thank you," he said, as he pulled her into a sudden kiss.

Regina surrendered to the moment, briefly. Just for now, she allowed herself to believe that her happily ever after was finally beginning. She could have true love. She could have Henry in her life. She could be good. She could have it all.

And then she remembered who she was.

And she extricated herself from David's seductively caring embrace.

"Yes, well, I told you I would," Regina said stiltedly as she pulled away.

"Thank you all the same," David said, refusing to acknowledge her attempts to distance herself. He'd witnessed her transform between the public persona of Regina the Mayor and the private persona of Regina the Person too many times not to recognize the signs.

"Please don't do this," he said.

"Do what?" she asked with feigned ignorance.

Her artifice snapped the last of his patience.

"You know what, Regina," David snapped. "Don't act like we are back to business as usual. Like everything we've just been through has meant nothing. Because this is one pathetic act you're putting on, and it is beneath you."

"And what do you really know about me, Charming?" Regina sneered, immediately on the offensive. "Oh, so because some magical wires got crossed now we just live happily ever after? How adorably naïve."

"I know that you are much more than some villain from a children's book," Charming shot back, not to be deterred. "And I know that happily ever after is something that you have to fight for, every day. And I know that, if you wanted to, you could fight harder than anyone I know. So how about you cut the crap and tell me what is really going on here?"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," Regina's voice shook slightly, but otherwise her indifferent façade remained intact. It had too. The Prince was too large a risk.

"Yes you do!" David yelled. "We've been through too much in the past couple weeks, Regina. Too much. I am not the same man that woke up from a curse to watch his wife and daughter fall through a portal—saving your life, I might add—"

"And who asked you to do that?" Regina interjected. "Because I sure as hell didn't. I never wanted help from your Charming family, so why don't you just scamper along and rejoin it," she finished dismissively.

"Because our family doesn't exist anymore!" David blurted. "I broke my wife's heart in the middle of a hospital today! She came to rescue me with true love's kiss, and, instead of riding off into the sunset with her like the cliché you insist we are, I got electrocuted and then had to bumble through the terrible truth that the reason we couldn't be together was because I fell in love with you!"

It was true then. David did love her. Instead of Snow White. She'd been certain that when Snow returned their Love-at-Each-Sight would reassert itself and David would be able to kiss her without being shocked.

All the more reason he had to leave. He might not love Snow now, but he would. Snow always won in the end.

"How inconvenient for you," Regina commented condescendingly, the Evil Queen in her tone if not her wardrobe. "But I'm certain you'll get over it soon enough, and sweet Snow will be there to pick up the pieces. She is so forgiving," she said, the words dripping with disdain.

Anger and disgust coursed through David's veins at her dismissal of their relationship and her reversion to the malice of her prior life, crystallizing into pure frustration. "All of our time together in this world and the last and I never before understood what you truly are—a coward."

The only evidence that his words had hit their mark was the brief flicker in Regina's eyes, but that was enough to take the triumph out of David's posture and cause him to instantly regret speaking. "Regina, I'm sorry, but don't do this. Snow and I are over. And we are over because I love you. Don't do this to me, to us. Don't act like what we have is nothing, because it is everything. I love you, Regina, and I know you love me, so have some faith in us."

"No," Regina said, detached.

"Regina, please," David insisted. "You asked for time, and I'll give it to you. But don't dismiss the possibility of us. Choose to believe in us."

"I can't, and I won't. There is no 'us'," she stated, as though the matter was closed.

"There is an 'us,' Regina," David countered, "Even if you refuse to acknowledge it. But for us to have a chance, you have to believe in us. You have to believe that we can find happiness. Together. But the choice is yours."

Her father's last words nearly knocked Regina over with their unexpectedness. We can find happiness. Together. But the choice is yours. "Get out," she demanded venomously.

David, stunned by her viciousness, was too shocked to move. "Regina, I—".

"Get out now," she shouted at him, purple magic sparking dangerously in her fury.

Scared despite himself and wanting to avoid death at Regina's hand, however she might regret (or savor) it later, David strode out the door, slamming it behind him.

Leaving Regina alone.

Again.

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Disclaimer: Henry Sr.'s words are courtesy of the writers of episode 1.02 "The Thing You Love Most." As always, I own nothing related to Once Upon a Time and just enjoy playing in the universe.