Alright! After so long without updating, let's get this show on the road!

Just a minor note, at the beginning of this fic I mentioned I was envisioning this to be 30-ish chapters and I believe that was a broad over-estimation, considering my chapters tend to be very long, and I was checking over the plot line for this fic and realized we're quite a ways through this story!

So I'm thinking that the revised length will be about 5 chapters more maybe?

Also, terribly sorry for not responding to everyone's reviews, but I wanted to get this posted before I left for a few days, so I will respond to the rest of the reviews when I get back.

But anyway! I have a story to tell and you lovely folks have chapter to read! Enjoy!

When Emma awoke, she felt a bit disoriented. Her bed felt familiar, but it was like someone was there with her...

Opening her eyes, she found Regina sleeping peacefully beside her. She let out a silent sigh as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes and tried to focus. She clearly had been given a lot of strong medicine, for she barely remembered anything that had happened yesterday evening.

She vaguely recalled Regina insisting that she would stay the night, worried for her lover's health, and Emma now smiled at the gesture as she sat up. She wanted nothing more than to finish clearing the air between them so they could go back to normal and her guilt wouldn't be eating at her.

As if her thoughts had awoken her, Regina's eyes slowly opened. "Emma? Is everything alright?"

"Yes," Emma answered, her voice raspy from sleeping with her mouth open. She pulled her legs closer to herself. "Yesterday, I remember you said you wanted to talk when I mentioned the whole lying thing, and I'm kinda worried about what that entails. I mean, I know I screwed up, but at the same time, I thought we mostly hashed it out, so I'm wondering if you changed your mind or-"

"You're rambling," Regina smiled, lying a comforting hand on Emma's left elbow. When her lover still looked worried, she sighed, maintaining eye contact as she sat up too. "We don't have to do this now. I'd much rather you recuperate before we do this."

Emma shook her head. "No. I want this to be done and over with. Otherwise it'll just come back to bite us. I delayed in telling you about my parents and look where it got us."

"Very well." Regina had to concede that Emma had a point, but she wasn't sure where to start. And then she figured she'd work her way to it. "I love you Emma. I know you do too, especially when you whispered it as I held your heart. I could feel it. But at the same time, this is a lot to process. I understand why you did what you did, and that there was no malicious intent involved. It's certainly not going to get me to stop loving you, so please don't think I'm abandoning you. I just think you should give me some time to come to grips with this and understand that this who I'm in love with. And then we can continue where we left off."

Emma nodded, a hopeful smile blooming on her face before her face dropped and she squinted. "So what does that mean for us? In terms of what I can or can't do."

Regina thought about it for a minute. "I'd just want some space to think. Independently of our status, I can't stay here much longer, for both my safety and the fact that I have a kingdom to run, but I'll visit you for the next days as you recuperate, and you can still come visit when you heal. Last night was obviously an exception in terms of sleeping over because of your injury."

"Okay, I understand." Emma was glad that things had gone over so smoothly, she had been expecting a lot worse, like Regina realizing that this was more than she bargained for and deciding she really wanted nothing to do with Emma.

As if noticing her change in mood, Regina moved to give Emma a soft kiss on her cheek. "Come on, I'll make breakfast for you and Henry."

They both got up and got dressed for the day - with Regina helping Emma to get her shirt on after she magicked her own clothes onto herself - and while Regina was preparing things in the kitchen, Emma went to rouse Henry. Together, they made their way to the kitchen, where Henry watched in fascination as Regina prepared porridge.

Regina was halfway through making breakfast when everyone froze at hearing Snow open the door and greet, "Good morning everyone!"

It took a lot of self-control from Emma to not drop the plates she was carrying. She was just thankful her kitchen wasn't in full view from the front door, otherwise Snow would've seen Regina, and then they'd be in a world of trouble.

Emma barely had time to take a deep breath and then swivel around with a fake smile plastered on her face as Regina transformed into her squirrel form again and went to join Henry, much to the latter's amusement.

"Mom!" Emma exclaimed, a little bit too forcefully. "What are you doing here?"

Snow looked nonplussed at Emma's question. "I'm visiting my daughter, is that a crime? Especially when said daughter has been hurt so badly?"

"No- yeah! I mean, just figuring that you could knock..." Emma's rambling attempt at an excuse withered away into silence as she even realized how ridiculous it sounded.

As if attempting to help her daughter save face, she glanced at the stove with surprise, "And you're making breakfast! You should've called me honey, I would've helped."

Emma waved it off, setting the plates down and going to stir the pot of porridge. "It's fine, it's just porridge, I think I can handle it."

"You know how to make porridge?" Snow asked. She recalled the last time Emma had tried. It had ended up as a solid block that was then fed to the horses. And not even they would eat it.

"Yeah, I grabbed the recipe from Marian. Lovely lady, really great cook," Emma quickly amended. "Do you want a bowl?"

Not having the heart to turn her down, Snow smiled and accepted. She then turned to Henry, who was entertained with a little black squirrel. "It seems your little friend's gotten quite attached Emma."

It was Henry who answered her, "Yeah, she's really friendly!"

"Oh! It's a she?" Snow asked.

Leaving the wooden spoon to clatter against the pot, Emma rushed to add, "Yeah! I just let Henry decide on a gender and he picked girl."

Thankfully, Henry went along with it and beamed at Snow. "Yep! I'm naming her Lady Squirrel, Lady for short."

Snow took it all in stride as just kid things, and once more tried to pet the squirrel, but just like yesterday, the squirrel ducked away and chattered her displeasure.

Clearing her throat, Emma slid a bowl of porridge in front of everyone. "So mom, did you just come by to check up on me or did you want to talk about something."

"Oh it's alright, we can talk about it later," Snow dismissively said. It was clear that whatever she wanted to talk about, she didn't want to do it with Henry present.

So they ate in silence, the squirrel staying close to Emma and Henry. Snow had to admit that the porridge wasn't that bad, and made a mental note to talk to Marian. Maybe her porridge recipe was really that great.

As soon as Henry left, excited to spend the day out, Emma went to wash the plates with Regina the squirrel perched on her shoulder, and then turned to her mom asking, "So what's this about?"

Snow took a deep breath and said, "It's about Regina."

Attempting her best passive face, Emma blinked and asked, "Who's Regina? Is she new?"

"The Evil Queen Emma."

"Right! Her, yeah sorry, I'm a little out of it. Plus I'm not sure I really ever learnt her name," Emma quickly explained, her lying game much more fluid than it was when she awoke. And that was also considering that Regina was being fussy and distracting, not happy to hear her name or moniker, switching to Emma's other shoulder and using her arm to climb down to the countertop. "What about her?"

Snow faltered here, biting her lip.

"Mom?"

"Bear with me okay?" When Emma nodded, Snow continued, "Last night, Fowler came to visit. And he told us something very interesting. As you know, your father and I are true love-"

"Yes and you two had a magical kiss that broke the spell that this Regina had placed on you," Emma dramatically added with a flourish, having clearly heard that story many times before.

Snow glared at her and tersely stated, "If you'll let me continue..." Emma gestured for her mom to continue, and with a satisfied sigh, she did. "Our love means that you, our child, are a child of true love. And Fowler explained that it comes with some caveats that we basically already knew. Like your sense of self. No one can ever corrupt or take it away from you. And it's a wonderful thing. However, that also means something else."

Emma was still lost on how this all tied together to Regina, so she prompted, "Which is?"

"No one can remove your heart Emma. It shouldn't be possible. To be able to remove your heart means that someone could control and manipulate you, something that you should be completely safe from."

Connecting the dots, Emma frowned as she said, "Okay, but Regina clearly removed my heart and put it back, so it's clearly not true right?"

"Not exactly. The only way that would make it possible for your heart to be removed would be if the person doing that was your true love."

A crash was heard as poor Regina the squirrel -who had been listening quite intently to the conversation - had been pretending to munch on a spoon and now dropped it in surprise at hearing Snow's words.

Emma used that to focus. She couldn't exactly be ecstatic to the news, so she adopted a confused and borderline disturbed expression. "Whoa, back it on up. Are you trying to imply that Regina is my true love? Ew mom!"

"No! Oh dear gods no!" Snow was quick to clarify. "No I was trying to say that maybe while you were with her after she kidnapped you she might've done something to trick your heart into believing she was your true love."

"To what ends?" Emma asked. "She gave me my heart back, plus I have to tell you, we didn't really talk much in her room. She just threatened me to not try and follow in your footsteps and try to reclaim the throne unless I was prepared to fight her to the death, and then she dropped me off in the middle of the forest."

Regina was silently impressed with the quick story Emma had made up, and committed it to memory in case she had to repeat it.

"Maybe this was a test. To see whether it would work, and then later she'd be able to use it to truly take your heart," Snow was quick to counter. "She's devious Emma. You might think she wasn't up to much, but believe me, you can't trust her."

Emma gave a noncommittal hum at that. "But hang on. Say she did throw some magic dust near my heart and all that you said. Wouldn't that still be considered corrupting my heart and therefore not feasible?"

"Well," Snow began, looking a bit guilty as she avoided Emma's eyes for this next part. "I know of one way to figure out whether or not she did do something to your heart. But you might not like it."

"What is it?" Emma asked, growing worried.

"Hoffman." At Emma's face, Snow was quick to add, "I know you hate him, and I'm not a big fan of his either. Your dad and I would accompany you, but if we can see if she did anything to your heart, we can maybe prepare ourselves. It's worth a chance, even if that chance is him."

Emma wanted nothing more than to deny it. Not only because he didn't trust that man within an inch of her life, but she also knew that having him prod around for her heart would clearly show that Regina had gotten Emma's heart because she loved her, thereby revealing their entire relationship. She was pulled out of her thoughts by a sharp nip on her finger. "Ouch!"

It was Regina, and somehow, Emma understood that to mean that she should go ahead with her mom's plan. Surely her lover had some idea cooked up that would get them all out of this. So she sighed and said, "Okay, I'll go. But just give me some time to clean all this up and finish dressing."

Snow nodded and beamed. "Oh, and a squirrel biting you means they like you, so I think Lady's taken a shine to you, even if she doesn't seem to be a big fan of mine."

Emma just let out a laugh and waved goodbye to her mom. As soon as the door closed behind her, Emma breathed easier, and turned to see Regina transform again and pick up the spoon she had dropped.

"Well that went better than I expected," Regina dryly said with a smirk.

"I'm still under a heavy dosage of medicine, so my skills at lying are a bit stiff. Anyway, I hope you do have a plan and that little bite wasn't a love-bite as my mom implied."

Regina's face was enough to tell Emma that it most certainly wasn't the case. "When I give you an actual love bite, you can rest assured it will be under very different circumstances, I won't be in that form, and your mother will be nowhere near us."

Emma snorted in amusement, but sobered as she remembered the situation they were in. "So the plan? Because Hoffman definitely won't be able to take out my heart, and then we're screwed."

"Easy, I disguise myself as this Hoffman character, and remove your heart. No one is the wiser, and you don't have to deal with him. Is he that unpleasant?" Regina asked.

"Worse. He has a crush on me and he's a little bit too...much," Emma tried to explain. "Basically, he's in his corner of the village, and everyone leaves him alone. The only reason we even still put up with the guy is that he's the only magic practitioner we have, and my mom doesn't want to leave us without someone that can manipulate magic."

Regina frowned. "He sounds wonderfully terrible. But what about those damn fairies? Did they finally see reason and abandon Snow?"

"Not really, but the fairies couldn't stay here all the time and respond to every whim the village has." Emma never really liked the fairies, so it was no big loss in her mind. "So how are you going to replace him?"

"Easy, I'll make my way there, knock the oaf out, and disguise myself as him. Then I, as Hoffman, am free to take your heart out, therefore disproving the idiotic theory to your parents, and they leave us alone."

Emma smirked. "That sounds fantastic, but I have to ask one thing."

Seeing Emma's playful expression, Regina went along with it, scooting closer to Emma. "And what would that be?"

"What're your thoughts on the other theory though? I mean, that we can actually be true love?" Regina faltered here, and Emma took it the wrong way and hurried to add, "Not that it's important, but since it concerns us, I just thought I'd ask."

Rather than answer, Regina surged forward to kiss Emma. It was soft and chaste, but it still left Emma's heart fluttering. "I think it's wonderful Emma, even though it's taking a while for me to wrap my head around it."

"Well once this is done, we'll have plenty of time to figure it out, sound good?" Emma asked, to which Regina nodded and kissed her again. "We're terrible at this staying away thing right?"

Regina let out a full laugh while she nodded. "Though believe me, I'm not complaining."

They eventually sobered enough, and while Regina helped Emma get ready she added, "One little caveat that I forgot to mention; due to the magic I put on your eyes to allow you to see me when you were in the Dark Kingdom, you won't actually see Hoffman when I'm there, you'll see me. But just pretend it's him."

"Hard to do that," Emma said with a smile.

"If it'll help, I'll also be making lewd comments."

"That'll do the trick."

Once they were done, they went their separate ways, with Regina transforming into a squirrel and hurrying off to Hoffman's house, whike Emma went to join her parents.

"You certainly took a while," David remarked worriedly.

Emma pointed to her injury. "Hard to get dressed with this."

He understandingly left it at that, and together, they walked to Hoffman's house.

"Now remember Emma, just try to keep this simple, and we'll be out of here in no time," Snow said as she knocked.

When the door opened and Emma saw Regina, she had a momentary lapse of panic wondering whether the disguise perhaps wasn't working.

"Hoffman, we're terribly sorry to bother you-" Snow began. Emma breathed easier at that. They could only see Hoffman in front of them.

"Not at all," Regina drawled, eyes raking over Emma's figure.

Emma would've felt extremely uncomfortable if she wasn't seeing Regina, but still kept appearances by shuddering. "Anyway," she began, pushing past her disguised lover and inside. "We have something to ask of you. A favour."

"Anything for you." David cleared his throat as a warning, and Regina pretended to stutter a bit before saying, "Yes, what do you need?"

Snow gave a much more truncated version of things, and explained why they needed help.

"Well certainly I can help," Regina responded, putting her hands up and flexing her fingers as if that would prove her point.

Both Snow and David were thoroughly disgusted with the antics, but ignored it for the sake of wanting to protect Emma. If this creep could do what Regina did, then at least that meant that Emma wasn't in any immediate danger from Regina. Though at the same time they feared what could happen if Emma's heart could be so easily removed.

Emma stepped forward and stood in front of Regina. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Now I have to warn you, this probably will hurt, especially getting your heart removed so soon again, as you said." Emma could see Regina looking remorseful at having to do this again. A heart wasn't meant to be taken out over and over again so soon. She wished there was another way, but this was the most immediate method at settling this once and for all.

"I'm ready. Do it," Emma said reassuringly. She gave Regina a subtle nod and a wink, one her parents couldn't see.

"Now, take a deep breath in," Regina instructed, plunging her hand into Emma's chest. "And out!"

Emma's breath out became a pained gasp as her heart was removed again. She stumbled back a bit but David caught her.

Regina flinched the slightest bit, wanting to go help Emma but she kept her composure, knowing that this was a role she had to play. She inspected the heart in her hand and could now understand the golden flecks. This was the heart of a child of true love. "Beautiful," she whispered.

David cleared his throat again, and this time Regina was truly startled and stuttered a vague apology.

"Well from what I can tell, there's no spell over her heart. Does this help prove what you wanted?" Regina asked, holding the heart up.

Snow nodded. "Yes, thank you Hoffman. We can pay you-"

"Nonsense. Getting to see this lovely young woman is payment enough," Regina cut through. She did all the work and she'd be damned if the actual Hoffman got paid for it. Turning to Emma she said, "Now, deep breath, I'm going to put your heart back."

Once her heart was back, Regina saw that Emma was clutching her injury, and she smirked, knowing she would get her way. "You know, I am quite adept at healing, such a brave woman like you shouldn't be bedridden and kept from the fight. So let me heal you."

"No, it's fine-" Emma tried to say.

"Oh come on Emma, there's no reason to deny his help," Snow countered, looking puzzled at Emma's denial.

Emma was feeling quite woozy so she ground out, "It's fine, I don't want her to stress herself."

"Her?" three voices echoed, though Emma could note the brief infliction of panic in Regina's voice.

Trying to quickly fix her slip, Emma quickly said, "Him. Him. Sorry, slip of the tongue."

It seemed her parents had bought it, but they were still looking at her expectantly.

Emma floundered a bit, knowing she had no real reason to deny it, and begrudgingly accepted it.

After Regina was done, Emma gave a small smile and admitted, "It does feel better."

Regina looked way too smug as they left, and even Snow looked happy.

"Wow, Hoffman seems even nicer than I remember. Maybe the time holed up here has done him some good."

"Doubt it mom. He probably just wanted to hold my heart," Emma grimaced. Last thing she needed was for the real Hoffman to get credit. "But anyway, we proved that legend wrong, there's nothing keeping my heart in my chest, anyone can remove it."

David nodded pensively. "It's good news and bad too. We need to find a way to protect it. Regina now knows that she can easily remove your heart, and it's not beyond the realm of reason that she might want to use your heart to get back at Snow."

Emma just nodded passively along, tuning everything out. She knew there was no use trying to argue with her parents, but at the same time, she didn't want to listen to all the nonsense they were spewing. She was thankful when she saw her home coming closer, and she could excuse herself.

When Emma finally closed the door behind herself, she sagged a bit.

"Are you okay?" Regina's voice made Emma look up, seeing her lover looking worried. "You look pale Emma, come sit down."

Once Emma did that, she said, "Sorry for my slip-up."

Regina scoffed. "You needn't apologize. You've had your heart removed twice in as many days. I'm surprised you're still standing. What I don't understand is why you would deny getting healed. I could understand if it was Hoffman himself, or if you had no way to explain it like yesterday, but your parents were right there."

Emma shrugged. "Magic has its price right? I didn't want you to have to waste it on me."

"It wouldn't be a waste Emma. You saved my life by taking that arrow, and I don't care how much it would cost me, I would heal you no matter how bad the damage was."

Emma could only smile fondly at that. Regina was truly amazing, she just wished her parents could see it too.

"Now come on, I'll help you get started on dinner later for you and Henry and then make my way back to the Dark Kingdom. Everyone must be livid I left in such a hurry," Regina said with a sigh.

"That bad?" Emma asked with a wry smile.

"Worse," Regina countered, heading to the kitchen. "But anyway, I'd rather not think about all that now. Tell me about Henry."

And so Emma explained Henry living with her, though he sometimes liked to spend the afternoon with his grandparents. "They've totally adopted him as their grandchild, which makes him ecstatic."

A few hours later, Henry came bounding inside, but he didn't look at all happy.

"Henry? What's wrong," Emma asked, immediately standing up to walk over to him. Regina had already been standing up, she was getting ready to leave when Henry entered.

"Grandma and grandpa want to talk to you...they don't look happy," Henry glumly responded. "They also asked that you bring Lady with you. Aunt Red is there too."

The two women looked at each other with dread.

Emma gently held Henry's shoulders as she said, "Stay here okay kid? I'll be back soon. Go play in your room or practise reading."

Henry solemnly nodded, and headed upstairs.

Once Henry was out of earshot, Regina shot Emma a worried look. "They found out didn't they?"

"Probably." Emma distinctly remembered Red's exception to keeping her secret, and she cursed. "I'm guessing Red told them. I'm going to go talk to them and I'll be back-"

"You're not going alone. They asked for both of us," Regina interrupted, her tone not leaving anything for discussion.

Emma was too nervous to argue, so she just nodded, and once Regina had transformed into her squirrel form and was perched on Emma's shoulder, they walked over to her parents' house.

She opened the door and was greeted with her parents battle ready, with their sword and bow in hand, respectively. Red was standing to the side, arms crossed.

"Emma, anything to say for yourself?" Snow asked, entirely too breezily to be casual.

"Not really? Henry just told me you guys weren't too happy, and I'm bound to agree with that statement, though I don't know why." Emma figured she would at least feign innocence.

Red sighed. "Give it up Emma, I told them, just like I promised. Regina kidnapped you and took your heart, and now she's here as a squirrel? I feel like I'm more than justified in believing this has gone too far."

Right then, Emma was sorely regretting having trusted her aunt. Rather than admit to anything, she spat out, "And so what? I trust Regina, is that a crime?"

"It is when you consider our history!" Snow called out, looking only at the squirrel still perched on Emma's shoulder.

"It was eight years ago! Why should I even care?" Emma asked.

"Because she holds grudges for a really long time," David answered. "And if she wasn't such a coward, she would take these allegations head on."

Regina dropped from her spot on Emma's shoulder and transformed into her human form. "I believe I hardly qualify for the term coward, but if that's what makes you sleep at night..."

Emma hissed, "Not helping our case Regina."

Snow agreed. "Really Regina, this was your plan? Enthrall my daughter and just take her away from me?"

"No," Emma ground out. "You very well know - after two days of being subject to having my heart ripped out - that I am of sound mind and body. So stop trying to make this about some damn revenge tactic involving magic and deceit. I love Regina, and I willingly sought out a relationship with her, one that makes me very happy. There is no trickery or forcing on my part nor hers."

Turning to look at Regina, Snow was clearly disgusted as she asked, "You had a relationship with my daughter and knew about it this whole time? How perverted are you?"

"Why you little-" Regina let out a growl and was ready to call up her magic when Emma stepped in between Regina's path to Snow, and held her hands out.

"Stop! Regina, please let me handle this. Mom, Regina didn't know who I was at first. She found out yesterday and that's why she was so livid. She took me to the castle because she wanted to know if it was true. But we're working on resolving it."

She was sure Snow's eye twitched as her mother asked, "Resolving? You mean you're not going to cut all ties with her?"

"No, of course not," Emma sounded resolute in her answer, and it made Regina's heart swell despite the situation.

David was silent in his shock, and Red was wisely staying in the sidelines, but Snow clearly would carry the conversation. "I see. Essentially, you are picking Regina over us?"

Emma spared Regina one glance before turning back to her parents and saying, "Yes. I choose Regina."

"Very well," Snow's voice broke the slightest bit, but she took a deep breath before saying, "Emma, you are to leave here immediately, and never return. If you do, you will be treated as an enemy, and dealt with on sight. With that, I hereby ban you from Storybrooke Village."

Ooooh busted! Poor Emma. That'll be something to deal with. Gotta wonder what'll happen next!

Meanwhile, I have more fics to update! I've got Equals coming up next, a few drabbles I've kept in the back-burner for now, and then Her Stable Girl!

I'd love to hear your thoughts, so let me know your reactions to this chapter.