"If I'd known that we would have been so good at this I would have jumped you a long time ago," Emma quips from where she has collapsed on top of Regina.

Regina's chest rumbles with a chuckle. "Are you saying that you thought I would be bad in bed?"

"No. I just…that was so good." The orgasms were pretty great, but Emma knows it had been more than that.

Emma feels anxiety floating at the corners of her mind. She thinks that she would be panicking if she weren't so completely exhausted and satisfied. And if Regina's fingers weren't currently massaging her scalp.

Emma's eyes slip closed. Regina's fingers run through her hair, trace patterns absentmindedly on her neck. Emma should get up and go to her room. She shouldn't be wrapping her arms around Regina's waist. She shouldn't be nuzzling against Regina's breast.

Regina reaches over to turn off the bedside lamp. "Good night, Emma."

Regina's arms wrap loosely around Emma's back.

"Good night."

Emma's anxiety only increases with the lights out and nothing to distract her from the thoughts of how quickly and completely she and Regina could ruin what they have built for Henry since returning from Neverland. She thinks of what could happen if they wake up and realize that they don't want this. She thinks of hurting Henry. She thinks of being alone again.

"I can feel you panicking."

"You aren't?"

Regina shrugs. She doesn't want to admit that she feels the most peaceful she can ever remember being or that with Emma's arms and legs intertwined with her own she feels like she could sleep more deeply than she has in years. "Do you want a round four? I could tire you out so that you can't think anymore."

"You really do think quite highly of your skills, don't you?"

"I'm just trying to help dear."

"Then by all means, give it your best shot."

"I don't want to trouble you," Regina deadpans.

Emma rolls her eyes in the darkness. She pulls Regina on top of her, their bodies flush against each other once more.

"Shit, Regina, wake up."

"Mmm, what?" Regina asks half asleep.

"Henry's knocking at the door."

That wakes Regina up. She jumps out of bed, wraps her robe around her naked body, and runs to the door.

Regina finds Henry standing in the hall sobbing hysterically. She bends down and gathers Henry up in her arms. "Shh, shh, it's ok," she soothes as she rubs circles on his back. "It was just a dream, and you're safe and home now. Just a bad dream."

Henry cries harder, sobbing and sobbing until he's coughing and choking. "Henry, baby, take a deep breath."

Emma had hidden out in Regina's room, but the sound Henry crying is too much. Any thoughts of keeping the fact that she was in Regina's bed a secret fly out the window when she hears her kid sobbing desperately in the hallway.

Emma opens the door to find Henry in Regina's arms, his whole face red from crying. She had hoped that nights this bad were passed them. He had gone five days without waking Emma and Regina during the night.

"Henry, listen to your mom. Take a breath." Emma kneels down. "Breathing's really important."

Regina slows the pace at which she is drawing circles on Henry's back. "Shhhhh, shhhhh," she whispers slowly, as calmingly as possible. "Shhhhhhh, shhhhhhh, that's it. Take another deep breath for us. Good. That's good."

Henry lets out small shuddering breaths against Regina's neck. Her skin is wet with his tears.

Emma leans in and kisses Henry's hair. "You're ok kid," she tells him. "Do you want to lie down wit us?" Henry nods. "Ok, good." Emma gives Henry's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Regina moves to stand, but Henry clings to her, so she lifts him into her arms and carries him to her bed.

"Here we are." Regina lays Henry down in the middle of the bed and cuddles him against her chest.

Emma wastes no time getting into bed next to Henry. She wraps her arm around him. "I love you Henry." The words have become easier to say, less terrifying everyday.

"We both love you," Regina adds. "And we are not going anywhere."

Henry lets out a deep, shuddering breath. He's stopped crying, but hasn't said a word, hasn't looked at his mothers.

Archie told Regina and Emma to ask about the dreams, to encourage Henry to talk. But they can't make him do it tonight. They let him drift off to sleep in their arms.

"Good morning, sweetheart," Regina whispers when Henry's eyes flutter open the next morning.

"Hi Mom."

Emma is still asleep with her arm draped over Henry lightly. Her soft snores fill the room.

"How did you sleep?" Regina asks.

"No more nightmares."

"I'm glad," Regina tells Henry as she brushes the hair from his forehead. Her heart aches. She stares at him for a long moment, looking at the haunted eyes; so different from the way she remembers those beautiful eyes.

Henry breaks the silence. "Emma snores loudly huh?"

"Yes, she sure does. I guess that's where you get it from." Regina has denied him this in the past, this connection to his biological mother. But she knows that he has longed for it, knows that his desire to find Emma was about more than just the curse.

"You and Emma are getting along really well."

"We are. I didn't give her a fair chance before, and now that I'm getting to know her, I've realized that I like her a lot."

"That's awesome. I like that it's the three of us now."

"I know you do."

"You've really changed."

Regina almost says I'm trying, because she is trying and sometimes it's a struggle and she doesn't know if she can do it. But her son needs more than that now. He needs her to be strong for him, not the other way around. And the fact that Regina wonders whether she is capable of change is not something that she needs to share with her son. "Yes, Henry, I have."

"I keep dreaming that I lose you because you become the Evil Queen again. But you won't do that, right Mommy? You aren't going to leave me, right?"

Regina feels sick at hearing her son's nightmares about her. "I am never going to leave you. I love you so much."

She had thought that she wasn't the mother that he wanted or needed, that it didn't matter if she was evil, because Henry wanted Emma. But she had been wrong. He needs her so much, and she isn't going to do anything that will take her away from her son.

"Mom's out cold," Henry tells Emma. They are all sitting on the couch together watching a The Avengers.

"Yeah, she was tired."

"I think she stayed awake all last night. Every time I got up, she was already awake."

Henry looks worried and guilty, so Emma reaches out and gives his hand a squeeze. "She just wants to take care of you. We both do."

"I know, but I know that I've made both your lives harder since you rescued me."

"Henry, no!"

"It's not really fair to either of you, but you didn't even want a kid –"

"That isn't true!"

"You don't have to lie. You gave me away."

They're here, at this moment that Emma knew was coming since Hook told her how Peter Pan tortures his victims. She knew that Henry would fear her abandoning him again, would have dreamed that she never wanted him at all.

"I wanted to keep you so badly. I loved you so much. You know, I read to you every day because one of those parenting books said it helps your kid's brain develop. But Henry, I was in jail."

"You didn't look for me when you got out."

"I knew you'd been adopted. My life was a mess then, and being with your mom was better for you. But I loved you and I wished that I could have raised you." Emma's voice breaks. She's crying now. She worked so hard to forget the son she gave away, but she had still loved him so, so much.

Henry looks scared and doubtful. He stares at Emma with so much longing, so much need to know that she loves him. It hurts Emma to see the same skepticism in his eyes that she feels anytime that someone claims to care for her.

"Come here, kid." Emma opens her arms to Henry, and wraps him up in a tight hug. He clings to her like she will run at any minute. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

"Ok," he says tentatively, and Emma wonders how she will ever make him believe in her. "Are we all going to keep living together?"

Emma's fears from last night come rushing back. What happens if she and Regina ruin everything, and Emma has to leave? "I'm going to be here as long as you need me."

"What happens when I feel better?" Henry asks. Emma sees his panic and knows that she's said the wrong thing.

"I'm always going to be in your life. I just meant that I'm not sure where I'll be living. But you don't have to worry about that. You have your mom and me forever." The responsibility feels overwhelming. Promising not to leave even if things go to hell.

"You know," Henry says pulling back and smiling at Emma. "My mom really likes having you here." His grin is fully of mischief and intelligence, and for the moment he looks like the kid Emma first met.

"Did she tell you that?"

"She told me that she likes you a lot." Emma tries to control the surprise on her face that Regina would tell Henry that. "And I can tell that she likes you being here."

Emma wants to ask how he knows that. She wants to know that she isn't crazy for feeling like whatever is happening with Regina is not just comfort sex. But she just smiles at Henry and asks, "Do you want to sleep with your mom and me tonight?"

"No, it's ok."

"We don't mind. Slumber parties with you are fun."

"Thanks, but Archie said that it's good for me to try to sleep in my own bed."

"Ok kid. You want to go put your pajamas on while I wake your mom? We'll be up in a few minutes to tuck you in."

"I need a drink," Emma says when she closes the door to Henry's bedroom.

"What's wrong?"

"While you were sleeping on the couch, Henry told me that he's afraid I'm going to abandon him again."

Regina reaches out to give Emma's arm a squeeze, and Emma wonders if her body will always feel like it's on fire when Regina touches her. "You didn't abandon him."

"Tell that to Henry. I knew that was what he feared most, and Pan showed it to him for days."

"Come on, dear. Let's have some cider and talk."

Minutes later, Emma is curled up on the couch, her knees pressed to her chest and her hands clutching a glass of cider tightly.

"It's good that he's talking about the dreams," Regina says as she stares into her own glass. She just wishes so badly that the dreams weren't about the awful things that she's done.

"Yeah," Emma agrees, but she can't feel anything but devastated now that she knows for certain what his dreams are about.

For a moment they are lost in their own regrets.

"We can't change the things that we've done," Regina says. "I can't change that my son will always see me as the evil queen." She shakes her head sadly; more than anything else she regrets how much she has hurt Henry. "We are just going to have to prove to him that we love him and that he doesn't need to be afraid."

"I just wish that things were different."

"Me too."

Regina reaches over and unfurls one of Emma's hands from around the tumbler of cider so that she can weave their fingers together.

Emma has never known a touch to have this affect on her before. She has never had someone hold her hand and make her feel like she wasn't alone.

And then because Emma has never been able to trust anything good in her life, she asks, "What are we doing?"

"We are taking care of Henry."

"No, that's what we were doing before last night."

"Do you regret that it happened?" Regina asks, dropping Emma's hand and pulling away.

"No, Regina," Emma says a little desperately. The feeling of Regina pulling away fills her with terror. "I don't regret last night." Emma reaches out, relieved when Regina lets Emma touch her. "I just…I don't understand how you aren't freaking out at all."

Regina shrugs, and then looks down and gathers her strength before speaking. "When you broke the curse," Regina begins, her voice tightly controlled, "my whole life fell apart. The person I was for years was ripped away from me. Everything I had was gone, and I didn't know-" she stops as her throat begins to feel tight. "This is the first time I've felt good since then."

Emma's heart starts beating faster. "You mean, being with me?" she asks incredulously.

"With you and Henry. I think that I'm finally happy, and I don't know how to let go of that."

Emma looks at Regina with wet eyes and a smile. "I'm happy too."

"I'm glad. I want you to be happy." It has been a long time since Regina has cared about anyone's happiness besides Henry's.

Emma sets her drink on the table before she pulls Regina against her for a kiss. When their lips touch, Emma realizes that she doesn't know how to let go of this either.