A/N: A lot of this chapter is in Henry's POV, which is something that I have never really written before. I would love your feedback on what worked and what didn't. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Henry walks down the stairs into the kitchen. He woke up late this morning, and so he is certain that his mom is already awake. He spots her sitting on the bench swing in the back yard, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a book in her hand. It's a scene he knows well from when he was small. He would wake up and join her in that exact spot, sitting on her lap, the blanket wrapped around both their bodies, and insist that she tell him a story.

It hurts how much he misses those simple days.

"Morning Mom," Henry says walking out onto the deck.

Regina smiles at him, and Henry thinks that he sees less sadness in her eyes than he remembers from before Neverland.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

Regina sets her book down as Henry sits besides her. He presses his body against hers, and Regina wraps her arm around him, enclosing them both in the fuzzy blanket.

Henry closes his eyes and tries to soak up the warmth of his mother's body next to his. He feels so cold still, feels the darkness he had felt in Neverland pushing in on him.

"How did you sleep?" Regina asks. Her voice is soft and her body vibrates against Henry's. She sounds and feels exactly the same as she did when he was small enough to cuddle in her lap. Henry can't quite wrap his mind around how everything is so different and yet Regina still feels like the mother he always knew.

"Ok. I had a nightmare, but I went right back to sleep." Henry had been proud of himself for being able to swallow back the fear and return to sleep without waking his mothers.

Regina kisses the crown of Henry's head. "I'm proud of you." She runs her hand up and down Henry's arm and the feeling is so soothing that Henry thinks he must be imaging this.

"I love you Henry."

"I love you too," Henry says, and he is overcome with guilt for all the times he didn't say it back.

Henry feels the need for Regina to know that he knows she loves him and that he loves her as much as he always has. "When Peter Pan first caught me, he tried to convince me that you wouldn't come looking for me. But I knew it wasn't true. I knew you would never stop looking for me."

"Never baby. Emma and I wouldn't have stopped until we found you." Henry hears his mom sniffle. He keeps his eyes shut tightly. "You are the most important thing in the world to me Henry."

"I know Mom." He wonders how he got so lost, how they got so lost, so far from how they are now.

"Good." Regina is quiet for a moment, simply holding Henry tightly. And then he hears her speak tentatively, "Henry, can we talk about what Peter Pan showed you that did scare you?"

"I guess."

"Henry," Regina says, moving back just enough to look at Henry while she keeps her arms around him. Henry opens his eyes and looks at Regina. "I promise that you can tell me anything, and it will never change how much I love you." She looks at him so desperately, like she is pleading for him to let her help him, to try to make it better. Regina looks so unsure of herself, and that is something that Henry is unfamiliar with in his mother.

"You told me that you are afraid that I'm going to become the Evil Queen again," Regina presses on when Henry doesn't say anything. Her voice is gentle still, inviting Henry to be honest with her.

"No," Henry says, shaking his head vehemently. He can't hurt her like this again. Not when she has been taking care of him every minute since she and Emma found him. Not when she feels like his whole world right now. "I don't think that."

"It's ok," Regina tells him. "I understand why you would be afraid of that."

Henry can't bring himself to say anything, but he is relieved when Regina continues trying to allay his fears.

"I want you to know that I am never going to be that person again. I won't do that to you." Regina is staring Henry straight in the eyes. He nods, finding that he believes her. "I know that I've done terrible things. I want you to understand that I was hurt very badly, and I don't say that to excuse what I did. Because you were right, there is no excusing it. But I want you to understand that who I was then is not who I am now. I would change so many things if I could Henry." Her voice sounds so very sad. "I wish I could go back and never have hurt you. I want that more than I can explain. And while I can't change the past, I will never stop trying to make up for the things I've done to you and to the people that you love."

Henry has never heard his mother explain herself before. She had lied to him for so long, had begged him to trust her, had told him that she was trying. But this feels different. Henry feels for the first time like his mother trusts him to judge her, to understand her. It feels like a lot of responsibility.

"You were willing to die for me," Henry says. The realization on the day the trigger had been activated that Regina was willing to die to save his family – people whom she hated – had made Henry reconsider everything he had begun to believe about his mother.

"Of course, I'm your mother."

The words are so honest and simple that Henry can no longer deny that Regina loves him with her whole heart. He knows that whoever she was, the most important thing in her life now is him. He feels tears spring to his eyes.

"You almost died." Henry wraps his arms around Regina's waist tightly and buries his face in her chest. "Mommy."

"Hey, hey, it's alright," Regina soothes. "It's ok. I'm right here."

"I didn't want you to try to save everyone," Henry says feeling guilty and selfish. "I didn't want to lose you."

Henry is crying hard now, and Regina coaxes gently, "Look at me." He looks up, not letting go of her waist. "You didn't lose me, and you aren't going to. I'm alive and well Henry. And I am going to be the mother that you deserve." Regina smiles at Henry, and he can tell that she doesn't entirely believe the last part, that she still doubts if she is worthy of him. But Henry wants no one else now. She's his mom. And she was willing to die to make him happy.

"The thing that Peter Pan showed me that I can't stop seeing is you dying." The words are out there now, and Henry isn't sure why he had been so reluctant to say them. In this moment he feels like he wants to share them as proof for his mom of the fact that he still loves her. "I kept seeing the trigger going off, and I was just left there holding onto you. I kept trying to bring you back, but I couldn't."

"It wasn't real. I'm right here. No one died. Your family is all ok."

"I was so scared."

"I'm sorry Henry." He can feel his mom's tears dripping onto his skin.

"It's ok. You're right Mom. It's going to be ok now." He half says it and half asks it, needing to hear her confirm it one more time.

"Yes it will baby. I love you."

Regina finally gets a minute alone with Emma when Henry is in his room changing for the beach. Regina grabs Emma's arm and pulls her outside to talk.

"We need to tell Henry."

It takes Emma a minute to even realize what Regina is saying. "What? Why?" Emma wonders if this is Regina's clever way of breaking up. But then Emma reasons that Regina has never shied away from confrontation before, why would she start now?

"Because Henry is finally beginning to trust me again, and I will not jeopardize that."

"I don't…" Emma sits down on the bench swing. She wishes she had some time to prepare before Regina bombarded her with this. "Things have been good," Emma mutters.

"Yes they have," Regina agrees, sitting next to Emma.

Emma feels her anxiety that Regina is about to leave her lessen. Nervously, Emma suggests, "So maybe we should just keep things how they are."

Regina shakes her head and tells Emma in a tone that leaves no room for argument, "Henry needs parents that he can trust, and if we keep our relationship from him then he is going to lose that."

Emma bends over and puts her face in her hands. She knows that Regina is right, and that it will blow up in their faces if they keep this from Henry. She feels like a bad mother both for not insisting on telling him the truth sooner and for how much she hates the idea of telling him now.

Emma picks her face up out of her hands, but can't bring herself to look at Regina when she asks, "But what if…well, um… what if things don't work out?"

Regina almost laughs at how Emma is tiptoeing around the question, as if Regina would be offended that Emma isn't convinced that this is true love and that they will be together forever. But Regina thinks better of laughing when she sees the stricken expression on Emma's face.

"Emma," Regina begins in a soft but certain tone, "I am not asking for anything to change between us. I require no more commitment now than I did yesterday."

"But Henry –"

"Henry is a mature boy. Despite everything that he has been through, he is rather remarkable for a 12 year old." A sad but determined expression washes over Regina's face as she continues, "I won't lie to him anymore."

"And you really think that Henry will be ok if we tell him that we're…what, dating?"

"To be fair, I don't believe you can call it dating until there is an actual date."

"Oh, right then." Emma wonders if dating implies more commitment than Regina wants. Emma feels even more uncertain and self-conscious until Regina puts her out of her misery.

"I wouldn't be opposed to letting you take me on a date once Henry is ok with us being away from him for an evening." Regina smiles tentatively at Emma, whose face breaks out in a grin before the blonde can control her reaction. "I would be alright with the term dating if you are," Regina continues.

"Yeah, dating." Emma lets that sit for a minute. She tries to wrap her head around the idea that she is dating Regina Mills. "That sounds good." Emma is surprised by how she can feel the tension ebbing from her chest. Normally the idea of a relationship of any sort would only increase her anxiety. She wonders why this agreement comforts her instead.

Regina reaches out and takes Emma's hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. "It sounds good to me too, dear."