A/N: Another one! Thanks to all of you still invested in this story!

Regina stood over the kitchen sink with spoon in hand. She tore the cardboard top off of the cylinder-shaped ice cream tub and held the spoon, poised and ready for the attack. Normally she avoided such vices, sticking to a strict diet and exercise regime, particularly because she was starting to age again, but the events of the past few days-weeks really-had driven her to this point. It was either ice cream or the glass decanter of bourbon in her study, which as she thought about, would probably receive a visit that night as well.

Zelena had been defeated and the blissfully ignorant people of Storybrooke were safe again, yet she couldn't get her busy brain to quiet. The mad rantings of a crazy woman-her half-sister-replayed in her mind.

She certainly doesn't come from the sane half of my family, she remarked to herself.

Zelena's misguided belief that Emma Swan had anything to do with her Happy Ending was evidence of that.

Regina stabbed her spoon into the center of the new carton of ice cream, but before she could fish out the first oversized bite, the front doorbell rang. Its melodic chimes echoed through the empty house-a house that was fated to always be empty.

Regina scowled at the interruption, but stomped to the front door to investigate. Her frown deepened when she peered out the peephole. Why on earth was Emma Swan at her front door again?

She glanced quickly at her reflection in the mirror that hung in her foyer and ran a self-conscious hand through her raven dark hair. Her makeup was nearly gone, save for the perpetual red stain on her lips, and she thought her hair looked a little flat, but she looked presentable enough-certainly good enough for her annoying sheriff.

She mentally shook herself. She needed to stop thinking that way. Emma wasn't her anything.

Regina schooled her emotions and opened the door. Emma stood before her, blonde waves tumbling past her shoulders, wearing her standard uniform of painted-on jeans and a fitted Henley top that hugged the curves on her slender, muscled arms. Emma worried her lower lip-a lip Regina desperately wanted to suck and bite on.

She cleared her throat to clear her mind. "Yes? What do you want?"

Say me.

Emma rocked back and forth in her leather knee-high boots. "I told Henry."

"You'll have to be a little more specific than that, Miss Swan." Regina folded her arms across her chest, closing off her body language. The sooner she shooed Emma away, the sooner she could return to eating her emotions.

"I told him the truth about this place. About me. About you."

Regina's armor of stoicism slipped. "Y-you did?" Her voice pitched up. "What did he say?"

"That I needed psychiatric help," Emma admitted with a sheepish grin. "But then we went through his book, story by story, and I made connections to everyone in town. He still doesn't believe it, but he hasn't had me committed either, so I guess that's a good sign."

Regina tucked her lower lip between her top and bottom rows of teeth. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I realized there's nothing in New York. I thought going back would be the best thing for him, but Storybrooke is Henry's home. This is where he belongs."

Regina swallowed hard. "Emma, are you sure?" Her emotions felt tattered and worn.

Emma held her hands out at her sides. "His family is here. You're here."

"And what about you?" Regina posed. "Are you planning on sticking around as well?"

The corner of Emma's mouth twitched. "I dunno. If you'll have me. I hear there's a vacancy in the police department."

Regina cut short whatever else Emma had planned to say with a bruising kiss. She launched forward and crashed her mouth, teeth, and jutting hipbones against Emma's unsuspecting form.

Emma needed little time to recover, however. Her hand traveled up the back of Regina's neck and her fingers slipped through silk-soft hair as she reciprocated the urgent kiss.

Regina found herself being waltzed backwards deeper into her home. The front door closed, yet neither woman had relinquished their hold on the other. She tried not to dwell on the scuff mark Emma's boots had no doubt left behind in her effort to shut the door. The charge was made all the easier by the nimble fingers deftly working the smooth buttons at the front of her Oxford shirt.

Emma pulled back, gasping for air. "Just so we're clear, I didn't do this because I thought it might ... you know."

Regina arched an eyebrow. "Get in my pants?"

Emma nodded. "Uh huh."

"I've said nothing about you getting in my pants, Miss Swan," Regina smirked, "but I have every intention of getting into yours."

Regina grabbed the bottom hem of Emma's navy blue top and tugged it up and over her head. Her curly locks spilled free of the garment and laid softly against her defined collarbone, the ends just hitting the tops of her creamy breasts in their black, lacy bra.

"Magnificent," Regina couldn't resist murmuring.

Emma had no opportunity to demure or deflect before Regina was unfastening the top button of her skin-tight jeans and slamming down the zipper.

Emma couldn't believe the day she was having. She'd confronted and defeated the Wicked Witch of the West, had told her son that he had two moms and that everyone he'd met in Storybrooke was a fairytale character, and now she was naked in Regina Mills' bed.

Regina had wasted little time in pulling Emma upstairs to her bedroom where they'd so recently spent an evening together. The bed was still unmade, and both of their clothes were strewn across the floor.

Regina laid beside her, her back propped up on a pillow. Her hair was tussled and her lipstick gone, and Emma thought she'd never looked more beautiful.

"Why did you do it?"

"Well you did it to me first, and I didn't want to be a selfish lover," Emma said. "And I was curious about the taste-."

Regina delicately coughed. She felt an unfamiliar blush creep onto the apples of her cheeks. She was hardly the blushing School Girl Type, but there was something about Emma that made her feel rejuvenated. Reborn.

"Not that. I meant why did you tell Henry the truth about this place?"

"Oh...to be honest, it was my dad's idea," Emma revealed. "Honesty being the best policy and all that."

"Prince Charming to the rescue," Regina muttered. "Not that anything has changed; Henry still doesn't have his memories back."

Emma fiddled with Regina's long, tapered fingers. "He'll get there—just like I did."

A small smile curved on Regina's mouth. "You really think so?"

"Hey, stranger things have happened."

"Like you being in my bed?"

Emma's normally pale cheeks colored, and she ducked her head. "Maybe."

Regina reached out and curled a blonde tendril around and around her finger. "Emma-" she started, only to be interrupted by the shrill jangle of her landline. "Ugh, who could that be at this hour?"

"I can't believe you still have a landline," Emma teased. "It's so retro."

"I created this town in the Eighties. Be happy your mother isn't wearing a side ponytail and stirrup pants."

Emma laughed at the imagery, but her laughter fell short when Regina silenced her with a finger pressed to her lips.

Regina lifted the receiver from its cradle and held the phone to her ear. "Hello?" she growled.

Emma poked her tongue at the digit still flattened against her mouth.

Regina lightly swatted the naked woman in her bed, and paused to listen to the panicked voice on the other end of the phone call. "Calm down, David. Everything's going to be fine."

She arched a skinny eyebrow and couldn't hold back the smug smile. "Emma? You can't find her? You've been calling her phone, and you've called Granny's?"

Emma leaned over the edge of the bed and snatched her jeans from the floor. Her cellphone was lodged in the back pocket, but she'd had the ringer turned off. She wrinkled her nose at the multiple missed calls.

"Don't worry," Regina assured the man, "I'll locate her and tell her right away. Yes. I'll see you shortly. And tell Mary Margaret to calm down, too. I can hear her ranting in the background."

Regina hung up the phone, and Emma looked to her expectantly. "What is it? What's wrong? What are you supposed to tell me?"

"Your mother's water broke. Baby Charming's on his or her way."

"Hey, little man. I'm your sister."

Emma stared in wonder at the tiny, bundled miracle she held in her arms. Giant, unfocused blue orbs stared up at her from beneath the miniature blue knit cap atop the newborn's head. Emma had been terrified to hold the new baby, certain she would do something to accidentally break him, but Mary Margaret had insisted.

"Guys, he's perfect," she proclaimed.

She and Regina had arrived at the hospital soon after receiving David's phone call. Mary Margaret had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Now, an exhausted but happy Mary Margaret reclined in her hospital room, surrounded by friends and family.

"Stop bogarting the baby, Miss Swan," Regina chastised. "Other people are waiting for their turn."

"Hey, I'm just making up for lost time," Emma defended. She'd never really gotten the opportunity to hold Henry after he'd been born, but she didn't need to bring that up and make the otherwise joyous moment awkward

A quiet knock pulled her attention to the doorway where Henry stood, staring down at his feet. Belle's smiling face appeared behind his shoulder. "Hey, everybody," she greeted the room.

"Belle! Henry!" Mary Margaret exclaimed. "Come on in!"

Henry stepped inside, encouraged by Belle's hands in the center of his back.

Emma gently bounced the baby in her arms. "Hey, kid. Want to meet your uncle? Thanks for bringing him, Belle."

"Of course," the pretty librarian bobbed her head. "It gives me a good excuse to meet the new Prince, too."

"Prince," Henry echoed. "So I guess all that stuff you told me is true."

Emma frowned. She knew it was a lot to take in at once. "Every word, kid."

Regina swallowed hard. She felt nervous and anxious, unsure how to behave around her own son now that he knew who she was. "Hello, Henry."

"Hi ... Mom," he said.

"It's okay. You-you don't have to call me that if it doesn't feel right."

"I wish I could remember you," Henry said in earnest.

"I know, dear. But don't put too much stress on yourself about it," Regina coaxed. "None of this is your fault."

Henry nodded soberly. "Can I hold my-my uncle?"

Mary Margaret's smile was so large and so wide, her eyes had become tiny slits. "Of course, Henry."

Emma gently handed the infant to her son and helped rearrange his arms to best cradle the newborn.

With the newborn secure in Henry's arms, Emma slid beside Regina. "So I was thinking," she said in a quiet tone meant only for Regina's ears.

"Always a dangerous prospect, Sheriff," Regina mused.

Emma ignored the jibe, but only because she was so nervous about what she needed to ask Regina. "My parents' apartment is going to be pretty crowded now with the baby. And Henry and I can't stay at Granny's forever."

"You're feeling a little homeless, I gather," Regina anticipated. "And you've outgrown living in that horrid yellow car."

"And you've got a big house."

"The biggest one in town, I'm told." Regina's painted mouth twisted. "What is it that you're asking, Emma?"

Emma shuffled his feet. "Maybe Henry could go back to his old bedroom, and I can pay you rent for a guest room?"

"You're not going to pay me rent, Emma. That's ridiculous."

"I'm not a freeloader, Regina. And I can't—I can't just start living with you. That's like Relationship 101 stuff."

Regina arched an amused eyebrow. "So you want to have a relationship with me, Miss Swan?"

Emma scowled. "You're making this very difficult for me."

"As if you've ever made anything easy for me," Regina shot back.

"Fine!" Emma threw up her hands in frustration. "Forget I ever said anything."

"Emma," Regina said, this time more gently as she tried to pacify the other woman. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to tease."

"It's too late. The moment is over."

"Stop being so stubborn, Swan." Regina grabbed onto the lapel of the leather jacket she hated and loved at the same time—much like the woman who wore it—and tugged Emma in for an aggressive, crushing kiss.

Emma made a noise, initially out of surprise, which turned into a throaty groan when Regina swapped her tongue across her lower lip. She only pulled away when she heard a quiet cough.

The entire room had gone silent. Even the baby in Henry's arms seemed to stare.

Mary Margaret looked wide-eyed between Regina and her daughter. "What-what's going on?"

"What's going on, Snow, is that your daughter and I are sleeping together," Regina said in a far too reasonable voice.

Mary Margaret hiccuped.

"What Regina means to say," Emma quickly jumped in, "is that we're tentatively dating. And since we're at the early stages of a relationship, we'd appreciate your support, patience, and open-mindedness while we figure out what this thing is."

"I do not date," Regina scoffed. "I'm not a fourteen-year-old girl."

"You do date," Emma insisted with equal stubbornness, "and you're dating me."

"This just keeps getting wilder and wilder," Henry mumbled.

Regina worried her lower lip. "Henry, if it's too much-"

"No way. You've sacrificed enough for me. Like how you always let me eat the last piece of apple pie even when I know it's your favorite. I'm not going to get in the way of your happiness."

Regina blinked once. "Wait-how do you know about that?" That wasn't a memory from the storybook and there was no way Emma should have known about that to be able to tell their son.

Henry shook his head. "I-I have no idea. I was just looking at the baby and thinking about how weird it was that I have an uncle who's a baby and that my grandma is Snow White, and then you two were kissing and suddenly it was like this rush of images came at me like I was watching a movie, only it wasn't a movie, they were my memories."

Mary Margaret gasped from her hospital bed. "True Love's Kiss."

"Don't be ridiculous," Regina snapped. "There's no way that I-that would mean-." She turned helplessly to Emma for backup.

Emma's mouth curved into a peculiar smile. "That you love me."

TBC