Villains Don't Get Happy Endings

by lizardmm

It had been her sacrifice—the price she had to pay. Save everyone she had cursed for 28 years while simultaneously losing the one person she loved the most. Villains, after all, didn't get a Happy Ending. That was reserved for Princesses and Saviors. A 'what if' story where it's Regina, not Hook, who visits Emma in NYC at the beginning of 3B.

23. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

"Henry!" Regina called up the stairs. "How many times do I have to tell you? Don't leave your shoes on the staircase."

Henry poked his head out of his bedroom. "Sorry, Mom."

Despite the annoyance, Regina felt a tug on her heartstrings. Mom. In all her years as the Evil Queen it was the one name she could never have predicted she'd ache to be called.

Strong arms wrapped around her midsection and a chin came to rest on her shoulder. "They're just shoes, Regina."

Regina spun around in her girlfriend's arms. "Shoes today, backpacks tomorrow. It's a slippery slope, my dear."

Emma grinned broadly.

"What?" Regina questioned.

"I was just thinking how much I used to hate when you called me Dear. But now I love it. Just. Like. You." She peppered the end of Regina's nose with kisses to punctuate her words.

"Just remember who said it first," Regina returned.

"Maybe we ask my parents to take Henry this weekend?" Emma's voice lilted up hopefully.

"With the new baby? In that shoebox of an apartment?" Regina pointed out. "You must really want to punish your mother."

Emma stuck out her lower lip in a practiced pout. "I thought you'd be into it."

"Punishing Snow White or having an uninterrupted sex marathon with her daughter?"

Emma shrugged. "Both?"

"Patience, my love," Regina soothed. "Relationships are a marathon. Not a sprint."

As Emma continued to display her bottom lip, and Regina resisted the urge to take it between her teeth and tug. She'd been doing a lot of resisting her urges over the past few weeks, all having to do with the fact that once she'd had sex with Emma Swan, she didn't want to stop. But for the health of their nascent relationship, and so their son wouldn't have to spend his adult years in therapy, she'd done her best to behave.

"Henry!" Emma yelled up to the second floor. "Your shoes are still on the stairs!"

Despite her penchant for having things be tidy and orderly and just so, Regina loved the noise and chaos and life that having Henry and Emma living with her brought.

"Remember that roadside motel on our way back to Storybrooke?" Emma posed. "You mentioned something when we stayed there that's been stuck in my head ever since."

"I can't even imagine what that might be," Regina drolly said. "Tell me, what can't you get out of your head?"

Emma's eyes glittered with mischief. "When are you gonna go camping with me?"

FIN