Snow sat there, pale and quiet for several moments until she grasped her bearings. Her face became red and she furrowed her brow.
"You aren't tired of threatening me, yet, Regina?" Snow asked coldly.
Regina sighed, exasperated. "Yes, Snow. I'm exhausted of threatening you. I love Emma, I love Henry and I just want to go home and enjoy my family. The only reason I'm even bothering myself with you is because you're important to people who are important to me. I'm trying for atonement here, and that involves making the people I love happy."
"And you think destroying your…your…my daughter's…me would make her happy?"
"Surely not, but I won't let you destroy her, Snow White. She's mine and I won't let you do to her what you did to Daniel."
"Regina, sweetie, it's ok, calm down," Emma whispered at the brunette's ear, resting her fingers on Regina's forearm.
Regina took a deep breath and looked in Emma's eyes and felt calmness set in. She nodded and the two partners looked at Snow White, waiting.
"Emma, I love you, and I want to make up for lost time so badly. I'm not ready to share my time with you with the woman who has spent half a lifetime ruining me. If you can understand that and still allow me to have time with you and Henry and hear proof of Regina changing, maybe then I'll be ready to be around her one day."
Emma looked at Regina, not for permission but to see if she was hurt. She didn't look it, and she didn't have her usual mask on either, so the blonde assumed she must have though what Snow proposed was agreeable. Emma looked back to her mother.
"Ok, that sounds fair. But Henry will be living with Regina when we get back. He's lost too much time with his mom."
Both brunettes were shocked and Snow looked like she was going to argue it, but Emma shook her head. Henry bounding down the stairs to share with his mothers what Hook showed him interrupted the three women. Snow hugged him and left the room, leaving the family alone.
That night, when Henry was in bed sleeping, Regina and Emma sat facing each other on the bed they had shared. For the first time since Emma had known her, Regina's face was washed of all make up and she was dressed down to her silk camisole and her slacks. Regina had her legs against the bed, knees bent out and feet curled around Emma's back. Emma had her legs bent at the knee, over Regina's legs, feet on the bed beside Regina's hips. Their positions allowed them closeness without being inappropriate to the son who was sharing their room. Emma was caressing Regina's face.
"You are so unbelievably beautiful, Regina."
The brunette placed her forehead against the blonde's, the tips of their noses touching.
"Emma, how are you so kind?" Regina asked in a soft voice. She pushed her lips against the blondes just for a moment before pulling her face away. She looked into Emma's eyes and sucked in a breath of air quickly. "Emma, you said Henry can come home with me when we get back."
"Yes, I think he'd like that."
"What about you? Would you like to come live with us?" Regina asked the question slowly, hesitating before letting the last three words out.
Emma thought a moment. "I would love to, but I have to say no, for now. I want to date you, really date you, the way we both deserve. And I think that if I stay with Snow and Charming a little longer then Snow will be able to accept this sooner."
Regina moved herself out of their tangled limbs and put her feet on the floor, facing away from Emma.
"C'mon, Regina, don't take it like that," Emma defended. She moved so she was next to Regina, their arms brushing. She reached her hand across their bodies and cupped Regina's cheek, making the brunette face her. "I love you. We've gotten to that, through it, saying it and believing it. I mean what I say, Gina, I want to date you. I want to make you get ready in the evening without me seeing you, I want to pick you up or have you pick me up, and go out, and talk, and get to know each other even better. There's nothing I don't want to know. And then I want to take you home, and kiss you goodnight. And maybe sneak into your bedroom while Henry is in the bathroom or sleeping. I want to have to sneak out in the morning because I couldn't stand the thought of sleeping alone. I want all these things with you, and you alone."
Regina was tearing up. Emma put her lips to the brunette's, keeping her hand on her cheek and moving the other to the back of her neck, holding her close. It took a moment but Regina began kissing her back, unable to deny her love for the woman whose lips held hers. After they broke apart, Regina smiled shyly.
"I love you, Emma. I love you so much, you are everything I've wanted in my entire life, everything I have been fighting for and searching for." Regina spoke with passion, as she did with most everything she said, dominating Emma's attention. But the next words out of her mouth were quiet and timid as she said, "don't break my heart, I'm not sure I could bear it."
"Gina, I can't promise we won't fight, because fighting is what we do. I can't promise that I won't want to kill you, because more often than not that's exactly what you've made me want to do. But I can promise that I will never break your heart because all I want is to be a family with you and Henry, and whatever other kids we may have in the future. I wouldn't have had that conversation with you if I wasn't completely serious."
"Stop calling me Gina."
"Out of all of that, that's what you're going to talk about."
"Emma, thank you, for loving me and for being here and… and staying."
"Always."
Well, since we're all done with Neverland, this is the end of this story. I do think I will do a sequel, maybe depends on the interest levels I seem to get. Reviews are so appreciated and thank you to all of you who have followed or favorited this story! It was my first fanfiction so I had a blast! Also, if interested, any reviewers for this last chapter will be able to give me a prompt for a one shot OUAT or Swan Queen, if you want to! Gotta get some creative juices flowing!