A/N: This is your fault, guys. Yes, entirely your fault. I'm not usually coerced into continuing a one-shot but this had potential and you guys saw it and pointed it out to me. I'm not sure if I should thank you but... well, it's gonna be a little longer now. Hope you like.

Emma was sitting in her office, staring out of the window. It was a slow day, so far she'd made only one arrest - one of the Lost Boys had stolen from his 'foster family' and tried to leave Storybrooke. Emma had thought about letting him go over the town line and see what would happen. Would the Lost Boys still remember the years in Neverland? Would they remember where they'd come from and just go home? Or would they forget about everything and become even more lost than they already were? She couldn't take the risk so she had taken him into custody for the time being. A night in jail might straighten him out enough to not go stealing from people who tried to help him.

He was now shooting daggers at her, of course, and she really couldn't care less because her mind was eagerly engaged in recalling details of last night. It hadn't been a complete lie when she'd told Regina that she couldn't remember anything because there were a couple of blanks her mind hadn't filled yet. She didn't remember Regina coming into the bar, for example. This morning when she was getting up off Granny's couch to run for the bathroom, her knees had her groan in pain. When she later looked at them they had shone in multiple shades of purple. She must have fallen but she didn't remember when or where.

With all that she couldn't remember about last night, there was one thing she would never forget: kissing Regina Mills. Man, what a trip! What a completely heady, glorious, mind-blowing trip! She'd kissed before, hell, she'd kissed women before but... that woman was a volcano. She didn't take any prisoners, she'd just...

"Emma?"

The sheriff was in such a hurry to pull her boots from her desk and wipe that smirk off her face that she almost fell off her chair. In the end, the chair fell without her as she stood to greet her mother.

"Hi," she said and tried a smile but it didn't quite make its way around the guilty look in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Snow asked with a sidelong glance at the chair on the floor.

"Sure, I'm good. Why you askin'?"

"Because I'm your mother and I love you," Snow answered with a smile and touched her hand to Emma's cheek.

There was a noise from the occupied cell where the Lost Boy stood at the bars. He smirked at Emma and she shot him a dirty look.

"You better sit your ass down, kiddo, or you'll be a long time standing," she told him and he stepped away from the bars. "Could you maybe not do that when I'm working?" Emma asked Snow in a hushed voice, she seemed embarrassed.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again," the older woman said. She looked at her daughter intently for a moment. "So, are you going to tell me?"

"Tell you?"

"About your date," Snow said excitedly but kept her voice low. She wasn't out to embarrass Emma any further in front of the adolescent in his cell.

"Date," Emma repeated and for a second panic rose fom her chest before she rememered that she had been on an actual date the night before - with Neal - and that her mother knew nothing about the impromptu making-out session with the mayor afterwards. "Right, erm... it didn't go so well. We hadn't even had our drinks before we... started fighting," she told her mother.

"What were you fighting about?" Snow asked frowning.

"Oh, well... his participation in our life, Henry and mine, I guess. He thinks that now that he's here in Storybrooke - and probably here to stay - we could just... be a family, live in his dad's house. Just a cozy little arrangement to put on Christmas cards," Emma added sarcastically.

"And that's not what you want?"

"Even if I did - and I'm not quite sure about what I want at the moment except time with Henry and you guys - it's not really possible. Henry's got another parent - Regina. We can't just pretend that she didn't raise him for ten years and keep Henry away from her. But Neal acts like the first ten years of Henry's life were just a minor bump in the road and that now everything should be good between us. That's... well, it's not how it is," Emma finished. She picked up her chair and sat down on it. Snow pulled a chair up next to her.

"Do you think maybe he just wants... some time with the people he loves? I mean, his dad just died..."

"I get that, mom. And I'm sorry for him, truly, I am. If he wants to spend time with Henry we can work that out but... I'm not part of that deal. I can't be with him... not right now," Emma told her mother.

"I thought you loved him. That's what you said after..."

"He supposedly died? Yeah, I love him... he was my first love, he's Henry's father and I'll always love him just for that but... I'm not in love with him and I honestly don't want to be ever again. We could have been a family but he blew it. He left, he sent me to jail... there's no way to come back from there. I thought we could for a while but... I can't."

"I'm sorry, Emma," her mother said and just barely kept from hugging her. She looked over to the cells and saw the young man lying on his cot, staring at the ceiling. She reached out for Emma's hand that lay on her thigh and squeezed it.

"It's okay. I just want to spend some time with Henry and you guys, waiting for the next disaster to strike," Emma joked half-heartedly.

"Let's try and be a little more optimistic than that," Snow asked of her.

"I wish I could but we've only been back here for twenty-four hours before Pan tried to curse us all. If Regina hadn't had the foresight to remove Felix' heart, he would have succeeded, too."

"I know and I really wish we wouldn't owe Regina our lives all over again. Of course, if she hadn't cursed us in the first place...," Snow growled testily.

"If she hadn't cursed you I wouldn't have Henry, so excuse me if I'm not jumping on the witch-hunt wagon today," Emma gave back in the same tone.

Snow looked at her, surprised, taken aback.

"I'm... sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"I know and I'm sorry, too, but... Regina..." Emma didn't finish the sentence, she wasn't sure how. She felt like she needed to defend the woman she'd been in a lip-lock with just about 12 hours ago. At the same time, she knew that Snow would get suspicious if she did it too eloquently, too passionately. She already looked slightly probing at her.

"Regina?"

"You said it, she saved our lives. And she's Henry's mother and..."

"Don't mistake her for a nice person, Emma. She's not. She has her reasons for helping us now because she wants Henry to like her but... that doesn't make her a nice person," Snow warned.

Emma didn't answer, she wasn't sure how she felt about Snow saying this about Regina. There was an acid-y feeling in her stomach and it could just be from last night's drinking but it hadn't been there before. She knew that her mom was right, Regina wasn't nice but... was that even important, or necessariy? Emma was pretty sure that people wouldn't have characterized her as nice, either, at least not in Boston where she had worked. She had been a pain in many asses before she'd come to Storybrooke and sometimes that was just how things were done. With all her faults, Regina had that one quality that Emma could understand above all others: she loved Henry.

She was also one hell of a kisser...

Emma's jawmuscles worked as she kept from remembering last night's drunken tryst too vividly.

"Well, I think Regina deserves some thanks for what she did lately and... I think it should be more time with Henry. I'm going to work out a regular schedule with her," Emma informed her mother.

"Do you think that's wise?"

"I think it's fair... and that's what we're all about, right?" Emma said and it sounded like she was mocking her mother and by the look on Snow's face not just to her own ears. "I... I really have to get back to work, you know, make the rounds?"

Snow nodded and got up off her chair.

"Of course," she said.

"I'll be a little later tonight. Don't wait with dinner for me, okay?"

"Okay, sure."

"I'll walk out with you. Hey, kiddo, I'm making my rounds but I'll be back in an hour." Emma called out to the adolescent in his cell who in answer flipped her the bird. "Yeah, that was very mature. I see you walking outta here in no time."

Mother and daughter left the police station.

Regina opened the door to the sight of her laughing son and his other mother who ruffled his hair.

"Hey, mom," Henry greeted and stepped toward her. They hugged and Regina looked questioningly at Emma who smiled.

"Regina," she greeted.

"Emma, I didn't expect to see you tonight. Either one of you, to be honest."

"Yeah, the kid wanted to get something from his room and I thought if we came here anyway, he could sleep over. If that's okay with you?" Emma said and Regina raised an eyebrow at her.

"You're not planning another out on the town, are you, sheriff?" the dark-haired woman asked with a slight smirk but then sobered. She remembered that she probably shouldn't be teasing the other woman if she wanted to remain professional with her.

"No, I just thought... it would be nice for you to have him over," Emma answered.

"Hey, I'll be upstairs. What's for dinner tonight?" Henry asked and was already moving toward the stairs.

Emma had asked him to leave them for awhile because she wanted to talk to his other mom. He wasn't sure what this was all about but he had seen Emma fidget over a tiny speck of mayonnaise on her shirt earlier and Emma wasn't usually one to fidget, so he assumed it was serious.

"I had planned on some escargots but since you're here now I'm thinking steak?"

"Sounds good," Henry called back to Regina and walked upstairs.

"So," Regina said and was about ready to say her goodbyes to Emma when the blonde said:

"I need to talk to you."

"So bringing Henry was just a ploy to get into the house?" Regina asked in mock outrage. "Come on in, sheriff." She left the door open as she turned and walked futher into the house.

Emma followed, closing the door behind her.

Regina walked into the living room with its toasty fire and a book lying open on its pages. Emma was surprised to see it was a Harry Potter-novel.

"The Goblet of Fire?" she asked amused.

Regina simply turned caramel-colored eyes on her, staring her down.

"None of my business?"

"That's right. So what did you want to talk about?"

They sat down on opposing couches, facing each other like the first time Emma was in this room. It felt a little like it had felt then, she was nervous and intimidated by the powerful woman across from her.

"I was gonna say, about Henry, and, in truth, we should talk about him but... I guess, I should first come clean with something," Emma babbled.

"If you think you must," Regina encouraged but barely.

"I lied to you this morning, about not remembering last night. I don't remember all of it but... some things I do remember."

Regina's eyes turned stone cold at this and she was about to unleash some harsh words on Emma but the blonde lifted her hand.

"I'm sorry, I... I knew what was coming, what you were about to say and I... I guess I didn't wanna hear it. Last night was... I was out of line and I'm not even sure where it was coming from. I was drunk, as you know. I have no better excuse for... kissing you. I'm not saying that it wasn't... interesting... or... nice..."

"Emma." Even that one word sounded like a warning from the dark-haired woman, her eyes now blazing.

"You're an amazing kisser... I know that something like that is never going to happen again and that's... a good thing, really. I don't need my life to get any more complicated and hooking up with you... I know it's not gonna happen, I just... I don't want things between us to get awkward, you know?"

"Don't you think they already are?" Regina asked testily.

"I think they've gotten better but... I don't want them to get worse again. I want Henry to know that we're his parents, that we make the decisions concerning him and that he can count on us," Emma said. She was wearing that pleading frown between her eyes that Regina had seen on many an occasion now but hardly ever directed at her. She was serious.

"I know I shouldn't have lied to you. I was hung over, a little grouchy, I guess, and I thought it would be easier to... let you think I didn't remember the whole thing. I'm sorry," she added sincerely.

"What changed your mind?"

"Well... I actually thought about how little flattering it was to have someone forget a kiss like that and I didn't want you to think I would. I mean..."

"It's really not necessary to recount all the particulars. We've both been there," Regina interrupted the other woman who smirked slightly. Regina raised both eyebrows this time in a silent threat and Emma pursed her lips to keep from doing it.

"Anyway, I... want us to get along. Do you think that would be possible, for Henry?"

"I do think so, yes, even though... What you did was... I don't even have a word for how inappropriate it was. You were drunk but that shouldn't be an apology for that kind of behavior. I can accept your apology, however, and trust that it won't happen again," Regina acknowleged graciously. "And that nobody will ever know about it."

"My lips are sealed," Emma said and just barely kept from smiling again.

Regina saw it, of course.

"No pun intended, I'm sure," she groused.

"None," Emma gave back and now she did grin. "One thing, though, before we never speak of last night again."

"If you ask if I enjoyed it, I'm going to throw out of my house, sheriff. You better choose your words wisely," Regina warned.

"I just wondered if you knew how I bruised my knees. I must have fallen, or something?"

Regina closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I really can't say," she answered.

"Well, I guess it must have happened before... you picked me up? See, I don't remember all of it - just the highlights," Emma teased.

"You called me by mistake and asked if I could drive you home. I had an errand to run anyway and thought I'd give you a lift," Regina explained.

"Have I thanked you yet?"

"You have."

"Good, then... well, I... you want me to go, don't you?" Emma asked.

"I think that would be advisable," Regina answered. She seemed angry but there was something else... Emma couldn't quite tell what it was.

"Then we'll talk about Henry some other time?"

"You could come by my office. Sometime next week?"

"Sure, just give me a call," Emma suggested.

"That I will do," Regina answered formally.

Emma rose from the couch but Regina stayed seated.

"I'm confident you can find your way out?"

Now it was Emma who lifted an eyebrow. Maybe she had annoyed the other woman more than she'd realized? She nodded.

"I'll pick Henry up from school tomorrow," she said.

Now Regina nodded and Emma walked toward the door. She hoped that Regina would say something else, something that would keep them talking or arguing or bickering, whatever they had been doing before. She also would have liked to know... that Regina had enjoyed the kiss just like she had. She herself had made it clear that it had been pleasurable, couldn't Regina just do the same?

She obviously couldn't and Emma left the room without another word. She left the house shortly after, deep in thought and more than a little disappointed.