Chapter eight

"Where's Emma?" Henry asked casually as he dropped onto the couch.

Regina offered him a small smile, "David had some kind of Neal related emergency, so Emma had to cover the night shift."

Henry nodded, seemingly deep in thought, until he noticed that Regina was packing away the snacks, "what are you doing?"

"We can't have family movie night without her," she laughed as she gave the boy a curious look.

"You said I have be here," he replied petulantly.

"Did you have plans?" his mother asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually I was going to ask Grac-"

Regina smirked as he quickly blushed and stopped talking.

"The point is," he continued, "that if I had to give up my plans to be here, so does she."

"Henry, she's the sheriff, she can't leave the station until morning."

Henry nodded, turning his attention to the shelf of DVD's.

Walking over to it, he found the one remaining VHS, "the sheriff station has a tape player," he said triumphantly as he handed it to Regina.

The queen nodded and looked down at what Henry had handed her.

Letting out a laugh she replied, "no chance."

She had actually been tempted to bin the copy of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' that she had found the day of the curse, she was sure that it was some kind of magical joke.

"Come on mom, we can't miss family movie night," he pouted.

"I thought you were angry that you 'had' to be here?" she scoffed.

Henry grabbed his bag and started throwing snacks into it.

"We've done it every week for a month, it's happening," he surmised as he grabbed the video case and threw into his bag.

He quickly shot a text to his other mother, and began walking towards the door.

Regina watched him go for a moment, before she just smiled and followed, "don't forget your coat," she shouted.

Regina looked blankly at the wall, Charming having had given up on trying to talk to her long ago.
She had finally been able to sleep for about ten minutes before she rudely was woken up by a car backfiring, but with the dream she had she was grateful for falling asleep at all.
Though she and Henry now spent a lot of time together, she had always been secretly afraid that she would lose him again somehow. Now with the darkness coursing through her mind and gripping her psyche, this worry had been amplified into pure hate. Even in her darkest days as the Evil Queen she had never thought that she could actively hate a child, though to be fair she never believed that she would have a child since adoption wasn't as common. Despite how grateful she felt that she had Henry in her life, she felt doubts seep into each memory. Like with the dream for example. This had been a memory with Henry that she had cherished, because she knew that behind his teenage angst, he had wanted to spend time with his mothers. But now she began to consider just why he had insisted on going to the sheriff's station. They could have just watched a movie together, but part of her thought that it wouldn't have nearly as fun as the makeshift couch they had made at the station, Henry and Emma chuckling at her protestations to nearly everything the Evil Queen did. Her girlfriend had pulled her into a one armed hug to protect her from their son's laughing. But the darker part of her began to resent that it seemed as if the blonde had to be there for her to spend time with her son. She wasn't there for ten years, she thought bitterly.

Her eyes widened as she realised that she had actually thought that. It was become increasingly difficult to separate the voice from her own thoughts, something that was truly beginning to frighten her, she could just feel that it wanted her to submit to it, and she was beginning to lose her ability to not to do so.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the phone, and she faintly heard Charming answer it, "sheriff's station."

The conversation lasted about thirty seconds, and Regina saw his face contort in shock and fear with each one of them.

Finally he put the phone down, and Regina asked without looking at him, "another crisis?"

David nodded with a sigh, "Zelena got out."

Regina just raised her eyebrow, she was sure that this was something that should worry her, but in this moment she knew that there was almost nothing that her sister could do to hurt her without the risk of violent and effective revenge.

"Dad?" someone asked, and for a moment Regina forgot how to breathe. She hadn't known until this moment that she had wanted to hear her girlfriend's voice and for some reason as soon as she did she felt the darkness recede slightly.

David looked up from the desk to see his daughter and grandson walking through the door, each wearing apprehensive expressions.

"Hey," he replied cautiously, before turning his attention to the brunette in the holding cell. He had expected to see an angry or at least indifferent expression, but instead she was openly smiling.

Emma and Henry followed his eye line and they exchanged a shocked expression.

Emma walked closer to the cell, albeit not right up to the bars, "are you okay?"

Regina blinked for a moment, trying to figure out why she felt suddenly so different, but she just didn't know why, "I feel perfect," she admitted with a frown.

She waited for the deprecating voice, but it never came.

Emma furrowed her brow for a moment, continuing to inspect the other woman, "did you do something?"

Regina shook her head, "I've just been sitting here."

Emma nodded, and looked from Henry to David and then back to Regina. When she wasn't met with any malice at all, she stepped up to the bars, and lightly ran her thumb across the smaller woman's cheek.

"I guess you're just stronger than you think," she smiled.

David quickly jumped to his feet and pulled Emma back, "Emma...we don't know..."

"Dad, she's fine."

"She could be planning something, we don't know what the darkness has done to her," he retorted.

Emma was about to give her father a scathing reply, only to be interrupted by Regina, "the prince is right, you can't be too cautious. If you have a way to prove my sincerity beyond your superpower, I would be willing to take any test before you let me out."

Henry inspected his mother for a moment, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something different about her, but shaking his head, he suggested, "grandma can command her to tell the truth."

Emma sighed dramatically, but Regina nodded.

"Call her then Henry."

The four of them sat in silence as they waited for Snow to drop Neal off at Granny's as a precaution.

Emma and Regina continued sharing smiles, but Henry just kept seeing something different. Not long ago she was telling him that he wasn't her son, and now she was suddenly so different. He couldn't help but think that there was something going on, as much as he believed that his mother was capable of fighting darkness, he also knew that the power of the Dark One was designed to break people. Has she finally given into it? He thought fearfully, after all it was a well known fact that the Dark One was not against manipulation.

David leaned back, and languidly checked his messages, and let out a sigh of relief.

"What?" Emma asked with a laugh.

"They got Zelena," he smiled triumphantly.

Emma looked at her father in shock and he explained, "I just got a call from the hospital that she got out, but apparently Ruby tracked her down before she got very far."

The female blonde nodded, but she couldn't help the feeling that couldn't be the whole story. She was sure that if Zelena escaped it would take more than half an hour to find her, but she decided just to accept the victory.

"Sorry it took so long," Snow breathed as she walked into the station, "Neal was being fussy."

"Yeah, yeah," Emma replied, as she rushed forward and grabbed the dagger from her mother's hand.

Snow just shook her head and went and sat next to her husband, who offered her a supportive smile.

"I command you to tell me what you plan to do if we let you out of the cell," Emma said as she held up the dagger, hoping with all her being that the reply would be positive.

"I plan to go home and spend time with my family," she replied.

Emma dropped her arm with a huge smile, but Henry quickly jumped up, and pulled his mother to the corner.

"You're being an idiot," he whispered.

"You too?" she sighed.

"I want her to be normal as much as you do, but we can't rush it," he replied.

"She just said-"

Henry rolled his eyes in a very much Regina-like fashion, and grabbed the dagger. What he did next felt very surreal, what child ever thinks that they would be able to command their mother?

"I command you to tell me any plans you have that may harm any person in Storybrooke."

Regina smiled openly at the boy, he's so much smarter than Emma, she thought with an internal laugh, "I don't have any plans," she replied.

Henry nodded and began working through the implications of each word that she had said, thinking about possible double meanings, before he finally deemed them innocent. Throwing the dagger onto the desk, he grabbed the keys and ran towards the cell.

Within seconds, he was in his mother's embrace, "I missed you so much."

Regina brought her hand up and began softly stroking his hair, "I missed you too."

Henry furrowed his brow, he had expected her to say 'my little prince', but before he could bring this up his other mother joined the hug.

Snow and Charming shared a smile, no one in the room noticing the small shimmering of a cloaking charm in the corner of the room.

A/N I hope you guys enjoyed :)

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, I'll try and write a few chapters tomorrow so I have a bank of them haha :) I'll try and get back to updating everyday

Also, not to worry, Zelena will be back haha

Reviews would be much appreciated, I love enjoy hearing what you guys think XD