A/N: Sorry for the long wait. A lot of things are happening right now. One of them being school and another being that I unexpectedly had to go out of town last Thursday. So I give this update to you from the great state of Ohio (in my hometown) after attending several family occasions this weekend. Enjoy!
Chapter 13
"How are we here," Snow asked as she looked around the room.
"We're back," Tinkerbell asked, shocked they'd landed in the Enchanted Forest.
"Regina, what did you do," Snow practically shrieked.
"I didn't do this," Regina angrily argued.
"You were the only one in control of where we went," Charming said.
"And I thought about my family mausoleum," Regina defended herself.
"Past or present day," Charming quipped as he tried to belittle her ability to do the one thing they trusted her to do.
Regina scoffed, offended, and glared at Charming.
"This isn't my fault. However we got here, I didn't do it," Regina said.
"However we got here doesn't really matter, does it," Tinkerbell asked. "We're here and it's not like we can change that."
All eyes fell on Tinkerbell.
"What did you do, Tink," Regina warningly asked.
"Nothing," Tinkerbell quickly insisted. A little too quickly.
"Did you alter the portal's destination," Regina asked.
"I...I didn't mean to," Tinkerbell shyly said like a young child in trouble that feared their punishment.
Regina sighed.
"Okay. So," Snow started. "We ended up in the Enchanted Forest. That's okay. We'll be okay. Emma and I were here before."
"Yeah," Emma said, her eyes wide in realization. "Mulan and Aurora are here too. Maybe they can help us get back to Storybrooke. ...If we don't run into any ogres on the way."
"Well," Snow said as she tipped her head to the side in contemplation. "There's no rush, is there? I mean, this is where we wanted to go after the curse broke and we even tried to get magic beans to take us here. ...Why not stay?"
"Uh, because I don't want to be here," Emma said.
"Oh, Emma," Snow smiled. "We can live the way we were supposed to before Regina cast the curse."
"You mean I can be a Princess," Emma flatly said, uninterested.
"You already are a Princess," Charming informed her. "Since birth."
Emma rolled her eyes.
"Maybe in fairy tale titles alone, but I am no Princess," Emma stated.
"That I agree with," Regina muttered under her breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear her.
Snow and Charming started to fire off defensive statements left and right to argue with Regina, but Emma chose that moment to look over at Henry who shook like a leaf.
Emma scrambled closer to Henry and immediately wrapped her arms around him.
"Hey, are you okay," Emma soothingly asked, her maternal instincts kicking in for the first time since Henry found her in Boston.
"Y-y-yeah," Henry stuttered through chattering teeth. "Ju-ust c-c-cold."
Regina shook her head at something Snow said and her eyes found Henry in Emma's arms. Instantly, she forgot about her enemy and went to her son.
"Henry?"
"He's freezing," Emma said as she held him tightly to her.
Regina started rubbing his back and arms to try and warm him up.
"We need to get him some blankets or something," Regina said. "We can take him to my old bedchamber. There's a fireplace there."
"Okay," Emma said as she worked with Regina to lift Henry.
Emma scooped him up in her arms and he hurriedly latched on with his arms around her neck.
Regina stayed close by as she guided the blonde out of the room and into the hallway.
"What's wrong," Charming immediately asked as he and Snow started to follow Emma and Regina out of the room.
"Borderline hypothermia," Regina shortly explained. "We'll take care of it."
Tinkerbell watched Regina and Emma take Henry out into the hall and looked down at the ground, a little sad and partially hurt, when she saw Regina place a hand on Emma's lower back.
Everyone watched the two of them leave with Henry then looked around at each other in the large, barren – except for the mirror – room. None of them looked too thrilled to be in each other's company and a thickly tense, awkward silence filled the room.
Regina brought Emma into her long since thought about bedchamber.
Upon entry, Emma saw the fireplace and carried Henry over to it.
Regina strayed from Emma and conjured a fireball in her palm. She wasted no time and threw it at the logs. Instantly, the logs lit up with strong, warm flames.
Emma sat down on the rug in front of the fireplace with Henry still in her arms.
Again, Regina relied on her magic and conjured a heavy blanket. She rushed to Emma's side and sat down on the rug beside her. She immediately wrapped the blanket around Henry and hugged him from behind while he laid with his back to her in Emma's arms.
Regina leaned in and rested her cheek on Henry's shoulder, water dripping from Henry's wet hair. She felt Emma's arm pressed against her ribs just beneath her chest when she gripped Henry in a motherly embrace.
Henry shivered in both of their arms and Emma and Regina held on tighter.
"I-I-I'm h-hungry," Henry said with chattering teeth. "H-hav-en't ea-ten in...days."
Both Emma and Regina cringed at that. A second later, Regina turned her head and pecked a kiss on Henry's cheek.
Not even a minute later, Regina had a cheeseburger from Granny's in her hand.
"Here," Regina offered him the cheeseburger.
Henry reached out with a shaky hand and accepted the burger.
Emma and Regina tensely watched Henry tremor through his first bite before the blonde spoke up.
"There's got to be a faster way to do this," Emma looked over Henry's head at Regina.
Regina popped up enough to look over Henry's head as well and locked eyes with Emma. Her eyes slightly widened in realization.
"There is."
Without any explanation, Regina crawled in front of Emma and Henry and grabbed Emma's free hand. A wave of magic flowed through their physical bond.
Emma's body instantly warmed at the touch in a superhuman way that suggested Regina's magic was to blame for the comforting heat.
"Mimic me," Regina said as she continued to send heat into Emma's hand then touched Henry with the other.
Henry's cheeks gained a more natural color and his eyes slipped closed in his relaxed state.
Emma felt and accepted the heat that coursed through her body thanks to Regina's hand in hers. She then used her body as a host and harvested not only Regina's warmth but her own as well. Her skin started to glow before her entire body lit up with a red and golden yellow aura-like illumination.
Regina proudly grinned at the light that faintly surrounded the blonde and its positive effect on their son.
"Whoa," Emma breathed out no louder than a whisper.
Regina's grin melted into a smile and she leaned in as she kept one hand on Henry and the other in Emma's hand. She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to Emma's.
Emma, at first, kept her mouth agape in shock then blinked and smiled in a way she hadn't since the day she rescued Henry from the mines after Regina said, "Just...bring him to me."
The sound of Henry chewing on the greasy cheeseburger pulled Emma and Regina out of their indescribable moment and both mothers turned to look at him. Both of them chuckled as he ungracefully scarfed down a little more than half of the cheeseburger in a few bites.
"What," Henry asked through a full mouth of food.
"We missed you," Emma replied.
"We love you," Regina added.
Henry beamed up at them, still in Emma's arms between his two mothers.
"I love you both, too," Henry said after he swallowed his most recent bite.
The glow around Emma faded and both women leaned in at the same time. They both pecked one of Henry's cheeks and made the boy scrunch up his face in slight disgust.
"Yuck, I'm eleven. I don't need my moms kissing me on the cheek like that," he said as he wiped one of the kisses away with the wet sleeve of his plaid shirt then repeated the action for the other kiss.
"We just got you back," Emma started. "We'll kiss you as motherly and as embarrassingly as we want even if you are eleven."
"That I can agree with," Regina said, both her and Emma's eyes locked on Henry.
"Hey, can one of you check my right leg," Henry asked. "I want to make sure the antidote worked 'cause it kind of itches."
Regina and Emma frowned.
"Antidote," Regina tentatively asked him.
"Yeah, I got hit with an arrow when I tried to run away from Pan. Grandpa got the antidote for me from Ariel."
"Ariel's alive," Emma asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah," Henry said as he scrunched up his face and reached down to scratch his calve where he's been hit with the arrow.
"Grandpa as in Rumpelstiltskin," Regina nervously and skeptically asked.
"Yeah. Gramps is Charming, Grandpa is Rumpelstiltskin," Henry clarified as he continued to scratch, his face less twisted up in discomfort than it had been seconds ago.
Then Emma and Regina noticed Henry's insistent scratching and simultaneously reached for his pant leg. Regina grabbed the bottom of the pant leg first when she let go of Emma's hand and pulled the jeans up to Henry's knee. The skin where Henry had been scratching was red and irritated.
"It seems like the antidote worked," Regina said. "There isn't any poison blackening the veins like it had with Snow. Just looks like a little rash."
Henry groaned.
"I hate rashes," Henry whined.
"Why? Put some lotion on it two or three times a day for the next couple days and it goes away," Emma shrugged.
"Not with Henry," Regina tiredly said.
Henry nodded his head in agreement.
"What do you mean," Emma asked.
"He used to get rashes a lot when he was little," Regina started.
"I needed special ointment that I had to keep putting on all week and I'd get fevers."
"Nasty rashes," Emma concluded.
"Yeah," Henry gravely conceded.
"Well, we can get that ointment back in Storybrooke, right? Not a big deal."
"Except we're not in Storybrooke," Regina argued.
"And I kinda want to stay here," Henry piped up.
"What," Emma and Regina asked, not entirely surprised but definitely not pleased with his comment.
"I thought that's what was going to happen when Gramps and the dwarfs and Anton were growing the magic beans. I really wanted to see what it's like here. I still do."
Regina and Emma sighed in defeat.
"What about the rash," Emma asked.
"I can make a homemade version of the ointment here," Regina blandly said. "Shouldn't be too difficult. It just won't be as helpful as the one we could get back home."
"So...we can stay here with Grandma and Gramps," Henry asked, hopeful.
"Is that what you want," Regina asked.
Henry nodded.
Regina sympathetically looked at Emma and the two silently communicated their uneasiness about the idea, but also the need to make their son happy.
Emma nodded to signal Regina that she would stay. Regina looked at her with acceptance before she focused once again on Henry.
"Then we'll stay," Regina told him.
"Yes," Henry victoriously hissed.
Emma looked sad and unsatisfied with the agreement, but when she looked up at Regina again she knew it had been the right decision no matter how she truly felt about it.
Regina flashed a brief, halfhearted smile at Emma to show the blonde she understood the sacrifice Emma was making to stay in a land she didn't know and didn't feel comfortable in. She decided not to share any of her own concerns about staying in the Enchanted Forest and tried to keep Emma calm with a mask of indifference.
A new realm meant new sleeping arrangements. Though the Summer Palace had several guest chambers, it barely accommodated the traveling group of eight. There were five chambers, not including Snow's and Regina's, that were thankfully not too severely harmed by the enactment of the dark curse. Seven in total. Snow and Charming settled into their chamber while Regina kept Henry in hers. Emma stayed in the chamber closest to Regina and Henry while Hook stayed down the hall and Rumple stayed in a chamber at the complete opposite end, away from the pirate.
Tinkerbell took the second closest room to Regina, the chamber next to Emma's. She was the last to claim a room and because of that, she was stuck beside the other blonde. Not that she minded since it made Emma slightly angry. With Tinkerbell being so close to Regina, it appeared like she wanted to try her luck with the brunette. Which wasn't exactly a lie, though she saw how Emma and Regina had been together before they'd found Henry and used their joint magic to kill Pan and escape.
It had been a while since anyone had gotten enough rest without having to worry about Henry, though, so Emma quickly dismissed the rush of jealousy that flashed across her features. She, along with everyone else, retreated to their chambers and called it a day.
And yet, Emma couldn't sleep. She knew her son was safe with Regina in the next room, but something still kept her tossing and turning. She felt herself vibrating with magic and images of the last few days in Neverland played through her mind like a montage sequence in a movie. Everything seemed surreal once she found herself back in the Enchanted Forest, a place she hadn't appreciated the first time around. She hardly managed to adapt after the curse broke when she'd been sucked into the portal that dropped her off in the land she'd been born in.
Emma huffed out a sigh as she flipped onto her side for umpteenth time in the last hour, though who could tell what time it was in the Enchanted Forest? Anyone with a sundial would be Emma's guess.
But Emma didn't use sundials or even makeshift sundials. She may have been late to a lot of things in her life, but at least she knew she was late with phone clocks and wrist watches. Using the sun's position in the sky to tell time was not something Emma Swan could or would do. Ever.
None of that mattered though. All Emma knew was that she couldn't sleep and it was dark outside. Dark meant nighttime, which usually meant sleep. And she was wide awake.
It was her restlessness that drove her out of the odd and surprisingly uncomfortable bed – because royalty in the Enchanted Forest apparently liked their beds a little too soft for Emma's liking – and into the bedchamber only the distance of a short walk through the grand hallway.
As though she were pulling off a particularly tricky heist, Emma slipped through the doorway and crept into the chamber without making a sound. She padded across the marble floor until she stood beside the Queen size bed.
Emma stared down at the two sleeping forms and felt a weight lift off her shoulders, one she hadn't known she'd carried. She sighed in relief and smiled.
It was the first sound she made, and not a very loud one at that, but it seemed to be loud enough for Regina to immediately pop her eyes open.
Emma defensively and apologetically raised her hands and took a step back, away from the bed.
"Sorry," Emma whispered. "Didn't mean to wake you."
Regina had an arm draped over Henry's chest as the boy slept with his back to her.
He'd been changed into more Enchanted Forest appropriate attire due to Regina's magic. He was also completely warm and dry by the time Regina had escorted him back to her bedchamber for the night.
Regina stared up at Emma and still hadn't said anything. She looked up at the blonde with a straight face, no anger or frustration shown in her eyes or any other feature of hers. She just stared, almost as if she were assessing Emma's reason for being there.
And she had been.
Regina's expression went from slightly quizzical to accepting of the other woman's presence, but she didn't move an inch.
"I couldn't sleep," Emma started again as she anxiously shifted from foot to foot, still whispering.
"He's okay," Regina assured her.
"I know. Well, I mean, I knew before I came in here, but I...I had to see for myself, you know," Emma asked, her voice a little louder.
Regina nodded, which mussed her hair from her sideways position on the bed with her head on the pillow.
"Um," Emma awkwardly started as she averted her gaze. "Now that I've seen him I guess I should...go."
Emma pointed toward her bedchamber through the wall of Regina's bedchamber before she started to make her way back to the door.
"Hey," Regina quietly called out before Emma made it too far.
Emma turned back and looked right at Regina as the brunette let go of Henry and rolled onto her back then propped herself up on one elbow.
"Hey," Emma said as she tensed her shoulders and slid her hands into her jean pockets, still wearing her typical white tank top and dark jeans.
"When Henry was really little, the first year or so he'd been in my life," Regina started. "I used to check on him constantly throughout the night. Even if I didn't hear him crying on the baby monitor, I still went into his room to make sure he was still breathing. Some nights seeing him still wasn't enough."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Would you sleep better if you stayed here with him?"
Emma shrugged.
"Maybe."
"I need you to be sure," Regina said.
Emma furrowed her brow.
"Why would you need me to be sure?"
Regina rolled her eyes.
Even in the dark, Emma still saw the action and fought to conceal a smirk at her consistent ability to frustrate the other woman.
"There's enough room in this bed for you if you're sure staying with Henry will help you like it's helping me. Or at least it was helping before you came in."
That time Emma didn't suppress her smirk.
After a short moment, Emma walked over to Regina's side of the bed and slipped under the covers behind the brunette.
"Thank you," Emma said once she was settled.
"Just keep your hands off me this time," Regina grumbled as she resumed her original position on her right side with her left arm draped over Henry in a loose but protective hold.
"And yet you were the one with your head on my chest practically on top of me," Emma teased.
Regina's only response was to hum in aggravation.
Emma turned onto her left side with her back to Regina. She curled her body just a little bit, but it was enough for her backside to press against Regina's.
Neither said another word as they fell asleep within the next few minutes.
Charming groaned under his breath as he struggled to find a comfortable way to sleep. He looked under his shirt and inspected his side where he'd been grazed by a poisonous arrow. The black poison continued to spread through his veins and had traveled further up toward his chest. It threatened to pump through his veins into his heart and though he was no expert in Dreamshade, he didn't think the poison spreading to his heart would be a good thing.
He groaned again, a little louder that time, as he sat up and threw his legs over the side of his and Snow's old bed. He gripped the sheets at the very edge of the bed until his knuckles turned white and tried to regulate his shallow breathing.
Snow felt the movement and heard the discomfort from her husband. She started to stir and turned to look over her shoulder at Charming. When she saw him sitting up, hunched over his side of the bed, she sat up as well and placed a hand on his back.
"David? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah," he gravelly said, his voice low and somewhat groggy from his previous attempts to sleep. "Go back to sleep. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure," she asked, her voice riddled with concern.
"Yeah, I'm just gonna take a walk around. It's been a little hectic in Neverland so I guess settling down again is an adjustment."
Snow paused to consider his answer. After a moment, she sighed and nodded.
"Okay."
Snow rubbed his back a few times then squeezed his shoulder before she laid back down facing away from Charming.
Charming stood and headed for their chamber door. He slowly exited the chamber and discretely went into the hallway. Halfway down the hall to a destination he hadn't had in mind, a familiar, accented voice startled him.
"Hiding something from the Misses, are we," Hook asked from a dark corner of the hallway.
Charming jumped in surprise and looked over at Hook.
"What the hell are you doing out here," Charming asked in hushed anger to mask his startled reaction to Hook's appearance.
"I've slept in many a bad environment, but my chambers smell like ash, dark magic, and death. It's very hard to relax when you're stuck in a room that's been torn apart by the Evil Queen and left unattended for nearly three decades."
"Fine. What's that have anything to do with me?"
"It's as I suspected, is it not," Hook asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Ah, that isn't the truth now, is it. You're hiding something from the others, something that's causing you pain and something I believe you could have fixed back in Neverland."
Charming glared at Hook and kept quiet.
"That discontent look on your face says I'm right," Hook smugly said before his lips stretched into a grin.
"Whatever you think you know, you're wrong," Charming sneered as he resumed his trek down the hall and walked past Hook.
"So you weren't grazed by an arrow that's infected you with the Dreamshade poison," Hook asked when Charming had his back turned to him.
Charming froze in place and hesitated before he turned around to face Hook once again.
"And the truth is revealed," Hook said, satisfied and overly pleased by the silent answer provided by Charming's actions.
"How did you know?"
"Well, when Ariel's sister said she could only give one out of two vials of antidote to us, you made a face. Then I thought back and remembered something I hadn't given much thought to. After you came back looking for Henry and Snow had been hit with an arrow herself, you confessed to having been grazed by one. It's simple math. Even a lowly pirate like myself could piece it together."
Charming looked around to ensure the two of them were still alone before he focused on Hook again and pointed a warning finger at the one-handed pirate.
"You will tell no one about this," Charming commanded.
"Why not share the fatal news with your family? I'm sure they'd want to know...at least to say their goodbyes."
"If I can find another cure, they'll never have to know," Charming argued.
"Are you sure you can find just that?"
"There's at least one thing I can think of that might help."
"Then by all means, try it. But I can assure you that Emma and your wife might take issue if it doesn't work and you didn't tell them about this before your untimely death."
"They're my family, not yours. I'll deal with this however I feel is necessary."
"Alright, mate. Just don't say I didn't warn you," Hook said with his hand and hook raised defensively before he slipped away from Charming and headed back to his room.
Once Hook was out of sight, Charming breathed heavily and tried to take deep breaths to regain composure. He pushed his hand against his chest and hoped his theory about a second cure would work.
The morning sunlight streamed into Regina's bedchamber through the balcony window left partially uncovered by the large, slightly askew drapes.
Busy with Henry and his health, Regina hadn't bothered to fix the disorder of her old chambers. Not much needed fixing, but the room wasn't exactly up to the Evil Queen, let alone Mayor Mills', standards.
When the sun caught some of Regina's desk mirror at an angle the higher it rose in the sky, Emma stirred. She started to stretch and squeeze her eyes shut tighter to block out the glare caused by the sun on the mirror, but for the second time since she'd left Storybrooke she felt limited in movement.
Emma blinked open her eyes several times before she looked down at the weight across her torso. Once the sleep haze cleared from her vision, she noticed not one but two bodies that trapped her in the bed.
Somehow, Henry had maneuvered his way between his two mothers and rested his head on Emma's shoulder and clavicle. The weight on her torso belonged to Regina's right arm slung over her waist and sandwiched Henry between them.
Regina's nose was close enough to the back of Henry's head that Emma believed she could smell him every time she inhaled.
How they had managed to get in a position like that stumped Emma entirely, especially since she hadn't felt anything last night. Or at least she didn't remember feeling anything.
Emma reached down and tapped Regina's wrist and hand and turned her head to the side to watch the brunette's reaction.
Regina furrowed her brow, but didn't open her eyes. She growled and swatted at the tapping hand.
Emma waited a few seconds then tapped Regina's forearm.
"Stop," Regina grumbled, her eyes still closed.
Emma didn't stop, however.
Regina quickly swatted the hand away again, but that time made sure the hand couldn't hit her any more. Regina twisted her own hand around and pinned Emma's hand to the bed. Without much thought, she laced their fingers together.
Emma stared down at their joined hands then turned back to Regina.
"Mom," Henry groaned as squirmed between Emma and Regina.
Henry buried his face into the bed above Emma's shoulder while Emma looked over his head and saw chocolate brown eyes focused on her.
"Morning," Emma greeted.
"Mm," Regina hummed.
Emma smiled.
"Guys," Henry groaned again, that time into the bed and Emma's shoulder. "Go back to sleep. I don't want to get up yet."
Regina smiled at him while Emma chuckled. Emma used her free hand, the one closest to Henry, and poked him in the side.
"Stop," Henry grumbled just like Regina.
Emma laughed and poked him again.
"Emma," Regina warned with a hint of laughter in her voice.
"Mom," Henry groaned longer and louder than his previous grumble.
"Which one," Emma asked, though she already knew the answer. "If we don't know which one you're talking to, we won't know what exactly you're unhappy about."
"You," Henry said as he waved his hand around to swat Emma's hand away from him. "Stop poking me!"
"Okay," Emma casually and quickly said before she rolled over and laid on top of him.
"Ah," Henry yelled when he felt Emma's weight bore down on him. "No! Get off me."
Emma laughed again with her face only about an inch above Regina's.
Regina looked from Henry to Emma and almost dreamily stared up into green eyes.
"Nope," Emma responded to Henry. "I'm kind of comfortable here."
Emma maneuvered one arm beside Regina's head, between the brunette and Henry. The hand still entwined with Regina's rested partially on the brunette's side when Regina had rolled halfway onto her back.
"Mom, make her get off me," Henry cried out with his face almost completely smashed into the bed.
"Mm, I'll have to think about it," Regina said as she kept her eyes locked on Emma.
Emma smirked down at Regina and before either of them could give it a second thought, or even had time to process what was happening, Emma leaned in and rested her forehead against Regina's.
Regina moved their joined hands to the bed with her hand pressed to the bed by Emma's.
Emma tilted her head and positioned her lips above Regina's all the while maintaining eye contact with the captivating woman under her.
Henry wriggled around under Emma a little more violently until he thrashed his way onto his back. His new position gave him enough space to do what he wanted since it caused Emma to only hover instead of crush him beneath her. He reached up and pushed her left side hard enough to knock her over.
Emma sharply inhaled just before she pressed her lips to Regina's, but the second she felt the other woman's soft and plump lips on her own lips, Henry shoved her aside.
Their joined hands slid further across the bed until they reached the edge while Emma landed on her right side on top of Regina. Their hipbones collided and both grunted upon impact, but Emma erupted into a fit of laughter as she rolled onto her back.
Regina chuckled as she flattened herself completely on her back on the bed when Emma rolled over on her. She felt Emma's backside rest diagonally against her pelvic bone and did nothing to change their new position.
Henry pushed Emma's legs away from him toward the foot of the bed just enough for him to get out from under her. He sat up for a split second before he knelt over both his mothers' sides, though Emma's side crisscrossed with Regina's body.
"Ha," Henry started. "Beat you!"
Regina and Emma disentangled their hands.
Emma rested her own hand on her stomach while Regina placed hers on her ribs under her breasts.
"Yeah," Emma said. "You got me. You won."
"No," Henry shook his head. "Winning looks like this."
Henry turned half his body, still kneeling on the bed, before he carelessly fell back and landed across both Emma and Regina. His back and butt thumped against Regina's side and stomach while his shoulder blades and head slammed down on Emma's ribs and chest. Henry's head hit just above Emma's breasts and his hair tickled Emma's chin, the back of his head pressed to Emma's collarbone.
"Damn, Henry. What have you been eating," Emma asked. "You weight a lot more than I remember."
"Hey, are you calling me fat?"
Regina chuckled and her stomach's movement gently shook both Emma and Henry.
"I might be," Emma replied.
"Well, if I'm fat it's only because you feed me burgers and fries and milkshakes and cookies and-"
"Alright, I get it," Emma said with a small laugh. "You're fat and it's my fault."
"Mom," Henry whined as he turned to Regina.
"Emma, stop calling him fat. He's a perfectly healthy boy," Regina came to Henry's defense. "Although, you really should stop feeding him all that junk."
"But I'm the 'fun Mom'. I'm supposed to spoil him while you do all the disciplining and lecturing," Emma playfully argued.
"And that needs to change," Regina said. "You keep wanting to either spend more time with Henry or take a majority of custody of him and yet you refuse to accept the responsibilities of a parent."
"Fine. Less fun, more long lecturing."
"I do not lecture."
"You kinda do," Henry chimed in with a smile.
Regina rolled her eyes with a slight smile, but she didn't seem too content to have both Emma and Henry team up against her, especially since she already had a bad experience with that when Emma first came to town.
"You'd better watch what you say," Regina warningly pointed at Henry. "I'll make Emma feed you only the healthy foods from now on and you'll soon forget what chocolate tastes like."
Emma chuckled and looked from the top of Henry's head over to Regina.
Henry's eyes were wide with horror.
"You wouldn't," he stated.
"Oh, believe me I would," Regina confirmed Henry's fear.
"Even after everything that just happened?"
"Yes, even considering all that," Regina replied.
"Mom," Henry twisted as much as he could on top of Emma to look at his blonde mother, asking her with just her title as "Mom" to help him out.
"Now it's my turn to defend you? I don't think so, kid," Emma said.
"Not fair. How am I supposed to get away with stuff if you two are a 'united front' all of a sudden," he pouted.
"Mm, you don't," Emma said.
"Which makes you lucky," Regina added.
"Right," Henry sarcastically agreed. "How am I lucky?"
"Because you have two moms who would do anything for you," Emma said. "I didn't even have one growing up let alone the Evil Queen and the Savior."
"And let me be the one to tell you," Regina started. "It wasn't easy getting here."
"What did you have to do to find me," he asked.
"Battle evil mermaids, the infamous and seriously demented Ursula, some nasty Lost Boys, and a smug Peter Pan," Emma rattled off their adventures.
"You fought Ursula?"
"She's not as fun a villain as she is in the movie," Regina said.
"What is a fun villain," Emma asked, not hurt or angry, but teasingly curious.
"Me," Regina grinned at her.
Emma and Henry laughed in unison.
"You two think that's funny," Regina asked, her tone baiting though neither Emma or Henry were in trouble.
"Yeah," Henry said as his laughter lessened but didn't completely subside.
"I wonder if you'll find humor in this," Regina said as she reached out and started tickling Henry's feet.
"No," Henry shouted before he burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. "Mom, stop!"
Henry tried to sit up and flee, but Emma quickly wrapped both arms around his waist and held him close to her.
"Oh, no you don't," Emma said with a smile and restrained him.
"Not. Fair," Henry repeated his words from earlier only that time louder and as firmly as he could manage to speak while Regina relentlessly tickled him.
"Maybe not," Emma panted when she struggled to hold him as he flailed around and tried to buck away from both mothers. "But it's entertaining for us."
Henry rolled back and forth and made no progress in getting away from Emma or Regina.
All of Henry's rolling around caused Emma to jerk against Regina and the three of them were jostled on the bed in a somewhat domino effect.
"Mom," Henry laughed as he wildly kicked to move his feet away from Regina's hands. "Mom!"
Regina and Emma laughed at Henry's pleas.
Emma rolled herself and Henry closer to Regina and crushed Henry on his side against Regina's upper body. He was almost sandwiched between both mothers while the tickling persisted and his constant movements started to put pressure on Regina's ribs.
When he accidentally kneed her in the ribs, Regina finally let up with her tickle attack.
Henry stopped laughing and inhaled air like a fish gasping when out of water. He coughed a few times and leaned against Emma, his back more firmly pressed to her front as he used her for support.
"I'm happy you two aren't fighting, but I think it's only going to be less fun for me," Henry breathlessly said.
"Thanks," Emma sardonically said as she patted Henry's arm with him slouched against her.
"Well, right now it's less fun for me," Regina said. "One of you is sitting on my bladder and the other is making it hard to breathe."
Emma lightly laughed and rolled onto her back to place herself in her original position on top of Regina. She pulled Henry with her just enough to push him off Regina. When she did, Regina let out a sigh of physical relief.
Just then, with Henry sitting in the bed facing Emma and Regina, the chamber doors opened and Snow stood in the doorway.
"I heard Henry yelling. Is everything okay," Snow asked as she took a tentative step inside the chamber.
Snow's eyes found Henry first then slid over to the left and noticed her daughter laying sideways across her former stepmother's hips and upper thighs. She blinked a few times at the sight, visibly taken aback.
"I'm fine, Grandma," Henry assured her from his place beside his mothers on the bed, his ankles tucked under himself.
"Oh," Snow said as she readjusted her focus and looked over at Henry again. "Okay."
"My mom tickled me and Emma held me down. That's all," Henry explained.
Snow warmly smiled at Henry.
"Okay then," Snow said as she looked at Henry then at Emma and Regina. "I'm about to look for breakfast. If either one of you would want to come with me, I'm leaving in a few minutes."
"Ugh," Emma groaned her disgust. "I don't want to eat anything I have to kill. I didn't really like it the first time around."
"Well, it's all we can do while we're here. Unless you're planning to find a way back to Storybrooke, it's wild game or nothing."
Emma frowned.
Regina, though Emma's head was turned away from her so the blonde could look at Snow, saw the look on the younger woman's face. She waved a hand and conjured a well-made, fully filled ham sandwich in a small, purple cloud.
The sound of the cloud's "poof" and the signature scent of Regina's magic turned Emma's attention to the brunette she laid across. Her eyes instantly fell to the sandwich and her face broke into a large smile.
"Thank you," Emma said as she took the sandwich and ate it without moving an inch.
"You are so spoiled," Henry said as he watched Emma take a large bite that devoured almost half of the sandwich.
Regina waved her other hand and conjured another sandwich that she handed to Henry.
Henry lit up and eagerly took it before he scarfed it down like his birth mother had attacked hers.
"And you're not," Emma rhetorically asked with a full mouth of food.
Regina chuckled.
"I'm the kid. I'm supposed to be spoiled. What's your excuse, Princess," Henry said, his mouth also full as he spoke.
Regina's smile never faded as she looked between Emma and Henry. When she caught Henry reach down and scratch his calve, she frowned then looked at Snow.
"I'll join you," Regina said to Snow. "While we're out, I need to get a few things for Henry's rash."
Regina sat up, but Emma still pinned her down at the legs. She patted Emma's thigh a few times as a signal for the blonde to get off and the blonde responded.
Emma held her sandwich with one hand and extended the other to Regina.
Regina wordlessly accepted it and helped Emma sit up while the younger woman shifted to avoid crushing the brunette's legs during the position change. The blonde's legs remained thrown over Regina, but her backside pressed into the bed next to Regina's right thigh.
Emma bent her knees and turned to sit facing the bedchamber doors. She folded her legs under herself as she sat closer to the foot of the bed and Regina removed herself from the bed altogether.
"I'll be back before sunset," Regina told Henry then looked down at Emma. "If you need anything else, you can always conjure it. Just remember what I taught you."
"Okay. And if I can't remember, I'll just...I don't know, is there a magical way to call you?"
"Yes, but I haven't taught you that."
Emma opened her mouth to speak, but Regina immediately continued and didn't allow her to say a single thing.
"And I will not teach you that," Regina said as she pointed a warning finger at Emma.
Emma slumped her shoulders in defeat.
"Don't scratch," Regina told Henry as she leaned over the bed and kissed the top of Henry's head.
As Regina headed toward the door, she ran a hand across Emma's shoulders until she affectionately raked her fingers through blonde hair.
The action wasn't lost on Henry or Snow. Henry stared out of curiosity while Snow's jaw dropped a little and her eyes slightly widened in confusion and shock. Although, Snow had seen other affection exchanges and positions between Emma and Regina so her shock had started to dim. That didn't mean it still didn't throw her off when she saw such things.
Regina stepped up to her and paused in the doorway when Snow refused to move.
Snow finally blinked again and forced a smile when she looked at Regina.
"Let's go," Snow said before she turned and headed out in the hall.
Regina followed after her, but looked over her shoulder to look at Henry and Emma one last time before she left. She smiled at them, a genuine and loving smile that was returned by both of them.
After Regina disappeared around the corner, Henry started to scratch his calve again.
Emma looked over and saw him do it. She scoffed and gave him a backhanded slap to his arm.
"What," he asked, a little frustrated at the reprimanding physical contact.
"Don't scratch!"
Henry rolled his eyes and scratched harder.
"Henry," Emma warningly yelled then pushed him gently in the chest.
"Hey," Henry whined as he lost balance and swayed on the bed.
"Stop it," Emma said.
Henry exaggeratedly sighed and heavily dropped his hand in his lap.
"Fine."
Emma smirked.
"I think I'm actually gonna like not being the 'fun Mom' all the time."
Snow had two small animals thrown over her shoulders in burlap sacks as she walked through the forest back to the palace. Regina fell behind a few steps to inspect various bushes and plants for the ingredients needed for Henry's salve. The two were still close enough to carry on a conversation, but they hadn't.
Until Snow's curiosity won out and she had to ask Regina about the last couple days.
"So...you and my daughter," Snow said and left the end of the sentence open for interpretation.
Regina walked out of the wilder, untamed part of the forest and rejoined Snow on the dirt pathway with a raw hide bag smaller than the ones Snow used for the animals. She dropped something into the bag as she came to walk beside Snow and opened her mouth as she mulled over Snow's inferred question.
"We're getting along well enough now. I don't think Henry's going to have to worry about us trying to keep him all to ourselves."
"You said 'we're' and 'us'. Should I be worried," Snow seriously asked.
"Why would you need to worry? Emma's perfectly capable of making her own decisions."
"You can't tell me you would turn her away if she wanted to be with you, can you," Snow stated instead of asking. She knew it to be true just by how Regina had worded her previous response.
Regina remained silent.
Snow turned her head to look solely at Regina as they continued to walk. When she saw the look in Regina's eyes and noticed the other woman preferred to keep quiet, she reached out a hand and stopped them in the middle of the pathway.
"Do you like her," Snow asked, apprehensive to hear the answer.
"I... For as many times as she's saved me, I've now saved her a couple of times. Each time gets easier for me to do."
"No," Snow sadly said before anger overran her body. "No! You can't like her."
"Unfortunately for you, dear, you can't control how I feel," Regina snarled.
"I won't allow you to do anything with her or to even move forward with this friendship of yours," Snow insisted and spat out the word "friendship" like it left a foul taste in her mouth.
"You can't control my actions either," Regina said as she glared at Snow.
"Then what are your intentions with her? To hurt me? To make sure I suffer knowing you're trying to take my daughter from me? You already made me give her up once because of the curse and it's why she is who she is. Distant, hurt, and awkward about David and I."
"Who she is is someone you should be proud of," Regina raised her voice. "So she's not as accepting as you'd like about having you two as parents all of a sudden. That's not all there is to her, you know. She's not just your daughter, Snow. She's her own person with her own beliefs and she's a hell of a Savior without the damn prophecy!"
Snow blinked several times through her shock.
"When asked if I had any regrets as I stood before the firing squad all those years ago, I only had malicious ones," Regina continued. "I said those things for several reasons, but none of them are important because now I have a genuine regret. And that is, I regret my curse causing Emma all that pain.
"I hold myself responsible for her not feeling loved all those years, for whatever kind of abuse she had to endure. I may have wanted people to suffer during my reign, most of all people you, but I never wanted to hurt her like that. I never wanted Emma to have a similar childhood to mine."
Snow's mouth hung open, surprised to hear such a confession.
"You... That's you're regret," Snow asked. "Your greatest and most honest regret in all of your life is causing my daughter pain because of your curse?"
Regina swallowed and looked down at the ground.
"It made her as strong as she is today, but I believe it did a lot more damage than it did good," Regina confessed.
"So when you say you like her, you really do like her."
"Yes, because contrary to what you might believe, not everything is about you."
"Well...from what I can tell, she seems to like you too," Snow slowly said.
"Are you...? Would you be okay with us if anything were to happen," Regina asked.
"It would take some time and I'm not going to leave you two alone together whenever I can help it, but...for Emma I would learn to...accept it if she chose you."
"For Emma," Regina slowly started. "I'd apologize to you for everything even if at the time I hurt you, I thought you deserved it."
"Is that an apology?"
"It's as close to one as you'll get until Emma asks me to make amends with you. I should warn you, however, that day may never come."
"I believe one day it might," Snow smiled.
Regina flashed a sad smile.
"I hope one day it means that much to her to ask that of me," Regina quietly admitted.
Note: Let me know what you think in a review. Other updates should be posted this weekend, but Thursday is a full day of travel and Friday is a shorter travel day as well as a filming day for my Senior project. So we'll how that works out.
Thanks for reading, reviewing, for all the favorites, and the follows!