A/N: Life's a b****. Anyway, here's the new chapter! Mistakes are all mine.

I really hope you like it! Please enjoy and tell me what you think. :)

Chapter 26

(You may want to read chapter 6 again since some background knowledge is needed in order to understand this chapter or simply read this part of chapter 6:

REVIEW:

(Henry & Regina's first encounter)

"So what is your name, little fellow?"

He smiled back at her, showing his white teeth and mumbled silently.

"Mom says that I shouldn't talk to strangers."

Regina chuckled lightly at his response, especially because of the fact that he was already speaking with her.

"Well, dear, I am Regina." The brunette shook his little hand before she continued, a wicked smile grazing her face and a spark twinkling in her eyes.

"I assume I'm not a stranger anymore, am I?"

The brown-haired boy giggled a little and grinned at Regina broadly as he replied.

"I'm Henry."

Regina's eyes immediately closed once the name made its way to her ears.

"Henry?"

The blonde said as she eyed her dark-haired lover, who stood at the other end of a bedroom… the same bedroom, she had already been in so many times by then.

"I would love that." Regina replied as tears of joy filled her eyes and she moved over to the other woman.

The brunette's dark orbs opened and she looked into the worried gaze of the little boy. He smiled as she seemed to have regained her posture, even if she seemed to somehow be sad.

"Your mother's name is Emma, isn't it?" Regina spoke up silently, afraid of something she couldn't determine.

"Yeah. You know her?" Henry looked at her happily when he gave his response.

"You could say so."

The only thing the brunette thought about in that moment was her father. She missed him with every ounce of her being and his death still remained a mystery to her… It was like a blank page in her memory, something someone had forgotten to record. Maybe it was better this way. It would lessen the pain of not having him anymore. )

Chapter 26 officially starts here:

Flashback

"Can you enact the curse or not?" Regina asked, appearing dangerously serious as her facial expressions immediately hardened.

Rumple looked at her almost the same way once he gave his response.

"Yes. However, you will be the only one who is going to be in possession of memories. Thus I need you to restore mine, but there is still one problem."

The brunette rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner before she spoke up dryly.

"What's that supposed to be?"

The Dark one answered with a flick of his hand.

"Magic doesn't exist in this foreign land. You see, this is going to be a quite delicate task."

"…which I can easily manage once I have Emma back." Regina interrupted the crocodile with a smirk on her face. Her voice was strong, showing no fear at all. She needed to get back to Emma, whatever the costs.

The Queen had been without her wife for almost six years now, missing her more every single day even without her heart in her chest.

"Well, dearie, I shall get to it then." Rumple replied, seemingly satisfied before he made his way out of Regina's bedchamber, giggling in his well-known way.

At the same time at Cora's

"Henry, honey, I need to speak with you." Cora said lovingly as she stood in front of her husband.

Henry had been worried about his daughter for years, but he just couldn't find the strength to protect her or to fight his wife. His own graciousness and Cora were his two greatest weaknesses and strengths. However, both combined seemed to always make him suffer. He loved his daughter, he truly did, but he felt like he couldn't do anything for her.

"Yes, what is it?" The older man said, kindly looking at his wife.

"I… I'm terrified of the next step more than I've ever been." Cora began with some kind of fear in her eyes and a sad undertone in her voice, which was more than usual.

"Cora, you seem different, somehow hurt. What is going on?" Henry asked, slightly concerned as he locked eyes with the brunette. It seemed as if her heart was speaking… no, that couldn't be it, could it? He knew that she had torn it out of her chest a long time ago.

"Can you just hug me?" The older woman spoke up as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Sadness was more than evident in her voice.

"Yes, of course." Her kind husband suggested, stepping closer before he wrapped his arms around her in order to engulf her in a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done. Most of all though, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do." Cora said, as sadness drooled from her every word. She only hugged him tighter then.

Henry looked quite confused at first, but simply reveled in his feelings at the specific moment. He could hear the beating of his own heart… wait, was it even his?

"Darling, what are you talking about?" The man asked softly and retreated a bit to look into Cora's orbs, which were filled with tears.

Cora spoke up while her voice cracked a little, "I have to kill what I love most."

Before Henry could react in any way, the woman's hand dug deep into his chest and within a second, he could see his heart beating in front of him.

…

Minutes later

"Cora, have you taken care of everything?" The Dark One asked as he entered the room where the older woman had just ripped Henry's heart out. His body was lying on the ground while all of his life had been taken from him.

"Yes." Cora answered swiftly, the pain still evident in all of her features.

Rumple rolled his eyes in a dramatic way before he spoke up once more.

"Dearie, you don't need your heart in order to cast the curse. It sufficed for the prior task, which you have already completed successfully."

"You're absolutely right." The brunette replied as she quickly ripped her own heart out again.

A sudden relief came over her and she instantly smiled at the crocodile. The Dark One returned the favor as he spoke again, pointing to the ingredients needed to enact the curse.

"Shall we?"

"I'm ready."

At Regina's

The young woman walked back and forth in her bed chamber, impatiently waiting for a cloud to take her to her beloved wife. When she finally took sight of purple smoke her heart jumped and her face lit up, eager to be reunited with Emma.

Regina practically ran towards the dark magic. Yet, she didn't know back then, that the curse would take her memories away since after all, she hadn't been the one who had cast it. Cora had done it with the help of Rumple, leaving her daughter in the blue about it. Yes, her mother thought that she had finally won and that she had saved Regina from her greatest weakness, Emma.

Back in the present

"Emma, what happens next?" Regina asked with a worried expression on her face as she still lay in the hospital bed.

"I don't know." The blonde admitted, shrugging her shoulders. She continued nonetheless with a lazy smile on her face, "How about we take you home first?"

Her wife nodded happily and asked, intently looking at the other woman. "That would be lovely, but where is home?"

"Well, it's with your son and your wife, your family." Emma pointed out as if it was the only truth, existing.

The brunette contorted her face a little, weighing the options of actually going somewhere. Emma's home wasn't in Storybrooke, but hers was. Then, there was Henry. He had a father, but he was also Regina's biological child.

"I suppose so and yet still, where exactly are we supposed to go?"

"How about we pay a visit to your father and my parents? Cora kinda invited herself to the reunion party, anyway." The blonde suggested sheepishly.

The brunette instantly thought about her dad, who she hadn't seen in quite a while. Her false memories made her believe that he was dead, but apparently her mother was hiding him or so.

Regina slightly chuckled at her wife's goofiness before she replied, lovingly.

"Yes, I think that is a start."

The blonde spoke up once more, winking at her wife.

"Oh god, you're so beautiful when you talk."

Emma laughed at her own idiotic statement and leaned forward in order to steal a kiss from the brunette's plump lips.

Regina huskily laughed into the peck before the pink lips retreated again. The older woman grinned broadly at the blonde and locked eyes with emerald ones, which she had fallen in love with a long time ago.

"I guess that was supposed to mean that you have missed me?"

"Yes, a whole fucking lot." The blonde admitted as she intently looked into chocolate orbs.