A/N:

Hey guys!

I didn't think I'd get a chance to update today but I ended up finishing work early so here we go! I hope you enjoy this chapter. From here on out everything is set in present day Storybrooke (unless I decide to write some more flashbacks, which I may definitely do – if that's something you guys would like to see). Thank you for the reviews, views and follows and as always comments/criticisms are appreciated.

I'm going to be really busy the next few weeks with exams and life and stuff but I will still try to update every Thursday!

I hope you all had a wonderful NYE, or at least better than mine, which consisted of working a 14 hour shift. Boo. Anyway, have fun, enjoy!

Rosie xx

I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of its characters (otherwise SwanQueen would have been together 3 years ago).

NYC 2014

Emma and Hook walked side-by-side through the rush-hour streets of New York back to the apartment. Henry would be home from school by now and the blonde was still trying to figure out how to explain to Henry that she needed him to drink something which looked decidedly like a poison out of one of his books. Maybe I should just slip it in his hot chocolate? She asked herself, before promptly deciding that no, she wouldn't do that. Regina would kill her.

Although she was relieved that Hook had been able to find her and return her memories, part of her wished she had just walked away from him that morning and never seen him again. Part of her wished he had never said Regina's name. Her life in New York was good…great even. There were no ogres or curses or maniacal fairytale villains hiding around the corner to ruin her life at any moment. She missed Storybrooke, but she missed the people; her friends and her family, not the actual place. Even though it hadn't been real, life had been so calm in New York, so domesticated, so…normal.

Emma spent the entire walk listening to Hook explain the little he knew about what had happened. Essentially all he knew was that Regina had sent him to find her. He found his ship and Ariel, and managed to transport himself to this world after selling his ship again. He didn't know if the others were back in Storybrooke yet, but that is where they would go. Buried in her own thoughts the blonde hadn't noticed all the shifty looks she and the pirate had been getting as they walked along; probably due to Killian rather than her. The pair crossed the road to Emma's apartment and she buzzed them in, leading Hook up the stairs.

She opened the door to the apartment and immediately laid her eyes on Henry, stretched out regally on the sofa with his feet propped up on the arm, just how Emma imagined Regina would sit if she knew nobody was watching. His beloved book was still in his hand and he didn't even flinch when they came in he was so immersed.

"Henry," Emma said quietly, her apprehensiveness for this conversation showing in her face. Hook stood back slightly, not wanting to greet the boy who didn't yet know who he was.

"Hey Ma," Henry replied nonchalantly, not even bothering to glance up from his book.

"Hey Kid, can you put the book down for one minute," she asked jokily, but her tone was shadowed by something heavier. "I've got someone I want you to meet."

Henry looked up at her sheepishly then, noticing the man in the background. He huffed sarcastically whilst folding over the page of his book and placing it on the coffee table.

Emma gestured to the man standing behind her. "Henry, this is Ho-Killian, we used to – uh – work together," Emma quickly covered. She didn't want to tell him that this man was the cause of the disruption yesterday morning.

"Uhhhh, okay…", he replied warily. His Mom was acting weird, like really weird. And his Mom only acted weird when she was trying to hide something from him. "It's nice to meet you Killian," Henry said, reaching his hand out to shake the pirate's. Such a little gentleman, Emma thought, thanks Regina. She smiled subconsciously.

Emma walked towards her son as he sat back down on the sofa. Before the awkward silence could take over too much she knelt down in front of him at his eye level and grabbed his hands in her own.

"Henry," she said softly, "this is going to sound really weird," she looked at him for approval, which he gave, "but I need you to just stick with me for a minute okay kiddo?"

He nodded.

"Something bad happened Henry," she said as she watched his face fall.

"Something which you don't remember, and neither did I until Killian helped me. You always tell me to trust my gut, and I did, and Killian helped."

"What do you mean something bad happened?", Henry interrupted, "Are you okay?" His face contorted with confusion and worry.

"Shit…I mean…ugh….I Probably shouldn't have started like that. I'm fine buddy, and so are you, but…god this is hard to explain. Its all going to become clear in a second but right now I just need you to trust me okay?"

"Okay Mom," he said happily, with only a slight hint of apprehension in his voice now. Emma was continually amazed by the trust her son put in her. She didn't feel like she'd ever done much to deserve it, and when she was his age she surely wouldn't have trusted someone so easily.

The blonde looked behind her at Hook, reaching out her hand and wiggling her fingers as a signal. He reached into his pocket then and pulled out the other vial of memory potion, placing it gently in Emma's hand for the second time that day.

Emma turned the bottle over in her hand in contemplation. If she gave Henry the potion, that would be it, they would have to go back. She didn't want to go back, she wanted to stay in their apartment forever and play video games and eat pancakes and popcorn and hide from reality. But I can't do that can I? Because I'm the Saviour, and I need to save everyone. Again. The only thing that stopped her from dropping the potion on the ground at that moment was the thought of Regina, how desperate she must have been to send Hook of all people after Henry and his other mother. She hated Hook, but she put her faith in him. Emma realised then that the only person she really cared about seeing back in Storybrooke was Regina. If it weren't for her son's adoptive mother she would probably stay in New York and never look back. It wasn't like she didn't want to see her parents again, but even after 4 years there was some unresolved tension between them.

Emma held the small bottle in her hand and extended it to Henry. "I know this makes no sense kid, but I need you to drink this. And I promise, I promise," she emphasised, squeezing his hands just a bit tighter, "everything will make sense if you do."

"You want me to drink that? Why?" Henry asked, confused. He picked up the vial and turned it in his hands, examining it. "It looks like something from Harry Potter… Its not like, the Draught of Living Death or something is it?" he asked, half joking but Emma could tell that he was scared, and unfortunately a sleeping curse was actually something they had experienced before.

"No kid," she laughed in reply, "it's not the Draught of Living Death, I promise. I took one and I'm fine, look!" she said, gesturing to herself.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I'll take it," he replied, immediately opening the bottle and emptying it into his mouth.

Damn that kid is brave, Emma thought to herself while Henry's eyes pinged wide open and turned a very light blue colour. She knew what was happening, it had happened to her earlier that day, all of his memories of Storybrooke were flashing through his mind like fast-forwarding a movie. Suddenly, his eyes returned to normal.

"Ma!" Henry cried.

"Henry," she said embracing him and holding him while he got back to grips with reality.

Henry looked up from her shoulder then and jumped to his feet.

"Killian!" he yelled, running over to the older man and hugging round his waist. "Well done, you did good. It can't have been easy to convince Emma to take that potion."

"No it wasn't boy," he laughed, "there was a lot of shouting."

"Now now, I didn't shout that much. Thanks for coming to find us Hook, I really appreciate it." Emma said as she ruffled her son;s hair lovingly.

The pirate looked happy with himself. "You're welcome Swan, but I didn't really have much of a choice. When the Evil Queen gives you orders, you don't say no," he smirked.

"My Mom sent you?" Henry said, his face lighting up even more than it did when he saw Emma again. "I knew she'd figure something out!"

He turned to his other mother then, "Ma, we need to go and find her. We need to go now! Please?"

"I don't know Henry, what we have here is good, its great. And there's no magical monsters or crazy immortal children to take you away." She looked upset, but Henry always knew exactly what to say to her.

"Mom, a hero would go back. You're the Saviour. So you have to be the hero. Please? What if Mom and Gram and Gramps are in danger?"

Emma was emotionally exhausted, but she knew that he son was right.

"Okay kid, lets just gather some things together." She looked over to Killian then, a thankful smile playing on her features.

"I guess we're going to Storybrooke…"

Storybrooke 2014

Regina strode briskly out of the front door of 108 Mifflin Street and into the icy winter air. As she walked down the path, a light sheen of snow covering the way towards her Benz which was in exactly the same spot as it had been a year ago, she reflected on how surreal it still felt to be back in Storybrooke without her son or his mother.

The curse that had brought them back again had recreated the town exactly as she had created it all those years ago. As far as Regina had seen everything was exactly the same, down to even the minutest details, and from this she concluded that the person who cast the curse must be a pretty powerful practitioner of magic. But the problem was, they didn't know who had sent them there. All Regina knew was that she had met the person in that missing year. She must have. She knew that there were some things that were very important; fundamental clues in working all of this out, but it was as if she was half drugged and her fuzzy brain just couldn't pinpoint anything.

Her mind was on such an analytical overdrive that whilst driving through the middle of town - past the library and the clock tower - on her way to the Town Hall for a meeting about the newly enacted curse and its castor, she almost missed the bright yellow bug parked just outside Granny's Diner. The former Queen applied the brakes so suddenly that she lurched forward, almost hitting her head on the steering wheel in the process.

Regina killed the engine suddenly, yanking off her seatbelt while she looked around her for any sign of her son and Emma, but of course they're in Granny's, she thought, they don't even bother to come and find me; they just fill their stomachs, of course. She couldn't help but grin to herself at the idea that just through the door, Henry and Emma were sitting in their booth shovelling fries and hamburgers into their faces whilst gulping down large mouthfuls of hot cocoa, undoubtedly with cinnamon on top. She doubted that either of them had changed that much.

She glanced up at the clock tower that was still frozen; the Saviour may have returned but they certainly had a lot of work to go before the curse was broken.

The brunette steeled herself for several long minutes, looking around the town and taking in her creation once more. When she realised she was simply delaying inevitable she clutched her keys painfully in her hand and stepped out of the Mercedes. She locked the car behind her and took one last deep, longing breath before she pulled out the Evil Queen façade. Her eyes narrowing, posture straightening, until she was ready to walk through the door of Granny's and be greeted with the two faces that had been ingrained into her mind for the last year.

Gently, she pushed the worn wooden door, feeling some of the flaking paint fall as her hand moved against the frame. A sharp ringing broke the tension Regina felt in the air and the bell above the door sounded to show that someone had entered. Immediately she found her eyes flitting around the small room, taking in all the patrons until they came to rest upon a pair of sparkling emerald pools. She allowed herself to drown in the weightlessness that those eyes provided her for only a few seconds before she moved her gaze to the not-so-small form coming towards her.

"Mom!" Henry yelled, running full pelt across the diner and into Regina's open arms. It had only been a year, but he had grown so much and his voice was at least an octave lower than it had been when she had last seen him.

"Henry", was all the he brunette mother could manage before tears began slipping down her cheeks freely. In this moment she didn't care what everyone thought of her, because the moment she had been dreaming of for what seemed like forever was finally coming true.

After a long minute, Henry pulled his head up from Regina's chest and looked up at her, tears in his own eyes.

"I missed you so much Mom," he said, gazing up at her with all the emotion she had craved for years after Emma Swan had arrived in Storybrooke. "Sorry we didn't come straight to find you but we were really hungry," he said cheekily, looking over at his other mother then, who was still gazing at Regina in what appeared to be awe.

Henry grabbed Regina's hand and practically dragged her over to the booth in the far corner, their booth.

Emma watched the pair as they came towards her, her heart beating in her chest. She hadn't known how she would feel when she saw Regina, but now all she could think about was the dream she'd had during the missing year. It made her heart ache in a special way for her son's other mother, because she knew how desperate Regina had been to see her son again, and now her dream was real.

Regina and Henry slid into the booth across from the blonde, the woman a lot more graceful than her now gangly son.

"Hi", Emma said, looking Regina nervously in the eye and giving her a shy smile. The blonde was still in shock that she was actually here, in Storybrooke. This time two days ago she had been happily making breakfast for her son, completely unaware that Regina or Storybrooke or even her own mother existed. Crap, Emma thought, Snow. However, her train of thought was interrupted when Regina replied.

"Hi", Regina said, also somewhat nervously. "So, Hook found you then I take it? Or did he fail in his task and you magically got back here on your own?" She said, smirking.

"The man travelled through worlds, found me, convinced me to drink some potion and brought us back to you and you still hate him?" Emma laughed externally, but internally she was berating herself. 'Brought us back to you', really Emma? Really? However the former Queen didn't seem to notice Emma's slip up.

"I wish I could have seen him making Ma drink the potion", Henry giggled, "It must have been hilarious."

"Hey, enough Kid, eat your hamburger and be quiet," she scalded him jokingly, wiggling her finger in his general direction.

Regina laughed halfheartedly at her son, she really was intrigued as to how Hook convinced Emma that fairytale characters really existed.

"So, what made you drink it? What made you listen to him?" Regina asked quietly.

"Well," Emma laughed, still appalled at how tactless the pirate had been, "first he turned up at our door, called me Swan, and kissed me, which needless to say didn't work and only made me angry", she chuckled. The blonde looked up at Regina to see a frown on her face, she liked to think that it was the mention of Hook kissing her, not that Regina had any reason to be jealous, but in reality it was probably the thought of Hook kissing anyone; something which turned Emma's stomach slightly too and she had had the misfortune to experience it.

"And…", Regina asked questioningly, bringing Emma back to the matter at hand.

"Then, he stalked me on my way to work, which obviously made me more angry. But then he said something that made me consider humouring him, so I did. I spoke to him after work and he showed me the picture of Henry and I here last year, which confused the hell out of me and then he started talking about my superpower. He asked me to use it on him, and I could tell he wasn't lying, so I drank the potion and bam, memories." Emma smiled at Regina, emphasising he final sentence with a childish splay of her fingers.

"What did he say which made you change your mind? It must have been something pretty profound even for the pirate?" The other woman asked, glancing down at her son who was almost finished with his meal now. Having him back next to her was like everything she had ever dreamed of.

"Ummm, uhhh," Emma choked. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Regina that it had been the woman herself that had changed her mind, it was that she didn't particularly want to tell the brunette about the dream she had had. She thought it might come off a bit creepy. Oh hey I had a subconscious dream about you and felt so attached to you even though I didn't know who you were that I was convinced by a strange pirate man into drinking a weird blue potion. No, Emma speculated, I won't be telling her that anytime soon. "It was nothing really, just something that jogged my memory I guess," she covered, badly.

Regina looked suspicious, but decided not to push it.

"Anyway", Emma continued, "we've heard a few things about what happened to everyone here, but I'd rather hear it from you. How did you guys even get back?"

"Well, that's under speculation at the moment. We have a town meeting in", she checked her watch, "fifteen minutes, where we will be discussing events. No one has any memory of the year, all we know is that another curse was cast. And not by me this time," she pointed out proudly, "and we don't know who did it, or what his or her motives are. Hopefully we shall be able to make some progress in this meeting. And afterwards," she turned to Henry now, "young man, we are going to get ice cream and you must tell me everything about New York, okay?"

"Definitely," he replied happily, resting his head on his mother's shoulder for a strange sideways hug before they all got up and headed to the Mercedes.

Emma, Henry and Regina all arrived at the town hall together. It was only when they were entering that Emma realised that she hadn't yet seen her mother or father and that there would likely be some hugging and a large amount of crying on Snow's part.

As they walked through the lobby Regina's heels clacked on the polished floor, her signature sound, and yet another thing which Emma didn't want to admit she had missed. A low rumble of voices could be heard as they approached the meeting room, Emma's arm around Henry's shoulders and Regina's hand tucked tightly into his, like she never wanted to let him go again.

The shrill sound of her mother's voice accosted Emma's ears before they'd even reached the room, as she and David were standing outside in the long corridor.

"Emma! Henry!" Snow screamed, in true Snow fashion. She ran towards them, Regina stepping out of the way just in time before she pulled her daughter and grandson into her arms.

"You're back!" she said, her face pressed somewhere between Emma's shoulder and Henry's head.

"Yup", Emma said, pulling back from the hug to look across at her father, a huge smile breaking out on her face, "we're back!" Emma and Henry both hugged Charming, whose excitement at their return had been drowned out by his wife's overzealous approach.

As her mother pulled away Emma felt as brush against her stomach and looked down. It was now that she noticed for the first time that her mother was pregnant. Emma unintentionally stretched out her arm and laid a hand on her mother's protruding stomach.

"You guys…?" Emma said, looking up at Snow and Charming with bright eyes and a smile stretching across her lips. Before the blonde could finish her mother interrupted.

"Yes," Snow announced with a smile to her daughter, "I hope that's not too weird for you…I can see why it would be… but..."

"No of course not, its fine, great even. Everything's weird around here, weird is good. It has been completely unweird where we've been and…its good to be home," Emma interrupted, looking down at her son and giving him a cheeky smile.

Before Emma realised what was happening Snow was yanking Regina into an embrace. She almost laughed out loud, because the situation really was weird, it was bizarre, and because Regina's face at that moment was a picture. She looked like she didn't know whether to teleport the hell out of there or summon her fireball or just accept it but before she had the chance to do any of those things Snow was pulling away and clasping her shoulders in those small bird-like hands.

"Regina," Snow began sincerely, making eye contact with the former Queen as she continued, "I just want to say thank you, because its entirely your doing that Emma and Henry are safe and alive and here", she emphasised, "so thank you Regina, really."

Regina wasn't entirely sure what to say in response. Mostly she was stunned, no one, well, no one other than Emma, had ever validated anything she'd done, or told her she had done a good job at anything, so instead of giving her former enemy phoney gratitude she told her the truth.

"It means a lot that you would say that Snow, but truly, I kept them safe and alive and brought them back here just as much for me as for anyone else", she said, looking across at Emma and Henry. "Plus I don't even remember doing it. However, as much as I hate to admit it, we really owe their return to the pirate. He did all the work, I just formulated the plan… apparently."

"I guess I shall have to thank Killian too then", said Snow, "maybe we could invite him round for dinner as a thank you?" she said, winking at Emma.

"Ew, Mom, stop, that's never happening. Ever." Emma said.

Snow raised her eyebrows suggestively at her daughter, "if you say so."

"Anyway," Regina said, drawing the attention away from Snow's attempt to match make her daughter yet again, and on to the matter at hand, "do we or do we not have a curse caster to catch?"

"Why yes, I believe we do," David replied, wanting to get out of the conversation that was steering towards his little girl's love life. She might not be his little girl now, nor have ever been, but it was still strange to think of her with any man, especially Hook.

"Lets catch this bitch," Emma stated matter-of-factly, not without a glare from Regina.

"It's okay Mom", he said to his brunette mother, "I've been living with her for a year, I know that word already."

"Miss Swan," she said looking pointedly at Emma, but with a smile broaching her features, "I do hope you haven't been teaching our son profanities again."