A/N:

Hey Guys!

Another update for you! I'm in the middle of exams at the moment and they're crushing my soul and destroying my sanity so apologies in advance for any grammatical errors or atrocious spellings I missed! All I can think about is Philosophy…it's taking over. I hope you enjoy this chapter; it's another short one so apologies for that as well. Thank you to those of you that continue to review every chapter, you make my day.

Happy reading, enjoy!

Rosie xx

(I do not own Once Upon A Time or any of its characters. No copyright intended)

The sun was shining through the trees, reflecting off of the water's surface. Birds fluttered in the canopy of trees above the pair. This was one of Regina's favourite places in Storybrooke that she had created and she had always enjoyed coming down here to get away from everything that had plagued her, all the emotions that she had had to deal with over the last 30 years. Time may have been frozen, but for Regina it hadn't been and she had spent an inordinate amount of time before Henry alone with her thoughts; occupied constantly with…she wouldn't say guilt…but with a cacophony of destructive thoughts about everything she had gone through in her life. This was her safe place. She had started bringing Henry here when he was a child, to spend quality time with him away from all the stress and suffocation that being the mayor of a cursed town brought upon her. She had always enjoyed being in nature, though especially when she had the galloping hooves of a horse underneath her.

Regina and Henry walked along in silence, mostly because Henry was too focused on his ice cream to talk much. The brunette couldn't help but think that even though Henry had grown up this past year he was still the same Henry that she had loved his entire life. They walked slowly towards the bench, which sat directly in front of the pond, and sat down as Henry was just about finished with his ice cream.

Once they began talking they couldn't stop. They talked about everything that had happened in the last year. Henry took up his usual role of chief storyteller. He told her tales of the apartment that he and Emma lived in, he told her about his friends, his favourite places to eat and what he did on weekends. He informed her about school and she was glad to hear that Emma hadn't been lax in that department, but then the parenting skills she had given Emma when destroying the curse hadn't left much room for failure on that part.

The stories Regina enjoyed the most, however, were stories about his other mother. He told her of amusing times they had had and funny things that his mother had done. He retold one particularly amusing story of Emma's attempt to made homemade pancakes, which ended up with two firefighters, 4 neighbours and the building manager in their apartment, much to the blonde's embarrassment. From that day on, Henry confessed, still giggling from the recollection of the story, she had used shop-bought mix. Regina laughed out loud at Emma's unbelievable failure and made a mental note to teach Emma how to make proper pancakes one day. The brunette was so unbelievably glad that that they had been happy, because she had used that thought to reassure herself for the 370 days that they had been apart. The thought that they were happy, and that she had given them a good life, because that was really all that mattered, even if her life ad been filled with misery for the rest of eternity.

Henry did give Regina a chance to tell her stories too, and once they started talking about that they were off again. Henry wanted to know everything about Fairytale Land, forgetting that she didn't remember any of it. But she began telling him stories about things that had happened there before the curse. Not the bad things, of course, but the good things. He asked about the curse as well, and Regina told him what she knew, because he was old enough now not to be lied to and really for his own safety he needed to know what they were up against, so he could be on the lookout. Regina did not plan on Neverland happening again, ever. But she let herself forget about that now, because it wasn't the time. She was with her son, and she had been dreaming about this for what felt like forever, so she drank it all in and just appreciated being with him in that moment.

The town meeting had been stressful and frustrating. No one even had the faintest idea who they were looking for, or what they were up against so it was decided that they would search Storybrooke and watch out for any suspicious behaviour. There had been the obligatory blaming of Regina, from Grumpy especially, but Emma put that to rest rather quickly by saying that there would be absolutely no accusing Regina of anything, and that as the saviour she wouldn't tolerate it from anyone. Regina was innocent this time, she had voiced, much to everyone's shock.

Mr. Gold was present but unusually quiet and spent the duration of the meeting sat at the rear end of the hall with Belle, Emma had noticed. He was asked his opinion during the discussion and simply replied that he was remaining unaligned. This didn't go down well with almost everyone, but they also knew that there was nothing they could do to force him to obey them, he was the Dark One after all. They all simply hoped that he wasn't secretly fighting for the other side. Neal was sat as far away as humanly possible from Gold and as close as possible to Emma, something which didn't go unnoticed by the blonde. She wondered if her mother had a hand in that particular occurrence, as it was unlikely that her mother would ever stop trying to reunite her with her "true love", or any man for that matter.

Snow and Charming justly assumed that whoever it was would at some point make a move on the town hall to try and gather information. Regina also suspected that the person in question was after her, mainly because she was the former Queen and if anyone had done something to warrant cursing then it would almost definitely have been her. There was talk of Jafar's involvement, or the return of Maleficent, but neither had been seen so far which likely meant that they hadn't been cursed back.

Everyone one had been paired up in the hunt for the witch or wizard that had cast the curse; Snow with Charming, Red with Belle, Blue with Granny and Emma with Regina. Both women masked their actual happiness at being together and pretended to be ambivalent about the whole thing. Little did they know that they were both secretly pleased to be forced to spend time together. Their first task was to try and see if they replicate the memory potion that had restored Emma and Henry's memories.

That is how the two women found themselves walking into the mayor's office, having just left the town meeting. Luckily, Emma had the bottles on her person, so they were able to get started right away. The blonde took in the desk in front of her that was covered in technical looking science equipment and some magical looking things too. There was a big, old, worn book sitting on the edge of the oak desk. It was obviously from Fairytale Land and Emma reckoned it to look at least 500 years old. She turned and sat down in the chair at Regina's desk and reached into her pocket to pull out the vials, which she placed gently on the table.

It was obvious that Regina had been trying to create this potion since she had returned five days previously, and she picked up right where she left off. With a well-practiced flick of her hand the water in several tubes began bubbling, and several seconds later a clear liquid began dribbling down slowly into a flask beneath. Emma watched intently as Regina ground something in a pestle and mortar.

"You've been trying to make this already then I guess?" Emma asked politely. She often didn't know how to act around her son's other mother when they were alone. The woman was always so polite to her but today she had said some things which had made Emma believe that they really were friends.

"Yes," Regina answered, a hint of sadness pushing through behind her mask. "As soon as we arrived here and realised that no one remembered anything I set straight to work attempting to make a memory potion. But so far I haven't been successful. I have limited ingredients, some aren't in the quantities I need.

Emma leant her elbows on the desk, her head resting on her hands. She leant forward to get closer to what Regina was doing and looked up at the brunette.

"You can do this," Emma encouraged, "You were the evil fucking queen for christ's sake, you can make a memory potion. It like child's play." Emma smiled up at her and for a second Regina couldn't tear her eyes away from the grinning face in front of her. Gods, she had wanted to see it for so long and now it was finally here she didn't know what to do other than stare aimlessly.

Regina picked up the test tube containing the grey powder, and then picked up the glass flask containing the liquid. She poured one into the other and swirled it around with a small delicate mental spoon.

"Did it work?" Emma asked preemptively, almost childish in her excitement.

"There's only one way to find out", Regina replied looking directly at the blonde. She raised the container to her lips and drank it all in one graceful shot. Emma's mind wandered for a second and debated what Regina would look like taking a shot of tequila…now that was something she wanted to see.

Regina looked up at the far side of the room, but her eyes seemed like they were looking at something else.

"Do you remember?"

The brunette's features suddenly constricted into a frown. Without warning Regina launched the flask across the room where it smashed violently against the wall. Shards of glass littered the floor around the doorframe.

Emma flinched away, cringing her eyes closed. "Either that wall did something really bad to you in the last year or it didn't work…" She smoothed the hair behind her ear and sat up straight again, leaning her arms back on the desk in front of her.

"I thought I had it right this time," Regina stated angrily as she turned around, looking at the table in front of her. Suddenly, her eyes sparkled and she looked across the table to Emma, seeing the vials in front of her.

"Could you please pass me those bottles?" she asked, reaching over the kit to grab them out of Emma's hand.

"Have you had an idea? Please tell me you've had an idea…because I'm kind of bored. I never was very good at science," Emma laughed.

"Maybe." The brunette said warily, "I think that maybe if I can get anything out of these bottles, I can perform a replication spell on it to make more. It's quite advanced and something which I have only done a few times but it could work."

"Then lets do it. Maybe then we can start waking some people up and finding out who the hell cast this curse. I'm really getting sick of curses," Emma said with distain.

"Well that the price of being the Saviour dear," Regina said mockingly, her mouth rose in just the tiniest hint of a smile. "Thank you."

Emma looked up at Regina sincerely, "for what?"

"You saw how quick some people in this town were to blame me, but you believe I didn't cast the curse. So thank you, for sticking up for me. I know we've mostly been…" she searched for the right word, eyes locking with Emma's as she considered he words carefully, "opposed, to each other. So I appreciate that must have been hard for you."

"No," Emma replied quickly, shocking Regina. "It wasn't hard for me, I know you didn't cast that curse. My superpower might not always be flawless but for some reason I always know when you're lying Regina."

Regina was at a loss for words. She stared at Emma for several long seconds just trying to process what the blonde had said to her. Emma believes me. No one ever believes me. Emma's confession meant more to Regina that she ever thought she would be able to put into words, especially considering that the former sheriff had advocated for her on more than one occasion now.

For probably the first time since she was a child being berated by her mother, Regina stuttered, "I…I don't know what to say Emma," she replied to the woman sitting across the table from her.

"You don't have to say anything. I just feel like its time we were on the same side", Emma replied. The blonde's mind drifted back to the dream she'd had last year, the one with Regina in, before she even knew who Regina was. Even then she'd felt a connection to her, and when the brunette had told her to tell Henry she loved him, Emma had known that she wasn't lying. But they couldn't talk about this now, and maybe not ever, because as far as the blonde was aware her son's other mother had no recollection of this dream.

The brunette looked at her son's other mother somewhat nervously, "If you wanted to, you and Henry are welcome to stay with me at the mansion. The apartment must be rather small, especially with the baby on the way, and I have ample room. You don't have to give me an answer right now, but the offer is there if you so wish to accept."

Emma had intended to graciously decline the offer, to tell Regina that she was looking for a place for them and thank her for the suggestion, but instead what came out of her mouth without a moment's hesitation was the complete opposite.

"Yes, I mean, if that's okay, I know Henry would love to spend more time with you but I wouldn't want to get in the way. I'm already looking for a place for us so it wouldn't be for very long," Emma answered.

"You wont get in the way at all, it would be my pleasure."