Disclaimer in Chapter One.

A/N: Well, this chapter was a labor of love. I couldn't get it just like I wanted it but I think the end result is acceptable. What do you think?

Also, no one has yet guessed correctly as to the common factor between this story's title and chapter titles. I am still offering a custom one shot to anyone who can guess. I'll give you a hint... it's all about the music y'all.

Let me know how you like this chapter. Enjoy!

Regina lay in the bed wide-awake, staring at the ceiling despite the late hour. It had been quite an eventful day. Her mind refused rest as she tried to understand all that had happened. She smiled brightly in the dark, throwing her arm across her eyes as she relived the excitement of seeing Emma and Henry there at the door, of just being in the same room with them again after all this time. It would all be so perfect but for the fact that they had no idea who she was. Except it seems Henry.

Henry appears to know so much more than she expected.

"Who are you? And how come I keep seeing you in my dreams?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Regina tried to hide the battling emotions of elation and fear. How could Henry possibly know?

"See, I was so confused when we left Boston and headed this way. I'd been looking for you but nobody has heard of this place. I mean, nobody. So I was sorta hoping it would be real, you would be real. But I was also hoping you wouldn't be real in a way. And now here I am, sitting in your study, drinking my cocoa," Henry smirked and nodded toward the hot drink on the table, "with cinnamon. Really? And the amazing part, you are real. So please just tell me the truth. Who are you?"

Regina just stared at him for a long moment. She didn't know what to say. Could she tell him? She didn't want to lie. Her mind wandered back to the days before Emma had come and broken the curse. She had lied so much. She lied about the curse, she lied about who she was. She made Henry think he was going crazy. And all that lying nearly cost her everything. It had nearly cost her her son.

She glanced up at Henry and quickly looked away. "I don't know what to say."

"Well, if you aren't who I think you are and this place isn't what I think it is then I'm going crazy." His words stung her and she felt tears prickling at her eyes. Crazy wasn't something she wanted to make him feel ever again.

"It's complicated," she started. How do you tell someone who has no idea who you are that yes, in fact, they do know you, that their dreams are real? She wasn't even sure what he had dreamed, so how could she say?

"What have you been dreaming?" It seemed reasonable to her to ask and the question allowed her time to think. It was like saying something without saying everything.

"All sorts of things," Henry shrugged. "But my dreams are more like memories, memories of things that I did with my mom. Only sometimes it isn't my mom, it's you. I know things about you from my dreams. You're Regina, the mayor of a town in Maine nobody knows exists. You're friends or partners or co-parents or something with my mom. And I call you mom too. Like, you're both my moms." Henry's voice was becoming increasingly agitated. He was getting more upset as he went along. "I don't understand. I dream about strange places. And magic. And I think I'm going crazy. But here I am, sitting in Storybrooke, drinking cocoa like it's the most natural thing in the world."

Regina didn't know what to say. She just looked down at her hands in her lap a moment and contemplated the right thing to do. She was prone to impulsive decisions she knew, but this was different. She needed to think. Finally Regina looked up and her chocolate eyes locked on Henry's green and for a moment they both just stared. She knew he knew who she was. She knew she should react somehow but she didn't know what to do.

With a heavy sigh, Regina got up, breaking the connection between them and walked over to the window. She looked out at the wide expanse of her yard. The yard where Henry had played. The yard where he had learned to ride a bike, where he'd fallen and broken his arm. She couldn't face him. She wasn't ready to tell him just yet but he kept talking.

"I just need someone to tell me the truth." There was real desperation in his voice. It was unbearable. Regina kept her back to him, but she could feel those wide and questioning eyes boring into her back. She could hear his breathing and knew instinctively, as only a mother can, that he was shaking, that tears were threatening to spill. But she wasn't ready yet.

"Henry…I- I don't know what to say. Has Emma… I mean, has Miss Swan… Has your mother had dreams as well?" Regina pushed harder trying to ignore the obvious, trying to delay the truth.

Regina heard Henry's shoulders rise and fall in a shrug, followed by a heavy sigh of his own.

Persistent questioning may come from Emma but that impatient sighing is mine. "I don't think so. She hasn't mentioned anything but I guess… maybe. But, what difference does that make? Please just tell me the truth. I'll understand. I can't take lie. Are you… are you my mom?"

Regina stood a moment, her body trembling, her mind racing. How could he possibly remember? Had the magic not worked? Was it because he held the heart of the truest believer? It didn't matter. The fact remained, he knew. So Regina turned, still standing at the window, and locked eyes again with her son.

In a barely audible voice she whispered, "Yes."

Before Henry had time to react however, the door to the study burst open and Emma came stumbling in. "Well, looks like you were right Madam Mayor. The wrecker can pick the car up tomorrow. But nothing can be done tonight."

Emma caught the last moments of the intense stare the two brunettes had been sharing. "Hey, is everything alright in here? Henry?"

"Yeah, Ma. It's okay. I just… uh, I got choked on this cocoa. Drank too fast." Henry ducked his head and gave Emma a sheepish grin. He glanced at Regina and she offered a small smile of thanks. Henry clearly understood this wasn't the time to tell his mom what was going on.

"Well Miss Swan, if you'd like, I know a quaint bed and breakfast in town that would be happy to put you and Henry up for the night. Let me drive you out to your car to collect your things and then I'll take you to Granny's." Regina painted on her most mayoral smile as she headed toward the door of the study.

"Oh, no. I can't ask you to do that. You've done so much already. And it's so late. Point the way out and we can manage. Call a cab or something." Emma smiled, suddenly embarrassed to take anymore of Regina's time.

"But I insist. We seldom get visitors in Storybrooke. This isn't exactly a tourist town. So, please, let me help you. I'm sure Granny will take good care of you." Upon Emma's continued hesitation, Regina went on, "I'm afraid I will not take no for an answer, dear."

"Well, in that case, okay I guess. Let's go kid."

After collecting their things, Regina had dropped them at the bed and breakfast. Luckily Snow had been able to reach them and although Ruby was struck silent upon seeing the returned duo, she managed to set them up in Emma's old room.

Regina sighed remembering Emma, in panties and a tank, answering that door when she'd first come to town. They'd been strangers then and not on good terms yet there had been something intense between them even then. How could I have overlooked that? Tonight had been much the same-strangers again at the same door but somehow this meeting ended on better terms.

Once she was sure they were settled in, and had assurance from Ruby that she'd stay up and call her if anything happened, Regina had come home. She'd been alone in her empty house since the denizens of the Enchanted Forest had returned to this realm but somehow it seemed emptier now that her family had come and gone again.

Lying in her bed, staring at the ceiling, she wondered if Emma and Henry were asleep. Were they worried about that deathtrap of a car? Were they thinking about their vacation? About her? You have got to get some sleep.

Regina took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She drifted off to sleep thinking of tomorrow. Tomorrow, as they'd agreed, she would have breakfast with her son and his mother. Tomorrow she'd be with her loves. Until tomorrow…

~( SQ )~

"Here's two hot chocolates with cinnamon. I hope you like it," Ruby said with a sleepy smile.

"Sure, thanks," Emma smiled in return to the leggy brunette.

"Do you want to order some breakfast or…." Ruby continued.

"I think we'll wait," Emma shrugged. "We're meeting someone."

"Okay then. Just wave me over when she gets here." With that Ruby sashayed back over to the counter and began talking in a whisper with a woman Emma could only assume was the namesake of the diner. Why did she assume I was waiting on a "she" to arrive?

Emma glanced at her watch. 7:50am on the dot. She and Henry had come into the diner a full 45 minutes early. Despite the late hour that they had arrived at the bed and breakfast, Henry had been up before the sun, raring to go. Emma had grumpily insisted from under her pillow that they could sleep a little later but her son had pulled back the curtains and turned on the TV in response. Now she found herself sitting in the diner, waiting for Mayor Mills—no, she said call her Regina-waiting for Regina and Emma got the feeling this town was a little unusual.

The blonde prided herself on being observant, a skill that had served her well in her work, so she noticed right away that although they were trying to be discreet, the townspeople who were huddled at the tables and booths in the diner kept casting secretive glances toward her and Henry. Emma noted that Henry kept looking over his shoulder towards the door.

"What are you watching for kid?" Emma inquired with a raised brow.

"Oh, nothing really. Just waiting for the mayor, I guess." With that, Henry turned his attention back to his cocoa and began studying the menu with a brow furrowed in concentration.

So he's watching for the mayor too. Emma smiled at the thought of her. Regina. The blonde's brief interactions with her up to this point told her the woman was complicated. She was clearly intelligent, she was the mayor, and yet she had allowed total strangers into her home, strangers she was about to meet for breakfast. She was being awfully kind to them and going out of her way to see they were ok. Must be how she became the mayor.

But there was something about her that Emma couldn't yet put her finger on. Something that kept her awake last night, staring into the darkness, listening to the silence, thinking about her. Sure she was beautiful, you'd have to be dead not to know that. And if Emma was honest she would say she found Regina sexy. But it was more than that.

Emma had met many attractive women in her lifetime, women who made her question her sexuality, women who gave her the answer to that question even if for just one night, but never one about whom she had lain awake thinking. She wasn't surprised at finding the brunette attractive, but she was lingering in Emma's thoughts in a way that perplexed blonde. Maybe Regina's fainting spell had caused this curiosity, this tenderness in Emma toward her. But that wasn't completely it either. It was a feeling of an itch on the back of her brain, almost like a forgotten memory, begging for attention.

The blonde shook loose the thoughts from her head, causing her curls to dance. She was being silly. She would have breakfast with the Mayor today, get her car fixed as soon as possible and get back on track with their vacation hopefully by tomorrow. She had no intention of letting her temperamental bug ruin this trip before it had even begun.

She glanced at her son. He was proving to be quite resilient with all the unexpected goings-on. Emma smirked. She had caught him looking over his shoulder again watching the door.

"Henry, it is barely 8 o'clock. She still has another 30 minutes before the time we agreed to meet." Even as the words came out of Emma's mouth, the bell over the door sounded its cheery jingle and the door opened to reveal Regina Mills in all her glory. She was wearing a tight black pencil skirt and red silk blouse with certainly an unprofessional number of buttons left undone. Her black stilettos were tapping out the rhythm for the beautiful symphony her body was playing as she approached their booth with a smile. The very sight of her made Emma inhale sharply. What is going on with you, Swan? You don't even know this woman.

Regina's heart was pounding as she made her way to the table. The brunette had to remind herself not to sprint to them. Seeing Emma and Henry now was just as emotional for her as it had been the previous night. She had hoped to arrive before them to the diner in order to verify the other patrons had been warned not to approach their magically amnesiac savior but it appeared the duo had been more eager to get there than she was.

"Sorry, am I late?" Regina smiled broadly, sitting down beside Henry.

"Oh, no. No, you aren't late. For some reason the kid got up before the sun and raced to get here," Emma smiled shyly, almost embarrassed by their early arrival.

"Well, it is certainly refreshing to see you are punctual Miss Swan. And good morning to you, Henry," Regina turned her attention to the boy and he smiled brightly at her.

"Good morning Regina," he said, wiping away the remnants of his cocoa. "What do you think we should do today?"

"Actually, I had hoped after breakfast to show you some of the sights. While we are not a tourist town per se, Storybrooke does have a lot to offer." Regina turned her smile from Henry to his other mother, looking for confirmation.

"Uh… yeah, I guess that sounds ok but I really don't want to interrupt your normal schedule. I'm sure as mayor you have like, mayor stuff to do, right? I can't ask you to take time away from work…"

Regina quickly interrupted Emma's polite refusal. "You didn't ask. I offered. It would be my pleasure. And really, if I've been the kind of leader this town deserves, it will run smoothly in my absence. So, would you like a tour?"

Emma glanced at her son and saw pleading in his eyes. He looked like he had as a much smaller boy, begging for a new toy or to stay up a few minutes past his bedtime. Her lips quirked up in a smile at the memory and she turned her attention back to the mayor. Spending the day with that beautiful face wouldn't be the worst thing, Swan.

"Ok then. That sounds great. But I do need to go by the mechanic and see what he can tell me about the bug first. I hope he can save her," Emma laughed, but there was worry in her eyes as if the car were indeed someone and not something about which she cared.

"Perhaps I may make a suggestion," Regina began tentatively, watching Emma's expression to be sure she did not push too hard too soon. "After our breakfast, why don't I take Henry to our lovely little library while you attend to your vehicle? Henry looks like a young man who enjoys a good book and our library has some very… unique things to offer. Then, when you have found out everything you wish to know about your car, you can meet us there and we will go on with our day. How does that sound?"

Regina noticed immediately the hesitation cross the blonde's face. With furrowed brow, she glanced between her son and the older woman. "The library is just down the street, under the clock tower. You can see it there from the window," Regina gestured to the left, her fill lips curving into a smile she reserved for times she wanted to get her way by flirtation and not force. It was midway between a smirk and childish pout. "I assure you, Henry will be safe. Do you trust me?"

Trust you? Lady, I don't even know you. You want me to just hand over my kid? Mayor or no mayor, we haven't even known each other 12 hours yet. I can't just send the kid off with you, no matter how sexy that smile is. I mean, are you even serious right now?

"Sure, sounds good." Emma was shocked as the words fell from her lips. Despite her misgivings and the short time she had known the other woman, Emma had a feeling Henry was as safe with the brunette as he would be with his own mother.

~( SQ )~

"Good morning Madam Mayor. And who have we here?" Henry noted the oddity of an Australian accent in the middle of nowhere Maine. The petite woman smiled brightly at him.

"Hello Belle. Henry, this is our librarian, Miss French. Belle, this is Henry Swan. He and his mother, Emma are visiting our fair city for a bit," Regina said with a look Henry couldn't be sure of, but it seemed she was trying to tell the other woman something with her eyes.

"How lovely. Welcome Henry. I hope you enjoy your visit." Belle beamed at the boy who had been her step-grandson.

"Thanks. So far everyone here has been really nice," Henry said, looking around the library at what appeared to be hundreds of old and interesting books.

"Henry, why don't you take a look around and let me speak to Miss French for a moment," Regina nudged him toward the fantasy section. "You might see something interesting over there."

"But, Regina… I was hoping we would get a chance to talk about… you know." Henry had liked the idea of seeing the library. He did love to read as Regina had suggested, but he also wanted the time alone with her to pick up the conversation from the night before.

"I assure you Henry, we are going to talk about that. I just need to ask Miss French something and I will join you," Regina said with a look that told Henry not to argue. Geez, she really must be my mom.

As he wandered toward the fantasy display he heard Belle whisper "Has Snow seen them yet?" before the mayor shushed her. He glanced back and both women were smiling, watching his retreating form. Then they were out of his earshot and he turned his attention toward a variety of amazing old tomes.

He'd never seen so many antique looking books before. Inhaling deeply, Henry took in the scent of paper and dust. It would seem odd to some to think that was a pleasing scent, but to a book lover, it was. Nothing compared to the smell, the feel, the weight of a book ready to whisk the reader away to places unknown. Henry was anxious to talk again to Regina, but the books would be a happy second choice for the boy.

"So, has she seen them yet?" Belle continued once Henry was far enough away.

"Not yet. I told her to give me today to see how things would go and then we would create some reason or other for them to meet the Charming's or Nolan's or whoever they want to be. She isn't happy about it, but this is a very delicate situation," Regina said with a frown.

"Yes, it would appear so. I had heard talk that they have no idea who we are. I can see by Henry's behavior that rumor is true." Belle looked at Regina with something close to compassion. "I'm sorry Regina. Is there some way to bring their memories back?"

The former queen shrugged off the sympathy. She and Belle had come a long way despite their complicated past, but sympathy wasn't something she was ready to take from the blue eyed beauty just yet. "Actually, I don't know of any way but that is what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you think there may be something in some of Rumple's books that might help? I was headed to New York today to bring them here on some pretense when they just appeared on my doorstep. I hadn't really thought things through yet, I just missed them so much and needed to get them here that I… What?"

Regina stopped her long-winded explanation at the smile stretching across Belle's face. "Them. You said you missed them and not him."

"Oh, well, of course I meant him. What difference does that make? Do you have the damn books or not Book-worm?" Regina tried to cover her slip up with feigned anger at Belle. While the Charming's knew for sure how she felt about Emma, her other former subjects only had suspicions that the once Evil Queen had fallen for the Savior.

"Alright, alright. No need to go all Evil…" Belle lowered her voice to a whisper, checking once again for Henry's proximity. "No need to go all Evil Queen on me Regina. I will check Rumple's things and let you know. And, uh… for what it's worth, I think it would be wonderful if you did miss them both. There is something perfectly poetic about love between the two of you. Light and dark… good and evil… plus you already share a son. I can see it. I think we all can."

Regina's eyes glazed with tears at Belle's words. The younger brunette smiled tenderly at Regina and laid her milky white hand on Regina's golden one. "Everything is going to work out Regina, I just know it."

Shaking herself from the cloud of emotion, Regina squared her shoulders back into her more regal stance. "Really Miss French, you've been spending too much time with the two idiots, spouting a hope speech like that. I'm surprised at—"

She was interrupted by a sound behind her. Regina turned to see Henry, tears streaming down his too grown up face, clutching a book to his chest. As she made a few steps toward her son, she noticed belatedly that the book in his hands was his book of fairytales. It had been missing since they had returned from the Enchanted Forest.

"Henry… are you alright? Why are you crying?" Belle had stepped around the counter and placed a supportive hand to the mayor's back. "Henry?"

"I remember… I remember everything."