David sat at Regina's kitchen island, sipping a bourbon he'd poured once they got home and she took Henry upstairs. He let out a breath as he leaned his elbows on the counter, bowing his head to relieve the tension in his neck and run a hand through his hair. Everything there was as he'd left it, even down to the placement of his favorite bourbon tumbler, and it stoked the turmoil inside of him.

It seemed like every inch of the home had a memory attached to it and the day's events had drained his ability to ignore them like he had before when he barged in angrily. He sighed and reached down to pick up the glass, swirling it around as he studied his initials etched on the side. It was yet another inanimate object in the mansion that took him back and he let himself slip into the memory of when she'd gifted it to him.

"Happy birthday," he could hear the smile in her tone when she came up behind him and slipped a perfectly wrapped box on the counter. She stood behind him where he sat on the stool, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning against his back.

He chuckled softly and scooted his coffee mug out of the way, feeling her arms squeeze his torso, "I told you not to worry about buying me anything," he smiled when he felt her rest her chin on his shoulder.

"You should know by now that I don't listen to you, Husband," she joked and pressed a kiss to his cheek, "Well, aren't you going to open it?"

"I can't decide..." he hesitated, turning his head to the side to smirk back at her.

"Decide what?" her brows furrowed in an adorably worried way.

"Which present to open first-" David grinned playfully, reaching behind him and tugging the tie of her robe loose as he turned around on the stool to face her, "Mmm, looks like I made the right choice," he groaned as her robe parted and his eyes feasted on her bare skin.

"There's a toddler upstairs that will wake soon, if you've forgotten," Regina smirked but made no move to stop him, laughing instead when he gripped the fabric of her robe and pulled her to stand between his parted legs.

"Hmm-" David glanced at the silent baby monitor on the kitchen counter before he leaned in to kiss her slowly, slipping his hands under her robe and running them over her bare hips, "He's still fast asleep. Besides, it's not my fault. I can't think straight when I know you don't have anything on under there."

She gave a breathy laugh when he peppered kisses down her jaw to her neck and pulled her closer to him, his hands running mischievously over her ass, "I guess it wouldn't be right to deny your birthday wishes-" she smirked and tilted her head to the side, letting her eyes close briefly at the way he kissed her neck.

"Definitely not," David hummed against her skin, making her yelp and then laugh in surprise when he suddenly gripped below her bottom and lifted her up to straddle his lap.

"This could get dangerous," she grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck and clinging to him as she balanced herself on his lap.

"Don't worry," he gave her a cocky smile, swiveling the stool and sitting her up on the counter in front of him with ease. Her eyes darkened with lust and she gave him a magnificent grin when his hands traveled up her calves to her knees and slowly spread her legs, "I just wanna make sure my gift is properly unwrapped."

"Let me help you," Regina nodded breathily, leaning back with her elbows on the counter and spreading her legs wider.

"Fucking hell, Regina," David growled as her parted robe fell to her sides and displayed her perfect body, making her smirk at his reaction to her shameless behavior.

"Oh - you're still here," Regina's statement startled him out of the memory and he quickly looked up from his whiskey glass. He cleared his throat in an attempt to gather his wits, seeing her near the kitchen entry looking equally surprised by his presence.

"Should I go?" David frowned slightly and downed the rest of his drink, sitting the empty glass on the counter. Their current reality was such a stark contrast to the memory he'd been reliving and it jarred him all over again.

"Since when is that up to me?" Regina avoided his gaze, making her way over to the counter where he'd left the bourbon to pour herself a glass. "You chose to leave. I didn't force you to."

"Well, not the first time, but you did the second," David shrugged, not being able to stop her coolness from getting under his skin. He had offered for he and Henry to stay there so she could be with her son and wasn't alone after the day she had. Why did she still feel the need to be confrontational?

"Is this why you told Henry you'd come here tonight? To rub salt in my wounds?" she asked with her back to him, picking up her bourbon and taking a healthy sip.

"No, actually," he frowned as he noted how stiff her posture was while she refused to turn and face him, "I thought that after what you and Henry went through today that you'd want to be together."

"That still doesn't explain your presence," she replied as she turned around with the whiskey tumbler in one hand and a bitter expression, "-or am I only allowed unsupervised visits when you're busy trying to get your family back?"

"Are you serious?" David scoffed bitterly and shook his head, "We're back to this now? We could've lost Henry today to a violent man that you brought to this realm, and you want to pick a fight with me?!"

"Forgive me, but we haven't exactly been on the best of terms recently. Surely you can understand why your sudden consideration throws me."

"My mistake. I thought after losing your first love for the second time that you might be experiencing the natural human emotions that would evoke-" he rolled his eyes, "I forgot who I was dealing with."

"Third time."

"What?"

"That was the third time I've lost Daniel. Whale attempted to bring him back to life using the heart transplant procedure back in the Enchanted Forest just a few years after he died," Regina explained, forcing it all out before the emotion could catch up with her. She was exhausted, mentally and emotionally. She mourned Daniel, she felt guilty for what Henry had been through, and she was angry with David for pretending to be concerned. "What I'm wondering is why you care? You've made it clear that you don't believe me capable of real feelings or emotion. You hate me for what I've done, so why are you here?"

"Again, I thought you and Henry should be together tonight and I didn't want you to be alone," David grit out, leaving out his confusing feelings for her as he pushed the stool back and stood, "-that you would be upset. Like I said, I didn't consider who I was dealing with."

"Oh, so you were afraid I'd do something rash - go all Evil Queen on the town since my heart was broken again?" Regina smiled fakely and downed the rest of her liquor.

"For gods sake, Regina, I thought you might need someone! You lost someone you loved all over again and no one should have to go through that! Not even the Evil Queen!" He snapped at her, losing what was left of his tattered patience.

"I don't need your pity!" She replied sharply, her eyes glittering with anger and unshed tears, "I don't need you to pretend to care what I'm going through out of some heroic duty, just so you can throw it back in my face later. Don't pretend that you'd give me a second thought if your precious wife and daughter were back!"

"Forgive me for not knowing proper post-curse etiquette-" he said sarcastically, glaring back at her. She had a way of working him into a rage in record time and he was too tired to stop the words from coming out of his mouth. "Tell me what I should do, then! Please, I'd love to know how to detach as easily as you have. Then again, you always knew this was all a lie. I guess it would be easier for you."

"Easier for me?!" she let out a sharp, humorless laugh, "Of course, Charming. I'm having the time of my fucking life here."

"It's not like I can tell what's actually going on in that head of yours-" he said angrily, rounding the counter to stand in front of her, "One minute you act like you may actually have remorse for what you did to me and the next moment you're throwing it in my face. Not to mention you said you wanted to redeem yourself for Henry, but you harbored a man that could've killed him today!"

Tears threatened to spill over her lashes as she slammed her glass down on the counter and stepped closer to him, "You think I don't hate myself for putting him in danger?!"

"You should've told me what was going on here," he replied firmly, staring her down as his chest heaved with an angry breath, "You made a promise to Henry. What good would it be if you weren't around to keep it? That monster could've killed you!"

"I've dealt with worse monsters," she snarled through clenched teeth, keeping her gaze locked on his defiantly.

"I wasn't talking about magical beasts you've slain back in the Enchanted Forest, Regina-" he snapped sarcastically.

"Neither was I."

He stared at her for a moment, caught off guard by the simple response and the haunted look in her eyes. The part of him that still felt like her husband made him want to ask her to elaborate. There was so much he didn't know about her past and her insinuation made his stomach turn. What exactly had she been through to leave her so broken?

David's temples pounded and his heart ached, shaking his head slowly after a few seconds of silence between them. He was beyond exhaustion at this point, tired of living with the constant emotional turmoil. The same turmoil he saw reflected in the whiskey brown eyes that met his gaze now. He was desperate to believe them. Desperate to believe she was struggling as much as he was.

"I'm so tired of this-" he shook his head, taking a step back and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I didn't ask you to be here-" Regina's jaw was clenched when he looked back up at her, seeing a tear slide down her cheekbone, "Henry can stay while you get your wife and daughter back."

"They're not coming back, Regina!" he admitted, his voice cracking as he looked away from her in defeat, "When Spencer framed Ruby he burned the hat. There's no portal-"

"What?" The edge was gone from her tone and she looked genuinely shocked when he turned his gaze back to her.

"I wouldn't even have enough fairy dust to activate a portal if I had one-" he shrugged, leaning back against the counter behind him and pressing his hands against the edge.

"Why didn't you tell me that night?"

"Tell you that you've torn Snow and I apart again indefinitely? While you were going home to your first love?" he rolled his eyes, "-I didn't know the extent of what was going on here. You led me to believe Daniel's issue was manageable and that the two of you were together."

"It wasn't like that. He was ill and not himself. He was sedated most of the time-" Regina confessed and he hated the sliver of relief he felt at the knowledge she hadn't been physically intimate with Daniel. He shouldn't care at all.

David watched her for a long moment, studying her expression as he processed their conversation. Her usually squared shoulders seemed to sag with the same sense of defeat he felt himself and he sensed her walls were slowly lowering.

Her lips parted and her throat visibly constricted before she spoke again, "I do...feel remorse for what I did to you. I am sorry for lying to you, but..." she hesitated and her breath hitched softly, "-but I'm not sorry for the time we spent together. I was happy."

His heart felt like it was in a vice grip as he processed her words, trying to determine what exactly she was confessing, "Happy because you got your way with the curse...or happy with me?"

Regina swallowed at the knot forming in her throat and her heart threatened to beat out of her chest. Her emotional exhaustion had allowed the words to come out before she'd known what she was saying and now the panic hit her. She felt suddenly aware of their close proximity as she stared back at him while he watched her intently for her answer. Her eyes shifted away momentarily and she cleared her throat, looking back to him when she'd gathered herself enough to reply, "What does that matter now?"

"It matters-" David's jaw twitched as he looked down at her, pressing her with his gaze. He knew they were both aware of what it was he was asking her, but that neither of them had wanted to approach the subject. The trust wasn't there anymore and to admit to real feelings would be giving the other power.

"It doesn't-" she stared up at him, trying to be firm and ignore the suffocating tension. "The reality is that you're married to Snow. You know you won't stop until you get them back-"

"Damn it, Regina-" he muttered, seeing her completely shut down. The walls were back up, all traces of vulnerability gone, leaving those haunted eyes staring up at him.

"I should go back up in case Henry starts having the nightmares again. The guest room is available if you insist on staying," she replied, her voice even and devoid of all emotion. He watched her silently as she slipped past him and made her way out of the kitchen into the foyer.

It felt like she had been so close to answering the question that had been tearing him apart, but ended up leaving him more conflicted than he felt before. Was she confessing to having feelings for him by saying she was happy during the curse? Or had she meant that she'd been vindicated by taking away Snow's happiness? Did she mean to insinuate that their marriage became real for her or was she being intentionally ambiguous? Was it a game to keep him confused and distracted?

He hated himself for even giving it a second thought. He knew the facts. Regina lied to and manipulated him, used him as a pawn for her own revenge. She'd shown him her true colors and yet he was still seeking out what he wanted to see and believe out of her. Snow was in a different realm, yet all he could think about was if Regina reciprocated any of the feelings that tortured him now.

It was pathetic and he knew he had to get it under control. He was being a poor excuse for a hero. He had a duty to Snow. She was his One True Love. He should be trying to find her and their daughter and destroy anyone who tried to stop him. Not getting caught up in his feelings for a woman that were fabricated by a curse. Not letting himself give up on his family so easily. His feelings were irrelevant and would fade with time. Once he got Snow and Emma back everything would fall into place. It had to.

Regina had barely slept the night before. She'd gone to bed panicked over what she'd almost confessed to David. Then by the time she had showered and crawled into bed, everything that transpired with Daniel hit her and she finally allowed herself to let out those emotions. She'd cry herself to sleep only to dream about him and wake again, then lay in silence trying to distract herself from it. Her thoughts would lead to David being on the other side of the wall in the guest room and she had to force herself not to go to him for comfort.

For years now he'd been her safe place. He was the one who listened to her thoughts and fears and problems. He'd talk her through everything or simply hold her, depending on which she needed. She'd never felt so safe or reassured than in David's arms and she craved it now so much it hurt. Knowing he was under her roof and that she couldn't seek him out only compounded the loneliness and longing she felt.

However restless, she made it through the night after falling and remaining asleep in the early morning hours. David and Henry were still in bed when she came downstairs so she started making her son's favorite breakfast in hopes he would stay just a little while longer. She had started to worry that Henry would come downstairs and hate her all over again. That the kindness he showed her the night before would be gone.

Thankfully the worry was a short lived and she smiled to herself as she watched him beside of her now, making a mess of the stove with his determination to flip the pancakes. He'd come down shortly after she did, seeing her getting out the ingredients and excitedly offered to help.

"Dang it," Henry sighed in frustration when he turned a pancake and found it black on the bottom.

"It's okay, you're getting better," Regina encouraged with a smile, abandoning the eggs she whisked to step over to him at the stove, "There's actually a trick to it. Once you pour the batter into the pan, you watch the top of the pancake and when little bubbles start to form, then it's ready to turn. Try again."

"Okay," he nodded, brows furrowed in concentration as he discarded the burnt pancake and grabbed the batter, pouring some more into the pan.

Being near him and getting along like they used to was exactly what her weary heart needed right now and she knew she should be grateful to David for considering that. He was the last person who should be thoughtful of her feelings and yet he had been. It was so typical of the man he was. Kind and caring and good. Even to the Evil Queen.

"It worked!" Henry grinned widely when he flipped the pancake after a few moments to reveal the perfect golden brown side.

She laughed softly at how proud he was and nodded, "See, I knew you'd get the hang of it in now time. Now we'll need a few more. You know how many you and your Dad can wolf down," she added teasingly.

Henry laughed himself and went to work on the next pancake, "How'd you learn to cook? Didn't you have servants and stuff growing up and when you were Queen?" he glanced at her curiously.

"That's right," she nodded and went back to whisking the eggs as they chatted, "I didn't know anything about cooking until Storybrooke..."

"Really? But you're so good at it. When did you start?"

"Well it wouldn't been a year or so after the - uhm, after we came here-" she nodded, "Your Dad and I were living off of Granny's. Which was fine for me, I only got salads, but you know how he is. He goes for the burgers just like you-" she glanced at Henry playfully, "-and he was just as hopeless of a cook as I was. I didn't want him eating unhealthy diner food three times a day, so I bought a cookbook and taught myself."

David watched them from the side entry to the kitchen, biting his bottom lip at the conversation. Seeing how patient and loving she was with Henry softened him, but hearing her say she'd learned to cook for him had his chest feeling warm. She'd gone out of her way to teach herself something out of concern for his well-being.

He'd come downstairs with every intention of telling Henry they needed to get back to the loft and put some space between himself and Regina. But now after watching them and hearing what he had, it felt considerably harder.

"Did you burn pancakes at first, too?" Henry asked Regina.

"If I recall correctly, quite a few of those first meals were...well done," David said jokingly as he made his presence known and walked further into the kitchen.

Regina looked up at him with a startled expression and he noted the dark circles under her eyes that she'd attempted to cover with makeup. He hated the way she appeared to brace herself for an attack in his presence before realizing he was joking. The smile she gave him then sent a pang of guilt through him and made him wonder how he could have ever been so cruel to her as he had been.

For a moment they both seemed to forget their current reality and let themselves live in the past. She looked tired but the smile was a sweet and honest one that rose to her cheeks and shone out through warm eyes. It was the same one she used to give him when he'd tease her, back when he would follow up those jokes with a bear hug and a reassuring kiss. Henry's laugh at David's statement brought them both back to the present and Regina turned her gaze to their son.

"What are you laughing about?" she scrunched up her face, smiling playfully at him.

"Nothing-" he smiled and then glanced up at David, "Dad, get the plates out! We made pancakes and bacon and eggs."

"That's...quite the feast," David nodded as he stepped further into the kitchen, working on rolling up the sleeves of his flannel to his forearms. He'd had every intention of leaving as soon as he came downstairs and now he didn't know how to act. It all felt so familiar and Henry looked so happy.

"You both always used to wake up starving, so I just thought before you go-" Regina shrugged in an attempt to explain herself and glanced up at David briefly, finding it hard to make eye contact with him after what she'd said the night before. Besides, she didn't want him thinking breakfast was her way of getting them to stay longer...even though it had been.

"Thanks, it looks great," David nodded, sensing the awkwardness them. He hated that he made her feel so on edge after everything she'd been through the day before and he knew he probably threw her with his teasing. They could barely speak a few sentences to each other without fighting lately and suddenly he was cracking jokes about the early years of their marriage? Idiot, he scolded himself. "I'll get the plates."

"Go where?" Henry looked up from flipping the pancakes, glancing back and forth at Regina and David as he questioned her previous statement.

"Uhm, well-" Regina glanced at David awkwardly, seeing him turning from the cabinets with the plates and an equally confused expression. She took a breath and looked back to Henry reluctantly, "I assumed you and David would be going back to Snow's loft today."

"I don't want to go back to the loft-" Henry mumbled and looked down at the stove, setting the spatula aside in sudden disinterest of cooking.

"You don't?" David frowned slightly as he set the plates on the counter, watching his son avoid looking at them, "We've been staying there for weeks now...why don't you want to go back?"

"Because..." Henry looked up, glancing between them as if he logically knew why they all hadn't been living under the same roof, but didn't want to accept it, "-because it's not our house, this is our house. All of our stuff is here, Dad. And-" his voice trailed off as he glanced up at Regina and swallowed hard, silently acknowledging that he missed his mother as well before looking back at David, "-besides, being there just reminds me of Snow and Emma and it makes me feel bad that we haven't found them."

David let out a long breath in the silence that followed, seeing the way Regina diverted her gaze towards the counter at Henry's mention of Snow and Emma. He knew exactly how Henry felt. Being in the loft felt out of place and it wasn't home for them. Their time spent there was consumed with finding his wife and daughter and the guilt that came when they continuously failed. But being here at the mansion with their family photos on the wall and their clothes in the closet and the smell of breakfast coming from the kitchen and the sight of her barefoot at the stove, that was home for them and it had been for years now. It wasn't an easy feeling to shake.

"Henry, it's a little more complicated than that-" David said hesitantly, not knowing exactly how to respond.

"Mom, don't you want me to be here?" Henry turned to her with a frown, all traces of his usual maturity snuffed out by a child that desperately wanted some normalcy in his life.

"Henry, of course I do-" Regina's heart sank and she swallowed hard.

"Then why don't you tell him we should come back home-" Henry's tone was slightly pleading now as he looked up at her, "We don't know how long Snow and Emma will be gone for. So why can't we just all stay here like we used to while we figure things out?"

Regina's mouth opened slightly but nothing came out as she stared at his pleading expression. She wanted nothing more than to tell him he could move back in but she swore she was going to redeem herself and starting a custody battle with David was not going to convince him she was trying to change. Besides, Henry made it clear he wanted David to stay as well and she had no clue how to respond to that.

David saw Regina look to him speechlessly, her expression beckoning him to step in and break up the moment. He knew they were still unsure of how to be in the same room together, let alone live under one roof again with their son. They certainly weren't ready for a conversation like this in front of him.

"Your Mom and I will talk after breakfast," David spoke up, causing Henry to look at him as his mouth opened to protest, "Henry, that's enough. I said we'll talk after breakfast," he replied firmly, not giving him a chance to argue.