S&N

CHAPTER XX

Bacon, Balls and Benches

Bacon. Emma woke up to the smell of frying bacon. For a moment, she thought she might be dead. It was the only explanation. Emma laid there and took it all in: the fluffy cloud bed, the peaceful quiet and, of course the mouthwatering smell of bacon. The fall had killed her and she'd gone straight to Heaven.

Then she heard her phone chirp. She was pretty sure that even Verizon didn't have service in the afterlife. She cracked open one eye-not heaven, Regina's posh guest bedroom. Emma sat up, found her jeans on the carpet and grabbed her iphone. Sixteen text messages from Mary Margaret. Twelve missed calls. Emma rolled her eyes, it was way too early to deal with her princess would-be mother. She pulled her pants on, hopping a little to get the skinny jeans over her hips. She checked herself in the mirror and winced. She finger combed through her tangled hair and scowled at her rumpled self. It was, she decided as good as she could get,though. She ventured out into the hallway. According to her phone it was almost seven, AKA way too early. Still, though, Henry had to get up and go to school and they had to get him and his damn project to school. Speaking of her son, she pushed open his bedroom door. He was awake, but not quite functional. He had a wild bed-head and was still shirtless. He was rummaging through his drawers for something, and oblivious to her presence.

"Morning, Kid."

Henry looked up and grinned, "Hey Mom. I think Mom's making breakfast." He said it all off-hand, jumbled together and without hesitation. Emma smiled and left him to get ready for school. She should tell him to shower, but he didn't smell funky so he was okay for the day. Besides what Regina didn't know wouldn't hurt either of them.

She headed down the stairs, one hand on the banister, and let her nose lead her to the kitchen. She might have passed off last night as a dream-a concussion fantasy. Here she was though, in the Mifflin Mayoral Manor for breakfast. Someone was in the kitchen and humming. Humming something that sounded suspiciously like a White Snake song. Emma leaned against the doorway and soaked in the scene. Regina moved around her kitchen in bare feet with an apron tied over actual casual clothes. Her dark hair wasn't styled. After sleeping on it, it had started to wave and Regina had pushed it behind her ears. She flipped pancakes with ease and seemed happy. It was a good look on her,the happiness-not the pancakes. Regina deserved a little moment of happiness. Emma's eyes appreciated the show and her stomach definitely appreciated the pancakes-in-the-making.

"Hey."

Regina jerked, the spatula clanged against the pan, and she turned.

"Good Morning." She pretended as if nothing had happened. Had Emma not seen her jump, she would have believed that, too.

Emma walked into the kitchen, hands tucked into her pockets. "It smells amazing, Regina." She smiled, "Henry is up and getting dressed already."

Regina nodded and laid four white plates on the counter.

"Hey!" Henry tromped in a minute later, "Can we eat-"

"On the patio? That is an excellent idea, Little Henry. Fresh air is good for digestion." Esmeralda breezed in after him, cutting off what Emma was sure was going to be a request for living room and TV. She kinda agreed with the woman,though, there was a table and chairs on the patio and it was a pretty morning.

"Regina?" Emma looked at her, she was portioning steaming food onto the plates. "That sounds wonderful."

"Your tree is fixed" Henry sat in one of the patio chairs. He already had a strip and a half of bacon in his mouth.

"Chew, swallow then speak, Kid." She told him when she saw Regina's brow furrow. She could tell that Regina had been about to say something similar. Instead of glaring at her for saying something. She almost choked on her pancake. Were she and Regina co-parenting Henry now? Holy shit. Emma realized exactly how domestic everything had been: pizza, homework and now breakfast. The usual fear, the nagging need to run that had plagued her the night before was gone this morning. Then again, maybe it was too early to think about running away.

"You healed your tree like you healed Emma?

Regina sipped her coffee, her eyes guarded. "Yes. Using my magic for healing-for good-will help me be better. Esmeralda is helping me." Henry tilted his head for a moment. "You have good magic too?"

Esmeralda smiled over her tea, "She does. She was born with powerful magic and a duty to wield it for the good of her protectorate."

Henry blinked, "Protectorate?"

"Storybrooke." Emma took a sip of her own coffee and closed her eyes in pleasure. It was damn good coffee. "Your Mom created it and took care of it , protected it, for almost thirty years. It doesn't matter what happens next. "If she's Queen, or Mayor or none of the above, she'll never stop being it's protector." She looked at Regina then back at Henry, "Just like she'll never stop being your Mom."

Henry stabbed at his pancakes, "But

my Mom." Regina looked away, and Emma would bet big baller money that there were tears in her eyes now. "Can I have two moms?"

The answer came in the form of hearty laughter from Esmeralda. "Of course you can, Little Henry. There is no limit on family and love. You are lucky to have two parents who love you so strongly. Many are not so lucky."

Henry frowned at that for a moment, his lips quirked. It was a mirror image of his mother's expression. The one that meant I'm thinking of forty ways to verbally destroy you. "And you" He was looking at them both, "Aren't going to fight anymore?"

Damn this breakfast had gotten super serious super fast.

"I'm not going to fight anyone, anymore, Henry. I am 'trying to be a better person."

"For me?" Henry swirled his fork through pools of syrup on his plate.

"For myself too."

Everything paused, the tension was so thick that Emma could have cut it with a sword.

"Okay." Henry smiled. "Does that mean you can take me to school today? My project won't fit into Emma's Bug." It was so casual, so easy. Henry was a kid and his behavior, his attitude, changed on a whim. God help them when he hit his teens. He would be a terror.

"She has a bug? That project will not fit on a bug." Emm tried to not laugh, but the baffled expression on Esmeralda's face was hilarious.

Her pocket buzzed again, but instead of Mary Margaret blowing up her phone, it was her Alarm and it very clearly read: Get the Kid to School!

"Oh crap, we're going to be late."

Henry's eyes went wide, "I'm never late!"

Regina waved her hand in a quick circle, "Everything is in my car, but Miss Swan is still blocking me in."

She frowned at the table full of empty dishes and cups.

"Go, Nightingale, go take him to his teachers. I will clean this all up."

That worked for Emma. She stood up, "Come on, I'll follow you down and help you get that thing into the school."

Regina stood too, "Okay, but I need to get dressed-"

Henry huffed and Emma rolled her eyes, "You look great, Regina. You rock the Soccer Mom look."

Henry's head swiveled and he finally noticed Regina's shirt. It was faded green, a little stretched and emblazoned with a bear cub kicking a soccer ball.

"You can't wear that to my school!" Henry turned bright red, "I'll die of embarrassment."

Okay so maybe the teen years were already upon them.

Emma looked between Regina and Henry, "Regina?"

She smiled, "Henry's Kindergarten Soccer team, The Cubs."

Emma perked up at that. "Oh my God, you were an actual soccer mom! You're so wearing it all day now. Kindergarten soccer? Was he any good?" She may or may not have been rambling.

Regina's lips quirked into a smile again, "He was enthusiastic."

Another piece of Henry's childhood handed over to her with no snark or complaint. She smiled back, "Please tell me you have pictures."

Henry let out a loud and dramatic moan and stomped back into the kitchen. Regina pushed her own the Henry's chair back under the patio table, "Better. I have video."

Of course she did. Emma had no problem imagining Regina recording every milestone of Henry's life. She wondered what she would have to do, what crazy heroic feats, to get Regina to let her watch the videos. She would ask later, minus the sarcasm. Okay, like half of her usual sarcasm, there was no reason to go overboard with the good behavior. She was only human.

They walked through the house,collecting keys and shoes as they went out to the cars. Henry was already waiting in Regina's backseat, the top half of the dummy in his lap. The posterboard and Henry's school bag,complete with books, was in the passenger seat. Regina's car was bigger than hers, and it was still stuffed. Henry was right, there was no way that everything would have fit in her Bug.

Emma opened her driver's door (and of course it squeaked) and leaned against it, "Follow you there?" Regina, her car door opened without any annoying sounds, nodded at her.

The bug started on the third crank with only a little rattling. She threw the Bug into reverse and backed out onto Mifflin Street. She swung far enough back to give Regina room to back out as well, then they were off. It was simple, streamlined and felt like it could become a routine. That idea was both comforting and terrifying at the same time.

The ride to school was familiar, his Mom had taken him the same way about a million and a half times. He had a lot on his mind, stuff he was trying to figure out: good, evil, right, wrong, moms, magic. His mom had used magic, even though she had promised not to, but she had used magic to do good things like fix the tree, heal Emma and move his project to the car. Everything was so complicated these days. He thought it would be easier after the curse broke. It wasn't, if anything, it was more complicated. It wasn't fair. His Mom, Regina, was the Evil Queen but she didn't look evil. It was hard to look evil while wearing a bright green tee-shirt with a soccer playing bear on it. She hadn't looked evil last night when she was having bad dreams either, or when she had been panicing, or helping make his project. This morning she had made breakfast, just like always, and she was driving him, just like always. She was the Evil Queen, but also his Mom. She was his Mom and she still had a tee-shirt from his baby soccer team. Even Emma said she was his Mom and Esmeralda acted like having two moms was no big deal. What did it all mean?

They pulled up in front of school and his Mom parked in one of the many spaces by other cars with other parents bringing in projects.

"Okay." His Mom spoke,though he was pretty sure she was thinking aloud more than talking to him. "Project, bookbag, jacket." She looked over everything. "Lunch box. Oh no." His Tron lunchbox was not in the car. She turned to him, "Sweetheart, I'm so sorry, I forgot your lunch." To be honest, he had forgotten too, but he was way less upset about it than she was. His Mom bit her lip, something she had started doing more often lately. "And I don't have my purse." Now she was practically chewing on her lip. Then she leaned over and popped open the glove box and pulled out a folded twenty dollar bill, her emergency gas money. "Is it okay if you eat out of the cafeteria today? You can take the change and buy some comics after school."

It was so normal that he didn't know what to say. It looked like if he said anything, his Mom might cry. It made him uncomfortable- his stomach squirmed and his face felt hot. There was no reason to say no to comic money, but his Mom was acting like he might say no or something. Why was she so worried anyway?

The passenger door popped open from the outside and Emma poked her head in, "We ready to get this show on the road. Ooh money." She grabbed at the twenty and Regina jerked it out of her grasp. "It's for Henry, Miss Swan. His lunch money."

Emma laughed, "How expensive do you think lunch is, Regina? This is more like two dozen bearclaws at Granny's."

He expected his Mom to scowl and yell at Emma, but she only shook her head. "The change is for comics after he wins the Science Fair."

Emma pulled his bookbag and the posterboard out and then ratcheted the passenger seat up. "Well even if he doesn't win, it is a freaking awesome project. We did a really awesome job, if I don't say so myself, and I did." She cocked her head and stared at his project, it was squeezed tightly into the back seat with him.

"Can't you magic the dummy out of the car too?"

Regina went stiff, "I don't want to scare anyone here, Miss Swan. If they see purple smoke today's Science Fair may turn into a witch hunt."

Emma huffed, "Not even fair." She sounded annoyed, but smiled, "And stop calling me Miss Swan. I keep looking around to see what teacher has caught me passing notes."

Regina didn't answer but she did chuckle a little bit and got out of the driver's seat so he could ratchet it up to get out. It took all three of them to wiggle, jiggle and angle the dummy out of the car. Henry was starting to wish that he had just made a cell diorama or something, it would have been much easier to move. Still, though, it was a cool digestion system.

"Where we taking this thing?" Emma asked. She was looking around with a confused look on her face. Then Henry remembered that she had never been to his school, not the inside at least.

"The Gym. It's over-" The bell rang and cut him off. If he wasn't in class in five minutes he really would be late.

"Go, Kid. Your Mom and I can get it in there." She looked at Regina, "Right?"

His Mom knew the way, she'd been to school tons and tons of times. They would get it set up for him. "Okay, thanks. Bye Moms. Love you." He said it over his shoulder as he jogged away. His was not the only shouted goodbye.

Everyone's parents seemed to be lugging their various stuff in the same direction. Emma pushed the dummy, on wheels now, and Regina carried the poster board. They followed the rest of the adults towards the Gym. His Mom-Mom-Moms-fit right in with the rest of them. He hurried towards his classroom but didn't know if he could focus on school at all. There was way too much on his mind, and no one he could talk to about it.

The classroom was the same: bright, orderly, and cheerful. If she didn't know any better she would think that nothing had changed. It had though, everything had changed. Everything: the children, herself, everything. School, however, was still in session and it was up to her to help the children make sense of their dual memories and help them learn.

Her classroom started to fill up. She smiled, pleased to see that the kids were happy to have her back. None of them were so excited as Ms. Potts, though. She was more than ready to take back her usual position in the school library.

Her last student skid into the classroom just as the bell rang. His sneakers squeaked against the tile, "Oh hey Ms-" Henry grinned, "Grandma!"

"Please take your seat, Henry, and as I just told everyone else, "there is no running in the halls. In the classroom I am still Ms Blanchard." Because Miss Snow White sounded odd, even to her own ears. "I know that a lot has changed and I was gone for a bit but one thing is still the same, we are all here to learn."

Ms Potts had, more or less, followed her lesson plans. She had relied on worksheets and other busy-work. Snow had decided that after twenty-eight years that the curriculum needed shaking up. After all, these children were from the Enchanted Forest and deserved to learn about that world too.

"So, Guys, we're going to start something a little new-"She spent the morning teaching them about the geography and early history of the Enchanted Forest. Their home. She didn't have any text books and was teaching from memory of what her tutors had taught her. It was shocking to find how many students knew little about their home. Lunch arrived and she was ready for the break. She assured everyone that they would visit the fair after they ate and released them to the cafeteria to eat and socialize. She,too, decided it was high time to catch up with her colleagues. The Teacher's Lounge was bustling when she arrived. Many of the teachers smiled and welcomed her back warmly,though a few gave her sour looks. She had no idea why they would do that.

She retrieved her lunch and smiled at the little note that David had managed to slip into her lunch bag. The talk of the room was, to her great relief, not the Science Fair. The highlight of the conversation was how the Evil Queen and Savior had brought Henry's project in together. That explained where Emma and Henry had been all night, though she was still upset that Emma had flat-out ignored her calls and texts. Her daughter and her wild behavior was a completely different issue that she would deal with after school.

"Snow." She looked up from her sandwich to see Leah, her boss, smiling at her. The room's other conversations stopped, all attention on them. "I see that you did decide to rejoin us."

Snow swallowed her bite, "I really missed the kids." Leah smiled a little but the gesture did not reach her eyes. "I would have preferred you meet with me prior to taking your classroom back." Her words were cold, like ice, and announced for everyone to hear. "You've missed several staff meetings and need to be brought up to speed on the school's new policies." She had forgotten, Leah was not Lia, and Leah liked to play at politics. Now she remembered why she liked Aurora better.

Snow opened her mouth to respond but was cut off neatly, "And if I remember correctly, you're the head of the Family Dance Committee. No one stepped in for you." Her eyes, glacier blue, swept across the rest of the room. The other teachers didn't look up, didn't speak up, didn't make any moves. "So unless you want to cancel it." Sharp and cold, her words were like icicles . I'm going to need you to have your plans on my desk for approval by tomorrow morning." Though it sounded optional, Snow could tell that it was not. The Family Dance, a dance for all the students and their parents, was the Elementary School version of Prom. It took weeks to plan and execute. It was scheduled for next Friday night. It was an impossible task to plan it in a week, and this was obviously a punishment. For what, Snow wasn't sure. Her absence had been due to the curse breaking. Then her involuntary trip to the Enchanted Forest hadn't exactly been a pleasure cruise. Still, she knew that arguing the point was exactly the wrong thing to do at the moment.

"Of course."

It wasn't as if she hadn't planned the dance for several years and balls before that. She paused, now there was an idea. Ideas popped into her head in full color, bright and glowing like fireworks. "My plans for this year's dance are nothing short of, well, magical."

Everyone was looking at them. Snow realized that this was about more than a dance or even about Leah laying down the law. Snow was pretty sure that if she didn't handle this just the right way it would come back to bite her in the rump later.

Somehow taking Henry's project had turned into a walk. The walk had stretched from the school parking lot to the park. The park had stretched all along the walking path. The path had taken them to the pond. They sat on a bench overlooking the pond.

"And he booted it right out into the water. It hit well, a swan."

The story was one of her favorite memories of Henry when he was young.

Emma laughed, she threw her head back and laughed out loud. "No! No he didn't."

Regina nodded and continued, "And the swan was a little upset. We both had to run but his legs were so little. I picked him up and kicked off my heels and I ran with him. All the way back to the street. Which was the end of private soccer practices with me. I can still hear that bird squawking and Henry screaming. Thankfully five year olds are easily calmed by ice cream."

"I'm not sure what's best! You playing soccer in a pencil skirt or an actual swan chasing you or that you made it better with ice cream." Emma's smile was wide and unfettered. It went all the way to her eyes, which twinkled and shined with humor. "You are a really good mom."

Regina felt that small frisson a something that might have been happiness in her chest. "Thank You, Emma." Emma stretched out on the bench, and looked out at the water. "It's the truth. And I'm that swan who got ruffled and is running after you, screwing everything up."

Regina heard it all in a few words. The guilt, the self-depreciation, the uncertainty, the underlying pain. She didn't like it. As a queen, as a mayor, as a wife and daughter, she had dealt with such emotions her entire life. Well, maybe dealt was a strong word, she had mostly avoided and ignored them. She couldn't deal with her own emotions, she had no idea how to deal with the emotions of others. She had never been close to others, not since childhood. Every time she had tried it had ended in disappointment, disaster, death. Now, though, with Emma, she couldn't step back. She didn't like that either.

"You're not. In this particular situation, name aside, you are not the swan. You're the ice cream."

There was seriousness, a tension, a moment of thickness. where the quacks of the ducks were muted and the breeze was stilted. It was just herself and Emma. Her heartbeat picked up and sweat slid down her spine. Damn her and her mouth, her tender heart that was so foolish and weak. Damn her softness, one night and she was suddenly opening herself up to the woman who-

"So I'm sweet and am going to give Henry cavities?"

The depreciation again. The supposedly good-natured-joking was real for Emma, it was a natural defense mechanism. Regina recognized it as such, after all she had many of her own. Regina hated it, almost as much as she hated her own weaknesses. She hated it because Regina was looking at the person who...Someone that...Emma had protected her, helped her, met her head on. She was the person who looked at her and saw more than the Evil Queen, for better or worse. She had, unknowingly, declared her loyalty to Regina at breakfast. She had agreed with Esmeralda about Storybrooke being her protectorate. Emma didn't realize what she had done, nor did Henry, of course. She did. In the Enchanted Forest that was as good as a signed treaty or a marriage proposal. No one had ever, not in her entire adult life, done something like that for her. It was-she didn't even have a word in her mind but her mouth spilt them without thought.

"No." She turned to face Emma. They were close: thighs and sides touching, arm over shoulder, touching each other. It was casual but somehow intimate. It was closer than she'd been to someone Someone that-

Regina felt a storm inside her, the tamped down emotions she'd ignored for so long. The emotions that her mother had called weakness. The emotions that the Royal Court mocked. The emotions she had set aside to become the Evil Queen. They raged inside her. She felt raw, exposed, vulnerable. She took a deep, calming breath like Archie and Esmeralda encouraged her to do all the time. She bit her lip and then voiced a single thought.

"No, you made things between Henry and I better again."

She loathed admitting it, but it was true. "This is known."

That made Emma smile. "It is?"

"To me. Now."

Emma regarded her, searched her eyes but said nothing. Some would say that Emma had her mother's eyes. They were idiots. Emma's eyes were her own. There were a painter's palette of blues and greens. They were the sky and the sea, two things that Regina had always associated with freedom. Emma's eyes were warm and caring, and locked on her own. Fear and want battled in her head. She was frozen on the spot. Emma, though, was able to move, to lean forward, to reach out. Emma pushed a strand of her now curly and wild dark hair out of her face. Her fingers were gentle, her touch kind. Emma leaned forward and paused just for a second, to wait for her to pull away, to rebuff her advance. Then Emma kissed her, and Regina's entire world spun, turned on it's head and the space around them exploded. It was magic.