"It wasn't half the town," Regina defended, leaning back and pulling Emma's leg into her lap. "Besides, it was August's idea."

"Funny how that guy always gets what he wants."

Regina grinned, tucking in closer so that she was pressed against Emma in the corner of the couch. Pale hands rested along the back where they occupied themselves by playing with the strands of silky brown locks.

"Your hair is longer," Emma commented.

Instinctively Regina reached up to pull at the ends of her hair and agreed with a nod. "I suppose Henry and I are both due for a trip to the barber."

"I like it."

Regina blushed.

Tilting her head to give the blonde better access, Regina's eyes fluttered shut at the soft massaging motion deft fingers were doing to her scalp. Small circles at the crown of her head there and nails raking lightly here. The hypnotic movement was so entrancing Regina didn't even realize she was pressed lengthwise on Emma's body until a content breath fluttered across her cheek and a loud heartbeat drummed in her ear.

Regina sat up, forcing Emma to pause in her massaging as she stared down at the younger woman whose lines on her face showed just how much wear and tear she had been through over the course of her life, but the laugh lines around her eyes and lips proved that she had persevered through it all. "I'm sorry," Regina whispered, her hand sneaking up to play with the collar of Emma's shirt. "For snapping at you on the phone."

Emma rolled a noncommittal shoulder. "Don't worry."

"I do." Regina tried to sit up but found she couldn't since Emma had wrapped an arm around her waist and weaved her leg around Regina's. Resigned, she pressed firmly against Emma again and explained. "I do worry about you, and I trust that you'll make sound judgments. The thought of anything happening to you, of losing you, it's . . .absolutely terrifying."

"Nothing is going to happen, Regina."

Clutching the shirt in her fist tightly in some subconscious way to keep Emma close and to make her understand, Regina furrowed her brow as she searched for the right words. "I know. I know you'll always come home, but I have to be realistic that there are risks. Your life is in danger every day, and I don't even think that's all of it." Biting her lip, Regina continued. "What's happening over there that you have to pretend that Henry is your godson?"

Emma frowned, darting her eyes away briefly until the penetrating gaze of imploring brown ones had her returning back to Regina again.

"Is someone bothering you?" Regina asked quietly, hesitantly, fearing the answer she already knew. When Emma didn't answer, Regina demanded in all her mayoral glory. "Who?"

"Nothing absolutely awful has happened," the blonde reasoned though her voice was small and her eyes just couldn't maintain steady eye contact. She had always been good at suppressing her emotions, but there was something about Regina, the way she felt pressed against her, the way brown eyes lightened considerably and widened in vulnerability, the way Emma simply didn't want to lie to her, that made her lose her focus and show a hint of insecurity.

"Emma."

By way of answer, the blonde tilted her head up and caught red lips in a surprise kiss that nearly knocked the brunette off balance. When she pulled back, a hand was cupping Regina's cheek, her thumb stroking a path there that Regina hadn't felt in months. "My General. He suspects about us. Me at least."

Regina's eyes snapped open. "What?"

"I don't know if he's told anyone else, but sometimes it feels like everyone is staring. Even some guys in my squad."

"Won't they discharge you?"

"They haven't yet."

"Can't you say something to someone else? Report him to someone with more authority?"

"He's technically not doing anything he can't make the other guys do," Emma reasoned.

"Like what?"

"Nothing." At Regina's insistent glare, Emma sighed. "Really. He's acting based on speculation."

"Which is rooted in fact," Regina pointed out sharply.

"He just works me harder. That's all."

Regina stared down at the blonde, reevaluating the laugh lines and taking inventory of the minuscule scars that graced her face. A faded cut above her eyebrow. The healing bruise along her jaw. Regina tensed and looked away for a moment, biting her lip in contemplation. "Maybe I shouldn't write as much."

"No." Emma's grip tightened around Regina's waist and her thumb stopped stroking altogether. The fear in her eyes said more than just that she'd miss reading Regina's letters. "Please don't do that."

"I don't want you to get hurt more than you have to."

"You're worth it."

And just like that Regina melted into Emma, into her body, into her words. She pressed their foreheads together, noses nearly touching. Emma tilted up thinking she was going to receive a kiss, but Regina sighed against her and admitted quietly. "You hold too much."

"Too much what?"

"Everything," Regina said nearly exasperated. She shook her head and tried to sit up again, more successful this time when she pulled Emma up with her by the collar.

Though it looked like Regina wanted to say more, the word nestled in Emma's brain and though it was vague and unclear, she knew with the utmost understanding what the brunette meant. She searched brown eyes that darted for comprehension of her own thoughts, and she saw what she felt within herself.

She could love her.

It was a terrifying word. Love. It was huge and small and the biggest conundrum known to man, but there that was. Loving someone was a huge responsibility. Holding a heart in your hand, it would be so easy to stumble and fall. Emma promised herself she'd never give hers away lightly. She promised to always take care of hers and if someone was brave enough to lend their heart to Emma, she'd protect it because if they were willing then they'd have to be something special, and Regina was more than that. But really, how long had her heart been in Regina's possession? Too long, she thought. Yet not long enough. And there again was this paradox of love that Emma wanted to be swept up in this confusion that was almost so crystal clear and everything and nothing but everything.

That was love.

Between herself and Regina. Of this little family they had unknowingly created. Because what Emma felt was more than just gratitude and deeper than simple care and affection. She could love her. She did love her. But to admit that out loud was a whole other complication, yet it just made the swelling in her heart grow all the more. What neither of them could put into words, or in Emma's case, say out loud, Emma expressed in the only way she knew how. She smiled and cupped Regina's cheeks, easing the brunette from the flurry of her mind with a look that calmed and soothed both women. "Hey."

When the conflict behind Regina's eyes settled, she leaned into Emma's touch. "Hi."

"Is that a good thing?" Emma clarified cautiously. "Holding everything?"

"It's unusual," Regina admitted. "But it's more than good."

"Good because I didn't want to be the only one who thought this was important," she said motioning between them with a nod of her head.

Regina smiled prettily, shaking her head so their noses rubbed and then kissed the blonde lightly just because she could. "You'll be careful, though? When you go back?"

"Aren't I always?" Emma quipped earning a reproachful look from Regina. The blonde grinned and leaned them back against the corner of the couch. "Hell of a second date, huh?"

"I believe you promised me a wedding."

"Dancing. Wine. A cat," she pointed out. "This is even better."

"If these are your standards, I'm anxious to see what the third date brings." Regina rolled her eyes when Emma winked suggestively in response, but before she could play the innocent vixen, Emma joined their lips together. Date number two was getting better already.


"You gotta hold my hand, buddy," Emma said as she and Henry entered a toy store at a local strip plaza the following day. Henry did as he was told, but that didn't stop the three-year old from pulling Emma along with him as he ran into the nearest aisle and looked up wondrously at all the toys. Building blocks, dolls, Legos, kitchen and handyman sets. A toy store was every child's dream and Henry was loving every second of it. He clutched Rexy to him in excitement and tried hard not to grin, which only made the adorable pleased look on his face even cuter.

It was a definite change from the pout he sported earlier when the family went to visit August that day. August and Henry had literally fought over the remote control. Henry very desperately wanted to watch cartoons while August held it out of his reach claiming that Luis and Sheridan were about to fall in love and for Emma to control her son.

Both women raised their eyebrow at that but neither said a word before Regina deduced that perhaps she should take Henry out. August insisted that Emma go with her, muttering something along the lines of "as long as you clean the bedsheets" before the man was happily left alone with his jello and his soaps.

Emma couldn't help but think this was his plan all along, and she was sure it was. It was August, after all. The writer in him loved a bit of drama. Shaking her head, she allowed Henry to pull her down aisle after aisle where Henry pushed buttons, sampling the toys so that nearly the entire store was filled with a cacophony of nursery rhyme songs and animal sounds.

"Pick one out," Emma encouraged, giving the boy a pat on the shoulder.

He looked up at her wide-eyed. "Really?"

She nodded. "It's a late Christmas present."

As soon as 'present' was out of her mouth, Henry galloped away. Smiling fondly after him, Emma followed the sounds of his heavy boots to find him in the playset aisle. She winced. Maybe this wasn't the greatest of ideas after all, she thought, imagining Regina lugging a playset in her Benz and setting it up at the mansion. But then Henry grinned pretending to be a baker in the model kitchen, and he hammered away on the handyman set, and even though she'd probably face Regina's wrath and receive a lecture on spoiling the kid, it was kind of worth it.

"Look." Henry pointed out a chalkboard ease that had the beginnings of the alphabet printed on top. "It's like a school."

She crouched by him as he found the demo piece of chalk tied to the board and began doodling away. "Hey," she realized in wonderment. "You're starting school this year."

"Yup!" Henry didn't turn away from the chalk board as he nodded happily. "I'm gonna go to big boy school and take the school bus."

"Oh my god," she whispered, just staring at Henry who was oblivious to the pride swelling up within the blonde. She knew he was getting big, but it hit her suddenly just how big he was getting. That little baby who used to eat her letters and create rainbow tornadoes in crayon that got her through the day was going to school in the fall. Who knew what'd he be doing the next time she saw him. Probably riding a two-wheeler and taking the bus by himself and getting a paper route and being a big boy. She sat down on the tile hard.

Henry laughed when she plopped. "You silly."

She pulled her into her lap and blew raspberries on his cheek, the boy squealing with joy in his attempt to get away but encouraging Emma when she stopped for too long. "Stop growing up," she said absolutely seriously when his laughter quieted.

"Okay." His promise was meaningful and to him, he meant it, but time was a hated friend who listened to no one, and Henry would grow up no matter how much Emma, or Regina for that matter, wished it.

She released him where he darted off to the next aisle leaving Emma sitting on the tile, staring forlornly at the toddler who was going to grow up into a child without her.


Emma tapped on the window of the jewelry store she found Regina in. Though there was snow on the ground, the sun was out and the winds were low, so she saw no reason to actually enter the store, especially when she could watch Regina browse without interruption. It was strange how Regina blended in with the crowd whereas in Storybrooke, whenever the Mayor entered the room, everyone and their mother knew. But here, they were just Regina and Emma and Henry, and no one knew their name or where they came from or where they were going. The bliss that came from the anonymity spurred on the hope that they could be whoever they wanted to be and damn the consequences. They were a little family taking the day to shop, and if Emma's plan went through with precision, perhaps Regina would allow her to shop for something specific.