AN: I wrote some of this while having a pedicure, hoping they wouldn't ask me what I was writing. How do I explain that SwanQueen took over my life??

Both women lay sprawled on the bed, covers kicked far beneath their feet as they pant and their bodies are slick with sweat. An enormous exhaustion is settled over them from being utterly spent, but both feel too wired to sleep right away. Regina's mind is busy and won't shut down; she can't stop thinking about what the Emma she used to know would say if she found out about this. Would she be happy? No definitely not--she'd be disgusted, entirely repulsed by the very idea of them sleeping together. But her Emma is laying next to her, chest heaving, looking at her with a endearing grin on her face. Finally, as Regina can't shake the sour feeling in her gut, she rolls over to face Emma, and slings an arm around the blonde's bare waist. "Emma?"

The other woman hums in response lifting her hand to twirl Regina's dark hair around her fair fingers. It's intimate, even for them, and both of them are enjoying it as fully as they can while it lasts. Regina chokes on a thousand words she can't say, and her heart feels heavy for the first time in weeks. Finally, something possesses her to whisper softly into the heavy night air that stenches of sex. "Memorize me like this," she closes her eyes and ignores the stinging behind them, nuzzling into Emma's touch.

Emma, though having no idea of the meaning behind what Regina had just said, realizes easily the deep feelings behind them, and leans in to capture Regina's lips into a soft kiss. She doesn't feel as though she could ever forget the brunette like this; still, she drinks in every scent and rakes her eyes over Regina so as to memorize every detail.

--

Regina wakes with the sun and momentarily forgets where she is. She's in a bed that is certainly not any of her own--not in her castle, nor her mansion, or even her New York apartment. Then she remembers suddenly the heat of last night and she's aching and sore in all the right places; she doesn't feel any sort of guilt and a grin graces her features before she rolls in the bed to face Emma, only to find the other side of the bed empty and cold. The first thing she feels is panic; the word flashing mercilessly in her mind is abandoned, abandoned. Then her head stills along with her heart when she hears the faint sound of a shower from the bathroom in the hall, visible from where Regina lay. Her tense muscles relax and she instinctively reaches for her phone on the bedside table, but isn't expecting to see a large array of missed calls from the same person. She sighs, scrolling down the notifications on her lock screen, subconsciously counting the amount of calls and even a couple voice mails. Then, before she reaches the bottom, a new one rolls in right then.

Maybe it's the fact that she feels loose and exhilarated from last night, or maybe it's because Emma's in the shower and completely out of earshot, but Regina finds herself slide her finger across the screen to finally accept the call. "Snow." She deadpans, reluctance filling every inch of her tone.

"Regina, where the hell have you been?! I've been trying to get ahold of you for weeks!" Snow yells angrily on the other line, and Regina has the decency to feel a little taken aback at her tone.

The unspoken truth of why she'd been avoiding Snow and David for an embarrassingly long time flickers through her mind. When Regina had first come to New York in search of her son and the insufferable blonde, her one and sole mission was to somehow manipulate them into coming back home so she could get her son back. Then as time passed--over half a year to be exact--that mission slowly slipped through her fingers and finally into nothingness. Now, sitting there on the bed, she realizes that the truth is, she doesn't want Emma and Henry to come back to Storybrooke. Above all, she doesn't want to revive their memories, as ridiculous as it sounds. The very last thing she wants is for Emma to remember their past. As soon as she remembers who Regina is, she'll be repulsed; hell, she'll probably think that Regina put a spell on her to be in a relationship with her. After Emma finds out, a relationship of even being friends will be utterly unobtainable, and Regina's not sure she could live without the blonde's touch for the rest of her life. With Henry, though, is when things start to get tricky in her mind. It hurts every day when he sees right through her; aches every time she looks at him and the man he'd become without her, slices through her every time she remembers that she's not even close to being his mother anymore. But what they have now, though not what she wants, is much better than what she'd had a year ago--at least she can see him, talk to him, even though he's no longer her little prince. And if it means that she can finally be happy, living here with Emma and her son, it's a price she's willing to pay. And if she stays long enough and takes her relationship with Emma even further, maybe he'll see Regina as his second mom, and that's all she can hope for; in fact, the very thought puts a smile on her face.

Even now, Regina realizes that she's pursuing her own happiness at the expense of others--with this arrangement, Snow and David will never get a chance to see their daughter again, and Neal will never get a chance to have a relationship with his biological son. But, for god's sake, Regina was the Evil Queen; she knows how to take things from others, and she feels as though she deserves it. She's finally happy, finally accepted, and most importantly, separated from her past and given a fresh start. She's not about to take that away from herself.

Of course, Regina voices none of this out loud; in fact, she says nothing at all. Snow, however, is not taking silence for an answer, and she prods Regina sharply. "Well?!"

Regina caves and takes a haughty breath through the nose. "Excuse me, but I'm trying to build a relationship with these people, so forgive me if I don't answer the phone and inquire how affairs are going in Fairytale Town in front of them. Also, I don't appreciate having to ignore a million calls in front of them, because they're getting suspicious." She snaps, drenching her tone in venom in hopes that Snow will back off, though Regina knows that she's clearly in the wrong.

Regina's attempt of pinning the blame on the other woman falls flat, and Snow wastes no time in dropping the bomb. "Regina, honestly! I'm not blowing up your phone because I'm in desperate need of a chit chat. There's a serious emergency happening in a Storybrooke right now, for god's sake!"

Regina's heart drops into her stomach and her blood turns to ice, as she takes a panicked glance towards the bathroom door. It's still closed, and the steady stream of water soothes Regina temporarily before she grips the phone tighter. "What?!" She hisses, still keeping her eyes trained on the bathroom door.

Snow stalls for a couple seconds, as if she doesn't want to say what the issue is right away. After what feels like a solid minute, she sighs, and opens by saying, "Remember when Greg and Tamara came to town?"

Remember? As if Regina could forget the hellish evening when she was kidnapped with the help of a dirty pirate and held captive while being tortured within an inch of her life. "Of course I remember that." She spits, gripping the phone even tighter, enough to develop a cramp. "Make your point."

"That is my point. A couple weeks ago, a girl--maybe about eighteen or twenty--came to Storybrooke, from the outside world. Something must have happened with the new curse, and--"

Regina cuts her off by finishing her thought. "--that means that if one person could come, others could follow." Her heart begins to slam in her chest, and her hand is sweaty, and not just from its tight hold on her phone. "Damn it! This curse was sloppy; obviously there are loose ends to it."

"Exactly! That's why I've been trying to call you. We need you, Regina!--none of us know how to cast a protection spell on the town or how to wipe memories. We definitely don't want to kill the girl." Snow explains, her voice raising higher as it normally does when she talks about danger.

Regina's opens her mouth, ready to tell her that she's on her way, her newfound hero sense kicking in, but then shuts it again when she remembers where she is. "There's no one else?" She asks, mostly just to stall, as she begins to panic even more at the prospect of leaving New York. Her dreams are falling apart into shambles by the minute.

"No, Gold's dead, and the fairies left, since apparently they're fed up with Storybrooke and curses." Snow rattles off dismally.

"Good riddance," Regina scoffs at the later statement of Snow's before she can stop herself.

Snow doesn't chastise her, further showing her distress. "I'm serious, Regina, we need you to come back as soon as possible. Every day that she stays here poses a threat to Storybrooke. We're all on our best behavior, but it's only a matter of time before the girl sees something suspicious and starts to tell her friends outside of Storybrooke. We could be discovered within a matter of days," Snow hisses quickly, her tone almost a whisper as she voices everything that could go wrong.

Regina squeezes her eyes shut, a long string of curse words entering and exiting her mind. She realizes the direness of the situation, knows that she has to go back, but wants to do anything but. However, much more than a few people's relationships is at stake here, and Regina knows what she has to do even before she can admit it to herself. She briefly exercises the idea of leaving Emma and Henry here, going to Storybrooke by herself, and returning as soon as she can. But, a series of issues follows that plan: first of all, there's a good chance that she could be kept awhile, and in that time, Emma might have moved on. And more realistically, she has to put a protection spell by the town line, which means that there could be danger if she tried to leave town afterwards. Damn it. She finally opens her eyes and blows out a long breath of air. "It won't be easy, but I'll figure out how to come."

"Fast," Snow reminds her, and hangs up.

Emma returns from the shower, and pads into the bedroom with nothing but a towel tucked around her chest. She moves towards the bed and kisses Regina on the mouth cheerily. "Morning, babe!"

"Morning," Regina greets as normally as she can, forcing a smile onto her face. "Hey, you know, I was worried when I woke up and didn't see you," she tells the wet-haired blonde in order to distract from the task on hand.

"Aw, I'm sorry about that. I just felt like I should wash the sex off of me," Emma laughs, squeezing the water from her long hair right onto the bedroom floor. Then, when she sees Regina's pained face, she sits on the bed and holds the older woman's hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

"No, there's...something else." Regina says hesitantly, squeezing Emma's hand for support. She wants to touch Emma like this for as long as she can before the blonde is ripped away from her. "My family called--that's actually the calls I've been ignoring. There's this family issue going on, and I have to go to my hometown to straighten it out."

Emma frowns with empathy and squeezes back. "Oh, I'm sorry, that totally sucks. When do you think you'll be back?"

"Actually, about that...."

Emma's heart clenches as Regina trails off, her brain flicking to what could be happening. Is this Regina's creative way of breaking it off? What if Regina has to move back permanently? The thoughts clog her mind, so what Regina says next catches Emma completely caught off guard.

"I wanted to ask you if...do you want to come with me? I mean, it's not the best time, but it's an opportunity for you to meet my family..." she invites softly, heart racing as Emma's eyes widen, and doesn't look completely thrilled.

Emma's shocked into silence, but relief surrounds her at the offer. Her face relaxes into an intoxicating smile, leaning in to capture Regina into another lingering kiss. "Of course, I would love to meet your family."

Regina beams at her, successfully masking her grief, and kisses Emma again, before asks the next pressing matter on her mind. "Is Henry coming, or--?"

Emma winces, and squeezes her eyes shut for a few seconds. "If it's okay with you? I just don't want to leave him alone here." Regina's heart leaps in her chest, and a real smile graces her features. Henry is her only comfort, and she feels a real, overflowing happiness at the prospect of him remembering who she is.

"That's perfect." Regina tells her with the most sincere tone she'd used all morning. Then she presses a few heavy kisses on the sensitive spots on the blonde's neck. If she's going to lose Emma, she's going to enjoy everything as long as she can.

AN: I literally wrote almost this entire chapter in ONE night. It's 3 AM as I'm writing this author's note, so I'm telling you right now that any mistakes you might find are my fault.

On another note, ITS FINALLY HAPPENING! They're going back to Storybrooke! Magic will return to this story next chapter. I know most of you were really excited for this to happen, and here it is! Expect lots of drama head ;)

If you liked this chapter, be sure to leave a vote, and if you want to make my day, please leave a comment:)

(PS, who noticed the title drop at the beginning of the chapter??)