ONE WEEK LATER.

Long manicured nails tap against the thick glass of a vial filled with a very faint shade of lavender liquid. Regina continues to subconsciously drum her fingers against the object, brow furrowed as she tries to sort out what to do.

The truth is, she's had this potion prepared for the better part of a week, and she hasn't told a single soul, and certainly hasn't used it. She feels awful about it, really...she's withholding something that will help the town--that strange girl still hasn't left, and her memories of the town still have to be wiped--but she selfishly doesn't want Emma to remember magic. Well. To be specific, she doesn't want the blonde to remember their past together. She's not ready to give her up as a lover, and she just knows that as soon as Emma remembers, she won't even want to be a friend to her anymore. A life without being with the woman she loves is enough to break her heart, but the thought of the blonde exiting her life permanently---

But then, of course, there's Henry. She hates herself for torturing herself further--for having the answer she needs physically in her hands for getting her son back, to be a mother to Henry again, and still not giving it to herself. But.....

She squeezes her eyes shut, frustration rushing through her veins fast and rough enough to give her headache. A week ago, she and the Charmings' had gone to the church and met Tinkerbell, who had given them all the answers they'd needed.

After Regina had demanded that the pixie show them everything the Blue Fairy left behind in turn for Snow finding a home for her, Tinkerbell had gotten straight to work. She'd led them all around the building, adding things to the growing pile, then stepped back as if finished. Regina picked through the pile, spirits sinking as she saw nothing with value. Then, right as she was about to leave, the pixie jumped up, exclaiming she'd forgotten something. Regina clearly remembers watching, brow furrowed, as Tinkerbell, now in the library, moved a bookcase on wheels aside with surprising strength and felt the rough stone of the wall with a splayed hand. She'd groped the wall long enough for Regina to understand perfectly what she was doing, and she'd cursed herself for not thinking of it herself. At last, the pixie had located the stone she was looking for--one that jutted put slightly further than the rest, very barely visible--and pushed down on it with her fingertips. With a quiet pop, the stone went slightly in then out of the wall. Tinkerbell caught it with ease and reached deep into the wall for the contents hidden behind the stone. Her hand emerged with only two objects caught between her fingers, but the sight of them were enough to make Regina heart leap with an excitement she hadn't felt since she'd stepped into the dusty church on a previously fruitless mission. Tinkerbell had handed her a single vial filled three-quarters of the way with blue liquid, and a small scroll coiled with a single piece of twine, which was no doubt a spell. Regina's lips had spread into the first real smile of the afternoon, and she'd clutched the objects tightly in her hand as her eyes drifted up to the Fairy in front of her. "Thank you."

With the new ingredient and potion, making two memory potions--one to retract and one to restore memories--had been a breeze compared to the first attempt. However, she's very busy keeping up the facade to Snow and David that it's an incredibly hard spell, and these things take time, but there's only so long she can hold on to a lie. There's only so long that she can stall before even Snow, who is undoubtedly significantly less stupid than Regina gives her credit for, will figure out something's going on. Everyone knows Regina's a genius with magic, and she can only play dumb for so long.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a quick, tell-tale knock in the door that's definitely Emma. This means that Regina has approximately three seconds before the knob turns, never mind that Regina hadn't told her she could come in, and her body reacts before her mind had even caught up. Her hand closes over the potion in her hand, mumbling an incantation that teleports the vial to the first place her mind thinks of--a rickety drawer in Henry's room, right next to his bed. She squeezes her now-empty fist and glances up at the door, and sure enough, on the three-second mark, the knob turns and Emma lets herself in.

"Hey Gina," the blonde gives a small wave before returning her hands to her sweatshirt pocket. Her voice is slightly raspy as if it hadn't been used much that day.

"Hi," Regina greets back, ordering her hand to stop its nervous twitching. It doesn't listen however; she's never been particularly good at lying to Emma Swan.

"You've been busy lately," Emma notes, and Regina realizes with a pang that she can't easily remember the last time they'd had a recent real conversation other than in passing. Truthfully, most of her time spent as of late have been pouring over spell-books in the study, and more recently, sitting with her mind racing while staring at the vial--Emma's vial. Her stomach quivers noiselessly and she can't remember if she'd eaten that day.

"I know--I'm--" she's about to apologize, but the words are caught in her throat.

"You're sorry?" Emma prompts, after several moments had passed and Regina still hadn't found her voice. "You wanna know something? If you recall, you and Henry are the only ones I know in this stupid little town, and I don't appreciate being pushed to the side, left to fend for myself while you do God knows what in this study or sound town. Speaking of the town, how much longer are we staying here, exactly? Look, I know there's some sort of family issue, but all I see is it distancing you from me. I don't know if I said something or what, but I'm getting fed up." Her shoulders heave after she'd exhausted her breath, eyes wide after she'd finally gotten what she'd been feeling off of her chest.

"Emma--" Regina starts, and finds once again that she has nothing to say.

"You know, I've been patient. But now?--now, I just want to know what the hell is going on here. I know it's none of my business, but as soon as it starts interfering with our relationship, it becomes my business." Emma cuts her off, apparently not finished. Her brow is lowered, her jaw is set, and her tone is firm and low. Regina doesn't need to have known the blonde for as many years as she has to know this is her 'no bullshit' mode. And Regina's aware enough to know that she probably deserves it, but she can't think of a single thing to defend herself that she can say because Emma doesn't remember, and that's Regina's damn fault in the first place. Regina's headache suddenly turns from a numbing pulse to a sledgehammer, and she squeezes her eyes shut, trying desperately to think of something to do or say to that won't jeopardize her relationship any further. She thinks that maybe it's already wrecked. Either she'll fuck it up without Emma's memories, or she'll give them back, and it'll be over anyway.

Apparently, there's still a way for things to get worse that Regina hadn't been anticipating. And there it is--and the words hang thick in the air seconds after they leave Emma's mouth.

"Are you cheating on me?"

The words pierce straight through Regina's heart, and it's the only thing that shoots Regina out of her stupor, like leaping up with all her strength out of a completely surrounding body of water to take a deep inhale of the world above. Her feet stumble forward without her needing to direct them, and it's all she can do to breathlessly utter, "No!--oh, honey, no," she grabs Emma's cold hands with her own, and she looks straight into the green irises inches away, a thick wall of glass welling up within her own eyes. "I would never--"

"Promise me," the choked whisper floating up from thin chapped lips is barely audible to Regina's ears, but she hears it, watching as Emma's beautiful, sparkling eyes fill with tears.

She does the only thing she can think of; the only way she can think of securing such a precious promise. She moves her face the few inches needed for their noses and bottom lips to graze, then brown and green eyes close simultaneously, tears escaping from beneath both closed eyelids as Regina places a lingering, intense kiss on her lover's lips, channeling her emotions and her promise on one single kiss. She pulls back--too soon--and Emma moves her chin closer now, making their lips smash together once more as streaks of saltwater trickle into the kiss.

The explosive moment is abruptly ended with the shrill, startling sound of the doorbell being rung. They pull apart, surprised, and Emma's the first to react. "Ignore it," she mumbles through slightly numb lips, obviously hungry for more as she eyes Regina's smeared lipstick. Her hand moves subconsciously to her eyes to wipe away the wetness.

Regina's about to agree, when something within her gives her pause. "What if it's Henry?" It takes a moment to say--she's used to him having a house key, but there's no reason why this Henry would have one. The very last thing she wants is to leave him out in the cold, though kissing Emma up against a wall is a dangerously tempting notion.

This idea is enough to make Emma draw back and fix her hair; and she only nods before she marches right out of the study and down into the foyer. Regina reaches the front door first, unlocking it then swinging it right open.

At first, she smiles up into Henry's face--and though she's known this grown version of him for months now, she's still not accustomed to him towering over her--and then she glances to the left. Apparently, the world isn't finished dishing out surprises to Regina yet, because the last thing she was expecting, was for Henry to bring a girl home.

---

"And...who is this?" Regina asks haltingly; almost as though she's carefully choosing her words, but is trying hard not to let anyone know that she is. She looks at the girl, seemingly around Henry's age, still glued to his side after she'd let them both in, and Regina's making sure she's not looking at Emma right now. She stares harder at the mystery girl, heart quickening for reasons even beyond the fact that Henry's dating. Her mind is racing, head pounding--because she realizes that she doesn't recognize this face, and she knows everyone in this damned town.

She hopes--prays--that it's possible that this girl had come over with the second Dark Curse cast several months ago. Otherwise......Regina allows herself to squeeze her eyes shut for the briefest of moments. There's only one other person she can think of that Henry's date must be. Please don't be---

"Hi! I'm Iris Rhyder." The girl sticks her hand, a large smile dimpling her cheeks as she confirms the worst of Regina's fears. Of all the people in Storybrooke, Henry chose to get involved with the one girl Regina's about to memory wipe and drive out of town. Jesus.

Regina slaps on a rather ambitious grin that doesn't even begin to reach her wide-open eyes, and she shakes Iris's hand a little harder than she'd intended to. "Iris. Welcome,"

Iris shakes back, smile faltering slightly as her eyebrows knit together at Regina's expression and incredibly tight grasp. Dimples slowly fading out, she frees her hand and flexes the muscles as discretely as she can.

"Yeah, Regina, I really hope you don't mind that I brought her over...I figured maybe she could stay for dinner?" Henry throws out the suggestion, a too-late apology sneaking its way out of his lips, and he glances towards his blonde mother. "Ma?"

"It's fine with me, Henry, you know that, but this isn't my house." Emma answers, arms crossed, a slightly unreadable expression forming on her face, halfway between proud that he could pick up a girl and annoyed at the short notice.

Regina smiles thinly, headache moving now just behind her eyes and shooting frequent stabs of pain up through her brain. "Of course," she lies, and mumbles something about the dinner before retreating to the kitchen where she can be alone for a few seconds to collect herself. She curses under her breath as she leans heavy against the cold granite countertop, wondering how she'd previously thought things were impossibly complicated before this moment. She has only a minute or two to catch her breath, telling herself to just hold on until Iris leaves, before Emma comes lumbering into the kitchen.

"Hey, you okay?" The blonde asks, eyebrows knitting together in concern, as she trails her eyes over Regina's slightly pale face.

"Fine!--fine, yeah," Regina assures her a little too quickly, flicking away a piece of dark brown hair away from her eyes as she busies herself with clattering around with the pans under the stove. Emma continues to eye her skeptically; they've been together long enough for her to know that Regina always plays with her hair when she's nervous, and it doesn't take a genius to know that the brunette is trying to hide her face. Feeling the silence digging into her skin, Regina decides to back up her previous statement by rambling further. "Just didn't realize we were having extra company. I'll have to make sure there's enough for this recipe--would you like to help me make dinner?"

Emma comes up behind her, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder that shuts Regina up instantly, biting down on her tongue. "I'm sorry, Gina--I know this is about what I said--you know--in the study. I really don't believe you would betray me like that...I was just feeling a little pushed to the side, is all. You understand, right? We're good, right..?"

Regina's shoulders raise slightly, relieved not only because Emma's repairing whatever happened in the study, but also because she has something to hide behind--a reason for her otherwise unexplainable mood over Henry. She rises from her semi-crouch and turns to face Emma, now not caring how upset her face reads. "We're good," is all she can manage, and she drapes her forearms over the blonde's muscular shoulders, planting a warm, wanting kiss on the other woman's lips. She releases her, a smirk pulling at one side of her berry-colored lips. "You're still helping me with dinner though, right?"

Emma's only response is grasping a spatula from the counter, and giving Regina's backside a small but echoing smack. Both dissolve into giggles, and for the time being, Regina can image that everything is alright.

And really, while Regina laughs with Emma over a recipe that has no sane reason for mirth, things are right in her world, if only for a moment.

AN: I wasn't originally going to end it here, but there were still three large scenes needed left, and I realized that I could definitely split it up into two chapters. I hope that's okay with you all! I just wanted to get something up as quickly as I possibly could after my unplanned hiatus.

I'm so sorry for the wait! I feel like a terrible fic writer to keep you guys waiting for so long. I know I keep saying this, but I really do think, this time, that I'll have a new chapter up much sooner. I was dealing with being sick and a couple other things, as well as being on a small vacation out of state, but I'm finally back, and have time to write.

I really hope you all can forgive me, and still enjoy this chapter at least a little. Please still vote and comment, and feel free to bug me to your heart's content to get a new chapter up on time. I love you guys, thanks for being unbelievably patient. :)