A/N: The end! I hope you guys enjoyed the ride, and thank you for reading! When I decided to write a sequel to Keep Your Enemies Closer I had no idea where this story would go, but I've really enjoyed writing it, even though it's been hard at times. Thank you for sticking with me and putting up with my sometimes sporadic and overdue updates, I hope you like the finished story :) Happy holidays!

(speaking of- if anyone has a word-prompt or suggestion for a Christmas one-shot, let me know, as that's on my list of things to do next week :D )

"Emma?"

Regina calls as she lets herself into the mansion; the front door unlocked and several of the lights on. When she is met with no response, she hesitates midway through slipping off her shoes; wariness replacing warmth as she tries to will her senses into taking on supernatural qualities of detection.

Should have had Snow accompany me home...

"Ridiculous."

She scolds herself immediately, although she does so mostly out of habit and in an attempt to cling onto the last threads of normalcy amidst the chaos of the last few days. She does so in a bid to dispell the memory of returning Snow's small wave as she'd made her way down the steps of the municipal building twenty minutes ago.

"Emma?"

She tries again, swallowing as she tries to remember if she'd left the kitchen door open, and feeling the first flicker of fear creep into her gut as she catches the acrid aroma of smoke.

"She's not here, mom."

Henry calls, and the brunette rolls her eyes as she swiftly switches anxiety for irritation and stalks towards the door with her hand thrown dramatically over her nose and mouth.

"What on earth are you doing? What's burning?!"

She demands, although she receives her answer as soon as she enters the room; several charred slices of bread sticking out of the toaster behind her blushing son.

"I went upstairs to get a book and I forgot."

Henry explains sheepishly, and Regina sighs as she leans over the counter and cracks open the window with a shiver as a gust of cold wind rushes through the gap.

"What have I told you about being forgetful?"

She demands, pursing her lips when the boy scratches his head in a parody of trying to recall with a grin plastered on his face.

"Sorry."

He offers when she tires of glaring at him and helps herself to a seat at the table.

"Forgiven. If you're planning on a second attempt, could you put a slice in for me too, please?"

She asks, and he nods dutifully as he discards his previous blackened disaster in the trash before pulling several new slices from the breadbin.

"What are you doing home, anyway?"

Regina frowns with a belated glance at the clock, and Henry shrugs as he takes a seat opposite her and explains

"We got let out of school early. It was a weird day! In gym class, Mr Munroe wanted to teach us how to joust, but Miss Nightingale said we'd have to wait for the weather to improve to bring the horses up. I hope we get to learn soon!"

"Mmm."

"But mostly everyone was just talking. Even the teachers. Mary Margaret wasn't in, apart from for homeroom this morning, but most of the others were around... Some of the kids said they were surprised to see me there."

"Did they?... Were they nice to you?"

"Well... Not nice, but they weren't so bad. No one's going to dare be mean to me now, mom!"

Henry chuckles, before catching the rather unamused look on his mother's face as he gets up to butter them each a slice of toast and he sighs

"It was okay. This one kid, Derek, said some kind of rude stuff, but Paige told him to stop before I had to."

"Grace."

"Huh?"

"Pardon, not 'huh', and her name is Grace."

"Oh. Yeah. I did know that, it's just hard to remember everything from the book, and-"

"-Don't apologise, dear, you really aren't to blame!"

"No, I know, but I think everyone's still figuring things out in general. Some of the teachers asked us to address them differently, but not all of them. I think people are choosing who they want to be... Or at least, which parts of themselves they want to stick together to become one person if that makes sense..."

"As much sense as any of the rest of it does... Just so long as no one was mean to you."

"No. They more just wanted to ask me questions. About you, of course, but also a lot about Emma."

"I'm sure... Where is Emma, anyway? Have you seen her?"

"I saw her on my way home from school, but she seemed distracted because of what Gold said."

"What Gold said? What did Gold say? Gold spoke to Emma? Today?"

Regina frowns, accepting the plate Henry hands her but no longer interested in the toast as she interrogates her son uneasily. Her conversations with Graham and Snow, along with her fear for her wellbeing, have allowed her a distraction from her disquiet following last night's call concerning Belle, but knowing now that Rumple has spoken to the blonde with full knowledge of what she's done turns her stomach.

"Was she okay?"

Regina pushes Henry for information, just hoping that her relationship with Emma hasn't given Gold cause to harm the younger woman in a bid to get back at her.

"I think so," Henry nods as he chews his toast thoughtfully, "she said she needed to think."

"To think?"

The brunette echoes her son's term with a heavy dose of alarm.

"About what?!"

"I don't know, she didn't say, and I didn't want to annoy her. She was heading to the diner."

"I see."

"Is something wrong, mom?"

"I'm just wary of what it is Rumple might have said to her, given what he must now know I did to Belle. Miss Swan assured me she was cut out for the many negative discoveries surrounding my past, but they have thus far been explained to her by me. Not that I've lied to her or anything like that, but I imagine that my version of most tales is slightly less damning than the tale my cast might decide to tell of my decisions... That, and I know how that little imp works. I hurt something of his, and he's a stickler for payback. I don't care to think what he and Emma might have discussed, nor do I presume that his manner was especially appropriate while doing so."

Regina frets, pushing herself from her seat and heading into the hallway.

"Are you sure you should go talk to her?"

Henry worries as he follows his mother and watches her pull on her coat.

"Why? Did she say something?"

Dark eyes find his uncertainly, and he shakes his head and swiftly explains

"No, I mean, are you sure you should go out into town? Shall I come with you?"

"No, stay here... I have to start going out sooner or later. I can't keep waiting for something bad to happen, dear; it either will or it won't, and I plan to come out the victor if anyone tries anything foolish. I have to go speak to Emma, though. Gold had no right badgering her, if that's what he's done, and when a grown woman says that they need to 'think'... Well, you'll find out when you're older that that's not a statement that compels much confidence."

The brunette sighs, forgoing her heels in favour of a pair of smart, black boots as the weather continues to worsen.

"I'm sure everything's okay, mom."

Henry appeases sweetly.

"I'm sure it is too, but I'd rather be certain. Now go upstairs and sort your clothes out for the laundry, and I'll be back soon."

She bids him farewell and heads off into the darkening storm.

Hurrying up the steps reserved for the diner's guests, Regina makes her way for the only door that has ever had any use- save for Granny's and Red's- and taps lightly. Receiving no response, she lets herself in, suffering a wave of deja vu as she finds the bathroom door closed and the sound of the tap to be audible as soon as she enters, but any further comparison to her previous visits is swiftly quelled as she spies what lies on the bed.

The blonde's travel bag.

Packed and strapped up, beside her laptop case and her pistol.

What... What are you...

"Regina!"

Emma greets her with surprise as she emerges from the bathroom, zipping her toothbrush into her toiletries bag as she goes.

"... Emma?"

The brunette replies numbly, feeling panic begin to build in her chest as a voice from so long ago raises the alarm

What did he say to you? Oh, gods, what did he say?! Why?! Why are you-

"-Are you okay?"

The blonde frowns, taking a seat on the bed while appearing to take stock of her surroundings; checking to see if she's forgotten anything.

"... You're leaving?"

Regina manages finally, and she tries to keep her tone free from emotion- confused, scared, angry, just to name a few- but her voice cracks as her gaze returns to the younger woman's over-stuffed bag.

"Well... Yeah."

Emma nods.

"Henry said... Henry said you needed to think... That you were trying to think after talking with Gold."

Regina prompts, feeling a little faint. She's just so utterly stunned by this gross turn of events, and she realises suddenly- hatefully- that she finally gets what it is Emma had eluded to when she'd been here before. The blonde had behaved as though she had been perpetually afraid that the rug might be swept out from under her feet at any moment; something which had increasingly irritated her host as she had offered the girl more and more, only to be met with that stubborn hint of reservation that everything promised for the taking might suddenly be snatched away. She had spent so much energy trying to console and appease that fear- not to mention, the energy spent trying to keep them each above proverbial water at times in other aspects of their turbulent courtship- that she'd failed to recognise yet another similarity that she and Emma share.

She sees it now.

Feels it.

Remembers.

Remembers how incredulous she'd felt- she wouldn't! No! She just wouldn't!... Would she?- when suffering the whims of her mother.

Remembers that fear that everything might come tumbling down, in spite of a thousand promises that it wouldn't, of course, it wouldn't, not this time.

"You needed to think."

She repeats, and again, Emma nods.

"Yeah, I needed to make a decision, Regina."

"A decision... I just thought... I..."

The brunette tries to find her voice as she sits down heavily on the younger woman's bed- maintaining careful distance- and fingers the strap of the latter's bag.

"You've decided to go."

She muses finally, nodding as though she understands, while wondering if she understands anything anymore. Something with which the blonde can relate as she frowns; trying to figure out why the mood seems to have suddenly dropped so arcticly low, before opening her mouth in surprise when she realises the preposterous conclusion Regina seems to have sprung to.

"Regina, I-"

"-Where will you go?"

The brunette interrupts with her gaze carefully trained out the window, and Emma rolls her eyes as she leans over and offers the darker woman a sharp jab in the thigh and exclaims

"Boston! I need to go get my stuff, you idiot! You're coming too!"

"What?"

"What do you mean, what? What did you think?! Regina, I need to sort out my apartment. Most of what's in there, I don't really care much about, but there's a few things I want to get, and I need to figure out what to do with the rest of it if I'm not going to be keeping the place. That's what I was deciding; that for once in my life, I'm okay with losing my get-out card. There's no point in me paying rent on someplace I have no intention of living or needing again."

"But, you spoke to Gold, and-"

"-Yeah, I did, and I'll tell you straight that I don't think you're going to be on his Christmas card list any time soon, but if it had gone as horribly as you seemed sure of a second ago, I would have come to talk to you rather than eating cake and packing up."

"It didn't go horribly?"

"It went... As well as it could have. He was angry, which I doubt comes as a surprise, but I told him, and I'll tell you, that you guys are always going to find something that you're mad at the other about. The same goes for everyone here if they're going to keep looking at the past and focusing on their wounds rather than their healing... I think he got it. I think he knows what you know; that it's just not worth it, the whole vengeance thing. He told me he wasn't sure how he could continue on living in Storybrooke if it meant coexisting alongside you- talk about an ego boost!- and I asked him what was keeping him from moving on... That's a decision more people here are going to have to make, I guess, but all you need to know is that I've made mine. I like it here. I've always liked it here; it's home for me, which is kind of crazy, but also not at all! You're here. Henry's here. Why the hell would you think I'd go fuck off now?! You're not about to get that lucky!"

Emma laughs, and Regina sighs as she considers the younger woman pensively; an overwhelming feeling of warmth flooding through her body so similar to the divine touch of magic, and yet not the same. This extraordinary feeling comes with a caveat; it requires another to make it possible.

"...I'm as lucky as I'm ever apt to get, dear."

"Gross."

The blonde advises her pleasantly, and she rolls her eyes and wipes briskly at her cheeks before nudging the younger woman's bag and adopting a much bossier tone.

"So what's the plan, then? This trip you want to take. Why do you need me to come?"

"I don't need you to... I'd like you to."

"Yes?"

"Yeah. Roadtrip, you know? Getting out of this town for a little while would do you good, Regina, but it's not just that. You've said several times that you don't want to ask questions about my past in fear of the answers, and I know a lot of what you're referring to is my time spent on the road... It wasn't all bad, though. I've told you that, but I want you to see it. Hell, I want you to see what it's like to not have to give a shit what people think when no one knows who the hell you are, nor do they care. I imagine at one point in time that kind of thing would have seemed just awful to you, but not anymore. Now, I think you'll see it for what it really is; liberating. And, when we come back, you'll still have your title. You'll still be Regina, the Mayor, the Queen, but you can decide how to play that out when the time comes. For now... Let's go eat somewhere that isn't Granny's. Let's go shop somewhere that has more than the one cut of jeans. Let's go listen to live music that isn't being slaughtered by a cricket and fucking Frankenstein! We did what everyone here wanted us to do, so let's go do some stuff we want to do, whatever that ends up being."

"That sounds... Perfect, actually."

Regina smiles, finding that for the first time, she doesn't suffer anxiety at the thought of leaving Storybrooke.

Her legacy.

Her creation.

"What about Henry?"

"I asked David about that."

"If your parents would mind him?"

The brunette asks hesitantly, but the younger woman shakes her head.

"No, I asked if he thought Mary Margaret and the school would mind if he took a couple of weeks off."

"Oh! Well... I... I'm not sure-"

"-What, you're not sure if it's wise for him to miss out on dragon-training and apple picking or whatever it is they're going to start teaching now?"

"Jousting... Apparently."

"Yeah, well, I think that's another thing we might need to run by Mary Margaret, as there's going to need to be some decisions made about what should and shouldn't be added to the curriculum."

"Sounds like a job for the Mayor, dear."

"That's what I was thinking... So?"

"So, I think this is one of your better ideas, Miss Swan. Emma. Truly. Possibly the best yet."

"Nah, that will always be my plan to break and enter to seduce you with your sworn enemy's liquor."

"Don't even mention that disaster if you want to keep me in a good mood. And she's not-..."

"-Huh? What was that?"

"Snow, she's not... She's fine."

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

"I-"

"-Now come. Enough mucking around. I need to pack."

Regina redirects the conversation swiftly, and Emma laughs as she pushes herself from the bed and pads round so that she stands in front of the Mayor.

The Queen.

Extending her hand out companionably, she smiles when Regina accepts with a squeeze of her fingers and pulls the brunette to her feet.

"You told me so many times this would all work out. You promised, just like you promised you'd help me find my family. We've spoken so much over the last few days about who's done what, and past mistakes, but you're the only person that's ever come through for me like that, regardless of your role in the past, and I don't think I can ever thank you enough. You know that, right?"

"Well... I'm not about to stop you from trying this time."

Regina smirks, allowing the teasing brush of the blonde's kiss before pushing her gently back.

"Come on, let's get going."

"Roadtrip?"

"Roadtrip."