Last chapter guys! Thank you all so much for reading and leaving all of your reviews.

Jane: You're welcome, good to hear that it makes you happy.

VivianLola: That sentence pretty much sums up my entire time as a fic writer lol.

Guest: May you live forever.

Regina rolled over onto her side, humming softly in her sleep. Tossed to the floor, lay a copy of 'Give a Mouse a Cookie.' Emma crossed the room to pick up the sleep-discarded literature. She set it on Regina's nightstand. At least she's sleeping well, Emma mused to herself, and isn't crying. The mayor shifted positions, nuzzling her head against the pillow, before blinking awake. "Good morning, Emma." She mumbled with a sleepy slur.

"Morning, Gina." Emma greeted.

Regina sat herself up right and peered at Emma with those soft brown eyes. "Thank you for keeping me company last night." She offered Emma a smile. The kind of sweet and genuine smile that only Regina could give.

"It was no big deal. I know how much that stupid snake means to you."

"She's not stupid, she's just common-sense deprived." Regina defended as she stood and repositioned her night robe so that it was no longer sliding off of her shoulder. "Want something to eat, dear?"

"Yeah, that'd be great." Emma replied. She could get used to this new and friendly Regina. A friendly Regina that never yelled at her for doing reckless things. A Regina who never seemed to have anything snarky or sassy to say.

Okay, so she'd kind of miss the witty one liners (so long as they weren't at her own expense), but the amount of cuddles and snuggles really made up for it.

"What would you like for breakfast?"

"Waffles would be awesome." Emma answered.

.oOo.

Can snakes sweat? The Queen had always wondered…well not really, but she had put some thought into that recently. Apparently, the answer was yes, for the snake found herself sweating nervously. Zelena had only excitedly yelled, "phase three", about twelve times that morning. The freakiest part was that, that was all she had yelled. Just "phase three", nothing about phase three or the nature of it or how exited she was for it. Just the words, "phase three." The cobra had come to conclude that this woman was indeed, completely mad. And she wondered how they had come from the same mother. Much to her dismay, she vaguely recalled shouting something like, "dark curse", a few times way back when before enacting it. No wonder Rumpelstilskin thought she had completely lost it.

Zelena squatted down, hovering before the queen's pet-sized prison. "I have a little secret for you." The witch looked at her like she was supposed to be intrigued or something. "Did you know that I got bored and bitter one night so I decided to stop by your house and turn you human?"

Now there was an attention getter. The snake unraveled herself in record speed. "That's right." Zelena continued. "I waited until you were wasted and I turned you human just so you could cry about the missed opportunities later."

The snake narrowed her eyes. This bitch, she hissed to herself.

"Oh don't worry, sis. I'm going to turn you human again."

Something about the way her sister had said it made the snake cringe. Suddenly the idea of living life out peacefully is a simple and humble reptile became appealing. She wouldn't mind staying in her nice safe snake cage with a fuzzy sweater and a queenly amount of grapes.

"And I will do it today."

The queen slithered to the furthest corner of her snake cage, in hopes of making the woman feel ignored.

"That's right, run away from me." Zelena muttered. "Run away."

The queen would have loved to. But alas she had no legs. She would never make the Storybrooke track team now.

.oOo.

"Any sign of the noodle?" Henry asked. "I need to rek someone while playing Smash Bros."

"Not yet." Emma frowned. "We've checked every pet store and brewery in town. And Regina already put up the lost snake signs."

"I can't believe no one has seen her." Regina declared. "It's not like her to not do something to get herself noticed. By now I was expecting at least five people to be in the hospital for snake bites. Something bad must have happened to her."

"Now you're just worrying yourself." Emma stated. "She's been trying to escape for a while now. Now that she's done it she's probably trying to keep a low profile."

Regina bit her lip, "I hope so." She looked at the door, "I think I'm going to go look for her again."

"Mom, you just got home." Henry protested.

"I'm worried about my royal reptile." Regina sighed. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She waited for Emma and Henry to nod before stepping back outside. A light rain began to curtain down. Her poor noodle, all alone and wet. Probably shivering. She hated to think about her noodle becoming a soggy noodle. She peered into the bushes nearest to her mansion's windows. Snakes like bushes, right? The mayor asked herself. She received her answer in the form of bare branches.

She hastily made her way down the driveway, heels clicking against the concrete as she strode along. She made it successfully around the street corner. "Where is she?" Regina asked aloud, pausing briefly to remember that she was technically referring to herself. "Where am I? Where did I go?"

"You are about a block away from you house dearie." Mr. Gold remarked snidely "Who put a curse on your memory."

From the deep recesses of her mind came a small trace of darkness, darkness she had thought she was fresh out of. She wondered for a moment if she should waste this last speckle of evil within her. Of course she should! "Yo mama." She smiled smugly to herself, it was the perfect jab considering the circumstances.

Mr. Gold's eyes narrowed. "I hope you don't find your snake and that it will be lost forever."

Under normal circumstances she would have called him an ass. But seeing as she was fresh out of inner evil and witty things to say, she simply asked, "why would you say something like that?" She paused, tears welling in her eyes. "Why?" Her voice cracked some. "After how long we've known each other, how could you say that? I thought we were sort of friends."

Mr. Gold cringed. "You know what, dearie? On second thought, I hope you find that snake quickly, you are radiating secondhand embarrassment right now."

"I'm sorry." Regina apologized, only amping the secondhand embarrassment to higher levels. "I'm also sorry for making your mama jokes."

"Please. Stop apologizing." Mr. Gold dismissed. "And get back to looking for that snake."

"Worry not, sexy." Purred a voice from within the shadows. "She won't have to look any further." The figure emerged from the shadow brandishing a still glitter-infested cage. Inside it rest a brooding, agitated cobra. At the sight of her other half, the snake perked up.

"Hey! I didn't say that you could borrow my snake." Regina frowned.

"And I didn't say that you could borrow my hair ribbon when we were children." Zelena retorted.

"We were sharing, playing dress up." Regina rebutted.

"Well we're sharing right now." Zelena shrugged. "And besides I was going to give her back, that's why I'm here."

"I'm going to tell mother on you." Regina declared proudly.

"Mother is dead."

Regina pulled a oujia board out of her purse.

"That only works on spirits that haven't crossed over." She would have left it at that but a more pressing question came to mind. "Wait a minute, why do you have that?"

"Because everyone I love always dies!"

"You should let David borrow some of that edge next time he goes on one of his heroic endeavors." Zelena suggested.

"You should donate some of that green to Hook so he can buy a new wardrobe and some deodorant." There was just something about little siblings that brought out the worst in people, even those who had become sickeningly sweet.

"Oh for the love of all things evil, my Mills tolerance level is not high enough for this!" Mr. Gold threw his arms dramatically into the air. With one final bitter look in the Mills sisters' direction, the man stormed off.

"Give me my snake." Regina demanded.

Free me. The snake thought at the same time.

Zelena smirked, "with pleasure." She snatched the snake out of its cage and in one swift and quick motion encompassed its body in a cloud of green magic. When the smoke cleared, Zelena's hands were completely empty.

"What did you do with my snake?" Regina growled, rage bubbling up from within her.

"Guess." Zelena smiled.

"I don't have time for your games." Regina hissed.

"I put her back where she belongs." Zelena answered, that smug grin unwavering. "Back inside of you, can't you tell."

The mayor blinked, realizing that she could in fact feel the full extent of her anger once again. Anger that doubled when she realized that she had in fact made literal hissing noises at Zelena. "Part snake. I am part snake." Regina mumbled to herself. "I don't want to be part snake. I don't want this vivid memory of wearing a stupid sweater I knitted for myself."

"We you will have it." Zelena stated plainly. "Isn't it great to be back together as one."

"Not like this." Regina frowned. "Split me again, turn her human, and then put her back."

"Nope."

"You will." Regina scowled.

"Will not."

"Will too."

"Will not."

Regina's frown deepened, they were going to be there for a while.

.oOo.

Henry looked at the clock. "Where is she, mom?"

"I don't know kid." Emma confessed.

"It's already dark out. It's dinner time. I already lost one Regina." He sulked.

"I'm sure she'll be back any moment now." Emma offered him a reassuring smile. "If not I'll go out and find her."

As if on cue, the door found itself kicked in. And through it stepped a fuming mayor. Wearing the grumpiest expression Emma had ever seen in her life, Regina dropped herself into the nearest chair. Her form hunched over in anger, an irritated pout on her lips.

"Whoa, what's going on? Where's that cookie-baking smile?"

"I found my snake."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Henry asked. He truly hated seeing his mother look so distressed and angered.

"She was with my sister."

"And?" Emma prompted her to continue.

"And she just magiced us back together without even restoring her to her majestic, and absolutely gorgeous self. And now I have to go ask Gold to take this off." She lifted her wrist to reveal a little golden cuff. "But he's not going to do that because I hurt his feelings with a yo mama joke and overloaded him with secondhand embarrassment."

"I can only imagine what the first-hand embarrassment was like." Emma couldn't refrain…she gave a small snicker.

"It was dreadful." Regina felt her cheeks color just thinking of it.

"Hey, I'm sure Gold will show mercy if you give him this." Emma held up a small stuffed octopus.

"What's that?" Regina asked.

"It's Mr. Gold's." Henry replied. "It's his comfort animal, sleeps with him every night."

"How do you know."

Henry drummed his fingers nervously on the table. "Well…at Paige's party we may or may not have been making prank calls and TPing houses. I may or may not have saw him talking to it and tucking it into bed. Did you know that Leroy built this giant Lego fort and won't let the other dwarves in without a secret password?"

"I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that." Regina muttered.

"Seriously though, just trade him his octopus for your freedom. If that doesn't work…"

"I'll tell him that everyone will know about his octopus if the cuff doesn't come off." Regina finished.

"The queen is definitely back." Emma noted.

"Yes, but cuff or no cuff, I am fifty percent reptile." Regina sighed.

"I can't tell." Henry pointed out.

"Neither can I." Emma added.

"I accidently hissed at Zelena." Regina admitted.

"Trust me Regina, everything will be fine." Emma replied. "Things have been working out for you a lot lately. Instead of getting upset that you're part snake how about we celebrate that you won't have to worry about an evil queen hitting on everything that breathes?"

"Alright fine. Optimism." Regina replied. "Be optimistic."

"I have some left-over cake." Henry pointed out.

"I don't eat cake."

"Sure you do, Gina. Everyone eats cake." Emma slid a slice over to the mayor. She stared at it for a moment before giving in and picking at it with her fork. "Do we have any cider left?"

Emma peeked into the fridge. "We sure do." She looked at Henry. "Want any, kid?"

Henry nodded, "always down for some cider."

"Anything else I can get either of you?" Emma asked.

"Yeah." Regina replied, "do we have any grapes left?"