Hi! I had already posted this a while back, it didn't get a lot of response so I thought, why not just revise it and repost. I'm actually working on it and I'll post every week, so I hope you'll tell me what you think.

This story will deal with the episode of season 2, 21. With this I warn you for the heaviness of it and the darkness. I'll post a warning in every chapter it's needed.

Enjoy, my lovelies!

She was being followed and she knew, without a doubt that everything she had done in the past, and everything she had planned to do in the near future, would be atoned for very soon.

Regina knew who was following her. She'd known for a couple of days, right after finding out that Greg Mendell was Owen Flynn. She remembered the little boy, who she'd pushed out of town and who's father she'd had killed by her Sheriff.

Owen was here for revenge and she was the only one who could satisfy his thirst for it.

She knew she was taking more than a risk, but as she made her way to Mary Margaret's loft, she knew that she wanted to see Henry one last time. Even if he didn't want to see her.

Her hands shook in her pockets as she stood in front of the door of the loft. Would they leave her standing outside?

She pulled her hands out of her pockets and knocked.

The answer came soon enough though. Emma Swan opened the door, her eyes narrowed.

"What do you want Regina?" She asked on an exhausted sigh.

It threw Regina off and she jammed her hands into the pockets of her black leather trimmed coat. She was ready to give the biggest show since the curse was broken.

"I'm leaving town for a couple of days, and I wanted to say goodbye to Henry."

She'd only ever left Storybrooke when she'd gone to get Henry, when he was still a baby. She had never intended to leave town, ever again.

And she wouldn't.

Emma looked at Regina, frustration clear on her face. "What? Regina, we are in the middle of a crisis and you want to leave town?"

For a moment she was speechless, her hand fidgeting with a piece of paper in her pocket before she wetted her lips. "It'll be...it'll help this crisis too, if I left. I'm only standing in the way, I can't help."

Emma narrowed her eyes. "You know something...that's why you're leaving, isn't it?"

"And what if it is, Miss Swan?" Regina snarked before she took her hands out of her pockets.

She missed the last layer of armor when she realized she wasn't wearing her leather gloves, but she balled her hands into fists beside her hips.

"Come in, let's talk about this," Emma gritted out as she stepped aside.

Regina hesitated. Emma had been softer toward her lately, and it had made her realize that, whatever she had felt toward the blonde before, it had changed into something more friendly. Maybe even more than friendly, if she really thought about it.

She didn't have the time though.

Emma had been the only one who had tried to reach out and bond with her, and Regina felt like she owed the blonde at least a talk.

"Alright."

Regina hesitatingly stepped into the loft. She had to admit, it felt warm and cozy and exactly the opposite of what the curse had been supposed to do.

But the curse had been broken by her son and his mother. Everyone had found their happy ending and she'd been left with nothing.

"Regina?" Mary Margaret sounded surprised but showed nothing more than that. She'd learned earlier on in her life that showing Regina any emotion, was accepting they would be used against her.

Regina wasn't planning on using anything against anyone anymore.

Emma had a silent conversation with Mary Margaret, and the silence stretched on into uncomfortable.

"I believe you were planning on talking me out of leaving."

Regina squares her shoulders, one hand resting on her stomach and the other hanging by her side. Uncomfortable as she was, she didn't move as she watched the two women – so very different from each other but also very much alike – watch her.

It was Mary Margaret who spoke first. "Why do you want to leave town when there's a threat? You've never run from a fight."

If only the pixie haired woman knew how often she'd run from a fight when she was younger. How often that had turned into lessons from her mother.

Regina chuckled dryly and was about to reply when Emma held up her hand, effectively stopping her. "She says it'll be better if she's not here. But you know more, don't you, Regina?"

"Nothing regarding to this, Miss Swan."

"I know you're lying, why?"

She wetted her lips as she looked up at the two women in front of her. Mary Margaret looked suspicious and Emma on had a mask of indifference.

Regina balled the hand against her stomach into a fist. "Believe what you want, I don't have any information that could be useful to your battle."

"Then why are you here, ready to leave?"

She turned to Mary Margaret. "Because I've only been standing in the way." She paused, swallowed thickly. "Also, I've been hurting Henry by forcing him to talk to me."

"You just need to give the kid time, Regina," Emma said understandingly. "You saw how happy he was when he saw you at Granny's the other day right?"

Henry had been distant, but polite with her. They hadn't seen much of each other, and Regina had been vigilantly working on being a better person – even continuing her sessions with doctor Hopper.

She had kept her distance, and had made sure that Henry saw that she was doing whatever she could to be the person he wanted her to be.

Whenever she saw him, he'd been happy – maybe even happier than he had been with her – and she had made sure that she wouldn't bother him. He'd smile at her, if he saw her, though usually he didn't even notice her.

Until a couple of days ago, when she saw him at Granny's. He had smiled, the smile he had usually only reserved for her but she had seen him give to Emma lately. He had told her he missed her. Her heart had hurt, because it had been hard to believe. In the end, she'd told him she missed him too, and had left the diner without ordering anything.

Regina crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at Emma. "I'm sure that was your doing."

"You are really something, madam Mayor." Emma shook her head, frustration clear on her face.

"As I was saying, I'm just leaving for a couple of days and no, I don't know anything about the threat to Storybrooke or it's heroes."

"Maybe it's not the heroes being threatened." Regina tensed and pursed her lips as she stared at the blonde. "But you already knew that."

"What I know, Miss Swan, is that I have business outside of Storybrooke that doesn't concern you, and while you are taking care of m—Henry, I would like to tell him." She kept her voice void of emotion, until she realized that she might not get the chance. Her throat thickened. "Now, will I get that chance or are you going to take that from me too?"

There was a tense moment of silence as the three women stared at each other. But then Mary Margaret moved and looked at Emma.

"If she wants to leave town...Emma, who are we to stop her? Maybe...maybe she'll take the danger with her," she said hesitantly with a shrug of her shoulders.

Regina felt the cold of those words deep into her bones and almost let them get to her. She quickly raised her chin, staring Emma down as the blonde seemed to hesitate.

"If that's what you really want."

"I'll go get Henry." Mary Margaret disappeared up the stairs, leaving Emma and Regina alone.

Emma was the first to break the silence. "I don't know why you're running…I just hope that you know that Henry still needs you."

"He doesn't need me, because he has you."

"You raised him, Regina. You're still his mother."

Regina smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Of course, Miss Swan. That's why I need you to keep him safe, no matter what happens."

And in that moment they both realized they weren't so different. Because they did everything to protect the ones they loved. The one they loved. Henry.

"Regina?" It tore through her that he didn't call her Mom anymore but she put up her wall, just enough for him not to see how much she was hurting.

"Henry," she blinked furiously at the tears welling up before turning and smiled at the little boy. She kneeled before him – the only person she'd ever kneel for – and took a deep breath. "I'm leaving town for a couple of days."

"Why?" He asked, before his eyes clouded with judgement. "Are you running away?"

"Not—not exactly," Regina muttered, looking down at her hands for a moment before looking him in the eye once again. "I have something to do outside of town and I—I'm fairly certain that the strangers that came into town will stop snooping around after I leave."

She said more than she wanted with Emma and Mary Margaret in the room, but she couldn't lie to Henry as much as she could to those two.

It was enough for Emma to open her mouth to say something, but Mary Margaret stopped her by gently putting a hand on her arm.

Regina saw all of it happen but she chose to ignore it in order to talk to her son. She hoped for one last hug to tide her over, even though she wasn't sure if she would ever return to him.

"So you're doing it to protect Storybrooke?" Henry sounded so hopeful that Regina could hardly stop her tears from falling as she nodded. "That's awesome, Mom!"

He grinned at her before he moved to close the gap between them, slamming his body into hers with so much force she fell back.

But she didn't care as long as her son was in her arms. It had been long, so long since she last got the chance to hold him.

"I love you, my little prince," Regina whispered shakily, without the force she usually used. But Henry heard.

She swallowed thickly when Henry pulled back, doing everything in her power to push down the pain at his blatant rejection of her love. She pursed her lips again as she stood to her feet, brushing her sweaty palms against her coat before she looked up.

"Well, now that that's settled," Regina said, her throat hurting as she forced the words out. "I think it's time for me to go."

She gave a curt nod to Emma and Mary Margaret, and with one last longing glance toward Henry, she turned and left the loft without looking back.

"She's leaving town?" David frowned.

Emma knew that he was trying to understand what was going on and she had to admit that she didn't even know how to begin to explain.

The day had moved on like it usually did. They'd eaten dinner together, and Emma had talked to Henry for a moment after he had gone to bed.

He had wanted to stay up, be involved in everything that was going on, but Emma had told him that he was still too young, no matter what he thought. She was sure that Regina would've done a better job at it.

The thought of Regina gave her chills. The mayor was hiding something and Emma wanted to find out what it was. That was the reason they were now sitting at the bar in the kitchen, David standing at the sink.

"That's what she wants us to believe."

Mary Margaret frowned. "What do you mean? She said she was leaving, why would she lie?"

Emma shrugged. Regina had gotten adept at lying, but Emma could see right through her. She'd seen the pain earlier, and she knew that there was more to the story than she was letting on.

David hummed. "Lie or not, it solves a problem."

Emma stood to her feet. "It doesn't, David. It gives me more questions because it doesn't make sense that she would leave town."

"Why not?" Mary Margaret asked.

"It doesn't make sense for her to leave town. She's been fighting to spend more time with Henry, to show him she's better...and she just decided to leave?" She shook her head. "I don't trust it."

David raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't make sense, but is that our problem or hers?"

Emma flinched at the harshness of that question and shook her head. "Are you serious right now? Have you not seen how much she loves that kid even after all the shit he pulled? After every time he called her evil, and he ignored her and hurt her?"

"He was right though, and you don't trust her with him any more than I do. You never stopped Henry from doing the things he did, because he always came to you right?"

Emma knew it was the truth. She'd accepted the way he'd been toward his adoptive mother because that meant he would come to her. And even though she had given him up all those years ago she still wanted him in her life. So, when Regina fought against that, Emma had turned a blind eye toward Henry's attitude and enjoyed the fact that he came to her.

"I know. I've been more than a little selfish because I wanted him back." And now she realized that he wasn't even hers to get back to begin with. She had signed over his rights the moment she gave him up and Regina had taken him in. Regina, by all intents and purposes, is his mother and Emma didn't even have a right to make a decision about him. "But that's all going to change. Because she's his mother, and legally, she decides what happens with him."

"So what, you're just going to give him back?" Mary Margaret asked incredulously as she stood to her feet.

Emma shook her head. She didn't want to just give him back, she wanted to be a part of his life.

"It's Regina's choice what happens with him, and if I have to beg to stay in his life I will." She waved her hand, her mind going back to the issue at hand. "But first we – I – have to figure out where she's going."