Emma didn't know what else to do, so she kicked Regina out of the house so she could think. Regina was quite agreeable and sad about it. They packed the woman a duffle and Emma drove her to the prison.
"I just need time… I need to figure out what I'm supposed to do…" She shrugged.
Regina nodded as she looked at the night sky with watery eyes, "I know." She started to turn and Emma put the car in gear, but she remembered something, "Henry…"
Emma looked at her girlfriend with sorrow, "Regina, I… I would let you have him, I would, but he needs me right now…"
Regina nodded, "He's uh… She's been standing." She flattened her lip line as she tried to find the words and ignore the tears brimming her eyes, "I'd really like to see his first steps…"
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma had been alone with her son for three weeks. She was laying on the ground of the living room letting the boy roam about, crawl where he wanted. Then she saw that he remembered the coffee table, and he remembered that he could stand.
"Henry?" She asked.
He looked at his mother with a twinkle in his eye, and Emma knew she needed to find something to take a picture or something. She ran around the living room frantically as Henry pulled himself up completely and leaned against the coffee table. She turned and saw him with his head laying on the table, that twinkle still in his eyes as if he were just waiting for her to settle down so he could show her how awesome he was.
The blonde finally found her cell phone that she'd left plugged in, in the kitchen and ran back to her spot, standing, and recording the whole time, "Henry, what are you doing, huh? Are you gonna try to walk? Are you gonna walk?"
Henry clapped his hands then pushed from the table. He thought he had his balance, but he was a little off and down to his butt he went. That did not stop the gallant hero as he pulled himself to the top of the coffee table once more. He turned to his mommy and stared at her with determination. Then, he stepped forward, one hand still against the table. Then, he took his hand and stepped again. Valiantly he made another step, and then another.
"Oh my god! Henry you're doing it! You're walking!" She bounced from foot to excited foot; this made the boy laugh but that did not make him forget about his mission. No, he made it all the way over to the big brown book and sat on top of it.
He looked up at his mommy again and clapped his hands. Emma tilted her head, "What's that, little man baby?" She asked, "Is that the book? Is that the book that is complete and utter nonfiction about fairytales?" Henry nodded and clapped his hands again. Emma decided then to stop recording.
She sighed as she sat down and pulled him from the book and opened it. "Do you think that all our problems can be solved with this?" She looked to her son. Henry nodded again and rolled from his mommy onto his back.
Emma reread everything. Henry's been down for two naps and his actual night slumber during this time, when it finally hit her. There was repeated phrasing throughout the entire thing and it wasn't the cover's words. One was 'true love is the most powerful magic of all' and the other, 'true love's kiss can break any curse.'
"Little man baby that's it!" She picked him up and brought him out to the car.
~0~0~0~0~0~
She'd heard from some of the inside guards that Regina was breaking up a fight between the Captain and Jefferson again. So, she marched out to the square and waited.
When the brunette turned after getting two guards to bring the men to their respectful cells, she saw two pairs of hazel green and nothing else. She walked over with tears glimmering her eyes and kissed the baby's head. He pushed from his blonde mother to his brunette mother.
Everyone else was watching the exchange as subtly as possible.
Emma pulled out her phone, "He walked." She said quietly and showed her the video.
Regina hugged Henry tighter, "Henry, look at you! I need to get you some running shoes you little racer!"
Emma tilted her head with a smile and stared lovingly at the brunette, "I didn't keep you from him because I had some agenda… I just…"
"Needed to figure things out. I know. So, I assume you've figured things out?"
"The only thing in that book that tells me how to undo what you did, that tells me how to 'save' everyone, is through true love's kiss. Now, I know I love you. I love you despite… everything." She looked away and back to her, not caring that they were in front of the entirety of the jailhouse, "Kiss me and prove to me that you are willing to take the punishment you deserve for the stuff you did. I know you love me too. I know you do. So kiss me and take the punishment."
Regina leaned in without hesitation. In the back of her mind she heard Maleficent and her mother screaming in agony, but she didn't care. Love was strength. That's what she'd grown to learn ever since the blonde showed up at her prison.
The kiss was simple and amazing. And the sonic boom came about them and the sky cracked open. Everything was changing.
They clung to each other and when the rumbles and thrashing, crashing, and bashing ended they looked up to find themselves surrounded by all the fairytale characters changing. They were glowy and floating in the air as they were put back into the clothes and minds they were taken from.
The people weren't the only ones floating, Regina, Emma and Henry were even floating too—that's how good the kiss was.
Emma took a moment to look down at the baby in Regina's arms and see his wide eyes taking in everything. Then she looked at Regina. The thing that was odd was Regina didn't morph to the evil queen. She was put in the outfit that she cast the curse in, but her hair and her demeanor did not change. Emma couldn't help running her fingers through the brunette's hair once, subtly trying to let the brunette know that she didn't change. Not really. Regina felt her short hair to find that it was still a short, not long. The blonde touched Regina's face as Regina wrapped a spare arm around her tight and hugged Henry close as well.
"Emma." The voice came from Snow White, who was very glowy along with her husband and everyone else—they literally had a demigod like glow around them.
Emma turned and looked. She saw her… mom and dad…? And this was when the royal guards began to close in on them… on Regina, but Snow's hand stopped them all with a wave.
She walked down and looked at the brunette. She looked to the blonde, "Is this some kind of joke? In order to break the curse, our daughter had to fall in love with you?"
Regina tilted her head, "Well Snow, I didn't read the fine print of the curse, I just read the part about the only happy ending being mine."
"I was happy here. I was an inmate, but I was happy…"
Regina didn't say anything to this, instead she looked at the boy in her arms and smiled at him.
"You're not truly evil. You're evil enough to enact the curse, but you never bothered keeping Charming from me, or Belle from Rumple, or Thomas from Ella… You even let love find another pair…" She glanced to Red and Graham. "You're not truly evil."
~0~0~0~0~0~
After many long discussions, Regina's punishment was nothing too damning. She and Emma were sentenced to a cottage identical to the one in Storybrooke in the middle of the woods—the woods on the castles grounds. They were made to frequently visit and share meals as Henry grew up to be the best spoiled Prince around. They were made to attend balls and galas and Henry grew to take after his Grandfather: Charming and blunt.
As they walked their son down the isle for his coronation to be king, the looked to one another. They both had the same loving, adoring look on their faces that they had when Regina was just a Matron of a small prison and Emma was her pregnant inmate.