Summary: When Henry's father shows up in town, the Mayor reacts in a manner surprising both to her and a vulnerable Emma. (S1, Neal is different from who he is on the show).

Rating/Category: M, Angst and Sexytimes

Trigger Warnings: Reference (no depiction) to statutory rape.

Note: This was posted long ago but I decided to revisit it, correct some mistakes and decided to add another chapter along the way. Hope you guys enjoy. R/R would be awesome - I really want to know how you guys like it.

PSS - Thank you for the people who reviewed it before - esp the one who pointed out my tense issues (it's a daily struggle my friend).

For 28 years, most nights in Storybrooke remained the same. Events in the mayoral mansion were no exception. By 8 o'clock PM, Henry was up in his room, homework done, spending the next hour reading comics until his mother tucked him in for 9 PM. Meanwhile, Regina was in her study, catching up on paperwork.

This night was different.

It was a still night at the Mayor's house. If it hadn't been so quiet, if the Mayor had been up to her usual tasks at that hour of night buried in paperwork with Henry already fast asleep, she would've easily missed the light knocking on her front door. Maybe if she hadn't been drowning her sorrows alone, staring at the fire in the fireplace with only the crackling of the burning wood to keep her company, she would not have heard the familiar footsteps of the sheriff approaching her front door. Today was different. Today had changed things.

It took a second of contemplation before the Mayor got up, set her glass of scotch down on the coffee table uncharacteristically foregoing a coaster, straightened out her skirt, and walked out of her home office to the front door. She hadn't bothered to put her heels back on. The need for the advantage of height no longer so important.

She opened the door. There she was. Emma Swan. All pitiful, puppy dog eyes, pleading to be held. She looked as if it took all her strength to be there. Beautifully, achingly vulnerable Miss Emma Swan. It was freaking the mayor out.

"Madame Mayor. May I?" Emma finally said.

"Please, do come in. You've heard, I presume?" Regina asked, the controlled mask firmly on.

"Yes. I just came here to, uh, thank you. For what you did-"

"It was nothing. It had to be done."

"You didn't have to go about it that way. I mean it was... unexpected."

"Well, it was legal, permanent and most of all – private. Mr. Cassidy will not be bothering you. Ever." Regina said, proudly – she could have dealt with the man in question in a more permanent manner – but she decided on a path that would do a certain other person proud. She controlled the situation, was what she told herself.

"The fact that you even stepped in. You could have damaged me in front of Henry and he would have never forgiven me. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' as they say."

Never was a truer statement when it came to Regina's thoughts on Emma. Except sometimes there were grey areas in their relationship, Regina found. Grey areas in the name of Henry Mills.

"Just so we're clear, Sheriff, I did it all for Henry. My son. Having that man around would have been damaging to Henry - especially if he found out how… how he was really conceived."

"Yes. Thank you Regina."

"That vile man will never come back, I assure you."

When she learnt of Emma's ordeal with Henry's biological father, there was a part of Regina's heart, what remained of it, that broke – forming fissures that reopened old scars from the darkest time in her childhood. She found that she had much too much in common with her sheriff and that she actually was still capable of empathy. Still, she kept up appearances and gestured to her office.

"You look like you could use a drink, Sheriff."

"Tell me about it, but I could use something stiffer than a cider, if you don't mind." Emma said as they entered the study. Emma closed the door behind her. She noticed the glass on the coffee table. "I see you've started without me."

"Well, it's been a banner day." Regina downplayed as she eyed the beverage options a little too dutifully in her liquor cabinet. "What's your poison, Sheriff?"

Emma remained by the closed door, unsure. She couldn't take her eyes from the glass on the coffee table. She struggled to keep her emotions at bay. All this from the overwhelming gratefulness for the Mayor who had essentially saved her from and finally rid her off that man, the monster who was supposed to look out for her best interest, and the best interest of many children of the ward. The man who fathered Henry. She always thought he never knew that she didn't abort Henry, using the money he gave her to run away. How he found them in Storybrooke was still a mystery to her.

Finally she looked at Regina whose eyes were still glued to the liquor cabinet before her. "I'll have what you're having."

"Scotch it is." Regina confirmed.

As she poured the libation, she stole a glance at the recipient who was still stood by the door, hands in her pockets, uneasy, with that look about her; a stray puppy looking for shelter. It looked like she was going to have to hand her the drink herself, Regina gathered. At the moment she was the stronger one of the two despite being unexpectedly unsettled herself.

She was beginning to regret her actions. She had listened to Emma's desperate plea to help her with Mr. Cassidy when she could have otherwise used his presence against the biggest threat to her happiness with Henry. Now she had invited Emma for a nightcap.

She had caught Henry with the newspaper reading that article about Emma giving birth to him in prison. She saw the hurt in his eyes and no matter how much she tried to deny any involvement in leaking the story, a bold faced lie of course, he never believed her. His hate had only multiplied. She couldn't again look at a face of a child who looked like his heart had been ripped out of him by his own mother. Not again. She wouldn't be the cause of that again. It was the same face she saw in Emma when that man first came into town. What had happened to Emma, they had been the same age then, hit too close to home. Love and empathy - emotions both wicked and mysterious - they had the power to crumble walls.

Regina approached the uneasy figure by the door and held the glass of scotch to her. She dared Emma to look at her, but found Emma's usual defiant nature suddenly broken instead. It might have been a good thing Emma couldn't make eye contact with her, even as she downed the amber liquid in one go. Eye contact might have unleashed something in Regina even more surprising than saving Emma from Henry's biological father.

Emma closed her eyes as she let the alcohol burn its way down her throat. Liquid courage; crumbler of walls; agents of long buried truth. She managed to return Regina's stare - the tension thick. "Thank you," she managed to whisper.

"Another?" Regina offered as she held up another glass of scotch. Emma partook and when she finished, licked the remnant moisture clinging on her lower lip.

"Thank you," Emma said, eyes trained on her host's, feeling the alcohol working its way to her head. A very welcomed hum.

"You said that already," Regina whispered back, as she came closer - destroying whatever personal barrier that lay between them. She grabbed the empty glasses out of Emma's hands and placed them on the end table.

Emma swallowed hard, she could do nothing to erase the hurt in her eyes, she could see it all mirrored in Regina's who then cupped her cheeks with both hands. Regina uttered," None of it was your fault. You shouldn't feel guilty or ashamed."

"I know, I don't." Emma tried to say back steadily, but she couldn't help it - unable to stop the offending emotions creeping its way out again after years of burying it deep within. Some wounds took a longer time to heal. She could down a whole bottle of scotch gladly, but it would only numb her body – never erase the memory. She had learned this lesson long ago. "I should." Emma said, gesturing to the door.

Regina moved in, impossibly, inappropriately close. Emma felt Regina's scotch-laced breath on her – it was intoxicating just as she found Regina's proximity, her intensity, her very being. A secret Emma kept to herself.

She managed to say, "How long have you been drinking here alone, Regina?"

"A long time my dear."

Regina has been a cruel person. Selfish. Evil as they say. She knew it. She wasn't born this way. There was a time where the good was stronger in her. When there was innocence. Then things changed. However there was one constant. Regina's weakness was a child in need for she was a child in need that no one bothered to rescue. Finding out what happened to Emma as a teen, it brought out her protective instincts. It would have put her in Henry's good graces but she handled the matter privately, for Emma and Henry's sake. Now seeing Emma with all the vulnerability of a child in her eyes, Regina reached for her.

She moved for Emma's lips, but then hesitated. She was unwilling to force anything. They stood there in limbo, lips so close, both wanting it so badly. Before Regina could convince herself to back off, at a moment of sudden courage Emma closed the gap and kissed her. Regina returned it.

As quickly at it happened, the reality of who they actually were to each other set in and physically parted them.

Emma smiled in embarrassment as Regina stood before her stunned silent. Emma began to back away," I- I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me... I should go." She turned and headed for the door.

"Wait!" Regina caught Emma's arm and turned Emma to face her. "Let's just pretend it didn't happen," Regina continued. It seemed like the thing to say.

"Okay." Emma said, her resolve melting away.

Regina grabbed Emma's other arm as she drew herself closer to her. Closer and closer - eyes trained on each other until Emma breathed in one last time before their lips met again - softly, achingly tender. They weren't sparring. They were connecting. Converging at this inevitable point.

"Okay…" Regina breathed out as their lips parted.

"Yes." Emma responded.

"Let's forget that too," Regina whispered and rested her forehead on Emma's. They were both holding each other now. Unbalanced by the alcohol and their passion. The statement forgotten as quickly as it was said.

Emma cupped Regina's face with both hands and drank in the woman's face - inspecting each facial feature as if seeing this woman for the first time. A Regina long buried. She didn't really want to forget and pulled Regina nearer, kissed her, surprised at the tenderness of it and of Regina. "I'm sorry." Emma said, surprised at her boldness.

"Don't be sorry." Regina said. This time Regina initiated the kiss.

This time they didn't stop to tell lies of forgetting. They kept going until Emma's back hit the door. Had this been any other night, Regina would've taken her there, stood up against the door, roughly even. Tonight was different. They both knew it as they manoeuvred their way to the sofa - hands and lips in desperately constant contact.

Before the sofa, between kisses, Regina began to undo Emma's shirt until concern halted her movements. This never happened before. She looked at Emma, a silent plea for permission. Emma stroked her cheek and nodded. Emma in turn began work on Regina's top, untucked it and lifted it over, let it drop on the floor as she marvelled at Regina's dark tousled hair. She was no longer The Mayor. Henry's Evil Queen. She was just Regina. A woman. Beautiful and wanton. The light from the fire illuminated her beauty. They continued undressing each other until they were skin to skin.

Emma lowered herself on the sofa with Regina in tow. Regina wanted to make love to Emma, savour every part of her, but she also wanted to give Emma her release. To purge all the offending emotions that brought them together that night in the first place. She let Emma open herself up, she kissed her way from her neck down to the wet apex of the Emma's legs – drank in her heady scent and lapped up her arousal.

With Emma's moans as encouragement, Regina continued – and got an even louder response as she slid two fingers inside her. It wasn't long before Emma shook uncontrollably. The climax taking over her body. She jerked here and there as Regina prolonged her orgasm, teasing her swollen clit, her fingers still inside. By now she had no other thought but wanting Regina's mouth. She wanted Regina's body close to her - to watch, hear and feel this woman's own sexual undoing. As she had done to her.

Emma pulled Regina up so that she was now kneeling on top of Emma's face. Without hesitation, Emma began making love to her. Regina could only writhe in sweet agony, fingers tangled in blonde tresses as Emma's tongue traced invisible paths along her folds, drinking in her wetness. They matched each other's sighs and moans – as good for one as the other. Like Emma, it wasn't long before Regina threw her head back, losing herself whilst Emma held her body steady as the orgasm rattled through her - filled her to the tips of her toes.

Drunk with passion, they laid together, their bodies and limbs tangled. Emma watched as Regina's tired eyes finally fluttered close and whispered to her ear, a barely audible "Thank you." and closed her eyes.

The dying embers of the fire kept the darkness at bay.

Regina smiled, half asleep, eyes still shut, and whispered back, "You said that already."

Their steady breathes cut through the quiet.

This night was different. Tomorrow - perhaps a new day.