Author's Note: Sorry I meant to have this done last week. Hope you enjoy the end of this story! For anyone reading Rise and Rise Again, I plan to get back to that soon.

Robin hasn't stopped touching Regina since they left his camp. Fingers intertwined as they walked to her car. His hand on her thigh as she drove them to her house. His arm wrapped around her shoulders as they walk through her front door.

Regina rubs a soothing hand on Robin's back and and leans in to press a kiss to his cheek. "You ok?" she whispers.

He turns to her with a small nod and rests his forehead against hers, nuzzling against her cheek. Regina presses her lips to Robin's softly, feels him melt against her. She tries to wrap her mind around the idea that Robin loves her and needs her as much as she does him.

The shriek of Roland's high pitched giggle and Henry's suddenly deep laughter make Regina blush and smile sheepishly. Robin's hands are on her red cheeks, and he's grinning at her with so much joy at the sight of her smile.

"Come on boys," Regina says, reluctantly leaving Robin's arms. "Let's go make hot chocolate." She can't stop smiling though. Henry is absolutely beaming at her, and Robin's palm is on the small of her back. He's watching her with that smile, won't stop touching her. She never wants him to.

"Can I help?" Roland asks, bouncing on his toes and looking at Regina with a pleading expression that is so much Robin.

"Of course you can." She picks him up and sets him on the kitchen island, just like she had done with Henry when he was little and couldn't reach the counter.

Henry sets the ingredients next to the Roland, leaves a bar of good chocolate next to the milk, cocoa, and sugar. "I bet you haven't had hot chocolate with real chocolate in it," Henry tells the younger boy.

"Regina made me hot chocolate when we were in her castle."

Regina watches Henry's face fall for an instant before he plasters on a smile. Regina pulls him to her, needs to reassure him and herself that he's really here, that the nightmare of the year apart is over. Her baby is back home with her. Her little boy who not so long ago was so small, and she had sat him on the counter like Roland is now. Henry's eyes had been wide with excitement then, and he had looked at her like she was his whole world. Regina remembers how each day with Henry had felt like being born anew, like her heart was thawing with each beautiful smile her boy gave her.

Henry leans his head on Regina's shoulder and pushes himself closer. It hurts her to see him upset like this. She presses a kiss to Henry's forehead and wraps him up in a tight hug. "I love you my little prince."

His arms are squeezing her so tightly and Henry has his face pressed into her neck. "I love you too Mom. I love you so much." She feels his body shake against her, hears him choke back a sob.

"Henry," she gasps. "Sweetie."

Robin is looking at her with such care, knows how much it hurts her that her son is crying. He reaches out and presses his palm to her cheek, mouths I love you, and then picks up Roland and whisks him out of the room so that Henry can have his privacy with Regina.

Henry sounds like he's choking on his sobs. "It's ok honey. Let it out." Regina rubs circles on his back, coaxes him to let go until hiccuping sobs wrack his body. He cries and cries against her shoulder. Cries like he had as a colicky baby and as a toddler who scraped. But Henry is a teenager now, and Regina wishes that this could be fixed with a bandaid and a kiss. But Henry is overdue for a breakdown, Regina thinks. Her poor little boy was just a normal kid in a small town a few years ago and now he is part of a family of fairy tale characters. He's survived learning his mother was the Evil Queen, being kidnapped, having his memory erased and then returned to him. His whole life has been turned upside down, and he didn't even have his mother to cling to as it happened. Regina's heart feels so heavy with guilt as she holds Henry too her murmuring in his ear how much she will always love him.

When Henry finally quiets, he looks up at Regina with a hint of embarrassment and apology in his gaze. But Regina smiles at him with tears in her own eyes and shakes her head. She wipes her thumbs across his wet cheeks and kisses his forehead. "Talk to me honey." Henry sniffles and looks at his mom with wide eyes, and something in Regina's heart feels so hopeful that he still looks at her like this, like his mommy who he trusts when things are frightening.

"Everything has been so screwed up. The last few years…"

"I'm so sorry Henry."

"I don't want you to be sorry anymore." He lets out a frustrated cry, and Regina takes his hand in hers.

"It's ok. I made mistakes and I hurt you. I understand if you're angry with me. I am never going anywhere no matter what."

"I'm not angry anymore. I'm really not. I missed you so much, and I never told you. I stopped telling you I loved you and then I didn't remember you and…I'm sorry Mommy."

He hasn't called her that in years. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You did nothing wrong sweetheart."

"I hurt you."

"No Henry. I made mistakes, and you were scared and hurt. And I am so grateful to have a chance to try to make the past up to you and be the mother that you deserve. I never want there to be a moment that you don't know how precious you are to me and that I love you with every piece of my soul."

"I know, and I love you too. You're my Mom. I know I said you weren't, but I was wrong. You're my mom and nothing is ever going to change that, not Emma and not fairy tales being real."

Regina's hands cup Henry's cheeks, wipe away the tear tracks. "Of course I'm never going to stop being your mom baby. That has not changed since the first moment I held you, and it never will."

Henry flings his arms around Regina, buries his face in her shoulder, and let her soothe him with warm hands and soft kisses to his hair. "Oh Henry. We're ok now honey. I promise."

"I got so lost."

"You're home."

"I know I am." He stays for a minute in her arms, soaks up the feeling of being safe and loved and protected.

"Are you ok Henry?" Roland asks when Henry and Regina walk into the living room with mugs of cocoa in hand.

Robin looks up apologetically, but Henry shrugs it off with a smile.

"What are we watching?" Henry asks as he hands a mug to Roland who is busy rummaging through the DVD collection.

Regina sits down between Henry and Robin, resting her hand on Henry's ankle as he stretches out on the couch and puts his feet on her lap. Robin wraps his arm around her shoulders, and the solid weight of him is comforting as he pulls her against his chest. He takes his mug of cocoa, smiling at Regina when he realizes that she's slipped a bit of Bailey's into their drinks.

"How about this one?" Roland asks, picking up a case to what Regina can already tell is a Disney movie. "The woman on the cover looks like Mulan."

Roland hands the DVD to his father who chuckles. "It would appear that it is Mulan. That's her name there, see." He points out the letters to Roland who studies the word carefully. "I hadn't realized she was famous in this realm."

"That's a good one," Regina admits.

Henry stifles a laugh as he adds, "Much better than the one about you Robin. No offense, but that one was pretty boring."

"There's a movie about me?"

"There are a bunch of them," Henry tells him eagerly. "I think the only one we have is Men in Tights though."

Regina cannot contain her laugh, throws her head back and laughs more freely than she can remember in a long time. "Next time we will have to watch that."

Robin eyes her suspiciously. "Why do I have the feeling it isn't complementary?"

Regina and Henry shoot each other a sly smile and shrug. Robin stares at the two of them, chuckling too now and fixing Regina with a look pure love.

Henry and Regina had gone upstairs and brought down a whole heap of blankets and pillows between Mulan and Frozen, and now Henry and Roland are fast asleep on the floor surrounded by a massive amount of blankets.

Regina is curled against Robin's side on the couch, a comforter spread across their laps. Robin's fingers are intertwined with Regina's and she's nuzzled against his chest. Her mind is drifting to the things she did today, to the evil that still lives inside her, when Robin kisses her forehead and smiles at her with what seems to be great determination to erase the dark thoughts from her mind.

Regina smiles back, wonders how he can understand her so well, how he always seems to know what she needs even when she can't bring herself to ask for it.

"I heard you tell Henry before that it was ok to cry and let everything out. The same is true for you, you know? The last few years certainly haven't been easy for you either."

Regina loves Robin for offering this, loves him so much for the fact that she does truly know that Robin would hold her while she fell to pieces and think no differently of her for it. But Regina has been so vulnerable already today, and she feels so overwhelmed and exhausted. "Robin…"

He shakes his head wordlessly. "I just need you to know that you never need to try to hold everything together for me. When you want a place to just let everything go, I'm here to hold you."

"I know that."

"You deserve to be loved Regina. And you are. I love you so much. You don't have to be stronger than everyone else anymore."

Regina laughs harshly, thinks of her mother and Rumplestilskin and all the times her weaknesses had been used against her.

"You're safe with me," Robin assures Regina, studying the pain in her eyes, looking desperately like he wants to take that hurt from her. "I'm not going away. Nothing is going to change this. Not some book and not Marian waking up. Nothing. You are my future."

Regina sighs deeply, had put thoughts of Marian from her mind. "But she's the mother of your son. And I'm the Evil-"

"No, you're not. You made mistakes in your past, but the woman in my arms is good and has such a beautiful heart. I am the luckiest man in all the worlds to be the one that you chose to give your heart to, and that is a gift that I promise you I do not for granted."

Regina is shaking her head at him, feels close to tears at the thought that someone could possibly see her as a gift, that Robin, Robin who is a hero and who she loves so much, could believe her to be good and worthy of loving.

Regina lets out a broken breath, halfway between a laugh and a sob. Her eyes are wide and glistening. Robin kisses her gently, tries to pour all the love her has for her into that kiss. His touch is so tender, so gentle, and she just never imagined that anyone would ever hold her like this.

Regina moves her hands move to Robin's face, cradling his cheeks like he is precious and perfect, needs him to know that to her he is. Her fingers caress his jaw, his neck, make him shiver against her. She nips softly at his lips, drags her mouth up to press a kiss to his nose before resting her forehead to his and staring at him with a smile.

Robin returns the smile, his hands on her cheeks "You deserve to be happy, and I am going to fight for your happiness." He looks so determined, so utterly convinced that Regina is good and deserving, so ready to tie his life to hers.

Regina can't hold back the laughter that bubbles up in her; she's laughing tearfully and smiling at Robin and feeling like something is finally breaking free inside of her. She laughs and hiccups, stifling the sound only when she realizes that Henry and Roland are asleep. But she still is grinning at Robin, knows that she must look a mess with tears on her cheeks and a smile that is getting larger by the second.

Robin stares at her curiously, and Regina grabs him and pulls him to her for a kiss. Kisses him and kisses him and can feel how much he loves her. He met the Evil Queen tonight. He saw the very worst of Regina. But he's here in her living room having a slumber party with their sons. He's here promising to love her and fight for her.

Maybe there is an author who believes that Regina don't deserve a happy ending. But Robin believes that she does.

Robin believes in her, just as Henry does, and Snow - damn Snow and her quarter collection.

But as Regina pulls back from Robin to see the smile on his face, she thinks that she is about to owe Snow a piggy bank full. Because there is hope blossoming in Regina's heart, even if the thought of it makes Regina so afraid.

But she focuses on Robin's grin and on her son's beautiful face as he sleeps, and despite the fear Regina finds that she can hold on to the hope. She lets it wind itself around her her heart, lets herself finally believe.