Sorry for uploading the wrong chapter guys, sorry for any confusion with updates, it should all be fixed now :)

A/N Just please note that I made a mistake in the a/n of chapter 2 (which I have now changed), the timeline for this fic does include 3a, but the missing year took place in Storybrooke with no one losing their memories, hope this isn't too confusing, but it doesn't really affect much anyway...

Chapter fourteen

[Snow] opened her eyes slowly and instantly scrunched them shut at the sight of light streaming through the Emma's bedroom window.

Her mind took a few seconds to figure out exactly why she and her husband had slept in their daughter's bed, before everything came crashing back.

The brunette shot up, with [David's] arms still around her waist and she looked around, desperately wishing that her memories were somehow wrong.

Her frantic atmosphere seemed to have woken the blond man who was sleeping soundly a moment ago and with grogginess clinging to his voice, he said, "Snow, what's wrong?"

"Everything," she replied instantly.

The prince kept his eyes closed for a moment later as he sighed deeply, before he finally opened them and sat up to look at his wife.

"We can't change the future," the blond said simply, he could certainly understand [Snow's] rejection to what was going to happen, but he had a feeling that he wasn't nearly as bothered by what was going to happen as she was. At first, the idea of his daughter and the Evil Queen getting married and having two children had been completely unthinkable, but that changed when Emma had been freed from the darkness. The way that she had looked at Regina in the moments before she lost consciousness, he had seen the same kind of love as he had felt every time he saw [Snow]. No matter how disturbing the prospect was to him, he couldn't imagine ever standing in the way of his child's happiness. Plus, there was the fact that Regina seemed to be a completely different woman, he couldn't imagine that the Evil Queen would have ever even thought about sharing her heart.

The brunette sighed at his words and she shook her head, "that doesn't mean that I want to see it."

"What are you talking about?" [David] asked with a furrowed brow.

"I went down to the kitchen last night to get a glass of water and they were…kissing…"

The blond cringed and then relaxed when she just said 'kissing', but then he reminded himself that they did have two young children in the bed, so there was no way it could have been the thing that he never wanted to think about, ever.

"They have been apart for quite some time, Snow," he replied after a moment of thought, "if I suddenly came back from darkness would you not want to at least share a kiss?"

The brunette just let out a huff and crossed her arms, "can you please not compare them to us?"

"It's pretty hard to deny that they are True Loves," he said softly bringing her arm around the woman's shoulder, he pulled her closer, hoping that it would comfort her at least a little. "Plus, we seem pretty okay with it in the future…"

"I'm not sure that I can ever get to that point," [Snow] sighed, bringing her hand up to wipe across her face.

[David] considered this for a moment, before he sighed and nodded in agreement.

It was the look of love that had convinced him that he should try and get used to the idea, but when those from the future left, he doubted that he would see it again for a while.

Now that he had plainly been shown what would happen, he hardly doubted that [Emma] and [Regina] were at the very least physically attracted to one another. But he also imagined that it took a lot for either of them to even consider that it could be more than that, let alone for them to admit it to each other.

The younger version of the former Evil Queen would probably take far longer than his daughter to agree to embrace the future they had seen and he could see that hurting [Emma]. He knew that if that was how things were to play out, not only would they have completely messed up the timeline, but it wouldn't be long before he would be incapable of putting his hate for the mayor aside.

"I don't think we will either…it would probably be easier to get used to it if we didn't already know that it's going to happen…"

The brunette nodded her agreement and they each sighed and fell into silence as they silently contemplated what they could possibly do to make sure that the timeline wasn't completely destroyed.

[David] looked sideways at the woman in his arms and furrowed his brow when he saw a small grin spreading across her face, "what?" he laughed.

"I was just thinking…do you think Emma looked like Tamsin when she was younger?"

"I have no doubt," he replied, mirroring her smile at just how adorable their daughter probably was.

They remained in thought for a few seconds longer, before [Snow] looked sideways at the clock, "we should probably go and make breakfast…"

The blond nodded, though he seemed just as reluctant to go downstairs as his wife.

However, after they remained put for a couple of seconds, they both seemed to decide that they couldn't exactly remain in hiding and they each go up and proceeded down to the kitchen.

Halfway down, it became evident that everyone else had already arrived at the apartment, though they all remained in relative silence as Regina and Snow made breakfast.

Her counterpart sat on the couch, feigning disinterest in everything, [Emma] on the other side with [Henry] in the middle. They clearly made a very good looking family, though the three of them didn't yet seem to be completely comfortable with each other. On the recliner the other side of them was Charming with Neal sat on his lap, with Henry sat crossed legged on the floor intently writing in a book.

Cora and Gold sat the counter, clearly discussing something important, and sitting on the counter was the youngest Swan-Mills child, intently watching her mother and grandmother cooking.

[Snow] and [Charming] exchanged a look, before they looked around to see the final two missing people.

Lay in [Snow's] bed was two sleeping blondes, each still looking feverish.

Tamsin was clinging tightly to her mother and despite her illness, it appeared that she was smiling in her sleep.

The pair made their way across the apartment and came to sit on the stools next to Cora and Gold, and they both saw that the two of them were going through a spell book.

"Morning," Snow mumbled as she grabbed some bread to toast, while also handing a spatula to her daughter-in-law, who began working on the fried eggs in the pan.

[Snow] just awkwardly inclined her head and then looked over to the future version of her daughter, "is she any better?"

"I believe a few hours of sleep should suffice for the saviour to return to her old self," Gold answered as he flipped to the next page of the magical tome, almost disinterestedly.

The youngest brunette nodded and smiled slightly as both Emma and Tamsin let out similar sleeping sounds, she had to admit that Tamsin and Emily were certainly helping her to not be completely blindly angry about the state of the future.

Then, of course, there was Neal to think about.

As much as she was glad to have Emma back, even if she was an adult, she could hardly deny that raising a child from infancy was what she always wanted, but it was obviously something she hadn't planned to bring up for a very long time. She had to wonder exactly when they had discussed it and what Emma's initial reaction had been to it. Of course, she hadn't seen how the blonde treated her brother without the darkness controlling her, but as she looked over and watched her bring her daughter protectively closer to her body, she somehow doubted that it was anything like what she'd had the high displeasure of seeing the day before.

Ten minutes passed with no one saying anything, honestly, no one could think of what could possibly be left to say.

Regina and Snow began to pile a buffet of breakfast food onto the counter, and it didn't take long for everyone to come and take their own portion of it, making sure to leave some for the sleeping blondes.

[Snow] watched in interest as Gold continued to read, not even bothering to get any food, and finally she couldn't take the curiosity any longer, "what is that?"

Gold looked up at the princess as if he were just realising that there were other people in the apartment, and he said, "it's a book."

The brunette rolled her eyes and noticed both versions of Regina smirked at his response, "what's inside the book?" she sighed.

"Well I'm assuming that no one here wishes for the integrity of the timeline to be in danger, so everyone in town must forget what happened and go back to what they were doing yesterday."

"But the mob," [Henry] said weakly.

[Regina] looked sideways at him and felt a mix of shock and happiness, he was actually showing that he cared for her, even if he seemed resolute to not seat too close to her, leaving a buffer of about three inches on the couch.

"They must not have caused much damage," [Emma] said reassuringly, inclining her head to put at the future version of Regina, who looked to be very much intact.

The little brunette seemed to relax at this and went back to working on food on his plate.

"How do you plan to make everyone in town forget?" [David] asked with a very confused expression.

"A curse," Rumple replied simply, "I think that the wishing well in the woods will do for a place to cast it from. Everyone will forget everything up until when the curse broke, and in theory, after some confusion, they should go about whatever they were about to do and everything should happen as it was always meant to."

The silence in the room seemed to indicate that everyone in the room had no objections to this plan, which was somewhat shocking for all of those from the future.

Regina was sure that at the very least, [Charming] and [Snow] would be making some grand speech as to why they have to remember so that they could avoid the great mistake that Emma was going to make. However, when she looked at the brunette and blond, they each seemed to be perfectly fine with the plan, almost relieved that they had gotten an easy way out of the burden of carrying knowledge of the future.

"It will take some planning to ensure that every person in town is in the same position they were at the exact moment that the curse broke," Cora announced, "I'm sure that there will be people unwilling to give us that information…"

"I believe that Emma will be able to help with that once she is back to full strength, she has become strangely adept with dreamcatchers. She should be able to see where each person was when the curse broke," Regina replied.

[Emma] furrowed her brow, clearly trying to figure out exactly what that meant, but she decided to just brush it off, after all, it wasn't as if she would be remembering that little piece of information for much longer.

"So we have to wait for Ma to wake up?" Henry asked, finally looking up from what he had been writing, "she hasn't slept in a while…"

"Why?" [Snow] asked, looking worriedly over to the blonde.

"Dark Ones don't sleep," Rumple replied without looking up at the princess.

"Oh."

They fell into silence once again, all proceeding to wait for the saviour to wake up.

Neal sat cross legged and watched curiously as the people around him seemed to be planning everything they needed to get home.

Frankly, he couldn't wait for everything to just go back to normal.

Over the past few months of his life, he had missed his sister dearly, and it was only made worse when he saw the affect her absence was having on those around him.

His parents looked more than lost and almost guilty every time they did something for them. His two nieces were distraught and constantly asking where their mother was and Henry and Regina just seemed withdrawn from everyone. He wasn't yet old enough to understand the way that his aunt chose to deal with emotions, but he did understand that whenever there was something Henry didn't want to deal with, he would just isolate himself and write.

Overall, his whole family had been falling apart at the seams and all they needed was for Emma to come back.

The first time he had seen his sister as the Dark One, he had actually laughed at how ridiculous she looked, the look and act just didn't suit her and he found it funny at the time.

But when the blonde had looked at him, he had found the laugh die in his throat.

As the Dark One, she was no longer the saviour who they all loved and he had actually been terrified. Snow had hugged him that night and explained to him why Emma wasn't herself and he had asked her what they could do to get her back. She had simply replied that she didn't know, worry etched into every feature of her face.

So, while everyone else tried to decide exactly what they were going to do to ensure the timeline was secure, he stared at the sleeping blonde, willing her to wake up so that he could see if she was indeed the sister he had been missing.

It was for this reason that the young was the first to notice when her face twitched and she slowly began opening her eyes.

As she did so, he stood and managed to get over to the bed without anyone noticing.

Emma didn't look up at him straightaway as she brought her hand up to rest on Tamsin's forehead and smiled when she felt that her fever must have broken in her sleep.

"Emma?" Neal asked timidly in a whisper.

The emerald green eyes that they both shared were looking at him within a split second and the blonde smiled at him, though it soon turned into a frown when images of her own actions the previous day began flooding her mind.

"Hey buddy," she said after a moment.

A huge smile spread across his face at the familiar nickname and he was practically vibrating when he said, "you're back."

This caught everyone's attention and they all looked over to the scene.

[Snow] couldn't help but smile when the son she was yet to have climbed up onto the bed just so that he could sit next to his older sister.

Emma's mouth fell open as she sat up, with Tamsin still firmly clinging to her abdomen, she had thought that it would take some work for her little brother to ever agree to be in the same room as her, let alone be sharing the same space. But then she thought about his words and smiled, he knew that the saviour and the Dark One were two different people, so he didn't think of the woman who hurt him as his sister.

Neal nestled into her side and the blonde took a moment to smile at the forgiving boy, before she felt all of the eyes on her and looked over to everyone.

She had to admit that it was rather strange to see all of the doubles staring back at her, but it also reaffirmed for her that she wanted to leave this place.

The time that Zelena had chosen to go back to was one of the most difficult in her life, it was somehow worse for her than even the worst foster home, because she was prepared for them after a certain amount of time.

Everything that happened after the curse broke, was not something she could control, she couldn't just pretend that she had no emotions about everything going on because she now had these two people who were basically interested in her every thought and move and that terrified her.

In the future, though, she had managed to work through her issues, she had allowed herself to be happy and she never wanted to go back to the days when she refused to call Snow 'mom' because it felt weird, or when she would never have allowed her father to protect her out of some kind of misplaced pride. Now that everything was how it should be, she just wanted to go home and have a normal night with her family.

It was for that reason that it didn't take her long to deduce that everyone clearly had a plan and she definitely wanted to know what it was.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Rumple has found a way to ensure that no one remembers, but to make sure that everyone does what they should have after the curse broke, we need to place them how they were at the moment that the curse broke," Cora explained, "we're trying to make a plan to get a town full of people to comply…"

Emma nodded her understanding, she could imagine that it would be difficult to get everyone to tell them. There were many would tell them without question as long as the Charmings asked, but everyone involved in the mob would know that the plan would involve helping Regina, which was not something that any of them would be interested in doing.

"Okay…" she sighed, she had truly hoped that she wouldn't have to stay here long, "what can I do?"

Regina grabbed a notebook and walked over to her, sitting down on the edge of the bed without a second thought, she showed her the list they had compiled, "we need to find out where these people were and then we can send them all to that position just as Rumple casts the memory curse."

The blonde nodded and almost rolled her eyes at the extensive list, shifting to free one of her arms, she waved her hand and a dreamcatcher appeared in a cloud of white smoke.

"I guess we should get started then," she sighed.

"Do you really think this could work?" [Snow] asked nervously looking around the area around the wishing well.

"We have no idea what could happen to the timeline if it doesn't, so you should hope," Regina replied and the princess blinked a couple of times at the lack of bite in her tone. She was glad that she had many years to get used to this version of her former-stepmother, the version that she actually liked.

As she looked down the line of all of their future counterparts, she couldn't help but smile, a smile that didn't even falter when she noticed Emma and Regina's joined hands, though, she was sure that she would be freaking out about it if she wasn't about to lose her memory.

"So…" [Charming] began awkwardly, he truly had no idea how to say goodbye to these people, he wasn't even sure if it was necessary, but after everything that happened, he felt that they couldn't just leave without a word. He heard a little scoff but didn't even bother to look up to see [Regina] roll her eyes, which also meant that he missed [Emma's] smirk at the woman's response.

"Emma and Regina have the power open the portal back to their time and just before they do so they'll send everyone in town to the position they were in when the curse broke," Cora explained, watching as the past version of her husband work at the well.

Each past person nodded, agreeing to this plan and they all returned to silence, until finally Rumple turned to the group with an expression that was all business.

They all understood what his look meant and each of them seemed to looking intently at their mirror image, before smoke engulfed each of them, returning them to where they were when the curse broke.

Rumple looked over to the group standing next to him and allowed a small smile to tug at the corner of his lips as his eyes fell on Regina hand-in-hand with her wife and three children standing next to them.

For a second, he allowed himself to hope that Regina wasn't going to suffer much before she got to this point and he realised that they were all waiting for him to do something.

Clearing his throat, he reminded himself that they didn't have long to make sure that everyone remained where they were.

"We don't have much time," he reminded them, not seeing the point of saying some kind of farewell.

A moment of silence passed, before Emma and Regina focused their magic to reopen the portal that they had been using to travel through time.

Charming reached down and picked up the sedated Wicked Witch who would be returning to her cell in the institute, while Arthur's body had been sent back to Camelot to allow his people to carry out the appropriate funeral rites.

With a final glance at the bellowing smoke, each person took a deep breath and entered the swirling vortex that appeared before them.

Within a split second, they all disappeared and Rumple was left alone.

He stared at the spot where they vanished for a second, taking a moment to appreciate what was to come, before he turned around and whispered the final step of the curse and closed his eyes as the smoke sprung out and engulfed the entire town.

A full five seconds later, he opened his eyes and looked around the empty clearing, "what the hell am I doing here?" he said to himself.

A moment later, he disappeared, going make to his shop to finalise his plans with the wraith.

-The future-

"That's wonderful news," Regina sighed contently, holding the phone next to her ear.

"Rumple has centuries worth of sleep to catch up on," Cora laughed on the other end of the device, "though I'm sure he would appreciate you bringing Henry, Tamsin and Emily over for lunch tomorrow."

"Definitely," the brunette replied.

"How is Tamsin?"

"I think she's feeling better, especially now that she has her 'mommy' to tell her a bed time story," the former Evil Queen said, completely incapable of keeping the smile off her face, just knowing that her wife was in the mansion made her so much happier.

"Speaking of which, I should probably leave you alone for some much deserved time with Emma," her mother said and she could practically hear the smile on her face.

"Thank you," the brunette sighed, "could you tell Rumple that I said good night?"

"Of course, dear."

After a quick goodbye, Regina hung up the phone and snuggled into bed, taking a moment to consider how everything had turned out completely perfect, which was no something she would have ever associated with going back in time.

When they had first arrived back in Storybrooke, everyone had been so worried that there would be something different, but everything looked as it had when they had left, with the exception of the Dark One.

There was a tentative knock at the door and Regina looked up with a furrowed brow as she saw that it was a very nervous looking blonde.

"Why are you knocking?" she laughed.

Emma bit her lip and shook her head, "I haven't been in here in a while…"

"Which is precisely why you shouldn't be wasting time knocking," the older woman urged.

The saviour smiled at this, and walked over to the bed, easily slipping into the space that she had wanted to sleep in during her many sleepless nights.

They lay in silence for a moment, before Emma said, "hey."

The brunette laughed lightly and replied, "hey," as she took the initiative and lay scooted closer to her, placing her head on her shoulder.

As by muscle memory, Emma brought her arm around her wife's waist and she allowed all of her senses to be filled with the woman she loved.

They remained in silence for a few moments, they both knew that they had a lot to talk about, but they certainly wouldn't be doing it tonight.

"I was thinking…" Emma began, and instantly she felt brown orbs looking up at her attentively, "since it's been a while…maybe we should go on a date tomorrow…"

"I'm not sure how you can match a trip to the past…"

The blonde let out a mock exasperated sigh and said, "mom said she'll take the kids."

"That sounds wonderful."

-Nine years ago-

[Regina] looked up disinterestedly at the door from which a knock had just sounded.

After six difficult months, she had finally gotten something resembling happiness. Apparently, to earn her son's approval, all she had to do was travel to Neverland with the two people she couldn't stand, plus the saviour and captain guyliner, and she had to endure a week of absolute hell, before bringing him back home safely.

Even if things had been more than difficult, she honestly didn't care what hardships she had to endure, especially now that she had her son firmly back in her life. Though, she did find it rather strange that she didn't mind being some kind of parenting team with [Emma] in fact, it worked surprisingly well, the three of them had even began spending time together as a 'family', not that was what [Regina] would ever refer to their situation as.

"Come in," the brunette called.

The door opened a split second later and a very familiar blonde entered clutching a two to-go coffees.

"Miss Swan?" the mayor asked with a furrowed brow, they had certainly been spending more time together, and there was this strange sense of calmness between the pair, but the brunette had yet to fully grasp what the saviour had come to terms with just the week before.

[Emma] smiled nervously at the woman and scurried over, placing the cup on her desk.

The brunette continued to stare at the clearly nervous woman questioningly, before she finally cleared her throat and said, "is there something I can help you with, sheriff?"

The blonde bit her lip and after a second of thought, she fell into the seat opposite the mayor and replied, "I was just in the diner and noticed that you didn't come in for your lunch time coffee, I figured you would need caffeine…"

[Regina] tilted her head, she got this strange feeling in her stomach, like any time that the saviour did something so considerate for her, something that she had been doing more often since they had returned from Neverland.

"I was rather busy trying to catch up on all of the paperwork that piled up during our little adventure, so…thank you…Miss Swan."

[Emma] nodded and clasped her hands together with an adorable little smile and the brunette quickly shook her head a looked back down at her work to ignore that she had just thought of the daughter of her sworn enemies as 'adorable'.

For a minute, the mayor continued to write, before she tilted her head when she felt eyes on her and looked up, realising that the other woman was still there, "is there something else?"

"Er…" the saviour's shouldered slumped and she started looking around the office, obviously trying to find a reason to stay, but finally she seemed to decide that there was nothing that could help her to be near the object of her affection and she stood.

"I guess not…" she sighed and turned to leave.

[Regina] tilted her head and allowed the pen in her hand to drop from her hand as she considered the blonde was somehow disappointed.

"Emma," she called and the woman quickly turned around with a hopeful expression, "are you sure there wasn't something else?"

"Well…that depends…" [Emma] replied, walking back over to the desk.

"On?"

"Well, on one hand, if you say yes, it would be awesome, but if you said no, it would be completely awkward and you are technically my boss, even though we're friends…well not close friends but I feel like we're closer than we were, like we don't hate each other anymore. But us being friends could make it even more awkward, plus we have Henry to think abo…"

The sheriff stopped her rambling when she realised that the brunette had her hand held up and was smirking slightly at her, "as amusing as your inarticulate rambling is, Miss Swan, I'm afraid that I still have no idea what you expect me to say no to."

[Emma] nodded and stuck her hands in her pocket, she had a feeling that there was no way out of this now, so she just went for it, "I was talking to Mary Margaret about Neverland and she noticed something that I hadn't really thought about before…"

"Do you expect me to sit here and listen to one of your mother's theories?" [Regina] quipped.

"Regina, can you just listen?" the blonde growled, she had no idea how she could like this frustrating woman, but it was kind of one of the things she liked about her.

The brunette opened her mouth to retort, but she sensed that this was more important than any sassy comment she could make, so she just nodded.

"She noticed how we kept protecting each other…and the way I looked at you, she said that she was freaked out by it at first, which is why she took so long to mention it…anyway…she made me realise that I may actually have some kind…"

The mayor watched the other woman ramble and throughout all of it, a smile was blooming on her face when she realised what was happening.

The blonde was looking firmly at the ground as she spoke, so she didn't notice halfway through that [Regina] stood up from her desk and walked over to her. At least, she didn't notice until the older woman was standing right in front of her when she finally looked up.

[Emma] took a moment to assess the closeness, and she gulped nervously as words failed her, a slight blush running up her neck.

The brunette smiled at the reaction that completely confirmed everything she had hoped to be true, and then she leaned forward to capture the blonde's lips in her own, in a short but sweet peck.

She leaned back and almost laughed as she inspected the saviour's face, it looked as if her mind had short-circuited.

"Emma," she whispered, which seemed to make said woman blink out of her shock.

The blonde cleared her throat and tried to refocus on her surroundings, "yeah?" she asked in a somewhat hoarse voice.

"You can pick me up at eight and you need to ask your parents to watch Henry," [Regina] said casually as she regally took a seat back at her desk. The smile that she couldn't hide was the only sign that anything was different from a few minutes ago.

The other woman nodded once and the twice, before she allowed a smile to creep across her face, as everything began to become very real to her, "I guess I'll see you later then your majesty."

A/N I hope you guys enjoyed

I need to thank QueenApples for always being an awesome beta and PerditusFic for always answering my really random questions haha

Please let me know what you thought and thanks for reading XD