Regina was working late in the mayor's office. Mary Margaret spent more time with friends now that she remembered she had them and without Henry at home Regina preferred to delay going home to an empty house. She headed home after she'd finished with the revised budget only to be surprised when she walked in the big house to hear voices. "And then she actually threatened him with town bylaws…"

David and Emma were recounting the days adventures the middle of her kitchen. The smell of roasted squash reached her before she entered the room to find Henry cutting vegetables for a salad and Mary Margaret at the stove.

"You're making dinner…."

She usually did the cooking. But her wife smiled, "Henry and I thought you could use a reward on your first day of vigilante justice."

"It wasn't exactly…" Regina began.

"Shush. Justice." Mary Margaret said sternly. "And as a reward you are getting your favorite. Well your favorite after torture and dark magic."

David raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was serious, whatever tentative friendship he might be developing with the Queen didn't quite extend to black humor.

"It's terrible for me but I do like it. That is her casserole." She kissed her wife on the temple. "And dark magic. But maybe not call this a celebration. I didn't do anything."

"That's not what Emma said."

Regina looked over at the sheriff who looked annoyingly smug, "Your daughter is as good at keeping secrets as you are dear."

"I'm not about to have to suffer through this hero thing by myself." Emma said.

"Careful, Miss. Swan. I can light your head on fire."

Mary Margaret passed Emma plates to set the table, "Don't worry she only threatens to set your head on fire if she likes you."

Regina looked around, "I think I'm being ganged up on."

Henry smiled, "Mary Margaret and David said that it was a tradition in the Enchanted Forest to hold a feast for a hero…"

"I'm not…"

Snow whispered in her ear, "This time it's time for my advice, Madam Mayor, fake it until you make it. No one said you had to feel like a hero for your son to see you as one." Regina might have had a snarky reply except it was followed by a pat on her ass. "Now go sit down and let Henry see you having done the right thing."

Regina took the casserole her wife shoved in her hand and carried it into the dining room looking around at Henry already listening to a highly embellished version of the story from the morning, and she took a seat, realizing she didn't have to say anything at least. With the last of the food on the table Mary Margaret sat down and raised a glass of wine.

"To our family."

Everyone raised their glass, Henry's with juice, and Regina realized that was what she'd accidentally found herself with.

Not just a wife and a son… but a whole family. One she hadn't been looking for, but one she desperately didn't want to let down.