(I Know) About Us

Chapter 5: Meeting Again Again

She changed her tactics after her first failed attempt at reconnecting with Emma and Henry. Really, this was the way she should have done it from the start, and so she spent an evening being furious with herself over the phone while coming up with a plan with Mulan, Mary Margaret and David. They reassured her that everything was going to be fine – Mary Margaret's faith was disturbing as always – but Regina had a really hard time accepting the fact that she'd let herself be thrown off kilter the way she had.

It was just... when she saw Emma with that woman in the park it had ignited something vicious inside of her, and she'd been desperate to make them remember. Because if they remembered, surely Emma would forget everything about her new family and come running back to her old. Regina knew it wasn't going to be that easy, not with a kid in the middle, but if Emma could just remember. That was the first step.

She snuck into Emma's apartment one day and spiked the decaf coffee on the kitchen table with the forgetting potion. It should work just fine; their last few interactions would be forgotten, and they could move forward from there. She didn't take the time to look too much around, hoping that she'd come back eventually once she reconnected with Emma and Henry; instead she ventured to the fourth floor where she had an appointment, signing her name at the bottom of a paper, officially buying a small, one-bedroom apartment in the same building that her family lived in. She'd channeled all her fake Storybrooke money into the real world, and it had gone smoothly, thus getting the next part of her plan in motion.

After that she got settled; she unpacked and made sure that it resembled some kind of home. Hopefully she wasn't going to live there for too long, but she did have to make sure that it was comfortable. Her plan was to do as she'd first thought – go knock on Emma's door and introduce herself as new in the building – and hopefully they'd fall into an easy conversation; something to build onto. But first: Groceries.

There was a store just down the block, so she grabbed her wallet – filled with real-world money, thank you very much – and made her way down there. She had listened to Mary Margaret's insistent talks of taking care of herself, of remembering that this was a journey, not a race – she couldn't win by moving too fast, and she had to make sure that she was able to handle the challenges. She'd scoffed at that. She was the Evil Queen for goodness sake! And where did Snow White get off trying to lecture her about anything? Secretly, she'd liked that the other woman cared, even if her caring meant having to deal with her a lot. It was still hard for Regina to believe that Mary Margaret and David did indeed care truly for her – some days, even in the Enchanted Forest - she woke up believing it was all a ruse, that it was fake and a plan to get her down. But what did it matter anyway? The only thing that mattered was Henry and Emma, and she had to remember that.

She was mentally making a list of groceries in her mind – perhaps she should make enchiladas tonight; she had a craving for it – when she almost ran into someone right outside of the corner store. "Would you look where you're-!" She stopped talking when she saw who was in front of her. Emma. She almost blurted out the name of the woman she'd often found herself so consumed in thoughts of, but thankfully she managed to catch herself before she ruined the second chance she got. Or was it third at this point? "I'm sorry," she quickly recovered, as Emma's wide green eyes shot up to meet hers.

The blonde was struggling with a stroller, it appeared, she had the baby on one arm and loaded grocery bags next to her on the street, and the stroller... it wasn't really functioning. Emma gave a strained gruff. "Yeah me too, it sure as fuck looks like this cheap-ass stroller is broken."

Regina quickly reached forward and took a hold of the offending piece of baby necessity. "Here, let me take a look. Just a second." She kneeled down at that, trying to see if she could locate the problem, all the while she was painfully aware of the fact that Emma was right there. Goodness, Regina wanted to kiss her. And thankfully it appeared that the forgetting potion had worked because Emma showed no signs of ever knowing her. "Hmm, it appears to be stuck," she murmured, as she glanced up at Emma, who was having great troubles with the baby on her hip who was now making tiny noises.