A/N: This is an A/U. All of the characters have full non-magical back stories. I am not sure if it going to stay as an AU though. For the time being, there is no magic or evil queen. I want to deal with their personalities and relationship before dragging the magic in. No sexy times yet, but there will be later. This is my first ever fanfic, and it has not been betaed. I welcome feedback. Please let me know if you'd like to be my beta reader.

This chapter has been modified to add more depth to Regina's character. Let me know if it works.

"I will bring him back to you." Emma whispered leaning forward to rest her forehead against Regina's. A quick kiss and she was gone.

Emma rubbed the sleep from her eyes and puzzled over the last few minutes of her dream. There was no kiss or whispered promises during the mine shaft incident. The only difference between that and any other Madame Mayor encounter was that she actually appeared human. For a few moments Regina Mills was a scared, desperate mother. Not the unfeeling, insecure, overbearing, smothering bitch the town of Storybrooke loved to hate. "Ehh..." Emma thought. Dreaming about a soft moment with Regina was probably just her subconscious saying that it was time to make peace.

With that thought Emma rolled over, grabbed her phone, and dialed. Regina answered on the second ring.

"To what do I owe this honour, Ms. Swan? Car booted again?"

"Regina," Emma answered in carefully measured tones "I'm calling to check on you and Henry. We could have lost him, and Archie, in that mine."

"We are fine," snapped the Mayor, "Is that all? I have a traumatised child to deal with."

"Regina wait," Emma interjected, "I am also calling to ask if you would join Henry and me on our little Friday field trip to Canobie Lake?"

"Excuse me?" the mayor sputtered "Why would I want to do that? Isn't it bad enough that I know you have stolen my child's affections? Why would I want to spend a Friday watching it live?"

"I have not stolen your child's affections" Emma responded. "In fact our experience at the mine got me to thinking. We should spend a little more time seeing him as OUR son, and a little less time fighting over him. He is not a cookie. We can share."

Emma bulldozed right over some more of Regina's outraged sputtering "Look, it felt good standing there with you checking him over. He was happy, and I was happy to have him see us interact without the hostility. Like it or not, I'm in his life. The way I see it you have a choice — get to know me a little better so we can actually act civilised in front of OUR son or prepare for continued all out hostilities, because I am not going anywhere."

"Fine!" Regina snapped after a long silence. "Henry and I will meet you at Granny's at 8:30 on Friday morning. We will have a decent breakfast, because it is bad enough that lunch and dinner will be amusement park junk food. We will take my car, because I'm not driving on the interstate in your yellow death trap and we will back in time for Henry to be in bed by ten pm."

"Fine" Emma gritted out ending the call. "That woman," she thought. "Always, always, ALWAYS has to be in control. I bet she has always has to be on top too. Aww... Man..." Emma mentally slapped her forehead. "Why did my mind go there? Eww!"

A few days later and, ten minutes early, Sheriff Emma Swan strolled into Granny's and grabbed a booth. She could not help but smile a bit. The Mayor was going to be deprived of a chance to make some smart-ass comment about her tardiness.

"Hell hath frozen over indeed, " An incredulous voice cut across the diner. "Emma Swan is actually on time. Granny, you must be cooking up something good today."

Granny shook her head and chuckled thinking that it had been several years, nine or ten maybe, since she had seen the sassy, sarcastic side of Regina Mills. She let her mind travel to memories of a bright-eyed teenager with a good heart, a razor sharp wit and a mind like a steel trap.

She remembered that girl doing homework in the diner's corner booth while waiting for her father to get done at City Hall. Regina was so different then. It did not matter that her mother was more interested in being the "mayor's wife" than in being a mother. Neither was it important that her father, though he meant well, was almost always too busy. Regina had a whole town of parents and siblings, but then IT happened and she was shipped off to a boarding school in Boston. The Regina who came back 11 years later was not the same.

That Regina was a raging bitch, and it was that person who caused Emma's head to shoot up, a smart retort on her lips. But, again, there it was, the human. Regina standing in the diner's doorway, arm around Henry, a twinkle in her eye and looking absolutely edible in a silky, almost sheer white button down, skin tight jeans and knee high fuck-me boots.

"You're missing the leather jacket, Mayor Mills " Emma laughed as she beckoned them over.

"What makes you think there isn't one in the car, Ms. Swan? After all, We must do this best buds thing right and dress exactly alike." With that Regina pushed a grinning Henry into the booth and slid in behind him, affording, the slightly off kilter, Emma a generous view of her cleavage.

"I may regret this, but where is the real mayor, what did you do with her, and when is she coming back? " Emma asked with a raised eyebrow.

"There is your problem, Ms. Swan. I am not the Mayor right now. I am a mom taking her kid to the fair. " Regina ruffled Henry's hair smiling down at him.

"I am happy when my son is happy, and I have not seen him happy in a long while. Well... At least not while I was with him..." Regina trailed off, her last words almost inaudible. "Anyway," She piped up with a genuine smile, "Henry is my heart, and I will enjoy his happiness as long as I can."

Emma looked over at the beautiful, warm woman across from her and wondered she had been hiding all this time. She also wondered when adjectives like edible, beautiful and warm joined irritating, insufferable and pain-in-the-ass as part of her list of Regina words. "If nothing else," she thought, "It was shaping up to be an interesting day."

"Come on, guys, stop flirting and order." Henry said bouncing up and down in his seat. "I want to go to the fair."

"Henry!" They both said at once.

"We are not flirting." Regina continued. "We are merely trying to get along."

"Okay... Okay... You are not flirting. Can we order now please?"

Emma winked at him and beckoned Ruby over. She had a feeling that it was going to be a good day.

A few hours later they were in Regina's car barreling down I-93 S. She turned out to be a skilled, careful driver, handling the powerful vehicle with ease and obvious pleasure. Emma discovered that Regina loved to drive, only drove performance vehicles, only drove stick, and referred to her car as a 'marvel of German engineering'. She also did not like to talk while driving, but was generous with the sound system.

Emma let Henry DJ, using the opportunity to observe the mayor up close. The past few days had been a revelation. The bitch had a human side, and Henry brought it out.

"Ms. Swan, I can feel you thinking at me. It is distracting. What's on your mind?" Regina asked, her voice a mix between amused and exasperated.

"First," said Emma. "We are taking our kid to an amusement park. I think we can be on first name terms for today, Regina. Second, I can't figure you out. You are so nice right now, but every other time we have interacted you've been cold, mean, indifferent or all of the above. What gives?"

"Ms. Swan... Emma" Regina corrected herself quickly. "I see, no beating around the bush for you? I am mayor of a very small town. Everyone knows everything about everyone else, or at least thinks they do. Further, they all have strong opinions on the way things should be. Also..." she paused, obviously searching for the correct words.

"You are new enough to have not experienced the contempt that comes familiarity. Can you imagine how tough it can be run a town council meeting when at least two of the members remember catching the high school version of you under the bleachers in a compromising situation? I am young, female, not too hard on the eyes, unmarried and a... well... that's a conversation for another day." Regina trailed off uncomfortably

"Nevertheless, I do not see how I could run this town without an iron fist." She said finding her voice again. "Kudos to you if you have found a way to be nice and an effective Sheriff at the same time. I have learned, the hard way, that I can be nice or I can be mayor."

Emma was about to pursue Regina on the part she left out earlier, but her final words struck a chord. It was becoming harder to do her job as sheriff, and not offend any of her friends. Not that she was about to admit that to Regina. As far as she was concerned, her task was to find the happy medium between awful harpy and pushover.

"Regina," Emma started in a low voice. "I probably should leave this alone, but that does not explain the difference between the way you are treating me today and the way you have treated me before."

Regina paused for a while, mouth opening and closing while she searched for the words. "My son ran away to find you. He left me, and only came back because you brought him back. " Those words just hung in the air, jarring in their stark reality.

Then Regina spoke again, slowly and with great care, almost as if she were talking to herself, "But you know... The other day at the mine... You were right... I was not physically able to bring him out of that mine. You got him, and you brought him back to me. I am grateful. I still resent the hell out of you, but I am grateful."

The car fell silent, as silent as it could with Henry as resident DJ, as both women sat with their thoughts.