Regina made a show of looking out the windshield from under her visor curiously. "I see the Martians have decided to hold off on their attack for today."

Emma rolled her eyes and flicked at Regina's waist. The brunette turned and squeezed Emma's forearm encouragingly. "I know what you mean. But I know of one little boy who's been missing you something fierce."

Emma bit her lip, shifting in her seat in worry. "What if he's scared of me?"

"Why would he be scared?"

Emma scoffed and motioned to herself. She had opted on her hand-prosthetic for the trip rather than the steel mechanical one. Ease the kid into her return one limb at a time.

"He has me for a mother and August for an Uncle. You are like the Tooth Fairy to him."

"The Tooth Fairy is scary," the blonde muttered.

"It'll be fine," Regina promised with a kiss.

At the first sight of a yellow bus turning a corner, Regina motioned her head for Emma to step out of the Benz. Emma followed suit, ducking her head and shoving her arms deep into her sweater pocket. The blonde was used to blending in fairly well, keeping to herself when it was absolutely dire, but for whatever reason, she felt as if everyone's eyes were on her. It took her a full minute from when the bus approached and pulled into the parking lot to realize that the parents gathered there paid her no mind as they waved to their sons on the bus. She and Regina leaned against the passenger side of the car, waiting in the back for the Troop Leader to get off the bus first and help the driver retrieve the boys' duffels and bags from the underside storage. Every boy hopping off the bus was either blurry-eyed from staying up too late or energetic from the experience.

Emma felt Regina lean against her, silently supporting her as her eyes whipped over the heads of every boy descending. Her mind told her to look for a shaggy hair little boy with bangs in his eyes and rounded cheeks, but when she spotted him with her own eyes, her breath caught in her throat. Henry, his chocolate brown hair kissed by the sun and standing in all directions, followed his friend off the bus and walked to the growing mountain of duffels off to the side. His sweater was baggy for his lean frame, and his cheeks had thinned out over the years, but that dimple on the corner of his mouth was the same one that smiled up at Emma whenever she played soldier with him.

"Oh my god," Emma breathed, pushing off the car an inch to get a better look.

"I know." Regina grinned beside her. "I almost can't believe it myself."

"You let him go camping?" Emma asked genuinely surprised.

Regina glared at her, as if Emma's sudden input would have been helpful the day before, but Emma was too preoccupied with watching Henry dig through luggage to find his own. He was momentarily distracted by his friend waving goodbye to him before he finally found the overstuffed duffel that was two times his size. Regina squeezed Emma's wrist and pushed off from the car, walking forward to wave to Henry who had been looking around for his mother. He smiled and almost ran to her but remembered last second to keep his cool. The brunette mother stopped a distance away and crouched to the ground with her arms outstretched, and that was all the incentive needed for Henry to pick up his pace and nearly galloped into her arms.

Henry hadn't noticed where Regina had walked from, so it gave Emma a moment to get her nerves together because she had already faced Regina, so how hard could seeing Henry be? But watching them hug, his face nestled in the crook of her neck with matching smiles so similar genetics be damned, Emma felt like she was walking into Storybrooke for the first time all over again, eager to make a good first impression.

Be cool. Be cool. She shook out her arms and took a step away from the car. Regina was patting Henry down, no doubt inspecting him for any cuts or bruises. Aside from a few stray leaves she found stuck in his hair, he was fine. She took his duffel from him and strapped it over her own shoulder as he held up what looked to be a keychain made out of twine. Regina held it and looked over the details in amazement, pride written all over her face as Henry explained animatedly how he had made it. She listened attentively and nodded along, and when she returned the keychain to him, Regina cupped a cheek in her hand and leaned her head in close. She must have been whispering about Emma because Regina's head tilted back, and Henry's eyes darted behind his mother to glance at the yellow-haired woman leaning against his car. Henry was squinting at her intensely now before he returned his gaze to his mother, and Emma felt the knot in her throat tighten. Emma was the hero of Henry's dreams. She was his Knight — fighting dragons and saving Queens, his superhero — invulnerable and indestructible.

But she came home broken.

Regina stood now, taking Henry by the hand as the crowd in the parking lot began to disperse once children were matched with their parents. Emma wasn't prepared for this moment. She wasn't ready to see the uncertainty in Henry's eyes. There was nowhere to hide now even if Emma wanted to. When they were less than five feet away, Regina slowed her pace and released Henry who continued his walk towards Emma. His head was tilted to the side, his eyebrows were furrowed, and his chin was crinkled in thought as he stopped just short of her.

"Hey," Emma said after clearing her throat. She got down on one knee to his eye level and chanced a glance up at Regina who was a foot away, smiling encouragingly. "Hey, Henry. Remember me?"

"Hi." He looked at her warily as if wracking his brain for a face that wasn't quite matching up to hers.

"You're a giant," Emma grinned, reaching her hand up to touch his shoulder, hovering for a second, before deciding against it and dropping her hand back to her knee.

He caught the movement and tilted his head at her right hand, his brow crinkling further. She almost wanted to hide it and shove her hand deep into her pocket, but instead she held it up for him. "Looks like the mothership wanted me to join their league of cyborgs."

He touched her hand, bringing it up so their palms touched. Slowly his fingers slipped between hers as they curled around her knuckles. "You got hurt."

"Yeah." She gave a watery smile as her fingers curled just the slightest bit around his.

His free hand reached out and innocently traced the scar running down from her eye curving down to her lip until his fingers cupped the underside of her jaw. "Did that hurt?"

"Yeah," she admitted quietly. "Not anymore though."

"You came back to us, Emma." The knot in Emma's throat tightened as his quiet voice rang loudly in her ears. The sting behind her eyes burned as a happy tear fell from the corner of her eye. She nodded profusely, his hand warm against her cheek as a smile split across her face.

"Yeah. I did."

His arms engulfed her in a millisecond. She nearly collapsed against his weight, but her body held firm against him as she just continued to nod. Her choked sob caught in her throat, but that didn't stop the tears from flowing as he wrapped around her neck with a vice-like grip repeating the same sentence over and over. "You're home, Mama. You're home."

Emma couldn't form words, only holding Henry tighter and nodding into his shoulder until Regina crouched beside them and rested her forehead against their heads in quiet agreement. "She's home."

Chapter 27

Chapter Notes

Disclaimer in Chapter One.

AN: So we've come to the end of this journey. So one year and 24 chapters later, this supposed three-chapter mini story turned into this monster. A special thank you to stable-girl who, without the prompt, wouldn't have inspired this story (Sorry that it took on a life of its own!) Thank you for everyone who has stuck by through its ups and downs, those who recommended, read, and commented on this story. I am forever in your debt. Without further ado…

Saturday May 10 2014 – New York City – Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel Conference Room

"Mr. Booth, how do you handle the strikingly different opinions people have held about your book? Some call you bold for bringing to life a successful lesbian relationship while others prove not so nice. It's stirring up quite the controversy in various communities such as the LGBT and even the military."

August grinned when cameras flashed in the small conference room as he sat at a table on a raised platform, the cover of his book blown up and displayed proudly behind him. Most people in his life hadn't given much thought whenever August had said he was writing a book or doing extensive research. He was always "writing a book" and If he wanted to hole himself in his apartment for days on end and randomly spend weeks away from Storybooke, then who were the townsfolk to say that the nomad should stay put. But he had made it. Seeing his name in print as the author of the story that consumed him for years and having it be successful was too good to be true.

Almost.

He mulled over the question he had heard countless times during his book tour but gave a show of rubbing his chin, contemplating his next words. "It's fairly obvious I'm a man, but the controversy you're referring to is the fact that I'm a man writing about two women falling in love. I've heard all the arguments: typical guy writing a sexualized lesbian relationship—which, if I may point out, is not all that sexualized; straight man writing for a community that he has no right to be in; former military man betraying the system he's supposed to represent. What do I say to these? I say to those people to go ahead and read or re-read the story because as a writer, I'm just looking to tell the best possible story, and The Next Mile was that. There are issues addressed in the novel that most people either won't touch or refuse to acknowledge. Not only is it about a female in the army, but she also happens to like women. The layers within that open up a world not many people realize is even there, and given the opportunities presented to me as a straight, white, ex-military man that you and many others have referred to, I was able to bring them into the light. Should it have been someone else far more involved in either community? Most definitely.