Drabble written for SQ Week Day 4. This started out as being in response to the prompt "Mistaken for a couple" but might have slightly shifted into something else at the end. You be the judge. This was co-written with iwantafarnsworth. It was actually mostly her :)
Set during S3B
Regina collected her drink at the counter and turned around to look for an empty seat. She remained shocked in her spot at what she saw, her purse and the cup of hot coffee clattering to the ground, causing all eyes to turn and stare at her. In front of her were the last people she expected to see just casually there are Granny's staring back at her. Emma's warm eyes held hers for a moment before she shifted her attention to Henry, motherly love interwoven with confusion storming through those deep chocolate orbs.
"Oh, I'm sorry… I… I didn't mean to startle you." Regina tried to cover her shock.
"Oh, that's ok." Henry replies kindly, his eyes vacant of any hint of recognition.
Emma interrupted her, "Regina," moving quickly to pull her by the elbow into the corridor that led to the bathroom.
Henry looked on as his mother pulled this newcomer into the corridor and then looked back to the spot where her things had scattered. The kind waitress who had somehow known that he liked cinnamon with his hot chocolate was already starting to clean up the mess. He moved forward to help her, reaching down to pick up the lady's bag and all its contents that had spilled over. As he collected her wallet from the floor, a picture fell out of it and dropped to the floor. He grabbed it up and looked perplexed at the scribble on the back. It said 'Henry and me, 2002'. His eyes widened as he turned it over to find a much younger version of himself smiling widely at this stranger who his mother was currently having a private conversation with in the corner. This picture looked familiar as he clearly recalled a similar one back at home with him and his mom just like this. He looked up at them again, a sad and worried look evident on the woman's face. His mom was leaning close to the woman as they spoke and he could tell that they had some kind of history. As his mom turned to walk back to him, he quickly stuffed the picture into his pocket and placed the woman's bag onto a nearby table.
"Hey kid, I have to go for a bit, would you mind hanging out here for a while? If you need anything just tell Ruby, she's the nice waitress who got your hot chocolate right." With that, his mom picked up the woman's bag and moved back to where the woman had retreated even further into the corner.
"Mom wait!" he called after her. "What's going on? Who was that woman? What are you not telling me?" He questioned her.
Emma stopped and looked back at her son, "I'll explain everything later, Henry. Please, trust me." She could feel Regina staring at them from the corner.
Henry sighed and nodded. There was something in his mother's eyes. She was lying to him.
Emma left and Henry saw the nice couple from before following her through the back.
Ruby had been observing the exchange between mother and son and she approached Henry, "Hey, are you okay?"
Henry turned to look at the waitress and shrugged, "I don't know yet." He answered, blushing a little, "My mom said I could hang out around here till she gets back, if that's okay."
Ruby smiled at him and nodded, "Of course it is. I'll make you another hot chocolate." With that she winked at him and turned around, leaving Henry to his own thoughts.
Who is that woman? Why was there a picture of me in her wallet? Was I here before? What's going on between her and my mom? Is she the reason why we left this place? Thoughts raced through Henry's mind. He looked up at the nice waitress again, contemplating asking her about this. She returned with his hot chocolate and he seized the moment to question the woman.
"I'm Henry by the way," he said, "do you mind if I ask you something?" He asked tentatively.
"Sure thing, what's up, Henry?" she replied, taking the seat opposite him.
"The woman who dropped her coffee…" he started, "who is she? How does my mom know her?" Henry asked curiously.
Ruby stared at him for a moment, unsure of how to proceed without giving too much away. "She's um… she's Regina Mills, the Mayor of Storybrooke."
"And how does my mom know her?" He asked Ruby. The waitress seemed to be caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Mmm, your mom visited here a few times and well it's a pretty small town so everyone kinda knows everyone. I'm sure they would have met during one of those visits." She replied, not sure if he would buy that response.
"Okay." He replied, unconvinced. "So why does the Mayor carry around a picture of baby me with her?" Henry pulled out the picture he had found in Regina's purse and slid it across the table in front of Ruby's face.
The waitress looked like a deer caught in headlights before responding to the picture in front of her, "Henry, it's really not my place to tell you about your mom and Regina's umm… history. I think it would be best if you asked her about it."
He regarded her for a moment before nodding. Her answer was suspicious and raised even more questions in his mind. What was going on? Was Regina his mother's ex?
Later that evening…
Henry was sitting on the couch in Mary Margaret and David's apartment playing on his gameboy and Mary Margaret was fixing something for dinner. He decided it was time to try and get some answers from her mom's friend.
"Hey Mary Margaret, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure Henry," she replied, smiling at him from the counter as lifted a spoon to taste her sauce.
"Were my mom and Mayor Mills together?" he asked, getting up from the couch and moving to the barstool at the counter.
Mary Margaret almost choked on the sauce she was tasting, surprised at his question.
Henry was watching her intently.
"Henry! Where did you get that idea from? Did someone say something to you?" she asked defensively, shuddering at the thought of her daughter and the evil queen together. Not that she had never noticed the tension between them, but she had always chalked it up to being a result of their complicated history.
"The problem is that no one is telling me anything, especially my mom!" He raged, "I know her and how she behaves. I saw how she acted with the Mayor today. And then I found this, in Regina's purse." Henry pulled out the picture and showed it to Mary Margaret.
Mary Margaret looked down and saw the picture of baby Henry and Regina.
She stuttered "I… umm… Henry, listen..."
She sighed.
He rolled his eyes in a typical Regina way and shouted "See?! You're hiding things from me! I need to know!"
As if on cue, the door burst open and Emma entered with Regina in tow. Both of them had heard Henry's outburst from outside.
"Hey, what's going on here? Henry, why were you shouting?" His mother asked him.
Henry turned around to face Emma and Regina, brandishing the picture in front of them so that they could see what had been bothering him. Regina gasped audibly as she saw the picture and Emma looked sideways to where the older woman was standing, seeing the pain in those powerful eyes.
"Henry where did you get that?" Emma asked him.
"Why don't you ask her? It fell out of her bag!" Henry accused, turning his attention to Regina, "Is this me?"
The woman remained silently looking at him like he was her long lost son or something. He shook his head and returned to questioning his mother.
"Why does she have a picture of me, mom? Were we ever here before? Was she in New York with us? Were you two together?" he shouted, anger clear in his voice.
Before either of them could respond, he continued his rant, feeling the need to get it all out.
"Mom you can't keep hiding things from me! I need to know what went on between you two. I'm not a baby anymore! And I'm okay with you loving another woman, just please don't lie to me about it." he pleaded.
"Henry…it's not-" Emma said.
Before she could finish, Regina cut her off, "Henry, I'm sorry we've kept this from you so long. You're right, you deserve to know." She addressed the boy, moving towards him, not missing the stupefied look on Emma's face. She caught Emma's glare and tried to silently communicate for Emma to trust her. In that moment where the choice was between telling Henry about magic and fairy tales or letting him believe that she and his mother had once been lovers, she decided against telling him the truth.