Just a little fic based on the Untold Stories letter Henry wrote to Emma.

She'd come across it when she was cleaning out his school things; just two simple pieces of paper folded neatly in half and tucked into one of his notebooks. The handwriting was messy, childlike, but the name at the top, the person he'd addressed it to in his clumsy hand made her heart tug painfully in her chest.

Dear Mom

That single word, so powerful in his use, brought back the guilt she'd felt when she'd given him away in the first place. She could feel the sting in her eyes, trembling fingers coming up to wrap around her necklace, a distressed habit she'd formed after him, after her Henry. The words started to blur as she read the letter, reread it again, and again and again. He'd wanted her there, thought she didn't love him, didn't want him.

She tried to breathe, gasped around the lump in her throat choking the air, felt the hot streaks of tears spilling over her cheeks. He'd been waiting for her, talking to her like she was there, felt the hole she had left in his life just as she'd always felt him.

"Mom?"

Emma turned her head to look at her son standing in the doorway, the backpack in his hand slipping and falling to the floor with a light thud. His eyes widened and suddenly he was running to her, small arms wrapped around her neck, face buried in her hair as he asked her what was wrong, why she was crying. She hugged him hard, still silent in her pain while that warmth he always brought to her life grew in the embrace.

"Mom, please don't cry," he mumbled, head snuggling closer into the side of her neck. She gave a watery smile and shook her head a bit, a breathy laugh falling from her lips and she pulled away to look him in the eye. A green tinted hazel, like hers. She brushed his bangs out of his eyes, cupped his face gingerly as she looked at him, saw him again as though for the first time. This brave little boy, her little boy, who fought for her, who's never given up hope, who loved her before he ever knew her.

The little boy who felt her absence as she had always felt his.

"It's okay, kid. I'm okay." She smiled again, smoothing his hair behind his ears as she leaned in to place a gentle kiss on his forehead. "I found your letter is all."

Henry pulled back to look at her, confused for a moment before he looked at the papers on the floor next to them. And he smiled, a sad longing smile that broke her heart all over again as she pulled him to her, tried to wrap him in her love.

"I love you, Mommy." It was a broken whisper, so innocent and small, something she hadn't heard from him since the first time she'd met him, when he'd shown up at her door and taken her home.

"I love you too, Henry. Sooo much."

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