"Henry!" Regina screamed out. It was early in the morning when she woke herself up from her restless sleep. Her heart was racing and her breath was shallow. The nightmare had left her in a panic as she raced to Henry's room to see if it was true. She ran to the bed and realized Henry wasn't there. "It wasn't dream. It was a memory." Regina desperately mumbled to herself, her heart was still beating incredibly fast. She curled up on Henry's bed and hugged his pillow to her chest. The sobs overtook her body, echoing throughout the house.
Her darling Henry had left her to live with his birth mom, Emma, but she couldn't blame him. Ever since he had found out he was adopted, he started pulling away from her. Regina had tried so hard to get him back but it just resulted in him screaming out, "You're not my mom!"over and over. Ever since the first time he told her he didn't love her, three years ago, Regina cried herself to sleep every night. Her baby no longer loved her, and of all the things that had ever happened to her, that was by far the worst. He was the first person since Daniel that she had let see behind her mask, and the result broke her in every way imaginable.
She could still remember the day Henry wouldn't let her leave him the day he started preschool. He had rarely spent a day away from her. They had tried one daycare per week for about a month, but none of them met her standards. Her little prince deserved the best, so instead he was her little helper at work. After all she was the mayor, who was going to argue with her?
"Mommy, please don't leave me!" Her little prince said as he was hugging her leg. He cried at the thought of leaving his beloved mother's side.
"Baby, it's okay. I'll be back for you in six hours and if it's that bad I'll come pick you up earlier." Regina gently ran her hand through her son's hair. Henry still wasn't convinced enough to stop strangling his mother's leg. He let out another sob before Regina tried another method. "Would you like me to walk you in?" Regina questioned. Henry's head slowly nodded up and down in agreement. "Okay, darling let's go inside."
As they walked into the classroom many children were staring at them. Every single child that was staring was now getting an icy glare from the former queen. She refused to let them judge her baby. Regina kneeled down to Henry's level to look in to his greenish brown eyes. "If you need anything at all just have the teacher call me okay?"
"Okay." Henry had tears in his eyes as his bottom lip wobbled. Upon seeing her son's sad face she wrapped her arms tightly around him. She closer her eyes and held him close. She felt his small arms wrap around her waist.
"I love you Henry." She told her distraught son.
"I love you too." He said while he rest his head on her shoulder.
She pulled back to look him in the eyes. "Be brave, my little prince." She said as she affectionately grabbed his chin. She leaned forwarded and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Goodbye, my love."
"Goodbye, mommy."
The tears fell faster at the memory.
She didn't even know if Henry was alright, if he missed her. She didn't know if he remembered to brush his teeth before bed or finished homework. She had been worrying about him for the past twelve hours and it was starting to make her head hurt.
This is ridiculous, I should just text Emma... but what if she won't tell me? No, I have to know he's okay... but it's four in the morning. Okay first thing in the morning I'll text her... but what if he's hurt?
Regina went to her room to get her phone but returned to Henry's room afterward. She felt more comfortable in her son's room tonight. She began her text. She knew she would have a better chance of getting Emma to reply by using her first name.
Hello, Emma, how is my son-
She took a look a the text before erasing the words my son.
Hello, Emma, how is Henry doing?
A tear fell on her screen as she typed Henry's name.
She rest her head on Henry's pillow, sighing as she hit send.
_
Should I even be doing this. This is borderline stalking.
Regina was desperate to see her son's sweet face and had come up with the idea to come to the school to at least see that Henry was indeed okay. She wasn't entirely convinced when Emma replied, "He's fine." She needed to know he was more than fine. She would be an absolute wreck if he wasn't happy.
She looked around the school until the sight of her son froze her in place. He was smiling up Emma and wrapped his arms around her waist. Regina let the tears run down her face, he hadn't hugged her in three years. She thought this was what she wanted, for her son to be happy, but the sight of him being completely happy without her broke her heart.
She watched him walk up to the school with his backpack slung across his shoulder. Then she remembered the other reason she came to the school. She looked to the passenger seat and grabbed the lunch that was made exactly the way Henry liked it. She got out of the car and walked up to Emma.
"Miss Swan." Regina said, causing Emma to turn around.
"Oh, Regina, if you're here to see Henry, I don't think it's such a good idea right now. He is still very upset."
"I'm not here to see Henry." Regina said a bit forcefully before clearing her throat. "I came to bring him his lunch the way he likes it. That is, if you don't mind bringing it to him."
"Yeah, I can do that. Do you want me to tell him it's from y-" Emma was interrupted.
"No, just tell him you made it Miss Swan. Thank you, and have nice day." Regina quickly stormed back to her car before she had the chance to cry.
She sat in the car crying for the next ten minutes. She felt helpless, like she was living in a haze. She barely remembers driving to her office. Once she arrived she immediately started working on her paperwork. It was mostly just people telling her that she should leave everyone alone, that she should pack up and move out of town. Once she finished her paperwork she spent the rest of the afternoon spinning in her chair, sketching, snacking, cleaning and rearranging her office all in hopes to get her mind off Henry. Despite her best attempts to get Henry off her mind she took a look around and realized it hadn't worked at all. All the sketches were pictures of Henry doing different things. She had put some of the snacks off to the side out of habit, they were all Henry's favorite snacks. She had rearranged her office exactly the way Henry had planned it four years ago.
She glanced around the room one last time before her eyes locked on a photo of Henry and herself on her desk. They were both smiling, it was a picture from Henry's sixth birthday. It was the last of Henry' birthdays where they were both truly happy. She looked at the way Henry was looking at her in that photo, he really loved her, but that felt like ages ago.
Regina picked up her phone and began calling Emma's phone. It rang three times before Emma finally picked up.
"Regina?" Emma answered.
"Miss Swan, I am calling in regards to my-" Regina shook her head and cleared her throat before proceeding "Henry. I would like to see him tonight. Do you think he would let me see him? I would like to apologize to him." Regina replied in her usual cold, emotionless tone.
"Regina, I highly doubt he's ready to-" Emma was cut off.
"Can you ask him?" She sounded angry but that was mostly to cover up the act that she was on the verge of tears. "Please?" She added after a minute, this time the desperation in her voice shone though and was impossible to miss.
"O-Okay." Emma replied obviously shocked by the suddenly vulnerability Regina had shown. Yesterday she would have swore Regina didn't have a vulnerable bone in her body.
"Thank you... Miss Swan, can you... never mind." Regina choked back the tears.
"Okay, you're welcome. Um, Henry is here, I'll ask him, just give me a minute." Emma was still shocked by the sudden change in the mayor's behavior.
"Okay." Regina replied. She finally managed to get her emotions under control, that was until she heard Henry's voice over the phone, that was enough to put her over the edge. She took deep breaths in order to keep her tears at bay.
"Regina, he said he isn't ready to see you today but he would be okay with seeing you for short period of time this weekend." Emma replied, oblivious to the fact that those words were like a gun to the heart to Regina.
"..." Regina's end of the phone remanded silent as she desperately tried to stay strong, she couldn't show any signs of weakness to Emma Swan.
"Regina?" Emma was a little worried about the mayor, and that confused her more than anything. Since when did she care if the mayor of evil was upset?
"Okay. Goodbye Miss Swan." Regina couldn't hide the break in her voice as she said those words. She hung up he phone, or at least she thought she did. She could still her their conversation.
"You couldn't at least meet with your mom tonight?" Emma said, it appeared she felt bad for Regina.
"She's not my mom, she's the evil queen. I don't want to see her." Henry's determined voice rang in Regina's head until the words finally sunk in.
Regina quickly hung up the phone, she desperately tried to keep her emotions bottled up inside, but it was no use. She felt broken, like her life had lost all meaning. If she wasn't a mother, who was she? She wiped away her tears, not that it was much use, fresh tears appeared in seconds. She walked over to the mirror in an attempt to clean herself up. What she saw stopped her dead in her tracks. She no longer recognized herself, she looked like a broken shell of woman she once knew.
_
She laid in bed that night, crying for hours until she didn't think she could possibly cry anymore. She started doubting whether or not Henry was actually happy during those years that she had thought he loved her. She bit back the sobs as she tried to push those thoughts aside. Her heart ached for her little prince, she needed him more than she had ever imagined.
Henry's words echoed through her head. "She's the evil queen"
"She's not the evil queen! Stop calling her that!" Henry shouted at the kid who had called his mom the evil queen. Regina was aware what the rest of the town called her but she had done an excellent job making sure Henry never knew, until now that is. It was the first time Henry had heard someone call his mom this.
"Henry, darling, is everything alright?" Regina asked, she was here to pick Henry up from school and Henry hadn't known she was there yet. When she walked up to see her son sobbing and she was willing to do anything to make him feel better.
"Mommy!" Henry ran into her arms, he nearly knocked her to the ground but she didn't care. The only thing that mattered in that moment was that her son needed her.
"Baby, are you okay?" Regina asked. She hated nothing more than seeing her prince upset. The concern was evident in her chocolate brown eyes.
"No, he called you the evil queen!" Henry sobbed louder, causing Regina to hold Henry closer.
"Is that was this is about? Oh, Henry." Regina looked her son in the eyes. "Do you think of me that way?"
"No mommy!" He looked almost offended that she would think that.
"It doesn't matter to me what anyone else thinks, so if you don't think that then I will always be happy." Regina replied with tears of joy in her eyes, she had always been worried what her son would think of her. She had always thought when he finally heard someone call her the evil queen, that he would agree, and that scared her. To hear him say he didn't think of her that way was all she ever dreamed of. He didn't think of her like everyone else did, he believed that she was good.
"Really, mommy?" Henry asked, the tears still running down his face.
"Baby, people are going to say things about me that aren't good, but so long as I have you, I don't care what they think."
"Okay, momma. Can we go get ice cream?" Henry asked and was preparing an argument on why he should be allowed to eat ice cream but his mother's next words surprised him.
"Yeah, I think we both deserve a little treat." Regina said while laughing softly at how easily Henry's troubles were forgot.
Another set of sobs threatened to escape as she realized her son now thought of her like everyone else did.
A/N: Thank you in advance to everyone reading this! Please leave a review if you can, any ideas for the next chapter would be amazing!