AN:: I know I shouldn't start a new one, but I am.
Request from tumblr from "athenades87," with a little bit of tweaking and my creative paint brush to make it into a whole story. This will be a chapter story, and I hope everyone likes it.
You're encouraged to share it anywhere you please, as I will be doing, shamelessly promoting myself for my own need of having people read my "ok" stories and telling me that it's at least above average. But I expect only honesty, please :)

R&R, as always - you are loved.

For some reason or another, the easy jazz station had its way of grating on the nerves that morning.

Emma would have liked to think of herself as one of those girls who likes all sorts of music, if not because she forced herself to be fairly knowledgeable because her source of income depended on it, then to make the passing statement of "I listen to everything" less of a lie to the nameless man or woman she'd hit on when she didn't want to feel the cold sting of empty sheets every now and again.

One of those nights happened to be the night prior. One of the only reasons Emma even had the radio going was to drown out the obnoxiously loud breathing of the stranger in her bed. She didn't mind him being there for the time being simply because she knew how pissed she'd be if someone woke her up too early after a night of heavy drinking, which had to have been the case last night due to the blonde's throbbing temples when she herself had woken up, and the perpetual state of confusion and loss her mind came to each time she tried to think of this guy's name.

And no, she wouldn't not look in his wallet - that would be too easy.

Yet, even in the presence of all of Emma's good manners, she needed the overwhelming silence of loneliness again. Having another body in the room with her while she tried to fill out paperwork was getting into her head space and pissing her off to a degree she didn't like to be in.

Besides, one o'clock was long enough for this guy to get his beauty sleep. He needed to get out.

Emma heated up coffee from her batch earlier in the day and set it down on the end table closest to where mystery man was sprawled out in her bed and pushed his clothes over toward him from their random places around the floor with her feet alone.

With as little disgust on her face as she could maintain it to, she gripped his shoulder with only her thumb and index finger, shaking him gently. And again, but her efforts even the third and fourth time did nothing but elicit a small grunt from him. Instead she went over to her radio and cranked up the volume until he sprang up in bed, eyes wide open and a bewildered look on his face.

"Hey, sunshine." She said, faking a grin.

The man cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes. "Hi?"

"Hi there." She nodded, leaning on the end of her desk across the room from him. "So, thank you for being such a cooperative house guest, but you gotta leave."

"What?"

"There's coffee on the night stand, your clothes are right there - nothing stolen, scout's honor," she did the sign of the cross over her torso, hoping he got the joke. "..and your cab will be here in about ten minutes."

The man just furrowed his eyebrows and scratched his head with both hands. "Really?"

"Mm hmm."

"That's it?"

Emma looked around the room. "What... Do you want creamer?"

"Do I even get your number?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't plan on seeing you again."

The man looked completely perplexed, so Emma laughed and took a small amount of pity on him.

"Listen, I don't make many connections - especially not with people I sleep with, and I haven't had a repeat performance in about six years. I don't believe in relationships, and I don't want one. So, I'm sure you did your job, but that's about it. And I'm afraid if you try to come and see me again, or call me obsessively, or do something 'cute' like send me flowers or chocolates or any of that shit, I will personally hunt you down and hurt you. You won't know how I'll hurt you, and I don't either yet... but I can be very creative. Trust me." She winked.

With the same shocked look on his face, he just nodded. "I think I may have just fallen in love with you."

Emma let out a small, humorless laugh. "Eight minutes, buddy."

Another night, another scum bag.

The blonde let the thought sink in for a moment, smirking to herself and feeling as though that applied even when she wasn't on the job. Though as it sunk even more, she didn't know if that was something to laugh over...

But there was no time to think about that. She had to go take down some asshole who let his grandmother bail him out and skipped town. Emma put up the other half of the bail and met her... she didn't understand how anyone could wrong someone who was so sweet and who loved them so much.

And as the ache struck her stomach thinking of family she shook the thought from her mind.

"Hi... are you Jeremy?" She shook his hand, putting on her best smile.

"There goes the fear again... there goes your fear.. " Emma sang to herself unlocking her door, and juggling boxes in her other hand.

The guy turned out to be easier to take down than she thought - he thought his grand mother was sweet, but this dude was a pansy if she'd ever seen one. She didn't even have to fight him, she just talked about his grandma putting up money in mostly fives, tens, and twenties, and he started crying like a bitch. All Emma had to do was tell him he was pathetic and a coward and he put his hands out for her to cuff himself. The thought almost made her laugh... almost.

She kicked her door shut, not a second afterward kicking off her heels. She opened her personal cupcake and stuck the candle in. Her small tub of ice cream in the freezer before coming back and lighting the candle. She leaned in close, searching the flame for some kind of higher significance to her life than she saw herself.

"Another banner year..." She said to only the air around her, wishing she had the courage to have friends to wish her a happy birthday. But friends meant feelings, and sharing things. Emma didn't even think she had anything to share, really. What? Her life of one-night-stands and filling out paperwork on people who were living lives more fulfilling than her own and they were still assholes. And the anxiety of losing the people she may become close with if she could even let herself open up to anyone. All of it wrapped itself up and made a pit in her stomach she would never admit was there, to herself or anyone else. But even more secretly, she wished didn't have to be alone...

Not a moment after the she blew out her candle, the door bell rang.

"...the fuck?"

She kicked her heels out of the way and opened the door. "I thought I said..."

Well, it wasn't the guy from that morning unless there was some freaky Tom Hanks bullshit from "Big" going on...

Emma didn't even try to hide the confusion from her face. "'Sup." She grunted out.

"Are you Emma Swan?" The little boy asked with a gross hopeful look plastered all over him.

She squinted at him. "Who wants to know?"

Her son.

Her son?

This was not what she asked for. Not at all.

All she could do to keep herself together was keep looking at the road. Just focus on driving, and not the shaky nervousness that was consuming her mind. She felt something that lay right in the middle of confused as hell and angry that the system did her wrong yet again and somehow let this kid find her.

She didn't know how to look at him and know that he was connected to her, no matter how hard she had tried to have no one be more than a face in her repertoire.

"So what's your favorite color?" He asked, smiling like he didn't have a care in the world.

Emma shook her head. "Don't have one."

"That's impossible."

"It is not. I just told you-"

"You lied."

She looked over at him scrunching her face up. "Don't assume things."

"I'm not assuming. Everyone has a favorite color."

Emma huffed. "Fine... white... I guess?"

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"Why is that your favorite color?"

She shrugged. "It's simple? It goes with anything, and goes with itself better than anything else."

Henry nodded.

"So how'd you find me?"

"I'm super smart."

Emma rolled her eyes. "So, I guess your parents don't know you came to find me?"

"I don't have parents." Henry stated.

The blonde just glanced at him with a knowing look. That's the only way she would have given him up if he went to a permanent home right away - of course he had fucking parents.

"I just have a mom... and this guy who pretends to be my dad."

"At least you have people who want you."

Henry crossed his arms. "She doesn't want me. She works too much to barely even see me."

"She has to support you, doesn't she?" Emma said flatly.

"She doesn't care."

"Whatever kid."

They sat in silence for a moment, Emma not wanting to look at the little boy she gave up so long ago, and Henry not knowing how to start a conversation that didn't start with the favorite color question. All he wanted was to know who his real mother was, and maybe his father if he was lucky.

It was Emma who cleared her throat and broke the silence. "So Maine, yes... where in Maine are we going?"

"Please don't take me home yet..." He begged, just short of sticking out his lip.

"I have to take you home. I could be brought up on fucking kidnapping charges and shit."

"You owe me a dollar." He stuck out his hand.

"What?"

"Fifty cents for every swear."

Emma laughed. At least he had normalcy in his life, she thought. "There's change in the ash tray."

Henry smiled and looked for quarters.

"So where to?"

He looked at her as his shoulders dropped. "Really?"

"Really-really."

With a huff he turned back to the ash tray. "Storybrooke. You'll get off at the next exit."

"Storybrooke? Come on..."

"Hey, you don't get to pick where I live."

"No shit, but I didn't expect for you live in a Hallmark card."

"I'm taking fifty more cents."

"Go for it."

As Emma rolled down the streets of a very sleepy Storybrooke, she almost felt like she was entering a different world. After living in cities for as long as she could remember, this place seemed like a ghost town aside from a few lights in windows and the literally one dude walking his dog down the street. She stopped the car, waving to the guy. She hopped to whatever deity was listening that this town was as small as it looked.

"Hey!" She yelled out.

The man turned around and looked at her, a smile automatically coming to his face as he did a slight jog over to her. "Hello, there."

"Uhm.. hi." She said, almost a little creeped out by the cheer. "Do you know this kid?" She pointed in her car.

The man peered in the open driver's side door. He smiled at Emma before turning his attention back to the little boy. "Hi, Henry... what's going on?"

"This is my mom." Henry replied with a giant smile.

"So you do know him."

He nodded. "Henry comes to see me every week. Mostly about you actually..." The man pushed his glasses up nervously.

"You his shrink?"

"...Well, I'm a psychologist... an-"

"Great. Do you know where he lives?"

"Yuh-yeah.." He pointed in the direction the bug was already pointing. "The Mayor's house is the biggest on the street. It's just a few blocks from here, it should be on your left."

Emma let her shoulders drop and grimaced a little. "You're the fucking Mayor's kid?"

"...Aaaaand that's four bucks." She said gingerly, opening the ash tray again.

The blonde turned back to the stranger who looked nothing short of extremely uncomfortable. "Thanks." She nodded before climbing back into the bug.

"I'm Archie.." He said extending a hand just outside the open drivers window.

"Emma." She nodded, not taking his hand. "Nice to meet you."

They sped off in the direction that the man had pointed, and Emma still couldn't bring herself to ask any important questions to this kid. She didn't even know if she wanted to. Sure, she wondered what his childhood was like, what he did in his spare time, if he was the kid who played sports or the artsie kid, or the kid who was really nice and good at talking in front of the class. Instead her mouth formed a hard line, unable to inquire about any such thing.

"Are you going to tell me which one you live in, or are you going to make me guess?"

Henry turned in his seat toward the woman who gave birth to him. "Please don't make me go home."

She rolled her eyes. "Kid, your life is probably awesome if your mom's the Mayor."

"But I don't! I-"

"No." Emma glanced at him, before examining the houses to her left again. "You're going to listen to me and listen to me right now. I gave you up because I knew whoever got you could take a hell of a lot better care of you than I could. Obviously if this lady wanted you enough to adopt you. She spends her money on you. She buys you nice clothes. She gives you a place to sleep, and feeds you, and trust me, that is a lot more than so many kids who are alive just right now." She let out a long breath, feeling like she would explode if she kept going.

Finally there was a giant house, perfect shrubbery, and a fancy metal fence.

This was it.

"You live here, don't you?"

He twisted his face in desperation. "But she has a boyfriend... I don't like him."

"So you come and get me?" She arched an eyebrow. "What good did you think that would do?"

Henry offered a shrug.

"Get out of the car." The blonde said before getting out herself.

Henry slammed his door, walking over to Emma instead of toward the house. "Emma, you have to stay... please."

"Why? What do you want me to do? Chase out this dude you don't like?"

"Sure? Why not?"

She leveled a stare at the little boy as they approached the half-way point of the walk way. "Does this guy hurt you?" She asked.

"No."

"Does he hurt your mom?"

"No." Henry's shoulders slumped.

"Is he a bad guy?"

"Well..."

"Listen kid," She knelt down to get eye-level with the son she didn't know. "Your mom is a grown woman. She can make her own decisions, and I think you just don't like not having her to yourself. Just because she has someone else around doesn't mean she loves you any less. Maybe you should try to accept him, and you guys could make a cute little Hallmark card family, in this tiny ffff..freaking" She winked catching herself," po-dunk town? Who knows?"

"He thinks he's my dad... ordering me around..."

"Maybe your mom needed some help? Are you a rowdy kid?"

"No." He made a face as though he was offended.

"Well you kinda ran away to find me an-"

"She's not happy."

"Has she told you that, or are you assuming?" Emma dead-panned.

Henry let out a groan. "She's not the same since he's been around. I just want a mom who loves me and pays attention to things. Now she's just empty, and it's all since he's been around."

"Kid..."

"Henry!"

Both of their heads whipped around at the door, as a brunette blur came hurtling out of the door and enveloped Henry in an embrace.

Emma shoved her hands in her pockets, not knowing how to react to the situation at hand.

The brunette pulled back, and that's when she caught her first glance at the woman who'd adopted the tiny thing she popped out ten years ago. The same woman who had currently put the blonde under what felt like cardiac arrest. Her mouth opened, feeling as though she was too perfect to begin to describe. She was like something out of a magazine, or out of a really high-class porno... or not even that - this lady was too classy for that. She was more like a model in a perfume commercial, one of the ones who didn't have to do anything but look into the camera slowly to sell every fucking bottle, no problem.

Emma. Was. Floored.

"Where have you been?" She asked the little boy, worry creasing her brow.

"I went and found my real mom!" He yelled before dashing through the door that was set ajar.

The brunette slowly turned her attention from where the little boy had been standing to the stranger in front of her.

Emma formed her mouth into what she hoped was a friendly smile, though her insides were doing funny things, so her facial expressions weren't exactly under control. "Hi..." she said, like a genius.

"You're Henry's birth mother?" The brunette questioned, giving the blonde a once-over, seemingly shocked at the news.

"I'm Emma..." She stuck out her hand weakly.

"Hon?" A voice called from the background.

The woman turned to a man standing in the doorway. She glanced back at Emma before wringing her hands together. "Graham, would you check on Henry, please?"

The man nodded, passing a shifty gaze toward Emma before retreating back into the house, closing the door behind him.

She turned back to face the blonde, who was still every bit enamored with this woman.

Giving a pitiful excuse for a smile, the brunette took the offered hand. "I'm sorry, your name was.."

"Emma.. Swan?" She nodded, not without having to gulp down the nerves that were attacking her.

She nodded. "I'm Regina Mills." Her eyes fraught with a different kind of nerves she tried to smile again. "I'm Henry's mother."

"Right."

"Yes... well,"

Regina couldn't be real, was all that Emma had going through her mind. She couldn't look away from the big chocolate eyes that were staring right back at her as they stayed like that for a few silent moments, while the blonde let her peripheral soak up the elegant body her dress did little to no justice for.

Then the brunette looked down to their hands, still in the strange joined position, awkwardly drifting up and down much slower than it began. Her mouth formed a hard line.

She motioned back to her home. "I would be rude if I didn't invite you in."

Emma shook her head. "No... that's-"

"I insist." She said, her face impossible to read. "How'd you like to have some of the best cider you've ever tasted?"

She took a large breath. "Okay."

Emma took her time taking in her surroundings. The house was prettier than anything she'd actually been in. It looked like one of those houses in the magazines that your read when you're waiting at the doctor. It hardly even looked like anyone lived in it. She was impressed - she wanted better for her kid, yeah... but this was going above and beyond. As far as adoption went, this kid hit the family lottery.

"This place is nice." Emma said, accepting the brandy glass from the brunette.

Regina nodded with that same almost-smile. "Thank you." She nodded before motioning to her study. "Shall we?" she offered.

Emma only nodded and followed her in before Regina shut the door quietly. There was something about her that made Emma feel like she was two inches tall and much less of a woman than she considered herself to be before. Maybe she was a woman of power... sure... that had to be it.

"So... Miss Swan, how exactly did Henry find you?" She asked, pacing around her desk.

Emma sat down on a very pretty sofa. "I'm not sure, actually. I asked him but he dodged the question pretty well..."

"You have no idea?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "I asked for a closed adoption. I was under the impression he couldn't find me even if he wanted to."

Regina took a spot on the couch opposite the blonde. "He's a clever boy."

"He says so too..."

There was an awkward silence that passed between the two - the elephant in the room looming over them like a dark cloud threatening to pour down on them at any moment.

Emma took a sip of her cider. "This is good?" She said, only trying to break the emptiness in the air.

"Thank you." Regina said, setting her own glass on the table. "I think we should face the matter at hand, no matter how difficult it may be for either one of us." She smiled in a way that made Emma want to giggle.

But she held back, nodding and putting the glass down. "Right. We should." She folded her hands in her lap, desperately trying to look as professional as Regina did, though it seemed to come far more easily to the brunette.

"I'm not heartless, however, I don't want to assume that you want the agreement to change now that you've seen Henry. By all matter of law he's still my son, and you are still not to have contact with him." She said, looking somewhere on the coffee table. "However, I'm more concerned for Henry's well being that I am about obeying matters of the state, so long as boundaries are not over-stepped. By that I mean, now that Henry knows who you are, for you to be ripped away from him would be rather traumatic, and I'm not prepared to willingly allow that sort of pain to enter into his life."

Emma gave a slight nod, feeling like this chick was way too good at looking good doing pretty much nothing.

"So." She took a breath, "I'd like you to stay in town for a day or two, while I talk to Henry's therapist and Henry, to find the best course of action so that Henry gets out of this situation, hopefully, unharmed, or with as little damage as possible."

"Yeah... That sounds perfectly healthy to me." She shrugged.

Regina's plastered-on smile faltered slightly.

At this, the blonde couldn't help but notice and took another swig of the drink she was offered. "Okay, I'll give you the real thing - I'm not a mom. I knew that when I got pregnant, and I know that now. I'm willing to go along with whatever you think is best for the kid, because - in a way - I kinda... gave him to you, ya know? I trusted someone else to raise him, and as far as I can tell, he's okay... he conned me out of like five bucks and got all the way to Brooklyn, so he has to be smart..."

"He did what?"

"Uhm... I swear a lot, so..."

"No, he got across state lines?" Her face twisted in horror. "He was alone and went all the way there..." her hand went over her mouth in shock.

"Well at least he's safe... like.. he's not in trouble now? I guess we can be thankful for that, right?"

Regina shook her head. "No he's in trouble." Authority took over her voice. She looked up to the blonde and shook her head. "That's... anyway." She closed her eyes for a moment, composing herself again. "I just can't believe it. I'll talk to him later, but for now, I think we should say goodnight." She stood up abruptly, settling invisible wrinkles from her dress.

"Okay... sure..." She stood up as well, fidgeting awkwardly with her jacket.

Regina led them out and toward the door.

"There's an Inn just up the road. Grannies... it has a rather large sign I'm sure you won't miss." She avoided eye contact in opening the door.

Emma nodded. "Well.. thanks for the cider..." she said awkwardly, standing at the door and sure something was missing.

The brunette chanced a look into the blue eyes she hadn't dared to peek at since her arrival. "Thank you for bringing my son back to me." She said sincerely.

A short grunt of laughter escaped her. "No problem." She shoved her hands in her pockets and shuffled from foot to foot on the door step.

Regina smiled lightly. "I'll be in touch, Miss Swan."

"Okay..." Emma offered a small, nerdy wave and stepped away, still facing the door. "See ya.."

"Goodnight." Regina shut the door softly.

Emma turned around and headed for her bug, only looking back to glance up, seeing a little boy break his stare and move away from his curtain. She didn't know what she was getting herself into, but this felt different. This felt like she was in something she never intended to happen... though she didn't wholly regret it.

As the door shut, Regina slumped against it, closing her eyes.

What was that? This woman she should hate for intruding into her life, threatening her only role that was set in stone, the only role she really wanted, and yet, she wanted her to stay. Yes for Henry, but also to see what she was all about. She wasn't the quiet people of the town she'd known all of her life. She wasn't just another face to be forgotten.

The brunette didn't know weather to hate her or befriend the stranger, but she needed more time to find out why she was brought here. There was always a reason for cruel twists of fate, and if it was only to be in Henry's life, to give him some amount of closure that she herself could not give her son, then so be it... but Regina had the sneaking suspicion it was more than that.

"Regina?"

Graham came down the stairs, looking at her with his brow furrowed.

"How is he?" She asked, standing upright again.

"He'll be fine. He's very tired.. a little closed up, but he's not hurt in any way." He smiled, putting his hands on her hips with a familiarity they'd become accustomed to. "How are you?"

Regina shrugged. "I'm a little shaken up... but can you blame me?"

"He's fine..."

Graham embraced the woman he'd become so attached to, not knowing that his girlfriend wasn't just shaken up due to her son... but a certain blonde she simply did not know what to think of.

AN:: Let us know what you think. Thank you for reading.
Questions/concerns/requests heard in comments and pms - feel free.
And as always, R&R please :) It is wholly appreciated.