I own no one but my own people
A/N HUGE shout out to Sharafambam, OQPage23, and SwanJonesAF on twitter for assisting me with this fic. This is my first Emma heavy fic and I really hope that I did right by her and her fans and you all end up loving this. Enjoy and may the force be with you.
Regina was not a big Star Wars fan.
She had never really enjoyed movies about space or science fiction, finding them far too cheesy and just not done well.
However her son, for whatever reason, was drawn to them like a moth to the flame. Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Gate, other science fiction that she couldn't name if you put a gun to her head… He was obsessed with them all.
Henry loved those types of movies and comic books and tv shows along with his fantasy card games and dungeons and dragons quests which she also loathed due to the fact she was always bitterly reminded she had no magic in this land and that magic was thought of as nothing more than something fictional that was used in games.
When Henry was six years old he had come home in tears. One of the boys in school had called him a 'nerd' when he showed off his new Tron lunchbox, something he had begged Regina for and was so excited when she bought it for him, and told him that was the reason why he didn't have any friends. He told her he wanted to start taking his lunches in a plain brown paper bag instead of the lunchbox she had procured for him.
She hugged him when he told her what happened and afterwards she told how amazing he was, and how being excited over these types of things didn't make him a 'nerd' but instead made him special and that if he loved something, truly loved something, then he should love it no matter what, and no one should make him feel bad because of it…
Four years later he still proudly used his Tron lunchbox to carry his afternoon meal to school.
To further her point about him not being a 'nerd' because of his particular interests, she started to get invested in his interests as well because, to a young Henry, his mother was the coolest most put together person he knew and if she found reading comic books with him exciting and interesting, then clearly it had to be okay to like them and not 'nerdy' at all...
Which was why, every May 4th, what he called 'official Star Wars day', she would take the day off from city hall to marathon the movies with her son. She would be bored out of her skull the entire time but she never once let him know that.
This year she had gone an extra mile and had stayed up until 4:00 AM making him a Darth Vader cake, a chocolate cake shaped and decorated in the image of the villains infamous helmet.
She was also wearing the one cotton poly blend T-shirt she owned, a black T-shirt that was a size too big for her with Princess Leia on the front.
Henry had bought it for her two May fourths ago with his allowance. Her son didn't want her to feel left out when he wore his Star Wars appeal on their movie night so she had accepted the gift in stride and wore it proudly during their May Fourth marathon.
At around ten AM Regina was setting out the first of many bowls of hot buttery popcorn next to a rather large bowl of Doritos, their goto May the Fourth snacks, and had poured him a soda, today being the only day she let him drink anything in the living room when she heard his eager footsteps thundering down the stairs.
"Whoa whoa slow down, they haven't even started yet," she said with a laugh which died just as quick as it came when she turned to look at him and saw that he had on his sneakers and a jacket over the Star Wars shirt she had bought him last year with his bag over his shoulder.
Her face fell as he looked up at her, almost surprised she would be upset at his choice in appeal.
"You… are you going somewhere?" she asked, forcing a smile even a blind man could see through.
"I'm watching the movies over at my moms house," he told her, crushing her heart when he called Emma by the title that meant more to her than any other.
"But…" Regina struggled with her words, unsure of what to say to the boy that would make him stay. In the back of her mind she thought there may have been a chance that Henry skipped out on their yearly movie binge this year but she had pushed that thought away, positive that he would let her have this day with him.
It didn't matter that Emma was here or that he had guessed she was the Evil Queen, this was their special day together...
Tears formed in her eyes that she blinked away, hoping he hadn't seen them. Regina didn't want to guilt him into staying with her, she wanted to be chosen...
"Henry, I-... I mean this is our tradition," she said, hurrying over to her table where she picked up the cake just enough so he could see the intricate decorations. "I even made us a cake this year."
He barely glanced over at the work of art it had taken her hours to perfect before he turned back to her, his words shattering any remnants of the desperate smile she wore.
"I really don't wanna watch my favorite movies with someone as evil as Darth Vader."
"Stop calling me evil!" she snapped at him.
Regina had been called that by more people then she could ever count and she usually reveled in it. But her own son calling her that? That hurt more than she ever thought it would.
"Well you are the Evil Queen," he countered.
"I'm your mother!"
"No you aren't."
Regina rubbed her forehead before she crossed her arms in front of her, using every ounce of patience she had not to lose her temper with him.
"Henry, this has to stop… Look."
She went over and kneeled in front of him, reaching out to take his hands but he took a step back from her, a shockwave of pain coursing through her all from a few simple steps.
"Let's put aside this fairytale motion for the day and let's just enjoy the movies. I made a cake, I made popcorn, i got Doritos, I'm gonna be ordering pizza later on… It'll be just like old times."
She smiled up at him and for half a moment she thought for sure he was going to accept her offer, that he was going to stay and spend the long awaited day with her but he just shook his head and walked over to where the Blu-Rays were laid out on the coffee table.
"I wanna watch them with Emma," he told Regina as he put them in his bag. "I wanna watch them with my real mom."
"Henry, stop," she begged, her voice riddled with tears.
She couldn't lose him. She couldn't, he was all she had left. She would pretend to love a thousand movies if it meant he stayed with her.
"I'll be back after Episode 3 or Episode 6, depending on what order she wants to watch them in," he told her, ignoring her tears as he made his way to the front door.
"Henry!"
"Bye."
Without so much as a look back, Henry shut the door behind him, pretending he didn't care about hurting the feelings of the woman who had started this tradition with him.
It took him a little over twenty minutes to make his way from the mansion on Miffin Street to the loft where his grandmother and mother were living.
He knocked eagerly on the door, beaming at just the prospect of sharing this experience with his mom.
"Hey Kid," Emma greeted him as she answered the door. "What are you doing here?"
"It's May the fourth!" Henry beamed as he made his way into the apartment.
"Oh… Kay…. is that supposed to mean something?"
"International Star Wars day!" he announced, unzipping his jacket and proudly revealing his Luke Skywalker shirt for all to see. "May the fourth be with you!"
"Figured you'd be into all the space stuff since you were so wrapped up in the fairytale fantasy thing too."
Henry all but leapt onto the couch, pulling the Blu-Rays out of his packback.
"I like to go with classics first," he told her. "That way we can reflect on how well the original trilogy was before George Lucas screwed it up while we have a Pizza and Doritos break, then we go for the Prequels but if you like to go chronologically we can do that too. I also have Clone Wars and I don't know about you but I dislike Clone Wars even more than Phantom Menace. I mean Darth Maul and Duel of the Fates ALONE is more than enough to make it a superior film to Clone Wars. Where do you stand on the Clone Wars debate?"
Emma blinked.
"... The phantom duel Darth Lucas clone what now?"
Henry cocked his head to the side. "You've... never seen Star Wars have you?"
"Sorry, Kid, space movies aren't really my thing," Emma apologized as she poured herself a coffee.
Henry's grin fell ever so slightly.
He knew deep down Regina disliked Sci-Fi but she had at least pretended she liked them for his sake..
Henry shook the frown away and made the smile reappear.
"That's okay! Once you watch it, you'll see just how phenomenal these movies are and how they're true and timeless cinematic masterpieces."
"Well I mean you're free to use the TV and the Blu-Ray player but like I said, I'm not really a space movie person."
His smile fell even further.
"But… I thought we could watch them together."
Emma sighed as she looked at her son, raising her brow at the ten year old as he pouted at her.
"I'm afraid I don't have Doritos," she told him as she went over to her cupboard and instead pulled out another bag. "But I do have Fritos."
"Fritos work!"
The blonde grabbed two sodas from the fridge and flopped down on the couch as Henry put in 'A New Hope' before he sat down beside her.
"Are your easy to experience a visionary masterpiece?" he asked as the Blu-Ray menu popped on on the screen.
"...Um… sure, Kid. Hit it."
The ten year old beamed as he pressed play and leaned forward, his eyes lighting up in anticipation and excitement as the iconic music began.
"There's reading?" the blonde groaned.
Henry nodded, not turning his hazel eyes from the screen.
"This is important, this sets up the story," he explained. "You wanna hear something amazing? They actually filmed this with a camera and they just scrolled down the words, no special effects or anything."
"That's… awesome," she said, trying her best to feign excitement, already calculating how long these movies were supposed to last.
The two of them watched the movie for several minutes, Henry somehow fully engrossed but at the same time his eyes kept flickering over to Emma to gauge her reactions, noticing her bored expression turning to something akin to amusement whenever she caught him looking at her.
"That's Obi-Wan Kenobi," the young boy explained as the old Jedi first showed up on screen. "The last living human Jedi."
"I thought his name was Ben Kenobi?"
"No, he just lived under an assumed name so no one would find him. He's actually Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"So he changed his first name but not his last name? Not a very smart disguise."
"Well the only people who knew he was there were the Lars and Luke because he wanted to be found eventually. You'll understand when we watch the prequels. Plus he has the Jedi Mind Trick powers so even if someone were to find him, he could just make them pretend they didn't know him. But it only works on the weak minded, if they're strong willed or a Hutt or Toydarian they aren't affected. Like he probably wouldn't be able to use the Jedi Mind Trick on you."
Emma was lost by the end of the first sentence but, knowing how important these movies seemed to be to Henry, she just nodded along as he spoke, hoping that her lack of interest was hidden behind her smile.
It wasn't quite as well hidden as she hoped and his grin faltered somewhat. But he was determined to make these movies live up to the hype he had placed on them.
"'Darth Vader murdered your father'," Henry repeated the line slowly, letting Emma know it was important, echoing the line as it was said on screen. "Keep that line in mind, it's gonna be very vital later on."
"Hmm? Oh yeah because it turns out that Darth Vader is actually his father right?"
"You… you know that he's his father?"
She nodded, missing the disappointment on her sons face. "Yeah. 'No, *I* Am your father! It's about the most quoted movie line in history. That and practically every line in Forrest Gump."
The ten year olds face fell at his mother's candor.
The first time he had seen Star Wars was his seventh birthday. Regina had gifted him the DVD boxset as a gift, thinking he would like the series since he had fallen in love with the reruns of Star Trek that he had watched one afternoon when he was home sick.
She had no idea just how much her son would fall in love with the movies...
But Henry remembered Regina's shocked gasp when Darth Vader said that iconic line, 'Luke, *I* am your father!"
She acted just as stunned as Henry had who was legitimately stunned at the twist.
Looking back it had been a little obvious Regina knew it was coming but she had played along with the seven year old, pretending to be just as floored as he had been. Afterwards they took nearly a two hour break in their marathon so they could discuss the twist in great excruciating detail and Regina had appeared been enthralled along with the seven year old.
Even in the years following that first time the two of them loudly proclaimed how good a twist it was and cheered when it happened on screen and, just like before, they would pause the movie and discuss in depth, usually with Henry filling in the blanks with the trivia and facts that only a serious hardcore fan would know, but she would listen intently and ask questions nonetheless.
Emma, however, hadn't understood how excited he had been to see her reaction to the plot twist.
Henry glanced down at the carpeted floor for a half second before he looked back up at the screen, his enjoyment for May the Fourth dwindling with every scene.
"Hey I know that guy," Emma said as she took a sip of her soda, nodding to the iconic pilot that appeared on the screen. "That's John, no Han Solo."
Henry perked up, his eyes wide with shock. "You recognize Han Solo?!"
"Yeah, one of high school teachers dressed up like him for Halloween, always wore ties with his face on it… he was a big nerd too," she said with a friendly nudge and a grin. "You two would have gotten along."
Henry felt his heart crack and crumble into a thousand pieces. All of a sudden he was six years old and face down in the sandbox, the Tron lunchbox he begged Regina for and he had been so proud to show it off tossed to the side, and John Ratcliffe was calling him a nerd, and telling him that was why he had no friends…
He bit back his tears as Emma's words rattled around in his brain.
A nerd. She called him a nerd. Even if she just said it as a joke, that word made him want to break down and cry.
Regina never called him that. Not once, and she knew the full extent of his 'nerdiness.'
She helped him organize his Magic the Gathering decks, she had allowed him to paint his room in his Hufflepuff House colors, she stayed up late Friday night playing Dungeons and Dragons with him, she engaged in the heated debate of who was better; Kirk or Picard.
Regina marathoned his favorite movie series with him every May the Fourth...
Emma had barely scratched the surface of his interests and she had already dubbed him a 'nerd'.
As hard as he struggled to bite back his tears he sniffed and the blondes attention was immediately focused back on him.
"Whoa, hey, Kid, what's wrong? What happened?"
"It's nothing," he muttered as he blinked away his tears.
"It- I… um, is- is it the movie?" she stammered, not quite sure what had triggered this sudden burst of emotion.
"I'm fine," he lied. "I just got Frito crumbs in my eye."
"Henry," she tried again, "did you forget about my super power?"
"I just wanna watch the movie."
Emma sighed softly but nevertheless granted his wish that the movie be watched in peace.
The rest of the film went by in relative silence. Emma would try to act enthusiastic and excited but Henry answered her enthusiasm with far lower energy than he normally had on May the Fourth.
Henry would be lying if about halfway through he didn't wish he was back on his couch in Miffin Street. He missed talking about the film in greater detail than just naming the characters of the characters, he missed eating Doritos and Popcorn instead of Fritos, he missed watching these films with someone who even if she thought he was nerdy wouldn't have said it outloud.
He missed Regina.
They continued watching Emma barely flinched when Obi-Wan was killed until she saw her son watching her.
"I can't believe he killed him!" Emma responded with far too much gusto then had been in her previous scenes, rendering the excitement that he had been hoping for far less.
When it was time for the second one, Henry put it in, this time without commentary.
Emma noticed the usually vocal boy had gone silent because when he sat back down she nudged him again. "Hey, Kid… you okay?"
Henry shrugged, choosing instead to just hit play and leaned back against the couch.
Emma frowned at Henry for a moment before she offered him the almost empty chip bag. "More Fritos?"
"No thank you."
"Come on, Henry, don't be mad at me," she pleaded. "I told you I'm not really a space movie guy. I'm sure that Regina isn't a big Star Wars fan either."
Henry bit back the comment he wanted to throw at the blonde. That Regina may not have been a fan of the space movies, but she was better at pretending to be invested for Henry's sake.
He still may have been disappointed in the lack of interest Emma showed, but, as much as he loved her, it was still a new relationship. He wasn't ready to get into it with her, to challenge her on something that wasn't curse related.
So he just shrugged as if he was agreeing with her and pressed play on the film.
The second one went more or less the same as the first. Emma was relatively bored and tried her best to hide it while Henry's memories with Regina kept coming to the forefront of his mind that he struggled to ignore and just enjoyed the best film in the series.
When that scene happened, when Darth Vader told Luke he was his father, Emma hardly even blinked. She merely took a handful of Fritos and continued watching as if she hadn't witnessed, in Henry's mind, the best twist in cinematic history.
The ten year old boy bit his lip as he picked up the remote, debating rather or not to pause it so they could discuss it when there was a knock at her door.
"I got it," Emma told him as she stood up.
"You want me to pause it?" he asked, begging she would say yes.
"You're fine, Kid," she told him as she looked through the peephole, groaning loudly before he turned to Henry.
"Did you tell Regina you were coming here?"
Henry nodded.
"Well I think movie night is about to be cut short," the blonde muttered as she opened the door to find Regina standing there, wearing a boxy Princess Leia T-shirt that Emma NEVER in her wildest dreams thought the mayor would wear and holding a Darth Vader cake in her arms with several plastic bags of what looked like microwave popcorn and Doritos at her feet.
"Madame Mayor," Emma greeted as politely as she could manage.
Ms. Swan," the Queen said in her usual contempt but there was something else there hidden beneath the facade.
Was Regina… actually sad?
Emma looked down at the cake, raising her brow at her. "That's a hell of a cake. I didn't know Storybrooke had a bakery."
"We do but trust me, you wanna stay away from it, especially the gingerbread. But I actually made this. For Henry."
The blondes face fell as she watched the Mayor straighten out, the sharp facade not nearly as believable as normal.
"I figured he could enjoy it over here."
"Oh. Um… yeah, come on in."
Emma moved out of the way and allowed Regina inside, grabbing the bags of snacks she had left outside the door.
Henry looked over at the mayor, swallowing hard as he watched her carry in the cake and set it down on the table, guilt over flowing the young boy.
It was a really good looking cake…
Regina spared a look over at the TV, furrowing her brow at what was playing. "You already made it through the father discussion?"
"What the hell's the father discussion?" asked Emma.
"... When you discuss the fact he revealed he was Luke's father? That lasts half an hour at least, that's why I came over now I thought the movie would be paused."
"Well… yeah but I mean every person in the world knows he was his dad."
"Maybe, but there's still a lot to discuss about that scene, Ms. Swan."
To say that Emma was taken aback would have been told the understatement of the year. Was sensible pant suit wearing Regina actually into these movies?
The brunette swallowed hard, looking over at the young boy who was looking over at her with a guilt ridden face, taking a shaking breath as she did so.
"Like how…" Regina tried her best to keep her voice steady. "How Luke must have felt when he realized his father was… evil."
Henry looked at her for what felt like an eternity, neither son nor mother breaking eye contact, both realizing what Regina had just done, what she had confirmed…
Henry swallowed hard as ice water flooded his veins for a moment. There was always a small barely there scrap of doubt in the back of his head about who Regina was, what his mother was. It's what kept him unafraid in the middle of the night when he slept in their home.
But now? Now she had all but said it outloud. He was right. Regina Mills was the Evil Queen.
But, he realized as he looked at the Princess Leia shirt she wore for him, the cake she had so meticulously decorated for him, the fact that she had come over to a place where it had slapped her in the face that he preferred Emma over her… she was still his mom.
She was still the Darth Vader to his Luke, a character who in the end did the right thing and saved everyone, who sacrificed his evilness for his child.
There was still a chance to save her...
"I think," he told her, his hazel eyes looking straight into her brown ones. "That, as hard as it is to accept it, and as confusing as it all is; knowing how many people he's hurt? Luke knows that Darth Vader loves him. And Luke loves Darth Vader back."
The two Mills smiled at one another, tears gathering in both their eyes as the silent message passed between them.
They were going to be alright…
Emma couldn't help the smile as she looked at her boy for a moment, understanding the code, but not understanding EVERYTHING about what had just transcribed.
Afterall, there was no way Regina Mills was actually some fairytale Evil Queen.
…Right?
The blonde cleared her throat, gaining both their attention as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone.
"Sheriff Swan," she answered. There was a beat. "Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh… where? Alright, I'll be there in twenty. See you then."
Emma hung up the phone and turned to Henry. "Sorry, Kid, duty calls. Hardware store got broken into. Come on, I'll take you to the station, you can watch them on the computer. It's probably gonna take about 8 hours anyway."
Henry pouted as he looked from an expectant Emma to Regina. "Well… could I stay here and watch them? With my mom?"
"It's up to Regina. If she doesn't mind staying in the apartment, I have no problems-."
"Yes," The Queen interrupted, for the first time since Emma came to town, a genuine smile on her porcelain face. "Yes I'll- I'll stay and watch him."
The blonde smiled at the brunette before she grabbed her jacket, told Henry goodbye and headed out of the apartment.
"Gimme one second, Henry, I'll be right back," Regina told him.
"Want me to pause the movie?" the young boy asked.
Regina scoffed as if he had said something insane. "Pause it? Why would you need to pause it when you're gonna have to put in the first one when I get back? You don't think I'd miss Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star do you?"
Henry beamed at his mother, his heart swelling with love as he got off the couch and ran towards her, throwing his arms around her.
"I love you, Mom," he said with a teary voice .
Regina wrapped her arms around him, stroking the back of his head like she had done for the last ten years.
"I love you too, Henry."
They held onto one another like that for several seconds before they finally let go of one another.
"I'll be right back," she promised. "Start the popcorn?"
"You got it, Mom."
Another smile towards him before she headed out of the building, catching the blonde Sheriff as she was about to get into her yellow Bug.
"What's going on, I thought you were upstairs watching the movies with Henry?"
"I am, he's putting the first one back in now. But I actually wanted to thank you, Ms. Swan."
"For what?"
The brunette just smiled at her. "Your phone didn't ring."
"If I said it was on vibrate would you believe me?"
"Not a chance, Ms. Swan."
The savior gave the Queen an all-telling smile.
"Good."
Emma got into the and looked up at the Queen. "Have fun with your movies, Madame Mayor."
Another rare smile from the Queen.
"We always do."
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