Emma fired up the ignition on the bug as she sat and blew on her hands for warmth. She glanced up at the Christmas lights up in the trees alongside the street she was on. It was Christmas Eve. She sighed as she shifted the car into drive and started on her journey. She had just gone way way out of her way on a lead that turned out to be a bust. Now, she had a two hour drive home to Boston to look forward to, alone. Once she got onto the highway, she began fiddling with the radio stations, trying to occupy herself. A woman's voice quickly filled the air inside the car.
"This is Doctor Marcia Fieldstone with another episode of 'You and your feelings'. Tonight, we're discussing wishes and dreams. Do you have a special wish this Christmas Eve?"
"My Wish? To change the radio station" she said, hitting the button absentmindedly. She wasn't looking to deal with anyone or their feelings that night. Another voice began filling her car, this time a man's:
"Subject for tonight's discussion is you and your spleen."
"Not on your life!" she said, hitting it again.
"Next up is Jingle Bells backwards, sung by the New Jersey accapell-"
She chuckled and flipped the station again, when she heard a tiny voice come through the speakers.
"Hi. This is Henry [bleep]."
"No last names, Henry! You sound younger than our usual callers. How old are you?" it was the stupid feelings show, Emma realized with an eyeroll. Despite this, she still couldn't bring herself to change the station.
"Ten" she smiled to herself, trying to imagine why on earth a child his age would be calling into such a stupid show.
"Alright, what's your Christmas wish, Henry?"
"It's not for me, it's for my mom. I think she needs a new True Love…"
"That is just the sweetest fucking thing…" Emma said aloud to herself as she continued to listen.
"You don't like the one she has now?" asked the stupid Doctor woman.
"She doesn't have one now. That's the problem." stated Henry, matter of factly.
"Where's your dad?" she inquired
"I don't have one, never have. My mom lost her True Love a long time ago…"
"What happened, Henry? Do you know?"
"He died." Emma's face dropped and she felt her heart tighten in her chest. 'Fuck, this show was a bad call...' she thought to herself, though she was still somehow unable to change it.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that"
"I've been pretty okay...I never knew him. But my mom's not."
"Have you tried talking to her about this?"
"No" said the little voice after a brief pause.
"Why not?" asked the woman's voice.
"I'm not even supposed to know about it..she really doesn't like to talk about it…"
"I can understand that. Henry, is your mom home right now?"
"Yeah"
"What's she doing? Is she busy?" prodded the woman.
"No...she's just in her office…"
"Well, I'm sure that I can help, but I'm going to need you to help me help her" Emma's jaw dropped as she heard those words.
"Hang up the phone, Henry! This bitch is crazy!" cried Emma as she smacked the steering wheel in disbelief.
"No way, she'd kill me!" came his little voice.
"Trust me, Henry. She won't be angry once she realizes how concerned you are about her."
"I don't think you understand what she's capable of, when she's angry…" he said, making the woman on the radio laugh, and at the same time making Emma shift uneasily in her seat and shake her head at the nerve of this stupid radio doctor lady.
"Alright...but if I get yelled at, I'm never listening to your show again!" Henry said, making Emma smirk.
"Okay, fair enough".
"MOM?!"
"Yes, Henry?" Regina answered, looking up from her paperwork to see him standing in the hall, holding one of the portable phones up against his chest.
"There's someone on the phone for you." he said simply, gesturing with his chin toward the phone on her desk. Regina reached for it, unsure of who would be calling at this hour.
"Her name is Regina" he stated into the phone as he quickly walked away from her office to avoid seeing her reaction to what could possibly be a disastrous phone call.
"Hello?" came the woman's voice. It was rich and husky. Her velvety tones seemed to stir something deep inside Emma, intriguing her immediately.
"Hello, Regina. This is Doctor Marcia Fieldstone on Network America."
"Okay...and just what are you looking to sell tonight? Knives? A blender, perhaps?" the sass in the woman's voice had Emma laughing to herself. 'I think I like this one' she thought
"No, I'm not selling anything. I just want to help. I want you to know that your son called and he asked me for some advice on how you might find a new 'True Love'".
"Who is this?!" Regina demanded, outraged her business was being discussed without her knowledge.
"Doctor Marcia Fieldstone of Network America and you are on the air"
"Henry!" she yelled from her desk. He appeared again in the hallway, phone up to his ear. "You called a Radio Station?!" her blood was boiling. Despite knowing that it was likely that none of the residents in her town still listened to the radio at this hour, the fact that strangers were being privy to the pain from a past she never speaks of was causing a most unwanted and confusing flurry of emotions.
"Regina. Regina, are you with me?" came the obnoxious woman on the phone's voice.
"Yes" she stated, still looking furiously at her son.
"Your son feels that since your last love's death, you've been very, very unhappy and he's genuinely worried about you."
"Henry, come here. Right this instant" she said sternly, causing him to shuffle into her office quietly, still listening.
"I think it's very hard for him" came her voice again "to talk to you about all this and I thought that maybe if you and I could talk, it would make Henry feel a little better. Regina?"
"Talk to her, Mom. She's a real doctor"
"Of what?! Her first name could be doctor, Henry!"
"Please?" pleaded Henry, his eyes shining brightly. He had been so distant lately, obsessing over fairytales and that stupid book. Finally, he decides to reach out and this is how. She had also had a couple glasses of wine at that point and was feeling a little less angry than she normally would have been over such a stunt. She sighed, looking at the boy who was growing up at an alarming speed.
"It is his Christmas wish…" pleaded the annoying woman Regina almost forgot entirely. Eyes watering as she looked at her baby boy, she nodded, defeated.
"Okay" she said quietly, earning her a small smile from Henry as she walked over and put her arm around him and lead him to the living room where they both sat on the couch.
"Okay, good. Now, I know this is difficult but how long ago did your True Love die?"
"He died...a long, long time ago…" came Regina's voice, now taking on a distant tone and making Emma shudder ever so slightly.
"Have you had any relationships since?"
"Nothing of significance, no."
"No? Why not?" this earned another eyeroll from Emma. This woman was officially the worst.
"Well...Marcia. Or should I call you Dr Fieldstone?"
"Doctor Marcia" came the voice, heavy with arrogance. Emma scoffed and listened intently as Regina continued.
"I don't wish to be rude…"
"I don't want to invade your privacy, Regina."
"Yes, you do!" said Emma sarcastically, making her stop for a moment and look at the radio when she realized she and Regina had said the same thing simultaneously.
"Go on, Regina. I'm listening."
After a few moments of silence, Regina began.
"Look, I had a very difficult time with it for a long while...but I'm dealing with it. Henry and I...we'll be just fine, as soon as I break his radio" she said, her voice lacking any sign of her being serious. The vile Doctor woman laughed.
"I have no doubt that you're a wonderful mother. You know, you can tell a lot from a person's voice. But something must be missing if Henry still feels as though you are under a cloud. Just a few questions: are you sleeping at night?"
"She doesn't sleep at all!" came Henry's voice.
"And just how would you know that?" came Regina's.
"I live here, Mom." finished the little voice.
"Look" Regina sighed "It's Christmas. Uh...Daniel, my fiancé. He...he made everything beautiful in a time I thought such beauty was just a fallacy. It's just...well, it's difficult. As you'd well imagine." Emma's heart ached for this woman, who'd lost so much.
"Could it be that you need someone?" asked Dr Marcia.
"Yes." Emma said aloud.
It was then that Dr Marcia announced a commercial break and Emma blinked away the tears she hadn't realized were gathering in her eyes and sighed. Her thoughts drifted off to the Regina woman and her son, these two people who had been through so much and yet still had each other. She waited, desperately wanting to hear more, needing to know more about this mysterious woman with the sexy voice. Her stomach flipped excitedly as the Doctor lady's voice came back on, announcing they were back on the air.
"If there was one question I was allowed to ask...people who truly loved once are far more likely to love again. Regina, do you think there's someone out there you could love as much as your fiancé?"
"Well, Dr Fieldstone, I think that's quite hard to imagine…"
"Mhmm...and what are you going to do?"
"Well...I'm going to do what I've been doing for years. I'm going to get out of bed every morning, breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while, maybe I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed in the morning and breathe in and out. Then, maybe, after a while, I won't have to think about how perfect things could have been…"
"Regina, tell me what was so special about your fiancé"
"Well, how long is your program?" Emma smiled, breathlessly hanging onto Regina's every word. She heard Regina's voice sigh and continue "Well, it was a million tiny little things that when you added them all up, they just meant that we were supposed to be together. And I knew it the very first time I touched him. It was like coming home, only to no home I had ever known. He was just taking my hand to help me off my horse. And I knew it. It was like...magic."
"Well, folks, that's all the time we have today!"
Henry had fallen asleep on Regina's lap. Hanging up the phone, she began running her fingers through his hair, wondering how on earth she had missed the way her own loneliness had affected him. Absentmindedly, she looked up at the Christmas tree, knowing it was time to put Henry to bed and set up the presents for the following morning's festivities.
Hours away, Emma Swan gripped her steering wheel, tears streaming down her face. She knew at that moment that she would not rest until she found this Regina woman and her son.