A/N: This story contains spoilers for "Lady of the Lake." Thank you for reading and reviewing!
Regina walked into Granny's and looked around. Everybody stopped talking. The people in the diner looked at her warily. A few of them whispered to each other. A couple of them walked out. She realized that she hadn't been in there since the curse had broken. Henry wasn't there yet, so she took a seat.
After a couple of minutes, Ruby walked over to her. She looked especially unhappy to see her. Regina knew that Ruby and Snow were friends, and she wondered if the whole town thought that she had sent Snow and Emma away on purpose.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm meeting my son here," Regina said, trying to sound as polite as possible. "I'll have coffee, and I'm guessing Henry will want cocoa."
Ruby just nodded and went in the back. Regina checked her watch and looked toward the door again. Shouldn't Henry be here by now?
Ruby walked over to Regina's table with the coffee and cocoa.
"Thank you," Regina said.
Ruby just frowned and walked away.
Regina waited for a few more minutes. It was becoming more and more clear that Henry wasn't coming. Was there a chance that he had gone straight to her office instead? Of course, it was much more likely that Henry had just wanted a chance to sneak into her office, probably to get her keys. Regina's heart sank. Henry had never wanted to have lunch with her at all.
Regina closed her eyes for a moment. She didn't want everyone in the diner to see her cry. She took a deep breath and composed herself before walking up to the counter to pay. Ruby raised her eyebrows.
"Henry must have thought that we were meeting at my office," Regina said.
Ruby didn't respond. As Regina started to walk out of the diner, she noticed that everybody was staring at her. As she looked around though, they all quickly looked down. As she turned around and headed out of the diner, she knew that the chances that Henry had been confused were slim.
Yet, there was still a part of her hoping that Henry would just be waiting in her office, like he used to when she had work to finish up before going out to dinner. She could still see him sitting there, working on his homework and talking about how boring her job looked. She remembered when he was five years old and would pretend to be different superheroes. He would sometimes give Regina roles while he was playing and she was working. Not once was she the villain. A couple of times, she finished up her work and played along. He would always hug her and tell her he loved her. He would tell her she was the best mom ever.
When Regina got to her office, Henry wasn't there. She checked the drawer for her keys, and sure enough, they were missing. She felt a tear slide down her cheek. She should have known. How could she really think that Henry would want to have lunch with her now? He wasn't going to start loving her again just because she said that she wanted to redeem herself.
Of course, Henry probably wanted those keys to get into the vault. Regina felt a rush of fear as she thought about the dangerous things that were down there. What if Henry got hurt? She needed to get to him as quickly as possible.
As she started walking toward the door, though, she realized something. What if Henry didn't want to come with her? He didn't trust her, and he might think that she was going to grab him and take him home with her again. Regina sighed and went back to her desk. She picked up the phone and called Prince Charming.
"Hello?" Charming answered.
"Henry is in the vault," Regina said, wasting no time.
"What? Is this Regina? What vault?"
"We don't have much time," Regina said. "Henry lied about meeting me for lunch and snuck into my office. He took my set of keys, and I'm sure he's heading to the vault. There are some dangerous things—even deadly things—down there, and I'm afraid that Henry will get hurt. I would go myself, but I'm worried that he might not want to go with me."
"Okay," Charming said. "Where is this vault?"
Regina gave him the directions. She had no doubt that Charming would get over there quickly and make sure that Henry didn't get hurt.
Regina sat down in her chair and looked around the office. This had been her office for 28 years, and now she had to pack her things and leave. She had raised Henry for 10 years, and now he wasn't even living with her anymore.
She was probably still the Evil Queen in Henry's eyes. She was the woman who had lied to him, the woman who had acted like he was crazy for believing in a curse. It might take a long time before she stopped being the Evil Queen, before he forgave her. She wondered when he would really want to have lunch with her. All she could do was keep trying to change and hope that Henry would grow to love her again.