Most people think video games are all about a child staring at a TV with a joystick in his hands. I don't. They should belong to the entire family. I want families to play video games together.
- Shigeru Miyamoto
Not even five minutes after she leaves Henry at the schoolyard, Emma's phone rings. She curses when she sees Regina's name on the caller ID. She considers ignoring it, but knows that there will be even more hell to pay if she does.
"Hello, Madam Mayor."
"Miss Swan," Regina's voice is clipped and controlled, "I am allowing you to spend one hour with Henry tomorrow after school. You are to be at my home by 4. You will stay with him there until 5, at which time you will leave. Understood?"
Emma is shocked. Only a few weeks ago Regina was forbidding her to see Henry and now she's allowing Emma visitation? Granted, it will be highly controlled – as all things with Regina are – but it's visitation none the less. "I – yes. Sure. Thank you, Regina, I –"
Her answer is the sound of a dial tone.
Emma lays with Mary Margaret and considers what she could possibly do with Henry for an hour at the Mills manor. It doesn't seem like a house all that conducive to fun – at least not with Regina around – and while she can imagine some awesome games of hide and seek or laser tag happening, she's pretty sure both would be highly frowned upon.
It's only as she's falling asleep that the idea comes to her. There is one thing that might be perfect – and she knows exactly where to get what she needs.
Gold's pawn shop, it turns out, is a veritable treasure trove of antiques and nearly priceless artifacts. But what Emma's looking for isn't nearly so priceless, or all that antique, thank you very much. It's certainly not on display in his windows, or even on any of the shelves in the main room. Emma has to go to the back room and dig through boxes to find what she's looking for.
When she does find it, as she somehow knew she would, she grins triumphantly and loads the entire contents of the beat up old box into a bag she's brought. She leaves some money on the counter and locks back up with the keys that she confiscated from Gold when he was arrested. He'll probably be angry that Emma's taken advantage of his being locked up like this, but she can't bring herself to care. Not when she's got a date with her kid to get to.
Regina opens the door at exactly 4:00 with a look on her face like she's being forced to eat sour grapes. Normally Emma would poke the bear, but today she decides not to. She's not sure why Regina's changed her mind, or how long this change will last, so Emma's not going to push her luck. At least not right now.
"Miss Swan."
"Madam Mayor." Emma offers a smile. "Please tell me you have a television somewhere in this house."
Regina rolls her eyes. "I give you an hour of time with my son – an hour he could be using to do homework – and the best you can come up with is to watch television with him? How you haven't gotten a Mother of the Year trophy yet astounds me."
Emma bites her tongue and just continues to smile. "I didn't say we were going to be watching television. I just asked if you had one. I have something a little different in mind." Emma holds up the bag and then smiles as she sees Henry running down the stairs.
"Emma!" He plows into her with a huge hug and Emma hugs him tight to her. She's savoring every second she's got here.
She looks up as she releases Henry and sees something in Regina's eyes. It's only there for a second, but it's long enough for her to pick up on it. Hurt and fear. Emma frowns just slightly at the realization.
"What are you doing here?" Henry asks, looking between his mothers, trying to contain his excitement as best he can until he finds out more about the situation.
"Well," Emma hands the bag to Henry, "I thought maybe I'd show you a little bit more about my past, if you think you're up to it?"
Regina looks curiously down at the bag as Henry peeks into it, his eyes widening. "Seriously?"
"You got a TV we can hook it up to?" Emma asks.
"Yeah! Come on!" Henry races for the living room, pulling what appears to be a gaming console of some kind out of the bag as he goes.
"Video games?" Regina does her best not to sound surprised or interested.
Emma bites her lip for a second before speaking. Oh well, she might as well admit it. "I saw Henry playing the video game you got him. I told him that I used to play it when I was a kid. He seemed to like it, so I thought I'd show him some other games."
There is silence as Emma waits for Regina to rip into her for seeing Henry without her permission, but before she can, Henry calls out from the living room.
"Emma, how do you set this up?"
"Hang on, kid. Be right there." Emma says, slipping past Regina and moving toward the living room.
It only takes Emma a few minutes to get the classic Nintendo system hooked up to the television. Henry watches with rapt attention as she fiddles with cords and plugs in controllers before finally sliding the Super Mario Brothers cartridge into the machine and turning it on.
"What is this?" Henry asks, watching as the game comes up on the screen.
"Seriously? You've never heard of Super Mario Brothers before?" Emma looks shocked and a little concerned. She glances over to see Regina standing in the doorway, watching them.
"Well," Regina says when both Emma and Henry look at her, "I need to go to the office for a while. Henry, you can play until 5, then your homework needs to be done and you need to be ready for dinner."
And Emma's not sure why she does it, but before Regina can leave, she opens her big mouth. "Oh come on, Madam Mayor. Why don't you stay and play with us?"
"What?" Both Henry and Regina stare at her as though she's grown another head.
"Well, I mean, it was your idea." She shrugs.
"It was?" Henry looks even more shocked now, staring at his mother like he's never seen her before.
Emma just offers what she hopes is a disarming smile – although she thinks that there's nothing she could ever do that would actually fully disarm Regina. "Unless you're afraid that you'll lose."
"I never lose, Miss Swan." Regina replies almost without thinking.
"Then stay and play."
She can't quite fathom why Emma would be offering this apparent olive branch. Regina's allowing the blonde time alone with Henry and yet Emma is asking Regina to stay and making her look like the good guy. Regina wonders what the other woman's ulterior motive is. Her eyes go to the game console.
"There are only two controllers, " she points out.
"You and Henry can play on a team." Emma offers easily. "Mills vs. Swan. I promise to go easy on you." And there's a hint of flirtation in Emma's voice as she says that that Regina can't help but take note of.
Regina looks over at Henry, waiting to see his reaction. She knows that he doesn't want her there, impeding on his time with Emma. He wants this time alone with her so desperately, that Regina has offered it up in the hopes that he'll forgive her for the rest of it. But Henry isn't looking at Regina-he's looking at Emma, as though trying to understand what's going on in her head.
There's silence for long minutes until Henry finally turns back to her. "Well, Mom?" He asks, holding up a controller, and Regina feels like she might just cry as she moves over toward the couch.
"I'll go first," Emma says, already pressing buttons on the controller, "just to show you how it all works."
"Come on, Mom!" Henry cheers from beside her, and it makes Regina's heart swell, even as she bites her lip angrily in concentration.
"This," She grits out as her fingers work over the controllers, "is absolutely unfair. You've played this game before. You're at an advantage." Regina knows that her hands have become more clumsy here in Storybrooke, where all she wields on a daily basis is a pen. Still, she can't believe anything Emma is good at can be this difficult.
Emma laughs from her spot on the other side of Henry. "I can't believe you've never played Super Mario Brothers before, Regina."
"Not all of us spent our childhoods wasting our time in front of video games." Regina snaps, jumping to avoid a Goomba.
She waits for the retaliation from Emma, but one doesn't come. She glances over to see the blonde staring at the screen too intently for a time when it isn't her turn. "No." Emma finally says softly. "Not everyone did."
The Goomba hits Regina, killing her. "Damn it." She hisses out under the breath, but it's not only because of her virtual death.
Emma hits the pause button on her controller. "You know, I should probably get going."
Regina glances down at her watch. It's only 4:45.
"What? But Emma, you have to show us how to beat Bowser!" Henry protests from beside Regina.
"Another time, huh, kid?" Emma moves to stand up.
"Miss Swan, it's not yet five o'clock." Regina speaks. "And seeing as how I am obviously useless at this game, I feel that you're the only one who can help Henry to beat Bowser."
Emma looks at her in surprise. Regina isn't sure what nerve it was that she touched on, but she can tell that she's hit one somehow. And although normally she would happily continue to poke and prod until Emma snapped, she finds that today she doesn't want to do that to her. Not after the past 45 minutes when she and Henry have laughed together with Emma as they learned to play this ridiculous game, feeling almost like a family again, even with Emma there. Perhaps – although she'd never admit it – even because Emma was there.
"Wait a minute," Emma says, and her voice seems normal again, "is her majesty Mayor Mills admitting that she can't do something?"
Regina rolls her eyes. "If you're going to act like that –"
Emma smiles softly as she unpauses the game. "Watch and learn. Watch and learn."
It's nearly 5:30 when someone next checks their watch and Emma practically jumps out of her seat when she catches sight of the time. "Oh shi-shoot! Henry, you gotta go do your homework, kid."
Henry and Regina both look at her in surprise. "But Emma –"
"No." Emma shakes her head. "It's way past 5 and you guys still need to have dinner. Get going."
"But when will I see you again?" Henry asks, his eyes as much on Regina as they are on Emma.
Emma bites her lip. "I don't know, kid. We'll, uh, figure something out, okay?"
Henry still doesn't move, his attention all focused on Regina who still has the game controller in her hand. "Perhaps Sheriff Swan could stop by on Friday evening after school." Regina finds herself offering.
Henry's face lights up. "Really? Could you, Emma?"
Emma looks between the two, her eyes resting on Regina and asking a silent question that Regina ignores. Finally Emma offers Henry a small smile. "Sure. As long as nothing comes up."
Henry flings himself at Emma, hugging her tightly while Regina watches, feeling the squeezing of her heart once again. Emma whispers something to Henry before she releases him and before she knows it, her son is in her arms, hugging her tightly like he hasn't since before Emma Swan showed up in their lives.
"Thanks, Mom," he whispers, before he pulls away and is running up the stairs to do his homework.
Regina sits dumbfounded for a few seconds, before she turns her gaze to Emma who is turning off the console and winding up the controllers. She doesn't know what to say to the woman in front of her. But she finds that now, more than ever, she wants to say something.
"I didn't mean to," Regina searches Emma's face, "bring up bad memories when I made my comment earlier."
The sheriff shrugs as she lays the controller on top of the console and reaches out to take the other controller from the brunette's hands. "You didn't. I mean, not really."
"You seemed upset."
Emma shrugs again as she rolls up the controller. "Just – you were right. Not everyone spent their childhoods playing video games. I did when I could because it was an easy escape. That's all. Anyway, I'll get out of your hair now."
Emma pulls her jacket back on and turns to look at Regina. "Thank you, for today. Really."
Regina inclines her head. "You aren't going to take the...thing...with you?"
Emma smiles. "Nah. I figured I'd leave it here. Maybe you and Henry can practice some more before Friday night. Be ready to beat me. Although who knows, maybe I'll really shake things up and bring laser tag."
"Yes, well. Thank you, Miss Swan." Regina says, allowing a small smile of her own to show, even though she has no idea what laser tag is.
"Goodnight, Madam Mayor." Emma nods before leaving. Regina watches her go, her mind turning over everything that's happened in the past hour and a half. It all seems almost surreal – the three of them playing video games together, Henry laughing with her and hugging her the way he had. Had any of it actually happened, or was it all an elaborate fantasy she'd conjured up? And if it was, then why was Emma Swan involved at all?
Regina continues to contemplate everything until Henry comes back down the stairs to stand in front of her.
"So Mom, do you think that maybe after dinner we could play some more?"
Regina looks up at him in surprise. "You want to play with me?"
Henry nods with a small smile. "I bet I can actually beat you."
Regina allows her eyes to widen and her jaw to drop in mock anger. "Oh, is that so, mister? Well you just march on into the kitchen for dinner. I'll show you, beating me."
And Henry actually laughs, a full happy sound that she hasn't heard from him in months. Her heart feels like it just might explode.
As they sit down at the dinner table, Henry's mouth is running a mile a minute about the video game they've just played, as well as the one that she gave him. She doesn't know how long this might last – if it lasts at all – but she'll take it now, while she can get it. Because thanks to some video games – and, she admits to herself, Emma Swan – she's got her son back.
"So Henry," she asks as she puts the dirty dishes in the sink, "what exactly is laser tag?"
And as his eyes widen and his hands start to move as he explains it, Regina thinks that she might just be able to deal with it – and Emma Swan – in her home, if only to keep this feeling alive for a little while longer.