I don't own OUAT. I just love the show. I do own all the mistakes.

No Place Like Home

Henry knows the moment he looks at his mother that something was definitely wrong. He notices that Robin Hood is fiercely hugging this newcomer that Emma had brought back from the Enchanted Forest.

He had seen that look on her face before, a little over two years ago. At that time, it had been directed at him when he chose his "real mom" over her. He was just a dumb selfish kid who did not know, and truthfully did not care, how deeply he'd hurt the woman that had raised him. Now he is older, wiser. Henry instinctively knows that she was devastated. He can feel his own stomach bottom out and a painful clenching in his chest at the absolute pain in he sees in her eyes. In the next moment, she has schooled her face into that mask he so hates, because it means she was shutting down and shutting out everyone. Turning her back on the little family reunion, Regina walks out of the diner as Emma stands looking guiltily at her back.

Henry gets to his feet and rushes after his mother, completely ignoring Emma as she calls out to his name. He has to go to her.

During the past year, Henry had always felt like something had been missing in his life. He wasn't sure what it was but he found himself always searching almost frantically at times for something to fill that void he felt. When he found that apple tree in central park it just felt right. He often went to the tree to simply think or read. It felt familiar and he always felt calm when he was there.

Then there were the dreams.

For months, he had been having strange dreams. They felt so real. Some mornings, he could swear that he caught the scent of apple pancakes, something that his mother would never cook simply because she greatly lacked any talent in the kitchen, but his mouth would water at the thought of fluffy apple cinnamon goodness. 'It must have been the dream.' He would frown as he tried to remember the dream as best he could, but the only thing that stayed with him was the woman in black. His dreams always ended the same way, the woman was always a black silhouette being overtaken by a thick purple cloud. He would awaken with a feeling of loss, a deep sadness that left him on the verge of tears, and the scent of apples and vanilla wafting in the air.

Sometimes his dreams felt more like a memory that was just outside of his grasp.

In these dreams, he still cannot see her face, he knows that it is not his "mother" in the dreams but she seems so familiar. He has memories of cuddling up to the woman during thunderstorms, building a pillow fort in a large living room, laughing, and watching movies. Then there is the song that haunts him day and night. He can hear the deep female voice, deeper and more soulful than Emma's voice, humming the tune. Sometimes he finds himself humming the foreign tune, for he has never heard the song anywhere else. He hummed the tune around Emma once, but she didn't recognize the song, so where had he heard it before. What Henry did know was that something about it just made him feel comforted and loved.

Now with his old memories returned, Henry knew what he was searching for so hard in New York. He knew who he was missing all that time. He missed his mom. He missed Regina.

Now he had found her and she needed him.

He opened the diner door just in time to see her purple smoke dissipate as she teleported, leaving behind the light scent of apples and vanilla that he knew belonged solely to his mom. Henry walked down the walkway with the intention of heading home. That would be the first place she would go.

Emma came out the door in a panic and grabbed his arm. "Henry where are you going?"

Jerking his arm out of her grasp, Henry turned to face Emma, his face livid. "I'm going to check on my mom."

Snow stepped out of the diner and into the crisp night air. She had not seen the exchange between Regina and Emma. Yet, she had noticed that Robin was hugging the newcomer, Regina's hasty retreat, and watched as Henry rushed out the door, followed by Emma. She asked David to hold baby Neal so that she could check on the other members of their family. Now she stood on the walkway outside Granny's and was surprised by the anger marring Henry's features as he glared at Emma.

"What's going on?" Confusion evident in Snow's voice.

"What did you do to her? What happened in there?" Henry spat accusatorially.

"It's complicated, kid." Emma shifted from foot to foot in front of her son.

"I'm not an idiot Emma. I'm capable of understanding complex situations. What did you do to my mom?" His voice was calm, but Emma could hear the anger in his words. She took a step back as she was witnessing a side of Henry she had never seen before.

Sighing deeply and with her eyes full of the guilt she felt, Emma spoke slowly. "The woman I brought back with me, her name is Marian."

"As in Maid Marian?" Henry asked, although he knew the answer from the way the man had embraced this new woman. He had read the stories and seen the movies, Maid Marian was Robin Hood's true love.

"Regina was going to kill her when I rescued her from the dungeon. I was afraid that if I left her, she would be murdered or change the space-time continuum or something." Emma sputtered out lamely.

"Oh Emma." Snow sighed. She understood why Emma had saved Marian but she also knew that her daughter's actions could have catastrophic consequences, especially when Regina was involved.

Turning away from Emma with a look of disgust, Henry began walking away from the diner. He had to find his mother. She was all alone. She shouldn't be alone.

Emma once again caught him firmly by the arm, "Henry, I don't think it's a good idea for you to follow her. She probably wants to be alone."

Henry turned his head to glare disdainfully at her hand on his arm. Emma quickly released her hold, as if burned. At this moment, he looks every bit like he is Regina's son. His words, his vocal inflections and mannerism, all screamed Regina.

Narrowing his eyes, Henry's voice was low with barely restrained fury. "You just make decisions and you don't think about the consequences. You don't care who you hurt. Like when you decided to take us back to New York. Were you even going to ask me? Did you even care about how I felt? Or were you just running away like you always do?" He shook his head angrily.

"Henry!" Snow warned, shocked that Henry would speak to Emma this way. He knows his words are cruel, that he is angrier at himself than he is at Emma, but he can't think about that now. Right now, he needs to get to his mom and he needs Emma to understand.

"No, grandma. My mom loves me, she broke the curse with true loves kiss. For so long, I thought she didn't love me because I wasn't her kid. Because I was adopted. But I was wrong, I was so wrong. And she tried. She was trying so hard to be good for me. She became a hero and she deserves to be happy because hero's get happy endings and she not. She's not happy. She's hurting. And it's not fair." Henry bites his lip as his voice breaks with emotion. He's upset and his thoughts and emotions are running rampant. All he can think about how much he missed Regina even when he did not remember her, how she saved him from Pan, how she broke the curse with true loves kiss, how she fought so hard to earn his love. Then he remembered the pain on her face tonight and how he had seen that pain before. How he had once been the cause of that pain. Then one thought screams through his head and the moment it does he knows it's true. "She loves me and I broke her heart."

Her son's words cut to the core. She now knew what their life could have been like if she had raised Henry. She wished she had never given him up for adoption. Yet, she had left Henry to give him his best chance. Regina had raised Henry. She was his mother and it had not been fair of her to expect him to choose between her and Regina. She owed Regina for giving her that good year and memories of Henry growing up. It was Regina that gave them a good life and she had screwed her.

Emma had unintentionally ruined something good for the other woman. Regina was right, Emma had not thought about the consequences of bringing back the stranger. After seeing the actual Evil Queen in all her glory, Emma now knew just how far this Regina had come from the villain she used to be. The emotion she had seen on the brunette's face as she watched Robin embrace his long lost wife had Emma feeling horrible. Anger Emma could have handled, but what she saw on Regina face when the former queen turned her gaze on Emma, was betrayal.

What hurt worse was that Henry was right. She had tried to run away again. Her mother and her father had a new baby, a new start, and would forget about the grown daughter that they barely knew. She feared that with this new child she would once again be unwanted. She had not had a home for so long. But when she was in New York she had a family with just her and Henry. She had given up hope of ever finding anything else. So no, she honestly had not considered his feelings about moving back to New York. Since Henry had come searching for her those few years ago, and she had raised him for the last year, she thought that he would agree to go back to the life they had been living. She now knows she had been so wrong.

Emma had finally found a home and a family that loves her unconditionally. Also, Henry has another mother that he loves and she knows that Regina would do anything for their son. It was not fair for her to think that it would be okay for them to leave this behind.

"Please Emma, I'm all she's got. I can't leave my mom alone, not again." Emma looks at the tears in her son's eyes and swallows hard.

"Let's go." Henry looks like he is about to protest, but then Emma smiles sadly. "We need to get you home."