Title: Calming Nightmares
Summary: The sound made Henry's tears well up again. Everything that had happened today had made him angry and upset and clearly, it had made Emma feel the same.
Spoilers: Post-ep for 2x14, "Manhattan."
Characters: Henry (and Emma by proxy).
Rating/Warning: K. Angst and some sweetness.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I'm just playing with the stuff in someone else's toybox.
Author's Note: I just needed to get this little scenelet out of my head before canon screws it over, haha. Writing my poor Henry and Emma like this hurt but I hope the ending made up for it a little bit. Feedback makes my day! Enjoy. :)
The night they found Baelfire was the first night since Emma's return from the Enchanted Forest that Henry did not say good night to her.
Emma had insisted on staying the night in the city. Everyone was tired, she'd said, and everyone needed to take a breather before spending all those long hours squeezed together in planes and cars to get back to Storybrooke. Mr. Gold had apparently seen the wisdom in her argument and booked two hotel rooms for the weary travelers.
After a brief and awkwardly silent supper of room service sandwiches and drinks from the vending machines, Emma shakily told Henry that she was going to take a shower. It was at that point that Henry knew she'd be in there for a while. Emma took marathon showers on normal days. When she was upset, the showers became double marathons.
Which was perfectly fine with Henry. He didn't want to talk to her anyway.
After Emma disappeared into the bathroom, Henry flipped channels on the TV for a little while. Unable to find anything to watch, he decided to turn out the light and pretend he was asleep. That way he could avoid talking to Emma when she finally got out of the shower.
He lay in the dark and listened. The water in the bathroom eventually shut off and the hair dryer turned on a couple minutes later. When Emma turned off the hair dryer and opened the bathroom door, Henry channeled his energy into lying completely still with his back to the room. She'd made him take the bed by the window while she took the one by the door. He didn't know why she'd insisted on having it that way because he'd simply given her a sullen, "Whatever" instead of asking her.
Her footsteps approached and then stopped just beside his bed. He gave no indication that he was awake, even when she whispered a pained good night to him before climbing into her own bed.
Part of him wondered if she knew he wasn't really asleep and thus was avoiding her. A larger part of him didn't care. He was just so mad at her. She'd lied to him, she'd lied about his dad. She'd told him his dad was dead when he wasn't. That was not okay. Whether or not Emma wanted to see him again, Henry certainly had the right to know who he was.
Didn't he?
He was hurt and disappointed and … betrayed. He was used to feeling that way because of something Regina had done but Emma? He never thought Emma was capable of lying to him like that, not after everything they'd been through together.
When Henry felt hot tears pricking the back of his eyes, he squeezed them shut even tighter, unconsciously curling in on himself. He couldn't start crying now. If he did, Emma would know for sure that he wasn't really sleeping.
He started to calm down after a second or two and discovered to his surprise that he was suddenly really tired. Maybe it was time to try to go to sleep for real. With any luck, he'd feel better in the morning. So after exhaling a shaky breath, he focused on quieting his thoughts and ignoring the barely audible sniffles coming from Emma's side of the room.
His efforts must have worked because he started awake at some point much later. It was dark in the room, really dark. He sat up, squinting at the clock on the nightstand between the two beds. All right, what on earth had woken him up at three-thirteen in the morning?
And then he heard it: a tiny, pained whimper from the other bed. He wished his eyes would adjust to the darkness already; he couldn't tell if Emma was awake or not.
She seemed to quiet after a moment, so with a small shrug, Henry settled back down and tried to go back to sleep. His eyes flew open again a few seconds later when he heard another soft whimper.
The sound made Henry's tears well up again. Everything that had happened today had made him angry and upset and clearly, it had made Emma feel the same.
He threw the covers off his legs, climbed out of his bed, and slowly approached hers. From what he could see in the darkness, she was lying on her back, her eyes closed and brow furrowed. Her short, rapid breaths as she turned her head and squirmed under the covers told him she was having a nightmare.
Her whimpering grew louder, causing Henry's tears to spill over as he sank down on the edge of the bed. "Shh," he whispered to her in an effort to calm her down. "It's okay."
His soothing whispers didn't quiet her, and Henry did the only thing he could think to do. He grasped the hand she'd flung onto the pillow and squeezed. Almost immediately, Emma stopped fidgeting. Her thumb ran up and down the back of his hand twice before going still. After a couple more soft whimpers, she exhaled deeply through her nose and finally calmed.
Henry waited until the tension on her features disappeared before slipping his hand free. The nightmare that had been plaguing her seemed to be gone for good. Giving a tiny half-smile, he stood and tiptoed back to his own bed.
Yes, he was still mad at her and yes, her lie still hurt him. But she was also still his mom, and letting her suffer was not something he was willing to do.
After fluffing the pillows and making himself comfortable, Henry closed his eyes and allowed the soft rhythm of Emma's now-calm breathing lull him back to sleep.