drgnchasr asked: Regina tells Emma the story of Henry's adoption.
drgnchasr, I hope this meets with your satisfaction. Reason I got it off so quick (I've only been on my weeklong vacation for about 2 hours) is it hits most of my headcanon about Henry's adoption process that I've been working on since season 1. AND it fits very nicely following the events of s03e08. So spoilers if you haven't seen that ep.
A Mother's Heart
Emma exhaled only once they were aboard the Jolly Roger. She was reliving the run from Skull Cave pushing everyone out of Regina's way. She can't recall for certain, but the look on Hook's face at one point suggested something resembling a predator's snarl had come out of her mouth when he attempted to take Henry's limp body from Regina's arms.
Pan had vanished as soon as he had Henry's heart. Emma and Regina had only been able to focus on Henry. Emma wasn't sure, but she thought she remembered Snow and Charming promising to find Pan.
Damn it, how long could this last? Emma was terrified. Henry had no heart. None. The 'sleep' that held him seemed impossibly irretrievable. What are we going to do?
There was a small cry that drew Emma from her stupor. She turned in a daze from staring at Henry to see Regina sinking to the floor next to the bunk where Emma had lay Henry.
Wait. Emma bent down beside Regina, imploring her without words. Regina could do her magic and save Henry. The brunette's brown eyes were glassy with tears. She gripped Regina's hand as the woman clutched at her own torso. "You can fix this," Emma begged. "Regina, fix this."
Regina bent close over their son's… bent over their son, she thought adamantly. Emma refused to let any defeated description even cross her mind.
Shaking fingers brushed at Henry's forehead and then Regina laid a palm over his chest. "Henry," she whispered, "you're going to be all right. I… Mommy's going to take care of you. Just like I did from the start." She kissed his forehead, hesitated, then kissed it again.
Emma suspected the brunette had been hoping for True Love's kiss to work. Emma had already tried it herself on the ground at Skull Cave. Apparently taking one's own heart out didn't count as a curse, and couldn't be similarly broken.
Grasping Regina's hand on Henry's chest, Emma said, "Take my magic, too. Maybe…" Her voice trailed off as she felt the now unmistakable rush as her magic released. Nothing about their son's status appeared to change. Lightheaded, Emma closed her eyes to let the feeling pass, then opened them to the sound of Regina sobbing.
Openly. The woman who was supposed to be the most diabolical fairytale villain was shaking head to toe. Gut-wrenching sobs pulled at her body, choking off her audible cries and her breathing hitched frequently.
"I haven't held him like that since he was first brought to me," Regina murmured. "I had forgotten how utterly helpless it all felt."
Emma stared at Henry. "I never held him," she admitted quietly. "I didn't think I could be a mother and touching him would have made that perfectly clear."
"Henry was beautiful," Regina whispered, clearly struggling to get the words out.
Emma practically begged, "Regina, don't say— he's not—"
"When I first saw him in the hospital," Regina continued softly, stroking at Henry's shoulder, down to his limp hands. "He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He was kicking out his feet and arms, reaching for the bottle the nurse had brought."
Emma subsided in the face of a fragility she had never before sensed from Regina.
"I'd asked Gold… He was just Gold," Regina clarified, "but he was still very good at finding things, obtaining things."
Emma met Regina's gaze and pressed her lips together to avoid interrupting with a million questions.
"No one could leave Storybrooke, and we hadn't had anyone enter. Not since Owen and his father. And no one was aging. Yet, I asked him to obtain a child for me.
"It was logical, he said, to go to the hospital. We encountered Ashley, who was pregnant, but the pregnancy had been frozen by the curse. I knew there'd be no baby. Gold didn't know that, of course, and he made a deal for the child, thinking he could buy it from her and sell it to me.
"I didn't say anything. In that moment though I felt certain I was going to be living in as much hell as the next citizen. I hadn't counted on that." Regina's tone turned self-derisive.
"If no one could enter, or leave, how did Henry come here?" Emma ventured quietly when the silence went on too long, that Regina might not tell the rest of the story.
"I have no idea," Regina admitted plainly. "It was years later. I began to lose track of time myself with everything and everyone remaining so unchanged." Regina's fingertips traced Henry's jaw. "Then, suddenly, one day Gold called me. A baby had come to the hospital. Adoption papers were with him, everything signed and sealed, except for the adopting parent's name."
"What did Whale say?"
"He didn't say anything. He was little better than an automaton at that point. He said a woman had given up the baby, registered through an adoption agency, and a man on a motorcycle had delivered him to Storybrooke Hospital."
Emma's brow furrowed. "A man on a motorcycle?" Her eyes widened. "August!" she blurted. "He must have found out I'd gotten pregnant and arranged for the baby to come to Storybrooke, figuring he would eventually draw me here. That bastard," Emma muttered under her breath.
"August?" Regina puzzled.
"Pinocchio," Emma translated sarcastically. "He of the long, lying ass nose."
"Oh." Regina blinked, no doubt surprised at Emma's profanity.
"Remind me to share a drink with you to commiserate our shared fate to be manipulated for ridiculous shit, 'k?" Regina's brow knitted together in consternation. "Yeah, like you and I will ever share a drink again, huh?"
"Miss Swan — Emma," Regina started again. "Emma, you're safe from me forever."
"Really?" Emma lifted a brow. "Why? I'm still the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. The fated White Knight that broke your badass curse."
Regina shook her head and suddenly cupped Emma's cheek. "You're my son's mother."
Emma smiled and returned the gesture. "I'll never be able to thank you enough for bringing Henry into your home, and your heart, Regina. Never.
"And you know, aside from the curse stuff, he's grown up with just the kind of person I'd hoped he would. Someone who loves him and treats him like her whole world."
"I love him more than anything," Regina said. "I'd do anything for him," she said. "I wish he believed that."
"I believe you'd take your own arm and give it to him if you thought it would help."
Regina stared at Emma. After a moment, she sat upright slowly and spoke. "Miss Swan, I do believe I was right not to lump you in with the two idiots."
"Idiots? What? Why?"
"You just gave me an idea to save Henry." She took Emma's hand. "Time for our magic again."
"Wha…what are you going to do?"
"Make him a new heart."
Emma's brow knit. "You can do that?"
"I'm going to try."
Emma nodded. "All right. Tell me what to do?"
"I need your heart."
"What?" Emma stopped Regina's hand on her chest.
"You're his birth mother, I'm going to make a copy of the genetic code."
"A magical heart transplant." Emma caught on quickly.
"Similar, but I'm not going to take out your heart."
"Apparently can't be done anyway." Regina looked at Emma querulously. "One of the shitty things your mother tried to do to me in the Enchanted Forest," Emma explained.
"I see." Regina held her hand near Emma's chest and closed her eyes. Emma felt a tingle like a slender fingertip was stroking the muscle, making it jump. She gasped and closed her eyes, then there was a small amount of pressure before it released.
When she opened her eyes there was a small gold mass which looked like a perfect human heart except it gave off a pulsing glow cupped gingerly in Regina's palm.
Emma reached in awe toward the muscle; Regina started to pull it back, only to stop and let Emma's hand cup both the heart and her hand.
Watching their hands, too afraid to see anything other than perfect conviction in those dark brown eyes, Emma only felt a tingle when she saw their joined hands with precious cargo pass through the surface of Henry's flannel shirt. Then Regina's hand was suddenly moving away and grasped her wrist, pulling back.
A flush of magic suffused Henry's body, flowing outward from the point where their hands retreated. "Regi…"
Henry's chest abruptly rose and fell and arms and legs jerked.
Then his eyes blinked open and she lost sight of him through the tears flowing from her own eyes. "Mom." His voice sounded tired.
"You're OK, Henry. I'm here." Regina's voice was cracking, but Emma was sure she was the only one who noticed. "So is Emma."
Emma wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and gave Henry a watery smile. "Kid…hey."
"I'm sorry, Mom," Henry said, his gaze riveting to Regina's. "You were right."
Regina's fingers brushed at the locks of his hair drifting across his forehead. "I don't care about that. I love you." She brushed her lips where her fingers had just been. "Now, Emma and I are going to take you home."
Henry's head lolled toward Emma. He was definitely going to need some recovery time. "The final battle for magic?"
"All over, kid, but the celebrating." He gave her a sloppy smile. She touched her fingers to his shoulder. "You rest. We'll get you a burger at Granny's, 'k?"
He nodded and closed his eyes.
Emma reached her other hand to rest it on his stomach where it met Regina's. Lifting her head, she met Regina's gaze and gave her a smile.
"So, Regina, how's it feel to be the hero?"
"Miss Swan, I hope you don't plan to tell anyone about this."
"Why the hell not? You made our kid a new heart! That was brilliant."
Regina stood and suddenly looked imperious and forbidding. "I have a reputation."
"You haven't got any badass rep left with me, Regina Mills."
"I'll thank you not to tell your mother and father that."
Emma lifted a brow. "You're really gonna let them continue to think you're evil?"
"I don't need to prove myself to anyone," Regina replied.
Emma shook her head. "Except him." She nodded toward their sleeping son.
"Except Henry," Regina admitted.
Emma stood, Regina took a step back, eyeing Emma suspiciously. "You deserve a hug."
"Would you settle for a handshake?"
Emma laughed. "What the hell." When she reached forward with her outstretched hand and grasped Regina's, she pulled quickly enveloping the brunette in a firm hug despite protests. Vocal anyway. The woman's body abruptly stopped resisting and curves warmed and melded together. "I know you, Regina. Don't forget that."
"Perhaps you do, Emma." Then Emma felt warm breath on the junction of her throat and shoulder. "Perhaps you do."