A/N: This story is based of a Tumblr Prompt and contains Established Swan Queen and mentions of Teen Pregnancy.
Anonymous Prompt: Henry (16) is going to be a dad and he decides to tell his family (swan-mills and charming). Emma gets furious because she knows what it is be a teen and pregnant. They start to argue and some abandonment issues are thrown in the air.
This is what I came up with. Comments and feedback are welcome.
Such a usually relaxing activity as skipping a stone across the lake could not alleviate the fury Emma Swan felt at her son's carelessness. It was dark, nearly ten o'clock at night, but not as dark as her mood. She had never been so disappointed with Henry before and that alone caused her great pain in addition to the myriad of fearful, triggering emotions swirling inside of her.
"How could you have been so stupid?" She yelled at Henry.
"Emma!" Regina chastised from her quiet spot on the couch, her stunned expression faltering to implore a level head from her blonde wife. "Let's all…" the brunette stood and started with soothing hand gestures in the air, while looking at David and Mary Margaret sitting on the opposite sofa in the Swan-Mills' living room, "…calm down. A little self control would…"
"Regina." With a hand on her hip and a weary hand placed to her forehead, Emma shut her eyes tightly and through gritted teeth said, "Our 16 year old son just told us he got his girlfriend pregnant! I think we've passed calm and are on our way to freaking the fuck out!"
"Ma. I know what I did. It just happened. We got swept up and… I… we weren't thinking, and then it was over and…" Henry's words faded as his blonde mother's head continued to shake in either disappointment, denial or both. He was surprised because he thought he would get this kind of reaction from Regina instead, but his brunette mom was trying to be the voice of reason.
"Weren't thinking?"
"Ma…"
Emma stepped forward and in upset, ranted on, "Henry! We've talked about this. Condoms, safe sex. I would have given you an entire box!" Henry pursed his lips and looked away and she continued to reprimand him. "Do you have any idea what you've done to that girl?"
"Emma! That is enough," Regina boomed and then immediately stepped forward in between her wife and son, placing her hands supportively on Emma's shoulders and searching out her eyes holding their green gaze when she found them. Softly, and doing her best to instill a sense of composure in the woman she loved, Regina encouraged. "We'll get through this, Emma, and deal with this the way we've dealt with everything else." Reaching behind her, Regina grabbed Henry's hand while sparing a look at the Charmings on the couch. "Together. As a family."
Emma's sharp intake of breath was of no use to the memories rushing back at her of being an unmarried, pregnant teenager. The judging looks from people, or worse, the looks of pity and she could not help but think of Paige all of a sudden.
She had known Henry had strong feelings for Paige, hell, maybe even loved her, which seemed like such an unfair thing to happen to a kid, who was even younger than she had been when she became pregnant. As if cued by her thoughts Henry spoke up.
"I love her, Ma."
She had thought Neal had loved her too. Henry looked so contrite and worried, that she wished she could swoop him into her arms and hug all the panic out of him. She spied her parents studying them, her mother with soft sympathetic eyes and her dad with a look of steady resolve. She knew they would all be there for each other.
Next, she tilted a glance at Regina, who offered her usual beautiful closed lip smile, coaxing her to come around and to stop ranting at their son for it would do no good now. What was done was done and they needed to come together and face this situation together.
Emma, however, wasn't ready yet. She was hit with too much too fast and the memories, the anxiety, the terror came back to haunt her.
Shrugging herself from Regina's hold, she barged out of the living room, snapped her coat up on her way out and slammed the front door closed behind her.
"Here you are." Emma turned at the familiar voice and found her wife with her hands tucked into her black trench coat pockets, seeming to have been standing there observing her for at least a minute. "I have been poofing all over town looking for you."
The blonde imagined that after magically transporting herself all around Storybrooke, Regina would be a little exhausted and felt a bit guilty. "Sorry. I just needed some time to think, babe, that's all."
"Yes, I know, dear." The brunette slowly strolled closer with a relaxed gait toward her and when she was finally standing in front of Emma, Regina's hands left her pockets and they cupped Emma's cheeks, bringing her near. "I've gotten to know you even more so after a few years of marriage. What I am surprised at is that out of the two of us, you are the cooler mom…" The blonde's nicely shaped eyebrows inched further up her forehead at that admission. "… and if you tell anyone I said that, I'll deny it." At a crack of a smile, Regina thought it safe to continue. "Yet you tore out of there like a bat out of Hell, Emma, and ironically, you are the only one out of all of us who can probably offer understanding to these two adolescents the most, having been faced with having a baby so young yourself."
Emma bristled, bent at the hip and picked up another flat, yet smooth surfaced rock, sending it effortlessly, bouncing and skating along the surface of the water.
"Darling, Paige is not you. And Henry is not his father."
"They're too young!"
"Yes, I agree."
"They don't know what they are in for."
"So we'll help them."
"I just wish... Damn it, I just wish he was more careful!"
"Yes, I know, but…"
"I know, I know." The blonde threw up her arms in surrender and spun toward the lake again knowing that no amount of wishing could fix this. "I can wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which gets filled first."
Regina blinked at that and replied, "Well, not how I would have put it. I was going to say, 'We can't change the past'." Emma snorted and Regina added for good measure mockingly and earning a smile from her wife, "Not without a time portal at least."
Emma's playful gleam appeared in her eyes when she looked back at Regina. "No more time portals."
"Thank goodness."
In that moment, with a tilt of the brunette's head, Emma understood what was needed for them both. She stepped into Regina's embrace and they gently swayed in the night breeze, soothing each other.
"You're handling this phenomenally well, you know. Finding out you're going to be a grandmother." Knowing Regina could be a little vain at times, Emma felt her wife cringe in her arms slightly and chuckled.
"I was honestly trying to avoid thinking about being called grandmother, thank you very much."
A joking sparkle flit across the blonde's face as she stroked her wife's back. "You're going to be a Gammy."
Regina recoiled back with a furrowed brow. "Shut up."
"What about Mimsy?" The blonde waggled her eyebrows at her and Regina raised an eyebrow in warning.
"Emma…" Emma didn't wait for the set of reproachful words that matched those flashing brown eyes to leave the woman's mouth and crushed their lips together. After Regina had circled her arms around Emma's neck and Emma had deepened the kiss, letting her wife's feel and taste alleviate her worries, they slowly separated feeling that together they could face anything the world decided to throw at them.
"I take it, you're feeling better."
"Thanks to you, babe."
At that moment, her phone went off and she discovered a worried SMS message from Henry.
HENRY: Ma, please come home. You have every right to be mad at me. I screwed up. But let's talk about this. Please.
Emma sighed and showed the message to Regina, who nodded and looked to her for direction, as if asking what she wanted to do next. She would stay right here with her for a little longer if Emma needed her to.
"I was so scared when I was pregnant with Henry, Regina. I would stay up nights and worry about this little person growing inside me. Not knowing what kind of mother I would be, never having had a mother myself. I agonized constantly over whether he was okay. Worried when he kicked, worried when he didn't kick, envisioning him being born with 12 toes." Regina's eyebrows raised at that, feeling like Emma was trying to add a little humor as her wife often did when she was talking about the seriousness of her past. "Then Neal left and being on my own, in prison, didn't help. I've read pregnancy books but that is the extent of my knowledge."
"I took care of him as an infant, Emma. I read the books too. I changed every diaper, dealt with every fever. Cleaned up every globby mess of baby food he threw around the kitchen from his high chair." Regina adored her wife's grin. "You experienced all the pre-birth stuff and I, all the post-birth stuff." Her arms wrapped around Emma's waist, "Together… I think we got this."
Emma found Regina's confident look refreshing and she thread her fingers into the mass of dark curls as she placed her lips sweetly against the brunette's, nipping them lightly in gratitude. "Thank you for finding me, babe."
"Always, darling."
The hum of a vibrating phone sounded and this time it belonged to Regina, who dug the device out of her trench coat pocket. Her eyes shot open at the screen and then she turned the rectangular object so that Emma could read the message. "We need to hurry home, Emma."
MARY MARGARET: Regina, you'd better get home quickly. Jefferson is here and he is obviously none too pleased with Henry.
"Holy crap," Emma swore and she turned to walk with Regina across the lawn. She took out her phone and typed off a message to Henry.
MA: I love you, kid. I'm coming home. It'll be okay.
"We'll leave the bug. I'll get it in the morning." Regina nodded in agreement.
"Are you ready then, dear?"
The upturned corner of Emma's lips signified that she was fine and more than ready to tackle whatever was in their future.
"With you by my side, Regina? Absolutely."
They shared a quick smile before they disappeared, individually transporting home magically at the same time. Emma in light grey smoke and Regina in purple.
