Disclaimer: The characters are not my intellectual property, I do not own them, nor am I affiliated with ABC Network. This story is just for fun.


It was a day, just like any other day. The sun rose in east and set in the west. The birds sang, the crickets chirped. It was like every other day, until it wasn't.

Regina's eyes opened, as if they were spring loaded. Something felt off, she couldn't shake the horrible feeling in her stomach. She got out of bed still, brushed her teeth, got dressed. She went into Henry's room to wake him up, as she did every morning at 6:15 a.m. so he could get ready for school.

"Henry," she said softly. "It's time to get up."

There was no answer.

"Henry, get up, we don't have time for this."

Still, nothing.

So, Regina inched toward the bed, her heart racing. All the bad things that could have happened went flying through her head, some logical, some very far-fetched. She placed her hand on Henry's back and quickly pulled the blanket off of what she expected to be a corpse.

"Mom," Henry, exclaimed.

Regina's heart skipped a beat as she sighed in relief.

"Time to wake up Henry, we don't want to be late."

"5 more minutes," Henry begged.

"Ok, but if you're not downstairs, showered and ready to go by the time breakfast is ready…" her voice trailed off and as soon as she was not in earshot anymore, Henry jumped out of bed.

"That was close," he thought to himself as he changed out of the clothes he had been wearing the day before.

Henry picked up his cell phone and texted Emma "Got home just in time, see you tonight." Then he hopped in the shower.

Regina stood in the kitchen over a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice for Henry while at the other end of the table, sat her breakfast. Black coffee. She heard a scuffle upstairs and was about to dismiss it when she heard Henry scream. Her motherly instincts kicked in and she ran upstairs, her heart once again, pounding.

When she got upstairs, there was nothing out of the ordinary that she could see. Just a flyer floating in the wind, as if it was taunting her. "Gold's Pawn Shop: Let's Make A Deal", is what it said.

"What a creep," she thought as she tossed it aside and headed towards the bathroom.

"Henry," she yelled, as she pounded on the bathroom door. There was no answer.

Regina rushed downstairs, grabbed her skeleton key ring, and unlocked the bathroom door. Henry was gone. The cold autumn wind made the curtains dance, it had to of been 30 below in there. She looked out the bathroom window and it was dark. Glancing down at her watch, she realized it was not working. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, something was wrong. Regina rushed to the living room and looked at the grandfather clock, it was old but reliable, and it too had stopped. It was pitch black, where had the day gone.


Henry's eyes opened, he felt something cold on his forehead and realized it was blood. He couldn't remember how he got there or why he was bleeding.

"Hello Henry," he turned around and saw a figure in the corner of the room, but he couldn't make out a face.

"Who, who are you?" Henry replied.

"I think you know," said the figure as he stepped into the light. Henry was face to face with himself. It looked like him at least, but different. This other boys' hair was a shade darker and he had a scar running from his right eyebrow diagonally to the bottom of his chin on the left. He looked worn, sad.

"What do you want?" Henry asked.

"What every child wants," he replied "A mother."


The year was 2001, the year of WikiPedia and the iPod. It was the birth of a new technological age. Emma laid on the hospital bed, writhing in pain.

She grabbed the doctor's shirt and screamed "When are the meds going to kick it?" as the sweat dripped down her forehead.

The doctor replied "Lie back and make yourself comfortable, this could take a while," and just as he said that, the nurse shouted "Doctor, I can see the head!"

He was surprised, "Push!" he exclaimed.

Emma pushed with all of her might, with everything in her, and finally after pushing for five minutes, she felt relief.

"It's a boy", the doctor said with a smile on his face "would you like to see him?"

Emma began to look over and stopped herself, "No doctor, I can't look at him, he deserves better than me."

The doctor quickly rushed out, leaving Emma crying in the hospital bed: handcuffed and alone.


Regina had been waiting for a child, patiently. Her name had been on the list for what seemed like an eternity, though; almost everything is an eternity in her own personal hell she built. It was not as fulfilling as she had hoped. Though she kept Snow and Charming apart, she felt like something was missing. She felt alone. She missed her dad, she missed the mirror, and she even missed her mother. Most of all though she missed magic, maybe a potion could make her forget. She felt jealous and angry, though everyone lost who they loved, they didn't know it. She was beginning to feel like she had been the only one really cursed.

The year was 2001, the year of WikiPedia and the iPod. It was the year Regina's life would change forever. When she held her baby boy in her arms, the pain melted away. Even though this boy wasn't a product of her loins, he was perfect. Henry was the solution to all her problems.

Henry cried and cried, all night, it was unbearable. Regina picked him up, laid him down, fed him, burped him, and changed his diapers but he still kept crying.

Dr. Whale said that he just needed a little love, but Regina didn't think so. She told Dr. Whale to run every test known to man, that Henry was sick.

"Those tests are dangerous Madam Mayor. The risks outweigh the benefits usually. It could do a lot of damage. If you want to know if there's something wrong. You'd have to find out from his mother," he said.

"I'm his mother! It was a closed adoption, I can't get those records," Regina replied quickly.

"I didn't mean to offend you madam mayor, I just meant that maybe if you knew his genealogy you would have a better idea what could be ailing him. I can give you a prescription, 500 milligrams of love, daily. He's a newborn; show him that you're not afraid to be a mother. Read him a bedtime story that sometimes helps."

Regina stormed out of the hospital, Henry still crying in her arms. When she got home, she placed his car seat on the table and pulled out her cell phone, dialing Sidney Glass. If anyone could get the truth, it was him.

"Sidney, I need you to look up birth records for my son, Henry. The agency I adopted him from was in Boston, Massachusetts."

"Okay, I'll let you know when I find something."

She picked up Henry and held him in her arms.

"Please Henry, give me a chance. I promise I will always protect you. I will always love you. Just give me a chance."

Just as Henry stopped crying, the phone rang, it was Sidney.

"I have the information you wanted, I'm faxing it now."

The fax machine started to buzz and the paper shot out. She looked at the paper, and then looked at Henry. He smiled and cooed at her, making her blackened heart a little less dark. Regina picked up the paper and without looking at it, put it in the shredder.

"I'm your mother now."