Every little thing
Disclaimer: OUAT is not mine.
Emma glanced over Henry's head to send a 'WTF?' look at the others as they trekked out of the woods, all was quiet except for the crunching footsteps of the person following behind them. She shrugged at David and Neal with wide eyes, unable to decide if she was just freaked out or legitimately afraid for her life.
Regina was following them ten steps behind. No words. No death threats or spells. Just following.
Henry was fairly oblivious but the tense silence was driving Emma mad, waiting for Regina to make a move and attack them if she was going to. Unable to take it any longer, she stopped in her tracks and whirled around to face their would-be stalker.
"Regina! Why are you following us?" Emma blurted out, holding her arms out from her sides.
Regina regarded her stonily and gestured in the same direction they were walking. "I'm going to my car."
Ah, of course. Dammit. Emma kicked herself, remembering that they'd parked in the clearing next to a familiar black Mercedes.
To cover herself, Emma tried being extra obnoxious. "Can't you just magic yourself home or something?"
Regina rolled her eyes. "Then my car would still be in the woods. Not to mention the fact that I don't use magic for every - little - thing."
With each of the three words Regina snapped her fingers: paper crowns appeared on David's head, a cupcake dropped into Henry's palm, and a red long-stem rose appeared in Emma's hand pricking her fingers.
"What else can you do, Mom?" said Henry. He was still taken in by the sight of magic, though wary of it. Seeing his mother do magic was still an interesting novelty, no matter how he tried to deny it.
"I don't know, Henry." Regina wearily shook her head, not in the mood for performing any more parlor tricks. The magic gifts disappeared as quickly as they'd come.
"But you're powerful aren't you. Why can't you do good magic?"
"That's not who I am." Regina said and stepped past the group to overtake them.
"You're weak," said Emma in a hard voice.
Regina turned to face her angrily. "Excuse me?"
"You're still gonna be the person they wanted you to be - the one they made you - Gold and Cora?" said Emma.
"Don't you dare say her name to me," Regina ground out furiously. "She's dead because of your hypocrite mother. You ask me why I'm not good... how can I be when I have no-one? My mother was the only one on my side."
Emma shook her head with a rueful smile. "She wasn't on your side, Regina. You know she had her own agenda. She used you."
"I don't care!" said Regina, eyes flashing with pain.
"You just keep making the same mistakes over and over don't you? Thinking you can have everything. Thinking you still deserve to receive love when you're causing pain and suffering all the time. You risk what is really important for stupid stuff that doesn't matter - like revenge. You had a real chance here, Regina, and you fell back into your old self again."
"You pushed me towards her!" cried Regina. "No-one believed me. You didn't believe me. What was I supposed to do. What was the use of changing if everyone was just going to treat me the same? Nobody believed that I could change... But I could've done it. I could've borne it all if anyone - if you had just trusted me- "
"Why me?" said Emma, confused. "Why does it matter what I think of you? You should've changed for yourself. Or for Henry, at least."
Regina glanced at Neal and David, who were watching silently, and closed her eyes in self-conscious frustration. "Because you're the only one who didn't know me before."
"You thought I would give you a second chance? After you tried to kill me. After what you did to your son. Our son?!"
"At least I don't let him run off to play with dynamite in the woods," snarked Regina, hating being reminded of that.
Emma glared at her. "What are you talking about, he used to run around by himself all the time last year when he was in your care."
"Yes and it used to worry me to death," said Regina with genuine emotion.
Emma sighed, now that she knew what that felt like. "Ok. We can debate who's the crappiest parent later."
Regina ignored her and turned to Henry.
"I'm sorry for everything, Henry. I -" she stopped short of saying what he wouldn't believe anyway. Regina said only one more thing softly before turning to leave. "Goodbye, sweetheart."
Emma caught what was unsaid and the amount of regret and pain in Regina's voice alarmed her. "Regina. What are you doing..."
"She's not coming back," realised David. "Emma, Mary Margaret said the vault was already packed up."
Emma called after Regina's retreating back. "You can't go! You can't leave Storybrooke."
"Actually she can," said David. "Regina wasn't cursed. She can cross the town line."
Emma groaned inwardly, imagining Regina trying to start a new life without her magical or political power to back her up in Hawaii, or Boston, or New York or wherever. She'd pick a fight with the first thug who dared to look at her and probably get herself shot.
Emma jogged a few steps to catch up. "Regina. You're not going anywhere."
Regina was adamant and barely broke stride. "Neither am I staying here like this."
Emma grabbed her arm to stop her. "Tell me what you want. What will make you stay? You want your son back? You can't have him, not after what you've done. But you can be a part of his life if you step up..."
Regina refused eye contact, focusing on something distant. "He's not my son. He's yours."
"I know you don't believe that."
"I've got nothing left."
Emma let out a hesitant huff at her defeatist attitude. "I can't believe I'm about to say this so you better listen cos I'm not saying it again...
"When I was a kid all I wanted was someone to adopt me. I couldn't have cared less if you were the Evil Queen, if you had've come for me I would've thanked you for it. Even if you ignored or abused me, I'd have figured it was just what I got. But when it came to my own kid..." Emma shook her head firmly. "No. I wanted the best for him. I gave him up so he could go to someone good, someone who could do a better job raising him than an 18 year old screw-up with nothing and no-one to her name... but I always knew there was a chance he wouldn't get what I wanted. When I first came to Storybrooke I couldn't believe my luck - that my kid was healthy, beautiful, smart - that he'd actually ended up in the biggest house on the best street in the suburbs. A safe place. With a Mom who was terrified that he'd been missing for only a few hours...
"Where is she, Regina? Where's that Mom now?" Emma tilted her head to try to catch Regina's eye.
"She never really existed," said Regina quietly.
"She did to me," said Henry, now standing at her side. "You're still my Mom. I just wish you could stop hurting people... you make me afraid of you."
Regina started to hyperventilate and dropped her face into her hands. Her breath came in short shaky gasps.
Emma hid her sympathy, but it was hard to maintain harshness in the face of such a piteous sight. This was a woman who had lost everything, who had no hope, and was still grieving her mother (as terrible as she'd been). The sobbing mess in front of her was a far cry from the woman who'd barreled through life with a murderous vendetta against Snow White.
Emma gestured towards the car and mouthed silently to David and Neal who were still waiting around warily. "Go. We'll catch up later."
David sent her a warning look and mouthed back. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, Dad," Emma said silently, impatiently rolling her eyes at the coddling. "Go."
Before they complied David sent her a suspicious look, annoyed that his daughter would resort to dropping the D-word in that way when she never used the title any other time.
Once they were gone, Emma gently pulled the other woman's hands away from her eyes. "Regina?"
Regina resisted her. "No, don't. I can't do this."
"Yes you can. You have to. You've got a kid to help me raise and when you're a parent you can't pull this kinda act... tantrums, rebellions, and running away are the child's domain. Not yours."
Regina's eyes snapped up at her in supreme annoyance. "I know that. And I'm not throwing a tantrum."
Emma smirked. "Good. Cos I bet you can throw a really good one. Probly flatten the town with your wrath."
"You are the most irritating person I've ever known."
"Maybe," said Emma, turning serious again. "But I'm also your very last chance. I mean it. Don't spurn this offer again."
Regina fidgeted uncomfortably, she hadn't heard the price of the bargain yet. "What do you want for it."
Emma furrowed her brow. "Nothing. I just want Henry to have the Mom he deserves. The kind of mother you and I would wish for him to have. But since both of us are screw-ups we're probably gonna have to work together here..."
"Please, Mom?" Henry gave her his lopsided smile, full of pleading hope.
"I won't leave," Regina whispered. She brushed her son's cheek with the back of her hand.
"Great!" said Emma cheerily. "Come on, you're driving."
"Where?" Regina frowned.
"Home." Emma shrugged. "Even deadbeats get supervised time with their kids you know. We're gonna start off small until you and I earn some trust from each other. Then we'll see about anything else... Besides, I'm starving and you gotta cook this kid something healthy, he's getting malnourished. And he hasn't done a scrap of homework in weeks. He won't do anything I tell him."
"Hey!" said Henry, grumpy that she'd ratted him out.
"Emma..." Regina growled her name and pinned a warning gaze on her.
"Hey, I'll get there," said Emma with exaggerated defensiveness. "One of us should really be able to cook though, and since I can't..."
"You're 28. You can't cook anything except tacos yet?" Regina tsked. "I'm not doing all the cooking for the rest of my life. You are going to learn, like I had to."
"Well, you had a whole lot of spare time on your hands didn't you … and you didn't grow up with McDonald's around every corner."
"Thankfully that fine establishment wasn't specified in the curse so Storybrooke doesn't have one."
"Wow. Way to punish the untold millions, Regina... an existence without junk food? At least you didn't take away all the chocolate I spose. That'd be the worst curse imaginable."
Regina gritted her teeth. "Alright, enough! Get in the car, you two. Before I change my mind."
When Regina started towards the car, Emma gave Henry a wink and a bro-fist bump before they followed after her.
Emma grinned to herself, happy with her success in derailing Regina's plans to leave by appealing to the mother in her. She always did give up right at the moment she was most likely to receive help.
It was only a small thing, but it was a start.