This story started from a one shot idea and I decided to make it a full story, I'm posting the first two chapters and waiting to see if you guys like it, and if you do then I'll continue it :) The first chapter is very heavy on Regalbeliever (not in a good way I'm afraid, I apologize to all the regalbeliever fans out there, it will get better I promise haha)

A big thank you to my beta again ofc x

TRIGGER WARNING: suicide thoughts


Today was Wednesday and as almost everyday for now months, Henry came home slamming the front door shut and running directly to his room, without even giving a glance to his mother.

Regina sighed and as usual, picked up his backpack and made her way up to his room to put it in front of his bedroom door and ask him to do his homework, and as usual Henry would wait for her to be gone and open his door to take his backpack and then close it back until supper.

She didn't know what to do anymore, she had tried everything. Sessions with Archie, making his favorite dessert everyday, being softer than usual, trying to be more affectionate… Nothing worked. Gone were the times when he would wait for her to tuck him in, tell him a bedtime-story and wait for her goodnight kiss to tell her he loved her. Gone were the times when he would come home and hug her, telling her about his day at school and asking her about her day.

Now Henry barely talked to her, barely greeted her with a 'morning' and 'bye' when he would leave for school. Regina couldn't even remember the last time he had hugged her or let her hug him, even less the last time he had told her he loved her.

Today was no different, except that Regina would try to talk to him tonight

David was at work, and as usual he had more paperwork to fill in than crimes to solve. Not that he was complaining about Storybrooke getting close to no crimes at all, but his life could use some more excitement, more action, because the only action he was getting right now was the endless paperwork he had to fill otherwise he was sure the Mayor would actually cut his head off this time.

Infuriating woman. She was always cold to him and barely giving him any more than a glance every time he would drop his paperwork at her office. Well that was, when she thought he was actually not looking. He had caught her a few times checking him out and/or stealing glances at him at Granny's. He had even thought he might have a chance and, one night, had taken his courage in both hands and had asked her out. She had said no, but when David had looked into her eyes, he had seen that she was debating wether to say yes or no, so he decided to give her some time and not give up on his chance and try again another day.

That happened two months ago exactly, the night before Henry ran away to find his birthmother, Emma Swan. When he had seen Regina's name appearing on his phone that night, he had actually thought she had changed her mind and was calling to take him up on his invitation. But when he picked the phone up, it was a shaking voice full of tears that was trying to tell him that Henry had gone missing and that he needed to find him.

That night had been a shaking night, to say the least. It was actually one of the first times that David could see beyond the cold and lonely Mayor, that night he saw Regina, a frightened mother desperate to find her little boy and never let him go again. She kept repeating that all of this was her fault, that she was a terrible mother and that it was the reason Henry had left, but David was quick to tell her how wrong she was. That night, Regina let David take her in his arms to soothe her fears. He had come back to the mansion to tell her there was nothing else he could do for now, except wait with her for Henry to come back home on his own.

When Henry did come back, accompanied by his (apparently) birthmother, David made sure that everything was okay with Regina and left.

They never spoke about that hug ever again.

David sighed and rubbed his temples. Since his now partner Deputy Emma Swan took the day off, he would probably be there until 11pm to finish all the paperwork he had to do for tomorrow. Sleep be damned.

"Henry please come down dinner is ready!" Regina shouted from the kitchen, hoping henry would actually come down for dinner this time. Yesterday had been a difficult day for them, neither one of them had spoken a word to the other, Henry being mad at his mother as usual, and Regina not knowing what to say to him. He hadn't even come downstairs for dinner when Regina had called him the night before, she found out later that he had actually already eaten with his so-called birthmother.

She was glad to see that this time, he actually decided to greet her with his presence and eat dinner with her.

The most part of the dinner had been quiet, awfully so. Regina had tried to exchange a few words with him, but only managed to get 'yes', 'no' and 'hmh' as answers.

As much as she tried to be calm about it, Regina started to be tired of his behavior towards her.

"Alright Henry, what is going on with you? I'm doing everything I can to try to make things better between us but you won't make the slightest of efforts!" she said throwing her hands in the air. She was trying really hard not to get mad, and not doing a very god job at it.

Henry jumped slightly from his seat, surprised at his mother's sudden change of mood. However the surprise on his face got quickly replaced by anger.

"Maybe it's because I don't want things to get better, that's the thing!"

"But why Henry?! Why can't you try to be at least civilized with me again?!"

"Can't you see? It's you! You are the problem!"

"What have I ever done to you Henry?! What did I do wrong? Tell me!" At this point Regina and Henry were both screaming at each other

"You adopted me, here's what you did wrong! You try to tell me that you saved me from some foster care parents but you didn't, because without you I would be with both my REAL mother and my dad! You cursed my family and friends! Do you know how many times I wished you were not my mom?" Henry shouted and heard Regina gasping softly. Her face fell and her anger was gone as soon as it had come.

"I- but…" Regina tried but couldn't find her words. She swallowed and continued. "Henry, I've always done what I thought was best for you, I've always tried to make you happy…" Regina started slowly, with sadness in her voice. "I do not know what happened during the last months that made yo- us like this but… we were still fine a year ago, remember your 10th birthday?" she asked with a little smile, "We celebrated it at Granny's together with some of your… friends -as you like to call them, you were happy weren't you?"

"Yes, I was happy at that moment, but only because I was with some of my friends and even my family, certainly not because of you. You know what? Do you know what I wished for my 10th birthday? I wished you were gone! No one would miss you, because you're evil and no one loves you, not even me, no one. At least the town could be free of you and be happy again, you're just a burden to everyone. And then I could be with my real mom, the one who truly loves me and who I truly love."

When Henry stopped talking, he was pretty amazed with what he saw on Regina's face: pure heartbreak. He almost started to feel sorry for what he had said when he saw a tear escape one of her eyes, but he quickly reminded himself that she was the Evil Queen, nothing more. She was just pretending anyway.

Regina was just staring at him for a moment, her mouth slightly open in shock and her eyes full of unshed tears. She tried to recompose herself and asked:

"Is that… Is that really what you want?" She hated that her voice was trembling in front of him but she just couldn't control it at that moment.

"Want what?" Henry asked archly.

"F-for me to be… gone? Do you really want that?" She had troubles voicing it because yes, she was utterly and completely heartbroken. She had tears in her eyes and some of them managed to make their way down her cheeks but she didn't even notice them.

Henry was hesitating. His mother (no, she wasn't his mother, he had to remind himself) was crying in front of him and didn't even bother to hide it. The woman he knew would never ever show him any form of weakness, and rarely any strong emotions. But right now, the woman he was seeing was a far cry from the Evil Queen he had read about.

Right when he was about to answer, his gaze focused on his storybook on the kitchen table, and he suddenly reminded himself that yes, that woman was the Evil Queen, nothing more, never.

"Yes," he said looking her straight in the eyes "all you do is lie and pretend. I don't care about what happens to you, I just want you gone! Please go away, and never come back." That was it for Regina, her decision was made. She would do anything for her little prince, she loved him so very much, even if he didn't see it. So if he wanted her gone, that was exactly what she was gonna do: be gone, and never come back.

She lowered her eyes, and then looked back into his eyes with a sad smile.

"Alright," she said, whipping some of her tears away. "If this is really what you truly want, I will go away Henry."

"Good. Because it is. I called Emma, I'm gonna spend the night at the loft with her, she'll be there in a few minutes." Henry said and got up to leave but Regina took his hand and looked up at him.

"Wait… I… I made your favorite dessert, apple sauce," She tried with a smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "You used to beg me to do it when you were younger, don't you want some? If you don't wanna eat it now, you can take it to Emma's…" She looked at him, hoping that he would at least take this from her, but it was in vain.

"No, I have my stuff to take with me for tomorrow to prepare, and you probably poisoned it anyway." he ran upstairs then, not even glancing back at his mother who sighed in defeat

Emma came ten minutes later, she hadn't even parked her yellow bug yet that Henry was already running downstairs towards the front door.

"Henry wait-" Regina started and Henry paused, his hand on the doorknob. "Can you… would you mind if I hugged you goodbye?" she asked with a small and sad smile.

"Uh… sorry I really gotta go, my mom's waiting. I'll see you tomorrow, bye." Henry answered and got out of the house, closing the door behind him, letting Regina stand in front of the door, alone.

Only then did Regina let the sob that was threatening to escape out, putting her head on her hands and letting the tears run. She gave herself a few minutes, then tried to recompose herself as much as she could and went in her office. She took some paper and a pen from her desk, and started to write. When she was done, she took her car keys and left, leaving everything behind her except her phone.

10:12pm. It was 10:12pm and David was still at the station doing the damned paperwork. He sighed and threw his pen on the desk. Paperwork be damned, he'll finish it sometime tomorrow. Regina will kill him, but he was so tired… and screw it, let her yell at me, he thought. She was even more damn sexy when she was angry, not that he would ever tell her, but he often found himself not sending her the paperwork on time just so she would come to the station and scream at him just as she loved to, and every time David would need to shut his desire to pine her against the wall and kiss her anger away. He couldn't explain it, but he had this need to kiss that infuriating woman every time he saw her.

David got up and smiled to himself, heading to the door and closing it behind him, leaving his phone on the desk and not hearing it ring.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up…. damn it!" Regina said slamming her fist on the nearest tree by anger before she hung up. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She didn't know what to do, and she didn't know if she was doing a terrible mistake or not. She needed help, so she called the first person that came into her mind. Regina dialed David's number once again and found his voice mailbox again, but this time instead of hanging up, she decided to leave a message.

"David it-it's me, Regina… I… I think I'm doing a terrible mistake a-and I-I think I need help. Please call me b-back." She didn't know when she had started to cry, but it didn't matter now.

She waited for ten minutes her phone in hands for David to call back, but he never did. She started to get even more nervous, maybe he had listened to her voice mail but hadn't called back on purpose? It wasn't as if she meant anything to him… at least not anymore.

She chuckled bitterly to herself. He will remember eventually when the curse break, but she won't be here anymore for him to break her heart. Well, maybe not. She didn't know what to do, so she took the barbiturates she had taken with her in her hands and started to walk deeper in the cold and dark forest.

She didn't know where she was going, the full moon was lighting up a path but she had no clue where she was actually going. She was just walking to try to clear her head and sort things out. That's when she spot it: a white feather resting on a branch on the nearest tree. She stopped and smiled to herself when she saw it. Henry and her used to try and find the most beautiful ones to collect them and put them on a book. 4 years old Henry used to think that if he got enough feathers, a tiny bird would eventually be born with the colors of all the feathers they had found.

Well that was until Henry threw the book away by anger a few months ago. That was the first time he had shouted at her face that she wasn't his mother. Regina's smile faltered. This was a sign, a sign that she should do what she had come to do in the first place: free Henry of her and give him his real family back.

Tears started to pool in her eyes again and her hands were shaking as she tried to open to tube full of barbiturates. She was so so cold, she hadn't even thought about bringing her gloves with her, what was the point anyway? She was pulling at the lid so hard to open it that when she finally managed to do it, the whole tube fell on the ground, a couple of steps from her.

She sigh to herself, whipped a few tears away from her eyes so she could see where she was going, and started to walk to get the pills from the ground. However the cold and dark forest was also very slippery because of the melted snow that had sticked to the forest ground. Regina wasn't paying much attention and she slipped, falling on the ground, her head banging into the tree in the process. Then everything turned black.

David had a weird feeling. He couldn't explain why, but he felt like something was wrong. He tried to reach for his phone in his pocket but realized it was not there, he had forgotten it.

He was almost home by now, just a couple of minutes left to drive. He could leave his phone at the station, he didn't need it. It wasn't as if something would happen during those few hours of sleep he would get before going back to work.

But something inside of him told him to turn around and go back.

"Damn it." David said and turned around with his car to go back to the station. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

Ten minutes later David arrived at the station, unlocked the door and spotted his phone on the desk. He took it and saw 2 missed calls from the Mayor, and one voice mail from her. David anxiously pressed play and his heart stopped when he heard Regina's voice.

"David it-it's me, Regina… I… I think I'm doing a terrible mistake a-and I-I think I need help. Please call me b-back."

"Oh god…" David muttered to himself, he checked the time of the voicemail: 10:13pm. That was 25 minutes ago, and a lot could happen in 25 minutes. He dialed Regina's phone and waited anxiously for her to answer.

"Pick up Regina, please pick up and be ok…" but David ended up on her voice mailbox too.

"Regina it's David I only just got your message please call me back and tell me if you're okay. Whatever you were about to do, do not do it okay? Just hang on and I'll come and get you."

David threw his phone back on the desk and turned his computer on really fast, and once it was turned it he started to look for Regina's phone's last GPS signal. However it was taking ages, you'd think that in a town as small as Storybooke, those kind of things would take less time.

David cursed his computer and finally, after 5 long minutes, her phone got located in the middle of the forest.

"What the hell are you doing in the forest Regina?" David quickly sent her GPS data to his phone and ran to his car.

He would find her if it was the last thing he did.