A/n: Hey everyone. Holy wow. I totally did not expect my story to be received as well as it was! Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed. It means the world to me, to know that there are people enjoying my writing :)
Disclaimers: OUAT is not mine, not the characters, not the concepts, nothing. Just these ideas for this story.
And on to chapter 2. Enjoy!
Emma grumbled as she glared at the alarm clock sitting on her bedside table, as if her evil eye would shut the alarm off. Finally, after a moment of arguing with herself, she shut off her alarm and rolled out of bed. As she stood up, she grasped her head, immediately feeling the beginning of a headache.
"Good day this is gonna be," Emma muttered and made her way into the bathroom to locate the aspirin.
As she downed three of the small white pills, she remembered that her son had school this morning.
"Henry, you up?" She called, poking her head out of the bathroom door. Not waiting for a response, she shut the door again and turned on the shower.
"Yeah I'm up," she heard Henry mumble from under his covers.
"You're a big fat liar! Get out of bed or you're going to be late," she hollered as she stepped into the shower. She closed her eyes and let the warm spray cover her, praying that it would relieve the tension in her head.
Unfortunately, 15 minutes later as she dried herself off and got dressed, Emma felt the headache return.
"Henry are you-" Emma called out irritatedly as she entered Henry's room to see him dressed and putting his books in his back pack.
"I'm ready," He replied calmly, raising an eyebrow at the disheveled state of his mother. Her head was a massive mess of wet blonde curls, her blouse was half buttoned and her pants had yet to be zipped. "Are you coming down with something mom? You don't look too good…" Henry murmured.
"I'm fine, kid. Now go get some cereal. Can't leave without breakfast," Emma murmured and sent him on his way so that she could finish getting dressed.
She pulled off her shirt, the material feeling itchy on her skin. She tossed the cotton blouse aside and reached into her dresser for a different shirt. She continued to pull out shirts until her drawer was practically empty. Every shirt she found was perfect fine, but none seemed right.
"Moooom!" Henry called fro downstairs.
"Yeah I'm coming in a sec," she called. She slumped onto the floor leaning up against the cabinet, well aware of the mess of clothing surrounding her, and her pathetic state. Blonde hair tumbling onto her shoulders wildly, sitting only in her bra and unzipped pants. But something just didn't feel right. Finally, she reached into the back of her dresser and pulled out a thin, blue, silky shirt. She pulled it on and took in the scent of it; it was so familiar, but she couldn't put a name on the smell.
She furrowed her eyebrows as a wave of pain rushed through her head. It was going to be a long day. She zipped up her dress pants, grabbed her purse and shoes and rushed down the stairs.
"Okay I'm good," she told Henry, who was sitting on the couch watching a cartoon.
"Finally," he teased, making his way to the door to grab his backpack.
"Oh shut up," Emma said, rolling her eyes, giving him a gentle shove out the door towards the car.
"Bye kid. Love you," Emma called to Henry as he climbed out of the car by the bus stop.
"Love you too, mom," Henry said with a broad smile. "Matt's mom will bring me home, so see you after work," he added.
"Yeah see you. Have a good day," she said waving as he made his way to his group of friends. He gave one last wave and ran over to the bus stop. Emma drove away, grinning at the fact that even though he was with his friends he wasn't embarrassed to wave goodbye to her.
She pulled away from the curb and drove down to the precinct.
.oOo.
"Swan!" A large man sitting at a desk called out, waving her down. He was a gruff middle aged man with a thick graying beard.
"Hey Ross," Emma said making her way over to the man called Ross. There were a group of rough looking guys sitting around the table.
"Emma, looking good," a tall muscular blonde man, sitting to the left of Ross, said with a charming grin, putting an arm around Emma. He looked to be a few years older than Emma, and while he seemed to be acting like he was hitting on Emma, the good natured teasing was always more brotherly. These men were Emma's family, second to Henry, of course.
"Get off James," Emma said rolling her eyes. Turning back to Ross she sat down on the corner of the desk.
"What do we have today, boys?" She asked smiling, puling a stack of files off the desk. She pulled off her jacket and grabbed a pen. She was ready for business.
.oOo.
"So what mountain did you hit this weekend?" James asked Emma, as they walked down the street outside the precinct. Emma wrapped her coat a little tighter around herself, shivering from the brisk fall air. Emma had been taking Henry hiking every weekend since the summer had started. Because of her job, she wasn't able to spend a lot of time with Henry during the week, especially when she was on a case, so she did her best to make it up to him by spending as much time as possible together over the weekend.
"We climbed our last mountain for Maine," Emma explained smiling at memories of Henry trying to scale the rock face, but failing miserably. She was embarrassed to say that her kid had inherited her lack of grace, rather than her athletic ability.
"I bet he enjoyed that. When are you starting New Hampshire?" James asked with a smile as they turned the corner.
"Next weekend…you're welcome to join us if you're interested. I bet Henry would love some guy time," Emma said laughing.
"Yeah I'd like that," James agreed, looking to Emma with a kind smile.
"James," Emma murmured, looking away from him.
"Yeah?" He asked raising an eyebrow.
"The guy across the street…grey jacket, jeans, baseball cap. See him?" Emma asked.
"I…" James paused, scanning the street subtly. "Got him."
"That's our guy," Emma said, slowly moving away from James.
"What do you think we should…" James began, but turned to see Emma had already taken off towards the man, who had since, started running.
"Stop!" Emma yelled. "Boston PD!" she cried out again. This only made the man run faster.
"God damnit," She muttered, picking up her pace. He turned the corner quickly, but she was faster than he. She dove for his legs and tackled him to the ground. James ran up moments later, behind her.
"What the hell, Emma?" James asked, out of breath. Emma sighed, and cuffed the man.
"He was running," she explained with a shrug. "Why were you running, man?" Emma asked angrily turning to the guy she was holding. "We know you have the drugs. We know you've been embezzling money. So why bother?" Emma spat. The man just shrugged with a cocky grin.
"I don't have time to play games. Tell us where the money is, or we're bringing you in," Emma threatened, narrowing her eyes.
"You'd bring me in either way," the man said with a shrug.
"True enough. Take him to Ross," Emma called to James, who did as he was told. Emma followed behind, hands in her pockets, frustrated and tired.
.oOo.
"Henry I'm home!" Emma called, walking into the kitchen, tossing her keys and purse on the counter.
"Hey mom," Henry called from the dining room. He was seated at the table doing math homework. He put his pencil down and pushed his books aside. "How was your day?"
"Caught a bad guy and had a grilled cheese for lunch. Pretty great. And I brought us home the best dessert for after dinner," Emma said with a grin.
"Apple turnover?" Henry asked, eyes widening with excitement.
"Yes sir!" Emma said with a grin, motioning to a bag on the counter, "But, you have to finish your homework while I make dinner…how does lasagna sound?"
"Sounds great mom! Thanks!" Henry exclaimed excitedly, focusing back on his homework. Emma gave a crooked smile as she watched her son work diligently. She turned away and moved towards the kitchen.
As she pulled out the ingredients for her lasagna she felt her headache coming back on. She filled a pot up with water and placed it on the stove. Emma moved to the cabinet to find some more advil, frowning at the fact that they were almost out.
"Better put that on the grocery list," she murmured, "Or stop getting headaches." She frowned rubbing her forehead, and then moved back to the stove to start on the sauce.
She pulled the tomatoes, the onions and the garlic from the fridge, placed them on the counter and then moved to the cabinet to get the dried spices. She opened the cabinet and then paused, realizing she wasn't sure what to put in the sauce. Making lasagna had always been second nature to her. Why couldn't Emma remember how to make her famous lasagna? It was Henry's favorite meal- she made it on birthdays, holidays and whenever guests came over. But today, she couldn't remember.
"Mom, I'm done my homework," Henry said entering the kitchen, interrupting her thoughts.
"Would you be completely opposed to having spaghetti and jarred sauce…I uh, don't have all the ingredients for my special sauce, and you can't have lasagna with out the special sauced," Emma lied smoothly.
"Yeah that's fine, but let's go to the market this weekend and pick up whatever's missing?" Henry suggested.
"Yeah, sounds good, kid," Emma agreed with a tight lipped smile. "Wanna help me finish up dinner?"
"Sure mom!" He exclaimed happily, and he made his way around the counter to the stove to pour the pasta in the pot of water. Emma wrapped her arm around him and gave him a hug.
"I love you, Henry," she murmured.
"Love you too, mom," He said with a grin.
.oOo.
Meanwhile…in a different land
"Oh Emma…Henry….I miss you two so much more than you'll ever know," a tearful Regina murmured, staring into her mirror, which showed a young blonde woman in a kitchen, hugging her son. Her heart broke, knowing she would never be in that kitchen with the two people she loved the most.
a/n thanks so much for reading this chapter! Stick around. There's more! I just could leave you all with a cliff hanger, because that would be cruel, seeing as I don't update nearly as often as I would like to! I'll try to get in one more chapter before this break is over though. please review guys! xoxo ~katelyn
