CHAPTER 10
Regina followed her normal daily after work routine. She'd collected the mail as she'd driven up to the house. Then she'd changed into something more comfortable. She went out back and worked on her tree and garden until the sun went down.
Then she went into the kitchen and began dinner. Tonight she was in the mood for something spicy so she whipped up some mole and homemade tortillas. She sat at the table reading through some paperwork that had been sent over by Sydney, the local newsman. It was his job to keep her updated on current events in and around Storybrooke. He sent her daily reports on any odd occurrences.
When she'd finished read and eating, she began cleaning. She started with the kitchen and then cleaned the rest of her immaculately kept house. Once she'd finished that job she went into her study and started a fire to ward off the chill. She added some apple wood chips to the fire and inhaled deeply. Then she poured herself a glass of her homemade hard apple cider. After taking a large sip, she placed the glass on the side table next to her favorite chair. Then she began perusing through the days mail.
When she'd sorted through the mail earlier she'd figured it contained nothing out of the ordinary. Just some bills and ads. It wasn't until she'd come to the last envelope that she realized this was something different.
She had no idea why but just looking at the postmark made out to her from some laboratory made her hands tremble. A shiver went down her spine as she stared at the offending piece of mail. She picked up her glass of cider and took an extra large sip before opening the envelope. What she read had her reaching for her glass again except this time she didn't bother to sip it. She downed the liquid in one large gulp. She grimaced as it burned down the back of her throat before beginning to warm her belly.
She jumped up and refilled the glass when she realized it was empty. Then she went back to her chair and picked the paper up again. Now both her hands were trembling as she read through it once more. She shook her head as she crumpled the paper in her trembling hand. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be true.
Her mind just couldn't wrap around it. There was no way she'd ever given birth to a child!
She downed her drink quickly and went for another. This time she brought the entire decanter over and sat it beside her on the side table. It was a mistake. It had to be. That was the only way. The same with having her name on some strange child's birth certificate. It couldn't be real.
She passed her hand over her face as she tried calming herself. Her chest was heaving at the extra work it was doing to keep her body supplied with oxygen. The cider was doing its job and warming her from the inside out. But now with the alcohol and the fire she found herself suffocating.
Suddenly she jumped up and ran over to windows. They were large affairs that went from the tall overhead ceiling to just below her hips. She flung them all open and stood leaning out the one that was closest to her apple tree. She gulped in huge lungfuls of cool air that was lightly fragranced with apple. It wasn't until she felt a chill across her cheeks that she'd realized she was crying. The chill was coming from the wind blowing in and drying the tears as they rained down her face.
Once the floodgates had opened there was no holding back. She began to cry in earnest. Huge body racking sobs that bowed her knees. She slid to the floor before turning around and putting her back against the wall. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms tight around them. She cried until there were no more tears left. Then she forced her weary body to move. She climbed the stairs and lay across her bed. She spent the night staring at the shadows moving across the room.
CF
Emma forced herself to wait until after she'd put Henry to bed before taking up the envelope she'd hidden away from him. She couldn't explain why. She just knew that she needed to be alone for this.
She tried to tell herself it made no difference one way or another. But she knew that wasn't true. Because if it was positive, as she was sure it would be, that meant she'd met Henry's Mother. And the woman showed no want or care to know a son who seemed to want the opposite. And she had no idea how to give him that news.
Henry had been doing better lately since the day she'd found him at the beach. He almost seemed like his old self. But sometimes she still caught him staring off into space at something unseen in the distance.
She remembered the feelings that had swept through her as a child. Her craving to know her family. The desperate prayers of a lonely child who wanted what happy people seemed to take for granted. A loving family who wanted and cared for her. Until she grew up and realized that it wasn't for her.
Having parents wasn't in the cards for her. But she had gotten a happy family. Or so she'd thought. It still stung a little that Henry seemed to want someone other than her. But she was trying hard to rationalize it. It wasn't that he didn't want her. It was that he wanted to know where he came from. And that she could do for him.
She went into the bathroom and went through her nightly routine. Then she went into the kitchen and grabbed herself a beer. She brought it back to bed with her. She opened it and took a big swig. Then she climbed between the sheets before picking up the letter she'd left on her nightstand.
She took a deep breath before she began to carefully open the letter. Once she had it opened, she slowly pulled out the letter. She stared down at the results without a trace of surprise. She had known what it would say the minute she'd stared across at the woman's face the first time. It was a face she knew well now. It had been haunting her in her sleep ever since their first meeting.
Emma put the letter back into the envelope carefully. She got up and put it into her safe. As soon as they'd gotten home from the beach she'd changed the combination. There were some things that needed to be private. And she knew that Henry's age and curious nature didn't allow for him to understand boundaries.
She walked into her bathroom and began to run herself a hot bath. She already knew that there was no way she'd be able to sleep. She added her favorite bubble bath and bath salts to the water. Once the water level had risen to an acceptable level she stripped down and climbed in.
As she settled back she sorted through the myriad of ways to break this news to Henry. She'd promised him that she would try and help him find some resolution to him wanting to know his background. And Regina was the missing piece of that puzzle.
Briefly she wondered how Regina herself had taken the news. The woman had acted genuinely confused as to why she was being accused of having given up her son. After seeing the size of her house, the fact that she was the fricken Mayor of her town, and that she was slightly older than Emma and therefore capable of raising a child the question of why still remained unanswered for Emma.
She felt a little sad that this was the end. There was nothing more for her to do. She'd asked and gotten the answer she'd been looking for. And Regina had made it perfectly clear that she had no care or want to get to know her son. Even though that thought hurt her as much as she knew it would hurt Henry, she knew that it was up to her to make sure that he understood that as well.
Once the water had cooled, Emma got out and dried herself off. She called a trusted babysitter that she had on standby.
While she waited for her to arrive Emma got dressed. She didn't go out often. But she knew there was no way she was going to sleep tonight. New York was a city that never slept. And she had tension built up that was begging for release.
She went to a local bar and ordered a drink. She looked around the room not sure what she was looking for until she found it. She locked eyes with a woman who was sitting across the bar from her. Her hair was wrong and her eyes didn't have that expressive vulnerability that she saw in Regina's. But the more she drank the harder it was to see the differences between the two. She had the bartender send her a drink and smiled as the woman came over to thank her.
She downed her drink in one gulp before turning to the woman. "How about getting out of here?"