A/N: It's not only about being back, right? Now we deal with the beginning of the aftermath. Thank you to those still hanging in there!
Chapter 11
There was grass and a door and then there was nothing but trees and leafs scattering on the ground.
Regina breathed in deeply and turned around, scanning her surroundings. The large manor was hard to miss - both for its familiarity and the memories that it held within -, but she spared it little thought. Her future was not inside that house. Her first step onto leafs and beaten earth felt foreign. The small rocks and twigs were not exactly comfortable to walk on either. Each new step would bring her closer to home, though, and she kept on walking.
It was strange how different walking here felt from walking in that other world, from the ground, to her legs and the very air around her. Here, there was the sense of familiar trees and beaten paths. Here, the air smelled of fresh pine and wet earth. It felt much more freeing and real.
.
.
Henry was in class, because he had promised to attend and not to skip math - he hated math! - and because there was nothing else to do, but wait. And waiting sucked. His mom wouldn't like him skipping, though, and heaven helped him when she got his report card for this semester… This train of thought caught him wondering if she still received his report card via mail like the rest of the parents.
After the curse had bee broken, most had labeled him the Savior's son and started to ignore the fact that Regina had raised him. Though legally his mom and only parent, he wondered if even the school had stopped treating her such. When she got back, he would definitely check that with her, he determined to himself, making an extra effort to pay attention to class.
He liked English, after all.
.
.
The stares had never bothered her, for she had been Queen and had grown accustomed to the stares early on. Later, with her flashy wardrobe, she had even sought out the stares for her own amusement and to satisfy her ego. They made her feel powerful.
The whispers, however, she could do without.
And they were whispering, eyes ever present on her frame. She was sure they talked about her bare feet and the tattered clothing she wore that barely covered anything at all. They commented on her absence and perhaps even on the happenings that had led her to this state. Did they know? Would they even care if they did?
Regina continued walking, head held high and Henry on her thoughts.
.
.
Emma was bored.
And probably a little pouty. Henry rarely called her mom anymore and he had almost completely stopped acting as her son. She felt more like an aunt, than a parent and she supposed that she had taken his easy acceptance of her at the beginning for granted. He had never been angry that she had given him up for adoption, he had offered his trust openly and as far as he had known, the sun and moon rose because she said so.
It was hard to fall from that pedestal he had placed her in and the landing had been none to gentle on her derriere.
Emma sighed and dropped her head back on the chair. Regina had probably felt worse than this when Henry had denied her the title of mom. She could understand how that could hurt, but Emma couldn't rightly say that it hadn't been well deserved. Regina, of course, was hurt somewhere and had gone through tough times, but were they supposed to forget all the evil deeds she had done before that?
Was she being petty?
The sheriff felt conflicted. A part of her, though, wished that Regina was there, back home, so that these feelings could be dealt with and a new balance could be found. Who would have known that she would come to miss the sound of heels echoing and the ever disdainful Miss Swan interrupting her day.
A breathless Ruby appeared then, almost skidding to the side, so fast she had been running before coming to an abrupt stop before Emma's desk.
"Ruby? What's wrong?" She was already checking the gun at her side, as her chair was pushed back by her straightening legs.
"Regina", the tall girl answered, her breath regulating rapidly. "She just appeared and is probably making her way to her house. No shoes", Ruby explained, making a point with her eyes. "and clothes are a mess."
"Is she okay?" Emma was running to the door already, throwing said question over her shoulder. "Is she hurt? Should I call an ambulance?"
Ruby hesitated and Emma's momentum towards the exit halted. Could it be that bad, she wondered. The girl shook her head. "She looks fine. Maybe her feet will need some tending to later. But, Emma…"
The words failed and the sheriff was not appeased. "Ruby, c'mon, you're scaring me here. Please tell me I won't have to give Henry more bad news."
She sighed and bit her lip, before finally explaining her anxiety. "She looks different, Emma. Not older, but very different, like she has been gone a long time."
"Gold said that time there moved faster, right?"
"Didn't he say that it moved differently? Like back and forth. Timelessness, he said." Ruby argued, well remembering the strange moment with an oddly solicit Dark One.
"So we don't even know how that affected Regina." Emma sighed and rubbed her forehead and consciously breathed in deeply. "Okay… no time like the present."
.
.
Storybrooke wasn't that small, but it certainly had that small town vibe. Especially where gossip was concerned. As soon as Henry left the school with the other children at quitting time, he noticed that something was amiss.
They were all whispering and looking at him and…
Hope bloomed in his chest and he took off, mindless of any other thought than the hope that this could mean what he so desperately wanted this to mean. No one had quite stirred up gossip and the whispering like his mom.
He ran hard and fast and only after oxygen had already started to become an issue, did he notice that his destination was home. His home. Mom would go there first, right? He couldn't say he was completely sure, but it was a place to start and that was more than Henry had for weeks.
It was hope.
Henry laughed as he ran, almost losing his breath in the process, as he imagined his mom rolling her eyes at the hope bit, for which she had always blamed Snow White. And she could roll her eyes, and be sarcastic and hug him too tight and too long, because Henry wouldn't mind. Not at all.
.
.
Regina almost cried at the sight of the big, beautiful white house she had come to think of as home. It was where Henry first laughed, started to crawl, learned to walk. It was where they had pizza night and movie night and had monster chases that had Henry giggling and her walking barefoot in her stalkings.
She could hear him almost, calling to her, as her wounded feet continued to carry her up the driveway. She could hear him shouting, calling her mom. Regina was almost home.
Arms circled her waist and hugged her tight and she realized that it was not a ghostly Henry calling her home. It was really her son and he was there, holding her tight. She folded her arms over his only briefly, before the urge to turn and embrace him properly won over her desire to never let him go.
He felt so good in her arms, so grown, his head already well over her shoulder. And he was hugging her tight and it had been so long since he had done that… Regina just cried and hugged him back.
She held him even tighter when she caught sight of Snow and her idiot husband and Emma with Ruby running up the same driveway she had painstakingly walked up only moments before. The fear of losing Henry was real and had already come true and the Charming brigade only served to remind her of that horrible fact. While Henry continued to hug her, she would not let him go. Regina wasn't ready to break this still moment in time and let reality back in.
Not yet.
.
.
Regina looked like crap.
Snow felt really uncharitable thinking about it, but it was the truth. Her hair was longer than she had ever worn as mayor, though definitely not quite as long as she had sported in the Enchanted Forest. It hadn't been styled in quite a while and she could see, even from this distance, that it was brittle and damaged. And one big knot that would take hours to sort.
Her arms had bruises and cuts, her feet were bare and dirty and a little bit bloody, her dress in tatters. The thing that called to her, though, was not those details that proved Regina had spent a long time lost in that hellish land. It was her face. Also marred with bruises and cuts, streaked with tears, Regina had haunted eyes that sparked with fear as they glanced at them.
Regina was afraid.
"Well, she's back." David spoke, a little unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing and Snow got a little angry at him for the comment.
"That's good. That's wonderful", she made sure to point out, keeping her gaze on Regina, who continued to hold Henry tight, eyes on them.
"Yeah", Emma echoed, though her tone resembled more her father's than her mothers. She cleared her throat, straightened her back and Snow turned to see her daughter bracing herself. "It is wonderful." This time she sounded like she meant it and Snow was glad.
She smiled at her daughter and turned that smile to Regina, who looked confused and yet, hopeful. Snow couldn't remember the last time she had seen hope in her stepmother's eyes.