Sorry, it's been a while. It's hard to write when you don't believe in the show anymore.
Please let me know what you think, it always matters to me.
The next morning, Emma is sitting at her desk and staring pensively out of the window when she hears footsteps approaching. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She does not want to deal with anyone right now; she's too angry with herself, with Regina, with the world.
A knock on her door forces her to open her eyes and she reluctantly greets her visitor.
"Hook. Hi."
"Hi. Can we talk?"
He doesn't wait for her answer and steps into her office, closing the door behind him. He looks as out of place as ever, in the Sheriff's station, Emma thinks. Hook takes the chair that is on the opposite side of the desk and sits heavily on it.
"Are you okay?" He asks, as if the answer to that question isn't obvious.
Emma doesn't even both to reply to that and he seems to understand that he made a mistake.
"I'm sorry. Dumb question. It's just… you've been avoiding me."
"I have my reasons, Hook. Why are you here?"
"I came to check up on you. I barely see you, Swan. I understand that this is a hard time, but…"
"But what?" Emma snaps.
"I just want to be here for you. I want you to let me be here for you."
"I don't need anyone to be here for me. I just need my son. Can you give him back to me?"
Hook looks dejected and it's in a semi-audible voice that he answers:
"No."
"Then there is nothing you can do for me."
"Why are you being so harsh to me? What did I do?"
And Emma can see in his eyes that he truly doesn't understand. She puts both hands flat on the desk as she slowly rises and glares at him.
"What did you do? What did you do?! You brought us back here! We were happy in New-York! But you! You had to come and shatter everything! If you had just left us alone… He'd still be here. I would still have my son. I would…"
Her voice breaks and Emma has to sit back down before she collapses.
"It's your fault, Hook. Don't you realize that?"
"I… Emma—"
"No. I don't want to hear anything you have to say. The fact is that we were happy and you ruined it all."
"You can't mean that," he cries desperately as he extends his one hand over the desk to try and grab Emma's.
The blonde stands up abruptly, away from him.
"Don't. Just… Leave."
"What? No. We need to talk about this!"
"No. We don't. Leave. Now."
There's a menacing glint in her eyes, and a clear warning in her voice, and Hook knows better than to push. After all, Emma has magic and she can send him flying through the air if she so desires. The Sheriff can read the pirate like an open book and she knows he's hurt but she couldn't care less at the moment. Hook is the reason Henry is dead. He's lucky she lets him leave in one piece.
Regina pushes the door of the pawnshop early that morning. She has a headache—probably a consequence of her consumption of alcohol the previous night—and it makes her even crankier than she would normally be. Belle is nowhere to be seen, but of course Gold is standing behind the counter and cleaning some artifacts. He looks up when she stops in front of him.
"Ah, your Majesty. What brings you here?"
"How did you deal with it? Losing your son."
Rumplestiltskin's face grows serious immediately. His relationship with Regina is volatile, and they often tried to one-up the other in the past, but in that moment, they are just two parents who each lost the most important person in their world. He walks around the counter and motions for her to follow him in the back room. They sit side by side on the small leather couch and Gold, half-turned toward Regina, starts talking.
"You know how hard it has been for me. You all saw me go back to my dark impulses. I almost lost Belle because of it. I lost my way. For a long time, there was only rage, and pain, and sadness. You have to be careful, Regina, or it will consume you."
"I don't think I'm strong enough to go through this."
"No one is strong enough to face something like that. But we still do, because we have to. Because we owe it to them. You are not alone in your grief. You have a family now, Regina. Don't be afraid to lean on them."
The former Queen looks at him with tears in her eyes. This is the first time that Rumplestiltskin has given her advice without any malicious intent, the first time he's ever really been true and honest with her.
"I'm sorry," she manages to say.
"For what?"
"For Baelfire. I never… said anything, because I wasn't exactly fond of him, but…"
"Thank you," Gold interrupts gently.
The moment has passed now, and Regina wipes the tears from her eyes and gets up. Gold imitates her.
"Well, I should go."
He nods silently, and they walk back into the shop, still empty at this early hour.
"I'll see you around, I guess," Regina adds before she reaches the door.
Gold offers a small smile that, for once, doesn't look creepy, and then Regina is gone.
When Emma goes back to the apartment that night, she finds her parents sitting on the couch with her little brother playing on the carpet that Emma bought for Snow's birthday five months ago. At the sound of the door opening, they turn to look at her.
"Hey," she murmurs.
"Hi Emma," David replies, uncertainty in his voice.
She winces internally because her own father has to be careful around her these days. Emma knows she hasn't been easy to deal with. Even if she has a good reason to justify her behavior, it still pains her to realize that she hurt her parents.
"Can we talk?"
"Of course," Snow says immediately, "let me just put your little brother to bed."
The dark-haired woman stands up and picks up Neal from where he was sitting. Emma waves at him and he blows her a kiss before they disappear in the adjacent room.
"Come on, Emma, sit. Do you want anything to drink?"
"Do you have beer?" She asks as she lets herself fall on the couch.
"Something non-alcoholic to drink?" David rephrases with a slight reproach in his voice.
"Right. Just hot cocoa then, please."
Five minutes later, the three adults are facing each other in the living-room. Snow is sitting in her rocking-chair while David has chosen to sit on the armchair.
"So, how was work?" David asks to break the uneasy silence.
"Regina blames me for Henry's death," Emma blurts out in response.
Her parents stare at her for a long moment in silence; neither of them looking particularly surprised.
"It wasn't your fault, Emma," Snow finally says. "You know that."
"I… Yeah."
"No, I mean it. It was an accident. It could have happened to anyone, anywhere. It was not your fault. The only person responsible is the driver of the car. None of this was your fault."
"Then why would she say that?"
"Because Regina needs to blame someone, she needs to let out her anger on someone and I'm sorry that it has to be you, honey, I really am, but it doesn't surprise me at all. Regina needs you but she doesn't want to admit it so she pushes you away the only way she can."
"We've known Regina for a long time," David adds, "and this is how she grieves. You know what happened when she lost Daniel. Sweetheart, Regina knows it's not your fault, but right now she's angry as I'm sure you are, too."
"She has a point, though. If I had just left like I was supposed to…"
"You couldn't leave town, remember? You tried and ended up in a cell."
"I… I should have tried more than just once."
"Emma, please. Don't think like that. It's going to destroy you. You are not responsible for what happened to Henry."
David gets up and walks over to the couch where Emma is sitting and he crouches in front of her and takes her hands in his.
"You both need time, Emma. Don't give up on Regina, okay? We're family. We don't give up on each other. She'll realize what she said and she'll apologize, but in the meantime don't give up on her. She needs you. And you need her too."
Emma looks at their joined hands and she takes a deep, shaky breath.
"You're right. It was just so unexpected and… and unfair to hear those things coming from her."
"Give her time. We don't all grieve the same way."
Somewhere in her mind, a small voice tells her that she's a hypocrite because she did to Hook what Regina did to her, but Emma has become good at ignoring that voice over the years.
"I think I'm going to sleep now."
"Okay," her parents say in unison.
Emma allows her father's kiss on the forehead and her mother's hug before she retreats to her bedroom. She still hasn't found the strength to push open the door of Henry's bedroom. She has to walk past it to get to her own room but she can't even look at it without wanting to cry. She wonders about Henry's room in Regina's house.
OTH-FOQ