"Mom?" Henry closed the front door behind him, glancing around. Everything looked normal. He resituated the bag on his shoulder and headed up the stairs, yelling as he went along. "Mom? I'm headed to my room!"

At some point, she normally yelled at him for yelling in the house. Ordinarily, regardless of where she was, inside or outside, she always knew, but, so far, nothing had happened. He huffed and opened his bedroom door to toss his stuff inside. His room looked just as it always had. Turning, he went back to the landing. "Moooom?"

His voice echoed through the house. Something was definitely up. By now, he should be grounded for yelling. Keeping a keen eye out, he walked back down the stairs made a circuit of the house. His mom was nowhere to be found. Finally, it occurred to him she might be on the back porch.

He made a beeline for the back, and looked out the windowed door to find his mother sitting beneath the apple tree, which wasn't that odd. What was odd was that she was wearing jeans and loose fitting shirt, and she wasn't reading. She had a book, but she was staring up at the stars. She hadn't done that in a long time.

They used to look at the stars together when he was a little boy, but that stopped years ago, and she never stargazed alone. It was weird to see her just sitting out there in open, unprotected and all alone. It was dangerous, actually. Someone could decide to ambush her.

He pulled the door open and stepped outside. "Mom?"

She pulled her eyes down toward Henry and smiled. "Hello, Henry." She motioned for him to come sit by her. He did so, but slowly, not sure what was going on. "You look handsome tonight, my little prince."

He looked at her as if she'd grown a second head. She hadn't called him that since… Well, she'd called him that on Hook's ship on the way back from Neverland, but that didn't count. It wasn't the same. She'd stopped calling him her prince when he'd started calling her the Evil Queen.

She smiled up at him, patiently waiting. Slowly, he settled in next to her. "What are you doing?"

"Looking at the stars. It feels like forever since I looked at them last." She gave his leg a pat as she turned back to the sky. "Aren't they lovely?"

He continued to stare at her. "Well, I guess so, yeah." He shrugged. "I mean, they look like they always do."

"You can't see them in Boston as well as you can here," she commented absentmindedly. "I was surprised to see how clearly visible they are here."

That was an odd thing for her to say. Curious about Emma's theory and worried his other mother was right, he decided to test the waters. "Do you remember when we used to look at the stars when I was little?"

She gave a very small smile. "You said you didn't see the pictures like I did."

That was true. Regina tried to teach him the constellation, but he was too young to understand the concept. He just wanted to know where the pictures were his mom saw in the sky. "Yeah," he chuckled. "I used to call the North Star… something." He knew what he used to call it. He wanted to see if she did. "It's been a while. I can't remember what, though."

"Sparkles." Regina slowly returned her gaze back to her son. "Miss Swan tells me you were expecting more cookies."

"I think she meant she was expecting more cookies. I think I got, maybe, 6 out of the whole batch you brought over." That was true. Emma had a thing for his mom's cooking. They chuckled, and then he turned serious. "Hey, Mom, how come you didn't wait to tell me bye before you left?"

Her face flashed blankly, as if she didn't understand the question. "I… I don't know." She seemed lost for a moment. "I guess I didn't want to bother you?"

Henry frowned. That wasn't like his mother at all. "You know that, even if I'm with Grandma or Gramps, you can still see me, right?"

"Yes," she sounded uncertain and slightly confused. "Of course, Henry. Why would say that?"

"Well, I know you don't like them again, and I kind of figure you're avoided everyone since Emma brought Marian back, but you know it's going to be hard to avoid them, right? I mean, as long as I'm around, you'll probably have to talk to them some."

She looked away from him and toward the house, keeping her eyes on some distant point beyond for a long time, and Henry wondered if she was trying to find the correct answer to give him or if she was simply emotional and didn't want to show it. It was hard to tell. "Henry," her voice came out softer than normal, "I'd prefer to leave certain aspects of the past in the past." She turned back to him, and small yet reassuring smile on her face. "I accept I'll have interaction with them, and I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye to you. It won't happen again. I promise."

He nodded, tilting his head to the side in thought. "Are you going to hate Mom forever? You know she didn't mean to take away your happy ending. She was just trying to do the right thing." He was baiting her, and he knew it.

"Whatever is going on between me and Miss Swan is not something for you to worry over," she responded in her typically stern manner. He'd expected her to lash out. "What's done is done, and we can't go back into the past an undo it." Actually, he thought, they could, but it seemed like a lot of work and sacrifice. "Sometimes, it's best to simply let certain things go and move forward."

He felt his eyebrows fly up in surprise. That was a remarkably healthy attitude, and the most unlikely comment to ever come from his mother. "So, you're saying that you and Emma can be friends again?"

"No." Instead of the answer being cuttingly dry, it was soft and gentle. Her expression was apologetic. "Some things just can't happen, Henry, and that's one of them. I'm sorry."

She meant it. She meant she was sorry. What madness was this? This wasn't his mom talking. She'd never be sorry for rejecting someone who hurt her as much as Emma had. "Ever?"

She sighed heavily. "I just don't know, little prince." She turned to look up at the sky again. "I really don't."

The uncertainty in her voice and look of conflict on her face was enough to convince Henry that Emma might be onto something. He decided that it might be good to give it a rest, though. She looked tired. "Mom, do you think you could drive me to school tomorrow?"

She gave him a quizzical look. "Don't I always?"

No, she'd stopped after the first curse was broken. Okay, Emma was definitely onto something. "Yeah," he lied, "but I was wondering if we could leave super early and maybe get breakfast at Granny's? I really missed you this past week. It was weird not having you around."

She smiled at him again and nodded. "What time do you want to get up?"

"An hour earlier than usual?" He was testing her again.

"I don't know that you can get up at 6 in the morning, Henry. Are you certain?"

He gave his best charming grin. "Yeah, I can do it. Worst case? You can throw some cold water on me to get me up."

Giving a little chuckle, she nudged him with her shoulder. "It's getting late. Don't you think it's time to go to bed?"

Was she giving him a choice? This was so weird. "Yeah, probably." He leaned over and kissed her cheek before standing up. "Goodnight, Mom. Love you."

"Good night, Henry," he heard her call as he headed toward the house. "I love you, too."

Regina watched her son go into the house, and she let out a relieved sigh. That had been trying. There hadn't been anything in the notes about her leaving without telling Henry goodbye. That was poor planning on her part not to alert herself of that situation.

Thank goodness the first notebook had such detailed notes about Henry scattered throughout the pictures. If those hadn't been there, there's no telling how lost she would have been in that conversation, and she still didn't understand why she hated these people she was supposed to hate.

What had Emma Swan done? Who the hell was Marian? From where did Emma bring this Marian person back?

She shook her head. There were too many holes.

From what Henry said, she and Emma had been friends at some point. Why wouldn't she want to at least be friends with the person she was supposedly co-parenting with? It made no sense. None of this made sense.

Frustrated, tired, and irrationally angry, she decided to call it a night. Maybe sleeping on it would make it easier the following day? She doubted it, but it was worth a try.

Per the instructions left regarding her routines, she made a circuit of the first floor of her home, making certain every window and door was closed and locked. Her notes indicated she had political enemies that might actually try to do her some harm. She assumed some sort of vandalism, but she didn't want to take chances, which meant following the instructions to make certain her home was on lockdown before she went to bed.

She stopped by Henry's room to make certain he was in bed. He was, but he was far from being close to sleep. Instead, he was reading a comic book.

She smiled and shook her head. "Henry." He jumped. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

"No, it's okay. I just… I'm sorry, Mom. I'll go to bed now." He seemed to scramble to comply with a request she hadn't made.

She furrowed her brows in confusion. Was he nervous around her? "It is getting late, and I want you to get enough rest so you can function at school tomorrow." She stepped inside his room and sat on the edge of his bed. "What are you reading?"

He was staring at her again. It made her uneasy. Was she giving off signs that she didn't know who she was? "Batman," he answered cautiously.

She nodded, smiling and trying to remember what she'd learned about comics. "From the New 52?"

His jaw dropped almost comically. She'd surprised him. "Yeah, it's the Batman Eternal comic."

"That one is fine, but I don't want to catch you reading 'Death in the Family.' That story arc is too gruesome. I don't want you exposed." She stood up again, running her fingers through his hair as she did so. "Don't let me forget that I brought something back for you from Boston, okay? I'll give it to you tomorrow morning."

She was very happy to see the excitement in his eyes. "You did? What did you bring me?"

"It's a surprise." She winked at him, retreating to the bedroom door to turn off his light. "Goodnight, my little prince. I'll be around to wake you up at 6 sharp tomorrow morning."

"Okay, goodnight, Mom." He gave a strange look, something she couldn't identify. "Love you."

That was the second time he'd told her that, and, though she did like hearing it, it seemed strange that a boy of his age would tell his mother that often that he loved her. She decided not to question it lest it stop. "I love you, too, Henry." With that, she stepped out of his room and closed the door.

She groaned as she walked down the hall to her bedroom. Tomorrow was her first day back as mayor. If tonight was anything to go by, tomorrow was going to be killer.

The Kid: Mom?

Emma picked her phone up off her nightstand and shot out a quick reply. Well?

The Kid: You're right. Something's up. She's acting too normal.

She furrowed her brows. What did that even mean? Too normal how?

The Kid: She didn't yell at me for yelling in the house. She's wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I didn't get in trouble for reading comics instead of going to bed. She didn't seem to remember not telling me goodbye before she left, and she actually knew something about comics.

Yes, that was all pretty weird. Like legit knew, or knew because she read some headline off of HuffPost?

The Kid: Legit knew

None of that sounded like Regina's regular MO. Yeah, that's weird.

The Kid: We're going to Granny's for breakfast tomorrow. You going to be there?

She had planned on sleeping in since she hadn't slept well in two days, but she guessed that wasn't happening. What time?

The Kid: 6:45 at the latest.

She groaned. Why her? Yeah, okay. It's late, kid. Go to bed.

The Kid: Goodnight, Mom. Love ya.

Having Henry call her mom and tell her he loved her would never get old. She smiled. Love you, too, kid.

She set her alarm and plopped her phone back down on the nightstand. At the rate she was going, she was going to be sleep deprived for the rest of her life.