TW: brief mention of abuse
He waits for a few minutes after she's gotten herself up and taken herself into the bathroom, he waits until the spray of the shower begins hitting the tiles before he makes his way in after her and, just as he'd suspected, finds her with her arms folded against the cold tiles and her forehead pressed against them as she cries.
It's not often that she does so. In fact, he can probably count on one hand the number of times he's seen her cry whilst they've been together and it's not because she doesn't feel things – she does, God how she does – but instead because she's been raised to believe that she shouldn't feel such things.
"Crying admits weakness, my mother used to say." And when she'd confessed that to him, his dislike for Cora Mills had only increased for he knew such lessons would have been given alongside needless and cruel lashings that had left faint scars on Regina's soft skin. A past such as that would have been enough to close any kind soul off but not Regina. She had the biggest heart he knew and how glad he was for it every single day.
She startles when he opens the glass door to the shower, turns to him with wide, red-rimmed eyes and watches as he steps inside still clad in his boxers. "Wh-what are you doing?"
His brow furrows at the pain in her voice and he can't help but gather her into his arms and hold her against him, rocking them gently where they stand. She goes willingly despite her confusion. "It's okay to cry, my love," he whispers over the stream of water, one arm tight around her waist whilst the other lifts to hold her head to him with a gentle hand in her hair.
Her shuddered breath washes over his neck with the way her face is pressed to the crook and her fingers grip at his waist as she shakes her head. "He's been so alone," she breathes, fingers gripping tighter, "so lost and alone, it just…kills me."
"But you're changing that," he replies on a tender smile, pride lighting his chest, "you've given him a home and, in time, a family to love. You're giving him what you never had and he may be a little apprehensive now, sweetheart, but you must remember how long it took you to fully open your heart to another."
She nods against his neck, no doubt recalling the patient persistence with which Robin had injected himself into her life, into her heart.
"Henry has a home with us now and he will never again experience the pain of loneliness. You've made sure of that."
She shifts her face away from him slowly, eyes still wet though there's a soft smile curling her lips before she lifts herself onto her toes enough to press a lingering kiss to his lips and amending his assurance, "We've made sure of that."
And all he can do is smile down at his wonderfully broken, incredibly strong wife and nod.
It was going to be a long road, allowing Henry to adapt to this new life having lived all of his moving between foster homes, but it was a road they were going to take together.