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"Hey… Regina?" Henry asked tentatively. She turned around to face him, a smile that Henry couldn't decipher on her lips. Was it sad or happy?
"Yes?" She resisted the urge to call him Honey. While she may not have done that in Storybrooke, she was a different person now.
"Do you love me? I mean, as your son."
"Oh, Henry." She rushed over and kneeled in front of him to be his height. She blinked back tears. He frowned; he had never seen her cry before. "No matter what anyone says, I do love you. I know this is hard and complicated, and I'm so sorry about it."
"I love Emma and I don't want to hurt her by loving you, too, but at the same time I wonder how I can ever love you, considering what you did." He sighs. "But I can't ignore the fact that I do, and I don't know what to do about it." Finally, Regina's tears spilled over. She pulled him into a hug. Daniel came in, and his heart swelled at the sight.
"It's hard to imagine you were the Evil Queen, Regina." He smiled. Regina stood up abruptly. "It's nice to meet you, Henry. I'm sorry I got here so late. One of the horses escaped and I had to get him back."
"Hi." The boy smiled nervously. "My name is Henry and I'm your… step-son?"
"I know." He chuckled. "I assume you know that I'm Daniel."
"I do." Henry smiled.
"Mm, Regina, what're you cooking?" Daniel shrugged off his coat and sniffed his way into the kitchen. Henry laughed a little.
"Lasagna." She answered. "Which should be done any minute." Right on cue, the oven beeped. Regina took it out. They made idle chat for a few minutes before it was cool enough to cut. When they sat down to eat, Henry spoke up.
"So basically, it's like you and Emma are my parents, but divorced. And then they remarried."
"Yeah… sure. Except Miss Swan and I were never married…" Regina said.
"You know you can call her Emma. You're not completely evil anymore, so you don't have to be cold."
"For some reason, I don't think she'd like that." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Well, anyway, you can do one thing better than her."
"What's that?" She sighed.
"You can cook." Henry put two thumbs up.
OUAT
Emma anxiously paced in front of the front door.
"Babe, calm down." Graham said from the couch.
"If she's not here in five minutes I'm gonna go over there and personally rip her head off." After the statement, she took a deep breath. "What if she took him?"
"She didn't." He assured her. "See? They're pulling up right now." A few moments later, Henry came bounding up the steps. Regina walked up behind him.
"Hey, guys!" Henry smiled.
"Hello, Sheriff Swan, Graham." Regina gave a curt nod.
"Screw the formalities, Regina. It's freezing out there, why don't you come in and have some hot chocolate?"
"Well…" Hesitantly, the brunette stepped over the threshold. "Only for a few minutes; Daniel's waiting at home. Where's your mother?"
"Snow? She's uh… well, her and James are probably still sleeping." Emma handed her a mug.
"Thank you."
"Hey, Mom!?"
"Yeah?" Both women turned toward the sound of his voice in unison, answering. They gave each other an awkward smile.
"Which one, Kid?"
"Well, you." Henry said. "I can't find the waffles."
"You're asking me to find your way around a kitchen? I ate the last ones, sorry. How about you make pancakes?"
"I know where she'd keep extras." Regina put her mug on the coffee table and proceeded to the kitchen. In less than a minute, she held up a box. "Here you go, Henry."
"Uh…" Emma stared at her as she walked back in. "How'd you do that?"
"Oh, please." The brunette scoffed. "I raised your mother, I know where she'd put things." She took another sip of her cocoa. "What's that pitiful look for?"
"I just… I-uh…" Emma stammered. "I feel bad about, you know…" she turned her head in Henry's direction. She added quietly, "Taking him away from you."
"Miss Swan-"
"You can call me Emma. It's my name."
"Maybe I don't want to. It's like when you call Henry 'Kid'."
"Alrighty then, continue." Emma rolled her eyes.
"We'll just have to have shared custody."
"What!?" She choked on her hot chocolate. "Regina, no. And besides, shared custody? We're not divorced, we're… sworn enemies."
"We don't have to be." The brunette said softly. "I just want my son. Now I understand how you felt in Storybrooke. So I know you know how I feel now."
"I told you, every Wednesday." Emma said through grit teeth.
"Can we bump it up to every other weekend?" Regina asked hopefully.
"I'll just, uh, go upstairs with Henry and play a game." Graham excused himself. He ushered the boy in question to his room.
"We have to stop this, Emma. This animosity."
"I'm being hostile?" She scoffed. "That's the pot calling the kettle black."
"A while ago, I realized we're not so different." Regina gazed out the window. "But I let go of my anger, of my vengeance."
"Only after you ruined millions of lives." Emma cut in.
"Perhaps. The point is, is that I did. You don't have to be walled up anymore. Let those walls down, and you'll find you'll be happier." Regina placed her mug back on the table. "By, Henry!"
"Bye!" With that, she left. Emma sighed and placed both of their mugs in the sink. It was early in the morning, and she figured she should try to make breakfast. She found Henry's waffles in the toaster, forgotten. She settled on scrambled eggs; super scrambled style.
OUAT
*ONE MONTH LATER*
"Graham, Graham, Graham, Graham, Graham!" Emma yelled, flying down the stairs. She skidded to a stop in front of the kitchen table, where the rest of her family was enjoying cereal. She grinned ear to ear, and her husband shot up from his seat and pulled her into the biggest hug he could without squishing her. "I'm pregnant!" Though the announcement wasn't necessary, as everyone had gotten the gist of it, she had to say the words. "We're going to have a baby."
I PROMISED YOU A BETTER UPDATE, AND I MANAGED TO FINISH IT TONIGHT, SO THAT'S WHY I'M POSTING IT. I'D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS!