Regina woke up due to the yelling coming from outside her house. She looked out the window of her room to find the entire town had gathered in her front yard. She heard an urgent pounding coming from the front door. She ran downstairs and grabbed the handle to the door, took a deep breath and put up her highest walls, put on her darkest mask. She turned the door knob, lips drawn up in a snarl. She looked around the crowd as they shouted out, "Kill her!" They surrounded her.
"Don't you know who you're dealing with!" She shouted and just as she was about to reduce them to ashes, she saw her son's face staring back at her. In mere seconds her walls were down and her mask had dropped. Seeing her vulnerability, the crowd took the opportunity to grab her. They threw her against the wall and put a knife to her throat. The cold steel of the knife nicked her neck as she winced in pain.
"Hold still, Madam Mayor, this will only hurt if you struggle." The man holding the knife to her throat threatened her with smirk painting the features on his gruff face.
"Henry, please. Please don't let them do this." Regina pleaded. She looked at him through tear-filled eyes, begging for one last chance from her son. She started at his eyes, hoping he knew how sorry she was for everything she had ever done wrong to him.
"You're not my mom, you're the Evil Queen." Henry stared at her with cold hostile eyes. He walked over and leaned in closer to her face. "Kill her." He stated, a twisted smile appeared on his face.
"No! Henry, please. I'll be good." Regina choked on the words a young foolish girl once told her mother. She let the tears fall down her face, the sobs causing the knife to cut deeper, until everything faded to black.
Regina gasped as she sat up on the bed, reaching for her neck to make sure it really was just a dream. The same dream had plagued her mind everyday for the past week. Every dream still just as painful as the last. She looked around the room as she came back to reality, realizing she had been sleeping in Henry's room again. For the past week she had done this to be as close to Henry as possible.
She got up to go get a drink, she knew from experience that she wouldn't be falling back asleep any time soon. As she made herself a cup of tea she looked up at the time on the stove, it was 4:30 in the morning. Regina sighed, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths to keep from trembling. Her mind knew how to bring her worst fears to life, torturing her with her worries. She grabbed her cup of tea and brought in into the cold living room, pushing all thoughts of the haunting dream form her mind.
_
Regina walked in Granny's Diner for some coffee, she had decided she might as well get some fresh air for the first time this week. Well, she still went to work everyday but that was it. It had been five days since she had talked to Emma on the phone about visiting Henry. Emma had told her that Henry was going to meet with her on Saturday, but the catch was Emma had to be there. Usually Regina would have protested but she was desperate to be with her prince. So they had agreed that the three of them would meet up tomorrow night.
She was about to walk up to Granny to place her order but was interrupted when someone crashed into her. Regina was about to tell the person that they should watch where they're going if they don't want meet one of her fireballs, but then she saw who it was.
"Oh I'm sorry- Regina?" Regina visibly winced at the use of her name. It cut through her heart like a knife.
"Henry, that's fine dear. How are you?" Regina asked, trying to mask the ache she felt in her heart from being so close, yet so distant.
"I'm good, but Emma is waiting in the car for me so-" Henry sentence was cut short as the overprotective mother in Regina kicked in.
"She let you come in here by yourself?!" Regina questioned, she was in complete shock.
"No, she came in but I had to use the restroom so she told me to meet her back in the car." Henry awkwardly defended his mother, even though he knew Regina would have waited inside for him.
"Of course, sorry it's just... habit." Regina replied looking down in shame. She knew she no longer had the right to mother Henry. She looked up when she remembered something she was gong to ask Henry. "Oh, Henry, I was going to ask you this tomorrow, but since I ran into you here I might as well ask you now. Would you like to spend the night tomorrow?" Regina watched Henry's face as her words registered. "You don't have to if you don't want to." Regina quickly added as soon as she saw the hesitance on Henry's face.
"I'm not sure, I um, I'm ready to do that." Henry stumbled over his words, looking to avoid seeing the hurt in his mother's eyes.
"Right, I just thought you might like to spend the night in your old room, that's all." Regina replied before clearing her throat, "I um, I have to go back home, it was nice seeing you." Regina rushed out of the diner, forgetting all about her plan to get coffee. She tightly crossed her arms, wrapping them around herself in an attempt to protect herself from the ache in her chest and the emptiness in her heart. She ran back to her house as fast as her four inch heels would allow her.
_
When she arrived back home she immediately began taking everything that reminded her of Henry and put in a cardboard box. She grabbed the apple made from paper and cardboard that Henry had given her for Mother's Day. She took down every photo on the mantel of her and Henry, tears pouring uncontrollably down her face then landing on her jacket. She ran upstairs to grab the final thing to put in the box. It was the stone with Henry's handprint and the words 'For mommy' written across it. That simple slab of stone was the most valued thing in the world, to her at least.
After staring at for a moment she set it in the box. Walking in her closet she put the box onto the top shelf, causing something to fall to the ground. She picked up and suddenly realized what it was. It was an old photo album filled with photos of her and Henry together, some just of Henry.
She opened the book up and was immediately flooded with memories. The first photo is from Henry's first Christmas, he was proudly sitting on her lap, holding his new stuffed horse with a bright smile on his face. Regina had chosen that stuffed horse because it looked exactly like her childhood horse she had loved so much.
She moved on to the photo on the next page, it was a photo of her and Henry when he was five. They were getting ready to leave for the annual Mother/Son Dance, they had held it every year in Storybrooke and Regina had never cared about it until that year. Henry was wearing a white tuxedo with a black bow tie. He had a wide smile on his face, his arms protectively wrapped around his mother's waist. Regina was wearing a long sleeve bareback dress. It had red lace sleeves that started just below her shoulders and came down to her fingers, the rest of the dress was pure black. Her hair was all off to one side, she had choose that hairstyle because Henry had told her that it made her look the most beautiful he had ever seen her.
Regina turned the page but the tears clouding her vision made it impossible to see. She wiped the tears away, as she did so the next picture of her precious son came into view. It was of her and Henry, he was four at the time, baking Christmas cookies. After this year it became their tradition to make cookie on Christmas Eve. Henry was mixing the batter as Regina watched him with a smile, thinking she had more time before the camera's self timer took the photo. Regina wiped the tears off of the photo, thinking back to one of the best days of her life.
"Mommy! Mommy! Can I help ?" Henry excitedly bounced up and down at the announcement that his mother was going to make Christmas cookies.
"Well, that depends, do you think my little prince can handle it?" Regina teasingly asked. She happily smiled at her joyful son.
"I can handle it. I'm a good little prince!" Henry answered echoing her words from last night.
"Yes, I suppose you are." Regina said looking lovingly into her son's eyes. He smiled back up at her, proud to make his mother happy."So I guess we should go to the store to get the ingredients. Do you want to come or should I drop you off at-" Regina didn't even need to finish her sentence as her four year old son dragged her arm. She was barely able to grab her purse before she was yanked out the door.
"Henry, it's freezing out here, we need to go get our coats." Regina told the impatient little boy.
"Okay, then can we leave?" Henry asked while dragging his mother back inside to the coat rack.
"I have to lock the door, and then yes we may leave." Regina said while putting on her black coat and helping Henry put on his.
"But mommy!" Henry argued in protest.
"Well do you someone to break in and steal our things?" Regina asked while smiling at her son's adorable pouting face.
"No! They will steal Gala!" Henry shouted, worried they might steal his stuffed horse.
"Yes I'm sure that is the first thing they would steal, which is exactly why we need to lock the house up." Regina replied, hiding her amused smile from his view. She quickly locked the door and proceeded to be dragged to her car.
When they arrived at the store Henry was bouncing out of his seat. Before Regina had adopted Henry Christmas meant nothing to her, but now it meant seeing her son's face light up Christmas morning. She helped Henry out of the car and held his hand as they walked up the store.
As they walked down the isles Henry rode on the end of the cart while Regina picked out the ingredients.
"Mommy ride the cart with me!" Henry smiled as he tried to convince his mother to have some fun. He knew she never was relaxed in public.
"Henry, I am much to old to do that." Regina argued while looking for the right flour.
"No you're not. Pretty please mommy." Henry answered hoping it was enough to convince her.
"Henry." Regina said in tone that told Henry to drop it.
Henry walked around to the front of the cart and stood on the ledge to get closer to his mother's height. "Mommy." He said in the same tone she had just used on him.
Regina laughed at her son adorable immiation of her. She softly shook her head, she couldn't believe she let her son talk her into this. She put one leg on the ledge of the cart and used the other to push off. They both laughed as they rolled down the isles grabbing ingredients as they rode side by side. Regina was in charge of steering and Henry was in charge of making his mother laugh. Henry was doing an excellent job and Regina was doing an okay job other than the two times they crashed.
After they got done getting the ingredients, they headed home an got everything ready to start making it. Regina set down a stool so Henry could mix one of the bowls.
"Okay we are now ready to combine them." Regina told Henry. They combined the bowls and Regina instructed Henry how to mix the final bowl.
She grabbed her camera, placed it in front of Henry and set the self timer for ten seconds. By the time she walked over there the picture took as she was smiling down at Henry. She couldn't be prouder in that moment of her little prince.
"So do we get to eat it now?" Henry asked for the fourth time.
"Henry as I said before it is still batter, we have to bake it before we can eat it." Regina smiled at her impatient boy. "I'm going to go get the pan, you stay here." Regina said as she walked away to get the pan.
Henry watched as her mother walked away before dipping his finger in the batter and licking it off. He took a step off the stool before quickly spinning around when he heard his mother's footsteps.
"Hmm, Henry, did you eat the batter?" Regina asked with a loving smirk.
"No." Henry looked down guiltily.
"Then why do you have batter on your nose?" Regina asked as she wiped it off his nose.
"I'm sorry mommy." Henry said with tears in his eyes.
"It's okay baby." She smiled at him as she wiped the tears from his eyes. "I guess I didn't think about the thief being in the house." Regina laughed and Henry's laugh soon followed close behind. "So shall we get back to making those cookies?" Regina questioned.
"Yeah!" Henry excitedly squealed. Regina lovingly watched as Henry carefully spread the batter out on the pan.
After putting the cookies in the oven they decided to rest on the couch. Regina sat down and within seconds Henry was in her lap. Regina's arms reached out to tightly wrap around Henry. She held him as close as possible.
"Hey, mommy?" Henry asked breaking the silence.
"Yes, baby?" Regina questioned with her eyes closed as she savored this moment with her son.
"I love you." Henry said snuggling in closer. Regina's eyes flashed open in shock. He had never said that before, sure he had said it back but he was never the first one to say it.
Regina eyes shone with tears of joy. "I love you too, my little prince." She said, failing to hide the break in her voice.
Henry pulled back slightly to look at his mother's crying face. "Mommy, why are you sad?" He said frowning at his mother's despair.
"Baby, I'm not sad, I'm the most happy I've ever been. These are tears of joy." She said with her brightest smile.
"Oh." He replied, returning her smile.
Now she cried, but for a much different reason.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! Your words were very encouraging, hope to hear what you think of this new chapter! Also please tell me if you guys would like to see this be strictly regal believer, swan queen, or outlaw queen. No matter what regal believer will always be the number one priority.