After cleaning up her mess of crumbled papers, she headed upstairs to retrieve the one video she didn't give to Emma. She had watched this video several times over the past few years. She had watched it every time Henry told her he didn't love her.
She searched through her closet until she found what she was looking for. She walked past her bed and down the stairs into the living room. She put the video in and her six year old son appeared on the screen. She smiled at how cute he was, he had taken this video without her knowing. It was a gift for Mother's Day.
Henry turned away from the camera to grab his note cards. As soon as she grabbed them he turned back around to face the camera.
"Hi mommy!" Henry said, a smile now covering his face.
Regina smiled brightly as the words she had been dying to hear echoed throughout her house. It gave the house warm feeling, as opposed to the lonely feeling it had since Henry left.
"Happy Mother's Day! Here are ten things I love about you." Henry looked down to his note cards. "One, you always fix my nightmares. Two, you protect me. Three, you always smell like vanilla. Four, you give good hugs."
Regina closed her eyes as she mouthed every word, she had memorized every pause in his voice, every word he spoke too fast, and all the words he couldn't quite pronounce.
"Five, you are always there for me. Six, you let me sit in your lap when we watch movies. Seven, you let me help you cook even though I spill always things. Eight, you tuck me in a night. Nine, you sing to me. Ten, you make me brownies, the good kind with chocolate chips in the middle." Henry said, staring at his note cards the whole time.
Regina laughed at the last one, he had always had a weak spot for brownies.
"I love you mommy! Happy-"
Regina smiled as she realized what was going to happen next.
"Henry, it's time for-" Regina was cut off by an alarmed six year old.
"No, mommy it's a surprise! Stay in the hallway!" Henry said while holding the door shut. Regina's amused laughs could be heard from the hallway.
"Okay dear, I won't come in. Dinner's ready, so when you're done come downstairs." Regina replied.
"Okay." Henry answered. He waited until her heard Regina's footsteps going down the stairs before resuming his speech.
He walked back over to the camera and kept his voice to a whisper just in case. "Happy Mother's Day! I have to go eat dinner, so bye!"
Regina wiped the tears from her eyes at the memory. She smiled back at the screen as Henry tried to figure out how to turn off the camera.
She felt complete for a moment, but suddenly she felt as if something weren't quite right. Her first instinct was to run back upstairs to check on Henry but then realized he wasn't there. She tried to push the feeling away, but couldn't seem to shake it.
She headed upstairs to Henry's room, something she now did on a regular basis for comfort. She took one look at the bed and saw that Gala was gone. She spent the next ten minutes searching the room for it, but it was nowhere to be found.
What am I going to tell Henry?
She thought back to the only other time they had lost Gala.
"Mommy! She's gone! She's gone!" Henry said running into the room crying before hugging his mother's leg like his life depended on it.
"Baby, who's gone?" Regina asked, rubbing the back of his head in an attempt to soothe him.
"Gala!" Henry screamed.
"Calm down baby, I'll find her." Regina told him. "Stay here, I'm going to go check the car." Henry nodded his head in response before reluctantly letting go of her leg.
They had just returned from a two hour car trip to an amusement park . Regina was sure Henry had just left it in the car. She looked around the back seat before checking the front ones. After she didn't find them there she checked the trunk before going back inside the house.
"Did you find her?" Henry asked excitedly, fully expecting his mother to be to fix the problem.
"Henry, I'm sorry she wasn't in the car." Upon seeing the how disappointed Henry was that she couldn't fix everything she quickly added, "But don't worry, I'm not done looking yet." This earned her a half smile from Henry.
"Do you remember seeing her in the car?" Regina asked him.
After thinking for a moment Henry replied. "I know I didn't leave her at the amusement park, but I don't remember seeing her on the ride home."
Suddenly Regina had an idea. She raced to grab her phone and searched for the number to gas station they had stopped at to use the restroom. She quickly called the number.
"Hello?... Yes, I'm calling because I think my son left his stuffed horse... Okay, thank you. Have a nice night." Regina quickly put down the phone and ran over to Henry.
"Okay, Gala is at the gas station." Regina told him, trying to calm him down.
"Yay! Can we go get her?" Henry asked, relieved his mother found his horse.
"Oh, Henry it's 10 pm-" Regina was about to tell him they would go get her tomorrow, but after looking at the disappointed look on her son's face she decided against it. "So if we are going to get there before they close, we need to leave now."
Henry looked back up at her a smiled before wrapping his arms around her. Regina gratefully returned the hug.
After about fifteen minutes they were finally ready to go. They talked for half the way until Henry finally started to get tired and couldn't form a sentence that made since.
Regina would look back every couple of minutes to see him almost fall asleep before lifting his head up and opening his eyes. In order to fall asleep Henry had always had to have Gala in his arms.
They soon pulled up to the gas station around 11:30 pm.
"Henry, stay here, I'll go get her." Regina said as she left the car.
When she came back she gave Gala to Henry and placed a kiss on his forehead. Henry had fallen asleep shortly after.
About halfway home Henry woke up. He suddenly realized that his stuffed horse had been returned. "Mommy, you did it." Henry sleepily said.
"Yes, baby." Regina replied with a smile. He would have startled her, had she not been checking the mirror every few minutes to make sure he was okay.
"Thank you." Henry mumbled before falling back to sleep, causing Regina to smile at her little boy.
She still felt like something wasn't quite right, and she knew it wasn't about the missing stuffed horse. She finally decided to stop ignoring her instincts and called Emma.
"Regina? It's 9 pm, is something wrong?" Emma answered.
"Miss Swan, I need you to check on Henry." Regina told her, completely ignoring Emma's question. She already knew the time, now she needed to know if her son was okay.
"Regina, Henry's fine he's upstairs in his room, probably sleeping." Emma told her, not wanting to leave the comfort of the couch.
"You don't understand. I just need you to check on him." Regina told her a bit forcefully.
"Then help me understand, tell me what's going on Regina." Emma told her, adjusting her position on the couch as she did.
Regina took a deep breath before explaining, "Ever since Henry was little, I'd get this strange feeling any time Henry was ever hurt or upset. I started having the same feeling earlier tonight, which is why I need you to check on Henry."
Emma sighed as she got up from the couch and walked to Henry's room. "I'll check on him Regina, but I'm telling you he's fine." Emma opened the door to find Henry curled up in bed, hugging a stuffed horse. As she moved closer she could see the tear streaks. "He's hugging a stuffed horse?" Emma said as more of a question than a statement.
"The horse's name is Gala." Regina corrected her.
"Of course it is." Emma replied a bit sarcastically before adding, "He's sleeping but it appears he had been crying, I'll ask him about it tomorrow. " Emma told her.
Regina sighed in relief. "Thank you, Miss Swan. Goodbye." Regina hung up, not waiting for Emma to answer.
Wanting to make his worries go away she decided to make brownies to take over to him tomorrow. She made sure she made "the good kind, with chocolate chips in the middle" as Henry had said.
_
"Hey, ma, do you think I could go see Regina today?" Henry casually asked as he tried to act like he had just come up with the idea. In reality he had been thinking about it all morning.
Emma stared at him in shock for a moment before replying. "Yeah, let me call her and ask." Emma said while racing to get her phone before he could change his mind. She went into the other room for some privacy.
"Miss Swan, is something wrong? Did you find out what Henry was crying about?" Regina urgently asked, she hadn't been able to get much sleep due to her stress over it.
"No, nothing is wrong. I couldn't get him to tell me. I'm calling to see if Henry could come over later today." Emma told her.
"Miss Swan, I appreciate that you are trying to help but forcing him to see me is not going to do anything other than push him further away."
"Regina, I'm not forcing him, he asked if he could." Emma explained, suddenly realizing Regina's mindset.
Regina's end of the phone got extremely quiet before she finally replied. "Don't you dare lie to me!" Regina angrily shouted, trying to mask the quiver in her voice.
"Regina, I'm not lying to you. He wants to see you." Emma said, trying not to act differently even though she could hear the pain in the mayor's voice.
Emma thought she could hear a barely concealed sob over the speakers.
"Really?" Regina asked her in a soft whisper.
"Yes, Regina. He really wants to see you." Emma gently told her.
"When does he want to come over?" Regina asked. She considered asking if Henry wanted to spend the night but decided against it after what happened last time.
"He said he wanted to come over today, but I think he would understand if that was too ear-" Emma was interrupted mid sentence.
"No, no that's fine. I'd love to have him over today. Anytime would work." Regina said, trying to contain her excitement.
"Okay well, as soon as he finishes breakfast we'll come over. Goodbye Regina." Emma told her as she walked back into the kitchen
"Goodbye Miss Swan." Regina replied.
_
"You okay kid?" Emma asked Henry as they pulled into Regina's driveway.
"I'm fine." Henry replied. He had been tense all morning, and as much as he tried to deny it, it was mostly due to how badly he wanted to see Regna.
It had hurt when Regina gave all their videos to Emma, like throwing away their memories.
Henry got out of the car and patiently waited for Emma to get out to so it wouldn't seem like he was too excited to see Regina.
They barely had to knock on the door before it swung open, revealing the regal mayor behind it.
"Good morning, Miss Swan." She said in her coldest voice, feeling the need to show her strength after the vulnerability she had just shown the sheriff. As she turned to greet Henry, once again, her entire demeanor changed. She became warmer. "Good morning, Henry."
"Morning, Regina. I have to take care of some business in town so I won't be staying this time." Emma announced. She had made up the story in the car when she told Henry. She had decided that the two of them needed some alone time.
"Oh, okay. That would be alright. Henry are you okay with that?" Regina asked her son, nervously awaiting his answer.
"Yeah, that would be okay." Henry said, trying not to sound too excited. Regina gave him a slight smile as she gestured for him to come inside.
After Emma left and the two of them were inside the room had an awkward silence. Regina gently placed a hand of Henry's shoulder, trying to make him feel more comfortable. She closed her eyes as she anticipated him pulling away. After a moment she opened her eyes in shock when it appeared he was leaning into her touch.
"So, did you have something in mind you wanted to do today?" Regina asked as she walked towards the kitchen, not quite knowing how to accept Henry's sudden affection.
"Not really." Henry stated. It was the truth, he hadn't anything in mind other than just wanting to be around her. He told himself it was just because he was bored at Emma's house.
"Oh! Emma told me you were crying last night so I made you some brownies to try and cheer you up." Regina told him, leaving out the part where she had been worried sick over what he could be crying about, and the fact that she had been the one to ask Emma to check on him. Regina got the tray of brownies and extended them to Henry.
"Thank you." Henry said as he took one.
"No problem." Regina replied, cutting herself off before she could use one of her loving nicknames for him. "Do you want to talk about why you were crying?" She asked.
"No thank you." Henry told her. Regina looked down a little in disappointment as he did so.
Henry took a bite of the brownie and realized there were chocolate chips in the middle. "Number ten." Henry mumbled to himself.
"What was that?" Regina asked, not quite sure she'd heard him right.
"Oh, it's nothing. It's from an old video I made for you... It's dumb." Henry replied a little bit sadly, thinking for a moment she wouldn't remember the video.
"Ten, you make me brownies, the good kind with chocolate chips in the middle." Regina quoted the video, causing Henry to look up at her in shock.
"How did you remember that?" Henry asked her, his heart fluttering in his chest when he realized she had remembered.
"I kept the video." Regina simply replied, although she was thrilled Henry had remembered the video too.
"But I thought you gave all the videos to Emma." Henry asked a little bit bitterly as he took another bite of his brownie.
"I didn't... I couldn't give her that one, it meant too much to me to let go of." Regina replied while looking to the ground.
Henry was silent for a moment before he finally spoke up. "Do you think we could watch it together?" He tried to asked casually.
"Of course Henry." Regina told him, a smile appearing on her lips as she did.
A/N: So after reading the reviews it seem like half of you want swan queen and half of you want outlaw queen so as you may have seen, I made a poll. Link: u/8489082/RegalBunny5#