Appreciate all the favorites, reviews, and follows! You are all super awesome! Here's probably the longest chapter this fanfiction will see. Hope you like it!
As for the review about some smut, I haven't put any in this story yet and I've been debating if I should or not. I think I'm leaning towards yes though…
Chapter 8
One week and 4 days. That's how long it has been since Emma's first letter and still the person was a mystery. Emma found herself annoyed that they had not kept their promise and revealed themselves. Not only that, the letters had stopped. How dare they do that to her? Get her hopes up and then leave her hanging. She had spent that day, 4 days ago, looking up at every small sound. Glancing at every passing person. Emma was expecting someone to reveal themselves. To come clean and tell her they had been writing the letters. But there was nothing. Not a letter… not a person, nothing.
It has put Emma in a mood. She was snapping at everyone and hating herself for believing the mystery correspondent would actually man up and reveal themselves. Of course they wouldn't. If they were that brave, she wouldn't have gotten those letters in the first place.
Emma didn't have the heart to throw out those letters. They had seemed so sincere. She hated herself for still carrying them around with her. Perhaps she just really wanted someone to want her in that way. Someone who wasn't Neal or Hook. Hook just wanted to sleep with her and Neal… well, Neal was a mistake when she was younger and more naïve. He'd also left her to rot in jail for a crime he had committed.
"Em… Em!" She heard her name being almost yelled.
Emma looked up with a glare, "What?" she growled.
Neal looked offended while Hook gloated. "He's been calling your name for a while, love."
Emma narrowed her eyes at Hook. "Don't. Call. Me. Love," her face grimaced at that last word. She turned to Neal, "And don't call me Em either."
"But I always call you that."
"Yea. Ten years ago, Neal. So don't call me that." Neal put up his hands in surrender but decided to press on.
"Anyways, who is it going to be? You going to have dinner with me," he pointed at himself with a grin. "Or that guy," he threw a disgusted glance at Hook. "over there?"
"I didn't agree to have dinner with either of you." Emma pointed out.
"Sure you did," Hook proclaimed, looking hurt that she had forgotten. "Remember yesterday?"
Emma groaned. "Oh my God, I was just saying that so you would leave me alone. What's wrong with both of you anyways? Stop this," she waved her hands vaguely between both of them. "Whatever this is." She finished lamely.
"What do you mean?" Neal exclaimed.
"Not doing anything, love," Hook said at the same time. They turned to each other and glared. Emma sighed, they were going to go at it again. Sure enough, they began bickering about who should get to take Emma out for dinner. This was ridiculous, it was as if they didn't care what Emma wanted.
She opened her mouth to yell at the two of them to shut up when the door to the Sheriff's office flew open. Stunned quiet, everyone turned to look at a practically fuming Regina. In her hands was some paper and she looked ready to bite someone's head off.
Regina stopped briefly when she noticed that Emma wasn't in the office alone and glared at Neal and Hook when she realized who was there. "What are you doing here?" She barked at them. "Don't waste the Sheriff's time while she's on the clock." She swept past them. "Leave," she hissed.
Hook opened his mouth to protest but Regina threaten him by simply raising her palm up as if ready to form a fireball. Visibly gulping, Hook turned to the door and quickly scampered away with Neal at his heals.
Nodding satisfied, Regina turned around to find an almost relieved look on Emma's face. Ignoring it, Regina growled at her, "I don't appreciate your use of government time, Sheriff."
Emma looked affronted. "I didn't ask them to come, Madam Mayor."
"Nevertheless. I should have never expected more from you." Regina strode over to Emma's desk and slapped down the stack of papers.
"What's that?"
"Paperwork, Miss Swan."
"For what? I already did mine."
"From last month," Regina hissed, leaning over the desk a little. "You were careless doing it and missed a lot of stuff." She pushed the stack closer to Emma. "Look it over again."
"Seriously?" Emma exclaimed. "That's last month! Who cares about that?"
"I do," the Mayor growled. "And you work for me so I suggest you get on it. Better use of your time then planning dates with your multitude of admirers," she spat.
"I was not planning dates. Actually, I was trying to get them to leave. But no, you just assume you know what is going on. As usual." Emma glared at her. What's up with Regina today anyways? They haven't fought like this in a while.
"Just get them done." Regina straightened.
"Yes yes, Madam Mayor. Anything for your majesty." Emma mocked.
Regina rolled her eyes. "And where's is Henry?" She tacked on, face softening just a little at the mention of her son.
"Uhh… at school?" Emma responded, confused.
"School?" The agitation in Regina's pose came creeping back.
"He's not out till 3…"
"Miss Swan, did your mom not convey the message after she dropped Henry off yesterday?"
Emma scrunched up her face trying to remember. "What message?" She shook her head, nothing came to mind.
"Henry is done with school at 1:30 today, not three." Regina's eyebrows creased in worry.
Emma glanced at the clock and saw that it was 2pm already. "Oh crap..." she began.
"Oh crap is correct, Miss Swan." Regina snapped. "Shouldn't have trusted Snow with anything. Of course she doesn't say the one thing that is important and instead runs around telling things that get others in trouble."
"Huh?" Emma asked confused. She didn't know what Regina was referring to.
"Don't dally, Sheriff." Regina hissed instead. "I have a meeting to attend to. Go pick up my son as it was your job anyways."
"Uh, right," Emma said, scrambling out of her seat. "I'll just," she pointed vaguely behind her, "go pick him up then."
Regina nodded curtly and allowed Emma to walk past her out of the office. When the door slammed shut behind her, Regina winced a little. She sighed softly and walked to the window of the Sheriff's office and glanced outside. Emma was stomping to her hideous car and though it pained her to know that she had pissed Emma off, she couldn't help but find it just a little adorable.
As the Sheriff drove off, Regina glanced around her office. She had been berating herself the past four days about not telling Emma. Every time she thought of her, she would tell herself that today was the day. And Regina thought about Emma every day. Multiple times. Still, she couldn't pucker up the courage to keep to the promise she had made in her letters. Ashamed, she had stopped writing letters after that week. Each passing day made her more and more frustrated with herself and her temper grew.
She glanced at the stack of paperwork she had shoved at Emma. They were still sitting on the desk. Really, she had just wanted an excuse to see her but with the last four days, she didn't know how to act around Emma so her wall came up. Honestly, the Mayor had just dug into her pile of paperwork just to find something that Emma had missed. Seeing Neal and Hook there didn't help either though Emma looked really annoyed at the two of them. She wondered what they were talking about as she looked to the clock and gave a small start. She had a meeting to go to. Straightening her resolve, Regina strode out of the Sheriff's office and decided that she would do something about her situation with Emma. Maybe another letter if she couldn't do it in person. Hopefully Emma would forgive her.
The bell chimed and Gold looked up to see Henry coming in with his backpack and a determined look on his face. Tilting his head curiously, he carefully put down the artifact he was cleaning and wiped his hands.
"Henry. Aren't you supposed to be in school?"
Henry leaned on the glass counter with a shake of his head. "We got out early today. Emma didn't come pick me up." He looked thoughtful for just a moment. "Grandma probably forgot to tell her."
Gold nodded slowly, still confused as to why his grandson was here. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
Henry looked up solemnly. "I have a question for you." He said seriously. Henry had to wait till now before he had a chance to get away from both his mom and Emma to ask about whether he was right in thinking that his mom was using magic again. He didn't want Emma to know in case he was wrong.
"Go on," Gold urged, eyes twinkling with curiosity.
"So you know how when everyone does magic, they have a signature thing that they do?" Henry began. "Like my mom always does an interesting hand wave thing." Henry slowly attempted the flourish his mom did whenever she was doing magic.
"What about it, dearie?"
"Well, would there be a reason to use that hand movement if you weren't doing magic? Perhaps it becomes like a habit to do it?" He asked hopefully.
"Why are you asking? Have you seen her do it?" Gold asked, intrigued. What was the former Evil Queen up to now?
Henry nodded. "She doesn't know I saw her though. She promised me she wouldn't!" He looked down. "I'm worried she's doing something evil again." He looked up thoughtfully. "Lately, she'd been having really short temper too."
"Hmm," Gold started, wheels turning. "You've only seen her do it once?"
"Yea."
"And how long ago was that?"
"More than a few days ago. I haven't had a chance to stop by without them knowing."
Gold nodded understandably. Neither of Henry's moms really trusted him with Gold. For good reason too. The things he does are really only for his benefit or entertainment.
"Well, sorry to say that if you've seen your mom using her hand wave, she was doing magic. But what magic, I can't say."
Henry looked upset at the news. "But, I mean, it could be good magic, right? Like she's not hurting anyone, is she?"
"That I can not say, my boy." Gold responded.
The wheels turned inside of Henry's head. It was silent for a while in the store and Gold let him ponder what he had just said. He picked up his cloth again and began to grease the artifact.
After a few minutes, Henry's face lit up. "I know! Do you have a potion that can trace her magic?"
Gold considered Henry for a brief moment. "I believe I have a spell like that." He affirmed.
Henry made a small grimace. "With a price, right?"
"Actually," Gold responded. "The price will be that you let me know what you find. How about that?"
Henry narrowed his eyes at him. "Why do you want to know?"
Gold shrugged. "If she's up to something, I'd like to know what, that's all."
Henry sighed. "I don't really have a choice, huh?"
"Not unless you don't want to find out what she's doing," he responded smoothly.
With a nod, Henry replied, "Let's do it."
Gold smiled, "Let me go and grab the potion then." He swiftly turned and brushed aside the curtain that led to the back room.
A few seconds later, he came back with a small vial with powder inside of it. "Now," Gold placed the vial on the counter. "I need something that your mom gave you, do you have that?"
Henry rolled his eyes in the signature Regina move. "Duh, she gives me everything, she's my mom." He opened his backpack and pulled out his pencil case and held it up. "How's this?"
Gold nodded, "That'll do." He took the case from Henry and opened the vial. The powder in it was white with no color. Gold carefully sprinkled the powder on the case, making sure none got anywhere else. The minute the powder touched the case, it turned a deep purple color. The color of Regina's magic. All the powder floated an inch off of the case once the color changed.
Henry tilted his head at the change in color. "That's the color of my mom's magic." He stated.
"Yes," Gold responded. "Now, here's what's going to happen. This powder will float into your eyes. Don't worry, it will not hurt." Gold lifted his hands at the powder and it drifted up till it was eye level with Henry. "It will dissolve in your eyes and wherever your mom has used magic in the last day, the object or the area the magic was used in will turn purple in your eyes. No one else will be able to see it except for you. Do you understand?"
There was a slight fear in Henry's eyes but he nodded in understanding. "Okay."
With a nod, Gold urged the powder into Henry's eyes. His eyes widened just a little as the powder settled and Henry blinked a few times, rapidly, unused to the sensation. The powder disappeared and for a brief instant, Henry's eyes glowed purple before returning to normal.
Gold corked the vile and put it behind the counter. "You're all set."
"It really will work?" Henry implored. "How long does this potion last?"
"With the amount that I gave you, it will only last you a day. So you better hurry along and see if she's used any magic today."
Henry scrunched up his face. "What if she didn't use any magic today?"
"Then you're out of luck. Perhaps if you come back, I will let you have some more." Henry nodded and grabbed his pencil case to put back into his backpack.
Before Henry could put his things away, the door suddenly flew open and a livid Emma marched through. Emma's were narrowed and she glared at Gold. Striding forward, she grabbed Henry and pulled him to her side.
"What did you do?" She demanded to Gold.
Gold put up his hands in mock surrender. "Nothing, dearie. Henry here came looking for me."
Emma paused for a second and looked at Henry confused. Henry looked down and shrugged sheepishly. "Is it true?" She asked. Henry nodded, not looking at Emma. "He didn't ask you to do anything? Want anything from you?" She pressed on.
Henry looked up, "No, he's telling the truth. I came looking for him."
Emma looked appalled. "Why would you do that?" She groaned. "Your mom is going to kill me when she finds out you came here. And then kill you… and me again." Emma narrowed her eyes at Henry. "You know she doesn't want you here."
Henry nodded and tried to look remorsefully while coming up with a good reason why he was there. "You didn't pick me up…" He started.
"I know, I know," Emma said. "Mary Margaret forgot to tell me apparently. Your mom came in furious." She paused for a bit. "Actually… she was furious about my paperwork from a month ago," Emma declared with a scoff. "And after that she realized you weren't here and then got even more mad. What's up with her today anyways?"
Henry shrugged. "Dunno. She's been getting progressively more moody last few days for some reason."
"Last few days huh?" Emma said thoughtfully. With a shrug, she came up blank with no ideas why Regina would be acting so strange. Turning her attention back to the issue, she continued. "But why come here?" She looked over at Gold. "No offense."
"None taken, dearie," he replied nonchalantly as he scrubbed at the item in his hand.
"Uhh… Well, Grandma and Ruby went to buy baby stuff; so, I didn't know where to go." Henry said quickly as he just remembered that Snow had indeed told him she was going out with Ruby.
Emma nodded reluctantly, "Alright. David is covering the station for me right now anyways so he couldn't pick you up either. I called him on my way to pick you up." She put her arm around Henry's shoulder. "I'm just not looking forward to telling your mom where you were." She said with a grimace. Emma glanced to Gold. "Sorry for the misunderstanding." She apologized.
"Not a problem," he responded. Gold then glanced over to Henry and gave a pointed look to remind him of their deal. Henry nodded his understanding and with a smile, tugged Emma's hand and led them out of the store.
"So," Emma began as they walked down the street towards the Sheriff's office. "Since I was late picking you up, I figure you might as well hang out with me at work until it's time to go home. What do you think?"
"Sure." He looked up hopefully. "Does that mean we can get some fries at Granny's?"
Emma laughed and ruffled his hair. "Only if you don't tell your mom, kid. She doesn't like me enough as it is."
Henry looked at her thoughtfully. "I don't know if you're right on that."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, people that mom really doesn't like, she doesn't let them know it. She doesn't show. Or more like, they can't get any type of emotion out of her. You on the other hand, seem to be able to bring out emotions in her. So I don't think she doesn't like you."
Emma grinned, "Oh yea? All the negative emotion is what I bring out of her," she laughed. Quieting down, she thought back to the few civil moments she had with Regina. "I guess we do have moments where I feel like we are friends." She paused a bit before tacking on the end, "or could be."
Henry beamed, "See?"
"I don't see anything, kid." Emma replied with a playful shove to his shoulder. Henry dramatically rolled his eyes at her and she smiled affectionately.
After they had ordered their bag of greasy fries, they walked into the Sheriff's office to find David sitting at the desk, dutifully looking through the paperwork that the Mayor had left there. He looked up when they walked in and smiled.
"Hey guys," He looked at the bag in Henry's hand. "Got Granny's I see."
Henry nodded happily and plopped himself down on a chair and opened the bag to dig in.
"Hey!" Emma exclaimed. "Don't forget to save some for me."
"Better hurry up then," Henry replied as he shoved a couple fries in his mouth. Emma laughed, he could never eat like this in front of Regina.
She pulled up a chair and got ready to sit next to Henry when David spoke up again. "Oh Emma." She looked over at him. "These are for you. I don't know who sent it." He pointed to a few things sitting on the desk in front of him.
Emma looked and gasped. There was a hot cup of coffee and a bearclaw. But that wasn't what stood out. Balanced on the coffee cup was a folded piece of paper. Was it her secret admirer? It had been four days since the last one! In a rush, Emma stumbled over and grabbed the letter. It was folded with a neat "Emma" typed right at the middle. This was them. Emma grinned, elated, then sobered up at the thought that they hadn't revealed themselves and had been silent for so long! How could they? Still, the feelings these letters had evoked for her wouldn't go away.
She'd save the letter for later, Emma decided, she didn't want questions anyways. With the letter still in hand, she grabbed the coffee and the treat and made her way back to Henry. "Thanks," she tossed at David.
"No problem," he replied. "Who's it from?"
Emma shrugged and didn't answer. Henry looked up finally, curious at the exchange and wondered what Emma was so excited about when he gasped out loud. His eyes flashed purple for a brief moment and he saw a soft purple light around the three items Emma held. The letter, the coffee, and the bear claw.
"Wait!" Henry exclaimed just as Emma was about to bite into the bearclaw. She paused and looked at him curiously. "If you don't know who sent it, how do you know it's not poisoned?!" What if her mom was trying to kill Emma again?
Emma let out a short laugh sheepishly. "Well, I don't exactly not know who sent it to me."
Henry furrowed his brows, confused. "What do you mean?"
"Look, kid." Emma ran her fingers through her hair. She really didn't want to explain to her twelve year old son about adults and the mysteries of romance just quite yet. Emma sighed, "I get letters from someone and sometimes the person sends me food with it." She shrugged.
"And you just eat it without knowing who sends you the letters?" Henry asked incredulous.
"Uh, yea?" Emma replied. "Look," she held up the bear claw and bit into it despite the horror showing on Henry's face. She chewed and swallowed. "Everything's fine," she said with a smile.
Henry looked at the remaining piece of bear claw. Nope, purple hue was still there. His mom definitely had something to do with it. Wait, did Emma say letters? Like multiple?
"So you have more of those letters?" Henry asked.
Emma nodded. "I've kept them in that folder over there," she pointed at the folder laying with her leather jacket. Henry had seen her carrying that around with her almost everywhere and reading from it with this puzzling expression on that he'd never seen before. It was like a soft smile that Henry would see Grandpa give Grandma. Except Emma did this to the pieces of paper she was reading. Henry had always thought that a little strange. Adults were weird. That's what he had decided when he found Emma reading them. But now, things were even stranger. Were those letters from his mom? But if they really were from her, it didn't seem like anything bad.
"Earth to Henry," Emma said, waving a few fries in his face before shoving them in her mouth. "More for me if you don't want any," she said with a shrug and grin.
Pulled out of his thoughts, Henry grabbed a couple fries. "Hey! No way. I'm having some." He'll think about this later. At least he knew Gold's potion had worked. "Don't you have your own food anyways?" He asked pointedly looking at the bear claw and coffee that still glowed.
"I'm saving those for later," Emma replied easily. "Besides, no one will steal those."
"Because no one wants to die of a heart attack," David piped in with a smile.
"You sound like Regina." Emma groaned. "Besides, that won't happen," Emma said confidently, "just look at this," she flexed her arms to show her biceps. "Fit as a fiddle." David laughed affectionately.
The sound of the ringing phone stopped them from any further conversation. Emma and David began a silent eye conversation, neither wanting to pick up the phone about some lost cat or runaway Pongo. Archie really needed to learn how to keep that dog on a leash. Narrowing her eyes at David, she pointed to the phone as if saying, "it's closer to you."
David sighed and picked up the phone. "Sheriff's office." There was a pause before David gestured Emma to the phone with a smirk. "Speak of the devil," he whispered as Emma got up to take it from him.
Emma held it to her ear. "Sheriff speaking."
"Miss Swan," she heard Regina drawl.
"Ah, Madam Mayor." Emma unconsciously straightened up. "What can I do for you?" Henry perked his ears at who was calling.
"You, dear, can't do anything for me," Regina said dismissively. "I wanted to inquire if you've picked up Henry yet."
Of course that's what she was calling for. It didn't seem that Regina believed Emma capable of much. "Uh, yea, I got the kid. Took him to Granny's before coming here." Her majesty sure was being distrusting today.
"To fill him with greasy health laden food?" Regina sniffed causing Emma to grin. She could just imagine her face. "I don't need my son dying from a heart attack before he's 20, Miss Swan."
"Don't worry," Emma mockingly soothed. "I'm eating it too. Plus, I'm also eating a bear claw. Shouldn't you be more worried about your Sherriff dying of one?"
"Wouldn't worry." The Mayor deadpanned. "You're past 20." A hint of a smile tugged at Regina's lips. There was a short pause before she continued. "Bear claw and greasy food from Granny's? You must be wanting to die before 35."
"Hey now," Emma defended. "Just so you know, I didn't get that bear claw! It was here when I got back with Henry." There was a sound on the other end of the phone as if Regina was wanting to respond but Emma pressed on, having too much fun. "Plus, only 35? You hurt me, Your Majesty. You gave me less than five more years to live."
"I take it back," Regina quipped, "you won't live longer than 33."
Emma chuckled. "Only if you poison me… oh wait, you already did."
At this, Regina let out a chuckle unable to help herself. She was just enjoying herself too much. The bear claw, coffee, and letter was totally worth it. And it seemed like Emma was enjoying it as well.
"Was that…?" Emma started and trailed off.
"Spit it out, Sheriff," Regina quipped without any aggression.
"Was that a laugh I just heard?" Emma asked, almost baffled. Not letting Regina answer, she went on, "I mean, I've heard you laugh, sure. When you're doing your evil laugh." Emma let out a short laugh. "That hardly counts. And maybe a couple times when we were civil with each other."
"Aren't I just full of surprises?" The Mayor retorted playfully. The intercom beeped on her end, assistant notifying her that her next appointment was there. Regina grimaced. She needed to get off the phone. "Don't let Henry eat any sweets after all that grease you filled him with, Miss Swan. I must be going now."
"Alright. Later, Madam Mayor," Emma replied and hung up the phone with a happy, but puzzled smile.
She looked over at Henry who had his brows furrowed in confusion. "Was that my mom?" He asked.
Emma shrugged, "Yea, wanted to make sure I picked you up since I forget and to tell me that I am not allowed to give you any sweets today."
Henry almost whined, "Why not? I haven't had any today yet!"
"Because you had the fries, kid." Speaking of them, Emma reached over and grabbed a couple. "I don't need your mom mad at me again. She finally seemed like she was in a good mood."
Henry narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Really? Why?"
"I don't know. But I'm going to take anything that I can get. She's been a real ass lately." She paused for a second. "Don't let your mom know I use bad words in front of you…" she tacked on at the end.
"That's weird…" Henry said softly.
"What's weird?" David piped up from the desk.
"Mom has been in a really bad mood the last few days. She tries not to show it too much but I can tell." Henry looked thoughtful. "I wonder what changed." He eyes Emma's glowing bear claw curiously. Why did his mom give Emma a bear claw and a note? What did the note say anyways?
"Your mom's been in a bad mood?" Emma asked. She hadn't had much contact with the brunette for the last couple days and didn't really sense anything different. Except for today of course. She had been an absolute raging bitch earlier.
Henry nodded. "You should be glad you weren't around her. Both of you guys were being moody. Honestly, if you had been in the same room, I wouldn't be surprised if you started fighting more than normal." He contemplated for a moment. "Like mom would probably throw a fireball at you." He nodded as if that concluded the discussion and reached for a fry.
"Thought she gave up magic." David chimed in, looking up from his paperwork.
"It was just an expression," Henry said in the 'duh' tone of voice. "Not like she really was going to use magic." He continued, slightly less convincingly.
David snorted. "I wouldn't put it past her," he muttered under his breathe.
Henry looked up indignant, wanting to defend his mom but unsure if he could do it properly. There was evidence right in front of him that she was still using magic after all. Instead, it was Emma who piped up.
"She wouldn't," Emma declared with confidence. "Not anymore." She scratched the back of her head. "I think she and I are kind of getting along now," she declares happily.
David quirked a brow. "Really? Because sounded like she was real rough this morning."
Emma shrugged, "That's just Regina. She's strange like that. Sometimes it feels like she actually enjoys talking to me though."
David chuckled. "You mean talking down to you, right?"
"Haha," Emma mocked, "very funny. When she's not talking down to me or telling me I'm incompetent, it's like she enjoys talking to me."
Henry looked at her, incredulous. "And how many times has that been? Like twice?"
Emma laughed sheepishly, "Yea… that sounds about right."
David shook his head affectionately, "Whatever works for you I guess."
It fell silent as the two returned to eating and David started his paperwork again. Before long, Emma had polished off her bear claw and was sipping on her coffee while almost spacing out. However, she was thinking of what the contents of the letter would contain. No doubt them trying to apologize for not keeping their promise and revealing themselves to her after the one week was up. Who could blame them though? Emma would be scared out of her mind if she had to do something like that while thinking that the other person would reject her. She didn't know if she would have the guts to even write them letters like this person had been doing.
Emma glanced up at the two people in the office with her and found them engrossed in what they were doing. With a content smile, Emma unfolded the letter, eager to read what was written.
Does it help ease your anger if you knew how terribly sorry I am on backing out of my promise? I wish I had a good excuse as to why but I really don't. You would think that coming from a person who has employees working under them that I would be brave enough to have those difficult discussions face to face.
However, that bravery doesn't seem to extend enough for me to stand up and tell you who I am. I am truly sorry for that.
Have I ruined all the progress I assume we've been making? You haven't called the cops to report a stalker yet, so I assume you enjoy these letters.
… Oh wait, you are the Sheriff ;).
Emma felt her lips tilt up into the beginnings of a smile then caught herself and almost groaned out loud. One letter and it seemed like she was well on her way to forgiving him. It seemed like they knew her well enough to know that too, hence joking with her again already.
"What's the letter say?" A voice cut through Emma's thoughts, causing her to look up. Henry was looking curiously over with a slight frown on his face.
"Oh nothing," Emma responded airily. "They wrote something funny was all."
"Who's it from?"
Emma looked pensive for a moment, trying to figure that out. Sounds like he was a manager at least. Or maybe an owner of a store somewhere? It did mention that they had people working under them. This filtered out quite a few more people and Emma was glad that finally she'd gotten a bit more of a clue. For now though, she still didn't know.
She shrugged at Henry. "I don't know, kid."
"Do you get letters from them often?"
"Uhh, yea, a little over a week now actually. It stopped for a few days though." She peered curiously over at him. "Why all the questions suddenly?"
Henry pretended to shrug, uninterested. "No reason."
Emma narrowed her eyes at him, suspicious. "Do you know something about these?" She waved her letter around a bit.
"Nope." Henry easily responded. That wasn't a lie. He had suspicions, but he didn't know anything about it really. Nothing concrete yet. Emma continued to look at him for a minute, as if waiting for him to say that he had lied but Henry said nothing. Finally, after a while, Emma sighed. Her bullshit meter didn't ping anyways. He was telling the truth.
"So," Emma piped up after a minute, looking at Henry, "What do you want to do today?"
Henry looked thoughtful for a moment. What he really wanted to do was see if his mom was up to anything. He contemplated the letter and wondered if there was any way Emma would let him read it. He doubted it. If he couldn't see it from Emma, the next option was to see if he could catch Regina doing magic again, and maybe confront her about it and ask about the letter. It sounded like there was more than one of those letters according to Emma. Were they all from his mom?
He needed to get back to the mansion sometime before this time tomorrow. An idea floated into his head and he grabbed at it. There was no better idea anyways.
"Umm," he began, putting on his best sheepish face, "I didn't exactly finish my science project when I was with my mom. I need her help doing it. Do you think I could stop by tomorrow morning and have her help me get it done?"
Emma glanced at him curiously. "You mean your mom didn't tell you to finish all your homework first?" Her face slowly broke out into a grin as she considered this. Before letting Henry respond, she pumped her fist childishly in the air. "Yes! And here I was thinking she's perfect! Wait till I rub this one in her face." Emma did love to one up her, regardless of in what.
Henry rolled his eyes and Emma glared at him halfheartedly. That was definitely a learned trait from Regina. She used that on Emma so often, she was surprised her eyes weren't permanently stuck in that position.
"So can I?" Henry asked hopefully.
"Let me ask your mom real quick." Emma responded pulling out her phone. She got ready to call before considering it a minute. "Does your mom text?" She asked instead, looking up at Henry. "She had just called me and I don't want to call her again. She might be busy. At least with a text, she can respond to it whenever."
Henry nodded. "She's not very good at it though."
Emma chuckled, "Come on, kid, you can't be bad at texting. There's nothing to it."
"You haven't seen her do it though," Henry insisted.
"Can't be that bad," Emma said confidently. "As long as she answers my question."
She unlocks her phone and quickly types:
Hey. Didn't want to bother you at work. Can Henry stop by tomorrow to finish his project? He said he didn't get it done.
She hit send. Contemplating another minute, she started another message.
And, HA! You aren't as good as a mom as I thought! He didn't finish all his homework! That's totally a win for me. Here I thought you were perfect.
Satisfied, Emma nodded to herself and looked up at Henry again. "So besides that tomorrow morning, what did you want to do tonight?"
Henry tilted his head, considering the question a bit. "How about we all play some games? With grandma and grandpa too?" He asked hopefully, looking in David's direction.
David looked up and grinned, "Of course. Better be careful, I'm going to beat you all at monopoly again."
Henry smirked confidently, "Not this time. I won't be making bad trades with you like I did last week!"
"We'll see about that," David promised ominously with a grin.
What did you think? I hope it held up to the expectations! There will be more of Henry and our favorite couple in the next chapter!