Chapter 12: Will We
"Can I come in?" Henry asks and slack jawed, Regina lets him into the house because she doesn't know what else to do. Once there, she shakes herself, visibly rousing herself from this.
"Young man where are your parents," she demands. She knows she has to put out the fire with Kathryn but she needs to deal with this young boy first.
"Young man," he snickers, finding this delightful as he sits down on her couch. "You talk funny. And you have a nice house," he cranes his head upwards and looks at all her expenses. "And it's only Ma and me. I don't have another parent. Until you!" he smiles at her, something so wide and beaming and innocent.
"I have never seen you before in my life. I don't know why you would think I am your other mother," Regina said, unnerved by this situation.
"Ma never really talked about you either. Just mentioned a couple things here and there so when I got older, I got smarter and I did some looking. And I found you on the internet! You're famous, huh," he gushed, looking at her with awe. It made her uncomfortable to be worshiped like this by some child she didn't know but who claimed to be hers.
"I don't mean to crush your dreams but you need to go back home. You've made a mistake. You're not my son. I don't have any children." She needed to be cold and steely.
Henry looked downcast as if realizing that she really wasn't going to budge on this issue. His little face schemed but he did as asked. "I kinda, ran away from home. And my mom doesn't know. I mean, she probably knows by now." Regina winced. This was why she didn't want kids. They were little liabilities walking around!
"I'm not sending you back out alone to go home, especially not at this hour," Regina lectured. "You should be ashamed for doing that. It's dangerous and your mother is probably so worried about you!"
He dropped his head down. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize to me. But to your mother. You shouldn't even be talking to me. I'm a stranger." Regina sighed and relaxed her stern exterior for a second. "Call your mom so she can come get you. You can stay here and wait for her. I don't want you wandering the streets alone."
"Cool, thanks." He rushed over to get the phone so he could dial his mother.
Regina took this time to put away his dufflebag and go upstairs to talk to Kat, even if she did wonder what the boy was talking about. But she was too old and too proper to eavesdrop.
"Kat?" she knocked on the door and had it swing open. It wasn't entirely closed. She took that as it was okay to come in. She found Kat sitting on the bed, looking over their wedding photos. Kat had looked so stunning in her white tailored dress and Regina had been so handsome in her suit. They had been happy on that day. Happy and so nervous.
Regina had been so afraid her nervousness would make her unable to walk down the aisle but somehow she had gone through with it. Kat didn't say anything or turn to look at Regina. So Regina spoke first.
"Kat, I swear to you, I don't know this child and I don't know why he's calling me his parent. I told him to call his mother and get her to pick him up. She should be here at any moment and then this can all get cleared up."
"How old is he?" Kat asks, not looking, voice hoarse.
"I don't know. He looks about eight or nine," Regina said and watched as Kat did the math.
"That would mean this was before our marriage," she stated slowly.
"Yes," Regina nodded her head. "I didn't cheat on you. I never would."
Kat sighed and her shoulders relaxed. She closed the photo album. "Did you sleep with anyone in college?"
"Kat!" Regina gasps, scandalized by Kat's brazen words.
"Answer the question." Kat's voice demands Regina answer.
"I...I'm not sure. I'm not the type to sleep around but I did with one or two beta girls just to...to satisfy some ruts when they got really bad. But none of them were pregnant."
"Are you sure?"
"Considering I checked in with them and saw them around campus for months afterward, I can safely say that yes, they were not."
Kat gets up at this. She doesn't met Regina's eyes. Something's been broken between them but Regina knows it will eventually fix. Kat just feels hurt and she needs a bit of time. Regina is too shocked by the situation to be truly hurt by this mistrust.
Kat goes down to make sure Henry is okay and Regina puts away the photo album. So many happy memories contained in it, but not the ones Regina wants. Those wedding photos, fill her with sorrow and not happiness. Her mother had forced her into this marriage and Regina had been so tired of trying to fight it, so tired of hurting, and so tired of breaking Kat's heart that she had agreed. She closes her eyes and exhales. She needs to stop thinking about the one who got away. But...Henry being on her step...
Could it be...?
No, it couldn't. She coldly squashed the hope in her chest. It was time to let old memories go.
She went downstairs and found Kathryn had turned on some cartoons for Henry and was preparing for him some food.
"No veggies," he tells her and she nods her head absently, thoughts clearly a million miles away.
Regina feels awkward. She doesn't know what to do. Henry spots her and pats the cushion next to him, indicating she should sit down. He is entirely too trusting of people, like someone Regina once knew. "What did your mother say?" she asks, sitting down next to him reluctantly. And carefully, like she is made of glass.
"She'll be here in about three hours. She yelled at me a lot."
"I would hope so, you did something bad."
"I know," he said quietly, looking down remorsefully at his shoes. "But she was sad. And she wouldn't tell me much about you. So I wanted to find you to make her happy."
"I don't know how I could make her happy. I'm married."
He looked down at her ring, noticing it for the first time. He scrunched up his nose. "Okay." And then turned his attention to the TV. Why does she feel heavily judged right now? She thins her lips and goes to see Kat in the kitchen. The woman is almost done preparing some snacks.
"Can you look after him?" she asks. "I have some work I need to finish up before going to bed."
"I will," she responds without looking up at Regina.
"Thank you," Regina murmurs and kisses her on the cheek, knowing that Kat's anger is slightly lessening. Then she goes upstairs to do the leftover work she has no thanks to Robin's interruption into her day.
Kathryn keeps the kid occupied. He said his mother would be up in three hours which leads Regina to believe she lives somewhere on the east coast or she lives close by but is too busy to come right away. Regina would think less of her if the second one is true. She tries to do her reports but she's distracted.
The hour has grown late. It's nearly 12 at night now.
Where is Henry's mother?
Just as she thinks this, there's the sound of a loud rattling motor outside and she shoots up from her seat to look out her window, seeing a yellow Volkswagon in her driveway. Ew. The car looks horrid and like it's going to fall apart. That cannot be safe for Henry. The engine cuts off and Regina goes downstairs, ready to accost this woman for letting her son out of the house. Kat and Henry are waiting in the foyer.
The door bell rings and Regina opens it.
And her world stops.
On her stoop, standing in an equally frozen manner, is Emma.
Emma Swan.
Her old girlfriend.
They just stare lost at each other, Emma's hands tucked back into her jeans. She looks the same, the same and yet different. Her blond hair is in curls down her shoulders, and she's wearing obscenely tight clothing with a garish red leather jacket on top.
She looks older than last they saw each other. There's bags under eyes which make her look weary and tired. Her shirt is a bit rumpled and she has a frazzled energy around her. Henry runs up to her, hugging her around the waist and causing her to tear her eyes from Regina.
"Ma, I found her. I found her!" he exclaims loudly.
Emma looks up cautiously at Regina as if she might say something. But Regina beats her to it. "Next time keep a closer eye on your kid. He might not be so lucky to come across someone charitable." Regina knows she's being vicious but she can't help it. All the old hurt has bubbled up and resurfaced.
"I-" Emma sputters, aghast at Regina's tone.
"Good night," Regina says coldly and slams the door shut. She leans her head against it, shaking. She can feel Kathryn's arms wrap around her from behind, holding her. Regina doesn't know if Kathryn recognizes Emma but if she does, she merely tugs Regina away from the door and to their couch, sitting with her and holding her.
"Who was that?" Kathryn murmurs, hand stroking Regina's hair. It's chin length, the longest she's ever let it grow since college where she had used to wear many braids.
"Someone I thought I recognized," Regina says with a shaky breath. She decides telling Kathryn nothing about the past will be for the better.
"Okay," Kat sighs out and snuggles to Regina closer, who suddenly gets up. "I should got to bed," she says, looking at the time. It's past 12. She should long be in bed but her whole schedule is messed up. She avoids Kat's look of worry and goes upstairs. Before she crawls into bed she looks out the window. The car is gone, and hopefully, the two of them as well, to wherever it was they came from. She doesn't need any disruptions in her life. Not right now.
Not when she has finally come to terms with things and is making the best out of it.
Before she goes to bed, she calls Graham. He picks up quickly, given he's on the midnight shift. "Graham. I need a favor. Can you make sure a woman by the name of Emma Swan has left town."
"Uh, sure," he responds with. "Why? What did she do?"
"I don't have time to fill you in," she snaps. "Just do as I say."
"Got it boss," and he hangs up.
Feeling a bit better, she goes to bed. But even as she lays there, and Kat comes up to join her, she is restless and only falls asleep in the morning just as the day is about to begin. Her dreams are full of laughter and feelings of failure that fill her with stress.
It's no wonder she wakes up cranky the next morning, her attitude only made worse when she oversleeps her alarm and has her whole schedule thrown off wack. Trust Emma Swan to always make her a mess, even indirectly.
Regina rushes over to work, ten minutes late for the first time in her career.
"Ms. Mills, are you alright?" Debby, the Secretary asks. She looks concerned over Regina's tardiness.
"I'm fine," Regina waves off, heading into her office. She's cranky and she doesn't have her coffee. This will be a long day. And it's only made longer, when Graham calls her during lunch break.
"I've got news on Emma Swan. She's booked a room at the Bed and Breakfast for about a week."
"A week?" Regina hisses into the phone, elated and yet angry. What is Emma doing, staying here for so long. Is it because of Henry and his beliefs about Regina being his other parent?
Well, given her and Emma's past that wouldn't be unbelievable. But Emma hadn't been pregnant when they dated. So how...?
Maybe when she'd left? Was that the reason why she disappeared? Because of carrying Regina's child? Regina is filled with questions she needs answered now.
"Yea, a week," Graham confirms. "You want me to do something about it?"
"No, I'll handle this myself." She hangs up, decides to forgo her work, and hurries over to the Bed and Breakfast.
On the way over she has no idea how she'll react to seeing Emma again. But at least this time she's more prepared. As she approaches she can see Emma and Henry sitting at a booth in the window. They're laughing at something and Regina almost feels a tug to stand there and watch them through the window. But she has business to attend to. The twinkling of the bell announces her arrival and Ruby meets her eyes across the diner. She pales and gasps and it's enough to draw Emma's attention to Ruby, and follow her gaze to the door where Regina stands in all black in an otherwise half full diner.
Henry smiles when he sees her, jumping out of his seat to go go her. "Did you come by to say hi?"
He is so earnest and naive it hurts. "I came to speak your mother, little boy."
"My name's Henry," he says and she knows it is. Henry, just like her father's name.
"Henry, come here, I'll give you something to do while they talk," Ruby offers and he trots over her, leaving Regina and Emma staring at each other like they are lost. Eventually, Regina sidles over to the booth and slides in from across Emma, shedding her coat.
Emma is silent as she watches this happen.
Done, Regina straightens out her back; the tension is thick and stifling. "What are you doing here?" she asks, watching Emma's reaction with a carefully raised brow.
"Huh, so you do remember me," Emma says slowly. "I thought at the door you didn't."
"It's only natural I remember someone who disappeared and left me with a broken heart before my gradation." Regina's tone is scathing. Any smart person would duck out and run from her if they heard her like this, a storm incoming. But Emma's past tethers her to her seat.
Emma winces at this, and watches Regina's eyes flicker over to Henry whose laughing gleefully at something Ruby is telling him. The tall brunette's eyes cut to them and Regina gives her a scowl back so Ruby looks away.
"You know, the kid is yours," Emma states and Regina twists up her lips. She had figured that much out given some time to think.
"I know," she says softly. He has the same brown hair and brown eyes as her. But he has Emma's smile and her energy. "I just don't know how it happened-"
"Come on," Emma rolls her eyes. "We had sex. A lot."
Regina flushes at this and shushes her to speak quieter. They are in public and she doesn't need her sordid past explained.
"Yes, but I always got you the pills and we eventually used condoms," Regina says in a low voice.
Emma shrugs, leans over her coffee. "I guess something slipped through the cracks and it...just happened."
"And what do you want me to do about it?" Regina asked, not kindly. "Do you want child support or something? Found out that I have a good job and decided to pay me a visit to collect?" She feels the urge to fiddle with her hands so she clasps them together.
Emma's brows furrow like she can't understand why Regina is acting this way. "That's not why I'm here. Henry got curious as to who the sperm donor was and came to find you. I was fine with not finding you again." For some reason that feels like a knife through Regina's chest and she can't breathe. But she recovers quickly, snapping out a retort to redirect her pain.
"Then you are free to leave town."
Emma is exasperated now with Regina's behavior. "Why are you being like this? Henry found you and I thought you'd be more excited to met him now that it's all happened. He seems to like you, and it wouldn't hurt to get to know him better."
"Yes," Regina says dryly and sharply. "Get to know him better so he can leave me too."
Hurt flashes across Emma's face as Regina gets up, tugging on her coat. She tosses a few bills hastily onto the table top to pay for Emma's coffee and the kid's meal.
"Regina-" Emma finally finds her words but Regina's already gone, out into the cool October air. Emma twists and looks at her crossing the street without a look back.
"Uff," Ruby comes over, having seen the exchange and knowing exactly the past between them. "You should tell her. Everything."
"The reason I left was to spare her. I wasn't ever supposed to see her again," Emma sighs heavily as she looks into the coffee cup. Henry's still busy doodling the kids menu that Ruby gave him to keep him occupied so Emma and Regina could talk.
"Yes, but it's been years now. Her mother lives in California and has no more control over her. At least, I assume this. So you can go and tell her."
Emma twists up her lips. "Maybe Regina's right. It's been too little too late. And the kid and I don't belong here. I have to go back to my job, he has to go back to school."
"You could board as long as you'd like. For free, of course," Ruby offers.
Emma shakes her head. "No...I think I should go. I know Henry will be heartbroken when he can't get to know her better. He's heard all the great stories about the time we spent together and now..." Emma can't finish, shaking her head.
"Emma..." Ruby sighs sadly but she won't push her friend. She's just glad she's back and she's okay. "Just promise to keep in touch this time, will you?"
"I will."