A/N: Here is the next chapter, please let me know what you think after reading!
It had been a week since Henry had moved into Emma's apartment in Boston. It was about 9:30 PM and Henry was sitting on the bed in his new room with his storybook lying open in front of him. Henry however, was paying no attention to the words on the page below him, and was instead staring absent-mindedly over the top of the book.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice Emma had entered the room.
"Henry? What's up, didn't you hear me?"
Henry snapped out of his reverie and looked up at her. "Sorry, no."
"I said it's time to get ready for bed. You don't want to be tired on your first day of school."
"Okay. Sure. Whatever." Henry responded, still distracted. He got up and went to the dresser, half-heartedly searching for his pajamas.
"Hey, are you okay?" Emma asked gently, walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.
Henry nodded.
"Are you worried about the new school? Afraid that you won't make friends or won't like your teachers?"
Henry shook his head.
"Because it's okay to be scared, change is scary to a lot of people."
"No it's not the school."
"Then what is it?" Emma asked softly.
Henry shrugged.
"You can tell me, maybe I can help." Emma sat down on the bed.
Henry turned from the dresser and saw her notice the page he had been reading; she pulled it onto her lap and her eyes washed over it. It was the very beginning of Regina's story. The one where she had saved little Snow White from the horse, and the one where she had lost her true love. Henry knew that Emma didn't believe in these stories, but he knew she was aware of how he saw them.
The ten year old took a seat beside her and stared gloomily down at the book too.
Emma looked up at him sympathetically. "You miss her don't you?" She asked quietly.
Henry stayed silent for a few moments, gathering his thoughts. "I thought she was the problem, and maybe she is... but... I don't know..."
"Are you still unhappy?"
Henry guiltily avoided her gaze.
"Hey, it's okay." Emma said softly. "Everything's still new here, once you get used to it I promise things will be better. You do like it here don't you?"
"Yeah, I do. I like that we get to spend so much time together. And the past week here was really cool... but..."
"But what?"
"I think... I think I want to go back to Storybrooke."
"What?" Emma was shocked. She put the book down on the other side of the bed and turned to fully face Henry. "Why?" Her eyes were round and quickly filling with sadness.
"I dunno... Storybrooke has always been my home, I know I wanted to leave but I do still like it there. I thought it would be easy to leave because I would get to be with you and nothing could be better than that, and I thought it would be awesome to live in the city... which it is... but I think I'd rather come here to visit instead of living and going to school here. I like my school. I like my room. And I kind of... I think I... I really miss my mom."
Emma nodded understandingly, although the hurt was still clear in her eyes.
Henry looked away guiltily, he glanced at the storybook again instead. "I know what I've said about her before but... I don't think she deserves to be alone."
Emma could feel a few unshed tears swimming in her eyes. She had no idea Henry had been so upset. He had seemed so happy over the past week.
"Well, I agree with you there," she said. "I don't think anyone deserves to be alone. But you have to remember the reason you wanted to leave in the first place. If you went back now everything would be just the same as it was before you left. Here you have a fresh start. I know so much change at once is scary, but once you give it a chance I'm sure you'll love your new school just as much as your old one. And you'll grow to feel at home here too, you'll see. These things take time."
"Maybe."
"Tell you what, why don't you give her a call? Maybe that will make you feel a bit better."
"I don't know what I would say to her."
"Say anything. Tell her about all the stuff you did last week. I'm sure she would just be happy to hear your voice."
"What if she's mad at me for leaving?"
"She won't be. Was she mad at you when we left?"
"I don't think so..."
"So she won't be now, trust me." Emma smiled. "I'll go get the phone, in the meantime why don't you put your pajamas on? I'll be right back."
Henry was sitting on his bed again, staring down at the phone. His hands were clammy as he tried to summon the courage to dial the number.
Emma had left the room to give him some space and through the silence he could practically hear his own heart beating rapidly in his chest. He didn't understand what it was he was so afraid of.
He finally began to dial the number, and then held the phone up to his ear, waiting.
It rang...
And rang...
And rang until finally he was put through to the answering machine and he heard Regina's recorded voice speaking in that very professional manner of hers.
"You have reached the Mills residence, we are unavailable at the present time but please leave a message and either Henry or myself will get back to you."
Beeep.
Henry's eyes filled with tears. It had been hearing her voice that had done it. Hearing his mother's voice but knowing he couldn't talk to her had only just made him miss her even more. He quickly hit the redial button but the only response he received was the same message playing again. He flung the phone onto his nightstand and curled up on his bed, trying not to cry.
Why did he feel like this? He was supposed to hate her, so why was he missing her?
It was now that he was finally away from her that he realised how much he actually did love her. He was even missing the small things. Like how she would insist that he finished his homework before doing anything else after school. Often she would sit across from him at the dining room table with her own paperwork. He tended to believe it was just so she would know he was actually doing as he was told, but maybe she just wanted the company? Or other things. Like how she would check in on him before going to bed, or the protective way she would put her arm around him in public places, or how she would always ask him to not leave his things lying around the house and would threaten him with no dessert for that evening if he didn't tidy up, but then often ended up putting away whatever object it was herself while still giving him some ice cream or cookies after dinner.
"Henry!" Emma's voice came from the hallway, she had heard the crash from the phone hitting the lamp on the table and had come to make sure he was okay. "What happened? Did you finish talking to Regina already?" She sat down beside him.
"There was no answer." Henry's voice shook. He rolled over to face Emma and she felt a pang as she noticed the tears falling down his face.
"Oh Henry I'm sorry, we'll try again in the morning. Why don't you try to get some rest."
"Can we go back? To Storybrooke?"
"Don't you think you should give Boston another week at the very least? You wanted to leave Storybrooke. I'm sure you'll like it here if you give it a chance."
"No, I want to go back. Can we? Please Emma, it won't take that long."
Emma studied his expression, she saw his eagerness and it dawned on her as to what he meant. "Oh, wait. Do you mean tonight? You want to go back to Storybrooke tonight? Henry that's crazy, we wouldn't get there until the middle of the night."
"So? It doesn't matter, I need to go back!" Henry practically wailed. "I don't think I should have left Storybrooke. I'm really sorry Emma. I want to go back home."
Emma gave a tired sigh. "No don't be sorry, it's okay to be homesick. But I think we need to be rational here. It would probably be an hour or two before we were actually ready to leave. It's already getting late and by the time we got there it would be like 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. It's not fair on your mom to just show up unannounced like that."
"But Emma..."
"Look Henry, you're really tired. How about you sleep on it and in the morning if you feel the same way–if you're absolutely sure you don't want to stay here–I promise we'll talk about going back. Sound alright?"
Henry sniffed. "I guess so..."
Emma smiled sympathetically down at her crying son. "Come here kid."
She held out her arms and he sat up to hug her. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. She didn't want to let him go back, she knew he had left for good reason in the first place and she was afraid of him getting hurt again. But while she couldn't force him to stay with her, she didn't want him to make any hasty decisions either. Not so soon after such a big change.
Henry pulled back from her and wiped his tears away with his sleeve.
"Do you want to try to get some sleep now?" Emma asked.
Henry nodded and Emma stood up so he could slide under the covers.
She pulled the covers up to his chin even though he had told her every other night that he was too old to be tucked in. Tonight however, he didn't argue.
"'Night Henry."
"'Night."
Emma closed the door behind her and Henry stared at it tearfully for a few moments before turning off the lamp beside him. In his mind he replayed what he had heard on the answering machine: "...please leave a message and either Henry or myself will get back to you..."
"...the Mills residence."
"...either Henry or myself..."
That's how it had always been, just the two of them. Maybe if he had stopped to think about all the good times they'd had, if he had stopped pushing her away and just tried to get through to her, things never would have turned out this way. He knew she had good in her, he just needed to help her bring it back out. He also knew she still loved him, and maybe that was enough.
Henry spent the next hour staring at his dark room. The sounds of the late night traffic and the occasional siren kept him company as he waited for sleep to come. He had never felt so guilty or so homesick in all his life. He kept remembering the way his mother had hugged him the previous week. He hadn't noticed it then, but she had been so desperate to have just a few more minutes with him and he had simply left her without a care in the world.
As sleep finally began to take over, the last image he thought of before slipping away into his dreams was one of Regina.