Emma flicking a pea from her plate at Henry is just about the last thing Regina is willing to put up with. She lays her napkin on the table and leans forward.
"Miss Swan, behave yourself or-"
"Oh or what? You'll uninvite me from family dinner?" Emma rolls her eyes.
"Yes, I will." Regina says without hesitation. "How are you with magical barriers these days?"
Emma scowls. "You know I'm off magic."
Regina smiles mockingly. "Mmm. I don't make idle threats, Emma."
Emma scoffs and slouches back in her chair like the miserable teenager she probably would have been if she'd been afforded a normal life. "Will you lighten up? You've been such a drain since I got back."
'Got back' is Emma's euphemism for the moment she rid herself of the Darkness.
"Emma. Not tonight."
Regina rubs her temples, not interested in revisiting the mess they've been making of their dynamic recently. Things had improved before Emma sacrificed her happiness for Regina's. There had been a sharp downward turn since, but Regina's unrelenting care for her while she was The Dark One had brought it back up a little. When she 'got back' things were ok for a hot second, and then not great, and now that Emma has decided to go cold turkey on magic, things are pretty bad.
Henry tries to ignore both of them and fails. He reaches for his water just to do something with his hands, but knocks it over. It splashes across the table and seeps slowly through the table cloth. Regina waves a hand instinctively clearing it up before the water warps the wood.
"Regina! Fuck!" Emma tenses immediately.
"Emma!" She reprimands for swearing in front of Henry.
"Oh my god!" Emma stumbles from her chair clutching her chest. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"Will I be allowed to clear that up?" Regina sighs.
"I'm not kidding." Emma holds the back of one of the chairs to keep herself steady. "Your magic makes me want to hurl."
"Charming." Regina scoffs to hide the hurt of what is surely one of the worst insults Emma has ever thrown at her.
"Will you two stop?" Henry pleads.
"You know, Emma, you can try and tamp down your magic all you want, but it's just going to come spilling out of you like last time and I'll be the one to clear it up, just like last time."
"Oh fuck you!" Emma's eyes are fire, that Regina would dare bring up what happened in Camelot.
"Henry will you go upstairs please?" Regina says.
"Why?" He asks, frowning at them both.
"I'm going to murder your mother." Regina says calmly.
"Mom, you're a hero." He says.
"Yes dear, but I'm not a saint." Regina smiles.
"Just go, kid, I can handle your mom." Emma rolls her eyes.
"You two are the worst." Henry says, letting the door slam behind him.
"You've been like this ever since we got back, you're mad at me for things I did when I was the Dark One, which isn't fair!" Emma starts.
"I don't bear any grudges against the way you behaved as The Dark One." Regina says rising from her chair "I'm frustrated that you don't seem to have learned anything from it." Emma looks away and shakes her head. "I'll contain my magic around you in public but not in my home, Emma. It's a part of me, as automatic as breathing. I can't pretend to be something I'm not around you just because you won't accept who you are."
...Are they still talking about magic?
Emma frowns. "So I am uninvited, for real?"
"They're your terms, Emma. You set this boundary yourself. Come back when you get used to the idea of magic again." Regina watches her, taking absolutely no pleasure in the thought of nights without her laugh filling the house.
"There is no 'again', Regina." Emma says quietly. "This is it. Like, did you ever smoke and then give up and cigarette smoke smells way worse than it ever did? It's like that."
"I never liked smoking." Regina's voice lowers to match Emma's. "When I knew Maleficent, smoke usually meant something bad."
Emma doesn't really want to think about that. "Right. Well, fine I won't come round. Maybe we can go for dinner sometime?" She asks, "with Henry. Obviously." she adds quickly.
"Fine." Regina watches her for a moment. She's so overwhelmed with the urge to look after her, to put everything aside, her own health, her own identity even, and just take care of her. But she's done that before, she's been that before. She can't do it again. Even as Emma looks at the table sadly, like she's already missing the time they spend there together.
"Before you go, I believe it's your turn to do the dishes." Regina says.
"Right." Emma looks up, snapping out of her thoughts. "Can these all go in the dishwasher?"
"Not if I'm not to use magic around you."
"What?"
"The dishwasher has been broken for at least a year." Regina picks up her wine glass.
Emma doesn't move. "What?"
"So, would you like me to use my magic or to wash the dishes by hand?" Regina asks, knowing Emma's stubborn response before she's even heard it.
Emma stares at her for a moment. "This is punishment."
"Merely a coincidence."
"Has anyone ever told you that you're evil?" Emma asks, picking plates up off the table.
Regina sips her wine. "I can't recall."
"Is it true you banned Emma from your house?" Snow asks with an incredulous look after barging into the diner with the force of a righteous elephant.
Regina sighs, morning ruminations thoroughly disrupted, and turns away from the counter to face Snow.
"Snow, what do you want from me?"
"I want to know if it's true, she said you were angry with her and now she's banned. You know, you and Henry are an important support system for her-"
"Stop." She holds up a hand and Snow does actually stop. "Emma asked me not to use magic around her, which is fine, but I don't want to have to be careful about it in my own home. I need one place where I can just be myself." Regina says, feeling more energy ebb from her as she explains the horrible predicament she finds herself in.
"That sounds...reasonable." Snow seems surprised and shrinks down to a normal sized person again. She smiles briefly at Ruby who shakes her head affectionately at her friend.
"Not what Emma's version sounded like?" Regina turns back to the counter to accept her coffee from Ruby.
"Well, I guess she got the main point across," Snow says, frowning. Regina narrows her eyes pressing Snow into elaborate, "her version was more...confrontational."
Regina laughs though it's not really funny. "I may have threatened to kill her."
Snow tips her head to one side in disapproval. "You two are terrible."
"We're getting that a lot this week." Regina goes back to her coffee but Snow dithers. She takes a sip and turns back to her. "Anything else?"
"It just seems to me that she's not...she's not quite herself."
Regina tries not to sigh again, feeling the unbearable weight of Snow's concern as if it was about her. "Snow, she's struggling. She's trying to get back to herself but she doesn't know which way is up."
"She does seem a little unstable."
"No, listen to me, she needs people around her who love her for whoever she decides to be now. She has met every challenge this town has thrown before her and now she just gets to be whatever she wants to be. The worst thing happened to her, she chose the worst possible thing, and she survived. She gets to do whatever the hell she wants while she figures out her place in the world, and if that choice means that for a while you don't quite recognise her, then that's your problem. Don't make it hers."
"I just-"
"There is no 'just', Snow. You have to give her the room to figure out what she wants now." Regina aches "We all do."
Henry convinces Emma to watch a movie at home with him and Regina after family dinner at the diner, which has been declared Switzerland.
"Popcorn looooove," Emma sings to herself as she takes the hot bag from the microwave and shakes it around. "Popcorn lowooowoove, you were the girl I was dreaming of..."
"What is that?" Regina asks.
"Do you know the song Textbook Love?" Emma asks.
"No."
"Uh, well it's a song."
"I see."
"I'll play it for you." Emma pulls her phone out of her back pocket.
"It's fine. Here's a bowl for that." Regina waves a finger over her shoulder and the cabinet door opens. Emma lurches back and yelps, reacting to Regina's magic like someone might react to a slushie being thrown at them.
"Oh!" Regina turns quickly and the bowl that was about to make its way into Emma's hands crashes to the floor. She goes to wave her hand again to clear it up but stops herself. They both stare at the carpet of diamonds created by the smashed crystal.
"Moms, you ok?" Henry shouts from the other room.
"We're fine sweetheart, don't come in here without shoes." Regina replies. "Are you alright?" She asks Emma quietly. Emma nods and stares at the floor.
Regina steps carefully over to her, crunching over the broken glass as she goes. "I'll clear that up later, give me that." She takes the popcorn bag and empties it into another bowl.
"You're sure you're ok?" She asks, suppressing the urge to reach out and touch her face, to pull her eyes to meet hers. Emma nods again. She doesn't move. She stares at the floor but doesn't seem to be looking at it. Regina touches her arm and squeezes. "Hey, you're ok, everything is ok. It was my fault I'll clear it up later." Emma looks up at her with wide eyes. She looks scared. Regina's thumb rubs her skin. "Everything is fine."
"Ok."
"Ok?"
"Ok."
Regina nods and she still doesn't move. She puts the new bowl in Emma's hands, turns her by her shoulders and nudges her towards the living room. The action seems to bring her back to the present.
"Hey, if I'm not allowed to have my phone out, neither are you." Emma says, dropping to the middle of the sofa and nudging Henry's elbow.
"It's Violet." He replies.
"Oooh…" Emma teases, then drops the voice as quickly as it came. "I don't care, put it away."
He rolls his eyes and she turns to watch Regina kneeling by the DVD player, movie in hand.
"Yeah maybe we can double date." Henry sniggers.
"That sounds pretty awkward, who am I supposed to be dating? I'm not gonna be some third wheel-"
"Ok, Netflix it is." Regina sits down beside her and flicks it on with the remote.
"Is the DVD player broken too?" Emma asks.
"Yes." Regina lies without looking and Emma smiles. She sees it from the corner of her eye. "What?"
"Nothing." Emma licks her lips.
The movie starts and Regina tucks into a surprisingly small amount of space in the corner of the sofa. Henry compensates on Emma's other side by taking up enough space for them both. She shuffles closer to Regina twice before she shoves his knee out of her hip.
"Kid!"
"What!?"
"Knock it off, you have tonnes of room!"
"I'm growing!"
"Not that quickly." She elbows him in the leg and he springs away from her before retaliating.
"Will you two stop? Henry, you have enough room. Emma...stop manhandling our son."
Emma pauses with her hand, Alien style, clamped over his face.
"He's fi- WOAH DID YOU JUST LICK ME?" She wipes her hand on his jeans as he laughs at her. "That was gross, god, who raised you?"
"Stop it." Regina says, and they do, except for a few low key nudges at each other. They're half way through the movie when Emma checks her phone.
"Hey, no phones." Henry elbows her in the ribs and she drops it into the remainder of the popcorn.
"Hang on, kid." She fishes it out. She has more missed calls that she can count. "I'll be right back."
Regina and Henry exchange a concerned glance across the sofa and when Emma's out of the room Regina flicks her wrist and the movie pauses.
"Sheriff stuff?" Henry asks.
"Something serious," Regina says, thinking about the number of missed calls she had seen on her screen, "she's not on call tonight."
"The Sheriff is kind of always on call though." Henry sighs and sits back in the cushions. "You want me to show you how to use the DVD player sometime?"
She doesn't smile but her eyebrow arches comically high. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She pulls her phone out too and also has an alarming number of missed calls.
Emma appears at the door, phone to her ear still. "There's been a fire, it's mostly out now, I'm gonna go down and help."
"We'll come too." Henry says. Regina is already up.
"No, please." Emma holds a hand out to her. "I know you want to help but you'll use magic and I need...I can't be around that right now."
"Emma, I have to help." Regina says, incredulously.
"There is something you could do."
"Name it."
"It sounds like some homes were damaged, people are going to need places to sleep."
"I'll be there when I've got a few things ready."
Regina appears, thankfully far enough away from Emma that she doesn't notice her arrival by magic. David is close by and comes over.
"We need to get these people to somewhere warm and dry." He gestures to the people scattered around. The children are in their pyjamas and their parents mostly don't have coats or jackets.
"Is anyone hurt?" Regina asks
"Yeah." David says, brow furrowed. "No casualties." The 'yet' hangs ominously in the air.
"How many people do you estimate need shelter?"
"Maybe 50."
"That's a lot."
"Yeah."
Regina checks the notes she brought with her. "Granny can house seven families, the school bus will be here in a moment to transport people. Do you have a list?"
"Yeah, here it is. How are you going to decide who stays where?"
She scans the list. "Well the bigger families will stay at Granny's. The more people in beds, the better...Hmm, that's a lot of people. Five beds can go up in the police station."
"The cells?" David asks with surprise.
"Well I suggest you don't lock them, David, that way they're just camp beds."
"Right, fine. I can take them in the jeep."
"Great." She writes their names down and tears off the list for him. "That still leaves a few people."
"Yeah about half."
"I have three guest rooms so I'll take three families of course, four if they don't mind sleeping in the office. That leaves about ten."
"We can take two at the loft."
"Great, that leaves one couple with two children, and...six children?"
"They are kind of in a group home situation. Marissa who takes care of them has been taken to the hospital."
For a moment Regina stares at him as she shuffles families into accommodation like tetris in her mind.
"Ok, scratch that, I'll take all of the group children and the other families will go to the hotel near the bay if they have room. I couldn't get hold of them earlier so I'll try a quick visit. I'll be back soon. Can you round them up?"
"Sure."
When she's back, there's a large group waiting for her. Some of them stand in coats and slippers, some in t-shirts and some covered in soot. The group for Granny's has gone already, as has the group for the police station and The Charmings. The only ones left are the six children and the families bound for the hotel. The school bus is returning for a final trip. There's something rattling about the flashing lights of the town's emergency service vehicles. The late night, the chill in the air, the billowing smoke, the citizens. It all feels a little close to home, but obviously her citizens need a leader right now, and reassurance.
"Hello everyone, you'll be temporarily housed with me or at the hotel by the bay. If you're staying with me I'll show you everything when we get there. If you're heading to the hotel Miss Gabble will see to all of your needs. If you need anything right at this moment, let me know, if not please make your way to the bus."
Emma appears at her side, a swipe of soot on her face but otherwise fully intact. "This is incredible, you're incredible."
"Well I had to do something." Regina says to mask the glow in her chest. This isn't the time to bask in Emma's good graces.
"The kids in the group, are they being split up?" Emma asks, watching the oldest comforting the younger ones, sadly.
"No, they're staying with me."
Emma's eyes widen. "Madam Mayor, I'm impressed."
"All in a night's work, Sheriff. " Regina replies with a smile over her shoulder as she heads for the bus. "Can you drive this?"
"Like, legally?"
Regina sits behind the driver's seat. "Emma..." Regina warns.
"Ok everyone, my name is Emma and I'll be your driver this evening. Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in the upright and locked positions. Mayor Mills will be coming down the aisles with refreshments once our journey is underway. She is here for your comfort but primarily your safety. Thanks everyone, I hope you have a pleasant flight"
Some of the children laugh and the adults look reassured. Emma drops into the driver's seat and their attention falls on Regina. She smiles her work-smile and turns back to Emma as she starts the engine.
"Sheriff, have you suffered a head injury this evening?"
"Nope."
"Perhaps you're having a stroke?"
"No."
"Aneurysm?"
"Lighten up, Regina, I'm just trying to make them feel less scared."
Regina looks back at the bus full of tired, sooty, upset people and can see that it worked. Their approaches may be different but if the Mayor and the Sheriff aren't worried, it takes the edge off their worry too.
They pull up to the mansion last and Henry is waiting. Inside he distributes a supply of towels (that miraculously Regina has enough of) and toiletries (which he had made a run to the store for).
Snow radios the all clear from the fire site, everyone is accounted for. Between the three of them, Emma, Regina and Henry get the children settled with all the things they need and point them to various bathrooms to get clean. Emma and Henry make a large pan of hot chocolate to warm people up while Regina pulls out all of Henry's old clothes to see if any will fit the children. While she sorts them a little girl with curly brown hair stands half concealed by the door frame. Regina kneels by her.
"Hello, what's your name?" She doesn't answer, only looks down. Regina's eyes follow. "I like your shirt." Regina says. It's white with Minnie Mouse on it. Or at least it had been white once, now it's blackened and dirty. "Would you like to get cleaned up and put on some fresh pyjamas?" She nods. "Ok. Do you want me to come with you, Minnie?" The girl giggles and twists her little hands in her t-shirt. "Ok, would you like some hot chocolate?" She asks, seeing the goosebumps up her arms for the first time. She nods again.
Emma already has a sippy cup ready when Regina stands. She hands it to her with a goofy smile.
"What?" Regina asks.
"Nothing." Emma shakes her head.
"It's not nothing, what is it?"
Emma smiles again and shrugs. "It's just cute."
"She seems quite shy." She replies. Emma frowns as if that hadn't been what she meant, but Regina misses it, turning to check on the girl again. She has edged away from the door and to the counter where Regina stands. "Hello." She says again when she appears behind her legs.
"Hi." Emma smiles. Minnie crushes her face into Regina's leg to hide.
"Gosh Sheriff, you don't have to scare the children like that." Regina says in mock annoyance.
Minnie giggles.
"What?!" Emma plays along. Minnie giggles again and peeks out at her. "Hello?" Emma says and she hides again.
"Emma!" Regina gasps and Minnie's laugh fills the kitchen.
"Well fine, if I can't scare children maybe I'll make friends with them. Anyone in here want hot chocolate?"
Minnie stops laughing and just watches as Emma looks around the room. Regina kneels with the sippy cup.
"Would you like some hot chocolate, Minnie Mouse?"
The girl smiles and nods. Regina holds out the cup which she takes with both hands.
"Ok." Regina opens her arms and Minnie climbs right into them. She shifts her a little so she sits on her hip. Regina holds her like she's meant to be there and Minnie buries her face in her neck any time Emma speaks or looks at her. Regina interprets the look in Emma's eyes, pained and longing, as her remembering Henry as a baby. She imagines it's hard for Emma to be around children, even with memories of baby Henry, knowing that she had never really had that with him.
"Could you get a mug, Emma?" she asks.
Emma jumps to action. "Yeah, yeah of course, um." She turns to look for the right cupboard.
"Over there." Regina points.
"Yeah I know I just...I'm just tired I guess."
Sympathy rises up in Regina. When Emma brings her the cup she places a hand on her upper arm. They don't touch often so she hopes Emma takes the sentiment from it that she intends. She brushes her thumb over her skin and Emma stops moving completely.
"You did well tonight, everyone said so. You should get some rest."
"Yeah…" Emma stares until Regina drops her hand. Her cheeks turn a little pink and she looks away, "about that, can I sleep on your couch? David and Mary Margaret gave my room to a couple with a kid."
"Oh, of course you can stay here, let me just-"
"No, you go take care of that little monster, I can find a blanket."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, is the study ok?"
"Yes, that's fine."
Emma finds a blanket easily. Regina is the linen closet type. She has a good selection and Emma chooses a wool blanket. It's a little scratchy and she likes it. She sets up in the study on the sofa nearest the fire. It's late, or maybe early. She checks her phone. All's quiet. Everything seems to be sorted until tomorrow. Her day will be busy, but she feels ok about it. No one died. No one has been left in the cold. For tonight, everyone is safe.
She sits facing the fire and rubs her hands together, though they're not cold. She can't get the image of Regina and Minnie out of her mind. Regina walking around with a child on her hip like it's the most natural thing in the world. She looks regal and humbled and like a light has switched on inside her. She loves that Minnie isn't scared of her in the slightest, but the opposite, she feels safe with her. Emma empathises. She feels safe with her too. She feels safe with Regina on her side, with her helping, with her.
Something familiar but just out of reach comes back to her. Something from when she was the Dark One. Something about Regina, some intimacy they shared, something that made her feel closer to Regina than anyone else. But she can't quite put her finger on it. It's like waking up from a dream and still having feelings about it after forgetting what happened. She sighs and rubs her eyes. Regina and Minnie and the soft voice she used with her, easy smiles, bright eyes. Something about children opens up Regina's heart and Emma just feels lucky to have witnessed it. And then she had touched her arm. What did that mean? It felt like something. She's being an idiot. What had the look in Regina's eyes meant, though? She lets her face sink into her hands as she tries to straighten out the chaos in her head. Fire, panic, logistics, sirens, children, Regina, safety, team.
The last of the hot chocolate in the kitchen might help her sleep. She decides to finish it and hears something as she walks through the foyer. The only light comes from the Christmas tree in the hall. She's sure she can hear someone singing or humming gently. She hopes it's one of the children. If it's Regina...well she can't think about that. She should go get her hot chocolate but she can't move. She knows the tune. She knows the words. Regina used to sing it to baby Henry. In Emma's memories she used to sing it to Henry. Arrorro mi nino . She feels her heart just about break thinking of Regina singing this to scared little Minnie.
After a while the singing stops and Emma still hasn't moved, she just stands in the hallway with her hands in her pockets and her eyes closed.
"Hey"
Emma looks up. Regina stands at the top of the stairs looking down at her.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, just…" Trying not to think about the feelings I get when I see you with children? Maybe a little too true. By the time Regina reaches the bottom of the stairs she still hasn't ended her sentence. Regina is barefoot, steps quiet, her sleeves rolled up from bath time.
"You haven't done any magic tonight." Emma says thinking she could live like this. Life could be perfect. She doesn't realise there's A Look in Regina's eyes until it vanishes.
"I suppose not. Not around you, anyway." She says.
"Sorry, I didn't mean anything."
"I know. I don't want you to be sorry. I just want you to be...you. Whatever that means now."
Emma feels everything that anchors her disappear in an instant. What does that mean? What does she want? What is she supposed to do? She feels the ache and the familiar almost-memory at the back of her mind.
"Do you remember what happened? You know when it all... happened ?" Emma asks, referring to the end of her reign as the Dark One.
Regina takes a deep breath. Her eyes seem to search Emma's and she wishes she hadn't asked. She wishes she hadn't stood in the hallway. She wishes she had been able to sleep on that sofa, the same one she sat on the first night they met.
"You don't remember it at all, do you?" Regina asks in a whisper.
Emma shakes her head. "Don't worry about it." She says, trying to leave it there and escape.
"Emma," Regina touches her arm again, what does that mean? "you chose light."
"But how?" Emma asks, unable to imagine something strong enough to tear her out of the depths she had descended to. "What did I do? Why does magic make me want to throw up?" She pauses for a moment, recognises pain skim across Regina's features. "What happened to Killian? Why has no one made me sit and listen to what happened?"
Regina's hand drops to her side. "No one is going to force you to do anything. Everyone is giving you space to figure things out."
"What things?"
"Why you chose light, how you managed, how you ripped the darkness from yourself." Regina shrugs meaning everything.
The aching memory fills her mind. Arthur and the sword, Killian, Rumple and Nimue and the Darkness itself and Regina. Regina standing in front of injured Snow, hands on fire, looking like a lioness guarding cubs. Henry and a quill, shrouded in green light, protected by Zelena who glances at Regina for reassurance. Everything black but for them. Nothing but her own fears and doubts, dread eating away at her, power telling her to take and to force. Then it was gone.
She sees Regina in front of her again, kind of short with no heels on and with the lights from the tree reflecting in her inscrutable eyes.
"I don't understand." Emma says.
Regina watches the sadness on Emma's face grow. There's nothing she can do. She wants to hold her, to rub her back and tell her everything will be ok, but she can't. That's a level of closeness, of intimacy that she isn't entitled to. Some days she's angry at Emma for not seeing what's in front of her. Some days she's overwhelmed by even the idea that Emma had won her fight against evil, and that she had been a part of it. Some days it's enough just to be in her life, and have Henry, and be their little family. Some days, usually when Henry stays with Emma, she lets herself hurt and cry.
"I'll tell you everything I know from that night if you want, but you have never wanted that until now." Regina says.
"I know. I don't know if I want that. Maybe it will just," she shrugs, "settle down."
'It won't.' Regina thinks 'It can't.' The loss of memory of what happened that night will needle at Emma until she lets it in. Something is keeping it away and Regina firmly believes it's her. Emma had chosen light, but she had also chosen her. When there was nothing left, when it was only her and Killian. Emma had been forced to make a terrible choice and now her mind is protecting her the only way it knows how.
"How's Minnie?" Emma asks.
"Oh" Regina blinks, thrown by the change of subject. "She's fine. She wanted to sleep in my bed, so that's where she is."
"Lucky girl." Emma smiles. Regina's heart skips a beat. "I should probably go to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow."
"Yes we do." Regina nods, looking at the floor.
"Ok, night." Emma smiles a little and her dimples show.
Alone in the hallway Regina closes her eyes and remembers that night. Emma had chosen light, life, family, Henry, it was enough. It should be enough. She waves a hand and the front door locks. She walks up the stairs for what must be the hundredth time that night and jumps when she sees Henry sitting at the top of them.
"We have to tell her sometime." Henry says quietly.
Her hand still rests on her chest. "I know, sweetheart."
"You're the only one who knows everything." Henry looks at her like he hasn't for a while. As if she's the one with the answers, but she hardly has enough answers for herself, let alone him.
"She has to want to know."
"She does want to know," He says, getting to his feet, "she's just scared."
"I know." She replies.
"And so are you." He puts his arm around her.
She frowns at him but he's right. She is scared for Emma to know everything. To know she had chosen Regina and that her choice had killed Hook and stolen love from her life once more. She's scared Emma will regret it, will blame her and she's scared she'll lose her again.
"When Emma wants to know, she'll know." Regina says. "Now bed, you have school tomorrow."
"I can help with the fire stuff." He tries.
"We have a fire department for that. Bed. Now."
He huffs and turns around. She heads to her own room where Minnie snuffles quietly.
"Love you, mom." Henry says before disappearing to his own room where one of the boys sleeps soundly on a camp bed.
"I love you too, son. Sleep well."