Henry's sick

A guest asked for a oneshot of Emma taking care of a sick Henry during season 2. She worries she's a bad mother. Both Henry and her parents assure her she's not.

"He's finally asleep." Emma said, practically collapsing on the couch. "I think that sleepy medicine knocked him for six."

"Poor kid." Charming commented. "How long did Whale think this was going to last?"

"About another week. Hopefully no longer. Poor kid. He hasn't even got anything in his stomach to be throwing up. I'm just managing to get him to eat some ice chips." Emma explained. Snow smiled.

"You're doing great with him." She praised her daughter. "Sick kids are never fun. You've managed to keep him calm and got him sleeping. I'd say that's pretty good." Emma smiled gratefully.

"I think it's more the medicine that done that." She admitted. "I'm still new to this whole parenting thing. I'm not sure I'm very good at it…"

"Hey." Charming said. He hated seeing Emma doubt herself like this. He came over and placed a hand on Emma's shoulder, aware she still found physical contact between them hard. "You're a great mom, Emma. Even before the curse broke I could see that. Don't be so hard on yourself…"

"If I was such a good mom, I would have noticed he was sick before it got to the point I had to take him straight to the ER with a one-oh-two fever." Emma pointed out, still angry with herself. Snow and Charming felt for her. It had been horrible seeing Henry like that.

"Emma, that fever came on overnight. He just had a cold and then, boom, he was horrendous. The important thing was you got him where he needed to be." Snow reminded her, gently squeezing Emma's hand.

"I guess." Emma sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if he'd be better of staying with Regina-"

"No!" Came a weak voice from the stairs. All three adults looked round. Their stood Henry, shivering, with his quilt wrapped around him. "Please don't send me back to her."

"Henry." Emma said, feeling awful. "Come on, let's get you back to bed, we'll talk there." She promised him.

Emma helped Henry back up the stairs and into bed. There she made sure his water was full and within reach.

"I'm not sending you back, kid. I promise." Emma assured him. "Sometimes I just wonder if she would have noticed you were sick earlier. That way you wouldn't have been so bad." Emma explained. Henry smiled weakly at her.

"She wouldn't have. She would have been too busy working and then shouted at Whale for not fixing me sooner, meaning she had to take time off work. Trust me, been there." Henry told her. "You take care of me when I'm sick, you're good at it, too." He assured her. Emma smiled, perching on the edge of his bed. She gently ruffled his hair.

"Thanks kid, that means a lot." Emma got up. "Try and get some sleep. I'll be back up soon to give you some more medicine."

"Ok." Henry said with a yawn. "Love you." Emma stopped on the spot for a second, touched.

"I love you too, kid." She said before closing his bedroom door. Emma smiled to herself. Maybe she was better at this whole parenting thing than she thought.