There were quite a few things that made Lucy's upbringing different than her friends that she grew up with. Because a good chunk of her family was from a modern realm, they were able to have technology that not many would have. One of those things turned out to be a camera that Snow had brought with her during one of her visits while Ella was pregnant with Lucy. She had been a shutter bug ever since Neal was born, capturing every single moment with her polaroid, wishing she could've done the same for Emma. She knew that in her grandson's realm, it wasn't that easy.
"You're not going to want to miss a moment," she had told them.
She was right. Ella took to the camera right away, snapping as many pictures as she could. Regina or Zelena would conjure up more film as needed and Henry made scrapbooks so they could fill them with memories.
The camera would end up with Ella during the curse. As Jacinda, she spent 2 years with only getting to see her daughter a couple of days a week. As a result, she took as many pictures as she could. Henry relished these once the curse broke, trying to catch up on the years he missed.
One afternoon, Ella and Henry were busy with work, so they asked Regina to stop by and look after Lucy. She was nearly 11 and didn't want a babysitter, but given all that had happened, no one could blame them for being a little protective. Regina had agreed to just stop by a little after they left. Ella had told Regina in her text messages that Lucy had been looking over the scrapbooks, so Regina dug through her own collection and headed over to her son's house in Nightingale Village.
Using her key to get in, she called out for her granddaughter. "Lucy?"
"In the living room, Grandma!"
Regina followed her voice and found Lucy sitting on the couch, one of the many handmade scrapbooks on her lap. She smiled and joined her. "How'd you know it was me?"
"Mom and Dad always send either you or Aunt Tiana or Alice or someone when they go out." She rolled her eyes.
"You know they're just worried. With all the realms united, we don't know if there are any potential threats."
"You're the queen, you'd stop any of them."
"True, but there's nothing wrong with being cautious." Regina looked down at the page Lucy had the book opened to. It was a picture that Tiana had taken of Ella, Henry and Lucy on the day of her christening. "Look at you, you were so tiny."
"I can't believe Mom made me wear that ridiculous dress."
"It's tradition in my family," Regina said. "That was actually mine."
Lucy tilted her head. "Really?"
Regina nodded. "And I made your father wear it when I christened him."
Lucy snorted. "You didn't!"
"I did, I have pictures."
She flipped open her own scrapbook and showed her a picture snapped by Nova the day Henry was christened. Regina didn't have any other family or friends, so she had just done it at a regular church service. She normally didn't attend, but it had been so important to her grandfather's culture, she wanted to pass it down.
"Wow, he looked silly, but he was a cute baby. Can I look at this?"
"Of course, it's why I brought it."
Lucy set down the scrapbook in her hands and took the one that Regina had brought. Much like Henry and Ella, she had tons from when he was growing up. The one she had brought in particular was one of six she had for his first year of life. Lucy flipped through it, smiling at the different pictures. She paused on one in particular when Henry was 6 months old.
"What's that?" She pointed to a picture of Regina holding Henry in front of a courthouse sign in Boston. She was wearing a navy blue pantsuit and Henry was wearing a tiny suit of his own, though it had spit up on it. "I thought no one could leave Storybrooke when my dad was a kid."
Regina smiled. "Well, I was the one who cast the curse, so of course I was the exception. And since your father wasn't born there, he was immune as well. That was the day his adoption was finalized, I had to take him back to Boston to sign the papers."
"Oh." Lucy studied the picture more. "Why did you want to adopt him?"
Regina tilted her head, realizing that she and Lucy had never discussed it. Lucy had always grown up knowing her father's story, along with knowing that her mother had also been adopted, but she didn't know Henry's backstory. "Well, when I cast the curse, I thought I had everything I ever wanted. I was in power, the people around me were miserable. However, I was still alone. I didn't have anyone. I felt like I had this hole in my heart and nothing was filling it."
She shut her eyes as she was brought back to that time. It felt like so long ago, yet when she discussed it, it seemed like just yesterday. Quickly, her eyes flickered back open and she brought herself back to the story.
"I realized that what I actually needed, was a family. I couldn't do it on my own, so I went to your great-grandfather."
"Rumpelstiltskin?"
"That's right. He was still cursed at the time, but since he was very powerful, he helped me find an adoption agency. A little later, I got a call that an adoption had fell through and their was a baby boy that needed a family."
Lucy grinned. "And that baby was my dad."
Regina smiled, tapping her nose. "That's right. I went down to Boston and got him, bringing him home with me. It wasn't easy, but we soon found our rhythm."
She got misty eyed as Lucy flipped to the front of the scrapbook, showing the first picture of Henry. He was just 2 weeks old at the time, a chubby, squishy newborn in a white onesie with little brown dots over it. He was squinting, not really looking at the camera. Regina felt the same tug at her heart the moment he had been placed in her arms, with the same memory of knowing one thing.
This was her son, her baby boy. Nothing would ever take him from her. And while over the years, many things had, he had always come back to her.
Henry would always be the person that made her feel complete.