Thank you for follows and comments left for the first three, I appreciate it more then you know.

This one is based between chapter 1 and 2 during Emma's second visit to Storybrooke.

I do not own OUAT or its characters just my imagination.

Chapter 4: a talk

Regina and Emma sit on a park bench watching Henry run around with his friends; it was a nice spring day in Storybrooke perfect chance to enjoy some time outside. This was Emma's second visit to the town, she had gotten there the night before, and had been spending the day with Henry and Regina, and she planned to leave the next day after breakfast at the pair's home.

They sit there in the quite for a while "Can I ask you something?" Regina suddenly asks.

Emma looks over at the woman "Um… yeah, sure what's up?"

"Why didn't you ever check, check to see if Henry was adopted" Regina asks, out of curiosity.

Emma had been asked this before, she often felt judgement when asked, but not this time, which surprises Emma, she can tell there was no judgement in Regina's tone when she asked. Emma sits a minute, twiddling her fingers, trying to find the right words. "When I gave Henry up, the day he was born, they said that they had a family lined up for him. It would be a couple weeks before he went, but he had a home" Emma says, she turns her body to look at Regina, and Regina does the same. "I guess, it was more of a coping thing… not checking." Emma stops a moment feeling tears build up in her eyes, she takes a deep breath to continue "Giving Henry up… it was the toughest choice I ever had to make, just like we told Henry" Emma say, tears still threating to fall "The only way I could live with the choice I made was to convince myself he was in a home, safe and loved. I thought about it a couple times, but stopped myself. I was afraid if I was lied to I couldn't live with myself. A part of me wishes now… wishes that I was brave enough to check, but at the same time… then he wouldn't of found you" Emma says giving Regina a genuine smile.

Regina gave her a smile back "Emma the choice you made back then WAS brave… you loved him enough to let him go, for what you thought was a better life" she puts her hand on Emma's shoulder "We are lucky that Henry came out of the system relatively fine, he had a few bad homes, but it could've of been much worse. He was never sent to the hospital or… taken out of a home suddenly because of negligence. Somehow that little boy held onto hope, hope he will find a family and home, that he would be loved. And look at him now… he is in a home safe and loved. He ended up finding not only a mom, but also his birth mom. Now he has two moms who would do anything for him, and love him to the moon and back" Regina says tears now in her eyes.

Emma wipes away at the tears on her cheeks, and nods her head "Still don't know what I did to deserve to ever meet him or him wanting to meet me?"

"Because you are his mom… because he always hoped you were the first person to love him" Regina says and looks to check on Henry again. "As much as I love that boy Emma… you two have a connection that we will never have. A connection that I guess he hoped had answers for the questions he had for those eight years."

"Do you think he truly forgives me?" Emma asks, no longer looking at Regina, now watching Henry chasing his friends around.

"Yes. He never blamed you in anyway Emma… Can I be honest with you?" Regina says. Emma nods simply to answer. "Henry had been with me… I think six weeks or so, the first time he told me how he wanted to meet his birth mom one day. I asked him why and he told me that… that he mostly wanted to know why, why he wasn't good enough…"

Emma losses any control on her emotions at that "He was good enough… I was the one not good enough."

Regina swallows the lump that had formed in her throat, Regina had gotten to know this woman just like her son was and she could tell if circumstances were different, were better Emma would of kept Henry, she had no doubt Henry would have been more then fine with Emma back then. "He knows Emma, but that's how it felt at the time… I told him I didn't believe it was true. I told him I believed you gave him up for a good reason… that it was out of love, not because he wasn't good enough or you didn't love him."

Emma nods "Thank you, thank you for being there for him when I couldn't."

"It was my pleasure Emma… I just wished it happened sooner, that he was surrounded by love longer."

"How did you looking for me come about?" Emma asks.

"Like I said in the letter" Regina starts "Henry was curious, but at first, when I was fostering him, I thought that was it. When I decided to go forward with adoption, I wanted to make sure Henry was transitioning fine with it, I mean he was happy, and he said he wanted it" Emma nods for Regina to continue. "But I still wanted to check, so I asked a friend of mine doctor Hopper to talk with him. After the appointment he told me that, yes Henry was transitioning well, and was excited to have a home, a mom. But then he suggested that Henry needed closure, with you" Regina says looking at Emma "he said if possible for you two to talk, it would help him to fully, one hundred percent accept me."

"He seemed accepting of everything when I first met you guys" Emma points out.

Regina nods "He was accepting, but at the same time, I could tell a part of him wondered, held out hope that you would come for him" she finishes.

Emma sadly nods; she knew Regina was simply answering the question she asked. But Emma couldn't help but feel guilt, she knew that wasn't what Regina was trying to do, but Emma's stomach drops at what she says "I hate to think… that… that he possibly missed out on something good, just cause of me." Emma says looking over to her son again, he looked so happy and carefree "but I know he loves you Regina, he knows his home is with you, and always will be."

Regina smiles "Thank you Emma."

Emma smiles back "No" she says shaking her head "I should be thanking you; you're the one who gave him that. You took in a boy, a boy who most likely believed he would never be adopted, wasn't good enough to be, and proved him wrong" Emma says looking at her hands. "That's probably why he held on the hope I would come, he felt his birth mom was the only person who would want him now."

"What makes you so sure about that?" Regina asks curiously, she was aware of Emma growing up in the foster system as well.

"That's how I felt at that age" Emma answers with a uncertain shrug. "You watch all the little kids leave with parents, and you and the other older kids just watch, wishing it was you" she says with a sigh. "But your turn never comes." They both stay quite a minute "At least he now… he got that too" Emma says.

Regina simply nods "I try to make sure I tell him every day, that he is loved and how happy I am to have him in my life."

"He knows" is all Emma says with a genuine smile.

Thoughts?