Chapter III
The Son
Regina led Emma into her house by the hand. Emma had been in the mansion countless times but this was the first time she actually felt welcome. Regina's hand was warm and fit snugly against her own, like it belonged there, like they belonged together. She was slightly taller than Regina today, which was unusual. Then she looked the woman up and down and realized that she was barefoot. She had never, ever, seen Regina Mills barefoot. Her feet, like the rest of her, were dainty and elegant. Her toenails were painted a bright scarlet red. That was Regina in a nutshell, no one ever saw her toes, but of course they were pedicured and painted. It was just so Regina that it made perfect sense.
They ended up in the den. A room that Emma had peeked at, but had never been in. The room was dominated by a large flat screen television and surround sound system. Well, Emma mused, she knew where she was watching the next Super Bowl. There was also a large multi-tiered shelf full of movies, most were child-oriented but Emma could see a few grown-up selections hanging out on the top shelf. She had a definite itch between her shoulder blades, she wanted to prowl around and see what kind of movies the Mayor watched. This was not the time, though.
They settled themselves on the couch, and she tried not to notice that Regina was still holding her hand. Henry sat across from, snuggled comfortably in a large overstuffed chair. He folded his legs underneath him and tucked his book by his side. His face was a mix of curiosity and suspicion. The curiosity she recognized, it was the same look he'd had on his face when he'd been standing outside her apartment door in Boston so many months before. The suspicion was new, but she had a feeling that it was an expression that Regina had seen far too often. She squeezed the other woman's hand. This was going to be weird.
"So Henry-"Emma had no idea how to start this conversation. It was like she was Henry and he was her and she had to be the one to explain that fairy tales were real and everything he thought he knew was a lie. This was way easier from the other side of the fence.
"Henry, honey" Regina smiled at him and that was when Emma noticed that her lips, the lush lower and the perfectly molded upper, were unpainted. In fact, she was pretty sure that the other woman wasn't wearing any makeup at all. If anything, she was even more beautiful au-natural.
Focus, Swan.
"How long has Em-Sheriff Swan been in Storybrooke?"
Oh good question.
Henry shrugged, his eyes darted between the two of them, "For as long as anyone can remember. Just like everyone else in town."
She and Regina looked at each other. She wasn't exactly sure what that meant, and neither was Regina from the look on her face, but they both knew that it was significant.
"Sn-Ms. Blanchard gave you the book?"
She had never heard Regina bumble a name, twenty-eight years of calling Snow Mary Margaret and she'd be willing to bet that Regina had never messed up. She was truly rattled by all of this.
Their linked hands were tucked between them, out of Henry's line of sight, and she rubbed her thumb over Regina's hand a little, just enough to let her know that everything was going to be okay.
"Yeah."
The curiosity was gone, now Henry was in full Operation Cobra mode. His eyes were narrow and his mouth set in a hard line. He looked just like his mother. His Operation Cobra face was almost a mirror image of Madame Mayor when she was nailing someone to the wall over an uncrossed t on their paperwork. Scary stuff.
"So you think Storybrooke is cursed?"
Regina's voice was steady, but Emma knew that she was struggling. She'd fought for a year to convince Henry that there was no curse. Admitting to it, pulling a complete 180 on the matter, couldn't be easy.
"Your curse."
Regina's face fell just a little, Henry had figured out that his mom was the Evil Queen.
"And who am I?"
Emma grinned a little. She was the Savior and his birth mother, here to save the day or so the book said.
"I haven't figured that out yet."
"What?"
Both she and Regina bumbled the word out of gaping mouths.
"You're one of the only people I haven't figured out yet." He looked at her with his narrow Regina-esque eyes, "Who are you?"
Indignation filled her being. She had already broken the damn curse, saved the town, tromped through a magical forest and saved the freaking world, or at least Storybrooke, from destruction. She was either Superman or the Savior.
"I'm the Savior, Kid."
His answer was immediate and filled with so much sarcasm that she barely believed it was Henry speaking.
"No you're not."
Was this how he spoke to Regina? She got the sweet, cute, perfect son and Regina got this raging little brat? Not cool.
"She's telling you the truth, Henry. I am" Regina looked down, "The Evil Queen and Emma Swan is the Savior."
Regina's hand clenched around hers and betrayed what her carefully controlled face did not, that admission had hurt her.
"That's impossible. She's from here. She was cursed. The Savior wasn't cursed. Snow White and Prince Charming sent their daughter out into the real world."
Yeah, through a magical tree. Emma didn't need the cliff notes, she'd lived the story. Only the book didn't talk about how she'd popped out in the middle of nowhere and the little boy who'd grown up to be August had been a for-shit guardian. Though, in his defense he'd been a little boy at the time.
"Yeah, Kid, that all happened. This has all happened before. We're totally stuck in the worse re-make of Groundhog's Day ever. You came to find me, the website you stole Ms. Blanchard's credit card to use lead you right to me."
There was a sudden flash of surprise, Henry hadn't expected them to know about that.
"That didn't work. The website couldn't find my real mom.
Ow, that stung. Emma flinched and immediately knew that no matter how much that comment had hurt her, it had to hurt Regina ten times worse.
"Miss Swan is your birth mother, Dear."
It was back to Miss Swan and Dear again? She stole a look at Regina's face. It was placid, calm, unaffected by what she was saying. Then Emma looked at the other woman's dark eyes. They were a swirling mess of fiercely held back tears and emotions. Pain, sadness, and a small, fading fast, spark of hope. She was using Mayor-Speak because that was the only thing holding her together through all of this.
Emma clamped down on her unexpected, and powerful, urge to pull the brunette into her arms. This was all too much. Regina had lost her mother, been tortured, said a final goodbye to her son and been willing to give her life to stop the diamond, most of that within the last twenty-four hours, the woman deserved a freaking break.
"You're lying!" Henry jumped up, his arms crossed over his chest, "You always lie!"
Woah, she didn't care if his mother was the Evil Queen, he shouldn't yell at her.
"Calm down, Kid."
Henry turned his surly face on her, "Don't call me Kid, my name is Henry. I hate being called Kid."
Emma blinked, hurt and a little confused, she had always called him Kid. She thought he had liked it. It had been their thing.
"She's just using you. All this time, pretending to hate you." Henry rolled his eyes, "She probably has your heart tucked away in a box somewhere. She's evil."
"That's quite enough, Henry." Regina's voice was steady and had a finite sort of feeling that didn't allow for argument.
Mom voice, Emma reflected, she had to get her one of those.
It was a fragile sound, though, like Regina's heart truly wasn't in it. Henry had hurt her, again. True or not, hearing her son call her evil really hurt Regina.
"We've already missed the beginning of the school day, so you simply won't attend."
The Mayor was letting Henry play hooky? That was new.
Then, Emma remembered that Regina had walked into the Mines, convinced that she would never see Henry again. She had spent hours before that being tortured, close to death. Emma didn't doubt that Regina's thoughts had been of Henry then.
He wasn't playing hooky because he was late. Regina was holding him close because no matter how much of a little shit he was being at the moment, he was her son, she loved him with all of her heart and she needed him close to her after all that she'd been through.
Frankly Emma wanted him close too. There had been a minute in the mines when she had known, down to her bones that she was done for. She had thought that Henry was going to be an orphan and that she was never going to see her son again. Some family time was definitely in order. Family. Regina, Henry and her, that was what family meant to her right now. It wasn't that she didn't miss Neal, she did. She also missed her parents, as odd as that situation was. They were all her family. This, though, was something deeper and more profound. They'd been circling around it ever since Henry had brought her from Boston. She and Regina had been acting like bitterly divorced parents for months. Divorced, Emma rolled her eyes, before the first date. Still, though, it wouldn't be a family she'd fit into if it wasn't dysfunctional.
"How about," She forced herself to smile at Henry, "you guys get dressed and meet me at Granny's for a late breakfast and we can talk some more." She squeezed Regina's hand one more time before letting it go. "We can start working on Operation Cobra."
"That's a stupid name."
Emma sighed internally, no wonder Regina had been so strict all the time, the Kid had her mouth and only used manners when it suited him. A little bit of Neal was buried deep in Henry after all.
"You picked it."
Regina sighed, but Emma had a feeling that she was covering a little chuckle.
"Children."
Emma had an almost over-whelming urge to stick her tongue out. She held it back, though. She was trying really hard to be a serious mom. Regina made it look so easy, but it really wasn't.
"Henry why don't you head upstairs while I show Sheriff Swan out?"
He looked between the two of him, like he didn't exactly trust them. "O-kay."
They didn't speak on their journey back to the manor's front door. It felt like everything had already been said. Emma felt like she had been sucker punched and didn't know what to say when Regina opened the front door to let her out.
Regina let the door close behind them, and Emma realized that she looked emotionally drained. She looked like Emma felt, no she actually looked worse. All Emma wanted to do was hold her. Henry didn't believe them. The Kid who had convinced her that had convinced her to accept all the curse nonsense that was their reality and now he didn't believe them. Well, he believed in the curse that was for sure. Only, this time he didn't believe in her. He believed that Regina was the Evil Queen, but she couldn't be the Savior because it wasn't the way his picture perfect book explained it to him. She sort of wished she could set that book on fire. It wasn't even the whole story, just the parts that made sure that Henry hated his mother, loved his grandparents and went off searching for her. It was just enough of the story to make Henry break his mother's heart.
She looked at Regina, and smiled a little.
"Hey."
A single tear slid down Regina's cheek and Emma leaned forward to wipe it away with the pad of her thumb. She didn't know what to say, she wasn't good with words. Emma Swan did far better with actions then with words. So she did what came naturally, she acted upon her urges. She leaned in and kissed Regina Mills. It was just as amazing as she remembered. Regina's lips slid against hers without hesitation and fell open at the first flick of her tongue. She felt Regina's hands wrap around her and was pulled closer. This was Heaven. She broke the kiss off when oxygen became an issue.
Regina looked at her with wide eyes, "What was that for?"
Why would anyone need a reason to kiss a woman as beautiful as Regina? The concept was mind boggling. She wanted to punch whoever had convinced the brunette that even a simple kiss came with a price.
Emma smiled and rested her forehead against Regina's. "Because everyone, including our son, is so busy telling you that you're evil that they don't see what I see." She rubbed circles on Regina's back, "That you're trying so damn hard to do the right thing and you're having to do it all by yourself."
"I-"Regina didn't seem to know what to say.
"What you just did in there." Emma pulled the woman flush against her, "The things you said. You would have never said that before. You tried everything in power to keep Henry and me apart." She shook her head, "but today you called me Henry's mother and yourself the Evil Queen. You told the truth, every bit of it, no matter how much it hurt you." And it had hurt. It had hurt Regina more than being tortured and more than stopping the diamond. She had shattered her own heart in there, because it had been the right thing to do.
She pecked Regina's lips again, "And that's the bravest damn thing I've ever seen. I honestly don't know if I could have done the same thing. You've changed, Regina. No matter what Henry says, you're not the Evil Queen anymore." She pulled Regina's chin up with gentle fingers so she could look into her dark eyes, "Maybe you never were."
Then she leaned in and kissed her again. She wanted to show Regina how much she cared, how proud she was of the other woman, how much she wanted her. She pressed the brunette against 108's white door and felt more then heard Regina's answering moan. The moan allowed Emma to slide her tongue inside Regina's inviting mouth. Apples and honey that were tinged with the salty tang of sadness.
She broke off the kiss and smiled at Regina's face. There were no more tears. Regina's eyes were closed and her lips were still open and a little swollen.
She leaned in and nuzzled against Regina's neck, "I'll see you at Granny's." Then she stepped back, turned and walked away with what anyone would have called a shit-eating grin on her face. The grin only grew wider when she checked her rearview mirror as she pulled away. Regina was still standing on her porch, leaned against the door, touching her lips.
Oh yeah, curse or no curse, she still had it.
Author's Note: No matter what universe or timeline he's in, Henry insists upon being a little shit!