A Year In Review

This next chapter is in January. It takes place a week after Christmas. Flashbacks are italicized.

"Emma, did you even hear what I just said?" asked the brunette sitting beside Emma Swan.

"Sorry Ruby, what did you say?" replied the blonde as she took a sip of her cocoa.

"Regina just walked in with Henry and she looked at you," said Ruby as she tilted her head in the direction of the pair. Emma shifted slightly in the booth at Granny's as she slowly turned her head. Regina and Henry were seated at the barstools, and they were flipping through the menus. Regina's back was to Emma, and she was laughing about something with Henry. She caught a snippet of the conversation as she craned her neck in that direction.

"Henry, dear, your shirt is on backwards" came the silky smooth voice of the brunette.

"You didn't tell me before we left the house" shrugged Henry as he flips a page.

"I didn't notice it when we left the house" replies Regina as she gives him a half-hearted glare.

"You're my mom, and that's what moms are supposed to do" pointedly says Henry.

"Is that so?"

He gives one of his own smirks before replying, "Yeah, duh."

Regina lets out a laugh as she gently cups his cheek. "Alright young man, do you think you could tone down the sass long enough to order?" She motions at Granny to come over and when the older woman arrives at where they are sitting, Henry places his order.

"I'm going to have pancakes and hot chocolate with cinnamon, please," he says.

"And I'll have a small coffee and an omelette without onions" says Regina as she gives back the menu. Emma Swan realizes she'd been listening for far too long when she mutters the brunette's order at the same time under her breath.

"So you still haven't told me why you and Regina aren't talking," mentioned Ruby as Emma turned back to face her.

"Its not a big deal, I just did something stupid" shrugged Emma.

"So it wasn't because Regina is relapsing? She's not going to go back to being a crazy psycho bitch is she?"

The blonde rolled her eyes as she replied, "She's not a crazy psycho bitch and she's not relapsing. I just overstepped some boundaries."

"That's kind of understandable then, why she would be upset. That woman has so many walls," remarked Ruby as she stood up to leave. "Good luck though!"

"With what?" asked Emma.

"Getting back on her good side" said Ruby as she smiled and left. Emma looked back at Regina to see her staring at the blonde with a puzzled look on her face before it vanished and the brunette gave a look of disgust and resumed talking with her son.

SQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQ

Saturday morning, Emma Swan knocked on the door of 108 Mifflin Street, and Henry answered it.

"Hey Emma!" said the boy as he opened the door wider and let her step into the foyer.

"Is your mom home kid?" asked the blonde.

"Yeah, she's in her study, do you want to talk to her?"

"Nah, its good. Go grab your jacket and then we can get going." said the blonde as Henry raced up the stairs to his room. She stood still listening for the familiar click of heels but they never came. She heard a faint "I love you" before Henry ran back to meet her.

"You ready?"

"Yep" said Henry as he opened the door and the pair walked out. "So when are you going to talk to my mom?"

Emma stopped and stared at Henry for a moment before replying, "Whenever she's ready I guess. I'm not going to go and aggravate her."

"Can you at least tell me what you did?" asked Henry as they approached the car. Emma walked around to the other side as they both got in.

"I just did something that she wasn't expecting and I shocked her" explained Emma as she buckled her seatbelt.

"You know my mom hates surprises. She finds them threatening."

"Yeah, I got that kid. Put on your seatbelt." After she heard Henry's seatbelt click into place he spoke up again.

"My mom isn't going to come and talk to you, you're going to have to go and take the first step " mentioned Henry. "If she really was mad at you, she wouldn't let you take me out for ice cream."

Emma turned to look at him and rolled her eyes as she looked back at the road. "When did you become such an expert on your mom?"

"When I lived with her for the past 10 years" shrugged Henry.

"Point taken," said Emma as they pulled into the parking lot at Granny's. 20 minutes later they exited the diner and Emma drove Henry back to Mifflin Street.

"Are you sure you don't want to come in?" asked the boy.

"I'll come in some other time," said Emma as she waved and turned around to leave.

SQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQ

Henry walked into his house to find his Mom vacuuming the living room. He waved his hands to get her attention and she leaned down to shut off the vacuum and walked towards him.

"Henry!" How was the ice cream?" asked the brunette as he gave her a hug.

"It was good, I tried strawberry instead of chocolate this time and I liked it. I think next time I go I want to try pistachio though!"

"Mhm, do you want to go set the table?" said Regina as she gave him a small smile.

"Yeah for sure, also Emma wanted me to tell you that the lock on the sheriffs department door might be broken." mentioned the boy as he went to go grab plates and utensils.

"Oh is it?" replied Regina as she turned to face away from him.

"Yeah, I don't know maybe you should talk to her about it"

"Don't forget to out the salt and pepper on the table." said Regina as she turned around to leave.

Short chapter but don't worry, the next chapter has a big event and Regina and Emma will finally have a chat. Reviews are always greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!