A/N: Thanks again for the wonderful response to this story! I really appreciate everyone's support.
I want to respond quickly to an anon review that there isn't enough Henry and Emma time in the story. I know, and I'm sorry. I'll admit my bias here; while I love Emma, I just have a very soft spot in my heart for the Regina and Henry relationship . But this chapter has a fair amount of Emma and Henry issues in it.
Finally, I hope you all don't mind that this chapter is a little on the short side. I finished writing Regina and Emma's conversation with Henry and figured that it could stand alone enough to post it tonight. There will probably be a part two of sorts to this chapter later, but I'm always a fan of fast updates, so I figured I would publish what I have written now. Hope you enjoy.
"What could be taking him so long?" Regina asks as she paces back and forth in the kitchen.
"Do you really want me to answer that? He's a 12 year old boy."
"Stop talking right now."
"Seriously Regina, you need to calm down. Weren't you the one who insisted that telling Henry would be fine?"
Regina glares at Emma. "We need to tell him if we are going to be together," she affirms, but fails to mention anything about how she believes this disclosure might turn out.
"But you're afraid of how he's going to react?"
Emma sees Regina's eyes go glassy, and Emma realizes that she is going to have to be strong now, even if she is still panicking herself. "Come here."
Regina moves to stand next to where Emma is leaning against the kitchen counter. Emma places her hand on Regina's back. "Worst case scenario in your head: go."
"Henry doesn't want us to be together because you're good and I'm the Evil Queen."
"Well that's stupid," Emma says with a playful smile. "Henry loves you. He knows that you aren't evil. You must know that after this morning."
"What I know is that he is in pain, and he needs his mother to comfort him. I can tell you from experience that it is quite easy to ignore how awful your mother is in such a circumstance."
"You're nothing like her," Emma whispers softly.
Regina shakes her head and swallows the lump in her throat. She can't think about her mother right now.
Regina is grateful when Emma doesn't push, simply keeps her hand firmly on Regina's back.
"What is your worst case scenario?" Regina asks.
"Honestly? I think it's that Henry tells us he doesn't want to be together, and you ask me to leave." The silence and contemplative expression on Regina's face does nothing to ease Emma's fears. "Which, I get that you know, he's your kid and he comes first."
Regina is quiet for another moment as she realizes just how insecure Emma is in this relationship, how Emma is waiting for it to end any second. "First of all Emma, I think that you have more than proven that you are Henry's mother too." Regina marvels at how the thought of Henry being their son is no longer frightening. "And second, I believe that we need to make it clear to Henry that we are not asking for permission to be together. We are together, and we need to help Henry to deal with that. He needs to know that no matter what happens we will both be here for him."
Regina feels a little better. Saying this out loud makes her feel like she can take control of the situation and be who Henry and Emma need her to be.
Emma is looking at Regina with a surprised expression that breaks Regina's heart. Regina wraps her arm around Emma's waist, and they stand side by side preparing themselves until they hear footsteps on the stairs.
Emma and Regina move apart, and Henry walks into the room a minute later holding his beach bag. "Ready?"
Regina steps towards Henry and asks, "Can we talk to you first?"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Henry." He clearly doesn't believe her. "I promise." Regina places a hand on Henry's back and guides him to the kitchen table.
Henry sits at the head of the table, Regina next to him. He's a bit surprised when Emma chooses to sit down next to Regina a minute later.
"Henry," Regina begins, as she reaches out and puts a hand on his forearm. "You know that Emma and I have been spending a lot of time together since you've been home. We've discovered that we actually enjoy each other's company quite a lot."
"That's cool," Henry says with a smile. "Does that mean that Emma is going to move in with us permanently?"
Regina barely has time to appreciate the fact that Henry apparently believes that his home is here with her, before she has to figure out how to do a better job of explaining exactly what she means.
"Emma and I have started to have feelings for each other."
Understanding washes over Henry's face, and Regina and Emma hold their breath. "Like you love each other?"
The word takes Regina by surprise, though she supposes she should have expected it from her son who believes in True Love and Happy Endings. "What Emma and I feel is still very new, but we care for each other and we want to continue finding out what that means."
"So you might break up?" Henry asks, his face transforming into an anxious frown.
Emma can't stand that expression on her son's face. "You're jumping the gun a bit there, kid."
"What's going to happen if you break up?"
Regina squeezes Henry's arm. "We aren't going to let anything change for you. Remember what I promised you this morning? I am going to be the mother that you need. I will never keep you from seeing Emma again. No matter what happens between Emma and me, we will both always love you."
Henry looks down. He wants to ask more, but he doesn't want to hurt his mothers.
"What is it?" Regina asks.
Henry feels like he is about to start crying. Every awful scenario runs through his head, every scenario in which he loses his mothers.
"Please," Emma begs, "Talk to us."
"I don't want you to go away," Henry whispers, looking up at Emma.
"Oh Henry no, I'm not going anywhere. Like your mom said, we're both going to be there for you no matter what happens between us."
"But when you get hurt you leave, and I don't want you to leave."
It breaks Emma's heart that Henry sees her like this, sees the truth of her flaws and her weakness. She is so used to him insisting that she is the Savior that she forgets that beneath all that Henry is a smart kid who is very good at reading people. A kid who had to beg and plead and scheme to get her to stay in Storybrooke for him.
Emma kneels down in front on Henry and rests her hands on his knees. "I promise you Henry, I'm not going anywhere."
The words rush from Henry's mouth. Even though he doesn't want to hurt Emma, the idea of her leaving him is devastating and he can't keep the fear inside anymore. "You've said that before. Before I ate the poisoned turnover, you were about to leave Storybrooke. You wanted to leave, and the only reason you stayed was because you thought my mom was evil and I needed you to protect me. But what happens now that you know Mom will take care of me? There's no reason that you'll have to stay."
"I'm staying because I love you," Emma's voice breaks. She's desperate to make him believe, but she doesn't know how. "I love you, and I want to help you through what happened to you."
"And when I don't need help anymore?"
Emma should be joyful that her son envisions a day when he has recovered from what he went through in Neverland, but her overwhelming sadness that he thinks she will leave overshadows everything else.
"I know that I left you as a baby and that I almost left again last year, but I really was trying to do what was best for you. I wanted to keep you so badly, but Henry, I was in jail. I couldn't raise a kid then, so I did what I thought was best for you – what I know now was best for you. When you showed up in Boston, I didn't want to see you because I knew I would love you and it would hurt too much to let you go again. And I was right. I love you so much kid, and now that I'm in your life I don't want to ever go anywhere again."
By the time Emma finishes talking she has tears streaming down her cheeks. Regina rests her hand on Emma's shoulder, squeezing gently. Emma reaches one hand up to place it on top of Regina's. She sobs softly at the comfort she finds in touching Regina's skin.
It's the first time Henry has seen his mothers touch like this. He sees a gentleness there that he has only seen either of them express towards him. Henry doesn't want to take that from them.
"So you two like really like each other."
Regina pries her eyes away from Emma and tells Henry, "Yes, we do."
"Ok," Henry says. He thinks that maybe his mothers can be happy. He knows that neither of them has really had that chance before.
Emma barely hears Henry over the doubts and self-recriminations floating in her head. When his words finally register, all Emma wants to do is hug her son. "Come here," she says, pulling Henry into her arms.
"I love you kid," Emma says, squeezing Henry so tightly she hopes that he's able to breathe. She can't bring herself to loosen her grip. Emma reaches blindly for Regina, desperate to have them both in her arms, uncertain why she feels so much like she is grasping at people who could slip from her life at any moment.
Regina is happy to oblige Emma's silent request. Regina sinks to her knees and wraps her arms around Emma and Henry. Their arms wrap immediately around her waist, pulling her into a hug. It feels ridiculously like being granted entry into what Regina had been certain was the family that her son would choose, the family that she believed he would happily reject her for.
They hold onto each other, Regina and Emma clutching their son just as tightly as he's clutching them.
"Why are we sitting on the floor?" Henry asks a few minutes later. His mothers both laugh tearful laughs. They pull back and smile at him.
"Are you ok?" Emma asks. "Have we traumatized you forever?"
"Nah, I've been through worse." For a second the mood darkens with the truth of the statement, until Henry says, "Geez, lighten up."
Regina smiles at her son, pushes his hair back from his face. She takes in the way his baby fat has begun to disappear, the way he looks more and more like a man every day. "You must have more questions for us," Regina insists, her hand still cupping his face.
Even though the anxiety is still stirring in Henry, he doesn't feel like continuing an intense conversation today. Right now, he just wants to be hopeful.
"Does this mean that I'm going to have to watch you kiss all the time?"
"Yeah, kid, it probably does." Emma tries to let the shift in mood overtake her. She will have to accept that Henry is still afraid that she is going to abandon him, and that is not something that she can take away from him today.
"I guess that's ok. Most kids have to see their parents kissing." He tries to play it off like the thought is something he will just have to bear, but Henry can't suppress his happiness at the idea that the three of them could be a family.
"This must be strange for you Henry," Regina says, worried that his happiness can't possibly be real. "You can tell us."
"It's ok Mom, really."
"Alright sweetheart, but you'll remember that you can talk to us anytime?"
"Sure." Henry doesn't move for a minute. He simply soaks in the way all three of them are sitting so close to each other, each of his mothers with a hand still touching him. Their other hands are intertwined, and Henry doesn't know when their fingers joined together, but it comforts him in a way that he can't completely wrap his mind around to know that they have this with each other.
"Can we go to the beach now?"
Regina nods and leans forward to pull Henry into another quick hug.
Emma stands and wipes the tears from her cheeks wondering how bad the mascara tracks are. "Come on," Emma says extending her hand to help Henry up off the floor. "Today we are dragging your mom into the water."
Henry grins conspiratorially at Emma.
As the walk to the car Henry thinks about family time and all three of them being happy. He thinks of his moms smiling. He thinks of being safe and loved. And he tries his hardest to let those thoughts push the fear from his mind.