Chapter Four

Henry came back downstairs when he heard the door shut. "You ok, Mom?" He asked, noticing the troubled look on Regina's face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just exhausted," Regina said, walking over to Henry and putting her arm around his shoulders. "And, I missed you," she added, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"It smells good in here. Did you bake cookies?" Henry asked, hopefully.

"Emma and I did, yes," she said, as they began to walk together to the kitchen.

"Thanks for taking her last night," Henry said, pulling a chair up to the kitchen island, and grabbing a cookie out of the jar. "I'm sure it wasn't easy for you."

"Why would you think that?" Regina asked, taking a seat across from him.

"Well, I mean, I know you two had been working together and getting along more lately, but... I know she still gets under your skin sometimes. The adult version, anyway," Henry said with a small smirk.

Regina was amazed at how well he was handling this whole situation. His life had been anything but normal since he was ten, but this was still pretty weird, even for them.

"Emma and I have made a lot of progress, actually. I should have never blamed her for bringing Marian back. She wasn't wrong for saving a life, even if it did kind of screw mine up. Besides, that little girl is not the same person I had issues with in the past. Even if I was still angry, I wouldn't take it out on a five-year-old," she said, getting up to start the coffee maker again.

"You weren't kidding about being tired," Henry commented. "Did Emma keep you up half the night with a nightmare?"

Regina raised an eyebrow. "I take it that's a common occurrence?"

"Every night," Henry nodded. "She has them as an adult, too. Not as often... and she doesn't scream like that, but I still hear her wake up crying sometimes."

"Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

Henry shrugged. "I don't think she wanted anyone to know. She tries to pretend it doesn't happen. You know how she is."

Regina nodded.

"Mom... the fairies will be able to turn her back, right?"

Regina gave him a small smile. "Of course they will, don't worry."

Henry nodded, though he looked unconvinced.

"Henry," Regina, started tentatively, "how are your grandparents with Emma?" She didn't really want to cause him any concern, but at this point, she was worried that Emma's welfare trumped that.

"What do you mean? You know they're in over their heads."

"What I mean is… how do they interact with her? How do they talk to her?"

"Well, I don't know if I'd call what they do 'interacting'... Mostly, Emma screams and cries, and they try to calm her down. When she's not throwing a fit, she either shuts herself in her room, or hides somewhere," Henry stopped and thought for a moment before continuing. "Remember when you said, it's about asking and not telling?"

Regina nodded.

"Well, they tell her what to do. They're not mean about it or anything, more like 'Emma, please eat your dinner', but she doesn't answer and she doesn't do it, just pouts. She doesn't seem to like being told what to do."

"Most kids don't," said Regina. Another thing she had learned through trial and error with Henry.

"She hates when they touch her, too. Like I said last night, about how she freaks out when Grandma tries to wipe her face. I know it upsets them because they want to hug and cuddle her, but she just squirms away."

Regina nodded, thinking back to how the Charmings had made no attempt to hug or kiss Emma when she left with her last night, and to how Emma had flinched away from her own touch after her nightmare.

"She lies, too," Henry added.

"About what?"

Henry shrugged. "Everything, I guess. Like she spilled juice on the floor and tried to say Neal did it. Things like that."

"She's afraid of getting in trouble," Regina commented.

"Well, Grandma and Grandpa didn't get mad or anything. They've never yelled at her or even raised their voices. She has nothing to be afraid of."

"She doesn't know that. At some point, someone has gotten angry with her for an accident, and now she's afraid of getting in trouble."

Henry seemed to think on that for a moment, without responding.

"What is it?" Regina asked.

"It's just... maybe you should tell Grandma that? Because she thinks Emma lies because she has behaviour problems. That's what the lady at the group home told her."

Regina nodded. "I will."

Regina sent Mary Margaret a text telling her to call her once Emma was asleep. She ended up getting a call from David at 8:30, with Emma quite audibly wailing in the background.

"Regina, I'm sorry to put this on you, I know it's not your problem, but Emma has been screaming like this for nearly an hour, and we can't get her to calm down. We don't know what to do."

"You let her scream for an hour?"

"We've been trying everything to calm her, nothing's working. She keeps asking for you. You know I wouldn't ask unless I was desperate. Just tell me what to try… how do I calm her down?"

"Put her on the phone."

"What?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Put Emma on the phone; let me talk to her."

Regina glanced over at Henry, who had looked up from his video game and was now watching her from the couch, trying to figure out what was going on.

Regina heard the screaming getting louder, and she realized then that David must have been in a different room when he had called her. She was amazed that noise could come out of that tiny child. She could hear him trying to tell her to take the phone. It took a few moments, but suddenly the screaming stopped.

"Hello?" Emma's timid voice came through the phone.

"Hi, baby, it's Regina. What's going on?"

Emma took a moment to answer. Regina could hear a few distinct double-breaths through the phone, the kind children got after intense sobbing or hyperventilation. When she finally did speak, her words came out in a staccato fashion, possibly from still trying to catch her breath, or possibly from trying to prevent the onslaught of more tears.

"I. Want. To. Come back. To. Your house."

It took everything in Regina's power not to tell Emma she was on her way, as she realized that she would have liked nothing more than to have her back at her house as well. She had to remind herself that she was not Emma's parent. "Why, sweetie? What's wrong with your house?" she asked.

"I don't like it here. It's scary and I can't sleep."

"Why is it scary?"

Emma didn't respond. Regina wondered if she didn't actually know what was scaring her, or if she did, and didn't want to say it with her parents in the room. She could still hear her laboured breathing, so she knew Emma was still on the phone, just choosing to remain silent. Regina wished that she could just pull her into her arms right now, and never let her go.

"What if I came over to see you?" Regina suggested. It occurred to her that perhaps she was overstepping her bounds by not checking with the Charmings first, but at the same time, she was sure they were just relieved to have some peace and quiet after an hour of Emma screaming like a banshee. Either way, it was too late to take the offer back, anyway.

"Now?" Emma asked, her voice a little hopeful.

"Yes. We can be there in ten minutes." Regina looked over at Henry again, who had already turned off his game and gotten up to head for his shoes. She wasn't surprised that he was listening. She was less surprised that he was quick to jump on board with going over to help with Emma. Helping his family was part of his nature.

"We?" Emma asked. "Do you have to bring Henry?"

"Yes, darling," Regina replied. In the background, she heard Mary Margaret ask Emma to hand her the phone, and Emma refused.

"Emma, please give your mother the phone, ok?"

Moments later, she heard Mary Margaret's voice. "Regina, are you coming over?"

"Well, it sounds like you might need a bit of a break," Regina said, trying to play it off lightly.

"That would be nice. But I don't want you to think she's your responsibility. That's really not why David called you."

"Don't worry, I don't. I'm happy to help. I'll be there shortly."

When Regina and Henry arrived at the Charmings', they could hear Neal crying through the door by the time they were halfway up the stairs.

"Strong lungs must run in the family," she commented, raising an eyebrow at Henry, remembering how loud he used to wail as an infant. "How do you get any sleep here?"

Henry shrugged. "I don't, I just drink a lot of coffee," he joked.

When they reached the door, Regina found it was locked, again, but Henry had a key and let them in. They were barely inside the door when Emma ran over and flung herself against Regina's legs, wrapping her arms around them and squeezing tight, nearly knocking her over. Regina reached down and picked Emma up, hugging her close.

Moments later, Regina noticed Neal's crying had stopped, as Mary Margaret rocked him with a bottle in his mouth. At least they can soothe one of their children by themselves.

Regina watched Mary Margaret watching her, and noticed a glint of something – longing, maybe? Jealousy? – in her eyes, and she knew it must bother her that Emma had latched on to her so quickly. At first, Regina had thought Mary Margaret wasn't trying hard enough, but that look in her eyes told Regina that she would do anything to trade places with her right now.

"Where's David?" Regina asked, suddenly, only now realizing he wasn't present.

"He went out to get some… air," Mary Margaret replied.

She had always been a bad liar. Regina wondered if he actually just wasn't keen on her coming over to comfort Emma herself, rather than attempting to walk them through it over the phone. Despite all the progress they had all made as a family, she was well aware that he still wasn't her biggest fan.

"I see," Regina replied. "I'm going to take Emma upstairs. I assume she still sleeps in the same room?"

Mary Margaret nodded. "Good night, Emma," she called to her daughter, but Emma didn't look up. Regina rubbed her back as she carried her up the stairs. She wore pink cotton pajamas with white stars all over them, that felt soft and new, and actually fit her properly. Regina was relieved that they had at least taken one piece of her advice, and bought Emma new clothes.

Maybe they can be trained, after all, she thought to herself, with a small smirk.

Regina carried Emma into her bedroom and looked around. Though it didn't exactly look like a child's room, she did note that they had removed all of Adult Emma's belongings from sight, which she figured was probably wise. She pulled back the covers on Emma's bed and laid her down, before crawling into bed next to her.

"Are you gonna stay with me?" Emma asked.

"Just until you fall asleep," Regina replied, stroking her hair. "But I thought maybe we could talk a little first."

"Okay," Emma agreed.

"Can you tell me why you were so upset earlier?" Regina asked.

"Cause I wanted to go to your house."

"I understand that, but you can't just throw a temper tantrum when you don't get what you want."

"Are you mad?"

"No, Emma, I'm not mad. You said your house is scary. What's scary about your house?"

"I'm tired. I don't wanna talk anymore," Emma said. She squeezed her eyes shut and Regina continued to stroke her hair.

Regina sighed. "Okay, that's fine. Good night, sweetheart."

"Can you sing me a lullaby?" Emma whispered, with her eyes still shut.

Regina smiled, and thought for a moment. "Okay. I used to sing this one to Henry, it always put him to sleep," Regina said, clearing her throat before she started to sing, softly.

"Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly, lavender's green,

When you are king, dilly, dilly, I shall be queen."

Emma opened her eyes and started to giggle.

"What?" Regina asked, smiling.

"I can't be King, I'm a girl!"

"Okay, fine, forget that line. Let me start over."

Emma smiled and closed her eyes again. Regina snuggled in a little closer and began to sing again.

"Lavender's green, dilly, dilly, Lavender's blue,

If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you.

Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs play;

We shall be safe, dilly, dilly, out of harm's way."