Chapter 10: What about Henry

Emma closed the door to the interrogation room behind her. She began pacing not caring that her parents were outside the door watching through the window. Her head was racing, it had been the past two days and she wanted it to stop but with everything that had happened from messing with the dream catcher to everything that Neal had just told her, she didn't think it was possible at the moment.

Emma stopped at the corner end of the table, her back facing her parents. She wanted to throw something but there wasn't anything around. Gripping the edge of the table with her left hand, with her right Emma brought up her hand and then slammed it on the table, releasing a deep breath along with it.

She heard the door open behind her. Mary Margaret stood next to Emma and rubbed her back.

"I'm fine," said Emma.

Mary Margaret let out a small smile, "No you're not."

"I just got overwhelmed that's all."

"I know you did. It's a lot to take in for anybody."

"I just never thought I'd see him again. And then to find out that everything I thought I knew was misguided, how many times am I gonna be wrong about stuff like that?"

"You're human Emma. It's only natural to be. What matters is how you go about dealing with it."

Emma walked away from Mary Margaret and toward the far end of the room and David came into the room.

"I'm not even sure how to deal with it. I mean god I told Henry his father was dead! I had planned on telling him the truth when I thought he was old enough but not like this. He all ready knows he was born in jail. How much more trauma can this kid take from me?"

David took a step forward, "Emma its okay. Just a few months ago your world shifted when you broke the curse and landed in the Enchanted Forest. You can deal with this, we all can.

"You lied to protect him," said Mary Margaret.

"Protect him from what? Everything I thought I knew is invalid now. Despite the trouble we got into, it turns out Neal isn't the bad guy I thought he was. And as much as I want to hate him for turning me in, as much as I have hated him for the past ten years, I can't anymore because he was just trying to do right by me."

"But you didn't know that then," Mary Margaret said to her.

"It doesn't matter. Henry's going to hate me."

"No he won't," said David. "Sure the kid might be angry but you're his mother. He can never hate you."

"And remember," said Mary Margaret, "Henry came to find you, not the other way around. If he didn't want you in his life he wouldn't have gone to look. This parenting thing, it is hard but we're getting through it. We can get through this too, you can."

"Maybe he shouldn't have come to find me."

"Emma," Mary Margaret said, "You can't honestly believe that?"

Emma shook her head. No she didn't. Had Henry never found Emma she wouldn't have been brought here to Storybrooke, the curse never would have been broken, she never would have found her parents, etcetera, etcetera.

Emma cursed herself for playing the what-if game. She had done it several times in the Enchanted Forest and twice in less than several hours now. It was useless. Emma could not imagine her life without Henry now. He had been the best thing to happen to her.

"How do I tell him," Emma asked in an almost whisper.

Mary Margaret walked over and took Emma's hands in hers. "By gathering the same strength you had last night when you told us. You're strong enough for this Emma."

"It doesn't feel that way."

"I know but you are."

Emma looked up at Mary Margaret and smiled. The woman had always been a good source of strength even before they found out they were related. Somehow Mary Margaret always managed to make things better.

David was that way too. Though her relationship with him had been different before the curse broke, David had become that other half of strength that had been missing.

The parenting thing was hard on all of them but Emma had to give it to David and Mary Margaret, they were doing a better job at it than she was.