AN:: Due to popular demand, here is another chapter. I will not promise updates anymore because I'm awful at them, but I'll probably do it by popular demand. This has gotten more attention that a lot of my other stories so I read it over a few times and I'm going to put up a couple chapters before I get lost again in all likelihood. But There ya go. I hope you all enjoy. Reviews make me smile. You are loved.
"Hey. Whiskey - preferably aged. Please."
The kid behind the counter smiled before leaning against the clear case chalk full of lottery tickets far too pompus for Emma's liking.
"Just whiskey?"
"Oooooooooooobviously. I didn't ask for anything else, did I?"
"Jeez, I was just making s-"
"Just trying to flirt, but I'm in no mood. I would like whiskey. Where do you keep that. I would like to buy some, and then leave." She clapped her hands twice and pointed at the door. "Fast as possible. I have a few days to drink my way through and I would like to start effective immediately."
He stuck his hands in his pockets and raised his eyebrows. "That bad?"
Emma nodded.
"No one as pretty as you has bought whiskey here, ever."
"Oh my god, you look about two minutes past seventeen - 'ever' for you can't be that long. Plus this town is about as big as my last apartment building, so I don't think there's much variety. Other than the waitress, but damn."
"The waitress likes tequila."
"Great." Emma rolled her eyes dramatically. "I don't care at all. Thank you for the customer service, I appreciate it."
She started to walk away when the kid ran out in front of her and waved her along behind him. She followed, dragging her feet and letting her shoulders slump forward like a child. But she was - she knew it. Buying alcohol was a scam, she knew she was just a glorified six year old with a license.
He pulled a step stool from behind what looked to be the staff door and put it in front of the shelf on the wall. "The good stuff is up there. It's more expensive, though."
"Thanks. Give me two of them. Please."
"Will do."
Regina stood outside Henry's school, her nose tucked under her scarf as she hopped from foot to foot. It turned out to be a colder day in fall than she expected, though if she were actually moving she suspected it wouldn't bite at her through her blazer so harshly.
The bell rang and no sooner did children start pouring out left and right. Her eyes darted through the masses to find her son, but wasn't until most of the students disbursed that he came into view - walking alone and clutching his backpack before swinging it over his shoulder angrily, only glancing up at her once or twice before continuing off right past her.
"Henry."
His only response was a wave, still walking away from her.
"Henry Nicholas, you get back here right now."
Henry stopped dead in his tracks and waited for his mother to catch up, refusing to actually do what she said.
"Henry."
"What!"
The brunette turned him quickly as she bent down to meet his gaze on his level. "You cannot talk to me like that, do you understand?"
His frown only deepened as his eyes went to the ground.
"Look at me."
He did - though his frown hit her hard.
"Do you understand me?"
"Yes, okay!"
"That tone needs to stop, I swear you'll sit at the table and do your homework then nothing until dinner, and then bed immediately."
Henry yanked his arm away roughly and crossed them over his chest in a huff.
"Are you done?"
It took a moment of staring off before he just nodded.
"Alright, then." She nodded, standing back up and holding her hand out to him. He took it, mouth down turned down still as he watched his shoes taking turns in front of the other on the pavement. "How was school?"
"It was fine."
"Just fine?"
"I guess."
"Did you miss anything from yesterday?"
He shook his head.
"Nothing?"
"I'm ahead. Ms. Blanchard gave be tomorrows homework on Monday."
"Really?" She smiled down at him. "Well, that's exciting!"
He just shrugged.
The look on his face killed her. It said he hated being with her - like she didn't love him enough or he wasn't ever happy with her. She tried to squeeze his hand but he didn't give her a response.
Regina let out a long sigh. "What's wrong?"
"What do you think?"
"Tone."
Henry ripped his hand away and growled angrily, tightening his little hands into fists, glaring at her. "No! You made her leave! You didn't even talk to me! She's my mom!"
"Henry-"
"You can't-"
"I am your mother!" She raised her voice above his, shaking her head. "I love you more than anything. I'm the one who's raised you all this time and I'm the one who you should have talked to before you ran away and tracked her down!"
Tears welled in Henry's eyes and Regina guided him over to a bench just off of the side walk and sat him down, kneeling in front of him. "Do you think I would have really told you no if you wanted to meet her?"
He just shrugged.
"Henry, I would never do anything to hurt you. I didn't even know you had any interest in meeting your birth mother, but if I did I would have tried to work something out for you. Some kind of meeting or correspondence so you could know who she was, but in a safe way. There is no way I would say it was alright for you to just leave the state by yourself and find her. Anything could have happened to you! And what you did was not alright - you will be punished. I just haven't quite figured out how."
"She's already gone, it doesn't matter now."
Regina shook her head. "She's not."
He looked up and her with his brows furrowed. "What?"
"I asked her to stay in town for a few days, we can ask Dr. Hopper what he thinks about this whole thing and what the best course of action would be." Regina smiled at him. "I'm not going to say you can't see her now. But you have to understand that it's not just your choice or mine, Henry - she's a person too and she has a say in what she wants to do."
"You mean if she doesn't want to see me."
The brunette sighed heavily, gulping down the anxiety at the whole situation. "I mean... Maybe she's not ready. You're wonderful. You're smart and you're funny. It might be painful for her to face what she gave up. Does that make sense?"
Henry nodded, slouching forward a bit more.
She lifted his chin to look at her again. "No matter what happens, I love you. That's never going to change."
His bottom lip shook a little.
"What if you love Graham more than me?"
Regina's eye brows went up. "What? Honey..." Her arms went around him faster than he could refuse and she held tight, feeling small tears prick at the corners of her eyes that she kept blinking away. "Henry, you're my son - he won't ever make me love you any less. I could never..." Her voice broke and she shook her head.
"He makes you different. You're not the same, I don't like it." He cried.
She pulled back and frowned. "How long have you felt this way?"
"I don't know."
"You need to talk to me about things. I love you, and I won't ever ignore what you have to say - but I can't guess at everything."
Henry wiped at his cheeks with his sleeves as he nodded.
Regina pulled tissues from her purse as she sat next to him. "Can we make a deal?"
"What?"
"If you promise to tell me what's bothering you from now on, I'll try and get Miss Swan to stay in town."
"Really?"
She nodded. "Of course."
Emma hummed to herself for a moment, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity.
"On me dit que nos vies ne valent pas grand-chose...Elles passent en un instant comme fanent les roses..."
She only knew what about half of the words meant and cared not even a little bit about the rest. It was a cute song and in a bad-ass movie that actually got the story right for once. There are no happy endings. Life just is and it keeps going until it doesn't. Each moment is just the set up for the next one. Plus, how depressing would it be if your life was all leading up to a series of these, like... four or five moments in your life and the rest was just filler with a soundtrack in the background? It is way better to think of things like, - yeah. Yesterday sucked and tomorrow might suck, but last week was alright. And maybe next week will be better? Right?
It almost sounded like there was a knock at the door, but Emma couldn't be sure.
"Uhm... is there someone there?"
This time there was definitely like a mumble or something. On the other side of the door.
Maybe she was a bit more buzzed than she thought. In any case she rushed over to where her sweat pants were on the other side of the room before opening the door.
"Oh. Hey." The blonde blinked groggily.
Regina's eyes looked her up and down carefully, confusion written all over her features. "Hello. Is... This is a bad time."
"Not so much a bad time. It's a," Emma shrugged. "It's a time. Is there such thing as a bad time."
"Are you drunk?"
"No."
The mayor's finger pointed curtly to Emma's pants, turning her head as she squinted. "Your hands are in your pants."
Emma looked down and laughed awkwardly to herself and blushed at the same time. If there was a bad time, she was she chose the worst of times to let her hands rest on her thighs inside the legs of her old sweats. "Right." She shrugged again, this time longer. "I'm not... druuuunk. I've been drinking. Ya know - alcohol."
"You smell like a brothel."
"Are you speaking from experience?"
Her mouth dropped. "Absolutely not."
"Sorry." The smile that pulled at the sides of her mouth was impossible to hide. "I'm actually not sorry at all. That was funny."
"It's not even four in the afternoon."
She looked over at the clock. "Damn, already?"
"Yes, how long have you been drinking?"
"A while... This morning."
There was a long pause as Regina kept opening and closing her mouth as if the whole situation was more than she could grasp.
"So what's up?"
"I... no." The brunette shook her head. "I'm sorry, I think I've made a mistake."
"What? What does that even mean? -We didn't sleep together, what mistake?"
"Oh my goodness."
"What are you talking about?"
Regina rolled her eyes. "I was going to say I reconsidered." She looked toward the ground but nodded. "I guess it's right. I have reconsidered. You can leave town whenever you like. Don't feel obligated to come back."
"What the hell?"
Emma rushed out of the hotel room door, grabbing Regina's arm and stopping her.
"Do not touch me!"
"Well, I have things to say."
"I don't have any room to listen. I'm afraid you being drunk in the middle of the afternoon is all the evidence I need to decide my son doesn't need your influence - birth mother or not, he doesn't need that." She snatched her arm away and turned to go again.
But Emma hopped in front of her clumsily, out-stretching her arms. "You're mad at me for being drunk."
"I'm disappointed."
"You're not my mother. I'm an adult, lady - I can drink whenever I want to."
"Of course you can. But I'll be damned if it's around Henry."
Emma rolled her eyes. "I would never do that around him, that would be stupid - you said I had until Thursday, and I'm not a people person, okay?" She shook her head and shifted from foot to foot, trying to sound a bit more sober than she actually was. "I was using my best judgement, and relaxing... making time pass a little faster until Thursday rolled around."
The older woman didn't say anything. Her eyes kept their rather blank stare at the blonde, waiting for her to finish or for her own mind to be swayed one way or the other.
"Look at me - does it look like I was going out and influencing the kid? Or posing a nuisance to the town?" She took a step closer, tilting her head and crossing her arms over her chest. "I bought some booze, and I went back to my room. I haven't been in my car since I started drinking, I promise."
Regina took a moment before reclining her head and letting the scowl fall away from her face completely.
"Do you believe me?"
"Why does it matter what I think?"
Emma frowned. "How does it not?"
Regina glanced at the floor. "You want to see him, then."
"Well... yeah."
"You hesitated."
"Listen, it wasn't really in the plan, but... now that I've thought about him, and seen him," She nodded. "I guess so. I mean, I think it would be cool to see what it is that I popped out and how it's doing. Th- Henry might like it too."
Regina nodded. "He would." Her voice was quieter.
Emma smiled a bit, then relaxed her shoulders. "So, what was it that you.. came over to tell me, anyway?"
"I, actually, was going to ask you to dinner."
"What? But I- I thought-"
"Yes, I wanted to wait, but I've reconsidered asking the therapist with you. I've decided to state my decision to him and allow him to offer guidance as what's the best course as to keep you in the picture as far as Henry's concerned."
"Oh."
"So." Regina smiled a bit, only now noticing the stray hair caught in Emma's eye lashes. She moved it away cautiously, smiling after Emma offered the first smile. "Will you be sober by seven 'o' clock?"
The blonde nodded, though her stomach flipped over and over again with the gesture - one that she was sure the mayor meant absolutely nothing by.
"And please tell me you have something more presentable to wear than this." Regina smiled looking toward the blonde's bare feet.
"I guess." She smiled. "I have some extra clothes in my car."
"Alright then. You're officially invited then."
"Okay."
"Don't be late." Regina pointed playfully.
"I'll try my hardest."
The mayor back pedaled toward the stairs after their little wobble turn and waved. "Bu -AH!"
Only her foot caught the edge of the first stair before she was ready. Her throat made a horrible sound, gasping in a quick gulp of hair, reaching at nothing - when Emma's hand caught hers, then her other arm wrapping around the brunette's middle, pulling her back so she was a few steps from the staircase.
And their eyes met, faces inches from one another like that perfect, awful moment in a rom-com when the female lead is rescued from no real danger, though her heart beats like it's about to tear a hole through her sternum. And Regina's chest was definitely feeling that thump - all the way up into her eye sockets as she stared into the blue that brought her right back to when Henry was a baby and his eyes were still crystal and tired-looking.
Emma did her best not to look at Regina's lips, and in her concentration completely disregarding her tango-hold on the other woman.
"You alright?"
Regina nodded, looking down and smiling awkwardly. "Yes." She nodded, letting go of Emma's hand carefully.
Emma smiled at herself with a hint of blush on her cheek. "Good."
"Thanks."
"No problem." She nodded.
Both of their hands went in their pockets at the same time.
"I'll see you later."
Regina nodded. "Goodbye."
This time she took care in watching where she placed her feet on the way down the staircase.
