CAP 15

Why is it so difficult to plan a romantic dinner? Uhg.

Besides, I can`t even concentrate on the overdue reports that I have to fill out. It is simply impossible.

Would Regina like balloons?

I could arrive with a bunch of balloons instead of flowers. So if she rejects me there will be no dead flowers.

I begin to shake my head.

- "Balloons? Really Emma? "- We are not 15 years old. Regina is an adult woman...

- "How old is Regina?"- I suppose she is 6 or 7 years older than my mother. That means she was married to my grandfather when she was about 17-18 years old.

I can`t keep track mentally.

My brain simply refuses to function today.

So I take pencil and paper.

- "Then Snow gave birth to me at 28 years old."-

I write on the paper.

- "Regina must have being by then about 35-36 years."-

I keep writing the numbers.

- "So we add to that the 28 years that the curse lasted, plus the 7 since I broke it ... that gives me ... .69 years!" –

Definitely no balloons.

- "She looks great for 69 years. My mother then is 62 and David must be about the same age. "-

I smile celebrating having finished something today. The smile disappears when I realize how useless my accomplishment is and hit my forehead on the desk where the paper is. That`s how my son finds me.

- "We need to talk."-

He says with a tone very similar to Regina's. It's strange that he didn`t say Ms. Swan.

- "What's wrong?" - I stand up alarmed and to go to meet him. But before I`m around the desk he simply raises a hand and stops me as if by magic.

- "Is something wrong?" - I ask already worried. In this town, anything could happen.

- "It's nothing urgent but it's important." –

He tells me very, very serious. Almost as if he was mad at me. What puts me on the defensive.

- "If it isn`t urgent, then why couldn`t it wait for us to get home? Why aren`t you at school? "-

I tell him I`m his mother after all.

-"No no no. After you hear what I have to say you can punish me all you want. Now you're going to sit down and you're going to answer a couple of questions."-

The tone he uses with me is the same one his mother uses when I've made her angry. So I instinctively sit down and listen to him.

- "Where did you go the night you left me with my grandparents and you told me you weren`t be late?"-

He asks me sitting in front of me with his hands on the desk.

I have my doubts, wasn`t it really Regina who gave birth to this young man?

- "What day do you mean?" - I play dumb. I don`t know if I'm ready for Henry to know everything. He simply stares at me and raises an eyebrow. Apparently he is ready.

- "To your mother`s vault."-

I answer after a few minutes of staring at us.

- "And what happened between you?" –

Emphasizing the word "between" my son crosses his arms on his chest. Preparing for the truth that I suspect he already knows.

- "Your mother was furious." –

I answer.

- "Mom wasn`t angry; she was hurt. "-

He interrupts me sadly.

- "What happened?"-

Insists.

- "If it's like you say and she was hurt then she took it on me."-

I know it's a cheap lie, but how do I explain what happened to Henry?

- "Let me explain you a couple of things."-

He tells me.

- "I can be as persuasive as Mom, I learned that since I was a kid. But I am also your son; and apparently your superpower is inherited. Because right now I can see you`re full of bullshit."-

He says and raises his hand to stop me from reprimand him for talking to me like that. I am his mother after all.

- "You`ll punish me later. I already told you. I would also like you to realize that I am no longer a child. That there are many things that I understand and that you do not need to protect me anymore "-

He ends and puts his hands back on the desk and leaning a little forward. Almost challenge me to lie to him again.

- "So I'm going to ask again; what happened between you? "-

- "Why don`t you go ask your mother?" –

It`s instinctive to get defensive when someone asks me about my feelings even without knowing it.

- "Because yesterday I saw in her eyes that she is even more hurt than before."-

I can`t help but feel guilty when I hear that.

- "Do you remember the day of your marriage?" –

He continues after a few moments of silence.

-"Unfortunately yes. The biggest mistake I've made. "-

- "Until that moment." –

He interrupts me.

- "A few hours before your wedding I was in the mansion finishing tying my tie knot when Mom entered the room. I think she thought there was no one there. When she saw me, she automatically raise her hands to tie my tie and realized that it wasn`t necessary. Witch made her even sadder. "-

Henry tells me.

- She asked me where I`ve had learn to tie my tie and I answered that in a tutorial. As I noticed she was sad I asked her what was wrong and she told me that I was already so grownup. But as I told you I inherited your super power and I could tell that that was only part of the reason. But as I know my mother if I insisted I only was going to get her to close to me. "-

- "That was the day of my wedding?"-

I ask. I was so worried about my mother that I didn`t pay attention to anything else. I wanted to do things right for her. Fiona had already ruined her wedding dress, and I didn`t want to do anything that may ruin her day, even though it was my marriage.

- "Yes ma. Now you can decipher the reason why my mom was sad. "-

He tells me.

- "We didn`t talk that much that day. Now that I think about it, it was like she was avoiding me."-

- "I think now we both know the reason for mom's sadness that day. Now I ask you please to tell me what happened between you two in the vault."-

I low my head as if my son was scolding me.

- "She told me she was in love with me."-

I answer in a whisper.

Henry's face is pure surprise.

-"What?"-

- "I went to her vault and told her that Hook was gone."-

- "She already knew it that. Why going there for? "-

- "Because I didn`t feel anything ok!"-

I reply angrily.

- "Because I felt bad for not feeling anything. I had just being toss aside by my supposed true love. My recent husband had left without looking back and I didn`t felt anything. And I didn`t knew what to do. And when I don`t know what to do I always go to your mother."-

I say trying to calm down.

- "What happened next?"-

He asks firmly.

-"I told her that Hook was gone. That I thought he knew how to me love; but she interrupted me and I couldn`t tell her I didn`t felt anything. It was almost as if she had been pushed off a cliff."

-"She started shouting at me that she knew how to love me, that she had been in love for a long time but that I had chosen not to see her and marry Hook. "-

- "What did you say?"-

He asks me defensively and I understand it. He is defending his mother.

- "She started saying that Hook was a bad person, that he haven`t changed." –

- "Which is true." –

Interrupts Henry.

- "Anyway, it's still my husband, so I tried to defend him." –

- "Big mistake." –

-"I know, I know. Your mother got even more furious and told me a couple of truths that I couldn`t stand. There were so many emotions together. So I left."-

I confess to my son with the greatest of shame.

- "And neither though about tell me anything?" –

My son stands angry and begins to walk from one side to another.

- "I didn`t think it was my place to tell you. If she had wanted you to know, she would have told you. "-

I tell him more and more embarrassed.

- "Do you know Regina Mills?" –

Says my son stopping to look me in the eyes.

- "The daughter of the Queen of Hearts? The Rumplestiltskin`s apprentice? The Evil Queen? "- He tells me in a tone of sepulchral calm.

- "Do you have any idea how difficult it must have been for her to confess her feelings? The demons she had to fight to tell you what she told you? How shattered she must have been when you left? "-

He ends up supporting his hands on the desk, still staring at me.

- "Henry, you have to understand that I didn`t mean to hurt her. I never thought your mother would tell me those kind of things. "-

It's now or never.

- "I'm in love with her too." –

I confess.

- "I ALREADY KNOW!" –

Surprises me.

- "That's why I don`t understand why you two are not together right now. What else do you need? "-

I smiled hearing my son's response.

I was afraid that he wouldn`t agree with the both of us together.

- "You have to fix this." –

He tells me decisively and he's right.

-"I know. Tomorrow at dinner I plan to talk to her after you tell us what you're so eager to tell us. "-She already knows. The great news is that I'm not going to College next year."-

He tells me minimizing things.

- "Will you stay in Storybrook?" –

I ask with hope. It's not that I don`t want him to continue his studies, it's that we've lost so much time that it makes me happy to know that maybe we can get it back.

-"I don`t know. Because these things that are happening with you two may change my plans a bit. Or move them forward."-

He tells me to as my son again.

- "Henry, what aren`t you telling me?" –

- "I would like to find my own story, but until you fix things I can`t leave." –

- "Where do you think you're going young man?" –

I get a chill down my back, but I don`t know if it's because Henry will go anyway or because I just sound exactly like my mother.

- "Maybe to another kingdom, or to another state. I don`t know yet. But don`t change the subject. We were not talking about me. "-

He says more calmly. As if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He sits down again.

- "But ... when?" –

I ask sadly.

-"When I finish school; that's if you fix this mess."-

- "Careful young man, I'm still your mother." –

It seems that I'll still have to make up my mind that Henry is leaving. That he`s already an adult It bothers me to know all the time we lost.

- "I know it's hard for you." –

He says as if reading my mind.

- "It's just that ... we've lost so much time." –

I say sadly but with resignation.

-"I know. But we can`t go back time. However you have the opportunity of not make the same mistake again. "-

He says smiling. I look at him intrigued until my son realizes that I have no idea what he`s talking about.

He sighs looking into my eyes but smiling.

- "You can prevent making the same mistake with mom. Stop wasting time. You know how painful is at the end."-

Uhg I hate that he's right.

-"Okay. That's why I'm planning something romantic for tomorrow's dinner. Or at least I`m trying. Does your mother like balloons?"-

Once again he has the same angry look as Regina on his face.

- "Aren`t you listening to me?" –

He says leaning an elbow on the desk and leaning back towards me.

- "Stop procrastinating. I do not see you doing anything important now. I think it's a good time to clarify things. "-

- "But now we are talking about your future." –

I say finding another reason to buy time.

- "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told mom; Next year I turn 18. Adulthood. It's not that I want to disrespect you guys, but my decision is taken. I'm just communicating it to you. "-

- "Your mother already knows? How did she react? "-

I don`t know why I bother asking, Regina could not agree more with Henry's plans.

Although it hurts her as much as me she knows the importance of being able to write your own story. She had the courage to rewrite her.

The coward of the family is ironically the Savior. I didn`t have that courage until now. –

"She agrees of course." –

My son looks at me raising an eyebrow and hitting the desk with a finger.

-"What?"-

- "I`m done with you."-

He clarifies me.

- "There is nothing you should be doing?"-

A few more seconds pass while I process everything that has happened in the last few days and get lost in my head again.

- "MA !" - Henry yells at me.

- "What ?!" –

He scares me.

- "Go find mom! What are you waiting for? "-

He says exasperated.

- "But dinner the tree of us ... .. tomorrow." –

- "Tomorrow, if everything goes well, NOW you will not have to worry about planning a romantic dinner, just make sure not to screw it up again."-

He says smiling.

- "Henry !" - I find it strange to hear him speak like that, but I get up and go in search of Regina.