Chapter Seven: Cracks in Our Armor

In the end, though, Belle did not find Rumpelstiltskin. He found her.

The door to the library pushed open, and sunlight streamed into the room. Belle glanced up from her spot between the stacks, relief flooding her as she saw him appear.

"Rumple," she breathed, stepping towards him. "I was so worried. That woman… Cora. She's here, in Storybrooke."

"I know," he said grimly.

Belle felt a flicker of surprise at that admission, and a hint of unease. How long had he known? Why hadn't he told her?

She took his hands in hers and squeezed tightly, trying to push aside her concerns. "She was in your shop, looking for you."

His eyes darkened. "You saw her? Did she hurt you?" he asked, his tone dangerous.

"No, no," Belle said quickly, rushing to assure him that she was unharmed. "She just… I'm not sure she even knew who I was. Or maybe she did… I don't… I don't know." She paused, realizing that she was rambling, and said more slowly, "She knew I was looking for you, though. She said she was looking for you as well. She wanted to make a deal."

"A deal?" he repeated almost derisively. But there was a pensive expression in his gaze, and something else, something guarded. Neither he nor Regina had been particularly forthcoming on his past relationship with Cora, and Belle couldn't stop the worry from eating away at her.

She frowned. "Rumple, what happened?"

"Miss Blanchard and Miss Swan were supposed to come through a portal at the wishing well yesterday…"

"The well you used to bring back magic?"

"Yes."

Belle chewed her lip. "They didn't come through," she said softly. "Cora did instead." She hesitated, not wanting to ask the question but knowing that she needed to, "Are they dead?"

"Cora indicated that they were alive when she left them, and I don't believe she was lying."

Belle nodded in relief. She didn't know either of them, but they were Ruby's friends and she didn't want them to come to any harm.

Then she asked, "Yesterday? I haven't seen you since then."

"I've been busy."

"Doing what?" Belle pressed. She was the one who had insisted on space from him, so she couldn't complain over the fact that he hadn't rushed to her side the moment Cora had appeared. But it did strike her as odd – what could he have been doing that was more important than ensuring her safety?

Even in her head the question sounded petty and self-centered.

But she was afraid of what could happen if he were to become involved in whatever Cora wanted. No matter what he said about being more powerful than the other woman, Belle knew that he was afraid of Cora, afraid of what she might do.

And Belle was afraid of what he might be forced to do to stop Cora.

He smiled slightly and help up an opaque yellow wand with a blue handle. The length of the wand glittered as it caught the light. "Fairy dust. Required for the wand."

"Will it work against Cora?"

"It will help."

"People in this land are so very… strange. They ride in horseless carriages and talk into tiny metal boxes."

Rumpelstiltskin turned towards her, his knuckles tightening on the top of his cane until they turned a bloodless white. "I heard you were looking for me," he said, not bothering with pleasantries.

Well, she hadn't expected anything different.

"I was," Cora replied, letting the door to the shop close behind her. "Your Belle is quite… sweet. A bit timid, though. I thought you went for women with a bit more… spirit."

Her eyes twinkled at the insinuation in her words, but he did not take the bait. "What makes you think Belle means anything to me?" was his calm reply.

There was no emotion in his answer, not even a flicker in his eyes, but Cora knew better. She didn't know the extent of his feelings for this Belle, but they were there, and they were real.

"Tell me, would you prefer Rumpelstiltskin or… what is it they call you in this land? Gold?"

His eyes narrowed and he replied with a thin-lipped smile and a tone as cold as ice, "I preferred it when you called me Master."

She laughed. "I do so enjoy our repartee, Master."

"I heard you were looking for me."

"So Belle did give you the message. Good." She smiled, stepping closer. "I would have given you the message myself, but you just… disappeared."

"Well, you've wasted your time," he replied, spitting out the words. "I have no desire to make a deal with you."

"You haven't even heard what I am willing to offer," Cora replied.

"It won't make a difference."

She raised her eyebrows. "You've been operating in secret since yesterday, and now you suddenly appear so soon after I pass along my message to Belle, and yet you expect me to believe that you aren't interested? Have you forgotten how much time I spent learning from you? I know how you think, how you operate."

"You don't know anywhere near as much as you think you do," he replied. "Your arrogance always was your greatest fault. It will be your downfall this time, just as it was before."

"Hmm… we will see."

"Yes, Cora, I imagine we will. Now…" He gestured towards the door of the pawnshop, "I believe you can show yourself out?"

"As you wish," Cora replied, turning away from him and walking towards the door. "Perhaps I will pay Belle another visit. I would be interested to see if I can find any fire underneath her sweet exterior."

"Go ahead. I assure you, the inhabitants of this town mean nothing to me."

She shrugged. "Very well. But Rumple…" She paused at the door, looking back at him with a smirk curling her lips. "If you really wish to continue this bluff, I should at least tell you that I saw the necklace she was wearing."

He swallowed, and then she saw it, the telltale flicker of something in his eyes. She waited, but when he said nothing, she merely turned and pushed the door open, content to leave.

"What are you offering?" he asked, his voice calling her back.

"My promise not to harm Belle."

"You can't harm her."

"Not directly…" Cora admitted reluctantly. "But imagine, Rumple, all the ways in which she could come to some… indirect… harm."

"If you hurt her, you must know I will kill you," he growled, his voice low.

"I know," Cora agreed. "But what good will that do? We both know that even your power can't bring back the dead."

He considered this, his face still carefully blank. "And what do you want in return?"

She had him then, and she knew it. Love was weakness.

"I have plans for my daughter," Cora replied softly. "I will leave Belle out of my plans, if, in return, you refrain from interfering in what I want." She waited while he considered this, then asked, "Do we have a deal?"

"Not quite," he replied evenly. "I have plans as well. As long as you refrain from interfering in them… and stay away from Belle… then we have a deal."

She hesitated, knowing how dangerous it was to make a deal when she didn't know the details of his plans. But she also knew that he wouldn't tell her what they were, and if she wanted his promise to stay out of her way, she needed to agree to whatever he wanted.

She weighed her options, then nodded.

"Very well." She extended her hand to meet his, and felt a crackle of electricity as their fingers touched, a sign of the agreement being struck with their magic, "Deal."

After over an hour of searching for him, Regina was both surprised and annoyed to find Gold in his pawnshop. It was the first place she had looked after leaving Granny's diner, but it had been empty. Now he stood behind the counter, leaning his weight slightly on his cane and staring thoughtfully at the wand they had used to create the trap over the portal.

"Gold," she said without preamble. "We need to talk."

He glanced up at her. "Perhaps you should have thought of that before you tried to destroy everything around you yesterday."

"That was not intentional," she snapped. She knew he was merely trying to needle her – whatever Gold thought of her, he had enough experience with magic to know that what had happened yesterday when she had tried to protect herself against her mother's magic had been an accident.

Besides, she would never have intentionally put Henry in harm's way.

He lowered his gaze back to the wand, ignoring her.

Her temper flared, but she bit it back. As much as she wanted to snap at him, the pressure that had been building against her eyes all morning was a clear signal that if she did let loose, she would probably end up losing control of her magic as well.

She really shouldn't have absorbed all that energy, but Henry had begged and…

She pushed the thought away. It wasn't relevant to the matter at hand.

"We need to discuss a plan…"

"I'm not interested," Gold interrupted her.

"You're not… interested?" Regina repeated in disbelief. "Cora is here."

"I am aware of that, your Majesty," he said with a sneer. "I was standing at the well when she came through." He met her gaze then. "And might I remind you that this problem is entirely of your doing. We had a plan to prevent Cora's arrival, and it would have worked if you hadn't…"

"It doesn't matter," Regina cut in, unwilling to hear him gloat. She knew that this was her fault, that if she hadn't listened to Henry and allowed herself to be swayed by his pleas, none of them would be in this position. But she couldn't take back what she had done, and Cora was in Storybrooke, and that really should have put her and Gold on the same side.

But he was wearing that damn smile and she knew without even really thinking about it that any argument would be useless.

Her anger flared, and the pressure behind her eyes grew, causing small black dots to appear in her vision.

"Why?" she asked sharply.

"Hm… quite simple, dearie. Your problems no longer concern me."

"My problems? Need I remind you that Cora has always shown an interest in both of us?"

Gold met her gaze unflinchingly. "And I am more than capable of protecting what is mine." He limped out from behind the counter, resting his weight on his cane. "So I suggest you spend your time worrying about yourself and those things that are yours."

Regina shook her head furiously but knew there was little she could do at the moment. "This isn't over, imp," she snarled, before spinning on her heel and marching out of the shop.

As the door swung shut behind her, she heard him reply, "Yes, it is."

"You! Mr. French!" Ruby called out, anger making her words shake as she stormed across the street towards the man in question.

Moe French turned towards her, a look of derision on his features. He was standing outside of his flower shop, a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a ledger in the other. As she approached, he placed the flowers on the ground by his feet, slid the ledger under one arm, and folded his arms over his chest.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"Stay away from Belle," Ruby said tersely.

His eyes narrowed, his brows furrowing together, and he retorted, "My relationship with my daughter is none of your concern."

"She's my friend," Ruby answered.

He pursed his lips together. "She's my daughter. And she was separated from me for a very long time."

The simplicity of that statement brought Ruby up short for a moment, but then she shook her head to clear her compassionate thoughts. While she sympathized with anyone who had lost family for twenty-eight years because of Regina's curse, the simple fact that he was Belle's family was not enough to overcome what he had nearly done to her.

"You didn't treat her like she mattered to you," Ruby replied coolly.

"What do you know of caring for a daughter?" he replied, his words angry and scornful.

"I know how you treat family," Ruby countered, struggling to remain calm in the face of his contempt. His words angered her more than she wanted to let on, and her temper was on a particularly short leash at the moment. She was too tired and too frustrated to deal with this pompous little man lecturing her on family.

Regina had returned from her search for Gold in a far worse mood than when she had left, and had snapped at everyone in the diner. Her words had been harsh and her tone even harsher, and at one point Ruby had almost expected her grandmother to storm around the counter and slap the one-time queen.

But in the end Regina had simply snatched up Henry and stalked away, leaving a trail of angry citizens in her wake.

Ruby had spent the next hour trying to reassure the patrons of the diner that everything was under control, but because her involvement with Regina's plans was now somehow well-known – thanks to how quickly gossip spread in this little town – she had been met with many resentful and fearful stares.

She supposed she couldn't really blame the town's inhabitants for being worried. Regina was powerful, and dangerous. And yet somehow David had always managed to allay everyone's fears, to project a sense of calm and control that she had yet to master.

She sighed. "Look, Mr. French…"

"My name," Mr. French said, drawing himself up to his still unimpressive full height, "is Maurice. And you have no authority over me."

She blinked.

The Moe French she had known before the curse had broken had been quiet and timid. Although she'd only crossed paths with him a few times during those twenty-eight years, every time she'd seen him he'd been scurrying away, like a rat trying to avoid capture. He'd lacked any sort of backbone, and let people – usually Gold – walk all over him.

She didn't know Maurice. She'd never met him back in the land they had come from, though his name had come up every now and then. He'd been a minor noble, and as such, his title and his lands had been known to Snow and James. But he hadn't been part of their court – they weren't his King and Queen – and so she'd never had a reason to give him much thought.

But Belle had mentioned him once, after he'd tried to send her over the town line. Ruby had been trying to empathize with the distraught woman by explaining that she, too, knew what it was like to have a parent want you to do something that went against everything you believed in.

And Belle had smiled sadly, looked up at Ruby with a distant gaze, and said, "My father cared about his subjects. He loved them, he did, and I know that he loved me. But he was never brave, and he was never strong."

But the man standing in front of her was currently defying all of her expectations of Moe French and Belle's description of Sir Maurice.

"Why now?" Ruby demanded.

"What?"

"You haven't bothered to speak to Belle since your failed attempt at erasing her memory. Why now? What changed?"

"Not that it is any of your business, but I miss her," Mr. French replied in a clipped tone. "She is my daughter…" He gave her a pointed look, and said, "And not all of us were as lucky as you."

"Lucky?" Ruby asked incredulously.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that their argument had caught the attention of a few bystanders, and they were starting to draw a crowd.

"Well… I was separated from my daughter," Mr. French said calmly. "And how many other family's were torn apart by the Evil Queen? How many people did she separate from their loved ones, removing all memory of their relationships?" He tilted his head to the side. "But not you. You and your grandmother remained together, remained a family. Yes… I would call that lucky."

"That wasn't… that's not… I don't…"

Ruby didn't actually have an answer for that, and after stuttering through the beginnings of replies she couldn't finish, she lapsed into silence.

"But maybe it wasn't luck," Mr. French continued, his voice growing viciously cold. "After all, you're now working with her, aren't you? Were you working with her all along?"

"Of course not!" Ruby snarled, flushing darkly at the accusation. "How could you even think that?"

"Then why did she leave you with your grandmother when she tore the rest of us apart?"

"I don't know, but I assure you that she and I were never working together! I wouldn't have betrayed Snow like that," Ruby seethed.

This confrontation was not going the way she had planned. Not, of course, that she'd really planned it at all.

After Regina had snatched up Henry and left the diner, Ruby had been left alone, confronted by her complete helplessness. She had to rely on Regina for help in protecting her grandmother, Henry, David, and the rest of Storybrooke from Cora, and she did not like having to put her faith in someone she didn't trust.

She'd been angry enough at the entire situation – at Regina's snarky comments and the distrust she'd read in the gazes of people she had at least been friendly with before the curse broke – to want to exert her control somehow, and when she'd seen Moe French standing outside his flower shop, she had seized the opportunity to confront him, to order him away from Belle.

And now he was accusing her of working with the Evil Queen.

"Then throw her in jail where she belongs," Mr. French ordered tersely.

"We need her help right now," Ruby argued. "And… she is trying to change." She wasn't sure whether she actually believed that statement, but she had to say it because what other defense did she have?

"Who cares?" Mr. French countered. "She ruined our lives." He gestured towards the crowd that had gathered to listen to their argument. "She took away our happy endings, wolf. What does it matter if she can change? Can she take back what she did? Can she give us back what she stole?" He paused, as though waiting for a reply that they both knew Ruby couldn't give, before adding, "She deserves to be punished for what she did to us."

"You don't get to decide what happens to Regina," Ruby answered.

"And you do?" he demanded. "Why? What right do you have over the rest of us? Why do your wants and your needs matter more than mine?"

A murmur of agreement raced through the few people watching, and Ruby shivered. Mr. French was making an emotional and fairly well-reasoned argument to discredit her, and everyone else was buying it.

She knew that she still wasn't well-loved in this town, even if everyone now knew she wasn't responsible for Billy's murder. It was hard for them to let go of the fact that she was a werewolf, a monster in their eyes. Snow and James might have been loved, but she was only ever tolerated, and she could not command loyalty the way they could.

And yet…

All of this seemed so out of character for Mr. French. Why was he standing up to her now? Was it just a coincidence that he was trying to get to Belle, trying to trample over Ruby, now when David was no longer awake to intervene?

Who had given him the idea, who had helped him come up with these arguments?

Who was pulling his strings?

"We're done here," Mr. French said. "Stay out of my relationship with Belle, and stay out of my way."

He picked up the bouquet of flowers again and walked into his shop. The crowd slowly dispersed, and Ruby let him go, knowing that any move she made to stop him would likely backfire on her.

But she still felt a prickle of unease run down her spine. Something was very wrong here. Something was happening behind the scenes, something she didn't like and didn't trust. She needed to talk to someone about this, needed to get a second opinion on the matter to ensure that she wasn't just unduly paranoid.

She turned back towards the diner. Maybe her grandmother would be able to offer some insight.

Regina slammed the knife against the chicken breast with all her strength and watched as the blade sliced cleanly through the meat. She paused for a moment, envisioning Gold's neck in place of the chicken, and was able to take just a little bit of pleasure from that. But the brief pleasure quickly faded, and she slammed the knife down again, slicing a chicken leg free of the accompanying thigh.

Her mother had gotten to Gold.

There was no other explanation for what had happened, for the way that treacherous little imp had turned on her. One way or another, Cora had found Gold's weakness and exploited it. And now Gold had withdrawn his assistance and Cora was clearly plotting something and…

Regina placed the knife on the counter and closed her eyes for a moment. She was alone, surrounded by enemies and fools. How was she supposed to protect Henry?

The day had been a waste. Her mother had been here for over twenty-four hours and Regina still had no plan, no way of stopping her. The protection spell might keep them safe inside the house, but that wasn't good enough.

No doubt Cora would find some way around it if given enough time.

She sighed and opened her eyes. Everything seemed to be falling apart, but life went on anyway, and that meant that she needed to finish preparing dinner.

She scooped up the chicken and placed it in a baking pan, then pulled oil and spices off the shelf and began to mix them together. She worked quickly, methodically, and without paying much attention to what she was doing. She'd made this meal many times before, and could probably have done it in her sleep.

And her mind was still stuck on Gold and how much she wanted to wring his neck.

And no doubt Belle was somehow involved in this as well.

Regina curled her lip. The girl had been a useful pawn when locked away, but now she was starting to be far more trouble than acquiring her had been worth.

She slid the chicken into the oven and set the timer. It would take a while to finish cooking, and she knew she should check on Henry while she waited.

He had been silent after they left the diner, but she knew her son and she knew that even his current sullen and morose state would not stop the curiosity he felt now that he had been told more about Daniel.

And Regina didn't want to face the questions that were sure to come.

But she also knew that she couldn't lie to him about this. She could tone down the details – no need for him to know absolutely everything – but she could not outright lie.

She took a deep breath, steeled herself to face whatever he had to say, and marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room.

He was sitting on his bed when she knocked lightly on the door to announce her presence, and for the first time since Cora's appearance, he looked up at her and held her gaze without flinching away.

"Dinner will be ready at six," Regina said, stepping into the room.

Henry nodded. "Mom…" he started, and then stopped. He struggled for a moment, clearly unable to come up with the right words, but he did not look away from her.

"Yes?" she prompted.

He let out a breath. "I miss school."

Regina smiled sadly, but pointed out, "You've only been gone one day."

"I know," Henry said. "But I don't want to miss all of it. I don't want to… I've got friends there, and I don't want to fall behind."

Regina sat down across from him on the bed. "We'll figure something out," she promised, wondering vaguely if she'd just broken her vow to be honest with her son.

But Henry seemed to accept that without argument, and instead blurted out, "What was Daniel like?"

Regina had been prepared for the question – or, at least, she thought she had. But hearing Daniel's name coming from Henry's lips made her heart clench painfully in her chest and she was the one who had to look away.

She didn't know what to say. How was she supposed to explain everything Daniel was to her? How could she put into words what it felt like to hold his hand or look into his eyes or kiss?

"He was… wonderful with horses," she said at last. She cleared her throat. "He worked in the stables at my father's estate."

"You fell in love with someone who worked for you?" Henry asked in surprise.

Regina winced inwardly. Henry didn't say anything else, but she knew what he was thinking – how could she have fallen in love with someone who was so far beneath her? It did not fit the image he had in his mind of the Evil Queen.

"I did," she said.

There was so much she could say – that she was different then, that she had been a better person, someone actually worthy of being his mother. But she wasn't sure how much he would believe, so she said nothing else.

"He died."

It had been phrased as a statement, not a question, and Regina knew that Henry already knew some of it. She hadn't meant for him to find out about Daniel the way he had – not from Archie, not from David, and certainly not from the angry words she had shouted at Ruby in the woods. But since the curse had broken there had never been a right time to tell Henry about her past.

And she hadn't always been sure that he would even care.

Regina swallowed, her throat dry, and said, "He did. I… we tried to keep our romance a secret from my mother, but she found out and… killed him. So that I would be free to marry Leopold."

"Snow's father."

"Yes."

"Is that why you… is Daniel's death the reason you became…"

"Evil?" Regina pursed her lips. She didn't like the term evil – it was far too black and white for a reality made up of shades of gray. But she had definitely been somewhere in the darker shades of gray for most of her adult life, and she couldn't pretend otherwise. The things she had done, the lives she had ruined, the pleasure she had taken from it…

It had been a long time since she had been anything close to Good.

"It… started everything," Regina said. "But it took a while. I… changed… while I was learning magic from Rumpelstiltskin."

"Rumpelstiltskin taught you magic?" Henry asked incredulously.

Regina nodded. "He did. And I… I wasn't very good at it. I was holding onto Daniel, holding onto some hope that I could… that I could bring him back even though he was… dead. It wasn't until I let go of Daniel that I became good at magic, and… well… Daniel's memory was what had been…"

"Keeping you good," Henry supplied when Regina didn't finish the sentence.

Regina nodded again. It was a simplified version of events that left out Snow's role in Daniel's death, her banishment of her mother, Frankenstein and Jefferson, and the disastrous relationship with Leopold. But it told enough of the story for Henry to at least begin to understand.

She hoped.

Henry leaned back against his bed's headboard and said quietly, "None of that is in the book. My book of fairytales. It's all… it's not there. So the book is… it is lying."

He looked so hurt and so lost that Regina wanted to reach out and hug him, but although they were finally talking openly with each other again, she wasn't sure he would be ready for that.

Instead, she settled for saying, "It's not quite a lie. Everything the book actually says is true. But it is only a single book, Henry. There isn't enough space in it for every story of every person in my world."

"So… the book isn't lying, it's just… not telling the whole story? But… I don't understand. What was left out and why?"

Regina hesitated for a moment, wondering whether or not she really wanted to go down this path. But Henry had asked the question, and she knew she had to give some sort of explanation if only to help him deal with the revelation that the book wasn't as perfect as he had believed.

Finally, she said, "The thing you have to realize, Henry, is that every author has an agenda. And most of the time, they want their point of view to be… obvious. They want the reader to agree with them, to see their heroes as heroes and their villains as villains."

"But that only makes sense if the author is writing fiction and can just make up the story," Henry argued. "These stories are histories. They're true." He stopped for a moment, a look of worry and then guilt flickering over his features as he added quietly, "And, I mean… you are… a… a…"

"Villain?" Regina offered when it became obvious that Henry didn't know how to finish that statement. He looked abashed and quickly averted his gaze, so she reached out and placed a hand on his arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I'm not trying to justify everything I've done in the past. I know that some of the choices I made were wrong."

Henry nodded.

"But Henry…" she waited until he was looking at her again, "a good historian might not lie, per se, but the stories they choose to include still show their agenda. Maybe it is a subconscious decision, maybe they don't even realize they are doing it. But they are still only going to record events that they deem important – and what they think is important is going to be a reflection of their own beliefs and prejudices."

"So whoever wrote this thought that Daniel wasn't important?" Henry asked. He furrowed his brow in growing bewilderment as he considered this possibility. "But… but he's the reason that you… that everything… how could he not be important?"

Regina shrugged. She didn't have an answer for that. In fact, although she had read the book cover to cover multiple times – except for those pages Henry had torn out a year ago – she had never once stopped to wonder why so much of her own history was left out of the book.

It was an interesting question – and one that suddenly felt incredibly essential.

"Whoever wrote this book thought that the reason you cast the curse didn't matter," Henry murmured, clearly speaking to himself even though he was addressing Regina. "And… they didn't want you to be sympathetic. They didn't want to show anything good about you." He looked up at his mother then. "Do you think they just forgot about it because they didn't think it was important, or do you think they did it on purpose?"

Regina didn't answer Henry's question. She didn't want to answer it because she sincerely doubted the omission was an oversight. Other villains – Rumpelstiltskin, King George, even the giants – were made to look at least slightly sympathetic, but she wasn't. Whoever had written this book had been trying to sell an idea – that she was evil.

But she couldn't tell Henry this. They had finally had a break through moment, and if she confided that she suspected the book had been written to portray her as pure evil, Henry would do one of two things. He would either assume that this was all some plot she had come up with to earn his trust and his sympathy, would accuse her of manipulating him, would pull away and take back the acceptance he had given just moments before, or…

Or he would see this as an unjust attack on her, insist on coming up with a plan to unmask whoever was behind it – complete with a ridiculous codename and everything – and rush headlong into his operation without any regard for the danger it might put him in.

And maybe it didn't really matter. Maybe everything that had happened with Daniel and her mother and Rumpelstiltskin didn't make a difference. She had made her own choices, and the choices had led her to hurt people, to ruin them. She had allowed herself to be referred to as the Evil Queen – had even relished in the title.

Instead, she deliberately avoided answering the question by pointing out, "There is always another possibility."

"What?"

"Whoever wrote this book simply might not have known about my past."

Henry gave her a shrewd look. "Do you really believe that?" he asked.

She smiled and impulsively pressed a kiss into his hair, her heart soaring when he didn't pull away. "It doesn't matter," she said. "All of that is in the past, and… Daniel is gone. But I'm still here, and you are still here… and my mother is still here. I need to focus on that."

She rose to her feet and started to leave the room, but Henry called her back at the doorway.

"Mom?"

She turned. "Yes?"

"I… I just… well…" He struggled for a moment, unable to come up with the right words, then finally cleared his throat and said, "Thank you for taking me to the diner for lunch today."

It wasn't what he had meant to say, but it didn't matter, because Regina understood the sentiment beneath it anyway.

A smile lit up her face, and she answered, "You're very welcome."