Chapter thirty-eight

Regina typed away at her laptop, though she wasn't really paying attention to the budget. After all these years she was sure that she could do it in her sleep, so it wasn't like it mattered.

Instead, she was thinking about the blonde.

Her mother had suggested that she should find a new sheriff soon so that she could stop her dealings with the woman, but Regina didn't want to if she was being completely honest. She knew the sheriff was annoying, but she was beginning to find it endearing, which frankly worried her.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a phone call.

Furrowing her brow, since she knew it couldn't be her mother who hadn't stopped calling her phone 'an enchanted box', she saw the caller ID said 'School."

"Hello?" she asked, clearly confused.

She was met with an automated message, 'your son or daughter has been sent to the principal's office and he requests your attendance as soon as possible.'

The message cut off, and Regina stared at her phone blankly for a moment. Shaking her head, she chalked it up to a mistake and began typing again, only to stop a few moments later. She felt something nagging at her to go to the school, and she decided to tell them herself that there was some kind of misunderstanding, though she knew that she could just call them, she just grabbed her coat and made her way to her car.

Ten minutes later, Regina walked into reception, and before she could talk, she was interrupted.

"Ah, mayor Mills," the principal greeted as he grabbed a message from the receptionist, "I'm sorry for the short notice but you understand the urgency with matters like these."

Regina was about to reply, a part of her realising that this man had once been Snow's tutor, causing her anger to flair up slightly, but he simply walked to his office expecting her to follow.

Regina just shook her head, and followed, determined to know what was going on, she decided to do something about the principal's rudeness later.

Walking in, she saw the saviour's son sitting with his arms crossed looking very hard done by.

Henry looked up, expecting to see Emma, but his eyebrows shot up when he saw his mother. For a moment he considered whether she remembered just in time to ground him, but her clear confusion would beg a differ.

"Mo-mayor Mills?" he asked, hoping the principal would notice.

The principal furrowed his brow, "Henry why did you call your-"

The door suddenly burst open to reveal a very out of breath sheriff, "can I talk to you?" she asked, only furthering the man's confusion.

Emma dragged him out before he could utter another word and slammed the door closed.

Regina looked down at the little brunette, who offered her a shy awkward smile. He hadn't actually talked to her since it had happened, and he was desperately trying not to just hug her and ruin the whole operation.

"What is going on?" she asked somewhat harshly, though it was slightly toned down.

"Clerical error?" the boy offered, which only caused her to narrow her eyes.

"But then why did he-"

"He's an idiot," Henry replied with a laugh, and Regina couldn't help but notice that his inflections seemed to be the same as hers. He not at all like his mother, she thought, but just shook her head and tried to focus.

"How can he think that I'm your mother?" Regina asked.

Henry's breath hitched at her words, and he kept repeating in his head, she doesn't remember, "I'm new in town, remember? He doesn't know who my mother is."

"I'm not new in town," she replied, easily poking a whole in his logic, "I'm also sure that he would know all about the saviour who broke the curse," she continued somewhat bitterly.

Henry desperately tried to think of a retort, but there was no way he could outsmart his mother, "he's just that much of an idiot," he lied unconvincingly.

A moment of silence passed, Regina with clear look of disbelief, the moment passed as the door opened, the sheriff and principal re-entering.

The principal looked suitably terrified as he took his seat and cleared his throat. He began to look through his desk and brought out a budget report, "for you," he said.

Regina took the paper off him with a raised eyebrow and inspected it.

"There seems to have been a mistake," he continued, "it appears as if the messages for you and sheriff Swan got mixed up."

Regina nodded slowly, knowing it didn't make complete sense, but she was beginning to get a headache and didn't really feel like questioning her own memories at the moment, "don't let it happen again," she said without looking at anyone in the room, and quickly walking out as fast as her heels would take her.

Emma and Henry watched her go, each with a longing look, before their expressions snapped back to him.

"What is wrong with you?" Henry asked.

"Henry!" Emma tried to scold, though it didn't have the same impact as Regina.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," the man defended, "besides I am not the one who broke the rules young man."

Emma blinked a few times, finally realising why she was here in the first place, her mother had text her that she had sent Henry to the principal's office. Clearly she had forgotten to switch Henry's contact information, Regina would have remembered, she thought bitterly.

"What did he do?" Emma asked through gritted teeth, she didn't think she had the energy for another problem, but the universe didn't seem to care.

"He punched Hansel," he explained.

Emma raised her eyebrows at her son, who just sank into his chair.

"Why?" she managed to ask.

"He called mom the Evil Queen," the boy mumbled.

Emma put her head in her hands, but part of her was trying not to grin that he was defending his mother.

"That doesn't mean that you can hit him."

"He kept saying it though, right to me. I told him to shut up but he wouldn't stop, he said-" Henry stopped as tears began to fall down his face.

Emma looked at the principal who seemed surprised that he was actually upset, he is a pretty shit principal, Emma thought and turned to him, "can we have a moment."

The man just shrugged and left his office, deciding that he had enough Swan-Mills drama for the day.

"What did he say?" Emma asked softly.

"He said that there was no way that she was a good mother, and I'm unlucky that she woke up from the sleeping curse."

Emma resisted the urge to say that he was right for punching him, knowing if she did Regina would probably smack her, but it did take all of her will power. "You should have just told me," she said softly as she wiped a few of his tears.

The boy swatted her hand away slightly, before he realised what he had done, he quickly jumped out of the chair and hugged the blonde. Henry was definitely determined to not lose anymore parents, Neal was still a work in progress though.

"I'm sorry," he said against her shoulder.

Emma stroked his hair and shushed him softly, "it's okay, what's your punishment?"

"I have to say I'm sorry and I have Saturday detention," he sniffled.

Emma nodded, "and you're grounded for a week."

Henry pulled away with a shocked expression.

"You're not going to talk me out of it kid, you broke the rules," she laughed.

Henry shook his head, "it's not that...it's just..."

Emma's eyes widened, "is it not enough?"

Henry nodded and Emma let out a puff of air, "I've never grounded you."

The boy just smirked and fell back into the hug and sniffled, "mom would probably ground me for two week."

"Two weeks it is then," Emma laughed.

A/N So since the last chapter I hit 500 followers (it's now 503 haha) I just wanted to say a massive thank you and I hope you enjoyed the chapter XD

Please feel free to review and let me know what you think :)