A/N: This chapter is a necessary one for the storyline but woefully lacking in SwanQueen, sorry! I promise to make up for it soon, however.

Regina and Henry set off towards the school in silence. Henry walked a little ahead, his bag swinging from his hand and banging against his leg. By the time they got to the end of the first block, he held it out to his mother, tired of carrying it already.

"Put it on your back," Regina said, wanting him to start taking a little responsibility.

Henry sighed dramatically but did so, sliding his arms through the straps and hoisting the oversized bag onto his shoulders.

"So," Regina started, feeling almost awkward to instigate a conversation with her son, "do you have any questions about Emma?"

"Like what?"

"Like what might happen in the future and how Emma might come to our house sometimes," Regina suggested.

"Is she moving in with us?"

"No," Regina replied. "Emma and I have only known each other for a month but we like each other and we want to spend time together."

"Are you going to get married?"

"That's not how it works, Henry. When you meet someone new, you get to know each other for a while first. Then if you like each other, maybe you move in together. And then after a while maybe you decide to get married."

"And what if you don't like each other?" he asked, turning around to look at Regina over his shoulder.

"Then the relationship ends and you might find someone you like better the next time."

"Is that what happened to you and Ma?"

The question stopped Regina in her tracks. Henry stopped too, sensing his mother was no longer keeping pace with him. He swivelled on the spot, big hazel eyes taking in the surprised look on the face of the woman who had always been there, who had always been in his life. Unlike her.

"You remember Ma?"

"Yes," Henry said. "She left us. She didn't want to be a part of our family. She went away and never came back."

Regina crouched down and beckoned Henry to her. He went willingly, needing to be close to her just as much as the brunette needed to hold her son. She pulled him into a tight hug, tears pricking her eyes as she felt his little arms wrap around her neck.

"Henry, what Ma did, it wasn't our fault. She wasn't ready to be a part of our family. It had nothing to do with you," Regina assured him. In truth, however, she still had no idea why Mal had left. She didn't think she'd ever know and she'd made her peace with that. But not being about to explain it to Henry was always going to be difficult.

"Is Emma going to leave too?"

"Emma and I have only been together for one month," Regina said. "When you start a relationship with someone, you never know how long it is going to last. But we really like each other and I want to spend time with her. I want her to spend time with you as well, if you'd like that. But it's really important that you know that whatever happens between me and Emma, you come first."

"What do you mean?" Henry asked.

"I mean that my number one priority is you. You're my little prince, remember?"

"What's priority?"

"Priority is the order of importance. And in my life, you are the most important thing."

"Not Emma?"

"No, not Emma. I like Emma but I love you and I always will."

"Will you love Emma one day?" The question was innocent enough but its implications made Regina's heart beat a little faster.

"Maybe," she said, unwilling to tell her son how close to the present that 'one day' seemed to be. "But that doesn't mean you will be any less important. You will always be my number one. And that also means that if you're not happy with Emma coming to our house then she won't."

"Do you want Emma to come to our house?"

"Yes," Regina replied simply. "I like spending time with Emma. She makes me happy."

Henry pondered this, regarding his mother who was still crouched down so their eyes were on the same level. "Did Ma make you happy?"

"We were happy, yes," Regina admitted. "Or I was. Maybe Ma wasn't happy."

"Do you make Emma happy?"

"I hope so."

"I want you to be happy, Mom," Henry said after a moment. "I don't like it when you're sad."

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm not sad. I wasn't sad before I met Emma."

"You were sad when Ma left."

Regina swallowed. "You remember that?"

Henry nodded. "You cried a lot. I wanted to make you smile again but I didn't know how. I tried to play with you but you weren't happy."

The brunette wrapped her arms around her son, overwhelmed at the boy's kindness. Even at the age of four, Henry had been aware of the turmoil of emotions his mother had been feeling. Beyond that, he had tried to help and, it seemed, felt powerless to do so.

"Henry, that time was hard for me but I always loved you. I know I wasn't smiling a lot for a few weeks but you being with me helped a lot. You were very kind to me when I was sad. I remember playing with you in my bed and I'm sorry if you were sad because I was sad."

"I was sad because Ma left," Henry pointed out. "And because you were sad. I didn't want you to be sad."

"I didn't want to be sad either," Regina said. "And after a month I wasn't sad any more, was I?"

"No," Henry sad. "You were happy again."

Regina looked into the young face, the emotions flickering over it too complex for a six-year-old to have to deal with. "But you weren't happy, were you?"

Henry shook his head. "I missed Ma."

"And I didn't talk about her to you," Regina said, a statement rather than a question.

"We never talk about Ma. Talking about Ma makes you sad."

"Do you want to talk about Ma?"

"Maybe," Henry admitted. "Sometimes."

"How about we talk about Ma with Archie this afternoon," Regina suggested.

"Does Archie know Ma?"

If Regina wasn't mistaken, she thought she saw excitement in Henry's small features. Much as she hated Mal for leaving, Regina would have given anything to provide Henry with the opportunity to see the woman who had disappeared from their lives without explanation. Henry deserved as much.

"No, but he knows what happened and he wants to help us. I think he would be a good person to talk to about all of this and we have your meeting with him today."

"Ok," Henry nodded after a moment.

"Ok," Regina repeated. "Now, I think we'd better hurry and get you to school before you're late. Are you ok?" The conversation had been rather intense; far too intense for the early hour and the sidewalk location, in Regina's mind.

"Yes," Henry said.

Regina stood, knees protesting after she had been crouching for so long and the duo resumed their journey in silence. Both Mills', however, were remembering the blonde woman who had disappeared from their lives without a backwards glance.

The unexpectedly long walk to school meant Regina was running late for her meeting. Her morning was then full of tasks which demanded her fullest attention so it wasn't until lunch time that she had a chance to read Emma's text. She stared at the photo the young woman had sent for a full thirty seconds before finally registering what she was seeing and what it meant. A smile spread over her face at the realisation. She was itching to call Emma and celebrate with her but knew her girlfriend, yes, girlfriend, would be working. It was progress and hopefully the meeting with Archie would be the start of Henry recognising and addressing the issues which triggered his negative relationship with food.

The drive to the psychologist's office that afternoon was quiet. Regina managed to get a few words out of her son about how his school day was but then he just stared out of the window. Regina didn't push; presuming that the small boy was already thinking about the upcoming conversation the two of them were due to have.

If Archie sensed the tension when the pair of them walked into his office, he didn't say anything. Instead he started their session as he always did and asked Henry questions about his day at school and what he had done at the weekend. It was only after ten minutes or so that the bespectacled man glanced towards Regina and saw the woman fidgeting slightly.

"Regina, is there anything you would like us to talk about with Henry?" Years of working in the industry had enabled the psychologist to trust his intuition when it came to unspoken thoughts.

"Actually, yes," Regina said, turning to Henry and smiling softly. "Henry and I would like to talk about Ma. We had a little talk this morning, didn't we, Henry?"

"Yes," Henry nodded. "But then I had to go to school because we were nearly late and Mrs Davis doesn't like it when we're late."

"Ok," Archie said. "Let's talk about Ma." He didn't need to ask who Ma was. He had heard Henry call Regina 'Mom' and there was only one other person the small boy could be referring to.

Henry glanced at Regina as if seeking permission. It broke Regina's heart as she realised her son had been scared to talk about the woman who helped raise him for the first four years of his life. How had she let this happen? How had she turned one half of his family into a taboo subject? It was no wonder he had control issues. His life had been turned upside down and no explanation was ever offered.

"So, Henry and I were talking about Ma this morning," Regina began, sensing that Henry wanted her to take the lead. "Henry was only four when Ma left and I thought he was too young to understand. But now he is a big boy and I think he is old enough to talk about what happened."

"I understanded when I was four," Henry piped up.

"Understood," Regina corrected automatically.

Henry hesitated for a moment, a frown on his face at the interruption. Surely grammar wasn't the point here. "I understood when I was four," he repeated. "Ma didn't love us so she didn't want us to be a family any more."

Regina balked. What could she say to that? It was true, after all. At least, it was the only explanation Regina had ever been able to come up with to explain why Mal had walked away. But it couldn't have been because of Henry. Her son couldn't grow up believing he wasn't loved. Except … was that what had happened?

"Henry, Ma loved you very much," Regina said, knowing that to be true, despite the woman's actions.

"But she left me."

"No, she left me," Regina said sadly. "Ma left me, not you. She didn't leave because she didn't love you. She left because she didn't love me."

"Then why doesn't Ma come to visit me? Katie's dad comes to visit her on the weekend now because he doesn't love her mom any more."

"I don't know where Ma is," Regina admitted. "I didn't want her to disappear from your life, Henry. But I didn't know how to find her."

"She ran away from us?"

The boy didn't need a verbal answer. It was written all over his mother's face. Archie, who had been listening to the conversation, piped up.

"How did that make you feel, Henry?" He hadn't been planning to dive into the root cause of Henry's eating problems quite so early in their sessions but since the boy appeared to be willing to talk, he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.

"I was sad. I missed Ma. And Mom was sad too. So that made me feel angry."

"Why were you angry?" the psychologist asked.

"Because Ma made Mom sad," Henry replied. "And I couldn't make her happy again. I was angry with Ma and Mom was sad with Ma and I didn't know how to make it better."

"Henry, it wasn't your job to make things better," Regina said softly. "You were only young. It was my job to make sure you were happy and I didn't do that. I'm so sorry you had to feel that way."

"But then you started being happy again one day," Henry went on. "You were smiling and you took me to school and you started cooking again. You didn't cook when you were sad. People brought food to the house in little boxes. And then you were happy and cooking and I didn't know why."

"How did that change make you feel, Henry," Archie asked.

"I don't know," the small boy said.

In truth, he didn't have the vocabulary to describe the emotions. Later in life, he would be able to recognise them as helplessness during those four weeks when his mother had festered in her bed, eating junk food and crying, followed by confusion and powerlessness when his mother's demeanour switched, quite abruptly, back to how it was. Everything returned to normal, with one glaring difference. No Ma.

"Regina, perhaps it would be a good idea for you to tell Henry how you felt," Archie suggested.

"Ok," the brunette nodded, happy to take the lead from the psychologist rather than wading blindly through the unchartered waters she and her son had entered. "So after Ma left, I was really sad."

"I know," Henry interrupted. "You cried a lot."

"I did," Regina agreed. "And I felt very sad for weeks. I didn't know how I was going to continue. Ma and I had been your parents and I was worried I wouldn't be able to look after you on my own. But Aunty Kat and Aunty Zelena were very kind and they helped me to see that I was a good mom to you and that I was strong. So one day, I made myself get up from my bed and have a shower and cook you breakfast. I made you bacon and eggs."

"I remember," Henry said.

"You didn't eat them," Regina continued.

"I wasn't hungry."

Regina had thought little of it at the time but with the twenty-twenty vision of hindsight, that interaction had been of monumental importance. Would things have worked out differently if she had insisted her son eat? Was the fact that she had capitulated at once to his refusal the reason he had latched onto his ability to control what he ate and the power he therefore wielded over his mother?

"Then we walked to play group together and I went to work," Regina went on.

Henry nodded his agreement. Regina said nothing more. That was it; the mourning of her relationship had ended and life had gone back to normal. She had re-established their routine and been ready to move on with life. Henry's fussiness when it came to his food had emerged but she hadn't connected it with the absence of his other mother. How hadn't she? Was she so self-involved that she hadn't seen the impact her divorce had had on their son? Apparently she was.

"Henry," Archie said quietly, drawing the boy's attention back to him. "Do you think you're old enough to understand something quite complicated?"

"Yes," Henry said at once. "I'm nearly seven."

"Ok, good," Archie smiled. "Because I think it's really important for you and your mom to understand what happened then so you can learn how to eat healthy food now."

"Food?" Henry frowned. What did food have to do with any of this? They were talking about Ma, weren't they?

Archie glanced at Regina who nodded her consent for the man to share his insights. She trusted him implicitly to tell Henry what he was capable of understanding as well as providing him with the necessary information which may help him to change his attitude towards food.

"Adult relationships are complicated," Archie began. "And sometimes parents break up because they are unhappy. They decide that they will be better moms and dads to their children if they are not together any more. But what happened in your family is that only one of your moms was unhappy. When your ma left, your mom was very surprised and sad, is that right, Regina?"

"Yes," Regina nodded. "I didn't know that Ma was unhappy so when she left, I was surprised first and then I felt very sad."

"Your ma disappeared from your life, Henry, but she also disappeared from your mom's life," Archie continued. "When you saw that your mom was sad, you wanted to make her feel happy again but you couldn't. Your mom needed time to be sad before she could be happy again. But when that day came, you were surprised again because you didn't know what had changed. It was confusing, right?"

Henry nodded. Yes, that was a word he knew which described how he felt. It was confusing. One day his mom had been sad, the next day she had been happy. Why? What had made her happy? He had tried to make her happy for a month and nothing had worked. So why did she start smiling again?

"Sometimes adults make the mistake of thinking that children don't understand," Archie went on. "We think we are cleverer than children so we don't tell them important things. Your mom didn't think you were old enough to understand what had happened, so she didn't tell you. Which is why you were confused. Because things changed and you didn't know why. Just like the way your ma left one day, your mom was now happy."

"But I wanted Mom to be happy," Henry pointed out. "I didn't want Ma to leave."

"I know," Archie nodded. "But there were two big changes in your life and you didn't know how to stop another big change happening."

Henry said nothing. He was too young to be able to understand the reason behind his subconscious decision. It was only years later that he had recognised the truth behind Archie's words.

"Moms and dads look after children and make lots of decisions for them. What school you go to, what you wear, what you eat. Children don't have to think about these things; they just happen. In the same way that your ma leaving just happened and your mom being happy just happened. Even though you were only four, Henry, you wanted to make sure nothing else changed in your life. The problem was, because you were young, you didn't know how to tell your mom this. So you told her you didn't want to eat the bacon and eggs."

At that statement, Henry frowned. That made no sense. Bacon and eggs wasn't a change. He liked bacon and eggs. Or, at least, he had liked bacon and eggs. He had eaten neither since …

"I was confused," Henry said slowly, remembering the word his psychologist had used earlier.

"You were," Archie agreed. "And that day, when you told your mom you didn't want to eat the bacon and eggs, you realised that you could control something. You didn't know what had happened to make your ma leave and you didn't know what had happened to make your mom happy again. But you learnt that you could control what you ate. Food became very important to you because you had power over which meals your mom cooked for you."

"Power? Like a superpower like Batman or Spiderman has?" Henry asked.

"Exactly," Archie nodded. "And your superpower was to get your mom to make what you wanted to eat. The problem is, you only asked for a small number of meals. You forgot that growing boys need vegetables and meat and lots of other types of food to be healthy."

"I'm sick?" Henry frowned. Sick was the opposite of healthy, he knew that.

"Your body needs more than what you're giving it," Archie said. "Like the bacon and eggs your mom cooked for you. And vegetables like carrots and broccoli and meat like fish and chicken."

"I ate chicken," Henry piped up.

"Great!" Archie grinned. "Did you like it?"

"It was ok," Henry shrugged.

"And after you ate the chicken, did anything change in your life?"

"Like what?" Henry asked.

"With your mom," Archie suggested. "Was she different?"

Henry thought back to that meal he had eaten with his mother the previous weekend. "She smiled when I ate the chicken," Henry remembered. "But everything else was the same. Except Emma."

"Emma?"

"Mom's girlfriend," Henry supplied.

Archie glanced at Regina who looked a little red in the face. She hadn't mentioned Emma to Archie since their first session when she had referred to the blonde as an acquaintance. The psychologist didn't need any more information to understand that there was much more to Emma and Regina's relationship than his patient's mother had let on.

"How does Emma make your mom different?"

"She smiles more," Henry replied. "Mom says Emma makes her happy. But …" The small boy trailed off, suddenly shrinking back into his chair and staring at his hands.

"But what, Henry?" Regina asked quietly.

There was a pause and then Henry thrust his body forwards and announced the fear which had been bubbling beneath the surface since that morning. "But what if Emma makes Mom sad again? What if Emma leaves like Ma left? I don't want Emma to come and live with us if she's going to leave. She can't do that. It's not fair."

Small arms crossed firmly over the heaving chest with a finality as Henry flung himself back into the chair, glowering. Regina took in her son's body language, recognising it as defensive, protective. He didn't want to get hurt again. He didn't want his mother to be hurt again. It was up to her to reply to the small boy's outburst, she knew. Archie was sat in silence, waiting, watching.

"Henry, Emma and I are starting a new relationship. She's not moving in and she's not leaving. But if we decide that we don't want to be together in the future, it will be because of me, not you."

"So one day you'll be sad again?"

"Maybe," Regina admitted. "That's the risk you take when you start a relationship with someone. You never know if it's going to end one day or if it's going to last for the rest of your lives."

"I don't want you to be sad, Mom," Henry said quietly.

"I don't want to be sad either, my little prince," Regina assured the small boy. "But being with Emma makes me happy."

"I know, you told me that this morning," Henry reminded her.

"So if Emma makes me happy for one month or one year or ten years and then we break up, I think the sad feelings I'd have would be worth it because of all the happy memories we'd have shared. And then maybe we'll be together forever and I'll never have to feel sad again."

"You think you and Emma will be together forever?"

"I don't know," Regina said. "No one knows things like that. But I know I like her a lot and I want to be with her for a long time."

"Does she like you too?"

"Yes," Regina said.

"How can people go from liking each other to not liking each other?" Henry asked.

"That's a great question and one I can't really answer," Regina replied.

"Do you think you'll stop liking Emma?"

"I hope not but I don't know, Regina said. "So how about I make a deal with you?"

"What deal?"

"I promise to tell you when my feelings towards Emma change so that you always know what's happening. That way, if something is going to change like Emma is going to be visiting our house more because I like her more or Emma isn't going to come around again because we decide we don't want to be together, you'll know."

Henry pondered this for a moment. The seconds felt endless to Regina who was trying to work out if she had done the right thing. Wasn't Henry too young to understand these things? It appeared, from what had been said already, however, that she had woefully miscalculated her son's intelligence, to his detriment.

"You'll tell me when something is going to change, so it's not a surprise like it was with Ma?" Henry said eventually.

"Yes," Regina promised.

"I don't like surprises," Henry stated.

"I know," Regina replied. "That's why you like to know what we're having for dinner and what I've made you for lunch."

Henry nodded his agreement to that fact. He did like to know what he was going to eat in advance of the meal. That chicken had been a surprise yesterday and he didn't like that. Emma being in his mom's bed that morning had also been a surprise. He didn't like that either.

"Will you tell me when Emma is going to come to our house again?" Henry asked.

"Of course," Regina assured. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about her coming over last night. We didn't have a plan to meet up but then she came over after you went to bed."

"Will Emma cook at our house again?"

"The pancakes?" Regina asked.

"Maybe. Or something else."

"Do you want her to cook something at our house again?"

"I don't know," Henry admitted. "It made you smile this morning."

"It did," Regina agreed. "Those pancakes were really good."

"Yeah, it was tasty," Henry said quietly, verbal confirmation that he had indeed snuck a few bites before school.

"Maybe you can ask Emma to cook you something next time she comes over," Regina suggested.

"Like what?"

"Anything you want," Regina said. "Emma is a chef, remember? She can make anything in the world."

"Pasta?"

"For sure," Regina smiled. "And maybe Emma can make something different to go on top."

"No tomato sauce?"

"It's up to you," Regina said.

"I'll think about it," Henry said, sounding far more mature than his six years.

Regina let out a shaky breath. That, she was sure, was progress.

"How about we go and play with some cars for the rest of the session," Archie suggested, sensing that both mother and child were wiped out from the intensity of the conversation.

"Ok," Henry said, sliding from. "Mom, do you want to play with us?"

"Sure," she nodded, standing up and following her son who was leading the way toward the box of toys.

Archie caught the woman by her elbow just before they moved to sit on the floor. "Today was a breakthrough," he said quietly, the words inaudible to the boy who was rummaging loudly through the box to find the cars he wanted to play with.

"Yeah?" Regina asked, herself sensing the step forward but keen to have it validated.

"He's a very intuitive child," Archie said. "His self-awareness as well as the way in which he recognises the emotions of those around him may have triggered this behaviour in the first place but it may also be the key to helping him establish a healthy diet again."

"I hope so," Regina murmured.

"Have faith," Archie said, offering a soft smile. "We're making progress. Just make sure you keep your promise to him about Emma. Sudden change in his life could be catastrophic."

Regina knew that even before Archie had said anything but it still drilled home the fact that the budding relationship was something she needed to be careful with. It hadn't been planned. She hadn't been looking for a girlfriend but equally she hadn't fought what she felt for the blonde. Maybe she should have. Maybe she was putting Henry at risk by opening his world up to the possibility of change again. Emma could become, her heart quickened at the thought, a second mother figure to her son but then equally she could become another woman to disappear from his life. Regina knew the latter wasn't what either she or Emma wanted but neither of them could predict the future.

"You deserve some happiness," Archie said, correctly reading the expression on the mother's face. "Don't feel guilty about having met someone. Just make sure that you keep Henry in mind."

"Of course," Regina said. "He's always going to be my number one."

"Mom, you can be the red car," Henry interrupted, thrusting the chosen toy into his mother's hand. "Archie, here's the yellow motorbike for you."

Both adults took their assigned vehicles, settled themselves on either side of the boy and began to play.

A/N: Big realisations for both Henry and Regina. Perhaps now they're both communicating better, things can move forwards for everyone.