A Sorta Fairytale (3/?)
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Pairing: Emma/Regina
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,204
Summary: After Emma and Regina divorced four years ago, Emma moved to Chicago while Henry stayed with Regina in Storybrooke. On the eve of Henry's tenth birthday, Emma knows she has to make things right with her son. And maybe along the way, she and Regina will find their way back to one another. Swan Queen AU.
“That one looks like a rabbit.”
Emma looked to where Henry was pointing in the sky and nodded, surprised at the rabbit ears and fluffy tail in the sky. “It does.” She turned her head to the side slightly, getting a better angle on the rabbit cloud. “It really does.” Glancing back to her son, she watched as Henry scanned the sky above them, searching for any more familiar shapes. They used to cloud gaze often before she moved to Chicago, spending countless summer afternoons laying in the backyard, staring at the sky and letting their imaginations run wild.
“Oh, and there’s a castle.”
Emma looked back to the sky and the direction of Henry’s finger, but the only thing she could see were clouds that looked like clouds. “Where?”
“There-” he pointed to one area, “that’s the base of the castle, and those-” he moved his finger higher, “those are the towers.”
“Oh, I see it.” She did see it. Kind of. If she squinted a little, it did look vaguely like the castles in the fairy tale books that she used to read to Henry when he was little. She got an ache in her chest at the thought of all of the time they used to spend together before her move.
“I have my own castle, you know.” Henry said quietly.
“You do?” Emma propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at him. His eyes stayed focused on the sky.
“Yeah. It’s right off the harbor. I go there when I need to think.”
Even though she was the one that gave birth to him, Emma could see that Henry was more like Regina than herself. She always fought to keep away her thoughts, preferring to drown them out with alcohol and loud music, but Regina loved the silence. She needed the silence in a way that Emma could never really understand, a trait that seemed to have been passed on to their son. “It sounds nice.”
“It is.”
Emma glanced back to the house. Regina was watching them from a window in the kitchen. Their eyes locked for a moment before Regina pulled away and disappeared into the shadows. Emma stared at the spot where her ex had been for a while, thinking over how much she wished things could be like they used to be. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Henry’s voice. “What?” She asked.
“Mom’s mad at you, isn’t she?”
The question startled her. She and Regina had managed to be incredibly civil, but still Henry was one perceptive kid. “She’s not mad at me. She’s just disappointed.”
“Why?” His eyes met hers.
“Because I disappeared from your life for so long. And she should be disappointed in me. I’m pretty disappointed with myself.” She added the last part quietly.
“But things are gonna be different from now on, right?”
“I promised you they would be, didn’t I?” She gave him a smile as she ran her fingers through the hair covering his forehead.
“Yeah.” He paused. “So why can’t she just let it go?”
“It’s not that easy. I hurt you, being gone for so long, and your mom needs to protect you. She just wants me to be more responsible with my relationship with you, that’s all.”
“Oh.”
Emma laid back down as the silence surrounded them. Henry was deep in thought, his eyes squinting in the same way that Emma’s do when she’s busy thinking about something. She hoped that the tension between Regina and herself hadn’t been hurting Henry. He was a tough kid, but having his parents being on bad terms couldn’t be easy for him.
He looked over to her and said, “I don’t like it when you two are like this.”
Her chest ached. “Me either, kid... Me either.”
-
It was her last night in Storybrooke. Regina had let her have Henry for the evening, making Emma promise to have him back by eight thirty. It was a quarter past nine and they were still some three blocks away from the mayoral mansion. Henry was chatting animatedly from the passenger seat about some comic book he had gotten the day before, completely unaware of how desperate Emma was to get him home. Rolling two stop signs, she prayed that the law enforcement in the town was busy somewhere else with a box of donuts or twinkies or something.
When they got to the house, she threw the car into park and turned to Henry, just in time to see the front door of the mansion open. “Oh shi-oot.” She winced at her language, giving Henry an apologetic smile, even though she was sure he had no idea what had almost happened.
“What?” He asked, a hint of a smile on his lips.
“Uh, your mom.” She motioned towards the house, where Regina was now standing in the front doorway, hand perched on her hip. “You need to get going.”
“You’re not going to come inside?”
She knew she should. Staying in her car was the cowardly thing to do, but the last thing she wanted was to end a perfect day on a very painful note. Forcing a smile at Henry, she nodded. “Of course I am.” She unbuckled her seat belt and slowly got out of the car, thinking through the best way to apologize to Regina for keeping Henry so late.
She followed her son up the path to the house, cramming her hands deep into her pockets. When she reached the front porch, she stopped, watching Henry pass Regina on his way into the house. Regina’s gaze met her own. She shivered at the anger burning in Regina’s eyes. She was screwed.
“Mama?”
She looked towards Henry, offering her son a smile. “I’ll see you in the morning, buddy. We’ll go get breakfast before I leave.” She prayed that Regina would allow it, knowing it was dangerous to make a promise to Henry without consulting Regina first. Especially considering the pile of deep shit she was currently in.
“Can you tuck me in?”
Her heart tugged in her chest at just how young he seemed in that moment. He was long past the age of getting tucked in for bed, but he wanted her to do it anyway. She turned her attention towards Regina, silently asking her ex for permission. Narrowing her eyes, Regina stepped out of the doorway and, with a wave of her hand, motioned for Emma to enter the house.
She took in a deep breath and went inside, passing Regina as she stepped into the foyer. She gave the brunette a grateful smile that went unacknowledged and followed Henry up the stairs. It took a few minutes for him to get ready for bed, but once he slid in between the covers, she sat down beside him.
“I’ve had a great couple of days with you.”
“Can’t you stay a few more?” His eyes pleaded with her for more time.
She felt the lump form in her throat. “I can’t, kid. I’m sorry, but we’ll have time together tomorrow before I go. We can go to Granny’s for breakfast and you can get as many pancakes as you want.” She offered him a smile, but he didn’t return it.
“Okay.” He settled down into bed, turning on his side to get comfortable.
Leaning over him, she placed a kiss on his temple. “I love you,” she whispered.
“Love you, too.” As his eyes fell shut, the corners of his mouth turned up just enough to make Emma’s heart swell.
“Sleep well.”
Standing up, she went to his bedroom door and flipped off the light switch. Turning in the door frame, she took one last glance then closed the door quietly. She went to the railing of the hallway and looked down into the foyer, finding Regina waiting below for her. Taking in a deep breath, she promised herself that she wasn’t going to fight back. She was going to let Regina say whatever she had to say, and she wasn’t going to challenge it. It was her last night in town. She could get out of Storybrooke without having a full-blown fight with her ex.
When she reached the bottom stair, Regina turned towards her. “You were forty-five minutes late,” she said, her jaw clenching tightly.
Emma nodded slowly. “We lost track of time. I’m sorry.”
Taking a step closer, Regina’s voice lowered. “I thought you were going to start being responsible? That you were going to stop being a child and actually be a parent to Henry? That promise lasted what- three days?”
Emma winced. “You’re right, and I’m sorry-”
“Your apologies have gotten really old.” Regina moved even closer, invading Emma’s personal space. “And the thing that I can’t figure out is why in the hell didn’t you call me and tell me that you were running late? You have a cell phone. I assume you still remember the phone number for the house that you lived in for almost five years.”
“Regina-”
“No, you don’t get to talk. Not only did you not call me, but you didn’t answer your phone when I called you. Do you have any idea how worried I have been? Thinking that something could’ve happened to Henry?”
“This is Storybrooke, Regina, not Boston!” She threw her hands up in frustration. “This town has what- a crime rate of zero? What the hell could have possibly have happened to Henry here? After all, isn’t that why you moved us to this goddamned town in the first place?”
Rage flared in Regina’s eyes. “So this is my fault?” She nearly yelled.
“What? No! Dammit!” She took in a deep breath, trying to cool herself off. Speaking in an even tone, she continued, “no, this was my fault, alright? Everything is always my fault. You’re the good guy and I’m the bad guy, I get that. I’m fine with that. But for once can you just not blow every little thing out of proportion? We were late. That was my fault. But Henry’s upstairs asleep now, everything’s fine, and I have apologized, so can you just relax?”
Regina seemed to shift at her words. “Relax... You want me to relax?” Her voice was eerily calm, a stark contrast to the way she had practically yelled at Emma just moments before, but her eyes still sparkled with anger. Shaking her head, she continued, “I can’t relax, because I am all that Henry has. I have to worry about his safety because there’s no one else here to do it. I am the one responsible for his life. I am the one who has to take care of him if something goes wrong, and you want me to relax? Parents- real parents- don’t relax. They worry, constantly. Especially when their child is missing for nearly an hour.”
Emma stood frozen in place, aware that this fight had just become about something far more complicated than keeping Henry out past his bedtime. She nodded slowly, knowing she had fucked up. Big time. Softly, she said, “you’re right... I messed up, and I’m sorry. But tomorrow, he’ll be all yours again, I’ll be gone, and none of this will matter. You won’t have to deal with me messing up anymore.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll still have to deal with the consequences of you leaving, once again.” Regina shook her head, looking past Emma towards the stairs.
“Regina-”
“You can see yourself out. I assume you still remember where the front door is from the last time you left town.” She said, then turned and walked off towards the study, quietly shutting it closed behind her.
Emma took in a deep breath, glancing around the empty foyer for any sign of what to do next. Her conversation with Regina had gone about as badly as it could’ve gone, but she was still leaving in the morning, so what did it really matter? She already knew that she was never going to be able to fix everything with Regina, but that fight managed to hammer it home. They were always going to argue, but thankfully, for Henry’s sake, their opportunities were now limited to Emma’s visits to town. She glanced up the stairs towards Henry’s bedroom. Her eyes went wide when they met her son’s.
He was peeking around the corner of the hallway, a frown on his lips. Emma closed her eyes for a second, instantly regretting the fight that had just occurred. She looked back up to her son and said a soft, “I’m sorry.” He nodded at her in understanding, giving her a small smile of comfort. “Get back to bed, alright? I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Ok.”
“Goodnight.”
“Night, mama.” With that, he disappeared back around the corner.
She stared at where he had been for a few moments and replayed the fight over in her head, wondering how much damage she had just caused. It really was for the best that she was leaving town. Regina and her just weren’t made to coexist anymore. With a glance to the study door, she headed outside, turning the lock on the doorknob as she left.
Pairing: Emma/Regina
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,204
Summary: After Emma and Regina divorced four years ago, Emma moved to Chicago while Henry stayed with Regina in Storybrooke. On the eve of Henry's tenth birthday, Emma knows she has to make things right with her son. And maybe along the way, she and Regina will find their way back to one another. Swan Queen AU.
“That one looks like a rabbit.”
Emma looked to where Henry was pointing in the sky and nodded, surprised at the rabbit ears and fluffy tail in the sky. “It does.” She turned her head to the side slightly, getting a better angle on the rabbit cloud. “It really does.” Glancing back to her son, she watched as Henry scanned the sky above them, searching for any more familiar shapes. They used to cloud gaze often before she moved to Chicago, spending countless summer afternoons laying in the backyard, staring at the sky and letting their imaginations run wild.
“Oh, and there’s a castle.”
Emma looked back to the sky and the direction of Henry’s finger, but the only thing she could see were clouds that looked like clouds. “Where?”
“There-” he pointed to one area, “that’s the base of the castle, and those-” he moved his finger higher, “those are the towers.”
“Oh, I see it.” She did see it. Kind of. If she squinted a little, it did look vaguely like the castles in the fairy tale books that she used to read to Henry when he was little. She got an ache in her chest at the thought of all of the time they used to spend together before her move.
“I have my own castle, you know.” Henry said quietly.
“You do?” Emma propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at him. His eyes stayed focused on the sky.
“Yeah. It’s right off the harbor. I go there when I need to think.”
Even though she was the one that gave birth to him, Emma could see that Henry was more like Regina than herself. She always fought to keep away her thoughts, preferring to drown them out with alcohol and loud music, but Regina loved the silence. She needed the silence in a way that Emma could never really understand, a trait that seemed to have been passed on to their son. “It sounds nice.”
“It is.”
Emma glanced back to the house. Regina was watching them from a window in the kitchen. Their eyes locked for a moment before Regina pulled away and disappeared into the shadows. Emma stared at the spot where her ex had been for a while, thinking over how much she wished things could be like they used to be. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Henry’s voice. “What?” She asked.
“Mom’s mad at you, isn’t she?”
The question startled her. She and Regina had managed to be incredibly civil, but still Henry was one perceptive kid. “She’s not mad at me. She’s just disappointed.”
“Why?” His eyes met hers.
“Because I disappeared from your life for so long. And she should be disappointed in me. I’m pretty disappointed with myself.” She added the last part quietly.
“But things are gonna be different from now on, right?”
“I promised you they would be, didn’t I?” She gave him a smile as she ran her fingers through the hair covering his forehead.
“Yeah.” He paused. “So why can’t she just let it go?”
“It’s not that easy. I hurt you, being gone for so long, and your mom needs to protect you. She just wants me to be more responsible with my relationship with you, that’s all.”
“Oh.”
Emma laid back down as the silence surrounded them. Henry was deep in thought, his eyes squinting in the same way that Emma’s do when she’s busy thinking about something. She hoped that the tension between Regina and herself hadn’t been hurting Henry. He was a tough kid, but having his parents being on bad terms couldn’t be easy for him.
He looked over to her and said, “I don’t like it when you two are like this.”
Her chest ached. “Me either, kid... Me either.”
-
It was her last night in Storybrooke. Regina had let her have Henry for the evening, making Emma promise to have him back by eight thirty. It was a quarter past nine and they were still some three blocks away from the mayoral mansion. Henry was chatting animatedly from the passenger seat about some comic book he had gotten the day before, completely unaware of how desperate Emma was to get him home. Rolling two stop signs, she prayed that the law enforcement in the town was busy somewhere else with a box of donuts or twinkies or something.
When they got to the house, she threw the car into park and turned to Henry, just in time to see the front door of the mansion open. “Oh shi-oot.” She winced at her language, giving Henry an apologetic smile, even though she was sure he had no idea what had almost happened.
“What?” He asked, a hint of a smile on his lips.
“Uh, your mom.” She motioned towards the house, where Regina was now standing in the front doorway, hand perched on her hip. “You need to get going.”
“You’re not going to come inside?”
She knew she should. Staying in her car was the cowardly thing to do, but the last thing she wanted was to end a perfect day on a very painful note. Forcing a smile at Henry, she nodded. “Of course I am.” She unbuckled her seat belt and slowly got out of the car, thinking through the best way to apologize to Regina for keeping Henry so late.
She followed her son up the path to the house, cramming her hands deep into her pockets. When she reached the front porch, she stopped, watching Henry pass Regina on his way into the house. Regina’s gaze met her own. She shivered at the anger burning in Regina’s eyes. She was screwed.
“Mama?”
She looked towards Henry, offering her son a smile. “I’ll see you in the morning, buddy. We’ll go get breakfast before I leave.” She prayed that Regina would allow it, knowing it was dangerous to make a promise to Henry without consulting Regina first. Especially considering the pile of deep shit she was currently in.
“Can you tuck me in?”
Her heart tugged in her chest at just how young he seemed in that moment. He was long past the age of getting tucked in for bed, but he wanted her to do it anyway. She turned her attention towards Regina, silently asking her ex for permission. Narrowing her eyes, Regina stepped out of the doorway and, with a wave of her hand, motioned for Emma to enter the house.
She took in a deep breath and went inside, passing Regina as she stepped into the foyer. She gave the brunette a grateful smile that went unacknowledged and followed Henry up the stairs. It took a few minutes for him to get ready for bed, but once he slid in between the covers, she sat down beside him.
“I’ve had a great couple of days with you.”
“Can’t you stay a few more?” His eyes pleaded with her for more time.
She felt the lump form in her throat. “I can’t, kid. I’m sorry, but we’ll have time together tomorrow before I go. We can go to Granny’s for breakfast and you can get as many pancakes as you want.” She offered him a smile, but he didn’t return it.
“Okay.” He settled down into bed, turning on his side to get comfortable.
Leaning over him, she placed a kiss on his temple. “I love you,” she whispered.
“Love you, too.” As his eyes fell shut, the corners of his mouth turned up just enough to make Emma’s heart swell.
“Sleep well.”
Standing up, she went to his bedroom door and flipped off the light switch. Turning in the door frame, she took one last glance then closed the door quietly. She went to the railing of the hallway and looked down into the foyer, finding Regina waiting below for her. Taking in a deep breath, she promised herself that she wasn’t going to fight back. She was going to let Regina say whatever she had to say, and she wasn’t going to challenge it. It was her last night in town. She could get out of Storybrooke without having a full-blown fight with her ex.
When she reached the bottom stair, Regina turned towards her. “You were forty-five minutes late,” she said, her jaw clenching tightly.
Emma nodded slowly. “We lost track of time. I’m sorry.”
Taking a step closer, Regina’s voice lowered. “I thought you were going to start being responsible? That you were going to stop being a child and actually be a parent to Henry? That promise lasted what- three days?”
Emma winced. “You’re right, and I’m sorry-”
“Your apologies have gotten really old.” Regina moved even closer, invading Emma’s personal space. “And the thing that I can’t figure out is why in the hell didn’t you call me and tell me that you were running late? You have a cell phone. I assume you still remember the phone number for the house that you lived in for almost five years.”
“Regina-”
“No, you don’t get to talk. Not only did you not call me, but you didn’t answer your phone when I called you. Do you have any idea how worried I have been? Thinking that something could’ve happened to Henry?”
“This is Storybrooke, Regina, not Boston!” She threw her hands up in frustration. “This town has what- a crime rate of zero? What the hell could have possibly have happened to Henry here? After all, isn’t that why you moved us to this goddamned town in the first place?”
Rage flared in Regina’s eyes. “So this is my fault?” She nearly yelled.
“What? No! Dammit!” She took in a deep breath, trying to cool herself off. Speaking in an even tone, she continued, “no, this was my fault, alright? Everything is always my fault. You’re the good guy and I’m the bad guy, I get that. I’m fine with that. But for once can you just not blow every little thing out of proportion? We were late. That was my fault. But Henry’s upstairs asleep now, everything’s fine, and I have apologized, so can you just relax?”
Regina seemed to shift at her words. “Relax... You want me to relax?” Her voice was eerily calm, a stark contrast to the way she had practically yelled at Emma just moments before, but her eyes still sparkled with anger. Shaking her head, she continued, “I can’t relax, because I am all that Henry has. I have to worry about his safety because there’s no one else here to do it. I am the one responsible for his life. I am the one who has to take care of him if something goes wrong, and you want me to relax? Parents- real parents- don’t relax. They worry, constantly. Especially when their child is missing for nearly an hour.”
Emma stood frozen in place, aware that this fight had just become about something far more complicated than keeping Henry out past his bedtime. She nodded slowly, knowing she had fucked up. Big time. Softly, she said, “you’re right... I messed up, and I’m sorry. But tomorrow, he’ll be all yours again, I’ll be gone, and none of this will matter. You won’t have to deal with me messing up anymore.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll still have to deal with the consequences of you leaving, once again.” Regina shook her head, looking past Emma towards the stairs.
“Regina-”
“You can see yourself out. I assume you still remember where the front door is from the last time you left town.” She said, then turned and walked off towards the study, quietly shutting it closed behind her.
Emma took in a deep breath, glancing around the empty foyer for any sign of what to do next. Her conversation with Regina had gone about as badly as it could’ve gone, but she was still leaving in the morning, so what did it really matter? She already knew that she was never going to be able to fix everything with Regina, but that fight managed to hammer it home. They were always going to argue, but thankfully, for Henry’s sake, their opportunities were now limited to Emma’s visits to town. She glanced up the stairs towards Henry’s bedroom. Her eyes went wide when they met her son’s.
He was peeking around the corner of the hallway, a frown on his lips. Emma closed her eyes for a second, instantly regretting the fight that had just occurred. She looked back up to her son and said a soft, “I’m sorry.” He nodded at her in understanding, giving her a small smile of comfort. “Get back to bed, alright? I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Ok.”
“Goodnight.”
“Night, mama.” With that, he disappeared back around the corner.
She stared at where he had been for a few moments and replayed the fight over in her head, wondering how much damage she had just caused. It really was for the best that she was leaving town. Regina and her just weren’t made to coexist anymore. With a glance to the study door, she headed outside, turning the lock on the doorknob as she left.