A Sorta Fairytale (4/?)
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Pairing: Emma/Regina
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,478
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.
Emma jogged up the sidewalk and knocked rapidly on the front door. Five seconds later it flew open. Regina appeared in the doorway, hair in disarray, makeup conspicuously absent from her face.
“You’re sure he’s not in the house?” Emma asked.
“I checked everywhere. He wasn’t in his bed when I got up, and I don’t know where else he could be. He’s never done this before.” Regina ran her fingers through her hair. Even though Emma knew she was trying to hold herself together, her eyes betrayed just how terrified she was.
“You don’t have any idea where he could have gone?”
Annoyance flashed in Regina’s eyes. “No. I don’t know where in the hell he would go at eight in the morning on a Saturday. He doesn’t like to get up before noon if he doesn’t have to, seems he inherited your sleeping tendencies.”
She ignored the look that Regina was giving her, trying instead to think of anywhere Henry could have run off to. He wasn’t at the B&B with her... he wouldn’t be at school on a Saturday... where else could- “his castle. Do you think there’s a chance he could be there?”
“What castle?” Regina studied her with a blank expression.
“You know, his castle at the harbor? Where he goes when he needs to think.”
Regina shook her head slightly, brows creased in confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Regina didn’t know. She frowned, wondering why Henry would hide it from her. Slowly, she explained, “he told me he has some kind of a castle down by the harbor, but he didn’t really go into details, just that he likes the quiet there. Do you think there a chance that’s where he could be?”
“I guess. I don’t know where else he would go.”
“Alright. I’ll go check it out, see if he’s there. You should stay here in case he comes home.”
“No, I’m going with you,” Regina pulled the front door shut behind her.
Emma opened her mouth to argue, but the look in Regina’s eyes told her to drop it. They headed out to Emma’s car and started for the harbor. The ride was silent, each woman searching the streets they flew down for any sign of their son.
“There.” Regina said, pointing towards the water. “The playground. That must be where his castle is.”
Emma pulled into the parking lot across the street from the playground. Her eyes landed on a wooden structure a few hundred feet away, the small figure of their son perched on a platform. Letting out a deep breath in relief, she put the car in park.
“Thank God,” Regina whispered and started to open her door. Emma reached out and grabbed Regina’s arm, stopping the other woman’s movement. “What?” Regina practically growled at her.
Emma ignored her tone and explained, “I’m leaving today. It can’t be a coincidence that today is the day he decides to disappear. Let me talk to him alone... please?”
Regina studied her, thinking over her words for a long minute. “Fine.”
“Thank you,” Emma said, giving Regina’s arm a squeeze. Regina nodded and looked back to where their son was. With a deep breath, Emma exited the car and headed across the playground. She knew this conversation was going to be hard, but she was Henry’s mom. She had to do this for her son.
As she approached, she expected him to give her at least a glance, but his attention stayed focused on the ground at his feet. Wordlessly, Emma sat down beside him. She studied him for a long moment, unsure of where to start. She had known he wouldn’t be happy with her leaving again, but she had never expected he would be so upset as to disappear on Regina like he had that morning.
Glancing back towards the car, she watched as Regina climbed out of it. She leaned against the frame of the yellow bug, crossing her arms over her chest, gaze directed at Emma and Henry. Emma knew that Regina had given her an opportunity to step up and be the parent Henry needed her to be. She couldn’t blow this, not like last night. Turning towards her son, she said softly, “you scared your mom and me pretty badly just now... We didn’t know where you were or if something bad had happened to you.”
“Sorry.” Henry mumbled, his eyes still cast towards the sand of the playground.
She studied the look on his face, leaning closer to try to get him to make eye contact. “You wanna tell me why you ran off this morning?”
“I don’t want you to go.”
She felt the pang of guilt in her stomach. “I know you don’t.”
After a long pause, his head popped up, eyes staring into hers. “So why can’t you stay?”
“Henry, we’ve talked about this.” She was quickly growing nauseous at the thought of leaving, of letting her son down once again. The last thing she ever wanted was to be a disappointment, especially to him.
“Not really. You just said that you couldn’t. You never said why.”
“I just can’t.” The look in his eyes told her how let down he was. “I’m sorry.” His attention turned towards the ground once more. When the silence surrounded them, she decided not to push him into talking. She settled for watching him and leaned against the wooden beam beside her.
When she really thought about it, she didn’t know why she was going back to Chicago. Sure, her life was there now, but the only thing she really had was work and that left a lot to be desired. After the divorce, she had thought that moving to Chicago was the best thing that she could do for her son, but being back in his life suddenly, she wondered if maybe that wasn’t the case anymore.
That fight last night had been brutal, and knowing Henry had heard the whole thing made her want to get on the interstate and speed out of town again. But with the way that he was sitting beside her now, practically despondent, she knew that leaving wouldn’t make it easier for him this time. Leaving would only hurt him worse than she already had. With that thought, she knew what she had to do.
“Maybe I should try staying here for a while,” she said slowly, testing the idea out in her head.
Henry looked up to her in surprise, a big grin on his face. “Really?”
“Yeah.” She hoped she wasn’t going to regret this. “I don’t know how easy it will be for me to get a job here, but maybe I can figure something out. It’s worth trying, right?” And if it meant she got to see that smile on his face every day, it was definitely worth it.
“Yeah.” He said, his grin growing even bigger. “You really mean it? You’re gonna stay?”
“For a while, at least. And if I can find a job, then I’ll have no reason to leave. Is it okay if I stay?” She asked, already knowing what his response would be.
“Of course!” He said louder than she had anticipated. Before she knew what was going on, his arms were flung around her and he was hugging her. She felt tears stinging her eyes. Staying was the right decision. She knew that Henry needed her there, and that she needed to be there for herself. Henry pulled out of her grip and looked back up to her.
Cupping his cheek with her hand, she said, “I love you, kid. And I don’t want to miss out on any more time with you.”
“I love you, too, mama.”
She kissed him on the forehead then pulled him in for another hug. Her eyes landed on Regina still standing by the car, watching them carefully. There was still the issue of the tension between her and Regina, something that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. She knew she would have to do better than she had last night. She would have to learn how to be more responsible, how to say the right things, something she had never been very good at. But Henry needed them not to fight, and silently, she promised him that things would be better, for all three of them.
-
“No! No! No, no, no, no, no!” Emma yelled at the television screen as Henry’s character managed to kill hers in a sword fight. She dropped her controller and looked at her son sitting beside her. “You beat me again. What is that, the twenty-fifth time?” He looked up to her with a cheeky grin.
“You wanna go again?” He asked.
“I don’t know that that’s such a good idea,” Regina said from behind them, alerting them to her presence in the room. Both Emma and Henry looked back at her. “If you’re wanting to get on the road by noon, you should probably start to head out of here,” Regina directed at Emma pointedly.
“But I thought you weren’t leaving?” Henry asked, looking from Regina to Emma, a slight panic in his voice.
Emma glanced at her ex. The brunette’s eyes were filled with questions, her eyebrows raised towards her hairline. Emma looked back down to their son and said, “Henry, why don’t you give your mom and I some time to talk alone?” He looked back and forth between his mothers, clearly wondering what was going on. “It’s okay. We just need to talk for a little bit. I promise I’ll come get you when we’re done, ok?” She smiled at him which seemed to reassure him.
“Okay.” He said then headed out of the room and up the stairs.
Emma turned off the video game and pushed herself off the ground, stretching her aching muscles. She was getting too old for sitting on the floor. She looked up to Regina and noticed the impatient look on her ex’s face. This was not going to be fun.
“I’m not leaving today.” She said and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans.
Regina shook her head. “Why not?”
“I- uh,” she took in a deep breath, “I think I’m gonna be hanging around for a little while.”
“What does that mean?” Regina crossed her arms over her chest, as though she were challenging Emma to tell her the truth. Emma’s eyes flitted around the room nervously as she tried to find the right words to say. “You’re moving back.” Regina said, suddenly realizing what was going on.
“Yeah, I am,” Emma said softly, feeling the nerves in her stomach. “I’ve missed out on too much of Henry’s life and I want to fix that... Nothing has been right since I moved to Chicago. I’ve been so lonely there. I don’t really have anyone there, any friends or anything. And coming back, it’s just made me realize how wrong things have been these past few years. I’m sick of being away from Henry. Too much has happened since I left.”
“/You/ left /us/.” Regina snapped, the anger burning in her eyes.
“What?” She was stunned at Regina’s change in tone.
“You were the one who left us. Nobody made you move to Chicago. Nobody forced you to walk away from us or pick up and leave town. You pulled away. You chose to disappear. You left us. You-” Regina took in a ragged breath, “/you/ left /us/.”
They stood in silence for a long while. Emma watched as Regina looked towards the windows, seemingly trying to pull herself back together. She had no idea how to respond to Regina’s words. She knew Regina might be mad, but she had no idea she would be this angry. And hurt? Was that pain she saw in Regina’s eyes?
“You’ve told Henry, I suppose?” Regina asked, her voice almost back to the self-assured tone she usually spoke in.
“Yeah.”
“Then there’s nothing to discuss.” She turned towards the doors and started to leave.
“Regina, wait.” When Regina’s eyes were on her again, Emma hesitated. She didn’t actually have anything to say, but she couldn’t let Regina to leave like that.
When the silence stretched on for too long, Regina asked, “Well?”
Emma took a step closer and said, “I’m sorry... After the break up, I thought you didn’t really want me around anymore.”
Regina looked at her incredulously. “You’re blaming me for your disappearing?”
“No! No, not at all. I’m just-” she took in a breath to try to keep herself from saying the wrong thing, “I thought that leaving would be best for Henry. I thought that the fighting was worse for him than not having me around. I thought that if I left it would be better for him... and for you, too.”
Regina shook her head. “He’s needed you here for the last four years. You leaving was never in his best interests.”
“I know. I know that now. I just, after everything ended, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was hurting, and I messed up. I know I messed up, and now I’m trying to fix it. That’s all I’m trying to do.” She hoped that Regina believed her. More than anything right then, she needed Regina to believe her.
“Ok.”
“Ok?”
“Yes, ok. What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
Regina stared at her for a moment, then said, “then ok. I’ll go get Henry so you two can get back to your game.”
She watched Regina’s back as she disappeared up the stairs. The brunette’s reaction wasn’t what Emma had been expecting. She had thought there would be arguing, or yelling, or almost anything other than what it had been. But Regina had been vulnerable, had actually let herself be exposed, something that Emma knew she wasn’t used to doing with anyone.
Even when they were at their closest, Regina had almost always managed to keep herself together, even when Emma knew she wanted to fall apart. There were times when it drove Emma crazy, but the strength that Regina had within her surpassed anyone Emma had ever known. Regina was a fighter, and knowing where Regina had come from, the fact that she had any fight left in her at all spoke volumes about her character.
When she heard the sound of Henry’s footsteps above her, followed by Regina telling him not to run on the stairs, she couldn’t help but smile. Even though things were strained between them now, there was reason to hope that that could change. If Regina was willing to let her in, even just a little bit, she knew that she could fix their relationship. It wouldn’t be easy, but Regina was worth it. Regina had always been worth it.
Pairing: Emma/Regina
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,478
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.
Emma jogged up the sidewalk and knocked rapidly on the front door. Five seconds later it flew open. Regina appeared in the doorway, hair in disarray, makeup conspicuously absent from her face.
“You’re sure he’s not in the house?” Emma asked.
“I checked everywhere. He wasn’t in his bed when I got up, and I don’t know where else he could be. He’s never done this before.” Regina ran her fingers through her hair. Even though Emma knew she was trying to hold herself together, her eyes betrayed just how terrified she was.
“You don’t have any idea where he could have gone?”
Annoyance flashed in Regina’s eyes. “No. I don’t know where in the hell he would go at eight in the morning on a Saturday. He doesn’t like to get up before noon if he doesn’t have to, seems he inherited your sleeping tendencies.”
She ignored the look that Regina was giving her, trying instead to think of anywhere Henry could have run off to. He wasn’t at the B&B with her... he wouldn’t be at school on a Saturday... where else could- “his castle. Do you think there’s a chance he could be there?”
“What castle?” Regina studied her with a blank expression.
“You know, his castle at the harbor? Where he goes when he needs to think.”
Regina shook her head slightly, brows creased in confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Regina didn’t know. She frowned, wondering why Henry would hide it from her. Slowly, she explained, “he told me he has some kind of a castle down by the harbor, but he didn’t really go into details, just that he likes the quiet there. Do you think there a chance that’s where he could be?”
“I guess. I don’t know where else he would go.”
“Alright. I’ll go check it out, see if he’s there. You should stay here in case he comes home.”
“No, I’m going with you,” Regina pulled the front door shut behind her.
Emma opened her mouth to argue, but the look in Regina’s eyes told her to drop it. They headed out to Emma’s car and started for the harbor. The ride was silent, each woman searching the streets they flew down for any sign of their son.
“There.” Regina said, pointing towards the water. “The playground. That must be where his castle is.”
Emma pulled into the parking lot across the street from the playground. Her eyes landed on a wooden structure a few hundred feet away, the small figure of their son perched on a platform. Letting out a deep breath in relief, she put the car in park.
“Thank God,” Regina whispered and started to open her door. Emma reached out and grabbed Regina’s arm, stopping the other woman’s movement. “What?” Regina practically growled at her.
Emma ignored her tone and explained, “I’m leaving today. It can’t be a coincidence that today is the day he decides to disappear. Let me talk to him alone... please?”
Regina studied her, thinking over her words for a long minute. “Fine.”
“Thank you,” Emma said, giving Regina’s arm a squeeze. Regina nodded and looked back to where their son was. With a deep breath, Emma exited the car and headed across the playground. She knew this conversation was going to be hard, but she was Henry’s mom. She had to do this for her son.
As she approached, she expected him to give her at least a glance, but his attention stayed focused on the ground at his feet. Wordlessly, Emma sat down beside him. She studied him for a long moment, unsure of where to start. She had known he wouldn’t be happy with her leaving again, but she had never expected he would be so upset as to disappear on Regina like he had that morning.
Glancing back towards the car, she watched as Regina climbed out of it. She leaned against the frame of the yellow bug, crossing her arms over her chest, gaze directed at Emma and Henry. Emma knew that Regina had given her an opportunity to step up and be the parent Henry needed her to be. She couldn’t blow this, not like last night. Turning towards her son, she said softly, “you scared your mom and me pretty badly just now... We didn’t know where you were or if something bad had happened to you.”
“Sorry.” Henry mumbled, his eyes still cast towards the sand of the playground.
She studied the look on his face, leaning closer to try to get him to make eye contact. “You wanna tell me why you ran off this morning?”
“I don’t want you to go.”
She felt the pang of guilt in her stomach. “I know you don’t.”
After a long pause, his head popped up, eyes staring into hers. “So why can’t you stay?”
“Henry, we’ve talked about this.” She was quickly growing nauseous at the thought of leaving, of letting her son down once again. The last thing she ever wanted was to be a disappointment, especially to him.
“Not really. You just said that you couldn’t. You never said why.”
“I just can’t.” The look in his eyes told her how let down he was. “I’m sorry.” His attention turned towards the ground once more. When the silence surrounded them, she decided not to push him into talking. She settled for watching him and leaned against the wooden beam beside her.
When she really thought about it, she didn’t know why she was going back to Chicago. Sure, her life was there now, but the only thing she really had was work and that left a lot to be desired. After the divorce, she had thought that moving to Chicago was the best thing that she could do for her son, but being back in his life suddenly, she wondered if maybe that wasn’t the case anymore.
That fight last night had been brutal, and knowing Henry had heard the whole thing made her want to get on the interstate and speed out of town again. But with the way that he was sitting beside her now, practically despondent, she knew that leaving wouldn’t make it easier for him this time. Leaving would only hurt him worse than she already had. With that thought, she knew what she had to do.
“Maybe I should try staying here for a while,” she said slowly, testing the idea out in her head.
Henry looked up to her in surprise, a big grin on his face. “Really?”
“Yeah.” She hoped she wasn’t going to regret this. “I don’t know how easy it will be for me to get a job here, but maybe I can figure something out. It’s worth trying, right?” And if it meant she got to see that smile on his face every day, it was definitely worth it.
“Yeah.” He said, his grin growing even bigger. “You really mean it? You’re gonna stay?”
“For a while, at least. And if I can find a job, then I’ll have no reason to leave. Is it okay if I stay?” She asked, already knowing what his response would be.
“Of course!” He said louder than she had anticipated. Before she knew what was going on, his arms were flung around her and he was hugging her. She felt tears stinging her eyes. Staying was the right decision. She knew that Henry needed her there, and that she needed to be there for herself. Henry pulled out of her grip and looked back up to her.
Cupping his cheek with her hand, she said, “I love you, kid. And I don’t want to miss out on any more time with you.”
“I love you, too, mama.”
She kissed him on the forehead then pulled him in for another hug. Her eyes landed on Regina still standing by the car, watching them carefully. There was still the issue of the tension between her and Regina, something that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. She knew she would have to do better than she had last night. She would have to learn how to be more responsible, how to say the right things, something she had never been very good at. But Henry needed them not to fight, and silently, she promised him that things would be better, for all three of them.
-
“No! No! No, no, no, no, no!” Emma yelled at the television screen as Henry’s character managed to kill hers in a sword fight. She dropped her controller and looked at her son sitting beside her. “You beat me again. What is that, the twenty-fifth time?” He looked up to her with a cheeky grin.
“You wanna go again?” He asked.
“I don’t know that that’s such a good idea,” Regina said from behind them, alerting them to her presence in the room. Both Emma and Henry looked back at her. “If you’re wanting to get on the road by noon, you should probably start to head out of here,” Regina directed at Emma pointedly.
“But I thought you weren’t leaving?” Henry asked, looking from Regina to Emma, a slight panic in his voice.
Emma glanced at her ex. The brunette’s eyes were filled with questions, her eyebrows raised towards her hairline. Emma looked back down to their son and said, “Henry, why don’t you give your mom and I some time to talk alone?” He looked back and forth between his mothers, clearly wondering what was going on. “It’s okay. We just need to talk for a little bit. I promise I’ll come get you when we’re done, ok?” She smiled at him which seemed to reassure him.
“Okay.” He said then headed out of the room and up the stairs.
Emma turned off the video game and pushed herself off the ground, stretching her aching muscles. She was getting too old for sitting on the floor. She looked up to Regina and noticed the impatient look on her ex’s face. This was not going to be fun.
“I’m not leaving today.” She said and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans.
Regina shook her head. “Why not?”
“I- uh,” she took in a deep breath, “I think I’m gonna be hanging around for a little while.”
“What does that mean?” Regina crossed her arms over her chest, as though she were challenging Emma to tell her the truth. Emma’s eyes flitted around the room nervously as she tried to find the right words to say. “You’re moving back.” Regina said, suddenly realizing what was going on.
“Yeah, I am,” Emma said softly, feeling the nerves in her stomach. “I’ve missed out on too much of Henry’s life and I want to fix that... Nothing has been right since I moved to Chicago. I’ve been so lonely there. I don’t really have anyone there, any friends or anything. And coming back, it’s just made me realize how wrong things have been these past few years. I’m sick of being away from Henry. Too much has happened since I left.”
“/You/ left /us/.” Regina snapped, the anger burning in her eyes.
“What?” She was stunned at Regina’s change in tone.
“You were the one who left us. Nobody made you move to Chicago. Nobody forced you to walk away from us or pick up and leave town. You pulled away. You chose to disappear. You left us. You-” Regina took in a ragged breath, “/you/ left /us/.”
They stood in silence for a long while. Emma watched as Regina looked towards the windows, seemingly trying to pull herself back together. She had no idea how to respond to Regina’s words. She knew Regina might be mad, but she had no idea she would be this angry. And hurt? Was that pain she saw in Regina’s eyes?
“You’ve told Henry, I suppose?” Regina asked, her voice almost back to the self-assured tone she usually spoke in.
“Yeah.”
“Then there’s nothing to discuss.” She turned towards the doors and started to leave.
“Regina, wait.” When Regina’s eyes were on her again, Emma hesitated. She didn’t actually have anything to say, but she couldn’t let Regina to leave like that.
When the silence stretched on for too long, Regina asked, “Well?”
Emma took a step closer and said, “I’m sorry... After the break up, I thought you didn’t really want me around anymore.”
Regina looked at her incredulously. “You’re blaming me for your disappearing?”
“No! No, not at all. I’m just-” she took in a breath to try to keep herself from saying the wrong thing, “I thought that leaving would be best for Henry. I thought that the fighting was worse for him than not having me around. I thought that if I left it would be better for him... and for you, too.”
Regina shook her head. “He’s needed you here for the last four years. You leaving was never in his best interests.”
“I know. I know that now. I just, after everything ended, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was hurting, and I messed up. I know I messed up, and now I’m trying to fix it. That’s all I’m trying to do.” She hoped that Regina believed her. More than anything right then, she needed Regina to believe her.
“Ok.”
“Ok?”
“Yes, ok. What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
Regina stared at her for a moment, then said, “then ok. I’ll go get Henry so you two can get back to your game.”
She watched Regina’s back as she disappeared up the stairs. The brunette’s reaction wasn’t what Emma had been expecting. She had thought there would be arguing, or yelling, or almost anything other than what it had been. But Regina had been vulnerable, had actually let herself be exposed, something that Emma knew she wasn’t used to doing with anyone.
Even when they were at their closest, Regina had almost always managed to keep herself together, even when Emma knew she wanted to fall apart. There were times when it drove Emma crazy, but the strength that Regina had within her surpassed anyone Emma had ever known. Regina was a fighter, and knowing where Regina had come from, the fact that she had any fight left in her at all spoke volumes about her character.
When she heard the sound of Henry’s footsteps above her, followed by Regina telling him not to run on the stairs, she couldn’t help but smile. Even though things were strained between them now, there was reason to hope that that could change. If Regina was willing to let her in, even just a little bit, she knew that she could fix their relationship. It wouldn’t be easy, but Regina was worth it. Regina had always been worth it.