Reset

“When I took Grace on.. I wasn’t completely insensitive to Henry’s feelings. I’d assumed I would hardly see him, if ever,” Regina explained carefully, “but clearly things have changed, I was wrong about Henry’s feelings towards me and I’ve caused him pain and I’m truly very sorry for that.”

Emma nodded dully, she didn’t know why Regina was bothering to explain it to her in such a considerate way. She wished she’d just be kind and do it quickly, like pulling at a sticky plaster.

“The truth of the matter is that he has obviously become closer to Grace, especially over the last ten days, and is taking on a bit of a big brother role to her,” Regina smiled as she recalled the way Henry had carried the girl around the room when she became fidgety just a short while ago.

“I’d like to encourage that, I think it’s good for him to have that experience in his life and it will clearly be impossible to separate them, especially if Grace is to stay with you for the next few days,” Regina pointed out.

Emma couldn’t fathom where this was going so looked up at Regina with a blank expression and Regina sighed as she realised she had been edging around the subject a little too much, “what I’m saying,” Regina pushed forward, “is that I think it would be good for Henry to spend some time with Grace in the future. If you would be happy with such an arrangement?”

“Er, I..” Emma wasn’t really sure what she was being asked.

“Obviously it will take some creative diary management,” Regina continued, “you have Henry and your work and I have Grace and we both have the council meetings but I think we could make it work. Just so that he has a presence in his life, so he doesn’t think of her as a stranger, or grow to resent her?”

“You’re not taking him away from me?” Emma exhaled the sentence quickly.

Regina blinked in mystification, “no, of course not.”

“Oh,” Emma frowned and then shook her head, “erm, yeah, I think it’s a great idea, Henry should get to see his sister. Well, his ex-sister.. your daughter.. whatever.”

Regina gave Emma a strange look and then nodded, “yes, the family tree is becoming family trailing ivy crawling all over everything.”

“Henry still calls you Mom,” Emma pointed out.

“I know,” Regina said gently, “do you want me to stop him?”

“No,” Emma quickly shook her head, “you’re his Mom.. to him. I think it’s right that he calls you that, I also think it’s right that you think of him as your son.”

Emma saw an unidentifiable emotion flash in Regina’s eyes and she opened her mouth to speak before closing it again and considering her words and then saying, “he is your son now, Emma.”

“Legally,” Emma bit out, “you did the hard work. You made him who he is. And he thinks of you as his Mom.”

Regina chuckled and Emma stared at her incredulously, “something funny?”

Regina looked at her with a lopsided grin, “it just occurred to me, ridiculous really that it’s occurred to me so late on, but Henry must think of us both as his mother, just in different ways. We’re like,” she waved her hand distractedly, “divorced parents or something.”

Emma thought about it for a moment and nodded with a smile, “yeah, I suppose he does.”

“Obviously I’m the boring disciplinarian and you’re the fun one,” Regina laughed.

“You can cook and I beat him at Call of Duty,” Emma responded with a grin.

“We make a good team,” Regina covered her mouth as she yawned.

“How do you feel?” Emma asked.

“Drained,” Regina replied honestly, “like all of the energy has been sucked out of me. Well, I suppose that’s what happened,” she chuckled softly.

“But you’re okay?” Emma asked, “can I do anything?”

“Take Grace and Henry home,” Regina told her genuinely, “look after them, smother them with love until I get can out of here.”

“And then?” Emma asked hesitantly.

“Then we’ll figure out a way to balance our diaries, for Henry,” she added

Emma nodded and stood up, “I better let you rest,” she said as Regina shuffled down into the bed and adjusted her pillows.

Regina glanced down at the awful hospital gown she wore and sighed, “I don’t know what I was thinking when I conjured these hospital gowns for the curse..”

“That anyone who had to wear one would be incentivised to get well quickly?” Emma asked as she hobbled towards the door. She was rewarded with the rich sound of a throaty laugh coming from the brunette as she closed her eyes to rest.

Chapter 43