Reset

“Yes,” Regina admitted, “I’m not a monster. Of course I love him, he is..” she chuckled at the sad truth, “was, my son for ten years. But as I told your imbecile of a father, I’m letting Henry go to give him his best chance. He doesn’t love me, he’ll never see beyond what I did to him. I’m only doing exactly what your darling parents did to you, except I’m not send a baby away in a tree trunk. Henry has made his own choice.”

“He’s ten.. eleven,” Emma corrected, “this is a lot for him to understand. He’s a child, he may act all mature but underneath everything he is a young child, you can’t expect him to understand the complicated emotions that he is feeling!”

“As long as he has you and your idiot parents he will want nothing to do with me,” Regina concluded.

“He misses you,” Emma admitted.

“He’ll get over it,” Regina spoke softly as she looked at the now sleeping baby in her arms, “it’s for the best, surely you must see that?”

“The best?!” Emma spluttered, “how does Henry being abandoned equate to the best?”

“I think you’re projecting your own feelings there, Saviour..” Regina whispered as she continued to walk and gently rock Grace in her arms.

“Now hold on!” Emma took a few steps forward but suddenly the soft carpet of the newly constructed nursery turned into the concrete sidewalk outside Regina’s house. Emma quickly turned around and looked up at the window to see Regina looking down at her for a moment before moving away from the window.

Emma stood and stared up at the window for a few moments before dumbly turning around and getting into the Bug.

Chapter 8

Emma sat on the top step of the communal stairs outside the apartment she shared with her parents. She wore the white tank top and grey shorts she slept in but it was cold in the corridor and she shivered, not that she noticed as she stared straight ahead with eyes glazed over from tears.

She heard the sound of the apartment door open but she didn’t look up. A soft sigh followed by some quiet footsteps that seemed to become more distant before they approached and suddenly a light quilt was wrapped around her shoulders and Mary Margaret sat beside her.

“Its three o’clock in the morning, have you been sat out here all night?” Mary Margaret asked.

Emma solemnly nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it now?” Mary Margaret pleaded. When Emma had returned to the party she was distant and seemed to be on the verge of tears. She’d done her best to be in a good mood for Henry’s sake but it was clear that something had happened to the blonde during the half an hour she had been absent from the party.

“Regina,” Emma whispered softly.

“Because she didn’t turn up to Henry’s birthday?” Mary Margaret asked quietly.

Emma shook her head slowly, “she’s adopted a baby.”

Mary Margaret looked surprised as her eyebrows shot up and she considered what that meant, “a baby?”

Emma nodded, “little girl, Grace..”

Mary Margaret nodded, “so.. she’s getting on with her life..”

The brunette turned to look at her own daughter who was again staring into the distance like the world had ended for her.

“Emma,” she whispered softly, “what am I missing?”

Emma remained quiet for a while before swallowing down some tears and replying, “it’s.. just bringing back a lot of unwanted memories..”

“From your own childhood?” Mary Margaret guessed.

Emma nodded sombrely. They had never discussed Emma’s childhood in any detail, Mary Margaret knew that Emma didn’t have a good time in the foster system but neither wanted to bring up the subject for fear it would create unnecessary distress.

“Talk to me,” Mary Margaret appealed, “don’t carry this alone.”

Emma opened and closed her mouth a few times as she considered what to say before finally speaking, “I.. I had a really great life in this one foster home. I felt loved, safe, happy. I had everything. B-but then, they managed to get pregnant and they didn’t have room for me.”

Mary Margaret nodded sadly and brought her arm around Emma’s shoulder in a supportive hold.

“I went back into the foster system and it.. changed me. I found it hard to trust anyone, love anyone. I guess I always thought I was going to be replaced. Like I would never be enough.”

Mary Margaret’s lip wobbled as she tried to hold back her emotions to let the blonde speak and get it out.

“After that it was a stream of.. bad homes,” Emma said vaguely, “I always thought back to that first home and what I might have done wrong, what I should have done differently to get them to want me to stay.”

“Oh, Sweetie,” Mary Margaret allowed her tears to slide down her face, “there was nothing you could have done..”

“Logically I know that,” Emma looked at her sadly, “in my brain I know that. But in my heart.. I still have those doubts. It doesn’t go away.”

“And you don’t want that for Henry,” Mary Margaret surmised with a sad nod.