Reset

She shifted Grace’s weight again and looked at the card in confusion before placing it on the small telephone table in the hall where it looked completely out of place with the stark décor. She adjusted it a couple of times to try it at different angles before she was satisfied with it and shook her head with a slight smile, “simpletons.”

Chapter 11

Emma sat in the Bug and watched as Henry happily ran towards her, his hair was messy and there was mud splattered on his face and she smiled, he always seemed to spend more time playing in the mud than riding a horse.

He got into the car and smiled, “hey Emma, are you feeling better?”

Emma hesitated for a moment but then understood that her parents had probably told Henry that she was unwell and that’s why she was asleep on the sofa.

“Yeah, I’m,” she paused, she didn’t want to lie to him and she knew she had to get the awkward conversation out of the way, “look.. Henry, last night I went to see Regina.”

Henry stiffened. Although he hadn’t directly said anything, he was obviously feeling a little upset that she didn’t come to his birthday party.

“There’s no easy way to say this,” Emma stalled a little longer before closing her eyes and saying, “she’s adopted another kid.”

Henry quickly turned to look at her but instead of anger or sadness like Emma had expected there was simply confusion.

“She’s adopted again?” Henry frowned.

“Yes, a baby girl,” Emma finished.

Henry’s brow knitted in utter confusion and he looked out of the window of the Bug as if to give himself some time and space to analyse this new information.

“She has a new baby?” Henry turned to Emma again, “like, forever? She’s not just.. looking after it for a weekend?”

Emma shook her head, “no, she’s permanently adopted a baby girl, she’s five months old and Regina intends to keep her forever. To be her Mom.”

Henry nodded and then asked, “so, I have a sister?”

Emma felt her heart break as she looked at Henry with a pained expression, “no, I’m sorry Henry.. she isn’t your sister.”

Henry’s eyes darted around the car and Emma felt sorry for him as he attempted to process the facts. At eleven years old she was asking him to deal with and understand very complicated emotional as well as legal situations and it just wasn’t fair. She wasn’t at all surprised to see Henry’s frown while his warring emotions struggled with how he felt about what was happening.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Emma asked softly.

“Was I a bad son?” Henry asked plainly.

Emma felt the tears fall from her eyes and pulled him into an awkward embrace in the cramped space of the car, “no! Absolutely not! We.. we’re all just very bad adults,” she whispered into his hair.

“There is so much history and then so much hatred and such a lack of communication that this.. all went wrong, and I am so sorry, Henry. I completely failed you, I was so busy trying to sort out the town I didn’t think for a second to try to help you and Regina to build fences,” Emma mumbled.

“But I didn’t want to build fences,” Henry admitted sadly, “she was evil, not when she was the Evil Queen, she was evil after, too. She murdered Sheriff Graham and she framed Mary Margaret for murder! She tried to poison you..”

“Henry,” Emma held him tighter to stop him from listing Regina’s crimes. She was having enough trouble ignoring them herself without him constantly bringing them up.

“I.. I know that Regina did a lot of bad things but..” she paused, “I think we have to understand that she is from another world and things were different there, you know?”

Henry pulled back a little and nodded his understanding.

“In the old world Mary Margaret, Leroy, David.. they all killed people. Mary Margaret was a bandit,” Emma chuckled at the mental image, “they have different social rules to you and I, that doesn’t make them right. Taking a life is always, always wrong.”

Emma paused and waited for Henry to nod his understanding before she continued on, “but it does mean that they think differently to you and me. They act differently. Regina did terrible things, we both know that but we have to remember that she did those things for a reason.”

“Because Snow White broke her heart?” Henry queried.

“Yes, and.. other reasons too,” Emma added but decided to not elaborate on the abusive relationship she had heard Regina had with her mother. And, although no one had said anything about Regina’s time as King Leopold’s wife, Emma had an inkling that the marriage was not a happy one.

“So, she did those things because she was hurting?” Henry said quietly.

“Yes,” Emma nodded slowly, “people can be hurtful for many reasons but I’ve always found that people are mainly hurtful for one of two reasons, they are either sad or they are frightened. I think Regina was both.”

“I still don’t understand how I can love her and hate her at the same time,” Henry complained and wipe at his tears.

“I know,” Emma admitted, “I feel the same way.”

Henry frowned, “you love her?”