Reset

After what seemed like hours but probably had only been twenty minutes Emma sat up in bed and pushed the sheets off of her shoulders quickly. The suffocating feeling was becoming real and she couldn't stand the feeling of the thin material around her any longer. She looked at the camp bed beside her own, Henry's bed and she swallowed thickly. She knew she had to be a better mother for him, she couldn't let her own demons prevent him from having the best upbringing she could offer him.

She stood up and walked over to the large mirror above her dresser and looked at her red, blotchy face and her streaking make up and plucked a tissue from the box on the dresser and started wiping at her face. Experience had told her that it was impossible to get over the deep-rooted fear of being forsaken but masking those feelings was a whole different matter, that was something Emma had experience of, something Emma could do and do well.

With a deep breath she stared herself in the eye and knew that she had to push these feelings down and get on with the two jobs she had been assigned in this town. Being Sheriff. And being a mother.

Chapter 16

Mary Margaret walked into the diner and quickly located Henry in the furthest booth from the entrance, he was nursing a mug of hot chocolate and flipping through his storybook. She took a deep breath and walked over to him and as she approached he looked up excitedly and asked, “is she okay now?”

She sat in the booth and sadly shook her head, “I’m afraid not, Henry.. she’s going to need some time, some space.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda going around,” Henry said sadly and seemingly focused his attention back on the book in front of him.

Mary Margaret looked at him sadly and gently told him, “this is very hard for Emma as well..”

“She doesn’t want me,” Henry muttered, “it’s okay, I figured it out.”

“Oh, Henry!” Mary Margaret trembled and quickly got up and moved around the booth to sit next to him and pull him into a tight embrace, “that is not true, she loves you so much, she wants you to be with her. She’s just.. she’s worried about you and that you’ll feel abandoned and lonely and that’s making her feel that way too.”

“But I don’t feel like that, well, I didn’t,” Henry confessed.

“Yes, but, she thinks you will..” Mary Margaret tried to explain without condemning Henry to the intimate knowledge of Emma’s childhood.

“Why don’t adults just talk?” Henry demanded as he sat back from Mary Margaret’s embrace and looked at her with confused eyes, “so much would be better if adults were just honest and spoke about things rather than lying and hiding stuff.”

“That’s very true,” Mary Margaret nodded sadly, “but sometimes people lie to protect themselves and sometimes they lie because they think they are protecting the people they care about. Even if it doesn’t always work out that way.”

Henry was about to reply but looked up as David entered the diner and smiled over at them, seemingly oblivious to the emotional moment they were having. He rushed over with a smile, “I just met Regina and Grace in the park.”

“You saw the baby?” Henry asked with interest.

“She let me hold her, I showed her the ducks and the pond, she’s very bright I’m pretty sure she was listening to what I said,” David nodded excitedly as he sat in the booth opposite.

Mary Margaret smiled at the light in David’s eyes and the excitement with which he spoke about the baby but she was still confused, “she let you hold her?”

David nodded, “yeah, practically made me hold her!”

“The card must have worked,” Mary Margaret said with a surprised look.

“Is she still in the park?” Henry asked excitedly and looked like he was ready to bolt any moment to join them.

“No, sorry, Henry,” David shook his head, “she’s gone home for a feed.”

David looked at Mary Margaret with excited eyes and reached across the table and captured her hand with a smile that spoke a thousand words. Mary Margaret blushed and grinned but also titled her head towards Henry in a warning gesture.

“Oh, and another thing!” David said excitedly and reached into his pocket and took out a key, “I was talking to Gold about the land we are building on and I happened to mention the overcrowding issue and everything and he told me that a new apartment has become available, right across the street. He has given me the key so we can have a look at it, but I was thinking that Emma and Henry would like it. You need some space don’t you, Henry?”

Henry nodded excitedly, “would I get my own room?”

“You sure would,” David smiled, “I just had a quick look and it’s really nice and you’ll literally be a twenty second walk away!”

“That’s great,” Henry smiled and looked up at Mary Margaret who looked concerned as she replied, “I don’t know, Emma’s in a bit of a fragile place right now..”

“But you said yourself that she needed space,” Henry frowned.