Reset

"Keeps me busy," Henry stated casually but Regina knew that there was more to it than that. She suspected that either Emma was keeping him at school longer or Henry was opting to stay at school longer. Either way it supported her theory that Emma was still struggling with whatever had been bothering her the previous week.

"I saw Emma on patrol last night," she attempted to sound casual, "is she still on nightshifts?"

"Yeah," Henry sighed lightly, "she's working a lot, she says it's because of all the changes, she says the curse kept things calm but now it's different."

"I see," Regina said, although she didn't as she hadn't noticed any crime beyond increase. She paused, "so, are you staying with Mary Margaret and David when she works nights?"

"Not all the time, sometimes Ruby comes over to watch me," Henry answered.

Regina swallowed, she wasn't sure why that bothered her. She suppose it was because she hadn't realised that Ruby and Emma were that close that the lanky brunette was a regular feature in their lives.

"Hopefully not during full moon," Regina muttered.

If Henry did hear her he ignored her as he looked through a couple of boxes and moved things from one box to another. Grace started to fidget in Regina's arms and Regina attempted to quieten her down but eventually looked at Henry, "I need to feed Grace, are you okay to lock up when you are done?"

Henry looked up with his eyes fixed on Grace until he finally whispered, "can I feed her?"

Henry had never shown much interest in Grace, he didn't seem to actively dislike the baby but he never made an effort to seek her out and had never asked to hold her. Regina didn't know if this was some latent jealousy towards the baby that he might perceive as her replacement for him or if he was afraid that Regina may not want him to be near the baby.

Regina knew it was a bad idea, she was attempting to keep Henry at arm's length, not completely remove him from her life but not allow him too close either. She didn't want to confuse the boy more than he already was but she didn't want to upset him either so she nodded, "sure.."

That afternoon Henry returned home with more of his things in his rucksack and carried his bike up the steps and into the apartment. When he opened the door he noticed that Emma was asleep on the sofa and he put his bag down and then locked his bike up in the landing. He wasn't sure why Emma was so strict about him locking up his bike when she was the Sheriff and no one would dare steal the bike of the Sheriff's kid but he did as she asked regardless.

As he quietly walked back into the apartment and closed the front door he realised there were eyes upon him and turned to see that Emma's bleary eyes were on him, "where were you?"

"At Mom's, picking up some stuff," he said quietly.

"I told you I could pick all your stuff up in one go in the car," she offered again as she sat up on the sofa.

"Yeah, I know, I like going over there.. I mean I get to ride my bike over there which is cool.." he replied as she got some juice out of the fridge and poured some into a glass, "do you want some?"

Emma screwed up her face and shook her head, "no thanks.."

"She let me feed Grace," he told her with an excited smile.

Emma faltered for a second before simply replying, "oh.. er, great."

"Yeah," Henry said, not picking up on her confused tone as he was too excited, "I had to hold her in a certain way and then she drank from the bottle, it was really cool. Then she burped, like, five times.. then she fell asleep."

"That's babies for you," Emma commented as she stood up.

"I need to head out soon, I'm trailing some kids who are tagging," she sighed as she stretched her arms out wide to each side and yawned.

"What's tagging?" Henry frowned.

"Spray painting," Emma replied, "vandalism.. there's a gang of kids who think it's funny to tag the town but I'm onto them and I'll catch them in the act soon."

"Didn't you just get home?" Henry asked as he drank his juice.

Emma glanced at her watch, "couple of hours ago, no rest for the wicked, eh, Kid?"

Henry shrugged and watched as Emma pulled on her shirt and her red leather jacket and picked up her keys. She gave him a quick kiss on the forehead before she left the apartment again.

Chapter 21

Emma paced around the Sheriff's office with her nearly cold mug of coffee and approached the large map on the wall and started to rearrange the sticky notes affixed to it. She had taken to marking down every single crime in Storybrooke in order to get to the bigger picture of what was going on. She was becoming frustrated that her deputies were not as vigilant as she was, letting what they referred to as minor offences go unpunished and unmentioned. She wasn't bothered about the punishment, she knew she could punish every minor infraction but she wanted to ensure that everything was monitored, to have an overall picture of everything that was happening in the town.