two
“Uh, kid? Where are your parents?” Emma asked the young boy, looking down the long, but empty corridor before back down at the small child. Scoffing when he pushed his way past her, the kid, Henry, shrugged.
“I don’t have “parents”. Not anymore. I mean, I had a mom, but.. she had cancer. A-and she had to go away. So now I’m looking for Regina Mills. You aren’t Regina Mills, are you?” the kid looked up at the blonde woman, studying her features closer. “Blonde hair, blue-y eyes, tall, yeah. You’re not Regina.” Henry eyed her suspiciously, before asking his final question. “Do you have any juice? I’m hungry.”
After gawking at the young boy, Emma eventually set him up with a glass of carrot juice (it was definitely Regina’s, the only juice Emma had contained 4.5% alcohol.) and a granola bar. The blonde sat across from him at the island, where Henry sat on the other side.
“So,” Emma said after a while of nibbling at her own granola bar, “why are you looking for Regina Mills? If your mom died, shouldn’t you be in foster care?”
“Regina is my mom. My other mom,” the small boy said after a long sip of juice and wiping his mouth with his sweater sleeve, “I didn’t like foster care. So I took all of my money, the letter, my photos, and got on a bus here. I’m not dumb, you know.”
Emma choked and spit out her coffee, “Reg.. Regina Mills is your mother? I think I’m going to need some juice.” After a moment, Emma spoke again. “Damn, Kid, you can’t just.. Run away from foster care. Especially at your age. They’ll foll- wait. How old are you?”
“I’m ten, why?”
“Ten.. that means..” Emma mentally did the mental math. She was always good at that. No. There's no way. Even at that age, If Regina had a kid, she would have told Emma. She would have done the right thing, and helped whoever the mother was. “Regina was 21. In college.” Emma thought back, she didn’t think Regina had had any girlfriends that year. “Look kid, Regina isn’t here. We need to take you back to.. Where did you come from?”
“Boston,” Henry shrugged, “you can’t take me back there.. They’re horrible. They.. they made me call them mom and dad. They aren’t my parents! They..” the young boy, clearly frightened, started to tear up. And at that moment, Emma knew she was screwed.
“Okay, okay..” Emma frowned and walked around the island, pulling the small boy into her chest as he started to sob. Emma had decided at this point in time, she wouldn’t let the kid go back. She wouldn’t let him go through what she had gone through, no matter the cost. But that meant she had to call Regina, and inform her that she has a ten year oldkid that she (most likely, Emma thought) didn’t know about. After the boy calmed down, he fell asleep cuddled into Emma’s chest. The blonde carefully picked him up and brought him over to the living room, and set him down on the sofa. She placed a blanket over his body before getting her phone and heading to her bedroom, to A, get dressed, and B, call Regina.
After getting dressed, Emma dialed Regina’s number. By then, Emma thought, her plane should have just about landed.
“Hey Gina, it’s Emma. I don’t really know how to tell you this.. But a kid showed up at the door a little more than an hour ago, claiming to be yours.
“I’m sorry, what? Emma Swan, are you drunk at.. What is the time there ??”
Emma chuckled dryly “no, I’m not drunk. It’s like one pm, ish. I’m serious. A ten year old kid, named Henry, showed up with a letter and a couple pictures. He’s from Boston, I guess. The letter is addressed to you. There's a picture of a pregnant woman.. A picture of the same woman, I assume after giving birth since the background looks like a hospital, and a picture of a small child.”
“You better not be screwing with me, Emma Swan. Who is this woman? His name is Henry??”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen her before. I don’t recognize her, maybe an ex? The kid said he was ten, so you would have been 21? Who did you date at 21?”
“I don’t know, Swan! I-I have a kid?”
“I guess so, Gina. Oh right. The letter says…” Emma rolled her eyes, “ blah blah blah, this is your son, born blah blah blah, named after your father, blah blah blah, ah, here we go. I can no longer take care of him, please don’t try to contact me, or find me, please take care of him, Lily. Who is Lily?”
“I don’t know a Lily! I-I never dated a Lily, Emma!”
“Okay, well I guess this woman is claiming you guys.. You know, did that, and it resulted in this child. I told him that if he was in foster care that he needed to go back, but he got so scared and started to cry. You know what I went through.. After seeing how scared he was at the thought of going back.. I just can’t send him back, alright?”
“Okay, okay..” Emma could tell that Regina was pinching the top of her nose from across the world, “I could fly back, probably be there by night depending on flights, I'm not sure what I’ll tell the others, but-”
“No, no. Being there is your dream, I know. I’ll take care of it. I'll call the agency and work something out, alright?”
“Okay.. Emma?”
“Yeah?”
“T-thank you. For everything.”
Emma smiled sadly “everything, and anything for you.”
~
When Emma finally emerged from her room, the kid, Henry, had been sitting on the couch where she had previously set him down, looking down at his hands in his lap. Once again, a sad smile spread across her face. “So.. what do kids do, hm? Do you go to the park? Play video games? Wait.. you don’t wear a diaper, do you?” a sudden ounce fear stuck across her face, the thought of cleaning a diaper.
Henry giggled quietly and shook his head “ I wear underwear.”
“Do you wipe your own ass?” Emma asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, I wipe my own ass,” another small giggle.
“Okay, uh.. Do you like ice cream?” Now that question put a smile on Henry's face, as he nodded his head up and down multiple times. “Okay. let's head to the park!”
After a fifteen minute walk, Emma and Henry walked into the park, hand in hand (Henry insisted he couldn’t cross the road without), and the two headed straight for the ice cream truck. After many minutes of Henry deciding what flavour he wanted, he spoke up, “c-can I get two? One.. mint chip and one rocky road?”
Emma chuckled, of course the kid couldn’t choose, he was a kid. “How about one scoop of each?” that proposition earned her a nod and a smile. “Okay kid, cone or bowl?”
Not too long later the two of them ended up down by the water, ice cream cones in hand, watching as birds and ducks attempted to either take food from humans, or run away when said humans tried to chase them. They even had a laughing fit when a rollerblader tumbled down the hill and into the pond, causing a big splash that managed to reach Emma’s shoes.
It wasn’t until a couple hours later that Henry had fallen asleep on Emma’s lap, that they headed home. Emma ended up carrying him over her shoulder, the young boy not weighing very much, thankfully and he cuddled into her as if he were two. On their way home, they were even stopped by a woman who told Emma that her son was very cute. All Emma could do was smile and nod, before she walked away. When they got back to the apartment, Emma had set him down in Regina’s bed, so she could make some dinner without disturbing the sleeping child. She had ended up making spaghetti, because what kid doesn’t like spaghetti? However, just as she was dishing it up she heard a soft cry coming from the roommates room.
“Hey? Hey buddy.. What's wrong?” Emma asked immediately, and kneeled down on the ground beside the bed and the crying ten year old. Said ten year old made no such effort to respond, other than throw himself into Emma’s chest and cry harder.
“I-I m-m-miss my m-mommy!” he wailed after Emma started to rub his back in soothing but small circles.
“Fuck,” she mumbled underneath her breath, “Oh honey.. I know. I know you do. But your mommy is in a better place now, okay? And she wouldn’t want you to be sad.” Emma truly didn’t know what to say to the boy. Often as a young child she “missed” her parents, but truthfully she didn’t know who to miss. Nevermind the fact that no one had ever comforted her about missing her parents, either.
“Sing a song?” the broken voice whispered after a moment, snot now all over Emma’s top
“I-I don’t know buddy. I can’t sing very well..”
“Sing?” the voice said again, this time with teary eyes threatening to spill if she didn’t.
“Alright..
I-I’d heard there was a secret chord..
That david played and it pleased the lord,
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes this this
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah
hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah”
Emma cleared her throat, tears trickling in her eyes now, just as they did every time she sang. Henry looked up at the blonde and smiled. “Thanks.. Did you make food? I’m hungry!”
The sudden change in emotion shocked Emma, and she let out a small chuckle. “Yes, i made spaghetti. Do you like spaghetti?” A quick nod from the boy gave Emma all the information she needed. They both stood up from their place on the bedroom floor, and hand in hand they walked to the dining room, where both bowls of lukewarm spaghetti stayed. Halfway through eating, Henry giggled.
“You’re right, Emma. you can't sing very well. But I liked it anyway!”