The Life We Left Behind

Too far away

[A/N: A few notes on this chapter...

1) It's 3 am and I can't sleep, so I wrote this in one go, I hope it's readable enough 😁

2) The first part is a bit random, but it came to me in a half sleep state (as I've just discussed recently with Seana_memories) and I thought it was cute, so I decided to put it in...

3) I've actually decided that this will be the last chapter of this story. It's not over (far from it!), but by now it has progressed quite a bit and for what comes next, I think it's better to start over with a new story, new description, new tags, maybe even new readers.

Think of it as the second season: same story overall, same characters, but new storyline. I will keep you posted on where to find the new story once I published the first chapter.

Thank you all for sticking with me until this point, I'm incredibly thankful for everyone's support! 🙏]

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"But, I don't understand what you're doing?"

"You can download an app, on your TV, so you can, like, watch stuff."

"What do you mean, 'stuff'? Like what?", Regina stood in her living room, desperately trying to follow her son who was typing and tapping around on his phone.

"It's really, really cool! It's called 'Disney+' and it has like all your movies and other things. You can watch the animated movie about you and 'Snow White', for example! Have you ever seen it?"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Why would I have seen it?"

"I don't know... aren't you curious?"

"I don't know", she shrugged, "Maybe..."

"Anyway, we recently subscribed to Disney+ and we have multiple accounts included, so we can share and you can create your own account to watch things. Now, don't look at me like that! You've been working way too hard recently, and then you've been so obsessed with trying to get pregnant... you need to relax a little from time to time too!"
"I do relax!"

"Really? Like... I actually think I have never ever seen you watch TV. Like... ever. Do you even know how to use a TV?"

She swallowed. "I... well, of course I do!"

"Really? Then do it!"

"What, like... right now?", she raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! Go Ahead!"

She cleared her throat, then raised a hand, but Henry stopped her right away. "Uh-uh! No magic! Like a normal person."

Her facial expression told him that she had no interest in lowering herself down to such a peasant level. "I don't see why this is relevant!"

Slowly but surely, a broad grin appeared on the young man's face. "You don't know how to turn on the TV, do you?"

"There are more important skills to master in life..."

"I don't believe it! How long have you been living in this world?"

"Well, I would like to let you know that before you stumbled into the Heights, there was a brief period where Roni's was a sports bar with multiple TVs", and mumbling she added, "It's possible though that it was mainly Zelena or Killian who operated those..."

Henry chuckled and gave his old mom a kiss on the cheek, then reached for the remote control and explained her the different buttons, finally switching on the the TV in the living room for what felt like the very first time in forever.