We Can Love Again

It All Ends Here

Her son arrived back home save and sound late in the morning. Henry hugged Neal goodbye and walked up the pathway to the white house, looking a thousand times better than he did that last time Regina had seen him. It was quite a relief to have him back; his mother already dreaded knowing the fact that he was angry with her again, considering the years the twelve year old had spent practically hating her existence.

"Did you have a good time?" Regina asked gently, hoping he was in a pleasant mood.

Thankfully, he gave her a small smile in return. "Yeah, I did. I'm sorry I broke Will's mirror."

Regina held his face tenderly between her hands, warming his rosy cheeks.

"That doesn't matter, I'm just glad you're back."

The boy glanced around the empty house, wondering where Roland and Will were.

"When do you think Will's gonna be back? I have to talk to him about... Stuff."

Unfortunately, word already got around about what 'stuff' was exactly. So she say him down on the couch and cringed inside as she hesitantly began the conversation.

"Honey, you should've told me about kids at school saying things about your brother."

Henry tensed when she said it. "It's awkward to talk about this with you, Mom."

"Why?" Regina asked, probably too quickly, "I'm your mother and we can talk about anything. I don't like this whole keeping secrets thing."

The only thing she could think about was how he was her little baby boy; she had raised him his entire life, why didn't he want to talk to her?

"I know... I just knew you wouldn't be happy about it." Henry finally said, "it was two guys in my grade, Stephen and Darren. They said Roland wasn't really my brother and then they started calling him names. I wanted to do something about it but..."

His words broke Regina's heart right in two. Her little prince was the sweetest, most precious boy in the entire world. She knew he could never hurt someone else intentionally.

"You know, it doesn't matter what people think about us; as long as we're happy, none of that matters." She spoke softly, remembering the time period when everybody was out to get her. It wasn't a good time for her.

"But because of it... Nobody wants to be friends with me." Henry mumbled, keeping his eyes glued to the ground.

"Oh don't say that," Regina said quickly, "you just have to find someone who accepts you for you; nothing less. And if they can't do that, then screw them."

Her son glanced up at her in slight surprise- she never used words like that.

"Yeah. I guess so..."

Glancing quickly at her watch, Regina seemed worried. "I know you just came home, but I have to get to my appointment in a few minutes- do you want to stay here and wait for Will, or come with me?"

That was an obvious answer. Henry got bored every time he went with her to go see Doctor Whale.

"I'll stay here I guess. When will Roland be back?"

Getting up off the couch, she grabbed her purse and her car keys.

"I'll have him stay over there until I get back, Emma said he was pretty tired last night. She sent me a picture of Roland sandwiched in between Snow and David in their bed. It was really cute."

Henry laughed. "You'll have to show me when you get back... Bye Mom."

"Bye Henry, don't do anything against the rules while I'm gone."