Illusions

Chapter Twelve

"Okay kid, who needs to share this true love's kiss?" Emma investigates, munching on a fry while Henry continues to ramble on and on about his curse.

Or his mother's curse.

She had asked if Henry wanted to go to Granny's with her this evening, maybe get him out of the house and do something non-fairytale related, but he insisted on bringing the damn book. Robin actually tagged along as well, she must have sensed Henry's desperation this evening and figured he could probably use some moral support. Especially since every person in the restaurant is gawking at Henry for finally communicating with someone.

"I think Snow White and Prince Charming," he mumbles mostly to himself, nibbling anxiously on his bottom lip.

"But you don't know who they are?"

"Ummm, not yet..." he trails off, fidgeting and squirming in his seat like he's strapped to some lie detector test.

"What about this?" Emma muses, shoving another fry into her mouth. "What if the Evil Queen is the one that needs to share true love's kiss? Maybe if she falls in love, maybe the curse will break on its own?"

Henry's dark eyes slowly crawl toward Emma, skeptical, disbelieving and more importantly shocked. "How could anyone love the Evil Queen? She's killed people. She's a villain," he very plainly defends, creating a deep sigh to escape Emma's lips.

"Not everything is so black and white," she attempts to reason.

"Henry," Robin abruptly jumps into the conversation and Emma hopes she will provide some kind of rebuttal. "Even though your mom is my aunt, I still love her," she so very delicately says. "I think she's a strong, brave and independent woman, working her butt off. And yeah, she's struggling right now between work and family, but that's okay. She's still there to provide for you and she's still doing her best to prove that she loves you, right? I mean, she literally tells you every day how much she loves you."

He keeps his head down, his eyes stuck on the illustrations before him and refusing to meet anyone's gaze and honestly, Emma's becoming rather irritated with all this curse junk.

"Hey, remember when your mom would take you horseback riding? Does that sound like something an evil person would do with their son?" Emma lightly teases, but Henry isn't buying into any of their nonsense.

"Grandpa taught me how to ride."

"Yeah, but come on, your mom was there too. She didn't have to take you to the stables with your grandpa. If she was truly evil, she would have locked you in the attic and tossed away the key," she laughs, but neither Mills are joining her, so she clears her throat awkwardly.

"I don't want to talk about my mom. I want to talk about how we can break the curse," he urges with a finality that reminds Emma a little too much of a certain mayor.

"Fine," Emma huffs as Robin's eyes latch onto hers, pleading with her, not to continue and send this boy into another panic attack. "But I still think your mom can break the curse with a true love."

"Ewwww, that's my mom, I don't want anyone kissing her."

And it doesn't go unnoticed to Emma or Robin how he did finally call Regina, mom, and not the Evil Queen.

~~~~~~~

"Now where the hell is she running off to?" Emma grumbles under her breath as she starts her engine and quickly clicks her seatbelt into place.

She had just enjoyed a nice evening at Granny's with Henry and Robin and now, right as she's about to head home, she spots Regina flying down Main Street once again. She groans to herself because she honestly feels like she's working two damn cases right now. One of a mysterious man, setting up shops just to close down and steal money from innocent people. And one of a curse, that's twenty-right years in the making, according to an eight-year-old.