Chapter Text
Emma was having a long day. She definitely didn’t want to deal with a snarky 16 year old in the back of her car after her shitty date. The fact that said snarky 16 year old was her son made it worse. Here she was, trying to be responsible and bring him back, but in true teenage fashion Henry refused to cooperate. She ignored how she behaved just like him at sixteen.
“Look kid, it’s been a long night and it’s almost-” Emma paused, looking at the clock- “8:15?”
“The clock’s been broken my whole life.”
“Whole life?” Henry was sixteen. Even in the worst corruption cases things still got fixed within a decade. A small town not repairing the big clock tower on Main Street for over 15 years was ridiculous, and at that point probably intentional. “Does city hall get kickbacks or something?”
Her son shrugged. “The mayor’s really bad at her job.”
“Henry!” A middle aged man quickly ran into her field of view, with an excited dog barking along. “God are you alright? We’ve all been worried sick! You know how dangerous it is to vanish like that!” The man pulled up Henry’s sleeves, and Emma got a glimpse of some scarring before Henry pulled away.
“Funny thing Archie- I found something to motivate me, like you’ve been saying. This is Emma, my birth mother.”
Archie blinked, seemingly not having registered her at all. “Oh,” he muttered. “I see.”
“You know where he lives?” Emma was feeling really awkward.
“Yeah right up on Mifflin Street. The mayor's house is the biggest one on the block.”
“You’re the mayor’s kid?” Fuck.
“Ms Swan, if you’ll allow me to join you, I can give you directions. As Henry’s therapist, I feel it best to join my patient in the car and make sure he’s alright. We got scared when he vanished this morning.”
“Yeah, sure.” Emma wondered what issues he had that made his therapist so worried about him before shutting that train of thought down. She wasn’t his mother- some other woman was. She would drop him off and head back to her normal life in Boston. Everything would be fine.
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Everything was not fine. Emma ended up in the jail overnight. And her son had ran away again, and that caused Emma to wonder. She always believed she had done what was best for her kid when she gave him up, but he had run away twice now, once to find her. Surely that meant things weren’t fine? And if things weren’t fine and her son was having problems- she couldn’t let him continue to live without at least trying to fix them, or make sure he was okay.
"He's like any adopted child. He wrestles with that most basic question they all inevitably face – why would anyone give me away?" The words had stung, but Emma had quickly waved it off. It said a lot Ms Blanchard had a better handle on Henry than either of his mothers.
“I noticed that his shrink was really worried about Henry yesterday. And you seem really eager to join the search. Is there something else going on?” The schoolteacher immediately asked about Henry’s whereabouts, and the relief that he had made it home safe was immediately shattered by the revelation he was missing again.
Ms Blanchard froze and gulped. “You wouldn’t know, would you?”
“Know what?”
The schoolteacher looked around and pulled her aside, speaking to her in a low voice. “A few months ago, Henry tried to commit suicide.”
Emma felt like the world had completely collapsed around her at that moment. “What?”
The teacher looked around hurriedly. “God, I shouldn’t even be telling you this. Only a select few even know it happened. Hell, the only reason I know is because I’m his teacher and the school wanted me to keep an eye on him.”
“I- why- do you know why he tried to…” Emma couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“I don’t know anything else. Archie said the best way was for him to focus on something else, to find something to be motivated by. That’s why I gave him the book- so he could find hope, make his way out of his depression.” She smiled slightly. “He’s been a lot more focused lately. I feel like it really helped him.”
Emma’s mind was swimming even as she made her way to the castle. She thought back to the scars she saw on his wrist- were those the scars from his attempt? “You forgot your book.” She tried to sound upbeat, but it was clearly fake and they both knew it.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Pretend. We both know that you know about what I did, so we might as well talk plainly about it.”
“Are you okay?” Emma cringed. Who the fuck asked suicidal people if they were okay?
Henry scoffed. “Why are you pretending to care about me? I know you don’t- last night you made it very clear you wanted me gone so you could head back to your life.”
“Kid- Henry, that’s not true.” Lie, lie, lie. She ignored her traitorous mind.
“Yes, it is. You made it clear when you gave me up and demanded a closed adoption. If it weren’t for the suicide attempt you wouldn’t be this nice to me. You’re only doing it out of obligation.” He kicked a rock. “I thought things would change if I brought you back. That things would move, that I would be able to prove what was wrong with this bullshit town.” He sighed. “You don’t need to stay here if you don’t want to. I already have one shitty mom- I don’t need another.” Henry got up and walked back to the car, and Emma followed after him on autopilot, left with the stinging realization her son hated her.
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“I see you’ve angered him as well.” Regina remarked.
Emma gulped. “I hear about what happened a few months ago.” Regina froze. “I wanted to ask about it-”
“No.” The mayor met her graze with an ice cold stare.
“I’m sorry?”
“You don’t get to know anything- you weren’t there for his entire life. I’m the one who raised him, and I’m the one who understands his issues better than anyone. By giving him up, you told me you didn’t know what he was like and you didn’t want to know. You don’t get to waltz back into his life like nothing changed simply because you feel guilty. And frankly, it seems like Henry doesn’t want you to. Goodbye Ms Swan.”
Emma stared after her as the door closed. She couldn’t leave- not with clear proof that her son wasn’t happy. She gave him up because she believed his best chance wasn’t with her. But did she just doom him to another hell?
She would stay, for Henry’s sake. She would prove she did care about him, and her first step was dealing with his bitch of a mom.