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Coming to a stop at the red light a street away from the school, Emma glanced into the rear-view mirror at her son. His arms were folded across his chest, and although he stared out the window, she could she the anger on his face. "Henry," she said as the light changed to green. He grunted a response, refusing to look away from the window. "You don't have to talk, but you do need to listen, okay?" She waited a moment before continuing. "I know there have been some changes at home, and I know it doesn't make any sense to you, but fighting is not the way to go."
"I didn't start it," Henry grumbled.
"I'm aware of that, but you've still been suspended for 3 days, Kid." Emma rolled to a stop at the end of the street, flipping her blinker on. "Your mother and I didn't raise you to talk with your fists. If you have a problem with someone, you need to find another way to work it out."
"There isn't any working it out with Neal Gold. He's an asshole."
"Henry, language," she scolded.
"You sound like Mom," he rolled his eyes. Emma sighed, after spending so many years with Regina Mills, she was not surprised at all that she sounded like her. She made the left turn onto their street.
"She'll probably be home already when we get there."
"You called her?"
"No, Dr. Hopper called her before he called me. I was just the one available to come pick you up, she was in a meeting."
"Great. She'll be mad at me for having to leave the office early on top of the fight."
"We are both concerned about you. I know the separation isn't easy for you; hell, it's not easy for us either, but you have to trust us that this is for the best." She pulled into the driveway and he was out of the car before she could put it in park. Regina opened the door as he reached the porch, she tried to assess him for any injuries but Henry pushed past her. "Let him have a moment to compose himself," Emma said as she closed the car door.
"He was in a fight?"
"With Neal Gold, but from what I understood, the kid held his own pretty good. Neal only got in a punch or two before Henry knocked him to the ground."
"You sound proud."
"Are you not? That kid is an asshole. He's been picking on Henry since 4th grade. He had it coming."
"I'm glad Henry stood up for himself," Regina relented. "But not that it resorted to violence." She stepped back into the house, allowing Emma to pass before closing the door.
"Dr. Hopper met me in the office and we had a quick chat before I spoke with the principal. He's tried to have a couple meetings with Henry over the past 2 months, but he's either refused to go to the guidance office or if he did show up, he never talked. He would like us all to come in a day next week to maybe see if we can get to the root of Henry's anger."
Regina made her way into the kitchen and Emma followed after her. "It's the separation, isn't it? The attitude and moodiness started just after you moved out. I thought it was normal teenager mood swings, and if we gave him some space, he would come around."
"I think we reassured him as best we could, babe. Two months ago, I had no idea how this was going to work out for us. I didn’t know if we were going to be able to stay as civil as we have been, not with how things had gotten the past year or so."
“Do you think we made the right decision?” Regina sounded so small and uncertain. She hated second guessing herself. Sure, they had had some issues, but was it worth putting their son through all the pain? Emma rounded the island and pulled her into a hug.
“We made the best decision we could at the time. It wasn’t good for Henry to see us fighting all the time. He needs to see that we are a team, whether we are together or not. You’ve been my best friend since like, Kindergarten. I still love you. That will never change, whether I’m living here in this house or clear across town.”
“I love you too, Emma. Now let’s get the punishment over with so we can go celebrate our son standing up to his bully,” Regina smirked, and then she led the way out of the kitchen. “Henry?” He appeared at the top of the stairs a few moments later. “Can you come down and tell us what happened today?” Regina cupped his face with her hands when he reached the last step. She let her thumbs rub across the bruising at the corner of his mouth.
“I’m sorry,” Henry said quietly, looking at both of his mothers. “I know fighting is wrong, but Neal just wouldn’t leave me alone. I overheard him talking to one of his idiots about how hot Mom is and all the things he would do to her if given the chance, and how now that she’s single, he might have to make a pass.”
“That little asshole said that?” Emma demanded, Regina reached a calming hand out to her.
“Yeah, I just…I just lost my cool. I snapped. I threw a book at the back of his head, and he turned around and started pounding on me. I don’t know if it was the fact that I actually heard all the disgusting things he said or what, but once I got him on the ground, I wasn’t stopping until I was pulled off him.” Regina pulled him into a hug, and guided him into the living room.
“I’m not happy about the fighting, but I just want you to know that I am proud of you for standing up for yourself. And just because your Ma and I are separated, it doesn’t mean that we love you or each other any less. We loved each other so much that we didn’t want to go on hurting each other. I know this is a lot for you to understand, and the way we do things sometimes might not make any sense, but our common ground is you. We want the best for you.”
“The best for me is you two being together, living under one roof.”
Emma squeezed his hand, “sometimes the best of intentions isn’t enough. We’ve been best friends for 30 years, that is never going to change, but relationships evolve and shift and we didn’t want what was built out of love to be torn down in hate. This really is one of those things that will make more sense to you when you love someone.”
“Just like we told you two months ago, other than where you sleep every other weekend, nothing is going to change. We will still do family dinners every Friday night, we will still have family day on Sundays, we will still do all holidays and birthdays together. We will show up to every parent teacher conference, every baseball game, your first date, together. Neither of us is going to miss a thing, I promise,” Regina assured. “We love you.”
“Am I grounded?’
“Oh yes,” Regina said. “But only until your suspension is over and we all sit down with Dr. Hopper.”
“That’s fair.”
“Now come on, let’s go out and celebrate you knocking Neal Gold on his ass.”