Chapter Text
Henry hands Regina his rucksack, giving his mothers a small wave before running over to the swings. She smiles as he jumps onto the seat and skims back and forwards over the ground, moving higher and higher with every swing.
Hearing a noise to her left, Regina turns to find Emma picking up her phone and shooting Regina an apologetic glance before moving to a quieter spot in the park. The conversation is over quickly, so she re-joins Regina watching Henry on the swings.
“Who was that?” Regina asks as she approaches. The atmosphere has become more and more comfortable as they have built their trust in each other.
“My parents. They’re watching Henry this evening while Hook and I spend the night on the Jolly Roger.” Regina raises her eyebrows at this and Emma laughs. “It will be a sensible night, Madame Mayor. We’re doing dinner and a movie on the boat.” Regina smiles, but before she can reply, Emma starts again. “Speaking of, I probably ought to go ask him who’s providing the food. See you later.” She runs off, waving behind her as she goes.
Regina turns her attention back to Henry, who is now soaring forwards and backwards on the swing. “Henry,” She calls, making sure she doesn’t startle him too heavily. “Be careful.” He nods, his legs swinging in time with the seat. She’s almost mesmerised as her eyes follow him backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.
He reaches the highest point and launches himself towards the ground with no warning. Her throat closes up and her heart seems to stop as he flies through the air, his scream piercing her ears as he realises that he can’t land properly. She’s running before he’s landed.
“Henry!” Regina’s voice breaks as she screams his name, but she doesn’t care. Her son isn’t moving. Why isn’t her son moving?
She reaches him and falls to her knees beside him, shaking his shoulder to wake him up. “Help!” Distantly, she hears someone behind her speaking to the ambulance dispatch crew, but they may as well be speaking Swahili. She tries once more to shake Henry awake, but the attempt is futile.
Why didn’t I pay more attention? Why didn’t I tell him to be careful? Why wasn’t I watching him more?
By the time the ambulance arrives, Regina has lost complete track of time: it could have been minutes or it could have been days since he fell. “Help him, please.” She hurries after the crew, scrambling behind them into the back of the van.
What did I do? Emma’s going to hate me. Snow and Charming are going to hate me. The town will hate me again, and I was just starting to earn their trust again as well. Henry will hate me. Or he won’t be able to because he’ll be bedridden or dead and I’ll never see him again or have conversations with him again or wave at him again or look after him again or…
A loud sob escapes her throat as her thoughts continue to spiral downward and she turns her face away from the paramedics to hide her tears.
They’re not really paying much attention anyway, as they are doing everything they can to wake Henry up. Apparently, he’s still alive, but he has been unconscious for a good while, so they need to make sure he’s… Regina thinks the word they used was stable.
“Will he be okay?” Her mind keeps replaying the moment he fell; he looked as if he were in slow-motion as he flew through the air and landed on the ground.
Before either of them can reply, the monitor Henry is hooked up to flatlines, the constant drone joining the siren to echo around the small interior of the ambulance.
Regina’s hand flies up to her mouth and she chokes back another sob, this time grasping the attention of the male paramedic who has stepped back to give his partner, Alice, room to save Henry’s life.
He mutters something to her before turning to Regina and guiding her gaze away from her son’s lifeless body.
“Don’t watch; you don’t want to see.” He pauses to take in Regina’s expression: her pain and regret. “Tell me about him.”
Regina sniffles, the thought crossing her mind that its not very mayor-ly to be a snotty mess. She almost giggles, which feels absurd. “He…” She breathes in and gathers herself, brushing a hand through her hair at the same time. “He has one of those contagious smiles that lights up the room when he walks in.” A small smile forms on her lips at her memories but quickly vanishes as the constant high-pitched drone of the monitor continues. “Had.” Her head falls forwards into her hands, her shoulders shaking from the sobs that wrack her body. The paramedic—Riley—looks up at Alice and sighs at the subtle shake of her head.
They switch places and Alice places a gentle arm around the mayor’s shoulders. Regina leans her head into her shoulder and Alice traces a comforting circle on her back, too well versed in consoling devastated family.
“No!” Regina’s voice cuts through the silent atmosphere, more a wail than anything else. “I should have been watching him. I should have stopped him. I should have paid more attention. I should have told him to be careful!” The last sentence is closer to a shout, the sound scraping against her throat and causing her to have a coughing fit.
Alice shakes her head and turns Regina to look at her. “It is not your fault. You could not have prevented it. Don’t blame yourself.”
Seemingly at her words, the ambulance draws to a stop and the driver flings open the doors, unaware if the events of the journey. Her gaze flicks between the silent monitor and the sobbing mayor before landing on Riley’s face. Reading his expression, she sighs, reaching a hand out to help Regina out of the ambulance.
“Is there someone we can call for you?” Alice asks, already taking her phone out her pocket.
“No, thank you.” Regina wishes a trapdoor would open up and swallow her whole. She can’t believe she’s just cried on a stranger’s shoulder. “I should probably notify the rest of his family anyway.” She walks away before the paramedics can see through her façade. Withdrawing her phone, she decides with some hesitancy to call Emma first.
“Regina? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” She picks up almost immediately, nearly making Regina regret her decision completely.
“It’s Henry.” The words have barely left her mouth before she utters another sob, her façade breaking down in an instant. On the other end of the phone, Emma has gone silent and Regina can almost picture the blood draining from her face.
“What do you mean?” Emma sounds as though she is fighting to hold herself together, which Regina knows is saying something, and it doesn’t improve when she doesn’t reply. “Regina?!” Her voice cracks and Regina can hear her muffled crying, though she doesn’t tell Emma that.
“Just meet me in the hospital car park.” She hangs up without giving Emma the chance to reply and slides down the lamppost she has been leaning on until she is sat on the kerb. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she lets her head fall down and stays like that until Emma arrives, her parents in tow.
Regina notices the truck before they notice her so she watches as they weave through the car park, slowly getting closer and closer.
At last they find her and David pulls up across the way. Emma hurls herself out of the truck and runs to Regina at breakneck speed, so much that Regina is surprised she didn’t hurt herself. She wipes her eyes quickly with the hem of her sleeve.
“Regina? What happened?” Emma has joined her on the side of the road and Snow and David stand over them, looking at her in concern.
She focuses on the hospital building in the distance, too emotional to bear to look at anyone. However, she aims her words mainly at Emma. “After you left, he was swinging and then he—” she broke off, pulling a tissue out her bag and blowing her nose before continuing. “He jumped off the swing but h-he missed his landing. They tried to save him, but he d-died in the ambulance.” At her last sentence, Emma freezes, having been previously fiddling with her jacket sleeves in her lap.
“No,” she murmurs, almost inaudible. Regina knows almost exactly what she is feeling so stays quiet, trying to muffle her crying. Soon, the grief in the air becomes unbearable so she gets to her feet and walks off, giving the Charmings and excuse so they let her go without complaint.
She doesn’t know where she going, just that she has to get away from everything. Walking along Main Street, she looks at the ground to avoid seeing reminders of Henry, so she doesn’t notice Rumple until she almost walks into him.
“Well done, Regina. I heard you failed at the one thing that really mattered to you.” He doesn’t even greet her, just gets straight to the insult. “Now that’s impressive.” She ignores him for fear of bursting out crying once more if she tries to reply.
Her emotions threaten to consume her as she continues on, her feet carrying her without her brain’s input.
What am I going to do now? Being Henry’s mother was the highlight of my life. I’m going to have to clear out his room. I’ll have to give some of his stuff to Emma. How can I tell his friends from school? What do I do? What do I say? Where do I go?
She pulls herself out of her mind before her thoughts spiral any more to find that her feet have carried her to her vault. Of course: there is already a grave here with Henry’s name here.
Bracing herself for the wave of feeling, she opens the door and descends towards her father’s tombstone. She reads the Latin inscription on the roof, as she always does when she enters.
“Daddy. I’m so sorry.” Her sobbing starts anew and she collapses, draping herself over the tomb and burying her face in her arms, her bag falling to the floor at her feet. “What do I do now?”