The Tie That Binds

Chapter Seven

"Oh god, yes," Emma moans as she wiggles against the mattress. "I forgot how good a bed feels compared to sleeping on the ground."

Regina's lips twist and turn, fighting against the smile attempting to bloom across her entire face. She closes her eyes and takes a moment to bask in the soothing comfort against her back. Emma had mentioned a second round of sex, yet neither one is making the effort, both relaxed in nothing but a towel Regina materialized for them. Slowly, she cranes her neck to the left to discover Emma squeezing her eyes shut painfully tight.

"Do you hear them?" Regina tentatively inquires, terrified that Henry might be one of those voices whimpering in the night.

"Yeah," Emma's broken voice admits before she presses her fingertips and thumb to her eyes like maybe she can scrub away the pain. "God, I just want to find him. I already lost him twice and just got him back into my life again for the second time. This is such bullshit. It's so unfair."

Regina inhales sharply and silently reprimands herself to remain calm, bite her tongue, and not toss a fireball at the blonde's face. When Emma realizes that she isn't responding, she tilts her head to the side to assess Regina's rigid posture.

"What?"

Another deep breath to flatten the rage pounding beneath her flesh. "I understand that giving Henry up for adoption was very hard on you. Now that I'm starting to get to know you and learn about your past, I know that wasn't easy for you," she states so matter of fact, convincing Emma to keep her mouth shut and listen to what Regina has to say. "And I can even sympathize that you were just starting to really get to know him and then you fell in a portal and all you wanted to do was get back to him because you were really missing this person you were coming to know."

"I sense a but."

"But have you ever taken a moment to put yourself in my shoes, Miss Swan, and understand where I am coming from?"

The audible gulp Emma produces states very clearly that she has never done such a thing and Regina has to inhale another long and deep breath to calm the irritation bubbling inside like one of her poisonous potions.

"I wanted Henry. I wanted a child so desperately to fill the emptiness in my heart that was spreading like an infectious disease. All I ever wanted in life was love. That's it. And I was denied every damn time I turned a corner and fought a new battle for it. I have spent the last eleven years dedicating my life to Henry, my baby. You can't possibly understand what it's like to hold your baby against your chest and soothe all his pain. There is a bond and a special kind of unconditional love in those precious moments that you swear could never be broken. Until it is..."

"Regina-"

"No, you need to hear this. You need to understand where I am coming from for once."

Emma swallows thickly, her eyes glistening, but Regina doesn't see that, she's staring aimlessly at the stars above and hoping Henry is peering up at the same ones tonight.

"Henry cried a lot when I first brought him home and I spent most of my days holding him...maybe I held him too much, maybe I coddled him, but he was my baby and I would do anything to take his pain away. I spoiled him, I know I did because I wanted to give my son the world. And when he turned eight and came to the realization that I adopted him, he completely wrote me off. There was an ache inside of him that I couldn't soothe and it was put there by you. You, because you gave him up and he couldn't wrap his head around why his mother didn't love him enough to keep him. But I was his mother," and she has to pause because her chest is tightening and her voice is breaking but she refuses to cry in front of this woman.