That One Second

Chapter 16

Henry's condition improved rapidly. He awoke every day and as the days passed, the amount of time he was awake increased as well. He'd been incredibly stressed out when he'd first really realized where he was, but Regina had been there, together with Emma to comfort him. He'd been crying for about half an hour, but then relaxed in his mothers' arms and fell asleep again.

That was the day after he'd first shown consciousness, two weeks ago, and now he'd been updated on everything that had happened to him. His memory was still completely intact, apart from the accident, but when he found out he'd broken his ribs and wrist, nothing else mattered anymore. For some odd reason, Henry had always wanted to experience what it was like to have a broken bone, so he was taking everything in as positively as he could.

Because he still wasn't allowed to leave the hospital, Emma and Regina always brought stuff from home to him. He'd already had his favorite stuffed animals with him, since the second day he'd been in the hospital, but last time Henry had specifically requested a photo book. He always loved flipping through the pages and seeing himself back as a baby and Regina loved watching the photos with him, so they'd made themselves comfortable on Henry's hospital bed and were happily observing all the photos.

"This was the first time you held Hope," Regina said and pointed at the photo, careful not to touch it. She hated getting printed photos dirty and she always treated the photo books with care.

"She was so small," Henry said and glanced up at his mother. He had nestled himself against her and was holding his teddy bear tightly against his chest. "When can I go home and see her? I want to be with the whole family again."

Regina swallowed. Emma and she hadn't told Henry about their current living situation and she wasn't very certain how to explain it to him. The boy had been through so much already and to bother him with this all just seemed evil.

But he had to find out somehow.

"I don't know when you'll be able to go back home, Henry," Regina said, "but you're doing much better than before, so I suspect it won't be too long." Henry smiled, happily.

"Where's mommy Emmy? Is she with Hope?"

"Yes," Regina replied. Emma and her relationship had gone nothing but downhill these past two weeks. After Regina had rejected Emma's touch, they'd started to really discover the changes between them and they didn't offer each other more than a brief smile. They barely even talked about anything other than necessities. "But I'm currently sleeping over at grandma's."

Henry's hazel eyes met hers and he frowned, confused. At least she'd ripped the bandaid off, all that was left to do was stop the bleeding that would follow.

"Why?"

"Do you remember when I wasn't home very often?" Henry nodded and crawled closer towards his mother. "I didn't really take care of everyone as well as I should have and that was very hard for Emma."

"Are you getting a divorce?" Henry's eyes were filled with tears and he hugged her tightly. "I don't want you to get a divorce. I want to live in our home with our whole family."

Regina's heart broke when she heard Henry's pleading tone. "I know, sweetie," she said. "I know."

"But I thought you loved mommy," Henry said softly and kept looking at his mother. "You said you'd always love each other."

"I do still love your mother very much," Regina said.

"Do you want to divorce?"

No. Regina knew from the moment she'd started a relationship with Emma that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with her, no matter how naive that had sounded at the time. To think that after almost seven years of marriage it'd come to this seemed surreal.