Somewhere Down The Road

Chapter Thirty-two

For once in Daniel's life, he stayed true to his word and took Regina to court. However, because it has been three years and he has not paid a dime in child support and has never filed a motion before and never made the effort to see Henry, the judge allowed Regina to move out of state. The judge specifically told Daniel that if he had been involved in Henry's life from the beginning and they had a legal custody agreement, then he wouldn't allow Regina to move over fifty miles away.

Thankfully, that's not the case.

During this time Regina obtained the best lawyer she could find who was able to fight for back pay over the last three years of child support, along with Daniel having to meet Henry at a facility for supervised visitation for six months. There is also a special app where all communication must take place because Regina doesn't feel comfortable with Daniel having her new number. Unfortunately, because of the distance, after six months of completed visitations, Daniel will be able to take him on holidays and over certain weeks during the summer.

Regina has been sick to her stomach, dreading those months to come because she doesn't trust Daniel one bit. Emma has been trying her very best to stay positive and help Regina cope but her anxiety is really taking the wheel here.

For the first three months, Regina has to take Henry to the visitation center every Saturday. She waits, a ball of nauseous nerves while Daniel gets to know Henry with some woman observing, Sabine. Emma has never met her because she doesn't attend these visitations. She and Regina agreed that might stir the pot and they rather not cause any more problems. However, Regina says she really likes Sabine and she seems to keep a very close eye on Daniel's conversations with Henry. She's already interrupted a badmouthing that Daniel attempted.

For the first three weeks, Daniel showed up but Henry already feared him from his behavior at the birthday party. So, as much as Sabine tried to bridge the communication gap, Henry usually hid behind her and would only interact with her. Week four, "something came up", so Daniel missed that week's appointment. Regina asked if that week would have to be made up at the end of the first three months. Sabine said yes which was great but also irritated Regina because that meant another week she would have to hold off on moving because she didn't want to drive seven hours for the visitation center.

Weeks five and six, Daniel showed up and Henry was just as nervous around him. Week seven Daniel missed, so that's another week added to the end. Week eight he appeared but he was forty-five minutes late. Regina was growing more and more frustrated by the situation and asked Sabine if she had been tracking Daniel's behavior? She promised that every wrong doing was being recorded which did help Regina relax the slightest.

Now, it's the end of June and Regina is out of school and should be moving to Storybrooke but Daniel is making this rather difficult. He missed the first week of June, showed up for the second and was an hour late to the third.

Emma is waiting at Regina's house now for her to get back from the visitation center because no matter what, they are headed to Storybrooke for the Fourth of July. Regina already cleared this week with the court and they do need to start bringing some boxes up north.

Emma is loading up the bed of her truck full of boxes when Regina comes flying around the corner and aggressively jumps the curb to park in her driveway. Emma's jaw automatically clenches in fear as she peeks over the side of her truck. Regina exits her car and softly closes the door before she covers her face and groans in frustration.

"Hey," Emma gently begins but Regina jumps in her own skin, "how'd it go?"

Regina's deadly glare has nowhere to go but land on Emma. "How do you think?" She over-enunciates, stomping around the back of her car. "He didn't show up again. God, I hate that fucking prick," she seethes, then takes a deep breath and shakes out her tense body.