Shaya

Chapter 20 - Home

Red entered back Granny's with the quiet of a rhino. She jumped the counter and began furiously cleaning the already clean cups while Granny and the clients looked at her with astonished faces.
" It's all right, Ruby?" Belle asked from a table next to the counter. She was alone, drinking her tea. Red didn't even notice her presence before she had spoken. She felt a hint of guilt while she was taking a look around: no trace of the three suspects.
" Yes, Belle, all right. I'm in heat, Regina is gay, but is all right."
Belle goggled. " You're what?"
" In heat. Like a fucking dog." she blowed up a rebel lock. " All because of three pigs..." Ruby opened wide her eyes, eyes fixed on nothing.
" ...Rubes?" Belle asked after a while, making her blink.
Red suddenly burst into laughter. Belle frowned.
" Ruby, what...?"
" The Three fucking Little Pigs!" she exclaimed, pointing a glass toward Belle as if it was a microphone. " That damned tattoo!" She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, then laughed bitterly. " I'm gonna end up with one of the Three fucking Little Pigs. Bloody hell!" She almost yelled, rising her hands. She banged the glass on the counter, then walked away, always resembling to a rhino, just a little more furious now.

Regina was smiling. Truly smiling. And she had just called him Archie, didn't she? And then she had thanked him smiling. Real smile, zero mock, zero intimidation. Wow!
Jiminy looked astonishingly at the woman next to the Mayor. She looked a bit confused, but then she smiled at him.
" What?" she asked.
He arched an eyebrow. " Err nothing, nothing, I'm sorry. " Archie adjusted his glasses, trying to smile. Damn, Snow had said the truth when she said that maybe Regina had found love, or, she added smirking, more truthfully love had finally found Regina. And Henry was definitely right, too. " It's just... " He cleared his voice. " It's just that now I have to receive some patients, and I was trying to remember who was the first..." he smiled again. Regina arched an eyebrow, smirking, but nodded.
" So we'd better let you to your job. See you soon, Dr. Hopper. " she greeted him, stretching a hand towards Henry. He immediately grabbed it, but smiling at him.
" Bye Archie! Bye Pongo!"
Jiminy smiled widely to the kid. Henry always made him smile. He was a really good kid. " Goodbye, Henry. Oh, uhm..." he wanted to say something more, but he didn't know what. Fortunately Pongo barked. He looked gratefully at the dog. " Yes, exactly what I meant."
Archie turned back to watch Henry and Rapunzel laugh, and Regina hide a smile.

" Did you have fun with Archie?"
" Yup! We took Pongo for a walk, then played with him with his frisbee, then had a second breakfast..."
" A second breakfast?"
" I was hungry! And he still didn't have one."
Regina slightly sighed, opening the car door. Rapunzel smiled at her with her eyes from the other side of the vehicle, making her heart skip a couple of beats. " And then, what have you done?"
" We went back to his office, and he made me draw. "
Regina looked at her son, still standing out of the Mercedes. Draw. She didn't see a drawing of his in years. She sighed again, trying to smile.
" Really? Do you have the drawings with you?" she hopefully asked. He nodded.
" Yes, in the backpack. Archie liked them, but I'm not sure if he was sincere..."
He had that adorable suspecting face he made when he was thinking about something. Regina smiled.
" Then let me see if he was, won't you?"
Henry smiled so brightly that Regina stayed breathless for a while. He never smiled that way to her. She saw him do it with Emma, but never with her. She held back the tears and looked forward for the papers her son was pulling out of his backpack. He handed them to her with a contorted face.
" I'm a little out of practice, so..."
Regina shook smiling her head. " Ah, I'm sure that they're..." Her voice faded away while she watched the colored sheets of paper, one after the other.
The first one was a rough drawing of Pongo: the poor dog had only two legs, and his eyes were huge, but it radiated so much glee that Regina couldn't help but smile and stifle a laugh.
She passed the sheet under the little pile.
The second one portrayed a ship, the Jolly Roger, she recognized. It was in the middle of the sheet, that Henry had totally colored in blue. It was quite artistic.
The third sheet was a sketch of a fairly known blonde woman with a red jacket. Emma had an arm shorter than the other, and impossibly long legs, but she had a very big smile too. Regina smiled despite the hint of jealousy she was trying to ignore.
The fourth sheet was all dark. There was a man in a black and purple vortex. It had to be Neal. Regina swallowed, passing to the next drawing.
Two black figures, and a little boy between them, the jungle sketched around in dark green tones. On the right side of the sheet a large part was visibly erased. Blurry people shapes were barely visible, but none was recognizable.
The sixth one almost made her choke. It showed Regina herself with a blonde woman at her side, and a little red heart above their heads. At first Regina thought that that was Emma. Blonde hair, sword... but the hair was longer, very longer than Emma's, and the woman was taller than her. Regina glanced at Rapunzel, leaning against the car, her thick tress pressed between her back and the metal. She was letting them their space. Regina ignored the warmth in her chest and looked worriedly at her son, who was guiltily smiling.
She turned the sheet of paper to let him see it. He smiled more widely and much more guiltily.
" Henry, why have you drawn this?"
He swallowed. " Because I see it." he innocently answered.
Regina sighed. What should she do now? Tell him the truth? Was it the right thing? A relationship when there were so many problems, a relationship with a mercenary, former princess, almost two hundred years old woman... She glimpsed at the woman in question, still turned, then looked at the drawing. Regina looked at herself. She was smiling. Henry drew on her face the same big smile that he drew on Emma's face.
Regina eyed her son.
" Is it a problem for you? Because if it's so I..."
" No! It's okay, really! I like her! She's funny! " he smiled at her.
Relief. Huge, immense relief. Regina smiled back at him. " Okay."
Regina took the last sheet, trying not to think to the lucky escape.
It was crowded. Henry was right in the center of the sheet. She and Emma were at his sides, hugging him with one arm. The Charmings were beside Emma, and even Ruby and Archie with Pongo. On the other half of the paper, next to her, there were Shaya, Granny, Belle and Rumple and August. Behind all of them there was the Clock Tower, or so Regina understood by the giant clock Henry drew. The sky was just a fine light blue line on the top of the sheet.
Regina gazed at her son, handing him the drawings, moved. " Archie was right, Henry: they're beautiful. " Henry took back the sheets and put them in the backpack.
" Really?"
" Yes! We'll frame them and hang them up! Oh, and you can make a surprise to Emma, and give her the one where she's portrayed. She'll be happy. "
Henry looked at her, frowned. " Really?"
" Sure!" She couldn't help but suddenly hug him. He froze for a second, but then she felt him relax and hug her back, laughing softly. " Okay! And I could give to Hook the one with the Jolly Roger!"
Regina ignored the hate she felt towards the pirate for the umpteenth time and distanced a little from Henry to look him in the eyes.
" You like him, don't you?"
Henry smiled. " He's cool! "
Regina involuntarily tightened her lips. She couldn't forget what he did to her. She glimpsed at Rapunzel. If she knew, she'd probably kill him, too. Or maybe not. Perhaps she could forgive him, unlike her. Anyhow, it was better for everyone if she would never get to know his role in her kidnapping.
" Because he's a pirate?"
" Yes!"
Regina stifled a laugh. He was still a child, she thought with relief. She was afraid of him growing up. He would become a teen, and she had read somewhere that they always hated their parents. And then an adult, that was far more scary. He would grow up, become independent, take again the distances from her, go away. She was happy and terrorized at the same time. She didn't want to lose him again, she loved him so much! And yet she knew that she would let him go, for the same reason. He had to grow up, find someone who loved him and that he loved, and be happy. Or not, even just be happy. That was what mattered, his happiness. His smile, the one he was showing her in that precious moment. " Well then, give him the drawing. Even though I truly like it, and it would look good in my office, if I'll ever be elected again..."
Henry frowned. " Oh well... Sorry, I didn't thought... If you want it..."
Regina ruffled his hair. " You drew it, you decide Henry. And don't worry for me, you can always make another, don't you?"
His face exploded in a smile. " Sure!"
Regina nodded once. " Good. Now let's go home." she added louder, so that Shaya could hear her.
They all got into the car. Regina was switching on the car when Henry sticked out between the seats.
" Mom?"
" Tell me."
" Aren't we going to the hospital?"
Regina glanced at him by the rearview mirror. " No sweetheart, Emma is sleeping now. We could try to go tonight, okay?"
" Mh, okay." he nodded, a little deluded.
Regina looked inside herself, and found no trace of jealousy. She smiled at the road, her house already in sight on the right side of it.
When she parked, she turned and met Shaya's gaze. Regina immobilized. The warrior was hiding a smile.
" What?" Regina asked her, not understanding the reason why she was smiling.
Shaya shook her head.
" I was just... Noticing the difference."
The former Queen arched an eyebrow. " Which difference?"
" The one between the first time I saw you and now."
Regina swallowed. " My hair is shorter?" she sneered.
Rapunzel burst into laughter. " No, well, aye, but... no."
" I had a better dress."
" Oh, I like this outfit, too."
" I was Queen."
" You're smiling."
Regina just stared at her. She knew the answer before she said it, obviously, but she was afraid that she was wrong, that Shaya would have said something different, like that she wasn't evil anymore, or that she was a different person, no more scary, no more... a villain. But Regina was now really realizing that Shaya never, ever saw her as a villain. She wasn't Henry, nor Snow, or Emma. She saw it differently, she always did, and Regina had still to manage to understand her way of thinking. But, whatever it was, it made her feel good.
She nodded and locked gaze with her, trying to fill hers with what she was feeling, because she was sure that words could have never explained it entirely.
Somehow she succeeded in doing it, because Rapunzel's eyes wetted. And, as words weren't necessary anymore, they just got out of the car and went home.