Miles To Go

Chapter Fifty

"Henry!" Emma called out again, her voice desperate and pleading. Henry stopped short just at the front gate and even though it was dark outside and she was standing on the front steps, she could see his body shaking. "Henry, stop!"

She ran towards him as she saw him reach to pull the gate open. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, walking backwards towards the front door even with him kicking and shoving at her, trying in vain to get her to let go.

"Henry!" Emma gasped as he elbowed her hard in the stomach and still she didn't let him go. "Please, stop."

"Let me go!"

"No."

Henry grunted and struggled to get out of her hold and while she wasn't nearly as strong as she'd been before she'd been shot, she was still stronger than her eleven year old son. Despite being shroud in darkness, she worried that the neighbours or passerby's might fall witness to Henry's meltdown and she was not about to air her personal, dirty laundry outside of the privacy of her home.

"Henry, please, come inside—"

"Let me go, Mom!"

"Kid, please, I'm begging you," Emma pleaded with him, her hold not loosening. "Let's just go back inside—"

"I don't want to!"

His screaming voice pierced not just her ears, but her heart and she shook her head, tired of Henry refusing to listen to her, tired of begging, just beyond exhausted and not in any mood to deal with his breakdown on the front walkway. Despite the fact that she hadn't picked him up for a few years, she got a better hold on his body and hoisted him up into her arms, moving quickly back to the house.

Henry was squirming by the time she managed to kick the door shut behind her and she dropped him to his feet, both of them panting heavily. Henry shook his head as he rubbed his fists against his tear-filled eyes. He frowned at her, deeper so, and Emma knew he was not only upset, he was angry too.

She didn't stop him from running up the stairs to his room, already wincing before she heard him slam the door shut behind him. She half expected Regina to storm up after him, scold him for slamming the door again, just like the last time. Instead, Regina walked over to her and wrapped her arms around Emma's tired body.

"Just give him a moment," Regina said gently. "Let him cool down and then you need to go up there and talk to him."

"I don't know if I'm...strong enough."

"You are strong enough, darling."

"Maybe strong wasn't the right word. Brave," she sighed. "I don't think I'm brave enough to have that conversation with him right now."

"I don't think you have much of a choice, Emma. You have no idea what he had overheard or how he feels about what he did hear. You need to talk to him."

"Can you come—"

"No, Emma, you need to talk to him about this because he needs to hear it from you whether he wants to or not," Regina said sharply. She placed a reassuring kiss on her cheek before gently pushing her in the direction of the stairs. "You can do this, darling."

"What do I—"

"You need to explain what happened that night. You need to be honest about who his father is—was. Everything."

Emma nodded and took a deep breath, hesitating at first but she began the slow ascent up the stairs, taking each step carefully as she tried to gather as much emotional strength as she could before she reached Henry's bedroom.