You Found Me

4. Wonder of a Child

Breeze continues to filter through the open front door, swirling around them and picking up Regina's strands, cooling her heated face as a contradicting mix of panic and pride and love and sadness surges within her. Her heart squeezes in her chest, pulsing so painfully that she feels if she were to reach inside and take the organ into her hands, it would be bloated and sore.

"Henry," she whispers barely audibly without hardly realizing it, then glancing from his shy smile to their joined hands, she shakes herself from her trance and smiles at the woman--her son's wife--and takes her other hand both of her own. "It's so good to meet you," she tells her, ignoring the waver in her voice.

"Likewise," Ella says politely, but then she smiles widely and steps forward to hug Regina tightly. "Henry's told me so much about you."

The contact catches Regina off guard briefly, but her arms wrap around the other woman and she relaxes against her embrace. "Thank you," she whispers in her ear, "thank you so much for taking care of him."

When their contact breaks and Regina wipes her eyes, she notices Henry reaching his arm out of the door and coaxing someone to come out. The pit of her stomach plummets down a flight of stairs and there's a wave-like sensation over her head, as though she's submerged herself in a pool of cold water.

A small hand grasps Henry's, and he steps further inside with a young girl with long dark hair and tan skin and a pink blouse. Her wide eyes wander around the spacious foyer, then lock with Regina's wet ones. She grasps Henry's hand tighter, retreating slightly so that his body is partially covering hers.

He crouches to her level, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead. "Go on, it's okay," he whispers, but Regina catches it. As she looks at them, she knows. She knows without Henry having to say a single word.

And she doesn't know how to handle it.

But in that moment, her heart softens even further, her eyes burning, her mouth in a quivering smile, and all at once, all she wants is the girl in her arms. The girl starts towards her, with Henry's gentle hand on her back, and when Henry looks up, Regina's eyes meet with his.

He nods.

"Hi," the girl says softly, smiling a little shyly but her big eyes already so full of love.

"Mama, this is my little girl. Lucy." He tells her, and Regina, though she already knew, claps a hand over her mouth and lets out a quiet sob before she drops to her knees and collects Lucy into her arms. She's tall for a girl her age.

"You're beautiful, nieta," Regina whispers, and Lucy giggles into her shoulder.

"I've been wanting to meet you for my whole life," she tells her, squirming free from her grasp and beginning to talk faster and more freely, her eyes bright and sparkling as she shows off her gap-toothed smile. "Daddy used to tell me bedtime stories about you almost every night. You're the Queen, right?"

Regina opens her mouth to answer, smiling so widely her cheeks are beginning to ache, warm tears trickling down her face.

But then Lucy's gasping softly and turning back to her father. "Am I supposed to curtsy or something?"

Henry laughs, full and deep and runs a loving hand through his daughter's hair. "I think she'll let you off the hook this time, Luce."

Regina glances between the three of them, her son's little, perfect, beautiful family, and all she can do is laugh and cry and breathe deeply through the pulsing of her beating heart. She rises from the floor--the rushing in her ears so intense and convincing that she feels as though she's anchored to the bottom of the ocean--and when she lifts her wet, burning eyes to Henry's, his familiar green ones ground her and keep her sane; and really, isn't this all she's ever wanted? She holds her arms out and she and Henry are colliding--but then Lucy's grabbing at her waist, and Henry gestures for his wife--so the four of them hold onto each other as mother and son cry, and Regina wonders if she's ever been happier.