The street was dark. There was no one on it, everyone was inside having a grand old time and celebrating life and love and all of those other crappy things. She was exhausted. As she made her way to her parked Benz down the street she couldn't help but feel run down by life. She supposed she should have been sad, or upset but she wasn't. The only thing that she seemed to be feeling was utter hopelessness. It was ironic, that a person that she hurt all those years ago was the one to come back and take away her fleeting ray of happiness. Actually it was poetic and justified, she thought bitterly. But she knew deep down that there was nothing to be bitter about. She had done it to herself and she couldn't blame anyone else. She had opened her heart to love and the inevitable had occurred. She supposed she could blame Emma, but deep down she knew that Emma had only done the noble thing. Saving the life of a woman condemned to die. It was something the savior should do and she couldn't fault her for it. Besides she knew that deep down she could never be truly angry at Emma. After all she had given her the most precious gift anyone could ever ask for, Henry.

Her thoughts consumed her and she could feel unshed tears welling up in her eyes. If she registered her name being called she ignored it. It was too late anyway, she had gotten in her car and driven away.

The diner was in a state of chaos. Henry was shouting at Robin, Emma was standing, not moving, not saying anything at all. Marian was yelling at Robin and Emma, trying to understand what exactly she had come back in the middle of. Mary Margret was desperately trying to keep the peace, after giving Neal over to David to hold. At this point no one really understood what anyone else was saying and the arguments were just going round and round, not making any progress. Henry eventually gave up and was the first to notice that his mom had left the diner. He quickly left before anyone could protest and ran down the street. He saw her as she was getting into her car and he frantically began to scream her name in the hopes of getting her attention. Whether or not she heard him, she still got in the car and drove away. He started to run down the street after her, for what little good it would do, for he couldn't hope to catch up, when Emma's voice stopped him.

"Hey kid, want a ride?"

He was tempted just to keep going because of his annoyance at his birth mother. All he wanted though was to get to Regina and he figured the fastest way to so that was to accept the ride.

"Ok" He opened the car door and got in, doing up his seatbelt as Emma took off. Emma drove fast but she still couldn't catch up to Regina. Henry briefly caught a glimpse of Regina as she was entering her house and both of them could see the giant purple shield as it surrounded the house like a blanket.

Henry bolted up the steps and ignoring Emma's shouts of warning, ran right through the barrier. He prepared himself to be thrown backwards but all he felt was a slight tingling sensation. He continued on and ran up to the front door. It was locked. He rang the door bell and then pounded on the door with his fist.

"Ahhhhhh!"

The scream cut off his pounding as he turned to see his other mother lying on her butt in the middle of the walkway. He made a guess that the barrier, for whatever reason, wouldn't let her through. She seemed to be ok though so he resumed his harassment of the front door. He then added a few shouts of, "Mom! Its Henry." After several minuets of no response his started to lose a bit of enthusiasm.

"Mom. Please, please just open the door." He begged. "I need to talk to you, to know that your ok. Please. It's just me I swear."

At the last sentence the door slowly creaked open. He eagerly bounded through it, ready to give his mom a huge hug and ask her if she was alright, but there was no one there. His best guess was that her magic somehow recognized that it was him and unlocked the door, just like it had done with the barrier. He turned back and gave Emma a small smile.

"I'm just gonna go check on her ok? I might be a while. You don't have to stay."

The look he received informed him that she would be staying right where she was, not moving an inch.

"Ill be right here." She said, just in case the look didn't convey the message fully.

He nodded to acknowledge that he heard her and then went through the front door. He turned around to close the door behind him but it slammed shut the instant he was through it.

He chose to ignore the weirdness of his mom's magic at the moment, instead opting to find her as quickly as possible. It didn't take long.

Regina was in her room, packing her small suitcase with the essentials that she could find. She wasn't entirely sure why she was packing, she just knew that she had to do something. It wasn't possible to outrun hurt of course, but if Regina was anything it was persistent. She would find a way to erase the pain that was etching its way into her soul and threatening to consume her.

She didn't hear Henry come in, but then she hadn't been paying attention to anything since the diner.

"Mom?..." When she didn't reply he cautiously placed his hand on her shoulder.

She jumped at the feeling of a hand touch her and very nearly flung the mystery person across the room. Luckily she made the wise choice and gave the person a benefit of the doubt. She would have regretted nothing more than hurting her son.

"Henry? What, what are you doing here?"

"Mom…"

He was about to say something else but was swiftly cut off with a crushing hug. In that moment she could have wished for nothing more than just having her son wrapped in her arms. It was a fleeting but amazing moment. For a second she felt all the doubt and hopelessness melt away. Anything felt possible. Hope that she could find a way to survive with this hurt and guilt. Then it ended.

"Mom what are you doing?'

Henry noticed the bag on her bed and the items that were strewed out all over. She didn't respond, only giving him a look that told him all he needed to know.

"You're running away?"

"Henry I…."

"You are, aren't you? You can't Mom. Please."

"Henry I just need some time and space. You understand that right?"

"Yeah." The look on his face almost broke Regina's heart, what little was left of it. It sucked that when he finally wanted her around, after all those years, she couldn't stay with him. "Can I come with you?" He did his classic puppy dog eyes that she always gave into.

"I can't honey…. I'm sorry but you are better off with Emma." She forced the words from her mouth because they did not want to come out naturally.

"How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know yet. I just need to sort this all out in my head and decide what my next move is. Besides it is probably better for everyone if I go away for a while."

She continued to pack the items on her bed into her suitcase. The tears that she had held in her eyes for the past 10 minutes were getting close to falling. She kept them in as best she could, she wouldn't let Henry see them. Henry to his credit helped to gather her things, even throwing in a picture of them together for her to take. When her bag was fully packed, she turned to Henry and gave him another hug, so tight she thought she would break. Then she finally let the tears fall. She kissed the top of his head and then grabbed her bag and disappeared into a cloud of purple smoke.

Emma was leaning against the hood of her car, debating whether or not to follow Henry through the barrier, when he finally came out the door. She stood straight up and walked over to him. Regina wasn't with him, not that she expected him to be, but by the look on his face she was afraid that mayne she was dead.

"Is she ok?"

"I dunno." He shrugged his shoulders and then turned to stare back at the house. "She's gone."

"What do you mean gone? She didn't come out."

"She "poofed" out, with a bag."

"For how long?"

"She didn't say."

"Why don't we go back to the apartment and then we can talk about what to do next?"

Henry nodded; before he got in the car though he glanced back at his home once more. It was dark with no sign of movement inside. Part of him was sure she would have come back, that she couldn't really be gone. But she was. He hung his head dejectedly and got into the car with Emma.