A/N: this started as a prompt on Tumblr.

"Can you write Emma returning to SB and Henry still being an ass to Regina so Emma talks to him about everything she's learned while in FTL?"

Emma had never been happier to be somewhere than she was when she found her way through the portal and into Regina Mills' spacious living room. Sure, bonding time with her mom in a land of fairy tales had been fun… in a way. But nothing beat being back with her kid and the people she knew.

They had spent a few weeks in the Enchanted Forest and Emma, now that she was finally home again, had no desire to ever return there. She was fairly sure her parents would want to, though. And that worried her a little. But she'd do that another day, worrying, that is. For now there were some other things that called for her attention. Henry, for one.

"Let's go home!" were the first words he spoke after excitedly hugging Emma for minutes, telling her how happy he was that she had returned.

Emma looked at David questioningly. What did Henry mean with 'home'? They were in Regina's living room! If this wasn't home to him anymore, what the hell was?

"Henry has been staying in your apartment with me," he elaborated. Emma simply nodded. That didn't sound right. Sure Regina was a bitch and she'd cursed half the Enchanted Forest to some land without magic, but she was still a fit mother. She'd always cared for Henry so why did David feel that had to change?

"Yeah, he's been teaching me how to be a good knight, I'll show you when we get there!" Henry was really excited and it made Emma smile. But there was a hint of worry in her smile, too.

Regina had secluded herself from the happy family reunion. She had been there to watch Henry run into Emma's arms like it was what he'd been waiting for all his life and that was about as much as she could take. It killed her to see it, knowing Henry wouldn't give two shits if it had been her who was sucked into some hat and to another world nobody even knew existed.

She'd gone to her office and gotten herself a glass of cider. Hearing Henry refer to Emma's apartment, Snow's apartment as 'home' tore her up. That was it then. This was nothing to him anymore. His childhood home meant nothing. She meant nothing.

When she took the first sip from her second glass of cider she heard a soft knock on the door. She pointedly ignored it but after another try it opened anyways. Emma entered the room, looking nervous as hell.

"Regina," she said, in an almost-whisper.

"Miss Swan," Regina acknowledged her presence but didn't add any more to that.

"Right.." Emma soon found herself blushing. "Listen, I wanted to thank you… for getting us back," she explained.

"I did it for my son." Regina looked up, trying to maintain the mask she'd been wearing for so long she didn't really remember what she looked like without it.

"I missed you, too, Regina," Emma said, smiling and winking teasingly. She knew she should be angry with this woman, she was the reason she was in this situation in the first place. She had no business joking with her, winking at her. But she found she couldn't be as angry with the broken woman in front of her as she probably should have been.

"Yes, well…" Regina tried her best to suppress the grin that found its way to her face but soon felt a small smile tug on the corners of her lips.

"I think we're gonna go now," Emma said, breaking the slightly awkward silence. "Should I bring Henry over tomorrow?"

For a second Regina looked hopeful, thinking that perhaps, after all this, her boy would want to spend time with her again. That perhaps he could forgive her. Love her again.

"If he wishes it," she said, shrugging off the fleeting moment of happiness she almost allowed herself to have. Henry wouldn't want to. He hated her. He would always hate her.

Emma smiled sympathetically. She had no idea what had been going on since she and Snow fell through the hat but she had a feeling it hadn't been much good.

"I'll be over tomorrow anyway, we probably need to talk about some things."

Regina nodded but didn't say anything.

Emma took a few steps to the door but right before leaving the room turned around, "I'll talk to him, Regina," she promised.

When Emma had closed the door behind her Regina allowed herself a smile. She wouldn't admit it, she'd never even think it again after tonight, but she had sort of missed Emma. And secretly she was happy the stubborn blond was back.

Henry hadn't stopped talking on the way over to their apartment. He told Emma about the sword fighting he was working on with his grandfather and about the horse Charming had gotten him. Then he told Emma the story of how Belle was kidnapped and Charming had to rescue her from the mines. How Charming had been working with the dwarves to find fairy dust. How Ruby had turned into a wolf and Charming had to lock her up to keep the townspeople safe. How he helped bring Jefferson and his daughter back together, the thought of whom still managed to make Emma's skin crawl; she hadn't forgotten the whole kidnapping thing quite yet.

He had so many stories to tell and Emma couldn't help but notice how Regina wasn't in any of them. It was like she didn't exist anymore. Like she just was. In her house. Quiet. It was almost like Henry hadn't seen her since the wraith thing. It made Emma feel a little sad.

Before the breaking of the curse she had been working on a way to get Henry away from Regina. She hated the woman. But now that he was away from her and in the apartment with her, she felt bad about it. She felt guilty. Regina didn't deserve this. Sure, she was a bitch but she was the woman who had raised her kid when she couldn't and wouldn't. And now that she, Emma Swan, had come in Henry's life the woman who made her little boy the way he was didn't matter anymore to him.

When they got inside, planted themselves on the couch enjoying a cup of hot cocoa that Charming had whipped up for them, Emma asked him about it.

"Why didn't you say goodbye to your mom back there?"

Henry looked confused. "You're my mom," he answered.

Emma frowned, feeling bad for Regina, something she thought she'd never feel. "Henry…"

She looked at the people she now knew were her parents, silently begging them for help. When neither said anything she knew she wasn't going to get any. This was what being a parent was about… and she'd have to do it herself.

"However bad you think she is, Henry… there's more to her than just that," Emma said, not quite knowing how to finish the sentence. "Your mom loves you."

Henry looked at her, his face emotionless. "She's evil Emma. Just because she brought you back doesn't erase all the bad things she did."

"But all the bad things don't erase the good things she did either!" Emma didn't want to be angry with the little boy. He was just that, a little boy. A kid who had been dragged into this whole fairy tale mess that she didn't still didn't understand. But Regina was his mother. And as much as Emma wanted to keep the little boy to herself, raise him, make him happy, that was something she couldn't deny any longer.

"Henry, she wasn't born evil," Emma said, looking at him seriously. She could tell by the way he was looking at her, his grandparents and basically every other ornament in the room that he didn't want to talk about this. He just got his mother back and he wanted to talk about the cool stuff, not his mom. Not the Evil Queen.

"It doesn't matter. She killed people and she's evil."

'That was just it, wasn't it?' Emma thought. Emma had always thought of evil as a subjective thing. Everyone had their own definition of evil. And despite her knowledge of the horrible things Regina had done, the hearts she had ripped from innocent people's chests, she wasn't sure if she could think of Regina as truly evil. Circumstances had made her what she was. How much of a chance did she ever stand, really?

"I met her mother, Henry," Emma said. "She tried to kill Snow and me. She wanted to go back here so she could find you and Regina." Emma hadn't planned to actually tell him about Cora. She had thought it unnecessary to scare him like that. But she couldn't just stand by and watch her son hate the only mother he'd ever known without him knowing the truth about her.

"Emma…" Snow said, warningly. "You sure you want to tell him this?"

Emma ignored her. She didn't need any motherly advice. She'd managed all these years without it, surely she could talk to her son without needing it.

"Regina's mother made sure your mom had a pretty bad youth, kid," she said, continuing her story as if Snow had never interrupted it. Henry looked at her with big eyes, waiting for more information on things from the other land, which was so intriguing to him.

"She killed the man she loved."

"Daniel," Henry said, thinking back to the man who had tried to kill him at the stables.

"How did you…"

"Let's save that story for another time," David said, not sure this was something Emma needed to concern herself with at this point.

"Fine," Emma never took her eyes from the little boy in front of her who, despite the lack of genes, resembled his mother in so many ways. "Yes, Daniel. She tore out his heart in front of her. Henry, I don't know the entire story but I'm sure it was pretty bad. Nobody just turns 'evil' like your mom did."

Henry was quiet for a moment and Emma didn't want to push him. She was afraid to have already scarred him with the gruesome tale of his grandmother.

"That story isn't in the book," he admitted with a sigh. "I didn't know."

Emma gasped and then rushed forward to put her arms around the kid. She never wanted to make him feel sad or guilty. She just wanted him to think about this and give his mother a chance. Nobody else ever had.

"I know you didn't," Emma said.

Snow smiled at Emma, letting her know she did the right thing by telling him. She hadn't forgiven Regina for any of it, and she wasn't sure she ever would. But even she could admit that Regina wasn't completely responsible for the way she turned out, that her mother was to blame just as much as the woman herself was.

"I do love her," Henry said with a small voice, almost as if he was ashamed of it, "but she's the bad guy and I don't want to be that."

Emma just held him for a second longer, wanting to remember this moment. She then let the boy go and smiled at him.

"Maybe," she started, "if we give her a chance, if we show her that she matters and that people care about her… maybe she doesn't have to be that anymore either."

Henry seemed to mull this thought over in that clever little head of his and then broke out in a huge grin. "I'd like that."