katleept

Title: It's That Time
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Characters/Pairing: Henry, Emma, Regina, Snow/Mary Margaret, Neal, and three more
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge: Once Upon A Land Socially Bound Challenge #5: Regina, Snow|Mary Margaret, and Emma must work together to solve some kind of problem.
Word Count: 1,951
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners, not the author.

Henry's parents knew something was wrong the moment the child slid into their favorite booth at Granny's. "How about a sundae, sport?" Neal asked, his hand already raised to make the order, but Henry just shook his head and looked even more down fallen. "No thanks," he said. "I'm not hungry."

Emma and Neal exchanged an urgent look of concern. She sat beside their child and wrapped a protective arm around his small back as Neal waved Ruby away with an apologetic look. "Henry," Emma asked softly, "what's wrong?", but he seemed to pull away from her as he looked toward the wall and didn't answer.

Neal observed mother and son. He could see Emma was crestfallen, but if Henry wouldn't tell her what was happening, what chance did he have? The kid barely knew, let alone trusted, him.

"I don't wanna talk about it."

Emma was poised to encourage him when Regina blazed into the diner. She shut her mouth and lifted her gaze to meet the furious glare of Henry's other mother. "What did you let happen?" Regina demanded icily, a freshly formed fireball licking her palm.

At this, Henry did look up. Regina ducked the fireball behind her just as her son's head lifted. "She didn't do anything, Mom," he was quick to defend Emma. "Dad didn't either."

"Then who upset you, Henry?"

"How did you know he was upset?" Emma questioned. "You didn't pick him up from school today."

"I didn't have to be with him to know he was hurting. He's my son, and unlike you, Miss Swan, I know the moment my child hurts!" She had sensed the moment his heart had been hurt all the way at home, but her other activities of the day had prevented her from being there first to pick him up from school.

"Henry, there you are!" Regina and Emma both looked toward the door to see Mary Margaret hurrying their way. Henry looked even more crestfallen at the sound of his grandmother's voice. Neal watched him quietly, a certain doom setting into his heart.

"Put that away," Mary Margaret muttered to Regina out of the corner of her mouth. Regina dissipated the fireball but more so that Henry wouldn't catch her using magic again than because Snow White had told her to do so. She glowered at the Princess, but Mary Margaret ignored her look of hatred and turned her attention back to Henry.

"I know it's not really any of my business," Mary Margaret spoke consolingly as she slid, uninvited, into Neal's side of the booth. She reached out and took her grandchild's hand in hers. "But I'm really, really wanting to know. Who are you taking to the school dance this Friday?"

Henry pulled his hand free from hers and turned closer into the wall. "I'm not going," he mumbled. Emma and Mary Margaret looked to him with concern and sudden understanding whereas Neal ducked his head in a little nod of comprehension. Unlike the women, he'd already come to realize that only a girl could be behind the pain Henry was so clearly feeling now.

"Aha!" Regina snapped. "So it's some little brat thinking she's not good enough for my son!" Fire began to grow back inside the palm of her hand.

Henry didn't turn back to look at them even as Emma angrily muttered something about him being her son and not Regina's. His gaze was intently fixed on something outside instead as he muttered, "Mom, please don't hurt her."

"Why shouldn't I, Henry, when she hurt you?" Regina did, however, do as he asked and dissipated her second fireball of the evening.

"Because it's not right," Henry murmured sadly, and all four adults noticed as his head lifted and he watched the little girl walking into the diner alone.

"That's her," Regina noted in her coldest and angriest tone.

The four watched the kid approach Granny's counter as Henry, ducking his head once more, asked again, "Please don't hurt her."

"I'm not going to hurt the little, self-righteous, sniffling brat," Regina replied. "I just want to . . . talk to her." She left the table before any one could try to delay her. She didn't want to just talk to her. She wanted to terrify sense into her. She wanted to set all the hounds and fires of Hell on her and make her body twist inside out! How dare the little brat turn her son down!

"We'll be right back, Henry," Emma assured, slipping out of the booth and following Regina.

"Stay here with your father," Mary Margaret added.

"Don't hurt her," Henry called again, peeking up.

"You sure you don't want that sundae, sport?" Neal asked, turning his back on the women. "We need to have a long talk, and I think it would go down easier with ice cream." He raised his hand again, intent on ordering one for himself and persuading Henry to eat it if his son didn't agree to one this time. He was going to need that ice cream before everything was over today.

As Neal cautiously tried to talk to Henry and waited for Ruby to come, the Savior, the Evil Queen, and Snow White closed in on the little girl sitting at Granny's counter. Emma saw the fire growing in Regina's hand and whispered to her, "She's only a little girl."

"She's a little brat who broke our son's heart."

"Yeah, but if you use magic on her, Henry will never forgive you."

Regina let her fireball go yet again. She hated to admit it, but Emma was right. They also both knew that she couldn't live with their son hating, or even just not trusting, her for the rest of her life. "I'm the rightful Mayor of this town," she spat. "I don't need magic to terrify the little twerp!"

They were almost on the kid when a grown man stepped in beside her. She twirled around in her seat, and all three women could plainly see the man and hear her squeal of, "Daddy!", as she threw her arms around him. All three also quickly put on their proverbial brakes as the man called fondly, "Gracie," and returned her tight hug.

"Oh my God," Mary Margaret breathed.

"That's the Mad Hatter!" Emma's blue eyes were wide. She turned quickly away from the father and daughter as did Mary Margaret and Regina.

"What have you done to our son," Regina demanded icily, "to make him take leave of his senses to the point he fell for the Mad Hatter's daughter?!"

"I haven't done anything!" Emma shot back. "It must be your influence!"

"I'm not the one with taste so poor in men that I was abandoned with child by one."

Mary Margaret stepped between her daughter and the Evil Queen just before Emma could slap the fire out of her. "Not here," she demanded both of them. "Not unless you want Henry to see you fighting again." Emma glowered at Regina, who scowled back, but Emma's hand dropping to her side and both of their body languages made it clear to Snow that they wouldn't try to attack each other again in Granny's, at least not while Henry was still present.

"We need to think about this," Mary Margaret added. "We definitely don't want Henry dating the Mad Hatter's daughter, so how do we get him over this?"

"I should take him home with me and make sure he returns to his senses," Regina remarked.

"Over my dead body," growled Emma.

"That could be arranged."

"Ladies! Not here!" Mary Margaret cried again. "Look, if you're going to insist on fighting each other, I can't and am not going to try to stop you, but you know that Henry wants you to get along. He's barely talking to us right now! Do you really want to alienate him more?"

"Says the mother who only spoke to her daughter after she was full grown."

"That was a low blow, Regina."

"What?" She gave a half and completely condescending laugh. "You expect an apology?"

"No, but I do expect us to put our heads together and come up with a solution for Henry's sake! We all know he's hurting, but making that girl go to the dance with him is not a solution."

"He needs a Princess befitting his title and stature. Unfortunately, there is no such creature in this realm."

"You're not taking him back to Fairy Tale land!"

"Henry's not going anywhere," Snow commanded, "and neither are we until we figure this out!"

"A Princess wouldn't be a bad idea," Emma admitted reluctantly, "but like the Evil Queen here said, there's no kid like that here."

"So we find somebody else for him to take to the dance," Mary Margaret mused.

"He won't ask any one else after he's been hurt."

"So we make somebody ask him," Regina retorted without hesitation.

"But who?" asked Mary Margaret.

"I already told you there's no one deserving of him here."

"We don't deserve him," Emma interjected point blank, "but we do love him. We need somebody like that: a pretty, little girl who doesn't deserve him but who will love him and not hurt him."

"Hum, ladies . . . "

The three women spun around again to face the man who dared to interrupt their private conversation. Neal stood, clasping his hands before him and looking considerably bashful. "I don't mean to dash your plans, but I think we have more trouble than that."

"What?" Regina snapped. "You're lucky I don't turn you into a frog for eavesdropping on our conversation!"

"We all care about Henry," Emma reminded her.

Mary Margaret was busily watching the table where Henry had been left alone. He was talking like a little chatterbox again, swinging his legs underneath the table and looking completely absorbed in Ruby. Snow White noted how her grandson seemed to hang on Ruby's every word, shine when she laughed, and have no idea whatsoever of anything or one else around them. "Hum, guys, I think Neal's right."

"What?" Regina demanded, but she and Emma both followed Mary Margaret's troubled gaze to their child.

"His hormones have kicked in early," Emma breathed in troubled disbelief.

Regina spoke with more foreboding than if a thousand wars were instantaneously being started across all the lands. "I always knew this day would come."

"We knew he was advanced for his age. It looks like he's starting to enter his teenage years early," Neal spoke with equal dread.

Snow White spoke with all their fears as they gaped openly at Henry and Ruby. "Oh, no."

"Maybe Grace wouldn't be so bad for him, after all," Emma commented.

"The Mad Hatter's daughter?" asked Neal.

"The Mad Hatter's daughter isn't touching my son," Regina remarked, her venomous voice full of anger, ferocity, and hatred and just a hint of worry, "and neither is that Little, Red Dog. I'll flay them both before I let them have Henry." She started forward, and for once, neither Emma, Mary Margaret, or Neal tried to stop her for they all felt the same.

Ruby's lupine senses warned her of the approaching danger. She looked up at the party heading for her and Henry, managed a small smile, hurried an apology to Henry, and darted away to wait on other tables. Henry was smiling innocently and eating his ice cream by the time his parents and grandmother arrived back by his side.

"Hey, bud, do you want us to talk to Grace for you?" Neal asked before any of the three women could lose their tempers.

"Nah. That's okay." Henry, apparently back to his normal self, smiled up at them. "I think I'll ask Anna tomorrow." All four adults let out a collective, silent whoosh of relief.

The End