The Christmas Wish

A Wish for Santa

A/N: Here's my offering for Christmas this year! It's a non-magical AU, though maybe that's a bit of a stretch. There may be some magic at play throughout the story. I hope everyone enjoys it!

Dedicated to GlindaLovesShoes and Rachael728once, who both got to ready this in advance and whose comments helped me as well as encouraged me to keep going. Thank you both so, so much.

An additional thank you to GlindaLovesShoes, who also made the cover art for this story!

Christmas was supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year.

As a single mother, Regina Mills did her best to make sure it was for her darling son, Henry. They decorated their house the day after Thanksgiving when the weather was still agreeable, allowing the two to hang multicolored lights around their windows as well as the columns and railings on their deck. Regina also swallowed down her fear of heights to climb up a ladder and place a lit-up Santa in his sleigh as it was pulled by his reindeer, including Rudolph and his blinking red nose, on her roof. Illuminated snowmen and blow up scenes were set out on the lawn, making sure they never missed their house throughout the month of December.

It still didn't hold a candle to how bright Henry's smile was and that alone made it all worth it.

Two weekends later always found them out in the forest around their little town of Storybrooke, Maine, where the best Douglas firs grew. She bundled Henry up in his warmest coat, a festive hat and scarf as well as his thickest gloves before donning similar apparel herself. Hand-in-hand they walked through rows of trees, searching for the right one to live in their living room until the New Year. Regina was willing to pay any cost for the best tree and drove their pick carefully home. They then spent the rest of the night decorating it with ornaments Regina had collected over the years and ones Henry had made since starting school. Beautiful glass orbs hung with handprint Santas and clothespin reindeer. All with a star on top, ready to shine down on the mount of presents Regina made sure he had to open every Christmas morning.

Getting that mound of presents, though, meant fighting crowds at the mall every year, which disrupted the tight schedules she created to help juggle mommyhood and her career. Yet she still managed to get Henry up, dressed, fed with a healthy breakfast and off to school with an equally healthy lunch each morning. Then she went off to either her office or court, depending on her cases as an assistant district attorney.

After a day spent arguing both in court and out of it, she picked up Henry from the school's aftercare program. Tuesdays were for soccer practice while Thursdays were his scout meetings before a home-cooked meal and homework. Henry knew he was to take a bath and then he curled up next to her on the couch for an hour of reading. Once he was tucked in for the night, she returned to the couch for some good television and a glass of wine.

Their weekends were spent together, doing every fun thing Regina could think of. Day trips, movie marathons, games and the like filled those days and nights. Saturday nights were also bath nights for her, a chance for her to unwind from the week once Henry was asleep. Regina loved her weekends.

It was a schedule that worked throughout the rest of the year and that Christmas screwed up. There were many trips to the mall either after work or on the weekends so she could find all the gifts she needed for Henry and her family. Because of this, there were more dinners spent at restaurants or fast food places than she would like. However, it was easier than trying to cook after being pushed and jostled by less than merry shoppers.

Yet the piece de resistance was the visit to Santa so Henry could tell him what he wanted.

Henry pulled her through the crowded mall, knowing the way to Santaland by heart as it was always set up in the dead center of the mall. "Come on, Mom," he said. "We don't want to miss Santa!"