Love? Maybe.

It Gets Hard

A/N- This chapter is a rollercoaster of emotions, so hold on. Enjoy!

Regina cried herself to sleep every night after that, her eyes swollen, makeup running down her face...not that there was much at all, she gave up on wearing it. Her tears always smudged it off anyway. It had been three weeks since the night she figured out what her wife had done...and she hadn't spoken to Emma. She had forty three voice messages and sixty five unread texts..she left her phone off. She wasn't ready to hear any excuses.

She had told Emma that she wanted to be the one to leave...but of course Emma couldn't allow that, the same night she came back, packed her things (well what ever would fit in her duffel bag) and left.. Regina locked herself in the bathroom the whole time, a sobbing mess and Grace couldn't stop asking questions, ones Emma couldn't answer..silent tears running down both Emma's and her daughters faces. Henry just had stood there, protecting his brunette mother, a scowl on his face...he stood in front of where she was hiding out until Emma had left. Regina had taken all the blankets from their bed and the sheets and threw them out...broken glass all over their bed room floor from pictures of the couple flying everywhere. "Mom! Mom!" Henry ran in, glass getting stuck in his feet but he didn't even care to pay attention...he picked Regina up against his chest and rocked her back and forth, holding her tight against him. "Oh mom..." he whimpered, his heart breaking for her. How was this happening. "Mom...just tell me what happened..." she couldn't speak, not about that. "No hen..." she slowly opened her eyes and gasped, seeing blood on her wood floors. "Henry!" She cried and pushed out of his arms, gently lifting his foot. "Oh baby..I am so sorry.." a choked sob left her lips and she quickly ran into the bathroom, grabbing alcohol, tweezers, and gauze rap. "Lay on my bed..." she wiped her eyes and began to care for Henry's feet. "I'm so sorry hen..." and the next three weeks....she just fell down hill...

"Mom..." Henry slowly walked into Regina's room, his feet shuffling on the floor. He leaned against the wall and his heart clenched as he looked at Regina. Her hair was a greasy mess, same clothes she had been wearing the past three days, her eyes were swollen from tears and her lips were a pale color.

"What's up bug?" She quickly tried to wipe her tears, slicking her hair back and acting "natural" she had been trying to put up a front for her children..neither of them wanted to see Emma. Henry obviously knew what was happening...even if Regina wouldn't tell him, and Grace...well she heard her moms cry's from her room that night, heard her nightmares..and watched Henry run into her room night after night, soothing her as Regina called out Emma's name in a pained way.

"Mom..you're not okay. You need to get into a shower."

"Henry...please..." she couldn't go in there, so much had happened in that shower...lovely lovely things, memories now tainted. Memories from two days before Regina stepped foot in that club with Katheryn! She hadn't even talked to Kat since the night...basically shutting everyone out. She barely was sleeping in her bed, after Henry checked on her..as he had been every night, she would move to the floor with a pillow and a blanket...throwing out the blankets didn't take away the memories. Her back and neck were sore.

"I'm serious...I feel like I should call ma-"

"Don't!" Regina cut him off, looking up at him pleadingly. "She is not welcome here..." a growl was deep in Regina's throat. "Besides...she didn't care then...she won't care now." Her voice was bitter but in an almost broken way. Henry frowned and looked at the floor.

"Oh hen...I'm sorry, I...shouldn't have said that." The words tasted like poison on her tongue, because she meant every word and that's exactly how she felt.

"Ma keeps calling me...Grace keeps asking questions.."

"You're grown Hen..answer her if you want.." slowly Regina stood to her feet, cleaning up her eyes with her fingers again, "as far as Grace...soothe her questions." She growled, staring straight ahead at the wall. Regina wasn't stupid...she knew Henry knew exactly what had happened. He was taking care of her, every night before he laid down he would come in and check on her. He would rub her sweaty forehead and hold her as she sobbed against his chest, waking up from a horrible nightmare...she had been with Emma since Henry was four..he was a grown man now...she felt like so much had been ripped away from her in just an instant. "Mom..please  just-"