Hook's Daughter

You're Very Persuasive

Disclaimer: all rights to ABC and Odette Beane. Only a few characters are mine.

Henry goes around the back of the house, apparently to climb up some socks he tied together to make a rope, while I go around front where the lady in the car with Henry earlier is walking back down the path.
"Hi. Are you Henry's mom?" I knew what the answer was, but I did not want to start this out weird. "Yeah, I'm Emma."
"Ashton." I almost say Charissa, but I figure Regina and Henry already know my name, it would leak out and I do not want to start out in bad terms with his mom. "Henry told me you were going to leave him, why?"
"That's really none of your business."
"Trust me, it is. I grew up alone, it sucks. Henry wants to get to know you; he wants parents. He wants a family." I say. I realize that everything I just said is what had been going through my mind my whole childhood. After leaving my dad and being alone, I changed. I always wish I had a family. Henry does not deserve to be alone. No one does.
"I'm giving him his best chance. He needs his best chance, and that's not with me."
"Don't you see his best chance is with you! That's not the reason you're leaving I can tell. It's because you're afraid to teach him wrong, isn't it?"
"That has nothing to do with it," but by her tone, it was pretty obvious I struck a chord. "The fact is, I grew up alone too. I don't know how to care for a child! My parents left me on the side of the interstate!"
"So don't leave Henry alone. If you know what it feels like, how could you want Henry to go through that?"
"I don't." She hung her head.
"You're very persuasive. You know that?" She asks me.
"I've been told." She gives lopsided smile.
"I'll stay for him. She walks past me to her car. As I get on my motorcycle, ready to go, I see Henry looking out at his window, smiling.