Chapter One

Listening to her heels click against the checkered tile, only sought to infuriate her further.

She didn't want to be here. The floors smelt like cheap cleaning product. The iridescent lights overhead were too bright, and this whole excursion was a giant waste of her time; not to mention, a disruption to her very busy, very meticulously planned schedule.

Even her son's hand, warm in her own, couldn't bite the ball of rage wedged tight into her chest. Instead, with each step closer, it continued to grow. The all-consuming rage was yet another reminder of everything she had done wrong as a person, and as a parent.

As it turned out, she had grown to be more like her mother than she had previously thought possible.

The thought alone had her temper boiled to its peak.

As Regina approached the information desk on the second floor, the attendee was working quickly to end her phone conversation. She had seen the angered, well-dressed woman coming up from the steps, and felt it immediately best to shift her priorities in Regina's favor.

But not soon enough.

With her temper at a new all-time low, Regina leaned over the ledge of the desk. Her fingers impatiently drummed against the glass, and her lips were pursed hard against her teeth. The attendee flashed her a small apologetic grin. She could see how the woman's brow had pinched just over the brim of her darkly shaded sunglasses.

Regina could only roll her eyes in response. The woman's hair was too long to be considered professional. Dark roots indicated she had little to no self respect, and her lack of makeup suggested she was unbothered by her age. Regina found that quality filled her with detest. She, herself, would rather be caught dead than caught sporting brightly colored acrylic nails and worry lines, like craters, along her forehead. Luckily, at mid-thity, she had neither.

"Regina Mills," She leveled cooly, before the woman's phone could replace against the receiver.

"Yes Ma'am," Her green eyes were wide. The authoritative tone had driven the attendee off guard. She turned quickly back to her computer, stroking her fingers against the keys. When she returned her attention back to Regina, the attendee noticed that she had begun to sweat. "Y-yes, Miss Mills. You and, um, Henry..." She looked down to the young boy standing at his mother's feet. "You're in office six."

"What a... systematic operation, you appear to be running here. " Her tongue clicked against her teeth with distaste, and she turned away. "Come along, Henry."

With her shoulders pulled back, Regina strode past the desk. Henry followed at her rear, lingering only a step behind. The room was filled with empty cubicles and darkened side offices. They reached door number six. The last office on the right; a corner suite. It appeared to be the only room left with a light still on.

"Does no one work around here?" Regina mumbled.

Henry swayed on the balls of his feet at Regina's side. He wanted to say something about the time of day, or lack there of, but he knew better. Instead, his hands were kept balled in his pockets and his eyes were cast down towards his toes. He listened as his mother knocked once.

Knowing she'd never wait for an answer anyway, he ducked in hiding behind her legs, and peered out cautiously from behind her hip.

Regina did just as Henry had predicted.

She briskly let herself in. A woman spun around from her desk, appearing startled. She had a sandwich extended in her hand, and her mouth was stuffed full with deli ham. Her brow was cocked and her head tilt towards the side.

She forcefully swallowed. "Um, Hello-" She balked, and dropped the sandwich back into its container.

Regina pulled the shades out from behind her ears and dropped them into her handbag.

"We have a seven-thirty appointment." The 'T' rolled off her tongue with a sharpness that stung.

The woman wiped her mouth clean with the dry end of her napkin. "I see... you're just a bit early, and-"

"I was told we needed to be here fifteen minutes early for the intake- are you the intern?" The woman merely blinked in reply. "You can run along and go get the counselor now. There is no need to waste anymore of our time."

The woman finally moved. She spun fully to face them, and sat up in her chair. "Regina Mills, am I right? And Henry..." Her lips pulled into a genuine smile, and she offered the boy a small wave. "There's no need to 'go and get the counselor', Miss. Mills." She continued as she stood. "She is standing right in front of you... Hello, I am Emma Swan, your social worker."

Emma reached out with her hand, but Regina merely frowned at the gesture. "Is this some kind of joke?"

The woman's brows shot to her forehead. "Excuse me?"

"Tell me, Miss. Swan, how old are you?" Regina didn't wait for her reply. "Surely, though your empty government-office suggests otherwise, there is someone more qualified around around here who can better handle a delicate situation, such as this one; someone with a little more experience..."

Emma dropped her hand to her thigh with a slap, and then smirked.

"Can I be straight with you, Regina?" Regina went to protest Emma's informality, but the woman had turned away. Emma crossed the room and dropped into the chaise lounge stationed in the far corner.

She crossed a foot over her thigh, and continued. "Your job, over these next few weeks, is to impress me, and right now, you're not doing a very stand-up job of that. I am the person who reports to the courts. I decide when all of this...goes away. So, why don't you both have a seat on the couch, and we can get the intake started?"

Regina didn't move. She stayed frozen in the doorway with her hands balled tight into fists. The vein on her forehead was protruding out of the skin and her teeth were grit strict behind her pursed lips.

She wanted to say something. Her brain was screaming to fight back. How dare this woman treat her this way, and with such disregard for professionalism. But then, Henry was there, tugging at her black work slacks.

Regina looked down and sighed. "Go take a seat, Henry." She nudged him softly forward.

Still grappling with Emma's abrasiveness, Regina remained hesitating in the doorway. Her hand was stiff on the frame, and her eyes strained as she watched Henry sit. She felt her neck muscles tightening as he scooted as far away from the strange woman as the couch would allow.

Regina released a soundless breath, and finally, closed the door.

She sat beside her son, feeling Emma's eyes on her the entire time. It was irritating. Regina was angered. Emma was watching her behind the dark rimmed glasses that she had slid down from the top of her blonde head. The arch fell low against the bridge of her pointed nose.

Petulant, was how both would describe the other.

"So how does this work then?" Regina crossed her legs at the ankles. Her hands perched perfectly a top her knees. "Do I explain to you why I did what I did, and then you let us go on our merry way?"

Unamused, Emma's face never faltered. "I am more concerned with who you are as a mother, Miss. Mills, and the relationship you've built with your son."

Regina shifted her attention to the boy who had grown visibly more uncomfortable at her side. His hands were wrung tight in his lap and his brown eyes drew in quick circles over his mother's face. "Is this really an appropriate conversation to be having in front of Henry?"

Emma smirked, tapping her pen against the clipboard. "One might conclude it's the actions you've carried out in front of your son, that lead you to my office today. But, like I said, I am not interested in the semantics of paperwork and police reports."

"Well, you are the case worker." Regina's stare was cold. "Why don't you get to your questioning so we can get back to our routine?"

Remaining calm, Emma blinked long and slow before sitting up straight in her chair. "Fair enough, Regina-"

"It's Miss. Mills, to you, if you'll please."

Her tone stated that people often didn't make that mistake twice. Regina commanded authority, and Emma thought best, for the sake of their session, and for Henry, to do as the woman wished.

"Fine." Emma nodded, doing her best to show Regina she was unfazed. "Miss. Mills... is having a routine something that is important to you?"

Regina was bored. She had no interest in being here. She was paying for an hour long therapy session that she'd been forced into by incompetent men, and now she was required to answer unimportant questions like this one.

"Well, I'd say routines are vital while raising successful and well-adjusted children. Wouldn't you agree, Miss. Swan?"

"I didn't ask you about Henry." Emma pointed. Her teeth clamped down briefly on her bottom lip. "I asked how you felt about having a routine?"

Regina's arms crossed over her chest. "What is it that you would like to hear me say, Miss. Swan? That I am a rigid and inflexible person? That I cause problems when life does not go the way I expect it too?"

"You said it, not me." Emma teased, but the effect it had on Regina was instantaneous.

"Is that your idea of a joke?" She baited with little emotion.

"Maybe," Emma was smiling, yet Regina was fatefully unamused.

"Seems in poor taste, given the environment, wouldn't you agree, Miss. Swan?" She lifted her chin to the younger woman dressed in her bargain-bin pantsuit. "I like my routine, and I deploy one in my home to help Henry acclimate to our new life here. I will not apologize for that. Now, I'd appreciate if we could skip the psycho-babble and get on with the intake."

Emma waited to roll her eyes until she'd turned fully down to her clipboard. This, Regina woman, she was not unlike the other mothers she'd been assigned to work with before. Though, she was eons more stubborn, and as demanding as some of the professors she'd had in college. Emma found herself intrigued by her, but also spiteful.

Rich women, like Regina, they often thought throwing money at their problems would make them disappear. Little did they know, the world was always working to maintain the balance between good and evil; money be damned.

And what had led Regina and her son Henry to Emma's office, some would say, was evil.

But it was not Emma's responsibility to find validity in those rumors. It was her job to assess if Henry was safe in Regina's care.

To everyone's benefit, their first session did not carry on any longer than needed. Emma dropped the banter. She turned her attention to the forms. Emma stuck to the book, innerly enjoying how Regina calmed while preforming the routine task of paper-work.

"We will process these forms and someone from the office will be in touch within the next few days. The sooner we get you on the schedule, the sooner I can complete my analysis for the courts."

Her brown eyes lowered in reply. "Very well," She stated. Regina didn't look pleased, but then again, she didn't appear angered either. "So, is that all for the day, Miss Swan? Are we free to leave?"

Emma simply nodded. "You can go. I'll be seeing you both again real soon."

Regina didn't say anything as they parted. Henry, however, he offered Emma a tiny wave before following after his mom.

After the door had fully closed, Emma sighed. Cases like these were as delicate as Regina had described them to be. She had gone into social work in college, as an ode to help children growing up in state care... just as Emma had. Unfortunately though, there were cases like these; cases where it would be her decision, ultimately, to side with the courts, and remove children from their home.

Emma could only hope Regina wouldn't give her another reason to do so.

After all, she didn't look like the type mother who wanted to lose custody of her son.

But Emma had been wrong before...

A/N: This was a Tumblr prompt, gone rouge. It is more of a novella, in length, rather than a novel. That is subject to change, of course. As I start my edits, I am always finding things to add and alter.

If you're happy with how it reads, I'd be happy to drag the story out a little further.