"You've never told everyone this. Not this way. I think maybe they'd listen to you. At least work to ignore each other when necessary." But how true was it? She'd been doing so well and yet when Kenzi said what she had, she couldn't help it. She'd snapped and been her usual sarcastic self all over again. "It's going to take a long time to put our city back together, Henry. It won't be overnight. And I know it hurts to watch, you more than anyone. But we would never do anything to hurt you if we could help it."
The kid had a point, though. Emma still carried a lot of hatred in her, and a good majority of it was aimed at Regina Mills. She didn't want that. It hurt. Most of the time, she was able to forget. When she watched a movie before bed with her family. When she tucked Henry in or snuggled her baby girl after feeding her. When she got a hug from her mom or her dad. When she curled up beside Graham before bed. Most of the time it was possible for her to forget that she'd grown up as an angry and cynical orphan of the foster care system.
But then moments happened. When Belle looked back on this years separated from Rumple or when she touched her boyfriend and had to watch his eyes to be sure he still saw her and not his past. When she felt distant from the mother she'd never known and her father still felt like a stranger. And she felt it bubble up inside of her all over again.
"Pain is a part of life, angel. We have to deal with it. It's how we handle it that matters. And sometimes, we handle it the wrong way. A lot of us have been. Maybe if Regina had been able to handle hers all those years ago, none of us would be where we are. But we can learn. We can try. Love helps that, not hurts it." Said the woman still learning what love even was and how to express it. But it was a start.