Hi Everyone! Thanks to the ridiculousness of the latest OUaT episodes, I felt compelled to post my Swan Queen fic that I've been working on. I won't be updating this as often, but I have a lot planned for it. Viva la Swan Queen!
Note: I do not own or claim ownership to any characters here within.
AU Setting: Post-curse, everyone decides to stay in Storybrooke. Regina is elected as Deputy Mayor along with David/Charming. Portals are available to travel, but most have decided to stay in this world vs. FTL.
Lost Little Girl
"Regina, let's go! Henry's gonna be late for school!" Emma called from the bottom of the stairs. She reached for her keys and badge on the side table, fixing the symbolic gold metal to her jeans.
"I'm coming! Just a moment!" The response from up the stairs caused Emma and her 12-year-old son Henry to roll their eyes at each other.
"You know she's always like this, Ma. What is she doing up there?" Henry whined. He wasn't really worried about being late for school, Emma always made sure he was there with time to spare.
It had been a year since the curse broke, when Emma confessed that she had fallen for Regina Mills, former mayor of Storybrooke and the Evil Queen of the Enchanted Forest. They stole a kiss beneath Regina's own apple tree, effectively releasing the town from the curse. Portals back to the Enchanted Forest opened at the well and the mine, but most were quite happy with their lives in Storybrooke, so they decided to stay. The luxuries of the modern world were too convenient for the townsfolk to give up, which left Emma quite satisfied that she didn't need to become a Princess. Although the curse was broken, it didn't save the Enchanted Forest from being wiped out from Regina's magic. There would be nothing to go back to, but it did allow for people to pass through, therefore making Storybrooke a bit bigger.
The former mayor came rushing down the stairs in a charcoal grey skirt suit and blue satin blouse, struggling to carry her heels and purse at the same time. Emma glanced up in time to catch Regina's gaze and smiled. The brunette huffed as she joined them and put on her shoes. "We wouldn't have to go through this if you would just move in, Emma. It would be much easier than you coming over late in the evening and throwing off my whole schedule."
Emma rolled her eyes and walked over to where Regina stood, primping herself in the mirror. She stood behind Regina and casually slipped her arms around the woman's waist and brought her body close. "I know, I know. Just... Let me think about it. It's not that I don't want to be with you, I just... um..."
"Mom, Emma... Can we go now?" Henry whined. He looked up at them, exasperated that they chose now to talk about love and stuff. He was honestly happy for them and it made his life ten times easier. No more choosing which mom to stay with for a weekend, he could spend time with both of them at once. It had also elevated his status in school. Although the town had widely begun to accept Regina as a normal person, not the tyrannical Evil Queen, her previous status still held, making Henry the almost Prince of the school. Not to mention that he was the grandson of Snow White and Prince Charming. He kept a pretty solid reputation and he wasn't about to let something like being tardy ruin that. A moment ago he wasn't so worried, but he knew how long things could draw out when his moms began serious conversations.
"All right, kid. Let's go." Emma opened the front door for Henry and Regina, closing it behind her and locking it with the spare key she kept on her car keys. Emma had parked her Bug haphazardly on the street outside of Regina's excessively large house, much to the disapproval of the house's owner. As she opened the car door for Henry, she smiled as Regina joined her, brown eyes giving the vehicle a clear look of distaste. "Meet you at Granny's?"
"Certainly, dear. I just wish you would stop driving this thing around and we use my Mercedes instead." Regina leaned past Emma where Henry sat and pulled him close for a kiss on the head. "Have a good day at school, Henry."
Henry made a small scowl at his mother's affections, but allowed for it anyways. If one thing never changed, it was how much Regina doted on him. "See you later, Mom. Don't forget that I'm going with Grandpa David after school. So you don't have to freak out and call my phone a million times."
Regina stepped back and put her hand to her chest, "Henry... I'm shocked you'd say such a thing to me. I don't freak out." Emma and Henry exchanged a glance then simultaneously looked at Regina. "I don't! Enough of this, I'm heading out. Miss Swan, I better see you at the diner in twenty minutes." Being more bark than anything else these days, Regina strutted to her car, leaving Henry and Emma in a fit of muffled laughs at her expense. Regina got into her own car, grumbling about how she could have ever fallen for such a childish woman.
After dropping Henry off at school and parking her precious Bug at the station, Emma took the patrol car to Granny's Diner where she found Regina waiting at their usual booth. She waved to Ruby and Granny as she entered, drawing everyone's eyes to her as her boots echoed across the floor. She slid into the booth across from Regina just as Ruby brought her a cup of coffee.
"Morning, Em, Regina. Are you excited about your first day?" Ruby asked with a smile. "Deputy Mayor does have a nice ring to it."
Regina sighed and sipped her coffee, "Miss Lucas, I have spent enough time as this town's mayor, I hardly think it will feel any different."
Emma tapped Regina's foot beneath the table. "Be nice, Gina." She looked up and smiled apologetically to Ruby, but then saw her friend watch Regina set the cup down with a shaky hand. Emma reached across the table as Ruby walked away, assuming that they'd have their usual breakfast. She took Regina's hand in her own and rubbed her wrist with her thumb. "Hey, relax. It'll be fine."
Regina met Emma's gaze and sucked in her breath, trying to calm herself. "I'm perfectly fine, Emma. I can do this."
"It's okay if you're scared, Gina. But you've made a lot of progress in the last year and the town absolutely loves you. In fact, all of them put together come just a smidgen close to how much I love you."
"It has a limit?" Regina asked, giving Emma a playfully devious smirk.
"Um... I mean..." Emma stumbled on her answer, knowing that she had just dug herself a bit of a hole.
Regina held back a giggle and smiled. "I'm teasing. Thank you, I feel much better now. I hope Ruby doesn't think I'm upset with her."
"Ruby? The she-wolf? I hardly think such a thing would shake her at all."
"What thing?" Ruby asked as she approached their tables with two plates. She set a full plate of eggs, bacon and potatoes in front of Emma while Regina's ever healthy diet consisted of yogurt, fruit and toast.
"I apologize for my comment earlier, Ruby. I was a bit on edge, but I've calmed down now."
Ruby smiled, "Don't worry about it, Regina. You'll be amazing, I just know it. Sorry, girls, I gotta get back to the other tables before Granny fires an arrow at me or something." Ruby excused herself quickly, leaving Regina and Emma to their breakfast.
"I told you she'd be fine." Emma grinned before shoveling a forkful of eggs into her mouth. Regina half smiled and raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend's unrefined eating habits and sighed contentedly.
"Well then," Regina said, finally picking up her spoon, "Let's finish breakfast and start our day then."
Emma's day was relatively normal for being in a town crawling with people from a land of fairytales. David had stopped by before heading off to the city hall where he and Regina would be working on city development planning. Emma did a morning patrol, stopping by to check in with Snow, visit the dwarves in the mines and help Belle with security cameras being set up in the library. She returned to the station right before lunch, falling down into her chair just moments before Regina walked in with a paper bag.
"Busy day?"
Emma groaned, "Not really, just the usual. It's pretty quiet around here. How's the planning work going?"
"Slowly." Regina pulled a chair next to Emma's desk and proceeded to unload the contents of the bag onto the desk: two sandwiches, a bag of potato chips for Emma and a small salad for herself.
Emma lifted both of the sandwiches and immediately set one down in front of Regina and smiled. "Ooh, roast beef. It's like you know exactly what I need!"
Regina blushed slightly, "You're quite verbal, so..." Emma looked up with her mouth wide open, about to take a bite into her sandwich, stopping just before the bread could meet her mouth. She lowered her meal for a moment, still looking at Regina with wide eyes. A large grin slowly spread across her face before she finally set her sandwich down and let go the laughter she was trying to keep in. Regina looked flustered at first, having blurted out such a comment, knowing full well that she was referring to their afterhours activities, but soon followed suit and laughed as well.
Emma stood up from her chair and leaned across the desk, planting a soft kiss on the other woman's lips. "I love that you still catch me off guard once in awhile."
Regaining her posture, the deputy mayor smiled her most classic smile which was somewhere between a smirk and a natural smile. It was one of the things that Emma could not turn down. Regina's smile was so deliciously devious and seductive that it nearly melted Emma every time. "Someone's got to keep you on your toes, Sheriff Swan."
"What's the rest of your day look like?" Emma asked, finally starting on her sandwich.
"David decided we were done for the day. We can't really move forward without consulting some other residents. We could certainly use a bit of help from the dwarves and perhaps Marco and August. I figured that since we were done, I'd do some grocery shopping and fix us something nice for dinner. I haven't made lasagna in awhile. I asked David if he and Snow wanted to come over and join us." Regina answered, opening up her salad and meticulously preparing it in the box.
"Sounds like a plan. Want me to pick up anything?" Regina paused and set down her salad. She hadn't touched any of her food yet, but she found that the idea that was stumbling around in her head was more important.
"Yes, there is something you can pick up," she answered firmly. "You can stop at your parents' house and get your tooth brush, at least half of your clothes, your shoes and be a family with me and Henry. Or is it that you don't want to go beyond this?"
A rock fell a thousand meters into Emma's stomach and landed flatly in the middle somewhere, making her painfully aware of how nervous she had become. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with Regina and Henry. In fact there wasn't anything she wanted more than that. Her excuse a few months ago when Regina first brought it up was that she wanted to spend more time with her parents and Regina gracefully backed down for the time being. But it was well over a year since they began dating and it was almost getting silly with the amount of time that Emma was spending at Regina's. Even Henry had moved most of his things back into his room.
Emma was saved from answering and revealing all her fears when the office phone rang. She held up her hand to politely excuse herself from the conversation and picked up the phone. Regina sighed and rolled her eyes, but she was not ready to give in.
"Sheriff's office... I see, okay. Give me a few minutes, I'll be right over... thanks." She stood up and moved to the coat rack, putting on her red leather jacket and then returning to Regina's side. She placed a hand on the brunette's shoulder and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "I'm sorry, Regina. I don't mean to cut this short, but I've got an emergency call. Can we talk about this later?"
Regina grasped Emma's hand on her shoulder and locked her gaze on the blonde. "Just answer me. Do you or do you not want to move this relationship further?"
Emma took a deep breath and kissed Regina fully on the lips, brushing her tongue softly over her lips and deepening the kiss for just a moment. She pulled away and smiled, "I plan on taking this wherever we need to take it, as far as we need to take it. Even if it's just one step at a time. Sorry, baby, really gotta go." Emma excused herself, rushing out the door and leaving Regina in the office alone with a half eaten sandwich and a small smile on her face.
The site Emma had been called to was just barely outside the city line. Since the curse broke, the nasty little spell that was on the town's perimeter had disappeared. Most people stayed out of Storybrooke, but occasionally they'd have one or two outside visitors. By now, the town had such an act in place that anyone walking in from the outside would find nothing particularly interesting about the town.
She found two highway patrol officers in a clearing not far from the road, both looking down at the dirt coated child planted on the ground. She was very much alive, but oddly silent. She was small and obviously under nourished with dull blonde hair, and wearing a pale blue dress, she gazed up as Emma approached with vacant eyes.
"What's going on?" Emma asked the other officers.
One of them, a medium figured man with sandy blonde hair glanced up as Emma approached. "You must be Storybrooke's sheriff. Swan, right? Well, we got a call in from a semi truck driver who said this child ran out into the road. He said he almost hit her. He got out of the truck and found the little girl here, just sitting down on the ground."
"Did you get a name?"
The officers shook their heads. "She won't say anything, just sits there. Look, Sheriff Swan, she's practically within your city limits and we'd rather not call the FBI for this, so how about we leave her to you and we take care of the driver? He's back on the side of the road."
Emma sighed. She figured this would happen. Way out here, the State authorities would rather leave things like this to the town they were confined in. Things usually got weird. "Fine. Keep us out of your reports and I'll keep you out of ours."
"Fair enough." The officers agreed. They didn't want the hassle of pulling up some kind of child abuse case. It always became something bigger and convoluted when children were involved. They quickly left Emma and the little girl, returning down the road where they had left their patrol car.
She rolled her eyes once the officers were gone. "Stupid State patrol... I swear I really think they just go around writing tickets." Emma turned to the little girl who was now staring at her with lost blue eyes. "Hey, kiddo... um... do you have a name?"
The girl stared at her and Emma frowned. This child couldn't be far from Henry's age, perhaps near 8 or 9 years old. Something painful twisted in Emma's chest and she offered her hand to the girl. "I'm Emma."
The vacant eyes blinked, revealing a slight bit of focus returning to them. "Alice."
Emma smiled, relieved that the girl was at least somewhat willing to open up to her. "It's nice to meet you, Alice. Do you want to come back to town with me?" The girl nodded, putting her frail hand in Emma's. She sighed in relief, leading the child back to the patrol car and helping her into the front seat. As they drove down the road back into Storybrooke, Emma picked up her cellphone and dialed the first number in her favorites list.
"Hey… are you still at the station?" Pause. "Well, wait for me at your house. Um… I've come across an interesting case… it may involve both of us." There was some high pitched garble coming from the other end of the phone and Emma instinctively pulled it away from her ear. "Love you, too, Regina. See you soon."
Sighing, Emma put her phone away and glanced between the road and the little girl. "So, where are you from, Alice?"
"Wonderland." The answer was so honest and simple that Emma nearly slammed on the breaks in shock. She managed to keep her cool as they passed the first houses into town. Deciding that she needed to bring this directly to the Deputy Mayor instead of the police station, Emma passed through downtown, running all sorts of ideas about the child in her head.
"Wonderland?" Has to be some kind of kid's game… right? Henry was like this, too. Emma knew all too well about children and their imaginations. She didn't believe it at first, when her son appeared out of nowhere, insisting that she was the Savior, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and that his mother was the Evil Queen of the Enchanted Forest. But after spending enough time in Storybrooke and with it's residents, Emma wasn't sure what was real or imagination. She had even been in the Enchanted Forest and seen it's remnants. She stood in the royal nursery with Snow as her same aged mother sadly looked around the room and the shattered hopes that lay scattered on the floor.
Alice didn't answer. She only nodded, staring at her own hands. Emma occasionally looked over at the girl, taking note of her appearance. The child's long blonde hair was matted and messy, uneven in places from tangles and poor care. Her pale blue dress was torn and her black Mary Jane shoes were clearly faded and worn. The girl's entire appearance told the story of poor foster care. It was no wonder that the state officers were so quick to drop it on Emma's lap.
She parked the car in front of Regina's mansion and shut off the vehicle. Before she got out, she turned to Alice and offered her hand to the little girl again. "Alice, I'm going to make sure you get taken care of, okay? Will you let me help you?" The girl appeared hesitant at first, but then nodded and threw her arms around Emma's neck as if she were holding on to dear life. Emma was taken aback at first, but she slowly allowed herself to relax and patted the girl's messy hair. "There, there. Let's go inside. There's someone very important to me who can help us out."
After prying Alice off of her, Emma got out of the car and opened the passenger door for the girl. With the look of a scared animal, Alice climbed out and immediately grabbed onto Emma's hand. The sheriff was all too familiar with that sort of attachment. When she was younger and being moved between foster homes, she had her fair share of unfortunate homes. Often they were homes where the adults were just taking in children to rake in the government funding. Once in awhile, someone nice would come along and Emma would always want to cling to them like they could save her. Something in her gut told her that this child was feeling the same way.
She walked with Alice to the doorstep, just as Regina flung the door open. "Emma! Are you all right?! What...wait, what's going on?" Regina's tone quickly moved from concern to confusion as she took in the haggard appearance of the little girl. Immediately her heart melted as she saw the girl duck behind Emma at Regina's intensity.
"Easy, Gina. She's a little scared." Emma replied, letting herself into the house with Alice in tow. "Her name is Alice. State troopers found her in the woods off the side of the road after a truck nearly hit her. I think she's a runaway."
Emma guided the girl to the couch in the sitting room, smiling softly at her to calm the child down. Alice's eyes, now a bit brighter than when she had first encountered Emma, drifted all around the room, taking in the sheer regality of the furnishings. It was true that Regina kept an immaculately clean home, but it was also decorated in such a way that exemplified her previous status as Queen. Whatever it was about the room, it kept Alice focused enough that Regina could pull her girlfriend away.
The brunette dragged Emma into the kitchen where she pulled her close and whispered harshly, "Miss Swan," she began, indicating that she was not at all pleased. "You better have some sort of explanation for this."
Emma put up her hands defensively, "Just hear me out, Regina. I have a really strong feeling that this girl is from an abusive foster home and that she just needs someone to take care of her for a bit. Come on, I can't just leave a kid like that to the state authorities."
"That would be the most reasonable decision, Sheriff Swan." Regina spat back. Emma winced at the words, understanding full well that she was not behaving as a proper sheriff should.
"I promise, I will start looking for her foster family in the morning. Just... let's take care of her today, please?" Regina was used to brushing off Emma's ridiculous ideas and the occasional bad idea from Henry, but the look in the blonde woman's eyes was so intense that she couldn't even begin to deny her plea.
Regina sighed, "Fine. I'm not so heartless that I'd send a child out on the streets. We'll take care of her until we find her family. In exchange, you need to be here as well. I know you're not ready to move in, but at least while Alice is here, I think you need to participate in making this house a family home." Two birds with one stone, Regina was not going to let this opportunity go to waste.
Emma nodded enthusiastically. She wrapped her arms around the deputy mayor's waist and kissed her lips while fighting off a very grateful smile. "Thank you. I'll go back and get my car, pick up some things from my parents' place and let them know what's going on. I promise I'll be back in time for dinner. I'll pick up Henry so I can explain to him what's going on. Are you okay with keeping an eye on Alice for now?"
Regina scoffed, "I raised our son, I think I can take care of a 9-year-old girl."
"Just be gentle with her... kids like that aren't as willing as others like Henry to open up to adults." Emma warned, her green eyes darkening slightly.
Catching the hint of regretful childhood memories in Emma's eyes, Regina cupped her hand to the blonde's cheek and smiled before giving her another kiss. "Don't worry. I'll see you tonight."
Relaxing quite a bit, Emma released Regina's waist and led her back to the sitting room where Alice was still quietly sitting on the couch. Emma walked in front of the girl and crouched down so she was eye level with her. "Alice, this is Regina, my very important partner. I have some things to take care of, but she'll be here with you. Will you be a good girl and listen to her while I'm away?"
Alice gazed at Emma firmly as she spoke then drifted her eyes towards Regina who was standing not too far off from the blonde woman. Regina offered a soft smile, the kind of smile that she usually only gave to Henry. She came closer slowly then sat down next to Alice. "Hello, Alice. My name is Regina Mills. I was just about to bake cookies for dessert tonight, would you like to help me?"
The girl's blue eyes stared straight through Regina before focusing and she finally nodded in response. Regina sighed in relief and stood up, holding her hand out to the child. "Let's go get you cleaned up first." She led Alice to the stairs so she could start a bath, looking back at Emma who was headed towards the door. "Emma, don't forget your toothbrush."
The blonde spun around just in time to see Regina lead Alice up the stairs. She shook her head with a smile, realizing that she had fallen for Regina's trap and that she would be temporarily moving in that night.
