Author's Note: Hey, guys, I'm finally back! And with a behemoth of a new idea! (Don't worry-Just Give Me A Reason WILL BE UPDATED SOON. I swear on my life it'll be before Christmas. I swear on Emma Swan, guys.) So, I read Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in late September to mid October in AP English, and I absolutely fell in love with it (Heathcliff is my favorite-I pictured Colin O'Donoghue when I read it, so...but I really love the character as well). I'm gonna loosely base this fic off of it. I say loosely, because, well first of all they're not gonna die after marrying some random hos and never being together. Hell no. That ain't happening here. Second, this is set in the enchanted forest, not Victorian England, so there'll be magic and the like. Plus, there'll be some other things to keep in mind, but you'll see at the end of the chapter. I hope you guys enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own no rights to any Once Upon A Time Characters or Plots, nor do I own any rights to that of any plots or characters from Wuthering Heights.
The little girl was the most beautiful child in all the realms, renowned far and wide for her soft blonde curls, and brilliant blue eyes. She wanders through the palace library, evening dress billowing out before her, as she does every evening. Tonight, however, she is seeking out not a lovely story to read, but a lovely librarian to tell her a tale as old as time.
A tale that is her absolute favorite.
She spies her behind the grand desk in the front of the library, flipping through the pages of an old and weathered hardback. Her chin rests on her palm, elbow on the desktop, and her hair is pulled up in a loose ponytail, small strands falling in front of her eyes. She sits perched upon a stool. She looks peaceful.
Naturally, the girl rushes toward her.
"Belle! Belle!" She yells, arms wide and huge grin on her face.
Belle laughs, and then admonishes, "We're in a library, sweetie. You can't run and you have to be quiet." She gives her a reproving look, one eyebrow arched and all.
"Sorry, sorry." The girl quickly apologizes. "But it's my birthday today, and I wanted to hear a story." She gives the woman a wide eyed look, batting her eyelashes and jutting out her lower lip.
"Well, how could I ever say no to that?" Belle asks rhetorically, and grins at the girl. "And a very happy birthday to you, as well. How old are you now? Twenty three?"
The little girl giggles and Belle smiles. "Noooo." She drags out the word between bursts of laughter. "I'm four years old today!" As she says this, she holds up her four tiny fingers, to emphasize her point.
"Wow," Belle says with a smile. "You're getting quite old, now, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am."
Belle takes the girl's hand in her own and walks her around the desk and over to a small sitting area in the library by a large marble fireplace. She sits down in one of the three large, plush maroon chairs, and the girl sits on the snow white-colored rug in front of her.
"And what story would you like to hear today, on your birthday?" Belle asks her good-naturedly.
"I would like to hear the story of the princess and the pirate!" She says excitedly, standing and proceeding to jump up and down.
"That one? But you've heard it a thousand times." Belle points out. "Wouldn't you like to hear a different one? Perhaps a story of a thief and a queen? Or a beast and a beauty? A girl in a tower?" She suggests.
"But that one is my very, absolute favorite story of all time!" The girl proclaims dramatically, flinging her arms out before her and dropping on the rug with a huff of exasperation.
"Alright, alright. I shall tell you that one. Settle down now." Belle tells her while settling back in her chair. The girl jumps to attention, and sits cross-legged on the rug. "And just so you know," Belle adds, "He wasn't always a pirate, nor was he one for very long."
The girl giggles. "I know, I know!"
She smiles at the girl. "Okay, then. Well, I don't even need a book for this story! I know it by heart!" She tells her.
"Because you experienced it!" The girl exclaims.
"Yes, I did." Belle says with a grin and then begins recounting the lovely tale of the princess and the pirate to the girl sitting before her.
"It was either to be the greatest love story or the most scandalous love affair the Enchanted Forest had ever seen. Depends on who you talk to..."
Princess Emma was the first child of the great Snow White and Prince Charming. Shortly after their wedding, the current Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin, discovered a way to outsmart Peter Pan and send his army in to attack Neverland. He vanquished Pan and rescued his teenaged son, Baelfire, from the villainous hands of his longtime foe and father. When he returned to the Enchanted Forest victorious, he enchanted the dark curse he had given to Regina, The Evil Queen, rendering it null and void, now that he no longer had a need for it. She, however, was furious.
"You did WHAT?!" Regina screeched, stalking towards Rumple as if she were a predator, and he, prey.
"I glamoured the curse, dearie. Made it a...blank sheet of paper." Rumple said, with a flourish of his hand. "I now have my son, the only purpose for the creation of the curse in the first place. Now that I no longer have a need for it, why would I allow it to still exist? It is the darkest curse. It's power more potent than you can ever imagine. Trust me, dearie...I'm doing you a favor."
"You twisted, little imp." The Queen scolded, narrowing her eyes and baring her teeth. "You planned all this, didn't you? To cause me misery." She speaks in her most imperious tone. Every bit the Evil Queen she was so cleverly coined as.
"Whatever do you mean?" Rumple asks, seemingly oblivious to her inferencing.
"This is what everyone does! What they've always done!" Regina screams. "My mother, you, god, even SNOW WHITE! All pretending that I was important enough to rise to power, to be entrusted with the darkest of all magic, to be loved! But I'm not, am I? I'm just a foolish girl who went down a dark path after her lover died. I thought I was important. I was the Queen. I thought I could find happiness. But...Maleficent was right." She laughs, a dry and self-deprecating sound. "I'm not happy. All that is left is a void. One I will never fill. And I didn't even cast the curse. All that's left is a monster." She finishes, defeatedly.
"I don't know about your mother, or Snow White, for that matter," Rumpelstiltskin said. "But I do know that I chose you to cast my curse. That can't have been for nothing. And maybe it's just my son being back in my life that's bringing on all of this kind-heartedness on my part, but you're not as dark as you might think. Just...passionate, shall we say, what with how you go about things." He finished.
He, Regina realized, was actually, half-heartedly, trying to make her feel better.
Maybe the return of his son really was a good thing.
Well, maybe for him. But not for Regina. Not for her happiness.
"Passionate?" The Queen scoffed, clearly irritated. "Please. Just don't." With that, she reached into her chest and ripped out her own heart for Rumpelstiltskin to see. "This," she seethed, holding the red heart, which was covered with black vines of darkness, and brandishing it in his face. "Is darkness. Pure darkness. I was never anything more than a pawn in your story. My story ended, along with the little goodness that was in my heart, the moment my Daniel died." She replaces the heart gently, then goes on to say, "I have nothing."
Rumpelstiltskin sighs. "Well, dearie," he begins. "My heart was extremely darker than yours ever will be. My wife left me and my son, to be a whore to the pirate Blackbeard, though she overestimated her worth greatly when she ended up being killed by him. Women, right?" He scoffs. Regina gives him an unamused look. "Then I lost my son to the very darkness I had accepted just to save him from the Ogre Wars. I chose power over love. Everyone deserves a second chance, Regina. My boy has given me that. I truly hope that you will find it one day." With that said, he flicks his wrist and disappears in a puff of purple smoke.
"Really?" Regina asks the empty room, sarcasm dripping from her words.
With the dark curse null and void, and no way for Regina's happiness to ever take root, the Queen had spent her days sulking about the castle, and resorting to her old ways and ideas of trying to kill her mortal enemy, Snow White.
Snow White and Prince Charming, however, were experiencing a very happy marriage.
Their wedding was glorious, and oddly enough, there were no interruptions from a certain Evil Queen. Charming was thoroughly pleased, and eager to start a family with his bride. Snow, on the other hand, was anxious and suspicious of the lack of threats from the lovely Regina.
"She is out there, Charming!" Snow White yelled at her husband, flailing her arms about in their palace, effectively ruining the mood of their honeymoon.
"I know that, Snow." Her true love responded wearily, already quite tired of the amount of attention his wife gave to her arch nemesis over him, her true love and husband.
"She's just waiting to make a move. Waiting for us to let our guard down. How can we start a family and bring a child into a world where she will always be threatened by that woman? How?"
Charming walked over to Snow, who had now buried her face in her hands, and was sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
"My dear, I understand your worries. Your fears are not only yours to bear; they are mine, too. But she cannot fight us forever. We will succeed." He told her in a firm voice.
Snow sighed and leaned back into her husband.
"I hope you're right."
"In an effort to be brief, and skip over any unimportant facts, the story shall continue as so." Belle told the young girl.
"How so?" The little girl with the blonde curls asked.
"Like this, if you'd pay attention." Belle chided her, with a seemingly contradictory smile on her face.
"The winter had passed, as well as the spring, and the last, heated days of summer were in our midst..."
Snow White and Prince Charming were expecting their first child sometime in the next two months. A time that should have been one of the happiest times of their lives.
Should have been, being the key term.
Alas, it was not.
They were, instead, anxiously awaiting the inevitable wrath of their longest-standing nemesis, Snow's once step-mother, Regina, or, as she had been more widely known, The Evil Queen.
What with the Dark Curse torn to shreds and the temper on that woman, they were petrified.
They hadn't heard from Regina since the night of their wedding, and they weren't entirely sure of her intentions towards them-and their unborn child. And kingdom.
They weren't entirely sure, but they knew they weren't good intentions. How could they be?
Charming had called in the cavalry, and every guard in the land was posted at the castle and ready to assist in a heartbeat. Snow had worked with the fairies to go about engulfing the castle in a protection spell-using only the lightest of magic-to keep Regina out. The Dark One even decided to help when his son had pressured him into "doing good". He let the good King and Queen in on a little secret-strands of their hair (true love), could be concocted into a potion that could do magical and mystical things.
Things like ward off a bloodthirsty Evil Queen on a quest to quench her thirst for vengeance.
As the King and Queen prepared for the worst, Regina was actually in a deep depression. Her happiness had ended several years prior, and the darkness that she had succumbed to to fill that empty void, was wearing off. And, in it's place, leaving an even deeper void.
She was filled with sorrow.
Her heart felt empty, and cold, and dark. While Snow White was off gallivanting with her Prince Charming (ugh), happy and expectant of a child, she was here. Alone and, for once in her life, without a plan. It was devastating.
She decided to take a horseback ride (one like she would have done as a young girl, whenever depressed-one she hadn't had the opportunity to do in ages) out into the forest surrounding her castle.
It would be, however, a journey not soon forgotten.
"Because that's when she met-" the little girl interrupted, excitedly tripping over her words in her haste to get them out.
"Hey, hey, wait a minute!" Belle said. "We haven't gotten there yet."
The girl gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry, Belle." She said with a sheepish grin.
"Ever your father's daughter." Belle claimed, then smiled softly at the child. "It's alright, but let's continue, okay?"
"Alright."
Regina mounted her steed and entered the forest. She spent hours on her sleek, black horse meandering through until she reached the outskirts of the boundary surrounding the land she still reigned over. Her mind consumed with thoughts of her unsatisfactory dilemma, she wasn't quite looking where she was going, and managed to run into a band of thieves. Galloping past her very fast on their own steeds, she lost her balance and fell to the forest floor. Angry and dirty, she scowled and tried to stand, but her ankle was broken. She began conjuring a fireball (and also, if she was being honest, a snarky remark) to throw at the burly man who had caused her to fall, when a man on a chestnut-colored horse stopped before her and held out his hand.
Not that she'd admit it to anyone, ever, but the man was quite striking, blue eyed and fair, with light brown hair and a polite smile fixed upon his face. Still, she scowled.
"Apologies, milady," he proclaimed, and she found his accent quite intriguing (not that she'd admit it) as he spoke to her. "Little John doesn't always look where he's going, but that is absolutely no excuse for him to knock down a woman as beautiful as yourself." He smiled charmingly at her.
"Ugh," she replied, ignoring his proffered hand and standing up herself. "Well, maybe he should spend less time thinking about food, and more time thinking about looking where he's going." She barked back at him. "And I am not your lady. I'm the Queen!"
"But of course." He said, a twinkle in his eye. "But perhaps you wouldn't be so quick to judge him, considering you did not appear to be looking where you were going either." He gave her a pointed look.
"How dare you say such things to me!" She yelled at him, hot rage burning in her gaze. She was on fire, which excited her oh so very much, considering it was the first time she'd felt such passionate anger towards anyone in the past several months.
He looked about ready to fire back at her, when all of a sudden a small voice piped up. "Papa?" The voice asked. Regina wondered where it came from and turned her head in the same direction as the man, towards the sound of the voice. As if on cue, a small head peered around the man's horse and stared at him wide-eyed. To Regina, the boy appeared to be no more than four years old, and his big brown eyes and head of dark curls were enough to make even her darkened heart begin to melt.
Damn.
The man dismounted his horse and approached the boy, gathering him in his arms. "It's alright, Roland." He told him. "I'm just conversing with this nice lady, here. Oh, but she is the Queen, as well, my boy. Why don't you say hello?" He asked him.
The boy appeared to be a bit shy, but still held out his hand and pleasantly introduced himself to Regina. "Hello, my name is Roland. You're the Queen?" He asked.
Unable to be cruel to this sweet and innocent boy (no matter how much his father irked her), Regina managed a smile and shook the boy's hand. "Why, yes I am." She said with genuine kindness. "Nice to meet you, Roland."
"You, too." The boy said, then pulled his hand back and ducked his head into his father's chest. The man laughed and ruffled the top of the boy's head affectionately. "He appears to like you." He told Regina.
"Well, he's got good taste." She told him, with no small amount of sass backing her words. "And who might you be?"
"Robin of Lockesly," the man replied courteously. "At your service."
"Robin?" Regina asked, with raised eyebrows. "The thief?"
"I prefer to be considered a kind...giver of sorts." He answered.
"Yes, because you steal from the rich and give to the poor, right?" She gives him an unamused look. "That's still stealing."
"Forgive me if I'm incorrect, but don't you rip out people's hearts?" He fires back.
'Damn,' she thinks. 'The man's got balls.' "Touché." She replies.
Regina went home soon after her conversation with Robin Hood, but found herself quite compelled to travel into the forest in the days that followed her encounter with him.
Needless to say, both found themselves completely taken and enamored with one another, and Regina found a way to be happy. Without destroying the lives and happiness of others.
"Because he was the man with the lion tattoo that TinkerBell told her about!" The little girl interrupted, once again. "Her true love!"
"Yes, he was. But that's another story." Belle tells her. "One you didn't want to hear, might I add."
"Because I love this story!" She exclaimed.
"I know you do. So let's continue with it, shall we?" Belle said. "And dear, you have to stop interrupting me if you want me to finish before it's time for your birthday celebration, okay?" Belle gives the daughter of her best friend a pointed look.
The little girl huffs in exasperation. "Okay, okay." She says. "I understand."
"Good."
October the 23rd had arrived and the beautiful Snow White realized she was in labor with her first child.
Her prince, David (or Charming, as he was more colorfully known), and the dwarf Doc, took her to her chambers, and prepared her for her daughter's birth.
She named her Emma.
It was exciting, for Snow and David both, to be able to hold their daughter with no fear of having to place her in a magical, enchanted wardrobe and send her to an unknown realm all alone.
"She's beautiful," David told his wife tearfully. "She has your eyes." He looked at her with a tearful smile on his face as he told her.
"Oh, but look! She's smiling!" Snow exclaimed to her husband. "It's your smile, Charming." She grinned up at him.
"She's definitely an intelligent baby, then."
"Definitely."
All of a sudden, Grumpy burst through the door to Snow and Charming's chambers, yelling, "TERRIBLE NEWS! TERRIBLE NEWS!"
His shouts caused Princess Emma to begin to cry.
"Grumpy, Grumpy," David said to the dwarf, attempting to calm him down. "There's no need to shout. Look, you've made my daughter cry." He pointed at Emma.
"I'm sorry, Charming," he replied bitingly. "But I think this is something you need to know." He looked at the King and Queen, blank looks on both of their faces. "Now!" He said with a look of wide eyes and raised eyebrows.
"What is it, Grumpy?" Snow asked with a slightly irritated tone of voice.
"The. Evil. Queen." Grumpy told them, emphasizing each word with a slightly higher raise of his eyebrows.
"What about her?" Snow asked, rocking Emma back and forth in her arms, trying to soothe her.
"She's here." He told Snow. "Just downstairs."
The blood drained from the pretty Queen's face in fear and anxiety as she processed the words of her trusted friend. She pulled Emma closer to her body, holding her so tightly that the baby began to cry once again.
Her face grew to be so pale that she lived up to her namesake.
David, hand firmly gripping the hilt of his sword and poised to attack (his body positioned in such a way that he blocked Snow and Emma from plain view, said to Grumpy, "Get. Her. Out. Of. Here." in a low and dangerous tone of voice.
"Actually," Grumpy said. "You might want to hear what she has to say first."
"What?" Snow asked dumbfounded.
"Oh, just listen." Grumpy said pointedly.
Both Snow and Charming were completely lost on the meaning of Grumpy's words, but before they could spend anymore time pondering them, the door opened slightly, and Regina stepped through, followed by a tall man with light hair, and a small boy with brown eyes.
The strange thing about Regina though, was that even though she had been dressed in fancy clothing, she was not in her usual attire. She looked much more like she had as a young woman. Like she had the day Snow White's own father had proposed to her.
"Hi," she began, with a tone quite strained. She turned her head slightly towards the man, who gave her an encouraging smile, which the little boy mirrored, and then she turned back to Snow and David.
The King and Queen gave their so-called "nemesis" matching confounded looks. Her attitude was shocking to them. Just eleven months earlier she had been at their wedding with a terrifying warning of destroying their happiness. Now, she was here at their palace and seemingly compliant and tame? It was a very interesting and confusing prospect.
"What are you doing here, Regina?" David demanded, stepping forward to conceal Snow and Emma from her view. His knuckles were turning white, due to his iron-grip on the hilt of his sword.
The former Queen sighed, and the man joining her gave her a little nudge, to which she glared at him in response. However, the glare didn't appear to have any fire behind it; it appeared to be fueled by...love.
The whole scene was strange, indeed.
"I'm here to propose a...truce. Of sorts." Regina replied smoothly.
"A...truce?" Charming asked, grip slightly loosening on his sword, as be realized Regina was apparently not a threat.
"Yes." The not-so Evil Queen huffed impatiently. "A truce. I no longer wish to harm you or Snow or your...baby." She said with no lack of disgust. The man to her side elbowed her and she scowled.
"So that's it?" Charming asked, more than a little befuddled. "You just don't want to hurt us or our family or our kingdom anymore? Why?"
Regina groaned. "Honestly, I can't get anywhere with you two!" She exclaimed. Steeling herself, she replied, "I guess you could say I found a bit of happiness on my own." She exchanged a loving smile with the man beside her.
"Well, what's in it for you?" Charming demanded, seemingly oblivious to the obvious love between the couple before him.
"Nothing!" Regina said, more than a little offended. "You can have your precious kingdom and perfect family. I just want to stay in my castle and be in peace." She paused and looked at the man and the child. "With my newfound family," she added with a soft smile.
"And how do we know you'll uphold your end of the bargain?" Snow piped up from the bed. Charming stepped to the side to allow her to be in Regina's line of sight. "How do we know you'll leave us alone? For good."
Regina sighed. "Look," she began. "I know we don't have the best history. In fact, it's the worst history any two people could ever have." She let out a soft, breathy chuckle. "But...I was hoping we could, maybe...finally look past it all? Maybe finally be a real family. I really have changed, Snow. I know what happened with Daniel and my mother wasn't entirely your fault. And it definitely wasn't a burden I should have left a ten year old child to bear on her own." She exhaled sharply. "So...what do you say? Do you think you might be able to forgive me?" She looked at her with a hopeful glint in her eye.
Snow White sighed, long and deep. "I don't know Regina. I mean, after all, it took you eighteen years and many, many kills, to forgive me. I can't just drop everything and forgive you for the years of torment you've caused me and the countless, innocent lives you took in the process." Regina's face fell slightly with her words. Snow then looked from Regina to the man that stood steadfastly at her side, little boy tucked in his arms. With another, this time playful, sigh, she added, "But I can't say I'm not willing to try." She gave the woman a half-smile. Regina grinned at her in response.
"Good."
Charming looked back and forth between the two women with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He looked to his wife, and on seeing the knowing look upon her face and the brisk nod she gave him, he had all the information he needed to know. Regina had changed, finally, and for the better.
"Now," Snow White said, sitting up and cradling Emma to her chest. She smiled happily. "Who might these two fine men be?"
So, how'd you like it? Regina's redemption, Rumple's reunion? Hehe, alliteration. Did it fit to all of you guys' likings? More to come!
And what are your thoughts on the little girl? Any ideas? Wanna express your thoughts in the reviews? It'll please me. *Smiles widely at all*
Some things to keep in mind, however:
-Belle, in the present time telling the story to the little girl, is the same age she is on the show (which, I'm just assuming is twenty six, so bear with me, here.) Some things are different from the show's canon-ness, but this is an AU-kind of story, so oh well. She never existed in the "before times" (Snow and Charming's era), so no cute love story with Rumple and the chipped cup and the rose, but we'll get to that soon enough, so hold on.
-Killian does not exist in the "before times" nor has he yet to make an appearance. Rumple doesn't know him, because he was born just a year before Emma in my timeline. The whole fiasco with Rumple's devil-whore of a first wife shall be dealt with, just without Killian playing a role in any of that nonsense.
-We'll get to Henry. His lineage shall be slightly different, but we'll get to him.
-Cora's dead, though. In my mind (and this won't be written in the text, as far as I've gotten with this), she died of old age ruling over Wonderland by the time Emma was born. Oh, and Jefferson got out sometime shortly before then. Otherwise, how would he have even been in Storybrooke during the first Dark Curse (on the show) when Jafar and The Red Queen and all their buddies never made an appearance? So, he was reunited with Grace around that time-but that's not really relevant, so whatever.
Musical Inspiration: 1989 album Deluxe Edition-Mostly "You Are In Love" and "This Love", though. Thanks Taylor!