Downstream
Emma pukes twice over the side of the Jolly Roger. After each incident, Mary Margaret hands her a bottle of water and gives her advice on how best to stop the waves playing havoc with her stomach.
Emma glances over at Regina, sitting alone near the stern, looking not-the-same-kind-of pale and sickly. Their eyes meet and the corner of Regina's mouth turns up a fraction, a wan and ghostly not-quite smile.
"How do you feel?" asks Mary Margaret, hand resting on Emma's back.
Emma wipes her mouth with her own hand and takes a drink.
"Like my kid got stolen."
The others stay above deck, steering and keeping watch overnight; inside the cabin, Emma takes the floor, while Mary Margaret and Regina rest on two bunks.
It's dark and hot and the floor's too hard and Emma can't sleep. She lies on her back, listening to her mom snoring lightly and the sound of quiet, slightly unsteady breathing coming from Regina's berth.
After five, ten, maybe twenty minutes, she makes out Regina turning on her side to face her, hears her clear her throat quietly.
"Emma —"
"It's okay. We'll find him."
Silence for a long moment, then:
"Yes. Goodnight."
Emma's drinking what apparently passes for coffee on a pirate ship when her mom enters the galley.
"Has anyone seen David?"
Regina pauses her inspection of a large meat chest in the corner. "We're on a boat, Mary Margaret. He can't have gone far. I'm sure you'll find each other again."
Emma's hides a snigger behind a cough, but her shoulders tense as her mother's jaw clenches.
"Thank you, Regina," Mary Margaret says stiffly and exits again.
"You shouldn't goad her like that," says Emma.
"Oh? How should I goad her?"
Emma waits until Regina leaves, then laughs out loud.
"Talk to my daughter like that again, I'll feed you to the sharks."
"Just a little playful banter, Charming."
"I'm warning you, Hook."
Emma sees David reach for his gun and rolls her eyes – it's practically as much an appendage as the pirate's metal claw is by now. "Dad, I can handle it."
David looks at her, then nods, drops his hand, and walks away.
Emma turns, sees Regina watching. She waits for something snarky, but instead:
"There are worse things than an overprotective father, Ms Swan."
"Like lame innuendos?"
"No, I —" Regina stops, shakes her head. "Never mind."
Lying on the deck, hands behind her head, Emma squints up at the cloudless sky. Faint murmurs (mom, dad) come from the bridge.
Of the Jolly Roger.
Taking them to Neverland
Captain Hook … Peter Pan … lost ones … Henry, god, Henry, try not to think about Henry …
A shadow falls over her and she blinks, hand shielding her eyes.
"Oh, you're alive. I thought maybe you'd died of heatstroke."
"Fuck off, Regina."
… Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, the Evil —
Emma sits up. "No, wait. I'm sorry."
Right now, Regina's probably the most normal thing in her life.
And that's just … fucked.
So, it finally happens. Emma sits on the cabin floor, arms wrapped around her knees, overwhelmed and sobbing.
"What are you doing, Ms — Emma?"
"Everything's so messed up … How can this be my life? I should never have answered that fucking door and … I mean, what the hell is all this?"
Regina studies her for a second, then leaves the room and returns with a bottle and two tumblers. "You don't want to develop scurvy on top of your breakdown."
She sits beside her and they get drunk on rum and make jokes about how Hook thinks he's all that.
A copper pan clatters noisily onto the galley floor. Emma ignores it, despite suddenly picturing her mom coming down to see what all the racket is, standing in the doorway, frowning, bewildered: Emma, why is Regina's hand stuck down the front of your jeans?
"What's wrong?" Regina murmurs.
"Nothing, keep going …" Emma kisses her, tasting rum and the canned pineapple that seemed like a really good idea after they got wasted.
"Well," Regina says briskly, moments later. "That was —"
"Land ahoy!"
Clothes are hastily re-buttoned and zipped and they head above deck.
'Finally' seems to be a theme today.
Since everyone's heard about the mayor's almost-sacrifice (and Archie successfully fudges the whole where-did-the-trigger-thingy-come-from-in-the-firs t-place? issue), this time the 'Welcome Home' banner has David, Henry and Regina's names tacked onto it too.
Halfway through the party, they're arguing outside the diner about the thing that happened in the galley on their way to rescue Henry.
("In what universe would I eat canned fruit if I wasn't out of my mind?"
"I was the one having a breakdown, Your Majesty!")
This time, Emma's the one to stalk off, because she doesn't want Regina to miss socializing with people who don't hate her.
"I think you and mom get along best when I'm in danger," Henry says, evidently tired of Emma's mope-fest. "If you like, I can try getting kidnapped again."
Emma smiles sadly, rubs his hair, and rings Regina's doorbell for Friday's handover.
"A strange man's been following me around town taking notes!" Henry exclaims, when Regina answers.
"Is this true?" Regina asks Emma, all panicky.
Emma hesitates, but, really, it's for Henry's sake. "Possibly?"
And Henry winks at Regina.
Emma shrugs it off. She's been to the Enchanted Forest and Neverland and her folks are fairy tales …
She can do make-believe.