HEARTLESS

A young little thing, she was. Completely unspoiled. Given every disadvantage in life. Father killed in the ogre wars. Mother died of grief. Raised by the uncle who inherited her along with her father's mill, who had abused her all her life, forcing her to do hard labor dawn until dusk and beating her if she complained. She didn't know what love was like. She had never genuinely cared about another human being. Yes, she was the farthest thing from spoiled. But the fact that there was no one to love her but herself have given her an unsurmountable sense of self-righteousness. She wasn't particularly vindictive. Or cunning. Yet. But the potential was there.

She could be the one.

She could be exactly what he needed.

"Rumpelstiltskin?" she whispered. "My name's Cora."

"Corrrra," Rumpelstilskin pressed his greedy hands together. "What a lovely name."

"I was told you were in the business of making deals," said Cora softly. "I was told you have magic."

Rumpelstiltskin's omnipresent devilish grin widened ever so slightly. "All magic…comes with a price!"

"I'll pay anything!" Cora begged. "Please. Not that I have much to give now but…is there something I could do for you, maybe?"

"Depends," said Rumpelstiltskin, nonchalantly sitting himself down on a table. "What is it that you desire?"

"I want a new life," said Cora. She looked at him with pleading, yet…soulless young eyes. "A life where I don't have to work anymore. A life where I never have to want for money."

"It sounds like what you really want," Rumpelstilltskin inched closer to her. "Is power."

Cora shook her head. "I don't need power. I need security."

"I'll tell you what." Rumpelstiltskin inched closer to her. "I'll give you what you want…and someday, in the future, you will do something for me."

"When?"

"Whenever I ask. Do we have a deal, Cora?"

"We do." Cora did not hesitate in the slightest.

Rumpelstiltskin laughed, that tiny, evil, disturbingly amusing laugh that only he could manage. Then he snapped his fingers, magically conjuring an orange heart-shaped pendant.

"Wear this wherever you go, and within three days, all your dreams will come true."

Cora smiled an almost genuine smile and gratefully took the pendant from Rumpelstiltskin. This wasn't exactly how she expected the deal to work, but she would have taken anything. And if this didn't help her at all, well, then she owed him nothing, right?

"Thank you," she said.

"You're very welcome, dearie."

"YOU WORTHLESS WRETCH! STUPID, WORTHLESS, WRETCH."

"I'm sorry, uncle! I couldn't get the mule to go any faster than he already…"

Cora's uncle slapped her dead across the face. All the other patrons in the public square heard but didn't really notice.

"Shut up! Now tie up the mules by the well while I go talk to the farmer about that grain he promised us! And be prepared to carry some of it on your back if it doesn't all fit in the cart!"

Cora looked down. "Yes, uncle." She caught sight of the heart pendant that was still hanging around her neck, carefully hidden under her coat so nobody would see it, where it had been for the duration of their two day long journey on foot.

Why isn't this damn thing working yet? She thought.

"Excuse me, miss?"

Cora's head shot up. Out of nowhere, an elegantly clad man was standing in front of her, perhaps ten or fifteen years her senior.

"Have we met before?" he asked her. "You look familiar."

Slightly flattered, Cora shook her head. "No, I…I don't believe so."

"I'm Lord Henry. You don't know me?"

"I don't think so," she whispered. "I'm Cora."

Lord Henry gazed at Cora adoringly. She glanced away, slightly uncomfortable under the feel of the look she had never seen directed at her before.

"Cora," whispered Henry. "Sweet Cora." He reached out and took her hand in his and clasped it for a moment. "I feel like I've been looking for you all my life." Before Cora could open her mouth to respond, he dropped down on one knee and pulled a diamond ring out of his pocket. "Will you marry me?"

Cora gasped. This couldn't be happening! Unless….unless this was magic! It had to be!" And that moment, she felt something warm against her chest. The pendant was glowing hot.

"Yes!" said Cora. "Yes, I will marry you!"

Lord Henry beamed as he slipped the ring onto Cora's finger. "Then we shall have the wedding tomorrow evening during the spring festival!" He proclaimed. "Who are your parents? Should I meet them? I know my mother and father will be delighted to meet you!"

"They're…they're dead," said Cora, not caring to elaborate farther. "I don't have any family near here."

"Oh. I'm so sorry, Cora. Have you nowhere to say?"

"No."

"Then you shall come home with me to my cottage, immediately!"

Cora felt like she was in a dream as Lord Henry escorted her home to his three-room house. Simple coziness was a luxury to her. She delighted in the comfortable wicker furniture that she was allowed to sit on and the maidservant who cooked meals for her and make sure she was comfortable while Henry doted on her like a prized pet.

Henry and Cora were married the following evening. Cora wore her pendant for her wedding. The moment they were pronounced husband and wife, the pendant vanished from the string it had been hanging from. Cora and her uncle never spoke again.

It had been three months since the wedding, and Cora was finding herself feeling, while still relieved to be away from her old life, rather unsatisfied.

"I know you collect enough taxes from the peasants to be able to afford a more comfortable mattress than this," Cora complained. "And look at these plates. They look like something a stable boy would eat off of."

"I only collect the taxes, darling," said Henry. "Almost all of the money goes to the king."

"Why?" asked Cora coldly. "The king doesn't do anything. He doesn't have to go out and walk around in the heat of the day to everyone's homes asking them for their money like you do. Why should he get the money?"

"I conduct business that way by choice, Cora," said Henry. "If I wanted to, I could command them to bring me their taxes in person, or I could have a servant do it for me. But this way, they'll be willing to pay more because they're dealing with a human face and not just cold hard demands. And I get to see firsthand how much they have, which tells me how much can afford to pay."

"Brilliant!" said Cora, feeling like she had finally found herself a quality she admired in her new husband. "So you can make them sell all their excess possessions and pay more money in taxes, and then we will be able to afford all the luxuries we need!"

Henry smiled in naïve amusement. "We don't own them, Cora. And even if I did do that, it wouldn't matter. The majority of the excess money would have to be sent directly to the king."

Cora looked away from Henry and glared in frustration.

"I have a few more visits to pay," said Henry. "I'll be home for dinner. What should I tell the maid you want? Roasted duck?"

"I can tell her myself," Cora whispered, harshly but not harshly enough for Henry to notice.

"Alright." Cora sat on the couch tucked under her satin blanket as her husband cheerily walked out the door, whistling to himself as he made his way down the road.

"So…how's your new life, dearie?"

Cora nearly screamed. Then she saw Rumpelstiltskin standing behind her, leaning against a wall.

"How did you get in here?"

"Oh, I have my ways," said Rumpelstiltskin with another laugh. "I came here to make sure you were content with my end of the bargain."

"So Henry did fall in love with me because of the pendant!"

"Not exactly," Rumpelstiltskin clarified. "I can't make someone fall in love. He was just momentarily bewitched by you and under a great deal of pressure from his family to find a wife. They were starting to…worry about him."

"So that's why he was so quick to introduce me to his family," muttered Cora.

"But anyway…" Rumpelstiltskin continued. "You don't seem as happy here as you thought you would be, my Lady."

"It's alright," Cora grumbled. "I'm comfortable. We just…we can't afford anything nice!"

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes lit up with excitement. This was going exactly the way he'd hoped it would!

"Oh, well, the new king himself was looking for a wife not too long ago, you know," said Rumpelstiltskin. "If you hadn't specified that you wanted mere security, and not power, I just may have introduced you to him instead."

Cora felt an unexpected hot flash of anger burn through her chest.

"Too late for that now, though," Rumpelstiltskin continued. "The king is already married. His wife can't conceive a child though, poor thing. The fate of the kingdom now rests in the hands of his fifteen-year-old brother, Leopold. Not that any of that would concern you."

"I changed my mind!" yelled Cora, her whole body shaking with rage. "I do want power!"

Rumeplstiltskin slinked closer and laughed in her face.

"You already owe me one favor, dearie. Do you really want to ask me for anything more? Remember, I gave you a fair warning: all magic…comes with a price!"

"A price I'm more than willing to pay," seethed Cora through grit teeth.

Rumpelstiltskin grinned. "Well then. You'll have to come on a few trips with me. We'll tell your husband you're travelling home to visit your imaginary family with sincerest promises of your return."

The words "imaginary family" hurt a little. But Cora was more focused on the last part of what he'd said. "But I will be returning, right?"

"That depends how well you do, dearie," said Rumpelstiltskin. "The first thing I need you to do is help me…procure some fairy dust from a dwarf mine. It could be quite dangerous. You might get caught by angry dwarves…or worse, sealed into a tunnel." Cora shuddered. "Then, I need you to help me find the whereabouts of a certain troll. He might try to kill you."

Cora gulped, trying to appear unphased. "And then…"

"And then…we shall see!" exclaimed Rumpel gleefully. "Power is the most precious thing in the world, dearie. I don't give it away lightly."

Five years passed. Five years of Cora spending a one week out of every month "visiting her family" while Henry wondered why she didn't feel comfortable introducing him to them, trying desperately to make her happy in every way he could. All the while, Cora helped Rumpelstiltskin.

"You did it, dearie!" he practically squealed as Cora presented him with a large sealed bucket of sea foam. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Yes, did it and nearly got killed by a poisonous sea viper trying to escape!" Cora couldn't help but blurt out.

"But you didn't, did you?" asked Rumpelstiltskin.

Exasperated and worn, Cora sat down and broke down into tears. "I thought I was done doing work, Rumpel! And now for years, nearly losing my life at times! So hard…"

"There, there, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin reassured her as he handed her a handkerchief. "We're almost done. There's just one more thing I need you to do for me. Deliver this cloak to someone living in the valley. Find the gatekeeper and ask for the Maleficent family."

Rumpelstiltskin deposited the cloak in Cora's arms. Cora couldn't believe how easy that sounded. "And then I finally figure out how you're going to give me power?"

Rumpelstiltskin snapped his fingers. "You bet!"

Cora smiled and ran off to do his bidding. Rumpelstiltskin grinned wickedly as he watched her disappear, knowing that Cora was about to find herself in a rather fiery encounter.

"So what now, Rumpel?" Cora tried not to let raw anger show on her face, as the clawmarks across her arms and the burnt ends of her coat were more than enough to show her anger. So many times now she had risked her life for him. She had started out bitter, angry, and self-centered. He had now only made her more so, and starved for power and luxury.

"Now…you're done!" he cheered. "All you have to do is decide exactly what you want!"

"I want…I want everything!" Cora yelled shakily. "I've been working so hard, my whole life, then for you, never knowing what I'm working for, never getting anything in return…"

Rumpelstiltskin held up his hand. "Shh. I told you you needed to decide what you want. Not give me a speech about it." Rumpelstiltskin snapped his fingers. With a puff of purple smoke, a book appeared in his hand.

"This book has everything you need to get what you want," said Rumpelstiltskin. "Congratulations, my dear Cora. You've earned it!"

"What do I do now?" asked Cora, taking the book from Rumpel and hugging it to her chest.

"Don't you see, dearie? I have given you power in it's most powerful form! Magic!"

And then he vanished.

Lord Henry no longer had any idea who he was married to.

One night, he had fallen asleep in his beloved cottage in the town near everyone he loved with his beautiful wife sleeping next to him. The next morning, he had woken up in a house large enough to resemble a small castle.

At first he thought he'd been kidnapped. Then he saw Cora nonchalantly brushing her hair at the vanity. He'd looked out the window and seen no people, just grass and hills and beautiful woods. Nothing familiar.

"What is all this, Cora?"

"Just a few things I conjured up for us," said Cora smugly. "Watch this!"

Henry shook with a start when Cora read off a note from a book she was holding and a warm cup of tea appeared out of thin air with a puff of smoke and floated into his hand. Shakily, he took it.

"I don't like this, Cora."

"And I don't like the way we've been living." Cora flicked her hair over the back of her head and read something else from the book, causing it to go up into a bun on top of her head.

"Is that why you've been vising your family so often?" asked Henry.

"Yes," Cora lied. "Not that they have anything like this, either. My own father was a miller I'll have you know. I've been living one step up from a peasant my whole life. I needed something more exciting! And when you wouldn't help me by getting extra money from your subjects, I…"

Henry sprang out of bed looking slightly jittery. "It's okay now!" Cora assured him. "We aren't too terribly far from the village. You can still do your business as you did before. And I can conjure us anything I desire!" Henry gazed at her warily. "See? I can get you dressed for the day in seconds!"

Henry started trembling when Cora read off another spell from her book and purple mist began swirling around him, causing a set of clothing to instantly appear on his body.

Cora frowned. "What's wrong, Henry? Don't you like it?"

And suddenly, Henry had no idea why he was married to this woman.

"I…I can't do this, Cora. You're….you've become a witch!"

"But Henry!" Cora half-whined. No. She couldn't have gone through all that only to lose her husband as a result. While magic was the greatest power she could possibly have, there was still political power to be considered. She couldn't have that anymore without being the lord's wife.

"Goodbye, Cora," said Henry, just gently enough.

"But I'm…" Cora thought quickly as Henry took his intended final steps towards the door. "I'm pregnant!"

It worked. Henry turned to look back at her, the gaze on his face flitted from disbelief, to shock, to sheer joy. He ran back to her and caught her tightly in his arms.

"This was why you found magic?" Henry whispered into Cora's shoulder, tears in his eyes. "All of this…it's for our child?"

"Yes," whispered Cora. "Now…why don't you get back into bed with me?"

"Not right now," said Henry. "I just…"

Cora allowed him to hug her back harder. She hadn't expected his reaction to be this emotional.

"I've wanted a child for so many years. I had no idea that you wanted one too."

Cora nearly laughed. "Well…I do."

"So you took it upon yourself to find a way to cure me?"

Cure him? "What do you mean?"

Henry released Cora from his embrace and smiled kindly. "Cora, it's no secret to me that the disease I was stricken with as a young man rendered me unable to conceive a child. A wizard revealed that to me years ago. I'd given up on the hope of ever having a family before I'd even met you and now…how? How did you cure me?"

Cora easily forced a smile on her face. "The same way I put the clothes on your back. Magic. But if you're more comfortable in your pajamas…" Cora reached for her book of spells.

"That's…that's quite alright," said Henry quickly. "Just please don't make a habit of changing my clothes for me, okay?" Cora agreed. "I have to go to work now. I'll be home for supper, though, I promise."

Henry kissed Cora on the cheek before wandering off. The moment he was out of earshot, Cora opened her book of spells and began leafing through it frantically.

"You can't cure him, dearie."

Cora sighed. She would have thought she'd have gotten used to his surprise visits by now. "What do you mean I can't cure him? Magic can do anything."

"The magic required to heal a human being's infertility is safeguarded by a monster even I am less than willing to face," said Rumpelstiltskin. "I'm afraid you're stuck."

"I need a baby," Cora announced. "And I need to have it in nine months, and it needs to resemble him."

"Well then, you're in luck!" said Rumpelstiltskin. "Baby marketing happens to be my specialty!"

For a moment, even Cora thought that he was a little sickening.

"What's your price?" asked Cora.

"Here's the deal. Most of the items that you helped me acquire while fulfilling your last two debts to me were needed for a very specific purpose. The creation of a very. Powerful. Curse. A curse that will take me many years to finish putting together and that I will be unable to enact myself due to the unexplainable laws of magic. I will get you a baby in nine months time that resembles your husband as closely as possible without having any relation to him whatsoever. The day I bring the child to you, you will give me his or her name. Then on your son or daughter's wedding day, you will enact the curse for me."

"Deal," said Cora simply.

Rumpelstiltskin flashed her a smile. "Then I'll see you in nine months. And by the way, dearie…if I were you, I'd start putting on a little weight."

It was nine months later to the day, to the hour, when Rumpelstiltskin showed up in Cora's bedroom, a tiny white bundle concealed in his arms.

"Where's your husband?"

"Outside in the stables." Cora was slightly annoyed that Henry insisted on having their property infested with horses of all things and even more annoyed that he insisted on hiring people to care for his animals when he knew she could have them fed, watered, and behaving exactly the way they wanted them to with the snap of a finger.

But that wasn't what was important right now.

"Now let me see!" Cora walked closer to Rumpel, arms outstretched, an almost warm smile on her face.

Rumpelstiltskin held the bundle closer to his chest. Regina heard it cry.

"Her name."

Cora's almost real smile grew wider. "It's a girl? I have a baby girl! Then her name is Regina."

"Regina," Rumpelstiltskin whispered to himself. Then he compliantly placed the newborn in Cora's arms and vanished instantaneously.

Cora looked down at her daughter. Baby Regina was surely no more a few hours old. Her features were still scrunchy and red like any newborn's, and her eyes still dull and grey. She sat down on the bed and made herself look worn just in case someone walked in on her then. But no one did. Cora had the baby to herself in the bedroom for two full hours.

"Do you know why your name is Regina?" Cora whispered. "It means "Queen". Someday, you are going to become royalty-if not a queen then a duchess or a baroness. I already know everything that I want you to be and how I'm going to make you turn out. You're perfect, and you're all mine."

Cora smiled to herself as she kissed Regina's tiny red cheek and stood up to finally leave and go present the baby to Henry. Considering that motherhood had never even occurred to her before it became a ploy to keep her husband at her side…having a baby was turning out to be a lot more enjoyable than she'd thought.

Cora made her way down to the stables, made herself look fit but frazzled, as if she'd just given birth and used magic to heal her wounds as Henry would assume she had. Henry was standing in the entrance to the barn talking to a man and a woman who had a small boy in her arms. He turned to face her and his eyes immediately lit up.

"I'm sorry you missed it," said Cora in as polite a voice as she could manage. "This is Regina."

Trembling slightly with joy, Henry carefully took the baby girl from Cora. "She's perfect," he whispered.

Cora nearly rolled her eyes. How her husband could keep getting so emotional about a baby she had no idea. Regina wasn't even doing anything yet.

"Cora," said Henry, suddenly remembering the people standing behind him. "These are Noah and Gail. Noah is going to be our new stable boy."

"Nice to meet you," said Cora. "I doubt we'll be seeing a lot of each other. I spend most of my time up at the house. Horses are Henry's thing."

Noah nodded to her. "And this is my new baby daughter," said Henry, eyes shining and grinning like a fool.

"She's beautiful," said Gail, stepping over to take a closer look.

Cora nearly rolled her eyes again. Much as she was beginning to somewhat cherish the idea of motherhood, the red scrunch-faced newborn in her husband's arms was far from beautiful.

The small boy in Gail's arms-who looked about three years old-leaned in and put two fingers on Regina's cheek.

"No, no, Danny," Gail scolded. "That's not our baby."

"When you're finished with our new stable boy, perhaps you could go out and find us a nanny, Henry?" asked Cora. "I can't look after her all the time."

"Of course," said Henry, not really caring what Cora wanted at this point. This whole magic thing of hers still frightened him a little. But he was content as long as he had a family.

Cora could tell she'd done the right thing for her marriage. Every day Henry came home from work, kissed her and asked about her day, and then went up to the nursery and spent the rest of the day with Regina, eating only while she was asleep. He sang to her, played with her, bought her nice things at the market-again, ridiculous, considering Cora could have conjured anything-and tucked her into bed every night. Cora didn't mind. If anything, she was happy to have them both out of her hair. She didn't really know what to do with babies. Henry was happy, and he loved their daughter, and Regina could be all his to coddle. For now.

As Regina grew old enough to develop some facial structure, Cora was pleased with Rumpelstiltskin's selection. Most of the girl's features had the cast of Henry's, so there would never be doubt in his mind that this was his biological daughter, and yet they were feminine enough for her to possess an exquisite, potentially striking type of beauty. She would have no trouble whatsoever finding a husband with even more wealth and power than her father.

One day, Henry came home from work to find his three-year-old daughter sitting at the dining room table by herself with a set of china.

"What are you doing, darling?"

"Pratcithing being a lady," Regina replied. "Mother thays I hath to."

Henry smiled and sat down at the table. Cora came out of the kitchen with a teapot. Regina's facial expression instantly changed.

"Why don't you serve a cup of tea to your father, Regina?"

"O…okay," Regina stammered nervously. She took the full teapot from Cora and narrowed her eyes in concentration as she lifted it to pour tea in Henry's cup, one hand on the front of the kettle balancing it, one hand holding it from the top.

"Yes, that's it," said Henry encouragingly.

At that moment, a drop of tea landed on Regina's finger. "Ow!' she shrieked, dropping the teakettle onto the table and knocking over the cup she'd been pouring into. Henry scooted back to avoid being burned by the hot liquid. Cora's eyes narrowed as she snapped her fingers to restore the tablecloth back to neatness.

"You haven't done anything right all day."

"I'm trying, mother!"

"You're not trying enough." Cora's voice was cold as ice. "Go to your room for the rest of the day. Henry, don't you dare go with her. She needs some time alone to think about how important it is to be a lady."

Regina got up and started crying. "Cora, don't," said Henry pleadingly. "She's only a child. Regina, tell your mother you're sorry."

"Thorry, mother," whimpered Regina.

"Do you promise to be good?"

"Yeth, Mother. I'll be good."

A few days later, Henry came home to a similar scene. Cora and Regina were seated at the table with several life-sized dolls and a tea set.

"Would you like thome tea, Lady Cora?"

Henry smiled. His daughter was so cute in the dresses her mother put her in. Sometimes they were a little over the top, like this taffeta one she could clearly barely walk in. But Regina didn't seem to mind.

"Of course, Miss Regina."

Regina carefully and perfectly poured a cup of tea for her mother. "Would you like thome thcones?"

"Yes, please."

Henry came closer to the door. "Afternoon, ladies."

"Daddy!" squealed Regina.

Cora lowered her eyes. "That wasn't ladylike."

Regina gulped, practically cowering. "Thorry, mother. I'll be good, I'll be real good."

"So…" said Henry. "Did the nanny remember to organize her toys today?"

"I fired the nanny. We don't need her anymore, do we Regina?"

"Uh-uh," said Regina. "I mith her though. She wath the nicetht lady I ever met!"

"What did you just say?" snapped Cora.

"Nothin," mumbled Regina fidgeting with her lacy skirt.

"It won't be too long before she's ready for school now, right Cora?" asked Henry.

"Oh, she won't need to worry about school," Cora assured him. "I can teach her everything she needs to know right here. Right, Regina?"

"Yeth, Mother."

"Mother! Mother! Look what Daddy got me!"

"Regina, I'm busy…" Cora stopped short when she saw the six-year-old in her doorway. Regina's hair was done up in the same fancy hairstyle she'd put it in this morning, but instead of her silky blue ball gown, she was wearing a plain pale yellow top and a white pair of pants.

"HENRY!" called Cora. "WHAT IS THIS?"

"Just some playclothes I got for her," Henry called back. "I'm taking her to work with me and didn't want her to tear one of her dresses."

Cora stormed over to the front door where Henry was. "You are not taking my daughter off this property."

"Why not?" asked Henry. "Cora, she's six years old and she has no memory of ever having seen anyone but us, the nanny, and the stable hand. That isn't normal."

"I don't want my daughter to be normal," said Cora. Then she snapped her fingers. Henry turned and saw that Cora had put up a fence around the house that hadn't been there before.

"Go ahead and try taking her away from here. Try. Just try!"

It was the first time Cora had ever threatened Henry. And he didn't forget it.

"Why can't she love me? Why doesn't she see that I'm trying to do everything right? She thinks I'm not even trying. She thinks I can't do anything right but I know that's not true, I just can't do everything right. Why doesn't she understand?"

Regina was curled up and whispering to herself in a comfy spot she'd found in the back of the feed shed of the barn. She was hiding behind two hay bales leaning against the wall. And she was wearing the shirt and pants her father had bought her. She knew it was getting late and she should be getting back inside, but at the same time she didn't want to.

"I try being ladylike all the time! Just like she says!"

"That sounds boring if you ask me."

Regina jumped. Nobody was supposed to be listening to her.

"Who are you?"

"Come out of there and you'll see me."

Reluctantly, Regina inched cautiously out from behind the haystack. She was startled when she saw someone a few inches taller than her with an awkward form, short brown hair, a big, handsome smile, and the most dazzling brown eyes. This was clearly a child, but it looked more like her father than her or her mother.

"You're a boy, are you?"

"Duh," he said. "What did you expect me to be? A girl?"

"Uh-uh," said Regina. "I've just never seen one before. Mother tells Daddy they'd be a bad influence on me."

"That's probably true," said the boy. "Girls aren't supposed to do anything interesting like play ball or tag or in the barn for that matter. What are you doing in here?"

"I'm Regina. I live in the big house and my mother told me to go outside and think about all the things I do wrong. What are you doing here?"

"I'm Daniel. My Daddy is your Daddy's stable boy. He brings me to work because he wants me to learn how to be a stable boy too, but I'm not allowed to go horseback riding yet."

"I wish I could be a stable boy," Regina mused.

"You can't," said Daniel. "You're a girl."

"Oh," said Regina.

"Hey, isn't that your Daddy coming up the road?"

Regina glanced out the door to the stable. "Yeah." She bolted as fast as she could and ran and jumped into her father's arms.

"Goodness," said Henry. "Did you miss me?"

"Yeah," she said quietly. "Can we play outside before dinner? Please?"

"Sure." Henry set Regina down on the grass. "Tag, you're it!"

From the house window, Cora looked on disapprovingly as her husband and daughter roughhoused together in the grass. There arose the delicate balance of keeping Henry happy and making sure Regina turned out the way she was supposed to turn out. Maybe she could let Regina have the first two hours before Henry got home and the last two hours after for fun. It would be a waste of time, but Henry would be able to see Regina was happy when he got home and play with her after he got back. Then maybe he wouldn't notice how scared she was the rest of the time.

From the barn window, Daniel smiled curiously to himself as he watched Regina tackle her father to the ground and then run away, escaping up the branches of a nearby apple tree while he playfully went after her.

Maybe this girl wasn't as boring as he'd thought she was.

The twelve-year-old almost stable boy bent over to lift a thoroughbred's hoof. "Give it to me," he muttered, leaning into the horse's side. Reluctantly, the horse shifted his weight and allowed Daniel to pick up the hoof and start cleaning it. Daniel whistled to himself contentedly as he picked the mud and rocks from the horse's hoof with his hoof pick. He was still slightly awkward in appearance for his age, almost as if his ears, limbs, and hands had started to grow faster than his body, but his large strong hands were only ever an advantage when it came to working with horses. When he set the horse's foot down and looked up, there was a girl standing there crying who hadn't been there a split second ago.

"Regina, right?" He thought he'd seen her before.

"Y…yeah," she sniffed.

"That was really freaky."

"Not my fault," the nine-year-old whimpered miserably. "Mother made me come here."

"That fast and without a sound?" Daniel half-sneered.

"Yeah. She just snapped her fingers and I was standing here. I hate it when she does that!"

"Yeah, right," muttered Daniel. But he continued to look at her with sympathetic eyes even when the horse next to him in the stall impatiently started stamping a hoof.

"Do you need help?" asked Regina. She'd always wanted to be around the horses, but her father never had time to bring her into the barn.

"You're not dressed for grooming," said Daniel.

"I'm wearing something else under this." Regina yanked off her pink dress and stepped over in a pair of coveralls and a white shirt. "I'm only allowed to wear pants for fun time. This isn't supposed to be fun time but Mother…" Regina paused to swallow the lump in her throat. "So, how can I help?"

Daniel handed her a rubber grooming device. "Take this brush and move it up and down his sides in little circles. But don't step too close to the hooves. You're not in proper paddock boots."

"Alright," said Regina. She cautiously patted the horse's warm side and started brushing his coat.

"Ever been riding before?" asked Daniel as he moved behind her to pick up the horse's left hind foot.

"No. Have you?"

"For the last two years," boasted Daniel. "I could probably teach you how sometime. If you're brave enough."

Regina finally smiled. "I'd like that."

Daniel smiled back at her just as the horse lifted his long tail and swatted him across the face. "Ow!"

Regina started laughing. Then they laughed together. She'd never laughed with anyone but her father before.

So this was what it was like to have a friend.

"Cora, where's Regina?"

"Somewhere on this property," mumbled Cora. "I moved her. She's probably out in the meadow sulking or something."

"What did she do?"

"Same old, same old. She thinks she's too good for everything. Dresses, teatime, being chained to the table during time out until she promises to be good."

"Chained to the table?" Henry's voice rose. "There's really no other way?"

"Probably," said Cora. But who cares."

Henry put a gloved hand on his wife's shoulder. "Cora, can you promise me one thing?"

"What do you want now?"

"Just please…just promise me you'll never harm Regina?" he begged weakly.

Cora gave Henry a stupefied look. "Of course I would never do that! She's my only way to get ahead in life!"

Henry wasn't exactly sure what that meant. But it disturbed him enough that he started sending servants out to conduct affairs and collect the taxes for him whenever possible so that he could be at home. Not that it did much good. All he could do was sit on the sidelines and watch how Cora treated Regina as she looked back at him with apologetic eyes, both of them knowing it wasn't Henry's fault that there was nothing he could do to protect her.

"Come on, Regina," pleaded Daniel. "Why won't you let me teach you how to ride? It's been a year since you said you'd like it! I'm a good rider, I promise."

"I believe you," said Regina firmly. "But horseback riding is kind of an obvious thing to do."

"So? Why don't you want people realizing we're friends? It's not like we're getting married or something!"

"Mother doesn't want me having friends! She won't even send me to finishing school or let me off the property I'm better at being a lady. She says I don't deserve to have friends yet."

Daniel winced. "Oh, come on. That's not true."

They heard a squeak. Regina instantly dove into the feed room and shut herself in a tack trunk. Cora opened the barn door to find a young teenage boy standing in the hallway feeding a horse a bucketful of grain.

"Are you a new stable boy?" asked Cora.

"Sort of," said Daniel nonchalantly. "I'm his son. My father is exercising one of the horses and asked me to groom and feed the others."

"Oh," said Cora. "Well, I'm looking for someone. Have you seen my daughter?"

"Uh…you have a daughter?" Daniel smiled. "How old is she?"

"A few years younger than you," said Cora. "Have you seen her?"

"Nope," said Daniel. "You look awfully young to have a daughter that old."

Cora smiled. "Well, thank you."

Regina didn't climb out of the tack trunk until she heard Cora shut the barn door.

"She seems alright," said Daniel.

Regina shook her head, put her finger to her lips, and escaped out the window. She didn't tell Daniel that her biggest reason of all for not wanting Cora to know she'd have a friend was because if Cora became displeased with their interactions, Regina knew she might not be the one to get hurt.

It was two years later. Cora was finally letting Regina go to finishing school, but she was still not happy.

It was a rush to be able to get out into the world a little bit, even if it was in a strict environment and only for a few hours a day. But she could tell that the other girls were uncomfortable around her, and she was in turn uncomfortable around them. It wasn't because little things, like the rattle of the wheels of a carriage, the scratching of chalk as the teacher wrote on his blackboard, and hearing an unfamiliar accent, fascinated her because she had never seen and heard them before. It wasn't even because she'd already had rigorous training in "being a lady" all her life so she was sometimes a bit of a teacher's pet. It was because they were afraid of her.

"We know who your mother is," the littlest one came up and told her. "She's Lady Cora. She took away my daddy's house last year for not making enough money to pay her in taxes."

"What?" Regina had known her mother could be callous at times, but this seemed extreme even for her.

"It's true," said another girl. "She also took away my parent's house for having too many kids after they had their second child. She takes people's homes and possessions and sells them all the time."

Regina shook her head. "My father would notice something like that."

The littler girl smiled sadly. "There's not much he can do about it. Lady Cora controls everything for a while now."

Then the two girls walked away from Regina, making it clear that the last thing they were about to do was socialize with someone so close to someone so powerful.

So even though she was no longer isolated, Regina felt as lonely as ever. And unhappy. But it was okay, because she knew that she would be going home at the end of the day to her father and her best friend Daniel, the only two people who had ever truly cared about her. In the end, they were all she needed.

"Are you sure you're finally ready now?" asked Daniel as he slung the reins over his horse's head.

"Absolutely," said Regina. Today was the perfect day. Her school was closed for a while and her mother had business to do in the town. She tried not to think about what kind of business that was.

"Okay then," said Daniel. "Come around to this side. Grab his mane in your left hand. Pick up your left leg and bend it." Daniel gave Regina a leg up onto the horse's bare back and then showed her how to hold the reins.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

Regina looked around. Somehow, seeing her family's land from the back of a horse made her feel less…insignificant. And the feel of the powerful animal's body underneath her made her feel alive.

"Like I was born for this."

The two grinned at each other. "Told you there was nothing to be scared of! Now let's start!"

"Well, well," said Cora with a faint smile on her face. "What's all this?"

It was two months later, and there she was, standing at the side of the fence, looking up at her daughter and the stable boy, both perched on the bare backs of horses.

"I came home from school early and asked Daniel to give me a riding lesson," said Regina as innocently as possible, even though it was obvious by how relaxed she was and in full command of her horse that this was not her first time riding. "My finishing school teachers said riding is a noble skill to have."

To Regina's relief, Cora smiled. "That's true. All royals are taught how to ride, even the women. Why didn't I think to have you take riding lessons?"

Regina smiled and nodded. "Well, Daniel says he only has time to give me a lesson every few days. Maybe I could practice on my own between then?"

"Certainly," said Cora. "Maybe your father can help you, too."

"Of course he can!"

And from that day on, horseback riding became Regina's favorite thing in the world. Not just because she loved it, or because she was, to quote both her teachers, "a natural", but because it was something she shared with her two favorite people in the world and not at all with Cora.

Regina's heart pounded a tiny bit as the two horses approached the longest open stretch of grass on the property. Daniel turned back and flashed her a grin. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

Regina gulped. "I've been taking riding lessons with you for a year and a half. You tell me!"

"Then yes," said Daniel . "You've got to learn how to ride at a full gallop at some point!"

"How does it feel?"

"Not that different from a canter. Just a bit bouncier. Nothing you can't handle."

"Have you…have you done this here before?"

"A few times," said Daniel. "And I survived it. You see that apple tree over there? The second you pass it, you start slowing him down. Then we stop at the top of the little hill. Got it?"

"Got it!"

"Okay now…go!"

Inside, Cora shook her head disapprovingly as Regina's horse shot forward at lightning speed with Daniel's horse following a few yards behind.

"What is the point of him teaching her how to ride so fast?"

"Just for fun, maybe?" Henry wondered.

"She's almost fifteen. She's getting a little old for fun."

Henry bit the insides of his jaw. You've been saying that since she was three! He wanted to say. "And now if her horse ever runs off on her, she'll know what to do."

"Hm. That makes sense."

What they had both missed was the fact that Regina's horse was already running away on her.

"Daniel!" she screamed. "I can't stop him! He won't stop!"

"Just hold on!" he shouted back.

The horses' hooves pounded up and over the hill that ended a quarter mile past the apple tree. Both of them were breathing hard and Daniel's horse was trying to slow down, but he nudged it to keep going anyway. When his horse's nose was finally level with Regina's horse's, Daniel leaned over and grabbed her off the saddle. Her horse took off out from under her, his horse was more than happy to slow down to the next fastest pace immediately, but both Regina and Daniel fell and landed side by side on the grass anyway.

"I'm so so sorry!" Daniel yelled. "Are you okay?"

"That…was amazing!" stammered Regina through deep hard breaths. "Don't you ever make me do that again!"

Daniel sat up and pulled Regina up next to him. "I won't, I promise! Just…catch your breath."

Regina smiled and rested her head on Daniel's solid shoulder for a moment. Then she looked up at him, at those chestnut brown eyes that she loved so much.

And then she kissed him.

After five seconds, Daniel withdrew, surprised. "Regina…" Then he kissed her, this time holding on longer.

Regina pulled back when she felt a horse's wet lips feeling the top of her head. Both of their horses were standing beside them looking on innocently. Then it suddenly occurred to her to be terrified.

"Who's here? Did anyone see us? Anyone?"

Daniel laughed. "The horses apparently did."

"Daniel, this is serious," said Regina. "No one can ever find out. Especially not my mother."

"How would she know?" asked Daniel. "She never even figured out we were friends."

Regina pulled him in for another kiss before they mounted back up. Were friends. She liked the sound of that.

Henry and Cora were still inside when Regina came inside to get ready for dinner. Neither of them suspected a thing.

"We need to stop doing this," Regina whispered.

"Which part?" Daniel whispered back.

"Not us. This."

For the third time since Regina's sixteenth birthday, here she and Daniel were laying between two blankets on a bed of straw in the most discreet corner of the barn.

"What if I got pregnant? Then what?"

Daniel smiled , leaned over her, and stroked her cheek. "Then I suppose I'd be forced to marry you."

She lifted her head for a moment to kiss him. That actually sounded wonderful. Her and Daniel getting married somewhere on a grassy hill. Her father tearing up as he walked his baby girl down an aisle lined with flowers. She and Daniel could move in with her father or build themselves a small house on the property. No one would ask her to be more ladylike ever again, and she and Daniel could spend more time riding the horses and training themselves new ones, maybe even breeding them for a living. And they'd have at least two children. She wasn't sure what she would name a daughter, but she'd always wanted to name a son Henry after her father. And she hoped that all her babies would have Daniel's eyes.

Regina sighed and leaned her head on Daniel's shoulder, pulling the blanket more snugly over herself. "I wish my mother had died giving birth to me."

"Regina, that's a terrible thing to say."

"I know."

In that moment, Cora could not have been more disgusted with her daughter. Unlike all her former classmates from finishing school, Regina wasn't even trying to look for a husband. That was reason enough to be disappointed. But now here she was, seventeen years old, riding like a man. She had already known that Regina had taken the whole horseback riding thing way too far, but this? Riding bareback over jumps?

What was worse…Henry was right there cheering her on. Hugging her, praising her.

"Beautiful? I'd hardly call that beautiful."

Regina turned to her. "You didn't like it, mother."

"You ride like a man," said Cora, keeping her tone pleasant mostly for Henry's sake and because she had just summoned the stable boy. "A lady should be graceful. You should use a saddle."

"I was just having fun," Regina protested sweetly. Henry stood at her side.

Fun. God Cora hated that word. "You're getting a little old for fun. Who's going to marry you when you behave like a commoner?"

"Cora, please…" Henry tried to interject.

Cora grit her teeth. "Stop coddling her."

That encounter ended with Regina running off to the stables in fear after promising once again to be good. Before returning to the house, Henry stopped to give Cora one last look: that look that she had seen so many times before that told her that the day Regina was married and living independently of her parents would be Henry's last day as her husband. Not that she cared. Regina's marriage would bring the family more status than her own ever had. Cora would make sure of it.

Ten days later, Henry was greeted with a knock on his door. He almost fell over when he saw that it was King Leopold standing there.

"Your highness." Henry bowed down quickly. "What can I do for you? Is there a problem?"

"Not at all," said the king. "I'm not here to speak to you, my lord. I'm here for your daughter."

"Regina?" The king nodded. "She's upstairs." As Henry, Leopold, and Leopold's servants made their way up the stairs, Henry heard Cora excitedly chattering away and the sound of her heels clicking against the stone floor. This could not be good.

Henry stepped back and watched-helplessly, as usual-with horrified eyes as the king proposed to Regina and Cora accepted. There was no way this wasn't part of some twisted plan Cora's to gain power. He feared for Regina's happiness. He feared for King White. And he feared for the whole kingdom. Because he knew better than anyone who would really be calling the shots after the wedding.

Wrapped up as she was in all the wedding preparations, it was not lost on Cora that something was up with little Snow. The happy girl had become solemn and quiet and withdrawn ever since she came inside one night, muddy and wet and keeping her list pressed together as if words were threatening to burst out of her mouth.

This little girl knew something she didn't.

The child was only eight years old, just the right age to be easily manipulated. As soon as Snow softly spoke the words, "She loves someone else," Cora knew exactly who that someone else was. There was only one man who Regina was ever allowed to spend alone time with other than Henry. And there was no way Cora was going to let this man destroy everything she had ever worked for.

She went down to the stables. She found them. And she did what she'd had to do.

What a foolish daughter she had. Thinking that somehow by threatening to never leave the stable she was somehow going to win that argument. Strong, to be sure. But so foolish.

By the time Regina had Daniel in her arms, Cora had literally crushed his heart. He was gone.

"Mother, why have you done this?" Regina cried.

"Because this is your happy ending."

"What?"

Tears of shock streaming down her face, Regina cradled Daniel's head in her arms and repeatedly kissed his lips, as of some way, somehow, that would make a difference. For a moment, Cora almost felt sorry.

"Trust me, Regina," she said reassuringly. "I know best." She tried to explain to her that power was the most important thing she could have, that her love for Daniel never would have lasted. But all Regina managed in her hysterical state was a pathetic attempt at throwing Cora's words back in her face.

"I loved him! I loved him!"

"Enough!" snapped Cora. "I've endured this long enough. Now clean yourself up! And dry your tears. Because now, you're going to be queen."

Rumpelstiltskin had had this all planned out. And not for the first time, his plan had apparently failed.

He couldn't help but feel furious with Cora as he watched Leopold White recite his wedding vows with Regina. Regina's heart wasn't in this. He knew that. He had known all along that one day Regina would fall in love with someone Cora didn't approve of. Perhaps even in part it would be because Cora didn't approve! And then one day, he'd seen her with Daniel, just riding along together in a meadow, looking at each other as if the other was their other half. There was no way she could be voluntarily marrying someone else the way she had looked at him. Not even a king!

If things had gone according to Rumpelstiltskin's plan, Regina and Daniel would be getting married right now, probably having ended up in the forest or somewhere in King George's Kingdom. Rumpelstiltskin would be breaking the news to Cora that her daughter was married to a stable boy and it was time for her to fulfill her end of the bargain. Obviously, Cora would be outraged, and more than ready to enact the dark curse. While she was getting the ingredients for the curse together, Rumpelstiltskin would have enough time to find the right magic to break the curse at the other end and put it away for safekeeping. Then Cora would enact it shamelessly and rearrange the pieces as she saw fit, probably keeping Regina and Daniel from remembering each other at all costs and the rest of the town squashed under her thumb. And Rumpelstiltskin could live his quiet life until the curse was broken, and then he could finally leave to go look for his son.

Why hadn't it worked out? What had gone wrong?

"Don't think I don't see you."

Rumpelstilstkin turned around and smiled even though he did not feel like smiling at all. "You must be quite a proud Mama, dearie."

"I am," said Cora. "Of course I'm a little prouder of myself for stopping her from running away with that…stable boy."

So Cora had figured it out just in time to ruin everything.

"He's been taken care of."

"I'm not here to listen to you boast about your accomplishments," said Rumpelstiltskin. "I've come to collect. Remember, you promised you'd do a little something for me on her wedding day."

"Right," said Cora. "You wanted me to enact a curse. What kind of curse is this?"

Rumpelstiltskin handed her the piece of parchment that explained everything, and with increasingly disappointed eyes, watched the look on her face go from stunned to horrified as she read the description of what the curse did and what was required to enact it.

"You want us to move everyone and everything we know to a land without magic? Have you lost your mind?"

"Not at all," said Rumpelstiltskin. "I simply have business there that doesn't concern you."

"Why on earth would I want to do any of this?" said Cora. "Twenty-eight years of living in a town without magic with no one growing older or remembering who they are? I've finally gotten everything I ever wanted in this world!"

Rumpelstiltskin's expression turned hostile. "No one breaks a deal with me, dearie," he hissed. "Come on and help me enact the curse."

"I couldn't do this even if I wanted to," said Cora, pressing the parchment back into Rumpelstiltkin's hand. "I have to cut out the heart of the thing I love the most for this? How could you possibly expect me to cut out my own heart and then be able to enact anything? Find some other ridiculous curse to have me help you with. Right now, I'm going to go enjoy my wedding."

Yes, Rumpelstiltskin had failed, not for the first time, to find a way to travel to the land without magic and to Baelfire. There was no way that Cora was getting away with this. There was no one person or object he could take away from her that mattered to her enough to avenge her having broken this deal with him. He had to find a way to rip her away from everything that mattered to her even a little bit. But that was hardly going to help him with enacting the curse.

Then suddenly, a light went on in Rumpelstiltskin's head when he began to glance at the people around him. Masking agonizing heartbreak with a fake smile that resembled one of Cora's, the solution to all of Rumpelstiltskin's problems was standing just a few feet away from him, holding her new husband's hand, an excitable little girl following her around like a shadow. Regina hated these people. She hated Cora. Right now, she might even have hated her whole world.

So all The Dark One had to do was return to his manor, go about his business, and patiently wait for the day he would hear the words…

"Rumpelshtitskin, I summon thee."

A/N: Yay, my first Once Upon A Time fic! I know that any part of this could possibly be disproved by canon on Sunday but it was really fun to write my own theories about how Rumpel used Cora and then Regina to enact the curse. And it has StableQueen love because that's just necessary. Related: dear whoever writes for Once Upon A Time, DESTROY MY OTP ON SUNDAY AND I WILL COME AFTER YOU WITH A SLEEPING CURSE. Never mind that my OTP is kind of already destroyed because, you know, he died. Sigh.

At the moment it is my personal headcanon that even before Regina's wedding and everything that followed it, Henry was a very loving, devoted, but powerless father. And that Daniel and Regina met when they were very young and he was the only boy she was ever allowed around because Cora wanted to make sure there would be no complications in finding her the highest possible match when the time came. But, eh, I guess it could also make sense that they met maybe a year or six months before he died. That would definitely make it more likely that Cora would have actually thought that Regina and Daniel's relationship was purely professional until Snow told her otherwise, if they met as adults and weren't together for long enough for her to figure it out. Anyway, I also believe that Cora, like Rumpelstiltskin and Regina, must have had a tragic backstory to go with her, because Once Upon A Time never creates a villain without there being a solid reason why they turned evil. As Chris Colfer would say, "A villain is just a victim who's story hasn't been told". (HEY LOOK, THERE'S A GLEE REFERENCE EVEN IN MY ONCE UPON A TIME FIC)

But anyways, hope you enjoyed! Please review!