Many a True Love's Kiss
Emma accidentally drinks some poisonous cider falling into an eternal sleep. Her parents decide to gather all the eligible men in Storybrooke to wake her up. Sillyness.
"No!" They'd tried to warn her but it was too late. Emma brought the bottle to her lips and downed most of its contents in one hefty gulp, not realizing what she'd done until it was too late.
As the glass bottle slipped from her grasp, breaking into a million pieces on the floor, Charming quickly rushed forth catching Emma before she herself could crash to the ground. Gathering her completely into his arms he carefully stepped around the broken pieces of glass and moved into his and Snow's bedroom with Snow and Henry following after him, worry etched onto both of their faces.
Charming laid Emma gently on the bed, stepping back to pull an uneasy Henry into a comforting side hug while Snow moved to pull a soft blanket over their comatose daughter.
"Don't worry," he said addressing both Snow and Henry forlorn faces. "She'll be fine. After all we have some help now."
ooo*OnceUponaTime*ooo
Regina and Rumple stood at the foot of the bed sharing glances between themselves and the sleeping princess in front of them.
After a pointed look from Rumple, Regina cleared her throat and turned to face Snow and David. "And what exactly do you expect us to do? You both do realize the only thing that can wake her is True Love's Kiss."
"I've already tried it." Henry replied dejectedly from his spot near the kitchen island. His fairytale book lay open on the counter. "It didn't work."
Rumplestilkin slowly moved over to stand next to Henry ignoring Regina's pointed glare when he wrapped an arm around Henry's shoulders. "Well Henry that's because this situation calls for a more romantic endeavor." Rumple's face broke into an impish grin. "Looks like we're going to have to gather an assembly of all the eligible men in Storybrooke."
Henry's nose scrunched in mild disgust. Snow's mouth was imitating a fish out of water. And Charming… well he was confused. At least until the gears started working and the theoretical light bulb dinged.
Charming's fists clenched tightly as his fatherly instincts went into overdrive. "Whoa, wait a second… You can't be serious. I'm not about to let Emma be mauled by the hundreds of men that are here in Storybrooke. How do we even know that her true love is one of us? Do we then let a blimp fly across the states in hopes that …"
"David!" Snow gripped Charming's arm in an effort to calm him down. Desperately she turned to lock gazes with her former step-mother. "There has to be some other way…"
Regina forced herself not to roll her eyes at her nemesis. "You should know better than anyone that the sleeping curse can only be broken by a kiss, specifically True love's Kiss, dear." She couldn't hide her smirk as she watched Snow's face fall. "So I'm afraid there really is no other way."
Snow let out a frustrated groan. "But Emma doesn't have a true love!" She froze as she realized how harsh that had sounded.
"Not one that we know of at least." She added, glancing at David who merely shook his head in agreement.
Rumple shifted both of his hands onto his cane as he regarded the Charming's with a tiresome stare. "I'm sure Emma would rather be awake, than in some endless sleep coma. What harm would it do to have a few people try?" He grinned cheekily while adding, "If she knocks a few teeth off of some unlucky fellow, then so be it. Then after the anger subsides we just might have another member to this mess of labyrinth we call a family tree."
Regina rolled her eyes as she saw Charming's scowl. Such an easy mark. Well she'd had enough. She wasn't entirely really sure why she was still here anyway. It wasn't her fault the blonde's own impulsive acts had gotten the better of her. She should've learned by now to think first before she jumped first into the pool of sharks. Or not to drink something from a person who had a record of poisoning things when a certain special ingredient was added.
Besides this absurdly small apartment was claustrophobic enough with the six of them; she didn't need nor want to be here when the trail of Emma's eager suitors would start to trail in.
She spared a single glance back at the still bed ridden blond, carefully ignoring the slight pang she felt in the pit of her stomach before dusting some imaginary dust off her coat and making her way to the door. "Well as much as I'd like to help," She shot a sincere smile at Henry because well it's Henry and everything she does is all for him. Right? "There's not much else for me to do. So I'll just be going now."
She didn't get so much as a few feet from the door when Charming moved to block her way.
"Now wait a second. Regina you have to help us-"
"No actually I don't." Regina said harshly. Her brown eyes flashed dangerously.
Charming crossed his arms looking at an unimpressed Regina with an ill-fitting smirk. "Well seeing that it was your cider that Emma drank-"
"Yes that she stole from my private supply." Regina pointed out. "And then stupidly drank."
Snow eyed Regina suspiciously, folding an arm across her middle. "I still don't understand what happened that made Emma suddenly get up and rush to meet with you-only to come back forty minutes later to take her frustrations out on my kitchen appliances. I really liked my blue tea pot."
Rumple perked up notably with that bit of information. Cocking a brown eyebrow at the woman who looked a tad caught off guard he said, "I'm also curious as to why the sheriff was at your mansion so late in the day. Care to share, Regina?"
Regina's eyes narrowed. "That doesn't concern you." She snapped.
"It was kind of weird Mom," Henry said as he shut his fairytale book close, his features wrought with confusion. "Emma was really… jumpy. She woke up hours before anyone else. She never does that. And when she was making my cereal she put orange juice instead of milk in it. She also knocked over grandmas flower vase twice before it finally broke. She burned her hand when she was making hot chocolate. And that was after cutting her thumb when she was slicing tomatoes for lunch. Gramps also scared her half to death when he went upstairs to call her for dinner."
Henry made a face as he remembered the scream he'd heard from upstairs, and the way Emma had walked down the steps after her father, pink in the face muttering an apology to her baffled family.
"And then right after dinner she got up and walked out saying," He changed his voice at an honest attempt at sounding like his blond mother. ""I'm going to go see Regina, no one follow me!" She came back after she shut the door because she forgot she was barefoot but then she walked back out again with her boots in her hands."
Regina bit her lip in slight amusement at her son's imitation of the town sheriff. "Henry, I-"
Henry shook his head, holding a finger out to tell her to wait. "And then she comes back really mad and with that bottle," he points to a large broken chunk of glass that was next to his book. "-and a white paper bag. She dumped the stuff in the bag down the sink and she started to make herself tea. But I guess it took to long." Henry shrugged. "So she kind of blew it up."
Regina's eyes widened in alarm. "What?"
"No one got hurt, but it was a quite a surprise." Charming replied with light laugh, earning a disapproving look from his wife.
Snow shook her head as she turned back to Regina.
"Regina you have to help us…" Snow took in Regina's offended glare and rushed to add, "If not for us, then at least for Henry or in return for Emma saving you all those times before."
Rumpelstiltskin, who had been watching the situation play out comfortably from his spot, smirked inwardly at Regina's clear inner turmoil. If he had to guess- and he was an exceptionally good guesser- she was about to cave in three… two…
"Rumple."
One.
Rumple feigned all innocence in his response. "Yes, dearie?"
"Where's that esteemed son of yours?" She asked.
"He's spending a nice evening at home with his fiancé." He chuckled. "Oh I see."
Regina grinned, revealing perfect rows of shiny white teeth. "Well, we have to start with the obvious choice."