AN: I recently got back into Once Upon a Time after slowly trickling off once Graham died. Reading some of the fic's currently out, particularly Wildling by AriannaKristine (epically awesome story with some pretty fantastic twists, go read it right after you finish this, even if you have already read it, it's that good) and those works by diddykongfan (you need to update "For Life" by the way, I want to see Henry's reaction to finding out he managed that trick) I became inspired. I have some ideas for other "Graham comes back" one shots, but no plans to continue this one at this time, just so everyone is aware going in.
Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT, as I agree with most Gremma fans that he never would have died (or at least would have been brought back by now) if I did. Perhaps if we begin a Co-Op we might eventually be able to afford it?
A few months ago Regina would not have paid an ounce of attention to the conversation. Hell, a few months ago she would not have been caught dead near the people having it. But things have changed since Neverland and while she may never be friends, god forbid family, to these people they are – allies, for lack of a better word. They all share a common goal in protecting Henry and making sure he remains happy and that means they have to get along at least a little.
That is why she is here in Granny's Diner waiting for the rest of their core group to show up so they can further discuss their little "Zelena Issue". So far it is just her, Granny and Ruby, a few of the dwarves, and the Charming's minus Henry who is out with Hook learning more about his father.
Swan has been at the dart board since Regina arrived, zoning out if her aim is any indication. The rest of their group stands near the front windows which leaves Regina's only option to stand near her co-parent. She grimaces at the thought but makes her way to the end of the bar closest to the woman. The others may accept her help, grudgingly, that does not mean they will socialize with her and at least the blonde who is ignoring everyone will not be so blatant in ignoring her.
She has been there all of five minutes when Snow gets up and waddles her way over to her daughter.
"Are you okay, Emma?"
Swan starts and misses the board completely when her mother speaks. Snow cannot see it, but Regina watches as the Savior closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before pasting on a smile and turning to her mother.
"I'm fine," she responds and Snow frowns.
"It's okay to be upset," she places a hand on her daughter's shoulder and giving her a commiserating look, "I know that if I ever lost Charming –"
"No," Swan shakes her head and shoves her mother's hand away before running a hand through her hair. "No, I loved Neal, I did, but he wasn't . . ." She looks away from her mother with a shake of her blonde curls.
"Emma," Snow starts softly "You can't know that –"
"I can, I do."
Snow's shoulder's droop as she watches her daughters fingers come up to trace something on her left wrist. Her eyes turn pitying as she catches something that Regina has missed in her surreptitious eavesdropping. Swan is now staring intently at the dartboard as she continues to finger the . . . shoelace?
"He remembered," she says at length. A few more have entered the diner but are staying toward the front, letting mother and daughter have this moment. Regina doubts that any of them truly know what this conversation is about.
"That last night,"
Regina is drawn back to the two women standing close to her by the pain in Swan's voice. She does not think she has ever heard the woman sound so . . .
"he remembered. I kissed him and he remembered."
. . . broken.
"Emma . . ." Snow trails off, obviously unsure of what she can say.
Regina is finally beginning to gain an inkling of what they are talking about – who they are talking about.
"No one else . . . they might have regained some characteristics, some subconscious memories of how they would normally act, but he was the only one . . . I kissed him and he said 'I remember' and then he –"
Snow wraps her arms around her daughter from behind and Swan leans back into the embrace, eyes still locked on that dartboard as she swallows a sob.
"Now Neal's gone too and I feel sad and upset for missed opportunities and for Henry, but mostly I feel guilty for not feeling as . . . empty as I did when he died."
And now Regina knows. Because while there are a few people who have died in Storybrooke there is only one person who died before the curse broke. If he remembered before . . . She is up and out the door before anyone can stop her, a quick word to Charming telling him she would be back soon, to start without her if everyone finished arriving first, and she is on her way.
Maybe it is because she is finally opening herself up to love once again. Trusting her heart to a thief she knows will guard it with his life, even if he is not yet aware of how serious she was when she told him she was giving it to him. Maybe it is Henry's influence. She has been trying to be the better person he sees in her. Trying to become Regina once again, rather than The Evil Queen.
Either way this is a chance for her to be proactive in her quest to become "good."
Funnily enough, none of these thoughts enter her mind. She just knows the look she saw in Swan's, Emma's, eyes, the devastation she heard in her voice. She knows now that what she did to him was wrong, perhaps worse than what she did to Snow and Charming, to this whole damn town, all things considered. Those two little words, he remembered, mean she might have a chance to make at least this one wrong completely right.
It takes her fifteen minutes to walk to the cemetery and enter the vault under her father's tomb. She walks past her mother's objects, past her own mementoes, and directly to her wall of Hearts. Even this she mostly ignores as she kneels on the ground below the cubby his rested in. She glances around for a few minutes becoming increasingly frustrated and about ready to give up.
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She did not expect this to be easy, if it were she would have noticed the day she crushed it.
This time she begins her search a little more methodically, going section by section over the stone. She is about ready to give up all hope when she notices it, a faint red glow embedded between the stone floor and the wall, something she never would have seen were she not looking for it. Five minutes and a nearly busted finger nail and it rests in the palm of her hand, small barely half an inch by a quarter of an inch, but pulsing regularly. She smiles as she wraps it in a handkerchief and rushes back to the diner.
The meeting has started by the time she gets back, everyone focused on David until the door slams open on her arrival. She winces internally, but covers it up, too many years of dramatic entrances means she occasionally uses more force then she meant to.
"I've found something of yours," she says, staring directly at Swan, Emma, so that everyone knows who she is talking too.
"What?" The blonde stands and takes a step towards her, putting herself between Regina and Snow and Regina would smirk if she were not so focused on the task at hand.
"I never knew, you see, and so I never thought to look for anything, thought I had gotten it all."
Emma's brows have furrowed in confusion and everyone else is looking at her as though she has gone insane. Maybe she has. She closes her eyes and takes a breath. She can feel her smile soften as she looks back to the woman she shares a child with, the woman who could technically be considered her granddaughter through marriage. Some distant part of her mind wonders what this Land Without Magic has done to her.
"There was a clause in the curse," she continues slowly, and much more clearly, "nothing could change while it was in effect. No one grew older; no one did anything new; no one remembered anything."
Emma's eyes grow wider with recognition and pain and Regina hurries on before she, or more importantly Snow who was beginning to rise behind her daughter, could jump to the wrong conclusion.
"The clause was to keep anyone from spilling the beans, as it were. If anyone were to somehow regain their memories they would be dropped under a sleeping curse, so that they could not tell anyone else."
She looks directly at Emma as she says the last part, making sure the Savior understands what she's saying. The girl's eyes show comprehension, but also pain, like she is unwilling to believe. Regina can understand that, the girl has been hurt often in her life, with far too few periods of happiness.
"People can't be brought back from the dead, Regina," she finally replies.
"I know dear," Regina replies softly. She can see Snow give a start from behind Emma. The last time she would have heard that tone, that sincerity, was back before Daniel, before everything. "But those under a sleeping curse cannot be killed, and there is always hope that things which have not been fully destroyed, can be restored."
She reaches into her suit pocket and pulls out the handkerchief. Emma still looks torn between confusion and denial.
"I didn't think to look before, didn't know what happened the night he . . ." She trails off and looks down to the cloth resting in her palm. Her smile brightens as she begins to unwrap it. "but now I do. So I looked, and I found this."
"This?" Emma finally speaks up. Her voice is soft, hesitant, worried, she obviously does not want to get her hopes up. Regina looks up, her smile changing once again, becoming softer as she lifts the shard up between her thumb and forefinger.
"Hope, Emma that he's not gone. That he can be brought back . . . to you." Her voice softens on the last few words.
Emma reaches over and Regina drops the shard into the palm of the blonde's hand. The pulsing increases as it gets closer to the Savior and the color deepens to a rich crimson as her fingers close around it, like the shard of a heart recognizes that it belongs with hers.
"What . . ." Snow trails off in confusion.
No one else in the diner was able to see that which is now clutched next to their Savior's own heart. It's none of their business really, but Emma needs that last trace of doubt removed even as she hunches over that shard, protecting it and obviously feeling a resonance with it. And they will need all the help they can get finding a way to restore it, and she is sure that it can be restored, especially since Zelena has Rumpelstiltskin, and knowing Emma she would not open up to any of them.
"That," she begins with a nod toward Emma, not taking her eyes off the Savior as the woman looks up and meets her gaze, she is talking to her even if everyone else can hear her, "is the last living piece of your Huntsman's Heart."