AU (aka, still takes place in Storybrooke, no magic, no curse).
A/N: Greetings, friends!
This story was initially meant to be a one-shot, but then as I continued to write, I realized the word count would definitely exceed one-shot status, so it's going to be a multi-chapter fic. I'm still uncertain as to how long it will be, but I like the idea and I'm just going to roll with it.
I would love to hear your opinions- all comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome.
Enjoy!
I'm lost, she thought as she looked frantically around the beach for her parents. Bringing her fingers to her mouth she began biting her nails as her eyes scanned the various people on the beach, none of them looking familiar. She had gotten in a fight with her mother and stormed off seeking some alone time. By the time she calmed down she was in a completely foreign part of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.
Not knowing what else to do, she sat down in a huff as tears began rolling down her face. Mother is going to kill me, she sobbed to herself looking down at the sand leaking into her clothes.
A few feet away, a small blonde sat decorating a sand castle with cigarette butts- feeling happy she finally had some time alone. Her foster parents probably didn't even notice she was gone, but that was okay- she'll be placed with a different family in a couple weeks anyway. She hummed to herself as she picked some rusty washers out of the pockets of her overalls and placed them around one of her sand turrets. As she placed the last washer on the turret, it crumbled to the ground. God damn it, she whispered. She sat back pushing her hands into the sand and looked around, then she saw her: a small brunette girl sitting with her knees to her chin a few feet away.
She saw that the brunette was alone and crying, she must be lost, thought the little blonde. Standing up and brushing off the sand from her scrawny limbs, the blonde looked down at herself and suddenly noticed how she was dressed. She wore hand-me-down cut-off overalls that covered an ugly hand-me-down maroon and blue striped tank top with straps that never seemed to want to stay on her shoulders. She looked at the other girl with her soft, baby blue sundress with matching sandals and suddenly felt self-conscious. She must be rich, thought the blonde, she wouldn't want my help. She tilted her head down to look at her castle, but then another soft sob echoed to her ears from the young brunette and she made up her mind. Rich or not, people shouldn't be sad. And so the blonde brushed off the rest of the sand, pulled up the straps of her tank top with a snap and marched across the sand until she stood before the huddled form of the brunette.
"Why are you crying?" asked the blonde. The brunette's head jerked up and she quickly brushed away the tears from her cheeks.
"I'm not crying," she said straightening her neck and tilting her chin upwards. The blonde rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, sure," she said snapping her straps back into place and resting her hands on her boney hips, "so what're you doin' out here alone?"
"Is it wrong for one to sit on the beach? Is that not what one does on the beach?" replied the brunette standing up to meet the blonde at eye level. The other girl raised an eyebrow, Yeah… definitely rich, she thought.
"Well, maybe one does that, but now there's two of us and I need help with my sand castle. You wanna give me a hand?" Regina looked at the girl suspiciously. Her clothes were definitely tattered and dirtier than the brunette was used to seeing, but she liked the girl's bright green eyes and long blonde hair, plus she never really had a friend and she seemed nice… strange, but nice.
"Okay," said the brunette hesitantly.
"Great!" screamed the blonde excitedly, she grabbed Regina's hand and took off for her semi-demolished sand castle. When they reached it, Emma flung herself down into the sand and started babbling about building strategies. She looked up at the brunette who remained standing and smiled at her hesitation, "Well, come on!" she said grabbing her hand and yanking her down to the sand.
Regina readjusted herself, placing her knees together, resting her body on her shins as she picked up a red plastic cup and started delicately filling it with sand. She glanced over at the blonde who sat on her butt, her legs spread wide open, hands hastily filling up an old tin can with sand. She smiled watching the other girl's easy-going actions, she moved as if she didn't care what other people thought. Regina wanted to relax into a more comfortable position, but she suddenly felt the desire to impress the other girl.
"What's your name?" asked Regina suddenly realized she didn't know what the blonde called herself.
"Oh," said Emma stopping her movements and slapping her palm to her forehead with a big laugh, "I'm Emma," she said holding out her sand covered hand. Regina placed her smooth hand in Emma's and gave it a firm squeeze with a curt shake.
"Regina Mills," she said formally making the blonde's lip curve up. She shook Regina's hand with exaggerated gusto.
"Ah yes, Madame Regina Mills, I am the Lady Emma Swan," she said with a goofy proper voice. Regina blushed and gave a small laugh recognizing how formal she must have sounded. "Well, Madame Mills… do let us build our dream palace!" smirked Emma with a deep bow of her head as she held out a few rusty washers.
"Oh indeed, Lady Swan, let's," replied Regina dipping her head and taking the washers.
The two girls settled more comfortably in the sand, Regina now on her butt and gathering and building sand with as much gusto as the blonde. They talked and laughed for hours as the castle grew bigger and bigger, now littered with cigarette butts, rusty washers, shells, pieces of plastic, old chess pieces, and colored glass from broken beer bottles.
As Regina lay on her back laughing at Emma, who had taken to putting a bucket on her head and running around like a knight, the sun slowly began to set in deep waves of red and yellow. Regina shot straight up when she saw the sun setting and scrambled to her feet.
"Oh no!" she cried holding her hands to her mouth. Emma stopped and turned to see the worried look on her new friend's face. She dropped the bucket and walked to her side pulling a scrawny arm across the brunette's shoulders.
"What's wrong?"
"I've been gone for hours, mother is going to kill me!" Regina said with a panicked voice.
"Hey, I'm the knight here, and I'm saying nobody is killing you," said Emma puffing out her chest trying to make the brunette laugh. Regina snorted but couldn't be pulled from her panic. Emma moved in front of her and took both her hands in hers. "Hey," she said softly making Regina's downcast head tilt upwards to meet the blonde's, "Let me help you back to your hotel," Emma said with a warm smile.
"Oh you don't have to do that," said Regina, a few tears leaking from her eyes.
"Come on," said Emma wiping a couple tears from Regina's cheek with her thumb, "I'm a knight, it's what we do," with another warm smile, Regina laughed and nodded her head.
With one last look at their giant sand castle, the two girls started their trek along the beach, hand-in-hand.
"So this hotel of yours," said Emma, "fancy or cheap?" Regina snorted at the thought of her mother in a cheap hotel.
"Definitely fancy," she said casting her eyes to the side slightly embarrassed, but Emma didn't seem swayed by this revelation at all.
"Okay fancy, hmmm… is it white or made of red brick?"
"White,"
"With a huge fountain out front and purple flags?"
"Yes, that's it!"
"Ah the Monteleone! The head cook there is super nice, I go there on Tuesday nights and wash dishes for a big plate of fancy pants food. I know exactly where it is," said Emma casually. Regina was a little taken aback by how cavalierly Emma said she worked for food. She's thirteen and wouldn't dream of being in a situation where she had to work for food, but it didn't seem to bother Emma. She said it as if she were commenting on the weather.
They continued to walk along the beach hand-in-hand talking about any number of topics. Emma purposefully attempted to keep everything as silly and upbeat as possible whenever she noticed Regina biting her nails. As the hotel came into view, the pace of the two girls slowed. Neither of them wanted the day to end. Regina fed on Emma's brilliant green eyes and her carefree personality. It relaxed her and made her feel like she could just be herself without consequence.
Emma watched Regina talk and loved how quickly she opened up to be more of a sassy prankster than Emma imagined. As the two fell into a fit of laughter, Emma watched Regina's eyes sparkle and her smile light up her whole body. She's like a clam, Emma thought, tough to break open, but on the inside is the most beautiful pearl in the entire world, she smiled to herself as she watched Regina laugh. As the two reached the front entrance of the hotel, they stood outside awkwardly- neither of them wanting to leave each other.
"I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life," said Regina with a big smile.
"Me either," said Emma slightly blushing.
"Thank you, Lady Swan," said Regina with a wry smile and short curtsy.
"Any time, Madame Mills," laughed Emma dropping to a low bow.
The two girls stood holding hands and smiling at each other until a cold chill whipped up Regina's spine as a smooth, dangerous voice echoed from the lobby.
"Regina," said the stern voice of her mother. Emma felt Regina's entire body tense up, her hands clutching to Emma's so tightly they turned slightly blue.
"It'll be okay," whispered Emma. Regina simply shook her head, terrified to turn around and face her mother's eyes.
"Thank you, Emma," she said and placed a quick kiss on Emma's lips sending sparks up and down the blonde's body. Regina couldn't believe she'd done it, let alone in front of her mother, but for that tiny second she felt beautiful and complete. It was her first kiss, and judging on the shade of Emma's face it had been her first kiss too. They smiled and giggled before Regina felt icy fingers wrap around her bicep.
"Regina Mills, come with me. Right. Now," said the dangerously vicious hiss of her mother's voice. Emma looked up to see Cora Mills, a tall, slender woman with long, perfectly placed red hair. On her neck she wore a string of diamonds larger and more brilliant than anything Emma had ever seen in her life, with matching diamonds and gems plastered across her hands. She met the woman's eyes and a chill ran through her body, the woman's eyes were like embers threatening to inflame and swallow Emma whole.
The woman jerked Regina away from Emma and started dragging her into the lobby.
"Wait," Emma called after Regina as she pushed into the lobby after them, "how can I find you?!" Regina struggled against her mother, and turned around yelling something that sounded like an address, but Emma couldn't hear what she was saying over the noise in the lobby.
"What?!" she called straining her ears and trying to push around the crowded room. Regina shouted something back as her mother pushed her into an elevator.
"Write me!" cried Regina before the doors slammed shut in Emma's face.
The last Emma saw of Regina was her tear-stained face calling to her to write as her mother sunk two gem encrusted hands into her shoulders. She slammed her fists on the side of the closed elevator and cursed herself for not hearing Regina's address.
Every day for the next week Emma planted herself outside the hotel from sunrise to sunset, with the hopes of seeing Regina again- but she never saw her. A few days later she was moved to another foster home in Boston, and not a day went by that she didn't think of that day on the beach.
…..
As the years rolled by, the young girls from the beach grew into women. Their recollections of the beach slowly fading into the catalogue of passing memories as their individual paths weaved around never crossing- until a cold autumn night in Boston, when a small brunette boy with green eyes knocked on Emma Swan's door.
….
Emma Swan gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles resembled a snow-capped mountain range. She half listened to the excited babble of the ten-year old kid sitting in the passenger seat of her yellow VW bug. Just a couple hours ago he had knocked on her door and flipped her world upside down by telling her that he is the son she gave up for adoption ten years prior. Sneaking quick glances every now and then, she started seeing more and more physical similarities between herself and the young boy.
When his chatter finally died down as he started observing the lights of the cities they passed by, Emma took a deep breath and asked him the question that had been nagging her since he told her who he was.
"Hey kid, um- don't take this the wrong way or anything, but why did you come find me?" She figured the answer would be obvious, like many adoptive children who seek out their birth parents- the answer she knew she herself would give if she ever found hers: I just want to know. Henry remained silent for a few moments, which made Emma scold herself for being so direct with this kid. Stealing a glance to the passenger seat, she noticed his face didn't look offended, but rather contemplative as if he were searching for the right words to say.
"Well, I want to know you cause you're my mom," he began, "but there's another reason and I don't think you're ready for it yet," he said simply. Emma raised an eyebrow. What could this kid possibly know that would surprise her more than being reminded that she gave someone up for adoption?
They sat in silence for a few miles until they reached the highway exit that leading to Storybrooke, Maine. Storybrooke, Emma read and internally scoffed, what a weird name, typical Maine.
"We're almost there," Henry whispered excitedly, his body tensing up with anticipation as they crossed the town line, a smile spreading across his face.
Seriously? How can this kid be this excited to come home to parents who are probably going to slaughter him for running away? He's definitely got guts, thought Emma as she glanced over at Henry's legs happily swinging back and forth as he giddily drummed his fingers on the backpack resting on his lap.
"It's the next house down," says Henry pointing out the window. Emma pulls up to the house Henry's pointing at and feels her jaw drop.
She surveyed the giant house with wide eyes, taking in the immaculately carved pathway edged with finely cut shrubs leading to a large, pristinely white house with a large door surrounded by a colonnade. Her eyes drifted upwards to a black-railed balcony situated before a squeaky-clean triptych of windows, and then back down to the door that suddenly swung open. Henry smiled and jumped out of the car and ran up the pathway to meet a darkened figure that wrapped its arms around him.
"Here we go," Emma exhaled loudly as she unbuckled and emerged from her car ready to explain the situation. She walked up the pathway to find a slender, brunette woman in a grey dress holding Henry tightly, her face buried in his shoulder.
"Where have you been?" came the brunette woman's panic-stricken voice from Henry's shoulder.
"I found my birth mother," said Henry with a large, hopeful smile. At this, the brunette silenced and pulled back from her son and looked up at the blonde who stood before her. This is impossible, she thought.
"Emma?" she whispered, one hand clenching Henry's shoulder while the other flew over her stomach. Emma stood completely still, her eyes frantically searching the brunette's face, suddenly recognizing every little feature. No way, she thought.
"Regina?" she breathed, suddenly feeling weak at the knees. Henry looked back and forth between his mothers with a knowing smile as they stared at each other.
Regina's eyes looked the blonde up and down over and over before finding her eyes and getting lost in a bright green swirl of nostalgia. Surely this couldn't be the same little girl from twenty years ago who wore dirty, ill-fitted clothes, showed her the best day of her life, and then proceeded to break her heart with silence. Those eyes, she thought. They remained the same brilliant green eyes from the past: full of life, adventure, comfort- but they somehow seemed less joyous as they had before. They seemed a little darker, tainted by years of rejection, loneliness, and heartache.
Emma surveyed the brunette and took in every twist, turn, and indent of her body. It was definitely not the same body of the girl she knew from the beach, but when she met Regina's deep brown eyes, she knew it was the same sassy, mischievous sweetheart who held the title of her first kiss. But something in her eyes had changed, she seemed colder and less open- her eyes had grown weary with heartbreak, carved roughly by manipulation, anger, and sorrow.
"You're Henry's birth mother?" said Regina, breaking the thick silence of nostalgia that hung in the air between them. Emma's rush of excitement from finding her childhood love suddenly sunk into fear as she saw Regina's eyes grow black, her body tensing up in defense and anger.
"Yeah?" said Emma with a nervous smile. Regina pursed her lips and straightened her back before turning to Henry and bending down to meet his eyes. Holding his chin firmly in her hand as she looked directly in his eyes. An act she had done for years, but as she looked at his green eyes now, she saw the eyes of the little blonde girl from the beach, causing her breath to hitch.
"I need you to go inside, Henry," she said with a stern voice, "we'll discuss what you've done later," he looked disappointed, but nodded. He stepped around his mother and turned back to face Emma, giving her a double thumbs-up and a quirky smile causing her lips to curve slightly upwards. He ran into the house and shut the door, leaving the two women alone.
"This is crazy," said Emma with a short laugh. She looked up expecting to see the beautiful smile Regina once shared with her, but was met with pursed lips and a raised eyebrow.
"How did he find you?" said Regina plainly, her arms folded in front of her chest, eyes tightening.
"Um, some ridiculous website, I guess… but I mean, Regina, can we talk about this?"
"About what, dear?" Emma looked baffled by the brunette's reply.
"This! You, me, here, together, sharing a son!"
"We do not share a son. He is my son. He has been ever since you abandoned him, a talent you seem to have a long history cultivating," replied Regina, her eyes beginning to grow eerily similar to the burning embers her mother's held in Emma's memories.
"What is that supposed to mean?" said Emma furrowing her eyebrows and casting a disbelieving look at the brunette.
"It means, dear, that you should do what you're best at and simply disappear," retorted Regina without skipping a beat. Emma's heart dropped.
"Is that what you think I did? You think I just left you? Regina, that's not it at all, I-" but Regina held up her hand and shot a silencing look straight into Emma's eyes.
"I don't want to hear your excuses. You've already done enough damage, and I wont have you poisoning my son," and with that, she turned on her heel and walked to the door of her mansion.
"I'm not leaving, Regina!" called Emma from the walkway. Regina simply turned the doorknob and walked in her house, "Good night, Madame Mills!" shouted Emma.
Regina halted, her back still turned to Emma, she looked like she was going to turn around, but instead entered the mansion and slammed the door.
Leaning against the back of the door, Regina felt the pool of tears build at her eyes and whispered, "Good night, Lady Swan."
Emma stood rooted to the spot Regina left her in. What the hell happened to her? She thought as she pulled up all the memories of the wonderful 13-year old Regina who made her entire world feel complete for a few hours twenty years ago. She then remembered every little detail of the brunette's terrifying mother. She recalled the way Regina nearly broke into fearful tears at the mere mention of her mother, the way her body tensed and her hands clutched desperately to Emma's when she heard her mother's voice, she remembered the way her mother grabbed her, the way her mother literally dragged her away. She felt the pang of horror shoot through her system as she now analyzed her memories from a 33-year old's perspective and it all made sense, everything came together.
The feeling she had when she saw Regina crying on the beach was rekindled, brighter and more determined than before. She looked up at Regina's house and vowed to douse the flames she saw in her eyes, and restore the beautiful, sweet light she once loved.
"I don't know what made you be this way, Regina," Emma said out loud as she stared at the mansion, "but I'm not going to leave until I set things right. It was no accident that the child I gave up for adoption ended up in your home. This time, your mother's not here to rip you away from me, and this time- I'm not leaving you, no matter what," she turned on her heel and prepared to sleep in her car parked in the street in front of Regina's house.