SUMMARY: As Storybrooke's characters face off against the Wicked Witch of the West, Regina realizes that to protect her heart from her sister, she must give it to her True Love… and that person is not who Tinkerbell thought. An AU re-working of season 3B, starting with "The Tower." This fic is SwanQueen-friendly!
RATING: T for language and this rating will probably go up in future chapters for varying reasons.
AUTHOR NOTE: This is a collaborative story with myself and casrinator. We hope that for those of you have chosen to read the first chapter, that you've enjoyed it and stick around to see what we have planned. Thank you and enjoy our story.
We are neither A&E nor ABC; we do not own OUAT. We just play in a certain town in Maine and its fairytale land counterpart…
Chapter One
The mansion was so very quiet and cold without Henry. The silence was interrupted by the grandfather clock each quarter hour; it seemed to go through its motions even louder than Regina had remembered. She paced and wandered the floors, reliving what it had been like to spend time with Henry today as they'd had toured the town together.
My prince. Who knows me only as Mayor Mills now, the nice but perplexing woman who has such a curious interest in him and his mother. God, if he only knew…
Regina sighed and lingered outside his room. It was perfectly preserved and had - apparently - come back over in whatever curse that had re-created the town. She remained outside the door for now. There had been enough days and nights, since finding herself back in Storybrooke without him, grieving the loss of her son while curling up on his bed. She'd known Henry was out there somewhere, with Emma, but that knowledge came with the acute awareness that neither of them had any memory of her.
Wasn't it enough to give them up when Pan's curse struck? Regina lamented. Hadn't I lost enough by losing him then? Them? How many times do I have to suffer and pay for my mistakes?!
With an effort, she forced herself to go back downstairs and curled onto the couch with a glass of apple cider. Regina's mind went back to what Henry had said about life in New York: how happy they were there. She tried, but could not imagine the life they'd really experienced. Her trips to Boston to adopt her prince had been brief and for strictly that purpose. Regina had no concept of what it was to live in a thriving, bustling metropolis. Truly, she had no idea what it was to have friends and a life that she could enjoy.
"But, Henry will want to stay in Storybrooke. Once he has his memories back," Regina said aloud.
There wasn't much conviction to her words though. Even if they were false memories that led them to New York, that year had been real. She could only hope she was right and that the magic - literal and figurative - that came with Storybrooke's small town charm would be enough for her son. His family was here.
Her mind turned to Emma and, of course, Regina remembered how adamant Emma had been about staying with her family when Pan's curse was going to send them back to the Enchanted Forest. That had been impossible and that was why they'd been gifted with new memories that had led to tasting that happy, successful life with a new love in this Walsh character... even if that relationship had apparently gone south in more ways than one.
"But, that was before she found Snow very pregnant in her absence," Regina mused with a shudder. It was obvious that that troubled Emma. She sipped her drink, then sighed again. "Not to mention that she has the disgusting pirate hanging about her. His intentions are clear as ever. The year didn't pale his feelings any."
Did they minimize your feelings, Regina?
"No. The year did not. Even if I can't remember that year." She frowned at the inner thought. "And, I am talking to myself as I sit alone in my house. This is not good."
The brunette rose and resumed her pacing, glass dangling loosely from her fingers. The grandfather clock continued to tick away the evening. Regina debated calling Emma, or simply dropping in on the Charming's again, even though it cut so deeply to see Henry without his memories of her. But, for all that Henry had thought she had changed and was no longer a villain, she had been a queen and pride demanded that she show no weakness… especially in front of Snow and David. Old habits died hard.
Regina downed her cider and carried the glass to the kitchen. She washed it methodically and put it away, then went back to her study and released the magic that protected what tomes she kept in the house instead of at her vault. For as miserable as she was, there was still this problem of a wicked witch in town, who had broken into her office, and was threatening everyone in Storybrooke with a plot that no one could fathom. Regina studied her texts in case there was anything she could learn.
"Well, that was a waste," she snarked an hour later. "It's not as if mother - or anyone else - had tomes on how to defeat witches from Oz."
Then, Regina froze. An idea batted back and forth in her mind and she went to the shelves of VHS tapes that she'd purchased for Henry over the years. A fingertip pressed to her lips, brown eyes scanned the shelves until she found the title she was searching for. She stared at the cover featuring Dorothy Gale on her yellow brick road, the wicked witch's long, green fingers reaching for her menacingly.
"What the hell… perhaps it will provide an insight that we've yet to consider. After all, didn't Henry's book do the same for him with my curse?" Regina asked no one in particular. Sighing at talking to herself again, she carried the video cassette into the living room and cued up the movie.
Even under the hushed mutterings of her parents, Emma could hear Henry tapping away at the kitchen table, tirelessly working his way through the latest level on his handheld gaming device. It was the same game they played over and over again back in New York, a fantasy game of all things. Nowhere near the same fantasy level as fairytale characters running around in the real world, but the irony never escaped the Savior since she took the restoration potion from Hook of all people. And without having their memories, there was no way to confirm if it had been her parents who had actually sent Hook on some grand quest to find her. Emma found it peculiar that if Snow White and Prince Charming had sent an urgent note to him about their daughter, trying to kiss her to break the spell she was under was his first option. Did he honestly believe they could be true loves?!
Then to top it all off, the Wicked Witch of the West was real and was gunning for her family. She had already taken David's sword hilt for who knows what nefarious plot because pretending to be a midwife for Mary Margaret seemed far more devious than messing with just David. Curses and bad guys, or girls in this case, were always after her family. It was swiftly becoming old real fast, especially after the peaceful life that they had together in the last year.
The memories of their entire lives leading up to that year may have been a gift from Regina, but that year of them living together and being a family was real. There was no magic, curses, pining pirates, savior status, or parents that were the same age as her. It was a normal life up until her boyfriend turned into a flying monkey.
"Emma?" Mary Margaret's voice roused her from her thoughts, still staring into the untouched mug full of coffee. "You all right?"
"Yeah." She straightened up from her slouched position with a smile that attempted to portray that she was just 'all right'.
"I know it's been difficult with Henry's memories … the way they are, but you're doing the best you can considering the circumstances." Mary Margaret was as sweet as ever, trying to help Emma with what she perceived the problem to be. She was just off base this time, but it wasn't as if Emma couldn't see where she was coming from. From her perspective, Emma had been brooding, her gaze fixed upon Henry when she wasn't really paying attention at all to what was going on around her.
She shrugged, glad that her son was plugged in with his earbuds so they could talk a bit more freely. "It is what it is. He'll get them back, and we'll figure out the witch's plan and stop her."
"And get our memories back too, I hope?" She wanted it to come off as a joke, but her voice was haunted as she rubbed the swell of her pregnant belly.
"Of course. It's on the to do list …" she smiled, cutting herself off before what the savior really wanted was revealed to her mother and created more drama in an already drama-filled landscape.
That small reassurance uplifted Mary Margaret visibly, almost to where her smile held little to no fears. "We'll figure this out. Like you said. I'm just glad you're here, Emma."
Despite the quick smile of supposed acceptance of being back, Emma's heart wasn't in it and was relieved when her mother stepped back to join David, missing the brief glimpse of hesitation in those emerald eyes.
What she couldn't voice yet, not until the latest Storybrooke crisis was averted, was this crazy town was the last place where she wanted to raise Henry. All it brought were dangers and heartache. Even New York was ruined because of it. Of course, one could argue that Storybrooke would always find a way to lure the savior back, that it was an unavoidable destiny of how her life was tied into this town because of the curse that she destroyed. Regina's curse.
How can I ever explain to her that I want to take Henry away for his own good? That I just want to protect him?
That's what gave her great pause. How Regina would feel. Not how her parents would feel. Or the town. She didn't care about their feelings because they certainly never tried to care about hers since their memories returned upon waking Henry with True Love's Kiss. She was the Savior of Storybrooke, no longer the Sheriff of a town she was quietly getting to enjoy - despite a Mayor that was hellbent on making her life miserable. But, it was for a reason that Emma couldn't entirely blame Regina for. Emma was perceived as a threat and Regina could only do what she was good at when backed into a corner, fight.
She found herself smiling for those days when things made a lot more sense. It was perhaps a crazy thought but she missed the mother she has as a friend. Someone she could actually talk to versus this stranger that was going on and on in Neverland wanting a second chance at raising a kid.
Forget about the one you already have and wanting to get to know me. Have your fucking do over. I'll be long gone when this is over… She was surprised by how much anger she was keeping inside, but it really was just a continued avalanche of feeling unwanted by her parents since Neverland. Coming back here, seeing Mary Margaret pregnant, was just the final slap in the face. It wasn't as if she couldn't understand why her parents wanted another child. She did get that need, but they never talked about it. Together. Like a family should.
"Emma?" Her father's voice broke her thoughts this time and she found it grating. "Could you come here. We've some ideas on how to utilize our resources in finding the wicked witch."
"Yeah." She spared a glance over at Henry, who looked up in time to meet her gaze. His smile gave her momentary comfort to face her family despite the tumultuous storm warring in her heart. "I'm coming…"
