Chapter One
"Look at what I've got!" The bubbly blonde haired little girl screamed at her mother as she enters her office, mid-way through her Monday morning meeting.
"Lovely baby, But where is your father, or Roland. Surely they haven't just let you run off with your ice cream." Regina smiles as she pulls the three-year-old Imogen on to her lap. Regina was dressed in her usually sensible pantsuit, matched with a low ponytail and some very plain black heels.
"I thought you might want some rocky road ice cream and I told Daddy that I was going to show you and Ella…" Imogen looked round the room to see her sister standing at the end of the hallway, brown locks tied up in a high ponytail, matched with a black pencil skirt, white blouse, and a red jacket.
"Imogen, did you just magic yourself here again?" Regina asked as Ella walked toward them, having seen the green smoke, from her own office door.
"Well yes. But I did tell Daddy.." Ella shook her head at her mother, as she took Imogen's hand and guided her towards the door. She nodded at Emma and David in apology, but they just laughed as Imogen gave them a cheeky grin, as she held on tight to her sister's hand.
"We better go find your Daddy and Roland. Let's leave Mom to her rather important meeting.." Imogen blew her Mom a kiss, dropping the ice cream on the floor, causing her to start to wail. Ella magically made another appear and Regina cleared the mess with the swipe of her right hand.
"Bye girls"
Imogen Locksley, the daughter of the infamous Robin Hood, and his partner Regina Mills, three long years ago after the demise of the dark one. Imogen's birth mother had left long ago after Regina and Robin had had enough with Zelena constant mistakes and sent her packing back to Oz. Imogen who had most of her family wrapped around her little finger, especially her older brothers. Henry and Roland, both school age, both talented in many different ways one a writer, one looking forward to being a sportsman. Ella the eldest of the siblings was now putting her college degree to good use supporting her mother in her role as Mayor.
"Imi, Do you know how silly this is getting?" Ella tells her younger sister as she tidied the girl's blonde curls back into the bun on the top of her head, that she had neatly put them into that morning.
"It's not silly, why do you get to spend all day with Mummy and I don't?" Imogen replies as she stares up at her sister, as they walk through the doors out into the town.
"Because we are working, I wasn't even with her today… she was meeting with Auntie Emma and Uncle David, to try to work out how to keep the whole town safe. Ella was trying to work out how to build some new houses, for the people who lived with your Daddy in the forest." The forest life for the ever extending families of the merry men, it was becoming almost impossible, so Ella with her architectural degree was in charge of creating not only new homes, but finding the land for them to live on too.
Ella sighed as she scooped Imogen up into her arms to search for the rest of the family.
"Had you actually left the ice cream shop?" Imogen shook her head and pointed in the direction of her father and her older brothers. Robin and Henry appeared to be shouting out the blonde's girls name as people stopped and offered they support in finding her. Roland, on the other hand, was sat on the bench, fed up of having to find his younger sibling.
"Hey Robin, I've got her," Ella said as she passed Imogen back to her father. He pulled the little girl tight to his chest.
"Do you know how much you scared us again Imogen?" Henry told his sister as he kissed her lightly on her head.
"Imi, don't do that daddy and your brother again…" Imogen gave her father her big Green eyes, causing Ella to softly laugh.
"Those eyes could let you get away with anything… Robin may I suggest not letting her go this time.." Ella told her stepfather as she recalled all the occasion this had happened in recent weeks.
"I thought I could distract her with ice cream, I didn't know she was going to disappear again… Imogen, you scared Daddy and Roland…" Robin tells the little girl as he scooped her up and threw her in the air.
"I just wanted to show Mommy and Ella my Rocky road… I sorry." Imogen gives her Dad her big Green eyes, to smooth things over, which worked, as he placed a kiss on the little girl's lips.
"Ella trust it to be you bringing her back to us again. I swear she either wants you or mom." Henry told her as she tried to make her brother's ice cream slip from his grip.
"I don't think it's me, I think I am just normally with mom… when she comes to find her.." Ella told him as he playfully slapped the side of her head.
"Enough you two, don't give your sister bad habits, please. And anyway she must have known you and Regina were looking for boots and she didn't want to miss out…" Robin told Ella as she smirked at him.
"And can I say the money I have saved… on having these boots you wouldn't believe…" Ella pointed down at the boots to show that they were worth every penny.
"But Mom did pay for them?" Henry filled the others in as Ella nodded.
"Now that is what mothers are for sharing shoes.. unfortunately I don't think any of you or Imogen can fit her shoes or even look remotely as good as we, namely me in these boots look," Ella told the men as she looked down at a rather grumpy Roland.
"How many times is she going to do this? It's getting boring now?" The eight-year-old Roland looked up to his Dad.
"She just wants to be near Regina, little man. If you could do this, don't tell me you wouldn't." Robin tells the little boy as he looks to the floor blushing. Roland like his sister loved having lots of time with "gina" all to himself, but it was becoming less likely as their lives got more hectic.
"Talking off Regina, I need to get back. Maybe hold Imogen tight this time, with both hands." Ella kissed her little sister goodbye as she walked back to the Mayor's office.
Ella opened the door to her office and sighed aware that this had been the third time this week she had to return her sister to someone, whether it was Emma who had been babysitting her, whilst they had gone out for an adult dinner at grannies, Or whether it had been returning her to Belle who was her minder during weekdays. Imogen was using her ability to use green smoke to disappear from those she was supposed to be with to Regina and Ella who were normally really busy.
Ella switched the screen on, hoping to continue with her work for the day.
"Did you get her back safe and sound?" Ella nodded as Regina came and sat on the desk opposite her. They relationship had come a long way; they trusted each other implicitly and were each other's closest companion.
"I think we need to start considering creating a protection spell on her ability to transport. I just worry she is even going to end up in the wrong place or even worse when either one is doing something we shouldn't." Ella raised her eyebrow; the last few occasions it had been when Regina had been in a meeting and Ella had been able to return Imogen back to where she was meant to be. It seemed though the girl didn't have the control over where she was going to land next, she seemed to be doing it subconsciously.
"That would definitely put your sister off Jack once and for all. Imagine having to try to explain that to a three-year-old girl" Regina smirked at her daughter as she perched herself on the edge of Ella's wooden desk.
"That would be your conversation mama, not mine luckily. It's you she seems to want to be with more than me, I just happen to be in the vicinity when it has happened." Ella tells her as she opened up her emails, to find a picture of Jack, her boyfriend with a spade on the land of their very own home.
"That is true. So you are going then? Jack really has had enough of living with his future in-laws then?" Regina asked as she looked down at the floor, feeling the sadness rising in her chest. It wasn't that she wanted to stop Ella from living her life, but she just didn't want to lose the girl who had just become her best friend.
"You know I am, you signed it off and you said it was fine. It's not like I'm leaving you for New York you can walk the three houses away and see me… No inappropriate appearing though, I think Imogen has taught us one thing, it doesn't really work well for anyone." Regina gasped and shook her head.
"As if I would Ella Mills…" Ella raised her eyebrow as she waved her hand, to make two hot coffee cups appear in front of them.
"You need to get up and do this… using your magic like this is dangerous and lazy." Regina tells the girl as she grateful takes it from her.
"Dangerous coffee… I don't think so. You said it would be dangerous if I used magic to achieve my own outcomes. Like killing Snow White. Coffee just supports me in completing all the paperwork the Mayor expects me to do so that I can continue to build homes for the untold millions you have cursed." Ella laughed as she stood up.
"Well if you did your job better it would have been done last week," Regina replied as Ella took a sip of her coffee and headed towards the printer outside the office.
"Look all done…. Regina. But can I just say if I didn't have to keep dealing with your daughter's new tricks all the time I would have got this done sooner." Ella said as she passed her mother the completed paperwork.
"I let you have that. But you need to stop using your magic so loosely; the darkness is still within you Ella." Ella looked up and shook her head.
"I've got this under control Mom. I am a big girl and after all, I've been taught by one of the queens of darkness." Ella moved past her mother and back to her own office, as Regina's phone sounded from her own office.
"I better get this," Regina tells Ella as she looks over at the clock. She needed to get a move on if she was going to make it across town for her meeting with the dwarves, about helping her to begin construction in the forest. She turned off her computer, grabbed her car keys and handbags all whilst listening to her mother's conversation through the wall that separated their offices.
" Pardon. Your telling me that every single grave has been overturned…. Digging… why would people be digging up dead bodies….. I don't understand…. How is my vault open?... well David please go and have a look and take Emma with you… I and Ella will be there as soon as we can?" Ella paused grabbing her phone from a bag, sending a text message and grabbing the other coat from the stand.
"Ready for the next adventure?" Regina asks as she pulled the trench coat over shoulders.
"Not really… But there we go… I was literally going to have this meeting and then go home and curl up on the sofa with a movie.. while the boys went out to the sports bar to watch football…. But no need to save the town again…"
"Ella. You know your building homes is only really part time…."
"Yes because my priority is helping you Madam mayor…"