A/N: Hello there! This is my first foray into writing in the Once Upon a Time world, but I've been a huge fan of the show and fandom for a long time, so I hope I do this wonderful universe justice.

This story takes place over the first part of Season 4, going AU sometime between 4.07 and the first parts of 4.08 (The Snow Queen and Smash the Mirror).

All credit is due to my beta, emlovesyouu, for making this what it is today. Without that help, this would be a mass of squiggly lines, mostly in crayon. I claim no ownership of the show, characters, settings, plots or dialog, even if I do borrow the lines from time to time. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.

Enjoy!

The Hero's Way Out

Chapter 1

And so it goes, and so it goes
And so will you soon I suppose

18 November 2014

"Hey, Henry! Here's your French toast and your mom's oatmeal," Ruby greeted as she slid his breakfast across the counter to him and his mother's oatmeal with fruit in front of the stool next to him.

He looked up at the werewolf waitress with a smile. His mom had gone to take a quick phone call, saying it was just a small Mayoral matter and then she would return. "Hi, Miss…well?"

"Just call me Ruby. That'll be easiest," she answered with a smile.

"Sure. Thanks for the food, Ruby," Henry answered her smile with one of his own.

The slender woman seemed to have something on her mind, so Henry let her pretend to wipe the counter while she worked up to it. Adults, he had noted, sometimes needed the time to get their thoughts in order before broaching a subject. He used the time to cut his breakfast into bite-sized pieces.

Finally, she took a deep breath and spoke in a voice that would be too quiet for anyone else to hear. "So, here's the thing: have you seen Emma recently?"

Henry frowned around a bite of the delectable food, trying to call to mind the last time he'd seen his mother. "Now that you mention it, about the only time I've seen her since the ice cave was when she blew a hole in the station wall and then knocked me across the forest. I know she was trying to find a way to stop the Snow Queen, but I haven't heard much recently."

Ruby's furrowed brow matched his own. "Not since then?"

"Well," he answered after swallowing another bite, "When everything happened with Marian and Robin, I figured my Mom probably needed me around more than anyone else, so I moved out of Grandma and Grandpa's loft back to her house."

"Really? What did your other mom – sorry, that's just a little too weird – what did Emma say about that?" Ruby asked, putting her elbows on the counter.

"Well, I guess she looked surprised, but she said she understood why I wanted to, so she had to have meant it, right?" Henry asked.

With a look that was equal parts concern and pride, she gave him a nod. "You're a good kid, you know? Just, if you see Emma, will you tell her to give me a call?"

Something in her tone gave him a brief pause, but he shook it off. "Absolutely. It'll be the second thing I say, promise."

"What's the first thing?"

"That I missed her," Henry grinned.

Just as he finished, Regina rejoined him at the counter. "Sorry about that, sweetheart. Someone needed my approval for something infinitesimally small." The sight of Ruby and her son sharing a smile simultaneously warmed her heart and made her wonder what they'd been discussing that lead to the look. "Is everything all right here?"

"Absolutely, mom," Henry beamed at her. "Ruby was just asking me how school was going." He hated lying to his mom, but with the way she and Emma had been since Marian's arrival led Robin to break off whatever he and his mother had been doing – Henry tried very hard not to think of his mother in that context under any circumstances – he didn't want to raise any unnecessary tension until it became necessary. If it ever did.

Regina narrowed her eyes slightly as she detected a hint of deception. Ever since Henry had been old enough to know the difference between lies and the truth she could always tell when Henry was trying to pull the wool over her eyes. Enough light was shining from his own eyes in this moment that she shook it off, deciding it not worth pursuing. "Well you have much to be proud of, young man."

Ruby tried to make sure her relieved exhale was too quiet for either Mills to detect. It wasn't that she was exactly afraid of a confrontation with the once and current Mayor, but…it just wasn't worth risking now, especially on the topic of Storybrooke's seeming absentee Sherriff. "He's a really smart kid, Regina. Maybe even smarter than me."

Biting off the automatic retort that Henry was not only smarter than the waitress, but likely almost everyone else in the town, Regina merely smiled her thanks for the compliment. She truly was making an effort to be a kinder person.

The rest of the meal passed in relative peace. Regina noticed every time the lines appeared in Henry's forehead, knowing he was puzzling over whatever he and the werewolf had been discussing while she'd been telling Snow to spend the school district's budget however she saw best. He would tell her in his own good time, she knew.

Henry's eyes opened with a start, taking in the blinding glare of fire on all sides. Flames licked around his legs as he coughed through a cloud of smoke. The return to the room of fire was surprising. The farther he got from his time under the Sleeping Curse, the more infrequent his trips became. Through his coughs, looked around to see if any other unfortunate soul had joined him in the dream fire room.

"Henry! As good as it is to see you, I wish didn't need to be here," Aurora smiled as she ducked under her forearm, blocking a hissing spark from burning her face.

"Hi, Aurora! I was starting to hope I was done with these dreams, no offense," Henry replied, softening his comment with a halfhearted chuckle.

The princess returned his rueful humor. "None taken, I assure you. I don't know how long our time here will be, so I have to tell you something right away."

He tried to stand taller, hearing the worry in her voice. "What's wrong?"

She gestured to the corner, where a shadowy figure crouched motionless. "There's another person here. Someone else is under a Sleeping Curse."

Taking in the unmoving figure, Henry tried to move over to them, but a wall of fire rose to block his progress. "Have you been able to see who they are? Are they from your world or mine?" he asked through another smoky cough.

Aurora shook her head, coughing as a cloud of smoke temporarily enveloped her. "Not at all. Every time I've tried to move over there, the same thing happens to me as just happened to you. The flames shoot up to prevent me. I don't have any idea who they are or where they call home, we need to search Storybrooke for someone under a Sleeping Curse. They need our help."

"I'll tell my Mom and grandparents," Henry promised, "If there's someone in trouble, they'll find them. It's kind of what we do," he gave her a confident grin that belied his own uncertainty. Another falling beam – he shook off the momentary thought that only a magic room could continue existing when the beams supporting it seemed in constant danger of collapse in from fire damage – made him duck out of the way, so he almost didn't hear her answer.

"Well do I remember their dedication to getting back to each other," she smiled kindly at him. "I have to go now. Phillip promised to wake me after a short time. I've been hoping to see you or Snow here to pass along the warning."

"I understand. We'll do what we can. Hopefully the next time we see each other here, there will only be the two of us," he replied.

"Farewell, dear boy," Aurora said with a small wave.

He had just gotten his own arm up to return the parting gesture when he gasped, sitting bolt upright in his bed.

"MOM!"

Regina sat at her kitchen island, enjoying the quiet solitude of an early-morning cup of tea. It seemed to be one of the few pleasures left to her, so she was determined to continue in the face of both her personal disaster and Storybrooke's newest crisis.

She snorted at the irony. For all the work she'd put into the cloaking spell that kept this world out of the town's business, it was an abject failure at keeping the magically-inclined away. The Snow Queen. Elsa. Zelena. Pan and his tortuous goons. Her mother. Hook (she tried, she really tried to contain her snarl at the thought of the Handless Wonder). She might as well have taken out a travel advertisement in what passed for a news service in the Enchanted Forest and charged admission.

The timing couldn't be worse. The Snow Queen seemed to be disturbingly adept at capitalizing on the personal turmoil keeping her magic from its usual lethal efficacy. The gods knew that the Savior – Regina was less successful at stifling the pang she felt every time her mind reminded her of Emma Swan's existence – was next to incapable of harnessing her truly staggering magical capabilities to combat Frosty the Snow Bitch.

Emma Swan.

Regina grunted, a most undignified sound not worthy of a queen to utter, but she hadn't been royalty for decades and she was alone, so she indulged her baser side. Her morning now ruined, she allowed her mind to tread the well-worn territory of Emma Swan's unwitting betrayal. Unwitting, Regina snorted again. As if anything that any of the Charming clan ever did was witting. They seemed to bumble along into their happy endings no matter their own incompetence, whereas Regina herself seemed fated to never live the same kind of bliss.

"Once an Evil Queen, always an Evil Queen, I guess," she murmured to herself.

She had been so sure that Robin was hers; Tinker Bell and her damned fairy dust true love detector said so. The lion tattoo was supposed to be the indicator. A fat lot of good that had done her. A few scant weeks of happiness, learning to thaw the ice around her heart as she spent nearly every waking moment of every day trying to honor Daniel's memory and last words asking her to love again wasn't nearly enough.

The Savior had to go and continue her family tradition of ruining Regina's happiness in the name of doing some kind of nebulous good. Of course Robin Hood was too noble, too loyal to his code to ignore vows made to his wife brought back from the dead via magic.

The worst part of it all was that there was no one for Regina to blame. The Savior – somehow it was easier to think of the blonde Sherriff by her titles rather than by name – did what a Savior should do, and rescued a woman meant for execution. She hadn't even stopped to ask her name before breaking her out of Regina's own dungeon. Robin honored his marriage vows despite his heart. And she was left alone as always. She couldn't stifle the pang of guilt when she thought of her last interaction with the Sheriff, verbally tearing her to shreds in a bar before teleporting back to her mansion. She'd overreacted, but it seemed to be the only way she could act.

About the only good thing that could be said to have come out of the entire debacle was Henry's increased presence in her life. Taking another sip of tea, Regina acknowledged that it was done out of pity at first, that he couldn't bear to see his mom unhappy and alone, but she was still grateful. He was her one remaining joy in life and she was determined not to allow any of the negatives swirling around her to sully his presence.

Just as she was about to finish her drink, a shout from the upper story of the mansion startled her sufficiently that she dropped the cup, which shattered on the granite counter top.

"MOM!"

A sound she sarcastically equated to a herd of elephants tromping down the stairs followed his shout. Within moments, Henry skittered to a halt in the doorway, stopped by her outstretched arm. "Stop!" she called. "I have to mop up the tea and brush up the fragments so we don't get cut. What was so important that you had to wake up half the neighborhood to tell me?" She moved to reach for the small dustpan and brush they kept under the sink for small accidents like the one she was trying to contain.

"I had another fire room dream," he answered, still trying to catch his breath from the run downstairs.

Immediately Regina's ire turned to concern as she dropped the cleaning implements on the floor and rushed over to him. "Oh, Henry. Did you get burned at all?" She grabbed his arms, turning them to check for potential injuries.

All boy, he shrugged off her ministrations, gesticulating wildly as he told her why he yelled out. "No, Mom, I'm fine. Listen, it was what I saw in the room that I had to tell you. Aurora was there and she had a message. She showed me someone else in the room who wasn't moving or talking. When I tried to see who it was, the fire blocked me. Aurora said she's seen them in there before, and the same thing happened to her when she tried to see who it was. She and I think the person might be here in Storybrooke. We need to start looking for them!"

Regina stared at her son, the implications of his Curse-dream sinking into her consciousness. "Oh, my. That's awful! I haven't heard of anyone going missing recently, but you're right. Once we deal with the Snow Queen, we have to find out who's been cursed."

But Henry shook his head, moving around the other side of the island. "No! Don't you see? We can't wait that long! With the Snow Queen, we need everyone we can get on our side! Can't you ask Blue or the other fairies, or even Red to do a search while you and Em – while you handle the Snow Queen?" Henry flushed at his slip, knowing things were still jagged between his moms, but didn't try to ignore it.

Regina pursed her lips, not acknowledging the mention of the Sheriff, but not ignoring it either. "Okay, Henry. I'll talk to Blue today. She might know of any extracurricular magical activity like a Sleeping Curse going on here in town. Your grandparents are supposed to pick you up from school today, so you can tell them what you told me. Who knows, maybe they'll even have a halfway decent idea for how to conduct a search under the Snow Queen's nose?"

The boy grinned, knowing that while they'd come to a tentative peace, his mother still felt out of sorts around Snow White and Prince Charming. "That's a great idea, Mom. We'll call it Operation Possum."

Seeing the humor in the name, Regina returned his smile. Being included in one of his Operations was exactly the balm her battered psyche needed after the jarring morning. Ruffling his hair, she cleaned up her mess and made breakfast.

Another day was underway.

11 May 2014

Outside Granny's Diner

"You did this!" Regina channeled every bit of the shock slowly morphing into rage into her accusation. She was gratified to see Emma quail in the face of simmering anger that threatened to boil over with every second that passed.

Emma reached out for Regina, but when she saw the hostility in the older woman's posture, stood stock still. She was dimly aware that her mouth was opening and closing like a demented goldfish as she searched for something, anything, to say that would stem the tide of Regina's betrayed fury. "I just wanted to save her life."

Rather than put out the fire in front of her, her feeble protest acted like gasoline. Regina's eyes flashed and crackled as her hands clenched. "You're just like your mother; never thinking of the consequences."

"I didn't know," Emma tried, knowing how weak it sounded even as her arms fell to her sides. She would never be accused of eloquence even on her best day, but this was far from her best day. The words to express how deeply she regretted her inadvertent mistake, even trying to take one more soul off Regina's conscience as she had been.

If anything, Regina's sneer grew. "Of course you didn't. You Charmings are all the same. You all act before thinking of the consequences for anyone besides yourselves and your damned happiness. Of course the stupid Savior, daughter of Snow White just couldn't leave well enough alone. First your mother took away my first love, then you decide to bring back my pixie dust-foretold True Love's wife from the dead!"

Dread, already settled low in her stomach at the realization of what she'd done, grew exponentially as Emma heard Regina's perspective on her accidental betrayal. Helpless in the face of a truly angry Regina, she flailed about for the right apology. "Regina, I would never have done this to you on purpose, you have to know that."

Regina gave a hollow, dark laugh. "Well, of course the Savior wouldn't try to cause pain! Of course she only wants to do good deeds. What happens to those of us caught in the cross-fire? What happens when the Savior takes away someone's happy ending? Oh, wait," she continued, bringing her finger to her chin in a mock pose of consideration, "that's right: I'm the Evil Queen. The villain, and villains don't get happy endings. So, really, you were doing good from start to finish here Ms. Swan."

Emma shook her head as if to physically rid herself of the notion that Regina was still the Evil Queen. "You don't really think…"

All trace of false casualness fled Regina's body. She tensed up, and it didn't take Emma much concentration to sense the viper coiling before her, ready to strike.

"What I think, what I know, is that you are nothing more than a waste of space in this town, Ms. Swan. You're a waste of time, my time, and you need to understand that."

Hearing those words from the one person Emma desired to call a friend more than any other in Storybrooke shattered what was left of her heart. Without conscious effort, memories of the worst of her foster homes flashed in front of her eyes, the same words Regina just said echoing over the years.

"You're not worth more than the check we get for having you here."

"You're a waste of my time."

"No, we can't go get you new clothes. I don't care if your jeans have holes in them. New clothes are a waste."

"We're going to have a baby of our own, and we can't afford to waste any space in our house. I'm sorry, but you're going back to the group home."

And on, and on, and on. Regina's insults echoed every put-down, every insult, every time she just wasn't enough for a foster family. Every time she heard those words, another piece of her chipped away, leaving her less than she had been. Emma shrugged each one off, tried not to let them get to her, but after years of hearing the same things over and over, it just became part of herself. Part of who she was.

Hearing Regina echo the same words she'd heard all her life was worse than hearing them the first time. From the moment she'd arrived in Storybrooke, she knew Regina was a force not to take lightly. Even when they were at each other's throats, she respected the older woman. When they'd started to work together, Regina teaching Emma about magic as they worked to save first Storybrooke and then Henry in Neverland, Emma's esteem of Regina only grew.

It was that same respect that made her break into a thousand pieces with each new venomous word from Regina. Through the haze of shock that had taken over her system, she again reached out. "Please, Regina, don't do this. Don't…"

Regina cut off her reply, jerking back from Emma's touch like she was poisoned. "Don't you dare touch me!" she yelled. "Get this through your thick blonde skull, Ms. Swan: I don't need you. In fact, Storybrooke doesn't need you! We could get a chimp to do the Sheriff's job, and I wouldn't even be surprised if the paperwork got done faster."

Emma gaped, hearing her darkest insecurities dragged into the light of day, old scabs torn off to bleed anew. A dangerous glint came into Regina's gaze, and somehow Emma knew she was gearing up for the killing blow.

When she spoke, it was in a deceptively calm tone. "I'd even go so far as to say that your own parents don't even need you anymore. They've probably got their hands full with that new baby of theirs, wouldn't you say?"

Regina's words crashed into her with a near-tangible force. Her mentor, hero, and friend, had just confirmed her deepest doubts with a smile on her face. Regina couldn't have done her more damage if she'd tried. All her dreams of a happy life in Storybrooke blew away like dust on the breeze, but Emma marshaled her strength for one more try. "Regina, please, please don't say that. Please," she begged, abandoning all dignity.

She reached out one more time for a hug to apologize, but Regina held up her hand. "Don't. Don't touch me. Don't talk to me. Don't call me. As far as I'm concerned, you're nothing. You don't exist."

And she vanished in a puff of purple smoke, leaving a shell of a woman wondering where her happy return from the past had gone so wrong.

A/N: What do you think? Reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated!