Disclaimer: I don't own any characters and I make no profit.
AN: Jesus, I hate ff and links. I'm giving up on linking to the post and just saying what this is inspired from. Obviously I've twisted it a little.
badwolfkaily posted the following on tumblr: Head-Canon: When Emma and Henry return to the Enchanted Forest, still foggy memories, she finds Regina in a glass coffin such as Charming found Snow. So instinct moves her to act and she finds herself kissing Regina awake.
"This isn't happening, this isn't real," Emma muttered to herself as she disappeared into a swirling vortex and landed harshly on forest ground. She looked around, closed her eyes tightly, and opened them again. Nope, not a dream. "I'm going insane," she concluded to herself as she stood on shaky feet and tried to take in her new surroundings.
"Oh my God, Mom, that was so cool," Henry yelled excitedly as he stumbled to his feet and barreled into her side, hugging her happily. Emma tried to smile back, but it came out as more of a grimace as she looked around again before her eyes settled on Killian – Captain Hook? Just the thought made her snort inside – who was brushing dirt from his clothes. His current ensemble was the only one she'd seen him wearing for the past weeks and the idea that he always wore the same thing made her want to wrinkle her nose in disgust.
"We need to get to somewhere safe," the pirate offered as he looked around to get a better idea of where they had landed. "Hopefully, we're not too far from your parents' castle."
Emma bristled at the mention of her supposedly fairy tale parents. Another thing that made this whole thing only too absurd. There was no way Snow White and her prince were real, and if they were, they sure as hell couldn't be her parents. But she couldn't deny that they had indeed jumped down a swirling hole in the ground and ended up somewhere that was decidedly not New York so she'd play along. For now.
"This way," Killian offered and Emma gave her son a reassuring smile as she took his hand and followed him.
They saw the castle long before anything else, looming tall over the treetops. Emma stared at it incredulously while Henry gaped and awed. "This is so cool," he kept repeating over and over as he practically tripped beside her in excitement.
When she squinted, she could see people milling about in what looked like armor. Emma jumped as a trumpet sounded loudly and moments later, the bridge to the castle started lowering. Her heart started beating rapidly in her chest as armed men on horses rode out towards them, hooves thundering so loud she could feel the vibrations in the earth.
"Are you sure this is safe?" she asked Hook, voice strained as she clutched Henry tighter to her on reflex.
"They're the good guys, they're probably just coming to escort us," the pirate offered, but even he seemed a bit uncertain and wary.
"Emma, oh Emma, you're finally here," a dark haired woman who couldn't be much more than her same age exclaimed as she hurried towards them. Emma had just enough time to brace herself and widen her eyes in shock before the body impacted against her own and she was squeezed tightly. "We've missed you so much. But we knew Hook would break the curse and bring you back."
"Hard…to…breathe," Emma choked out as she tried to keep her body from pushing the woman forcefully away. The woman released her almost bashfully and patted her arms lovingly. It made Emma want to squirm away, not at all comfortable with such an intimate touch from someone she didn't even know.
"Actually, your Highness-" Killian started before he was interrupted.
"Who are you?"
"Oh," the dark haired woman breathed in understanding as the air left her and she sagged at the distrustful, hard look in her daughter's eyes. "You don't remember."
"All I know is that guy-liner over there kept talking crazy for days and days before he created some sort of weird looking hole that brought us here," Emma answered as she crossed her arms protectively and let her eyes roam around the huge hall they were in. "Frankly, I'm not convinced this isn't just an elaborate prank or hoax of some kind."
"Are you Snow White?" Henry intervened as he looked up at the woman curiously. Apparently he didn't have any problems believing in this whole thing. Kid always did have an active imagination.
"Yes, Henry, I am," Snow offered with a bright smile to her grandson as she tried to keep her disappointment at her family not remembering her from showing.
"You'll know everything you need to know soon enough. Why don't you let me show you to your quarters?"
Henry grinned and nodded excitedly while Emma just continued to eye everything skeptically.
Emma was, for lack of a better word, exploring. She'd been in the castle for almost a whole week, watching people who apparently knew her, but whom she had no recollection of, coming and going. She had refused to let Henry out of her sight for days, eyeing everyone critically, before the kid had told her point blank to lighten up. This was their family and no one would hurt them. She'd let him go sullenly and purposefully avoided everyone. And so, in her complete boredom, she had taken to exploring the castle, trying not to get lost and failing almost every time.
It was on her third day of her examination that she stumbled upon the woman. She'd gotten lost again, like usual, but continued on steadfast, knowing sooner or later she'd meet someone who could show her the way back. She'd wound up at the bottom of a wide, narrowly lit stone staircase that spiraled slowly upwards. Its eerie and desolated look had intrigued her and she started climbing it. It took forever to get to the top and Emma figured it had to lead to one of the high towers. When she finally reached the last step she was breathing a little heavier, leaning herself against the wall as she calmed her beating heart and decided that she needed to start working on her stamina since they were obviously going to be staying in the middle ages for a while.
Sucking in one last breath, she leaned against the big wooden door and pushed.
The room was beautiful. Huge windows offered natural light to the area, drapes of white and deep red accompanying them. There were painted pictures on the walls and intricately woven rugs on the floor. And in the middle of the room stood a glass coffin. Emma gaped and stared as her eyes tried to take in the woman lying inside it. She had sun-kissed skin, lips painted a deep shade of red and long flowing dark hair that shone in the light. She was quite possibly the most beautiful woman Emma had ever seen. And she couldn't take her eyes away from her.
Without even realizing it, her body started moving towards the woman inside the glass, until she was so close she could touch it if she reached out her hand. Emma's eyes never once left the mystery woman. Was she dead? Was she sleeping? Even in medieval times it wasn't normal to keep dead people in glass coffins right? And if she was dead, she wouldn't look so beautiful right? Emma stared and stared as she tried to figure out if she'd ever heard anyone talk about this woman, ever mentioned someone inside a glass coffin. She just seemed so familiar somehow.
"Emma?"
She jumped in surprise at the gently probing voice of Snow, spinning around to face the dark haired woman who was supposedly her mother with a startled look.
"Everyone's been looking for you."
"Oh?" Emma asked non-committedly as her eyes flickered back to the mystery woman as if drawn to her.
"You've been gone for a while," Snow informed as she finally took a step inside the room, slowly making her way closer to her daughter. Emma's eyes went to the window and widened in surprise when she saw that the sun had almost set. Had she really been so enraptured by the woman inside the glass that she had forgotten the time?
"Who is she?" It came out barely more than a whisper as Snow stopped beside her, both women looking at the beautiful brunette looking like she was just taking a nap.
"She's…complicated," her mother offered softly, the myriad of emotions in her voice making Emma frown.
"Is she dead?"
"No, she's…in an eternal sleep." Emma pursed her lips in confusion and Snow quickly tried to explain further. "She's been cursed to stay like this forever. Only her True Love can wake her up."
"So she's sleeping beauty?"
Snow frowned. "No, she's nothing like Aurora, she's…like I said, it's complicated." The woman laid a hand on top of the glass softly for a moment before turning away. "We should go."
Emma didn't want to leave. She wanted to know everything there was to know about this woman, what had happened to her and why. And she wanted to know it now. "Will you tell me about her?" she pleaded as her eyes darted back and forth between the two dark haired women. Snow studied her daughter for a long moment. "I can try."
Emma went back to the room each day after that. The chamber with the woman enclosed in a glass coffin was the only thing in the castle that she remembered the way too. She never got lost when she wanted to go there, like the knowledge of how to get there was seared into her brain.
What Snow told her of the woman was vague and unsatisfying. She had sacrificed herself to save everyone from a new Evil. She was a woman who had suffered much and caused even more to others.
Every day Emma would spend hours next to the woman's coffin, looking at her and trying to imagine what she had been like awake, what had made her willing to give up her life for someone else's.
She started questioning people about her, the servants, the ones coming and going that claimed they knew her before she lost her memories. It was mostly just rumors she got, often directly contradicting stories, but it was better than nothing.
She was The Evil Queen. She had cursed them all to another realm, taken away their happy endings. Then she had changed. The curse had been broken and she had sacrificed herself to save them all.
On her fifth day of visiting the mystery woman, Henry tagged along, too curious about where his mother disappeared to for hours each day to allow anything else. He was just as enamored with her as Emma was. They'd stared at her together, marvelled at how beautiful she was.
Later that night, when she was wishing her son goodnight, he confessed to her that the woman seemed familiar somehow.
"Who is her True Love," Henry asked Snow two days later at breakfast, no longer able to hold in his curiosity or fascination with the woman in the glass coffin.
"No one knows. Regina told me it was Daniel, but he died a long time ago. Tinkerbelle said it was Robin Hood, but he couldn't wake her."
"Who's Regina?" Emma questioned, the name causing her heart to pick up its speed for a moment.
"It's her," Henry said with conviction when Snow looked conflicted and didn't answer right away.
"Regina," Emma said, tasting the name on her tongue. It was beautiful. Just like the woman herself.
"Regina means Queen," her son added, a thoughtful look on his face as he shared a look with his mother.
"Why won't people tell us about her?" Henry whispered to her that night. "She knew us, we knew her. Otherwise she wouldn't seem so familiar. Why are they hiding things from us?"
Emma eyed her son sadly. She was wondering the same things herself and knew she didn't have any satisfying answers for him. She had tried to push Snow for answers but the woman had simply told her that it didn't matter anymore because Regina would never wake up again. They needed to move on, to think forward.
Charming, her supposed father, was the one to offer her something in the end.
"She loved Henry very much. And she was your friend…I think."
The way he said it made it sound like they'd been more than friends. Like they'd shared Henry perhaps. But that was insane, wasn't it?
Still, Emma couldn't get the idea out of her mind now that it was planted there. It would explain why they were both so drawn to the woman, to Regina. She started wondering how it would feel to run her fingers over Regina's skin, how it would feel to touch her lips. Would she be cold or warm, her lips moist or dry? Her hands started unconsciously tracing the woman's outline against the glass each time she went to visit her and when she wasn't in that room, thoughts of Regina consumed her.
"What would happen if we removed the glass?" Emma asked one night, two weeks after she'd started visiting Regina every day.
"She'd age," Snow answered, eyeing her daughter carefully. "There's a spell on it that keeps her body in a sort of stasis, otherwise she'd deteriorate."
Emma looked horrified at the information. "But if we only took it off for, like, a minute, it wouldn't do much right?" she asked with hopeful wariness.
"I can't really know. I don't have a lot of answers when it comes to magic."
"Who does?"
"What are you doing?" Snow asked loudly as she walked quickly inside the room, startling Emma and the servant she'd brought so they almost lost the glass cover they were removing.
"I just…I want to try-"
"NO," her mother said firmly, looking angry for the first time since Emma and Henry had been brought there almost four weeks ago. "Whatever you might think, you can't do it."
Emma's face clouded over as she regarded Snow closely. "Why not? What are you so afraid will happen? Why are you so intent on keeping us from her?"
She took in her mother's surprised face. "Who was she to me? To Henry?"
"Emma, please, it's complicated," Snow pleaded, face anguished as she took in her daughter's determined features.
"Stop saying that," Emma yelled angrily. "That's all you ever say; it's complicated. You've had more than enough time to try and explain it, but you clearly don't want to."
"Emma, just listen to me-"
"No, I'm done listening, done waiting. I've come here every day for two weeks because I know, in my heart, that she's important to me, important to my son. And it's driving me insane."
"You're right Emma, she's important to you, but not like that," Snow tried desperately to placate her dughter. She couldn't understand how it had gotten to this point. She could understand Henry being drawn to the woman who raised him for eleven years, but Emma? All she'd ever done was gone head to head with Regina.
"What does it hurt if I try?"
"I-" Snow floundered at that. Her daughter had a valid point and it wasn't like it would work anyway. If she allowed it, they could move on. "You're right," she offered with a sigh, watching Emma's face light up at the approval.
Carefully Emma made her way to Regina's side and stared down at her. And continued staring.
"Emma?" Snow prodded gently when she just stayed still and her daughter jumped.
"Right." She looked from Regina to her mother, to Regina again before giving Snow a sheepish look. "Could you maybe turn around?"
Snow wanted to ask why, but chose to do as requested. She made sure she only turned enough to still see her daughter in her peripheral though.
Emma breathed in deeply as she tried to keep the fluttering in her stomach at bay. This was really happening. She was finally going to touch Regina and she felt like a nervous wreck. She lifted her hand slowly so it hovered over the woman's arm, but then her body froze. Was she really doing this? It was absurd. Snow had said she could only be awoken by True Love's kiss. She didn't even believe in magic, even after staying in this strange land for almost a month. So how could she be anyone's True Love? What was she thinking?
She let her eyes roam over the sleeping figure in front of her; if possible, even more beautiful now that the glass wasn't covering her. Oh hell, what did it matter anyway? She had already removed the cover so she might as well go through with her crazy idea right? Worst case scenario nothing happened and they put the lid back on as Regina remained sleeping.
Emma leaned her hands against the side of the table so she was leaning over the woman, staring intently down on her as she tried to decide what to do. To kiss the most gorgeous woman she'd ever seen or not? Easy choice really.
She bent down quickly before she could change her mind and chicken out, closing her eyes and pressing her lips against the deep red ones below her. For a moment it was as if time was standing still before several things happened at once.
A blast of light swept through the room, Regina's eyes shot open as she heaved in a breath, Snow gasped loudly as she turned around fully and Emma uttered a shocked "Holy shit."
And then confused and disoriented dark pools locked on shining, surprised green ones. "Emma?"
"Regina."
"Oh my God." Both women turned to see Snow holding her hands in front of her mouth as she stared back and forth between them with tears in her eyes.
Rapid footsteps could be heard as all three women stared at each other in bewilderment, and then Henry burst through the door shouting "Mom! I remember!" before he threw himself at Regina who wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly as she released a sob.
And then she was crying, Henry was crying and Emma was hugging them both.
"I can't believe you actually kissed her," Henry said with a tired grin as he snuggled closer to Regina in bed.
"Well, she's a beautiful woman, can you really blame me?" Emma offered cheekily as she shared a silent look with the other woman over their son's head and tried not to blush.
"That's not what I meant," the boy tried to argue before his birth mom jumped into bed and snuggled against his free side.
"Aww, moms," he complained, squished between them. There was no way he would get any sleep like this.
"Hush," both women mock scolded him before hugging him even tighter, making him grin up at them.
"Night, kid."
"Goodnight, my little prince."
"Goodnight, moms."