Once Upon a Time is property of Disney/ABC, not mine. If it was, Regina would not be going through the wringer every single blessed week.
As one author said, its now a habit: Adam & Eddie throw Regina in the hole, we EvilRegals, SwanQueeners, and other Oncers rescue her via fanfics. Well, this is my life preserver. It will only be about 2-3 chapters and not much SQ. And because it is my feelings of how things should go, let's call it canon-based AU, shall we?
Anyway, let me know if I should keep going with this...
"If I did, you probably wouldn't know about it."
Somehow it tugged on Snow White's mind for most of the evening. It tugged on her mind while she was preparing dinner for herself and James. Tugged at her during dinner even as the pair giggled about daughter and grandson walking in while in the midst of...as Red would say...getting busy. And when sleep finally came to James, it tugged on Snow for most of the night.
Archie Hopper was dead. Archie Hopper, aka, Jiminy Cricket. Dead. Strangled. By Regina Mills. Evil Queen. Possessor of great magic. Regina Mills strangled Archie Hopper to death.
That didn't add up.
Snow had known Regina longer than anyone in Storybrooke. Hell, she was, in part, the reason for Storybrooke. Since that day when the older woman saved her from a runaway horse, Snow and Regina had either saved each other or stopped close to each others deaths. There was a connection between them that could not be explained, but it was a connection that made her understand something about her arch enemy.
Regina could not have strangled Archie.
It wasn't her style. She either use magic or sent someone else to do the dirty deed. But to her knowledge, Regina had never used her hands to physically kill anyone.
But the evidence: Red seeing Regina go into Archie's office, the argument before. Emma using the dream catcher on Pongo to see Regina do the deed. I should add up.
But it wasn't the way Regina would do anything. And even if she strangled Archie because she promised her son she wouldn't use magic...would all bets be off if you killed someone anyway?
There minutes of sleep, punctuated by hours awake. James slept like the dead. Emma and Henry were sleeping in the other room. The house was deadly quiet. And Snow lay next to James. Thinking.
They've never really figured out how an idea or a memory does come to a brain. A picture or a glimpse of something, or maybe the right neurons hitting each other at the right exact time. At 4:11 on a Friday morning two neurons clicked in the dead of Snow White. Just a fleeting thought at first, then pounding forward like a bad headache. And finally the idea burst forward...
Lancelot.
Lancelot.
LANCELOT.
Snow sprang from the bed, awakening her Charming, but she was too focused on the room down the hall.
LANCELOT.
Snow had the answer in her head. And she had to get to Emma before the thought evaporated.
Snow didn't knock, she banged. James followed in what-the-hell's-going-on? mode. Within moments, a disheveled, pissed-off Emma Swan opened the door and faced a disheveled, excited Snow White, aka Mary-Margaret Blanchard. "Mary-Margaret, its 4:30 in the freaking morning...this had better be good."
Snow, out of breath responded: "I can prove Regina didn't kill Archie..."
THAT got Emma's attention.
...
In the last few year, one of the things that david Nolan did master was brewing a pretty decent cup of joe. Emma and Snow were sipping on unsweetened black ups of said coffee when mother laid out her theory to daughter.
"Remember Lancelot?," referring to the knight whose path Emma and Snow crossed in their adventure in Snow's former realm. Emma nodded yes, and Snow continued: "You remember he wasn't really Lancelot, it was Regina's mother. She made it look as if she was Lancelot."
Emma's eyebrows were raised. "Are you saying that...that Cora killed Archie?"
"Its possible..."
"But we closed that portal," Emma said with the coffee kicking in, "Regina kept Cora from coming in."
"But what if Cora found another way through?"
James sat down with his cup. He had been listening and trying to put two and two together himself. "So what you are saying is that Cora's mother maybe in Storybrooke?"
"Very possible, Charming," Snow replied, then turned back to Emma. "You said that Red saw Regina go into Archie's office, right?" Emma nodded, Snow continued. "So it is possible that what Red saw was not Regina, but Cora appearing like Regina..."
The light came on quick for both daughter and father. It was James, who asked, understandably, "but why would Cora kill Archie?"
"First, Charming, the most obvious answer would be to frame Regina...for revenge or whatever. Second, how do we know it was Archie?" James was, as usual, slow on the uptake, but Emma, having dealt with Cora was getting exactly what her mom was getting at. "So the corpse is an illusion too?" Snow simply nodded and said, "Its possible.."
James interjected: "Darling why are you defending Regina like this...I mean after everything..."
"Charming...if we're supposed to be the good guys, we have to stand up for what's right. And framing an innocent person is not right. Even if it's Regina."
Emma Swan smiled at her mom. And then the sheriff began to delegate. "Mom, can you fix a real big breakfast? We're going to be real busy to day. And James...uh...dad...uh..."
James laughed: "I get it hon.."
Emma returned that chuckle: "Anyway...remind me to get Red out of bed later this morning. We got a lot of work ahead of us.."
And as James got up to start with kitchen help, Emma and Snow sipped the last of their cups of coffee, know that each in their own way may be about to rescue Regina Mills one more time. If for no other reason than it is what good people do. And if you pressed them on it...they would secretly admit that the Evil Queen was also...deep down...a good person too.
TBC(?)