A/N: hey everyone :) it´s been a long time and everyone who gets an Author Alert from me must be thinking "who the heck is that?" lol. But yes I am back, it's been years I think since I wrote something and work has gotten the best of me and writing while my bosses are looking at my computer is pretty darn hard ;) and yes to answer your question, I always wrote my fanfictions at work. But shhh, don't tell anyone :D Now tho, I am back and after the winter finale I just could not get over the episode and how it ended and before I knew it the first chapter of this fic was being born.

The fanfiction is set right after the moment that the curse is being broken. No one year time jump because well… because I decided that I didn't want that in my fanfic, hi hi. Now please read and I hope you like it :)

Thanks to my lovely beta ash for reading it and telling me it didn't suck ;) thanks honey

FINDING MY WAY BACK HOME

CHAPTER 1

Regina could see the green smoke getting closer, finally engulfing her body as her eyes were still fixed on the yellow bug that drove away in a slow manner. Tears made their way down her pale cheeks as her heart was starting to crumble into a million of tiny pieces seeing Henry and Emma leave Storybrooke.

She knew that everything was her own fault, that in order to break the curse, she had to let go of the thing she loved most, and said thing was sitting in the hideous yellow car and even though Regina hated this vehicle with a passion she would do anything to be sitting right there with her son and her – Emma.

A scream was about to leave her lips, a last goodbye to her son and the woman who had given her the greatest gift as suddenly her lungs filled with smoke and before she knew it, her world went black.

"Regina" She heard a voice echo through the darkness.

"Regina!" it got louder and she tried to open her eyes but felt her eyelids not moving

"Regina please!" the voice said again and finally with a loud groan, the petite brunette opened her eyes to star at the person above her.

"Thank god you are alive. I was about to drench you in water to wake you up" Snow white whispered her voice sounding seriously frightened.

"If I had been dead dear, water wouldn't have helped, you know that right?" She asked her stepdaughter with a soft glare and no matter how many obstacles they had fought together and how many things they had gone through in their past, Regina would always – always – hate her just a little.

"I could have tried kissing you" Snow mentioned with a wink and Regina shot daggers at her with her eyes.

"Well that would have definitely killed me" Regina responded dryly but took Snow's outstretched hand as the younger woman helped her up.

The brunette looked around, taking in her surroundings and although it was dark she could clearly see that they were back in the enchanted Forrest. Their appearance had changed and once again Snow was spotting long raven hair and Regina noticed her own dark locks framing her face. The fashionable clothes from Storybrooke were gone and instead of wearing Gucci and Prada, Regina was now spotting one of her famous Evil Queen dresses and a long black coat.

"We´re back" Snow breathed and she didn't know whiter to smile or cry about that fact.

"Way to state the obvious dear" Regina whispered as her heart hammered in her chest.

This place held so many horrible memories for her and when she had enacted the curse almost 30 years ago, she thought she would never see, let alone live in this land ever again. She hadn't gone through all the terrible things just to end back here, unhappy and alone all over again. To enact the curse she had lost her father and to break the curse she had lost Henry. It pained her to realize that the saying was really a true one. Villains didn't get happy endings.

Snow must have caught the woman's gaze because she sighed softly "I miss them too, but they are gone Regina. They are in the real world and we are back… to being characters out of a storybook" she whispered and it seemed so unreal to even her own ears.

It took a lot of control not to slap her because yes, Regina knew that they were gone, that they had no chance on ever seeing them ever again and the worst thing was, even if she managed to somehow get back to the real world, if by some holy miracle she made it to Boston or New York or wherever the hell Emma had taken Henry, they wouldn't even remember her. The last 12 years were gone, erased from their minds and replaced by new memories that Regina had made up – her parting gift to Emma.

Counting backwards from ten to one she took several deep breaths before she nodded softly and looked at everyone else who had come back with the curse. Of course not all were right in the same spot as her, she was sure that they were dropped off at every part of the forest but the few people that had stood with her at the town line were all looking at her, feeling probably just as miserable as she was.

At least Snow had her perfect Charming husband and even though Regina knew that they both would miss Henry and Emma terribly, they had each other.

Hook was standing close to Tinker Bell who appeared to have her wings back, and all of the dwarfs were huddled together, debating what to do next.

She even noticed that Neil was comforting Belle and Regina swallowed hard at the remembrance that Rumple had given his own life to save theirs. She had hated him with a passion but in a strange way he had been a part of her life. She had threatened his life just as much as he had threatened hers but they had never killed each other. That had to stand for something.

Regina on the other hand – was all alone. Once again she was left with no one. It was just her now – her, and the memories of a better life.

"What are we doing now? Were shall we go?" Charming wanted to know and you could see that even he was more than just a little confused about the current situation.

"I don't know" Regina whispered her voice quiet. She really had no idea what to do, where to go and how to handle everything. She hadn't even thought about all these things when she had used magic to get them all back, hell she didn't even know if they still had a place to stay.

"Our... our castle... it's still there" Snow mentioned softly and she remembered how she had been here with her daughter not too long ago. Their home was broken and most of the rooms needed some redoing but the castle itself was still in place.

"So we all just go back to whatever we did before all of this shit happened?" Regina called out "Cause I didn't work so damn hart to just go back to this nonsense" she continued. "I lost my father, I lost my son and I lost my ... I lost Emma in the process and I will not just stand here and accept the fact that I am nothing more than the Evil Queen"

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks. They hadn't expected and outburst like that and while they all knew that it was ultimately Regina's fault that all of this had happened; they knew she had scarified a lot to help them, to save them, to keep them alive. She had lost just as much as they did and in the last two years she had changed, she had transformed from the Evil Queen they once knew to just being Regina. She was still manipulative and bad tempered but she wasn't evil and her heart was in the right place.

"Regina, it doesn't help anyone to lose your nerve" the younger brunette told her former stepmother

"Oh and it helps to just stand here and decide to live in your own castle, going on with our life's as if nothing happened?" she shot back

"Listen, I am very aware that this situation is - bad – but we need a place to stay. It is dark, we are in the enchanted forest and if I remember correctly, us fairytale characters were not the only creatures in this realm" Snow said softly speaking of the ogres

Regina sighed, hating when snow was right, it was a feeling like someone had peeled off her skin and deep-fried it.

"So I suggest we go back there and sleep it off and talk about everything else tomorrow" Snow continued and Regina wanted to strangle her for being so calm about all of this but well this was snow for you.

With her head hanging low, the former Mayor followed snow and her people to her castle, knowing that tomorrow couldn't come fast enough for her liking.

TBC

I really hoped you liked the first chapter. Please let me know what you think about it and if you have any ideas or requests for me to add in, just say so :)

Suz