Today had to be the craziest day of Emma Swan's entire life and that was a stretch considering all of the absolutely crazy things that had happened to her. For instance the whole fairytale characters trapped in a cursed town thing and her parents who were supposedly Prince Charming and Snow freaking White. Also pretty crazy was the fact that the only reason she knew about the town full of cursed fairytale characters was because the son she had given up for adoption had showed up on her stoop to tell her she was the savior destined to save those cursed fairytale characters in that cursed town. Even more crazy was than that was the fact that everything she thought wasn't true, turned out to be true and that everyone in the town really was who her long lost son had claimed them to be. Yet, what had happened today, was even crazier than all of that.
Her day had started out simple enough, all previous things mentioned brought into consideration. Being the Sheriff of Storybrooke, even after the curse broke, was a pretty easy job. Not much happened in the little town so mostly Emma sat at her desk eating pastries with one hand and throwing darts at a board with the other. She use to play paper ball basketball with the trashcan until Regina had got on her for wasting perfectly good paper that cost to much to just throw away like that. Because, yes, somehow, Regina still managed to go all scary Mayor, bossy bitch lady, on Emma even though she was no longer the mayor of Storybrooke. So after a long, tiring day of overstuffing herself and getting a sore wrist from dart throwing, Emma had locked up the station and had drove herself home to get Henry ready for his weekend with his other mother. As per the agreement between Regina and herself, Henry was to spend every other weekend with Regina so long as Henry was willing to stay and Regina behaved herself magic wise. Boy, had Regina given Emma a glare that could kill when she had told Regina that was one of her rules. That agreement had been made a few months back and, after a few initial fights with the brunette woman, everything had begun to run smoothly until it was now habit for the two woman and their shared son. Henry went over on Friday night after school and Regina returned him promptly after dinner on Sunday nights, just in time for bed. Recently Emma had begun letting Regina into her apartment on Sunday to tuck Henry in before she left though, if anyone asked her, Emma couldn't say why. Vise versa, Regina would sometimes allow Emma to stay long enough on Friday nights to catch dinner and tuck Henry in before leaving. Regina and herself managed to remain civil but there was always, had always been an underlining tension running between them that was pulled taught enough, Emma just knew that soon it would snap and all hell would break loose. Until that happened however, Emma planned on remaining cautiously optimistic and carefully courteous of their new found compromise.
Today was not one of those days for Emma. When she had dropped Henry off and invited herself in for dinner, Regina had flayed Emma alive with a sharp verbal assault and promptly shoved the blond onto her porch and slammed the door in her face. Emma hardly blinked an eye at it, she was used to the crazy woman's insane mood swings when it pertained to Emma Swan; she had just waved to Henry through the window and made her way back to her Beetle. Recently Emma had found herself in this situation with Regina and for the life of her, Emma couldn't understand why. Everything had been going so well, she had even seen Regina give her an honest to god smile once, then she got all hormonal about everything and would be incredibly bi-polar with her moods. Emma would see her at the store, say hi and get a pleasant greeting in return, then later she would see Regina again at Granny's and say hi only to have Regina glare at her, stand up with a huff, and shoulder check her in the process of her dramatic exit. Emma had chalked it up to menopause, fairly convinced Regina was just going all Bitch Mode Activated on her lately because she was going through that change older woman tend to do at her age. Regina was pretty old right? Old enough for that? She was pretty sure. The first few times it happened she had been more confused than angry for being degraded by the former mayors sharp tongue but now, now she was use to it.
So she had drove back to her lonely apartment in hopes of catching a flick on TV before bed and debated whether to indulge in a nice cup of hot chocolate or a cold beer. Now that Charming and Snow had been dramatically reunited, they had moved into a place of their own and left Emma with the apartment she had shared with Mary Margaret during the duration of the time she spent here. Not that she minded being alone in the apartment, quite the contrary, she enjoyed not having her overly affectionate parents stay there with Henry and herself. Plus, with them gone, and Henry staying with Regina most weekends, Emma now had to the ability to just sit around without pants on and have herself some sorely missed Emma Time.
Today she hadn't even gotten around to opening her beer, let alone taking her pants off to watch a re-run of Jaws on the couch, when someone had knocked on her door. She paused with the lip of the beer bottle pressed against the counter and her hand poised midair to bring it down atop the lid to pop the top off. No one came to visit her except her parents and occasionally Red or Belle but none of them knocked, they just walked right in. The only other person Emma could think that would bother visiting her was Gold but she wouldn't imagine him having such a timid knock. Nor would Regina have such a knock but Emma cancelled out Regina entirely because the one time Regina had shown up at Emma's apartment alone was the day the brunette had made Emma swear to forget ever happened. After that Regina never came over unless she had Henry with her and didn't stay after Henry went to sleep.
She had obviously spent to much time running through a mental checklist in her head because the knock sounded again, more persistent this time.
"Comin'!" She set her beer on the counter and went to the door, casting a fleeting glance at the perpetrating bottle being left behind for whoever this was. A strange feeling passed through her when she closed her fingers around the door handle, something close to a premonition that left a residue of dread coating her insides, before she threw the door open. Confusion marred her face in a way that brought her brows low over her eyes, lines appearing between them, lips pursed.
Sea green eyes twinkled up at her from waist height, "Hi." Her childish voice was high, lilting in a musical way that would make birds jealous, even if it was only one word she said. There was a mini human at her door. A strange mini human Emma had never seen around Storybrooke before so she didn't have the damndest idea who she belonged too. Strangely, she seemed familiar, but Emma couldn't place the features to anyone in particular. She was short, even for a girl her age, which Emma guessed to be between 6 and 9. Choppy strands of razor cut hair fell to just below her small mandible, a thick chunk of hair fanning across her forehead to just above her equally colored chestnut brown eyebrows. There was a tiny, almost indiscernible, splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose but they were near invisible underneath the olive tone of the girls skin. The clothes she wore screamed wealth, pristine and clean of any speck of dirt right down to the converse on her little feet and the turtle backpack strapped to her shoulders.
Emma leaned onto one foot to precariously balance herself so she could peer into the hallway for anyone else this girl could have come with but, seeing no one, she leaned back onto both feet to stare down at the girl. Who stared right back up at her, silent, with both of her petite hands gripping the straps of her backpack.
"Um…hi. Can I help you with something? You loose your folks or something?" Emma leaned her hip against the open door, crossing one ankle over the other. The little girl pursed her lips to one side, crinkling up her nose in the process. Emma was reminded of Samantha from Bewitched, that old TV show, that would do that and wiggle her nose to cast a spell. But it looked way cuter on the kid.
"Sort of but I have this really good plan." The girl looked past Emma into the apartment, like she was deep in thought but, when Emma looked over her shoulder to see what the kid was looking at, she noticed the girl was glaring a straight line at Emma's beer sitting on the counter. Peculiar but whatever. She turned back to see if she could help the girl but found the girl wasn't there anymore. Instead she had ducked under Emma's arm and moved into the apartment, making a beeline for the beer. Emma watched with her mouth hung open in shock as the girl stood on her tiptoes to grab the bottle and throw it into the trash can and, after she deposited it, turned back to Emma with her little hands on her hips, one thin brow raised. An odd thing to see when coupled with a turtle backpack and that adorable one sided lip purse.
"Ah, what the crap kid? That-"
"Mom you said you weren't going to drink that stuff anymore. You promised Mommy. I won't tell her this time but don't let it happen again, okay?" Then she smiled a huge, beaming smile, leaving all pretenses of being a bossy adult behind. Her hands fell away from her hips in trade to swing at her sides as she skipped over to the couch which she struggled to climb onto. Emma just stared at the kid like she had three heads. What was it with strange kids barging into her house like they owned the place and calling her mom? First Henry and now this one! Except this one couldn't possibly be hers because she had only one child in prison and hasn't gotten around to having another one since then. So either this little girl was deranged or Emma was.
With a huff, Emma slammed the door shut and stomped over to stand in front of the TV which the girl had changed to a cartoon channel. The girl whined in protest of being blocked so Emma turned and flicked it off, out of pure habit because that's what she did when Henry whined after she told him no more TV before bed.
"Aweh come on Mom…you always let me watch cartoons when Mommy isn't looking!" Her pout could have melted Mr. Gold into a puddle it was so powerful. Emma struggled not to summit to it and flick the TV back on, settle on the floor and watch cartoons with her. The only thing that stopped her was everything the girl continued to say. Calling her Mom and insinuating she had another mother for instance. Talk about a what the fuck moment.
"Okay Kid I think we should get you back to whatever loony bin you escaped from. I'll even give you a ride. I always seem to give the kids that show up at my house and call me mom rides." Emma huffed to herself and rested her hands on her hips, the tips of her fingers curling into the hemline of her skinny jeans. Stricken, the girl sucked in a breath and cupped her hands over her quivering lips, her eyes welling with tears.
"That was really mean…."
Emma's eyes widened and her hands fell limp at her sides, twitching a little from an instinctual urge to comfort the girl but not sure if she should. The dilemma didn't last long when the girl started sniffing and looking around the room for a box of tissues, Emma couldn't resist giving into her maternal instincts. She sat beside the girl and pulled her into her arms, rocking her slightly as she pressed her nose against Emma's sternum, gripping the hem of her tank top. Strangely, Emma felt like she should recognize this. That same premonition from before only less scary this time. Something to look into a later time, like when there wasn't a crying child cuddled up against her because Emma had insulted her. Awkwardly, Emma gave the girl's small back gentle pats as the girl continued to shake from silent sobs or what Emma assumed to be silent sobs, until she heard the girl break into a fit of melodious giggles. Emma pulled the girl away from her by her shoulders to look at her grinning face, ocean eyes twinkling with mischievous mirth.
"I got you Mom! I so got you." She giggled sweetly one more time before lightly pecking Emma on the cheek as an apology and hopped off the couch, running into the kitchen to root through the fridge.
Emma blinked a couple times before slowly growing a frown and turned around, propping herself on one knee to face the girl, "What are you some kind of devil child who is super good at acting?"
The girl peeked her head around the fridge to give Emma a little smile, "No. I'm your child." then went right back to what she was doing, making loud clinking noises.
Emma huffed again and fell back onto her ass, sinking deep into the cushions of the couch, "Alright Kid. I give. I'll listen to whatever crazy idea makes you think your mine and see if it makes any lick of sense 'cause last time some kid showed up at my door claiming to be my child he spouted off a whole bunch of crazy nonsense that didn't make any sense and I didn't believe until it was almost to late. So I'll give. C'mere and tell me your crazy ideas." Emma kicked her feet up onto the coffee table, crossing them at the ankles, and crossed her arms across her torso. Not soon after, the girl bounced back over with one of Henry's Capri Suns for herself and another for Emma that she set on Emma's thigh in a way that made it look like a peace offering. She carefully took her turtle backpack off before climbing onto the couch, setting it to her side and cuddling against Emma's bicep.
"Wha'da ya mean Mom?" She took a noisy sip of her juice, little driblets of clear juice dripping down her chin. Emma rolled her eyes and used her bent index finger to wipe it away for her, rubbing the moister clean on the thigh of her jeans.
"Let's start with a name. If I'm Mom, then you have to have a name right? I named you right?"
The girl shook her head, "Mommy named me. 'Cause you wanted to name me Sorsha, after the lady from Willow, and Mommy didn't like it. She said you were stupid and made you sleep on the couch," She pursed her lip to one side again, nose crinkling adorably, "but you said that she only did it 'cause the pregnancy hormones made her crazy. Whatever that means." Another noisy sip.
"Okay. For the record, Sorsha is a totally awesome name. Totally awesome chick. Your Mommy clearly had terrible taste. What's your name then?"
She blinked her ocean eyes once before straightening up with the posture of a princess, chin held high, "Gwyneth Milan Swan-Mills."
Emma cracked a grin, a wild grin with the wild eyes to match, "Swan-Mills huh? As in Regina Mills? That's your Mommy?"
Gwyneth nodded, "Yes Ma'am. But you guys call me Gwen. I like it better."
"Your serious? You think Regina and I are your parents?" Emma couldn't hold in her laughter any longer. She noticed the hurt look flash across the young girls face but Emma couldn't help it. A little girl just shows up at her door claiming to Regina and her love child when Emma obviously lacked all things needed to make a child with another woman? Not to mention she had never once had sex with Regina. Well, except that one time but Regina made it very clear that she was to forget it ever happened.
"I don't think, I know you're my parents. Emma Swan is my Mom and Regina Mills is my Mommy. I don't really know the whole story 'cause you told me I'm too young but you made me with Mommy and then you guys got married after I was born. And you, Mommy, Brother Henry, and me lived happily ever after!" She said it in a perfect 'duh' tone that Emma had to hand it to her. This girl was going to be the best damn actress that ever lived when she grew up.
"Right Kid. I think I would have noticed if all that happened recently." She smirked at Gwen who was giving her a very Regina-esque glare, creepily enough. She shrugged it off and scooped up her Capri Sun, stabbing the little yellow straw into the hole and taking a noisy drink.
Gwen huffed and took Emma's Capri Sun away mid drink, causing juice to spill all over Emma's tank top. The blond jumped from the shock of cold splashing across her chest, shooting a glare towards the kid who continued to glare right back at her.
"You didn't notice it recently 'cause I'm from the future. Duh. Honestly Mom. Come on."
"The future? Seriously? Your gonna play that card? What, do they invent time travel where you come from?"
Gwen rolled her ocean eyes, waves of annoyance washing over the room, "No. Mom, honestly? Grams and Gramps are fairytale characters and Mommy has magic. You don't think things like this could happen around here?"
Emma gave time for pause before nodding slowly, "Okay that's a point for you. But that doesn't explain time travel."
"Well," Gwen dropped her eyes to her turtle backpack, chewing on her lip anxiously, "I may have done something bad…"
Emma's brows furrowed, "What do you mean Kid? What did you do that's bad?"
Gwen let out a suffering sigh that was overdramatic and clearly all Regina if Regina really was her mother. She pulled her backpack into her lap, unzipping it and reached inside to pull out a thick, black leather book with yellow pages. She handed it over to Emma with a slightly guilty look. Emma took it, confused by what it should mean, but took it none the less and flipped open to a blank page. Then to another blank page. And another. After flipping it to one more blank page, she gripped all the pages between her hands and flipped it in succession to find that every single page was, just like the others, blank.
"I don't get it. You gave me a blank book."
Gwen shook her head, tears filling her eyes and Emma had a feeling these ones were real, "It's not blank you just can't read the words 'cause your not like Mommy and me. Mommy said you have to be a witch from our family to read it. That's why brother can't read it either."
Emma frowned as she ran her fingertips over the cover of the obviously well worn book, "You can use magic?"
"A little. Mommy is teaching me. But I'm only allowed to do it with her and you there. But…"
Something clicked and Emma's eyes went wide, "Oh no…you weren't suppose to use magic without her, were you?"
"No…but I was just really exited to show Mommy that I was really good, as good as her! So I went to get the book so I could learn something cool to show Mommy. And I'm not suppose to touch the book…and….well, I did a spell and I got really tired and fell asleep in the yard. Then I woke up here, in the park. I was really confused at first until I saw Mommy and Brother walking down the street together and Brother wasn't big. He was the same as me! I think I maybe did a time reverse spell on myself…but I'm not sure. Which I why I cam here. 'Cause I need your help to get back Mom. Please help me?" Gwen was freely crying now, sopping her tears on the sleeves of her shirt and giving Emma big, wet, pleading eyes. It was all to much for the blond because suddenly it wasn't a joke anymore and she found herself believing this girl that yes, she was her daughter and she was a daughter she had somehow created with Regina Mills. All of Regina's mood swings lately, her serious anger towards Emma, it all had happened after the night they had slept together. Yeah it was crazy, beyond crazy, but everything in this fucking town was crazy including her right now because she believe this kid.
"I need a drink. Wait here." She stood on shaky legs, letting the blank spell book fall from her lap onto the floor. It fell open, the pages bending every which way with the spine towards her. Gwen gasped and reached for the book but Emma reflexively went for it first. When she picked it up, however, there was a starch white piece of paper left on the carpet. Furrowing her brows, she went to pick that up as well. Flipping it over revealed that it was a picture. Two pictures actually, merged as one with a white boarder running between the two pictures. The top picture was one of Regina dressed in a glimmering wedding gown, laughing so hard her eyes were closed, with Emma in an equally brilliant wedding dress behind her, hugging her arms around her waist and nuzzling her nose into the crook of Regina's neck. The picture below it was of Regina holding an infant swaddled in a lavender baby blanket in her arms at the wedding, still being in her wedding gown with Emma at her shoulder, peering down at their daughter with matching adoring smiles. At Emma's elbow was Henry looking dashing in a tux and standing on his tiptoes to smile at his baby sister. Gwyneth Milan Swan-Mills. Well fuck.
She didn't even notice the tears streaming down her face until she was sitting on the floor with little arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind, cooing comforting words in her ear while also apologizing profusely for touching the book when she wasn't suppose too.
"So…you really are our Kid huh, Gwen?" Emma whispered it to herself but the little girl hugging her, heard and assumed it was a question for her.
"Yes Ma'am," A pause, then, "Am I in trouble?"
Emma breathed out a dry laugh, running her thumb across Regina's smiling face in the picture, "Probably Kid. Probably."
So…I'm not entirely sure but this plot has probably been used a million times but I thought I'd give it a go just because. If anyone out there just read this, and liked it, leave me a review to let me know so that I will continue it. If I don't get any attention, I'll just assume no one was interested and forget it. This is pretty much an experiment. So, its up to you guys. Goodnight, its late here. (Which is why there is probably quite a few mistakes, I'm to tired to go back through and correct them all. Sorry! Do forgive!)