HEYYYYY! i really hope you all like this story. it's a Mommy!Regina, little!emma story. If it's not your thing, don't read. Venture on over to Heir's to No Man's Land instead. this story will eventually be dragon queen. again, evil snow.
i don't own ouat. yadda yadda don't sue me.
beta fabulous: RowArk
enjoy :)
ESESESESESESESESESESES
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The rhythmic beat of feet hitting ground is one of the reasons Regina kept up running. She'd first picked it up to try and forget, to literally try and run away all her problems. She kept going because it calmed her. It allowed her enough freedom to escape her mind during the monotony of the path through the woods. She could forget the townspeople. She could forget Snow. Some days if she ran hard enough she could temporarily forget the pang of loneliness in her heart.
Some days, but not today. Today was the twenty fifth of April. It was Daniel's birthday. Try as she might, no matter how hard or how far she ran, nothing would be making this day easier. And she had tried….
Four years ago today:
Regina had had enough. She'd been in this wretched town for ten years. Ten years she'd worked her ass off to try and redeem herself to these sniveling imbeciles who had come running to her for help, her of all people, after Snow went off the rails after David died. It'd taken months, but the magic in abundance from the Charming newborn had given her what she needed to create Storybrooke and send all in the land there. She'd saved them all, and yet no one really gave her a chance. She'd had enough of being lonely, so she went to the last person in any realm she wanted to deal with.
"Rumple, I want a child. What do you want?"
The imp smirked at her. "Nothing, dearie. I have all I need here. You forced my son here when we came. I have Belle. I own most the real estate here. I don't need or want anything from you."
Regina glared at the too happy giggle the irritating man let loose. "There has to be a way to procure me a child. Please!" Begging. She was begging. A queen never begs, and yet she couldn't help it. She was feeling desperate.
"Regina, this world you brought us to has rules and laws. Technically we barely exist to everyone outside here. People can't just come here who aren't from the other realm. Children of this world won't be possible to bring here. Magic might make a child, but the only reliable place magic worked was back home." Belle informed, cutting off whatever Rumple was going to tell her.
Sighing, Regina left the shop. Belle's words rang through her head all day and well into the night as she tossed and turned in her sheets. 'The only reliable place magic worked was back home. Back home…. back home.' That was it! Back home!
The queen didn't even bother changing clothes. She simple poofed herself to her vault and started digging through her magic books. It took her hours, but she finally found a portal spell to do it. It'd take most her energy and magic though, so she'd be spending a few days back in the forest.
Regina appeared just outside her old home. The magic was more draining that she thought. She'd have to wait until tomorrow to try and do the spell.
Sleep was not easy to come by in a house of horrors. Regina was grateful that any down time not using her magic worked to restore it. She went to the stable and pulled out the necklace from underneath her shirt that held Daniel's ring. Try as hard as she might have with his ring, nothing seemed to be happening. The magic left the ring. She no longer saw Daniel's face in it, but she also didn't feel any different. That damn infertility potion was really biting her in the ass now.
Frustrated and upset, she walked the stables and recalled the stolen romance she'd had with her stable boy. Her fingers caught on rough patch on one of the inside gates, so she stopped to examine it. DB-4/25. Her breath caught. 4/25. Today was that day. Today was Daniel's birthday. Her failure to create a child, Daniel's child, was suddenly too much. She'd failed both of them, again, and on his birthday.
It'd taken her three days to regain her full strength to get back to Storybrooke. Three days to see the devastation everything had succumbed to. Ogres and rogue wolves running wild. There was scarce any food. She did not miss not having electricity or indoor plumbing that's for sure. When she got back to Storybrooke she threw herself into running. It was an accidental discovery when her emotions had become too much to bear being in her home alone. She'd panicked and ran. She didn't think when she ran. Regina found she quite liked it.
The more she ran, the more she could dodge her loneliness. The more she ran the more she could try and not think of the loss of Daniel, and the child they'd never have. The more she ran the better she felt while running.
Running was what brought her to the woods. Running was what brought her there today. Today was Daniel's birthday again. It'd been four years since she'd tried to create Daniel's child. Four years since she'd failed and had had to return to Storybrooke to repeat her days alone and miserable.
The weather had not been great in the days prior. It'd been raining hard, so the ground was still slippery. Regina wasn't paying attention though. She just wanted to, needed to, run farther, run faster. She needed to get away from the pain that today brought for her. The same mindlessness running brought her that she craved was the same thing she cursed as she slipped on wet grass and found herself in hung upside down with a rope around her ankle as she flailed about.
She wasn't aware how long she flopped about trying to get down, but as she stopped struggling she noticed subtle changes to the forest that she'd grown very accustomed to. There were a few traps she noticed now hanging several feet in the air that she hadn't from on the ground. It almost looked like two small palettes were balancing on branches in a distant tree.
Regina must have been shouting louder than she thought because as she was about to give up ever getting upright and down from the tree again, Graham and Ruby showed up. "Bout damn time someone came! Get me down immediately!"
Ruby didn't hesitate to double over in laughter at the sight of Regina hanging upside down by her ankle from a tree, her face redder than a tomato. Graham at least had the decency to try and hide his amusement.
"NOW!"
"Fine, fine, but how did you get up there? Why can't you magic yourself down?"
"Ms. Lucas, I need to be calm and focused to do magic. Calm and focused does not come from being strung up like some animal in a hunt." Regina glared at them both once she was on her feet again. "As for who did this, I don't know. I changed my path a few weeks ago and haven't been this way since."
The three investigated the area around the trap and found a few more. Graham sprung them before Ruby jumped up suddenly, startling the remaining two. "This looks just like Snow's bandit traps!"
Regina was not amused by the statement or the young girl's over enthusiasm at her revelation. She was about to reply when a twig snapping caught their attention. A small, pudgy face of a red haired boy loaded with freckles and rough looking clothes froze a few yards away before disappearing again.
They tried to locate the boy long after the sun went down, but to no avail. They searched for days. When people started reporting odd things around town being stolen, nothing left behind but muddy child footprints, Regina had no choice but to call a town meeting and inform them about the child in the woods.
Dozens of questions were thrown at her by several different people. At least they all seemed interested in finding the child. She noticed Snow absent, but then again Snow usually is from anything but teaching and the occasional grocery store trip or trip to Granny's. She'd become the unfriendliest person in town, grumpier than a sober Leroy. She liked that people wanted to help find the boy, but Regina couldn't deal with them all. They'd just get in the way, so she had them fill out a sheet for small group search parties or volunteering to make food or donate clothes for the boy.
Back at her mansion she assembled the people she trusted most, Abigail, Frederik, Ruby, Graham, and Tink. They were in the middle of discussing how to best go about things when they were loudly interrupted by a throat clearing.
"I didn't extend an invitation, dear. Next time recognize some boundaries and ring the doorbell."
Snow rolled her eyes. "You have a problem," came the blunt statement.
"We're handling it. Why'd you set up traps in the woods?" Ruby questioned the brunette.
"I didn't."
"Snow, don't lie to me. We used to be best friends before David died. I'd know your work anywhere."
"Don't say his name! You don't deserve to. I know it's my signature, but I didn't set them. Why would I bother? I don't care who is in the woods or why."
The group watched the two go back and forth like a really long volley in tennis.
"If it wasn't you, then you must know who it is." Ruby had had enough and wanted real answers.
Snow smirked, knowing just how to push Red's buttons. "Enough!" Regina was done playing too, and she stormed over, squeezing the air and using her magic to choke the brunette a bit. "That is an innocent child out there. Tell us everything you know. Now!" She released Snow after another few seconds.
A dark eyebrow raised in amusement before she tossed a letter on the table. "The traps are the same because it's nature winning over nurture."
Red gasped causing the group to grow concerned. "Ms. Lucas?" Regina wondered what silent conversation the former friends were having.
"She's alive? Your baby is alive? She's here? How do you know?"
"Ms. Lucas?!"
Red and Snow ignored Regina, and everyone else for that matter. "Who do you think sent those sniveling brats into the woods when they came crawling back around at the end of January?"
Ruby lost it and lunged at Snow. "You've let your own child wither away in the woods in the dead of winter? What is wrong with you? Don't even bullshit about her killing David, because we both know David chose to go on that mission alone."
Regina eventually had to separate the two with magic. "Snow, what is going on?"
The brunette chose to leave instead of explaining. Abigail picked up the letter. "Uh, Regina, we've got a bit of a problem…"
Regina read the letters. There were two of them. One was dated six months ago. The other a few weeks ago. Whoever this Yellow Fairy was that was in charge of the children was incredibly negligent in making sure they were safe before taking off. According to the letter, there were not one, but two children in the woods. The first attempt at giving the children to Snow had resulted in the "accidental" losing of the children over the town line. The second resulted in the kids being forced into the forest.
"This doesn't explain who the children are or why we can't find them. It's been weeks and they've been surviving off what they can steal. We need to find them." Regina was not happy to have children in the woods alone. She was going to find them and keep them safe. This was her chance.
"Well, the girl is Snow's daughter. When we were in meetings for the purpose of making the tree to send Snow some place else, Geppetto's son, Pinocchio, was incredibly curious in it. I bet it's him out there with her. We found the boy by springing the traps. Let's go try and spring the rest and see what we come up with." Ruby was already to the door before anyone else could process.
Regina shook her head as she grabbed some sandwiches and bottles of water before following. Snow's daughter should be around twelve or thirteen by now. The boy she saw in the woods couldn't be older than eight. What was going on?
ESESESESESESESESES
what is going on, indeed. what do you think regina and her friends will encounter in the woods? will they finally find the children? how old do you think they'll be? will the children receive regina well? why does snow not want her own child?
what do y'all think? you interested in more? emma is coming next chapter. please review or pm me with anything... questions, comments, thoughts, ideas you'd like to see in here... seriously, i love talking to you!