I know, I know, I have a bunch of other fics to be updating.
But here's the thing, there was this post on tumblr [that now for the life of me I can't find] that was talking about how different yesterday's ep would've been if Regina had been there instead of Hook.
And then this was born. All 4,000 words of it.
First blurb follows the [unfairly] deleted scene that was apparently shown today on Good Morning America or something. Anyway it's a scene where Snow practically breaks into Regina's home [with baby Neal in tow] and Snow first prods at Regina wondering if she caused the blackout, and then asks for help with getting the power back on, and they talk about Henry and temporary can mean a long time for kids. You guys should go find and watch it 'cause it's a wonderful and great scene.
Enjoy!
4x02: White Out - Fireballs and Ice
Regina had no idea why she hadn't just sent Snow packing the minute she saw her.
Or thrown a dozen fireballs at her.
'Because I'm trying to change' is the answer that comes to her mind right away. Despite everything that had happened lately, she still wanted to prove to herself that she was different, no longer the Evil Queen. Plus she'd never harm the young child - who'd have been in the line of fire had she attacked - no matter how much she hated his mother.
Henry would never forgive her if she became evil once again. It was why she didn't want him to visit her right now. She could feel that one wrong move would make her slip, and that the careful balance that she was teetering on was not something she wanted him to see, especially if, heaven forbid - should he accidentally set her off. She wasn't going to take that chance.
The other person that would be disappointed in her would be the woman she had been trying to ignore for the past few days. Emma Swan. The Saviour. The woman who told her earlier that'd she'd fight to get Regina a happy ending. But it was laughable. Villains never got their happy endings. Besides, she knew who she wanted to be her happy ending. It was just unfortunate that she would never realize it, instead looking everywhere else to search for Regina's supposed happy ending, never finding it within herself.
Robin had been a convenient alternative, someone else who loved her despite her many misgivings, and was supposed to be her soulmate. But she knew the fairy dust wasn't accurate. Regina wasn't so much as angry for having Marian brought back as she was that she was alone again. Despite the ache and longing she felt for one clueless Saviour, being loved by Robin had dulled the pain, made her feel like maybe, just maybe, she could achieve some happiness even if she didn't have her true happy ending.
But it was futile. She was just as alone as before.
Emma was slack-jawed at seeing the enormous wall made of ice in front of her. Her mind quickly barbed that this takes walls to a whole new level in comparison to the metaphorical ones David had just been talking about in regards to her and Regina.
Regina, the woman she had futilely tried to talk to, only to get ignored or turned down. But now wasn't the time to dwell on it. Now she had to figure out what the hell was up with all of these snow and ice things showing up.
"Seems like this ice wall goes for miles, at least from what I saw." David had glanced a bit to the side of the road, seeing the enormous barrier continuing towards the horizon on both directions.
Emma nodded slowly, still looking at the massive blockade in front of her. "Impressive, but why?"
"No idea, but if it's so lengthy, I'm willing to bet that it's blocking the whole town. Meaning that once more we can't leave Storybrooke."
She leveled David with a look, "You guys couldn't leave Storybrooke even if the ice wall wasn't there, so I'm not sure that's so much of a problem as say, why someone would want to box us in, in the first place."
"True," David admitted. Before he could say any more, the radio in the car crackled to life, presumably one of the Merry Men - who had been drafted to help out the Sheriff Department - trying to see if there were any updates.
Emma just kept looking at the wall. There was something that kept catching her attention... "Hey dad."
David glanced up from where he had been perched against the car, talking to the handset of the car's radio, seeing Emma turning to look at him. "Yeah?"
"I think I see something by the wall, I'm gonna go check it out."
He nodded. "Be careful."
Giving him a smile, she inched closer to the structure. It was definitely impressive and intricate. Did one person do this entire thing?
David finished talking on his radio and glanced back to the structure. For the past few minutes he'd been locating Emma's beige jacket and blonde hair to make sure Emma was alright. As long as it was visible, he was calm. But now he couldn't see it, and his heart sunk.
He dashed towards the ice wall, drawing his gun. "Emma?"
Hearing nothing, he inched closer, his boots making contact with the snow on the ground. He tried once more, a little louder. "Emma?"
"Dad, it's okay-" There she was, standing next to this strange woman dressed in all blue.
"Stay back!" The woman made her way forward, putting her arms out in front of her, hands glowing an icy blue, blocking Emma from his view.
"No wait Elsa, he's not going to hurt you!" Emma tried to grab one of the lady's arms, but she wrenched her arm away. A few seconds later, a furious storm began to pick up, blowing snow and ice everywhere. "Dad put down your gun!"
He wasn't going to do that, not while his daughter was beside that threatening woman, who he assumed was Elsa, as he heard Emma say. Now he just yelled out, hoping his voice would be heard, "Let her go!"
His request was ignored as the storm was picking up speed, and ice began to grow, making the ground shake. David lost his balance and fell. He heard Emma scream, and he looked up. Icicles were beginning to fall, and there was little he could do but scramble back up, cocking his gun to where he saw Elsa still standing.
He was all for shooting her, then he saw her expression. Fear. Complete and total fear. He faltered, and lost his chance. With a final shake, more ice fell, coating him in snow, and taking the other blonde away from his sight.
"Emma!" David dropped his gun, and grabbed his walkie-talkie, trying to communicate with her through it. Only static returned, and he cursed. He ran up the small steps to where he had last seen Emma and Elsa, finding nothing but ice and snow. "Emma!"
This had clearly been made with magic. Ice magic. And he knew there was one person who specialized with fire.
Regina had been ready to open a bottle of wine to drown herself in, when she heard her phone buzz. Damn these townspeople who couldn't get a hint.
She elected to ignore it, and took out a wine glass. After a few seconds, the buzzing stopped, and she let out a sigh of relief, going to uncork the bottle.
Once more the device buzzed, and she got angry. Ready to tear the caller a new one, she saw the caller ID and cursed. Couldn't those insipid Charmings ever shut up? She swiped to take the call, and growled out, "It seems I've wasted my time sending my message earlier as you are all hell-bent on contacting me after I specifically asked to not to be contacted by anyone, and if you think-"
"Emma's in danger."
Regina paused in her rant, hearing David's breathless voice interrupt her. She swallowed thickly, and bit back, "And why should that concern me? Get her love-struck pirate or something to dash in and save the day."
David sighed and responded, "No, there was a woman...she had ice magic, she took Emma and blocked the entrance with ice. I need you to help me melt the entrance. Please Regina."
Her heart had already sunk at hearing that Emma was in danger, but now, she was petrified. "Where?"
"The Northern Entrance to town, I can come pick-" before David could say anything, purple smoke appeared in front of him, and Regina stood there, phone still in her ear.
They both hung up, and Regina briskly demanded, "What happened?"
"We'd been investigating the power outage, and found this pole down. Emma saw this figure by the wall and went to investigate. Apparently it's this woman named Elsa, and she has ice powers. She got scared when I showed up with my gun, and caused this avalanche to trap both her and Emma inside that thing. I've been trying to contact her, but no luck so far."
Regina hummed. Of course Charming would've bungled it up. She walked up to the structure, and readied a fireball. "Where is the entrance?"
He trailed behind a little bit and then pointed to an area with more ice. "There."
Regina felt the strength of her fireball increase as she thought about Emma, injured and in the clutches of that other woman. She pelted it onto the entrance, making part of it melt, but then freeze once more. "There's too much ice."
"But if you keep at it..."
She rounded onto the clearly idiotic man. "It's not a question of time. It's rather that there is too much ice and it's too cold. Any damage my fire tries to do gets snuffed up because of it. And I can't make the fireball too big or I run the risk of incinerating Emma."
David elected to ignore the way that Regina had clearly thought out how to make sure Emma wasn't damaged in her rescue attempts. He grabbed his walkie-talkie and tried to once more get through to her.
"Emma! Emma if you can hear me, say something!" They waited with baited breath for something, any sound, to come through the radio.
"Dad, I'm in here with Elsa, she's looking for her sister. Her name is Anna." The two listened to Emma's explanation, and Regina heard the curious way Emma's voice wavered every few moments. She felt the air around her definitely chilly for this time of the year, and then she realized what could be causing the wavering. She was freezing. She was encased in an ice structure, and just from being beside it, Regina was already feeling the chill, so she couldn't imagine being inside it.
Suddenly, a voice interrupted Emma's explanation. "Before I freeze this town, and everyone in it."
A bold threat by this unknown woman, but Regina supposed she wasn't exactly a beginner, having accomplished so much in the supposed day or so she had been in Storybrooke, assuming the Snow Monster had also been hers.
"Come on, we should get to Gold's shop."
Emma was beyond freezing, and so tired.
"Come on Emma, keep talking to me. Tell me something about your life."
She let out a shaky laugh at Elsa's poor attempts to keep her awake, and therefore alive, but she licked her lips and tried to kickstart her frozen brain into thinking what to talk about. "Uhm let's see, I h-have a son, his name is Henry. I share him with a w-woman, h-her name is Regina."
"Share him?"
"Yeah. I had Henry when I w-was really-y young, so I gave him up for adoption. Regina a-adopted him, and now I'm back in his life s-so we share."
"Are you two...together?" Elsa wasn't sure how to phrase the question, but if they were sharing the child...
Emma scoffed. "I wish. But n-no, she's got this whole 's-soul mate' thing worked out, that I a-accidentally screwed up. N-Now she won't even talk t-to me."
If there was one thing she hadn't been expecting when she walked in to Storybrooke, was to offer love advice, and yet, here she was. Then again, she had asked for Emma to keep talking. "Perhaps she has feelings for you too?"
Another scoff, followed by, "Are you k-kidding me? She's a freaking g-gorgeous queen, I d-don't even hold a candle to her. Plus R-Robin Hood is her soul mate, even if I did bring his wife b-back from the dead."
Elsa figured that she didn't even want to tackle that last sentence. So she decided to go through a safer route. "Tell me more about your son."
"Listen to me. Either you give us what we want, or else." Regina threatened. She was not having this infuriating woman become the cause of Emma's death. David had her up against the freezer, and she was ready to hurl a fireball. Or choke her, whichever one struck her fancy at the moment, she wasn't picky.
"Check the back room, it's got to be near her."
Regina gave a low growl, not exactly enjoying playing buddy cop partner to David, but right now this was their best chance of getting Emma out of Elsa's ice cave.
She found the Shepherd's hook easily enough, and went back to the entrance to grab the walkie-talkie. "Elsa, we are coming back with a solution."
"Please hurry." Regina was surprised. Wasn't the woman threatening them with Emma's life, and now she wants them to hurry? And she almost sounded...scared. "Emma's passed out from the cold, she's turning blue."
Regina walked over to where David and Bo Beep were still glaring at each other, and said, "Charming, you can play catch up later, Emma is freezing to death."
A few minutes later, wherein David had broken at least two traffic rules, they were once again in front of the ice cave entrance.
David was trying to convince Elsa to believe in herself, and was trying to push forward despite the terror that was filling him as he thought about his daughter dying on the other side of the wall.
"Now do it!" David capped his rousing speech of heroism, and waited.
"Give it to me." Regina grabbed the walkie-talkie from David, and spoke into it. "Elsa, listen to me. I know you feel you don't have the power to do it, but, like David said, you can. I'll help you. I can create fireballs and help to melt, you don't have to do this alone."
"Okay."
So they set themselves up, Regina on one side, fireballs ready on both hands, David a little bit further back, while Elsa was on the other side, aiming and hoping her ice magic could undo this.
A couple of minutes later and they had managed to do it. Seeing Emma caused a wave of relief to wash over Regina, she had been worried that they'd lost her.
"Emma!" As Elsa helped her out, her hazy mind was trying to figure out the sight in front of her. Regina was beside her father, and the smile the brunette had for her was one she would love to see for the rest of her life, and one that she had been hoping she would be able to see for the past day.
Two warm hands, one from her dad and the other from Regina, pulled her out of the hole, and she felt the autumn air a relief from the icy cave air. Once she was fully out, she turned and engulfed Regina in a hug. If anyone asked, she'd say her brain was too frozen and she wasn't thinking. When she felt Regina's arms around her, trying to cocoon her, she smiled. Maybe things weren't so lost.
"Come on, we need to get her home and warmed up. The car isn't too far-"
"I've got a much faster route." Regina gave a small smirk before the familiar purple smoke engulfed Emma and her.
She hoped that Snow wouldn't be too shocked at seeing her materialize inside her house, but was pleasantly surprised to see it empty.
"Come on, let's get you warmed up." Regina led Emma to a the couch nearby, and tried to find some blankets, but she wasn't having much luck.
"Mom?" Henry had been home, and was halfway down the steps, hearing a ruckus downstairs, before he stopped, seeing one mother shivering on the couch, looking sickly grey and pale, and the other rummaging drawers.
"Henry, I need you to find me as many blankets as you can."
"Sure." Henry scrambled back up and returned with 3 blankets, all of them huge, thick and fluffy.
Regina sat beside Emma and began wrapping her in blankets, relaxing a little bit every shade closer to healthy that Emma looked. Once she was done, Regina put an arm around the blonde, and began to rub her arms to cause friction. In a surprising twist, Emma sunk into the comforting arms, laying her head down one the crook of Regina's neck.
Henry had a million questions running around his head, but knew now was not the time.
"Hey H-Henry." He almost hadn't heard her, even Regina looked surprised. But he still made his way closer to Emma, and was promptly engulfed into a hug. "I'm s-sorry I wasn't much help earlier-"
"It's okay, I'm just glad you're fine. I just didn't want to lose another mother." Here he glanced at Regina, trying to silently ask if she was really back or would be going back to hide behind her walls once more.
It seemed she got the message loud and clear because Regina grabbed his hand, and gave him a shaky smile. "You haven't lost either of us, Henry."
He returned the smile, and said, "I'm going to make some hot cocoa...with cinnamon."
By the time the cocoa was ready, David had come back with Elsa in tow, and Mary Margaret had returned, having started the back-up generators. Emma had fallen asleep in Regina's arms, and no one questioned it. No one knew how to phrase the question, or even if they should ask.
But both Henry and Elsa could hazard a guess as to what exactly was going on.
Regina didn't want to budge from that spot, not even if Snow's questioning gaze made her want to evaporate out of that apartment. She didn't want to go back to the life where Emma was with the pirate and she was alone. She wanted to be the one to comfort Emma, to heat her up after such a taxing situation.
So after everyone had gone to bed - Regina had insisted she was fine right there - she dared to give Emma a quick kiss on her forehead before heading to sleep herself.
Epilogue:
Emma slowly opened her eyes and saw darkness. Was the power still out? No, she could see the streetlights outside through the window, as well as the soft lights coming from appliances around the apartment. She still felt a bit cold, but the blankets helped. She also saw and felt something that shocked her.
Regina had her arms around her, lightly snoring as she slept. Had something happened while she was unconscious? Something wonderful she might add. No, she was sure Regina wouldn't have tried anything with her mother around...or maybe she would, just to spite her.
Looking at the brunette now, she felt this enormous urge to kiss her on the lips. She had always felt something for Regina, since the first few days that Emma had arrived in Storybrooke. But she knew Regina was way out of her league, she was a Queen and Emma could barely call herself a Saviour, let alone acknowledge that technically, she was a princess.
Hook had been a convenient and certainly willing alternative, she supposed, though she could do without the constant innuendos and demands that everything should be about him, as if the world revolved around Killian Hook, the self-centred prat.
Suddenly, Regina opened her eyes, groggily trying to figure out what woke her up. Seeing the blonde in front of her, Regina's memory came to her, and she smiled.
"Hey." Emma said sheepishly, seeing Regina awake.
"Hey."
"Sorry if I woke you," Emma apologized. "Or if you were sleeping uncomfortably because of me."
Regina shook her head. "It's alright. And you actually make sleeping on the couch very comfortable, surprisingly enough."
Emma smiled, and then decided that she should try to take this opportunity to say something, try to enforce what she had told Regina before. "Regina, -"
Regina could guess as to what Emma wanted to talk about, but she didn't want to tire the blonde with this conversation. "Rest Emma, we can talk tomorrow. I promise I'm not going to disappear."
"I know, but I need to tell you about earlier, I wasn't just saying it, I do really mean it. I will help you find your happy ending."
"It's quite alright, dear. I don't need it." She knew Emma, and knew the woman would go to the ends of the Earth to help her. It's what made her the Saviour: her persistence.
"Yes you do. I know you might think it's because you were a villain, but that's just it. You were one. You're a quote unquote good guy now, so you get all the perks, and I don't care if Henry and I need to hold auditions, someone in this town has to be your happy ending."
She really tried to fight off the grin, but she lost. How did Emma Swan manage to be so adorable after having been near Death's door freezing her butt off just a few hours prior? "I mean that I already found my happy ending."
"Regina, fighting over Robin will just lead to more drama and heartbreak, and you're just beginning to get Marian to see you in a new light..."
"I didn't say it was Robin," Regina interjected.
"Oh. Then who?"
"Really dear? You have no idea?"
Emma shook her head. She knew that she herself wanted to be a contender, but there was no chance of it, right?
By way of answer, Regina just gave her a quick peck on the lips, leaving a gaping Saviour staring at her.
Then it was as if Emma had recovered and quickly went to hungrily kiss Regina, getting the kiss returned with gusto. Before long though, baby Neal woke up crying, and the two women on the couch quickly parted, pretending to be sleeping as Mary Margaret woke up and went to take care of her newborn.
But on the couch, Emma settled deep into Regina's chest, arms snaking out from within the cocoon of blankets to wrap around the brunette's waist, while one of Regina's wandering hands softly alternated between playing with Emma's hair and stroking her back.
And that was this one-shot! I posted it separately and not with my one-shot collection because it might happen that I'll just go "this ep had too much Hook, let's give Regina more time." and prefer to just add it here.
No guarantees any other eps will be included since a miracle might happen and the show might make sense again. Though if I'm getting a miracle to happen on the show I'll just ask for Swan Queen to become canon.
Haa who am I kidding, I'll just be here with fanfics and scoffing at all the "unintentionality"
The Epilogue part was just because I was feeling like there needed to be just that extra dose of fluff, but if it feels too rushed, just pretend the fic ended before there.
I hope the jumping around wasn't too bad, but I didn't want to rehash the entire ep, just the parts that were important/different.
Let me know what you thought!
Meanwhile I'll go right back to updating my other fics. Oh and I might make a graphic to accompany this fic later, and probably post it on tumblr and make it the cover image for this.