Amnesia

Title is from Justin Timberlake – Amnesia

I really couldn't help it. I wanted to add this to Stay With Me (thanks for reading that by the way) but it felt like a really epically terribly drabby ficlit but then yeah. It could probably work with Stay With Me but whatever.

Inspired by Breaking Glass

Emma was certain she'd forgotten her. She'd done everything she could to forget her. She met Neal, had Henry, saved a kingdom but seeing Regina storming away from her brought it all back and despite the best efforts, Lily's face crept up into her mind and blurred into Regina's smug features.

She couldn't understand how after all this time, that girl still had a hold on her and as she confessed her past to Regina in the mausoleum, fully prepared to have to fight her way out, the softness in Regina's eyes completely made up for the hurt she'd carried for so long.

"I don't want to kill you."

Regina might as well have said I love you to the moon and back.

"That's a start."

While she watched Regina sleep, wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, Emma's mind drifted, remembering when she'd been on a couch very much like this one in a house very much like this on a dark night ready to fight whoever would try to take this from her. She watched Regina tuck her legs closer to her chest, snuggling into the pillow, smacking her lips as she slept on. Emma looked at her wrist, where her tattoo was, a reckless reminder of her old life, rubbing her thumb across it, knowing it wouldn't smear; it was there for good. She thought about Robin's tattoo, how Regina believed him to be her True Love and how well that'd turned out. She wasn't looking for any of this, this life and these feelings to come roaring back as fresh as they had been the night she had to get back into the van and leave Lily with her perfect life and yet, here they were, exposing her soul. Her right hand rested on Regina's ankle, watching as she slept on, oblivious to everything and the fact that Emma was up with a ghost.

It was a rare practice, something no one spoke of but in her time, Regina knew that people were capable of performing terrible dark magic for the sake of self-preservation. She stared at the mirror, the small blade in her right hand, the iron glinting in the firelight. All the texts she could find warned that it could end badly, sometimes a sorceress or sorcerer would cut too deeply, remove too much and both halves would be completely lost, true darkness with nothing to balance it. She shook her head as though those thoughts would dislodge and fall out of her head completely. She couldn't tolerate life here; her mother, her schemes, the life she didn't want because it wasn't of her own choosing.

She was going to split herself in half.

She took the blade to her reflection, dragging the needle sharp blade across the glass. She grit her teeth, her head throbbing with the effort as her face bisected, the mirror cracking just at her upper lip before she fainted.

Lily watched the blonde weave through the aisles aimlessly, immediately drawing the attention of the store manager. She shook her head. Amateur.

She watched Emma sleep, she was curled into a ball, the blanket completely wrapped around her and she clutched the pillow as though it was an anchor keeping her here in the house they'd broken into instead of drifting off wherever it is that runaways drift off too. She brushed back a lock of blonde hair, brushing along Emma's chin, blushing at the electricity she felt coursing through her at the contact. She'd never felt this protective of anyone before and she'd never truly wanted to run away until this very moment, as long as it meant that she could Emma by her side. She wanted to keep her.

Lily wasn't prone to crying but she was hysterical as she sobbed into the pillow, the windows barred shut, door locked from the outside and her parents arguing downstairs about the right way to handle their obviously disturbed daughter. Why didn't she get out of the car and put the note in Emma's hand? Why didn't she climb into the van with her? Why didn't she just run? She cried harder, her lungs felt like they were on fire, she was coughing uncontrollably in between sobs and her pillow soaked with tears, saliva and snot. She tried to calm herself down, tried to count from ten but she couldn't quite catch her breath. She caught her disheveled reflecting in her mirror and for a moment, remembered a past life where she'd cut herself in two and managed to escape.

Regina grimaced, her face scrunched up as she slowly regained consciousness. Grunting, she slowly opened her eyes and realized she'd been sleeping on a couch, groaning as she tried to stretch out, kicking Emma in the ribs in the process.

"Swan." She murmured, not even apologizing for the kick to the ribs. "What is going on? What am I doing on the couch…?"

Emma rubbed her ribs in surprise. "Well, you were sleeping and apparently dreamt about kicking me in the ribs…"

Regina rubbed at her eyes with the backs of her hands. "Dreams…"

"Yeah, you do that from time to time I assume."

Regina cut Emma a dirty look. "Did you dream?"

"Kinda didn't get much sleep…"

"I had the strangest dream…"

"Did it involve kicking me because I'd say mission accomplished."

"No but you were in it."

Emma perked up at the revelation. "We already dealt with Oz so…"

Another cutting look from Emma ended whatever snarky comment that was sure to come. "I was in Minnesota of all place and you were there. It was you, younger obviously, in a summer home…You were hurt and angry…" Regina stared off at the carpet, trying to recount the dream as best she could before it slipped off wherever it is that dreams go. "You were talking to…to me…and you refused to listen, typical, you stepped into a van against your will. I was crying…wondering why you didn't take the note…?" she shook her head, hoping to shake more out of her groggy memory.

Emma stilled, watching Regina as her vision focused and she brought her eyes to meet Emma's. "It can't be."

"What can't?"

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You…you dreamt about something that actually happened to me. How is that even possible?"

Regina shrugged. "I don't know…"

"Regina."

"Emma."

Emma stared at Regina, seeing through her, seeing her at fifteen, seeing her without the scar, or maybe the scar was more pronounced and she'd just gotten used to it. Deep expressive brown eyes, the same cool complexion, dangerous smile. "It's impossible."

"You're not making any sense…"

"You didn't dream something up. You had a memory. You remembered something that happened to you…"

"How could I remember anything that happened to me here if I'm not technically from here…"

"Because it happened to you here and when you came here, both of you merged."

"Now you've lost it."

"You've never seen any time travel movies…" Emma was speaking a mile a minute as she scrambled to find a scrap of paper and pen. "If there are two of you, they can't be in the same timeline, something has to happen when you overlap and you become ONE person. Like you have to repeat something exactly as your other self did and then you go back to being one person again."

Regina watched Emma as she drew on the scrap paper, catching a flash of the tattoo on Emma's wrist. "Stop."

"What? Seriously? You can deal with flying monkeys but time travel is completely out of the realm of possibility?"

"Emma." Regina breathed, staring at Emma's wrist as she slowly reached for it, pulling the sleeve up and staring at the tattoo, tracing it with trembling fingers.

"You found me."