Hello! Thank you for selecting this story of mine. Please be aware that thought this has been read through for editing purposes, there might be a problem with the tenses. If you see any errors, with tenses or otherwise, please say so in a comment and I will do my best to fix it. Even if you are not doing that, please review. I want to know any and all feedback, since feedback is what makes everyone better writers. Now- enjoy!
Chapter One
They did not know how to take the shock of Emma Swan, the Savior, becoming the Dark One. Killian was the first to react, leaping at the dagger with a violent cry only to have Robin pull him back. And then he was crying, slumped to the ground, beating his fists against the slick black asphalt, the same asphalt Emma's yellow bug slid across when she brought Henry back from Boston three years prior.
Watching his tears fall with the drizzling rain was what broke Snow, who turned to David only to say "we lost her again." David, with all his faux royalty and good heart, could think of nothing to say. Denying it was pointless but accepting it was unfathomable.
It was Regina, though, who stepped up next. Without words she pulled Snow into her arms, her alone understanding the loss of a mother and a child. It is an indescribable loss, one that cannot be communicated with frail words, and so she was silent as she allowed her step-daughter to slowly dissolve in her arms. Decades before she held her when her father passed, but only for the people watching. Now, she knew she would hold this woman if no one was watching because this pain should not be endured alone.
Henry, seeing his mom's arms already full, ran to David. He crushed himself into David's chest and David returned the pressure, each holding the other up while simultaneously longing to disappear. The town had never been as silent as when these men were embracing in their mutual loss.
Snow was the first to break that silence though, because as Regina held her she began to scream. From her lungs sprang wild screams, screams that were angry and sad and broken and terrified because everything she has done, good and bad, over the past three months, had been for the daughter who just absorbed the darkness. Everything had been for naught and the thought, the realization, destroyed her from the inside out. She fainted against her step mother, who caught her with a beam of magic.
"I'll take her home." She assured, making David nod while still being crushed by Henry and crushing him in return. "Take your time." He nodded again because apparently he could no longer speak. With Emma went his voice and now he was mute. He did not mind being mute, he realized, because being mute kept his voice from cracking into a million pieces, which he was afraid would happen should he open his mouth.
The apartment was eerily quiet and between the time they arrived in a cloud of purple magic and when Snow awoke, Regina checked that Neal was still there, suddenly terrified that his sister had kidnapped him in new Dark One rage. But he was there, much to her relief, his blue eyes blinking up at her with such innocent trust that she wondered if he had mistaken her for his mother. Worried that he may cry upon discovering that she was in fact not his mother and wake his actual mother, who obviously required rest, she picked him up, realizing in the process that she had not held him until this moment.
He reminded her of baby Henry, a perfectly sized nose just big enough to plant kisses on and tiny fingers that gripped with an amazing amount of security. Neal squirmed for a moment, adjusting himself because apparently there is a certain way he must be held and her heart broke upon realizing that she would know this if she spent any time with her stepdaughter and her family. But after Robin crossed the town line she avoided them, afraid she would hate Emma for bringing Marian back. Even once Emma forged an alliance she avoided the home when not with Henry or on a mission. Now, in the quiet of terror-struck Storybrooke, she vowed to baby Neal that she would come over. She would be a member of his life, of all of their lives, because she wanted a family, not just with Robin, but with all of them, even the new Dark One.
"Regina?" Snow stirred on the sofa, turning slowly to see the woman whose name she called cradling her youngest. "Oh." The smallest of smiles graced her lips before disappearing. "Do you think he'll remember her?"
"Of course he will." She instilled the highest amount of confidence in her voice, borderline arrogance, almost sounding like the Evil Queen she used to be. "Because we're going to get her back. He won't even question his big sister being the Savior because that's how he'll know her when he's old enough to remember."
"Regina-" the younger woman's voice broke, broke perfectly in half, making the older one put down the baby and rush to her side. "Is this what it felt like? When you lost her?"
There was no outline to 'her' because both women know exactly who she was referring to. Despite the fact that it should be Cora, her most recent female loss, it was not. It was a loss carved into both their memories from decades before, when both were still young and naïve and much more breakable.
And that is it for now! I try to end on cliffhangers. Again, please review your thoughts. And don't forget to be checking for the next chapter!