A/N: Sorry getting this chapter up took so long, we've had some terribly stormy weather the last few days which has knocked my internet and power out for a bit. Thankfully we are back up and running so without further ado I present you with Chapter 1.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is not for profit and is just for fun.

Chapter 1: The Curse That Keeps on Giving.

Regina slowly woke to a pounding in her head and the sound of beeping in the background. She was disoriented and more than a little nauseous. As she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings she realized she was in a hospital room with the last person she expected by her bedside. Regina carefully tried to extract her hand from the sleeping woman without waking or alerting her to the fact that she herself was conscious again. However, she severely underestimated the sleeping patterns of Mary Margaret and the woman awoke instantly, eyes flitting around the room in a panic until the settled on Regina's.

"Oh, Madam Mayor! You're awake thank God! Let me just go get Dr. Whale!" the doe eyed woman all but sputtered out as she jumped up and left the room in search of the aforementioned Doctor.

Regina let out a puff of air as she tried to get herself situated more comfortable on the small hospital bed. While she waited for Mary Margaret to return with Dr. Whale her mind drifted back to the last thing she could remember, saying goodbye to Emma and Henry.

As Henry and Emma moved to hug the remaining members of their family, Regina watched on letting the pain she recognized as loss settle over her. After what seemed like forever, Henry and Emma finally made their way back over to her for a final goodbye. Henry hugged his mother tightly and mumbled incoherent versions of "I love you mom", Don't forget me, and other things into her chest as he clutched at her jacket. Emma watched the scene with watery eyes that she then raised up to me Regina's. The pain she could see in them was palpable and she wished more than anything there was another way. Slowly Henry released his mother and with one last look, he took off towards Emma's bug leaving Regina and Emma alone. It seemed like hours before either of them moved. Regina took Emma's hand as she closed the distance between them and brought the younger woman into a hug. She didn't understand why she did it or the jolt she felt when their bodies touched but she relished in it for just a moment before releasing Emma.

"Take care of our son Emma, and yourself. I know you won't remember any of this, any of us, but please keep each other happy. Be for him what I could never be. Love him extra for me. He's all I have that's good in this world and I'm trusting you to keep him that way." She sobbed as she finished.

"No, he's not." Is all Emma replied before she turned on her heel and walked back to her bug, starting the engine and driving away, leaving Regina confused and watching them both leave.

Regina was pulled out of her memory by the heart monitor fluttering and the bustle of hospital noise as she again tried to figure out just what Emma had meant when she said "no, he's not."

Meanwhile in a small apartment in New York City…

Emma was standing at the stove in the kitchen making eggs for Henry when she felt an overwhelming feeling of love and wanting overtake her. It took her breath away just like it has every other time before. She couldn't place why or how it kept happening, but when it did, it took her a few minutes to recover. The odd thing about it was that it wasn't ever her emotions she was feeling, but it seemed to be those of someone else towards her and her son which confused her endlessly because she had no one else in her life. For as long as she could remember it had only been her and Henry. She never felt the need to involve anyone else in their lives. She couldn't explain it but there was no emptiness where her heart was considered. The only times she felt the longing for someone was when these waves of emotion crashed over her.

"Mom, hey, are you okay? You have that far off look on your face again" Henry stated as he approached his mother. He'd found her like this plenty of times before.

"Wh-what, yea no I'm fine, just, yea I'm fine." She stuttered out as she resumed cooking breakfast.

Henry stared after her a moment longer before he went to sit at the counter and await his breakfast. He pondered what all of this could mean. Every time he found her like that, his mom always had this far off look but the brightest smile he'd ever seen grace her features. It just didn't make sense sometimes. The first time she tried to explain it to him, he'd looked at his mother like she had lost her mind. As time went on, and the episodes kept happening however, he started to get an idea. Henry had yet to share his idea with his mother but he was starting to think that now was as good as time as any, so when his mother turned to plate his eggs in front of him he bit the bullet and asked.

"Wave of endless feelings again mom?" he'd said casually as she sat next to him with her own plate.

"Yea, kid, wave of endless feelings that make no sense what so ever. Lucky me." She mumbled around her eggs catching Henry giving her a rather unusual look.

"What" she asked.

"Oh, uhm, nothing… I-I mean, well, okay here goes, I think the reason you keep having these waves of feelings is because your true love is out there somewhere missing the hell out of you and your subconscious is somehow intuned with their emotions." He said suddenly self conscious about his theory. In his defense he'd been reading this fairytale book that had just shown up on their doorstep the one day.

"Kid, I think you're reading too much into that book you found. True love, magic, curses, and all the other things you've tried to convince me of, they don't exist. It's just not possible. Even if your weird book has a baby with my name and a blanket that suspiciously looks like my baby blanket." She sighed.

"That's just cause you don't want to believe! We have a family out there somewhere mom, people who love us! And you're just scared to try and find out because that means all of this was a lie! I'm not just some dumb kid with hopes that are unjustified, and if you need proof then here! I finally got to the end of the book and found this.. Explain that one!" he yelled as he handed her a postcard and stormed off out the door for school.

Emma sat there with a dumbfounded look on her face and looked over the postcard in her hand. The front had been decoratively designed with a quaint small town feel and the word's welcome to storybrooke. As she turned it over, she gasped covering her mouth with her hand and dropping the postcard to the counter. The backside reading "Be the savior again Emma, I know you will always find us" in a delicate script.

TBC…