DISCLAIMER: NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.
I loved your awesome reviews, people! Loved them, and I'm sorry this took me longer than the others, final exams are complete time-eaters =P But here I am with a new chapter. I hope you enjoy it.
The clock hits midnight. The three women are sitting in the small library on the ground floor, holding a glass of cider and talking amicably about women's stuff. Well, Snow White and Belle are talking. Regina is sit in the corner of the couch with her legs crossed in her usual elegant way, just staring at the wall wishing they would stop or choke to death.
"May I be reminded of why any of you is here?" Regina asks with a tedious voice, cutting the conversation her two companions were having about shoes being the most powerful magic after love.
"It is girl's night!" Belle giggles letting herself fall in the couch. It seems her resistance to alcohol is rather scarce.
"You have said so." Regina spits, jaded. "I can see why Mary Margaret is here. I imagine it is hard to spent that much time with a child and a crying baby. But you? Shouldn't you be enjoying your honey moon or whatever you can enjoy with that imp of yours?"
"Don't be so bitter, Regina." Snow scolds her. "But... yeah, why aren't you? Is everything okay with Mr Gold?"
Belle sighs and looks down.
"It is... is just that... we don't have where to go, I mean... it's not like we can leave town, right? And since Neal died... nothing's really changed."
"Are you happy together?"
"Yes, yes..." She softly smiles. "We are happy."
"Then what's the matter? You know, if you need to go somewhere... private," Snow smiles, "there is a cabin in the woods. It looked uninhabited. David and I sought refuge there during that dreadful storm two years ago. Maybe you should go and... you know." She winks at her.
Regina rolls her eyes and snorts before taking another sip of her glass. The librarian only shrugs, blushing.
"I... I talk to him." She says before hiding her embarrasment behind the glass.
"Okay." Snow smiles doing the same.
And there they are, three women who have almost nothing in common nor a reason to be together spending quality time. Maybe Mary Margaret and Belle could, for them would not be that awkward since they didn't really have a past. To Regina it was only clear that the only one who shouldn't be there is herself since she attempted to destroy their happy endings. In fact, she hold one of them captive for more than twenty-eight years.
The face of Emma popped in her mind as another sip of liquid ran down her throat. She was smirking at her, the I-told-you-so look in her face irritating the Queen. Maybe she was right after all, maybe she did have a family, as strange as it could sound to her. She knew by experience families are never easy and she could only imagine that they would stick together no matter how much differences would be between them. She hid a smile. She would never tell them that she wanted to feel that way. It was what she has always desired.
But it would not be possible if someone else's darkness destroyed it. They had have enough with the Evil Queen and the reamins of her in her body. And so she looks at her son's grandmothers and frowned.
"We have been having a rough time... I guess we are starting to be real parents and... it is too difficult. No one gives you an advice book. That's what mothers are for, after all."
None of them look at the Madame Mayor, but she knows they are expecting some kind of comment.
"If I were you I would not have left my baby with that reckless husband of yours. I didn't leave Henry alone until it was absolutely necessary. I can't imagine how a mother would leave hers having passed only one week since the birth."
"Excuse me."
Snow White puts the glass in the coffe table before standing and leaving, her eyes full of tears. Belle gives her a dirty look.
"You can't say you don't agree with me." Regina points out with a smirk.
Snow reaches the sink of the bathroom upstairs and only then does she let the tears fall down her cheeks, her hands griping the marble as if she were to fall any moment. She has been feeling this pain inside since they poured the first glass of cider, a continuos stabbing in her heart, burning her chest, suffocating her. She lets out a small cry. Why does she have to suffer this? Wasn't the guilt of killing Cora enough? She has to look Regina in the eyes and smile, and hope she truly has forgiven her. But has she? Does she even appreciate it?
Snow is been lying. She has lied to Henry, to David, to everyone. They come out her mouth as air does with every breathing. When she said she thought of Regina as her mother, she didn't really mean it. Of course, she would always be her mother through marriage. However, no matter how much time they spent together in her youth, she never thought of her like that. Back then she was only someone living with them, "her father's wife". Sometimes a friend, someone to trust. But she never really cared.
But that's what she is now! She's our friend, and that's why I am lying. Yes, that is why. I'm doing this to save her. She needs my lies.
That is what she is been thinking since the first one, but even Mary Margaret knows that is not all to it. The truth is... she does not know why is she doing it.
She curves over the sink and gasps as another wave of pain pierces her.
She loves David, and yet she feels anger each time he speaks or does something she does not agree with. For Pete's shake, she has even yelled at him for not singing the right lullaby to their baby!
What is wrong with me? I've never been like this.
Just thinking about her husband makes her want to kill him. She shutters her eyes and contains another cry of pain and anger.
Regina was right. I chose to kill Cora. I killed her, knowingly and by choice. And now darkness if going to eat me alive... and my family.
That only made her more furious.
There is no sun this morning for Storybrooke. The town is been completely covered by clouds menacing to drown everyone in rain any moment. Clicking her tongue she moves away from the window and looks at her new and almost empty apartment. Before she can sigh and wonder is this was a good idea, her phone rings.
"Emma."
"We have a problem, sister!" Leroy seems pretty alarmed.
"What it is?"
Without losing another second, Emma goes to the fridge to get something to-go, only to find that it is as empty as the loft. She sighs, wondering if this was indeed a good idea.
"It's Whale. He's freaking out the patients."
"What? I'm on my way."
"Rubs is here with me. We've controlled it, but you should go get Archie."
The sound of something crashing near Leroy's phone ensures it isn't controlled at all.
"I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Bring Archie with you, ple- Hey! Who threw that?!" The Sheriff hangs up.
She drives to Archie's Office as fast as the Bug is able to, cursing under her breath all the way and wondering what the heck is going on.
"Thank you, doctor." Is smiling Aurora when Emma arrives. Her pregnancy is taking all of her body by now.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Emma gasps for air; she has climbed the stairs two steps at a time.
"Good," the Princess smiles, "there is something odd with my mind and memories and... well, everything but... Dr Hopper is helping me getting accustomed to this world."
"That's great!" she nods, not really feeling that excited. "Archie, you have to come with me, right now."
"Is there something wrong, Sheriff?"
"There's a riot at the hospital, apparently. We're gonna need your help."
"I-I have patients today, I don't think..."
"Your patients may end up being Crazy Whale's ones if you don't help out in this one. Weren't you a conscience or something?"
"I'll stick around," Aurora says quickly with a little smile hoping she can be useful at all, "in case someone comes looking for you, Dr Hopper."
Archie smiles too, nodding. "Thank you, Aurora." If Emma were to be asked, she would say the cricket was trembling with fear.
"C'mon, let's go."
They find Ruby waiting at the entrance of the Hospital of Storybrooke when they arrive. The street is empty except for her and a chair in the middle of the road, surrounded by sharp pieces of glass. Looking up, Emma finds that it came through one of the hospital's windows.
"What's going on, Rubs?"
"Emma!" she sighs, relieved. "Whale is doing some kind of brain-wash or something, he's convinced the nurses not to treat those who support Regina. People is freaking out in there. Leroy has barricaded the halls, they were throwing things at each other."
"What are we going to do?" asks the therapist.
"Whale is missing, also."
"Then we can't get Archie to talk to him. Let's start there, then. Archie, you go talk to the nurses, see if you can convince them to resume the treatments. Ruby; you and Leroy try to calm everyone down. I will look for Whale in the meantime."
They nod and run inside.
Ruby's description is an understatement. It is anarchy inside there. There is a group of people yelling at one of the security cameras in the corner, another one is taking care of the sick while a third is throwing things at Leroy, who is hid between a desk and the barricade leading to the inner halls of the bulding and, therefore, the nurses. He is yelling something too, but it is incomprehensible.
"Hey!" Emma tries to make herself heard, but everyone ignores her. "HEY!" she takes her gun from behind her waist and fires two warning shots to the floor. She can almost hear her mother complaining about her recklessness. "Everyone, calm down."
And they look at her, both scared and angry, and for a moment there it seems they all are going to eat her alive.
"I thought you were not gonna make it, sister." Leroy sighs stepping out from his hiding spot.
"We are going to fix this."
"How? Whale isn't treating the anyone supporting the Evil Queen." A young man shouts angrily at her. "My little brother needs medical attention!" Some other complaints arise too.
"Dr Hopper is here, he's going to talk to the nurses and everything will be alright."
"Sheriff..." Archie's voice is full of doubt, but Emma shuts him with a look.
"Everything is gonna be alright, 'kay? Now, Leroy, let him in."
"Yes, sis'."
"What if he doesn't convince them? What then?" the guy goes on although not as angry as before.
"That's why I'm calling the nuns. I'm sure the fairies can help out here. Rubs, can you do that for me?"
"On it."
"Good."
"Whale is still missing." It is Leroy who approaches her this time. "I don't know what kind of power does he have over the nurses but... it's nasty for sure."
"Is he here? In the hospital?"
"Haven't found him yet, but I'm sure as hell he hasn't left the building."
"I will take care of that. Make sure everything's okay down here. I'll take him out."
Leroy nods and walks towards the barricade. He moves a shelf for them to pass in. Archie goes first, but a woman stops the Sheriff graving her by the arm.
"What if he doesn't give up?"
"I'll have to punch some of that nonsense out of his face, then."
Looking at the skies he knows soon enough it will rain. Although it wasn't in the story book, there was a tale about a woman's emotions having impact in the weather of the town she lived in. They said she was so sweet and gentle that her tears made the sky want to cry and her laugh was enough to blossom the flowers.
Could someone like that be living here, in Storybrooke?
He lets his gaze roam around the playground. Everything has changed since the first Dark Curse broke. Time started again, kids could finally grow up and pass the course. Just imagine how it would be like to be twenty-eight years hearing to the same lessons gives him the shivers.
Mary Margaret is on maternity leave, some other teaches have not returned yet from their vacations, which means there isn't enought people to take care of everything. Belle is now supplying the school with lots of books. He waves at her when she passes nearby. She has become the target of some dirty comments he would rather not hear ever again. Mr Gold would curse them if he knew.
He used to be lonely during the first ten years of his life. Now he has a friend: Austin. He and Henry spent most of their time together. Today, Austin is sick. He sighs.
His eyes lay on a girl that is sitting across the playground, playing with one of her braids. She is alone too, and she seems sad. Their gazes meet. Her sweet smile makes him smile back, and something pops inside his chest. Suddenly, he knows that even if the weather-changer woman might not exist in this world nor the other, if that girl's eyes were to cry, the world would surely have to. He would do anything to make that beautiful smile appear again. He really hopes his is not as silly as he feels in that very moment.
Two kids approach her, big as shelves, breaking their connection. Henry can't barely see her anymore, but he notices they are bothering her when they take her lunch away.
Withou giving it a second thought, he inmediately stands up.
"Hey!" he yells, taking his TRON lunch box -one he is really proud of- and running towards them. "Hey! Leave her alone!"
"And who are...?" the bigger bully turns around and laughs upon seeing him. "Oh! Isn't this the Evil Queen's adopted son?"
"She's not like that!"
"I think he is, buddy!" the other one laughs too, still holding the girl's arm.
"Leave her alone."
"Henry, please, let it be..." she begs.
"What are you now? The hero? Don't make me laugh." He pushes him. "Move aside, bug, I have business here."
"No way."
He tries to push him back. He can't and the bully laughs, turning to face the blonde girl. Taking advantage of that, Henry takes his own lunchbox and desperately hits him in the head with it.
"Henry!" she gasps.
The bully does not say a word. He only turns to look at him with the maddest frown Henry has ever seen.
"I think I prefer Evil Lunch today." Comments the other one, releasing the girl.
"Yeah, me too."
And before he can think of running away or submitting his food, there are fists all over his face.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"I just want them to tell me where she is so I can skin her alive in my dungeon and torture her to the last of her breaths. That could destroy the entire kingdom, let alone say the entire realm. It is a little extreme, would not you think?"
"You will have what you want, Regina. And I will have what I want. We will get our happy endings back."
"There will be nothing back if you destroy everything."
Regina kept pacing around Maleficen't small laboratory, analyzing every ingredient, every jar, every movement her dear friend took to create the base for the potion she had promised would bring their much deserved happiness. But what she was attempting to brew was... monstrous, something so powerful and terrible that it had become a legend. A legend because no one had brew it before due to its difficulty.
It had many names in many realms, some of them being the Blissing-Curse Potion, the Clair-Obscure Magic Potion and the Jailer of Love and Hatred Potion. All of those held a part of the real truth. Maleficient was trying to make the potion that would curse and bless the one driking it. It would grant that person control of both magics; light and dark, jailing inside his or her heart the most powerful of love and darkness.
The Queen highly doubted Maleficent being capable of finishing such a task.
"Now, now... You should let the professionals take care of that, dearie. You may burn."
Rumplestilskin mocking voice appeared as the gray smoke disappeared. However, he was not amused at all.
"I thought I had trained you better." He looked to his former apprentice, no grimace whatsoever in his face, the look of a dead doll.
"This was not my idea." She answered, defensively.
"Exactly what I meant. It should have."
It had passed a long time since the magic training ended. Her face, her expressions, they were all dead now. She no longer needed to put on a mask to enact indifference or coldness. That was what she felt inside. It was her price for magic. She was no longer afraid of Rumplestilskin.
"It was mine." Maleficent smiled, raising her chin with an evil smile.
"And are you aware of what it takes?" he asked, turning on his heel and fluttering his expressive hands. "I know she does. I taught her."
"I am just as capable, Rumplestilskin."
Regina arched a brow upon hearing those words and looked at the imp, waiting for the response. Maleficent was a haughty woman, one of the few who dared to speak in that manner to the Dark One. This time, he laughed like the mad man he was. That only encouraged the dragon.
"I have almost every ingredient needed. It is just a matter of time."
"Are you sure?" Regina asked again, her eyes fixed in the impish man that had been her teacher in magic.
"I am."
"How lovely!" Rumplestilskin smiled. "But, you see, there's a tiny little problem there."
"What?" Maleficent laughed, grinding the nail of a troll.
"There's an ingredient impossible to obtain, dearie." He let out a giggle.
"The first thread of light on a dark heart..." Regina sighed.
"See? My apprentice! She knows, you don't. You should hear her." He whispers with a wicked smile and a hand near his mouth.
"Oh, but you see, I have that." And she drew from her pocket a small vial. Confined inside there was a flickering light, thin as a hair and furious as the inner dragon of its owner.
The Queen looked at her master. Her worry, usually so buried inside the darkness of her heart, scratched the surface upon seeing for the first time ever that, the Dark One, was astonished and completely speechless.
"How?" The Evil Queen asked, silently.
He looked at her. The question was not for him, of course, but they did not need words to say the most important things. Years of dealing magic with strangers beside him had taught her that the most powerful comunications were those not spoken nor written; the right grimace could make a King tremble and knee. That day, it was Rumplestilskin's eyes who told her that both of them would be the ones kneeling if her friend succeded.
"Trolls." She smiled. "Your trolls."
The Queen had known about the potion for a long time. Its effects where almost unknown and yet they inspired fear among all the great magicians. It would make that person indestructable, almost unstoppable. It was not that they did not want it, but the fact that brewing such a thing would require extraordinary help. And everyone knows what happens if you reveal you are creating an almost invincible weapon. It is just not wise.
Regina's and Rumplestilskin's eyes were still fixed in each other's. The potion would make Maleficent more powerful than the Dark One, the most powerful dark being in that realm and the others, to make him bow. Something that terrible should not be allowed to exist.
Looking at him, she flicked her hand and the cauldron disappeared, not thinking twice. Her former master smiled as he knew he would have never, his thirst for power was his greatest flaw. He had given her the choice: destroy it now or let Rumplestilskin fight his way to that source of power. It would have been bad enough if anyone drank that potion, but they were condemned if the Dark One was to be that person.
"What have you done!?" Maleficent yelled, standing. "That took us months."
"It did? What a pity." The Queen smirked at her. The corner of her eye caught a glimpse of gray smoke in Rumplestilkin's disappearing.
"Do you or do you not want Snow White back? Do you not want her dead?"
"I do. But that is my business. Clearly you don't understand what you were doing, dear, and I am not helping you destroy everything I have earned. I will get my happy ending my way, and you shall see not to step on it."
"You do believe you are better than me, huh?" Maleficent darkly laughed. "Oh, honey, you are so blind to the mistake you are making."
"I might be, but there are certain limits I am not willing to cross, Maleficent. Some weapons should remain forgotten."
Storybrooke General Hospital is not that big, but people has been coming almost dayly since the magic came back to Storybrooke. Magic injuries just happen everywhere in this town now.
There isn't that much staff either. The hallways are empty when Emma goes behind the barricades. She walks down the hall, looking in every room, finding doctors giving minimun medical aid to the patients and nurses attending the most bloody wounds, but that is it. No big fancy equipment, no test to run, no labs being done.
She resumes her walking, almost knowing what she will find at the nurse post.
There is a waiting room to her right. The sick and hurt ones are there, sitting in the chairs, the less wounded in the floor, speaking quietly while their companions are screaming near the nurse's desk, something about magic. She leans over to hear better and what is her surprise when she discovers that they are not only asking the patients to quit supporting Regina, they are also demanding them to quit their own magic.
Emma turns around, looking for someone she might know to start doing her questioning about Whale. Archie should be the one doing the convincing part, so she leaves that to him.
Some known naughty leprechauns are surrounding Tinker Bell in the waiting room. The fairy is kneeling in the center, trying what seems to magically cure their burns when the nurses are not looking. The Sheriff approaches and kneels beside her, providing at least some concealment to her activities.
"What is going on?"
"Sheriff!" she whispers, startled, her face reddening upon thinking she has been caught.
"Are they okay?"
"The nurses won't help any creature that holds to magic, and I am not giving up mine... not after what I went through to earn it back. Support Regina? I can quit that. But not magic."
"Yeah, I've heard that. What happened to the leprechauns?"
One thing Emma has discovered about magic creatures is that it gives her the creeps to talk with leprechauns. They are like dwarves, only smaller and younger-looking. Basically, like talking to kids with beards. It just isn't funny if it isn't Halloween.
"They were playing with magic and they got burned, as usual, but they can't heal themselves. They can't help it, though, have been coming here every now and then for weeks now. And magic is what makes them... leprechauns. I'm trying to help everyone but... I'm running short on pixie dust." Tinker Bell looks at her, worried, and then looks at the other sick people. There is not enough room for everyone.
"Thank you, Tinker Bell." Emma sighs patting her should and standing up.
"Is not that we like doing this, you know?" the trembling voice of a woman whispers behind her and they both, fairy and Sheriff, turn to look at her.
It is a nurse, her identification says 'Joy', but she seems about to break. Her nervous gazes over her shoulder, her shaking hands, even her eyes filled with tears declare something very wrong is going on.
"Then stop!" hisses Tinker Bell, clearly oblivious to all the signs.
"What do you mean?" Emma frowns.
"It's... it's the attendant nurse. He did something horrible to her..."
Her words are starting to attract the other patients and their whispers. She looks around, scared.
"It is okay, you can tell us." Emma reassures her. She tries not to frown at herself, noticing that it should be Archie taking care of this and not herself.
"He... he started firing magical people when the curse broke. Last night he came, inraged. I was on duty as some of the others, and we tried to calm him down. Elethia... she accidentally revealed she used to be a woman named Sosia in the Enchanted Forest, a healer, when trying to make him understand that magic is not a bad thing, that people can change. He took her downstairs. We heard her scream for almost an hour and two later she came back, as pale as the dead. She said Whale was right, that magic was dangerous and it should be forbidden because it only hurts people. She said science is the only magic that should exist."
"And did you believe her?"
Everyone is surrounding them by now, quietly listening or gasping to the terrible story, waiting for a response.
"... she took others downstairs too... the rest of us just nodded and accepted. If we try to stand to them..."
"We will not let them do anything to you." A man says, taking her hand.
"Where is he now?" Emma tries not to yell and scare further poor Nurse Joy. She is seriously going to punch the nonsense out of the doctor's face.
"Downstairs."
"In the asylum? Great then, he can't escape."
"He changed the code, but I don't know which is it and neither do the others. You can't enter there without it."
The Sheriff snarled.
"Who knows?"
"Whale, and Elethia."
"Where's Archie?"
"He is trying to convince Nurse Elethia to let them treat the patients." Says Tinker Bell, who has remained near her.
"Good." A sudden idea flashes through her mind, and although she doesn't like it one bit, she will have to try. "Hey, do you know if the Mayor held any kind of... skeleton key or whatever for that panel?"
"... She may, I guess."
"Do you think it wise to bring her here?" The fairy asks. Emma shrugs.
"What other option do we have?"
"Henry! What on earth happened to you!?" Regina shrieks upon seeing his son's face covered in blood and wounds, taking him inside with deep concern in her eyes. "And why are you not at school, as you should be!?"
"He... he tried to defend me, Madame Mayor..." the shy voice of a young girl calls her attention, her soft cheeks blushed as she doesn't dare to step inside. "I... I thought it best to bring him here. I know they will wait for him at the end of the classes."
The adult woman weighs the younger one's words for a moment. "Well, thank you." She nods gesturing her to enter. "But it would have been wiser to ask for help instead of playing hero, Henry," she sighs, leading them to the dinning room, "I thought you'd knew that by now."
"I... I just couldn't help myself!" the kid blushes too, throwing indiscreet glances towards the blonde.
"Of course not," she sighs again sitting between them, "it is in your blood, after all."
She didn't cared who his parents were when she adopted him and she doesn't now, but heaven knows how much does she hate him inheriting the worst of them.
She lays the box with all the first aid equipment in the table and draws a piece of gauze and hydrogen peroxide to clean his injures. He swishes at first, but then sits up suddenly and his adoptive mother knows that he is trying to feign toughness.
"Why don't you use magic to heal him?" the girl asks coyly.
"I promised Henry not to unless it is absolutely necessary." She simply answers. "An, in this moment, I think for him is best to learn the lesson his birth mother and greatmother seem to lack."
"And which is that?"
"Thinking of consequences." Henry replies. His mother hums positively as she cleans a scratch from his forehead.
For a moment, Regina thinks he is avoiding her gaze as he keeps looking away. It takes her half a minute to realize he is not, but looking at the blonde behind her. This earns him a piercing look from the Queen, the kind of look she used to gave him before the curse broke when he was being childlish or utterly unbecoming. Have you never seen a girl before?, it says. He shrugs, embarrased, before shooting the girl another look.
Regina rolls her eyes.
"And which are the brutes's names?"
"I-I don't know, mom..."
"You went after people you didn't know the name of, nor even their flaws?" She asks clearly dissapointed. "... so much like your birth mother..."
"I thought he was brave!" the blonde said and the glowing of her voice was such that she could feel her smiling behind her.
"Well, it wasn't, Goldilocks. It was reckless."
"Wait, that's your name?" he poks to the side to look at the girl and then at his mother. "You know her?"
The look on Regina's face is indescribable.
"You don't even know her name? Have you not learnt anything of what I have tried to teach you all this years, Henry?"
Her son stares to the floor, embarrased. Regina decides to exhal heavily and walk away with the kit, having finished her task on cleaning his face. Some adhesive bandages will do the rest.
"So that's your name? Goldilocks?"
She smiles and nods, tilting her head to the right. She must be his age, maybe younger. "Not exactly, but that's what everyone calls me anyways."
"And what about the bears? Is it true that you...?"
The blonde bursts into laugh before he can even finish his sentence, making his cheeks go as red as her mother's apples.
"No! No. Their not bears, is just what everyone calls them. The Three Bears!" She exclaims proudly. "And they're my dads. Kind of."
"You have three dads." And it is more of a statement than a question.
"Did you think you were the only one with daddy issues?" she jokes and he smiles. "Yeah. Three dads. They found me when I snucked into their tree house some years ago. I had lost my parents long ago and they took me in." She shrugs. "For me, they are my dads."
As Regina re-enters the room she finds heartbreaking how cute her son is looking right now, willingly listening to a girl he has clearly laid his eyes on. The sad part of it all is that it should never have happened.
"Tell me", she clears her throat,"all about those bullies. I want their names, a full description, everything."
"No, mom, please..." He begs, knowing where is this coming from.
"They hurt you, Henry, they have to pay."
"But if you go to their parents I'll look like a sneak!"
"I will take that risk if it ensures the well-being of my only son." She replies ignoring his plea.
"But...!"
The door bell rings.
"I'm not discussing this any further, Henry."
Regina leaves the bandages in the table before walking towards the door.
"Regina," Emma pants, "I need you." This makes the brow of the former Mayor to arch, confused. "I-I mean, I need your help."
"Mom!" Henry exclaims upon seeing her, and both him and the girl approach her.
"Wow, what happened to your face?" And without asking for an invitation she comes in. Regina furrows and closes the door behind her, bitting back a harsh comment that would surely offend their son.
"It's a long story, some kid beat me at school and -"
"Yeah, I can see that."
"- and mom wants to talk to his parents!" he accuses.
"Regina! You can't do that!" his birth mom turns to his adoptive mom. "It'd ruin his reputation!"
"You might side with him as much as you like, Sheriff. My decisions are not open for debate. Now, what was that about you needing my help?"
"Is anything wrong?" Henry asks, concerned.
Emma sighs and pats her son's shoulder. "Just business, kid. Why don't you and Goldilocks go upstairs to play some videogames, huh?" She offers, smiling at them. "I'll try to talk her out of that." She adds in a whisper that Regina reproaches her with a piercing glare.
"I heard that." The Queen says when the children are far enough and too distracted on their little happy chat.
"I know." She shrugs.
"What happened, Sheriff?"
Regina can notice how Emma's eyes change from an amused look to another more focused and serious, one meant for business. She also looks concerned and hesitating to request anything, probably because of the recent events that involved the Sheriff ruining her love life.
"Yeah, right, the business. Here's the thing:" she starts as she always does when she does not know how to put the thing into words,"Whale has kidnapped the building, he is punishing the nurses trying to treat people that... support you or magic, or whatever, really. He's gone crazy, and he's hiding in the asylum with the other lunatics. The code was changed so we can't have access to him now. I was wondering if maybe you had a master code."
"I'm guessing this has something to do with yesterday's meeting at the Town Hall?" Regina asks calmly with an emotionless face, arms crossed in fron of her chest.
"How... how do you know that?"
"Does it matter?"
"No... I guess... I guess not. Either way, do you have it?"
"A master code?"
"Yeah."
"No. There was only one code, never meant to be changed."
"Oh. Where are you going?" she asks seeing her walk away.
"You said you needed my help." Regina says as she takes her coat off the rack. "I'm going to blow that door up."
"Why?"
"Because as much as this town's people disgust me I'd rather have access to a hospital, Miss Swan."
She nods and exits the house first, walking towards the Bug and waiting for the Queen inside, the engine already murmuring soft complainings.
"You should really let Henry fix this in his own." The Sheriff coments as they stop by a red semaphore.
"They said those kids would wait for him at the exit of school, I'm not willing to let my son walk towards a certain beating."
"You'll destroy his image in front of that girl, you know? And he seems to like her."
"It doesn't matter. She is not worth it."
"But he likes her."
"She is not deserving of our son, Miss Swan."
"Why?"
"She is a commoner."
Emma snorts.
"Is this some funny joke to you? May I remember you that our son is heir not only to one but two crowns? That responsability can not be held by some classless girl covered in mud."
"What's wrong with you?" the Sheriff presses the accelerator trying not to punch the other woman in the face. "We are not in the Enchanted Forest, Regina. He is not heiring anything. He's just a boy! And he likes her! What's the problem with that?"
"Still, -"
"C'mon, have you forgotten how love felt like?" against her better judgement, Emma cuts her with a phrase she have not meant to say in the first place. Her face reds as she fixes her eyes in the road.
"Are you refering to the love you last stealed from me?" the other woman replies, sharply, the hatred in her words almost stabbing her skin.
"He is a commoner, you know?" she tries not to facepalm at her big mouth because she is driving, but she can surely think of ways to punish her brain for not being able to focus on the road at the same time that she holds a conversation with the former Mayor that does not imply this last trying to kill her in the near future.
"That's quite different."
"And why's that?"
"I am a Queen. I may do as I please, I fulfilled my role. He, in the other hand, has not yet. His reputation you so care about will be truly damaged if we let this silly crush take the best of him."
"And what do you propose?"
"Talk him out of it or end it ourselves, for his own good."
"Isn't that what Cora did to you?"
At this question Regina falls silent for a moment, her gaze fixed in her lap as she weighs it and, for a moment there, Emma wonders if it hurt her.
"Regina, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."
"Have it as whatever you please, Miss Swan. I will only blame you when it backfires."
Appearances are everything, dearie, she remembered looking at her reflection in boudoir.
Feigning some kind of sickness and headaches had convinced the King that she should be left alone, not wanting his little girl becoming ill too, and so she had earned a full day for herself, time to prepare for the important night that one was going to be.
Rumplestilskin had promised he would come by midnight to take her to another world. It was not an escape, since she did no longer posses the desire to, but an adventure to test her proficiency. Her master often took her to the deals he was about to close when she had been part of it, being the one to enchant the required item or curse the victim. Some of those days he had required her to be dressed in a specific way, enchanting her face so no one would recognize the Queen, not even an inch far from her face.
This time, however, it would be different. She no longer needed to hide since they were not going to be in the same world, and knowing that the meeting would be with an important man, she had chosen a dress that would show all the magnificence the Queen should have. Hadn't said Rumplestilskin that she should be dressed as if preparing herself for a King? So she had.
"No, no, no, dearie. That's not what I meant." His voice mocked through the flickering flames of the candles as he appeared laying comfortably in her chaise long. She was not startled by this, as she had came to know her master's magic and was awaiting its presence.
"You said I should look prepared for a King." She calmly pointed out, painting her lips in dark red.
He giggled with a madly pitched voice as he approached her.
"You should not look like a Queen."
"That's what I am," she replied arching a brow, knowing that she would have to give up eventually if she wanted to learn the lesson he had offered her in return, "what should I look like?"
"A Princess!" he smiled and waved his hand. His drak gray magic wrapped her. She sighed and left the lipstick in the dressing table. As the smoke dispersed, she found in the mirror a reflection of her that had not belonged for a long time. "I hope your stepdaughter does not miss her pretty little dress. Oh, my, she is growing up, isn't she? Has she been committed to someone yet?"
"She shall not reach that age." The Queen hissed through her teeth, piercing him with her eyes through the reflection, making his smile only grow broader.
But he was right. Snow White was growing up, enough to fit in her stepmother's dresses, which could be concerning. She had to stop it before she could take over the kingdom. It was already bad that they loved the Princess as their queen. Luckily, after this lesson there would be no magic nor spell hard enough for the real Queen, and then, Snow White and her father would perish given the right chance.
She secretly smiled at that thought.
"If you can't look innocent, Regina, then you are of no use to me."
The mask slipped on again instantly at his words, and she smiled, remembering Daniel and how he had made her feel in the past, his love lighting up her eyes, sweet as the angel she used to be. The white dress fit her curves perfectly, her black hair framing her face as the one of pure innocence. She both hated and loved it. She was not pure, her soul having darkened since the first heart she crushed, and yet the disguise would decieve the smartest person.
"And why would all... this be required?" She asked standing on her feet.
"Because, dearie, this world we are heading to," he leaned toward her softly raising his right brow as he usually did when explaining something, his voice lowering until being a mere whisper, "is quite the sickly sweet one. Even their darkest witches help the walkers."
Rumplestilskin's hand flickered and a wooden archway appeared behind him.
"And the only way to get to it, is through this portal!" he giggled.
Regina marvelled at the sight of the richly carved piece, made out of two intertwined thin trees by their branches. The elvish runes drawn in their trunks glowed lightly, illuminating softly their dry leaves and the stone pedestal in which the archway rested. Its pureness was so that she herself could see how terrible it was that a being such as the Dark One possessed it.
The sight in the mirror of the wall almost tricked her into believing she could have part of it too within her heart.
"Fairy-craft!" Rumplestilskin jumped, excited, and approached it. "The only magic capable of taking us there. Ladies first." He bowed, offering a hand to help her climb the few steps up.
The magic portal enveloped her frame, its bright nature itching her dark and suffocating her lungs. It was the first time she went through a portal, she was not prepared for it. And so the little air she had within herself was taken, and she thought she was going to choke. And then, it stopped. She opened her eyes.
What Regina saw was beautiful. Irritatingly beautiful.
Emma's mobile phone rings, the tone being some kind of classic eight-bit music Henry must have put when she wasn't looking. She only thanks that her kid is not the kind to choose something utterly embarrasing.
"Are you not going to pick that irritating thing up?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
The blonde opens her eyes at Regina, unbelieving, just for a milisecond before looking back at the road. "I'm driving!" She exclaims as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.
"I remember several times where you didn't exactly respected the rules. Don't mind my presence, Miss Swan. It would not be the first time you break them in front of your Mayor."
"Former Mayor." Emma points out. "Picking your phone while driving is distracting. I'd rather not die, thanks."
The thing keeps skirling. It stops, and then it starts again. And it keeps doing that until its sound is almost drilling the Savior's skull. She quickly glances to Regina, who is just calmly looking through the window, unaffected.
"Regina?"
"Yes, Miss Swan?"
"Would you put it on speaker for me? It may be important." She adds before the brunette can give her a snarky reply.
Regina swallows her "Talking while someone is driving might be dangerous too" and asks, "Where is it?", searching for it around her.
"In my right pocket, there."
She reaches for it. The screen is showing a photo and a name. She can't help a chug.
"It's Charming." The Queen spits, disgusted.
Several seconds pass and the thing keeps sounding.
"Are you going to pick it up or not?"
"Where are the buttons?"
"... there's none." For a moment there she had forgotten Storybrooke is anchored in the past.
"Then how do you expect me to put it on speaker?" the former Mayor replies. "Doesn't matter, they have hang up."
Emma lets out an annoyed growl. And then it rings again.
"Your father is more stubborn than I thought."
"Follow my instructions, ok? Just touch the green icon and slide."
"This is stupid. Why do I have to slide inside a car just to pick it up?"
"Your finger! Slide your finger through the screen!"
"You should really think before you speak." Regina sighs and sliding the green icon through the screen. The sound stops and the image changes.
"Now tap the speaker on the right side and leave it on the dashboard."
"Emma?"
"Hey, David, is everything okay?"
"It's Snow, she..."
"I'm having kind of a situation here, can't it wait?"
Regina rolls her eyes, quietly.
"She has locked up in the apartment with Neal, she won't let me in."
"What?"
"She was furious. Something about being a bad mother." Emma looks at the former Mayor, not capable of helping herself in the need of sharing her concern with someone. The car stops at yet another red semaphore and Regina just looks away. Is this little gesture which tells her that something happened last night.
"I'll talk to her later, ok? Just keep trying to get it." She advices before the line goes dead. "What did you say to her?" she asks next, accusingly.
"Why do you suppose I had something to do with it?" is the brunette's defensive response.
"Because that's my superpower. Tell me."
"Of course. I'm sure that's how you stole my son and my happy ending."
"You know I could have you arrested and almost no one would bat an eye, right?"
"You wouldn't dare."
"Regina, tell me."
"I just spoke the truth." She gives up, her face indifferent as ever.
"And which truth is that?"
"I couldn't leave Henry alone with someone else until it was absolutely necessary, and he is not even my biological son. I just can't see how someone could leave their one-week-old kid to have a girl's night, whatever that is."
Emma falls silent and pushes the accelerator, suddenly avoiding the other woman's gaze. She was prepared for everything except that.
"You can't defend her, can you?" Regina states, raising her chin. "For you know how painful it is to leave your nameless child to someone."
Her words stab her in the chest, killing any response she could have made up to defend her mother because, in the end, Regina was right. Something was really wrong with Mary Margaret.
"She... she has not been herself lately." Emma clears her throat.
"You should keep an eye on her."
The sudden kind-of worry from the Queen alerts her and she almost misses a STOP.
"Why do you say that? Regina, what's going on?"
"Nothing. Just... do as I say, and don't get us killed." She adds when another road sign is missed by the blonde.
P.S.: You keep this alive ^^
