Snow White gazes at her infant. "Charming, just look at our Prince Neal." She gasps, feeling a tremor of pain while fighting to keep her dragging eyelids open. "He's precious." Dragging her gaze from her little prince to her grown prince, she murmurs, "After what happened with Emma, this doesn't feel real. I'm waiting for Zelena to get out of her cage and take my son back…"
Prince Charming frowns. "Given our history, yes, this is likely to happen. You know what? I should kill her."
Snow doesn't answer for a minute. "Regina said good doesn't kill. But I killed Cora, and all those times you tried to kill Regina and I stopped you."
He sighs and looks straight at her forehead from the height of his chair. "But you saw good in Regina. Do you see any in Zelena?"
"Nope. Supposedly, she was in love with Rumplestiltskin. Supposedly, he's the only person she loved. But she was very selfish, really just craving his attention, wanting him to tell her she was special. It was attention she lusted, not him. If she really cared about him, she never would have tried to make him kill Belle. Much less, been the cause of Baelfire's death."
"And you don't believe a leopard can change its spots?"
"When someone truly, to their bones, cares about no one…how can they? Regina did care, in her bones. But she thought by seeking revenge on me, by being tough as steel, she would accomplish her goal. But unlike Zelena, I really didn't mean to hurt her, ever."
Rocking the baby, Snow stares unblinkingly into her husband's eyes. "You know why my mother 'made Cora give Zelena up'? Cora was with child, two months pregnant. She convinced my father to marry her. My mother overheard her talking to the baby's father and told mine. So he didn't marry Cora, and she felt sorry for herself and discarded the baby."
"Really?" Prince Charming narrows his eyes as he digests this.
"All Cora wanted was to marry a prince. She wasn't really a mother. I mean, my mom didn't say, 'You have to give the baby up.' She said, 'You lied to the prince and shouldn't marry him.'" Snow shivers. "I shudder to imagine her being my mother. And she very well could have been." Her jaw tightens with disgust.
"Ew," Prince Charming marvels. "Yes. Your big sister Zelena getting the throne when she didn't have relation to the king…And just…" he shudders. "I don't want to picture you with Cora for a mother. Regina might never have been born."
Snow chuckles. "Isn't it funny?" She nuzzles her little one. "In the worst version of her, we wouldn't have viewed that as much of a tragedy. But I will never forget how she rescued me. Me, a total stranger then. If we look in Zelena's past, I'm sure she's only ever helped her superiors in hopes of praise. I bet she never helped a stranger out of the goodness of her heart. I bet she never cared about anyone who plain old needed help from the closest stranger. But Regina was vicious because she was in pain. She just buried the goodness."
Snow White reaches up and strokes Charming's cheek with the back of her hand. "And she saved your life. By splitting my heart in half. By giving you a piece. She could've let you die. Zelena would've."
"For sure," Charming agrees. Then he stands up. "Snow, I've got something to take care of." He plucks his sword out of its sheath.
Snow White settles back in her hospital bed and whispers to her son, "Don't worry. Once your father is done with that dreadful witch, she won't touch you—or anyone—with her creepy fingers ever again."
