Summary: It is a year after Pan's curse and oddly no one can remember anything that happened. Snow is pregnant. Charming is acting weird. Hook's gone. And Regina's, well, confused. Because not only has The Savior returned with all of her memories, but she's also returned with a magical three month old that looks like someone Regina once knew. Yet, nothing is ever quite what it seems. |AU|
Warnings: AU Season 3.
Pairings: Regina/Emma. Snow/Charming.
Author's Note: I am fully aware of how much I suck for not updating this before now, but my life has been a sea of chaos between my senior year in college to personal life issues. I had to take a break from this story, at least for the moment. But now, I am back. I want to thank each and every one of you that have continued to read, review and message me about this story. You are all seriously so fantastic and I hope that I will not let you down.
Chapter Three: Feels Like Coming Home
Emma had never truly been one for road trips. As a small child, she used to get the worst case of motion sickness every time that her mother and father plopped her in the back seat with her siblings and told her that they were going on a magical journey. It was always too hot; her brother was always an asshole; someone always had a pee; and her mother had a taste in music that literally made her ears bleed once. In fact, if you had asked a seven year old Emma Swan if she wanted to go to Disney World with her parents, she would have much rather chewed her own arm off; taken the worst whipping in the world; ate an entire plate full of fish (and Emma hated fish) than go on a road trip.
That feeling has not changed now that she is a thirty year old with two children and a yellow Volkswagen bug; a step up from the minivan that her parents always managed to own. Even now, she would much rather throw herself into oncoming traffic than to go on a road trip. Because, in all honestly, Emma is sure that being ran over by speeding cars would be less painful than being stuck for hours in a car with a fussy three month old.
Henry was never truly that bad. He had always been easy to entertain with music, toys, and once he got older, books and intellectual conversations about comic book heroes, supernatural events and other interesting situations. Reagan, however, has to be the most stubborn child that Emma has ever truly met and she is not so sure where she gets it from. Reagan hates the movement of cars; music does not help; no toy is the right one except for that damn duck that has clearly seen better days; and it seems like every mile that Emma drives, Reagan just cries louder and louder.
So, to say that Emma is less than excited to be herding her family into her car and driving thousands of miles to some small town that she has not even heard of, is probably the understatement of the century. Albeit, that is where Emma Swan finds herself early Friday morning, surrounded by a sea of unkempt clothing, and discarded baby toys that Reagan has spent the past half hour hurdling around the room. If her daughter's mood this morning is any indication on how this trip is going to go, the blonde is sure that she would rather crawl to Storybrooke, Maine than to drive.
"Henry! Can you do something with your sister?!" Emma swaks, running her fingers through her disheveled hair as she stares at the mess that is their living room floor. Upon hearing her mother's distressing voice, Reagan only giggles, her pacifier sliding out of her mouth just slightly. Rolling her eyes ever so softly, the blonde leans down to her three month old, dark brown eyes meeting her shades of emerald. For a moment, Emma's heart leaps into her throat and a thousand butterflies attack inside of her stomach; there is a familiarity within Reagan's eyes, a comfort that Emma has yet to truly understand. Reagan stares at her mother, her long eyelashes fluttering softly as she contently chews upon the object in her mouth.
"Are you going to give your Mommy any peace, my little evil queen? Or are we going to be fussy the entire trip there?" Emma asks and Reagan only stares back at her, the seriousness written upon her tiny face never wavering for a moment. Sighing in frustration, Emma reaches forward as her fingers gently brush through her dark hair, "look, kid, I get it, okay? I do. This is your home and you don't want to leave it. I don't really want to leave it either. But your brother needs clothes and food. You go through diapers like my mother used to go through those cheap boxes of chocolate, and I like to have wine every now and then. And for all of us to have what we want, we have to make sacrifices sometimes. Which for Mommy means having to move to a tiny town to catch a bad guy with sticky fingers. For Henry, that means he has to start a new school. And for you? For you, that means we have to go for a long car ride. Do you think you can make that sacrifice for us?" At the question, Reagan's brow furies before she tosses the pacifier at her mother. It bounces off Emma's nose with a 'thump' and the infant only cracks a grin at the despair she has caused.
"HENRY!" groans Emma, rubbing her nose in despair.
"I'm here!" calls out the twelve year old, appearing from his room with three suitcases behind him and a duffle over his shoulder. Glancing at her son, Emma's eyebrow pipes with curiosity as she stares at the bags that follow her petite boy around. He drops them all by the door quickly before appearing in front of his sister's car seat, her favorite duckie in his hands. Waving it in front of her face, Reagan quickly grabs for the toy, inserting it within her mouth almost as soon as it comes in contact with her skin.
"Hey, kid? You know, we are coming back, right?" Emma questions, throwing a few of her shirts within her own duffle back. Blushing softly at his mother's comment, Henry ducks his head sheepishly before returning his attention to occupying his sister.
"I know. But I had to bring my books, Ma!" Henry exclaims with a roll of his eyes and Emma only snorts at her son's response. Returning her attention to her disarray of clothing, Emma hums a tune silently in the back of her throat until her daughter's laughter echoes within her ears. Turning around to see exactly what had been so funny, she smiles when she realizes Henry is making silly faces at the tiny infant. For a moment, as she folds her laundry, Emma cannot help but watch the two of them together, so perfectly in synch and harmony, as if they had been meant for each other all along.
Throughout her entire childhood, Emma Swan was never that girl; the one who planned her wedding and her children and the whole white picket fence thing. She never imagined herself as the mother of two; her social life consisting of only parent-teacher conferences and play dates; the type of music that she listens to only being deemed appropriate by her twelve year old; and the type of television that she watches- only educational programs because her three month old daughter is normally attached at her hip. She never thought she would be the soccer mom type of parent; after all, she hated it when her own parents had done it to her.
And she certainly never thought she would be the type of woman who would be so incredibly in love with two people at the same time.
Yet, here she is. A twelve year old owns one half of her heart and the other half belongs to the sassy three month old and every time either of them do something so minimalist that normal people may miss it, Emma Swan finds herself falling deeper and deeper in love with them.
"Okay, is everyone ready?" asks Emma, zipping her own suitcase. She looks around their New York apartment, taking everything in slowly as if she may never see again. This had been the place in which Henry had lost his first tooth; it had been the place in which his first A+ hung upon the fridge with pride; this had been the place in which she first brought Reagan to when she brought her home from the hospital. This place had seen it's fair share of firsts; it had been their home.
"New adventures, right?" Henry beams a cheeky grin and Emma can't help but smile at her son. Henry had always been ready for a new adventure ever since he was a tot; if it was not a new adventure of climbing things on the playground, it was a new adventure within his books, especially his book of fairytales. He reminds Emma so much of herself at that age; hell, even at her current age. Except, two little kids keep her entirely tied down. She never quite went through the whole nesting process when she was pregnant, but now more so than ever, Emma finds herself just wanting to settle.
"To new adventures," Emma smiles, ruffling his hair through her fingers before she glances down at Reagan, "maybe you will like Storybrooke better than New York, munchkin." At this, Reagan only grins, removing the slobbery duck from her mouth as she reaches up for her mother. Smiling with a roll of her eyes, Emma scoops the infant's car seat through one arm as the other grabs a sea of bags that surround her. As Henry bounces out the door, Emma stops as she takes in one last view of the apartment, taking it all in with a deep inhale.
"See you later, Big Apple."
And, well, everything from this point forward should have went smoothingly, and perhaps if she had been anyone else, it probably would have. But Emma Swan never seemed to have luck when it came to things going off without a hitch, especially when she found herself in desperate need for them to. First, she almost drops Reagan trying to lock the apartment, secondly, she almost trips going down the stairs but what really made this moment so much of a fail for Emma occurred as she was buckling in her daughter's seat in the back of her car.
"Are you ready, Miss Swan?" The sudden voice startles the petite blonde who bashes her head on the roof of her car, jumping in fright.
"Fucking hell!" groans Emma, rubbing the top of her head as she turns around to find the person who managed to scare the living hell out of her. Standing in his typical leather jacket and dark pants, his hair a slight disarray and an exciting gleam in his eyes, is Hook. A side smirk curls upon his lips as he wrinkles his nose at his partner's dismay, eyeing her injury carefully before he lets out a breath.
"Perhaps you should be more careful, lass. Can't have anything happening to your head if we are going to catch this bad guy, hmm?" Hook retorts, turning his head just slightly as he smirks at the young lady before him. Glaring through her pain, Emma continues to rub her head, which she is sure will create a bump the size of a goose egg at any given moment, before she turns back to check on Reagan, who only stares at the man with a wrinkled brow.
Shit, so much anger in one kid, bemuses Hook as his eyes dart from Emma's to the tiny tot's, there can be no doubt that there is magic in her blood. She looks too much like…
"Okay, so, I don't know what in the hell you are doing here or why you are so convinced that you are going with me as I am bounty hunting, which is my job, but you sir, are sadly mistaken. You have creepily stalked and obsessed over me for days now and I really need you to find some other delusion to believe in because this one is not happening," Emma scolds, shutting her daughter's door aggressively, "can't you see I have kids? Can't you leave us alone?" huffing dramatically, Emma drops her bags in her trunk before she walks toward the driver's side of her car, Hook directly on her heels.
"You're very, very arrogant, Swan. I am neither stalking nor obsessing over you. I am your partner in this case," Hook pauses as he pulls out his badge, shoving it toward the blonde woman, "this has nothing to do with how attractive you are, or how 'great' your kids are, or any of that bull shit. This is my job too, to catch the bad guys and get the good guys back home." There's a smirk playing upon his lips as his golden eyes study her own, waiting for some type of reaction to occur within the fiery blonde. Perhaps if he could just jog her memory, the whole thing could be avoided; perhaps if she would just remember, then everyone could have their happily ever afters. Including himself.
"So, what? You just thought you would show up here and I would drive and you could just ride with me and keep me company? I have kids for that, you know?" Emma quips, her voice dripping with arrogance and frustration. She crosses her arms over her chest as she leans against her yellow bug and Hook cannot help but notice at just how well her red leather jacket hugs around her perfect body.
Good genes. He bemuses with a smirk upon his lips, too bad there's an Evil stake.
"Ahh yes. You have reproduced, I do see that. I'm not entirely blind. I can see that you have, what I assume to be a three month old daughter, who by the way, looks nothing like you. And you have a twelve year old son who can't keep his nose out of a book of fairytales long enough to know that anything is going on. He would never know if you were in trouble or not. Such a lively bunch of company you have with you, Swan." He snorts with a hard roll of his eyes. Emma is having none of it, however, as she lets out a frustrated grunt of hair, pushing herself off of her car as she approaches the driver's side.
"You can't go with me."
"I can and I am."
"No, you're not."
"Ooh, what are you going to do? Magically stop me?" Hook's quip in the heated argument suddenly stops Emma short as she opens her car door. Her eyes slant as she studies the scruffy faced stranger across the car from her, a different gleam written within her emerald eyes now. And Hook thinks maybe, just maybe, the Savior still lives inside of her after all. It is an useless hope; but Hook knows that Emma is the only hope any of them have of surviving this curse, she's their only case for survival.
"I don't even know your name," sighs Emma, twisting her fingers within her hair, her eyes glancing from her uninterested children in the backseat to the man across from her. She has to give him credit; the man has never truly given up and if there is one thing that Emma Swan has to applaud, it is a forceful will. Hook smirks, leaning across the hood of the car to hold his hand out for her to shake it, rocking on his heels excitedly.
"It's Killigan. But my friends call me Hook. I'd appreciate it if you did the same." He replies as she gently places her hand within his own. And for a moment, a brief moment, he swears that he sees something light within her eyes at their brief touch, something that might potentially remind him that this might not be so hard after all.
"Like Captain Hook?" Emma asks, her face screwing in confusion and Hook cannot help but laugh at her innocence. Nodding his head as he glances down at his boots, he finds himself struggling not to tell her too much about the reality of the situation. He looks inside of the car at Henry, his face buried deep within the book of fairytales and he only nods his head with a wink.
"Exactly like Captain Hook, lassy. I even have my own personal Jolly Roger if you would like to go for a ride sometime." He winks seductively and Emma only scoffs, pulling her hand back in the utmost disgust.
"I don't know how many times I have to tell you I'm not interested. I'm not interested in you, in guys, in anyone. I have all I need in my car right now. And even if I was interested in dating someone, it wouldn't be some arrogant hot shot who shares a nickname with an one handed Disney villain. Good and evil doesn't mix," Emma retorts and Hook shakes his head, his hand gliding through his messy hair as he looks back at Reagan, who studies him with the same curious, but ever so serious eyes.
"Except for when they do and create something tragically beautiful," Hook replies, a daring wink in his eye that just misses Emma's gaze. However, it is one that does not miss Reagan's, as the infant thrusts a hand forward toward the pirate. Huffing as she fumbles with her door handle, Emma runs her nails through her hair as she looks at him.
"That sounded mildly poetic, Captain." Emma smiles softly, receiving a gentle shrug from the pirate in return.
"When you spend such a long time at sea like I did, Miss Swan, you learn a few valuable life lessons. Perhaps the most important one is traveling with a buddy. The world is a scary place out there; there's a lot of elements that will work against you. A lot of evils in the world; some that you don't even know about. You need someone there to help you out," Hook sighs, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm as he glances in the car at her children before his eyes find Emma's emerald jades, "and as much as you don't want it to be me, I think I'm the best man for this case. I'm good at finding lost things." There's a subtlety in his voice, one that he knows that Emma won't quite realize but he is hoping that maybe, just maybe, she will understand in time. Emma, however, only sighs as she opens her door, sliding into her seat. The blonde takes a moment to look in her rearview mirror at the tiny faces that seem so uninterested with how their lives are going to change before she leans over, pushing open the passenger's seat.
"Get in." barks Emma and Hooks looks at her confused, "you're right. You're probably the last person I want to go with me but I have two sweet kids in the back of this car that need someone to look out for them. And in order for me to do that, I need someone to help me look out for myself. Who else is better to do that than a pirate?" At this, Hook chuckles as he jumps into the bug, shutting the door behind him.
"So, Storybrooke, huh? Have you ever heard of this place before?" smirks Hook as Emma pulls out of her driveway.
"Not really, but it sounds a little too fairytale for me," Emma grumbles, taking a swig of the coffee that sits in the console beside of them. At the realization of what she has said, perhaps, Reagan lets out a shrilling giggle, tossing her toy at Hook with a defiant smirk. Glancing back at the infant, Hook mirrors her own reaction, his sideway glances focusing on Emma who looks ever so, charming.
"Oh lass, you have no idea."
There have been a select few times in Regina Mills has looked exactly how she had been feeling on the inside. After all, it had been drilled into her head that emotions were always a sign of weakness; it is best, after all, to paint one's face and force a teeth grinding smile and pretend like everything is going to be alright than to admit that something is wrong. She supposes the last time that she ever truly let herself go like this was the day that her mother ripped out Daniel's heart right in front of her. It had been in that moment that she witnessed the true evil of the world, her mother clutching what she thought to be her one true love's heart within her hands, that Regina gave up hope of the world. It did not matter how happy she was meant to be, she knew that the universe would do everything within it's power to keep her from experiencing happiness.
She is sure that her appearance now, as she sits slumping in a corner booth at Granny's, mimics just how hopeless she feels with the situation. She had to send the two people that she loved most in the world, albeit she would never quite outwardly admit that Emma Swan is someone she loved the most, out of Storybrooke and out of her reality. She had to watch her son drive away from her, knowing that even though he had been the one who saved her from her dark and twisty past, he would have no recollection of her. In that moment, Regina could have sworn that having Cora rip out her own heart would have been less painful than watching her happy ending drive away from her.
She is nursing her third, or maybe it's fourth, at this point the concept of time has all but failed the raven haired beauty, cup of coffee. She cannot remember the last time that she slept more than two hours without having her dreams haunted of Swans and yellow bugs. Or the last time that she actually put on makeup, or retrieved her suits from the cleaners, or even attempted to be a normal, presentable human being. She knew that she had to make the ultimate sacrifice to rid the town of the curse- not just for the people of Storybrooke, but for her son as well. She knew that Henry would always look at her as the Evil Queen if she did not do something-anything to try to change her past. Unfortunately, the only thing that could change the past is to create a world in which the past never existed-in which she never existed.
Regina would be lying if she said that she did not miss the sound of his pattering feet throughout her house early in the morning when the rest of the world should be asleep. She would be lying if she admitted that she did not miss the scattering of the books around her living room or the constantly neverending sea of dirty dishes that never quite seemed to make it through a cycle in the dishwasher. For years, Henry Mills had been all hers- he had been the one good and perfect thing in her life; he had been the one person to love her so unconditionally that all the darkness that once filled her heart almost all but disappeared.
For years, Henry had been her happily ever after.
But what Regina never truly realized was that Henry had only been the beginning of her happily ever after; that he was the one who was meant to bring her happy ending to her, bring Emma to her. There's something terribly ironic about the situation, Regina chuckles bitterly as she takes a drink of her coffee, the scalding liquid creating a distraction from the aching pain in the center of her chest. It it truly ironic that her happily ever after lies within the child of her once bratty stepdaughter. Her eternity lies within the lands of the infant that was created with the purpose of breaking the curse that she enacted, and of course that infant just had to be her son's birth mother.
Regina Mills's whole life had been a game of luck and timing- but timing is something that had always been just a little… off when it came to Emma Swan. In fact, if anything, Emma sent her clocks spiraling backwards, desperate to reverse the damage that Snow and Cora had caused the mayor.
And just when, Regina sighs as the burning tears threaten within her dark eyes, just when they were finally starting to get everything just right, she had to let her go. There's some cheesy saying about if you love something to set it free and if it returns it was always yours, but if it does not, then it was never meant to be. Sitting at Granny's now, on another long and horrible day in which her soul dies a little more inside without her two loves, Regina wonders if it had ever truly been meant to be at all.
This is certainly falling in love in the cruelest way.
Emma's miles away and Regina's name will never fall from her lips. Emma's arms will never wrap around her in the middle of the night; her eyes will never shine for her when she walks into her office; her hips will never sway with her own excitement for their dates; Emma will never truly feel her love and she will never feel the love of her soulmate. It had been the life Regina was so desperate to avoid when she found Daniel, it's quite bittersweet that this is the life that she ultimately ended up with because of her own actions.
She did this to herself, to Henry, to Emma.
She ruined their fairytale.
"You know, if you're going to sit here all day, you might as well start paying rent. Or maybe you could hold up an advertising sign for the people that are walking by and staring at you like you are some sort of freak show," It's Ruby's voice who calls out to her and Regina glances up to find the dark haired waitress standing, pen and paper in her hand, with the most defiant smirk upon her face, "this is the most I have seen you move in the past few hours. Good to know that you're still alive and you didn't sneak some arsenic into your coffee because Swan disappeared." She is scribbling something on her notepad but it just misses Regina's eyes. Just like the fact that Snow and Charming are sitting at the bar, their eyes fixated on her so precariously just misses her eye of vision. Instead, she stares back down at her coffee before she lets out a raspy laugh, glancing out the window at the falling leaves. The leaves, even in their death, are perhaps the most beautiful thing; much like Regina at this very moment.
"I did not request your presence, Ruby. If I did, I would have used a dog whistle, don't you think? Isn't that how you normally call a bitch?" snaps Regina, her voice oozing with hostility and malice. For a moment, no matter how brief, Snow's eyebrow arches forward as the old queen reappears; the same woman who mercilessly taunted her and stole her chance at being a true mother to Emma. Ruby snorts, her mouth hanging slightly ajar as she rolls her eyes at the statement. Sighing softly, she leans forward, her palms resting on the table as she stares into the woman's eyes, finding a complete stranger looking back at her.
"Look, I get it, okay? I get it a lot better than you think. It is shit that she is gone and it sucks that you had to lose her and Henry. This whole situation is absolutely shitty, but let me tell you a piece of advice, Mayor, life does go on, you know? This heart break does not mean that your life is completely over, especially when it is over someone like Emma fucking Swan," Ruby exclaims, a certain amount of frustration and destain held within her voice. The moment the savior's name falls from the waitress's lips, Regina's eyes tear from the colorful leaves to find the pained and pale face of her former friend.
"Excuse me?"
"When Daniel died, you enacted a curse that destroyed everyone. You took every single one of us from our stories and you ruined our chances of happily ever after. When you lost him, you single handedly hurt all of the people that ever cared about you. Including your son. And now that Emma is gone, you have just been sitting here. At the same table. Drinking the same amount of coffee. For a year. God knows when you have showered last, let alone slept. Instead of killing other people, you are killing yourself. What do you think that is going to prove? Is that what she is worth? Is she worth your own death?" snaps Ruby, her brow furring together in frustration, a reaction that causes Regina's jaw to clinch together tightly, her teeth showing in aggression.
"You do not know anything. Maybe you should listen to your breed and leave the sleeping dog lying before you bite off more than you chew," Regina states sourly, and Ruby growls before she squints her eye, a defiant smirk upon her face.
"That's the great thing about wolves, Regina. We have terribly big mouths and we hunt down the largest prey that we can find and it will feed us for days. I am not afraid of you if that's what you think. Especially this you," Ruby's voice oozes and Regina only tilts her head, staring at her with the most astounding look upon her face, "this weak, pathetic and useless version of the evil Queen. You're nothing more than a coward now who is too afraid to go out and face the real world. You've given up. You have really let yourself go for the Charming's offspring, haven't you? For some arrogant, cocky blonde who strolled in here like she owned the place and then stormed back out like she didn't leave a string of broken hearts in her path. How in the hell is she worth all of this?" At this, Regina laughs the most deadening laugh as she pushes herself up from the table, grabbing her coat from the back of the seat.
"You know I don't have to sit and take this. Especially from some mongrel like you," Regina snarls, pushing her arms through her arms through her coat, pushing into Ruby just slightly. However, the tiny brunette's hand around her wrist, pulls her back as their eyes meet in a heated gaze.
"I am just saying instead of killing us, or better yet, yourself, maybe you should kill the one person that created this whole mess. Maybe you should kill the one person who took away your happy ending when she showed up in our town and took your son away from you. Emma is not the savior here; she is the villain. And villain's do not deserve happily ever afters. I mean, look at yourself. She broke you, Regina, and you fucking let her. You do not hurt the people that you love and it is quite clear that Emma Swan never gave a damn about you or about your son. Open your eyes and realize who you are fighting here. Instead of fighting yourself, maybe you should fight the real monster here. Emma fucking Swan." In that moment, a moment of pure hatred and disgust, something inside of Regina completely snaps. Suddenly, before she is aware of it, her hands are around Ruby's neck as she is pressed against the wall, squirming for dear life as Snow White stands behind her.
"Regina, no." whispers Snow.
"How dare you? How fucking dare you? How dare you stand here and talk to me like you know anything about what is going on in my life? How dare you stand here and act like you know a single thing about Emma Swan and my love for her? I thought I loved Daniel and everyone knows that I tried so damn hard not to love her because what fucking psychopath loves the person who was created specifically to break her curse? But I did. I fucking love Emma Swan more than I ever should, it's why I had to let her go. I had to let her go in order to save her from the curse, to save her from myself. How dare you stand here and pretend like you know anything about the way that she looked at me, or touched me, or about the way that she saved my life on numerous occasions? You know nothing about true love! I should have destroyed you when I had the chance! Maybe now I will!" Her voice booms through the diner, however, it is Snow's tiny hand upon her shoulder and a soft voice that stops her.
"Emma would not want this," whispers Snow, "Emma wouldn't want any of this, Regina. She was born to save you from being the Evil Queen. Do not become this in her absence. This is not the person that she is meant to be with and you know this. Emma was created for you; and you were created for her. Do not take away what destiny has already planned for you by turning into the monster that ruined her own chance at happiness. As much as I… I don't necessarily approve of fate's choice, I know that she belongs to you. She always has." At this statement, Regina's hands immediately fall from Ruby's neck as the waitress slumps onto the floor with a heavy thud. Backing away slowly, the raven haired beauty begins to tremble, the air completely knocked out of her.
"Regina, hey." Snow sighs softly, trying to pull her stepmother into an embrace but Regina only backs away, a new strain of tears falling down her cheeks. Their eyes meet, ever so briefly, and in that moment, Snow White realizes just how hurt and broken her stepmother truly is without her daughter. It was never meant to be like this. Looking at Regina now , the ache that is within her dark brown swirls is much deeper than anything that she ever felt revolving Daniel's death.
"Then where the hell is she?" chokes Regina in a deep cry, tears brimming within her eyes, "if she is meant for me, then where the hell is she? Why is she not here? If she was meant to break my curse, then why did she not come back? If fate has this whole plan where Emma Swan and I fall madly and passionately in love with each other and forget the whole world, then where the hell is she? Isn't she supposed to be here? She's the fucking savior, after all. So, why is she not here saving me?!" Her voice breaks as the deepest, perhaps most heart wrenching cry escapes from the back of her throat. It is a sound that captures Ruby's attention from the spiraled mess she exists in on the floor; it is a sound that causes Snow to carefully approach her stepmother. Compassionately, her hand finds the crook of Regina's arm as she squeezes ever so lovingly.
"Regina. Shh, it's going to be okay. True love always wins, remember?"
"Where's our girl, Snow? Bring her back. Bring her back to me. Please!" sobs Regina, unraveling before everyone in Storybrooke to see. Snow's lips part and tremble as words hang onto the tip of her tongue. She knows this is the moment that she is supposed to say something as Regina's eyes search her face for hope, for answers. She knows this is the moment that she is supposed to say something, say anything that could remotely make this better. But the words, much like the return of Emma, never comes.
"I-I-I have to go," Regina stutters, backing away from her stepdaughter, her eyes scanning the scene in front of her, the most appalling look upon her face. She's trembling into the core of all that she is, shaking herself free from the scene. When Snow steps toward the dark haired woman, Regina shakes her head, pushing her hand outward as she bites her bottom lip to keep the cry at bay, "no, Snow. You can't fix this. I need to go and I need you to let me. Please. I understand that you are terrible at doing things I ask you to do, especially keeping secrets. But I need you to do this for me. If you ever cared about me at all, or Emma for that matter, you will let me do this." If every part of Regina did not feel like it is shattering at the mere breaths shared between her and the people in Granny's diner, she would have heard the desperation in her voice. She would have seen the pain that flickered within Snow White's face, she would have heard how sympathetically her name fell from Charming's lips, she would have heard all the hearts breaking in Storybrooke for her.
Nodding quietly, Snow licks her cracked lips and Regina smiles ever so sadly in return to her stepdaughter. Then, as quick as she is there, the dark haired woman is gone through the door and disappearing around the corner, her breaking heart echoing throughout the whole town. Sighing deeply, Snow exhaustingly leans against the counter, her eyes watching every step of her ex-foe. She never meant for any of this to happen; she never meant for her own flesh and blood to hurt her stepmother in such a way; she never meant for Regina to have her true love ripped from under her fingertips...again.
"I should go after her. I should… I should…"
However, Snow is interrupted when the door to Granny's bursts open and an all too familiar man in leather tumbles through. Familiar eyes find Snow's and her heart leaps into her throat when she realizes who is standing before her. Looking at Charming, whose own expression mirrors hers, Snow pushes herself toward the scrawny, bearded man, searching his face and slumping body for answers.
"Killigan, what are you doing here?" It's Charming who speaks now, his hand gripping his shoulder in a reassuring squeeze. Gasping for a breath, Hook looks at the two poster children of true love, shaking his head as he slowly stands upright.
"I don't have much time. But it's not what you think. This… it is not what you think. Nothing is ever what it seems and this is certainly no different. There's more magic at play here than any of us could have ever realized. There's a consequence. There's a product of true love. This is more complicated than we had planned," Hook stumbles through a sea of words that do not make sense to the Charmings. Instead, Snow only wrinkles her brow, shaking her head as she looks between the pirate and Charming.
"I don't understand. What are you trying to say?"
"It's Emma. She's…"
"Oh, there you are. You ran off and left me. No worries, I have gotten pretty damn good at balancing two kids on my own," Emma Swan's voice echoes out throughout the diner as she steps through the door behind her newfound friend. Immediately, Snow's eyes snap from the pirate to her petite daughter who stands, solemnly, Henry by her side and a car seat tucked into her right side.
Inside the seat, a dark haired infant stares up at Snow, the darkest brown eyes swirling with the utmost innocent blinking in confusion. An infant that does not look like she could be older than three months old, meaning that she had been conceived while Emma was still in Storybrooke.
"Excuse me, but I am looking for the Mayor. Do you think you could point me in the direction in which I can find one…. hold on a second," Emma grumbles, digging in the pockets of her skinny jeans, pulling out a crumpled card, "Regina Mills." As soon as the name leaves her pursed lips, there's a flicker within her eyes that does not miss Snow's eyes and Reagan lets out the most hearty giggle, waving her hands around excitedly. There is a crack of thunder echoing within the sky above them, causing the small, brunette woman to look up and when she does, she finds glowing purple orbs swirling around her before snowflakes begin to fall from the sky. Wrinkling her brow in confusion, she glances back at the infant who only smiles the biggest, gum revealing grin at her.
"Snow?" whispers Emma, looking up at the falling flakes. Snow White darts her attention between her daughter, her grandson and the infant that is tucked ever so protectively within the blonde's side.
She looks nothing like Emma, nor Henry.
Glancing back up at the snow that falls onto her face, Snow closes her eyes, inhaling the wintery scent deep within her lungs. Then suddenly, as if the turning of a switch, she realizes exactly what has happened.
The baby was conceived while Emma was still in Storybrooke, which could only mean one thing, one thing no-one had ever truly taken into account.
Not even the Evil Queen herself.
"Oh my God," Snow mumbles inaudibly, searching her daughter's face as Emma only stares back at her in confusion, the sound of Reagan's laughter the only sound to fill Granny's diner in that moment.
This will change everything, Snow swallows deeply, more so than any of them could have ever truly imagined.
