A/N: This chapter is short, there should be another one later today!
Chapter Four
The whole diner had gone silent just as Robin entered.
The tension in the room so immense that Regina felt suffocated. She had made the mistake of turning as she heard the door chime open, and now the two of them were locked in an intense eye contact that she can't seem to break (neither he, though).
"Henry," Emma's voice jarred through the once silent room, "Go upstairs now."
Regina finally turned her head toward her son; he had a scowl on his face and was looking at Robin with disdain. Part of her was overjoyed her little prince had now become her little knight – well just a knight, she supposes – considering how much he'd grown. But not wanting him in an altercation, she repeated Emma's words, "Go, Henry, you need to get some sleep, too. I promise in the morning, we'll have more answers."
Reluctantly, Henry nodded his head. Giving Regina a quick hug, he made a slow gait up the stairs to their room.
Regina turned back to face the crowd, everyone were still in their positions. Luckily, the door of the diner opened again at that moment – hitting Robin slightly, as he had still not moved out of the way – and Archie walked in followed by Rumplestilskin and Belle.
The say the two looked over dressed would be an understatement. Regina watched the two of them carefully, wondering what was happening – but despite of herself, she still sees Robin settle himself in the same booth he had been in just earlier that evening. The memory it making Regina scowl, at least she got the whole 'sour attitude' plan down.
The palpable silence continued.
"What's with the outfits?" Hook finally said, nodding to Belle and Rumple, still the only one willing to voice the thought of everyone in the room.
Belle sighed happily and looked around at everyone, answering with a smile, "We'd had wanted a much better announcement – but we were married tonight."
"I officiated the wedding," Archie chimed in, his demeanor too cheerful for Regina's taste and for their current situation – weddings or not.
"Congratulations!" Snow cried, standing from her spot and handing the baby to David before moving to hug Belle.
Regina fought the urge to roll her eyes and set something on fire. Everyone's – except her own – apparent happy endings making this night worse than before. So, she spoke, hoping the sarcasm was masked enough: "As happy as an occasion that is, I'm sure even your love goggles haven't been able to block out the unnatural blizzard currently occurring outside."
Rumple looked at his student – she seemed off, or rather, back to her old angry self. It had not missed his attention that the outlaw who had seemed permanently glued to Regina's side during the whole Zelena debacle was now settled across the room, the two of them not making any sort of eye contact. A lover's spat, perhaps?
But he answered her, "We did not miss it, dearie. But even I cannot fathom where it all came from – what exactly happened?"
Regina scoffed. "You mean besides Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum here," nudging at Emma and the pirate, "messing around with the past, present and future?"
"Hey," Hook cried out, "that's Prince Charles and Princess Leia to you, Majesty."
Regina gave him an exasperated look, "What?"
"Never mind," Emma said whilst nudging Killian, "Look, all we did when we were there was try to get back here. And when we figured out how to open the portal, me, Killian, and –"
"And?" Rumple repeated, already dreading where this was going. "You messed with the past and brought someone back with you?"
"Just the one," Emma said sheepishly, moving closer to both Killian and her father.
"And you didn't think that would have repercussions?" Rumple asked, dubious that anybody could be so blatantly stupidity.
"Wait!" Regina heard his voice from behind Rumple. Robin had been silent until now, standing up from his perch in the booth, "You can't believe that my wife has anything to do with this?"
Rumple stared at the man, finally understanding the palpable tension in the room, only to look back at The Saviour, "You brought back his wife?"
Emma sighed, repeating the same mantra she had been all night, "I didn't know."
Rumple shook his head. He was wrong, forget a lover's spat – this was more like a slap, a slap to Regina's face that is.
"Tell us everything," Rumple finally said, "from the very beginning. Everything that happened from when you fell into the time portal until you landed back here. Don't leave out any details."
Regina's brow rose at that. She didn't need Swan and Hook detailing her orders to kill Robin's wife in front of everyone right, sure, they were all going to find out and she'd get her moment again – but for now, it was not necessary. So she said, "Well, you can leave things out if it doesn't pertain to our current predicament – I trust you can use your judgement as to what is useful and not."
Her tone and demeanor quickly cued Emma in on what Regina really meant. She nods briefly at the woman, and began their story.
:::::
An hour into the tale, and finally, they got to something useful.
"You were in the vault of no doors?" Rumple clarified, fear enveloping him as realization dawned as to what their current predicament could mean.
"Yes," Emma said. "But it was only for a couple of minutes. I got my magic back, opened the portal…before that, Hook opened…"
"What did you open?" Rumple turned to the pirate.
Hook shrugged, "I opened a small cabinet, took out an urn of some sort."
Regina could tell from Rumple's look that he already knew what it was – and that he was afraid. Rightfully so, she knew that Rumple only kept the most compelling of magic in that vault, the ones that were too powerful (even for the Dark One), and certainly uncontrollable. So, she asked, "Who's in the urn, Rumple?"
He turned to her, his words calm but chilled, "Elsa."
