Chapter 4

Emma woke the next morning feeling stiff and achy. She found it strange that after all those years of sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor, strangers' couches, and even her car, her body had become accustomed to a nice comfy bed and it refused to go back. She was still trying to massage the kinks out of her neck when she entered the kitchen.

Regina was already up and dressed, looking as professional as ever in her usual pantsuit, though she'd left her jacket on the back of a chair and her navy blouse was sleeveless. Her arms were more muscular than Emma would have expected for someone who spent most of her day sitting at a desk. Her feet, like last night, were bare. It was such a small detail but it snagged in Emma's brain. It was like a symbol of all the little things Emma didn't know about Regina. All the little chinks in her armour that Emma had never noticed.

"Is Henry up yet?" Emma asked, still squeezing her shoulders. She tilted her head from side to side to try to release some tension, but no luck.

"He's awake. He still walks like an elephant even when he's trying to be sneaky." She managed a weak smile that quickly fell. "I think he's waiting for you to get up."

"Should I…?"

"Break the curse?" Regina shrugged. "There's no reason to wait, is there?"
The question hung in the air a lot longer than it really should have. It settled between them like a living thing. There really was no reason, at least not one that Emma could think of.

"I guess I'll…go get him, then." Emma headed up the stairs. She knew which door was Henry's from her past visits, but she'd never actually seen inside. She knocked on his door and he opened it slowly, peeking out. When he saw Emma he threw open the door and hugged her.

"Well this is a nice 'good morning'," she said with a laugh, wrapping her arms around him. "Everything okay?"

"It was so strange sleeping in there," he said. He leaned back to look up at Emma. Pretty soon he'd be looking down at her, she thought. "Have you ever met Regina's son? She was acting kind of strange last night. I…think maybe I shouldn't have asked about him."

Seizing a brief moment of conviction, Emma leaned forward, pulled Henry close, and kissed his forehead. She released him and smiled, but he just looked at her expectantly. "Is everything ok with you, mom?"

Instead of disappointment, Emma felt a swell of relief, followed quickly by guilt and eventually settling into something she couldn't quite identify. "Yeah, kid, everything's fine. Regina just misses her son, that's all."

Henry leaned in close, lowering his voice. "He's not dead, is he?"

Emma shook her head, a little taken aback by the question. "No, no of course not. What makes you think that?"

Henry shrugged. "She just seemed so sad when I asked about him. She looked like she was going to cry, actually. She said he was living with his dad. I guess they don't see each other much."

"I think maybe it's none of our business," Emma said, as gently as she could. "Now, what do you say we go get some breakfast? I hear Regina's a pretty great cook."

"Hey, you're a good cook, too!"

Having her real memories back, Emma realized that her cooking was in fact all Regina's doing; she'd passed on more than just her own memories of a life with Henry.

Henry slid into the kitchen just ahead of Emma, but that didn't stop her from having a clear view of Regina's face upon seeing Henry. Hope, joy, quickly crushed. She hung her head for a moment and when she looked up again her expression was neutral. Henry hadn't noticed a thing. 'She looked like she was going to cry.' Emma felt gutted.

"Good morning. Can I fix you both some breakfast?"

Regina's smile must have convinced Henry because he grinned and said, "Got any bacon?"

"And eggs and toast and I think I even have some oranges in the fridge." Henry actually licked his lips and Regina got to work getting everything on the stove. Emma watched, amazed, as Regina glided around the kitchen, squeezing three glasses of orange juice in between tending to the frying pans. The toast popped just as she slid the last of the bacon onto Henry's plate, right next to his flawless fried eggs over easy. She served up two more plates just as expertly and took a seat across from Emma. Henry had already started eating at the island, so they didn't bother moving to the dining room.

"This is delicious," Henry said around a mouthful of egg and toast. He swallowed forcefully and looked at Regina. "Is there any more orange juice?"

"Henry, she didn't just pour that out of a jug, you know," Emma said.

But Regina just slid her untouched glass of juice towards him. "You need it more than I do."

Henry flushed slightly. He hesitated, no doubt feeling guilty after Emma's comment. Regina poked the glass, inching it a little closer to Henry, then took a sip of water. Emma hadn't even noticed she'd brought a glass of water for herself. She looked down at her plate, feeling her appetite waning. Fresh squeezed orange juice was one of Henry's favourite things of all time. Of course Regina knew that. Of course she'd planned to give him two glasses of it. Of course she'd found a perfectly casual way to do that before Emma had even worked the kinks out of her neck. Henry took the glass with a smile and a 'thanks'. Emma had to force herself to finish the rest of her breakfast.

"So I take it true love's kiss didn't work this time?" Regina's tone was casual enough, but Emma could hear the underlying question.

"No. I kissed him on the forehead just like last time, but nothing happened." The kink was back. Emma rubbed her neck, tilting her head slightly.

Regina gave an exasperated sigh. "All that power and what do you do with it?" She muttered. She waved her hand and heat spread out from the back of Emma's neck and down her shoulders. She gasped, but the heat vanished as quick as it had come and the pain disappeared with it.

"I-…thanks."

"It should have worked. If you can't break the curse then…"

The implications were tough to image, and even tougher to put into words. Emma nodded. "I'm still the saviour. There has to be something I can do, some way to fix all this."

"I'm surprised you can say that word with a straight face."

"You know what? So am I."

They stood there for a while, staring at each other, and then off into the distance. "He needs to believe," Regina said at last, breaking the silence.

"Believe? Believe in what?"

"Magic, Emma. His book. He needs to believe in those stories before you can break the curse. It's not enough that you believe in magic and that you love him, he has to believe in magic, too."

Emma threw up her hands and rolled her eyes. "How are we supposed to get him to believe if he doesn't remember anything?"

"He believed in them before without any proof," Regina said.

"Yeah, but that's different. He needed to believe in those stories, he was mis-" Emma closed her mouth so fast her teeth clicked, but it was too late.

Regina's eyes turned icy. "Miserable. That's what you were going to say."

"Regina, I-"

"Forget it. I get the point." She put up her hands as if to ward off Emma's words. She closed her eyes. She can't even stand the sight of me. "His belief is the only thing that's different this time. We need to find that book."

"Is it really necessary to meet with them all at once?" Regina asked. Not for the first time.

Emma rolled her eyes. "It's easier and faster this way. Just think about it, you can direct your sarcastic comments at all of the people you hate simultaneously. Think of all the time and energy you'll save."

They were on their way to Granny's Diner. Snow had called just after breakfast to say that she and David were gathering up their most trusted allies, anyone they might have trusted to cast the curse. They would meet at Granny's diner and hopefully figure out who had cast the curse and, if they were lucky, figure out how to break it. Regina thought the whole thing was a waste of time and made that perfectly – and repeatedly – clear. She thought they should be looking for Henry's book, that restoring his belief would break the curse and everyone would just remember who cast the curse and why. Emma couldn't really fault her logic, but Snow had already gathered everyone and they had to talk to her to figure out where the book was anyway.

It was still a pretty feeble reason and Emma knew it.

Entering the diner was an uncomfortable moment. Everyone was clearly thrilled to see Emma, but their feelings towards Regina were obviously still mixed. Some greeted her warmly, some tried but failed to keep the resentment or fear out of their eyes, some avoided her, and Granny simply glared at her. Regina took it in stride, but it was a lot easier for her to stare down Granny than it was for her to accept Snow's hug. Still, she did accept it, and coming from Regina that was pretty major. Baby steps, Emma thought, smiling.

"Well, this is everyone," Snow said, looking around at the group. Emma stood next to her, taking stock of everyone: Granny and Red, Aurora and Mulan, the Blue Fairy, all of the dwarves, Archie, Belle, Geppetto, and Tinker Bell. Emma had a hard time believing Snow and David trusted all of these people enough to cast the dark curse, but it was hard to be sure how relationships may have changed over the past year. It was even possible that they had met someone new during that year and the caster wasn't even in the room.

"So how do we figure out who cast it?" Red asked. Straight to the point.

Everyone turned to look at Regina. Regina's eyebrows shot up. "And here I was thinking you might want to solve your own problems for a change."

"Do you know how to figure it out or not?" Grumpy asked.

Regina took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. "Maybe. But I have no way of knowing how the lack of memories might-"

"Yeah yeah, cut to the chase, sister," Grumpy said.

Tinker Bell gave his arm a quick smack. "She's here and she's trying to help. Why don't you shut up and let her speak?"

"Go on," Red said, nodding to Regina.

Regina swallowed. Her careful façade was slipping and Emma felt a pang of sadness. What had to happen to a person to make them more comfortable with open loathing than support and encouragement?

"The curse gives the caster a mental connection to everyone they've cursed. Whoever cast it this time should be able to activate that mental link with enough concentration, even if they don't remember anything."

"Do you mean to tell us you were controlling our minds for 28 years?" Grumpy wasn't the only one who looked angry at this revelation.

"Its effects were limited," Regina said, casting her eyes around the room. "I could alter your false memories and prevent you from noticing certain things around you, but only if it involved me. It was more of a safety measure to protect the caster from falling under suspicion. It- It's why no one ever noticed anything odd about Henry."

"So…" Red said after a moment of stunned silence. "What do we do to activate this link?"

"I don't know. I could sense it as soon as I got here because I knew about the curse. Without your memories I'm not sure it would work at all."

"Shouldn't the person who cast the curse still have their memories? Did you have them last time?" Tinker Bell asked.

"What Regina wanted from the curse is different from what we must have wanted. The curse will probably work differently now," Snow explained, parroting Regina's explanation from the previous night.

"This mind control sounds like something Regina would want, not us," Grumpy said.

Regina rolled her eyes and shook her head. She turned towards Grumpy, one hand on the diner counter, the other gesturing wildly. "I already told you, dwarf, it was a safety precaution. It was built in to the curse. And for someone who's so angry that I could control your mind, you were awfully eager for me to tell you what to do." She turned on her heel and stormed out of the diner.

"Stay here," Emma said to Snow, who had stepped forward like she was going to go after Regina. Instead Emma ran out of the diner.

"Regina, wait!"

Regina spun just under the arch at the end of the walkway. She stared at Emma. When she didn't speak, Regina raised her eyebrows and bowed her head slightly.

"I…expected you to make some snarky comment. Or keep walking. Or just-" Emma waved her arms in front of her, mimicking Regina's magical vanishing.

"What do you want, Emma?" She sounded so tired. Most of the time she seemed like her old self, but all too often in the past couple days Regina looked like she had lost all of her fight.

"Come back inside. Regina, his name is Grumpy, for crying out loud. Don't let him get to you."

"It's not just him, or haven't you noticed?"

"Haven't you noticed? I'm not the only one on your side anymore."

Regina blinked, mouth falling open slightly. Emma took a few steps closer, confident that Regina wouldn't run away now. "Tinker Bell, Red, Snow, they all believe in you. And every single person in there looked to you at the mention of the curse. Not because they wanted to blame you for it, but because they wanted your help. You've come a long way. Don't walk away because things aren't perfect. You…" Emma sighed. Tilted her head. "You've got a lot to make up for."

Regina bowed her head, shaking it so that her hair fell over her face. She stood like that for a moment. She ran her hands through her hair as she lifted her head, pushing it out of the way. "I really don't know how to establish the link if the caster can't sense it already. I wasn't lying."

"I know that. You can still help. You can describe what it felt like. Maybe if they just concentrate enough on what it's supposed to feel like, someone will feel it for real."

Regina opened her mouth to argue. Instead she let the breath out with a sigh. "Fine. I'll try. But this could take a while and there's no need for you to be here."

"I'll head back to Henry," Emma said with a quick nod. They had left Henry at Regina's mansion surrounded by a protection spell they'd cast together. It hadn't been easy leaving him, not knowing how safe he really was. Now Emma headed to her car, back to Henry, and Regina headed back inside.