Resolution Chapter 6
Regina sighed and laid her head on Robin's chest. "I think that was the toughest town hall meeting we've had since that first one after the missing year."
Robin pulled her closer on their bed and smiled. "You put on quite a performance then."
"You were there? I didn't see you or Roland."
"Yep, in the far back corner. None of the Merry Men were interested in going, but I wanted to know what was going on. Tuck watched Roland for me."
"Did you know I was faking? Emma and I came up with the idea."
"Then, I wasn't sure. But I felt something didn't ring quite true, even though I thought we'd never met before."
"The soulmate bond or the suppressed memories?"
"A bit of both I think. I think we both felt a bit of that when we met up at the farmhouse."
Regina smiled, remembering that day. "Yeah. I even asked you if we'd met before." She chuckled. "You also kept staring at my ass."
"Ah, you noticed that then?"
"Of course. After you saved Snow and me back in the Enchanted Forest, I kept looking back at you. You noticed that, right?"
"I did. It made me feel unsettled, but not in a scared or angry way. I realized I felt some kind of unexplained attraction to you. I know we've both talked about how we felt that soulmate connection the moment I reached out to you. But I kept feeling that then inexplicable attraction."
"Me too."
"It only got stronger when you saved Roland and then tried to make him not feel afraid anymore. I had to follow you, not only my honor code demanded it, but those strange feelings. And no, don't bring up what happened when you saw my lion tattoo. You've apologized for years about that. It's long since forgiven. Let's just bask in the happy, disconcerting memories."
"Okay." Regina murmured. After a few moments though, she said, "Was it a mistake calling a town hall when we knew so little new confirmed information?"
"No. If we'd waited till we knew more, they would have been angry we'd withheld information from them."
"No win situation either way."
"Better to get it over sooner than later."
They made it through Thanksgiving, and Christmas was soon approaching, with only vague hints in investigative blogs of Rumplestiltskin's movements.
It was Regina's day to pick up Roland and the girls from school. She shook her head as she could tell Roland was teasing Hope on the way to the car. Hope was getting annoyed but it hadn't turned to squabbling yet. Grace was running and sliding on the ice patches on the sidewalk. She'd already lost her balance once and landed bottom first in the snow piles next to the sidewalk. Regina was glad the revisions to the school dress codes made a standard uniform for both boys and girls of: navy blue dress pants, white oxford shirt, and navy blue blazer. Regina came to heartily dislike the short plaid skirt the girls used to have to wear, when she heard Violet's complaints about it. Her now daughter-in-law made valid points on how awful it was to wear in the winter time, and how she had to be really careful how she sat in it any time.
Once the blue fairy was no longer running the schools, Regina proposed a referendum changing some school policies. The dress code had been one of those. The school also changed to be in line with Maine's public traditional schools rather than the parochial ones. It made more sense anyway. It was a free public school in cost, and mostly in curriculum, already.
The change that was the most controversial was the change to a three levels system rather than the two levels they'd had. Snow had proposed that change. She'd read some studies supporting the public school three level system. The studies said it was better to give young adolescent students their own space; rather than either lumping them in with either elementary school children as parochial schools did, or with high school students like public schools did before the 1980's. Regina had listened to Snow's argument and read the studies. She'd decided the idea was sound and put it as one of the referendums. The dress code change votes were overwhelmingly in favor. The change to officially being a traditional public school passed with an easy majority. But the level system change only barely passed. Then came the debate of what grades to separate into the middle school. They were still fine tuning that. The latest proposal would make fifth-eighth grades middle school. She and Robin both were in favor of this, as were Snow and David. There was going to be a special referendum vote on this in March.
"Yeah, you like Susie!" Roland teased as he jumped into the front passenger seat.
"Stop it Roland!" Hope shouted and blushed as she climbed into the middle seat of the SUV.
"I think Susie's nice; you're being mean Roland." Grace scolded as she sat down beside Hope.
"Yeah Hope thinks Susie's re-al nice" Roland emphasized with a grin.
"Oh." Grace realized what the teasing had been about. "So you like Susie?" Grace looked at her sister interestedly.
"Stop!" Hope shouted, blushing furiously.
"That's enough teasing your sister, Roland." Regina said firmly.
"Okay." He grinned.
Regina sighed, those two. Archie told her this was very normal sibling behavior. Well, at least it wasn't squabbling anymore. So Hope has her first crush. She vaguely knew who Susie was. Thankfully, her parents had been young traveling musicians in George's kingdom, so they had no bad memories of her from the Enchanted Forest. That would help make things smoother for Hope.
She hoped Zelena hadn't directly terrorized them either, since apparently it was common knowledge who Hope's birth mother was. There'd been a few issues before that awful incident with Phillip Junior. Those had been much more subtle, not from her classmates, but from their parents. Regina didn't think Hope had noticed the wary looks from some parents on the PTA nights, but she and Robin had. As had Roland when Hope started kindergarten and he was in seventh grade. Roland had stuck his tongue out at the staring parents. Regina had to hold back a laugh, and the parents had looked away, embarrassed at being caught and mocked. Roland tormented Hope because she was his sister, but he hated when anyone judged her or other kids bullied her. Once he found out about what Phillip Junior had done that made Hope so upset, Regina and Robin both had to firmly tell Roland to not go beat up the boy.
"It's better to let Hope handle this. It's a painful situation." Robin said sympathetically.
"Grace wants to fight him too." Roland said sullenly.
"We know, so does Hope. Let Grace and Hope figure out how they want to deal with that." Regina sighed. "If you beat up Phillip Junior you look like the bully. It also makes the reason why you want to beat him up, stick in her classmates minds. If you let Hope handle this it will fade away faster. Her classmates know he's a bully, and he isn't well liked. Hope's a bit more shy than you or Grace, but she has her friends in her class."
"Alright." Roland had agreed, reluctantly.
A couple of weeks ago though, she heard Hope and Roland laughing while they were doing their homework. She went to investigate what they were laughing about and stood just outside the living room. Roland, Douglas and Eimi had come up with a prank on Phillip Junior that embarrassed him in front of his classmates. It was a clever enough prank that it looked like an accident. It made him look like he'd tripped over something and lost his pants. Regina had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing in the hallway. She and Robin laughed about it that night when they were alone.
"Have to say that was a brilliant way my boy came up with to-"
"Your boy, hmm, funny how when he pulls off a good prank on a bully he's 'your boy', but when he's gotten into trouble he's 'our son'." Regina teased.
Robin chuckled. "Ah, caught me out. Guilty as charged. So what are you going to do about it. milady?"
"I'll think of something suitable, thief." She flirted back
That week, those that went to college outside of Storybrooke began arriving home for the holidays. One was Matthew's ex-boyfriend Davu. Davu was bisexual, while Matthew was gay. Davu fell out of love with Matthew and became attracted to a girl named Tomoe. Tomoe wasn't interested in Davu, but when Davu started talking about how pretty Tomoe was far too often, Matthew broke up with him. Davu choose to go to college in Bangor, to get his degree in civil engineering.
Davu arrived back in Storybrooke with his girlfriend, Lita. They walked into the mayor's office as soon as they arrived. Regina was working on public notice for the next quarter's budget, but laid it down when Davu asked to speak with her on a crucial issue.
"Mayor Mills, I know you probably don't like me too much right now because of what happened with your nephew and me."
Regina looked up at the tall young man with medium brown skin and a stylishly cut afro. Davu was descended from the giant Biriir ina Barqo. While Davu wasn't a giant, he was well over six feet tall. Regina had to crane her neck back from her seated position to look him in the eyes. "I can be professional. What's the crucial issue?"
"Lita, she'd like sanctuary here. She's been writing about stuff she's found out about the president. She's had death threats and we're afraid to go back to the university."
The young woman had strong features, with light tan skin, and long, straight, black hair. Regina wondered if she was a friend or girlfriend or Davu. The negative feelings she had about Davu for breaking her nephew's heart was immaterial now, though. "What's happened out there? The news has turned useless. We've heard a few things from other sources-"
"Blogs, yeah. People are getting afraid. They've trying to pass a law that you can be sued for a lot of money if the president decides you've insulted him too much. Congress is fighting it but we don't know if there's enough to keep it from passing. There's been big protests, some lawsuits, and talk of an independent investigation into the election. But now there's stories about people disappearing." Lita spoke calmly, but fear was in her eyes.
Regina nodded solemnly; of course she'd let Lita stay here, there was no real question, except, "Has Davu told you about this town?"
The young woman's mouth quirked into a disbelieving smirk. "Something about magic being real? I saw you have some kind of fancy cloaking device at the town line. Someone really knows their tech. There's a rumor about the military having some kind of breakthrough on that for one of their planes, but you still know they're coming by the engine noise. My lab was able to create a small temporary field, but we haven't been able to make a permanent one like your town's."
"It's not science. Although we certainly appreciate technology here, it's magic." Regina replied.
Lita raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
Now it was Regina's turn to smirk. She didn't usually show off... oh maybe a bit for the magic class, but it'd been a long time since she'd encountered a magic skeptic. She produced a small fireball then let it disappear.
"Are you the town's tech? That was an amazingly real hologram."
"Not a hologram, that flame was real. Watch." This time Regina looked around the room, what could she fireball? Ah, that obnoxious complaint from Albert sitting on her desk, might leave a scorch mark, but oh well... easily fixed with more magic.
Lita rushed to the table right after the paper disappeared into the fireball. "Ouch! That's hot!" Lita looked stunned at the scorched spot she'd touched with surprise.
Regina took the young woman's wrist and quickly healed the burn on her finger.
Lita's eyes grew wide.
"Like I said Lita, magic is real here. " Davu chided gently.
"I understand her skepticism. " Regina smiled. "We call the world oustside of this town 'The Land Without Magic'. It's not entirely though, you just have to look for it."
"My maternal great grandmother said magic was real. She said she could heal people. Her people were the Penobscot; they have tribal lands not far from here. "
"You might have magic. Davu has mid level air magic."
Lita turned her head to look at Davu. "You claimed you could change the direction of wind right around you..."
"I can here. Only was able to do it once in Bangor. Remember the windstorm?"
"Yeah."
"I got so irritated at being pushed backward when I was trying to get back to the dorm, I was able to move the wind just enough away from me I got there without a problem. But it made me so tired I slept the rest of the day."
"I remember. You didn't come to the windstorm party we had."
"Mayor, you think Lita might have magic?"
"It's possible. But her skills as a scientist are every bit as valuable."
"I'm just a student, I don't even have my Bachelor's in Engineering of Matter and Energy yet."
"I'm sure that's true, but you are working on current science. I'm afraid scientists are thin on the ground here. We have doctors and pharmacists, but scientists like you, even as students…besides Doctor Whale, we only have people your age, like Davu."
"Wow. So outside of medicine-"
"And computer science, my oldest son has a second bachelors in computer science, as do a few other younger adults."
"But you have no science techs?"
"Not real ones. Doctor Whale, well, lets just say it's a hobby…"
"Oh. Davu? Is he's the mad scientist you told me about?"
"Yep!"
"Hmm, so you really are that short of scientists?"
"Afraid so."
"So can I continue my political blogging?"
"Of course." Regina did wince inwardly, thinking about this young woman's possible future blog posts. Once she finds out who they were and what they'd done in the past, herself in particular...
Lita looked sheepish. "I'm afraid I don't have much money-"
"I've got an apartment, Lita. I told you we could both live there. I've got money too, in the bank."
"I know, but I don't want to be completely dependent on you until I can get some kind of job."
"Actually I can help you there. You said you're a blogger. Blogging on politics?"
"Yeah."
"The Daily Mirror really needs more people to work on the online edition of the paper. And you have very up to date news..."
"I haven't blogged in a week..."
"Probably more current than most the staff at the paper."
"Ugh, that bad?"
"Oh yeah." Davu rolls his eyes. "They still focus more on the print edition."
"You must be joking."
"He's not. They only have one staff member that works on the online edition."
"Wow. So how do I interview for a job there?"
"I'll call and see when you can go in."
"You'd do that for me? You just met me."
"Uh huh. You said you wanted to live here and you needed a job. As mayor I'm responsible for my citizens." Regina pulled out her phone and walked back to her desk, pulling out a blank note paper.
"Wow." she whispered to Davu. "I've never met a politician like her. She really believes in the ideal."
"Yeah. That's why she keeps getting re-elected. She's been mayor since I was a little kid." Davu hadn't mentioned about the curse, or that they had come from another place where people here wrote about them as stories. Lita would have never believed that. She'd disbelieved the magic stuff... and that at least didn't sound that crazy, just naive. She'll find out eventually, hopefully not for a while though. Lita was great; he hoped she'd stay after she found out everything.
"They'll take you on a paid internship; if it works out in three months you'll be hired as full time staff." Regina walked back over to them. "Just come in tomorrow at 8 AM. Now, as a mother myself I have to ask you, have you called your parents?"
"I was going to call my mom once I knew I could stay here."
"Go ahead and call. If she has questions I can talk to her."
Lita looked surprised again. "You'd do that for me?"
"Of course. From what you've told me I bet your mom is worried about you."
Lita nodded. "She is. She feels the same way I do, but she's not talking about it to anyone but me. She's really scared. Grandma is worried too. Grandma talks about history and how badly our people were treated. She understands but she says it's risky, especially for us."
"Call her." Regina said gently.
Lita hit the button on her phone. Her mother immediately answered.
"Lita where are you? I left messages but you didn't answer. I called your friends and they said you'd left with Davu; that's all they knew."
"Sorry mom! I'm okay and yeah I'm with Davu. You were right. I'm scared now. No one's disappeared at our college, but the progressive news site said a student blogger was arrested last week in Portland and hasn't been seen since."
"Don't go back to college Lita, come home."
"I'm safe with Davu. He lives in a town called Storybrooke; its only about seventy miles from our land. It's not on maps, just like ours aren't."
"Are you sure you're safe?"
"Yes."
"Can I speak to Davu?"
"Yeah."
Regina smiled, Lita had the volume up high enough she could hear what her mother was saying. She watched Davu assure Lita's mother he would protect her with his life, that he loved Lita, and the town was very safe...
Sometimes, Regina thought. Davu's age group had grown up much more safe and secure than Henry's had, her girls even moreso. That was both good and bad. At least Roland, Matthew, Davu had some memory of when Storybrooke came under magical attack, so they were more prepared, but on the other hand it likely brought up very frightening childhood memories. For the girls it was just tales they'd heard. She hoped the combining magics training the children had would help when if the time came. She hoped the children didn't have to even use their training…
They had started basic arms and defense classes for the adults and children without magic as well. Robin and Snow taught an archery class, while David, with the occasional assistance from Killian taught sword fighting. Emma did a firearms training. Emma was one of the few magic users that was quite comfortable with guns. Regina could barely stand to even touch a gun, it just felt repulsive in her hands.
"You sure you're not part elf, Regina?" Emma teased.
"Elf? Why?"
"Oh, some story I read one time, elves were supposed to hate everything about guns, even touching them."
"Elves are very rare in the Enchanted Forest. I never met one. The only thing I ever heard was their realm wasn't quite part of the Enchanted Forest and if you went there you could never come back."
"Yeah we don't have any in Storybrooke, so I guess none of the curses ever touched their realm."
"Apparently not. I don't think they would have been pleased to have been brought here."
"Anyway, you and Rebecka are only people I ever seen actually shudder when you touched a gun. She's a healer so it kind of makes sense with her, she isn't thrilled touching any weapon. But you're-"
"Fire element. the natural warriors." Regina shrugged "I just hate them, they feel repulsive."
"Part elf." Emma laughed.
Henry decided that maybe he might find something useful in the other storybooks he had spent many hours the past few weeks pouring over them. Unfortunately, it looked to be a wasted effort. The one thing he had discovered was a couple of alternate Storybrooke tales that he wished he hadn't. They were depressing and hopeless, and seemed to be variants of the other and theirs, splitting off at different points. He shoved them behind a shelf of other storybooks. He never wanted to see them again. Storybrooke didn't show up in any of the other storybooks he'd discovered so far. Even their own rarely had him record anything from Storybrooke in it. Because of that he'd made a journal of sorts; the major things that happened here for the twins. So they'd know the family history in Storybrooke.
After seeing those awful alternate Storybrookes he'd had to pull out the book with the alternate Avalon story. He envied that Henry's happy, peaceful life as the oldest of that Robin and Regina's children. He felt great sorrow for those people of those alternate Storybrookes. The one thing he'd found in those alternate Storybrooke tales were some deadly magical weapons. Likely mom already knew about them and had dismissed them. They weren't hoping to try to kill his grandfather, just to stop him from abducting Bae and harming anyone here. They were also trying to figure out some way to stop his plan, if they could. They had allies in that though, the Guardians. He knew mom and Mulan were talking to the Dragon and a few other senior Guardians, coordinating defenses and sharing what they knew.
It was making for a tense holiday season in Storybrooke though. Even the little ones were showing stress; although they didn't fully understand why. Dillion and Zita were having frequent nightmares about a "bad man" as was Xian, Rebecka and Mulan's daughter. Dillion and Zita were two and half now. Henry knew they understood much more than they could say. He and Violet talked to them in simple sentences about what was real and what wasn't. Xian was just fifteen months old, so it was difficult to tell what she understood. He knew Rebecka talked to her anyway; knowing Xian would get more than her limited words would show.