Chapter 7 – Darkness

Regina's eyes bounced back and forth between Emma on her right and the Charmings on her left. Occasionally her eyes would fall on Henry. He appeared to be just as tense as she was, waiting for the impending train wreck.

As Snow and David tried to explain away their kidnapping of Maleficent's child, Emma just sat there across from them, eyes wide and glaring. At times her hands would clench and release, but she remained silent. Sitting. Waiting.

When the Charmings finally fell silent, Henry and Regina both seemed to brace themselves for the outburst they knew was coming. Regina herself was thinking back to their night in the vault, knowing that these poor souls had no idea what was about to unload on them.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as they saw Emma swallow thickly and open her mouth. The voice that came out was barely above a whisper. "Get. Out."

Snow held her hands out in front of her, the way you might when approaching an angry dog. "Emma, I know that you're upset…"

"You murdered a baby," Emma's head tilted, "for me. On my behalf." Emma's mouth moved silently as she struggled for words. "You we're so worried about what the 'Evil Queen' was going to do that you… killed a fucking baby!"

"That wasn't supposed to happen, we didn't know that," David tried pleading, before being cutoff.

"Is that supposed to make it better," Emma asked incredulously. "We didn't mean to kill the baby, we just wanted to fill its heart with darkness and damn it for eternity."

Regina briefly remembered her own attempt to tell Emma that Graham's death had been an accident. "These idiots have no idea how lucky they are that Henry is sitting next to his mother. If he wasn't here…"

When Snow opened her mouth, Emma held up a hand and shook her head. "Just… shut up and leave. I'm absolutely disgusted with you right now. I feel like I should go take a shower, but I can't imagine ever feeling clean again."

When Emma stood, pushing her chair back away from the table, Henry reached out and grabbed her arm. "Wait, maybe we can still fix this."

Emma looked down at him in disbelief. "Have you even been listening, kid?"

"I have been listening. Better than you have, I think." Henry tensed, nervous he'd pushed too far, but continued, "The old man didn't say he was killing the baby. He said he was sending it somewhere that it couldn't do any harm."

Regina straightened in her seat, considering what her son had just said.

"If you had a magic dragon baby, filled with darkness, and you wanted to send it somewhere safe, where better than the land without magic?" Henry looked around the table, silently pleading with them to listen. "Maleficent's kid could still be alive out there, right now. If we could find them, maybe we could find a way to fix this."

Emma turned to Regina, asking her with her eyes if there was any hope or this was just Henry dreaming.

Regina considered briefly. "If the child is alive… and if they're here in this world… Gold might be able to help us find them."

"Then I suppose we'll have to ask him," Emma replied. She looked briefly between Henry and Regina, fidgeting with her hands, before fumbling to say, "I'm just gonna head back inside and lie down for bit. I don't think I can eat right now."

Snow stood up and tried to catch her as she walked by, but Emma jerked her arm away. "You'd better hope that Gold is able to find that baby alive, because if he can't…" Emma shook her head in agitation. "You know what, I've got Henry, I've got Regina, I don't fucking need you."

A tense silence followed, marred only by the occasional sniffle from Snow.

Regina looked to her son. "Henry, why don't you help your grandparents pack up while I go check on Emmy?"

Henry nodded, then looked down at the table, waving his hand at all of the food that was still out.

"It's not important." Regina stood up and reached over to squeeze her son's shoulder. "I'll be upstairs if you need anything."

"Ms. Swan, Ms. Mills," Rumpelstiltskin began in greeting. "Come to give me the exciting news about an upcoming bundle of joy have you?"

Regina rolled her eyes while Emma gave half-hearted laugh. "Yeah, that potion of yours worked greeaaat."

Rumple's eyes narrowed. "Did something go wrong?"

Regina scoffed, "Just this one drinking half of it."

"Oh dear," Rumple replied in surprise. "Are two sets of congratulations in order?"

"Yeah, and make mine a double," Emma replied.

Rumple laughed. "Well, well. It's a good thing you have the largest home in the city to house your incoming brood."

"As amusing as I'm sure you find all this, we're actually here on business." Regina stopped across the counter from Rumple. "We have reason to believe that Maleficent's child is somewhere in this realm, and we'd like your help finding her."

"I see," Rumple began, as he contemplated how to go about finding the no-longer-a-child. "As always my help doesn't come free," he warned.

"This is David and Mary Margaret's fault," Emma replied. "Put it on their tab."

Rumple appeared to consider it for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Very well. I'll just be a moment." He turned and headed into the back room.

Regina moved closer to Emma, taking her hand into her own. "Are you sure this is how you want to do this? I know you're mad at your parents right now…"

"No," Emma replied, cutting her off. "It was bad enough that I had to grow up in the system because they put breaking the curse over their daughter. But this… This was evil and it is totally on them. I hope Gold makes them do something disgusting, like have them take turns shaving his back every day for the rest of their lives."

"Thank you for that disturbing image, Ms. Swan. I'll be sure to pass along your warm regard the next time I see them." Rumple set a small box on the counter and opened it. Inside were two pieces of a broken baby rattle.

Regina felt her heart drop. "Was that…"

Rumple nodded. "Yes, this was to have been her child's first toy." He paused for a moment, waving his hand over the rattle, making it whole again. "This should be able to give us a glimpse into the past, to wherever and whenever the child entered this realm."

Emma and Regina both leaned in towards the toy, almost bumping heads. Inside the head of the rattle they watched a scene unfold.

An infant was crying. A woman was passing the infant over to a man, and asking him what he will name the girl. "Lilith. We wanna name her Lily," the man replied. The man smiled down at the girl, who continued to cry.

Emma reared back, a look of shock on her face. "No fucking way."

Regina's head snapped up and she looked at Emma in concern. "What is it? What did you notice that I didn't?"

"I know who that was," Emma replied, still in shock. "I recognized the man. I've met him, and Lily." She swallowed. "I used to know Lily. Once upon a time, she was my best friend."