Enjoy! and please review I'd love to hear what you guys think it would really help me improve my writting.


Tangled Strings


"I know I should have held you closer,
And I know I should have treated you better,
In a perfect world.
But we're not always what we promise to be.
You caught my words in mid-air,
The silence hung as you caught my eye,
Conversations locked away in my mind."

- Adventure Club


Today was one of those rare quiet days.

The serene silence soothed over Story Brooke. If one was to look at Story Brooke now they would see a Hallmark image of a perfect town come to life right before their eyes. The streets were for the most part empty save for the occasional pedestrian rushing somewhere, and nowhere. The warm midday rays warmed the air just slightly, beaming down, radiating warmth to the still sleepy town beneath. Even the buildings stood serenely awash in the tender glow.

For once Story Brooke was indeed peaceful, not a single trance of disturbance, save for a soft breeze tangling between the trees causing the occasional rustle of the trees. The scene was so elegant and calm that it captivated even Granny on one of her busier days, so Mrs. Hardass- Werewolf had to stop and stare for a moment between orders to just look at this succinct moment, before it would inevitably be shattered by the next incoming crisis.

For a certain Pawn Shop manager, today was one of the rare and long awaited moments of respite, even within his dusty pawnshop where the very air was stale, filled with that singular musk that only old wood and parchment could emanate, it was silent. No raucous witches or wizards trying to manhandle one of his priceless artifacts, no savior's beating his door down for the nth time. It was simply silent. The only sound was the incidental flutter of papers sliding through his rough fingers, and then the patter of his ghostly dark footsteps echoing through the room as he moved gracefully around the shop.

A small sly smile graced Gold's face for the first time in a long time, as he realized that there was no more work for him to do. So, he simply breathed, breathed the stale air in through his nose, gently titling his head back, to fully take in the serenity. There was no ecstasy for him quite like the happiness that comes from stillness and a well hatched plan. He was like a grand-master chess player finally able to realize his strategy. His cold black heart fluttered with what he could only be described most accurately as joy, since he has never really felt it in over a hundred years. Excitement surged through his short digits as they rapped a monotonous tune of the glass display case beneath his palms.

A low distant rumble surged through the shop.

"Ah there it is"

As moments passed the rumbling became ostensibly louder forcing Rumple out of his quiet musings. With the same climactic trepidation that one would see in a child who is about to open a Christmas present Gold rushed down the creaking dusty stairs of his pawnshop. Entering the dim corridor, the rancid stench overtook his senses, next time he would make sure to completely dispose of his more interesting concoctions, no poison that he remembered making was this noxious, but then Gold tends to surprise even himself sometimes. Stalking further he followed the thunderous clatter further, with every rumble he could feel his heart pound faster against his chest, his steps were light and cautious until the noise led his to a well-lit room in the spacious hall.

He entered the well-lit library, lit by ever burning candles floating throughout the room. The room was untouched by time, as if it was ripped out of a 13th century novella. It was grand, books as far as the eye can see stored upon dark cherry shelves, surrounded by walls of stone, and at the center of the library were tables lined each with their own floating candles and cushioned chairs. Everything was pristine, organized, and ordered to perfection. This was a small piece of heaven for Rumple, a little sanctuary for him.

The twisting in his gut could only mean one thing, and it was nothing good. The rumbling he deduced could only come from one place considering the churning within his body which he could only attribute to a semblance of a metaphorical and highly hypothetical conscience. Sparks of deep crimson magic crackled on the tips of his fingers as he snapped them together, and as he did so a decently sized light wood carved box appeared in front of him.

"My, my, it seems that everything is falling into place. Just as I had hoped." Rumple said to himself, chuckling whimsically.

Rumple ran his aged callous fingers down the smooth wood, he could feel the hum of magic sing a low tune against his fingers. The wood reflected the tender light magnificently within each curve of the intricate carvings. Unwanted memories flooded his mind, the memories of a different time, of a different place, a place and a time long past. But the box held a future, more precisely a promise of a future. His fingers stopped at the glided lock. With a sigh, he unlocked it and opened the box, a puff of air hit his face as it opened.

Only to find a fluffy mint green blanket, but this was no regular blanket. There was nothing quite regular about it. One couldn't even call it quite functional, for it did not age well at all. The threads came apart in his hands, the rough wool grated against his skin, and the moth damage was like a glaring sore, but it wasn't about the craftsmanship. No, not for this type of magic. It was what was within the knitting, within the wool, within the very existence of the blanket, within the stitched initials. It was love. The very first product of true love that he had come to possess. The product of the strongest love of all. The love between a mother and her child.

A...D... C. His fingers traced each and every bend of the cursive letters, and his leathery skin boiled with the contact. The light magic rejecting his very essence only brought a little distorted smirk to his face as his eyes flashed that sickly green when the Dark One wanted to come out to play. And play he will. The tantalizing taste of magic was on lips, it was a breath away, just out of his reach. It was like blood in the water, and he was the shark.

Just as Rumple fell into an undisturbed silence, only the monotonous crackle of the distant chimney to keep him company, he laughed, sickening roar booming from each wall.

Once Rumple had finally found a perfect spot in the shop to place the blanket, something felt totally inexplicably wrong. The sky was dark with thick clouds overhead, the sun cowered in a thick blanket of clouds, like a shadow embracing the world in grey. The warm and peaceful silence was broken by the wailing frost wind. The complete opposite of the weather he remembered before going to the basement. The air was suffused with magic, it was no magic that he had ever tasted before, it was new, raw, unchained, pure. The air sizzled with emotion, he could even feel little stirrings of it within his little charred heart.

"And now for the first piece of the puzzle..."


Whale sat in the corner of the hospital room. Watching. Staring. He was like a shadow, a ghost, feeling the dreadfully lit room with his sickening presence. He watched as her shoulders heaved up and down, her shaky breaths go in and out, monotonously like a metronome needle swings back and forth at an agonizing and hypnotizing rhythm. He was stewing, boiling, cooking in his own broiling rage. Everything about the person in the bed was pissing him off, her calm features, her steady breathing, her scent, her presence, her being. It was mindbogglingly infuriating. It took all of his training, and self-control to keep his itching fingers from wrapping around her throat and just simply squeezing.

But that was then. That would have been without question then. But now he needed information. Information that made her suddenly, utterly, indispensable. So that leaves him here, in this infuriatingly uncomfortable chair, waiting, watching her take her infuriating breaths. Why does she get a moment of peace? She did nothing to deserve it? Why should she get her rest?

"You lied to me. Again." He said with spite, like venom dripping from his voice.

There is no response. Only a weak grunt escaped her lips. Sending Whale's rage just to the brim of the tipping point. He shoots out of his chair, each stop of his foot as he strides to Regina's bedside held a determination rarely seen by the herr docktor. On pure impulse, his calloused but even hand grabs her shoulder. He shook her shoulder lightly at first. Seeing barely a semblance of a response. His movements turned violent.

She stirred.

"What do you want Whale." She answered groggily, as her hand clumsily swung to swat his arm from her shoulder.

"You lied." He snipped.

It was Regina's turn to recoil, "What?" She snapped, rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes.

The world refused to come back to focus, the florescent light beaming down into her eyes, quite literally blinding her. All the sudden stimulation all culminated in a pounding headache. Which now pissed her off. Stacking the tension like tetris bricks in the room.

"About other lands! They're still intact aren't they!" He thundered.

"No."

"Damn it Regina!" He roared, as his palm slammed against the drywall, "Don't lie to me, he already told me everything."

"He?" Regina's brow lowered, her mouth thinned imperceptibly. But it relapsed back into her default grimace nearly instantaneously, can't have Whale thinking he had actually gotten something on her.

"Charming." Whale growled out, with smug confidence plastered over his face.

Regina tilted her head, turning it so she was facing Whale squarely, her mouth curling into a cheeky grin. Her eyes twinkled like those of a child who had just gotten away with stealing the last cookie from a cookie jar.

"Explains the shiner." Sweet, sweet venomous contempt dripped with each word that oozed out of her mouth.

Whale's hand soothed tentatively over his jaw, brushing over the blue-black monstrosity covering his skin. He barely stifled a hiss from his lips, as he for the first time today had an actual second to focus on the dull monotonous ache, courtesy of Charming. A little sadistic smirk contorted his face, a prideful glint in his eye was unmistakable. HE wore that shiner like badge of honor.

"Ah this, yes, it was courtesy of our resident prince."


"You. We need to talk."

Whale's yell echoed through the cavernous hall of the hospital. His voice carries through the silence, like a petulance, lingering, crawling through the air. But his deafening roar reached everybody except for one, the one person who could sit ignorant if a troll passed him by and punched him in the face.

The look of absolute scorn flitted across his face as he gained ground on David.

Crack.

Maybe it was the rage, maybe it was because his head was too far up his ass to see two feet in front of him. But Whale suddenly found himself on the cold hard pavement, the rough gravel scrapping its rough surface against his back. His vision swam for a bit, and the world began to make ominous surface around itself, images deformed and twisted, blurry and oblong; suddenly a hot liquid poured out of his numb nose, traveling down his lip, running down the contour of his mouth to slowly drip down his numb fingers touched the wetness beneath his nose to find crimson red painting his fingers.

"Oh! What the hell was that for!" Whale spat, jumping to his feet. His voice glinting with a newly ignited rage as his eyes graced Charming's smug mug.

"Sleeping with my wife." Charming answered plainly, with his signature foolhardiness permeating each and every syllable. The prince grabbed his hand, massaging away the pain from his painfully bruised knuckles. Though it was not an admission to the pain, it was as though he was staying his hand from another surprise assault on the doctor's person.

"Kathryn?" Whale asked genuinely confused. It was too easy to see David Nolan, instead of Prince James of Misthaven. And David Nolan's wife was Kathryn, who our good doctor had not the slightest inkling of an affair with.

"Snow."

Whale's stomach sank. Now Mary-Margaret was a different story. But who could see Snow-White kick ass archer underneath a cheap Gap cardigan.

He could see David's frown deepen, he could see the look of disappointment, disgust and anger floating to the surface, as though the mere thought caused him physical harm. He supposed it did.

Whale rolled his eyes, sighing, "Look, I didn't know. All right? I was cursed."

"Yeah, I got it. What do you want?" David answered professionally, slipping back into good cop David Nolan instead of scorned lover James of Misthaven. He spoke as if he didn't just crack a few of Whale's bones just a few moments ago. Whale's offhanded sneer remained glued to his face, causing David's already smug smirk to grow even wider.

"So... is it true? People are saying that you're trying to find a way to build a portal back to your land because that's where you think Emma and Mary Margaret are, that they're alive." Whale asked. But his words were different, they didn't hold the same cutting sarcasm, or biting wit. They held this startling human quality, they held hope.

"Well, the whispers can stop. I have no secrets from this town. That's exactly what I'm doing." David announced, turning his head to the casual onlooker, projecting his voice just loud enough for people in a five-foot radius to hear him. Charming had this quality to him, this man could give substance to air, and confidence to the cowardly lion.

Whale couldn't stop the onlookers from responding to Charming's words. Whale bristled at the sheep-like obedience and faith that this man inspired with his very presence. The doctor could sense scorching bile fill his throat.

"But the land... it's... it's gone, destroyed by the curse." Whale asked, no stated. He was actually interested in how the dear prince would explain away that conundrum.

"Apparently not." David snipped begging to rustle through his pockets, glancing towards a room behind Whale.

"Well, you're having any luck?"

"Not yet. We're working on it."

As Whale's curiosity was growing the conversation was growing more and more contentious, as David's sudden need to end the discourse contradicted Whale's newfound focus and curiosity.

"Does that mean that all the lands still exist?"

"Possibly." David ground out through his teeth, as he tried to side step Whale to get to the door which he was oh so conveniently blocking. He almost got past Whale too, had his not grasped David's like an anaconda twines with its prey.

"So, the Queen lied to us. Again. Are you sure?"

David turned his head sharply, breathing one last exasperated sigh as he snatched his arm from Whale's death grip.

"Remember who we're talking about."


"Charming going on another foolhardy self-righteous dead end crusade isn't anything new." Regina chuckled mirthlessly, finishing thinly veiled rancor with her signature headshake. She could feel Whale's anger bubble to the surface. His hands balled into fists, eyes grew colder, digging holes through Regina's Teflon gaze. He wanted, no, needed her to give something away, anything to justify the insatiable gnawing ache that scrapped at his sanity. Anything to justify the pain, the longing within his heart.

But somehow, he was blinded. Blinded by her immaculate visage, her plastic pleasantries, her calculated smile, her methodical cadence. Everything about her threw him for a spin.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't but would it kill you tell me the fucking truth Regina - for fucking once." Whale seethed. He was reaching his tipping point; his hands were shaking. He was angry to the point of being terrified. Terrified of the implications that the truth had. If Regina wasn't lying to him would be more devastating than if Regina was lying through his teeth. If Regina was telling him the truth that would mean he was alone in this world. Truly and utterly alone. His home would be lost, his memories of childhood, his life, the only part of his life that had any meaning would be lost to time. He would be living but never belonging, and that was more terrifying than anything that even Regina's twisted mind could have concocted.

"I am telling you the truth!" Regina declared, as she shot up from the bed. However, the sudden movement proved to be too dizzying to her. The suppressed nausea was resurfacing at an alarming rate, the numbed pain tore at her chest once again. But she only faltered for an instant. Her fiery glare matched Whales in an instant.

"Bullshit" He hissed, "But fine, what do you want then Regina? What is this going to take? All magic comes with a price? So, what's it going to be this time! My soul?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. What's it going to take for you to send me back to my realm. Send me back to my brother."

Regina opened her mouth but no sound came. She had a witty diatribe fully locked and loaded but it seemed moot. For the first time in a long time somebody had blindsided Regina Mills. For all the years that she had known Dr. Asshole Whale she never in a million years imagined that he would have another human that he actually cared about, she imagined his empathy only went so far as science was concerned. But human to human empathy seemed to be a concept as foreign to him, as snow in the Sahara.

"Why don't you check the "Missing" board like everybody else?" She muttered haphazardly, as she tried to string an insult together.

"Your curse only brought the living…" He mumbled through gritted teeth.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry for your loss. I'll be sure to send flowers your way -"

"I don't want your fucking flowers" Whale bellowed.

"That's too bad because regardless I can't send anyone anywhere." Regina said her hands purposefully gesturing as she does to make her point come across. But it appears her words were falling on deaf ears, pushing the limits of her exasperation even further.

"Can't or won't? You of all people have a price. So, what is it? Do you want your Stable Boy back? Your boy toy in exchange for my brother?"

A torturous gold glow radiated from her eyes. Fire crackled in her palm, brown, gold, and blood red coalesced in the palm of her hand. A dangerous dance of anger and pain found form in the fire as it bent and ignited at Regina's whim. Whale's words opened an old wound, a deep gash in her soul that was barely held together by the loose stitched of time, but now the damn had been broken once again. Now the pain washed over her like a cascade, shooting through each pore, filling her being, like blood from an artery.

Before the doctor could realize the fatal mistake, Regina flew at Whale, grabbing his shoulder with her free hand, pinning him against the wall of the hospital room. A loud thud resounded through the room over the crackle and whoosh of the flame in the palm of her hand. Usually chocolate eyes burned an amber-scarlet as they bore into Whale.

Regina could barely hide her pure disgust, and anger. She was so angry that her jaw refused to unlock and no words formed in her mouth. Whale's whimpers snapped her from her dark trance, and the rancid stench of his sweat did well to sober Regina.

"If you don't get the hell out of here I will show you just how dear the payment will be for wasting my time Whale." Regina whispered, as she brought he flame just close enough to his face that the tips of the flame licked at his neck.

Whale didn't even have a chance to open his mouth for a reply before he was swallowed by purple smoke. Regina didn't exactly care where she apparated him, it was anywhere but here. She could've dropped him into a volcano in Hawaii for all she knows.

In a snap of her fingers the same purple smoke of her magic adorned her with a clean set of clothes, reapplied her makeup and straightened her hair. She was Regina mills once more. Well a shell of the women or so she tells herself.

Regina herself didn't really know what she was, or what was real. As she walked, as she put one foot in front of another and walked through the hospitals and into her little terrarium world, she thought back to Alex, and that dream, premonition, whatever. For the first time in a long time since Emma's arrival she felt like a human being, she didn't feel evil, she didn't feel like Her Majesty, she just felt like Regina Cabot nee Mills. She felt like a person once more. She felt human. She felt at home. As if the bubble that separated her from the rest of the world was popped, no longer was she underwater, reacting to the tides of crisis, to the motions of change, and the undercurrents of the game.

Click. Click. Click. She trudged forward underneath the moons jaded eye. She thought about the what if's, the questions that would be answered in her dreams. A part of Regina, no, the whole of Regina's being wanted this Alex to be true, to be something more than a construct of her mind. How she wanted to let go of the walls around her heart, how she wanted these defenses to go down. But she was ashamed, she was ashamed of the rivers running deep on her face. She was ashamed that she caused Henry so much pain, she was ashamed that she was not strong enough then to hold on to her child, the same child she was not strong enough to carry into this world, the child that now haunts her thoughts.

With the same mechanical numbness, Regina opened the door to her car. Click. Click. Click. Click. She dreaded the end of this walk, because now she had to return to reality. The musings would return to the world of imagination once more and she would present. Being present is the scariest thing in the world for Regina, because that would mean her problems would again be apocalyptically present, wars would continue to be fought, people would continue to hate her, the world would continue to try to take everything she cares or cared about.

Alex being a figment of her imagination would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It would the last feeling she had.

She didn't know how long she was driving for, or how far, or even which road she was on. Instead of focusing on the road she prayed. She prayed to fate, to the tangled strings of events that make up her future, she prayed to pull the string that leads her to Alex. She wished for a map that lead to her. If there was such a thing, a map to her happiness because she knew Alex would be a part of it.

The rain fall grows stronger with each passing minute. It floods her windshield, but Regina keeps on driving. It was the dead of night anyway, who would Regina hurt even if she did crash. A tree maybe?

Suddenly a figure is on the road. She barely makes out the visage in the lights as she swerves to evade the pedestrian. Regina has just enough time to hit the brakes. She stops within an inch of the car.

She sees a man stand in front of her. Tall, hunched over. She turns on her higher beamed lights and she catches a glimpse of his face. She could recognize those icy blue eyes anywhere.

"Daniel?" Regina breathes. She doesn't believe her eyes. She blinks but he is gone with the next spark of lighting coursing through the sky.

Regina immediately pulls the keys out of the ignition. She jumps out of her car, damn the rain, damn her designer clothes. She just literally saw a ghost of her past in front of her. She had seen her Daniel.

"Daniel!" She screamed

"Daniel!" Another scream tore at her throat, and then another, and another. She screamed until her voice cracked. Until she was soaked in freezing water so deep that she could feel the ice crystals form in her bones. She stood there until she drowned in the icy water.

Regina is broken. She breaks with each cry. She breaks as her knees hit the ground. She breaks as she comes to the end of this world. Her world that she built. The world with Henry and the world with magic, and the world of the Evil Queen.

She would have to leave Regina to leave the Evil Queen. Finally, she has realized that they are one and the same. Two sides of the same coin.

To let go she must first break ties with her last tether to this world.


There was one place left for Regina. The place where she left her love, her heart, her life. It was the place where everything was at peace. It was where she shed the skin of the evil queen, she stopped being the haunting shadow of nightmares, fiancé, abused wife, evil stepmother. This was where she began her journey into solitude and stagnancy. Emptiness.

Deep in the depths of her mausoleum, guarded by two towering solid wood doors there was a single tomb. For within was something so precious that Regina never let anybody inside, only once did she let strange eyes peer within. Not since Henry.

For a moment, Regina froze in the cavernous dim hall, lackluster amber eyes drifted to the grand doors, their emanant energy enticing her to enter, but her body screamed for her to stop, breathe, rethink. She pressed a hand against the smooth reinforced wood, the radiance was almost tangible. From the instant the magic touched the tips of her fingers Regina knew that the choice was no longer hers.

The doors swung open, an ear-splitting creak resounded through the enormous sanctum. Blinding white light beamed through the crevice. Revealing rows of drumming hearts filed behind stone chambers, but in the center among the beating hearts there was a single inanimate object, the casket of her true love. The air grew thicker with each moment, each click of her footsteps pounding in tandem with her racing heart. The casket hasn't changed. The room hasn't changed. The same stale air invaded her senses, the same monotonous thumping resounded through the sanctuary. The stone still held the echoes of a time long past, as if it was ripped from the timeline forever held in stasis. The echoes were more painful than these staunch reminders of the past, these echoes held a promise of a future shattered, the happiness held but never achieved, tasted but never remembered.

Regina rand her finger along the side of the casket, tracing each imperfection of the cold stone.

Something was off. She could feel it in her heart, she could taste it, she could feel it resounding bones.

Something was missing.

She let her magic free. It burst from the tips of her fingers in a lilac poof, tossing off the heavy stone casket lid.

It was empty.

Daniel was gone.

Again.


Believe it or not i had most of this written in february it feels good to have it finally on paper. however i do apologize for this slow chapter but i do feel like i need to provide some context for regina before i introduce alex and elsa and emma. also who doesnt want to see more of gold he's always fun to write.

im actually most excited to write about the weird situation between alex, neal, emma, and tamara and olivia.

i know it seems like i'm skipping around but please be patient it will all make sense soon enough.