AN : Sorry it took so long to update. No computer. Just my phone. Plus it was really busy. Now that the holidays are nearing I'll have a bit of a break and that'll come with more updates. Thank you all once again.
DISCLAIMER : see first chapter
Dear Henry,
They say that the universe is infinite, simply because a finite universe would collapse in on itself according to Newton's Laws. Gravity, stars and their gravitational pull and what not.
BUT, since it is an infinite universe, every point can be regarded as the center, because every point has an infinite number of stars on each side of it. If it were a finite universe there would only be a fixed number of stars. In Newton's Laws, gravity causes the moon to move in an elliptical orbit around the earth and causes the earth and the planets to follow elliptical paths around the sun.
You see, Newton realized that the stars should attract to one another if stars were fixed, so it seemed they could remain motionless. Although wouldn't they fall together at one point? A small force would push it towards one star and they would continue that route to that one star from thief gravitational pull. But if there were an infinite number of stars, distributed over an infinite space, this would not happen, because there would not be any central point for them to fall to.
With that said, in an infinite universe every point can be regarded as the center, because every point has an infinite number of stars on each side. So to each person, any person could very well be the center of the universe.
Isn't that great?
A cup of coffee could be the center of your universe for a short while. Math, even if you hate it, and whether you like it to or not, it will be the center for a short while. Candy canes can be your center. Cartoons, and ice cream, centers as well. People even. A stable boy and a mother.
Did you know Henry...?
You're still the center of mine.
-love mom
Lily walked in front of her. Hair a tattered mess as well as her wrinkled skirt. Her expression was one of indifference mixed with a person whom only had a few hours of sleep. Regina, on the other hand, just looked tired, with a new set of clothes and comfortable shoes. Lily wore another pair by Regina. She refused anything else besides that.
They got to the metro that leads Lily close to her apartment, hardly anyone was there, "it's much too early to be alive."
Regina smirked, "then we must be dead."
"Good thinking." She yawned.
They waited.
Awkwardly. Together.
"So...," Lily began, "thank you. For last night. You didn't have to keep me, you could've just called a cab and abandoned my drunk ass."
"That wouldn't have been very nice of me."
Lily snorted, "since when have you been nice?"
"Since you wore a dress. I think it fits quite well for something we never do. Why can't I do something I never do? Like be nice."
Lily's smile was now a half smile. As if she was too tired to even attempt a full smile,
"Well it's okay now Regina. I can make my way home myself now. I'll give your shoes back tomorrow."
Regina shifted from side to side, "I'm leaving tomorrow."
Lily froze mid yawn, "what? What do you mean 'leaving'? Like...leave leave? Or just another missing day leave?"
"I'm leaving Washington D.C. There's still a lot I have to do." Regina avoided eye contact.
She was getting much too close to this sandy haired waitress. People, Regina found, have a way of destroying you little by little. And so far this woman has destroyed most of her by being...nice.
"I think I'll visit Tallahassee," she thought of a blonde woman as she said it.
Her gaze became forlorn and soft.
"What's so special about Tallahassee? I mean, you have everything here right?"
Regina shrugged, "it reminds me of someone."
"Oh. Well..." Lily's metro stopped.
She stood beside Regina, "aren't you going to get on?"
"Well..." Lily faced her and the doors closed, "if this will be the last time I see you, and that was the purpose of last night, was your way of a goodbye, then...then I want to properly say goodbye too."
"Oh."
The metro left and Lily stood there, "thank you."
Regina said nothing.
"Thank you for...being the most interesting person I've ever met. I liked talking to you and your hairs nice...sorry, I'm just... I'm not good at saying goodbye."
"It's okay Lily. I understand."
Before Regina could say anything else, suddenly Lily took a step closer and another and it felt as if Regina couldn't stop it. Her arms coiled and wrapped around Regina's shoulders, her head laid in the crook of the brunettes' neck and shoulder. Her back slightly arched, she was taller than Regina. She was hugging her.
Regina then felt waves of Kathryn nostalgia. And just like with Kathryn her arms flailed until they found purchase on Lily's back. When was the last time she received a hug like this? A hug that said thank you, a hug that was given by someone who doesn't expect anything in return?
She thought of Henry and his toddler arms.
Years.
She counted the few hugs she's received in her life that weren't Henry. Her mothers suffocating arms. Her fathers timid nature. And Daniel. She couldn't remember what he felt like. She realized only so few hugs have ever been granted to her freely without consequence. So with that said, she closed her eyes and fully wound her arms around Lily's side.
She breathed, smelling the other woman's faded vanilla perfume and sweat mixed with the elemental parts of the Washington metro station.
"Thank you Regina," her voice was quiet and she could hear it.
She could hear Lily's smile in that whisper.
And just like that, Regina broke the hug and held her at arm's length. She didn't answer, instead she gave that timid smile only granted to one person in her life time. Emma. She had used this one smile with Emma before, back when she presented a hat and the blonde had said she trusts her.
As Lily smiled and looked down wondering what to say, Regina's thoughts tumbled and twirled into one another like a tornado. The only coherent thought was her. The woman in front her, wine, lights, and music, and her real smiles.
That was minutes ago.
No, Regina suddenly thought.
That was hours ago.
Thousands and thousands of seconds ago.
She thought about how life isn't in minutes, or hours, or days. Life is in seconds. Everything can happen in a second. A stable boys heart being crushed, that doesn't take a minute. A fathers eyes displaying betrayal and love. A mothers acceptance to your freedom being given to a king. A girl, with hair as dark as night and skin as white as snow, being saved by a woman who once spoke so adamantly and admirably about true love.
Then a blonde being pulled into an abyss of swirling purple. A touch that awake the magic within.
A son being given to her.
The thing about life, is that, it doesn't happen in hours or minutes. It happens in seconds. Seconds that prolong into minutes, minutes into hours. Seconds are the milestone of life. And that's all it took for Regina Mills to decide. To ask the most important question she'll ever ask of Lily.
"Will you come with me?"
Past
Emma stayed next to Regina. She constantly threw fluttered looks towards the new blonde that has joined their motley crew of a group. Regina felt Tinker Bells weariness behind the visage of stubbornness via heart.
"So..." Snow White began and Regina closed her eyes in annoyance counting to ten.
1. . .
2. . .
"Tinker Bell..." She said it so calmly it raised suspicion.
Tink merely raised an eyebrow in her direction.
3. . .
4. . .
5. . .
6. . .
"How do did you and Regina meet?"
7. . .
8. . .
"Well..."
9. . .
She never said 10. Suddenly the ground beneath Emma and Regina split open and they tumbled through. Before anyone else could make a move the leaves covered it solid.
"Emma!" Mary Margaret and David could be heard by both woman as they fell into dark water.
###
Emma gasped and rasped as her head emerged. She coughed as the cold water hit her like an ice trenchant. It flowed and clung.
"Regina, "Emma managed as she focused on swimming.
No answer.
"Regina!?" Did she fall with her? She did, Emma decided.
Squinting through the darkness she focused her vision, "Regina?"
Stagnant quiet.
She looked around and continued kicking her feet, "Regina?"
Then the waters a few feet from her began bubbling and the fear collided hard in her chest, "Regina?"
She felt something solid wrap around her ankle, pulling her down.
She sloshed and splashed but it pulled and her cries of help were muffled by gurgles.
###
This was terrible, Regina concluded. She wasn't quite expecting water. Perhaps a cage or even falling into their camp, or spikes. Something mundane and child-like. Not water. Especially water infested with mermaids. She knew as soon as the water around her consumed her body, how dark it was. How murky and deep, her feet never touched the bottom, everything was confirmed as soon as arms wrapped around her midriff.
Mermaids Regina thought.
She tried screaming, bubbles formed from her mouth. Containing her silent screams. She growled and tried using her magic, but a scaly fin brushed passed her and only a slight spark emanated off her hands.
Stupid mermaid scales.
She closed her eyes tightly imagining the water around her, imagining it clearing just around her eyes. Then she opened them seeing nothing. It was dark, no moonlight shining through, she felt like she was truly lost. She couldn't breathe. Her lungs felt as if they were about the burst from the lack of air.
Then she felt a pair of hands, cold and slimy. She moved her body against the arms wrapping themselves around her waist.
They were going to drown her!
She was panicking. Another pair of hands cupped her cheek. It held her face still, she tried shaking her head. The more energy she exerted, the less her movements became. Until she felt a pair of lips against hers.
Then she felt relief as her lungs expanded.
Present
The little bell above the door ringed through the shop and Rumple stepped into the light from the back room. He held a small vial.
"I was wondering when you'd come, you know-" he stopped as soon as his eyes shifted from the vial to him.
"Surprise?" Peters half grin showed as he walked with arms outstretched.
"Can't say I am," Rumple put the vial carefully down against glass casing.
"They say the pandorica is inescapable. So...pray tell, how did you get out?"
"Well I've always been a recusant boy. I have my ways." Peter was now standing in front of the glass case separating him and Rumple.
"Then I suspect, the apple spiders are yours?" He gripped his cane ever so tightly.
"Brilliant right? It took quite a while, but it was worth it, dontcha think?" He sat in midair, his flying ability catching him.
He crossed his legs and leaned his cheek against one of his palms.
Rumple sneered, "is it alive?"
Peters face seemed darker than Rumples, "very."
"How?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Rumple ground his teeth subtly as Peters smile reached from ear to ear.
"What would you like?" Rumple brushed his hair back with a shake of his head and put both hands upon his cane. His business stand in place.
"That vial."
"I would've thought you'd have something more practical in mind. It's just a vial." He picked it up.
"You had it as I walked through the door. Must be important if you were studying it so admirably than to notice who walks through your doors."
Rumple tightened his jaw and carelessly threw the vial to him, "deal."
Peter caught it with finesse and poise befitting a baseball player. He drifted to the floor, holding the vial between his palm and fingers, "deal."
"I except the others will be here soon. Henry will have told them by now."
"Henry? What did you do?" Rumples whole demeanor changed at the mention of his grandson.
He seemed almost...protective.
Henry didn't mean as much to Rumple as he did to Charming. But there was a softness there. A softness that showed throughout his time here. Henry may have been raised by an evil queen and born from a savior, but he was definitely neither. He was the conundrum of both, the peacemaker and job comforter.
"Oh he'll be fine," Peter waved it off as he looked around nonchalantly.
"Just a bruised shoulder, he did get a look at my creations. Needless to say, he was dropping with pleasantness over them." He walked to the door.
"Our deal."
"Right, well, for supposed enemies, Regina and Emma's hairs seem to play nicely together."
With that, the bell above the shop rung and Peter flew into the night chuckling to himself.
Rumple dropped his cane and smirked, then laughed at the inane idea, "interesting."
###
The screams stopped, so Emma stopped. She looked behind her and it was clear. No spider, no cinnamon apple smell. She looked around. It vanished.
"I see he stopped," she turned at his voice.
"Rumple," Emma held her sword up, "where were you doing during all this? Was this you?"
She stepped closer.
He held his hand up, the other clutching his cane, "that's far enough Ms. Swan. No. It seems my adolescent of a father escaped the pandorica. And as petulant as you all are, I expect we need to do this together."
Emma's grip tightened on the sword.
"He got to Henry."
That grabbed her attention.
###
"How does that feel Henry?" Kathryn's fingers lightly danced across his arm as she made a make-shift sling by tearing her sweater.
"Better," he half smiled at her, "thank you."
"No problem Henry."
He nodded, "okay, we have to go to Gold."
"Why Gold?" Charming just bounded up, soot now mostly gone.
"Is there a reasons you both are covered in soot?" Kathryn asked, now sitting next to Henry.
The couple looked at one another, blushing, "David thought it would be a good idea to...go to the coal mines...and search for more fairy dust... We got distracted."
"Oh." Kathryn smiled and looked down," I see."
"What?" Henry looked between the adults, "what happened?"
Kathryn laid her hand on his head, "you'll understand when you're older."
The couple continued to blush and Henry looked between everyone, then it dawned,"ew no! Okay, no!"
He covered his eyes with one hand, "that's so gross! Aren't you dirty in...? Wait ew no!" He shook his head, still covering his eyes.
"Nooo..."
Kathryn laughed, "Regina always said you were the smartest in your age group."
Silence.
Henry stiffened.
"Oh. Oh no. I'm so sorry," Kathryn took her hand back.
"It's okay," Henry looked back to her, "now I don't have to think about my grandparents."
They laughed.
"So...what happened to Henry?" David knelt besides his grandson.
"He..." Mary Margaret began.
"I fell," he looked down.
"Oh. Well... Is his arm okay?"
"David if his arm was okay I wouldn't have torn my nice white sweater."
"Well you could've just gone inside for something." David looked to Kathryn.
"And go through that goo? Either way my sweater was doomed."
