Chapter ten
"You brought me a bear claw?" Emma laughed.
Regina smiled slightly at just how happy this seemed to make the saviour and she fell into a chair in the sheriff's office.
"Well, even if you didn't experience much pain when you woke up, the fact remains that you were in hospital…"
"And you wanted to cheer me up?" the other woman laughed after she had swallowed a bite of the delicious pastry.
They mayor shrugged, as if showing that she cared was a physically painful thought, but she didn't deny the claim.
"Is that the only reason you came to the station?" Emma asked, placing the bear claw onto her desk, deciding that it would be better to devour it when the mayor wouldn't be there to witness it.
The older woman looked over her shoulder at Elsa, who had left the room to give them some privacy, and she asked, "I went back to the ice-cream truck while you were unconscious and I found something…"
The sheriff nodded, accepting the folder the other woman offered her and she furrowed her brow as she flipped through it. It was all very familiar, but somehow, the reason why was just out of her reach.
"I…don't get it…they look so familiar…" she said, looking up at Regina with a very much confused expression.
"They were familiar to your mother too," Regina replied, though she quickly amended it to, "they were familiar to Natalie…"
The younger woman nodded, though her question hadn't really been answered and she looked back down to the pictures, running her hand over the extra blonde woman on one of them.
"Her name is Ingrid and she was your mother's best friend…she said that you spent a lot of time with her before she pulled you in front of a car for some psychotic test…"
"Well…I'm sure that I would definitely remember that happening…" Emma frowned.
"So you have no idea who this Ingrid woman is?"
The sheriff shook her head, though her eyebrow were knit tightly together, "I feel like I should remember her…but…I just can't…"
"I suppose we need to add altering memories onto her list of abilities," Regina sighed.
The pair fell into silence, before an idea crossed the saviour's mind and a smirk spread across her face, "have you ever had a bear claw before?"
"What do you think the answer to that question is, Miss Swan?" she sighed, though her exasperation was out-weighed by the gleeful expression on the other woman's face. Plus, she could see that she was in need of some distraction from everything that was currently going on. With the new crisis and the issues with her parents, the mayor didn't want to deny her the chance to amuse herself, even if she had to risk eating that disgusting monstrosity.
"Then you haven't lived," Emma chuckled as she leaned forward to pull off a piece from the end that she hadn't been eating.
The former queen looked down in disgust as the saviour held it up to her face with a hopeful expression on her face.
Before she could even consider opening her mouth, her attention was torn away from the somewhat enjoyable moment by the sound of a squeal from outside the sheriff's office.
Turning her head, she swallowed hard when she saw Elsa had been frozen into place, with a white glimmer engulfing her entire body. Once the mayor visually ensured that the woman was physically okay, she turned her attention to the person responsible.
Emma looked over at the same time as her friend, allowing her arm to drop with an air of disappointment.
The newcomer smiled at the sheriff, completely ignoring the fact that there was anyone else in the office other than her.
"Emma," she said almost in awe.
"I'm guessing this is Ingrid…" the saviour murmured as she sprang to her feet, her hand instantly moving to cover her holster.
"I am indeed," she replied as she glided across the room to the two women, "it is very nice to see you again."
"I wish I could say the same," Emma shot back with narrowed eyes, desperately trying to figure out what the woman was planning.
Ingrid frowned for a moment as the younger woman's words cut through her like a knife, but she allowed herself to shake them off and reminded herself that she had to follow through with her plan before the saviour would act like the sister that she truly wanted.
"You will be able to soon," she replied softly, which only seemed to confuse the other two women further.
Regina broke out of her confusion before her friend and she turned her hand over, willing a swirl of heat to appear. When the fireball materialised, she looked over at the Snow Queen warningly, daring her to try something.
When Ingrid stepped forward, Regina instinctively did the same, standing in front of the saviour, "don't take another step," she growled.
The sheriff's eyebrows shot up at just how protective the mayor was being; however, before she could look further into it, the Snow Queen made a swirl of ice appear in her hand and she hurled it at the former queen.
Emma's mouth fell open slightly and it was almost as if everything went into slow motion as she jumped forward and pushed her best friend out of the way of the blast, quickly jumping in the opposite direction a split second later.
The ice hit the wall behind them with incredible force and Emma only just about had time to look at the damage, before her attention shot back to the mayor who seemed to have been frozen in place in the same way that Elsa had been.
"What the he…" she began to say, but she was cut off when the Snow Queen poofed herself in front of her and leaned down to grab her arm.
"I will make you see the truth," Ingrid mumbled almost to herself, before white smoke engulfed both of them.
As soon as they disappeared, Regina and Elsa both regained control of their bodies.
They each stared at the sight where the sheriff had just been stood and after a moment, the mayor closed her eyes in frustration. She had really wished that she could show Natalie that the saviour could go more than one day without something happening to her.
Natalie took a deep, calming breath, though it did very little to ease her nerves.
She had promised herself that she would do this once Emma was out of hospital and the saviour had been discharged about three hours ago. Since Regina had healed her and the pain-killers had all but forced her to have more rest than she could ever need, she had opted to go back to work despite the insistence of all four of her parents that she should go and sleep more.
Nathan nudged her slightly and offered her a supportive smile, "we don't have to do this right now, you know?"
Natalie considered agreeing wholeheartedly for a moment, but all it took was an image of her daughter to flash across her mind for her know that she had to do this.
"We have to," she sighed as she brought her hand up to the door and knocked as quietly as possible, knowing that waking up Neal would just cause yet another argument.
The two Swans stood anxiously outside of the door for a full two minutes and Nathan motioned for his wife to knock again, but she just quickly shook her head. She certainly didn't want to start this by pissing them off again.
Nathan was about to whisper at her that she had to knock again, but the door opened before he could even open his mouth.
Snow looked between the pair with raised eyebrows. Under any other circumstances, she was sure that she would have smirked at how childish the two grown adults were being.
Instead, she offered them a tight smile and opened the door wider, "David mentioned that you would be coming over…"
"We thought that it would be better if we gave you some warning this time," Natalie replied rather awkwardly as they walked across the threshold. Each of them smiled over to Charming stood behind the kitchen counter as they were led over to the couch.
The deputy sheriff came over to the living room area as the visitors took their seats and he smiled over to his wife. When he had told Snow about this, he had fully expected her to yell at him, saying something along the lines of 'how could you invite them to our home after last time?' He was pleasantly surprised, therefore, when she had just nodded without much comment and suggested that he text them back with a time.
Natalie swallowed hard when the oppressive atmosphere and she looked over to Nathan, hoping that he would know what to say. The man just shook his head minutely, obviously hoping that she would be the one to start the conversation, but after the blow-up of last time, neither of them were very eager to be the first to speak.
Snow bit the inside of her cheek as the silence stretched on.
Finally, she noticed her husband giving her a look that said she should say something and she sighed before saying, "I believe that I may owe you an apology…"
Before Natalie could even think about opening her mouth to tentatively accept, a phone rang out and everyone in the room looked over to the source.
Snow dug the device out of her pocket.
She had every intention of just shutting it off since she doubted that she would be willing to restart this conversation with ease, but when she saw the name on the caller ID, she knew she had to answer. Regina would never willingly call her unless it was deeply important.
"Hello?" she answered, her voice cracking slightly as she wondered what could have possibly happened now.
Natalie and Nathan watched intently as Snow White's face paled at what she was being told and they exchanged a look.
Finally, she thanked the woman on the other end of the line and hung up.
Each person in the room, looked at the school teacher expectantly, until she finally swallowed hard and said, "Emma has been…kidnapped…"
Natalie's mouth fell open as her mind reeled. Her nerves hadn't even gotten over the fact that her child had just been in hospital and now she had been kidnapped. She was really beginning to wish that she could just wrap her oldest child in bubble wrap forever.
Looking around at each person, she couldn't help but notice that everyone in the room was wearing the same expression, the expression of a worried parent. Which meant they could wait until they found their daughter to have this conversation.
A/N Sorry this chapter was so short, but my week from work is over and I'm not sure whether I'll be able to write much for the rest of the week so I thought something was better than nothing.
Also, you guys might have noticed that I didn't refer to characters by their hair colour for the whole chapter, someone told me that it was confusing. Let me know if you prefer this way better or if you had no problem with how I've always done it (I find it easier to write when I do it honestly)