Snow White stood in the arms of her best friend, Ruby Lucas, as they looked on towards the volunteer townsfolk of Storybrooke while they slowly removed rubble from the mouth of the mineshaft. Snow had been inconsolable when David reported back the missing women were likely within the mine that collapsed two days ago. Her daughter and her former nemesis and sort of frenemy Regina Mills were out on location looking into the strange and sudden ground shifting.
Regina insisted that it was not a natural phenomenon and accompanied the Sheriff during the investigation. This was two days ago, and the women hadn't been heard from since.
A new collapse was found by her husband yesterday evening, and Snow didn't want to believe that her daughter was dead. No trace of the women, other than the Sheriff's yellow Volkswagen, had been found. The fact that the bug was discovered outside of the mouth of the mines was in itself damning evidence, or so said David, but she held hope that there was a pocket of air, that they were trapped within, alive.
"Honey why don't you go home, this is a slow process, and you've been here through the night. You need to get some sleep." Caring blue eyes pleaded with his wife's red-rimmed green ones to listen to reason, "Granny can't watch Henry indefinitely. I'm certain he'd want to sleep in his own bed tonight."
"W-what am I supposed to tell him David?" the brunette buried her head into her tall friend's collar, protecting herself from his answer.
"Tell him we don't know anything yet because we don't. We'll find her, Snow. One way or another."
Red rolled her eyes at the blond man and his insensitive off-handed comment as the little brunette started to shake in her arms and cried, "I can't lose her again!"
"We still have hope," Red said with certainty. "If they are down there, no one is dead, I would be able to smell it, okay?"
Snow nodded and cringed a little at her friend's bluntness. It was one of the reasons why she loved the wolf, the girl never pulled her punches, and she was fiercely loyal. When Snow needed the truth, Red never let her down.
"If they aren't down there, then where are they?" The pixie-haired woman looked up into the green eyes of her friend.
"I don't know sweetie, but the woods around town are pretty vast," Red's green eyes looked to David, "Perhaps we can get a search party out in the woods of the surrounding area? Just in case. Maybe something happened to one of them, and the other doesn't want to leave them?" She looked back down at Snow in her arms, "That's just like Emma you know? Always the savior." Snow nodded in agreement and sniffled back her tears.
"Alright. I'll go pick up Henry, but David," she looked him sternly in the eye, "You call me the second you find anything, no matter what!" David nodded solemnly and then kissed his wife on the forehead.
"Thanks, Red," he smiled tightly at the tall brunette that all but cradled his wife in her arms steering her back towards her mustang.
Henry looked much smaller than Snow remembered him being just yesterday as he sat at the counter of Granny's diner and read a comic book. A tale of truth and justice, good and evil had forever been his favorite. He looked up when the women approached and knew instinctively they had no news for him. Without a word, he pursed his lips together and hung his head. A gesture that reminded Snow of her daughter through and through. "It will be okay Henry," the brunette to her side finally said. "Your grandpa is going to organize a search party to find them, okay kid?"
"So they are definitely not in the mine?" he asked without looking up.
"I… I…." Snow's lip trembled, and she shook her head at her inability to sooth the child before her.
"We don't think so kid, but they are still looking," Ruby finished for her. "Come on grab your stuff, and I'll take you and Grandma back to the loft to get some sleep okay?" Henry nodded and slid off the stool he had been sitting on and went into the back to grab his overnight bag.
"Thanks, Red, I just… I don't know how to…" Snow looked up into sorrowful green eyes, "I've never been anyone's mother before! Let alone a grandmother! I don't know how to tell him his moms might be…"
"That isn't what we are telling him because we don't know that." Ruby squared the smaller brunette's shoulders and looked her in the eye and said, "We only tell him what we know Snow. Anything else will just upset him for no reason."
"You're right. Of course, you're right." She shook her head at herself and wiped the tears that fell. "You are going to be a wonderful mother someday," the pixie-haired woman commented with a sad smile.
"What and wreck the perfection that is this body? No thanks! I'll settle for being the rockin cool auntie to your brood, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind at all," Snow said sadly and allowed herself to be wrapped in the taller woman's arms.
Henry ran out from the back of the diner, bag over his shoulder, and reached out to grab Snow's hand. His hands were almost as big as her own and he stood as tall as she was as well. He looked at her with his hazel eyes and said, "If they are not in the collapsed mine Grandma, then they're fine. My moms take care of each other. They've both promised me that they would always take care of one another. Everything is going to be fine. We'll find them. It's what we do," he concluded with a smirk.
Snow let out a little sob and reached for her grandson and pulled him into her. "When did you get so grown up Henry?"
"Somewhere between Peter Pan and the Snow Queen, I think," he replied with a smirk making both brunettes laugh. "So when grandpa organizes the search party, can I go help? Sitting around since yesterday is making me kind of stir crazy."
"Sure kid," Ruby answered for Snow who was still holding him tight as if she were to let him go, their entire world would collapse around them. "For now though, let's go home," she said patting Snow White on the back gently.
The next few days not much has changed with Mayor Mills; she's peacefully slept next to the fire, with her faithful sheriff by her side.
Emma started to eat a bit more as the days wore on, and they managed to get both broth and water into Regina, albeit not much. "Something is better than nothing," Xena encouraged as Emma used a hollowed reed, as if it were a straw, to feed drops of nourishment into her friend little by little. In the first days, Xena trekked back to the village to acquire medical supplies, but the healer in town had been cleaned out. So she improvised.
Everything they did made the Queen stronger. She was warmer on her own without Emma's body to help regulate her, her breathing was deeper, and her heart pounded much stronger than before. Xena was pleased with her progress, enough so, to consider building a sled to carry the unconscious woman to the Amazon village. She let Gabrielle break it to Emma that Xena felt Regina was strong enough to be moved.
"No way!"
This wasn't starting out good. The bard held up her hands and urged, "Emma, hear me out."
"No! She needs rest, she's in a coma or something, and coma patients are in hospital beds, hooked up to monitors and shit, they are not dragged across the countryside behind a friggin horse!"
"Emma, I don't understand…" she started, "but I can see you are passionate about your point of view, let me ask you though, do they leave these coma patients out in the middle of the woods, exposed to the elements?"
"No," Emma said carefully, she was frightened and didn't want to take chances. Regina was getting stronger, Xena said so. What if they moved her and she started to get worse!?
"The Amazons have medicines. They have libraries of information we can find out what Malik used and see if there is an antidote." When Emma closed her eyes, Gabrielle knew she won but didn't relish in the win, Emma was clearly shaken and needed her. She took a tentative step closer and lowered her voice to a soothing tone, as if approaching a wild animal, "Listen, sweetie, I know you are afraid, I don't want anything to happen to her either, we just want what is best for Regina, I know you want that. Xena won't have the sled made for another day, that's one more day Regina has to get that much stronger. I promise you, I won't let anything happen to your queen."
Emma pursed pale, thin lips and relented to the well-spoken queen with a silent nod. She knew when she's lost an argument. She lost plenty to her own queen back home. "We are lucky the weather has held out as long as it has," she thought out loud looking down at her sleeping beauty.
Gabrielle put her hand on Emma's shoulder, "Come on, let's start dinner."
Emma looked up at the sky then back down at the sleeping queen, the past few days she's held everything in, and it all started to crash down on her, "I need… um…" Gabrielle nodded in understanding, "Go ahead, Emma. I'll stay with her."
Emma grabbed her sword and walked out in the direction of the river. Gabrielle's heart sank as she watched the leather-clad woman walk into the woods. She knew exactly how the Sheriff was feeling, looking down at Regina's peaceful features, she remembered her first run-in with Callisto.
Callisto was a sociopath who grew up to hate the Destroyer of Nations. Xena's army had burned the young girl's village to the ground, and the inhabitants were so afraid of the invading army they refused to come out of their homes, even as they burned around them. It was one of the few times that Xena's army was responsible for killing women and children and Callisto's parents and sister were among the dead. The young blonde six-year-old girl narrowly escaped with her life, but not her soul. Her humanity was destroyed that day as she listened to her family burn, the screams of her sister drove the girl to sheer madness. As a result, she grew up with one thing on her mind. Xena: Warrior Princess.
Their first run-in with the blonde lunatic had been a stealth attack and damn near killed the brunette warrior. For a time, Gabrielle thought her friend was indeed dead. The helplessness the bard felt as she watched the woman she loved deteriorate over mere hours and then seeing her lifeless body sent her over the edge. In order to come back and stand tall and do what needed to be done, Gabrielle did what Emma is now doing. She ran out into the woods and took her frustrations out on the plant life.
The bard sat next to Regina close to the fire, and began slicing dried vegetables into the charred pot of water, she spoke gently to the sleeping queen about her and Xena's adventures.
Emma briskly walked for several minutes then broke out into a jog. The crisp air that filled her lungs did much to make her feel renewed and alive. Thoughts of Regina cascaded over her, flooding her senses with images of the woman and Emma pushed from a jog into a run.
Tears were stinging her eyes and she pushed the run harder till her muscles burned from the strain and her lungs were on fire sucking not quite enough air. Emma slowed her pace then fell to her knees letting out a guttural cry of sorrow and frustration. The potential for loss took its toll on her, and she sagged forward gasping for air. Emma laid on the ground for quite a while, and exhaustion took over her.
"What do I have to do to get you to leave me alone Swan? Go. Away."
"I'm an idiot."
"Finally! Something we can agree on."
"I'm an idiot because I've been down this road before."
"Irritating me? Yes, you have!"
"No, when I was a kid. Someone came into my life for a while, and I thought… we were going to be best friends, but this girl lied to me and I pushed her away because of that lie, and she asked me to forgive her, but I never did. It took some time, but I realized that was a mistake and I regretted the decision. But by then it was too late the damage was already done. I don't want to make the same mistake again, Regina. Living in Storybrooke, I've got my son and my parents, and I love them, but they can't always understand me. They don't know what it feels like to be rejected and misunderstood, not the way I do, not the way YOU do. And somehow that makes us, I don't know, unique, or maybe even special! I wasn't looking for you to assuage my guilt. I was just looking for you to be my friend."
"You thought we were friends?"
"Crazy right? But… I thought it could be… that it was possible… I'm not gonna stop trying… even if you still want to kill me."
"Emma… Wait… I don't… want… to kill you…"
"See? That's a start!"
"How long has it been?" Xena asked with a worried look. Gabrielle pulled away from their embrace and looked up with utter guilt in her eyes, "I don't... um… A while, I was talking to Regina, telling her stories and making dinner." Xena reached out resting both of her hands on either side of the bard's head forcing her to look up into her eyes. "Look, Emma is upset, and you probably couldn't have stopped her from leaving, so stop with the look. This isn't your fault, and I'll find her."
"What look? I don't have a look!" Gabrielle snapped sounding offended.
A crooked smile greeted the bard, "You do. It is going to be okay. I promise."
"I.. I just know how she feels… when… when Callisto…" the bard started, but emotion choked her momentum.
"Shhhh….I know my bard. Which way did she head? I'll see if I can catch up to her before it gets too dark."
Gabrielle pointed towards the river with a shaky hand, "But I don't know which way she went after hitting the water."
Xena pulled her love close and laid a kiss upon her forehead, "Stay here, keep talking to Regina, she can hear you. I did." With one final pat to the shoulder, Xena was off following Emma's trail.
It didn't take long for Xena to catch up with the Savior and found her huddled in a ball on the forest floor. Xena's heart broke imagining Gabrielle in the same state and knew all too well what Emma was going through. She bent down and put her hand on Emma's arm; the girl was asleep, her tear stained face still damp from her sorrow. Xena slid her arms behind her head and under her knees and lifted her up and carried her back to camp. The girl did not rouse from unconsciousness during the walk back, and Xena whispered to her, reassuring her that all would be okay, "We'll find a way."
Back at camp, Gabrielle started the task of breaking up soft branches from the variety of trees in the area, laying them over the wooden bed that would carry Regina the rest of the way to the Amazon village. She scooped up a hearty arm full of soft leaves and matted down grasses mixing it in with the young, thin branches. She covered the entire sled with a large cloth, tucking in the edges to keep the makeshift mattress together. She pushed down the center of the bed and then stood back pleased with her work. She heard someone approaching, and grabbed her staff weapon. She instinctively stood between Regina and the soft footsteps she heard.
When she saw Xena carrying Emma, she ran over to her in a panic. "What happened? Is she okay? Gods Xena! I shouldn't have let her go!" Xena grimaced with strain and then set the blonde down near Regina. "She is okay. The stress of all this," waving her hands over Regina, "has our little Sheriff overwhelmed a bit."
Gabrielle looked down at the two sleeping women then back to her lover, "This whole thing is such a mess, isn't it? We need to get to the Amazons. Magdalus will be able to help her, right? I mean she isn't going to…" she trails off not wanting to bring her fears to light, it would make them a possibility.
"No," Xena replied. "Just, no." She took Gabrielle into her arms and squeezed her tight. "No," she repeated, more for her own sake than the blonde.
Emma slept through the night, her body in desperate need of rest. The stresses of the previous week had sapped her reserves. She awoke at first light, confused at first about where she was, but then saw Regina laying on the stretcher. Everything came rushing back causing her to purse her lips together tight to fight back the sob she had creeping up her throat.
Xena had all but packed up their gear. She walked back from hitching Regina up to Argo and woke Gabrielle from her much deserved sleep.
Emma sat up still looking over at Regina and asked, "She'll be okay on that right? I mean, I'm sure you know how to… uh…" desperation shown in her eyes as she stumbled to articulate her fears.
Xena crouched down next to her sleeping bard, "Yes Emma, we'll take good care of the Queen." She nudged Gabrielle gently with a smile on her face. The smile was more to calm Emma than it was to show her actual feelings, truth be told, she's worried about Regina, not that she will die, but that she just won't wake up and Xena knew, Emma won't ever leave her, won't ever move on, won't ever give up on her queen. She wouldn't.
They ate breakfast in virtual silence, cleaned up and finished packing Argo. They were on the road within an hour of Xena waking Emma. The Sheriff walked alongside Xena who led Argo in a brisk and steady pace, unable to face the stillness of Regina for a time. Gabrielle hung back talking through an adventure she was working on to her captive audience. Xena looked over at Emma, "You okay?" Emma didn't meet her glance and simply replied, "No."
They walk for a bit in silence, then Xena said, "Tell me about Henry?" Emma looked at her and softened her scowl as she remembered her son. "He is amazing. He is smart, so very smart. She raised him so much better… I… I just don't know where I'd be without him." She was smiling, but there was a pang of sadness in her eyes. "He found me, on my 28th birthday."
"Oh?" Xena probed.
"Yeah, I made a wish on my cupcake candle that I wouldn't be alone and then some kid knocks on my door and changes my entire life." She smiled wide holding in the wave of emotion. "Now I have my parents, my son… and… m-my fa-fa-family." The wave crested and she started to choke up with tears that ran down her cheeks.
"Regina is who you mean?" Xena pushed. Emma laughed and sniffled, "Yeah. We had a rough start, but I consider her… my best friend. No one understands me quite like Regina does. Despite everything, she has worked so hard to be better."
Xena put her hand on the smaller blonde's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "It'll be okay Emma." Her heart ached for this woman and her plight. She was uncertain about the outcome, but she would do everything in her power to fix this for the women.
"So, may I ask you a question, Xena? It is kind of personal."
Xena lifted a brow in response and tentatively drawled, "Suuuuure?"
"When did you know? I mean, about you and Gabrielle? How did you know if it was, what she wanted? The scrolls that are told in my world didn't have you two… together… I mean, you were friends but not, lovers."
Xena couldn't hide the shock that crossed her face, "Really? I mean, I guess the stories Gabrielle tells are more focused on the action, the rest can get lost, but… just friends? Really?"
Emma smirked. "Yeah well, I mean, there is a whole subtext thing, and I think most people realize…" Xena rolled her eyes, and Emma continued as her cheeks turned pink, "At least I did."
Xena swallowed another mouthful of water and chuckled. "Well to answer your question, I knew for sure after an accident I had, it left me near death and Gabrielle did everything she could to save me. While I was unconscious, I could hear her begging me to come back to her. I knew I felt…" she looked away, "more… for her before that, but that was when I realized she felt the same way for me."
Emma's eyes dart back to the sleigh being dragged quickly then swallowed hard, "Oh."
Xena said, "How long have you known you were in love with her?"
Emma rubbed the back of her neck with her hand and looked down. "I think I… I don't know."
"But you know now, don't you?" Xena pushed.
"Yeah. It's complicated," Emma said quietly. "I-I don't… I mean, it's hard for me to... um… a-an-and if sh-she-she doesn't… it would ruin… well, it isn't just about me, our son, it would be hard on him... If w-we went back to...a-and I would rather die than hurt Henry."
Xena smirked, "Henry."
Emma scrunched up her eyebrows in a pleading manner in hopes that Xena would just understand. Understand that she is afraid of losing Regina in any capacity. Xena nodded and shrugged her shoulders a bit, "Your son sounds like a strong kid. He would probably want his mothers to be happy, no matter the risk." Emma knew she was right; Henry would adjust. He loved the Swan-Mills family when it is just the three of them; he being the center of both of his mother's unyielding, undying attention. Emma replied, "Yeah. He would love it."