Author's Note: To the individual who inquired about the pronunciation of Mireya, I hear it as follows: myrrh(like the spice)-ay-yah
Chapter 10 - An Audacious Experiment
The trip through the hat is uneventful up until Jefferson notices a brand new door. Encased directly next to the one they've just exited, it is nearly identical save appearing reversed, as if it had been crafted by sight through a mirror directed at the one leading to the Wish Realm. Regina recognizes it instantly as leading to the real version of the Enchanted Forest, which makes a lot of sense as the two worlds are mirrored in an odd sort of way.
"What the hell?" Jefferson's exclamation is only made more humorous by the way he comically stares at the door as if a calf upon a new gate. "That wasn't there two months ago."
"Because you did not yet exist at that time," Regina says, smirking in amusement at Jefferson's consternation. "When Emma here was granted her wish," she indicates toward the blonde with her head, "your world was created. I must admit, I wasn't expecting this. I'd thought your world would disappear, along with you, once Emma and I were back in Storybrooke. However, it appears the Genie's magic must also have linked your hat to the same hub our Jefferson's connects to."
"If you say so," Jefferson 2.0 says, glowering at being essentially referred to as a month old phony. "But if the hubs are connected, doesn't that mean I'm just as real as him now?"
Regina's toothy grin falters as the implications that all-too-appropriate question pierces through the veil of her scientific fascination for the art of magic. The Wish Realm having a door in the hat hub does, indeed, mean that it is not merely a product of Emma's imagination or a temporarily existent realm bound to the same. She hadn't really stopped to consider that in her desperation to get home and then her entanglement with the family she'd inadvertently stumbled into.
Now, though, the implications slam into her with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. It's real. Real, real, real. As in the world she'd just sorrowfully departed truly exists within the same physical universe as the Earth, Neverland, Wonderland, the Enchanted Forest, Olympus, and a plethora of other worlds. It means those she's just left behind, the Queen and Red and Mireya, are flesh and blood that persist in spite of her belief they would be erased once she and Emma passed through the portal.
The hugs they gave each other, the conversations they engaged in, the laughs they'd shared...all of it was real. Her daughter is real...the daughter she's just left behind, who stole her heart only to return it filled to the brim with a hope Regina had thought to never have again. Mireya hadn't vanished into the ether like so much vapor. She was still back there in her world, probably missing Regina just as much as Regina missed her and mourning the loss of the profound connection they had established in so woefully brief a time together.
The very thought paralyzes Regina into inaction. She stands there staring at the Wish World door, crestfallen, tears streaming down her face, wanting to do nothing more than throw it back open and rush back through, if only for the chance to hold her daughter in her arms one more time. Knowing that Mireya was not merely part of a story like in Heroes & Villains or some temporary wisp of magic that would puff out of existence once out of sight, but is solid and permanent, has changed everything. Her perception of their undeniable bond and of their heartwrenching goodbye has been totally altered. She'd been banking on being allowed to grieve for what she's lost once she was back home. But how can she grieve when Mireya, and Red for that matter, are still alive?
Aching to the marrow of her bones for her girls, those two angels she'd fallen so helplessly in love with, she doesn't hear Emma's repeated calls for her attention. It's only a hand between her shoulder blades that wrenches her out of her grieved stupor.
"Are you okay?" When Emma comes around so that they are face to face, her concern is palpable. She blanches upon sight of Regina's tears. "You're crying. What's wrong?"
"I-I..." Regina inhales a breath, then lets it out slowly. It comes out shaky. Her hands tremble, and she rubs them together against the chill that's set in. "It's real, Emma."
Golden arched brows furrow so tightly they almost merge. "I don't understand. What's real?"
"The Wish World!" Regina gestures wildly as she speaks, her heart racing as she tries to process what she's just left behind. "Jefferson is right. If it's connected to the hat, that means it's real! Don't you see? That means Mireya is still where I left her, probably feeling as torn apart on the inside as I am. Because I just walked away from my child, Emma, and I may never see her again. She's real, and I could have said so much more. Did so much more. I should have...I-I should have made sure she knows h-how much I love her..."
Emma shuffles closer, her expression strangely calm as she reaches out to rub at Regina's shoulders. "She knows, Regina. Believe me, she does. And don't think you're alone in feeling this way." She pauses to swallow thickly, then shudders out an uneasy breath as she releases Regina, her hands flopping back down uselessly at her waist. "Remember, you're not the only one who left a daughter behind."
Regina winces at her selfishness. She'd got so wrapped up in feeling sorry for herself that she'd forgotten all about what Emma has been asked to sacrifice.
"Oh, Emma. Ella..."
"Is safe and happy." Emma's eyes are gentle when she cuts in, and her tone projects far more confident optimism than Regina could ever hope to muster in this quagmire of a complicated situation. In that moment, the Savior looks more like Snow White than she ever has. "She has a mother who loves her, and another who now has a way to visit when she gets a spare minute or two for herself."
Regina blinks owlishly at Emma's intent to return to the Wish Realm via their Jefferson's hat. Which is not only possible but a fantastic idea Regina wishes she'd had instead of nearly falling apart all over again.
"You're going to come back?" she asks, hesitant to express her own desire to do the same out of fear. Of what, she isn't sure. Perhaps, she thinks, it is because going back will mean she'll have to spend more time around Red and Mireya knowing they aren't hers, and then turn around and leave them all over again, no doubt breaking all of their hearts a second time.
"I promised her I would," Emma says, as if the matter were a foregone conclusion. It's clear Emma doesn't care how much pain she has to endure to keep Ella in her life, that a day or a week every a couple times a year is better than never. Regina wishes she was so brave. "I've been absent for her entire life, Regina," Emma goes on, supplying her motivation without Regina having asked. "How could I deny her the right to know me? A little less than a month just isn't enough. And since she's moving to the Queen's Palace after the wedding, I'll have ready access."
There is only one problem Regina can see with Emma having made such a promise. "But you didn't know that the Wish Realm would remain after we left. What if it had disappeared once we were in the hat room as I theorized?"
Emma smiles, patient in her assurance. "Then it would have been the most wonderful dream I've ever had. If only because I know now that my feelings likely weren't as one-sided as I'd thought."
The admission stuns Regina. "So you have feelings for Elsa, then? Or did..."
"The first," Emma quickly answers. "I love Elsa. From the moment we met, we connected on a level that I can't really describe. Mostly because of the whole born with magic we struggle to control, feeling like freaks, etc. But it was also more than that. Ya know? Or became more, rather. Somewhere during that whole unnecessary shitshow with Ingrid, I fell in love with her."
She trails off, grasping her forearms about her midsection, face a picture of long pent up anguish. "It...hurt when she left, but I knew there was nothing I could do about it. She had a kingdom to look after and a sister she loved more than anything to take care of, both of which she would never abandon. So I did like I always do, bottled up the pain and soldiered on. I'm lucky that I had my family to draw strength from, and Killian to distract me." Her expression sours even more. "And now I love him, too. But after finding out that Elsa and I may very well be True Love? I'd be lying to say the old flame for her hasn't flickered back to life. At the same time, I don't want to hurt Killian." She heaves a weary sigh. "I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I don't know what to do."
Regina takes a second to let that info dump sink in before replying. This is something else she hasn't really stopped to consider with how consumed she's been by her own suddenly expanded family. Ella's very existence proves that Emma and Elsa had True Love in the Wish World. She recalls Emma's near mortifying outburst when she'd just met Ella, how she'd insisted that no special spells had been utilized in the girl's conception. Only True Love is powerful enough to create such life without requiring the direct guidance of a human mind for activation. Which means that Emma is pretty much in the same boat as Regina is, only she's the one entangled in a relationship whereas Regina is openly planning to subvert one.
In thinking of this, she recalls a conversation she'd had with the Queen regarding this very topic.
"I don't envy the position you've been put in," she says, after she's sorted out her thoughts and decided to share that information with Emma since she now knows there is pertinence. "All I can do is remind you of my own circumstance with Ruby and of what I learned in the Wish World from my counterpart. According to the Queen, there is more than one type of True Love, which I know to be true because I formed such a bond with Henry, which you also share. But that which exists between your...I suppose you could say, altered self...and Elsa in that realm, something powerful enough to create life, is designed to draw two people together who are perfect matches for one another until they are inextricably and mutually ensnared. The Queen says that particular type involves Soul Mates who are fated to share True Love as well. She also told me a person cannot have such an intrinsic bond with more than one person at a time. So no matter how much I'd have poured my heart into Robin, we never could have connected like Ruby and I can because he was never meant to be a part of my destiny. And you of all people should know the pain that accompanies fighting against that mystical force."
Emma looks stricken at this information, and so conflicted and uncertain about what to do with it that Regina's heart goes out to her. She'd not meant to hurt her friend, but sometimes the truth does just that, and she knows that better than most it's best to have it all at once and then react accordingly than fumble about in the dark for specks of light by which to navigate.
"Look," she goes on, kindly as she can, "I know you love Hook. I don't doubt your feelings for him for a second. But I don't doubt Ruby's for Dorothy, either." The unspoken intent behind that last sentence hangs heavy between them.
Emma nods, saddened at the path Regina has so plainly laid out before her. And yet at the same time, she seems hopeful on Regina's behalf. "I guess that means you've made your choice, then."
"I have. I'm going to make my happy ending come true. Whatever it takes." If Regina were a good person, she would feel awful about that. But she is neither a good person or someone accustomed to feeling guilty for going after what she wants. Too long she's allowed the opinions of others to dictate her desires, and she's done with that. The Queen had insisted she had to learn to love herself if she wanted to be whole. For Regina, that means accepting the greedy, unethical, immoral aspects just as well as their counterbalances. Doing so begins today.
It's strange, but knowing that the Wish World is real has given her a sense of freedom that she thinks wouldn't be there otherwise. That the Queen and her decisions don't merely exist in her memory, that they were made in a tangible plane and that there were real consequences to them, means that Regina can make those very same decisions for herself. And maybe, just maybe, she'll be the beneficiary of the same – or at least passably similar – favorable consequences. It's high past time she takes back what was denied her by her mother and Rumple's devious plotting, by her own inability to resist the temptation of revenge, and by a certain verdant gnat's atrocious incompetence.
"And I can tell you one thing," she says, thinking about Tink and her piss poor fairy godmothering that had deprived Regina of a crucial choice. "After that, I'm going to hunt down that intellectually vacuous, Kiwi barbie doll of a fairy and wring her scrawny little neck!"
That draws a chuckle out of Emma. "That's my Regina. Glad to see you're back in rare form."
Regina squares her shoulders, smirking proudly. "Damn straight. Now let's go home. Destiny awaits us both!"
As Jefferson – who has lingered in the background during all of this – joins them, Emma gestures toward the door, eyeing Regina provocatively. "After you. Age before beauty and all that."
Regina bristles at the line she'd used on the Queen being turned on her. "Careful. This trip has put me back in touch with my dangerous side. I may just decide to let her out to play more often."
Emma's green eyes dance with excitement. "Oh, Regina, I'm looking forward to it. God knows life's been too dull lately."
Regina gives her friend a toothy grin. "Touché. Now, let's go home to our son."
"And to our happy endings, with whomever they may be."
Regina does not miss the implication. To herself, she thinks, Atta girl, Swan. Go thaw out that Ice Queen! Aloud, though, she says, "Hear, hear!"
And with that, they stride through the door leading to Storybrooke with the alternate Jefferson in tow. He'll stay three days in Storybrooke, some of which is spent exchanging tricks of the trade with his counterpart. To satisfy the demands of the hat that the same number of people who pass through must return, when he leaves he escorts a refugee couple from the Land of Untold Stories who richly deserve a new beginning to the Wish World.
As for Emma, she strong arms Jefferson into making himself available to her at her every whim, and visits Ella as often as she's able considering her increasingly busy schedule. Regina will tag along to spend some time with Mireya whenever she can pull away from her own mounting responsibilities. Which isn't often. But it's enough to keep her firstborn daughter alive in her heart until the day she dies.
The month Regina and Emma passed in the Wish World is equivalent to only two days in Storybrooke. Try as she might, Regina will never be able to account for the differential, not that she's complaining. It's a relief to know she hasn't missed too much, or that her absence being so prolonged has not cost precious time solving the latest crises or created an unholy log jam of paperwork for the absent Mayor. She can't imagine which scenario would have been worse.
As it is, the first thing she does after returning home is to see Henry, who is with his grandparents at their loft. During their reunion, she gives her son no indication she has a gripe to settle with him. All she wants is to hug him again, which she does until he starts to squirm due to teenage discomfort, at which point she relinquishes her hold on him. After her hugs Emma every bit as awkwardly, the assembled adults talk a bit about the Wish World and what's gone on in Storybrooke, but only in the most oblique terms.
Upon noting an hour has already passed and she has much to accomplish before she can retire for the day, Regina releases Henry into Emma's custody for the rest of the afternoon and much of the evening. His suspicious look at the unusual allowance is assuaged by telling him she has critical business to attend to that can't wait. The Charmings put up a bit more resistance at her sudden departure so soon returned from an epic adventure, but she brushes them off with far less tact than she had her son. She has no time for pleasantries.
With Henry off to Emma's new house in that four-wheel death trap the blonde calls transportation, Regina heads off to conduct an audacious experiment. The aim is to independently verify what she's discovered concerning Ruby. Not that she doubts the Queen's – or Red's for that matter – assertions that their True Love is standard within every permutation of their existence. More like she needs to see visible proof of her own inclusion in that premise before she does anything so drastic as hopping the first portal to Oz to play the part of the shameless homewrecker. To that end, she magicks a hair brush from her house into her hand before visiting the Diner to procure the same object of Ruby's.
When Regina poses the respectfully stated request to Granny, the old woman stares at her for the longest, brows furrowed and those sharp blue eyes piercing into Regina's soul. And when she does deign to speak, her tone leaves little room for negotiation.
"What do you want Ruby's hairbrush for?"
Regina's lips spread into a thin line. Few enemies have ever intimidated her as the short but stout silver-haired werewolf who wields her crossbow with as deadly precision as her barbed tongue. Honestly, the Charmings should have just sent Granny after her when she was the Evil Queen. The cantankerous woman could probably have verbally berated her into surrendering.
"I learned something while I was in the Wish World," she says, fidgeting due to flaring nerves at Granny's imposing posture. "I need the brush to confirm that information." When Granny starts to inquire further, clearly unsatisfied with the explanation, Regina's resolve returns enough for her to the incoming inquisition with a raised hand and a tight jaw. "I'm sorry, Granny, I really can't say anything more. Not yet. But I promise I'll tell you as soon as I get what I need."
Granny announces her displeasure by crossing her arms over her chest as her eyes narrow into thin slits. She takes on a stance that clearly indicates she has both literally and metaphorically dug her heels in on this subject. "Sorry. Not good enough. Not where my granddaughter is concerned. She's just found a tiny slice of happiness after all these years and I won't have anyone messin' that up. Not even you, your Majesty."
Regina tenses, jaw clenching against the urge to make demands. Or threats. Neither of which would do her much good. She settles for a stiff but plaintive plea. "Granny, please just trust me. It's not like I'm asking for much. Just a plain old hairbrush. And I swear to you..." Granny cuts her off before she can even really start shoring up her case.
"I said no, Regina. If you want the brush so bad, you're gonna have to give me more than a vague promise that you mean well."
Frustration mounting, Regina counts backwards from ten, hoping her temper abates by the time she reaches one, or else she'll spout off at the mouth as she is wont to do and ruin any good will Granny has toward her.
Just once, she complains to her self as she tries to reign in her anger, could things not have come easily for me? But no! Even procuring a simple hair brush has to be a convoluted ordeal equivalent to a root canal.
It's just not fair! Everything in her life, every lesson learned, every goal achieved, every desire attained, has come through either the shedding of blood or tears. She's emotionally eviscerated herself more times than she can count to gain purchase on slippery footholds that never ascend anywhere of value. She's known the gnawing of madness due to countless setbacks and has endured the unmatched misery of watching her enemies get everything they wanted with next to no effort whilst she had spilled out her energy, time, and passion as a savory sacrifice upon the altar of progress to gods without ears to hear or hearts with which to pity. No one held her when she cried herself sick at night like she'd done for Snow in spite of her resentment of the girl, all the while missing Daniel and feeling helplessly ensnared within in a loveless marriage to a man whose sole interests in her were as a surrogate mother to his insufferably bratty daughter and as a voiceless, powerless outlet in which to discharge his animal instincts without ever once bothering to provide her a reciprocal release.
When she rose to infamy as the Evil Queen, the moronic resistance fighters who aided and abetted their deposed Princess often cursed her to hell with their last breath.
"No, thanks. I've already been there," she'd say, sneering right back before apathetically snuffing out yet another life.
No one knew the road of suffering she'd trodden, paved with tainted dreams and untold heartache, feet bleeding, knees aching, back knotted, step-by-agonizing-step until she finally stumbled upon a fortuitous exit in a bottle. By virtue of pretending to love an urchin whose inability to keep a secret deprived her of her love, she'd earned her freedom. Through countless nights of that disgusting pig rutting away at her until he collapsed and left her burning inside from chafing every bit as psychological as it was physical, she'd earned her crown. After being so cruelly denied even the balm of revenge within the unwelcome borders of her homeland, she'd earned her new beginning in the Land Without Magic. And there, she'd turned right around and earned the right to be Henry's mother with each diaper changed, each injury she kissed better, every spoonful of mashed peas she cajoled him to eat with silly sounds and sillier faces, and with each night she spent sleeping in the floor next to his bed whenever he was sick. Nothing in her life has come without bone-rattling, teeth-grating toil, without exhausting her of all vitality in the pursuit of things most everyone else takes for granted.
Just once, she wants things to go her way like they seem to with the so-called heroes for whom fate apparently has an eternal erection. But as much as she is bitter and tired and feeling the urge to be obstinate because that will never be her lot, this visit is far too important for her pride to derail it.
"Fine," she huffs, somewhat dejected at having to surrender even this much. But she does because she remembers what Red's kiss tastes like. And she remembers her promise to Mireya. That said, she is unwilling to discuss this further with so large an audience. Glancing about the mostly-packed Diner, she cuts Granny stern glare. "I'll tell you. But not where the rabble can overhear."
Granny gives her a single, terse nod. "Alright, let's go to my office in the back."
"After you," Regina says, gesturing for Granny to lead the way. She follows the elder Lucas into the kitchen and on into the little room tucked away in the rear of the building. Once both are inside, Granny all but slams the door shut, then whirls on Regina with all of her typically abrupt bluster. "We're alone. Now start talkin'."
Regina glances up at the ceiling, prevaricating at a loss for how exactly to explain what has happened to her over the past month. "I...I don't know where to start, honestly." She heaves a forlorn sigh.
"The beginning is usually the best place."
Regina rolls her eyes at the biting sarcasm, but accepts the suggestion all the same. As mechanically as she's able, she delivers a Cliff's Notes version of her trip to the Wish World, more detailed than that she'd related to the Charming's, from her being found by Mireya to discovering her alternate is married to Ruby's. When she's done some minutes later, Granny is wearing a peculiar smile, blue eyes twinkling with a secret.
"Why are you looking at me that way?" Regina asks, on edge at the strange reaction. "And why aren't you yelling at me that all of this is nonsense, that what is true in that world isn't necessarily true in ours? That Ruby is happy and I need to mind my own damn business? You certainly seemed to be of that opinion not five minutes ago..."
Granny smirks crookedly as she readjusts her glasses. "Maybe I changed my mind since then."
Regina crosses her arms, feeling defensive and skeptical at the neck-breaking shift in attitude. "Why?"
Granny frowns. "Are you always so suspicious?" She pauses, then ruefully shakes her head as if already knowing the answer. "Ya know what, don't answer that. If you really wanna know, it's because I always thought you'd be the one she finally made a move on. Not some random hussy she's known all of five damn minutes."
The answer sideswipes Regina with such force she falters on suddenly weakened knees. "Wha-what?"
"Oh, come on. I'm supposed to believe you didn't notice how she made moon eyes at you for three decades? 'Cause damn was it painfully obvious. I'm tellin' ya, that girl was so far gone she woulda ate crackers off your ass if you'd asked her to."
Granny has never been one to mince words, but that colorful description has Regina grimacing. And blushing just a little bit at the unbidden images produced. "Jesus, Granny..."
"Only she never did anything about it," Granny plows forward, evidently uncaring what Regina thinks of her language. "And that despite my best attempts to get her to stop being such a – well, pardon my French – pussy, and go after what she wanted." Regina is less shocked by Granny's second broach of social etiquette than the revelation that Ruby had harbored a legitimate crush on her during the curse. And what's more, Granny had encouraged her to act on it. In her wildest dreams should couldn't have imagined either being true. "For that matter," Granny then says, eyeing Regina critically, "you weren't any better about it." When Regina's eyes flash, she quickly adds, "And don't you dare try to convince me you weren't interested, either! For God's sake woman! I caught you ogling her legs more times than I care to recount."
Regina blushes to the roots of her hair. There is no denying she'd wanted a taste of Storybrooke's finest pair of legs...and everything else they were attached to. "Well, I...I..." she sighs, then rubs at her eyes, suddenly weary. "I admit the attraction was there, but I wasn't ready to do anything about it. I think you know why."
Granny tilts her head wolfishly, understanding shining in her piercing blue eyes. "I do. Which is why I eventually let it go. Ruby projects invulnerability, but she has a big heart that's crushed way too easily for likes of you if I'm being honest."
"Well, thanks for that," Regina grumbles as she averts her gaze, not liking how accurate an assessment that is of her temperament back then.
However much she wishes Granny was wrong, she is convinced that a relationship between her and Ruby within the Curse would have ended in disaster. If not during the course of it, then certainly afterward when Ruby regained her memories and inevitably started to hate her again, this time with the added indignity of being taken advantage of in her ignorance. Regina isn't sure what she would have done had the latter come to pass, but she knows it wouldn't have been pretty. Between her struggles with Emma over Henry and her heartbreak over losing Ruby – with whom she can say with absolute certainty, having met Red and the Queen, she would have fallen in love however much she tried not to – there is simply no telling how maniacal she would have become. Far more, in her estimation, than she'd been with only one of those factors driving her to extremes of desperation. Perhaps in that circumstance, redemption would have slipped forever beyond her grasp.
"Oh, hush and let me finish," Granny says, displeased with Regina's sulking. "I was also gonna say that was then. Now that I know you better and seen you with Henry, and how you've made friends with folk that have raised swords against you, I think I should have kept pushing her to talk to you about how she felt."
Regina looks up, surprised even though she shouldn't have been. Granny has been nothing but supportive of her lately, almost...well, grandmotherly. Whatever indirect feud existed between them is all but buried. It's different, though, for Granny to exhibit such trust where any potential affiliation with Ruby is concerned.
"You really think that?" she asks, sounding small in a way that irks her endlessly.
Granny shrugs. "I'm just as surprised as you are. I always thought you were just a heartless witch incapable of love, but I was wrong. Glad of it, too. I just wish Ruby'd stuck around a while longer to watch you become the woman standing before me today. A woman I'd be proud to have as a daughter-in-law."
"Granny...wow. I don't know what to say to that." And that's the truth. What else can she say when she's been given approval she hasn't asked for from a woman who has zero reason to trust, let alone respect, her. Affection for the elder werewolf swells in her heart, and it must spill over into her expression if Granny's response is any indication.
"That's alright. You don't have to say nothin'. I can tell you feel the same." Granny smiles, then opens the top right drawer and withdraws a hairbrush that has been stashed there, obviously Ruby's judging by the long, brunette strands still hung upon its bristles. "Here," she hands the brush to Regina, who accepts it with all the reverence due such an act of trust. "Go take that and find out what I already know. That you two belong together."
Regina takes the brush with trembling hands. "Thank you, Granny. I-this means so much to me. More than I can express. But if I can ask one question of you before I leave…?" Granny nods, so Regina goes on. "If you thought we belonged together, why didn't you say anything? To me, I mean. Maybe I could've made better choices. Maybe I could've stopped Ruby from going to Oz. Maybe..."
"Stop. Just stop, Regina. There's nothin' worth while to be found in maybes and what-ifs. And I didn't say anything because you wouldn't have listened." Which is true. Regina hangs her head in shame. But then Granny tips her chin with a weathered index finger. "That said," she says, eyes twinkling with sagacity, "As my granddaughter likes to point out, I'm an old school gal. I believe things always work out the way they're meant to in the long run. And I know Ruby supposedly gave her lady True Love's Kiss, but something about their relationship never sat right with me. I think you know why that is."
Regina nods, shame spreading into her chest, not just over her own stupidity, but for her son's foolish actions as the Author. "I believe Henry may have had something do with it."
"Ah." Granny breathes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. She's clearly disappointed in Henry, but there's no anger, no outrage behind it. Just compassion. "Power like he's been given? I imagine it'd be hard to resist changing things in seemingly innocent ways to make good people happy."
Regina is quite astonished at the insight. Not many know Henry is the Author, and of those, how many would make the connection between what Regina has learned and the power of the Author's Pen? Few, if any. And yet Granny had done so instantly. How is it, she wonders, that she'd so long overlooked so vast a fount of wisdom? She makes a promise to herself not to be so obtuse in the future. Especially where Ruby is concerned. If she's going to win the heart of her True Love, she'll take all the help she can get.
"It is, and I intend to talk to him about it when I get home later," Regina says, confirming Granny's deduction. They share a look that tells Regina the elder matriarch knows almost as well as she does the insidious nature of power and how seductively it corrupts.
The wolf, she thinks, imagining what having that kind of bestial power lurking within might feel like. To have the strength to rip a human body apart limb-from-limb or shred it into mince meat with talon-like claws and razor-sharp teeth. To have superhuman senses always bombarding her with input that her human brain couldn't possibly interpret without overloading. To know the freedom of being wild and carefree, running through the forest underneath the full moon, without any responsibilities to drag her down from the neverending high of simply existing for each moment as if it were the last. Magic is intoxicating and addictive in its own way, but according to the Queen, it's incomparable to the pure, unadulterated sensations uniquely associated with being a werewolf. And that is something Regina wants so badly for herself that her veins sing a siren song beckoning for Ruby's bite.
An image flashes through her mind that sends pulses of desire straight to her nether regions. It's so strong, it reminds her of when she was back in the Wish World the morning after her horrific nightmare, only there's no mirror to reflect what she's seeing and she is not alone. The latter has her fighting against the pull, but before she can break the oncoming spell, she's yanked out of the present into a tantalizing glimpse of the future she will often draw upon for strength in the coming months.
She's sitting upon the little bench next to the bay window in her bedroom, stark naked with an equally disrobed Ruby straddling her left leg as she hovers a hairsbreadth away. Propped up against the far end, spread wide open for her supernatural spouse of nearly three years, Regina watches with hooded lids and heaves staccato breaths as Ruby leans in, eyes burnished golden yellow, teeth bared so that wolfen fangs glint in the pale light of a full moon. Three fingers deep inside her having already worked her halfway toward a volcanic eruption, Ruby zeroes in on her neck, the veins of which are straining against her heated, sweat-slick skin. And then, when Regina gasps as deft fingers find her most sensitive spot, Ruby opens her mouth wide, and slowly descends toward her target.
The transformative bite of a werewolf is not exactly as portrayed in the movies, as it is neither a bacteria nor a virus that infects the victim so much as it is a magical transference delivered via the bloodstream. To be effective, the bite must be administered at the height of Wolf's Time into the most direct route to the brain and the heart, meaning it must simultaneously penetrate the carotid artery and jugular vein, and with surgical accuracy lest the victim exsanguinate. Because of the precision required, werewolves normally turn only the willing, and the bite is typically performed ceremonially with careful supervision and stringent safeguards in place. But Regina wants, no needs, her induction to be private, so Henry is out of the house along with his baby sister at Emma and Elsa's, and there are no witnesses to assure customary protocol is followed. Thus, this moment is between her and her beloved alone, when they are locked in an intimate embrace, unified in body, mind, heart, and soul. And soon to be in magic.
Sharper than any scalpel, Ruby's fangs slide easily into the thin flesh of her neck, and the very instant they pierce through the intended vessels, briefly flooding Ruby's mouth with her life essence, the lambent inferno of creation itself flares behind her eyes, suffuses her cells, and sears into the deepest recesses of her psyche. Regina shouts a hoarse curse, tasting the tang of copper in her mouth. Ecstasy blinding her and euphoria inundating her senses until every last nerve ending is screaming manifold lamentations and praises and hallelujahs are ringing in her ears, she digs her nails into Ruby's lower back hard enough to provoke a heavy groan from her gorgeous wife, whose hips are rolling frantically against Regina's arousal-coated thigh. Her entire body quakes as her womanhood throbs with molten pleasure and furiously clenches from an orgasm so unbearable that she's unable to control her limbs or her hold on consciousness. Were it not for Ruby's strength keeping her from falling, she's pretty sure she would have poured like so much goo onto her recently polished hardwood floors.
How long she is lost in that incomparably sublime rapture she can't tell, only that when her wits return, Ruby's delightfully familiar weight is flush against her in all the right places as her long, dexterous tongue deliberately and gently laps at the puncture wounds on Regina's neck to seal them up. Something about the healing properties of werewolf saliva.
Regina sighs out with a satisfaction she couldn't describe in a hundred tomes worth of words. The rumbling chuckle Ruby responds with reverberates through her body into Regina's bliss-weakened frame...
"Well, go easy on him," Granny then says, and Regina snaps out of her lustful trance, no time having passed and just before she embarrasses herself. All the same she's sure she's flushed, which is why Granny is eyeing her strangely. To the elder woman's credit, she ignores the heat in Regina's cheeks to continue making her point. "He's just a boy. He didn't mean to hurt anybody."
Regina shakes her head sadly, the effects of the vision ebbing as precipitously as it came on. As much as it hurts her that Henry has done something so foolish, she hurts worse for him. "Yet, he did just that, didn't he? Your own granddaughter, at that. Ruby believes she's with her True Love when she's not. She's going to be heartbroken to learn what's happened, and Henry will have to live with that."
"It's a tough lesson to be sure. Lucky for you he's a quick learner."
"I hope so, Granny, I hope so. For his sake."
As much as Regina would love to stay and chat with her unexpected advocate, there is another appointment she had arranged shortly before arriving at the Diner that demands her attention. She thanks Granny once again for her help, and they exchange a few more pleasantries before Regina departs for Gold's Pawn Shop where the next step in her experiment awaits. Rather than drive, she uses the expeditious method of transporting herself there via magic, landing just outside the door. The sole purpose of not arriving inside the shop is to make a grand entrance, which she does, and with all of her usual flair. After throwing the door open, she waltzes in pretty as she pleases, dangerous smile upon her face as she greets the two antagonistic occupants she'd summoned.
"Rumple. Blue. Thank you for coming."
Both of them look supremely uncomfortable being in such close proximity, not only to each other but to her, which amuses Regina to no end.
"You're welcome," Blue starts off, diplomatic as always in that cloying, phony way that never fails to incite Regina's loathing. "I was intrigued by your phone call. You said you'd like me to perform a spell regarding True Love?"
"Indeed," Regina says, keeping tight rein on her emotions as she holds out both brushes – hers and Ruby's – to Blue. "Take a single hair from each. I'd like you to confirm that the two individuals to whom they belong are, in fact, True Loves. Can you do that?"
"Well, yes, but..."
Regina doesn't let the deceptively conniving woman finish her request for more information. She trusts Blue about as much as she does Rumple, which is to say, not at all. Unless, that is, there is an angle Blue is working that aligns with Regina's ends, in which case the devious wasp can be depended upon to deliver. With this, though, she is unwilling to unveil any information beyond the bare minimum.
"Splendid!" Smiling as smugly as she can, she then turns to Rumple, leaving Blue spluttering indignantly. "As for you, I know you're able to utilize hairs to bottle True Love. You've done it once before. Do it again." She then holds the brushes out to her former mentor, who eyes her suspiciously.
"What's this about, Regina?" he asks, the gears of an all-too-perceptive mind visibly turning behind his impossibly dark eyes.
She squares her shoulders, shuttering off her expression. "None of your business."
A reptilian smile slides across Rumple's lips that reminds Regina of Hook's rather apt moniker for the Dark One. "Oh, but if you're requiring my expertise in the area of True Love, it most certainly is my business."
"Can't you just do this one thing for me without making a fuss?"
"Well, dearie, at the moment I'm not inclined to generosity where you're concerned. Not when your catastrophically stupid mistake has cost me a chance at reconciling with Belle."
Regina knows to whom he is referring. Obviously the Evil Queen has insinuated herself in the Dark One's life, probably playing up the old attraction they'd danced around in the old days when she was little more than a junkie hooked on the highly addictive substances he so readily supplied. Regina has outgrown her addictions, or at least the non-Evil half of her has.
"I'm sure my...unsavory counterpart didn't need much help in that department," she says, prodding with great risk at one of Rumple's sorest spots: his rocky relationship with his wife. When his face reddens as if he's about to explode with fury, she knows she's gone too far. She sighs, disappointed in herself for taking the bait. She'd not wanted to provoke him but just couldn't help herself. Theirs was a give and take sort of relationship, in more avenues than she cared to examine closely. "I'm sorry. That was out of line." The apology throws Rumple off completely. He stands there gaping at her as if she's grown another head. "I know. It's not like me to apologize without prompting, but...I need your help. Once, you told me that you cared for me beyond my being your pupil, that you regretted how things became so contentious between us. This is your chance to prove you meant it."
His eyes narrow skeptically, but that he doesn't outright deny her is a step in the right direction. "And what's in it for me?"
"A potentially expedient end to my 'catastrophically stupid mistake'." It's the truth, just a roundabout version of if. Should her beliefs be confirmed, she'll have leapt the last hurdle on her way to acceptance, not only of her destiny, but of herself. She just needs to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel before she leaves her feet and surrenders a tiny portion of her agency to the designs of fate.
His eyes sharpen into slits. "Explain."
"I can't do that. Not before I know for sure," Regina says, getting a little closer to desperation with her former mentor's continued hesitance. She'd been willing to concede to Granny's demands because she knew the honorable Widow Lucas wouldn't take advantage of the delicate information. Regina is under no such illusions with Rumplestiltskin, the man who'd painstakingly taught her everything she knows about gaining leverage and then exploiting it without mercy. "Please, Rumple. I won't beg, but I am asking with as much sincerity as I can muster. Please, do this for me."
For a moment she is sure he's about to tell her off, but then he deflates, his breath draining out of him along with his fight. "If it means that viper will be dealt with sooner rather than later..." he says, and then plucks a hair from each comb before tearing away toward the back without further comment.
The surrender releases a ball of stress that had been forming in the pit of Regina's stomach. And while Rumple disappears behind the curtain separating the store from his private workshop, she relaxes marginally enough to neutrally observe Blue perform a spell upon the hairs pinched between her slim digits. Anxiety builds back up in Regina's chest as the Cardinal Fairy works, weaving her magic around the hairs with the practiced efficiency of an ancient being for whom casting spells is as natural as breathing. When the process reaches the stage where Blue's magic is swirling and dancing around her hands, the stress becomes so intolerable that Regina has to clamp her eyes shut for fear.
What if the Queen was wrong to insist True Love was universal? What if the kisses with Red were misleading because of the magic of the Wish Realm somehow confusing Regina for her elder alternate? What if, because of one ghastly mistake and three decades of wasted opportunities, Ruby isn't her True Love here anymore? That would mean everything she's gone through the past month was for naught, and Regina doesn't think she could survive that blow. Not so soon after Robin's death. And not after she's finally resurrected that part of her that died with Daniel: her hope.
For a moment, dread overcomes her, and all she can do is dwell on the possibility that the spells she has commissioned will fail. That the proof she is seeking will only serve as the impetus of yet another blow to her already precariously fragile heart. It becomes more difficult to breathe as each second flows into another like so much frigid molasses. The walls feel as if they are about to close in upon her, and Regina braces herself for the inevitable spear thrust through her chest by the cruel hand of fate.
But then she hears a sharp intake of breath, and her eyes gingerly crack open to a sight that not only instantly re-energizes her, but which sends a thrilling current of electricity arcing down her spine. The hairs Blue was once holding separately are now wound around one another of their own accord and are glowing the same translucent, sparkling amber that Emma's Savior magic does. Regina doesn't have to be a legendary fairy godmother to understand the significance.
A mere second later, Rumple reemerges, holding a jar containing two entwined hairs glowing with the same brilliant intensity as those Blue is so delicately holding. The double confirmation is all Regina needs to know that her entire life has changed forever.
"Now, tell me what this was about, Regina," Rumple says, and Regina won't remember until much later on that he wears his fascination as openly as his greed. "To whom do these hairs belong?"
Ecstatic at having the Queen's assertions proven once and for all, Regina ever-so-slightly lowers her defenses. "One of them is mine."
Rumple appears to have anticipated this revelation, though Regina notes that Blue is watching her intently as she answers, and that as she announces that one half of the True Love couple is her, the fairy's eyes nearly bulge out of her head.
"And the other?" Blue asks, nearly breathless in wonderment.
"That's for me to know and you to find out." It comes out less hostile than Regina had intended, but she doesn't bother to correct that regrettable lapse in disdain. There will be time later for her to express her animosity for Blue. And for Tinker Bell.
"Very well. Just remember we have a deal," Rumple says, studying her carefully. His curiosity is unsated, but it will just have to stay that way. As it is, she's already given these two world class manipulators quite enough ammunition.
"Yes, yes," she says, waving off his reminder. "I'm going to take care of her. You have my word."
Rumple draws up straighter then, one hand holding the jar up so that he can intently study the tiny hairs practically thrumming with power. He hardly even glances her way as he speaks. "Well, then, dearie...you know the way out. You can follow her, Mother Superior."
Regina takes the dismissal far better than Blue, not that she's concerned about Blue's feelings when she has seen tangible proof that she and Ruby are, indeed, True Loves. She's so overwhelmed that she forgets to instruct Rumple to destroy the hairs he'd bottled, which is fortunate since they will, one day in the not too distant future, come in handy. Not only will she use them as evidence with which she ultimately convinces Ruby that they are meant to be together, but then later on, she will permit Rumple to use them so that magic can be restored to Storybrooke – a necessity not only for their defense against enemies from other realms but to keep Storybrooke segregated from the outside world – after the imp's even more twisted mother shows up in town and casts yet another Curse.
Head swimming with possibility, and with anticipation for the future, Regina makes her way home, where another unpleasant confrontation awaits.