In the morning, after Red had departed, Emma and Regina watched Snow and Charming interacting hoping that soon everything would be back on track.
"They're warming up to each other. This is good, this will work." Emma nodded approvingly.
"Yes, and while I am uncharacteristically happy for them there is still the matter of her," Regina tilted her head toward the woman Emma had rescued.
"Well, I had to save her." Emma sighed.
"I know why you did it, but it doesn't change the fact that she was supposed to have died. Her existence here in the Enchanted Forest will have consequences."
"She's just a sweet innocent woman."
So was I once… Regina thought silently. This woman had a family and it was entirely possible, if not probable, that Regina had killed them. What if this woman found out and it set her on a path of revenge. What if that revenge meant Regina had not just been banished by Snow but had ended up dead. That would mean no curse and no Henry...
"That may be," Regina finally responded to Emma's claim. "But even the smallest change can have unforeseen effects. Would you have thought breaking a twig at the wrong time would derail a carriage robbery, which ultimately changed the course of our entire future? She no longer belongs here."
"No she doesn't…" Emma admitted, "But I know what we can do. She can come with us."
When Emma had finished explaining her plan to the former prisoner the woman looked at Emma and Regina as if they each had an extra head.
"The future?" The story was met by disbelief. "You're both mad."
"You can't stay here. Your were supposed to die hours ago." Emma tried to reason with her.
"I don't understand! I just want to get back to my family."
Regina for her part found it refreshing that someone had some skepticism since life in Storybrooke had impossible things happening on a weekly basis. Of course time travel was apparently all too real. "I know how important family is, but you can't go back."
"Trust us." Emma pleaded.
"With all due respect, I don't trust you or believe you so unless you plan on kidnapping me I'm going to find my family."
Regina rolled her eyes as Emma not so subtly walked behind the other woman and hit her upside the head with a nearby tree limb. The woman dropped and Regina awkwardly tried to
"Really?" Regina gave her a condescending look. "You do realize you could have just given her brain damage?"
"Seriously?" Emma shook her head and a whine crept into her voice.
"What happened to her?" Charming asked as he approached.
"She's ugh resting." Emma answered. "What's up?"
"Have either one of you seen Snow? She went to the stream but hasn't…" He trailed off as he began to pat his pockets. "The ring! She took it."
"Oh…" Emma feigned surprise. "Do you know where she could have gone?"
"She mentioned passage on a pirate ship."
"Yes…" The deal that Regina had made while disguised as Hook, passage for Charming's ring, had expired yesterday morning. Snow would mostly likely exchange the ring for gold and try to deal with Blackbeard again, and the best chance Snow had to get gold was from trolls. It all came back to the troll bridge. "The best route to the port town is via the troll bridge. Of course you as a well traveled Prince knew that."
"Of course." Charming's brow furrowed. He had no idea what the best way to the harbor town was, he had grown up on a farm at least three days ride from here, but he remembered passing an old ruined bridge on their way to the Evil Queen's castle.
"Oh no!" Emma exclaimed after David had gone.
"What is it Emma? He's on his way to the bridge, isn't that where you want them to be?" Regina asked, she knew the story as well as Emma. "That's where they saved each other from the trolls."
"But the only reason she was able to do that was because –"
"Because of the dust. Which she already used on herself." Regina finished the sentence and cursed herself internally when she realized the flaw in the plan.
"Come on they're gonna need help." Emma took off running.
"Wait." Regina was breathing heavily as she tried to keep up. "We need Rumplestilkin to remove this accursed glamour. With my magic back I don't need fairy dust to turn those trolls into bugs."
"Yeah and if they spot us how would we explain that Regina Mills aka the Evil Queen was trying to save Snow White's life after setting her on fire last night?" Emma responded without breaking her stride.
"Shut up." Regina continued to run.
The scuffle with the trolls was over before and Emma and Regina reached them. Snow and Charming were safe.
"It seems the two idiots didn't need our help after all," Regina smiled at Emma and looked back as Snow took the ring from Charming and placed it on her finger.
"Yeah, not me at all." They heard Snow say as she returned the ring.
Emma didn't think she could cry anymore after last night but another tear rolled down her cheek. They watched silently as Charming and Snow went their separate ways.
"You know they always will find each other, right?" Regina assured Emma.
"Yeah I know," Emma smiled and wiped her eyes.
All of a sudden Regina doubled over feeling as though her head were about to explode.
"Regina!" Emma shouted forgetting that her parents could very likely still be close enough to hear. "Regina are you ok?"
"Yeah," She smiled as the pain passed. "My memories are back."
"That's great!" Emma bounced on the balls of her feet, she knew that if Regina's memories had returned then they'd fixed the ripple and they'd put the future back on track. "Alright, now let's go get that wand from Rumple so we can get back."
Response to the guest who asked about Red being able to recognize the scent of the Evil Queen. So the easiest answer would be Rumplestiltskin took care of that with the glamour. In the episode The Cricket Game when Cora disguised herself as Regina Ruby didn't notice a difference in scents so that would be my explanation for why she didn't notice it this time. On a more thoughtful level my theory would be this: At that point in history Red didn't really have much interaction with the Evil Queen, if I remember correctly she fought more against King George's men than Regina's guards. So even if she took the time to smell Regina in disguise she hadn't met the Evil Queen yet so she would't have much of a comparison scent. But you may ask aren't they in the Evil Queen's castle wouldn't Red notice her the scent around the castle? Well in my head Snow didn't really give Red much information on this rescue mission so Regina in disguise is dressed as a servant maybe she assumed 'Amidala' was one of the Evil Queen's servants. To be honest I didn't really think about it when I did the rewrite but I hope that answer works.