Chapter 10:R
Regina gets to see who melted her heart, Emma has to let go at the moment she finds she wants to hold on and in The Enchanted Forest, Rumple gives Regina a part of the puzzle that is the prophecy.
A-N2: The underlined pieces were not originally seen, noticed, realized or experienced by Regina, but are only now brought to her attention. They are visions of true (fanfic/headcanon) events though. LOL
Regina:
'Everyone deserves a second chance.'
The words echoed. Through the room, through her head, through her heart. And Regina? Regina recognizes, without trouble, the soft melodic voice.
HER! The words were spoken by HER of all people.
She waited for the searing sting of hatred to wash over her, hearing Snow White talk and found it instead replaced by something even more painful. It clawed at her heart, scraped it nails at the wall she'd built around it, tried to find a way in. Regina, feeling her own struggle, grasped her chest, trying to fight the ache that was filling it, when the images start to emerge.
It was very much like the movies. A concept that had taken her a while to get accustomed to in this new world, but which she had grown rather fond of. She felt her breathing alter and it seemed that, with every exhale, she shed a small sliver of the agony. She felt something soft, against her back, as if she was laying in a bed and the scenes –some of which she knew, others she had never seen before- were projected on the ceiling. Lying very still, she gave in, to the pain, to the view, to her heart.
…
A young girl, screaming in anxiety, on a bolted horse. A rescue. A heartfelt embrace.
A young girl, entrusting a woman with a secret so Regina doesn`t have to lose her mother.
The same girl, older now, bringing her flowers, begging her to talk, play, teach her things, tell her stories.
The same girl, crying in a nightmare, calling out for Regina.
The girl as a young woman, embracing her, next to the coffin of her father.
The young woman, getting away from a Huntsman, only to moments later be captured, writing a letter.
A woman, screaming her anguish over the harsh words said about the Evil Queen. A capture. A rescue.
And the girl. The young girl who has turned into a woman, saving her, taking care of her…
A story. A confession. A chance? A second chance?
'Everyone deserves a second chance.'
…
Regina felt a tug of her heart at the sight of every picture passing, as if a part of the organ broke, opened and drained into her chest, spilling icy drops on her cheeks. And suddenly she realized, she was seeing what her aunt promised. She got to see who melt her heart. But some of the images moved so fast, -her father, a genie, a fairy- she almost lost track. She willed her heart to slow, them to slow, so she could take it all in.
…
A baby, the first sight she catches of him, crying, in Gold`s arms.
The way the crying stops the moment she first holds him.
A tiny hand, reaching out to her face and grabbing a lock of hair.
Baby-blue eyes following her every move from a little cot.
A first smile, first hug.
The trust in his eyes when he looks at her, calling out for her after a nightmare, certain she can make anything scary go away.
Him. Bringing her flowers, begging her to talk, play, teach her things, tell him stories.
A young schoolboy telling his teacher how great his mom is. And the teacher, a short-haired raven beauty, smiling her agreement before helping him place his hand into the plaster.
…
The images moved again, so fast, it felt like someone pushed the fast-forward button of an old movie. And despite the fact that the visuals were passing her by so fast it made her dizzy, she felt calmer, somehow. And strangely drowsy, as if all energy was drained from her. Her arms and legs felt heavy, and the slowly pounding organ in her chest was whimpering, oozing droplets of what she now knew once was ice.
And, just as sure as she knew what she had to do when Henry had lain there, in that bed, now she knew this.
She was dying.
She was dying, but it didn't matter.
Because, no matter how painful it was to watch them, the girl she had thought she hated and the boy she known she had loved, it showed her something she had never seen before.
She was dying, but she got her second chance anyway.
Because no matter how Evil she had been.
Once upon a time, -maybe even twice- she had been loved.
She felt her eyes fall shut, and welcomed the idea that the pain would soon be less.
But then…
A fierce tug on her heart forced her eyes to fly open, her stilling breath catching in her throat.
…
A woman standing in front of a mirror. A hand placed an a swelling abdomen. A guard. An orange jumpsuit.
A woman, fighting visibly against immense pain. Her hands pinned, bound, handcuffed to a bed. Harsh words, gentle hands and an uncertainty which of them hurt more. A question. –Are you sure?- A head being turned. A teardrop, hidden, finding a way down.
…
She wanted to shake her head, wanted to dissolve the confusing views from her mind, squeezing her heart. Only… The pull of just that organ told her otherwise, and she drank in the images of Henry`s first moments in this world, expecting this was about him.
She could not have been more wrong.
…
A wish made, blowing out a candle on a cupcake.
A lost son, brought back. A glance. Gratitude. A hint of something else…
A strange yearning in turquoise eyes. To belong, to be held, just like the boy.
A realization. An invitation to a glass of applecider. A fear of losing a son, translated into a threat.
A woman, the woman she`d just threatened, defending her to the boy she had just found in a wooden castle.
A choice to stay. A key that`s turned. A clock that starts to tick.
Turquoise eyes, following Regina`s every move.
The squeeze of an arm. Reassurance a child will be rescued from a collapsed mine.
The blonde, stealing quick glance of full lips, so close to hers.
A set-up fire. A hurt ankle. Desperation. A salvation.
A crimson face, falling in the thick blonde hair, fanned on a pillow. A dream. A moan. An awakening colliding with the uttering of her name. The statement: 'Fuck, why does she have to be so damn hot?'
…
Had she had the strength, the brunette would have –outraged- screamed `Miss Swan!' Although she couldn`t be entirely sure if the outrage counted for the used language, the objectification, or the fact that it was even a question. The images started to move in their increased speed again, and Regina found herself hanging on to every flash of the blonde sheriff that passed her by.
…
A dragon, slayed by a golden sword, handled by the niece of its original owner.
A jolt at the careful caress of a finger as she is quickly untied.
A joining of hands, shortly, and a squeeze.
A look of concern shared between parents.
…
Watching herself take back the sleeping curse from Henry made the blackness around her darker. It crept in from her peripheral vision, imprisoning her.
She fought to keep her eyes open. To keep breathing. To keep watching.
It was hard to watch the kindnesses that had been done to her. Especially since she knew she had never done anything to pay back in kind. Quite the contrary, every time she had lashed out, harsh and unbidden, as if the friendly gestures had been murder-attempts.
Her heart might have been melting, but something inside her must have kept it frozen. –'Love is weakness!'-Frozen enough to, effectively, lose the ones who had actually broken through the wall. She had now seen 3 people in the world who had, once upon a time, selflessly cared for her. And she had tried to curse 2 of them. Succeeded to curse and drive away the only one she had consciously desired to keep in her life.
And still. No matter how it hurt, she could not find the courage to close her eyes.
Not just yet…
Her… She wanted to keep watching her…
…
The blonde, sobbing, hugging the boy, reaching for a hand behind her. The pain and shock, so clearly visible, when that hand is not found.
A sleeping form, unnaturally pale, placed gently in the bed by strong arms.
The saviors face while questioning a shopowner about the curse.
Teary turquoise eyes reading an old storybook, looking at a picture of a young woman, holding the girl she had just saved from a horse.
A trembling hand holding a ruby-hilted dagger, and driving it, instead of in Regina`s heart, in the wood above her head.
A tear, falling, glittering upon her chest before entering her heart.
A hand, clashed upon her chest to stop the flow of the icy, burning black smoke.
A mortified cry for help.
A doctor, speaking dreaded words.
The lightest brush of fingertips against a cheek.
The holding of a hand, clinging onto a life.
A woman, speaking urgently, in begging and despair, to a figure in a bed.
A blonde woman…
Miss Swan…
Emma…
…
She saw Emma`s lips moving, her light eyes filled to the brim with fear and panic and something else, something she could not name, something that made her want to reach out and… and…
The sounds around her had faded, the light started to swirl. Regina caught a last glimpse of shining turquoise.
And then, with a final agonizing throb, her heart stopped.
And it all went black.
.
.
Emma:
Emma Swan had had these moments in life, flashes if you will, in which she knew exactly what was going to happen. Especially in adrenaline-filled situation –Like slapping one of her drunk foster-parents across his face with his own gun, or knowing when to bolt at the sight of observant cops- she had a knack of instinctively, consciously, KNOWING what to do.
This was so NOT a moment like that.
She did not think of curses, fairytales, evil queens or blabbing princesses. She thought only of the woman in the bed. The woman who had once been, -and maybe still was-, the Evil Queen, but who she now knew, had also taken her heart in the most unexpected and undeniable way.
She had heard herself scream, the word, the only word that seemed to be able to pass her lips. Two letters filling her tearing heart, her blood, her lungs, before being pressed out of her throat.
`No!`
Her hand seemed to lead a life of its own, as it gently caressed the soft curves of Regina`s face. The rasping of breath, tension of muscles, tautness of lips, the tightness of pain, finally gone, as the woman had seemed to find the peace in death, her life had never given her.
She found the curve of Regina`s neck, and pulled her closer, resting her forehead longingly against the brunette`s.
' Please… Don`t leave me.'
This was so different than anything Emma had ever felt in her life. This wasn`t about needing a home, a place to sleep, food. This wasn`t about needing to know, needing to forgive or needing another parent for Henry. It wasn`t even about needing to be loved.
It was about the feeling that made her heart swell and ache, as if it could not contain what it held any longer.
This was about needing her.
This was about the wit and snide comments, always keeping her on her toes. About the feeling that washed over her every time the other woman was close. About the reason why that dagger never had reached Regina`s heart.
And, it was about letting go.
She wanted to speak the words she had never spoken to anyone else. Not because she didn`t feel them, but because she feared them. But now, at this moment, with nothing left to lose, she knew they would roll of her tongue without effort. A tear slid down her face, but she brushed it away, almost angrily, before placing her palm, gently, on Regina`s cheek.
It was time to say goodbye.
Letting her other hand slide in the crook of the woman's neck, she pulled her closer.
She did not feel the aches of her body, due to her earlier fight with a dragon. Did not hear the high-pitched sound of the heart monitor or what it told her.
And she did not see the tower clock, through the window, ticking to a familiar hour it had been stuck on for years.
She only had eyes, ears, heart… For Regina.
`I love you.'
And then, -it felt so natural, as if she had done it a million times before- she brought her lips to the brunette`s and sealed her words with a kiss.
.
.
Once upon a time in The Enchanted Forest
He had awaited her. Actually, he had awaited this moment, for a very long time. He had known she wouldn`t get it right the first time. After all. He could see.
Once upon a time, it had bothered him that certain things, he could not. He was not one of those cherubic little angels were linked to the fairies and called it upon themselves to meddle with love. Cupids, he knew, were the only ones who could actually SEE twu loww.
They worked together, these two magical creatures, the winged wish-granting nuisances and the angelic handsome boys who spoke their predictions in poetry. And despite the rule that only on rare occasions, a young-looking angel was to point an arrow-the tip drenched in the fairy-brewed potion (or poison) that caused an infatuation, and only when pixie dust had been used to confirm one`s true love, -just to ' help them along' so to speak.- he had seen it go wrong many a time.
Love was powerful, but in order to be true, the subjects of it had to find each other, not be pushed together solely for the purpose of creating true love. The little schemes he had created to let Snow and her Prince accidentally meet were all well-thought-out, but time and time again, they had failed. Then, once he had stopped his 'interventions', suddenly a thief had stolen from a prince and the rest was history.
That had taught him not to interfere.
True love, he knew, was not something to be meddled with. True love, he knew, was not something that COULD be meddled with.
But the fairies..? Not so smart…
Misaimed arrows, fiancé`s turned into gold, deaths. Even a stolen batch of infatuation potion –where Rumple may or may not have had something to do with- had not stopped them in their socalled 'quest'.
They were such dense creatures.
After all, Magic always came with a price.
There was only one kind of magic, that didn`t. A kind he had underestimated, underappreciated, for a very long time. He had wondered many times if it had been Belle, or the prophecy, that had made him aware of its strength. Maybe it had been their combination.
This was the most powerful magic of all.
Twu loww.
That is why he could not see it. Why nothing could stop it, and nothing but death –and maybe the occasional dark curse, temporarily.-could stand in its way.
And he had wanted to own it.
Thinking about the flask that was now safely inside its reptile hiding place, he smiled.
He had been obsessed for a long time to procure the hairs of the ones he knew had found each other, despite the lack of infatuation venom, or enchanting powder. And even though he had given a little push in more than one occasion, they had overcome more than was imaginable. He had had several options, several couples that could produce 'twu loww', -even though he could not see it, he had other ways of gaining information- but none had been so strong as Snow White and her Prince Charming, who always, despite everything, had a way to find each other.
And now. Now that he knew she had conceived, now that he had looked into Snow`s eyes and had seen flashes of her future, he knew. Her child would be the savior. The one he had been looking for. The one he needed to break the curse.
The words of the prophecy echoed through his mind, when the woman, -so much different than the girl she once was- appeared before him. Still gorgeous, but her beauty now in the power oozing from her, rather than the innocent kindness she had radiated so many years before.
She came with the question he knew to expect, and when he seeing the pain in her eyes, realizing what sacrifice she has to make, he DID see again the young girl he once had so much trouble to corrupt.
And he KNEW it was that part of her, the sliver of love in her heart he had never been able to touch, that now was his salvation. Because without it, the curse would lack the strength it needed.
But when he had told her Snow White`s unborn child would be the savior, reminding the Queen of her reason to do this, he had seen the fire rise in her dark eyes once more.
Telling her the other part was easy. He spoke the carefully chosen words casually, as if they are of no importance to him and she could not know this part of the prediction had never been revealed before.
The part only he had seen, the words only he had heard.
`She will take your heart, you know.'
He giggled eerily, convincing her and himself, that he was telling her the truth. Well… Give or take.
Regina jumped to take the bait he held in front of her, as he had known she would.
`Well, then, I`ll just have to take hers first, won`t I?'
.
.
.
TBC
Finale is coming up, and it's going to be a long one LOL. Thoughts?