...
Hello!
I wanted to thank you all again for all the feedback. It certainly does help me know what I am doing right.
This story starts back up on Regina's arc. I know that was two chapters ago, so if you need a refresher, please just click to chapter 8 and give it a skim. :)
I will update again later today.
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The Cellar
...…..
Regina had an assistant, when she was Mayor in Storybrooke. She never did bother learning the girl's name. The young woman would desperately try to remind the former Mayor of it several times; mostly whenever she was summoned with a random name each time she was needed. It was almost comical how many names Regina could come up with that didn't even nearly resemble her assistant's. Regina always had so much on her plate, being the one responsible for her town, and honestly, the girl was a blessing. Regina never dared to admit it. She was the Queen, after all. She remembers it clearly- barking orders through the intercom, directing her with simple commands and throwing paperwork on the girl's desk as she walked about the office; the poor child never once complained. Knowing her name really didn't seem important. She was always present, though, never missing a day of work and putting up with all of the mayor's demands. Regina recalls her- a girl with dirty blonde hair, freckles and brown eyes.
Much like the young woman before her now, who lies bleeding on the concrete ground in a realm that neither knew existed.
"You're not Emma," Regina says from the ground, where she had been deposited earlier, as she looks up to the person before her. She thought Emma had come for her. They made it far from her cell, winding through a long corridor full of metal doors that hide the horrors of this realm.
The sorcerer, disguised as the savior, pretended to come to Regina's aid, pretended to help her escape her imprisonment, but now, having revealed himself, Regina stares into the green eyes of an imposter. And a young girl, who was freed for a brief moment and then brutally stabbed in the abdomen, lies dying on the ground near the Sheriff.
Emma, fake Emma, smiles widely, annoyingly like him, like the man in the suit. For a second nothing happens. Regina remains shocked that Emma is not Emma and fake Emma basks in the surprise.
Then the sorcerer turns around and, in one quick sweep, grabs the dying girl by the collar and flings her toward the former Queen. The injured woman slides on the stone floor easily. It must be from his magic, because it is as if the poor girl is but a feather when she comes to a slow stop a mere inches from Regina's knees.
Fake Emma looks down at the knife in her hand and, after what seems like a passing thought, sends it soaring through the air. It clanks loudly near Regina, as she remains kneeling ever so still.
"Slice her throat," the blonde says, forcefully.
"What?" Regina asks with wide eyes and furrowed brows.
"Kill. Her." The words come out so simply from the impostor's mouth that Regina has to look away, because it all just seems so bizarre- Emma commanding her to kill someone.
"This is not my mess to clean," Regina replies, trying hard not to look over to the wounded young woman, who continues to breathe and, every so often, grumbles in pain.
"It is very simple. I tell you to do something and you do it. Why must we go through this so many times?"
The complete absurdity of it all makes Regina chuckle lightly.
"I'm not killing her, so do it yourself," she finally says, looking up resolutely.
"YOU WILL DO AS I SAY," the sorcerer commands, before disappearing into a cloud of smoke.
It's quiet, then; not a sound comes through the corridor.
Regina bows her head and breathes out. Her eyes flicker toward the girl. She seems to have stopped breathing. The former Mayor sighs loudly and stares at her for a short while. The girl just looks so much like her assistant back in Storybrooke that it's uncanny and, for some odd reason, it's ...disturbing.
Better that she didn't suffer for long, Regina thinks with unease, then takes the chance to survey her surroundings, hoping to gather enough strength to get up and run, but she knows she can't escape; not on her own.
After a moment, Regina lets her sight fall back onto the young woman. The girl is frail and badly beaten; her body shows months if not years of abuse. The former Queen has only been here a little over a month and she can't imagine what it is like to stay for an eternity. She supposes that this is the root of her unease. That perhaps this may be her own future she is looking at.
Her heart seems to beat in her ears, as the silence around her becomes almost deafening. The brunette looks up toward the running corridor again. It fades out not too far from her, winding into obscurity.
She was fooled, she thinks, sighing. She feels... embarrassed. Embarrassed that she let herself feel hope. So many thoughts had crossed her mind when Emma had come to save her-she would see her son again, she could try to be better for him, for everyone, for herself, even. She had hope and it was cruel to have it stolen so abruptly…
…But isn't this what her life has always been? A journey for happiness, where she keeps coming out the loser; hoping to gain love and acceptance and never having either?
Regina flinches as her thoughts are interrupted by the sudden weight of a hand landing gently on her own. She looks over toward the girl. The abused dark-blonde has opened her eyes and is now searching into Regina's for help.
"Please. Please," she mumbles in pain, "don't leave me. I don't want to die."
The former Mayor scrunches her face, "I...I'm sorry. I can't help you."
"I just don't want to be alone. I can't be alone..."
Oddly, Regina understands. Before being imprisoned in this realm, she never thought she would have so little time left with the only person who could potentially love her. Her son fulfilled that part of her that was empty and, even though he grew up into an 11-year-old who disliked the idea of the person she was years before his life even began, she knows now that he can't have possibly lost the love he had for the only mother he knew. It all seems so trivial to her now. Losing Henry to Emma. Her concerns have shifted, and now with Henry safe in Storybrooke, her only concern is dying here alone without being able to ever say goodbye.
"There's no way out," the girl whispers, breaking the silence, "You can't hide from him. Trust me, I know," she coughs, expelling blood onto her lips. For a moment, Regina considers pulling her hand away. She doesn't know this girl. She doesn't owe her anything...
Then, suddenly, for a split second, the dying blonde flickers. She actually flickers, like a television program missing its signal, and, for a brief moment, it is Henry who is splayed before her.
It happens so fast that Regina loses her breath impulsively.
"You're not real," she whispers into the air, looking away. Her breathing has become sharp and her heart beats erratically in her chest.
"We all die," the girls voice comes in, sounding like an eerie mixture of both hers and Henry's. "I never imagined it would be like...I have so many things I still need to do. So many regrets."
Regina looks up and huffs, disturbed and annoyed. She can't leave now. When she looks back, she finds that the girl is no longer flickering.
"I can't," the young woman sputters in a cry, her free hand pressing over her wound, as blood oozes out, "I can't take this pain."
Regina doesn't know why, but her skin starts to warm and her chest begins to constrict and then as if she has been suddenly struck hard on the chest, she loses her breath. Her hand comes up to cover her mouth in horror-
She finally realizes that it isn't unease what she has been feeling at all... it's sorrow. She feels sorrow for this girl. Sorrow for someone she has never before met. Her eyes begin to gloss over with a light film and she shuts them hard, willing the feeling to dissipate from her body.
"Adelyn."
The former Mayor breathes out slowly when the girl speaks.
"My name. It's Adelyn."
Regina remains silent.
"Please, I need you to talk to me because...I can't die like this. I can't die without someone knowing my story," the girl pleads.
Her story, Regina thinks. She knows the child isn't going to live long enough to tell anything as her breaths have become shallow.
Still, Regina doesn't open her eyes, but she can feel the girl's fingers moving atop her own, lightly caressing her hand as if she is the one that needs to be coddled through this, as if she is the one that needs the support. Regina shifts uncomfortably- she just can't bring herself to slice the throat of a girl that barely looks older than a teenager; a girl who, for a moment, also looked like her son.
"Afterward, I need you to kill me," Adelyn continues, "because he was right. You can end this pain."
This has never been a problem for the former Queen before- killing- and yet she can't even muster indifference in this moment.
"I can't," Regina says, pressing her eyelids harder together.
"You can," the sorcerers voice booms through the hallway and a cloud of purple smoke whirls in front of Regina. Instinctively, she opens her eyes and grabs the knife that he had thrown near her earlier. She slices the air in one quick sweep.
The impostor, still maintaining Emma's appearance, grunts loudly at the wielding knife as she appears from the colored smoke. She looks down at Regina, shocked. The former Queen nicked her. There is a nasty gash on the blonde's arm now and bloods seeps out, creating tiny streams on her forearm before dripping loudly onto the ground.
Emma laughs.
The laughter is creepy. It leaves the sheriff's mouth, but sounds nothing like her. It fades out as the blonde slowly, but jarringly, becomes invisible.
Regina tightens her grip on the knife. She doesn't know when it happened, but, somewhere in these transitory moments, the hand that was once caressing hers now lies clutched in the Queen's own loose grip.
Regina shifts, scrunching her face as the skin on her knees scrapes the concrete cruelly. She squeezes the girl's hand, lightly, inadvertently.
The laughter fades in and out around her and she slashes the knife into the air again in hopes that she hits her mark, but she doesn't get the chance, because fake Emma appears suddenly behind her.
The strength that the sorcerer exudes in one simple touch feels equivalent to that of two burly men. The impostor may have chosen to keep the appearance of Emma, but other than that, nothing mimics the sheriff, as she grabs Regina's knife-wielding hand and forces the former Queen to tighten her grip on the knife.
Regina whimpers as Emma's entire body weight falls onto her from behind. The blonde's knees crash onto Regina's calves and press down, pointedly. She also feels the added weight of Emma's free hand falling on top of her own- the same one that is clutching the young girl's.
"Listen to her story," Emma chuckles roughly into Regina's hair.
The girl cries in agony beneath them.
"No," Regina breathes in protest, as she is forced forward, toward the dying girl.
The knife lands on Adelyn's neck. Emma grips Regina's hand tighter, causing it to tingle around the knife as it presses deeper into the girl's paling skin. The brunette can still feel Adelyn's pulse beating within her other hand, even though Emma's is encasing both of theirs.
"Why have you not killed her?" the sheriff asks, pushing Regina's hair away with the left side of her face, trying to get closer to the former Queen's ear, "You have done this many times before." Emma presses her chest onto Regina's back weightily.
"I have never done this," Regina replies through gritted teeth. The weight of the sorcerer's body is causing the skin on her knees to bleed against the hard floor.
"You have sent others to do it for you, Queen. It does not matter who did it. If you commanded it, it was at your hands, nonetheless."
"They have all died with purpose," she admits, assuredly. Anyone who died in her plight to kill Snow White died a martyr, she thinks, even now that her war with the pixie-haired princess has died down; the fact still remains.
Regina scrunches her face in a huffed breath as blood trickles from Adelyn's neck.
"I will not kill this child. She has done nothing to deserve this fate in my hands."
Fake Emma moves, then. Her left hand suddenly and brazenly rises up into the air and slams down onto Regina's chest in a resounding thump. Regina's face pales and her eyes close, as her mouth opens in a silent cry. The impostor's hand moves forcefully within her, attempting to grip her heart. She can't withstand the pain and cries out softly.
"You want to be good and yet you deny this girl the ultimate act of kindness- sparing her such a slow, agonizing death."
"There can never be nobility in anything you desire," Regina manages, pushing back into Emma, feeling blonde hair fall around her face as her head leans back onto the sheriff's shoulder.
Emma's hand continues to push deeper into Regina's chest and the former Queen feels like she will implode from the force alone.
"Desire? This isn't about my desires, dear Queen. This is about you; your desires and the path that led you here," he says in Emma's voice and Regina's hair moves in waves around her from the words. "Let the girl see how good your heart is, hm?" the sorcerer mocks.
The gasp that escapes Regina's mouth is pained and loud, as the hand inside of her chest twists. She can feel Emma's fingers caressing her heart now and it hurts.
Regina can't respond.
Then, after a long drawn-out moment, without warning, the sorcerer pulls his hand from her chest and pushes her onto the girl.
A loud click of Emma's tongue fades into the air, as the impostor stands, annoyed.
Regina lets go of the knife and pulls herself off of Adelyn, breathing heavily and desperately clutching at her chest. Her heart remains inside of her, still intact, but the force of it all has been unbearable.
She looks over at Adelyn.
She doesn't need to inspect the girl to know that she is no longer alive, but still Regina slides forward and presses her fingers to Adelyn's neck.
Not a beat.
There is nothing left within the young woman and with an aggrieved sigh, Regina releases Adelyn's hand from her own tight grip.
The girl never had the chance to tell her story.
It's something that only now makes Regina even more aware of her own. So many people seem to think that they know her story and yet, no one really does, do they? Who will Regina even be able to tell before she dies? Will she end up like this poor child with an untold story of the good within her? Regina feels she will be forever lost in a tale of an Evil Queen.
She doesn't know if Henry can even tell a story worth telling; one where she does not become a legend of terror, a fable that grows into a warning; like folklores that parents tell their children to scare them away from vices. It seems… important now, this story. She has never felt so desperately abandoned before.
The former Queen moves her hands over Adelyn once more and closes the girl's eyes, gently. Regina doesn't know exactly what hope there was, but at least there is this one time that she does feel like she did the right thing, because the child died knowing someone was there... holding her hand.
It's this semblance of humanity that makes Regina feel even weaker right now, but she can't seem to rid herself of it.
At least it's what she thinks before she is roughly pushed away from the girl's body.
Regina falls onto her elbows with a huff as fake Emma towers over her once again, casting a heavy shadow. She appeared so quickly that the former Queen, engrossed in Adelyn, hadn't noticed.
The blonde bends at the waist and grabs Regina's throat in one hand and her hair in the other with such force that the man in the suit flickers behind the mask of the sheriff he is wearing. Regina holds on to his wrists to steady herself.
"My command was simple," he whispers onto her lips, "I told you to kill her. Look at what you've done now," he finishes, turning Regina's face toward the corpse.
"You did that," she replies with disgust.
"No," and she can hear the smile on his face, "It was you. You let her die in agony because you wanted her to suffer. You can't even admit it," he says shaking his head, "This is the evil that is rooted in you, Queen," he continues.
Suddenly, he moves his hand down from her neck and toward her chest with resolve. She isn't sure what his motive is, but it causes her to flinch instinctively in anticipation.
He chuckles, then, and reaches for her throat once more, taking her into a tight grip.
Regina groans as she is forced to a weak kneel and her breath is stolen from her deliberately.
She looks over at the girl again.
Did she really do the right thing? Who was it right for? she thinks, because even though Adelyn wasn't alone in the end, it didn't stop her from dying so very painfully and that was her choice.
Regina wants to believe... she has to believe that she did the right thing- at least this once… even if it was for a stranger. Knowing her own fate in this hell, she couldn't help but feel such penetrating sorrow for the girl.
And as the sorcerer lets her go and stands back to admire his work, Regina remembers.
She remembers how easy it was to feel like she wasn't just another version of the Evil Queen when she was Mayor in the town she created, because there was someone in her life who paid attention; someone who knew that she actually did spend her time trying hard to give the townspeople some semblance of peace, when they would come to her with their ridiculous complaints and demands. There was one person who would bring her a hot meal, remind her to take a break between meetings to recharge and even remembered her birthday by giving her small, albeit useless, gifts. Someone that treated Regina like a person and did not fear her, despite her position and demeanor as Mayor… and this person, her assistant, her name was Adelyn.
It just wasn't this Adelyn.
It's why Regina feels so connected, so disturbed and so sorry for the death of a person she never knew. Because this could have been her Adelyn and even though it wasn't, she realizes now that she felt a connection with a remembrance.
Who knows if this girl was anything like her assistant? Maybe that's the point. She held the hand of a child who could have been someone worth holding.
"Well," the suit interrupts, "since you chose not to kill her, I'm going to have to just make you feel what it's like to be her." And Regina can't help but roll her eyes. "You get to take in the death she never had, Regina," he says smiling as he shifts back into Emma.
"STAND. You will walk back to your cell," he finishes, not at all like Emma.
"Why? When you could just beat me and carry me back yourself," Regina asks, mockingly.
Still on her knees, he slaps her with the back of his hand, sending her hurdling onto her back once more.
After a low hum, she moves to a sit. She uses her tongue to survey her lip and finally wipes at the corner of her mouth with her thumb. She shakes her head when she sees blood on her finger.
"I'm getting tired of this," she admits, her pupils constricting as she focuses harder on the red smear.
"Tired?"
Regina looks up at him with unequivocal hatred, "Yes, tired. Don't you tire of hitting women? It must feel so good knowing that I can't fight back."
"Yes, probably as good as it must have felt for you, when you murdered all of those innocent people in your fruitless quest to kill a princess."
The weight of the words strikes her into silence.
"There we are," he sings, amused, "You think the only monster here is me, because I am the one with magic? Nothing changes, Regina. We are who we are."
"No!" she shouts, her face flushed and anger rising, "We aren't anything alike!" she points into the air, "I will not be swayed into believing I'm the villain here. I will not ask for death or martyr myself for the good of the people who made me this way! You think I will give my son up so easily?! The real torture here is that you believe me to be so weak!" she finishes, vehemently.
He bends over and seizes her arm, pulling her up to a stand before she has a chance to protest. He still looks like Emma as he draws near, closing the space between them.
"You wear your emotions too close to the surface," the sorcerer drawls, pushing away strands of hair from Regina's face, "That is one of your greatest weaknesses, Queen."
It's so eerie. The way he looks like Emma and sounds like her, but the words that leave her mouth just drip of the man in the suit.
He nudges her forward, then and Regina's anger dissipates quickly as she focuses on a new trial that develops before her.
"If you think yourself so strong and my torture so meek," he says, as he poofs away her shoes, causing her to tip over onto him from the rapidity of it. He pushes her forward again. "Then walk on that," he finishes.
The ground has sprouted pieces of both sharp and dull stones alike. And Regina sighs, because she believes this will never end.
...
Emma's gasp resonates through the small room, as she shoots up from the bed with force. She looks around wildly. She can see hands coming toward her, grabbing her arms, but her ears are not quite attuned. Everything sounds muffled. Her chest rises and falls fast and hard, as she blinks furiously to bring the room back into focus.
"YOU'RE MINE NOW," she hears the sound deep within her and she holds the Bible harder against her chest.
"No," she answers back in alarm, "No, no, no."
"EMMA," she hears the voice drip onto her senses.
"Emma!" Mary Margaret's voice comes crashing through the chaos.
"Emma, you're safe! You're back! You're back. You're ok. You're ok," her mother tells her, attempting to bring her attention back from the realm she had entered an hour ago. Emma can see her mother now, along with David and some of other town residents surrounding her.
"Emma, look at me. Just look at me," her mother repeats.
And Emma does what she is told. She looks into Mary Margaret's eyes and eventually just breathes, trying hard to push away the vision of that beast, Savage, coming for her and his pet demon scratching its way up her body.
"I'm ok," she finally breathes, her voice sounding hoarse. She looks away from her mother and down toward her chest. "I...I think I got it."
"You think?" Mother Superior's voice resonates from a shadowed corner, as she steps into the room's light.
Emma snaps her head toward the fairy. The blonde has a slew of emotions coursing through her. She saw so many things that she wishes she could just as soon forget and her temper runs hot.
"Yea," she replies, a little out of resentment and annoyance, "I think I got it. It wasn't a walk in the park, you know. If you think you can do better, I can go back there and put this where I found it and you can go look for it instead. You're welcome, by the way," she says, chucking the book at the nun.
Mother Superior catches it clumsily. "Oh!" she fumbles.
Snow steps toward her daughter hesitantly, "Emma, Blue doesn't mean any harm. She is just concerned."
"Yea, well, we're all concerned, Mary Margaret."
"You're right, I'm sorry," her mother admits, not really caring if Emma is upset, as she falls onto her daughter in an awkward hug, "I'm so happy you're back."
Emma sighs, letting the irritation dispel quickly. "Me too," she answers delicately, lightly patting her mother on the back. "It was like walking into the last circle of hell. I don't know how you did it," she says looking over at Mother Superior, "It would have been a lot easier if you would have just told me the incantation was sitting in a library. You sent me in there to look for the impossible and I could have died," she finishes, anger boiling within her once more.
Blue looks away, shyly. "The Chemical Savage moves his possessions to different locations constantly and without hesitation. One can never be certain where it will be next," the nun answers, regrettably.
Emma knows now exactly why Mother Superior, the only one with experience, didn't offer to go into the realm of the Savage herself. The fairy had been there before and she knew that it was a nightmare. She didn't warn Emma about anything, not the mazing hallways or her fears becoming reality or that a demon would almost killed her.
Some nun.
Emma wonders now what Mother Superior's greatest fear is that it elicited keeping these secrets from her and she also wonders what her reaction would've been had she been asked to take on the task to begin with. Emma imagines it would have gone something like this: "Sorry, can't go back there because, you know, Jesus." Emma shakes her head and looks at the nun with rancor as she studies the book carefully.
Her parents have also somehow both encircled her and she shifts uncomfortably before speaking, "So... is it there?" she asks, hopeful.
The fairy flips through the pages. She turns the book upside down. "Forgive me, Father," she whispers, as she violently shakes it. "I don't see anything, Emma."
The sheriff visibly deflates.
"But, it doesn't mean it's not in here," Blue reassures, "You just have to give me some time. This Being is good at hiding things in plain sight..." she trails, before looking up at Emma, "How did you figure it was in this?" she asks, curiously.
"You ever hear of a demon with a Bible?"
"Lucifer was cast down from heaven, because he wanted to ascend to God's throne."
"So he walks around Hell reading from the Bible?"
The nun looks at her in reflection, "I suppose not."
"Ok, then. That's what I thought too."
The blonde shifts slightly to let her parents know she wants to move and they all manage to stand after a moment of clumsy footing.
"How long before I can go in to see The Illusionist?" she asks, impatiently.
"I'm sure it won't be long before we know if we have anything here," Blue replies, flipping through the pages once more.
"Good," Emma says, grabbing her jacket and pulling it on in a hurry.
"Where are you going?" David asks. "You must be exhausted. Let us drive you home."
"I need to see Henry. Make sure he's ok."
Mary Margaret moves in closer, fear crossing her features. "Are you... are you afraid that The Chemical Savage got to Henry?"
"Oh, no, no," she sighs, sweeping her hand through her hair carelessly, "I just want to see him is all. I... It was…" she sighs again. She was never the type to divulge anything personal to anyone and even though her parents stand before her, she can't find it in her to open up to them and tell them what happened to her while she was gone. "Time worked differently... in that realm. It was a lot slower. I was there for a long time. I miss him. Also, I want to talk to him; you know, about Regina."
"I'm sorry to interfere here, but do you think that's wise?" David interrupts, concerned. "You might just frighten him and if you are about to go into another realm to find her, then why put Henry through that?"
Emma blinks hard. "You're right. I'm just... I'm so tired," she admits, near exhaustion.
"We'll drive you to our place and have Ruby bring Henry over, so he's there when you get home. Sound good?" David waits, tentatively going for his keys.
"Yea...yea, ok. Let's go home."
...
When Emma arrives, Henry is sitting near the kitchen-island doing his homework.
"Hey mom," he says, looking up briefly.
Emma wastes no time before moving around the island and scooping him up into a tight hug.
He doesn't even hug her back for a minute in utter confusion. "Uh… Did something happen?" he asks and the words come out muffled because his face is pressed into her jacket.
"No, I just want to hug my kid. Is that ok?" she smiles, holding him even tighter.
"Can't. Breathe."
"Sorry," she laughs, letting him go, but not before ruffling his hair.
"Right," he says, completely too mature for his age and looking at her with the same penetrating gaze that says he is completely Regina's son and knows she's full of shit right now.
"How was it with Ruby?"
"Same, I guess. We had pizza," he says, shrugging. His face scrunches for a moment and then adds, "but it had veggie's on it, you know, 'cause mom would flip if she hears what I eat when I'm with…well, anyone but her, really," he smiles.
"Yea, good decision, kid. Let's try and keep your mom happy. I don't want to be on the receiving end of that wrath," Emma plays, lingering near him for a moment and looking over at her parents, who are deep in conversation with Ruby, updating her on what's happened.
"So," Emma continues, "You know, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about, Henry. It's about the other day, when we were talking about your mom, you asked if Regina was coming for you. You were afraid she was gonna come take you away from us and I was thinking…"
"I know what you're gonna say, Emma," Henry interrupts, "I shouldn't have jumped to assuming she's suddenly evil again."
"It's not just that, Henry. I don't want you thinking that she's gonna take you away against your will- like kidnap you or anything. She's your mom and she's sacrificed a lot for you. You need to defend her now, not doubt her. You're the only person she loves most and you need to respect her."
Even as the words leave Emma's mouth, she feels uneasy; she can't believe what she is saying. She never once cared about what Henry thought about Regina. He would go on rants about what a horrible person she was and Emma only cared that he didn't think of her in that way. She abandoned him and the last thing she wanted to do was to bring his attention to that.
Henry gives her an incredulous look and her face reddens. "It just wasn't cool, kid. You shouldn't think the worst when she is trying, you know?" And then Emma feels horrible, because she realizes what her subconscious just made her do. She is preparing Henry. She wants him to remember that Regina was good in the end, in case she actually is dead and Emma has to tell their son the news. She wants Henry to live without the regret that he thought Regina would always turn to evil if given the chance and, even if it is remotely true, it's a fate she doesn't want him to live with- always hating himself for not giving his mother the redemption she deserved, despite how small it had been.
"I know," he responds, then, "I don't even know why I said it. She saved you all from the barrier at the well. She was pretty tired after that and I saw how bad it affected her. I know she did it for me, but still, it means she loves me and… I just never thought she did. I know she loves me now, Emma. She always has and I love her too. She's my mom," he says, shrugging, and then looks up at her with regret, "Oh, and you're my mom too," he finishes, as if to reassure her that she hasn't lost the title he so easily gave her. One that even she knows he will come to regret when he realizes the resentment that lies within him over her giving him up. But for now, she just smiles and looks at him endearingly.
"Yea, kid, I know," she says.
"Emma," Henry starts, looking down at his hands and furrowing his eyebrows, "Where is my mom?"
It seems like a question that stops everyone in their tracks, because her parents and Ruby all turn around from their whispers and stare at Emma in silence.
"She, uh, she's…"
"She doesn't pick up any of my calls and she has never gone this long without seeing me. I'm scared she's mad at me, because I didn't invite her to the welcome home party. And when you invited her, she left early because no one was talking to her. Then the thing with Archie happened and…"
DING DINGITY DRRRING DRRRING DING, THIS PERSON SUCKS, DON'T PICK UP!
DING DINGITY DRRRING DRRRING DING, THIS PERSON SUCKS, DON'T PICK UP!
The ringer on Emma's cell comes blaring through the room. Immediately, she feels relieved for the distraction in not having to lie to her son and then she lets the complete mortification run through her body, as she realizes that maybe that ringtone was not the wisest choice for Mother Superior, especially when she isn't alone to answer it.
"Shit," she whispers under her breath, as she fumbles through the back pocket of her ridiculously tight jeans to find her cell.
She manages to pull it out with a huff and after it jumps from one hand to the other, she slides her finger on the screen.
"Swan," she answers, her face beet red, as everyone around her wonders who the ringtone belongs to. "Hi, everything ok?" she asks, knitting her brows in anticipation. "Ok. Yes. Yes, five minutes. Ok. Ok, bye."
Emma looks up and then glances at Henry and then at everyone else. "Uh, Mother Superior says that she needs… to… she wants me to come in… and check out some suspicious activity at the convent. She says it's urgent and that she wants me to come now. I think you two should come with me," she points at her parents, "seeing how my car is running… weird and all," she finishes, turning away and closing her eyes at the ridiculous lie that she just told.
"Henry," Emma turns to him.
"I know," he finishes for her, rolling his eyes, "Stay with Ruby."
"Yea, sorry. Too dangerous for you to come."
"It's always too dangerous for me and I'm getting older, you know," he mumbles, fidgeting with his pencil.
"Yea, kid, but for now, you have to stay here, ok? I'll be back," she says, not really telling him when that will be, because who knows how long it will take her to search a realm that apparently is so evil that The Chemical Savage wrote its origin and location into the pages of a bible.