Chapter eleven

-At the station-

"She was your best friend?" Snow asked almost accusingly as she looked down at a screen grab of the stations security footage from earlier that day. However, she didn't stare with narrowed eyes as she probably would have done if Emma had never ended up in hospital, much to the surprise of the others stood in the station. Despite their worry over a certain missing blonde, Regina, David and Nathans all looked slightly dumbfounded by the shift in dynamic between the two women.

"Past tense," Natalie shot back, though it lacked any malice. "She was one of Emma's pre-school teachers and now that I think about it, she made a point of befriending me over the other parents...she completely disappeared after...'the incident'..."

"The incident?" David asked, finally able to move past his shock.

"Ingrid offered to take Emma to a carnival, I offered to drop them off and pick them up after, but when I drove up, I saw her holding Emma in the middle of the rode and I just about swerved out of the way...when I got out of the car to yell at her, she said that she was trying to get Emma to reach her 'full potential'. I thought that she was completely bat shit insane, but I guess she was actually right…"

"She still sounds pretty bat shit insane to me…" Nathan mumbled, before he looked back up at the group and asked, "do we have any idea what she wants with Emma?"

"Well it must have been something that she has been planning for years…she doesn't look old enough to have known Emma since she was in pre-school…" Regina frowned, glancing down to the picture on the table.

Natalie furrowed her brow, seemingly only now noticing the same thing, "how is that possible?! She looks exactly the same as she did the day that she disappeared…"

"Stranger things have happened in Storybrooke," David assured, though it did nothing to help with the tension in both of the Swans' shoulders.

"So do we have a plan?" Snow asked once the silence between the five of them had gotten rather oppressive.

"I tried a tracking spell, but she must have done something to dampen its effects…" the mayor replied, each word laced with worry. Once upon a time, she knew that she wouldn't have wanted anyone to see that she was the slightest bit worried about the saviour, but now things were different. The blonde had welcomed her into a family that she would have never dreamed she could have been a part of and she had even persevered longer with their relationship than anyone had in her life. Since Daniel's death, she didn't think that she would get another chance at having a best friend, but now she had found one in the unlikeliest of people: her enemies' daughter.

Natalie blinked at the other woman's words, before she shook her head and said, "what exactly does that mean?"

"It means that Regina will find another way to find her," Snow replied without missing a beat.

Regina's eyebrows shot up at the faith in the younger woman's voice, before she realised that each person in the room was looking at her expectantly, almost silently begging her to tell them what her great plan to find their daughter was going to be. Bile rose in her throat when it occurred to her that she had nothing else in her arsenal.

Looking over to the sheriff's desk, she swallowed hard when she noticed the unfinished pastry laying on its surface. She bit the inside of her cheek that she could have been pretending that she didn't like the bear claw right now, instead of worrying intensely as she wondered what the insane Snow Queen could be doing to the missing woman.

"I…" she began, hoping that she could come up with something that would give the four other people some kind of hope, as opposed to the despair that she was currently feeling.

Natalie's mouth fell open slightly at the mayor's indecision and much to her own shock, she turned Snow for some kind of reassurance.

The school teacher stared back at her for a moment, before she said, "we will find a way, we always find each other."

Emma took a deep breath and watched as her breath condensed in front of her.

Her teeth chattered while she attempted to shift into a more comfortable position, but the chains around her wrists tightened at her movement. So she gave up and instead turned her attention to the blonde woman standing in front of the mirror.

She was told that she should know her and she had to admit that she did felt a certain kind of Déjà vu, but it was as if her mind refused to allow any memories to come to the surface. This probably would have freaked her out if she hadn't felt like this before. During her year in New York, she would have moments of intense Déjà vu where her mind would desperately try to remember something. Like the day she had been served in a coffee shop by a woman named Regina. She stared at the woman's name tag blankly for over ten seconds before the person behind her in line had cleared their throat, not-so-subtly telling her to hurry up and order her drink. She had dwelled on the reason one simple name had distracted her so much, but it wasn't until months later that she got her answer, when Hook had gotten her to drink the memory potion and she could no longer tell herself that she had never met a woman named Regina in her life.

It was for this reason that she knew that she must have met Ingrid before, which meant that there was obviously some kind of memory spell in effect. Which begged the question, why would this woman strive to befriend her as a child and then take her memories? What could she possibly want that would take such a convoluted plan to achieve?

After what felt like an eternity, the other blonde finally turned around from the mirror and offered the woman she had kidnapped a strange, and yet very genuine, smile. It was almost as if she believed that she had done the saviour a favour by taking her away.

"The chains wouldn't be necessary if I didn't believe that you attempt to run away, this is the only way that I could have had a conversation with you," she assured, hoping that she could convince the younger woman that she had no reason to be scared, though it didn't seem to help her case, as Emma continued to stare at her with complete and utter contempt.

The younger blonde was of course more than pissed that she had been kidnapped by some strange woman who had stolen her memories for god knows what, but there was something else that was irking her at this very moment. Instead of being in an ice cave with this clearly mentally unstable woman, she could have been back at the station, teasing Regina as she attempted to pretend that she didn't like the bear claw.

"You're insane!" Emma shot back, abandoning her attempts to fight against the chains that were beginning to hurt her wrists. "If you wanted to talk to me, you could have just talked to me at the station."

"But that would have worked, my dear," Ingrid said while she shook her head. "There are too many people who would have tried to tell you that I'm wrong and I simply can't have that. I need this conversation to be private so that no one else can sway you, particularly your mother…"

The sheriff furrowed her brow and was about to ask 'which one', but then she remembered what Regina had told her and said, "you're afraid of Natalie Swan?"

"Afraid is not the right word…" the Snow Queen frowned as she thought of the best way to explain it. Though she had tried to deny it even to herself, it had hurt more than she could have imagined when Natalie had told her to stay away. When she had hatched her plan to get close to the saviour, she didn't think that she would also gain a friend out of the process. But one rash decision and she had lost that friend. She had basically been accepted as part of the Swan family, but she had thrown that away because it wasn't the kind of family that she wanted. During her long, lonely time in cursed Storybrooke, she had regretted it every single day. At the same time, though, she reminded herself that it wasn't the kind of family that she had craved for since the death of her sister. She didn't want to just be someone's aunt, which was precisely the reason that she had left Arendelle instead of staying with Anna and Elsa.

Emma looked at her expectantly, but it soon became clear that the woman was not going to offer any further explanation. Normally, she would have had the urge to push until she found out as much as she possibly could about Storybrooke's newest villain, but she hadn't been wearing a jacket when she had been brought here and she was freezing.

"What do you want from me?" the younger of the two spat.

For a moment, Ingrid looked hurt by the other woman's tone, but she still replied, "I want to offer you the chance to have a family who can truly understand you."

"My family does understand me…" Emma said, though her words lacked confidence. In that moment, it occurred to her that her family had recently grown to include more than just the Swans. She also had Snow, David, Neal, Regina and Henry and if she were completely honest, she could only actually believe that one of them would be able to truly understand her. There was only one other person in her family who knew what it was like to have magic pumping through their veins, having to resist using their full power because they knew that it would frighten other people. She was pretty sure that Regina's signature fireball was not the deadliest spell in the woman's arsenal and she knew for a fact that if she herself put her mind to it, she could probably cause just as much damage, if not more, than the former Evil Queen could.

Ingrid tilted her head, allowing herself to smirk as she said, "you don't seem so sure, Emma."

"I…I am sure," the saviour shot back, almost too quickly, "I have more than enough family…I don't need some insane ass woman to come and tell me that I deserve better."

"Doesn't everyone deserve to have parents who are capable of some degree of civility? If they all truly love you, then why would they put you in the middle of their little war?"

Emma swallowed hard and looked down at the ground. She wanted to be reply that she loved all of their parents and that she was mature enough to give them time to sort out their issues among them, but the fact was that it was still all very difficult. Even if Charming seemed far more accepting of everything, it still hurt that Snow didn't really seem like she wanted to try. And it wasn't as if she'd had much time to spend with the school teacher to try and reassure her about everything. Every time she had thought about spending some time with the Charmings over the past few days, she had felt this intense feeling of guilt in her stomach when she thought about Natalie and Nathan. They had been the ones to raise her, they had worked hard to make sure that she and her siblings always had everything that they needed, so it didn't seem fair to ever choose Snow and David over them.

"I…" she began, wishing that she could try and convince the other woman that the obvious wasn't true. That she craved to have all four of her parents get along so that she didn't have to feel constantly guilty. "They only met a few days ago, they'll get along eventually…"

"And if they don't? Who are you planning to spend the holidays with? If you choose the Swans, would Regina and Henry go with you every year? Could you deal with disappointing Nathan and Natalie if you had to tell them that you were choosing to spend time with your 'real parents' over them?"

"It's…it's not like that…" Emma replied, her eyes widening when she realised that the woman could very well have been right. She had honestly been dreading Thanksgiving and Christmas that year. After the missing year, there was no way that she would be able to get away with telling her parents that she couldn't spend the holidays with them and she certainly couldn't have found an explanation for the Charmings as to why she couldn't stay in Storybrooke. Plus, all of that was assuming that there wouldn't be another villain in town ensuring that she couldn't pass over the line.

"The saviour doesn't belong with the Swan family and Emma Swan doesn't belong with the Charmings. Doesn't it just make more sense for you to find a family of people who can completely understand you? You will never have to feel guilty again. You will be loved and accepted with being pulled in two different directions."

Emma swallowed hard, desperately wishing that the older blonde's words weren't very much truthful, but she couldn't deny it. She knew that she would face these issues, which was why she had been putting off telling Snow and David for so long. After a while, it felt as though she would never tell them, but she knew that this way was much easier, even if it hurt so much to be pulled between two different families. The only time that she had felt at ease this week was when she was with Regina, but both occasions had been cut short because of the insane woman stood before her. But thinking about her crush on Regina was not something that would help her feel better in this moment, so she decided to push it aside and try and get as much information as possible.

"And who exactly would be a part of this new family of mine?"

"You, I and Elsa of course," Ingrid replied.

"Okay…" the saviour said unsurely, she was tempted to ask for a reason, but she also had the feeling that this woman didn't exactly seem as though she dealt in logic. "And chaining me up in an ice cave was supposed to make me agree to this plan?"

"I simply needed to convince you, you may leave as soon as you agree to drink a memory potion."

"Regina will find me before that will happen," the sheriff shot back before she could even think about it.

"I wonder if she will find you before you freeze to death."

"Shouldn't you be more worried?!" Blake asked, staring at Henry in disbelief after he had rather casually told him and his sister the news about Emma.

The younger brunette raised his eyebrows at the teen, before he replied, "of course I'm worried, but it isn't like freaking out will help her."

"Has something like this happened before?" Riley asked, cutting off her brother before he could make an attempt at a retort.

"You have no idea," Henry sighed, "but my mom and grandparents always fix it. Plus, Emma's the saviour…she can pretty much save herself most of the time."

Blake nodded slowly and ran his hand over his face while he though the other boy's words. Hearing that his sister had been kidnapped was not something that he had ever expected to ever be told and he certainly had no idea how to deal with it. He wanted to go and help her, but with the little matter of him knowing absolutely nothing about magic.

"Is there anything that we can do to help?"

Henry bit his lip as he considered this.

Just like his uncle, he wanted to do something to help, but he had faith in his mother would find her and he didn't want to serve as a distraction to their efforts.

"It would be best if we just stayed out of the way, honestly…but…"

"What?" Blake asked eagerly.

"The solution to most of our issues is True Love's Kiss…so if anything did happen to Emma, it would be best if we could make sure that mom can admit that she loves her so that she can save her…"

The older boy looked at the brunette doubtfully, he wanted to say that True Love couldn't possibly be a thing, but he had a feeling that Henry probably had proof to disprove his claim.

Before he could even attempt a reply though, the three of them had their attention stolen by the sound of the Charming's apartment door opening behind them.

"Elsa?" Henry asked, raising from the couch with a furrowed brow.

The blonde woman closed the door behind her and smiled weakly at the trio, "I was feeling rather useless, so Regina asked me to come here and check on the three of you."

Blake tilted his head, he was tempted to mention the fact that he was technically the one babysitting the other two, but then he noticed an excited expression that had consumed his sister's face.

"Er…sure," the teen said, motioning for her to come further into the room, "maybe you could tell us exactly what happened?"

Elsa nodded as she made her way over to the couch and she sat down tentatively on the arm as she looked between the children that she had been relieved to have been sent to. She had felt nothing but guilt at the fact that she never seemed capable of saving Emma from danger and this time, all she had been able to do was watch as the Snow Queen took her. The saviour had done so much to try and help her find her sister and she had done nothing for her. The least that she could do was watch after her son, even if he really didn't need her to.

"Emma and Regina were talking in Emma's office and I heard Ingrid walk into the station. I stood up and she just froze me in place. When I regained my senses, Emma was already gone and it looked as though Regina had been thrown across the room…"

Henry's eyes widened at the thought, but he knew that he would have been told if his mother had been hurt, so he vowed to quickly ask her later just to make sure that she was physically okay.

Elsa looked at his reaction for a moment, before she continued her explanation, "Regina tried a tracking spell, but it didn't work…I believe that they're working on other options, but they haven't come across anything promising as of yet."

Blake looked over to the other boy in the room, instantly noticing that he didn't look too worried, which caused him to relax ever-so-slightly. Henry was certainly the expert on dealing with crisis, so if he saw no reason to worry, then the teen figured that he could hold off on worrying until he had more reason to.

"So we're just supposed to wait here?" Henry asked after a moment of silence.

Elsa nodded solemnly, expecting some kind of protest from at least one of them, but they were all being surprisingly mature about the situation.

"Your mother promised to...erm…"

"Text me?" Henry supplied, allowing himself to smirk slightly at the look of concentration as she tried to recall the phrase that she hadn't truly understood at the time.

"Yes…she said that she would do that once she has more information to share."

"Okay," the boy replied. Smiling at her reassuringly, "we'll just wait here, so we don't get in anyone's way…"

The other two children nodded in agreement and Elsa seemed to relax further, she had very much been expecting to have to have had spent far more time convincing them further.

"I've never actually had to 'babysit' before, I'm afraid that I don't know what it entails…"

"Well, Riley said that she was hungry before we got the call about Emma…maybe you could make her a sandwich?" Blake asked, sensing that the woman needed something to do so that her guilt didn't consume her.

"I can do that," she said, though her voice lacked confidence.

"Riley can run you through it," Blake assured, motioning for his sister to lead the blonde woman to the kitchen.

As the woman followed the girl, Henry turned to look at Blake expectantly.

Once Elsa was just out of ear shot, the teen explained, "Riley is really good at getting more information out of people. She'll be able to get Elsa to tell us if she knows anything that we could use to convince your mom to admit that she likes my sister.

A/N I hope you guys enjoyed and please let me know what you thought XD