Book One - Regina The past is a foreign country

Chapter Eleven -
Two Days Ago- The Hospital Her wrist aches and her head is thick with drugs, again. The room is quiet and she fully expects to be chained to the bed but she is not.
Gingerly she sits up and feels for her magic, it's still there, flowing freely through her blood unrestrained.
Breathing a sigh of relief and pushing back the bed covers she is wearing a hospital gown, she can see her clothes folded on the chair in the corner. Swinging her legs from the bed, she stands, reaches her clothes, quickly dressing, hoping to make a quick escape she raising her hands to perform the vanishing spell.
"Stop"a voice calls, it's Charming, "Regina, go to Gold's shop, those that remember are gathered there" he urges her.
Giving him a small nod she locates herself and disappears into the ether.
The shield outside Gold's shop bounces her back and she stumbles back, teetering on her heels.
Good she thinks making her way round the back of the shop she knocks tentivately.
Snow opens the door and pulls her inside and into a hug, "Regina, thank God, how are you?"
Untangling herself from Snow, she replied with her customarily reply, "I'm fine," adding "what happened?"
Following Snow into the back room, she sees the room filled with the usual suspects, Tink greets her warmly with a small hi, Blue nods but avoids her eye as does Granny, Grumpy, Ruby and Belle. Hook and Emma walk forward towards her but she does not care, her eyes searching the room for the one person that matters, the question is on her lips when he walks into the room and calls "mom".
She hesitates, he is looking at her right? Not Emma, no it's definitely her, he runs towards him and she meets him halfway.
"Henry, oh Henry, I missed you so much, are you well, I'm sorry, please forgive me" it all comes out in a muffled rush, words pressed into his head as she hugs him close. She pulls back to look at him, he has grown, almost as tall as her, his face is a little sharper, losing its childish plumpness. Her heart aches and for the first time in such a long time, it is a good ache. He is smiling at her and asking her why she is apologising, this isn't your fault he is telling her. She can barely hear him over the loud thump of her heart, surely the whole room can hear it, it's so loud. She pulls him back into her for another hug and now he is laughing "mom, we can catch up later, right now we have to save the town" she laughs joyfully, the first real laugh that has escaped her for well over a year, she lets him go but not fully, never again will she let him go, shifting to his side, she wraps her arm around his shoulder, finds Emma's eyes "so bring me up to speed Miss Swan".
Emma confirms the potion worked, Robin remembered but it was too late, the ambulance had arrived, during the ride he had used Regina's phone to call Emma, realising that the Emma and her son Henry he had briefly chatted to in the diner that morning was none other than the Emma, the StoryBrooke saviour. Emma had then rushed to the cabin retrieved the rest of the potions and gave them to Snow and David who regaining their memories and returned the favour for the others currently gathered in the room. Hook was tasked with distracting Velma, storming into the Mayors office he announced his presence in the town and his intention of stopping her wicked ways, before disappearing via magical footwear, he had rampaged through the office, smashing her cell phone and office phone in the hope of giving them enough time to rescue Regina from the hospital before Velma got wind of her whereabouts.
Somehow Robin had brought Dr Whale's silence and David, in his role as sheriff had gone to retrieve her, it had been a couple of hours maximum. They gathered here, using magic chalk to seal the entrance while they waited for either Regina or Velma to make a appearance "and we are glad it was you" Snow chimed in warmly.
Despite herself Regina smiled at her, "where is Robin now?" she asked coolly glancing around the room.
"He has gone to fetch Roland from school, he should be here shortly" Snow informed her.
That's going to be awkward she thought, "is there any potion left?" She asked.
"No" Emma answered "but we have started to make some more with my blood but what we really need is to fully break the curse, David and Mary Margaret have already tried true loves kiss but it didn't work" Emma gave a small shrug, "kinda of out of ideas now and there's one other thing, she sighed "everyone here remembers who they are but they still don't remember the past six months".
That made sense she had doctored the potion using her blood, breaking the part of the curse connected with her but the other part wasn't hers it was Velma's. She must have twisted the original curse and added to it, the memory potion could not break this apart. She told the group this and wondered aloud where the witch was.
David returned with the news, that the witch was still in the dark about the awakened citizens of her town and Regina's whereabouts, she had tasked David with finding another escaped patient from the hospital, one who apparently thought he was a pirate and had attacked her and damaged city property.
Regina quickly removed the shield from Gold's shop, hoping her sister hadn't noticed.
It was decided to carry on as normal and cast a memory loss spell on Whale and the nurses, For the time being, they would pretend they still were in the dark, Regina would go back to Gold 's Cabin and remain in hiding.

Present Day - Golds Cabin - later that evening Regina was once again pacing the floor, waiting for Mary Margaret and David to arrive, she had asked them before leaving Gold's earlier that day to come over as she had something very important to tell them and now she was pacing and trying to keep the her stomach from cramping in anxiety. Finally they arrived, rushing through her hostess duties, they were finally settled at the small round table.

Three envelopes lay on the centre of the table, yellowed with age and wrinkled, the seals destroyed long ago but the writing still legible.
She had thought for a long time the best way to deliver the news and had decided just to let Mary Margaret read the letters, the way she herself had done.
Glinda had told her there was no need for Regina to read them in her presence, she had read them and knew no more than was written. Later on Regina had been grateful for this small mercy, she was unsure if her well practiced poker mask would have held. To say the letters had been shocking was a understatement, she had no idea that her mother had known the King but she had and she had sent him a letter revealing the true nature of their past relationship. Begging Leopold to take a chance on love and choose her for his queen "although I am but a simple Miller's daughter, I understand the people of your future kingdom more truly than any royal ever could, with your kind heart and my tenacity, we can govern this Kingdom as wisely as your father ever did, we can strengthen from the inside with the love of our subjects, you do not need to accept a arranged marriage in order to do so. My love for you and I hope yours for me, will strengthen all of us"
Regina was not fool enough to believe anything was quite that straightforward when it came to her mother, she doubted her mother's confession of love was entirely honest but perhaps she had hoped for love with the King.
"Love is weakness Regina" the words echoing was her mother's warning from experience after all?
Leopold had written back to Cora, foolishly expressing his delight upon meeting Princess Eva and confirming his decision to fulfill his father's wishes and proceed with the union with Princess Eva. Foolish man, he was always rash in his decisions, she thought angrily.
The third letter was the most shocking, it was from Princess Eva to the captain of her personal guard, instructing him to ensure the removal of the millers daughter from her new kingdom, the mill was to be shut down, the girl and her father moved onto pastures new, a new mill, some money and the babe to be removed. Enclosed there had been a short reply from the captain to Eva, informing her the orders had been carried out but the babe had already been re-homed.
Taking a calming breath, Regina pointed to the letters "it appears there is more to our history than we were aware" she told Mary Margaret, flicking her eyes down she gestured towards the letters and instructed the dark haired woman in which order to read. Holding her gaze "I'm sorry" she told her. She rose from the table and retreated to the back room she had taken for herself, telling herself it was best to give Mary Margaret some privacy ignoring the voice inside that insisted her departure was cowardly.
Sitting on the bed she knew that Mary Margaret would not blame her for this, she had always been a forgiving person, infuriatingly so but she also knew this would hit her hard and she was unsure of how this would affect the here and now.
David and Mary Margaret still did not remember the missing months spent back in the Enchanted Forest, Mary Margaret would not remember the moments they had shared but now at least they remembered Neverland. "And we owe a lot of it to her" Regina recalled Mary Margaret's words as they stood on the docks, that still had to count for something. Hopefully everything that they had built could be rebuilt. Regina allowed the small flicker of hope to grow, fanning it's flames with all the moments they had shared that could be remembered by all. She would try to be there for her as much as possible, she could never allow Snow fully into her heart but she could try to show her she understood, after all, Velma was her sister, her sister and Snow's.
She heard the muffled cry from the living room and knew that Mary Margaret had finished reading, she heard the low mummers as Mary Margaret and David conversed.
She stood as she heard a chair scrape back, nervously she turned to the door, David beckoned her, still sat at the table, Mary Margaret looked up from the letters she was clutching in her hands, unashamed tears ran down her face. "Snow?" Regina asked.
"I'm shocked" came her answer to the unspoken question "I had no idea my mother could be so heartless and my father so thoughtless" She paused "where did you get these?
"Oz, from Glinda the good witch" Regina replied "She knew, Velma they had been friends I think, Glinda saw the route that Velma was taking and tried to stop her from her, I presume she took the letters to try and understand her motives. I truly had no idea, Cora never mentioned it and neither did Leopold, I am convinced that he did not know of Velma's existence but he must of known who I was when he married me, perhaps he thought it could recificty his past with Cora by making her daughter queen, I don't know" she swept her gaze to the floor, honestly sharing emotions was so exhausting.
In truth she did not want to think about this part of it all, perhaps that's why the King never loved her, she thought at the time being young and still somewhat naive that it was her, but now she knew it was not her fault, the King had truly loved Snow's mother and at one point, he possibly thought he could of loved her mother. She offered Snow this "he did truly love your mother, she understood him better than I could ever have done and Princess Eva had met Cora so you can't blame her for taking a instant dislike to her" she finished dryly.
Snow smiled softly "I know, I also know that the past is the past and cannot be changed and where love is involved sometimes things get tricky and we do things that we later regret" she smiled up at Regina, her eyes as earnest, as full of warmth and love as ever, Regina wondered if Snow was still talking about her mother.

Two months ago - Enchanted Forest Did they have this conversation about me? she wondered. Were the same people present when her fate had been hanging in the balance? probably. She supposed they were sort of equal now, the amount of attempts on her life, imprisonment and banishment, technically she was probably still in the lead but she didn't think anyone was counting anymore. They had agreed to leave the past behind them and the Charmings held true to their word and hadn't brought it up, even when she pushed them, they ignored her barbs without retaliating. Eventually she realised it was a little bit unfair to keep throwing the peace treaty back in their faces, although it was amusing and it definitely was expected of her, so she had taken to taunting Robin instead but not to harshly and never in front of his boy.
She was startled from her thoughts as Charming slammed his hand down on the table, causing the group gathered around it to jump slightly, herself included.
"I can't believe we have to through this again, another damned curse" his anger evident in his tensing neck muscles.
She felt herself tense waiting for the inevitable get at Regina digs but Blue was talking, in her irritatingly condensing tone, the curse had not been casted yet perhaps there would be time to stop the witch.
Round and round in circles they went, discussing the witches motives, shutting her down when she suggested a face to face meeting with the witch, Snow was as always arguing against it, she is enjoying her taunts and she will cast the curse, you know this Regina, you never stopped when we offered you the chance.
"Can we bind her?" Charming asked.
Regina shook her head, she couldn't find that spell and they would need something of the witches for it to work and that they just didn't have. They were for all intensive purposes trapped inside the castle, leaving to find the witch would mean fighting the monkeys, they were running precariously low on fairy dust. Regina and Tink had sneaked out, hoping to gather dust, earning themselves a massive telling off from Snow which Tink had taken to heart but Regina had just shrugged off. The fairy dust was gone, presumably stolen by the witch. It would have been worth it, if they had gotten the dust and Snow giving her the cold shoulder for two days had been a reward in itself, two days of peace and no breakfast time chats about the weather, for God's sake.
The witch really did have the upper hand and no matter what was discussed in this room that wasn't going to change.
Finally they decided to tell Philip so he could prepare his people and when the curse arrived they would tell the public but for now they were to carry on as normal, they still had Snows birds searching the land for the witch and Regina would continue her research, with Belle's help, looking for a protection spell, she was also looking for Hook, casting her mirrors throughout the land, he knew how her mother had protected some of the realm before, if she could track him down maybe she could find out how. Deep in thought she hadn't noticed Robin lingering by her side, startling when he gently touched her arm and pulled her to one side, away from the dispersing group.
"Regina, may I ask you something" he asked. Something about his voice made her hold her sharp tongue.
"it's not about the curse but it is about magic" he confessed.
She nodded her agreement, curious to what he would ask.
"Roland has been saved twice by magic now, first when I stole from the Dark One to save my wife when she was deathly ill in her pregnancy and once when you saved him, I worry that he pay the price for this?"
He gaze soften as she wondered how long he had thought about this and why he hadn't asked her before, probably because you are so horrible to him a little voice berated her. Stole from the Dark One and magic nonetheless, she hadn't known that, how desperate must he have been and quite brave. She thought hard what to tell him and settled on the truth "I doubt Roland will pay a price, the magic you stole to heal your wife was performed on her not Roland so he would not be affected by that and the magic the healer and I used was minimal, pain relief and knitting back together of bones, it would not call for a heavy price, it's too close to light magic" taking a breath she continued "the darker the magic, the heavier the price".
"The magic I stole for my wife was dark magic, did she pay the price?" He asked guilt lacing his words.
"I cannot say Robin" catching his hand in hers she gave it a gentle squeeze "but if you hadn't used the magic, you would have still paid a heavy price, the loss of your wife and your son, somethings can never be a cause for regret".