Author's Note:So long chapters have won! Which means I really have to see reviews pile up before giving you more of my puzzle..um...story! Let's see if you guys enjoy this!


***************************Fairy Tale Land Alternate Dimension************************************

(IN THE PAST...)

Regina didn't know what to say to David.

Remorse for having lied to him was huge now.

At the time she had only thought to have some fun, but their little adventure had proved to her that he was a nice person that she could truly become good friends with.

Both of them had similar likes and dislikes.

It was painful to look at his eyes and not wince now.

"David..." Regina was about to tell him the truth when David's eyes widened at he reached out and yanked Regina with him through to the other room and closed the door quickly.

Regina rolled her eyes.

One thing was for sure...they both knew how to yank the other around.

The giggling finally made it's way to her ears and made Regina smile widely.

She knew the voices all too well.

"Mamma is gonna be mad when she find out!" Little Sarah's voice seemed to tinkle like a little bell.

Of course Regina's smile fell when she heard those words, but a second later both she and David had to fight off laughter.

"Why is it that I'm almost an adult and you still manage to get me into trouble?!" Snow's teenage voice could be heard with all the annoyance and drama that only a teenager could manage.

"It's not my fault! I just want to have fun with my sister. "

The words weren't said with malice. They were said innocently. Sarah was expressing how much she loved her sister by just wanting to be around her.

Regina couldn't help but feel happiness at how her daughters got along.

Both David and Regina heard Snow's long sigh.

"That doesn't stop the fact that mother is going to kill us both when she hears you were riding Rocinante and destroyed the stables!"

Regina was about to jump out and check to see if Sarah was ok, when she remembered David was right next to her.

Before Regina could make a decision of scolding her daughters and revealing to David who she was, the voice of her mother stopped all of them.

"SARAH! How many times do your mother and I have to yell at you for you not to do such dangerous things!" Cora's voice seemed to boom through the halls.

Both David and Regina winced.

Cora stood in the hallway with her hands on her hips as Sarah half hid behind Snow.

"I didn't mean to Grammy, but Snow told me that mamma's horsey doesn't like anyone but her. And I told Snow that I knew he would let me ride him." Sarah's cute little voice made Cora attempt to hide a smile.

Of course David and Regina were smiling as they heard Sarah try to defend herself.

Hearing the name Snow, David realized that these were the queen's daughters.

"You know how she gets Grandma! I tried to stop her!" Snow tried to explain how she wasn't able to control her little sister's actions.

"It's not her fault Grammy! I wanted mommy's horsey to like me, and Snow wanted me to ride my pony but I'm a big girl now! Riding pony's is for little girls!" Sarah told her grandmother with a serious face.

David couldn't help but think how this little Sarah was adorable.

It was then that the word popped into his head. A word that made his blood drain from his face.

Neice.

Sarah was his neice.

He was an uncle to this little troublemaker princess.

"Is that so?" Cora asked as Sarah climbed up into her arms.

"Yes! Mamma loves Rosey."

"Rocinante." Both Snow and Cora corrected.

Sarah rolled her eyes and sighed. Then a huge grin broke across her face.

"But he let me ride him Grammy! I rode mamma's horsey!"

Cora couldn't help but laugh and smile at her granddaughter's enthusiasm and excitement at having ridden the elegant horse.

"She destroyed the stables doing it..." Snow smiled at she stared at the two, "but she did ride him!"

Sarah turned and gave a tooth baring smile to Snow, which Snow - even in her teenage mood swing mindset - couldn't help but return.

"Well young lady, I have no choice but to tell your mother about this." Cora said with a smile, which she quickly morphed into a brood scold as Sarah turned to look at her with a look of wide eyed shock. It was for show, Cora couldn't help but bend under her grand baby's happiness. But Regina needed to know what her baby girl had been doing.

"But Grammy...mamma will get angry with me."

Cora couldn't help but let a small smile out.

"Now you know I promised your mommy a long time ago to not lie to her. If I didn't tell her it would be lying!" Cora explained to her granddaughter.

Regina had to fight back tears as she heard her mother.

It had been hard. To trust her mother again.

Everyday she was reminded of how she had killed Daniel. Everyday she had to look into her baby girl's eyes and know that her daughter would never meet her father. Never know just how incredible a person he had been.

But then she would look at her other daughter.

Regina would look at Snow...and know that Daniel's death wasn't in vain.

At the time Regina had not known that Snow had needed her.

Wrapped up in her own pain of losing Daniel, of Snow's betrayal, Regina had not known that Snow had needed her.

Regina's eyes began to tear up as she remembered the moment everything changed.

David noticed Regina's tears as they continued to listen at the door. He didn't know what could have caused her to begin crying, but the sight made him stiffen. Something in him really didn't like the sight of her crying.

Reaching over he wiped away a tear from her eye, startling Regina.

David mouthed the words 'are you alright?' to Regina with a worried look on his face.

Regina nodded her head slowly.

It was hard to think about all those years ago. But her life now was nothing to be angry over.

She loved Snow and Sarah more than life itself.

David felt a weight lift off him as Regina gave him a little smile.

It gave him pause as to how protective of Gina he was becoming. In little to no time he felt responsible for her.

"Grammy...if you don't tell her right away it won't be lying." Sarah tried to find a way out of telling her mother.

Cora shook her head as Sarah's hold around her neck loosened.

"No Sarah. As a matter of fact we should tell your mother right now. The longer you wait, the angrier she'll be."

Sarah let out a huge sigh and both Cora and Snow shared a smile at the inner conflict of the little one.

"Mamma's not gonna let me ride her horsey or my pony if I tell her."

Both Cora and Snow laughed a little at this, as David and Regina hid their laughter at the little girl as well.

"Better Mamma knows now so you can get the punishment out of the way. That way you'll be playing on your pony in no time." Snow knew how to get her sister to own up to her mistakes, but she was so stubborn that it was hard to get her to listen to you once she made up her mind about something.

Sarah sighed again. "Alright. I'll go tell Mamma."

Snow and Cora shared a little smile and Cora gave her granddaughter tickling kisses to make her smile as well.

Sarah laughed as her grandmother kissed her neck where she was ticklish and placed her back on the ground.

"Speaking of telling your mother, do you know where she is?" Cora looked over at Snow.

Snow's brow furrowed at the question.

"I thought she was in her bedchambers..." Snow said with a little concern. It wasn't like her mother not to tell them if she were going somewhere.

Cora shook her head.

"No she's not there. I swear I could have heard a noise coming from her wardrobe though."

Snow perked at the words.

"I'll go see if she was getting ready for the ball tonight." Snow said and quickly pecked her grandmother and moved started running down the hallway.

"SNOW DON'T RUN!" Cora yelled, but it fell on deaf ears.

Cora closed her eyes and shook her head.

Opening them she saw a huge wide smile on Sarah's face.

"Oh. You think it's funny when Snow doesn't listen to me?" Cora said and then took Sarah's hand.

David noticed the shadows under the door getting closer then, quickly he grabbed Regina and pulled her towards the enormous bed in the room. As Cora was opening the door, Regina and David shared a frantic look and dove under the bed.

"No Grammy! I'm just excited about the ball!" Sarah exclaimed.

As both Cora and Sarah came into the room, both Regina and David settled underneath the bed, hoping that they weren't caught.

"Oh! Is that because it's a certain someone's birthday!" Cora smiled widely as her granddaughter jumped up and down with a huge smile in excitement.

"Mamma said the ball is for my birthday!"

Cora let out a laugh.

Both Regina and David had big smiles on their faces.

Cora took Sarah's hand again and moved them out to the balcony.

"It is! How many times does a princess turn five years of age? We had to make it a special occasion!" Cora said as she looked down at the courtyard that was buzzing with activity for the week long festival that was in honor of Sarah's birthday.

"Mamma said there was going to be a surprise for me! Do you know what it is Grammy?" Sarah asked as she watched all of the people buzzing around.

"I don't. But if I did, I couldn't tell you. It wouldn't be a surprise then!" Cora explained to her granddaughter.

Regina couldn't help but feel such love for her baby girl and her mother at the moment.

David smiled as he listened to his mother's voice. He could hear it in her voice. The love she had for Sarah.

Regina knew she had to make a choice soon, or she would end up hurting David, or having to explain herself to her daughters and mother of why she was hiding under a bed with a strange man.

"Grammy...do you think my daddy is watching from heaven?"

The question froze all of the adults.

Regina's heart beat a thousand miles a minute at the question.

David finally felt awkward and wrong for listening in on private conversations.

Cora...Cora felt her heart constrict.

"Sarah honey...why are you asking about your daddy?" Cora tried to control her voice. But the strain to keep from begging Sarah for forgiveness left a clog in her throat.

"Mamma said daddy was in heaven. That he watches me from heaven. If daddy's seeing me like I see the people down there...do you think daddy saw me ride mamma's horsey?"

Cora finally looked over at Sarah as she stared through the railing and down at the people below.

Slowly Cora knelt down and caressed Sarah's face.

Sarah turned her head to stare at her Grammy.

"Sarah...is that why you wanted to ride Rocinante?" Cora asked in concern.

Regina's own heart clenched as she heard the question.

"I thought Daddy would like to see how big I was! That I'm a big girl now!" Sarah explained the true reason she had wanted to ride the black horse.

"Oh Sarah...Daddy knows your a big girl without you doing dangerous things." Cora said the words gently as she understood what her grand daughter had wanted to do.

Sarah frowned then.

"But Snow says daddy loved horseys as much as mommy did. That daddy was brave and loved mommy more than anything. I thought...I thought I could show daddy how much I loved horseys and I was a big girl that could be brave and ride mamma's horse!"

Both Regina and Cora were taken aback that Snow had given details about Sarah's true father. Both women knew how much Snow loved Sarah, how it always bothered her that Sarah would find out that Snow's father and Sarah's were not one in the same.

Regina had many talks with Snow about it. Even now as Snow was turning into a woman, the fear that Sarah would find out made Snow extremely attached to Sarah. Where one would go, you would see the other.

"Snow said daddy loved us soo much that he saved Mamma for us. Is that true Grammy? Did daddy save mamma?"

The words stung Cora so deep inside that she couldn't hold back the tears as her grand baby asked her the question that she thought would come in the distant future.

But here she was, asking a question that she knew only truth could satisfy such a question.

Regina turned her head away, not wanting to let David see she was openly crying. The idea that her little girl was thinking of Daniel, making her ache for his presence more than ever before.

David wasn't breathing as he listened to his niece ask about her deceased father.

Cora nodded her head, not really able to talk yet, as the truth of just how far she had been willing to go for revenge hit her in full force as her grand daughter looked at her with such love and such trust.

"Yes baby girl. Your daddy did save mamma." With that Cora wrapped Sarah up into a tight hug.

"I wasn't very nice to him, but he was a good man. He loved your mamma very much. And he gave me the most wonderful gift of all."

Sarah pulled away from the tight embrace to look curiously at her grandmother.

"What's that Grammy?"

Cora let out a little laugh at how much Sarah reminded her of her Regina in that moment.

"You...and Snow."

Regina couldn't hold back any longer. Hearing her mother say talk about Daniel like that...she knew she couldn't hide who she was from David a second longer. Because at that moment she needed to hold her girls.

David was soo concentrated listening in on the conversation happening on the balcony that he didn't notice until too late, that Regina had moved out from underneath the bed.

David tried to grab her as he realized the balcony door was wide open and there was no way for Gina to sneak out without being seen.

But then his heart stopped when he watched Gina's legs move to the open doors and hear little Sarah's voice as she did.

"MAMMA!" Sarah yelled out with joy and quickly moved from her grandmother's arms to her mother's.

Regina laughed and smiled through the tears as she picked up her little girl and gave her a quick kiss.

Sarah pulled back with a smile that quickly turned into a frown at the sight of her mother crying.

"Mamma why are you crying?" Sarah asked as placed a hand on her mother's face.

Regina laughed through her tears. "They're happy tears."

"Oh." Sarah said as her mamma kissed her again.

Regina hugged her little girl to her and locked eyes with her mother.

"I'm just soo happy that my little girl is growing up."

David's eyes were jumping across the floor as everything hit him the second Sarah called out 'mamma.'

Gina...was Regina...the queen...his sister.

He had been spending time with the queen, who was his sister, and hadn't even known it.

David's mind ran a mile a minute, trying to understand what all of it meant.

Regina mouthed the words 'thank you' to her mother. They had never really spoken about what happened in the barn that night. Cora had been cold until the day Regina and Snow had needed her.

Cora had never expressed her remorse to Regina, somehow knowing that no words could make up for what she had done. For the things that Regina didn't even know about.

Cora mouthed back 'your welcome.' The tears in her own eyes sparkling in the sun light.

Pulling back from Regina, Sarah smiled at her mother causing Regina to give a huge smile herself.

"Mamma were you getting my surprise ready?!"

Regina and Cora laughed.

David smiled as he still hadn't moved and just listened to what Regina was going to do to him.

At that moment Regina knew she couldn't leave David under her mother's bed forever, and adjusted Sarah in her arms as she sucked in a breath and sniffled.

"I did! And while I was doing just that...a little birdy told me about a certain young lady who destroyed the stables."

Sarah's smile fell.

Regina gave Sarah her 'mom' look.

"I seem to remember telling you that your not big enough to ride my horse yet! And that you were to stay away from the stables today!"

Sarah's lower lip puffed out as she lowered her head, knowing that she was going to be punished, and she may not get her surprise after all.

Regina reached up and lifted her baby girl's head and gives her a frown of her own.

"I know you didn't mean to lie to me that you wouldn't go to the stables. But you shouldn't lie about something like that Sarah. What if you had gotten hurt? I wouldn't have known that you were there, and I couldn't have helped you."

"I'm sorry mamma. I didn't mean to lie." Sarah said with a sad face.

Regina couldn't help but smirk as the next words were more intended for David then for Sarah.

"Sometimes we lie to protect ourselves sweet heart, but you need to know when to stop lying and tell the truth."

Sarah nodded her head.

David doing the same as he understood that those words were meant more for him. Regina had been protecting herself...as well as her children from him. But why would she go through all the trouble of making him look presentable to his mother.

"Now..." Regina gave Sarah's pouting lip a quick kiss and pulled away, "I believe it's someone's birthday today." With that Regina gave Sarah a radiant smile.

Sarah realizing that her mother wasn't going to punish her swooped down and hugged her mother's throat.

Both Cora and Regina began laughing again.

Pulling back once more Sarah smiled widely at her mother.

"I think it's time that you and I go get ready. Let's leave Grammy and get fitted for our dresses." With that Regina gave a curt glance at the bed and then continued to walk out.

Of course nothing goes smoothly.

"Regina wait..." Cora moved toward the duo and fluffed Sarah's hair away from her face.

"I wanted to know if by chance you had talked to Snow."

Regina winced.

"No. Not yet."

Cora grimaced. "I know you don't like to think about it sweetheart...but we need to make sure she's prepared for what's to come."

Regina nodded her head fractionally as she looked down to the carpeted floor.

"Regina..."

Regina looked up swiftly. "I know mother. I just need time."

Cora let out a sigh.

"I know sweetheart."

Regina brooded for a moment and then turned and gave a smile to her little girl.

"I'll be back to check on you in a bit, after I get this one into her new gown." Regina informed her mother.

Cora's brows furrowed.

Why would Regina need to check on her?

Turning Regina tickled Sarah into laughing, making both give huge vibrant smiles.

Cora let out another sigh and moved back to the balcony.

David had closed his eyes minutes ago, trying to pull together his courage. Words that he had been rehearsing since he left the only home he had ever known, seemed to vanish now that he was there.

Opening his eyes he nodded and moved from underneath the bed.

**************************Back to The Mainworld**************************************

Bae looked from his father to Emma.

Emma had the familiar exhausted look on her face, and his father...well his father was the same as he was all those years ago.

Due to the circumstance that it looked like his father might have been ready to actually harm people, he hadn't gone after Henry, and had stayed to make sure everyone would be fine.

Watching Henry every few seconds, he had made sure his son was safe.

Now though, as everything settled he remembered what his son had said to Red to start this whole fiasco.

Everyone looked over to see Bae laughing and smiling like a fool.

When he noticed everyone looking at him, he sobered quickly. A room full of woman was no place to share the thought that popped into his brain.

"Ah...sorry." Bae apologized for his laughter.

Sarah closed her eyes and shook her head.

"What Emma see's in you is beyond me!"

"Hey!" Both Emma and Bae exclaimed.

Snow slapped Sarah's head once more, making Sarah open her mouth in a silent 'ow.'

Regina and Rumple eyed each other once more, before Regina took hold of both Sarah and Snow and pulled them towards the exit.

"I'll see you around sometime then." Rumple said as the group began to move outside.

The comment made Regina stiffen and freeze, but both Sarah and Snow gripped her back and continued to walk out.

Emma finally moved to see if Red was ok along with Mary Margret.

"Are you ok?"

Ruby nodded her head, her eyes though were still fixed on her grandmother.

"If you guys don't mind...I need to have a long talk with her."

Both Mary Margret and Emma nodded their heads in understanding.

Emma gave Bae a look, which Bae took to mean to follow them.

They too started to leave the cafe.

"Bae!"

Bae turned and stared at his father.

"Now's not a good time. Maybe later." Bae said before his father could ask him to stay.

Rumple said nothing, but gave a nod to his son.

As soon as Henry saw Sarah walking out, he rushed over to her.

"I told you it was a bad idea!" Henry exclaimed.

Sarah saw her mother about to say something to Henry and quickly dragged him away.

Once more holding him by his shoulders Sarah spoke to Henry.

"Are you kidding? That went better than I thought it could!" Sarah said with a quiet excitement.

Henry's face scrunched and furrowed in confusion.

"Henry...didn't you notice how Mary Margret was protective of me. Believe me...things are going to work!"

Henry shook his head. "I don't know...it doesn't seem like it."

"Henry, give it some time...I know it'll work."

Henry let out a huge sigh as he looked into Sarah's eyes. "Ok."

Sarah gave Henry a smirk.

"Get ready to have some fun Henry!"


Author's Note: SIX REVIEWS! Come on people! Tell Me what you thought of the flash back. No more story until I get MY fix! :P