I thought I should get this up before 2x15 airs on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. It looks like some awesome Snow and Regina scenes are to come this Sunday. It looks like my last chapter has a little bit of selfish little Snow, like what appear to be coming up in this next episode. Here is my next quick disclaimer; I do not own anything from Once Upon a Time nor any dialogue from The Stable Boy, 1 x18. I hope you enjoy my next chapter. –JCat30
The next scene they see is Regina riding up on horseback through beautiful green hillsides. She laughs and dismounts greeting Daniel by a shady tree with love and a deep and long kiss.
Daniel embraces Regina and looks at her lovingly, "I thought we could take a ride to Firefly Hill. We can make it by sundown, have a picnic-"
Regina, dismayed looks at him and tries to explain, "I can't. I have to be back in an hour – tea time. A lady never misses her tea time." Regina says the latter part with sarcasm.
Daniel abruptly pulls out of the embrace and explodes in frustration, "This is absurd. How can she do this to you? Controlling you and hurting you like she does. It isn't right. And we end up having to steal kisses between lunch and tea? Are you going to tell your parents about us?"
"My mother maybe strict at times, but she is just trying to do what's best for me. And I will tell them, but you know the problem is my mother." Regina tried to rationalize and downplay Daniel's concerns.
Daniel shakes his head, "I don't understand. So, I work in the stables. She started out as the daughter of a miller. Wouldn't she, of all people, understand?"
Regina nods her head, "She does. But… But, she thinks one's trajectory needs to keep moving up and…"
Daniel interjects disappointedly as Regina seems to struggle with what to say next, "And I'm down."
Daniel turns away to face the tree they are under weighed down by what his love has just said.
Regina turns and pulls Daniel towards her so that he's looking at her, to convince him of her love, "She believes that, Daniel. I know better."
"Regina, Tell Her. She'll get over it. What can she do?" he said pleadingly.
Regina responds with exasperation, "Have you not seen her magic? Th-The real question is, what can't she do?"
"Who cares about magic?" Daniel strokes Regina's face lovingly touching her lips with the light caress of his fingers, "True love is the most powerful magic of all. It can overcome anything."
Just as Regina and Daniel look like they are about to kiss. They hear in the background, a little girl's voice screaming, "Help!"
"Someone's out there." Regina says as she tries to speak quietly to hear who it is and make sure it isn't her mother.
The adult viewers: Emma, Snow and Regina all are recognized that this blur of a girl flying past young Regina and Daniel on her out of control horse is none other than little Snow.
Snow White's screaming as she tries to keep a grip on the reigns that don't seem to be helping to control the horse at all, "Somebody, help me!"
Regina mounts her horse and chases after Snow White.
Snow White pleads with the horse in vain to stop while continuing to shout for help, "Come on, boy, please, stop! Help me! Help! Help me! Please help me!"
Regina is able to catch up with the runaway horse. She extends her hand to Snow White.
Regina reaches out and shouts to be heard over the loud beating of the horse hooves, "Give me your hand!"
Snow White takes Regina's hand, who then pulls her onto her own horse. Snow White's horse continues to run while Regina's comes to a stop. Snow White tumbles off the horse with a fearful outburst as she falls.
Regina quickly dismounts her horse and goes over to assist Snow White, "It's okay, dear. You're safe."
Snow White is pulled up from the ground by Regina in an embrace. Snow looks up at Regina in awe, "You saved my life."
"Are you alright?" Regina looked concerned for the girl and glanced at her and patted her to make sure she wasn't hurt.
Snow White was stunned and realized she had proved her Father right. She couldn't handle that kind of responsibility. "Yes. But I'll never ride again."
Regina smiled at the sweet child-like logic from a failure, and she wanted to reassure this little girl that she could conquer anything she set her mind to, "Nonsense. The only way to overcome fear is to face it. To get back on that horse as soon as possible."
Snow White felt an instant connection to this woman and felt reassured by her advice, "Thank you."
Regina smiled and lightened the mood by introducing herself, "Regina."
Snow White's eyes teared up a bit, and her eyes took in all of Regina's face as if she were memorizing every detail and then said with a slight smile, "I'm Snow. Snow White."
Snow White then gives Regina a hug of thanks before stepping back.
"Well, Snow White. It is getting close to my mother serving tea, so until we can get you back to your riding party, why don't you come back to the house and you can have some tea and sandwiches." Regina kindly offered.
Snow looked in concern towards the direction she had come from and said, "I don't know, I had an escort my Father had come with me, but he was thrown from his horse when mine got spooked. If he hasn't come for me by now, I don't know. But, I do know that my Father will have someone coming to look for me before too long. I know Johanna will get concerned if they don't hear from me. She is traveling with me while I'm traveling with my Father."
"It's okay; once we get to the house we can send word to your Father with one of our servants." Regina smiled again and somehow Snow knew she could trust Regina.
"Then that is what we shall do. Where is this house of yours?" Snow decided to be brave.
Daniel had come over to meet them by this point, and Regina undid the saddle from her horse and gave it to Daniel.
"Daniel, this is Snow, and she is coming back to the house. I will be better able to have us ride without my saddle, so can you take this back with you to the stable."
"Yes, milady." Daniel said, and they both looked at each other with a look that said they would continue where they left off later.
As Regina's memory ends, Emma spoke up with a bit of doubt, "Wasn't that Cora who was waving to cute little Snow?" Emma couldn't help smirking a little. Even with all that they had seen of little Regina, it still surprised Emma to see Regina at any point in time in her life caring for Mary Margaret or Snow.
Snow and Regina both glared at Emma, but Regina was the one who spoke up, "I believe it was, and it looked like she wasn't waving, but using her magic. She denied having anything to do with this incident, but I wasn't sure and I couldn't admit it at the time." Regina said with some reluctance glancing over at Snow, who was shocked.
While, outside the minds of the three under the spell, James and others in Storybrooke were all frantically trying to help them. Hours ago they had carried Snow and Emma and laid them carefully on Snow and James' bed. James had been discussing options with Red, Blue and Grumpy at the kitchen table when they heard a shout of pain from Snow and heard movement from the bed. They all ran over to see what was going, or maybe Snow had woken up, David hoped. What David saw instead to his horror was Snow still firmly grasping the necklace, but she was shaking and twitching on the bed with a grimace of pain on her face.
"Snow! Snow? Are you awake? Come on baby, don't hurt yourself like that. Please wake up for me?" He didn't restrain her, but just made sure she wasn't going to hurt Emma and didn't fall off the bed.
Just as suddenly as she started, she stopped and was calm again, just as before.
"Ok, what the Hell was that!" Grumpy said.
The Blue Fairy was excited about this development, but didn't want it to show. "It appears to be some side effect from the spell that Rumplestiltskin introduced, and this might be the beginning, I'm afraid. It might be possible if Snow has more of these or if Emma starts as well, their lives might be in jeopardy." Blue tried to say with as much serious concern as she could muster.
David needed to do something. He paced back and forth, getting more frustrated turning red in the face. "WELL, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO? You haven't come up with any bright ideas and other than trying to kill the Dark One right now for hurting my family and manipulating my grandson, I don't know what to do." He shouted.
"Since we have no other options, going after the Dark One or at least making a deal with him might be our only option." Blue suggested.
"I don't know, but I need to get some fresh air. Grumpy, can you keep an eye on them for me?" David said looking sadly over at the two figures on the bed.
"You got it. We will call you if there is any change."
"Thanks." David said as he grabbed his coat and left the apartment.
"Grumpy, if you don't mind I have some business to attend to and I need to see if the other fairies have come up with anything." The Blue Fairy explained.
"Of course, I'm going to call a few of my brothers over here to keep me company to stand guard over those two." And with that, the Blue Fairy put her blue cape back on and also left the apartment. But she wasn't heading back to the convent to see the other fairies; she instead headed over to see Spencer, also known as the former King George. She had a deal to make, and she smiled slightly at that thought.
AN: Ok, so...what do you think? Please, feedback?
To the guest who posted: Thank you for your compliment on my work and I will think about a Neil/Regina story. I don't ship that, but the idea of the emotional interplay with her getting involved with Rumple's son would be an interesting concept. Mostly I like the tension that it would cause between her and Rumple. But, I'm not to sure it would work with the other blended mixed-up family dynamics that are already involved. How about I just get through this story first.