Glamour of Truth 14
"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means" - Oscar Wilde
Emma smiled softly as the credits to the movie played but she wasn't looking at the screen. She took out her phone and snapped a quick photo of the pair sleeping on the couch beside her. She'd been waiting for an opportunity to collect blackmail material but unfortunately this wasn't it. Instead, she stared at the photo for a while before setting it as her phone wallpaper.
As promised, Henry had coerced his parents into a Harry Potter marathon but he and Regina had fallen asleep in the third movie before the characters had even gotten to Hogwarts.
The mansion was cool and quiet apart from the soft music from the TV speakers. Emma noted that out of all the rooms in the house this must've been where Henry was relegated to playing when he was younger - there were dings in the furniture and maybe even a hint of touch-up on the walls hiding a mischievous little artist's scribblings. Like the rest of the house's immaculate presentation, the room was decorated in Regina's signature black, white, and creams. The only splash of colour was Emma's red jacket, even though she couldn't get it over her sling right now she'd brought it because the mere sight of it in her house annoyed Regina.
Emma's shoulder hurt acutely. She was due for another painkiller but she stubbornly resisted, remembering earlier how Henry had used Regina's phone to capture a video of his blonde mother rambling about "magical orphans". Emma hoped to return the favour but nooo, Regina didn't even have the grace to snore or drool or do anything embarrassing in her sleep that could possibly be used as ammunition against her. Infuriatingly, the woman even slept perfectly regally.
A soft knocking at the door to 108 interrupted her thoughts and had Emma jumping up before the noise could awaken the sleepers. She opened the door and let her parents in, putting her index finger to her lips in a shh gesture.
"Hey," she whispered. "Everything ok?"'
"We just came to say goodnight and see if you needed anything," Mary Margaret whispered back, justifying their late-night visit to Regina's house. She had to indulge her need to fuss over them since Emma and Henry had stayed over there after Regina had been discharged from hospital yesterday.
"How's your shoulder?" asked David.
"Better, yeah," Emma nodded, shifting awkwardly.
Mary Margaret peeked into the living room where the DVD menu played on a loop in front of the two sleeping Millses. "Didn't make it through to the end, huh? David, maybe you should put Henry to bed for Emma?"
Emma nodded gratefully to her father, she couldn't move the kid with her shoulder in it's current condition and she was loathe to disturb his sleep. "Upstairs on the right."
"How's Regina?" Mary Margaret whispered once he was gone.
"Um, ok I think. You know, apart from the whole having-to-kill-her-own-mother and nearly-dying-from-a-sword-wound thing."
Mary Margaret gave her daughter a perceptive look. "She's been through worse, Emma. And I have a feeling things are different for her now."
"Maybe." Emma fidgeted uncomfortably, glancing agitatedly at the living room and back.
"Emma, what is it?" Mary Margaret took her hand to comfort her.
Emma tried to pull away but for once Mary Margaret wouldn't allow Emma to shy away from her.
She held firm and pulled her in, wrapping her arms safely around her daughter being mindful of her sling. Emma buried her hot face in the pixie-haired woman's neck.
"Oh sweetheart, it's okay. Talk to me," pleaded Mary Margaret.
"I uh - I don't think I can do this. It's too much- I can't- I have to get out of here."
"I know you're scared. It's going to be ok." Mary Margaret smoothed the blonde's hair.
Emma had been so busy saving everyone else for so long that she'd had to put her own fears aside. She was so used to being thought of last that she even prioritised herself that way. The battle with Cora had taken its toll on everyone but Emma had been the one to hold them all together. Now the dam had burst and it was her turn to freak out. When things got too difficult and people got too close, she usually up and left town - an option that was no longer there.
"No it's not ok," insisted Emma. "They need me too much. I don't want them to. What if they need me and I can't be there, what if I let them down. Regina, she's so-"
"She needs a lot of saving?"
"Yes! And Henry, he doesn't deserve this- I'm not parent material. Both of his parents are so fucking screwed up. I don't want him to turn out like me."
Mary Margaret held back from exclaiming. "There's nothing wrong with you."
"You don't even know me," complained Emma thickly. "If you knew you would-"
"No," said Mary Margaret firmly. "Don't ever think that. You've got a family now, you don't have to be alone anymore and we'll always be here for you."
"But it could all be taken away. I almost lost-"
"So you want to run away because there's a chance you'll lose your family again? Just in case?"
Emma didn't want to confess what she really feared, that her family didn't really know her and that one day they would come to know things about her, things they might wish they hadn't. If they saw her for who she really was, found out there was something with wrong her, they'd reject her and she would lose them all over again.
"I w-was almost adopted by the family I lived with when I was three," began Emma, shakily. "It's the first thing I can remember. They- the mom told me they were going to have a baby. We got in the car to go back to the group home. I thought we were going to pick out a baby brother or sister. But they just left me there."
Emma's voice hitched as she struggled to tell of her earliest childhood memory but she wanted her mother to know, not to hurt her but for her to understand the daughter she'd ended up with.
Mary Margaret had always suspected that Emma's upbringing had been less than happy but hearing it first hand, she couldn't help the falling tears. She had desperately wanted and loved her child from the moment of her existence and she felt sick at how anyone could just give up her baby girl so easily when it had been the most awful gut-wrenching decision of her life.
Emma stepped back a little and allowed her mother to brush her cheeks. She took a deep breath before revealing the worst part of the story.
"I told you once that looking for people is all I've ever done... When I ran away from my last foster home at 16 I tracked down the family that nearly adopted me. I sat outside watching their house all day. They'd gone away for the weekend so I broke in. There were family pictures on the walls everywhere. Not just one kid, but three. They didn't give me up because they only wanted one child, they just didn't want me."
"Oh, Emma."
"I trashed the place and then-" Emma broke off and swallowed hard. "The fire crews couldn't save it. I watched from down the street."
Emma jumped in fright when David appeared from the stairs looking at her with concern, having caught the end of the story. She turned away to hide her distress but he too pulled her into a gentle bear hug that reassured her she was still wanted.
"Hey, baby girl. Last time I had you in my arms you were crying too. I hope it's nothing personal," David said, trying to make her laugh.
Emma smiled sheepishly through tears as he brushed the blonde hair back off her forehead. "Are you guys taking turns dealing with my tantrums."
"Well, if you take after your mother I bet you can throw some pretty impressive ones," said David.
"What is that supposed to mean, Charming?" Mary Margaret frowned at him with her hands on hips, in a stance that was every bit her former princess self.
"Er, nothing. Just that you can be very assertive when you want to be."
"I'll show you assertive," mumbled Mary Margaret.
David stroked Emma's cheek with his thumb one last time and then took his wife's arm. "Come on, let's go and let Emma get some sleep."
Mary Margaret couldn't resist stealing another hug and whispering something into her daughter's ear.
Emma closed the door with a soft snick after they left. She was feeling vulnerable from the onslaught of parental concern and love, like a drowning person choking on her first gasp of air. Wiping her face she padded back into the living room and took her place on the couch. One glance at the brunette's creased forehead told her that she'd been awake and heard everything.
Emma made sure to prop her socked feet up on the coffee table, knocking over what remained in the popcorn bowl.
"Regina, I know you're not asleep."
"Is that so," said the brunette, still with her eyes closed and resting her head.
"Yes, and you're in pain judging by the way you've scrunched yourself into a ball there. Want your painkillers?"
"I'm fine."
"Of course you are."
Emma pressed the Off button on the remote sending the room into silence. She picked at a piece of lint on the flannel pyjama bottoms she'd been wearing all day. It'd been the only way she'd been able to convince Regina to stay in her slate-grey satin pyjamas since the brunette owned no other clothing that would accommodate her bandaged wound.
Regina opened her eyes tiredly at her, noticing the blonde's splotchy red face. "You've been crying."
"Yeah well, parents," Emma shrugged awkwardly at the one-word explanation. "I know you heard my pathetic sob story."
"Mm. As if they needed another reason to hate me. I ruined their daughter's life."
Emma tilted her head on the back of the cushion and gave her a mock offended look. "Hey, I'm not all that ruined thanks. Besides we got Henry out of it didn't we?"
"You really are her spawn aren't you." Regina rolled her eyes at Emma's pollyanna ability to focus on the silver lining of all this mess.
"Is it true that Snow used to throw tantrums really?" asked Emma slyly.
Regina let out a derisive huff. "No, she was an annoyingly perfect child. Cloyingly sweet and loved by all."
"Guess I don't take after her then. I was an unholy terror." Emma grinned like it was something to be proud of. "What were you like as a child?"
"I was never a child. I was born evil."
"You were not," drawled Emma, indicating she knew the brunette was being facetious. "I bet you were a spoiled little princess too weren't you."
Regina raised a shoulder and stared unseeingly. "I suppose I used to read and ride my horse and... try to be good and stay out of my mother's way. People used to say I looked just like her."
Emma cursed herself silently for bringing up the topic of parents, reminding Regina again of her recent loss. Emma had seen a few memories of Regina's childhood through her own eyes but that now seemed like forever ago. Her mother was terrible and manipulative but still, Regina had loved her.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry, dear. Killing my mother never does get easier," said Regina dryly.
"Practice makes perfect?" Emma cringed at the dark humour, afraid she'd gone too far. She was relieved when it actually brought a wry smile to the brunette's face. She seemed... different somehow.
After a pause Regina confessed something softly. "It was my father's."
Emma questioned her with a look, not wanting to interrupt.
"The sword I conjured for you. It belonged to my father once."
Regina inhaled slowly, reluctant to impart such personal history but she had just overheard a story of Emma's and felt like it was only fair.
"He fought as a Knight in the First Ogres War when he was a young man. It was a farce of a battle, our forces were completely overwhelmed but my father survived somehow. The former king bestowed him with land and wealth when he returned."
Regina knew her mother had despised seeing a sword belonging to a King's Knight in the hands of Emma Swan, a daughter born to a farmer and raised haphazardly in a foreign land. Despite her own low birth Cora came to be obsessed by class and the power attached to it. If he hadn't had wealth and title, Cora would never have married Regina's father. The magical sword that had come into the Mills family had saved her father's life but it had nearly killed Regina - it was literally a double-edged sword.
"My father still loved me even after I... back then he thought I could change. He was wrong. I've never forgiven him, but I wish-"
Regina's voice cracked with emotion and her face crumpled. Without the gaping void in her heart, she now felt the full weight of her past actions. Her father had tried to gently persuade her against casting the curse but he never stood up to his daughter, just like he never stood up to her mother. He hadn't been able to stop Regina from destroying her own soul, trapping herself in a prison of her own making. It had cost them both dearly.
Emma leaned in but drew her hand back as though burned when she saw someone out of the corner of her eye.
"I hear your wish." The Mother Superior who had formerly been the Blue Fairy, appeared in the living room apparently summoned by Regina's words.
Regina leapt up and went immediately on the defence. "Get out of my house."
The Blue Fairy merely smiled like she expected that response. "You've had the same wish since you were a little girl, Regina. I cannot grant it. You will have to make it come true yourself."
"Hold up," Emma put her hands out like stopping traffic. "You're Regina's fairy godmother?"
"I don't have a fairy godmother," answered Regina quickly.
The Blue Fairy nodded to confirm. "The Mills family's patron fairy was de-winged many years ago. No-one of that line can be granted a wish anymore."
"So that it's it. Regina's just out of luck," said Emma sarcastically.
"Yes," said the Blue Fairy simply. "You have yet to redeem a wish."
Emma frowned in confusion. "What?"
"I have long been patron to your mother's family, Princess. I can grant your wish."
"I don't believe in wishes," said Emma, bristling at the heavy title. "If you want something in your life you gotta go out and make it happen. There's no waiting around hoping that things will change."
The Blue Fairy regarded her sagely. "When you know what you want, the wish will come."
And with that, the Blue Fairy left the same way she'd entered.
"Be careful, Emma. Wishes are not to be trifled with," warned Regina, thinking of a certain genie who became stuck in a mirror.
"Yeah yeah, I guess it's the usual deal. Ex-nay on wishing for more wishes, no killing, no falling in love, blah blah blah. Way to take the fun out of it. Guess I'll be getting that pony after all."
Regina stared at her, horrified by the possibility that the blonde might just be serious. "Emma Swan, if you use that wish for something trivial then so help me..."
"Invisibility Cloak it is then." Emma grinned.
"Ugh. You are unbelievable. I'm going to bed," announced Regina, shaking her head and padding towards the staircase.
"Ok. Night," Emma called to her back. "I'll wake you up in the morning for pancakes?"
Regina turned back from the doorway raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "You're going to cook pancakes."
"Nope, you are. Just wanted to let you know."
A/N: I thought this wasn't going to be done until after next episode, but surprise! here it is. I hope you guys are still enjoying this story & thanks for reading. I have an idea of where to go next, but I am open to suggestions/demands/threats... :)