Chapter fourteen

Henry hesitated outside of the door and considered for a moment what he was doing.

Emma had returned home briefly and had told him what had happened in the mayor's office and that he wouldn't have to go into his internship for the next couple of days. The moment she had mentioned that Regina was in the hospital, he had felt his stomach drop at the thought that it could be truly serious. From what he understood about curses, if the caster died, then that would mean that it would break and everyone in town would get their memories back. He knew that there was a lot that Emma would forgive him for, but he was pretty sure that if she got her memories back only to discover that the love of her life was dead, then she probably wouldn't even be able to look at him again, let alone stay in Storybrooke for the rest of her life. That was, of course, assuming that the ice-wall ever came down. There was a good chance that he would have to spend the rest of his life knowing that he had made the woman who had raised him so miserable that she felt he would be happier never having memories of her and with his birth mother effectively hating him.

Swallowing hard, he tried to make the thoughts from earlier go away and instead focused on the task at hand.

Timidly, he brought his hand up and knocked lightly on the door. A moment later, he heard a faint 'come in' and he slid it across so that he could enter the room.

The moment he did, the brunette in the hospital bed allowed her eyebrows to shoot up at the sight of the pre-teen clutching a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a card in the other. Placing her book down in front of her, she smiled slightly at him, seeing that he was nervous, though to be honest, she was more than a little surprised herself. Never in a million years had she expected that Henry would be visiting her and especially not with gifts.

"Hello, Henry," she said as evenly as possible, desperately trying to not allow the tears to track down her cheeks so that Henry would be able to see how much this meant to her. As far as she was concerned, the boy had no idea that she was ever his mother, which meant he was just a caring boy bringing flowers to his boss who had been hurt.

Of course, the younger brunette now instantly recognised her reaction for what it was. Before Archie telling him the truth, he knew that he probably wouldn't have noticed the emotion on her face, and certainly, he wouldn't have known what it meant if he had. Now he could see a woman so utterly surprised that the son she had given up on ever loving her had cared enough to even come and see her, he just wished that he could tell her that he knew everything, but the fact was that he didn't. Without all of his memories, he had yet to fully grasp the fact that the brunette had been the woman who had devoted ten years of her life to being his mother. There was still a part of his mind that kept telling him that she was just the mayor whom he had only met a couple weeks ago, which meant that no matter how much he knew simply telling her would make her happy, his mind just wouldn't allow him to do so just encase it was all wrong. Archie had no evidence to support his claims, and with only a slightly weak gut feeling that the therapist was telling the truth, the boy resolved to give himself more time before he even thought about simply coming clean.

"My mom told me what happened in your office and I just thought I would come and say that I hope you're okay in person…and give you these…" he rambled, thrusting the items in his hand forward at the end of his sentence.

Regina looked surprised for one more moment, before she reached forward and accepted the offered gifts with a grateful smile. Placing the flowers on the table next to her, she picked up the card and opened it to find a picture of a panda on it. Swallowing hard, she had to bite her lip to try and stave off the onslaught of tears. For some reason she had never questioned why Henry had always chosen to make her mother's day cards with a panda on it. She was sure that it was because he just enjoyed drawing them, but even when he got older and capable of drawing something more complicated, the tradition continued. That was until last year when he seemed to have 'forgotten' mother's day, instead he had spent the whole day in his room and now that she thought about it, he had probably been reading that infernal story book that had been the beginning of their failing mother-son relationship.

"Thank you," she managed to say without opening the floodgates, "this was very…considerate of you, Henry."

"Well, you said that you don't have many friends and I thought that everyone should have at least one person to visit them in the hospital…you know…"

Regina nodded and smiled at him, "that's very nice of you, it truly means a lot.

The brunette boy smiled, allowing all of his anxiety over his decision to go away, and he was just about to turn on his heels before he spotted a TV in the corner of the room.

"Mom said that you would be here for like twelve hours…if you wanted, I could keep you company…only if you want though…"

The older brunette ran through all of the reasons that this would be inappropriate in her mind. On paper, she was simply his boss and it would be weird for the town mayor to form a friendship with a boy whose mother she wasn't even really friends with.

But damn it, she had just been thrown against a wall by a psychotic sorceress, and she knew that spending just a small amount of time with a Henry who wanted her around would make her feel way better than any pill that Whale could possibly give her.

Regina handed him the remote and he fell into the chair next to her as he inspected the controls. A moment later he almost sub-consciously turned to his favourite show.

Regina smiled fondly at the title screen of 'Young Justice' and decided that she could allow herself to simply enjoy one episode before she brought herself to forget everything for just twenty minutes.

-Two months ago-

"Alright Ingrid, it looks like the last fracture is all healed," the doctor explained happily, "you just need to sign here and you'll be free to leave."

The blonde woman let out a sigh of relief. She couldn't believe that she had allowed her brief trip out of Storybrooke to turn into a five-month hospital stay. Things had just been so boring waiting for Elsa to show up that she saw no reason that she couldn't go and spend the day in New York; however, one drunken driver later and she had woken up in a hospital bed, being told that she wouldn't be able to leave for some time. Every moment she had spent there had been torture as she wondered whether she had missed her chance to put her plan into action, but she kept telling herself that it would never be too late. She would be able to cast the spell of Shattered Sight and get the family that she had always dreamed of having since her own had fallen apart.

With a deep breath, she smiled at the doctor and thanked him for all he did for her as she signed her name onto the discharge papers.

All she would have to do now was go back to Storybrooke and everything was in. The last she had seen, Emma was quite happy with the mayor as her girlfriend, so she figured that she would have to find a way to get the former Evil Queen on board since she would never want her new sister to be without the person she loved. But everything else would be simple, she would just have to get back to Storybrooke.

That was what she had told herself for the whole four-hour drive back. However, the time hardly registered in her mind and before she knew it, she was pulling up the familiar road.

Smiling, she pulled the scroll out of her bag and looked up, expecting to see the sprayed town line with the 'Welcome to Storybrooke.' Instead, a wall of ice towered over her once the shock had fallen away, she allowed herself to smile at the sight. It could only mean that her niece had finally arrived and she would be able to start her plan.

Grabbing her bag, she walked towards the ice and sighed in relief when she saw that it didn't quite touch the town line. This allowed her to step over it and feel the rush of magic she had been missing for all of those months.

Raising her hand, a cloud of smoke engulfed her and she decided that her car was a small price to pay for admission back into Storybrooke.

-Present day-

"In order for the whole town to believe that Henry has always been your son and that we never had any form of relationship, I must give up you and Henry. The price of the curse will be watching you both be happy without me, but it will be worth it…"

Ingrid looked angrily on at the images she had conjured in her mirror.

Admittedly, she had been rather rash in attacking the mayor, since she had been convinced that their break-up had led to the relationship that should have never happened. But now she saw that it was much deeper than that. Regina's curse had been directly responsible for what had happened.

Emma and Elsa were never meant to be together and while they remembered their relationship, there was no way they could ever be a family. Swallowing hard, the Snow Queen considered that she should abandon her plan, considering this new development, but she had spent so much time on it that she resolved to just go through with it and ignore the implications.

But that started with figuring out exactly what she could do to break this curse.

-The next day-

Emma shot a look at the silent blonde across from her and managed to stop herself from sighing audibly. Things had been more than a little awkward since the day before and she was pretty sure that she knew the reason behind it.

"Do you want another coffee?" the saviour offered, hoping that it would end the oppressive silence.

Her plan failed, though, as Elsa just shook her head and continued to look at her breakfast that she had yet to actually take a bite of.

"Elsa," Emma said, actually sighing this time, "can you please talk to me?"

"There's nothing to talk about, I'm just being irrational," the other woman whispered.

The sheriff tilted her head in confusion, that certainly wasn't what she had expected after a day of cold shoulder.

She was about to just accept this and try and veer the conversation towards that conclusion; however, when she thought back to the hospital room and the princess's face when she had basically reprimanded her, she swallowed hard and decided to bite the bullet.

"Is it about Regina?" Emma asked, instantly seeing Elsa clenching her jaw.

"I have no reason to be jealous of you and the mayor, I've just noticed that you were so worried about her, but that's your job…granted, it isn't really in your Job Description that you had to miraculously learn how to teleport yourself across town…but you know…"

Emma bit her lip and her mind didn't even bother trying to repeat her mantra. The fact was that spending time with Regina had given her the first doubts that she had ever had about Elsa since they had met. Neither of them knew anything about her background. For all they knew, she could be somehow involved in some kind of plot with the new snow manipulator and she wouldn't even remember. Or she could be married with a family who had spent the last six months missing her dearly. The saviour was no stranger to being alone for long periods of time, but the more she thought about it, the more she sincerely hoped that her girlfriend had someone who was missing her and maybe even looking for her. At least that would mean that her past would be worth remembering, instead of spending the rest of her life in Storybrooke, pretending that she had always belonged there simply because she had never questioned her missing memories.

Elsa watched the plethora of emotions flash across her girlfriend's face and continued to look at her expectantly, waiting for her to tell her exactly what she wanted to hear.

However, the hesitation was enough for her eyes to widen, before she huffed and rose from the booth.

"Elsa," Emma said frantically, as she jumped out of her own seat and threw some money onto the table, before running out of the diner to follow her very pissed off girlfriend.

"I didn't say anything!" she shouted as the bell rung out behind her.

The other blonde turned around in the middle of the street and said, "you didn't have to say anything."

"Me and Regina are acquaintances, if that," Emma shot back, trying to close the distance between them, though it did nothing to remedy the people staring and whispering. "I'm just trying to help her because she helped Henry by giving him the apprenticeship and helping him with his science project. Plus, you looked so worried in the hospital."

"There are ways to thank someone that do not involve spending hours with them! You could have brought her a bottle of wine or something, but no, you decide to spend the day walking around the ice wall with her!"

"I help everyone, I'm the saviour or whatever," Emma sighed, crossing her arms defensively. "Plus, you don't have to be having an affair with someone to care when they're in the hospital, Elsa. She was attacked and it's my job to find out by who. You're the one who didn't need to be there!"

Elsa's mouth fell open and the other blonde clamped her mouth shut, "I didn't mean…"

"Just leave me alone, Emma."

With that, Elsa turned on her heels and was about to walk away, but her steps faltered at the sound of a high pitched excited squeal.

"Elsa!" a red-headed girl shouted gleefully as she ran towards the blonde, failing to see her very confused expression in her excitement.

The blond man behind her, however, had a better view of the situation and he tried in vain to lean forward and grab the woman. But before his fingers even came near her, she collided with the blonde and said, "I finally found you, it's been so long."

Emma blinked a couple of times, before the reality of the situation came crashing down on her. All of her theories had been true, but she imagined that it would have been far less painful for whoever this girl was if they had found out via Elsa getting her memories back.

The pain that the saviour anticipated flashed across her face as the princess pushed her back, giving her a look crossed between the seething anger she had just felt and the pure shock of being hugged by a stranger.

"Who are you?" the blonde asked.

The red-head's shoulders dropped and her face became pinched with pain and confusion as she looked over her shoulder to see if her fiancé knew about some kind of joke that she didn't. But when she saw that he looked the same way she felt, she turned back to the blonde and said with a small nervous laugh, "Elsa…it's me…Anna…your sister."

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed and as always I need to thank my beta, QueenApples XD

Reviews are appreciated greatly XD