Chapter twenty-one
Regina and Emma sat in silence for a few minutes, with Regina leant against her shoulder, Emma lightly stroked her hair.
"Can I ask you something?" Regina asked.
Emma nodded.
"What's it like to have a mother?" she asked quietly.
"You had a-"
"A caring mother," she clarified.
"Why don't you ask Henry?" Emma asked.
Regina sat up, and looked at her straight in the eyes, though Emma saw a small smile, "will you stop being charming for five seconds and answer my question."
Emma nodded, and pulled her back down against her shoulder, "it's awesome. For the first time I had someone that listened to me at any given moment, Snow didn't want me around just to get government cheques, she just wanted to get to know me. She even told me to tell you about my feelings, so I guess you'll have someone who's always right," she laughed.
"She knew?" Regina asked in shock.
"Well it did take her a while, let's just hope she doesn't faint every time she sees us, did something make you think about Cora?"
Regina nodded, "I talked to her."
"What?" Emma asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Calm down, when I was under the sleeping curse, I talked to the version of her from our timeline, she actually makes a decent mother with her heart."
Emma nodded, "so you want to find her and give her heart back."
Regina sighed, "I know it sounds fool-"
"Okay, so we could either go to the Enchanted Forest and give her the heart, or we could just wait until she comes here, but I don't know how long that would take. Do you know where her heart is?"
Regina nodded, "it's in my vault; you're really willing to do this?"
"Of course I am," Emma laughed, "I would do anything you asked me to do."
"If I'd known that, it would have been easier to get rid of you the first time," she smirked.
Emma just shook her head, "very funny your majesty."
"Hey," Emma said as she walked in to see her mother had woken up, "you feeling better?"
Snow nodded, "I'm sorry for how I reacted."
"Really?" Emma asked in shock, "I thought it would take longer."
"I'm still not okay with it," she clarified, "but your father and I can try and hide it until we are."
"So the answer is repression," Emma smirked, "you know that's not healthy."
"At least we'll get to spend time with you," Charming smiled.
"Yeah...about that," Emma began, "there's kind of something that me and Regina have to deal with before we can be like...a big happy family."
"Okay...what?"
"We need to bring Cora back to Storybrooke," Emma said hesitantly.
"Cora? As in Regina's mother, do you have any idea how dangerous that would be?" Snow asked in outrage, "and besides why would Regina even want her mother back?"
"You probably don't want to know the whole story," Emma replied.
Snow raised her eyebrow in expectation.
"Well in the future, we found out that Cora didn't have her heart, which is why she was such a cold hearted bitch. But someone cursed the heart and convinced Regina to give it back to her, for a few moments Cora was actually like...a real mother, but then she died."
"That's horrible...who would do something like that?" Snow asked with wide eyes.
"You did," Emma muttered.
Charming and Snow's mouths each fell open.
"But it doesn't matter, we'll give her the heart and then she can be like a functioning parent."
"And if it doesn't work, and Cora hurts either of you?" Charming asked.
"I beat her last time," Emma offered.
"What did she do last time?"
"She tried to take my heart, but she couldn't because of the whole product of true love thing...so you know...thanks," she smiled.
"We won't allow you to..." Charming began.
"You won't allow me?" Emma laughed, "I'm an adult!"
"You're still our daughter," Snow replied.
Emma felt anger build up, these were not the same parents that's she had grown close to in the future. She didn't realise that they must have done just as much adjusting as she had. Despite that she knew she didn't mean what was about to say, she also knew that she was going to say it eventually, "yeah, well you're a little late."
Hurt flashed across each of their faces and Emma felt regret, but she decided to deal with one problem at a time, "just look after Henry while we're gone," she said before leaving without waiting for their reply.
"Are you sure about this?" Henry asked.
"If we wait, we don't know what she'll do before we can stop her," Regina replied as Henry followed her.
Henry inspected the box Regina had given him, "how do you know it's her heart?"
"It's a magic thing, I'm not sure if I can explain it," she frowned.
Henry laughed, "don't worry about, how long do you think you'll be gone."
"Well last time Emma was gone for two weeks, but we'll know what we're doing this time, so it shouldn't take that long," she assured.
"Hey," Emma shouted, running up to the other two clutching a hat.
"Where'd you get that?" Henry laughed.
"I made it, Jefferson wasn't there anyway. Besides I made the last one we used," she said proudly.
"The future sounds weird," Henry frowned.
"It was," Emma smiled.
Regina shook her head, "you know you don't have to come with me."
Emma put her arm around the brunette's shoulder, "I'm not letting you have all the fun, so where do you want to do this?"
Regina shrugged and looked around the deserted Main Street, "my house?"
Emma nodded, and made as if to walk away, "crap," she whispered.
"What?" Regina asked.
"My parents are coming, they were trying to talk me out of this," she sighed.
"Why?"
"Apparently I'm not mature enough," she said dramatically.
Regina gave her a doubtful look, "did they actually say that?"
"Well...no. Just do it here," she said, "the street is completely empty."
"Emma!" Snow shouted.
The blonde quickly grabbed the hat and kneeled down, she focused on going back to the Enchanted Forest, and took a calming breath; a second later the hat was spinning with a purple vortex.
"Maybe you're not mature enough," Regina said with a frustrated sigh.
"Come on, the sooner we go, the sooner we'll be back," Emma pointed out.
Regina just shook her head and turned to Henry, "we'll be back soon, I promise."
Henry handed the box to Emma and hugged his mother, "I love you."
"I love you too," Henry offered Emma a small wave.
Regina jumped into the vortex, and Emma was about to follow, only for someone to grab her arm, "I can't lose you again."
Emma looked at the hat, praying that Regina wouldn't be left alone, "then come with me."
Snow looked at her in shock, but Emma decided not to wait for her answer and simply followed her girlfriend.
Snow looked behind to see Charming hadn't quite caught up, and decided that Emma was right.
Without another thought she followed the other two to the Enchanted Forest.
A/N Thank you all for the suggestions, they were really helpful :) I liked the idea of them choosing to go to the EF, but let me know if you would rather that they were sent there by some villain. Also without the wraith Prince Phillip would be alive, but I don't really like him (sorry if you do), so let me know if you have any ideas as to how to get rid of him, or to wake up Sleeping Beauty without him (I'm all for SleepingWarrior if you guys want to see it)
I also need to thank AmazonianTheifEss for all the help with this chapter and for being a great sound board for ideas :)