The very next afternoon Emma and Regina met up with Belle and Ruby down at Gold's shop. They followed the auburn haired beauty down into the basement of the building. Emma shuddered with a sudden chill and Regina put her arm around her. "Are you alright dear?"
"Yeah, I can feel… something… down here." Emma replied. "It's making me queasy."
"If Rumpel locked it up, it is most likely really dark magic." Belle said, not meaning to eavesdrop, but in the confines of the space it was near impossible not to.
"Once we get the portal thingie out of there," Ruby thought aloud, "We should lock up the rest of the stuff. We wouldn't want any of it to get out." She added thoughtfully.
Emma turned to her queen, "I was actually going to suggest maybe warding the entire shop. There is no real reason anyone other than Belle or one of us should even come in here."
Regina nodded and hummed her agreement. "Let's secure the aperture device and then we'll worry about the rest of the shop shall we?" She knelt down on the floor where Belle had indicated her, and waved her hand exposing a sealed floor panel. She took out the vial with Neal's blood and dabbed a drop on her thumb and pushed it into the invisible barrier above the panel's latch. A shimmering sparkle of magic dissipated around the panel and Regina was able to open the door. All four women peered over into the opening on the floor, Emma flicked on her Maglite illuminating the cubby. Belle reached in and took out the cone shaped device they were looking for.
Emma huffed and turned away, "Ok can we close that up, the magic is making me nauseous." Regina looked up worried at her love who looked quite green as she doubled over putting her head between her knees. Regina closed the door back on the cubby and went to her girlfriend's side. "Is that better?"
"No not really. I think I just need some air." Ruby rushed to her friend's side, putting her arm around her. "I'll take her out, lock that back up." She practically lifted the savior, half carrying, half helping her walk back up the stairs.
Belle eyed the two suspiciously. "Is she alright?"
Regina hummed, "She is an elemental. Magic affects her much more strongly. Let's take an inventory of what is in here before we close it up. Just snap some pictures of the items and we'll try and figure out what this stuff is later."
Once they were satisfied they had images of each item in the cubby, Regina locked the panel back in place and cast a new blood magic spell using a prick of Belle's blood. "Sorry." The queen said as she jabbed the beauty's finger. "The town wouldn't feel safe giving me access to this stuff."
"The fact that you know that, and are not trying to control it anyway, is a testament to how much you have changed Regina." Belle said supportively, her blue eyes clear windows to her care and understanding.
"Thanks." The former mayor lifted her head regally and smiled at the girl's complement.
The two brunette's found Ruby and Emma outside sitting on a sidewalk bench. Emma had her head hung down being held by the palms of her hands. Regina instinctively touched the woman's forehead. "You're a little warm honey."
"Whatever is in that vault needs to stay the hell away from me." She groaned. Regina stroked the girl's blonde locks. "Is it getting better at least?" Emma nodded her head.
"Good, at least we know it isn't this," She pulled out the cone shaped prize they came there for that day. "that's making you ill."
"How does it work?" Ruby asked, her wide green eyes looking at the device with reverence.
"From what I've read, like a magic bean. You work the spell over a mirrored plane, think of the destination and voila! The mirror turns into a portal, you can step through the mirror as if it were a door." Regina explained to the young wolf. "We should probably test it." She thought to herself aloud.
"I'm going with you." Emma said and stood.
"Sit down, I didn't mean right this second. Who knows where the portal will drop us off, we need supplies and someone to watch our son, and—" Regina started listing off all the reasons why they couldn't test the portal when Emma cut in, "AND when you go, I'm going with you." She pulled her fiancée into her arms. "I'm the queen's guard, her white knight, I go where she goes."
Regina mock rolled her eyes hiding the fact that she simply adored Emma's chivalrous side from their two comrades. Ruby piped in, "I'll watch Henry." Belle saddled up to the tall brunette, "I'll help." She said as she hooked her arm through the taller woman's elbow. Emma shrugged. "There ya go! We can take a couple days and find a good place to store the return portal." She shimmied the brunette within her arms, "Come on it'll be fun."
"Alright, but I hate being unprepared, we pack weapons and food and"
"And the kitchen sink, I get it." Emma cut her off. She pulled the woman close and whispered into her ear so the other two couldn't hear her, "It'll be like a little vacation, just the two of us…" she felt the short little brunette's body heat spike at the thought and smiled to herself. "Cool." Emma said confirming Regina's unspoken agreement on the plan. "We'll pack up tonight and test the cool funnel thingie tomorrow. Rubes pick up the kid tomorrow after school? You guys can stay at our place."
Later that night Emma was standing in the middle of several piles of clothes, several pairs of shoes, jackets, blankets, pillows, packages of dried foods, open bags, weapons of a variety of arts, flashlights, several lighters, a case of bottled water and her girlfriend sitting in the center of it all, checking over the list she made.
"Are we really going to need all this stuff?" she picked up one of their pillows and fluffed it before tucking it under herself and sitting down next to her queen. She plucked the list from Regina's grasp when the woman didn't respond. "Hey!" the brunette cried out.
"We need hiking attire," she wrote on the other side of the paper. "Each."
"We need each a pair of hiking boots." She picked up one of the queen's heeled boots and tossed it towards the kitchen.
"We need two bed rolls, or one sleeping bag…" She wagged her eyebrows at the scowling brunette.
"Two large bottles for water that we can refill on route." She added plastic bottles to her list and shoved the case of water out of the way. "The dried food is a good idea, we need more jerky than, what is this?" she held up the mystery dried fruit. Before the queen could answer she tossed it aside, "Whatever that was. Trail mix would be good for between meals. Mary Margaret taught me how to catch small game so as long as we have stuff for in between we should be okay."
She looked around at the rest of the stuff, "We don't need flashlights because we won't be traveling at night, we don't need lighters because we are bringing you, little miss fireball. Seriously? A tent?" she looked at Regina who was sneering back at her.
"I'm a queen!" she huffed in her defense.
Emma rolled her eyes, "Yes well your majesty is going to be roughing it for a few days. I'll allow two wardrobe changes babe, but you don't need what?" she quickly flicked through her girlfriends proposed attire, "SIX outfits!?"
Regina folded her arms around her midsection, "Fine, but I'm bringing my pillow!"
"Or…. You can just use me your Majesty." She pulled the pouting woman over to her and nestled her between her legs, resting her head against the savior's chest. The woman sighed loudly, "That could work I suppose." After a moment Emma went back to the list.
"A bow, two swords, a hunting knife and a dagger each." Emma picked through the woman's choice of weaponry. "Why…" she held up the suspicious item in question, "Why would we need nun chucks?"
"Oh they were just mixed in with the arsenal, I didn't…" the brunette started, but the pink flush of the woman's cheeks as her dark eyes met the large green staring back at her, gave her away. "Fine. YOU pack. I'm going to go check on our son." The queen stood up and stomped off in a huff, the blonde savior giggling in her wake. "We can 'rough it' in my castle!" she called over her shoulder.
Henry was sitting on his bed when his mother knocked on his door. She waited patiently behind the closed door for her son to give her permission to enter and once he did she slowly opened the door and poked her head inside. "Your mother has hijacked my packing duties so I was wondering if you wanted to play a game or something with me?" He shrugged his shoulders aloof. "What is wrong darling?" she asked and entered the room. "This will be Mom's second time in the Enchanted forest, and…"
"You want to go." His mother finished. He nodded as she sat down on the bed putting her hand on his knee. "We are uncertain of the dangers there Henry."
"I know." He said sadly.
"This trip is about setting up a return portal so people can come and go. That includes us. How about when we take the first trip of towns folk back, you, Emma and I go and stay on for a week?"
"Really?" his little boy voice cracked with his excitement. His cheeks instantly turned bright red. Regina paid it no mind and just patted the boy on his head. "Of course dear, we can go camping, or I can show you our castle, or whatever you want to see."
"That would be really cool Mom." He said in a deep steady voice trying not to inflect his speech and crack his voice.
"Then it will be done my prince." She smiled at him, her eyes shown the love in her heart for her boy, and the sadness of him growing up far too quickly.
"Want to play checkers?" he asked with a smile. She nodded and stood from the bed, leading him out of the room.
Emma attended the open door council meeting her father called to discuss the findings of his investigation. When he presented that the accusations were unfounded, some of the townsfolk were very vocal. There was however, no direct evidence that implicated Mary Margaret. When the darkness was removed, so went what compelled the woman to do the things she did. David had decided the guilty party had already paid the price. He convinced himself it couldn't have been his dutiful wife, it was the darkness to blame. Emma didn't exactly agree with his assessment, but also knew that if they did disclose, they would need to use the darkness as a defense to keep her mother out of jail, at least. It would be dangerous if someone found out Snow's darkness is out there. So they didn't disclose who the perpetrator was by name. They did however, clear the former mayor of all charges.
"Friends." David cleared his throat and addressed the town. "I think, and many of you will agree, Regina has done a fine job keeping this town operational; in the short time she has been gone," He looked around at the council members, "Things have seriously taken a turn for the worse." He paused for dramatic effect. "I propose asking the Queen to resume her position as soon as possible"
"I call for an official election!" One of the nuns called out.
"If anyone wishes to run against her, we can hold a proper election in the fall. If she is willing to come back," he looked at Emma knowingly,
The crowd broke out in agreeable murmurs and Emma noted several people were nodding their heads at the proposal. "Next year?" the outrage coming from the nun who had called for the election was clear.
"That is ample time to run a campaign for anyone who decides they think they can do it better than the woman who has kept us all well taken care of for the last 30 years. We may have been cursed, but the infrastructure of Storybrooke has been meticulously maintained." David answered.
"I for one applaud Mayor Mills for the job she has done," Dr. Hopper stood and voiced his opinion. "As someone who has tried to fill her shoes, believe me when I tell you, those heels are hard to fill!"
Granny stood and also voiced her opinion, "I second Mayor Mills return to office, our Savior trusts her, that is good enough for me!"
Grumpy also stood, "I third her return! She has gone out of her way to help keep us safe from people who would do us harm," He looked over at the nun who was speaking out for the election, "Even from each other!" he spat. The other 11 dwarves started shouting at the nuns who were now shouting back at them. David rapped the gavel on the table and called for order.
He looked over at his daughter and smiled sheepishly, "Sheriff? Is Regina willing to come back?" Every eye in the place focused in on her for that moment. "I won't speak for her, but I can certainly ask." She said in a noncommittal way. The truth was they had already talked about it, and the Mayor was willing to come back, but Emma was still pissed about what had happened to her fiancée and the home they shared and wanted to make the townsfolk twist a little. David bowed his head and accepted her answer. "Please do, Sheriff. Anything the council can do to persuade Mayor Mills, please let us know." He added a touch of desperation to his voice to add to the theatrics of his daughter's answer. It wouldn't hurt the town to know things were as bad as they actually were, and they needed the Mayor back in office.
"There is one thing," Emma said cautiously, "There is a plot of land that was owned by the Dark One, that is currently not being used, and no one has ownership of it currently. Since the Mayor's home was demolished," she looks around the room accusatorily, "I think it would go a long way to convince Regina of the towns gratitude for her loyalty to us all. However, I'll still need to speak with her and ask if she is even interested in coming back."
The crowd broke out in waves of "Here Here's" and supportive applause. David smacked the gavel again and nodded his agreement to his daughter. "I think that can be arranged. It is the least we can do. All we ask is you do your best to convey the towns sincerest apologies and desperate need of her expertise." Emma smiled knowingly at her father as he turned his attention back to the crowd moving the meeting forward. They had several other items on the agenda and he was anxious to get out of there. He hated filling in for Regina and wanted the mayor to come back yesterday.
"The last item of business is the portal home effort." He looked back over at his daughter who was happily ignoring the meeting and typing on her phone. David cleared his throat attempting to get his daughter's attention.
"Sheriff?" he said gently.
"Yeah?" she snapped out of whatever she was doing and focused back on the meeting, the room was looking at her expectantly.
"The portal initiative?" David repeated.
"Right! Uh, well as you all know, with assistance of the Sheriff's office, Belle, Ruby and Mayor Mills have been combing through and cataloging the Dark One's magic, locking up anything too dangerous under Belle's watchful eye. Regina has been instrumental in deciphering Gold's traps and fail safe triggers." She added unabashedly talking up her fiancée to the crowd. "With her help, we have made great strides to finding a magical item that can not only open a portal back to the Enchanted Forest, but we have also put together a plan to set up regularly scheduled trips back and forth between the realms, so people who wish to stay in Storybrooke can also visit loved ones who wish to reside back home."
"What about the Ogres? How will you stop them from using the portal to come here?" someone shouted from the back of the room.
"Or trolls?" someone else shouted.
"Or DRAGONS?" yet another added.
"We have taken every precaution," the Sheriff assured, "The location of the portals will be in a place that cannot be reached by normal means of transportation. No one but Regina and Myself will even know of its location in the Enchanted forest." She looked around the room to make sure the town folk were settling their fears then continued. "One of us will take a group from Storybrooke through the portal and transport them once on the other side to a predetermined travel location where those travelers can then make their way to wherever they please. Anyone from the Enchanted Forest who wishes to come back will be waiting at the travel location at the appointed time and will be taken back through the portal. We concluded a schedule of once a month would be a good place to start. Until we see what kind of traffic we get, we may add more dates, or lessen the frequency." She shrugged her shoulders then added. "Each of us can transport roughly 10 persons at one time safely, but as you all know, magic comes with a price and that price limits how often we can open the portal, it takes quite a bit of magic and requires both Regina and myself to open. We are also limited by how many people we can, uh, whoosh, at a time. So. Yeah. There's that."
David smiled proudly at his daughter, the setup and operation of the portal system was brilliantly laid out, carefully planned and took into consideration of the dangers posed of having an open portal between worlds. "Of course Sheriff. That is great news indeed!"
"I'll need to discuss security with the council in private of course, and discuss testing of the portals viability after we adjourn here." Emma added directly to her father.
He turned his attention back to the crowd who broke out in thunderous applause. "A signup sheet and travel schedule will be posted down at the library starting next week, we will work on a first come first serve basis." He said loudly over the crowd. "Now if that will be all, I hereby call this meeting to a close." He banged the gavel after a moment, making sure no one else had anything needing attention, and the galley got up and filed out of the hall.
He walked over to his daughter and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you for your help with the portal sweetheart." He said as he held her.
"I'm the savior dad, it is in the job description." She chuckled at herself. "Really though, it was Regina and Belle. I'm just the cute face they put on the box."
"Cutest face ever!" he laughed, "Come down to Regina's office I'll let you grab the deed for the plot, and talk about your security issues." He said.
They walked down to her fiancée's office and closed the door. Emma's face flushed a light pink as she remembered her queen flustered and pantyless leaning over that desk. "So uh," she cleared her throat, and her mind, and continued. "Regina and I are going to test the portal, later today actually. We are going to go through check it out, and secure the return pad. We can get people moving asap. It may take a few days to find a suitable location, but Rubes is going to stay with Henry. So we should be good."
Her father looked pained, "You don't want your mother and I to watch him while you are away?" Emma's eyes looked apologetic, "It's not that I don't trust you guys, Ruby offered and we, well I, decided that Henry has been through quite a bit between Pan and then this, that maybe some time spent with Archie might be a good idea. Before we all you know, be Charmings, again." She twisted her fingers together nervously, she didn't want to hurt her father's feelings but she was also really upset about what had happened with her kid lately and didn't want to push it.
David's face relaxed as acceptance took the place of worry and pain. "I get it Emma. You guys need time."
"Exactly." She agreed.
"Do you need anything for the trip? Have you got enough—"
"Swords?" she smiled her crooked little half smile she inherited from her father.
"Arrows?" He countered with. "I hear the queen is handy with a bow."
"Seriously?" Emma looked shocked remembering the woman from the previous night trying to pack silk for hiking through overgrown forest.
"That's what your mother says." He chuckled.
"Well this I'll have to see." She said shaking her head in disbelief.
"Do you have any idea where Regina keeps the land plot deeds?" he looked around the office and waved his hands
"No, but it doesn't have to be today, David. She said she'd come back, I just want people to appreciate what she does for them. I want them to think maybe they went too far this time. She is a person, not just some symbol of power or evil. It ticks me off." She said. He looked at her and nodded his head. "I certainly appreciate what she does." He looked around the place. "She does all this way better than I can." He admitted.
"She also looks better in the heels." Emma added with a chuckle.
"Oh I don't know; I've got the legs for it!" he winked.
"Alright, If we are not back in 7 days, well I'd say we won't be back, but knowing Regina, she'll punch a hole through the fabric of time and space to get back to our kid, so. We'll be back eventually, but the official plan is 2 or 3, 4 days max." she looked out the window and saw flurries falling from the sky and sighed. "Oh boy, camping in winter." She said sarcastically, but truth be told she was looking forward to some serious alone time with her woman.
"Layers Emma. Oh, pack extra socks for you both. Trust me, keep your feet dry, you'll thank me." He said trying to pass on some wisdom to his adult daughter.
"Thanks." She hugged him and kissed his cheek and they parted ways. She had said her goodbyes to her mother that morning so she was heading back to the apartment to collect her fiancée and head out.
David watched his daughter leave and felt proud of her. He may not have raised her, but he could see himself and his wife in her mannerisms, her fierce loyalty, her compassion and self-sacrifice. She was the perfect blend of himself and his wife. He couldn't be happier about the woman she grew up to be.