Chapter Twenty Five

Grounds for a Mother

Regina whipped her head to her direction, mouth hung open. "What the hell did you do?"

Maleficent only shrugged. "Your daughter came up to me and asked for a favor."

"You helped her with that?" She asked pointing at her door, exasperated

"She just wanted to give you something that nobody else can." Maleficent carefully said. "Plus, it is almost your birthday."

Regina began pacing. "I can't believe you."

"Regina." She paused to get her attention. "I thought it was something you'd want as well."

Regina glanced towards the door, sighing. "You're right." She then turned her gaze towards her friend. "My biggest regret was never seeing my baby girl grow up."

"Then go inside." She encouraged.

Regina bit the insides of her cheeks. "This whole time, I've always had this perfect image of Daniel and I raising Ebony. When I thought they both had passed away, all these "what ifs" always still lingered in the back of my mind." She furrowed her brows in worry. "What if-" she paused to turn to Maleficent, "-it isn't what it's suppose to feel like."

"Who are we? Aurora and Snow White? Conversing over sentimental feelings, sharing inner emotions, and using empty words to comfort are not things I'd like to do. I don't know if you're going to be okay, or if having hope will help, so go inside before I make you."

Regina smirked. "It's nice to know you haven't changed."

A smile graced Maleficent's lips. " I try."

Regina directed her gaze to her door, and went forth.

The room was dark, but Regina swiftly turned on the nightlight, revealing a small child, with soft brown curls laying on the bed. The little girl immediately sat up, hearing the door close again.

Regina gulped, anxiously walking towards the small figure. "Hi"

In return, the little girl pulled the blankets higher up her shoulders in hiding.

Regina sat at the edge of the bed. She sensed her daughter's apprehension, and placed her hand down above her covered legs. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl only nodded slightly. "I'm scared."

Regina shifted in her seat to move closer to the girl, not knowing how to comfort the child without scaring her even more.

"I don't know when my parents are coming back." The little girl said, turning her gaze away from Regina, however towards the blanket she held tightly onto. "I don't really like them." She added, but only in a mere whisper.

Regina led out a sigh, happy to know that she isn't scared of her. "Good." The little girl darted her eyes at her, furrowing her brows. "They're not coming back."

The little girl's eyes widened, at first with shock, but later morphed into awe. "Really?"

Regina smiled. "Is it okay with you that you're here?"

"Yes!" she jumped up and lunged forward, engulfing Regina in a hug. However when she realized what she was doing, she moved back, "I'm sorry." She placed her hand out. "I'm Rapunzel, I think." She only whispered the last few words.

Regina held her hand and shook it lightly though she cocked her head to the side, quizzically. "You think?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really like that name."

Regina pursed her lips and sat even closer to the girl. "What do you think of the name Ebony?" She asked carefully.

The little girl whispered "Ebony," a couple of times. She smiled, liking the name rolling off her tongue. She looked up at Regina, eyes sparkling. "I love it." She went forward and engulfed Regina in a big hug. She pulled back, grinning. "So, are you my mommy now?"

Regina was taken aback by the quick conclusion her daughter had stated. Not that she didn't want the title said, it was just a bit too quick for a little girl to accept a stranger as a mother. "Do you want me to?"

"Well," Ebony started, her lips slowly curving upwards, "-my old mommy and daddy are gone. And you gave me a perfect and the best name in the world, so-" she pondered."-yes." She realized her mistake in asking Regina to be her mother and quickly added. "Unless you don't want to, then you don't need to." She paused, looking at her with worried eyes." Please don't be angry."

Regina saw the sudden recoil in the little girl, she placed a hand on her leg. "Ebony?" Regina felt the girl pulled back a little further. Regina immediately tilted her daughter's chin towards her. "I'm not angry." She smiled. "I want to be your mother."

"Really?" The little girl asked, eyes sparkling in awe. "Are you sure?"

Regina smiled wider. She took the little girl's hand and seeing the girl's approval, pulled her close. "I'm sure."

She decided to humor the little girl. "So, what does a 'mommy' do?"

Ebony beamed. "Well, she's always there, and she tells me what to do, and-" Ebony paused recalling her times with her said parents. "She also sometimes get really angry, and talks really loudly. She also always listens to Daddy." At the thought of 'Daddy' she immediately turned to Regina. "There's no daddy right?"

Regina gave her a small smile that didn't reach her eye. "No. No daddy in this house."

The little girl smiled. "Good. Because I don't like Daddy. He's very mean." She sighed, seemingly defeated. "My mommy and daddy don't really like me because they say that I'm no good girl. They sometimes hit me because I'm bad."

Regina held her tears at bay, knowing what kind of parents her daughter were left with. She wanted to kill those bastards who treated her daughter like trash, giving her orders and beating her up. She looked at those innocent blue eyes, aching at the notion that her daughter was left alone with no one who cared for her. Regina woke from her trance when her daughter asked her. "You won't hurt me right?"

Her stomach churned and her heart ached seeing the doubt in her daughter's innocent eyes. Regina pulled her daughter closer to her and hugged her, whispering in her ear. "Never." She immediately felt her daughter hug her back tighter.

"I knew it." Ebony said, beaming.

Regina pulled back, looking at her questioningly. "Knew what?"

"I knew you'd come for me." She said, eyes sparkling with excitement. "I wished upon a star, and it worked!"

"What did you wish for?" Regina asked, poking the little girl in the stomach causing her to giggle.

"I wished for a mommy who'd love me." Ebony said, giggling.

Regina grinned. She pulled at her daughter's legs causing her to fall backwards on the bed, and quickly began tickling her. "And how do you know that I love you?"

Ebony squealed on the bed, squirming in Regina's hold. She laughed holding onto her stomach. "Mommy! Stop! It tickles." She said in between ragged breaths. She continued to laugh as Regina tickled her again. "Mommy! I'll tell you. Stop, it tickles!"

She breathed heavily, trying to steady her breath. She looked at her mother and smiled. "You love me." Her smile grew to a grin. "I can feel it." Ebony rolled to the side to face her mother. "And I love you too!"

Regina smiled, laying on the bed beside her daughter. "I'm glad."

Ebony scooched and crawled to sit on top of her mother's stomach, staring down at her. "I'm bored. Can we play something?"

Regina thought about it for a moment, and came up with an idea. She smiled. "How about you meet some of my friends?"

"Yes!" She bounced, excited at the thought of meeting new people. "Where do they live?"

"Here." Regina held onto to Ebony, and held her up, while she sat up on the bed. "They live here, and they are just outside. Ready to meet them?"

Ebony beamed excitedly. "I'm ready!"

A/N: We're so sorry for the long wait of the chapter. Thankyou to those who continued to follow the story and to those who recently followed and favorited, it means a lot to us.

We had recently hit a writer's block, but we are slowly moving past it now, so please bear with us the slow progress. But we hoped you liked it so far :D

Please tell us your thoughts of this chapter, and of course reviews makes us really happy. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about Chris. But to those who favor Ebony, you'd love the coming chapters. Thank you guys once more for the support and as always, comment on the story.

To Regal Panda99, you had asked us for some advice in your story previously and we had read and had some comments on it. However your private messaging had been blocked refraining us from sending you our thoughts. So if you'd still like our comments on your of late removed story, enable the private messaging.

PS. Happy Chinese New Year! And also Happy 2014!

-Cafe and Skye