Emma boarded her flight and found her seat. She was anxious and annoyed and after take-off her stomach decided to rebel, she forgot she hadn't had anything to eat since the trail mix she got into while she was still at her lover's castle that morning. The plane decided at that moment to hit turbulence and she felt the tail end drop much further than she was prepared for and she grabbed at the airline provided airsick bag located conveniently in the seat pouch in front of her. She lurched forward and dry heaved into the paper sack. It felt so wrong to be both starving and nauseous at the same time. She pushed the call button for one of the flight attendants and when they came she asked for some water. The redhead brought back a bottle of water, a couple packages of peanuts and a moist towelette. She smiled and thanked the woman. The voice of her lover came back to haunt her, "You need to take care of yourself, it wouldn't do to have our sainted savior sick now would it?" She rolled her eyes, but smiled at the thought of her love.
Emma landed in JFK at 5 pm, the flight had taken less time than the security checks to get on the damn plane and she was highly annoyed. Fueled by her annoyance she passed through the security quickly to get out of the damn airport and jumped in a cab, she gave the address of her ex's known apartment and sat back closing her eyes. The smell inside the cab was not doing anything to settle her stomach and she considered stopping into a convenience store and buying some Gravol. The cab stopped suddenly and she realized they had arrived at Neal's apartment. She paid the driver and gratefully got out of the vehicle. She stood for a moment on the sidewalk pulling herself together. That unsteady feeling she got when she used too much magic was bubbling up to the surface. She closed her eyes and leaned up against the cool brick of the building. This feeling shouldn't be happening, she was outside of Storybrooke, there is no magic out here. Her mind reeled at the possibilities, ranging from what if magic escaped out into the real world? To the stress of being the savior has given me an ulcer! She steadied herself and the feeling soon passed. She pressed a random apartment and told the person who answered there was a package. The buzzer sounded and she walked in. She ran up the stairs two at a time to get to Neal's floor and then pounded on his door.
The brunette was startled when he opened his front door to see his blonde ex standing visibly angry at his doorstep. She pushed into the apartment as he tried to slam the door on her. "Taking babysitting pointers from your dead ex girlfriend Neal?" Emma snarked then called for her son. Henry came running from the other room his bag in hand. Neal stood in front of him and grabbed the boy. "I'm not afraid of you! You don't have magic here!" Neal barked at Emma.
"I didn't use magic to do that." She said pointing at the man's nose. Emma lifted her fist and Neal flinched. He pulled Henry back further into the apartment. "You left him! You took your girlfriend on a vacation fuckfest and left the kid!" He spat out the word girlfriend with as much contempt as he could muster.
"I left him with family!" Emma roared at him, she raged at his audacity of calling her a bad parent! She was livid.
"Another couple of dykes!?" he spat knowing it would cut the blonde.
"You have no legal right to him here, Neal." Emma stowed the anger he was trying to goad from her, knowing full well he was trying to get her to lose her cool.
"Neither do you!" he threw back at her.
Her face cooled triumphantly, "Actually, Neal, I do. Regina has spent the last 15 years blending Storybrooke infrastructure into the Maine government. How do you think she got our kid? He was on the outside Neal. Her adoption is legal. She put my paperwork on the books. I am his legal guardian. You're a sperm donor I dated over a decade ago who came in and stole our child! Stole him from his loving parents."
She saw the switch flick off in his head at that moment, his eyes grew cold and his nostrils flared. "All I have to do is say Regina put those marks on Henry." he held up the boy's arm "The kid is old enough to polygraph. As a concerned father, I'll insist! He doesn't remember doing it to himself! You really think he can lie under pressure?!" his lips curled up into a sneer, "Or are you just going to tell social services, one of Rumpelstiltskin's potions poisoned him into being an emo hood rat?"
Emma's eyes grew fearful of losing her kid to this guy, "You wouldn't." she whispered.
"At very least there will be an inquiry Emma. Government officials around a bunch of fairy tale creatures? They maybe Americans on the books, but they are still fairy tale people. How do you think that'll play Em?" He pulled back and released the kill shot knowing he was in the right. His smugness poured off of him in waves.
"This right here, Neal. This is why I lied to Henry. When I told him you were dead! I knew what you were all about from the moment I saw you in New York. You're the same petulant child that ran away from daddy 200 years ago all because his father had a substance abuse problem. Instead of helping him, you ran out on him Neal. Like you ran out on me! Like you'll run out on Henry one day!" she pulled no punches, he had struck her were it hurt but she knew his weaknesses just as well as he knew hers. She looked down at her son, at his heart breaking, just a little at the situation he found himself in, then he steeled his jaw, his hazel eyes darkened and it was almost like the soul of Regina Mills possessed the boys features right in front of her.
"Or maybe, just maybe, he'll do the running Neal. He is 13 years old. Look at him. He understands that you are trying to hurt his parents. The ones who love him, tuck him in at night, stay up with the fevers, spend time and educated him about right and wrong." The man looked down at the boy and worry crossed his face. "He sees who you are Neal. How long before he walks away from you?"
Henry ripped his arm from his father's grasp and sided with his mother. He stared Neal down with the infamous Mills glare. "If you try to turn my mom in for child abuse, I'll tell them I did it to myself. I'll tell them that I did it because ever since my new dad came to town, I've been upset because I feel uncomfortable with how he insists on sleeping in the same bed as me." Henry squints his eyes and pulled out a single tear, soon several began to fall. "He touched me in my no touch place officer! I just want to go home to my moms!" He sniffed his nose and steeled his face once more reminiscent of the brunette Emma had met a few years ago. Emma's mouth dropped open and Neal's slack jawed shocked face flinched when Henry wiped the tears from his cheeks and said, "You have no idea what I'm capable of!"
Emma snickered in surprise of her son and turned back to her bug-eyed ex. "Yeah 13 years living with the evil queen hasn't taught him anything. You're dumber than you look." She grabbed her son's hand and led him away from his dumbfounded father.
Back down on the street Emma waved down a cab to take them back to the airport. Once inside, she pulled the boy into her and kissed his head. The panic she had felt from the moment she realized the boy was missing dissipated now that he was in her arms. "That didn't really happen right? What you said about Neal?" He shook his head no. "Okay, good, just checking. Let's not tell your mother we threatened Neal with being a pedophile, hmm?"
He tightened his grip around his mother, "She comes in handy, mom."
"Who does?" Emma asked absently.
"The evil queen." He replied.
She smiled and nodded, her dimples carved deep into her cheeks. "Yes she does baby." She felt it much easier to breathe now that she was reunited with her child.
Regina smiled as she read the text message from her love that informed her of success. Katherine had gone home after a fantastic day of domestic bliss, something Regina had needed for some time. They had polished off the two bottles of wine Emma had rescued from the manors ashes and created an entirely new form of turnover apple tart the queen was anxious for her family to taste test. Creativity in the kitchen always gave her a semblance of peace and she was in desperate need of that peace after the hell she had gone through over the last month. She casually tossed a tea towel over her shoulder as she finished straightening up her new kitchen. The apartment, however large it felt, was quite small in all of the ways she loathed. Small closets, small kitchen, small bedrooms, no bathtub. She had decided that the Swan-Mills family next top priority be their home. She had all but given up hope at having her family in a custom built home out in the country until Emma mentioned it as they explored their new apartment, and ever since the happy reminder Regina's mind flooded with ideas for layouts and landscapes. She hadn't wanted anything too large, she'd had large and grandiose, it wasn't what it was cracked up to be and it certainly didn't speak of Emma's personality. No. She envisioned the blonde would want a two story ranch style log home, something that felt a little more rugged and natural. Regina had always designed her spaces to be large and sterile, almost like she was putting the metaphoric walls she had around herself up in the physical world around her. That wasn't who she wanted to be, and this project was going to give her the opportunity to find out who exactly she was now; who she is, not who others expected her to be.
The door buzzer brought the queen out of her day dreaming and she crossed the room to answer it. The voice on the other end of the intercom was that of Killian Jones. Regina rolled her eyes at the prospect of having to deal with the mongrel.
"What do you want pirate?" She barked with contempt.
"I'd like to come in, if you don't mind." he simply stated. She could hear his overconfident smile in his voice and it did nothing but irritate her.
"I do." She replied flatly. She walked away from the door to go back to her feel good mood, away from the pirate whom she had such an elaborate past with.
"I need your help, your Majesty." His voice echoing out into the open room. She hung her head and sighed, then spun around on the heel of her foot. She pressed the buzzer to allow the one handed wonder entrance to the downstairs door.
She opened the door with a look of contempt, currently seeing nothing but the man in her love's arms the night of the ball. He smirked knowingly, "Is our fair Swan home?"
"She is not 'our' Swan, pirate. She is my Swan. And no, she is not at home. She'll be home later this evening." Her eyes narrowed as she expected the man to fight her on that point, but she was surprised when his eyes softened, just for a moment before his Hook persona took over once more with a devilishly handsome half-smile and a nod to the head. "Of course your Majesty." He drawled, then getting down to business. "I understand you ladies have a way to create portals. Is this realm specific or any land?" Regina lifted her brow with surprise. "We can create a portal to anywhere." She answered then jibbed, "Looking to plunder a distant land pirate?"
"Aye. This world has lost its appeal as it were." He grinned his fake smile towards the queen.
"I suppose it has." She said quietly.
"I cannot control how the heart feels," he pointed at her with his good hand, "you treat her well your majesty, you don't know how lucky you are she still returns your favor."
"Still? It was one dance pirate no need to get your hook all bent out of shape." She said, knowing full well Emma's dalliance had been with Mr. Cassidy and the urge to rub it in Captain Leather's face was strong.
"Is that what she told you?" he honestly looked hurt and the queen was searching the pirate's face for clues to what he could be talking about.
"She has told me nothing. She remembers nothing." She said honestly. "Emma was cursed by… one of Rumpelstiltskin's potions." She said carefully, remembering they weren't implicating the girl's mother for fear of explanation. "The last few weeks her actions were not her own." She added to clarify.
The man's face was that of shock, his jaw agape and his eyes searched the queen for anything that would prove her false, but saw nothing but contempt as she pieced together her fiancée's involvement with the one armed man based on his reaction. "You were with her." She whispered. Her words colored with the jealousy she felt. She felt the sting behind her eyes but willed herself to hold onto her emotions, this was not the time to break down.
"Aye." He said simply, his eyes shown the shame he felt. He had known her actions had been uncharacteristic, but he had hoped that perhaps she had felt something.
Regina took a deep breath in and held it as she pursed her lips together, but before she could lay into him he spoke softly and clearly. "I love her. I had hoped she'd given me a chance, I didn't know she wasn't in control of what she was doing. I would never harm her." The depth of his sincerity caught Regina off guard and took the wind out of her sails. No matter how much she despised the man before her she knew he wasn't the blame for this. The woman who did this, will never pay the price. Regina crossed her arms across her chest defensively and looked him straight in the eye. "Don't ever tell her, she has enough on her plate."
"Aye." He nodded sadly. The two stood in silence for there was nothing more to say on the matter.
"I'd like to set sail on the Jolly Roger, post haste, there are a few men who would like to join me, to be my crew." He broke the quiet understanding the rivals had shared and brought the focus back on his departure.
"We should be able to make a portal on the reflective properties of the water. Just know nothing is guaranteed." She said amicably.
"Splendid." He beamed false happiness. "When can we depart?"
"I believe the Charmings have a signup sheet down at the library. They are holding first come first serve." She said absently.
"Is there a way to get a VIP pass?"
"A Very Important Pirate?" she drawled with a smirk.
"Indeed, we can all agree, I am that." He smiled and bowed with a flare of his hand.
"I'll see what I can do." She said with a nod. He turned to leave her standing in the open doorway. "Killian?" she called to him and he turned. Thinking how quickly everything can turn on its head in this life, and what her life was like the short time she was without the blonde's love. "In fact, I do," she swallowed visibly. "realize how lucky I am."
"Good." He said seriously and descended the stairs to leave the building.