A/N- I hope no one minds that I have updated twice in one day. Now that I know where this fic is going, I'm very excited to share it :)
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Emma entered the cottage without knocking and made her way directly to Elsa's room where the two other women and her son were gathered as though on a death bed. "Hey there." The blonde said to the silver-haired woman smiling bleakly from the bed.
"Hello, Your Highness."
"How ya doin?"
"Peachy. I fancy a bit of a walk." The woman quipped and Emma smiled then looked at Alice who was perched on the bed beside her.
"Any helpful news?"
The blonde shook her head sadly. "Nothing that would make a difference. The same old, same old."
"How did Sydney receive the information?" Regina asked.
"He wasn't happy to see me, that's for sure." Emma chuckled. "But I got it all on the recorder like you requested. He also seems quite stuck on the idea that it was the fairy, even though we told him that we were leaning away from that direction." The blonde leaned against the door and put her hands in her pockets. "Seems to think maybe Elsa missed someone that might have visited the castle because it was so big."
They all turned to the woman in the bed. "It's possible." She conceded weakly. "The Troll had a large fortress. If the Purple Fairy was only ever on the other side...I might not have seen her."
"I find that unlikely. Any magical being would have wanted to get a look at you, especially as a child."
"What do you mean?" Alice asked the brunette.
"Well," Regina continued. "If I had come to Arendell, I would have immediately been drawn to the power that would have resided in that place. It was initially how Maleficent and I became...acquaintances. We sought each other's power." She looked at Elsa. "There is no way the Purple Fairy could have come to your land and not sought you out; Troll or no Troll."
"So what are you saying exactly?" Alice asked.
"That there's no way Elsa would not have met the fairy if she ended up in Arendell." Emma summarized.
"So we're back to square one?" The short blonde sighed and Regina and Emma looked at the woman sadly.
"No. We're not." Henry said with a pre-teen bite of impatience. "We know it wasn't the Purple Fairy. We've crossed a name off and narrowed down the suspect list."
"By one." Elsa said.
"No, by dozens." The boy remarked. "Look. Whoever this is, is trying not only to kill the Snow Queen, but to frame my mom." He glanced at the brunette. "There can't be that many people that have the skill or motive to do that. Right?"
"You're right, kid." Emma smiled at him. "We should stop looking for enemies and start considering those that would have had the means to move between realms."
"Right." Alice turned to Elsa encouragingly. "Onto making a new list." She patted Elsa's leg affectionately then stood. "Emma, I've got a rabbit for you if you want one." The tall blonde arched a brow, but followed her counterpart out of the cottage.
"I'm sorry, a rabbit? It's not white, is it?"
"Yeah, and when I frisked him, I found a golden pocket watch I can pawn." Alice rolled her eyes, "No, I just wanted to talk away from Elsa. She's worried enough." The blonde wrung her hands a bit and then stuffed them into her pockets as though willing herself to stop fidgeting. "What if this progresses too far? What if this kills her?"
"It won't-"
"You can't know that!" Alice exploded.
Emma looked at the woman with compassionate green eyes. "You're right." Alice stopped pacing and turned to her. "I can't know that.. But I do know that her best shot, Alice, is us." Emma placed her hands on the shorter woman's shoulders bracingly. "Her best chance is all of us pulling together and figuring this out. Regina and I have not failed yet." Emma said with the tiniest of smiles.
Alice nodded slowly with a sigh as she fought back the sudden tears that were threatening to spill from her large golden eyes. "I trust you and Regina." She leaned in and Emma pulled her into a familial hug. "I'm just worried about her."
"You really care for her." Emma said.
"More than I want to admit."
"We will fix this, Alice." The tall, blonde sheriff said. "We will find a way."
XXX
"So it's draining her power?"
"Not just her power." Emma recounted to Snow. She and Regina had chosen to drop Henry off with his grandfather and had lingered in the kitchen with Snow as the boys stepped out back to play with swords. "Her life."
"Because they are the same thing…" The rotund brunette said softly as realization dawned on her. "And how quickly is this progressing?"
Regina picked up the story. "If this spell continues at a consistent rate...we're looking at three days."
"Three days?!" Snow said in surprise. The blonde and the brunette nodded grimly. "There has to be something that can stop it."
"We have to stop the spell-caster."
"You can't preserve her?"
"Not alive, I can't." Regina sighed and sipped her hot tea. "There's not a white spell that can keep a person in stasis while they still live."
"What about a curse?" Snow asked quietly.
"I'm sorry?" Regina said in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Emma questioned.
The woman looked back and forth between the two women and bit her lip. "What if you used the sleeping curse on her?"
"Curse her?" Emma said in surprise. "She's already cursed-"
"Your mother may be onto something. " The witch spoke over the blonde. "The sleeping curse preserves that which is under its spell exactly as it is. Had the curse succeeded, your mother would have been asleep forever, but retained her youth."
"So...what, then? We cram an apple down her throat and pray for the best?"
Both Snow and Regina smiled at the blonde. "Or prick her finger. The apple was unnecessary; it was more for the grand effect." Regina said.
Snow looked at the woman thoughtfully. "I always wondered what the apple was about. I thought forbidden fruit and all that-"
Emma looked at her lover quickly before she could do anything but smirk. "Please don't make a comment."
"What?" The brunette asked innocently.
"That's my mother. No jokes about fruit; forbidden or otherwise."
Regina arched a brow and Snow rolled her eyes. "At any rate, were you to enact the sleeping curse on Elsa, would it preserve her?"
"Yes, but there is the small issue of waking her from it."
"Ah, but we have Emma. The Savior, the product of true love." Snow pointed out. "She awoke Henry, didn't she? She is the embodiment of true love."
"That's true." Regina conceded. "And I suppose if it doesn't work, the woman is no worse off than if she were to die."
"That's what I love about you, Madam Mayor, you're a glass half-full type of gal." Emma remarked sarcastically. "Alright, let's get back up there to the girls and see what they think." The blonde rose from the counter stool and stretched her long legs.
"Thank you, Snow." Regina said softly, meeting the woman's green eyes with her dark ones. "I wouldn't have thought about the curse."
"I know." The brunette smiled back with eyes twinkling. "And that's a good thing."