Author's Notes: Completely inspired by a dream I had and then I let my imagination run away with me on this one. Yes, I know where season four is going, but I'm having too much fun with this to care right now...This will be in five parts, posted every other day as it is nearly complete! Please remember to review :)
Regina Mills slammed the front door behind her, her anger bubbling inside of her, making her far too dangerous to be around anyone. After finding out that Emma Swan had unknowingly brought back Robin Hood's wife Marian from the past, her whole world had shattered in seconds and the happiness she was finally feeling with Robin was taken away from her the moment Robin laid his eyes on his formerly thought to be dead wife.
Once again, she was stripped of her chance at finding her own happy ending and it was no surprise that it was Snow White's daughter that did it this time. The Charming's would forever be the bane of her existence and there was nothing she could do to change that. Fuming, she headed upstairs to her room, clenching her fists tightly at her sides as she tried in vain to calm herself down.
Emma didn't know. Of course she didn't know who that woman was. Of course she didn't know that bringing her from the past would have severe consequences and like she had told her, she hoped to hell that she hadn't brought anything else back with her.
Clenching her jaw as she slipped out of her heels and made her way into the en suite bathroom, she decided to have a nice, hot bath to relax her tense muscles before trying to sleep off the pain that came with the heartbreak and anger she was experiencing, two things that made everything hurt, not just her heart, but her very soul too.
After a long bath and a fight against her thoughts, most of them touching on parts of her former life as the Evil Queen, she dressed in her favourite navy blue satin pyjamas and crawled into bed. Tears burned in her eyes, tears she had refused to let fall, but she was powerless now, her whole body reminding her how exhausting the night had turned out to be. The last thought she had before she succumbed to the pull of sleep was how nothing in her life seemed to ever go the way she wanted it to and that the hope of finding her own happy ending was even further away than ever before.
Outside, a magical storm began brewing just after midnight, purple lightning streaking across the sky, lighting up the streets below as a swirling portal began to open up over the whole of Storybrooke, a new curse beginning in an instant.
Regina woke to the sounds of Snow White screaming and she sat up, finding very quickly that she was no longer in her bed, but on the ground in the Enchanted Forest with nearly all of the residents of Storybrooke scattered around for miles. She looked down at herself, half expecting to be dressed in her best and was horrified to find she was in the same clothes she had gone to bed in.
This was very different than when she had ended Pan's curse and they were transported back to the Enchanted Forest, wearing exactly the same thing they had when the dark curse hit. All around her she could hear screams and people yelling out for their family or friends and she rose to her feet, groaning as the dirt felt damp against her bare feet.
"Mom?" Henry called out from behind her and she turned around to see her son dressed in nothing more than sweatpants and one sock on his left foot. "Mom, what is going on?"
"I honestly have no idea, Henry. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. The last thing I remember was going to bed," Henry said quietly. "And then suddenly I felt grass on my back and I woke up here."
"I as well," Regina said with a slight nod and she checked him over quickly to make sure he wasn't her and when she found he was perfectly fine, a small rush of panic flowed through her.
They were back in the Enchanted Forest and even she didn't know why. The panic that was all around them was closing in and she crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Emma came running out from behind a cluster of trees, wearing nothing more than a pair of men's boxers and a white tank top.
"Henry, you all right, kid?"
"I'm fine, I'm okay."
"Regina?" Emma asked as she looked at her. "What is going on? Why are we even here?"
"I am just as clueless as everyone else. If you are going to blame me for this—"
"I'm not, but we need to figure out what has happened and why we all woke up here and not in our own beds," Emma replied and she led Henry away from her and met her parents just a short distance away.
Regina didn't move from the spot, ever so tempted just to whisk herself away in a plume of smoke to her chambers in the castle and away from everyone else. She would be blamed for this, because who else could've done this. She rolled her eyes as Snow White waved at her and motioned for her to join their little family gathering.
Snow and David exchanged a knowing look between them, one that Regina knew all to well, the one they had before they stepped up and took charge over everything in the way that they do. She rolled her eyes as she stood there, watching the little exchange between the Charming's for a moment before moving to look at her son standing by Emma's side, whispering to her as he looked over at Regina with suspicious eyes.
She was most definitely going to be blamed for this, she could already hear the chorus of angry accusations, not just from the Charming's and her own son, but the rest of the residents of Storybrooke as well. She stood stiffly as Snow approached her cautiously.
"Regina, do you know what's going on right now?"
"No, I do not and if you are going to start blaming anyone for this current mess we're all in, I would start with your own daughter," Regina said coldly, her eyes flicking over to Emma for a brief moment before turning to look back at Snow. "She brought something back. It's obviously clear now that she did."
"What, like a curse?"
"Certainly feels like one, doesn't it?"
"You really don't know what happened, do you?" Snow asked quietly as she looked down at Regina's pyjamas and she shook her head. "We need to get out of the forest. It's not safe, for obvious reasons. We need to get back to the castle and we need to figure out what is happening and fix it."
"You are out of your mind if you think I am going to be walking through the woods in nothing but pyjamas!" Regina said incredulously as she stared hard at Snow White and when she realized how serious she was, she shook her head furiously. "No, we are not walking through the woods looking like this. We do not know how far we will have to travel and—"
"An hour or two at most. I recognize the area," Snow replied calmly. "We can do it my way or we can do it your way, but we do this together, Regina."
The sounds of a crying baby made her wince and she knew as well as Snow did that the forest could be a very dangerous place at any given time, especially now even more so that they did not know why they were there in the first place. Regina knew exactly what Snow was asking her to do, but transporting with all of them in tow would be very, very risky and not something she was willing to do.
Emma stood with Henry and her father, watching Henry as he tried to get baby Neal to stop crying, shushing him as David bounced the baby in his arms. From the looks of things, her mother was trying to get Regina to join them, to work together to figure out what was going on and how to get them home and Regina, as always, was making things difficult, that much she could see from the look currently on Regina's face.
"We can't stay out here," David said quietly to Emma. "Your mother and I will take you and Henry and Regina back to the castle where we can safely try to find out what happened here."
"Do you think it's my fault? Do you think that I accidentally brought something back from the past that made this happen?"
"Emma, no, you certainly didn't bring anything back with you," David said rather unconvincingly and she frowned deeply as her mother and Regina joined them. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going back to the castle," Snow replied. "Regina is going to take us."
"What about everyone else?" Henry asked as the people around them started hurrying off, no doubt trying to find their way to their homes there in the Enchanted Forest. "I mean, if it isn't safe for us, how do we know they'll be okay."
"Henry, things are a lot different here. Everyone that is from here will be able to manage just fine on their own. Now," Regina said as she held a hand out to Emma. "I am going to need your help because I do not have enough magic on my own to bring us all to the castle together."
"What do I do?"
"Just take my hand and let me do the rest, will you?" Regina snapped and it was clear to Emma that she was still angry about what had happened at Granny's with Robin and Marian. "Take Henry's hand as well," she instructed and pointed to Snow White who reached out for Henry and David's hand at the same time and David held on to a still crying baby Neal in his left arm. "Now don't let go."
Emma blinked through the haze of purple smoke and saw that they were no longer in the forest, but inside a castle. The stone floor was cool on her bare feet and there was a slight chill in the dark room. As she focused her magic, she managed to light the candle's on the chandelier above them just in time to see Regina storming out of the room, the doors she flung open with a flourish banging loudly against the walls.
"That was so cool!" Henry exclaimed as he took in his new surroundings. "I didn't know it would feel like that."
"It didn't feel like anything," Emma muttered.
"Exactly!"
"Charming, take Henry and Neal, get them changed into something more suitable. I'll take care of Emma," Snow said and she didn't let David leave until they shared a quick little kiss. "Come on, Emma, I have just the thing for you to wear."
"If you're going to put me into one of those god awful dresses, no, Mary Margaret—"
"How come you aren't calling me Mom, Emma? I thought things were different now?"
"I'm sorry, it just with what is happening, it just slipped…"
"It's okay," her mother smiled warmly. "It'll happen sometimes. I know that it will."
"I'm sorry, really.
"Now come with me," Snow smiled as she grabbed on to Emma's hand and led her out the door and down a corridor quickly. Emma's stomach was turning and twisting in knots as she was led into a large room and straight over towards a large wardrobe. "When we came back because of Pan's curse, I was missing you terribly and even David couldn't talk me out of making this room yours."
"This is mine?"
"Yes," she smiled and pointed to the wardrobe. "There are some clothes in there for you, fit for a princess, Emma. Pick something."
Emma closed her eyes, knowing exactly what was inside the wardrobe before she pulled open the doors. Dozens of dresses were hanging inside, each of them a different colour and each of them definitely not anything she'd be caught dead wearing, not again, not after her little stint as Princess Leia.
"Are you serious?"
"When you are ready, follow the corridor to the left and you'll find the sitting room by mine and David's chambers. We'll meet in there and we will get to the bottom of this."
"But…" Emma trailed off, watching her mother exit the room quickly, leaving her alone in front of the wardrobe full of dresses she'd much rather burn than wear. "Great."
On the other side of the castle, Regina was already dressed in her best and fussing with her short hair, muttering under her breath when it refused to cooperate with her. Giving up, she smoothed her hands over the corset she'd picked out, black and purple of course. She'd missed the feel of leather pants and the flowing velvet open jacket she wore overtop the corset. If they managed to figure out what had happened and they returned to Storybrooke, she was definitely going to dig out some of her outfits from her past that were safely stored away in her vault.
She knew without having to be told that the others would be meeting in the sitting room by the Charming's bed chambers. And she knew she would be expected to be there with them as well, trying to somehow find an answer as to why and how they were back in the Enchanted Forest and why Emma and Henry were with them this time.
"I will never get used to that," Snow gasped as Regina appeared, the smoke clearing quickly as she walked to sit in one of the plush chairs by the fireplace. "We're just waiting for Emma."
"Don't you look handsome," Regina smiled at Henry when she took in the sight of him dressed similar to David. "Such a little prince, aren't you?"
"Mom," he groaned as he pulled at the legs of his pants. "They feel weird."
"You'll get used to them," David chuckled as he handed baby Neal to him. "Go on, take Neal over there while we work together to figure this out."
"But I—"
"Henry," Regina said sternly when he was about to protest against David's request and she fought to keep herself from rolling her eyes at the thought of siding with David. "Do as you are asked, please and let the adults handle this situation."
"Whatever," he grumbled as he carried baby Neal to the other side of the room where there was a small crib and some toys sitting on the bookshelf behind the crib.
Regina sat there patiently facing Snow White and Charming, ignoring the whispers they were exchanging as they came up with their own conclusions as to what might have happened to all of them that brought them there in the middle of the night. Regina turned as she heard the door open and in walked Emma wearing a very dark green dress only Snow White would be caught dead in. She chuckled mirthlessly as she saw how uncomfortable Emma looked, but she cleared her throat, the seriousness of the situation far more important than taking a teasing jab at Emma's dress was.
"It has got to be a curse," Snow started when Emma stood by the fireplace, refusing to take a seat in one of the chairs. "But who cast it and why is it not like the one that destroyed Pan's curse?"
"Do not look at me because I certainly did not cast this one!" Regina replied harshly.
"We are not accusing you, Regina," David said gently. "We believe you when you say you didn't do this, but we need to find out who did this and why and how we're going to get back home."
"Is there any way you can detect the magic, to find out the origin of this curse, Regina?"
She nodded, being too overwhelmed with the situation to have tried to figure it out on her own before now. It took a few moments of complete concentration and she closed her eyes, not wanting to see the Charming's and Emma staring intensely at her as they were. She started to feel it then, the curse itself and it was unlike anything she'd felt before. It was powerful and it made every fiber of her being feel as if there was an electric current running through her only it wasn't painful in any way or form. She focused her energy on the traces of magic she'd felt and then she saw it, just a flash of light as a portal opened in the sky above Storybrooke.
Oh it was a curse all right and even though she didn't know who had cast it, something about it felt strangely familiar to her. The curse itself created a portal and she knew that while portals were possible to be used through the realms, she'd never known for it to transport an entire population at once. The laws of magic should have only pulled in two, at most, and she was at loss for what this really was and what was happening and even more so when she had no idea how to get everyone back home to Storybrooke.
"Regina?"
"What?" She snapped at Snow White as she opened her eyes, breaking the bond she'd made with the lingering traces of magic from the curse. "I don't know who cast it, but it's most definitely a curse. I don't know what else to tell you, Snow."
"It's not that," Snow replied quickly as she pointed out the windows along the wall near them. "It's that! What kind of a storm is that?"
"It's the same lightning I saw when I got up to warm up a bottle for Neal right before we ended up back in the Enchanted Forest," David said in alarm. "What is it?"
"A magic storm," Regina muttered, feeling it in the air, feeling how similar it felt to static that was usually felt before an intense lightning storm. As she thought it, lightning streaked across the sky and she rushed to the window and looked up at the swirling portal that had opened up in the clouds. "It's about to happen again!"
"What?" Emma yelled as she moved to stand at Regina's side, looking out the window with her as she braced herself by holding on to Regina's arm. "What is that?"
The lightning was so intense, so bright, that Regina closed her eyes to the blinding flashes of lightning and she held her breath, not sure what was about to happen next.
"Regina!" Emma hissed at her. "Open your eyes!"
"Is it over?"
"I think so," Emma replied quietly. "Because we're not in Fairytale Land anymore."
Emma watched as Regina slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. They were in Boston, that much Emma knew, but how they ended up there was a complete mystery to her and her head was spinning, her insides threatening to spill out as she tried to keep herself calm. It wasn't helping that Regina looked completely frightened and confused either.
"Where are we?"
"Boston, I think," Emma replied and she threw up her hands. "Don't look at me! I didn't do this!"
"I never implied that you did," Regina muttered and it was a lie. Emma knew it and Regina knew it, but they didn't argue over it. "And I think the correct term is not where are we, but when are we," Regina said as she bent down to pick up a piece of newspaper that had blown up against her leather-clad leg.
Emma grabbed the paper from her, scanning for the date at the top. When she saw it, she didn't want to believe it. August 23rd, 2011, two months before Henry had showed up at her apartment door claiming to be her son.
"This has to be some kind of a joke or something, there's no way we just jumped back in time, Regina! I thought that time travel wasn't even possible?"
"It's not," Regina said sternly. "But I'm starting to think that it is after Zelena's little spell we tried to stopped ended up happening. The laws of magic have changed."
"Apparently so. So," Emma said as she crumpled up the paper and threw it to the ground, grumbling at the fact that she was still in the hideous green dress she'd reluctantly had put on not that long ago. "What do we do now, Regina?"
"We must get off the streets and out of these clothes. I, for one, am not in any kind of a mood to deal with blithering idiots questioning my attire."
Emma sighed and took a look around the quiet street they were standing on. With no idea what time it was, she figured it was the middle of the night due to the lack of traffic and the eerie quiet that filled the air. She spotted a newspaper box across the street and she pulled up the front of her dress a little so she could walk easier and she didn't have to look back to know that Regina was right behind her.
"What are you doing?"
"Finding out if we're really back in time or not," Emma replied and she looked down at the paper displayed at the front of the box and groaned quietly. "Seriously, how can this even be possible?"
"How many times do I have to tell you that I do not know?"
"Well, don't get mad at me! I don't know either!" Emma said loudly, almost yelling at her because she was feeling just as confused and frustrated and frightened as Regina was.
Regina paced the sidewalk in front of her, her hands pulling at the edge of her velvet jacket, the air warm and sticky with humid heat and making her extremely uncomfortable in the clothes she was wearing. She stopped as she looked at Emma as an idea came across her suddenly.
"You used to live here," she said simply. "Henry found you in Boston. Were you living in the same apartment at this time?"
"I was on a job that August, but yeah, I had the same apartment. What are you thinking?"
"How far is it?"
"A couple of blocks, maybe?" Emma shrugged and she took in her surroundings again, trying to figure just where in Boston they were, but being on a quiet side street with no familiar buildings in sight, there was no way of her knowing for sure. "Let's just start walking and I'll figure it out and you can tell me why you want me to take you there."
"To change! In case you haven't noticed, we look like fairytale characters!"
Emma laughed at the way Regina said it. How could she not. She just referred to herself exactly what she was and when she caught up to what she'd said, Regina started laughing as well, bringing a little bit of lightness to the otherwise tense situation they were in.
They walked for almost twenty minutes before Emma led them to the neighbourhood she once lived in years ago when she'd been in Boston and her life had yet to be turned completely upside down because her son that she had given up when he was born needed her to break a curse in a town where time stood still. Emma was grateful that they passed nobody on the street and only a few cars drove by, the drivers not noticing the fact that she was wearing a ball gown and Regina was…well, wearing what she was wearing.
Emma let herself into the building and up to her floor. She found the extra key she'd hidden where the fire extinguisher was across the hall from her door and she let them inside, knowing full well that the apartment was empty. She hit the light on the wall as she walked in and she walked straight into the bedroom and pulled open the closet door, eager to get out of the dress as soon as she possibly could.
"You said you were on a job? Where?" Regina asked as she joined her a moment later in the bedroom. "Emma?"
"Relax, past me or whatever isn't going to come home tonight. I was in New York City that year, tracking down this deadbeat father who had skipped his court date."
"Right. Your job as a bail bondsperson. Make sure you pick something your past self won't notice is gone when she returns."
Emma rolled her eyes and pulled out a black tank top for herself and a pair of black skinny jeans. She turned to Regina with an eyebrow raised. "Uh, do you mind?"
"Mind what?"
"Mind leaving so I can get out of this dress and into normal people clothes?"
Regina rolled her eyes and turned around, but she didn't leave the bedroom. Grumbling under her breath, Emma struggled to get out of the dress and into the clothes she'd picked out of the closet, ones she knew that past her wouldn't notice were missing, at least not right away. Once she was dressed, she searched through the closet for something for Regina to wear and she chuckled quietly at the thought of skipping one of the dresses she'd worn for work in favour of making her wear a pair of her skinny jeans.
"You are out of your mind if you expect me to wear those!" Regina yelled as Emma handed her the jeans.
"It's that or you're walking around wearing leather pants."
"And a top would be nice as well or are you going to make me walk around in your ridiculous jeans and a corset for your own amusement?"
Regina was pissed, for more than one reason, but Emma Swan was really getting on her nerves and all she wanted was to somehow figure out how to stop this and return home where they belonged. Emma just ignored her moodiness, already used to her shifting so quickly from one mood to the next and she pulled out a crisp white button down cotton shirt from the far back of the closet, one she knew that her past self would never even know was missing since she probably forgot she owned it in the first place.
"Do you mind?"
"I do," Emma said cheekily as Regina stood there holding her borrowed clothes with tightly clenched fists. "Are you hungry?"
Regina ignored her and she shrugged as she walked out of the bedroom to give her the privacy she was demanding with a rather evil glint in her eyes. She searched through the cupboards and the fridge, finding only a bottle of beer and some condiments inside the otherwise empty fridge.
With a shrug, she pulled out the bottle of beer and twisted off the cap, spinning around to look at Regina as she walked into the kitchen, her fingers working on the last button on the borrowed shirt. All it took was one look from Regina that told her not to say a single word about her clothes, but Emma couldn't help but notice how good Regina's ass looked in those jeans. Of course she wasn't going to voice that thought, unsure herself where it even came from, but it definitely wasn't the first time she'd noticed how attractive Regina Mills truly was.
Regina on the other hand shot her another look as her eyes lingered on the open bottle of beer in her hand, but she too didn't say a word as she paced around the small kitchen, her mind racing as she tried to piece everything together from what they'd been through so far.
"The lightning," Regina said mostly to herself. "Emma, before we went through the first portal, what do you remember?"
"Waking up to blinding white lightning and then I blinked and there I was, feeling like I was falling out of bed but I was on the ground in the Enchanted Forest, just like everyone else."
"The lightning is important then, it seems," Regina mused. "It happened at the castle, just before we ended up here. I caught sight of the portal before it pulled us through. Very similar to the one that came from Jefferson's hat."
"But it's not from his hat, is it? His hat is destroyed!"
"No, it's not, it's part of the curse."
"What kind of a curse is this?"
"If I knew, Ms. Swan, I could've finished it before we ended up here where I have no magic," Regina spat angrily. She ran her fingers through her hair and felt her anger bristling under her skin. "I can't do anything about it while we're here."
"So, what do we do now, Regina?"
"We wait until it happens again."
"How do you know it's going to happen again?"
"I don't!"
Emma let Regina stew in her own anger and she walked over to her desk and flipped open the lid to her laptop. It took her a few tries, the password vaguely forgotten and she checked a few files just to further confirm they had truly been transported back to the past. It felt surreal and it felt like a dream, but a part of her knew that it was really happening and that she wasn't going to wake up in her own bed in the morning and laugh about the ridiculousness of it all.
And she was exhausted. Her trip into the past with Hook had been sleepless and for good reason. They were too busy trying to find a way home and sleep was the very last thing on either of their minds as things in the past started to change all because of one little mistake she had made. No, that wasn't true, it was more than one mistake. She had saved that woman from the Evil Queen's dungeon and brought her to the present. She didn't know who that woman was and all she wanted to do was save her, thinking it and been the right thing to do despite the consequences Hook had told her of when it came to time travel.
Of course it had ruined the progress she and Regina had made since they'd been in Neverland and now it felt like they were right back to where they'd been a few years ago, bickering and fighting and just being in each other's presence had the tension growing back up between them.
As she finished off her beer, a faint memory made it's way to the front of her mind, one that never seemed to be relevant but it made sense now. She remembered coming back from the job in New York City and was confused when the bottle of beer she knew she had left in her fridge before she left Boston was no longer there and the spare key had been moved, not in the exact same spot she'd left it inside the fire extinguisher case across the hall.
Emma turned off the laptop and she found Regina was on the couch, sleeping soundly as if they weren't living through a portal curse that could send them somewhere else at any given time. She tried to figure out how long they had been in the Enchanted Forest and it couldn't have been more than an hour at most. Here in Boston of the past, it'd been almost four hours and there was absolutely no sign of the lightning that came along with the curse.
"Go to sleep," Regina muttered as Emma flipped off the lamp by the couch she was sleeping on. Regina opened her eyes and looked up at her. "You look like you need it."
"Right. I'll just…" Emma trailed off as she looked down at the other matching couch across from Regina. She laid down and stared up at the ceiling, watching the lights from the city create countless of shadows all around the room.
She was afraid of going too far from Regina, worrying that she would have to endure the next portal jump alone if she wasn't near her. She had been right beside her when it started in the castle and when she had blinked past the blinding white light that left her unable to focus for a moment, it was just her and Regina standing on the street with nobody else around them.
Regina sighed heavily as she was woken for a second time a few hours later to Emma tossing and turning as she tried to sleep on the other couch. With a roll of her eyes, she quietly slipped into Emma of the past's bedroom and crawled into the big bed, the sheets far fancier and smoother than she had expected. Then again, the moment they had walked into the apartment, she hadn't expected it to look the way it did either. It was a struggle to fall back asleep, but she managed to, only just until the sun started to rise and it filled the bedroom quickly, the floor to ceiling windows without any coverings to shield the bright morning sunlight from chasing away the last of her restful state.
"Emma?" Regina called out as she walked out of the bedroom and the blonde was absolutely nowhere to be seen. She checked the bathroom, but it was empty and there were no other rooms she could be in.
"Hey," Emma said just as Regina opened the door and she breezed in carrying a tray with two coffee's and a bag which Regina knew had a few bear claws in side of them.
"Where did you go?"
"Breakfast," Emma said as she lifted the tray, smirking as she walked past Regina and into the kitchen. "I thought you could use some coffee and something to eat."
"You just left me here."
"You were sleeping. I didn't want to wake you. I couldn't really sleep and I was starving and I figured I get us some breakfast and be back before you woke up," she replied, her tone light and friendly as she handed Regina one of the tall cups of coffee before pulling her own out of the tray. "I don't know how you like your coffee, but I grabbed these for you," Emma said when Regina didn't say a word and she dropped a few little sealed cups of cream and milk in front of her followed by a few packets of sugar and sweetener.
Regina managed a curt smile as she pulled off the lid of her coffee and dumped in one milk. "Thank you," she uttered quietly and put the lid back on without looking up to meet the green eyes that were staring intensely at her. "I'll pass on having one of those bear claws I know are in that bag, though."
"Actually, the bear claws are for me. I got you a bagel, lightly toasted with butter because I had a feeling you wouldn't want anything else but that."
"Thank you," she said, more sincerely this time and just as Emma reached into the back, she felt it. The static of magic fluttering in the air and it seemed like it shouldn't be possible, not when she couldn't feel her own magic inside of her. "Emma, it's happening again—"
Regina felt unsteady on her feet as she blinked away the blinding white light. She took in her surroundings, immediately recognizing where they were and when. She grabbed on to Emma's arm and pulled her back into the trees and out of the field of long grass.
"What are you doing?"
"Hiding," Regina replied in a hushed whisper, her eyes wide as she stared out at the field. "I cannot believe this is happening right now."
"Where are we?"
"Back in the Enchanted Forest, but further back in time."
"How do you even know that?" Emma asked, pulling her arm free from Regina's tight grip on it. "Seriously, Regina—"
"That's me," she said as she pointed to the young girl riding a horse around the field, putting the horse through its paces easily. "I can't be more than eight. It's right around the time my father gave Rocinante to me as a gift against my mother's wishes."
"But how do you know this?"
"Because I remember this day," Regina whispered, kneeling to the ground and watching her younger self, happy and free of the evil thing she had become.
Emma knelt down next to her and watched as well. They were quiet now and Emma turned to look at Regina, watching a flicker of emotion roll over her and she knew that she was clearly remembering this day as she watched it happening in front of her. A part of Emma is worried that Cora will appear out of nowhere and she's terrified just thinking of the things that woman is capable of doing to both of them if they're discovered. Another part of her is perplexed as she alters her attention between Regina and her much younger self.
It was quiet where they were and although it was warm, a soft breeze blew over the fields and for some reason it brought a smile to Emma's face. In a weird way it almost felt like home being there, despite the obvious reasons of they were in the past and in the Enchanted Forest and outside of Regina's childhood home.
She stopped the other thought from even crossing her mind, the one that wanted to tell her that it was probably because this world should've been her home and then there was the thought that told her it was because she was there with Regina. No, she had gone down that road once, played upon her slight attraction towards Regina just for one moment and she couldn't let herself continue to think that way about her son's other mother and the woman who was formerly the Evil Queen and had tried to kill her years ago just to get her out of her and Henry's lives for good.
"How long were we in Boston?" Emma asked, uncomfortable with the silence that had settled between them and not to mention her own thoughts that were starting to run away from her. "Almost what, six hours?"
"Roughly."
"Regina?"
"What?" Regina replied agitatedly. "If you haven't clued in yet, Emma, I am not in the mood to have a discussion at the moment nor am I in the mood to hear your inane questions about this curse that I cannot answer!"
"Sorry."
Regina sighed in frustration, not looking at the woman next to her that was getting on her last nerve. It hadn't been like this when they were in Neverland and she couldn't believe how easily they had fallen back into very old habits while they were being forced into a portal, jumping through time and realms. This curse was testing her, she realized this now, but testing her for what was exactly what she couldn't figure out, nor could she understand that after the first jump through the portal, it was just her and Emma and not the rest of the residents of Storybrooke that had come with them through the first one.
She did however try to revel in the peacefulness her childhood home brought her, choosing to ignore the memories of a time that hadn't happened yet where they were. She missed the quiet, the smell of the crisp, clean air and the way the grass felt when she spent what time she could get away from her mother laying in and watching the clouds skip by in the sky overhead. She missed the time she spent with her father watching her as she rode Rocinante through the fields, looking on lovingly as she improved on her jumps over time.
She could feel her magic again, but it was weak, too weak to transport them as far away from her childhood home like she wanted to. It frustrated her to no end because she didn't know why any of this was happening or if there was any significance to the time and places they ended up with every portal jump that had happened so far.
Suddenly the peacefulness of the day came to an end as angry black clouds suddenly filled the sky in the blink of an eye. It was back, the portal, and she felt that growing pit of uncertainty in her stomach as she and Emma looked at one another the instant the lightning streaked across the sky, brighter and angrier than the last one.
And all she could do was close her eyes and hope that wherever they ended up next it would be back home and not anywhere else, not in time or in another realm…