Author's note: Thank you for your lovely reviews! So glad to see that many of you are still reading :)
Chapter 63
All Emma wanted, had ever wanted, was to be normal.
As a lonely, mistreated foster kid, she'd flipped through picture books and ran her little hands over images of happy, normal families, with parents, siblings, a dog, friends, a nice house, a room to call her own, and just everything she hadn't had.
And then she'd been adopted, and even though her family hadn't looked the way she'd once envisioned, she'd been happy. She'd had a mother who loved her more than anyone ever had, her very own puppy, nice teachers, a diner where Granny always gave her extra fries…what more she could she have asked for?
Maybe she should've been named "shit starter," because she'd just had to go poke the beast and go looking for her birth parents, effectively blowing up everyone's lives. (Although in her defense, technically that was her destiny or some bullshit like that).
But here she was, three and a half-ish weeks in after her (forced) move to Mary Margaret and David's, and she'd started secretly thinking that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't as bad as she'd initially thought.
They'd reached somewhat of a tenuous peace of sorts after the nutmeg incident. She'd started to feel slightly less awkward around them in the apartment, even feeling comfortable to begin leaving her dirty socks in the living room and empty water bottles around the kitchen. (Although to her credit, David did the same thing, much to Mary Margaret's irritation).
And in return, they'd stopped constantly tiptoeing around her as though she was a delicate angel from the heavens. (Only occasionally, but Emma counted it as an improvement). It was even kind of nice hearing stories about their past sometimes, and knowing that somewhere out there she had a history and ancestors who suddenly weren't mysterious, faceless strangers, but once living, breathing people she was slowly learning more about.
School had also resumed, and that helped. Most of her classmates were back, and her teachers made an effort to try and pick up on where they'd left off. She'd never been a huge fan of algebra and overanalyzing old texts (The Scarlet Letter, ugh), but it had just been what she'd needed to feel more like herself. From lunches with Jasmine in the smelly old cafeteria to dragging her butt out of bed at the ass crack of dawn (6:30am) and staring sleepily at the whiteboard in class, she could almost forget that everyone around her was technically a fairy tale character cursed to live in a small seaside town by adoptive mother, AKA the Evil Queen, and technically her step-grandmother if she really thought about it…
Yes, maybe it was better not to think about it.
Even Killian had returned to school, slinking into his seat at the back of the classroom one morning, and as he'd passed her desk, he'd winked at her, and she swore her heart hadn't flipped.
But on an otherwise quiet Wednesday evening, Emma came back to the apartment after a movie with Jasmine and a few other girls in her class to find Regina perched in an armchair, looking all sorts of out of place, and suddenly, any kind of "normalcy" shattered.
She supposed it had been naive to pretend.
"Mom?" Emma blurted before she could stop herself. After a few weeks of disuse, the word felt almost awkward. She darted a gaze over to Mary Margaret, who stood chopping something at the kitchen counter, expecting to see her wince or something, but if she'd heard, the other woman gave no indication.
She hadn't seen and had barely heard from Regina ever since she'd moved in with Mary Margaret and David. In fact, her birth parents had seen Regina more than Emma had, coming home one day with her Epi-Pen, which Regina had clearly given to them. They hadn't mentioned anything about their encounter, other than that Regina seemed to be doing fine.
Emma had tried to push the thought of her mind, that her own mother would've rather gone through her sworn enemies as a messenger instead of seeing Emma directly. Instead, she'd reminded herself that Regina had promised their separation had been to keep Emma safe.
And yet here she was, sitting primly in the bird printed armchair that Emma had started dumping her backpack on after school.
The look on Regina's face could only be described as relief. "Emma."
Without a thought to how Mary Margaret or David would react, she rushed forward to hug her mother.
"I missed you." Emma murmured. She breathed in Regina's comforting scent, the smell of the familiar perfume instantly reminding her of home, and tears pricked at the corner of her eyes.
"I missed you too." Regina pulled back slightly and took Emma's face in her hands, thoroughly examining her with her eyes. "Are you okay? I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the hospital."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Yeah. That was weeks ago."
In response, Regina shot her the usual "I'm your mother and it's my job to worry" look, and for once Emma didn't mind.
"What are you doing here? I thought you said it was dangerous."
Regina cleared her throat, suddenly looking awkward. "I'm here for dinner."
"Wait…"
"We invited her." David cut in. He stepped out from behind the stove, where he'd been mixing something on the stove, and wiped his hands on a towel.
(It suddenly occurred to Emma that she'd completely ignored her birth parents since arriving back at the apartment, and that was probably a bit rude).
"You what? I thought you hated each other."
"Hate may be a…strong word." Mary Margaret responded, though she didn't look like she quite believed her own words.
"Let's sit." David gestured to the table, before Emma could ask why they'd suddenly chosen to invite their sworn enemy over for a meal. For the first time, Emma noticed the table had been set for four.
So Mary Margaret brought over plates of pasta while David set out 3 wineglasses and started filling them. Emma tried to grab one before anyone could notice, but Regina shot her a warning look and shook her head, so she'd slithered her hand back, rolling her eyes.
For a few moments, it was quiet save for the clinking of silverware on plates. Regina gripped her glass of wine, expression pinched and drawn, while Mary Margaret and David sat rigidly with ramrod spines.
"Could you please pass the salad?" Mary Margaret asked, and Regina, who was closest, handed it over.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Regina responded. She took a large gulp of wine, and David moved to refill it.
"Thank you." Regina said stiffly.
"You're welcome."
Emma looked around the table, expecting someone, anyone, to start explaining why they were all there. Was someone dying, was she in trouble again, or maybe the town was about to disappear off the face of the earth…anything? But the adults continued eating as though nothing was amiss.
A moment later, Mary Margaret passed David the salad dressing.
"Thank you." David said.
"Would anyone like any cheese?" Mary Margaret offered.
Regina reached out and took it. "Thank—"
"Stop it!" Emma interrupted. "Stop thanking each other in that weird formal way and acting like eating dinner together is normal or something. You look like you're about five seconds from whipping out your swords or whatever and going at it."
"Fireballs for me, dear." Regina corrected. Her lip quirked up slightly with amusement, though she quickly schooled her features into a calm mask.
"Whatever! Is anyone going to tell me what we're doing? And please don't say eating dinner. What the hell's going on?"
"I've been working on—" Regina started.
At the same time, Mary Margaret had started speaking. "Well, we—"
They both stopped and looked at each other.
"Go ahead," Regina offered. She wiped her mouth delicately and set her napkin down as though it was about to explode.
"No, you go."
"I insist."
"Really, it's no problem."
Regina rolled her eyes infinitesimally and turned to Emma. "As you know, I've been working on a way to…make amends." She said as tactfully as possible. "Your…parents have been helping me with that."
"Okay…?"
"And we've made significant process." Regina continued. "I think we've found a way to…bring everyone back to the Enchanted Forest, should they choose to return."
Emma abruptly turned to Mary Margaret. "There's no nutmeg in this, right?"
Mary Margaret blinked. "Of course not. But how is that…"
"Because I feel like the room's spinning and I can't breathe, and it's got to be another allergic reaction, because otherwise that would mean I'm having a panic attack over the fact that you've all been working together behind my back, keeping this giant secret! Or this is all a giant practical joke. Well haha, very funny."
"We meant to tell you—" David started.
"What do you even mean by returning to the Enchanted Forest? I thought you said it was all destroyed or whatever."
"Not entirely, as it turns out."
"How would you even get there?"
"Magic beans." Mary Margaret responded. "We've been working with the fairies…you know them as the nuns, on growing what we need. Regina's magic has been helping as well."
"Magic beans? And wait…" Emma whirled on Regina. "You got your magic back?"
Regina opened her palm, where sure enough, a cheery flame burst to life. "Like riding a bike."
"Wow, you all suck as parents. I can't believe you kept all this from me. When were you going to tell me? The day you all climb the magic beanstalk on your way back to the motherland?"
"First of all, these magic beans create portals." Regina said. "And you need to watch your language. As you said, we're your parents. You cannot speak to us in that manner."
At the word "parents", Mary Margaret and David shot Regina small, tentative smiles, and Regina nodded stiffly back at them, her expression relaxing ever so slightly.
"We kept this from you, from the rest of the town, until we were sure everything would work." David said. "But we just received word that the beans are ready."
The beans are ready. Emma rolled the words around in her mind. Suddenly, it was as though her brain had slowed down, unable to process any new information. "The beans that you'll use to go back to…the Enchanted Forest. The place I read about in my book. The place that you, that all of us, came from, because of a curse."
Mary Margaret nodded. "We're going home."
"And that's what we wanted to talk to you about." David continued. He squeezed Mary Margaret's hand. "We're planning to bring this up at the town meeting this week. Everyone will have the choice to either stay in Storybrooke or go back with us."
"Wait...us? We're all leaving Storybrooke? All of us?"
"No." Regina corrected. "I'm not."
"But you are." Emma gestured to Mary Margaret and David, who nodded. "Okay. So you two are moving while Mom's not. What's the big deal? I mean, it's been cool living here, but we knew it was just temporary. I'll go home once everything dies down and then I can, like come over for dinner once in a while. It'd be cool to visit your castle, maybe spend the summer there."
The adults looked at each other, clearly none of them willing to speak up.
"Emma…" Regina said a moment later. She placed a tentative hand over her daughter's. "It's not that simple."
"What do you mean? Traveling by magic bean or whatever sounds cooler than flying. Oh wait, is there jet lag? Well I can deal with that."
"No, what she means is…" David sighed. "We only have enough beans for a one way trip."
"Can't you just grow more?"
"Unfortunately, that's not possible. We were incredibly lucky to even develop what we have. Traveling and communicating between realms has always been limited, in fact virtually impossible, and this is no exception." Regina explained. "The beans, the portals, it's all a one way trip."
"So you're saying…"
"You have a choice to make." Mary Margaret confirmed softly. "Either come back to the Enchanted Forest with David and me."
"Or stay in Storybrooke with me." Regina finished.
Emma looked around the table to Regina, the woman who'd raised her as her own, given her the life she'd never imagined she'd have, her mother, then to Mary Margaret and David, her birth parents, the people she'd just started to grow comfortable with, to get to know after 17 years of wondering about them.
"But…what am I supposed to do?"
Author's note: Let me know what you think! Next chapter will be up in the next couple days.