Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

A/N: I'm sorry about the longer than predicted wait for the update but the story was THIS close to dying the slow, agonizing death of an infinite hiatus. My mind and heart just weren't in it, and the season finale sure as hell didn't help. But then I got some lovely reviews and was reminded of the reasons why I love this story ... and suddenly the writing came back, too. :)

Chapter 16: Frozen

Henry was surprised to see his father in front of his school when he got out. "Hey, dad," he greeted him with a smile. "Did something happen? Why are you picking me up? You do know I'm old enough to go home alone, don't you?"

Neal smiled and ruffled his son's hair. "I just felt like seeing you," he mumbled with a half shrug. "I thought we could go take a ride together."

"A ride?" Henry asked, and he wondered why he had a strange feeling about this. But his father had this wild look about him as if he was being hunted, and there was a gleam in his eye that made the hair at the back of Henry's neck stand up. Something was wrong, very, very wrong. Henry suddenly had the same strange feeling that he had about his mom when she was still only the Evil Queen to him. He needed a plan, and he needed it fast, so he decided to stall for time first. "Where do you want to go?"

Neal didn't notice the hint of suspicion in his son's voice or chose to ignore it. "Just around," he hedged. Henry just stared at him until he continued. "I thought it was time, you know … for you and me to get away from Storybrooke for a little while and just be a family for a bit."

"We just got back to Storybrooke …," Henry pointed out. "Besides, our family is bigger than just the two of us."

Neal grinned, thinking Henry was getting into his idea. "Yeah, I know," he agreed. "That's why we're going to go someplace and get settled first, and then Emma can come and join us. Maybe we could go back to New York." He smiled as he stared into the distance. "And then we'll have our happy ending."

Henry was torn between the love for his father and the feeling of being suddenly uncomfortable in his presence. "Dad," he started slowly. "You know that …" He stopped himself, remembering that he couldn't divulge his mothers' secret relationship. He'd promised and he wasn't going to break his promise if he could help it.

"I know … what, Henry?"

Henry thought quickly, a plan finally forming in his mind. "You know … that if we're going away, I can't leave without some of my stuff, right?"

Neal actually looked a little confused. "I can buy you everything you need in New York."

Henry shook his head. That wasn't going to work, he needed to buy more time. "No, I need to go home and grab some things first," he insisted. "There are things in my room I have to take with me. Things you can't buy."

Neal heaved a sigh. "All right, let's go then," he muttered and turned to walk in the direction of Emma's apartment.

"No, Dad," Henry's voice stopped him. "I meant my ho— … Regina's house."

"Really?"

"Really, Dad," Henry reiterated with a smile, enjoying the discomfort on his father's face, who looked as if he had a healthy respect for Regina's power, if not for the woman herself. "Let's go."

"Regina and I … well," Neal started, and his hesitancy confirmed Henry's suspicions.

"She's not home at this time of the day," Henry mentioned as casually as he could. It was true, after all. He let out the fact that he was planning on having her come home as soon as humanly possible. Or faster, considering the fact that she could teleport.

Neal finally relented, so they turned to walk towards Mifflin Street in silence. Henry made sure Neal stayed a step or so ahead of him while he fumbled in his coat pocket for his phone wondering if he could manage to type a text blindly and send it to his mothers.

o o o

"I'm only going to ask one more time," Snow ground out through gritted teeth. "What is going on here?"

Regina tried to pull her hands away from Emma's but the younger woman wouldn't let go. She looked at Emma and saw that all her muscles were tensed almost to the point of rigidity, and Regina could very well imagine what went on in Emma's mind. Disappointing your mother was never a good feeling, no matter what happened or how old you were.

To Regina's surprise it was David who jumped in when Emma stayed silent. "Snow," he tried to soothe, "it's not what you think."

Snow whirled around to face her husband so fast that he actually took a step back. "Oh, it's not, is it?" she asked mockingly. "So I didn't just see the Evil Queen kissing my daughter."

"You did but—"

"How could you let that happen?" Snow's voice took on an accusatory edge. "How could you just stand by and allow … her of all people to lay a hand on our daughter?" She stalked towards David who kept backing away. "Does she have you under a spell too?"

That stopped David's retreat. "Spell? What are you talking about?"

Snow pointed at Regina and Emma. "That," she hissed. "A spell is the only explanation. Why else would Emma even touch that woman?"

"Snow, stop," Emma called out but it was a little more timid than she had wanted.

Snow didn't even stop to take a breath. "You know it has to be the reason, David," she ranted on. "She's the enemy! She's only doing this to hurt me."

Regina couldn't help herself; she snorted. "Oh, Snow," she said gently. "As always you give yourself far too much credit. Not everything is about you."

David shot her a look. "Not really helping, Regina." He turned back to his wife. "Snow, Emma is in—"

"Emma is in love with Neal," Snow shouted. "She's just too stubborn to admit it." She slowly turned her head to muster her daughter and Regina almost gasped at the strange gleam in Snow's eyes. "It's either her stubbornness or some kind of infatuation spell Regina cast over her," she continued. "I won't accept anything else."

"Just stop, Snow," Emma tried again, louder this time.

But Snow was on a roll. "It's exactly like Neal said," she said as if explaining something very obvious to a small child. "He just told me all about it, you know," she added, turning back to David.

"All about what?" David asked. "Maybe you shouldn't—"

Again, he wasn't allowed to speak. "He told me that Regina is trying to take Emma and Henry away from us, from him," she explained. "That she's trying to rip apart our family!"

"Snow, stop it!" Now Emma was actually yelling, almost crushing Regina's hands in hers. "Please, just stop!"

Regina tried, too. "Snow, please listen to us," she pleaded softly. "And if not to us, then at least to Emma. Can't you see you're hurting her with this?"

"You're the only one who's hurting her! I would never hurt my daughter!" Snow ranted on, only increasing her volume to drown out Emma's protests. "You're poisoning Emma's mind, why can't anybody but me see that? Can't you—"

"Mom!" Emma screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to get through to her mother somehow. "Stop it! None of that is true!"

"You would say that, honey," Snow went on. "You're under her spell." She turned back to David and continued ranting and raving at him.

Regina tuned her out as she watched her face, especially her eyes, or as much of them as she could see. There was something in them that she couldn't quite make out, but she knew Snow's eyes quite well, and this wasn't normal. She remembered seeing that look in someone else's eyes in the past.

Her mother's when she was punishing her.

Her own. In a mirror.

Emma couldn't take it anymore. She just needed Snow to be quiet for one freaking minute, so she could think, could explain, could make her see. But her mother was still yelling, raving like a lunatic. Emma knew there had to be something wrong with her, and she wished she could talk about it with Regina, but for that she needed Snow to just stop talking. Regina would know what to do, Emma had seen her watching Snow like a hawk this whole time, but with the way Snow just kept on talking and yelling and screaming over everything anybody said, it was hard to even think.

Emma felt her body charging with energy and she welcomed the feeling, the tingling, even though she had no idea what would happen. She just wanted Snow to stop. Needed her to stop. Right now. Right now. Right fucking now.

"You need to stop now!" The order burst from Emma's mouth. "Right now. Just stop, dammit!"

And, surprisingly, Snow did.

Her body was frozen in mid-rant, mouth open, nostrils flaring, eyes wide, but the only sound that could be heard was the ragged breaths coming out of her heaving chest.

"We really need to work on that, dear," Regina whispered.

Emma nodded with a grimace while David stared at the quasi-statue of his wife in confusion for a long moment before raising a hand and waving it in front of Snow's face. Snow didn't even blink.

David rounded on Regina. "What did you do to her?" His tone was a mix of anger, relief, and genuine confusion, probably about his own mixed feelings about this development.

"Wasn't her," Emma mumbled.

David's face fell. "You did this?"

"Yeah," she replied, a little contrite. "I just couldn't take it any more. I just needed her to stop screaming."

Regina shook her head, an amused smile playing around her lips. "Well, this time your lack of control was actually quite helpful."

"What do you mean?" David and Emma asked simultaneously.

Regina gently freed her hands from Emma's death grip and slowly walked towards the frozen figure of Snow White. "I mean that it's finally blessedly quiet in here since your wife has been rendered speechless by Emma's powers, it seems," she replied with a smirk as she studied Snow from all sides. "It also gives me the opportunity to take a closer look at her without having to knock her out myself," she added. "I just wish we could make it permanent."

"Regina." There was a hint of warning and exasperation in Emma's tone.

Regina grinned at her, completely unrepentant. "I'm just saying …" Then she turned to David. "Have you noticed anything unusual about Snow since our return from Neverland?"

David glared at her. "I'm not sure what you're getting at, Regina, but—"

To Emma's surprise, Regina remained patient, gentle even. "I'm not sure what it is, but this isn't the Snow we know. I don't know yet what it is … but there's this … scent about her, a darkness if you will. Some might call it an aura, and even I would admit that this is unusual. It's almost as if …" She trailed off and studied Snow once more.

"Almost as if what?" Emma was fascinated by the way Regina studied Snow but she was also curious about her thoughts.

"As if there was dark magic involved," Regina replied almost absent-mindedly. "When she was ranting and raving just now, she reminded me of …"

Emma finally realized where she was going. "She reminded you of your other self … the Evil Queen?"

"That's preposterous," David protested. "Emma, you know your mother better than that. Regina is just trying to drive a wedge between you and your family."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Have you really not noticed anything different about your wife recently, Charming?" She pointed at Emma. "The fact that she decided to just take away Emma's badge and give it to you seemed normal to you?"

David deflated. "No, it didn't," he admitted. "But she did see how wrong it was as soon as I talked to her."

"She saw that you didn't want my job," Emma pointed out. "Ruby said she really believed what she was doing was right."

"I'm sorry, Emma," David said. "I don't know what to tell you." He shrugged. "Snow has been distant since our return from Neverland, always talking about having to return home by any means possible. She's gone a lot, and I have no idea where she's going, although …" He hesitated, thinking about Snow's earlier meeting with the Blue Fairy.

"Although?" Emma asked.

"I saw her sneaking into an alley earlier," David explained. "It looked suspicious and I thought … Well, anyway, she was meeting Blue and they looked like they were discussing something serious."

"Why would she meet the Blue Fairy in secret?" Emma wondered.

"I thought I smelled that gnat's influence here," Regina growled.

"But she's good," David insisted. "She's the head of the fairies."

Emma snorted. "Nobody is all good or all bad, Dad. I thought you'd have learned that by now."

"David, she's the one who has the most to gain from everyone's return to the Enchanted Forest," Regina explained. "Here in Storybrooke she doesn't have much say, but back there she's the main magic authority as the chief wielder of fairy magic. Over there, she has a lot more power … and Blue really likes power."

David looked unconvinced. "You just want to keep us from finding a way home."

Regina closed her eyes, and Emma wondered if she was slowly counting to ten to keep from strangling David. "It's not everyone's home, Dad," she said before Regina could say something they'd all regret. "Not everyone wants to go back."

"David," Regina started before Emma's words could start a new and different discussion. "I don't care if everyone goes back to the Enchanted Forest. I'm never going back there, but if you want to return to the land of no plumbing or electricity that's your prerogative. I really couldn't care less, David, as long as the people are given a choice."

"And that's why I don't want Snow to make the decision for everybody," Emma added. "Nobody has the right to make that decision."

David sighed. "Do you have any idea what's wrong with Snow?" he asked Regina.

"I'm not sure …" Regina started, then stopped again. "I think it might be her heart. I think it blackened much faster than it should have by now."

"What are you talking about?" David asked. "Snow is pure of heart."

"Oh, David." There was an unexpected pity in Regina's voice. "When she decided to use me to kill my own mother, her heart was blackened."

Emma jumped in to soften the blow for her father. "But not enough to cause this, right?"

Regina nodded. "A seed of darkness was sown that day, and unless it was nurtured it shouldn't have grown this quickly."

"So how was it nurtured if not by evil deeds?" David asked.

"And how do we know that's actually the cause of her behavior?" Emma added.

"There's magic, potions, spells that can speed up the darkening of hearts," Regina told David. "A heart can be influenced in either direction, good or evil, but it takes some powerful magic. Rumple did everything he could to blacken my heart as quickly as possible so I could cast the curse that he needed to get here …"

"But he's dead," David pointed out.

"That's why you think it's Blue," Emma breathed. "Makes sense."

"How does that make sense, Emma?" David asked, shaking his head. "She's not the only magic user in town and if anyone here is an evil influence, it's R—"

"Don't even think about finishing that thought, Dad, " Emma warned. "Or we're both out of here right now and you can see how you're going to deal with that." She pointed at her mother.

"Couldn't I just kiss her awake?" David took a step closer to Snow.

Regina shrugged. "You can try, but if I'm right, it won't work."

"Why not?"

"Because a black heart can't feel real love, true or otherwise. Not enough to break a curse."

David leaned close to Snow, intent on proving Regina wrong. He pressed his lips to Snow's for a few seconds, trying to infuse the kiss with all his love. Nothing happened. "I don't understand," he muttered.

Regina stood put a gentle hand on David's arm. "David, would you allow me to check Snow's heart?" she asked softly, but bluntly. "So we can be sure that's what we're dealing with."

"You want to remove her heart?" He was aghast. "You can't—"

"Dad, Regina's not going to hurt Snow," Emma tried to reassure her father. "Are you?" She smiled at Regina.

"She won't feel a thing, not in her state," Regina confirmed. "But it would give us the confirmation we need."

David swallowed and nodded as he took a step to the side. Emma stepped closer to him and rested a hand on his shoulder to lend her support in what had to be a difficult moment for him. Her other hand found Regina's. "Do it."

Regina reached into Snow's chest and pulled carefully. As soon as her hand left Snow's body, she heard Emma and David gasp. In her hand sat a dark beating organ that resembled a lump of coal more than it resembled a human heart.

"Oh my God," Emma breathed. "What could do this?"

"Put it back," David croaked, and Regina could see he was fighting tears. "Put it back."

Regina put the heart back in its place. "I'm sorry, David."

"Is there anything we can do?" Emma asked, always focusing on the practical. "How did Blue have access to that much dark magic?"

"That's what we need to find out," Regina muttered, her mind already busy running through possibilities. "A long, long time ago I heard stories about a dark wand, the wand of the Black Fairy that supposedly was capable of the darkest magic." She looked at Emma. "The legend goes that it was lost, but if it's not …"

"Then Blue probably has it and is using it," Emma finished for her. "Damn."

"We're going to need help," Regina admitted. "I wish Rumple was still alive … he'd know much more about this."

"Maybe Tink can help?"

Regina nodded. "Maybe." She sighed.

"What … what are we going to do about Snow?" David asked, his voice rough. "We can't leave her like that."

"Unfortunately not," Regina muttered under her breath. "We can unfreeze her and she won't remember anything that happened while she was frozen. And we definitely should keep it that way."

"You want to let her continue what she's been doing?" David asked.

"If we want to figure what that fairy is doing and how to reverse Snow's heart, then yes, we have to." Regina faced David. "That's going to be hardest on you, David. She can't find out that we suspect anything or she'll be running off to warn Blue," she urged. "Can you deal with that? Can you keep this secret?"

David nodded hesitantly. "I'll have to," he replied. "But I think I might be working a lot more until this is resolved."

"Good," Emma said. "That leaves more free time for me to deal with Blue."

"For us," Regina whispered. "We'll have to think of a plan and we don't have much time …"

Emma's phone beeped, signaling an incoming message. She pulled it out of her pocket to see what it was. "It's from Henry," she told Regina. She read the message out loud. "Come 2 mom's house. I'm with dad. He's strange. Wants 2 take me 2 NY."

Regina's and Emma's eyes met in silent communication. "We have to go now," Emma told David. "Looks like Snow isn't the only one who's acting really strange." Regina nodded and raised her hand. "Wait, I have to unfreeze Snow," Emma remembered. "David can you deal with her?"

David nodded. "Yeah, I'll tell her something."

Regina and Emma ran for the door. At the last possible moment before leaving the room, Regina moved her hand and removed the spell from Snow. Then they sprinted around the corner and into the alley, and transported to 108 Mifflin Street.

Snow shook her head once, but then continued her rant as if nothing had happened until David stopped her with a simple, "Emma and Regina are gone, Snow." He pointed behind her. "There was a call while you were … ranting."

"I do not rant, Charming. Ever." Snow glared at him. "So, what are we going to do to save Emma from Regina?"