A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating this story. BUT I did work all day on this to ensure you had this chapter before the holidays. You can thank me in a review. ;) Just kidding. You don't have to do that. Although, I do love reviews.
Anyway, here's the latest. It's half canon, half my ideas considering the circumstances before the curse was broken are different in this story than on the show. Enjoy!
The plume of purple smoke finally cleared and Snow and Charming slowly started to pull away from each other. Things seemed safe. The town looked the same and they both felt the way they normally did, minus the fact that not only did they think like Snow and Charming but like Mary Margaret and David as well.
Snow and Charming smiled at each other as relief flooded their features, happy to see and know each other once again.
Close by, Granny and Ruby – or rather Red – hugged and cooed in their small reunion. It would have been odd considering the fact that they had been together throughout the entire duration of the curse had their Storybrooke personalities not had a lot of angst and frustration. The two of them hadn't been so angry with each other ever when they'd lived in the Enchanted Forest. Neither of them had said so many hurtful things or done anything solely just to hurt the other as they had in Storybrooke. In that moment, their hug served as comfort and an apology.
When Ruby pulled away from the soothing embrace, she turned and noticed the familiar couple nearby. She sighed and felt a burst of hope within herself.
"Snow?"
Snow looked up at Ruby and smiled, both women elated to see each other. The two of them instantly closed the space between them and hugged while Charming went to Granny and followed his wife's example.
After a moment, others joined the four of them. It wasn't until one of them spoke up.
"Your Highness?"
Snow, Charming, Ruby, and Granny all looked to see the seven dwarfs in front of them. Once the dwarfs had their attention, they all humbly bowed before their royal leaders Snow White and Prince Charming.
More smiles from Snow and Charming when they saw their loyal friends.
"The curse. It's broken," Grumpy asked when he and the other dwarfs straightened up.
"It would appear so," Charming replied.
"So what do we...do now," Red asked.
"Now...Now I find my daughter," Snow answered.
"So it's true," Emma piped up from behind them.
Snow and Charming turned to face the blonde and Snow took almost a whole minute to stare at Emma and do absolutely nothing else. She took in her daughter's appearance from her long and wavy blonde hair down to her nearly knee high boots laced up over her dark blue skinny jeans.
Mary Margaret had last seen her in a plaid skirt and black tights, but somewhere in all the trouble of breaking the curse it wasn't what Snow White first saw Emma wear.
Slowly, Snow stepped toward Emma, reached out, and cupped either side of Emma's face. She appeared on the verge of tears as she mapped out her daughter's confused and sadly happy face before she pulled the blonde into her for a motherly hug.
"You found us," Snow slowly said as she let a few tears fall.
Charming moved just as slowly as Snow had to approach Emma and wrapped his arms around his wife and his daughter. He cupped the back of Emma's head and kissed her crown as he held his family close.
They didn't separate until a small voice reminded them Emma wasn't alone.
"Grandpa?"
Snow immediately started to laugh while she and Charming let Emma go.
Charming looked over and down at Henry with a wide smile.
"Yeah, kid. I suppose so."
Charming gently tugged Henry into a hug and laughed a little himself.
"She did it," Henry said after a few seconds and broke out of Charming's lazy but loving embrace. "She saved you."
"She saved all of us," Snow proudly breathed out barely above a whisper.
"I... Well..." Emma struggled to find words in response to hearing she was apparently a hero.
"Uh, then we are we still here," Grumpy interrupted them to ask, a little agitated.
"That, my friend, is an excellent question," Charming replied.
One of the dwarfs sneezed before he asked, "And what was that smoke?"
"Who did this," another dwarf asked.
"And what was that smoke," Happy repeated Sneezy's question.
"Magic," a female voice spoke up in answer. "I can feel it."
An auburn haired woman with a dark blue coat draped over her shoulders gracefully stood before them as she approached the group.
If Emma remembered correctly, the woman was a nun. Head nun, in fact. Mother Superior? She didn't know for sure because she'd barely been anywhere other than the Sheriff's station, her apartment, Regina's house, or Henry's school. And she had no interest in visiting a convent, though since her former lover turned out to be the Evil Queen and Henry's father let her rot in jail, pregnant – though he didn't know that – for a crime he committed she couldn't deny that celibacy looked pretty damn good right about then.
"Magic? In Storybrooke," Henry asked. "You're the Blue Fairy. Do something magical."
And on top of being a nun the woman was a fairy. The fairy, in fact.
Of course she was.
"It's not quite that simple, Henry," the Blue Fairy sadly, almost apologetically, looked at him. "No wand, no fairy dust. Matters are complicated now."
"Let's go to the person responsible for bringing it," Grumpy said. "The Queen."
"Yeah," the six other dwarfs agreed.
Though Emma had been listening, most of her thoughts consisted of Regina. She realized she'd woken up thinking it was just another day, but then she'd kissed her dead son's forehead and everyone else finally woke up. She then belonged to the fairy tales she'd spent most of her life wanting to believe, but time and time again was disappointed by her loneliness and run ins with all kinds of trouble. Even though Regina was suddenly responsible for Emma's new life involving those stories that were meant to supply hope in Henry's book, she knew that was all Regina had caused. Regina had only created the biggest and most hard to accept headache Emma had ever had in her life, but she didn't bring about the mist of purple wonder.
"No. Wait. It wasn't Regina," Emma told them, her brow furrowed and her lips thinned by her tight jawed expression.
Snow curiously eyed Emma. Something started to make sense in her still hazy mind, but it was a memory she just couldn't access yet. Snow White had started to dominate her Mary Margaret half and before she could try to push the fairy tale princess in her aside, Emma continued.
"Gold."
Mary Margaret stopped fighting and Snow took over once more.
Charming and the others relaxed their quizzical expressions and all seemed to have the same epiphany; that "Oh right. Mr. Gold is Rumpelstiltskin. That makes sense" epiphany.
"He told me the only way to save Henry was to get this potion and when I got it, he tricked me into giving it to him," Emma added. "That must have been what this...magic. God. That's just...weird to say."
Though Mary Margaret had given up the fight for center stage, Snow still felt a nagging sensation from an unsettling feeling in her gut. She took a second to acknowledge it before she ignored it for the time being and resumed her leadership role.
"Right. I think our best option is to talk to him," Snow said.
Charming nodded and the group instinctively followed behind him and Snow as they started to walk through town.
Though on a mission, Snow had Emma next to her. Twenty-eight years had finally passed and she had her little girl by her side once again. Although, she wasn't little anymore.
For Snow's part, she kept her thoughts to herself for a least half a mile of walking before she said anything not related to the task at hand.
"Is there anything you want to ask us," Snow asked.
"The only questions I have are for Mr. Gold," Emma angrily said as she kept her eyes trained on the road ahead, the road that would lead her to the man in question. "'Why did he double cross me' and 'what did he do to this town'."
"Uh...shouldn't we talk about...it first?"
"What," Emma asked as she tried not to think of what her once roommate and friend turned mother could possibly mean by "it".
"Us, your life, everything?"
"Can we do everything maybe later? Like with a glass of wine. Or several...bottles."
"I know it's a lot to take in," Charming chimed in. "For all of us."
"And we don't want to push, but we have waited for this moment for so long–" Snow added before Emma stopped her.
"Yeah, so have I," Emma quickly spun around to face Snow and Charming.
The couple, as well as the rest of the group along with Henry, stopped in their trek at Emma's command. The blonde was intent on not moving as she explained something very important to her parents in a brisk and frustrated tone.
"I've thought about this moment my entire life. I've imagined who you might be. With all the scenarios I concocted, my parents being..."
Emma trailed off, unable to call them Snow White and Prince Charming, before she started a new train of thought.
"I just need a little time. That's-that's all," Emma said, calmer than before and more somber.
Suddenly, the angry cries of other townspeople sounded in crescendo as Emma finished her speech.
"Snow," Charming said with his eyes slightly wide and focused on the line of townspeople rushing down the cross street at the end of the block not far from where he and the others stood.
The entire group, Emma included, looked over at the rioting citizens. Some had brooms, others had garden hoes and shovels.
What, no pitchforks in this town, Emma asked herself as the weaponry the people carried with them told her exactly what the other townspeople intended to do. She just didn't know what they were after.
She didn't have to wait long to find out.
"There you are," Archie breathlessly said as he ran over to Emma. "Come with me. I need your help."
Archie looked at Snow and Charming then and decided to announce to everyone, not just Emma, about the dangerous situation they all faced.
"Dr. Whale's whipped everyone into a frenzy. They're going to Regina's house. They're gonna kill her!"
Emma looked back at Henry and her parents, concern etched deep into her face.
"Great. Let's watch," Grumpy grumbled, completely serious.
"No. No. We cannot stoop to her level," Archie said. "Even after what she's done, killing her is wrong."
"He's right," Henry made himself heard.
Emma's attention immediately fell on him and only him.
"Please," Henry begged. "She's still my mom."
Henry looked from his grandparents to his birth mother. His eyes were instantly pleading as he tried to tell Emma something she need to hear, but didn't need advertized to everyone else.
Emma's features softened and she looked down at him sympathetically. She understood just what he wanted to say to her from one look, a skill she figured he probably picked up from Regina. She understood that he wanted to say, "I know you care."
As soon as she got the message, she looked from Henry to Snow.
"We have to stop them," Emma quietly said with pleading eyes to match her son's.
Snow was hit with another attempt from her Storybrooke memories to help explain why Emma would be on Regina's side as she watched the silent exchange between Henry and the blonde.
Charming had spent that time trying to figure out a way to align Emma's interest of defending the Evil Queen with the others' usual interests of self-preservation. Because of that, he spoke up before Snow could put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
"If the Blue Fairy is right and magic is here," Charming started. "They'd be marching into a slaughter."
Charming and the other fairytale characters looked at the rioters and sympathy and concern filled them within a few seconds.
It seemed that as long as they were protecting their own, it was okay to save Regina from whatever their people had planned for her.
Emma didn't argue. It didn't matter why everyone else was going to help her, she just wanted to be there to keep Regina from getting hurt. Magic or no magic, she'd only known Regina as Madam Mayor. She honestly had no idea how well the brunette she'd spent the better part of her time in Storybrooke getting naked with could handle herself.
Either way, the stopped group of do-gooders started to head down the street at a rushed pace toward 108 Mifflin.
Dr. Whale, adulterer by a technicality and corpse lover by his previous profession prior to the curse, incessantly pounded his fist against Regina's thick white door above the gold plated numbers of her address.
"Open up," Whale barked. "Open up or we're coming in."
After a few seconds, the door swung open and Regina walked into the doorway with her lips curled upward in a smug expression.
"Can I help you?"
"That smirk...isn't gonna last forever, Regina," Whale said with a certain smugness of his own. "You took everything from us and now?"
"What...now you're going to kill me?"
Regina laughed at the thought.
"Eventually," Whale started again. "But first you need to suffer."
"Listening to you has been enough suffering for all of us," Regina said as she shoved him in the chest a couple times until she pushed him off of her porch. "That's right. You wanted to see your Queen? Well, my dears, here. She. Is."
Regina threw her hands out at the people gathered on her front lawn and they cowered in fear as they also braced themselves for a magical attack that surprisingly never came.
Whale laughed at her failed attempt.
"She's powerless," one of the townspeople said.
"What," Regina asked no one in particular as she looked at her hands with shock and confusion.
"Get her," another person shouted.
The crowd barreled toward her like a tidal wave of enraged people and backed Regina up against one of the pillars on her porch.
Whale took his place in front of Regina again with a sinister smile on his face.
"Now," he said as he threw Regina against the pillar and visibly reveled in the sound of her grunt upon impact. "Where were we?"
Whale raised his hands and moved in toward Regina's neck, prepared to strangle the life out of her.
"Let her go," Emma yelled as she pushed through the crowd on her way up the pathway that lead straight to Regina. "Let her go! Let. Her. Go."
Emma yanked Whale away from Regina and stood between the two of them.
"Why should I listen to you," Whale asked her.
"Because I'm still the Sheriff," Emma huffed at him.
"And because she saved you," Charming spoke up as he stood beside his daughter in front of the crowd. "All of you!"
"And because no matter what Regina did, it does not justify this," Snow added.
"We are not murderers here," Emma explained.
"Yeah, well, we're not from this world," Whale argued.
"Yeah, well, you're in it now," Emma shot back.
Charming stepped up to Whale and gave him a shove in the chest as he said, "Okay, Whale, we're done."
"Back off," Whale growled as he pushed Charming's hand away.
While Charming and Whale fought each other, Emma tuned them out and looked up at Regina.
The brunette had stepped away from Whale and Charming as soon as Charming tried to get Whale to stand down and the movement caught Emma's attention.
Within seconds, they locked eyes as if both were drawn to each other like a magnetic connection or moths to a flame. Regina no longer seemed fearful or angry or in power like she had when she dealt with Whale and the rest of the town that had made themseleves clear they wanted her dead. She softened when she saw into those green eyes she already missed being able to stare at whenever she wanted.
Emma looked heartbroken, still angry but a lot less frustrated with the situation then and more sad about the turn of events that lead them to that moment in Regina's yard with pissed off citizens desperate to see Regina pay for every last wrong decision she'd made.
Regina looked genuinely apologetic for it, for causing Emma to stand where she stood and say whatever would divert everyone's attention to anything other than Regina.
She held Emma's gaze for only a few more seconds before she averted her eyes and gulped, seemingly ashamed.
"We have a lot to figure out," Charming said to Whale. "And this isn't the way to do it."
Snow hustled onto Regina's porch and raised her hands in a halting motion.
"And Regina's death won't provide any answers," Snow insisted.
Regina lifted her head and abandoned all of her self-deprecating emotions when she heard Snow's words. She looked at Emma again in a completely different context and raised her eyebrow once she had the blonde's focus to silently say, "I'm guessing you haven't told her about us?"
Emma rolled her eyes.
"She needs to be locked up," Snow exclaimed and broke up the moment between Emma and Regina without even realizing it.
Due to the grating sound of Snow White's voice, something she absolutely loathed as much as the woman herself if not more, Regina turned her attention to her pixie-haired enemy. When she heard Snow's suggestion, she visibly laughed but managed to contain the sound under her breath.
"For her safety," Snow said and caused Regina's smugness to vanish in an instant. "And more importantly for ours."
Regina looked away from the crowd, off to the side of her home and appeared distant, reduced to her most helpless state as she accepted the fact that once again Snow White would get her way. Like her earlier laughter, Regina would continue to be contained like she had been most of her life.
And when the cell door shut behind her with a shriek followed by a loud and depressing clang, Regina closed her eyes for a moment as she tried not to feel owned or trapped. She buried every last horrible and suffocating feeling from her past and opened her eyes as she turned to face the metal bars that blocked her out from the rest of the normal world.
"So I'm a prisoner now," Regina asked Charming, the one responsible for locking up the jail cell, with her hands on her hips.
There was no use in asking that question in order to receive an answer because she already knew the truth and Charming seemed to know that. Instead of responding to what Regina had said, he asked a question of his own after he took a moment to glare at the caged woman.
"If the curse is broken then why didn't we go back?"
"Because there's nothing to go back to," Regina kept her voice even as she fearlessly spoke.
Snow frowned and directed her eyes downward on the floor beneath her feet. Only Regina noticed the sadness the piece of information she just offered had caused the beloved princess.
"That land is gone," Regina finished.
Snow took a few seconds to collect herself before she found her voice again.
"We should get to Gold," Snow suggested as she tried to mask her disappointment about not having a home to return to with her husband, daughter, and grandson.
The Charming family didn't question her and showed their agreement when they all started to leave the Sheriff's station.
Emma put her hands on Henry's shoulders and guided him toward the front door, but she didn't make it too far before she looked over her shoulder at Regina.
Regina immediately lost all of fury and displeasure at being locked up when she noticed Emma look back at her. Again, she softened. Her eyes held every emotion she had yet to express directly to the blonde and thankfully, Emma seemed to understand that because the blonde let go of Henry and came to her.
Emma gravitated toward the cell and placed a hand over Regina's on top of the metal ledge that intersected the equally metal bars. She stared right at Regina through the bars as though there wasn't a cell door between them, but the younger woman couldn't ignore the fact that there were indeed bars there.
There was definitely a wall between them then, both one of a physical and metaphorical nature.
And yet, Emma stared at her. She didn't move away from the bars, but closer to them. She stepped close enough for her clothes to almost graze the cell door and leaned forward. She pressed her forehead into the space between two bars right in front of Regina and looked down at the barred off space between them.
Henry turned around in time to see Emma move in toward the bars, her hand already over top of Regina's, and watched his mothers interact.
What happened next surprised him, though he had warned Emma it would happen if she wasn't careful around Regina. Still, saying it and seeing it were two different things, especially when he never expected it to be Regina that initiated such a tender and sincere action.
With Emma's head pressed against the bars, Regina sadly smiled at the blonde and reached through the bars with her free hand. She affectionately ran that hand through Emma's hair and tucked a few strands behind the other woman's ear.
Regina's touch sent shivers down Emma's spine as a tingling sensation traveled across her entire body and caused goosebumps to pop up on her arms and chest while the hair on the back of her neck stood at attention. As Regina tucked her hair behind her ear, she closed her eyes and tried to get lost in the soothing feeling. But the moment and the calmness she experienced in it didn't last.
"Emma?"
Mary Margaret, Snow White, her mother. The woman did not seem to want to give her a chance to relax and pretend her whole life hadn't been flipped upside down yet again in the most irreversible way that didn't compare at all to Henry showing up at her door in Boston. Henry had been a happy surprise in every sense of his presence in her life. When he was born, when he found her ten years later, when he brought her to Storybrooke where she realized she'd found what she'd been looking for all her life but had yet to admit it to those that needed to hear it most.
She had found out that not only were fairy tales were real but she'd been born into the most popular story of them all. that was not ideal and it certainly was not okay.
To have a moment as slow, quiet, and intense as the one she needed to share with Regina disrupted by Snow White set Emma on edge as soon as her single syllable name left the woman's lips.
Emma quickly pulled her head away from the bars and turned to Snow, but she refused to let go of Regina's hand until she had to dodge the puzzled look Snow displayed as her supposed mother looked between her and Regina.
Then and only then did she walk away from the cell, and more specifically Regina, and resume her exit from the Sheriff's station with Henry and the two people she'd need time to accept as her parents.
What Emma failed to realize, however, was that Snow's expression had flashed from puzzled to knowing. In an instant, memories of her conversations with Emma during the curse burned through whatever mental shield had kept them buried deep in her mind. She knew why Emma had stayed behind to spend a few seconds more with Regina, why Emma had agreed with Henry – aside from his pleas that the brunette was mother – to save Regina from the rightfully angered citizens. It all made sense in a way that nearly swallowed Snow White whole and had caused her to sway where she stood in the main room of the Sheriff's station before she managed to still herself and avoid falling to her knees.
As Emma walked toward her with Henry, she blinked away all the feelings she had on the subject of her daughter having been with Regina in such a devastating way and remained in the moment. They had somewhere to be and she would spent as much time as she could focused on that particular thing, especially since it was better if Henry wasn't around when she decided to bring up Emma and Regina's relationship.
Regina watched Emma and Henry leave with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt cold and empty the second Emma removed her hand from her own. She felt lost and alone the second Henry and Emma disappeared from sight around the corner. She felt a choking kind of tightness in her chest when she heard the echo of the station door shut with a thunderous boom after they went away.
Left to her own devices in a room shrouded in shadow and a sickeningly familiar darkness both provided by the room's lighting and its eerie feel, Regina resorted to the one thing she hoped would free her in her moment of panic. She lifted her hand to be level with the lock on the cell door and held it out as she willed the lock to turn without a key. Her hand started to shake the more her hope started to dwindle with the lack of any power produced from her palm, but she wasn't as alone as she thought.
A familiar and unwanted presence was there to enjoy her failure while she fell further into the darkness that had seemingly been obliterated whenever she was with Emma Swan.
"Magic is different here...dearie."
Rumpelstiltskin slowly sauntered out of a nearby corner, hidden by the most shadowed area in the Sheriff's station, and made his way over to Regina with an air of power and anticipated destruction.
"I noticed," Regina said as she dropped her hand to her side and tensed as soon as she saw him approach her. "I assume this is all your doing?"
Regina used her Evil Queen voice with him, the one she'd frequently addressed the imp with when he'd been locked away in a cell of his own in the Enchanted Forest.
"Most things are," Rumple replied, cocky as ever as he limped toward a defenseless Regina.
Regina hated the sound of Rumple's cane as it tapped and tapped and tapped with each deliberate step he took. It nearly drove her crazy as it reminded her she held none of the power in that moment. To keep herself from faltering and to ensure she maintained composure in front of her twisted mentor, Regina didn't wait any longer to find out the reason behind his visit.
"Get to it, Rumple. What do you want?"
Then, a chilling thought occurred to her.
"...You here to finish the job."
It was supposed to be a question, but Regina knew Rumpelstiltskin all too well. She knew it was a possibility and feared it to be the truth.
"No, no, no," Rumple quickly said. "You're safe from me."
"I feel so relieved," Regina sarcastically said, her voice mostly monotone as she tried to sound bored if not as calm as lion stalking its prey just before it pounced.
"I made a promise to someone that I won't kill you," Rumple said.
"Who could elicit that from you," Regina asked, only mildly shocked to hear such a thing from him.
"Belle."
"She's alive," Regina said as she poorly feigned surprise.
"You are...a dreadful liar," Rumple paused mid-sentence as though he wanted to call Regina something else entirely before he settled for the insult that spoke true to the issue at hand.
"I could've killed her, but I didn't," Regina didn't hesitate to fess up.
It would have been too tiring to keep up the charade that she had nothing to do with Belle's imprisonment in Storybrooke's asylum. It was obvious to Rumple that she had been responsible, but then again she was the only one with motive to do such a thing to the poor girl. And without Emma or Henry, Regina didn't care to play as many games with Rumple as she once might have.
"You did much worse than that," Rumple growled. "You kept her alive so you could kill her when it suited you. A fate worse than death, which, incidentally, is exactly what I have in store for you."
Regina furrowed her brow and looked a little concerned, but tried her best to let her noticeable confusion mask that particular emotion.
Rumple didn't give any further explanation and smirked at Regina's poorly executed masquerade, bravery being an emotion he knew Regina had never once genuinely felt. He saw right through her and he let her know it by the way he chuckled at her constant inability to fool him. He casually strolled out of the Sheriff's station with a resounding cackle that echoed as loudly as the tapping of his cane and the shutting of the station door in both the room Regina was confined to as well as the woman's own mind.
"Keep him safe, Ruby," Emma said as she leaned over the passenger window of the waitress' vintage red car.
"Don't push it, Snow," Charming warned as he and his wife watched Emma entrust Henry's care to their longtime and loyal friend.
"I won't," Snow said in a hitch pitch that most people used when they were lying.
"You guys ready," Emma asked as she headed toward the couple.
"We need to talk," Snow anxiously blurted.
Charming puffed out a frustrated sigh as he shifted in place like he shouldn't have expected anything less from the woman beside him.
"I just... I don't want to talk," Emma said and hoped it would be enough to get them to leave her alone.
It seemed to have worked before so there was no reason for her to believe it wouldn't work again.
"But I do. 'Kay? Gold can wait. I can't," Snow said like she'd been Emma's mother for more than the hour she actually had been. "I mean, you're my daughter and I want to talk to you."
Snow smiled, but Emma looked nervous and almost like a timid child in the middle of being scolded.
Emma's shoulders were rigidly raised while she kept her hands at her side though she usually preferred to stuff them in her pockets. She kept her eyes down and only glanced up at Snow and Charming every so often. She spent less than two seconds to make eye contact with them, but she really didn't want to talk to them. She had been friends with Mary Margaret before she found out that Mary Margaret wasn't actually Mary Margaret, but instead was her fairytale mother in every sense of the term.
Snow either picked up on Emma's awkwardness or simply inherited her own from her time spent as a shy schoolteacher. No matter what the case, Snow started to rush her next few sentences as if that would eliminate the awkwardness the subject matter alone caused regardless of how they felt before she decided to bring it up.
"I know that we have talked," Snow started. "But...we didn't know we were talking. And we talked about things we probably shouldn't have talked about."
Emma looked down and braced herself for what she was sure to come out of Snow's mouth, her face scrunched up to display her need to escape the rest of the inevitable conversation.
"One night stands," Snow quickly said then hesitated before she continued. "And the like."
Emma looked up at Snow and held her gaze longer than a few seconds, though she instantly regretted it when she noticed the knowing look Snow gave her.
"One night stands?!"
Charming apparently only took away that lovely little detail.
"Uh, Whale," Snow tried to give her husband some kind of information on the subject so she didn't have to talk to him about it for a longer period of time later, especially since in that moment she wanted to focus on Emma.
"Whale?!"
Charming had raised his voice and both Emma and Snow knew if they weren't the only three people on that street at the time, his outburst would have attracted plenty of attention.
"We were cursed. That is neither here nor there," Snow dismissively said, hurried as she addressed Charming without taking her eyes off of Emma, who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else. "The point is...we did not know that we were mother and daughter and now we do and...so, please. Let's talk."
Emma closed herself off then. The woman she'd only ever really known as Mary Margaret kept asking her for her precious time and her thoughts like she simply deserved it. Emma wanted to know what the hell Mary Margaret, or even Snow White for Christ's sake, had done to feel so entitled to a long conversation that would only add to Emma's misery about the recent events that greatly shaped her life, past and present.
"Okay. What do you want to talk about," Emma asked with her walls up, defenses in full effect.
That was until–
"We're together, finally...and I can't help but...think you're not happy about it," Snow confessed.
Emma relaxed a little and felt slightly guilty, though she didn't understand why. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she didn't see Snow White or her mother during the woman's confession. She saw her roommate and friend.
"Oh, I am," Emma started. "But...see, here's the thing: No matter what the circumstances, for twenty-eight years I only knew one thing. That my parents sent me away."
"We did that...to give you your best chance," Snow smiled as though that explanation would fix everything.
"You did it for everyone because that's who you are. Leaders, heroes, princes, and princesses. And that's great and amazing and...wonderful, but," Emma said as she tried her hardest to make herself clear, to make herself perfectly understood so they didn't have to talk in circles about the topic for the rest of the day or the rest of the weekend or however long Snow would keep revisiting it. "It doesn't change the fact that for my entire life...I've been alone."
"But if we hadn't sent you away," Snow started as she struggled to understand and clearly wanted nothing more than to be on the same page as Emma by the way she tried to explain her own choices. "You would've been cursed too."
"But we would've been together. ...Which curse is worse?"
Emma meant what she'd said, but then she thought of Regina and how her life would have been significantly different had the curse not been enacted. That left her with conflicting feelings and that made her change the subject like she'd wanted to before their discussion had even began.
"Come on. Let's just...let's go find Gold," Emma said as she gently pushed her way between both Snow and Charming and headed down the street toward Gold's shop.
Emma rolled into pawn shop like a wild and dangerous storm, her parents close behind her though not as aggressive or determined. Charming's boisterous gallantry came in at a close second to Emma's rage, however.
Gold occupied himself at the counter in the main part of the shop and stood in silence with his many procured antiques while he poured himself what appeared to be tea.
"What can I do for you," he asked as Emma rushed toward him like a building wave at high tide.
"What you can do is tell us what you did," Emma said, her anger back with full force as she glared at the man responsible for the failure of her first attempt to save Henry.
"I'm sorry you're going to have to be more specific," Gold casually said.
"You know damn well what we're talking about," Charming boldly stated.
"You double crossed Emma, you took your, uh, potion from her," Snow quickly appeased Gold to move things along.
"And did who knows what to this town," Charming added, a little angry himself at that point.
"And worst of all you risked Henry's life," Emma said as she rested her hands on the edge of the counter and leaned most of her weight on them.
"Well, that is quite the litany of grievances now, isn't it."
"Maybe I don't need answers. Maybe I just need to punch you in the face."
Gold laughed.
"Really, dearie?"
Emma refused to back down and glared just as intensely at him as she had when she first walked in.
"Allow me to answer your questions with some of my own. Alright," Gold asked as he stepped out from around the counter and stood in front of Emma. "Did your dear boy Henry survive?"
"Yeah," Emma grudgingly answered as she turned to face him, but kept one hand on the counter to keep herself grounded.
"Is the curse broken?"
Emma looked away, but continued to look furious and undeterred.
"And, uh, let's see, Miss Swan. How long have you been searching for your parents? Looks like you're reunited. Seems like rather a punch in the face...I deserve a thank you."
"Twist my words all you want," Emma sternly started, her eyes set intently on Gold. "What was the purple haze that you brought?"
"You know...magic," Gold answered with a flourish of his hand, his index finger pointed upward in a way that made him look every bit like Rumpelstiltskin without the slimy, gold speckled skin and partially curled hair.
"Why," Snow asked, aghast at confirmation from the source that magic really was back in Storybrooke.
"Not telling," Gold replied.
Emma let out a frustrated sigh. She knew when a suspect was done talking and Mr. Gold had nothing more he wanted to share with them. She knew from experience that Gold would never give more information than he chose to dole out and if he wanted to stop there, the conversation was over.
"We're not done," she said.
"Oh, I know," Gold said as he leaned closer to her, a majority of his weight placed on his cane. "You still owe me a favor."
Emma faked a smile, her eyes as hard as her clenched jaw in a display of frustration and fury. She nodded her understanding, but she figured Mr. Gold was smart enough to pick up on that notion also being a silently communicated, "Fuck you."
The bell chimed when Snow and Charming opened up the shop door and left, but it violently clanged upon Emma's harsh and dramatic exit when the door slammed shut.
Emma, Snow, and Charming walked together through the town back to their shared apartment. The streetlights illuminated the path from Gold's shop to their apartment every quarter mile and the moon shined down on the trio as they kept to themselves, no conversation to lighten the darkness that surrounded them that night.
Emma had a million thoughts running through her head and she finally had the quiet that she needed to process at least some of the problems that had arisen in the last twenty-four hours. She had stumbled upon several racing thoughts about Regina when she came up on the street that led to the Sheriff's station. She stopped and made a decision.
"I'm going to go get Regina," Emma said.
"What," Snow asked as she and Charming stopped in the street and faced Emma. "No."
"Are you crazy," Charming asked.
"She's been locked up for a couple hours. I think she's cooled off. Besides, I'm not really worried about her. It's the rest of the town that makes me nervous."
"Emma, we locked her up so that she can't get to us and we can't get to her," Snow said.
"Yeah, but everyone in town knows she's at the station and anyone can break in. I don't like that. She's an easy target right now."
Snow sighed, irritated.
"She has magic. I'm sure if anyone tries anything, she'll defend herself," Snow argued.
"If that's true then why was Whale able to get close enough to strangle her," Emma asked.
"We're leaving Regina there for the night. That's final," Snow said.
"No," Emma insisted. "I said I'm going to get her and I'm going to get her."
"I don't want you to do anything about Regina. Stay away from her, Emma. Nothing good will come from spending any more time with her."
Charming watched the fight like a tennis match as he looked from Emma to Snow then back to Emma and again to Snow. He furrowed his brow and tried to understand what caused the thick layer of tension between the two of them. He knew Emma seemed to be defending Regina and Snow had decided she would not side with her former stepmother that time around. That didn't seem like enough to cause such a rift between his wife and daughter, especially since they had been friends before the curse broke.
"I don't care if you gave birth to me," Emma started. "You didn't raise me and even if you had, you can't tell me what to do. I'm an adult. I can make my own choices regarding myownlife."
"You will not see her," Snow pointed a warning finger at the blonde. "Whatever happened between you two was a lie."
Snow softened as she tried to plead with Emma.
"She was only using you to get to me."
Emma scoffed.
"She doesn't even know that you know! How could have been using me if she thinks we're the only two people aware of what's going on?"
"Can I be a part of the people aware of what's going on," Charming asked.
Snow rolled her eyes.
"Emma, she's the reason we didn't raise you. If it wasn't for her curse–"
"She brought on some curse, she didn't make the decision for you," Emma growled.
Snow shook her head.
"Okay. Fine," Snow started. "That's all part of a past you don't remember because you weren't a part of it. I get it. Why would you care about something that happened so long ago and seemingly has nothing to do with you? So let's take the present for example. She hurt you. The last time we talked before the curse broke you could barely sit down. You winced every time you moved. Because of her!"
"What? Emma, are you okay," Charming asked, instantly concerned as he stepped closer to Emma and tried to inspect her for any visible damage but saw none.
"I'm fine," Emma shrugged him off before she continued to argue with Snow. "She's got plenty of bite marks and scratches herself, Mary Margaret."
"Maybe Emma's right. We don't have to leave Regina locked up all night. I'm sure she'll be fine back at her house. What's the big deal," Charming asked.
Snow's attention snapped to her husband.
"The 'big deal' is that Emma's having sex with Regina!"
Charming's jaw dropped and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He stared at Snow, speechless, for several seconds and waited until she nodded in confirmation that she spoke the truth. He then looked at Emma and blinked a few times before he was able to form words again.
"Emma? Are you... Have you been...with Regina?"
Emma felt a little betrayed that Mary Margaret had blabbed about her personal life, and loudly at that, but then...she wasn't dealing with Mary Margaret, was she? Snow, her own mother, had shared something private with someone and had no right, no permission, to discuss it with anyone else but her.
That betrayal showed through Emma's face, her lips parted and green eyes filled with hurt. She'd spent her whole life wanting family or even friends, but apparently they were overrated because she felt like she'd been slapped in the face and stabbed in the heart by both a friend and a family member.
Emma clamped her jaw shut and anger overpowered all of her other emotions. She looked from Snow to Charming and took a deep breath through her nose before she answered him.
"Yes," Emma hissed and waited a few tense seconds before she stormed off toward the station.
The front door banged against the wall when someone threw it open with haste.
Regina sat up on the cot in her cell and froze with her legs draped over the side of it. Her heart thudded heavily against her ribcage and her blood pounded loudly in her ears.
Heavy footsteps approached from the station entrance. The intruder clomped around in what sounded like boots and Regina shot onto her feet.
"Hello? Who's there," Regina asked the dark and momentarily empty room.
The footsteps stopped at the end of the hallway where it lead into the main room of the station and a second later, the lights sparked to life with a flip of the switch.
Regina flinched as soon as the lights came on, though it had little to do with the sudden brightness in the room. When she saw who stood by the light switch, Regina instantly relaxed and let her fear melt away.
"Emma," she breathed out with relief and pressed a hand to her chest to help slow her increased heart rate.
"Sorry. I'm upset," Emma tersely explained. "Probably didn't ease your mind to burst in here like one of the people on your lawn today."
"No, it didn't."
Regina slowly went to the bars and wrapped her hands around a couple of them.
"What are you doing here," Regina asked as Emma crossed the room.
Emma reached into the back pocket of her jeans and retrieved a key. She stopped in front of the cell and stuck the key in the lock, twisted it, and yanked open the door.
"Go home, Regina," Emma tiredly said as she stepped aside to allow Regina to pass.
The brunette didn't move an inch.
"What's wrong," Regina calmly asked like she cared.
Emma sighed.
"Aside from everything," she rhetorically asked.
Regina frowned and moved closer to Emma as she walked out of the cell.
"Do your parents know you're letting me go," Regina asked.
Emma scrunched up her face for a single second, bothered by "your parents" as the words came out of Regina's mouth, before she controlled it into a stony expression once again.
"That's not all they know," Emma bitterly said with a gravelly voice strained from the day's events.
Regina furrowed her brow, confused.
Emma looked up from the spot on the floor she'd focused on and saw Regina's expression. She decided to elaborate.
"Mary Margaret knew about us before the curse broke."
"Oh."
"Yeah, and then she was yelling at me when I told her I was gonna let you out of here. I told her off and then David didn't understand what her real issue with letting you go was. So she told him about us. She just shouted it out in the middle of the street like I wouldn't mind if everyone knew about my sex life."
"I take it she doesn't approve," Regina joked.
Emma looked up at her, unamused.
"Too soon for humor," Regina asked and when Emma's expression didn't change she continued. "She's just jealous that she hasn't been laid in almost three decades and you've been sexually satisfied almost every day at leasttwice a day in the last month alone."
"Ew," Emma twisted her face in disgust. "You're saying my mom is jealous of how often I get laid and implying that's been stuck in a drought my entire life."
Regina grinned.
A few seconds passed and then Emma laughed, a genuine and also therapeutic laugh.
"Have I told you I love your laugh," Regina confessed as she smiled at Emma.
Emma started to calm down from her fit of laughter and watched Regina close more of the distance still between them.
Regina reached up and cupped Emma's cheek. She stoked her thumb over Emma's smooth skin a couple times before she moved her hand down to Emma's neck. She leaned in and replaced her thumb with her lips as she kissed Emma's cheek. She let it linger as she kept her mouth pressed to Emma's fair skin for a long moment. She broke the kiss and rested her forehead against Emma's before their lips gravitated toward each other.
Eyes closed and heart wide open, Emma moved in as a tear slipped down her cheek and splashed onto the leather jacket Regina lazily gripped with the hand not on Emma's neck. She took a deep breath just as their lips were about to meet and turned away at the last second.
Regina's lips grazed the spot where Emma's cheekbone met her jawline and Regina's nose bumped into the shell of the other woman's ear. She opened her eyes as soon as she felt Emma turn away and realized how tense the blonde had become under her touch. She pulled back with a morose sigh and looked at Emma.
Emma kept her head turned and avoided eye contact for as long as she could.
Regina gently trapped Emma's chin between her fingers and carefully turned the other woman's to look at her without forcing the other woman to cooperate any more than Emma was willing.
When Emma looked at her, Regina immediately saw the tear track that stained her cheek while it subtly glittered under the fluorescent lights.
Emma looked at Regina with big puppy dog eyes through tear dampened lashes.
"I'm sorry," Regina quietly said.
Emma's lips quivered and more tears fell.
Regina scrunched up her face to ward off the tears that threatened to spill from her own eyes at the heartbreaking sight of Emma.
"Emma, I–"
Emma shook her head and pulled away from Regina completely so that they no longer touched at all.
"I'll drive you home in the patrol car," Emma said as she wiped away her tears. "But that's it. I need time to figure this all out and all I want, from everyone, is just some time and space."
Regina sadly smiled at Emma for a moment before she nodded.
"Okay," Emma whispered in reply to the other woman's nonverbal agreement and motioned for Regina to lead the way.
Regina slowly headed for the door and Emma closed the vacated cell before she followed Regina out and turned off the lights.
The digital alarm clock by Mary Margaret's – Snow's – bed on the first floor of the apartment read 11:22 PM as Emma sat at the bar style counter in the kitchen. She had foregone alcohol since Henry was in the apartment with her and replaced it with a gallon of Rocky Road ice cream. Though she hated to live in the cliché, she needed something familiar, a fantasy even, to block out the insane reality that surrounded her since Henry had collapsed from ingesting a poisoned turnover meant for her.
Romantic comedies. Those were her fairy tales. Unfortunately, she was stuck in the part of the movie when the main character had to deal with a bad breakup on their own and relied on comfort food to ease the pain.
Well, it didn't ease the pain. Not even a little bit. Some might say it was the flavor of ice cream, but Emma knew better. Rocky Road wasn't her first choice that evening. She'd started with butter pecan and moved on to a cherry vanilla blend before she tried the chocolatey disaster she made and currently feasted on when Henry joined her in the kitchen.
"Are you okay," Henry timidly asked, his voice laced with concern as he stood in the open space behind her between the kitchen and the stairs to the loft.
She definitely stood by her position to avoid the alcohol that night as she looked at her tired son, his hair mussed from sleep. He was dressed in Regina's dark gray sweatpants – the pair Emma had borrowed and had yet to returned after she'd been marked with the woman's initial on her thigh – and one of Emma's loose fitting T-shirts that she occasionally wore to bed, but never wore in public. The shirt didn't look too bad on him, though he almost wore it like a dress due to his length on him. But Regina's sweatpants were much too long and baggy that he constantly stepped on the ends of the pant legs and every once in a while had to tug at the waistband to conceal his underwear from sight.
Emma jammed her spoon into the mostly melted Rocky Road she had made the effort to drown in chocolate syrup as a way to express the way she felt she was drowning. It was the kind of metaphors she applied to her life that she knew no one else would understand. It was almost like an inside joke, but one she only got to share with herself. As sad as that sounded, she figured it was okay when it came to her "comfort food" because it just added to the amount of comfort that food may then offer because of her alterations to it, literary devices or not.
"It's late, Henry," Emma said in a tired tone that was lower than she'd ever used with him.
Then again, he'd never talked to her after an extremely long day while she ate her weight in ice cream and refused to get any rest.
"Go to bed," Emma commanded and hadn't even spared him a look over her shoulder.
"You're not coming upstairs with me?"
"Not right now."
Henry looked down at the floor for a moment before he padded over to the stool next to Emma and lifted himself onto it.
"Henry," Emma warned. "Go. To. Bed."
Mary Margaret's mattress audibly protested when either she or David rolled over.
"It's my mom, isn't it."
"What is," Emma asked with a short patience and raspy voice.
"What's keeping you up," he answered.
Emma groaned and pushed the Rocky Road away from her, the spoon inside the container, and hit her forehead against her arm on the counter top.
"I told you she was evil," Henry casually said.
Emma popped her head up and regarded him with hard eyes that could compete with Regina's when she scolded him.
"She is not evil," Emma firmly said.
"But...you believe me now. You know the truth. She's the Evil Queen."
"She was the Evil Queen."
Emma groaned again as she squeezed her eyes closed out of frustration.
"That didn't sound any better," she said, her eyes still closed.
"See? What did I tell you?"
"I meant that it's weird to talk about fairy tales like they're real life. But they actually are. And that's...just...ugh. No, whatever. It is what it is, right? I don't care what the hell story she's from and what the hell she did back then. You said it yourself earlier today. She's still your mom. No matter what anyone else thinks about her, you'll still see her as your mom and nothing else. Got it?"
"You're still defending her? Even though you know she's done all those bad things you read in my book?"
Emma sighed, but didn't say anything else.
Silence filled the room for almost a minute before it was broken by one question that was stated like an answer.
"You love her, don't you."
Emma turned to Henry with an open mouth that emitted no sound. Thankfully, she didn't have to give him an answer because her cell phone rang from the pocket of her red leather jacket. She closed her mouth, slid off her stool, and walked over to the couch where she had carelessly draped her jacket over the back of it.
She pulled out her phone and checked the caller ID. Speaking of the Evil Queen. Former.
"Hey," Emma tiredly and plainly answered.
"Emma! Can you come over here?"
"Regina," Emma warned. "I told you I needed time and space."
"I know. I'm sorry. It's just–" Regina cut herself off and Emma heard something in the background, but she wasn't sure what it was. "Please. ...We have a deal. When I call you're supposed to come to me."
"I think with everything that's happened that deal is null and void."
"Please! I-I think somebody's trying to break in and I don't have magic so I can't–"
Emma's eyes widened and she was the one to cut Regina off that time.
"Where in the house are you?"
"My bedroom."
"Stay there. I'm on my way. You can lock the door, right?"
"Yes, of course I can. How many times have you been in here with me?"
"We never really used the lock! I had to ask, ugh– Never mind! Lock the door. I'll be there in five minutes in the cruiser with the lights and siren on."
"Thank you."
Emma hung up as soon as she heard confirmation that Regina had heard her. She left her jacket on the couch and went across the apartment to the coat rack.
"Is my mom okay," Henry worriedly asked.
"I'll take care of it," Emma said as she grabbed a black pea coat and hurriedly put it on. "Go to bed."
"Promise?"
Emma flapped the coat collar until it no longer poked at her neck and bunched up between her shoulder blades as she flashed a look that was meant to reassure Henry but came off as a look of sad understanding.
"I took care of her last time I promised I would, right?"
Henry forced a smile, still not completely calmed about the situation.
"Yeah," he said, a little more hopeful than before.
"Do you still have a walkie talkie at Regina's house?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. I keep mine–"
"Under your pillow," Henry finished for her. "I found it when I couldn't get comfortable in the bed earlier. It was why I wasn't comfortable."
Emma smiled at him.
"Good. Keep it on channel eight. Our number, right?"
Henry nodded.
"I'll let you know she's okay as soon as I get there and check on everything."
"Okay," Henry said.
"Lock the door behind me," Emma said as she rushed out of the apartment.
Henry did as asked and locked up after Emma. He turned back toward the kitchen and frowned as worried thoughts demanded sole attention of his mind.
Note: As always, I'd love to know what you think. Also, there's a reason I included the Gold/Rumpelstiltskin parts with him and Emma and him and Regina that will revealed over time in the next few chapters. Just like why Emma and Regina didn't kiss to break the curse, which is going to be explained soon enough.
Thank you for reading, reviewing, following this story and adding it to your favorites! :)
Happy Holidays!