Chapter 8

"Ma, before we go downstairs to see who's there, can I ask you something?"

Emma looked at her son and nodded for him continue with his question.

"How did Grandpa know that you were a vampire? I mean, he dumped all of this crap on you so he must've known."

Emma snorted at his language, 'He is so my offspring'. Rumple came to Boston for some business, or so he claimed at the time, and he 'bumped' into Mal and I in a coffee shop. He was none too pleased to see me with Mal and I couldn't figure out why. The two of them shot daggers at each other like they had met before. He then asked to speak with Mal in private and when she returned, she was so serious and quiet the rest of the day."

"How would Grandpa know Mal? Why wouldn't he stay to see you?"

Emma smiled at her inquisitive son, "Well, come to find out, Rumple knew Mal from the Enchanted Forest."

"What? How? Who is she?" Henry was so excited at the possibility of meeting another character from his storybook.

Emma smiled, but hesitated to tell this part of the story. "Well, that's complicated. Later that evening, while Mal and I were watching a movie and cuddled together under a blanket, she told me that she knew who Rumple was and that he told her who I really was." Henry gasped, but stayed silent. "Apparently Rumple told her to stop seeing me since I had a True Love waiting for me in Storybrooke." Emma paused and then added, "Technically I don't have one waiting, but that was how he worded it. He told her she can't compete with True Love and to let me go."

"Ma, you know Mom loves you. She's just too stubborn to admit it." Henry patted her on the shoulder.

Emma shook her head in denial and continued, "Malia told me that had she known who I was when she had initially found me near death, she would've let me die." Henry's eyes grew at that and he swallowed hard. "She then told me that it didn't matter though because she loved me and we were family now, however, we stopped dating after that. She didn't feel right about it after learning about Regina. She told me that she had a True Love in the Enchanted Forest and that he died. So she knows that she can't compete with that bond, but she still wanted to be in my life."

Henry smiled and let out a sigh of relief, "Why did she want you dead though?

Emma got a perplexed look on her face, "I still don't honestly know. She wouldn't tell me saying it didn't matter anymore now that we had each other." Emma shrugged.

Henry sat and thought about his next question, "How is she a vampire?"

"Kid, I know you have a lot of questions, but they'll need to wait. I can feel Mal's magic getting agitated."

"Agitated? How do you know it's Mal's?"

Emma smiled, "If you compare someone's magic to a musical instrument, I'd say Mal's is similar to a tuba and the tuba is gradually growing to a crescendo."

Emma began to stand up from the bedside, "So wait, Ma, who is she really?" Henry asked and then stood up next to Emma.

Emma smiled and grinned, "Her real name is Maleficent."

"Holy Shit!"

"Dude! Language! Don't talk like that or your mother will come hunt me down." Emma loudly whispered as if Regina was standing just outside the door.

"Sorry, sorry, but wow! Maleficent? Isn't she a villain?"

Emma nodded, but then put her hand on Henry's shoulder, "She was, but as we've proven before, everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone can change and like your mother, Mal didn't have a very easy life so cut her some slack, Kid, okay?"

"Yeah, okay, Ma. She's lucky to have you in her corner." Henry hugged his blonde mother.

"Thanks, Kid. Now let's go see what the ruckus downstairs is. The noise seems to be getting louder." Emma let out an exaggerated breath.

"Maleficent"

Snow's words caused David to stare at the brunette woman and study her more. When he recognized her face, his features paled and he held his left arm back to block Snow from her and then raised his right arm and pointed, "You! What have you done to our daughter? What are you doing here?"

Maleficent's eyes glowed purple and she formed a fireball in her hand as she raised it. "I've been waiting for this. It's time that you paid for what you did."

"What's going on here?!" Emma's loud voice boomed from the top of the stairs. Henry saw the confrontation and hesitated moving further downstairs so he stood slightly behind his mother while holding her hand.

Mal extinguished her fireball, "I was just chatting with your … ugh… parents. I still can't believe you came from these two idiots."

Emma made it downstairs and walked to stand side by side with Mal and wrapped her hand around Mal's waist. "Hey guys, what's going on?"

Snow and David watched their daughter with Maleficent, "Emma, get away from her. Do you know who she is?"

Emma looked at Mal and smiled, "I know who she is. She's my best friend. She's one of my daughter's godmothers and she's like a sister to me." Mal just smiled and blushed while staring at Emma.

Audrey and Tristan had entered from the backyard after hearing the commotion and when Tristan saw her mother with Mal standing across from Snow, she ran over, "LiLi!" She still occasionally used Mal's old nickname from when she couldn't say Malia when she was younger. She ran into Mal's arms and Maleficent grabbed her and lifted her up, kissing her cheek and holding her tight.

"Hello, my Princess." Tristan had buried her face in Mal's neck, "It's okay, Dear. You're alright. Why don't you go play with your brother and Mommy and I will join you shortly. I don't think Henry has seen your newest picture…."

Tristan thought on it and then smiled and nodded, "Okay." She hopped down and ran upstairs to grab Henry's hand and take him to her room.

Once Emma was assured her daughter was out of earshot, she turned back to her parents, "Someone want to fill me on what's going on here?"

Mal glared at the Charmings, but remained silent for Emma's sake. Emma watched her friend and then turned to her parents for an explanation. Snow and Charming just swallowed and remained silent, looking down in shame.

Emma was getting pissed, "What aren't you telling me?"

Snow perked and looked up at Mal, "You didn't tell her?" Snow was positive Mal would've polluted Emma against her, but she hadn't.

Mal's eyes began to fill with tears, "Had I known who she was when I met her, I would have, but I love Emma so much and wanted her to be happy. I didn't want to bring her undo stress." The last sentence was a dig to the Charmings.

All Snow could do was respond with an "Oh.", and then look down again.

Emma finally lost it, "WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE HONEST THEN YOU CAN LEAVE!" Her nostrils were flaring at her parents.

David took charge and took a deep breath, "Emma, can we please come in and talk about this?"

Emma noticed Mal's body stiffen so she turned back to David, "No. You will tell me right here."

Maleficent was curious to hear their version of events to see if they would try to sugar coat what they had done to her.

"Well, when Snow was pregnant with you, she had a nightmare that you would become Dark. We were worried and went to see Blue for help. She recommended that we use a spell to transfer your potential darkness to another so that we would be assured that you'd be born Good."

Emma could sense Mal's magic growing in intensity as Mal's grip on Emma's hand tightened.

"We learned that a dragon had laid an egg recently so we went to the dragon's den and stole the egg so that we could transfer your darkness to the egg."

Emma began to catch on, "Oh God.", but David continued knowing that he had to get this out into the open.

"We killed the male dragon guarding the den and then stole the egg and used the spell to remove your potential darkness. Afterward, Blue used a bean to send the egg to a world without magic. We didn't need more dragons in the world so we agreed with her decision."

Emma just stared down at the ground while processing, "Oh God. Oh my God! Fuck!" She turned to Mal, "Lily?"

At this point, Mal had tears streaming down her cheeks and her whole body was shaking while she nodded. Emma grabbed her and pulled her into a deep hug, her right hand was stroking Mal's hair and her left hand rubbing soothing circles on her back while she whispered soothing words to her. "I've got ya. It's okay. I know. We'll find her."

The Charming's couldn't understand what they were seeing. "Emma, what are you doing? She's a villain!

Emma finally snapped and her eyes glowed bright red while her white magic began steaming from the surface of her skin. "Are you kidding me? You stole her CHILD! How does someone do that? How could you do that? What were you thinking?"

Snow stepped in front of Charming, ready to make her defense, "WE DID IT FOR YOU!"

"NO! You don't get to throw this on me. I've had enough thrown on me. This is all on you. From where I stand, YOU are the villain!" As Emma ranted, two vases shattered in the entryway and lights began to flicker.

"It was a dragon, Emma! An animal! I'm sure it's just fine." Snow defended.

"Oh really? Just as sure as you were that I would be fine when you abandoned me and sent me to that world when I was just a few hours old?" Snow winced at that, but Emma wasn't finished. "You sent me there to save your asses, not for my own good. Do you think I had a good life? Do you think I was 'just fine' as you put it? Let me enlighten you, I was abused physically, emotionally and sexually throughout my childhood. I have never felt wanted or loved until I met Audrey, Mal and Henry. They are my family. Do you know that I consider Boston my home? With the exception of Henry, no one loves me here. No one truly wants me. They want their savior or their sheriff. That's all. You want your Princess." Light bulbs burst throughout the house and she could hear Tristan crying upstairs in fear from the shattered glass. That's what finally calmed Emma's magic and she was able to reign in her temper. "I think you should leave." Emma's eyes continued to glow red, but her magic had receded.

Snow and David stood shell-shocked, but then slowly backed away. David grabbed his wife's hand and then held up his other in a surrender. "Okay, Em. We'll leave, but we need to discuss this. We love you."

Mal hugged Emma while Emma continued to glare at her parents, "Leave. Now. We have nothing else to discuss."

The Charmings left and once Mal shut the door, Emma stepped back, "I'm so sorry, Mal. I had no idea they were the reason. You should've told me."

Mal just smiled, "I couldn't do that, Sweetie." She then cupped Emma's cheek, "You mean too much to me and I didn't want to turn you against your parents after you had finally found them. Your relationship with them has always been fragile and while I hate them with a fiery passion, I couldn't do that to you."

Emma hugged her friend again and while in the hug added, "Now that Audrey is well and the business is solid, I can devote my time to finding Lily and we WILL find her, Mal. I promise you that."

Mal wiped her tears away and smiled, "I have no doubt that you will, Dear." She chuckled a little at Emma's determination, "But first, we need to fix a few light fixtures and calm down a little girl". Mal then waved her hand in front of the two vases in the entryway and they were fixed in seconds. "It feels so good to use my magic again. I have missed this."

Emma laughed, "I agree. I'll go get Tristan and then take care of the upstairs damage. Why don't you handle the downstairs damage?"

Mal nodded and began to walk away, but saw Audrey standing there stunned. "Hey, Aud. Can you help me find all the damage so I'm sure not to miss anything?" Mal tried to downplay the confrontation and wanted Audrey to relax by having her help. Audrey just nodded and they left. Emma smiled and then began to head upstairs to comfort her kids.

Regina and Robin were having lunch at Granny's to discuss their relationship or lack thereof.

"We haven't shared a bed since Emma returned." Robin didn't hold anything back. "I'm your soulmate, not her. My son and I need you." It wasn't lost on Regina that after several years together, he still said 'my son'.

"Robin, I've just had a lot on my mind and have been very stressed. I haven't forgotten about you or Roland. I just need some time."

Robin's fist hit the table hard, causing the plates and silverware to rattle while the glasses sloshed out their contents.

"Dammit, Regina. That is not acceptable!"

Patrons began staring and quieted down while Granny grabbed her crossbow and Ruby growled from behind the counter. Robin looked at Ruby whose eyes were now glowing a bright yellow. He swallowed and sat back in his booth.

Voices could be heard yelling back and forth from outside and soon the diner door flew open as the bell yelled on its hinges.

"I'm telling you, Snow, we have to get Emma way from her. She's dangerous. She's poisoned our daughter against us." David paced towards a table.

"What can we do, David? She has magic! We can't take on Maleficent and expect to win. Not after what we did to her."

"I don't accept that, Snow." David was in denial after hearing Emma's harsh words, but Snow was defeated. Emma's words hit their mark and Snow lost her will to fight. David could see it in his wife.

Regina had been listening to the conversation. In fact, everyone had heard their conversation, but Regina was the most concerned. She got up and walked over to the Charmings, "Excuse me, Charming. I couldn't help overhear. What were you saying about Maleficent and Emma?"

Snow rolled her eyes, "Of course you'd jump at that. What is it with Emma taking in wayward villains?"

Regina's expression grew deadly, "Excuse me?"

David swallowed, wiling his wife to shut up, but it wasn't to be.

"Apparently she and Maleficent are best friends and Maleficent is at her house! She was holding my granddaughter! Emma says she's even her godmother! She chose Maleficent over her own parents!"

Regina was absorbing this news, 'Is Mal the same Mal that Henry told me about? Is Mal Emma's girlfriend? Did they…?' Regina swallowed hard and tears began forming in her eyes at the thought of them together. Robin had walked up behind Regina and placed his hand on her shoulder, but she quickly nudged it off, "Don't touch me."

Robin was incensed. Just as he was about to lay into Regina, she disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke. Robin grabbed his cell phone and sent a quick text and then left the diner without paying for their meal.

"Hey! You need to pay your bill!" Ruby ran out after Robin who turned around and glared at the wolf, "Put it on Regina's tab." He then stormed down the street and towards the forest.

Ruby's eyes glowed yellow as she mumbled to herself, "Asshole. How does Regina stand him? She needs to be with Emma.", then she huffed and stomped back into the diner.

An hour later, Robin entered the camp of his Merry Men. "Where are they?", he asked Little John.

"We put them in the old cabin that belonged to old man Rivers. They're in the basement sleeping in those coffins you had us build."

Robin nodded, "A new problem has arisen so I need you to text me when Killian awakes."

Little John nodded and Robin grabbed his silver-tipped arrows before leaving for home.