Chapter Two

When Regina finally convinced Emma to come back downstairs with them, they found Henry in the living room, playing his video game. Emma stared at the screen in confusion, as she had at the movie the night before. It was some sort of fighting game, and there was a big ogre-like character on the screen. Regina noticed Emma raise her hands, and she knew immediately the child was about to blast the screen with magic.

"Little One!" she said, grabbing Emma's hand and spinning her back to face her, as she dropped down to a crouch in front of her.

"Hey!" she heard Henry protest, as she turned off the game with a flick of her wrist. She shot him a look, and he realized it was better to remain quiet on this one.

"What do you say we go in to town and get you some new clothes?" she said, returning her attention to Emma.

Emma looked slightly confused, but she nodded anyway, and turned to look at Henry.

"You want Henry to come too?" Regina asked, realizing that Emma had slipped back into silent mode.

Emma nodded and smiled. She wondered if that was meant to be some sort of silent apology for knocking him out earlier. If it was, Henry seemed to accept, as she got up to head toward the door. Of course he accepts, Regina thought to herself, he thinks this is his dead mother.

"She needs a car seat," Regina said out loud, to herself, as they neared her Mercedes. She Henry's had long since expired, and been thrown out, so she waved her hand and created one in the backseat. Emma noticed the flash of purple, and looked up at Regina, questioningly. "It's ok, Little One. I did that one."

Emma nodded, and seemed to accept that, but she froze in spot as Henry opened the car door. It seemed to occur to the child then for the first time, that they expected her to get inside this thing.

Regina sighed. "She doesn't know what a car is."

"It's just a car, look!" Henry said, as he climbed into the passenger side door to show Emma it was safe. Regina appreciated this attempt, but she had to laugh a little that he thought telling Emma 'it's just a car' would offer her any comfort, when the word was clearly foreign to her.

"Little One," Regina stared, kneeling down to meet her at eye level again. "Do you usually go from place to place in a carriage pulled by a horse?"

Emma cocked her head to the side.

"Or maybe you walk?" Regina suggested, to which Emma nodded. "Ok, you walk. But you've seen the carriages I'm talking about, yes?"

Emma seemed to think, and then she nodded again, with a small smile. Regina was more convinced than ever that this child had come from the Enchanted Forest, somehow.

"Ok, good," Regina smiled. "Well, this car is kind of like those carriages, only without horses. We sit inside, and it takes us where we want to go. But you don't need to be afraid, because it's not scary, and I'm never going to let anything hurt you, ok?"

Emma nodded again, and looked at the car. She still seemed a little unsure, but she started to make her way toward the open door anyway.

Regina followed her and lifted her into the car seat she had created, securely fasted in the middle of the backseat, and strapped her in. For her part, Emma looked utterly perplexed about the whole thing. Regina smiled. "It's called a car seat. It keeps little ones safe in the car."

Emma seemed to accept that answer, and her eyes grew wide as Regina put the car in reverse and headed down the driveway. She turned and stared out the window with a kind of wonder that made Regina smile, and Henry grin from ear to ear.

"I think you're right about the Enchanted Forest," Henry commented.

"I know I'm right about that much," Regina replied. It was just the rest she was unsure of.

After a few minutes of driving, they pulled up in front of a children's clothing store. Henry groaned, and Regina laughed. "I said we were going to get her clothes," Regina reminded him.

"I know," he sighed. "Can we at least go for I-C-E C-R-E-A-M when we're done?"

"We'll see," Regina replied. Henry knew that usually meant no, but the glint in Regina's eyes told him that perhaps this time, it meant yes.

Regina helped Emma out of the car, and led her inside by the hand. Henry looked bored the second they walked into the store, but Regina pretended not to notice how he was rolling his eyes. In a way, it was nice to see this side of him back, even if this was the side that annoyed her to no end in the past.

"Do you see anything you like?" Regina asked, looking down at Emma. Emma, for her part, was just trying to take it all in. This whole thing was foreign to her. Regina wondered what the odds were this store sold toddler skinny jeans and red leather jackets in a child's size four.

"Who's this little one?" Rosa, the store clerk, asked, as she came around the corner.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Regina replied, not really thinking.

"Oh! This is the little girl that was lost in the woods!" Rosa exclaimed. Apparently David had been very diligent getting the word out around Storybrooke.

Emma gazed up at Rosa's deep caramel eyes, as she clung tightly to Regina's hand.

"It's ok, Little One. Rosa won't hurt you," Regina assured her. "She needs some clothes," Regina said, turning her attention back to Rosa.

"Of course," Rosa smiled, her eyes twinkling. Emma seemed to relax a little, to Regina's relief.

They were in the store for about an hour, picking out way too many clothes. Mostly pink, and dresses and skirts, which seemed to be the choices that Emma was gravitating towards, to Regina's surprise. She had to keep reminding herself that this child, even if she was Emma Swan, was not the Emma Swan she knew.

Henry had taken up residence on a chair in the back of the store, near the fitting rooms. He looked like he was nearly asleep when Regina and Emma came back to retrieve him, Regina's arms overflowing with bags.

"Seriously, Mom?" Henry asked, looking at the bags. He gave her a look that she instantly recognized as reminding her that Emma might not be with them for long… and she had just bought her a wardrobe worth of clothes. Regina couldn't help going overboard though. She had done the same with Henry when he was little, too.

Regina just smiled and shrugged, as she handed off a couple bags for Henry to carry. Henry noticed that Emma was still wearing one of the pretty new outfits – a purple shirt over a pink and white striped dress, and pink leggings – and he figured that Regina must have just ripped the tags off to pay for it, instead of forcing Emma back into his old hand-me-downs.

Regina opened the trunk when they got back outside, so they could load the bags of clothes in.

"What do you say?" Henry asked, motioning towards the ice cream parlour across the street.

Regina looked down at Emma, who was staring back at her, uncertain about what was supposed to happen next. The child was so far out of her element, it hurt Regina's heart.

"Yes," Regina agreed, as she shut the trunk. "Come along, Little One, we're going to go get a special treat!"

Emma grabbed onto Regina's hand as they crossed the road to the ice cream parlour. Emma's eyes were wide as she stared into the window, before they actually stepped inside. There was no ice cream in the Enchanted Forest, Regina recalled.

Emma jumped when the bell chimed as they opened the door. "It's ok, Sweetheart. It's just a bell," Regina assured her. Looking down at the child, she knew they better made this the last stop, as Emma was getting a little too jittery for her liking. She didn't need another magical mishap, like they had had earlier that morning.

Regina lifted Emma up so she could see the ice cream flavours – not that she had any idea what she was looking at – and Emma immediately pointed to the pink one.

"She'll have strawberry," Regina said to the young lady working behind the counter. She didn't recognize the teenager. Now that children could actually grow up in Storybrooke, Regina found she sometimes had a hard time telling them apart as easily as she once did.

Henry ordered his double scoop Chunky Monkey with sprinkles, and Regina just shook her head. Regina carried Emma's little cone back to the table, and handed it to her when she sat down. Emma stared at Henry, trying to figure out exactly what she was supposed to do with this frozen concoction.

"You just lick it," Henry said, showing her.

Emma stared at her cone for a moment, and finally decided to give it a try. A big grin washed over her face as soon as she tasted it.

"I think she likes it," Henry commented.

"I think you're right," Regina replied, looking down at the child whose face was quickly becoming smeared in pink.

Her table manners are atrocious, Regina thought to herself, that's another tick in the Emma Swan category. She had been keeping a mental checklist of every clue that supported her theory, but even she thought this one might be a little unfair. Emma did eat like a child, but this girl was an actual child… perhaps the comparison was a little biased.

"Stay with Henry for a moment," Regina said to Emma, once she had finished demolishing her ice cream. She went back up to the counter to get a wet cloth from the clerk. She returned and started to wipe Emma's face. Emma tried to squirm away from her.

"Sweetheart, I need to clean your face," Regina said, gently. Perhaps she didn't need to, but she wasn't about to be walking around town with a child covered in ice cream.

Emma pouted and the light above her began to flicker.

"Little One," Regina said, softly but firmly, "please let me clean you face, and then we can go home."

Emma nodded and the light returned to normal. Regina shot a quick glance back at the clerk, who didn't seem to notice, as she was too busy texting to be paying attention. She turned her attention back to Emma, and proceeded to wipe the rest of the melted ice cream off her face.

"See? All done. Isn't that better?" Regina asked.

Emma nodded, and it occurred to Regina then that perhaps if this was really Miss Swan, maybe it wasn't too late to teach her some basic manners. She scolded herself for thinking that way, and shook the idea out of her head. If this was Miss Swan, she should just be grateful that her son's other mother wasn't dead, not worried about how she could make her more likable.

"Come along, then, let's go home," Regina said, extending her hand to Emma, who grabbed it right away, and followed Regina out the door.

"Why is she still with you?"

Regina looked up to see Blue quickly approaching. "Excuse me?" she asked. Emma clung tightly to her legs as the fairy approached.

Before Blue could speak again, they heard a noise from above, and the sign above the door of the ice cream parlour started to shake. Regina grabbed Emma and stepped back quickly, pushing Henry back as the sign fell, nearly striking Blue on the head.

Blue stared with wide eyes, and Regina looked at Emma, who looked terrified.

"Regina, this isn't right," Blue warned.

"You're scaring her," Regina replied, taking a few more steps back, as townsfolk started clambering over to see what was going on. Street lights were flickering and power lines were sparking.

"Sweetheart, it's ok," Regina said, trying to calm Emma down.

"We need to get her out of here," Henry insisted, grabbing Regina's arm. Regina nodded, and without any more hesitation, she waved her hands and poofed the three of them back to the car, in a cloud of purple smoke. She figured Blue could deal with the fallen sign, her first priority was the terrified little blonde she was responsible for.

Emma was crying as Regina turned back to strap her into her car seat. "It's okay, Little One, we're going to take you home now. You don't have to be scared."

Emma pursed her mouth shut and nodded, as she wiped tears from her cheeks with her little hands.

"What was that about?" Henry asked, as Regina put her car in drive and headed off down the street.

"I have no idea," Regina admitted. She glanced in the rearview mirror back at Emma, who was pouting as she stared back at her. Blue knows something, Regina thought to herself, and it would seem that Emma knows Blue.

Regina's phone went off just as they were entering the house. She dropped the bags of clothes she was carrying and motioned for Henry to take Emma into the other room. It was David.

"Hey," she said in to phone, much more informally than she actually meant to. Her head was all over the place right now.

"Uh, hey," David replied. Given Regina the courtesy of pretending not to notice her informality didn't seem to have occurred to him.

"Did you find something?" Regina asked.

"No, that's not why I called," David replied.

"Then why did you call?" Regina could hear the annoyance in her own voice, before she actually realized just how annoyed she actually was. She had a terrified magical toddler to deal with, she didn't have time for David to beat around the bush.

"Really, Regina? You have to ask? Let's see, there was the whole nearly decapitating Blue in the middle of the street, and then fleeing the scene thing, or did you forget in the last ten minutes."

It had never occurred to her that all the witnesses would think she did it. Why wouldn't they? "David," she said, "that wasn't me. It was the little girl. She has magic and it's strong. And unpredictable."

"Really," David replied, clearly not buying it, "and you expect me to believe that a preschooler has a vendetta against the Blue Fairy."

"Did you talk to Blue?" Regina spat back, more than just a little annoyed now.

"No. She left the scene, too."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Well, I suggest you spend some time looking for her, then, and I will go back to spending my time looking after two children, one of whom does not even belong to me. And by the way, if I wanted to decapitate that pixie, I would have. And I certainly wouldn't have done it in front of my son."

Regina hung up the phone before David had a chance to respond. It wasn't really his fault, she supposed. The vast majority of the people in Storybrooke were still quick to condemn her, and he was the Sheriff, he had to take their complaints seriously. But that was his problem, not hers.

Before she could do anything, she was interrupted again, this time by a knock on the door.

"What now?" she muttered as she opened the door. It was Blue. Regina was not in the mood.

"What?" she said, stepping out onto the porch and shutting the door behind her.

"We need to talk," Blue said simply.

"I suppose we do," Regina replied, with a sigh. "Please inform the dutiful Sheriff that it wasn't me who tried to drop an ice cream parlour sign on your self-righteous head. I wouldn't have missed."

"No, you wouldn't have," Blue agreed, "but I'm not here about that sign, and I think you know that."

"I honestly don't have a clue why you are here, actually."

"Where did you find her?" Blue asked, not wasting any more time.

"I didn't. Henry did."

"By the well?" Blue pressed.

Regina narrowed her eyes. "What do you know about her?"

Blue chose to avoid the question, which was typical of her, especially when dealing with Regina. "What are you trying to pull here, Your Majesty?"

"I have no idea what you mean," Regina retorted. For once, that was actually quite true.

Blue studied Regina for a moment. "You really don't know who she is."

Regina stiffened, as she tried to hide the emotion on her face. Tried and failed, apparently, because Blue cocked her head to the side and asked, "or do you?"

"She has barely said two words since she got here, so if you know something, please enlighten me."

"I don't think I need to," Blue scoffed.

Regina was about done with these games. "Listen, Pixie, if you are trying to insinuate that she is…" Regina's voice trailed off. She hadn't realized that she had almost as hard a time referring to Emma by name as her grieving son did.

"That she is?" Blue pressed, infuriatingly.

"It doesn't matter, because it's preposterous and impossible. She is just a lost little girl, staying with me until we locate her parents. So unless you have something to fill me in on here, then I think it's time for you to leave."

"I know just as much as you do, Your Majesty," Blue replied simply, before turning to leave.

Regina stared after her as she walked off, dumbfounded. Blue never knew just as much as anyone, on anything. She did, however, like to keep pertinent information to herself, especially when it affected Regina.

Regina stepped back into the house, locking the door behind her, and picked up the bags of clothes. She glanced into the livingroom as she passed by, and Emma and Henry were sitting on the floor, with their backs to her, apparently reading a book. Emma seemed completely calm now, so Regina decided to take advantage of that, as she headed up the stairs to the guest bedroom and started unpacking the new clothes into the dresser.

She sighed. She really had bought too much. It wasn't like she could send clothes from this world back to the Enchanted Forest, if and when they found the missing parents. She supposed there was a chance they could convince them to come here. Afterall, this modern world offered much that the Enchanted Forest couldn't. But none of that mattered right now, anyway.

She turned and frowned and the sheets on the bed. In all the panic in the morning, she had forgotten to make it up. She turned and did it now, and then went into her room to make up her own, before heading back down the stairs.

She entered the living room where Henry and Emma were still on the floor, and stepped in front of them to see what they were reading. The Storybook. She should have guessed.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Henry?" Regina asked, as she kneeled down in front of them. Henry and Emma both looked up at her, and she had to look away. Their eyes were identical, and it sent a chill down her spine. One more check in the Emma Swan column. Not surprisingly, the 'anyone in the world other than Emma Swan' column didn't have any checks yet. Regina wasn't sure if that really meant something, or if she was letting her wishful thinking delude her.

"I was showing her pictures of the Enchanted Forest," Henry explained. "I thought it might help her tell us where she is from."

"And is it helping?" Regina asked.

Henry shrugged. "Not yet."

Regina watched as Emma continued to flip through the pages. It was pretty clear the child couldn't actually read, but she studied the pictures carefully. Regina shifted uncomfortably when Emma reached the story of when Tinker Bell used the fairy dust to lead her to Robin Hood the first time.

Emma ran her fingers contemplatively over Regina's portrait in the book, and then looked up at her quizzically.

Regina nodded. "That's me," she said, "a very long time ago."

Emma seemed to be turning that information over inside her mind, and she looked like she might finally speak, but she opted not to, and turned back to the book. She flipped the page, and started running her fingers over Tinker Bell's wings.

What is it about fairies? Regina asked herself. Tinker Bell didn't seem to frighten Emma, however, but more so intrigued her.

"She's a fairy," Regina explained. "Her name is Tinker Bell. She's here now, too. Everyone here came over from the Enchanted Forest."

Emma looked up again, her big green eyes studying Regina's, as if she were trying to figure out how that was possible. For her part, Regina didn't particularly want Emma to know now just how that was possible, and she made a mental note to stop her before she reached the pages with the Evil Queen.

Regina was worried about Emma identifying her as the Evil Queen, but she forgot who's image would grace the page, just a few ahead of where Emma was now: the Blue Fairy. Emma gasped when she saw her, and looked up at Regina again, the fear back in her eyes.

"It's ok, Little One," Regina said, calmly, "it's just a picture."

Emma's lip quivered as she looked down again. The Blue Fairy was taking Tinker Bell's wings. It wasn't a pleasant scene, even for someone who didn't already have a strange aversion to the fairy.

"Have you seen her before?" Regina asked, tentatively. "Before today, I mean?"

Emma nodded. Henry was quick to close the book when he saw the lights start to flicker again.

"It's alright, Sweetheart. I'm not going to let her come here, ok?" Regina assured her, reaching out to take her little hand. She wanted to grab onto her and hold her, but she knew that might not end well.

Emma squeezed Regina's hand back, and the flickering subdued.

"Where have you seen her before?" Regina asked. She wasn't sure if she should keep pushing, but she knew they needed to make some headway, some time.

"In the mirror," Emma whispered. Regina knew that the fairies could project themselves onto mirrors with the same magic she used, but she hadn't realized Blue was powerful enough to do it across realms.

"In the mirror, at your home?" Regina asked.

Emma nodded.

"And she frightened you?" Regina asked.

Emma shook her head. "No… I thought she was nice, but she was bad."

"She was bad," Regina repeated. "How was she bad?"

"She told them to send me away, and they did." Emma's voice choked a little on that last bit. She wasn't crying, but she sounded like she might start any moment.

"Your parents?" Regina asked.

Emma shook her head, no.

"Who?"

That was about all Emma could take. She reached out for Regina as she started to bawl. Regina grabbed her quickly and pulled her onto the lap, wrapping her arms around her as she started rocking her gently. Henry watched, silent but noticeably perplexed. They finally got some answers, but it only opened a million more questions.

"Shh…" Regina soothed the little girl as she cried, "it ok. You're safe now. I'm not going to let the Blue Fairy come near you, I promise. Henry and I are going to protect you."

Her words seemed to soothe the child, but without having a clue what was actually going on, Regina wasn't sure exactly how she was going to keep that promise.

After lunch, to Regina's relief, Emma fell asleep on the couch. She had forgotten how tiring a preschooler could be, and that, combined with the rest of the drama of the morning, had Regina ready for a nap, herself.

However, a loud knock on her front door told her it was not meant to be.

"What now?" she muttered to herself, as he begrudgingly made her way to the front door. She had had about enough surprises for one day. She fully expected to see the Blue Fairy's obnoxious and condescending smirk, but to her mild relief, it was David at the door. He was the lesser of two evils, at this point.

"Can I help you, Sheriff?" Regina asked, in a tone that even she thought might have been slightly more callous than necessary.

"I talked to Blue," David began, as he stepped into the house without being invited. "You're off the hook, for the little magic show downtown that is."

"Lucky me," Regina replied, rolling her eyes, "but did that really warrant a trip to my home. You do have my phone number."

"Well, that's not the only reason I'm here."

"Of course it's not," Regina sighed.

"We found this by the old well," David said, holding up a small brass compass.

"A compass? Is this significant?" Regina asked, failing to follow David's train of thought.

"It could be. Mary Margaret said that she and Emma used a compass to get back to Storybrooke through that well. This isn't the same compass, but I had the fairies look at it. It's coated in fairy dust," David explained.

"Mmm, I'm sure that came as a surprise to our good friend Blue," Regina commented, sarcastically.

"Actually, she wasn't there. We found this before I had a chance to speak with her."

"Oh," Regina replied. She wondered if that had happened when Blue had been gracing her with her much unwanted presence on her doorstep. "What did Blue say, when you did talk to her?"

"She said she thinks she knows who the little girl is," David said.

Regina stiffened. "Who is she?" she asked. She tried hide her nervousness, but her voice betrayed her. She started feeling the panic rising in her that perhaps the reason that David had driven to her house was because Blue had revealed that this little lost girl was in fact his lost daughter, and he was here to take her way.

Regina silently chastised herself for thinking like that. How had she grown so attached to this child in such a short time? How had she managed to convince herself that she had any claim on her, either way?

"She wouldn't tell me," David responded.

Regina tried to hide her relief. "Why?"

David shrugged. "She said she's not completely sure, and she wants to verify it before she says anything. She wants to see the girl again."

"Absolutely not," Regina said, and this time the force in her statement was absolutely intentional, and appeared to take David by surprise.

"Why not? If she can help us?" David asked, confused.

"Because that little girl is absolutely terrified of Blue. That's why she tried to drop the sign on her," Regina explained. "I promised her she wouldn't have to see her again."

"Why would she be afraid of the Blue Fairy?" David asked.

Regina shook her head. It amazed her how naïve he could be sometimes. He thought that light magic automatically equaled hero, and therefore Blue was deserving of trust by default, regardless of anything she had done. He seemed blissfully unaware of how fairies liked to meddle into other people's lives whenever they saw fit, whether their help was wanted or not. Above all else, Blue was the puppeteer, deciding whose wishes she deemed worthy of granting, and who she let suffer, their cries for help ignored.

Regina stopped her train of thought. She reminded herself that this wasn't about her own issues with Blue, but that little sleeping blonde in the other room.

"She told me that Blue appeared in the mirror, in her home, and told the people she was staying with to send her away," Regina said, finally.

"She started talking?"

"Only a little. Only when she seems to think it's necessary," Regina said, with a sigh.

"What else did she say?"

"Honestly, not much," Regina admitted.

"Did she give you a name?" David pressed.

"No, not yet."

"Why would Blue tell her family to send her away? This doesn't make sense," David said, trying to piece this new information together.

"I don't think they were her family. They weren't her parents, anyway, that much she confirmed. As for Blue… well, who ever knows why that woman does anything?"

David nodded, clearly not willing to defend the shady fairy right now. Regina heard a stirring from the other room, and a small muffled whimpering.

"You should go," she said, turning to David. She didn't want her expensive light fixtures to start dropping on his head if he scared the child waking up in the other room.

"Okay, I'll be in touch," David said, turning.

Wonderful, Regina thought to herself, but she just flashed him a fake smile, before returning to the living room, where Emma was tossing and turning on the couch. Her eyes were still closed, and she was crying in her sleep.

Regina knelt down beside her, and gently shook her awake.

Emma's green eyes shot open, and she blinked against the light in the room, while they adjusted to the sudden change.

"Little One, were you having a bad dream?" Regina asked, softly.

Emma sat up and nodded.

"Can you tell me what it was about?" Regina asked, sitting down beside her, and stroking her blonde curls.

"I'm not sure," Emma whispered.

"What do you remember?" Regina prompted her.

"I was here… but not here, not in this place… a place like it with… not lanterns, this kind of light," Emma said, gesturing around at the lamps and sconces in the room. "And that," Emma continued, pointing at the TV.

"You weren't in the Enchanted Forest. You were in a house, in this world?" Regina asked.

Emma nodded.

"And what happened?"

"There were… people… and I called them Mommy and Daddy. And I knew them, but I don't know them. And the Mommy had a big belly. And they said I had to go back. Then I woke up," Emma said, with a shrug.

Regina swallowed hard, and looked over at Henry, who had been silently listening from his spot on the chair the entire time. This dream sounded an awful lot like the first home that Regina new Emma had been in – the one who planned to keep her, until they had a child of their own, and sent her back – and she knew Henry knew it, too.

"It was just a dream, Sweetheart," Regina assured her, though she wasn't entirely sure if that was the best course of action right now. Her head was spinning with a million ideas at once. The thought occurred to her that she better put a big check in the Emma Swan column in her mental checklist, because having Emma's memories was major.

"I don't know where they were going to send me, but I don't want to go there," Emma said, quietly, looking at her feet.

"You don't have to go anywhere, I promise. You can stay with Henry and me until we find your family," Regina said. This was another promise she wasn't sure she could keep. She knew for a fact that if this child really did turn out to be Emma Swan, she would certainly lose her to the Charmings in a heartbeat.

She knew that was simply the way it would have to be. She didn't have a real reason to keep Emma, other than she wanted to. She could kid herself that it was all about Emma feeling safe with her, but she could also learn to feel safe with her parents, too.

But then there was Henry. His thoughts and feelings would need to be accounted for in all of this, as well. If this child truly was Emma Swan, he would most certainly want to be with her. And if she was with her parents… well, Regina wasn't ready to lose him again, too.

Regina sighed. She knew she was getting ahead of herself. These issues could be dealt with if and when they arose. There was no point struggling with the 'what ifs'.

"I want Henny to read to me again," Emma said suddenly, eyeing the storybook on the table.

Henry smiled and grabbed it, quickly coming over to sit with her. Regina loved seeing his truly genuine smile again. It had been so long.

"Can you watch her, for a while?" she asked. "I really need to lie down." Regina's head was starting to pound with a tension headache.

"Yeah, for sure," Henry grinned.

"And don't answer the door if anyone comes here," Regina said, as she stood up. "We've had enough excitement for one day."

Regina patted Emma's blonde curls as she turned to leave the room. She had meant to lie down for half an hour at most, but when she opened her eyes again, two hours had passed. The house seemed quiet still, and neither child had come running with any emergencies, so she assumed everything was okay as she headed back down the stairs. Or, at least, she hoped it was.

When Regina came downstairs, she found Emma on the floor in the foyer, the storybook open in front of her, and papers and crayons all around her. Henry was sitting, watching her.

"What is she doing?" Regina asked, as she approached them.

"She said she wanted to put her own story in the book," Henry said, with a shrug.

"Really?" Regina said, raising an eyebrow. "Did she tell you her story?"

"She said I can hear it when she's done."

Regina nodded, and watched as Emma coloured fervently on the paper before her, appearing almost manic.

"Little One, you have lots of time," Regina reminded her.

"I need to finish it before I forgot it," Emma replied, without looking up. "I need to remember before my dreams make me forget."

Regina wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but she tucked that away in her mind to bring up again when the child seemed a little calmer. For now, there was a more important question burning in her mind. "Little One, what's your name?" Regina asked, hoping for an answer, finally, since the child seemed to be in a talkative mood today.

Emma shrugged. "I don't know."

"You don't remember what the people you stayed with called you? In the Enchanted Forest?"

"That wasn't my name."

"What did they call you?"

"Perdita," Emma replied, scrunching up her nose.

"Oh," Regina nodded, and breathed a small sigh.

"What is it?" Henry asked, noticing his mother's reaction to that name.

"Perdita… It means 'lost girl'," Regina explained.

"They would say Perdy," Emma continued, looking down at her drawings, "but I didn't like that name. I liked the name you called me."

"Hope?" Henry asked.

Emma shook her head. "No, the name you called me," she repeated, looking at Regina.

"Emma," Regina said, quietly.

Emma smiled. "Yes. I like that name. That's the name I hear in my dreams."

Regina and Henry shared a quick, knowing look. Another check in the Emma Swan column, Regina thought to herself, though she didn't really think keeping the tally was even necessary anymore.