A/N: So, if you follow any of my other fics, then you already know, I have created a weekly update schedule to ensure every story gets updated once a week, and no more get neglected for weeks or months at a time.
As such, you may now expect Lost & Found to be updated every Thursday from now until forever… well, not literally, obviously, but you should all know by know it's gonna be an epicly long fic, so expect this to go on for quite some time :)
Chapter Thirteen
"How was dance class?" Snow asked, as Regina entered the loft with Emma, still in her dance clothes.
"Stupid," Emma pouted, stomping her little foot for emphasis. "Stupid class and a stupid fairy and I'm never going back!"
Snow's eyes met Regina's. "Fairy?"
"Angel Fuller, Laurie's daughter, was dressed as a fairy," Regina explained. "She and Emma had a little altercation."
"Altercation? Emma, what happened?" Snow gasped, suddenly panicking, all the scenarios of what could have gone wrong with a magical five year old and a group of children.
"She's not an angel!" Emma insisted, ignoring her mother and turning back to Regina. "She's a stupid fairy and a bad girl!"
"She's not an angel," Regina agreed, "her name is Angel, regardless of how inaccurate it might be."
"So what happened?" Snow asked again, directing her question to Regina this time.
"She had a bit of a magical blow up, but it was fine. I handled it, and no one was hurt," Regina explained, not wanting to give Snow a reason to think Emma's magic was any more of a problem than she already did.
"Gina, am I coming to your house tonight?" Emma asked, still pouting.
"No, baby, Friday night. Four more sleeps."
"No! No more sleeps!" Emma cried, stomping her foot hard. Snow gasped as the lights in the loft flickered.
"Emma, darling, you're going to stay here with Mommy and Daddy tonight," Snow said.
"No!" Emma yelled, before hurling herself to the ground, pounding her fists on the ground.
"Regina, what do I do?" Snow asked, turning to the older woman, panicked.
Regina shrugged. "Be grateful you're not in the middle of the grocery store checkout with an entire cart full of groceries and half the population of Storybrooke staring at you," Regina replied, remembering some of Henry's more epic meltdowns. She was quite sure now that the theatrics were genetic.
"But how do I stop her?" Snow specified.
"You don't."
Snow looked appalled at that answer, so Regina continued. "She knows she's not going to get her way, so she's mad. You have three options here. One, you can give in, which means the likelihood of more tantrums in the immediate future is about one hundred percent. It's called positive reinforcement. You reward behaviour you wish to see continue. If you reward a tantrum, you are guaranteeing more tantrums."
Snow nodded. "Okay, so what are the other two options?"
"Well, you can pick her up and coddle her, or try to reason with her, and still not give her what she wants. In that case, you'd be teaching her that tantrums are rewarded with attention. Or, you can ignore her until she gives up."
"Which teaches her that tantrums are not rewarded and get you nowhere," Snow nodded. "Makes sense. Where did you learn all this?" she asked, deciding to leave off 'because I don't remember you knowing how to be a mother when you were mine."
Regina smirked. "Experience. Trial and error. And the internet. Look," Regina said, motioning to Emma who was now sitting up and pouting, silently, listening as the adults talked near her but not to her. "Now that she's calm, you pick her up and talk to her."
Regina stood and watched as Snow picked up her daughter. She badly wanted to do it herself, but Snow needed to learn. She listened as Snow calmly reiterated to Emma that she would be sleeping at Regina's Friday, and not tonight, and that no amount of temper tantrums would change that.
And Regina couldn't help but almost feel proud of her former step-daughter in this moment. As much as she was torn as to whether she thought the Charmings deserved a second chance, she supposed Emma really did, and it occurred to her that Emma might grow up to resent her if she stood in the way of her having a relationship with her parents as a child - again.
Emma laid her head on Snow's shoulder and looked over at Regina with those big, green eyes. Regina smiled and walked over.
"I think it's been a very long day," Regina said, looking at Emma, but directing her words to Snow, just to be sure that the woman truly understood where Emma's behaviour was coming from. "First day of school and first day at dance is a lot for one little girl, isn't it Little One."
Emma pouted and nodded again. "No more dance," she said, softly.
"You don't have dance tomorrow," Regina reminded her. "Maybe Wednesday you'll feel like going back, but if you don't want to, that's okay, too. I'm going to go home, now Little One. Henry's waiting for me, and I have to feed Kitty Softpaws."
Emma nodded. "Kay. Say hi to Kitty for me. Tell her four sleeps."
"I will, baby," Regina promised, as she leaned in and give Emma a kiss on the forehead, before turning to Snow. "Call me if you need anything," she said, as if she even doubted Snow would at this point.
Snow nodded. "Thanks. And thanks, Regina, for everything."
It was just past eight that evening when Regina felt Emma's magic in the house. Sure enough, the girl had poofed herself into the foyer, looking like she was ready for bed in her blue nightgown and her hair still damp from her bath.
"Emma, what did we talk about?" Regina sighed, as she stepped into the foyer.
"No poofing without permission," Emma grinned, "but Mommy said it was okay."
"She did?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow.
Emma nodded. "I said I just wanted to come say good night."
Regina smiled and scooped Emma up in her arms, giving her a big kiss on the cheek. "Good night, Little One," she said, squeezing her tight.
"You're not mad?" Emma asked, still unsure.
"No, I'm always happy to see you, you know that. If Mommy and Daddy say it's okay, then I want you to poof here every night to tell me good night, as long as you go straight home afterwards so Mommy and Daddy don't worry. How does that sound?"
Emma grinned her toothy grin and nodded, before returning Regina's gesture with her own sloppy kiss to Regina's cheek. "Good night, Gina," she said, before poofing herself back home.
Regina cringed momentarily at the sudden empty feeling in her arms, but shook it off to grab her phone to text Snow and make sure Emma was back.
She's back. I would have texted you a warning she was coming but she didn't give me a split second to do anything after I said yes. Hope it was okay.
Regina smiled and shook her head, thinking maybe their separation wouldn't be as hard if Emma really could come say 'goodnight' to her every night. Maybe having that to look forward to would ward off some of the temper tantrums as well.
It was absolutely okay. She can do that every night, if you and David don't mind.
Regina chewed on her lip, waiting for Snow's response, and hoping she wasn't crossing into the territory of what Snow and David thought was overstepping again. Thankfully, a text from Snow came in almost immediately.
I think it's a great idea, so long as you let her do the same for us when she's with you.
Regina smiled again, amazed at how far she and the Charmings had come in such a short time. It was all because off Emma bringing them together.
It seemed it was always Emma who brought everyone together, and Regina realized she hadn't shown her nearly enough appreciation for that the first time around.
Thank God for second chances.
After three more days of school, two more nights of poofing to Regina for good night hugs and kisses, and one more dance class that went considerably better than the first one - due to no children wearing fairy wings - it was Thursday, nearly eight, and Regina was waiting for Emma to poof over for her new nightly ritual.
At 8:05, she jumped, when her phone rang instead. She glanced at the screen and felt a small panic when she saw Snow's name there.
"What's wrong?" Regina asked, immediately, knowing the younger woman wouldn't call for nothing at this time of the night.
"I'm not sure, but I don't think Emma's well. She's been acting funny all afternoon, moodier than normal and crying a lot, and now she feels warm. Should I take her to the hospital?"
"How high is her fever?"
"102.6," Snow responded, "that's bad, isn't it?"
"Not terrible. You need to worry when it gets above 104," Regina explained.
"Are you sure? I think I should just take her to the ER," Snow insisted. "David thinks I'm over-reacting… what do you think?"
Regina stopped herself before telling Snow that she agreed with David, the woman was definitely over-reacting, as she remembered how much she panicked the first time Henry got sick. "Do you want me to come over?"
"Can you?" Snow asked, her voice sounding hopeful and relieved at the same time.
"Yes, dear, I'll be right there," Regina sighed. She stepped into the living room where Henry was reading a comic book and let him know where she was going. He declined her offer to come along, as apparently Wolverine was much more exciting than a feverish five-year-old.
Regina opted against poofing over, since she was trying to show Snow she didn't need to panic, and drove over instead, still making it in under ten minutes.
She should hear Emma crying upstairs the moment she let herself into the loft. She nodded over to David, who was feeding Neal his bedtime bottle, and hurried up the stairs to aid Snow with her daughter.
Emma was sitting on the floor beside her bed, her knees to her chest and her head buried in her arms.
"She won't talk to me," Snow sighed, exasperated. "She said she has a tummy ache, and I tried to take her temperature again, and now she won't talk to me."
"It's not mosquito season," Regina commented, looking at Emma and tilting her head to the side.
"What? Regina what are you talking about?" Snow asked, utterly confused.
"Look," Regina pointed to the three pink dots on Emma's arm. "She's cranky, her tummy hurts, she's running a fever, and she's got spots. That generally only means one thing, and unfortunately for us, they didn't give chicken pox vaccines to kids in the 80s."
Emma glanced up, with a big pout on her face, as Regina stepped over and picked her up, sitting her down on the bed, and crouching in front of her.
"Can I look at your tummy, Little One?" she asked, and when Emma nodded, Regina lifted up her shirt to reveal dozens of little pink dots all over her abdomen. "Bingo."
"Tommy has chicky pox," Emma said, softly.
"Who's Tommy, sweetheart?" Regina asked, as she lowered Emma's shirt again.
"The boy at the house I went to yesterday."
Regina turned to look at Snow over her shoulder. "This isn't the first time that something physical in her dream had manifested here, too. I'm guessing Emma really had the chicken pox at five, and she probably caught them from this Tommy."
"So now what? We get her medicine?" Snow asked, sounding more worried than relieved.
"Don't you remember when you had the chicken pox?" Regina asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at Snow. Snow shook her head. "It was just after… I became your step-mother. Maybe a month of two later, your father took you into the village and two days later you were covered in spots.
Snow nodded, slowly. "Yes, I think I remember now. Johanna took care of me."
Regina rolled her eyes. "Of course you would remember it that way. We both took care off you. Anyway, there's no medicine," Regina said, shaking her head. "She just has to ride it out. But, she is contagious. Has Neal been vaccinated?"
"No, that's a one-year vaccine," Snow explained.
Regina nodded. "Well, Henry's healthy, want to make a trade? I can take tomorrow off work, because she can't go to school."
"Are you sure, Regina?"
"Yes, dear. She was going to sleep over tomorrow anyway, we'll just do it a day early," Regina said, as she stood and picked Emma up in her arms. Emma wrapped her arms limply around Regina's neck, and laid her head down on her shoulder.
"How long does it last?" Snow asked, as they made their way down the stairs.
"Normally? A week or so. In Emma's case, all things considered… who knows?" Regina sighed.
Snow nodded, and explained the situation to David, who reluctantly agreed on the child swap as well.
"Why do I have to go?" Henry whined, once Regina had returned to the house with Emma. Snow had followed in her car, to get Henry, and she was making her way up to the house now.
"What, I thought you loved going to your grandparents?" Regina asked. Emma had her arms in a death grip around Regina's neck now, and was whimpering in her ear.
"I do, but I wanted to spend time with Emma when she slept over. I'm vaccinated, what's the problem?"
"Henry, she's not feeling well. She's not here to play. And I know you're vaccinated, but if you go back to the loft Snow and David can make you breakfast and take you to school in the morning," Regina explained. "There will be lots of time to play with Emma when she's better."
Henry begrudgingly agreed, and ran upstairs to pack an overnight bag, while Regina went to the kitchen to grab the Children's Tylenol for Emma's fever.
"Why do you have that?" Snow asked, as Regina set Emma down on the counter, and opened the package.
"Before we knew who she was, I kind of stocked up on everything, because…" Regina let her voice trail off as she measured out the pink bubblegum flavoured medicine.
"Because you were going to keep her," Snow acknowledged, suddenly feeling horrible for mentioning it at all.
"I mean, only if we never found her parents," Regina stammered, quickly, not wanting to let Snow see just how much she really did want to keep Emma, even after she found out who she was. She turned her attention back on the child, who had her lips pursed shut, tightly. She clearly knew what the liquid in the measuring spoon was. "Open your mouth Emma, you need to take this."
Emma shook her head quickly, and clamped her hand over her mouth.
"Emma, please, it will make you feel better," Regina said, calmly.
"No cough medicine!" Emma cried, removing her hand from her mouth and trying to physically push Regina away from her. "Don't want to go to sleep!"
Regina cringed, and Snow looked as confused as ever. At the moment, Regina thought it was best not to explain to Snow how some parents drug their children into sleeping with cough syrup.
"It's not cough medicine, baby. It's Tylenol, and it will help your fever," Regina explained.
Emma shook her head again.
"Don't you want to feel better?" Snow asked, coming up beside Regina, to face Emma.
"Not sick!" Emma said, crossing her arms for emphasis.
"I'll tell you what," Regina said, remembering how she used to have to make deals with Henry. She hated the word 'bribe', since it was always more of a negotiation with the boy. "If you take this, and let me give you a bath, then you can sleep in my bed tonight, and so can Kitty Softpaws."
Emma's eyes lit up, and Regina decided not to mention the fact that the cat had slept with her the last four nights, and she'd stopped even trying to kick her out of the bed on Tuesday. Emma opened her mouth and let Regina give her the medicine.
"See? That wasn't so bad, was it?"
Emma shook her head again as Regina picked her back up, just as Henry came into the kitchen. Henry and Snow said their goodbyes, and Regina grabbed a package from her cupboard, and stepped over to the sliding door to let Kitty Softpaws back inside before taking Emma upstairs for the bath. Regina guessed Emma must really not be feeling well, since she made no reaction to her cat coming back inside.
Regina took Emma into her en suite bathroom and started the water, after setting Emma on her feet on the floor.
"Bubble?" Emma asked, absently scratching at her tummy through her shirt, as the spots were beginning to itch.
Regina shook her head. "No bubbles with the chicken pox, my dear. We're going to put this in the water instead," she said, holding up the package she'd retrieved from the cupboard. "It's oatmeal. It's a little messy, but it will help the itchies."
Emma pouted, but didn't protest as she watched Regina pour to oatmeal under the running water. Regina then turned and helped Emma out of her clothes.
Emma looked down at her tummy, which now had more than double the amount of spots as it had when Regina had checked her at Snow's loft. Emma poked at a couple of the spots. "Are these my chicky pox?"
Regina smiled. "Yes, and it looks like you got it good. No school for you, tomorrow, you'll have to spend the day with me."
"That's okay," Emma said seriously, making Regina laugh.
"Come on, let's get you in the water. The warm water should bring out the rest of your spots, then we'll cover you up in calamine lotion," Regina explained, as she lifted Emma into the bath.
Emma scrunched up her nose. "What's cadaline lotion?"
"Calamine," Regina corrected. "It takes away itchies."
"Did you ever have chicky pox?" Emma asked, as Regina scrubbed her lightly with the oatmeal-water coated cloth.
"Yes, when I was very little. We had oatmeal baths, but no calamine lotion, so you're luckier than me," Regina winked. She didn't know how Snow could have possibly forgotten the itchy agony of chicken pox. She chalked it up to the woman's uncanny ability to only see the good and easily forget all the bad in her life.
She supposed it was a useful skill for her former step-daughter to possess, all things considered.
Regina let Emma play in the bathtub for a little longer, before grabbing the calamine lotion from the medicine cabinet, and lifting her from the tub, wrapping her in a warm towel. She put her hand on Emma's little forehead and smiled when she noted she seemed to be back to normal temperature.
Regina grabbed a cotton ball and started dabbing at the spots that littered Emma's entire torso, front and back, and her arms, legs and face. Emma giggled at the cold pink lotion at first, but soon grew impatient.
"Giiiiina!" she whined, trying to get away when Regina was about two thirds of the way through the spots.
"Stay still, sweetheart, I'm almost done. It will make you feel better," Regina promised.
"Sto-op! I feel better!" Emma whined, but she stopped fidgeting and let Regina finish.
"There, all done, baby. One hundred and sixty-seven spots. Impressive," she commented, as she poofed one of Emma's light cotton nightgowns from the child's bedroom into her hand.
Emma looked down at her little body, all covered in spots and dabs of pink lotion, and pouted again. "I don't like chicky pox," she said, sticking her bottom lip out as far as she could.
"No one likes chicken pox," Regina agreed, as she prompted Emma to life her arms so she could pull the nightgown over her head. "Unfortunately, it was a right of passage in your generation."
Regina remembered thinking that the chicken pox vaccine seemed like overkill when Henry got it, but now looking at poor Emma, she was glad Henry never had to go through it.
"Are you ready to snuggle up in bed with Kitty Softpaws?" Regina asked, holding out her hand for Emma to take. Emma nodded and took her hand, following her slowly into the bedroom. Regina could tell she was fading fast, a combination of the bath plus being sick, with Tylenol in the mix. She scooped her up and pulled back the covers, placing Emma in the middle of the bed. Regina pulled her phone from her pocket and placed it on her nightstand, and poofed herself into her own pajamas, before crawling in on her side.
Kitty Softpaws wasted no time curling up on the other side of Emma, but Emma wasn't interested in her cat at the moment. She, instead, crawled over to Regina and curled up against her, falling asleep almost instantly.
Regina grabbed her phone and sent a quick text to Snow, assuring her all was well, before finally succumbing to sleep herself.
It was just past two when Regina woke up to the sound of Emma crying. She rolled over quickly and saw Emma sitting up, her arms wrapped around herself, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Baby, what's wrong?" Regina asked, sitting up quickly. "Did you have a bad dream?"
Emma shook her head and stared at Regina with an odd look in her eyes.
"No? What's wrong then? Are you itchy?"
Emma shook her head again, and grabbed her tummy harder.
"You're tummy hurts?"
Emma nodded, and before she could get a word out, her face paled and Regina had only a split second warning before Emma evacuated the contents of her stomach all over the bed.
She cried harder as Regina scooped her up out of the mess - which was only partially effective since it was all over Emma's nightgown as well - and took her back into the bathroom.
"It's okay, baby, it's okay," Regina cooed into Emma's ear, as she started the water in the tub again.
Emma clung to her with a death grip, locking her arms around Regina's neck and her legs around her waist, as Regina added more oatmeal to the bath, knowing that Emma likely was itchy as well. "I'm sorry Gina! It was a-a accident! Don't be mad!"
"I'm not mad, baby. It's not your fault you're sick. I'll get you all cleaned up, don't worry," Regina assured her, rubbing her back as the tub filled up.
Regina set Emma down and peeled off her nightgown, before poofing herself into a clean set of pajamas and lifting Emma into the tub.
"More oatmeal?" Emma noted, looking at the bathwater. "When do I get bubbles?"
"When your spots go away," Regina assured her. "It won't be long."
"Do I hafta have more cadaline lotion?"
"Yes, baby," Regina sighed, as she washed away the dried up calamine lotion from earlier.
"What about your bed? I throwed up on it," Emma stated, as if Regina were unaware.
Regina flicked her wrist in the direction of the bed. "All gone, new sheets," she said with a wink.
To her surprise, Emma pouted.
"What's wrong baby?"
"Your magic does good things," Emma commented, and inwardly Regina had to smirk at how off-base that comment was, until the last couple years.
"You're magic does good things, too," Regina insisted. "You just need more practice controlling it."
Emma nodded as Regina lifted her back out of the tub and dried her off, before starting in with the calamine lotion again.
"How many spots did I say you had last time?" Regina asked, when she was done applying the lotion, wondering if Emma remembered the number
"A million," Emma shrugged.
Regina laughed. "Well, now you have one hundred and ninety-six," Regina informed her. "Grow four more and you'll have an even two hundred."
"I don't want more!" Emma protested.
"I know baby. Maybe by tomorrow you'll start having less," she said, as she poofed a clean nightgown for Emma into her hand and helped Emam into it. "Let's go back to sleep."
Emma nodded, and held on to Regina tight as she carried her back into the bedroom and put her back in the bed, where Kitty Softpaws was waiting, as though nothing at all had happened.
Emma curled up against Regina for the second time that night, and Regina hoped this time she would sleep through until morning.
To answer everyone who has asked this question, I have made a decision: this story will eventually lead to Swan Queen, though that's quite a ways away.
And, yes, I am aware that having physical things from Emma's previous life translate in to her new life (like the chicken pox), means that I will eventually have to address the fact that at seventeen she's pregnant with Henry... and don't worry, I have a plan for that (no spoilers!)
Also! Emma and Regina owe Henry a prank, any suggestions?