For all those who have asked if the second childhood will change Emma's personality when she's back to normal, the answer is… yes and no. Emma will still retain all her memories from the first time around, which shape her personality, combined with a handful of new memories as well… so she will grow up feeling loved and safe, this time. So Emma will be Emma, but without the trust issues and insecurity.
I love Emma and I wouldn't want to change her too much, overall :)
Also, I apologize for the great delay in posting this chapter. I've experience some writer's block recently, but I'm back on the ball now :) Did you miss me?! lol
Chapter Fifteen
Emma was up at the crack of dawn, rooting under her pillow to see if the tooth kitty had come after all. She'd meant to try to stay awake to actually see the kitty, but that hadn't gone as planned. To her great delight, however, where her tooth had once been, she found a five dollar bill.
Emma jumped out of bed, money gripped tightly in her fist, and bolted into Regina's room, jumping onto her bed, and practically on top of her.
"Gina! Gina! Wake up! The tooth kitty comed!" Emma squealed, bouncing on Regina a few times for emphasis. "Giiiiinaaaa!"
Regina groaned and reached a hand up to lightly cover Emma's mouth. "Shhh baby girl… it's too early for shouting."
Emma swatted Regina's hand away and held the money right in front of her eyes. "Look Gina! A hundred dollars!"
"Five dollars," Regina corrected, shaking her head. "Five dollars because you're five years old."
Emma held the bill up in front of her own eyes, examining it carefully with a pout on her face.
"What's wrong, Emma?"
"I need six dollars because I'm six!" Emma declared.
Regina sighed. Emma did look like she'd grown a little, and her spots were completely gone. "Did you have a birthday in your dream last night?"
Emma nodded. "I had to share it with a boy in the house, but we had a cake and I got a present. It was a Cabbage Patch doll like one TV, but now it's gone," Emma shrugged. "But that's okay because one of the little kids put marker on her face already."
Regina smiled and shifted Emma onto her lap so she could sit up. "Well, lucky for you you have lots of toys here and no one will draw on them," Regina replied, as she ran her fingers through Emma's hair. "Your hair's getting so long, baby. When was the last time you had a haircut?"
Emma shrugged. "Dunno."
"Well, I think we should get you one today," Regina said, decisively. "Then maybe we can go to the store and see if there's something you'd like to get with your money?"
Emma grinned and nodded.
"Alright, baby, let me just call Mommy and make sure she's okay with this."
By 10am, Emma had eaten breakfast and Regina had gotten Snow's permission to get her hair trimmed, as long as it was just a little, and Regina promised to take lots of pictures. Snow had wanted to come herself, but baby Neal was teething and was in rare form that morning. Regina could hear him wailing through the phone when she spoke to Snow, and almost felt bad for the woman, remembering how much Henry had screamed when he'd been teething.
"Alright, it's your turn, Emma," Regina said, as the stylist - Michelle - came to call on Emma.
Emma's eyes widened as she stepped around the receptionist's desk, deathgrip on Regina's hand, and realized where she was. "No! I changed my mind!" she cried.
"Emma," Michelle said, crouching down in front of the girl before Regina even had a chance to try to intervene, "if you can be a good girl and climb up in this chair and get your hair cut, I can give you a prize when you're done. Do you think you can do that?"
Emma crossed her arms defiantly and shook her head. "No. I want the prize now!" she said, stomping her little foot.
Regina let out an exasperated sigh. Apparently the petulant little girl she'd had a preview of when Emma was four, was making a comeback. "Emma," Regina said, firmly, "the prize is a reward for good behaviour. You don't get it unless you get your hair cut."
"That's not fair! You didn't get me anything for my birthday! I want a prize now!"
"Can you give us a minute?" Regina asked Michelle, and the woman just nodded and told Regina to take her time. Regina took Emma by the hand and led her back out into the waiting area, which was thankfully nearly empty at this point.
"Emma," Regina said, crouching down so she was at eye level with the little girl. "I don't like this behaviour you are displaying. I wasn't there when you had your birthday, but I have given you lots and lots of things. You get a prize when you get your hair cut, and that is the way it works. Now, is there some reason why you don't want to get your hair cut?"
Emma's pout deepened for a moment as her bottom lip began to quiver. "Because I wasn't bad!" Emma cried, finally.
"Sweetheart, this isn't a punishment. Everyone gets their hair cut. It's part of life. If we don't cut it, it gets ratty ends, and tangles. You don't want that, do you?"
Emma shook her head no, curls bouncing wildly as she did so.
"Okay. So who told you bad girls get hair cuts?"
"When I was five, an older girl used to go out her bedroom window at night. The Mommy got mad and said she was bad, and she cut off her ponytail so she wouldn't be pretty anymore. She said the boys wouldn't like her then. Then we had to go to a place like this to get her hair fixed and she cried and cried. She was so sad."
Regina sighed. "Emma, that's not what's happening right now. Michelle's just going to take off a little bit, so your hair will look even prettier. Don't you want that?"
Emma thought on that for a moment, before slowly nodding.
"Alright. Now let's go back and apologize to Michelle, and then you can get your hair cut, and get a prize, okay? But you have to be a good girl for the rest of your hair cut to get the prize, understand?"
Emma nodded again, and took Regina's hand as they headed back to Michelle's station.
"Sorry I was bad," Emma said, looking down at her feet when she spoke.
"You're forgiven, Emma," Michelle said, with a smile. "Hair cuts can be scary sometimes, but it will be over before you know it."
And, as it turned out, Michelle was right. After a minute of initial silence, Emma began to rattle on about Kitty Softpaws and the impending litter of kittens, and went so far as to offer Michelle the second best one when they arrive, as she planned on keeping the very best one for herself.
"Emma, I did not agree to keeping any kittens, and we don't even know if Kitty is pregnant."
"She's fatter today than she was yesterday!" Emma insisted, "and her belly squirms around because there's babies in it!"
Regina had to admit that Emma had a point. The cat was fatter, and she's notice her belly wiggling about quite a bit. She wondered how long she could really stay in denial that that cat was pregnant, and was likely to have her kittens somewhere in her home. Regina guessed, with her luck, it would be in her bedroom closet.
"Still, I didn't agree to keeping any kittens. Maybe you should ask your Mommy and Daddy about having one there," Regina suggested.
"No, Kitty wants to keep the best one," Emma explained. "And she wants the next best one to be for Michelle and the third best one to be for Mommy. If there's four, Daddy can have one, too, but Kitty thinks there's three."
"She does, does she?" Regina asked, smirking. "Well I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Waiting and seeing didn't take as long as Regina had expected. Once Emma's hair cut was complete, Michelle had given Regina a small baggie with a lock of Emma's hair for the scrapbook she planned on making, and let Emma pick a toy from the prize bin. Since there was no cats in the bin, Emma picked a racecar and then decided she'd rather save her money than spend it. Regina took her to the store anyway and bought her a porcelain piggy bank in the shape of a grey and white cat, to make up for the lack of birthday present for Emma's sixth birthday, and Emma had happily tucked her money inside.
"Gina, where's kitty?" Emma asked, pointing to the cat bed once she'd placed the kitty bank safely on one of her shelves. "She was sleeping here when we left and I can't find her anywhere."
"She's around. How about you look for her while I get lunch ready?"
Emma nodded as Regina left the room, and set about on her mission. She got on her hands and knees and looked under all the furniture in her own room, only to come up empty handed. She headed down to check Henry's room, where she found him on his bed, reading.
"Henry, where's Kitty?" Emma asked.
"Dunno," Henry said with a small shrug. "Haven't seen her all morning. Maybe she's taking a nap in my mom's room?"
Emma nodded and headed back down the hall to Regina's room. She dropped to her hands and knees again, peering under Regina's bed and dresser, but found nothing. She sat up, and her little ears picked up a small mewling sound from the other side of the room.
"Kitty?" she asked, aloud, as she crawled in the direction of the sound. Regina's closet door was cracked open, and Emma pulled it open slowing, before screaming, "Gina!"
Regina heard Emma from downstairs, and immediately dropped what she was doing in the kitchen to come running.
"Emma?" she asked, frantically, as she spotted the girl kneeling on the floor in front of her closet door. "What's wrong?"
"Look!" Emma cried, pointing into Regina's closet. Regina stepped over, and sure enough, there was Kitty Softpaws, curled up on the floor, cozying up with three tiny kittens. "I told you! Three!"
Regina sighed, and dropped to her knees beside Emma. "I knew it was going to be in my closet," she said, shaking her head. Even though she would have to have the carpet professionally cleaned, she was sure, she couldn't help but admit the kittens were cute. One was mostly white, with black and orange spots, one was completely orange and one looked like a miniature version of Kitty Softpaws herself, mostly grey with white.
"That's the best one," Emma said, decisively, pointing out the orange one. "I'm gonna name him Puss in Boots, because he looks like Puss in Boots."
"Your creativity never ceases to astound me," Regina smirked. "Why don't we just call him Antonio Banderas?"
"Because that's dumb," Emma declared. "This one looks like Kitty Softpaws. I'm going to name it Kitty Softpaws Two, and it can live with Mommy so I have a Kitty Softpaws everywhere I live."
Regina smiled and shook her head, knowing that they would have to have an actual conversation about where these kittens would be going, but she had no desire to upset Emma right now.
"And the other one is named Emma, and it can live with Michelle so she can have her own Emma."
"That's very sweet," said Regina, "everyone deserve to have their own Emma."
Emma smiled and nodded her agreement. "Right, but don't tell Michelle you got the best Emma."
Regina laughed and pulled Emma up into her lap in a tight hug. "I certainly did get the very best Emma."
Emma's smile faded as she hugged Regina back. "Gina, I'm sorry I was a bad girl today. I didn't mean to make you mad."
"I wasn't mad, Emma," Regina assured her, stroking her hair, "and you weren't a bad girl. You're never a bad girl, Emma. You're a good girl who sometimes makes some bad decisions. But I was proud of you for apologizing to Michelle today, and I'm proud of you for apologizing to me without being told to."
"Sometimes I just don't know what a good decision is," Emma admitted.
"I know, Sweetheart. And that's not entirely your fault. You haven't had any consistency in your life, and it's hard to know right from wrong when your environment changes as much as yours does. But remember, baby, if you're not sure what to do, you can always ask me, or Mommy or Daddy."
"Or Henry?"
Regina let out a small laugh. "I'm not sure Henry's always the best judge of these things, especially not when we're in the middle of a prank war."
"And we have to get you back," Emma pointed out.
"You are supposed to be on my side, remember?" Regina reminded her, not that she expected it to do much good. Emma liked playing double agent a little too much.
"Can't I be on your side and Henry's side?"
"Yes, of course you can," Regina agreed, giving Emma another squeeze. "But I wouldn't be opposed to you giving me a heads up as to what Henry comes up with next."
"Gina," Emma said, sternly, "that's cheating. That's a bad decision."
After lunch, and being repeatedly told that the kittens were still too young to be picked up, and no five minutes older was not old enough, Emma gave up and decided to go see what Henry was doing.
She found him in his room again, scribbling something in a journal. Emma jumped on his bed without warning, causing him to jump in surprise.
"Henry! What are you writing?" Emma asked, peering over his shoulder as he lay on his stomach, even though she couldn't read.
Henry grinned. "It's called The Misadventures of Little Emma Swan," he declared.
"I'm Emma Swan," Emma pointed out.
"Yeah, I know, this story is about you. It's all the adventures you have as a kid, so that when you grow up you can read it and remember your childhood."
"Can you read it to me now?" Emma asked, excitedly. Henry grinned and flipped back to the beginning of the journal, reading Emma her story from the beginning - well the beginning he knew - from the moment he found her in the woods, up until the tea party prank from yesterday. He had even tucked the pictures she had drawn of her life with the fairies into the journal as reference.
"I could draw you more pictures," Emma offered, "so there's pictures to go with every story."
"That's an excellent idea, Emma."
"You like writing?" Emma asked.
"Yeah. I think I want to be an author one day," Henry said, proudly, not wanting to get into a long winded explanation about how the storybook and author's worked just yet, knowing it would go right over Emma's head.
"Can you write a different story for me?"
"What story?"
"A story about Gina, so I know what she does when I'm not here, and I miss her," Emma said.
Henry nodded as an idea came to him. He knew fairly well that his mother didn't do anything all that interesting when Emma wasn't around - at least nothing that would interest a six-year-old - but that didn't mean he couldn't make her life seems more interesting to Emma.
He got up and grabbed an empty notebook from his desk, and came back to the bed, opening it to the first page and writing a title.
"What does it say?" Emma asked, excitedly.
"This book is called, The Adventures of Regina Mills and Kitty Softpaws," Henry declared.
Emma grinned. "I love it! Read it to me now!"
"I haven't started writing it yet! Patience is a virtue, Emma. I will read it to you next time you come over," he promised.
When I jokingly said I would write a fic about the adventures of Regina Mills and Kitty Softpaws, a lot of people said "do it", so I decided a mini-fic within a fic was the way to go! lol
Thank you to everyone who patiently waited during my little hiatus for this. This chapter wasn't as long as I wanted it to be, but I'm going away for the weekend and leaving today, and I didn't want to make you wait another four days for it, so I'm posting now… next week's will be longer!
And, for anyone who has tumblr, feel free to hit me up: rowark-sq
I try to keep people updated on the status of my fics on there, especially when I need to take a break or I am going away or something. Also, my ask box is always open for anything, including prompts, or suggestions on current stories :)
Until next week!