Chapter 3 The Good Mayor
When she opened the door for the fourth time on this journey the Doctor was greeted by blinding sunlight and a gust or cold crisp air, the second she stepped out she knew that she wasn't in the fairy tale land anymore, because for one she had stepped out onto a road outside a diner in the middle of small town that definitely had electricity and two a blonde police sheriff was staring at her curiously, the Doctor didn't know what had gone wrong but she did know without doubt that this time she really was back on Earth.
"Who are you and what the hell is this thing?" the blonde asked never taking her eyes off the woman in front her despite her obvious curiosity over the police box that had just appeared in front of her.
"I'm the Doctor" the Doctor replied "and I seem to have gotten lost"
"And where were looking to go Doctor?" the blonde asked brow furrowed
"I wasn't so much looking for a where, as I was looking for a who, but I've ended up off track, I'll just be going now" the doctor turned on her heel, but she should have known better than to expect a quick escape she hadn't even taken a single step closer to the Tardis when a cold hand closed around her wrist,
"Not so fast" the blonde said "I can't just let you go, at least not until I know what that thing is, how you got here and if there are anymore of you to worry about"
"It's a Tardis, I flew it here and I'm the last of my kind" the doctor counted her answers off on her fingers, "Now can I go, I need to see if I can still find Regina,"
"one no you can't go and two if it's Regina your after then I can take you to her, but I want to know what you want from her first" the Doctor noticed a shift in the blonde, something powerfully protective radiated from her when she spoke about Regina which intrigued the Doctor, plus Regina was here on Earth, how, could it be a coincidence someone with the same name? she needed to find out for sure so…
"I wanted to talk to her about helping somebody from her past" she told the sheriff
The blonde nodded and walked away, "are you coming or what" she called over her shoulder when the other woman didn't move to follow, nodding the Doctor scrambled to catch up, "I'll take you to her" the blonde continued "but you don't get alone time with her, I'm staying with her" she finished fiercely,
"sure" the Doctor replied nodding happily, as she followed the blonde sheriff to the town hall, down one plush hallway, then another before she stopped to knock at a door with the words Mayor Mills emblazoned on it, a familiar husky voice answered from the inside,
"Come In"
Pushing the door open the blonde entered the room leaving the Doctor to follow in her wake,
"Emma" Regina greeted with a radiant smile,
This Regina was very different from the ones she had encountered before, her hair was a lot shorter just resting on her shoulder, her smile was genuine and happy easily meeting her eyes, she wore a smart trouser shirt and had a pair of glasses perched on the end of her nose which on her looked incredibly sexy, she was gazing at the blonde sheriff over the top of them with a look of hunger in her eyes it was a look that the blonde returned with equal intensity,
"Ummm, this is the Doctor" Emma explained clumsily "She sort of appeared in the middle of town in a blue police box, I know" she laughed at the incredulous look on the brunette's face "but I swear its true, she said something about wanting to help someone in your past" she shrugged, and Regina turned her attention to the Doctor
"The boy in the stable" the Doctor explained "You loved him and your mother, she tore his heart out" she said casting her eyes down sadly before bringing them back up to meet Regina's
"Daniel" the Brunette whispered, "But who are you and how do you know about him?"
"I didn't know his name" the Doctor confessed "but I was there when he died, I saw what happened thought the window"
"But how's that even possible?" Regina asked alarmed "and why are you dressed like one of my maids?" she asked as she took in the other woman's attire, but even as she spoke, she realised, "You were at my birthday ball, you served me my cake" she recalled "But you haven't aged a day since then, how?"
"You remembered" the Doctor smiled
"of course, I did" Regina replied "you were the only one that gave me the time of day, and when I tried to find you the next day you were gone, I never saw you again until today"
"You looked for me?" the Doctor asked guilty while simultaneously realising that she had manage to go completed unnoticed during her last encounter with the queen.
"that's hardly the point now is it" Regina replied brusquely, "How are you here and just want do you think you can possibly do for Daniel? He died years ago"
"My box, it's a called a Tardis I can travel through time and space in it and with your help I think I can use it to save Daniel"
"Save him?" Regina gasped "but what about everything that happened after he died, what about Henry?"
"Henry?" the Doctor asked
"Our son" the blonde answer crossing the room to take the brunettes hand,
"I named him after my father" Regina smiled fondly, as she watched the brunettes features soften an image of a greying man pleading with the Evil Queen swam briefly at the forefront of the Doctors memory.
"I think we can do it without disrupting the timeline" the Doctor replied snapping out of it, mind whirring a million miles as hour as plans began to form,
"You think?" the brunette frowned
"it'll require some planning and a lot of magic, but it might just be doable, the question is can you, do it?"
"Do what" Regina asked
"The magic we'll need" the Doctor replied plan now fully formed.
"First we'll need your memories of that night and then we'll need mine and your mothers" the Doctor explained,
"My mother's dead" Regina replied regretfully
"Minor detail" the doctor replied waving it off "If you can extract the memories and store then, I can get you to your mother"
"I can extract and store the memories" the blonde sheriff spoke up looking wistfully at the brunette, the Doctor could see that this was hard for her, whatever feelings these two had for each other they evidently hadn't acted on them yet and for Emma saving Daniel would mean giving Regina up,
"You have magic too" the Doctor asked incredulously, so which fairy tale character are you?" she asked "No wait let me guess first" she cut the blonde off before she could answer "The blue fairy" she guessed
"Definitely not" Emma giggled even Regina's lips twitched upwards, "I'm just Emma Swan, Product of true love, my parents are Snow White and Prince Charming"
"No way" the Doctor exclaimed "but then you're…" she pointed at Regina
"Yes regretfully I was forced to marry her grandfather, and I spent the entire marriage trying to escape from the bastard, sorry Emma" she said looking sheepishly at the blonde
"Don't be it's the truth" Emma smiled squeezing the hand that she was still holding,
"Please continue with your summary" the Doctor interrupted,
"Yes, so in a nutshell I cast a dark curse most of us ended up here where time stood still for twenty eight years, Emma grew up outside of the town, placed a son up for adoption when she was eighteen who I adopted, Henry found her ten years later and brought her back here, when she chose to stay, time restarted and she saved us all" Regina wrapped it up smiling warmly at the blonde.
"Right got it" Doctor replied, "now back to our plan, Emma you can extract and store memories, but can you return them?" Emma nodded in response "Okay so you'll extract the memories then we'll return to the moment just before your mother killed Daniel, Regina"
The brunette nodded solemnly,
"then we'll need some more magic" the Doctor continued "I can freeze one person in time, I did it to you once" she told a shocked Regina "The day Daniel died, I wanted to help but I needed one of your hairs as an anchor to your timeline, sometimes the Tardis does whatever it fancies if I don't give it something to focus on" she explained "Anyway back to the point I can freeze one person but not a whole group and we'll need the whole room frozen for the next part"
"I can do that" Regina confirmed
"Good" the Doctor smiled "once the room is frozen, we get Daniel to safety, Emma plants the memories in mine, yours and your mother's past selves and then all we need is an illusion to make it appear as though Daniels body is on the floor, something solid that young Regina can bury her face into when she cries, because for this to work without affecting the timeline young Regina and her mother need to believe that Daniel died that day the same way that you remember he did"
The Doctor spoke directly to Regina now, "and speaking of Daniel, if we do this, we can't bring him back here with us, it's one thing visit a past or future timeline but actually living out your life In it, it's not safe, in time could cause the whole of time and space to fold in on itself, so we'll have to find him somewhere safe to go where past Regina will never find him and he'll need a memory spell cast over him to let him live contently somewhere with no memory of you or your time together we don't want to risk him searching for you"
Regina nodded a little sadly and Emma reached out and wrapped an arms around her pulling her close,
"What do you say Mayor Mills" the blonde said pulling back and gently cupping Regina's chin with her hand lifting the brunette's face so that their eyes met "Shall we go save your Daniel?"
"What if I don't want him to be my Daniel anymore" Regina whispered as she looked into Emma's face,
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it" the blonde replied voice breaking slightly as she absentmindedly stroked the brunette's cheek with her thumb, "Whatever happens after, if there is a possibility we can save him, we should try, shouldn't we?"
Swallowing Regina nodded and pulled away from the blonde to address the Doctor who was purposefully looking away from them.
"Let's do this" the brunette said her voice much stronger than she felt.