Pissedoffatouat: I'm not sure. Depends on people's interest I guess. I was having a discussion with someone on tumblr when I got the idea for this fanfic. Belle actually got a much crueller punishment in the series than Snow when Snow was the one Regina really hated.
I think there's a lot of ways Henry could figure out that Ashley was way overdue. I don't think sex education is taught at his age but he has access to TV and internet. I remember that plenty of shows actually mentioned pregnancies lasting months, though the only example coming to mind is Friends and people have pointed out that the time line of Phoebe's pregnancy doesn't check out. He could have gotten curious and looked up medical facts regarding to it. He could have asked Dr Whale, or Ashley or some other adult when Ashley's baby was due and realised that things weren't adding up when she was years overdue. He could have overheard people saying Ashley was going to have a baby soon for several years if it was commonly gossiped about.
shesheinhouston: thanks for the fave.
kilobyte5000: thanks for the alert.
Lacey was eating breakfast by her window she noticed that the town clock was moving again. Strange that it could just start working again after all this time. If asked she wouldn't have been able to hazard a guess to how long the clock had been broken, it had just always been that way until now.
Regina was reading Once Upon a Time. She studied an illustration of Prince Charming's sword in mid-flight toward her, she palmed the page. She remembered it like it was yesterday but no else should have been able to. When she turned the page she saw that the last several pages had been ripped from the book.
She went up to Henry's room. Henry was in front of a full length mirror, he adjusted his collar. She stood behind him scowling while she held the book open to the missing pages.
"The missing pages, where are they?" she demanded.
Henry turned around. "It's an old book, stuff's missing. What do you care?" He walked past her.
Regina grabbed his arm. "I care because you think I'm some evil queen. And that hurts me, Henry. I'm your mother." She lifted his chin up with her hand.
He moved away from her. "No, you're not."
"Well, then, who is?" she asked as Henry retrieved things for school. "That woman you brought here? I don't like what she or this book is doing to you. Thankfully both are no longer an issue." Henry looked at the ground and shuffled his feet. "What?"
The clock tower chimed making Regina look towards it in shock. Seeing his opportunity Henry grabbed his backpack and ran.
There was a knock at the door to Emma's room. Emma still holding her morning coffee opened it, Regina was standing in the hallway holding a basket of apples.
"Did you know the honeycrisp tree is the most vigorous and hardy of all apple trees?" Regina asked, her voice sickly sweet with a plastered smile. Her smile had never left her face as she continued. "It can survive temperatures as low as forty below and keep growing. It can weather any storm. I have one that I've tended to since I was a little girl. And to this day, I have yet to taste anything more delicious than the fruit it offers." She extended an apple to Emma.
Emma eyed her suspiciously but took the apple. "Thanks." I've never heard someone sound so fake and that's saying a lot. Not everyone she busted for skipping bail had been a particularly good actor when they chose to make up excuses.
"I'm sure you'll enjoy them on your drive home." She extended the basket.
"Actually, I'm gonna stay for a while."
Regina's smile disappeared in an instance. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Henry has enough issues, he doesn't need you confusing him."
"All due respect, Madame Mayor," Emma said, "the fact that you have now threatened me twice in the last twelve hours makes me wanna stay more."
"Since when were apples a threat?"
"I can read between the lines. Sorry, I just wanna make sure Henry's okay."
"He's fine, dear. Any problems he has are being taken care of."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I have him in therapy. It's all under control. Take my advice, Miss Swan, only one of us knows what's best for Henry."
"Yeah, I'm starting to think you're right about that."
"It's time for you to go."
"Or what?"
Regina took a step toward Emma and said "Don't underestimate me, Miss Swan. You have no idea what I'm capable of" as if she was some sort of cartoon villain. Emma closed the door in her face.
Regina while carrying a basket walked around an apple tree in her backyard. She picked an apple from the tree. Sidney Glass walked up to her, he held a newspaper up in both hands. The headline of the Storybrooke Daily Mirror read: STRANGER DESTROYS HISTORIC SIGN, a column underneath in smaller print read: ALCHOLOL INVOLVED.
"The Mirror strikes again."
"You're late," Regina said without looking. She put the apple into her basket.
"Sorry," he said, but his smile never wavered, "I wanted to bring you the latest edition. I assure you, it's one of my better hatchet jobs." He presented her the newspaper.
Regina took the newspaper. "That's not what I asked for." His face quickly fell. "What'd you find out about her?" She looked at the paper as she walked away.
"Well, the truth be told, there wasn't much." Sidney circled her and stopped in front of her. "She spent a lot of time in foster homes. She got into a little trouble when she was a kid, but the details are locked up pretty tight. Since then, she's clean." They stopped walking and Regina picked another apple. She gave him a pointed look. "Bounced around all over. The only thing I really learned was that she doesn't like to sit still."
Regina walked away to look at another part of her tree. "That appears to have changed."
He rushed to catch up with her. "D-did you know that, um, she had Henry while she was in Phoenix?" He walked in front of her and smiled. Maybe he finally had something she was interested in. "How'd he wind up here in Maine?"
"So if I'm understanding you correctly, you've found nothing of value." She waved the newspaper. "Which means you have no value, Sidney." He looked crestfallen. "Do you know what I do with things that hold no value to me?" She moved closer to him. "I throw them away."
Sidney tried to form a response but just made noises. "I'll keep looking." He walked past her.
She gave the newspaper another look, might as well be sure that there really wasn't anything valuable to be gleamed.
At Granny's diner Emma was seated at the counter, reading the newspaper. Figures that she would write a hatchet piece about me, Emma thought. She went to take a bite out of the apple Regina had given her when Ruby sat a mug of hot chocolate, with cinnamon, in front of her.
"Here you go," Ruby said. She leaned on the counter and smiled at her.
"Thank you... but I didn't order that."
"Yeah, I know. You have an admirer."
Emma looked behind her and saw Sheriff Graham seated in a booth. She put down her paper and walked over to him, carrying the mug of hot chocolate.
"Ah, so you decided to stay."
"Observant. Important for a cop."
"That's good news for our tourist business," he hissed, "bad for our local signage." He shook his head several times. Emma gave him a look. "It's-it's a joke..." she continued to look unimpressed, although he was cute when he was telling a bad joke, "because you ran over our sign..."
"Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture, and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon in my chocolate, 'cause most people don't, but I am not here to flirt, so, thank you, but no thank you." She set the mug on the table.
"I didn't send it."
Henry peered over from another booth. "I did," he admitted cheerfully. "I like cinnamon, too." He got up.
"Don't you have school?"
"Duh, I'm ten." He walked towards her. "Walk me."
Henry and Emma walked down the sidewalk. She threw the apple from hand to hand.
"So, what's the deal with you and your mom?" she asked as they crossed the road.
"It's not about us, it's about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one: identification. I call it, 'Operation Cobra'."
"Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairytales."
"Exactly, it's a codename. It'll throw the Queen off the trail."
"So, everyone here is fairytale character, they just don't know it."
"That's the curse. Time's been frozen.. Until you got here." Emma was about to take a bite out of the apple she's carrying. "Hey!" Emma stopped and looked at him.
"Where'd you get that?"
"Your mom."
"Don't eat that!" He grabbed the apple and threw it behind him.
Emma watched the apple soar before looking back at him. The kid really isn't kidding around. "Okay... Um, uh, alright. What about their pasts?"
"They don't know. It's a haze to them. Ask anyone anything and you'll see."
"So... for decades, people have been walking around, in a haze, not aging, with screwed up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious." She hoped that if she summed it up Henry would see how this all sounded but instead he looked over joyed.
"I knew you'd get it! That's why we need you, you're the only one who can stop her Curse."
"Because I'm the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming?"
"Yes! And right now, we have the advantage. My mom doesn't know that." He unzipped his backpack. "I took out the end," he took out pages from his backpack and handed them to Emma, "the part with you in it."
Emma looked at a page containing an illustration of Prince Charming placing a baby in the wardrobe, the name Emma clearly visibly on the baby blanket. It looked exactly like her baby blanket.
"See?" Henry asked. "Your mom is Snow White!"
"Kid..."
"I know the hero never believes at first, if they did, it wouldn't be a very good story. If you need proof, take them, read them. But whatever you do, don't let her see these pages. They're dangerous. If she finds out who you are... then it would be bad."
Later they stopped in front of the school.
"I gotta go," he said, "but I'll find you later and we can get started. I knew you'd believe me!"
"I never said I did."
"Why else would you be here?" He ran off towards the school.
Lacey approached Emma. "It's good to see his smile back," she said.
"I didn't do anything."
"You stayed. So... does the Mayor know you're still here?" She looked around as if Regina might just pop out of nowhere at any moment.
"Oh, she knows. What is her deal? She's not a great people person, how did she get elected?"
Lacey pursed her lips and Emma could practically see the cogs turning in her head. "She's been Mayor as long as I can remember. No one's ever been brave enough to run against her. She inspires quite a bit of.. well, fear. I'm afraid I only made that worse by giving Henry that book and now he thinks she's the Evil Queen."
"Who does he think you are?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm not in the book, I don't know if everyone is." She giggled. "I love books so much, it would be a pity if I'm the only one not in this one." Emma chuckled.
"Who does he think you are?"
"I'm not in the book..." She didn't feel like discussing it at the moment. "Can I ask you a favor? Regina mentioned the kid's in therapy; do you know where I can find the doctor?"
Dr. Archie Hopper was reading in his office when there was a knock on the door. Emma opened the door.
"Hey." She walked into the room and closed the door behind her. Now that she was inside Emma noticed that his office looked like it hadn't been updated in decades from the old striped wallpaper to the old furniture to the old looking and somewhat random decorations. On one drawer there was a miniature telescope partly obscuring the clock behind it with a miniature black figurine of the Thinker under it. There were two miniature busts next to a potted plant in front of his degree that hung on the wall. She wondered why he had hung a portrait of what looked like it might be a Chinese symbol and a clarinet on a table with a music stand holding an open book of sheet music next to it. Did he also teach music? It was like someone made what they thought a therapist's office was from watching movies and just put whatever they had at hand for the decorations. Dr. Hopper looked rather old fashioned himself, wearing a tweed suit that must have gone out of fashion decades ago. Places tend to look so old here, maybe that's where Henry got the idea of time being frozen here.
"Emma Swan." He stood up and picked up a newspaper. "I was just, uh, reading about you. Let me guess, you're here for help with a little post-traumatic stress?" He chuckled and then put the paper down. "That diagnosis was free, by the way."
She gave a weak laugh. "No, I'm here about Henry."
"I'm sorry, I-I I really shouldn't..."
Emma brought her hands together. "I know, I'm sorry, I just... just tell me something." She sat herself down on the arm of a chair. "This fairytale obsession, what is causing it? I mean, he thinks everyone is a character in his book. That's... crazy."
Archie gestured with open hands. "I-I hope you don't talk that way in front of him. The word 'crazy' is um.. quite damaging. These stories- they're his language. He has no idea how to express complex emotions so he's translating as best he can, this is how he communicates. He's using this book to help deal with his problems."
"But he got the book a month ago. Has he been seeing you longer than that?"
Archie shuffled his feet and put his hands in his pockets. "Um-Yes, he has."
"So it's Regina, isn't it?"
"Uh- his mother is a... very complicated woman, and uh- over the years, her attempts to try and bring Henry closer have only backfired."
He walked over to a file cabinet, opened it and removed a folder. He walked back over to her. "Why don't you take a look at the file. Um... see what I mean." He held the folder out to her.
She looked at the folder, uncertain whether or not she should trust this gesture. "Why are you doing this?"
"Well, he talks about you a lot. You're.. very important to him."
She took the folder. "Thank you."
"Just uh... see that I get it back, okay?" He opened the door and Emma started to leave. "Miss Swan." She stopped and looked at him. "Just for the sake of the boy, be careful how you handle his... belief system. To destroy his imagination would be... would be devastating." Emma held the folder close as she nodded.
Emma departed and Archie closed the door. He went to his desk and made a phone call. "You were right. She.. was just here."
On the other end of the line was Regina, she was sitting in her office. "Did she take the file?"
"Yes. H-how did you know she was gonna come here?"
Regina smiled wickedly. "Because I'm the one who gave her the idea."
Emma was laying on her bed reading Henry's files when there was a knock on her door. She got up and opened the door to find Sheriff Graham standing in the doorway.
"Hey there... if you're concerned about the 'Do Not Disturb' signs, don't worry; I've left them alone."
"Actually, I'm here about Dr. Archibald Hopper. He mentioned you got into a bit of a row with him earlier?"
"No." Emma put her hands on her hips.
"I'm shocked, too, given your shy, delicate sensibilities." She smiled despite herself but the smile was short lived. "He says you demanded to see Henry's files and when he refused you came back and stole them."
"He gave them to me," she said incredulously. She hadn't pegged Dr. Hopper as one to make up stories. But then who gave confidential files that easily?
"Alas, he's telling a different tale. May I check your room? Or must I get a search warrant?"
She opened the door fully, walked over to her bed, he followed after her. She gestured to the papers spread on it. "This what ya lookin' for?"
Graham picked up a paper and read a few words. "Well, you're very accommodating. But, I'm afraid, Miss Swan, you're under arrest. Again." He got his cuffs out, took one of Emma's hands and cuffed her.
"You know I'm being set up, don't you?"
"And whom, may I ask, is setting you up?" He cuffed the other hand.
Regina walked over to where Lacey was teaching a lesson outside.
"Water... synthesize," Lacey said.
Regina cleared her throat and Lacey stood and approached her. "May I speak with my son?"
"We're in the middle of a lesson. Is it important?" She was met with a stonily stare from Regina.
"Do you think I'd be here if it wasn't!?." She walked past from Lacey who watched her go over to Henry.
Lacey had a bad feeling about this but didn't know why.
Regina lead Henry away from the class and bent down look him in the eyes. She tried to sound as sympathetic as possible when she talked. "Henry, sweetie, I have some bad news. The woman who you brought here... she's been arrested. She broke into Dr. Hopper's office and stole his files. She's a con woman. She's trying to learn about us in order to take advantage of us. That's why she's sticking around. I'm sorry."
"No, you're not."
She raised her voice. "I know you think otherwise, but all I'm doing is trying to protect you." She gave a small smile. "This is gonna be good for us, you'll see. Things will be better." The school bell rang.
"I gotta get back to class." Henry hurried off back to class.
At the Sheriff's station Graham took a photo of Emma against the mugshot backdrop. She would have been lying if she said that this wasn't bringing up bad memories for her, even the snap sound of the camera taking photos was all too familiar. But of course she didn't show it, she was nothing but pissed off as far as Graham knew.
"You know the shrink is lying, right?" she asked.
"To the right, please." Emma moved so her entire body was facing right and he took the shot. "Why would he lie?"
"The Mayor put him up to this... she's gotta have something on him. He's terrified of her, like everyone else in this—–town."
"To the left." He pointed and she moved so her body was fully facing left. "Regina may be a touch intimidating," He pulled the photos out of the camera, "but I don't think she'd go as far as a frame-job." He moved the photos aside.
She turned her face to have a better look at him. "How far would she go? What does she have her hands in?"
"Well, she's the Mayor. She has her hands in everything."
"Including the police force?" She turned her body, facing him more fully now.
Graham gave her a look but whatever his reply was going to be it got cut off by Henry running in, followed by a nervous Lacey.
"HEY!" Henry shouted at Emma while Lacey looked around uncomfortably.
"Henry!" Graham said. "Henry, what are you doing here?"
"His mother told him what happened," Lacey replied.
"Of course she did!" Emma scoffed. "Henry, I don't know what she said-"
"You're a genius!" Henry exclaimed.
"What?" Emma asked.
"I know what you were up to. You were gathering intel." He dropped his voice to an almost whisper. "For 'Operation Cobra'."
"I'm sorry," Graham said. "I'm a bit lost..."
"It's need to know, Sheriff," Henry said, "and all you need to know is that Miss French's gonna bail her out."
"You are?" Emma asked Lacey. "Why?"
With the attention on her Lacey seemed to shrink into herself. "I-uh—trust you."
"Well. If you could uncuff me..." She extended arms out to Graham,"...I have something to do."
In the Mayor's office Regina sat at her desk doing paperwork when she heard a chainsaw sound coming from outside. She looked out the window at her apple tree and saw Emma cutting off a branch with a chainsaw. Regina ran down the stairs and walked when she reached the garden she walked quickly towards Emma with both of her hands curled into fists. A branch laid on the ground, the apples had fallen off it and landed in multiple directions.
"What the hell are you doing!?"
"Picking apples." She dropped the chainsaw.
"You're out of you mind!"
"No, you are if you think a shoddy frame job's enough to scare me off. You're gonna have to do better than that. If you come after me one more time, I'm coming back for the rest of this tree. Because, sister, you have no idea what I am capable of." She walked away and without looking back added "Your move."
Belle stood straight and glared daggers at the Huntsman and the other guard after they had thrown her into her room in the tower. The room was sparse with a bed in the corner and straw on the floor. There was one window that was bared.
"Her rein will end one day and what will become of you then?"
The Huntsman closed the door in her face and locked it. Belle ran to the door and pounded against it.
"She can get what she wants if she just let's me go! I can still cure him!"
Emma used a key to open the door to her room. She walked into her room.
Granny spoke from behind her. "Miss Swan?" She sounded nervous.
Emma turned around.
"Oh my, this is terribly awkward. I need to ask you to leave."
I should have expected something like this, Emma thought.
"I'm afraid we have a 'No felons'-rule. It.. it turns out it's a city ordinance."
"Let me guess: the Mayor's office just called to remind you."
Granny nodded. "You can gather your things, but I need to have your room key back." Emma held out her key.
Regina kneeled on the grass next to the fallen branch of her apple tree and put apples into a basket. Graham approached her.
"She destroyed city property," Regina said. "I want her arrested."
"Again?"
"What are you waiting for?"
"I'm just not convinced arresting her is the right plan." Regina stood up and faced him. "And I'm not talking about your tree. We both know she didn't steel those files."
"Oh, do we?"
"I mean, she looked pretty shocked when I leveled the charges against her."
"That's because she doesn't like being caught." She knelt down again and picked up another apple.
"Or because she was set up. And if she was, that means Dr. Hopper was lying. If he's lying that means that someone asked him to." Regina stood up. "Are we really confident that the man's conscience won't eventually get the best of him?"
"I think your schoolboy crush is clouding your judgment. Remember, I made you Sheriff. And I can take it away just as easily."
"You want me to arrest her again? I will."
"Good." She knelt down and continued putting apples into her basket.
"But she is gonna keep comin' at you. And I know you, you are gonna keep comin' at her. You will do whatever it takes to get her out of here. And you may succeed."
"I will succeed!" Regina got up. "He's my son! It's what's best for him."
"I know that's what you believe. But if this escalates, it seems to me the only one who will get hurt is Henry."
Outside of Granny's Bed and Breakfast Emma was walking along the sidewalk when she looked across the street at her car and saw the boot on it. Her phone rang and she answered it. "Yeah?"
Regina's voice came in. "Ms. Swan, I'd be happy to continue demonstrating my power, but in my writing I'm guessing your resolve to stay is only growing?"
"You have no idea," she said as she walked over to her car. She opened her car door and got her red jacket out.
"Well then. I think it's time we made peace. Why don't you drive over to my office." Emma slammed her car door. "Or walk—whatever suits you." Emma hung up and rolled her eyes.
Regina held a glass of whiskey in her hand. She sat down across from Emma who was already seated with her feet up on the couch.
"I'd like to start by apologizing, Miss Swan."
"What?"
"I just have to accept the reality that you want to be here..."
"That's right. I do." She kept her voice calmed and level, perhaps she could reason with her after all if she went about it the right now.
"...And that you're here to take my son from me."
"Okay, let's be clear: I have no intention of taking him from anyone."
Regina leaned forward. "Well then, what are you doing here?"
"I know I'm not a mother—I think that's pretty self-evident—but I did have him, and I can't help it—he got in my head and I want to make sure he's okay. The more you try to push me out, the more I want to be here, especially after seeing how.. troubled.. he is."
"You think he's troubled?"
"Well, he's in therapy, and I only got through a couple pages of his shrink's notes before you had me arrested. But putting all that aside—he thinks everyone in this town is a fairytale character."
"And you don't?"
"How can I? The poor kid can't even tell the difference between fantasy and reality and it's only getting worse. It's crazy."
"You think I'm crazy?" Henry's voice came from the open doorway.
She stood up and turned around. "Henry..." He ran away. Emma walked forward as if she was going to follow him and then she turned her to look back at Regina. "How long was he there?"
"Long enough."
"You knew he would be here."
When she spoke she was perfectly calm while Emma was fuming with rage. "Did I know that my son comes to my office every Thursday at precisely five P.M. so I can take him for dinner before his therapy session? Of course I did. I'm his mother." She set her arms on the arms of the armchair. "Your move."
"You have no soul. How in the hell did you get like this?" Emma stormed out of the office.
Lacey sat on the couch, working on needlecraft, when there was a knock at the door. She opened the door and Emma stood in the hallway.
"Hey." Lacey opened the door fully.
"Just wanted to say thank you and, um," Emma handed her an envelope, "pay you back the bail money." Emma paused before giving a exasperated sigh.
"You look like you need to talk."
Emma with Lacey at her dining table and drank hot chocolate. She would have liked some cinnamon but didn't mention it out of politeness. Lacey offered her a cookie. "No, thanks. When you bailed me out, you said.. that you trusted me." Lacey nodded. "Why?"
"It's strange—ever since you arrived here, I've had the oddest feeling, like you're meant to be here, like you were always meant to be here. I mean, I know it's crazy."
"I'm starting to reevaluate my definition of crazy."
"For what it's worth, I think you're innocent."
"Of breaking and entering, or just in general?"
"Both."
"Doesn't really matter what anyone thinks I did or didn't do. I'm leaving. Thank you for everything, but I think it's for the best. If I stay, Henry's only gonna keep getting hurt."
"What happens if you go? I think the very fact that you want to leave is why you have to stay. You care about him. Who will protect Henry if you won't?"
Henry was in Archie's office, looking down at the floor sadly. Henry and Archie sat in front of a burning fireplace, Henry sat on the couch and Archie on the armchair next to him.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Archie asked. Henry only fiddled with Archie's umbrella. "You know, that umbrella is kind of my good luck charm." He waited for Henry to speak and continued when he didn't. "Is that why you think I'm Jiminy Cricket?"
"I don't think you're anyone." He set the umbrella down on the coffee table. Emma, holding the storybook pages Henry gave her, opened the office door.
"Miss Swan." Archie got up and walked over to her. "Look, I can explain. The Mayor forced me-"
"I know. Don't worry about it. I get it." She held her hands up to Archie. She walked over to Henry. "Henry, I'm sorry."
"I don't want to talk to you," Henry said. He was slumped against the couch with his eyes closed.
"Miss Swan, if she knew you were here-" Archie said.
"To hell with her," Emma interrupted." She sat down in the armchair across from Henry. "Henry, there is one simple reason I stayed here—you. I wanted to get to know you."
"You think I'm crazy!" Henry exclaimed.
"No," Emma said, "I think the Curse is crazy. And it is." She sighed. "But that doesn't mean that it isn't true." Henry looked at her out of the side of his eyes. "It is a lot to ask anyone to believe in, but there are a lot of crazy things in this world. So, what do I know?" Emma shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe it is true."
"But you told my mom-" Henry said looking straight ahead.
"-What she needed to hear. What I do know... is that if the Curse is real, the only way to break it is by tricking the Evil Queen... into thinking that we are nonbelievers. 'Cause, that way, she's not on to us. Is that what Operation Cobra was all about? Throwing her off the trail?"
Henry smiled and sat up. "Brilliant!"
"I read the pages, and Henry, you're right—the are dangerous. There is only one way to make sure that she never sees them." She took the pages and placed them into the fireplace. "Now we have the advantage."
Henry got up and hugged her. "I knew you were here to help me!"
She returned the embrace. "That's right, kid. I am." She ran her fingers through his face before breaking the embrace. "And nothing, not even a curse, is gonna stop that." She hugged him again.
When his session was finished Henry and Emma walked down the street.
Regina was tending to her apple tree when Mr. Gold approached her.
"What a mess."
"Not for long. What can I do for you, Mr. Gold?"
"I was just in the neighborhood, thought I'd pop by. Lovely to see you in such high spirits." He walked around her tree.
Regina chuckled. "Well, it's been a good day. I just rid the town of an unwanted nuisance."
"Emma Swan? Really?" He had made his way back around to her.
"Yes. I imagine she's halfway to Boston by now."
He picked an apple from the tree. "Oh, I wouldn't bet on that." She scowled at him. I've just seen her strolling down the main street with your boy. Thick as thieves, they looked."
"What?"
"Perhaps you should have come to me. If Miss Swan is a problem you can't fix, I'm only too happy to help, for a price, of course."
Regina chuckled. "I'm not in the business of making deals with you anymore." She turned her back to him, returning to the tree.
"To which deal are you referring?"
She turned and looked at him. "You know what deal."
"Oh, right, yeah. The boy I procured for you. Henry. Did I ever tell you what a lovely name that was? How ever did you pick it?"
Regina turned back to face him. "Did you want her to come to town? You wanted all this to happen, didn't you? Your finding Henry wasn't an accident, was it?"
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Where did you get him?" He remained silent. "Do you know something?"
"I've no idea what you're implying." His mouth stretched into a thin smile, barely noticeable but Regina picked up on it.
"I think you do." He smirked a bit. "Who is this woman, his mother, this... Emma Swan?"
"I would say you think you know exactly who she is." He smiled again. Regina stared, stunned. "I really must be going." He tried to leave, she blocked his path.
"Tell me what you know about her."
"I'm not gonna answer you, dear, so I suggest you excuse me." She found that she couldn't move. "Please." He took a bite of the apple and walked past her. Stunned Regina turned and watched him go. He threw the apple over his shoulder.