Author's Note: Again thank you to Marphisa who is still helping me out. You Rock! Hopefully you guys don't expect what's coming next...maybe you do.
She had been crying. Crying and running through the woods. She really hadn't been watching where she was going. She had found herself in the forest one second and the next she was suddenly in a clearing in the woods, where not two steps before she had been running down a path.
Looking up at the sun, she tried to keep herself calm but was failing miserably. She had no idea where she was. The heat of the sun made her remove her riding hood, clutching it to her as a means of comfort.
Walking as carefully as she could, she continued to cry, trying to keep whimpers form leaving her mouth and, of course, was not able to.
Finally she reached the edge of the clearing. That was when she was able to look down over the valley to where she could clearly see the town. As she looked, she saw a path leading down toward it. Knowing that she was lost, she quickly made up her mind to reach the odd looking town.
Taking a deep breathe as she gathered her courage, she slowly began to make her way down. Despite everything, though, she couldn't stop her tears.
She hoped she could make her way back home, even though she knew it would not be a happy event. She didn't yet know what awaited her in the small town below.
Sarah whirled towards David and screamed loudly. Everyone jumped as they saw the pure look of horror on Sarah's face.
"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Sarah screamed the question at her uncle.
David looked at everyone in the room quickly before looking back at Sarah.
"I didn't do anything," David said as calmly as he could, hoping that Sarah would try to calm down and explain herself.
"ARE YOU CRAZY! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU JUST DID?" Sarah continued to scream hysterically.
David shook his head with a knitted brow and remained silent, afraid of another outburst.
Sarah let out another scream of frustration and began pacing the room frantically.
"Ok, what just happened?" Mary Margaret asked Sarah as she continued to pace.
Sarah stopped and again screamed. "YOUR HUSBAND JUST USED THE 'W' WORD!"
Everyone looked even more confused at her actions as she continued to pace the room.
"You mean he w—" Henry had begun to say the word when Sarah used magic and was suddenly standing in front of him covering his mouth.
"NO! Never—Never say the word around me Henry." Sarah's serious eyes conveyed to Henry that this was not a joke and in no way funny.
"Why?" David asked, completely baffled.
Sarah let out a sigh, and lifted her hand from covering Henry's mouth.
"Because I can't control what happens when you do!" The energy seemed to leave Sarah's body as she said the words. Turning back to Mary Margaret, Sarah gave her a defeated look. "I know I didn't exist in your world, but there are some things that are way too different," she said before going over to the couch and plopping herself down.
Sarah rubbed at her tired eyes. She hadn't really slept in days now, and the toll it was taking on her was big. She had to keep the fatigue from being visible, though, especially after how sick she had been not that long ago.
She was grateful it had been her Snow to take care of her, because she really didn't want to have to explain why she had been so sick to her mother and sister of this world. No matter how used to her presence they were, she doubted they would be prepared for that story. But now that a wish had been made, she knew she had to tell them about a secret that her family had kept for years now. Otherwise, really bad things could happen.
Rolling her eyes, she realized they already had.
"Do you mind elaborating on that because I'm still very confused," David said as he continued to hold his mother's hand.
Sarah smirked, ready to crack a joke at her uncle's cluelessness; but seeing the same confused look on her grandmother's face made her quickly change her mind. Another sigh left her and she began to explain.
"In your world did Mom find an oil lamp close to the castle?" Sarah looked up at her sister as she asked the question.
Mary Margaret shook her head, but she knew who had found that lamp in her world; and she realized exactly who Sarah was referring to. "Sidney," Mary Margaret whispered more to herself than for any kind of clarification.
Sarah again sighed and thrust her head back onto the couch cushion.
"Well, in my world, mother found an oil lamp on the shore. It was the home of a genie."
Everyone exchanged looks, still not understanding how what Sarah was telling them was relevant.
"When he came out of the lamp he granted Mom three wishes, but both of us – me and Snow- saw the way the genie looked at her. Both of us knew he was attracted to her. And, of course, you being jealous of any man that seems interested in mom—well—you hated him instantly," Sarah said with a small smirk and a quick glance at Mary Margaret.
Mary Margaret's mouth fell open in indignation. "I am not jealous of her!"
The way Sarah turned her head and leaned towards Mary with a pointed stare as she said her next words made Cora very intrigued as to whether or not Mary Margaret was jealous of Regina.
"Snow, you told him that if he looked at our mother's…assets in 'that way' again, you'd make sure to have his 'assets' removed."
David sputtered out a laugh, though he tried to contain it. Cora just smirked. Henry didn't understand a word Sarah had said. Mary Margaret shook her head with her mouth still open and moving, trying to deny it; but no words left her mouth.
Sarah leaned back, and continued on.
"Well, Mom told him that the thing she wanted more than anything else in the world he couldn't help her with. So, Mom being Mom, she freed him."
This caused both Mary Margaret and David to exchange looks of wonder, both finding it incredible that Regina of all people would let go of a powerful asset so easily. And then the next words left even Henry in shock.
"And then she wished to give him her last wish."
"Wow," Henry said as he thought of just how kind his mother was in this other world.
Sarah nodded her head sadly.
"You have no idea how important that wish she gave him was." Sarah looked up at Mary Margaret as she said the next words.
"That wish saved my life."
Suddenly, fear gripped the three other adults at those words. Cora's eyes scanned Sarah's body, still dressed in her mother's 'modern' clothes, and saw no scars.
"What happened?" Henry asked, the look of worry on his own face making Sarah regret having to tell him this way. But after David's wish, she had absolutely no choice.
She heaved another huge sigh and turned her eyes away from the people around her and down to her hands.
"I was sick, very sick."
"Sarah." Cora could tell by the sound of Sarah's voice that she was lying.
Sarah rolled her eyes. Leave it to her grandmother from a parallel dimension to call her out on her half truth.
"Fine! I was dying."
"WHAT?" Henry screamed out in fear, knowing that in no way could this story turn out well.
Mary Margaret's expression morphed to one of anger and fear at the thought of someone trying to hurt her sister.
"Let's just say that I helped out a friend and it almost cost me my life," Sarah said as she looked over at a concerned looking Henry. Turning her head, she looked her grandmother in the eye and saw that she too was more than just a little suspicious of where this story was going.
"You, Mom, Rum, Blue—everyone and anyone was searching for something to save me, but—" Sarah shook her head sadly, "there was nothing. Nothing worked. Not even the waters from Lake Nostos. I knew it was over when you and Snow wouldn't leave my side to help look. I was ready to die."
Mary Margaret felt her heart constrict at the words, knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that she wouldn't have left Sarah's side if that were the case.
David even felt the pang of those words. He hadn't really gotten to know Sarah like Mary Margaret apparently had, but he had immediately liked her. The thought of her dying and him not being able to find a way to stop it left a knot in his chest.
Sarah caught David's flinch and knew immediately what he was thinking.
"You tried, Uncle David. You and Uncle James searched all over. Besides, I'm still here. Everything turned out fine," Sarah consoled her uncle.
David and Cora both stilled when they heard the name James. Neither had realized that in Sarah's dimension James had not died. Cora's unused heart tightened at the idea of her son being alive. David—David was curious as to what his brother was like. Having never met him and having had heard stories about his brother, he had always assumed the worst.
"James—James is alive?" Cora asked out of breath.
Sarah's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Of course he is. What kind of a question is that?"
It was when everyone exchanged looks that Sarah understood that James was dead in this dimension.
"Oh my God. Uncle James is—" Sarah couldn't even say the words. She loved her uncle. Her mother was extremely close to her brothers, and she couldn't imagine the world without her uncle in it.
"Wait, so why can't we say—" Henry was about to ask why he couldn't say the word wish but was immediately halted by Sarah screaming, "AH!"
Pointing her finger at Henry, Sarah gave him a look that said, "Don't do it."
"Because to save me the genie died for me," Sarah said swiftly. It left all of them stunned silent.
"He was in love with mom. Would have done anything for her. And he proved it. He traded his life for mine. But for some reason, I also received his magical powers."
"So, you can grant—" Henry again began and again was immediately halted before he could say the word.
"NO! And stop trying to say it! I can't grant anything. That's why no one around me can say that word. I can't control what happens. It's like the universe uses me to do what it wants." Sarah said, looking among everyone in the room.
"So when I said—" David made a motion with his head, indicating a few moments ago.
Again Sarah sighed with a grim look. "It means it's been granted."
David and Mary Margaret exchanged a look; then David turned and looked at Sarah with a worried look on his face.
"And what does that mean?"
Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea."
Emma had decided to stick around Snow and Regina. They had been walking slowly towards Regina's house for over an hour as Snow asked Regina questions.
Emma had tried to hear their conversation without being conspicuous, but not because she had any suspicions about Snow. No matter what dimension she had come from - her mother was always Snow White.
Yeah, that didn't sound like a crazy thing to say.
Emma rolled her eyes at herself as she walked behind the two women. She had come to grips with who she was and who her parents were, but it was still hard to get her head wrapped around what it truly all meant. But what she was seeing in front of her; it was something that she knew meant something big. And she didn't know what it was, but she was determined to find out.
It was more than odd, to say the least. Watching a woman that had made her life hell since arriving in this town walk with arms linked with a woman that was a doppelganger to her mother had to be one of the strangest things Emma thought she would ever see.
That's when both Regina and Snow stopped dead in their tracks. Emma didn't realize why they stopped, but what happened next made her rush over.
"SARAH!"
Both women had yelled out the name, which caused Emma to immediately run to their aid. When she did, she seemed to jerk back as she found a third person standing in front of them. Well, a young person that she had never seen before but who looked very familiar.
Turning her head to question Regina and Snow, she saw the looks of complete shock on their faces. Oddly, both had their mouths hanging open and eyes wide as they stared at the little girl.
Well—not so little girl.
It was when the little young girl whispered the name that it clicked who she was in Emma's mind.
"Regina?" The young girl asked with a furrowed brow.
"Oh no." Emma said the words and closed her eyes as she processed it. Opening them again, she confirmed that the little girl was still there.
A very real— young version—of Snow White.
Author's Notes: Should I expect 3 reviews or 6 reviews for this chapter? You tell me! REVIEW REVIEW!