Author's Note: Once again I wouldn't be able to do this without Marphisa! The more reviews...the faster the update guys! Hint, Hint!
Sarah suddenly jerked her head to look towards the front door.
"Did you hear that?" Sarah asked as her eyes glared at the door as if it would answer her question.
"Hear what?" Henry asked then turned to see what Sarah was looking at.
"I could have sworn someone just screamed my name," Sarah murmured, almost to herself.
"I didn't hear anything," David said, trying to listen for any kind of noise Sarah could have heard.
"What do you think you…" Mary Margaret began, but Sarah raised her hand making her understand to stop talking.
Sarah knew she had heard someone scream out her name, almost as if her Snow were yelling for her out of fear. For a few seconds Sarah could hear her own heart. Something akin to intuition prepared her for what would happen in the next few minutes.
Then she heard a name being screamed. Even from the vast distance it was coming from, she would forever be able to understand whose name was being screamed.
Without another word or glance to the others, Sarah leapt from the couch and threw open the door, running down the road as fast as her feet would carry her.
She didn't turn for one second to see if someone was following her or if the others were concerned. The only thing in her mind in those moments was her sister.
If it weren't for the fact that at the moment she couldn't use magic even if she wanted to, she would have used it to be by Snow's side in an instant.
It would have taken too much time to explain to her grandmother to ask for help, and the fast thumping in her chest wouldn't let her feet stop moving.
Almost hyperventilating, she reached the end of a street near the town center and immediately bent over at the relief of seeing Snow in the distance - completely fine and very much alive.
She hadn't realized that everyone except her grandmother had run after her, fearing that something was indeed wrong.
Sarah shook her head, looking at the ground, trying to regain her breath. "I must have imagined it. But I could have sworn..."
Raising her head once more, Sarah felt all the air she had been sucking in leave her. Snow and Emma had moved just slightly to allow Sarah to see the sight just beyond them.
"Oh my God!" Mary Margaret exclaimed with wide eyes as she saw for the first time...herself...as a child.
"Mary...tell me I'm hallucinating," Sarah requested with a high voice as she understood immediately how something like this could be happening.
Mary Margaret could say nothing. Instead she shook her head even as she too continued to stare at the child that was still wrapped in Regina's embrace on the ground in the road.
"Way to go David!" Sarah said angrily and whirled around to see the slack jawed Prince staring at the scene before him. The anger in Sarah's voice made David finally snap back to himself.
"Who's that little girl?" Henry asked. A twinge of jealousy at the sight of his mother holding the young girl tightly made him feel very uncomfortable for some reason.
"It's...It's me," Mary Margaret stuttered out.
David had not understood what was going on, until his wife said those words, of course. His eyes almost popped out of his head as he realized why Sarah was truly angry at him.
"Because I wi—" David began, and again Sarah whirled around with a half angry yell.
"DON'T SAY IT!" Sarah's yell came from the self loathing deep within herself.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Sarah asked as they all backed away from her. In that moment all of them knew that Sarah was indeed Regina's child by the way her voice became cold and her eyes became like ice.
"He didn't know about you being a genie. It's not really his fault if he didn't know!" Henry defended his grandfather, causing a slight smirk to form on David's face.
Sarah, realizing that Henry was right, gave him a scowl. "Who taught you how to be reasonable in this family?"
Henry gave her a laughing smile as she pushed him halfheartedly, Henry knowing that she did it jokingly.
Mary Margaret in the mean while had walked away from Sarah's side and begun to make her way to where Emma stood next to Snow.
Regina slowly pulled back from the crushing embrace that she had surrounded Little Snow with.
The sight of a plump child-faced Snow White mere inches from Regina's face caused flashback after flashback to surge through her mind.
Tears still traveled down young Snow's face, and Regina couldn't find the words to even speak to her. For the first time she was at a complete loss to say anything at all.
Little Snow slowly lifted her innocent crying eyes to look up at Regina, and in that moment Regina was transported back to all those years ago when she had first looked into Snow's eyes.
They say that history tends to repeat itself. Here was Regina's proof that it indeed did.
"Are you okay?" Regina asked without thought, something from deep within repeating the first words she had ever said to Snow.
Odd wasn't it? Those three words were the first words that Regina had ever spoken to Snow, and that she would dedicate her life to making sure that she was never okay.
But never had she expected to find herself faced with that child once more.
How odd it was that the anger at Snow was still there, still as strong as ever, but the hate that she had felt for years...it...it wasn't all there. It was as though the feeling of hate was merely a shadow of a feeling, but not the full emotion at all.
"I'm sorry." Little Snow's quivering voice broke Regina's thoughts.
Those words coming from Snow's mouth caused anger to rise up in Regina's chest. It seemed to burn intensely as the voice in her head screamed that she should be sorry.
But a voice she hadn't heard in so long, one that she knew immediately was indeed her own, made itself heard after almost a lifetime of silence. Or it seemed that way to Regina.
The voice wasn't loud. If anything, it was a whisper, soft and soothing.
'She just lost her mother, and now you know how that feels. How can you hold her responsible for any of her actions?'
"Regina?" Little Snow's brow had furrowed in worry at the look on Regina's face.
In the short time she had known Regina she had never seen her look like this.
Emma and Snow slowly approached the two, neither of them realizing that the truck that had almost killed Snow had screeched to a halt. Rushing out of the vehicle towards Regina and Little Snow was none other than Happy.
"I'm so sorry!"
Emma quickly moved to Happy and quickly moved him away from Regina and Little Snow, unsure of what had happened and what was going on.
Snow bent towards her mother and gently laid a hand on her shoulder, "Are you both ok?"
The touch of Snow's hand against her shoulder allowed Regina to turn off her thoughts, and she realized that they were both still on the pavement in the middle of the street.
A quick glance to Snow and then down to Little Snow confirmed that she wasn't going insane and she did indeed have a very young Snow in her arms.
"I think so," Little Snow said with a sniffle.
"Why were you crying?" The question left Regina's lips, though she was unsure why she cared at all.
Little Snow's lips began to quiver, causing her to look down to hide the tears that she couldn't hold back.
Regina gasped out loud as Little Snow wrapped her arms tightly around her and buried her head against Regina's chest.
Snow didn't know what to say about the action, especially since her mother wrapped her arms just as tightly around Little Snow and squeezed her back.
The people that had gathered outside after hearing the screeching of the tires had stayed back, seeing that Regina was one of the people who was currently on the ground in the middle of the road. No one wanted to upset the Evil Queen and bring on her rage.
All of course except one person.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Rum said with a final step towards Regina's form, He rested his hands on his ever present cane to support himself.
Now, Regina would never really know why- but hearing Rumple's voice as she held a very young Snow in her arms made Regina slowly stand up and move Little Snow behind her - away from Rumple's eyes.
"What do you want?"
The words were said with such venom and coldness that Little Snow held fast to Regina's waist as she peaked around Regina to see the man Regina obviously didn't want looking at her.
Snow also stood next to her mother, following her mother's example and creating a barrier between Rumple and Little Snow. Snow didn't question her mother's reasoning or even say a word when doing this; questions were for afterwards. Now was a time for acting off of instinct.
Finally, even Mary Margaret had reached them, flanking Regina on the opposite side of Snow.
Rumple's crooked little smile didn't dissipate. If anything it grew just slightly.
"Now, who could have ever pictured this moment?" Rumple asked his rhetorical question, eyeing each of the women before him.
"What do you want, Mr. Gold?" Mary Margaret asked, oddly calling the man by his Storybrooke name.
Mary Margaret gave a quick glance at the very real, very young version of herself that was now hiding behind the woman that would always try to destroy her life.
The quick motion just wasn't quick enough, because Rumpelstiltskin noticed it.
"I just wanted to meet...your little friend here. See if she's ok."
"She's fine!" Regina immediately snapped, staring down the man as she unconsciously held Snow's arms around her more securely.
Everything in Regina was fighting, battling with conflicting emotions. But one thing both sides agreed with. Rumplestiltskin was a danger to Little Snow, even if she didn't know why.
Little Snow tried to see the man that Regina was obviously protecting her from and finally caught his eyes. She shivered as her eyes met the Dark One's. And dark they were indeed.
"She should be more careful where she's going. Shouldn't you, Snow?"
Regina felt Little Snow's intake of breath and shiver as Rumple said her name. Regina knew he had done it to scare her, and she wasn't going to let him near Little Snow without knowing why he wanted to get close to her.
Everything in Regina was telling her to keep him away from Little Snow.
"It's of no concern to you what she does." The Evil Queen took center stage with Regina's cool and collected voice.
"Regina? I'm scared," the prepubescent Snow whispered as she still held Rumple's gaze. The coldness in his eyes was terrifying to a very innocent Snow.
Regina felt a pulling deep inside her at the admission. They were words that Snow had never said to her, always running to her lady in waiting instead of to her for comfort.
Maybe that was one of the reasons she had been able to distance herself from Snow. It might explain how she had easily pushed away her feelings towards Snow.
It was something that Regina would never know the real answer to.
But in that moment, a feeling that she had not felt for anyone but Henry surged forward with the whispered admission: possession.
For some reason a younger version of Snow White had materialized here in Storybrooke. Something had brought her here, and if there was one truth in this town, it was that Snow and Regina were intertwined. Their stories were one and the same. The story of their lives were closely knit together through fate or destiny, whatever one wanted to call it.
If Little Snow had suddenly appeared here, Regina knew that in someway it would relate to her. After all, Henry was Snow's grandson.
"She won't let him hurt you," Snow said out loud, not hiding the fact that she was indeed talking to the little girl.
Breaking his gaze from the little girl, Rumplestiltskin's eyes swiveled to the grown Snow. She had no idea what he was capable of.
"If I wanted to hurt her, I assure you...she couldn't stop me." Rumple pointed at Regina with a sneer, as his eyes stayed locked with Snow.
Something about those words caused warning signals in Mary Margaret's head. Something about those words made even her wary of Rumple at the moment.
"That is of course," Rumple's eyes swiveled to Regina's, "if I wanted to hurt her. I just wanted to see how she of all people," again the evil smirk returned to his face, "came to be here."
Of course that was when Sarah finally reached the little meeting in the middle of the street.
"The same way you came to be here...except maybe your mother was drunk at the time," Sarah said the words with a huge evil smile as she stepped in front of her mother.
The grin on Rumple's face...well...crumpled.
The famous raised lipped grimace of disgust came across his face as he once more faced Sarah. Of course, the insult caused an identical smile of amusement to fall on Regina's face at Sarah's joke. Mary Margaret covered her mouth to hide the immediate laugh that Sarah's joke produced, but Snow just gave a huge smile at the insult.
"I don't get it..." Henry said from behind them.
David quickly moved Henry behind him, knowing that something was about to happen but not really certain what.
Sarah rolled her eyes. "You really have sheltered him way too much, Mom."
Regina didn't respond as Rumple finally moved closer to Sarah. The instinct to protect Sarah outweighed the one to protect Snow in that moment, but the tight hold Little Snow had on her reminded her of how helpless the little girl was.
"Something tells me you're the reason she's here," Rumplestiltskin finally said as he approached Sarah.
Sarah didn't even flinch as Rumple made his threatening advance. Instead, she tried to suppress a laugh.
"Gee, what gave it away? Maybe the fact that I myself am from another dimension?"
Rumple's anger suddenly lightened as he realized just how idiotic his statement had been.
"How?"
That was the question that made Sarah's smile slip away and a look of seriousness settled on her face.
"Now that's just something you're going to have to find out on your own."
The stand off between the two lasted a minute. Rumple tried to see any crack in Sarah's demeanor; and Sarah tried to see the man that she had come to love as a father but did not see him there at all.
"Well then," Rumple stepped back and once more placed his cane before him—resting on the black cane, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
Author's Note: Forgive me for not getting this out sooner! Busy as can be at work! So...what do you think so far? REVIEW REVIEW!