Author's Note: I thank all of you for waiting and supporting me. This holiday has been especially hard for me...and I've been writing this chapter a little at a time when my mind has been willing to cooperate with me. Hopefully this chapter does not disappoint anyone after the long wait.

When they had run a good enough distance, Sarah reached for both Henry and Little Snow's hands as they made their way to the park that Henry had told her about.

"Did you really have to upset Ruby again? Don't you think it's getting dangerous to get her so worked up?" Henry asked as Sarah swung their arms back and forth as they walked.

Sarah laughed, a hearty laugh that reminded both Henry and Little Snow of Regina.

"Henry...the only reason I mess with Ruby is because she takes everything soo seriously. Everyone's forgotten how to laugh. They need to laugh Henry. The Ruby I know understands why I tease her." Sarah suddenly paused as her eyes seemed to haze over as she thought of all the things that had passed. Her hands going to a necklace that neither of the two children had seen before. Her hands passing over what hung from it, concealing what the pendant actually was.

Both Little Snow and Henry shared a look and looked back at Sarah.

"Sarah?" Henry tried to get Sarah's attention back.

Sarah jerked slightly and shook her head, then looked over at Henry. "What is it Henry?"

Shaking his head Henry replied, "Nothing. You just seemed you were a million miles away."

Sarah smiled widely at the phrasing. "Not a million miles. Maybe a dimension or two."

Both Henry and Little Snow gave a small smirk at the joke.

Sarah sighed placing her pendant beneath her blouse and looked up and then squatted down and positioned both Little Snow and Henry in front of her.

"I know you both don't know me. And you see me act foolishly around everyone, but the truth is it's just an act to make things less serious." Sarah said this as she looked between Little Snow and Henry.

"Our lives haven't been like a story book Henry, things don't always go the way we want them to. You may think you know what Good and Evil look like, but believe me when I say you really don't. Sometimes the eviliest of men...have the kindest of smiles. Things in life aren't simple. " Sarah shook her head as she said this, but she saw Henry about to protest and took her hand from Little Snow and held Henry by the arms to make him look in her eyes.

"No Henry. Just listen to me. I may act like a child most of the time, but I'm not. I've seen and done many things. And I want you to learn from what I've experienced and not have to do or see the things that I had to learn. Because I love you Henry, and that may seem a bit weird since you barely know me...but I know you."

Henry closed his mouth and stared into Sarah's eyes, seeing the sincerity in them and even a little bit of fear.

Little Snow said nothing, but watched in fascination at how Sarah was talking to Henry.

"If you go back to our lands...one day you are going to be King of our lands. Not right away obviously...but one day that's what will happen! And though it sounds like the greatest thing in the world I know from experience that being royalty is anything but wonderful. A crown is not all that people make it out to be." Sarah saw that Henry was confused by what she was saying to him.

How did asking about the way she acted towards Ruby lead to Sarah talking about this?

That's when Little Snow said something that made Henry look at her with a questioning stare.

"A crown is a lot heavier then it looks." Little Snow said this to Henry but then turned to look at Sarah.

Sarah turned her head and stared open mouthed at the very young version of her sister, startled that she had understood what she had been trying to tell Henry.

"But that's where we belong. That's who we are! The Enchanted forest is our home. We were never suppose to be here." Henry argued with Sarah.

"Being royal isn't as great as everyone thinks Henry." Little Snow suddenly expressed her own thoughts.

"For the past few months my father and I have been traveling our lands. Since Mama died he's been trying to find a new mother for me. But everywhere we've gone father knew that all they wanted was the title of Queen...they didn't really want to be my mother." Little Snow finished saying this with a sad look on her face that showed that she had known for sure that it was the sad truth.

Little Snow had pursed lips as she looked at the ground as she remembered all that time traveling through the kingdom, hoping that they would find just one person that would actually care for her...and not some stupid crown.

A small smile spread across Little Snow's face as she remembered the first time she had met Regina.

In that one moment she had known. She had just known.

Looking back up at Henry, Little Snow allowed the small smile to bloom. "And then I met Regina. She...she saved me! Not because of who I was, or who my father was. She saved me because she wanted to help me."

Sarah's hand gripped Henry and shared a quick look with him, warning him without speaking to not saying anything to the little girl.

"She saved you?" Henry asked with a confused face.

With a cute smile Little Snow nodded vigorously. "My horse went wild, and I couldn't stop. Regina rode up and saved me."

A slow smile spread over Sarah's face as she saw Little Snow's face beam from happiness at the thought of their mother. Sarah could see the love that this young Snow felt for their mother.

"You love her don't you?" The question was out of Sarah's mouth before she could fully debate if the question was ok to ask. Especially because they didn't know from which dimension this Little Snow was from.

The shocked look that Little Snow gave her though, followed by a look of sadness left Sarah more than a little confused. It also left Henry with a titled head as he studied the young Snow White before him.

"You do don't you? You love her." Henry stated the words in the end, somehow shocked that Snow White had ever felt love for the Evil Queen.

Little Snow said nothing as she flushed a pink color and looked away from the two. Both watched as young Snow tried to compose herself before finally looking up at them.

"I'm very happy that my daddy is marrying her. I wouldn't want anyone else to be my mother." The words were said in a way that left Sarah feeling oddly.

For some reason, it sounded like she was lying. But Sarah found nothing wrong with what Little Snow had said, leaving her in an odd place.

Sarah looked over at Henry, who looked just as confused as Sarah felt. After having read Henry's book, she knew that he hadn't expected to hear those words come out of Little Snow White's mouth either.

"Why does it sound like your lying?"

Sarah startled at the fact that Henry was the one to ask the very observant question.

Little Snow looked like she was ready to run away again when Sarah quickly calmed her. "You don't need to tell us anything Snow...you may not believe me Snow... but I would never do anything to hurt you. At least not on purpose. If you don't want to tell us that's fine. Just know that neither of us would push you to do anything you don't want to do."

Little Snow looked deep into Sarah's eyes and could see the honesty there, then she looked at Henry who gave a nod - showing her that he did indeed think the same thing as Sarah.

Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and remembered the promise that she had made to Regina about Daniel. How no one could find out about them. About how she wasn't in love with her father King Leopold.

If she let anyone know Regina would never trust her.

And she knew that if she really loved Regina, no matter how much she really did want her to be her mother more than anything, she wouldn't ruin Regina's happiness. She just couldn't let people know that Regina wasn't really going to marry her father.

Opening her eyes she looked again between Sarah and Henry and shook her head slightly. "I'm sorry."

In that moment Sarah knew that Little Snow was holding on to something that was causing her pain. She just didn't know what it could have been.

Emma tried to stay calm...she really did.

But she could only take so much.

Her mother let out a huge sigh and wiped at her eyes once more.

"Are you sure Regina didn't do anything...because I can..." Emma began angrily at seeing the a look of sadness engrain itself on her mother's face.

"No!" Both Mary Margret and Snow responded.

Emma's eyebrows scrunched together, "I could understand why she's defending her," Emma pointed to the long haired Snow White, "but I don't understand why you're defending her."

Mary Margret looked up into her daughter's worried face and knew that what she was feeling, what she was going through at the moment - she couldn't even explain to herself. How was she going to explain this to her daughter?

Thankfully Snow answered for Mary Margret.

"No one is defending anyone. Mary Margret was just upset about what Sarah had said, and mom was just comforting her."

Emma's look of confusion only increased after that. "So…Sarah's the one that upset her?"

"Hey!" Both Mary Margret and Snow shouted.

"Your Aunt was talking about how dispensable she was! It upset me to hear her talk that way!" Mary Margret defended.

Emma blinked several times. "Aunt? Mary Margret…she's not your real sister."

"Yes! Yes she is! I don't care what anyone says! Sarah is MY sister!" Snow was panting with all of the pent of anger and pain that Emma's words produced.

Emma was shocked to see Mary Margret nodding her head along through Snow's speech.

"I can't explain it Emma…but…but there's something…" Mary Margret let a smile spread across her face at the memories of Sarah's playfulness when she had insisted that she could learn to drive, "there's something about Sarah that makes me feel like she belongs to me. Like…" she shook her head and looked around trying to find the right words as if they were in the air and she might see them.

"Like she was made just for you." Snow finished for Mary Margret.

And in that moment Snow shared a look with Mary Margret that spoke of a lifetime of emotions. Mary Margret knew then that what she was feeling wasn't fabricated or fake.

It was real. Just as real as the love she had for her own daughter, the love she had for Sarah was very much real.

"Mary Margret...are you ok?" Emma asked as she finally moved towards her mother, worried that she had been hurt without knowing it.

"MOM!" The yell caused the three to turn swiftly and face where the yell came from.

Wide blue eyes met identical wide blues.

Princess Emma stopped her dead run towards her mother as she saw who stood behind her mother. The shock of seeing herself behind her mother shocked Princess Emma to stop moving, which caused her to see the other person - who looked exactly like her mother.

Snow smiled brightly at seeing her daughter, and quickly ran towards her and wrapped her arms around a still stunned young princess.

"Emma what are you doing here...how did you get here...where's your father?" Snow quickly went from elated to worried.

Even though she was staring at another version of herself - who still had a shocked look on her face - Princess Emma rolled her eyes at her mother's words. Then a whine that even Mary Margret was accustomed to issued out of the young princess' mouth.

"Moom!"

Emma couldn't stop blinking as she continued watching a younger version of her hug Snow and roll her eyes through the hug.

"He's in the forest arguing with Uncle James. I knew better than to try and stop their bickering...so I followed my instincts." Princess Emma explained as she pulled away from her mother.

Snow let out a huge sigh, her discontent at Princess Emma's words immediate. "Emma how many times..." Snow began to give her weekly speech to Princess Emma on safety when she was interrupted by her daughter.

"Who are they mother? Where's Aunt Sarah?" Princess Emma quickly questioned her mother with urgency as she remembered why they were soo worried for her mother and aunt.

Emma shook her head and looked over at Mary Margret. "Please tell me this is just as weird for you!"

Mary Margret just looked at the younger looking Emma with an open mouthed awe. "Weird isn't even the word for this."

Snow turned and took her daughter by the hand and led her over to Mary Margret and Emma.

"Emma...these are exactly who you think they are. They're us. Apparently we're in another dimension." Snow explained as they walked to right in front of their doubles.

Princess Emma inspected her other self with scrunched eyebrows. "I'm old here."

"Hey!" Emma said indignantly at the age jibe.

Both Mary Margret and Snow smiled at the small smile that Princess Emma gave at the response.

"She's definitely me." Princess Emma confirmed with a small smirk. One that oddly reminded Emma of Regina.

"Sweet heart...this is Mary Margret. Apparently in their dimension...they were cursed to this land. That's the name she went by before the curse was broken." Snow explained as she introduced Princess Emma to the other versions of themselves.

"Cursed?" Princess Emma turned and looked shockingly at her mother.

"Long story." Emma quipped with a half smirk.

"Where's Aunt Sarah?" Princess Emma asked wearily once more.

Snow smiled, "She took Henry and Little Snow to a park to play."

At the words 'Little Snow' Princess Emma's eyes widened.

"Little Snow?" Princess Emma asked haltingly.

"I did say it was a long story." Emma quipped with a slight smirk.

When Princess Emma looked back at Emma, all she could do was stare and slowly let a smile grace her lips. "Is there another version of Nanna here? Dear God! That's going to be interesting."

Snow tried to keep the smile on her face, but something must have shown on her face because Emma's smile vanished almost immediately.

"Mother…what's wrong?"

"Regina's slightly different in this dimension Princess. She's not exactly who your expecting her to be." Emma answered the princess' question.

Mary Margret closed her eyes and shook her head to shake the thoughts that were going through her head after hearing Princess Emma calling Snow mother.

Before her at the moment was what she had wanted for herself and her daughter since knowing she was with child. They were close. They were a family.

"I don't care what dimension I'm in. Nanna is always Nanna. And why are you calling her by her first name? How rude could you possibly be?" Princess Emma said as she crossed her arms in the very unladylike way that Emma always did when standing her ground.

Emma's mouth opened and closed a few times, not knowing how to respond to the arrogant princess. Finally her mind caught up with her mouth.

"Listen...Princess...where you're from you might have had a 'nanna' that loved you and cared for you, but I can assure you that things here were very different!" Emma's anger grew the more she thought about what Regina had done to her family. What Regina had done to Henry.

"In this dimension...your precious Nanna is evil." Emma announced with a coldness that caused Mary Margret to twitch at the way Emma sounded.

Of course at those words both Snow and Princess Emma immediately turned and began to protest those words.

"Woah...woah!" Mary Margret stepped between Emma and the two very upset royals. "Please let's not argue about this when we have more important things to discuss."

"And what exactly do we have to discuss?" Princess Emma asked incredulously.

"How about the fact that King George was chasing your mother and your Aunt through a forrest trying to kill them." Mary Margret said with a slight nod towards Snow.

Snow shook her head with a stern face. "There's nothing to discuss. The problem is ours, not yours."

Mary Margret moved her head with a scrunched up face of shock. "I'm sorry...but did you miss what happened just a few minutes ago."

Snow rolled her eyes, "She's not REALLY your sister she's mine." Repeating Emma's words to Mary Margret, a sudden protectiveness overcoming her.

"Well she's not really your sister either now is she!"

The words caused even Emma to stare at her mother in shock.

Snow couldn't stop the tears that began to form in her eyes. Princess Emma immediately reached out to her mother to try and hug her for comfort.

Mary Margret realized what she had done, and instantly felt shame for having said the words.

"I'm...I'm sorry." The words were said in shame, making her not able to look up into Snow's eyes.

But Snow's anger grew as Mary Margret's words rebounded in her head.

"You...you have no right to say those words to me. You have no...NO idea of what I...what WE'VE been through." Snow was throwing back Mary Margret's own words against her. Snow's words were laced with such anger that Emma knew whatever this other version of her mother had gone through...it had to have been something huge to make her this angry.

"She may not be my sister by blood...but she is my sister. I've been there since her first breath. I've been there since her first..." Snow was choking on the tears, "her first steps."

Mary Margret found herself crying along with Snow, as she was reminded that these were the things that she had missed from her daughters life. In those moments she understood Snow. She understood why Snow was so protective and defensive of Sarah.

"I'm sorry." Mary Margret said again but softly.

Snow shook her head, even as her daughter squeezed her to try and assure her.

"I don't know why you don't have a sister of your own, all I know is that the only difference I see between our lives is that my mother didn't hate me."

At those words both Emma and Mary Margret jerked their hands up in almost shock at the nastiness of Snow's words.

Shaking her head in disbelief Mary Margret said two words, "Excuse me?"

Emma was about to come to Mary Margret's defense when Snow continued.

"I haven't been here that long, but the woman that you're claiming is evil...she's held both me and Sarah without trying to kill us. As a matter of fact she tried to protect us against her mother. So I'm sorry...If I can't understand how you can accuse her of being evil when she's been able to be kind...and loving... with us."

Mary Margret felt anger course through her at the alluded accusation. That somehow, someway, it was her fault that Regina had become evil.

"I…did NOTHING to warrant what Regina has done and TRIED to do to my family!" Mary Margret was starting to really get angry, so much so that Emma realized that Mary Margret's hands were fisted.

Emma began to move behind Mary Margret, ready to grab her if she made a move to get physical with Snow.

"Your family? She IS your family. She's your mother! Not to mention the sister of your husband….and that's just odd to say out loud." Princess Emma said the end almost to herself.

Of course Emma didn't know how soon she would have to restrain her own mother, but when Snow said her next words - Emma had to jump to grab Mary Margret.

"The truth is you're jealous." Snow said the word almost with a snarl, one that immediately made both Mary Margret and Emma think of Regina.

"Jealous! You think I'm jealous? Why would I possibly be jealous?!" The words were almost screamed as Emma kept Mary Margret away from Snow by holding onto one of her arms.

But Snow didn't even flinch as she hammered home what had alluded Mary Margret's grasp since she was a child. A simple truth that she had faced with the arrival of this other version of herself.

"Because," Snow leaned her body that much closer towards her double, "at least mother loves me!"

Suddenly all of the energy drained out of Mary Margret, she blinked rapidly as she tried to handle the gravity that the words suggested.

"And that…that is the real reason you're angry at her. Because you think she doesn't love you. But you're wrong…" Snow shook her head, "you're so very wrong."

Mary Margret's mouth opened and closed, trying to say something to argue what Snow was saying.

"The truth is," Snow moved out of her daughter's arms and began to walk towards Mary Margret and Emma, " the reason she acts the way she does…is because she loves you more than you love her."

Mary Margret shook her head no. Snow obviously didn't know what she was talking about.

"Are you crazy?' Emma asked staring at Snow as if she were indeed out of her mind. "Your saying she's tried to kill her because she loves her? How does that even make sense."

"Do I really look like that when I get angry?" Princess Emma suddenly asked as she finally got to saw what her mother always said to her about the way she acted.

Emma disregarded what Princess Emma had said and continued.

"You don't try and kill a person you love. You do the exact opposite. You protect them…with your life." Emma said this with the same no nonsense stern voice she used when talking with Regina.

But Snow's sad smile cause Emma's face to soften, not expecting it at all.

"What would you do…if someone killed Baelfire?"

The question confused Emma, her mouth opening and closing trying to find some kind of a response to such a question.

Snow turned her head towards Mary Margret. "And you…what would you do if someone murdered David? Would you be able to forgive someone if they were responsible for his death?"

Mary Margret felt as if she had been slapped by the question. The very idea…notion that David was dead was…she…she couldn't handle it.

Head swiveling back towards Emma, Snow continued her questions.

"What would it mean…if you could forgive a person for killing someone you loved? And if you could…" closing her eyes and reopening them to look at the mirror image of her daughter, "does that mean you didn't love that person at all?"

Silence stretched.

Both Mary Margret and Emma were unable to utter a word.

Snow's words causing pain in both their hearts at the very idea of the deaths of the men they loved.

"Now…" Snow's eyes suddenly glistened with tears, "how could Regina forgive me…if I'm the reason," a sob choked her suddenly and Princess Emma quickly moved towards her mother again.

Snow held up a hand to make Emma stop moving, and to allow her to continue.

"If…If I'm the reason the man she loved died?"

Mary Margret slowly looked away from Snow, and looked down to her feet.

She had never truly placed herself in Regina's position. Never really looked at what she had lost.

And that's when Sarah's face suddenly entered her mind.

Sarah's smile in the forefront of her mind. The sound of Sarah's laugh filling her ears.

A tightness suddenly gripped around her heart, her hand going up to press against her chest at the ache that had appeared as she realized exactly what Regina had lost.

Somehow...someway...Mary Margret realized that she was somehow the reason the woman that was suppose to be her sister had not been born.

What Snow was saying was true, and in the worst way possible.

And only one thought entered her mind as she realized this.

What have I done?

Author's note: Ok...what do you think? Please let me know if you want me to continue.