Author's Note: Everyone needs to thank Marphisa for cracking the whip on me and getting me to updating again! I'm sorry I've been slacking...things have been topsy turvy for me right now! I hope you enjoy this one!

Sarah was more than happy to see that her mother was being extremely gentle with Little Snow. She watched as Regina carefully wiped away the blood from Little Snow's face and quietly talked with her. She couldn't hear what was being said, but the way tears were being wiped away from Little Snow's cheeks calmed any doubt that her mother was actually nurturing her.

It let Sarah know that her instincts had been right. This other version of her mother did indeed love Snow. Kindness was one thing, but the way that her mother had reacted to the sight of Little Snow proved in Sarah's mind that whatever was keeping her mother from letting herself love Snow, it had to be some sort of magic.

Queen Regina also watched the interaction between her other self and Little Snow. There was a clog in her throat and tears threatened to fall as she remembered the words Regina had said to her. In those moments, hearing the way Regina had talked about Snow—it had brought back memories of all those years ago to when her own heart had been filled with hatred for her daughter.

But that changed – everything changed one fateful day.

Queen Regina turned and looked at the group that was also watching the scene unfold. Looking at her Snow, and having her standing next to another version of herself – knowing that they had had completely different lives—hurt Queen Regina beyond words. Understanding that the fateful day that had bonded Snow to her had not happened to this other version of her daughter – it made her pray that what her daughter had experienced had not happened in this alternate world that they were now in. She prayed that this Mary Margaret, whose eyes seemed so dull in comparison to her daughters, had not suffered something that her other self did not know about. Everything in her prayed that their worlds had not been the same, that her daughter didn't go through the things she had without a mother in her life, that she had not suffered something horrific and said nothing.

Ruby had been close to the two, mainly out of a certain fear that the Evil Queen would hurt Little Snow, but watched amazed how the Evil Queen's eyes showed concern for the little girl. She also noticed what Regina hadn't — that Snow's blood was not clotting. With her wolf senses she could smell how the blood continued to gush. It was like a siren's call for the wolf, but Ruby controlled her natural instincts and worried that Little Snow was injured more than they had thought.

Snow's brow furrowed as she felt someone watching her; then she smiled as she turned to look at her mother. Snow saw the sadness on her mother's face and felt her own smile slip away. Moving toward her mother, Snow wrapped her arms around her and instantly knew by how tightly she was being held that her mother had been terrified these last few days.

"It's ok, Mama. We're fine. We're both fine," Snow whispered in her mother's ear.

Queen Regina couldn't stop the tears from falling then. She remembered all those years ago how the woman in her arms had been a scared little girl crying against her in fear.

Snow said nothing but held tightly to her mother, knowing without words that she was thinking back to all those years ago, to the day that had made the two into a family.

Queen Regina pulled back slowly, sniffling as quietly as she could, trying to keep Little Snow from seeing her like this. Though Regina was distracting her, she didn't want to alarm the young girl.

Snow helped wipe away her mother's tears and leaned up and kissed her cheek.

"I love you, Mom," Snow whispered.

Queen Regina smiled and kissed her daughter's forehead. For the first time in days, relief filled her at finally knowing her girls were all right.

"I love you too." With another kiss to Snow's face she began to move toward the others. Slowly she made her way towards Mary Margaret and Sarah.

Mary Margaret was lost in her mind to memories or dreams. She really wasn't certain anymore. It was surreal to watch the woman that blamed her for the love of her life's death show kindness to Little Snow.

It shocked her when she felt Queen Regina's gentle touch against her shoulder.

"I have the feeling that having a Little Snow White running around has something to do with our little trouble maker. Or am I wrong?" Queen Regina asked as she gave Mary Margaret a smirk.

Mary Margaret's face, which had seemed scared, morphed into a smile at the joke.

"You know it's not nice to make fun of your own daughter!" Sarah said with an annoyed look on her face.

"That wasn't a no," Queen Regina quipped.

"Your brother of this dimension used the 'w' word." Sarah quipped back.

Queen Regina rolled her eyes and shook her head. "How he could be anyone's true love still baffles me."

Sarah tried to squash her laugh. Mary Margaret's mouth dropped open at the insult; then she elbowed Sarah to make her stop laughing. Sarah sucked in a yelp, but continued to laugh at Mary Margaret.

At the moment after the "insult," when Queen Regina had turned and faced Snow and the two Emmas, Mary Margaret remembered what Henry had said about Daniel—about how David had been there. She took a mental note to speak with him after seeing to Little Snow.

Regina was too focused on Little Snow, though, to listen in to their conversation. Instead she was concerned about Little Snow's blood that was not clotting. More blood continued to spill from her nose down her upper lip.

Even though her rational mind knew that the child in front of her was the reason Daniel was dead, she had never physically hurt a child. It wasn't in her. She had done many despicable things in her life, but she had never taken the life of a child. Even to exact her revenge, she had waited until Snow had become a woman so she could understand what she had done to Regina.

But the face beneath her hands was a child that had no idea what she had done. And she felt this strange pull to help her, this strange sensation of needing to take care of her.

Ruby had been standing near Regina and Little Snow more out of concern for Little Snow than because she had been working at the bar. She also noticed that Little Snow's blood wasn't clotting. The wolf inside her could smell the gushes of blood as Little Snow cried softly and Regina continued to try to stop the flow. What shocked Ruby was the look of concern on Regina's face.

Regina was beyond concerned by the time she had gone through the handful of napkins she had grabbed to clean Little Snow up. Something in her was telling her that she needed to get Little Snow to Whale. Something was wrong. And despite every hateful thought that she had ever had towards Snow, the fear that something was incredibly wrong—that Snow was in real danger—frightened her.

Making a decision, she got up from the stool she had been sitting on, continuing to apply pressure to Little Snow's nose and tilting her head back. She could still feel the blood seep through the tissue.

"I don't like that your nose hasn't stopped bleeding. We're going to go see a doctor and see what's wrong," Regina said as Little Snow rose with her.

"I think that's a good idea," Ruby said, seeing Regina's fingertips tinted red with Snow's blood even though Regina had just placed a clean one on Little Snow's nose. Ruby wasn't looking at Regina to notice the shocked face at hearing the wolf agree with her. All she knew was that Little Snow needed to see a doctor.

"What's going on?" Sarah asked, disentangling herself from Mary Margaret and approaching with a worried look on her face.

"Something's wrong. The blood's not stopping." Regina let the panic show in her voice without wanting to, and that was enough to cause Snow and Mary Margaret to realize that something had to really be wrong.

"You shouldn't use magic to get there; it'll make her dizzy. Who are you taking her to see?" Queen Regina asked, already moving to join her other self wherever she took Little Snow.

"Dr. Whale."

Mary Margaret nodded her head. "He'll know what to do."

"If the blood's not clotting, she could be in real danger," Ruby said as she began to grab the bloodied tissues from the counter. Seeing how much blood that the young girl had already lost was a shock.

"Regina?" Little Snow asked in a scared voice. Her large brown eyes looked worriedly up at Regina.

"Your going to be just fine Snow…I promised didn't I? Come on. Let's go." Regina realized there was no way to have Little Snow walk with her head tilted; and hoisted the preteen up into her arms, where Little Snow promptly wrapped her legs around Regina for support.

Mary Margaret's eyes went wide as she witnessed Regina cradle Little Snow against her with some effort. She was shocked at the sight of Little Snow leaning her head against Regina's shoulder as Regina held yet another napkin to capture the blood that had dripped from just lifting her up.

"I'll call the hospital to make sure Dr. Whale knows you're coming," Ruby said and quickly disposed the bloodied napkins as she moved towards the diner phone.

The whole group began to move with Regina out of the diner and towards the hospital on foot. All of them were concerned as they watched Regina go through napkin after napkin. None of them knew that Regina's hands trembled every time more of Little Snow's blood covered her fingers.

David and James had stopped arguing after they realized that both Regina and Emma were missing.

"What direction did they go?" James scanned the forest around them, hoping to catch a glimpse of them or at least find a sign of which way either of them had gone.

"Why are they both so stubborn?" David grumbled to himself. Clearly, he didn't like the idea of all of the women in his life being so hard headed.

"Because they're panicking like us! And now I'm left with the same rising panic if we don't find them soon," Cora explained her own rising fear.

David and James shared a look as their mother passed them as she tried not to let herself fall back on her magical powers to locate their missing family.

She knew that once she allowed herself to use magic, it would be almost impossible to stop. It had been beyond difficult the first time. It was only when she placed her heart back was she able to truly do as she had promised Regina. The love she had felt for Regina and Snow had made her fight the urge to use the addictive magic.

But something was causing her to tingle in a way she hadn't in years. As she walked forward, following the "tickle" that almost seemed to be pulling at her, she saw what appeared to be a black river. Swiftly, without saying a word, she moved towards it. Slowly, almost mimicking her grand daughters, she placed one foot carefully onto the blackness and confirmed that it was solid. A smile crossed her face as she realized what the blackness was a road.

"They went that way," Rum said from the right of Cora, startling her slightly.

Rum stood with his eyes facing opposite of where the sun was setting.

Cora stared at Rum as his face showed his worry. His dark brown eyes shone like stars as moisture gathered in them, but he would not let them fall.

"What is it? Rum...please tell me what you're hiding. I swear I won't be upset with you."

Cora tried to get Rum to open up. He had been extremely quiet since coming through the portal to this dimension. Cora had instantly known that he was hiding something. That he was keeping a secret.

Years had passed since Cora had ever had to fear Rum's motives. Decades of trusting him, of him being a part of their family, made it all the more difficult to witness him trying to lie to her. But he was doing just that when he shook his head.

"I'm not hiding anything. I just…I think it's finally happening. What I've feared for years. Since she was born."

Cora felt her heart tighten at the words. It had been what she had also feared. Since she had felt the searing pain back in their realm, she had known that whatever was happening here was causing the spell that had protected her granddaughter to loosen its hold. And if that were true, every single one of them was in great danger.

"Well then, we don't have time to waste." Cora strode in the direction Rum indicated and yelled out to her sons. "DAVID! JAMES!"

Within seconds they were by their mother's side, both with their hands on the hilts of their swords, watching for danger after their mother's yell. They both new better than to scold her for her careless action.

Rum's brown eyes watched as they moved toward where the dark magic emanated from. He hadn't felt the pull of darkness in many years, not since Sarah was a child. He knew in that moment that what lay on the stretch of road ahead would test him like he had never been tested before.

Sarah was looking around and touching everything in Dr. Whale's office, having insisted with both Snow and Mary Margaret that she had to be there for her sister and that her bodyguard wasn't needed. This of course resulted in both narrowing their eyes and trying to hit her retreating form with the nearest object. Sarah had laughed as she watched her mother grab both women's ears and scold them that there was no need for violence.

Her eyes drifted to Regina who stood by Little Snow as Dr. Whale examined her nose with an instrument Sarah was not familiar with that shone a light.

"Well," Dr. Whale finally began, "it seems to me that the blow fractured her nose. I'm gonna have to reset it," Whale concluded as he continued to look up into the still bloody nose of Little Snow.

"You mean some bully managed to break my sister's cute little button nose?" Sarah asked in shock, understanding that the little boy who did this must have hit her with a lot of force.

Regina understood what it meant and couldn't fight the anger that instantly engulfed her stomach. Whoever this little boy was she was going to find him and make him…

"What are you doing?" Regina asked as she suddenly found Whale placing his thumbs against Snow's nose, only having been drawn away from her own thoughts as Little Snow had made a grab for her arm and squeezed tightly in fear. The look in her eyes scared; and before Regina could protest what he was doing, Whale reset Little Snow's nose with a cracking sound and a scream from the little girl.

Instantly Little Snow was crying at the renewed pain, and shockingly Regina's eyes were wide with horror at what Whale had done without warning the child. But Regina hadn't acted until one word came out of the young girl's mouth. It was a word she had never said before, a word that stirred something inside Regina she couldn't explain. And it was with that word that Regina found herself wrapping her arms around the young girl's body.

"MAMA!"

Sarah watched her mother with wide eyes as she tried to soothe her sister, but the pain must have been truly horrible for the young girl, and she bawled her eyes out into Regina's chest.

Regina's rage of moments before transferred from the small boy that had done this to Whale.

Her head turned, and she glared at Whale with such hatred that the man instantly tried to step back and away from the Evil Queen. The magic Regina wielded had already slammed him back against the wall, though.

Placing his hands up in surrender he instantly began to explain.

"If I had warned her she wouldn't have let me do it. This way the bone will heal and her nose won't be deformed. If I hadn't done it, she might have needed surgery."

That didn't stop Regina's anger at the man in front of her.

"Mom, Snow's getting blood all over you. Why isn't it stopping?" Sarah noticed the increase of blood, and fear gripped her.

Regina pulled away from Little Snow and tilted her face up to examine her. Her brown hazel eyes gleamed with huge crocodile tears that rolled down her face. The blood contrasted against Snow's skin so shockingly that Regina felt her heart constrict at how much blood she was losing.

"I'm sorry...it just hurt so badly." The whispered whimpering words to Regina as an apology for using that word directed towards her. Regina knew instinctually that was the reason she was apologizing. But as odd as it was, it hadn't upset Regina that Little Snow had used the term to refer to her. If anything, it had sent a pure rush of maternal instinct through her body to protect her.

"It's ok, sweetheart." With that Regina smoothed back the long black hair that had escaped her style's hold. Her fingers once more trembled as she wiped the blood from the girl's lip.

Turning her head she raised her bloody finger and stared daggers at Whale. "Why is she still bleeding so badly?"

"It's possible that she's formed a nasal septal hematoma."

"What?!" Regina almost yelled hearing the last word. She quickly grabbed Whale and pulled him out of the room.

Sarah, seeing that something the doctor had said had upset her mother, quickly moved to distract Little Snow.

"Let me see that button nose of yours! Oh...look at that...looks good as new!" Sarah said with a huge smile.

Little Snow smiled, wincing only slightly as the movement still caused her pain.

"You think so?"

"I know so! Then both of us will start looking alike again. Really I was worried that I'd have to get my own nose broken so we would still look alike!" Sarah joked with Little Snow.

She never expected Little Snow's smile to vanish with a frown.

Dr. Whale came back in without Regina and quickly sat down on a stool in front of Little Snow, making Sarah move out of the way. Of course, Sarah gave him a glare that made him realize how like her mother she was.

"Sorry. Need to check her nose again and hopefully if everything is ok..." Whale extracted some cotton and gauze from his pocket, "we can put some cotton in your nose to hopefully stop the blood flow."

"What do you mean hopefully?" Sarah said with furrowed brows.

Whale gave her a glare of his own at the question, watching the little girl tense.

"What I mean is that it's possible that she hurt the cartilage between her nose and bone, which may cause blood to build up...and it can keep leaking out blood until it heals."

"Oh...couldn't you have just said the last part with out the explanation?" Sarah quipped.

Whale narrowed his eyes. "You would have asked me why."

"I'm not three! I'm perfectly capable of not knowing the why...which I didn't understand anyway." Sarah said as she turned to study the strange image on the wall behind where Little Snow sat.

Whale let out a huge sigh and slowly and carefully moved to plug Snow's nose.

"What is this art of?" Sarah asked as she studied the colorful decoration.

Whale laughed. As he unrolled the gauze, he looked up at what Sarah was referring to.

"It's not art. It's a map of DNA."

Sarah's brows scrunched together in confusion as did Little Snow's.

"What exactly is DNA?" Sarah asked, turning her head to Whale with a raised eyebrow.

"In laymen's terms, it is the fabric of every living organism. DNA essentially makes us who we are, codings that determine our eye color, hair... "

"Interesting." Sarah murmured. "So in essence a person's DNA is unique to them."

"Mmm...yes and no. DNA is inherited from parents. In essence you have markers...those patterns you see there...that come from a mother or a father. The combination of the two makes a person who they are. We're able to check for these markers from either parent or a close relative and can map them out with genealogical DNA testing. Blood is drawn from the family members and sent to a lab. Those images you see there are of a family. Three siblings, parents, and grandparents. There are different paternity tests to determine these relationships. Science has helped us be able to determine lineage. "

The doctor's love of science made him forget not to explain such things to Sarah or of the warnings he had received earlier from the others.

When he had first laid eyes on the Evil Queen, he had not noticed the child in her arms, but the woman striding by her side. The same woman that just now had made him forget the threat of death if he said something wrong. He had seen the girl and known instantly her parentage. After all, he had helped deceive Regina of a heart to implant in Daniel's chest.

Though Sarah looked very much like her mother, there was something about Sarah that he immediately recognized upon seeing her. And of course, with his big mouth, he'd made a comment about how he had seen the family resemblance when introductions had been given. His quip about stables had earned him a private conversation with Mary Margaret—a very angry Mary Margaret who threatened him in a manner that reminded him that she was indeed royalty should he say the wrong thing. The smirk that the Evil Queen had given him after the threat made him understand that she would be the one carrying out the threat. He had swallowed and nodded his head.

At this Sarah smiled. "Ah! So me and Snow have the same codes in us...at least from our father's side."

Sarah saw the sudden flash of panic on the doctor's face, but he quickly covered it with a nod. "Yes, that's correct."

"So even though we have a different mother...our DNA shows that we are alike," Sarah concluded with a wink at her sister.

Little Snow flinched again as she smiled at Sarah. For some reason, the idea of Sarah being like her, that there was proof of it, made her beyond happy.

Sarah flicked a strand of Little Snow's dark black hair. "That would be something to have right Snow? A map showing that we're sisters. Would you like that?"

Young Snow smiled widely at the question and for the first time did not flinch. "That would be incredible!"

Sarah gave a little laugh, not noticing the fear that covered the doctor's face.

"Well then, I must get Doctor...I'm sorry I forgot what your name was..."

"Whale."

"That's why I remembered Pinocchio when we were being introduced." Sarah nodded as she said this and gave a quick wink to her sister. Little Snow hid her laugh behind her hand, but Whale had seen it regardless.

"Well, Dr. Whale, I will have blood samples of my family to you by the end of the day. I'm sure you can get these maps done for us in less than half a fortnight."

Panic was too mild a word for what Whale felt in that second.

He cleared his throat, "I—um...I'm afraid that won't be possible. You see, we do not have such a laboratory here in Storybrooke..."

Sarah's eyes narrowed. "Oh, really? Then how did those DNA test results for a woman named Ashley Boyd and her child's paternity in relation to a Sean Herman come about?" Her eyes went to the folder that had been on the counter where she had been rifling around.

It was one thing to let Sarah have suspicions about him; it was another to be caught in an outright lie. He had no way now of lying to her, no ability to fake any tests or hide the very thing the others had warned him of.

With his own mouth, he had sealed his fate.

He was doomed.

He was about to open his mouth again, not even sure what he was going to say, when Sarah again left him speechless and with no options.

"It wasn't a request, Doctor. And I'm quite sure you wouldn't want me to tell my mother that you disobeyed an order and upset me. Do you doctor?"

Scratch doomed.

He was screwed!

Author's Note: What do you think is gonna happen now? Any ideas? What do you think should happen next? Review and let me know!