Storybrooke Past'

"Emma, where's your …?"

"It's under the bed," shouting from the shower in the morning. Regina looks under the bed to grab Emma's underwear and sports bra.

"Mom, we need to go!" Scarlett anxiously waits downstairs by the door with his brother. It has been a hectic Saturday morning, Reign is graduating from high school, and I haven't prepared a speech. Each year, they invite the mayor of Storybrooke to make a speech before presenting the principal of the school. Razi and Emmett are planning to meet us at the ceremony.

"Emma, we're going to be late," Regina urged her to hurry and get ready.

"Five minutes, babe," Emma brushed her teeth and fixed her hair while I went downstairs. They are one year before Reign, so they are graduating next year. Their eyes change to partially brown with a hint of bright blue with a lot of training, they did well and never visit their mother. Their hair turns to dark red, dark auburn, it's like mine and Berta's DNA blended together to a new gene.

"Mom? You're staring again…"

I beam with pride when pecking their foreheads and touch my daughter's face, "your beautiful baby," redirects to my son, "you're grown into a handsome man." They rolled their eyes, "Reign will be mad at us if we're late, mom."

Reign has a thing of being punctual, it makes her anxious and nervous if we're late, not that we're ever late. I hurried to the office to prepare the speech, considering the words and today is personal for me because it's my daughter graduating. I want to make it perfect for her.

"Babe, I'm ready!" Emma's looking for me and the twins pointed at the office when she walks downstairs. Emma opens the door, "I'm sorry about this morning, babe."

There are times she'll have episodes and she's been seeing therapy for years to handle her mental ability. I touch the scar on the forehead, and she wraps around me with a worried tone, "I hope I didn't hurt you?"

She almost choked and luckily, I have magic to heal my neck, "no, Emma," giving her a reassuring kiss on the lips.

"I really hope that the therapy is helping…"

"Emma," wrapping around her and cupping her ass, "you had a nightmare, and the therapy has been helping you to control it. You stopped, didn't you?"

Emma chuckled then became serious again, "that's true, I did stop but I wish … I don't know. I hate it sometimes."

"That's why you have me, to keep you in a jar and open lids for me," taunting us when we laughed together. Emma lightly slapped me then we molded our kiss together then speaking between kisses "we … are ... going … to … be … late."

I held her hand whispering while leading her out of my office, "let's go, my big baby."

"I'm a professor! I came a long way from being a 'big baby,' shaking her head when Emma heard me. Emma has been a professor for almost thirteen years now since she's not qualified to become a Sheriff or deputy due to her mental ability.

"You don't think I saw you putting your feet up on the desk and drinking coffee in your office or your donuts on the computer. Your small refrigerator or …" Emma rolled her eyes when we got in the car, "okay, fine."

The twins ran out of the car to meet their friends at the auditorium, and Emma called them to sit with her with Zelena because she doesn't want to sit alone. Regina stands waiting with others when Mal comes up to her.

"Regina, I was hoping to find you here."

"Mal," my old friend as I smiled, "how's Zelena and my niece?" It's a rare pairing of Zelena and Mal, my sister and my oldest friend.

"Oh, they are wonderful," beaming with pride. I never saw them happy, they are always smiling nowadays and now they love hugging. Mal warmly hugs me, "are we still on for girl's night?"

"No alcohol, Mal," shooting her a look. The last time we included beer, Emma was drunk and Mal's friend passed out from laughing.

"Don't worry, we'll have two bottles of wine and we'll have a good time tomorrow night."

After the principal introduced me, Queen Regina. I smiled at everyone, but my eyes caught my daughter's face on the fourth row. I began my commencement address. I started thanking the principal, board of trustees for showing true moral courage. I wanted them to challenge themselves to use this moment to energize what they do around the notion of public service and the responsibility we all share. Whether as a mayor, the owner of the company, or community-based, we shouldn't separate the roles anymore. Storybrooke is my hidden gem and I want to encourage everyone to work together as a team. When I almost ended the speech, I noticed something wrong with Reign, she flitched for a second and her eyes turned black. She has not done that for years.

Something is wrong.

I think someone is trying to call her.

I sat back down when Gabe named each student, I cautiously kept my eye on Reign while smiling at everyone and shaking each student. It happened again, Reign groaned, touching her head in agony.

I magically whispered to Emma, Mal, and Zelena about what I saw. I know they heard me. Mal looked at me then to Reign. I must go to see the source of the call. It's one of the curse objects, or something or someone. I whispered to Zelena and Emma to go to the vault now to see who is doing this to her because I can't leave in the middle of the ceremony. I watch Zelena giving Razi her nine years old daughter and they quietly walk backward.

I don't want to embarrass my daughter and I know she wants to finish high school. It's one of her proudest achievements when she works hard to dual credit college and high school at the same time. Reign kept looking around to see who is affecting and changing her. The people who sat next to her started to be afraid to be close to her at times like this. I heard her scream when she closed her eyes, her eyes becoming watery and black from the anguish. Mal called Reign Mills next to take her out before it became worse. Reign stood up and was shocked that she's next. Her friends kept urging her to go ahead.

I whispered to Mal to watch over the twins and she said not to worry about it. Reign shook my head whispering out everyone's earshot, "my head hurts mom. I feel it coming out."

"When you walk down, go to the back and I'll meet you there," hugged my daughter, whispering to her ears. Reign silently mutters and shakes the principal hands and the other while grabbing her diploma.

I quietly sneak out while politely shaking everyone's hands and they respectfully let me leave due to my 'family emergency.' I held my daughter when she turned, "it hurts!" Reign kept touching her forehead, trying not to scream, screeching. I teleported us to my underground vault, "Zelena? Emma?"

I followed their chatter to Reign's goddess' vault, "did you find anything?"

Zelena held a small golden box, "this has been beaming."

"What is it?" Emma notices bright yellow blinking brightly from the chest. Zelena hovered over the chest to sense, "nothing. It must be a goddess thing."

Reign almost dropped on the floor and I held her tight, when I spotted Zelena and Emma, "anything?" I put Reign on the chair while touching her back and running my fingers through her hair.

Emma switches places with me to keep Reign calm while I investigate the chest. I don't know what this is, but one thing I know, it's a cursed object, "… it's in her memories, Zelena."

"What if we let her touch it?"

It's too precarious since I wouldn't know what would happen as we stood watching Reign. "I wish there was a way we can look into her memories."

Zelena thought of an idea, "I came across a Pensieve, its metal basin with runes and symbols were carved and it's filled with silver substance in gas. It's an object that you can store memories, even thousands of people's memories."

"Like a dreamcatcher?" Emma questions but it don't sound similar though, "that you can … you know."

"No, it's different."

"How do we create a Pensieve?" I remembered something, "Wait, what about the ring of memories?" I forgot who had it last.

"It won't work. You choose one memory for one hour then it's gone forever."

"We need a short term, Zelena." Every now and then, she'll scream and be in tears, but now she's about to pass out. "Reign!" Emma and I caught her before she fell out of the chair. I lightly slapped her face, "Reign!" I wanted to wait until after college to return her memories. Zelena magically hovered her head to put her in deep sleep.

"We have twelve hours, give or take, for us to find Pensieve."

Emma carried her in her arms, "I got her, babe. I'll watch her."

I hate to be apart from her in a time like this. Emma kisses me on the cheek to distract me from touching her face and hair, "I got her, babe. It's going to be alright."

"This Pensieve you speak of, where do you see it last, and do we create it or buy it from someone?"

"It's a rare magical device used to store and review memories. I only saw it once in Oz."

"Zelena, there's only one way to get to Oz is through Jefferson's hat." Growing cyclones is not happening, so that's out. There has to be another way to find more information about the Pensieve device.