Chapter 4: The Thing You Love Most

Regina knocked on the door of Emma's room. When Emma opened the door, she held up the basket of apples she was carrying. "Did you know the Honeycrisp tree is the most vigorous and hearty of all apple trees? It can survive temperatures as low as forty below and keep growing," she said. "It can weather any storm. I have one that I've tended to since I was a little girl. And to this day, I have yet to taste anything more delicious than the fruit it offers." She handed Emma an apple.

"Thanks." Emma said.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy them on your drive home." Regina said.

"Actually, I'm going to stay for a while."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Regina said, she was immediately against the idea. "Henry has enough issues. He doesn't need you confusing him."

The door to the room next door opened. Buffy was about to walk into the hall when she heard Regina and Emma talking. She closed it enough to listen but otherwise not be visible.

"All due respect, Madam Mayor, the fact that you have now threatened me twice in the last twelve hours makes me want to stay more." Emma said.

"Since when were apples a threat?" Regina asked.

"I can read between the lines. Sorry. I just want to make sure Henry's okay." Emma said as Buffy realized who Emma was.

"He's fine, dear. Any problems he has are being taken care of," Regina said.

"And the woman who adopted Henry that Dawn mentioned from her dream," Buffy thought to herself.

"What does that mean?" Emma asked.

"It means I have him in therapy," Regina explained. "It's all under control. Take my advice, Miss Swan. Only one of us knows what's best for Henry."

"Yeah, I'm starting to think you're right about that." Emma said.

"It's time for you to go," Regina said.

"Or what?" Emma wondered.

"Don't underestimate me, Miss Swan. You have no idea what I'm capable of." Regina said as she started for the stairs.

Buffy heard Emma's door close as she opened her own. She stood there waiting for Regina to pass. "Hello, Madam Mayor."

"Who are you?" Regina asked at the sudden appearance of yet another stranger.

"My name is Buffy Summers." Buffy said as Faith and Dawn stepped out into the hall next to her. "This is my sister Dawn and our friend, Faith."

"Dawn? Faith?" Regina thought to herself, it can't be. She looked at Buffy as she said out loud, "What did you say your name was?"

"Buffy," Buffy says. "Buffy Summers. Why do you ask?"

"Short memory," Regina lied. "Sometimes I have to have people repeat things so they stick. It's nice to meet you Buffy. Are you new in town?"

Buffy nodded. "You could say that. We're from out of town visiting."

"This is getting weirder by the minute," Regina thought. "First Ms. Swan and now these three." She looked at the three women for a moment. Was it possible they were her daughters, her long lost daughters? How did they get into this world from the Enchanted Forest if they were? "I hope you enjoy your stay," she told them as she turned and walked down the stairs.

Later Regina was at home picking apples as Sidney walked up behind her. "The Mirror strikes again!" he said as he held up a newspaper and showed her the front page that had a story on Emma.

"You're late." Regina said.

"Sorry. I wanted to bring you the latest edition. I assure you it's one of my better hatchet jobs." Sidney said.

"That's not what I asked for," Regina said with a little bit of anger. "What'd you find out about her?"

"Well, the truth be told, there wasn't much. She spent a lot of time in foster homes," Sydney explained. "Sh-she got into some trouble when she was a kid, ah, but the details are locked up pretty tight. Since then, she's clean. Bounced around all over. The only thing I really learned was that she doesn't like to sit still."

"Well, that appears to have changed." Regina said.

"D-did you know that, um, she had Henry while she was in Phoenix? Huh, how'd he wind up here in Maine?" Sidney wondered.

"So, if I'm understanding you correctly, you found nothing of value. Which means you have no value, Sidney. Do you know what I do with things that hold no value to me? I throw them away." Regina said.

"I-I'll keep looking." Sidney offered.

"I have three more people for you to look into also." Regina said.

"S-sure." Sidney said as he wondered who these new people were.

"Their names are Buffy and Dawn Summers and Faith Lehane. Find what you can about them."

0 – 0 – In the Enchanted Forest Sometime in the Past – 0 – 0

The Evil Queen was at Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding. "I shall destroy your happiness, if it is the last thing I do," she said as she turned and headed for the door.

"Hey!" called Charming as the Evil Queen turned back to look at him. He threw his sword at her, but she disappeared before it could hit her.

0 – 0 – In the Present in Storybrooke, Maine – 0 – 0

Emma sat in Granny's Diner reading the newspaper and eating the apple that Regina gave her.

"Here you go," Ruby said as she set down the cup of cocoa in front of Emma.

"Thank you. But I did not order that," Emma said as Buffy, Dawn and Faith walked through the front door.

"Yeah, I know. You have an admirer," Ruby said. She looked toward Buffy, Dawn and Faith. "Hey Buffy… Dawn… Faith. Have a seat anywhere and I will get to you in a minute."

Buffy, Faith and Dawn passed Henry who smiled at them and sat down not far from Graham.

Emma noticed Graham. She picked up the cocoa and walked over to his table. She put the cocoa in front of him.

"Ah, so you decided to stay," Graham said.

"Observant. Important for a cop." Emma said.

"It's good news for our tourist business, it's bad for our local signage. It's… It's a joke. It's because you ran over our sign." Graham said.

It was at that moment that Ruby moved over to Buffy, Dawn and Faith's table. "What can I get you?" she asked as the three of them placed their orders. Ruby smiled as she walked off to fill the orders.

"Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture, and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon on my chocolate because most people don't, but I am not here to flirt. So, thank you, but no thank you." Emma said.

Dawn looked at Emma and leaned over and whispered to Faith and Buffy, "That's Emma from my dream."

Buffy and Faith take quick glances and then nodded.

"I didn't send it." Graham said.

Henry stood up out of his booth, "I did. I like cinnamon, too."

"Don't you have school?" Emma asked as she turned toward Henry.

"Duh. I'm ten. Walk me," Henry said as he looked at Dawn and winked at her.

Dawn frowned as Ruby brought their food. "The kid winked at me. I think that was Henry."

"You'll be the least conspicuous since you're eighteen," Buffy said. "You're the easiest to pass for a high school student. Tail him."

"Will do," Dawn said she stood up and followed Emma and Henry out the door.

"B," Faith said. "I had a new dream. I hate the fact faces are hidden from us. That said though I saw the Evil Queen threatening Snow White and her boyfriend or husband, I would say husband since it looked like it was their wedding."

"Yeah I agree about the fact we can't see faces," Buffy said with a sigh.

Elsewhere Dawn followed Emma and Henry at a discreet distance but close enough to hear the conversation as they walked toward the bus stop.

"So, what's the deal with you and your mom?" Emma asked.

"It's not about us, it's about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one – identification. I call it Operation Cobra." Henry said.

"Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairy tales." Emma said.

"Exactly. It's a code name to throw the Queen off the trail." Henry explained.

"So, everyone here is a fairy tale character. They just don't know it." Emma said, she still didn't believe what Henry was telling her about the town.

"That's the curse. Time's been frozen – until you got here," Henry said as Emma took a bite of her apple. "Hey! Where'd you get that?"

"Your mom." Emma says.

"Don't eat that!" Henry said and took the apple from Emma and threw it over his shoulder.

The apple landed at Dawn's feet and she picked it up. As she looked at the apple, she tried to remember her fairy tales. She remembered that Snow White ate an apple and fell into an enchanted sleep. She pocketed the apple, planning to check it for poison.

"Okay, uh… Alright. What about their pasts?" Emma said.

"They don't know. It's a haze to them. Ask anyone anything. And you'll see." Henry said.

"So, for decades, people have been walking around in a haze, not aging, with screwed up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious." Emma said.

Henry nodded, "I knew you'd get it. That's why we need you and your aunts. You four are the only ones who can stop her curse."

"Because I'm the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming?" Emma asked. "And remember I said I didn't have aunts."

"Yes. And you do have aunts," Henry said. "They were the half-sisters of Snow White, before they got kidnapped and banished from the Enchanted Forest."

Dawn looked at Henry and wondered if he was talking about her, Buffy and Faith?

"And right now, we have the advantage. My mom doesn't know that. I took out the end. The part with you four in it. See? Your mom is Snow White." Henry said as he handed pages to Emma.

"Kid…" Emma said as she took the pages.

"I know the heroes never believe at first. If they did, it wouldn't be a very good story. If you need proof, take them. Read them. But whatever you do, don't let her see these pages. They're dangerous. If she finds out who you are, then it would be bad. I got to go. But I'll find you later and we can get started. I knew you'd believe me!" Henry said.

"I never said I did." Emma said.

"Why else would you be here?" Henry asked as he ran into the school.

It was then that Mary Margaret came up to Emma. "It's good to see his smile back," she said.

"I didn't do anything." Emma said.

Mary Margaret smiled, "You stayed. So, does the Mayor know you're still here?"

"Oh, she knows. What is her deal? She's not a great people person. How did she get elected?" Emma asked.

"She's been mayor for as long as I can remember. No one's ever been brave enough to run against her. She inspires quite a bit of, well, fear. I'm afraid I only made that worse by giving Henry that book. Now he thinks she's the Evil Queen." Mary Margaret said.

Dawn's eyes went wide and she turned and ran back towards the bed and breakfast. She ran up the stairs and into hers and Buffy's room. "Buffy!" she said. She noticed that Buffy had the phone held between her and Faith and that she could hear Giles voice.

"I had the results checked twice," he said. "You three are definitely sisters. And none of you are related to either the Summers or Lehane families."

Dawn's jaw drops. So, it was true Joyce wasn't her birth mother. It felt like a gut punch in her stomach.

Buffy saw Dawn's reaction to the news, "Hold on, Giles." She handed the phone to Faith and then moved over to Dawn, "Dawn, mom will always be our mom. She raised us, okay. Even if there is someone else out there in the world who gave birth to us. Mom will still be our mom, okay?"

Dawn nodded and let out a sigh, "Okay. You know what this means right? That our theory on the three of us being split up is true and that I was in reality not created by the monks to hide the Key that they instead stole me from you my family."

"Yeah," Buffy says. "I know. If there was any of them left alive believe me, they would get an earful."

"Same from me little D," Faith said.

"Ahem." Giles said from the phone. "Have you all had anymore dreams?"

"I did." Dawn said. "In the drive up here from the airport." She went on to tell Giles what she had seen in the dream.

"Anything else?" Giles asked.

"I had one also," Faith said. "The Evil Queen was threatening Snow White and her boyfriend or husband at their wedding."

"Dawn? Did you find anything out from tailing the kid?" Buffy asked.

Dawn nodded, "It's possible the Mayor is evil and she placed the curse on the town. I also have an apple here. Henry saw Emma was eating it and took it away from her throwing it away. I'm going to get my kit out of the car and see if there might be any poison or anything."

"You think it could be like the Snow White fairy tale?" Buffy wondered.

Dawn nodded, "That was my thinking. Oh, and Henry knows that Snow White had half-sisters."

After Giles hung up. Buffy, Faith and Dawn sat in the room together looking at each other. Unsure how to really react to the news they were sisters, true sisters. Buffy had considered Faith a sister-slayer, tied together by their destiny. Dawn was her sister because at the time by magic. Now to find out they were true sisters hit the three of them hard. They wondered if that much was true if the rest of it was true as well.

That led to thoughts of the others from their dreams of Snow White and their mother who they still didn't know exactly what they looked like. They wondered about their mother who may or may not be the cause of the supposed curse if their assumption was correct and Henry's mom was their birth mother. They needed to find out more. So, it was decided they would not mention to anyone let alone the Mayor whom they were till they knew the whole situation.