(A/N: This chapter is about Daniel. However, this is a Swan Queen book, and Swan Queen will be endgame. :))
. . .
Regina's memories of her last night with Daniel glowed with fireflies, with hope, with the little yellow pistols inside of the morning glories that Daniel had woven through her hair. Her memory smelled like honeysuckle, crisp spring air, and sweet apples from the tree they had sat under as they planned their elopement. She remembered their hushed whispers and the sound of Daniel's childish merriment at the idea of their forthcoming marriage. The memory felt like lush grass and a sharp weight at the bottom of her chest.
To say that Daniel had been handsome that day would have been an understatement. He had been luminescent. Regina had never seen him as flushed and radiant as he had been when Regina had asked him to run away with her- To marry her. She remembered musing to herself that he seemed as if he held the sun itself inside of his chest, the rays of light gleaming through his eyes. He had pulled a silver band out of his coat pocket- one that he had been saving for the right moment- and slipped it onto Regina's finger.
The same silver ring was on Regina's wedding finger now, and she twisted it in nervous anticipation.
She remembered that she had felt the day winding up with tempestuous energy but she had ignored the feeling, thinking that it was only her nerves giving her cold feet.
She remembered waiting until the cohabitants of her father's manor were all quiet, hours after dark, and climbing skillfully out of her window and scaling down the side of the manor walls. Before she began to jog to the stables to meet Daniel, she had stood to look at the home she had grown up in. She took a moment to appreciate the old stone and the climbing vines, before saying her goodbyes to the house, assuming that she would never see it again.
And, at the end of the day, when she had met Daniel for the very last time, she remembered the feeling of relief she'd had. She had felt like they had finally made it. The thump of her heart racing with opportunity and excitement was a feeling that Regina could barely conjure the remnants of, though she often tried to pin down that feeling of incandescent happiness that had once swelled in her spirit.
But, though Regina fought, she couldn't recant the memory without recalling how it felt to have that spirit crushed, directly in front of her eyes, as Cora's hands had wrapped around and split open Daniel's heart, disintegrating the organ into dust.
She had kept Daniel's body from decaying with a preservation spell for forty-nine years. Nearly half a century. She had kept him safe, away from the dirt and bugs below ground, in a room of his own since the moment that she had become Queen.
Regina kept her exterior guarded with an unbothered expression on her face as David sat at the desk across the room, but her fingertips were trembling with hope.
For nearly half a century, Daniel had been dead. But now he was back. She believed it with her whole heart. She knew it was true when Emma had mentioned it... She could feel it. When Daniel had first died, she had promised herself that she would never believe he would be gone forever. At the time, she had felt like admitting that Daniel's death was permanent would be a betrayal to him. She would never stop trying to bring him back. And now, almost fifty years later, she cursed herself for ever forgetting her promise. She had lost hope long before she had even enacted the curse that brought everyone to Storybrooke.
And now, with hope ignited, she waited for Emma and Daniel to return.
. . .
49 years ago:
Daniel had the horses ready and his few belongings packed almost an hour before the time that Regina had agreed to meet him in the stables. Every few minutes, he checked his pocket watch, sure that she was late. But it was still too early, and his anxiousness to leave caused the minutes to linger.
He had kissed each of the horses on the snout to say goodbye, except for his own horse and Regina's. He was sorry to leave them behind after so many years of being their sole caretaker, knowing that the next stable boy would have a hard time establishing a bond with the sentimental creatures.
He checked his watch, again. Five minutes. Regina should be there in five minutes. The hour he had spent sweeping the stables to kill time had seemed like an eternity. He looked at the ground, still pretending to sweep nonexistent plys of hay out of the walkway. Only five minutes left.
His head jerked up as he heard a crash from outside of the stables. He jumped and laid the broom against the wall of the stable before jogging outside, thinking that Regina had tripped over the hill on the way to meet him.
He scanned the field to see that Regina was nowhere in sight. There was only a man with a white waistcoat and messy blonde hair sprawled in the grass and weeds. He dressed in a fashion that Daniel had never seen before, and he deduced that the other man was probably foreign.
"Are you alright?" Daniel asked the man, who sat up and brushed a thistle out of his hair. He lifted up his hand so that Daniel could pull him up to stand.
"Thanks," the man said, before holding out his hand to shake Daniel's. "My name is Victor Whale. I'm a doctor and have someone to do business with in this area. Can you tell me if you know of someone named Daniel Colter?"
Daniel started. He had never seen this man before, and no one ever came into town to do business with stable boys. He was a servant and didn't have any friends or acquaintances apart from Regina and the family that he worked for.
"That would be me," Daniel said hesitantly, "Is there something I can help you with?"
Perhaps Victor was looking for a horse to rent, and Mr. Mills had forgotten to mention that he'd be sending him down to the stables.
"Not me," Whale said, smiling, "Regina. She sent me to bring you to her. There's been... Well. There's been a delay in her plan to meet you here."
Daniel's heart immediately sank. He knew that Cora was a very powerful sorcerous, and had been nervous that she had perhaps been spying on Regina and Daniel with the help of her magic. If this was true, she surely would have locked Regina up and sent this man to trick Daniel.
"Please," Whale said, "It's urgent. She needs your help."
"What happened?" Daniel asked.
"It's her mother," Whale replied, "She found out about your plan to elope. We have to get out of here immediately. I only have enough magic to take us-"
"You have magic?" Daniel interrupted. He had never met anyone who practiced in the art of witchcraft other than Cora.
"Only enough to transport us to a different meeting place. But we have to hurry. Cora will be here to kill you any minute now."
Cora wanted to kill him. Daniel grimaced. He had known that her reaction would be terrible, but death? He hadn't thought that she would take it that far.
Daniel didn't trust this man, but he didn't have time to weigh his options. Even if this was a trap to lure him to Cora, he would at least have the chance to fight back or protect Regina from her mother's wrath.
"Okay," Daniel said, "Where are we going?"
Whale's face brightened, and he grinned in a way that made Daniel's stomach turn. His instinct told him that this man was up to no good.
"Somewhere where Cora will never find you. A place she doesn't even know exists."
. . .
Present-day:
Daniel opened his eyes and blinked. He was looking up at a cloudy night sky that had turned shades of purple and blue and black. The ground beneath him was hard stone, and he realized that he was at the bottom of a dry well.
He groaned as he lifted his head, the bones in his back creaking. How long had he been asleep here? How had he gotten to this place?
He blinked away the fuzzy darkness as he thought intensely. He cataloged his memories and realized that the last thing he remembered was talking to Doctor Whale in the pasture. "Somewhere where Cora will never find you," the doctor had said.
Was their meeting place to be in a well? Surely not.
He saw that a rope had been thrown over the walls of the well. The rope reached all the way to the floor next to Daniel's feet. He tugged on it lightly, and then with his weight. Someone must have left it for him, anchored at the surface so that he could climb up.
He gripped the rope and steadied his feet against the damp wall of the well before scaling his way to the top and jumping out of the well to the surface. He was in the middle of a thick patch of trees, but he heard a distant commotion that told him that people were not too far away.
What an odd place for a well, he thought.
He stumbled in the direction of the noise, hoping to find a town or a road. And then he heard someone calling his name.
His heart jumped at the realization that it was a woman's voice. Was it Regina?
"Hello?" he called back, and broke into a run toward the voice. He found himself at a large clearing, and then noticed a stable and a road up ahead. He searched for any hints of familiarity but soon concluded that he had absolutely no idea where he was. Did the Doctor send them to an entirely different realm?
"Daniel!" he heard the voice again, "I'm a friend!"
He frowned as he saw a blonde woman that he didn't recognize peeking into the stable. Another person who knew Daniel, and Daniel had no idea why. Why hadn't Regina been able to meet him there herself? He felt sick at the thought that maybe Regina hadn't been able to use whatever method of portal that Whale had, and that they could be entire realms away from each other.
"Over here!" he called to the blonde woman, waving his hand to catch her attention. He pushed his fear to the back of his mind and walked up the hill to meet the woman, his muscles aching from his rest on the stone well floor.