Hey guys! I'm on a roll... no idea what's wrong with me. I think it's you guys and all your lovely comments and support. Thank you for sticking by me through all of this. So here is the first chapter back in Storybrooke and we finally get Regina back. Hope you enjoy my lovelys
Emma looked at her son sleeping in her bed and couldn't help but feel anxiety flow through her. His life was simple right now, like a kid's life should be, and she knew it wouldn't last. Soon they would be back to living every day with a knew fight to face. Her daughter had moaned the whole night, claiming she could not wait to return to New York. If only she knew, there was no way back. Knowing she had to face the music, Emma made her way back downstairs to her parents.
"Okay, Henry is asleep upstairs. If he wakes up, you two are helping me with the case," she takes her seat on the sofa turning her attention to her father and very pregnant mother. "So, what the hell happened here? I mean, besides the obvious," Emma gestured at her mother's stomach
"We don't know. We watched you drive over the town line with Henry, Sarah and Josh. Regina started to cast her spell to take us all back to the Enchanted Forest and then...everything went black," Snow sighed.
"And the next thing we remember is waking up in our beds like it was any other morning in Storybrooke," David continued.
"Except it clearly wasn't," Mary Margaret added putting a hand on her stomach.
"Clearly a year's past. I was in New York, I know I was," Emma thought back on the last year of her life, it had been her best year yet.
"And we don't know where the hell we were. We don't even know if we left Storybrooke," David tightened his grip on the chair in front of him.
"Aye, you did. I was with you," the pirate in the corner of the room spoke up.
"In the Enchanted Forest?" Mary Margaret wished she could remember going back to her home land.
Hook nodded. "Regina's spell brought us back. We've spent a brief time with a prince and princess named Phillip and Aurora. But I wasn't feeling the community spirit, so I ventured off on my own. The last I saw of you lot, you were making your way to Regina's castle."
"And now you're cursed. Why doesn't that surprise me?" Emma practically growled. Of course Regina would have something to do with this.
Mary Margaret shook her head, jumping to the mayor's defence. "Regina seems as clueless as the rest of us. I'm not quite sure she was involved in this."
"So she says. Till I know for sure, I'm not letting either kid out of my sight," there was no way Emma was going to let Regina mess with her children's heads again.
"Speaking of," Snow looked around the wall less apartment. "Where is Sarah?"
Sarah had woken up early to take a look around the small town. It didn't take her very long, the place was not much bigger than her apartment in New York. She couldn't put her finger on it but something about the place looked familiar. Even the people seemed to stare at her like they knew her. Like she had been there before.
"Are you lost?" She turned around to see a blue-eyed boy around her age staring at her.
"Difficult to get lost," Sarah greeted. "Every street leads you back to the same place."
"It is pretty small," the boy nodded.
"Are you kidding?" the girl arched an eyebrow. "I've seen bigger snow globes."
The boy let out a chuckle. "I'm Sam," he smiled extending his hand. He wishes he knew about what happened to the girl in front of him. Last thing he knew they had only just said goodbye and now his girlfriend was looking at him like he was a stranger. Technically he was. Sarah wasn't his girlfriend anymore. At least not this version of herself.
Sarah stared at his hand for a second before reciprocating the gesture. "Sarah."
"Got a last name?" the boy smirked.
"Yep," the teen smirked before releasing the boy's hand and slowly walking away. "See you around Sam," with that she made her way down the street leaving an amused boy in her wake. Lost in thoughts of the stranger she just met she barely registered her phone ringing. "Mom?" the girl questioned as she answered.
"Where the hell are you?!" Her mother barked.
"Well good morning to you too," the teen rolled her eyes.
"Do not good morning me. Kid, you can't just wander off by yourself," Emma sighed.
"Oh yes, I can roam freely around New York, where you are almost robbed everyday, but in Storybrooke I have to be careful. What do you thinks going to happen? A stranger might give me too much candy," Sarah could practically feel her mom glare down the phone.
"Just meet us at Granny's and be quick about it. Do you know how to get there?" her mother questioned.
"Mom the town is one street long. I know I'm not great in geography but I think I can work that out by myself," with that, she hung up the phone heading to meet her mom and brother.
Meanwhile in Granny's, Henry sat at the counter taking everything in. After being used to the busy city this place was definitely going to be an adjustment.
"Here you go, Hen-. Young man," Ruby quickly corrected as she put the drink in front of the boy. "Nice hot cocoa."
Henry looked down at the drink realising it was just how he liked it. "Hey, it's cinnamon. How did you know?"
"A lucky guess. You've got a cinnamon kind of face," Ruby gave a tight smile.
"I'm pretty sure she just insulted you," Sarah commented as she made her way into the diner. "I don't think a cinnamon face is what Tyra Banks is looking for."
"Coffee?" Ruby smiled at the teen.
Sarah nodded with a smile. "Now she is my kind of woman," Sarah took a seat next to her mother.
"No more disappearing," Emma scolded.
"Fine," the girl sighed before Ruby put her coffee in front of her. "You are officially my new favourite person," Ruby gave the kid a wink before heading over to another customer.
Before anymore could be said the trio was joined by the Charming's.
"Sarah, Henry, this is David and Mary Margaret," it was strange to have to introduce her kids to their own grandparents. Sarah gave a slight nod but was too absorbed in her coffee to pay any real attention.
"Are you helping my mom with the case?" Henry asked before whispering to his mom. "Or are they the ones who jumped bail?"
"They don't really look like the Bonnie and Clyde type Henry," Sarah smiled into her coffee.
"They are just old friends," Emma explained.
"Friends? From where?" Henry gave his mom a quizzical look. She never kept friends around for very long.
"Phoenix," Mary Margaret knew it was the wrong answer by the alarmed look Emma gave her.
"Well, Phoenix and here," the blonde quickly corrected.
Henry looked at his sister who just shrugged. "But I thought you were only in Phoenix for being in... that place."
"You can say prison Henry it's okay," his sister whispered.
"Right," Snow quickly tried to think of a story to cover her tracks. "We were cell mates."
"Well maybe she is the Bonnie type," Sarah gave an impressed nod.
"What were you in for?" It was times like this Snow really hated how curious her grandson was.
"Banditry," technically the teacher didn't lie. "People make mistakes. The important thing is to find a way to keep moving on."
"Did you know my dad?" Emma almost smacked her head into the counter in front of her to escape the conversation.
"Should we order? Let's order," David quickly rushed in to save his wife.
Before an order could be placed the family heard a coffee cup smash near the door. They turned to see a brunette woman staring intensely at them. Just like with everything else in the town, Sarah felt something familiar about the woman, like they were connected to each other somehow. She soon shook her head, what the hell was in this coffee.
"Oh, uh, I'm- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," Regina began, her stare remaining on her children.
Not wanting her kids to have too much communication with the woman, Emma quickly rose from her chair pulling Regina to one side. "Regina, we need to talk. Come on."
"They looked right through me," Regina commented as the pair made it into the back room.
"Because they don't remember you," Emma sighed.
"But you clearly do," Regina snapped. "Why are you here?"
Emma looked at the mayor in disbelief. "Storybrooke. A new curse. Missing year. What do you think?"
Regina rolled her eyes. "What I mean is, how did you know to come back? I gave you and the kids a new life. New memories."
"Hook found me. He gave me a potion to make me remember. There wasn't enough for Henry and Sarah," the blonde explained.
"How convenient," Regina snarled. "Look, I didn't cast that curse, if that's what you're thinking."
"The thought did cross my mind," Emma crossed her arms.
"Why would I do this? Why would I erase an entire year of my life?" Regina knew she didn't deserve anyone's trust but sometimes it made for a really hard life.
"Maybe it was a bad year for you. Maybe this curse was your way of getting me to bring Henry and Sarah back here," Emma had finally got the life she wanted with her kids and she wasn't in a rush to let it go.
"With no memory of me?" the brunette scoffed. "If I wanted my children back, do you think I'd put myself through this kind of torture? I cast curses to hurt other people. Not myself."
"Maybe so. But I need to start crossing people of the list," the blonde was going to get to the bottom of this.
"How? By walking around using your superpower on everyone?" there were somethings about the blonde that the mayor hadn't missed.
"You've got a better idea?"
While Emma and Regina got to work trying to save the town, the blonde left the kids with her parents. Before she left, she gave them strict instructions to not let the kids out of their sight and not to reveal anything about their lives here before.
"My God," Mary Margaret grimaced from the counter at Granny's. The husband and wife team decided the diner was the best place to hide their grandkids till everything blew over. "Did you know there's something like cradle cap? Babies get that on their heads. It's a crusty, yellow, greasy, scaly skin rash. Seriously, this book uses all of these words."
"What the hell are you reading?" Sarah crinkled her nose in disgust. "I've heard of tamer Stephen King novels."
"Gross," her brother agreed.
Mary Margaret soon realised that pregnancy books probably wasn't the best way to entertain the pair. "You know, there's a library down the street. We can pop in get you something, if you'd rather. I know how much you love reading."
"How do you know that?" Henry was starting to get sucpicious of his mother's long-lost friends.
"Your mom said," Snow quickly replied.
"Cool," Henry smiled. "Let me go get my coat."
As her brother left Sarah saw her opportunity to escape. "Well as much as I love a good book, I think I'm going to head back to the loft and have a lie down."
"Are you okay?" Snow, asked a little too concerned for someone who was meant to be a stranger.
"I'm fine," the girl smiled. "I just didn't get much sleep last night, what with the hustle and bustle of Storybrooke," with the sarcastic comment, the teen quickly left Granny's. Time to find some real fun in this town.
Meanwhile in the mayor's office, Regina was trying her best to recreate Hook's potion but was having no luck as she smashed it against the wall.
"Either that wall did something to you in the past year or I'd say it didn't work," Emma commented from the sidelines.
Regina glared at the blonde. "I must have missed an ingredient."
"Can't we try again?" Emma spoke cautiously, bad things tended to happen when the queen lost her temper.
Regina sighed at the mess on the floor. "I've already used up what was left of the potion Hook gave you. There's nothing left to applicate. The only person who would have the power to fix this is…"
"Sarah," Emma finished for the brunette who confirmed it with a nod "Is there any chance she has her magic?"
"The curse bound her magic it would need to be broken before she would be able to help us," Regina leant against her desk in despair. "I can't live in this town if Henry and Sarah don't remember me. It's worse than any curse I ever could have cast."
"What if we can still find the person who cursed the town?" Emma tried to give the woman hope.
"Haven't you been paying attention.," the mayor snapped. "I can't make any more potion."
"You don't have to make anything. We can still catch the person," the blonde insisted.
"How?" Regina was starting to get sick of the other woman's optimism.
"What if we're running the wrong con?
"I'm sorry. I'm not well at phrasing cons. Unlike you, I've never spent time in prison," Emma just rolled her eyes at the brunette.
"No, that has nothing to do with prison. It's an old bail bondsman's trick. You smoke out the perp by making them think you're on them," Emma explained.
"How does that help us?" Regina was trying her best to connect the dots.
"If the person who'd cast the curse starts worrying we're about to make a memory potion…" Emma began.
"They want to stop us," Regina finished.
"Yes," the blonde nodded. "And then we set a trap on them when they do. We just need to get the word out that you're close."
Regina crossed her legs with a smirk. "I know just who to tell."
"Okay so Storybrooke is officially boring," Sarah moaned down the phone. "I have walked around the whole place twice and there is not a single manicure place… what are they cave people."
"I see you are having a nice time," Josh laughed on the other end of the phone. "How long are you going to be stuck there."
"Too long," the girl groaned. "Everything is just so stranger here. Even mom and that's saying something," it was at that moment the teen spotted her mother's bug parked outside the mayor's office, her blonde mother and the woman from this morning sat in the front seat. What was going on?
Regina looked around the tin can she had found herself in. "So, do we just sit here and wait?"
Emma looked over at the woman with a nod. "Until the person who'd cast the curse makes a move on your office."
"Is this really what you do for a living?" Regina really didn't understand the other woman.
"Yeah, it's called a stakeout," Emma smiled, not hearing the disdain in the mayor's voice.
"And you don't get bored?" Regina had only been in the car for 10 minutes and she was already going out of her mind.
"I don't know. I've learnt to pass time," Emma thought back to her old stake outs. "Eat. Talk. Mostly watch, that's what we should be doing."
The pair stayed silent for a few moments while Regina decided if she really wanted her questions answered. After a while she decided to take the plunge. "Do they have friends?"
"Do who have friends?" Emma asked like she didn't already know.
"Sarah and Henry," Regina stated like it was obvious. "Do they have any friends in New York?"
Emma paused wondering how much information she should give. "Yeah, they have a lot of friends. No girlfriends for Henry, yet. At least not one I know about," she added trying to lighten the mood. "Sarah dates Josh now though."
Regina looked over in shock. "How did that happen?"
"No idea," Emma laughed. "I guess by not separating them when we moved to Storybrooke and Sarah never meeting Sam she just saw him in a different light.
Regina nodded trying to process the information. "So, their happy? Their life is good there?"
"Yeah," Emma smiles, thinking of how happy her children were in their new life. "I almost didn't come back because of that."
"Then, why did you?" Regina could not help her curiosity. If the roles were reversed, she didn't know whether she would have brought her children back here.
"Because they may not remember all this but I do. And I know what they would say. A hero would come back," her kids always did what was right, even if it took Sarah a minute to figure out what the right thing was.
Regina smiled to herself. "They would say that."
Emma looked over at the sadness in the other woman's face. "You're sure you don't want to meet them? We could just tell them you're an old friend like Mary Margaret and David."
Regina thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. "It would be too hard."
"I can't imagine- "before Emma could finish her sentence, she noticed movement in the building. "We got them."
The pair snuck back into the building, moving towards the office door. "Are you sure, whoever is in there can't escape?" Emma whispered.
"I sealed the room with a blood lock. It can keep you out or it can keep you in. I know what I'm doing," Regina snapped once again. Emma pulled out her pistol as Regina took the magic off the office before slowly opening the door to find the room a mess.
Emma spotted a hooded figure in the corner of the room. "There. Don't move!"
"There's nowhere for you to go," Regina added.
Before either woman could get to the individual they disappeared in a cloud of green smoke. "I thought you said they couldn't do that," Emma looked at the queen for an explanation.
"No one can break blood magic. No matter how powerful they are," Regina stared at the place the person had just been in disbelief.
"Then, who are we dealing with?"
"What are you guys doing?" the two women jumped around to see their daughter stood in the doorway.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Emma grabbed her heart that was beating out of her chest.
"You really need to work on your greetings," Sarah rolled her eyes at her mother.
"I told you to stay with David and Mary Margaret," Emma looked at Regina who had frozen to the spot.
"She started reading us horror stories about babies heads what did you want from me," Sarah held her arms up in defeat.
"Your parenting is top notch if I haven't said so before," Regina finally spoke up.
"Who's this?" Sarah asked causing both her mother's to scramble for an explanation.
"Never mind that," Emma quickly interrupted. "Come on let's get you home."
"New York?" Sarah asked hopefully.
"I meant the loft," Emma sighed.
"Lucky me," the girl grumbled before walking out the office, her mother's following closely behind.
Back at the loft, Regina stood anxiously in the middle of the room. Emma had managed to convince her to stay and meet the kids properly but everything in her was screaming that it was a bad idea. What if they didn't like her? How was she meant to talk to them when they thought she was a stranger?
"Maybe this isn't a good idea," Regina whispered to the blonde.
"It's going to be fine. Trust me," with that Henry came through the door making his way over to where his sister stood by the kitchen counter. "Hey, how was your day?" Emma smiled.
"Good. Storybrooke is a weird place. But cool. Did you know there's a library inside a clock tower," an excitable Henry told his mother.
"I do. I've been there before," it was at that point she turned to Regina. "I want you guys to meet someone. This is Regina Mills. She's the mayor of this town and she wanted to meet you."
"Is something wrong?" Henry turned to his sister. "Did you do something?"
"Why are you so quick to blame me?" Sarah exclaimed.
"Cause last year you burnt down the science block of school with a bunson burner," Henry reminded his sister.
"That is hardly going to happen twice is it," Sarah stuck her tongue out at the boy before Regina intervened.
"No, no. No, nothing's wrong. Your mother just told me a lot about you. I heard you like school Henry and that you're good at English," Regina smiled and then turned to the teen. "And I hear you like coffee."
"Just with my oxygen," Sarah agreed.
"Why did she tell you all this?" Henry questioned.
"Because she is proud of you," Regina quickly explained. "While you're in town I was thinking, maybe I can give you a tour sometime. You know, show you around. Maybe we can stop in for ice-cream."
"Yeah, I'd like that," Henry smiled.
All eyes then turned to his sister. "Sure, why not," Sarah agreed much to the mayor's delight.
"So, it was nice meeting you," Regina smiled as the kids headed upstairs.
"How was that? You're okay?" Emma asked once her kids were out of ear shot.
"It was a start," the mayor sighed.
Before anymore could be said David came bursting through the door. "We need to talk Emma." The blonde felt her day was going to get worse before it got better.