For Day 24 of Femslash February: Mystery.
This is based on the Lisa Scottoline novel, Look Again. I may add to it if there's enough interest.
Regina hates herself for not throwing away the magazine. On any other day, she would have. When she collects the mail, she separates the junk from the regular and tosses it in the bin. Yet, the mailman had put the magazine full of ads upside down that afternoon. This meant, the "Have you seen this person?" ad was staring straight up at her as she flipped her electric bill from the top of it. Normally she'd just frown, say a small prayer for the family and move on. On that day, she had to look twice.
It was for a baby boy, born 3 years prior. His name was Jackson David Swan-Cassidy. According to the ad, he had gone missing when he was just 3 days old and hadn't been seen since. That wasn't the part that caught Regina's eye, no that went to the mock up of what the baby would like today.
He perfectly resembles her son.
3-year-old Henry sits in the living room, reading a book with her wife. She can hear Mal's soft voice as they go through the pages together. Henry's giggle as Mal shifts how she talks when reading The Giving Tree and then the boy.
A part of her wants to think it's just a coincidence. There's no way her son can be kidnapped. They adopted him, they went through all of the proper channels…
Except it perfectly matches how he was found.
Mal's a reporter. She had been at the hospital to do a story on the first set of quintuplets born in Storybrooke. When she was in the NICU with the parents, a baby in the back caught her eye. He was the only infant there without any parents. According to the nurses, he had been left abandoned on the steps of the hospital. Despite their best efforts, no parents had been found. Mal visited the tiny baby twice, before bringing Regina with her. They had fostered Henry for a year until they were finally able to adopt him.
Regina tears the back off the magazine and creeps into her office. She settles into the oversized leather chair and throws open her laptop screen. She enters "Jackson David Swan-Cassidy" into the search bar and a flurry of information comes up. According to one article, the infant was last seen in Boston. He was born to teen parents, Emma Swan and Neal Cassidy but taken from his nursery one night. The parents had no enemies. Emma's mom had been watching the child so they could go back to school.
As Regina scrolled to a picture of Mary Margaret Swan, her heart sank. Henry had dark hair, just like hers. His hazel eyes looked a mix of hers, Emma's and Neal's. There were facial expressions from both "Jackson's" grandparents and parents that appeared on the face of her son. This was beginning to terrify her.
How is she supposed to go forward now? The child she's loved, the child she's raised, was potentially never given up in the first place. His biological parents are out there looking for him and pleading to whoever took him to just give him back. Another article shows them on his birthday every year, releasing balloons and praying for his safe return.
Regina feels like she's going to be sick.
The door opens and Mal peeks her head in. Her beautiful blonde curls frame her face and her eyes are so welcoming, kind. The smile that Regina fell in love with is across her lips. Mal has a daughter from a previous relationship that Regina loves to pieces. Lily is like her own daughter, she loves her as much as Henry. Mal had originally said she didn't want more kids and Regina had been fine with that. Then Mal broke when she saw Henry. They both knew he was meant to be theirs.
Except in reality, maybe he wasn't after all.
She doesn't know if she should tell her, break her heart. She doesn't know if any of this is even the truth. Maybe it really is all one big coincidence. But if it's not, they need to figure out what to do. They need to do it as a team.
"Henry wants ice cream," Mal reports. "He's been good all day and the sun just came out. I figured we could take him and Lily once we pick her up from her study group."
Regina knows now isn't the time to break her wife's heart. They can figure it all out tomorrow.
In the meantime, she swallows her fear and forces a smile onto her face.
"Sounds good to me."
Mal studies her a bit. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
She rises to her feet and walks closer to her wife, pulling Mal into her arms.
"Everything is going to be just fine."