Chapter Seven

"Something happened."

Regina's heart dropped to her stomach at Emma's words. She had no idea what had happened, but she could tell by Emma's voice that whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"Emma? What? What happened? Are you okay?"

"I don't know!" Emma admitted, and Regina was sure the girl was about to cry at any moment.

"It's okay, Emma, it's alright. Just tell me what happened," Regina urged her. She chewed on her lip as she waited for Emma to respond, wondering if she had been in trouble all this time. What if any one of those phone calls had been Emma crying out for help and receiving only Regina's voicemail on the other end? Regina hadn't even listened to the messages, but she knew that Emma had gotten her message loud and clear, and that message was that she didn't care.

Only, she did care. She could try to deny it all she wanted, but she did. Now she was terrified of what Emma was about to tell her, and, not for the first time, she wondered if she should tell Emma to stay put while she got a flight to Minnesota so she could bring her home with her.

Regina silently reminded herself that this was the Savior on the other end of the line, and bringing her to Storybrooke would mean utter disaster.

"Um… something happened with Ingrid. She wasn't… she wasn't a good person after all," Emma explained, though she seemed hesitant to go into detail, and Regina could only blame the newfound lack of trust on herself, as well.

"Are you still with her, Emma?"

"No."

"Are you someplace safe?"

"I'm, uh, I'm at a diner. I ran away, but I have a little bit of money for food. I'm okay."

Regina cringed, knowing the girl was anything but okay. But she could address that later. First, she needed to find out what happened.

"Emma, I'm sorry I haven't been answering the phone. I don't.. I don't even really have an explanation I can give you. But please, just tell me what happened."

"No. I want an explanation. Why haven't you been answering?"

Regina sighed, knowing there was no way she could tell Emma the truth. She had to think fast. "Well, I just… I didn't want to stand in the way of your new relationship with your foster mother. She asked me not to call you again, you know. And she blocked my number. I just thought that a clean break would make things easier on you, moving forward."

"You thought abandoning me would be easier on me?"

"I didn't… I didn't think I was abandoning you. I thought… well I thought Ingrid would be good for you, and I didn't want to complicate things."

There was a pause at the other end, as Emma processed what Regina was telling her.

"Things are already complicated."

"Please, just tell me. You called me for a reason."

"Yeah, cause I got no one else. And I don't even know if I have you anymore."

Emma's words cut into Regina, and for a moment, she thought she would be the one to cry first. "You do, Emma. I made a mistake and I'm so sorry. I promise, you do have me."

"Ingrid was gonna adopt me," Emma said, finally. "She had the paperwork and everything. She said I might not ever see her as a mother, but she could be like my big sister or something. I thought I was actually gonna have a chance to have a real family with someone who wanted me and not just the subsidy money."

"Okay. But you said she wasn't a good person. What did she do?"

"She, um… we were out one night and she started talking about how I have magic? Like how I could be like Harry Potter? I don't know, it was weird and so unexpected and then she just… pushed me. She pushed me in front of a car."

"What?!" Regina gasped.

"Yeah, she said she thought I could stop it, with magic. I thought I was gonna get hit! I mean… I thought I might have a real family, finally, but… well, I guess someone would have to be crazy to want me, right?"

"No, Emma, no… oh, honey, someone would have to be crazy not to want you."

Regina's head was spinning with this new information. Was it possible that Emma did have magic? She supposed if she was a curse-breaking Savior, she must have magic. Rumple must have done something.

But now she was wondering even more how Ingrid could have possibly known. Was she from the Enchanted Forest? Regina knew that people had been lost in the curse, somehow. People were missing, and she'd assumed they'd all somehow remained in the Enchanted Forest. Was it possible that some had made it to this world, somewhere outside of Storybrooke? She knew she had Pinocchio and Emma out there, but how many more people from her world were here?

"But she's the only person who's ever wanted me, and she's nuts," Emma said, drawing Regina from her thoughts.

"That may be, Emma, but honey, that's on her, not you. I know it hurts and I know it doesn't make any sense, but maybe getting adopted by Ingrid wasn't your fate."

"My fate?"

"Yes."

"So what's my fate, then?"

"I don't know," Regina lied. "But something better is waiting for you."

"But how do you know? How could you possibly know that?"

"Because… you have a fighting spirit, Emma, I can tell. I went through a lot of hard times in my life as well, and I found strength in the struggle. You will, too."

"I wish I didn't have to," Emma admitted. "It's not fair that all I've ever known is struggle."

"Struggle teaches you how to survive, dear. In this life, those are skills you're going to need."

"Yeah, I guess so," Emma sighed. "But what am I going to do now?"

"You're going to call your social worker and get her to come pick you up. And you're going to start over."

There was another sigh on Emma's end, and Regina was aware that this was absolutely not what the girl wanted to hear.

"Emma, you know you don't have another choice. You're too young to be on your own."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just so sick of starting over… I mean, this felt like, so real. I don't know how I'm going to be able to hold onto any hope now. I'm almost fourteen… the older I get, the less chance I have of ever getting adopted. I'm gonna turn eighteen and I'm gonna be out on my own and then what?"

"I'll tell you what. If you're out on your own when you're eighteen, you call me and I will help you out. I have the resources, Emma. You're not going to starve or end up on the street. I promise you that."

"What about in the meantime?"

"I already told you what to do in the meantime," Regina reminded her. "You're going to call your social worker."

"No, I mean… what if I call you, in the meantime? Are you going to go back to ignoring me?"

"I wasn't ignoring you, Emma, but… no, I won't do that to you again. If you call, I will answer."

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise."

"I'm not sure I believe you."

"Well, I think that's fair, all things considered. But you'll see. I want you to hang up now and call your social worker, alright? And you call me when you get someplace safe."

"Okay. Bye Regina."

"Bye, Emma."

Regina sighed as she hung up the phone and leaned back on her pillows. Her heart ached for the poor girl she didn't even have a face for, and in many ways, Emma being lost and alone and crying out for help reminded Regina a lot of herself as a child.

Why did she have to be the Savior?

Bringing her to Storybrooke would ruin everything. Emma would break the curse and reunite with her parents, who Regina could only assume Emma would align with in the end. She'd likely end up in Rumple's cell in the Enchanted Forest, and she just couldn't let that happen.

No, she would instead keep her word and help Emma out financially if it came down to that. She could help the girl get an apartment and a life for herself and she wouldn't have to feel guilty about the little girl whose life was a disaster because of the curse.

After all, Regina reasoned, it wasn't her who'd put her through the wardrobe to that world in the first place.

Rationalizing really did little to absolve her guilt, but what other choice did she have at the moment?

It was mid-afternoon the next day when Regina's phone rang again.

"I'm in a group home," came Emma's disappointed voice from the other end of the line.

"Well, that's better than being on the street, is it not?"

"Obviously you've never been in a group home."

"No, I haven't. Is it that bad?"

"It's not the worst thing ever, I guess," Emma said, with a sigh. "But they have way too many girls and not enough space and… why can't you be a foster mother, Regina? It's not hard. You just take a course then you could come and pick me up!"

"Emma… I'm sorry. I just… it's not feasible. I'm a single woman and I work way too much. I would never be around."

"But still!"

"Emma."

"Right. Okay. It's fine. I'll be fine. I'm a survivor, right?"

"I think you are."

"Okay. Yeah. Alright. And thanks for picking up again."

"Always. I promise. I won't abandon you again, Emma."

"Thanks. I know it sounds strange but… I dunno, I feel less lonely here knowing you're only a phone call away, you know? Even if you're not actually here. It's like… if someone on the other side of the country can care about me, then maybe someone here could?"

"Of course someone could. You just haven't ended up in the right place yet. You'll get there."

"I'm running out of time," Emma reminded her.

"Have some faith, dear. Everything will work out."

Regina felt just a little better after ending this call than she had the night before. She was sure everything really would work out. In a few years time, she'd make sure Emma was set to start her adult life, and the Savior would have no reason to seek out Storybrooke or the Evil Queen in order to break the curse.

In fact, she was quite certain that Emma didn't have the slightest clue who she really was. And she certainly didn't believe in magic. Regina figured this was all to her advantage in the long run. The curse couldn't break if the Savior didn't come, so Regina decided she had to make sure the Savior never returned.

It didn't matter how badly she wanted to meet Emma one day. She'd have to settle for phone calls until the girl was grown up and ready to take on life on her own, then she supposed she'd have to forget about her all together.

After all, she reasoned, the pull she felt to the girl couldn't be real. It was likely something Rumple wrote into the curse. She could resist it. She just had to. And now, knowing exactly who the Savior was, she had an advantage in the situation. The curse would never break.

She really was going to win.