When Regina woke up and remembered what happened the night before, she braced herself. Would Phoenix be there when she opened her eyes? She would assume not- as far as she knew, no one else in this cursed town even knew her vault existed, let alone resided in her father's crypt in the cemetery- but she could never be sure. After all, she had woken up to find him in her bed every other morning she had woken in the Land Without Magic, hadn't she?
She didn't feel anything either, which was definitely a good sign. Wherever Phoenix was, he wasn't in her bed, and that was all that mattered. What he was doing instead, she didn't know and she didn't care. He was probably in the house that was supposed to be hers with that son of his, and that was where he needed to stay, as far as she was concerned.
She sighed. How on earth had Riley gotten into her heart so quickly? It was very stealthy, how he had wormed his way in… almost like a thief.
She groaned, collapsing back on the bed she had conjured in her vault the night before. There were thieves in the Enchanted Forest, of course, and she had always ensured that her Black Knights kept a close eye on all of them, helping the sheriffs of each town keep the streets clear of them so they were safe for law-abiding citizens.
There was one notorious thief, though, who had always eluded capture. Robin Hood had driven the Sheriff of Nottingham mad, so much so that she had often wondered if there was more to their story than just a sheriff trying to uphold the law and the scoundrel who had seemingly won the hearts of the people. She hadn't had many dealings with the Sheriff of Nottingham, of course, given that he was in Sherwood Forest, far away from her castle in the Enchanted Forest. She had always loathed him though, ever since her mother had used him as a substitute for the man with the lion tattoo. It was much better for everyone involved that he stayed in his own forest and she stayed in hers. She didn't know what she would do if she ever saw him again, but she knew one thing for sure: he would be the one worse for wear after that encounter.
Was it even possible that the thief had gotten caught up in the curse? Maybe she should go see Phoenix at work just as Riley had wanted. It had always been said that Robin Hood was legendary with a bow, but she didn't know if that extended to his life within the curse. If Phoenix's abilities were as good as legend had always claimed Robin Hood's were… well, then she would have her answer, wouldn't she?
The question remained, though: if he was in fact the infamous thief, why was he seemingly stuck with her like this? She certainly hadn't asked for it, that was for sure. Was there something in the curse that had made it happen?
No. It couldn't be. Could it? That wouldn't make any sense. The curse was supposed to do what she designed it to do, and she certainly hadn't told it to give her a man and boy she didn't need or want. She had no need for a family, not when she was perfectly fine enjoying seeing Snow's unhappiness, thank you very much.
She could look in her spellbooks and figure it out later. Right now, she was horrified because she could hear movement, what sounded like the pitter patter of little feet. Could that be Riley? What was he doing here?
The thought that this vault was no place for a child had her bolting out of bed. She had to keep Riley from seeing anything that would frighten him- and her vault was full of things that would fit that description. Her cabinet with drawers that contained the hearts of her victims alone… she wouldn't mind if Phoenix saw them. Maybe that would finally convince him to stay away from her- far, far away. Riley, however, was much too innocent for her to make him deal with that. She had seen her mother's dark magic at a young age, and it had frightened her into submission for years. She wouldn't make another child experience what she had, even if it would teach him a lesson. After all, he hadn't done anything to deserve that sort of treatment. His father, on the other hand…
To her horror, she saw both Riley and Phoenix enter the room. For a minute, she wondered what they thought of where they were- then the reminder of where exactly they were: her vault, the place that was supposed to be hers and hers alone, hit her, and she suddenly wanted both of them very far away from here.
There was another question too: how did they think they had gotten into her vault? The curse had seemed to reset their memories each morning, but this morning, they were in a completely different location. How had the curse explained it? Did they think they had always stayed here? She hoped not, knowing that if she ever had a child of her own (an impossible dream, it was true, but at the moment, she would live in her hypothetical world), she would want him or her to stay as far away from magic as possible. Yes, it did help people achieve their goals, but there was too high a price to pay for using magic for her to want any child to pay that price, no matter who their father was or how they had come into her life.
His father. Magic. Was that how he kept appearing in her bed each morning? It seemed impossible, given that this was the Land Without Magic, but then again, if this land truly had no magic at all, she shouldn't have been able to cast the curse bringing them all there, right? And if Rumple hadn't made it possible for her to have a man and his child following her everywhere, there was only one logical explanation: the man himself had done it. Right?
Her head was spinning. There were simply too many possibilities. She had to figure out what had happened, but she didn't know how. She would be able to handle it if Rumple was awake, but this man? She couldn't risk revealing anything to him if the curse had actually worked on him … and it had to have worked, right? No one was that good of an actor. The only person in the Enchanted Forest who she could imagine being successfully able to hide if he or she was awake was Rumple (besides herself of course, now that she had had a couple of days to adjust to this world enough to be able to hide that she was still learning about the Land Without Magic}.
It made no sense that a common thief, if that was in fact who the man who had imposed himself on her life was, would want to attach himself to her- this thief in particular. From all she had heard from the whisperings of her subjects (and, she had to admit, the complaining of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John), Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. It was true that she did seem to have what this world considered the best of everything, but the jewels she had once possessed in the Enchanted Forest had to be worth more than what she had here… to some, at least. She, of course, had detested every single gem her late husband had ever given her, loathing that with each, he was staking his claim on her, a claim that she had never wanted but her mother had forced on her. Every time someone had tried to steal something from her, she hadn't tried her hardest to stop them- not in the slightest. The thieves could have all the jewels they wanted, she had no use for them.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Riley jumping on the bed, demanding her attention. Well, this would help her figure out what exactly they thought about how they had gotten here- and hopefully help her figure out more of the puzzle of this curse. Clearly, there was more to this curse than Rumple had bothered to tell her.
"What are we going to do today, Mama?" Riley asked.
"Well, you have to go to school and Papa and I have work, don't we?" she reminded him. It was about time she took charge of her town and led the people like she was meant to. Hopefully, that would help her become more accustomed to the Land Without Magic and all it had to offer.
"Really?" Riley pouted.
"What's wrong with you, Riley?" his father asked. "I thought you loved school."
His son shrugged. "I want to spend the day with you and Mama."
"You can do that after school," his father reminded him. "Now, you need to get ready, or the tickle monster will come after you!"
His son shrieked and ran, his father coming after him. Regina stayed in bed a minute longer, then realized that the longer she was there, the higher the chances that the man and boy she had gotten stuck with would come back and pester her again. Better for her to just get up and face whatever the day had in store for her. She could begin wherever she conducted her duties as mayor, perhaps, then spend the afternoon here in her vault researching how she had the two unwelcome houseguests who were driving her crazy.
After dropping Riley off, she and Phoenix went their separate ways. She found the building that housed her office with a little help (however begrudgingly she got it) from the same old woman who had told her about Snow's position in this world. It was a tall, imposing building that she thought looked enough like a version of her castle in this world that it would do.
When she entered, she was surprised when several people greeted her. She would have to change that. If these people didn't fear Regina Mills, they would learn that they needed to change their ways.
That strategy would start with the blonde girl sitting at the desk outside of the door that a black plaque with gold letters declared was her office. Regina didn't recognize her at first, but as she got closer, she recognized the petite blonde and her eyebrows rose. It was Tinkerbell, of all people. What the pesky fairy was doing here, she had no idea. The last time she had seen her, she had been furious with Regina to a point that she had thought was beyond repair. Given that she had thought she had gotten to choose who came over with the curse, she would have never imagined that Tink was here. She wanted nothing to do with the pixie ever again (a feeling she had thought was mutual), and yet here she was, in a position where Regina wouldn't be able to avoid her.
Or maybe she could… Regina considered her options as she went into the room that was designated as hers, choosing not to say a word to the fairy, even though she greeted her with a smile and a voice that was far too perky for Regina on the best of days. This curse was supposed to be her happy ending, and yet she had a man and child she couldn't get rid of, and a part of her past had come back to haunt her. Rumple had always taught her that magic came with a price, but she had never imagined the price would be something like this. Hadn't she already paid the price of the curse, her father's white marble crypt proof that the ultimate sacrifice had been made to make her happy ending a reality? She didn't deserve the man, child and fairy imposing themselves on her, not in the slightest. Yes, she had done a terrible thing, but now that they had experienced the Land Without Magic, would they really think that what she had done was so horrible? In many ways, this realm was far better than the one they had left, so much so that she was starting to think that she should have never brought them all here. Their houses were heated (and she assumed cool breezes vented them in the summer), they had all these machines that she assumed made their lives easier and better… it was as if she had given them a vacation from the lives they had lived. Sure, they wouldn't get to enjoy it with the ones they loved, but who didn't need a break from their family every now and then?
Speaking of having a break from family, she needed to figure out what to do about the Phoenix and Riley situation. She had almost (maybe) come to terms with the fact that they would follow her wherever she went, no matter how hard she tried to evade them. But what if she took whatever work she had to do as mayor home with her? She may not be able to avoid Riley and his father, but she would be far, far away from the reminder of just how different her life could have turned out. That would mean one problem would be death with: the fairy who had once shown her what she could have had would be out of her hair for good.
"Where are you going with all of that?" Tink asked as she carried an armful of papers out to the bag she had set down in the hall.
"Home," she answered simply. The fairy who was imposing herself on her life didn't deserve more of an explanation than that- or any explanation, for that matter. She had imposed herself on Regina's life once before, after all, and Regina had come out worse for the experience. Having to stand in front of that tavern door- well, she didn't even want to think about it, that's how traumatizing (and terrifying, but no one else needed to know that) the experience had been for her. The man with the lion tattoo, wherever he was now, could just stay there. In fact, she wished him well, just as long as he stayed far away from her. She finally had her happy ending now (well, she would once that man and child were finally out of her hair). She didn't need anyone to make her happy, least of all some stranger fated to be her soulmate just because a lion tattoo and some pixie dust had declared him to be the one who was stuck with her. After all, no one would want to be connected to her anyway. She was the Evil Queen. Her deeds alone would ensure that everyone, men and women alike, would stay far away from her, and she was perfectly content keeping it that way. "I decided it was best if I just do my work for the day there. I'll be more productive that way."
"Are you feeling okay?" the fairy asked, standing and rushing over to her. "Do you need to go to the hospital? Do I need to call Phoenix?"
"No, no, no, I'm perfectly fine," Regina assured her quickly, not wanting any extra time with the fairy (or anyone else she was trying to avoid, for that matter). "I just think I need to work from home today, that's all."
Tink snorted. "Really? That's not the Mayor Mills I know. You always tell us that we can never go home early or work from home because there are more distractions there, and there's always so much work to be done, too much to try to get any of it done there."
"I was talking about you all when I said that," she said, dismissing words the fairy's cursed memories had told her Regina herself had spoken. "I'm positive I'll be able to get things done if I take it all home now. After all, Phoenix and Riley are at work and school, so the house will be nice and quiet, the perfect workspace."
Tinkerbell sighed. "Fine, have it your way. Just call me if you need anything, all right? I'm worried about you. This isn't like you at all."
"I'll be fine," Regina snapped, turning on her heel and leaving. "You'll see. By the end of the day, I'll have gotten so much accomplished that I'll never want to work in the office ever again."
"We'll see about that," Tinkerbell muttered, her words barely audible as Regina left.
As she walked home, she pondered how the fairy had managed to get swept up in the curse once again. Last she had heard, she was in Neverland, trapped with Peter Pan and the rest of the wild boys who lived there. Regina didn't know much about that realm, but she did know that Pan didn't let anyone leave his island unless he wanted them to leave for a reason. Was that what Tinkerbell was doing here? Had Pan sent her for some nefarious purpose? Well, Regina would simply have nothing to do with her then.
At the same time, though, that called the curse into question once again. She had been told that only the people she wanted would be caught up in the curse and brought to this land. How had Tinkerbell managed to be one of those people, some fairy magic she wasn't aware of? She needed to do some research, and there was no better place to conduct that research than her vault.
Glancing around to make sure no one was lurking around the cemetery, she stormed into the mausoleum that contained her vault, determined to find some answers. She went to her collection of spellbooks first, of course, knowing that would be the most likely location where she could find some answers to her abundance of questions.
She extracted her mother's spellbooks, the spellbook that contained everything Rumple had ever taught her and more about the Dark Curse, as well as a book on fairy magic. Some may be surprised that she owned it at all, but she had always thought that it would be wise to know about people who were on the opposing side, so to speak, those who used light magic instead of dark magic.
She opened her mother's spellbooks first. Whatever had happened with the Dark Curse, surely a book about dark magic would be able to identify the problem and fix it, right? The curse and Rumple had promised her she would get her happy ending, and she was determined to get it, no matter what the cost. Although she would have thought that sacrificing the person she loved most in the world would enable her to do anything… that this curse apparently required more than advertised was nothing short of cruel, given the initial price.
At last, she found the section on the curse, and she began reading. She skimmed past the ingredients- she already knew those all too well, thank you very much- and started poring over the process of casting the curse itself.
At last she came to what seemed to be a promising passage, and she read:
Those who cast the Dark Curse must be on their guard. Anything they say while the curse is being enacted will come to pass, whether that is the caster's intention or not.
Regina frowned down at the passage, then read it again. Anything they say will come to pass… What had she said that fateful night that had happened? All she knew was that she had gone to the Summer Palace, the one Snow had claimed back for her own, and gloated about her victory, the fact that at last, she was getting her happy ending…
Those words couldn't have been the ones that landed her with an unwanted man and child, right? She had given up on love long ago, knowing that Daniel had been her one shot. She certainly didn't want a strange man anywhere near her. She had had more than enough of that in the past.
If Tinkerbell was here though… it was possible she could have overheard Regina's words, right? Even if she had, this was certainly not Regina's idea of happiness. All this was was a strange man who smelled like forest encroaching on her space. Besides, if that nosy fairy was meddling again, it was extremely unlikely that she would have stuck Regina with some random stranger. No, if Tink was involved, the man who claimed he was her husband would be no one other than the man with the lion tattoo, and it was impossible that she could have found him and attached him to the spell… right?
She opened the book of fairy magic and flipped through it, looking for answers once more. Given that pixie dust had led her to the man with the lion tattoo in the first place, it was far more likely that she would find answers to her questions here than in the pages of a text full of dark magic. Whether these pages would tell her how to rid herself of the man who had inexplicably attached himself to her, however, remained to be seen.
Sure enough, there was a whole chapter devoted to the subject of soulmates. There was a part of Regina that wanted to completely ignore it, but if the fairy who had tried her hardest to lead Regina to happiness with the man who was supposedly her soulmate was here, then there was a chance that that was what was happening. She needed to make sure, of course. After all, there was no need to incriminate an innocent man (well, somewhat innocent. He had forced himself into her life, after all) when there was a very simple way of determining if he was the man she thought he was or not. She needed to discover if he had the lion tattoo that she had glimpsed so many years before. The only problem with that plan, though, was that she would have to get up close and personal with the man to figure it out for sure… far more so than she was comfortable with. She had come up with ways to deal with that in the past, so she could do it again- she had to. If growing up with her mother had taught her one thing, it was how to pretend, to do what was necessary no matter what the cost. This curse- or Tinkerbell, possibly- may have thought it knew what was best for her, what would make her happy, but only she knew the answer to that question.
She decided to wait for him in the mansion. Hopefully, the curse had set his memories so he knew that was where the curse had placed them, even though they had all woken in the vault. She had no desire to go looking for him by any means, but she also had to ensure that she finally had some kind of answer for why this kept happening to her. Solving the problem she would deal with later.
At last, she heard people coming through the door, Riley's excited voice filling the halls. She took a deep breath. Time for yet another performance.
She saw Riley barreling toward her, and she opened her arms to catch him. "Did you have a good day, Mama?" he asked.
He was so sweet. She couldn't imagine any other children his age asking the same thing, and it made her wonder if extricating herself from this situation was really the best idea.
Snap out of it, Regina, she chastised herself. You don't want this man around, able to easily poke around, do you? The more he knows, the more likely it is that he'll figure out that this whole town is under a curse, and you can't afford that. The minute someone finds out about the curse, the news will travel like wildfire, and you'll have people with pitchforks and torches knocking at your door. Without magic, you'll be powerless against them.
Determined once more to do whatever it took to ensure that the stranger the curse had brought her got far away from her, she knew she had to act like everything was perfectly normal until she could figure out what was going on. "I did! Did you? How was school?"
"Great!" he exclaimed. He began chattering away, determined to tell her about every second of his life that she had missed that day. She smiled and nodded, knowing she had to keep up the charade, for his sake as well as Phoenix's. She couldn't afford for either of them, especially the older of the two, to suspect anything, not when her own detective work depended on it.
The next hours were spent doing the typical things that she was sure Riley and Phoenix thought they had done every day of their lives, even though all of it, of course, was still pretty much brand new to her. She felt that she was going through the motions at this point. After all, this man and child may think that she was Riley's mother and Phoenix's wife, but she was just pretending to not raise their suspicions. Yes, somehow Riley still managed to get a laugh out of her when she gave him a bath as he moved little boats around and acted out stories of his own imagination's creation, but his father? She didn't care about him at all. She knew she had to act that way though, so when Riley asked her to tell his papa to read a story, she relayed the message with a whispered, "I'll have a glass of wine waiting for you when you're finished." She needed her inhibitions lowered to be able to go through with her plan, and if she made him less aware of what was going on, that would be even better. As she had discovered on the first day in this new realm, he knew her far too well for his own good (and hers), and that was something she couldn't and wouldn't ever tolerate.
"Make it whiskey," he breathed in her ear, sending a shiver (of revulsion, she convinced herself) down her spine. She refused to believe it was anything else. After all, this was her curse, and she hadn't asked to be encumbered by the presence of a man and boy who thought they were her family. The one remaining member of her family, thankfully, was in Wonderland- and she refused to think about what she had been forced to do to her father.
Extracting his preferred drink from the cabinet, she poured a generous portion for each of them. She didn't have to wait on the sofa for long, hearing his heavy footfalls on the stairs not long after she sat down.
"Just what I needed," he sighed, sitting down and taking a long sip of the beverage. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Thank you, milady."
Trying not to cringe at the term of endearment, she sat back and curled her legs so they were under her and leaned back. He was right beside her, his arm draped over the back of the couch, and she resisted flinching and pulling away as she felt his hand come to rest on her shoulder. It was the very arm she wanted to inspect, if her memory was correct, so she reached up and, holding his hand in hers to maintain the illusion that she felt anything for this complete stranger, she brought it around so she could do what she needed to do.
"And here I thought you'd be too tired to do anything but fall asleep against me," he commented. "Work at the office wasn't too difficult, then?"
"Work at the office?" she laughed, thinking of what- or rather who- she would have had to encounter if she had stayed in that place. "I brought it home today."
Her hopes that he wouldn't be insolent enough to ask questions were immediately dashed when he asked, "Are you all right, milady? Are you catching a cold?"
"Of course not," she replied, indignant that he would suggest something so ridiculous. Her mother had made sure that she had never gotten sick a day in her life. While she was sure Cora wouldn't have cured her if she had fallen ill at some point, it just hadn't been an option for her. She was kept in such isolation, especially throughout her childhood, compared to other children her age that the thought of catching anything was laughable. "You don't hear me coughing up a lung, do you?"
"I know, love, I'm just making sure," he answered. "You never work from home."
"That's what Tink said," she muttered.
"Tink?" he asked. "You mean Belle?"
She frowned. Of course. She had forgotten that the curse had given everyone different names. She should have looked more closely at the nameplate on Tink's desk to know what to call her here to make sure she was able to keep up this ruse for as long as possible. "Of course. Belle. I'm sorry, I just-"
"No need to apologize." She rose her eyebrows. Why was he laughing? "I've never compared her to a Disney character until right now, but you're right, it's the perfect nickname for her. She looks just like Tinkerbell."
Once again, she had to hide her confusion. "Of course she does," she said slowly. He knew about Tinkerbell? That was impossible, it had to be. How did he know anything about the world they had left (or, more accurately, Neverland)? And for that matter, what was this "Disney" he was talking about? She really needed to dedicate a day to acclimating herself to this world, or she would never manage to successfully hide that she was the only person who was different from everyone else. The different machines in this land alone were enough to make her head spin. She hadn't even considered the cultural differences this realm would contain, and now she wished she had. If there were any hints of their real identities in this town, she needed to eradicate them immediately. She couldn't chance anything breaking the curse. "I'm right. Aren't I always?"
He chuckled. "Many times, yes, but not always. No one is, after all."
"True…" she said slowly, her heart filled with grief at the thought of one of the biggest mistakes she had ever made. Trusting that her mother had seen reason and wouldn't kill the man she loved was one mistake that she still hadn't forgiven herself for- along with not forgiving Snow for telling Cora they were running away in the first place, of course.
She shook her head. It was time to snap out of it and get back to the mission at hand. She was supposed to be figuring out if Phoenix was in fact the man with the lion tattoo. Grimacing, she reached up and brought his arm around, lacing his fingers with hers. She pushed up his sleeve and traced the familiar lion emblazoned against a black shield on his forearm. Despite her skepticism, there it was: the lion tattoo.
What was she going to do now?
Hope you enjoyed this, let me know what you think!
