3: The Other Swan
The next morning Emma knocked on Jennifer's hospital room door and pressed her lips together awkwardly. "Can I come in?" She asked, and Jennifer hesitated. Though she'd simmered down considerably after their falling out yesterday, she really just wanted to avoid Emma. Then again, if she had the guts to show her face today then maybe it was actually important. So, against her better judgement, she nodded. "Billy, our mechanic, is working on your car, but he said it's gonna be a few days to get the parts he needs. We have a bed and breakfast in Storybrooke. I can get you a room."
Jennifer licked her lips. A few days. She'd already resigned herself to missing the medical conference so she could do a few days, right? "Yeah, that sounds good." Sure she'd blown up at Emma yesterday, and sure there was still some animosity boiling between them, but, for the sake of her own health, she could probably be civil.
"I'll have Dr. Whale get your discharge papers." Emma told her. Once that was all said and done, Jennifer was given back the clothes that she arrived with: a crisp oxford and palazzos and tall heels which, though she thought she looked damn good, wasn't her usual style. It was too formal and, to be honest, after the last 24 hours she just wanted to slip into some sweatpants.
She felt emotionally drained and physically exhausted even though it wasn't even noon and she'd barely interacted with Emma. Her arms felt heavy at her sides, and they felt even heavier when she noticed, rather disdainfully, that the collar of her shirt was stained with her blood. That was never going to come out. And everything was wrinkled and there was dirt she damn near swore was etched into the very fabric of her clothes. Not to mention her entire torso hurt. She couldn't breathe too deeply or turn her body without being stabbed by hot knives. Even though Whale said she didn't, she swore she cracked at least one rib.
Emma must have noticed her wincing in pain because she eyed her not so discreetly when she left the bathroom. Jennifer ignored it just like she'd been ignoring her headache from hell. "Alright, let's go." She breathed, not really looking Emma in the eye. So she led the way out of the hospital in silence, all the way straight to an old, yellow beetle.
"A bug?" Jennifer tilted her head down, lips pursed. She glanced at Emma who could feel the judgment in Jennifer's eyes.
"Get in." She drawled, clearly unamused. A bug was so...girly. Emma was not girly. By the time they pulled out of the parking lot an awkward silence had settled over the car. "Can I ask you a question?" Jennifer looked at her. A question couldn't hurt. Well, it could.
"What?"
"Why didn't you stay Jenny Swan?"
It was a valid question.
Jenny Swan: what a name, too. It rolled off her tongue. It had a sort of finesse to it, a gracefulness, a saccharine sort of elegance. It had become a caricature of the girl next door for the kids in foster care. Maybe it was her long, brown hair with tight, frizzy curls. Or her crisp, crystal blue eyes and a face that was drowning in freckles. She was approachable and dimpled and shy and friendly and everything a little girl was expected to be.
She hated it. She hated foster care, she hated group homes, and she hated the kids that she had to live with. They called her Baby and thought they could push her around just because some jerk caught her crying under the covers one night. "Boo hoo. So what you got no mom and dad. Neither do we and you don't see us bein' babies." They'd say. Well fuck them. That's what Emma would tell her when they'd hide under the sheets together and pretend that everything was okay. Jennifer would laugh and her cheeks would flush and her eyes would sparkle with unshed tears. Her breath would hitch and Emma would hug her until the world melted away.
If those kids saw her now they'd wonder what the hell had changed. She still had brown, curly hair and eyes as blue as the ocean; she was still suffocating in freckles and her dimples still dug into her cheeks. So she'd tell them that Swan had changed. After turning eighteen she'd gone straight to the Boston civil court and changed it back to her birth name: Alexander. It hadn't been difficult.
The only reason that it had been changed to Swan in the first place was because the Swans had been ready to adopt her and Emma. But after a heartbreaking summer of babies and divorce and life just generally falling apart for the family, Emma and Jennifer were sent back. It was terrible and devastating, and they never even bothered to give her her birth name back. At the time, Jennifer hadn't minded all that much. She and Emma~almost eleven~chocked it up to fate. They were destined to be sisters or something just as ridiculous. After Emma left, though, she wanted to be Jennifer Alexander again: as an ode to the parents she missed so badly or maybe just to distance herself from the pain that Emma Swan had inflicted. Either way, she didn't care. The deed was done, and she never looked back.
Thinking about it now, however, she pondered another more existential reason. Swan felt cheap and temporary, and she didn't want to live a lie.
Jennifer understood that the question was merely Emma's insatiable curiosity and not something to be offended by, so she answered honestly. "Could you imagine being called Emma Blanchard?"
"Emma Blanchard?" She echoed with a furrowed brow. There was a moment of strange hesitation and confliction before she shook her head. "No. No way."
"Well, Jenny Swan feels the same as Emma Blanchard does." She explained pointedly. Emma fell silent, thinking. It wasn't until they'd gone through three different stop lights that she spoke again, a deep furrow in her brow.
"Jenny, look, I want you to meet me at Granny's tonight at seven. Give me a chance to explain myself." Jennifer sighed, sinking back into her seat as Emma watched her anxiously.
"I have a question, first."
"Anything."
"Do you regret it?" She watched Emma carefully. "Do you regret leaving?"
Emma opened then closed her mouth, her brow rising then falling. She sighed painfully, and Jennifer's heart sunk down to her toes. "I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? It's a yes or no question." Jennifer reminded her accusingly. Emma sighed sympathetically.
"Just hear me out, okay? Please?" Jennifer felt like crying. She felt like she deserved to be left. Emma must have seen that. "Jennifer. Please, I owe you that." She took a deep breath, nodding through the prickling of tears in her eyes, keeping her chin high.
"Right, you do owe me that."
. . .
The sea of angry townspeople was growing rowdier by the minute without someone to lead them, but Regina kept her distance. It seemed that, as of late, she and the people of Storybrooke had a mutual hatred for each other~especially after she burned those magic beans. Good thing they didn't know she was keeping some in her office. So it was probably for the best that she didn't get involved. Things could get very ugly very quickly with her magic involved, and she was already in a bad mood as it was.
Her morning coffee had been rudely interrupted that day by a phone call from Miss Swan saying that there was a town meeting at nine, and she needed to be there. Considering that the town was ready to turn their pitchforks to her door at the slightest provocation, if a Charming wanted her there then something must be seriously wrong.
Of course~of course~they had a crisis on their hands. When didn't they? She wondered as both of the Charmings came bursting in through the doors and strode purposefully down the aisle. Quickly, the voices simmered down and people took their seats. She couldn't help but scoff. Just the sight of those two idiots was enough to quiet an angry mob. Even though Regina was the mayor it was abundantly clear that, right now, Snow and Charming were in charge.
She watched from the back as Charming silenced the remaining chatter with his booming voice. Her gaze wandered to Snow. She looked so princess-like standing there with her head held up, so high and mighty despite that black spot, that tarnished, soot colored hole in the otherwise perfect red of her heart. She enjoyed the thought of it so much that she actually smiled from her place against the wall.
"I'm sure many of you have noticed that we have an outside in our midst." Snow told everyone, and they nodded, muttering among themselves. Regina's brow instantly knotted and anger boiled in her chest. Somehow it didn't surprise her that she was the very last person in town to find out about this. Why would they bother to tell the Evil Queen? Who would dare? But, more pressingly, how the hell did someone get into Storybrooke? Never in the history of this town had anyone ever wandered in from the outside. So there was a genuine situation then~the Charmings weren't overreacting like they usually did.
"As far as David and I know, she's not a threat!" Snow continued, holding her hands up to the town to calm the sudden uproar of fearful voices.
Just as the crowd was finally starting to irritate her, two more people walked through the doors: Emma and Henry. Immediately, her expression softened~Henry. He'd been living with Emma for a while now, and she missed him in her life. He was another thing the Charmings had taken from her~well, the Charming's offspring but she was just as Charming as her parents whether she wanted to admit it or not.
"Emma can tell us more!" Charming exclaimed, and Regina glanced in the blonde's direction curiously. The room quieted as Emma took her place next to her parents.
She told everybody the woman's name, Jennifer, and gave the town the weakest backstory Regina had ever heard in her entire life. She told them that Jennifer was a good person and that all she wanted to do was leave town, so they shouldn't worry about her.
"How do we know she won't tell everyone about Storybrooke after she leaves?" Leroy shouted over the cacophony of people.
"Why should we trust her?" Ruby added. There was a chorus of agreement. Snow and Charming looked to Emma.
"Because I trust her." She yelled firmly. She sighed as if trying to decide whether she should explain further. The town seemed to be slightly pacified by Emma's seal of approval but not enough to let this Jennifer off the hook. "Look, I've known Jenny since we were ten! She'll respect our privacy." There was a stunned moment of silence. Regina raised her brow and folded her arms over her chest, leaning back against the wall. Since they were ten, huh? Emma's face reddened, and she swallowed. "She's a good person. There's nothing to worry about. I'll have her out as soon as her car is repaired."
Miss Swan's constant reassurances seemed to finally quiet the suspicions of Storybrooke because after a few grumblings and some final words of caution from the Charmings, the crowd began to disperse. When the town hall was empty, Regina pushed herself from the wall and strode through the pews to the front, her heels clicking loudly on the floor.
"A stranger in Storybrooke, hm? As mayor, don't you think I should have been notified sooner?" Regina asked, poorly masking her disdain with feigned politeness and a tight lip.
"There was no reason for you to be. I had it under control." Emma answered defiantly, subconsciously pulling Henry closer to her side.
"Jennifer's a nice person. She won't cause any trouble." Snow explained with a shake of her head.
"Oh, Snow's met her too?" Regina drawled sarcastically.
"Regina, come on." Emma sighed.
"I am still the mayor of this town, Miss Swan, and I expect to be informed when something happens in it." She told Emma angrily, her words pointed and sharp, her eyes cold and stony. Emma's gaze hardened as she clutched Henry. "I assume you put her up at Granny's?"
"Where else would I?" Emma asked rhetorically. Regina stared disapprovingly, fed up with her smart ass attitude.
"She's family, Regina; she's not a threat." Snow reinforced. Regina raised her brow. Her gaze~everyone's gaze~turned to Emma.
"Family?" Regina asked in confusion. Mary Margaret reddened as Emma glared at her. A secret family. Oh how she loved to watch the Charmings fall apart.
"Jenny's my...sister. Sort of. It's complicated." She dismissed with a shake of her head.
"Sister?" Henry asked excitedly, pulling away from Emma. "Does that mean I have an aunt? In Storybrooke?" He was practically bouncing with energy he was so excited.
"Kid, hold on a minute. It's not that simple. We haven't seen each other in more years than you've been alive. She doesn't know that you exist. Give me some time."
"Sister. Not blood related I assume unless Mary Margaret somehow managed to spawn another Charming behind my back." Regina commented, more curious than angry now.
"Blood related, no, but they did share a last name." Mary Margaret confirmed. Emma gave her a look. Regina sighed.
"Another Swan. Perfect."
. . .
He hadn't gone to the town meeting that morning, but he'd heard from Belle that there was a visitor in Storybrooke. More specifically but less relevantly, a friend of Emma's~a Swan so the rumors went. This immediately raised alarm bells in his mind. If one person could get in then that meant that other people could find and enter Storybrooke. One person could be dealt with but a sea of people—possibly tourists—would be harder to get rid of and magic harder to conceal.
They'd never had someone wander into Storybrooke before. And he didn't count that man and his son because the town had materialized around them. The point is that it shouldn't happen, and that meant that the integrity of the protection spell was degrading. So what he'd felt before—something being wrong with magic—had been this other Swan's doing. What else could it be? After all, he doesn't believe in coincidences.
So he strode purposefully through the streets of Storybrooke, a certain spell book tucked safely under his arm. That was when black hair and sky high heels came walking down the sidewalk, and he plastered on a smile. "Speak of the devil. Hello, Regina." He drawled as they stopped walking.
"Rumple." She responded tersely. Her gaze caught the old spell book under his arm, and she narrowed her eyes. The suspicious flick of her lashes told him that she recognized the book instantly. "That's my mother's spell book." She stated, keeping her expression neutral. "How did you get it?"
"I'm sure you've heard about our little guest?"
"Of course, but what does she have to do with you? Miss Swan is dealing with her." Regina supplied dismissively. Contrary to the show she put on at the courthouse, she was too bitter towards the Charmings to bother getting involved. She didn't care enough about one silly little outsider to bother with it just yet.
"Just ask yourself one question, dearie. How did she get into Storybrooke? Emma got in because she's the savior—but this woman?" He motioned down to the book. "Our lovely protection spell is falling apart and right when she arrives? Doesn't that strike you as a bit odd?"
Regina pressed her lips together as her gaze hardened. How had she not realized this at the courthouse? How had she not felt the change in the magic? She must have been preoccupied with the Charmings. But a threat to Storybrooke was a threat to Henry and under no circumstances could she have that. So she turned her attention to Rumple's~Cora's~spellbook.
"What are you doing with the book?" She asked again.
"Just examining the protection spell is all." He told her nonchalantly even though his eyes were flashing with secrets. She practically scowled at him. He eyed her. "And while I'm doing that why don't you pay this woman a visit—gather information on our mysterious Swan."
