6: Swans and Mills

"How was it?" Were the first words Emma heard when she slid through the front door at ten o'clock that night. Of course Mary Margaret was up waiting for her. She took a breath.

"Draining." Her tired nod said it all. "She hasn't forgiven me, and I still feel like a piece of shit. We did just spend the last three hours reliving the last nine years of our lives for each other, though, so...I think it went as well as it could have."

"Well, I'm just glad you two are talking again." She supplied as Emma flopped down next to her. "When Henry came home he talked for an hour straight about Jennifer."

"Yeah, Jenny told me she met him." Emma sighed just as the little squirt came running down the stairs in his pajamas.

"Emma! Where have you been? Jennifer said she'd take me out for ice cream after school tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?" Emma asked curiously, more than a little skeptical. He nodded enthusiastically. "I think I might have to ask her about that first, kid." His smile fell. "That doesn't mean no." She added, and he perked up again before happily flopping down in an arm chair.

"Jennifer called me kid, too." He said matter-of-factly.

"Did she now?" Mary Margaret inquired curiously. There was no doubt in Emma's mind that Mary Margaret wanted to know everything. By her logic, if Emma and Jennifer were practically sisters then Mary Margaret was practically Jennifer's mother.

"I used to call her kid." Emma shrugged.

"Aren't you the same age?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Potato, potahto."

"Jennifer has this really cool tattoo on her arm; have you seen it? It's a skeleton. Oh, and Jennifer said she saw a wolf in the road, you know. She said that was why she crashed. You told me there was a wolf in the road when you first came to Storybrooke, too. So I think that she was meant to come to Storybrooke."

"Like fate?" Mary Margaret inquired. She was half just indulging the eleven year old and half legitimately curious. Somewhere between curses and evil queens and fairytale endings she'd begun to believe in fate just like she believed in true love.

"Yeah, fate!" He agreed. "I don't know why yet. I might have to reread the book to figure it out." He nodded at them. He was such a precocious boy. Mary Margaret admired that about him. So confident, too. And he wasn't afraid to make mistakes. He just went wherever his imagination took him. There was a brief pause. Henry glanced at his mom. "So is Jennifer your sister? 'Cause that's what Mary Margaret said. Does that make her my aunt?" Emma was so emotionally drained by this point that she barely processed what Henry was saying.

"Your aunt?"

"Yeah!" He grinned. "I've never had an aunt." Emma stumbled, blinking furiously. She didn't quite know what to say to that. So, Mary Margaret stepped in.

"I think you might have to ask Jennifer if you can call her that, honey." She nodded with a soft, warm smile. Taking a glance at an exhausted Emma, Mary Margaret stood up. "You know what else I think? I think it's time for bed."

Once Mary Margaret had ushered a reluctant and stubborn Henry up to bed, she came back down and sat next to Emma. "What exactly does Jennifer need your forgiveness for?" She questioned curiously. She'd been dying to know for a while now.

Emma hummed, her eyes glassy with sleep. She sighed deeply, turning to gaze at Mary Margaret. "I left her. We were sixteen. Didn't even say goodbye." She shook her head. "Now that she's had the chance to explain her side to me I feel like an idiot. I mean, I don't think that I could have been any less aware of her feelings."

"Why did you leave?"

"I was a teenager. I wanted independence. And I...I thought I was doing what was best for Jenny. I wanted a family to adopt her, and that wasn't going to happen with me in the picture. I just have a hard time apologizing because I got Henry from leaving Jenny."

"Did you explain that to her?"

"Yeah." Emma sighed heavily. Mary Margaret had the feeling that both of them were caught in between a rock and a hard place. They understood each other's other's reasoning but were too stubborn or proud to let go of their own for the sake of reconciliation.

. . .

Regina had decided somewhere in between the town meeting and Miss Alexander that she was going to reclaim her son. Determination and a fair amount of giddy excitement settled deep into her skin and vibrated at the tips of her fingers at the thought of him in her arms again, her little prince.

She was frustrated, though, because since the curse had broken, the Charmings had taken him in without her consent. But she knew he favored them over her. Maybe it was the excitement of a new family. Maybe she'd pushed him away over the years. Maybe both. Maybe they'd convinced him that she was evil. Either way, enough was enough. She wanted her son back.

So she decided to walk him home from school that afternoon. Maybe she could win him over, make him see that it was the Charmings who were evil, not her. First, however, she had to pay a visit to Billy Rose, the mechanic, per Gold's request in order to contain the Other Swan.

Keeping Miss Alexander inside Storybrooke limits wouldn't be terribly difficult. If she simply delayed the repair of her car and played it off well enough, she wouldn't suspect a thing. Then again, this woman did seem to be naturally suspicious of Storybrooke, and from their brief conversation, very good at reading people.

Well, Regina was a good liar.

The click of her heels echoed in the garage. Miss Alexander's car was sitting in the middle of the shop with the driver's side nearly crushed, certainly crumpled. The sight of it shocked her, to be honest. It was a miracle that woman hadn't come out of that car more injured than she did.

"Mr. Rose?" She called. A minute later he came waltzing out from behind the corner with a dirty red rag in his hands and oil stains all over his skin and overalls.

"What can I do for you, Mayor Mills?" He asked, a slight New Englander's accent to his voice. She glanced at Miss Alexander's car. It was like some kind of reverse déjà vu. She was sabotaging another Swan except this time she was doing everything in her power to keep her in Storybrooke instead of kick her out.

"I need you to delay the repair of Miss Alexander's Lexus."

"But she told me she needs it fixed as soon as possible." He protested weakly. The driver's window was completely missing, the left headlight shattered, and the left side of the hood practically crushed. It looked like this man hadn't even been working on it at all.

"Her plans have changed. She'll be staying in Storybrooke longer than originally planned so her car is no longer a priority." She told him in her mayoral voice, not quite evil queen but certainly threatening enough to get him to listen to her. And with her reputation it wasn't that difficult anyway. He nodded mutely, and she smiled at him in satisfaction. Just as she turned to leave she was startled by none other than Miss Alexander herself. Just perfect. "Miss Alexander!"

"Um, Miss Mills, what are you doing here?" Jennifer asked, brushing a lock of curly hair behind her ear.

"Just checking on Mr. Rose's progress. Sometimes he doesn't do his job as…efficiently…as one would like." She supplied and watched curiously as Jennifer peered around her to find that her car was no more fixed than it had been a few days ago.

"So you want me outta here, then."

"Quite the opposite actually." Regina told her pointedly. Jennifer just stared at Regina for a moment. There was something behind those words that made Jennifer uneasy. It was too bright. Too cheery.

"Where are you headed now?" Jennifer finally asked, and Regina raised her brow. She eyed Miss Alexander in her tee shirt and jeans and hair in a sloppy bun and tattoos peaking out of her shirt in every direction. Just from general interaction she seemed like the polar opposite of Regina. She shouldn't want anything to do with this other Swan.

"I'm going to pick up my son, actually." She told Jennifer, her voice guarded but softer than before. Henry did that to her. Jennifer took a deep breath and nodded.

"Emma told me that you adopted Henry." Regina raised her brow at that, pursing her lips.

"Did she now?" A fire of annoyance sparked in her chest. She hated how strongly being unincluded affected her. Jennifer rubbed the back of her neck.

"Yeah, we kinda had a...talk last night. Tried to work out thirteen years of shit." She sighed. "But you know what, you probably don't care." She shook her head then looked up. "Can I walk with you?" Regina frowned.

"Walk with me?"

"To pick up Henry." Jennifer clarified. "I don't have anything better to do, and I think I accidentally promised him some ice cream. If you let me buy him some, that is."

"You met my son?" Regina asked, a twinge of shock leaking into her voice. Jennifer saw that. Her brow flickered. Her lips parted then closed. She seemed hesitant. They were still standing in the garage. Regina was pretty sure that the mechanic was listening to them as he tinkered with Miss Alexander's car.

"Yesterday. He caught me on the sidewalk." She nodded. "Called me Swan." She chuckled. "He's very much Emma's son." She mused. That snapped Regina out of her daze.

"He's my son." She defended bitterly. Jennifer glanced over at her, the air between them growing rather thick. Why did it constantly feel like Miss Alexander could see exactly what she was thinking? "I don't know how much Miss Swan told you, but she gave Henry up. And when she came back ten years later she took him from me." Jennifer had this deer in the headlights look. "Henry doesn't live with me; he lives with her." Regina started walking, her heels clicking on the concrete, and Jennifer jogged to catch up.

"When you give a baby up for adoption you void all parental responsibility. You're Henry's legal mother. She doesn't have rights to him unless you say she does." Jennifer tried to reason. Regina took a deep breath, biting back the bitterness and disgust on her face.

"It doesn't work like that in Storybrooke." Her voice was quiet and low.

"Miss Mills…" Jennifer pleaded. She shook her head. "Emma told me that…" She shut her mouth, realizing what she was about to blurt and figuring it would be far too rude to continue.

"Told you what? That Henry chose to live with her?" Regina shot. Jennifer didn't say anything, and she had her answer. They had stopped walking. "I know who Miss Swan is. I know who Henry is. I don't need a perfect stranger mediating something she knows nothing about." Regina warned, her eyes darkening. Jennifer looked at her with apprehension.

"Mom? Jennifer?" A surprised voice called out. Jennifer swallowed as she watched Regina turn to Henry, her icy exterior quickly melting to a warm smile. She was right. Jennifer had no place in the middle of a custody dispute. And maybe, just maybe, Emma's situation was far more complicated than she'd let on.

Either way this emotional rollercoaster was giving her whiplash.

"Doesn't gra~uh, Mary Margaret always walk me home?" Henry asked Regina.

"I'll be walking you home from now on." She told her son firmly but with a loving note at the end. Jennifer couldn't do anything but watch their interaction with interest. Mayor Mills was a mother. It wasn't quite what she expected. Then again, she didn't really know what she'd expected. Regina was cold and aloof on the outside, but Jennifer had seen brief flashes of the woman underneath.

Henry turned and smiled at her. "Hey, Jennifer."

"Henry." She nodded before he turned back to Regina.

"Can we go get ice cream? Jennifer promised." Regina hesitated, looking from Henry to Jennifer. After their little argument, Jennifer wouldn't be surprised if she said no.

And, to be honest, Regina was very, very close to saying no. But Miss Alexander was just standing there, clueless to what this town really was. A perfect stranger. A seemingly innocent stranger who had befriended her son.

"Quickly." She finally relented and Henry grinned. Jennifer's eyes widened slightly in surprise. She didn't say anything at first, and Henry walked ahead of them toward Granny's. She stole glances at the mayor as they walked side by side. Regina wasn't looking at her. Finally, she took a breath and worked up the courage to speak.

"I'm sorry." Jennifer said softly so Henry wouldn't hear. Regina furrowed her brow and glanced sideways at the other woman. "I shouldn't have stepped between you and Emma. The custody of Henry is none of my business." Regina took a breath and turned to look at her son.

"Apology accepted."

. . .

Meanwhile, Gold stood in his shop with a grimace on his face. He'd been through every single translation matrix he had~twice. Nothing. Old elvish was such a dead language that it only existed in the minds of the people who could read it when it was a living language~which, now he knows, is no one thanks to Regina. He supposed he couldn't blame her. Cora was the one who knew old elvish. God knows how.

The thing about old magic is that sorcerers much more powerful than the Dark One had erased everything pertaining to old magic a long time ago, way back before people counted the days. Except those sorcerers had light magic. And, banded together, they could easily overpower the Dark One. After all, what was the use in ridding the realms of old magic when the Dark One could so easily use his or her predecessors knowledge on the subject to, for example, cast a time portal. So, these sorcerers erased all memories of old magic as well.

Now, certain magical powers are genetic which is why Regina is able to cast in old magic like her mother. However, how Cora learned old magic and old elvish is another more vexing subject entirely.

The point was that he was really betting on old elvish. It was far stronger than new elvish and could better withstand the damage that this magic-less realm inflicted on the protection spell. It seeped inside, slow and steady, no matter how they tried to stop it. From the knowledge his cursed self had of this world, he could liken the phenomenon to the principles of diffusion.

If only he had Cora here.