9: Three Days
She eyed the stitches on her forehead critically, prodding them with a gentle finger. It's hard to believe that this was already her sixth day in this town. It felt like just yesterday she'd been crashing into Storybrooke on the back of a storm.
"What are you doing?" Henry asked, pulling himself onto a barstool next to her. Was school already over? My god, you could really lose track of time in this town.
"Looking at my stitches. I have to get them taken out today." She told him, angling the pocket mirror in her hand so she could see better. He was silent for a minute, watching her examine her forehead.
"Can I come with?"
"To the hospital?"
"Yeah!" She frowned at his bubbly tone.
"Don't you have homework?"
"Yeah, but my mom kicked me out. She has to talk to Mary Margaret and David about something I guess." Jennifer hummed. Sure, she was suspicious, but the excuse seemed too strange not to be true.
"Alright, if you've got nothing else to do." She relented. He lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Cool!" Henry piped. "Do you have an appointment with Dr. Whale?" She shook her head, and he furrowed his brow, confusion contorting his eleven year old face.
"Nah, I was just gonna do it myself." She told him in the best deadpan she could muster. His eyes widened. "Henry, I'm a doctor." She chuckled reassuringly.
"Woah, really?" He asked, completely mesmerized. "Like Dr. Whale?"
"Yeah, kinda like Dr. Whale. I'm a surgeon." A small smile broke out on his face that quickly grew larger and larger.
"That's so cool! Can we go to the hospital now?" He asked, and she said yes. Henry jumped down from the bar stool, and Jennifer just chuckled.
So, that's how they ended up walking down the streets of Storybrooke on a windy afternoon under a warm sun. Henry kept chatting and asking her questions that she was more than willing to answer about what it was like to be a doctor and if she liked living in New York.
"Have you ever been to New York?" She asked, and he shook his head. "Maybe your moms'll let me take you some time."
"You'd let me stay with you? I mean, I just met you!" He exclaimed. What could she say, the kid was growing on her. As they walked they passed shoe stores and repair shops and barber shops, but Henry only stopped when they came up to the window with the chocolate bars. "Can we get some candy?"
"No."
"What?"
"You'll be bouncing off the walls!" Jennifer told him. She did not need a rambunctious eleven year old in a hospital with her.
"But I'm hungry." He protested. She just eyed him. Seeing how that wasn't working, he tried a different approach. "Ma lets me have candy." She glanced at him doubtfully.
"I'm guessing that one's Emma." She sighed and looked him over. "Alright, enough with the puppy dog eyes." She relented before shoving a five dollar bill in his hands. "Be back out here in five minutes, kid." She ordered, but Henry was halfway into the store at that point.
She was probably going to regret this. Henry seemed like the kind of kid who didn't have candy often. Especially considering who his adoptive mother was. And speak of the devil. Down the street he spotted Regina exiting a shop with a man and another woman. The man had on a crisp, pressed suit with brown, stringy hair down to his shoulders. He looked cold and sharp, and he leaned on a gold tipped cane as he walked. The woman, on the other hand, was in a pantsuit like Regina. She had long brown hair and bright red lipstick and a look of permanent blank curiosity. They had sharp eyes and intimidating glares and looked like they meant business.
"Miss Alexander." Regina addressed as the three of them approached, partly in surprise and partly in dread. The melodic lilt of her name sent a shiver down Jennifer's spine, and she hated herself for it. The man stepped forward.
"So this is the infamous Jennifer Alexander." He stated curiously, drinking up her appearance. She probably looked like shit compared to him. Her hair was particularly poufy today, and with a pair of faded jeans and an orange sweater she was severely underdressed. He held out his hand to shake and, hesitantly, she took it. His smile slithered across his face as his eyes filled with thoughts that she couldn't read but recognized as unpleasant. A cold sort of dread filled her chest. "Gold." He introduced before turning to the other woman. "And this is Cora." She actually resembled Regina a little bit.
"It's nice to meet you both." She nodded before Regina cut in, stepping forwards in front of her almost anxiously, urgently.
"What are you doing here?"
Regina's proximity had her stuttering and the smell of her perfume was all consuming. "I, um, well, Henry's getting some candy. Then I was gonna take him to the hospital."
"Hospital?" Regina jumped, her gaze hardening. Jennifer shook her head and swallowed as she realized her mistake.
"He wanted to watch me take my stitches out. I mean, if that's not okay he'll be out in a minute you can take him home." She told Regina to try and ease her concern. Jennifer watched as the cogs turned in Regina's head.
"No. You let him watch. He~he likes that type of thing. Just make sure you get him back to Miss Swan's apartment safely." Jennifer nodded quickly. Regina eyed her once before ushering Mr. Gold and Cora along. Jennifer frowned at the hastiness of their retreat. What were they running from (or to)?
"Alright, I'll, uh, see you later then, I guess."
As the three of them walked away Gold eyed Regina. "Are you hiding Cora?" Cora turned her head at the mention of her name. Regina rolled her eyes and shook her head dismissively. "You better hope that nobody finds out." He told her condemningly.
"They won't." She shot back before taking a deep breath to calm the adrenaline coursing through her veins. "Snow will ruin everything with her blubbering and asking for forgiveness for something that hasn't even happened yet. Besides, I do not need the whole town against me again." She told him, and Cora listened intently.
"What exactly hasn't happened yet?" She questioned and two sets of eyes turned to her.
"Nothing you need to be worried about, mo—Cora." Regina breathed, turning away to hide the blush that was creeping up her neck. Gold glared at her sternly. And Cora was just staring at her with hints of familiarity flickering in her eyes as they scanned Regina.
"I feel like I know you." She supplied with a drawl of longing to her voice. Regina's heart sped up in her chest, and she felt like ice was being poured down her back.
"No, you definitely don't know me." She answered as calmly as she could. But Cora just narrowed her eyes. Her reaction was strange and doubtful.
"Then why are you here? Rumple can handle me just fine on his own."
"As annoying as she is, she's also helpful." Rumple sighed, and she turned and shot daggers at him. Annoying?
"Ah, she has magic, then." Cora breathed, looking at Regina with something between curiosity and recognition.
"I do." Regina assured her mother. This was so very, very strange to interact with her like this. Of course she had magic! Part of her wanted to scream at her mother and tell her not to make the same mistakes with her younger self this time around, but she couldn't. She couldn't change her own past. And she couldn't let Cora know she was her daughter. So she kept her silence.
But as they approached the town line Regina's head was still spinning with unanswerable questions. It had been spinning ever since Cora came to Storybrooke. How did she know to come? Who told her to come? Who could have convinced her?
Cora stopped at the town line and examined the protection spell. "Let me see the book." She commanded. Gold handed it to her without a word. She was the expert here. She was their leader.
. . .
Meanwhile, Emma had sat Mary Margaret and David down to tell them what Regina had told her the night before about the protection spell disintegrating and how they were going to have to tell Jennifer about magic.
"Do you really believe that Regina's telling the truth?" Mary Margaret asked, leaning forwards on her elbows. Her brow was furrowed. Emma sighed, leaning back in her chair.
"She seemed pretty sincere. I mean she said she wanted Henry to know that she can be good. That's why she's doing it."
"But to do that she has to put a lot of faith in Jennifer. Do you really think that's possible for her?" David countered. "Regina doesn't trust people. It's why she is who she is." Unfortunately, David was right. No matter Regina's motives, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks~especially so quickly.
"David's right. How do we know Regina isn't just saying this so we won't suspect her if Jennifer does disappear?" Mary Margaret pointed out.
"Okay, granted, Regina hasn't really kept her promises about being good lately. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep giving her chances. I was there. I know what it's like. I mean, you guys are Snow White and Prince Charming for goodness' sake!"
The two of them looked at each other, a silent conversation taking place between them.
"Think of it this way. Even if Regina is still as evil as you guys say then we'll be there to stop her if she tries anything. But I honestly don't think that she wants Jenny dead. She knows it'll just push Henry farther away. I think she learned that one the hard way from Cora when she was here." Emma stated. Mary Margaret averted her eyes at the mention of Regina's mother. When no one said anything more, Emma nodded to herself. The decision was made. "We can tell Henry tonight. And I'll tell Jenny tomorrow."
. . .
Cora was excited about this. Not just because she was in the future but because she was going to finally get her spell book back after all this was over. How she'd originally acquired it and how she'd lost it were very complicated circumstances. Well, that's what she told Rumple to stop him from nosing around in her business. The reality was that she'd stolen it from a very old but very powerful sorcerer called the Apprentice. Then he'd stolen it back. How Rumple got it, on the other hand, was a mystery all its own.
The more she read about the protection spell Rumple had used the more she understood what was happening and how to fix it as she translated old elvish into new elvish into English in her mind. However, then she got to the page with the missing words and turned to Rumple. "The spell is disintegrating."
"We know," Rumple told her in annoyance. She sighed, placed her hands on her hips, and turned to the spell—looking it over.
"You did a horrible job on it." She commented like he was so very dumb and could see him glaring at her from the corner of her eyes. "It's so weak because you mixed new and old magic. It should have been one or the other."
"Well, it's a little late for that now, isn't it?" Regina told her mother harshly. As the one to cast the spell in the first place she felt rather personally attacked by Cora's words. In response, Cora just glared at her, a fire in her eyes. Really she shouldn't be so irritated. This was probably going to be the last time she ever saw her mother. Even if Cora didn't know who she was, she wanted to make the most of this. So she sighed and rubbed her forehead with her hands. "I'm sorry." She breathed and slowly Cora turned away from her.
"In case you haven't noticed I don't practice old magic." Gold informed Cora. "Mara was the one who cast it, but she doesn't know enough old magic to cast an entire curse from it." He pointed out. "The only reason I needed it was because it's stronger than new magic. It needed to withstand the curse breaking."
"Regardless, you mixed magic. You both must have known that this was inevitable." Nobody answered, not that Cora needed them to. Gold did know that it was inevitable, and Regina had had her suspicions. Cora sighed, glancing at the dancing, shimmering spell just a few feet away. She waved her hand over it and frowned when the magic sparked and fizzled. "It's going fast." She mumbled. "The outside world is invading, and it's taking magic with it."
"We know. You're here to fix it."
"I can't bring back what's already gone." She mused, looking at the town line and then up into the sky like it was telling her something no one else could hear. "I'll have to cast a new protection spell." She muttered, deep in thought. "When did all of this start?" She asked suddenly, eyeing up the spell to see how far it had receded. The brunette didn't look worried. Then again, she had nothing to worry about. This wasn't her town. She didn't care what happened to it. But this had become Regina's home. She needed to protect it.
"Not even a week ago. When Miss Alexander came to town." Regina pointed out. Cora raised her brow and chuckled in disbelief.
"Really?" She drawled in amusement. "Oh, well, of course she did. I suppose that makes perfect sense." She muttered like this was some ironic serendipity. Gold and Regina glanced at each other in confusion. Cora just shook her head and dismissed them with a wave of her hand. "Oh it's nothing." They didn't quite believe her, but they didn't question her either.
Then, pensively, Cora stood for a moment in front of the town line in the pantsuit Gold had poofed on her~one that was unmistakably Regina's. She didn't quite look confused but rather determined. This was a puzzle she was going to solve come hell or high water. Regina recognized this expression on her mother and watched it curiously.
"I need Jennifer's blood." Cora finally spoke, turning to the two Storybrooke residents firmly.
"That's simple enough." Gold piped.
"Well, not quite." Cora amended. "Jennifer caused this because she doesn't believe in it. The only way for me to truly repair the protection spell is for her to believe."
"You've got to be kidding me." Regina drawled in disbelief.
"We have three days before your precious town collapses in on itself." Cora stated flatly. Regina's eyes widened, and she scoffed.
"It took the savior an entire year to believe in the curse—let alone magic. In fact, she still hasn't accepted that she has magic. How the hell is this Other Swan supposed to believe in three days?" Regina pointed out, glancing at Gold helplessly. Cora raised her brow, almost as if in disbelief, but didn't comment. There was something Regina and Gold were missing, Regina could tell. Something Cora wasn't telling them. She just wished she knew what it was.
"Well you'll have to figure something out otherwise this town will lose its magic as well as its protection from the rest of this realm."
