Chapter two

Ella switched the Mercedes off, as Regina stepped out holding her breath as the cold air caught in her throat. Ella slid out of her seat, sensing that something was wrong. They looked across the dark graveyard, to see the open graves that now stood empty. Ella glanced down at hole that used to hold the remains of Henry's father Neal, which were now completely gone.

"What would someone achieve from taking bodies?" Ella asked as she lost her balance, causing her to begin to fall down in the dark grave that she was peering into until Regina stopped her at the last minute with the flick of a hand.

"You said don't use your magic loosely…" Ella tells her mouth as she regained her balance and walked beside her mother.

"You would have been in a rather muddy hole if I hadn't .. What would I have gained out of that?" Regina asked as she took Ella's hand.

" me not getting mud on your brand new boots, but beside the point.. Why would someone unbury every person whose body was here? You can't bring someone back from the dead. " Ella asked again as they walked to the very corner of the graveyard.

"They can't no, but they obviously have plans especially as they are trying to get into my vault. We better get up there and meet Emma and David." There was no worry in Regina's voice as they walked towards her vault, that she knew was magically sealed; only blood magic could break it.

"Hello again... not brought Imogen with you for this then?" David laughed as Regina glared at him.

"She is at home with Robin, there is a magical protection on the house which will stop her from seeing certain things Imogen doesn't need to be part of," Regina tells him as she opened the door slightly, peeking inside followed by Ella who was holding a fireball in her right hand.

"It's all safe here, apart from the fact that Grandpa's body is gone. We better go down and see whether they managed to get down there too." Emma walked behind the two and helped Regina push at her father's coffin, to uncover the staircase down into the depths of the vault.

"So I saw Jack today, and he seemed very excited about making ground on your house. Finally moving out then Ella?" Emma asked as she followed the two brunettes down the stairway.

"It's a bit of a tough subject but we can't all live with our parents forever." Ella tells her as she turned away from her mother to look at the blonde, who sensed the tension between the two.

"When you're trying to make a relationship you had never thought you would never have. It's worth it." Emma tells her as Ella walked away and down the corridor to where her father's body laid and had been the last time she had been here.

Regina sighed as her daughter walked off towards were Daniel lay, recently she had taken to leaving Ella to her father on her own, giving her the time with him that she never had when he was living. Regina turned to David and Emma as they looked to her mother's coffin that luckily was still closed and still contained her mother's body.

Ella glided her hands around as she magically unlocked her father's tomb, twisting her hands as she heard her mother call out that her grandmother was indeed still there. As she turned into her father's tomb preparing to see his body lying on the slate, in his normal state frozen in time by her mother's magic.

"he's gone..."

Regina pulled Ella close as she was shaking from the shock of her father being gone, it may have just been its lifeless form, but for the last few years, that was all she needed to feel safe. Now it was not just Ella who was worried for the town it was Regina too because what could whoever had done this to the bodies in the graveyard, to Daniel, and to Henry Senior achieve from digging them up and stealing them.

"None of this makes any sense, why wouldn't you take Cora as well why leave her body behind?" Emma asked as Ella pulled away and held onto her mother's hand.

"When does anything in this town ever make sense Emma? We better get the others together and meet at grannies?" David tells them as Regina shook her head at him.

"Not grannies, I need to get home for Imogen, I told her I would say goodnight tonight. Meet at our house in an hour. Ella wait in the car." Ella reluctantly let go of her mother's hand, aware that once she walked away she was going to be talked about.

"Regina is she going to be okay?" Emma asked, as Ella got into the Mercedes.

"She is just shocked that's all. I want to get her home and calm her down before we have to think about what is going to happen next I don't want to put her at risk of being taken in by her heart's darkness." Regina turned and walked away towards Ella in the waiting car. In the car, Ella was just facing the fact that what was coming next was going to be the worst thing that had happened since they'd managed to get the darkness out of Emma.

Imogen lay in Regina's arms, telling her about her day. Regina stroked the girl's wild strawberry blonde curls in an attempt to get her to settle.

"All I want to do is come and work at the office with you and Ella. I could help you make big girl choices, like letting Jack and Ella leave the house soon..." Even Imogen knew about what was happening in the next few weeks, about how Ella and her boyfriend of three years, were taking the next step, building a house. Regina was finding it hard to accept that the daughter she almost didn't have was ready to leave her so soon.

"And what do you think about not having them around so much..." Regina asked Imogen hoping to form an alliance with the three year old, over her older sibling not leaving them so soon.

"Ella said that I could come and stay with her and Jack whenever I wanted, and that we could have movies nights, at her house and that she would never leave me. Jack, though I haven't spoken to him because he has made me sad.." Jack was Imogen's favorite man, she would love spending time with him, and would often get jealousy if Ella was getting more attention than she was, it was a three-year-old crush that infuriated her daddy.

"Okay Imi, I'm with you but think it's time that we got some sleep princess." Regina said to the little girl as she snuggled in behind her, smelling the scent of her shampoo, which clearly she had been sharing with Ella.

"Tell me the story of Snow White again Mommy. " Regina sighed as she began, Thinking of her eldest child and the torment that she was feeling.

The torment that had led to her being on her third rather large glass on red wine when Robin came in and sat beside her.

"You alright kid, your mom told me what happened?" Robin asked as Ella picked the glass up taking a huge gulp.

"I would be alright if I had the chance to have a normal day. If I didn't have to nearly fall into a hole, to find the problem with Storybooke, my mom is mad at me because I want to move out to start my own life and just to top it off my Dad who was dead, has managed to leave me just like everyone else does." Ella sighed as she attempted to top the glass up, but Robin put his hand over the glass to stop her from having any more.

"And drinking that isn't going to help you. Helping sort out another problem with the town will. Your mother just needs time to adjust to you not being here, she's just been so used to having you here, to talk too, to watch girly films that make her cry with. Make dinner with her and actually help, she's liked helping you control your magic. Daniel's body may be gone, but you still have the one thing he would have wanted you to have a relationship with the woman he loved. "Robin tells her as he takes the bottle from her hand. Ella feels the tears start.

"Just knowing that they were both there I felt safe felt like I had some control. Now I'm back to being confused again, back to being the me from three years ago. The girl who couldn't control herself, her magic, her anger and her sadness. The girl who always ended up on her own. "Ella asked as Robin stood and pulled the girl in close to his chest.

"You are safe and you are part of this family, You will never end up alone. Regina and Emma need your help to stop whatever is happening, you are part of their magical team, they can't and they won't do this without you. Ella I will not, your mother will not and your brothers and your baby sister will not let you go. You are part of this crazy and chaotic family. Which means you are stuck with us sweetheart." Robin lifted the girl's head up to face him as he wiped the tears from her eyes and gently kissed her on the forehead. Just like any father would do for their daughter.

Regina listened from the hallway, smiling to herself to see how close the two had become in the last few years. Robin was the one that Ella turned to when she needed help with her mother, like trying to persuade her that moving out was the best idea for the nearly thirty-year-old woman and her boyfriend. Robin turned to Ella when he needed help picking gifts for her mother, Help with working technology and even showing him how to use the new coffee machine. They had become father and daughter quicker than expected, Ella and Henry were as much Robin's children as Roland and Imogen where Regina's, they would do anything for their family.

The doorbell rung shocking Regina as she dropped the baby monitor on the floor, as the other two walked towards her.

"eavesdropping are we Regina mills ..." Robin said as he playfully tapped her butt, as she picked up the monitor from the floor. Ella passed them as Jack appeared at the bottom of the stairs fresh from the shower placing a kiss on his girlfriend's lips, wiping the remaining tears out from under the girl's eyes.

"I hear you've had a bad day, princess." Jack told her as Robin answered the door, to Hook, Emma, Snow, David , Belle and Gold. Ella nodded, as he pulled her closer.

"Nice to be invited into the Mayors house once in a while. " Gold said as Ella walked behind them, magically making hot drinks appear before them on the coffee table. Regina shook her head at Ella's loose user of magic again.

As they sat down Regina and Ella stood next to each other ready to discuss what had happened, but they stopped as the room started to shake and the rest of the group began ducking behind objects.

As the street lights burned out and the whole town plunged into darkness, with only a blast of light coming through the centre of the main street. Because there is no place like home.