Chapter 10
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"I said I was sorry. I was just by the piers. I didn't mean to lose track of time. I needed to get away." Henry whined, but he couldn't meet his mother's eyes. He stood in their room at the Inn staring down at the ground, the tips of his shoes and knees of his pants covered in mud.
"You scared me half to death!" Emma admonished as she watched Henry shrink at her tone.
Downstairs Emma knew that Regina was pacing the length of the common area wanting to say the same things to their son. With the cover they had going she needed to stay downstairs and out of sight. At least for now, which Emma knew wasn't sitting well with the older woman.
Emma had asked Ruby to keep an eye on Regina, not exactly trusting Robin Hood, no matter how trustworthy everyone else seemed to think he was. She didn't know him. She didn't like that they didn't know him before they went back to the Enchanted Forest. It was just too convenient for Rumple to be the only one to really know him.
"You had me asking half the town to help look for you. There's a city wide curfew set Henry. You weren't just putting yourself in harm's way but others as well!"
Henry looked up, just the slightest bit. "What dangers?"
Emma faltered, realizing her mistake. "There have been a lot of robberies lately. A few people have gotten hurt. As a precaution everyone's been told to stay in and lock the doors after a certain time."
"So that the only people out are the people doing it and they can be caught." Henry nodded his head, understanding now. He'd seen that done in TV shows enough times to think he could actually understand what was going on. Though it only made him feel more ashamed. "I am sorry mom. I just…" He sighed and pulled roughly at his hair as he went and sat heavily on the bed in the room. "You didn't see them! It was disgusting." He growled at just the memory of seeing Regina and Robin together. "She has a new lover, a man!" He said that with such distaste Emma was a little worried that after this ordeal was over he wouldn't be able to handle his mom being with anyone else.
"Is it really that he's a man or is it just that he's not me that's bothering you?" She knew it probably was bothering him, at least a little bit, but what was really bothering him was Roland. Not Robin. It was that Robin and Roland came as a package deal and gave Regina another little boy, another son to raise. "Or is it his son that's really bothering you?"
Henry's shoulders started to shake as his tears started. His grip was tight on his pant legs before he fisted his hands and hit them into his knees twice. Emma was quick to grab them and pull Henry against her shoulder. The feeling of his tears against her chest made her own eyes water. She hated the pain that this was causing Henry. It wasn't fair to him to have to deal with this. He'd already been through so much. She hated that this would have to be added onto the growing pile of issues he'd faced before he turned fourteen.
"It's not fair." Henry cried as he clutched at Emma.
Emma squeezed her eyes closed and forced the lump in her throat away, "No. No it's not. But we'll be okay Henry. No matter what."
Emma wasn't sure if she was trying to convince Henry or herself.
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"How is he?" Regina asked as she shot up from where she had been sitting, waiting for Emma to return after speaking with Henry.
Ruby was standing in the corner of the room talking with Charming and Snow White. Hook was standing off in the corner of the large room, trying to stay away from everyone. Robin Hood stood just behind Regina. They presented a pretty picture. They almost suited each other but no matter how pretty they looked together, it still made her sick to her stomach. Emma wished she'd kept her jacket on, instead of leaving it and the listening device, upstairs in the room with Henry sleeping. She felt vulnerable and naked under Regina's stare at the moment. It also left the bruises from the other night far more visible.
"He's sleeping." Regina's eyes narrowed. That wasn't an answer to her question. Emma sighed, reading the woman's mind without conscious effort. "He's upset. Angry. Frustrated. He's been through a lot the last few days." Emma's eyes moved to her parents, unwilling to look at Regina and Robin just yet. "We all have."
"How are you feeling?" Ruby asked as she gravitated towards the group standing awkwardly around each other. Ruby touches Emma's shoulder gently, mindful of the injuries her friend had suffered. "You should get off that leg."
Emma sighs, knowing that she should. The sprain had been bothering her all day. She'd just pushed on and ignored the pain. She didn't have any other choice in the matter.
"You were attacked." Robin pointed out from where he stood, watching as Regina unconsciously moved towards Emma the moment the blonde sat down.
"Yes. The day before."
"By who?" Regina asked as she sat next to Emma on the couch and inspected the bruises along her neck with a creased frown.
"More like, by what." Emma hedged.
"The flying monkey you mentioned?" Regina asked, eyes wide as she recalled that little fact from Emma's long winded explanation.
"Yep." Emma pronounced the "p" roughly as she leaned away from Regina's inspecting touch, afraid she'd lean into it if she didn't pull away.
"Flying monkey?" Robin asked as he moved to sit on the arm of the couch closest to Regina.
"Like from Oz. With the Wicked Witch and all." Ruby answered, noticing the tension in Emma's jaw as she stalled in answering the thief's question. "Except they're not monkeys all the time. So maybe they're like shape-shifters."
"Wicked Witch…" Regina whispered, the hairs along her body rising at the notion of such a woman being in Storybrooke. It would explain how her magic was being thwarted. It had been frightening to realize that the magic was far stronger than her own. She had only ever encountered magic like this in two others, both of whom were dead. The fear had been why she was working so hard and so closely with the Charmings and their merry band of do-gooders. That and because working with them was the quickest way to find success and victory and thus allow her to leave and find Henry, and Emma by proxy.
Snow took a seat on the arm chair beside the couch that was fully occupied, Charming standing at her side as he always would. "That could answer where the missing people are. They've been changed or taken by the…."
Everyone kind of just started talking at once.
"Wicked Witch." Regina supplied. "You can say it David. Green skin, pointy hat, and broomstick to boot."
"I'm sorry, who?" Robin asked; stuck trying to catch up as everyone talked around him.
"They could be shape-shifters but that doesn't really explain why they've completely disappeared otherwise." Emma supplied as she thought about the missing people cases David mentioned and how they'd been growing in number for the last two weeks. Whatever the Wicked Witch was planning, it was going to happen soon.
"No, I guess it doesn't."
"You kno…oh. Well I guess you wouldn't know. She's like the Evil Queen—" Ruby turned an apologetic look to Regina.
Regina waved off Ruby's concern and addressed Robin gently, "She is like me dear, except her skin tone is that of a frog and she rides around on a broom with a pointy black hat and has a nasty allergy to water. She comes from another world. One that exists with magic, called Oz."
"Oh." It seemed to know that there was just another world, one of many that existed, baffled the man who'd lived in a magic enchanted world all his life.
If he could be baffled, Emma wondered why she hadn't been given as much credit for taking all the news she'd taken in the last two years as well as she had.
Emma sighed at the petty thoughts. She needed to get over the agitation with Robin Hood. Regina deserved to be happy. And by the woman's complete lack of response to the idea of them being together except to apologize for the pain those memories caused, Emma suspected she had little chance to capture the Evil Queen's affections. Not when she'd already given them to someone else.
Emma shook away her feelings and focused on the task at hand. They'd all joined here because they needed to make a plan. They needed to talk about what their next move was going to be.
"We need to make a plan. Obviously whatever it was that the Witch was planning is getting closer."
"What makes you think that?" Hook asked, his arms drawn over his chest as he leaned against the wall several feet away from the circle in the center of the room.
Emma stated simply. "David mentioned how the disappearances have increased the last two weeks."
Regina couldn't help but agree with Emma, "She's gathering her forces."
"Exactly." Emma nodded sparing Regina a minute smile before she addressed everyone in the room. "So we need to know how to handle whatever that plan is."
"Okay, but we're just as clueless as to what her plan is as we were before." Snow stated, wincing at the whine of her voice.
"That's why I think it would be best if we focused on recreating the memory potion that Emma took." Regina put the idea on the table and was surprised to see that no one immediately debunked it just for the hell of it.
"Can you do that?" Snow asked, leaning forward with interest.
"I believe with the remainder of the potion Emma took I can recreate it."
"And once we take it we will know what it is that this Witch is up to." Charming grinned, glad that they wouldn't be so in the dark anymore.
"There isn't that much of it left." Emma grimaced internally. If she'd known she'd need to save more of it she wouldn't have taken as much as she had.
"What is left should be enough for me to try, once."
"Only once?"
Regina nodded at Ruby, "I'm afraid so."
"What if you can't do it?" Emma asked, cringing when Regina's eyes flashed.
"Do you have such little faith in me, Ms. Swan?"
"That's not what I meant. I just meant…"
"That I am not capable of—"
Emma spoke just that much louder than Regina, essentially cutting her off. "That if it's only a one shot deal we should probably be careful about it. Or…use it to our advantage."
"Set a trap." Robin's eyes lit with a passion that Emma could recognize.
"Yes."
Regina had a hard time keeping the grin off of her face. It was a good plan. "We might have even had a sure way of setting it if you hadn't destroyed that bug." Emma complained halfheartedly.
"Excuse me for seeing a threat to our safety and destroying it."
"Ladies, please. The Queen did as she should have." Hook knew he would have done the same thing. As would anyone else in the room, save for Emma and Snow.
"We'll need them to believe that we have an advantage."
"Your memories. If they knew you were about to get them back, she'd need to stop that." Emma recalled how Regina had been most desperate and made her most mistakes when she began to fear that Emma believed Henry's 'stories' about everyone's true identities. She hoped that in this case the same would apply.
"Why are you so certain she would do so?" Robin asked, seemingly genuinely curious.
Regina caressed Robin's knee as she explained their reasoning. "She wouldn't have taken away our memories if she could afford for us to have them again."
"So, how do we do this with as little danger as possible?" Snow asked, making sure to meet the eyes of everyone in the room.
"We can use my house." Regina offered quickly.
"No." Emma shot it down just as quickly.
"It is the perfect location. It is well protected. Much more than any other building in town besides the convent."
"It isn't safe Regina. She was in there this morning. She toyed with us." With me, Emma thought darkly.
"I must agree with the Savoir. The house is not a safe enough option. I do not wish to lose you to this woman because we underestimated her." Robin stared adoringly into Regina's eyes, lifting his hand to touch the witch's cheek.
"I can take care of myself." Regina bristled; she had been taking care of herself for years. For anyone to assume that she couldn't was ludicrous. "I can re-work the spells."
"I don't think he's trying to say you aren't capable, Regina." Emma began, wondering why she was helping the man escape Regina's ire. "But she's obviously after you and the last thing we should do is let her get to you. For all we know you could be the key to whatever she's got planned. We can't risk that."
Charming winced, recognizing his daughter's worry for Regina's safety for what it was. Not a way to stop the Wicked Witch from achieving her plan, but a way to keep Regina close and keep her safe.
"I'm afraid that I agree with, Emma." David spoke up, though it made his stomach turn to do so. He didn't want to think about what Emma's feelings would translate to. He didn't want to see her get hurt, anymore hurt than she already was. So if letting her work out her feelings towards Regina while the sorceress was nearby, then he'd help her get that.
Emma shared a momentary glance with David, where she bowed her head in thanks to her father.
"You should stay where it's safe." Emma insisted.
"Yes, you should." Robin spoke up, cutting Emma off before she could offer the next step of this plan. Regina's gaze was drawn away from Emma to the man sitting beside her. "You should stay with me and the merry men. We will all keep each other safe."
Emma wanted to laugh, "Oh, right, because you'll all be so safe out in the middle of the woods."
"If the Queen wants to spend her time in the woods foraging, let her Swan. They can take care of each other. Just as Robin said." Hook stated from his end of the room. Sick with jealousy over how keen Emma was to protect Regina.
"And play right into this woman's plans?"
"I'm confused Ms. Swan. Am I playing into our enemies hands if I stay in my own home or if I am away from it?" Regina challenged, curious to see how Emma would react to being called out on her bluff. She knew better than to put much merit into Emma's actions. She had learned her lesson to never trust the blonde with her heart.
This was not the time to begin to trust that Emma could be different. Emma was confused, she was being barraged on all sides by the spell that Regina had cast on her. The same spell that had so clearly altered the blonde's sense of perception. After all Emma had never loved her before the spell. If Regina was clear of one thing, it was that Emma's actions were being fueled by the spell. Nothing more and the pain of that tore at her battered heart.
The peaceful discussion slowly digressed into several arguments sprouting up between all the members around the room.
On the stairs in the shadows green eyes and eavesdropping ears listened and watched everything taking place in the Inn's sitting room, unseen.
End Chapter Ten
