Chapter 3

A few weeks later, at breakfast, Regina turned to Lily and asked, "Hey Lil, how do you feel about taking a detour out to the forest before school this morning?" It was a Tuesday, so she was in charge of Lily's school drop off.

Lily, who'd been pushing her breakfast around her plate, perked up, "Really?" she grinned at Regina.

Regina smiled back, glad that Lily was happy and not annoyed by the surprise morning detour. "Yes. Why don't you go get changed?"

"Awesome," Lily grinned wider, pushing her plate away, and wasting no time bounding out of the kitchen.

"Lil-" Mal started to call after her, intent on telling her to put her plate in the sink, but the girl had already disappeared. She shook her head, muttering, "Never mind," before her attention shifted to Regina. She quirked an eyebrow at the other woman, "So are you going to tell me what's up?"

Regina rubbed the back of her neck, "It's Zelena. I just have this feeling she's planning on cutting where she isn't supposed to. The equipment was parked in a weird spot yesterday."

"So you decided that a surprise visit was in order?" Mal grinned deviously, "I like the way you think. You go get her." It was no secret that Mal wasn't overly fond of Regina's sister. Maybe because Zelena continuously referred to Lily as 'that brat'.

Regina laughed at Mal's expression before she sighed, "Hopefully I'm wrong."

She hadn't been wrong.

Zelena's crew had definitely moved their equipment much too closely to trees Regina had marked as not to be touched, but Zelena was arguing with a hand on her hip and a roll of her eyes that, "Of course they weren't going to touch her precious marked trees."

Surrounded by men just waiting to be told what to do, none of which were keen on getting involved in the sisters argument, Regina rolled her eyes right back, hand on her own hip, mirroring her sister's posture, "Then what exactly is the equipment doing here? You've overstepped badly this time, Zelena."

Regina was so focused on Zelena that she missed Lily slipping away.

Elliot was still sleeping, and snoring quite loudly, when Emma's grumbling tummy woke her.

As she traipsed through the forest, collecting berries and popping them in her mouth, Emma was drawn towards the unusual noise echoing through the forest. Finding its source, she peaked out at the crowd from behind a tree. She saw the same lady with the dark hair that she'd seen weeks ago - at the memory, her hand reached up to cradle the compass she still wore around her neck. There wasn't just the dark haired lady though, there were all kinds of other people too. Where had they all come from? Her eyes darted rapidly through the crowd, settling on a girl, the only person who wasn't big. She startled when she realized that the girl was looking right at her. Emma stood rooted in place, like a tree, unable to move, until the girl took one step and then another step closer to her, and then suddenly Emma was unstuck, turning and fleeing into the forest, running even faster when she heard the girl calling after her.

"Wait!"

Emma flung herself at a tree, scrambling quickly up the side and reaching for a branch, hoisting herself up and beginning to climb higher and higher.

"Wait!" Lily shouted again but the strange girl just kept climbing. Undeterred, Lily scrambled to follow her, finding the task much more difficult than the other child made it look, but managing to pull herself up nonetheless.

Emma glanced behind her, her heart rate quickening at the sight of the girl following her. The mixture of curiosity urging her to stop and abject fear screaming at her to run battled fiercely in her brain. Curiosity won, although that was more because there really was nowhere left to run - she'd climbed as high as she could. She turned herself around, watching a moment, before she started to descend, approaching the girl who's own climb seemed to be halted by an inability to figure out where to put her foot next.

Lily watched with wide eyes as Emma approached her, still shocked by this strange girl with wild hair and no shirt. "Hi," she said, grimacing slightly when the word made the girl flinch. She wiped the grimace away and gave her most friendly smile, trying again, "I'm Lily. What's your name?"

Emma tilted her head and studied the girl - Lily, the name bounced around in her head. She knew she was supposed to respond but it was like she'd suddenly forgotten how to talk. These were the first words she'd heard spoken by anyone besides herself in as long as she could remember, it was hard not to be a bit stunned.

Lily frowned. Maybe the girl couldn't speak? She shifted on the branch, thinking she'd move just a bit closer, but her foot slipped and suddenly she was falling. She screamed as branches flew past her. She was sure she was going to hit the ground and die but suddenly she wasn't falling anymore. Her eyes, which she'd slammed shut in fear, flew open, locking with the green eyes staring down at her. She couldn't even really believe it. The girl had caught her and she was now dangling by one arm a few feet off the ground.

Lily's piercing scream echoed through the forest and struck terror in Regina's heart. "Oh god, Lily," she gasped out, the entire argument with Zelena instantly forgotten. She was off in a flash, running towards the sound, Zelena and her entire crew following hot on her heels, fanning out as they reached the forest.

"Don't let go," Lily pleaded but even as she said it she could feel her fingers slipping out of the other girl's grasp and she fell from the tree with a thud.

Emma jumped down out of the tree, crouching on the ground beside the girl who'd pulled one of her knee close to her chest. She reached a hand out to touch the place where a thin line of red was forming but the girl flinched away and the sudden movement had Emma shuffling back as well.

"Don't touch! I'm hurt," Lily yelped but the girl's reaction made her regret the sharp words. "Sorry," she mumbled, "Thanks, you know...for catching me."

Emma just stared with wide green eyes.

"So? Are you going to tell me your name or what?" Lily repeated the question she'd asked earlier, although she still wasn't really sure whether or not the girl could actually speak.

Emma's heart thumped loudly in her chest as she opened her mouth and spoke, "Emma."

"Emma," Lily repeated the name with a small head nod and a smile. She had a million other questions. Like what the heck Emma was doing out here and where her shirt was? But before she could ask anything further her name was being shouted loudly through the forest in a voice she recognized. She jumped up off the ground and called back, "Regina!"

Regina quickened her pace, heading towards the sound of Lily's voice. A sigh of relief as the girl came into view, standing and looking to be in one piece. She reached out for Lily, her eyes scanning for injury, even as she pulled the girl into a crushing hug. "Are you okay?" She asked, hands still on Lily's shoulders but pulling back enough to study the girl's face. When she got a head bob in confirmation, she asked another question, "What happened?"

"I fell out of a tree," Lily explained matter of factly, as if it wasn't a big deal.

"You what?!" Regina's eyes bulged, "What were you doing in a tree?"

"I was following Emma," Lily answered again, just as matter of factly.

"Emma?" Regina's brow scrunched up in confusion.

Lily pointed to where Emma had scampered and hid behind a tree at the commotion, her face peering around the side of the tree, watching them, "Her."

Regina's gaze shifted in the direction that Lily was pointing, surprise added to her confusion, at the sight of the tiny face and wild hair. She moved carefully over towards the tree the girl was hiding behind. Her forward motion seemed to make the girl cling tighter to the tree, so she held up her hands, trying to show she was no threat, "Hi there...Emma?" She spoke softly, encouraged when the child didn't flee, she continued in that same soft voice, "Are you lost sweetheart? Where are your parents?" Wide green eyes studied her and Regina could practically see the wheels turning in her head as slowly the child's grip loosened on the tree. Regina dropped one of her arms turning her palm face up and extending it out towards, "My name is Regina and if you come with me I can help you find your family."

Emma's whole body was trembling, on high alert, as she slowly eased herself out from behind the tree. The urge to run was still battling hard in her brain but her fascination with this dark haired lady, Regina, pulled her forward.

As the child stepped out from the tree, Regina couldn't help the small gasp of surprise at the very recognisable compass hanging from her neck, "Hey? Where'd you get that from?"

It was the exact wrong thing to say because at those words, or maybe at the tone, Emma turned and fled, screaming, "Elliot!" at the top of her lungs and running right into Zelena.

Zelena had taken a different path than Regina and she was startled when someone, a small someone, smacked right into her. "Hey!" Confused she reached her arms out and grabbed hold of the strange child. If this very odd looking child had something to do with her niece screaming (she might refer to Lily as 'the brat' in almost all conversation but she most definitely still considered her her niece), then she wasn't going to let her get away.

As hands reached for her, Emma's heart thumped loudly in her chest, panic overwhelming her, and she tried to shake them off, tried to scramble away. She was almost free but then she was falling, her head connecting with a rock, and everything was black.

Emma woke with a start, shooting right up, her eyes darting around. The last thing she remembered was hands grabbing at her and panic instantly washed over her at the memory. She remembered very little from her life before Elliot and the forest, only tiny flashes that often seemed like a foggy dream, but the fear those hands invoked was very real, founded in a suddenly distinct memory of large hands striking at her. She couldn't remember who the hands had belonged to. Maybe it had been more than one person.

Her breathing was quickly becoming ragged, as she tried to figure out where she was, the feeling of imminent danger at the unfamiliar surroundings overwhelming her. Whatever she was sitting on was soft, not quite as soft as Elliot's fur, but much much softer than the floor of the cave. She was wearing something weird, it was blue and the way it was tied around her neck felt so very constricting. There was something sticking in her arm, a tube that ran up to some kind of contraption. She didn't like that, not at all, and she reached with her free hand and tugged it out, wincing at the sudden pain and the spot of blood appearing. She let the tube drop away from her and darted her eyes around the room again. There was something tied to the end of the bed, it was red and floating on a string. She shuffled closer to it, scooting on her knees across the soft bed until she was only inches away from it. She tentatively reached her hand out, poking it hard with one finger, and when it rebounded back at her, she yelped, scrambling quickly off the bed and into the corner of the room.

She watched the red floating thing with wary eyes until it finally stopped bobbing back and forth and then she took a hesitant step out of the corner. The room had a window and she looked out of it. She couldn't see the forest at all. Where was it? Where was Elliot? She didn't like this place. She needed to find Elliot. She had to get out of here.

She clawed urgently at the window until she figured out how to open it and, without a second thought to the fact that she was on the second story of the building, she climbed out, gripping bricks carefully as she climbed down the face of the building. She hopped down once she was a few feet from the bottom and she took off into the Town, bare feet padding against hard pavement that felt so much different than the dirt and moss of the forest did.

Regina stood leaning against a wall in the hospital hallway, off to her right stood the sheriff, Graham Humbert, and a deputy, David Nolan, sipping coffee and chatting quietly amongst themselves, they were waiting for the girl from the forest, Emma, to wake up so that they could talk to her. Regina wasn't paying much attention to them though, her eyes focused on the short legs swinging from the hospital stretcher in front of her. Mal had her hand on Lily's shoulder, listening intently as the doctor spoke. Regina couldn't quite keep up with the doctor's quiet words, the dread and self-loathing that had settled in her stomach like a stone too distracting. She'd screwed up so badly. What if Lily was seriously hurt? She seemed fine but what if she wasn't? She'd never forgive herself. She was startled from her thoughts when the doctor walked past her with a head nod and suddenly Mal was standing in front of her.

Mal reached forward and cupped Regina's cheeks with her hands, eyeing her sternly, "Stop it."

Regina's brow furrowed in confusion, as she tried to pull back but found herself unable to shake Mal away, those blue eyes piercing into hers.

"I can see those wheels turning, Regina," Mal said firmly, quirking a knowing eyebrow, "Stop it. Lily is fine. Just a few scrapes."

"But-" Regina started but Mal didn't let her continue.

"I said stop," Mal shook her head. Still cupping Regina's cheeks, she leaned forward, pressing her lips to the her girlfriend's in a quick but reassuring kiss. Pulling her head back, she eyed Regina with a look that dared her to disagree, her words firm, "you didn't do anything wrong."

Regina opened her mouth to protest but the expression on Mal's face made her close it, the protest dying on her lips. She sighed deeply, her eyes dipping to the floor as she murmured, barely a whisper, "I was so scared."

Mal sighed too, "I know honey." She placed a gentle kiss to Regina's forehead and then finally pulled her hands back, dropping them to her sides.

Regina looked back up from the floor, "Where do you think she came from?" Between worrying about Lily, and hating herself for not keeping a better eye on her, she'd found some time to contemplate the child they'd found in the forest, those wide green eyes haunting her. Lily wasn't the only one she'd messed up with. If she hadn't startled Emma, she wouldn't have run, wouldn't have fallen and hit her head. Regina couldn't help but feel responsible.

It took Mal a second to realize who Regina meant, a bit startled by the abrupt change of subject. "The girl?" she asked for confirmation.

Regina nodded, her hand dipping into her pocket, her fingers connecting with the metal there. She carefully pulled the object out, holding it up for Mal to see, "She had my compass."

Mal's eyes widened in surprise but before she had a chance to really process how that could be, Lily was calling for them. Her head whipped around, surprised to find that Lily was no longer perched on the stretcher but down the hall standing in front of the room the child from the forest had been placed in. She was definitely going to have to have a talk with her daughter about disappearing.

They hurried down the hall towards Lily, Graham and David moving over as well, everyone peering into the room.

The only motion in the room was from the red balloon bobbing slightly back and forth in the breeze caused by the open window.

"She's gone," Lily voiced the obvious out loud.