Selena POV
I awoke to the smell of pancakes and chocolate filling my nostrils. Inhaling deeply, I turned to find the bed empty; Regina was obviously already up. Groaning and pushing my hair back from my face, I set about getting ready for the day, my thoughts immediately back to the fact that I had found my mother. I couldn't believe it. After all this time, after sixteen years of believing my mother hadn't wanted me and would never try and find me, here I was, in her house, while she made us pancakes. I brushed away the tendrils of guilt brushing at my heart and smiled happily instead, wondering what life would be like with a mother.
"Selena?" Regina called. "Breakfast!"
I smiled. Whatever it was going to be, this was definitely a good start.
"Coming!" I shouted back. A few minutes later and I was sitting at the kitchen table with a plate of luscious pancakes sitting before me.
"So." Regina said between mouthfuls. "Today's the day."
"Today's the day." I agreed, looking up at her.
"We're going to need to see a certain adopted son of mine." Regina continued in a business like manner.
"Henry? What does he have to do with all this?" I frowned, remembering the knowing looks he had given me during our little chat the previous day.
"Everything." She said simply. "And so does Emma." She added. "And Mr Gold. And Mary Margaret. And David. And-" She continued, her voice taking on the tone of a list.
"I get it." I laughed. "So...first stop, Henry?"
"Henry." She confirmed.
"Hey." Emma grinned as she opened the flat door to let Regina and I in.
"Hey." Regina smiled back, allowing Emma to pull her in for a brief hug.
"Hey, Selena." Emma beamed, stealing a hug from me as well as Killian Jones, Emma's fiancé, grinned at me from behind her.
"Hey." I smiled back.
"You seem very happy, Swan. You're not usually the hugging type." Regina smirked observantly as she hung her coat up.
"I'm just glad you finally told Selena." Emma smiled.
Just then, Mary Margaret bounced into the room, her face glowing and her eyes full of joy.
"Oh, Regina, we're so glad you finally told her! David and I-" She began.
"You knew about this?" I asked, a hint of anger in my voice.
"Well, Regina needed help so-" She started anxiously.
"Mom! Selena! Well done for telling her!" Henry grinned as he ran forwards to give Regina a hug.
"Oh for goodness-" I muttered, throwing my hands up in the air. "Does everyone in this damn town know that I'm your daughter?" I shouted, turning to Regina.
"Selena, I don't understand-" Regina began.
"I do." Emma said quietly. All heads snapped in her direction, including my own.
"Do you?" I demanded, sarcasm evident in my voice.
"Yes, Selena, I do." She said calmly, approaching me. "You don't understand why you had to be the last to know. Why you, the person who is the subject of the topic, were in the dark for the longest time. And I bet you still feel like you are - just let me finish." She continued as I made signs of interruption. I nodded.
"You feel alone yet known. Like you don't even know who you are yet but everyone else does. Everyone else knew before you and you don't think that's fair. You already feel like an outsider and that bit of you that is telling you that you belong here is what you're trying so hard to ignore because belonging somewhere, that means no more running." Emma finished. I stared at her, knowing by how she uttered the last few lines so quietly and with such empathy that she had been through something similar.
"Yeah." I responded horsely, not knowing what else to say. She had said everything anyway.
"Selena, I-" Regina began, walking towards me.
"Forget it." I said shortly. "It doesn't matter. I'm used to being the last one to know things anyway."
"No, honey, please-" Regina almost begged, looking at me searchingly with her chocolate eyes which were exactly the same shade of brown as my own.
"Regina, it's okay. You needed help. You're the mayor. I should have expected it." I shrugged, trying not to let on how hurt I felt.
"It's not okay. But how else could it have happened?" Regina carried on, ignoring my obvious hints to drop it.
"I don't know! How about not abandoning me in a stable?" I shouted, and with that I stormed out of the flat, tears cascading down my cheeks in a mixture of fury, guilt and pain.
Regina POV
I stood shell shocked for a moment, Selena's words hitting me like a ton of bricks. Once I had overcome my moment of numbness, I immediately headed to the door, ready to run after Selena and explain. But a soft hand grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"Regina, let her go." Emma whispered.
"Let her go?" I cried incredulously, tears spilling down my cheeks now.
"I mean give her time. Kids like her - like us - we need that. We're used to being alone." Emma murmured, tears threatening to leak from her green eyes too. Hook immediately rushed over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, allowing her to bury her head into his chest. I smiled fleetingly. Seeing Emma happy made me happy but seeing them like that...well, it just reminded me all too much of Robin Hood. Shaking my head, I walked slowly over to the couch and sat down, feeling Henry slip his hand into mine a moment later.
"It's going to be okay, Mom. She'll come round." He whispered. I nodded. I couldn't let my son see me weak.
"You're right, my wise little owl." I chuckled. "She just needs time." I said, trying to convince myself more than him.
"Yeah, she just needs time." Emma agreed, sitting opposite me with Hook perched on the arm of her seat.
"What if she thinks I've abandoned her again?"
"She won't." Emma said firmly. "She wants to be alone right now. Just let her calm down."
"Aye, she sure does have your temper." Hook added. I glared at him, earning a fairly common reproachful look from Emma.
"Sorry." I muttered sarcastically, causing Henry and Killian to snort with laughter, Emma to give me another one of her looks and Mary Margaret to scold me ("Stop acting like a child, Regina"). I glared at her too, waving off Emma's look.
"What? She started it." I mumbled.
"Regina Mills." Emma scolded. "How old are you?"
"A lot bloody older than she looks." Hook smirked.
"I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Killian." I said, smiling sarcastically at him. He just laughed, causing me to try and hold back a grin. I enjoyed my argumentative relationship with the pirate and I was not about to give that up. No matter how many reproachful looks I got from his blonde girlfriend.
"Anyway, you were giving me some...stuff with Selena?" I enquired, looking towards Emma and knowing she would pick up on my lack of the word "help" or "advice."
"Is it really so hard for you to admit that you need me?" Emma smirked.
"Of course I need you, you're my best friend." I sighed, while Henry faked wiping a tear, Killian gasped in horror and Mary Margaret pretended to faint. "Now, carry on...and shut up!" I added after the laughter began to die down and Emma had finished clutching at her heart. She grinned at me.
"Alright. So, Selena needs time to think about all this. About that feeling inside her that knows this is where she belongs. When I first got that feeling, I tried so hard to run away from it, but..." She paused, smiling at Henry. "I had a reason to stay. And so does she." She turned to look back at me, her green eyes boring into my own. "Regina, she's angry, hurt and upset but you're her mother and she's found you. She's not going to leave." She finished, giving me a reassuring smile as Mary Margaret smiled at her from the kitchen.
"So I don't go after her?" I asked again, hoping for a different answer.
"Let me go after her." Henry declared suddenly, interrupting Emma before she could reply.
"You?" I asked incredulously. "Why?"
"I have the book." He shrugged. "Maybe I can make her believe."
Selena POV
I sat alone on a log somewhere in the forest, my shoes scuffing at the grass and tears spilling down my cheeks. I was glad Regina hadn't come after me, I needed some alone time. I felt bad, of course I did, but I knew from the looks I got from the other town residents on my way here that they all knew. I mean the counsellor here actually asked me if I wanted a session to help me "deal with the unexpected". I growled in frustration. Why did I always have to be the last to know everything? Now I just felt stupid, like the last person to catch onto a joke. And then there was that part of me that wanted to stay, the part of me that told me I belonged here. It was a strange feeling, nothing I had ever experienced before. It felt like...like I was part of a bigger picture. Like I had something in common with everyone else in this town but I didn't know what. And they did. I closed my eyes, allowing the tears to fall freely down my cheeks. I had probably just blown my last chance with my mother. She wouldn't want me after that. None of the the other ones did. And her friends, they'd think I was just a short-tempered loony. I groaned.
"You've really messed up now." I mumbled to myself.
"Nah, not really." Came a voice from behind me. I snapped around, expecting to see Regina or maybe like a kidnapper of something, but instead I saw Henry walking towards me with a fairly large rectangular book clutched against his chest.
"How did you-" I began confused. I was sitting in an isolated part of the forest and yet he managed to find me. And pretty quickly too, it seemed.
"Find you?" He asked as he took a seat next to me. "Because this is where Regina always goes when she wants to be alone." He grinned. "Here or her vault." He added.
"Her what?!"
"Ah...I'll explain." He said sheepishly. "But first..." He placed the book on my lap and grinned at me. "You need to read this."
"Read a book of fairytales?" I asked, my eyebrows raised as I read the title of the book (Once Upon A Time).
"It's not just a book of fairytales." He sighed.
"Let me guess...everything that's in this book actually happened?"
"Exactly!" He beamed.
I stared at him. "I was joking..."
"Well, you joked right." He laughed. "Go on! Just read it!" He persisted.
"Alright." I chuckled.
"Really?" He asked bewildered.
"Really."
"You like fairytales?" He asked as he moved closer to me.
"Course I do!"
"Which one's your favourite then?" He chuckled.
"I don't know, but I've always liked the villains. Weird, I know, but my favourite's always been the Evil Queen. You know, from Snow White?" I laughed as I flicked through the book.
He stared at me.
"Yeah, you're definitely her daughter." He mumbled.
I was still sitting on the damp log two hours later, reading the old brown book Henry had begged me to read. It wasn't your usual fairytales, either. Snow White was a bandit, Prince Charming had a twin, Rumpelstiltskin was in love with Belle...
"Hey." A soft voice said gently behind me. I knew who it was.
"Hey, Regina." I answered. She came over and sat herself down next to me, creasing out the wrinkles in her skirt as she did so.
"So, Henry got you to read the book, huh?" She asked, glancing over at it.
"Yeah." I muttered. I didn't know what to say. There hadn't been such a lack of conversation between us in the whole time that I'd known her. Which wasn't very long.
"Do you like it?" She asked, still not meeting my eyes.
"It's good." I replied. "Very different to your average fairytales."
"Indeed." She laughed. "Do you have a favourite story?"
"Well, in this book they're all kind of...mushed together, you know?"
"Yeah, I know. Let me guess, you absolutely detest the Evil Queen?" She asked with a sort of sad smile.
"I don't actually. She's probably my favourite." I shrugged. She stared at me.
"But she - but she killed so many people and tried to destroy Snow's happiness every chance she got and she -and she used people for her own means without repaying them..." She spluttered, her voice taking on the tone of confession. I frowned. Why did she feel so passionately about this anyway?
"She's just misunderstood. She lost her first love and wants revenge. But I don't think she would even have gone so far with her revenge on Snow if it hadn't been for her mother. And I don't mean killing Daniel, I mean the influence her mum had on her. She just wanted to make her proud. Or maybe revenge on Snow was another way of getting revenge on her mother." I defended. "Well, that's my perception of it, anyway." I added with a smile.
"You're right." She whispered. She looked at me then, straight into my eyes.
"Selena, I'm sorry." She began. I tried to interrupt her, to tell her she didn't have anything to be sorry for, but the words caught in my throat and I couldn't force them out. So she continued.
"I'm not used to this. I've always had to fight over Henry. I never wanted him out of my sight and I certainly didn't want him with Emma. But then I lost him. He was taken by two imbeciles and I had to get him back. And it was then that Emma and I agreed that we would have to share him. And we did. And now I have my son but I want my daughter and I couldn't keep it a secret, I mean Emma was the one who helped me find you and she obviously told her - I mean Mary Margaret and David. I had to tell Henry, he had a right to know. And everyone else in this town hears things. They have no sense of privacy." She said, anger starting to creep into her voice.
"It's okay, Regina." I said hoarsely. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have shouted. I just...I just lost it."
"Selena, please. You don't need to apologise. I should have told you first, or I should have told you that everyone else knew." She frowned. "Not that I can help that bit."
I giggled. "It's not your fault. You are mayor. I guess everyone just knows what's going on in your life."
"You have no idea." She mumbled.
I laughed. "You're somewhat of a celebrity, huh?"
"I guess so." She chuckled.
"I think I'm gonna go for a hug now." She announced a minute later.
"And I don't think I'm gonna stop you." I laughed. She smiled at me then and pulled me into her chest, wrapping her arms me while I buried my head in her neck.
"I'm sorry." She whispered again.
"Don't be." I said as I pulled away, giving her a small smile which she returned with elation.
"So." She started, giving me a playful nudge. "How does finding out everything sound?"