Chapter 4 — Inoculation Day, Curse Breaking
With David and Mary Margaret still in the hospital, it was Emma's and Regina's job to find the storybook.
"Hey kid, you want to help us?" Emma shouted from inside the closet while Regina was looking at some boxes Emma brought out.
"Sure, what's the book like?"
"Hmm. It was big." Emma said plainly.
Upon hearing this, Regina rolled her eyes. "It is a leather bound book, with brown color, and gold lettering Henry. It is about this big," Regina used both her hands to approximate the scale of the storybook.
"Kay," Henry shrugged and started moving around in Mary Margaret's closet, pushing Emma who was already there a little deeper inside it.
"Careful kid. You could knock me dead with my mum's sweater or something," Emma muttered under her breath.
"Wait a minute—" Henry looked at Emma suspiciously. "Snow White is your mum?"
"Unfortunately so," Regina quipped while she was still ransacking the boxes.
"Hold on. I'm Snow White's grandson?" Henry asked in shock. "What the hell?"
"Henry, language," Regina scolded him.
"Sorry," he pouted. "But seriously, how crazy this situation is? My Mum is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and I'm my Mum's son. I have another Mum who splitted up with my Mum." Henry mumbled his explanation while his eyes were still searching for the book. "Wait, is that…?" His eyes were fixated on a leather bound book with gold lettering, just as Regina has described it to be. "Hey Mum," he pulled Emma's sleeve, "is that it?"
The book appeared under one of Mary Margaret's shoeboxes in one corner of the closet. Emma scrutinised the book for a minute before pulling it abruptly.
"Mum, watch it," Henry shouted when he saw a pair of boots flying right onto her mother's head because of the momentum.
Luckily, Emma reflexes caught up fast. She dodged the killer boots just in time and those pair dropped with a big thud to the carpet.
Regina, who heard the commotion tilted her head inside the closet. "What happened?"
"Nothing, just clumsy Mum, as always," Henry admonished. "She pulled the book way too hard and some shoes dropped off." He said as he walked out of the closet.
Regina and Henry walked out from Mary Margaret's room once they tidied the boxes back to their places, and waited for Emma to join them in the living room. Regina personally didn't want to spend another minute in Snow's bedroom if she could prevent it.
"So…" Emma said sheepishly as one of her hand held the storybook.
"So?" Henry eyed her suspiciously.
"Do you trust me?" Emma softly asked Henry. There are so many things that were jumbled inside her head. By opening the possibility of giving Henry back his memories, she would open a lot of pain, a lot of open wounds, a lot of goodbyes, a lot of sadness, of heartbreaks, tales of betrayal and forgiveness, and she would shattered a once again Henry's vision of the world. Hell, his mother is the Evil Queen, for goodness sake. So Emma Swan relies on what always saves her since the day she was aware that she was all she had. She relies on her instinct, for Henry to trust her. For Henry to believe in her.
"Yes, I do," although Henry's eyebrows furrowed by the question.
"Here, take the book," Emma smiled sadly.
Henry thought her Mum was being strange. It was too jittery even for Emma. But nevertheless, he trusts her with everything he has. So he did take the book.
The moment he touched the storybook, he blinked. A vast amount of memories rushed through his head, his ten-years-old self running to Boston to bring Emma to Storybrooke, eating the apple turnover which lead into breaking the curse by Emma kissing her, his Mum trying to be good only to be betrayed by Emma and to be played by Cora, being kidnapped, his Mums saving him from Neverland, his Dad teaching him to sword fight, his Mum letting him go at the town line. Mum. Mummy.
"Mum," he breathed out loud. He blinked the images away and turned his head to look at Regina who was anxiously waiting for his response. "Mum!" he lunged at her and hugged her with all his might. "I've missed you!"
"Henry," Regina breathed as she smiled brightly and caught Henry with her arms. "I'm sorry I have to let you go," she whispered gently to his ear. "I love you, Henry," Regina pulled away and kissed him gently on the forehead. Henry was smiling through the entire exchange.
By the time Regina kissed Henry, a wave of magic pushed through them at the centre and Emma was pushed aback by the power. The energy pulsated outward and they all blinked away the confusion.
Regina's eyes was cloudy at first, but suddenly it dawned on her that she got her memory back from the missing year. She looked at Henry and smiled brightly at her son. She even surprised herself by having such light magic that she didn't know she has. Then she smiled even brighter when she realised that Henry loves her too, unconditionally.
"You did it," Emma whispered in awe. "You broke the curse."
Henry just lunged again at his mum and he whispered shyly "I love you too," to Regina.
The sudden phone call that rang through the air surprised all of them. Emma smiled sheepishly before picking up her phone.
"Hey, yeah. You remember? Okay. I guess we'll go the hospital again. Yeah, no problem, really. Kay. See ya." She hung up.
"Guys it was David. He said their memories are back, and they know how to defeat Zelena. They want to discuss it with you," Emma looked at Regina.
"Whoa. So I broke two curse then?" Henry grinned madly.
"I guess you did, yeah," Emma smirked.
"That is so cool. Mum, is it true, that Zelena is actually your sister?" Henry asked Regina.
"Yes, dear. But Mother never told me about her," Regina smiled sadly. Her eyes went somewhere inside her memory, while Henry squeezed her hands tightly.
"It's okay Mum. I know you and Emma will defeat her, and everything will go back to normal. You have us now Mum." Henry said earnestly.
"Yeah. You have me, and Ma." He gestured to himself, and then to Emma, who raised her eyebrows in surprised. "Come on, Mums. I wanna see Grams and Gramps. It's so strange having all these memories jumbled into me while knowing that at some point I didn't even know you guys exist." Henry talkative mood brightened their mood.
"Yeah, you tell me." Emma mumbled. "Kay, I got the keys. Let's go to the hospital again." Emma shook her head and got out of the loft.
The journey back to the hospital was much more cheery with Henry talking nonstop about New York and filling in his missing year for Regina's benefit. He talked about random things. Pizza, movie, popcorn, people, pastry, apple tree, parks, anything he could think of. He talked about school, his friends, his homeworks, his projects, and how everything is so different from Storybrooke. He talked about how this one year he sensed something was missing, but didn't really know what it was until Regina spent the day with him.
"Mums I'm hungry," Henry stated while he pouted and gave them the puppy eyed look.
"I'll make dinner after we finished talking with the Uncharmings, okay sweetie?" Regina offered. They actually did forget to have lunch after all the commotion that had happened in a short period of time.
"Hey!" Emma exclaimed.
"Don't worry dear, you are part of their clan as well."
Emma snorted. Regina's tone was different, it was playful and it even sounded like an endearment of sort than anything else. So when she snorted, she looked through the mirror and saw Henry was grinning as well because he understood what her mother insinuated.
They all went back to the same room this afternoon and Henry ran to hug his grandparents. "Grams," Henry greeted Mary Margaret. "I'm going to have a baby uncle or aunt!" He exclaimed, now remembering that Mary Margaret is pregnant. "Wow!"
David chuckled as he moved towards Henry and put his arm on his shoulder. "Babysitting duty, Champs."
"No worries Gramps, right on it!" Henry laughed. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
Mary Margaret smiled playfully. "We don't know. We want it to be a surprise."
Emma and Regina stood there, observing the warmth radiating from the small family. It was all they wanted for Henry. For him to be happy, and surrounded by the people who would move heaven and earth for him.
After a while (because of her stomach rumbling inwardly from hunger), Emma interrupted.
"Hey guys, what about Zelena? You know how to defeat her?"
Suddenly silence filled the room. Emma could feel the tension radiating from Regina, Mary Margaret and David who look at each other interchangeably.
She furrowed her eyebrows, a confusion dawned on her face. "What?"
Mary Margaret looked at Regina for a while, then to David who nodded, and started talking. "The only thing that can defeat Zelena is light magic. That's why I casted the curse."
"Whoa wait. You casted the curse?" Emma's eyes widened at the new information.
"Yes." Mary Margaret smiled sadly.
"But if you did it, how in the hell… Whose heart did you use?" Emma trailed. She approached Henry and put her arm around his shoulder in a comforting motion, not only for Henry, but also for her as well.
Regina just narrowed her eyes, waiting for the two idiots to weave the tale. David smiled lovingly to his wife, although he had his hand on top of his heart, and the other hand is grasping on his wife's hand.
"We used my heart," David stated.
"What?!" Okay, I think I'm going to be sick. Emma thought. "One moment," she held up one finger to them and ran like hell to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.
Emma didn't have enough fluid in her stomach to be retched. She didn't digest any food at all since this morning. She dry-heaved for a while and nothing came. Eventually she tried to take deep breaths and calmed herself.
A soft knock was heard from the door and she could hear Regina's soft voice calling her. "Emma, may I come in?"
Emma took a deep breath before opening the door and letting Regina in. Then she closed the door again so she was in a small space with Regina fricking Mills. Right after she closed the door, she realised what a bad idea this all was. Shit, she's going to kill me.
"Emma." Regina started.
"No. No no no no no. I need time to freak out. I need time to remember why I'm doing this. I have a life, in New York, and I'm coming back here because a pirate told me that my family is in danger. Now you're telling me my mum casted the curse? With my dad's heart? And both are still alive? What the fricking hell? I should have not come back. I should have chosen not to. My parents once again decided my fate." Emma was sitting in the corner hugging both her knees and speaking to her hands.
"You don't mean that," Regina said, tried to be gentle even though Emma's rant sent a jolt of pain through her heart. Emma had to come back, if she didn't, she wouldn't have Henry. "You need to listen to the rest of the story Emma. We'll talk about anything you want later. But right now, you can at least try to hear their stories, of why they did what they did."
"No." I can't deal with this. All these pain are too much for me to handle.
"Emma!" Regina gasped.
Emma still sat crunching herself to be smaller and smaller in the corner, and she fell asleep, because suddenly there's this peace inside her. Suddenly Regina and her parents and Henry are far away, and the stillness made her sleepy. So she gave into it. And she fell asleep.