Chapter 4

A couple of weeks had passed since Emma last saw Regina, in front of Henry's school. He was still staying at Regina's place and they had spoken only a few times over that period of time. She had this strong feeling that his mom was bluntly preventing him from contacting her. She was right when she felt that Henry would be stuck in between yet another fight.

It wasn't only Emma who had not seen the Mayor recently, but the whole town. This was raising suspicion among the residents, who were convinced some sort of new curse was about to fall right on their heads.

Emma was receiving, on a daily basis, many calls at the Sheriff's station from concerned people. They were all relying on her to find out what was going on and, most of all, to put a stop to it.

She was tired of being the Savior, though. The only thing Emma was craving for right now was to crawl into bed, put on some music loud enough to numb her thoughts, and cuddle her pillow.

Unfortunately for Emma, her parents would barely ever leave her alone, making sure she was at least trying to look like she was having the situation under control. Their background as Royals was coming back at full speed in this crisis time. Their expectations towards Emma were big, so she did everything she could to make them proud.

At least they were helping her as much as they could.

David was keeping a record of everything strange that was reported by, well, anyone. Most of the calls were anonymous, as if they were scared that the Mayor would personally target them when she would have decided to make a move. The fact was, and Emma was almost a hundred percent sure about it, that whatever Regina was planning, it would either be aimed at her and her family or at everybody like the Dark Curse. She at least believed that Regina wouldn't hurt an innocent person for her sole pleasure. Well, she hoped she wouldn't go that far.

Mary Margaret, on her side, was mainly taking care of baby Neal, which was taking most of her time. Although, she often went to Granny's to try and take the pulse of what people were talking about around town, but hadn't learned anything that David didn't already know from the calls.

The most reported thing was movement in the Mayor's house. Emma was seriously considering that the town was going completely crazy because, well, Regina and Henry were living in that house; therefore, lights that turned on or shadows behind curtains were totally normal. She was starting to fear for Henry's life and for Regina's at the same time, because of all the people stalking them. One of them could easily decide to attack the Mayor in order to prevent her to do anything, and hurting Henry in the aftermath.

Emma had started to pass in front of the 108 Mifflin Street more often than before while doing her rounds. It was partly because of her concerns and partly unintentional. Many times she surprised herself to be parked in front of the house, not really recalling driving there.

Emma hung up the phone with a heavy sigh.

″What is going on?″ David asked, hanging his own phone after speaking to Happy who once again called to report that some lights were turned on then off in the Mayor's house. His face was showing concern for his daughter and annoyance at the dwarf at the same time.

″He's not picking up. Henry,″ she added when David raised an eyebrow.

″Give him some time, he'll come around. You know how much he loves you, and he must feel like listening to Regina will give you the best chances for now.″

″He's too young to play the hero,″ she said quietly, lost in her thoughts.

It was tough enough like that, dealing with the heavy weight hanging over the town and trying her best to protect everyone, and not knowing what was going on with Henry was making it worst.

The desk phone rang and David answered.

″Sheriff's station. Oh, hi buddy. Yes, she's right there.″ He held the phone towards Emma.

She literally jumped to grab the phone. ″Henry?″

″Emma, I'm sorry I haven't called back sooner, but I didn't want mom to know I was talking to you. She is still mad and won't really talk to me either and she spends most of her days in her study or her room-″he said in a breath before being interrupted.

″Calm down, kid. Just tell me you are fine and that she feeds you and stuff.″

″She gives me money to buy food at Granny's after school. So I guess I'm OK, and stuff.″

Emma hated to involve him in anything but she didn't really have a choice by now.

″Do you know anything about what she's planning?″

″No. I saw Cora's book on her desk but other than that, I have no idea.″ He took a deep breath then continued. ″I'm scared. I don't want her to be hated again.″

Emma was speechless. Henry was probably scared of what his mom was planning or who she could hurt, but he was even more scared that the people would treat her like when they learned she was the Evil Queen. And it was a fear that Emma could relate to.

Regina had spent the first week after her stunt against Emma trying to find a spell or curse to ensure her revenge. Sure, she had found quite a few that would do the trick, but they all had the same consequence; hurting Henry and losing his trust. It had been so hard to gain it back since the Dark Curse broke, with all their ups and downs through whatever was happening in that town, that she wasn't willing to risk it again.

A sleeping curse on Emma would be too predictable and not really effective, since Henry could probably wake her up with a simple kiss on the cheek.

A curse bringing everyone from the Enchanted Forest back there would separate Emma from the ones she loved, but Henry would also be stuck here and she wasn't ready to be separated from him again.

Of course, she had already skipped the option of simply killing her, because no matter how subtly she could achieve it, people would still accuse her on the spot. Their beloved Sheriff, the Savior whose life was a literal prophecy, the woman who saved them more than once; everybody would jump in the action to avenge her death. Even the best of alibis wouldn't prevent Regina from being pointed as the guilty one.

No, Regina Mills had to be more original than that. They were all old tricks; outdated unimpressive and a waste of her energy.

The second week of her self-imposed isolation, Regina had become a total mess.

She started to spend most of her time in her bedroom, unable to get up in the morning. She was exhausted.

She should be taking advantage of having Henry all to herself, but even that thought was not strong enough to make her move. She was barely surviving. She was making food appear in her bedroom to eat a little bit, but was most of the time not finishing her dish.

She had plenty of time to think but nothing clear was coming out. Thoughts were fighting one another and were often contradicting. She wasn't able to put words on how she was feeling.

Anger? Pain? Betrayal? Jealousy? Sadness? All of the above.

She had let herself hope. That was the worst feeling. What she had with Robin was barely real. They maybe were meant for each other but in another life. As he had said to her before, timing was everything. But contrary to what he meant then, maybe their time was when she first saw him through the pub's door and only saw his lion tattoo. Then it expired. What they were feeling here was a mere shadow of what they were meant to really have, but they were craving for it to be real, making it too forced and fake.

Regina was still not over the fact that the Sheriff was the one responsible for it to end, but at least now she really knew that love wasn't for her. It never had been and never would be.

After hanging up with Henry, the office phone and both Emma's and David's cell phones rang. They looked at each other for a second before answering in unison.

″Rubes, calm down-″

″Leroy, hey, take your time-″

″The docks? OK we're coming.″

They hung up and both leaned back in their chair, completely taken aback. They didn't understand everything Ruby and Leroy said but mostly didn't understand why something like that would be happening.

Without a word, they jumped in the cruiser and drove as fast as they could to the docks. A growing crowd was already there. They got out of the car and broke through the panicked people. It didn't take long to grasp what had been reported to them.

People were whispering between them, but Emma, without hearing them, knew what they were saying. They were asking if it was Regina's creation and Emma herself thought about it.

What she was not able to understand, though, was the meaning of all this.

With hands on her hips, David by her sides, she took a good look at the view; docks, boats and buoys all stuck in thick ice. As far as they could see, there was no more water, only ice.