The ring tone of Regina's mobile startled them the next morning and both of them awoke in the same position that they'd fallen asleep in, albeit a little closer. They were almost nose-to-nose, sharing breath, still holding hands. Neither was quick to jump away from the other this time, however, and they both shared a small smile before Regina rolled over to reach for the phone on the bedside table.
"Yes?" She answered, voice laden with sleep. "Maleficent?" Her eyes widened and she sat straight up, pressing the loud speaker button.
"Your son gave me your number." Maleficent explained.
"Is he okay?" Emma asked.
"Ah, Saviour, hello. Yes, your son is fine, quite the young man."
Both Emma and Regina shared a small sigh of relief.
"Then what, may I ask, are you calling about?" Regina asked. "And what exactly is going on between you and Gold? Whose side are you on?"
"Certainly not his." Maleficent drawled. "If I could have stopped him from hurting you, Regina, I would have. You must know that. I wanted nothing more than to incinerate him on the spot."
"But you didn't." Regina said, a little bit of hurt in her voice.
"I wouldn't have stood a chance." Maleficent said, apologetically. "I was quite impressed when I heard what you did, Emma."
"I just did what I had to." Emma stated in a tight voice, still not entirely okay with Maleficent's part in what had happened to Regina. She hadn't really believed that she could take Gold down either, but she'd burst from the corner without a second thought after hearing Regina in pain, not even thinking about what her chances were.
"But you're okay, Regina? You had a chance to heal before you left?" Maleficent asked, concerned.
"I'm fine. He didn't get a chance to do any lasting damage."
They both heard Maleficent breathe out deeply with what must have been relief. Her worry for Regina evident.
"The moment I get a chance, he's going down." She seethed. "I want in on whatever plan the two of you have."
"We haven't got much of a-" Emma started.
Regina silenced her with a wave of her hand. "How do we know for sure that we can trust you? Gold might be standing next to you right now, listening to this entire conversation."
"You know that's not true." Maleficent said in a shaking voice, hurt at the insinuation. "I still care about you, Regina."
"You still care about me despite the fact that I locked you away for so many years? How can I believe that?"
"Like I told you before, what you did to me was child's play compared to the people who have hurt me most," she explained and Emma stiffened at the thought of her parent's dark sides, "and I know you, Regina. I know that you weren't yourself for a long time. All that you went through… It changed you, destroyed you. In your right mind you would never have harmed me."
Regina's eyes darkened at the mention of her past and Emma had to wonder about what exactly Regina's past included that wasn't mentioned in Henry's storybook. "So you're over it? Just like that?"
"I was over it years ago." Maleficent stated. "But I understand it might take you a while to trust me, so I won't push you for now. Just know that when the time comes, I'll be on your side and if you're going up against the Dark One, you can use all the help you can get."
"We'll see." Regina said, but her voice was soft, no longer weary of her old friend.
"There was something else I wanted to ask." Maleficent said. "Something I need to request of you both."
"What is it?"
"Emma, I believe you are now aware of what your parents took from me a number of years ago?"
Emma grit her teeth. She hadn't had much time to dwell on her parents lies since they'd left. There had been far more important matters at hand but the reminder still filled her with resentment. "Yes."
"Well, I heard that before you came to Storybrooke, you had a talent for finding people."
"Yeah." Emma confirmed, eyes wide as she realised where Maleficent was going with this.
"Before the two of you return, I was hoping you could take one last trip," Maleficent suggested, her tone filled with hope, "to find my daughter?"
Emma exchanged a set glance with Regina, both of them immediately in agreement that they should help. This was an opportunity for Emma to make amends for her parents mistake, to help someone who had suffered what was meant to have been Emma's cross to bear.
"If you can do that for me, I would owe you more than I could ever offer. You have my word. You can trust me."
"We can do that." Emma said and Maleficent let out what sounded like a small sob of relief. "Tell me what you know about her."
"Not much. Just that she was banished to this world thirty years ago and she was adopted by a couple in a place called Minnesota." She explained. "They named her Lilith."
Regina immediately noticed the change in Emma's eyes, her entire face had tensed and for a moment she was silent.
"Emma?" Regina probed. "Are you alright?"
"Lily."
"I said Lilith." Maleficent said, confused.
"No…" Emma mumbled, half to herself. "It couldn't be…"
"Emma, what is it?"
The blonde looked up at Regina, an incredulous look on her face, before she shook her head to clear whatever thoughts had plagued her and looked back to the phone. "We'll look for her."
Maleficent sighed in relief. "Please bring her back to me."
"We'll do our best." Regina said.
"Thank you. I have to go now, but I trust you'll call me if you find anything?"
"Of course."
A beep signalled the end of the conversation and Regina immediately looked to Emma.
"What's wrong?"
"Remember that girl I was telling you about, last night? Lily?"
Regina nodded.
"She was adopted in Minnesota thirty years ago."
Regina's eyes widened in surprise. "It might just be a coincidence?"
"I stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago."
"There's probably an abundance of Lily's who have been adopted in Minnesota, it's a big place." Emma just shot Regina an incredulous look and the brunette relented. "Fine, we both know that fate's a bitch."
Emma frowned. "The only friend I ever had wasn't even my friend by choice."
"I've been there too." Regina said with a sigh.
"You have?"
"You think it was a coincidence that I just so happened to adopt the Saviour's son?" Regina asked.
Emma smiled softly in understanding before climbing out of the bed. "Well, I better start looking. Come with me to the library?"
She needn't have asked. Regina certainly didn't want to spend another moment here with Robin, whether he was conscious or not. "Let's bring Roland with us. I don't want him waking up later to find Robin hungover."
"Good idea."
They left a note for Robin before leaving, explaining that Roland was with them, then woke the little boy up and got him dressed and ready. He was more than excited for a small trip with the two of them.
The library was only a few blocks away and as they walked, Emma took the time to call a few of her old contacts, giving them what little she knew as well as what she remembered to be her old friend's surname, Page. Regina carried Roland on her hip and he chatted to her the entire way there, talking of how he missed her and of all the things they'd do when they got back. It broke Regina's heart that seeing Roland more in the future had become less and less likely as their time at Robin's had gone on and it spurred her growing hatred for the man.
Emma knew that the research she had to do was going to take a while, so she suggested that Regina take Roland out for a while to pass the time. The brunette was happy to oblige and she decided to let the little boy show her around the city he'd been living in. He took her hand happily as he dragged her around the roads, pointing out his favourite places which, Regina wasn't surprised to hear, included his favourite ice cream parlour. It was waffles that they ended up eating, though, waffles smothered in chocolate sauce with vanilla ice cream on the side and Roland managed to make quite the mess of himself. Despite Regina's efforts to cover him with napkins, by the time they left the place, his top was splattered with chocolate and his fingers sticky. Not that Regina minded, so long as he was happy.
When they finally returned to the library, a number of hours later, Emma was sat in the same spot with the same frown on her face as she searched the internet, but her frown quickly disappeared when she turned to face the two of them and broke out in laughter.
"What?" Regina asked, eyebrows raised.
Roland started giggling, too, when he saw what Emma was looking at. "I didn't tell her because it was funny." He said, pointing to Regina's face.
"Would someone please explain?"
Emma took out her phone and opened her forward-facing camera, then thrust it at Regina who gasped when she caught sight of herself. Apparently, Roland hadn't been the only messy eater. Somehow she had managed to smear an obscene amount of chocolate all over her cheek. Not to mention, the marks around her mouth.
"Roland!" She gasped. "You let me walk around New York like this? Is this why that waiter laughed at me when I asked for the bill?"
Roland simply laughed even louder, holding his belly as he doubled over. Emma passed Regina a tissue to clean herself up and the brunette snatched it from her, she was smiling a little, however, not entirely annoyed.
"And you called me messy!" Roland exclaimed.
"Yes, I thought you were a queen and a bit more refined than this, Regina." Emma mocked, using her own old words against her.
Regina simply glared back, desperate to take the attention off herself. "Anyway," She said pointedly, "have you had any luck?"
Emma sighed. "Not really, other than pretty much confirming that she's the Lily we need, she wasn't just adopted in Minnesota, she was found abandoned, on her own like I was. She's definitely Maleficent's daughter." Emma said with a groan. "She's moved around a lot. I've found a load of previous addresses but all from years ago. The most recent is a place in Lowell, Massachusetts, five years ago."
"Is that far from here?"
"Not that far, about four hours drive. It's not far from where I was five years ago. Boston."
"How strange."
"Tell me about it." Emma rolled her eyes as she logged off the computer and stood up. "Ready for another road trip? Check out that last address?"
"Most definitely."
Robin was awake when they returned, he'd showered and now sat at the table with damp hair, at the end of a large glass of water, clearly attempting to sober up. He got to his feet the moment they came through the door and patted Roland on the head as the boy ran to him for a hug.
"We ate waffles!" He exclaimed, excitedly.
"Wow, that sounds delicious." Robin smiled and then said, "Why don't you go and play in your room for a bit, son? I need to speak to Regina and Emma for a little bit."
"Okay, papa." Roland said as he ran off.
"Regina, I'm so sorry." Robin started as he approached, reaching out with a hand.
Emma was quick to block his path, reaching back to put a hand on Regina's shoulder, protectively. "Don't bother." She said.
Robin nodded in surrender and took a step back, looking at Regina with wide, apologetic eyes.
"We need to borrow your car." Emma stated.
"May I ask what for?"
"Something we need to do to help someone from back home," Emma explained shortly, "before we go back."
"You're planning to return soon? We still haven't formulated a plan." Robin complained.
"Regina and I still haven't formulated a plan. You don't have anything to do with it anymore." Emma snapped, causing Robin to recoil a little. "We'll figure something out soon enough."
Robin didn't even attempt to argue, instead settling for a remorseful expression as he nodded, not that Emma cared about any remorse he might be feeling. "The keys are over there." He sighed, pointing to the kitchen counter. "There's some money hidden under the toaster too, take whatever you need."
Emma walked over to where he'd pointed but stopped short as she reached out for the keys.
"Emma? What is it?" Regina asked.
Emma was still for a moment, eyes focused on the piece of jewellery laying to the right of the car keys, mind working furiously. "I might have a plan."
Regina climbed into Robin's car impatiently, eyes on Emma. The blonde had refused to explain what she was thinking in front of the thief and Regina was itching to hear what she'd thought up. She closed the door with a slam and looked to Emma. "Well?"
Emma opened her fist to reveal a necklace. In particular, the necklace that Zelena had been wearing to disguise herself as Marian.
"We still have some magic." Regina murmured, gazing at the jewellery.
Emma smiled widely. "This is how we get close to Gold." At Regina's confused expression, she explained. "Maleficent. She goes out of sight for a while and I disguise myself as her. We get back into the loop of Gold's plan and we're one step ahead again."
Regina frowned. "If you think I'm letting you near that monster, you're crazy." She said. "And I don't see how this helps us in the long run."
"That's not all of it."
"Oh?"
"Since Maleficent mentioned her daughter, I've been thinking. We decided that Gold wants me to turn dark so he can take my blood, right? So he can use the blood of a dark saviour to power the ink?"
"Right…" Regina said, unsure of where the blonde was going with this.
"Some of my darkness was transferred into Lily."
Regina's eyes widened, the realisation hitting her. "We can use her blood."
"And then we have it all." Emma finished for her. "A way to get the author and a way to get the ink."
"We don't have a quill." Regina stated.
"No, but with this," Emma held up the necklace, "we have a way to steal it, assuming Gold has it."
Regina smiled. "Well, it appears we have our plan. Care to step on it, Miss Swan?"