Author's Notes: Written for the Swan Queen Big Bang. All the love in the world to the amazing people who participated in our inaugural event. You made it incredible!
Idea taken from a prompt by MiniRegal. I hope I did it at least a little bit of justice.
I'm playing with Oz canons here, taking some from Baum, some from Wicked, and melding them with my own spin. Hope it all makes sense. Also, we're going AU at the end of 'Going Home', if it isn't obvious. I own nothing, including the songs mentioned therein. This is just for entertainment, folks.
Many, many thanks to fictorium for the beta as well as generally all of the things. And all the love to napfreak for the GORGEOUS art she made me. I'm beyond honored to have something so beautiful created because of my words. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I hope you all enjoy!
Nothing's lost forever. In this world, there's a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead. At least I think that's so.
- Harper Pitt, Angels In America (written by Tony Kushner)
"Someone coming over?" Henry looks up from the breakfast table at the sound of knocking. It's awfully early for anyone to be knocking on their door.
"No." The knocking gets louder. Emma frowns. "Henry, wait here."
She gets up from the table and goes to the door, opening it with caution.
"Swan."
The use of her last name throws her for a bit of a loop, as does the way the man is dressed. And god, is that a hook where his hand is supposed to be? What the hell kind of weirdo is this and how does he know her name? "Do I know you?"
"I need your help. Something's happened. Something terrible. Your family is in trouble."
Emma shakes her head. "My family's right here."
The man opens his mouth to say something, but before he can, a cry sounds from inside the apartment. Emma instantly turns at it, only to see Henry already getting up.
"I'll get her." He calls, heading down the hall.
"Look, I don't know who you are or what you want, but you need to leave. Now."
"No, Swan, listen. I know you don't remember but I can make you." The man reaches forward and pulls her into a kiss.
She reacts instantly, her knee jerking up to hit him hard where it hurts. He falls back against the wall of the hallway.
"What the hell are you doing?" She gasps, already shaking from adrenalin and the littlest bit of fear.
"A long shot. I had to try. I was hoping you felt as I did."
"All that I feel is disgust!" She spits.
"Mom?" Henry asks, as he comes back into the room, a baby in his arms.
The man's eyes take in the sight and go wide. "Wh – what –"
"Henry," Emma moves to block the view of her children, "take Harper back to her room and stay there until I come to get you."
"Are you okay?" He asks, even as he shifts the baby to hold her more securely, blocking her from view with his own body.
"I'm fine. Just take your sister and go, please."
"Sister?" The man gasps. "She's – you – you're –"
Emma leans out into the hallway, her eyes narrowed. "I already told you, my family is right here. And I will do whatever it takes to protect them. So I suggest you get the hell out of here."
"Swan!" He calls, but Emma just slams the door in his face, flipping the deadbolt for good measure.
She leans against the door for a minute, taking in deep breaths to calm down before she heads for the nursery.
She finds Henry settled in the rocking chair, gently rocking the baby as he hums softly to her. The sight brings a smile to her face.
"Mom." He says softly, trying not to startle the baby. "Are you okay? Who was that guy?"
"I'm fine." She assures, reaching down to take the baby from Henry's arms. She kisses her daughter's head as she holds her close. "We're fine. I don't know who he was, but he's gone now. We're all safe. Aren't we, munchkin?" She whispers into downy hair. "Now come on, let's go eat our breakfast before it gets cold."
"Did you find her?"
"Does she remember?"
"Is Henry alright?"
The questions come all at once, as soon as Hook opens the small compact that Regina had enchanted before he left on his journey. In the circle, he can see Snow, David, and Regina, all leaning close, vying for a spot. Regina is at the center, something that doesn't surprise him in the least.
"I've found her and the boy, but neither of them remembers. I tried kissing her to make her remember but –"
"What?" The tone is chilling and Hook drops the compact as he sees a fireball heading straight for him. Luckily, the magic cannot travel through the mirror in this world without magic and he remains unharmed.
"You imbecile." Regina snarls and Hook cautiously picks the compact back up.
"I had to try." He tries to explain, but Regina's expression reveals that she doesn't give a damn what he thought he needed to do.
"You had one job. One! And have you done it, pirate?"
He blinks then, looking almost sheepish as he realizes that he hadn't done what they'd asked of him yet. He'd been so sure that the kiss would work.
"I cannot believe you! I cannot believe that I ever trusted you to go and bring my son and –"
"Regina." Snow places a hand on Regina's arm which she quickly shrugs off, but she does seem to calm just the slightest bit.
"You will stick to the plan. You will do as asked, or the next fireball will come through, I swear to you." Regina hisses.
"How were they?" Snow asks then, when the silence has started to stretch in the face of Regina's threat. "Did they look well? Happy?"
"They…" he trails off, remembering the baby in Henry's arms and Emma's words. "They looked happy. But –"
"But?" Regina jumps on the word. "But what, Hook?"
"It wasn't just the two of them."
"Emma's found someone?" Snow gasps, although there's definitely a pleased undertone to the words.
"How did he seem?" David asks, instantly in father mode.
Regina says nothing, just stares blankly ahead, but he can tell that she's rattled by the news. Just wait until he tells them the rest.
"She seemed rather needy. As all babies are, I'd imagine."
"B-baby?" Regina nearly chokes the word. "No. You cannot be serious. You must be mistaken. She cannot have –"
"Ah, but she does. Confirmed it herself when she went into angry mama bear mode on me. And your son is quite the protective big brother, Regina."
There's another fireball in Regina's hand then, but he's fairly certain that she doesn't even know that she's conjured it, so he keeps hold of the compass.
"But how –"
"Well, love, I'd think you'd know that, seeing as how you and your prince are expecting yourselves." Hook replies to Snow's confused question.
"Hook, enough." David chastises, as Snow's hand goes to her stomach, resting protectively against her protruding stomach. Then, he seems to think of something and his eyes narrow.
"Hook, the baby – it's not – you didn't –"
The flame in Regina's hand flares angrily.
"Not me, mate. Much as I'd like to have gotten acquainted in the necessary way, I can assure you that I did not sire Swan's child."
"Oh god." Snow breathes then. "Neal. How will we tell her?"
"The same way you told my mother my secrets," Regina snaps. "You'll just open your mouth and the words will fly out."
"Regina!"
"Do your job, pirate." She commands before she waves her hand and Hook is left staring at his own reflection.
"That went about as well as expected." He mutters to himself as he moves below deck to gather what he needs.
Emma's in Central Park when she sees him again.
She's halfway into her second loop around the reservoir, with Harper conked out in her running stroller, when she spots him, standing just beyond the path, watching her.
Her stomach flips at the sight of him and she thinks about just running on past and heading for home – she's fairly certain she can out run him – but she just can't bring herself to do that.
Instead, she slows down her pace and moves over to where he's standing, being careful to keep herself between him and Harper, even though it's tricky.
"Emma." He says this time, his eyes searching her face for something. She flinches at the use of her first name.
"Look, buddy, I don't know what your deal is, but I'm telling you right now that if I ever, ever see you anywhere near me or my kids again, you won't live to tell about it. You got me? So I suggest you keep on walking and get the hell away from me, because otherwise, I'm going to start screaming and I'll have the cops over here so fast, it'll make your head spin."
He frowns at the fact that she doesn't remember yet, although he also recognizes the possibility that she may not have even been back to her apartment yet. So he just offers her a small nod of agreement.
"I'll be at the harbor when – if you need me, Swan."
"I'll never need you." She replies, maneuvering the stroller back onto the path and taking off running again, not even bothering to look back.
"Ooh, what's that?" Henry runs for the door where a large box is propped.
"I don't know." Emma looks at it in surprise, trying to think if she had ordered anything recently, but nothing comes to mind.
"There's no return address." Henry reports as he looks over the box, "But it's addressed to you."
"Huh." Emma shrugs, opening the door and pushing the stroller inside.
"I'll open it!" He offers as soon as she bends over to get Harper out of the stroller and he rushes for the kitchen and the knives.
"Be careful. Don't cut yourself. Those knives are sharp!" She scolds.
"Whoa. Cool." Henry exclaims a few minutes later and Emma moves into the kitchen to see what he's so excited about.
"Check it out, Ma." He holds up a mirror for her to see.
"Wow. That's gorgeous." She says as she takes in the sunburst design of the mirror. There's something about it that tugs at the back of her mind, like she's seen it before somewhere, but she can't quite remember.
"It'll go great in Harper's room!" Henry grins. "I'll hang it up!"
"Henry, we don't even know if this mirror was supposed to come to us. I didn't order it. It might be a mistake." She starts to protest, but he's already pulling out tools from the bottom drawer.
"It was addressed to us." Henry shrugs as he holds up a hammer. "Maybe someone sent it as a baby gift for Harper."
Emma knows that there's no one that would have sent them this as a baby gift, but she doesn't say so. Instead she just watches as Henry gathers up all his supplies and begins hefting them, along with the mirror, to Harper's room.
"Do you want any help there, handyman?" She asks as she watches him go.
"Nope." Henry shakes his head, grinning. "I can do it."
Emma lets him go, only flinching when she hears Henry pounding away at the wall. Harper, surprisingly, doesn't flinch or cry at all. Instead, she seems rather interested by the noise, so Emma lifts her up and carries her into the nursery to show her what Henry is up to.
"Look what your big brother did, Harper." She coos as they come into the room and take in the sight of the mirror now hanging on the wall just above her changing table. Emma has to admit that Henry was right – it does go beautifully with the forest wallpaper she'd picked out for Harper's room.
Harper coos and reaches her hands out for Henry. He grins as he takes her from Emma, being careful to cradle her head securely.
"What do you think, Harp? Do you like it?"
"Henry." Emma scolds him for the nickname, but he just grins as he rocks the baby who is completely entranced by him.
"What?" He looks up innocently. "She likes it."
Emma just laughs and shakes her head, her eyes going back to the mirror. Her reflection shows back but for just a moment, she swears that she sees herself in a brown jacket with her hair down and curled instead of tied back like she has it now. She shakes her head and the image is gone.
Regina stands in her chambers, staring at her mirror. She hasn't been able to bring herself to call on Sidney, even though she's aching to. She just isn't sure that she's ready.
As though reading her thoughts, Sidney's face appears in her mirror, startling her. "Sidney!"
"Apologies, your majesty," the genie replies, although she can tell that he's not sorry at all. She can't blame him. He is trapped in the mirror again, after all. "But I couldn't stand your staring any longer. Is there something I can do for you?"
He knows what she wants, but he'll make her say it. She thinks, for just a moment, about smashing the mirror into thousands of pieces, but she knows it would do no good. Sidney would just move on to another mirror.
She clears her throat and straightens up, holding herself in her rigid, royal posture. "Show them to me." She says with more confidence than she actually has.
Sidney grins for a moment and then disappears from the mirror. In his place, for the first time in a year, she catches sight of Emma Swan. At first, all she sees is blonde curls because Emma is facing away from the mirror, but her breath still catches in her throat and she finds that she can't even blink, too afraid that the picture will disappear.
"I think it's time for someone to go to sleep. Yes, I do." Emma's voice reaches her ears and she can't stop herself from gasping at the sound of it. She moves closer to the mirror as Emma turns, revealing that Hook hadn't been lying – there's a baby in her arms and Regina feels her heart shatter for reasons she doesn't even want to think about.
"What do you think, Munchkin?" Emma continues to talk to the little girl. "Is it time to go to sleep? I think it's time. In fact… It's nine o'clock on a Saturday," she beings to sing, "The regular crowd shuffles in. There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to his tonic and gin."
"Great lullaby you're singing there, Ma."
Regina gasps again as Henry moves into the picture and tears begin sliding down her cheeks of their own accord. Her little prince is all grown up and she feels like her heart is being crushed in her chest because he's so close and yet so very, very far away.
"Hey, Piano Man is a classic. And Harper likes it, don't you, Harper?"
Harper. Regina feels a tug in her heart at the name.
The baby coos and Emma smiles victoriously. Henry laughs and they look so happy together, the three of them, that Regina can't stand it. She waves her hand and turns away from the mirror, ignoring Sidney as he calls after her.
It takes her until the next evening to work up the nerve to ask to see them again. She doesn't tell Snow or David that she's seen them. She isn't willing to share them yet. Some things never change.
The room is empty when it comes into focus, but she can hear the sounds of the little family coming in from elsewhere in the apartment.
Music is playing and Henry and Emma are laughing.
She leaves the connection open and falls asleep to the sounds, pretending that she's in the apartment with them.
The baby is the only one in the room the next time she opens the connection.
She can hear the sounds of Emma and Henry moving around the apartment, probably getting ready for the day, but Harper is still laying in her crib, awake but not fussing, instead taking in the room around her.
Almost as soon as Regina opens the connection, though, her wide hazel eyes – so like Emma's already and had they been like that since she was born? – shift to the mirror as though she knows Regina is there.
It isn't possible, Regina knows, but when a tiny hand reaches up and a little coo escapes those little lips, Regina feels a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes.
She waves her hand and the connection closes, although the image stays in her mind.
Regina has always been a light sleeper, so she wakes almost as soon as Harper lets out her first whimper.
She makes it to the mirror – which she's taken to leaving 'on' all night now, her own version of a baby monitor connecting her to all three of them – just a few moments before Emma stumbles into the room. She's bleary eyed, her hair mussed from sleep, but there's a calmness about her that Regina envies. When Henry would wake up and cry during the night, Regina always felt that trickle of panic, that worry that there was something seriously wrong besides a wet diaper or an empty stomach.
But Emma is assured as she lifts the baby out of the crib, carrying her over towards the changing table. Because of the position of the table, Regina cannot see Harper, but Emma comes into sharp relief due to her proximity to the mirror. She's got a look of concentration on her face as she changes the diaper that stirs Regina's emotions.
Regina wonders if Emma would've been this way with Henry if she'd kept him, or if she would have been more like Regina. They say that the second child is easier and she wonders if the experience – the memories, anyway – of having gone through all of this with Henry has made it easier or if Emma really is just naturally good at being a mother. She'd never thought about the fact that Emma might be a good mother before. She'd been too busy worrying that Emma would take Henry away.
Harper lets out a soft cry, which pulls Regina from her thoughts. She sees that Emma has relocated to the rocking chair and is opening her robe. "Hungry, huh, Munchkin?" Emma asks as she reveals her breast and the baby latches on.
The first time she had seen Emma open her robe to breastfeed Harper, Regina had quickly closed the connection on the mirror, unable to watch such a private moment. Since then, though, she has found herself unable to sever the connection. She knows it's an invasion of privacy and can only imagine the things Emma would say if she knew, but there's something so intimate and beautiful about the sight that Regina finds herself mesmerized.
Besides, she justifies to herself, Emma leaves the room darkened when she comes in to check on Harper at night, so between the darkness and the position of the baby, Regina can't really see anything but their shadowed profiles.
Emma begins to hum softly as she gently moves the rocker back and forth. It's become almost a game of Regina's, to try and determine what completely ridiculous song Emma is going to use as a lullaby each night before she begins to sing it. It seems Emma has an eclectic taste in music, if her song selections are anything to go by. Billy Joel has made a few appearances in the week she's been watching, as has The Boss – and that had caused a tightening in her chest when she heard Emma begin to sing a quiet version of Dancing In The Dark as she swayed Harper around the room – along with Patsy Cline (Walking After Midnight), The Beatles (Let It Be), and some others that she hadn't been able to place.
Tonight though, Regina is surprised when Emma begins to sing. "One, singular sensation, every little step she takes. One, thrilling combination, every move that she makes. One smile and suddenly nobody else will do. You know you'll never be lonely with you know who."
Emma stands from the rocker after carefully pulling her robe closed, dancing her way gently across the room as she continues to sing. "One, moment in her presence and you can forget the rest, for the girl is second best to none, son. Ooh! Sigh! Give her your attention. Do I really have to mention? She's the one."
Emma keeps humming softly for a bit as she sways them around, before she carefully places Harper back in the crib, the baby sleeping soundly once again. She leans over the baby and Regina can't see what she's doing, but she'd guess that she's tracing over the baby's cheek with her fingers, running her hands over soft hair, all the things she used to do with Henry when he was sleeping. Then, words come across the darkened room in a whisper, so softly, she has to strain to hear them.
"You're the one, Harper. You and Henry. You're it for me. And I know your daddy would say the same thing if he were here."
Emma's voice is choked, like she's trying not to cry, and the mention of the word 'daddy' makes Regina's blood boil and run cold at the same time.
She waves her head and quickly severs the connection, unwilling to hear any more.
Regina makes a show of contacting Hook through the mirror in front of Snow and Charming, demanding to know if he'd done as she asked, asking if Emma and Henry's memories have returned yet, and never mentioning the fact that she can now see the family through the mirror.
Hook never questions her about it, although he looks like he wants to at one point, instead just saying that he'd tried contacting Emma one more time and it hadn't gone well either.
After that, she retreats to her chambers, saying she needs to continue preparing things for both the return of Henry and Emma and also for the next attack that may be coming.
But she doesn't do anything to prepare. Instead, she opens the connection to Emma's apartment.
It's Henry's face that fills the mirror this time and she gasps and finds herself reaching out for him, her fingers pressing against the glass. "Henry."
It's the closest he's come to the mirror since she's started watching them and she drinks in every detail she can see, counting tiny scars and acne bumps, cataloging what she already knew about and what has changed in the year she's been without him.
"There we go, Harp. All fresh and clean." He grins as he lifts the baby up from the changing table, making faces at her as he does.
She reaches out and hits her hand against his face, clearly pleased by his silliness and showing her enjoyment the only way she knows how. Henry laughs and Regina can't help the tiny sob that escapes her throat.
Hazel eyes shift to the mirror, staring at it in fascination.
"What do you see, huh?" Henry asks when he notices where Harper's attention has gone. "Do you see a pretty girl in the mirror? Do you see that pretty girl?"
He moves her closer to the mirror so she can get a good look at her reflection. She coos and one hand reaches out, trying to touch the surface of the mirror. He shifts so that she's even closer and her hand finally touches the glass.
It falls right over the spot where Regina's own hand is still pressed against the glass on her side.
Henry tells Emma of Harper's fascination with her reflection, which makes her laugh. She remembers Henry being the same way as a child, so amazed by the people in the mirror.
So when she takes Harper into the room for her afternoon nap, she stops in front of the mirror and tries to get Harper to look at her reflection. The baby seems uninterested though, instead nuzzling her head into Emma's neck.
"Look, Harper. Look at the pretty baby." Emma moves closer, reaching out with her free hand to point to the mirror. Harper follows her finger, but shows no signs of the earlier excitement Henry had described.
"Are you too sleepy to look at that pretty girl?" Emma asks her in a soft voice before turning away and heading for the crib. "Maybe after your nap, huh?"
Just as she goes to put her down though, Harper catches sight of the mirror and coos. Emma straightens up and turns back around, glancing back at the mirror. "Ah, now you're interested, huh?"
She moves over and watches with amusement as Harper coos again and reaches her hand out towards the mirror.
"Now you want to touch her, huh? Go ahead. Touch her." She leans closer and Harper's hand again falls against the glass.
"She's so pretty isn't she? Momma's gonna touch that pretty girl, too." Emma says as she reaches her own hand out and settles it just above Harper's on the glass.
It's then, when her hand touches the mirror for the first time, that the flash of light spreads out from it in a wave, hitting Emma and Harper before dispersing out into the apartment.
Memories come rushing back as Emma sways on her feet, clutching Harper tightly as she sinks to the ground.
"Ma!" Comes Henry's shout as he races into the room, skidding to a stop in front of her. "I remember!"