Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews!
Chapter 28
The plan was set for the following Saturday. To ensure that Emma wouldn't find out about this, they'd arranged for Ruby to keep her occupied, saying something about needing a girl's night.
To no one's surprise, Henry had offered to help them with their plan. At first, the problem of getting Regina alone without raising suspicion was a problem, for if they asked to meet her somewhere it'd be too obvious. But Regina would never suspect anything if Henry was the one who'd ask to meet her. So they decided to have Henry invite Regina out for lunch at Granny's. Snow had explained their plan to Red and Granny, and they'd graciously offered to let them use their diner.
That Saturday, as planned, Ruby came over to pick up Emma. Luckily, she didn't suspect anything, waving cheerily goodbye to Henry as she slammed the door of her apartment. Earlier, James and Snow had left, using the excuse that they had plans. They'd figured that if they were all home on a Saturday morning it would look too weird. They were currently on their way to Granny's to meet Jefferson to set everything up. Graham had just left, saying that he needed to get stuff from the station when in fact he was headed to Granny's.
Meanwhile, Henry pulled out his cell phone and dialed his adoptive mother's number. Within seconds, she picked up.
"Henry?" From the hopeful tone of her voice, it was beyond obvious that she'd missed her son.
"Hi. Mom." Henry swallowed hard at the use of that word. Ever since Regina had tried to kill Emma, the word "mom" was reserved for Emma only.
"Is everything ok?"
"Yeah. I was just wondering if you wanted to meet me at Granny's for lunch."
"Sure." Even through the phone, you could tell that Regina was overjoyed. "See you there in twenty minutes.
As Henry hung up the phone, he smiled like the cat that swallowed the canary. As expected, Regina had fallen for their trap. Phase one was complete.
~The New Normal~
Regina hung up the phone, dread rising in her chest. Right as she saw Henry's name on the caller ID, shed known that this was a trap. Why else would Henry, who hadn't spoken to her since the curse was broken, suddenly call her and invite her out to lunch. It was a trap. It had to be. How stupid did they think she was, trying to use Henry as bait?
She'd known that Emma was alive. Her revenge plan wasn't the best plan ever, but given the limited amount of magic here, it was all she could work with. The ideal plan would be to take Emma's heart and crush it, of course, but that had been out of the question. That required an insane amount of magic, an amount that was clearly not available here. So she'd gone with the next best thing, which was to possess Graham and kill Emma that way. She figured it would also hurt Emma more, to have someone she loved turn psycho and try to kill her. Regina never expected that Emma would live through that, since as Graham she'd tried her hardest to kill the blonde. But clearly, she'd underestimated the power of true love's kiss. Again.
Of course, she had to show up at Granny's. If she didn't, they'd probably figure out that she was onto them and invade her house. And she could not let that happen. Regina reached behind her mirror in the hall, extracting a sharp blade. It had been her mother's. She fingered it, thinking about the other object of her mother's that would've come in useful. She was still bitter about how that magic book was in Rumple's possession, and of course there was no way he'd give it to her. Ugh.
The knife was the next best thing. It was the sharpest blade in all the realms, so sharp it could slice through bone with the mere flick of her wrist. Because she had so little magic left, it was the only way she had to defend herself. She cursed herself for not thinking to buy a gun.
As Regina drove to Granny's, she knew that she was walking into an ambush. She laughed to herself, almost feeling sorry for them. She may have little to no magic left, but it wasn't like they had any. There was no way they could take her down. Not when she was armed with this knife. As she checked her reflection in the mirror, she thought vaguely that after everyone was dead, she'd take Henry home. Of course he'd miss Emma, but after he realized how great Regina was, he'd forget all about his bitch crap of a birth mother.
~The New Normal~
Grabbing his bag, Henry slid the couch and headed out to Granny's. He had to get there before Regina in order for their plan to work, and Regina's office was much closer to Granny's than their apartment. He got there relatively quickly, despite the throngs of people congregated on the streets. As preplanned, Granny's had a huge CLOSED sign on the glass door.
"Hey." Henry said breathlessly as he quietly clicked the door shut behind him. All the chairs and tables had been cleared out into the back, leaving the floor empty, save for Jefferson's hat which sat in the very center of the floor.
"All right, so let's review." James said, emerging from the back where he was carrying out the last armful of chairs. "Henry will be waiting outside for Regina to meet her when she comes. Graham will keep watch outside to make sure no one goes in. Snow and I will be hiding in the bushes outside, and Jefferson will be in here with the hat. Once she gets here, Henry will fake a phone call, she'll open the door, and that's when Jefferson will open the portal. Snow and I will push Regina into the hat. After Regina goes through, Jefferson will close the portal, and then we'll take the hat to the beach to burn."
Everyone nodded grimly. It was a simple enough plan, yet there were so many places where things could go wrong. For all they knew, Regina could have her magic back, or one of them could get sucked in the hat. But there was no use dwelling on these "what ifs".
They all looked up as they heard Regina's car approach from the distance. "All right, places everybody." James commanded, sounding every bit like the prince he used to be. Everyone got into their assigned spots, hearts pounding with fear. This was it. The moment that would determine the rest of their lives.
"Henry." The evil queen slammed the door to her car and click clacked over towards her son with a smirk on her face. She wrapped her son in a tight hug, failing to notice the stiff way he held himself. "It's so nice to see you."
"Yep." Henry shrugged, trying to hide his quaking nerves. He still couldn't believe that the woman who stood so calmly in front of him had hatched such an evil plan to kill his mother.
As preplanned, Snow, who was watching from the bushes, dialed Henry's cell, which started ringing loudly.
"Oops, I have to take this." He said apologetically, turning away. "Can you go get seats and order me a hot chocolate?" He smiled sweetly, knowing full well that Regina always believed everything he said.
"Sure." The evil queen said, striding towards the door. She pushed it open, acting as if she owned the town. As the door slowly swung open, Henry, who was holding his phone to his ear, could see that Jefferson had successfully opened the portal.
"Now!" James shouted. As Regina gasped in surprise, he and Snow jumped out from their hiding places and shoved her towards the open portal, hard. For a second, everything seemed to be working out perfectly. Regina's face bore a mix of shock and fear, as they'd expected. She seemed to be too surprised to fight back.
But that was the moment everything went wrong. Instead of waiting outside like he was supposed to, Henry stepped inside, probably to catch a last glimpse of his adoptive mother. And Regina, spotting her son, somehow broke free from Snow and James and grabbed Henry.
"Nobody moves, or he goes in." A sardonic grin crept across her features as she watched everyone around her freeze in fear with the realization that she had the upper hand yet again.
Author's note: don't you just love cliffhangers?