David woke the next morning and looked at the empty left side of the bed. He looked up at the ceiling and a tear slowly rolled out of the side of his eye. He sniffled before sitting up and putting his legs over the side of the bed. He thought to himself, 'Why did I have to fall in love with her again? The most complicated person I know.' He sighed and stood up.
He looked at the time and thought he'd go to Granny's to bring back breakfast for Henry. He put on his shoes and went into the nursery to smile at his sleeping baby in the crib. He didn't want to wake her, but he didn't want to leave her alone at the house when her brother was sleeping.
Gently picking her up, David gathered her diaper bag, her carseat, and Regina's old teddy bear before descending the stairs. He put the carseat in his truck and quietly buckled in Olivia, surprised that she barely blinked an eye.
When he arrived at Granny's, the baby woke as he came to a stop and he took her out of her carseat and walked inside, holding her tightly in his arms.
As he entered, his heart stopped when he saw that Regina was there. She sat in her regular booth at the counter and drank coffee. He had no idea what to do, so he decided he'd join her.
She never looked at him, which was why he was surprised when she said his name just before he sat down. He could tell by her tone of voice that she had put her guard up once again, trying not to show her weakness.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, still refusing to look at him.
"I came to get some breakfast for Henry."
Regina seemed unstable. She had actually believed he had come to look for her.
"Are we gonna talk about this?" David asked as he turned to face the front of the counter.
"We already have."
David rubbed Olivia's back as she began to fall back to sleep on his shoulder.
"I love you, David. I do. Very much, but I just need some time."
"I've waited ever since I was nineteen. I guess I can wait a little longer." He smiled and she finally looked at him, stunned. She smiled back and they leaned in for a soft kiss, which didn't last long when they heard the bell over the door chime as Aladdin walked in with a girl they'd never seen before.
Regina and David walked over to say hello and ask who the girl was.
"This is my girlfriend." He smiled. "Wendy."
Shocked that he had a new girlfriend, Regina just stared for a moment. "How did you two meet?" She finally asked.
"We met in Neverland. She just got here on the pirate ship a few weeks ago." Aladdin gave Wendy the same look he'd given Jasmine a few times and Regina couldn't help but smile at them.
"Jasmine was a very good friend of mine." Wendy said. "I'm very sorry." She said.
"Thank you." Regina said, unaware of how to reply. She held Aladdin's hand for a moment as they both weakly smiled at each other. Al and Wendy walked passed her and smiled at David as they took a seat at a booth and Regina began to feel dizzy. She turned around and David noticed something was wrong.
Before he knew it, she was falling and he tried his best to catch her, but with Olivia, he couldn't. And soon, she was on the floor, unconscious.
"Mama?...Mama!" A distorted voice came from a distance.
Regina felt someone gently tapping her face, urging her to wake up. She felt the soft grass beneath her and her eyes slowly opened, but everything was a blur.
"Mama!" She heard once more, this time the voice sounding closer.
"Jasmine?" She cried out in her dream. Or at least, she thought it was a dream.
Regina was finally able to see and she was taken aback by what she saw when her vision suddenly came into focus. Her daughter kneeled beside her and helped her sit up.
"What is this place?" Regina asked as she held Jasmine's hand tightly. Her other hand reached up and touched her head.
"It's a garden." Jasmine smiled.
"What am I doing here?"
"We need to talk." The girl helped her mother stand.
"Jasmine, how are you-Where are we?" Regina looked at her surroundings.
Jasmine didn't answer, although she knew exactly where they were.
"This isn't real. It's a dream, isn't it?" Her mother assumed, looking at the teen dressed in a long, white, flowing gown.
"It may be happening in a dream, but it is very real." The girl answered, taking her mother by the hand and leading her through the soft grass.
"I-I don't understand." Regina replied.
Jasmine smiled at the ground and they continued to walk as Regina couldn't help but stare at her. She admired the white flower that accessorized the girl's dark hair that was so long it fell passed her lower back. They just walked in silence until Jasmine stopped at a nearby stream and sat on a boulder beside it. She insisted that her mother sit as well and she did.
Regina looked at her reflection in the pure water as she sat on a different boulder across from Jasmine. She saw that she too was wearing all white and this was the first time she noticed that they both were barefoot. Their white gowns shown through the many greens and colors that surrounded them.
"This place is so beautiful." Regina thought out loud.
"It is." Jasmine agreed.
"But where-"
"It doesn't matter." The teen smiled. "All that matters is that you're here...finally."
"Finally?" She was confused. "Is this Heaven?" There was no answer, which caused her to ask the next question. "Am I dead?"
Jazzy chuckled. "Of course not."
"What do you mean I'm 'finally' here?"
"I've been waiting for you to come to me. This is a place where the dead can communicate with the living."
"That's not even-"
"Possible? Oh, but it is."
"How come you're coming to me NOW?" Regina asked as if she were impatient.
"We do not come to you. You come to us. And it's only when you're ready that you do."
"I've lost so many people before. Why are you the only one that I've been here for?"
"I may not be...See, in time, after you wake up, you forget about this place, or believe that it really was a dream. And it's only the people who can help you that you will see."
"How are you supposed to help me?" Regina seemed a little annoyed by this 'dream world.'
"I am to talk to you about my wish."
"Your wish?"
"Yes. The one that brought you back to Storybrooke."
"What about it?"
"I wished for all of you to have a happy ending."
"And?"
"And that can't happen if none of you take them."
"What does that mean? That we're not going to get our happy endings if we don't beat each other for them?" Regina said ridiculously.
"I'm not saying that everyone in the town must try to kill one another, I'm saying that you must take chances...and once you do...everything will fall into place."
Regina looked back at her reflection in the stream and Jasmine could tell that she was starting to ignore her.
"Take Victor for example."
Her mother snapped her head back to look up at her. "Victor?" Regina said appallingly, unaware of how an example of him would help her change her mind.
"Yes. He's about to take his happy ending. But if you call off the wedding, he won't...And it'll hurt many others in the process...Like a chain reaction."
"How does my wedding to David help Victor with his happy ending?"
"It'll help Snow's as well."
"What? How?"
"Think about it."
Regina looked away for a moment and when she realized, she looked back up to her daughter. "How would Charming's wedding to me HELP them?"
"They both can't get over the two of you. Once you get married, they'll see that you've both moved on and that they can too. If you call off the wedding, Victor will believe that you still love him and he still has a chance with you and Snow will believe that David will be so heartbroken that he'll want her back."
Tears began to build up in Regina's eyes and she let a few slow ones fall down her cheeks. "I'm dying." She shook her head.
"No, you're not." Jasmine said with a smile, moving to sit beside her mother on the same boulder. She held her and Regina cried a little more. "I know it may feel like it, but you don't need me. You've got Henry. You've got Olivia and you have David, who loves you so much."
"I can't live with myself."
"Why?" Jasmine asked ridiculously.
"Because. I let you down. I could've saved you."
"No."
"Yes." Regina argued. "I could have and I didn't. You died before you even got to live."
"Listen to yourself." Jasmine let go of her mother and looked at her. "What kind of Evil Queen is this?" She tried to joke.
Regina gave her an astounded look.
"Mama, I wasn't destined to live a long life...I was destined to save people...and I did." Jasmine tried to comfort her.
"Yes, but what about Aladdin?"
"What about him?" Jasmine's smile grew two times more.
"He was your first love. And you were his...now he's without you."
"We may have been each other's first loves, but that doesn't mean that we were each other's ONLY loves. Just like you and Daniel...or you and David...or David and Snow...I told Aladdin that when HE was here."
"What?" Regina wondered. "He was here?"
"Yes. He needed me as much as you...and now he's found another soul mate."
"Really?"
"Yes. You saw him with Wendy." Jasmine smiled. "And they're very happy together...but it took them awhile to get there because he wouldn't forgive himself for losing me. Just like you are now."
Regina looked straight ahead of her and into the trees.
"Marry David."
"Jas, I-" Regina looked down at the fiddling hands in her lap.
"Mama. You don't wanna let me down? Then marry your true love. This is your big chance. Take it. Once you do, everyone else's happy endings will-" She paused to think of a good way to say this. "-will seem like a piece of cake."
Regina quickly looked at her as if she was saying 'Don't make me laugh.' She thought for a moment as she listened to the flowing water in the stream by her feet. "Okay. I will."
"You'll what?"
"I'll marry David for you."
"No. You're gonna marry him for you."
She looked at her daughter and another tear escaped her eye before she smiled and nodded. "Will I remember this?"
"For awhile, yes. But soon, you'll forget and I will only be a memory." Her daughter's hopeful smile caused her to reach up and touch her own heart.
"Can I tell anyone?"
"You can." Jasmine held her mother's hand. "They may not believe you." She almost laughed.
"Aladdin will, won't he?"
"He might, unless he's forgotten already." She thought for a moment. "I know someone who will believe you. David. He'll always believe you." She smiled and Regina cried once more.
"I'm gonna miss you, Jazzy."
Jasmine hugged her mother again. It pained her to see Regina's sadness.
"I lo-"
"Sshhh..." Jasmine stopped her from saying the magic words. "I just need to hold you for a few seconds more."
They just sat, holding onto each other. Finally, it was time for her to go.
"I love you, Mama." A tear left Jasmine's eye and she ignored the fact that she shouldn't have been able to cry. "It's time for you to go now."
"I love you, Jasmine." Suddenly, Regina felt like she was drifting away and she began to hear David's voice trying to wake her up.
The teen closed her eyes tightly as she watched her leave and she knew that this was the last time they'd say those words to each other.
She opened her eyes and her mother was gone. She was relieved, knowing that she'd finally been able to save her. "And they lived happily ever after." Jasmine smiled and she drifted away from this garden as well and she returned to the place from whence she came.
A/N: Sorry if this chapter was too corny or something. Lol. But I hope you stick around for some more. Love you all. Mwah!
