Chapter nine

Regina opened her eyes with a ragged sigh.

For a moment she looked around her surroundings, and then blinked a few times as nothing but oblivion surrounded her.

The events of the past year suddenly came back to her, and she fell back against an invisible wall with a sigh.

"Am I dead?" she said to herself.

"Technically?" came a reply.

Regina's head snapped to her right side, and she just stared at the man for a moment, before launching forward and hugging him.

"Daddy," she said happily as the hug was instantly returned.

After a minute of allowing herself to be happy, she pulled back and asked, "technically?"

Henry Sr. smiled sadly and allowed his arms to fall to his side, "your body is being preserved by Rumpelstiltskin, but your soul has left it."

Tamsin and Henry instantly came to Regina's mind. Of course, Henry would probably never even find out that he lost his mother, but Tamsin would have to be raised by the grandparents, never knowing either of her mothers unless the two idiots succeeded in their plans to re-enact the curse.

"So I am dead," she sighed resignedly.

Henry smiled and shook his head, "I believe that the saviour and her family often defy impossibilities."

Regina rolled her eyes, which caused her father to laugh.

The former queen stood in silence for a moment, if the curse was to be restored, she had no doubt that Emma would try and find a way to bring her back, but she also knew first hand that this would not be possible and would only lead the saviour on a downward spiral.

Regina felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she finally asked the question that had been weighing on her mind for a while, "did you know?"

Henry squeezed her shoulder, and pulled into a one armed hug, "no I didn't know that I wasn't your father, but I am so happy that I didn't."

Regina furrowed her brow, and asked, "why?"

"Because if there was any doubt of paternity, my father would not have allowed me to stay with your mother, and I would have missed the chance to be your father. No matter what runs in your veins, I will always see you as my daughter, and I couldn't be happier that you now have two loving parents, even if one of them couldn't be me."

Guilt passed over Regina's face. Since the dark curse had been cast, she had often thought about the moment that she had taken her father's heart, and just as often she had wondered whether it had been worth the sacrifice. Especially when her father's namesake had begun to pull away from her, she couldn't help but think that she had taken her father's life for nothing.

However, when she did get her happiness with the saviour, the guilt intensified. With every perfect moment she spent with her girlfriend and their son, how she came to be there weighed heavily upon her, and she felt even guiltier when she tried to push it aside.

"Does it not feel at all pointless?" she asked after a stretch of silence, "my happiness never lasts, so your sacrifice was for nothing."

Henry shook his head, and replied, "I have watched you for the past three decades, and as much as the misery was difficult to watch, every time you so much as half smiled it felt worth it. No matter what it took to get there, you cannot deny that Storybrooke is your happy ending, and it's where you and Tamsin belong. So no, it doesn't feel pointless; I would do it a thousand more times if I knew that it would give you even the slightest hope of being happy."

Regina looked down at the dark floor as she thought his words through, and instantly turned around to fully hug him, "thank you for everything, daddy," she whispered with tears threatening to fall.

"Anytime, my little princess," he whispered in return.

Regina smiled sadly at his words, and couldn't help but think about her 'little prince', "what am I supposed to do now?"

"As hard as it may be, you watch and wait."

-Two weeks later-

"Prove to me that your magic is unhelpful," Cora called across the clearing.

Invisible to the other two, Regina tried not to laugh at the saviour's expression caught between fear and confusion.

Since everyone had been brought to Storybrooke, she had been allowed to see anything she wanted, and she decided that seeing her mother give her girlfriend a magic lesson would be a welcome break from all of the longing she felt every other time of the day. Since she had entered this purgatory like state, she had either chose to watch Emma, Henry or Tamsin, and so far not being able to comfort them had been agonising. Even with Henry's memory loss, he seemed to be drawn to her, and she wished that her ghostly form had some substance so that she could at least talk to him.

The three headed beast appeared and began snapping at the saviour, and Regina had to try and not roll her eyes, because of course her mother was already aware of Greek mythology without spending much time in this world.

"All you need is a sword, remember?" Cora called, and the saviour took the bait, dodging to one side and slicing of the hydra's three heads.

"Idiot," Regina whispered fondly, as the foolish triumphant look overtook her girlfriend's face.

"Told you," she called.

As Regina knew would happen, the beast's body began to writhe as it began to double its number of deadly heads, and just as each stump became two heads, the sword disappeared from the blonde's hand.

"A hydra, are you kidding me?" Emma called.

"Who doesn't love classicalism?" Cora retorted.

"People who have their swords stolen."

"Bring it back then, just clear your mind and command the object back into your hand."

The blonde jumped away from the six snapping jaws and began to back away from it, "you expect me to clear my mind?"

"I expect you to be able to use your magic in any situation; you have no idea what you could face."

Emma's back hit a tree and she let out breath of shock.

Regina felt slight panic, she couldn't help but wonder just how far her mother would take this. Though she would hope that the woman knew she would never be able to come back from killing her daughter's true love.

"Cora, I can't do this, just get rid of it," she called desperately.

"Use your magic or die," the older woman replied firmly.

The hydra raised its clawed hand, trapping the saviour against the tree, and all six of its heads roared, savouring in taunting their prey.

Regina watched as Emma desperately tried to bring her magic forward, completely ignoring everything that she had ever been taught in her other lessons.

The mayor rolled her eyes again, and focused on what she wanted her girlfriend to think about. Though she had never put much faith in the accounts of the supernatural, she could no longer deny the existence of such things, and so she thought she might as well try the projection method she had once read about in a necromancer's magical tome she had read out of boredom.

"You have to allow the magic to flow through your body, allow it to become just another part of you and then you should naturally be able to bring it forth to cast a spell."

Now that the blonde finally listened to the lesson that her girlfriend had so desperately tried to teach all that time ago, it didn't take long for the hydra to lay dead on the ground with the smell of burning hydra flesh filling the clearing.

-The next day-

Regina's ghostly form stood behind the blonde who held their daughter closely to her chest. The brunette couldn't help but want to take a picture of the image that she had often imagined in the Enchanted Forest.

With her daughter's other mother now in front of her, the resemblance between the two blonde's was undeniable, and it only made Regina long even more to actually be with them, rather than watching as her girlfriend visited her comatose body every day.

Tamsin's familiar burp made Regina's smile widen, she couldn't believe just how easily Emma had been able to take care of their baby, but then she knew that she had gotten all of the information from her fake memories of taking care of Henry, so it did make the moment somewhat bitter sweet.

"You're missing this, Regina," the blonde said sadly as her eyes roamed over the sleeping woman before her, who she longed for to awake any moment.

Regina sighed at the words, and though she knew that the blonde couldn't hear her, she placed her ghostly hand on the taller woman's shoulder, and replied, "I haven't missed a moment."

A/N I hope you guys enjoyed XD

Reviews will be much appreciated