Chapter eleven

"Cora calm down," Emma laughed through the phone, "what are you talking about?"

Cora took a deep breath and repeated what she had basically said in one word a moment before, "your mother has hired…the Wicked Witch as her midwife."

Though she couldn't see the blonde, she could almost tell that the woman was pinching the bridge of her nose in much the same way as she was sure her daughter would have after learning of Snow White's idiocy.

"And you know this how?" Emma replied after a moment of silence.

"She has a birth mark," she said simply, allowing the implications to hang in the air.

"And what does she want?"

"I don't know," Cora sighed, "she's just down the stairs talking about pregnancy."

"So what do you want me to do?"

Cora sighed deeply and realised that she had made this phone call in haste, "nothing, I will stay with Tamsin and protect your mother."

"Thank you," Emma replied, though she clearly seemed to be thinking everything through, finally adding, "how are we supposed to figure this out?"

"Is that not your family's speciality?"

"Fine, just let me know if you need back up, I can literally be there in a second."

Cora agreed and hung up the phone, turning to the crib where Tamsin was sleeping peacefully, she began to formulate a plan to protect her.

"Robin of Locksley at your service," the blonde man bowed.

Regina took a deep breath and looked down at his outstretched hand, and then moving her eyes up, she fixated on the lion tattoo.

"A thief?" she finally asked.

"I suppose a queen would see me that way," he laughed, "but perhaps the person who I just saved from a deadly trap could stand to see me in a more polite manner."

"I wasn't aware that there was more than one definition of the word, just because a person has good intentions for what they steal, it doesn't make the item theirs to giveaway."

Robin raised his eyebrow at the woman's reaction and he asked, "Have I struck a chord your majesty?"

Regina sighed and turned away from the man who had decided that she shouldn't go alone into her own castle, causing her to be followed by almost the entirety of Storybrooke's population, and seemed to think that now was a good time to introduce himself.

If she was to believe Tinkerbell, then this was the man that would have made her happy. According to the fairy, if she had just gone into the tavern, every evil deed that she had a hand in would have been avoided. She could have had her happy ending, and it wouldn't have been at the expense of a whole realm's happiness. But looking at this man now, all she could do was find him incredibly irritating.

On the surface, she could see why he would have been her soulmate when she was eighteen. He was exactly the type of man that she imagined she would end up with, but when she met Daniel she had cast that fantasy aside.

But now she was beginning to see the similarities between him and Emma and she guessed that the pixie dust wouldn't have been able to find someone who hadn't been born at the time and therefore it had gone for someone who was close enough. Despite this, however, she couldn't help but think that the fact that she and Emma never seemed to be allowed to settle down for long could be a sign from the universe that she wasn't the person that she was destined to end up with and she had to say that she didn't like the thought of ending up with Robin, mostly just because he wasn't Emma.

"I am not in the best of moods, thief, I would prefer to just go home and rest, but your interference isn't appreciated."

Reaching forward, she made to grab the door. After the magical trap that she had almost walked over, she was sure that there couldn't possibly be anything else that the universe could throw at her in that moment. That was until an arrow went flying across her face and embedded itself in the door, which began to viscously disintegrate.

"That arrow almost took off my head!" she shouted.

"That trap almost took off your arm. Where I come from, a simple 'thank you' would suffice."

"Where you come from, people bathe in the river and use pine cones for money," Regina sneered.

"Regina," Snow hissed.

Robin held up his hand with a small smirk, "it's quite alright, I would say she is entitled to her outburst."

Snow furrowed her brow and inspected Regina's warning expression, "why?"

Robin laughed at the queen's expression, "isn't it obvious?"

The princess was clearly trying to come up with the answer on her own, and finally looked at Robin expectantly, however, the thief shook his head, "it's not my secret to tell."

Regina felt all eyes turn onto her, and instead of looking back at any of them, she stared Robin down, "how did you figure it out?"

"There are certain signs that should be hard to miss," Robin laughed.

Regina closed her eyes in frustration as she realised that the man must have stumbled upon her bout of morning sickness, but had clearly been too polite to question it until now.

"What is it, Regina?" Snow finally prompted.

"Later, Snow," she replied and turned on her heels, ready to go and reclaim her castle.

The mug of tea slipped out of Zelena's hand, and she looked up contemptuously at her mother as Snow looked on in total confusion.

"What was that?!"

Cora looked at the other woman innocently and replied, "you asked for a cup of tea and I made one for you, I'm afraid I am not seeing the issue, dear."

Zelena rolled her tongue her mouth for a moment, deciding that whatever she had just drank, was definitely not 100% tea, but she was having difficulty identifying just exactly what her mother could have added to it.

"I suppose you didn't ask for the truth serum," Cora finally relented.

Snow's shot up to look at the other woman questioningly and she simply mouthed 'later'.

Zelena let out a breath of frustration as Cora finally took a seat opposite her.

"Are you the Wicked Witch of the West?" Cora asked.

"Yes," Zelena replied after a short struggle.

Snow's mouth fell open, but each other woman just proceeded to ignore her, Cora continued with, "what is your plan?"

"I…want Regina's life," she said.

Cora looked dumbstruck at the news, and had to stop herself from telling the woman that she most certainly wouldn't have wanted that, instead settling on asking, "how?"

"By stopping you from ever giving me up."

"You want to go back in time?" Snow asked.

Cora resisted the urge to scowl at the woman who seemed intent upon pointing out the obvious and turned back to the other woman who was clearly fighting to keep her mouth shut.

"How do you plan to break a rule of magic?"

"I-I…" Zelena began and was then engulfed in green smoke as she tried desperately to escape, as if she her shock had addled her ability to remember that she could teleport.

"What the hell?!" Snow finally exclaimed.

"It appears that we've found my daughter," Cora sighed.

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed, reviews would be much appreciated XD