I'm so incredibly sorry for not updating in such a while. I felt like my writing has been kinda off and that tied in with lack of inspiration but I managed to finally finish a chapter. I hope you guys like it!
Emma's leaning on one of the clothing racks in the store, resisting the insistent urge to bang her head repeatedly on the metal. Shopping with Regina is incredibly exhausting, not only because she disagrees with everything Emma picks out but because she's one of those "stare and examine but refuse to buy" types.
"Didn't Reagan say that when she can't shop for herself that I usually do it?" According to their teenage daughter, Emma shops for her while Regina shops for Emily and it's completely understandable. It's almost as if Regina doesn't believe in jeans judging by all the dresses she would search through.
"And I almost allowed it until you tried buy her skinny jeans and graphic tees." Regina deadpanned whilst examining more appropriate clothing. "She's a young lady not a band groupie."
Emma rolled her eyes and pushed herself away from the rack she had been leaning on. "Regina, she's a teenager and she happened to tell me before we left that she likes clothes around that category and it's only fair. I mean, majority of teenage girls don't enjoy dressing in restricting knee length skirts, slacks or long sleeved button up shirts. Downing her taste only because it doesn't fit your image? It only limits her freedom of expression."
Regina stared ahead at nothing in particular, suddenly in thought. Flashbacks of when her mother forced her to wear tight corsets and itchy dresses that allowed her little to no movement. All the times she was ridiculed for preferring to wear a riding outfit fit for a man rather than dresses fit for a princess. Being controlled in such a manner only made her feel like less of a person; a doll, an image of perfection that her mother created. That's definitely not something she would want her daughter to experience which only meant that Emma's right. Perhaps she's not as bad of a parent as Regina thought.
"No shirts with profanity written on them or obscene images." Regina instructed before moving along.
"I know that." Emma stated defensively, trailing along behind the woman. While searching through the racks of shirts, Emma waited for a moment before deciding to at least make an attempt to gather what's going on in Regina's head. "So...any ideas on how to fix this whole situation?"
"You mean on a situation I received details on no less than thirty minutes ago? Regina replied nonchalantly, brows drawn downward in concentration as she browsed through the dresses fit for toddlers. "No, I don't and I suppose you don't either given your habit of not being able to properly figure out mysteries without placing the blame on another."
Emma almost made a retort but stopped herself when she fully listened to the words that slipped from Regina's lips. That wasn't anger-well maybe slightly but Emma knew better when it came to Regina and she definitely can detect the hurt in her voice. She exhaled deeply through her nose. "Regina I-"
"Made a mistake?" She finished the sad excuse of an almost apology. Regina turned to face Emma, lips pressed into a thin line. "Just like how your mother made a mistake when she handed me my mother's poisoned heart? How about we stop sugarcoating our wrongdoings, hm?"
"Alright, fine." The bickering will never end; not until one of them decide to step up, be the bigger person and make amends."You want me to admit that my intention was to hurt you? It was." Regina's eyes narrowed at Emma's response. "But despite what you may believe Regina, I didn't do it because I'm this malicious person or whatever selfish version of me you have cooked up in your head. I wanted to hurt you because you hurt Henry-or at least I thought you did." You hurt me too, Emma wanted to add because it's the truth. When she thought that Regina flat out lied straight to her face after Emma put all her trust and faith into her, it was like a punch in the gut. "I may have been wrong in my accusations but what I did is what any normal parent would do, what any good parent would do and that is protect their child. You would've done the same."
Regina definitely would've done the same. In fact she would've reveled in seeing the savior tainted in the eyes of her own son, leaving Henry all to her. But something Regina caught onto is that Emma indirectly referred to her as a good parent; something that not a lot of people viewed her as. "You think I'm a good parent?" The question was pure, genuine curiosity.
A gentle smile tugged at the corners of Emma's lips. "Well, I wouldn't go as far as giving you the best parent of the year award but no one, not even me, can deny that you raised Henry to be the best he can be. You gave him your all when I couldn't so yes, Regina you're a good parent." She answered, watching as Regina's eyes drifted to the floor. No retort. No harsh criticism. Only complete silence that proved she reached a red spot in Regina's near dark heart. So she continued, hoping that the more respect she showed toward Regina's parenting skills the less Regina would question hers. "And looking at Reagan and Emily, they're practically the perfect children-when you take away the cheekiness and tantrums-"
"The tantrum was fake."
"Yeah and-wait, what? How do you know that?"
"When you raise an active little boy, you adapt to having eyes and ears everywhere. Reagan and Emily silently communicate with one another. It's very common among siblings." Regina explained.
"So, if you knew then why did you continue with the act?" Emma then smiled playfully. "You know Regina, if you wanted to hold my hand all you had to do was ask."
Regina laughed dryly before turning her attention back to the racks of dresses. "Come off your high horse, Miss Swan. The last thing I want to do is hold your hand. I didn't figure it out until I thought about it afterwards."
"You were thinking about it afterwards?" Emma blurted out. She wondered if Regina was thinking about the strange surge of magic that occurred when their hands connected.
Regina hadn't even realized that she admitted to doing so. Careful not to hesitate, she answered immediately. "Yes. A few minutes after Emily had calmed down, her tantrum ended too fast for it to be real." Not too much of a lie that Emma would be able to read her but also not the full truth. The truth is she did feel the magic that sent tingles straight through her entire hand the minute Emma had touched her, mimicking the experience she had when she desperately tried to make Jefferson's hat work and Emma somehow jumpstarted her magic with one single touch.
"You see how less stressful it is speaking to me without witty or sarcastic remarks? Now, if we can get back to the topic of fixing our current dilemma, I think we should go to Gold."
"Definitely not." Regina immediately rejected the idea. "That sinister little imp might be behind all of this."
"You think Gold is out to ruin our future marriage?" Emma chortled, speaking as if the idea is completely ridiculous. Saying those words aloud still made their whole situation even more surreal.
"Not necessarily our marriage," Regina gritted the word "our" out as if it actually pained her to speak of sharing something as intimate as marriage with the savior. Her eyebrows drawn down in concentration once more as she glanced at Emma. "But maybe the effects of our marriage."
Emma's head titled to the side slightly, pondering Regina's words before both her eyebrows raised in realization. "Reagan and Emily."
"They were born solely out of magic, possibly true love." Regina continued. "If there's one thing I know about Gold, it's that he doesn't enjoy having any threats in his midst."
"But they're completely harmless and also his granddaughters. You see how he treats Henry, why would they be any different?"
"Because future Mr. Gold and present Mr. Gold could be two different people." Regina claimed.
"Well, I guess we only have one way of finding out. We should pick up the pace. When kids get bored they roam and the last thing we need is anymore magical mishaps." Emma scanned through the small dresses, coming up with a bright yellow frilly dress. "This is cute, right?"
Regina took one look at the selection and frowned. "You're not going to have my daughter walking around attracting honeybees because you decided to dress her resembling a huge dandelion."
Emma took another look at the dress, pouting, then placed it back among the others. This might take longer than necessary.
As she expected, Regina continued to disagree with each piece of clothing she picked out but the two somehow managed to settle on a nice amount of outfits for their girls. After stepping out the store, on their way to Emma's car, both came to an abrupt halt when they came face to face with none other than Henry and Neal walking down the street.
"Mom...?" Henry's face read complete confusion, his eyebrows drawn together as he looked between the two women. "Mom?"
"Oh. Hey, kid." Emma breathes out a greeting, her eyes darted over to Regina for a split second and she notices the clench in her jaw at the sight of Neal but the moment she looked at Henry her face softened. "What are you two doing over here?"
"We were actually just heading back your way. Something came up." Neal answered. He put an arm across Henry's shoulders, glancing over at Regina warily before looking back at Emma. "Is everything alright?"
"No, yeah. Everything is fine." Emma replied a tad to quickly earning a suspicious stare from her son.
"Were you two shopping together?" Henry had his eyes directed on the on the few bags clutched in Emma's hands that Regina made her carry.
"Uh, well-we were-" Emma stammered.
"This sounds like something that would rather be talked about without me standing here." Neal spoke.
"So he does have a brain." Regina snarked.
"Regina." Emma put a hand out to silence any other harsh remark.
Neal chose to ignore the comment, settling for ruffling Henry's hair with a smile before walking away in the opposite direction. Once Emma made sure he was out of sight, she shared a knowing look with Regina who hesitated shortly before nodding. A look that communicated that neither of them were comfortable lying to their son.
"I think we all need to talk."
Reagan flipped through each DVD case that deemed appropriate for children around Emily's age. While her little sister busied herself by attempting to braid Reagan's thick black hair, Reagan had been seated cross legged on the floor whilst searching for a fun cartoon they could both enjoy. All the movies appeared boring and old in her eyes.
"What the hell are Aristocats?" She questioned aloud, face scrunching in confusion before carelessly tossing the movie aside with the rest of the rejects. Her head lifted at the sound of a key turning in the lock of the front door.
Bags brushing against each other could be heard coming from the foyer when the door clicked closed. "Reagan, Emily?" Regina's voice called out.
"In here." Reagan responded before she looked back down at the DVD cases in her hand, occasionally flipping it over to read the back. When she heard footsteps, she didn't glance up but she did notice that Emily stopped styling her hair. "Mom, you should really get some new-" The minute she lifted her stare to the people in front of her, her sentence trailed off and her blue eyes widened at the sight of her big-well, little brother standing in the room. Inside she's completely panicking, already fearing that she screwed up once again. "Did I say Mom? Because I totally meant Mayor Mills and Sheriff Swan who have graciously taken care of me and my younger sister until our parents get back from-"
"Reagan," Emma laughed softly, putting an end to her daughter's rambling. "It's okay. We explained everything to him on the way here."
Reagan instantly relaxed. "Oh, thank god." She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, hunching over dramatically with her hand placed over her heart. "That would've been messy." Pushing herself onto her feet and regaining her height, Reagan first took notice of how short an 11 year old Henry is especially in comparison to her; there has to be at least a five inch height difference.
"Henry, these are your sisters." Emma placed a hand atop of his head. "Reagan and Emily."
"Hi." Henry greeted, his regular wide tooth smile on his face.
"Oh my god, I had no idea you were so adorable at this age." Reagan gaped. "Your voice is so high. It literally matches your height and I'm totally holding myself back from pinching your cheeks right now because they look so soft kind of like marshmallows." She continued gush over her little big brother. Being so used to older Henry, who towers over everyone in the family, she finally got a chance to take in having a role reversal and it felt great.
"Uh, thanks?" Henry glanced up at Emma as if awaiting for her to confirm that that's a compliment but he only received an amused smile. Someone tugging at the sleeve of his coat caught his attention. He looked down and saw Emily's big brown eyes staring up at him.
"You have lots of cool toys in your room. I played with some but I made sure to put it back. Can you show me some more cool stuffs?" Emily asked, leaning her chin on the crook of Henry's arm while casually using the limb to swing back and forth.
"Sure. I can show you some comic books if you like." Henry offered.
Emily nodded vigorously, a wide dimpled smile on her face. "Let's go!" Using all the strength she could muster, Emily used both hands to tug a laughing Henry in the direction of the stairs.
Reagan made a move to follow the two only to come to a stop when Emma gently grabbed her arm. She looked at her mother, both eyebrows raised in question. "Would you mind filling us in on something? It'll only take a second."
"Sure. What do you need?"
"How would you describe your relationship, as well as Emily's, with Mr. Gold?" Regina asked, wringing her hands together.
"Grandpa Gold? Our relationship is like any typical grandfather to granddaughter relationship. Sure he can be a grumpy old man sometimes and he tends to poke Henry in the side with his cane," Reagan laughed softly, eyes drifting to stare down at the floor and lingering there as memories flashed through her mind. Emma smiled and glanced over at Regina who's doing the same. "But that's only when Henry's teasing us usually about him being taller than us. He would like casually rest his arm on the top of my head and...and..." She suddenly trailed off and bit down on her bottom lip. "Oh, look at that. I'm making myself sad again." Reagan laughed but her voice betrayed her by quivering.
In unison, Regina and Emma took a step forward to comfort their daughter but she put a hand out to halt their actions.
"I'm fine." She quickly assured, flashing them a small closed mouth smile. Something about comfort released unwanted tears and once the downpour started it would take forever to stop. Taking a deep breath before exhaling to calm her shaky nerves, Reagan blinked a few times to clear her eyes and she was back to normal. "Got a little nostalgic there, sorry." She cleared her throat. "What made you ask that?"
"We just wanted to rid a few suspects, that's all." Regina decided to answer. "Your grandfather has a bit of a reputation in this time."
Reagan nodded in understanding. "Since we're done here, I'm going to go upstairs and squish Henry's cute little face together." She announced before turning around and heading toward the stairs.
"Be gentle, Reagan. The kid's delicate." Emma called after her.
"No promises!"
Once she descended up the stairs, Emma turned to face Regina. "Now that Gold is out of the equation, we can really use his help with all of this."
Regina reluctantly agreed, nodding shortly and eliciting a low sigh through her nose. She hated going to Gold for help-frankly, she hated to admit that she needed anyone's aid. "We'll go first thing tomorrow. For now let's focus on getting everyone situated for the rest of the evening."
Emma raised an eyebrow. "Is that your way of telling me to stay?"
"That's my way of telling you that you're not leaving me to care for all three children while you have the rest of the day off." Regina retorted. "Now make yourself useful and put those clothes away."
Emma rolled her eyes but still complied. She can already tell that today is going to be a long day.
"Who's that?" Emily's short finger pressed down on the page of the comic book Henry held in both hands for them to view. They were seated at the edge of his bed, Emily resting her cheek on his arm as she scanned the page full of drawn characters. Reagan's walking around his room observing each object Henry possessed with a keen interest.
"That's Thor. He's a superhero and also a powerful God that can control the weather like thunder and stuff." Henry explained.
"If he's so powerful how come he needs that big hammer?" Emily pointed out, placing her finger on the page once more.
"That's how he controls the weather. The hammer is enchanted."
Emily giggled making Henry smile. "That's silly. Older you, Reagan, Mom and Mommy are superheroes and they don't need a big hammer."
"I'm a superhero in your time?" There's such a large amount of hope in Henry's voice that Reagan's heart swelled and she had to eavesdrop so she can hear Emily's response.
"Mmhm." Emily hummed happily, lifting her stare up to smile at Henry. "Older you makes all the monsters and bad dreams go away. And when I get stuck on top of the monkey bars you get me down. And when something is very high, like the cookie jar, you lift me up so I can get it."
Henry almost rejected Emily's idea of a hero until he realized that she's right. Although he rather have a special power, having someone see regular acts of kindness as him being a hero is just as good. "I guess I'm pretty cool in the future, huh? So what's it like in the future?" He directed the question to Reagan just as she languidly picked up one of the action figures positioned on his shelf. "Are there hover boards and stuff like that?"
Reagan smiled at the childlike excitement evident in Henry's voice. Placing the toy back in its original spot, she turned to face him with two fingers held up. "Two words. Sky walkers." She put down each finger after each word was said. Moving across the floor to where Henry and Emily sat, Reagan plopped down atop of the blue comforter then shifted so that she lay on her back with her head leaning partly off the edge of the bed, knees bent. "They're these like motor devices that you can ride standing up and they're controlled just by leaning forward and back. I heard it's like floating on air."
"Awesome." Henry commented, a lopsided grin on his face. He glanced at Reagan for a moment, lips parted as if he's going to say or ask something but he hesitates for a few seconds. "Are my moms married in the future?"
Reagan nodded. "It must be so weird for you, huh? I honestly don't know how you dealt with the constant fighting. I had no idea was this intense. But I guess that's only because I'm so used to seeing them less...hostile toward one another."
"Yeah. I think they fight so much because they're a lot alike."
"Stubborn." Both children said knowingly in unison without much thought. They laughed at their intersected sentences.
"So you're okay with all of this?"
"Yeah, well-I mean...I guess I kind of had hoped that Emma would marry my Dad." Henry admitted with a slight shrug. He then flashed Reagan a small smile. "But this is just as good. I rather have them married than trying to murder each other. And plus, I've always wanted siblings." Three small tugs on the sleeve of his shirt brought his attention back to the little girl seated next to him.
"Do you ever feel lonely because you don't have me and Reagan to play with like older Henry does?" Emily questioned.
"It can get lonely sometimes." Henry's answer caused Reagan pull herself up, dark hair sprawling across her shoulders and chest as she moved to rest on her forearms. Their family tree probably surpasses any other family tree in the world, how could Henry ever feel lonely? Her questioning stare communicated for Henry to elaborate. "Everyone is usually busy with adult stuff or trying to make me pick a side. And if my-our Moms get put in the same room all they do is argue with one another and it's like-"
"You're not even there?" Reagan finished for him, a look of sympathy displayed on her features.
"Yeah. Exactly." Henry appeared surprised that Reagan understood so easily. "How'd you know?"
"Other than my incredible sisterly ability that allows me to read your mind," Reagan joked to ease the upcoming tension that may come along with their conversation. She knew she succeeded when Henry laughed. "I got a spoonful of that yesterday and this morning and it definitely sucks. I'm sorry you have to deal with that on a regular basis."
"It did stop for a little while. And then Cora came to town and things started to go back to how they used to be." Henry explained. "She died a couple of days ago."
"What?" Reagan found herself whispering grimly at the information. She had no idea Regina recently lost her mother nor did she pick up on the signs that anyone would show when losing a loved one. There's this agonizing tugging feeling yanking at her heart at the thought of the amount of pain her mother is going through alone. Reagan then gasped at a realization, sitting straight up. "Mom told me about this time. That's why things are so heated between them, of course. Emmy," She caught her little sister's eyes. "You know what this calls for?"
Emily's head tilted to the side as she thought. A few seconds later she gasped excitedly, brown eyes filled with light as they widened. "Family fort night!"
"What's that?" Henry asked.
"Basically an intervention without the whole intense going around in a circle thing. When things are going bad within our family, in the future, we build a really huge fort that takes up like half the living room. Everyone has to sleep in this fort and once you're inside the fort you can only act and talk positively for the rest of the night." Reagan explained.
"It sounds fun but I don't think our Moms will agree to that."
Reagan grinned. "Don't worry. I have my ways."