A/N: As always thanks to all you wonderful readers who are enjoying the story and have taken the time to review. I love seeing all your kind words! So, anywho, since Henry is in his turnover induced coma for this chapter we will be following Virginia/Regina.
***WARNING*** There is a child's death in this chapter, can't say more than because I don't want to spoil the story, but I thought you should be warned.
Henry was wheeled into the hospital on a gurney followed closely by Virginia, the doctor, and several nurses. Virginia tried to explain that this had happened because he ate a turnover but the doctor insisted there was no sign of neurotoxins.
"Right now there is no explanation. It's like –"
"Magic." She finished and pulled out the book of fairytales. As she did she was hit by a series of images starting when she first met Henry running through the woods leading up the moment when the curse had engulfed her castle.
"Where is he, where's Leo?" Mary White entered the hospital.
"You!" Regina snarled remembering everything from her life in the enchanted kingdom. She pulled Snow away from the crowd and pinned the other woman against the wall. "You killed my son!"
"Don't be foolish Miss Regan that boy is not your son, you don't have a son."
"My name is Regina." The former queen glare filled with rage as Snow's filled with fear. "And I had a son, you killed him just like you killed his namesake."
Regina heard the alarm bell sound, she could hear the dwarf Vengeful's calls that it was here. The clouds from the Dark Curse were now visible from the high tower. The Queen could not move though to see the darkness, she was heavily pregnant and the baby had chosen this time to come.
"Push," The midwife coached the Queen.
The labor was painful but swift enough considering, and soon Regina held the young boy in her arms. The child had dark wisps of hair like both his parents but his eyes were a brilliant blue just like his father's, he was perfect.
"And his name?" The midwife asked.
With all the worry of the curse Regina and Daniel had not come to a decision on a name, but now Daniel looked at his wife allowing her the final choice. Regina had always thought she'd name her son Henry after her father but there was already a young Henry she had come to associate with her father. Though her travels through the forest she had always kept an hear out for any word on a Henry Swan and then as Queen she had sent men to search for him but with no luck, still she knew he was out there somewhere alive. Then she smiled a sad smile remembering the man who'd died to protect her.
"David, his name is David."
The sound of the alarm bell brought their attention back to the task at hand.
"We don't have much time my love," Daniel voice was filled with pain.
The truth was they would never have enough time.
Three months prior Daniel had returned from the Dark One's castle in order to gain any additional information the faeries didn't have. It was a last resort, for everyone knew how dangerous the Dark One was, but Daniel was desperate to protect his wife and unborn child. Rumplestiltskin said that nothing could stop the darkness but he had told Daniel one thing that Blue did not know. He said there would come a time in this new world that Regina would be reunited with her son and though the queen would not recognize him the two would break the curse.
Daniel had been hesitant to reveal this information because for Regina to be reunited with their son first she would have to be separated from him. He knew though that he could not keep this secret and when he told her she too considered keeping the child, even knowing that he would be cursed as well at least they may be together.
In the end though they had decided to let him go, give the boy his best chance. A chance to return to them saving everyone and more importantly live a life free of the curse.
"Goodbye my sweet baby boy," Regina kissed her son again before handing him to her husband.
As Daniel carried the boy to a magic wardrobe constructed by a man named Geppetto who the Blue fairy had enlisted to help. Regina was not sure what happened next, only moments after Daniel had left the room, even through her emotional and physical exhaustion she registered the sound of fighting and the cries of her husband and son. Regina had no strength left to stand yet still she pulled herself down the hallway. Two men she recognized as Snow's guards lay dead on the ground and she realized she could no longer hear her son's cries.
For a moment she thought they had succeeded but when she reached the nursery and saw the empty look on Daniel's face she knew. Her eyes shifted to the wardrobe that Geppetto had completed only moments before the warning bell had been rung. Regina wanted to scream but no sound would come out. The Hunstman, who Snow must have freed from the dungeon once she had infiltrated the castle, stood outside the wardrobe door and though she could not see inside she could the drops of blood falling off his sword.
The Huntsman approached and Regina just sat there awaiting the end. Her son was dead, Daniel though his heart still beat was sitting lifeless, and the curse was moments away.
"Stop." Snow entered the room just as the blade was about to come down on Regina's head.
Regina watch the Evil Queen with fear and anger then when Snow's eyes shifted toward the wardrobe Regina snapped, "Don't you dare look at him!"
The broken hearted mother lunged at the Snow Queen but the younger woman's pet Huntsman grabbed Regina and held his blade to her neck.
"My Queen?" He awaited her order.
Snow, who had been surprised at the other woman's assault collected herself and told the Huntsman to release the usurper.
"In a few moments, she won't remember any of this."
"Then why do this! Why kill my son?" Regina yelled.
A look of guilt flashed across Snow White's face before she became cold again and growled. "Because this is my happy ending."
Regina remembered that moment like as if it had only happened seconds ago, and in a way it had only been seconds in the life of Regina Mills though she had spent years now as the schoolteacher Virginia Regan. A level of hated Regina had never known filled her heart and in that moment she was ready to kill as she held her hand to Snow's neck.
"You wouldn't, there's no coming back from killing, and you're not capable of that kind of evil." Snow studied the woman pinning her to the wall and thought she tried she couldn't keep the fear out of her voice.
"You have no idea what I'm capable of," Regina growled. "But right now there is a boy in there who needs help, you get one chance to tell me how to save him."
Snow could see that Regina was serious but truthfully she did not know the answer. "I don't know. Magic here is unpredictable. There is one other person in this town who knows about this… Knows about magic."
"The Dark One?" Regina wondered if the curse could have affected such a powerful being.
"Well, here you may know him as Mr. Gold."
Nodding she took one more look at Henry in bed surrounded by the hospital staff then turned back to Snow. "The only reason I'm letting you go is because I have more important things to deal with. So, I suggest you get in your car, and you leave this town. Because if you don't, I will destroy you if it is the last thing I do. Goodbye, Snow White."
Snow did not look at all like the menacing Evil Queen of fairytales and she stood silently. Regina began walking toward the exit planning on finding out was The Dark One could tell her.
"I should have let her die at the execution." Regina practically snarled as she walked out the doors of the hospital.
By the time she reached Gold's shop the anger and rage she had felt over the murder of her son had begun to be overtaken by grief. Grief for little David, and grief for Henry, the boy who had given her a chance at happiness, she knew she couldn't let him down.
"Rumpelshtil- Rumpelshtilshin?" Regina called remembering in their world to summon the Dark One he must be called by name.
"That's not how you say it, dearie." Gold came from around the corner.
Regina was a bit surprised to see that he looked just like a normal man, which he realized she should have known. She must have run into Gold at sometime or another in the years of being cursed but it was all a bit hazy.
"I'm sorry." She apologized nervously. "I… I don't really know what I'm doing."
"That much is clear. Allow me to introduce myself – Rumpelstiltskin. But you can just call me Mr. Gold. And you are Regina Mills of course, I met your husband once, a shame what happened to your boy."
"Don't you talk about him!" Her anger flared again, bitter that if he had wanted to, the Dark One he could have done something to protect their son.
"Oooh," a wicked grin crept on to Gold's face.
"What?"
"Its just a temper like that… you remind me a bit of your mother."
The information was like a punch to the gut, she loved her mother dearly but the idea of being compared to her was something that made her flinch. Cora was a cold woman who used magic to get what she wanted no matter the consequences. If there was one thing she had promised herself, it was that she would never become her mother.
"You knew my mother?" She asked once what Gold said had really sunk in.
"Indeed dearie, who do you think taught her magic?"
"So you can help, this boy Henry, Snow White used some kind of magic against him. There must be something you can do?"
"Alas but there isn't," Gold watched Regina's face fall then before offering her the hope she desired, "at least not without magic. Now I'm sure you've heard of the fabled thing called True Love, the only magic powerful enough to transcend realms and break any curse. Luckily for you, I happen to have bottled some."
"You did?"
"Oh, yes. Quite difficult to find in fact but I managed to create the most powerful potion in all the realm, from a few stands of hair. When I originally conceived the Dark Curse it was to be the child of True Love who would break the curse but then someone came and changed it all."
"Henry." Regina guessed, the boy who appeared out of nowhere and set her on a path to freedom.
Gold smiled again and if possible it was creepier than before, "Now all you have to go is retrieve a little bottle of potion."
All magic came with a price, Regina knew this, it was a lesson every child in her world knew yet still there were times when people ignored the warning, thought they whatever price would be worth it if only magic could get them this one thing. This was one of those times, if Regina could save Henry with a magic potion then so be it.
She stood at the edge of the abandoned mine shaft. Gold had told her of Lake Nostos, whose waters were said to have magical properties that could return something that was lost. At first Regina had asked if the water would deliver the potion to her, the Dark One explained that the potion was indeed kept in the lake but it had a guardian. He'd given her no more information than that and Regina knew there was something he was hiding but like the cost of the magic she just didn't care, and so here she was making her way through the mining tunnels that ran under Storybrooke, with only a flashlight and hope.
When she reached the point where the tunnel let out into a cavern Regina gasped, she couldn't believe that she had really come that far down for the opening to be so large and yet the she was fairly certain one could fit a dragon inside if they wanted to. She worried that perhaps a dragon was the guardian Gold had warned her about, but as she followed the streams of water to their source she knew that whatever the guardian was it was not a dragon.
Regina heard a voice as she neared the shore of an underground lake. She could see a light, possibly from a well, shining down on the center of the lake.
The voice was clearer this time and Regina heard it call "Mama."
"Who's there?" Regina looked around nervously then dropped her flashlight when she saw him.
"Mama!" It was a little boy who looked a lot like Henry, both were about the same height, same build and both had brown hair but whereas Henry's eyes were hazel this child's were blue.
"David?" it came out as a whisper. The child approached her but she recoiled. "It can't be… This an illusion… You died."
"How can I be dead when I'm here." He smiled at her and reached out his hand. "Come on mom, I need your help, we have to break the curse."
Regina couldn't help but allow herself be led by the little boy. A voice in her head screamed at her that this wasn't David, this wasn't her son, but she wanted so badly for it to be true. As she followed him the cave seemed to brighten.
"David," tears began to fall.
"Yes mama, its me." He smiled sweetly. "I knew you'd find me. Together we'll break Snow White's wicked curse and save Daniel and we can be a family."
"What about Henry."
"Don't worried about him, just come with me."
He pulled at her keep following but Regina let his hand slip away. Instantly the cavern, which had begun to seem almost cheerful, reverted to its original gloom. "You're not my son."
"Yes I am, I love you mommy."
"No I know what real love feels like," And she did, the way that Henry had looked at her after they'd met and he told her to run away with Daniel, the look when he'd eaten that turnover, that was the kind of unconditional love she would hope for from her son.
"Well congratulations your majesty, you're the first."
With a laugh the little boy changed and took its true siren form. Regina looked around a realized she was now at the center of the lake but before she could think of a way to escape the siren grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her below the surface. The creature dragged Regina until they reached the bottom of the lake. Feeling helpless Regina strained her eyes to see through the murky water hoping to spot something that could help her, and then she saw it, a large golden egg shaped case. According to Gold the potion was inside that egg.
With renewed hope Regina bit the hand of the siren that was holding her down and swam as fast as she could to the gold container. Her lungs burned and once the siren got over the shock of being bit she quickly caught Regina again. Unfortunately for the siren this time Regina was in arms reach of a dagger, which she grabbed and plunged into the creature's heart.
Blood began to fill the water and Regina kicked off the lake floor sending her back up to the surface just as her air was running out. Regina allowed herself a moment to catch her breath before swimming back down to retrieve the gold egg. Once she surfaced again she quickly made her way to the shore feeling that she had already wasted to much time. The dagger Regina had salvaged bore the mark of King Midas, she thought, as she tucked it into her belt, it may have belong to his daughter. Regina had heard the sad story of the Princess who had searched for a way to remove an enchantment that had been placed on her love, only to disappear herself. It was a tragic tale but Regina had no time to dwell on it she had to get the potion to the Dark One and hope there was still a chance for Henry.
"Did you get it?" Gold was waiting for her when Regina reached the mouth of the mines.
"Here," She handed it to him.
Gold looked at the container a bit nervously. "I've got this, why don't you get back to your boy."
Regina nodded, she didn't really trust the Dark One but what choice did she have?
Only a few minutes before she would have reached the hospital a horrible pain shot through her heart. It was Henry, something was wrong, she could feel it. Running in to the hospital she froze, the doctor was there talking to one of the nurses and a woman Regina recognized as the Blue Fairy in human form.
"Have you reached his mother?" He asked the nurse who shook her head no.
"Henry!" Regina ran into the room.
"Miss Regan you can't be here." The doctor tried to pull her away.
Hearing her cursed name reminded her where she was. "Please, please let me just say goodbye."
The three other people exchanged glanced then nodded.
"I'm so sorry for what's happened." Tears streamed down Regina's face. "You put your faith in me and I failed. I love you, Henry."
Regina leaned down a placed a kiss on Henry's forehead. Suddenly a pulsed of white light shot out and Henry woke up with a gasp.
"I love you, too." Henry wrapped his arms around her waist. "I knew you'd saved me."
"Henry… What's going on?" Regina asked still a little confused.
"The curse, you broke it."
"That was true love's kiss." The Blue Fairy told her now that she remembered her true self.
"But I… I" Regina stuttered then stopped seeing Daniel.
"Regina I," Whatever he was going to say died on lips as Regina ran over and kissed him.
Regina lead Daniel over to Henry and the three of them smiled and in that moment Regina felt something she hadn't in a very long time. She felt peaceful.
"Did you really think it would be that simple?" Snow White's voice drew their attention to her presence in the doorway. Pointing to the window everyone looked just as large cloud of purple smoke engulfed the town.