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Two weeks later...
"What are you doing still up?" David asked tiredly after waking up in their bed, finding her side vacant. He'd went downstairs, seeing the light coming from her study as he made his way in, running a hand through his bed hair. It was beginning to seem like their new routine, sleeping in the bed by himself until he'd wake up and try to convince her to rest.
Regina looked up from where she sat at her desk in her pajamas, tired eyes squinting a little to pull him into focus after concentrating so hard on what was before her. She was exhausted, David could tell by the circles under her eyes. Eyes that used to be so full of love and life, now lacking the sparkle and warmth that used to make his heart constrict.
"I'm just going over this map of Storybrooke again to make sure we've covered all the land here," She averted her gaze back down to the map before her, marked with scribbles of where they'd searched and any important details. Between them and the search parties of the townspeople, they'd covered every inch of the town and surrounding forest. Twice. There were no traces of their baby in Storybrooke and it was driving both of them crazy, each day passing chipping away at the hope they had left.
"Regina, honey," He bit his lip as he made his way towards her, rounding her desk and catching the warning shift of her eyes when she glanced up at him briefly before looking back to her map. She knew it was coming before he even opened his mouth, "We've covered everything here. Zelena has obviously taken her to another realm."
"I'm just making sure we've really checked everywhere before we focus on other worlds," She replied without looking at him, her voice on edge and her shoulders visibly tensing. Regina had been extra venomous these past two weeks, and while David understood, everyone was once again scared of her and she held back nothing, snapping at people left and right. "I apologize if I can't just give up on our daughter to get eight hours of sleep," She added, lifting her chin to look up at him as he sat on the edge of her desk.
David took a deep breath, suppressing his urge to bite back. He was just as worried and stressed as Regina, so much so that by the time midnight rolled around he was beyond exhaustion and consumed by the allure of sleep. It was the only time he was not sick with worry about his child, the rest of the hours in his day spent searching for his daughter and brainstorming. Regina, however, was fueled by the anxiety, staying up until the wee hours obsessing over every detail that she'd already been over before. They coped differently and it made the urge to get a dig back at her hard to swallow when she egged him on.
"That's not fair, Regina," He started calmly, reaching down to put his hand over hers to stop her from her work for a moment to listen to him, "We've done everything we can for the day. You have to take care of yourself, your body went through so much just two weeks ago," He explained with a pleading expression, holding his breath that this wouldn't set her off.
She met his gaze with her own tense expression, pulling her hand from under his, "So just because we don't think our baby is in Storybrooke I should just give up for now?" Her arms crossed, jaw tensed. She was pushing him, which irritated him even more. He understood the frustration and desperation she was feeling, but couldn't understand why she felt they needed to take it out on each other.
"We're asking Rumple to do the locator spell tomorrow, Regina," He frowned, lips pursing as he lost his patience, "That will show us what realm she's in so we can go there. We can't waste what little supply of magic beans we have to carelessly jump realms."
"We should've already been to Oz, we shouldn't have spent so much time here!" She snapped, standing up from her chair as she threw her pen down to her desk, "Our baby is out there, God knows what she's going through with Zelena! And you're telling me to just go to bed?!"
"Damn it Regina!" His temper flared, standing up from sitting on the edge of her desk to face her, "I'm going through the same thing as you are right now! Don't talk to me like I don't understand!"
"Then how can you be so calm?!" She half yelled, half cried, tears welling in her eyes as her face flushed with anger, "I can't eat or sleep, I can't do anything without thinking of her and then you come in here and tell me to stop trying!" She slapped a hand against his chest, barely making him budge, instead making his eyes narrow.
"I told you to rest, stop putting words in my mouth," He glared at her, all of the anger and anxiety surfacing in him at her beckoning, "Do you not realize that this is the third child I've had taken from me?!" He yelled, seeing an instant shift in her expression, like she hadn't realized that through her own grief, "I'm doubting myself as a man, as a father, a protector. I've failed three children now and their mothers! I'm worried sick about her, I'm heartbroken for myself and for you! And you have the audacity to accuse me of not caring?" He said the last part through gritted teeth, his face in hers by this point.
A long pause filled the air as her expression changed from anger to indifference, "Maybe you're right," Regina replied dully, as if she'd already mentally checked out of the argument, "It's late and we are dealing with Gold tomorrow, we should sleep," She shrugged before turning to walk away from him, leaving him seething.
He didn't know how she could just shut off her emotions like that and it infuriated him that she would work him up and leave mid-argument, like it didn't matter to her. David knew it was her way of raising the white flag in surrender when she realized she'd gone too far, but he hated her inability to admit when she was wrong or try to mend situations. Her haughty, Evil Queen persona was back in full force and she acted as if she were too good to apologize and too unbothered to even finish a fight with him.
She left the study and ascended the stairs slowly without looking back to see if he was coming. He bit his lip in frustration as he watched her go, trying to breath deeply and shake off the anger. Out of all of the times for them to stop getting along, for them to revert to the way they were before, did it have to be now? Now, when they needed each other the most.
Regina felt the stiff silence between them on their way down the sidewalk to Granny's diner the next morning. She knew it was her fault; knew she had picked a fight for no reason. He carried Neal, barely acknowledging her existence as they made their way to meet up with Emma, Killian and Henry to plan what was next. It had been a quiet morning in their household, adhering to their usual routine of waking up with the help of coffee and getting ready for a day of searching while minimal words were exchanged between them.
She'd tried to retain some shred of normalcy for Henry and Neal's sake, but that was nearly impossible with the hours of their day devoted to finding the baby. Her heart was torn in a million directions. Not knowing where her newborn was made her physically ill, anxious and desperate. Any second she didn't spend looking for her made Regina's self loathing skyrocket. Henry and Neal still needed her as well, but how could she be the mother she should to them when she couldn't even focus? And David, who was nothing but supportive, was who she constantly took her frustration out on.
She walked a few steps behind him, seeing Neal looking over his father's wide shoulders at her with a small smile. He was just a toddler but he still seemed to know something was wrong, his usual wide grin not having appeared lately. Regina wished she could summon some magic to play with him and his toys once again, but she didn't have that in her either. Her powers had vanished as quickly as Zelena and her baby had, leaving her feeling worthless and vulnerable.
"You coming?" David's gruff question brought her out of her thoughts as he stood holding the diner door for her with one hand, Neal in the other. She realized she was still at the bottom of the steps, glancing down before back up at him as she nodded once and proceeded into the restaurant. Instantly she felt the townspeople look up at her with a hint of caution in their eyes, and she supposed she deserved it. Since her daughter's disappearance she'd been ordering people around, publicly reprimanding people in the search parties if they weren't performing to her standards. Just like she was the Evil Queen again.
"Hey, over here," Henry waved them over when he saw them come in, having spent the night at Killian and Emma's. The sight of her son still warmed her heart but it was only a tinge of the feelings he used to evoke in her. It was hard to feel anything but pain lately, dull and aching. She just wasn't herself.
"Good morning," She forced a smile as she leaned down to kiss Henry's head before sitting down beside him in the corner booth, Emma and Killian scooting around to the opposite side and David taking the seat at the corner of the table with Neal.
"Sorry we're late. I had to get Neal ready," David mumbled, obviously still in a mood from the night before and this morning, which hadn't made things better. She knew he was referring to the fact that she wasn't as hands on with Neal right now, but she couldn't help it. Holding a child physically hurt her heart, reminding her of her baby being ripped away. She couldn't handle intimacy with anyone right now, especially a baby, without the threat of her weak composure crumbling.
Regina threw him a narrowed glance at the meaning behind his words before feeling Emma's eyes clock the tension between them. She bit back her retort, not needing to bring attention to the animosity, already not knowing what to do with it herself.
Luckily Swan got the hint not to ask, steering the conversation before it could take a turn for the worse, "So we were thinking, after Rumple finds out what realm the baby is in, Killian and I would travel with you. Henry we need you to stay here with Granny and look after Neal, I know you want to be where the action is but this is what we need," Emma gave Henry a knowing glance not to argue that Regina caught and was grateful for. She wouldn't be able to focus on what they needed to do in Oz if she was worried about Henry's safety.
Henry glanced at Regina before looking back to Emma and nodding in agreement, "I understand."
"Thanks kid," Killian said as he reached out and roughed up Henry's hair, attempting to lighten the mood and earning a forced smile from his step-son.
"So I spoke with Gold already," Emma began, looking across the table to Regina, "He agreed to do the locator spell."
"Just like that?" David cut in, looking up from where he was securing Neal in the high chair.
"More like at what price?" The brunette gritted her teeth slightly as she shared a knowing look with the Savior. Rumple never helped anyone unless it benefited him in some way, and she wasn't about to leverage her child's future on trusting someone like him. He'd scorned everyone one too many times.
"Trust me, I wondered the same thing," She replied with a patient nod, as if she knew Regina would want the facts, "It turns out that the idea of Zelena being in possession of one the most 'powerful children of magic' unnerves even Rumple himself," Emma rolled her eyes, "He knows what your baby will someday be capable of and he doesn't want Zelena influencing that."
"So he is looking out for himself," Regina let out a breath, a frown reaching her lips when she had to reach out and physically stir her coffee with the spoon. She used to be able to simply swirl her finger and set the spoon in motion. It was another small, annoying reminder of the absence of her magic and how helpless it made her feel.
"At least its working in our favor though," David muttered, glancing at Regina. She didn't look up at him, feeling his eyes on her and hearing the disapproval in his tone. He was acting like a typical Charming through this all, demanding that no one lose hope and trying to look on the bright side. She had tried to remain level headed, but her true nature won out in the end. She was angry and brooding and while the feeling wasn't pleasant, at least it was familiar.
"If I'm going to do this Deary, I need something belonging to the child," Gold looked at Regina in a matter of fact way as she, David, Emma and Killian watched him set the white globe onto the counter of his pawn shop. They'd left Henry and Neal in the care of Granny, knowing that they could be gone for quite some time if they had to travel realms. It had been a hesitant goodbye on all of their parts, afraid of leaving Henry void of all the parents he'd ever known and Neal, who'd already lost his mother.
"What would I have of my baby's? I didn't even get to hold her," Regina glared at Gold, hating the fact that she was at his mercy, that she appeared so vulnerable in front of everyone. She was used to being the person they came to, the powerful one with the ability to handle any circumstance. But now, now she was the one who needed help, the one who couldn't even protect her own child.
"Very well," Rumple gave an irritated sigh as he reached under the counter to pull a push pin from the voodoo-looking doll on the shelf below, "I'll need to see Mum and Dad's finger," He said before shifting his gaze to Regina's hand outstretched and David hesitating in confusion for a moment before lifting his own to the counter top.
"We don't have anything belonging to the baby but our blood," She explained to David quietly as he nodded and Rumple's gaze shifted between the two of them. She watched unfazed as Gold proceeded to push the end of the stick pin into her finger, catching the droplet of blood in a small glass vial before he did the same with David, mixing the droplets. He then gave the white globe a spin with one hand as he poured the droplets from the vial onto the point of the sphere.
Regina's heart stopped as they watched the blood spread over the globe like water, feeling David's hand reach down between their sides and clasp her own. The globe spun faster as the blood spread over, seeming to be taking shape of unique continents, unlike anything they'd ever seen. The four of them watched Rumple as he concentrated on making an image out on the spinning globe, paying them no mind. It started to slow down and Regina could feel her heart beating rapidly, her worst fears of where her baby was ravaging her mind, threatening her tears to spill.
Gold used his hands to make the slowly moving globe stop in it's place and Regina felt as if the breath had been knocked out of her as she waited for him to say something. He finally shifted his eyes back up at them after interpreting the map on the globe, turning it to point with his finger where a glowing red dot was, "She's alive and well..." He began as Regina let out a quiet sob of relief, feeling David's arm come around her waist for support to hold her up.
Rumple looked back down at the globe in discretion at her outburst and even Regina noticed. He of all people knew how much she feared appearing vulnerable, and even if she did dislike him, at least he showed her the courtesy of looking away.
"Did Zelena take her back to Oz?" Emma asked urgently from where she stood beside Killian a few feet away.
"Oh no deary, Zelena is much too smart for that," Rumple shook his head slowly, "No she knew that would be the first place you'd look. Zelena and your wee little sister are in the Enchanted Forest," He said as his gaze returned to Regina, "In the Evil Queen's castle."
"Then she's not that smart," Regina gritted through her teeth, looking to David as she reached into her pocket and pulled one of the magic beans out. A sense of urgent anger and renewed determination coursed through her at the revelation that her child was alive.
"Regina shouldn't we get a game plan first?" She heard the blonde ask as she turned on her heels and marched for the door of the pawn shop, slinging it open with a loud bang as she made her way outside. Regina heard them followed but she didn't care, she'd go by herself if she had to. She'd get her child back if it was the very last thing she did.
"I'm not waiting for anything," She hissed as she flipped the bean in the air, a tornado cloud of purple smoke beginning to formulate as the portal opened, "I may not be much of a threat here but the Enchanted Forest? MY kingdom? There I'm the Evil Queen, and that bitch has no idea who she's messing with."
Emma exchanged a wide eyed glance with Hook, as if she was surprised to see Regina's former ego come to life again. Finally she swallowed hard and shrugged after Killian gave her a reassuring nod, "Okay, if you say so...We're in."
Regina glanced to David as the portal swirled in full force, seeing him looking at her in a way that seemed oddly similar to awe. To her surprise he didn't argue or hold a trace of the resentment he had earlier, instead stepping up to her and taking her hand, threading his fingers through her own. His eyes met hers, communicating a sense of trust and support in their blue depths that fueled her confidence as he spoke, "Ready when you are, Your Majesty."