Epilogue
David woke up in a panic and the first thing he could think of was to call Sneezy. Good thing the dwarf had kept his apartment over the pharmacy. He pulled on his pants and shirt and went out despite that it was four am and the pharmacy was still closed.
Sneezy's light was on on the first floor by the time David had stumbled down the road and in short order, so was the light at the back of the shop. "Your Highness!"
"We need diapers." He shot through the door leaving Sneezy rolling his sleepy eyes behind him.
"Of course, Your Highness." But David just stood there looking mildly confused. "Of what kind, Your Highness?" A king was king, after all, and deserved some deference, so Sneezy tried to be kind despite the early wake up call. The man had just welcomed a grandchild to the fold- especially after the near disaster the whole town had been witness to, so he thought that if he was going to give someone a break, then he might as well give it to him.
"The kind babies this size wear." David showed a minute gap between his hands.
"Okay…" Sneezy rubbed the sleep from his eyes and moved down the aisles to the bottom of the shop. He took a small pack and showed it and when David looked happy enough, moved to the till. David lagged a step behind and when he caught up with Sneezy at the till, he had in his arms the whole stock of newborn diapers and some of the bigger sizes too. Sneezy's nervous rhinitis flared up. The shelves were empty. The shelves were empty and the anxiety tightened around him like a noose. He forced himself to relax. No problem. No problem, he'd order more and, honestly, there were no other newborns in Storybrooke. It was going to be okay. Okay. Still. "You know that the sheriff has already bought some. Right when she came back from… her trip. Do you think you'll need all of those?"
David looked at his booty and he had an idea of what magpies looking at shinny things felt like. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Formula. I need formula too. Babies need formula."
"Of what kind?"
"The kind babies this size need." She showed a small gap between his hands again. Sneezy had never seen a newborn but he was quite sure none were that tiny.
"Your Highness…" David's eyes were dazed. Glazed even.
"She's so little…"
Sneezy relented. He had a feeling he'd be doing some return and refunds and in the morning. When David walked out at five am, he was carrying half the pharmacy's stock in his arms- everything he thought an infant might need, including a white teddy bear scientifically proven against allergens.
.
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Emma stayed awake that first night. She was too hyped, to jazzed up to sleep. When the house settled, she carried Henry to the couch and then returned on her tiptoes to Regina's side. She couldn't stop looking at them both. Knowing how close shed come to losing them was a thought that just would not leave, would not let her settle. She turned on her side and let her fingers run through Regina's hair and Regina's face and testament to the last forty-eight hours or so, Regina didn't stir until Emma took Hope from her arms. She woke up with a shudder and not a little panic. Emma touched her face soothingly. "It's me, it's only me." Regina grabbed her hands, somewhere between sleep and watchfulness.
"It's only me."
"Is she okay?"
"Yes, she is. Can I hold her for a little?"
Regina released her hold, satisfied that there were no immediate dangers. "Sleep, Regina, sleep now." Emma held her daughter and sat on the old rickety chair by the bed. She had missed this with Henry. She had missed all of this, the time after and having someone there to do it with her. Henry's birth had been one of the loneliest experiences of her life. One of the worst too for that very reason. She brought the baby up to her face and softly nuzzled her, memorizing her scent, her warmth, the feel of her in her arms.
Hope opened her eyes and stared unflinchingly at Emma. No mistake: Regina's eyes, through and through, staring back at her.
"Hi, kid. I'm Emma. I'm your mom. Your Mommy is sleeping. Do you think you can let her sleep a little more? It was tough going, you know? You two scared the life out me. So, you know, a few more minutes would be good for her." Hope just stared back, lulled by the sound of Emma's voice. "Your mom said that babies can't see very well for a while and that I should speak to you close like this because you can see me better. I think she was teaching me how to do this right because she thought she wouldn't be around right now. But it's never too early for you to know this, so let me tell you, kid: the thing is, you're half Charming, half Evil Queen. We don't give up, you know? We just don't."
Hope settled, closed her eyes and Emma spent the next hour looking at her, irremediably in love with her daughter.
When Hope fussed again, Regina was up like a spark looking dazed and bedraggled, not a lick of make-up and with deep dark circles under her eyes. And Emma had never seen her looking so beautiful. Was it possible to fall in love with the same person twice? "I changed her a little while ago, so I think she's a little hungry…" Emma ventured.
Regina gingerly settled back on her pillows and then just waited for Emma to bring Hope to her, her expression settling into one of amazement, taking in her surroundings, Emma and her daughter. She held the baby and spoke in a hushed tone that was meant for the baby alone. Hope settled immediately.
Emma sat down because, okay, it was only day one, but she didn't think she would ever get tired of seeing this: Regina opened her shirt and this time with no help, brought Hope to her breast.
Emma could hear happy little sounds and she wasn't quite sure if they were all Hope's. I'm screwed, she thought to herself. I'm totally screwed beyond all recognition. She must have said it out loud because Regina gave her a measuring look, with a little insecurity on it and asked her why.
"I'm just gonna keep on falling in love with you, isn't it?"
Regina's smile was small but the most luminous Emma had ever seen and she found herself wishing she had a camera to save that moment forever.
.
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Henry did not wait for someone to acknowledge his knock on the door- he simply barged right in. His mouth opened wide and then closed. He was looking at Regina nursing Hope. "Wow… That is…"
"Beautiful" Emma supplied from where she had perched to get an up close and personal look.
"I was going to say weird… I may even add awkward…"
"Do you want to come closer, Henry?" Regina called to him. She wanted him close. She wanted him right there next to her all the time, just to make up for the time lost.
"Maybe not right now… None us wants me traumatized…"
"It's a beautiful, natural thing, Henry." Emma teased.
Henry sat at the foot of the bed. "Maybe. But I'm twelve, Memma. It just feels awkward." And then they heard Snow talking about male hormones and insanity and the tone was not so happy.
"What…"
"Don't, Emma. Outside is even more awkward. David brought home half the pharmacy in diapers. And he woke us up at 5am. Grandma is not so pleased with him."
"Why? We are going to need the diapers…"
"Sure. I guess. Do you want to go there and tell her that?"
Emma spared a glance through the semi open door. No, not really. There were things she had to talk to Snow about and jumping in David's defense was not a good way to start.
.
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Emma stayed studiously in their room for lack of ideas on how to approach her mother. Snow brought them food and shared a look of understanding with Regina that made Emma nervous and then left.
When they finished their meal, Regina asked for her for a shower.
"Or bath. It's been a very long time since I had one." The smile on her face was rueful.
Emma ran her a bath and Regina padded to the bathroom, leaving Hope in her arms. When Snow came to collect the tray, she found Emma alone in the room, her hair a halo around her head, the sun shining behind her. Snow took a moment to commit it to memory, her daughter with her own baby in her arms. She was a grandmother again without having had much of chance to be a mother.
When Emma looked up from her daughter, she saw her mother, staring at her, on the verge of tears. Holding Hope in her arms, Emma could do anything: leap over tall buildings, jump through fire, face a speeding bullet. Forgive her mother.
"Look at my daughter, mom. Isn't she beautiful?"
"She truly is, Emma."
"Does she really look like me?"
Snow came and sat next to her and studied the tiny little features, running her finger down Hope's cheek. "To the last hair on her head."
For a second, Emma didn't know how to say what she really wanted. Words were not her thing. Not at all and she turned them around in her mouth. "Thank you and I'm sorry, Snow… Mom." Snow just touched her forehead to Emma's shoulder and stayed like that. "Aren't you going to ask me what for?"
"You didn't need to say anything at all. You were right… back then, during the trial. I know that I could have… should have… There were others ways." Snow sighed.
"Yeah… But I get it, you know… I get it. Still… thank you. The guards, the food, the clothes… going there… I know it wasn't easy for you. So thank you for that. And sorry for the bratty shit I pulled. God, Henry does take after me, huh?"
"Emma… I… It's complicated between Regina and I. I think it will always be, you know, because no matter that we care about the each other- and I know how strange that sounds, about you, Henry and Hope… we have done too much to each other, far too much to just white wash it… But we have you three in common. And I'm beginning to think that maybe, that could be enough, you know?"
"Yeah… Grandma…"
Snow's sob was half snort. "There was a crowd outside last night, you know? Waiting for the announcement… it was uncanny. Just waiting. Worried about her. And we had to take the phone off the hook because it kept ringing, people wanting to congratulate you, us…"
"Are you happy, Mom?" Emma looked up at Sow, because that yes was so very important. Snow took Emma's chin in her hand so that Emma could not go anywhere. "I am, Emma. I am happy for all of this." She encompassed the apartment with a gesture of her hands. "For you being here, for Hope being healthy. For Regina being okay. I know it's hard to believe but I am happy that she's here and that she's okay. I'm very happy."
"And you're not… sending her back there… or jail… I know what she did… but…"
Snow touched Hope's downy hair with light, light fingers. "I'm the damned Queen, Emma. She won't go back. She's safe here. And if someone is not happy, they can come it take it up with their queen. What I saw yesterday, it was not the Evil Queen. It was just Regina. Willing to die for her child. And she didn't let mine go back on a fool's errand to save herself. And she could have. She could have sent you back through the hat and you'd have gone… The court decided that when she'd atoned, she'd be free to go to her family. She's safe here. You all are."
Emma turned to Snow fully then and transferred Hope into Snow's arms. Snow gave a little gasp of surprise but did not miss a beat. And then Emma put her arms around her mother's shoulders and held on. "I've missed you."
If Snow had not been so overwhelmed with a newborn in her arms, she would have hugged back.
.
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Snow and Nova walked a brisk walk towards the Hospital and Sanatorium. The dwarves had brought Blue to the basement and locked her there for lack of better option. The cells at the sheriff's station were pathetically inadequate and, in any case, with the poisonous rambling Blue was spewing, it seemed oddly appropriate. The padded cells were blissfully soundproofed. They locked her in here and stood towards the end of the row of cells where they could barely hear her, her insults, her jibes, her poisonous speech about being Reul'Ghorm and how she was going to crush them all or drown them all or burn them all. There was a feeling of elation in the air, an undefined happiness without apparent cause and no one wanted to hear her. No one was in any mood.
"Are you sure it's safe, Nova?"
"I'm not, Your Majesty. You know I'm not any good at magic. But the collar isn't burning her. I've checked. I asked Leroy to come with me last night. I couldn't sleep."
"Because of the collar?" Nova nodded. "I slept like a baby, Nova. Sometimes, people need to wear the suffering they rain down on others."
"Indeed. But I'd like to think that we have learned lessons…"
"We have, Nova. But I don't mind admitting to you that I wanted her to hurt a little. For all she did. For all she said. For all of this. For wanting my granddaughter dead."
Nova knocked on the door that separated the sanatorium from the hospital and it opened released by a remote mechanism. They proceeded to the cell guarded by Sleepy and Happy. When they gave her the all clear, Nova opened the cell and entered with Snow closing the door behind her. Blue was sitting prim and proper, hands in her lap, still in the blue habit and the collar around her neck. Nova had a sudden urge to turn her back and run. Blue terrified her that much. But her wings fluttered in her back, unencumbered now by the layers of skin and restrictive clothes and her courage gathered about her like a storm.
"I'd thank you to take this off." Blue touched the collar with her index. "I don't like where it's been."
"Your hands?" Snow asked, her anger making her mean. Blue ignored her.
Nova approached her and with a pass of her hands, the collar was gone. It irked Blue and surprised Snow but none said a word.
"It didn't burn you." Nova commented. "That's because you don't have magic anymore, isn't it?"
.
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The little insect, Blue thought, the ungrateful overgrown, bumbling, clumsy insect. They'd see. She was Reul'Ghorm. She was the greatest power of them all. She had indulged them and their silly little notions for far too long. She was done suffering fools.
She pushed magic into her fingertips and shot at Nova, straight into her chest like she would a gun.
"Die, you disgusting insect. Die."
.
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Both Nova and Snow saw the attack coming but couldn't react fast enough. Magic was not a weapon to them. Magic hadn't been a reality in far too long. They saw the attack coming and could do nothing to protect themselves. But then, nothing happened. The moment did not explode like in films. It fizzled out like a rain drop on a fire, not even steam to prove it had been there. Blue fingers stretched like claws and murder in her eyes, but nothing happened.
"No magic at all." Nova commented. "Not even in anger."
"Well…." Snow commented. "Wonderful. Unexpected… but wonderful."
Blue raged. "Release me. You cannot hold me. I am above you all. You cannot hold me in this forsaken place. You will release me now."
"No." The answer was simple enough to stop Blue's enraged ranting.
"Will have a trial for me too, Your Majesty?" Blue asked with derision enough to come across as unimpressed.
"Oh, no. It seems to me, Blue, that you are not in a fit state of mind to stand trial. It would hardly be fair to you." That stopped both Blue's smirk and Nova's fidgeting. "That leaves me only one option: to keep you here until such time your mental state improves sufficiently to stand trial. You'll be well cared for here: excellent medical professionals, therapy, medication if needed."
"You are keeping me here against my will. I am your prisoner then?"
"Don't worry, Blue. This is not the cave you took in your hands to condemn Regina to."
And they left the cell. Blue reacted a second too late, hammering at the closing padded door.
The council would have to be consulted but if Snow had her way- and she probably would- Blue would not be coming out any time during her lifetime.
.
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"You need to come out, Regina. Get some sun, some air. It's a beautiful day for Hope's first outing. Come, let's go out and brag about our daughter." Emma softly asked.
"You go, then, Emma. I… I' sure everybody would be better off not being reminded that I'm out."
"Everybody is well aware that you are out."
"Be reasonable Emma. I'm not a well loved person in town. If something happens, and Hope is with us… What if she gets hurt because of me?"
"I think you are misjudging things. Did you know that the whole town went after Blue to get that wand that got you out? Everybody, Regina. It was not mass hysteria it was just something that people thought it was right to do. So, how about you give them a little break? If you don't feel comfortable, we'll come right back."
In the end, it was a family outing. Charming offered to carry his gun but at Emma's pointed gaze, he put it back in the safe. Snow, however, was not taking any chances and she did have a little dagger on her. Regina was right about this, but there was no point in adding to Regina's anxiety. People were unpredictable and living in the wild for a few years were lesson enough on that. There was no need for Emma to know. It fit discreetly under her shirt and that was all there was to it.
Of all the paraphernalia that David had bought, Regina actually found the baby carrier the best item and wondered why she hadn't thought about it: it strapped around her back and waist and Hope fit in snugly, cocooned against her chest. And it went a long way to build her courage for her first outing in so long. Emma held her hand, her chest puffing out and Regina sidled to her side to fit in an embrace. She could do this. Of course she could. She put on her Evil Queen face, her don't-mess-with-me face because she was a sleepless, emotional mess in an unfamiliar situation and she grabbed hold of the one thing she knew she could pull off. Thus strengthened, she walked into the world, expecting, at worst to be stoned to death, at best, to be jeered at and cursed. After all, the last time she had walked the streets of Storybrooke, she had been barefoot and her hands had been tied behind her back.
But by the time they had made it to the diner for coffee, there had been several people that had crossed the street to their side and came to greet and to look at the new baby and comment on how beautiful the baby was and had cooed over Hope and teased Henry about being a big brother. Like any normal family. Not one with an Evil Queen in it. Regina's expression slowly melted into something less defying and more astounded, less queen and more Regina. Her defenses lowered without her even noticing.
Of course, the crows had to come home to nest. Mr. Gold, leaning on his cane, had parked himself right on the pavement at the entrance to Granny's. Regina closed her arms around Hope and stopped immediately. She was assaulted by the memory of Gold holding her like a rag doll in court, as vivid as anything else he'd done to her before. And all she wanted was to get Hope away from him. She didn't want him to even see the baby or know about her. But Emma held her hand firmly. "We don't cower, Regina. He can't do anything else to you. It's high time he figures that out."
Regina nodded, her heart pounding in her throat, trying and failing to find her courage. Against her chest, Hope's eyes were wide open, daring her to be brave. Gold didn't move an inch which meant that he was there on purpose. David and Snow moved subtly to stand between him and Regina. Emma pulled Regina further into her standing with together as a unit. "You lost, Gold."
"You can't win them all, Miss Swan. But we can at least try. Isn't it, Your Majesty?" He addressed Regina. Her free hand wrapped around Hope, shielding her as much as she could. "You seemed to have pulled a miracle out of your bag of tricks, deary. I don't think even I had given you enough credit: a besotted savior, a child and the protection of the Royal Family. Impressive. Truly impressive. A happy ending on all accounts, all things considered. But of all the happy, happy endings in town, I am yet to find what I've been looking for."
"And what is that?" Emma asked.
Gold ignored Emma and addressed Regina only. His eyes had captured Regina's and it looked like that was a hold she could not break. "I want my happy ending. We are here because I want my happy ending. I'm entitled to it. Where is my happy ending?" He moved into Regina's space and punctuated each word with a thump of his cane on the floor.
Regina seemed overcome by that gaze locked on hers. Emma pulled at her hand because this was nothing good but right there and then, Regina was again the same rag that Rumplestilskin had dangled in the air during the trial, eyes vacant and terrified. Emma pulled her hand again and Regina's fingers squeezed her hand faintly as if the reaction was coming commanded from very far away. Emma felt the hold of magic, felt it stifling the air and weigh as an immense sadness on her, on her heart, on her limbs until she would have done anything, anything at all just to feel normal again. In the back of her mind, she identified it as magic and fought it. She could feel the tremors in Regina's hand and arm against her but Gold's control only broke when Hope cried for the first time in her life.
Then Hope cried and Emma felt something shift, a power in Regina that was physical, it rolled out of her- of them- and pushed at Gold, pushed him back and away from them. She saw Regina's eyes harden and become cold. She felt Regina steeling herself and fighting fear and experience.
Hope's cry broke Rumplestilskin's magic hold on Regina. Suddenly she was aware again of Emma's solid presence next to her, of Hope in her arms, of Snow and David flanking them and the hold of the past was gone.
Gold too noticed the difference, noticed his magic being pushed back. "I want my boy. I want my happy ending. Give them to me now."
"Is that why you broke what was left of me?" Regina looked at her daughter in her arms, her eyes, so much like the ones that stared back at her from the mirror.
"My boy…" For a fleeting moment, there was pleading in Gold's tone.
Hope settled and smiled. Babies don't smile, not newborn babies. Hope was smiling. And the cowered woman that had been in jail at the mercy of others for so long was gone. She had the strength of her daughter's smile and of Emma holding on to her. "Go home, Mr. Gold. You're not going anywhere." Gold took one step towards her. "Go home to your Belle. She's always stood by you." Each word felt extracted from her throat by a hot poker.
"Leave her out of this." Gold snarled and took one more step towards her, his magic again pushing at her.
"Go home." Her voice was cracking, nothing but a fraction.
Emma thought that Regina looked like that little oak sapling back in the Enchanted Forest, still standing amidst the destruction. She felt the tremors and the fear coming from Regina, in waves, like a scent. She felt the courage too, the fierce, fierce instinct to protect her daughter. That's what it meant to know the truth of Regina, to see the fear in the defiance. Her heart chose the most inopportune moment to fall in love one more time. She squeezed Regina's hand tighter.
Dr Whale walked right into the standoff then, the wild card, and stood between Gold and Regina, ostensibly looking only at the baby but his shoulders were strangely tense. "Hey, Conehead!" He cooed at Hope and touched her cheek. "Don't you clean up nice…How are you, Regina? How are you feeling?" Regina nodded dumbly because he'd seen them both less than two hours before and the exuberance now was weird. The hold Gold had on her was broken by the physical obstacle that was Whale.
Emma plastered herself all over Gold's personal space, Regina's hand still firmly in hers. "You lost. We're okay. Regina is okay. Our baby is okay. And you can't hurt her anymore. Because if you try, Gold, I'll carpet the road with your skin. Magic or no magic."
Ruby came flying out of the diner then and with her hands on Regina's shoulders, claimed her attention away further away from Gold. "Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god! Look at you, little miss! Congratulations, Regina. We couldn't wait to see her but Granny said that we should let you sleep whatever you could and… aw, she's so gorgeous… Granny! Look who's here!"
And the diner emptied out into the street and the patrons surrounded them, separating her from Gold with a wall of bodies that, and though not all were as exuberant as Ruby, was solid enough that she didn't feel the threat that had always come from him like a scent. Most of the patrons were even smiling at her and cooing at her baby. Granny took a second to face Gold and stare him down.
Gold's smirk was sour, a pained, twisted thing. The defeat had been more thorough than he'd had imagined. Regina was surrounded by people, and not in a burn the witch kind of way but a rather– to him – disconcerting, protective, almost friendly way. And it could have been to piss him off because he was used to that guerrilla kind of reaction from them instead of real confrontation (fear was, after all, his weapon of choice), but somehow it felt like it was something more about Regina herself and the wee one than about him. And it was as if his preferred string to pull had been severed.
"Something up your ass, Gold?" Emma's voice dripped with faux sympathy. He leaned on his cane and studied the floor as if conjuring patience. Emma went that last inch into his breathing space. "You better clench, deary, because we're here and we're not going anywhere."
Granny placed her arm around Regina's shoulders while Gold walked away shaking his head slightly. "Come on, then, let's have a sit so that I coo at the child and not look soft in front of too many people. It's bad for my reputation."
~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~
July, 2014
Regina had thought many times that she would have preferred a new house. Something smaller, less loaded with memories, less… imposing. But Emma had gotten this stubborn glint in her eyes and had told her that the house deserved the same chance they'd had and she set out to fix it. From the ground up. The garden had overrun everything and there had been graffiti sprayed onto the walls- in and out. When the mob had broken in that first night, when they'd ripped Regina from Emma's arms, they'd left nothing much behind them: they'd taken papers and personal effects, and the fury of those first few days had left marks on the house that Regina didn't care to see. After the fury had subsided, the house had been left to itself and decayed, open to the elements.
"Are you doing all of this just to prove a point?"
"Pretty much, yeah!" Emma had told her while digging furiously in the garden against overgrown weeds. "Just because something is broken doesn't mean it can't be fixed."
So Hope had taken her first steps between Regina and Emma while the kitchen was painted and broken cabinets were replaced. Leroy was really quite handy at that. And it seemed like both him and Nova were having fun, covered in wall paint and poking at each other with painting rolls.
It took time for the house to be liveable again. It took Leroy and Nova. It took Henry. It took David and Snow. It took Michael Tillman to fix the garage door and Geppetto to fix the wooden doors.
.
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Geppetto carved a bed for Hope out of a tree trunk he'd dragged with Dr Hopper into town and then one day, he arrived at Mifflin Street in a van and with his hat in his hands. "I don't know if you'll like it, Princess. Or even of you would trust me enough to accept it. But I have made it for your little one as I would have liked to make one for a grandchild of mine. From my heart." He looked hopeful between Emma and Regina.
Emma looked at Regina in overalls, covered with paint and holding on to Hope as she always did whenever someone addressed her. The bed was a beautiful thing with rabbits, birds and deer carved deep into the smooth surface of the dark wood. "I hope one day you can forgive me, Princess… Sheriff."
"Emma."
"Emma." Geppetto repeated.
.
.
Regina still preferred to stay out of everyone's way. She preferred not to remind them too much that she would use these things they were fixing so lovingly. Peace with Storybrooke felt fraught at times. She was happy. She was too happy with what she had and that made her nervous, as if something or someone was just waiting around the corner to came and take it all away.
.
.
"Hey, Conehead!" Whale teased when Hope stumbled into his legs. The diner was her playground and Storybrooke her oyster. She would take her wobbling steps anywhere and there was always a hand to pick her up or to steady her up. Regina often wondered if it was because she was Emma's daughter, but as time passed them by, it seemed to her, more and more, that it didn't matter to anyone if Hope was the Evil Queen's daughter too. That if people managed to forget Regina had once been the Evil Queen, they were actually friendly with her at times.
"Didn't I explain to you that I don't like that name?" David grumbled from behind his ice cream. Dr Whale touched his chin where David had left a bruise for that very same reason.
"Yeah… But I'm taking my midwife privilege and using it well and truly." He picked Hope up from the floor and sat her on the counter. "Show me your fangs, Conehead." And Hope did. For some unexplainable reason, according to David, Hope liked the creep. She showed him two gleaming white teeth right at the front and a mouth full of saliva, dribbling down her chin, no matter how many people wiped it dry.
"There is a sore gum in there, isn't there? Yeah… The doctor prescribes ice cream, Conehead. Go ask your Mom for some." Hope was put on the floor giggling madly and tossed herself at Regina. From her own ice cream, Regina fed her little spoonfuls. There was plenty of teething gel and gum soothers at home. Their brand new home. But Regina saw no reason to refuse her daughter ice cream. She saw no reason to deny herself ice cream or oreos with milk before bed time with Henry. She had spent a life time controlling everything down to the last bite of food. In the end, it had been the letting go that had brought her all of this. Emma touched her thigh discretely between them. It had been like that since Hope's birth, as if she had been trying to reassure herself that Regina was there, truly there. Regina had grown dependant on those little touches, the reassurance of them. The presence. The physicality of love.
.
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The pack came on the post in the morning and Emma signed for it, intrigued by the super duper professional package and the Mrs Regina Mills on the address. "R'gina!" She hollered from the door. Now she was curious. Post from the outside world for Regina. That was a first if she remembered correctly. Regina came to her voice, Hope perched on her hip, flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt that had seen better days and baby weight. "Post. For you. From outside."
Regina's reaction was peculiar at best: she hugged Hope to her and when she looked at the size of the package, gave a little twirl on the tips of her bare feet. It hit Emma squarely in chest like it usually did, that almost painful burst of affection, of love, hell, of lust, that wanted to break through her skin. Was it possible to fall in love with the same person so many times a day? Regina opened the pack with Hope in her arms and out of the package slid a thin little book, a blur of colors. "Oh, Emma, look!" But Hope was the first one to lunge for the book, teeth and hands first. Regina let her for a moment and when Hope lost interest she handed it to Emma after cleaning it on her pajama.
The dragon princess and other stories it read on the cover in ominous lettering that was offset by the joyous tones of the rest of the cover, by the shimmering scales of a dragon that Emma had seen in Henry's drawings. And then she saw the names on the cover: Written by Regina Mills and illustrated by Henry Mills.
"Dear Mrs Mills," Regina read the note out loud. "Please find enclosed evidence of the transfer of funds as payment of the royalty for the sale of the first fifty thousand copies. I wanted to write to you personally at this point, to let you know that your stories have touched us a great deal at this publishing house, both the grownups that make the decisions and the children we read them to. We found that all us feel a lot like dragons at times. Thank you for making it feel okay.
Yours sincerely."
Regina nuzzled Hope and then leaned into Emma and just took in the scent o her, the warmth. "They like it Emma. They liked me. They liked me."
Emma closed her arms wound them. "They'd be crazy not to. Now, perhaps you could tell me when you wrote all of this. What was I doing and, more importantly, now that you're a paid writer, will you quit your public servant job?"
"I wrote it when you were away. When I was…"
"In jail." Emma supplied.
"Yes. When I was in jail. And then Henry heard me reading them to Hope and he illustrated them. We made a little book with them and we looked up how to bind it and then… we sent it to them. And they liked it. I knew they had liked it because I signed the papers but…. Emma, they liked it. They like me. And no, I won't quit my job. I like that too."
"You like working for Snow…"
"I don't work for you mother. I work for the town."
"Sure. Admit it, you like your little skirmishes with her."
"I'm not admitting to anything. My job makes Storybrooke work like it always did. Keeps it on the map without really being on it. Inconspicuous. It matters."
"You like it. You like pulling her pigtails and you like it when she pulls yours."
"This job is part of my punishment, of my atonement. I enjoy the work. I do not enjoy pulling anyone's pigtails. Ridiculous."
"Yeah you do. She does too. Keeps you both honest."
"If you say so, dear."
"I do." She plucked Hope from Regina's arms and blew a raspberry on the rounded cheek. "Come on, Hope, I made French toast. Your mom can have some if she admits she likes fighting with grandma."
~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~
June 2023
"They want what?" Snow's voice was shrill on the other side of the line and Emma could hear it all the way inside the fridge where she was trying to forage some breakfast. With Henry back home from college for the holidays, you either ate fast or you didn't.
"They want to come and do an interview." Regina's tone was patient. Over the years it had gradually lost some of the bite when she spoke to Snow.
"So skype them or whatever it is that it's done these days."
"They want to see the town."
"No one will ever agree."
"Maybe, Snow, dear, it's time to open up a little." Regina poured herself coffee and plucked Emma from inside the fridge. Stop hiding she mouthed and kissed Emma soundly on the lips.
"What was that? Are you mocking me, Regina?"
"No dear, I was just defiling your daughter a little more." And she kissed Emma again for good measure. For some obscure reason she had decided to start her day by broaching the subject of outsiders being invited into Storybrooke. Voluntarily. Which was bound to go down well with the Queen. "Think about it: controlled opening. On your terms. Let them film a bit. See the sights, the picturesque landscape, everybody on their best behavior. No magic. It will be good for tourism. Sort of like a trial run."
"What's next? Roller coasters? Ticket offices for the theme park? This is not Disneyland, Regina." Snow's voice was just shrill enough that Emma could hear it where she stood nuzzling Regina's neck.
"Well, we might as well collect on the some of the dividends. The real deal is right here." Emma piped over the phone. "C'mon, mom, you know you're going to put it to the vote…"
"There's a lot to be considered before we open to the public vote and I…"
"You have a bunch of ten year olds to teach and I bet you're not dressed yet. And I'm hungry. I'm really hungry, mommy." Emma interrupted and, as always, Snow deflated at the word mommy. She knew it was half mocking but she would always take any way Emma was willing to give it to her.
"We'll talk about this latter, Regina."
"Absolutely." The phone went silent and she turned to Emma with a wicked smile on her face.
"I bet that made for a great start of your day." Emma commented, tracing the edges of the smile with her finger.
"I feel so very energetic already." Regina smiled wickedly.
"Enough to feed me?"
"And a little something extra if you play your cards right."
"I'm game. Did I tell you look gorgeous?" Regina looked at herself, barefoot, cotton pajama bottoms, fresh faced, not a speck of makeup. Emma got that familiar tug at the pit of her stomach. She was used to it by now. She was used to falling in love with Regina almost every day.
"I'm sure breakfast can wait." She flushed and pulled Emma with her to the bedroom.
Emma had time to shout "Henry, why don't you take your sister to school?" and then the door closed behind them.
.
.
It turned out that when the matter was voted, the overwhelming majority was ridiculously excited about having "foreigners" in town. It made Emma nervous. Very, very nervous. Storybrooke was like Forrest Gump's chocolates: you never knew what you were going to get when you opened it.
"Right," Emma announced, her voice magically magnified. "Be on your best behavior, peeps. Don't be weird. Don't use magic. Don't remark on Disney. Don't be weird. Don't use magic. Use your Storybrooke names. I don't want to hear Pinocchio or Geppetto or Cinderella leaving anyone's mouth, got it? For today, it's Marco and Ashley and Mary Margaret. Don't be weird. Don't use magic. Got it? We're just a quaint little town in Main, s'all."
When the van appeared on the access Road, Regina lifted the barrier over the town and the inhabitants dispersed into their day trying to look inconspicuous, unfairytalelike. Repeating to themselves like a mantra Don't use magic, don't be weird. Don't use magic, don't be weird.
.
.
Regina was flustered when she looked at herself in the mirror. She had tried not to worry about this too much. It was just an interview about the new book, that was all. She had fumbled with her choice of clothes, torn between looking the consummate professional she was every day and the "quirky children's author" the reviews raved about. In the end, had opted for a classic dress because Emma told her that she looked "hot" in it. And now that the crew was here and they had cameras with them, she couldn't help it but to be so nervous she found it difficult to put on her earrings. Emma came in and found her slightly panicking by the mirror.
She slid her arm around Regina's waist. You look great. "Just be yourself."
"Will you be there?"
"You don't need me there."
"I don't. But I'd like to have you there…"
When Regina went down the stairs, the crew was already setting up in her office, closely supervised by Henry. When the interviewer saw Regina coming in, he had a moment of pause. "Miss Mills? I'm John Sampson. Wow. You are nothing like I'd imagined."
"And how was that, dear?"
"Well… Like a children's author… you know… a wide brimmed hat, dungarees… ice tea and madeleines on the porch kind of thing…"
"I'm sorry to disappoint…"
"Oh, gosh, no. I mean… wow, no. You are…"
Henry felt jealousy and anger all broiling in his stomach. He moved towards Regina and put his arm around her shoulders, the height advantage clear. "Careful there, man. That's my mom you're drooling over."
"Oh… I didn't mean… Are you the Henry Mills, then?" Henry nodded. "The illustrator?"
Henry nodded again feeling that he might have to sort out this guy if he didn't soon engage his brain rather than stare dumbly at his mom. "Pleasure to meet you."
"Yeah…" John struggled for words. This was not at all what he had expected to find in this town that barely made to a speck on the map.
"And this is Emma, my mom."
The interviewer had a moment of pause to feel his foot jammed all the way down his throat but recovered quickly. "I wouldn't want to take too much of your time, Mrs Mills. Shall we?"
Regina sat on the sofa and the interviewer settled opposite her. They spoke about her first books, and how readers loved the tag team effort of mother and son, about how the books resonated with both adults and children. How she came across as a recluse sort of author, only now acquiescing to meet with the press.
"Can we talk about your new book, Mrs. Mills? "Once Upon a Time" is selling like, well, hot cakes and the sales are worldwide. What's the secret?" He gave her a wide expectant look.
"Write about you know." Regina said simply.
Emma could see the armor from where she stood. The dress was just a part of it, the rest was the posture, straight as a ruler, the jaw set firmly and the for-the-public-only smile.
"The book is about fairy tale characters. Do you know a lot of those?" He smiled winningly at her. Regina Mills, the author, had a reputation for eccentricity so he saw his chance there. How great would it be if he made her cop up to a belief system based on fairy godmothers and magic? Might even make his trip this far up north worthwhile.
"It's about a little more than that, I hope. But I'd say I know a few."
"So… do they live in town or…"
"How did you guess?" Regina smiled a little like a shark and Emma relaxed then. Sometimes she worried still about Regina, about the things that had broken in her after Emma had arrived in town. But then there were times like this when she saw the merest of glimpses of the Evil Queen and that was reassuring. And it gave her a frisson of promise and naughty. "Would you care to meet them?"
Oh, no, no, no, you did not just set the cat lose among the pigeons… Emma fretted because you never knew when all hell would break loose and the citizens lost sight of their promise for the day. And then she'd be cleaning up the mess. Magic was wild and unpredictable here and it would not be the first time when she and Regina had had to pick up pieces and do the cleaning job themselves. But to do that with an outsider in the mix was not her idea of fun.
"I'd love to."
"I hope your shoes were made for walking, dear."
Emma wanted out of the door as fast as she could inconspicuously do, moving ahead of Regina and the John Sampson dude, just to remind Storybrooke to not be weird and to not do magic. The nerves were going to make her stomach explode. So her first port of call would have to be the pharmacy for a roll of Tums. "I'm going to pick up Hope." She placed a kiss on Regina's lips. "See you around." It was about three hours too soon but it didn't look like that reporter boy was paying any attention to anything but Regina's cleavage.
.
.
"The secret is to have people, not caricatures, I think. We all grapple with good and evil, right and wrong. Reducing that to a simple concept is self serving at best. Ultimately, I think, good and evil are just people trying to survive what life dishes out. Some just do it better than others."
"So what's the secret to doing it right?"
Regina stuffed her hands in the pockets of her dress. "You worry lot about secrets…" Regina sighed. "It's not a secret." Her steps slowed down and she held her gaze at the interviewer, daring him to make fun of her. "It's love. Isn't that what we're all looking for? Love. The love of a father or a mother. The love of child or of a lover. A friend. Someone to be there for you when something goes wrong. Loneliness, abandonment, carelessness… they break the toughest of hearts. And a broken heart can make you do unspeakable things." Regina shrugged trying to lighten up the mood. "Too romantic?"
"It's a lovely thought. Mrs Mills."
"Love is an instinct. It's a strength. I've learned that the hard way. It took a village to show me that."
"It sounds serious…"
"Not terribly." She gave him a wink and thought about the bars that would not open and a collar that burned her neck. About the wand that opened the bars.
Her smile made John Sampson, professional cynic, weak at the knees. He would have to watch himself, especially with her son around. He seemed very protective. And very tall even if not remarkably athletic.
"Hi Regina." A man with graying ginger hair greeted his interviewee with a wave of an umbrella out of place in a bright summer day. "Lovely day for a walk, isn't it?"
"So… is he in the book?" He asked when the man had moved along.
Regina smiled fondly when Pongo nuzzled her hand in goodbye. "Indeed. That would be Jiminy Cricket." She took a second to assess his reaction.
She was gambling with the future of her town. She wanted to give the world a little of the truth, to let a little of it seep outside of the town line. Let the world know the real them. They had all earned stop being caricatures and be real people. But it was a delicate balance not to go too far. Not to let the ball drop.
"Huh… Okay, I can see it. The umbrella is there… I guess the rest comes from your imagination." Regina did not commit wither way.
"He's on his way to met with… ah, see, there he is, Marco, his best friend."
"That would make him Geppetto in your book."
"Indeed…"
"Why? Just because he's old?"
Time to deflect, Regina thought. "We have other old people in town, dear. We don't migrate them when they get unsightly. Marco was a carpenter. Before he retired, he made a bed for my daughter. He carved it out of a fallen tree and gifted it to her on her first birthday. It's beautiful wood work. The leap was immediate…"
He laughed with her. It was easy. She was charming. "You must be very well loved in town then."
"I think it was more about Emma than me. Besides, do you know of any politicians that are well loved?"
"But you used to be mayor, right?"
"Indeed. Public offices rarely have public affection for the politician as a perk. And now I'm a public servant for my day job."
"I didn't think you'd need a day job. Your books are wildly successful."
"I find it builds character."
"And her?" John asked watching Snow come down Main Street in a cute- and quite short- summer dress. "You have a town full of beautiful people."
"And most of them, married. " It sounded like a warning because it definitely was one. "It's probably something in the air, but you'll find that True Love here is more than a myth. That would be Mary Margaret. I like to think of her as Snow White. And her Prince Charming, of course, is the tall one walking right behind her." It was said with enough derision to make him smile. "Shall we have some coffee?"
"I'd love an Evian."
"Hum… Big city people. Evian it is." When Ruby came around to get their orders, his eyes nearly popped out.
"And this would be…"
"Little Red Riding Hood…"
"Forgive me, but the reason it's not quite apparent…"
"Some people, you just have to get to know them better. They don't wear everything on their skin."
"Do you?"
"No."
"Care to elaborate?"
"No."
"Well, that's simple enough."
"Sometimes, they're the best answers."
"So… What about your… what about Emma?"
From her seat, Regina saw Emma coming down the street, Hope by her side. As alike as two little drops of water. For a fleeting moment, a shadow that he could not quite identify hovered over the writer's face. "There was a time we both would have told you she is not in any book…" And then a smiled bloomed on her face without her even noticing."The White Knight." It was a smile that made him wistful for all the one days that he had ever contemplated. "She's my White Knight." That smile was so private that he felt he was intruding on something.
"Okay… That leaves the Evil Queen."
"Oh, that would be me, dear…"
For a second, he felt a wave of uneasiness. Which was strange, because this was a woman who wrote children's books. The next best thing would be a safe, portly grandmother.
The bell over the door chimed and the woman in front of him smiled. "Really? I would have pegged you for a princess of some sort." For just a second, he thought it was at his gauche comment that made that smile grow wider. When a little girl appeared from behind him, it was obvious whom it was for. And it wasn't him.
"Well," Hope, in her school uniform, slid into the booth next to her mother and hugged her by the waist. "Princesses come in all sizes, shapes and dispositions. Sometimes, they are even Evil Queens. Hi Mom. Can I have ice cream?"
Regina made a show of looking at her watch. It was early. It was really early. It seemed that the teachers had wanted to come out and look at the outsider for themselves. So much for the not being weird thing. She ran her hand through Hope's pigtails pushing strands back. "Homework?"
"Later. I promise. You can check."
"One scoop."
He saw the girl getting up and, like in a time lapse, an older version replaced her. Emma. "Your daughter looks remarkably like…" He hesitated then. He didn't quite know the particulars of the family, but it was starting to build a picture. Not that Mrs Mills had made any concessions for discussion of her private life when the interview with the recluse author had been arranged.
"Her mother. I know. Like two drops of water…"
Hope returned with ice cream and Henry in tow. Henry sat with his sister in his lap and made a show of dipping his finger in her ice cream and teasingly licking his finger. "Mooooooooom!" the girl whined. "Henry's licking my ice cream."
"I noticed."
"Aren't you going to do something about it?"
Regina dipped her finger in the ice cream already melting and licked it. She looked just like her son. "No. It's melting. You'd better hurry…"
"Hey Conehead!" Whale greeted when we passed on the way to seat by the counter.
"Hey Frankenwinnie!" Hope volleyed back with the ease of ten years of banter at the same time she defended her ice cream with a well aimed spoon at Henry's finger. "Did mom tell you?" She asked him. "Frankenwinnie is in the book too. I didn't read it. Mom said this one is for Henry, not for me. But he's in the book. Henry said so."
"Oh… and what's he? Pinnochio?"
"Frankenstein." Emma teased having decided to enjoy the tease. He was looking too low down Regina's face for it to still her face. And okay, she got it, she had the same problem herself, but she was allowed. And it was pissing her off enough that if she had to do some Jedi mind trick on him, she was now well versed enough to not fry his brain too badly.
"That's not a fairy tale."
"So?" Emma and Hope questioned at the same time.
"Sorry… I thought that… never mind. But he doesn't look very monstrous at all."
"Looks can be deceiving." Hope told him judiciously, the effect only mildly spoiled by the bouncing of her pigtails as her brother bounced her on his knee.
"Why do you call him Frankenwinnie?"
"He fainted when I was born, didn't he mom?" And it was probably a family joke because they all laughed and the two women held hands the way people do when they share an emotion.
"So Henry, this book was for you?" Henry beamed at his mother. "Why this one?"
"Because now we were ready for it. Mom was ready to write it. We were ready to read it. Things have a way of happening in the right time around here."
"It's a special town." Emma put in.
"When I was Hope's age, I was given a book. A fairytale book. And then, for a while, things were a little… complicated." Henry stopped for a little, not really knowing how to continue or even if he wanted. Regina leaned across the table to touch his hand. Hope just kissed him on the cheek. "And then things happen that remind you that just because something is broken, it doesn't mean that it's not worth to fix it."
"Which is the moral of the book…"
"Well… in way." Henry pondered. "Maybe it's just me, but I think the true moral of the book is not to underestimate how strong love makes you." John looked at the family sitting with him, at the way they lived their affection, so physical, so tactile. At the way they had of looking at each other, protective and fierce and absolutely without walls between them.
"And don't forget the main lesson." Hope licked her spoon and rubbed it down Henry's face, facelick style. Henry grunted and grabbed the spoon and after a quick tug of war was repaying in kind. When John looked expectantly at her, she smiled. "Dragons." As if that explained everything.
"Sometimes, dragons are just princesses waiting for someone to act with beauty and courage." The four chorused.
.
.
John Sampson stopped the van right after the Leaving Storybrooke sign. It was if the air itself had changed. He exited the van and looked back to the town and already it seemed that it was losing definition in its contours. It was a strange little place full of people that led small lives concerned with great things like love and good and evil. He'd be glad to leave this place, its former mayor and her family. They made him feel small and incomplete and he had not bargained on that when he'd come around to interview a skittish author of children's tales. He got back into the van and thought of home. He liked New York. He liked his vapid life style and the people that gravitated in it. Now he just had to stop thinking about Storybrooke.
.
.
It used to be entirely too possible to sneak into the broom closet at the Sheriff's station and get cozy. Regina would bring lunch and they would sneak in turns down the corridor. Not that anyone would begrudge them a little alone time but it added to the excitement. But lately, it seemed that that everything was conspiring to make them behave in a public place, because the interruption didn't come from someone knocking at the door that Regina had magically locked but from her phone and them Emma's and then hers again.
Regina broke the kiss because with Emma's tongue so far down her throat it was impossible to read the display. There was a moment of panic: Snow. And Snow in teacher mode because this was school time which could only mean something had happened to Hope. But there was a text and it had a video file attached.
Your daughter's essay. Just thought you and Emma would like to see it.
Regina opened the file and there Hope was, a smaller, shinier version of Emma. The eyes were Regina's though. Big, round, and old, like they had already seen more than any child her age would have.
The camera flickered and wavered for a few seconds as Snow settled to film and then Hope cleared her voice, commanding attention as easily as Regina did. She began reading from her notebook.
"My hero.
I think the greatest trait of a hero is not a cape or a hammer or shield but kindness. So we must remember to be kind. It makes us braver, stronger. We must remember to carry what we feel for others in the air, out in open because sometimes, it's the only way they know and can feel it too. So that they can feel loved. What good is it to love someone and keep it inside? What good is it to love someone and let them fall like sand through your fingers? We should hold on to the ones we love and be like a koala on a tree and grip them firmly and never let go. I learnt that from my Memma. We hold on. We don't let go. We believe the best about people and we don't let go of that belief because when someone believes the best about you and they tell you that, you believe it too. That's important. Not just that someone believes you but that they teach you to believe the best about yourself too.
I don't know if anyone ever told my Mom that she is special. Not except for Memma. Of course, we all are, Mom says, in our own way, special, and that's like those things that grownups say every once in a while when we're sad and nothing feels like it's ever going to be okay. But my Mom really is special in a special, different kind of way. She's special because she let her heart grow back.
It took a village to save us, me and her but it took her courage to let a heart grow back. Life gets bigger the braver you are. My Mom was so brave. She let her heart grow back, she let herself believe.
I know my Mom did really bad things. I know my Mom was really cruel and mean for a while and that she hurt a lot of people. But I wish you could see her the way I do: how she puffs out her chest before she goes out, the way she looks at Memma sometimes as if she could not quite believe someone like that would ever want her, the way she hides her hands in her pockets when there is a school recital and people look at her like she might fall of the wagon and do something bad. I wish you could see how brave my Mom is the way I do: she comes to every recital and she bakes apple pies even knowing that people sometimes refuse to eat them, especially when they are upset or angry. And she loves my Memma even knowing that Memma is free to leave. I know my Mom did some really bad things. But I know that those things live with her, that she sometimes dreams of them and of how she can't take them back. Of how none of those bad things she did ever made her feel any better. So my Mom is special because she has all those things weighing in her heart and still, every day, she risks coming out and looking at people and she stands there and she gives them time to remember the things she did and still she is the best she can be. I wish you could see how brave she needs to be for that. I wish you would know how much she needs us to keep believing the best of her because sometimes, when something breaks in you, it takes a very long time and a lot of people to fix it.
My Mom can't change the things she's done. But she is my Mom. Those things have left marks on her, things that don't go away. Memma says it's okay, that the stuff we do should stick with us because that's what we were and sometimes it's all we can do, to remember, to let it hurt us a little but that it can only makes us better now than what we were then. And now, my Mom is the person that tells me fairy tales at bed time, that rubs my tummy when it hurts and that bakes the best double chocolate chip cookies in the whole wide world.
All it took was my Memma not walking away. Mom says I get that from her but most of the times I don't think she quite likes it that much because she say I'm too stubborn. Memma didn't walk away. I think I remember that day. Mom says it's not possible because I hadn't even been conceived by then but Memma just rolls her eyes, you know that thing she does, and just says yeah, yeah, but trolls are real and mom always backs down. I remember that when Memma was Emma, she told my Mom that she didn't have a heart. I remember that Mom, when she was just the mayor, said she didn't and I remember that Memma, right before she was Memma, thought that she had to get that heart back because it's not fair that someone had to live without one and that if she failed, she might as well give Mom her own if she wanted it. And I remember, very clearly, that when she put my Mom's heart- back when she was just the mayor- in her chest, my mom smiled and then she was Mom.
So you see, when you look at my Mom, you know the things she did, but you don't know how she is. And I – and Memma and Henry- we know that she's pretty awesome.
What I'm trying to say, is that real heroes aren't made of steel and they don't have superpowers and they're not always perfect. What would the point of that be? If you're made of steel, there's nothing much to stopping a bullet. I think heroes are regular people that don't let the world tell them who they are or what they should do. I like heroes that bruise like a peach or bleed when they peel vegetables for dinner. My heroes act with beauty and truth even when they trip over their own feet. Mom says that Memma tripping on her feet a lot never made her any less heroic.
You all know me: I'm only the second child to be born in Storybrooke in twenty-nine years. Sometimes you tease me because I have two moms or because one of them was the Evil Queen. But I don't mind because when my Mom needed a village, when I needed you to be born, you were there. Or your parents were there.
Grandma says that I am proof that it takes a village to raise child. Mom always says that it takes a village idiot to believe that but I know she believes it too. She just likes to mess with Grandma's head. A lot of people let my Mom down before. They let her slip through their fingers like sand and she became the Evil Queen. But when it mattered, it was the kindness of a whole village that saved us.
I guess what that means is that a hero is not a hero because it has a cape or a shield or a weapon but has kindness in their heart and a hand to hold yours because darkness can't make darkness go away. Only light can do that.
That's what I think, anyway…
.
.
When the video stopped playing and the screen faded to black, Regina slumped against Emma, tears falling free down her cheeks. "Look at what we've done, Emma." She played the file again and stopped on a frame of Hope standing tall in front of her class, reading her paper. Her fingers hovered over the image. "Look at what we've done."
"She's pretty awesome, huh?"
"Pretty awesome." Regina half laughed, half sobbed and held on to Emma for dear life.
.
.
Emma woke up early. She liked summer. The day started early and finished late and the light filtered through the drapes and it danced in leaf patterns on the floor. As if she had sensed her awake, Regina rolled over and draped herself over Emma, skin on skin, her head on Emma's breast, her hair falling in soft messy waves. Emma liked the intimacy of sleeping next to Regina almost more than anything else. She loved the vulnerability of it, the trust. In sleep, Regina was truly disarmed, her face relaxed and young, so very young despite the first hints of wrinkles. The Regina that still had to put a game face on to go outside did not come here. Here there was only the Regina that trusted, that loved, that accepted. And that Regina was beautiful.
In mornings like these- or maybe it was every morning- Emma knew that she would keep on falling in love again and again. And wasn't that the greatest surprise of them all: that love hadn't been through with them. They had both loved and lost but love hadn't been through with them.
She closed her eyes and waited patiently for Regina to wake up. She always wanted that first moment when they said good morning because over the years, Emma had come to realize that her day hadn't quite begun until she greeted the woman sleeping in her arms and drooling a little on her skin. She loved mornings. Summer or otherwise.
..
..
In the Enchanted Forest, rabbits run in the forest, flowers bloom and apples fall from trees, ripe, blushed by the sun. There are rain showers and spiders. Water runs crystal clear in the creeks and rivers. Deep in the belly of the land, diamonds grow and bloom with magic.
The end.
~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQ~SQQ~SQ~SQ~
"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
Albert Einstein.
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Final author's note: And that's all there is. There isn't any more.
Thank you all for your patience with this story, the slow pace and the sow updates. Thank you to the people that have stayed with me on this for the little over a year that it took to write this. I know who you are and am thankful that you did not give this story up.
Much love
Jane