Here is the final chapter. Please let me know what you thought of the story. It would mean so much to me. Thank you for everyone who stuck through it until the end. Thank you to EvilRegalTwinnies for allowing me to run ideas past you and all your help. I am thinking about writing a sequel to this, so please everyone let me know if there is any interest.
Warning: I may have broken my own sappiness rule while writing this chapter. I hope it is still good though.
Regina wanted to continue holding on to her daughter forever. She didn't realize how much she needed to feel her arms around her child all these years, but now she was here. With every second that passed she could feel herself changing slightly, becoming lighter as every last trace of potion that was in her system left.
Danielle let go first and pulled back, Regina did as well reluctantly. She looked into her daughter's face. She was so much older now, but she could still see the five year old inside. The eyes that seemed almost painfully piercing to her once were enchanting.
"You've grown up so beautifully" Regina said with a smile.
Danielle frowned, "You weren't there."
Regina broke down into tears, "I wanted to be…I mean I should have been but I…" she tried to think of a way to explain to her daughter her absence.
"You were under a curse I know, after grandma faked my death." Danielle said.
"Yes." Regina said, looking around the room for her mother, but only seeing Gold and Mary Margaret.
"Where is Cora?" Regina asked.
The group began to look around desperately. Although she had helped with remembering Danielle she was still the one who faked her granddaughter's death. She was still very dangerous. They all jumped with a knock came at the door.
"Mary Margaret would you mind seeing who that is?" Regina asked. The woman obliged and walked over to the door and opened it up slowly and was greeted by Henry.
"What is going on, why was Gold summoned, is my mom okay is she here?" Henry fired out the questions as he barreled into the room and stopped once be saw Regina sitting up on the couch, looking a bit more pale than usual.
"Mom are you okay, what is going on?" Henry asked as he walked over to her.
"Yes Henry I'm fine, I was just sick but I'm all better now you have nothing to worry about I promise" Regina answered, stroking her son's hair.
"Mom?" Danielle asked, surprised to hear someone else call her mother by that name.
"Who is this?" Henry asked curiously.
"Henry…this is Danielle. She is my daughter." Regina said.
"But how…when?" Henry asked confused.
"Back in the Enchanted Forest, during my marriage to the King." Regina said again calmly.
"You never said anything."
"I was under a spell, made me forget. Before I cast the curse my mother made everyone think Danielle had died in an accident but actually she was living with a family not too far away." Regina explained.
"So I have a big sister?" Henry asked with a tone of excitement.
"Yes you do, Danielle, this is my son Henry." Regina said turning to give her daughter more of the attention that she had missed all these years.
"So you're telling me that on top of the fact that I actually was the princess I thought I was all along, my mother is alive and turned into the Evil Queen who brought everyone to Maine, I also have a little brother as well?" Danielle asked.
"That would be me." Henry answered with a smile.
His enthusiastic response couldn't help but make Danielle laugh. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit strange?" Danielle said.
"About once a week." Henry replied back.
Regina smiled, when Henry first walked in the door she was worried that Danielle had thought she had replaced her. But she and Henry had already begun to find a rhythm it seemed. But looking into Danielle's eyes more she sensed that her daughter was just a bit uncomfortable.
"I think I'm gonna call my dad if that is okay, let him know what is going on." Danielle said.
"Of course, the phone is in the kitchen." Regina said, pointing the way.
Danielle nodded and walked out of the room, thankful to have some time alone to breathe. Everything that was happening was wonderful…but it was a lot to take in. Everyone was so happy and overwhelmed, but Danielle decided she just needed a moment to be.
A moment after Danielle left the room it was filled with a cloud of purple smoke as Cora appeared with a wooden box in her hands.
"Mother, where did you go." Regina asked
"I had to pick something up, once I saw you were okay" Cora replied, holding up the box in her hand.
"You took my daughter from me. You made me think she had died and gave her away to be raised by strangers" Regina answered, every word ripe with anger.
"It's a gift for you." Cora said as she stepped closer.
"Taking my daughter from me was a gift?"
"No, this box." Cora said handing it to her. Regina looked down at its polished wood and engraved lid. She knew what it contained, there were no other uses for boxes like this, she opened it and saw a beating heart inside.
"Whose heart is this mother?" Regina asked.
"It is mine." Cora replied with something that almost looked like a smile. Regina looked on dumbfounded, "Love is weakness or so I was told, and I had to get rid of my weakness so I ripped by heart out." She glanced over at Gold as she said this. "That was before you were born Regina, before I married your father even. And ever since then I haven't been able to act using my heart. Only using my head, and what seemed logical. I used my head to determine what was best for you. Which was to become queen, it told me that I must do anything to keep you with me and on that path to queen; even if that meant killing your stable boy and faking your daughter's death. But now I can see, logically, that I was wrong. That hurt you, it almost killed you now. So logically I can't make decisions or be a mother with just my head, so I am giving you my heart. That is my love Regina, because I think you just might have been right, love is strength."
Regina could not believe the words that were coming out of her mother's mouth. They almost sounded like an apology. She looked her mother in the eye and could not sense any kind of deceit or ulterior motive waiting for her. So she picked up her mother's heart, holding it gently in her hand before plunging it into her mother's chest and returning it to its proper place.
Cora stepped back slightly her hand instinctively went to cover the place that Regina's hand had just been. But she was not in pain…but she felt for the first time since she was simply the Miller's daughter. She smiled up at her daughter.
"Regina"
"Mother" Regina said with a smile so large. Because in her mother's eyes she saw what she had been searching for her whole childhood; love, unconditional love from the woman who gave birth to her.
"Where is my granddaughter?" Cora asked, "I have so much to apologize for."
"I'm here" Danielle said as she stepped out from behind the corner from where she had been listening, "my dad is coming by if that is okay?"
"Of course it is." Regina said.
"Danielle, I'm so sorry. What I did to you and your mother was wrong but…"
"You didn't have your heart." Danielle answered.
"Yes." Cora replied.
"I forgive you." Danielle said moving closer. Regina wrapped her arm around her, not wanting to let her go. Cora moved forward slowly, not wanting to scare away the acceptance that she felt she was unjustly receiving from the two people she hurt most, and also loved most. Regina reached out her other hand and pulled her mother into a hug. It was awkward, the three generations that had never been much for showing affection not quite knowing how to behave but also compelled by the need to hold each other as if a hug would make sure the family did not fracture again.
Danielle looked back into the room. Gold was making is way to the door and Henry and Mary Margaret stood close by. "Hey siblings, get your butts in here." She said to them with a chuckle. Mary Margaret didn't need any more of a welcome before she dragged Henry over to join the huddle.
The sound of a throat clearing came from near the door. "I'm sorry I didn't need to interrupt it was just Danielle called me and…"
"Dad" Danielle said walking over to him. "I would like you to meet my family"
