Chapter 13
Regina Is The Scapegoat
It being so late it didn't take long to get the kids to sleep. Neal had checked them in while Emma went to see her parents. When Emma back she had them with her. Neal took one look at Mary-Margaret and widen eyed "Uh...uh...congratulations".
Going to sit down Mary-Margaret asked "have you never seen a pregnant woman before".
Emma asked "talking of, where are..."
Neal answered "fast asleep upstairs".
Turning to her parents she said "alright if either them wake up, you're helping me with a case". She and Neal sat down "so what happened, besides the obvious" she asked gesturing to Mary-Margaret's abdomen.
Mary-Margaret answered "we don't know". we remember watching you cross the town line, Regina cast her spell to take us back to the enchanted forest, then is anyone's guess".
David said "next thing we're waking up like it's another day in Storybrooke".
Mary-Margaret added "but obviously it wasn't".
Hook commented "bad luck mate, nearly harvest time but you can't remember the planting".
Mary-Margaret said "we're not sure if we even left Storybrooke".
Hook said "oh we did, I was there, we met up with a prince and princess called Phillip and Aurora, but I wasn't feeling in a mood so I left".
Mary-Margaret asked "but if you left how did you know to give Emma the message to come back".
Neal answered "he said it was a dove".
Hook said "Aye, a dove landed on my ship with a message to get Emma and a vial of memory potion."
Grumpy and Happy burst in, Grumpy said "that's three we've lost now".
Happy said "no four, Bashful's not picking up".
Emma asked "what's been going on"?
Noticing her Grumpy said "glad you're back sister".
Answering Emma's question Mary-Margaret explained "it's not just our memories that have gone, since we got back people have been disappearing".
David added "it seems whoever's behind this is picking us off, one by"...
"Mommy, daddy" said a small voice. They turned around and saw Tally in the doorway with tears in her eyes. "What's the matter, Sugarplum? Come here and tell us".
Tally came over a little wary of the other people in the room then quickly jumped onto the couch with her mommy and daddy. Emma put her arms around Tally and asked "now what's wrong sweetheart"?
Tally answered "I had a bad dream".
Neal said "but you know nothing in a dream can hurt you".
Tally asked "but what if it could hurt you".
Why would Tally ever think her dream could hurt Neal? Concerned Emma asked "okay Tally could you tell me what happened in your dream"?
"There was a witch" answered Tally.
Neal asked "and what did this witch look like"?
Tally said "she had red hair and green skin".
Emma asked "and what was the witch doing".
Tally said "collecting things, golden string, a few feathers of a blue bird, but for the last ingredient she wanted me or Henry or daddy. It was as if whatever she wanted she could only get from us".
Neal asked "and what was that? What did she want"?
Tally said "I don't know".
Emma said "well let's get you back to bed".
Emma got up and took Tally's hand to take her back to bed Tally asked "will you stay with me until I fall asleep"?
Emma said "sure sweetie".
Tally called "goodnight daddy".
Neal said "goodnight Sugar Plum"
When they were gone Neal asked "do you know specifically who's missing"?
David said "not every single one".
Neal said "so a few of your brothers".
Grumpy and Happy nodded
Neal asked "Ruby"?
"Accounted for"
"Archie"?
"Accounted for"
"Belle"?
"Unaccounted for".
The next morning the family went into the diner for breakfast, a few people looked happy to see they'd returned. When Ruby brought them their drinks Henry saw cinnamon in their Hot cocoa. "Hey, cinnamon, how'd you know"?
From Emma's face Ruby could tell Henry still didn't remember. She replied "a guess, you have a ...cinnamon kind of face".
Mary-Margaret and David came in "oh Tally, Henry these are old friends of mine, David and Mary-Margaret".
Henry asked "are you helping my mom with her case"?
David answered "sure are, I give your mom any evidence we find to help her".
Henry asked "how can you give her evidence"?
Neal said "David is the sheriff of Storybrooke" remembering how he and Emma co-sheriffed the town.
Henry then asked "where'd you meet my mom"?
Mary-Margaret said "here".
While Emma said "Phoenix".
Emma said "well Phoenix then here".
Henry asked "but I thought you were only in Phoenix for being in that place".
Mary-Margaret answered for Emma "right, we were cell mates".
Tally asked "what did you do naughty"?
Mary-Margaret decided to choose the closest thing to the truth "banditry". Tally looked confused "it's stealing on the road. We all make mistakes, but in my defence I was homeless and struggling each day to stay alive". Sitting down at the same booth she added "the important thing is to move past it".
David said "now shall we order? Let's order".
The sound of a broken mug alerted everyone's attention and turned and saw Regina with her mouth open. Looking into Henry's eyes it didn't take Regina long to realize he didn't know who she was. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you".
Henry said "that's okay".
Regina tried to take the back way out but Emma followed her. Tally asked "who she"?
Neal said "the mayor," Neal glanced at David to be sure under this new curse Regina was still the mayor and David nodded. "Mommy has to speak with her so she can gain access to the town's resources".
Henry asked "is this guy that bad? mom usually just sets up a trap and catches them".
Neal answered "well this guy, he is slippery, she's going to need support to catch him. I think I'm going to see how Emma's getting along with her. Could you two watch them"?
As David and Mary-Margaret agreed Neal followed where Emma and Regina had gone.
"Maybe the curse was your way of making me bringing Henry back"
"With no memory of me. If I wanted my son back do you think I'd put myself through this kind of torture. I cast curse to hurt other people, not myself".
Neal said "she's right having the person you love not notice you is hard enough but to have them see you as nothing more than a stranger"...
Emma said "maybe so but I need to start crossing people off the list".
Neal asked "and how exactly are you going to do that"?
Emma answered "I'll talk to everyone and use my superpower".
Regina said "going up to everyone asking did you cast the curse? did you cast the curse"?
Emma asked "and what do you suggest"?
Regina suggested "you ask everyone and the person who is going to have their guard up and have time to find a way to dodge you, you need them to think you suspect someone else".
Later another person had disappeared only this time there were witnesses, Robin Hood and his merry men (minus Little John). It had turned out Little John had been carried off by a monster sounding like a flying monkey like what Neal said Walsh had turned into. Emma decided it was best to call a town meeting to talk to everyone. Regina knew she'd be suspected, all they needed was one person to say it and they could use it to throw the real person who cast the curse off their guard. Neal waited in Regina's office, she arrived after a slight tremor "good meeting"?
Regina said "I knew I'd be suspected, I didn't think it would take the crowd so soon to turn on me".
Neal commented "well, you do have a record".
Regina replied "thank you, that was the point Leroy made"?
Emma came in and said "an earthquake, seriously"?
Regina replied "I had to make a statement, and you're fine".
Neal said "it was effective at least".
Emma said "absolutely".
Neal tossed what was left of the memory potion to Regina "now let's find out who really cursed the town".
They tried to replicate the potion and when they were finished Regina took a drink will hopeful eyes and Emma and Neal watched. Emma asked "did it work, do you remember"? Regina threw the glass against the wall with great force. "Either that wall did something to you in the last year or I'm going to say it didn't work".
Neal said "well it was a long shot, we knew it".
Emma said "shall we start again"?
Regina replied "no I used up what was left of the potion Hook gave you, there's nothing left to replicate. I can't live in this town if Henry doesn't remember me. It's worse than any curse I could've cast".
Emma said "what if we could still use it to find out who cursed the town"?
Neal asked "how, Regina said she used it up",
Emma said "we don't need it to use it. We've been running a con by making this is secret, what if we've been running the wrong con".
Regina replied "sorry, I'm not well versed in cons, unlike you I never spent time in prison".
Emma said "it's not something I learnt in prison it's an old bail bonds trick, you smoke out the perp by making them think you're onto them. If the person who cursed you thought we were about to make a memory potion"...
"They'd try to stop us" Regina realised.
"And then we set a trap from them when they do. We just need to get the word out that you're close to making this work".
Regina said "and I know just who to tell".
Neal said "let me guess Leroy".
Emma made sure Leroy overheard her talking to Neal about finding Regina in her office working on a memory potion. Said she was going to prove she didn't cast the curse by bringing back everyone's memories. Emma and Regina were out on a stake out and Neal was waiting for Emma in David and Mary-Margaret's loft. Tally can up to him and gave him a colouring. "What's this"? he asked
Tally answered "my nightmare, remember".
In the colouring there was a green witch with red hair in the middle. In the top left corner there was a wheel was something yellow around it, in the top right corner was a blue bird and underneath was him, Henry and Tally with unhappy faces.
That's when Emma and Regina came in, "Mommy" Tally called.
"Mom" said Henry happily.
Regina dared to believe for a second he said it to her.
Neal looked at Emma and Emma shook her head indicating the trap hadn't worked. Before they left Neal showed Emma Tally's colouring "Tally's had nightmares before and I'd never seen her as scared as she was last night. And the fact she felt she had to do a colouring of it makes me think there was more to her dream than we think".
So can you guess what Tally's dream means, if you want to make a guess I suggest thinking of the hints through the eyes of a child.
