A/N: Sorry for the delay! I've been somewhat depressed and quite busy with school and all, but I'm feeling a little better now if a lot tired. Of course, none of the OUAT characters belong to me!
"Snow," He sighed as they pulled away from one another. He blinked and said again, "Snow!" He beamed and wrapped her in a tight hug, pulling away to cup her cheeks and study every detail of her face. The soft curve of her smile, the undulling brightness of her eyes, tiny birthmark on her cheek.
"You're okay! And here! And Emma, that was why you were here before? Is she okay? Where have you two been living? Have you adjusted to this world? Are you—"
"Charming!" She laughed as happy tears streamed down her face. "Take a breath."
He nodded and hugged her again and she buried her face into his chest. They were so absorbed in one another for those few precious minutes that they didn't notice the growing group of people in the doorway until they heard the soft and confused murmurs.
"Snow White and Prince Charming!"
The couple turned in surprise and smiled at the sight of the fairies and Dr. Whale and a few other fairytale characters crowded into the small hospital doorway. They were staring at one another, and at Snow and Charming, in shock and surprise. Some of them embraced one another, some cried, some had smiles so wide Snow was worried they would split their face in two.
"It worked." Snow breathed in awe. Her awe quickly turned sour, however, when she realized that that meant that everyone knew the curse was broken; including Regina. And Snow had left Emma and Vicky and the girls all alone in their room at the inn.
She looked quickly at her husband—her husband, she thought thinking briefly of Princess Abigail—and her eyes easily communicated her urgent sense of worry to him.
"Regina?" He asked before the name had even formed on her lips, and she nodded quickly. They had to cut their review short—they had to go. Snow, and now Charming, had to make sure that Emma and Vicky and the girls were okay.
Vicky opened the door with a smile, expecting Snow. The smile slowly faded from her face, turning into a grimace of pain as a hand was thrust through her chest. Beating frantically, her heart still beat once it was outside of her body and in the hands of Regina Mills. Vicky could only stare in shock and horror, deaf to the screams of her daughters in the room behind her. Her heart was lighter in color than she had ever imagined, not that she ever had, a pale almost see through pink. She noticed all of this with an almost clinical detachment before her eyes rolled back into her head and she dropped to the floor.
Regina stepped over her body and studied the wide-eyed girls huddled together in distaste, a scowl forming on her apple red lips. They reminded her of a younger Snow White, with their raven hair and large eyes. The taller, and presumably older, of the two stepped forward, pushing the smaller one behind her slightly. Regina rolled her eyes at the touching display of protection, tossing the heart back and forth in her hands.
"Who are you?" The girl asked. Her voice trembled slightly and her gaze flickered back and forth from her mother lying unconscious across the threshold and her heart in Regina's hands.
Before Regina could answer, the smaller girl spoke, a fearful reverence in her voice. "She's the Evil Queen."
Regina's responding grin was wide, almost flattered, and it only widened as Emma's soft, sleepy cry came from the car seat in the corner. "You're damn right I am."
"Let's go." She shooed the girls over their mother and out the door, Emma's car seat in one hand, occupied now by Vicky's still-beating heart and Emma herself in the other. The infant was quiet save for the occasional whimper and she stared at Regina with wide eyes identical to Charming's. She seemed more alert than an infant should.
Katie, the younger girl's name she learned, stepped carefully over the prostrate body of her mother. The oldest of the pair, Lauren, was more resistant, glaring hard at Regina.
"Where are we going?" She asked.
Regina met her glare head on. "Does it matter? We're going."
"I'm not." Lauren insisted, not anticipating Regina's shrug.
"So, don't. I'll just take your sister. And darling Emma here, of course." She sneered, bouncing the baby on her hip harder than necessary.
Regina watched, amused, as the threat sunk in and Lauren ground her teeth. Instead of walking out, though, she knelt beside the body of her mother. She started to check for a pulse before glancing at Emma's car seat and the heart it contained; the heart of her mother. Lauren ducked her head, hiding her face from Regina, and lifted Vicky carefully into a sitting position.
"Is she alive?" She asked quietly.
Regina snorted. "Of course she is. She's staying here. I need her, for a little while, anyway."
"And afterward?"
She smiled. "I suppose you'll have to wait and see." Her smile dropped as quickly as it came. "Now, go." Flicking a hand toward her, she let magic shove Lauren forward and out the door, letting it slam shut behind them.
Once out of the room, Regina enveloped them all in a cloud of purple smoke. The interior of the inn was immediately replaced by a large, cold place that resembled a basement, with a high ceiling and a stone floor. Lining the room on all sides were rows upon rows of small, numbered boxes and Katie glanced at them all with wide eyes, looking around curiously.
"What are all of these boxes?" She asked.
"The hearts I ripped from the chests of people who asked too many questions. Keep it up and yours will join them."
"Are you trying to get Snow's heart?" Katie asked, ignoring the threat and staring up at Regina.
"No." The Evil Queen answered honestly. "I'm beyond that. She ruined my life and no matter how many times I've attempted to ruin hers, she finds a way to reverse it again."
Katie smiled, either thinking of Snow or the Disney-fied version of her that she had grown up with. "It's because she's good. And good always wins."
Regina snorted. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
Lauren rolled her eyes in disbelief, taking baby Emma out of Regina's arms as she focused her attention on the large, gilded mirror on one of the walls. "And is the story actually true? You hate her because she's prettier than you according to this magic mirror of yours?"
She shot Lauren a look out of the corner of her eye. "Is that how the story goes here? You all think I'm so vain as to want to kill her for that?"
Lauren shrugged. "Well, you seem like a real bitch otherwise."
Regina chuckled softly and faced her mirror. Sydney's face appeared in the glass and she heard the soft gasps of the two girls behind her. Charming and Snow's images appeared, showing them racing toward the small inn, a crowd of fairytale onlookers trailing after them curiously. Their faces were the epitome of worry and concern and Regina grinned as she watched.
In Lauren's arms, Emma whined and squirmed, reaching for her mother's image. Regina glanced over her shoulder to look at the little girl.
"Oh, don't worry, brat. I'm counting on you leading your parents here."
Katie scowled. "She has a name. It's Emma."
Ignoring her, Regina turned back to the mirror, looking down at Vicky's heart glowing and pulsing in her hands. She lifted it to eye level and grinned, spotting her own reflection amidst the veins and arteries.
"All right, Vicky. Wake up." She said, barely suppressed glee and anticipation in her voice. "You're up."
Lauren and Katie exchanged wary glances, and Lauren held Emma a little closer. Emma's eyes were still fixed on the image of her parents in the mirror and her lower lip began to tremble. Soft sniffs predated her whimper and then the cry that came from her. Lauren tried her hardest to calm her, rocking her and whispering reassuringly as Katie stood in front of her making silly faces.
Growing irritated and finding it hard to concentrate, Regina fixed a hard stare at all three of them. "Silence." She snapped, and the girls' whispers and Emma's cries faded until there was only silence, a magic barrier stopping all noise.
"Finally," Regina muttered to herself. Snow and Charming's image faded from the mirror as they appeared in front of the inn and it switched to Vicky, waking up inside of the room and getting to her feet.
The redheaded woman put a hand to her chest as if feeling an ache where her heart had been. She searched the room for the girls and the panic and fear she felt was clear on her face.
"Testing." Regina spoke aloud over the heart, and the words poured of Vicky's mouth in her own voice.