Title: Finding Home With You
Warning: Contains spoilers from Season 4.
Author's Note: You guys, I am so so SO sorry for taking literally forever to update. It's been way too long and I have absolutely no excuses. However, I am out of school for the summer, so I'll try to be much more vigilant about updating regularly. Hopefully, I'll make some kind of a schedule for myself or something.
Bad News: Sometime between the last time I updated and today (when I went to pick back up where I had ended in my Word Document), this said Word Document had some how gotten deleted. So the progress that I HAD made on Chapter 9 however many months ago that was, is lost.
Good News: I wrote a new Chapter 9
Thank you for those of you who are sticking with this fanfic even though it's been basically 18 years since I've updated
I'm one of those people who reads a million fanfics about the same pairings with super similar story lines and then gets them confused when it takes the author forever to update and then I have to make the decision of either rereading the whole fic or just trying to muddle my way through the chapter, piecing together clues to figure out what had happened in past chapters. So to help you out, I'm going to do a little recap.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Once Upon A Time characters.
Summary: (Lieutenant Duckling!AU) What would have happened if Emma and Henry couldn't help Regina get her happily ever after? Now stuck in the story the Author wrote them into, Emma and Henry will have to start a new life in the Enchanted Forrest. With a little help from a timid sailor, Killian Jones. But plagued by the new Evil Queen, the three will have to continuously dodge Snow's efforts to hunt them down and end them.
Word Count: 1,839
Previously on Finding Home With You:
The story follows the episode where the Author rewrites the storybook to be "Heroes and Villains." Henry finds Hook to save Emma, Hook almost dies, but doesn't because I'm the author of this story and I say so. So, Emma finally realizes that not only does she love Killian, but he's her True Love. Since her magic comes from True Love and she's just found her True Love, it's coming back (but slowly bc then we really wouldn't have very much of a plot line if she could just poof everything back to normal). They convince Regina to find Robin Hood to find her happy ending and try to undo what the Author did, but they're a little late and Robin's already married. As Regina's walking towards him, Rumplestiltskin shoots her with an arrow. Emma goes after him, but Killian doesn't let her kill him (bc its Killy and he loves his Savior). There was some Captain Swan fluff (bc hello it's a Captain Swan fanfic) and then the last chapter ended with Emma and Killian making their way back to Regina who is bleeding out in Robin and Henry's arms.
...
Chapter 9
Emma rushed back over to the trio on the ground, barely glancing once at the crowd of wedding guests who were whispering anxiously among themselves. Regina had been her enemy for so long, and her parents' enemy long before that, but she couldn't help the ache in her heart when Regina's face- very pale and contorted in pain- came into view. She might not have known this Regina, but she had grown to see her Regina as a friend and an ally. Emma saw a lot of the real Regina's firey personality in this Regina, even if it was more of a muted sass than what she was used to.
"Mom!" Henry called out to Emma, before she had reached them. "Can't you do anything?"
Emma hated to see her kid in pain and hated it even more that she really wasn't sure she could do anything to stop it.
"I'm not sure, kid," she muttered softly, not wanting to get his hopes up. He moved from his spot at Regina's side to kneeling by her legs, giving Emma a space to work, anyways.
She knelt next to her old foe, glancing over at Henry with a cautious look. Emma let her hands hover over Regina and focused on the words the real Regina had said to her when she was first teaching her to use her magic on the bridge.
No more hand-holding. You have to do this. Reach into your gut. You know you can do this. It's inside you, Emma. Save the bridge. Save yourself.
Emma tried to do just that, she reached into her gut and tried to let her instinct take over. Regina was her ally. Regina was her friend. Regina was her son's mother, she couldn't let her die. Especially not in front of him! He wouldn't even be able to say goodbye to her properly, just like with Neal.
Tears began to well up in her eyes, but her hands began to shine with that bright, white light that had freaked her out just a few years ago.
More of Regina's teachings started to come back to her. She remembered trying to use the mirror to see how Ariel was doing, back when Zelena was out to get them all and cursed Hook's lips to take away her magic.
Well, you've focused. You've let emotions awaken your power. Now you have to look inward.
She couldn't help the smile that spread across her lips as she felt the familiar surge of energy. It was like a warm, slighlty bubbly feeling that flowed somewhere deep inside her, somewhere near her heart and trickled through her veins. It made her feel lighter, but somehow more tethered to the earth and everything around her. Emma decided to take a new approach, not knowing what kind of grasp she had on her powers in this new world, yet. They might not be as powerful as they were, since they no longer stemmed from her parent's True Love, she wasn't sure.
So, she focused on where the magic seemed to come from: her heart. She imagined that there were actually tiny bubbles in her chest and she traced them through her arms and into her long fingers which extended over Regina's body. She willed the bubbles to descend, pouring into Regina's heart and mingling with her blood, strengthening her body along their way. She pictured the bubbles flowing into Regina's wound and filling it up, blocking the blood flow and replacing the torn skin. She imagined the bubbles filling Regina's lungs with long, deep breaths and filling her cheeks with warmth instead of the pale, unhealthy tint they had been. She visualized Regina's eyes bursting open, filled with energy and fire.
Emma opened her eyes. The glow from her hands died down, until they were just her normal hands again. She wanted to slump over and take a nap; after not having magic for years, undertaking such a big task right away had drained her.
She glanced up at Regina's face, expecting to see those bright eyes she had pictured, but Regina's were still closed. Her cheeks were still ghostly white.
"I-I don't understand," Emma breathed out.
Eyes open this time, she called up her magic again- ignoring the exhaustion- and poured into Regina again. She tugged at Regina's shoulder to see if the wound had healed on her back. It had. Her magic was working, it had completely healed the wound- no scar, just like Killian's.
"This doesn't make any sense," Emma said louder, though she wasn't sure who she was talking to. She was vaguely aware of the sound of someone or maybe some people crying, but she couldn't take her eyes off Regina.
She narrowed her eyes in determination, reached deep inside of her for the purest kind of magic she could conjure, and poured into Regina once more. She held her hands over her, imagining the magic as waves this time. Waves that pulsed against Regina's heart and lungs to get them moving properly. Waves that pulsed against Regina's unmoving heart and lungs to get them moving period.
"No, no this isn't right. This doesn't make any sense," Emma barked out, straining against the weariness to keep her magic pouring into Regina. She had yet to relent, and she was starting to wear herself out. Her brows were furrowed in concentration, her mouth grimacing against the pain of pushing herself too far and her upper lip covered in sweat from the exertion. With a cry, Emma slumped down onto Regina's dead body, her power receding deep inside her where she couldn't feel it anymore.
"This isn't supposed to happen," she mummbled into Regina's stomach, her hands clenching Regina's slightly cooler one. Her head lifted and she started to glance around at all the people surrounding her. Her voice rose to a yell in her passion as she scrambled to her feet, "This wasn't supposed to happen! I healed her! Her wound is gone! This doesn't make any sense!"
Someone was holding her. Someone was running their hand up and down her back. Someone was talking in her ear.
She could hear people crying. She was sure it was more than one now. And she was mostly sure she was on of them, but she couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but close her eyes and collapse under the weight of everything. And as the world went black, she got one last glimpse of her dead friend who had a smile on her face.
Author's Note (CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM SEASON 5B): IM SO SORRY!
I really didn't want to write that I promise. I love Regina in the show and I loved THIS Regina bc her hard shell was a lot easier to break through. And I really REALLY wanted to break through it and write some Outlaw Queen, but with Robin being written off the show and all, I just didn't want to deal with the feels of that. So I wrote Regina off of the fic.
PLEASE DON'T HATE ME
It sort of needed to happen, either she dies with Robin (possibly) loving her, or Robin chooses Zelena over her. Bc Regina can't get her happy ending or the story is over, and it's much too short to be over already don't you think?
PLEEEEEASE DON't HATE ME
I really had to do it for the growth of the story
PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE DON'T HATE ME
ANYWAYS, if you've stayed this long, THANK YOU! YOU"RE AMAZING! I LOVE YOU! STAY TUNED!