Regina sat behind her desk at work. It had been forever since she had been here – or so it felt. But she was still mayor, even if she had taken medical leave. There were so many things to catch up on. She had been in contact with her secretary and members of city council so it wasn't as if she was totally out of the loop on things. Her arm was still in the sling but in a few days that too could be gone and she might be able to fully participate in life again.
She started by going through paperwork – putting aside things that had been dealt with in her absence and prioritizing those that hadn't. She worked all morning, not paying much attention to the time until Emma came in her office.
"Hey," she said holding up a bag of food from Granny's. "I figured you would forget lunch on your first day back."
"Thank you," Regina smiled. "I guess I did lose track of time."
She handed her the bag. "Nothing for you?"
"I can't stay. Keeping the village safe and all," Emma said exaggerating her pose a bit to seem tougher.
Regina smiled at the display. "I am sure you will have all the criminals quaking in their boots. Thank you though for the food. I appreciate it."
"No problem. Tink could have brought it, but again it is my job to keep the streets safe too," she joked.
"She's getting better," Regina said although when Tink drove her to work that morning she wasn't saying that.
"I will remember you said that the first time she suggests going on a cross-country drive with you."
There was a moment of awkward silence and Emma took that as a signal to leave. "I should get moving. Enjoy your food."
"I will."
After Emma left, Regina thought again how natural it felt to have Emma coming around. It wasn't that long ago that she would have detested having Emma around this much. She would have been sure the other woman was up to something if she was this nice to her, but she didn't feel that way now. Now it was like having a new friend.
She ate her food while working, getting up a couple of times to get a bottle of water to drink. Her secretary came in at the end of the day to let her know she was leaving and to make sure she didn't need anything else.
"I am good. Oh and Miss Russell, thank you for keeping things in such working order while I was gone. I appreciate it," she said.
Her secretary looked at her in surprise but stuttered out a "you're welcome." She then saw the empty bottles of water in the trash can. "Should I stock up on more water?" she asked, noting there were five empty bottles.
"Um, yeah that would be great. Thanks."
Her secretary left and she continued to work for another hour until Tink showed up to drive her home. "How was the first day back?"
"A lot of catch up work," Regina said yawning.
"You probably shouldn't have worked a full day."
"It's fine. I had to go back at some point and would you please keep your eyes on the road. You need to learn to talk and drive. It doesn't require you to look at the person all the time."
"Hey I am getting better."
"Yes I know. I told Emma that earlier."
"You saw Emma today?"
"Yes. She brought me lunch," Regina said smiling, which Tink noticed.
"That was nice of her."
"It was."
She got home and Henry was there already having finished up his homework. Regina cooked some pasta for dinner but Regina found she wasn't that hungry.
"Are you ok?" Henry asked her as she was picking at her food.
"I am not that hungry," she said.
"But you are feeling ok?"
"I am a little thirsty, but Dr. Whale said that is probably a side effect of that pain medication, which thankfully I haven't had to take much of in the last 24 hours as the pain seems to have lessened. I can't wait to get this sling off. You have no idea how much you use your collarbone on a daily basis until someone tells you that you can't use it."
"I was thinking when summer comes around that I might want to play baseball."
"Baseball, really?"
"Yeah. The summer rec league signups are coming up soon, and I thought I would like to try it. Would that be possible?"
"I think that would be great," she said. "You can make new friends, try something different. I will be more than happy to sign the form as soon as I talk to Emma and make sure it is ok with you."
Henry smiled at her and wondered if this was how it was going to be from now on – his moms actually talking about decisions that affected him.
After dinner, Regina pulled out her mom's book again. She spent the next couple of hours sitting on the couch with a pen and paper trying to decipher the notes. If she was doing it right the notes indicated a spell meant to be used in conjunction with the binding spell. It was a booster of some sort, she thought, but admitted she wasn't sure.
She thought maybe it strengthened the binding spell, maybe extended the time from which the person was blocked from using their white magic.
There were two letters written at the top 'AD' that she had no idea what it meant or if it was even part of it. She knew she had seen that mark before too in some of her mother's other book written next to spells.
She was tired and about ready to fall asleep on the couch when she locked the books up again and retired to bed. She felt a little flushed and warm as she was brushing her teeth, but shrugged it off as a sign that she maybe did a little too much that day.
It didn't take her long to fall asleep.
She watched as the man came closer to her. She didn't want him to touch her, so she tried to get away again, but her mother held on to her. She didn't have the strength to fight her.
"Calm down Regina," her mother said to her. "He is going to make the pain go away."
She didn't believe that. She could barely concentrate but she heard them talking. He was going to take away her destiny and her mom was going to allow it. She didn't want that to happen. She struggled again, but it was a losing battle. She couldn't break free from her mother's arms.
"That's it my darling, calm down," Cora said wiping some of her sweaty hair from her face. Maybe I am hallucinating, Regina thought. Her father had said she had been hallucinating. Maybe that was what this was. Maybe it wasn't real.
But the moment the man touched her arm and pulled it out straight, she knew that wasn't the case. He had a dagger that was curvy but sharp. It had writing on in it but she couldn't make it out. He made an incision that was only about two inches long on her forearm.
"Give me your hand," he said to Cora and he made an incision on her palm.
"What's this for?" Cora asked.
"It's part of a binding spell," he said, placing her palm down on Regina's arm so the cuts lined up. "You were right about your daughter – she has light magic. Her light magic could keep this curse from working, it's not likely but it could alter things. We need to use your magic to bind hers that way she can't access it. We want her to have access to only one kind of magic for this to work."
She heard him reciting a spell and she felt cold like it was seeping into that cut.
"Mom," she cried out weakly.
"It's ok. We're almost done," Cora said kissing her head. "We're almost done and you are going to be all better, I promise."
The spell ended and Regina felt odd all of a sudden. She felt like someone had stolen something from her but she didn't know what. It's like she could feel what was stolen, she just couldn't touch it.
She started to cry. She didn't understand what was going on but she wanted it to stop. Her mother tried to console her or at least get her to stop making noise but she couldn't stop. This felt wrong. She didn't want to feel this way.
"Now for the curse," the man said.
"Wait," Cora said.
"Dearie, this is hardly the time for waiting."
"Will this really lead to her becoming powerful?"
"It can yes. It can lead to many things. It's an Altered Destiny curse, but the thing about destiny is it's not set in stone like everyone thinks. It is moveable. Your job is to keep Regina moving in the right direction."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning she will need to be given nudges every once in a while to keep her on the right path, particularly when it comes to her true loves."
"True loves – there is more than one?"
"Again that depends. The first one will appear when she is still young. It is important that this person whoever it may be is eliminated."
"And the second?"
"The second I do not know enough about. It's possible they never meet. If they do though, I can see this whole thing unraveling. You can't let that happen. I won't let that happen."
Regina woke, the dream fresh in her mind. Dream, no she thought, memory. It was a memory. It had to be. She rushed downstairs and retrieved her mom's book. Opening it to the page she had been studying. The spell, her mother had been trying to remember the spell she heard Rumpelstiltskin cast – the one that bound her light magic away for more than just a limited time. He had used her mother's blood to work the binding spell, which meant when her mom died the spell would have disappeared with it.
She was so full of grief at the time she hadn't noticed any difference. She had light magic though, and if her mom knew it, it meant she was born with it. She hadn't known she had this magic until Henry had suggested she had it and she could use it to defeat Zelena.
She thought back to that moment. Zelena's magic had her held fast but then she realized not only could she feel the light magic, she could touch it.
It had been there all along, she just hadn't been able to touch it because of the binding spell.
She felt anger suddenly as intense as she had ever felt it before. She wanted to destroy something – destroy it like her life had been destroyed by Rumpelstiltskin and her mother. She looked at the writing at the top of the page. AD – she now knew what it stood for Altered Destiny. It was on pages in other books which meant there were more spells associated with it or at least associated with her and what had been done to her.
"It's not fair," she said. "It's not fair."
She felt the tears on her cheeks before she realized she was crying. She was breathing harder now, feeling like she was going to spiral out of control. The edges of her vision were going black she noticed a moment before she passed out.
Across town Emma was already in her car. She had woken knowing immediately that Regina was under some sort of distress.
She had to get to her.