Not much can be done with a cursed town. So, let's jump a bit!

Chapter 19

Although the repetition was grating on her nerves still, Regina found plenty off happiness in her town. After ten years, she even managed to let go of her old hatred and anger. She found ways to make the townsfolk happier alongside her. She couldn't seem to prevent the Saturday fist fight with Ruby, but she had been treating other people nicer and rearranging peoples lives subtly, little bits at a time that would stick. If she tried to change too much at a time, it simply reverted back to regular on Sunday morning.

She picked thru the town, working diligently to right the wrongs her curse had created. She found a set of children who were homeless and located their father. That took several tries and many weeks to do just right to make it stick. The changes would slide in to place and then find a repeating pattern to fall in to.

No one was aging and no one remembered the previous weeks, but she could make the one week better thru it's redundancy. Mary Margaret had even stopped cowering every time she saw Regina since she had been awarder the mayors new medal for outstanding teacher.

It was all falling in to place nicely and Regina was feeling better about herself as time drug on.

By the fifteenth year, she had most everyone living peaceful, contented lives. She had fixed everything she found wrong. Her and Rory were completely in love and very happy together. There was nothing left to fix, nothing left to learn, and nothing left to do.

….

On her secret yearly holiday of the curse date, Regina realized 18 years had passed. She had nothing left to do but ride this endless loop of nothing ever changing. She felt herself shutting down internally. She wasn't going to last like this forever. Rory noticed her depression and was herself shutting down in response to not being able to help Regina. She had tried flowers, music, learning to cook fantastic meals. Nothing seemed to help. Regina would sit at home for the week and do nothing but stare at the t.v…. Rory right beside her.

…

Mr. Gold was sweeping his shop floor. Nothing unusual, just going about his everyday routine. It was Monday morning and he felt normal. The clock on the shelf struck noon on this unknown holiday, and he stared at it. Something was tugging at him to open the clock door. He had never done that before, why would he? The clock worked fine, no reason to open it.

But he felt compelled to open it now. When he did, he found a letter, seemingly written in his own hand. He inhaled sharply and grabbed his hat and coat and limped out to his car before firing it up and speeding out of town.

…..

It was Tuesday morning and Regina took her seat on the couch. Rory sat next to her, looking concerned. "Regina… are you still not feeling well? You've sat here since Sunday morning."

Regina sighed, she had been sitting here every day for nearly 2 months, not just since Sunday. "I'm just a bit out of it this week I think. Maybe the flu?"

Rory nodded and cuddled up next to her and they prepared to spend the day sitting and doing nothing at all. Because for Regina, there was no point in doing anything at all.

Regina jumped nearly out of her skin when the door bell rang. The door bell didn't ring on a Tuesday at five p.m.. It didn't happen. It wasn't the flow of this life. She grabbed Rory, who had stood to answer the door and pulled her back down. "Don't answer that!"

Rory looked at her like she was insane, "why not?!"

Regina stared towards the front door with wide eyes, "it's wrong."

Frowning at her, Rory pulled herself free of Regina's grip and headed for the door anyway while Regina protested from the couch she was now hiding behind. "Do not open that door!"

Rory gave her one more worried look before opening the door anyway. She looked around, confused, because no one was there. She was about to shrug it off and close it when she heard a tiny sneeze by her feet. She looked down and jumped back with a yell, slamming the door fiercely as she fell to the foyer floor.

Regina bolted to her and helped her up, "what the hell was it?!"

Rory shook her head, wide eyed and pale, "no idea! Something is out there, on the door mat."

Regina took a deep breath and very slowly opened the door to peek out and down. There on the mat was a heavy basket. In the basket, was a baby. She stared at it a good minute before opening the door fully. She looked around, searching for something, someone, but there was just the empty street.

She bent down and moved the blankets so she could see the childs face better, "Oh my god don't touch it!" Rory tried to pull her back but Regina shrugged her off, picking the baby up to hold in her arms.

"Rory, stop. It's a baby." Regina motioned for the other woman to get the basket and they made their way to the couch, Regina holding the baby carefully while Rory watched it sideways. Regina held the child and cooed at him and it smiled back at her. She was absolutely in love already.

….

Mr. Gold was the only person in town aside from herself that had any legal knowledge, and he could produce documents that seemed very legal when the need arose. Regina met with him and he was all too happy to hand her everything she needed to sign and fill out. She looked at him skeptically, because he had seemed ridiculously prepared for this.

"How is it you have all the documents I need to claim and adopt a child I found on my doorstep?" She asked as she filled out another form.

He shrugged and pointed to the next line to be signed, "I am always prepared, madam Mayor."

She decided to drop it, but she knew he had a hand in this, somehow. Instead she waited patiently until she had the new birth certificate in her hands.

"Henry Daniel Mills", she said it out loud with a smiled on her face.

Cocking a brow, Rory read it herself before asking, "why did you pick those names?"

"My fathers name was Henry, I never really got to know him, so I thought it would be nice to remember him thru my son. Daniel was a good man, and he deserves a memory too."

Rory shrugged and rolled her eyes, of course, in this curse world, Daniel had run off because of impending accusations, but that wasn't the Daniel Regina remembered. "Whatever you say."

Regina kissed her and they went to the diner for lunch. Everyone was in love with Henry the moment they saw him, of course. Even Ruby had to tell Regina how beautiful he was. They decided to tell people they legitimately adopted him instead of finding him, it was just easier that way.

Rory did not like holding him, or feeding him, and refused to touch a dirty diaper. Regina had to accept it, she remembered how bad Lorelei was with babies. She assumed it was heavily built into her DNA.

…..

Regina had been worried the child wouldn't grow and would remain a fussy 2 am crying mess forever. But, as he grew and learned, her fears faded. She took him to work with her and felt like her life was finally perfect. Rory was a bit of a juggle at first. If she didn't go with her on Saturday, Ruby tried to kill her. It couldn't be avoided. So, on Saturday, she would have one of the very few people Regina trusted watch her son. The first time was only days after she got him, and it was a little rough on her.

Regina was wringing her hands in a nervous mess, "you remember how to mix the formula?" The woman nodded. "You have my cell number?" The woman nodded. "You have Rorys cell number?" The woman nodded.

"Yes, I have the bar number too. Yes I have Lacy's number too. Yes I know how to get to the hospital quickly in case the ambulances are busy. Yes I know not to take my eyes off him for a single second. I know everything Regina, you've told me 17 times already and you've written everything down and made four copies so one is in the living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. I swear to you, he will be perfectly fine for a few hours in my care."

Regina sighed heavily and nodded again, it was already four thirty. If she didn't leave very soon, she would miss her door punch window and have to wait for Ruby to act up. "Okay." She kissed his little head again and started out the door. She made a solemn vow though that if Mary Margaret let a single hair on his head get bent out of place, she would find out if the dead came back on Sunday mornings.

…

By the time Henry was 3, Regina could spend most of her Saturday night with Rory at the bar. She didn't drink much, just one when she got there. But she really enjoyed hearing Rory sing and loved spending the time with her.

Rory was getting better with him as he got older. She was happier than anyone else on the earth when he was potty trained. He would do the pee pee dance and she would pick him up and sprint to the potty with him. Regina would always listen and laugh with them when she heard Rory cheering him on.

The town that stayed the same around him flowed with his aging in the odd way it did. Much like the happy changes she made, as long as it was gradual, the looped weeks evolved with him. Regina was constantly engaged with his growing mind and body. She wasn't bored anymore.

….

School was very stressful for Regina. Henry was thrilled, as was Rory. Regina's biggest concern was whether or not he would be learning his shapes and colors until he was 30 as the weeks looped. Her fears were proven wrong when the second week came and they were learning numbers, and then letters. The years passed and somehow, even though Henry was the only child growing and aging, the loop changed for him. He could remember the day before Sunday also.

Since it had been like this since he was born, he seemed to find it normal. He left his friends in 1st grade, and got a new class in 2nd. He always missed his friends that didn't age with him, but he couldn't realize it was very strange.

It wasn't a problem until he hit about ten. For Regina it was getting closer to the 28th secret holiday of her curse, and for Henry it was the day his favorite and only babysitter, became his teacher. She thought he needed to use his imagination more since he wasn't connecting with the other children too well. Of course, Henry had stopped connecting with kids because he knew when he went to the next grade, they wouldn't. But she couldn't understand that, so she found a massive book of fairy tales to give him called Once Upon A Time.

….