A/N:

Hey guys! Here we have the aftermath of drunkenness and the prequel to something biiiiiiig. There's now over 100 people following this story which has blown me away, I just hope that I can do it justice! As always reviews are appreciated and criticisms and ideas are welcomed! I hope you've all had a good week and have a good week to come.

Happy reading!

Rosie

(I do not own Once or any of its characters, no copyright intended).

Down at the station Emma sat at her desk, the surface littered with white sheets of paper strewn in all directions. In all the chaos that had ensued since she returned, the patrols and stakeouts and hours spent responding to calls from scared townspeople who thought that the Witch was lurking in their flowerbeds or something a stupid as that, she hadn't had time to do any paperwork. Regina had drummed into her the importance of getting it all done, and frankly she was scared not to. She did think though, sometimes, that in their town with its minuscule economy and lack of contact with the rest of the country, was there really need for paperwork at all?

"Urgh," Emma groaned noisily, resting her head on her hands and closing her eyes. She was so bored she would have given anything not to be filling out sheets right now and it also wasn't helping that she hadn't yet got over her hangover. She looked up at the clock and noticed it was only 1pm; she had another two hours at least until she could go and collect Henry. Her brain was turning into mush; she wasn't even taking in what she was reading anymore. For a millisecond she actually wished for something to happen out in the town so she could have some excuse not to finish her work. But then she thought better of it. In this town - knowing what kind of crazy shit happens - wishing for something as a distraction was just asking to be attacked by an ogre or something much worse.

Instead of focusing on what she was supposed to be doing, all Emma could do was stare aimlessly into space and contemplate the events of last night again; the quantity of Tequila which had lead Regina to jump on her and attach those beautiful, succulent red lips to her own. The blonde suddenly remembered, to her embarrassment, that it had been her compliments which promoted this reaction from the other woman. Emma was very, very, glad that the brunette couldn't remember the things she had confessed, things which the blonde usually would have hidden deep inside, things which she had never in the entire time of knowing Regina even thought about telling her, even though she had had the same opinions from the very beginning.

Emma had absolutely no idea what to do about the whole situation. She couldn't exactly go tell Regina what had happened. She imagined how that conversation would go down…

"Oh, by the way Regina, when you were really drunk last night I told you you were wonderful and convinced you out of thinking you were worthless and then you kissed me…Just thought you'd like to know."

She could see the look of unadulterated shock and disgust on Regina's face now. It wasn't as if they hated each other anymore. I mean…Emma certainly didn't hate Regina, and clearly the woman had warmed up to her also. But it was the alcohol talking. The alcohol and the fact that no one in the brunette's life had ever been loving or caring towards her. No one except her father and look what happened there. Emma sighed. Why did this situation have to be so fucking complicated? There were so many things she wanted to tell Regina, and not just about the kiss last night; she wanted to tell her about the dream she'd had that basically convinced her to come back to Storybrooke for a woman she didn't even know, she wanted to tell her that she would make sure that no one would ever treat her in the way she had been treated ever again, that Emma would make sure of it. The thing that was screwing her up most was that she really, really wanted to kiss Regina again. Like, almost more than she'd ever wanted anything in her life. For several moments too long she lost herself in the memory of what it had been like, then berated herself for enjoying a kiss that the other person didn't even remember.

Emma would tell tell her just…not yet. Things were too good at the moment to fuck anything up. Well, good is relative when you have a Witch on the loose but for her life, things were pretty good. She decided that she would tell Regina once this was all over. They needed to focus on dealing with her sister first and they really could do without the distraction of brewing feelings. Not that she knew if Regina had feelings for her but Emma was certainly starting to think that she had feelings and she really didn't want to address them until the threat of death wasn't looming over their heads. If they got out of this alive, then she would tell her. The blonde's mind was made. What can a few weeks hurt?

Across town, Regina was sitting on the large, ornate chair in her vault, taking a break from her books and spells in an attempt to discontinue the swirling vortex that she was feeling inside. Having never had a hangover before she now understood exactly why people complained so often about the phenomenon, it really was not at all pleasant. Her head was pounding despite the painkillers she had taken and her hands broke out into tiny earthquake-like tremors every now and again.

Despite this, she was glad the night had happened. It had been a long time since she had really enjoyed herself like she did last night, or what she could remember of it. If Emma hadn't been there she likely would have gotten drunk by herself and done much more self-destructive things, things which she had been trying to talk herself out of on her walk home last night. Regina's childhood had left some not so shallow emotional wounds which occasionally were ripped open, and when this happened there was very little she could do other than allow them to bleed and wallow in the pain that they brought her. Henry had been a cure, for some time, but eventually her nightmares always found their way into the light of day again.

The former Queen stood gracefully, allowing herself to steady before she took a sure-footed step forward. The sound of her heels on the flagstone floor echoed throughout the room. It was the only sound she could hear. She made her way towards the heart chests, searching out one in particular. Before she was even five feet away the desired box came towards her out of the wall, a slow grinding sound accompanying it. She held the chest against her with both hands and made her way slowly back to her previous seat. In a childlike manor she slipped off her shoes and raised her knees towards her chin, gripping the edge of the chair with her socked toes. The heart box was balanced precariously on her knees and she simply stared at it for minutes.

It was only at times like this, when she was alone that Regina allowed herself to show even the tiniest morsel of real, raw emotion. A guttural sob broke from her mouth as she stared at the box in front of her, yet she wasn't even quite sure why she was crying. She attributed it to the hangover, hormones, whatever. But the truth was there had been a lot to deal with recently and she hadn't really let herself feel it. She was used to bottling things up inside. Her days as the Evil Queen had been spent ignoring any and every emotion she ever had that wasn't rage, hatred or regret. But things had changed a lot since then, and something had unlocked her power to feel. She attributed it to Henry, yet there had been times much after Henry's appearance in her life that she had not allowed herself to feel anything but those emotions which tore her up inside. She had always had to remind herself that showing emotion wasn't weakness, contrary to what she had been told all her life, but recently she had been showing it of her own accord; as if the little bird in its cage inside her blackened heart was finally spreading its wings and learning to fly. What the cause of it could be she did not know, but she was starting to not despise it. It was beginning to make her feel as if she deserved to feel; to cry, to laugh, to love. So she let the tears roll down her face. There was no point in stopping them any more, and more than a large part of her didn't even want to.

It was her mother's heart. The heart of a woman who had tormented, manipulated, beaten and in her own twisted way, loved Regina. The woman had made her life a living hell; she had manicured the brunette into her perfect little Princess and when that didn't work she turned her into a cold-blooded killer, an Evil Queen who murdered for fun and ruined hundreds of lives before breakfast each day. It was times like this that it really sank in for Regina that her entire life had been a lie. Everyone around her had controlled her from all angles. She had been a puppet, a slave to the whims of the two most powerful people the world had ever known.

This sister of hers, she reasoned, had to have been born before her. Cora was a master manipulator but even she didn't have the capability to hide a pregnancy from her husband and daughter for nine whole months. Regina's father cannot have known because otherwise he wouldn't have yearned after another sibling for the brunette to spend her time with. He always wanted her to have a friend, a sister or brother to protect and love her simply because she wasn't getting love from anywhere else. He tried his best but his efforts were minimal and as much as she loved his Regina saw now more than ever how much of a coward he had been. If she had been in his position she would have stood up for her child every time it was needed, even if it meant getting killed a thousand times over. She would never have let anyone treat Henry the way her mother treated her. But that was the difference between them she supposed. Now, after all this time, she had a heart and her mother's was as cold and dead now as it had been when it was inside her body.

As much as she hated to even consider the idea, from what she knew about her mother's past (any or all of which she supposed could be a lie too), the most likely man to be her sisters father would be the one and only Rumplestiltskin. The thought made Regina feel even queasier than she already did. If there had been any remnants of magic left in the room the brunette may have been able to figure out of that was true or not, or at least make a more educated guess, but it had all dissipated and so they were left with nothing. All they could do was wait like sitting ducks and hope they weren't taken too much by surprise. The town didn't yet know that this new threat was only after Regina, and she was anxious to tell them. She would be blamed for bringing them back here, for cursing them all again, and that was something she wasn't sure she could cope with right now.

Wiping the remaining tears from her face and pulling herself back together; Regina stretched out her legs and held the box firmly in two hands. After replacing it in its position, she returned to gather her things.

The atmosphere was becoming oppressive. The Mayor felt like she was suffocating under all the unsorted emotions that lingered in the air so she made her way up towards the light of the early evening sun, pulling her phone from her bag as she went.

When she surfaced and her phone signal returned she realised she had 2 missed calls and 2 texts from Emma, and a missed call from Henry. Alarm bells immediately rang in her head and she checked the messages first. Absentmindedly she pushed her father tomb back into place and stepped out into the fresh air, pulling the door closed behind her.

Picking Henry up now, off to Granny's for cocoa then home. See you there. E

Was the first of the two, checking the timestamp the brunette saw it had been send at 3.45pm. She moved on to the next message,

Why don't you get fucking signal in the Vault. Called you twice. Come home AS SOON AS YOU GET THIS. E.

Regina checked the timestamp, 5.36pm. She checked the time on the main screen of her phone she realised this was only 2 minutes ago. Before responding she picked up the voicemail that the woman had also left her and raised the phone to her ear;

"Hey, Regina, you need to get back to the house like right now, Emma said, her voice holding a nervous tone that set Regina's entire being on edge. Don't worry, Henry is safe, just get back here asap okay? Bye."

Regina's feet started moving before the message even finished. She elegantly ran to the Mercedes, which made her feel ore than a little nauseous, threw her bag on the passenger seat, slammed the door and started the engine in one fluid motion. She was halfway home before she knew it, trees and buildings soaring past, breaking every speed limit she had ever enforced as Mayor.

Like something out of a movie, only without the screeching tyres, the brunette pulled into the drive in record time and was greeted by Emma and Henry standing outside the front door.

She didn't even bother getting her things, just threw the door open and walk purposefully across the lawn to meet her son and his mother.

"What on earth is happening?! You two would have me thinking a sinkhole appeared and swallowed the house with you in it," she accused the blonde, giving Henry a fleeting look too, considering it appeared, contrary to what she had been thinking, that they were both alive and well.

From their faces, however, Regina realised this might not be time for her usual accusations of Emma's incompetence. The blonde looked at her with an apprehensive look on her face, but it was Henry who cleared up the situation for Regina.

"Someone broke into the house Mom," he started, letting his other mother continue.

"We got back and as soon as I opened the door I saw that something wasn't right, the drawers from the dresser in the lobby were all over the floor and your study doors were wide open, it looks pretty messed up in there. I gave the bottom floor a quick once over and I'm pretty sure she's gone, but we decided to stay out here until you came back because of the magic thing, you know, just in case," Emma finished.

"Well done," she said, resting her hand protectively on Henry's shoulder while he and his blonde mother looked up at her and awaited instructions. "I'm really starting to loose patience with this witch now. I shall go in and survey the damage. Call David, tell him I want guards outside this house at all times, I don't care who," she addressed Emma. "Henry, stay out here with Emma for a few minutes."

She snaked carefully into the house, first looking at her study. It appears as if her sister had been looking for something, something specific by the looks of it, because nothing was missing. The room was a mess though, all the books had been pulled down from their shelves; every drawer in her desk had been turned upside down. The woman was obviously looking for something that she couldn't find in Regina's office. Regina suspected the thing she was looking for had something to do with their mother, or maybe something to do with Regina's power, but she couldn't say for sure. After she checked the whole house over, finding nothing missing, she returned to the front porch where Emma and Henry were now stood with Bashful, Happy and Grumpy, sent by David to watch the house.

The clean up operation took them several hours. The blonde and their son put everything in piles, papers in one place, books another, and the Mayor returned them all to their rightful homes. By the time they were finished, Henry was so hungry that he professed he could eat an troll and of course, Emma was always hungry, so as a family they set to making dinner which mostly consisted of Emma and Henry being annoying and getting thrown out of the "cooking area" by Regina, who was feeling her hangover finally dissipate.

Finally, they sat down to eat in the dining room around 9pm. The brunette boy had furnished their guards with large helpings of his mother's famous lasagna, which they were more than grateful for. The trio sat mostly in silence, Emma still feeling slightly awkward around Regina considering the knowledge she possessed which the Mayor did not. Towards the end of their meal, the entrance of Bashful from the back door by the kitchen interrupted them.

"Sorry to intrude, Emma, Madame Mayor…," he began.

"…Regina is fine, please," she interrupted.

"Regina," he said, looking down at the small piece of paper in his hands. "I uh…found this by the back door… I don't know when it got there but uh…here," he reached out his hand towards Regina and she graciously plucked it from his fingers.

"Sorry again…" he said, "and thank you for the food," he added, turning on his heels and scurrying away.

"You are very welcome," Regina smiled up at him but he was gone already, the back door clicked behind him.

Both mothers and son looked worriedly at the letter, Regina's worry showing through her mask only just enough that Emma could notice it.

It was a small, off-white piece of parchment, not like the paper that they now used in this world. The brunette unfolded it gently and took in the words written in green ink in a cursive, flowing hand across the page.

Tomorrow we fight. 7pm. Clocktower. All must attend.

It was signed off at the bottom in bold, swirling letters that jumped off the page.

Zelena

Across town Zelena chuckled to herself. Her moron of a sister was absolutely unbelievable. Not only did she have the most incompetent guards she had ever encountered, she was also so fixated on that son of hers and his safety that she entirely forgot to seal up the vault in her wake.

The Witch had known that Regina would use a different spell after the blood magic fiasco, something preventing her from getting in, even with her level of magical ability, so she had to stage a distraction. There wasn't anything in the mansion she needed; all she wanted was for Regina to speed home, scared about the whereabouts of her son and that Saviour and forget to lock up. She hadn't thought that the woman would actually fall for it but apparently she was more idiotic that Zelena had first considered.

This is going to be too easy, she thought to herself, smirking, as she pushed the heavy mausoleum door open with a soft hand. He examined her surroundings for a second before pushing all her weight onto the tomb stone and moving it deftly out of the way.

Her black cloak flowed like murky water behind her as she descended the stairs into the gloom of the vault. This wouldn't take long; she knew exactly what she was looking for, she just had to find it. That had been the purpose of her sneaky little teleport the other day that her sister so graciously tagged along with. She had wanted to see the inside of the vault to determine whether what she needed was there or not.

She gave herself a metaphorical pat on the back for her intelligence; killing two birds with one stone was definitely the way to do things. The quicker she could enact her curse the quicker that bitch would pay for what she had done. Zelena walked forward purposefully towards the wall of chests. She closed her eyes, imagined what she needed and when they opened again the correct box was floating out towards her. She placed it carefully on the small table and opened it to see a blackened lump, as solid as coal. That was it, she was sure. It wouldn't have presented itself to her if it hadn't been the right one.

The next item on her mental list was harder to find. It took her longer than expected, minutes of opening boxes and looking behind candles until she found it. A small box, hidden inside a very old very large spell book. She opened the box and marvelled at the contents. It was a small pendant with an Emerald set in the middle; the most powerful magical talisman known to mankind, granting the wearer immunity from any magical spells cast upon them. She pulled it out and slipped it carefully around her neck before tucking it in between the think fur on her cloak, then returned the box to its previous place.

On her way out she sealed the doors behind her, so that Regina would be none the wiser should she return. She would simply just think that she had sealed the door without thinking and left in a hurry to get back to her son and his mother.

Perfect, she thought as she felt the power of the necklace reconcile itself with her own power, filling her body and mind with an ineffable feeling, this will do quite nicely.