Chapter Seventeen: Hat Trick

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Emma and Regina were in Emma's car driving down a deserted road near the woods.

"So what are we doing?" Henry asks as he sticks his head out from the backseat.

Emma jumped, startled. "Henry! What the hell are you doing here!"

"That depends," Henry replied. "What are you doing here?"

Regina huffed. "Henry. What me and Emma are doing here is our business. Not yours."

Henry shrugged. "Then I won't tell you why I followed you."

"Henry Daniel Mills," Regina snapped, "you will tell us why."

"Look out!" Henry yelled, pointing at something out the window.

Through the fog, a figure was standing on the road. Emma narrowly avoided hitting the man. He jumped out of the way and fell down an incline. Emma, Regina, and Henry get out of the car to assist him.

Emma ran toward him. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I didn't see you there." Then she froze. "Jefferson?"

By now, Regina had caught up to Emma. "Who is it?" She asked. "Wait. The Hatter?"

"The Queen?" Jefferson mock asks. "And, of course, the Savior." He glances at Henry. "And the boy. What brings you out here in the middle of the night?"

Emma lifts her gun. "That is none of your concern. Where's your hat?"

Jefferson laughed. "You think I have my hat? After I was stuck in Wonderland because she," he pointed at Regina, "didn't tell me she was taking someone back with her? If you want my hat, why don't you ask her?"

Emma nearly dropped her gun, but regained her composure, keeping the gun steadily aimed at Jefferson. "Excuse me?"

Jefferson nodded, smirking widely. "Oh, yes. The Queen has the real hat."

"I'm not the Queen," Regina said furiously. She paused to shake her head. "What? I'm sorry, I really have no idea where that came from."

"I think we're done here," Emma said coldly. She backed up to her car with the gun still trained on Jefferson.

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"You have that hat?" Snow asked.

Regina stared at the table spot in front of her. "I do. I mean, I took it from him after I left him in Wonderland. It's probably in my vault or something..."

"Are you okay?" Emma asked her, concerned. "You've looked really out of it since you snapped at Jefferson."

Regina sighed. "It might have something to do with whatever we're missing from the future, but I feel like there's a part of me missing. And it's not about Robin. It's something else. But I feel so unattached to the Evil Queen side of myself. Like she isn't even a part of me anymore. There no internal battle I have to fight to suppress her either."

"Yeah, that's something I wanted to tell you guys," Henry said worried. "That book about our past is finished. The End is at the point we last remember. But there's a new book. Call it a sequel. That's about the Underworld so far. And I think the actual point we time traveled from is way past the point we last remember from that time."

"Oh!" Belle exclaimed. "I think I get it! But if we came back later than what we remember, some things don't add up. For one, I think I'd be a little further along in my pregnancy."

"That's easy," Henry said seriously. "That baby Hades wanted to take, was your first born. This baby will be your second born. It was pure coincidence that you happen to be pregnant again."

Belle sat down rather slowly. "So, somewhere in the future we came from, my child is stuck without parents?"

Henry nodded uncomfortably. "Yeah. But the fairies are probably taking care of it."

"Then my visions might be from whatever I missed out on in the future?" Emma asked.

Henry looked down. "Maybe. I really don't know. Won't know either until I can catch up in the stories." He held up a book. "This is about the Underworld. I've only gotten up to when we defeat Hades. Whatever or whoever sent us back doesn't want to make this easy."

"About that," Emma began. "What if we sent ourselves back? Is that possible?"

Belle shrugged helplessly. "I thought time travel was impossible before all this. It could have been us I guess, but it's more likely that it was someone else's curse on us."

Emma frowned. "Well, I mean, think about it. Regina has a reason to go back and fix the past right? Saving Robin. Being the Dark One wasn't all Gold makes it out to be, so maybe Killian and I decided to change that?"

Snow shook her head. "I doubt it. Besides, if Regina thought it possible to get loved ones back, she'd probably have tried this with Daniel a long time ago."

"As much as I loath to admit," Regina said, "Snow's right. I considered time travel when Cora killed Daniel, but it was impossible. Yes, Zelena did attempt it, but it just ruined my life even more than it already was." She sighed. "I'm not in any mood to try time travel on a whim."

"And both of us are alive, Swan," Killian added. "You want to forget being the Dark One, just take your memories. Not much to go back for."

Emma sighed. "You're right. Worth a thought."

"August seems to know a lot about this," David prompted.

Emma bit her lip. "Yeah, well, if he does, he doesn't say much about it."

"Oh!" Henry exclaimed. "August! He was talking to me about the curse. Why hasn't it broken? Surely mom could have broken it a thousand times by now right? I mean, she believes in magic. So why hasn't it broken?"

Emma's jaw dropped. "That's actually a good question," she stammered.

"It's because you don't believe," Henry explained. "You still think this is a dream or we'll just go back to our time. Either that or you don't believe we can change anything."

Regina stood. "I'm going to get Jefferson's hat. Robin has to have come back. Right as he died must be where we're all from and some unknown force sent us back."

Snow sighed. "That's not going to be true, Regina. We have to wait until we go back to the enchanted forest to see him again. If we're lucky, Emma and Henry will be coming with us. Then, everything will be okay."

"No," Henry said firmly. "Mom and I have to stay, how else will we know about Zelena?"

"About that," Belle began, "what are our plans for when we go back?"

"Henry and I will have to go back to Boston," Emma said sadly. "Killian will just have to escape the forest in time so he can let us know to come back to Storybrooke. Oh, yes, and maybe, just maybe, you won't set me up with a flying monkey as my almost fiancé!" Emma glared at Regina.

"Too risky," David said shaking his head. "Hook can go with you both."

"He won't remember himself," Regina snarled. "He will think he is whoever his curse self is-oh."

David nodded. "Exactly. He has no curse self."

"I think you're forgetting," Belle started, "I became Lacey after crossing that line. I most certainly was not Lacey while in the asylum."

Killian shrugged. "I'll take the chance. As long as I get to keep my hook."

Emma patted his shoulder. "Nice to know how much Henry and I matter in this negotiation." She laughed at Killian's affronted look. "I'm only joking. It really shouldn't be a problem to keep your hook though."

Regina sighed. "Can we please just get Robin? I mean, he's alive somewhere in this world, right?"

"Robin Hood is alive and kicking," Emma agreed. "He just thinks your a murdering lunatic who killed his wife."

"I did kill his wife," Regina said confused.

Emma nodded. "Yep, and he knows it too. He doesn't know the good Regina because he hasn't met her in the forest."

"That's right you saved Roland," Snow said.

"So I have a really concerning question," Belle interrupted. "How far into the future are we from? Far enough for me to be pregnant with a second baby?"

Gold's eyes flickered between Belle and Henry. "That is a question worth asking."

Henry shrugged. "I don't know. The book is the one that will reveal all. I guess once it catches up to whenever we're from, we'll know when we came from."

"Well if we do the math," Snow said, "Belle was about what? Two months, one month along. So eight plus months since we defeated Hades at the very least."

"Unless Belle's pregnancy was sped up," Henry finished, holding up a page. "I'd forgotten about this. Where we're from, Belle refused grandpa contact with their kid. So she thinks that grandpa will speed her pregnancy up."

Belle glanced at Gold. "But he didn't did he? I mean, he couldn't have. I feel like my experience in this future we can't remember are impacting my life now. Like the book says, I push Rumple away, but now I'm not, so I must have forgiven him or something."

Killian nodded slowly. "I think we all feel like that. I think sometime before we were sent back, Belle and the crocodile reconciled."

"Yes there's something I just can't put my finger on," Regina agreed. "I feel, I don't know, regret? Joy? Something like that when I think about Zelena."

"Because Cora unlocked your memories," Henry said helpfully. "You shouldn't remember yet, so that's why everything is foggy and unclear."

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"August."

August sighed. "Emma. Back again. I can't tell you anything you don't already know."

"I know that," Emma said stiffly. "But I need you to tell me who talked to you? Who told you we would be coming back?"

August smiled widely. "I was wondering when you'd ask that. Here's a hint. The both of you have something in common. Like those nightmares."

"The Savior," Emma said suddenly. "The new Savior."

"Sometimes, Emma, your intelligence just needs a little kick start to go."

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A/N: Before you say anything, yes, Belle is pregnant not with Gideon, but a different baby. I'm still waiting for Season 6B to start this Sunday, but hopefully it works with the plot. I think once that's done with, I'll pick a spot they will have come from.

So yeah, filler chapter. I hope the next one is better...and it's not. Just looked. Yay for me. The next episode is about the shovel and Mary Margaret's D.A. interview and Regina getting revenge for Daniel. Sooooooo, yeah. I have no clue what to do. Suggestions welcome! See my pitiful attempt below. :-(

Chapter Eighteen: The Stable Boy; the Savior, Regina/Daniel & Regina/Robin feels and angst, August and the new Savior, and Emma tantrums (you'll see).

So I've already written the next chapter and this chapter so it's too late for me to make Robin come back in Hat Trick, but now that I know he's for real back in the TV show, I'm totally up for bringing him in now.