As promised, a new chapter a couple days later. Now, really I could have just posted the last bit as that is proooobably going to be the only part you all are going to comment on and focus on but that's okay ;) now the chapter to follow this installment is already written and the rate at which it will be posted will be directly related to how many of you post a review telling me to do such ;p lol! Happy reading! I'm looking forward to your reviews!
"I think I'm going to miss you most of all when I leave," Henry admitted as he sat across from Maleficent. His chin was in his hands and his elbows were braced upon the wooden top of the desk as he watched Maleficent work. He wasn't all that sure what she was doing but it had something to do with practicing her magic.
"Oh? And why is that?" Maleficent asked curiously as she paused and glanced up at him to see him shrug.
"Because I really like you."
"And you care not for the rest of them?" She retorted playfully and Henry breathed a single laugh out his nose.
"No I do but you're different. I already kinda knew everybody else already anyway. But I don't know...maybe because I won't see you in Storybrooke."
"Well I will say that I will rather miss you too, Henry," she told him and offered him a small smile that had his smile widening. She didn't do affection though. So she went back to working on her magic and Henry continued to watch quietly.
"You should become a mother," Henry stated and she furrowed her brow and looked up at him, "I think you'd be really good at it."
-Storybrooke-
David had stayed the night. Again. She had fallen asleep in his arms on the couch halfway through their third movie. She had nestled herself right in to his side with her head on his chest and her legs curled up while his stretched out straight and rested upon the coffee table. She didn't remember falling asleep and when they had awoken, David's tone gave her the strong impression that he didn't care what Snow thought when he hadn't come home that night.
They didn't move from the couch for a long while though. They sat in comfortable silence and Regina could still feel his long departed fingers combing slowly and consistently through her hair. It had been soothing along with the steady beat of his heart in his chest beneath her ear. She didn't want him to move. But she knew she had to let him go.
He didn't stay for breakfast and she believed his reasons fell in line with him keeping his promise to rein himself back. To not hug her from behind as she cooked, to not watch her as she moved, to not kiss her upon the countertop. The images caused her to shiver and she cleared her throat as she tied her silk robe around her waist.
Her hair was still wet from the shower she just finished and her body was unclothed aside from the black silk robe that hit her legs just above the knee. She had to wash the smell of him from her. She didn't want to. But she had to. She couldn't think about him. She had to focus on Henry. There had to be something she could do to find him.
But first and foremost, she was hungry. For the first time in a long time she was starving and that made her frown as she walked down the stairs. Had she really settled in to this life without Henry enough that she felt good enough to eat? She hadn't eaten a scrap for days at a time when Henry had fallen away. And now she was ready to eat everything in her fridge.
She didn't like the feeling.
"Good mornin', sunshine," Tinkerbell greeted with a wink and a playful smirk and Regina stopped dead in the doorway between the dining room and kitchen with startled eyes and a displeased line through her lips.
"What are you doing here?"
"Came to see you of course," she smirked and kicked her feet dangling off the edge of the counter. Regina merely rolled her eyes with a scowl and continued on to the fridge. She didn't even bother asking how she had gotten in. She must have given up on keeping her out. "So I couldn't help but notice David's truck in the driveway when I came to check on you last night."
"How very observant of you," she drawled as she examined the contents of her fridge.
"I also couldn't help but notice that it was still here when I arrived earlier this morning."
"I do hope you maintained some decorum and did not put it upon yourself to break in to my home so early in the morning."
"What would I have found if I had?" Tink smirked as she kicked her legs out again and Regina kept her back turned to her while her attention remained on the contents of the fridge. The technology in this land was a beautiful thing. A giant box that kept things cold? And one that kept things frozen? Such amazing sorcery.
"Not what you would have hoped to find I imagine."
"So no bodies tangled together under the sheets after a long night of passion and screaming and-"
"Stop it," she breathed tiredly.
Tinkerbell did stop. At that tone she halted immediately and her teasing smile vanished. It was empty and tired and void of any hope or belief that such a thing could happen. She had never heard such a commanding tone in words carried out so quietly. "Regina," she broke the silence softly and leaned to the side a little in an attempt to see the woman's face, "why are you torturing yourself?"
"I am doing no such thing," she snapped tiredly as she pulled the orange juice from the fridge and let it close behind her as she turned to take a glass from the cupboard.
"Regina, David is right there. He is right there and he wants to make you happy," she motioned to the front of the house with a halfhearted scoff in frustration, "why won't you let him?"
"I am not getting in to this with you again," she warned and tension returned to her hands and jaw. Infuriating little pest.
"We won't have to get in to anything if you just give me an answer," she reasoned but Regina remained stubborn and silent, "Regina."
"Is it too much to ask for a quiet morning," Regina snarled as she opened the orange juice but her back remained turned.
"I am trying to work with you here! I am trying to help you get your happy-!"
Regina didn't let her finish that sentence. Her temper snapped and she whirled around, flicking her wrist as she did so that the blonde was engulfed in a cloud of purple smoke and before it even dissipated Regina slammed her empty upside down glass on the counter and put a large cookbook on top of it. Effectively trapping the now coin sized fairy within the clear cylinder of her glass. She didn't even lay eyes on the shrunken fairy. She had turned her back the very moment the glass was weighted down and that was still before the smoke had cleared.
"Regina!" Tink shouted as she slammed her fists against the glass. If the woman heard her, she didn't show it. "Regina let me out of here!" Still nothing. She merely poured herself some juice in a new glass, "Regina!" She banged on the glass again but Regina ignored her, didn't even glance her way, "Regina you know my magic is still finicky!" She yelled and continued to bang on the glass. But Regina continued to ignore her and put the juice away in the fridge, "Regina I swear to god!" And then the brunette walked out of the kitchen, "Regina! God damn it!"
-Enchanted Forest-
"What do you think it will be like?"
"Storybrooke?"
"Yeah."
"I don't know," she shrugged despite knowing he couldn't see her. Then she rolled her hips in to her leather pants, bouncing and kicking a little to get them on, "but I'm sure it will be a splendid adventure," she smiled and then looked through her many coats.
"I am finding it very difficult to wrap my head around the idea of electricity. And cars," he chuckled as he laid on the bed on his side and heard Regina laugh quietly from within her closet, "metal transpiration? That travels so fast an entire day's journey on horseback could be made in mere hours? How does one not die within its confines? Or crash it?"
"That also escapes me," Regina confessed and selected a dark blue coat of patterned velvet and slipped her arms through its sleeves, "however I am certain we won't have to look hard to find one of these cars. Or discover the secrets of this telephone he speaks of."
"Oh I completely forgot about that one..." He breathed in wonderment and stared off in to nothing.
"This is going to be fun," she grinned as she left her closet while buttoning her coat over her stomach. The dark blue fabric nearly skimmed the floor as she walked and a smirk pulled at that grin when she felt David's eyes on her when she stopped at her vanity to poke at her hair and examine her makeup as she hooked a pair of dangling sapphire teardrops in to her ears.
"You are beautiful," he smiled with a slow shake of his head and met her eye in the mirror. She smiled brighter and hummed a short laugh before she focused her eyes back on herself and he allowed his eyes to wander her. Hair was pulled back from her face and pinned so it gave plenty volume atop her head and fell in gorgeous curls behind her back. Her makeup was dark and sharp and he was consistently impressed by her skill with such a thing. Her entire appearance could change with a different stroke of a brush or pencil and today it was that perfect balance between the mad queen and his gentle bride.
With his smile still in place he pushed himself off the bed and made his way to her and her dark eyes followed his every movement in the mirror. She leaned in to him when he pressed himself against her back and rested one hand on her hip as he kissed her cheek to make her smile before he began sorting through the necklaces she had hanging on a small silver tree on her vanity. "You know what I am most curious to see?"
"Hmm?"
"What would have happened to you had we not found love in one another," he replied as he pulled a silver chain from a branch and she pulled her hair from her neck so he could fasten the necklace unhindered.
"I am curious too," she admitted quietly and felt shivers run down her spine when his fingers smoothed down the chain at the back of her neck. He hummed and the chilled onyx pendant sat at her sternum as she let her hair fall from her fingers and placed one hand over his arm around her waist and lifted the other to hold the side of his face as he kissed the side of her head. "I love you," she told him and smiled when in the mirror she saw him smile in to her hair.
"I love you, my queen."
-Storybrooke-
Regina had lost herself in another spell book when she was interrupted by a knock on her door. The sound irritated her. She had been on a promising train of thought and now she couldn't remember where she had been going with it. With a scowl and a long irritable sigh she slammed the book shut and stood so she could answer the door.
Emma. "What do you want?" She snapped and the blonde swayed away from her with her hands raised in surrender.
"Just checking up on you. Needed a change of scenery."
"Well I'm fine and you may stare at the outside of my house all you wish," she practically snarled and then Emma moved her hand in a forward gesture and Regina snapped her eyes down to the bulldog running eagerly past her ankles and in to her home.
If looks could kill, the look Regina gave her then would be one of them, "oh no," she poorly feigned distress and bit back a smile when Regina's glare grew all the more irate and unimpressed, "my dog," she motioned in to the house and Regina didn't so much as blink, "whatever will I do? I must get him back," she grew a little more dramatic just to push the brunette but she didn't bite and continued to stare at her with lightly pursed lips and unblinking eyes. "Alright fine," she breathed and let her arms fall back her her sides with a light smack of her hands against her thighs before she pushed past Regina, ignoring the woman's sounds of protest.
"Miss Swan!" She snapped but the blonde continued in to the house as Regina shut the front door, "what in the hell do you think your doing?"
"Getting my dog."
"Miss Swan if you think that a couple nights spent on my couch is an invitation to barge in to my home upon your every whim, you are sorely mistaken."
"Relax, Regina," Emma sighed as she wandered in search of Finnegan, "I was just coming to check on you. I know David spent the night here which means you were in a particularly bad space last night and I just wanted to see if you were alright."
"I'm fine," she bit out through a tight jaw, "now will you leave?"
"Make any more progress on getting Henry back?"
"No."
"What is he barking at," she breathed to quickly change the saddening topic and made her way to Regina's kitchen with the woman herself on her heels, "you catch a bug or something?" She questioned as she squinted at the overturned glass with a cookbook weighing it down.
"Oh...shit," she hissed at the glass with the scowling fairy inside of it.
"Is that Tinkerbell?"
"Maybe."
"What the hell did you do to her?"
"What does it look like I did to her," Regina grumbled as she walked up to the counter and Emma wisely stepped out of her way. She huffed furiously as she knocked the cook book off and flipped the glass over and Tinkerbell stood hardly two inches tall with her tiny arms folded and a furious scowl on her mouth. With a wave of her fingers she turned the fairy back to her human size and the blonde stood before her unmoving and livid when the smoke disappeared.
No words left the blonde's lips and it took a few long seconds for Regina to cave, "alright I forgot about you. I'm sorry. However I am not sorry for putting you there in the first place."
"I don't appreciate being shrunk and stowed away, I am trying to help you."
"I never asked for your help."
"You never ask for anyone's help."
"Perhaps you should have taken a hint."
"No, no, no that's not how this is going. Any time you feel threatened or vulnerable, you lash out and make it so that no one dares to get anywhere near you!"
"Suddenly I am not allowed to have a private life?"
"You are hiding! You are terrified! You are starved of human contact but you won't let anyone near you! What kind of twisted logic is that?!"
"Do not overstep your boundaries, fairy," she growled as she stepped closer to her but Tinkerbell didn't so much as blink.
"How long are you going to deny it? How many times do you have to look that man in the eye and tell yourself what you feel is nothing?"
"You know nothing! You have no right telling me what I feel or do not feel!"
"Then tell me!"
"I have to tell you nothing!" She yelled back but felt her chest grow tight with her building rage and heartache.
"I will not accept that answer, Regina! You have another chance at happiness and you won't take it!"
"I would rather live the rest of my days in misery than be happy only to have it taken from me again!" She cried out, her words quick and her voice frantic, "I cannot lose another person!"
"You don't have to!"
"You cannot promise me that! I hurt everyone I have ever loved or cared for! Whether it was intentional or not! Daniel, Robin Hood, my father, Graham, my mother! They are all dead! You cannot stand there and promise me David will live long enough for me to love him! You cannot promise me that I can achieve a happy ending!"
"No, I cannot promise that! But you cannot possibly be certain that he is going to leave you! You can't know that it will end in heartbreak until you try!"
"I don't want to try! I am exhausted! I am broken! I cannot handle another broken heart!"
"Regina-!"
"I am scared, Tink! I was scared with Robin and I am terrified now! I ran from Robin! But I have stayed with David! I cannot lose him," she shook her head and swallowed back her tears and Tinkerbell crossed her jaw and shifted her weight irritably, "but I cannot have him. Now, your help is not wanted nor needed. Get out."
She understood. She got it. It made sense. But if the woman would try just one more time...without a word, Tinkerbell left furiously. She stepped around Regina and walked out of the house and neither of them spoke a word.
Feeling incredibly out of place and uncomfortable, Emma still stood off to the side with her eyes down on Finnegan at her feet. She was quite certain that she was not supposed to hear any of that. At all. Carefully she looked up at Regina and frowned a little deeper when the woman fell forward to brace her weight on her hands on the island counter.
She knew it wasn't her place but she prodded anyway. Softly and gently, "so you do have feelings for David?"
Regina had entirely forgotten about Emma and was immediately hit square in the chest. She had not meant to admit such things, let alone admit such things to Emma Swan. "Get out of my house," she demanded and hated that her voice was so thick and quiet and emotional.
Emma nodded and then after a moment's pause she turned on her heels and walked out of the kitchen, gently jerking her head to the side for her dog to follow.
-Enchanted Forest-
They were all there patiently waiting for him. Regina and David were right behind him and Snow, Ruth, Maleficent, and Henry Senior were standing off to the side. They were all watching him and waiting but he was anxious.
"What is it, Henry?" Regina asked gently as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I just...what if I take us to the wrong place?" He looked up at her worriedly and her big brown eyes soaked in everything, "I mean there are two Enchanted Forests that are almost identical. What if there are two Storybrookes? What if I get them mixed up?"
Regina hummed in acceptance and agreement as she nodded once, "that could happen."
"I know it could."
"However I do not believe there could be another Storybrooke with a mother searching so endlessly for her son," she offered and Henry took in every word, "if your mother is as much like me as you say then I can promise you she will be looking for you. I can promise you that she has been working tirelessly to get you back home to her. If you say she was just like me here in the Enchanted Forest then imagine how much wiser she has become these years separating us. Now even with all of that knowledge she has failed to find you but I can promise you, Henry, that she has gone to extreme lengths to make is as easy as possible for you to find her. I am willing to bet that she has made your Storybrooke as easy to find as a spot on a dalmatian."
"You think so?" He asked hopefully and she smiled and nodded.
"I know so. You just have to think it. Focus on your home. Focus on her love. It will take us to the place she deemed the easiest for portal travel. The biggest 'x' on her map. Trust her, have faith in her, let her bring you home."
Henry nodded and rolled the bean in his palm as he tried to calm his nerves and focus as he turned back around and closed his eyes. Storybrooke. Home. His mother. He tried to focus on every detail, flipped through every memory he had until he found the ones that made him the happiest. Like his mother humming a beautiful melody when she thought no one was listening. Or the weekend mornings she would wake him up with breakfast in bed and she would try to steal all of his bacon. The days she would let him help her bake. The sound of her voice when she read to him. The special smell of her perfume. The feeling he got when she pulled him in to her arms for a much needed hug. The late nights they would spend snuggled together on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, a plate of freshly baked cookies, and movie marathon of their choice.
When he was calm and sure, he dropped the bean.
It swirled open and he was hit square in the chest with her. It was just her. It had him laughing and crying as he opened his eyes and looked in to the swirling purple portal. "Can you feel it?!" He yelled at the queen over the rushing wind of the portal but he didn't hear her answer. He was too enveloped in the feel of his mother's love surrounding him, pulling him, calling him. It was strong and it was obvious, just as the queen had assured him. This would take him home. He didn't realize how much he missed his mother in Storybrooke until now as she pulled him back to her. He couldn't stop crying and his smile never fell.
Regina smiled as Henry laughed and cried at the portal. No she could not feel quite what he was feeling. The pull was meant for him and only him but she could feel the warmth of the magic lacing the portal. And if she could feel just that hint of motherly warmth, she couldn't imagine what Henry was feeling. It was no wonder why he was crying. With a deep breath she intertwined her fingers with David's and held on tight and then she looked to the people they were leaving behind, "we'll be back soon!"
"Don't you worry about us!" Ruth called back with a laugh and nodded at Henry, "take that boy home! We will be here when you return!"
"I'll make sure of it," Maleficent put in with a small smirk that had Regina laughing.
Still laughing, Regina nodded then shared a loving smile with her father before she looked to Snow. Snow simply smiled and nodded in a way that calmed Regina. Everything was going to be fine. Nothing was going to fall apart in her absence. So with a smile and a nod back at Snow, Regina turned her attention back to Henry who had inched closer to the edge of the portal. She reached for his hand and at the slightest of contact he quickly took hold of her hand and held on tight, "let's take you home."
-Storybrooke-
Regina sat at Granny's stirring her coffee silently, allowing her mind to go numb so she didn't have to worry about her son and how in the hell she was going to find him when he could quite literally be anywhere. She didn't even want to consider that he could in fact be dead. Stir. Stir. Watching the brown steaming liquid swirl around. David was fighting to get in to her mind as well. But she wouldn't let him. Tinkerbell's words were no help on that matter either. Was it too much to ask to just think of nothing?
And then she jumped. She nearly spilled her coffee as she leapt out of her chair with a racing heart and wide eyes. It was as if she had just been zapped by a strong electrical current and she stared at the counter while the occupants of the diner focused their attention on her and her sudden movement.
Then without a word she ran out of the diner, ignoring the calls of her name as she fumbled frantically through her keys and got in her car. The engine was started and the car was immediately thrown in to drive and her foot was pushed all the way down on the gas pedal without even bothering with her seatbelt as she sped toward the strong pull of sudden magic that had a lump forming in her throat.