Double Trouble 10

A/N: Hi lovely readers! Thanks for the great reviews, you guys keep me motivated and I've really needed it this week. I didn't like the finale much. Enjoy :)

'Alone'

"What's up with Ri?" said Emma in a whisper to her mother.

They were in the kitchen getting breakfast for the others. Regina was having plenty of fun brandishing knives to cut up fruit in Mary Margaret's presence and making a show of peeling apples deftly. She was delighted by every flinch she caused.

The night before, Regina had created her bed-magic for the girls again and slept in Emma's bedroom by herself - in a bed that Mary Margaret and David had had sex in actually, Emma thought with a grimace, knowing that Regina would probably incinerate it (and them) if she knew.

Emma was perplexed that she even stayed at all. She could've easily gone home at any time, even if it was just to sleep at night. She figured Regina must have something keeping her there - most likely it was to take any opportunity to be near Henry, even if he didn't go near her much. Perhaps she also wanted to keep an eye on her younger self and Em - she seemed reluctant to allow Emma and her parents complete control over the girls.

Even with four adults to supervise they were having enough trouble looking after the teens. Although to be quite fair, Em was responsible for the lion's share of it.

Emma felt something a bit like ownership over her younger self. It was strange because although she was Em once she couldn't control her now as if she were a literal part of her. She knew what her younger self was thinking most of the time and she knew the motivations behind her actions instantly... but she'd been Em so long ago that she'd almost forgotten what it actually felt like to be her. That version of her had faded gradually until she'd become the person Emma was now.

Emma wondered if Regina felt the same way about Ri, which reminded her... Ri looked a lot like her older self this morning. She looked haunted.

"Why does Ri look like she's gonna fling herself off a cliff?" whispered Emma worriedly.

Mary Margaret sighed, keeping her voice low so the kids in the living room couldn't hear. "She found the book."

Regina paused in the middle of slicing an orange.

Emma was horrified and she hissed back at her mother. "Henry's book?!"

"Yes. She knows Regina was the Evil Queen and cast the curse."

"Does she know about-" the name evaporated in Regina's mouth, leaving a feeling like dry sand there.

Mary Margaret raised a shoulder. "I'm not sure. She didn't want to talk about it so we don't know how much of the story she's actually put together."

Emma glanced over at Ri who was sitting and 'talking' with the others but she was very subdued, even quieter than usual.

"She looks destroyed," said Emma in annoyance. "How could you let her find out, Mary Margaret? She's not gonna trust anyone ever again after this."

Mary Margaret shook her head sadly. "We tried to talk to her about it but she clammed up..."

Emma gave Regina an expectant look. "Regina. Aren't you gonna say something... or I dunno, react? You should have some insight here."

"What do you want me to say."

"Ri finding out all that stuff ... it's bad for everyone! It's going to change how she acts if she goes back. She's not supposed to know about all of that."

"Your parents were supposed to be watching her," said Regina evenly.

"I know. I'm sorry," said Mary Margaret contritely.

"Yes dear, I'm sure you are. It seems you're never through with accidentally ruining my life are you."

"Regina," Mary Margaret moaned.

"Do you think apologising makes it better? That things are undone because you are sorry after the fact for doing them? Ask me if that's true. Ri hasn't even done anything yet and she already knows it."

"You have to talk to her, Regina," said Emma, shaking her head. "You have to help her understand why you did it."

"I can't do that," said Regina flatly. "She'll be fine."

"She is not fine," emphasized Emma. "This could change everything."

Regina's face tightened. "If she's pure evil then she will do it all over again even if she does know... So there's nothing to worry about is there?"

She grabbed the bowls of fruit with a jerk and then went over to the table.

For the rest of the day, Em kept trying her hardest to cheer Ri up. But she had retreated into herself and even Em's crazy antics and jokes couldn't cut through it.

Ri kept stealing glances at her older self and then quickly looking away when she got caught multiple times. Regina hardly spoke to her so Ri didn't feel comfortable enough to talk to her or ask any of the thousands of questions that were swarming in her head. She wanted to know if she'd get through it one day but examining her older self told her that maybe there was no light at the end of all this.

Regina seemed to be completely alone. Ri hadn't realised at first since she was always with the others but they never acted like she was one of them or accepted. It made her wonder why Regina was even there. If Emma and her parents hated her then why be around them?

Where was Regina's family? She mustn't have any, Ri realised with a painful jolt that sickened her stomach. She'd finally guessed without having to ask why her parents weren't in Storybrooke. Mother and Father always being in her life was something she'd taken for granted. She didn't seem to have a family of her own either - if she did, where were they? Does this mean I never get to be with someone I love? Or have children?

I'm going to be alone.

And then there was Emma. She and Regina weren't together. Em said nothing would make her leave. But when she grows up she doesn't want to be with me. Did she change, or did I? What happened to us?

"Hey, Ri," said Emma kindly, breaking her reverie.

"Hi."

"I want you to come with me."

Ri got up to follow Emma to the door obediently. "Oh. Are you taking me back."

"Back where?"

"That place with the bars. To lock me up."

Emma's heart almost broke. "No, Ri. Of course not."

Emma grabbed her own coat and got Mary Margaret's for Ri to put on so they could go outside. Emma's strategy for handling Ri was rather different from Em's - she was imagining that she was Regina instead of Ri and how she would try to help her. Well, provided that inaccessible Regina would ever accept help from her or let her in. They strolled the sidewalk outside, taking in the quiet Sunday afternoon stillness and Ri spoke up on her own.

"Am I evil?"

Emma pressed her lips into a small sigh. "Ri, there's a difference between that and doing bad things. I won't lie, Regina has done some terrible stuff but there's more to it than just what's on the surface ok?"

"I don't understand it."

"I'm not sure I do either," admitted Emma. "But there's a lot that makes us who we are. And there's a lot of reasons for why we act in certain ways. You might not believe that you'd do these things... but maybe she couldn't see another way. Maybe she felt like she had no choice. And nobody was there to save her..."

"Her life must've been bad. Or maybe it's her that's bad. Is she still like that, Emma?"

Emma stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Can I tell you something, Ri?"

"Yes?"

"I let her down. A little while ago she said she was trying to change... but I didn't believe her. And after I realised, it was too late. I had a chance to change things for her and I missed it."

"Can't you offer it again?" said Ri hopefully. "I'd take it. I really would. And she's me so maybe she still wants the same thing?"

"I know what she wants," Emma admitted.

"She doesn't want to be alone."

Emma nodded and gave her a thin smile. "I've tried that too."

"Emma, please," begged Ri. "I need to know why you don't want to be with her. I'm afraid I'm going to lose Em. I need to know why she's lost you."

"Ri, she didn't lose me. She pushed me away," said Emma quietly.

"Oh," Ri furrowed a brow. "Well, she won't be able to do that forever..."

When Emma got back to the apartment with a slightly less depressed-looking Ri, Regina was immediately suspicious. She and Emma shared a conspiracy between them to save the girls without the others knowing but they weren't supposed to just tell the teens everything either.

Regina cornered Emma at the first opportunity, pulling her by the sleeve of her sweater away from the others.

"What did you tell her?" demanded Regina.

"What she needed to hear."

"I suppose you elaborated on my long list of transgressions against you and your family."

"Yes, that's exactly what I did, Regina," said Emma sarcastically, gesturing at Ri who managed to give a small smile to Henry chattering away at her. "That's why she's even worse now."

"What part of 'lets save the girls' is letting her find out she's evil in the first place?"

Emma glanced around uncomfortably to see if they were being overheard. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice.

"Withholding the truth from her isn't going to save her. Having someone give her another chance will."

"And that's what you think you're doing? Deigning to give me another chance from the lofty heights of your perfection?"

"No, but I think you should give yourself another chance. Ri wants to be good. Have you forgotten what it's like to be her?"

"No," snapped Regina.

"Then show me I can trust you. I'm sorry about what happened with Archie, I was wrong but you didn't make it easy for me-"

Regina's eyes flashed with anger. "Excuse me, Sheriff, isn't it your job to prove guilt rather than mine to prove innocence?"

Emma felt the barb hit its target but it still annoyed her. "Ok I get it! I can't take that back now, but we're getting nowhere trying to shuffle the blame between us. I understand why you went back to Cora but you are still dangerous. I want to trust you but I can't do that when you're threatening Mary Margaret every five seconds. I have to think of my family."

"I've had ample opportunity to kill her. What does that tell you," Regina pointed out sarcastically.

"Only because if you do it you know you'll lose Henry for good."

"I have only had Henry for ten years," said Regina, getting weary of having to defend even her non-actions.

The story said the Evil Queen had cast the curse to come to a new land where it was possible to cause harm to Snow White and yet, she hadn't done it. She'd lived in Storybrooke for years without exacting the very revenge that had motivated her to creating the town. Why? It was a long time before she adopted Henry. The Mayor was by no means benevolent but neither was she unchanged by casting the curse and raising a child. With revenge off the table, maybe Regina really wouldn't attack unless she was threatened... which is exactly what happened when Emma turned up in Storybrooke.

"Fine," said Emma with a heavy sigh.

"So what is your plan for saving them?" asked Regina.

"Uh, I don't really have one? We still don't know where they came from or why they're here. Even if we had to send them back right now... how would we?"

Regina's eyebrow furrowed as the paradox occurred to her. "Something must happen ... or maybe it's that they don't go back - if they are from the past."

"Why not?"

"Because, Emma, do you remember any of this happening? I mean, do you remember being Em and coming to Storybrooke."

"No. What does that mean?" said Emma, confused.

Regina explained impatiently. "It means they don't go back to the past the way they are. Otherwise both of us would have memories of all of this already happening."

"So what do we do about them then?"

They both looked to their younger selves who were holding hands and smiling happily at each other, oblivious to the trouble they caused.

"Why do you think they took to each other so quickly," said Regina, folding her arms across herself.

Emma shrugged self-consciously, feeling all the awkwardness of the comparison between the younger girls' romance and their own relationship. "I dunno. They're teenagers."

"Yes, but - " Regina broke off.

"Maybe they're us - like we would've been - before life got in the way. Maybe even like we could be if things were different."

Regina shook her head almost imperceptibly. "There's no us, Emma."

"You're right," said Emma in a flat tone. "There definitely isn't."