Double Trouble 29

A/N: I'm a little sorry for the evil cliffhanger. It sounded less evil in my head. Thanks for the lovely reviews. Enjoy!

A thousand thankyous go to withabrandnewname on tumblr for the gorgeous cover art for this story :).

Chapter 29 "Gears of War"

Regina was still at work at Town Hall when she got a text message from Emma that made her nearly drop the phone.

Emma Swan: Hey R (apple icon) (crown icon) (heart icon). I'm nearly finished at work. We have that meeting thingo tonight. What time do you want me to come and lick you up beforehand?

The newly appointed Acting Mayor stared at the brazen message in shock. They had yet to explore that part of their relationship fully and even though the blonde often teased her with saucy jokes she was surprised that Emma would send such a thing. She was just about to reply in kind when another message came through.

Emma Swan: Pick! I meant 'pick'. DAMN YOU AUTOCORRECT.

Regina sighed and typed her reply.

Whenever you're ready, Emma.

Sheriff's station

Later that evening when Emma returned with Regina, Mary Margaret swiftly intercepted them since the rest of the War Council was yet to arrive. It would be their first formal meeting since the breaking of the curse.

"Em and Ri are babysitting Henry tonight," Mary Margaret informed them.

Emma snorted. "By that you mean Henry's going to be stuffed full of cookies and then sent off to play while Em and Ri make out?"

"They're sensible girls." Mary Margaret amended that statement when she saw her daughter's eyebrows shoot up. "Oh fine! Ri is sensible enough for them both and at least Em knows not to put knives in toasters."

"Uh huh," Emma drawled. "Em is there to make sure Ri doesn't accidentally burn down the apartment... and Ri is there to make sure Em doesn't do it deliberately."

Regina narrowed her eyes at Mary Margaret suspiciously. "There's something else you're avoiding telling us."

"Um," the schoolteacher's eyes darted shiftily. "The girls spent the day at the stables because they wanted to spend some time together and to go riding and have a picnic and - okay, do you want the bad news first or the good news?"

"Bad." "Good." Emma and Regina answered in unison.

Mary Margaret blurted it all out in a rush and gestured wildly with her hands. "Ok-so-the-thing-is, I dropped them off this morning and I gave Em my spare phone again even though she never thinks to call me when she needs help but this time she actually did and so I was really surprised and I'm glad she did because when I got there Ri was injured and very upset. I had to take her to the hospital this afternoon."

"What!" cried Emma. "What happened? Is she okay? Did she fall off a horse?"

Regina frowned. "Surely she didn't get thrown. Even if she did choose the wildest horse there."

Mary Margaret sighed. "No. She wasn't hurt badly and she didn't fall. While Ri was in with the doctor, Em told me it happened when they were in the stables packing up and settling the horses back in. She said Ri was staring weirdly at some bloodstains on the walls like 'she recognised them'. It was an accident but Em thinks it was her fault and feels terrible."

Regina's lips parted in a tiny gasp and her fingertips flew to her scar.

Emma looked helplessly at her mother. "Seriously, I'm freaking out. Explain?"

"She got caught in the face by something made of metal, Em wasn't sure what it was, but Ri ended up with a laceration on her upper lip. She was bleeding a fair bit when I arrived so I thought it'd be best if we went to the hospital immediately. The plastic surgeon used dissolvable stitches after I said that she might not have access to post-operative care soon - just in case something happens and the girls have to go back where they came from. The doctor said it would heal well by itself but there would probably be a small scar."

Emma stared dumbstruck and then flicked her gaze to the woman at her side. "A scar. Your scar?"

"I remember." Regina paused, thinking back to the distant past.

Emma's face flooded with realisation. "Wait a sec. Regina, if you got your scar when you were here... do you remember how you got it? Do you remember being Ri now?"

Regina shook her head slowly. "No. I do remember getting the scar, I was 18 years old, but that wasn't how it happened. Not exactly. It wasn't you."

Emma went to ask but the tense brunette sent her a severe "drop it" glare and wouldn't elaborate further.

Mary Margaret's apartment (not currently on fire)

"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSAAA!" Em called out and swung the sparkly wand in the air... but nothing happened of course.

Henry scrunched his face at her. "What's that."

Em shrugged. "I dunno. Some piece-o'-crap toy wand I stole from jerkface's shop."

"You stole from Mr Gold? You're brave." Henry looked impressed. "But you were saying the spell wrong. It's Levi-OH-sa."

"As if, kid. I was watching Harry Potter before you were even born," boasted Em, stepping up to tower over him so they were toe-to-toe. She pushed her thick black glasses back up her nose.

"I know what happens in the eh-end and you-oo doh-on't," sang Henry, tipping his head back to look up at her. "What book are you up to?"

"The latest one. Goblet," said Em. "I nicked it from the library."

Henry giggled. "That's not the latest one! Book seven has been out for years. Even the movies are finished."

Em's jaw dropped and held out her hands in a crazy manner. "Are you serious, kid? You mean I've been here all this time in the future, there's no flying cars, there's no hoverboards and I still haven't found out how Harry Potter ends? Hey, have you got the DVDs?"

Henry nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Do you wanna watch together?"

"YES. Go get them quick, run!"

After Henry scampered off to the bedroom to find his laptop and the discs, Em went to knock on the bathroom door.

"You ok, Ri?" said Em through the wooden door, picking at some of the peeling paint.

"Yes. You can come in," came the muffled voice.

Em swung the door open to see Ri standing at the sink, examining her wounded face in the mirror. She had a row of tiny stitches covered with a bit of white tape on her upper lip and underneath it the skin was reddened and slightly swollen. The injured teen had been fairly upset when it first happened and Em was thankful that for once she was able to get the kind of help for Ri that she usually didn't think to procure for herself.

Ri seemed to be dealing with it much better than Em expected, since she was sometimes overly concerned with her appearance. The importance of keeping her reputation and beauty intact until she was married had been drilled into her from an early age by her mother. Now she knew what it was to be loved for herself she wasn't as panicked over losing what she would've once thought was her only asset. But old habits were hard to break.

Em sighed. "Ri, come away from the mirror. It won't get better any faster by staring at it."

"It looks awful," moaned Ri.

Em caught her around the waist. "No it doesn't. Ok yeah, it's a bit scary now but it'll heal. Look at Regina, you can hardly see hers anymore. Plus it makes you look kinda badass."

Ri nodded straight-faced. "You're right. I am not to be messed with."

"You can punch me in the face if it'll make you feel better?" offered Em.

"Maybe some other time," teased Ri. "When you're really getting on my nerves."

"I wish I could kiss it better. Mary Margaret said not to for a little while because mouths are so germy."

"I don't know what that means."

"You know what happened to the sores on my back? It got infected and went all gross so I needed medicine."

"Oh. You mean when wounds crudesce?"

Em shrugged at the archaic medical term. "Dunno. I'm really sorry you got hurt, Ri. I should've taken better care of you."

"You do take good care of me, Em. It was an accident. In any case, I'd rather be scarred by you than be flawless for anyone else. We had such a lovely day together didn't we?"

Em turned Ri around and wrapped her arms around her from behind so that they could both see themselves in the mirror. She placed a kiss on her skin and pressed their cheeks together on Ri's uninjured side. They watched their reflections watch each other for a moment.

"Mirror mirror on the wall, my girlfriend Ri is the prettiest of them all. See how gorgeous you are?" murmured Em.

"We do look nice together," agreed Ri. "See how I'm looking at you right now, Em? I may not be able to kiss you but I'm imagining it."

The doorbell rang signalling the arrival of the pizzas.

"Magic's here!" said Em.

Sheriff's station

Standing in front of the blank-faced audience Emma swore she could hear crickets chirping, despite the fact that they were all friendly faces: Mary Margaret, David, Granny, Ruby, Leroy, the dwarves, Archie, and Marco. They were waiting expectantly, no doubt wondering what they hell they were doing there.

"Er hi, I'm Emma."

Ruby snorted. "Emma, it's not AA. We know who you are."

"Why don't you tell us why you called this meeting," suggested Archie.

"Right," Emma shook her head at herself. "So uh, some weird stuff's been happening in Storybrooke lately. I mean, weirder than the usual wraiths, giants, and sleazy one-handed pirates… Um I'm supposed to be some kinda Saviour but I don't know much about magical threats so I figured I'd ask you guys for help since you're like a War Council who got together to try to stop the curse, right?"

"We're Snow White's War Council," insisted Leroy with emphasis on the Royal name.

"Yeah and?" said Emma, confused.

"And," Mary Margaret sent Leroy a quelling look. "Emma is my daughter so your loyalty extends to her."

The grumpy dwarf shrugged. "Good enough for me. But your kid doesn't seem like much of a princess, Snow."

"Ok," sighed Emma. "So my plan is-"

"Excuse me," interrupted Marco in his thick-accented voice. "The curse is broken. That means we succeeded with our plans, no? To send the baby through the wardrobe to one day return and save us according to the prophecy. Why are we here now?"

"That's the thing," started Emma. "We're still here in Storybrooke instead of being sent-"

"Yeah, why are we still here?" said Leroy. "If the curse was really broken shouldn't we have gone back?"

Archie shook his head and pointed out, "Not necessarily. The curse brought us here and replaced everybody's memories with fake ones so that the happy endings would be forgotten. The prophecy predicted that the curse would be broken, not reversed. The plan succeeded in restoring our identities but there was no guarantee of returning to the Enchanted Forest."

"So how do we get back," persisted Leroy.

"Even if we were able to, it's an important decision as to whether we should go back," said Archie, who couldn't in good conscience ignore the distinct improvement in his quality of life since becoming human again.

Leroy scoffed. "What's hard about it. Either we go back or we don't."

Granny raised her eyebrows at the men. "Some of us have a lot to lose here."

Ruby barely looked up from flicking through her iPhone. "Sure do. If we go back I'm taking a sack full of condoms and tampons. Oh and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Can't live without that anymore."

"RUBY!" hissed Granny.

"What?" Ruby said defensively. "I'm just saying. The modern world has its perks. How are we supposed to go back to the olden times knowing about all that stuff now? Tampons and Instragram are the little things that make life worth living. I have a following you know, I can't just disappear offline forever. Oh and what about my car! I am so not leaving my baby behind."

Emma tried not to laugh. "Ok, we're getting a little off track here-"

"Why is the Blue Fairy not here? She may know something," said Marco with a shrug.

"We didn't hear back from her," replied David. "I called her twice."

Mary Margaret frowned. "Blue's not coming?"

Emma held up her hands and waved to try to get their attention. "Uh guys?-"

Leroy groaned and rubbed his grumbling stomach. "When is the food getting here? I'm starving."

Doc frowned at his fellow dwarf. "Don't be so grumpy, you will be fed eventually. You must learn to have some patience."

"GUYS!" said Emma exasperatedly, but they all kept talking over the top of her.

A ball of orange fire exploded with a loud whoosh in the middle of the room, drawing their attention immediately. The small fireball burned rapidly, taking out a pile of paperwork sitting on the desk where it'd been lobbed and leaving a pile of ash.

Now that they were silent, Regina cast a passive glare around the room. She had been standing against the bars of the cell with her arms crossed, watching the proceedings wordlessly thus far.

"It amazes me how you people ever managed to coordinate yourselves long enough to accomplish anything, let alone formulate a plan to break the 'curse to end all curses'."

"What is she doing here?" hissed Leroy. "You're on the wrong side of the bars there, sister."

"If you would all shut up for five minutes perhaps Miss Swan would get the chance to tell you why we're here," said Regina.

Leroy replied in a 'duh' voice. "This is Snow White's War Council... you know, the heroes that ruined your evil plans? It's a meeting of the good guys and so by definition it can't include you."

"Believe me, I'd rather be elsewhere right now," said Regina dryly.

"The door's over there," said Leroy.

"Guys, pleeease," moaned Emma. "I'll vouch for Regina, ok? She's on our side now and we need her help."

"We need magical expertise. Would you rather we invited Mr Gold, Leroy?" said Mary Margaret.

Leroy turned around in his chair. "So now we've got the Evil Queen and the Saviour leading us, or are they both vying for the top job? Whose orders are we supposed to follow? Is this going to be like Game of Thrones... cos I'd watch the hell out of that."

David smacked the dwarf up the back of the head causing his beanie to fall off. "Behave! That's my daughter you're talking about."

Emma hit the desk with a thud as she slumped forward with her head in her arms. The fairytale characters are useless!

"Em Swan. Henry Mills. What are you doing!"

The two of them froze like deers in headlights at Ri scolding them with her hands on her hips, looking every bit the commanding Queen she would one day be. The effect was somewhat diminished though since nobody could pose a serious threat in those adorable Snoopy pyjamas.

"Uh nothing," said Em innocently, licking chocolate off her mouth. She was in pyjamas as well - bought for her by Mary Margaret since Emma was running of out clothes too fast by having to share her limited wardrobe with the teen. The pink bottoms were printed with chocolate chips and the black top rather appropriately read: 'Come to the dark side... we have cookies'.

Ri lowered a stern brow. "Get out of the desserts, you naughty things! You haven't had your dinner yet. Em, stop teaching him bad habits. Henry, sweetie, dessert comes after dinner not before."

Em snorted. "He knows that. We just conveniently decided to ignore that rule, didn't we kid?"

Ri brought the pizza box over and handed the others some plates. "Here, have some of this tomato-cheese pie."

Em groaned and shook her head at Henry. "She's like a martian sometimes isn't she? It's called a pizza, Ri."

Ri joined them on the couch so that the boy was between them and the three of them were sitting hip-to-hip-to-hip. Henry and Em got stuck into their slices of pizza with their hands but poor Ri was slowed down by having to cut hers up into pieces and bite them off a fork to avoid her wound.

"Is it still really sore, Ri?" said Henry.

Ri smiled gently. "Not very. Thankfully it doesn't hurt to talk or smile. Or laugh."

"Lucky for me," said Em around a mouthful of pizza. "Cos I don't think I could stop being hilarious."

Ri rolled her eyes and shared a knowing look with Henry. "She thinks she's funnier than she is."

"Start the movie, kid," said Em excitedly. "I'm dying to know how it ends! I wanna know if Harry defeats Voldemort."

"Duh, the good guys always win," said Henry. "Everybody knows that. Otherwise it's not the end of the story."

"Is this another one of those moving picture stories?" asked Ri.

"Yup. It's about a magical orphan with glasses... like me!" said Em.

"And me," Henry chimed in.

Em shot the kid a disbelieving look. "You're not magical. You don't have glasses. You're not even an orphan."

"I do too have magic!" Henry pouted. "You're not really an orphan either, Em. You've found your parents."

The DVD menu appeared on the laptop screen and the distinctive theme music sounded from the speakers.

Em whipped out the toy wand and pointed it at Henry. "SILENCIO! No more spoilers. Press play, kid!"

"Who's behind this, " asked Granny. "Do we know?

Emma and Regina exchanged a quick glance, unwilling to let the others in on what they suspected. Everything started when the teenagers arrived and even though Henry may not have made his wish they knew he was involved somehow. Protecting the kids was their primary motivation and the Council didn't need to know about that yet.

"We're not sure who's involved," said Mary Margaret vaguely. "We don't even know that it was done with malicious intent."

"There's a limited number of people in town who have access to magic," said David.

"That we know of," Mary Margaret pointed out. "So there's only a few people who could have done this."

Leroy snorted. "Obviously it was one of the resident evils."

"The bad guys"... "The Queen"… "Rumpelstiltzskin"… "One of them for sure!" suggested the other dwarves in succession.

"For the last time, it wasn't Regina," muttered Emma.

Mary Margaret nodded in agreement. "Mr Gold won't help us unless it suits him and if the Blue Fairy knows anything about it she's not saying."

"So what happens when the border shrinks?" asked Ruby anxiously. "We lose our memories? It's going to be very bad at the next full moon if I don't remember that I'm a werewolf."

"We're not going to let that happen, Ruby," promised David. "We will figure this out."

"But what if you can't fix it in time? You'll have to lock me up."

"No," Emma said firmly. "I'm Sheriff and I am not imprisoning innocent people preemptively. Not unless there's a clear threat of danger."

"How long do we have to figure this out?" asked Granny.

Emma unrolled a poster map of Storybrooke and spread it out across the table. She only had to raise her eyes at Regina for her to come over and magically illuminate the map, showing the current position of the border. Regina held her palm above the poster, which began to glow with two concentric rings: a fixed orange outer one and a wavering yellow one inside it.

"The original position of the town line is marked on the map here in orange. The first people to lose their memories on the highway near the Leaving Storybrooke sign were Tom and Belle."

"What memories?" said Tom/Sneezy, confused.

"Nevermind, Snotty," muttered Leroy.

Emma placed her index finger on the map, indicating a section of the woods where the school field trip had taken place. "According to the teacher, this is where the four schoolkids lost their memories... and here," she traced her finger back down the highway, "is where Doc lost his memories approximately one hundred yards from the sign."

"Who's Doc?" said Francois/Doc blankly. "If you're referring to moi, I prefer to be addressed as Doctor Dupont."

"Shut up, Doc," said Leroy exasperatedly. "Go on, kiddo."

Emma gestured to the flickering bright yellow light that formed a jaggedly uneven ring around the town. "Currently the border is at least five miles closer to us from its original position at the town line... but we don't think it's moving at a constant rate. If it's accelerating in fits and starts then we can't predict how long it could take to reach the actual town."

"Take a wild guess," suggested Granny wryly. "Even if it's a bad one."

Emma exchanged a wary look with Regina before answering. "We think this started between two and four weeks ago... so we may have a few more weeks."

"Or only a few days," Archie put in soberly. "Magic is like a rebellious teenager... once it's out in the world on it's own, it doesn't necessarily do what you tell it."

Mary Margaret cocked her head at the wording. "Magic acts as though it has a mind of its own? An underdeveloped risk-seeking emotionally-immature mind?"

"Magic can think?" said Leroy. "Great."

"It can," said Granny. "I heard it depends on how powerful its creator is or on how much control they have over their own power."

"Sooo say if this magic spell, curse, whatever, was cast by someone untrained," said Emma casually. "That person might not have full control over what they cast?"

Regina nodded stiffly. "Yes. Magic is not to be trifled with. Sometimes it lasts longer than you know, past what can be seen. Be careful of the darkness you unleash, lest it turn and head straight for you."

"Well that's cheery," said Leroy sarcastically.

"But what can we do?" asked Marco. "I don't want to forget my boy."

"We're working on it," said Emma lamely, feeling rather inadequate that they didn't have more of a plan of action. She could feel them all staring at her, looking to her for a solution, when she didn't have one to give.

Thankfully Mary Margaret jumped in to help her out. "For now, we need you all to help us keep an eye on things. We're monitoring the border's progress but it is important that nobody goes near it. Especially the people of Storybrooke outside this room. We need to keep this under wraps for now."

David nodded in agreement. "We don't want another situation like when the curse first broke, with people panicking and deliberately heading for the border."

A loud knocking came from the front of the station and the tension immediately dissipated.

"Food's here!" declared Leroy happily.

The dwarves, Marco, Ruby and Granny all got up to follow David, who was going to pay, and help collect the delivery.

Once most of the room had cleared out, Emma slumped in her chair exhausted and laid her forehead onto the cool table. She really wasn't cut out for this.

"Emma honey, you did very well," said Mary Margaret softly, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"Mmgh," came the sullen response.

"It could've been worse," said Regina, leaning her hip against the desk and folding her arms. "Nobody died."

"They're right," groaned Emma, muffled into her sleeve. "I'm so not princess material. I still can't believe they made me Sheriff. I'm not a leader, I'm not like you guys."

"We don't want you to be anyone but yourself," said Mary Margaret kindly.

Emma raised her head to give her a sarcastic face. "Come on, Mom. Before the curse, before I was born, you didn't expect me to be me. You were picturing your daughter dressing up for fancy balls and wearing tiaras and marrying a prince. You know, the princess stuff..."

"Emma." The pixie haired brunette's eyes twinkled. "I'm a princess and I lived in the woods for months with nobody but woodland creatures for company. By the end of it, I had enough twigs in my hair to build a campfire and I'm pretty sure my cape went mouldy. Regina was born a princess too and as a former queen, I'm sure she can tell you the truth about the 'stuff'."

Regina's lips twitched. "Yes, it's highly overrated. Balls are insufferably tedious and full of either simpering flirts or sleazy drunkards, tiaras never seem to sit right, and as for marrying a prince, not many of them are worthy of being called charming..." she let her words trail off tellingly.

"Yeah yeah, I get your point," said Emma begrudgingly. "I don't want any of that."

Mary Margaret stage-whispered over her daughter's head. "Regina, can you imagine us trying to wrangle Em into a ballgown?"

"With or without threats of violence?" said Regina dryly.

"Duct tape might be enough. Definitely a gag to stop her complaining."

Emma groaned again. "I'm so screwed! Since when do Snow White and the Evil Queen team up to torture me?"

Archie headed over to them, from where he'd been observing for some time, smiling mildly. "So, how much of the story did you leave out, Emma. How did this really start?"