Forbidden
Temperament:
Regina's head is throbbing by the time they reach the town line. Too many events have happened in a too short time-span. She's slowly but steadily going into some sort of overload.
Lily isn't particularly conversational, she mostly keeps quiet during the entire drive, but she has asked Regina a few questions. One of them being whether she has other children.
So Regina tells her about Henry, and she can feel how Lily silently judges her for having another child, even though Regina didn't know of Lily's existence.
It's a long drive.
"Maleficent... Is she really a dragon or is she just some screwed up version of her movie counterpart?" Lily asks as they pass the town line.
Emma's mouth twitches a little.
"She's a dragon." Regina confirms with a nod.
"You've seen her as a dragon then?"
"Yes."
"Do you have magic?" Lily asks a bit out of nowhere.
"I have." Regina confirms.
"Does your son?"
"No, he doesn't."
"And Henry's father?" Lily asks and almost glares at Regina. "Are you still with him?"
"Henry's adopted," Regina says, and her throat feels a bit tight again. "I… Can't have children."
She feels Emma's eyes on her. This is a piece of information she hasn't shared with anyone. Except Maleficent.
"Oh." Lily says, and her voice is softer now. "At first... Before I pieced things together… I thought you were the one who carried me. Because of…" she trails off and motions toward herself and then Regina.
Regina nods. She knows very well what Lily means. The similarity between them is almost ridiculous. As soon as Lily shows her face in Storybrooke, Snow and David will start to piece things together, and then the how-questions will start popping up like weed.
"I'm actually Henry's birth mother." Emma interjects and interrupts Regina's train of thoughts.
Lily frowns. "So you're saying that Snow White and Prince Charming is my… brothers grandparents?"
"We don't think too much about the family tree," Regina says. "That would only give you a headache."
"Right."
Regina only now realizes that Lily called Henry her brother. The brunette's heart swells a little again. Maybe it's not completely impossible to be a family. Or, at least something similar to a family.
"Welcome to Storybrooke," Emma announces half-sarcastically as the yellow bug pulls up in front of the town hall.
Oh, great… A welcome home committee, Regina thinks bitterly to herself. That's about the last thing they need right now. Snow and Charming should have known better. But here they are, lined up in front of the town hall with Killian and Henry. And Maleficent who's standing as far away as possible from Snow and David. Snow keeps shooting worried glances at Maleficent, who simply looks right through the younger woman.
This is a tense situation. There's that headache again.
Emma swiftly climbs out of the car and walks straight into Killian's waiting arms. She barely acknowledges her parents. That's a tense situation too.
Regina steals a glance at Maleficent. The blonde sorceress is wringing her hands nervously.
Lily has made no attempt at getting out of the car, so Regina takes a risk and puts a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry for the welcome home committee. I didn't know..."
"It's fine," Lily says and surprisingly enough she doesn't shrug Regina's hand away. "Is that your son?"
"Yes, that's Henry," Regina confirms with a little smile.
"And that…" Lily mutters and motions vaguely toward Maleficent.
"That's your mother," Regina says. "Do you feel like going out there and meet her?"
"Well, I don't suppose we can stay in this car all day," Lily mutters, and Regina laughs before she can stop herself.
And then the most amazing thing happens. Lily laughs. The sound goes straight to Regina's heart, and she immediately picks up on how much Lilith sounds like Maleficent. They have the same laugh.
Lily looks out of the car window and then turns to Regina. "They don't know, do they? That you're my…?"
"No," Regina admits. "I've only known about you for two days, and once I found out, I wanted to find you right away. Something as trivial as telling people didn't really occur to me."
Lily's mouth curves upwards again. "For some crazy reason, I think I could grow to like you, Regina."
Regina chuckles a little at that. Thirty years too late or not, she and Lily most definitely have a connection already.
"We better…" Lily says and opens the car door.
Regina follows her out of the car. She straightens her posture, tips her chin up and counts silently. Killian is the first one to zero in on the pair. Then David. And then Snow.
And in five, four, three, two…
Killian stares.
David stares.
Snow stares. Her green eyes widen, and her jaw goes slack.
Henry gapes. And then he looks from Lily to Regina. He locks eyes with his mother, and Regina nods discreetly to confirm his suspicion. She knows that he knows. Of course, he knows. This is Henry. He has inherited his wits from both of his mothers. Of course he knows. And of course, he has questions too. And Regina has every intention of answering every single one of them. There will be no lies between her and Henry. She will tell him everything. Okay, maybe not everything in details, but she'll give him a full-filling, slightly edited explanation.
Snow and David…. Well, they can wait, Regina decides. She doesn't really owe them an explanation. Maybe they'll figure out by themselves. Or maybe they'll ask the right question. And if they do, Regina is gonna answer it truthfully.
But for now, she's just reuniting Maleficent with her daughter. A daughter who just so happens to look a lot like Regina.
"Maleficent, this is Lily." She says quite un-necessarily as they approach Maleficent.
Maleficent's blue eyes sparkles as she looks at Lily, and Regina steps backwards. She had her "reunion". Now it's Maleficent's turn.
"Hi." Lily says a bit awkwardly and outstretches her hand to Maleficent.
"Hello, Lily," Maleficent says gently. "It's nice to meet you."
"Yeah... Likewise," Lily mutters as Maleficent shakes her hand once. The young brunette cranes her neck to look at Regina. "Is it possible to get something to eat? I'm starving."
"Yes, of course," Regina says quickly. "Granny's Diner is just down the street."
"You can go alone, if you prefer." Maleficent interjects, and Regina thanks her lucky stars that she's heeding the subtle "warning" Regina gave her.
"No, it's fine. I would like you to come," Lily says but her eyes narrow as she looks at Snow and David who are both stealing glances at the odd reunion.
"They won't bother us," Maleficent says firmly.
"They're too smart for that," Regina interjects and dearly hopes she's right. Maybe I should send Emma a text and ask her to keep her parents out of Granny's.
Lily seems to accept that. She takes Regina's word for it, and the odd little "family" moves away from the pavement and towards Granny's Diner.
But suddenly Lily stops and looks at Henry. For a moment, she looks ever so conflicted, but then her scowl fades away and she almost sounds friendly when she asks: "Henry, right?"
"Yeah." Henry says and looks at Regina for a second before she silently urges him to step forward.
"I'm Lily," Lily tells him.
"Nice to meet you." Henry says politely and extends his hand out towards her.
"Yeah. You too." Lily says, and she's almost smiling as she shakes his hand.
Regina exhales quietly. No apparent anger towards Henry, then. She's well aware that both Snow and David and Killian are watching the little word exchange between Lily and Henry, but Regina refuses to "give a statement" right then and there. If they have questions, they can ask her behind closed door.
Regina, Maleficent and Lily heads toward Granny's Diner. They're barely settled down in a booth before Regina's phone beeps. It's a text from Henry. And a pretty damn straight forward text too:
"Is Lily my sister?"
"Yes." Regina simply texts back. She doesn't have a more fitting answer right now.
"Cool. Does Emma know?"
"She does. But I would like to break it to Snow and David myself."
"Sure thing."
Regina leaves the conversation to Maleficent for a moment as she texts her son: "Are you okay with this?"
"Yeah, of course I am. She seems alright. I'm guessing you didn't know about her, otherwise you would have told me about her, right?"
"Of course I would. You know that."
"Is she staying in Storybrooke?"
"I don't know yet. We'll have to wait and see what she decides."
"I hope she stays."
"Me too."
Regina stuffs her phone away and does her best to participate in Maleficent and Lily's somewhat strained conversation. What do you even say to a daughter who's thirty years old and meeting her parents for the first time?
"I'm actually kind of tired," Lily says and swallows the last piece of her burger.
"Of course. It's been a long day," Maleficent acknowledges.
Lily turns to Regina. "Is there a place I can get a room or something?"
"You can rent a room right here," Granny interrupts as she comes to clear their table.
"Great. I'll just grab my stuff. You don't have to follow me. I can manage." Lily says and leaves the diner.
Maleficent swallows something.
"She's tired," Regina says quickly. "Give her time."
"She's here. That's all that matters," Maleficent says firmly and then turns her head to look at Regina. "You appear to be tired too."
"Thanks a lot," Regina scoffs. "I haven't slept for 48 hours. That memory potion of yours messed with my head."
Maleficent shrugs. "Your memories ranked higher than your sleep."
"But it would appear that there is a moment of quiet now," Regina snips. "So I think I'll take the opportunity and get some sleep."
"What have you told the Savior?" Maleficent asks plainly as Regina stands from the chair.
"The truth. That she's ours," Regina says.
"And your son?"
"Is aware of the truth as well. I won't lie to Henry. Goodnight." Regina says sardonically.
"Regina?"
"Yes?" she stops at the door.
"Thank you." Maleficent says quietly.
"No reason to thank me," Regina chuckles dryly. "She's mine too."
She leaves the diner and can almost feel her pulse slow down when she spots the mansion.
God, what a day. They've just drove to New York and back again in one go. Regina is exhausted. So exhausted she can't even drag herself upstairs. Every bone and joint in her body is buzzing.
She ends up on the couch. Face down. She doesn't even remove her coat or boots. That'll have to wait until she can actually think again.
Lily is here. That's the only thing that matters. Her daughter is here. Exhaustion is a small price to pay for that.
But Regina knows that bringing her to Storybrooke isn't enough. It's gonna take time before Lily starts looking at them as her family and not strangers.
And then there's Henry. Regina needs to sort things out with him, too. It's not done with a couple of texts. He's gonna need a proper explanation.
And Snow and David. They'll need some sort of explanation too, unless they've already pieced things together.
She'll sort things out. With all of them. Maleficent, too. There's still some bad blood between them, and if this is gonna work in the future, Regina will have to clear the air with her somehow.
And I'll do that. I will. But first I just have to… I have to…
Regina falls asleep and dreams of daughters falling through portals and smoldering flames reflected in blue eyes.
She's not sure how long she's been sleeping, but she has a nasty hunch that it's not long enough. But apparently, it's urgent that she wakes up this instant. Someone is banging aggressively on her front door.
Regina almost falls of the couch and jogs into the hall to open the door. She's met by Emma Swan's pale face and shockingly big green eyes.
"There's a dragon on the loose at the edge of the forest, and it's not Maleficent!"
Regina doesn't need to think twice about that statement. She simply flicks her wrist and transport both herself and Emma to the edge of the forest.
Emma was right. There is indeed a dragon "on the loose". And a dragon not entirely in control over her actions that is. Lily is trying her best to gain full control over her newly gain wings and Regina quickly spots the target she's spitting fire at. Snow White.
Oh, fuck. Regina storms over to them and it doesn't take her long to spot the ring of fire Lily has entrapped Snow White in.
"Put that fire out," she tells Emma. "I'll try and stall her."
She raises her hands and unleashes her magic on her very angry dragon daughter. This is not what I expected when I counted on fighting a dragon. Her magic isn't quite measuring up to a dragon, but Lily is young and not in control over her dragon form just yet. Regina manages to switch her focus from Snow White to herself. And Emma manages to put the fire out and drag Snow away from the chaos.
Regina uses one hand to hold Lily where she is, and with her other hand she grabs her phone and tosses it to Emma. "Call Maleficent. I could use some back up here."
For once, Emma does as she's told. Regina doesn't hear much of the conversation with Maleficent. She's a little too busy trying to control Lily.
"What did she say?" the brunette asks through gritted teeth. This is getting harder and harder.
"She asked you to stall her as best as you could!" Emma yells through the noise Lily is making.
"And what is she gonna do?" Regina yells back and notices how her hands have begun to tremble slightly. I can't hold her off much longer.
"Something she hasn't done in a while, she said. Do you need help with that?" Emma inquires and covers her face as Lily releases a series of sparks through her nostrils.
"No, I need you to stand back and keep your bumbling parents out of the way!" Regina hisses and turns her attention back to the very angry dragon who is trying her best to fight the magic Regina is using to restrain her.
"I can't let you hurt them, Lily!" Regina shouts through the noise. "And I know you can hear me."
Lily roars and the sound is utterly terrifying.
"If you want to be angry with someone, be angry with me!" Regina yells. "I can put up a much better fight! Come on, show me your worst!"
And Lily is certainly doing just that. She's fighting Regina's magic valiantly. She tries her best to break through the magical barrier Regina has created around them, and Regina hopes that her little trick is gonna work. That Lily's energy will be drained before her own will.
But Lily is strong, her energy is bubbling, and it's been a while since Regina has been in this kind of battle. Her magic might hold up now, but there's no way she'll be able to keep Lily at bay for long.
Suddenly the ground trembles beneath Regina's feet. Her hair is blown around by a sudden change of the wind, and then she hears the sound of another pair of wings. Regina looks up just in time to see Maleficent leap off the ground and fly up in front of Lily, blocking her view to Snow and Charming. And Regina.
Maleficent. Thank god. Regina lowers her hands. Her palms are burning, and she isn't sure whether it's from the magic or the dragon fire.
Now it's Maleficent who roars and Lily roars something back.
"What are they doing?!" Emma inquires through the noise.
"Having a heart to heart I imagine," Regina says and turns to Snow and David. "What happened?!"
"I just wanted to talk to her," Snow says quietly. Her face is completely drained of color. "I-I wanted to apologize."
"You idiot!" Regina says exasperated and throws her hands in the air. "Didn't it occur to you how dangerous that could be?!"
"I don't think anyone could have foreseen this, Regina," David says and puts an arm around Snow.
"I don't care. If she injures herself because of you…" Regina snarls, and Snow raises an eyebrow.
"Don't give me that look," Regina hisses. "You're fine. She didn't even burn you!"
And in the sky, Maleficent is still trying to "reason" with Lily. And it would appear to be working. Or maybe the sudden transformation has drained her. Either way, Lily suddenly looses heights until her massive body collides with the earth with a shattering thud.
Regina doesn't even think of the potential danger. She simply lowers her barrier and runs over to her dragon daughter.
Lily is engulfed in magic, and then she returns to her human form. There's another earth shattering thud, and then Maleficent lands on the ground, is engulfed in smoke and then brought back to her human form as well.
"Is she okay?!" Regina demands as she grasps her limp daughters hand.
Maleficent puts a hand on Lily's forehead. "She's alright. Passed out, exactly like I did the first time I transformed."
"Oh, thank god," Regina says. "Lily, can you hear me?"
Lily groans, palms her forehead and then: "Mom…"
"It's okay. You're okay," Regina assures. She doesn't care one bit that Snow and David heard that. Now they know.
"Can you walk?" Maleficent asks concerned.
"I-I think so…" Lily groans as she clumsily gets on her feet.
Regina takes her one arm and Maleficent takes her other. Together they help Lily out of the forest and away from prying eyes.
They end up taking her back to Granny's. She's already out cold again by the time they place her on the bed.
"She'll probably be out for a few hours," Maleficent says. "That's what happened to me."
"Should we stay and watch over her?" Regina asks.
"No, I don't think that'll be necessary. She'll sleep."
"Okay."
So they end up leaving their sleeping daughter. To give her some peace. Regina heads back to the mansion and reminds herself to bathe her burning palms before she passes out….
To Be Continued?