"Lynn, the book. Where is it?"

The seventeen year old looked up from dropping her laptop, charger, and mobile in her bag for school. She stared at her mother, who was patiently waiting in the doorway. After a few seconds, she waved her in. It was early. Henry would not be up for another hour. Lynn calmly zipped up her bag, swung it over her shoulder on her good side, and sighed, walking over to her desk. She opened the top drawer, and pulled the book out. She looked at the cover for a minute. It was well worn, and something about it felt wrong. She told herself that made sense. The stories it contained did not show everything. At least, not everything in the way she had felt it. She flipped the cover open, and took a step back when a piece of paper fell out. Hesitantly, she leaned down to pick it up. She set it down on top of the book. A print out of a website. On the back side were directions. Her hands shook. That was when she realised her mother had not pressed, and instead was standing by her daughter's bed, arms crossed, and visibly worried. Lynn glanced between her and the book and paper. She finally picked them up off her desk, and brought them over. She barely realised how badly her hands were shaking until Regina swiftly took both the paper and book from her, wrapping her free hand and arm around her to steady her daughter.

"You okay?" Regina asked after a few seconds. "Lynn? Is something wrong?"

"He had been planning this," Lynn said quietly. "I didn't know that. But that paper, it just…I had no idea it was in the book. I can't believe Chloe and I let him get in the car with us yesterday morning."

"It's not the fault of either of you," Regina paused, pulling the piece of paper free to look over it. "How…I don't understand. How could he have gotten this information?"

"I don't know," Lynn said, tiredly rubbing her eyes. "Probably best to check the family computer. I think that's the one he used, unless he has one stashed away somewhere."

Regina nodded. "Alright. But I do have to ask: why hide the book?"

"He asked me to," Lynn shrugged. "It seemed important to him, and I didn't want to upset him."

"Did…" Regina fell silent, her mind spinning. "What did he say to you and Chloe?"

"The same thing he said to Emma, I think," Lynn considered that for a minute. "Just the 'mom's the evil queen' and all of that."

Regina hesitated. "What did you two say to him?"

"Chloe kept bouncing around things but was pretty honest overall," Lynn said with a small yawn. "It all came down to trying to be honest with him while also making him realise that you're not evil, that you never have been anything close to -"

"Lynn, please," Regina gently cut in. "I know you mean well, but, please, don't say anything more about this to him."

The seventeen year old scrunched up her face in confusion.

"I can't risk losing him," Regina startled when Lynn's face fell and she tightly hugged her. "Lynnie, I'm sorry, I just…with that woman he brought here…"

"I get it," Lynn went silent for a few seconds. "Momma?"

Regina sighed. "Is this about last night?"

"Sort of," She admitted. "It's just…that woman, Emma. I think we know her. Not because of what she did to help us in the trial. But I…"

"Lynn, I -" Regina paused when she saw her daughter seemed to be swaying. "Are you okay?"

"I am, momma, it's just…" Lynn shook her head. "It's silly."

"Of course it isn't," Regina held her daughter closer, and Lynn held on almost desperately. "Whatever it is, dear," Regina said softly. "You can tell me."

"I know," Lynn closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Momma, remember the stories you used to tell me when I was little? After Red brought me back, to Willowsand, at first?"

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Of course I do. Why?"

"Emma," Lynn said simply. "Remember how I always wanted to hear about the lady with the pretty hair when you were trying to get me to fall asleep? I think that's Emma."

Regina nearly dropped the book and the paper with it in shock.

"Momma…" Lynn had mumbled, curling up against her and slowly starting to fall asleep. "Tell me the story about the lady with the pretty hair again…"

Regina had smiled a little, the first time that day. She had leaned over to affectionately scratch her daughter behind the ears. She barely heard herself speak, having told her the story so many times already. It felt more and more ethereal with every rendition. In that sense, it had become sombre, and a reminder that the world would never be as perfect as the one she had so briefly felt in fantasy. She hated it. More than anything, she hated that she could possibly give into and fantasise about a world where everything was perfect. Where everything seemed perfect. It hadn't been worth it when everything seemed perfect before. No. She had glanced down at her daughter, who was slowly nodding off to sleep. Lynn was worth it. The fact she herself was still alive was worth it. But something was wrong. Snow. The fact Snow had won was painful just to think about. They had taken away so much. Left her below the status of her friends. It was humiliating. Leaving her just the palace, and her daughter were little more than a slap in the face. After all they had done to her, and to Lynn…how could they….

"You're always going to be the princess," Regina had let out a light sigh of relief when she saw Lynn roll over, happily mumbling to herself in her sleep. "I will ensure that. Somehow."

The curse.

The dreams.

It all fell into place after a sleepless night of consternation.

Emma Marie Swan.

She was the blonde woman from the dreams all those years ago.

Suddenly, a memory that had resurfaced the night they met made sense.

Suddenly, Lynn's words from the night before made sense.

I know she's a disruption and driving a wedge between you and Henry, but I think she's supposed to be here somehow.

All those dreams and stories she had told Lynn as a small child…they were whispers from the future. Whispers from the future that had come from her most pained moments, in and out of consciousness.

No, that was irrational.

But what other answer was there?

Watching Lynn leave had always been one of the worst parts of any day, and that had gone double since her so called friends had tried to kill her. Somehow, the fear that had haunted her mother the first few months Lynn had gone back to school was renewed. It was almost unbelievable. Regina set down the paper her son had printed out on the top shelf above the family's shared computer. Somewhere he would not be able to reach, even if he figured out that was where she had put it. All of the information on it could be useful later. That only left the book. Lynn had been right about it being heavy. She had also been right about the sense of discomfort and wrongness about it. Is that because it brought back things that shouldn't be, or is that because it has shown some of the worst of me to Henry? The more she thought about it, the worse she felt. Finally, after pushing aside the desire to do so, she sat down about halfway up the stairs. She opened the book, started paging through it. So much of it was uncomfortably familiar, and true. It was terrifying. Horrific. She could not stop trying to find whatever could have convinced Henry that she was the evil queen and nothing more. She almost hoped it wasn't in there, that this was a shock and he would be over it within a day or two.

That was when she found it.

She saw herself. The sword Snow's husband had thrown at her in one of their many attempts to kill her seemingly stuck only halfway there.

Then there was nothing.

Nothing left, at least, where it was supposed to be.

A massive chunk at the end of the book was missing.

Ripped out.

It had been intentionally pulled out.

She stood up suddenly, snapping the book shut.

"Henry!"

The ten year old groaned in his room. He took a look at his school things, and then himself in the mirror. Somewhat defeatedly (and very much dramatically) he let himself fall back into his bed. The click of his mother's heels was getting closer. He pulled himself back up, and started stretching himself out. She found it. Somehow, she found it. He wasn't quite sure if she had found it on her own, or if Lynn had told her where it was. Netta, please don't have told her where it was. I know you tell her everything, but still! He had a feeling she must have. Telling himself otherwise, he made himself get off of his bed. He started getting the rest of his school things together. He looked up when he was sure his mother was about to walk into his room. He was almost precisely right. He said nothing. Mother and son stared at each other for a minute. Henry then turned back to finish getting ready for school. What surprised him was how patient, albeit obviously irritated. He was almost curious to see how long it would take for her to be tired of waiting for him to speak. This time, she was about what he expected. Her patience snapped (he wasn't sure when it had first started to that particular morning), and she came over to him. She set the book down between them, apparently waiting for him to say something. He didn't.

"The missing pages," She said pointedly. "Where are they?"

"It's an old book," Henry said with an unconcerned shrug. "Stuff's missing."

"You expect me to believe that?"

Henry sighed. "What do you care?"

Regina took a small step back.

I found my real mom!

Every single time those words had come back to her in the not even full twenty four hours since struck her in the most painful ways.

"I care because you think I'm some evil queen," Regina finally said, reaching over to lightly brush the back of her hand against his face. "And that hurts me, Henry. I'm your mother!"

Henry shook his head, pulling his backpack over his shoulders.

"No," He said, starting towards the door. "You're not."

"Well, then who is?" Regina finally snapped, crossing her arms and following him out of his room and down the stairs. "That woman you brought here?" She went on. "I don't like what she or this book are doing to you. Thankfully, both are no longer an issue."

Henry turned to look at her when they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I wish you wouldn't lie to me."

Regina flinched. "What? Henry -"

The two of them both took a few steps back when a loud, resounding chime started to ring out. Once. Twice. Again. They both ran outside, and, much to her shock, it was the clock tower. And it hadn't just started ringing. It had moved. It was moving.

"See?" Henry said, tugging on Regina's hand. "That hasn't worked my entire life, but it does now."

"Well, I -" Regina began, struggling to find an explanation.

"It's okay if you don't know what it means right now," Henry went on. "But the curse is weakening. Because Emma's here. And she's going to break it."

"There's nothing to be broken," Regina said, her voice wavering. "Things are just fine."

"They haven't been, though," Henry countered. "They were fine when I was little, and they've been fine in the almost two years since Netta's not really and super shitty friends tried to kill her. But they haven't always been stable, or just fine."

For a few seconds, Regina was not sure if she were surprised her son had a perfect description of Aria and Cindy or annoyed with him for using the opportunity to swear.

"Henry, you're only ten," Regina eventually said. "Let things go, and just try and be happy."

"I will be," He said, crossing his arms. "Once Emma breaks the curse or you stop lying to me and make things right."

Replies To Reviews:

jasouatfan: the amount of things that have come crashing down on her definitely leave Regina open to one of her biggest weaknesses: doing things simply out of emotion

barrattajennifer: i had been questioning how to/whether or not to bring that aspect of Emma and Lynn meeting happen the same night Regina first meets Emma but it ultimately did just seem to be the right time and place for that to happen