AN: I'm posting a bunch of new stories at the same time to gauge interest. I'm going to post a poll on my profile - please vote for the story you like the most because that's the one I'm going to focus my time and energy on currently! Thanks!


The early morning quiet was interrupted suddenly and dramatically by Emily's phone ringing. With a weary sigh, she rolled over, groping at the bedside table to turn off the shrieking.

Alex groaned as Emily took the blankets with her when she rolled. "Em, it's like four AM – why is your alarm going off? You said you didn't have to go into work today..."

"It's not my alarm," she muttered, glancing at her phone screen with a suddenly dark stare, "My mother is calling."

"What?" She pushed herself up to lean against the headboard, much more awake than she had been moments before. Afterall, Elizabeth calling was hardly a common occurrence. "Does she know we're not on American time?" She scrubbed a hand through her sleep-mussed hair as she stifled a yawn.

"If she does, she obviously doesn't care."

A beat.

"Well? Are you going to answer?" Alex prompted, watching as Emily glowered at her phone like the device itself were at fault.

Emily answered by ignoring the call, tossing the phone to the foot of the bed, then flopping back, apparently intending to return to sleep.

"That's it?" Alex asked. "You don't want to know why she's calling?"

"Nope."

Alex shook her head. "I just don't understand your relationship with your mother."

"Shh. I'm sleeping," she whispered.

Alex just sighed, shook her head, fond but also irritated (afterall, her sleep had just been rather rudely interrupted). She lay back down, slinging an arm over Emily's hip, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.

Several moments of silence passed. Then, in a faint whisper, Emily asked, "You think I should give her another chance?"

"Shh. I'm sleeping."

Alex had met the Ambassador exactly one time.

Suffice it to say, it had not gone well...

Elizabeth had been travelling through the UK and, however reluctantly, Emily had agreed to have lunch with her. She hadn't, however, informed Elizabeth that she would be bringing Alex.

When they'd arrived at the restaurant, Elizabeth had already been there. Emily had spotted the exact moment her mother had realized she wasn't alone in the way her eyes widened, then darkened upon spotting Emily's hand on the small of Alex's back. Emily almost took joy in the reaction. Almost.

"Hello, Mother," she had greeted, pulling the chair out for Alex before taking her own seat.

"Emily," she responded curtly. "Who's this?"

Alex offered what she hoped was her most likeable smile. "Alex Miller," she introduced herself, extending a hand to shake. Emily had prepared her for this sort of reaction, but that didn't mean it was any less unpalatable.

Elizabeth stared down at the proffered hand like she was being offered leprosy. Then, she turned to Emily with a raised brow, clearly silently demanding an explanation for her presence.

Emily heaved a sigh. "Alex is my girlfriend, Mother."

"Oh?" She spent a moment trying to marshal her expression, looking rather like she'd bitten into something sour. "How...lovely."


"So, what is it you do, Alex?" Elizabeth asked, tone polite but clinical, like Alex were a new species of insect to be studied from afar.

Attempting a smile, Alex answered, "I'm a linguistics professor at Oxford. But I occasionally consult for Interpol – I used to be a profiler with..."

Elizabeth interrupted, "Oh, you're an agent..." She said the word like it were some kind of vile curse.

"Well, technically, not anymore," she said with a shrug. "It's a long story."

Humming a note of disinterest, Elizabeth sipped her tea. Changing the subject quite abruptly, she said, "Have you always been..." She didn't seem quite able to speak the word, instead gesturing from her to Emily and back.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Say it, Mother. Don't dance around the subject, come right out and ask if she's gay." She shot Alex an apologetic look to counter Elizabeth's frosty one.

"I was actually married before," Alex admitted, "To a man. Clearly, it didn't work out. But it's not because of my sexuality, if that's what you're asking..."

That didn't seem to be what Elizabeth wanted to hear, though, based on the way she pursed her lips. Turning to Emily, she said, "Really, Emily? A divorcee?"


Emma looked up from the TV screen when the front door opened, slammed shut. "Hey, how did..." she started to call out, stalling when she saw Regina's expression. "I'm guessing not well..."

Regina had gone down to her vault in search of something or other (Emma hadn't exactly been paying attention when she'd mentioned it over breakfast)...and apparently, the search hadn't been fruitful, though it remained to be seen why exactly that warranted Regina's special brand of glaring.

Regina stood rooted to the spot for several moments and Emma was almost afraid she needed to alert the fire department to be on standby. Then, at length, she heaved a sigh. She crossed the room, settled next to Emma on the couch, clutching a sheaf of parchment in her hand. She leaned her head on Emma's shoulder.

Emma kissed the top of Regina's head, then murmured, "What happened?"

Instead of answering, Regina passed her the parchment.

Emma's eyes scanned the page, brow furrowing. "Who wrote this?" She didn't recognize the signature or the royal crest it bore.

"King Stephan," Regina answered.

Emma frowned. "Aurora's father? Why would he be writing to your mother?" She glanced back at the letter. "And what the hell is this marking?"

"That would be the mark of the Realm Jumpers," Regina said.

Looking up at Regina, Emma's mouth hung open for a few moments. "What... What is a Realm Jumper?"

A society of people with a natural ability to travel between the worlds without beans or other sources of portal magic," she explained. "I didn't realize Stephan was one of them."

Emma hummed a curious note, then asked the burning question they were both dancing around, "So, what business does a Realm Jumper have with Cora Mills?"

Regina sighed. "The letter doesn't say. There are pages missing..."

"But?"

"Look at the date," she whispered.

Emma frowned once again, looking from the page to Regina and back. "I don't understand."

"It's six months after Daniel died." At Emma's continued confusion, she added, "And one week before my daughter was born."

They'd discussed Regina's daughter exactly one time, then never brought it up again. She knew Regina had never quite recovered from the loss, though...

Regina murmured something then that she'd never told Emma – or anyone, for that matter. "They never let me hold her after she...passed. Never let me even look at her."

"Regina..." Emma whispered, "I'm sorry. That's...awful." She hadn't wanted to hold Henry when he was born, but to not even have the choice...

"I don't think she's really dead," Regina blurted out suddenly,

A beat.

"What?" She gave her a quizzical stare. It sounded crazy, but...well, crazier things had happened kind of a lot lately since she'd come to Storybrooke.

"I think my mother hired Stephan to take my daughter to another realm because she didn't want a child to prevent me from becoming a queen one day," she explained, urgent and insistent.

Emma nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "Well, how do we find this Stephan guy? He's probably the only one who would know the truth."

Regina shook her head slowly. "I have no idea. He could be anywhere. Any realm at all."

"I'll find him," she vowed. "If this will give you closure, I'll track him to the end of the goddamn world."