Thank you for your patience. With the political situation in the southern US, our family made the hard decision to relocate to the west coast. We are grateful we are able to do so but it was a very emotional decision, one a lot of LGBTQIA+ families are wrestling with as well. My heart goes out to those who have had to or chosen to stay as well as those who have made the difficult decision to leave and begin again somewhere safer.
The journey has been an adventure as always. Needless to say the move has delayed my posting the next chapter to this story. Huge thank you to all who continued to read and support this fic.
While I can guess this may not be the chapter you were hoping for, it is where the story took me and was easier to craft than the conversation I think we are all looking forward to reading. That will be in the next posting (pretty sure). Hopefully you will still enjoy this little reprieve and come back again when the next one is ready to be posted.
Appreciate your feedback as always!
Thanks for heads up on formatting - not sure what happened there. Hopefully this is now fixed.
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Chapter 11: till you're blue in the face
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"So, poppet…," the red head tapped the toddler on the nose after settling her into the high chair she had just conjured. Turning, she opened various doors until she stumbled upon the large freezer Regina had obviously magicked into existence in the castle kitchens (it blended into the old world style making it harder to distinguish, though not impossible).
Digging around for a moment, the redhead opened a large bin and spotted a treasure trove of creamy goodness. "Jackpot! Which flavor do we want? Hmm?" She tossed the question to the toddler while continuing to dig through in the freezer.
"Nilla!"
The witch stopped in her snooping through the bins of frozen heaven and turned to look with surprise at the little blonde. "Really? Vanilla?"
"Nilla!" The cheeky grinned child repeated slamming her hands on the tray in front of her for emphasis.
"But poppet, you could have strawberry, chocolate, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, ooohhh cookie dough, rocky road…"
She was interrupted by another slamming of hands on the tray. "NILLA!"
"Alright, vanilla it is." The witch flicked her wrist and a heaping bowl of the mundane flavor manifested itself along with a spoon in front of the now happily-shrieking toddler.
Hope immediately grabbed the utensil and dug in with gusto. Somehow managing to get a decent portion of the ice cream actually into her mouth.
Gazing over at the child, Zelena couldn't help but smile. "While I question your taste, I do admire your conviction." Conjuring her own heaping bowl filled with a variety of flavors, the red head slid into the seat across from Hope. "Something you no doubt inherited from your mother," she paused for a moment, contemplating the implications of that statement, "though let's keep my admiration of that trait between ourselves, alright. I'd hate to alter your mother's impression of my opinion of her." Sliding her spoon into the frozen goodness, she collected a sampling and savored her first bite.
"Wicked West, that's good!" She moaned.
"'Lishus!"
"Exactly right poppet," Zelena hummed in agreement, "delicious!"
Sadly, before she could scoop a second helping, the doors to the kitchen opened and Snow White and the Blue Fairy entered.
"Well, the little one is here," the fairy huffed, "as promised."
"But where is Emma?" Snow's words were said sweetly but the mistrustful gaze she shot at the red-headed witch belied her real meaning.
Zelena groaned and rolled her eyes at the pair. "Fairly certain it would be obvious, even for you two, that Emma is not here."
Zelena hid her smirk at their matching scoffs behind her spoon as she indulged in some more of that fabulous cookie dough. "Her cutest progeny and I were just enjoying a well-earned snack. Weren't we poppet?"
Hope grinned up at her, face covered in melted vanilla. "Em-mMa Regina!" She happily shouted before tearing back into her ice cream.
"Did - did she just say Emma?" Snow balked.
"Em-mMa." Hope responded not looking up from her delicious treat.
Snow blinked.
Zelena could have lost it based on the baffled expression on the idiot's face, but she somehow managed to restrain herself.
"It's Mama, sweetie." Snow encouraged her granddaughter. "Ma-ma. Can you say that for me grandma, sweetheart?"
"Em-mMa." Hope grinned wickedly up at her grandmother, then cackled, pointed at the woman, and said "Sssnnooo!"
Zelena snorted, recognizing the toddler's sass for what it was. Snow, oblivious, continued to try and coach the little blonde who was now singing both names in between scoops of vanilla ice cream.
The fairy pursed her lips and muttered under her breath, "leave it to the Saviour to teach her offspring to call her by her first name."
The witch couldn't help but roll her eyes at both of them. "Isn't it obvious? The little vixen, in all her cleverness, has crafted a most appropriate appellative."
When no response was forthcoming she groaned.
"Hope," she said slowly pointing at the grinning child, "has combined," moving her hands towards each other in a joining gesture, "Emma and Mama," she overly enunciated the two words, "to create the perfect term of endearment for her mother," intertwining her fingers she laid her head on them at a tilt, then put on the most ridiculously sweet expression she could muster and batted her eyelashes dopily.
Blue's face evidenced her extreme vexation. Zelena wasn't sure the fairy could possibly purse her lips any tighter. There was frankly no color in them at all.
Snow just stood there with a confused expression. If Zelena hadn't already understood Regina's low opinion of the White Queen (and she used the term in the loosest sense possible) this would have solidified it for her.
Shrugging her shoulders, the witch returned her focus to her ice cream. Apparently, trying to explain something to the simpletons wasn't worth her effort. She had better things to do with her time. Or so she mused until she was rudely interrupted by a haughty cough.
"Childish word choices aside, where might we find the Savior?" The Fairy's pitch matching the glare in her eyes.
"Em-mMa Regina." Hope reiterated, the 'duh' evident in her tone.
Zelena nodded her agreement with the toddler. "As the child already told you, Em-ma is not here. She's with Regina."
"And where, pray tell, is Regina?" Blue asked through pursed lips.
"Thought it was obvious." Zelena tried but failed to hide her smirk and she spooned another mouthful of ice cream.
After a few moments passed in silence, and the former nun realized that a further repose would not be forthcoming, she gestured at the witch as if to encourage her to speed up, "Yes?"
"What?" Zelena asked, playing dumb.
"Well?" The Fairy huffed, her cheeks tinged pink.
"Well what?" Zelena had no idea how she managed to keep a neutral face (Regina would be so proud).
"Where is she!?" The sharpness of Blue's retort caused both Hope and Snow to jump.
"Who?" Zelena continued to eat her ice cream acting completely oblivious, though her eyes still sparkled with mirth. Perhaps the tweedle idiots were actually on to something. This was quite enjoyable when it wasn't to your detriment.
"Regina!" Blue shouted, her cheeks now fuschia with barely contained anger, slamming her hands down on the table in front of the redhead.
There was a moment of silence.
All three were watching the fairy, who was now sneering at the witch.
No one moved.
Until Zelena, calmly shook her head. "No," she paused for dramatic effect before pointing at herself and stating, "Zelena."
"What?" Blue's eyebrows furrowed.
"I'm Zelena," she repeated slowly, enunciating the syllables, "my sister is Regina."
The Fairy's face turned the color of a tomato. "You're as vexing as your mother," she sputtered, before adding, "and just as wicked."
"Wh…," Zelena was briefly taken aback by the winged idiot bringing up Cora, but she somehow managed to catch herself before responding, as she caught sight of Snow's equally shocked expression. Clearing her throat, she affected an air of nonchalance, "Yes, well, flattery won't get you anywhere I'm afraid."
Blue sneered at her, "you're just as arrogant as she was too, I see."
"I find it interesting," Zelena commented as she side eyed the fairy while pretending to reinvest herself in the melting dessert in front of her, "that for all your 'goodness,'" her sarcasm evidenced through her emphasis on the word with a gesture of air quotes, "you seem to have developed quite an impression of my mother. How is that exactly? I wouldn't imagine you both running in the same circles."
"What are you implying?" The fairy's rage amplifying exponentially to the point her face actually flamed red. "I was never involved with your mother." She spat out.
Zelena, having expected to simply enrage the fairy, severely miscalculated the daft bat's response and choked on the spoonful of ice cream she had attempted to swallow when Blue's words registered.
Snow too seemed completely taken aback and unsure how to respond to her godmother. "No, no, of course not Blue, no one would ever think you and Cora were… friendly… that's just… preposterous. I think Zelena merely was confused by the mention of Cora. I'm sure…" Eyes darting between Zelena and Blue, she quickly moved to pat Zelena on the back when she realized the witch was hacking so badly her eyes had begun to water. "Zelena are you alright? You're face is turning blue!"
Zelena wheezed, struggling to choke down the cold liquid and trying to catch her breath. She glared at the two idiots all the while choking and gesturing madly at both of them.
"Yes, right." The fairy shook her head in an attempt to compose herself, seeming to ignore the redhead's plight.
Zelena would have loved to say something, anything really, but she was struggling to regain her breath and get the insipid Snow White to stop patting her back. Batting the hands away the two soon ended up in a virtual slap fest before the White Queen withdrew.
"I do believe we are getting far from the point here." Blue interjected warily, seeing that Zelena was close to catching her breath, and loathe to allow the witch a chance to speak or to further interrogate her.
"Yes, yes that is true. We were trying to find Regina." Snow nodded absently.
"I thought …you were…. looking …for Emma." Zelena managed to wheeze out.
"Em-mMa luv Regina." The toddler cackled, seeming to relish the opportunity to once again be part of the conversation.
Rubbing her sore chest, the witch smirked and glanced at the pair to see what they thought of that proclamation. Her grin shifted to concern when she noticed the blue and red lights circling both women's eyes.
Before she could comment though, Snow shot the fairy a pleading look.
"Yes, well, Queen Regina's presence is needed…" the Fairy flicker her wand to the side as if in a seemingly innocent gesture of direction, however, Zelena caught the whiff of magic shot from its tip. At the same time, Blue shot a meaningful glance at Snow. "elsewhere. I'll go see to it that she's alerted of the urgency for her presence." With that proclamation the fairy swept from the room.
Zelena watched her departure before turning to face Snow White. "What … was …that …about?"
"Oh, nothing important, I'm sure. Emma just needs to focus on her family. She should be here with Hope, and Hook..." Snow's voice had an odd sort of timbre to it as she trailed off as though lost in thought.
Zelena, snorted, which, unfortunately caused another small coughing fit. She grabbed unintentionally at Snow but the woman didn't move. Standing and attempting to catch her breath, she somehow managed to reach out and shake Snow's shoulder when the woman failed to respond to her initial antics, but again to no avail. Finally she was able to yell into the Queen's ear: "Snow!"
"What Zelena? Is something wrong?"
"Where did you go just now? You were talking about Emma and Hook and then you just zoned out."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was probably just thinking of my family. I'm so happy Emma is happy." Turning away as if to hide her face, Snow picked up Hope from the high chair. "How 'bout we get you cleaned up little miss!"
Zelena collapsed into her chair, still fighting to catch her breath. Her mind raced with what she had witnessed. So many odd things had just occurred, she was having trouble shifting through them. One thing was for certain though, she needed to talk to her sister.
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