Chapter 32: The Family of Evie

Regina steps back in utter shock. Her eyes drink in the blue-haired girl's appearance; she was very beautiful, her brown eyes looking at her "alternate" mother. Neither individual knew what to think or how to react… how would you respond? If her hair was black like hers, she truly could be the perfect likeness to the formerly Evil Queen. Evie…

Evie is equally stunned into silence. She feels uncertainty beginning to bubble up inside of her stomach. Unlike most of her friends, Evie had been given lots of attention from her mother growing up. However, that attention came at a cost because the Evil Queen had instilled her daughter with a large sense of vanity and selfishness when she was young, she always criticized her daughter's appearance and set high standards for her when it came to finding a prince for herself. Evie knew that her mother likely now despised her for turning to the side of good, most likely dating the son of a dwarf, and becoming a great success in the fashion industry, but she still longed for her mother's full approval. This "mother" seems different. Her eyes reflect something much deeper than the usual shallowness and vanity that her real mother expresses. Evie can see hurt in Regina's eyes; she's probably faced as many hardships as all the VKs have, but she didn't seem evil in the slightest. She seems to have let go of whatever held her real mother back.

Suddenly, Regina leaves the room in a hurry.

"Regina!" Emma calls out to her. She's about to go after her friend when Killian holds her arm gently.

"Give her some time Love," the pirate says quietly.

Evie swallows a large lump in her throat, feeling immediate rejection and tears reach the surface of her eyes. She lets her mouth hang open a little bit and her mind becomes a whirlwind of questions. Why did she run away like that? What did I do wrong? Was it the way I'm dressed?

Everyone can see the hurt look on Evie's face. Mal puts her arms around her friend, giving her a hug, but the blue-haired girl stands neutral, not willing to embrace her friend back.

"Evie…" Emma says. "Don't take it to heart… it's… it's just…" Even the Saviour couldn't understand her friend's reaction. Why would anyone run away from their child? Even if that child was completely unknown to them until this point in time.

"It's okay, we're used to that kind of rejection," Mal mutters.

"I don't think it's rejection…" Crystal says. She grabs Evie's hand.

"Where are you going?" Emma asks.

"We're going to find the queen," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin says. She turns to the other VKs, "You guys mind just hanging out here for a few minutes?"

"Crystal wait…" Killian begins.

She then teleports herself, Emma, and Evie away in a puff of purple smoke.

"Bloody hell Crystal…!" the pirate hisses in annoyance. "Just like her reptile of a father."

"Where did they go?" Mal asks with concern.

"To find your friend's mother," he answers.

…

The three women reappear on Main Street of Storybrooke. Evie's eyes go wide at the quaint little town now surrounding her. It looks very peaceful and pretty; with brightly painted buildings, shop windows filled with many interesting items, including clothes, and nice-looking, friendly people. A man walking his Dalmatian dog walks up to the three of them. He has bright orange hair that was receding towards the back of his head and he wore round looking glasses over his eyes that squinted slightly when he smiled. He had on a business suit and tie, which was not the greatest colour or pattern according to the fashion designer. Despite his bland fashion choices, Evie got a friendly and calm vibe from this man, he seemed to be very approachable.

"Hello Emma, Hello Crystal," he says politely. His blue eyes then go to the face he did not recognize. "And who might you be?" He offers his hand to her politely.

"I'm Evie," the girl says, returning the handshake.

"Dr. Archibald Hopper, but most people call me Archie."

Pongo the dog begins sniffing at Evie's feet and she leans down to pet him.

"This is Pongo," the doctor says. The Dalmatian licks Evie's face and his tail wags in excitement at his new friend. The blue-haired teenager smiles and lets out a laugh. "Are you one of the children who came through the portal with that dragon?"

The teenager nods.

"Well, I'm glad that you are okay and welcome to Storybrooke. If you ever need someone to talk to, my door is always open." He then hands the girl a business card. Evie discovers that the man is a psychiatrist… whatever that was. He then tugs on his dog's leash. "Come along, Pongo."

"Wait for a second, Archie," Crystal says, stopping him. "Did you see Regina anywhere?"

"Uh yes, in fact, I saw her a few minutes ago, she was heading towards the woods. I said hello to her, but she didn't respond. I wonder what has her so upset?"

Both Crystal and Emma understood what this meant. Whenever Regina was upset, she'd go to the woods, where her beloved Robin once resided. It was her happy place, a quiet place to reflect, and gave her happy memories of her one true love. It was the same thing for Emma; whenever she was upset or had to go to think she went to the docks where she and her pirate seemed to be drawn to. Patterns of lovers one could expect.

"She just learned something she didn't expect," Emma mutters.

"Anyways, I must get back to the office. Nice to meet you, Evie."

"You too," the teenager says, waving politely.

"Crystal, do you think you can find Regina?" Emma asks, getting back to the task at hand.

"If she's unleashed any magic like she usually does when she's angry or upset, it won't be hard."

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin's eyes glaze over and her blue eyes glow ever so slightly. She begins to walk forward as if in a trance, searching for any signs of the Evil Queen's energy.

Both Evie and Emma follow in behind, and the teenager turns to the sheriff for an explanation as to why they were following Crystal-like she is suddenly a tracking dog.

"Crystal has this gift to be able to see and detect a person's energy and heartbeat," Emma explains as the trio hurry through town, towards the surrounding woods. "She knows who you are before you can even introduce yourself. She can tell if you're a hero or a villain, brave or a coward, what kind of magic you have etc.…"

"It sounds a little violating," Evie says.

"Believe me, it's not picnic or me either," Crystal calls back to them. "At least I can turn it on and off."

"It's not really a bad thing, it helps when it comes to tracking and to see whether someone is a threat or not. It also helps to know if someone has their heart in their chest or not."

The daughter of the Evil Queen looks on rather confused. She raises her eyebrow at Emma Swan as they continue to travel further into the forest. Evie struggles to keep up because the boots she's wearing are not great for hiking.

"How can someone live without their heart in their chest?" she asks.

"It's kind of hard to explain, but there's a certain kind of magic that a lot of us possess where we're able to remove a person's heart from their chest without killing them. It's often used to control a person and force them to do things.

"Sounds awful."

"It is…" Emma agrees, not mentioning that she did the exact same thing as the Dark One. "It's best just left to the imagination."

"Arriving at destination, paging the Evil Queen on the left…" Crystal suddenly says. She points forward to see Regina leaning against an old wishing well made of thick, white stone. There are burning holes in some of the trees, which was how the daughter of the Dark One was able to find her so quickly.

Evie freezes in place, unsure about whether she should go any farther. She becomes afraid of her "other" mother after seeing the black holes burned through the surrounding trees.

"Let me go talk to her," Emma says.

The blonde slowly begins to approach Regina, hesitant to do so but decides to risk it.

…

The formerly Evil Queen is leaning over the edge of the well, staring down into its darkness and letting her tears fall quietly. There's a heavy ache in her chest, one of so much pain that she wants to rip her heart out and bury it, just like she'd done when she'd been forced to separate from Henry. She wishes beyond everything that Robin was here to wrap his arms around her, comfort her and tell her that she was going to be okay… She wished that she could have him back.

"Regina…" she hears behind her.

The dark-haired woman turns around, only to glare at the pregnant blonde.

"Leave me alone Emma," she snarls darkly, wiping some tears away to compose herself

"Regina, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, you wouldn't understand… like you always do."

"You ran away from the person who is your daughter."

"She's not my daughter!" Regina hisses, grinding her teeth together to fight the pain inside herself. "I don't have a daughter… I have a son."

"We have a son, a son who might have his own child by now…"

From far behind, Crystal explains the Henry mother situation to Evie.

This statement from the Saviour just leads to another round of sobbing from the Evil Queen. She clings to the edge of the wall so hard, its as if she was going to tear a large chunk of the stone out.

"Regina just talk to me…"

"You wouldn't understand, you're carrying the reason I'm so angry."

It's then that Emma understood… Regina had her regrets of preventing herself from ever having children. Sure, this did allow her to adopt Henry and give him the future Emma knew she could never give to him while she was in prison, but she knew that the Evil Queen regretted her decision more and more.

She had watched her former enemy, Snow White gave birth to two children over the course of two curses, Aurora, Ashley, who had been pregnant for 28 years, her half-sister Zelena, Belle, and with Emma now pregnant… it had all become too much to hold her pain in any longer. Regina hated herself for being manipulated by her mother into drinking that sterilizing potion, thinking that she'd never want to have children. It was her final regret that still haunted her so many years later. While she was given a beautiful son in Henry and was able to watch him grow up, he was gone now, off to find his own story. Even when she was able to become a second mother to Robin's child, Roland… it just was never the same as having a child of her own and loving them as such. Her heart aches in her chest as she continues to cry. The pain is indescribable as she slowly slides down to sit on the ground, with her back to the well, all curled up to comfort herself.

She stares out into the woods, her mind full of thoughts… And now she's learned that in another universe there is a version of herself who was smart enough to avoid the temptations of her mother and produce a beautiful girl… Evie…

Regina could've had a girl like her, dressed her up in all the prettiest outfits, spend days at the spa together getting manicures and pedicures, talk about boys, help her get ready for the prom… she lost out on so much.

Her eyes find the timid face of Evie peering out from behind a tree. The Evil Queen can see the hurt in her daughter's eyes and she immediately wants to comfort her, tell her she was sorry for running away like that. She's hesitant to move, afraid of being rejected by the daughter that was not hers.

Emma sits down next to the mayor of Storybrooke but says nothing for a long time. She can't imagine what her friend must be feeling right now, so she just becomes that shoulder to lean on. She can feel Regina's body shake with sobs. The Saviour knew she had everything that Regina wanted, a true love, a family, a child to call her own. It just didn't seem fair and she now wished that she could turn back time and give her friend what she wanted.

"You can be a mom again…" Emma whispers quietly. "I think right now she needs one more than ever. In fact, all of those kids do. She is your kid after all…"

Regina sighs heavily and stands up, trying to compose herself. "Do you think she'll forgive me for running off?"

"If you're honest about why I think she will," Emma says, standing up too.

Regina then takes slow steps towards where Crystal and Evie are waiting.

My daughter… my daughter… echoes in her head. Regina pushes some dark ringlets from her face and then stands to face Evie.

The blue-haired teen takes a step back, slightly fearful of what the Evil Queen was going to say.

"I… I think we started off on the wrong foot," she says. "I'm sorry for running away like that Evie, it's just that seeing you brought back some ghosts from my past that I didn't want to deal with in front of you and your friends. I hope you can forgive me and we can start over. Is that okay with you?"

Evie swallows, feeling a little relief that her alternate mother was wanting to try again, and it was not her fault for upsetting the Evil Queen. "I'd like that," she says in a quiet voice.

Regina extends her hand. "Hello, I'm Regina Mills."

"Evie… Mills, I guess" the teen says with a small smirk on her face.

This causes both mother and daughter to smile at one another. Both Emma and Crystal sigh in relief. If this is how all the parent-child meetings were going to go, they were going to need onion rings and a lot of hot chocolate from Granny's.

"She definitely had your eyes, Regina," Crystal jokes. "This apple did not fall far from the tree that's for sure." Evie giggles slightly, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin winks as Regina rolls her eyes in annoyance once again.

…

Mal, Killian, Jay, and Carlos are all still sitting in the hospital room when the four people reappear. None of them really spoke to one another except when Mal asked where Crystal might've taken Evie, to which the pirate had no response. Whale did come in to do check-ups on the boys and then left them in awkward silence.

Hook is immediately on his feet and embraces his wife tightly. He checks to see if she's okay.

"I'm fine Killian,"

"I'm just worried about the baby."

"The baby is fine," Emma says, rolling her eyes. She knew Killian was nervous about becoming a father and was becoming way too overprotective of her.

He then shoots Crystal with an angry look.

"Don't ever do that again! You really do have the crocodile in your blood."

"Compare me to my dad again and I'll put that hook where the sun doesn't shine," Crystal snaps back, crossing her arms. "Besides, it worked didn't it?"

Both Evie and Regina look at each other and smile. The daughter of the Evil Queen then embraces her friends.

"Well, now that this has been settled, can we please move on to the other children?" Killian asks.

"I hope not all parent-child meetings go like this," Emma says.

"Well then, I wonder how this next one is going to go. Brace yourself, Captain," Jay says. "Because you've got a son too."

"Bloody hell!"

A/N: Here's a nice long chapter for all you Regina and Evie fans. Hope you are satisfied. If you'd like me to add something to this meeting, just let me know. There was a SwanQueen friendship moment. Not the best family meeting of all time. The original title of this chapter was either The Side of Evie or The Family of Evil. If one of you guys prefers the other titles, let me know.