Chapter Six
Emma Swan had come to a decision: she wouldn't be making any decisions for a while.
She was weary of Regina's intentions but she could not, even for a second, think that Regina was capable of hurting Henry.
Hurting literally anyone else, sure, but not the son that she had been fighting so hard for.
This meant that she could just keep gathering information about this place whilst waiting to see what happened.
She only got to the day after her discussion with Henry until she was given an opportunity to gather more data.
It wasn't uncommon to receive a 'request' from the mayor's office for the sheriff to come over as soon as possible.
Since they did not mention their night together, Emma had come to accept that these meetings were invariably meant to prove that she was wholly unprepared for the position that she was elected into.
Emma didn't see Regina springing some petty, unexpected paperwork on her today, but she couldn't just refuse to attend this emergency meeting.
It was for this reason that she marched to the town hall with all of her usual confidence, preparing for a mayor-sheriff discussion rather than with this new, weird Regina.
The first red flag should have been the lack of a secretary who would make her wait as some kind of power play, but Emma disregarded this and strode up to the office door.
She knocked and let herself in.
Regina didn't scowl, the smile almost threw Emma off. She had gotten so used to the smug disdain that she didn't know what to do with sincerity.
She'd pressed the woman against a door the last time she experienced it and she couldn't allow that to happen in the mayor's office.
Honestly, why did the insane woman have to be so hot?!
Clearing her throat, Emma adjusted her badge and asked, "Madam Mayor? Do you need something from the sheriff's department?"
Regina tilted her head but stood from the desk to approach the set of couches near the opulent fireplace.
"That is awfully formal of you, Emma," Regina mused, indicating the glasses set out on the table.
Emma hung back, eyeing the glasses as Regina decanted clear liquid into them.
"You mean the way you used to be before the kid got to you?" Emma asked, dragging her teeth over her lip. She had hoped that their discussion wouldn't go in this direction, but she supposed that they didn't have much else to discuss.
"Henry did not 'get to me', he showed me the error of my ways but it's you who convinced me to at last tell the truth," Regina replied and noticed Emma eyeing the drink suspiciously, "It's water, Emma, do you honestly believe that I would poison a pregnant woman?"
Emma puffed out her cheeks and sat but didn't reach for the water, "How do I know that you're not having a psychotic break?"
"Tell me, Emma, have you thought of anyone else who could be responsible for your condition?" Regina asked as if they were discussing some professional business and not some miracle.
"No," Emma admitted," But there is a simpler explanation, one that makes sense."
Regina hummed thoughtfully, "Perhaps on the off-chance that there isn't, you would allow me one chance before attempting to remove my parental rights to my son?"
Emma's eyes widened and she scratched at the couch's surface, "How do you know about that?"
She knew that she should have at least tried to deny it, Archie said that it was important that Regina not know until she was firm in her decision.
Most importantly, Henry shouldn't know, it would all be too confusing to him, especially now that Regina no longer had him attending regular therapy sessions.
Any hope that he was unaware was destroyed by Regina's curt reply:
"Henry was in the diner during your fact-finding mission. In future, I would be careful where I have these sensitive conversations. He was afraid that you were going to take him away from his home."
Emma moved on to scratch at the back of her neck, trying to will away the burst of guilt.
She didn't want to scare Henry.
At least now she knew why Regina asked for an emergency meeting.
"Look, I'm sorry he overheard, but I only want to protect him."
"As do I," Regina replied, nodding.
"So you're not pissed off?" Emma asked, cautiously, "Feeling murderous?"
Regina laughed in a way that almost had Emma squirm, it definitely made her blush.
"And you claim not to believe that I am the Evil Queen?" Regina retorted.
This dismissed Emma's blush she began to scowl instead.
She didn't get to tell her that the comment wasn't funny as there was another knock yet one more surprise in their routine.
"Please come in," Regina called.
The opening door opened to reveal the most eccentric man to ever face Emma Swan, the first one to look as though he belonged in Henry's (and Regina's) Enchanted Forest.
His face was hardened despite the top hat clutched between his hands.
"Who is this?" Emma demanded.
"The Mad Hatter," Regina replied and the man openly sneered at the mayor to which she didn't respond, "But I am sure that you would both prefer Jefferson. He has the ability to show you a moment from the past."
Emma eyed the hat as Jefferson moved further into the room and placed it on the table before crossing his arms icily.
Emma glanced at the door. If she left, they couldn't stop her, but she could feel that Regina wouldn't give up on this crazy pursuit.
She sank back into the couch and waved her hand, "Fine, just get this over and done with," she sighed.
Regina eyed her in surprise until Jefferson said, monotone, "As discussed, your majesty, I require magic."
Emma covertly swallowed at the title, praying that it hadn't re-ignited her blush.
Regina didn't notice this, however, as she stood and produced a simple ring. Emma craned her neck to look at it, shocked to not find something more expensive in the mayor's possession.
Regina lifted it to inspect more closely and Emma recognised the expression. It was how she felt about the swan keychain she wore around her neck.
Regina confirmed her suspicions by kissing it and then whispering, "Thank you, Daniel."
She handed the ring to the 'The Mad Hatter' and Emma asked, "Who is Daniel?"
Regina used the pad of her thumb across her cheek and Emma almost wanted to stand and see if Mayor Mills was really crying.
Regina looked away as Jefferson took her seat in front of the hat and she replied, "I will tell you all about that should you break the curse."
"Whatever you say," Emma mumbled, petulantly sinking further as Jefferson set to work doing…whatever it was that he could do with a ring and a hat.
Emma jumped to her feet as she got the answer to that.
The hat started spinning and billowing out purple smoke and Emma hopped away from the table to hide behind the mayor who barely reacted to it.
She stepped aside to aim Emma's gaze towards the vortex that was materialising into an image.
"What the hell is that?" Emma squeaked.
"A memory, just watch," Regina urged.
Emma blinked trying hard to focus on the hazy image, but doing so didn't help her make sense of it.
Under a tree, two women stood and she recognised both of them but didn't at the same time.
Mary Margaret's hair was longer, her face slightly younger, but it wasn't the strangely mediaeval outfit that tipped Emma off that this couldn't actually be the schoolteacher.
She was both determined and enraged in a way that Miss Blanchard could never muster, but it was the woman looming over her that tightened Emma's throat.
Admittedly, she lingered on the purple, elaborate leather for longer than she should have. The gulf between the Evil Queen and Mayor Mills was not quite as pronounced but it was still stark,
"You can see it?" the Regina next to her asked, hopefully grasping her wrist.
Emma didn't have the mental capacity to deny it so she stuttered, "I don't…"
She was cut off by the queen's voice hitting her through the rush of the spinning hat.
"Nothing can change what happened, what you did. You promised to keep my secret. You promised but you lied."
"I was very young," Snow White replied softly, 'And your mother…"
"She ripped his heart out because of you!" the queen retorted and Emma's eyebrows shot up, looking away from the scene to her Regina for an explanation, but the mayor offered none, "Because you couldn't listen to me!"
"You took my father, haven't we both suffered enough?" Snow White bargained desperately.
"No," the queen said adamantly, staunchly opening a pouch that Emma had been too overwhelmed to notice her holding.
"What is that?" Snow demanded.
"It's just a morsel," the queen replied, lifting a blood-red apple, and eyeing it lovingly, "Did you know that apples stand for health and wisdom?"
"Why do I get the feeling that one might kill me?"
"It won't kill you," the queen said smugly, "No, what it will do is far worse. Your body will be your tomb and you'll be in there with nothing but dreams formed of your own regrets."
"And you're going to force me to eat it?" Snow White asked tiredly as her supposed future daughter glanced at the present Regina again.
Was this supposed to convince her that she was a fit mother? Regina's face was unreadable but Jefferson appeared satisfied enough so maybe she hadn't chosen the memory for this little show and tell?
"Of course not, it wouldn't work anyway," the queen scoffed and then leaned closer, "The choice is yours, it must be taken willingly."
"And why would I do that?" Snow asked exasperatedly.
"Because if you refuse the apple, your prince, your Charming, will be killed," the queen replied, almost as satisfied as Jefferson.
"No," Snow choked out.
"As I said, the choice is yours."
"I take the apple and he lives? That's the deal you want to make?" Snow said tearfully.
"With all my heart," the queen drawled and Snow took the weaponised apple.
"Then congratulations, you've won," the princess said resignedly and then bit into the apple, the queen's laugh following her fall to the ground.
Emma was suddenly very aware that the present Regina was touching her, so she stopped backwards and turned away from the vortex.
She shouldn't be worried about Snow White in some optical illusion just because she looked uncannily like her roommate.
"So?" Regina urged cautiously, "Do you believe?"
"That's a neat trick," Emma breathed trying to ignore the noticeable pull emitted by the spinning hat, "Definitely a better story than the seven dwarves one. Where's the projector?"
"You cannot be serious!" Regina retorted, hints of the woman in that display clinging to her voice, "That is not a trick or a story. That actually happened!"
"Thirty years ago? You expect me to believe that you're like sixty?" Emma scoffed.
"Time is frozen under the curse…or it was. If you would just allow me to explain," Regina said, sounding more like she was begging than at the loft.
Did she know this was the last straw?
"There is nothing to explain, if you want me to leave town, you didn't have to put in this much effort!" Emma shouted.
"I do not want you to leave, Emma!" Regina shouted and approached the fading vortex.
Whatever she was doing must have been experimental as she reached in unsurely, piquing the Mad Hatter's interest as she retracted her arm to reveal an apple that had only just had a bite removed from it.
Apparently by Snow White.
The hat stilled, all images of another world disappearing as Regina brandished the apple.
"Impressive," Jefferson muttered but Regina ignored him.
"If there were a projector, how would you explain that?" Regina demanded.
Emma glared at the apple, unable to come up with anything other than a trick hat but the mayor didn't seem the type for petty magic tricks.
She couldn't think that when she had just seen the Evil Queen.
The realisation that she was seriously considering them to be the same person forced Emma to do what she should have done when the man showed up with a hat.
She stormed out.
She got to Main Street before facing any resistance.
A hand curled around her upper arm and she wrenched forward with a loud huff.
She spun around to find Regina had indeed pursued her and wasn't backing down despite the townspeople stopping to stare at them.
Regina didn't bother to school her features or hide the apple that she was still holding.
"Please don't run away, Emma, you have to believe," Regina pleaded.
Emma looked around their audience, figuring that this was the opportunity that she needed should she need character witnesses.
"Believe what?" Emma retorted, "That you used that apple to poison my 'mother' thirty years ago? That the reason I grew up with nothing and no one was that Snow White and Prince Charming sent me through a magical wardrobe?!"
"Yes!" Regina replied over the stunned whispers that she didn't acknowledge, instead she tried to step forward but Emma retreated, "I am so sorry, but I had to…"
"Had to do what?"
"Cast the curse that forced them to do it," Regina replied, shockingly not lowering her voice.
"This is insane!" Emma said, throwing her hands up and turning in search of her car with no idea how far she needed to drive away.
She faltered upon finding a small brunet staring at her in the crowd. She'd never seen a child so furious before in her life nor supposed that it would be directed at her.
"Shouldn't you be in school?" Emma admonished, knowing that this was not the place to convince him that his mom might be having some elaborate mental breakdown.
Disregarding her, Henry said to Regina, "I told you she needs more proof, mom!"
Regina swallowed hard and looked at the apple and then at Emma and the sheriff registered real fear from her, at least fear that she wasn't trying to mask behind unearned confidence.
"Come on," Emma sighed, glad to see her fellow townspeople were as flabbergasted as she was by all of this.
"You're right, Henry," Regina said absently giving Emma one final stare before she bit into the apple.
"No!" Henry shouted, tearing forward.
"Calm down, kid, it's just…" Emma sighed but her eyes widened as Regina dropped unconscious, "...an apple."