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Our story starts like any other. A little girl, not yet a princess, lonely and in need of a friend.
Add a little twist of magic.
And, once upon a time…
A little girl lived in a world without magic. Her parents disappeared in one snowy night, leaving their little bundle of joy at the steps of a chapel.
She was transported through many hands, until she landed in the mansion of lost kids. Numerous children enter, but only a few exit to the arms of loving adults. The girl stayed in the mansion, hidden in its hallways, with the eyes of the hidden forest and the hair of a long lost princess.
At least, that what every other little girl in the mansion wished they were. Stories whispered among the children with hope in their voices, stories of lost princesses and of orphans finding their father. It fills the house on dreary nights, making time pass faster for those who have been tied to the mansion for a long time.
Emma wanted to believe in them. But she knew from a young age, that there was no such thing as fairytales. The only form of magic she believed in was books, and how they transported her to other worlds.
And so while the other children played house and waited by the main hall entrance window for their new parents to come, she would sit and read at her bed, lost in her own world. She ate pancakes with Matilda, she battled dragons with knights, she went swimming in the blue lagoon with the mermaids. It became harder and harder for her to leave those realms, and to return to her simple bed, decorated with the blanket left by her parents, the tattered corners of it etched with “Emma Swan”. Emma would have preferred a different name, “Anna” or “Odette”, but she kept onto that name, the only confirmation that she did have parents, once upon a time.
She did not find much in the mansion. Though it is her home for years now, she always felt like a lingering shadow in it. That she did not really belong there. While the other kids went to sleep, Emma would sneak outside, walking around the town, feeling more as herself than inside the big mansion. She would people watch, seeing happy kids, kids being held by adults as they made their way home. None glancing to the little blonde girl traipsing alone to the community park.
The Park gate was closed, but Emma climbs over the fence, dropping her book onto the other side. She picks it up and glances around. The streetlights were dimmed, but she could see a few homeless people sleeping on the benches. She avoids them and walks to the tunnels where a few trashbins were lit on fire. She has grown accustomed to the group of people that circle the lighted bins, each keeping to their own, none harassing her as she sits at her usual spot and reads.
This was as close as to her own home she had.
Its only the sound of something scuttling beneath her, does she glimpse down and see the rats. She saw them once, before, several times at the mansion. She knew they liked to bite little children’s feet. She keeps her feet high above the ground, glancing to spot if any are close to her, when she spots the book. Hidden amongst strewn newspapers, she nudges it with her sneakers. The tattered papers fall away to reveal a book that doesn’t seem old or used or damaged. She picks it up, fingers running over the gold edges, and reads the title.
“Once Upon a Time”. She glances to the others, noting no one called out and said “hey, that’s mine!” She pulls it up from the floor and sits back in her corner, glancing to the front page. Besides the title, it did not have much illustrations on it. She shifts through the book to find all the pages are empty, except the first page.
“once upon a time, there lived a little princess on a secluded castle, with everything she can ever wish for. Everything her mother could wish for, to be specific.”
Emma frowns. The fairytales Emma has come across did not usually start like this. She keeps reading on, about the girl playing with a porcelain doll, one of many that she owns. A doll that looks exactly like the girl, from the crown to the pink dress she was wearing. Reading on how the girl spent her day, Emma feels wistful, wishing she was the girl living in such a house. If there was such a house outside a fairytale, filled with toys and nice clothes and warm food.
She keeps on reading, about the girl’s collection of toys, how each one is white and clean and unruffled. How all the food she eats is cut into tiny squares, and her closet is filled with dresses that take two servants to dress her.
Feeling her eyes slowly edging to sleep, she glances around her surroundings, and notice most of the fires have been snuffed out, and daylight fills the tunnel. She doesn’t have a watch, but can guess she stayed there longer than she should have. She closes the book and takes it with her as she runs back to the mansion.
Going through the fire escape staircase, she makes it into her room and sneaks back into her bed. From their breathing, Emma knows a few of the girls are awake. But no one dares to speak out loud and bring the notice of their guardian.
Emma keeps the book under her pillow and slides under the sheets. It doesn’t take long for sleep to find her. And instead of the usual dreamless nights, she finds herself floating towards bright lights, until she ends up in a mansion like hers, but more bright, more decorative, and a little girl facing her, holding a doll.
“Who are you?” the little girl asks Emma. She doesn’t look scared, only curious.
“I’m Emma.” Emma replies simply, wondering what kind of dream this is.
The girl gives Emma the widest smiles she’s ever seen. “I’m Regina. Would you like to play?”
She takes Emma’s hand, and pulls her along to a desk filled with dolls. Regina’s hand is warm, and she keeps hold of Emma’s hand as she explains the name of each doll, and hands Emma one. It has been awhile since Emma has played with dolls – a while since she has played with anyone. Regina doesn’t laugh, or mock her. She keeps talking, telling her about the doll’s ball they’re to attend, and Emma joins in, the doll in her hand dressed in an outfit similar to that of a swan, with the tufts on the shoulder and a black mask. They run around the mansion, pretending the dolls are on a carriage pulled by horses. They feed the dolls tiny miniature sandwiches, and Emma puts on voices for the dolls that has Regina giggling.
It is only as Emma starts to really enjoy the play date, that she sees the shroud of fog enveloping her, pulling her backwards. As she is being pulled, she can hear herself telling Regina that she has to go. The images swirl in front of her face, and the last thing Emma hears is Regina asking her, “Will you come visit again?”
She wakes up in her own bed, in the room filled with the other children’s beds, now empty and made. The bell rings for breakfast, and she sits there, wondering about the dream she had. She finds one of the guardians glancing down at her disapprovingly, a stern lecture about waking up so late. She murmurs her apologies and sits up. From her hand reaching under the pillow, she can feel the book is still there. She gets up and rushes to change, forgetting for awhile about the weird dream she had. It is only later on she realizes it is the first time that she steals something.
***
“I don’t understand. How am I showing up here?”
“I’m not sure, but mother has magic. Perhaps she has brought you here to play with me?”
This time Emma is sitting across from Regina, the princess having set up a afternoon tea set table. Emma glances to the fancy sandwiches, to the miniature cups, to the decorative napkins. The fancy cups she is too wary to use until Regina told her she could. If the children back at the mansion could see her now, they would have laughed and teased her at her play pretend. But it was just her and Regina in the room, and she reaches hungrily for a sandwich, surprised she could actually taste it.
“It’s good.” She mumbles through a full mouth, and Regina goes through the list of etiquette, manners they need to follow. She easily forgets the list when Emma uses a fork to make the food fly, right into Regina’s face.
Emma wakes up the next day with a smile on her face, her stomach full of the tasty treats she got to eat.
***
“Aren’t there other people here?”
“It is just me and father. Mother is always working.” Regina replies. They’re in a different room now, overlooking the forest. Regina laughs anytime she calls the garden a “forest”, but to Emma, it was. It was huge, filled with different trees and flowers. How did anyone not get lost in it, Emma had no clue.
She sits and listens to Regina play the piano. Emma likes the music Regina plays and claps each time Regina finishes a tune. The piano wasn’t like the plastic held one she had at the orphanage. It was made from real wood, and each key Emma tried actually made a sound.
“I’m always alone too.” Emma admits when she sees how quiet Regina is when she mentioned if there were other people around.
“But I don’t feel alone when you’re here.” Regina replies, smiling at Emma. She reaches for Emma’s hand and squeezes it. “Can we be friends?”
Emma grins. “Yes! Best friends!”
When Emma wakes up the next day, she glances to the storybook, smiling when she notices what is written in the next page.
“One day, the little princess made a new friend with a little lost girl. There was laughter in the castle now.”
***
One by one the other children grew up and left the house, except Emma. She was too rowdy, too serious, too thin, too chubby, too much of anything to collect interest from the adults that visited.
Emma did not notice, as each day she would read about Regina’s world, and then at night spend it at the girl’s castle. There were so many rooms in the castle, and each day they would find a new one to play in. The only rule was not to let Regina’s mother see them. Emma has not met the woman, but from the way Regina talks about her, she knew it was good that she hasn’t.
One time she was close to being found out. They were playing in the main living room, and they hear voices coming close. Regina pulled her under the couch to hide. She waited as someone came in, and asked Regina what she was doing. The woman’s voice sounded motherly, even lovely to Emma’s ears. But from her hiding spot she can see how Regina shakes in her stance, can hear how Regina sounds completely different around the woman.
The woman only stayed for a few minutes before leaving the room. Emma comes out of her hiding spot while Regina carefully picks up her doll from the ground. The girl’s face was slightly red on one cheek. Emma gently grabs her hand and directs her to another room to play in.
The next day, Emma picks up bandages and flowers from her world, and keeps it tucked under her pillow when she sleeps. When she wakes up in Regina’s world with them still in her hand, she grins and shows Regina what she brought for her.
Regina looks in awe at the bandages, wonder in her voice as she asks, “Can you take me to your world too?”
“I can try.” Emma smiles, imagining all the things she’ll show Regina. The TV! The park! But not her bed. Regina will realize how Emma doesn’t really have a castle.
They play in Regina’s room today, since her mother is at home. Emma shows her how to play tic-tac-toe, and lets Regina win the first few rounds. When they start to play for candy, Emma starts to win.
When she feels herself being pulled, she grabs hold of Regina. “Don’t let go, okay?” Emma tells her. Emma keeps a hold tight and starts to wake up. “Emma!”
She wakes up in her bed, without Regina. She sits up, looking around for her. “Regina?”
She doesn’t find her friend. She reaches for her book when one of the guardians comes into the room with another girl, the girl pointing to Emma.
They ask her where the bandages from the clinic are, as someone left a mess taking them. They then spot the book peeking out from her blanket.
The guardian is surprised to see Emma yell and fight for it as they take it away. The girl was never this disruptive in her years at the orphanage. The book clearly did not belong to the little girl. First the bandages, now the book. The guardians talk amongst themselves about Emma’s thieving tendencies, while they keep the book with the empty pages to be shelved later, with the books to be returned to the library.
***
Five years later.
Emma wakes from a fitful sleep, startled. It takes her a few moments to recollect where she is. She glances to the other girl sleeping on the couch and relaxes when she sees it is indeed Lily.
She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. It has been a while since she had that dream of a castle. She blames the many slices of pizza she ate last night.
“Dreaming of your “Regina” again?” Lily sleepily teases Emma. Emma nudges her foot against Lily and gets up, stretching. The clock shows it is still too early for school, but Emma starts to clean up the place.
“Come on Lily, you need to get up before your dad shows up.” Emma nudges Lily again, but the raven-haired teenager just groans and shuffles further into the couch. She picks up the boxes of pizza and the beers they stole from Lily’s dad and throws them all into the trashcan. Her books are piled on the table, and she starts to pack them up. She’ll leave Lily a note for when the girl wakes up. She ignores the buzzing of her phone and makes her way outside to the bus stop.
At school, Lily doesn’t show up until third period. The girl gives Emma the finger, and the teacher catches on to their charades and sends them to detention. In detention, Emma ignores her phone and reaches for one of her dog-eared books. She is distracted by thoughts of the dream. It still felt so vivid, even here at school. She wonders why she started to dream of Regina again.
After school, Lily loops her hand into Emma’s, and they make their way to their favorite picnic area. Emma came across it after foster house #4, and it became her favorite place away from home. She only showed Lily the place when the girl admitted she doesn’t like being at home either.
Lily pulls up the sandwiches from her bag as Emma sets up the blanket. Her phone buzzes again, and Lily asks if shes going to answer.
“Nah, its just Ingrid. She’s been bugging me, even though I told her I’m fine.” Emma replies, reaching for a sandwich. Even if it’s just slices of cheese, it still tasted good. Especially since she gets to sit with Lily, laughing about gym class. They go over their plans for winter formal, and Emma plays with the bracelet in her hand before asking if Lily wanted to go with her. She grins when Lily says yes, and they lean back to watch the fluttering butterflies in the sky.
They stay there till it turns dark, then start to pack. Lily invites Emma over to her place, and they chill for awhile playing video games. Emma beats Lily at all of them, even when Lily begs her to let her win at least one time. Lily’s dad gives them money for pizza before heading out to work. His shift is always at night, which Emma knows has Lily feeling lonely. She stays for awhile, working on her homework, before leaving to let Lily sleep.
She smiles as she starts thinking of winter formal. How it is going to be so much fun hanging with Lily and dancing with her. If she does a few more of the jock’s homework, she’ll have enough money to pull a somewhat decent dress for the dance.
Her phone rings again, and this time she picks it up, letting Ingrid ramble off about how worried she was about Emma before chiming in, reassuring the woman she is fine. She even spots the woman as she reaches home, waiting for her outside.
“Emma, you can’t keep avoiding this. We are moving tomorrow, and you still didn’t pack..”
“I told you, I’m not going. I’m staying here.”
“Emma, you’re twelve! You can’t stay alone here. You’ll have new friends at your new school…”
“I don’t care. I have Lily here. I’ll stay with her.” Emma replies as she runs back into the house. Ingrid sighs and lets her be.
The next day, the moving trucks are parked outside their house. Emma ignores them and runs off to Lily’s house. She tries to keep the panic from her voice as she wakes Lily up. She knew the girl would agree to her plan.
“Lily…Lily, wake up!”
“Emma?” Lily rubs her eyes, waking up. She glances to the door. “Did dad come home yet?”
“It’s the next day, silly. Guess what?” Emma tells her plan, that she will come and stay with Lily, so she won’t have to move away. That she won’t need much space, and they’ll get to go to the formal dance together.
“That is awesome! We’ll get to go to high school together. It’ll be like having a sister!” Lily beams, and Emma doesn’t know why it rubs her the wrong way being called “sisters”. She still smiles, relieved that Lily didn’t turn her away.
She waits till Lily gets dressed so they can head to school. Emma plots what she needs to keep from her stuff. Lily’s house wasn’t huge, and she knew her dad barely made the bills. She’ll pick up a job afterschool, somewhere where they won’t refuse her based on her age. Maybe the shelter.
Lily heads home while Emma goes to her place to grab her stuff. She notices Ingrid is waiting outside and decides to wait till she leaves before grabbing her belongings. She heads instead to Lily’s place, expecting she already told her dad the news by now.
Lily waits for her at the door, wrapped up in a hoodie. Emma smiles, but Lily doesn’t smile back.
“Hey Emma, about moving in with us..”
Lily explains about how they only have one bedroom. How her dad is struggling with all the payments. How she told him and he told her they can’t take in one more kid. How it’s a responsibility and there’s lot of papers involved with taking her in. How they can still go to the dance when Emma visits on the weekends. That Ingrid will let her visit her.
She tried her best to explain it all, while Ingrid drives up in the parking lot behind them. Emma nods listlessly, and then turns to head to Ingrid without telling Lily goodbye.
“I thought we were gonna be best friends” is all she tells Ingrid when she asks why she wanted to stay at Lilys.
That was the last time she sees Lily.
***
Portland, 2001.
On her 16th birthday, Emma starts to dream of Regina again. At first, she didn’t know it was her. The girl looked older, and more beautiful than Emma remembers. She was dressed in a blue riding outfit, talking to an old man, when she turned and Emma caught a glimpse of her smile.
She calls out to her several times. Regina doesn’t answer. Emma moves with her, riding a mare through a wide pasture. This Regina is adept at horse riding, jumping through several fences before coming to a rest. Emma enjoys the wind in her hair, the way she feels free riding in her dreams.
She wakes up with a smile on her face. So, her childhood didn’t make the woman up. She wonders if she based her on a girl from the orphanage, or one of the guardians who helped her.
Another dream of Regina has her sitting across a gentleman, trying very hard not to fall asleep. Emma sits besides her, commenting on the guy’s dreariness to herself. The gentleman suddenly stands and comes to sit next to Regina, promising he’ll give her all she ever wanted. That she’ll make a fine wife standing next to him. Emma is tempted to push the vase onto his lap, when Regina does it herself. Emma can’t stop laughing as the man leaves the room in a rant of insults towards Regina.
Emma finds herself in the stables in another dream, Regina sobbing into the mane of her horse. Emma tries to comfort her, to place her hand on her shoulder, but it ghosts through. A sudden noise from the corner startles the both of them, and she turns to spot a young man, dressed in riding outfit, with a brush in hand. His voice is gentle, and he slowly approaches Regina. He introduces himself as the stable boy, and Emma ignores the swirl of jealous at the pit of her stomach as Regina starts to chat with him.
Ingrid waits for her in the kitchen with a cupcake and a candle. It’s been their tradition to celebrate Emma’s birthday with her favorite bakery goods. Emma smiles as the woman sings to her ‘happy birthday’, noticing how the lines under Ingrid’s eyes are deeper today. The turban covering her head is purple, Emma’s favorite color. Emma kisses her cheek and thanks her, then states how she should skip school today so they can hang the two of them. Ingrid lectures her gently, telling her despite the situation, she still needs to complete her education. She heads to school, eating her cupcake.
None of the kids at school wish her a happy birthday, except Neal. She ditches fourth period to go hang out with him at the pier. They sit eating ice cream at the swings, discussing their favorite topics about cars, before he leans in to kiss her.
It is the first time he kisses her. It felt nice. No fireworks like in the movies, but still nice. She knew he liked her, and she knew she liked him, but wasn’t sure if it was the same. Especially when all she thinks of is Regina’s smile when he kisses her again.
***
Portland, 2003.
Emma stands at Ingrid’s crypt, a cupcake in hand. She felt better, celebrating her birthday here than in some disco bar with her friends. Friend, to be honest, as she keeps moving around.
Her dreams of Regina come and go, and last she dreamt of her, she was being helped by attendants to be dressed in a wedding gown. Emma guesses she married her stable boy. Good for her.
Of course, the princess in the fairytale gets the happy ending, while Emma is now alone. Everyone important in Emma’s life seem to move on to another place, while she is stuck here.
She throws away the cupcake and heads out to grab a drink. She calls the first name on her phone, a guy she knows from work, and meets him at the bar. She drinks as he talks, and only stops drinking to pull him into a kiss. His kiss doesn’t taste the same as what she imagined.
She does the same every night, looking for her prince charming.
Until she wakes up one day to two pink lines showing on the stick.
***
New York, 2014.
Another banal year. The only thing different was a little boy showing up at her door, saying he is her kid.
“My name is Henry, I’m your son.”
Emma was going to close the door on his face – it was too early for Halloween, perhaps one of her roommates got their kid to prank her – when she notices the book in his hand. He had the book. The book from her childhood. Regina’s book.
“Where did you get that from?” Emma asks the kid. He uses that opportunity to sneak under her hand into her loft. Emma watches him warily as he plops it on the desk, explaining how he found it back home, that it told him all about his mother. And where to find her.
Emma approaches him, watching how his eyes are familiar to hers, and the same nose scrunch. She glances to the open book, seeing now that the empty pages were filled with writing, with pictures of her in Portland, of Ingrid, of Emma at work. Of when she gave birth to Henry. She slams the book shut.
“Why are you here?”
“I want you to come home with me.”
She agrees to go – only to drop him off. It is the least she can do. He mentions Storybrooke, Maine – a place she never heard of.
They reach the interstate, and the kid is adept at navigating the rest of the way, keeping a tight hold on the book. Emma wonders if he can jump through dreams like she did, and if he visited her or Regina. Perhaps his dreams are those of visiting Regina’s kids. She probably has a brood by now.
They drive into a small town by the early hour, the road empty except for her bug. The house he tells her to stop at is huge, bigger than any house Emma has seen in her childhood. Definitely a rich kid. Why would he even try to look for her ---
“Henry!” A woman comes running out, pulling Henry into a tight hug. “where the hell have you been, I’ve been worried!” The woman cries out, and Emma notices how Henry struggles in her grasp, despite how obvious the woman was desperate.
“I found my real mom.” Henry admits and runs inside the house. Leaving Emma alone with the woman. The woman straightens up and looks at Emma, and Emma gasps.
“You’re Henry’s birth mother?” Adult Regina, Regina with short hair in a modern dress tells her.
“Hi.”
***
Regina leads her into the house, offering her a drink. Emma just follows her, accepting what is offered. She still can’t believe it is Regina in the flesh. She is much older, older than Emma had in mind. She knew when they were kids Regina seemed older, but didn’t realize the age gap until now. The dress fit her nicely, and Emma is not surprised to hear she is the mayor of the town. As the woman tries to thank her, Emma finally pushes herself to speak.
“How did you reach here?”
“I beg your pardon?” Emma notices how Regina’s facial expression changes and realizes how it sounded.
“I mean, to this realm. Earth.” A flicker of panic shadow’s Regina’s face. “Regina, its me, Emma.”
Emma continues talking, reminding Regina of the girl who used to come visit her. She can see when realization dawns on Regina, the flicker of recognition as she studies Emma.
“You’ve grown. I assumed you completely disappeared that time; you never came back.” Regina admits, eyes in awe as she takes in Emma. The relief that fills Emma, knowing that she wasn’t imagining stuff in her childhood, rolled over body.
“I tried to, but they took my book away. Henry has it –”
“Henry – Henry is your child. How is that even possible?”
“A lot has happened since.” Emma smiles ruefully.
“Tell me.” Regina says, with a smile, one that dream Regina used to give her. And so, Emma starts to tell her from when she left the orphanage, to the several house, to Ingrid.
“Once upon a time…”
***
An hour or two passes by the time Emma finishes her story. Her drink long finished, she places the cup on the table, and waits. Her original plan was to leave as soon as she dropped the kid off, but now knowing Regina was here, it seems wrong to just leave again.
“Did you get married?” Emma asks. She had the sudden urge to know.
“I did.” Regina replies, “but it didn’t end well. It is just Henry and me.” Regina twirls the glass of wine in her hand. “And you? The father?”
“There was one.”
“Should I be worried about him?”
“Nope.” The smile Regina gives her at that has butterflies exploding in her stomach. This is her childhood friend; she couldn’t start seeing her as MILF.
“It is late.” Regina comments, glancing to the clock. She seemed tired all of a sudden, and Emma realizes she must have been worried about Henry for most of the night.
“I’ll head out.” She stands up, steadying herself.
“Why not stay here? I have a guest room, and you can say hello to Henry in the morning.” Regina murmurs. Emma still is taken aback by how Regina looks like as an adult. The way her voice is an octave lower than what she remembers.
“Okay. Yeah, sounds good.” She follows Regina, noticing how the walls are filled with pictures of the woman and her son. Henry. Out of all the places her son could have landed at…
The guest room is simple, a bedroom with its own bathroom. She spots Henry’s head peeking from the door, watching them, but doesn’t say anything.
Her dreams that night are simple ones. She is not sure if she is relieved or disappointed that she doesn’t see Regina in them.
***
The next morning Emma wakes up early. The house sounds quiet, and she goes through her options. Her stomach making the decision, she sneaks downstairs, hoping to grab just a fruit and head out to scope the town. There should be a clue as to why her kid wanted her to come home.
She finds Regina in the kitchen, dressed in an evening robe. The woman glances to her over her mug of coffee. Emma keeps her eyes from roaming down the woman’s bare legs.
“Morning, sleep well?” Regina asks her.
“Yes. Mind if I grab a mug?” She motions to the coffee machine. Regina allows her through. Emma expected a servant to show up from the other door. Wasn’t the woman used to living in a castle? Her mind still can’t wrap up to how the woman was here. All this time? She feels her anger simmering, so early in the morning at the thought that Regina was in her world all this time.
“How long since you’ve been in town?” Emma asks her as she prepares her coffee. Start with the simple questions.
“Around forty years now? Give or take.” The woman admits.
Emma throws a glance towards Regina. She didn’t look past someone in their thirties. Mid-thirties, the least.
“I casted a curse that brought us here. The curse kept us frozen in age.” Her hand goes to her face, a small smile on her lips. “I only started to age when I adopted Henry.”
“Does he know? About where you came from?” Emma turns towards her, studying Regina’s face. She could always tell when someone is lying.
“Yes.” She sighs, looking distraught. “It is the reason he ran away; I think. I told him how he is adopted, and about my magic. But he didn’t take well to the news.” Regina bites her lower lip, “I tried looking for you, you know. But you never told me your last name, and by the time internet showed up in town, there were so many Emma’s…”
“Its Swan. Emma Swan.” Emma replies ruefully. She internally chastises herself for thinking Regina would have forgotten about her. The mention of magic, on the other hand, did not phase her. If the book got her to see Regina, who knows what other magic existed?
“Its just so weird that Henry is with you. I never thought I would see him again.” Emma admits, then hears the slamming of a door. She looks up to see the kid running off with a huge backpack on his back.
“Shit. Do you think he heard me?” Emma comments as she lowers her mug onto the table. She grabs her boots to follow him.
“Emma, wait.” Regina’s hand reaches for her shoulder. She quickly jots down her phone number onto Emma’s hand. “So, I don’t lose you again.” Her eyes reflected the unshed tears. “You’ll probably find him by the pier. Just follow the seagulls.”
Emma’s skin burned where Regina touched her. She pushes it out of her mind as she heads off to look for Henry.
***
She thought it would be weird to be in her day-old clothes running around town looking for her kid. But the town itself turns out to be weirder. Everyone tips their hat and says hello when they cross her path. People she doesn’t know. The café at the main street still writes handwritten menus on the board and the prices are ridiculously cheap. She spots people still carrying nokias or pagers. There are seven men who suspiciously look like how she expect the seven dwarves from Snow White to look like, following a pixie-cut haired woman. The woman was carrying a cross-bow, for gods sake.
What kind of town is this?
She walks past a man walking a dalmatian to find Henry sitting at the pier, the book in hand. She approaches him slowly hoping not to startle him.
“Is this seat taken?” She tells the kid. He looks up, and Emma is awed that how much she can see herself in him.
He shrugs, and Emma takes that as a sign to sit down. She runs her hand through her hair, trying to figure out what to start with.
“You know I didn’t mean I don’t want to see you, back there right? Its just it’s a surprise for me to see you at all. Not that I didn’t want to see you, its just, it was a closed adoption, I had no idea I would see you again –”
“That wasn’t it.” He replies, still staring down at the book.
“Oh. Then why did you run off, kid?”
“It’s because you were talking to /her/. You’re not supposed to be friends with her. She is evil.” He says it so casually, Emma blinks.
“What do you mean, evil? Is she hurting you –” Did she read Regina wrong?
“She hurt the town! All of them are under her spell! She brought them here!” He yells out frustratingly. He flips through the book, and tells her to look.
She skims through a few pages,
Once the princess grew, so did her hate for her mother. The more she felt alone, the more her mother’s powers grew.
Until the princess found a savior. Who tricked her.
The princess turned dark, allowing her heart to turn into ice, freezing her husband.
The princess casted a curse, and took everyone to a land without magic, to find her heart.
“Good always loses, evil doesn’t. She is evil.” He looks so despondent.
“Kid, you can’t base that just on a few pages from a book.” She murmurs, hesitant about her conviction. It has been years since she saw Regina. But the woman from last night was nothing like what the story said.
“It’s true! She is evil! She lied about being my mom!”
“That—she adopted you. That makes her more of your mother than I am.”
She starts to argue, to ask him more questions, when she spots a huge crowd walking together, with crossbows and swords.
“What the hell—” She watches where they’re heading, anxious thoughts taking over as she recognizes the kid’s manor.
“They woke up from the curse when I found the book.” Henry explains, watching on with blank eyes as they head towards his home.
“Henry, do you really believe your mother is evil? The woman who raised you, who took care of you?” Emma asks the kid. He glances to the crowd then to her then to the book, biting his lower lip.
She takes his silence as a sign. She orders him to stay there – god knows what the crowd is up to – and jogs back to the manor. She reaches in time to find the crowd at Regina’s door, calling for her to come out.
“The evil queen! She needs to be locked up!” The pixie-cut haired woman yells. She stands amongst the crowd, everyone listening to her. Emma looks around for any friendly face. They all look lost and confused, and most of them angry.
How can she defuse the situation? The yelling gets louder when Regina steps outside her house. She has changed from her robe to a business suit, glancing at everyone briefly before her eyes rested on Emma. She seemed to draw her strength from the blonde before facing the crowd.
“You came to find your queen, well, here she is.” She waves her hand, and a few flinches backward. Emma can see the transformation, as though they were play pretending again, how Regina pretends to be an evil queen.
They start chanting out options on how to kill her. When a man roughly grabs at Regina, Emma has had enough.
“Let her go!” Emma yells, pushing through the crowd. She goes to stand next to Regina, facing the towns people.
“Emma, get out of here—” Regina hisses, but Emma ignores her.
“Listen here, I know you’re confused about “awakening” in a new town, but in this world, we don’t go around torching people.” She really hoped they were not up to date with American history. “You got an issue with Regina, you have to go through me.”
“and who the hell are you?” One of the dwarves at the front growls.
“I’m –” Come on Emma, you got this. Years on the run, of dreaming of Regina, she should know how to assuage this village. “I’m the new sheriff in town.” She steps in front of Regina. “You got a problem with the queen, you have to go through me.”
Emma braced herself, expecting them to run at her, to start throwing stuff. They seem hesitant at what the next step is, so she keeps going. “I suggest you all to take a step back, take a breather, and grab something from the diner.” Some woman complains about not serving free food, and Emma adds, “Its on me.” They slowly start to trail off, except for the pixie-cut haired woman and a few stragglers.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” The woman tells her, and walks away, the others following her.
Emma’s shoulders sag in relief. She never expected that to work.
Henry stands far from the crowd, a confused look on his face as he flips through the pages. He comes up to them and tells Emma in a small voice, “there are new pages in here, about you two playing. How?”
“How about you guys sit me down, and Regina tells me her whole story of what happened since I last saw her?” Emma says tiredly, feeling her energy off from the showdown. Regina gently reaches for Henry but pulls back, allowing him to enter of his own accord. She turns to smile at Emma, “Thank you. For standing up for me.” And hugs her. Emma is startled by the affection but leans into it. Its been so long since she felt a hug that felt this good.
This time when they sit down in the living room, Henry joins them with a mug of hot cocoa. Regina sits next to Emma, and Emma can’t help but to link her arms with the woman. Regina takes a deep breath and starts to tell her story of what happened after Emma left.
“Once upon a time…”