Was the Princess You?
“It figures it would be you.”
Emma looked up from the magazine she’d been staring at. “Oh, did your, ‘I’m not involved but I’m going to stick my nose in other people’s business’ alarm go off?”
“No.” Mary Margaret crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m Regina’s emergency contact. What’s your excuse?”
Emma rolled her eyes and looked back down at the magazine. After a moment she turned it right side up. “I brought her in.”
“Oh-”
“Yeah, oh. Jonah’s still looking at her I think.”
Mary Margaret frowned, “Jonah?”
“The Doc. Dr… ah, Jonah?”
Mary Margaret was silent for a moment, “Oh— Doctor Whale.” She paused for only a second, “You can go now.”
Emma glanced up again, “Yeah. No.”
“Excuse me?”
Emma shrugged and went back to the magazine. “I have no control over Henry. You’re his mother and I have no rights. But, you’re no more related to Regina than I am. So, I’m gonna keep my ass right here until Jonah…”
“Dr. Whale.”
“Whatever, I’m not moving until the Doc comes out and tells us Regina’s okay.”
Mary Margaret let out a long slow breath, “Miss Swan, Emma— I don’t want to be your enemy.”
“Okay.”
Mary Margaret gestured to the chair next to Emma, “May I sit?”
Emma shrugged again, “Free country.” Mary Margaret studied Emma as the blonde pretended to read the magazine again. Finally Emma sighed and looked over, “If you wanna ravish me, just get it over with.”
“R-ravish?”
“Kiss, woman handle, canoodle?”
Mary Margaret quickly shook her head, “No, no— not that there’s anything wrong with that, but, no.”
Emma laughed, “Total politician answer.”
Mary Margaret bristled, “Didn’t your mother teach you not to be rude?”
Another shrug, “Never had one. Orphaned on the side of the road.”
“Oh— I’m sorry.”
Emma was silent for a moment, “What do you have to be sorry about? Did you do it?”
An uncomfortable silence invaded the waiting room for a moment, before Mary Margaret forced a chuckle, “I may have a son, but from appearances you and I seem to be around the same age.”
Emma stared at Mary Margaret for a moment, then shook her head, “Even when you’re trying to be nice, you’re mean.”
“I— I actually wasn’t.”
Doctor Whale interrupted Mary Margaret and addressed her. “Regina will be fine.” He paused, “But I’d like to keep her overnight for observation.”
“Why?”
Doctor Whale turned, “Excuse me?”
“You’re worried about something with her head right? Observation. Well, I’m staying with her, so give me some sort of list of what to watch out for and I’ll make sure she stays okay.”
Doctor Whale and Mary Margaret stood there for a moment, “I don’t know if—”
A voice came from behind them, “Doctor Fra… Doctor Whale, I’m fine, and if you will not release me then I will sign out AMA.”
Doctor Whale looked between Regina, Emma, and Mary Margaret, and finally shook his head. “It’s your life. I’ll get you that list of symptoms.”
Mary Margaret looked Regina up and down, “Are you sure you want to leave your health to this…”
“Woman? The mother of your child? She got me here didn’t she?”
Mary Margaret was silent, then gave a nod, “I need to get back, let Archie get home.” She paused, “If you need something, I’ll be next door. Get better.” She turned on her heel and left the waiting room.
Emma put a hand on Regina’s arm, “Are you sure you want to go home?”
“Yes. Very sure.”
oOOOOo
Mary Margaret stepped into her house and paused. She could hear the excited voice of Henry and the more level one of Archie. She closed her eyes, they were talking about the damned book. She wished that Henry had never found that book.
She straightened and entered the living room, “Archie, thank you for watching my son.”
Archie sprang to his feet, “Of course, of course Madam Mayor. It was a pleasure spending time with him.” He looked back at Henry, “Remember what we talked about?”
Henry nodded as Archie took his jacket from the back of the chair and left the house. Mary Margaret frowned, “What did you two talk about?”
Henry shrugged and stood, “Nothin’. I’m going to bed.”
Mary Margaret stopped Henry, going down to one knee in front of him, “She’s okay. Regina’s okay. She’s going home tonight.” Mary Margaret paused, “With Emma to watch her.”
Henry stared at Mary Margaret, “You’re sure?”
Mary Margaret nodded, “I saw her with my own two eyes. Henry—”
“Mom?”
Mary Margaret put a hand to his cheek, “I love you. I know that… that a lot is going on right now, but I love you.”
Henry nodded, “Okay.” Then he slipped past Mary Margaret and ran up the stairs.
Mary Margaret sighed and moved to the couch. After a few minutes she took out her phone and dialed a number. “Sidney. I need every single thing you can find on Emma Swan. No, I don’t know her birth date…” Mary Margaret mumbled under her breath, “if I knew that I’d do it myself,” before continuing to give Sidney orders. “But I know that she’s an orphan. Found on the side of the road. Yes, dig deep, and then go deeper.” She glanced up where Henry had gone, “And fast Sidney.”
oOOOOo
Henry carefully opened the window, jiggling it at just the right moment so that it wouldn’t squeak. He climbed from the window to the tree. He perched on the branch for a second, then carefully moved down it and then down the trunk.
oOOOOo
“Do you have to check out ever bush Pongo?” Pongo paused and looked up at Archie. Then something else got his attention. A man stepped out of the shadows. “Oh. Hello. Can I help you?”
The man didn’t speak. Instead he took another step towards Archie. Pongo growled, and the man paused, but only for a second. The next moment he had Archie’s arm with one hand, the other had a hook contraption coming from the wrist. Pongo attacked the man, defending his master. Barking and biting. The man threw Archie to the ground, knocking him out, and gave all his attention to fighting off the dog. It was a vicious fight. Blood drawn by both man and dog. Finally the man with the hook gave one giant slash and Pongo fell to the ground, still. The man shook his head, “Dumb dog, was he worth it?”
The man slung Archie over his shoulder and faded back into the shadows.
oOOOOo
Regina looked up. She could have sworn she heard something. Just as she was about to look back down she heard it again. A very soft knock.
She stood and opened the back door, “Young man. You know better than to sneak out at night.”
Henry glanced around Regina, “I know. I know. But, I mean— I had to make sure you were okay.”
Regina stared at Henry for a moment, then stepped to one side, “Come in for a moment. Sit down, I’ll make you some milk.”
“You’re reading the book. The Fairy Tale book. Why?”
“Why do you think they’re real stories?”
Henry sat down and smiled when Regina put a glass of chocolate milk in front of him. “Thank you.” He took a drink. “It’s not really that I think they’re real, it’s more like I know they are.” He stared down into his milk, “Which is stupid. I just…” He looked up, “Mom is… my Mom I guess. But, it just feels wrong.”
Regina sat down next to Henry and pulled the book over. It was turned to the story of a Queen. “Is this the story you read the most?”
Henry nodded, “Yeah. Don’t know why.”
“It’s one I haven’t read yet. Maybe we can read it together?”
Henry looked towards the door, “You’re not… I mean…”
Regina followed Henry’s gaze. “At this point it’s probably safer if you wait until your Mom is asleep before you sneak back in. So no, I won’t turn you in yet.”
Henry smiled, “Read away then.”
Regina shook her head, “I shouldn’t be encouraging this flagrant disregard of your mother’s rules.”
“But?”
Regina shook her head again, “Never mind. The story of a Queen named… Snow White?”
“Yep.” Henry nodded, “But it’s totally not what the story we know is.” He paused, “It’s not even the same as the Grimms’ story either.”
“Mary Margaret let you read Grimms’?”
“Uhh… weren’t we going to read this story?”
oOOOOo
Once upon a Time there was a Queen named Snow White. Her face as white as snow, her hair as dark as coal. She was married to David, once a Shepard, now a King, and they were happy.
Their kingdom in the Enchanted Forest was a good place to live. Everyone was happy. Everyone except for the Lady Cora. She hated Snow White. Cora believed that Snow White was the reason her daughter Regina had disappeared into the woods instead of marrying Snow’s father Leopold. She believed that Snow had not wanted Regina as a stepmother. It had been years and Cora had never gotten a whiff of where Regina was or even where she had been.
But Cora had a plan. Perhaps she couldn’t have her daughter, but her plan would cause Snow and all her friends and allies pain beyond compare. That would have to do until Cora could find her Regina.
The hardest part came first.
“Cora—”
“Rumpelstiltskin, you don’t seem happy to see me again.” Cora traced the cheek covered in Crocodile like skin. “Did we not have times when we were happy? That were oh so pleasurable?”
Rumpelstiltskin stepped closer to Cora, “I will make no more deals with you.”
Cora smiled, “Oh, I assure you. This deal will be entirely one sided.”
Rumpelstiltskin chuckled, his laugh like scratches on a chalkboard, and tried to move away. But his body wouldn’t obey. “What have you done to me? I am the Dark One.”
Cora ignored his struggling. “Hmm… now, if I were the Dark One, which spell would I use to hide my dagger?” She was silent for a moment. Then held her hand out and spoke, “Nam filii.”
The dagger appeared and Cora hefted it a little, “Lighter and smaller than I thought it would be. But it will do.”
With the dagger to order Rumpelstiltskin around Cora stole something else from him as well, the Dark Curse he had acquired. Cora had plans for it.
While Cora was plotting, planning, and putting everyone in their places. Snow and David were about to become parents for the first time. They were happy and so the whole kingdom was happy. Everyone had an opinion on if it was going to be a boy, a girl, twins, triplets, a dragon. But, no one saw coming what happened the fateful night of Princess Emma’s birth.
Rumpelstiltskin had been caught and put in the dungeons only days before. Raving about the future being doomed, that the end was nigh. But no one particularly liked Rumpelstiltskin, he’d gotten the better of too many of them with his deals, and so no one really paid attention to anything he was saying.
They cared when it was announced that Snow had started giving birth. Everyone flowed towards the palace, an impromptu party starting outside. That included what looked like an old beggar woman who managed to slip into the kitchens unnoticed.
Cora wasn’t usually the sneaking type, but this plan called for an attack that came out of nowhere. She waited patiently in the hallway that led from the royal quarters to the healer’s.
It didn’t take long for Snow to give birth to a little girl. Cora watched as the midwife’s assistants ran down the hall proclaiming that there was a new Princess. She nearly missed David as he emerged because for just a moment she remembered her Regina as a newborn. Her perfect ten fingers and toes. The eyes that only looked at Cora with love. And that hair. Oh so much and such beautiful hair.
She shook herself out of it. This plan was for Regina, to get her back, and make Snow pay for chasing Regina away from her real life, the life that Cora had planned for her daughter.
Cora stepped in David’s way and with a wave of her hand the little girl disappeared from his arms and reappeared in hers. David yelled and brandished his sword, but that too appeared in Cora’s other hand. And then she took a step forward and put the sword in his gut. She leaned close to him, “Before you die, tell your dear Snow that I have won and there is nothing in this world that can defeat me.”
With that she let go of the sword and waved her hand, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
oOOOOo
Regina flipped the page back and forth. “That’s it?”
Henry took the book from Regina’s hands and carefully smoothed the page down, “For that story. There are others that go with it. That take place before or after it. Like how Prince Charming, that’s David, and Snow White meet. Or how Snow White finds something called the Dark Curse in what was supposed to be her baby’s bassinet and she uses it. Putting us all, well… everyone but Emma and I… here.”
“Me.”
Henry frowned, “Are you sure?” Regina nodded, “Okay, putting everyone but me and Emma, here in Storybrooke with no memories of their real stories, their real lives.”
Regina was silent for a moment, “Archie is Jiminy Cricket right?”
Henry’s mouth dropped open, “Whoa— you mean— I mean— who’s Cinderella?”
“Ashley.” Regina paused and traced the words on the front of the book, “You know your Mom only has your best interest in mind Henry. She’s loved you, she may not have given birth to you. Instead she adopted you. Is adopting a child you do not know bad in any way?” Henry shrugged. “Don’t shrug young man, you know the answer. The answer is that no, it’s not.”
Regina jumped a little when Henry threw his arms around her neck and hugged her so hard she thought she’d burst. After a moment he took a step back, blushing. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright. May I keep this tonight. Read the whole thing? I know that you wanted Emma to read more of it, but…”
Henry quickly nodded, “Yeah, of course. I know all the stories by heart. My favorite is the one where you capture Robin Hood to turn him in for the reward, and instead wind up helping Marian give birth to their son Roland.”
Regina frowned, “We have Robin Hood and Maid Marian here in Storybrooke?”
Henry shook his head, “No, I mean, I don’t know, but, I don’t think so. For some reason, some of the people in those stories aren’t here in the town. They must be somewhere else I guess. Maybe the curse didn’t catch them.”
“And I’m…” Regina paused, “I’m the lost daughter of Cora?” Henry nodded again, “I remembere a lot now, but not anyone named Cora.”
“I should change the code name from Operation Cobra, to Operation Cora.”
“What?”
Henry looked sheepish, “Defeating my Mom and breaking the curse. But, if we’re going to get all your memories back too, then I can change the name.”
Regina opened her arms and Henry hugged her again. She rested her head on top of his. “Go home and get some sleep Henry.”
“But…”
Regina let go, “Tomorrow. We’ll talk more about this book and your theories tomorrow.”
Henry was silent for a moment, then nodded, “Okay. Night Regina.”
“Goodnight Henry.”