Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale (6 page)

“To that other world, my dear,” laughed the Queen, eyes insane, arms now up over her head. “A place where the only happy ending is my own.”

• • •

For the second time in twenty-four hours, Emma watched Regina run from the doorstep of her home, relieved to see her son. She gathered him up at the door of the car and hugged him for a long moment. Henry abided it, but did not hug back. Again Emma was reminded that whatever thorny edge Regina had about her, she did care for Henry.

After a moment, he disengaged from his mother’s embrace and ran into the house.

Regina watched him go, and Emma saw the slamming door seem to cause Regina a moment of physical pain.

Regina turned back to Emma. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

“He seems to have taken quite a shine to you.”

“You know something crazy?” Emma said. “Yesterday was my birthday, and when I blew out the candle, my wish was that I wouldn’t have to spend my birthday alone. And right when I blew it out, he showed up.” She hadn’t really considered the coincidence.

Regina watched her coolly. “I hope there’s no misunderstanding here.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is not an invitation back into his life. You made your choice. Ten years ago. It’s hard enough to be a single mother. It’s even harder to compete with a stranger filling his head with stories about Twinkies and fun times and whatever comes into her head.”

“I don’t—”

“And in the last decade while you’ve been doing God knows what, I’ve been here, changing every diaper, nursing every sickness, doing the difficult work. You may have given birth to him but he’s my son.”

Emma couldn’t compete with that and she didn’t want to even try. “I wasn’t—”

“No, you don’t get to talk,” Regina said, her voice becoming angrier. She took a step forward. “You don’t get to do anything. Do you remember what a closed adoption is? Do you remember that that’s what you asked for? You? You have no legal right to Henry. You’re going to be held to that. I suggest that you get into your car and leave this town forever. Immediately. If you don’t, I will destroy you if it’s the last thing I do.”

Emma was stunned. She stared back at Regina, who’d worked herself up into a rage with the speech. And again Emma had that same feeling: The more Regina wanted her out, the more she wanted to stay.

Her heart pounding, Emma nearly turned to go. But she thought of one more thing she wanted to ask.

“Do you love him?” she said.

Regina looked surprised, then angry.

“Of course I love him,” she spat.

And she turned and went back inside.

• • •

Emma was not sure what came over her as she drove down Main Street. She decided not to think too much about it. She had a bad habit of doing that. Instead, when she saw the sign for Granny’s B&B, a sudden certainty overcame her: She knew she couldn’t leave Henry. Not again.

She stopped the car.

Inside the B&B, Emma came upon a silver-haired woman in the midst of a heated argument with a young, black-haired girl. “It’s my house, and they’re my rules. You cannot stay out all night.”

“I should have moved to Boston,” the girl said dismissively.

“I’m so sorry that my heart attack prevented you from sleeping your way along the Eastern Seaboard!” yelled the woman, and just as she did, Emma cleared her throat, and she spun. She gave Emma a sweet smile. Emma asked for a room. The girl stared at her impassively.

“Of course, of course!” said the older woman, going to the counter. “We have a lovely room available.”

“Great,” said Emma.

“And what’s your name, dear?” the woman asked, writing in a ledger.

“Emma,” she said. “Emma Swan.”

“Emma,” came a man’s voice. “What a lovely, lovely name.”

Emma turned to see a strange, silken-haired, suited man standing behind her.

He held a cane and watched her curiously, then strolled up to the register, eyeing the old woman.

“Thanks,” said Emma.

“Everything is in order,” said the woman, and Emma could see that she was visibly intimidated by the man, whoever he was. “It’s all here.” She held an envelope toward him.

“Yes, of course it is,” said the man, taking it. “I trust you completely.” Emma saw the bulge of cash peeking out of the top of the envelope.

The man smiled again at Emma. “Lovely to meet you, Ms. Swan. Perhaps we’ll be seeing one another.”

He nodded and strolled out of the room.

“Who was that guy?” Emma asked, once he was gone.

“That was Mr. Gold,” said the girl conspiratorially. “He owns this place.”

“The B and B?”

“No,” said the old woman. “The whole town.”

Emma raised her eyebrows. “Huh,” she said.

“Here’s a key for you.” She handed Emma a large metal key, almost comical in its artful flourishes. Nothing in this town was normal, it turned out. “How long will you be staying?”

“Just a week,” Emma said, looking at the key. “Just one week.” That was what she needed to make sure Henry was okay. She had to. What else made any kind of sense? She had to know about her son. She had to stay near him now that she’d found him. What else could a person do?

“A week!” cried the woman. “So wonderful. Welcome to Storybrooke.”

Emma took the key.

Outside, the second hand on the clock tower began to move.

Emma woke that first morning and briefly wondered what the hell she was doing in this damned town.

But she knew. She knew why she was here.

She was in the bathroom when she heard a knock on the door. When she opened it, she was surprised to find Regina Mills smiling at her.

“Ah, good morning!” Regina said. “I thought I’d stop by and offer you a gift.” She held up the apples and walked into the small room, not waiting to be invited. Emma watched her warily. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy them on your drive home,” she added. “It’s too bad you didn’t make it out of town last night, after all.” Looking around the room with mild disdain, Regina set the apples down on the countertop.

“I’ve decided to stay,” said Emma, looking at the apples. “But thank you.”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Regina asked brightly, apparently not surprised. “Henry has been dealing with a number of emotional problems. I think this will just confuse him more, don’t you?”

“The fact that you’ve now threatened me two times in the last twelve hours,” Emma said finally, “makes me want to stay more.”

“What?” Regina said. “You take apples as a threat? I wouldn’t—”

“I can read between the lines,” Emma said. “I think I’ll stay until I get a sense for Henry’s situation here. I want to make sure he’s okay.”

“I see,” said Regina. “You’re worried that I am in fact evil, are you? You’ve been reading his book as well. I can promise you that he’s just fine. And that his problems are being taken care of. He doesn’t need you.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means he’s in therapy,” Regina said. “It means that he will soon learn that reality makes more sense than fantasy. As I keep telling him. It means that only one of us knows what’s best for Henry.”

“I’m starting to think you’re right about that.”

The audacity of this woman was unbelievable—Emma could not imagine making the choice to enter so boldly into a stranger’s private space and speak so disdainfully, especially to someone who might be around for some time. Regina smiled a crisp smile and took a step toward Emma.

“This has been nice,” Regina said. “But it’s time for you to leave this town.”

“Or what?” Emma said, arms still crossed.

Regina took another step toward her. Their faces a mere foot apart, Regina said coolly, “Do not underestimate me, Ms. Swan. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

Emma paused and considered that.

“Well, then,” she said finally. “You’re just gonna have to show me, aren’t you?”

Regina’s eyes closed to the thinnest of slits. “So be it.”

Ten minutes later, in great need of coffee, Emma made her way to the diner. She also needed to think; she needed to figure out why Regina was so bent on getting her out of town. This place—there was something just off about this whole place. What was it?

She felt the strangeness all the more when she saw her own face staring back at her on the cover of the town daily, the
Storybrooke Daily Mirror
.

It was an old mug shot. She picked up a copy of the paper and sat down in a booth.

Seriously? she thought. One day to put this together?

Whoever had written the article—Sidney Glass was his name—had managed to dig up a lot about her life in a very short period of time. He knew that Henry had been born in Phoenix; he knew where she’d lived since then. He knew about her trouble with the law. Not quite everything, but plenty. Emma shuddered. This was exactly why she didn’t like small towns.

“Here you go.”

Emma looked up. The same girl from the inn, the one who’d been arguing with her grandmother, stood beside her table, smiling. She had a cup of hot cocoa and set it on the table.

Emma looked at her name tag: Ruby.

“Thanks, Ruby, but I didn’t order this,” Emma said.

“I know,” said Ruby. She smiled, cocked her head. Emma was impressed by the brightness of her lipstick’s red; it was almost incandescent. “You have an admirer.”

Emma turned to look across the room and saw Sheriff Graham seated at a booth. He was sipping coffee and reading the paper as well.

She got up and stormed over to him, carrying the cocoa.

“Ah. You decided to stay, did you?” he said pleasantly.

Emma just stared.

“Would you like to join me?” Graham said. He motioned for her to sit.

“Look, dude. The cocoa is a nice gesture. And it’s impressive that you were able to guess that I like cinnamon on my chocolate—not many people do—but I’m not here to flirt. So thanks but no thanks, Sheriff.” She slammed the cocoa down on his table.

“I didn’t send that,” he said. He shrugged, looking at her innocently.

“I did,” came a voice.

It was Henry. He was in the next booth, down so low that she hadn’t been able to see him. “I like cinnamon, too,” he added. “Hi. I’m glad you stayed.”

“Henry, what are you doing here?” Emma asked. “Don’t you have school?”

“Yeah, I’m going right now,” Henry said. “Will you walk me there?”

Emma sighed and gave an apologetic look to Graham. He smiled kindly in return and went back to the paper. There was something about the sheriff that she liked. Sure, he was under Regina’s thumb, but he seemed to be his own person. He was also somewhat handsome. Somewhat.

She nodded her good-bye.

Henry led Emma out of the diner.

“I seriously can’t believe you stayed!” Henry said, once they were outside. “This is gonna work.” He was excited. Emma smiled.

“Your mom would have preferred it if I’d left, I think,” she said. “It’s very unlike me to have stayed.”

“That’s because she’s the Evil Queen.”

Emma frowned. He did seem to have a rich inner life, but she couldn’t help but think of what Regina had said back in her room. He was seeing a shrink, for God’s sake. What if there was something really wrong with him? Was it the right thing to just go along with it? She didn’t know. She would have to talk to Archie.

“Explain it to me,” Emma said, deciding that she would rather talk to him about something he was enthusiastic about than scold him for making things up.

“What? The curse?”

“Yeah,” she said. “What’s it all about?”

“Okay, yeah,” Henry said, getting excited as he talked more about it. “So you and me have to break it. That’s our job. And step one of the operation is ‘identification.’ ” He looked up at her knowingly. “The whole operation is called Operation Cobra.”

Emma listened dutifully as Henry explained the curse. All the people of Storybrooke—“Everyone!”—came from another land. Fairy Tale Land. They had been happy there, and they lived with different identities. And then, in order to punish Snow White and Prince Charming for wronging her, the Evil Queen decided to put a curse on the whole land. A curse that meant nobody could be happy. This curse transported everyone who lived in Fairy Tale Land to this place, their world, on
Earth, which was a land without magic. No one could leave, time did not move, and no one was aware of what had happened. They all had amnesia, and they’d all been stuck here for twenty-eight years, living the same days over and over again. Except for Henry, who got it, and that was only because of the book, and because he hadn’t been born in Fairy Tale Land.

“The Evil Queen had to get the curse from her old frenemy, Maleficent,” Henry explained. “She went to her castle and they had this huge magic battle, and the Queen stole the curse from Maleficent’s scepter. It was a crazy battle!” Emma nodded. “But to make the curse work right,” Henry said, “the Queen had to use the heart of whoever she held most dear in the world.”

“Whoa,” Emma said. “Intense.”

“I know!” said Henry. “And guess whose heart she ended up taking to make the whole spell work? You’re never gonna guess.”

“I can’t imagine who an Evil Queen would hold dear.”