New fic: the circle, OUAT, PG, Swan Queen Part II (Final)
Title: the circle
Author: chilly_flame
Rating: PG
Length: 5500k, give or take
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Disney/ABC’s Once Upon a Time. And if I did Regina would get hugged more often.
Summary: a sequel to “ the line.” Regina wants to bring Snow and Emma home.
Notes: I’m meant to be working on three Hurricane Sandy stories right now, but this one needed to be completed before I could get started on those. Thanks to Lola, Tiff and Kristen for the cheers!
Henry is suspicious when David drops him off at the diner and promises that Red will feed him all the ice cream he wants as long as he hangs out for a little while.
“Where are you going?” Henry demands, and David sees Emma in the twisting line of his mouth.
“Sheriff’s business,” he replies, and Henry narrows his eyes.
“I know when you’re lying,” Henry says, and turns his back. He hops up onto a stool, where Red is waiting. She leans down over the counter and rests her head against her palm, smiling at him.
David doesn’t take the time to see if Henry will turn around again.
In a few minutes he’s in Regina’s living room. The space is lit with candles, and the scent of burning sage and freshly-cut grass hangs in the air. Jefferson looks unusually serious, and the two of them sit on the wood floor next to each other. Regina walks the perimeter of the room, spilling nearly an entire box of salt in a circle around it.
“So if something bad comes in, it won’t get out,” Jefferson reasons softly to David. “It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a shot.”
“But we’re inside the circle, which means…”
“We’ll be with it. Whatever it is. Whoever.”
“How’s she going to do it?” David asks, trying not to disturb her concentration.
“My guess is she’ll do what she did when she retrieved that apple from the past. If the hat works, it’s possible she’ll be able to see her way through to the other side where Emma and Snow are, but it will take far more magic than it did the last time,” he explains. “Then the apple was small; she reached out and grabbed it. I’m not sure she’ll be able to reach out and pull two people through a rip in the fabric of this world.”
David nods. He doesn’t really see why it’s taken Regina all this time to prepare, but then again he knows exactly nothing about magic other than sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
Once Regina completes her circle, she joins them and sits cross-legged on the floor only a few feet away. The hat is in the center of their triangle. Regina says nothing, but rests her hands on her knees and shuts her eyes.
Five minutes go by, and the candles flare at odd intervals, sometimes into enormous bright flames, sometimes in a shower of sparks. She reaches out for the hat as she takes a deep breath, until a thud interrupts them, followed by a shout of, “Mom!”
“Henry,” Regina snarls at David, her eyes darker than he’s ever seen them. “He’s supposed to be far away from here.”
“He was,” David replies, getting to his feet as Henry skids into the room, breaking their circle of salt.
“Mom, what’s happening, are you trying to get Emma and Grandma?” Henry asks, his voice high and afraid.
“Dear, it’s nothing, you really should--”
Red bursts into the room, crossing the salt line too. “Shit. David, he slipped out the back door and I didn’t realize it until it was too late-I don’t even know how he knew you were here--”
“You don’t have a lock on your phone, Gramps,” Henry says. “You should really get one.”
David frowns, and Regina rolls her eyes. “Of course.” She stands and picks up the hat, resigned to trying again another time. “We’ll try again another time--”
“No!” Henry shouts, rushing toward his mother. “Just try once, please! I know you want Emma back, and so do I.”
“Henry, it’s not safe,” Regina says softly, soothingly. The sound is the opposite of everything he thinks of as the Evil Queen. “I love you more than anything, and I need you to be safe. You can’t be here--”
“Mom,” Henry begs, “I miss her. You miss her too. I know you can do it. One time, and if it doesn’t work I’ll go. Please.”
David watches Regina, sees her uncertainty and longing. She’s torn, and when her eyes meet his own, David nods. Encouraging. Hoping.
Regina shakes her head. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” she murmurs, putting a hand to her temple. After a deep breath, she comes to a decision. Firmly, she glares at Red. “Fix the broken circle, dear. The salt is over there.”
Red jumps into action, eyes wide. She does as she’s told, but otherwise stays out of the discussion.
“I want no talking, no movement, no sound of any kind,” Regina says angrily. “Henry, I--” She swallows, and reluctantly sighs, “You may stay.”
Henry’s face brightens. “Great,” he says, his sideways grin appreciative. He moves toward her, and they both kneel on the floor near one another. David hangs back with Red at his side. Jefferson leans against the doorway until Regina frowns so fiercely at him that he steps further inside their salt circle.
With that, Regina closes her eyes. Instead of waiting, she reaches out and spins the hat after only about thirty seconds. There is a faint burst of purple smoke, but not much else. She breathes more deeply, and spins it again. This time it’s a stronger gust of magic, but not enough. Regina is frowning now, and David’s heart sinks, until Henry puts a hand on his mother’s arm.
Magic flares out with an audible rush of wind that surprises them all, including Regina. She turns to Henry, whose hand still rests on her arm, and she puts her fingers over his as the hat spins faster.
“Keep holding me, Henry,” she says, and he nods.
All of them step closer, even Jefferson, whose eyes grow wide and wild at the explosion of magic. “Think of them, your majesty, like before. Reach out with your mind--” he says, and Regina does as she’s told.
Her hand inches forward into the air, agonizingly slowly, until it begins to disappear into nothingness. It literally vanishes. It’s shocking to watch as her arm becomes invisible all the way to the elbow. David is startled when Regina cries out, “Emma!”
“Do you feel her?” Henry says, still tugging at Regina’s other arm.
“Take my hand. Come home,” Regina pleads, tears in her voice, on her cheeks.
Something jerks her forward, and Red strides over to her other side, opposite Henry. “I’ll help,” she says, and David realizes he’d better take action too. The last thing they need is to have their only hope sucked through a portal because she had nothing to anchor her in this world. He doesn’t hold her, but stands behind her, arms out in preparation.
When her feet start to slide, David grabs Regina’s hips. He almost falls when he sees Regina’s hand emerge from the nothing with another hand in its grasp; it’s a hand that becomes an arm, a shoulder, then a head of blonde hair, with a face that belongs to the girl who is his daughter. She’s wearing a stunned, hopeful smile when their eyes meet. “Keep pulling, David,” she says. “I’ve got Snow with me.”
They keep pulling. Emma emerges from their tiny portal horizontally, and Snow follows in the same fashion. Only when Snow’s feet cross the plane does Regina turn to Henry and say, “Let go, dear. We don’t want anyone else to follow.” He does, but Regina is able to hold both Snow and Emma up with magic for long enough to set them gently on their feet.
The room is silent as they gaze at one another. It’s shock, David thinks. Months of wishing and hoping, and now, they have what they want.
“So…” Jefferson begins, “I guess that worked.”
Snow approaches and puts her hands on David’s face, and she’s as beautiful as ever. Her hair is a little longer, her clothes filthy and worn, and she smells like she hasn’t showered in a month. “You found me,” she says, and he smiles, and kisses her.
Her mouth is so sweet; his heart skips as it always does when he pulls her into his arms. “I love you,” he murmurs against her lips, before he goes in for another kiss. “Missed you so much.”
“Me too,” she says, pressing her face against his neck, hugging him tightly. There are tears on his cheeks, but he doesn’t care.
He’s startled by Regina’s sob; it sounds like a shot in the otherwise quiet room. She’s clinging to Emma, who clings back, and Henry is hugging both of them.
They look like a family.
And when Emma pulls away for long enough to pepper gentle kisses along the Evil Queen’s brow, he allows himself a long moment of disappointment. This isn’t what he wanted for his child; not at all. But this is what he gets, and it’s what Emma wants, so he’ll accept it. Eventually.
“Mom’s been trying to get to you home for a long time,” Henry says, tugging at Emma’s torn jacket. “We all have.”
“I’ve been trying to get home too, kid,” she tells him, one hand on his cheek, the other around Regina’s waist. “That fairytale land’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“No,” Regina says. “It’s not.”
It certainly wasn’t perfect for any of them, David thinks. And from the looks of his wife and daughter, their trip wasn’t an easy one.
“Thanks, by the way,” Emma says to Regina, whose face streams with tears. Her expression is one of intense relief, and all the strength seems to seep out of her as she falls into his daughter’s arms.
“What’s happening?” Snow whispers, and David realizes she doesn’t know. Emma must have had a hell of a time keeping the secret from her.
“We’ll talk about it later,” David replies softly.
“I think we should talk about it now,” she says more firmly, because Emma doesn’t show any sign of letting the Evil Queen out of her embrace.
“Snow,” he says, turning her face toward his own. “Let’s just be happy you’re home right now, okay?”
“Charming,” Snow replies, glancing back over at Emma, who is stroking Regina’s head, eyes closed in contentment. “This is wrong. Are we in the right place?” she hisses.
He huffs out a short laugh. “You are. I’ll explain what I know soon. At least let me take you home so you can get some rest?”
“I don’t need rest--” she interrupts, her anger starting to brew.
“Hey, Snow,” Red says; he’d practically forgotten she was there. That seems to distract his wife enough from Emma and Regina’s clinch, and there’s laughter as the two friends fly at each other with eager grins.
Henry comes to his side then, gazing up at him with a smile. “We did it, Gramps,” Henry says, and David nods, because it’s definitely a “we” thing. Henry made Regina’s magic work, just as Emma’s had all those weeks ago, and he spends a moment thinking about the meaning of that.
“We sure did, kiddo. Great job.”
Snow turns to Henry then, holding his face between her hands and smiling. “My grandson. We missed you so much, sweetheart,” she says, pulling him into her arms, kissing the top of his head.
“We missed you too, Snow White.” He is positively gleeful as he says her name, giggling. “Lots of stuff happened while you were gone.”
“I can imagine,” she replies with a nod. “I can’t wait to hear about everything.” She eyes Emma and Regina, who have approached their little group with some trepidation. “And when I say everything, I mean everything.”
“Somebody’s in trouble,” Jefferson sings from behind them.
Emma just rolls her eyes. “Can it, Hatter,” she retorts, and deliberately takes Regina’s hand. “I’m staying here with Regina and Henry. Let’s meet for dinner in a few hours at Granny’s and we’ll talk.” She glances at Regina and adds, “Assuming it’s the same time here as it was there. Is dinner in a few hours?”
Regina chuckles and nods.
Snow opens her mouth, undoubtedly to protest, but David cuts her off. “We’ll leave you alone, but only after I get a hug from my daughter,” he says, and Emma’s slanting smile warms his heart. She grabs him and lets him lift her from the floor, her knees bumping against his own. “Welcome home,” he sighs into her ear. “Kid.”
Her breath catches a little, and he leans his head against hers. “Thanks.” He hears the unspoken word float between them, even though she doesn’t say it. Dad.
When he sets her down, the reality of her return hits him, and he can hardly bear to let her go again. So much time has been lost… But he inhales and steps back while Snow slips her hand in his.
“We’ll see you in a bit,” he tells Emma, and she nods.
“Nice badge,” she quips, eying the Sheriff’s star at his belt.
He shrugs. “It’s only temporary.” He ruffles Henry’s hair. “Keep your eye on both your moms, okay, kiddo? Don’t let them disappear into some other world.”
“Yes, sir,” Henry dutifully replies. It occurs to him that if Emma and Regina wanted a few moments of alone time (like what he wants with his wife), they’ll have to wait. That doesn’t bother him at all.
Snow reaches out for Emma’s hand as they make their way to the door, and she takes it. “Emma, are you sure--”
“Yeah,” Emma says, motioning toward the door with her head. “I’m good. We’ll be at Granny’s at 6.”
Snow blinks, frowning. “All right.” She purses her lips, but turns to Regina. “Thank you for bringing us home.”
Regina just nods her head. She almost manages a smile, but it’s a pale imitation compared to the ones she directed at Emma earlier.
They cross the threshold of the former Mayor’s home, Red and Jefferson trailing behind them. It feels strangely anticlimactic after all the trials and tribulations of the past few weeks, but he can’t argue with the results.
Snow stands on the porch and breathes deeply. “It’s actually good to be back.”
“Good to have you back,” he says, pulling her close. “No more vacations without me, got it?”
She nods, but only seconds later, the pleasant expression fades from her face. She glances back at the front door that separates them from their daughter, grandson, and the Evil Queen. “Are you sure?” she asks, not elaborating.
His first instinct is to say no, but time spent with Regina has made him reluctantly change his mind. He nods. “Sure as I can be.”
There’s a sound from inside-the only thing David can describe it as is a whoop-followed by laughter. He has no idea who it’s coming from, but it’s comforting.
Maybe they’ll be okay now. All of them.
~the end