New fic: the line, OUAT, G
Title: the line
Author:chilly_flame
Fandom: Once Upon a Time; Charming POV with Regina & Henry, minor mention of Swan Queen
Rating: G
Length: 2k\
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Disney/ABC’s Once Upon a Time. And if I did Regina would get hugged more often.
Summary: After the events of “The Doctor,” David goes in search of Regina.
Notes: I’m calling Charming “David” in this story because that’s what Regina calls him during the episode. Thanks to my betas damelola, the-charmings and shemadehimwaffles, as well as my Original Recipe beta Xander, who has been lured into the fandom. Yahoo!
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David doesn’t intend to take Henry with him to the edge of Storybrooke. He’s nearly to the line when he hears the sneeze behind the seats, and by then it’s too late. He can’t turn around, and he can’t kick the boy out on the side of the road either.
“Henry, I told you to stay at the apartment.”
“I know,” Henry whines, “But I heard you talking to Red and I know it was about Mom, and that man--”
“Henry,” David says with a sigh, “You shouldn’t be here for this.”
“But why would she want to leave if it wasn’t really bad?” There’s a pause, and David’s heart sinks. “Would she leave--”
Me, David hears, although Henry doesn’t say it. “No, Henry. I just think… Regina is sad.” He doesn’t want to call Regina Henry’s mother, even though she is. It just feels like too much.
They’re not far from the line when he sees the car. He doesn’t see her, but knows that she hasn’t crossed over. There’s no way, is there?
“Who was that man?”
David takes a breath. “Someone she cared about. Loved,” he adds, because it’s true. “She loved him, and he died.”
“Died?”
He puts the brakes on as they pull up near the edge. David spots her then, leaning against the bumper. She’s seated on the pavement, legs straight out in front, as if she slid to the ground bonelessly. “Yes.”
“But how was he alive?”
“He wasn’t really alive, Henry. He was a monster, but he looked like himself.”
“That’s why she’s here. Because she misses him. And she’s upset about everything else too.” David’s about to open the door when he hears Henry mutter, “About me not wanting to see her.”
“That’s your choice,” he tells his grandson. “Regina lied to everyone for decades. You don’t have to forgive her.” He doesn’t plan on it, that’s for sure. She destroyed his whole world, over and over. She’s the reason his wife and daughter are missing. At least that’s what he tells himself, even though he remembers very clearly the way Emma shoved Regina out of the way when the portal opened. He remembers Emma’s voice when she said Regina’s name, the scream of fear in it. Of something other than hatred.
Henry doesn’t turn around to meet his eyes. He’s watching his mom. “Yeah,” he says, sounding unconvinced. “I don’t. She made me feel crazy.”
“I know, kiddo.”
But the fact is that Regina can’t leave. She might be the only reason Snow and Emma can return, if they find a way.
“Are you going to tell her to stay?” he asks.
David opens the door and slides from the seat. Crossing in front of the truck, he’s careful not to go near the line spray painted on the road. When he’s in front of Regina, she looks even more like a rag doll. “Come on, Regina. It’s time to go home.”
She doesn’t respond. Her face is puffy and wet; she might still be crying. He doesn’t want to care. She deserves everything she’s brought on herself. She caused all of this. She is evil. She was born evil.
He blinks, and wonders if that’s really true. He wasn’t born a prince, but he is one now. Emma was born a princess and became a bounty hunter. Snow was born a princess and became a soldier. A hunter. A leader.
He glances back at Henry and wonders what he will become if his mother walks over the line that separates Storybrooke from the rest of the world.
“Regina, get up. You’re not going.”
She glances up at him. Her face is empty; nothing of herself remains in her eyes. “Leave me.”
“Regina,” he says again, until her hand comes up and he is frozen. Suddenly, he is terrified that she is going to shove him over that line, only ten feet away. He can breathe, but not much else.
His feet drag on the pavement as she pushes his body back toward his truck. When she lets him go, he sags with relief and surprise, falling to one knee. He stands and sees Henry staring out the window, one hand pressed to the glass. His face is stricken.
He takes a breath and returns to Regina once more. “What are you doing, giving up?”
Regina flicks a finger and his voice is gone. “I said leave, shepherd. Go back to your little family. Your grandson and your friends. I’m sure your precious wife and child will be back soon enough. They’re an industrious pair. I’ve no doubt they will find a way home.”
David reaches out, angry that he has no ability to speak. He grabs her shoulder and she throws him back toward the truck again. Not toward the line. He turns to Henry and holds out a hand, stopping him from getting out of the vehicle. He doesn’t want him to be a part of this.
“You think you know what I feel,” Regina tells him. “You pretend to understand because I took Snow from you not once, but twice. You say to yourself that her loss was an endless one. You believed her dead and gone.” Regina’s mouth twists in an ugly sneer, but tears spill from her red, swollen eyes. “You know nothing. Do you hear me? Nothing.” Her voice is gravel and misery. “I don’t owe you any explanation but I’ll give you one. Short and sweet, how’s that?” He stares, because there is nothing more to be done. Snot and tears and mascara are smeared across her face, as though she doesn’t care at all about the way she looks. She is not the queen of his old life, or the Mayor of his new. This person is unfamiliar.
“The only person who ever loved me, truly loved me without reservation, was Daniel. My father loved me but not enough to protect me. Henry loved me but not enough to believe in me. Daniel, a simple stable boy, with nothing but honor to his name, was the only one, and he died loving me. Even when I had to… end his suffering yesterday--” her voice breaks, “he had enough love for me to help me let him go.” Here she sobs, and somehow he feels tears prick behind his eyes. It’s a terrible, ripping thing, this sudden sympathy that she does not deserve. “You will never know what it means to be so entirely alone in the world, for all the days of your life.”
His voice returns without his knowledge until the words slip from his throat. “You have to let go of this anger, Regina. Snow was just a child--”
“A child who cared only for herself! Who already had a mother but was so selfish as to demand another from a father who denied her nothing. I was but a child myself-hardly 18, terrified and powerless against my mother’s magic, beholden to a King who ruled the land.” She shakes her head, and David believes she doesn’t even see him now. “Evil isn’t born, Charming. It’s made. In my case it was chiseled into stone by pain and despair and loneliness. And now I have nothing. Before at least I had Daniel’s body. I had the smallest hope that one day I might find a way to bring him back.” The flood begins anew, tears almost leaping from her eyes. “Now I don’t even have a body to bury. Only ash and blood. And I am lost.”
He sees. For perhaps the first time, he sees.
“Regina,” David says, kneeling at her feet. “Please. You’re the only one who can bring Emma and Snow back.”
“I can’t. My magic only causes destruction. I have nothing to offer you, or anyone in this town. Please leave me here. Let me go. No one will miss me--”
“I will,” comes a voice from behind them both.
It’s Henry.
David turns to glance over his shoulder, and Henry stands firm. He is unafraid but clearly anxious.
“I’ll care if you go. Won’t you forget me if you cross the line?”
Regina watches him as a woman dying of thirst would a glass of water. David wonders if Regina has any idea what will happen to her, or any of them, if she walks over. She cast the curse; there could be unforeseen consequences if she abandons her own creation. This has not occurred to him before this moment, and it makes it even more vital that she stay.
“I--” Regina says, unable to find words. She opens her mouth but nothing more emerges.
“Don’t you want to be my mom anymore?” Henry prods, desperate. “You said you loved me!”
“I do, Henry, I--” Regina takes a breath. “I do love you.”
“Then why? Emma is gone, Snow is gone, and you’re the only one who can bring them back! How could you leave now? Don’t you care about me, or Emma? I know you care about her, I saw you together!”
David shoots a glance at Henry, then back at Regina. She looks stunned, shaking her head. David’s stomach drops through the ground when he gets it. There’s a reason Emma shoved Regina out of the way of the hat. A reason why she insisted on saving her, over and over. It’s not just because it’s the right thing to do. It’s always been more.
“I know you miss her,” Henry goes on, oblivious to the cacophony echoing in David’s head. “I didn’t tell anyone because I knew they’d all, I don’t know, freak out or something. But would you really leave her behind too? Just because you’re afraid?”
“It’s not about being afraid, Henry,” Regina says. “It’s never been about that.”
“Then why?” The boy wipes at his nose, and David realizes he’s crying. “Why would you leave me?”
Regina gets to one knee, then stands. “I won’t, Henry. I’m sorry.”
He goes to her, and David stands back, remembering the love a mother has for a son. He thinks of his own mother, who gave everything for him. He wonders if Regina would do that. Looking at the expression on her face as she weeps against Henry’s hair, he believes she would.
Once again, this is not the same Regina he knew in the old world, or the new. This woman is new. Different. Brought to her knees, but still living. Still breathing.
What would he do, in her shoes? If Snow came home a monster, without hope of her return?
He’s not sure he’d have the strength to end her, as Regina did with Daniel. Poor Daniel, a man Regina has loved for longer than he’s loved Snow. A man she’s been without for what feels like lifetimes.
He reaches out a hand and rests it softly on her shoulder. Her tears keep falling as he draws her beneath his arm, and he exhales as she sags against him. “Come home, Regina,” he whispers, and she nods once.
“I’ll have Red come get your car later. Ride with us.”
“Okay,” she murmurs, unwilling to let go of Henry. Her son, who doesn’t let go of her either. David’s surprised, because Henry’s barely mentioned Regina since Emma and Snow vanished. Perhaps the unexpected possibility of losing her has made him grasp how important she is in his life. Or maybe a son just loves his mother, even when she does awful things.
Regina buckles Henry in first before herself, and he can’t help but smile at that. Henry rides between them, leaning against Regina’s body. She holds him like a life preserver, the two swaying in time with the Buddy Holly song that plays on the radio as they head home.
~end
Read the sequel, " the circle".