Save Emma

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Regina blinked hard as she attempted to get her bearings straight. It took her a few moments to realize she was sitting behind her desk in her office, but everything looked slightly different. An older version of her office, before she redecorated due to Snow's brief tenure as Mayor following the year spent in The Enchanted Forest. She quickly looked around her purse, pulling out an old, outdated blackberry, her previous phone before she upgraded to the modern iPhone after the curse was broken. Turning on the screen, she smiled. The date on the top of the screen read "October 22, 2011". She was exactly where she wanted to be.

She checked the time next. "4:00pm". If she remembered the events of this day correctly, she wouldn't discover Henry was missing for another hour, which means he was already on the bus to Boston. She quickly stood up, her legs still a little wobbly from the time portal, and raced out of the office without stopping to inform anyone she was leaving for the day. Henry had at least an hour head start on her, and she needed to get to him before he convinced Emma to bring him back to Storybrooke. But in the four years since Emma came to Storybrooke, Regina never once asked where she lived in Boston, so she had no idea where to look for Henry, until she remembered the website Henry had used to find Emma in the first place.

Racing up to Henry's bedroom, she logged into his computer and started typing away, eventually finding the email he had received from the website, listing Emma's last known address in Boston. She ran back out to her car only to remember that it was 2011, and her phone didn't have a GPS function on it, never needing one when she had no reason to leave Storybrooke. Cursing her past self for not purchasing the device, she ran back into the house to mapquest the directions to Emma's apartment, making sure to print out the return directions as well, as she couldn't exactly ask someone directions to a town that didn't appear on the maps.

Getting back in the car, Regina realized that her research and navigation break took longer than she thought, and Henry now had at least a two hour lead on her. The tires of her Mercedes squealed as she peeled out of the driveway, and within a few minutes she was crossing over the town line, speeding down the highway towards Boston. She knew she would eventually have to stop for gas, as her past self did not anticipate an impromptu trip out of state, and had only a half filled gas tank. Driving as far as she could until the needle was drastically close to empty, she was forced to pull over at the next gas station and fill up the tank.

Roughly four and a half hours after Regina left Storybrooke, she was pulling into a small parking lot next to an apartment complex in Boston. She drove slowly through the rows of cars, searching the yellow monstrosity that Emma Swan drove, hoping she wasn't too late and they had already left. A flash of yellow in the corner of the parking lot proved that Regina wasn't too late, the Yellow Bug was still parked in the parking lot, which meant that Henry was still here. Parking her car a few spaces away from Emma's, Regina quickly jumped out and started to jog towards the front entrance of the building, accepting the open door from a kind stranger, and making her way towards the elevator, waiting patiently for the doors to open.

Regina was beginning to grow impatient as she waited for the elevator to open and as soon as she entered the elevator, she jabbed the number 2 button and frantically hit the "close door" button, an act that everyone did, but also knew didn't make the doors close faster. The elevator moved slowly, but eventually came to a stop on the second floor. As soon as the doors opened, Regina took off into another jog, quickly finding the door marked "205". Emma Swan's apartment. She took a deep breath and knocked briskly and loudly on the door. She could hear movement inside the apartment and could have sworn she heard "Now what?" From a voice behind the closed door.

A few moments later, the door opened quickly and forcefully and Regina's breath was ripped from her lungs. There she was, Emma Swan, the woman she had been frantically attempting to save for the last six months. The woman who would come to Storybrooke and change her life forever. There she was, standing in front of her, and all Regina could do was stare. Emma looked exactly how she remembered her, only a few years younger, the stress of being the Savior had not yet taken its toll on her. She looked just as she had the first time Regina saw her, four years ago, standing in front of her house, as she returned Henry to her. Instead of the skinny jeans and long sleeve shirt combo, Emma was wearing a tight red dress that hugged her curves and looked as though it was painted on her.