Once Upon a Time in Storybrooke - OUAT DR

Chapter 20 - Redemption for the Queen

The next morning as I was getting ready I found myself thinking of Henry. I doubted he knew of the magic beans and didn't think he would be very keen on us leaving Regina behind if we all decided to go back and not take her with us. 

Emma and Graham had been working long nights since August - Pinocchio - had turned back into a man and warned Emma that Storybrooke wasn't safe. Their relationship was becoming more obvious despite Neal's - or maybe in spite of - Neal's presence here with his fiancee Tamara, whom I hadn't met yet. Or maybe that was just what Emma wanted people to think and there was nothing going on between the two of them at all.

Honestly, I wasn't sure there was just one right person for Emma.

I was on my way to the loft to talk with everyone about going back to the Enchanted Forest - about telling Henry and Regina - when I noticed Henry and Regina having what looked to be an argument outside the building. I walked over and stepped up to Henry, greeting them both before asking what was going on. 

Regina demanded to know if we were growing magic beans with the intention of going back to the Enchanted Forest, leaving her here, and taking Henry back with them. 

I knew it, she knew. I knew we shouldn't have kept this from either one of them, despite all Regina had done she had been working to be better, be the person Henry needed her to be, and I believed she deserved that chance. Obviously, this was incredibly awkward, since Henry was not my kid and this was not my place but his mom's, but I couldn't lie to either of them and figured I might as well tell them the truth.

I confirmed some of her suspicions, telling them both we were growing magic beans and it sounded like David and Snow, along with several others wanted to go back to the Enchanted Forest. I was actually on my way to talk to them all about it and implore they tell both of you, now that the beans were close to being ready to harvest, but since you already suspected I wasn't going to lie. I told them Emma and I hadn't yet made a decision so nothing had been decided, but if Regina wanted to go back and thought taking Henry back there was a good idea, I would mention that in our talks, and see if we could invite her to the table.

She seemed surprised, as if she had expected a different outcome, and I could see that some of the fire had left her eyes. She thanked me for my honesty - Regina Mills, the Evil Queen, thanked me for my honesty - and I told her we would call her once I'd gotten to talk with my family. 

I took Henry upstairs and he asked how long his mom, Emma, had known and I told him only since yesterday, we were supposed to talk before we talked to you but we hadn't had a chance yet - she's not trying to hide anything from you though - and he seemed to be happy with that answer. 

When we walked into the loft Snow was in the kitchen, cleaning up, but Emma hadn't gotten back from Granny's yet, having headed over there twenty minutes earlier. I told Snow that Henry and Regina both knew about the beans - Regina had confronted me outside and asked me and I couldn't lie to her. Henry said she had been mad, that she said we were planning on leaving her behind and taking Henry back there with us. I told her it would be wrong for us not to take Regina back with us, not just for Regina, but for Henry too. Despite everything she raised him the first 10 years of his life and it would be cruel for us to rip them apart like that. 

That's when Snow White told us her and David had already talked about this and were going to offer her a choice, but we had no guarantees she wouldn't backslide the way she did every other time they had given her a chance. I told her this time she had a reason not to - Henry - and if I knew anything about Regina it was that she loved Henry and wanted to do right by him. We owed her that chance. 

Ultimately it would be up to Emma, so we were going to have to wait until she got back. Henry went upstairs to play video games and I watched as Snow finished cleaning up and started getting ready to leave. I asked where she was going and she told me she was meeting David and Leroy to go to the bean fields. 

Emma rushed in while I was in the other room, going on about Tamara being the "her" August had tried to warn us about before he'd died and been "rebooted" (it was the kindest word we'd come up with to describe what had happened to him when the Blue Fairy had brought him back to life). She was convinced Tamara was up to something nefarious and she wasn't being quiet about it. Snow warned her to be careful talking like that around Henry but I couldn't hear the rest of their conversation. 

I came into the room once Snow had left and Henry had overheard everything - Operation Cobra was back on. Emma had him grab his coat and I took the time to tell Emma that Regina knew about the beans and she wanted to be with Henry, adding that I didn't think it was right for us to keep them apart like that. Emma agreed, seeming relieved that she hadn't been the one to bring it up to our parents and that she had wanted to tell her from the beginning. We agreed we'd talk to our parents that night and see what we'd need to do to bring her to the table. We'd all talk that night, together, and decide what was best for Henry. 

Henry bounded up to us and smiled up at both of us, clearly having heard. As we walked outside Emma and Henry decided they were going to do a stakeout for Neal and Tamara. I opted out of said stakeout - I couldn't stand the thought of sitting still that long. Instead, I headed up to my apartment after grabbing coffee with Emma, cleaned up a bit, and got some laundry done. 

Now, I knew Emma and Henry were doing a stakeout, but I didn't know Emma's plan after the stakeout was to break into their room at Granny's. I found this out when I went back to the family loft after I had finished laundry and found Emma and Henry having ice cream, talking about the failed break-in and how Neal had caught them. 

Emma had told Neal her suspicion - that Tamara was dangerous and the person August warned us of - but he was convinced it was because Emma was being a jealous ex.  

Which, with the late nights she was having with Graham at work and the way they cast eyes at one another at Granny's, I had a strong suspicion something else was going on - or at the very least Emma wanted everyone to think something was going on. 

Was everyone else just blind to that, now that Neal was here in town? And sure, Neal was funny, knew how to hold a conversation, and genuinely seemed to be trying to be a good dad for Henry - but that didn't mean he was the right person for Emma. I wasn't sure there was just one right person for Emma if I'm being honest. 

I told her I believed her about Tamara, if her gut was telling her something was off about her I believed her. That's when we got the call from our parents - the beans were gone, burned to a crisp, as was everyone's only way back to the Enchanted Forest. 

Who could have done it? Surely it hadn't been Regina, we'd had that talk this morning and I truly believed she had chosen to trust my word, for whatever reason. Who else could have done it?

I grabbed a spoon and joined them in their ice cream as we all wondered who it could have been, what this all meant for us. Our only real suspect was obvious - Tamara - but we knew everyone else wouldn't be convinced.

Things, I could tell, were about to get crazy, and there was no telling what was going to happen.