Twice Upon A Tale

S1E17

Hat Trick

Upon walking into the police station early in the morning, a pep in her step as she expected to see that one Mary Margaret Blanchard had escaped her cell and therefore, illegally dodged a murder charge.

This was the next best thing to killing her, and while Regina knew if she had Mary Margaret held captive herself (back when she was the Queen and Mary Margaret was Snow White), she would have just killed her and saved them all a great deal of time and energy.

But in this world, this cursed land, things had to be done a certain way. And unfortunately for Regina, that certain way was tedious and not at all what she had wanted to do.

As her heels clicked on the floor, she had all but a smile on her face as she opened the door to the sheriff's office, expecting to find an empty cell. She had even reached to take her phone out of her purse so she could immediately dial Emma Swan to give her the oh so horrible news of her friend skipping town, when she rounded the corner and saw none other than Mary Margaret sitting in her cell, flipping through a magazine casually.

"Madam Mayor" she greeted lightly, lifting her eyes just long enough to acknowledge Regina's presence, before turning them downward again, back to her magazine.

"My client is not seeing any visitors"

Mr. Gold's voice was slimy and made every single hair on her body stand upright. Of course he would be here, of course he had bet her to the punch. He was the one who came up with this godforsaken plan and he couldn't even ensure that it was executed perfectly.

A rage brewed within Regina, and without a second thought she was moving out into the hallway with Gold, out of Mary Margaret's earshot, to give him a piece of her mind.

"Why has she returned?" Regina demanded answers, her mouth set in a straight line and her eyebrows furrowed as she looked accusatory at Mr. Gold, who seemed to have a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"Emma Swan must be more resourceful than we had anticipated"

~

'Of course it was Emma Swan' Regina thought to herself bitterly after her conversation with Gold had ended. Of course Emma had swooped in and saved the day, as per usual.

She had a knack for ruining Regina's plans, and it was getting really old really quick.

Who even is she? Regina's train of thought began to move swiftly, trying to identify who Emma could possibly be. She wasn't from the Enchanted Forest, that much was certain, but she had the qualities of someone who knew all of these people; her unexplainable bond to Mary Margaret was concerning and the way she just ran around Regina's town saving everyone and fixing everything like she was some sort of...

Regina's blood ran cold. Her whole body froze, unable to move, as she heard nothing but the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears. No, no this couldn't be, Emma swan showing up in Storybrooke and suddenly acting like...

Like she was some sort of saviour.

Rumplestiltskin had warned her that there was but one undoing of her curse, that there was only one person who could break it and free all of the people of the forest.

She had assumed that the one person had been killed, or sent off to another dimension, to another land and another world. When she walked into that wretched nursery with little glass animals hanging as a mobile and a luxurious metal framed crib in the middle, she assumed that Snow and Charming had sacrificed their child for the greater good. That they had sent her somewhere far away, to keep her far away.