Cursed Hearts

My Gift to You

The sun was bright, and the sky was the clearest blue she had ever seen. Today was the day. The day she had been waiting and anticipating for the past month- the one day that would change her forever. Caroline half expected to wake up that morning a completely different person- nevertheless, she still felt small and scrawny when she awoke that Saturday morning.

"Happy birthday, kid!" She heard Roland shout, setting himself on her bed before she could even open her eyes. When she did, she saw her entire family in her bedroom- that was a surprise by itself. Her father was holding a bouquet of purple balloons, looking quite elegant against the fluorescent lights above them. Beside him, her mother was smiling brightly down at her, looking about ready to burst with excitement as she aimed a video camera in her direction, ready to record the moment. But the first true surprise of the morning resulted from seeing her oldest brother with a wrapped package in his hands. As far as she knew, Henry was supposed to be on his way back to Canada- he must've been keeping it from her. She had said her goodbyes the night before and it had been hard... But this was something truly amazing.

"Henry!" She exclaimed, giving him a hug as he set the present in her lap.

Robin and Regina exchanged glances, and the record button was quickly pressed, capturing every second of the moment before them.

"Why are you still here?"

"What, you want me gone, just like that?"

Caroline giggled, and shook her head. "No! If it were up to me, you'd live here instead of Ontario. But then again, they don't have a fancy university here."

Storybrooke definitely did not have a fancy university- it did, however, have a small community college. As the years passed by after the curse freezing time was lifted, the children grew older, and soon had nothing to do after high school graduation. About two years before Regina met her soulmate, she had finally obtained the land and other legal necessitates needed to build SBU, the small but ever growing community college at the edge of town. It was where everyone went after graduation; they had a nursing program, an engineering sector, and even a law firm. But, of course, Henry was different; he was special, so he got a choice nobody else in that town had- he got to leave whenever he wanted. Not even his siblings could do that.

"No, they don't. But hey, Ontario sure doesn't have you guys. I emailed my professor and told him that I needed to take my exam later this week- I can't just miss your tenth birthday."

Beside his sister, Roland rolled his eyes inwardly in frustration. Of course all it took was a simple email in order for Henry to get out of things just like that. It was a joke.

"So what are we going to do first?" Caroline asked excitedly, changing the subject back to her.

"Why don't you get changed while I get breakfast started," Regina proposed, walking over to her daughter's bed and placing a kiss to her temple, hugging her close for a brief moment.

"I just can't believe you're ten," she sighed, the past decade of her life swirling around in her mind in the few seconds she held her. It was moments like these that her prior self, the Regina Mills with a hardened heart and a lonely soul, was amazed that she successfully brought a child as innocent as her Caroline up in such a hopeless world. But as hopeless her life seemed before she met Robin, Regina was proud to say that fate had given her a hopeful turn for the better- the past ten years had been full of happy memories with friends and family; there was no longer a threat from Neverland, or her mother, or any other monster that lurked outside of the city limits.

No, her town of Storybrooke was a place where people could thrive without worrying about those things. Regina could raise her children without fear because, undoubtedly, she knew every single citizen within her town, and she knew there was no way anyone could get in without her knowing. She, Rumplestiltskin, and Emma made sure of that- nobody had magic stronger than theirs.