Regina does everything in her power to force Emma and Harry out of Storybrooke and out of her and Henry's lives forever.

*TW: Vague mentions of Harry's abuse at the hands of the Dursleys. It's a small mention, but it's still there.*

***

Regina, eyes cold as she turned the page of Henry's storybook, sighed angrily. On the page, the wedding of Snow White and Prince Charming was in progress as the Evil Queen, with a hand out, yelled across the hall. Snow and Charming stood together, both in white, a united front. Prince Charming's sword in mid-flight toward the Queen. Regina turned the page, eyes narrowing when she saw the bind of the book; there were ragged pieces of torn-out pages along the edge. She slammed the cover of the book closed as she walked from her office and into Henry's room, where he was getting ready for school.

"The missing pages, where are they?" she asked.

Henry turned to her with an unimpressed look. "It's an old book, stuff's missing. What do you care?"

Regina huffed in irritation. "I care because you think I'm some evil queen. And that hurts me, Henry. I'm your mother."

She reached out to touch his face, but he shook her off and moved away from her. "No, you're not," he denied as he looked away from her.

Regina, extremely irritated, slammed her hand on Henry's desk. "Well, then, who is? That woman you brought here? I don't like what she or this book is doing to you. Thankfully both are no longer an issue," she told him, and looked at her son, who looked at the ground, shifting his weight onto his other foot. Regina scowled, hand on her hip. "What?"

Outside, the clock tower chimed. Regina turned her head toward the sound, shocked. Henry took the offered chance and walked out of his room, grabbing his backpack on the way.

***

Emma woke the next morning to Harry's scream. She rolled over immediately, now completely awake, and only after grabbing her wand, did she realize that Harry was still asleep. She breathed out a sigh of relief.

Only a nightmare.

She walked to the other bed in the room, softly grabbing Harry's wrists, which were hitting everything they could as he kicked and squirmed. "Shh, shh, Harry. It's okay, it's okay, you're safe, kid. You're not with them anymore. You're with Mom, buddy." She lifted him softly into her lap, rocking him back and forth, running her fingers through his unruly mass of curls. She kissed his head as he calmed. "There we go, kiddo," she sighed, wishing she could take every bad thing those bastards had done to him before she rescued him.

"Mum?" He whispered, tears falling from his eyes as he buried his head in her neck.

"I'm here, kiddo. I'm not going anywhere, Harry. Never," she told him, kissing his head as a knock came at the door. "Come in!" she called, already having a good idea about who was at the door.

It creaked open quietly, and Newt poked his head around the frame, intelligent eyes narrowed as he scanned the room. When he saw mother and son curled around each other like a lioness and her cub, his expression softened and he stepped fully into the room, his wand disappearing up his sleeve with a flick of his wrist. "Oh, little one," he sighed sadly, Queenie already in tears as she followed Newt.

"It was my uncle again, Mum," Harry whispered, trembling. "He was using me as an ashtray!" he cried out.

His voice trembled with hysterics, and immediately Emma was rubbing his back and fighting back tears of her own. "It's okay, Harry. You're not with him anymore. You're safe with me, Aunt Queenie and Uncle Newt, bud. You're okay," Emma soothed, and Queenie, with tears in her eyes, came over to the bed where Harry and Emma were, wrapping her arms around the both of them as Newt did the same on the other side of Emma.

Queenie kissed Harry's head as he fell asleep again, feeling their magic surround him safely. "What happened, Em?" Newt asked, his nimble fingers gently kneading Harry's scalp, Harry instinctively leaning into the touch.

"Another nightmare," Emma answered tiredly. "It's happening more and more since he's been home. I think the whole thing with Quirrell messed him up again. He'd said that memories he didn't know he had were surfacing because of it."

Queenie kissed his head, moving off the bed as Emma moved Harry onto the mattress and under the blankets. Newt sighed. "I think-"

He was cut off by a knock on the door. Queenie scowled deeply when she caught the mayor's thoughts. "It's for you, hun," Queenie told her, and Emma stood, watching Newt replace her weight on the bed so Harry knew, even in sleep, that he wasn't alone.

Regina smiled at her coldly as Emma opened the door. "Did you know the honeycrisp tree is the most vigorous and hardy of all apple trees? It can survive temperatures as low as forty below and keep growing. It can weather any storm. I have one that I've tended to since I was a little girl. And to this day, I have yet to taste anything more delicious than the fruit it offers."

She extended a hand, an apple held in her palm, to Emma, who took it, eyes narrowed. "Thanks."

Regina smiled, all teeth. "I'm sure you'll enjoy them on your drive home."

Emma looked behind her at Queenie and Newt, who grinned. "Actually, the four of us are gonna stay for a while."

"Four of you?" Regina asked, eyebrows raised.

"Me, Harry, and my surrogate brother and sister," Emma nodded, pointedly turning her body so Regina could see the silent witch and wizard that sat with Harry. Without looking behind her, Emma pitched the apple over her shoulder; Queenie effortlessly caught it with one hand and examined it curiously. "Two and two makes four."

Regina scowled. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Henry has enough issues, he doesn't need you confusing him."

Emma smirked. "All due respect, Madame Mayor, the fact that you have now threatened me twice in the last twelve hours just makes me wanna stay more."

Regina watched her, unimpressed. "Since when were apples a threat?"

"I can read between the lines," Emma answered, folding her arms. "I just wanna make sure Henry's okay."

Regina assessed her with careful eyes. "He's fine, dear. Any problems he has are being taken care of."

Emma scowled. "What the hell does that mean?"

Regina tilted her head. "It means I have him in therapy. It's all under control. Take my advice, Ms. Swan: only one of us knows what's best for Henry."

Emma narrowed her eyes. "Yeah . . . I'm starting to think you're right about that."

Regina straightened. "It's time for you to go."

"Or what?" Emma challenged.

Regina took a step toward Emma, snarling. "Don't underestimate me, Miss Swan. You have no idea what I'm capable of."

Emma smirked as she turned to walk back into her room. "And you don't know what I'm capable of." With that, Emma shut the door in Regina's face and turned to her family, Newt and Queenie grinning at her proudly.

***

Regina angrily picked an apple from her tree as a black man walked up, showing off a newspaper. "The Mirror strikes again," he said.

Regina scowled at him, appearing entirely unimpressed. "You're late."

He held up his hands placatingly. "Sorry, I wanted to bring you the latest edition. I assure you, it's one of my better hatchet jobs," he said as he presented her with that morning's paper.

Regina ripped the paper from his hand and started to scan its contents with a scowl. "That's not what I asked for. What'd you find out about her?"

The man shrugged. "Truth be told, there wasn't much. She spent a lot of time in foster homes. She got into a little trouble when she was a kid, but the details are locked up pretty tight. Since then, she's been clean. Bounced around all over. The only thing I really learned was that she didn't like to sit still. That appeared to change because she adopted her kid almost five years ago after he was severely abused by his family. The details of that, though, I wasn't able to find," he told Regina, who was reading the front page of the paper with a deep scowl. He cleared his throat and Regina looked at him, eyebrow raised. "I-I didn't know that, um, she had Henry while she was in Phoenix? How'd he wind up here in Maine?" he asked nervously.

Regina angrily threw the paper at his chest. "So if I'm understanding you correctly, you've found nothing of value. Which means you have no value, Sidney. Do you know what I do with things that hold no value to me? I throw them away!"

Sidney gulped. "I-I'll keep looking." He walked away, leaving Regina seething in her anger as she picked a few more apples from her tree.

***

After Regina had left, Queenie had offered to watch over Harry like the saint she was so that Emma could get ready for the day and get some breakfast. She had walked down and crossed into the diner, and Ruby had given her a newspaper with a small, sad smile while Emma drank her coffee. Ruby set a mug of hot chocolate, with cinnamon, in front of her, a smile on her face. "Here you go," she winked.

Emma looked at her in confusion. "Thank you, but I didn't order that."

Ruby smirked. "Yeah, I know. You have an admirer," she muttered, jutting her chin out to behind Emma, and she turned around, seeing Sheriff Graham seated in a booth.

With a scowl, she put down her paper and walked over to him, setting the cocoa on the table in front of him. Graham looked at her. "Ah, so you decided to stay," he grinned wolfishly.

Emma crossed her arms. "Observant. Important for a cop."

Graham shrugged unapologetically. "That's good news for our tourist business, bad for our local signage." Emma leveled him with an unimpressed look, and Graham coughed uncomfortably. "It's-it's a joke. . .because you ran over our sign?"

Emma sighed. "Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture, and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon in my chocolate, 'cause most people don't, but I am not here to flirt, so, thank you, but no thank you."

Graham raised his eyebrows. "I didn't send that," he told her, shaking his head.

"I did," Henry's voice came from behind them. "I like cinnamon, too."

Emma spun around to see Henry getting up, a backpack on his shoulder and frowned at him. "Don't you have school?"

Henry grinned cheekily. "Duh. I'm ten. Walk with me?"

Emma sighed, shaking her head as she walked towards the diner door and opened it for him. He followed her, and they began the walk to his school. Emma looked down at him. "So, what's the deal with you and your mom?"

Henry sighed. "It's not about us, it's about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one: identification. I call it, 'Operation Cobra.'"

Emma stopped short, but quickly continued to walk beside Henry. "Cobra?" she repeated. "That has nothing to do with fairytales."

"Exactly," Henry nodded proudly. "It's a codename. It'll throw the Queen off the trail."

Emma nodded. "So . . . everyone here is a fairytale character, they just don't know it."

Henry nodded, happy she was going along with his plan. "Yep, and you're the cure. Time's been frozen here for 27 years. . .Until you got here, at least." Emma hummed to indicate she was still listening, and she lifted her apple to her lips. Henry glanced at her, then did a perfect double take, his wide eyes locked on her apple. "Hey! Where'd you get that?" he yelped.

She frowned at the question. "Your mom?" she muttered, not sure if her disgust was from the thought of a "gift" from Regina or that she was about to actually eat it.

Henry huffed. "Don't eat that!" he ordered, plucking it from her and throwing it into the street.

Emma held up her hands. "Okay, okay! Sorry!" She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Anyway." She looked at Henry. "What about their pasts?"

Henry shook his head. "They don't know. It's a haze to them. Ask anyone anything and you'll see."

Emma nodded. "So . . . for decades, people have been walking around, in a haze, not aging, with screwed up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious," she summarized in a deadpan manner.

Henry grinned just like Harry did on Christmas morning. "I knew you'd get it!" he cheered. "That's why we need you, you're the only one who can stop her Curse."

Emma sighed. "Because I'm the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming?"

Henry nodded. "Yes! And right now, we have the advantage. My mom doesn't know that." He took his backpack from his shoulders, unzipping it. "I took out the end," he told her as he handed her pages from his book. "The part with you in it," he watched as Emma read and looked through the pages. Emma looked at a page with an illustration of Prince Charming placing a baby in a wardrobe, the name "Emma" clearly visibly on the baby blanket. "See? Your mom is Snow White!"

Emma sighed. "Kid . . . "

Henry looked at her determinedly. "I know the hero never believes at first. If they did, it wouldn't be a very good story. If you need proof, take them, read them. But whatever you do, don't let her see these pages. They're dangerous. If she finds out who you are . . . then it would be bad." Emma stopped walking when Henry did, and Henry continued on. "I gotta go, but I'll find you later and we can get started. I knew you'd believe me!"

He started walking into the schoolyard, looking back once at Emma as she called back. "I never said I did!"

Henry smirked. "Why else would you be here?"

Mary Margaret's voice sounded from behind her as she approached Emma. "It's good to see his smile back."

Emma shook her head. "I didn't do anything."

Mary Margaret smiled at her. "You stayed. So. . . does the mayor know you're still here?"

Emma scoffed. "Oh, she knows. What is her deal? She's not a great people person. How did she get elected?"

Mary Margaret shrugged. "She's been mayor as long as I can remember. No one's ever been brave enough to run against her. She inspires quite a bit of . . . well, fear. I'm afraid I only made that worse by giving Henry that book, and now he thinks she's the Evil Queen."

Emma smiled thinly. "Who does he think you are?" She knew exactly who Henry thought she was.

Mary Margaret scoffed. "It's silly . . . " She shook her head.

Emma laughed. "I just got five minutes of silly. Lay it on me."

Mary Margaret smiled sheepishly. "Snow White," she muttered. Emma swallowed dryly as the school bell rang, signaling the beginning of the school day. Henry's book said she was the daughter of Snow White . . . and her inheritance test claimed a woman named Mary Margaret Blanchard was her mother. What in Merlin's name was she supposed to think of all of this?

"Who does he think you are?" Mary Margaret watched Emma as she took a deep breath.

Emma shook her head. "I'm not in the book," she muttered. "Um. . . Can I ask you a favor? Regina mentioned he's in therapy; do you know where I can find his doctor?"

***

Emma knocked on Archie's office door. "Dr. Hopper?"

Archie looked up, startled. "Emma Swan!" he hastily stood, picking up a copy of the newspaper. "I was just, uh, reading about you. Let me guess, you're here for help with a little post-traumatic stress?" He chuckled, setting the paper down. "That diagnosis was free, by the way."

Emma laughed. "No, I'm here about Henry."

Archie looked at her wide eyed. "I'm sorry, I-I I really shouldn't . . ."

Emma sighed. "I know, I'm sorry, I just. . . just tell me something. This fairytale obsession, what's causing it? I mean, he thinks everyone is a character in his book. It's just a little . . . " She fidgeted as she thought about Henry believing Mary Margaret was Snow White, and she sighed. "Crazy."

Archie sighed and fiddled with his glasses. "I-I hope you don't talk that way in front of him. The word 'crazy' is, um . . . quite damaging. These stories-- they're his language. He has no idea how to express complex emotions so he's translating as best he can. This is how he communicates. He's using this book to help deal with his problems," he told her, settling on the edge of his desk.

Emma looked at him confused. "But he got the book a month ago. Has he been seeing you longer than that?"

Archie nodded. "Yes, he has."

Emma scowled angrily. "So it's Regina, isn't it?"

Archie gulped, looking a bit panicked. "Uh-- his mother is a . . . very complicated woman, and uh . . . over the years, her attempts to try and bring Henry closer have only backfired." He moved to a file cabinet and opened it, removing a file. "Why don't you take a look at the file. Um... see what I mean."

Emma looked at him suspiciously. "Why are you doing this?"

Archie shrugged. "Well, he talks about you a lot. You're very important to him."

Emma sighed, taking the file. "Thank you."

Archie nodded. "Just uh. . . see that I get it back, okay?" Emma smiled, and Archie opened the door. She went to walk out when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned back to the physiatrist. "Ms. Swan. Just for the sake of the boy, be careful how you handle his . . . belief system. To destroy his imagination would be . . . would be devastating."

Emma nodded and walked out. Archie closed his door, sat at his desk, picked up his phone and made a call. The other person picked up immediately. "You were right. She was just here."

Regina's cold voice sounded. "Did she take the file?"

Archie sighed. "Yes. H-how did you know she was gonna come here?" He asked.

Archie heard the smirk in Regina's voice as she answered. "Because I'm the one who gave her the idea."

***

Emma returned to her room where Harry, Newt and Queenie were playing a game of Exploding Snap on her bed, and she smiled when Harry yelped and laughed. "How are you feeling kiddo?" she asked as she set her phone and keys on the dresser, bringing Henry's file to the bed and running her hands through his hair.

"Better, Mum. I promise." Harry grinned, and the expression widened when Newt yelped as a card exploded in his hand.

Emma laughed as Newt shook out his hand, ignoring his betrayed look in favor of kissing Harry's head. "Good," she told him as she opened Henry's file.

"What's that, Em?" Newt asked.

Emma sighed and half-heartedly lifted the folder. "Henry's therapy file," she answered.

Harry's smile dropped. "Is he okay?" he asked worriedly.

"That's what I'm trying to find out, bud," she told him.

She was halfway done reading it when the knock at the door came. Queenie went to open it, and she frowned when she saw an unfamiliar man at the door. "Can I help you?" she asked, watching as the man looked around her.

"Is Emma Swan here?" he asked.

"Graham?" Emma asked, frowning and standing when she saw him at the door. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm here about Dr. Archibald Hopper. He mentioned you got into a bit of a row with him earlier?" Graham asked, arms crossed.

Emma frowned. "No? I went there to ask him a question about Henry-"

She was interrupted by Graham. "He says you demanded to see Henry's files and when he refused you came back and stole them." Graham told the four, who all frowned at him.

Emma shook her head. "He gave them to me!" she defended.

Queenie narrowed her eyes and watched as Graham shrugged. "Alas, he's telling a different tale. May I check your room? Or must I get a search warrant?"

Emma held up Henry's file. "This what ya lookin' for?" she asked angrily.

Graham nodded. "Well, you're very accommodating. But, I'm afraid, Ms. Swan, you're under arrest. Again."

"What?" Harry balked, clambering onto his knees as Graham gestured for Emma to turn around. "Mum wouldn't do that! Stop!"

He was stopped from lurching at the sheriff when Newt's arms wound around him, and the deceptively strong magizoologist tugged Harry back to him. "We know that, Harry," he whispered, eyes glacial as he watched Graham fasten the handcuffs onto Emma's wrists.

Emma looked at the sheriff as he took her by the elbow. "You know I'm being set up, don't you?"

Graham looked at her unimpressed. "And whom, may I ask, is setting you up?" he asked as he led her out of the room.

"Uncle Newt!" Harry protested, spinning to look at him with wide eyes. "She can't go back there!"

"She won't stay there, Harry," Newt promised, placing his hands on his nephew's shoulders. "We'll get her out of there, I promise."

Queenie was about to shut the door when footsteps pounded up the stairs, and she frowned and looked out the door to see who reached the second floor. "Sorry," Ruby panted and supported herself by leaning against the wall, her other hand on her hip. "I just saw the sheriff walk Emma out. What happened?"

Queenie narrowed her eyes, her perfectly-manicured nails tapping the doorframe. "I certainly plan on finding out," she answered, then she gave a smile that reminded Ruby of Regina's. "Ruby, would you do me a favor and tell me where I can find the sheriff's station?"

***

Oh, the early days of Emma vs. Regina . . . well, those odds are a little skewered now than they were in canon, don't you think? Big thanks to Miss Singer who, aside from a few finishing touches from me, wrote this entire thing!

So far, it's just been Emma and Regina with her lackeys . . . but Emma has two players of her own who are more than willing to start swinging alongside her! (ain't that the truth? XD ~ Miss Singer <3)

~ Miss Moffat