Storybrooke, 2011

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The rest of their impromptu road trip was spent in silence, with Henry reading his book and the two women lost in their thoughts.

Amy's gaze had been wandering on their surroundings, which were mostly trees, when her eyes caught a sign.

Welcome to Storybrooke

"We're here," said Henry, putting that damned book away.

And then it happened.

There was a shift, a minuscule change, in the depths of her as they passed the sign. Something inside of her clicked into place. Something she hadn't felt in years.

Magic.

But not actual magic; rather, the presence of it. This town was created by magic, and, despite not being able to use it, she could feel it all around her.

"Alright, kid," said Emma. "Where do you live?"

"Just keep driving, I'll tell you where to go."

And that's what they did. That is, until they drove through what Amy thought was the main street. Emma, fed up with everything that's happened and just wanting to go home, asked for an address and Henry, the little devil, said "44 Not-Telling-You Street."

Emma hit the brakes, frustration written all over her face, and exited the car, the other two following suit.

"Look, it's been a long night and it's almost," she looked at the clock, "8.15?"

What?

It was like, 7.40 when they'd started and they'd definitely been driving for over an hour.

"That clock hasn't worked my whole life. Time's frozen here," said Henry.

Ah. Well, that makes sense, she thought.

Emma glanced at Amy and then turned towards Henry with an incredulous look on her face. "Excuse me?"

"The Evil Queen did it with her curse," he explained. "She sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here."

"The Evil Queen sent a bunch of fairytale characters here?" she asked, clearly not believing him.

"Yeah, and now they're trapped."

"Sounds about right," Amy murmured.

She tuned them out, knowing that, at this point, nothing Henry could say or do would convince the oh-so-stubborn Emma Swan that the curse is real.

She took a couple of steps around, watching their surroundings. It was a nice town. Small, quiet; it was, simply put, quaint.

She was lost on her own thoughts when a voice called out Henry's name, asking him what he was doing. Amy turned around and came face to face with a man and his dog, quickly making their way towards them. She narrowed her eyes slightly when she didn't recognize him, shifting through centuries of memories in her mind, trying to place the man and determine whether he was friend or foe.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, as he drew near.

His voice, though, sounded familiar to her.

"I'm fine, Archie."

Archie? Do I know an Archie, she thought.

This Archie turned to Henry's company, smiling politely at them. The two women smiled back, albeit a bit uncomfortable.

"Who are they?"

"We're just trying to give him a ride home," responded Emma, curtly.

But Henry was having none of that, the little shit.

"She's my mom, Archie," he said, nodding towards Emma.

"Oh...I see," he said, though he clearly didn't see if he needed glasses.

Damn, I really need some sleep.

"And you are?" the man asked Amy.

"Oh, I'm her friend. I just didn't want to leave her alone, you know."

He nodded, smiling again.

Emma, looking the most uncomfortable she's ever been tonight, asked, "Do you know where it is?" referring to Henry's home.

Archie gave her directions, directions Amy wasn't particularly interested in knowing as she got lost in her own thoughts -again-, when Emma's question to Henry caught her attention.

"You're the mayor's kid?"

Amy scoffed. Of course she made herself the mayor.

"Maybe," Henry responded, sheepish.

Archie intervened then, "Hey, where were you today, Henry? Cause you missed your session."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you; I went on a fieldtrip," he said, clearly lying though his teeth. Though his little trip to Boston could be classified as a fieldtrip, she supposed.

Archie, clearly catching on his lie, bent down so he could be on Henry's eye-level and talked to him about the importance of not lying.

But what piqued Amy's interest was the overwhelming sense of deja-vu his talk was giving her.

She'd heard the same voice say the exact same thing to someone, she was sure of it. Only, she couldn't remember anything.

The downside of living so many lives and having so many memories, she thought.

"Okay," Emma said suddenly. "We really should be getting him home."

After saying their goodbyes and parting ways, Emma spoke up again. "So, that's your shrink?"

"I'm not crazy."

"I'm not crazy," she said, trying to steady her voice; keep the tears from falling.

A dark laugh behind her, a hand reaching out to shove her on the ground.

"That's what's your mother said, as well," he whispered. "And look at her now."

Amy was brought back to the present by Emma's voice.

Right. Storybrooke, 2011. Bringing Henry home, she thought, orienting herself after the quite realistic flashback she just had.

"Didn't say that," she said, shrugging. "Just...He doesn't seem cursed to me. Maybe he's just trying to help you."

"He's the one who needs help; because he doesn't know."

That launched the two into yet another debate in the middle of the road, making Amy wish she'd brought a warmer jacket. She entered the car, leaving them to their bickering.

"Jimminy Cricket," she heard Henry say as he got in the car and that almost made her hit her head against the windshield because of how stupid she was.

Of course. That's why he sounded familiar, even though she didn't recognize his face; she'd only ever seen him in his cricket form.

"I'm not Pinocchio," Henry said, responding to something Emma had said that she'd missed.

"Of course you're not," both the women said simultaneously. Emma, because she didn't believe Pinocchio was real, much less that it was the boy sitting in the backseat of her car. Amy, on the other hand, because she'd met Pinocchio. More times than she'd like.

Emma started driving again and Amy tried not to think about their destination. She would worry about that problem when it presented itself and not a second before.

Except the problem seemed to approach her much quicker than she'd like, as they stopped in front of what she could only assume was the mayor's -her- mansion.

Dread and, as much as she didn't want to admit it, anticipation settled in every fiber of her being as she exited the car with slow and deliberate moves, trying to delay the inevitable.

Her steps were slow, much slower than usual, as her mind did its hourly dose of overthinking about what could, and probably will, go wrong tonight. Of all the people she could encounter, besides Regina. For all she knew, he was there as well, and she was even less prepared for that reunion.

Henry was begging them to not bring him back there and for them to stay for awhile but, as Emma talked to him to try and calm him down, the door of the mansion opened, and with it the floodgates of emotions Amy had tried to keep at bay all evening.
Fear, hope, anxiousness, anger, nostalgia, love.

That last one scared the shit out of her. How could this woman, who she hadn't seen in almost thirty years, still have command over her heart?

Amy hated this.

Amy loved it.

She stood there, frozen, as she saw her make her way towards Henry. She hadn't changed much. Her hair was shorter, yes, and she was dressed in a way befitting this world, but other than that she was the same woman that watched her go all those years ago.

"Henry! What happened? Are you okay? Where have you been?"

That voice...

She had missed that voice and she never wanted to hear it again and she hoped - oh.

Brown eyes met blue eyes and the world stopped turning, time stopped passing and Amy stopped breathing.

Oh, how she'd missed those eyes, even though this isn't the first time she's seen them since the Enchanted Forest. Oh no, they have haunted her dreams and nightmares for years and years.

But no dream can compare to the reality of having her right there, looking like the most beautiful, maddening, haunting woman on any world, any realm.

Amy was snapped back to focus when Henry told Regina, "I found my real mom!"

Ouch...

Regina's gaze moved from her to Henry's running form and then to Emma, who was smiling, a bit mortified.

"You're Henry's birth mother?"

"Hi," Emma said, weakly.

This was all Rumple's fault, somehow. She just knew it.

"I'll just...Go check on the lad, make sure he's alright," said a voice behind Regina, and that's when she noticed him.

The hunter. Or, the sheriff, apparently.

Regina turned her gaze on Amy once more, face scrunched up in confusion, and then a calculating look on her eyes.

Oh shit. This can't be good, she thought.

"How would you like a glass of the best apple cider you've ever tasted?" she asked, tearing her eyes from her to speak to Emma.

Amy scoffed and turned to her friend. "I wouldn't drink that, if I were you. Might find anything poisonous." She turned to leave and then called out, "I'll wait for you in the car."

A hand shot out to stop her from going any further. She hated just how much that little touch affected her. "Wait," she said, so quiet Amy almost missed it.

She waited.

"Just one drink. I promise there were no venomous substances used; just apples."

Amy turned to face her, amusement, and something closely resembling resent, written all over her. "Same thing."

They were so close now, closer than they'd ever been for decades. Amy's eyes were starving for so long, and finally their hunger was satisfied. She studied Regina's features shamelessly, knowing that the woman in front of her was doing the same. Their eyes roamed over each other, taking in details, reconciling the people they were thirty years ago to the ones they have become.

They stayed like that, Regina's hand on Amy's arm, close and inching closer by the second, until Emma's cough snapped them out of their trance.

Amy withdrew her arm, and Regina took several steps back, both clearly taking in deep breaths. Emma shot her a look of curiosity but Amy just shook her head.

She didn't want to think about it.

"Got anything stronger than apple cider?" she asked, her voice higher than usual, needing something to calm her nerves.

Regina just nodded and the three women walked back towards the house.

It was a nice house, she had to admit. Regina sure had taste.

As Regina went to another room to retrieve some glasses, Emma started her interrogation.

"What the hell was that?"

She sighed, knowing she'd have to tell her at least a part of the truth to explain all of...this.

"We haven't seen each other in a long time. I guess...we got caught up."

Emma just raised an eyebrow. Either in question, or judgement, she didn't know. Probably both.

"When you said you knew her, I didn't think it meant you were in love with her."

"I am not-" she started but then lowered her voice, "I am not in love with her."

Emma's eyebrow rose even higher. "But you used to be," she said, matter-of-factly.

Amy's silence and refusal to meet her eyes was all the answer she needed.

Just then Regina entered, three glasses in her hands, and went to pour their drinks.

"How did he find me?" Emma asked her.

Regina just shook her head. "No idea. When I adopted him, he was only three weeks old. Records were sealed; I was told the birth mother didn't wanna have any contact."

"You were told right."

Amy was silently observing them, torn between wishing to leave and wanting to stay.

"And the father?"

This can't be real.

She let out a noise of disbelief, blinking rapidly as if the boy standing in her front door, soaking wet and shivering, is an illusion, a trick, a simple hallucination from her lack of sleep.

How could he have ended up here, of all places?

"Baelfire?"

Emma's voice brought her back once more. "There was one," she said.

She wiped the lone, single tear that had fallen before Emma could see it.

"Do I need to be worried about him?"

Emma hesitated, glancing at her before she answered. "No. He doesn't even know."

Regina came over with their drinks and handed one to each of them. "Do I need to be worried about you, Miss Swan?"

"Absolutely not."

Regina then turned to her, presumably to ask her the same question. But then her eyes softened, an imperceptible change to everyone but her, and she took a small step closer to her. "Am I to believe this is a simple coincidence?" she asked quietly so the other woman wouldn't hear.

But from the look on Emma's face, she didn't miss it.

Amy just nodded, feeling too much and not much at all, as she thought big everything that led her to this moment.

Was it, though? Just a coincidence?

The rest of their visit at the mayor's house was a blur. She wanted to make the most of it, because she didn't know when would be the next time she'd see Regina, but she was so exhausted, more mentally than physically, that she just couldn't find it in her to care.

And then they were leaving.

And once again she didn't know what she was feeling.

The drive was silent for the most part, both women lost in thought. It wasn't until Emma noticed from the rear view mirror that Henry had left his book in the car, the things went sideways.

She turned back, for only a second, to look at the book. But that second was enough.

"EMMA WATCH OUT," she screamed at her friend when she saw a giant wolf in the middle of the road.

Emma turned to face the road and once her mind had registered what happened, she swerved the car hard in order to avoid hitting the animal. What she didn't account for, however, was the fucking town sign on which they crashed.

The last thing Amy saw was Emma'a unmoving form before her eyes closed as well and darkness enveloped her.