Chapter 5: Arrangements
You should never have to burry a child.
That had been something that had really resonated with Regina since she lost Henry. It was a different sort of pain than what she felt when she lost Daniel, yet similar.
The same feelings of hopelessness was there, but somehow unlike with Daniel's this seemed greater. More unreal. It shouldn't have been. She saw Henry's little body. She held his hand long after it lost the warmth of life; she saw he was now a pale color of white instead of a rosy shade of peach.
This was not her boy.
Or the Henry she remembered. And unlike Daniel, where she felt sudden instant rage. The rage she felt over Henry's death had been sort of a slow burn. And the sad truth of the thatmatter was she had expected her mother to do something like this.
Perhaps, that's why she had been so rational with Cora earlier in the day. Where in the olden days she would've just found some alternative way to kill her.
The squid ink was quite brilliant.
Regina would kill her eventually. But let her squirm and let her hear the drunk elf blast out the latest Carrie Underwood hit from his jail cell.
Or at least that's what he had been singing when Snow White had been framed the other year.
Man, did Regina like those days.
But enough reminiscing for now, Regina had other fish to fry. Of the Charming variety
And she didn't exactly want to be showy about this. Because it was not the Enchanted Forest. And even though she technically could give a rat's ass of what Emma Swan thought about her, Regina wanted to make sure she could execute her plans without any interference.
She would not be stopped by the Savior.
Snow and Charming needed to pay.
And she wanted it to be in such a way that no one could know. No one could help them. Where Regina's hands would be completely clean. She wanted her revenge to be like something Gold would do.
Which was more than a little difficult for Regina.
Being logical in her rages just didn't suit her, but something about having the one speck of hope last onto her life for so many years destroyed made her rage even numb.
Things just seemed have an odd since of clarity that emerged after Henry's death. Like Regina spotted Cora, she just knew.
Her mother's reaction after Regina threw her pitiful heart back into her body sort of flummoxed Regina. There was actually emotion there that Regina had never seen before. A part of her wanted to reach out. Then she thought of Henry.
Still, though, her mother's anguish about her brother almost had Regina asking some questions. But she didn't want to deal with Cora, didn't want to talk to her. She had the Charmings to deal with.
Kicking her son out because he was gay.
Seriously?
Regina really could care less about what her son's sexuality was. It didn't freaking matter. She just wanted him back. And she couldn't believe that Snow of all people had kicked him out because of it.
Or maybe she could.
Maybe she could.
Snow White had always been so quick to judge. So quick to condemn. Grant it, Regina had probably not been the best influence. But really she didn't consider herself much of an influence at all with the bloody princess. She had tried to keep her distance when Leopold was alive, even getting the king to send the princess to some sort of finishing school. And then once he died, well, Regina started her efforts of trying to kill Snow.
So, if anyone was at fault over the close mindedness of the woman, it was probably the nuns or whoever ran that boarding school.
Maybe even the fairies.
God, she hated those pesky bugs. Would you call them bugs? They acted like them, just annoying gnats.
It was odd. She might've been studying magic for almost twenty years, but she didn't begin to understand those things. She knew the Enchanted Forest almost viewed them as dignities of sorts.
Sad dignities because whoever heard of you worshipers demanding things from you. If it was Regina who was in charge of them, she'd make sure they knew why to worship her.
Add to the fact that even though the curse was broken that the fairies still acted lie nuns and residents celebrated things like All Wishes Day, Regina was pretty sure the fairies were running some sort of cult.
Her one encounter with fairies, told her enough not to trust them.
Seriously, she had a second chance at true love?
Please.
There was only one Daniel, and she did not have a thing for men with body art. It showed that they just didn't think about the consequences of how said body art would look twenty years later. That right there, showed a lack of responsibility.
Regina sighed, as frustrated as she was about fairy lore, it had nothing to do of her frustration with Snow White.
But yet, she found as prepared her revenge on the woman. She couldn't kill her.
She was Henry's grandmother. And as much as she it pained her, that one fact kept her from crushing the woman's heart.
But that didn't mean she didn't get rid of her.
Regina was still trying to rationalize the entire thing for herself.
She had actually succeeded.
She had gotten rid of Snow White. Sent her and her heart to another realm, God knows where too, it had all been random—most realm travel was. And quite honestly, Regina did not care.
Since realm travel was next to impossible, she doubted that there would be any consequences. Save for explaining Snow's absence. That was going to be difficult. Add the fact, that she currently had David Nolan unconscious and in her vault as she attempted to figure out what she was going to do with him.
She had thought about killing him, but that was out of the picture. Because it would be difficult explaining two missing Charmings, and of course because of Henry.
God, in a lot of ways the prince looked so much like Henry. The same high cheekbones. The stubborn look on his face, but unlike Henry the prince had been so stubborn and weak.
Henry was never weak.
She shook her head at what she was doing. She could take the easier route. She could just kill him.
It would be totally justified.
Well, as the Evil Queen it would be justified.
But again, her son. So, this would be the way she would do it. Like with the Prince's blasted wife, she wouldn't kill him. Instead, she'd leave him to a grislier faith.
Honestly, it was worse for her than it was for him.
Waving her hand she poofed his body back to his house, she'd deal with him later. He would wake up-eventually. And she'd be there soon enough.
She sighed heavily as she took out a vile form her desk. It was the one way she could make sure that no one even questioned where Snow White was gone and eventually provide closure for Emma Swan
Personally she could care less about how Emma felt. But she wanted to cover her tracks. For once, Regina didn't want anyone getting in her way of revenge. She wasn't going to let this be showy it was going to be done quietly and effectively.
Which was why she smirked as her appearance slowly took on that of the banished princess. She didn't blanch as she felt the pain of her limbs shrinking, her features contorting themselves, to fit Snow White. Instead, she sighed. It was done.
For now, she would not be Regina the Evil Queen. She would be Mary Margret—the town' s golden girl. At least long enough, to get what needed to be done, done.
Yet, even though she was fully comfortable in her new skin, Regina couldn't help but hate being in the body of her enemy. Especially after she had changed into the Snow White appropriate clothing that she had brought from the woman's house—so dowdy.
She wanted to break the mirror when she saw her new semi-permanent reflection. But instead, she sighed as she waved a hand testing to see if she still had her magic.
She didn't.
It had worked perfectly. A part of her felt helpless, but she could do it. For Henry.
Still though she couldn't but feel her hands shake. What if somehow she became trapped as Snow White? Sure, she brewed the antidote, but—
It would be fine. She told herself. You planned ahead.
Well, enough.
She had planned ahead enough. And she needed to do this. If she didn't make sure that Mary Margret made a point of leaving town, then her plan wasn't going to succeed. Emma would get suspicious and demand to find her mother. And then Charming would get suspicious too and probably try to find his true love and that just didn't need to happen.
She wanted no one in this blasted town to be the wiser.
She wanted to get her way for once, with no so called heroes stopping her. Which why this wasn't going to be showy.
Besides, the antidote would be safe, Regina told herself. This was after all, her vault. The safest place in town. She could relinquish being the Evil Queen for a few days if it meant setting things right.
After she had gotten over her initial fears, she walked with precision towards the sheriff's office. She might as well start getting the ball rolling on this.
Emma was sitting there doing paperwork and groaned when she saw Regina—err, Snow.
At first Regina bit (or should she say) Mary Margret's lip since she always greeted her in such a fashion, but then she heard Emma say. "I can't really deal with this now, Mother."
"But you just lost a child, Emma." Regina said sort of surprised that she sounded exactly like Snow White (she really shouldn't have been).
It was also the first time she had called Swan by her first name, it felt just plain odd.
Emma sighed. "So, you know?"
"Regina." Regina said starting the lie that would explain her absence.
Emma raised her eyebrow. "If you want me saving your tail, forget it. At this point, the only part of me that is keeping from cheering Regina feeding you her tainted pastries is that I'm the sheriff."
This might've been easier than Regina thought it would be. Perhaps, she could take the antidote tonight.
It would be nice getting out of this body. The longer she was in it, the more Regina wanted to give Snow White a makeover.
Scary thought.
That hair though.
Oy vey.
And she couldn't exactly get out it right away because she still had to get rid of Snow's true love.
Vomit.
"Emma."
"What?" The Sherriff said.
"She left town."
Now Emma looked really confused, "What?"
"Regina left town." Regina said. "She told me, she needed to get away from all of this for awhile. I think, well, given the way she was acting it was for the best."
"But the funeral's not till Tuesday." Emma said.
"She said all the arrangements have been made, and she's already said her goodbyes." Regina said, "I think, I think she wanted to honor Henry's memory by not doing anything."
Emma bit her lip. "Well, good for her. But I don't think that means she forgives you. Neither do I."
"And I don't expect you to." Regina said, "I…I need to think things through, Emma."
"Do you?" Emma said.
"Yes," Regina said. "I…I made some mistakes."
"You think." Emma said with a sigh. "I just…look, Henry was my kid. He died in part because of this."
"He died because of Cora." Regina heard herself saying, "And Peter Pan."
"What?" Emma asked.
Then Regina repeated what the pirate had told her in that blasted hotel room. And Emma's eyes got really narrow. "I have her locked up in a cell right now. Oh, are we going to have a little chat."
"She needs to be charged with murder, Emma." Regina said.
Emma nodded and looked at Regina. "This doesn't mean, I forgive you, Mary Margret."
"I know."
Emma then turned away and walked towards the interrogation room to talk to Cora. Regina sighed and took a deep breath. She had gotten through her first conversation as Mary Margret. Now she just had to get through a few more days, to convince everyone that Mary Margret would willingly leave town and leave her true love.
She could do this.
She hoped.
Now all she had to do was wake her Prince Charming and that was something Regina did NOT look forward to.