Chapter Text
Chapter One
Watching The World Fall
Past
He interlaces the fingers of his hand with hers, wrapping his other arm around her waist and pulling her in closely towards him. Their bodies squished together, they can feel the warmth of the other even through the barrier of clothes. He stares deeply into her beautiful eyes as she blinks up at him. “I love you,” he whispers into her ear, even though they’re alone in the kitchen of their great house. Henry's at school, so they're the only ones there.
She smiles that beautiful grin of lush lips and sparkling-white teeth that makes him melt every time. “I love you, too. Almost as much as I love our son,” she teases him playfully.
“Of course. I love you almost as much as I love Henry.” Regina lays her head down softly on his shoulder and closes her eyes as he rests his chin atop of her, the tips of his fingers gently trailing up and down her back soothingly. “This is it,” he finally concludes.
“What is it?” she asks.
“This," he repeats. "This life. . . my life. I have everything I could ever want: I’m married to my true-love, I have the perfect son, I have a job I love, I live a beautiful house in a town that I love. I have it all. A perfect life.”
She leans her head back off of his shoulder and looks at him lovingly. She offers him her sweet smile again, before meeting their lips together in a kiss.
Present
David Nolan blinks and sucks in a sharp breath that bites at his lungs. The Enchanted Forest, Snow White, his kingdom, the shepherd, the farm, the wars, the Evil Queen’s curse, Emma. . . . he remembers everything. Everything that, for the past 28 years, he’d forgotten had existed; everything that, only a few days before, he would’ve thought were nothing more than the make-believe fairytale stories of a very creative kid.
The life that had been replaced in his mind by a new life. A new existence that had been given to him by a curse.
The curse. . . it’s been lifted, and he remembers it all.
He shudders as, at the same time, he recalls the past 28 years of his life as memories of those years flash through his mind: everything from his coma, marrying the mayor, owning the pet store, adopting their son. . . to the soccer games on the weekends, date nights on Thursdays, teacher's meetings and late nights at town hall with his wife. None of it was real, was it? It was a lie. At one time, he’d been so sure he had found true happiness, true love, and now it was all crashing down around him like a deck of cards.
His life with her. . . Regina. . .
“The Evil Queen,” he whispers to himself, the idea being so foreign to him. The words feel unreal coming from his lips. Was any of it real? Was the love real?
He looks around and finds himself standing in the middle of the street, the people all around him looking just as confused as he presumes he did a few moments ago. He looks at the puzzled expressions painted over their faces; earlier that day, he would’ve recognized them as fellow residents of the quaint town in Maine that they all called home, Storybrooke. Some of them he knew well as friends, neighbors and coworkers. Others he had just seen around town.
Now, however, he sees who they really are, or were rather: the people of the Enchanted Forest. Some of them were even members of his very own court, while several he doesn't know. All brought together by a curse.
David turns and passes all of them, his speed gradually increasing as he runs towards his truck, which is parked right where he left it. He’d been at a stop light when that foggy, purple smoke had taken over Storybrooke, and it was there that it still remained, the driver's door still flung open from when he'd fled onto the street. He closes it quickly and starts it back up again with urgency.
He needed to find her. His wife. He needed answers.
Regina Mills’s dark brown eyes gaze out over her crisp, velvet front lawn from in between the white curtains of her living room window. The countenance depicted across her beautiful face is a somber one. Her arms are crossed, and her eyes are filled with a agonizing sadness.
Not ten minutes ago, her dark curse had been broken. Emma Swan, the Savior, had finally fulfilled the prophecy and freed everyone Regina had put under a curse for 28 years. It felt like it had been ages since that day, the day she had cast the curse, but that didn't matter now. Now they would all remember who they were, and what she’d done. The world she had created, the life she had carefully and meticulously designed for herself, was now shattered.
It was all over.
But none of that is what was saddening her at that moment. It was the two people she’d loved most who were at the forefront of her mind. The two people who’d she’d lied to for 28 years. The two people she’d betrayed. The two people who’d she’d hurt most.
The two people who, 28 years ago, she would’ve never thought she would have to love: her son and her husband. Henry and David.
They were the most important things to her in her life, and with the curse now broken, she realizes she had effectively lost them both. They'd never forgive her for this.
Her eyes drift downwards towards a framed picture of the three of them that rests on a table in front of her, underneath the window. She picks it up and looks at the faces smiling up at her. They were never apart of the plan. . . this was never apart of the plan. Take Snow White’s happiness away from her forever, that had been the goal of her curse. That had been the purpose for all of this. Adopting a son and finding a husband had not.
Oddly enough, it was the two things she hadn’t planned on having that she was now convinced she would never be able to live without.
She brushes a finger lovingly over their cheeks and smiles down at them, but the smooth glass of the picture is a poor substitute to the warmness of their actual cheeks. Regina sets the picture back down and looks once more at the lawn.
She knows they’re coming for her. The residents of Storybrooke, the people of the Enchanted Forest who she’d trapped in this land for over two decades; she knew they would be coming for her. They were probably only a few miles away from her house at that very moment, marching towards her with a wrath and fury that had been secretly building up inside of them all these years without any of them knowing it.
Regina could’ve ran. She could’ve escaped to her vault, or some other hidden retreat in town where she’d be safe until she could figure out how to regain her magic. But she doesn’t. She won’t, for running means that she has something to preserve. To protect.
And she’s already lost the only two things she cares about.
She can hear the backdoor unlock and someone’s footsteps enter into the kitchen. Regina turns towards the door that leads into the kitchen. They’re sooner than I thought, she thinks to herself as she walks towards the room. Might as well face them now.
Before she reaches the door, however, it opens and she’s surprised to see, instead of an angry mob, her husband standing in the doorway.
“David,” she whispers with surprise and wide-eyes, before adding, “I’m so sorry for everything.”
“Save it, Regina. We don’t have much time. I passed by a mob led by Dr. Whale on my way here. It’s headed for you, and they’ll be here any moment.”
“What are you doing here, then? I can’t imagine you want to see me now. Why not leave to the wolves for what I've done to you?”
“I'm here to get you out of here before they show up. We need to go, now.”
"Why? Why not leave me to the wolves for what I've done to you and everyone else?"
"Because you're still my wife and I'm not going to let that happen." Regina knows her husband, and she is well acquainted with his determination. He won’t budge.
She nods. “Alright.”
Leaving behind everything, she follows him through the kitchen and to the back of the house, where his truck is parked outside their garage. It's still running, ready for their escape.
“Where are we going? They’ll find me eventually.”
“Maybe, but not today. We’re going somewhere safe.”