Dreaming Out Loud

Flaws

Chapter 164: Flaws

After leaving the Inn and threatening Owen, or Greg Mendell, as he was now calling himself, Regina sat despondently in her car, across from the diner. She knew it would only cause her pain and sure enough, it did, as she watched him come out of the diner with his family, beaming from ear to ear. She still couldn't believe it. Rumpelstiltskin's son and Snow White's daughter were the birth parents of her precious Henry. Fate certainly did have a sadistic sense of humor. She longed for the days before the curse was broken, before David Nolan was awake and Mary Margaret was a lonely, miserable wallflower, and before Emma Swan. Before all that, there had been a time where she and Henry were very happy; a time when she was all he ever needed. But those times were gone and she had been brainstorming on ways to get them back. However, Jefferson had been right about what he told her just a few months ago. The changes that Emma had brought couldn't just be undone. There was no putting back this open can of worms now, no matter how much she wished it.

Earlier that day, she had gone through her mother's things and found a written curse tucked away in one of her gowns. She knew her mother had meant for her to find this particular curse. It was the curse of the empty-hearted. In theory, it had the power to make someone think they loved you. She had instantly thought about using it on Henry, but the price was that she needed the heart of the person she hated most. It was brilliant, theoretically and exactly the thing her mother would leave her. If enacted, this curse would give her Henry and get her vengeance on Snow. But it was an impossible feat. Getting Snow's blood had been difficult enough and that had been with Hermes' help. Her heart...that was a different story entirely. While Persephone could not protect Snow twenty-four hours a day, she was on extra high alert with Hades in town. Which meant that it was likely that she had placed all kinds of protection spells on and around her daughter and family, ones they might not even been aware of. And with protection spells naturally came the one that prevented a heart rip. Regina's magic was powerful, but knew it was really no match for Persephone's.

"Thank you Mother...but unfortunately, it isn't meant to be," she muttered sadly, as she watched the dwarves drive up in David's truck. They got out and tossed the keys to the Prince, before heading into the diner with the former giant. That was odd, indeed, and she wondered what it was all about.

Curiously, she got out of her car once they left and using her magic, she enchanted the road to show her the tire tracks. With that, Regina followed them out into the outskirts of town and found that they ended in an empty field. She got out of the car and found a barrier spell was in place and not one that was strong enough to be Persephone's. In fact, if she had to guess, it was probably a fairy spell. She waved her hand and revealed what the field was hiding. She was shocked to see a full crop of beans...magic beans. She pursed her lips and confiscated a pod that had two beans in it. Perhaps getting revenge on Snow wasn't possible, but maybe getting Henry back could be with these beans...

Henry bounded into the loft, as they arrived home that evening. Neal was with them, as Emma had agreed to allow him to come tuck Henry in.

"Thanks for letting me come...I know this all still pretty weird," he mentioned. She shrugged.

"You're Henry's dad and he loves you. I only want him to be happy," she replied.

"Hey Gramps...if we're not going back to the Enchanted Forest, then why is Tiny and the dwarves growing the beans?" Henry asked curiously.

"Well...Tiny offered to grow them for us and while we may have decided that Storybrooke is our home now, we also decided that as leaders, it's only right that we offer others a way to leave if they want to," David explained.

"Yeah...and since leaving Storybrooke for others requires spells that aren't easy to replicate, we decided that we could offer this choice instead," Snow added.