Everything Has Changed

Chapter 10 - She's Everything

"Ready for what?"

"To believe in magic..."

He looked down at their adjoined hands and back up into her eyes. The pulse from their initial contact was wearing off. But he could still feel the magic. He could see it burning in her soul when he looked into her eyes.

"Regina, do you know what you are saying? What you are choosing to believe in?"

"I'm choosing to trust you, and believe in you. I'm choosing to believe everything. I think magic may have caused the clock tower to start moving again."

"You think that was magic? Regina, there is no magic here. Come on. We need the book." He dropped her hand and started to move towards the path.

"I hid it. Somewhere that Leo can't find it. I don't want to risk having it out in the open again."

"But you read it?"

"I did. Though at the time I believed I was just reading fairytales."

"Fairytales aren't real."

"That's exactly what Mary Margaret said, but how can that be true? If I can believe in magic, why can't I believe in fairytales?"

"What is a fairytale Regina?"

"A story. Once upon a time...happily ever after... that's a fairytale."

Robin sighed and ran a hand over his scruff. "You didn't finish the book did you?"

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Both of them were getting rather worked up, and their voices were beginning to rise.

"Because if you'd read it you wouldn't have called them fairytales!"

"And why not?"

"Because there is no happily ever after!"

Regina gasped, and her voice softened. "What?"

Robin moved away from her again, when he noticed how they had subconsciously gravitated together when they were yelling. "There is no happily ever after in that story, because that story is not over." He looked up and met her eyes again. The fire was still burning in them, somehow even stronger than before. "You said you were going to believe in magic. Are you going to believe in the book as well?"

"I think I have too. The book showed up because of magic. There is magic here in Storybrooke Robin. I can feel it." As she spoke the power in her eyes seemed to grow. It reacted as though the stronger Regina believed everything was true, the stronger she became. Magic was brewing in Storybrooke; Robin was watching it with his own eyes. And he smiled.

"Well then Your Majesty, let's go find it."

Mr. Gold had watched the queen take off from the diner and head towards the woods from the window of his shop. She ran from the diner in a way that made him think only one thing. She had started to believe.

When her car passed his shop he knew for certain, it was only a matter of time until Cora realized what had happened. Regina believed. She believed in the book, she believed in magic, and most of all she believed in herself. He could feel the magic radiating from her as she drove by. It was tangible, and strong. The power that Cora had felt before she was born was finally starting to show itself, and when it came in full force, he doubted even he would be strong enough to stop "The Fairest of Them All."

He refocused his attention on the task before him, but it wasn't long until he was distracted again. He felt her before he saw her, but when he looked up and out the window he saw her drive by with the forest ranger. Gold laughed to himself, what a funny pair the queen and the outlaw made.