Shaya

Chapter 7 - A new mission

Morning came soon, too soon for Emma. She was absurdly tired. She made the second guard duty, and then slept all night, but she felt as if a truck had passed over her, twice. Henry was still sleeping, cornered by Regina's arms. She looked so possessive... but he was smiling in his sleep, so it was fine. Regina didn't look so peaceful instead. She looked worried. And a bit angry. But maybe it was just an impression.

Emma stood up and passed a hand over her face and through her hair. Snow greeted her with a wide, warm smile that made her heart slow down in a reassuring, slow beat. She smiled back at her and joined her in front of the caldron, where she was cooking something that no way could look as a breakfast.
" 'Morning." Emma murmured. Snow passed a hand through her hair and kissed her forehead. Emma blushed. " W-what the hell is this?"
Snow smiled again, pleased and amused. " Soup. We'll need energy."
" Da fuck! Soup for breakfast. What for lunch? A deer?"
" There are no deers here, Em. Dry meat, I guess."
Emma shook her head with a sad smile. " What an awful world. No coffee. It's horrible."
Snow White stifled a laughter just because the rest of the group was still sleeping. She was beginning to say something when soft, known laughs came from the entrance of the cave. Gold and Rapunzel walked inside.
" Good morning my beloved guests!" the warrior said with a complex kneeling that made Snow White double up with laughter. She woke up everyone. Even Gold was slightly laughing.
He and Rapunzel seemed in harmony, somehow. Emma suddenly became extremely curious.
" How do you know each other?"
They locked gaze for a second, then Gold waved his hand in the air, inviting Rapunzel to speak. " He helped me to escape from the tower where I was locked in, and I gave him the promise that I would have done whatever he'd asked me in the future. So... here I am. " She gave her a tiny smile. But Emma wasn't satisfied yet.
" And what did he ask you?"
She noticed the smirk on Gold's face.
" You." he answered instead of her. Emma jumped. " As I did with you, dearie." He sneered at Snow, who suddenly blushed and looked down.
" You asked only for her name." Came the strong voice of Charming. Everyone looked at him.
" And that's all I need. " Rumplestilskin smiled again to a confused Emma.
" He asked me to save Snow White." Rapunzel intervened. She looked worried by something that only she seemed to know.
" That's not what I asked you, dearie."
" But that's what you wanted."
He burst into laughter. " Yes!"
" So why making me become...me?" Regina's deep voice came from behind Rapunzel. The warrior faltered and moved. Her breath was accelerated, and it seemed fear. Fear. Rapunzel. Emma was so confused that she felt stupid and a little beyond alarmed.
" Interests I no more keep." he sneered. Regina had that look. The one that said " I'll kill you in the painfullest way possible".
" Oh sure, you now found love and don't keep your perverse interests anymore..."
" You found what?" Rapunzel asked, evidently shocked by the revelation.
" He found his new doll to play with..." Regina replied with a devilish smile, giving rise to Rumplestiltskin's anger.
" Don't ever try to speak about Belle in tha..."
" Ok guys, stop!" Emma decided that it was enough. They were trapped in Neverland and Greg, Tamara and the Lost Boys were looking for them to take her son. No time for fighting like kids. " We don't have time for this! We need the beans! "
" Finally a pragmatic woman!" Hook exclaimed, appearing at Emma's side. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she immediately took it off.
" Why the hell are you telling this to me? I have the right to know! Why do you all always blame me for everything?"
Rapunzel sneered. " Everybody knows that Rumplestiltskin's untrustworthy and a crazy irresponsible, so someone else has to take the responsibility." she answered before anyone else could do it.
Regina paralyzed, but Rumple laughed hard. He tapped twice on Rapunzel's shoulder while walking away towards the beds. He sat on one of them, two away from Henry, who was still laying half-asleep, and eyed them from there.
" Anyway, I can easily find the two weasels. If you have the patience to wait here, I'll bring them to you."
Emma turned to look at Rapunzel. " Are you crazy? Tamara has a gun!"
Rapunzel grinned. " I have magic."
Emma saw Regina hide a smile.
Snow intervened. " Rapunzel Emma's right: you can't go alone. We, no, I won't let you risk your life again for us! We'll come with you. "
Emma didn't realized it yet. Rapunzel had saved her mother's life before Graham did, as far as she knew. She would never be born if she didn't. Rapunzel had challenged Regina, no, the Evil Queen, the woman she loved, to save an extraneous. And she could have killed her. But still, the weird thing was that she was still alive. Why didn't Regina kill her? She didn't kill Graham neither, true, but she did take his heart. She felt bad remembering him, and Neal's memory came a second later, making her feel even worse. She eyed Henry, wondering how could he have felt, alone in Neverland with Greg and Tamara, knowing that his father was dead and that probably they would never find him. She hugged herself a second before David did, as if he could read her thoughts. She jumped for the surprise, but Mary Margaret smiled at her, and the now usual warmth calmed down her hearth. Rapunzel had said that he had always known that they would have come to save him. He was a brave, strong boy. Probably she should thank Regina for this, because she felt all but brave in those days, while the other woman looked like a tiger in cage on the ship.
"...but I must agree with Snow White. I owe you my son's life, I won't let you die." the woman in question was saying. Rapunzel stayed silent for a while. She wasn't crying or nothing, but something in her face and in her posture told her that she was moved. And conflicted.
" It would be safer for you all to stay here. I well know this land and..."
" I know it too, Lady! And none should ever stay alone around here."
Emma had never seen Hook so serious.
" Aye, but Henry should stay here, so that Pan won't find him. And he will need someone to take care of him, to protect him, just in case someone more powerful than me reaches this place..."
" I'll protect him." Rumplestiltskin walked in. Emma and Regina looked at him as if he had just said the stupidest thing in all the worlds.
" I won't let my son in the Dark One's hands again. " Regina spat. Emma stayed silent for a while. She was watching Henry. He noticed.
" You're the Savior. Save us. " he simply said. Logical.
" Henry, I won't let you again..."
" But I'm safe here, and I couldn't be safer than under Rumplestiltskin's protection!" They locked gaze for a while. He looked so confident. " I don't want you to go, but you have to." he added after a bit.
Emma's eyes filled with tears. She went closer to her son and hugged him tight. After a while she glanced at Regina: she looked sad, as she thought. Emma moved a little at that sight and forced herself to stretch an arm, inviting the other woman, the woman who raised her son while she couldn't, she remembered to herself, to join the hug. Regina's dark eyes opened wide: she was kind of shocked. Emma tried to smile to reassure her, because she probably would have had the same reaction if she was her. Regina hesitated yet, too surprised to manage to move. Then she made a little step, then another, and finally she hugged them both, hanging to them as they were the last piece of rope before the abyss. " Thank you." she murmured on Emma's ear with broken voice.
They broke the hug after a minute. Emma was a little embarrassed, but totally happy. Henry looked like the happiest kid in the world. Well, in any world. Regina's eyes were wet, and a hint of smile didn't seem to want to go away from her lips. A thought crossed Emma's mind, and she gazed at Rapunzel. She was all eyes on Regina it seemed, but when Emma looked at her, she looked back at her and gave her a thankful smile. Emma glanced down, embarrassed again. A warm hand, Mary Margaret's one, caressed her shoulder. She gazed at her mother, and her proud smile made her happy.

Emma, David, Rapunzel, Regina, Hook and she. Snow watched the little group walk silently before her. If someone had asked her just a week before, she could have never said that that would have been her "team". Mostly because of Regina's presence. And Rapunzel's. She really couldn't understand how she was still alive. That woman was a badass with a strange bent for kindness and friendship and sacrifice, but she was still breathing. A complete mystery.
David interrupted her thoughts taking her hand. She briefly smiled at him.
" What were you thinking about? Your forehead was a mountain chain."
Snow couldn't help but laugh.
" I'm kinda obsessed with Rapunzel's way of thinking. And surviving. "
David hid a smile. " I'm curious too. You never talked to me about her!"
" Are you jealous?"
He smiled again, but with malice. " Should I?"
She slapped him on his arm. " Stupid! "
They laughed together. In spite of the situation, despite the danger and the worrying, she felt happy.

The two idio...Snow and David were laughing so happily behind her that Regina almost felt her right hand in flames. The anger grew wild in a second in her chest. Nasty habits are hard to break. She forced herself to keep calm. But, no, she had to tell them.
" I'm pretty sure that Widow Lucas can hear you laughing from Storybrooke. Moreover, I truly can't understand what you can find funny in this situation. Mine and your daughter's son is still in danger! It seems that even the Dark One has realized it. Thing that I evidently can't say about you, Charmings. "
The silence ruled for a few moments. Everyone had stopped walking.
" You're right. We've been stupid. " Snow finally said with an embarrassed smile.
" Yes, it's true." Charming said after a brief moment of hesitation. Regina wasn't prepared for their agreement, she was expecting something different. She pretended a satisfied face and turned to walk again, but Emma's face, at her side, blocked her. She looked totally astonished.
" Something wrong, Miss Swan?"
Emma opened her mouth, began to say something, but then closed her jaw. Two seconds of silence later she smiled widely. " Nothing. Let's go!" she exclaimed before walking fast before her, causing her eyebrows to vertiginously lift.
A moment before that the warrior moved to follow the Savior she saw her smile at her, and still she couldn't understand why. Regina began walking with tons of doubts heaving on her mind.

"Your daughter's son". It was an extreme improvement. Regina had finally accepted the fact that Henry was her son, too. She really meant what she said, Emma saw it. She meant it so deeply that she didn't even realize what she said. Maybe they could handle it. Maybe Henry would be happy, someday.
Rapunzel suddenly joined Emma, amused. " Where are you going so quickly, Emma?"
The Savior slowed down. " Oh, right. I dunno the way."
" Indeed." The warrior passed her and turned right. " This way. They probably went towards the northern beach passing through the inside. It's the fastest way, but the hardest one. They can't be far."
" How much do you think it will take before we find them?"
" Tomorrow we'll be right in front of their unpleasant faces. There's a group of caverns right behind yonder trees." She pointed at a place in the jungle with a finger. Emma saw a millions of trees, but she couldn't distinguish the ones Rapunzel was talking about. " The ones with the white bark." the warrior added, as if she had read her thoughts. Now Emma could see them, far away, barely visible over the green curtain of leaves and creepers.
" Are you fucking reading my thoughts?"
Rapunzel laughed softly. " No need. Your perplexed face was clear enough."
Emma grimaced, making her laugh again. That warrior was absurdly likeable. Her only sight made Emma smile, and wanting to joke with her as a child. It was as if they knew each other all along. Emma felt that way only with Mary Margaret.
" So..." Rapunzel stopped the train of her thoughts. "... as I was saying, they must be there, in one of the caves, unless the Lost Boys have already found them."
" And if they did?"
Rapunzel gave her the darker of her looks. " We're doomed."