A Twist In Time

Chapter 3: A better Chance

The following day and Emma woke up at around 7 am. She was thinking about what Regina had said the night before. She loved Hope and Henry but needed to give them a better life because she couldn't take care of them.

Meanwhile, Regina was still flipping through the storybook she had grabbed from their bedroom. Towards the end, she noticed some of the pages had been torn out.

She slammed the book closed and went upstairs to confront Hope and Henry. "The missing pages. Where are they?" Regina asked, walking over to where Henry was.

"It's an old book. Stuff's missing." Henry told Regina, as Hope walked back into the bedroom from french braiding her hair to Henry and Regina going at it. "Why do you care?"

"I care because you and your sister think I'm some Evil Queen. And that hurts me Henry. I'm your mother."

"No, you're not." Hope noticed Henry was feeding her fire and punched his arm to get him to stop talking a moment, taking the book, and sitting on Henry's bed beside him. "Shut up! You're just making her mad." Hope whispered to her brother.

Hope was right; Henry's comment was not making this a any lighter form of conversation. "Well, who is. The woman you brought here? I don't like what she and that book are doing to you two. Thankfully, both are no longer an issue. What are you staring at?"

Regina turned around to see what Hope was staring at, and the town clock began to chime outside the bedroom window.

Henry grabbed his and Hope's backpacks; and ran downstairs. Hope pulled on her jean jacket and left the room to catch up with her brother.

Regina left the house, walking down to the library to look at the clock closer, before running into Archie. "Hey, look at that." He smiled and came to stand beside Regina."Looks like they finally fixed that old thing, huh?"

"Yes. How about that, indeed." Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something across the road. The same yellow slug bug that Emma had arrived in Storybrooke in was still here.

Emma had ignored Regina's request to leave and obviously wasn't scared, for she had left the far in plain sight across from Granny's bed and breakfast inn.

Regina grabbed a basket of apples; she went over to hopefully talk some sense in Emma and get her out of town. She walked up to Emma's apartment, waiting until Emma answered.

"Did you know the honey crisp tree is the most vigorous and hearty of all apple trees? It can survive temperatures as 40 below and keep growing. It can whither any storm.  I have one that I've tended, ever since I was a little girl, and to this day, I've yet to taste anything more delicious than the fruit it offered. " She paused, handing Emma one from the basket she had brought up with her.

"Thanks."

Regina then proceeded to hand her the basket of apples. "I'm sure you'll enjoy them on your drive home."

Emma handed the basket back to Regina. "Actually, I'm going to stay for a while."

"I'm not sure that's a great idea. My kids have enough issues. They don't need you to mess with their emotions. Considering how confused they are already."

"And with all the respect, Madame Mayor, the fact that you have now threatened me twice in the last 12 hours just makes me want to stay longer."Emma threw back, rolling her eyes at Regina. "Since were apples a threat."

"I can read between the lines. Sorry, I just want to make sure Hope and Henry are ok."

"They're fine, dear." Regina insisted. "Any problems going on are now being taken care of."