Once Upon A Happy Beginning

Chapter Forty-Four: Children Make You Different

A/N: Please read the note at the end. This is a new dynamic to draw on, so if you can comment and leave positive feedback/constructive criticism that would be amazing.

Killian

Bloody. Hell. 

"No." I say, simply, looking at the scene unfurling in front of me. We were following the windows of our little girl's life and Baelfire is her love. Baelfire. "No."

"No? Guyliner, I don't think you can just say... No."

"That's my daughter. And that's... That's Baelfire." I almost spit out his name in disgust. He is going nowhere near my daughter. "He's not... him and my daughter. No chance."

"Killian, son, I'm in no place to judge. I never took to you when I found out about you and Em-"

"Charming." My mother-in-law rolls her eyes. "You didn't take to him the moment you met."

"I'll give him that, Snow. I did make it clear I fancied your daughter from the minute I laid eyes on her. It was when he found about her and I. But, with all due respect, mate." I scowl, my eyes narrowing on the young lad who I once took in. "I have never been with your wife. He has. He's my stepson's father."

"And you never committed adultery with Bae's mother?" The Crocodile sneers. Could he just go away? He really doesn't need to be here right now. 

"As you treat her so nicely." The other me says, snarling at his enemy. "Can you really say you want your son with my - his - you know what I mean's daughter?"

 "Careful, dearie, I could kill you right now and then she wouldn't exist."

"Except I've got the dagger." Regina tells him, rotating the blade in her hands, in front of his eyes. The voices sing to my ear but I force them away. My daughter and keeping her away from my wife's ex-boyfriend is my priority right now. "And you're insulting my niece right now."

"Your niece? Madam Mayor, you flatter yourself but you're a bit older than that. This is your step great-granddaughter. It's only my son."

 "It's my son's sister!"

"Ok..." Emma says, stepping into the middle of it all. "This is why we don't do Thanksgiving. Gold, you took Elizabeth in the first place, I don't think you get a say in all of this. Hook, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Killian five years ago. We don't do violence, you can either bury the hatchet or leave. And, babe, it's messing with my head as much as it's messing with yours but come on! She's ten! He's twelve! They don't know the first thing about love or anything like that!"

"He's not twelve! He's twenty-five or something!"

"He's existed for twenty-five years, sure, we'll go with that, but he's still a twelve year old!" Emma yells, looking pointedly between me, our daughter and him. "I think the priority is finding out what happened. If we... Ok, Gold's going to take us back home and then... Henry, do you still have your Dad's old diaries? Yes, great, okay." She puts her head into her hands and I can see spirals turning in her mind. "We'll work out what happened to them. Maybe Neal knew how Elizabeth and Jack ended up here. Or, how the hell did he end up with me. And then... we have to tell Elizabeth!"

"NO!" 

I think we all must look shocked at Regina's outburst. Emma's pacing and turning cogs dropped. Snow stepped forwards towards her stepmother. My jaw seems to be on the floor. Robin and Henry are trying to calm her down. Even 'I', who has only been around us for a fortnight knows that something is up. 

Because that wasn't Regina.

That was the Evil Queen. 

"Regina! This isn't your call to make! It's mine and Killian's. She's our daughter! I know everyone behind this window, memory, whatever it is has claims to say they're family but you don't. It's MY DAUGHTER. We share custody of an incredible son, but you don't have ANY claims to my daughter!"