Time Will Tell

Chapter Seven

The Enchanted Forest; The Past

"Something happened between the two of you, didn't it?" Tinkerbell demands as her body magically grows to Regina's height.

The fairy stomps angrily at Regina in her new bed chambers, another prison in her eyes. Luckily the King and his beloved Snow, are out horseback riding at this time and of course, neither one thought to invite the new Queen along.

"How do you even know that?" Regina exasperates, defensively folding her arms across her chest, but the fairy isn't intimated the least bit and she steals another step closer in a challenging stance.

"Like I said before," Tink over enunciates, "I am a fairy! I can feel that things are shifting and changing now in the atmosphere. This is far worse than I ever anticipated. It must end," she coldly commands, but Regina holds her ground, shaking her head in defiance and remembering Emma's words, encouraging her to defend herself. Tink's eyes double in size, her feet stumbling back in utter shock. "You love her," she breathlessly gasps and Regina believes her friend is asking, but it sounds more like a statement.

She refuses to deny or confirm, she just stares blankly at the blonde before her.

"Regina, you don't understand. If Blue finds out, she will have my head. She might put a protection spell up, so you may never visit Emma again."

Regina's mouth instantly dries up as pure panic settles into her soul. She cannot possibly lose Emma. Her arms absentmindedly break from her chest and fall to her sides as the burning liquid of lost stings her eyes, yet again.

"No Tink, you don't understand..." she begins to defend herself but her friend is quick to cut her off.

"No, you don't understand! Emma is Snow White's daughter!" Tink bellows, but as soon as her own ears hear the words spewed so recklessly from her mouth, she slaps her hand over her gaping hole.

Regina's chest tightens so unbearably that she's sure someone just reached inside the cavity and ripped out her pounding organ. Vile stomach acid claws viciously up her chest and stings the back of her throat. She cannot breathe, she cannot move, and she's certain the walls are closing in on her. She too, covers her own mouth in horror, desperately trying to fight back the sob and tears threatening to reveal themselves. She feels disgusting, yet utterly torn because it doesn't eliminate all her beautiful memories she created with Emma and without another thought, rage explodes through every inch of her body from the wicked turn of events.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She violently screams, her cruel tone ricocheting off the walls of her prison and attacking her eardrums once again.

"I tried, but you wouldn't listen to me. You were so stubborn, you refused to hear me out!" Tink yells right back in her face, never faltering for a moment.

"This...this can't be. How?"

"There will be a moment, where time freezes and you two will be only a few years apart. But now...things are turning. Those events are drastically changing and I don't know what the future holds anymore," Tink shakily replies, the look of despair and fear stealing her features.

"I- I need to see her now," she stutters, her body working on autopilot, seeking the one person who can settle the torment inside.

"No!" Tink firmly declines, but it is too late.

Regina consumes herself with the familiar purple smoke and reappears on the excluded blue flower. Except this time, she is not alone. A fairy dressed in an extravagant blue gown with tightly wound brown locks, stands before her. She swallows, shuffling back a step as the woman scrutinizes her.