To The Man Who Let Her Go

22

"What are we gonna do about Regina," Grumpy said as everyone finally shuffled into the town hall.

"We will get to that," Charming replied as he tried to distract the town from the fact he had no plan.

"David, what are we supposed to do? Emma didn't say what to do once we got them away from Regina?" Snow whispered as she pulled him away from the podium.

"I don't know. Maybe we can hide until Emma gets back to us," he whispered back.

"Hey! We ain't got all day your majesties," Granny said with an attitude.

"I'm starting to think this wasn't a great idea," he whispered.

Moments later the doors to the room busted open revealing the savior and her young son."

"Oh great, the Evil Queens girl toy is here," Ruby said with the roll of her eyes.

"Red! Come on now that's my daughter. She saved all of us. She broke the curse," Snow defended as Emma and Henry raced to the front.

Ruby crossed her arms, "M&M- Ugh I mean Snow, ,you and I both know she's super close to Regina. Do you really think she's gonna give the queen what she deserves?"

Emma narrowed her eyes, "I'm not blind Ruby. I've seen what Regina's done. I know she's done some bad things. She's a criminal in the eyes of fairytales and here in the real world. Criminals get punished and Regina is not exempt."

"It's not the same," someone added from the crowd

"He's right Emma. You weren't there in the Enchanted Forest. Regina's hurt us a thousand times over. Something you couldn't possibly understand. The people of Storybrooke are hurt," Archie tried to explain.

"Screw that. We're not hurt. We're angry," Grumpy said earning cheers from the town.

"Regina deserves death for what she's done to us," Whale yelled.

There was a unanimous hum of acceptance at that last sentence.

"Long Live Revenge!"

"Death to the Queen!"

"Off with her head"

"What?! No- that's not the conclusion I wanted us to come to. Regina deserves some serious jail time coupled with like extreme community service, but death? No that's not the answer here," Emma argued.

"She's right. We can't kill Regina," Snow agreed, "But she does deserve some type of punishment."

"And she will get it," Charming assured the town.

Dr. Whale stood up on his chair and faced his peers, "No. We have to deal with her now! Citizens of Storybrooke the last time you listened to your King and Queen about how to punish Regina she had the opportunity to cast the dark curse that brought us here in the first place. Lets go and do what we were planning to do before they dragged us here. Lets stop the evil queen once and for all!"

The town cheered as they followed Dr. Whale into the streets to ultimately kill the Evil Queen.

Henry pulled on Emma's sleeve, "Emma you can't let them hurt her. I know you don't like her right now, but she's still my mom. She's good now, I swear. Please don't let them hurt her!"

"I won't kid. I wanted her to hurt but I didn't want her dead," she assured him.

"Don't worry Henry," David said placing a firm hand on his grandsons shoulder, "If she's your family then I guess now she's ours too."

"And we protect our family, even if it is my evil step mother," Snow added.

"She's not evil anymore grandma, I swear, Emma changed her," Henry explained.