15I do not own Once Upon A Time I'm just borrowing its characters and plot for fun however if I did own it Regina get her happy ending.
Rumplestilskin lay there feeling his son's hands grip his tightly knowing that he was going to die and oddly enough feeling fine with it, he realized now that it had been stupid to send Snow White to Regina's vault with that candle it didn't matter if the woman did cast the spell now the poison was spreading to fast for him to survive much longer but if he was going to die there was a something he needed to make sure his son knew before that.
"Bae," Rumplestilskin feeling a slight happiness when he saw tears were falling from his son's eyes. "I need you to promise me something."
"Seriously you're dying and you ask for a favour," Neal said giving a choked laugh. "You never change."
Rumplestilskin smiled softly as he started to feel his sense's dulling, gathering what was left of his strength the man sat up a little so that his eyes were now level with his. "Protect you sister for me."
"S-S-SISTER!" Neal yelled rolling backwards on his chair making Rumplestilskin fall forward, luckily the man was able to catch himself before he fell off the bed.
"Whoa you have another kid," Emma said suddenly feeling the need to remind both men that she was in the room also. "Who the heck would have a kid with …. oh no you and she that means ..."
"Yes she's mine, though I didn't know till we came here," Rumplestilskin said coughing harshly into his handkerchief pulling it back at noticing that blood now stained its white surface before he looked back at the blonde's shocked face. "Paternity tests are something we *cough* didn't have back in the forest."
"Who are you both talking about?" Neal asked looking at Emma wondering just how she knew his sister.
"Regina the younger of the two we just fought she's your sister," Emma said looking at her ex and trying to pick where he and the mayor looked alike and realizing it was their eyes, they both had those dark eyes that could look right through you. "You and Cora why doesn't that surprise me?"
"She was so much like me before she removed her heart," Rumplestilskin said smiling slightly as he thought about the young woman in the black and red dress who had chosen to make up a ridiculous lie rather than lose face in front of those who thought themselves better than her. "We were even going to run away together."
"Feel like dropping anymore bombs well you're at it papa?" Neal asked rolling back next to his father and looking at the man angrily.
"Just that I love you." Rumplestilskin said softly taking one last breath and dying.
Neal and Emma didn't even have chance to react to the man's death before they heard a loud bang from behind them, turning around the saw Cora walking calmly towards them dagger in hand. Getting their weapons ready the pair didn't even have time to react before they were surrounded by purple smoke and transported to the woods.
"Shit!" Neal yelled throwing his sword down.
"Neal calm down." Emma said putting a hand on the man's shoulder only to have it roughly shaken off.
"How am I supposed to calm down Emma," Neal said turning around and giving the blonde an angry look. "My father's gone and it's all my fault."
"Hey!" Emma said forcefully dropping her own sword and grabbing Neal by the shoulders making him look at her. "You didn't stab him Gold in the heart that was Hook, I mean you sailed a pirate ship to a town without knowing where it was just to save the guy who left you."
"Who then conveniently drops the bomb about my sister on me," Neal said thinking about the woman who had thrown a fireball at him and wanting nothing more than to run away before she could figure out who he was. "I'-I'm not the type of guy who can look after someone -"
"What about Henry?" Emma asked trying to show Neal that he was able to look after someone. "You're doing ok with him so far."
"That's cause he doesn't know me all that well," Neal said shaking his head mind racing as he thought about all the ways he was going to eventually screw up with his son. "Once Henry knows what I'm really like he'll leave me, that's why you told him I was dead."
"NEAL!" Emma yelled looking at the man shocked by what he had just said. "I didn't tell Henry you were dead because I didn't think you wouldn't be a good father, I did it because you hurt me if anyone's the bad guy here it's me, I'm the one who gave him up for adoption."
"Why'd you do it?" Neal asked eyes silently begging the woman to tell him why she gave up their child.
"I … I was scared that I would become like my foster parents," Emma admitted softly thinking about all the people she had lived with well in the system and how much they had hurt her. "Henry was a reminder of us and I was so angry at you that I got scared."
"You think you would have ever hit him?" Neal asked unable to imagine Emma hitting anyone who hadn't tried to hit her first.
"When I first found out I was pregnant I was going to let myself fall down some stairs," Emma confessed remembering herself standing at the top of the metal stairs about to let herself fall forward before she was grabbed by her arms and pulled backwards. "I nearly killed Henry before he was born because I was so angry; if it wasn't for another inmate he would never have been born."
"I'm gonna have to meet this woman and thank her then." Neal said silently thanking the unknown woman for saving his son.
"It's too late she's dead," Emma said feeling a small wave of sadness hit her. "Murdered by her pimp for trying to get out of the life, I send flowers to her grave every year though as a thank you."
"Mind if I chip in next time?" Neal asked wanting to show his thanks to the woman also.
"Sure now let's get going," Emma said kneeling and picking up both swords handing one back to Neal. "We have to stop your sister before she does something stupid."
It didn't take Neal and Emma long to get back to the pawn shop, when they opened the door both of them could already here noise coming from the back room. Fearing the worst the couple quickly ran towards the room swords raised only to find Regina crying into Cora's dead body well Snow tried to talk to her.
"Regina I'm so sorry," Snow said pulling out from her place in David's arms. "I shouldn't have done it but I was so angry at your mother."
Snow walked towards the crying woman who continued to ignore her in favour of crying into the dead woman reaching one hand out towards her step-mother intent on comforting her. However before she could even touch mayor Snow found her hand was grabbed by a larger one, looking up Snow saw the man who had come with Emma and Henry was glaring down at her.
"Don't touch her." Neal said coldly letting go of Snow's hand and walking over to Regina kneeling down and pulling her and Cora's body into a hug.
"Emma" David said looking at his daughter confused.
"I'll explain later but right now we need to call someone." Emma said watching Neal try to comfort Regina for a moment before leaving to make a phone call.
*Evening – Storybrooke Hospital*
After the ambulance's had been called and everyone was taken to a hospital Emma had called Ruby and told her to bring Henry to the hospital, at first the young werewolf hadn't wanted to because Regina wasn't in custody but Emma harshly told the waitress that either she bring her son to the hospital or Emma would come and get him herself.
Now that everyone was here they all stood outside of Regina's room waiting eagerly for Dr. Whale to come back out.
"Emma what's wrong with my mom?" Henry asked looking up at the woman hoping she knew the answer.
"I-I don't know." Emma said honestly, Regina hadn't been injured but Dr. Whale had taken one look at the former mayor had ordered a nurse to get her a change of clothes and find an empty room.
"It's all my fault." Snow said miserably looking down at her hands.
"Snow." David said not knowing exactly what to say, it wasn't like that time his wife had lost her love and tried to kill Regina Snow had known exactly what she had been doing when she gave Cora's heart to Regina.
"I cast the spell, I lied to Regina," Snow said grabbing her hair and replaying the scene over in her head wishing she could go back and stop herself. "I told her that now she could have a real mother's love if she just put that heart back into Cora's chest."
"Did you know what it would do?" Henry asked seriously looking at his grandmother.
"Yes." Snow whispered softly starting to cry again.
"How could you!" Henry yelled suddenly making everyone look at him in surprise. "You're supposed to be good!"
"Henry I'm so sor-" Snow started.
"Don't tell me you're sorry," Henry yelled again pointing at the door Regina was behind. "My mom might have done bad things but she never used anyone like ... like that."
Whatever Snow was going to say next was cut off by Dr. Whale coming out looking at them clearly annoyed by something. "You're upsetting my patient if you want to fight leave."
"How is she?" Emma asked first trying to look behind the man.
Stepping out fully from the room the doctor closed the door softly and pulled a pen out of his front pocket looking at everyone seriously. "Before I answer that I need to know who Regina's next of kin is."
"Why? What's wrong with my mom?!" Henry started to yell again frantically looking ready to tackle the doctor to get into the room behind him.
"Henry I know you care about your mother but this is serious," Dr. Whale said calmly to the boy, he felt sympathy for the boy what had happened to Regina because of her mother's death was cruel. "But you're too young to be making the decisions that need to be made right now"
"I -" Snow started to say planning on taking responsibility for her actions.
"I am," Neal said giving the former queen an icy look. "Regina's my sister."
Everyone, minus Emma, looked at the man in shock they hadn't been there for Rumplestilskin's confession like the Saviour had so finding out about Regina's parentage resulted in complete silence.
Dr. Whale was the first to recover coughing slightly before looking at the man as if like Emma he was trying to pick out where he and Regina looked the same. "Would you like me to tell you here or in private?"
"Private if you don't mind." Neal said not wanting Snow White to have any say on what was going to happen to Regina.
"No please -" Snow started to beg.
"I will not be making any decisions about my sister's health when the one who caused this mess in the first place is here." Neal cruelly spoke to the woman making her flinch noticeably.
Snow just stood there silent for a moment before bowing her head in shame and walking away from everyone, David and Ruby following behind her a moment later. Emma would have also followed but she knew Henry wouldn't be leaving anytime soon and she needed to be here for him.
"Do you still want to talk about it in private?" Dr. Whale said looking at Emma remembering the bad history between her and his patient.
"No they're ok." Neal said placing a hand on Henry's shoulder; it was really more for his comfort than his son's.
"Alright then," Dr. Whale said looking down at the chart again. "Physically Regina is fine however mentally she's suffered a serious trauma."
"How bad is it?" Neal asked gripping Henry's shoulder a little tighter.
"Regina has completely blocked out her mother's death," Dr. Whale said looking straight into Neal's shocked eyes before continuing. "More so she seems convinced that her father and Daniel are still alive."
"So what does that mean?" Emma asked seriously.
"To be blunt Regina's chosen to forget everything and locked herself inside her own head," Dr. Whale said thinking about the woman in the room behind him. "When I talked to her it was like she didn't even know me, she just kept going on about how happy she was that her mother had accepted her loving Daniel and that they were all going to have a picnic."
"So she's gone crazy?" Henry said speaking for the first time.
"Henry." Emma hissed at her son not caring for his choice of words.
"No Henry Regina isn't crazy just for lack of a better word broken," Dr. Whale said smiling sadly, even when they first met nervous as she was Frankenstein could tell that Regina was a woman of great pride, to see her as she was now living in a fantasy that could never happen was a sad thing. "Her mother's death at her hands has completely shattered Regina I honestly don't think she'll ever recover."
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Emma asked wondering how they could help the woman and more importantly should they.
"No not even magic could help Regina now," Dr. Whale said shaking his head. "All we can do is make her comfortable."
"Can we see her?" Neal asked wanting nothing more than meet his sister, he had already lost one family member today he wasn't about to lose another.
"Of course just be careful what you say to her," Dr. Whale said stepping away from the door. "As cruel as this might sound I don't want to see what Regina would do to this town if she remembered what happened."
Nodding the three entered the room and saw that Regina was sitting on a chair next to the window looking outside humming softly to herself; Emma was the only one who found it odd to see the normally darkly dressed mayor wearing hospital gown and light blue robe. Walking over to the woman Neal sat down in a chair across from Regina causing her attention to shift from outside to the man seated across from her.
"Hello," Regina said looking at them curiously. "I'm sorry this may sound rude but who are you?"
"My names Neal," Neal said introducing himself and giving a small pained smile to the woman. "You probably don't remember me but I'm your cousin though when we were little you liked to say I was your brother."
"Really," Regina said looking at the man and noticing that they had the same colour eyes. "I'm sorry you're right I don't remember you, are you from mother's side of the family or daddy's?"
"Your mother's," Neal said thinking about the woman in the morgue before turning before turning to look at the silent pair behind him. "And this is Emma and our son Henry."
"That's my father's name," Regina said looking at the boy and giving him a large smile. "Did you name him after my father?"
"Yes." Neal lied to his sister feeling horrible as he did.
"How lovely, we're going to have a picnic today you know," Regina said looking back out the window as she started playing with her engagement ring. "Me, daddy, Daniel and mother, it's in celebration of my engagement to Daniel."
"That's nice," Neal said smiling softly to his sister. "Can you tell me about Daniel?"
"He's wonderful, I love everything about him even his bad points," Regina said turning her attention back to Neal. "Don't tell him this though but Daniel snores quite loudly."
"I bet he's handsome though right?" Neal teased.
Emma watched as a dark shade of red came to Regina's cheeks. "He is, Daniel has the most amazing pair of blue eyes they often remind me of the lake near my home."
Henry couldn't take it anymore, seeing his normally strong and proud mother not know him and talking about a dead man was too much for him so he did the only thing a kid in his situation could do, he turned and ran out of the room.
"Henry!" Emma yelled watching her son run out the room. "Excuse me."
Once Emma was gone Neal turned his attention back to Regina and saw that she was staring at the door the barest hint of sadness in her eyes.
"Don't worry Regina Emma can take care of Henry." Neal said placing one hand on his sisters.
"Are you sure?" Regina asked the faintest trace of sadness fluttering in her heart for some reason.
"Of course," Neal said giving the raven haired woman's hand a comforting squeeze. "Regina I promise I will never lie to you, what sort of brother would that make me if I did?"
"Really," Regina said looking shocked suddenly. "No one besides Daniel and daddy has ever promised me that."
"Regina," Neal said firmly leaning forward and completely covering Regina's hands with his own as he gave her a serious look. "I promise that until your family comes I'll take care of you."
*Epilogue*
After their first real meeting in the hospital Neal did everything he could to keep his promise to Regina, even going so far as to move to Storybrooke just to take care of her. Emma and Henry had been worried at first, not because they didn't like the idea of Neal staying, no they were concerned that once word got out about Regina's reason for being in the hospital people would start coming after her.
And just like mother and son had predicted when people found out that the queen was now completely helpless they had come looking to claim their pound of flesh, Emma found that she had arrested more people in that first week alone then she had ever in her whole career as sheriff.
Luckily no one had ever made it past the door, Neal for all his past claims of being a thief and not a fighter had proven to be very frightening when angry even going so far as to break Leroy's arm when the man showed up yelling angrily at Regina's door.
Snow had come to pay Regina a visit also, though the former queen was smarter than the rest and waited until Neal had fallen asleep outside Regina's door before she snuck in and tried to use fairy dust to return her step-mother's memories.
Regina having been extremely frightened by the stranger in her room had started screaming for help, a moment later both Neal and Dr. Whale burst through the door and had to literally drag the younger woman out. When Emma and David had shown up to collect Snow Neal told his ex that as much as he knew it would hurt her should Snow White ever come near his sister again he would be forced to take legal action or worse.
This threat against his wife prompted David to call a town meeting so that people could be told, within a certain degree, why it was so important to leave Regina alone. Many had called for the former queen's death out of fear that should she get her memory back Regina would destroy the town out of revenge but Neal once again showing his protective side had simply stood up, told everyone who he was, and more importantly who his father was, and said that if anyone ever tried to hurt his sister then he would get revenge for Regina.
After a while things calmed down until Neal's fiancée Tamara, who was ironically enough a lawyer, showed up in Storybrooke to talk to Neal about their future. Neal told Tamara as close to the truth as he could without sounding crazy about who Emma and Henry actually were, why he had left New York in such a hurry, who Regina was to him and why he couldn't leave her.
Emma had been impressed when Tamara came to see her in the station to talk to her about everything and explained that she and Neal were going to postpone getting married until they could figure out what they wanted to do and that until that time came the sheriff had to do everything in her power to protect the siblings or she would face legal repercussions.
The postponement however only lasted two years, after that Tamara moved to Storybrooke full time and became the town's new leading prosecutor helping Neal take care of Regina
For twenty years Regina spent every day in a self-induced bliss waiting for her family to show up until finally her strength failed her and she passed away in her sleep. Dr. Whale said there was no explanation for what had happened but everyone knew that Regina's broken heart had finally taken its toll on the woman.
Now Tamara and Neal along with their children Walter and Cassandra, Emma and August and their son Marco, Henry, Dr. Whale and finally Archie and Ruby and their daughter Anita stood in front to a simple coffin about to place Regina to rest with the rest of her family beneath the stone mausoleum.
"Dad," seventeen year old Walter said looking up at his dad with brown eyes that reminded Neal so much of his father. "Do you think Aunt Gina was happy?"
Neal smiled sadly and looked at his son, since he and Tamara worked a lot Regina was normally the one to take care of their children. Despite what had happened to her the couple found out early on that Regina could in fact take care of herself it was just recommended that she didn't in case she have a bad day, which was rare.
"Walter I can say without a shred of uncertainty that she was," Neal said looking at his sister's coffin for a second before back at his son. "Remember when she tried to teach you and Cas how to make cupcakes and you guys ended up making a huge mess?"
"Yeah." Walter said thinking about the day, even though the cupcakes had been completely ruined thanks to his little sister's 'help' the three had just laughed at their failure and spent the rest of the time before his parents eating pre-made icing out of the container.
"That was the first day of many that I didn't here Regina talk about her parents or Daniel once," Neal said thinking about how happy he had been to hear Regina talk about something other than her parents and Daniel. "I think despite everything you kids made Regina happy."
Walter just smiled and leaned against her father as the pair walked up to the casket and placed a small red rose on the pile of flowers that were there symbolizing there goodbye to the woman. As everyone slowly started to file out of the room Neal took on last look inside and saw that something was appearing on the wall in front of the four coffins.
"I'll catch up with you in a second." Neal said looking at everyone.
"Ok sweetie take as long as you need," Tamara said giving her husband a small kiss on the cheek "We'll meet you back at the house."
Nodding Neal walked back into the room and sat on a small bench that had been placed in the room for visitor and watched as a mural started to appear on the stone wall, what looked like a meadow appeared first, then a small lake and a few trees.
Now that the scene was complete people started appearing; first was an older couple sitting beneath one of the tree's wearing casual clothes, the couple was laughing at something and though he didn't recognize the man Neal did know the woman as Cora Regina's mother. Next to Cora appeared Neal's father Rumplestilskin who appeared to be entertaining the couple and Belle with a story, near the middle of the mural appeared Henry, Walter, Cassandra and Marco who seemed to be running away from Emma laughing as she chased them, close to them Neal saw himself head on Tamara's lap talking to August.
Finally the last pair on the mural appeared, it was Regina herself sitting on a small hill next to a handsome brunette man, his arms were wrapped around Regina's waist and her head was resting against his shoulder as they sat just watching the people in below of them. Walking closer towards the woman's picture Neal saw a small smile was on his sister's lips and even though he knew it was a painting Neal could have sworn that pure love was shining in her eyes.
"Thank you." A soft whisper came from behind Neal causing the tears that had gathered in his eyes to fall freely.
"I love you little sister," Neal whispered softly back to the painting. "Goodbye."
*Author's Note*
I hope everyone enjoyed this little one shot of mine don't forget to drop a review and tell me what you thought.