Ch.2: The Thing You Love Most
After she got ready and dressed for the day, she went downstairs and to the diner for something to eat. She went and sat on a bar stool, where she ordered a wine glass of Bourbon and a plate of a couple pancakes. After everything she’d been through, a shot glass of Bourbon wasn’t going to do it. She needed a wine glass of it instead. After she’d finished eating, but was still sipping her Bourbon, she got a surprise visit of a boy with a book.
She looked at him, when he sat next to her.
“Hi, I’m Henry,” he introduced himself.
“I’m Katherine. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in school or something? What’s up with the book?”
To her, it looked suspicious that a boy would be carrying a book that size around with him.
“It’s not just any book. It’s magical. It has every fairytale in it. Everyone here is under a Dark curse. Now they don’t remember who they are,” he informed her.
“Well, I’m no stranger to magic so it’s not too farfetched from the world I’m from,” she admitted. She kind of believed him, but at the same time, it was a little hard to believe. She’d never seen a curse before, but she’d heard of people that have been cursed by witches before.
After going through the book with the boy, she completely believed him; Especially, when she saw that now that she was in town, her story was in the book too. That meant everything he believed was true.
She closed the book and he put it away in his backpack.
“It’s nice meeting you, but what is my story doing in your book, though? I’m not a fairytale character,” she asserted.
“You’re supposed to bring back the happy endings. It’s your destiny,” he informed her.
She watched him leave for school and then she continued drinking her wine glass of Bourbon. Not long afterward, someone resembling a fairytale character she’d just seen in Henry’s book came to sit next to her.
“We haven’t met yet. I’m Regina. I’m the mayor of this town. I make it my business to know who everyone is in this town. So, who are you?”
Katherine wasn’t fazed by her demeanor. She’d dealt with witches in the past and she’d once had a witch as a friend. Besides, she was descended from Travelers. She could take on a witch, evil or not. She drank some more of the Bourbon.
“Katherine Pierce. Before you ask why I’m here, which is what I’d ask if I were you, I don’t know why I’m here exactly. I escaped what’s called a prison world and suddenly found myself in the middle of the road, but if we’re going to coexist in the same town, I suggest not to threaten me. I may be from a different world, but my world isn’t too different from yours. You don’t know what I’ve done in the past or what I’m capable of,” she introduced and warned her, before Regina could say anything else.
“What has my son told you?” she inquired. “I know what he thinks me of as.”
“What? A monster? Evil? Believe me, I’ve been in your shoes and it’s not a good feeling when everyone thinks you’re evil or a monster. The only thing that can probably keep people from thinking you’re who they think you are is by changing into a good person; doing good things. Sometimes though, that doesn’t work. It didn’t work in my world for some people, but it sort of worked for one person. He wanted to forgive me for what I’d done, but someone can’t forgive you for something overnight. It has to be earned. I learned that from Elijah. Don’t give Henry a reason to think you’re the Evil Queen and he’ll see you as someone good eventually,” she answered her.
Regina didn’t have anything to say for once, so she just left to do her job as the mayor of the town.
The next day, Henry had her walk him to school.
“So, what’s the deal with you and your mom?” she questioned him.
“It’s not about us. It’s about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one, identification. I call it operation Cobra.”
“Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairytales,” she replied.
“Exactly. It’s a code name. Throw the Queen off our trail.”
“So everyone here is a fairytale character. They just don’t know it,” Katherine said.
“That’s the curse. Time’s been frozen. Until you got here.”
“What about their past?” she inquired.
“They don’t know. Ask anyone about anything. You’ll know,” he answered her.
“So for decades people have been walking around not aging, screwed up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious,” she said, getting what he was telling her.
“I knew you’d get it. That’s why we need you. You’re the only one that can stop her curse. Right now, we have the advantage. My mom doesn’t know that. I took out the ending. The parts with you in it. If she finds out who you are, it’ll be bad. I gotta go, but I’ll find you later and we can get started.” After walking a distance away, he yelled out, “I knew you’d believe me!”
Someone Katherine didn’t know, saw and approached her. She assumed when she spoke though, that she was probably his teacher.
“It’s good to see his smile back,” she stated to her.
“I didn’t do anything,” Katherine assured her.
“So, does the mayor know you’re here?” she inquired.
“She knows. What’s her deal? She’s not exactly a people person. How’d she get elected?” Katherine said, needing to know more.
“She’s been here as long as I can remember. No one’s been brave enough to run against her. She inspires quite a bit of, well, fear. Ever since I gave him that book, Henry thinks she’s the Evil Queen,” she answered her.
“Who does he think you are?” she asked her.
“Snow White,” she answered her. “Who does he think you are?”
“Just who I am. Katherine,” she replied. “Who are you?”
“Mary Margaret,” she replied.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” Katherine said, and then watched her leave, before walking away herself.
After Regina did something to get Katherine out of having a place to stay at the motel, Katherine still didn’t leave town. She was quite resilient when she wanted or needed to be, so she found out where Mary Margaret was staying whom let her stay with her.
Once inside, she made a mug of hot chocolate for them both and gave Katherine one before sitting down at the table with her. So, together, they had some hot chocolate and a plate of cookies.
“You look like you need to talk,” she told Katherine.
“Well, you seem to trust me even though I’m a stranger. A part of me wants to leave, but another part of me knows that I need to stay. For Henry. I want to make sure he’s okay, even if he’s not my child.”
“I think the reason why you want to leave is the reason why you have to stay. If you leave, who will look out for Henry?” she replied to Katherine.
Later that night, Gold came to see Regina whom was in her yard with her tree of red apples.
“Lovely to see you in such high spirits,” he greeted.
“Well, it’s been a good day. Just rid the town of an unwanted nuisance.”
“Katherine Pierce? Really?”
“Yes. I imagine she’s half way to wherever she came from now,” Regina said.
“Oh, I wouldn’t bet on that,” Rumple said, picking one of her apples off the tree. “I just saw her strolling down main street with your boy. Thick as thieves they looked.”
“What?” she inquired.
“Perhaps, you should’ve come to me. Miss Pierce is a problem you can’t fix. I’m willingly happy to help. For a price, of course,” he offered.
“I’m not in a business of making deals with you anymore,” she reminded him.
“To which deal are you referring?” he asked her.
“You know what deal.”
“The boy I procured for you. Henry. Did I ever tell you what a lovely name that was? However, did you pick it?” he replied to her.
“Did you want her to come to town?” Regina questioned him. “You wanted all this to happen, didn’t you? You finding Henry wasn’t an accident, was it? Where did you get him?” When he gave her a smile, she asked, “Do you know something?”
“I don’t know what you’re implying,” he replied.
“I think you do,” she said and he gave her another smile. “Who is this woman? This Katherine Pierce?” she asked him, now trying to get information from him.
“I think you know who she is,” Rumple replied, not giving anything away. “I really must be going.” He turned around to leave, but she stood in his way.
“Tell me what you know about her,” she told him.
“I’m not going to answer you, dearie, so I suggest you excuse me. Please.”
He walked around her and then walked away.
She watched him go.
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