LAVENDER'S BLUE

By RowArk

Prologue

In an attempt to do away with the savior, and thus secure their own happy endings from the Author, Maleficent, Rumple and Cruella banished Emma back to the world without magic, reverting her back to a five-year-old child, with nothing but her five-year-old memories, to prevent her from returning.

After Regina and the heroes defeated them, the Charmings set out to find their lost daughter.

Eventually they did just that, discovering Emma in a group home in Boston, where she ended up after being found wandering the streets of the city alone, with no idea how she got there. All she knew was she was a foster kid, and the police dropped her right off at Children's Services.

After a DNA test, and a doctored missing persons report showing that Emma had accidently been separated from her parents on a shopping trip, Children's Services finally returned Emma to her parents, and the Charmings brought her home. The social workers had warned the Charmings that Emma appeared to be a "problematic child" with severe trust issues and separation anxiety, but the Charmings were sure that being home with her loving parents would be all that Emma needed.

While Emma was initially happy to be reunited with her estranged parents, her behaviour problems still persisted, in the form of temper tantrums, lying and disobedience, that the Charmings were completely unequipped to deal with, having never dealt with a preschooler before. Added to that was the frequent bed-wetting and persistent thumb sucking that Mary Margaret believed was completely inappropriate, given her age.

The Charmings went to the Blue Fairy for a spell to return Emma back to her normal age, but she had nothing to offer them. Blue and the rest of the fairies promised to keep on it, until they come up with something, but in the meantime, she suggested to them that they treat Emma as though she may never be "fixed"; essentially, as though they have a second chance to raise her.

The Charmings were in over their head with a baby and a preschooler who both require constant attention, so Henry was still staying with them to help out. However after five full days had passed and he saw no improvement in the situation, he took it upon himself to call in a reinforcement, or as he calls her: Mom.

Chapter One

Regina walked up to the stairs to the door of the Charmings' loft, and turned the handle to let herself in, as she always did. This time, to her surprise, it was locked, and she wondered if the Charmings were taking precautions to keep their new little terror inside, as she knocked on the door.

Moments later, Mary Margaret opened the door, looking frazzled. "Oh! Regina, thanks for coming. What time is it?" she asked, not waiting for answer. "Henry said you were coming. I didn't realize how late it was! We're just eating dinner. Come inside."

Regina raised an eyebrow as she walked in. The place was a disaster of kids toys and books, as well as dishes piled up on the counter. Regina knew that Mary Margaret never let her home look like this, and Henry clearly wasn't exaggerating when he said his grandparents were struggling with Little Emma.

"Please, excuse the mess, Regina, we're just…" Mary Margaret let her voice trail off, and Regina wondered if she had literally lost her train of thought, mid-sentence.

"Quite alright, dear. Little children are a handful. Trust me, I remember," Regina said, as she turned her eyes toward the table. David sat with his back to her, facing Henry, who sat beside the miniature version of Miss Swan. Henry looked up and smiled at his mother, no doubt anxious for an end to this chaos, Regina figured. Regina noticed another plate sitting across from Emma's, untouched, and guessed that Mary Margaret had probably been spending more time trying to coax Little Emma – whose plate also looked untouched – to eat, than actually eating herself.

Regina couldn't take her eyes off the little girl. Her hair was a mess of blonde curls that looked like it hadn't seen a brush in a month. She had red juice stains around her mouth, as well as down the front of her shirt, but it was her eyes that were the most troubling. The biggest, greenest, saddest eyes Regina had ever seen were locked on her own, as if Little Emma saw Regina as an intruder, and wasn't letting her out of her sight.

"I talked to Blue again today, and she still has no idea how to change her back," Mary Margaret lamented.

"You want to change her back?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm surprised. I thought you would have loved a second chance to raise your child, as a child."

"Well, I mean… that's not really fair to Henry, is it?" The hopeful tone in her voice gave Regina the impression that this was not the first time that thought had crossed Mary Margaret's mind, and she was looking for someone to validate her desire to keep Little Emma as a child.

"No, it's not," Regina agreed, shaking her head. "It's not fair to Emma, either." It didn't exactly come as a shock to Regina that the Charmings would not have considered their own daughter's feelings in all of this. "Does she have her magic?"

"Not that we've seen. We didn't tell her about the whole…. Fairy tale thing, either. We didn't want to scare her."

"Probably wise," Regina agreed. At least the Charmings had done one intelligent thing in the five days they had had Little Emma.

Their conversation was cut short when Neal started wailing in his crib. Mary Margaret turned to get him, but David told her he was on it, as he got up quickly from the table.

No doubt jumping at the chance to parent the easier child, Regina thought to herself.

Regina watched as Little Emma slid silently out of her chair and crawled under the table. David and Mary Margaret seemed completely oblivious, as both of them now had their attention on Neal. Out of the corner of her eye, Regina watched Emma crawl into the sitting room and tuck herself between the couch and the chair. Henry moved to alert his grandparents, but Regina motioned for him to stay quiet.

A few moments later, Mary Margaret finally realized her first born was AWOL. She let out an audible sigh of annoyance, and turned to Henry. "Where did she go?"

Henry darted his eyes to Regina, who just smiled. "I got this," she said, heading over to the sitting room. She knelt down on the floor in front of Emma's little hideout, and found the girl with her knees draw up to her chest, sucking on her thumb. Regina was sure the Charmings had said Emma reverted to her five-year-old self - much too old to still be sucking her thumb. She wondered if the child had never stopped, or if this was some sort of regression due to the trauma of a bad foster home experience, but she knew this was not the time to ask.

"Hi, Emma," Regina said softly, not wanting to scare the child. She already looked terrified as it was. "My name is Regina. Can we talk for a minute?"

Emma pulled her thumb out of her mouth, not taking her eyes off Regina. "Are you a social worker?" she asked, timidly.

"No, sweetie, I'm not. I'm Henry's mom."

Emma glanced momentarily in Henry's direction, though Regina was sure she couldn't actually see him from where she was sitting. "Are you gonna take Henry home?"

"Do you want me to take Henry home?"

Emma nodded.

"You don't like Henry?" Regina asked, keeping her voice low in hopes that Henry wouldn't hear the question.

"I don't like boys," Emma said, putting her thumb back in her mouth.

"Oh, I see," Regina said. "Is that why you don't want to eat your dinner? Too many boys at the table?"

Emma shrugged, but then nodded again.

"But you must be hungry. What if I bring your food over here? Would you eat it here?"

"They're not gonna let me do that," Emma replied.

"They will if I tell them to," Regina said with a wink. For a moment, she thought she saw the flash of a tiny smile on Emma's lips.

"Okay," Emma agreed.

Regina walked back over the table and picked up Emma's plastic plate and plastic cup of juice. David had sat back down to finish his meal with Henry, and Mary Margaret now had Neal, and was standing by the stairs, just watching.

"What are you doing?" Mary Margaret asked, rushing over to the table.

"She doesn't want to eat at the table with boys," Regina informed them, with a shrug, "so I'm bringing her dinner to her."

"She can't just eat on the floor in the sitting room," Mary Margaret protested. "She needs to abide by the rules of the house."

Regina glanced back at the sitting room, and saw big green eyes peeking at her from around the base of the chair. "Mary Margaret, you will find with young children, you need to learn to pick your battles. She'll eat over there, so your choice is either to let her eat there, or just let her not eat."

Regina didn't wait for Mary Margaret to respond before she turned and headed back to the sitting room. Emma had scooted forward so she was now just at the edge of the base of the chair, still hidden from view of anyone not in the room, and was sitting cross-legged, waiting. Regina placed the cup of juice next to her, and handed her the plate.

"Do you want me to leave you alone to eat?" She asked. Emma nodded, so Regina got up to rejoin the Charmings.

"Regina, I don't know what we're going to do with her," Mary Margaret said the moment Regina had returned.

"Well, talking about her while she's still in earshot probably isn't the best start," Regina commented, as she walked around the table and headed over to the stairs. The others got up to follow her, including Henry. Regina didn't really want to talk about Little Emma in front of him, knowing it was likely a difficult situation for him, but she couldn't really leave him out, either.

"So, she doesn't like eating with boys?" Mary Margaret asked.

"She doesn't like boys in general, she tells me. She asked me to take Henry home," Regina replied, glancing over at Henry to try to gauge how he was handling it. To his credit, he seemed unfazed.

"Well, she's a child. We can't just give in to her every whim," said David.

"No, but you also can't ignore everything she wants, either, or she will start to think her feelings don't matter, and she won't tell you when something is bothering her," Regina replied.

"She doesn't tell us anything anyway," Mary Margaret commented. "You've made more progress with her in five minutes than we have in five days."

"Don't take it personally, I just have more experience with young children than you do. I had to learn everything the hard way with Henry, too. Parenting is really a whole lot of trial and error."

Regina almost regretted mentioning her experience with children, and she hoped the Charmings wouldn't notice, and bring up the fact that their own lack of experience was really her fault. To her relief, they didn't.

"Maybe you should take her home, instead," Henry piped up.

"What?" Regina and Mary Margaret both asked, in unison.

"Well, if you take me home, Grandpa and Neal are still here. If she doesn't want to be around boys, taking me home isn't going to solve the problem. Maybe if you leave me here, and take her with you for the night, you might be able to get her to talk more, and find out what's going on with her."

Regina was about to protest, when Mary Margaret chimed in. "It's not a bad idea," she said, turning to Regina.

Regina noticed the hopeful looks in David and Mary Margaret's eyes, and realized they were just excited for a night free from being terrorized by a preschooler. She wondered if she should remind them that they would have to deal with this from Neal soon enough, but decided against it.

"Alright," Regina said, finally, "one night, and only if Emma agrees to it. And I'll be the one to ask her."

"Why you?" David asked.

"Because you are her parents, and in her experience, parents have done nothing but give her away. If you ask her if she wants to come home with me, she might misinterpret that as you trying to pawn her off on someone else."

Mary Margaret nodded slowly. "You're right, you should ask her."

"I'll go pack her some clothes," David said, turning to head up the stairs.

Apparently, waiting to see if Emma agrees to it isn't on his agenda, Regina thought to herself, but she said nothing as she turned and headed back to the sitting room to speak to Emma again.

Regina was pleased to find Emma sitting with her plate cleared and her juice gone. She knelt down in front of the child, again. "It looks like you were hungry! Good girl." Emma's eyes lit up, and it occurred to Regina that she probably hadn't received much praise in her short life.

"Emma, I want to know, what would you think about having a sleepover at my house tonight?"

Emma sank down a bit and looked at the floor. "With you and Henry?" she asked, quietly.

"No, Henry would stay here. It would be just you and me, no boys," Regina replied.

Emma looked up again. "No boys?"

"None. Just you and me. We can make it a girls night. We can paint our nails and do our hair. I'll make popcorn and we can watch a movie. Does that sound like fun?"

Emma nodded vigorously, and Regina smiled. She wasn't sure what Emma was most excited for, but for her part, Regina couldn't wait to take a brush to that wild mane of hers.

"Can we go now?" Emma asked.

"Yes, absolutely. Come on," Regina smiled and reached out her hand to Emma. Emma took it without hesitation. Regina picked up the plastic dishes, and then led Emma out of the room and over to the kitchen, so she could place them in the sink.

"Can I clean your face up, sweetie?" Regina asked. Emma nodded, and Regina grabbed a clean cloth from the counter, and wet it before kneeling down to wipe the juice stains from around Emma's mouth.

"Wow, she freaks out when Grandma tries to do that," Henry commented, leaning over the counter. Emma looked at Henry, back to Regina, and back to Henry again, no doubt trying to figure out just how everyone was related to each other.

"It's all about building trust, Henry," Regina said, returning to her feet and taking Emma's little hand again. "Building trust, and asking instead of telling." Regina made her way around the counter with Little Emma in tow, and headed toward the door where Mary Margaret and David were already waiting. She wondered if it were actually possible for them to look more eager to pass their daughter off to someone else.

"Emma, you be a good girl for Regina, ok? Do whatever she tells you," David said, handing Emma's backpack of clothes to Regina. "I don't want to get a call saying that you're not behaving." Emma didn't respond, just stuck her thumb back in her mouth.

Mary Margaret quickly reached down to push Emma's hand away from her mouth. "Emma, what did I say about sucking your thumb?" she asked. Regina rolled her eyes. It was becoming evident why they were having problems, if this is how they dealt with her all the time.

"I'm sure we won't have any problems," Regina said, squeezing Emma's hand a little tighter.

"Bye, Mom," Henry said, coming over to give her a hug.

"Bye, Henry, I'll see you tomorrow," Regina responded, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Have a good time, Emma, we love you," Mary Margaret said, smiling down at Emma, but making no move to hug or kiss her goodbye. "We'll come by to pick you up tomorrow afternoon." Emma didn't look up, she just absently played with a loose string on the hem of her t-shirt.

"Well, let's get going so we don't run out of time to do all our fun girl stuff tonight," Regina said, opening the door and leading Emma out. The second the door closed, Emma's thumb went straight back in her mouth. Regina didn't say a word.