Summary

While looking through a few of her old things, Emma finds a picture of herself as a sullen-looking sixteen-year-old. She barely remembers life back then but she knows she was entirely miserable. As she turned the photo over, she noticed two words written in her own teenage writing... "I wish..." She remembered the wish very well, It was the same wish she'd had her whole life. She wished someone, somewhere cared about her.

As she reminisced about her earlier life, little did she know that across town, Regina had disappeared in a puff of Fairy magic.

This is a slow burn pre SwanQueen/SwanQueen piece that does feature Hook, although not in a particularly favourable way. It's also my first attempt at writing since I did my A-levels many moons ago.

Please be kind, or at least constructive.

Rated M for later chapters.

Set in the foggy realms of 6a, where the Evil Queen storyline has played out and Emma and Hook are now living together and engaged, but not much of the other stuff happened.

No beta, all mistakes are due to my own ineptitude. I own nothing.

Spring 2000

Emma Swan was lying on her bed, in her shared room in the latest in a long line of group homes, feeling very sorry for herself. The next morning, she should have been heading off to summer camp, but due to a series of rather unfortunate and somewhat annoying events, she wasn't anymore.

She had been so excited when she had first been told, finally, she got to do something that the 'normal' kids got to do. The other kids at the school she was currently attending had been talking about summer, and which camps they would be attending for weeks now. From what Emma had gleaned, there were several around, the coolest of which being 'Camp Stargazer'. When she had received a letter informing her of her 'state-funded' place, she had been so excited that she had skimmed over the details. She'd seen the words 'camp' and 'star' and that was enough to send her mood skyrocketing. The next day she had merrily waved that letter around for all to see, and as was the way things usually went in Emma's life, it took her classmates all of five seconds to piss on her parade.

Billy Morgan, the loud-mouthed class bell-end, snatched the letter off her in disbelief. He just couldn't believe that there was any way that Emma Swan, the scrappy orphan that no one wanted, got to go to Camp Stargazer when his parents couldn't afford to send him.

His suspicions were correct.

It took him those five seconds to notice something that Emma, in her excitement hadn't. She was not going to the luscious and beautiful Camp Stargazer as she had claimed. No, she was being sent to the poor-mans knock off on the other side of town called Camp Lonestar. When her error had been duly noted by all within earshot, Emma was left feeling disappointed and really annoyed with herself for not noticing sooner. She was humiliated and it was partly her own doing. Still, Billy Morgan was a fucking prick and because of that, she punched him.

Therefore, no summer camp for Emma Swan.

Spring 2017, Storybrooke.

A slightly frazzled Sheriff Emma Swan sent her son a quick text from her seat across from the suspiciously empty opposing bench in her and the town Mayors favourite booth in Granny's.

You seen your mom? She was supposed to be meeting me at the diner.

Regina woke up with a massive headache. Her first instinct was to question what the hell had happened the previous night to leave her in such a state. She forced her sleep-addled brain to think back to the night before and nothing out of the ordinary immediately came to mind. Henry had been staying over at Snow and David's, helping Snow prepare for an unusually resource-heavy lesson the next day and she had taken the opportunity to allow herself and get lost in a good book while sitting next to her open fire and enjoying a glass of her favourite red wine. She remembered doing that for several hours and then... nothing. She couldn't remember anything after that. Had she really gotten that drunk?

As she became more aware of her surroundings, she realised with surprise that she was in a bed - but it wasn't her own. Her bed was made from top of the range memory foam, this bed clearly wasn't and it smelled different too. It wasn't uncomfortable, it just wasn't her own. Also, the light streaming in through the window was an odd hue - mornings in Storybrooke were usually quite crisp in colour but here, wherever here was, had a warm orangey tint.

She sighed as she started to roll over and found herself thinking that the room really could do with some new curtains before being quickly shaken from that thought as she heard a strange noise and felt the bed move next to her.

Just as the fear of yet another potentially terrible life choice assaulted her, she was greeted by a furry fuss of love as a black and white blur jumped on top of her and licked her face, relaxing her instantly.

"Good morning handsome," she said aloud, laughing as she tried her best to fend the very welcome bed-mate off. It's was only her dog, Jasper.

Wait... Dog?

That's when that it dawned on her why she had a massive headache. In addition to her life as Regina Mills, the once great and powerful Evil Queen of the Enchanted Forest, now small-town Mayor and mother, she remembered a whole other life too. A life where this was indeed her bed and the excitable black and white dog snuggling into her side was her faithful and adored companion.

She had absolutely no idea how this turn of events had come to pass and that troubled her slightly, it was clear that something magical was afoot. Out of curiosity, she held up her hand and tried to summon a fireball.

Nothing. Wherever the hell she was, there was no magic.

She closed her eyes and frowned as she tried to recall any information that might help her figure out where she was, the whole while absently tickling Jasper's tummy.

One thing was for sure, she wasn't in Storybrooke anymore.

After receiving Emma's text Henry had tried calling his brunette mother, sadly to no avail. He hadn't seen her since the day before when they had all had lunch together. Neither had anyone else it would seem. It was entirely unlike her to just vanish, even on the odd occasion she had needed space to think, she had always made a point to let him know she was safe. This was very out of character and Henry was concerned. He agreed to meet Emma at the mansion to see if there were any clues as to her whereabouts and when he arrived, he found her waiting for him on the front porch.

"Thanks for waiting Ma, but you could have just gone in." It's true, the hero squad were all so familiar with each other these days that not one of them batted an eyelid when another sauntered into their home.

"I know kid, but I figured if she is sick, she's less likely to fireball my ass if you are here too," she said with a smile. They both shared an amused smirk.

"As if she would ever fireball you," Henry said with an affectionate shoulder check while pushing the door open.

"Need I remind you that she did just that, only last week!" Emma fired back while following him into the house.

"MOM! Are you here?" Henry shouted into the large foyer, he paused to wait for a response and when nothing came, he turned back to Emma and said in a much quieter voice "That's because you trampled her geraniums... I'm starting to worry a little."

"Yeah, me too kid. Let's have a look around" Emma suggested.

They started with the ground floor and when they came to the study Emma immediately noticed that the fire hadn't been extinguished properly and there was a half-drank glass of wine sitting on the side table near a rumpled blanket and discarded book.

Henry looked at Emma with alarm. He knew his mother well enough to know she would never leave a fire unattended, nor a discarded glass of wine lying around. She was far too neat for that.

"Oh my gods Ma, she's been taken!"