A/N: Café and I decided to post another one-shot because we loved every viewer that viewed our stories too much. I never thank people in the right place, but I'm going to anyway. Thank you for every view, follow, favorite, and review. We honestly want to thank each of you individually.

This story is not set before/after any episode in Once Upon a Time.

P.S We do not own Once Upon a Time. Though I think that's pretty obvious already.

-Skye :)

When I Needed Help

"Welcome to the annual ball, Snow," said a booming voice.

"Where am I?" Snow asked, looking for the source of the voice. "Who are you?"

Snow was standing in the middle of a ballroom, wearing a white shining dress. She heard a familiar voice behind her.

"You look beautiful, sweetheart."

"Mother! How are you here? I thought you were dead," Snow said, choking on the last word.

She heard another voice behind her.

"You look wonderful, Snow. I must be blessed, having such an amazing daughter," her father said, smiling.

"Father? H-how, where am I?" Snow stuttered, bewildered.

She turned around again, and found Charming by her side, along with Emma and Henry.

"I'm so glad you're here," Snow said. "I have no idea what's going on."

When she didn't receive a reply, she turned around and saw Charming and Emma dance off into the distance. Even Henry was dancing with a girl around his age. She turned around to her parents, but they too, disappeared. Soon their figures became shadows in the night.

Snow was all alone in the ballroom. She tried to run after them but couldn't move. Snow was devastated. Stuck in an empty ballroom with a pretty dress on, she wished Charming was dancing with her.

She then heard the same voice that had introduced her to the ballroom.

"Snow White, the girl with the skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony, and lips as red as blood. Why are you so special? Do you really think that you will have a happy ending?" the booming voice asked. "Of course you won't. You'll be alone because no one loves you. That's why every person you loved has shunned you or died. They couldn't stand you!"

The voice echoed throughout the room, taunting her. The words repeated over and over again. Snow tried not to listen, but it was clear that she was slowly succumbing to the words, becoming more frightened by the second.

She heard slow footsteps outside the door. She turned her head and found Regina in a shimmering purple dress. She came in with Daniel, and they danced around her until they, too, disappeared into the darkness.

"Snow, wake up! Wake up!" a voice shouted at her.

"Mother!" Snow screamed, shooting up from the bed, gripping the sheets tightly.

"It's okay, it's okay," Charming said in a soothing voice. "It was just a bad dream."

Snow felt slightly dizzy from the sudden outburst, and laid back down on the bed. Charming, Emma, and Henry looked at her, concerned for Snow's well-being.

"Are you okay?" Henry asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," Snow said unconvincingly. "It was just a bad dream. What are you guys doing here? What time is it?"

Charming looked at Snow, frowning.

"It's almost 3am, Saturday. You were having a dream and you were screaming pretty loudly, so you woke us up."

Snow uttered a small apology. Emma looked at her mother, still concerned.

"Do you want to talk about the dream? It might help," Emma suggested.

"No, it's fine. I don't want to talk about it."

With that said, everyone said their goodnights. Snow fell asleep again, only to wake up screaming once more, waking Charming, Emma, and Henry up for the second time. She couldn't sleep; her nightmares were haunting her.

Charming and Snow decided to talk about their adventures to Emma and Henry for the rest of the night.

Regina walked into the diner, seeing the four members of the Charming family yawning tiredly. She looks at Henry's exhausted face and walks over to him.

"Is everything alright, Henry? Did you get enough sleep last night?"

"I'm fine," he replied, stifling a yawn. "It's Mary Margaret. She was having nightmares, so she couldn't sleep."

Regina glared at Charming and Snow.

"Try to get some sleep tonight. We don't want anyone feeling faint tomorrow."

She then picked up her take-out and left the diner.

After a moment of silence, Snow spoke up.

"She's right. You guys shouldn't be staying up with me all night. You guys need to sleep. Don't worry about me."

"No way," they said. "If you're going to tell us to sleep, then you should at least try to get some sleep too."

"Fine."

"You should get some sleep, sweetie," Charming said, smiling.

"Yeah Grandma, you need to rest," Henry said, chiming in. "My mom used to tell me to talk it out, since it could make you feel better."

"No," Snow said firmly. "You guys go ahead and sleep, I'll only be up for a while."

They realized why Snow was staying up. She was afraid of her nightmares.

"Have you had this dream before?" Emma asked.

"When I was a child."

"Who used to put you to sleep?" Henry asked.

"My mother."

"Well, she isn't coming back," Charming said carefully. "What did she do to help you sleep?"
Snow ignored Charming's question.

"No, not my birth mother," Snow said. She hesitated before saying, "My stepmother."

"Regina? You've got to be kidding. The Evil Queen helped you?" Emma said, unsure.

"Well, I guess we should call her then," Charming said, walking towards the phone.

"No, I don't need her help," Snow said.

"She's our only choice, since she's the only one who could've helped you." Charming sighed, trying to be reasonable. "How about we let Henry dial Regina? He could say that your nightmares are causing him to wake up, and that if you sleep, he will too."

"Okay," she said, finally agreeing.

Everyone looked at Henry. He picked up the phone slowly dialed Regina's number.

"Hello?"

"Mom!"

"Henry? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, but Mary Margaret is still having bad dreams. She said that you helped her before, so I was wondering if you could help her again."

There was a long silence. Henry began to wonder if Regina hung up on him. He was about to hang up when she said,

"I'm coming over."

They waited for the doorbell to ring. A few seconds after the call, the door blew right open. Three pairs of eyes stared at Regina. Then they slowly realized she probably used her magic to get here quicker. Regina could see that they were desperate for their sleep.

She went up to the bedroom door and slowly stepped inside. Before she reached in, Charming grabbed her arm, and pulled her out.

"Before you go in, I just want to remind you that we are asking for your help, and that I am watching you out here. Don't you dare try to hurt her, because I will destroy you, if it's the last thing I do," Charming threatened.

Regina gave him a smirk and stepped inside.

"So I heard that you couldn't sleep," Regina said.

Snow shrugged and turned so that her back was facing Regina.

"Maybe," was her muffled reply.

Regina knew Snow wasn't going to explain any further.

"Do you want some hot chocolate?" she asked, a sparkle in her eyes.

Snow immediately showed an interest and tilted her head towards Regina.

"Yes, please," she said, trying to contain her new-found excitement.

Regina left the room without another word and went to the kitchen.

Charming, Emma, and Henry wondered what Regina was doing, going through their drawers.

"What are you doing? What did she tell you?" Henry asked.

Regina looked up with a smile.

"I'm making hot chocolate, want some?"

"Sure. The chocolate powder is in the top drawer to your left," Charming said.

"I'm making it the old fashioned way," she said impatiently.

Regina told them to leave and let her be.

After half an hour, they were finally allowed to go back into the kitchen. They saw the sink filled with used pots, bowls, knives, and spoons.

"What were you making?" Emma questioned.

"The worlds best cup of chocolate."

Snow descended the stairs. Once she came down, Regina handed her a cup of chocolate with whipped cream and cinnamon on top.

Snow looked at her cup, and whispered.

"You remembered our recipe?"

Henry drank his cup, and ran to his mother asking for more.

"Why haven't you made me this before? It's amazing!"

"Well, I created this recipe with Snow. If you want chocolate, we can make one of our own."

Snow drank her cup of chocolate, and said.

"It tastes just like how I remembered it."

"So, Snow, do you want to talk about it?" Regina said, trying her best to stay polite.

Snow just shook her head.

"Does the dream take place in the ballroom?"

Snow nodded.

"Are the people dancing?"

Snow nodded again.

Charming's suspicions were growing, wondering how the Evil Queen knew so much about his wife that he didn't even know.

"What are you guys talking about? What ballroom? What dancing?"

"C'mon, it's getting late, let's go to sleep," Regina said, leading Snow up the stairs.

Regina pulled a reluctant Snow up to her bedroom. She pulled out a music box out of her bag and set it down next to Snow.

"Do you remember this music box, Snow?"

"Yes," she said, face lighting up. "Father gave it to you as a gift, but I wanted it. He said that when I grew older, you would give it to me."

Regina looked at Snow.

"Do you want to hear a bedtime story?"

Snow was surprised at Regina's invitation. She nodded, not knowing what else to do, since it had been a long time since she last had a bedtime story.

Regina twisted the lever, and music began to swirl in their ears.

"Once upon a time, in a faraway land..."

Henry crawled up next to Regina, followed by Emma and Charming, who brought chairs in the room to sit on.

Regina continued.

"Once upon a time, in a faraway land, lived a fair maiden. This woman's dream was to find her Prince Charming, and live happily ever after, finding true love. One day, her father hired a stable boy, and she started having feelings towards him. They spent days and days at the stables, riding horses. After some time, they decided to get married, and have children of their own. So during the night, this maiden left with the stable boy, and got engaged. One night, the maiden realized that she found true love, and finally understood what it was. Love was magic, and it created happiness. The stable boy and the fair maiden was soon married, and had a child, a boy with hazel brown eyes. They then lived happily ever after. The end."

When Regina was finally done with the story, she looked at faces of everyone. They were all sleeping soundly. She looked at Henry's sleeping face and whispered lightly "And that was their happily ever after..."

Saturday quickly turned to Sunday, and the Charmings woke up to a lot of back pain. They all woke up smiling, though, realizing they finally slept in peace. They looked around and all wondered where Regina went.

The kitchen was now clean, and everything was tidy. Regina must've cleaned up everything before she left.

"That was a lot of dishes to clean. She must have stayed for a couple of hours cleaning," Charming said, amazed.

At that moment, Snow realized that her stepmother had never left her side all those years ago. She realized that from then until now, Regina was always there for her.