Would you like a sneak peek?
Happy Ouat day to @dorabellatrix from your OQ SS!  Here’s a little teaser for you--just remember it is a work in progress. I hope you like it and have a fantastic week.Â
She’s never minded the cold, has actually embraced it over the years, revelling in the sensation of allowing it to soothe her inner fire and calm overheated nerves. And today is no different, even though no demons have resurfaced nor any fireballs been summoned. Regina’s nose and feet are a bit too chilly for comfort, but that’s nothing she can’t handle, not when she’s surrounded by laughter and the occasional stray snowball whizzing by, the three males in her life knowing better than to lob one in her direction.
Then there’s a tug on her coat, and she turns to the youngest member of their family who now stands waist-high. She holds her gloved hand palm up, her lucid green eyes wide with wonder behind her glasses at the intricate patterns made by a cluster of freshly fallen snow.
“No two are alike, Elena,” Regina explains, her movements fluid and sure as she smiles down at the child’s uninhibited awe. “Every snowflake that falls is unique.”
The girl stills and looks up at her, the question readable in her eyes before her hands move to speak.
Unique doesn’t begin to describe her daughter by choice and circumstance, and Regina swallows hard as she kneels to twirl long, nearly white-blonde locks through her fingers, watching dimples she adores peek out from hiding at her mother’s touch.
“Yes,” she nods before withdrawing her hand so she can answer. “Just like people.”
The spell that had accelerated Elena’s development in Zelena’s womb had marked the girl in ways that hadn’t been clear until she began to grow. Some of the effects were benign, such as the silver-blonde hue of her hair, vastly different than either Robin’s or Zelena’s but so like Emma’s had been when she’d put the girl on a path towards instant growth.
But other effects, such as the child’s inability to hear or speak, those side-effects had been devastating to all of them. And Emma has never forgiven herself for inadvertently marking the child with dark magic.Â
“Hey, Ellie!” Roland yells, prompting Regina to point over the girl’s shoulder in the direction of her brothers. “Come on!”
Roland and Henry have effectively teamed up on Robin, a fact which is just as irresistible to a five year old female as it is to the two over-sized lugs pummeling a certain thief with a barrage of snowballs. Elena jumps and claps her hands, her snowflakes now all but forgotten as she dashes to her father’s rescue, getting covered by snow in the process.
There will be hot baths and hotter cider for everyone tonight, it would seem.
“Save me, Ellie!” Robin cries, his plea followed by a chorus of protests and shouts from Henry and Roland before more snow is thrown about. Robin belly-laughs as he picks up Elena and swings her around, the girl’s mouth open in a smile that covers her face. But no sound emerges from her little body, no squeals, no giggles. Regina aches with the raw need to simply hear her daughter laugh or scream, to finally know what her precious little voice sounds like.
Her stomach clenches uncomfortably.
Robin still blames Emma for the loss of Ellie’s speech and hearing, although he has put aside his overt hostility for Henry’s sake. But Regina can’t help but wonder if the muting spell she’d placed on Zelena had left traces of that particular strain of magic in her bloodstream, magic that had been enhanced by a certain batch of onion rings and absorbed by the one innocent in what had been a horrific situation.
It was me, Regina, not you.
But, Emma, the deafness…
Happened because I was trying to shut out the voices when I cast that spell, trying to convince myself that what I was doing was for the best. I did this Regina--not you. You’re not responsible for what happened to Elena.
Emma is certain. Robin is certain. But at times, Regina still has her doubts.
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