This is a sneak peek for the precious @dorabellatrix from me, your OQ Secret Santa. :D @secretsantaandsmores! This work is still in progress (This One has consumed my writing time for the past two weeks), so please forgive my tardiness in completing your story.
I hope you are recovering, feeling better and have been able to enjoy your Christmas. Please know you are continually in my thoughts and prayers as you recuperate.
*Outlaw Queen, Hood Mills family, Swan Queen brotp and Charming/Mills family moments.
She’s never minded the cold, has actually embraced it over the years, reveling 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 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, wiping snow from her daughter’s glasses with a gloved finger. “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.
“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.
Her hair, and perhaps her deafness, but her speech…
Was all because of me. Her hearing loss 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. And no matter what sort of muting spell you may have placed on Zelena, it would have never found its way into Elena’s DNA if I hadn’t...if I hadn’t brought about her birth prematurely. I did this Regina--not you. You’re not responsible for what happened to your daughter.
Emma is certain. Robin is certain. But at times, Regina still has her doubts.
They head home later, red-nosed and pink-cheeked, each of them receiving a mandatory brush-down before entering the house. Boots are discarded, coats are hung in the utility room before there is a mad dash into the warmth of home. The house smells of a ham and cloves, making four pairs of eyes stare back at her in exaggerated hunger.
“Just a nibble, Mom?” Roland asks as she shoos him up the steps towards the shower.
“That’s for dinner, and you know it,” she replies, snapping a warning glance towards her husband who has stealthily made his way towards the kitchen. “There had not better not be one pinch missing from that ham, or there will be no dessert for you.”
Her hands fly--signing is second-nature for all of them now--and she watches as Robin gives an exaggerated shrug towards Ellie before wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at his wife.
She’s making apple strudel, Daddy. Don’t cheat.
Robin laughs and scoops up his daughter, kissing her cheek before setting her back down.
“I won’t,” he assures her before tickling her belly. Her mouth flies open in a silent laugh, the joy on her features unmistakable. She pushes against her father until he stops and puts her down, placing her hands on her hips in a mock reprimand.
Bath, Ellie, Regina signs, watching with amusement as a small pink lip juts out in a pout that rivals Roland’s.
Can’t I wait until after dinner?
Regina shakes her head before Ellie’s hands still in defeat.
“Now, young lady, before everyone comes over for dinner.”
She may not be able to speak, but Ellie can stomp with the best of them, and she does so up the stairs, letting her mother know in no uncertain terms just how she feels about her fun being interrupted for something as mundane as a bath.
