A/N: Hello All! I've decided to attempt a multi-chapter Eventual Evil Charming fic. This story is an alternative possibility for how David and Henry could have gotten Snow and Emma back from Fairy Tale Land. This story will borrow heavily from some season 2 episodes and will refer to events from season 1 as well, so do not read this if you do not wish to be spoiled. This chapter, in particular, is almost solely from Episode 2x2 (We are Both), but I thought it was useful for set-up and tone purposes. Please read and review! I would love to know what you think.

Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time is owned by Disney/ABC/ESPN. I am borrowing their universe for my own profit-less amusement. Fair warning: if you sue me, your legal expenses will exceed my assets. But a big thank you to Disney for employing such a talented group of writers, crew members, and cast members that put together this wonderful show.

xxxxx

Henry's small voice echoed in her mind, "I don't want to be you."

She felt like she had been punched in the gut. All the air had been sucked from her lungs. I don't want to be you. The phrase was all the more painful for its familiarity. Her mind rang with the harmony of her younger voice with Henry's: I don't want to be you.

So, this was it. After all of her protesting that she didn't want to become her mother—she had even sucked most of a world through a dimensional portal to get away from her, for gods' sakes—it had happened anyway. She was Cora all over again. It was inevitable, she supposed. Maybe that was why she felt entirely devoid of surprise. Nauseated, yes. Suffocated, yes. Surprised, no.

How had she gotten to this point? Using magic to maintain control over her son. Because control is what it was; it wasn't love. How she wanted it to be love, though! Tears pricked at her eyelids. Everything had gone so terribly wrong.

She may have already turned into her mother. There wasn't much to be done about that. The ship, as they say, had sailed. She had conducted the majority of her life in a vengeful haze. Whatever moral compass she might have had before Daniel's murder had been obliterated by her pain and rage. Choice after choice—the sum total of which brought her to this moment. This moment, when her son echoed her young words back to her, with her in the role of her mother.

Her heart ached. Decades had passed, but she remembered the desperation she felt, the longing for freedom, when she was in Henry's position. She didn't want to do that to him. She might not know how to do it very well (or well at all), but she does love Henry. And, while it might be too late for her, it wasn't too late for Henry. Maybe he didn't have to grow up to be her. Maybe he could grow up and be Henry. Maybe he could grow up and be happy.

And maybe his happiness could be her happy ending.

xxxxx

It had taken David longer than she expected for him to barge into her home demanding to see Henry. Something pretty serious and urgent must have been happening elsewhere in town to prompt such a delay.

"Henry, come down," she hollered up the stairs. "You won't be using your sword," she addressed David. It was almost cute the way he held his weapon, like a man playing at being king.

"Whatever you conjure, I can fight," he replied.

"I mean, you won't need your sword," she clarified with exaggerated patience. Playing at being king. Much like Henry. Only taller, she mused.

She moved David's sword away from her neck—interesting that he didn't just kill me, she thought—as Henry descended the stairs.

"Henry, you're going home with David," she told him as she met him halfway down the stairs.

"Really?" The excitement in his voice hurt, but she would have plenty of time to dwell on that later. After he left.

"Really," she confirmed. "I shouldn't have brought you here. I was . . . I don't know how to love very well. I wasn't capable of it for a very long time, but I know I remember . . . If you hold onto someone too hard, that doesn't make them love you. I'm sorry I lied to you. And that I made you feel like I didn't know who you are. But I want you to be here, because you want to be here. Not because I forced you, and not because of magic."

"I want to redeem myself." Even as she said it, the words surprised her. The rest of her speech to Henry had been more or less rehearsed while she waited for David to show up and "rescue" him. She knew she would have to give Henry up if she wanted any hope of gaining his affections again, but this desire for redemption had gone unarticulated, even to herself, until the words spilled from her mouth. It was absurd, after all—someone so evil couldn't possibly be redeemed.

"Go get your things." Henry didn't need to be told twice as he bounded up the stairs. At least in all his excitement, he'd probably forget to pack something and need to come back later to pick it up. Unless David, James, whoever he was, came back for the forgotten items alone. She frowned a bit at that.

"Then prove it." David's demand pulled her from her reverie.

"What?" This man was ridiculous. Aside from the looks, she really wasn't sure what Snow saw in him. He seemed a bit dense. How on earth was she supposed to prove that she wanted redemption? Especially when the mere idea of it was so sudden.

"The Enchanted Forest. Our land—does it still exist?" he asked earnestly.

Dense. Regina no longer had any desire to lie about the existence of the Enchanted Forest, but, even if she did, she would still tell the truth. David wouldn't be asking this question if he didn't already know or at least strongly suspect the truth. But, if he wanted to credit her truthfulness to a desire to turn over a new leaf, and not just to her ability to use deductive logic, far be it from her to correct him.

"Yes," she said. "But I have no idea how to get back there." Okay, maybe she did want to change. There really was no other explanation for the fact that she wasn't leaving him with false hope. Evil Queen Regina would have relished sending this Dense Prince on some wild goose chase to divert him from making meaningful progress at regaining his family. This must be what personal growth feels like. It wasn't a comfortable sensation.

She saw the glint in his eye as he acknowledged the challenge before him. "Ah," she said, "I can see I've launched you on a heroic quest." Okay, Snow, Regina thought. Good looks, loyalty, and determination. Maybe I do get what you see in this man. That is quite a combination. "Just make sure you take care of my son." New leaf or not, the Charming Prince would pay if he didn't watch out for Henry while he went off to scale mountains, ford rivers, or whatever this quest would require of him.

"That," he assured her, "I can do."

Appeased, Regina watched Snow White's husband leave with her son. As her gut twisted, she couldn't help but wonder if redemption wasn't all it was cracked up to be.