Summary: Emma begins to have dreams in which she sees a dark stranger who knows her name. When Henry begins to talk about a place called Storybrooke, Emma is convinced her son is making things up. But who is the woman in her dreams who keeps calling her and why does Emma feel she has somehow seen her before? (post 3x11 winter finale)

Pairing: Swan Queen - Regina & Emma

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time (but God, do I wish I did!) so I just borrow their characters. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done.

Note: The promo gave a few things away but when I saw the end of the winter finale, this idea came to me. This is my take on how Emma and Regina will find each other again…

Chapter 1

"Kid!"

She knocked on her son's bedroom door whilst glancing down at her watch. Agitation settled in her stomach because she knew he was deliberately leaving it to the last minute to get ready. She rolled her eyes as she banged the door a second time. "Henry, come on! You're going to be late!"

The door swung open and the beaming face of her son appeared. For a moment she was struck by the way his eyes glistened and the grin across his face grew bigger. He had his backpack swung over his shoulder and was dressed in his favourite pair of jeans, a sweatshirt and a hat. She hated that hideous thing but he seemed permanently attached to it at the moment.

"Relax, mom," Henry said. "It's all under control."

"You won't say that when I have to pay another visit to the principal because you were late for school and you're grounded for a week." Emma sternly looked at him but couldn't keep up the strictness. Her face cracked and she couldn't help but smile. "Again."

"Told you I am more like you then you'd like to admit."

She watched him as he filed past her into the kitchen and she had to admit he was right. Not a day went by that she didn't look at him, struck by just how much Henry was like her. Some of the things he did, the things he said and all his mannerisms… it was as if someone had taken a male child and filled it with everything she knew about herself.

Being a single mother wasn't something she had chosen but she had done the best she could with whatever she had. She and Henry did allright together. They had their ups and downs and times had been hard but as long as they had each other, they always got out the other end.

There had been times where he asked for his father. Questions any child would have. She did her best to answer them but she didn't want to disappoint him by telling him that his father didn't know he existed and, even if he did, he wouldn't have bothered with him anyway. She didn't like to lie but for the sake of his heart she did. It was better to believe that his father was a hero who had died before he was born than to know he was a coward and a traitor who had hurt her more than any other person ever had. She wanted to spare her son that hurt.

Emma heaved a sigh and followed Henry into the kitchen. He sat at the breakfast bar and had just stuffed two forkfuls of scrambled eggs in his mouth. She leant against the counter and watched him. He even ate the same way she did, holding his knife and fork in the wrong hand. It had been a quirk of hers since she was a little girl and she'd never been able to change it.

"Any plans today?"

"School finishes at four so Alex, James and I are going to the park after."

Emma's eyes narrowed. "And what exactly will you be doing there?"

"Ice skating, mom!" Henry looked up and resisted rolling his eyes. "We've been talking about it for weeks and Alex is going on vacation for the holidays soon." He put his fork down, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and picked up the glass of orange juice next to his plate. In between two large gulps he added, "Besides, I still need to buy your Christmas present."

"Ok." Her eyes shot to the clock on the kitchen wall. He was cutting it fine once again. "You'd better hurry. I really don't want to take your Xbox away for the week."

Henry stood up, finished the rest of his juice and grabbed his backpack. He circled the breakfast bar, kissed Emma on her cheek. His eyes met hers.

"See ya later."

"See ya, kid," she answered as he walked out their apartment.

Emma walked to the bathroom, took a shower and got dressed. She then walked into Henry's bedroom and collected the dirty washing from the hamper at the end of his bed, straightened the sheets and opened the curtains. She glanced outside to see the skies over the city were grey and full of snow. The weather report on the radio earlier that morning had warned that a storm was on its way and judging from the clouds, it was here.

With her arms full of dirty clothes Emma walked back into the apartment, grabbed the shirt she'd worn the day before of the back of the couch and opened the door. The building had a wash room downstairs in the basement and she took the small key from the hook, double checked she had her house keys, and stepped out of the apartment.

She made her way down the three flights of stairs and reached the basement. It was always hot down here, with the three washing machines and three dryers running on an almost permanent basis. Emma unlocked the door to the wash room, stepped inside and hoped that at least one of the washers was free. She sighed in relief when she noticed only one was running and quickly stuffed the washing in the machine, switched it on and looked up to find her neighbour walking into the room.

"Hey, Rachel," she smiled and the redhead looked up.

"Oh, hi, Emma."

"I didn't see you around the weekend." Emma leant against the washing machine.

"Pete took me to Philadelphia for the weekend," Rachel answered as she began putting her dirty clothes in the washing machine. "Came back last night." Her eyes briefly found Emma's. "Did you do anything nice?"

"Bought most of Henry's Christmas presents. I swear, it's getting harder and harder every year to buy him something he doesn't already have."

"What did you get him?"

"Couple of Xbox games, a book, some clothes and the latest CD of this band he likes."

"How old is he now?"

Emma chuckled. "Twelve going on twenty-two." She looked down at the floor and then suddenly something found its way to the front of her mind. "Something weird happened over the weekend though."

Rachel had finished putting the detergent in the machine and turned around. "What do you mean, weird?"

"Some guy knocked on our door on Saturday morning."

"What guy?"

"I don't know," Emma answered. The image of the unexpected visitor had been burned into her brain. "But he was weird though."

Rachel's curiosity was triggered. "Weird in what way?"

"He was dressed like a pirate," Emma answered, unable to keep a smirk of her face.

"A pirate?" Rachel echoed. "Halloween has been and gone."

"I know that but I don't think he got that memo." Emma ran her hand through her hair and felt her cheeks flush an uncomfortable shade of red. "He said he knew me. He tried to kiss me. Well, he did kiss me."

"WHAT?!" Rachel stared at Emma in shock. "What else did he say?"

"He said my family's in trouble."

"But you're…"

"Yeah," Emma interjected, bitterness lacing her words. Even after all these years the pain still slumbered inside her heart. It crept up on her at the most unexpected moments. "They abandoned me. I don't have any family."

"Did you call the police?"

Emma shook her head. "I slammed the door and told him to get the hell out." She peered at Rachel through her eyelashes. "What are the police going to do? They're not going to look for some moron dressed as a friggin' pirate."

"Well, LaGuardia psychiatric hospital is only three blocks away," Rachel pointed out and shrugged. "Maybe someone left a door open."

Emma snickered and turned back towards the door. She held it so Rachel could follow her out of the laundry room. "Well, let's hope they've closed it now. What else are we going to find? A fairy?"

She and Rachel climbed the three flights of stairs to their floor and went their separate ways. Emma closed the door behind her, switched on the radio and got the vacuum cleaner. She loud sound drowned out the Christmas songs being played on her favourite radio station. Something about this time of year made her incredibly said and if was up to her she would forget about Christmas altogether.

It was Henry who wanted a tree. It stood in the corner of their living room, decorated in shades of blue, silver and white. A pile of neatly wrapped presents lay underneath it. Although Henry had said that he didn't care what she got him, when he saw the presents his eyes had lit up much like the tree itself. She liked seeing the happiness on his face. It brought happiness to herself to see him smile. He was her everything. He was her only person in this whole world. Without him she would be lost.

Just as she switched the vacuum cleaner off she heard her cell phone ring. It sounded pitiful. Henry kept telling her that she needed a better ringtone but so far she had just stuck to one of the standard tubes that came with the device. It lay on the coffee table in a position that even the slightest knock would see it fall to the ground.

"Hello?"

"Emma, its Justin. Sorry to call you on your day off but I was wondering if you could do me a massive favour?"

"Sure," she answered, her eyes drifting around the now relatively tidy looking living room. It looked like this was the best she was going to do today. "What can I do for you?"

"Nick's gone home because it looks like his wife's gone into labour. I was wondering…"

"You want me to cover for the rest of the day?" she finished her boss' sentence, already adding the extra hours of overtime up in her head.

"Would it be too much of an imposition?"

"Not at all," she answered and checked her watch. She needed to get changed and get to the nearest subway station or consider taking a cab. The latter would probably take too long. "I'll be there in an hour."

She hung up, threw the phone on the couch and crossed the apartment to her bedroom. She quickly made the bed, putting the pillows back in place. She opened her wardrobe, chose a black pair of slacks, a white blouse and a matching black blazer before looking under her bed for her boots. She stripped off her jeans and long sleeved grey t-shirt, put on the new set of clothes and brushed her hair before pinning it up with a large black hairclip. A few playful curls fell down the side of her face and she grabbed her purse of her nightstand, found her keys in the kitchen and picked up her phone from the couch. On her way down the stairs she sent a text to Henry.

Gone to work. If you get home before I do, there's some cheesecake in the fridge. I'll get us a pizza on the way home. See you tonight.

She stormed out of the apartment building, almost knocking over some delivery guy, and turned right at the end of the block. The streets were crowded and noisy. People seemed to be coming from every direction. The sound of car horns, voices and music filled her ears. New York City was a place that never slept. A city of dreams and nightmares, of hope and of loss. It brought out the best and the worst in people. For some it was everything life could ever be, for others it was the thing that destroyed them, tore them apart.

Emma made her way down the stairs of the subway station, ignored the teenage kid playing his guitar whilst singing Christmas carols and joined the steady flow of people heading down to the platform. To her relief a train rolled in just as she reached the bottom step and she ran across, managing to find a seat a couple of minutes before the doors closed. She searched in her purse for the earphones to her phone, plugged them in and switched on the music. She released a heavy sigh as she rested her head against the cool glass. The music filled her ears.

"…When an ocean sits right between us, there is no sign that we'll ever cross. You should know now that I feel the loss. I hurt too…"

Thirty minutes later the subway came to a stop and Emma left her seat. She climbed the stairs to the exit and when she emerged from the depths below New York City she noticed that somewhere in between her leaving home and arriving here, the weather had changed. Fine, small flakes of snow fell from the grey skies over her head and she looked up for just a moment as around her the world rushed by.

"Looks like Henry will get his wish after all," she muttered to herself as she started walking in the direction of the office building where she worked. "A white Christmas."

When she walked into the lobby of the tall office building in downtown Manhattan she brushed the snowflakes of her coat and out of her hair. As she walked to the elevator she walked past the large black sign with big, bold white letters. Holden & Anderson Bail Bonds. She pressed the button and the elevator doors swung open. Emma stepped inside, pressed the number ten and the doors closed. Much to her irritation a Christmas jingle played in the elevator and she groaned to herself.

A minute later the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Emma stepped out onto the brightly lit corridor and turned left. At the end of the hallway she opened the double doors and walked into a large office space with windows that looked out over Manhattan. Offices lined either end of the open space in the middle and it didn't take her long to spot the person who had called her.

"Hey Justin," she greeted her boss.

"Emma!" He looked relieved to see her. "Thanks for coming in."

"No problem." She tucked an unruly curl behind her ear. "So, what's the update?"

Justin's face fell. "Thomas Wright."

"What'd he do now?"

"It's what he didn't do, Emma."

She sighed. "Lemme guess, he skipped bail?" When Justin nodded she grinned. "Want me to find him?"

"You're the best we've got."

"I'll get on it."

Emma turned around and walked into her office. It was small but not too small. A window looked out over the street below and a larger window looked out over the rest of the floor. People were walking, phones rang and fingers flew across keyboards. Emma sank into her chair, switched on her computer and reached for the phone. At the same time she rummaged through a stash of files on her desk to find the one she was looking for. She pulled it out, opened it and her eyes scanned the information looking for any clues that could lead to her to her fugitive.

This was what she did. She found people. It was what she had always done although the times were she worked for a slightly dodgy company were well behind her. Holden & Anderson was a respectable office that focused not on small time petty criminals but high end clients like business men and other professionals who had found themselves on the wrong side of the law and required bail. It had brought her into the higher circles of New York life. It wasn't a place she enjoyed being, people's arrogance made her uncomfortable, but it had a damn good pay check and allowed her to give Henry everything he wanted and needed.

It didn't take long for her to become so engrossed in her work that the world around her just disappeared. She managed to get hold of her fugitive's business partner who told her he had no idea where he'd gone. She hacked into his phone details and soon discovered where it had been used last, narrowing it down to Queens.

She picked up the phone again, this time speed dialling the number for one of the bail bondsmen out on the streets today. That was another thing that had changed since joining Holden & Anderson. She did the paperwork inside her warm office, complete with its own coffee machine, and someone else got to the dirty work of actually busting someone's balls. Her days of braving the streets in the middle of winter when she could barely feel her toes were over.

"Hey, Sean, it's Emma," she said when a familiar voice answered on the other side of the line and her lips curled up into a smile in satisfaction. "I found our little friend in Queens."

She hung up, closed the file and glanced at the clock. It had taken her only three hours to find him. A knock on her door made her look up. It was open and a young woman stood in the door way. Emma didn't recognise her.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"I don't know," the woman answered and Emma noticed that she didn't speak with a New York accent.

Emma sat up in her chair, her eyes fixed on the woman. She couldn't put her finger on it but there was something strange about her. She was pale, with dark red hair that had been bound back in a lose braid. "Are you looking for someone?"

"Emma Swan," the woman answered and smiled. "I'm looking for Emma Swan."

"There's nobody here by that name. Are you sure you've got the right floor?"

"Yes," the redhead answered and she seemed a little taken aback. "So you're not Emma?"

"Yes, I'm Emma," Emma answered, furrowing her brow. "But..."

"Oh, I must be in the right place after all then," the unknown woman interjected and walked into the office. When she reached the desk she put the plain envelope down in front of Emma. The smile on her face was so bright it was almost blinding."Special delivery."

"Delivery?" Emma asked and picked up the envelope. There was no name or address on the front or the back and she looked back up. The woman stood in the doorway again. "I didn't order anything."

"I was just told to take this to Emma." She cocked her head. "So if you're name isn't Emma Swan, then what is it?"

"Emma Mills."