Fair warning: There will be multiple deaths in this story, but neither will be Regina or Emma so don't worry. If you've been following my Tumblr, however, this IS the story where Hook will die, so if you don't want to read that, then this is not the story for you. If you're going to send me hateful reviews because of it, they are just going to be deleted, so if this is not the story for you, just move on and don't waste everyone's time, alright?
Also, I'm going to keep the graphic descriptions to a minimum, but there are a couple murders so there will be mention of things like blood. I won't make it too gorey because that's not the type of story this is.
Schism
By RowArk
Chapter One
Emma Swan just couldn't catch a break.
At least, that's how it felt to her when she'd only just gotten back to Storybrooke from New York, after finding Henry and stopping Gold and literally watching Regina split herself into two. She'd hoped to be able to come home and just relax for a little while. After all, it had only been days since they'd been in the literal underworld, fighting to stay alive, and regardless of the fact that she'd been the one to lead the way there, damn it, Emma was sure she deserved a day off.
But, one phone call from David and she was reminded that Saviors - and Sheriffs, apparently - don't get days off.
Emma, I need you to get down to the hospital. Something's going on there. I think it involves Whale.
Emma grumbled to herself as she laced up her boots. Of course David would be tied up dealing with some dwarf-related spat at the diner when the call came in from the nurse at the hospital. He couldn't even tell her what to expect when she got there, since the nurse hadn't even been able to give him any details.
In spite of everything, though, Emma had to admit that it felt good to pull on her red leather jacket and attach her Sheriff badge to the waistband of her jeans again. It had be so long - too long really - and she was amazed at how such a simple, routine action felt so oddly reassuring right now.
Maybe things really were getting back to normal, even if she didn't get to sleep in today.
Well, it would be a new normal, she supposed. A normal which involved a new, probably different Regina, who'd ripped out and destroyed the worst parts of herself, and who was still reeling from Robin's death. Emma had meant to go and see her today, and she hoped whatever was going on at the hospital wouldn't take too much time to sort out, and she could get there sooner rather than later.
She soon learned that was not going to be the case.
"What the hell…" Emma's voice trailed off as the young dark-haired nurse, Amelia, lead her into Whale's office, where the doctor lay, sprawled out on the floor, his limbs contorted at all sorts of unnatural looking angles and deep red blood staining the vast majority of his clothing, as well as pooled around him.
"It looks like he bled out," Amelia said, nodding as she crossed her arms.
"Bled out," Emma repeated, swallowing hard. Times like this reminded her that she wasn't actually trained to be a cop. She was used to dealing with magical beings of every sort of nature. Everything she knew about real crime came from life experience, and a whole lot of procedural dramas on TV.
And she quickly realized she was no more prepared to handle this investigation than the nurse beside her was.
"Um…" Emma started, unable to tear her eyes off of Whale's body, but also making no effort to go in for a closer look. "Did anyone see… anything?"
Amelia shook her head. "No. His office door was locked from the inside, but the light was on and his car was here before I got here this morning, so I knew he had to be in there. When he wouldn't answer my knocking, I figured he was passed out drunk again, so I got the janitor to come and jimmy the lock. We found him like this and there was no one else inside."
Emma nodded, her eyes quickly scanning the rest of the room. "The, uh, perp could've gone through the window."
"It doesn't open."
"Of course it doesn't," Emma sighed. "So you and the janitor, you're the only witnesses, then? Where is he?"
Amelia smirked. "He passed out at the sight of the blood. Knocked himself out cold when he hit the ground. People underestimate how tough nurses are, you know."
"I bet," Emma agreed, before turning her attention back to Whale. "Did you check for vitals?"
"Seems kinda redundant at this point, doesn't it?"
"Right. Okay. Who… wow, who would even want to kill Dr. Whale?"
Amelia snorted. "Who wouldn't?"
"Good point. Does anyone in this hospital perform autopsies?"
For once, Amelia paused before answering, caught off guard. "Uh… you know, I don't think we've ever had to. No one really died during the curse and since it broke, not many have died of… non-magical reasons, you know?"
"Yeah. Good point. This, however, does not look magical."
Amelia's ever-present smirk faded then. "You think we've got an actual serial killer on the loose in Storybrooke."
Emma shook her head, quickly. "Okay, let's not jump the gun here, alright? One murder doesn't mean serial killer. Like you said, there's a lot of people in this town who have a beef with Whale. This could be an isolated incident. Let's get someone in here to get him down to the morgue and then you find out if any other doctors here were cursed with… knowledge of autopsies. I'll start… looking for evidence."
To Emma's relief, by the time Whale's body could be transported to the morgue, David was done with the dwarves and able to come and assist - not that he was all that much help either.
"Dad," Emma said, shaking her head. "We're in way over our heads here."
David stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the far wall. Amelia had provided them both with surgical booties to wear over their shoes to avoid contaminating the scene, and a massive supply of surgical grade latex gloves, but still neither of them knew exactly where to start.
"Do you know how to dust for prints?" Emma pressed, when David didn't immediately reply. "Or take blood samples?"
David shook his head.
"Shit… Dad, there's an actual murderer in Storybrooke and we are not qualified to deal with this."
"We have no other choice, Emma," David said, finally. "We've dealt with difficult situations before."
"Yeah. Difficult magical situations. Situations where Regina or Gold or even the fairies knew what the hell to do. But, Dad… no amount of dream catchers or old library books on magic are going to help us here."
David nodded again, before reaching for the fingerprint kit he'd brought with him at Emma's request and left on Whale's desk upon entering the room. "Well, how hard can it be? We've taken on everything magical and impossible… we can handle a real-world problem."
Emma raised an eyebrow but nodded anyway. David was nothing if not an eternal optimist, and as much as that might annoy her at times, she supposed she could use a little optimism right now.
"Alright. You figure out how to dust for prints. I'm gonna see if anything was caught on camera or if there were any other possible witnesses."
An hour later, David had half a fuzzy fingerprint lifted, and Emma had 24 hours of video of no one but Whale going into his office before Amelia found him and no more eye witnesses.
"So what's next?" David asked, the optimism having faded from his face a little.
"I guess we seal the crime scene and wait for the results of the autopsy," Emma said, with a sigh, glancing up at the clock on the wall. "I'm supposed to go see Regina today."
"In the middle of a murder investigation?" David asked, before sighing as well. "Well, I guess there isn't much more you can do right now anyway. Go. I'll call you if anything new comes up."
"Thanks Dad."
Emma took a deep breath when she stepped out of the hospital and back into the open Storybrooke air. Part of her wondered if she should have called Regina right from the moment she found out Whale was dead, as she knew the Mayor would want to be informed of something amiss in her town, but she also didn't want to burden Regina with anything else just yet. She knew she had no choice though. Regina would need to know what was going on and it was best coming from her, she supposed. At the end of the day, Emma was still the Sheriff, and in spite of everything else, Regina was still technically her boss.
Truthfully, Emma didn't really know what to expect when she showed up at Regina's house. Though she'd agreed to support her, whatever decision she made, she wasn't exactly sure what ripping out half your personality and destroying it would do to a person. If there was one message that kept getting driven home again and again, it was that all magic came with a price, and deep down, Emma worried about the price of magically snuffing out your darker half.
On top of that, she knew Regina was still reeling from Robin's death. She knew a big part of Regina had probably really feared that she'd go down the same path she had when Daniel died, and though Emma believed she wouldn't, she still knew Regina didn't have that sort of faith in herself.
Still, she wondered how Regina would be coping without her darker side. Emma had long since figured out that a lot of Regina's former evil persona had been created as a defense mechanism to protect her and hide her vulnerabilities. Emma knew all too well about amour and building walls, and the security they provided, and she had to wonder how Regina was going to cope without it.
Of all the things Emma expected when she stepped into the entryway of Regina's mansion, piles upon piles of boxes along with a crib right in the middle of the foyer where not on the list.
"Regina?" Emma called out, tentatively, stepping around boxes on her way to the living room. Regina didn't answer, but the distinct sound of the Mayor bickering with her sister told Emma which direction to head.
Sure enough, she found them in the living room, Regina looking clearly annoyed with her arms crossed, glaring at her Zelena, and Zelena looking as defensive as she possibly could, with little Robyn nestled in her arms.
"Am I interrupting something?" Emma asked as she entered the room.
"Oh, no, I'm just about to murder my sister," Regina spat, not looking away from Zelena.
"Um, okay, heh… funny you should mention murder…"
Regina narrowed her eyes and turned to look at Emma. "What?"
Emma let out a long sigh and began relaying the details of what had happened at the hospital. She would have prefered to talk to Regina alone, but she supposed if Zelena insisted on living with her sister, Emma was going to have to get used to her being around, and likely getting involved in their daily lives.
"So… yeah, we're waiting on the result of the autopsy now, I guess," Emma said, once the story was out.
"Wow," Zelena said, sounding half-surprised and half-amused. "This town really can't function without a villain, can it?"
"So, what were you two fighting about?" Emma asked, ignoring Zelena's comment.
"A.. feather. It's not important right now," Regina explained, brushing it off. "We need to deal with this."
"Regina… we? Are you sure-"
"Emma! I thought we'd been over this. You don't get to bench me."
"I wasn't… Regina, I mean, neither of us are really qualified to deal with something like this. And you've clearly got your hands full here," Emma said, nodding toward the still visible mess in Regina's foyer. "Let me and David handle this for now, alright? I promise I'll keep you in the loop."
"Fine," Regina agreed through gritted teeth. "But I want to know exactly what's going on the moment it happens."
"I promise." Emma grabbed her phone as it vibrated in her pocket. "It's David. I gotta go back to the hospital."
Regina nodded and gave a thin smile. "Fine. I suppose I really do have enough to deal with here."
"I'll call you."
With that, Emma was heading back through the house, towards the door. Briefly, she wondered if she should google proper crime scene procedure on her phone before going back, but she decided to wait and see what new evidence David had first. Maybe they'd lucked out and someone had come forward with vital information.
Maybe someone had confessed.
Emma smirked and shook her head as she got back into her car. Of course nothing like that could have possibly happened.
Nothing ever came that easy to her.
To be continued…
Let me know what you think so far :) And if you have any theories so far, feel free to share! This *IS* a twist on the Split Queen storyline, but I'm hoping the twist I'm giving it will be a surprise!
And also, as always, feel free to send me asks about this story (or any of them) on tumblr. You can find me as rowark-sq
Until next time….
