Authors Note: Okay...before you start reading: I haven't picked a particular point in story line to begin this fic. The curse is still enacted so no one knows they are fairytale characters(except for Regina, of course). I haven't decided on a definite direction for this fic so any suggestions will be taken into consideration. There will be lots of SwanQueen action in the future, worry not :)
Read and review 3333
And of course, I don't own the characters or anything Once Upon A Time related, I just like to play with them.
Chapter One: Moonshine
Gentle waves collided softly with the old barnacled wood of pier at the furthermost end of the harbor. Watching the subtle waves of the collision trickle away from the wood with mild interest, Emma sat there, feet dangling over the edge of the pier, consumed with the melody playing through her headphones. A salted breeze blew past her, causing some loose hairs to swipe across her neck and face producing an irritating tickling sensation that reminded her of little spiders crawling across her skin. Emma tried to push the thought from her mind as she looked out at the dark expanse of water in front of her.
The music playing in her headphones was loud enough to drown out the eerie silence of the harbor at this hour of night. No gulls, no motors running, no people chattering. The only sounds outside of her headphones were those of creaking wooden bows of the few docked ships swaying side to side; dancing in perfect harmony with the lulling waves.
"I lost my heart, my home is the ocean
The waves underneath will soon be my home.
I will fall asleep.
I'll close my eyes and dream of days when I wasn't all alone."
Emma practically snickered aloud. Days when I wasn't all alone? When was that? she asked her inwardly. She'd always been alone. From the time she was an infant, abandoned on the side of the highway. Even now, surrounded by an eclectic array of small-town folk who seemed to like her, Emma still felt alone. These people all saw so much good in her and the more she tried to insist she wasn't the person they think she is, the more they tried to convince her otherwise.
And while some people may find that comforting, to Emma, it was nothing more than a nuisance. These people have no idea what she went through, the things she's done, the shame her name brings. On some days it was easy enough to ignore their sentiments; to smile and play along. Other days, Emma wanted nothing more than to choke the life out of the next person unfortunate enough to tell her that she was a good person.
Diverting her attention from the water in favor of unscrewing the cap from the small bottle at her side, Emma took a generous swallow of liquor. She smacked her lips together and screwed up her eyebrows in concentration trying to discern whether she liked the peculiar taste on her tongue. But then she just shrugged and took another drink, deciding that it didn't really matter.
"All that I know is gone.
Take what is left of me now.
All that I know is gone.
Take what is left of me.
Fall deeper and deeper, the sirens are singing your songs."
Even with the comforting warmth provided by the bottle now nestled between her thighs, the light material of her black zip-up jacket was doing little to protect her skin from the chilling bite of the wind. Emma shivered violently and pulled the jacket tighter around her small frame. She thought for a moment on phoning Mary Margaret and asking for a ride back to the tattered loft they shared but quickly decided against it.
Mary Margaret and Ruby had practically dragged Emma from her bedroom earlier this evening and insisted that she come out to the bar for a few drinks; a girls night. Emma was adamant in expressing her desire to do no such thing, preferring to laze about in bed and enjoy her bottle of whiskey alone. But it seemed her two closest friends in Storybrooke had no inclination to accept her polite refusal.
With a scowl apparent, Emma pulled herself off the bed and searched through the piles of disarray in attempt to find something decent to wear to the bar. Amidst the piles of clothes and boxes lining the room, Emma decided on simple pair of dark blue skinnies, a nondescript black tank-top that covered much of her chest and back, and a pair of knee high black boots. She quickly ran a comb through her messy blonde hair and sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. Feeling much like Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries, Emma laughed and remembered what the young actress had said when looking at herself in the mirror:
"As always, this is as good as it's going to get"
After about an hour and a half sitting in the dim atmosphere of The Rabbit Hole, Emma apologized to her friends and said that she wasn't feeling well and she wanted to go home to get some sleep. Ruby and Mary Margaret – both of whom seemed to be having a great time – prepared themselves to leave but Emma insisted they stay and enjoy their evening and promising to have another girls night soon.
Emma sighed, preparing herself for the long walk back from the docks to her shared apartment.
"I'll miss my breath, there's no more left.
I'll miss the sound of the wind at my back.
The depths have a number, they call you by name
Fall asleep, Davy Jones calls you.
So fall asleep, fall asleep and dream."
Taking a last gulp out of her bottle, Emma squeezed the pint into the pocket of her jacket and unceremoniously stood up on the bowing planks of the dock. With a last glance up at the pale moon, Emma closed her eyes – wishing silently for something, though she didn't know exactly what she was wishing for. She turned on her heel and yet out a little yelp and stumbled backwards.
A quick hand shot out instinctively grabbing her wrist before Emma's lack of grace caused her to tumble into the cold waters of Maine. Emma ripped the headphones from her ear and placed a hand over her frantically thumping heart.
"What the hell!?" Emma yelled, sounding a little more panic-stricken than she had intended. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?" Emma's body was slowly coming down off of it's adrenaline high when her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in and her stance relaxed into a more casual position.
"I assure you Miss Swan, that was hardly my intention," the Mayor spoke trying – but not very hard – to hide her amusement at the Sheriffs reaction. Regina's lips were all too telling of her enjoyment, curled in a sinister smiled. A gesture that did not go unnoticed by the Sheriff.
"Yeah okay, so what was your intention?" Emma questioned, willing her green eyes to look piercing and cold. She crossed her arms over her chest and shifted the bulk of her weight to her right leg.
Regina smirked, returning her previously extended gloved hand back in front of her, clasping the other, and took an authoritative step towards Emma, not allowing her gaze to fall from the younger woman's for a second.
"I received an anonymous call regarding a trespassing and public intoxication claim at the docks. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't get ahold of our incompetent Sheriff. It didn't take long to put the pieces together, dear." Regina's voice filled the expanse existing between herself and the guarded blonde standing perilously close to the edge of the pier.
Emma highly doubted that the call was anonymous and she would just love to know who called the Mayor to tell on the Shrriff but decided that at the moment, it wasn't all that important. Then, come to think of it, all of the Mayor's baiting remarks weren't really that important either so Emma resigned herself to a shrug of her shoulders.
"Yeah, it'd be just dreadful if the Sheriff – who you happen to despise so much – drowned in the harbor," Emma rolled her eyes and uncrossed her arms to hang them loosely by her sides. The thick sarcasm in her words caused the Mayor to smirk in a most salacious way.
The ghosting quality of light raining over the Mayor's imperatively regal frame bathed her skin in an inexplicably serene manner. Moonlit shadows playing across the Mayor's face made her look akin to an innocent child and paradoxically, more powerful than Emma had ever witnessed.
"While the thought of you drowning is ideal, it is not in my best interest...at the time, Miss Swan." Regina explained with all the tact of a politician. She took a hand and gestured for the Sheriff to vacate the pier before her.
Emma raised an eyebrow at the odd behavior exhibited by Regina. Typically, Regina would stalk away and expect that she be followed; she never invited some to precede her during an exit.
"Well I'm touched by the fact that you'll allow me to live another day, Madame Mayor," Emma quipped before attempting to take a step forward but swaying into the thick pillar to her left as she shifted her weight once more. Emma braced herself against the pillar and slammed her eyes shut. Her head was spinning at a nauseating rate that didn't slow even with her eyes clamped shut. The muscles in her legs trembled and seemed to degrade themselves to the structural integrity of putty. Emma grasped the pillar with all the strength in her arms, attempting to keep herself from falling. Or puking. Both, possibly.
"Miss Swan?" Regina asked, momentarily considering just leaving the drunken wretch to whatever Fate has in store for her. She could ask Sydney to run it as a tragic story about the town's Sheriff drowning after consuming too much alcohol. Her cruel thoughts were interrupted by Emma's low, almost guttural calling of her name.
Emma was now on her hands and knees, head hanging over the edge of the pier, chest rising and falling heavily. Regina took a tentative step forward. She'd seen people wasted before but not like this. Not since…
She watched from a few steps away as Emma, in what seemed to be a fit of taciturn rage, ripped the jacket from her body and cast it behind her.
Emma was hot. Burning up, precisely. She felt sweat beading on every part of her skin. Her head was spinning out of control, chest heaving uncontrollably, and blood feeling like it was boiling beneath her skin.
"Regina…" Emma's pained voice came again. It was low, almost inaudible.
Regina stalked to stand beside the crumpled Sheriff and looked down on her with disdain.
"Have a bit too much to drink tonight, Sheriff?" Regina asked in a condescending tone. And although she could see the sweat glistening on the pale plains of the Sheriff's shoulder blades, she ignored it, refusing to accept the very obvious ailment inflicting the young blonde.
"No, damn it, just…ah!" The Sheriff's sentence was broken by a cry of pain as her clamped her hands to either side of her head in a vain attempt to stop the incessant spinning.
"From my view, I'm inclined to disagree with you, dear." The Mayor scorned her once more.
"Just…two beers…and that," Emma managed between labored breaths. Regina's eyes followed in the direction Emma's hand was pointed. To her jacket that was previously discarded. "Make it stop!" Emma screamed.
Expensive, designer shoes tapped against the wood of the pier over to where Emma's jacket was lying desolate and, until now, forgotten. She picked it up and frowned in distaste as she held the cheap garment between her thumb and forefinger as if she were afraid of getting an horrendous venereal disease from simply touching the item.
Regina took her spare hand and searched through the pockets, successfully locating the Sheriff's cell phone which she slipped into one of her own pockets, and a small glass bottle. Her mouth went dry as her eyes focused on the label shining in the glow of the moon.
"Damn it, Jefferson." She exhaled and shoved the bottle into one of her other pockets. Regina stalked back over to Emma's trembling form with a little more urgency than when she had walked away. She knelt down closer to Emma.
"Listen to me Miss Swan. We need to get out of here. Come, stand up." Regina instructed in an authoritative manner before returning herself to a standing position. After waiting only a few seconds and receiving no inclination to cooperate from Emma, Regina clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Anytime now Miss Swan," Regina goaded her.
Emma struggled to concentrate. The world was still spinning at a ridiculous pace and her limbs were less than eager to comply with her wishes. Come on, Swan. Just get up. You've been drunk – hell plastered – before. Get your sorry ass up! Emma attempted to talk herself out of the brain-numbing drunken stupor but had little success.
"I can't!" Emma yelled in exasperation. Way to make a good impression in front of the Mayor, Swan. "Everything's…"
"…Spinning. Yes, I know Miss Swan." Regina spoke in a lower, calmer tone.
"Huh?" Emma's dumbfounded response escaped her lips before she could even stop it.
"I'll explain later, dear." Regina said hastily. "Right now, we need to go."
With that, Regina resigned herself to helping the Sheriff climb to her feet. The task proved much harder than she thought it would be. The blonde woman seemed to have no control over her legs, or the rest of her body, making it an arduous task to hoist the Sheriff to a standing position. After a moment of struggling, Regina finally positioned the blonde to a – hopefully – manageable stature.
Going against everything her mind was saying, Regina forced Emma's right arm around her neck for support as the former wrapped her left arm tightly around the Sheriff's thin waist, shucking her up multiple times before even taking a step. Every part of the Evil Queen in her screamed at Regina to just leave Emma on the dock. But being all too familiar with Emma's plight, Regina suppressed her evil thoughts and struggled to keep the dead weight of the Sheriff at her side.
"For the love of – Miss Swan, could you at least try to walk," Regina scolded her.
The slow, painful journey from the dock to the Mayor's Mercedes was becoming physically exhausting. Not being used to such manual labor, Regina felt her muscles burning under the stress of carrying the additional weight of the Sheriff.
Emma said nothing, but attempted to clear her mind enough to move her legs as they normally should. She doubted her effort was noticed by the Mayor. With her arm wrapped tightly around her neck, as if holding on for dear life, Emma opened her eyes and turned her head to the right to look at Regina. She saw the Mayor's normally full lips pressed into a tight line as she struggled to carry Emma alongside her.
When the strange duo finally reached the Mayor's car, Emma was unloaded rather roughly into the passenger seat and seconds later, Regina herself climbed into the drivers seat. Emma's head lolled to the left to look at Regina once more.
"Honestly, Miss Swan, perhaps you should try a salad instead of grease-sodden burgers for a change." Regina huffed in irritation, still out of breath. She could feel Emma's eyes on her, but refused to acknowledge the despicable blonde slouching in the seat to her right.
"Are…you..did you just call me fat?" Emma slurred the words in a childish tone. A wide-eyed smile crept on her lips and she bust out in a fit of laughter.
Regina rolled her eyes and turned the key in the ignition trying to figure out what to do next. As the car started rolling away from the harbor, Emma had finally gotten her giggling fit under control.
"Hey."
Silence.
"Hey!" Emma poked Regina in the side.
A swat at her hand and silence.
"Madame Mayor!" Emma cried like a petulant child.
"Miss Swan?" Regina replied in annoyance.
"You have pretty hair."