Double Jeopardy
Emma woke with a start. The glowing face of her alarm clock read 3.25am. Sighing, she turned over. She didn't bother looking across the room to the dark figure skulking in the darkness - this creepy occurrence had become a frequent event. Pulling the covers over her head and burying deeper into her pillow she attempted to find sleep once more.
It was no use.
"What do you want?" she eventually called into the darkness.
"Where's your hygienically challenged boyfriend?"
"Cut the crap, Hook's out on the ship tonight, which you are well aware of or you wouldn't be here."
Silence settled in the room once more. Emma turned onto her back and stared at the shadows cast on the ceiling from the streetlamp outside.
She blew out a frustrated breath.
"You know," she said grumpily, "this Edward Cullen style stalkery thing is getting kinda old." She'd had a rough week and was fairly tired, she could really do without this game tonight.
"Does my presence bother you Miss Swan?" There was a definite smirk in the husky voice.
"Seriously? It's like 3am, what do you think?" she hissed.
There was a pause, as though her question was being considered.
"I think that you miss me on nights when I don't visit," teased the voice in the darkness.
"The only thing I miss, is the sleep that I don't get when you do," Emma growled.
The intruder shifted slightly and Emma heard the squeak of tight fitting leather attire. She bit her lip unconsciously, unable to block the provocative image of the woman wearing it – or more specifically, her identical alter ego – as it flooded into her mind.
Her heartrate shot up.
Not good Emma…Focus!
"Look, I've had a crappy day, could you perhaps give it a rest tonight?" she said, hoping the sudden spike of stimulation wasn't recognisable in her voice.
"Oh dear, has the poor Sheriff been having difficulty wrangling the forgotten story folk?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact. And we all know that you're the one behind all their scheming, so if gloating is why you're here, then gloat away, just do it quietly," the blonde said, turning over once more.
"I'm a Queen, I do not scheme…or gloat, besides, the Sheriff's office had become a little idle since Mr Hyde's unfortunate demise…"
Emma shifted to look towards the shadowy figure.
"Yeah, about that…"
"We are not having that discussion again Miss Swan," was the rather clipped response.
"I still don't understand why you saved me." Emma said, knowingly pushing a button.
"I did not save you, I merely prevented the apelike idiot from depriving me of the chance to kill you myself!"
Emma smirked at the irritation she heard in the tone of the shadowy figure.
"Whatever," she said. Her grouchiness at being woken made her want to push further. "But now you won't get the chance, since we had you neutered and you can't so much as use a sharp piece of parchment to papercut any of us, ever again…sucks to be the Evil Queen these days."
She heard a growl and she smiled to herself in satisfaction. Still, despite 'EQ' (as Emma had proudly christened Regina's evil counterpart) not being able to harm anyone anymore, thanks to a supremely awesome and somewhat dangerous spell that Emma, Regina and all their magical allies had managed to pull off, it was probably not such a good idea to provoke her.
She was surprised, when instead of some raging rant, her mocking was met with silence. She wondered for a moment if the other woman had poofed away, then small sigh came from the darkness. She almost felt sorry for EQ these days, in the last couple of months since the binding spell that prevented her from hurting anyone had been cast, she had begun to mellow out and wasn't nearly as quick to anger. In fact there was this dejected melancholy about her most of the time. She only ever seemed to be content when she was heckling the sheriff or causing the blonde irritation in some way - like these late night visits.
The next time she spoke, it was almost a whisper.
"She thinks about you all the time…what it would be like to kiss you…to taste you, all of you... sometimes…she wants you so badly, her chest aches."
There was little doubt as to the 'she' to which the older woman was referring.
"What?!"
"When Robin died, she felt relief. That the soulmate chains had been lifted. She never would have fought for you, fearing that her soul was bound to another, knowing you deserved better. We…had something…I know you felt it too…before they stumbled into our lives. She…we…had dared to hope again that there might be a time for us. I wanted to gut the pirate for cheating death and keeping you from us again."
Emma listened, stunned at the unusual revelation, she noted that there was an almost imperceptible slurring of the words that she hadn't picked up on before.
The monologue continued.
"She wouldn't let me of course, wouldn't let me kill the one person standing between us and the woman we wanted so very much. Even though the bastard kidnapped us and knowingly left us to be tortured…"
"He what?!" Emma exclaimed.
"And then, she goes and evicts me…" the brunette said, ignoring the question. "She wanted to be better, for you, and Henry, but mostly for you…" the voice was definitely slurring now.
This was a new one.
"Regina, are you drunk?!"
"I…just want to go home…"
The room fell silent, but eerily so.
"Regina?"
Nothing.
"Regina?"
The blonde reached her hand across the bed to turn on the lamp. As light flooded the room, she saw the figure slumped in the corner and bolted from the bed.
"Regina?!" she said, gently shaking the unconscious woman. For the second time that night her heartbeat pounded hard in her chest because of this enigmatic woman, but this time fear was the driving force. "What the hell, Regina," she chastised. Her hand moved automatically to check for the woman's pulse, with some relief she found it to be present and strong. Just passed out then. The air around the woman was unquestionably stained with alcohol, and Emma didn't need sight of the empty silver flask at her side to know that EQ was blind drunk. Unsure of exactly what to do, she settled on being chivalrous. Lifting the brunette carefully, Emma carried her across to the bed.
She cursed loudly when she stumbled over the boots that she had carelessly cast aside earlier, and ended up clumsily setting the woman down, landing awkwardly across her unconscious form, barely managing to avoid dropping her full weight on top of her.
(And of course, this was perfect time for Killian to show up and get totally the wrong idea…)
"What the Bloody hell, Swan?!" he said, before turning on his heal and slamming the bedroom door as he left.
Emma growled, frustrated. He hadn't even given her a chance to explain.
"You know what, fine!" she called out to the door, deciding to leave him to stew in his own ignorant stupidity. They could clear up the mess in the morning. She considered for all of two seconds going to sleep on the couch. But, she reasoned, looking down at the alcohol flushed cheeks on the face of a woman she cared deeply for, if EQ were to vomit in her sleep…well…it just wasn't safe.
Exhaustion tugged at her.
She turned off the light.
And by the same safety logic, she needed to spoon the brunette to ensure she stayed on her side, you know 'cause of the vomit thing and all…
Besides, they would have inevitably ended up snuggling anyway, that's what happens when you share a bed with the drunken Evil Doppelganger of the woman you secretly have a huge crush on.
The next morning, Emma and a somewhat hungover EQ walked into Granny's Diner just in time to witness the escalation of last night's unconventional events. Nobody even noticed the pair enter as all eyes were enthralled by the unfolding drama.
Hook was squaring up to Regina.
"You've got a bloody nerve!" he spat at the confused woman.
"Excuse me?" she replied.
David was stood a little behind the pirate, pulling at his shoulder in a gesture of 'just leave it'.
"Walking in here, smiling politely at me, like I didn't catch you bloody shagging my girl last night!"
"I beg your pardon, I did no such thing!"
"I bloody saw you, with my own two eyes…well you're welcome to my sloppy seconds Your Majesty…I hadn't realised she was such a slut."
A fireball appeared in Regina's hand for a millisecond before her fingers closed into a fist and she punched him square in the jaw.
There was a collective wince from the occupants of the diner at the loud cracking sound.
"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about Guyliner, but don't you ever insult my son's other mother in front of me," she said darkly.
David held Killian back as Snow stood to face her former stepmother.
"Regina, I think you should probably go now," she said, not unkindly. "Nobody blames the two of you for eventually finding each other, but to do it behind Killian's back, that's dreadful and I'm very disappointed in you both."
At that point, Emma made a move to intervene.
"No, wait." EQ whispered, quickly casting an invisibility cloak over them.
"What are you doing?"
"Just, wait."
Nobody else in the room would have noticed, but Emma knew Regina well, and her shoulders had dropped ever so slightly. She was hurt. The brunette looked around the room at the accusatory stares.
"Unbelievable. You all think I did this don't you - after everything? You still look at me and see her?" her voice was tight with emotion. "Didn't it occur to any of you that there is another person in this town who looks exactly like me?"
"Emma wouldn't be sleeping with the Evil Queen." Snow said righteously.
"Yes she would, and spooning with her too apparently," EQ whispered to Emma.
The blonde shoved her lightly.
"Haa haa. Come on now, we need to set this straight."
She pushed at her magic to clear the invisibility cloak.
"Not so fast." EQ said and she poofed them both back to Emma's house.
"What are you doing? We needed to stop them, it's hurting her."
"And you all thought you'd taken my ability to do that away from me..."
Emma narrowed her eyes.
"That was a joke Miss Swan. Look, we're both hoping for the same end game here." EQ explained.
"Really, and what might that be?"
"To be inside Regina," she said with an evil smirk.
"I…puh…huh what?"
"I'm sorry, that was crass…" She sighed. "Look, last night before I came over to see you, I tried to talk to her, I managed to create a potion that can merge us together again, but she refused...she said that she would rather die. I know she feels incomplete too, but she's so stubborn…in the diner just now, the mistrust of the townsfolk, it made her realise that she might as well still have me with her. I could tell, she was gearing up to taking the potion…taking me back…" She noticed the sympathy in Emma's eyes, it caused her to add: "Besides, she's probably desperate for the memory of having sex with you…"
Emma rolled her eyes.
She stared out of the window while she considered what the right course of action might be.
EQ interrupted her musings.
"It's happening, my end game, make sure you get yours too Emma." she said "for both our benefit…"
"She took the potion? How do you know?" she said, looking up. "Oh." She took in the sight of EQ who was smiling serenely as she faded into a glowing purple light, before disappearing completely.
Leaving Emma staring at an empty spot.
A persistent knock at the door startled her out of the trance.
Regina stood on the porch, staring at her affectionately.
She stepped inside, pushing the door closed behind her and resting back against it.
"Hey," she said huskily.
"Hey." Emma returned.
And as though a magnetic force was pulling them together, they leaned forward at the same time to meet in a slow soft kiss. Emma felt the wisps of magic around her as she allowed herself to be apparated to her bed. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she moaned involuntarily as Regina, atop of her, pressed a thigh into her pelvis and sucked lightly at her pulse point.
"Now Miss Swan, let's see about getting you your end game," the brunette's hot breath husked into Emma's ear.
(And neither of them cared about the consequences of their actions, because, after all, they'd already been tried and found guilty of this particular crime.)
The End.
A/N I loved the season finale and like most of my SQ sisters love the many possibilities that come with having The Evil Queen split out from Regina. I had this idea and then ran with it... Thanks for reading.