Description:The title and idea of this story was born from a similar concept one of my favorite movies starring Jennifer Lopez. In this story, there is no magic and curse. Regina's married to Leopold "Leo" White. Forced to marry him for political gain, their relationship soon turns violent not long after their wedding. Eventually Regina escapes from her abusive husband and even more abusive mother to Boston, Massachusetts where she realizes her husband and mother have sent someone after her. Regina turns to the Boston Police Department who seem to be unable to help her. But when undercover Detective Emma Swan overhears Regina's conversation with her boss, she thinks it may be the case she needs to finally get promoted out of the Vice squad. Emma takes Regina in under her own protection and from there they work together to keep Regina safe.
Main Characters:
Regina Mills: Chief Administrative Officer of Storybrooke and wife to Leo White.
Emma Swan: Boston Police Department Detective and mother of Henry Swan
Henry Swan: Student and son of Emma Swan
Cora Mills: Overbearing and abusive mother of Regina Mills. Former wife of previous Mayor of Storybrooke.
Leo White: Mayor of Storybrooke and overbearing and abusive husband of Regina Mills.
Supporting Characters:
Mary-Margaret Blanchard: Henry's school Principal and Regina's former horse-riding student. Emma's friend.
Kathryn Nolan: Regina's best friend and legal advisor.
Ruby Lucas: Storybrooke's gossip.
Sydney Glass: Thought to be stalking Regina. Seemingly hired by Leo White.
Killian Jones: Private Investigator following Regina. Hired by Cora Mills.
David Nolan: Kathryn's soon-to-be ex-husband and dating Mary-Margaret.
Mr. Gold: Candidate for upcoming Mayoral election.
Relationships:
Regina/Emma: romantic
Emma/Mary-Margaret: friendly (obviously)
Emma/Henry: familial
Regina/Henry: friendly
Regina/Kathryn: friendly
Killian/Cora: undetermined
Mr. Gold/Regina: undetermined
Regina/Mary-Margaret: unfriendly
Warning: This story is rated M (Mature) for (emotional, mental, physical, and verbal) Abuse, Rape, and consenting sex between two adult women. Please don't read if there is a chance you will be triggered or this isn't your cup of tea. Otherwise, sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy reading. Also this is my first (published) OUaT fanfic so please be kind.
By the hair, long and silky, he dragged her across the wooden floor of the foyer. All that could be heard was the sound of his yelling and her body being forcefully pulled against her will until she was lying in front of the fireplace with an aching head and bloody knees.
He walked around her quickly and knelt before her, his hands were on her skin and his fingers were cold from being wrapped around the tumbler full of ice and whiskey. His breath in her face made her stomach roll and she'd learned to stop protesting years ago.
He wanted her and she just laid there, ready to give him what he wanted.
She felt him between her thighs but she clenched her jaw to keep from crying out.
She looked up at the ceiling, watched as the chandelier swayed threateningly above them, and for once she wouldn't mind if it fell and crushed them both. In her head she counted to a hundred because that's how long it usually took.
His voice was gruff in her ear and hoarse from screaming at her for the last hour. He whispered soft apologies to be better and get help and she learned to stop believing him long ago.
He shoved her nightgown up to her hips and she scratched at the floor to give her hands something to do instead of fighting back. God, she wanted to fight back.
"Regina," he moaned in her ear. "You're so wet."
She wasn't. And it hurt. A hot tear stroked her cheek when he began moving his hips.
"You smell so good," he breathed in her ear. Her stomach rolled violently. "Tell me you love me," he pleaded.
Times like these truly made her hate him. His love for her filled her with self-loathing and disgust. He could only tell her how beautiful she was when she made him happy. But when she didn't, he made sure she knew no one could love her as much as him. He made sure she was aware she wasn't deserving of anyone's love but his.
And deep down she knew he was wrong. But he wanted her to love him and she just wanted to make him happy.
"I love you," she whispered around a sob she thought she could keep in.
He pulled back from the curve of her neck and looked into her brown eyes. He wiped her tears away and whispered another promise he would break in the morning.
"I'll get better," he said. "I won't hurt you anymore. This is the last time."
For a moment she allowed herself to pretend he meant it. Or maybe he did mean it but in the morning feelings changed and he was back to the bottle and hitting her.
For a minute, while he continued using her body, she allowed herself to play into the fantasy he could get help and she could forgive him and they could love each other.
She felt him inside of her and she knew she couldn't forgive him for this. Even if she wanted to. Because it wouldn't be the last time.
The streets of Boston are littered with dead leaves falling from their trees and people nearly dead on their feet. Regina takes a moment in her vintage Mercedes. The car was a gift from her father. There was always something distinctively familiar about it that eased her. The car still carried an acute aroma of her father's cologne. It was distinct and in a few years the smell would be nonexistent and faded but she could still smell it on the leather seats as if he were in the car with her right now.
But there is something familiar and disturbingly comfortable about feeling stranded in a place she's unacquainted with.
Her fingers glide against the side of the seat where a seam of the thread keeping the leather seat together had been dangling loosely for the last couple of months. She wraps it around her index finger and for a moment she thinks she might be able to do this.
One more minute, Regina tells herself as she inhales the final scent of her father and feels the car's warmth entangle her in memories. It was idiotic to be so attached to a car, she knew it, but it was the last thing she had of her father aside from the necklace he'd given her as a little girl. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to bring that in her haste to leave Storybrooke.
She feels bare to the world now and she knows the moment she steps out of that car she's not going to feel any better.
"One more minute," she tells herself again as she takes the keys out of the ignition. A few leaves have fallen on the car in the time since she parked there. She takes a deep breath and for the first time in years it doesn't feel like she's submerged beneath water. She can finally breathe.
Five years in a loveless marriage wore her down and drowned her.
Outside of the Mercedes is cold and wet. Having forgotten a lot of things back in Storybrooke, including an umbrella, Regina just gathers her bag out of the trunk and takes one more long glance at her inherited car. She presses the lock button and the lights flash, signaling the doors have been successfully locked. Of course, she checks it anyway.
It reminds her of the day her father had given it to her. She was riding at the stables on her nineteenth birthday and he'd only gotten the car four years before. But they'd spent a lot of time in it, as it was the only place in Storybrooke she felt completely safe from her mother.
Though he wasn't oblivious to Cora's abuse, he barely lifted a finger to help her, but he wasn't heartless. Her father would take her out of town, for what he'd tell Cora were business trips, and they would drive to the closest neighboring town to have ice cream and talk about everything but what her mother did to her in their house.
It's how the car accumulated her father's smell so quickly, she believes. But how it clung his memory after all these years was a mystery to her.
She palms the hood of the car in the same affectionate way she had her father the day he died. She'd touched his face and tried to imagine a world without him, a future he didn't exist in, and it overwhelmed her. Just as much as leaving her car now does now.
Regina finally walks away, deserting her black Mercedes once and for all.
She walks with confidence down a street unfamiliar to her and hidden behind her sunglasses and a large red Birkin bag that resembles her red dress and red Dereon gator straps. Her black coat shields her shoulders from the rain but she still feels cold.
When she dressed for this trip she was unsuspecting of the weather, assuming it would cooperate with her schedule. The rain pours down over her, extinguishing all of the dignity she had remaining when she left Storybrooke.
She looks up recognizes a sign that indicates her hotel is right around the corner so her feet quicken in pace. Coming around the corner, Regina's body crashes into another's and her bag, along with its contents, falls to the ground and spill out.
"Shit, I'm sorry." A breathless blonde woman apologizes quickly. She bends over to pick up the mess on the ground but her hand is slapped away.
The brunette was quick to assemble all of her items. "Watch where you're going," she hisses as she tries to shelter her fallen clothes from the rain.
Out of breath, the woman steps away a little taken aback. "Hey, I said I was sorry, alright? Maybe if you didn't have those ridiculous sunglasses on, you could see that it's fucking raining and slippery out here."
Regina's head snaps up and she scowls at the other woman but her glasses are so dark it goes unseen. "Just carry about your business. Clearly you were in a big hurry." She stands again and shoulders the bag, closer to her this time.
The blonde blows a rebellious strand of hair out of her face and it lands over her ear. She looks annoyed with her hands on her hips. She notices Regina's trembling, either from having been assaulted by her or from the freezing rain, the blonde isn't sure.
"You okay, lady?" she asks as she crosses her hands over her chest.
"I'm fine," Regina bites out a little too quickly. "Whether I am or not is completely irrelevant to you. Besides, it's obvious you have more important things to be worrying about." She gestures to the other woman's attire. Thick grey sweats and a black sweatshirt blotted by the rain look far baggier on the woman's body than they probably are. The blonde looks down at her outfit but shrugs, finding nothing wrong with it.
"What's that supposed to mean?" not actually insulted but unquestionably aggravated, the woman's hands go right back to her hips where they look far more intimidating.
"Well clearly you are homeless. Are you not?"
"No I'm not fucking homeless. I was on a jog." She rolls her eyes, taking her headphones out of her ears.
"Could have fooled me," Regina shrugs. "However, as interested as I am in your life, I have a hotel to check into. So I'll be on my way." She doesn't wait for a response before simply side-stepping the other woman and continuing her path to the less than glitzy hotel. Behind her she hears the other woman mumble something like "unbelievable" but it doesn't stop her.
The hotel room is small. And that's simply because it was designed for one singular occupant. Regina stands in front of the en suite's bathroom mirror with wet hair barely touching her shoulders. With the bag on the bathroom counter, she begins removing her accessories from her body. Something about it feels acquainted. She remembers, rather violently, the last time she'd done this…in her own home.
She remembers being powerfully pressed into the counter and mirror and feeling powerless. The memory feels reserved like it happened more than twenty-four hours ago but it did happen twenty-four hours ago and it makes her sick to her stomach.
First she removes the wedding ring. She drops it in the bottom of her bag and hopes she doesn't have to see it again. She contemplates pawning it but tucks the thought aside for later. Then she removes the watch he gave her two months ago as an apology. She'd accepted it. Only having felt pressured and obligated because it was a nice gesture. Taking her out to dinner and buying her an expensive gift and apologizing profusely through their 'lovemaking' and kissing the marks he made on her body.
He made her out to be coldhearted if she didn't accept his apologies.
That memory too makes her stomach coil into knots.
Next are the earrings he gave her for Christmas when her mother had come to visit. They needed to look happy. He had his hand around her throat not even five minutes after her mother had left that night because she didn't look happy enough. Cora had asked if she'd been feeling sick all night. She didn't look well.
Finally she unzips the dress she bought herself but she was wearing it yesterday morning when he came home angry that she'd held a department meeting without his knowledge.
"You're after my job," he said to her as he held her pressed to their bedroom door by the neck. His fingers were thick on her skin. "This town would never vote you as Mayor. I don't care how much better you think you are than me."
She coughed and rubbed her bruised neck at the memory.
"I don't want your job, Leo." She said, less threatened by his violence as she'd ever been. She remembered reading an article about some women eventually coming to a breaking point in their abusive marriage where they either gain the courage to fight back or run.
Regina wanted to fight back. And she had.
But, as she moisturizes her bruised eyes, she realizes she should have run to begin with. She couldn't fight a man. Fighting women was different and she'd learned that the hard way.
"Run, dearie." Gold said to her the first time he'd seen her bruises after her sunglasses had been knocked off her face by a group of running kids in the park. They'd been taking a walk and discussing the town's debt to him. More importantly her husband's debt.
"I fell," she lied.
He looked at her in disbelief but he masked it well and shrugged and never said anything about it again.
Not until three months later when he dropped a large bag on her desk. "Sprain your wrist, Dearie?"
"Riding accident," she lied again. But everyone in town knew Regina hadn't been riding since her father had died.
"Run." Gold pushed the bag closer to her.
Regina leaned over her desk and peeked at the bag's contents. Her stomach rolled at the dozens of hundred dollar bills tied together like bricks. "This is wildly inappropriate, Mr. Gold."
He nodded once. "Run." He said again before limping away, leaving the money with her.
Regina returned it late one night when Leo was away for business. "I can't leave him," she'd said.
She'd found comfort in admitting the truth for once. She didn't have to reveal her marriage to him, he saw it. Gold had always been a mysteriously distant man. Yet always insightful and aware of what was happening in everyone's life.
He made a habit to stay out of everyone's business unless it benefitted him somehow. She knew he was planning to run for Mayor next election and he'd bullied enough citizens into voting for him but not all of them and he needed a good enough scandal to put the current Mayor out of a job.
But walking away from that money had been surprisingly difficult for her. It was the promise of a new a life. A simpler one. Without Leo and without her mother. It was hope and she'd returned it because she was afraid.
Afraid of so many things.
Regina gazes at the bruised skin on her stomach and thighs. She shouldn't have been afraid to leave him. She should have run.
A/N: Do I have to say reviews would be nice? Well, I'll say it. Please let me know if this story is worth continuing.