First and foremost, I need to thank Heddagab for her prompt and help in this otherwise it never would have been possible. Her encouragement, smart as hell brain and ideas helped fuel the flame of this fanfic, and also a huge thank you to her for being my beta-reader in this journey and helping me correct so much in this.
How To Get Away With Murder inspired. You do not have to watch the show to understand this fic.
I try to use Grimm fairy-tales as well as other mythology in the crimes committed as well as the cases. I will try to note each thing that is used at the beginning of the chapters, in case anyone gets curious or might not know them. In this one; Cinderella.
The only thing worse than sleeping late on a day of class is sleeping too little.
Regina pushed herself up into a seated position against the world's most uncomfortable bed known to any college freshman. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she turned her head in the direction of her roommate who had only arrived yesterday. Turns out she had been on the waiting list and driving here on her own wasn't exactly the best idea. The brunette, however, couldn't fathom being someone who had less than twenty four hours to become acquainted with the place or put away belongings.
For Regina, time was always a constant in her mind. Everything she did operated on being on time or setting aside a certain amount of minutes for everything. Just like her mother did, like her mother wanted her to do. Because being the only child to a cardiovascular surgeon and one of Seattle's most notorious judges called for being punctual by all accounts.
"Why aren't you asleep?" Her dorm-mate rolled over in the bed across the room, hand slipping from beneath the sheets to drape over the mattress as sleepy eyes found hers. The blonde's hair was disheveled about her head, giving her the look of someone who had been in a fight with a notorious hair puller. "It's-"
"I know what time it is." Regina scoffed, sighing out a breath that only served to cause every muscle in her frame to tense. The last thing she needed was someone reminding her of how little time she had to get a sufficient amount of sleep. She had tried for the past three hours to relax and slip back into her slumber, only to be reminded of time slipping from her fingertips at the tick, tick, tock of the clock on her nightstand. "Go back to sleep, Emma."
A groan was the girl's response as the room fell back into it's silent darkness, that of which was causing Regina to hear a ringing in her ears. As quietly as she could, she slipped from her bed and onto her feet then reached for her long coat that would cover her pajamas and tugged it onto her frame before slinking out of the door and into the hallway of their dormitory.
The amount of lewd noises that echoed back from behind closed doors caused her feet to move faster as she made her way to the stairs and descended in a timely fashion. She had exactly two hours to kill before she would need to head out to the bus station to get to the building of her first lecture for the day ten minutes ahead of time. At the current state of her hazy mind, she needed coffee and she needed a copious amount of it.
"Graham." She nodded in the direction of the man who was currently in his senior year. He gave her a nod on his way up the stairs before turning towards her, Regina angled her body so that she wouldn't have to look over her shoulder at him.
"Didn't you get the new girl? The one who was ridiculously late arriving here?" He asked, hand on the railing as a smirk tugged at the edges of his lips. In all honesty, Regina could see how many of the girls in their dorms found him appealing with his trimmed facial hair and twinkling eyes and lips that could give anyone images bordering on explicit. The brunette just gave him an uncomfortable nod, seeing as she had expected to just go straight to consuming caffeine at a shaming pace. He was delaying her, costing time that sure she had but didn't want to give up. "Pity for you. I'm glad I didn't get stuck with her. I bet she's a loose cannon."
And as he turned to head to his room, Regina took in a deep breath and began her way to the caffeine she needed so that she could calculate precisely what she could do in the time she had left before her first class of the day. In the kitchen, she found Ruby who had already begun work on a latte. The girl was employed at the coffee house The Grind ( Regina found this name very unseemly and was sure her mother would too if she were to ever visit the campus ) which was on campus and helping her with tuition. "Ruby, what does the weather look like today?" Regina asked, having had time to become aware of her early morning runs before the term started.
"Cold as a witch's tit right now. But the second the sun rises, it will be a beautiful one." Ruby was the type of person that caused ease in those she spent time with. The air around her was relaxed and the aroma of whatever perfume or products she used reminded everyone of a field of flowers on a good summer day. Regina could almost taste the scent on her tongue each time she found herself in her company. "Coffee?"
She nodded in agreement as she slumped onto one of the stools near the island, hands splaying out on the surface as she glanced at the watch on her wrist. It had been something her mother gave her to remind her that the time she spends is precious and spending it dallying is of no use to anyone. She had one hour and thirty-nine minutes before she needed to catch the bus.
"You really need a way to relax. You are literally wound so tight, I'm wondering when you'll snap."
Those words only worked beneath her skin, reminding her of the many moments she thought she felt something snap inside of her when she were younger. Like the time her mother woke her up in the middle of the night, brought her outside where she had captured a rabbit and— Shaking her head, Regina pushed the image away, refusing to revisit the nightmares of her youth. "Someday I will. Just not today." Teasing, she tried to play up on everyone's vision of her, like she had in high school, joking at the words thrown in her direction. Even if Ruby didn't mean it in a harsh way, autopilot had been set in motion and so agreeing was the only viable option.
"One coffee. Straight up with a pinch of cane sugar..." Pushing the coffee in the direction of the brunette, she gave it a distasteful look before adding "You should really try adding some, you know, regular sugar or something to it. It's better that way. With the sugar, sometimes loads of it, it can get the kicker started real quick."
Regina forced a laugh at the word she used for heart, wondering how many times she had heard that from her uncle Benjin throughout the years. "Kicker." Another chuckle left her lips before she brought the steaming cup up to her lips, gave it a blow and then began gulping it like it were water. Ignoring the burn on her tongue had become easier after a while, in fact the nausea from drinking it fast had also become less over the years.
"Okay coffee fish. Come up for air." Ruby reached towards the brunette and forced the cup out of Regina's hands and placed it on the surface of the island before leaning forward. "It's your first class. You don't have to be wide awake for it. First days aren't that serious."
"First impressions are everything." Her voice was bland as she repeated words that had come from her mother on many occasions. "I will make a good one. Or at least a decent one."
"Have it your way, but if you keep it up — you'll be making a trip to the campus clinic instead."
Refusing to listen, she took the cup back in hand and finished off the rest of the contents with a smile on her face. The people here had no idea what she had been through in her life just to get here, what means of preparation she had to endure to become a student who is double majoring in order to appease her mother and herself at the same time.
When she first mentioned it to Ruby, she remembered the freshman guffawing at her as if she had told a joke but when she realized that Regina had been serious, she called her a glutton for punishment. Graham however, had given her a pat on the back upon overhearing and his words of praise caused her face to flush an embarrassing shade of pink.
Pushing off from the stool, she turned and headed back up the stairs and into the hallway before slipping through the bedroom door that belonged to her and Emma. The blonde was just a lump of covers as she had pulled them completely over her head. Sighing, Regina fought a giggle that tried to rise in her throat before shrugging out of her jacket and grabbing the pages she had printed out of the email that had been sent out two days ago for the students to study before coming into the lesson today. Regina had read them over five times since then and intended on doing so another two before the clock reached one hour left before the buses.
Grabbing her small flashlight from her nightstand, she climbed into bed and slipped beneath the covers before turning it on and aiming it at the colorful pages she had marked and outlined pin points of. The email had been sent from Professor Gold, the one who she would be meeting later today with the rest of the students who had secured their seats in the class before the semester started.
She spent the rest of the twenty minutes she had rereading the words and noting everything she had highlighted before switching off the flashlight and slipping from her bed. She grabbed her clothes that she had laid out for the day and walked into the en-suite bathroom, closing the door behind her as quietly as possible so to not wake the slumbering blonde.
She spent fifteen minutes in the shower, fifteen minutes doing her hair and brushing her teeth, ten minutes getting dressed and applying makeup. Slipping from the bathroom, she noted the vacant bed that belonged to her dorm-mate before grabbing her school bag, slipping on her shoes, and grabbing her printed out email before bounding out of her room and towards the main floor. "Ruby?" She asked but received no response.
"She left ten minutes ago." Emma stated as she dug into a sugary bowl of cereal, sitting at the island still in her pajamas that had a yellow beetle plastered all over it like some alternate universe Herbie. "What did you need?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it." She had set five minutes aside just to talk with Ruby this morning about her schedule to see what hours the girl would be working tonight so she could drop by. Every other time when Ruby wasn't on the clock at The Grind, the other employees would usually get her order wrong and cost her minutes she didn't have to waste.
Glancing down at her attire, she adjusted the hem of the cream colored dress that her mother had packed for her. Every article of clothing she had belonged to the tastes of her mother and not of her own accord. Every-time she had tried to pack something she liked, Regina would somehow find it in shreds in the garbage bin or thrown to the far back of her closet where - she guessed - her mother wagered she wouldn't find it. Her hair had been pulled away from her face and collected at the back with a small jeweled clip that allowed it to flow down with the rest of her dark curls that reached a few inches below her shoulders. Her long hair had become a favorite of her mother's, claiming she looked the part of a doctor and yet she thought being a lawyer would be best with shorter hair and it would also suit a surgeon, but her mother denied her the trip to the hairdresser last minute.
"Do you have class soon?" Regina asked as she made her way around the island and toward the bowl of fruit situated on the counter. Plucking an apple from the bowl, she then reached for the handle of the refrigerator and pulled it open — searching for her container of juice that she had prepared early yesterday for herself. "Have you seen-"
"The juice? Shit, I should have known that was someone else's." Emma sighed, her spoon plopping into the bowl of cereal before she thrust a finger in the direction of the sink where the empty on-the-go container was laying.
"It was labeled." Regina tried but failed not to allow her anger to rise before she turned in the direction of the blonde. She would not have the time to squeeze more before she had to be at the bus stop. "Labeled!" The outburst caused the blonde to look at her in a way that she remembered she would have looked at her mother back at the home she shared with her parents. Opting for not making a fool of herself or causing the girl to think she had lost it, she softly stated "I'll make sure to put the label facing the front next time. Clearly my fault." Shutting the door, she gripped the apple with such force that her fingernails were digging into the crimson skin before she replied "Nothing to worry about."
Within five minutes she was at the bus stop with more time to spare as she waited patiently, digging into the fruit she had taken with her. The apple was crisp and close to perfect as the juices caressed her tongue, she would gladly stay here like this for as long as it took to enjoy the ripe fruit. Apples had become a favorite of hers long ago when she had visited an orchard that belonged to a friend of her father's, one that her dad had ended up buying in no time — thanks to her mother's interest in apple cider.
Closing her eyes, she could almost feel the sun's warm rays against her skin and smell the fresh scent of cut grass that had filled her senses many summers beneath the orchard trees. The sound of the breaks on the bus squeaking pulled her from the memory and once the doors opened, she pushed herself up and onto the bus, dropping in the needed fair before finding a seat closest to the door that was unoccupied. The smell of the leather seats caused her brows to furrow, being reminded of the school buses she had to take during elementary long before her mother put her two sense in arriving with a aware parent who had a hand in her education.
"Where are you headed?" Graham had made his way over to her seat and was now leaning, hands on the back of the bench as he asked her the question that she could have sworn he already knew the answer to. "Mind?" At the shake of her head, he slipped in onto the seat next to her and placed his arms wide on the back of it.
The feeling of his arm behind her head, so close to her neck, caused her body to tense. "Criminal Justice one hundred." she stated matter-of-fact like as if the course was something to revel at and in most ways , to her, it was. She had taken her major in Biology for her mother but the political science with a focus on criminal justice had been her means of putting in motion things that would never happen in a million years if her mother had a say.
"Oh fuck. Is that with Professor Gold or the other guy?" He asked as he flexed the hand behind Regina and began picking at strands of her hair with his thick fingertips.
"Gold. It's with Professor Gold." Answering softly as she shifted in her seat, trying but failing to disengage his fingers from within her hair. She didn't need it to look unkempt, she needed her first impression to matter to everyone even if it truly wouldn't leave any lasting mark — it mattered to her. "Could you...please stop doing that. I don't mind it but I-" Sighing, she glanced down at her half eaten apple and tried her best at sounding...kind. "I cannot have my hair messed up, it has to be as I remember it having looked in the mirror this morning."
"Sure. Yeah. Sorry." Graham apologized, shifting so that instead of his hand in her hair, his arm was completely against the back of her neck — warm palm on her shoulders. "You're blushing again..."
Smiling, she angled her body facing him so that she could reach out and place a palm against his stubble. It felt rough to the touch, prickly and not soft like the curls on his head. "I know we've kissed and all, but that doesn't mean we're dating." She repeated the same words he had mentioned to her yesterday when she had tried to sit with him in the library. Her schedule had allowed her a moment of time with him, ten minutes reprieve away from her books and yet — that was what he had left her with.
"Right." He removed his arm from around her, scratched his head and pulled away — up and out of the seat before heading back to where he had been sitting before asking to join her.
Turning back to her apple, she began to finish it off as the bus slowed down in front of her destination. Pushing herself onto her feet, she bounded towards the door and slipped out in record time. The watch on her wrist continued to tick tick, tock away as she walked up the path, dropped her apple into the campus trash bin and pushed through the door.
Five minutes earlier than she thought, which meant fifteen minutes until the class started. She had arrived earlier than she expected and yet, she pushed through the door and made her way to a seat in the middle of the tier, making sure to be in perfect range for answering questions or being called upon. Being too low or too high would just not suit her as she saw it as too eager or not eager enough. Taking her seat, she brought out her pen, the book she needed for the course and placed the papers atop of it that she had printed from the email. With time to spare, she began going over the words once more. Losing herself in committing all of the points of focus to memory.
Students began to pour into the room slowly around two minutes til the start of the class, each finding their seats with ease and talking among themselves in a loud chatter — which caused Regina's focus to waver. Still, she pushed on trying to ignore the words spilling from lips of people she had yet to become acquainted with.
"You're in this class too?"
The familiar voice of her dorm-mate, Emma, cut through Regina like being run through with a sword. Glancing up at the culprit who stole her juice, she forced a smile and gave a nod. "What are you majoring in?"
"Criminology. Headed for the Bureau, I hope." The blonde nodded before taking the seat next to the brunette and bringing her satchel onto her lap. "Dad's in the FBI, Mom's in the police force, you know, born in the justice system — raised in the justice system so out of the justice system I came and will go." The speech seemed to be something the blonde had practiced or heard many times over regardless of how ridiculous it sounded. Regina just gave a nod and turned back to her paper, trying her best to go over it one more time before—
The door's to the lecture hall burst open and in walked Professor Gold dressed in a well tailored suit, clean shaven and with his hair hanging just above his shoulders. His eyes never wavered to the direction of his students, instead they were much more focused on his briefcase as he opened it, pulled out a few documents before closing it with a loud snap and placing it on the floor nearest the podium. "Welcome to Criminal Justice one hundred. Although the seats are full, I'm hoping at least one of you will prove to me that you being accepted was for a purpose and not just to make my day any harder than it has to be. I..." Turning so that he could now set eyes upon the ones who had signed up for the class, he gave a sigh and finished with a look of contempt on his features. "..am Professor Gold. Unlike my colleagues, I will not be teaching you how study the law or how to theorize it. You will be learning how to practice it in a courtroom. If this is not to your liking, let me know and I will look at the list of people who I had to turn away so that you could have a seat in this very cramped space."
"Fuck, I wanted to study and theorize." Emma whispered, leaning into Regina's personal space before tapping her pen very annoyingly against her textbook. "I don't think I'm going to need this for my training..."
For a moment, he allowed the student who had begun talking a second to shut up before he felt the need to call her out in front of the entire class.
"Shh." Regina tried but the blonde kept talking regardless, pulling the brunette's attention away from the professor who seemed so sure of himself yet so up tight.
"I mean, I'm not really going to be in a courtroom, am I? I know there's duty and such...like you know jury duty and-"
"Miss..." His voice was laced in venom as he tried to steady his tone in lieu of teacher/student protocol and yet, she hadn't stopped the second she started - had she? It was never his intention to pick on any one student but if she intended on taking up his class with her incessant whispering, then he would have to put the proverbial foot down.
"Swan!" The blonde piped up, glancing in the direction of the professor.
"Right. Would you mind enlightening us on why you're talking to your friend there instead of focusing on what I'm trying to help you learn?" The question wasn't really meant to be answered and yet he knew she would do so regardless of the fact and so he waited, with clasped hands at his front as he watched her find her voice which seemed to come pretty easy for the blonde.
"Oh. It's just ... I thought that maybe the whole studying and theorizing part would come in handy with my training for the Bureau.." A sea of students began to cackle before the Professor held up a hand to shush them.
"Okay. Not my problem. Sit back down and allow the class to learn without your whispering." When Emma took her seat, he added "Thank you."
Regina rolled her eyes at the blonde, wondering how on the first day someone could literally turn herself into a laughing matter of the entire room. They were here to learn, not take up the time of others by presenting them with their own opinions on why they should or should not take this class.
"We'll start with the case study of Mother Dearest." With the press of a button on the remote in hand, the screen to his left lit up with the face of who the pressed called Mother Dearest. "Give us the facts... David Nolan."
The man he addressed stood, he was one row away from Regina and around five chairs down. He looked a bit older than her, dressed in jeans and some atrocious plaid shirt as he spoke with precision and confidence that she admired. "The Commonwealth v Victoria Tremaine is a case of involuntary manslaughter. The defendant, Miss Tremaine, is the step-mother to the seventeen year old victim, Ella."
"What happened when Ella proposed the option of attending a school dance function with her two step-sisters..." The name was lost to him as he pointed in the direction of someone halfway across the room from the first person he had called upon. "..you."
A fair skinned student stood up from where she was seated nearest the front, book clasped to her chest as she spoke. "Miss Tremaine counter posed that if she were to finish her chores in time that she could indeed go to the dance, her sisters having already completed theirs upon returning home from school. The young girl was said to have been in a state of distress, taking scissors to the dresses of her stepsisters in an attempt to sabotage their efforts of attending."
"And what did the step-mother do to teach the girl a lesson..." he began walking along the length of the area below the tier, eyes trained on his students. "Anyone?"
"Miss Tremaine locked her step daughter in the attic where the young girl proceeded to throw herself from the window in the room which caused her untimely death. Belle French." The woman spoke with a tone that did not sit well with Regina and for some reason she wanted to strangle her.
"Okay, can someone tell me what caused this to become a case of involuntary manslaughter when it had began as a manslaughter charge?" He pointed towards Regina and her heart felt as if it had leapt into her throat for whatever reason, she was uncertain, but decided to file it away as excitement to answer a question she was indeed ready for.
Pushing herself onto her feet, she brushed the hem of her dress down and began to speak with her chin held high like her mother had taught her to do. "The report showed blunt force trauma to the head. First claims were that it was suspected that she died before the fall, having been struck from behind as of the analysts for the police force claimed. Upon a second autopsy and further discussion with a professional — it was said that voluntary would be ruled out in lieu of lack of proper evidence and sworn testimonies from the aforementioned." Once he nodded, she took her seat again and couldn't help beaming at how well she had handled it and on her first day nevertheless.
"Whoa, this was his case?" Emma asked, having leaned over to glance at the papers in Regina's hand, apparently having not gotten the email in time since she had arrived late to the school.
"Yes, it was. He's the one who got the court to throw out the manslaughter charge." It had kept her hooked for the past few days since she received the email, the precision he had executed in getting the defendant's case knocked down to a misdemeanor. A dance she wished to one day fulfill in a courtroom.
"Now. Let's say she is faced with manslaughter once again. The case is being dug up and sufficient evidence places her at the scene. Why was she there? Hadn't she claimed to be downstairs, with a neighbor at the time of the suicide? What evidence do they have? Get creative — study it and give me something to think about. Give me reason to doubt my act in getting her off."
Emma chuckled, raising her textbook to hide her giggle. "I'm sure he got her off, after she handed him a fat ass check for the act itself."
"That is highly inappropriate.." Regina noted as she began to write down the words he spoke to them so that she could go over them again once back at her room, then get started on the task at hand.