Chapter 1

Regina sighed,reached over and switched the radio off as she threw the benz in gear and pulled onto the road. She was looking forward to a nice bottle of red wine, a book and some blessed solitude this evening having just dropped Henry off at his other mother's apartment.

Long gone were the times where she and Emma fought over who Henry stayed with, usually they ate dinner together either at the mayoral mansion or in Emma's loft apartment but she had been needing a quiet night to herself to sort out her head, and her feelings for the blonde. Emma had asked Regina on a date, and then had suggested that she and Henry spent some time at her apartment playing the new Call of Duty game that had just been released, so that Regina could have some space to herself to think. There were a few things she wanted to do around the mansion while she was thinking since Henry was otherwise occupied, like wrapping Christmas gifts she had already purchased for him and polishing the good silverware for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner she had been roped into cooking for Emma and her entire family it seemed.

Regina rolled her eyes as she thought back to the conversation that she had had with Emma about the dinner, she had walked right into it, Emma had been complaining that Snow's turkey was always dry and that David had purchased a lovely house for his wife and son but it was still only half furnished and the loft apartment was just to small to have the family around for dinner. Regina chuckled to herself and made a mental note to raise her expectations when it came to Miss Swan's deviousness.

As Regina pulled the benz off main street heading towards Mifflin her cell phone rang. Reaching over to the passenger seat she used one hand to rifle through her handbag while using the other to steer the car. Pulling the cell phone out of her bag she glanced at the caller ID to see Henry's name appear on the screen, she scowled, whatever he had forgotten he could go without, she was not driving all the way back to him with this game or that controller, this was her night to relax.

"Henry, whatever it is you can forget it, I am not bringing you anything" Regina answered the phone on speaker phone and held it against the steering wheel as she manoeuvred around parked cars and over a sleeping policeman.

"Mom, hurry...it's Emma," Henry said.

Regina stiffened at the tone of her son's voice and swung the wheel around pulling a u turn and launching the car right back over that sleeping policeman, cursing the day she had ever heard of traffic calming measures.

"Henry, I am on my way back to you, I won't be long, what is wrong with Emma." Regina tried to sound reassuring but she could feel panic building in her stomach.

"I don't know, she won't come out of the bathroom, the place is a mess and there's…" Henry stopped speaking, Regina couldn't be sure but she thought that he might have been crying.

She barrelled down main street passed the dinner and forced her voice to remain steady.

"It's ok Henry I will be there in less than a minute, are you safe?" Regina prayed that the answer was yes, she tried to tell herself that no matter what, Emma would not let something happen to Henry, whatever had happened Emma would crawl over broken glass to protect him.

"I don't know Mom, I walked in and the place is a mess and there's...there's blood in the kitchen, I can hear Emma in the bathroom and she is crying, I haven't been upstairs yet." As he said it he took the first step up the staircase towards his bedroom.

"No Henry, stay downstairs," Regina yelled into the phone, if someone had hurt Emma they might be upstairs. Regina shook her head at the thought , in all the years she had known Emma she had never really seen her allow herself to get hurt. Regina started to feel some real fear as she went over in her head again what she had heard Henry say.

Yanking the steering wheel hard, the car mounted the pavement outside the store Emma's apartment was above and she got out of the car.

"I'm coming up the stairs now, can you open the door for me Henry?" She was very much aware that he had not responded to her previous comment, Regina took the stairs 2 at a time, which in her Louis Vuitton's was no easy task.

The door opened as she came to the landing which lead to Emma's apartment, she studied her son who was opening the door for her, he looked uninjured but was very pale looking, his eyes wide with shock. It was instinctual for Regina to pull him towards her and hug him. While she held her son she moved her eyes around the apartment behind him, there was a pile of laundry on the floor under an upturned basket which seemed to have been knocked off the couch, the iron and ironing board were also sitting on the floor as though they had been knocked over. The small coffee table in front of the couch was lying collapsed in pieces and a mug with coffee in it was also broken on top of the table, its content flowing off the wood and dripping onto the floor. Remembering what Henry had said Regina swung her eyes to the kitchen where there was indeed blood, a lot of blood. There was blood on the table in a pool, but there was also blood splattered up the wall, across cabinets and appliances. That was when she noted the blood drops on the kitchen floor, that led to the darker carpet of the living room are but now that she knew to look for it she saw a trail leading right out the frint door. She began to seriously worry about Emma now.

Regina released her son and stepped around him heading towards the bathroom while simultaneously sending a bubble of her magic out like a radar to see if there was anyone else in the apartment with them, the only ping she got back was Emma, in the bathroom. Regina looked at the frosted glass that was the top of the bathroom door but all she could make out was the lighter outline of the sun shining through the bathroom window, the only hint that Emma was even in there was that when Regina tried the door it was locked from the inside, there were no sounds and no movement coming from the other side of the door.

"Miss Swan?" Regina called out and she heard a low whining sound coming from behind the door.

"Emma, Henry and I are very worried about you, can you let me in please?" Regina held perfectly still so that she could hear a response no matter how quiet it might have been, but she hear nothing.

"Emma, I am coming in," Regina knew that the amount of blood in the kitchen meant that she couldn't afford to wait.

A wave of her hand slid the lock open, she used the hand that was on the door knob to turn it, releasing the door from the frame,but instead of walking into the bathroom Regina turned to Henry who was standing at her back.

"Henry, go call your Aunt Ruby and ask her to come over please." She told her son, he opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off, "Whatever has happened your mother is hurt and she would not want you to see her like this, do this for her, go call Ruby and wait by the door for her to arrive, please?" Henry nodded and with a dejected look on his face he pulled his phone out of his pocket and walked over to the couch to make the call.

Regina pushed the bathroom door open and then swung it shut behind her replacing the lock as she did so before casting her eyes around the small bathroom. In stark contrast to the rest of the apartment, this room was spotless and neat. The only thing that looked out of place was the figure of Storybrooke's sheriff pressed in the corner, crouching down with her arms around her knees and her face toward the wall, she was rocking slightly and the fact that her entire body was shuddering told Regina that Emma was crying.

"Emma," Regina called out softly as she squatted down, not wanting to seem as though she was towering over the woman.

At the sound of her name Emma's head shot up to look at the intruder in her bathroom, Regina tried not to gasp when she caught sight of Emma's face but was only partly successful in withholding the reaction. Emma's sobbing became much more apparent as she began to mumble something over and over again as tears flowed down her battered face.

Regina froze not anticipating the reaction she had caused in the blonde before her, she edged closer and listened to what Emma was mumbling, "please stop, please no," was being repeated over and over again. Regina steeled herself for what she was about to try and hoped to the gods that her instincts were right or she was about to make things a lot worse.

"Sheriff Swan stop that this instant!" Regina spoke firmly but there was no venom in her voice, and her words had the desired effect, Emma first froze in place as she swung her head towards the Mayor, the gaze from the one good eye she had fell on Regina and her eyebrows tried to knit themselves together but Emma;s left eye was far too swollen to let the action happen.

"R...re...regina?" Emma asked hoarsely, not really trusting her eyes.

Regina took another step forward so that she was now at arms length from Emma and nodded, "Yes Emma dear, It is Regina," she responded softly.

Regina was not quite sure what she was expecting but when Emma launched herself into Regina's arms she was quick enough to wrap her arms around the blond and press her into her. Emma was sobbing endlessly now, Regina frowned as she held the woman, gently sweeping Emma's unruly hair behind her ear in a soft and comforting way. She looked down at the broken woman in her arms to try and make an assessment of her and froze as she realised that Emma's bottom half was not clothed. Regina swallowed down some bile that threatened to come up as she rocked Emma and tried to put some pieces together in her brain.

"Emma, who did this to you?" Regina asked when the sobbing subsided some.

Emma's response was to begin hyperventilating. Regina gently rocked Emma and made some soothing sounds as she held tightly to her.

"Shh my dear it is alright, not to worry about that just now, that's right slow breaths, take some breaths with me, in through the nose," Regina inhaled through her nose loudly to demonstrate then held it for a few seconds then blew the breath out of her mouth "and out through your mouth, that's it, it's ok dear we don't have to talk about it now."

Emma got her breathing under control as she continued to cling to Regina, a knock on the door caused her to jerk her body and the movement was followed by a quiet groan as pain shot through her as her body protested the movement.

"Regina?" Ruby called through the door.

"Yes dear we are here, in the living room on the floor there is a pile of laundry, could you grab Emma's sweat pants out of there for me please, and keep Henry in the livingroom for now?" Regina asked, she needed to make Emma comfortable enough to leave the bathroom, and that was not going to happen with her ass on display for her son to see.

"Emma, let me see how badly you are injured please?" Regina asked as she gently pushed the fragile woman away from her body, Emma did not protest the movement though she did wince in pain. Regina scanned the blonde carefully filing away every detail, cut and bruise she again felt bile rise in her throat as she catalogued bite marks, bruises in the shape of hands, blood between Emma's legs - some dried some not. Regina noted that though Emma was wearing a button up shirt that was undamaged, she had her trademark tank top on underneath though it was torn and hanging open, exposing Emma's chest and stomach. The tank top was also blood stained.

Rage rose inside Regina at the implications of the injuries and the state of Emma. She squashed down her own feelings and reached for her magic as she tried to heal the wounds on Emma's face, she was unsuccessful. Regina frowned and focused instead on a hand shaped bruise on Emma's arm, but she could not heal that either. Very odd Regina thought as she let Emma once again settle against her. Regina was the first to admit that she had never been great at healing spells as she rarely practiced them, but she was not that bad!

A light tap on the frosted glass let Regina know that Ruby had retrieved the sweat pants. Emma stiffened in her arms and Regina placed a hand on Emma's head as she pressed her against her own body in a comforting motion, "it is just Ruby, you are safe I promise," she whispered tenderly to Emma, but did nothing further until she felt Emma relax a little against her.

Regina swept her hand in the direction of the door and the lock freed itself, "I have unlocked the door Miss Lucas," Regina said as she fixed her eyes on the door in an effort to tell Ruby to school her reaction. She needn't have bothered with the glare as it turned out, Ruby slid the door open just enough to get through the gap then pushed the wood back into the frame again, she lifted her eyes to meet Regina's as she sat on the closed lid of the toilet and waited patiently for some instructions.