Hi, first time writing SwanQueen so, bring it.
Trigger warning here because the ladies have to do something they don't want to. Not particularly violent.
Other warning, if you're prone to always wanting to be politically correct, looking for an argument or wanting to call me unnecessary things, please, spare me. It's an adult-themed work and we can speak about it as such.
This is me exploring my dark ish side/fantasy. Hope you enjoy.
Oh yeah, Don't own OUAT or any of the characters or themes therein. I wish. But no.
Powerful.
If anyone would have asked Regina Mills what she wanted to be when she grew up, that would have been her answer. Sure, her mother was a powerful woman but she had married in to it. Regina wanted to do it all herself. She wanted to be a success story in the eyes of billions, namely, in the eyes of mommy dearest.
Regina vowed at the age of 13, two years after her father passed, that she would do something great and she would do it on her own.
And, after twenty-six years, she did just that. Regina was currently founder and CEO of a multibillion dollar, international financial company. She had about two thousand employees, 30 offices in 24 cities around the world, and was growing at a 24% average increase each year. She was recently named to Forbes Top 40 Under 40, Forbes Most Powerful People in the World, and Maxim's Hottest Women. The last one was a joke to her but still gave her a nice ego boost.
And an ego she had. When you're around as many men as she was and were constantly hearing the word no or getting talked down upon, you build some thick skin. When you start hearing shit talked behind your back or in the media, you learn to hold your head even higher. After all of the shit that has happened to her on her ascent, she learned to not feel anymore, to hold her chin in the air and let people enjoy the view of her perfectly sculpted rear-end as she walked away.
Regina hated pretty much everyone, she learned. She didn't need friends, she needed employees who would do their job and exceed at it.
And that's where she found herself now. She was currently interviewing for a new personal PR executive. With all this light, she found that, the more she was out in the media, the more people wanted to talk to her and the more the company was growing. She needed someone to be able to handle that, and most of all, her.
As usual, she found major turnoffs with everyone who interviewed. One had no spine, one almost cried, one was not organized, one couldn't be available on weekends, one didn't know how to work Excel, one wasn't okay with all the hours and only being paid 70 grand a year.
Near the ninth interview, she began to lose hope for the position. She scribbled some obscure note across the forehead of some potential employee and slammed the folder shut.
Her phone rang, it was the front office.
"Please tell me that was the last one." She deadpanned.
"No, Miss Mills. There is one more applicant waiting in the lobby here." The lowly secretary's voice was shaky, as per usual when anyone had to speak to Regina.
"Send her in." She hung up the phone. She had no hope for this applicant.
She stood behind her desk and motioned for the incoming blonde to sit down. She tried to offer a decent smile to the woman who was attempting to not look nervous. She was doing pretty well.
"Emma Swan." The woman reached out her hand, to which Regina accepted. The woman had a firm grip and maintained eye contact the whole time. This was something no one else had managed to do, provided they even attempted to shake her hand.
Both women took their seat. Regina asked Emma to describe herself and her prior work experience. She spoke of a few sales positions as well as a few marketing positions she had held. Regina noted that she had quite a few jobs in her… file check… 32 years of existence. She waited for more.
The blonde went on to tell of the major projects she's worked on: Regina scribbled more notes. She noticed Emma make a small attempt to look at what she was writing.
Regina asked a few more standard questions which Emma has pretty standard answers to. She hadn't said anything to sway Regina in to thinking she was amazing but she had also not dug herself a grave yet. This was until Regina asked about work hours and availability.
"I honestly don't have anything big going on in my life. I'm ready for something to fill that." Emma sounded sincere. It didn't sound forced, which Regina was now a pro on picking up on, seeing that she personally hires anyone that works for her.
"You do realize that means working for me, yes?" Regina's playful sarcasm made an appearance which doesn't typically happen.
"What do you mean?" Emma's face contorted to truthful confusion.
"I doubt you could have possibly not heard anything about me." Regina tried to see if the woman was bluffing.
"I mean, all of the things I have heard of you pretty much just give me the impression that you are a force to be reckoned with in the financial world. To keep that stature, I would think you would have to be strict and hard on your employees. I understand and I commend you for keeping up the standard." Emma's face has changed to a nervous smile, afraid she had said the wrong thing, as she usually did in interviews.
Regina's mind blanked. She looked up at the blonde and just stared at her for a second. She looked at the woman like she was searching for something within her, trying to find where the answer had come from, what script she was reading from.
Her smiled grew.
"Well… Miss Swan. I do believe we are finished here." She rose and extended her hand.
Emma stood and she looked at her shoes. Her face had physically fallen. "Ok. Thank you Miss Mills for everything you…"
"Miss Swan." She stopped her. "I am going to show you to our HR department so we can work out new-hire paperwork." She smiled gently.
Emma couldn't help the excitement that arose within her. It was all she could do to not wrap her arms and squeeze the life from the pristine woman.
"Oh my, thank you so!" Regina held a perfectly manicured hand up in the air to indicate the woman should stop before she got annoying. Emma took the cue and stopped.
~~/\/\~~
Emma had been working at least 60 hour weeks for about five weeks now and she had not yet lost her fervor. Regina was quite impressed, if she was being honest. Emma took commands well and she brought a nice sort of fresh energy to the office.
The first time she sat through the monthly Board meeting, Regina kept an eye on her to see how she would handle the most boring meeting in the world with the stupidest people she knew.
Oh how Regina wished she could fire every single one of them for their incompetence. But, many of them had proven to be worthwhile to the company, or had invested many-a dollar into it. But they were all pigs, as most men were.
Regina wasn't like a man hating feminist or anything. She more learned that men were all the same, whether it be professionally or personally.
Professionally, they all still treated Regina like she was beneath them, even with her story and her success. Personally, most of them could not handle her stature or the fact that she was more well off than she was.
That was until she met Leopold. He was a seemingly intelligent man who seemed like he cared about what she did and wasn't off-put by how much she made or how much time she spent working.
They went on a few dates and hit it off rather quickly. She even took him home to her mother, which she surprisingly approved.
So yadda yadda, got married, lived happily ever after for a while. Ha.
Then she found out he was basically sent by her mother so Regina could have kids. When Regina found this out, she laid heavily in to her mother and they got in to yet another yelling match. Regina said she never wanted to speak to her again. She told Leopold to get out and to never return.
And yet, here she was. She didn't talk to her mother until recently and she was still single. Sure, she had tried dating a few times after the divorce but it was always the same. Boys will be boys, if you will. She didn't need them anyway.
Regina didn't need love to thrive… and thrive she did.
Anyway, after a few weeks, she grew to like having Emma as her PR exec. She kept Regina's schedule tight and organized and allowed for a good amount of media coverage while still allowing the CEO time to get her work done. Regina was now actually glad she hired for this position instead of attempting to take care of it herself.
In the long boring meeting, Emma was busy sending emails and forwarding things on to Regina who was barely listening to anyone talking at this point. They had this meeting once a month and nothing helpful arose except people giving Regina pointed remarks and heated glares or fighting within the room about a problem that Regina had already solved. The funniest part of it all was that no one could provide a single negative remark about the company's growth.
But, they took any stab at Regina they could. They noted her nickname of the Evil Queen several times and were all quick to agree with its fitting. They told Regina she could learn to be nicer, to which Regina said nothing. No one would respect her if she was not strict, or at least that's what she told herself.
One of the numerous billionaires in the room always made a sexist comment about being on a perpetual menstrual cycle. Regina rolled her eyes at the lack of originality and impossibility.
They finished talking "business" about two hours later. In that time, Regina had managed to set up a meeting with a potential big-hitting client.
Emma, without words, noted it in the schedule and Regina couldn't help but smile at her efficiency.
The two stood to leave the room. Regina shook a few hands before exiting and retreating back to her office across the hall. Emma followed her but said nothing until the door was closed.
"You shouldn't have to put up with that." The frustration was evident in her voice.
"Yes, but I do... Have to."
"Why?" Emma's voice was soft this time.
"Because, that room sits about 70 percent of the investors of this company. If you're curious, that is billions of dollars, Miss Swan. I can't just fire them and I most certainly have them quit. We need them." Regina's tone was neutral.
"But you shouldn't have to put up with that. You could like file sexual harassment or something." Her tone rose again.
Regina finally looked up to meet Emma's eyes. "Miss Swan. Please try and understand the repercussions of such actions. Any of those men could have my head if I tried to say anything against them. You need to learn how this all works. I bite my tongue around them; they hand over money for the company. This company is all I have and I have worked way too damn hard to see anything happen to it. Get it?"
"God, this is all infuriating. But I understand." Emma said and ducked her head again. She held her tongue on everything about Regina. She wanted to punch all of the men in the room for treating her that way. Sick fuckers.
~~/\/\~~
About six months had passed since the discussion about the old men who weren't worth shit. Emma managed to hold her tongue every single time they had a board meeting. She didn't look at any of them. She didn't smile at them. She didn't even acknowledge them. They were all nothing to her. She was here for Regina.
One of the times, she heard them say something about her as she walked out behind Regina… Something about 'imagine the blonde one sucking on' this or that, she attempted to tune the rest out. Emma's face grew red with anger but she quickly relinquished the feeling; she didn't want another lecture from Regina.
~~/\/\~~
On the seventh board meeting, shit got real.
It started as any other meeting. Regina sat at the head of the large table in her large chair, typing away on her computer. Emma sat next to her, not seated at the table, but was involved in the same movements that Regina was.
As the meeting progressed, Regina stared at her screen, searching for answers in a note from a client. Let's just say their finances were not doing well.
"Miss. Mills." The tone was stern as she figured the man had repeated himself a few times before she even noticed. "Are you even listening to us?" She found the culprit to be one of the senior level executives in the marketing division.
"No, will you repeat yourself, please?" She looked directly at him waiting for her to answer.
"What are you doing that is so much more important than this meeting?" He decided to take this route instead. Emma's head snapped up at his rude comment.
"I am the CEO of this company and I can do what I please, Mr. Black. However, if you must know, I am currently in correspondence with a client of ours who was thinking of switching to a different firm. He is blaming us for his quickly approaching bankruptcy. And, if you keep wasting my time, then I am going to have to advise you to start looking for another firm as well." She glared at him. He was not one of the biggest hitters in this room and frankly, she was not in the mood to take a lot of shit from these people today; she had already gotten a lot from this particular client who had no clue what he was doing and that was why he was about to file bankruptcy.
Before the room knew it, Regina and this Mr. Black fellow had begun to argue.
He argued that she sat on her high horse and didn't actually give a rat's ass about anything or anyone… Like she hadn't heard it before.
She countered that he was a lazy and immature man who was really only a part of this board because he managed to lie his way there: like she didn't know.
He tried to look to his colleagues for support. He spewed off hatful comments on her piss poor way of running the place and only getting media because everyone in the world would want to fuck her. Most of the people in the room looked as if they agreed, which infuriated her even more.
Regina glanced quickly at Emma who looked like she was literally biting her tongue. She had a white knuckle grip on the chair she was seated in.
Regina was livid at this point. She tried to keep her voice as neutral as possible. She remembered that she couldn't fire all of these people and she took a breath to keep from erupting. She wasn't going to stand for this.
"Mr. Black, you think you are irreplaceable in this company? Please. I could do your job with one hand and half a brain. In fact, I think I will. Remove yourself from the premises. You will be receiving severance documents soon."
"Are you firing me?" His face was beet red with growing anger.
"Why yes, I do think that is what I just did." She gave that infamous evil smirk that sank right down to the core.
The man was silent for a while before finally blowing a gasket. He started yelling and throwing papers. He kicked over a few unused chairs in the room. He picked up his company owned computer and launched it across the table at her. Thankfully, she was able to move out of the way. The computer crashed in to the wall behind her. It left a hole.
The 20 or so men sat and watched the man as well. Regina looked away from the man and back at her computer. She began to type something to her head HR rep before, out of the corner of her eye; she saw Emma stand and back away slowly.
She looked over to her. She was currently standing about two feet behind her with her hands open and in defense position. She looked up to her eyes to see what her horrified eyes were fixated on. She followed it straight back to Mr. Black and noticed that the red had drained from his face. He was ghost white and shaking. She followed his features down to his hand which now contained a small revolver.
Regina's heart dropped. "Mr.…."
"Don't." He warned. She didn't say anything else.
"For four years Regina, we have all watched you fight your way to the top and not give a shit about anyone else. You walk around her like you are the only one who has done anything to get this company to where it is. And yes, you have done a lot but you give no credit where it is due. You make your staff work ungodly work hours and you give them nothing in return. I have a life! And all I want is to stop seeing you. Everywhere I go, you're on the news or in the paper or I have work to fucking do. I missed my oldest boy's graduation and almost every single one of my daughter's volleyball games. My wife left me because I didn't spend time with her and that is because of you!"
There were nods and agreements that could be heard around the room. They were all staring at her now, seemingly happy the man was holding a gun toward her.
"You couldn't do what you do without this board." He continued. "This company would go downhill faster than you could imagine and then the media would come to us to find out why. And we would tell them all about how you actually treat everyone here: your attitude and mean comments. And I'm sure we could come up with a lot of other things. Beside the point… but there goes your positive media exposure. Everyone will turn on you, Regina. Is that what you want?"
She considered his words. He was right, in a way. The media was looking for a reason to turn on her and, until now, they had no reason. But, if these men went out with whatever stories they would tell, she would be ruined."
She shook her head.
"I didn't think so. So. Yes, I will resign and I will leave but it will be because I quit. I will file my resignation from this job and this board. But you will do nothing to these good men."
She almost laughed at the term good. Instead, she nodded.
"Good." The gun was lowered at this point and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Mr. Black collected his briefcase and walked over to the door. He stopped right in front of it but didn't leave.
Instead, he locked it.
So, please let me know how ya'll are feeling about this and if I should post the interesting part of this, and then beyond too. ;)