Title: Belle's Hallmate
Disclaimer: Don't own any of these characters/settings etc.
A/N: This popped into my head after seeing the episode 'Hat Trick'. It has nothing to do with my ongoing (and almost done) Lion/Mouse series. And this time, it really will be a one shot.
Regina stared up at the sliver of sunlight that shone through her one window. She got off her cot and stood under it. Pretending that she could feel the heat, that she wasn't in a box but outside.
Without a watch she knew that in a few seconds Nurse Mildred Asper would be by with her pill and the rest of her day would be lost in a haze of semi nothingness. Nurse Asper said that she was crazy. That Regina was in the cell for her own good, just like all the others in the underground cells. Of course, Asper also said that she'd get better, but Nurse Asper couldn't tell Regina how drugging her out of her mind on a regular basis would help.
But, then again, Regina didn't remember much about anything. SHe knew her name was Regina. That she had a father named Henry. That she'd been married to a Leopold.
Other than that, no matter how hard she tried, nothing would come to her.
Nurse Asper appeared in the hallway. "Regina..."
Regina blew out a breath and reached through the bars and took the cup of water, the pill, and swallowed it. She'd tried every way to escape taking the pill, but Nurse Asper was good and after a few years Regina gave up. Surrendered to the haze.
Regina lay down on the cot as Nurse Asper left her alone. In the beginning she'd also knocked herself silly because she'd tried to stay solid, had paced the room, that sort of thing. It hadn't worked.
It wasn't all bad. Sometimes she'd have dreams, on occasion they even felt like visions. And every single one of them involved the same blonde woman.
They were halfway up a mountain. Regina was frozen. He fingers stuffed in two tiny cracks, her toes balanced on ledges smaller than a penny.
A voice called down to her. There was laughter in it, "Hey slowpoke, what's the matter, you scared of the top now?"
Regina looked up. The blonde hung over the edge with a smile on her face, "C'mon- this was your idea Regina."
Regina's whole body jerked and one of her hands slipped from the rock. The blonde had never spoken Regina's name before.
When Regina looked back up the blonde's smile was gone, "Regi-, are you alright?"
"I- I'm stuck."
Another first. Regina had never spoke to the blonde in the dream, vision, whatever it was. "So, climb up."
"I don't know how to."
The smile was back, "One hand and foot at a time, and, if you fall, I'll catch you." Regina stared up at the blonde. "What?"
"No one's ever said that..."
The blonde laughed, "Ya mean other than me, repeatedly?"
Regina looked down and gritted her teeth, the blonde was right, the only way was up. "I need- help."
The blonde's smile didn't waver, "All you've ever had to do was ask." She disappeared from the edge and then Regina felt herself being pulled upwards. When she was at the top she grabbed the edge and pulled herself up and over.
Before Regina could move any more than that the blonde yanked her off the ground and kissed her.
Regina felt as if she were floating, that her soul had been released into the world, and she felt herself flush with heat as the kiss went on longer than humanly possible. In the back of her head she thought, 'yay dream'. And it wasn't one sided, she was kissing back with just as much passion. She didn't know anything about the woman, but she knew her soul better than she knew her own.
Finally her mind cleared just enough to let a singular question travel from her brain to her lips, "What's your name?"
Regina awoke with a start and immediately looked up at her window. It was still light out, still the afternoon. That never happened. There was a commotion down the hall.
As she got to her cell bars they opened and Regina looked up to see who'd opened them. She blinked in surprise.
It was the blonde, and she looked just as surprised as she spoke, "Regina?"
Regina took a step out of the cell, put her hand around the back of the woman's head and kissed her. Everything came back to her so fast, Happily Ever After, who had put her in the cell, everything, that she physically stumbled backwards back into the cell. She wasn't surprised when the blonde caught her before she hit the ground.
"What's going on Regina, what's your game?"
Regina slowly nodded as the blonde helped her stand, "The Queen of Hearts- you think she is me. Like I turned into the old woman she turned into me."
"What? That- you-" She shook her head, "This is a trick, but... for the life of me I can't figure out why you'd put your-"
Regina cut the blonde off. "My memories are still... I know two things. One, I have been no place other than this cell for the last twenty eight years... and two, you were in my dreams."
The blonde studied Regina so long that Regina thought the blonde would turn and leave the room. Finally she spoke, "She's not... you?" Regina nodded, "But everyone up there... your son, the town-"
"S-son?"
The blonde shook her head, "I- I think that you're actually telling the truth. You're not the one who cast the dark curse? Stuck all the story book characters here with their unhappy endings?"
Regina frowned, "I traded that curse to Maleficent. SOmeone- we're not in the kingdom?"
The blonde chuckled, "Nope. Not by a long shot. So all the evil here- you didn't do it?"
Regina gestured to the cell, "From here? No. Ask Nurse Asher."
"And the evil you did in Happily Ever After?"
Regina's eyes sparked with a fight that had been missing for many, many years. "I never did anything that wasn't warranted." She shook her head, "I'm not perfect, but I'm not evil."
"Kiss me again."
Regina blinked, "Excuse me?"
The blonde pulled Regina out of the cell again and didn't let go of her hand, "You're free, and free to say no-"
Regina brushed back a lock of the blonde's hair and leaned forward until they were mere milimeters apart. "We should go to the surface, stop the Queen of Hearts. Find where she keeps the hearts."
The blonde didn't move, "You... she doesn't know I'm down here- I released the others here with you- knocked out Nurse Rachette."
"Asper. And, you talked less in my visions, my dreams." Regina shut the blonde up with a kiss, backing her against hte wall.
It was only when the blonde felt Regina's cool touch on her abdomen that she pulled back, "Visions... dreams?"
Regina closed her eyes, "In the last one we were climbing a mountain, you helped me to the top and you- kissed me."
The blonde shook her head, "You're nothing... nothing like her. All she wants to do is ruin lives."
"That's all I wanted for a long time too. In... you call it Happily Ever After... Especially Snow White, but- I've had twenty eight years with nothing else to do but think."
"And...?"
"No one's perfect, but I know that I can be better than I was." Regina shook her head, "You should tell me your name."
The blonde chuckled, "That's it? Save the world, tell me your name?" Regina nodded and the blonde put an arm around Regina's waist. Guided her down the hall, "My name is Emma Swan..."
And they lived happily ever after.
Fin ~ March 27th, 2012