Jealousy, Love and Retribution
8PM on Christmas Eve and Emma was sat at her desk at the station, filling out paperwork. What the hell was she doing? On Boxing Day she and her new wife, would be leaving for a nice warm location, for their two week honeymoon. Emma was trying to clear some of the mountain of never ending police reports before she left.
"What the hell am I doing here?" Emma groaned out loud to herself. You are being responsible. The voice in her head that sounded like Regina, said smugly to her.
"Oh shut up Regina!" Emma mumbled back, absurdly having a conversation with her wife's voice in her head. "Aaaaarrrrggggh." Emma groaned and picked up her pen.
Across town at the same time an argument was brewing.
"Mary Margaret, it has been two years. I can't believe you still have a problem with Emma being with Regina." David barked. He was happy that his daughter had finally found happiness and a family. This was something Emma had secretly thought she would never be able to have.
"How can you expect me to trust her after everything she did to me? To us, David?" Mary Margaret screamed back.
"Because she has changed. She has showed that time and time again. She has help save the town. She saved Emma from the darkness, and Regina dotes on Emma. If you dropped your veil of hate for a couple of minutes, you would see that Regina would do anything for Emma." David argued.
"They hate me. They both do." Mary Margaret screamed trying to blame more problems on the newly wed couple. Neal roused a bit before going back to sleep.
"No they don't honey. Regina regrets her past every day and does what she can to make up for it to every one. Emma is madly in love and finally has her own family. Which her own mother can't be happy for her. If you pulled your head out of the clouds, you would find out they just want to be a normal family, and they want you to be a part of that." David stared at his wife intently, willing her to finally see the truth. To be honest he wanted to tell her 'get your head out of you ass and be a proper mother to your daughter,' but he refrained from going that far...yet!
Emma looked at the clock on her desk 9PM.
"Screw it." Emma said, having finished about another dozen reports. Complaints of Pongo escaping, drunken punch ups at the Rabbit Hole, and fender benders were all merging into one cocked up mess now. The pile was significantly smaller than when she had started many hours ago, and seen as she doubted that anybody even read these reports (even Regina who probably just prodded her to do them out of mayoral responsibility.) Emma deemed that the rest could wait until she got back and she was a lot more relaxed and rejuvenated. As Emma was tidying her desk up, after a fashion, more like throwing everything into drawers. She heard footsteps, heavy footsteps. When she looked up she saw who it was, Captain Hook and he was obviously sloshed.
"Hook. What can the Sheriff's office do for you at this time on Christmas Eve?" Emma asked, forcing herself to be polite. Their break up after Regina had saved her from the darkness was rather messy. Hook wouldn't let things die quietly and kept harassing Emma and Regina.
"More like what can the Sheriff do for me tonight." Hook said lasciviously, stumbling towards Emma trying to hug her. Emma could tell what he was trying and side stepped the advancing pirate, causing him to stumble into a filing cabinet.
"The last time you tried to touch me, you went too far and ended up with a fractured eye socket and cheek bone. You escaped Regina's wrath because she wanted to barbecue your ass after everything before that, that had happened. Please Killian, unless you have a real reason to be here, turn around and walk away." Emma advised firmly.
"That bloody wench took you away from me." Hook growled. "You were supposed to be mine."
Emma let out a long moan, she was tired of going through this every time he got drunk and stupid.
"This will not get you anywhere. It never has and it wont now. You must have been drinking all day, to think that coming here would accomplish anything. I am married now. Move on Killian. Go back to wherever it is you sleep, and sober up." Emma said through gritted teeth, heading for the door and pulling on her jacket.
"Well then Swan you leave me no choice." He said quietly. Hook reached inside his long coat and pulled out an old pistol. Emma had her back to him, she had no chance to defend herself. His aim wasn't bad for someone so drunk. Hook fired twice quickly, the first shot hit Emma's left arm, grazing past. The second hit her in the back of the head. Emma crumpled onto the station floor, in a pool of blood, unconscious.
"If I can't have you Swan, neither can that old bitch." Captain Hook leaned down and whispered in her ear. He then pocketed the gun and strolled out of the station, as if nothing had happened.
"Who could that be?" Regina asked Henry, puzzled when she heard a knock. They didn't usually have people stop by at this time. Henry was playing video games in the lounge and Regina was reading, waiting for Emma to come home. She got a surprised when she opened the door to find David and Mary Margaret. She wasn't expecting to see them until they dropped Henry off Boxing day morning, before Emma and Regina left.
"Oh good evening. Is everything all right? I didn't expect to see you." Regina asked politely. She was always polite to Mary Margaret, she just rarely got it in return.
"I was hoping I could talk to you and Emma, about, well everything. I want to apologise." Mary Margaret offered a genuine smile.
"Well Emma isn't home yet, but she must be getting bored of clearing reports. Erm. Do you want to come in and wait?" Regina asked, tentatively.
"Yes, thank you Regina." Mary Margaret said, passing Regina and heading in the direction of Henry shouting at his video game.
Regina was pottering around in the kitchen, making cups of tea, when Henry came bounding in holding Regina's phone.
"Mum, its Ruby she's at the station. Something happened to Ma." Henry's voice cracked and his eyes welled with tears. Regina took the phone, her hands shaking.
"Ruby, what's happened?" Regina asked, her voice shaking as much as her hands.
"I tried calling Emma to see if she was still working, I thought I would take her something on my way home. She didn't answer her phone or the station line, so I went by to check on her." Ruby went quiet for a second, lost for words.
"Ruby where is Emma?" Regina spat with more force than she meant to.
"She's...she's been shot Regina. I found her unconscious. The medics are taking her to the hospital now. You need to get there Regina, quick. She doesn't look good." Ruby choked and started crying.
"Thank you Ruby." Regina said before she hung up the phone and frantically headed for the door.
"Regina. What's wrong?" David came running.
"Emma has been shot, at the station. They are taking her to the hospital now. Ruby says it doesn't look good." Regina burst into tears and collapsed against the front door. Lost for words, David picked her up off the floor.
"Come on I'll drive." David said, forcing himself to stay calm. He lead Regina to his truck, Mary Margaret followed and took Regina's hand. Apology or not, they had to be strong now for Emma. Henry hopped into the back of the truck after locking the front door.
Once they arrived at the hospital, Regina headed straight for the ER desk, demanding to see Emma. She was refused as Emma was still being assessed by the doctors. Twenty minutes later Dr Whale came out and began addressing David and Mary Margaret of Emma's condition, totally ignoring Regina.
"We have stabilized Emma's condition for now but..." Regina cut him off.
"Excuse me. As I am Emma's wife and legal next of kin, don't you think it is prudent to address me mainly?" Regina said scathingly. Dr Whale looked shocked and reluctant, looking from David and Mary Margaret to Regina. He realised what she said was true and began to coldly speak to her.
"Emma is stabilized for now, but we don't know the true extent of the damage. We are sending her for a CT scan now to assess the extent of her head injuries. She was unconscious at the scene, so we have placed her in an induced coma for the time being. This will help with any brain swelling. I'll come back and see you when I have the scan results. I will tell the nurses that you can see her when she is back from CT." Dr Whale hardly looked at Regina.
"Dr Whale we will need any bullets that are still….." He couldn't finish the sentence. Dr Whale nodded, smiling at David and Mary Margaret before walking off.
After Emma had her CT scan she was cleaned up in the ER, had the bullet removed, and she was moved to intensive care. A nurse took the four of them to Emma's room. Emma looked so small and pale in the large hospital bed, with all the medical equipment around her. She had a large bandage around her head, IV's in both arms, and monitoring on her chest and hand. Regina hurried to her side and picked up the hand that didn't have the oxygen and pulse probe on her finger.
"I'm here Emma. I love you." Regina sobbed kissing Emma's cheek and resting there for a few minutes.
Regina jumped when she heard somebody clear their throat by the door to Emma's room.
"Mayor Swan-Mills. My apologies I didn't mean to scare you. I am Dr Hall, the neurologist on-call." The doctor introduced himself pleasantly, and much more polite than Dr Whale.
"Do you have Emma's scan results Doctor?" Regina croaked, her voice thick from crying.
"Yes. Emma has a small bleed at the front of her brain, I think from when her head fell against the floor. She will likely have a severe concussion also. The bullet surprisingly did not enter the back of the brain, so we have removed that." He handed an evidence bag to David with the offending bullet in. "The injuries have been caused by whiplash to the brain from when the bullet hit. And when she fell forward and hit her head on the floor. We will keep her sedated for a few days to help relieve the brain swelling. And we will do an MRI in a few days to re-assess the bleed." Dr Hall finished.
"Will she need surgery?" Will she recover?" Regina asked, still shaking and holding Emma's hand.
"We don't know exactly when this happened. Hopefully we have sedated her soon enough to help the swelling settle. If the bleed does not get worse she should not need surgery." Dr Hall answered.
"Thank you Doctor." David said and Regina nodded as he left the room.
Regina took a few steadying breaths, while slowly watching Emma's chest rise and fall. Then she rounded on David.
"David. You find the fucking bastard that did this to her, and do it fucking fast." Regina said resolutely. Everyone was shocked, Regina rarely swore, but at the moment, a few curses were better than her blowing up half of Storybrooke.
"We have brand new digital CCTV all over the station and this." David wiggled the evidence bag. "I promise I will find the son of a bitch." David promised, laying a hand on Regina's shoulder. He looked at Emma, a tear rolled down his cheek, then he went to Mary Margaret and squeezed her hand.
"Be careful." She whispered. He nodded then went to leave.
"David wait. Why don't you take Henry and Mary Margaret home on the way. I'll stay with Emma." Regina advised. They were both about to argue but baulked under the dangerous look Regina gave them both. Henry kissed both his mothers before following his grandparents out the door. Regina pulled a chair up to Emma's bed side, held her hand then rested her head on Emma's shoulder. It was then that her grief rolled from her in waves of tears. Eventually she fell asleep resting on Emma, she never heard the nurses bustling in and out, checking Emma's infusions and monitoring.
David arrived at the station, it was nearly 2AM, he was tired and emotionally strung out, but it was about to get a whole lot worse. As soon as he walked into the main corridor he was met with a deputy photographing a large pool of blood and the surrounding area. David's tiredness turned into sheer rage, his blood boiled and he stormed into the bullpen. He found Mulan. David had asked her to go come in. Since arriving in Storybrooke, she had become quite a firearms expert.
"Mulan. Thanks for coming in at this time." David patted her on the shoulder and handed her the bullet the doctors had removed from Emma.
"David of course. This is Emma, one of us and a friend." Mulan's voice was shaking.
"Have you checked the CCTV yet?" Or found anything?" David asked.
"I only got here a few minutes ago but I found three shell casings. I was waiting for you to check the CCTV. But did you see?" Mulan lead him back to the main corridor and pointed to the camera that was trained on the corridor. It was smashed.
"Well aren't I glad Regina gave us the budget to update the security around here? Guess this asshole doesn't know it transmits to a central computer. Dumb ass." David growled.
David unlocked the office where the security camera servers were set up. As they didn't know when Emma was attacked, they started from when Ruby found Emma at 9.40 and worked backwards. It was sickening to watch the footage of Emma laying unconscious on the floor. They worked back to 9.00 and found Captain Hook entering the station. David and Mulan watched the exchange as Emma tried to leave and Hook tried to approach her. After a few minutes talk Emma walks down the corridor, turning her back on Hook and their blood runs cold. He pulls the gun out of his coat and fires two shot, then Emma goes down. He bends down and says something to Emma before pointing his gun at the camera and obliterates it. Another angle showed Hook saunter out of the station, seemingly pleased with himself.
David silently seethed for a few moments and the exploded, smashing his fists into the work surface.
"David don't injure yourself. We have to find him first, then I'll do some tests on the bullet from Emma. I'll find the one that grazed her and the one from the camera. We will build a solid case against him." Mulan said, trying to stay level headed.
"Maybe you can find out why that bullet didn't do more damage, not that I'm complaining because she is still alive. We need to find his gun too." David was still shaking with rage. "We are going to turn this town upside down and inside out to find this bastard, but we are not going to do it alone. We team up. Lets get some of the hunters who can use weapons and track in to search in the morning."
"Lets me and you check his usual haunts first." Mulan suggested.
9AM on Christmas day and Regina nearly leapt out of her skin when Henry woke her up. She had still been asleep, leaning on Emma. He was accompanied by David and Mary Margaret who looked grim.
"What? Do you know who did this?" Regina croaked, having just spent most of the night asleep next to Emma. David nodded and ground his teeth.
"It was Hook. It's all on CCTV. It looks like there was an argument of some sort. She tried to leave then…." David's voice trailed of and he was grinding his teeth again. Regina was shaking with rage, there was almost steam coming out of her ears. Then several panes of glass shattered.
"Mum, calm down the magic." Henry advised at Regina's sudden outburst. Regina suddenly made to poof herself out of the hospital and find the pirate herself, but David anticipated this and grabbed her arm.
"Regina no." David stepped right up to her. "I know how you are feeling right now because I am too. Let us deal with this properly. Emma needs you here. We will deal with this." David reiterated. It took a few minutes but Regina finally stood down.
"Regina go home and get some rest, I'll stay with Emma for a few hours." Mary Margaret half offered, half ordered. Still seething and trying to control her magic, Regina nodded and magicked herself straight to her bedroom. As she sat down on the bed, the weight of everything crashed down on her like a wave of sorrow again. Curling up in a ball and hugging Emma's pillow, Regina cried her pain. She sobbed for what felt like hours, until she fell asleep still curled a top of the covers fully clothed.
Five days had passed since the shooting and somehow Hook had still eluded David and the other deputies. Every day, David was advising Regina not to do anything stupid, like try to find Hook herself. Regina was becoming worried about Hook trying to leave town and get away with what he had done.
"David I have stood back and tried to let you deal with this, but I can not stand back any longer." Regina said, frustrated at their distinct lack of success.
"Regina what do you suggest?" David asked wearily. He had barely rested in the last few days and spent much of his days searching for Hook.
"We find him magically and it's more quiet. You come with me, to stop me from killing him." Regina offered. David was quiet for a couple of minutes. He feels like he has failed Emma, being unable to find the hook handed bastard, and he felt like he was running out of options.
"All right, I'm in." David caved.
"There is a but David. I want payback and not him lurking in a prison cell." David's 'vindictive dad' interests were peaked, his cop side banished.
"What are you suggesting?" David enquired, sounding interested.
"A spell to open a portal, back to any god damn realm but ours. And I will also make it so he can not get back to our realm." Regina explained with a glimmer of the Evil Queen in her eyes. David agreed without argument.
Regina used clothing of Hook's left behind from a previous arrest to locate him. Instead of following the trail by road, Regina and David poofed to Hook's hideout deep in the woods. He was hiding out in a small cabin, David found him passed out, drunk once again. David woke him violently and dragged him outside. A flicker of fear crossed his face when he saw the fury on Regina's face.
"You fucking bastard!" Regina flew forward and punched him right in the nose. He wailed in pain as blood gushed down his face and two black eyes instantly began to blossom. He landed flat on his ass on the forest floor.
"You disgusting cunt." Regina spat at him. "You couldn't have Emma so you tried to kill her. That was the biggest mistake of your retched life." As Hook stumbled to his feet, clutching his face, David also took a swing, landing an upper cut to Hook's jaw, who landed flat on his ass again.
"You fuck with my daughter and think nothing would happen?" David hoovered over him.
"That evil whore doesn't deserve Emma. She's too good for her." Hook physically spat in Regina's direction. For the first time Regina really snapped, magically choking the slimy pirate.
"You deserve her even less. You will only live because Emma has made me a better person. And she will need someone to support her after what you have done." Regina growled, sounding like a very pissed off Evil Queen. She released her strangle hold just before he passed out, then turned around taking a deep breath. After a few choice words a dimension portal appeared a few feet away.
"Wait what the hell are you doing?" Hook flailed his arms, as David grabbed hold of his left upper arm and Regina the right.
"Goodbye you murdering bastard. You'll never be able to hurt Emma again." Regina growled in his ear. Then they tossed him into the portal. Regina waved her hand and it disappeared.
"I'll heal that hand if you don't mention my language." Regina offered. David held out his hand, which he now realised hurt like a son of a bitch from punching Hook, accepting the terms.
"As if just to remind me never to get on your bad side again. Feel a little better now?" David asked, as his hand warmed up, healing from Regina's magic.
"Yes. Let out some of the rage. I never realised swearing was so cathartic." Regina admitted.
"I agree. A good swear after a bad day, it always helps." David added, stretching his pain free fingers and dropping his hand by his side.
"I'll remember that in future." Regina half laughed.
Later that day Dr Hall came to give them the results of Emma's 1st MRI.
"The bleed has not got any worse, so we can leave it alone for now and it should heal by itself. She definitely has a concussion, there are signs of some brain swelling. It is the worst kind of concussion that you can survive." Dr Hall started off.
"So what do you do next?" Regina asked.
"We will keep her sedated for a few more days. It will help the swelling continue to subside. We will then gradually reduce the sedation, to see if Emma will breathe on her own. If she does, then we will turn off the sedation and ventilation, and let her come around on her own. But I have to say, with these injuries, it could take some time for her to come around." Dr Hall explained.
"And you don't know if she will have any deficits?" Regina asked but she was terrified to know the answer. It would never change the way she felt about Emma, but it would make her wish she had killed the pirate very painfully.
"We won't know until she wakes up and we can test her motor functions." For now that was the best Regina could hope for.
In the next few days, Mulan's tests on the bullets showed the gun powder had deteriorated. Likely due to being stored on Hook's damp ship. This had been Emma's saving grace. The bullets did not have the velocity to enter Emma's skull. In the hospital, doctors had reduced the medications keeping Emma sedated and paralysed. Showing the true fighter that she is, Emma began breathing on her own. Now it was just a waiting game to see when or if Emma would wake up. Regina wanted to stay with Emma as much as possible. She was doing as much work from Emma's bedside as she could, but she was struggling to keep up. Surprisingly David and Mary Margaret offered to step up and help with meetings and other such business. Mulan took on more work at the station to help out David.