Another chapter, hope you all enjoy!
Emma was on duty that night as Sheriff and knew the mob she had seen gathering on Main Street had plans to attack Regina. Emma had looked down at her hands while sitting in her cruiser and felt conflicted as she just sat still, observing the crowd grow. She did nothing except watch as the people gathered and shouted angrily to each other, beginning to move off towards Mifflin Street.
Emma knew Regina deserved taking down a peg or two, but she knew from past experience that fights had a tendency to get out of control very quickly. It was her duty as a law enforcement officer to maintain order and ensure that the mob didn't get out of control, despite her own personal feelings on the subject, Emma knew what was expected of her in her job.
Whatever their own personal issues and history, which was complicated to say the least, Emma smiled at recalling hot sex, and then immediately sobered as she remembered more recently attempted poisoning by apple turnover, she had to be The Sheriff tonight.
She thought back to the angry fights, screaming matches leaving them both feeling more alive, chests heaving and breathing hard, blood pumping through their veins. There was hatred, unreasonable demands, attempted manipulation, slur campaigns. When Emma thought about it though, those actions were all Regina, she had merely been the recipient of the anger and derogatory comments, the underhand actions had all been aimed at her. She had just taken them with a smile on her face, knowing Henry preferred her company, and in the dark of night, so did the Mayor.
Emma sighed, this was fucked up. However much she might not like the woman, they shared Henry. Regina was important to him. Emma hated the brunette as she had stood in her way at every turn, but deep down the blonde knew she had a duty to uphold the law, and vigilante justice wasn't the way things were done in this world. Even as she settled into the seat of the car and went to pull away she knew she was lying to herself. Hate wasn't the right word for her feelings about Regina, however there was no word that fit what she shared with the brunette, so hate would do for now.
Shaking her head she put the car in drive and tried to order her thoughts. There was never a justification for an eye for an eye. Or a tooth for a tooth. If that was true the world would be full of blind and toothless people. Some people might even deserve that, but it wasn't for her or the townsfolk to decide. They were not judge and jury in this case.
The blonde knew people were angry about the curse, they felt they had 28 years taken from them. But as an outsider and looking at the situation with some sliver of impartiality, Emma had to admit that due to the nature of the curse, none of them had aged, so they hadn't actually lost anything. They had just gained 28 years of memories, living in boredom and monotony over and over. Was it really worth attacking the woman over?
True they were stuck in this world, and Emma had nothing to compare it to, but this world wasn't so bad was it? There had to be advantages, plumbing and heating, fast food. Regina hadn't killed them, she had messed up a few families, but with the curse broken things could slowly return to normal. Families could find one another, so what was their justification to want to harm the woman (even kill her mind whispered, but Emma pushed that away, she had been here and lived among these people, no-one would do that, would they?)
Regina had been Mayor for 28 years and looked after the town quite well, which included the people living in it. Emma guessed as an outsider looking in she didn't truly get it and part of the towns people's aggression wasn't at The Mayor, but at The Queen from the Enchanted Forest. Emma had never meet The Evil Queen, she just knew Regina, true she was a bitch and enjoyed power plays, the intensity of the games she played were sick and twisted but she didn't think anyone deserved to be so outnumbered and hated and attacked when they had so little left in their life anyway. Regina had lost her job, her son, her curse and all control that had brought with it.
A small part of Emma was sympathetic to the woman, the part that had lain contentedly in the brunette's bed she supposed. Thoughts like that were dangerous, so the blonde quickly focused her thoughts somewhere else. Anywhere else. Pushing the memories away wasn't that easy as her mind kept travelling to images of the brunette woman naked under her, her head thrown back in pleasure as Emma pushed at her body in all the right ways. No, Emma wasn't going to think about that, the woman had been planning on poisoning her for god's sake, what was the matter with her? She knew Regina had got under her skin, but seriously she had to find some control and deal with the situation at hand.
Still there were conflicting emotions at war with Emma and she had been close enough in the hospital to see how broken the older woman was, how torn and scared she was despite the fixed mask she reflected to the town in general. Regina had lead a life of loss, it was clear in her eyes when Emma had broken down the barriers late at night or when true fear had gripped the woman. Emma had only seen it a handful of times, the day at the Mine and in the hospital, both times when she thought she might lose Henry, but it was enough of an insight in Emma's view. She didn't feel any driving need to continue to heap misery on the brunette, there was misery ingrained in her already, buried deep in her brown eyes.
Emma knew Regina was as unhappy as everyone else in this town, perhaps more so as this was meant to have been her chance and happy ending, she had cursed everyone for her own gain, but Emma knew she had made Regina happy in bed and that the feeling was fleeting. The rest of her life was stiff and stilted and angry and aggressive. Emma didn't know too much about being happy, but she was pretty sure happy people didn't live like that.
If Emma was being honest, no-one had seen Regina since she had fled the hospital, she was in hiding, why did the town insist on going and waking a sleeping bear? If someone got hurt, and knowing there was now magic in the air, Emma couldn't be certain who would end up on the losing side, this whole situation could have been avoided by leaving the Ex-Mayor alone. Then Emma wouldn't be sitting wondering about choices, both past ones and the ones she knew she was going to be forced to make tonight.
She realised she had been sitting thinking for far too long as the mob weren't even in view anymore and she quickly pressed her foot to the gas pedal and left rubber behind on the road surface as the tyres span for a moment at the aggressive way Emma was driving. The car jerked before settling down and pulling away from the curb, the movement was far from smooth and mirrored Emma's troubled demeanour, tension clear on her face as she nervously bit her lip and wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans before holding on tightly to the wheel. She took a deep breath to steady herself, she needed to be The Sheriff, she could do this.
So as she came driving down Mifflin Street toward Regina's mansion she took notice of the mob. The door to the mansion was open, the mob were swarming over a fallen figure and Emma's stomach dropped when she saw that it was Regina being hammered into the marble of her own porch by as a many pairs of hands that could find purchase on her.
Emma felt her mouth go dry and her stomach sunk even lower, trying to flip itself in nervous spasms. She felt suddenly nauseated as she put her foot down and drove towards the people. The cruiser mounted the pavement and then drove onto the grass of Regina's lawn. Emma knew she was leaving tire tracks on the immaculate lawn and in other circumstances she would have smiled about the shit fit Regina would throw in the morning, but honestly, from what Emma had seen, she was worried there might not be any more mornings for Regina. She had been thrown around like she was a rag doll, Emma guessed she was unconscious from the way her head had lolled limply and somewhat lifelessly from side to side. Despite that fact Emma noticed that people were still trying to kick at her.
Some of the people at the edges of the mob moved away as the car neared them. They were fearful she would run them down as the car slide sideways on the damp grass and skidded to a halt.
Immediately the blonde jumped out running on pure adrenaline and started to elbow her way through people, most of them glaring at her but not fighting her. As Emma got to Regina's feet she had to literally rip Leroy off of Regina, he was standing on her thigh like she was a log or something, rather than a human being, and leaning into her face trying to intimidate her.
Nothing was going to intimidate Regina at this point, Emma noticed the bloody face, the bruises and swelling already starting on her face, the ripped shirt and her closed eyes. She was out of it, beaten so badly that Emma wondered if she could have even opened one of her swollen eyes even if she had been conscious. She knew the rest of Regina's body would be the same, battered and bleeding, and part of her wanted to cry. Regina's body was beautiful, Emma had seen her looking glorious, naked and toned, she had run her mouth over the soft skin often, and now her body was bent and broken, the skin ripped and bludgeoned.
Emma looked up at the sky and wanted to pray, only she didn't believe in such things. Instead she could only hope that nothing was broken, because with the feeling in this town, Emma could hardly take Regina to a hospital for treatment, they would just laugh and think this punishment was justified. It made Emma's blood boil, these people were attacking Regina because they wanted revenge, they wanted her to suffer. Did they not see the hypocrisy in it, that Regina had acted selfishly, had been hell bent on revenge and they had labelled her "Evil" for that. Now they were just as bad. To cap it all, this behaviour was from people who were meant to be fairy tale characters, good, honest people used to guide children's behaviour, to encourage them to do the right thing.
Emma felt sick with revulsion at the spectacle she had to interrupt, and the words Good and Honest didn't really fit into this display before her. She didn't see any positive behaviour, nothing that would inspire children in a moral storybook tale. This was hatred and destruction and all the negativity in the human nature and spirit, and the only positive Emma found was she was glad she didn't see people like Ruby, Granny or Katherine here, people she liked and respected. At least they had had the sense and decency to keep out of the witch hunt that this had become.
Emma shoved Leroy away, smelling the alcohol on his breath, at least he had some kind of excuse for his lack of control and poor judgement. She wasn't sure what the other people would say, but she knew she couldn't arrest them all, there weren't enough cells in the station to hold them all.
Taking a deep breath Emma knew she just needed to diffuse the situation, to make them see this wasn't right. Surely some of them must have calmed down now and come to their senses about how unfair it was to gang up on an unarmed woman and beat her black and blue.
Her anger simmered, even with how Regina had treated her she didn't find any satisfaction seeing the woman below her split open like that. It just made her angry that these people had crossed the line and exacted their view of vengeance. She pushed the anger away and turned round and faced the crowd.
"Enough. Back off."
Her voice was strong, it carried and her face was stern, her body was held straight, with her head high and eyes with a steely glint, knowing that people would read her body language as much as the words coming from her mouth. She continued,
"I don't come from your world, I don't know whether this behaviour is acceptable there. But you are NOT in your world anymore. And in this world, this level of abuse is a criminal offence. I will not stand by and let you carry out what is at best vigilant behaviour, and at worst a blatant attack on someone who was unarmed and vulnerable."
Leroy mumbled something about Regina having magic and that she wasn't unarmed, she had threatened them.
Emma swung on him, her teeth bared as her composure cracked and she hissed, "She was trying to defend herself, even Regina isn't arrogant or stupid enough to think she could win against all of you, wouldn't you bring whatever you could if faced with this many people coming to attack you?"
Leroy had the sense to shut up and slink backwards away from the blonde woman.
Emma looked up and realised that a lot of the people who had been lingering at the back of the pack had begun to slip away. That was good, it meant the blood lust was fading, without it being so strong and clouding people's judgement she could try and reason with them. As the crowd thinned she felt relief flood through her, she hadn't realised how much she had been running on adrenaline and now she had fewer people to deal with she turned her head, pinning as many of them with her hard gaze.
"You are trespassing on Regina's property, and have just committed a criminal offense. This is assault, I should be looking at arresting you all."
Emma tried to make it sound like this was a sincere threat, being that she was outnumbered and her badge wouldn't stand against them if they should turn on her as well. She hoped that they respected her position as Sheriff and that their misguided loyalty to her as "Saviour" would carry a weight to her words, giving them more impact to the townspeople.
No-one interrupted her, a few hung their heads. Emma kept her voice steady, despite the churning in her stomach, nerves finally hitting her she guessed.
"I want you to all go home. This is finished with. If you walk away now I won't follow up and press charges, I won't pursue any of you, but this twisted idea about revenge stops today. No-one has the right to do this damage to another human being, and I will lock up the next person who tries it."
Emma let out a breath as she watched people look at one another and begin to slink away into the night, off down the street to their houses with shoulders slumped and a defeated air about them.
Emma waited for the last person to leave the lawn before she quickly turned on her heel and dropped to Regina's side. She could see that Regina's chest was lightly moving with ragged breaths, at least the brunette wasn't dead - yet. Emma would never forgive herself if she hadn't got to the mansion quickly enough and if she had to deal with a homicide case. And that could have been a real possibility, she knew now the levels of anger and violence in this town, it scared her but she pushed all of it away, she had to help the brunette.
She also had to question why Regina had come out of her house to face the mob, because as she had just told Leroy, Regina was many things, but she wasn't stupid and trying to face this many people, well Emma wasn't surprised at the outcome being a broken and battered Regina.
What she was surprised about was that Regina had let herself be subjected to it when she could have run. A voice in the back of her mind whispered a reason – she thinks she deserves it, and maybe she didn't think she had anything left to live for. Emma knew Regina hadn't been happy for a long time, and the unhappiness only intensified as Emma stayed in Storybrooke and Regina felt her own control slipping. The brunette had been acting more and more erratically, getting more angry and letting her carefully constructed mask slip more and more often to show the hurt inside of her. Emma also thought that she had just occasionally seen glimpses of something akin to abject despair shining through her expressive eyes before Regina was able to compose herself and slam the door shut to her soul and become unreadable again.
Emma knew the key was Henry, the answer to everything that was Regina was always Henry. Had his rejection done this to her?
Now with Henry paying the price for Regina's failed poisoning of the blonde and the brunette thinking he was gone from her life forever, maybe she had just given up and hoped to bring an end to it all in the easiest and quickest way possible.
Emma knew Regina far too well and thought back to the satisfaction she had brought the woman, a woman too stubborn to moan or gasp, to utter Emma's name when they were intimate. Yes Emma knew the brunette was stubborn enough to stand her ground, even if the odds were against her and she was scared and wanted to run. Emma had to admire the woman's determination and drive, even if she didn't like her.
But guilt nipped away at the edge of Emma's thoughts, Did I drive Regina to this? I kept pushing at her, kept taking things she valued, Graham died, her tree was scarred and broken, and Henry wanted nothing to do with her. It had been a destructive period for both of them, even the sex wasn't healthy and Regina had continued to walk tall, but Emma knew that the face she had turned to the outside world wasn't a true reflection. She knew that Regina loved Henry and losing him must have killed her, even if the actions had been her own doing.
Emma's words from early were definitely apt, this was fucked up.
She knelt next to the woman she couldn't figure out, and worse, couldn't figure out her own emotions about and gently scooped her up. The blonde would try and fix what she could, starting with the broken body she held in her arms, then she'd have to talk to Henry. The only way was forward, not that she knew what would happen, but regardless she wanted to ease the guilt that ate at her.
With a sigh Emma slowly walked to her car, she needed to think, she was tired and her mind and body had been on a rollercoaster over the last few days. She had fought a dragon, she was in a town with magic, she had found her parents, she had been sleeping with a Queen who had tried to poison her, and now she held said woman in her arms and was scarred she might die. Time and clarity of thought were not going to happen tonight, she had to act quickly and hope her instincts were true. She could think after some sleep, after things had calmed down and she had the luxury of time for herself.
She fleeting thought about how on her 28th birthday she had wished not to be alone. She wasn't sure this situation was better, before she shoved that rather unhelpful thought away. This was how it was, and of course it was better, she had found her child, her parents, of course this was better. It had to be, didn't it?