Chapter 2
David slowly drifted back into consciousness, his eyelids fluttered open and finally he unblinkingly took in his surroundings. At first he had no idea where he was or what he was doing here but then all his memories came flooding back. The portal, the wraith, Regina.
"Regina!" he called out suddenly realising he was no longer holding onto her.
He looked around anxiously, and began to panic until he saw something in the corner of his eye.
"Regina!" he yelled again stumbling towards a tree. Behind it she lay unconscious, a bloody cut on her temple. Her clothes dirty and ripped and her face as pale as a ghost.
"Oh god," David said under his breath before he knelt down beside her and gently put her head on his lap.
His heart ached at the sight of her, she looked so small and vulnerable, and unlike the evil queen he once knew. It made him realise she's not indestructible, no matter how much she wanted people to believe it, she's still human and can still get hurt.
He quickly checked for a pulse and when he found one he let out a sigh of relief. She's going to be okay, he thought.
He gingerly put a strand of her hair that was lying on her face behind her ear. He kept his hand there, his thumb stroking her pale cheek. His other hand held one of realised her wrist was bruised from where he was holding her earlier and felt a pang of guilt for it. He rubbed her injured wrist gently.
"Regina," he called out softly, hoping it would wake her.
Nothing.
He started to worry, what if she didn't wake up? He started to call her name out more frantically.
"Regina,regina!," he started to shake her carefully. She began to stir and he let out a long breath he didn't even know he was holding.
She whimpered, she was still in pain, from the wraith, from the portal, from her head.
"Shush, it's okay, you're okay," David whispered while holding her delicately.
She opened her eyes slowly and squinted at the sudden brightness. Her head was pounding, her ears were ringing and her vision blurred. She was weak but she wasn't on the hard ground anymore, someone was holding her.
"Hey," the voice said, a man's voice.
David.
She tried to talk but her throat was too dry and she just let out a groan. Her vision became less blurred and she saw David above her, a forest around them. The enchanted forest.
David watched her apprehensively. He didn't know what to do. She was still so pale and clearly not able to walk. She needed food or at least some water.
He gently scooped her up into his arms and she let her head rest on his shoulder and weakly put her arms around his neck, she was too weak to fight it.
"wha….where?" she tried to get out more but her throat wouldn't let her.
"shush, don't try talk , we are going to get some food, just rest now, I'll wake you when we find some," he said kindly.
She didn't want to sleep, knowing they were in the enchanted forest and the wraith was still after her but she was too exhausted and felt her eyelids slowly closing. She was eventually fast asleep in David's arms.
David looked down at the peaceful brunette in his arms. wow, he thought. She really was beautiful. He always thought she was, but right now she wasn't trying to kill him or she wasn't giving him one of her usual cold looks, she looked natural. He thought about all the time they spent together during the curse. He thought about the time she tried to kiss him, how he regretted not kissing her back for weeks after that date, something in the back of his mind had told him not to and he was right. Snow would have been furious and….shit
Snow.
What was he going to tell her? What would she think? He told her how he hated Regina and wanted her dead but now he was risking his life to save her. "Jesus David."
It was starting to get dark, he held Regina more protectively now. The wraith had disappeared somewhere into the enchanted forest but soon enough it would be after Regina again. He needed to get her somewhere safe, to keep her safe, he thought.
Something in the distance caught his attention and he stopped dead in his tracks.
People? No, it couldn't be, everyone was brought back to Storybrooke.
He tentatively kept walking, slowly, towards the figures in the distance. He instantly got a bad feeling and decided to turn back when they noticed him.
"Hey!" one of the voices yelled. A woman?
David held Regina closer now, the brunette still passed out in his arms. He didn't know what to do, the figures were walking toward him now. He was curious but didn't want to put Regina in danger, she can't fight back.
They started running to him and he knew he wouldn't be able to out run them so he just stood there, not knowing what to do, trying to make out who these people were. It was too hard, it was night now and everything was so dark.
"The evil queen! He's got the evil queen!" he heard one yell.
"Shit," he couldn't see them but they could obviously see him. He needed to get away, they would hurt Regina if they still think she's the evil queen.
David turned swiftly and began running as fast as he could, considering he had Regina in his arms and he was trying not to fall, it wasn't his fastest.
The brunette began to stir. The people were shouting now.
"Get them!"
"He's got the evil queen!"
"David?" Regina murmured
He kept running even though the people were right behind them now.
What if they had weapons? He thought as he looked at Regina, she was looking up at him nervously. He got lost in her big brown chocolate eyes, she looked so scared, and he had never seen her like that. She could obviously hear the people shouting her former title and he wanted to comfort her, although even he was worried and he couldn't hide it.
David was out of breath and slowing down. He couldn't run for much longer.
Regina sensed he was and she knew they wouldn't be able to get away. They would kill her anyway, she thought. Better if one of them got out of this alive.
"it's okay," she whispered weakly. Looking into David's deep blue eyes full of worry.
"What?" he looked at Regina who gave him a tired smile.
"it's okay, let them have their evil queen, get yourself out of here."
He didn't even consider it. "No way Regina, I…"
David felt a sharp pain in his head and faintly heard Regina scream his name and then… everything went black.
To be Continued...
