Chapter 1
The office was dimly illuminated thanks to the brass lamps that stood on top of all the wooden desks that filled the place. The usually loud murmurs and whirring made from both the agents and the ever-present writing machines seemed to be equally dimmed as if everyone in the bullpen-like place was trying jointly to not breathe. From the sturdier door of them all, one in where the oak wood seemed to be just as old as the office was, the echo of three different voices could be heard, floating towards the carefully listening agents as they kept on trying to feign reports and cases were being investigated inside the place instead of admitting their gossip thirst.
Inside the closed office, the voices transformed into two silent women and an irate man. Emma and Regina stood in front of Lieutenant White, the man looking anything but pleased as he turned to read the remaining lines of the report the two women had just given him. The same orange-hued glow that illuminated the outside desks casted shadows on the full to the brim desk of the old man, papers upon papers being stacked around the brass lamp in where the light that came from the glass bulb of the brass structure kept on winking at Emma whose green eyes were only focused on it. a rictus on her face the obvious sign that she was as happy as her boss seemed to be. Other than the papers, an old badge and an equally old-looking pistol rested partially dismantled on top of the desk, the cylinder still dirty from the usual mixture of ink and dust that seemed to float everywhere.
"You are telling me." Leopold White said, his bushy eyebrows meeting in the middle of his forehead. "That you two not only weren't able to stop Hades but by the time you arrived to his laboratory all his notes were gone as well?"
Emma and Regina shared a small glance. The two of them had just returned from the small nearby town in where they had followed Hades and his gang of "zombies"; their clothes were still dirty and Emma still sported that hurriedly made dressing Regina had put on the gash she had discovered she had on her shoulder after another run against Hades creations once they had exited the warehouse. Their looks didn't really spoke about success and only their badges fastened around their hips made them look slightly better than the beggars the two of them know that would be waiting for them just as they leave the bullpen.
Licking her bottom lip, Emma squared her shoulders, readying herself for whatever White would have prepared for her. Taking a step forward on the rug-covered floor, she opened her mouth, the pendant around her neck tingling as the Mix she had there sensed the doses that fed the lamp.
"Sir…"
"It was my fault." Regina interrupted, raising her chin as both White and Emma turned to look at her, the man eyeing her skeptically while Emma's lips parted, the blonde unable to say anything as Regina nodded at Leopold's gaze. "I didn't learn enough before I shared what I had with Miss Swan, sir. I should have tried to have a better Intel before trying to catch Hades."
Leopold growled and let the report fall atop a dozen of others, the tower of many other papers trembling perilously at that.
"I should start using a writing machine." The man mumbled before pinching the bridge of his nose. "But I can't stand the touch of the copper and those damned machines need to be made of copper in order to work."
"I heard they are trying to improve the mix of the Dust… Sir." Emma replied, her voice trailing off as Regina's strong fingers closed around her forearm, urging her to shut up
Leopold nodded absentmindedly, eyes still trained on the stack of papers, before he rose his gaze from the reports, the wrinkles around his eyes and the glow on his bald head enough for Emma to try and stifle a small smile that quickly evaporated as the man pointed at the two of them, on his finger a large, stocky ring glinting against the light.
"You two fucked up, I don't care if you should have listened more before trying to attempt to catch that madman, Mills. You are supposed to be one of our very best as well as Swan here. At least that's what your report tell me. What you did can possibly set us all back more than two months. This is not going to be good for either of you."
"I…" Emma opened her mouth, ready to deny Regina's possible implication on the fuckup that had been hers and hers alone.
"We understand that, sir." Regina interrupted her, the grip around her forearm even stronger than before. Emma eyed her, amazed that instead of biting Leopold's head off the brunette seemed to be calmer than before. "We shouldn't have done what we did. We will take whatever sanction you consider fit for us to take."
Leopold eyed them both with a glint of doubt in his eye, enough for Emma to feel uncomfortable on her leather boots. Mud and dust still caked her jacket and jeans and as she gulped she realized that it had been a long time since she had last drink something. Swallowing and closing her hand around her pendant, she focused on the small warmth the Mix irradiated from the rigged compartment the small it had.
At her side, Regina hold Leopold's gaze, her posture frozen as she awaited; she didn't look as frazzled or as dust-covered as Emma did but tiredness was obvious around her eyes and her left hand, the one in where her bracelet was fastened, hung limp at her side, the copper filaments that run up her fingers glinting every time she breathed, the mechanic contraption waiting for her to snap her fingers.
As seconds passed and the silence stretched, the two of them shared a quick glance; Leopold seemed to be lost on his thoughts and it wasn't clear if they could already go back to their desks and face the questions of the rest of the office or where supposed to keep standing there.
"Sir?" Emma asked, tilting her head. The use of the epithet made Leopold growl between a tightly closed mouth before he picked one of the reports at his left.
"You are going to investigate this, Swan. A new case that has just dropped in front of our front door so to speak. I want you two on the case, show me that you are not starting to lose your edge."
Regina took a step forward and grabbed the report with her right hand, the old ring she had around her neck escaping the confines of her blouse as she nodded earnestly, opening the report right away as Emma stood, completely dumbfounded and equally irate.
"Sir, we haven't lost…"
"Sir." Regina interrupted her again, this time shooting daggers with her eyes before she turned to eye the man that had started to caress the old-looking pistol, the white accents of the details of the handle peeking between his fingers. "This only speaks about a John Doe found dead at the docks."
Leopold nodded. "That would be correct."
Regina sighed as Emma frowned, taking the report from the brunette's hands and reading the
sparse details of the finding of the body of a young man with his mouth filled with gold ichor that had spilled out in the eroded pavement of the smelly docks of the city.
"Sir." Emma said, squinting at the details that had been written on the report. "A drug case?"
"Dust is taking over once again." The man replied, tapping the gun's surface, the metal clinking beneath his fingers. "We all know how dangerous is to consume it, even the smaller amount."
Regina tensed at Emma's side and the blonde cleared her throat before turning back to the old man.
"This man," Leopold continued, sitting behind his desk, the creaking sound of the wood framing his words. "Was found with twice the usual dose in his system. He was probably dead before his body started to produce the ichor."
Regina shivered and Emma was close to do something similar herself. The intake of the Dust as it was called one of the two substances that worked as fuel and magic of every item of the Enchanted Forest, was already worrisome enough thanks to the craving it left behind once the human body transformed it into ichor that was later expelled. Having someone with twice the usual dose on their bodies spoke about something far more dangerous; big amounts of the substance without being mixed were on the black market. A gigantic amount.
"How was he able to take so much?" Regina asked out loud. "By the time that amount has been ingested his body should be already failing him."
"That's a problem you will need to discover for yourselves." Leopold replied grumpily. "We need to find who may be selling those doses before word gets spread."
"We wouldn't want panic to arise." Emma replied drily knowing very well that the lieutenant didn't care at all about the dead and very much about the opinion of the ones above him.
"Of course." The man replied, waving the two of them off. "I will send word so you two have the forensics before your shift is over. Now, go."
Emma looked at Regina but the brunette had already turned towards the door, the mechanical handle of it shivering the second she grabbed it with her left, the filaments illuminating as she opened the oak door. Emma, casting one last glance to Leopold, followed her suit, finding herself looking at the suspiciously seeming bored bullpen.
"You would say that they could feign better." Regina muttered before going directly towards her own desk. Humming, Emma shook her head and leant on the same desk, the report still open on her hands.
"He is an asshole."
"If you mean White of course he is, he thinks he is the king of the Division." Regina replied, neatly putting her badge on her desk before starting to dismantle the receptacle that hold the Mix to the bracelet on her wrist.
Emma stared at her in silence as Regina put the receptacle away, the mix of dust and ink titillating as she, carefully, bottled it up. The filaments and bracelet laid on the table, unresponsive –for now-to Regina's touch. Glancing at her own bracelet the blonde felt her pendant warming ever so slightly, a common occurrence whenever it was close to too many machines. Taking a deep sigh, she eyed the bullpen at her back before looking at Regina again, the brunette already jotting down the details of the John Doe.
"You shouldn't have said that it was your fault." Emma finally spoke, green eyes narrowing as Regina looked up, tresses curling just beneath her right ear. "We both know that I shouldn't have tried to beat Hades at his own game when we had almost zero information of the factory's layout."
Regina licked her lips before putting the scrap of paper down just in time for the small receptacle screwed to the opposite side of where the lamp was, coughed a battered copy of what was probably the forensic report Leopold had promised them both. The cage rumbled, the smell of slightly burnt ink and dust filling the air as Regina picked the report before turning to gaze at Emma's still attentive gaze.
"Are you really asking me to rat you out to that archaic man? That's not what you'd had asked me four years ago."
Emma rolled her eyes, leaving the report and crossing her arms in front of her chest. The movement caused several crumbs of the caked mud to fall at Regina's pristine desk and she froze as Regina eyed her, just the barest of a smile crackling on her lips, while she mouthed a small "Sorry"
"I… I know you would have. As I would have. We really didn't like each other back them." They both smirked; overstatement of the century.
"But today that's not the case, I could have calmed him down, I feel bad that you are stuck with this case and with me because I was an idiot."
Regina hummed, opening the dossier and starting to read the report with growing dark circles around her eyes.
"Even if I can say that you are an idiot, dear…" She answered, sucking on her teeth as she reached the end of the dispassionate explanation of how the John Doe had been found curled up, clutching his stomach and with an expression often found on the users of the dust, "We both would've end up in this case. It sounds like one of those that White doesn't want to think too much about because, otherwise, they would break the idea he had chosen to see about how Storybrooke is like."
Emma grumbled a "yes" knowing very well that Regina was mostly right; White would've ended up giving them that case so he could say to the authorities he had given the case to two of his best agents. Whether they would've caught Hades or not. Tilting her head, she extracted the forensics report from Regina's hands who sighed deeply before reclining on her chair, silently staring at the blonde.
"Still," Emma added, reading the details of the autopsy. "He is an asshole, he shouldn't…" "I've been clean for more time than even you have known me, Emma, this is nothing."
The two women stared at each other, Emma's posture changing quickly as she eyed into Regina's dark eyes. Stepping aside and kneeling next to the brunette's chair she crocked her head as Regina hold on her gaze.
"Liar." Emma finally whispered. Eliciting a small sigh from the older woman.
"I'm not. I will be fine."
Shaking her head, Emma straightened up and turned towards her own desk, carrying the forensics report with her.
"Emma?"
The blonde turned, finding Regina's stare. The brunette had picked up her badge and seemed deeply interested on it
"Will you come to dinner tonight?"
Emma smirked; the two of them had been sharing dinners ever since Regina had decided that she hasn't been sent there in order to take up her place.
"I will be there, want me to carry something?"
"Nothing much, Henry will probably be happy to see you there."
"I'm sure he will ask me about the case to no end…"
"You know my son."