Completely of their own accord, Regina's arms wrapped themselves around the broken Savior. She was stunned by how small Emma felt, certain that just two days before, before Emma had thrown herself at the mercy of the darkness to save her, she had felt much more substantial than the frail woman now clinging to Regina's arms with everything she had, face pressed hard against her chest and tears soaking the thin material of her nightgown. Regina had never been very good at comforting others, well except for Henry, but since this was Henry's other mother perhaps the same techniques would work with her. Hesitantly she raised a hand and ever so gently, and more than a little awkwardly, began to stroke Emma's long blond hair. Emma breathing was shallow and desperate, reminding Regina of Henry's during a particularly bad flu when he'd thrown up for nearly an hour straight leaving him weak and frightened.
"Just breathe Emma. Just breathe." She wove her fingers through Emma's stringier than usual hair, smoothing out knots as she went. She wasn't sure how long it went on like this, nor could she be sure when her words of comfort began to be whispered directly into Emma's hairline, her lips pressed against her forehead as she spoke, but eventually Emma's shoulders stopped shaking and her sobs became sniffles. She was tempted to push Emma away upon becoming aware of how strangely intimate their current position was now that Emma had calmed some, but decided against any sudden movements lest she provoke some unpredictable response from the fragile girl in her arms. She stilled her hand on the back of Emma's head, fingers still buried in blond locks.
"I can feel your heart." The words slipped across her chest, barely above a whisper. "I could feel your heart and your life and I controlled what happened to them. Having that power, Regina...it felt..."
"Warm." Emma looked up at Regina's interjection, confusion in her eyes.
"How did you...?" Again Regina interrupted, this time with a knowing look and a cocked eyebrow. "Oh, right...Evil Queen and all that." Emma blushed slightly, feeling incredibly self-centered for thinking that she was the only one who knew what being consumed by darkness felt like.
"Yes, Evil Queen and all that, indeed." They stood in an uncomfortable silence for a moment, Emma clutching and unclutching her fists, staring down at her hands as if she expected them to explode at any moment. 'Which, I suppose, she does.' Regina thought.
"Hook thinks this is all going to be an easy fix. That with him here, and the rest of you, it'll be no problem to find Merlin and have him get this darkness out of me. I just couldn't stay in that room any longer, it's like even when he's sleeping he's preening his obnoxious ego too loudly for me to shut it out. I don't know what to do, or where to go. I can't talk to my parents, they're worse than Hook right now, and I can't let Henry see me like this. I can't be around anyone." The more Emma spoke the faster her words tumbled from her mouth. She had begun pacing and the clenching of her fist grew more and more rapid with every syllable. Regina reached out, stopping herself just short of grasping Emma's nearest hand, before speaking.
"You can be around me." The certainty with which she spoke stopped Emma in her tracks, and for the first time since she had begun sobbing Emma looked up into Regina's eyes again. It was a moment before she said anything, holding eye contact and looking every bit like a deer in the headlights, though Regina noticed her hands had stilled.
"Why were you out here? It's the middle of the night. Did I wake you...? Did I do something? Are the others awake too?" She broke eye contact to let her gaze dart around the room like she expected to see Snow or Charming pop out from behind a curtain.
"I never fell asleep. And no, as far as I know, Dear, we're the only two awake." Regina allowed her hand, the one she had reached out with that had since been hanging awkwardly in midair between herself and Emma, to drop back to her side. Again the heavy silence settled around them as she watched as every fiber of Emma's skin seemed to twitch and jerk, her eye having resumed their frantic scanning of the room. She could feel the power, the darkness, coming off of the blond in waves. It was purely intoxicating...and utterly terrifying. She knew all too well what Emma was feeling, though she had to admit that even she had never had to deal with this level of darkness all being dumped into her at once, at least she'd been lucky enough (if you could say that) to have it creep into her heart bit by bit. And it was that very darkness within her that she could feel practically rejoicing now that it was in the presence of such raw power for first time in...well, the first time ever. Sure, she had been around her share of power in her day; Rumple, Maleficent, Cora; but nothing this unadulterated, and she'd be lying if she said it wasn't taking everything in her not to reach out and try to suck some of it up for herself.
"...Regina?!" She hadn't realized Emma had been calling her name, growing more and more concerned with each time Regina didn't respond, until she felt Emma's hands on her shoulders. When she did her fingers grazed just above the neckline of her nightgown, brushing against bare skin, and that was all it took for a shock to fire through Regina's body, bringing with it astounding euphoria. She leapt back from the touch with a gasp, her eyes slamming shut for a moment before opening wide. She knew that they were swirling with purple mist, and she shook her head in a pathetic attempt to clear it away. Emma began to reach out again but Regina held her hands up defensively, halting her.
"Don't. Just...don't." It was Regina's turn to clench her shaking fists as she worked desperately to reign in her magic. When she finally looked back up at Emma's face she found her gawking at her with a look of absolute horror.
"I knew it! I shouldn't be around you, not any of you...no one...I'm too dangerous. I'm hurting everyone. I'm going to hurt everyone."
"Miss Swan."
"I can't do this. I don't know how to control any of this! I can't...I'm going to hurt everyone..."
"Miss Swan!"
"I just need to leave. I have to go somewhere I can't get to any of you. I have to go...somewhere..."
"Dark One I command you to shut the hell up and stand still!" Regina's voice boomed out over Emma's ramblings, the jagged dagger she held directly in front of her gleaming in the sliver of moonlight that managed to sneak past the heavy velveteen curtains shrouding every window in the castle. Emma did exactly as commanded, of course, seeing as she had quite literally no choice in the matter.
"Now listen to me, Emma. You didn't hurt me, you just...triggered something. As long as I have this," she waved the dagger slightly, "you can't hurt me unless I let you. So now let's try to stop panicking and see what we can do about giving you some control over yourself." Emma didn't move, listening intently to Regina's words while her eyes remained captivated by the dagger, her expression best described as one of hunger. "Miss Swan, you can speak now." It took a while before any words made their way from Emma's lips, though she was clearly struggling to form them for quite some time. Tears had begun to pool in her eyes again and she seemed unable to look up from what must be a fascinating spot on the floor. Finally, and so quietly it was almost inaudible, came two little words.
"Help. Me." Green eyes crept their way up Regina's body but never made it to her face. If they had she would have seen the intensely sympathetic look sweep across Regina's face before she plastered over it with her very best cross between the in-control Mayor of Storybrooke and the scared of nothing (or so she liked to pretend) Evil Queen. It was the best she could do considering she wasn't sure there was much she would be able to do to help the beleaguered Savior, but she would damn well keep trying as long as she had the dagger. She couldn't understand why Emma had trusted her with it, nor why it had made her feel so very...unexplainable when Emma had placed it into her hands and uttered the words "Now save me" with that near sneer that was so very un-Emma-like, but what she was certain of was that she wouldn't let that dagger out of her possession while she still drew breath. So now, looking every bit the confident sorceress that she didn't feel inside at all, she drew herself up and swore to herself that she would find a way to pull this darkness, a darkness meant for her, out of Emma.
"Why yes, Miss Swan, I intend to. Now I don't know about you, but I could use some air." Without any further discussion or hesitation a cloud of purple swirled around the both of them and they vanished from the dismal stone hallway.
