A/N: Hey guys massive apologies for the delay on this one, had a bit of writers block over who the mystery intruder should be! Just in case you're wondering- this isn't exactly canon so in this world Regina hasn't got her magic and a lot of series one eps never occurred. I would say more but I don't want to give the game away- and I apologise in advance to a certain branch of shipdom (you'll see what I mean at the end.) Anyways once again, thanks so much for reading, uber thanks go to reviewers/favouriters/followers and as we all know, I live for comments so please feel free to get in touch.

Onwards then!

TELLS: Chapter 4

"Madame Mayor, I think one of your minions might have got free of their shackles," whispered Emma with an anxious smile.

She didn't need to turn round, to feel Regina bristling behind her at the comment.

"If I had minions, Miss Swan, I think you'll find there's nothing in this world that could free them if I didn't wish it."

Emma laughed. "Fair enough."

Unclipping her weapon with as little sound as possible and checking the barrel with her fingertips, the grin dropped from Emma's face as she glanced up at the balcony hoping to catch any kind of movement.

But there was nothing.

Just silence and the sounds of hushed breathing coming from the brunette behind her.

Hitched breathing actually.

She tried her best not to read too much into that.

"Right, so this is what we're going to do," she said turning and staring at Regina. "I'm going to make my way up the staircase and start sweeping the rooms. You need to stay here, find a way call the situation in to the station then find somewhere to hole up until we know what we're…."

But before she could finish, Emma felt a finger rudely pushed up against her lips.

"No, this is what we're going to do Miss Swan. Firstly, there will be no calling the station. If it turns out to be a squirrel or a possum that got in somehow, I am not going to be the one explaining that to a SWAT team. Secondly, we are going to go up there and investigate. I may not have my magic at the moment but neither am I a trembling wallflower either- I keep a variety of weapons hidden around the mansion in periodic places as any good mother would. And thirdly," she gave an icy sniff, "I am not a 'hole up' kind of girl… and before you spin that comment into something tawdry and sexual, I would like to remind you that I pay your salary, Sheriff."

The foyer descended into silence again.

And Emma could do little but glare back at the Mayor's stone faced expression. Although she noted in some small part of her brain, that Regina hadn't taken her finger away yet.

And let's face it, that was just too good to resist. Taking the opportunity, she opened her mouth and gave the digit a little nip, raising an eyebrow when Regina pulled her hand back in shock.

"I guess it's a deal then," the blonde said with a sigh. I'm still going first though, since we haven't reached one of your military arms caches yet." She turned away to face the dark hallway for a moment, then spun round again.

"Um, you wouldn't have a torch anywhere to hand would you?"

Good question, thought the mayor.

Regina considered for a moment, racking her brain for the answer then snuck off towards the kitchen, her familiarity with the house meaning that she had no need to feel her way around. Disappearing from view for a second, Emma's chest constricted as she waited for her to reappear, all the while her mind whispering to her that her companion was safe and well.

Then she was back, a dark shape clutched in her hand, her fingers splayed over it and Emma let out her breath.

"Your torch."

Holding it out, Regina found herself momentarily glad that her face was hidden in shadow as Emma took the thing off her. This was not going to go down well and she knew it.

In truth it took the blonde a few seconds of pressing the on button to no avail, before she noticed that the implement wasn't exactly a standard shape.

Peering closer at it, she made out a plastic pigs snout with two enlarged nostrils where the bulbs were screwed in. Feeling along the edge, she pressed a nodule in and watched askance as a small flap sprang out of the side. Pressing the flap in for a few seconds, she watched the snout begin to light up, glowing brighter as she pressed in each time. Squeezing the thing as fast as she could for a second, Emma turned the beam on Regina.

"Are you freaking kidding me!?"

She only just made out the upturn of the brunettes lips in the dim shaft of light.

"It's Henry's; we got it at the home depot in case of a power cut."

Emma pumped her fist irritably and the light brightened again.

"And, well… not to point out the obvious, Sheriff Swan but…" Regina motioned to the shadows around them, not even bothering to finish the sentence, watching as the blonde in front of her huffed with her whole body.

"And this is the only torch you have in your entire, massively oversized house?"

"Of course not." There was a pause. "The industrial one is upstairs."

"Safely stowed alongside your massive stash of AK-47's apparently," Emma muttered sourly.

"Quite."

She had no idea why but the younger woman's obvious exasperation with her seemed to be quickly overpowering the sense of enjoyment that Regina was experiencing at their ridiculous situation. Usually, that sort of thing made her day infinitely brighter but the coiled worry in her stomach about what they might come across upstairs appeared to be tainting it...so she relented a little.

Reaching out, hesitantly at first due to the poor light, she clasped the blonde's arm and slid her hand down to rest on the other woman's wrist.

"I'm…sorry about the torch, I never really considered what would happen if I or Henry had been stuck down here in a crisis."

Regina felt the skin under her fingers still.

And waited.

"Apology accepted then." Said Emma begrudgingly, kind of hoping that the brunette would be too busy feeling guilty and wouldn't feel her pulse jumping all over the place.

"And not to change the subject, but do you think perhaps we should move past this and investigate exactly what's going on in the rest of my home?"

At that, the Sheriff straightened her shoulders and rested her right hand lightly over the Mayor's.

"Yeah we should. Ok, so I'll go first and you follow right behind me. Deal?"

The older woman bit her lip. "Deal."

Turning to face the dark atrium, Emma kept her palm pushing in and out at a steady pace and began taking footsteps into the small circle of light that spun out from the torch. Shaking her head, she tried desperately not to think about how ludicrous this must look from the outside. A woman of the law using a child's toy to investigate crime.

Jesus, what was next, a foam baseball bat for a weapon?

At least... that's what she was definitely not thinking about... right until she felt the Mayor's fingers grip onto the fabric at the back of her shirt, dragging the cotton across her skin. From that point on, she was absolutely, positively not thinking about that new sensation or the way it sent threads of exhilaration up her spine.

Regardless, they crept onwards like that, mounting the bottom stair as it curled around and up. Planting each footstep silently on the carpeting, they made it up to the landing and stopped, scanning the hallway for movements or sounds.

But there was nothing. Not even a slight breeze from the open window at the far end. Tensing a little, Emma motioned for Regina to follow her as she made her way over the long maroon threads.

Until there was a low purr in her ear.

"It sounded as if it was coming from the master bedroom."

It took all of the blonde's reserve in that moment, to keep from turning around; the sound was so low and piercingly husky. In fact she was sure she could feel it bouncing off the small patch of skin underneath her ear and it seemed to be throwing off all the attention she was trying to employ given their current situation."

"I…um…."

Christ, where the hell had all her words gone?

She focused, trying her best to control the turbulent thoughts spinning through her brain.

"…Would you mind if we checked there first then?"

How surprisingly sweet.

Thethought came unbidden to Regina behind her; it caught her off guard that the Sheriff would care enough to ask whether she had permission to enter her room. Leaning forward again, keenly aware of the tiny goosebumps lining up on the blonde's skin as she did so, the Mayor couldn't help grinning when she whispered,

"Best make the most of it, Miss Swan, you won't get many other chances to see my personal… chambers."

Emma's brain just about imploded. With the alluring tone of the voice, it felt as if it was crawling around inside her skin.

Not trusting herself to reply, the ever present comeback not even close to materialising, she nodded weakly and felt the breath on the shell of her ear move away.

Holy hell! Inappropriate much?!

Emma caught her breath and started them moving again, if only to focus her thoughts a little as the darkened portraits and artwork inched past.

Creeping along the wall, they stole onwards, steps in synch, skin an inch away until the blonde felt a restraining pressure on the small of her back.

"It's the door to the right."

She blinked trying to clear some of the gloom from her eyes. Then, steadying her hollow breath, Emma pushed lightly on the mahogany wood of the closed door, testing its resistance. It began to swing open as she clicked the safety off her revolver and squeezed the plastic flap on the torch to try and get the most amount of light out of the outlandish pig in her hand.

They could see into the room now and even in the dim light, it took her breath away.

Not just the deep reds and creams that matched perfectly with the furnishings, but the stylishness and simplicity of the arrangement. The four poster bed was draped with some kind of fine linen although the colour was impossible to make out and every surface gleamed. This was the room of someone in control of everything. It practically screamed it.

That wasn't the biggest surprise though. That came from the chaotic array of hats that were strewn across the plush white rug on the floor; the items tumbled across each other, as if they'd offended somebody by their mere presence. Wispy wedding fascinators were elbowing broken reedy summer hats and a single baseball cap too small to be Regina's lay wounded on top of a hard-cased riding helmet. .

"I know who it is. Don't lower your gun." Hissed Regina.

"What the….Why do you have so many h…." Blurted out the blonde and found a hand slung across her mouth from behind, cutting her off.

"Shhhhhh. He'll hear you."

"Who?" mumbled Emma into the skin of the mayor's palm.

It was wet and ticklish and distracted Regina for a moment.

"Jefferson."

"Glad to see you still remember my name, your Majesty."

Both women froze as a seamless black shape stepped out of the shadows near the wardrobe and stood there, leering wildly in the half light of his powerful torch. His dark hair was mussed up and standing out at all angles but all Emma could think about was the fact that she had that stupid pig thing in her grip.

The brunette however had frozen, and as soon as Emma noticed the death mask of electric light on the mayor's face, the sight sent creeping anxiety through the blonde.

"What…what do you want?"

Regina, stuttering? That's not a good sign.

Emma took an imperceptible step in front of the other woman.

"Really, Regina?"

The man threw his arms out wide, motioning to the mess around them, his coat tails jerking. "You couldn't possibly imagine? Perhaps I just felt like making a collage and didn't have a large enough space at my home."

Her Equilibrium returned with a flash and shaking off her surprise, the mayor sneered. "It's not here, you know. You think I'd be stupid enough to leave such a powerful item lying around in my closet?"

"I don't know." The man called Jefferson's eyes grew even darker, if that was possible. "There seems to be a great deal of stupid leaking out of this world you created."

Regina sucked in a mouthful of air with acid.

And Emma couldn't do anything but watch as the pair of them glared at each other, trying to get a handle on the situation as she kept her gun hand up. They clearly had a history, a dark one no doubt. But beyond the obvious animosity on display, she didn't have a clue as to what it meant. Or how to play it. So she did the next best thing.

Turning to Regina, who was so amped up she was almost bouncing on her heels, Emma cocked her head. "Any chance I might get the Cliff notes for this little reunion?"

The brunette glanced at her then, and the Sheriff was relieved to see some of the hostility leaving her brown eyes.

"Miss Swan, This is Jefferson."

The man gave a small sycophantic bow in the corner of her eye although Emma pretended not to notice.

"Jefferson...?"

"No last name to speak of, I'm afraid Ma'am. Although you can call me Airplane if it helps you keep up."

The Mayor bit her lip, "He was a well regarded hat-maker back in…"

"Milliner!" he spat. "The term is milliner and don't think that I don't know how many of my creations made my way to your realm and royal chamber, however surreptitiously."

"The black market has always had its uses," she agreed with a shrug.

Taking a step around the blonde, Regina dropped her free hand and let it rest on her companion's sleeve.

"He was the best milliner in the old world and had the pick of the best fabrics, the rarest fabric jewels. You might say he has a certain talent for playing with …. seams."

What the hell does that mean? Thought Emma frustratedly

"And unpicking them. You always seem to leave that out in your introductions."

The pointed way in which he said, raised Emma's hackles and she looked to Regina for some kind of coded clue as to what was happening.

"Anyway, he obviously came here tonight to retrieve a hat that has… a certain value in crossing borders between realms."

The brunette put her hands on her hips with a smirk. "But unfortunately for our unintended guest, that particular item is safely stowed somewhere he cannot reach."

Emma's gaze switched to the man and the shoulders that seemed to slump as he heard that.

"A shame no doubt."

But apparently he wasn't done. Taking a few steps around the west wall of the room, the lofty interloper stopped at the gilt edged mirror and tapped his longer finger on the obsidian glass.

"There is more than one way to skin a cat though. So they say."

Regina gave a small laugh. "Well good luck with that idea. He's not in there anymore. That's got less chance of working than the hat."

Both women blinked as he narrowed his eyes and slapped the wall.

"So just to clarify, this is a world meant to trap us... Except him. Your little pet advisor gets freedom instead?"

"Of a kind." Said the mayor, quietly

"It is a mixed up world isn't it?!"

The new, previously hidden lyrical quality in his voice unnerved Emma no end and she tested her trigger finger imperceptibly.

"One day you're just a guy trying to earn a buck, the next you're standing on an invisible chessboard next to a line of other bulb headed morons. Where's my hat, you ask? No hats here mate, we're just the advanced guard. No names, no clothes… just one colour or the other. Black or white. That's the only choice left."

Swivelling on his heels, a sheen of madness lit up his eyes and Emma felt her pulse quicken as he stared at the two of them.

One thing was clear though. This guy was off the charts messed up and as much as Regina might think she had the upper hand in this situation, somehow something deep in Emma's gut told her that that was an error.

That this Jefferson was building up to some kind of psychotic break they really didn't want to be there to witness.

The time for talking is way past done, she decided.

"Ok, well this has been great and real educational but since we've established that you're out of luck in the magic…uh...apparel department, can I suggest you make your way home," she said firmly.

With a giggle, the man licked his lips. "Ooh, she's feisty isn't she, Your Highness? No wonder you took her as your own. Some things don't change."

"She did what now?!" said Emma outraged.

"Jefferson!" Regina blushed darkly, much to the law-woman's surprise. "Remember your place!"

Right that's it.

She was ending this now.

And they could definitely discuss that throwaway comment later.

"Ok buddy, let's call it a night. Shop's closed now."

Emma strode forward and with her other hand grabbed the man's suede jacket in a vice like grip.

"What, no nightcap?"

The Sheriff smiled coolly. "I think you've had more than enough."

Shoving him towards the doorway, she started to move that way when the crazy eyed man suddenly lurched sideways, clasping her gun arm and dragging behind her back.

She heard Regina call her name from somewhere behind but didn't have time to work out which direction to look in before she was dumped unceremoniously on her back. She felt the revolver fly out of her grip and cursed loudly. It was then that the damning weight of the man's knee came down on her sternum and drove all the breath out of her. Struggling angrily, Emma managed to unearth her arm and slammed it into his jaw but he seemed to barely feel it through the mania written on his face. Giving her a hard slap in the ribs, he proceeded to put all his bulk on her and clamped one hand around her throat.

The pressure was excruciating.

In fact, she didn't know what was worse- the inability to draw in breath or the stinging blockade on her stomach. His grip tightened and she felt the cords in her neck start to burn as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. Tears of anger and humiliation more than anything. That she'd been taken down so easily.

It might have been her imagination but just for a second, at that moment she thought she saw a shadow rearing up behind Jefferson, as if to smash something into his temple but then she had to squeeze her eyes shut to cope with the pain and she heard the smack of bones on skin.

Regina! No!

Emma started to struggle again, desperate to at least distribute some of the load on her body so she could check on the brunette. But there was no give at all. All she could do was jerk round like a fish on a line, drowning in her own embarrassment.

Her lungs were on fire. Her shoulders aching and tender.

And then she felt sour breath on her face.

"She's not the only one who appreciates a good fight in these parts."

Emma grimaced.

Then fought the urge to vomit with revulsion as he licked his way down the side of her face.

"Don't worry though, I just need one thing before I leave."

Emma felt his knees shift on her frame and watched confused and helpless as his hand crept down from her neck, down a few inches or so until it rested over her chest.

"No!"

Regina's scream echoed through the darkness from far away.

"Please not that!"

He stopped then and turned his head, offering a wicked grin. "Oh don't get your knickers in a twist your Majesty. I have no use for a pathetic worthless heart. No matter how much it means to you."

What?!

Emma was close to passing out with the myriad of pains in her body but she could have sworn that was what he had said. But it made no sense. On like, six different levels.

"I'm a simple man of simple pleasures."

Both women stared dumbstruck then, as the intruder leaned down and placed his hand firmly over Emma's eyes. She tried to shake her head from side to side to dislodge it, but the effect was useless. It was clamped there, immoveable.

And that was when the burning sensation started. First in her right eye, in the corner... then her left. Itchy to begin with then buzzing as if an insect was walking across her pupil.

It felt like hours passed instead of seconds as the pain was growing and feeding until it was so overpowering that Emma let out an unholy scream, trying to force the blazing pain out of her, any way she could.

It didn't help though. Nothing did until everything went black and she fell into unconsciousness...

TBC!