Note: I apologise profusely for the appallingly long wait for these last instalments. There are no excuses. *Hangs head in shame*.
On The Nature of Lady Justice
"Justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done" – Gordon Hewart
Part Four
Emma races back to the ICU as fast as she can, Tara hot on her heels. When she arrives in the corridor, she finds a scene that she had hoped never to see. Regina and Mary Margaret are facing off outside Belle's room, the former calm and placid, her expression nasty, and the latter defensive and wary. Doctor Whale stands between the two women, trying desperately to act as an arbitrator.
"Madam Mayor," he's pleading as he tries to reason with her. "Miss Doe is in a coma in a critical condition; she has suffered massive blood loss and internal trauma and she absolutely cannot be moved! I understand your concern but as a medical professional I cannot allow her to leave this hospital."
"Your concern about what?" Emma asks, her jaw set and arms folded. Regina turns to her, the smile on her face disarmingly benign.
"Ah, Sheriff Swan. I ought to congratulate you. You've assisted in the recapture of a dangerous mental patient. It seems our 'Miss Doe' made a last ditch escape attempt. As I was explaining to Dr Whale, I am arranging for her to be transported to a far more secure medical facility in Boston." She pauses. "Her name is Isabella Avonlea. Such a shame; a brilliant young mind sent criminally insane by heartbreak."
Emma knows what she is meant to infer from the words, but she has come too far to be taken in by Regina now. So she replies with one word.
"Bullshit."
Regina raises her eyebrows, having the audacity to look mildly offended at Emma's blatant disbelief of her story.
"Really, Miss Swan?" she asks.
"Really, Madam Mayor," Emma counters. She wants to say more, but anything she might say may, in true legal fashion, be used against her. She doesn't want to give away her plan. Not that she's thought of a plan yet, but considering the excellent job that Regina usually does of pre-empting her, Emma wouldn't be surprised if she plucks the thoughts right out of her head.
"May I ask the reason for your utter incredulity?" Regina asks. Emma shakes her head. This plan of Regina's is too hasty, too cobbled together from the wreckage of her empire at the last minute. There are cracks in it, barely perceptible but still there. The lie is too elaborate to have been properly thought through. The more far-fetched something is, the more likely it is to be true, but every well thought out lie always has a tulip touch, a detail that can make the most ridiculous of concepts somehow plausible. Regina's lie, although so outlandish it could be true, is lacking that something that keeps it grounded, because for once, Emma has thought ahead. She's been to the archives, she's almost certain that 'Isabella Avonlea' does not exist. She knows that the hospital has no official mental ward. And she knows – or at least, she hopes she knows – that there is only one psychiatric doctor in the town.
Emma knows, because Emma was a bounty hunter, that everything has a paper trail. It's the most foolproof way of finding out anything, and it is both hard to fake and hard to hide. There's always one piece of paper that slips through the net. It is the paper trail that will prove Regina's undoing in this case. At least she hopes it will.
"I don't know, Madam Mayor. Just call it a hunch. But you heard the doctor; Belle's not going anywhere." She pauses. "Proof. Bring me proof, Regina. Hard, solid, tangible proof. You can't expect me to examine the facts in an impartial manner befitting a sheriff without proof."
Proof is the key. Emma can't do anything without proof of Regina's misdeeds, but neither can Regina do anything without proof of Belle's.
Suddenly a voice cuts through the tense air, a voice that Emma never thought she'd ever say she'd be glad to hear.
"Well. This is quite the merry gathering." Regina turns, and Emma sees Gold standing behind her, so incredibly still as always, the anger and the influence emanating from him in almost palpable waves. He takes a few steps towards them and leans forward, invading Regina's personal space. She flinches. "I don't see why you have any business here, Madam Mayor," he hisses, an inch from her face. "And remember that my previous words still stand." He pushes past the mayor and steps into Belle's room. Regina and Emma watch him; Mary Margaret and Dr Whale have been, however subconsciously, backing away from the showdown between the two women in the corridor. Tara, who has been hovering behind Emma the entire time, seems to come back to herself and remember why she's there, and she too enters the little intensive care room to go about her job, checking Belle's drips and lines, making sure she is comfortable and her heart rate is stable. Gold settles himself back in the chair beside the bed and once more takes her hand in his.
"I want proof," Emma repeats. "Till then, that woman is Belle Doe and she's as sane as I am."
Regina smiles, the expression positively venomous.
"I thought you might say that. Well, you're in luck, Miss Swan, as I just so happen to have some."
The mayor pulls a crisp sheet of paper from her handbag and passes it over to Emma, who looks at it with a rapidly sinking heart. Once again, Regina has managed to pre-empt her. The paper is certifying Miss Isabella Avonlea – and there is a picture, so there's no confusion – as incurably insane, committing her to a mental institution for life. Emma stares at it blankly. How has this managed to happen? She has been so careful, explored all the possible options.
"So now that this is all cleared up, Sheriff," Regina is saying, "I suggest you get on with the task you're supposed to be investigating, namely who kidnapped Kathryn."
Emma glares at the mayor.
"I think the culprit might be closer than you think," she snaps.
"Are you accusing me of something, Sheriff?" Regina asks again, echoing her words of the previous evening. Emma does likewise.
"Not yet, Madam Mayor."
Regina scowls, turning on her heel and leaving the corridor. Emma lets out a long breath, willing herself to keep calm, and she looks once more at the piece of paper in her hand. Isabella Avonlea. Here it is, her proof in black and white, and she doesn't believe a word of it.
Something catches her eye at the bottom of the page, and she scrolls down to the signatures past the foreboding descriptions.
Archibald Hopper MD
Archie signed off on this certification. So if there's anyone who can tell her the story behind it, it's him. She looks at Mary Margaret, then through the glass at Tara, Gold and Belle.
Looks like her next stop is the psychiatrist's.
X
"Hello Emma." Archie seems surprised to see her, but not unhappy. He's as welcoming and unbiased as he always is. Emma comes into his office and hovers, thinking through her plan again. Like Regina's, it is extremely flimsy and pieced together, but she hopes that it will hold up. She's sent Mary Margaret back to the town archives in search of anything related to Isabella Avonlea. Walter and Leroy are standing guard over the police cordon across the entrance to the mental ward, with the usual instructions to call if the mayor arrives. She's having to draw on allies now as the web of intrigue grows. She only made one detour on her way to Archie's whilst formulating her plan, and that was to the station to put her fingerprint samples into the system for analysis. She had been so caught up in the mystery of Belle that she had almost forgotten that she's not only investigating an unforeseen appearance, but also an unforeseen disappearance – Kathryn's kidnap.
"Take a seat," Archie continues, gesturing to the couch. "How can I help? Is this about Kathryn's kidnap?"
"In a way," Emma says. "Believe me, Kathryn's kidnap is only the start of it, it's opened up a whole can of worms." She pauses, a little unsure of how to proceed because although she knows that Archie is on her side – or at least, he's a decent man – she also knows that he is a professional with a strict code of ethics. She doesn't know how much what she is about to ask will impinge on those ethics. He did let her see Henry's files, after all, but well, that was part of a bigger setup so she doesn't dwell on it. "Archie, can I ask you something blunt?"
"Go ahead," Archie says.
"Have you ever declared anyone insane?"
"Pardon?" Archie seems a little taken aback by the question.
"Have you ever declared anyone criminally, incurably insane?" Emma asks again. "Could your signature be found at the bottom of anything certifying someone?"
"I…" Archie's brow furrows and he thinks for a long moment. "No. I'd remember something like that."
The answer doesn't inspire Emma with much confidence.
"Would you remember if someone showed you a certification with your signature at the bottom?" This is what she fears; a repeat of David's memories being awakened by the sight of an old windmill in Gold's shop. Archie may claim never to have declared someone insane, but if she shows him something that could have been signed at his hand, will it trigger something? She tries a different approach.
"Have you ever treated an Isabella Avonlea?" she asks. "I don't want to know any of the details, doctor-patient confidentiality and all that, I just want to know if you ever treated her."
Archie shakes his head.
"No, the name isn't familiar." He goes over to his filing cabinet and paws through it meticulously, looking at all his patient records, past and present. "No," he says eventually. "No, definitely not."
"Can you explain this, then?" Emma hands him the certification and Archie scans through the text. His mouth opens and closes a few times, and he sits down on the couch beside her.
"I did not sign this," he murmurs. "I've never seen this girl."
Archie stays pouring over the notes for a long time, reading and re-reading the tightly packed words and tracing his fingers over the signature at the bottom. He goes back to his filing cabinets and leafs through them again; Emma's heart sinks, wondering if something has triggered a long-forgotten memory. But surely, surely, one would remember a criminally insane young woman suffering delusions. If he had declared her untreatable then surely he should remember her as a matter of professional pride. Professionals do not like it when cases defeat them, and the mysterious Isabella's case certainly reads as if it has defeated the best clinical minds, including Archie's. Something that momentous is not lightly forgotten.
"No," Archie repeats. "No, I did not sign this, but I cannot explain how my name came to be at the bottom of it."
He sounds slightly fearful, and Emma jumps to reassure him.
"Archie, it's ok, I'm not accusing you of anything," she says. "I'm just trying to find out what's happening." She pauses. "Would you swear in a court that you didn't sign it?"
Archie is still and silent for a moment, then nods. Emma gives a little smile, she shouldn't have doubted that Archie's conscience would get the better of him in the end. Then she remembers who she's going up against, and she remembers that Archie has been under the mayor's thumb before. But then, she remembers that Archie has also stood up to Regina before, without any outside prompting – just his own volition.
"Who would do something like this?" Archie asks.
"Hmm." Emma's tone is non-committal. "No-one springs to mind?"
Archie sighs and hands her back the certification. "Well, I hate to speak ill of our esteemed mayor…" He gives a wan smile – he of all people knows that there is no love lost between the two women, caught in the crossfire as he is with Henry. Part of Emma wants to know what he's thinking, but the other part doesn't.
"Regina was the one to give it to me," Emma says levelly. "She believes Belle ought to be sent to the mental facility in Boston. She can't do anything till she's more stable, but…"
Archie shakes his head. "We can't let that happen; not if this is the only proof of a mental condition. It would never stand up."
There's a knock on the door and Archie tells whoever's on the other side to come in. Emma gets up to leave; there's nothing much more that she can do. She's got Archie onside, she thinks, but when she sees who enters the psychiatrist's office, she is perhaps not so sure. It's Regina, accompanying Henry to his therapy session.
"Hi Emma," Henry says brightly.
"Hey kid," Emma says, but her eyes are fixed on the other woman.
"Miss Swan." Regina smiles politely. "How is your investigation going?" She looks Archie up and down. "I must admit though, I'm not entirely sure what you hope to gain from Dr Hopper."
Emma just raises one eyebrow.
"Really."
"She was speaking to me about this," Archie says, indicating the paper in Emma's hands.
"Ah yes," Regina says. "I really don't see why, Miss Swan. It's all there in black and white."
"Oh, I don't deny that, Madam Mayor. What I was more concerned with was the person who wrote it down in black and white," Emma returns, trying to keep the vitriol out of her voice. She has to stay polite and professional. She cannot allow herself to rise to Regina's unspoken challenge, however much she wants to scream and shout at the woman. Not in front of Henry. He's always believed Emma to be the saviour, a hero, and now she has to earn that title by acting like one. So she's not fighting exactly fair, but she will not stoop to her adversary's level either.
"Are you trying to coerce Dr Hopper into breaking the doctor-patient confidentiality barrier?" Regina asks, her face a carefully erected mask of shock. Emma opens her mouth to say something although she's not sure what and stands gaping like a fish for a few moments as she tries desperately to think of a measured reply. It is Archie who saves her.
"Not at all," Archie says. "And since this paper came into her hands from someone other than myself, I should imagine that it is whoever gave it to her who is causing the doctor-patient confidentiality barrier to be broken, Ms Mills."
"Erm, should I go?" Henry asks.
"No," Regina snaps, at the same time as Emma says "yes" and Archie begins "it might be best".
"Madam Mayor," Archie continues. "Since I don't recall this patient ever being on my roster and I certainly don't recall ever signing this certification, I am sure you'll understand when I say I cannot let her be returned to a mental facility without performing a detailed psychiatric profile."
For a moment, Regina looks utterly confused; it's the same little flash of fear Emma saw in her eyes last night when they brought Belle in. Did she really believe that Emma would take her proof at face value? Did she really believe that Archie would blindly accept having signed something he hadn't just because it was, in her own words, all there in black and white?
It's clever – it's hard to prove Archie did not sign this paper. But if he himself denies it, then there's nothing that can be done.
"Ms Mills, that is my professional opinion," Archie says. Emma looks at him as he speaks. He seems to have grown an inch or so as he stands up to the mayor; and she wonders. "Any other ethical psychiatrist would give the same."
Archie is holding his own in his own domain, and Emma smiles. There is a powerplay going on wholly without words here, and Archie is winning. He is telling Regina that he knows this paper is faked, and he is going to call her out on it. Neither of them have openly accused her yet – they wouldn't do it in front of Henry - but the inference is there. And what can Regina do about it?
"Well." Regina presses her lips together in a thin line, the expression she wears when she knows she's being beaten and she'll have to fall back on a backup plan. "I bow to your expert judgment in this matter, of course, Dr Hopper."
"Thank you." Archie smiles. "I don't think there's anything else that needs to be said, Emma?"
Emma shakes her head, and Regina turns to leave.
"I would be interested to know who you got this declaration from, though," Archie says conversationally as she leaves.
Regina tenses with her hand on the door handle, but she doesn't respond and simply closes it with some vehemence behind her.
Emma can't help but exchange a small smile with Archie. She waits for Regina to get out of the building and to a safe distance before she too makes to leave and go back to the station.
"Thanks," she says to Archie.
"My pleasure," the psychiatrist says. "If there's anything else…"
"I'll let you know."
Nearly there, she thinks as she leaves, promising Henry she'll see him soon. Nearly there…
X
Emma looks down at the fingerprint analysis results. They've got her. They've got Regina. Even now, hours after they came out of the computer, she still can't quite bring herself to believe it.
It's gone midnight and she is dead on her feet, but she's finally done. There on the table in front of her, is a long list of proof that Regina has most definitely been abusing her position as mayor. She's just spent a good couple of hours collating everything and breaking it down, going through it with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that everything stands up. She still has a couple of wild cards that she can't control, but now she has good, solid proof. Archie has sworn to testify against her. . She still has a couple of wild cards that she can't control – she really isn't sure what to make of Jefferson, whose fingerprints she also found, but he seems happy enough to get his own back on Regina for breaking whatever twisted bargain they had and keep his own backside out of jail for his part in the crimes. (Because if Paige, or Grace, or whatever her name is, really is his daughter, he'll never get her back if he's inside. Emma shakes her head at the memory of talking to him in his lavish home on the discovery of the fingerprints. Forget Isabella Avonlea, Jefferson Milliner is the certifiable one, in Emma's eyes; but if he is willing to testify against the mayor, then she's not going to complain.) Adding it to Kathryn's testimony about her imprisonment, it's a good enough case, and she has a warrant that she will act on in the morning.
Emma pillows her head on her arms and tries to get comfortable enough to sleep like that. She doesn't want Regina's skeleton keys making an appearance in the middle of the night and her evidence suddenly disappearing in a mysterious accident. As tired as she is, though, Emma can't sleep. In the middle of it all, she has the sudden thought of Henry. What will he make of all this, of his birth mother arresting his adoptive one? She's been warned and warned again, that the fight between her and Regina would only end up hurting Henry.
Emma takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. The warnings ring true, but this is about more than just a custody battle. This is about more than just Regina and Emma's fight over Henry. This is about Kathryn, who never did any wrong to anyone, getting caught up in the crossfire in a battle between Regina and Mary Margaret that the latter isn't even actively fighting. This is about Belle and Gold, and the force that has kept them apart for so long (and, Emma thinks as she remembers the myriad tubes and wires snaking in and out of the girl, might yet force them apart forever). This is about the way Mayor Mills runs her town; because if she can get away with this then what else can she get away with? It's about everyone, and that's why it's so important that Emma follows through, that she does what she knows to be right. Like Graham said when he first gave her the deputy's badge – she's a part of this town now, and she has to show it. In the short time that she has been here, these people have become more like a family to her than she has ever known. (A very odd family, admittedly, with several strange uncles and second-cousins-twice-removed…)
It's like she thought earlier. Storybrooke was a sleepy town until she drove in, bringing with her a wind of change. No-one would have thought to stand up to Regina until she showed up, she's fairly sure of that, and that is why Regina has been so confident in her ill-thought-out plans to cover up her misdeeds. But now she has Archie following his conscience, she has Leroy and Walter roused out of their apathy by seeing what has been under their eyes all the time. The residents didn't know what was wrong before she started pointing things out to them, and once she started pointing these things out, they began to, however unconsciously, take a stand against Regina. She's galvanised them, woken them out of however many years of apathy.
And she doesn't intend to stop now.
X
The next morning, Emma holds her head high as she walks up the path towards Regina's front door and knocks briskly.
She feels a little surge of triumph as fear flickers in Regina's eyes before her calm façade is hastily erected. But the expression is not the nasty little smile of one-upmanship that Emma has come to expect. It's more a mask of grave acceptance. There's nothing left in her arsenal. She has tried everything to put Emma off track, but she's come up empty-handed.
"I thought you'd come," she says quietly. She pauses, and Emma can see that she's finally admitting defeat. It's the same kind of expression that she wore in the hospital that first night, when Archie confronted her quietly yesterday. When she realised that things beyond her control were happening and her carefully ordered plans were shattering down around her. "I… I sent Henry out to play in the castle in the woods. I didn't want him to see it."
Emma nods; she understands. She remembers how mortified she was when Henry found out she'd had him in jail. As much as she doesn't like it, Regina did love and care for her son as her own for ten years and although he has made his feelings towards her quite clear, his perception of her still matters to Regina, and to see her escorted from her own home in handcuffs would be too much.
"Regina Mills," Emma begins, "you are under arrest on suspicion of kidnap, false imprisonment, and forgery." She reads off her rights, and Regina steps out of her front door, closing it quietly behind her. Emma cuffs her and leads her back down the path to the cruiser. She doesn't speak any more, and Emma wonders if she'll refuse to talk until she gets a lawyer. She wonders if there are any lawyers in the town other than the DA, who's automatically on the prosecuting side, and Gold, who would never agree to represent Regina after the tumultuous events of the last few days. Things could get quite tricky in that case.
But now, Emma doesn't care. She's seen the truth in Regina's face, in her fear and confusion. She knows that her evidence is strong enough and Regina has no immediate backup plan. She glances in the rear-view at the other woman, and although she doubts she'll get an answer, she has to ask the question that has been burning in her mind ever since she first came to Storybrooke, first saw how things weren't right here.
"Why did you do it?"
There's silence for a long time, which Emma did expect, to the extent where she's actually surprised when Regina responds, gazing out of the window at her town.
"I just wanted to win."
Emma looks ahead, towards the station, and just processes the words in her head. For a sleepy town in Maine, the social politics are amazingly and acutely complex. There is so much more here than meets the eye, and despite herself, Emma finds herself thinking of looking to Henry's book for an explanation.
She pushes the thought aside, and focuses on the immediate present. They've got her. Regina has lost.
Just an epilogue to come now. After all, Belle's still in a coma, and Gold's threat to Regina still stands... Hopefully there won't be a three month wait this time...