AN: WARNING! There's a semi-short but not too light or pleasant torture scene in this chapter. Proceed with caution.
Regina felt groggy as she slowly started to wake. Sounds faded in while she struggled to open her eyes, the backs of her eyelids too addicting a sight to make disappear so soon. She groaned and carefully tried to sit up. Her body ached and protested, but she managed to rest most of her weight on one of her outer thighs with her back and side no longer pressed against the hard floor.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair to pull it away from her eyes. She squinted and blinked several times as she adjusted to the dim, but still brighter than when she was unconscious, lighting in what was apparently her vault. She let out a small moan and turned her head from side to side to look around and take in what or who surrounded her. Even the slightest movements made her eyes hurt, her head not in the best shape after such a long sleep. Or at least she assumed she'd been asleep for a while. It certainly felt like it.
"Oh, good. You're awake. I was starting to think Maleficent had used too much of that sleeping spell on you and I'd have to wait at least another day before I could talk to you."
Regina took a deep breath and tried to relax as her vision and hearing improved, her body and her mind slowly but surely fully waking up. When she was coherent enough to look up, she saw Rumple perched on the edge of a bench across from her with his hands on either knee.
She looked down again in an instant, defeated. She was still tired and she definitely didn't like being alone in her vault with Rumple, especially after she blew her cover with the entire group of villains. She shifted to make her position on the ground a little more bearable and as she moved, she realized for the first time that there was a pressure on both of her wrists and her hands had limited movement. She furrowed her brow and looked down.
They weren't exactly handcuffs, but they functioned the same way. Her wrists were bound by bulky and heavily restrictive metal cuffs. As she attempted to break out of them by force and then by magic, she quickly found it to be a pointless effort.
"Oh, there's no use in trying to free yourself, dearie," Rumple told her and stood up. "Those particular cuffs do more than confine hand movements. They prevent any outward use of magic. Think of it like a dam and your magic...is the water it holds back."
The only reason he had to not only bind her but her magic as well was if he had something planned, something she definitely wouldn't like.
"I'm going to give you a couple of options and you'll need to make your choice fast," he explained. "Because...if you don't choose at all, well, I'm going to have to teach you a lesson. The kind your mother was always good at teaching you."
Regina gulped.
"What about everything you said to me," she asked. "You wanted me to find my happiness."
"That's true. Just not at my expense. See, the affection I have you…is limited."
"What happened to you?"
"I lost everything. Just like you will if you don't do as I say."
Regina tried not to let her fear and panic show, which she was mostly successful at doing. Rumple knew her too well, however, and he grinned as he saw right through her mask of indifference.
"I can guarantee you it'll hurt more if you don't cooperate," he said.
"What do you want?"
"It's simple, really. I assume you're not over Robin Hood, correct?"
Regina didn't supply him with an answer. She only continued to glare up at him as he then towered over her with a smug smirk stretched across his face.
"Well," Rumple started to say again, a smug grin stretched across his face. "I just so happen to have a way to contact him."
Regina's eyes widened a little more. She had only asked Emma to find a number for Robin a day ago. Unless…unless she'd been asleep longer than that.
"I see I have your attention," he practically purred. "Good."
"What did you do," she growled out her question.
Rumple laughed.
"Nothing, dearie. I simply know more about his current situation than you do. See, while I was in New York recruiting Ursula and Cruella, I found myself in a bit of a predicament. Along the way I ran into Robin…and an old friend of ours. The rest I'll let you hear for yourself."
Regina was tense and hopeful at the same time. Rumple already had her in the palm of his hands and he hadn't even laid out her choices yet. She was sure he had counted on her to want to do whatever he said just to avoid the alternative as soon as possible and she hated herself for being so easily possessed by him yet again.
Rumple's smirk spread further and he leaned over her.
"May I," he asked and reached out toward her jacket pockets.
She stared up at him, confused as to what exactly it was he wanted from her.
"Your phone?"
Realization dawned on her and she said, "Right pocket."
Rumple slipped a hand into her pocket and retrieved her phone for her, the cuffs still secured around her wrists.
"I'll only release you from those," he explained and motioned to the cuffs as he began to dial, "if you cooperate. You can prove that after the phone call…when you make your decision."
His grin was impossibly wicked and as he handed over the phone while it rang, there was an unpleasant gleam in his eyes that caused Regina immense discomfort.
She waited with baited breath as the phone continued to ring. For a while there was no answer and Rumple looked delighted by her struggle. She hoped he would one day die a slow and painful death for all the pain, grief, and frustration he had caused, and still continued to cause, her.
Finally, someone picked up on the other end of the call.
"Robin?" She was filled with joy and relief to have reached him, but after a second or two without a response from him she started to lose the temporarily restored hope that everything was okay.
"No, it's not Robin," a woman replied after a moment.
"Marian?"
"Not exactly."
Regina furrowed her brow and frowned. Before she could ask what the other woman meant, a second voice came over the line.
"Hello, Sis."
Regina's heart sank before she allowed fear and anger to well up inside of her.
"Zelena. But how? I saw you die."
"You thought you saw me die," she answered.
"Where's Robin? What have you done with him?"
"I haven't done anything except love and honor him, in sickness and in health. To have and to hold and all that other wifely nonsense."
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to. All you need to know is your precious Robin thinks it's his wide-eyed wife cooking dinner for him every night when it's actually me."
Regina shook her head, shock written clearly across her face as she stared ahead at the wall of her vault across from where she sat.
"Oh, I've got to run, Sis. He'll be home any minute and I've got a meatloaf in the oven."
Before she knew it, before she could even believe half of what she'd heard, the call ended and Regina was left with so many questions and an upset stomach.
Regina brought the phone down into her lap and mindlessly, carelessly, pressed the 'end' button on the keypad. She looked up at Rumple, who was still as smug as ever, and glared at him after she took a moment to process what she'd just learned and then collected herself again.
"You. Knew," she slowly said through gritted teeth.
"And that's why you'll do everything I ask," he disregarded what she'd said and made his point more obvious in case her conversation with Zelena hadn't done just that. "Because one phone call from me and your beloved dies at the hands of your sister."
"She murdered your son!"
"Zelena and I have…an understanding. And now you and I have an understanding as well. Regina, you're vital to my plan to turn the Savior towards darkness."
"You made me into a monster, but I won't let you do the same to Emma."
Rumple reached over and plucked the phone out of her hand.
"So you've made your choice, have you? You're choosing the Savior over your beloved Robin Hood? Is that your final answer?"
Regina tried, tried so very hard, not to cry in front of him. Her eyes watered and she was seconds away from an outpour of tears. She'd been given a difficult and fairly impossible decision: her soulmate or her son's other mother. When she was the Evil Queen, her choice might have been easier. She would have chosen the person that made her happy, but even as she thought about it that way she wasn't really sure which blonde thief made her happier.
"I can see you're conflicted," Rumple cut through her thoughts. "This is when my affection for you isn't quite as limited. The choice you have to make…isn't one to be made lightly. I'll check back on you in the morning. If you don't have an answer for me by then, well, something's got to give."
With that threat in the air, he left her alone in her vault and refused to uncuff her before he made his exit. On his way to the stairs, he carelessly waved a hand and dark red magic shot up from floor to ceiling. It shimmered before it disappeared and Regina knew from experience that she was trapped inside her own vault by way of a barrier.
Once she was alone, she sighed and leaned back. Softly, she thudded her head against the wall behind her and closed her eyes. She then hoped she would figure out a solution that wouldn't cost either Roland or Henry a parent.
Cruella stared up at the ceiling while she lay beside Ursula on their shared bed at Granny's. They would have been kicked out of the bed and breakfast already if it wasn't for the threat they posed to all the do-gooders in town, including the woman that ran the establishment they resided in during their stay. When they'd returned to the B&B from Regina's vault, the elder woman looked like she wanted to say something to them and yet the words never came. With a couple of glares directed her way, she and Ursula were able to walk through the diner and head up to their room without argument or refusal. Their triumph satisfied Cruella to the point of a grin and chuckle and she suggested they celebrate with the bottles of gin and vodka she'd swiped from behind the counter several days ago when they had their little initiation night for Regina.
Ursula looked anything but satisfied. She moped around the room for a short while before she decided she just wanted to sleep. Cruella still wanted a drink so she had a few glasses, but she didn't enjoy them when she saw how dejected the other woman was even after a victory, even if that victory had been very miniscule.
After a few minutes, Cruella abandoned the liquor and turned out the lights before she joined Ursula in the bed. She didn't say a single word to the woman who was on her side, her back to Cruella's half of the bed, but she wasn't sure that there was anything she could say to help Ursula. She did have a few questions, however, so the least she could do while Ursula was in her mood was to get some answers.
She sighed and hesitated a moment before she turned her head to look at the back of Ursula's and then got right to the point.
"What's been going on with you?"
"What do you mean?"
Ursula kept her back to her and didn't even flinch when Cruella's voice broke through the tense silence that previously filled the room. She was completely rigid where she lay.
"Ever since that pesky Savior made it abundantly clear she didn't want anything to happen to Regina, you've been…off."
Ursula took a deep breath and released it with a heavy sigh.
"I don't feel well. That's all."
"No, that's not all. First, you let the Savior run off with our prized puppet and then you tell me maybe she has it right to be so protective of Regina? I'm starting to wonder where your loyalty lies."
That got Ursula to roll over and face her, and she wasn't pleased with the assumptions that had been made.
"My loyalty is to you. It has been for some time."
"Please," Cruella rolled her eyes with a smirk, disbelief evident in her tone and her expression.
Ursula huffed and sat up.
"If you doubt that then clearly I'm not the person you think I am."
Cruella frowned and deduced, "I've upset you."
"You think?"
"I'm sorry, I just… You would leave me the second you got your voice back. …Wouldn't you?"
Ursula scoffed and looked completely pissed and wounded all at the same time.
"I can't believe you have to ask me that."
"Ursula—"
"No, let me be clear. We've been in this, together, for too many years. You may not have chosen me over someone who offered you a life of comfort in this world, but you certainly never left my side when things got rough in the Enchanted Forest.
"We didn't even know each other then, but you understood what it was like to have something taken from you like my singing voice was taken from me. You'd lost something, I'd lost something, and of course Maleficent lost something. It's how we've been able to work well together. But with you, Cruella, it's always been different. There's always been a deeper connection. Maybe it's because we've both lost our mothers and would give anything to have them back, but…"
Cruella winced. She'd lied to Rumple, and therefore had lied to Maleficent and Ursula as well. Everyone thought she wanted to make amends with her mother, but that wasn't possible anymore. A lot of things weren't possible for her anymore. But as she watched Ursula get worked up—poor, unfortunate Ursula—she felt something stir within her. She felt a different kind of need, one she'd never felt before except with Ursula, which she hadn't really realized was a thing until just then—rise within her. She felt the need to fix things between them, the need to comfort Ursula instead of hurt her.
"I'm sorry." Her sincerity surprised both women and even in the dark room, Cruella still noticed the way Ursula's eyes softened and her lips parted.
Cruella reached out and brushed her hand along the side of Ursula's face from her cheekbone to her jawline. She traced Ursula's jawline down to her chin with only her index and middle finger and gently tipped back Ursula's head.
"Chin up, darling," Cruella quietly said before she slowly started to smile. "I'm not pushing you away again."
Ursula's bottom lip trembled and tears shined in her eyes as they prepared to fall and stain her warm, soft cheeks.
"Is that a promise," Ursula asked and her voice broke on the last word.
Cruella's smile spread and she leaned forward as she propped herself up on one of her elbows.
"The first I've ever made in my life. So you better appreciate it."
Ursula chuckled and Cruella closed the space between them to kiss away all of Ursula's doubts.
They were completely different people with different desires, but Cruella realized in that moment of vulnerability and intimacy that she was attached. For years, she'd enjoyed screams and hot crimson as it seeped onto marble or rug like a fine paint on a perfectly lifeless canvas. She'd enjoyed nothing more than being the last thing a person saw before the end and was riveted by the dead stare she was met with after their final breath. It was morbid and thrilling and definitely not the kind of thing Ursula reveled in or dreamed about.
After she'd lost the thing that would allow her to enjoy such moments, she did everything she could with Maleficent and Ursula to find a way to get back the ability she'd been robbed of all that time ago. It was the only reason she'd agreed to help Rumple and Ursula in the first place when they came to her in Long Island. But her drive, her need to have that ability back, didn't seem as important as what she already had. It didn't seem as important as what was right in front of her. Maybe that was her happy ending. Maybe she wouldn't have to force anything at all and she could finally rid herself of that endless hunger she once had and never once asked for.
"Damn Savior," she muttered with a hint of a laugh when they ended the kiss.
"I know you aren't thinking about that skinny blonde right now," Ursula said with a scolding finger pointed at her.
"It's not like that, darling."
"Mhmm. So how is it really?"
"Maybe she has it right," Cruella beamed as she repeated Ursula's words from earlier back to the other woman.
She was awake long before she heard his feet shuffle down the stairs that went from the mausoleum and into her vault. Regina was ready for him, but she wasn't sure what to expect. Rumple had several ways of dealing with her when she defied him so it was pointless to try to figure out the first step he'd take to make her do his bidding.
"Did you sleep well, dearie," he asked as he rounded the corner and came to stand in front of her.
She glared at him in response, her jaw firmly set and her teeth painfully clamped down against each other.
He breathed out a small, quiet laugh.
"Then I suppose you have an answer for me."
She remained silent and still where she sat, her cuffed hands limp in her lap.
"Oh, so…you don't have an answer," he stated instead of asked. "Well then I suppose there won't be any use telling you good morning, because it isn't going to be good for you."
He flicked his wrist and hers started to burn every inch of skin the magic cuffs encircled. She clenched her fists and hissed, her eyes scrunched almost completely shut as the burning started to increase the longer Rumple drew out the torture.
"I can make this really easy for you, Regina," he said as she felt her skin bubble beneath the heated metal. "You don't have to suffer and neither does Robin. All you have to do is give Emma a little nudge in the wrong direction."
She cried out in agony, but didn't say a single word. A moment passed and the cuffs cooled down. She sighed with relief as she felt the burning sensation lessen, though she knew there were still burn marks left on both of her wrists. She slowly unclenched her fists and her fingers shook as they uncurled, her palms marked with crescents from the pressure of her nails.
"What'll it be, Regina," he asked. "Or rather…who."
"I won't let you hurt them," she insisted.
Rumple chuckled.
"And just how do you plan to stop me?"
He pulled her phone out of his pocket and started to dial.
"Robin will be dead within the hour, Roland will be an orphan, and while you're an important part of my plan for the Savior, she can still be swayed without your help. It would just be more convenient for me if you helped."
"If you so much as lay a hand on either of them—"
"Oh, well, that's the beauty of all this, isn't it? I don't have to even be near them, but both of them will be ruined. Only one of them needs to be sacrificed, however. It all comes down to who you think matters more."
Rumple either took way too much pleasure in knowing the extent of what he was really asking her or he had no idea what kind of affect her choice would truly have once it was made. Either way, he was insane and for the first time since their return from Neverland she actually wished he'd stayed dead when he'd killed himself and his father with a single stab of his dagger.
"Tick tock," he said, and in that moment he reminded her more like the sparkly golden imp he was when she'd first met him.
Suddenly, it dawned on Regina that Rumple had said Roland would be an orphan. She knew Zelena was with Robin, but then where did that leave Marian? Dread pooled low in her gut and she knew nothing she said or did was going to help or fix the mess Rumple had just presented her with. He was right. Something had to give.
She lunged at him and crashed into his waist. She tackled him into the far wall and punched him with both fists even as they remained badly burned and restrained. She hit him in the ribs and twisted slightly in front of him before she elbowed him in the gut.
During their struggle, he dropped the phone and then scrambled to grab either her shoulders or part of her clothes. He gripped at anything he could potentially grasp and failed to tighten his hands on a single thing as she continued to wriggle again and again to land a few more blows to his chest and stomach.
She stomped on his toes through his shoes and kneed him in the groin. He bent over at the waist and groaned before he charged at her and wrapped his arms around her hips. He pushed her onto the ground as he fell forward and in a hard exhale she lost all the air in her lungs.
He untangled his arms from the space between her and the ground and hurried to pin her in place as he roughly closed his hands around her forearms and yanked her arms above her head. It was the most physical he'd ever been with anyone as far as Regina knew. Normally, he used his magic to dominate someone in a fight, but she wondered if maybe the knee to his groin had leveled the playing field a little bit.
It didn't matter, though, because he was still on top of her and still had his magic. That much was obvious when she felt her throat constrict at the same time he still had his hands coiled around her arms as he pressed them harshly against the cold ground.
She gasped and squirmed relentlessly beneath him. Each of her attempts were unsuccessful as she lost more and more oxygen. Her arms ached with the force Rumple applied to them while the burns on her wrists stung out of agitation.
"Do not test me," he barked and watched her with an intense stare as she writhed around under his weight.
She stared up him, her brown eyes blown wide open as she choked and garbled, and didn't have the strength to mask her fear. Seconds later, her vision started to blur and darken and just before she felt herself losing consciousness, the pressure around her throat and arms vanished.
Air rushed back into her lungs and immediately, she coughed and rolled onto her side. She used her bruised arms to pull herself away from Rumple while she continued to cough and wheeze as she struggled to regulate her breathing. She looked over her shoulder as she crawled away from him, her eyes still wide with fear but also incredulity.
Rumple stood where Regina's heels scraped against the ground during their struggle. He was composed except for the stern and vengeful glint in his dark eyes.
"I'm giving you one more chance to make this right," he told her and picked up the phone. "Next time I come down here and don't get an answer, I'll decide for you."
Tears streamed down her face as she reached the opposite wall and curled up against it. She brought her knees to her chest and clawed at the cement to hold her upright as her entire body shook as an after effect of strangulation.
He took her phone with him on his way out and when he passed through the barrier he'd made, it flared dark red before he left her alone again.
When she was sure he was gone, she sobbed and let out a strained cry. Her vocal chords were stiff and her voice, even as a whimper, was raspier than usual. Her body went through several stages of shock as she tried her best to recover from Rumple's attack, which she had started and truthfully brought on herself. But it had bought her more time to protect the people she cared about. The problem was, she wasn't sure how to reach out to them to warn them.
She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, unsure of how much time had passed. She took deep breaths and tried not to think about how Rumple had looked as he'd towered over her, his hands on her arms and his magic squeezed around her neck. She had never known him to use his bare hands to hurt her or anyone else before. It was always with magic or his cane or he got someone else to do his dirty work for him, someone like whoever it was he was punishing. Often times he liked to use those people and their weaknesses against them.
Instead, she'd provoked him to the point of strangulation and that was certainly a game her mother preferred. It was also one of the ways she took after her mother. She recalled a time when she was still at odds with Emma and the Charmings and had tried to choke the life out of the blonde in the pawn shop. She then remembered Emma threatening her with a somewhat dull object to her throat in the hopes that Cora would pick Regina's safety over Rumpelstiltskin's dagger.
Regina closed her eyes for a moment and did her best to relax. It was the only way she could get any thinking done and she had to work through how she was going to proceed with Rumple. He'd given her an ultimatum: help turn Emma dark or let Robin Hood die. She was one of the good guys, had been for a while it seemed, and she'd rather suffer in place of either Robin or Emma. That much was already proven when she allowed Rumple to abuse her instead of supplying him with an answer.
She heard a sound come from the mausoleum. It was quiet like foot kicking a pebble across the cement, but it was troubling like Rumple's return. When Regina saw a familiar blonde step into the vault, she sagged with relief and noted it was thankfully the quiet sound of a kicked pebble and not the man that would soon fuel her nightmares.
"Maleficent," Regina said her name in an exhale.
The other woman gave her a brief inspection and frowned as she eyed Regina with sympathy and a hint of disapproval.
"Look what he's done to you," Maleficent said and slowly but gracefully moved toward her.
"I pushed him," Regina flatly explained.
Maleficent shook her head and lowered herself onto the ground next to her.
"Don't make excuses for him."
Regina sighed. She really hadn't meant to do that, but it was the truth. She had pushed him, physically and emotionally.
"Let me see," Maleficent gently commanded and took Regina's cuffed hands in hers.
Regina swallowed and then cringed at the pain it caused. Maleficent immediately noticed and kept one hand on Regina's wrists while the other went to her neck.
Maleficent carefully brushed back Regina's hair and checked out the purpling bruise around Regina's neck. She stroked her thumb over Regina's jaw while her fingers grazed the sensitive skin on the side and back of her neck.
Regina instantly shut her eyes and hissed. Even the feather-light contact was too much.
"Why must you make everything harder than it needs to be," Maleficent asked.
"I thought you didn't want me to make excuses for him?"
"I don't. My question has nothing to do with what he did to you. But I'm curious to know why it is you always come to me like this."
"I didn't come to you this time. You came to me."
"Regardless, you were always like this every time we saw each other. Until you got rid of your mother. And then Leopold. Either you attract the worst kind of people or you're purposely putting yourself in these positions again and again. Haven't you had enough?"
Regina scoffed and leaned back, her neck further exposed as her head tipped back while she rested it against the wall.
"You should let me heal you," Maleficent decided to change the subject.
Regina shook her head and swallowed, and again winced in response, before she opened her eyes and looked at Maleficent again.
"No, not what he can see. If he knows someone other than him came to see me, it'll be worse."
"Stubborn as always. But you have a point. Is there anything I can heal?"
Regina nodded and shifted her hands in Maleficent's grasp.
"Beneath the cuffs," she said.
Maleficent furrowed her brow and tried to see the damage under the metal. She didn't see much of anything except for Regina's olive-toned skin.
"What's the problem there?"
"He burned me."
Maleficent's head snapped up and her eyes flew from Regina's wrists to her eyes. Their gazes locked and the blonde looked shocked and appalled.
"I'll show him what it feels like to be burned," Maleficent growled. "The next time I see him he's going to get a taste of the dragon."
Regina chuckled and calmed down a little. After a moment, she quieted down and questioningly stared at Maleficent.
"Why are you helping me?"
"I always help you."
"You're the one that knocked me out and left me defenseless against him."
"You know there's only so much I can do, dear."
Maleficent ran a hand along the cool metal of the cuffs and soon after her fingertips left the binding material, the cuffs popped open to reveal the bright red burns.
Maleficent cringed and Regina tried not to freak out. It looked awful and much more painful than it felt in that moment. But that wasn't to say it wasn't still painful at all, because it was. She just had a way of compartmentalizing the pain after so many years of abuse.
With the cuffs temporarily removed, Regina felt like she could breathe again. She took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Maleficent's fingers gently touched the rough, hot skin that felt a thousand times hotter than any other part of her body. A few seconds later, she felt overwhelming cool relief.
Regina whimpered and let her arms fall carelessly into her own lap.
A smile took its time forming on Maleficent's lips and she continued to skate her fingers across Regina's skin while she healed it.
"I haven't heard you do that in a while," Maleficent teased.
"You haven't done anything to deserve hearing it in a while," Regina quipped.
"Well, maybe I'd give you a reason to if it wasn't for the gallant Savior constantly at your doorstep."
Regina furrowed her brow.
"What are you talking about?"
"I've been watching her lately. She paws around you, and now your house, like a puppy looking for a permanent home."
"I still don't get it."
"Last I saw her she was walking into your house, again, like she lives there."
"What?"
Regina knew in a heartbeat that Maleficent saw her surprise, but didn't notice any confusion. Because Regina wasn't confused at all. As much as she hadn't expected Emma to waltz into her home, and even further into her life, she also had expected it.
Maleficent's smile turned into a pleased and knowing smirk.
"It isn't odd behavior for her to follow you around even when you're not there, is it," Maleficent rhetorically asked.
Regina gasped as Maleficent finished the healing spell and she felt her skin become fully rejuvenated. It was the greatest relief she'd felt in days.
"Interesting," Maleficent thought out loud. "You just found out she's in your home, still is the last time I checked in, and yet you aren't even the slightest bit upset. I really was right about you two."
"What do you mean by that? Right about what?"
Maleficent shook her head.
"Don't worry about it," the blonde dismissed her questions and then switched gears. "You owe me one, dear."
Maleficent put the cuffs back on Regina and caught her gaze a moment later.
"Is there something you have in mind?"
"Yes, actually. But you know me. I'm a woman who always knows what she wants."
"Indeed," she agreed. "What can I help you with?"
"My daughter."
"I'm not sure I understand. How can I help you with that?"
Regina motioned with her recently healed and re-cuffed hands to elaborate.
"You might not be able to help me now, but whenever you decide to give Rumple what he wants—"
"I can't do that," Regina cut her off.
"Why not?"
"Because he's asking me to choose."
"Choose what?"
"Either I let Rumple manipulate Emma like he manipulated me, or Robin dies."
"And those are your only choices?"
"Of course they are. I'm surprised he's even keeping me around this long to make that decision when he could easily—"
"Kill Robin and turn Emma dark without your input."
"Exactly."
"So ask yourself why it is he's making you choose."
"Because he wants to punish me."
"I thought that's what the torture was all about."
"You know Rumple. Inner-turmoil is the best kind of pain he can inflict on anyone."
Maleficent laughed even though it wasn't really a humorous moment.
"Yes, well, he's devious like that. So you have choice to make. If you give him one, he'll let you go?"
"If I give him Emma he'll let me go."
"Then what's stopping you?"
Regina balked and said, "You can't be serious."
"Just because you make a decision doesn't mean you have to stick with it. Does it?"
Regina thought about it for a moment before she lit up with realization. But then came the complication.
"Even if I do that, what's to stop him from coming after me or Robin?"
"You really have gone soft. Leverage, Regina. Find something he wants or cares about and use it against him."
Regina pleadingly looked into Maleficent's blue eyes.
"Will you help me," she softly asked.
Maleficent brushed her fingers through wisps of her hair and moved in a little closer.
"Don't I always?"
She felt Maleficent's breath on her mouth and it brought Regina's attention to Maleficent's faintly red lips. The blonde moved in again and placed a hand on her hip. Her eyes fluttered closed and their noses grazed a second before Maleficent rested their foreheads against each other.
"But I need your help too, remember? I need to find my daughter. She's out there somewhere. She came to this world around thirty years ago and I'm hoping she's still alive."
"You want me to find her," Regina concluded.
"Can you?"
"I might not," Regina said, and immediately watched Maleficent's face fall. "But I know someone who might."
Maleficent stared at her for a long moment. Then she was overcome with realization.
"Emma," Maleficent finished the thought for her.
Emma woke up better rested than she had been in the past week, but she still wasn't well rested. Her body hadn't slept enough for her to have fully recovered from her magic practice the night before and as soon as she was coherent, she was disappointed because Regina still wasn't there. The only thing aside from herself that was there that morning was the scorch mark she'd accidentally made on the ceiling.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. It was a little greasy and moderately tangled. She needed a shower, but in order to do that she had to go home and face her parents. That was the last place she wanted to be and the last thing she wanted to do. She still needed to find the Author before Gold, which meant she'd have to talk to her parents anyway since they knew the guy from their past, but she wanted to do what she could to see if she could hopefully find him without their help. She really didn't want it because it meant she'd have to actually talk to them and they would try to apologize in their own selfish ways all over again. They'd still claim they were heroes and then she would lose it again.
Regina needed her. She knew it, especially when she considered how long it had been since she last saw the other woman. She gave it a little more thought and wondered if the Author should have even been her first priority. Regina had been gone too long and by that point so had the Author. Gold could have already had him stashed away in the cabin where they kept August. It was definitely the first place she wanted to look for him, but she wasn't sure that was where she needed to be.
Where she needed to be in the immediate future was under some hot water with shampoo in her hair and soap spread all over her body. Of course, her hygiene wasn't dire when she continually had a sinking feeling Regina was in trouble. The other woman's cover was most likely blown if she hadn't even been able to so much as text Emma to let her know everything was fine, or at least to share the next step in their plan to throw a wrench into Gold's.
She checked her phone. No new messages or missed calls. At least none from Regina. There was a message from Henry that said, "I hope you're okay."
She replied, "I will be"and then checked the time. It was still pretty early. If she took a quick shower, there was still a chance she could be clean and still find Regina or the Author before it was too late.
But she really didn't want to go home.
Of course, Emma was already in a house and she was certain it had more than at least two full bathrooms. Upon further inspection, she was right. She counted four on her way upstairs, but she hadn't even gone into the basement and there was still a stretch of hallway past Henry's room she hadn't checked. Out of the four bathrooms she had seen, three of them were full baths. One of them was the master bath inside Regina's room, which she didn't dare enter. She just knew when she opened the bedroom door that it was in there somewhere. The other full bath on the second floor was between Henry's bedroom and one of the two guest rooms. The third full bath she'd spotted on her half-assed, self-given tour through the mansion was on the first floor near the kitchen. So she had options, and a lot of them didn't even involve leaving Regina's house let alone seeing her parents.
Already on the second floor, Emma decided to use the bathroom between Henry's room and the guest room. She looked in the linen closet next to it for a clean towel and found five of them neatly folded and stacked on a shelf directly at Henry's eye level. She grabbed one and tossed it onto the counter in the bathroom before she wondered what she was going to do about her clothes. She could magic herself an outfit, right? But she wasn't really sure how that worked. She was also much better on her feet and when it had nothing to do with personal choices. It was all about action and saving the day, or at least saving the people she cared about.
She'd spent the night at Regina's twice, walked into the mansion at least three or four times in the almost two years she'd known the brunette, and she'd never even been on the second floor until just then. She didn't want to invade Regina's personal space, but she realized that if she couldn't poof clean clothes to the mansion there was only one other way showering at Regina's was going to work. She had to borrow some clothes.
They shared a son. Why couldn't they share clothes? It wasn't like Emma hadn't worn one of Regina's shirts before, because she definitely had. Regina wasn't too happy about it, but it had happened and they'd moved past it. She'd returned it, even had it dry cleaned because she knew if she hadn't it would have been another reason why Regina wouldn't trust her with Henry. She wanted to respect certain boundaries, though. Even when she and Regina hadn't gotten along she'd mostly wanted to keep the peace if she could. For Henry's sake. As she stood in Regina's bedroom, however, it was about respecting her friend and her space and belongings.
But the more she stood around and thought about it, debated about whether or not it would be okay to just take a shirt and pants for the day, the more time she wasted. She wanted to take ten minutes in the shower and three of those minutes had already been spent staring at the other woman's dresser like it contained the secrets of the world and she wasn't sure she was ready to expose them.
She took a deep breath and released it in a short exhale before she crossed the room and pulled open a drawer. She wasn't sure how badly she wanted to borrow clean underwear, but Regina had plenty of pairs in all different colors and styles. Lace, cotton, silk. Red, black, green. Thong, cheeky, low rise. Her bras, which were also in that drawer, had the same admirable variety. Suddenly, it was much hotter in Regina's room than when Emma had first entered it.
She cleared her throat and closed the drawer. She'd worry about underwear later. She yanked open a couple more drawers and managed to find a black, long sleeve shirt and surprisingly, a pair of jeans she wouldn't mind wearing. She took them into the bathroom with her and, out of habit, locked the door before she ran the shower.
In the time it took her to strip down, steam had started to collect in the room. She felt it in the air before she opened the clear shower door and stepped in. The water was warm and the pressure was nice. She sighed with relief, wet her hair, and then just stood under the water. She let herself relax and found comfort in the luxurious shower that was nothing at all like the one she was stuck with at the apartment. After a minute, she grabbed the Mountain Mist shampoo in the shower caddy to her right. She popped open the cap and smelled it. The scent reminded her of a grass field after a fresh, light rain. It wasn't too strong and it wasn't floral. She wasn't big on flowers except for the tattoo on her wrist.
She squeezed out a good amount of shampoo and started to run it through her hair. She went about her usual shower routine and just as she turned to rinse out the matching Mountain Mist conditioner a few minutes later, she caught a glimpse of someone on the other side of the shower door.
Emma yelped and jumped back. Water washed the conditioner out of her hair and into her eyes.
"Holy shit!"
Maleficent stood in the middle of the bathroom with her eyes sharply trained on the blonde inside the shower.
"Ow! Fuck. What—" Emma tried to wipe the conditioner out of her eyes and then she remembered she was naked in front of the other woman.
Emma crossed her arms over her chest and then thought better of it and dropped a hand to cover her below the waist while one arm remained stretched across her bare breasts.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
"I could ask you the same question, dear," Maleficent calmly purred.
Note: I'm hoping I'll have more time and energy over the next couple of days to write the next chapter. I'm aiming to update this again by Saturday night, but no guarantees. Also, I know Cruella saying, "I'm not pushing you away again" is more of a parallel to Emma and Lily, but I'll explain/show how it connects to Emma and Regina in the next chapter. Thanks for reading along so far. And thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews. Keep giving me feedback. It helps keep me motivated. :)
