Hi, so here is another chapter, again some issues uploading but here it is, so i hope you enjoy. There are three more chapters of Season 1 left and then we move onto Season 2
Again this takes a look into Regina's head. I love Regina as a character and i love getting into her head as i find it fascinating and therefore this chapter was one of my favourites.
Some trigger warnings for this chapter as it does deal with the drugging of women so please keep that in mind. I don't dwell too much on the episode because i do like the character of Jefferson and i love Sebastian Stan so therefore i find the episode...odd...
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
Please Read and Review.
And i will try and update as soon as i am able too.
Who Is He (And What Is He To You?)
Chapter 8-Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.
Emma meets a man with an obsession with hats as evidence stacks against Mary Margaret. Jack and Regina may be doing more than sparring during their early coffee sessions.
Emma had never seen it coming. Life as a marine's daughter not to mention the fact that she had, hard years both in the foster system and in the prison system had taught her to be both strong and clear when it came to things like drinks from strangers, car rides from strangers and trusting strangers, getting into houses with strangers and especially strange men. Jack had taught her about stuff like that since she turned thirteen and she had come across Law and Order for the first time.
And what had she done. She had done all of what he had told her not to do because her friend had finally realised the wind was not blowing in her direction and that she was going down certainly for a crime that Emma (and she seemed to be the only one in the town—whatever David had said had made things only worse in her opinion) believed she could not commit.
How would she have slept in the upstairs bedroom not knowing that there was a knife beneath her roommates bed. Hell for the night that the affair had been broadcasted across town she had curled up in that bed with her and held her while she cried so she believed that she would know weather or not their was a massive knife hidden under the bed.
She bit her bottom lip as she wrapped her jacket around her. There had been the hat thing which was insane, the tea thing which was more frightening than she had ever seen. Then there had been the fact that he had had her friend locked up in his room and they had both fallen out of a window while he had looked like some sort of insane Calvin Klein model who modelled hats and looked at little girls while they were eating dinner. Emma pulled her jacket tighter around her and was half prepared to drag her friend back to the jail cell if she had to. She knew her friend was innocent and she knew Regina was guilty and she wanted a hug from Jack because she had realised something tonight and she didn't like it whatsoever.
She was scared in a way she had never been scared before. Not even in prison.
Finally she thought, Emma Swan was reaching her capacity for this town. Had it not been for Henry she would quit as soon as this trial was over. Maybe there was a way that she could still spend time with him but this place was becoming not only crazier by the minute but even more dangerous and it was that thought that she clung to as she locked the door on her only friend and tried to pretend that she believed everything would work out right when in reality she had wanted to let her keep running and never stop.
She bit her bottom lip and tried not to cry as she locked herself in the office. She didn't want to be here anymore and last night being drugged and kidnapped and forced to make hats (and she knew she should be relieved that it wasn't anything more sinister) had finally proven it to her.
Emma fingered her phone and tried to call Jack but it just went to voicemail. Instead she curled her knees around her and rested her head on them as her friend was taken to her arraignment and she tried to pretend that she wasn't terrified or close to tears.
And that was before she found the recording device hidden under her potted plant.
And then she was back to her most comfortable emotion.
Fury.
Regina had been walking to Granny's when she saw him. She had to give him credit where credit was due when it came to punctuality. He was always on time. She suspected that was the Marine in him and she couldn't help but find it rather soothing. So much of this town was made up by the poorer people in her realm who lounged around on their own time (at least in her opinion that was what they did) it was nice to find a man who ran like clockwork. Even Graham didn't do that.
Jack (and yes she had taken to calling him Jack in her head like his very name was some secret that she wanted to treasure for the rest of her days) was sat outside Granny's paper in hand and coffee in front of him boots up on the table in a way that might have once upon a time made her snap out a less than friendly comment. However she found that she was smiling at this lack of common respect.
God there was something wrong with her.
Problem was she knew what it was.
Why oh why did he have to be Emma Swan's father? Of all the men in the world why did it have to be the one who had taught the woman she loathed more than she cared to admit, the threat to her happiness how to be strong enough to take Regina on in this world? Why? Wasn't losing Daniel punishment enough? Hadn't she paid a bigger price? Or was Gold finally onto something with that whole heart empty thing?
The idea of waking up in the morning to find her downstairs sipping coffee was more nauseating than Regina wanted to think about. Even so she knew enough to know what was happening here and she knew that there was a chance that she was going down a rabbit hole where she might not come back up completely intact. It had been a long time since she had put her heart into anything that wasn't raising Henry or destroying Snow White's happiness.
She liked to think she had done both splendidly.
"Good morning Regina" Jack said without looking up. Regina ruffled her skirt and reminded herself that it meant nothing if she had washed her hair vigorously this morning and forced herself into a tighter skirt than she would have normally done for a mid monthly meeting. Noting whatsoever.
There was a pause where she stood there and tried not to look pathetic even though he did have his newspaper up. Finally after what seemed like an age he put it down. "So" he said finally. "Good morning, crushed Mary Margaret yet, you know she got bail."
"Yes and your daughter put up the security. Bit biased for the sheriff" she snapped back feeling rather put out that Snow White was able to sleep in her own bed and see the light of day through a window rather than bars when Daniel could never open his eyes again.
Jack looked at her for a long second.
"She must have done a number on you" he said softly. "You want to tell me about it?"
For a second, for a genuine second that seemed to stretch longer than it should she found that she genuinely wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell him about Daniel and the way he had her feel and what she had been prepared to give up for him. For the happy ending she had so desperately wanted that had been snatched away from her because a ten year old had been too stupid and too selfish to understand that there were some things more important in life than being a Princess and living in a castle. She noted that even when she had been with Charming, Snow had always made sure her coat was white and her boots were polished and she was called and served like a Princess. She had never understood why Regina had been willing to give that up. Charming had never allowed her to give that up to be with him. Daniel had never cared.
She wanted to tell Jack that she did. It was a strange feeling, she had never wanted to tell anyone that, she had thought she would live and die with her one love buried in another world and nothing but a ring for memories and men for distractions to get rid of when she tired of them like Graham.
Jack wasn't even a flirtation but she knew she didn't want to get rid of him.
All of a sudden she realised what she was feeling…that she was feeling something after so long of cold detachment that she was dealing with and she took a deep breath and then turned around and walked away ignoring the look of surprise mingled in more than a little hurt she walked away from that stupid Marine Captain who had managed to make her feel more in the previous weeks as she had done for all of her marriage and the years after that.
Regina was sat in her back yard sipping apple cider and pretending to enjoy the view of her apple tree now it had regrown. Henry had come home from school and had actually been happy enough to tell her what was going on. Her son was confident Snow White would be off a murder charge sooner rather than later and Regina suspected that it might be time to call in her patsy. Sidney owed her more than a few favours and it was time to call them in.
God knows if Kathryn Nolan turned up alive or dead then she was going to have to cover her tracks. Rumple himself had taught her that he was never going to cover her tracks if the opportunity best suited him. Her friend and long adversary had cut his cloth years before Regina had been that frightened teenager hurt and angry and desperate for revenge.
"Where's the kid`?" came a voice and she turned to see Jack standing there as if he hadn't hopped her fence with considerably more skill than a man of his age should have she reasoned. Regina watched him for a second and then sighed putting down her mug on the grass and shifting so she was even if she wasn't putting words to it, inviting him to sit next to her which he did with ease.
"Gone to Emma's. Desperate to save his school teacher. Lost to me forever" she finished with a smile that was more pain filled than she meant it to show at the time. Jack's face was filled with a sympathy so sweet that she had to look away again. It had been a very long time since someone had looked at Regina Mills like that.
She didn't know whether or not it made her want to come closer to him or run away. All her life either her mother or her old teacher or even once her stepdaughter had taught her the hard lessons which was if you wanted to survive you had to be harder and better and faster and stronger than everyone else around you otherwise you would lose everything, Snow had lost her Daniel and Regina had gone after the throne and then she had gone for that too and now Snow's daughter was after her boy. And this man was either going to be friend or foe when the truth came out and at some point Regina knew with Henry pushing—the truth was going to come out she was on borrowed time now.
"Oh come on Regina" Jack said stretching out. "I was teasing you know. All of it, I never meant anything by it"
"You were openly flirting with me" she said trying not to sound accusing and probably failing.
Jack looked at her with a small smile on his face.
"And? I thought we were halfway towards understanding each other?"
Regina sighed. "Emma" she said finally.
Jack looked supremely unconcerned. "I can handle Emma, she's my daughter and I love her deeply but she doesn't run my life. She doesn't get to tell me who not to flirt with or go out with the same way I never got to do it for her. Believe me if I had Regina you wouldn't have your son right now but I didn't. And she doesn't get to tell me that, I can make my own mistakes and…and this isn't some tumble in the sheets for me. Though I suppose if you wanted to do that then—" And he winked.
Regina snorted with laughter unable to stop herself. She thought that if Jack had been in the Enchanted Forest when she had been at the height of her power things might have been different. But she supposed not, even now she had nothing but the urge to crush Snow White even with the opportunity of something new on the table. She didn't want to stop, Daniel was still too raw, he wasn't just her one true love he had been her future and her safety and her brown haired children that loved horses and even if they were poor knew that their mother and father loved them regardless.
Now there was nothing. There was Henry and he helped the ache and her become complete again but she held no illusion that it was going to last. Henry was gone to her, he was Emma's boy and Regina didn't have the fight in her anymore. It had gone when she had learnt what he had really thought of her—the venom in his voice when he had said he had found his real mom still cut her to quick even now.
Jack reached out and touched her hand pulling it up and then uncurling her fingers.
"I don't say yes" Regina said finally.
Jack smiled and brushed his finger against her open palm.
"You don't say no" he said softly.
His kiss when it did come was as light as a feather.
And there you go, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and will stay tuned for the next.
Next Chapter-As a culprit is freed and another is found, Emma makes a drastic decision about Henry's wellbeing, Regina tries too get Jack on board as an ally and Mary Margaret thinks she might see sparks where there shouldn't be them.
Enjoy.
