Whipping Boy
Chapter Nine
Regina and Tilly arrived at the police station as Drew was leaving after Weaver released him once the detective finished interrogating him. The Queen's eyes briefly met his as they passed on the stairs, but he swiftly ran off before she could attempt to speak to him, knowing she knew who he was through Facilier and now Samdi since their paths crossed a few times. Drew knew she knew he worked for the witchdoctor and he wasn't in the mood to be interrogated by the former Evil Queen about his involvement in Rogers' abduction as well, mostly on account of it being nearly two o'clock in the morning.
"Roni… is everything okay?" Tilly finally asked the bar owner when Regina froze and stared at the man who just ran past them until he disappeared, then glanced towards the young woman with her when she spoke.
"Yeah… I'm sorry," Roni answered quickly responded when her attention was returned to their task at hand. "I thought I recognized that man who ran past us just now. I was wrong."
Tilly shrugged while she continued to follow after her friend, and replied, "I've seen that man around. In a few places actually. But like with everyone else, he's never seemed to notice me. I really hope Weaver's still here. He wouldn't just go home because of the lateness of the hour when Rogers is in this kind of trouble… would he?"
The two women arrived at the office where he and Rogers always worked and found he wasn't there, so Regina continued to lead Tilly through the precinct as she answered, "Not a chance. He's as much of a friend to Rogers as the rest of us. Plus… he's his partner. Cops usually take their partners getting hurt personally."
"Weaver!" she called out when they arrived outside of the door to his evidence locker and then banged on it a few times before the detective finally opened the door to them, as Regina suddenly pushed her way inside. "We have to talk and this can't wait."
"What's happened?" he questioned in concern upon recognizing the fearful look in her eyes. "Is Rogers…?"
Regina cut him off before he could finish as she interrupted, "Eloise Gardener is what happened. She and her coven arrived at the hospital along with some lawyer. She claimed she and Rogers are married."
Gold looked into her eyes for any sign she might be mistaken, then responded, "Rogers would never marry Eloise after all she's put him through, or even beforehand."
"That's exactly what I said," Tilly replied worryingly, then quickly apologized for talking out. "Sorry."
"We all know Rogers wouldn't agree to this," the senior detective said while he returned to the personal effects he collected from the dead man found earlier that evening along with the knife Rogers had used to kill him as he defended himself against the man's attack. "She's up to some new scheme."
The Queen answered crossly, "She has forged papers from her lawyer good enough to fool the doctors. We've all been kicked out and banned from Rogers so long as he remains in that hospital. But it's worse than that. Eloise taunted me by saying something's happened to his memory. She's done more to him than just had him beaten and whatever else for however long she's had him, Weaver. When he wakes up, he won't be able to defend himself. You have to do something. Just what the hell are you doing anyway?"
Gold picked up the bloody knife still inside its evidence bag to hold it out to her while he responded, "At least Rogers was able to defend himself against one of those responsible for his grave condition, and now the man's lying dead here in the precinct's morgue. I followed a blood trail left behind from when Rogers made his way back to your bar, and found the man who wounded him with this knife. Thankfully, Rogers fought back. The rest of these effects belonged to his attacker. I'm hoping something might lead us to more proof Eloise is behind all this. So far…"
"The proof doesn't matter so much as it does to get that woman away from him so she can't hurt him any longer," Tilly curtly interrupted before he continue. "You know as well as I do that she did all those God awful things to him when she kidnapped him before and yet you say you can't lock her away because of a lousy technicality? Look at what she's done to him now! How is this protecting him?!"
"Tilly… I know this is hard for you to…" the detective started to reply in worry until she suddenly stormed out, then he turned his head to look over at Regina. "I don't blame her for being angry with me. She's right. If this was Storybrooke and those of us from the Land of Magic were all who lived here, I wouldn't care about the laws of this world. But now I must follow them because we are a part of the Land Without Magic and we live among those who know nothing about who we really are. I can't even fall back on my old tricks I used to outsmart all of you before I brought back magic to Storybrooke."
Regina leaned across the table as she reached out to grab Gold's hand, then she asked curtly, "Why not? Gold… you aren't the corrupt cop you first were after this curse swept over us thanks to what Gothel made you, but she's playing dirty and the only way to stop her is to play dirty back. Don't be a corrupt cop or a good cop. Just be Rogers' partner and do whatever it takes to protect him from her."
The former Dark One looked at her as he remembered back to a conversation between him and Rogers and answered, "On the morning I released Victoria from jail after Rogers had her arrested for her role in Eloise's abduction, I did what I had to do to get her to reveal to me what she knew about the Guardian, which wasn't as useful as I hoped. My point is… I manipulated the system in order to help her and Rogers wasn't too thrilled. But then we hadn't established an understanding yet."
A couple of weeks ago…
Weaver walked out of the station that morning to his partner arguing with Victoria after he had released her, as he overheard Rogers asking her angrily, "I asked how you managed to sidestep your charges."
"I'm afraid that honor goes to you," the senior detective taciturnly responded in regret in order to keep his friend from interfering with his plans, before Victoria could say more. "You failed to get a warrant."
"I had exigent circumstance," Rogers replied as he stepped around the car and walked towards his partner. "There was immediate danger."
Weaver stated briskly, "Judge didn't see it that way."
The younger man glared at him while he retorted angrily, "Don't you mean you made certain he didn't? You dress it up any way you want. I know you're getting something out of this arrangement. Come clean with it now, or I'll go dig it up myself."
"I'd advise against that, Detective," he answered with reluctance, hating to have to keep Rogers in the dark. "Or has ignoring me not done enough damage already?"
Present…
"I walked away from Rogers and ignored him the rest of the day while I allowed Victoria use me to get what she wanted, allowing for her to put Lucy into her coma so she could awaken Anastasia," Gold continued to explain himself. "He confronted me again later that night and despite my constant efforts to keep him in the dark about my business and the truth about Eloise… Rogers refused to stand for it any longer and forced me to tell him a partial truth about my reasons for doing as I did that day, and since I lost Belle. I told him I was doing everything to get back to her. And he believed me. Since then, he's trusted in me to be his partner and to watch his back. All he wanted was to help me. You're right, Regina. I had almost forgotten. I found a way to bend the rules then for my own needs. I'll do what I have to do for his now too."
She finally spoke again as she responded, "I hope you have some ideas on how we do that?"
Weaver looked into her eyes and then replied, "Not just yet, but we'll figure something out. It's also time we finally do as we should have done once you and I remembered who we really were. We need to awaken Hook. However, first we need to awaken Rogers too. It might be the only way we can save him from Gothel once and for all."
