Chapter 10

There were no expensive swings and child friendly pavement in this playground. There were no carefully landscaped gardens or exotic trees or artfully carved benches with inscriptions to dead sponsors and sappy declarations of love. There was graffiti, there were broken, abused swings and slides that no one cared enough to fix. And, against the background of the still moving swings and broken toys on the ground, the emptiness that was starker for the smell, that mixture of brimstone and sweat and blood.

Shocked, Emma saw Regina working. She saw her calm stance, ready for an attack and the way she moved without a sound. She was the sidekick. That was all. And it was a good thing she was not expected to do anything because this was home, as much as she could call anything home and seeing it devastated she could only mourn.

And then rage.

She moved erratically through the empty playground until she could get her focus again. Then, her movements became less jerky, less agitated. The anger gave her the anchor to be more herself, to be more of the bounty hunter Emma Swan she defaulted into when she needed the strength to carry on. She scoured the ground, the sand box, the overgrown weeds that thrived by the broken fences and saw nothing but a still wet pacifier and a ratty baby blanket that would have been a child's safe place. She clenched her fists by her side before she could find the coordination to jump the fence and continue her search.

Eventually, she turned back.

Regina was crouching on the ground, her hands touching something much like Emma had touched the baby blanket- with care and sorrow. She seemed lost in thought but when Emma approached her, she simply held her hand up demanding – and obtaining- silence with a simple gesture. It was an oddly regal gesture of command for someone that looked like little more than a starved foot soldier.

Emma refrained from interrupting and allowed Regina to do her thing. Clearly, the woman was getting something out of the silence- the way her eyes moved purposefully from object to object, from pavement to fence- as if she was carrying out some mental calculation. She probably was.

Distracted, Emma looked up and beyond the playground, towards the tired and old buildings, the windows, the curtains. Surely, someone had to be behind those curtains, behind those closed windows. Someone had to have seen anything.

She saw a curtain on the second floor dropping gently into place. She touched Regina's shoulder to get her attention and when Regina didn't immediately acknowledge, she walked away towards the window. The curtain remained down. Emma's eyes searched from the service entrance at the back of the building that overlooked the playground and not wanting to leave Regina behind just whistled and called out a soft hey.

Frustrated, Regina walked towards her. "I'm sorry. I can't seem to… back home, it's easy to follow the tracks. Here… I can barely…sense it. Everything is too loud, the smells are too intense. It masks their tracks."

Emma pulled Regina by the arm and continued walking towards the building. "Listen, I know it's your job and all but this is home, sweet home for me. Things are bound to be different here. So if you want to get them in this new world, you adapt. And maybe in your world you have your spidey senses and whatever to help you but here we ask, see?"

"Ask?"

"Uh huh. We ask."

"Who? There's no one left."

"Regina, these buildings are apartment blocks. People live here. Someone saw something. Someone always sees something."

"So we ask?"

"Yeah. We ask nicely." Emma replied calmly though her hands were shaking and all she wanted to do was scream.

Together, they climbed the stairs to the first floor. "Are we just going to knock on doors?" Regina asked aghast. This was not how she hunted. This was not her way. Mostly because no one would ever indicate sunset to her to save their lives but because she had always struggled to interact with people.

"I saw someone." Emma looked at the first floor corridor and counted doors. "I know someone saw." She started walking again down the long, damp smelling corridor. "And I think they should be right behind… this door."

Regina looked at both ends of the corridor and stayed perfectly still. She heard the soft rustle of movement inside the apartment, a sound faint as the opening of a bloom, as if the person inside was afraid their breathing would give them away. "There's someone inside."

"Yeah. Let's knock."

Regina moved to the door and pushed Emma behind her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm armed. I go in first."

"I'm armed too."

"Don't argue, Emma. I don't know much about sidekicks but I'm fairly sure they should stay back. So stay back." And she knocked, an arm outstretched to prevent Emma from reaching the door.

"You and I are going to have to agree on how to approach doors from now on." Emma quipped

"Do you think we're going to be knocking on doors often?" Regina asked as she leaned closer to the door, genuine interest because this was the oddest way of hunting for enemies. There was no movement on the other side of the door. As there was no scent of death, Regina decided to wait a beat.

"It's a metaphor. What I meant is that you shouldn't bank on making me stay behind you. I thought that was understood and agreed."

Regina made a non-committal sound and still the door wouldn't open. "There is someone in there. Why aren't they opening?"

"Because, people that open doors without checking first, especially in this part of town, usually end up having to replace all their stuff."

"We're not here to rob you." Regina spoke loud and clearly at the door. "But we do need your help."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Right, Sunshine." She muttered to Regina. Then, she turned to the door. "You know we're not cops. We're here about what happened outside. I know you saw and I'm not gonna go away until you open. And if it takes too long, I'm likely to get really loud and believe me, those things are attracted to noise. So open up."

There was a moment more of silence during which Emma knew she was being studied through the peephole. She stood, hands visible and Glock safely tucked away under her jacket.

When the door opened, it revealed an old man, tall and dried up to the bone, skin tanned from, Emma thought, working at the docks. He breathed with the difficulty of untreated asthma. Yep, home sweet medically uninsured home.

The man took a careful look down both ways of the corridor before he let them in. Behind him, a small child slept wrapped in a pink comforter. He didn't motion them in, but Emma simply took that as protocol: around this part of town, you don't invite someone into your home without inviting trouble in as well.

"What do you want?"

"What did you see?"

"I didn't see anything."

Regina was ready to take her leave. The old man was lucky he lived on the second floor when there was more readily available pray. Back home, he would not still be alive. But Emma pressed further.

"This is not the docks, Grandpa. I know you saw what happened and the only thing we're asking is that you tell us where they came from. What direction they left towards. Next time, they might find the playground empty and think that the trek up here is worth it." The man remained tight lipped. "Listen, this isn't your old life. Silence is not how you protect her. 'Cause I promise you, they don't give a flying fuck about who talks and who keeps quiet. My friend here," She pulled Regina to the forefront, "Is the one that's going to take them down, so you tell her, and you tell her the truth. Where did they come from?"

"She looks like one of them."

"Really?" Emma uttered in disbelief. "That's what you're going with?"

But Regina took a step forward and pulled the sleeve of her duster jacket up as if she had been about to tear it apart and showed the man the many scars in her arms. "I am not. I am their destruction; I bring the end to them."

The man looked unimpressed. "Unless there's a hundred more like you―"

Emma took it personally, for some reason. "No. There's her. It may not look like much, but she's all you've got. She's good at it. And hiding here and keeping real quiet is not going to save you any more than running will."

The man sat next to the sleeping child and took a wheezing, pained breath. "We're here because she's sick. I was upset I missed my game with O'Leary. He goes with his grandkid while his daughter works. A little punk that got on my last nerve every day. And now, they're both gone. They're gone, aren't they?"

While Emma's first instinct was to lie and say they'd be okay, Regina lowered her head. "Yes, they are. I'm sorry for your loss." It came out easy as if she'd been saying it forever.

"Where do I take them? Where do I take my family?"

"I don't know." Regina replied simply and it was the truth. And not just because she didn't know the land but because anywhere, everywhere was good place for ReulG'horm's army.

"Can you really win?" The man asked, running his gnarly hand up and down the child's back.

"Maybe not. But it is my fate to die trying."

There was a moment of undisturbed silence while the man considered his options. "They had the smell of the low tide on them. You know the smell: when all the rotting in the river comes up floating." Emma nodded. Yes, she knew the smell. She had felt it when she had rolled down her window. "I didn't see them coming. But it was like the movies, you know, when a bomb explodes and everything goes quiet, not loud? Yeah." The man's breath wheezed. "I heard a kid cry and then silence. Not one scream. Why didn't they scream? Those things, they just grabbed them, every single one, from the youngest to the oldest and…" The old man nodded, overwhelmed. "It was like they were kissing them, you know, except…"

Regina stood, expression stony. To Emma, Regina looked unmoved so she reached out to the man and touched his arm, a tentative offer of sympathy, of understanding because at least one of them had to be capable of it. There was no point hoping for words of wisdom and comfort. She'd never had any, she didn't know how to offer them. And even if she did.

When the old man didn't react, she stood and prepared to leave. As she got to the door, the man spoke in a rush, as if this was the last chance to understand. "Why us?"

Emma turned around, Regina lifted her head. The man cleared his throat in an effort to speak. "Why start here, with us? We don't have anything. Why didn't they start uptown?"

Regina nodded as if she had been agreeing, as if it hadn't been really a question but a statement of affairs.

"I don't know." Emma formulated a reply. "But isn't it where shit always rains first?" And she walked into the corridor, Glock ready, steady in her hand. She did a quick sweep of the visible extension of the corridor and, before she walked out, she spared a look at the man and his grandchild and saw Regina just standing perfectly still, the storms in her eyes the only movement in the room.

"I'm sorry." She murmured to the man who didn't show any signs of hearing her.

When she joined Emma, she was again composed and the daggers were out, gleaming. "He saw where they went. I'm sure he did." Emma pressed.

"It doesn't matter, Emma. They don't move in a straight line to their nest waiting patiently for me to exterminate them. They are predators, yes, but they defend well."

"So all of this was for nothing?"

She fervently hoped Regina would tell her differently but there was only silence. Once outside, Emma took a moment to collect herself.

"Okay. Listen. We can't just sit and wait to be in the right place at the right time for their next meal time. So let's do something about this. How would you go about this at home?"

"This is very different from where I come from. As you have already pointed out."

Emma pulled at her hair when no further information was forthcoming. "Listen," She pulled Regina by the arm and turned them both in a complete circle. "I'm not sure how different your place is, but here, they did this, they took a busload of people. So, whatever is different, I don't care right now. Tell me what's the same. Let's start from what you know. Tell me what the hell we do now because I'm not gonna sit on my pretty ass while you have your existential crisis and your polite little breakdown and go wherever the fuck you go to when you just disappear while you're in the same room as us mere mortals. You want help, I'll help, you wanna lead, you lead, but fuck it, do something or I'll kill you myself, do you understand me?"

In the back of her mind, Emma knew the point of no return was a blurry line in the distance. So she was not surprised when Regina simply broke Emma's hold on her before pushing her against the useless rusty fence of the playground. "Never forget, Miss Swan, that I saved your pathetic life. That had I not been there, you would be dead, fed upon, just like the ones that were taken today are. Food. You and your entire world are but food to be consumed and moved on from. Your righteous anger won't make a dent in what they are. In what you are to them."

For a moment, Emma understood what Regina meant when she had described herself as evil. She had seen it in the dangerous gleam of the dark eyes.

And it wasn't fear that she felt.

"I can't just sit on my ass, Regina." No. What she felt was profound surprise, a little excitement. Wonder. Respect. She liked this dangerous Regina far more than the defeated, helpless one.

Regina hesitated, released her and took a step back. "I shouldn't have snapped. I apologise."

Emma stuffed her hands as deep in her pockets as they would go. "Yeah." Me too, her inner Jiminy Cricket whispered. "How do you do it at home?" She rubbed her arm where Regina had grabbed her with surprising force. "Do you have like cameras and surveillance or, you know, something like that?"

"I… Back there I can feel them. I hear them, smell them."

"Okay, that's good. Why don't you do it here? I mean, just go to one of these swings and sniff or whatever. When you get a scent, we can follow. Doesn't matter how much they turn and run, right?"

"Emma… I'm not a dog. You can't just put a leash on me and take me to sniff a track."

"Fine, no leash. But can't you?"

"It's too… crowded here. There are too many things, too many people."

"So… no…" When Regina agreed, Emma dropped her shoulders. "Fine. Then we think. We think and we take a look around. Come on, let's take a walk. Let's see what we see."

Before moving, Regina took a good look around herself. These odd constructions, these apartment blocks, they were industrious but not what he imps would go for would go for in a home. Not what she would go for either. Too many windows, too many entrances, too many variables. "If you were in a strange place, what would you do, Emma?"

"Are we talking about me or about me as example?"

"Whichever you prefer."

"You mean if I were an ugly bastard with poisonous claws and nefarious world domination intents?" Emma halted for a second to study Regina then resumed her walking. "I do better with direct questions."

"Okay. If you were one of them, what would you do in a strange place?"

"Find something familiar. Everybody does. No matter what, you always take a little something familiar. Or you look for it. Do you think they're looking for something familiar or that they brought something familiar?"

"There wasn't much of anything to bring."

"Okay… What were you looking for when you fell from the sky on my head?"

"Them." Regina answered too fast.

"Right." What does it matter anyway, Emma? "So the uglies, I don't think they'd be looking for curtains or silverware."

"Actually, something along those lines."

"I'm afraid to ask…"

"Home, the smell of home, the feel of home… I think."

Emma stopped again. That was good, that was good thinking. "Okay, that I can work with. So what is their home like? Castles? Forests? Cliffs?"

"Underground burrows. They like the cosy, dark earth. They need it to multiply, to recover. That's where they take their kills."

"Underground, huh?"

"I believe so, yes. "

"That's not good."

"Indeed."

… … …

They walked around until Emma had to acknowledge that sniffing them out was not the way forward. Regina found no scent, no echo, no glimpse of them. And all Emma could see was the world pushing forward as it always did in this part of the world because to stop was to die.

"Let's go home, Regina."

"There is still daylight. We can continue searching for about an hour longer."

Emma removed the keys to the beaten up little car from her pocket and leaned against the car that somehow they had circled back to without Regina noticing. "No offense, Regina, but how long have you been doing this?"

"A lifetime."

"And you haven't, how did you say it… brought defeat to them?"

"I find that that no offense expression is misleading."

"Yeah, sorry, it's very passive aggressive. But what I meant is that you keep spinning your wheels and you are no closer to defeating them than you were in the beginning or thereabouts, right?"

Regina fisted her hands tightly at her sides and that was reply enough for Emma, fluent as she was in body English.

"Look," Emma got closer to Regina and took the woman's hands in hers. "All I'm saying is that sometimes, people need a break so that they can see the wood for the trees. You need to rest. To eat something. Get some sleep. You can't just keep on pushing forward blindly."

"My covenant with the land―"

"I know, your covenant with the lands makes it so. But guess what, you're in my land now. Here we take a rest at the end of the day. You will take a rest. Shit, your sidekick needs a rest."

"ReulG'horm runs free…"

"I know. And I know that more people will go missing tonight. But…"

"Doesn't that weigh on you?"

"Yeah, it does. Heavily. But we need a strategy. And we need energy. Pushing onwards blindly will not help anyone. And I was kicking about an idea."

"How much danger will you be in?" Regina sighed and Emma knew she had won.

"Okay, we'll discuss the implications of your statement later, when my feet hurt less and I've had something to eat but you'll be happy to know that it's danger free. Completely danger free."

"I'm willing to listen."

"Good. Get in the car and I will tell you all about it."

"Can I drive?"

"No. You wanna drive, you get your own car."

Regina harrumphed but got in. "Spill." She volleyed back, happy to use the expression Emma had used in the morning. It seemed to fit in context and because Emma made no comment, Regina assumed it was aptly applied.

"Okay." Emma set the car in motion. "See, Boston is a city, right? We don't really have burrows lying around for them to get in. At least not in the numbers we are talking about." She stole a glance at Regina and saw the interested look, no derision so she assumed she was on the right track. "What kind of numbers are we talking about here anyway?"

"Difficult to say for sure. They usually keep their numbers tight as they can multiply seemingly at will. Small armies are easy to control. But…"

"Oh. There's a but."

"This is more than imps we are talking about. This is ReulG'horm. And…"

"Don't tell me this is one more of those world domination plots." Regina only nodded, pleased that Emma would catch up quickly and without snide quips. "So there are probably more than usual…"

"Possibly."

"Okay, so hear me out: it's not like a rabbit hole will be stellar accommodation for them, right? So I was thinking, they gotta settle for what's already here that reminds them of home."

"Do you have such a place here?"

"Yeah. And therein lies the problem: we have too many of those places. But it's an idea to start. "

"So how are you going to find them without risk for yourself?"

"With stuff from this world. But you really have to tone down on the overprotective streak there, Batman. I'm not the kind of girl that stays home and knits while the hero goes out to kill bad guys, got it?"

"Oh, I'm sorry I assumed that you wanted to get out of this alive so that you can keep on pretending not to be Henry's mother."

"Don't open your mouth to talk about shit that you know nothing about, got it?"

"I'm not blind Emma."

"Maybe. But ignorance is blindness too and it is a great advantage to keep quiet when people tell you to."

"I'll press any advantage to keep you out of this, Emma. You may be very brave but it's coming across as quite stupid at times. I'm asking you to stay safe. It's not a character fault to take care of yourself."

"That's rich coming from you."

"I'm none of your concern."

"You asked for my help. You wouldn't shut up about it and how I was in your dream, so make up your damned mind, huh?"

"You are making me regret it."

"Yeah, well, you're not the first..." Emma spat, spiteful.

Emma would have turned her back if it wasn't so childish and if she wasn't driving. That had come out totally wrong, it was stupid and, damn it, it was the first time someone worried about her, put her first and here she was smarming all over it. Idiot. Unapologetic idiot because she just couldn't muster the word sorry.

… … …

The little yellow car sputtered into the garage of the building and it was a miracle the sensitive alarms of the latest models in European motors parked didn't all scream in protest. Sometimes, it made her smile because Emma from the wrong side of the social strata had encroached herself into the privileged and made them swallow her every day, battered old car and all. There were probably cheaper cars out there that swallowed up less money in repairs but the Bug, well, the Bug was her talisman, her I'm still standing and she owed it shelter and loyalty.

She removed the keys from the ignition and didn't immediately get out of the car, having behaved like a brat and not knowing how to apologise even though it felt like the right thing to do. "Let's have dinner. I think better with a full stomach." That and Regina clearly could do with a warm meal too, a whole bunch of them, actually. And Henry would be coming in soon if he wasn't there already.

"Go home and lock yourself in. I'll look for a little longer."

"There we go again. Look, it's dark outside, you don't know the area and they are all tucked in nice and cosy. We'll have something to eat and then I'm gonna show you that we have other ways to find them than to just pound the pavement. Or, you know, skulk the pavement, 'cause you really don't make a sound when you move, do you?"

"You are under no obligation to feed me, Emma. I'm not some charity case or a stray dog that you take home to―"

"Listen, okay, and listen well because I don't do repetition: I know it, alright? I know what it's like to not know when the next meal is coming. And I get it: it comes a point you don't really think you need, much less expect it." Regina remained silent, stony, probably in that place she went when things got too real to deal, so Emma just opened the creaking door and got out. She looked up when Regina got out and headed towards the service stairs. The elevator would be too crowded with just her, Regina and her confession in it.

They went up the three floors to the apartment still in silence, broken only by the keys dropping on the entrance table and Emma's boots thumping on the floor.

Henry was notably absent so Emma fished her phone out of her tight as skin jeans and before she could even dial, there was tap on the window and Henry's smiling face against the window pane, pulling faces as if nothing in the world had shifted towards the stinky end.

Emma's expression opened like the sky after the storm and she unlocked the sash window to let him in. "Hilary is out again." They exchanged high fives and then a hug that looked too much like an afterthought to actually be such. "Did you find them?"

"No." Was Emma's laconic answer.

"You're lying."

"Hey! You're too cocky for someone who's coming for free spaghetti and meatballs."

"Really? Marinara sauce?" Henry's eyes lit up. He waited for Emma's confirmation before shrugging and adding "You are. I always know when you're lying."

"I think I might just skip dinner today."

Henry laughed. "Yeah, right." And then his expression sobered up again. "Seriously, Emma. What did you find?"

"Kid…" She nodded sadly but Henry's look brokered no arguments. "Okay. They move fast. That I found out. And we may be onto something. But we're going to need this world's tech. So we, Regina and I, decided that it was a good time to regroup, you know, eat something and shower, maybe and then we crack on with it."

"Can I help?"

"Sure. You and your mad hacking skills."

"You're gonna do something illegal?"

"I can't confirm or deny. Now. Let's get this show on the road, huh? Wash your hands, set the table, I'll get started on the chow. Regina can go and have a shower and then we swap, huh?"

Regina looked up surprised at the inclusion. She simply nodded and looked around herself trying to get the world back under her feet, some semblance of control.

"You know where the bathroom is. Get started and I'll get you something to wear in a minute. Right people, move along, time's wasting." She added when Regina didn't immediately move and Henry simply stood there looking at the woman with an ineffable expression in his eyes.

... … …

Emma had taken over the bathroom and Regina, hair wet trailing lose down her back, was draining the pasta and serving plates. She was out of her depth and, at the same time, where she had always wanted to be. Henry fluttered around her, grabbing dishes and glasses and cutlery and smelling the food, tasting the sauce. Regina gave up on trying not to enjoy the moment, the smells, the tastes, the warmth of it all. She gave up on trying not committing it to memory.

When Emma came in, hair perfectly dried and piled on her head with a simple stick, it was, for Regina, as the last piece of puzzle falling into place to complete the picture. Emma placed the plate in front of her and that brought Regina back to the moment and the conversation.

If she allowed herself to believe, this could be her family for a stolen moment. If this moment was all that she was allowed to have, well then she'd take it and make it last her lifetime.

"It's wonderful, Emma. Thank you."