"DID YOU DO IT!?"
Zelena jerked awake so violently she nearly fell from her place on the couch. After Regina had left to take the children to Ruby's she'd given in to the ache of her body and gone to lay down in the living room, the thought of climbing all those stairs up to her room was too much to be bothered with.
Her fitful sleep had been plagued with nightmares and now that she was awake she wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't. She watched through blurry eyes as Regina stalked from one side of the fireplace to the other and back, furry pulsating from her in waves.
"Did you do it Zelena?!"
"Do what!?"
"The flowers Zelena! The god damn flowers that spell out Nik in the fucking backyard!" Regina shrieked and flung her arm out towards the back of the house in her mounting frustration. She was never one to curse often but right now it felt good to let it fly. She was mad and she sure as hell wanted her thick headed sister to understand that. "Emma was here and she saw them! Is this funny to you!? Is it just some big fucking joke!? Why would you do this Zelena?!"
Despite the pain that flared through her tired body, Zelena sat up with a start, her head pounding to the point of tears. "What!?"
"I can't- I can't keep doing this! I can't live like this! I don't care if we go to jail anymore. I can't do this!"
Regina couldn't stop replying the confrontation with her sister after Emma had left yesterday. She'd barely slept between the long bouts of needing to pace that had her out of bed for what felt like the millionth time that night.
At just after five in the morning she'd given up on the notion that she'd get any respite from her thoughts. The fight with Zelena had been bad. Really bad. Accusations flew faster than spit balls on movie day in health class and it only got worse when Regina thought that Zelena was faking illness to get out of her verbal lashing.
It all continued to replay over and over again, looping endlessly, through every late night heave she heard through her door from the bathroom down the hall. Her pride wouldn't allow her to go to her sister. Not then. Not now. She was still far to angry, far to scared. She could feel the walls closing in on them. It was only a matter of time before everything shattered and the truth of what they'd done was out.
Regina knew they needed help. Things had gotten way too out of hand and she couldn't do this alone.
So without a second thought she grabbed her robe and threw it on over her nightgown as she rushed from her bedroom, car keys in hand, and thundered down the stairs as quickly as her legs would take her while ignoring the faint call of her name followed by a 'where are you going' from above.
The roads of Storybrooke were dark and empty. A light mist of rain spattered across Regina's windshield and distorted the sights of the town she'd called home for most of her life. The slow moving grey clouds felt appropriate for her mood. Gloomy. Caged in. Scared. And if she were really being honest with herself, maybe even relieved. Relief that stemmed solely from not having to lie to Emma anymore.
But what was she going to say to Emma? Was there even a way to explain away murder as an accident? A happy one at that. That even if she had the chance to go back to that night on the highway she would do nothing different? Well, maybe she would. Maybe she would shoot him with his own gun instead of poisoning him. Make him suffer like she'd been forced to. Regardless of what way it would happen the results would always be the same. In the end she would always do it. She would never regret killing Nik before he was able to do the same to her sister.
"Just tell her the truth," she breathed into the silence of the car as she pulled into the small parking lot at the back of Granny's diner. "Tell her everything."
As quietly as she could, Regina slipped into the old boarding house turned inn and made her way up the stairs with her heart lodged in her throat all the way to room twelve. She didn't give herself a moment to pause before knocking, fearing that she'd lose her nerve and run back down the stairs if she so much as hesitated to brush the dewy rain drops from her hair and robe.
God I hope she doesn't arrest me in this, Regina thought fleetingly, her fist poised to knock again when she heard a loud thud and grumble from the other side of the door.
"JUST A MINUTE," came from behind the closed door followed by lowly muttered curses until finally a chain was being pulled back and the door cracked open enough that a bedraggled Emma, still pulling on a shirt, could be seen. "Regina? Wha-… Are you okay? Did something happen?! Damn it, I should have looked around more. Shit. I'm sorry!"
More alter than she was when she initially opened the door, Emma yanked the door open further, instantly shifting from sleepy confusion to concerned alterness in the blink of an eye. "Let me get some pants and my gun and I'll go-"
"Emma wait, please. It's- it's nothing like that. I just," Regina faltered, the nerves she'd barely contained surged up in full force once again. Pressing her palm against her stomach, she breathed in a deep breath and released it just as quick. "I want to tell you what happened with Nik. The truth. All of it. From the beginning."
The shift of gears in Emma's head was visible by the way her body froze and a mask of suspicion settled across her once open features. For a terrifying second Regina wasn't sure that she'd be allowed in to give her statement. The image of Emma slapping her in cuffs and hauling her directly to the police station down the street danced through her mind.
Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 dollars.
Oh my god what the hell are you doing you idiot, the irrational side of her brain screamed just as Emma reluctantly moved aside to allow her entrance.
"So you're finally admitting that you've been lying to me this whole time," Emma grunted and turned to face her with her arms folded across her chest. She nudged the door shut with a bump of her hip and watched the brunette swallow roughly through shrewd viridian eyes.
Regina balked. The words she'd recited to herself on the walk from the car to the room failed her under the detective's sharp scrutiny.
Breathing out a heavy sigh, Emma moved to turn on the bedside lamp, illuminating the room with a warm comforting glow that was at odds with the tension that had settled around them. "Alright, that wasn't entirely fair. Why don't you… Take a seat over there," she offered, nodding to the rumpled up bed. "We can start from the beginning okay?"
All Regina could do was nod stiffly, her body not wanting to comply with the direction to sit until Emma reached out to place a comforting hand against her trembling shoulder. When had she started to shake?
"I'm going to help you Regina. I promised you I would. Can you trust me?"
Insecurity danced in the dark pools of Regina's eyes as she searched every inch of Emma's honest face. This was the second time in less than twenty four hours that the blonde had asked her that. Last night it had been easy to answer when she'd planned to continue to dance around the truth but now? Did she trust Emma enough to believe she wouldn't toss her in the nearest jail cell to rot for the rest of her life?
Breathing out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, Regina nodded again. "Yes." The weight of the word hung in the silence of the bedroom.
"Good. Okay, that's… Really great," the younger woman soothed with another stroke of her arm before pulling it back. "We can work with that."
Uncertainty continued to rage war within Regina. Was this the right thing to do? Watching Emma snatch her phone from the bedside table, she sighed. Of course this was the right thing to do. It was the only thing she'd wanted to do since she drove away from that god awful gas station. She had to come clean.
"I… I don't really know where to begin," she confessed, wringing her hands nervously against her stomach.
"The beginning is usually a good place to start," Emma halfheartedly joked, taking the seat that Regina refused and opened a voice recording app on her phone. "This is the statement of Regina Mills, taken on Sunday April 9th, 2017. You can start whenever you're ready."
Steadying herself with a deep breath, Regina nodded, and slowly paced the length of the bed. "It was a Friday a few weeks ago," she began and didn't stop once as she finally let loose the tidal wave of truth that spanned from trivial details about a letter she sent to recounting every bruise that marred her sister's delicate skin when she initially found her on the motel room floor in Charlotte. Detail after detail poured from her and with every admission the lighter Regina felt.
Each new revelation made Emma's skin crawl. It was like looking through the case files that sat sprawled out on the nightstand. Things could have gone so much worse, the detective thought with a soft hiss of disgust that pulled Regina's gaze back up from the floor, a frown of her own forming until Emma's hand lifted apologetically. 'Sorry' she mouthed and nodded for her to continue.
"He pulled the gun out again, he had it up to her neck like this," Regina explained, lifting her two pointed fingers up to mimic the barrel of a gun against the soft flesh of her neck. "And he said that it would be an honor for her to die. I nearly drove us into the median trying to get him away from her. That's when I made him hand me his bottle of- I don't even know what it was that he was drinking- and I found my sister's supply of ground hemlock in her bag. I only meant to sedate him, I swear! I was so scared. I was terrified he would pull the trigger on her- I just wanted to get him away from Zelena. I wasn't paying attention to how much of the sedative I put in the bottle- I should have but I- there was so much happening. I only meant to sedate him."
Regina nearly sank to the floor as she continued to confess, her eyes glistened as she begged Emma to understand. "I didn't mean to kill him," she choked out around the lump that began to form in her throat.
A heavy sigh left Emma's lips as she debated what to do next. She could practically feel the desperation radiating off of the now stalk still woman in front of her. After a long pause she stabbed her finger against the stop button and pointedly patted the space on the bed next to her. "What happened next? What did you do with the body?"
The laugh that came from Regina was clipped and laden with poorly concealed hysteria. "Which time?"
"What do you mean which time?"
Regina ran a hand through her rain frizzled hair, shaking her head. "After we realized he was dead Zelena decided- no, we decided to bring him back," she admitted, taking the seat beside Emma, not noticing how rigid the detective had turned at her latest confession. "I knew it was wrong. Dabbling in magic like that is dangerous but it was try or go to jail. Zelena was sure no one would believe we poisoned him on accident. So we brought him home and… and it worked."
Emma's eyes narrowed. "What worked?"
"The casting. We brought him back. I don't know how we managed to but we did. But Nik was- he came back a monster. More so than before. There was no reasoning with him. He attacked Zelena again. I had no choice but to hit him. He would have killed my sister if I didn't stop him."
Scrambling to her feet, Emma popped off of the bed in a flash and began to stalk the room. Her hands dove into her tangled locks like that action alone would help her make sense of the yarn she'd just been told. "Jesus Christ Regina. What!?" Her irritated steps came to a stop so that she could direct a furious glare at the woman on the bed. "You expect me to believe you killed Nik, brought him back to life- because you're a witch- and then killed him again. Is that seriously what you're going with!? You said you trusted me! That you were going to tell me the truth!"
"It is the truth!" Regina howled, her face contorting into pained disbelief. Couldn't Emma hear the honesty in her statement? Couldn't she feel it?
"I can't believe I let you waste my time," Emma hissed, dropping her hands from her hair and turning away from the bed, muttering to herself, "You always have to be drawn to the fucking lunatics Swan, every god damn time."
Sitting up straighter, Regina scowled, her voice turning sharp in her growing frustration. "I'm not a lunatic. I am a witch. I may not like it but I am. Zelena and I brought Nik back after I killed him and then I killed him again because it was the only thing I could do. I know this sounds insane Emma, I do, but it's not. It happened just like I told you. I killed Nik and now I'm beginning to think his spirit is haunting us."
"Oh, well yeah, " Emma laughed manically, tossing her hands into the air just to let them slap back down against her thighs. "Because why wouldn't he be?"
"Emma I'm serious!"
"Magic isn't real Regina!"
With her lips pursed into a firm line Regina glared at Emma. Really glared. Here she was being open and honest and it was getting them no where because Emma refused to trust her. The irony was not lost.
Maybe she'd expected too much from the woman but she'd honestly thought that of all the things Emma would get hung up on the magic aspect wasn't even a thought. The double homicide? Totally. Not the magic.
"Fine. You don't believe me? I'll show you."
"How ar-"
Holding up a warning finger like she would with Henry or Robyn, Regina looked around for something she could use to help bring Emma into the light about who she really was. "No, you want proof? Fine," she grumbled and snatched one of the pillows from the headboard. With some effort she managed to rip the inside seam, allowing her to spill the feathery contents around her lap.
"What the hell are you doing?! I'm going to have to pay for that!"
"Shhh!" The older woman snapped and closed her eyes. "I haven't done this in a very, very long time Emma. So please just bare with me," she quietly pleaded and raised her arms up to stretch out at her sides, her fingers clenching and unclenching as she fought to find her focus.
Despite the years away from serious magic she could still feel the low steady thrum of it just below the surface begging to be released. It was almost comforting.
Regina breathed in deeply, opening herself up to the fathomless well of potential that laid dormant inside and carefully pushed it out through the tips of her fingers and down towards the feathers that reacted instantly to her silent demand.
The sound of Emma's startled gasp brought her back to reality. Her eyes snapped open and connected with bewildered green. The feathers that had been scattered around her legs now floated in the space around them, twirling and moving as though caught in an invisible breeze. A small smirk slowly began to spread across Regina's lips the more Emma struggled to form a thought. "Do you believe me now Ms. Swan?"
"I… You-.. How- am I?" There were no words. The words had left the building. Hell they'd gone and left the state and all Emma could do was stare in blatant dismay at the feathers that danced around her. "WHATTHEHELLWASTHAT!? AREYOUREALLYDOINGTHIS?!"
"Emma," Regina began tentatively moving to push herself up from the bed but the second her body rose from the mattress Emma sprang away from her with her arms extended in front of her to stop Regina from moving any closer.
"Whoa! Whoa- I… Whoa! Hold on- so you're," again the words wouldn't come. Couldn't come. This was ridiculous. Witches weren't real. This wasn't the wizard of fucking oz! This was bumfuck nowhere Maine! Where were the Charmed jokes now!?
Regina nodded and released the magic that held the feathers in the air. "A witch," she finished for the wary detective.
Emma blew out a haughty breath, shaking her head despite the evidence that fluttered to the floor around them. "No, that was- you can't… Regina that's insane! This is all insane! Witches aren't real! You can't bring people back from the dead! This isn't a bad 90's tv show! The power of three will not set you free! This is the real world- and not that crappy MTV version. Reality doesn't have magic!"
The more worked up Emma became the worse Regina felt. She'd been so sure that Emma would believe her, would help her, that she hadn't actually factored in Emma's reaction being in the negative. "I know it's a lot to take in but Em-"
"A-LOT-TO-TAKE-IN-ARE-YOU-FREAKING-KIDDING-ME-RIGHT-NOW?!" Hands found their way into blonde tresses again as she began to pace once more but never close enough to get within a foot of Regina. "You confessed to killing the guy I came up here to bring in for questioning and then brought him back with magic! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSE TO REACT TO THAT REGINA!?"
Every harshly spoken word made Regina wince. Her hands fiddled with the keys in her lap as a painful ache blossomed in her chest. God it was just one mistake after another. "I- I'm sorry. I thought you could- I don't know," she paused, struggling to find the word she wanted. "-help. You said you could help! I couldn't keep lying to you! I'm so scared- all the time. I'm in over my head! I don't want to lose my children Emma."
Tears stung Regina's eyes but she refused to let them well up. She was not going to cry. Now was not the time. She edged towards the door, the ache in her chest swelling to the point of pain and nearly had her doubling over. "I should, I'm sorry, I'll go," she managed to spit out through her clenched teeth.
"Regina wait," Emma called and hesitantly moved toward the woman who was already stumbling out of the room.
The burn in Regina's chest intensified, causing her to misstep as she stepped into the hallway. Something was wrong. She rubbed the scar on her hand as she blindly moved down the stairs until she was running out of the inn, ignoring every shout of her name that followed.
Regina.
I need you…
Something's wrong.
Her head whipped up towards the darkening grey clouds. "Zelena," she grunted through the growing discomfort in her chest that she now realized wasn't her own. This phantom pain shot through her again and she was certain she could hear her sister's cry from where she stood across town. "Hold on," Regina sobbed, fumbling with her keys the minute she unlocked her car. "I'm coming!"
"How many traffic lights does this god forsaken town need!?"
Fury mingled with unease as Regina slammed through the front door. Unlike what she'd expected the house was still. Through every red light she endured on her way home she was plagued with Zelena's suffering. Every pleading call had her adrenaline spiking until she was shaking, her hands clammy and her heart pounding. And now that she was here there was nothing. No sounds. No woman laying in the foyer on her death bed. Nothing.
"Zelena?" Even to her own ears her voice sounded off, wavering in a way that gave away how worried she was. "Zelena! If this was some kind of stunt to get me to come home-"
Regina'd barely made it half way to the kitchen when the low hiss of something moving quickly through the air sounded behind her followed instantly by a sickeningly loud thunk. She didn't even have time to acknowledge the blinding pain that forced her to her knees before the world around her went dark.
Pain.
That was the first thing that registered in Regina's fog riddled mind. Pain and the fact that her eyelids felt glued together. What the hell had she done to end up feeling like this? She couldn't remember anything. Well, anything that wasn't blinding pain and darkness.
In an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure on the back of her head, Regina shifted her weight and whimpered. This wasn't her bed and… What was that noise? She struggled to open her eyes, the heavy twinges of pain slowly but surely taking the back burner as panic settled in. Why wouldn't her eyes open?
"Regina?! Oh my god! Regina!"
That voice. That was a voice she knew and it was close. Real close. Regina felt hands gently touch her face, her arms, her wrists. "Em… ma? Wha-" Again she fought to open her eyes, pushing and fighting for one lid to flutter then the other until she could vaguely make out the blurred vision of blonde hair and fierce green eyes. "What… Why are?"
"Jesus, Regina! I thought you were dead! I felt- after you left I don't know! I just knew I needed to get here, to get to you, and when I got here the door was wide open and you're- who the hell tied you up!? Oh my god are you bleeding!?"
Sluggishly, Regina tried to bring her hand up to touch the temple that felt slick with something warm only to be stopped by the tug of the rope at her wrists. Right, Emma'd said something about being tied up. Regina struggled to sit up. The pounding in her head paired with her lack of hands would have made the feat impossible if it weren't for Emma's demanding grip on her elbow.
"Come on! We've gotta get you out of here. Did you get a look at who did thi-"
"Detective Swan," a husky masculine voice drawled from behind them, "How wonderful to see you again."
Every nerve ending in Regina's body fired at once as her blood ran cold. She knew that voice too.
"Nik."