CHAPTER 11

After moving all of her stuff into the storage locker, Regina was pooped. She still wasn't even at 75% but she was at least where she wanted to be. They got to the hotel and had dinner. Ruby convinced Tink to go out and explore the city leaving Regina completely alone for the first time in a while.

Regina took advantage and had a long soak in the whirlpool bath. She had been seen by Whale earlier that day and he had said that her babies were doing fine. Regina had cried as she heard their heartbeats for the first time. Until that moment, she hadn't been 100% certain that Tink and Ruby were right. She ran her hand over her still flat stomach and pictured her girls. She was sure they would end up with Emma's green and blue swirled eyes even though she couldn't say how or why. Call it Mother's intuition.

After her bath, Regina hit the bed. She was so exhausted but glad that they had made it through. Within seconds of her head hitting the pillow, she crashed hard without a thought to the world.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emma cradled her head as she landed on the other side of the portal. She pulled her hand away and looked at it and saw blood. But she didn't care. She needed to get to Regina's. She stood to get her bearings. She was in the woods near the well. She had a way to go before she'd reach town.

She took off at a light jog. She knew she needed to control her breathing and energy or else she'd pass out before she got there but the urgency of the situation had her heart beating triple time.

She finally made it to the mansion. She tried the door but it was locked. She searched around but didn't see Regina's car either. She didn't have her keys with her so instead she just picked up a plant outside and smashed in a window. She let herself in and ran inside calling Regina's name. For what reason she had no idea considering she had just broken into her house.

She walked inside and looked around. She tried to swallow the fact that the place had a hollow feel to it. She called out for Regina repeatedly. She slowly went through all of the rooms starting with the ones in front and making her way back.

When she made it to the kitchen she almost lost the next to nothing that was left in her stomach. She had smelled the blood before even going all the way inside the room. Then she saw scorch marks, claw marks, and blood smatters. Emma dropped to her knees with tears pouring down her face.

She forced herself to continue because she hadn't yet found Regina dead or alive. And she needed to. She needed to be able to hold her one last time either way. She needed to ask her to forgive her and to forgive their son. She needed her more than she needed to collapse.

So she stood and kept going. She noticed the bag that said evidence on it. She opened the bag up and found stained bed sheets. She ran upstairs. There she found Regina's bed neatly made. She made her way through all of the spare rooms and even Henry's old room and still nothing. Emma sat down heavily on his bed.

She looked around the room. It was a nicely furnished room for a young boy. You could tell that Regina and Henry had carefully planned it out. She had been the mother to Henry that Emma had dreamed of him finding. She gave him all the things that Henry could ever want and more. So how could this have happened?

When she met Henry he was so sweet. And although her first experiences with Regina weren't great at least she had known that her son had been loved. Even with him insisting on calling her the Evil Queen.

But this? Had she intentionally blinded herself to the fact that there was something wrong with him reading and rereading that book over and over again? He was 12 and it was a fairy tale book. Even after the curse was broken he still freaked out if anyone looked at it the wrong way.

Then there was the way he talked to Regina. Emma had let it go thinking it was teen angst. He'd grow out of it. And Regina herself had never held it against Henry. She knew that she just had to be patient with him until he could process his emotions and then things between them could start to get on an even keel.

But that had been the reasoning behind Emma leaving Regina's to stay with her parents. And none of that had happened. Instead Emma had let her Mother hijack them and bring them back to a godforsaken forest. Emma didn't even like camping. She knew she'd missed her electronics but figured their family being together would make up for that. She was sad to say it hadn't. There was nothing about their time in the forest she'd like to keep with her.

"Emma? Regina?" she heard her father's voice call out to her.

She wiped at the tears that wouldn't stop coming on her face and then called out to him. "I'm upstairs. I'll be right down."

When she got downstairs, she found David staring in the doorway at the kitchen. His face had lost all color and he actually looked 10 years older.

"I – I- Emma, I –" he tried to get out.

"I know. It's true," Emma nodded sadly. Her son had actually tried to kill his mother. All because he believed in a stupid fairy tale book. "Where's Henry?"

"Your mother took him over to the apartment. He's really not doing well right now."

"Yeah, well join the fucking club." Emma couldn't stand to be in that room anymore so she went into the study. David followed her.

"So what do you think we should do next?" He asked her as if she had a clue.

"How am I supposed to know? We're not even real police. I got elected to be a Sheriff. I'm a damned politician. A worthless bureaucrat."

David put a hand on her arm to steady her. He could see she was starting to unravel. "Well, you collected evidence already honey. That's a great start." He pulled her into his chest.

She shook her head against his chest, "I didn't. Someone else did. And that's not Henry's writing. He seemed pretty happy that he had killed Regina. I mean, he just went with us to the fucking Enchanted Forest and acted like nothing was wrong. After he planned, this-" Emma gestured to the empty house. "Oh my God! How could he? How could anyone? He's my son and I'm horrified by him! He tried to kill his own mother! Who does that?!" This time Emma did lose it.

She tried pulling away from David but he held her tight knowing she needed this. She beat at his chest and kicked out at him but still he held firm. Next she collapsed on him in a messy heap wailing aloud.

"What am I going to do? I need her," Emma whispered when she her sobbing had quieted.

"Well, she's – I mean her body – I mean, it's not here. Have you checked the hospitals?"

Emma looked at him as if he was a genius. She allowed hope to renew inside of her. Of course! Her body wasn't there and she had to have gotten help. "No, but we'd better hurry!" Emma turned and started running.

David called out to her from the driveway. Emma hadn't even noticed that he'd driven there. "Get in."

They drove over to the hospital as fast as they could. Emma ran into the information desk. "Has Mayor Mills checked in here?"

"Not that I know of. Or rather not since I've been on duty. Let me check for you," she tapped into the computer. "Nope. No Regina Mills as a patient."

"Check again please. This would've happened 4 nights ago," David walked in as she was tapping away this time.

The attendant shook her head. "Nope. Mayor Mills hasn't been seen by anyone in this hospital."

Emma's heart got stuck in her throat and she looked to her dad for the first time ever. David saw her struggling and put his arm around her. "Excuse me but could you please check just one more time. Not for Mayor Mills but check if someone came in the last few days with burns or bruises that weren't explained."

The attendant checked again and again shook her head. "No. I'm sorry."

Emma sagged against her father and he guided her over to a chair and sat her down. He walked over to the cooler and brought her back a cup of water, "Emma, you said that you didn't put that evidence away. Who did?"

Emma had gone numb. She could barely put together a coherent thought. She had never had to endure losing people in this way. Sure, as a foster child she had been given away many times. And she had felt sadness over Graham's death but nothing like she felt over losing the other part of her soul. "I- I have no idea."

"Well, someone did. We need to talk to Henry and find out if there was someone else with him. Maybe he didn't act alone."

Emma was crying again now, "He did David. I know he did. I saw it all over his face. And I can't – I just can't even look at him right now."

David nodded, "I understand. Look, why don't I take you back over to the mansion and maybe you can keep looking around for some clues."

"No. I can't go back. Don't make me go back there either."

"Okay, okay. I'll do it," at her confused look he clarified, "I'll go and talk to Henry. And find out what more he can tell us. How about I drop you down to the station then? That way you can maybe lie down in the back for a while. And we can check and see if anything weird was reported around that time or something. There has to be something," David ran his hands through his hair.

Emma stood and let him direct her back into the car. They drove to the station in silence.

Because Emma had planned on coming back she had never officially resigned. She had just told everyone that she would be gone for 2 weeks and that Ruby was on backup duty until her return.

Emma checked the logbook and found nothing. She stared out into nothingness again. She jumped up when she felt her mind taking her into places she wasn't prepared to go yet. She walked over to Granny's.

She walked in and looked around. It was the usual crowd. She took a seat at the counter and waited.

Granny came over with shock written all over her. "I thought you weren't coming back for a while."

"There was – we just had to get back." Emma was hesitant to explain further than that. "Granny, where's Ruby? I need to speak with her about the station."

Granny's eyes rolled around for a second and she laughed nervously, "Ruby? Umm… she had to go… she went on vacation. It's been a while since she's been out of here so she and Tink actually decided on a trip out of town."

Emma frowned. "Well, I need to get in touch with her. It's important. Life or death important."

"Well, you can tell me anything child. I've been manning the station while the two of you have been gone. What is it?"

Now it was Emma's turn to be nervous, "Well, um…," Emma sighed and decided to go all in, "have you seen Regina? I haven't been able to find her."

Regina had made everyone swear to secrecy that they never reveal where she went to Emma. Not under pain or threat of pain or death. And Granny's loyalties were firmly with her. "No. I haven't seen her around lately at all. Was there a particular reason you were looking for her?"

"Huh? No. I just – we left in a bad way. I really needed to talk to her." Emma tried to put a smile on her face but knew she looked wild. She decided to ask around. She stopped by all the individual booths and tables and asked if anyone had seen Regina or heard of anything weird happening at the mayor's mansion. And telling them that if they heard anything to please contact the Sheriff's office.

She was headed on her way back to the station when she remembered Gold. She walked over to his shop and ignored the closed sign. The bell over the door had alerted Rumple and Belle however and they walked into the front. Gold laid his cane upon the display case in front of him.

"Ms. Swan, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Cut the crap Gold. I'm not here to make any deals. I just need information," Gold's eyebrows shot up and he gestured for her to continue. "Have you seen Regina?"

His head gave a small shake and he still had his eyebrows raised, "Mayor Mills? Nope. Can't say that I have dearie."

"When you came over to the apartment the other day, how'd you know that Henry had that glove?"

"I'm a sorcerer dear. I can feel magic pulsing in the air and I happened to follow it. It led me to your door. And since your parents aren't exactly the most intelligent creatures and they tend to be wrapped up in themselves more than anyone else it was just basic process of elimination from there. Plus Henry had a completely guilty look on his face that anyone could see a mile away if they bothered to look."

Emma knew the last part was a dig at her but she didn't care. "What exactly does the glove do?"

"It fries the person's system much like a stun gun. Or rather 10 stun guns put together. And they become electrocuted to death."

"And you just leave something like that hanging around?"

"Actually it was inside a locked case. Henry stole the key and took the glove. I only noticed it missing because I do inventory every morning."

Emma's head and shoulders sagged. She didn't have anything left to go on.

"Are you alright?" Belle spoke up as she came around the display case and took Emma in her arms guiding her to a chair.

"No I'm not. I can't find Regina and I think something happened to her and I can't –," Emma broke down and just let the tears and pain wash over her. Belle held her making soothing noises to her while she stroked her back. She looked over her head at Rumple. Of course they had made the same promise to Regina but seeing Emma like this really cut them both deep.

A few minutes later, in walked David.

Emma looked over at him, "What are you doing here?"

"Gold called me. He said you needed help," he lifted Emma into his arms. "Come on honey, I've got you."

The tears never stopped as David transferred her to the car. He drove back to the station and then he lifted her into his arms again and took her to one of the backrooms that had a bed set up for all-nighters. He held her while she continued to cry.

Emma fell asleep in the middle of her crying jag. David went and found some paper and left her a note about going back over to the mansion to see if he could find anything else. Emma continued to cry even in her sleep.