A/N: New chapter guys, this has been sat in my folder for a while and I needed to get it finished but i've been so busy. Hope you like it. We finally find out who Leo is and what he did to Regina.
TRIGGER WARNING: Mention of rape, abuse and miscarriages. This is right at the bottom of the chapter so if you still want to read it you can until the bottom.
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Much Love Guys xx
Chapter 12
"I'm here to talk to Regina so I suggest you goons get out of my way" he ordered.
Less than 30 seconds went by before Cora pushed herself up off the floor and stormed over the men.
"Zelena I think it's time to wrap up the party and Emma could you be a dear and drive Regina home?"
Emma wasn't sure who this man was but she got the feeling he wasn't welcome.
"Leo my daughter doesn't want to talk to you, I suggest you leave before I ask my sons to remove you."
"Cora, Regina is a grown woman and can make her own decisions and she doesn't need you to speak for her" he snapped.
"My daughter might be a grown woman but legally you shouldn't be within 50 yards of her. This is my grandsons party and you're running it, so do us all a favour and leave" Cora ordered.
Leo looked over Cora's shoulder and an evil smile slowly spread over his face.
"Gina, please, I just need a couple of minutes to explain why I did what I did."
Everyone watched. She could feel their eyes on her. Waiting for her to either fall apart or pull herself together. They'd been through this once before with her. Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself up off the floor and walked over to her mother and brothers. Emma really wished she could make out what they were saying, she wanted to go over and find out what was going on but she didn't want to impose.
"Leo, you're ruining Bailey's party, I would appreciate it if you would leave."
"Regina, I'm not going anywhere, not until you talk to me!"
There was an intensity in his eyes that she was all too familiar with. Bailey let go of Zelena's hand and ran over to the arguing adults.
"Uncle Leo, why is everyone angry with you?" Bailey asked.
"It's just a bit of a misunderstanding. Why don't you finish opening your presents while I talk to your Aunt?"
"What's a misunderaning?"
"A misunderstanding is something that happens when one grown up thinks one thing has happened and then another grown up disagrees" Leo explained.
Bailey scratched his head, looked up at all the grownups in front of him and sighed.
"Oh that sounds complitated."
The little boy headed back to his mother and the rest of the family. He jumped on Emma's lap and picked another present off the floor. Emma kissed the top of his head and ruffled his hair.
"Emma, go meet Uncle Leo, you will like him."
"Kid, who is Uncle Leo?"
Emma knew she shouldn't really be asking Bailey who this man was, but one thing she learned over the years of working in a hospital is that if you want to know the truth, ask a child.
"Uncle Leo is Aunty Gina's boyfriend, but he not been around for a long time. Mummy told me he been working away" he huffed.
Emma wasn't sure if she heard right, did Bailey just say Regina's boyfriend.
Emma looked over to where Regina was and she could see it was starting to get out of hand. She picked Bailey up, placed him on the floor and stormed over to the group. Cora had hold of Leo's arm and was dragging him out of the garden.
"Leo, if you don't leave I will call the police."
Leo gently shoved Cora, walked over to the porch and sat down on the lawn chair.
"I will leave when I've spoken to Regina."
Regina knew the only way to get rid of Leo was to talk to him but she honestly didn't think she had the strength to talk to him alone. Regina had completely forgotten that Emma was at the party and she didn't want the blonde to hear anything about her past, well, not until she had the chance to explain. She walked over to the blonde, grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her out of the garden.
"Emma, I'm sorry about all this. It's our first date and you've been dragged into my family drama."
"The drama I can handle Regina, but the one thing I can't handle is the lies" she sighed.
Emma really thought that Regina was different but she clearly wasn't. What kind of woman brings a date to a family party when she has a boyfriend.
"Emma, what do you mean lies?" she questioned.
"Give me some credit Regina and don't lie to my face."
"Emma, I have no idea what you're talking about and right now I don't have time for games" Regina snapped.
"I'm assuming you need to get back to your boyfriend, you probably have a lot of catching up to do."
"Emma, I'm rather confused, what do you mean boyfriend?"
"If anyone is confused, it's me. You told me in the hospital that you were single, you ask me on a date, then you invite me to your nephew's party. I really thought we were hitting it off, your family seemed to like me and I really like them."
"I don't understand the problem?"
"The problem is that you have a boyfriend and you've humiliated me" Emma sighed.
"Emma, Leo isn't my boyfriend and I'm not sure why you would think that?"
Regina laced her hand with Emma's and pulled her to sit down on the porch.
"Bailey told me that the man was his Uncle Leo and your boyfriend."
"Let me assure you that Leo is not my boyfriend, our past is well, complicated to say the least. I promise I will tell you all about it, eventually. I can't explain any of it to you now, but I will"
Emma really wanted to believe Regina, but she had been lied to so many times it was difficult to know when someone was telling the truth.
"Regina, I'm going to just call a taxi and head home. When you're ready to talk, you know where I live" Emma snapped.
Emma pushed herself up off the porch and started to walk away.
"Emma, please don't be like this. Let me get rid of Leo and I promise to tell you everything."
"Fine, you've got ten minutes and then I'm leaving."
Regina walked over to Emma, placed a kiss to her cheek and headed back to the party. Emma sat back on the porch, a few minutes later and she was joined by David. He sat next to her, placed his hand on her knee and bumped their shoulders.
"Regina sent me out here to check that you're still here."
Emma stood up, pulled out her phone and checked the time.
"I'm still here for another five minutes and then I'm leaving."
Emma sat back down and David wrapped his arms around Emma's shoulders.
"Emma, please don't leave. Regina really likes you and this whole thing with Leo, is, well…"
"Complicated, Yes, Regina already told me."
"So, you know, I didn't think she would tell you so soon. What Leo did to her, it was horrendous. It took her a very long time to bounce back and truthfully, we never thought she was going to be the same" David explained.
Emma was just about to ask what David meant when she heard raised voices in the garden, a few seconds later Leo was on the floor in front of her feet, followed by Henry and Finn. Leo's nose was bleeding, Henry's knuckles were bloody and Finn's shirt was ripped.
"Don't ever put your hands on our sister again. If we find out that you've tried to contact her, we won't be responsible for our actions" Henry snapped.
Leo crawled across the floor until he reached his car, he grabbed hold of the handle and pulled himself up. The rest of the Mills clan joined them in the garden, Leo climbed into his car and drove away. Emma looked through the family, but Regina was nowhere to be seen and Emma started to panic. Zelena walked over to Emma, leaned down and whispered in her ear. Emma nodded her head, stood up and headed into the house. She walked past the living room where all the children had gathered to watch a film, headed upstairs and stopped outside a locked door. Emma gently knocked at the door and waited a few minutes until the woman inside finally found the courage to unlock it and let her in. Regina slowly pulled the door open, she was stood wearing an oversized shirt which Emma assumed was Harry's, she had a bag of frozen peas held to her eye and her wrist was bandaged up. Emma walked into the bathroom, sat on the edge of the bathtub, laced her fingers with Regina's good hand and pulled her to sit down.
"Did Leo do this to you?" Emma questioned.
Regina nodded.
"It's not the first time, is it?" Emma asked
Regina shook her head this time.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither woman really knew what to say. Images of Leo hurting Regina started to fill Emma's head, the images were so vivid, Emma felt like she was there. Emma let go of Regina's hand and clenched her fist. Regina placed her hand on top of Emma's fist until she unclenched it.
"Darling, please calm down."
Regina laced their fingers together, pulled Emma's hand up to her lips and she pressed a gently kiss to each knuckle.
"I should be the one comforting you."
"I don't need comforting, I've been through much worse and come out the other side."
Regina didn't mean to sound so cold but she hated people thinking of her as a victim.
"Regina, it doesn't matter how much worse you've been through it doesn't make it right. He should have never put his hands on you."
Regina knew she needed to be honest with Emma, she wanted to start fresh and that meant telling Emma everything.
"Emma, I really like you…"
Emma didn't give Regina a chance to carry on, she let go of her hand, stood up and paced back and forth.
"Is this the part where you give me the it's not you, it's me speech. Or is it, I think we would be better off as friends."
Regina placed the bag of peas in the sink, stood up, grabbed Emma by the arm and spun her around. Regina pushed Emma against the wall, placed her hand under the blonde's chin. Regina then grasped at the back of the blonde's neck and collided their lips together, neither woman hesitated. They savoured every second of their first kiss, they both had different reasons to want this to last. Emma was convinced it was a goodbye kiss and Regina had a feeling after she told Emma all about her past, it would be the last kiss the two shared. After a few more minutes and some serious self-control on Emma's behalf, the blonde brought her hand to Regina's chest and gently pushed the brunette away, disconnecting their lips with a pop.
"You just told me you wanted to be friends and now you're kissing me, talk about mixed signals" Emma huffed.
Regina stepped away from the blonde, straightened herself up and then picked up the bag of peas, before setting them back on her eye.
"Dear, I never once said I wanted to be your friend. Before you interrupted I was about to tell you, that I really like you and I believe that we could be something real. But…"
"Here it comes, there's always a but."
"For god sake woman, you're infuriating. If you let me speak for more than five seconds, you would know that I really like you, I want us to go on more dates and really get to know each other, but before that, I really need to tell you something" Regina rambled.
She knew if she didn't rush through what she wanted to say, Emma would likely interrupt her again.
"Regina, you can tell me anything, it won't change how I feel about you" she admitted.
"Emma, I wouldn't be so sure. I've not told anyone about this, well expect my family and David."
Emma wasn't sure what Regina was about to tell her but knew it couldn't be anything good.
"You can tell me anything Regina."
"Promise me, that you won't run. What I'm about to tell you isn't going to be nice to hear."
"I promise, do I need to sit down for this?" she asked.
"That might be for the best."
"Regina, you don't need to tell me anything that you don't want to."
"Emma, I need to do this."
Emma grabbed hold of Regina's hands, kissed them both and leaned over to press a kiss to Regina's right temple.
"I'm ready when you are."
Regina took a deep breath and knew it was now or never.
"When Leo and I first started dating, everything was perfect, he was a real gentleman and all my family loved him. After a couple of months, he asked me to move in with him and that's when he changed. He started to become very possessive, he would always check my phone, always wanted to know where I was, who I was with."
Emma could feel Regina's hands had started to get clammy.
"You don't need to tell me anymore, it can wait."
"No it can't, if I stop, I won't ever tell you."
Emma pressed another kiss to Regina's temple, brushed her fringe out of her eyes and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"Ready to carry on?" Emma asked.
"Yes. So the only place he would allow me to go was work, I spent all my time there. He started to turn up at my work to take me home and one night I wasn't ready to leave, I told him I would be another couple of hours and I would drive myself home, well he didn't like that and that was the first time he hit me. Of course, he apologised, he bought me expensive gifts and took me out for dinner the next day. When we got home later that night was the first night he raped me, I wanted to head straight to bed but he didn't take no for an answer. He didn't think it was rape, after all I was his girlfriend, so he believed he could take what he wanted. Every night after that he took whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. For two years, he made my life a misery, I got caught pregnant more times than I can remember, each pregnancy never made it past the 8-week mark, he either beat me until I lost it or I lost them due to stress. After the last miscarriage, he beat me so bad I ended up in hospital and Zelena and David figured out what was going on and they called the police" she sobbed.
