Ever so sorry for the wait but here you go...
Life was painfully long.
Regina had come to the conclusion that her life may go on forever. So far she'd been unwanted, abused as a child, lost love, lost children, married off at 17, abused in adulthood, manipulated to cast a curse at 28, trapped an entire realm in limbo for 30 years, fallen in love again, lost love again and fallen for what she told herself was the last time. In the real world she'd be at least 64 but here in Storybrook she was 33 years old. It felt as if she had lived two completely separate lives by now but she was still herself, she could still remember everything as if she'd merely existed in one long drag of day which consisted of two different starts but never ceased to end.
Maybe that's what the constant headache was about and the lack of appetite. Had she hit a state of depression? Surely not, she can't have. Now she had David she could not possibly be depressed but this had all happened before exactly like this and she'd nearly died. It seemed a chat with Emma was needed but she couldn't bring herself to put a damper on the woman's life now she was finally happy. David was always an option but surely that'd just be insulting for her to say she may be depressed when they'd only just got together.
So it was decided, Regina would keep it to herself and figure out the mess in her head and maybe resort to using her diaries again like she did in the Enchanted Forest. The only difference was that this time no one would find her diary and no one would use it against her.
Bringing a hand to her head she shut her eyes tightly and took deep breaths. The pain made her feel sick to her stomach but she would never vomit in her office, never. A groan escaped her at the knock on the door as she was forced to remove her hand and straighten up in her chair before calling, "Come in." In her steadiest voice. Henry and Violet emerged from behind the door with uncertain smiles on their faces.
"Hey mom." "Hi Regina."
They both greeted and Regina managed a smile in return before taking a breath. "What brings you both here? Aren't you supposed to be at Emma's?" The latter question came as an afterthought, she'd completely forgotten Emma was telling them all about the baby tonight until she'd set her eyes on the two in front of her.
Henry looked a bit sheepish at the question until Violet came to his rescue. "Well, I've noticed you've been a bit different lately and I mentioned it to Henry so we thought we'd come and check to see if you're alright. Henry messaged Emma, we'll just be a bit late."
"Are you alright, mom?" Henry lifted his head and Regina spotted him slip his hand into Violet's. Her heart melted at the sight of him drawing strength from his girlfriend and made her realise just how much Violet was a permanent factor in their lives. It honestly wouldn't surprise Regina if they stayed together forever.
Taking another breath Regina began to reply. "I know I've been a bit off recently but I'm just a bit ill I think, it's nothing serious so yes I'm alright, I'm fine. Don't worry yourselves, honestly."
"But you're never ill, not once in seventeen years have you been ill. Please, mom, we'll come to the hospital with you-"
"Wow, Henry, slow down. I know I never let it show when you were younger but I've been ill plenty of times, I'm just a bit sick I don't need a hospital." Regina lied and looked to Henry who opened his mouth as if he were about to protest. "Really, I'm okay, Henry."
Something passed across Violet's face as Henry bowed his head. "Did...? Wait, Regina are you sure you're alright? I swear your eyes just..." Violet said the last sentence in a lower voice.
"What?" Henry asked before Regina could.
"Nothing." Violet shook her head. Eyes didn't turn purple, it must have been a trick of the light. "But you're okay?"
"Yes." Regina said firmly to make sure they wouldn't question her further. "Thank you for checking but I'm fine. Now get to Emma's." Regina smiled lightly.
"You could always come with us?" Violet smiled hopefully.
"No that'd be... awkward to say the least but no I'm good, I'll see you both tomorrow I'm sure." Regina nodded and they both said their goodbyes before leaving her to slump forward onto her desk gripping her head.
Lifting slightly she opened her draw and popped some pain killers to try and ease the throbbing behind her eyes. Eventually she decided it was time to move and figured she best grab something to eat seems as she'd only had coffee to go on all day. That's how she found herself being interrogated by Granny saying she was looking too thin and too pale and too sickly and whatever else she said to Regina in the five minutes she'd been in the place. Then she'd hugged Regina and she couldn't find it in her to fight it so she gave in and hugged the woman back. "Auntie Gina!" The exchange had made her a bit teary but Granny pulled back and wiped her cheeks quickly.
A squeal came from behind Regina and she turned to have her legs attacked by the little boy. If Granny hadn't been behind her she was sure she'd have fallen but she crouched down and hugged the boy back. "Is you sad?" Neal grabbed the sides of her face.
"No, baby I'm just tired. I've got to go though, I'll see you tomorrow." She hugged him again as he said bye and let Granny hug her again before she left and sat in the car with her sandwich but after half of it she felt sure she was about to be sick. Then after a few breaths she finished it and couldn't help feel a sense of pride that she'd actually finished a meal. Finally she made it home and flicked her shoes off at the door and dropped her bag before going to the kitchen for a quick glass of water before lying down on her couch.
Now Regina definitely wasn't the type to fall asleep on the sofa but the stairs had seemed too much like hard work and this option was easy and close and oh so comfortable. So off to sleep she went, untroubled by dreams or memories, just the thing she needed.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•
David had been unsure of whether to post the key Regina had left at the bedside that morning back through the letterbox when he'd locked up but now he was glad he didn't. The house was dark and Neal was fast asleep on his shoulder as he entered the mansion and headed straight for the stairs so he could put Neal in Henry's bed. After kissing Neal he made his way into Regina's bedroom but found it empty. Strange. He then continued to check the bathroom before making his way back downstairs and checking the living room until he finally found her with her back to him just at the side of the sink. Turning the light on he stepped into the kitchen.
"There you are, sorry I still had the key I wasn't sure what to do with it this morning..." He trailed off when she didn't react to his voice. Her right arm was moving as if she were writing at an insane speed and a strange glow seemed to be in front of her as if she held a dull, tinted torch in front of her. "Regina?" He started to move forwards but there was still no acknowledgement of his presence. Finally he touched her arm and she stopped writing and turned to face him.
Whatever he had expected, this was not it. Glowing, unblinking, purple orbs shone at him and blood slowly trickled from her finger as she spoke in the language she had at the office a few days ago. The voice had an urgency about it but her face didn't match and it made him fearful of what had happened to her. Grabbing her shoulders he tried to get her to snap out of it but it was as if she were asleep and was being possessed by some unholy spirit or something. "Regina?" He tried again before moving a hand to her face and shouting "Regina!" But as he raised his voice so did Regina.
"Please, Regina, snap out of it. Come back to me." He seemed to be pleading with a brick wall. "Please, Regina, please." Both his hands had moved to her face now and the voice seemed to become more urgent as if trying to tell him something but he couldn't understand. The urgency continued to pick up until with one final defending scream her eyes glowed brighter. "Regina!" He cried again and this time she flinched and closed her eyes with a shake of her head.
Opening them again he was greeted with distressed eyes but at least they were brown. "What's wrong?" She said in a groggy voice as she frowned. Words didn't seem to come to him so all he could do was hug her like he'd never hugged her before. He didn't have a clue what just happened but he was glad to have his Regina back. "David?" Regina said and lifted her hand before spotting the blood coming from her index finger.
"What the...?" Regina turned to put her finger under the tap but was greeted with symbols on her side that seemed to be written in blood. Jumping back at the sight Regina looked to David with wide eyes.
"I'm not sure." He answered her silent question before making his way to the writing.
"What happened, David?" Regina asked shakily putting her finger in her mouth and grabbing a plaster from the cupboard to the left. And so he told her what he'd seen while taking pictures of the symbols on the side. "I don't understand." Regina shook her head looking at what she'd done.
"I don't know what this is, it makes no sense." Regina sat next to David at the kitchen table after they'd cleaned the side. Staring at the photo she tried to make something out of the symbols but they were alien to her. How could she have done this?
"But you're alright? You feel alright?" David took his hand in hers and she was forced to look at him. Shattered and exhausted and utterly confused. That's what she saw when she looked in his eyes, he was all them things and more because of her and she couldn't help it because not even she understood.
"I'm fine, I don't know why it happened and I don't know what it means but I feel fine."
David didn't look convinced. "But even before this. I'm sorry I haven't noticed, I know I should pay more attention and I don't know how I didn't see it. Violet did and Henry did and Granny did. I don't want to lose you so you've got to tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing is wrong, David. Sure I've been having headaches and stuff but it's just stress, I'm the mayor, it comes with the job."
"You've been losing weight."
"The headaches make me lose my appetite."
"Then something is wrong because that certainly isn't right-"
"Please drop it. I'll make an effort not to work as long and I'll try to eat more. This isn't an issue so just please don't make it one." Regina shut him down even though she didn't believe a word of it herself and all he did was nod. With that she returned to the phone. "How do we figure this out?"
"Gold?" David said in question knowing she probably wouldn't be too keen on the idea.
"As a last resort but for now I'll read up on it and try to find a key or something to help decode it."
"What if it happens again?" David voiced the thing Regina had been trying to avoid. She didn't have a clue what she was going to do if it happened again. This wasn't something you could go to the hospital with, no normal persons eyes glow purple and no normal person speaks in a language they've never heard of while writing in their own blood. No modern day medicine could fix this and the only other option was Gold but she'd try and avoid him for as long as she could.
"If, and that's a big if, this happens again I'll cross that bridge when I come to it but I don't know. That might have been it, I might have got the message across and now it needs deciphering." Regina tried to logic with herself and she had to admit it sounded pretty convincing.
"But what if you're alone when it next happens and you decide to cut another part of your body and bleed out on the kitchen floor? What if this is some sort of magical possession by someone who wants to kill you? What if no one stops you next time?"
And suddenly it clicked, what David was getting at. "Then there's only one option don't you think?"
"What?"
"Move in with me." Regina smiled at him and saw him smile broadly back.
"Seriously?"
"This doesn't seem like something I'd joke about does it?" Regina slid across and straddled his lap.
"And obviously this would be for your safety." David smirked and kissed her.
Regina pulled back and nodded. "You'd be condemning me if you declined." She leaned in and kissed him again.
"Then I must accept." They both smiled at each other before he kissed her with a renewed passion. And they carried on like two horny teenagers, just making out with no intention of taking it further. At about 11 they both made their way up to their bed and talked about how best to announce their relationship to Storybrook. Each of them were prepared for the fallout and they'd do it together so it'd be worth it in the end.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•
The first thing he felt was sun on his face. It penetrated his eyelids and made him groan and turn over in an act of defiance against waking. Huffing he stretched out an arm to try and drag Regina closer to him but was met with cool sheets that caused him to shoot his eyes open. "Regina?" He said more to himself as he sat up with a frown and swung his legs around to stand up from the bed.
Quickly, David made his way downstairs and found Regina in her silk dressing gown cracking eggs into the frying pan. With a relieved sigh he made his way over to her and slipped his arms around her waist. "Morning." He growled in his groggy voice and kissed her neck feeling her smile as she removed his hands slowly and turned around.
"Good morning to you too but there's no time for any of that today." She gave him a chaste kiss and he buttered the toast while she finished the eggs. They sat down for breakfast and discussed the symbols again amongst other things. "Send me the picture of them I'm going to do a bit of research today."
"Done. Are you feeling better today?" David said putting his phone down.
"Definitely. No headache yet." Regina smiled lightly as she finished her breakfast in good time and David saw the chuffed smile on her face.
Smiling lightly himself David said, "I'm going over to Snow's today, I have the divorce papers, all she needs to do is sign them and then it's official." Regina nodded and took the plates to the sink but couldn't be bothered washing them at the moment. "Oh, I forgot about these last night but Snow wanted me to give you these to apologise for how she reacted to, well, us." David pulled the turnovers out of his bag and Regina walked forwards with a frown.
"She wanted me to have them?" She took the container and looked at the three small turnovers. David nodded and stood up also resuming his position behind her with his arms around her waist.
Resting his chin on her shoulder he said "I think she's finally realised how serious I am about you. She's just trying to put things right I suppose."
Regina raised her eyebrow and turned her head to the side to look at the man on her shoulder. "And this is serious?" She raised the container.
Shrugging David replied, "It seemed so."
"And they're not poisoned?" Regina tried to keep a straight face but David saw the smirk.
"She made them with Emma so I think not." He kissed her neck and heard her groan.
"Stop that or we'll get nothing done." Regina made no move to pull away this time and David smirked into the kiss before deciding she was right. Moving back she turned to him with a scowl and he kissed her lips quickly.
"I'll see you later?"
"Yes." She kissed him again and watched him leave before turning back to the turnovers. Thoughts span over in Regina's mind before she remembered that Emma had helped make them; so maybe this truly was a sort of olive branch? Shaking her head Regina took one out and took a small bite. No endless sleep engulfed her, no hives broke out over her face, no form of death overtook her so with a small smile she took another bigger bite before placing the remaining half of it back in the container and after grabbing her bag she headed out of the door to the library seems as she didn't have work today.
"Belle?" Regina called walking into the empty library. The young woman came bouncing around the corner with a three year old Gideon on her hip.
"Oh hi Regina. What you looking for?" She strode over and Regina suddenly wasn't sure what to tell her. Before anything more could be said Gideon had climbed down from Belle and was tugging on the bottom of Regina's pants. "Hey, Gina."
"Hello to you too, Gideon." She looked down and ran her hands through his light brown hair.
"How comes you here?"
"I've got a little research to do today but I think me, you and Neal are due a play date." She beamed at him and he mimicked her before hugging her leg and running off behind Belle's desk with a "Woo."
It was awkward at first to see Gideon as a baby after all he'd done. Awkward because there were so many mixed feeling towards the poor baby, he'd already lived, already been judged by everyone but he was only a product of his previous upbringing and Regina understood that and as strange as it was to be close to Rumple's child she kind of was.
Making a decision Regina pulled her phone from her pocket and got the picture of her manic blood drawings up. "I was wondering if you have any books on these sort of symbols?"
Belle gasped at the blood and glanced to the plaster covering Regina's finger before raising her head as if to ask but the look Regina shot her told her not to. With a hesitant nod she looked at the picture again. "I think everything we have on symbols and ancient languages is in the forgotten history section on the right." She paused before looking Regina in the eye. "Is everything alright, Regina?"
Shock was Regina's initial reaction until she softened and realised Belle was genuinely concerned which was strange considering their complex history but it was also nice in a way so Regina smiled lightly. "Everything's fine, this is just... extra research I suppose you could call it." Belle nodded sceptically before returning to her desk.
All of the books were thick and covered in dust making her cough a little bit as her throats went dry and she selected four for the moment that looked the most promising. As soon as she picked them up everything suddenly blurred and the books fell from her hands as she gripped the book shelf besides her and closed her eyes. "Regina?" It was a hazy sort of noise that met Regina's ears and then a delayed feeling when a hand came to her shoulder. "Regina?"
Slowly Regina took a steadying breath and opened her eyes to find a wavy Belle in front of her. "Oh my... Regina!" Words were trying to form but Regina could hear the slur they came out as. Her feet were being moved forwards and she dropped harshly onto something solid. Eventually after what felt like light years Regina began to see straight again and the world stopped spinning so much and Belle's frantic face became far too sharp. "Regina?!"
"I-I'm alright." Regina argued weakly and internally cringed at her feeble attempt to fiend help.
Belle frowned deeply looking into her eyes. "Your pupils are really dilated, Regina. What happened?"
"I just-"
"Oh my gosh did your eyes just go purple? Regina we should get you to a hospital!"
"No!" Regina shut her eyes and shook her head. "I'm fine I just went dizzy for a second."
Looking unconvinced Belle began to argue again. "It was a lot more than that, Regina! Honestly, let me take you to the hospital."
"No, I'm feeling better already." Regina partially lied. She felt better than a few seconds ago but her headache seemed to back in full vigour but she could cope with that as she had before.
Again Belle frowned but seemed to bend a little. "At least let me call David for you."
"David? Why would you-?"
"Everyone knows, it's not a secret." Belle smiled and continued at Regina's questioning look. "Leroy saw you guys the other week and it's gotten round everywhere. Plus his car is always parked outside your house when he's meant to be staying at Granny's. I don't think you were as careful as you thought but the town's known that Snow and David have been on the rocks for months, it was only a matter of time before one of them left and as much as you disbelieve, a lot of the town are on your side. Granny's been a big supporter and you know how she is with everyone, they all sided with her."
Regina couldn't believe it. How in Merlin's name had she not noticed because now she'd said it all became clear. Of course Granny knew and the woman had become more than an ally as of late but now she thought, the people had been so much more friendly with her. "So you've all known, this whole time?"
"Well you were becoming strangely friendly before news spread of David leaving and then there's his car being at yours like I said. I guess we've all known for about two or three weeks now."
They'd been spotted pretty much from the beginning and if the headache wasn't so bad she'd probably have spent time denying it but she just couldn't. Everyone had already found out and it was practically the way David and herself had planned; they were supposed to get Leroy to see them so he'd tell everyone and then go to Granny's to face the music of the people. "Wow." Was Regina's reply as she ran a hand over through her hair.
"But you're sure you're alright? You don't need me to call him?"
"No, no I'll be fine in a second I think I just turned too quick." Regina easily lied but was internally wondering what the hell was wrong with her. Control was a huge part of Regina so to be utterly out of control of her own body was something she despised more than she could say but she did like a puzzle to be solved so along with the symbols she could figure out what was wrong with her.
Belle left after asking if Regina was alright a final time and then Regina got to work on the books she'd dropped but after nearly three hours she realised none of the books were what she was looking for and she was no closer to solving the mystery. Putting the books back Regina said a quick goodbye to Belle and Gideon and left to meet David in Granny's. The car ride was silent because she turned the radio off due to the headache and when she stepped out of the car everything became fuzzy again. Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes and things still weren't completely focussed but she could see well enough to move.
The bell rang as she opened the door and she swiftly made her way over to the booth in the corner where David also sat. "Everyone knows." Was the first thing she said and he looked up in confusion. He could already tell she hadn't found anything on the symbols or that'd be the first thing she said.
"Knows, knows?" Regina nodded and continued to recite what Belle had said. "Wow."
"That was my response too. Have we really gotten away with this hassle free?"
"It seems so." He slowly moved his hand over the table and gripped hers. The look she gave him was comical but she didn't pull away which he took as a win.
In the end Regina ordered a chicken salad and David had some sort of overloaded burger Regina frowned at. After a few bites and pushing it around, Regina deemed it finished and after David had they both left and David informed her that Snow had signed the papers so as soon as he got them sent off their divorce was official and David could finally fully be with Regina.
"Oh, do you want the rest of this?" Regina took the half turnover out of its container in her bag.
"No, I'm stuffed, you eat it." He replied and Regina could already sense his unease at her poor attempt at finishing a meal at Granny's so she ate it quickly and tried her hardest not to bring it back up as they both got in their cars and drove to her house. Their house a little voice in Regina's head said and a warm smile came to her. He was hers and she was his and that was how it was now.
Maybe life wasn't painfully long after all.