Emma
Regina was fine, thank god for that. Emma was glad it was mostly over before she had arrived home. While she would have preferred her teenage son hadn't been burdened with the task of taking care of her. She had decided to handle this quickly and like the adult that her age swore she should be by now, but she didn't really think her heart could handle taking care of her adulterous 'flu-ridden' wife.
"I don't know." Regina had shaken her head a day after Emma had returned home. "I think it was just one of those twenty-four-hour things."
Emma had just nodded and watching as Regina refused to make eye contact with her and then headed out the door for work, still shaky on her feet.
Once Regina was gone Emma practiced.
She kissed the boys and then waved them off to school. She kissed Bonnie, cleaned her messy breakfast covered face and then plopped her in front of the TV, something she rarely did.
She began in the living room. Instead of putting the pillows back into place by hand she flicked a finger and they tumbled back onto the couch. She fought back nausea and then moved on to the toys on the floor and the rest of the room before moving to the kitchen, the bedrooms and so on.
Finally, when she could feel her Craft pulsing a sick, glue-like rhythm through her, she put Bonnie in her stroller and started down the street.
She wanted to make an entrance. So she did.
If this were a few years ago and she was still the sheriff she would have kicked the mayor's door open. This time, she swished both hands and... the door went flying across the room.
"Fuck!" She stared with wide eyes. She hadn't meant to do that but poker face, poker face. She stepped through the door, the intimidating presence she was trying to create for herself diminished by the crying baby and the stroller.
She had expected Gold to be shocked - scared -something! But fuck, he just sat there, his fingers steepled, looking at the broken door with annoyance.
She couldn't let herself focus on that. "I want the Working, Gold."
"That was my door you just ruined."
"Gold."
"Mrs -"
"Name your price, Gold."
He paused, clearly intrigued. For a moment, his eyes flicked down to Bonnie and Emma scoffed.
"Don't even think about it."
"It's not much of a deal if I cannot ask for what I want."
"Tough shit."
They stared one another down for a long time, Emma refusing to back down.
She wished she had something to seal the deal, some card she could play. But she was a civilian now. Any dirt she had on him would be too old to help her.
"Fine."
Her eyes popped wide. She really hadn't expected him to relent so easily. "Fine?"
"Yes. Fine. Somehow I relish the idea of Regina getting caught."
"Okay, and while that's all well and good and everything - what's your real price?"
He grinned. "Tell Regina that she owes me a favor."
Emma almost chuckled. He was nasty all right. Regina would owe him a favor for getting caught. It was cruel. But then again, so was he.
She worried, as she always did when she spent any amount of time near him, if and when he would break Belle's heart. But that was her business, she supposed. They had all tried to talk her out of... anyway. She didn't let her thoughts dwell there. They had all resigned to waiting and watching.
"'Kay, fine. Now what?"
He grinned a slimy and vulture-like grin. "I would ask if you were sure about this but - I don't really care. Regina will report to me the day after tomorrow."
"Okay," Emma said, the first hint of uncertainty running through her as his fingers gave a small flick through the air. They stared at one another for a long moment before he grew annoyed.
"I have turned the tracking option to on in Regina's cell phone. She will not notice it."
Emma frowned. She had tried that. It had been the first thing she had tried, but her phone had simply told her that Regina's location was unavailable. She had assumed Regina had it spelled. She told him this and he simply looked all the more peevish.
"And now it won't."
Agitated she pulled out her phone and looked into Regina's contact. Sure enough, after a moment of searching the little profile picture that Emma had for Regina showed her in her office building.
"How did you-"
"Ah, ah." Gold twitched one finger at her. "Telling was not part of the deal."
"So, when you said you wouldn't help me because I wasn't using Craft-" She knew the polite thing to do would be to say thank you but annoyed, she simply walked out of the office that had once been her wife's.
Gold just gave a snake-like smile.
She was a little later than she had been on her first trips to this rooftop, but her phone still clearly read that Regina was inside. She settled behind the chimney, as always wondering if Regina would look out of her window and catch her.
She didn't, just like always and Emma settled in.
She glanced into the window and had a moment of panic and frustration when she saw that Regina was not in her office.
After all of that, was she really about to discover that Regina just left her phone behind?
She could have breathed fire. She was about to tear something apart with her bare hands when Regina marched in, twitching and shaking as she always was this early.
Emma relaxed and checked her phone again.
What had he done? She had tried everything to get that working.
This fact annoyed her. He was right when he had said this was supposed to be her specialty.
She stretched out behind the chimney and watched her phone, feeling as though her skin were a few sizes too small. She needed to know. But, god, why did this have to be happening?
Six Years Before
"She's going to hyperventilate. Seriously, she's going to fucking pass out. Is this really what she should be doing right now?" She looked up at the nurse but she was simply given a polite smile as the nurse continued on her way, nonplused. "Really." She cried. "Is this normal? She's breathing so fast!"
"Emma!" Regina barked between fast breaths. "You've done this before. You tell meeeeaaaaahhhhh!"
Regina clamped down on her hand so tight that Emma squealed. She had never heard such loud and unladylike noises come from her wife. Regina was the type of woman who was either silent or made the most delicious girly sounds. She didn't grunt or groan like this. She sounded like she was being gutted.
"Regina! Regi- are you okay? You got this." She kissed Regina's sweaty temple and brushed her hair out of her face. "You can do this. Push her out. Push her out. You're so close."
Tears poured down Regina's pale face as she held her eyes, finding strength in their contact. "You didn't tell me it would hurt so much."
Emma laughed and kissed her salty lips. "You'll forget about it before our next one, I promise!"
"EMMA!"
"Erm, Emma..." The midwife gave her a sharp look. "Maybe this isn't the time for jokes. Regina, you need to be pushing."
"Sorry! I'm sorry! Push, baby. Push. You're doing such a good job!"
"Am I?" Regina begged, needing to hear it.
"Yes. So good, baby, so good."
Regina eyes closed as another loud wail poured from her mouth.
"Okay, Mommies, we're so close. Just a little bit more now."
"Okay. Oka-okay."
Wishing she could help, wishing she could take some of the pain she just held her wife's hands and watched as slowly something began to immerge.
"And push again, hard, hard, hard!"
"Whoa! Baby! Oh, my god, you're – you're so good. You're doing so good. Holy shit. Okay. She's almost here."
Panic crashed over Emma. She had no face! Her baby had no face! "What the fuck is that? What's wrong?"
"Emma!" The midwife warned.
Terrified she watched as the baby, their new daughter, slid into the midwife's hands. She should have been ecstatic but – "What is that? Is she okay? What the hell is that?"
"Emma!?" Regina cried, her face panicked. "Emma, what's wrong? What's wrong with her?"
"Nothing, ladies, nothing. Look." The baby had slid out fully now, so tiny but there was a something over her. "She just is still partially in her sack."
"Caul? She's a caulbearer?" Regina cried, her voice shrill. Regina looked up and caught Emma's eyes and Emma understood.
"Oh now." The midwife laughed, "There is no need to worry about that old superstition." The midwife, with expert precision, snaked a finger through the membrane and carefully began to clean it from the baby's face. "Oh! Surprise, surprise! We have a little boy!"
"A boy?" Emma had been so concerned with the…thingy on its face…that she hadn't even noticed. A boy! She laughed. Ivy had been sure the baby was a girl.
"All right, Mommy. Go ahead and bring him up there."
And suddenly this tiny little thing was placed in her arms and the weight of it could have dropped Emma to her knees. The entire world shifted as she stared into the tiny face. "Regina." She whispered, carrying the tiny screaming thing over to her wife and depositing him onto her chest. "Look. He's here."
"Oh, my god. He's – oh Emma, he's so beautiful."
The midwife was quickly wiping him down but neither woman noticed.
Their son. They had another little boy.
Their hands intertwined and for a brief, blissful moment they kissed.
He was a miracle. Regina was a miracle. She couldn't believe it.
"You did it." Emma whispered in her wife's ear. "You did it, my love." She kissed her again. "Thank you."
Suddenly her phone screen shifted, pulling Emma back from her thoughts. The little dot that was supposed to be Regina suddenly showed that she had moved to a new location.
Queasy, she glanced back over her shoulder at Regina's office window to see that it was indeed now empty.
It was empty. She let that thought sink in slowly.
Okay.
It was time.
She climbed from the roof slowly and once she was down she took a second to take a few deep breaths.
She felt numb on the inside, cold and unattached.
She got in the car on autopilot and began to drive toward the toll bridge which would take her into the forest.
Somehow... instead, she found herself at Granny's.
She was stalling.
She drank a cup of coffee slowly and warred with herself.
No one supported her in this idea. No one thought this was a good plan.
Maybe everyone was right. Maybe she didn't need to see. Why did she need to see?
She could get in the car and go home.
She didn't need to see.
But the thought wouldn't settle in her mind. She did.
She needed to see what was so different. She needed to see what it was that drew Regina to Mal so completely. She had to know what made Mal so fucking great that Regina would...do this... to her, to the kids, to their life...
She had to know.
She raised her hand for her check and instead ordered a slice of pie.
She had to know.
But she wasn't ready yet.
After a long time, she tossed a few bills on the table and then got back into her car.
Her hands shook as she followed her phone's robotic voice to the coordinates she had received for Regina's location.
It really was in the middle of the forest and it took her a while to get out there following roads that looked to be more like pathways than anything meant for a car.
She began to worry. She didn't know if it was anything particular she worried about, but the feeling of general worry was building, making her heartbeat quicken and her palms sweat. Tears pricked at her eyes; a fact that confused her because, why was she crying?
She turned around a sharp bend and realized it was because she didn't want to see.
But she had to see.
She parked a long way off when she arrived, so far that she could barely see the stone home.
The cabin was not huge. It couldn't have been more than one room but it was cute. Emma hated its cuteness. Its cuteness hinted at care.
She walked up to it slowly, only to get to the last tree in the clearing before she realized... now what?
She didn't need to see to know what was happening. She could hear twin moans and snarls pouring from the cabin.
The sounds were so bestial that she wondered if perhaps what she was actually hearing was a pair of animals mating nearby. Those sounds couldn't be coming from a human throat, could they? From her wife?
She stared at the dark wood door in horror.
Did she burst the door open? Did she call Regina and force her to come out? Perhaps she should politely knock on the door and call, "UPS, I have an amazon package for you."
She shook her head. Not funny. Right now was not the time to make jokes. She slipped through the trees, all but invisible until she found a side window she could glance into.
She sat in the dirt below it and wondered for the last time if this was the right thing to do. She had been warned by Ivy. Since when did she not heed Ivy's warnings? Her head was pounding, her stomach felt sick and the confusion that had been plaguing her since this all began seemed to grow tenfold every second.
She knew she would never forget whatever picture she would see paired with those noises - she knew that. Was this wise? Could she forgive Regina after seeing this? Did she want to?
It will make your road harder….
She turned and peeked through the glass, cautiously and then, jaw-dropping, leaned up further, no longer worried about getting caught.
The women were very busy.
Her hand on the window seal dug into the wood, her eyes burned.
It took her a moment to gain control of the hurt, betrayal, and hate that flashed through her, hot and nasty.
That was her wife alright. The woman she had watched walk down the aisle. The woman who had given her two beautiful children. The woman she had moved to Storybrooke for. The woman she had loved for ten years.
She stared.
The mother of her children was naked and on her back. One end of the thick rope she was bound by was tied around her wrists and hands, forcing them to point to the bottom corners of the bed where the other end was tied tightly. Secondary ropes wrapped tightly around her calves and up to her knees which were secured to each top corner of the bed. Her head, the only part of her that could move was thrown back, her hair a wild tangle around her as she screamed the most terrifying, inhuman keens and wails that Emma had ever heard.
Mal was between her forcibly spread legs, her tattooed and pierced frame naked except for the harness. Each time it was retracted form her wife the deep glow was evident.
So. That's where she learned that trick. The thought felt alien in her mind and floated through without much notice.
The thing that really caught Emma's eyes, however, was their faces.
Regina's eyes glowed. This didn't surprise Emma, though, how bright they were gave her pause. Her lips were pulled back, her teeth exposed and looking sharp like they would take off anything that came near them, her eyes were half lidded as her chest rose and fell in harsh pants. She didn't even look like she was actually there. She didn't even look fully conscious. For the briefest moment Emma's head screamed rape, this was rape, but the sounds she was making proved otherwise.
Mal's face looked just as furious. She stared down at Regina, grunting with each thrust, her fingers carefully, expertly tweaking Regina's nipples as she moved as though Regina were there with her, was aware.
Emma learned something then.
Mal was in love with her wife. Maybe not in the same way that Emma was in love with her but there was love there.
Her head told her that it was one sided but her heart - it didn't know.
She watched them move together, listening to their sounds and waited to feel - what was she supposed to feel? It was like her receptors had broken. She just stared in horror as Mal's ass pumped, unable to look away even though she wanted to very much.
"Come on, you fucking bitch!" She heard Mal growl and then watched, eyes wide as plates, as Mal leaned down and bit into Regina's skin, drawing blood. Emma could see the blood from there.
Regina shrieked in a mix of pain and ecstasy.
Mal bit her neck like a rutting animal keeping its partner in place and began to moan faster, louder.
Emma's face began to contort, her lips pulling down hard in the corners. Tears had begun to fall again, dripping from the tip of her nose and chin. It was disgusting. But worse, she could feel their climaxes coming and she didn't think she wanted to be a part of it in this way.
Still she didn't move.
Mal's eyes closed, her teeth grit and she shoved into Regina harder, swearing at her, calling her names.
Repulsed, Emma began to lean away as she heard the angry snarls from Regina turn into high wails. Then she watched, hurt and betrayed as her wife came, loud and furiously, her eyes closed and her body shaking. Mal came swiftly after that and Emma sat with a thump in the dirt.
Well. She had seen.
Now she knew what was different.
She thought of the blood from Regina's skin on Mal's lips.
There had been a time they had been like that - kind of. Passionate, that is, not violent, not blood drawing. Regina had always shied away from it, saying that it had been her thing in the past but it wasn't her thing anymore. Guess that wasn't true.
She heard Mal talking to Regina, talking as though she didn't expect an answer. Then the loud moaning began again. Emma glanced and looked away quickly. Regina was still tied, only this time, she had been flipped so she was lying on her knees and her face.
She didn't want to see anymore.
Instead, she listened, each groan feeling like the strike of a lash across the back of her marriage, her family, her life - herself.
Jealousy was a nasty and vile feeling and it rose green and viscous in her now. A strange sense of possession filled her and she wanted to run in there. She wanted to hurt Mal and then throw her barely conscious wife over her shoulder. She wanted to shake her back to who she had always been.
She rose, not bothering to hide in the bushes as she had done on the way to the window.
No one would see her.
She began to speed walk away from the cabin, unable to listen to anymore and when that wasn't enough she broke into a run.
She was feeling so many things but none of them were what she would have expected and she had no idea how to handle them.