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Song: Going to Hell by The Pretty Reckless
Katy held Lauren's uninjured hand and quietly seethed. She'd promised Eva that she'd stay with Lauren until she finished saving "Amelia's idiot life," but the inactivity of her body for the past week finally drove her to fidget. Now, that she'd snapped from the hopelessness of situation, she itched for action. Emma rounded the corner in time to see her stand.
"Sit," she ordered and crossed her arms over her chest, standing between her and the exit.
Katy glared defiantly. Emma raised an amused eyebrow, and her daughter conceded to her wishes. She snagged Lauren's hand again and plopped into the uncomfortable chair. She hated hospitals. Emma turned sideways to keep both her and the hallway in her peripheral vision while studying Lauren's gaunt face and thinned body in the hospital bed. She'd not been starved but hadn't escaped completely unscathed either.
"I want to see Ben," Katy demanded.
"Too fucking bad, Kid. You already beat him to pulp. Regina's with him now." Emma's voice slid up her spine. The dark, dangerous tone had never been directed towards her.
"She's going to kill him," Katy warned Emma. A slice of panic filled her heart at the thought of losing him, and she tamed it with a reminder of how he'd abused her and nearly killed her entire family. The paradox left her aching for one of Belle's brainy ejaculations of facts about the psychology behind abusive relationships.
Emma nodded, a small grin on her thin lips. "I know."
"What," the girl sputtered. "How can you be okay with this?"
Emma rubbed the back of her neck and met her daughter's watery hazel eyes. "Because I don't think I can, Kid, or I'd do it myself."
Katy's eyes fell to Lauren's hand in hers. The almost unconscious woman squeezed lightly, comforting her. Bile rose in her throat like water slowly filling a limp garden hose, and she swallowed roughly. The comfort given so freely fell onto an undeserving heart. It made her sick, made her want to go fall on her sword somewhere.
"I'm not a kid," Katy protested quietly, not really believing the words anymore. Why else would they protect her so fiercely after what she'd done?
"Yes, you are," Regina's smooth, deep voice contradicted as she materialized in the room. "And I didn't kill him, not yet." She held up a darkened heart, squeezing a bit for the fun of it.
"Who is doing this, Regina?" Emma asked and touched Regina's shoulder.
Regina softened and tossed the heart onto the wheeled table beside the bed. Her arms wrapped around Emma's neck, and the blonde pulled her close with loving hands on her waist. Regina took a moment to simply feel this Emma and everything she offered. She loved The Queen as much as she desired the tender lover, and the heady rush of unconditional acceptance tore through her veins, a natural love potion drawing her to her wife like two magnets.
"It's Jacob," she said with a glance towards Katy. "He doesn't know where they've been taken. Amelia's tracking potions aren't working. So, there's still a possibility that Caleb is working with them."
A small whimper vibrated the back of the girl's throat, and she lowered her face to the bed. Her shoulders shook silently, and Regina gritted her teeth. She wanted blood on her hands almost as much as she previously wanted Snow White's suffering. Katy was just a girl, a stupid, silly 16-year-old who got caught up in the rush of what probably began as a first love that turned out terribly. Boys her age rarely saw the beauty behind the fierceness of girls like her. Easy pickings was what Ben saw. Never again, Regina vowed.
The only other guy who had ever given her any type of attention actually orchestrated the trauma she suffered. Regina shook with the acidic rage ripping through her heart. Now offered inappropriate timing, but Regina intended to help Katy with her own life as example. She'd only been a little over a year older than Katy when she'd been forced into marriage to the king. Rumpel deceived her, too, by offering pretty words of affection when he actually only wanted power and control of her magic. She refused to allow her daughter to become hardened the way she had.
Emma stepped into Regina's body and folded her arms around her waist and hips. "You'll find them, Baby. I've seen what you can do. I have faith in you." And then idiotic, brave, big-hearted Emma Swan erased the harsh touch of her demanding mentor, of her seemingly perfect husband who wore a face of a demon in her dreams.
Regina pressed a kiss behind her ear. "I hope so, Darling." She'd not doubted her own abilities in such a long time. Her pretty production of redemption and lightness tainted the confidence she once held in such high esteem for her darker notions.
"Do you really believe I had something to do with this?" A male voice asked almost childishly from the hallway.
The women parted as if some unseen force ripped them backwards. Regina retreated to Katy's side and placed a protective hand on the girl's shoulder while Emma pulled the knife at her hip. Caleb's face fell, chin hitting his chest. A bunch of flowers dangled from his fingertips.
"I'll take that as a yes," he murmured, voice wet and thick with tears. "Is Amelia going to make it?" He glanced up at the unsure faces of the women she'd forsaken him for in order to protect. That's why she'd been so distant, non-existent really, for the past couple weeks.
Emma and Regina shared a look as the man knelt on one knee beneath the emotions in his heart and cried. He hid his face in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Sociopaths can't fake that sort of grief, could they? Emma conceded to Regina's guidance.
"Get up, you fool," Regina ordered and stepped into the hallway.
His wet face raised to hers, but he remained kneeling in the middle of the hall with a dozen sets of eyes watching his emotional display. "I didn't hurt anyone. My father was a wizard, but my mother had no magical abilities. I didn't inherit any, so he taught me how to mix potions instead." He explained his ability to mix potions and his love of it.
"Take my heart," he blurted and presented his chest, spit flying and glistening on his lips.
Regina obliged. It pulsed a bright, beautiful pink, the heart of a pure soul. He'd never hurt anyone in his life. The different emotions banged against Regina's hand, and she closed her eyes, focusing on them. Hatred never surfaced. A hint of anger at her past misdeeds. A healthy amount of respect for her redemption. Tentative attachment and a hint of love for her role in Amelia's life, which saved her from death by stoning and gave her a real opportunity to develop her skills.
She returned the heart and touched the huge man's shoulder. "Get up, Caleb," she said more gently. He nodded and staggered into the room behind her.
He smiled sadly at Lauren who watched the interaction with curiosity from her bed. His huge, beefy, calloused hand held up the delicate flowers. "I brought you flowers," came the explanation. He wiped his face with the other hand, squinted at the heart on the table, but said nothing further.
"You didn't bring Amelia any?" Lauren asked and accepted the flowers now that Regina deemed the man non-threatening.
Emma grinned and slipped an arm around Regina's waist. Was there nothing her wife couldn't do? She just gave a man his life back, at least in connection to theirs, and when Amelia woke up, her life became happy and wonderful again.
Caleb shook his head. "Allergies." He pulled a small notebook from his back pocket and caressed it lovingly. "Ideas for potions. This will make her feel better than flowers and distract her from the pain. We started it after her apartment blew up and just never really stopped."
"Is that where the wolf transformation potion came from?" Emma asked, reminding everyone of the massacre.
Caleb nodded sadly. They'd not asked Amelia yet because of her guilt surrounding the incident. "She wanted to make sure it worked before she made one for Belle. She's a little obsessed with mending the rift with Ruby."
The energy in the room plummeted like a boulder in their stomachs. They had no way of finding Ruby and Belle. Anger washed into Emma, rolling from her lover in waves. Caleb glanced around at all the solemn faces of the family he wished to join.
"Call Jack," Emma offered as the jolt of inspiration struck, hoping to bring some initiative to the group. "He's a wolf, right? Granny's senses have faded, but Jack's younger. Maybe he can track them. I have his number." She fished his phone from her pocket and handed it to Regina.
Regina glared at the device as though she'd just offered a her a poisoned apple. Emma rolled her eyes. "Don't be like that. Ruby isn't going to be personally offended if you ask her father for help. Why can't you people just get the hell over shit?" She griped and dialed the man's number.
Her shoulders hit the wall suddenly, Regina's body following and sliding deliciously over her front. "You're a genius, my Darling," she whispered against her lips and then left Emma gasping for air as she grabbed the phone and clicked out of the room.
A commotion in the hall met Regina, and Emma lurched forward. "Regina, you cannot do this. You are the Head of the Council. You are a role model for everyone, which should be more important than upholding the laws of this town. Which, if I might add, condemn torture and murder." a woman Emma had yet to meet chided the huffy royal.
"Yes, Jack, I'll meet you there in a few minutes. Thank you," Regina spoke into the phone and then tossed it over her shoulder, having heard Emma stumble to the door. The blonde scrambled to keep the phone from busting on the floor.
Regina's council members stood before her in a semi-circle, her mother included. "What would this person's verdict be? Guilty? Death? I'm simply expediting the process," Regina reasoned. A few members grinned surreptitiously. "Is it the title that bothers you, Dear?" She asked the frustrated woman. She looked like a nun, Emma decided.
"As a member of this council and a spiritual leader in this community, I must insist you reconsider your decision to track this boy and murder him in cold blood," the woman said. Regina scoffed.
"Need I remind you that you obtained your title of Mother Superior through a curse?" Regina sniped. Ah, she was a nun.
The woman threw her hands in air and screeched, "A curse you cast!" She sputtered, looking her fellow council folks before her gaze settled on Emma. "Savior, you have no objections to this course of action?"
Emma stepped forward and stood beside Regina. "I'm sorry. Who the hell are you? I don't quite remember. Oh that's right, this little bastard rigged my car to explode and I lost all memory of the life I apparently worked my ass off to have. Soooo… no, I don't really have any objections to this course of action. Regina's protected us this far. I trust her, and I will follow her to hell if that's what it takes to get Ruby back."
Snow glowed with pride, a wide smile on her face. Regina removed that ridiculous pendant from her neck and tossed it to Mary Margaret. "There," she decided. "I'm not in charge anymore. Isn't Snow White the ultimate moral compass to you people? What should we do, Snow?" Regina asked prettily, batting her lashes at the other woman.
The pixie-haired woman grinned and slipped the necklace over her head. "Kick his ass, My Queen," she used the title pointedly, making a fantastic statement of her own.
Blue sputtered, blanching immediately. Regina pushed through the crowd and clicked down the hallway. The pure power washing over them paralyzed her with arousal, respect, reverence, perhaps a hint of fear. A quick check told her it intoxicated everyone else, too.
"Regina, please! Your soul!" the woman tried as a last ditch effort to stop this.
Regina touched her forehead in a passing graze without looking back. "Forgive me, father," she muttered facetiously and turned the sacrilegious gesture into a snap of her fingers above her head. Her outfit changed instantly, but her stride never faltered during the entire sassy display of defiance.
Her heels gave way to black riding boots that reached her knees atop black riding pants. A black and red flowing jacket replaced her dress. The click of her pumps became thumps of pissed of witch in her battle uniform. Emma watched breathlessly for a moment while others gasped and cowered in Regina's wake. She suspected the outfit one The Evil Queen favored.
"I married that woman," she murmured, still unmoving.
"Emma," Snow caught her attention gently. She jerked her head towards the pissy royal when Emma tore her eyes from Regina and met hers. "Go. She needs you to temper her darkness," she whispered.
Emma nodded, finally understanding her role as savior. She wasn't meant to hold Regina back but guide her moral compass, keep her treading the darkness within. Her lightness served as Regina's life preserver. Emma nodded again and pointed towards Lauren's hospital room.
"Ben's heart is chillin' on the table in there. Keep an eye on it and Katy for me?" She asked hesitantly, unsure if her mother willing to protect her granddaughter.
"Of course," Mary Margaret exclaimed instantly. "I'll not let her out of my sight until you return." She desperately yearned the reconnection with Emma, and if she required eyes on the unpredictable teenager, then that's where she intended to be.
Emma took off after Regina without another word. "Emma!" Snow called, and the blonde stopped as Regina rounded the corner. "You might need this," she explained and handed Emma her service weapon, already anticipating this outcome.
"Thanks," Emma breathed and jogged after Regina.
The second her hand slid into her wife's, they flew apart in magical transport. Their strides continued during their reappearance on the sidewalk outside the library. Emma almost jerked in surprise to find the first brushstrokes of twilight painting the light blue sky. Regina laced their fingers together and pulled them to a halt as Jack's old truck backfired and stuttered but brought him to his destination.
Her dark gaze met Granny's across the street and beyond the barrier still in place. David appeared behind the woman and placed supportive hands on her shoulders, telling them that he took care of business within and that to a degree, he and Snow planned the confrontation with The Council. She nodded once, and Granny returned it, clutching her great-granddaughter tighter. She whispered something in Alex's ear, and the girl gave Emma and Regina an awkward thumbs up signal. They smiled and returned it, letting the girl know they'd fix everything.
"Hey," Jack greeted and jogged to them. "Ruby's been taken?"
Regina nodded and almost sighed as the familiar flash of yellow ignited in his chocolate brown eyes, Ruby's eyes. "As far as we can tell, Jacob left out the back door of the library. Perhaps start there," she offered helpfully.
Jack shook his head. "No need. He didn't cover his tracks like he had with Lauren." Emma and Regina started. "What? I wasn't going to sit back and let that girl suffer if I could find her. Ruby loves her, which makes her important to me."
He took off in a brisk walk, his tan work boots thumping angrily against the cracked concrete. The duo surged forward as one unit, stretching their strides in order to keep up with the pissed off wolf ahead of them. Emma glanced at Regina, soaking up her anger and fear. Her dark eyes focused on the man tracking their best friends, face void of emotion.
"I want you to kill him," she whispered, but Jack's shoulders recoiled at the words. He maintain the frantic pace without glancing over his shoulders, however, giving them the privacy they would have had not for his sensitive ears. Fucking wolves.
"I intend to," Regina answered coldly, uncaring of Jack's unintentional eavesdropping.
"You didn't kill Ben," Emma countered, unsure why the man remained alive.
Regina grinned wickedly and met her eyes, free hand touching her chest lightly. "That wasn't his heart I left in Lauren's room."