A/N: Alright, so first I have to say this. Regina DID NOT CHEAT on Emma. For those of you who got ahead of themselves and assumed the worst, please read on in this chapter. It will all be said in clarity. I would never write about our favorite ladies cheating on one another. EVER. I apologize in advance if I didn't clear that out in my last update, but since she is going to be forced by Robin in making Emma believe she cheated, I needed you guys to believe it too. I know, talk about playing with feelings lol still, I hope you enjoy this next update, even though it is hard breaking. And for the reviewer who said they no longer like this story. I'm sorry to burst your bubble of happiness, but that's what fiction is about. What's a story without some drama? If anyone else decides this story is no longer for them, just stop reading it. No need to post negative comments that will only get deleted. Thank you all who continue to enjoy and read this story.
Kathryn raced down the hallway of the hospital, fuming in anger as she spotted Robin, all smiling and conversing with a fellow nurse as if he had not done anything wrong. Heads turned at the fast speed of the angry blonde as she made her way up to the man- if you could even call him that.
"Robin!" She shouted, not caring one bit that all eyes were on her at this point. As soon as he turned to give her all his attention, what Robin saw coming next was the blonde's right fist.
Everyone gasped, as Kathryn shook her hand as it was throbbing with pain after meeting the man's nose.
"What the hell?!" He shouted, holding his nose as it bled, spots of blood decorating his lab coat.
"Regina may not want to try anything against you because you have her right where you want her, but I will." Kathryn pointed a finger at him, throwing a deadly glare his way, "Do you have any idea how bad you will make her look in Emma's eyes? And all for what? Because she no longer wanted to be with you?!"
Robin held out his hand, stopping the security that raced towards them, "It's alright." His eyes met Kathryn's, "Kathryn, please. Let's talk in my office."
"I think I've said all I need to say to you." Kathryn spoke to gritted teeth. Her eyes turning a darker blue as she looked into his, "Don't forget that I know you, Robin. So you got what you wanted, big deal but you will never earn an ounce of Regina's love. She will always love Emma, no matter how many times you force yourself on her."
Robin closed the distance between them, his eyes just as dark as he looked into hers, "And what are you going to do about it?" He muttered under his breath, only for her to hear, "Have me arrested? You are about to get yourself fired, not to mention arrested just for hitting me in a hospital. So go ahead. Try anything else, and Regina will suffer those consequences. Followed by that soldier. So I forced myself on her, but," he glanced down at his watch, "By now, she should be making Emma believe that she willingly slept with me and that we are madly in love."
Kathryn's lip curled up in anger at the man's smirk.
She turned around, getting ready to leave when suddenly turned right back around, delivering another punch directly to Robin's face. If she was going to get arrested, she may as well leave with the satisfaction of having delivered another blow.
Regina decided to get things over with the following morning. She took that day off of work, given that after what she was about to do, she wasn't going to be able to concentrate on anyone else. She had practically drag herself out of bed that morning, force herself to call Emma up and ask her to meet her somewhere in between Storybrooke and the city. Where there would be nothing but road and no one around to interrupt them. To hear Emma's voice pained her that morning. She couldn't even eat. She hated herself too much for allowing herself to be forced into a situation she had absolutely no control over. Not when lives were at stake, as well as the life of the woman she loved.
She couldn't live with herself knowing that something could happen to her if she didn't end it.
Sure, she could go to the police anyway, but who's to say Emma would be safe? Or Ingrid, or Ruby or anyone else the blonde soldier cared about?
Robin planned everything to perfection. Through the course of time, he had forced Regina- threatening her with hurting Emma- if she didn't sleep with him. He knew that this would make her hate Regina forever once she came clean about sleeping with him. Even if she didn't do it willingly, with any ounce of desire, she knew… Emma would forever hate her.
She sat in her Mercedes, her eyes red as she had finished crying for the hundredth time today.
Her heart stopped as Emma's unmistakable yellow bug approached, pulling over to the side of the road as her Mercedes was. She could see the blonde's figure as she moved around in her car before opening her driver's side door and began making her way out.
Regina drew in a breath. Her heart breaking as she couldn't possibly do this. But she had to. Because she was sure that whoever Robin had watching over her, he was out there watching right now. Ready to report anything back to him if things didn't go the way Robin had planned them.
"Regina? What's been going on with you? You sounded as if you had been crying over the phone." Emma approached her as the brunette exited her car, her hands caressing the older woman's shoulders, "Is everything alright?"
Regina shook her head, not daring to look her in the eyes as she spoke, "No. Nothing is alright anymore, Emma. Nothing."
Emma's brows furrowed in confusion, "What's going on?" her features turned serious this time, "It's Robin, isn't it?"
Brown eyes finally looked up into her green ones, "How do you know about Robin?" She wanted to break down and cry as she noticed how the blonde's eyes changed before her, how her jaw tightened.
"So, it's true?" Asked Emma, her lips parting in surprise. Given Regina's silence, she spoke again, "I saw you two the other day. I wanted to surprise you but I was the one who was surprised instead after seeing you with him." She chuckled, "I felt so jealous, but I know that if you were with him, you must have your reason, right? He probably just showed up here out of the blue and-"
"No, Emma." She had to lie, she just had to. Fact of the matter was, Robin did show up, forcing her into a situation that she had no way out of. Even if she were honest and told Emma the truth- that she could get hurt if she didn't do as he asked- she would get hurt. So, her next move was to do exactly that. Lie. Hurt her with everything she had in her. Become cold. "Robin and I…" She paused at the look on the blonde's face, pushing herself mentally to lie again. Her coldness on point, "We've been seeing each other, off and on."
Emma's eyes grew dark, as she swallowed the lump in her throat that had formed, "What?"
Regina fought back tears, knowing well that she couldn't back out now. She wanted so badly to give her some kind of signal, mouth out a word maybe, anything that could throw her a hint that everything she was about to say about her and Robin wasn't true. Except for sleeping with him. She knew Emma would not understand that. Not now.
"He showed up and we began to talk again. That's the real reason as to why I've been so busy lately and haven't really made time to see you. It's because…" She breathed in, forcing her next words out, "Because this was all a game to me, Emma. That's all."
Emma's jaw tightened more as her eyes were now red with hurt. A game? How could that be? No. This couldn't be right. Regina wouldn't hurt her this way. Not her. She would expect this from anyone but her.
"It was a stupid game that I frankly grew tired of. I should have told you sooner to spare you all this pain and I'm sorry I didn't. But, this…" She blinked her eyes, swallowing the lump in her throat, "Whatever you think we had needs to end."
Emma blinked, tears falling from her eyes. Tears that at every drop killed Regina's heart. She shook her head, clearly seeing through her, "No."
"Emma-"
"No!" She shouted, "No, you can't- you can't just end this- you can't do that. This isn't you, Regina." Her voice broke. This had to be some kind of nightmare. That's all this was. "Y- You love me. You love me and I love you, we love each other and…" She sighed, her tears making their way down again, "We fought like hell to be together. You can't just end this."
As much as her eyes stung with tears, Regina remained cold. She had to, "I'm sorry." She paused, focused on the now broken soldier before her, "But I don't want this anymore. You have to…" She paused again, her words cutting through her like razor blades, "You have to forget about me. Move on, find someone who does love you."
"No, no, you love me!" Emma shouted, her voice once again breaking, "You! You don't really mean this. Robin has you… he's done something, hasn't he?" She walked up to the brunette, grabbing a hold of her shoulders again, as her hands traveled up to her cheeks, forcing her to look into her eyes.
"Robin didn't do anything, Emma. It was all me."
"You're lying." Emma's red eyes looked right into hers, "You're lying, you can't even look me in the eye. Regina, please. Tell me. Whatever he said- whatever he did- we can work it out. We can solve this, together like we have everything else that comes between us."
"Emma." Regina's voice grew colder, as much as her heart was screaming at her to tell her the truth. She looked right into the blonde's eyes as she said her next words to her. "You're such a child. You were always such a dreamer, when you shouldn't be. Because you never know when someone is just going to break your heart."
That's when Emma saw it. The coldness she had once dreamed out seeing in her eyes, it was all there in that very moment. All she needed was the dagger to plunge into her heart. Her words already doing that all on their own.
"So the easiest thing to do is to lie and let someone come between us?" Emma asked, her tears not giving up on her.
"This isn't a lie, Ms. Swan." Ms. Swan, her name, not even her first had ever sounded so serious coming out of the brunette's mouth. So cold, without an ounce of feeling in them. "I'm only sorry I let it go on for so long. But, it's over now. I'm going back to Boston, I'll be going to live with Robin where he can offer me stability. A life like I've always wanted. A life I deserve."
Emma's tears were on point. She reached for the brunette's arm as she was ready to turn around and leave, "No, Regina!" She continued even after the brunette yanked her arm away, "This isn't you talking. It can't be! You're obviously not thinking clearly. What about everything we talked about? What about our life together? Our stability? All our plans- Henry! What about our family?"
Regina shook her head, fighting back her tears at the mention of the name of the baby they wanted to have together, "Emma!" She shouted this time, "I don't want it. Can't you understand that? I don't want any of it! Not with you." She swallowed the lump in her throat again, "I need to think of something better for me now. And that's with Robin. Now, I have to go. Please don't follow me, don't look for me again. Just… please. I don't want to hurt you more than I already have."
Only Emma wasn't giving up. Her next instinct was to reach for the brunette, determined to make her stay. Determined, as she kissed her long and hard, keeping her- forcing her lips to land right on hers as she cupped the back of her head with a single hand.
The way she always would. The way Regina loved it.
It would make her melt without fail. Her body would give in on automatic just like it wanted to give in now. Only, now with eyes prying on them, that wouldn't be a good idea.
Emma parted away as her kiss went unresponsive. Her lips parted in surprise as that same cold stare from her nightmare was once again there. Looking back at her. Her tears rolling down her cheeks as she never imagined hurting this way. Especially not by the woman she loved.
Regina grew cold again, even if on the inside she had melted with that kiss, "Satisfied? Now do you believe that I no longer love you?"
Emma's heart parted in two at the sound of those words. She shook her head, not wanting to believe it still, "It's bullshit. It's all bullshit, you don't mean that."
"Emma, you don't know me at all. You're just a child who got her hopes up-"
Emma sighed, feeling utterly frustrated, "Stop treating me as if I were a fucking kid!" Her tears streamed down more, her voice began breaking, "I may not have a ton of money, like that asshole, Regina but I have something that he will never be able to give you. Love."
Regina chuckled, playing the part well, "Listen to you. You want me to stop treating you like a child? Then stop acting like one. It's time for you to grow up, Emma and realize when someone doesn't love you. You have to let them go."
"You want fucking stability? I've been thinking about all the stability in the world." She dug inside her breast pocket, showing off the engagement ring she had been carrying around, which caused Regina to break a little.
She was surprised of course, but even if Emma held a ring before her now, she couldn't give in. She couldn't put her life in danger. Even if she wanted nothing more but to marry her and say yes in that very moment.
"Emma…" Regina's lip quivered, her eyes never leaving the ring that was held out before her.
"Look. See?" Emma's voice shook, her eyes becoming more and more irritated with tears, "This is the change I mentioned when I graduated. I…" She chuckled, "I haven't even shared the news with anyone yet, except for Ruby. But, I want this, Regina. I want you. I want us. Together." She shook her head, "Whatever happened, whatever- whatever this is, I don't care. I don't care because I want us to have the life we always envisioned."
"Emma, please…" Regina sighed, a few tears running down her eyes now, "Just go. You have to go and forget all about me. Forget that we ever met. Please. Just stay far away from me."
A light clanking sound was heard as Emma dropped the ring, letting it fall onto the hard pavement beneath her feet. "Forget all about you?" She scoffed, running a hand through her hair in frustration, "What changed, Regina? Could you at least answer that question?" Her lip quivered now out of anger and pain, "What fucking changed? What did I do wrong?"
"It was nothing that you did. I just don't…" Regina closed her eyes, tears falling, "I can't be with you anymore. I'm not a good person. I never was. You would be better off without me."
"Better off without you?" Emma chuckled, shaking her head, "No. No, I can't believe that. I won't. We've been through too much-"
"Emma!" Regina shouted, not knowing any other way to get through to the blonde, "I don't love you anymore, so please just leave! I am in love with Robin, I realize now that I've always been in love with him. And I'm going to have a life with him. Can you understand that?"
Emma's jaw tightened, her eyes turning a dark green color, unlike Regina had never seen them before.
That's when she knew- she had succeeded.
Robin had won.
Emma was finally broken.
"Can I understand that?" The soldier muttered under her breath, walking away a few paces as she ran a hand through her hair. She turned back around immediately to look back at the brunette before her, "No. No, I can't understand this change. Because you weren't like this, but if that's the way you want things to be then so be it." She sighed, "To think how you must have laughed at me, you and Kathryn." She shook her head, "To think that Ruby and Graham were right when they tried to warn me about you. But I chose not to listen. Because I loved you. For my misfortune I still do. And I always will."
Regina could hear the coldness in the blonde's words now, and that hurt her more than she ever thought possible. It made her hate Robin even more, hate herself even more for giving into his blackmail of hurting Emma if she didn't do as he asked.
There was no coming back from this.
"You know, when I was in the war. Out in Afghanistan… I thought I had gone through everything that could possibly hurt me. Losing August, lying out there in the sand as thousands of bullets and bombs went off around me," her tears made their way down again, this time her eyes looking away from the brunette's, "I never imagined anything hurting more. Now I realize…" her eyes looked into brown ones, in a different way. A hurting way, an angry way, "You should have let me died that day in the hospital. Because right now I'm thinking that death would be better than this."
"Emma…" Regina called out in a whisper as the blonde gave her back to her. Her lip quivering, her eyes burning with unshed tears. She wanted to tell her everything, the truth, but she couldn't. All she could say was, "I'm very sorry."
Emma didn't speak anymore. She didn't turn to give the brunette one last glance. She didn't give her any sign of hope. Why should she? She was angry and had every right to be. Regina had just made her believe that she didn't love her. That she never loved her. She knew, as Emma mounted her car- that yellow metal bug on wheels that she would dearly miss seeing as she looked out her apartment window- that she would possibly never see her again.
Regina's tears finally let themselves be known as the yellow beetle became more and more smaller with distance.
She looked down upon by her feet, finding the ring that Emma was thinking about proposing with. As she bent down to pick it up, she clenched it tightly in her fist, finally letting out a much needed sob.
Emma was gone and with her so was her life with her.
Now, would begin a different kind of life.
One without Emma. One with no son named Henry. At last that was something she could be happy about not being able to give Robin.
Emma's eyes were filled with tears as she drove on home. Regina's words and cold expression playing in the back of her mind. Feeling very much like a fool for ever being such a dreamer in the first place. For ever falling in love with the idea of love. When clearly that never existed.
But her heart told her differently as it still beat for Regina. Her brain causing her to see all of their memories together like a film that played on repeat in her head.
She slammed on the brakes hard as her tires screeched on the pavement road. Her head hitting the steering wheel as it rested on it. All Emma could do was cry. She cried soft sobs, her hands tightening around the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.
She made her way out of the car, slamming the door as hard as she could with a grunt. The next thing she did was kick at her driver's side door again and again until there was nothing left but a grey dent on the side. She kicked so hard it made her leg feel it. Her forehead pressed down on the edge of her car, breathing heavy breaths of anger, frustration, and jealousy all rolled into one.
Ingrid sat on her couch, looking surprised as she had received a surprise visitor that evening.
Carl had found her. He was sitting before her on the other couch, taking one of her hands into his, which she jerked back immediately.
"Ingrid. You can't still be mad about what happened. I already said I was sorry. I'm here, aren't I?" He paused, "It took me some doing, but I finally found you and now we can be a family again."
A family. That was a word he knew nothing about.
"I heard about Emma. Is it true that she joined the military?" He asked her.
"Yes." Ingrid whispered, as she paused, "Carl, I don't know what you think you'll accomplish by showing up here unannounced, but you have to leave."
"Do you really want me to leave?" Asked the man, a smirk on his lips.
Ingrid held her head up high. She was done running from him, she was done being scared. "Yes, I do. You don't belong here. You never did. All you caused us was pain."
Carl sighed, grabbing onto the woman's wrist as she stood up from the couch, "Now, I don't think you want me to leave. I mean…" He scoffed, "You couldn't even hide from me."
Ingrid yanked her hand away from his grip, "Just leave. Emma will be back any minute and I would hate it if she-"
"What?" Carl stood up, looking down on Ingrid as he was always taller, "What is she going to do, hm? I'm untouchable, Ingrid."
Heads turned as Emma entered the house, standing by the doorway as her eyes met the man's that once upon a time ago, made both their lives a living hell.
"Emma…" Ingrid whispered, taking notice in the blonde's complexion. She looked over to Carl and back at the younger blonde in fear that he would try anything. Or that Emma would, taking notice in the blonde's immediate anger.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Emma asked, standing still by the door. Her eyes never leaving his.
"It's a small town, kid. It wasn't hard to find you."
Emma cringed at that nickname. She hated when he called her that. "Get out of here. You aren't wanted here, you aren't needed here."
"Oh?" Carl's brows hit his hairline, looking over at Ingrid as he chuckled, "Look at you. All brave now because you're a soldier, huh?"
"Carl, don't-"
"Shut up." Carl raised a finger in warning towards Ingrid as he walked closer into Emma's space, "What, you think just because you served I'm supposed to be afraid of you? Respect you?" He chuckled, "I look at you, you want to know what I see? The same frightened little girl who used to hide under her bed anytime shit got complicated." His eyes looked down at the dog tags that hung around her neck, grabbing them in the process to get a closer look, "This one isn't yours." He held up August's dog tag, "Is it someone who died in combat?" He smirked at the blonde's pissed off expression, "Oh, I see… was it your fault? It was, wasn't it? Did he die because of you-? Ah!"
"Emma!" Ingrid shouted as Carl shouted even louder in pain, after Emma grabbed his wrist and broke it single handily. Only she didn't stop there. Before Carl or Ingrid knew it, Emma had thrown herself on him, as her fist repeatedly punched him in the face. Instantly breaking his nose, busting his lip and damaging an eye.
"Emma stop!" Ingrid grabbed onto Emma, hoping to God she wouldn't have a reaction.
But she couldn't stop. Not when all she saw was red. Not when who she saw was Robin and not Carl.
Ingrid reached for the blonde's forearm, "Emma! You're going to kill him! Stop!"
Emma's chest was rising quickly up and down as she fell back, her fist red with the man's blood as he remained on the floor, passed out from her all her hard given punches. This was the first time, Ingrid had seen a reaction out of her, especially one like this. It scared her to death, if she were being honest with herself. But her next instinct as she noticed Emma's hand shake and heard her start sobbing, was to wrap her arms around the younger blonde. Her arms holding her so tight just as Emma's did as she cried even louder this time.
"Emma? Emma, what happened? What happened to you? Tell me." Ingrid whispered, caressing the soldier's hair as Emma hid her face on the crook of her neck to muffle her uncontrollable crying. "Shhh… it's alright." She wrapped her arms tighter around her as crying couldn't seem to end. Ingrid knew that type of crying. Emma didn't need to say anything to her, because she knew. "It's alright. I'm here. You're going to be fine. I'm here."