Just drink it. It doesn't matter that it tastes terrible, just drink it anyway. It's good that it tastes terrible. Focus on that. Focus on anything. Just not...
The Mayor glances over at the telephone resting at the edge of her desk. She feels her fingers twitch instinctively but keeps herself firmly under control. She is tired, having been failed by the sandman after returning from the Sheriff's station, and her head pounds miserably. She has spent the past two hours since entering her office this morning battling the urge to ring the Station.
To see if there's still an answer.
It was foolish to leave the end so messy and unpredictable. To torture myself with the uncertainty of when and where. I should have served it to her myself.
She shakes such thoughts away; berating herself for letting them plague her the way they have all morning. She is proud, but she is also wise to her own mind, and she knows witnessing the blonde crash was never an option. At least, not since finding the younger woman sat patiently in her drawing room before asking her to dance.
Magic may not work the same here... She may suffer... It may not work at all... She may... Well, she may ...
No. The blonde won't die. Can't die. The curse must remain.
She sighs; her morbid thoughts completing their dizzying circle as she ponders, not for the first time, who will find the Sheriff. She has purposely organised for Henry to have a session with Archie this afternoon, taking caution to keep her son from straying towards the Station at any point today. She imagines it will most likely be the little tramp from the Diner, and this suits her just fine. Ruby may be insufferably useless, but she will eventually call upon the right people. Many people. Enough to create confusion and displace blame.
"Do my eyes deceive me, or are you drinking a hot chocolate?"
The Mayor glances up, startled, before her lip curls into a snarl.
"What are you doing here?"
Gold strides into the room, his cane thumping out a dull beat upon the floor, and takes a seat opposite the brunette, paying her murderous scowl no mind.
"Just a wee visit. You had mentioned you wished to purchase a fair amount of land when we spoke a few weeks ago, but I have since then heard nothing from you. Is this still of any interest?"
"No."
"Curious... I wonder what changed your mind? Care to elaborate?"
"No."
"What's eating you, dearie?"
Dark eyes glitter at her from sunken sockets, the golden glint of his upper incisor sparkling at her odiously as the old pawnbroker offers an insincere smile of concern. The brunette regards him stoically for as long as she can bear, before her rage finally gets the better of her and she slams her hand down on the desk- her cup rattling dangerously in its saucer- and leans forward to hiss at the little venomously.
"You little snake... You've been working against me! You told me this was a race, but you've been going behind my back!"
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Emma! Miss Swan! You've been helping her with legal advice to take away my son! I have long since learned to expect such low, conniving, traitorous behavior from you, but to hand her over the papers she needs without so much as a word... What's in it for you?"
"... She did read them then... Curious..."
"What?"
The Mayor glares angrily at her unwelcome guest, a vein standing out beneath the smooth skin at her forehead. Gold leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers beneath his chin, regarding the brunette with casual intrigue. Raising an eyebrow, he simply repeats himself.
"Curious."
"What is!?"
"That she would go straight to you; that she would fight her own battle... Foolish... But curious."
"...Come straight to me?"
"I had come to the assumption that Miss Swan had either neglected to do her job and process my legal papers- something which would hardly render me surprised- or that the young Sheriff was simply not ready to proceed at this point... I had imagined she would come barreling into my office in that ever chaotic way of hers and demand to know more the second she saw those documents... I merely find her chosen course of action to be... Curious."
Regina swallows dryly- what little moisture that remains in her mouth tasting hatefully like copper- and moves her hands to rest in her lap; not wishing the pawnbroker to notice their sudden trembling.
"She didn't... Ask you for them?"
"Not in so many words, but then, Miss Swan is hardly the most eloquent person at the best of times. Upon deciding to stay in town, she made it quite clear she wished for some advice. Some sort of aid to help her get Henry away from what she considered an unhealthy environment... I believe it was just after that small fire of which we still sadly don't know the cause... I processed her desire, and saved it for a rainy day... And now, I need help with some legal documents relating to the storm, as well as information on our new visitor. Hence, I'd hoped she'd come to me directly. I would never expect something for nothing-"
"-You... Why?!"
"Simple. I wanted something."
"Oh my god..."
"Are you alright, dearie, you're looking rather pale?"
"You planted those papers where you knew I'd see them!"
"How could I possibly know you would find yourself snooping through her things? You mean she didn't approach you about this?"
"Of course not! You... I don't know how, but you did! You planned this! You want to break the c-... You want her gone!"
Gold regards the Mayor with a small sense of alarm as the brunette loses all sense of poise and etiquette and simply screams this last part; eyes flashing dangerously.
"Regina, what did you do?"
"Get out! Now!"
"What have you done?"
"Now!"
The pawnbroker frowns, but takes his leave; mind churning as he endeavors to process the stilted information he has received. Glancing back at the Mayor, he sees her reach for the phone on her desk with shaking hands.
Curious.
"No!"
The brunette slams the phone back in its cradle after a minute of hateful, idiotic ringing.
No answer at the station.
Pulling her cell from her pocket, she scrolls shakily through her contact list; fingers refusing to work as she wants them to. Finally, she manages to find the blonde's personal number and holds her breath as it rings once. twice. three times.
"Hello-"
"-Emma! Oh god! I need you to listen to me, ok, I need you to do something-"
"-You've reached Emma Swan, leave a message and number and I'll get back to you when I can."
A small beep and then silence as the answering machine records the brunette's disbelief. The Mayor simply stares at the phone in her hand; mouth open and eyes wide.
Finally breaking herself from her frozen state, she snatches her car keys from the table and hurries out the office, not bothering to lock the door behind her.