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Chapter Two: Not Yet Dead
The underground tomb felt too small, too close and Emma struggled up the stairs and out into the trees in a semi-panic. She needed air. Never had she wanted to run away more than right now. Run far, far away. Over land, over ocean, to a place where no one knew her name or could expect anything extraordinary from her. The urge crept along her nerves and she clutched at the bark of the nearest tree, feeling splinters pushing into her skin as she tried to regain control. A tiny spark of… something… erupted from the tips of her fingers and singed part of the wood, but her eyes were shut too tight to notice.
More snapping twigs caught her ears and she twisted sharply to see who was there. Peering through the trees, she spotted a short, stumbling figure. "Kid!" she breathed, half in relief, half in panic.
"Emma!" he greeted her, his expression reflecting hers. "Did you find my mom?"
After huffing and looking him over for a moment, the blonde smiled sadly and tousled his hair. She knew it wasn't her imagination; despite all his talk about good and evil, he couldn't help the fact that Regina had been there most of his life. There was enough affection between them in that ten-year span for him to feel the loss. "You're supposed to be at Granny's," she reminded him sternly. Remembering what they'd found, her stomach flipped again. "I'm beginning to see why Regina was always trying to ground you."
Henry attempted a sheepish expression but it didn't quite reach his eyes before they reverted back to being inquisitive. "But you are looking for her. Is she here?" he asked, peering past her at the mausoleum.
"Henry," Emma began and watched with regret as his expression fell. She rarely used his name unless she needed to say something serious. "We found her, but…"
"She's not… dead…?" His bottom lip trembled slightly, prompting Emma to crouch down in front of him and hold his shoulders comfortingly.
"Hey, she's not dead, ok?" she told him quickly. Playing for time, Emma rubbed her hands down her son's arms and tried to put her thoughts into words. "But we need to take Regina to the hospital."
As if on cue, the echoey sound of voices rose from deep inside the crypt and grew louder. Footsteps joined them until they became recognisable and the Charming couple stepped out of the Mills mausoleum with Regina in the prince's arms.
"Mom!" Henry cried and closed the distance to the unconscious mayor. He took one look at her waxy pallor and set accusing eyes on the man holding her. "What did you do to my mom!?"
David gaped like a fish out of water until Snow appeared at his back and noticed the ten-year-old. "Henry! I asked you to stay at Granny's." She stopped to look between the other adults and sighed as she stroked her grandson's hair. "Henry, Regina needs to go to the hospital. We can talk about what happened when we get there." With her kindest teacher face on, she shooed the boy out of the doorway and guided him in the direction of the car park.
Emma caught up after locking the crypt and pulled her son close as they walked past the now cooling remains of the car. He took one look at it and stared up at her, his mouth hanging open to pepper her with questions, but she manged to quiet him with a small shake of her head. "Later," she promised. She really didn't want to be the one to tell him about any of these things – to break his bubble of black and white, good and evil, but it was a lesson he needed to learn, and she knew that if he didn't hear the facts from her, he would pick up twisted rumours elsewhere.
The sheriff felt numerous eyes on them as Charming carried the mayor through the hospital and Snow persuaded the staff to find a doctor to treat her. She was glad to see that Whale was not the one to answer that call but kept watch over the doctors and nurses regardless. She thought about sending Henry back to Granny's, but thought better of it and asked him to stay with his grandparents in the waiting room instead.
Looking at Regina now, Emma could hardly believe that the woman was capable of the smallest act of violence let alone killing and cursing hundreds. Why did you do it? Any of it? she wondered absently. She could almost imagine that young girl from her dream, smiling, laughing, loving without fear or restraint. What horrors could turn an innocent like that into a monster and did it even matter? Could Regina be anything but a monster now? Isn't that why she'd eaten the apple, because she knew she was irredeemable? Or was it simply because the mayor had finally given up on fighting for her own happiness?
Emma could relate to that, though perhaps not on the same scale. Hadn't she been beaten down enough to know how it felt? To feel like there was no place for you in the world? To realise that the world had given up on you, so why not give up on it? To have lived with that feeling for so long… No wonder she pushes everyone away.
The sheriff could feel her anger turning, shifting from Regina and her betrayals toward whoever had started the young Mills girl on her path to evil. If your mother was here, I'd give her more than a piece of my mind!
Eventually, the hospital staff slowed and dissipated, leaving just the doctor to approach the sullen-looking blonde. "Sheriff Swan?" he asked cautiously. "I'm Dr Yang. We've done everything we can for the Ev… for Mayor Mills," he amended at the glare he received. "You said she ate the same apple that cursed your son?" Emma nodded. "Well, even with magic here now, she's showing the same degradation. It's not as rapid, but the results will eventually be the same. This world's medicines won't help her. All we can do is prolong the inevitable."
Emma bristled at the nonchalant manner he delivered this news, but bit her tongue. Regina was lucky that anybody was willing to treat her at all. "Thank you, doctor. I know this isn't going to be a popular request, but I want this room secured. No one comes in here without supervision."
Dr Yang raised an eyebrow at the sheriff but nodded. He looked back at the woman in the bed and sighed. "My cursed memories taught me of a saying in this world – an oath taken by doctors. In there, it says, 'Primum non nocere. First, do no harm.' I'll try to remember that while she's here."
It wasn't exactly the unwavering assurance she wanted, but Emma supposed it would have to do. "Thank you," she said again, hoping that by remaining polite, she could encourage him to follow her request. He sighed once more before leaving the room, prompting the arrival of a ten-year-old.
"Emma," Henry addressed her before he was fully in the room. "Is she ok?"
The blonde pointed him over to one side of the bed and followed. "Did Mary Margret and David tell you what happened?"
The boy gazed for a long moment at his mom, trying to see the heartless woman he'd looked for the last couple of years. It had been so much easier when she was scowling at him for sneaking out, telling him not to run down the stairs or criticising his teacher for the quality of his school work. When she was on the warpath, it was easy to see why people were afraid of her, but like this, he couldn't help but remember the years when they'd picked apples together, when she'd read bedtime stories to him or when he scraped his knees and she made everything better with a cuddle.
He shook his head. "They said you would tell me."
Emma closed her eyes for a few seconds. A small, cowardly part of her had hoped that they would use the time in the waiting room to fill in the gaps, but this was her responsibility now. She hoped she would not get it too wrong. "You were right about your mom having a hideaway under the mausoleum. I'm sorry I didn't think to look there sooner."
Henry met the blonde's eyes and then looked away guiltily. "I forgot too."
The sheriff nodded. "It's been a crazy week, huh? Well, she was down there with this…" She reached into her pocket and removed the broken pieces of his handprint to show to him. "And with what's left of the cursed apple." He was a smart kid; she knew it wouldn't take him long to put the pieces together, but like her own brain, his seemed to want to settle in denial.
"But… why?"
Emma stroked his hair and smiled sympathetically. "I think you know why."
In shame, the boy hung his head. He sniffed and dragged a sleeve across his eyes. "I didn't want this to happen," he cried softly. "I just wanted to break the curse."
Emma thought back to the town when she'd arrived. There was plenty wrong with it; babies promised in shady deals; children forgotten by the system and left to fend for themselves; elderly people who regretted never having had children; couples kept apart by circumstance; vibrant young adults trapped by their inherited responsibilities. The list went on. But wasn't that just life? Sometimes fate dealt you a bad hand and you had to do your best with it. That was how the world worked in Emma's experience and one of the reason's she'd resisted Henry's curse idea for so long. Were things so different in the Enchanted Forest? She took her time to answer so she wouldn't end up snapping at him.
"I know, Kid. I'm curious though," she added with what she hoped was a non-confrontational tone. "What did you think was going to happen when the curse broke?"
Henry's brow scrunched. "I just thought things would be better. That people would have their happy endings back."
The sheriff resisted the exasperated sigh that pressed against her throat. She wanted to say, what about your mom? but knew that she shouldn't; he was already feeling the consequences, he didn't need her to brow-beat it into him. Plus, he'd done the right thing she supposed – the moral thing – with or without consideration for what might happen to Regina. "Well, I think most people will and they have you to thank," she told him and for a moment pride welled in her chest. "As for your mom…" This time she did sigh and admitted quietly, "I don't know where to start."
"True-love's kiss breaks any curse, remember?" He swallowed and contemplated the choices while staring at the sleeping figure. Before he could overthink it or give Emma a chance to dissuade him, Henry leaped forward and leant over the mayor to plant a kiss on her forehead. He pulled away, his gaze hopeful for a moment, until he realised that nothing had happened and fell back against the blonde. He looked up at her sorrowfully. "Why didn't it work?"
Emma grimaced – she'd hoped for a second too. I hate fairy tales. "I don't know, but I wouldn't read too much into it. These curse rules seem a bit sketchy to me."
Henry nodded slowly. "We need to talk to someone who has magic," he concluded aloud.
"I'm not visiting Gold again in a hurry," the sheriff told him. "I didn't really need him to break the curse last time." She ruffled the hair on her son's head and remembered the devastation and realisation that had hit her when that heart-monitor had flat-lined. "I would have done the exact same thing with or without his advice. He used us," she added as she looked back at Regina's still form. "I'm not sure why your mom chose to go to him in the first place."
"He taught her magic," the boy said confidently, thinking of the new pages in his book.
"Right." Habit. Like going to an abusive ex even though you know they're gonna screw you over. I wonder if they ever… Emma shuddered at the unfinished thought. Not going there! "So, the nun then? Mother Superior?"
"The Blue Fairy," Henry corrected enthusiastically. "I bet she'll know."
But will she want to help? Emma wondered. "It's worth a try," she answered and then reluctantly added, "and I think it's about time I had a good look at that book of yours."
Screams echoed in Emma's ears. The same nightmarish scene, ending with the same terrified teen, who burned for a crime she couldn't name. "I saved you," she cried at Snow White's supercilious expression. "Why are you doing this to me?"
An image from Henry's book wiped the pyre and the mob from Emma's subconscious. A smiling, bright-eyed Regina stood beside a terrified young girl and introduced herself. The image flickered and revealed a king kneeling, holding a ring, and the same vibrant, young woman but frozen with shock and horror. Next, tears streamed down her heart-broken face as she cradled the body of a young man.
The nightmare warped and shifted to focus on a woman robed in the most elaborate wedding dress, her features pulled into a small smile as she looked down at an enthusiastic child. What should have been a joyous scene stabbed into Emma's heart as she looked into dark eyes and found them void of emotion. The vibrant teen was dead. No sign of happiness or even excited nervousness shone from the bride-to-be. The faux façade marked the beginning of an enduring habit – to push everything that hurt deep into her mind.
From the emotionless depths though rose a new fire. A fury disproportionate to the meek shell burned into life and twisted the woman's pretty features into something terrifying.
Emma's eyes opened upon a clinical setting and immediately drifted to the woman in the bed. It was hard to imagine the indominable Mayor Mills cowering to anyone, and even harder to imagine her showing any sort of compassion towards the meek teacher who'd worn Snow White's face these last three decades. Less difficult to imagine, was the anger that twisted Regina's expression as she looked at the young princess with new knowledge. Were these things in her dreams a reflection of events that had really happened or just the hopeful part of her psyche acting up – offering an alternative picture to absolve her of her lingering guilt? Was it her imagination filling in the gaps from Henry's book?
The question continued to plague her as Dr Yang arrived and, with furrowed brow, assessed the condition of his patient. "So, what's the what, Doc?" she asked after stretching out her cramped limbs.
"As I thought – the same as with Henry," he began formally, "her vital signs are deteriorating. It's much slower, but I'd estimate that she has three, maybe four days left before the curse kills her." Though he clearly had no strong feelings about saving the Evil Queen, he offered the blonde a sympathetic expression. "I'm sorry, Sheriff. For your son's sake and for yours."
Emma managed to nod but any verbal response got stuck in her throat. So, this is it? she thought sourly. Left alone once again with Regina, she returned to her plastic chair and let her head fall into her hands. She thought about Henry and his absolute belief that true-love's kiss would work if only the right person kissed his mom. She felt a knot twist around her insides. Could it work? she asked herself and raised her head enough so that she could see Regina's face. Her lips.
It was tempting to try, even just so she could feel their contours against her own mouth again, but it was also terrifying. She didn't love Regina. There had been potential – a willingness to open her heart to someone again – but the mayor had thwarted her efforts at every turn. All Emma had was the memory of a glimpse at something that might be incredible. At best, she had begun to fall in love with the idea of Regina Mills. She would never know now if her gut was right or if she'd been deluding herself.
The sheriff had a horrible feeling that if she kissed Regina now, nothing would happen and she would be devastated. They needed another solution – something to keep the mayor from dying in the next three days and as she studied the brunette's form, an idea came to mind.
"She won't be happy, Emma," Snow responded once she'd heard her daughter's plan. "If you ever manage to find a way to break the curse, she will focus all her attention on making you pay."
Emma rolled her eyes at the theatrics. "He won't be any different to what he is now, a well-preserved corpse. If we do nothing, Regina will be dead. She can try to argue the point all she likes, but it's not as if we can stick her in the morgue. Your fairy friends agreed that Daniel's coffin is protecting him with magic. Transferring Regina into it is the only option we have if we don't want her to die." She saw the brief exchange between her parents – a quick flick of eyes that said 'maybe death is best for her' – before it was gone. "I will not let her die," she told them emphatically.
They were sat in Emma's office at the station with the door closed so that Jefferson couldn't eavesdrop. Well, Snow and David were sitting. The sheriff had taken to pacing. While keeping vigil over the vulnerable mayor, Emma had made several calls to former council members and managed to convince most that re-opening the school was a good idea. The majority of former teachers were happy to return to their cursed-jobs for the sake of the kids, so that morning, bright and early, she'd poked and prodded Henry out of bed and sent him on his way. Not only was it the responsible, motherly thing to do, it was the best option to keep her son out of trouble. At least, Emma hoped it was.
David's gaze narrowed on his daughter. Her dogged insistence on saving the Evil Queen continued to irk him. There seemed to be more to her drive than simply saving Henry some heartache. "This desire to save her," he began slowly. He noticed the instant tension in both his wife and daughter but pushed on. "It's all because of Henry, right? You're not… friends with her, right?" He thought back to all the times he'd seen Emma and Regina together. They always fought, so he'd assumed that they merely tolerated each other's presence, but some of Kathryn… Abigail's comments had suggested that there was more to that tension than either woman was willing to let on.
Emma avoided looking at her roommate and deflected the question instead. "Are we supposed to do nothing?" Her dream came back to her and those words, 'I saved you'. "Was she always so angry and full of hate?"
Snow shifted in her seat. "Well… no…"
"She's hurt too many people to go back," David finished before his wife could start questioning their beliefs again. "She enjoys hurting people, Emma. We've given her opportunities to change. Your mother even saved her from execution once. Regina repaid her kindness by trying to kill her. Again."
Emma moved over to the window and gazed out at nothing in particular. At the word 'executed' the teen from her dream entered her mind and she couldn't help picturing the whole scene now. She knew about being given chances to change too. "My last foster home, before I ended up on the streets, it was actually pretty nice," she began talking out of nowhere. Emma kept her back turned, knowing the sorrowful expressions she would get with this story. "The guy there, Terry, he was this huge, hairy dude with tattoos and a beer-belly, but nice, patient, funny. His wife, Gail, had almost no hair and buzzed around all day, cleaning, and feeding chickens and children. They didn't take any shit from us kids, but they cared." If she closed her eyes, she could almost see them and a sad smile tugged at her mouth as she plucked up the courage to face her parents. "They tried hard to put me on the right track. Boundaries and consequences for when I stirred shit up, and nice things like new books and clothes or extra time past my curfew on the rare occasion that I did something right."
Snow cleared her throat before responding. "They sound like wonderful people."
The sheriff nodded. "Yeah, they were." After watching her words sink in, she added the point she was trying to get to. "You know what I did with those nice things?" She saw frowns and watched the charming couple shake their heads. "I threw them back in their faces. Sold the gifts for cigarette money, got caught shoplifting during my earned free-time. I didn't trust the nice things. Didn't know what to do with them and didn't want to owe anything to people who might turn on me. Nice things came with caveats. Always." Her tone had hardened like it did when she was trying not to get upset. Young Regina gazed up at her from her memory – 'I didn't do anything wrong'. "When you feel like you get punished for being the good guy, eventually you stop trying. You become what people expect to see – the bad guy. Maybe you even believe it yourself. Until that's all you have left."
Shame coloured Snow's expression and David shared it for a moment before his own face hardened again. "But you turned your life around. You chose to do better." His little princess was not like the Evil Queen.
"Because of Henry," the sheriff insisted. "I had to give him up, yes. But I knew he was out there in the world. Somewhere. I knew that I needed to make a fresh start. Even if we never met, I needed to be better, for him." Her thoughts turned to the mayor and the countless occasions when the woman was pained by her son's rejection. Regina might have given up on caring about the town's people, but she cared about her son and his approval. "Having Henry changed me, and it changed Regina too. She had nothing to give her hope before. No reason to want to change and, if you think about it, you standing there and offering her a jail cell and a life of kissing ass was a kick in the teeth when she blamed you for ruining her life in the first place."
Charming rose from his seat then and stood toe-to-toe with the sheriff. "She was unhappy so we're just supposed to forget that she killed and cursed hundreds of people?"
Reacting to the angry stance, Emma squared up to her father. "You're missing the point. You want to let her die because you've given up and you want rid of her. There's no excuse for the things she's done, but she was a good person once and she didn't become a monster all by herself. Darker forces had a hand in that." She glared between the couple and found slight softening of their expressions. "This might be the first time since she became the Evil Queen that has a reason to want to do better. Henry is my priority – I don't want him to lose his mom, but I want to give something back to that young girl who saved your life," she said with a hard look at her mother. "This might be the only opportunity we get."
Silence fell over the room for several minutes, leaving each of them to stew in their own thoughts. Emma returned to the window, avoiding scrutinising gazes as she tried to bring her anger under control. Damn the kid and his book, she thought bitterly. Damn those dreams. Without knowing more of Regina's tragic history, she wouldn't have so much empathy and this whole situation would be much simpler.
Snow stood up eventually and joined her daughter at the window. "I hear what you're saying, Emma," she began softly. "I more than anyone know the good that she's capable of. But even if we manage to stop her dying from this curse, how do you propose to wake her up?"
Emma met her mother's gaze and gritted her teeth at the knowing behind those eyes. More and more, she wished that she'd managed to be more discrete when sneaking out to see her lover, wished that she hadn't shared so many of her breakdowns with her roommate. Mary Margret had known far too much about her affair with Regina. "I don't know. But I have to try."
"Then we'll help as much as we can."
Time felt endless in Emma's unconscious mind as she watched Regina walking towards the king, towards her future as a queen. The saviour watched the nightmare unfold without being able to do anything to stop what was happening. She followed the new queen through a jerky movie of gut-churning moments during her married life. She saw the gradual transformation of a hopeful girl on the cusp of womanhood into the vengeful, insatiable monster who, in a few years, would kill and curse countless people.
The moment she woke, the sheriff slipped out of her bed, into the bathroom and fell to her knees to hug the toilet bowl.
Henry insisted on being there when they transferred his mom to the magical, glass coffin. Emma tried to reason with him but he was already sore about her sending him into school and in his words, getting him out of the way, so she relented. He'd been fighting solo against great odds as long as any of them and she had to give him credit. Besides, she had a feeling that if she was too strict with his boundaries, he would find a way to take matters into his own hands and possibly find himself in greater peril that if he was with her. She decided to pick her battles carefully.
There was already a lot of gossip around town about the fate of the former mayor. Once word got out that Regina was in the hospital, there were cries for a trial, demands for her execution and many petitions to be sent back to the Enchanted Forest – back to their homes. When it was discovered that the Evil Queen was unable to wake, let alone defend herself in court or work her magic, no one seemed to know what to do. It was as if they didn't know how to function without having a villain to fight. But eventually, the majority of Storybrooke citizens fell back on their cursed lives and seemed none the worse for having mundane jobs in a small, Maine town.
Daniel's coffin solved the issue of Regina's borrowed time; Emma and Henry were the most relieved by Dr Yang's reassurance that her vitals were holding stable, but it didn't solve the issue of waking her up. When, after two days, the hospital staff began to complain that the glass box with its hated occupant was taking up space and getting in their way, Snow and David moved it down to the basement. Under protest, the sheriff supervised; she felt sullen and angry that Regina was being shoved into storage… until they reached the psych-ward and found a surprise waiting for them.
Locking a girl in a basement for thirty years? Seriously, Regina!? For fuck's sake.
Suddenly, Emma didn't feel so guilty leaving the mayor in this god-forsaken, padded prison. The welling nausea in her stomach quickly turned into anger again. Every time she uncovered some new horror, she felt betrayed all over again. If it wasn't for the stupid, emotive dreams and the persistent intuition that behind the monster hid a sensitive and worthy soul, she would have given up on Regina altogether.
But it wasn't just the mayor who fuelled her ire. An hour later, when they sat around the dining table in the apartment with their rescued damsel, Emma excused herself to her bedroom and found Henry's book.
Automatically turning to the back page, she lifted the contents in one hand and allowed the pages to fall in order until she reached the story she was looking for. Since breaking the dark curse, Henry noted that his book continued to gather new stories. Every day, he excitedly checked the pages to find something else to learn. Now, whenever they had questions, they went straight to their encyclopaedia of all things fairy-tale.
On this new page, a young woman in a blue dress walked a dirt track towards an ominous looking castle. In her hand, she held a basket and from the side-view of her face, Emma thought she looked conflicted. Belle's story had very little in common with the fun-loving Disney movie that she'd watched through the heads of four other children when she was nine. The semi-abusive love story hit a little too close to home as the sheriff flicked through the pages and absorbed the brave princess' attempt to tame the beastly Rumpelstiltskin. She wondered about the fate of the child in the basket and held her breath through the appearance of the Evil Queen in full regalia, who casually manipulated the situation for her own gain. The spiteful rivalry between the two villains piqued Emma's interest and she flicked back through the book for the gold-smith's own tale.
When Emma couldn't find it the first time, she assumed that she'd accidentally skipped a few pages in her haste, but two subsequent searches later left her scratching her head in frustration. Gold was looking shadier and shadier by the day. What little she'd known about him before paled in comparison to the nuggets of information she was collecting now, but it still only scratched the surface. Whatever his story, she had a gut feeling that it weaved significantly through Regina's. As Henry had suggested, he'd become the reluctant queen's teacher in all thing arcane. Had that been at Regina's behest or had he twisted it so that she saw no other option?
Emma returned downstairs to find Mary Margret washing tea-cups, Belle staring into space, and David and Henry sitting on the couch, inspecting some plastic/tape/pipe-cleaner monstrosity that her son had obviously brought home from school. Despite her burning curiosity and the urge she had to interrogate the petite bookworm, Emma made her way over to Henry and leaned on the back of the couch.
"What you got there, Kid?" she asked, mustering as much interest as she could. In the corner of her mind, a little voice wondered whether Regina would have to fake her enjoyment of this particular parental chore.
"We were testing forces in class," he began excitedly and thrust his creation in her face so that she had an up-close view of the bottle-tops he'd used for wheels. He scrambled up to his knees and turned the cylinder over so she could see the drinking-straw sticking out of the top and the balloon attached to it. "You see, you have to blow it up, put it on the floor and it flies across the floor when the air comes out. We tried them on the yard and it didn't really work. But it was better than math."
The sheriff chuckled and reached out to take a closer look at what she now recognised as a car. "Anything to get out of math, huh? We could try it with a smaller body - change the weight to power ratio. Maybe let it go in the apartment so the surface is smoother too. Less friction, y'know?" The idea took hold in her mind and she began to work out the possibilities. She was so invested in it that when she came back to the room, she was surprised to find everyone staring at her. "What?" She found Snow's eyes across the kitchen and felt herself blush at the proud, motherly expression staring back at her. Clearing her throat, Emma gave the car/eco-nightmare back to her son and wandered back over to their guest. "Belle," she began, hoping that her cheeks weren't as red as they felt. "I know you've been through something traumatic. I don't want to add to it, but I need to know why Regina took you hostage. Do you feel up to talking about it?"
Belle stared for a few seconds as if an internal dialogue was happening inside her head, but eventually, she nodded. "I'm not very though… distressed, I mean." She gazed around at all of the faces looking her way and shrank back in her chair slightly. "I don't know how to explain it. The last week has been hardest – knowing who I am but not where I am. Not knowing if my friends and family are safe, but before that… I was awake and… in sort of a trance, I think." Snow had made a fresh pot of tea and returned to the table to pour. As she stepped closer, Belle shrank further back. "It's odd being around so many people though. I feel very out of practise."
"I'm sorry," the teacher apologised quickly before moving away and giving the woman space. She sat the pot on the table and fell into her own chair. "How did you end up in a trance?"
"When the Evil Queen captured me, she called me her insurance policy. I was allowed books, food and water, but I had to stay in my cell and I think there was some sort of spell in there. I remember, whenever I started to get angry, I immediately felt tired and just wanted to sleep."
"So, my mom didn't torture you?" Henry asked, his voice soft as if he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
Their guest frowned and looked between the boy and the sheriff. Emma caught on before the other woman could voice her thoughts. "Regina adopted him so technically, she's his mom."
"Oh," Belle replied, surprised. "Well… I suppose not in a violent sense…"
Again, Emma read the woman's face and knew that torture didn't have to be physical to be traumatic. "But that doesn't make what she did right, Kid."
"I know," Henry blurted, his expression saying that he felt he was being called 'stupid'. "I just…" He faltered.
"You want to know that she can come back from all of the horrible things she did," Emma finished for him. "I get it. I do too, but we've got a long way to go before we get there." Turning back to Belle, she added, "She kept you for leverage against Gold, didn't she?"
"Who?"
"Rumpelstiltskin," David answered – feeling glad to change the subject slightly.
For the first time since her rescue, Belle seemed reluctant to talk when asked a direct question. A blush crept into her cheeks and she squirmed in her chair. "I'm not sure I should say anything."
David opened his mouth to push the question but Snow beat him to the punch and placed a sympathetic hand on the woman's forearm. "It's ok, Belle. I think we've interrogated you enough and it's getting late. You're more than welcome to stay here tonight, but there are rooms at Granny's if you would prefer that? Emma could join you for breakfast after she's sent Henry to school in the morning?"
Relief engulphed the woman's face and she nodded. "I think I would prefer to be on my own, if that's ok?" She ducked her head and half smiled. "That must sound odd considering I've been alone for nearly thirty years."
"Not at all…"
Emma sat back and watched as her mother expertly handled the nervous woman. She hated that she'd been interrupted when Belle had barely given her anything to quench her thirst for information but Emma could see that the woman was tired and uncomfortable with all of the attention. Perhaps Mary Margret was right; maybe a casual chat over breakfast would go better.
An impish and malicious giggle echoed through Emma's dreamscape as she watched the Evil Queen glaring at her reflection in a broken mirror. It was the face of hate. Reflected in the mirror, it was the face of hate for what she'd become and hate for those who'd led her there.
That giggle. Emma shuddered. It was a sound she'd heard a few times before in her recent nightmares and it always creeped her out. The Dark One. Rumpelstiltskin. Regina's teacher in the dark arts. Though he popped sporadically in and out of the queen's story, Emma had the persistent impression that he was far more involved than his presence let on.
In the dark of her bedroom, Emma stared at the ceiling and tried to calm her racing heart. She was fairly sure that Regina would want to kill her for having such access to the trials of her life, but there wasn't much she could do to stop it from happening. After her initial confusion and scepticism over the validity of her dreams, she'd accepted that she was really seeing events from the past. How she was seeing these things, she had no idea. Magic was something that she was still getting used to and in order to figure things out, she suspected that she'd have to share her experiences with the likes of Gold or Mother Superior. Neither of those options filled her with confidence, so she was stuck with enduring the nightly montage.
Emma perched on a desk in the bull-pen early the next morning and stared at the empty cells. Everything she'd learned about the justice system while growing up was being put to the test. Just because Jefferson couldn't remember his crimes, didn't mean he was any less dangerous, but Snow had argued that he had been tormented into behaving the way he did. The sheriff read between the lines; if she was planning to explain Regina's crimes as the acts of someone driven to darkness through the motivations of others more powerful than her, then she could hardly ignore The Hatter's plea.
The Enchanted Forest's system of morality might appear simple to most. This idea of good and evil was easy to judge on the surface. Villains dressed for the occasion and appeared to take pleasure in their mistreatment of others, but Emma couldn't not see grey everywhere. If she had any hope of adapting to work between two worlds, she knew she had to find some logic in the middle.
Since she had pictured giving Regina a chance to show that she was capable of change – now that she had something worth fighting for – the sheriff had to afford others that same chance. She invited Jefferson into her office and explained the conditions of his release. He was to bring any grievances to her if he couldn't sort them out in a peaceful way, but it wasn't until Snow arrived with a hopeful-looking girl around Henry's age that she finally saw sincerity in his face. Like Regina, it seemed that the love he held for his child was the thing that might save him.
The sheriff shook off her deeper thoughts and made her way out to the car. After her mother had taken Belle over to Granny's the day before, Snow returned and told her that the woman was willing to meet Emma for breakfast at ten. "You might be able to get through to her better than your father or I. Maybe you will find that you have difficulties in common."
Snow's words hit home and stuck with her. Though they'd yet to talk about it, Emma knew the teacher was referring to her feelings for Regina. If Belle still harboured affection for Rumpelstiltskin, they were united in their attraction to the two villains.
Emma drove across town with her thoughts in a spin. She parked outside Granny's a few minutes early and found the place still busy. It being a weekday, most of the breakfast rush had been and gone, and these stragglers were the few who either worked shifts, were retired or in limbo between their past and cursed lives. The sheriff ignored them as much as she could without being rude and ordered a coffee before eyeing up the booths.
"Looking for someone, Sheriff?" Ruby asked with her usual, friendly expression.
Emma faced the waitress and reached for her drink. "Your new guest is supposed to be joining me for breakfast. I can't see anywhere for us to sit yet."
"I heard her up and about before I joined Granny for the morning rush. I guess she'll be over soon. I'll keep an eye out for a table – it should start to slow down now." Ruby smiled at the blonde's nod, moved off briefly to take someone's payment and then returned to hover over the sheriff. "So, is it true? The mayor's under her own sleeping curse?"
Trying not to choke on her coffee, Emma checked for prying ears and then gaped at the waitress. "Who…? Mary Margret told you," she realised quickly. At the woman's sheepish nod, she sighed. "Yeah. She ate the apple. At least, it's hard to see how it happened any other way, so that's what we think."
Ruby noted the hangdog expression on the sheriff's face and worked to temper her sense of triumph a bit more. "It sort of makes sense as a punishment, don't you think?"
"Sure," Emma replied, non-committal.
"You don't think so?"
The blonde shrugged. "I don't have your history with her. I know she's twisted and a pain in the ass, but I can't help seeing my son's mother when I look at her. Maybe I'm looking for reasons to go easy on her, but it seems to me as if everyone's ready to tar and feather her without knowing the whole story." It wasn't what she'd intended to say, but something about Ruby's friendly features made her want to open up. So far, the only two adults she'd had time to properly talk to were her parents and they were the last two people she wanted to talk to about this. "And then there are these dreams I'm having…" She stirred her coffee absently, her gaze fixed on the swirling liquid.
"Naughty dreams?" Ruby asked as she lowered her voice to a whisper.
Emma's head shot up and her cheeks reddened. "No!" she hissed, which was true, but her adamant denial did nothing to stop the memories of the mayor's naked body from playing in her head.
The waitress scoffed with amusement. "I wouldn't blame you, Emma. It's hard not to notice that she's hot." She opened her mouth to add something but hesitated as her sharp vision caught movement across the room. "Looks like your friend is here. And I can see an empty booth."
"Thanks," the sheriff replied and jumped off her bar stool with all the energy of someone trying to escape. She met Belle in the middle of the room and offered a greeting before pointing to the empty booth. "You can order at the bar or Ruby will come over when you're ready."
The timid-looking woman nodded and followed Emma to the booth. "I'm not sure what the customs are in this place," she muttered shyly.
The blonde waved off her concern and made an effort to appear relaxed. "You'll pick it up. So long as you don't have 'evil' in your title, it seems like everyone's your friend." She heard the unintended spite in her tone and kicked herself. "Did you sleep ok?"
Belle's blue eyes scrutinised the sheriff for a moment before she answered. "Yes. Thank you. Ruby and Granny are very kind and the room is nice. It's a relief just to be able to look out of the window, see the outside world and know that I can leave any time I want."
"Sure." Fuck, is that gonna be your catch-phrase now? Annoyed with herself, Emma bit the inside of her cheek. "Look, I get that you're adapting to a lot. I know how it feels. A month ago, I didn't believe in magic, curses and fairy tales. I'm doing better with the whole 'mom' thing… I think. But I am really far from being comfortable having parents." Her voice was already low but the sheriff leaned a little further over the table and lowered it a bit more. "I grew up in this world – mostly alone – and that has a lot to do with Regina's vendetta against Snow White. The thing is…" Emma sank back in her chair and sighed as she rubbed a hand over her eyes.
Belle's gaze was glued to the sheriff. There was something so raw and pained about this unlikely hero that she found herself wishing that she could provide all the answers the blonde was looking for. "You care about her," she realised abruptly.
Already feeling like she'd said too much, Emma closed her eyes and inclined her head slightly. With perfect timing, Ruby arrived to take their orders and between them, she and the sheriff managed to find something on the menu that Belle liked the sound of. Several, long seconds passed after the waitress left but eventually, Emma was able to add, "I need to know if there really is a good person under all of that anger. I need to know her story. And not just the bits that Mary Margret… I mean, Snow remembers."
Belle nodded and sat back in her seat, but did little more than stare out of the window thoughtfully until their food arrived. They ate in silence and Emma began to think that Mary Margret was wrong; their new-found friend was not going to give them anything, regardless of any empathy she had for Emma's plight. But when their plates were cleared away and they each had fresh drinks, blue eyes met green and seemed to come to a decision.
"You were right; the Evil Queen took me to hurt Rumpel and to have leverage over him. I believe he taught her how to use her magic, but I'm not sure how they came to be such rivals." She looked off into the distance and sighed.
Granny's had calmed considerably since they sat down, but Emma knew that it wouldn't be long before the lunchtime rush. Thinking that Belle might be interested and that it might keep her talking, the sheriff suggested that they return to the apartment to look through Henry's book. The other woman's face lit up at the thought, but as Emma stood at the counter waiting for her change, the bell above the door announced someone's entrance and a soft gasp from behind caught the sheriff's ear. She didn't have to turn to place the rhythmic sound of that cane hitting the tiled floor.
I have thoughts. Do you have thoughts?