Hope you're all well and still enjoying.
Chapter Six: Reunion
From her place in the cellar, Emma Swan barely heard the shattering of glass, the screams of rage and panic, or the spirited resistance from Leo White and his guards. Her mind swam in and out of consciousness, her stomach nauseated with the spinning of her thoughts. Every part of her ached but every now and then, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
For every cohesive thought, Regina's face appeared, usually accompanied by Henry's. They were laughing, happy, free.
When the darkness was assaulted by a blinding light, she fought it weakly. She didn't want to go – wasn't ready to leave them, but then the earth moved beneath her and pain exploded everywhere. Light, noise, agony. Too much. Make it stop! And then the dark moved in, heavier, pulling her down, and she wanted it – wanted to fall into its comforting blanket. The only thing stopping her from diving headlong into it was a sudden soft warmth invading her senses, and a prevailing thought hit her; someone's holding my hand.
The small, private family room at the hospital was quiet now that she'd stopped pacing. Regina wasn't sure how long she'd been left alone now, but every second felt like an eternity. She'd only managed to see Emma for a minute after she was brought in by the ambulance; just long enough to hold the blonde's hand as the EMTs raced the gurney along the corridor towards the operating theatre.
Her own superficial wounds had been dealt with – the physical ones anyway – so, when her mother was wheeled past moments later, she took one look at the woman and lost her shit. The police officer, who'd been assigned to watch over Cora Mills, was abruptly faced with a vengeful and livid daughter. He needed all his strength to hold her back from throttling her mother, which was why she was now shut in this room with a guard standing outside.
At first, she blamed herself for Emma being hurt; she should never have responded to that letter and played into her mother's hands so easily. But as she turned the events over and over in her mind, it soon became clear that it was unlikely any other way could have played into their hands to capture Cora Mills and Leo White.
Hers and Emma's fates were intertwined. She couldn't find a point in their lives where she regretted their meeting or intervening to help each other. Without meeting Emma, she would never have been able to pull the girl out of the dire situation with her foster parents, and without Emma coming to her rescue, she would have lost her fight against her mother much sooner and most probably, lost her son too. Whichever way she sliced it, she and Emma only made each other's lives better. It was also clear now that they would have had no outside help without the evidence which they found in Leo White's office. In many ways, they'd been lucky with how events had played out, but that didn't make it any easier waiting to see if her girlfriend was going to survive.
Regina sat with her head cradled in her hands until the sound of voices by the door drew her attention. It was a medley of men and women in debate, but mixed in was the sound of a boy's whining. In an instant, she felt her exhaustion leave her and she held her breath as she waited for the door to open. As the handle moved, so did her feet and she was half way across the room when Henry walked in and saw her.
"Mommy!" he cried and launched himself into her arms.
"Henry," Regina murmured into his hair as she kissed the top of his head. "My Prince."
His reply was muffled by her clothes for a moment before he looked up at her and said with a pout, "You left."
Regina's stomach dropped and she glanced fleetingly up at the other adults who'd entered the room before kneeling down to her son's height. "I know, sweetheart. Believe me, I didn't want to leave you." She watched a tear fall from the corner of his eyes and automatically wiped it away as he sniffled and her heart clenched with guilt.
"But you did, you left. You didn't say where you was going and Emma said you was coming back and we drawed'ed you a map. Did you get it? Is that how you finded us?" His words came out in one big rush as his mother led him to a seat and he crawled into her lap.
"I'm sure you did a fantastic job, you and Emma. I'm afraid I didn't get back to the house though, Henry," Regina told him gently. "Emma came to find me."
"She did?" he asked as his face lit up. "Ruby said Emma had to work," he added suspiciously.
Regina smiled at his quickness and bopped his nose. "Well, she was working. That's what Emma does, dear; she finds people."
The other adults had settled into chairs around the room, filling them up. Agents Brookes and Zauberwald sat rigidly in single chairs by the door while Mary Margret Blanchard, her husband, David and their son, James occupied one small sofa and finally, Ruby and Ragnar sprawled in the other. It was like a very strange family reunion to which Regina hadn't known she was invited.
"Miss Mills," Agent Brookes spoke up, breaking the short silence amongst the adults as mother and son got reacquainted. "Thank you for the evidence you provided. It will go a long way to ensuring the maximum convictions, and freedom for women like yourselves."
"Mm-hm," Regina responded, her jaw clenching. She knew those last few words were meant to placate her, but thinking about Emma being in surgery and how it could have been avoided, she wasn't feeling particularly conciliated. "As a word of advice, in future: keep your CIs better informed. Especially when they are afraid for their lives or their loved ones. People have a right to know what they're facing. And I hope, for your sakes, that the doctors can give us good news when they come back."
The threat hung in the air. Both agents nodded, but neither looked ashamed of their actions. "We will take that under advisement," Agent Zauberwald replied. "We have Mrs Blanchard's statement, but have yet to get yours. Would now be a convenient time?"
Jaw clenched, Regina eyed them both and considered the question. No, now wasn't a convenient time; she was tired, emotionally drained, worried about Emma and reluctant to leave her son now that she had him back. But she wasn't the kind of person who procrastinated, she wanted their case to keep its momentum and she really couldn't wait until they were out of sight. With all of this in mind, she nodded and turned to her son.
"Henry," she prodded and waited until he'd turned to look at her. "You remember Agents Brookes and Zauberwald?"
He nodded. "The two idiots."
Regina's eyebrow rose sharply. "I beg your pardon?" she asked with surprise.
"That's what Emma said," he explained. His innocent eyes looked worriedly up at his mother. "She called them The Two Idiots." A snort of repressed laughter came from James and Henry glanced around to find most of the adults with indulgent smiles on their faces. He looked back at his mother; his worry gone.
"I'm sure that Emma thought she had a point," Regina responded, her eyes flicking across the room to the pair, who still appeared inscrutable. "But it's not nice to call people names – even when we're angry and frustrated."
"Ok, Mommy," he answered with an easy smile. He wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling that his mother thought he was being funny.
"Right, well, I need to go and talk with them about what happened while I was away. I want you to stay here until I get back, ok?" She watched his expression crumple and knew that she was in for a battle.
Twenty minutes later, after some patient reassurance and not-so-patient negotiation, Regina followed the agents to a private room they'd appropriated for the task. As they entered and she looked around, she realised that they were in somebody's office. "You have one hour," she reminded them.
To their credit, they used it efficiently, probing her with questions about what she'd seen and heard while locked up at Leo White's estate; why she'd left the safehouse, her impression of Mr White and Mrs Mills', and what she'd felt during the entire ordeal. As they wrapped things up and told her that they might contact her again if they needed more information, Agent Brookes dropped another bomb on her.
"Miss Mills, our case is strong, but we're in agreement that your testimony would add a personal element that might otherwise be missed by a jury. Would you be willing to stand up in court as a witness and testify against your mother and Mr White?"
Regina's blood ran cold at the idea of facing her mother in any situation where the woman might be able to poke more holes in her, even if that was by proxy of a defence lawyer, but there was also something compelling about the thought of standing up to the woman and exposing her for the monster she was. Eventually, she nodded and stood to leave, thinking that they'd finished.
"Just one more thing, Miss Mills," Agent Brookes added before the woman could leave.
Regina paused with the door ajar, her hand resting on the knob. "What is it? You've had your hour. Don't make me a liar to my son; I said I'd be back in about two minutes from now."
"I believe you will want to hear this," Agent Zauberwald answered with a rare smile.
"Fine. Go ahead," the hesitant mother conceded.
Brookes continued. "We plan on questioning your mother about the disappearance of Mary Margret and David Blanchard's baby girl twenty-five years ago. We thought it would be useful for you to know that the dates and circumstances of the child's disappearance correlate closely to knowledge that Miss Swan has about her own origins. She declined the suggestion that we do a DNA match, but you might have more luck in convincing her."
Regina's cynical side rose at this and she jumped to the first defensive thing that came to mind. "Closing a twenty-five-year-old cold case. That would look good on you, wouldn't it?"
Zauberwald's indulgent expression soured slightly. "It would also bring together three generations of a family."
"Well, technically four generations, but I'm certain that Miss Swan will be unenthusiastic about her potential grandfather," Agent Brookes added.
Regina's sudden urge to leave – to make sure she didn't break her promise to her son – was forgotten in light of what she'd just heard. As she processed the meaning of Agent Brookes' words, her imagination ran wild. After a pause to gather her senses again, she turned to face the agents and gently shut the door.
"You really think that my mother took Mary Margret's baby and that Mary Margret could be Emma's mother?" Regina asked, her tone serious now.
"The child went missing from the hospital. A nurse was found unconscious in a supply closet and her uniform stolen. Surveillance wasn't so clear back then, but the woman caught on camera strongly resembles your mother," Brookes elaborated. "From Miss Swan's own words, she was taken in by a family and kept for three years until the… I hesitate to say 'mother'…"
"Female," Zauberwald suggested.
The other agent nodded. "Until the female discovered she was pregnant. They took Miss Swan to Social Services with the story that they'd found her on the side of the road, near a diner, and cared for her but wouldn't cope with two children."
Agent Zauberwald tapped the cover of a file, drawing Regina's attention. "We spoke to Social Services – where the couple said they found the baby girl was only ten miles from the hospital. No links were made between Mrs Blanchard's missing baby and Miss Swan's abandonment. They were apparently stretched too thin to spare the resources."
Regina's eyes closed tightly while she tried to hold in her anger. Government services were always underfunded and their staff overworked. "So, then she grew up in the system and was bounced around from one family to another."
"It may not turn out to be a fairy tale ending, but we believe that it's worth a shot," Zauberwald finished.
Before Regina could leave, Agent Brookes added one final note, "You know, the Blanchard's were filing adoption papers for Miss Swan when she ran away at fifteen. They loved her whether she was their flesh and blood or not. I think it would be worth her knowing that."
Regina sat by her girlfriend's bed as much as the hospital would let her over the next few days. As next of kin to another of their patients, they insisted on keeping her updated with her mother's progress towards recovery, but each new conversation irked her more than the last. Why was a power-hungry monster like Cora Mills making greater strides than an altruistic angel like Emma Swan? The universe had a sick sense of humour, she thought as she held the blonde's hand and prayed for her to wake up.
When a week passed and her mother's doctor knocked on the door with a request from the witch to speak with her, she almost throttled him. It was sheer quickness of thought and an in depth feel for her mother's schemes that kept her in her seat, biting her tongue. Wouldn't the jury love to hear how violent Regina Mills was with her mother, even in the hospital? She could already see the fake tears from her mother; the shaking shoulders and wringing handkerchief. No, she wouldn't give the woman the satisfaction of having reliable witness statements against her.
"Thank you, but no," she seethed before returning to her vigil.
Henry joined her sometimes, when he wasn't in school. And when neither her son nor Emma was available to keep her from going mad in her own thoughts, she shut herself in her office at the community centre and worked. The last thing she wanted was for her girlfriend to recover only to find that everything she'd fought for had collapsed in her absence. Everyone there asked after their hero when Regina arrived the first day, but since then, only Ashley came for an update and kept the other well-wishers at bay. It wasn't that Regina didn't appreciate their concern, but it was draining. She made a note on a post-it to do something nice for the young mother when the whole ordeal was over and stuck it by her computer.
By day eight, the FBI could no longer hold a lid on the story of Leo White's arrest and held a press conference. Regina saw her own face beside Emma's on the TV that night and groaned, knowing that she would be hounded for information from every upstart journalist-wannabe in the state. The only upside was that Emma's building boasted a higher level of security than her own, and since she still was technically evicted from her own apartment, that was where she and Henry had been staying.
Once it became too impractical to work from the UDF, she had a courier deliver her work through the throngs of reporters and set up a space in Emma's home office. A rarely used space by the look of it, Regina wasted no time in making herself at home. It was day ten when she got an unexpected visitor and the first piece of good news she'd had for a while.
Ragnar messaged ahead to say that he was on his way and bringing someone to help her with preparing for future court appearances. Regina sighed to herself as she responded with a short 'ok' and saved all her progress before piling everything neatly for later and shutting down Emma's laptop. She made her way to the kitchen, bypassed the liquor cabinet which was calling to her, and began to boil the kettle. By the time she heard the apartment door open and close, she had a steaming mug of tea in hand and was sitting in the conversation pit, waiting.
When footsteps approached and she turned to greet the visitors, she didn't immediately recognise the blonde woman standing there. Images of couples and families laughing, eating and drinking together in a back yard; Daniel wearing an apron and holding a pair of tongues over a flaming barbecue; dreams of a future with children running around their feet; guilt from peddling false identities to friends who'd quickly become like family. It all felt like another world. Another life.
The blonde offered a half smile and said, "Hi, Queenie."
Regina sobbed and wobbled to her feet. One hand covered the pain-filled sounds that wanted to fall from her mouth while the other bit into itself with painted nails. "Kat?" she whispered. Though what came out of her mouth barely sounded like a word.
Kathryn closed the distance and wrapped her arms around her old friend. She held on until she felt the shaking stop and was sure the brunette had cried as much as she could for now. She guided them towards the stylish couch and held the other woman's hands as she tried to find the words to begin again.
"So… Regina Mills?" she questioned as she tried out the new appellation.
Regina nodded and squeezed her friend's hands. "Yeah," she answered softly.
"That explains why I couldn't find you after you left," the blonde teased.
Though she knew it was meant as a joke, Regina grimaced and felt the return of all the guilt she'd stored away. "I'm so sorry, Kat. I just knew that she wasn't going to stop following me and I didn't want you or Fred to get caught in the crossfire."
"It's ok, Quee… Regina," Kathryn corrected hastily and then chuckled to herself. "That's going to take some getting used to. From what I caught on the news this week, you were right to run from her and to try to hide. I'm glad they put a picture of you on there; it's so good to see you again, and I can't wait to see how much Henry's grown."
Lured onto her favourite topic, Regina happily caught her old friend up to date on her son and some of the big events that had shaken their lives.
"So," Kat asked after they'd exhausted the subject of the seven-year-old and Regina had given away more than she probably realised about her boss/girlfriend. "How did you meet Emma Swan?"
Images of a scrawny yet spirited child leapt instantly to the brunette's mind but Regina knew that wasn't what her friend meant, so she spoke instead about how her mother's machinations had gradually tipped her into poverty, how she'd been forced to work several jobs and started eating scraps from people's plates because she was so hungry.
Her voice became heavy in the retelling, until she could hold it no longer and it began to shake. "That's when I met Miss Swan," she eventually said with an audible easing. "Apparently, she caught me as I fainted." A blush covered her cheeks as she thought about the incident at the fundraiser and imagined what it must have looked like.
Kathryn watched the change in her friend's face and smiled. "It's nice to see you happy again… Regina. I know things are still uncertain, but there's a light in your eyes that wasn't there after Danny passed. It's good to see it again."
Regina nodded. So many things about her life since Emma Swan reappeared seemed too fantastical to be real, but she'd realised recently that she wouldn't change where she was even if she could. "She was always meant to be in my life in some way," she commented cryptically.
"What do you mean?" Kathryn prodded.
So, Regina explained how she'd met Emma as a child; how she'd saved the girl from an abusive home; how Emma had ended up with Nieve White's family and how she'd eventually given birth to the son Regina adopted. She kept the possible blood-relation to Leo White to herself since it wasn't her secret to share and tried not to think about how her girlfriend could have been her step-granddaughter if she'd gone through with the sham wedding.
"She's Henry's birth mother!?" the blonde marvelled. "How on Earth did you find that out?"
"Mother." Dark eyes stared internally for several seconds before focussing again on the blonde. "It's how she lured me out of the safehouse. I shouldn't have been so stupid, but it just seemed like she held all the cards and the FBI were tight-lipped about all the delays." She paused and gazed down at her hands, which were clenched firmly together. "She made it sound like she was going to get away with everything; she threatened to pull Emma's community centres and all her charitable efforts out from under her. Without Emma's support, I would have little choice but to go crawling back to her, and she knew it. She played on that by agreeing to sort out the paper work so that Emma could adopt Henry. He would have a mother who loved him and a secure home. How could I turn that down?"
"Did Emma sign the papers?" the blonde wondered as her thoughts turned to lawyer mode. It chilled her to know that Regina had been so convinced of her mother's power that she'd been scared into giving up custody of her son. "It wouldn't be final until she did. And we could work at having it thrown out on the grounds that you were under sever duress."
Regina smiled at the annoyance in her friend's tone. She loved having Emma's support and Ruby had her back when she needed it, but it was nice having someone in her corner who knew the legal system. "She's already told me in no uncertain terms that I'm his mother and that she will help to put things back in order when she can," she replied and became suddenly very aware that there was a silly, dreamy expression painting her features.
Kat grinned and felt her cheeks begin to hurt with the effort as her friend's embarrassment peaked and the blush reached her ears. "I like the sound of this woman more and more. What's she like between the sheets?"
Once Kathryn began her teasing in full force, Regina knew that they were ok. Seeing the blonde made her ache to see Daniel again and she couldn't help but worry that Henry might ask about his dad, but that was a bridge she'd cross when she came to it. For now, she was just going to enjoy the fact that she had another person whom her mother had failed to steal away.
When the topic shifted from Emma Swan to the upcoming legal battles against Leo White, Cora Mills and their network of blue-blood traffickers, Kathryn's secondary purpose for visiting exposed itself.
"I know that there will be many high-paid lawyers on this case, Regina. More than we can probably stomach," the blonde stated. "But I'd like to be with you on this as much as possible, if you'll have me? Pro-bono, of course."
Regina felt a wave of gratitude run through her. She was dreading the start of the trials and could feel the sting of tears just at the thought that her friend would be there. "You really want to be there with me?" she double checked.
Kathryn reached over to grab a hand and gave it a squeeze. "You won't be alone, Regina. We'll all make sure of that."
A shaking hand wiped ineffectively at falling tears. "The defence is going to tear into me," the brunette acknowledged. "They're going to try to destroy my character so I look as bad as her. And then they're going to try to make her look like some kind of misguided saint."
"Sweetie, as long as you remember that it's all crap and a desperate attempt to make her shit smell like roses, then we'll keep you sane. We'll work on some strategies for answering questions when things get heated 'cause you know they're going to try to get a rise out of you."
"Yes," Regina answered absently.
They talked until it was time to pick Henry up from school and head over to the hospital. Kat tagged along and made the passage through reporters slightly less onerous. Henry frowned at the sight of the blonde woman with his mother, until some distant memory wandered into the foreground of his thoughts and he greeted her with a sceptical, "Auntie Kat?"
"Henry!" the blonde replied in pleased surprise. "You remember me?"
The boy shot a quick, hesitant look at his mother, who stroked his hair, smiled back and nodded reassuringly. He turned to the woman he remembered from so long ago and walked slowly into open arms. He remembered her smell and felt a wave of memory flood back into his thoughts. Instantly, he started chatting about those days past.
With her thoughts flitting here, there and everywhere, Regina barely noticed the frenetic activity of the ICU wing as the trio stepped off the elevator. It was only when she realised that most of the chaos was coming and going from the room where Emma was recovering that she felt her heart in her throat and picked up the pace.
Just outside, the guard held them off. "Ma'am, you can't go in there yet," the stoic woman told the three visitors.
"Why? What's happening?" Regina asked insistently.
"Mom? Is Emma ok?" Henry worried from his mother's side. His upbeat attitude was gone, replaced by the peripheral perils of mortality.
Remembering that she needed to be brave not only for herself, Regina hugged her son to her side and stroked his hair. "We'll find out soon, Henry. We just need to let the doctors and nurses do their jobs."
Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long. Within a couple of minutes of them standing beside the door to Emma's room, the busy flow of foot traffic slowed to almost nothing and the patient's doctor came out to greet them with an update.
"She's fine," Doctor Kamran reassured them before she could be peppered with questions. Her smile put the visitors at ease, leaving her with room to explain. "She woke up, panicked and pulled a few stitches, as well as tearing out her IV. You might just catch her before she goes back to sleep, but don't keep her talking too long?"
Regina nodded and then glanced at her friend for reassurance.
"I'll wait out here. You can introduce me later," Kathryn suggested and waved Regina off. "Go. I'm sure she'll rest better after seeing you two."
Mother and son stepped cautiously into the hospital room and zeroed in on the occupant in the bed. Emma Swan lay in the same position they'd grown used to, with her eyes fast shut and tubes and wires surrounding her. Disappointment gripped them both, but as they drew closer and their footfalls grew louder, green eyes flickered to life and opened to search for their presence.
"Emma," Regina whispered and moved into the blonde's field of vision so she wouldn't have to move her head too much. Her hands sought safe places to touch her girlfriend where she wouldn't cause more pain, while tears sprang to her eyes and blurred the image before her. When she felt Henry pressing against her, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer.
"Hey," the blonde's sand-paper voice croaked in response.
"Hi," the brunette greeted the invalid sweetly. Regina watched as the stubborn blonde started to shift as if to get up and tutted in admonishment. "You are under strict orders to rest," she informed her girlfriend sternly, her hand landing gently on a shoulder to discourage Emma from moving any further.
Too tired to fight, Emma blinked slowly and allowed her body to relax. Each breath seemed to stab into her chest and for a while, all she could do was focus on breathing through the pain. When she'd first woken up, adrenaline had filled her veins and her mind had taken her right back to that cellar, where Cora Mills had dictated her torture and had tormented her with Leo White's plans for Regina's future as his wife. Now, seeing her girlfriend and their son in the flesh, she could finally relax. Fingers stroked through her hair, drawing her eyes closed and letting her body succumb to the drugs pulling her under.
The next time Emma regained consciousness, there were other people in the room. Hushed voices spoke back and forth, but since she didn't immediately recognise them as Regina or Henry, she lay still and drifted between her dream world and reality.
"Do you think they will?" Mary Margret asked her husband. "It would be so lovely to have us all together. I still can't believe we found her, David."
"I'm sure even if they have other plans this time, we'll convince them to visit soon," Mr Blanchard assured his wife. "Do you think it's worth mentioning…?" He trailed off and looked longingly over at the young woman in the hospital bed. "We were so close to being a family."
"I don't know," Mary Margret replied, her voice growing even softer. "I don't want to scare her away again."
"She's a grown woman with a son, a girlfriend and a successful career," David pointed out, his voice bursting with pride. "She just helped to bring down a powerful criminal hub. Do you really think she'll run now?"
Mrs Blanchard sighed. "Maybe not, but we should tread lightly."
The private conversation hadn't registered as particularly interesting at first, but when Emma remembered Mary Margret from Leo White's mansion, she made an effort to listen closer. When David Blanchard spoke too, she felt a churning in her stomach that had nothing to do with her injuries and everything to do with the memory of running away from their home at the age of fifteen. A stupid decision that she'd regretted for the longest time and now she felt like it was coming back to punish her. She groaned involuntarily and immediately regretted it when the room fell suddenly silent.
"David! James!" Mary Margret hissed and prodded her son, who was lost in a game on his phone. He frowned at her but she ignored him and cautiously approached the bed. "Emma?"
The blonde blinked rapidly as she became accustomed to the light. Her head hurt from the brightness of the room, but she found the strength to keep her eyes open and stared up at the family she'd known for a brief time. A tempest of false bravado and defiance bubbled up from somewhere dark inside, but it snagged on years of hardship and struggle before fizzling away, leaving a lump in her throat that drew tears to her eyes. Words wouldn't come and instead, a muffled whimper escaped her lips, joining the moisture gathering on her cheeks.
"Oh, sweetheart," Mary Margret soothed as she found the blonde's hand. "It's ok. We're not mad. We're just happy to see you again and know you're ok."
"You're going to be ok," David interjected as he looked over his wife's shoulder at all of the medical paraphernalia. "Someone's going to be here with you until you're fully recovered."
"Hey, Ems?" James began with a teasing grin, drawing glassy, green eyes to meet his own hazel. "You kicked a hornet's nest out there. The FBI and the media are buzzing around all over the place."
Emma nodded stiffly and attempted a smile. Gratitude flooded her veins at the young man's words. She appreciated Mary Margret and David's sentiments, but they just reminded her of what she'd thrown away and magnified the guilt she felt for running out on them. James reminding her of more recent events incited the justified anger she needed to cut off the flow of tears. As her thoughts turned to the present, they also reached out for other people. Two in particular.
She sniffed. "Where's Regina and Henry?"
"I told her we'd be here, so she could get some rest while Henry's in school. Though, she's probably working," the greying woman answered with an indulgent eyeroll. As she talked, her hands fussed, tugging at the covers around the injured blonde. "She's really worried about you, so I hope you'll listen to the doctors and not push yourself too far, too fast."
Flushing with renewed guilt, Emma relaxed where parts of her body had automatically tensed with the need for escape. "Sounds like her," she grumbled fondly. She watched through tired eyes as Mary Margret spoke with her husband and son. The guilt lingered but faded slowly into the background as their combined voices lulled her to sleep again.
Sorry, not sorry. End of Part Three. More to come after a short break!