Chapter Nineteen
When Regina Mills thought about the curse breaking, each scenario was as violent as the next.
The mob, the wraith and the death curse all lived up to all of her anxieties, but nothing could reach the agony of what followed.
Six months of indifference.
Six months of knowing that she deserved to be isolated, only valuable to the people who hated her in the capacity as mayor. Knowing that the only reason that she hadn't been executed or banished was simply because no one else in this town could be bothered to figure out how to do some paperwork.
She had thought that being unwanted by her son was all of the punishment that anyone could ever deserve, but she soon discovered that wasn't quite true.
To discover that she was so desperately needed by both him and his birth mother, but to be incapable of giving them anything, was infinitely worse than anything that she has conjured in her mind in the weeks after she met Emma Swan.
If she had known just how excruciating it was to have her hand move through the people that she loved, perhaps she could have employed this unusually cruel curse in her quest to destroy Snow White and Prince Charming. She honestly couldn't see Snow taking this quite as bravely as Emma had been.
Despite all of this, as she stared through the two-way mirror that couldn't reflect her image, she felt a strange sympathy for the man on the other side.
Jefferson was chained to the table, grimacing each time his injured shoulder moved, but still, he was trying his best to be close to Grace standing on the other side of the table.
From her long experience as an estranged parent, she knew exactly how the Mad Hatter felt even if Emma had turned off the microphone to give the father-daughter pair some privacy for what could very well be their final conversation.
Jefferson wanted nothing more than for his daughter to take a seat opposite him, to take his hand and assure him that his actions had not changed her opinion of him, that no matter what he did, she would always see him as her papa.
Perhaps he was even daring to think that he could get a hug?
The way that Grace had her arms crossed, listening to every word with disapproval written across her entire demeanour couldn't possibly be what he thought he would get when he demanded this meeting.
Even so, she was listening, so he couldn't claim that they hadn't given him what he asked for.
At her side, Emma and Henry each had their attentions trained onto the man they had done little to hide their ire towards and it was Emma who finally broke the silent spell that had consumed the family:
"I can't believe that bastard got what he wanted," the saviour muttered.
"Emma!" Regina admonished and the other woman turned with a determined stare until she noticed the boy beside her and her shoulders slumped.
"Sorry kid," she said.
"Why can't we call him what he is?" Henry grumbled and Regina's heart sank as she recognised the anger exuding from him. She couldn't allow that to morph into vengeful tendencies after she was no longer around to stem them. She would not allow either of them to go down that path!
"Jefferson did a terrible thing but that doesn't completely define who he is. He is still Grace's father and he deserves some compassion," Regina replied.
She received two scandalised stares in response but the door to the interrogation room opened before they could argue with the former queen. The appearance of a sniffling Grace forced the pair to look away from the 'empty space'.
Apparently, Grace would have been unlikely to notice their odd behaviour, however, as she proceeded to engulf Henry in a hug.
His ears lit up pink and Regina raised an eyebrow as she shared a much softer look with Emma.
More and more, she was discovering the things that she was going to be missing but was sure not to allow her wavering moment to show externally, so Emma returned her attention to the young pair in time for Grace to let go of Henry.
She wiped at her cheeks and said, "Thank you, Henry, you were right."
Henry went for an awkward grin as he rubbed at the back of his neck and replied, "It's…no problem."
Emma was dangerously close to a smile until Grace turned to her and announced, "Papa said he'll talk to you now."
"Thank you, Grace," Emma said sincerely, but paused before actually going into the interrogation room, "Do you need anything…"
The girl shook her head, touching Henry's arm before she stepped away from him, "I just want to go home…Are my parents still…"
"Waiting in my office," Emma agreed and Grace shared one more weak smile with Henry before walking away.
She did appear for a moment that she was going to ask for the company but perhaps she understood that this was where the boy needed to be?
Once she was gone, Emma puffed out her cheeks and whispered, "Okay, here it goes," before she pushed into the room beyond the mirror.
Henry eyed Regina cautiously, but she was thankfully able to stay put as her tether-mate had not gone too far so he turned away from the mirror just as Emma sat down opposite the Mad Hatter.
He crossed his arms and successfully stole all of Regina's attention so she looked at him questioningly.
"You really think that Jefferson deserves compassion after what he did to you?" he asked without preamble.
Unsurprised by the question, Regina had the answer ready to go, it was similar to what she wished that someone would have told her when she talked about her hatred for Snow White, "I hate him for what he has taken from me but I am aware that the majority of Storybrooke feel the same about the Evil Queen. I have been lucky to find forgiveness from the two people I care about most, so I can understand why Jefferson would demand to see his daughter."
Henry thinned his lips so that Regina wasn't quite sure whether she had gotten through to him, but eventually he shook his head and said, "You're not the Evil Queen anymore, you deserve more than compassion."
It was statements like that that almost had Regina call their whole plan off and suggest that they should go and find something that a family could do together when one of them lacked corporeal form, but this time she just smiled at him.
Still, she very much doubted that her expression was capable of displaying how much that meant to her, which she was finding was a theme of their recent conversations.
Before she could think of a way to verbally tell him how much she appreciated it, the interrogation room door opened to reveal the sheriff clutching her phone between her ear and shoulder while her other hand made sure that her gun was secure in the holster.
"Yeah David, I need you to meet me at the hospital now…Whale needs to be arrested as an accessory to Regina's murder," she said.
Henry's mouth dropped open but Regina scowled.
"Of course it was Frankenstein," she said lowly.
S
As soon as the name of his accomplice slipped from the exhausted Jefferson's mouth, Emma Swan saw red.
She recalled every smirk and smug look that she detected from the doctor in their numerous interviews. Each time she ignored the pinging of her superpower in his presence because she chalked it up to her all-consuming guilt.
Of course, it was Whale!
Who else had led a mob against their murder victim? Who else took every opportunity to bad mouth the woman right up until the terrible night when he called to confirm her death.
She instructed Henry to wait in her office, which he did dutifully after grabbing a version of his storybook that didn't even bare the 'Once Upon A Time' lettering on the cover, but Emma was hardly in the right frame of mind to register such a detail.
If it wasn't for the siren, she certainly would have broken every highway code there was in her pursuit to get to the hospital and it wasn't until she got into the foyer that sound broke through her cloud of rage.
Dr Whale was arguing with her deputy.
"Deputy Nolan, I know that you have some misguided suspicions about my department, but this is highly inappropriate. I have patients to see…"
David opened his mouth to argue, but then he noticed the sheriff stomping over and falling back against the main desk.
"Ah, Sheriff Swan, could you please tell your father to…"
Whale yelped as he tried to get out the last word as Emma wrenched his arm around so that she could slap cuffs onto his wrists.
Nothing had ever felt quite so satisfying in her entire life, other than the sensation of slamming him against the desk.
"What the hell are you doing?!" he demanded.
"Dr Victor Whale, you're under arrest for accessory to murder," she said authoritatively, gaining a chorus of gasps from those around them.
"Murder of who?" Whale asked roughly after a shocked pause.
"Of Mayor Regina Mills," Emma said loudly and the gasps became murmuring that had Whale glance around frantically, "You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided to you by the state. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"
Emma rattled off his rights as she hauled him towards the exit, her father following closely at their backs despite knowing that she hardly needed any help with the anger that she was currently imbued with.
He continued to follow closely as the silent doctor was hauled into the station and both he and Emma noticed the unmistakable narrowing of Whale's eyes as they landed on Jefferson in the holding cell, but the doctor did attempt to school his features into passivity.
He remained neutral as they passed the sheriff's office and one look from Emma forced Henry to stare at the blank pages on the desk rather than at the man who had a hand in killing his mother.
As they approached the interrogation room, David took over leading Whale forward and Emma faltered outside of it, running a shaking hand over her face as she did her best to centre herself. One look from Regina who had been silent until that point did quite a lot for her desire to return the murderous favour and she was about to promise that she wouldn't be going too far until her father came back out.
A glance confirmed that Whale was nice and chained up as he should be and Emma blew a stray hair out of her face.
"Thanks, David," Emma said, making her way to the entrance, but an arm blocked her path.
"I think I should handle this," David replied firmly.
"I'm the sheriff!" Emma said petulantly.
"Who was in love with the victim!"
"Don't call her that!" Emma snapped and then David stared at her until she deflated after another look at Regina, "Okay, you may have a point…just get me a sample of his blood? For the report?"
David's eyebrows pinched but he offered no argument against the request, "Sure…why don't you go and check on Henry?"
Emma kept her gaze on her boots as she turned to do what her father suggested, but she hesitated and said, "Dad?"
David stood bolt upright at the rare name, but looked at her softly, "Yeah?"
"It's not 'was', I am still in love with Regina," she said just above a whisper.
David breached the distance to place a hand on each of her shoulders and replied, "I know…I'm so sorry Emma."
Emma's eyes glistened, she really didn't want to do this again, but the clarification felt important, especially when the subject of it was technically still around.
"Make sure he knows how lucky he is that it's not me in there?" she asked.
"I will," David promised, letting go of her shoulder after a couple of seconds, which allowed Emma to slip away.
She was careful not to catch Regina's gaze as she went to her office.
With a slight scratch to her voice, she said, "I guess we should tell Henry to start preparing?"
"We should," Regina agreed.
Emma swallowed but froze as she came to her office to find it empty.
He definitely had been there a minute ago! She didn't think that she could ever rid her mind of the image of the hatred that twisted his features in response to Whale.
From the cell, Jefferson called lazily, "He ran away."
Emma's eyes fluttered closed, tempted to ask why he didn't stop him, but deciding that would only be a waste of time.
"It looks like we will be needing one last locator spell, Emma," Regina offered and the saviour listlessly entered the office hoping that he had left his sweater or scarf to kindly save her a trip home.