Hannah observed Regina who had fallen silent. The other woman had gotten up and poured herself a drink – all of her movements slow and methodical as if she thought about each one before performing it.
She knew that some part of Regina must understand that she needed to go back to Storybrooke, but it was warring with the part of Regina who had left there in the first place and the part who like her wanted nothing to do with the Home Office.
What she hadn't told Regina was that part of the reason she was here wasn't just that she was afraid of getting and old and dying, it was also because she thought a place of magic would be one of the last places the Home Office may look for her.
She also hadn't told Regina specifics about that 17 years in captivity and the endless tests she had to endure as they tried to find a magical reason for her immortality. It was like it was their latest obsession – find out how it was done and perhaps they could replicate it.
And she knew why. She knew it each time Wendy came to visit her, and she saw the age lines and spots.
It appeared she wasn't the only one who feared dying of old age.
Hannah also learned that other operatives had been sent to her home world and probably through the other portals in search of new magic. She didn't know why the Home Office was so interested in magic and she didn't trust any of them to tell her the truth any longer – not even Wendy.
While they were very different, Hannah couldn't help but see the similarities between Wendy and Regina. Both were beautiful, dynamic women with such drive and confidence that often hid the pain underneath.
She hadn't lied to Regina when she said she hadn't been expecting Regina to come into her life. Some of the comments had already started – about how young she looked which was usually the first sign that she needed to make plans to leave a place. She had started to look for her next home when she met Regina.
The doorbell ringing knocked her from her musings and Regina's as well. She watched Regina approach the door, not bothering to even look to see who it was before opening it – careless Hannah thought at the same moment Emma stepped in and right up to Regina. Hannah couldn't see it from her angle even as she rose but she heard a distinctive sound and saw Regina's body shake and fall.
"What are you doing?" she asked, rushing toward Regina only to be blocked by Lily who had also entered, closing the door behind her.
Emma was bent over Regina and when she stood up, Hannah saw the taser in one hand and saw a bracelet of some sort on Regina's wrist.
"She left me no choice," Emma said. "I tried to warn you."
"Out of my way," Hannah said moving around both women and kneeling next to Regina who was dazed but not unconscious. She helped Regina to her feet and over to the couch. Then she turned to Emma. "What kind of fool are you? No, don't answer that. Of all the stupid, idiotic things you could do. I told you I would speak with her and you show up here and attack her. What is that bracelet you put on her?"
"It blocks her magic," Emma said.
Hannah shook her head and turned back to Regina, sitting on the couch next to her. "Are you ok?" she asked, putting a hand on Regina's leg.
"I will be in a moment or two," she said. "Perhaps someone would be kind enough to get me a glass of water." She put her hand on top of Hannah's indicating she was not directing that at her.
Hannah didn't pay attention to which woman moved to fulfill the request as she kept her eyes on Regina, wanting to make sure she was really ok. The electric shock would have temporarily blocked her magic which was most likely Emma's intention, but Emma had no way of knowing that it had been a method used on Regina by the Home Office.
Lily came over and handed Regina a glass of water. She took a big drink before looking at Lily. "My new jewelry would be your mom's work I take it?"
"She knew there was a good chance you would make this difficult."
Hannah reached for it. "I'm taking it off. There is no reason for you to do this, any of this."
But Regina moved her hand away. "You can't remove it, not without getting a nasty shock yourself would be my guess. Either Mal has spelled it so only she can remove it, or she has shared that secret with one of them and again I am guessing they won't be removing it unless I return with them."
"I'm sorry," Emma said. "I didn't want this. If you had just spoken to me …"
"Remove the bracelet," Hannah said standing up. "Remove it now, or I will call the cops or better yet some of Regina's men."
"We can't," Emma said. "Mal never trusted us with that information."
"I don't care. You leave now and never return or I will have someone remove you by force," Hannah said getting in Emma's face. "You have crossed a line, and this is your one chance to step back."
"She is coming with us," Emma glared at her.
"Stop this, both of you," Regina said, getting to her feet. Both women turned in her direction. "I will return with you, but not this instant. I have things here that must be taken care of first. If I merely disappear it will create chaos that could endanger lives. You may meet me at the club tomorrow at 5 as that should give me the time I need."
"I'm not letting you out of my sight," Emma said.
Hannah was forced to move out of the way as Regina went up to stand in front of Emma so they were only inched apart.
"Tomorrow at 5," Regina said. "Now, you and Lily show yourselves out."
Regina moved away, off toward the bedroom, pausing only to say, "Hannah."
It wasn't the command like she had just given Emma, instead, it almost sounded like a plea and Hannah gave Emma one more parting glare before hurrying to Regina's side and following her back to the bedroom.
"Are we going to leave after all of that?" Lily asked once they heard the door close. "I mean we probably should because she is probably calling reinforcements right now."
"No, she isn't," Emma said, her eyes on where Regina had disappeared to. "Come on, let's go."
Lily followed Emma out and passed the guards that they had managed to put to sleep with their magic and out to the car. They hadn't said anything else until Emma was pulling away.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Not really," Emma said. "But I don't think she will try anything – or at least I hope she won't. Like I said I just want to get this over with."
"Ok then," Lily said.
They drove a little way before Lily again spoke, "And you can't tell me there ain't something going on between her majesty and Hannah."
Emma gripped the wheel a little tighter but didn't say anything.
…
"Are you sure you are ok?" Hannah asked once she heard the door to the apartment close. "Maybe you should have a doctor check you out."
"I will be fine, I just need some rest," Regina said, taking a seat on the bed.
"I'm sorry," Hannah said. "She must have followed me here. I should never have told her I would come to speak to you about returning to Storybrooke. I shouldn't have interfered."
"It's ok," Regina said. "I don't bear you any ill-will over it. I think a part of me already knew I had to return."
"Still, she shouldn't be forcing you like this."
"Emma has always played by her own rules and I can't exactly fault her for that when I have spent a lifetime doing the same," Regina said. "Still, the stun gun was a bit much."
Regina rubbed her right temple, the effects of the electric jolt were still present.
"I'm sure she wouldn't have done that if she knew what had happened to you."
"It's not something she or anyone else needs to know about," Regina said.
"Then why did you tell me?"
"Because you have a kind soul."
"Do you still think that even after all I have told you tonight?"
"Yes," Regina replied. "Maybe even more so now. And maybe I'm just now beginning to see the depths of pain that soul has been put through over all the years you have endured. The fact you are still such a caring and loving individual after all of that, well maybe it gives me a bit of hope."
Hannah came over and sat beside her, taking her hand in hers. "You know if you return you aren't just going to have to face the Home Office, you are going to have to face all the reasons you left there."
"I know."
"I could come with you."
Regina looked at her and smiled. "Thank you, but no. I need to know you are back here and safe from them. I won't risk them getting you back in their custody," she said. "The moment you heard me tell you about them you should have left here. You know they were looking for me."
"I knew, but I wanted to stay and get to know you," Hannah said. "As I said, under other circumstances it would have been easy to fall in love with you. Besides, we both know you have feelings for another."
"Had feelings."
"Are you sure about that past tense?"
"Yes," she said, standing up. "Now, we have much to discuss in a short amount of time. I am going to make arrangements for the completion of the orphanage to run through you. You have been in most of the meetings anyway and you can more than manage it."
"The kids will miss you."
"I will be back," Regina said suddenly. "This isn't a permanent move on my part."
"You are going back to your son, you left him once before and were only able to do that by removing part of your heart," Hannah said standing and approaching her, putting her hand over where Regina's heart was. "And I'm guessing that maybe that piece of heart in there isn't as black as it once was."
"If that is true, then you had a lot to do with it," Regina said.
"Flirt," Hannah smiled.
…
Emma hadn't slept well that night and was up early the next morning. She had felt bad about the actions she had taken in securing Regina the night before but she knew that Regina wasn't going to come home with them if they didn't force her hand. And it shouldn't have had to be this way.
It should have been enough that Storybrooke was in danger – that Henry was in danger.
While her priority was combatting that danger, once this was all over she and Regina were going to have to have a long conversation.
Now that they had Regina – or at least she was hoping they had her but she wasn't ready to put her full faith in that – she began to think about what must be done when they returned to Storybrooke.
The Home Office had been trying to find a way into the town by getting through the barrier that protected it. They had made their intentions clear from the start – their representative coming right up to the town line on that first day where Emma had spoken to them.
She had been in her office when the call came in that there was someone standing at the town border. That in and of itself was extremely odd but what happened when she got there was even more unusual.
The barrier surrounded Storybrooke completely in all directions. For those on the outside, its magic would simply make them see nothing but forests but they wouldn't ever enter the actual town as the magic would turn them around or mess with their sense of direction. So, for someone to be standing there right outside the border looking in was downright disturbing.
Emma had parked a little ways away and walked up to the border, observing the woman who was standing there and seeing nothing of consequence or so Emma believed. That is why when she stopped opposite of her Emma was surprised when the woman began to speak.
"Hello sheriff," the woman said. "Yes, I can see you there, just as I can see the Welcome to Storybrooke sign and the road and your cruiser."
"Who are you?" Emma asked.
"My name isn't important," she replied. "Why I am here is, however. This place, this town, it doesn't belong here in this world. You people do not belong here. Me and the organization I represent are here to see that you return to the world where you do belong."
"Is that a fact?" Emma said, crossing her arms in front of her. "And what organization do you represent?"
"We call ourselves the Home Office."
Emma clenched her jaw at this and thought about some of the trouble they had already caused them.
"Now sheriff, we have no wish to do this by violent means, but we will if we have to," the woman continued. "You have one day to lower this barrier so that our operatives can come in and begin the process of transporting you back to where you do belong."
The woman didn't even wait for Emma to respond, merely turned and walked away.
Emma called an emergency town meeting that night to inform everyone not only about what happened but so that everyone could keep an eye out for anything or anyone strange in their borders.
"There is no way for them to get in though, right?" someone yelled out.
"Look, I'm not going to speculate about what they can and can't do while standing up here," Emma said. "The important thing is that we remain vigilant."
This would normally be a time when she may have looked to Regina to offer some reassuring words, but instead, she was left with Mayor Jacks who once upon a time was some general who helped fight off the ogres in some war. Having observed him since he took office, Emma was fairly certain that the stories about him were either grossly exaggerated or he was more of a soldier than an actual leader.
Jacks didn't seem to want to make any real decisions and was either constantly asking everyone their opinion or delegating the matter so he didn't have to handle it, which is how Emma ended up running this meeting.
Regina would have known what to tell the people, Emma thought as she heard the crowd muttering amongst themselves.
Things just went from bad to worse after that. The Home Office began a siege of Storybrooke, using magic to try and break through the barrier. Emma had gone to Mal, Zelena, and Gold for help in the magic department hoping there would be some way to enhance the barrier or make it stronger. After a bit of debate, they came to the consensus that there was only one way to do that and that was for Regina to do it as it and the town were created from her magic to begin with.
It wasn't as if Emma hadn't tried to track Regina down, but all her efforts up to that point had been failures. It was like she had simply disappeared.
Thinking back to how this all started, Emma couldn't help but wonder what path Regina had taken to get down here to Florida. What made her decide on this as a destination beyond their being pockets of the state where she could use her magic. While Emma didn't know for sure, she was guessing that Florida wasn't the only state where that was possible.
She tried not to think about what Lily had said about Hannah and Regina being together. She had not expected how protective Hannah had gotten last night. The woman cared about Regina a lot, but now she was beginning to think that there was something more between them.
Maybe Regina's desire to stay here had more to do with Hannah than Emma originally thought.
Emma took the letter out of her jacket pocket once more and unfolded it. She wasn't sure why she had let Lily read except maybe it was because she needed someone else to know what Regina had written. Her eyes glided over one part in particular – the part that when she first read it, she knew how badly she had messed things up.
How could you, how could you stand there kissing that pirate in plain view of Robin's grave? We had just buried him, barely begun to mourn him. Did you even care that his life was lost? Or didn't it matter because you had the one you wanted?
Those words had cut her deeply because she knew that even if Regina had written them in anger, there was a justifiable reason for her to be upset. And that hadn't even been the worst part of the letter, just the first part in it that made Emma realize that Regina had left not because of Robin's death, but because of Emma's actions.