Chapter eight

It had been three days and Emma still hadn't managed to broach the subject of Regina's feelings, the spirit always managed to say that they had more important things to focus on.

She obviously didn't want to discuss the fact that her son didn't care that she was dead.

"I don't want to talk about it, Miss Swan."

Emma jumped off the back of the couch she had been leaning against. The sheriff cleared her throat and looked down at the ground.

She wasn't even aware that Regina knew she had been staring at her for the past five minutes, she had been sure that the former mayor would be too distracted by being in the mayor mansion surrounded by all of her dust covered things.

She was definitely acutely aware that she was stood in the mansion with its deceased owner.

It was creepy just like she thought it would be.

But she also needed to focus on how difficult this must be for Regina.

"Talk about what, Regina?" the saviour asked as innocently as she possibly could.

Regina shook her head and visibly sighed.

She wanted to leave, who would want to watch their son take their things so they could live with their birth mother? But leaving was no longer something she was capable of doing.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Emma."

Emma's shoulders hunched and she used the opportunity of the awkward silence to look around the room again.

The photographs were all the evidence the sheriff needed to know that Regina never stopped caring, but Henry would probably come up with some rationale as to why it proved she was pure evil.

Finally, she decided that there was no reason to remain in an awkward silence with a captive audience and she said, "well, Regina, it doesn't really seem like you have anywhere else to be right now so you might as well…"

"What, Emma? Talk about the fact that I'm dead and my son doesn't care? Or the fact that it's my fault that he doesn't care?!" Regina shouted, the words exploding from her ghostly mouth.

"Regina…" Emma said slowly and took a step towards the woman but her steps faltered. Even if her companion wasn't a ghost she was pretty sure that Regina wouldn't appreciate physical comfort.

It was only confirmed when Regina reflexively took a step back.

Emma held up her hands and said, "he does care, Regina."

Regina turned away and closed her eyes.

She had no idea if she was even able to cry and she would rather it not be Emma Swan who discovered that it was possible.

Before Emma could try and say anything else reassuring or hopeful, the sound of a key turning in the lock made her clamp her mouth shut. She'd slowly been figuring out how to make sure that no one thought she was talking to herself and that meant being very vigilant about when there was about to be a new arrival in any given room.

Still, she continued to look at Regina until Henry entered with an unreadable expression clutching his backpack straps.

It was more than strange for him walking up to and into the mansion again and he'd spent the day convincing himself it would mean nothing.

He was just getting his things, Emma would ask how was feeling and they would be on their way to being back to normal.

Considering how difficult it felt to breathe right now, he got the sense that he had been very wrong.

A part of him had hoped that Regina would have packed up all of his things when she decided to draft the adoption dissolution papers, unfortunately it looked exactly like it had the last time he'd seen it.

"Hey Henry," Emma said slowly, she was trying not to sound cautiously optimistic because she knew it would make Henry withdraw even more but she was so surprised to see actual emotion on his face.

"Hi," he mumbled, looking determinedly at his feet.

If he looked up, he would risk looking up and seeing a photograph that would initiate a memory, it wouldn't help with his plan to think of his adoptive mother as evil, "can we get this over and done with?"

He walked away without looking up at his mother.

Emma shook her head at his back and then rolled her eyes when she saw that Regina wasn't looking at him.

The pair were infuriating!

"Okay," Emma replied with so much resignation in the single word before she moved to follow Henry.

S

"As I have told the sheriff a hundred times, I'm not sure how else I can answer your questions, deputy."

David looked up at the doctor with narrowed eyes from his notebook.

Whale would have laughed at the man if he didn't clearly suspect him of something. Namely murder.

He wasn't too surprised that Emma cared so deeply about the Evil Queen since he was fairly sure that she was at least attracted to her.

Prince Charming, on the other hand, was not one he thought would be interrogating him.

"The equipment has never been serviced, apparently that wasn't written into the curse. We've ordered new equipment now and set up procedures to make sure that they're checked every year, do you need the invoices again?" Whale asked.

David replied, "no," though he was wishing that he could arrest him for being overly smug. He was pretty sure he was hiding something but that was hardly probable cause.

There was no doubt that Whale was happy that Regina was dead but if that was illegal there were a number of people in town he would have to arrest. And if Whale was the mastermind in all of this, why involve Jefferson? Why not make a 'mistake' in the surgery? Or even refused to treat her at all.

"If there is nothing else, deputy…"

David clenched his jaw when he couldn't think of another question.

When looking over the case on shift he'd had the urge to speak to Whale again. After all, her prognosis had seemed hopeful based on the doctor's notes.

There was also the fact that Emma didn't seem to be interested in the case anymore. Maybe if he broke the case, he would actually be able to have a discussion with his daughter?

"Yeah that's it," he reluctantly replied and Whale walked away without another word.

David watched Doctor Whale go with a bad taste in his mouth. He wasn't sure if it was because of how swarmy he was or the fact that he had slept with his wife.

It wasn't long ago until David was sat in his cruiser running his hands over the steering wheel.

Usually at this point, he would go to the diner to grab some food but it would be another reminder that there was a regular who hadn't been there for weeks.

It wasn't as if he and Regina were ever close to friendly but there was a certain hollowness when he didn't see her getting coffee every morning.

He finally forced the engine on and just decided he could grab some leftovers and take them back to the station.

Ten minutes later, he and had his key in the loft's door and pushed it open, "Hey, Snow," he called, not really sure if she was home from dropping Henry off.

He got an answer in the form of a sniffle which made him completely forget about food as he went towards the source.

"Snow?" he asked when he made it to their bed and found a little lump underneath the duvet and was sure that Snow White would pull the cover over herself the moment he put his key in the lock.

He sat down onto the edge or the bed and placed his hand on the lump.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

For about five seconds, the lump considered whether it would be possible to wait until her husband went away.

But David wouldn't leave until he got some indication of what was going on so she threw the sheets off and looked at him with her tear stained face.

David instantly scooted closer and reached up to wipe away a few tears.

"What's wrong?" he said in close to a whisper, probably because he knew exactly who the tears were for.

Snow bit her lip and looked down.

She wasn't sure whether she felt silly for crying or felt bad for feeling silly.

"I took Henry to the mansion…"

"Seeing the mansion reminded you of Regina?" David replied, running his thumb over her cheek as he did.

Snow nodded but winced a little at the name, but she was grateful that she didn't have to find the words herself.

"I miss her," she admitted in a whisper.

David smiled sadly at her and nodded.

He shifted so that he was sat more fully on the bed, which allowed him to bring his arm over her shoulder.

Snow continued to cry into him. She appreciated him running circles on her back.

But it didn't help with her guilt.

Right now, she wasn't quite sure why she had been pretending not to care. Regina deserved to be mourned by more than Emma and Archie in spite of all of her faults.

David remained silent while she cried.

There was no comfort he could give since he felt similar guilt. It must be why he had been feeling so crappy lately.

He did finally think of something though and he asked, "how about we go and visit her on Wednesday? We could take flowers to her father as well."

Snow went rigid at the thought of seeing Regina's body again. The body with the bullet hole that she had witnessed the origin of and that she had dreamed of a couple times.

That didn't change that no one, not even Emma, had visited her since the funeral.

"That would be nice," she said with a little sigh, as she realised that she would soon need to convince Henry to visit too.

He couldn't be allowed to remain in denial much longer.