Law is not my expertise so please don't judge.
As always, thanks to Abigail Sykes.
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It's the morning of the first day of the trial and Regina is feeling sick with nerves.
"Are you sure you don't want a slice of toast?"
"No, thank you. I don't think I could keep it down even if I was hungry." She checks her phone for the hundredth time that morning, almost hoping for a call from David to tell her it has all been cancelled. She knows the trial has to happen sooner or later, but right now she was wishing it was later.
"Hey," Emma gently cajoles Regina by lifting her chin and then taking her hands when their eyes meet, "I know you are scared, but you have faced worse things in your life and this time you have me. I'm with you every step of the way. David said it will probably be over really quickly as well. We just need to get through this...and we will."
"Do I smell pancakes?" Kathryn interrupts as she enters the kitchen.
"No," Emma replies, her eyes still on anxious brown ones.
"And why the hell not? The service in this house is slipping." She jokingly berates.
"If I make pancakes, will you eat some?" Emma asks Regina. A small shake of her head has Emma sighing.
"I will, so get on with it," Kathryn says with a smirk, as she shoves Emma out of her seat so she can sit next to Regina. Kathryn had expected this morning to be hard for Regina, so now it was time for her to step up and talk some sense into her friend.
"Right, listen up. You are going to take a deep breath and shake your nerves away. Then after breakfast you are going to walk into that courtroom with your head held high and face her. You have nothing to fear. Bitchface Mctwatwaffle does because now she has to face up to what she did. Mark my words, by the end of the week, we will be celebrating."
Regina gives a small fake smile. She couldn't let herself by happy until Cora was actually jailed and no longer a threat to her family.
Kathryn rolls her eyes, not without sympathy, but she thinks Regina needs some perspective on her life. "Okay, it's tough love time."
"Kat." Emma warns.
She waves her arm behind her, dismissing Emma. "Think about your life a year ago and think about how it is now. What would you have given twelve months ago or any time in your life to have what you have now? You have a fiancée that would do literally anything for you and a baby on the way. It's time you focused on that and not on the negatives, like you always do," she adds with a pointed stare.
"Enough, Kat," Emma interrupts again. She appreciates what Kat is trying to do, but she doesn't want Regina to be browbeaten, particularly on this morning.
Once again, Kat ignores her. "You have a better life than you could ever have dreamed of and no matter what the outcome of the trial is, you will have me and Emma, so it's time to put on your big girl pants and stop worrying."
Emma stops whisking up the batter mix and is about to say something.
"Quiet," Kat warns her, without even turning around.
"Now, chin up and have some breakfast and then we are going to go watch justice in action."
Emma is nervously hovering, waiting for some sort of reaction from Regina.
"I think I'll have some toast," she finally says over Kat's shoulder to Emma, as she gives her friends hands a thankful squeeze.
"Toast it is," Emma says, as she abandons the batter mix completely to grab some bread.
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Regina's head is held high as she enters the courtroom and takes a seat, but her stomach is doing summersaults. She is flanked on either side by her two favourite blondes. She immediately notices her mother sitting next to her lawyer on the far side of the courtroom.
Cora is nonchalantly sitting at the defendant's table, as if she was just an observer and not the accused in the trial. She looks cool, confident, and without a single fleck of remorse on her face and it feels like a kick in the gut to Regina. It would have made her feel better if she thought Cora had some sort of remorse about all the awful things she had done.
Emma slips her arm around Regina's waist and leans in. "I'm so proud of you. You are the strongest person I know and I love you and Cocoon more than anything."
Regina relaxes slightly against her love, her rock, and knows she can do this, no matter what the outcome is to be.
They didn't have to wait long until the court was called to order and the trial began. They sat and listened to the opening arguments of both the prosecution and defence until it is time to call up the first witness.
Albert Spencer was concise, but cold, as he was question by the prosecution and cross examined by the defence. He really didn't do himself or Regina any favours with his cold demeanour. Cora on the other hand, was a master at garnering sympathy with the jury. There was sobbing and dramatics as she made sure to make eye contact with each member of the jury. She was an expert at bending people to her will and that's exactly what she was trying to do. If David's constant rubbing of his forehead, like he was trying to stave off a headache, was anything to go by, her little act was working. Even during the intense pressure of the cross examination, she managed to keep up her pretence of victim.
"So, your daughter had been missing for ten years and you had done nothing to try and find her in all that time? No police reports were filed by you or anyone else regarding your daughter being missing. A grieving parent would reach out for help to find their missing child, but you did nothing. Do you really expect us all to believe that you are innocent?" The prosecution lawyer challenges the woman on the stand.
"Just before my sweet Regina left, we'd had an argument. I thought it would quickly blow over and she would come home, but she never did. The more time that passed, the harder it became for me to accept the truth; my little girl didn't want me anymore." She sniffles and wipes away at her crocodile tears. "I had to face the facts: my darling girl wanted nothing to do with me."
Regina clenches her jaw and rolls her eyes at her mother's performance.
"So could you please explain to the men and women of the jury why you falsified mental health issues and attempted to blackmail your daughter when the previous case involving your daughter was finally over?"
"I had a mental breakdown when I finally found out what had been happening to my little girl for the last decade. It completely devastated me to know what she had been through, but I never tried to blackmail her. I don't know where that awful lie has come from. I just wanted to see her again and finally have the chance to be her mother."
The prosecution continues to throw the truth at her and she deflects and denies all the of their questions until the prosecution lawyer decides he has no further questions. He instead chooses to question the 'expert' witnesses from the defendant's side. If he could discredit them, then then jury would find it easier to see Cora for the lying degenerate she truly is.
After a long and arduous morning, the judge finally calls for a lunch break. So far, the defence's case was looking a lot stronger than the prosecution. Albert Spencer had given evidence against Cora as per his deal with David, but that hadn't gotten the jury on their side. Cora's psychologist had verified that the woman had indeed had a mental break at the news of finally finding out what had happened to her daughter for all those years.
"Hello, ladies, how are you all doing?" David asks when he finds them in a private room at the court.
"It's not going how you thought it would, is it?" Regina says out loud, already knowing the answer.
David runs his hands through his short hair. "That's why I'm here actually. Albert Spencer's testimony just isn't cutting it with the jury. We have the truth on our side, but we just need someone who can give the truth and get the jury on our side." His eyes remain on Regina even after he's finished his sentence, he waits for her to pick up on his hint.
Emma catches on first. "You want Regina to take the stand?"
"What? No. I can't do that," the brunette finally understands.
"I have spoken with our prosecutor. He thinks it's the only way for us to get the jury on our side. I know you have already said you don't want to be a witness, but it might be the only way for us to win this now. Your mother has them in the palm of her hand. To the jury, she just looks like a frail old woman, who was as much as a victim in Gold's empire as you were."
"I can't do it." Emma's arm tightens a little around her waist, offering comfort. "Why isn't the prosecutor going after the psychologist, Doctor Madryn? He barely questioned him, and he didn't even bring up the time his medical license was revoked."
"What?"
"Doctor Madryn lost his license about a year before my father died. I can't remember why. You knew that though, didn't you?"
David smiles widely. "No, no, I didn't. I have to go." He runs out of the room without even saying goodbye.
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Just under an hour later, the trial restarted and Doctor Madryn was once again asked to take the stand by the prosecution.
The smarmy psychologist takes a seat on the stand but his cocky smile falls from his face at the prosecutor's first sentence.
"Good afternoon, Doctor Madryn. I have asked you to take the stand again so we can discuss 2008. Would you like to tell the jury what happened during that year?"
It takes a moment for the smartly dressed man to compose himself. He clears his throat before speaking. "A lot of things happened that year."
It was the prosecutor's turn to smirk. "Specifically, I would like to talk about May sixteenth. Let me jog your memory for you... it was the day you had your license revoked for falsifying evidence in a court case in which you were an expert witness."
David watches the jury and easily notices how many of them stiffen up at the revelation. They had easily trusted the confident doctor when he had taken the stand earlier that morning, but that was about to change.
Madryn squirms in his chair. "I regained my license in 2012."
"Yes, you did. I made some calls during the recess and I found out that you did indeed regain your license on August fifteenth, 2012, but not even two years later you were involved in another court case and you were dismissed when reports that you had written were proven to have been backdated."
"It was a simple mix up of dates," he tries to defend himself. Whether it had been intentional or not, he now looked unprofessional and unreliable in the eyes of the jury.
Hushed whispers spread around the courtroom and Emma gives Regina a huge smile. Things were starting to look up.
"ORDER," the Judge shouts, as he bangs his gavel, silencing the room.
The prosecutor waits until a nod from the judge gives him permission to continue. "It would appear that you are a man who likes the limelight and enjoys being a part of high-profile court cases, even if that means lying under oath. Did you diagnose Cora Mills as having had a mental breakdown just so you could be involved in this case? That woman is manipulative and evil, but she is definitely sane. How did you even manage to regain your license? You are obviously not fit to have the title of 'doctor'." He was purposely trying to goad the arrogant man.
"I may have lost my license once, but I soon regained it and I can say that Cora Mills is definitely insane. No sane person would sell their own flesh and blood into the sex trade." His anger bursts out involuntarily when his professional capabilities were being brought into question. He had accepted Cora's bribe in exchange for a mental breakdown diagnosis, but he knew in his heart of hearts what she had done.
Cora had managed to pay him a large chunk of money to get him to give her the diagnosis she had wanted when her defence team was allowed to pick an independent mental health assessor. She remembered him from many years ago. They had moved in the same social circles and he was well known for taking backhanders, in exchange for fake prescriptions.
"According to the records I have on you, you had already left the state at the time that Cora Mills had sold her daughter; so she wouldn't have been under your professional care, but you do admit that you are aware that Cora Mills sold her daughter to Mr Gold?"
"Urm," his face pales at the realisation of what he has said, "all I know is that when I assessed Cora Mills, she was suffering a mental breakdown."
"That's all your honour," the prosecutor announces before taking his seat.
The defence then cross examines the psychologist, but there was no way for them to recover from his disaster on the stand.
David keeps a close eye on Cora for the rest of the afternoon. He can see her mood change as the tide turns against her. The anger of her downturned lips and scrunched eyes becomes more apparent as her supposed psychologist made a mess of things. He knew it was a risk, but he wanted to see her put the final nail in her own coffin. He leans over to whisper to the prosecutor, passing on his suggestion. The prosecutor nodded and when the defence lawyer had finished questioning one of the nurses from the home Cora had been staying in when she was faking her illness, he stood up and called Cora back to the stand. It was time to go in for the kill.
"Ms Mills, I just have a few more questions for you. I know it has been a long day so I will make it quick. How did it feel to be called insane by Doctor Madryn?"
She juts her chin out. She did not appreciate being referred to as insane. It made her sound like she was crazy person that walks around with tinfoil on her head to stop the government from reading her thoughts. "I was, and am not insane. I simply had a breakdown because I was overwhelmed when I found out what had happened to my daughter for all those years." She wipes her eyes as her crocodile tears begin to fall.
"Please spare us the dramatics," the prosecutor huffs, purposely trying to rub her up the wrong way.
"Objection, your Honour. His opinion of my client is conjecture."
"Agreed. Be careful how you phrase what you are saying, or I will hold you in contempt of court."
"Sorry, your Honour," he says before turning back to Cora. "Ms Mills, you are alleged to have blackmailed your daughter for ten million dollars after the Gold case had ended. What did you want ten million dollars for?"
"I did no such thing. I have already told you that I don't know why I am being accused of something so awful. I just want my daughter back in my life."
"Let's be honest, you have after all sworn an oath on the bible. You have never been a good mother to your daughter, and you don't want her back, you just want her money. She is a millionaire and you want to take what's hers."
The prosecutor was close enough to see her jaw tense but unfortunately the jury were not.
"All I want is to get to know my daughter again."
"I can understand that. I have spent some time with your daughter." He hadn't, all he really knew about Regina was what David had told him. "She is a very impressive woman, extremely strong willed and determined. I would imagine that you are very proud of her."
Cora gives a small nod and a tight-lipped smile. She hated Regina. She'd hated her since the minute she was born and had taken up all of her husband's love and affection. Once Regina was born, Cora was no longer the apple of Henry's eye, and she had always blamed her daughter for it.
"I would imagine that your late husband would have been proud as well. And very excited about the baby your daughter is expecting."
She clenches her jaw again, but this time it wasn't so subtly. "I wouldn't know. He's not alive to tell me."
"You don't think your husband would be proud of the successful woman your daughter has become?" He watches with glee as Cora squirms and frowns, dropping her mask for just a moment. "Your daughter now not only has a successful career that's going from strength to strength, but more importantly she has a family of her own. She has single handedly turned her life around in a matter of months. I'm sure her father would be so proud of her."
"All she has done is get her claws into someone with money. She has done nothing on her own. She is a leech." Her temper finally gets the better of her and overrides her self-preservation for just a moment. But in that moment, she's lost everything, and she knows it.
Regina feels tears forming in her eyes. Not because her mother's words meant anything to her, but because she had often felt that way. Emma was the reason for everything good in her life and she felt like she didn't deserve any of it.
Emma huffs and rubs the back of the smaller hand she's holding. She had no idea how someone so evil could have brought someone so amazing into the world.
They both hear Kat mumble 'cunt' from next to them.
"You sound jealous of your daughter, Ms Mills." He could have let it be, but he wanted to push her as far as he could.
"I am not jealous of that whore." She scans the courtroom and when he eyes land on her daughter, more venom pours out. "I wish she had never been born. All she does is destroy everything around her."
Emma leans in to whisper into Regina's ear, "don't listen to anything she's saying, baby. That woman is poison." It's said through clenched teeth as anger pounds through her body.
"I'm going to throw my shoe at that bitch," Kat says, not as quietly, as she bends down to take one of her heels off. Regina reaches out to stop her because she wouldn't put it passed Kat to do something like that.
"No further questions, your Honour."
The judge looks to the defence. "Do you have any further questions or witnesses?"
"No, Your Honour."
After both the defence and prosecution summarise the findings from the day, the judge dismisses the jury and asks everyone to return to court at 9 a.m. the next morning.
David looks behind him and smiles at the three women sitting at the back of the court.
Regina doesn't want to hang around to speak to anyone, not even David. She just wants to go home and take a long, relaxing bath.
"This will all be over in the morning." Kat announces to the car that has been driving home in silence. "Both bitchface and doctor scumbag incriminated themselves."
Nothing more was said as Regina remained in her own head for the rest of the journey and Emma chewed on her bottom lip, worried about Regina's state of mind.
"What would you like for dinner?" Emma asks, as she helps Regina out of her coat when they finally get home.
"Nothing. I'm going to take a bath."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Emma asks, with hope in her voice.
"I just want a bit of alone time if you wouldn't mind?"
"Oh... of course," she replies sadly. "Just let me know if you need anything."
"I will." She turns around and walks upstairs without giving Emma her usual kiss when they part ways, even when it's for the briefest of moments.
As much sympathy as Kat has for her friend's situation and all the horrible things she had heard that day, there's a part of her that wants to set her straight on the way she is behaving at that moment. Regina was so absorbed in her own sadness that she could not see how upset she was making Emma. She daren't say anything because she knows Emma would just be further upset if she caused an argument.
Kat watches the soccer star, who is glumly looking up the stairs where her lover disappeared to. "Just give her a bit of time to process everything that happened today. She will be okay. Come on," she gently tugs on Emma's arm to turn her around, "I'll make some dinner and I'll keep some for her to eat later."
"I'm not hungry. I'm going to work out."
Kat sighs and makes her way to the kitchen. Apparently, they both needed some time to work out her thoughts.
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An hour later when the dinner Kat was preparing was almost ready, she went to find Emma. She can hear the music blaring from inside the gym as she approaches. Emma doesn't know she is there until the music is switched off. She drops herself from the pull up bar and looks around to see Kat looking back at her with a soft smile.
"Dinner's almost..." she doesn't finish her sentence when she notices the tear tracks down Emma's face. "Oh Emma."
Emma turns around and wipes her face, trying to hide her sadness from Kat. "I'll go shower."
Kat sighs, as Emma exits the gym. "It's like living with bloody teenagers," she says out loud to herself. "I've had enough of this." She storms out of the gym and through the house until she's opening the door to Emma and Regina's en suite, startling the brunette.
"Haven't you heard of knocking?" Regina berates her friend for barging in on her.
"Oh, shut up."
"Excuse me?"
"I said shut up. You are going to listen to me whether you like it or not. Do you know that your fiancée has been crying?" The look of shock on Regina's face gives her the answer. "No, of course you don't because you're so absorbed in your own feelings, that you can't even see the damage you do to her every time you shut her out. You do remember all the things she has been through in her life, don't you? All the times people have shut her out and walked away from her? I know today was hard for you, but you can't treat Emma the way you did when we got home. She was good enough for you to lean on all day in court, but then as soon as you are in the safety of our home, you walk away from her. Oh, and don't forget whose home it is. You know...the person that literally saved our fucking lives."
"Fuck you, Kat. You really think I don't know what Emma has done for me and what she does for me each and every day? All I wanted was some time to myself. I did have to hear how my own mother wished I had never been born today."
"Boo-fucking-hoo. That woman is certifiable, and you give a shit what she thinks? You have a woman downstairs that worships the ground you walk on, but you're willing to upset her over what that stupid crank said? Get a grip." She wants to back down and apologise as she watches Regina pull up her knees up to her chest and cry into them, but there was no backing down now. The brunette needed a kick up the arse. "I love you more than anyone Regina, I really do. You are my best friend and we have been through everything together, but you need to hear this and take it in. I appreciate how shitty today has been for you, but that doesn't give you the right to drag Emma into your misery. No, you know what? Emma would follow you into your misery. She would blindly follow you into the fires of hell if that is what it took to be with you, so don't fucking push her away. This hasn't been easy on her either, you know? Her world has been turned upside down, but she has stood by us through everything."
"I know," Regina weakly mumbles through sobs. "I am acutely aware of everything she has done for me. At least my mother was right on that front...I haven't done anything for myself. All I've done is take off Emma like a leech."
"Regina...you can't take what has been freely given." She grabs a towel from the rack and holds it out for her friend. "You are going to forget all the bollocks Cora said today. Dry yourself off and get dressed so you can join me and Emma for dinner and the beginning to the celebration of the guaranteed demise of Horror Mills." She snorts at the play on words. "Then later tonight, you can suck her dick or whatever you two like to do in the privacy of your room," she finishes with a smirk so that Regina knows there isn't any bad feelings between them, despite some of the harsh truths she had just told her.
"Did I ever tell how much of a bitch you can be?" Regina snipes. After the last of her tears have stopped, she stands up to take the towel still being held out for her.
"I may be a bitch, but I'm a bitch that loves you." She says as she wraps the towel around her friend's body. "Besides, someone needs to keep you in check. That softy downstairs won't do it."
"Was Emma really crying?"
"Yep."
"I'm such an ass."
"Yep."
Regina can't help smiling at her friend. "Thank you, Kat."
"For what, swearing at you? I will happily do that for you anytime you need me to," she says with a wink.
"For that and for always looking out for me, even when it means saving me from myself."
"Are you going to try and kiss me now? You sound like you are going to try and kiss me," Kat jokes.
"Shut up. I'm going to get dressed now. Would you please ask Emma to come here?"
"Sure. Just leave the blow job until later. I don't want dinner going cold."
Kat laughs, as she receives a middle finger for her comment.
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Emma knocks on her own bedroom door before popping her head around it. "Kat said you wanted to see me?"
"Why are you knocking on your own bedroom door?"
"I'm not sure," she says, as she steps inside the room, "it felt like the right thing to do?" She questions herself.
"I really upset you earlier, didn't I?"
Emma shrugs. "I hate feeling useless when you are upset. I get that you wanted some space, but you practically ran away from me. You didn't even give me a kiss," Emma bemoans.
She walks over to the blonde, who is still standing by the door, unsure about moving any further into the room. "I'm sorry, darling. I acted out of sadness. It wasn't anything to do with you. How about I give you that kiss I owe you now?"
"Okay," she happily agrees, all signs of sadness vanish from her face.
Regina reaches up and wraps her arms around her lover's neck and pulls her down until their lips meet in a gentle kiss. Emma smiles down at her, as she nuzzles her nose into Regina's. "I love you so much."
She knows it without being told. She can see the love Emma has for her in her eyes and she can feel it every time Emma touches her.
"I SAID NO BLOWJOBS UNTIL AFTER DINNER." Kat shouts from the bottom of the stairs.
"What?" Emma queries, as her eyebrows scrunch together in confusion at what she just heard.
"Nothing. It's just Kat being Kat," she smiles. "Come on, let's go eat. I'm starving."