For Dragon Queen Week - Day 6: Partners in Crime
Unedited so I apologize for mistakes.
They're lying on the small bed, curtains drawn, windows closed, naked bodies tangled with each other, her arm around Regina as the young brunette dozes with her head nestled on her breast, her lips kissing Mal's nipple lovingly every few minutes, while her own fingers paint soft swirls over the small of her back.
It'd been a rough day, their families had almost discovered their affair (they'd almost run into one of Stefan's lackeys while making their way here), and Maleficent would like nothing more than for her husband to find out who she shares her bed with behind his back, and she knows Regina would love to see her own mother's face when she finds out her precious daughter's been sleeping with the enemy. But they can't, at least not until they have a plan, a way to appease both sides.
The Mills crime family is one of the biggest, most influential groups in the country, and Regina is the sole heiress to their mafia empire, has been learning the business since she was ten. Mal has heard the stories: while other children were playing outside and learning how to ride a bike, little Regina was being taught how to use poison to her advantage, how to tell who she could and couldn't trust, and a number of other things no ten year-old should be learning.
Mal had come into the Spindle family through marriage, so her training and initiation into the mob hadn't been as demanding as Regina's, nor have there been as many responsibilities for her besides looking pretty and helping out with the occasional scam, sometimes a kill. She'd met Stefan at a bar, a simple night out, and she'd fallen for him, she really had, to the point where she didn't care that he was the head of the Spindles, that there was a price on his head, or that he was perhaps the most dangerous man in the tri-state area. She was a lonely Jersey girl, and she'd fallen in love with a bad boy, she thought she could handle it, had been ready to take part in whatever was necessary, and she'd succeeded, had made herself a true Spindle in name, if not in blood, and earned the respect not just of Stefan, but of his entire family… and then she'd met Regina.
Their attraction had been instant, they'd met in a hotel, at some random party, nothing to do with their trade, and so they hadn't realized the implications of their involvement until they'd slept together and finally exchanged last names, the alcohol blurring the lines between morality and debauchery to the point where introductions had not been necessary before jumping into bed and devouring each other, and by then it was too late.
Regina had resisted it (and in truth, so had Mal, or at least she'd tried), she never tried to hurt her, but she did try to get away, to forget what had happened, but it was impossible to fight the pull they had on each other, and so their one-night tryst had become a habit.
And now here they are, in their usual motel room, a year of secret rendezvous later, and Mal doesn't know what to do with all the feelings the beautiful young woman in her arms has ignited, doesn't know how to fix this, how to make it so that it's just the two of them and no one else.
"What if we run?" Regina asks sleepily.
"They'd find us," comes Mal's automatic, sad reply.
"Not necessarily, I know people, I could–"
"Remember how you met those people, dearest."
"My mother," Regina says in a low voice.
"Exactly, their loyalty is to her, not you, just as the loyalty of those I know is to my husband, not to me."
"What if we kill them?" Regina asks then, head rising from her cozy place on Mal's breasts. "I could take care of Stefan, and you get rid of Mother, and then we–"
"That wouldn't work, my love, you know that. It's like a hydra, cut off one head…"
"Three more will take its place," Regina recites.
"Exactly," Mal replies, and she feels her shudder, draws a sheet over their naked bodies and sighs contentedly when Regina cuddles closer.
"I refuse to believe that this is all we have," she tells her, lips kissing her neck as hot tears fall from her eyes and on to Mal's skin.
"But it is, my love," Mal replies, the hand on Regina's back rising to thread through her hair in soothing motions, and she feels her relax under the motions, but she knows she's still thinking hard about this, she can almost see the wheels turning in her young lover's head.
Minutes tick by as they lie there in silence, holding each other, caressing absentmindedly, planting the occasional kiss against skin chilly from the air conditioning of their little room, and then Regina tenses.
"Mal," she whispers cautiously, "what if we were to bring them down for good?"
Her interest piques at that, her hand ceasing its ministrations on her hair, "What?"
"You heard me. We could bring the police into this, we could help them stage something that will get the entire family caught, and us in witness protection, so that we never have to deal with them or see them again."
"Regina, no. It's too risky."
"We can do it. I know we can."
"If Stefan finds out, he'd kill you, I can't let that happen. They own us, Regina, we have to obey, we don't have another choice."
"There's always a choice, Mal. You taught me that."
"And how on earth did I achieve such a thing?"
"You knew the implications of having a secret relationship with the daughter of your husband's biggest enemy, you knew how dangerous it was, and still you took the risk, you chose me."
"Darling…" she starts, but Regina sits up then, blanket sliding off her body, pooling on her lap as she crosses her legs and stares at Mal with a spark in her eyes and a smirk in those lovely, full lips of hers.
"Think about this, Mal. We could end it all, we could bring them down, we could be together without a care in the world."
"But–"
"Please, Mal," the younger woman begs, looking straight at her, "I want you, I want you always. I don't want us to risk our lives to love each other anymore. I can't stand it."
She sighs at that, closes her eyes for a moment as she weighs her decision, then opens them to stare directly into the deep brown ones of the woman in front of her, "What did you have in mind?"
Regina smiles bigger than she ever has, jumps on her and kisses her all over, and Mal knows the level of danger this entire operation will entail, knows they can end up dead in a ditch after slow, horrible torture at the hands of her husband or Cora Mills, but this, right now, Regina's reaction to her agreeing to the whole thing, that carefree way in which she crushes their lips together and squeezes her hand as she straddles her, has Mal ignoring every alarm that's going off in her head.
For once, Mal Spindle dares to hope.
—–
"What if I were to tell you you could end the entire Mills family?" Mal asks Stefan one night, walking seductively from the bathroom door to the bed, opening her robe and smiling at her husband as he rakes hungry eyes over her body.
"I'd say that's an admirable dream, my dove, but one that is unfortunately impossible to attain."
"Would I be offering it to you if it was so impossible?"
"Is there something you're not telling me, Mal?"
"Hmm, maybe…" she trails off, biting her bottom lip as Stefan jumps into the bed and next to her, his rough hands roaming her figure, grasping and fondling in the most unpleasant of ways, but she grins and bears it, delivering the information. There's a drug shipment coming in, she tells him, one that Cora herself is going to be inspecting when it docks, and naturally, Cora Mills will require her family to go with her, as she's known to do when big shipments arrive for the Mills business, except no one has ever been able to decode the shipment schedule, so it's always been an impossible feat to catch one, especially since they have every port at their disposal. Oh, but I'm smarter than dear Cora, she informs her husband, I seduced Leopold Blanchard, her newest lover, he had no idea who I was, can you imagine? Got him drunk and riled up enough, and he spilled every little thing to my very attentive ears.
"Ah, my smart, gorgeous dove," her husband says (and she hates that nickname, hates it), his arousal intensifying with every ounce of information she provides for him, until he's on top of her, doing things she's found most pleasant in the company of another, but never of him. She pretends to like it, moans and gasps in all the right moments, and hears between his shouts of ecstasy the way he puts his plan together to ambush Cora. She suggests he take the entire family along, too, so that they can end not just Cora, but all the Mills idiots, and he gives her a wolfish grin at that, pounds harder and harder into her, and she pretends to reach her peak, acts as convincingly as she can every step of the way.
By the time Stefan has come inside her and passed out, Mal's fed him all the important details, and she heads to the bathroom, shoots a quick text to Detective Graham from the burner phone he gave her when they met at the motel yesterday. His reply is quick and short, a simple Thank you. Be careful. that she erases a second after reading it, checking that Stefan is still asleep as she sends another text.
-R?
There's no need to spell out the full name, Graham will know, and there's a knot in her stomach as she awaits his answer, wondering why it takes him so long to reply until she sees the screen light up with the silent alert of a message.
–Her dinner went well, I have four men stationed near the house to watch over her, like I promised. She's alright, I'll see you tomorrow.
Shutting off the phone and tucking it quietly under the loose floorboard near her dresser, Mal tucks herself into the sheets next to her husband and stares at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to come…
When sunlight peeks into the room from her window, she's still wide awake and unchanged, panic starting to settle in her as she grasps what's going to happen in the next two days.
To her surprise, Graham is waiting for her at the motel with two guests, a detective from another precinct and a flustered, smiling Regina, who runs to Mal and kisses her hello, not caring that they have an audience.
"Everything's in place," Graham says, "and I know you both gave me a list of everyone in the bureau who works with your families, but I still personally screened, checked and interviewed everyone who'll take part in the operation to make sure none of them are working with your Cora or Stefan or anyone associated with them. We're in the clear, you'll be safe."
"Thank you," they both say at the same time, Mal holding Regina's hand in both of hers and kissing it in relief at the detective's words.
"Right, tomorrow will be dangerous, so I'm putting the both of you in a safe house for the day, all I ask is that you please remain there until I come get you."
"Okay," Regina says, her voice trembling.
"Are you alright, dear?" Mal asks, one hand flying up to cup her lover's cheek and run a thumb along it.
"Fine, just… nervous, I guess."
"This entire thing was your idea, Ms. Mills," Graham intervenes with a frown.
"That doesn't mean I'll enjoy seeing my entire family go to jail or get shot," she snaps at him, and Mal tugs her closer, one hand cupping the back of her head while the other arm wraps around her waist.
"Shh, it's alright, my darling. We'll be alright," she promises.
"I know," she says into her ear, voice still shaky, "together, right?"
She sounds so small, so innocent and hopeful, like she's ten years younger than her instead of five, and Mal just wants to reassure her, to let her know she's here and she's not backing out, so she does just that by kissing her lips softly, pulling back to look into her eyes.
"Yes," Mal smiles tenderly, "together."
—-
The heist is a disaster, the police don't do their jobs as they should, and they lose a total of seven people between both families when the entire thing goes down, and then it's just Mal and Stefan and Cora and Regina standing in the middle of an abandoned warehouse (they'd found the safehouse, had taken them away and killed the dozen officers keeping watch, kidnapped them to this place, a rare dalliance in teamwork that Mal didn't think her husband capable of, least of all with Cora Mills). Mal and Regina are clutching each other while Cora and Stefan discuss the better ways to punish them for their betrayal, her holding a gun, him with a bloody knife twirling in his hand, but then a gunshot is heard and Stefan falls to the floor with a scream, blood spouting from his knee, and Cora turns her beady dark eyes on detective Graham, who's standing on the other side with a horde of cops, all pointing their guns at the scene.
"It's over, Cora," he tells her, "your family's dead, and those who aren't are already being charged with numerous counts of fraud, embezzlement and murder, you have nowhere to go."
"You foolish girl," Cora spits at Regina, who only cowers into Mal's embrace, "you've ruined your entire family for nothing! Love is weakness, Regina! You'll regret this, you mark my words."
The older woman raises her hands, drops her weapon and surrenders, and suddenly Mal is being swept away from the scene, shoved into an ambulance, and she has no idea what's happening until Regina's face is right in front of her, dropping hurried kisses against her forehead and telling her it's all going to be okay, that the wound is superficial, that they'll sew her up and discharge her in no time. There's blood on Regina's hands, and Mal realizes it's hers, a sharp pain shooting up her side as her hand feels the gash on her skin. She doesn't remember getting slashed at by Stefan's knife, but she supposes the adrenaline and the worry had blocked out the pain until now.
"Graham," she calls out when they reach the hospital, "Graham?"
He appears at her side when the paramedics slow the gurney's advance into the ER, he's sweaty and breathless, but he's there, looking at her and asking what she needs.
"Is it over?" she asks, "Are we safe?"
"You two are the bravest women I've ever met, you know that? Yes, it's over, you're both safe, and we'll get started on witness protection the second you get out of here."
She thanks him and then whatever meds they've just hooked her into start to take effect, and Mal sleeps.
—
They move to a tiny little town in Maine, a place called Storybrooke, where time seems to stand still, full of quaint little shops and colorful folk, and Mal couldn't be happier.
It's a simple life, a tiny cabin near the woods, early mornings and repetitive chores, none of the luxuries she'd been accustomed to, but she has a warm bed and a beautiful woman to share it with, a garden with roses and an apple tree, and more importantly, a life without the weight of their families, without the threatening presence of others and the need to hide feelings for fear of putting her most beloved in danger. Here they are safe, here they are free.
Graham had set them up with a simple and very convincing story. Pam Beaufort and Eleanor Kendall, a young couple looking for a quiet life away from the judgment of their families, it had garnered the sympathy of the people in town, who all took the time to know them and offer their support. They'd been given a rather large amount of money in compensation for helping bring down the Mills and Spindle clans, and they invested it in a beat up old bookstore near Main Street. Regina -or rather, Eleanor- tended to their finances, while Mal herself took care of the more practical things, using her knowledge of architecture (a career she'd started to pursue, but abandoned when she'd married Stefan) to fix up the place. They'd restocked it with more current material and new editions of all the classics, and business is looking good so far.
They're not rich by any means, but they get by comfortably enough, and more importantly, they're together, together and happy and free.
Regina walks in the door at six on the dot, dropping her keys on the mantle and shedding her clothes on the way to Mal, leaving a trail of fabric and heels on the floor until she finds her in the living room, a silk robe the only thing keeping Mal from being naked as a jaybird just like her.
"Had a good day, did you, darling?" she asks in amusement as Regina pulls her up and eagerly kisses her, taking all of three seconds to divest her of that robe.
"I did have a good day," she replies, adding, "and now I'm going to have you."
And it's bliss when she kisses her way down her body, sucks a nipple into her mouth, swirls her tongue around it. It's bliss when her hand finds her core and rubs at her clit when she parts her thighs. Bliss when she licks her way down the valley between her breasts, bliss when she sighs and moans at Mal's touch, bliss when she comes on her tongue and screams her name.
It's bliss because she loves her, and this is everything they ever wanted.