Author's Note:
So you guys are getting the chapter a day early this week since I'm gonna be on a six hour flight tomorrow and really don't wanna have to figure out a time to post between packing and what have you, lol. Updates will resume on Wednesday after this week though.

CHAPTER NINE
Sentencing

"Where is Emma? I need to speak with—must you do that so roughly?"

Regina was thrown rather unceremoniously into the singular cell in the Sherriff's station, scowling at Charming's lack of respect towards her. She might be a criminal in their eyes, but the fact that she had willingly stayed under house arrest when she could have easily slipped away from her singular guard, should have proven that she wasn't about to do anything foolish. If she had wanted to avoid her fate, she could have left sometime during the middle of the night, not en route to her holding cell an hour prior to her sentencing.

Then again, expecting Charming to have basic reasoning skills was perhaps far too much to hope for.

"She's out on a call," the man answered her as he shut the cell door, barely even sparing her more than a glance before he crossed the room to answer the phone that was ringing off the hook. It was clear he didn't feel the need to care very much about Regina's urgent insistence that she see Emma, but she was running out of time.

If Emma had just bothered to answer her phone over the last two days this wouldn't have been an issue, but each and every call was promptly ignored. Regina should have expected nothing else, but she had foolishly allowed herself to believe that perhaps Emma would realize and care that she had something urgent to tell her while the woman's cellphone rang nonstop for the last forty eight hours.

"Then I demand an audience with yourself and Snow, because this is—!" Regina tried, defaulting to her last resort. However, her words were promptly cut off as two figures entered the Sherriff's station, one of them being Emma herself.

"You know, if you wanted to handcuff me that badly, love, I could've named a number of other scenarios that would've been far more… pleasurable," Hook practically purred at her, effectively making Emma's gaze darken as she shoved him over towards the cell.

"Keep it in your pants," she growled, before her eyes set on Regina, who was occupying the cell which she no doubt was planning to keep Hook in. "Damnit," Emma mumbled under her breath before turning towards her father. "David—"

"Just keep them in the same cell," Charming told her as he hung up the phone, grabbing his jacket off of one of the desk chairs. "We'll be moving Regina to City Hall in an hour anyway. I'm sure the two of them can manage to play nice until then." He eyed both of the town 'villains' with distaste before heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Emma asked, looking a little frazzled at the amount of action the Sherriff's station seemed to be getting that day; it looked like it was one thing after another.

"I just got a call about someone possibly seeing Jafar; I'm going to go check it out. Can you file the paperwork on Regina?"

But Charming didn't even give her a chance to respond before he was out the door, leaving Emma with the two captives. She exhaled a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, sure, whatever," she mumbled before opening the cell door with one of her keys. "Don't kill each other," Emma told them shortly as she threw Hook inside, locking the door behind him.

"Regina," Hook greeted, a smirk tugging at the edge of his lips as he placed his back against the bars, allowing Emma to uncuff him through the obstruction. "It's been far too long."

"Killian," Regina responded shortly, eyeing the man up and down. "I dare say not long enough."

"You wound me," he responded satirically, his smirk growing wider. "And here I thought we had a special connection." Leaning against the bars, Hook crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing her hungrily. "At least, we did the night before you sent me off to Wonderland to take care of your dear mother. Do you remember…?"

A horrified look crossed over Emma's face at the implication. "Oh, for fuck's sake," she exclaimed, shoving Hook away from the bars so roughly that it made the man chuckle, sensing her innate jealousy that anyone had ever dared touch her ex. Regina was unsure whether the possessive nature was due to True Love or just a part of Emma's personality, but she found she appreciated it all the same.

Still, Regina's face darkened at the man's audacity to mention that sordid little affair in front of Emma; that was not something the other woman needed to hear. However, Regina still managed to keep herself poised as she responded with, "If you're referring to the whole of five minutes you flopped around like a fish out of water in my bedchambers, then yes, I do. As I recall it was terribly disappointing."

Hook's smug look diminished immediately and, despite herself, Emma snorted at the insult.

Turning away from him, Regina's gaze set on the blonde. "Emma, I need to speak with you; it's urgent," she pleaded, hoping the woman would implore her request. She really did not have much time left.

"Later," Emma brushed off, sorting through the paperwork on her desk without even sparing the other woman a glance. Her voice held a bit of a tremor though, as if she were afraid Regina wished to speak with her about the things that had transpired between them in the manor a few days ago. But that was the last thing on Regina's mind.

"There might not be a later!" she exclaimed, which at least got Emma's attention as she turned towards her. "Are you aware that your idiotic parents are planning to banish me? The town line is still intact, which means that once I go over it, I will no longer be able to return. They are trying to forever separate me from my son, Emma; you can't allow that to happen!"

"…What?" Emma asked, the question posed soft and disbelieving. She blinked heavily, trying to process the information. "How… how do you even know this, about the town line? No one's said anything about it."

"I very much doubt anyone outside of Rumple—Mr. Gold," Regina corrected, unsure if Emma was aware of everyone's Enchanted Forest counterparts, "has tried. Now that the curse has lifted, everyone in this town is an outsider to this world; I assume they wish to stick together, for familiarity."

"Regina, Gold is still here," Emma told her, looking at the sorceress as though she wasn't making any sense, before finally gesturing over towards Hook. "If he wasn't, I wouldn't have that idiot locked up for trying to stab him."

"The bastard deserved much more than that, I can assure you," Hook growled, eyes flashing dangerously. "He killed the woman I love; that is not something one let's slide."

"Then maybe you should have fucking told me that instead of trying to take justice into your own hands," Emma snapped, before correcting with a brief look at the hook that was now lying on her desk, "Hand, whatever. This isn't the Middle Ages; killing people isn't how we solve our damn problems here."

Hook scoffed. "You actually wished for me to file a formal complaint with your damned office, when you've done nothing but prove yourself incompetent of upholding the law when you repeatedly refused to do anything about the damage to my ship? Excuse me, princess, for not trusting you with something far more important, but I think you've already proven that you cannot be relied on to get anything done."

"Your ship is a goddamn sailboat!" Emma shouted, looking at him like he had gone mental for even caring about such a thing. "Do you really expect me to bother with something like that, when we have actual crimes to deal with?"

"It's only a bloody sailboat because she turned it into one!" Hook exclaimed, furiously pointing at Regina. "The Jolly Roger was once a magnificent—"

"Be quiet!" Regina shouted, effectively cutting him off. "Your petty grievances are low on the scale of importance right now. Emma, the boundary—"

"I want justice for what was done to Milah!" Hook furiously exclaimed. "And if you won't do anything about it, then—!"

"Oh for God's sake," Emma growled, furiously grabbing her keys off of her belt and coming over towards the cell door. "Hook, just shut up and chill out; we'll talk about Gold later and what kind of justice can be done. Regina, come with me; we obviously need another place to talk."

Regina furiously pushed past Hook, nearly knocking him into the side wall as she strode from the cell. After Emma closed and locked the door, her fingers clamped around Regina's wrist, acting as quasi-handcuffs as she led the woman into the interrogation room. "Explain," she requested shortly as she leaned against the chestnut framed door.

Regina situated herself atop the long table, crossing her legs in front of her in an attempt to look at least a little more dignified than she felt. It was very unbecoming, this whole arresting nonsense. Still, Regina grit her teeth and bared it, for Emma as well as for her son. She needed to prove that she wasn't the woman she once was.

"I spoke with Gold a few days ago; he told me that the curse did not break right, and as such the boundary is still intact," Regina explained. "From my understanding, he threw someone over it to test his theory."

"Who?"

"He didn't say. But that's hardly the point, Emma; if what he says is true do you even understand what that means? I'm willing to accept the punishment for my crimes, but I will not be permanently separated from Henry! No crime I've committed is deserving of that fate; he is my son!"

"Actually I'm pretty sure the fact that you've murdered a shit ton of people makes you deserving of a lot of stuff, but just relax for a second, okay? Christ," Emma responded sharply, not terribly keen on being shouted at. She pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment before assuring her, "I won't let that happen. I'm not stupid; I know Henry needs you. I wouldn't do that to either of you."

"It's not you I'm worried about," Regina snapped. She pointed towards the distance, indicating Snow somewhere far away from them both. "Your mother has already made it perfectly clear what she thinks of me, and I would not put it past her to do something like this so she can assure I stay as far away from you and Henry as possible."

Emma's gaze darkened and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Mary Margaret doesn't have a say in who I do or do not choose to have in my life; that's my decision and she knows it."

Regina almost laughed at her, but contained herself. God, how naïve Emma could be was almost frightening. "Look around you, Emma," Regina began, gesturing with open palms. "This is not the world you grew up in. It may look like it, but the rules have changed quite substantially. This country was built on democracy, and yet I was torn from my position as Mayor while your parents didn't even bother to have a reelection, instead naming themselves my successor. They will hide behind the veil of change, pretend that they abide by the rules in this land, and yet in the end, they will be nothing else but the King and Queen they once were, and you, the Princess, who has yet to earn the right to have any say in political matters."

"This isn't a political matter," Emma snapped. "This is a police matter, which makes it my business. And I think the fact that you're not getting sentenced to death for everything is a testament to how much differently things are handled in this world."

Regina leaned forward in her seat, looking Emma dead in the eyes. "I tore everyone from your parents' kingdom. I robbed them and their people of their home, their memories. This is political, dear; but what's worse than that is that it's personal. I bedded the sole successor to their line, which will never allow them to look at this objectively; to them, I am not just a threat to their kingdom, but to their heir. And the only reason I'm not going to be strapped to a stake in the middle of the town square with a gun pointed at my head, is because of how my death would affect their grandson."

Emma rolled her eyes as she exhaled an impatient breath, "Regina, this is Storybrooke, not their 'Kingdom'. You're being dramatic."

"I'm not being dramatic. This is how things are in the world where we come from, and like it or not, it's going to bleed out into how this town is governed because that is all they know. I need you to understand how they view this situation if you're even going to have a hope of possibly stopping it."

"Regina," Emma began firmly, pushing herself off the door to cross the room towards the woman she was speaking to. She stopped just a mere pace in front of her and continued, "Look at me, listen to me." Regina's gaze flittered towards Emma's, trying not to let herself get lost in the ocean of the other woman's eyes. "I am not going to let that happen, okay? You might have deserved to lose me, but I won't let you lose your son."

"You can't guarantee that," Regina said softly, feeling her pessimism weigh heavily on her heart. She tore her eyes away from Emma, focusing on the far wall.

"Then why come to me?"

"Because I have no one else," Regina breathed sadly, the truth in the statement feeling rather crushing in its cruelty. She brushed the hair from her eyes before looking back up at Emma, seeing the emotion flitter across the blonde's features at her admission. "And yet, at the same time, I don't have you at all… do I? But I have to have faith that you still care enough for me to help, because without that, I have nothing."

Emma swallowed hard, eyebrows crinkling in mild distress. "You might not have me in the way that you used to," she began softly, her fingers brushing over the other woman's thigh momentarily before she had enough sense to pull away and clear her throat. Emma averted her gaze for a moment before finishing quietly with, "But you will always have me, Regina; that's… that's what makes everything so goddamn hard."

Regina's throat tightened. "Emma…" She reached for her hand, but the Sherriff pulled away and took a step back.

"Don't," she told her shortly, unable to meet Regina's gaze. "You know it'll only make it worse." Regina pursed her lips, but did not push that matter, for she knew Emma was right. Still, it was difficult; to be this close to her, and yet still unable to have her. Regina's heart ached for a love lost, but she suppressed it, as there were more important matters at hand.

Emma sighed, pushing the hair back from her face. "I wish I knew about this earlier," she muttered. "I don't know if forty five minutes is enough time to convince David and Mary Margaret to change your sentencing. Maybe I can just have them put it off for a few days…"

Regina looked at her incredulously, "I tried to tell you earlier, but you wouldn't answer your phone!" She was not about to be blamed for the lack of time, when it wasn't her fault in the slightest.

"…Oh." Emma scrunched her face to the side in guilt before she hesitantly admitted, "Ah, yeah. I kind of… broke it. Well, the wall broke it, but I… helped. A little. Maybe."

Regina just raised a judging eyebrow and Emma sighed.

"Look, gimme a break; at least I'm not drunk for your sentencing today. Baby steps, okay? This whole thing isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to deal with."

Regina continued to stare disbelievingly at her as she countered, "You might not be drunk, but you did drink today." It was a shot in the dark, but it hit dead center.

"I…" Emma blinked, looking perplexed. Then she flushed, her embarrassment over being caught hitting her like a freight train. "How the hell did you know that?"

Regina merely arched her eyebrow further in response and crossed her arms across her chest. It was then that Emma realized, and scoffed in irritation.

"Right, yeah, cause you know me better than anyone; would you like a medal for it?" she shot back, shaking her head. "Like I said, baby steps, alright? Stop judging me, Regina; shit."

Regina slid herself off the table, her heels clicking against the linoleum flooring before she crossed the room to meet Emma near the door. "I'm not judging you," she told her seriously. "I'm merely saying what you cannot. And if you're ashamed of it, Emma, perhaps you shouldn't do it."

Emma looked as though she were about to say something, but the words died in her throat and she averted her gaze. In the end, she knew she had nothing to say that would condone her behavior, or justify it in any sense. But then again, it wouldn't be a vice if she could.

"Come on," Regina said gently, aware that she had at least made her point in that area and knowing better than to push. She took Emma's hand, encouraging the woman to hold her wrist once more. "Take me back to my cell so you can speak with David and Snow."

Emma's eyes met hers for a moment, and then fell to their hands before she nodded. She didn't have to say it, but as Emma's grip tightened protectively on Regina's wrist, she knew that Emma would do everything she could.

Regina just hoped that it would be enough.

[x]

It wasn't enough.

Emma felt her breath leave her as Mary Margaret decreed her final word, sentencing Regina to banishment from Storybrooke until the end of her days. The brunette, who stood with her hands cuffed behind her back and on shameful display for all the town to see, went ashy white at the news. She became terribly unbalanced, as though she was fighting her knees from buckling beneath her, and her stricken expression sparked a rage so fierce inside of Emma that within moments she stood, slamming her hands down on the surface of the table.

"You can't do that!" she shrieked, her darkening gaze settling on Mary Margaret on the other side of the long table. Emma felt thoroughly betrayed; she had been led to believe that they were going to change their minds, find another suitable punishment, only to have them do very thing that Emma was fighting against. They couldn't do this to Regina. They couldn't do this to Henry.

At the very least, Emma was thankful that their son was currently being babysat by Ruby, as both Mary Margaret and David thought that he shouldn't be around for the sentencing. They believed it would be too hard on him, and now, Emma knew exactly why they had thought that.

God, how was she supposed to tell her son that he was never going to see his mother again?

"Emma, sit down," David hissed quietly, looking embarrassed that his own daughter spoke out against their decision in front of everyone. But Emma wasn't a goddamn princess in their castle; she had a voice, and in this world she was privy to using it. She wasn't about to just take this lying down.

Mary Margaret cleared her throat awkwardly before trying to continue. "You will have twenty four hours to gather up your belongings and leave of your own free will, or else further action will be taken. In the matter of Henry Mills, all custodial rights will be given to his birthmother, Emma Swan—"

"No, this is bullshit!" Emma shouted, nearly making Mary Margaret jump from the force of her voice. She then shot her daughter a dark look, pursing her lips before sliding her chair back and standing.

"Emma, a word; now," Mary Margaret muttered furiously before crossing over towards her. However, she stopped in front of David for a minute and placed a loving hand on his shoulder. "Finish out the hearing," she told him softly. "And then escort Regina back to her manor." Her husband nodded, and Emma shot them both a scathing look before storming from the room, heading into the back office.

As Mary Margaret followed behind her, it seemed Regina had finally broken from her disbelieving trance and Emma could hear her fiercely exclaim, "I will not let you take me from my son!" But Mary Margaret closed the door behind them, silencing any further words. Emma rounded on her in an instant, a fire blazing in the pit of her gut.

"What the hell were you thinking? I told you what would happen with the boundary, and yet you still—!"

"Don't ever do that again," Mary Margaret interrupted, her own anger growing substantially at the embarrassment Emma had caused her and her husband. "This town is in chaos, and undermining the only leaders they have is only going to further the anarchy. You are our daughter, Emma; it is your duty to stand behind our decisions."

"I'd stand behind them if they weren't so completely fucked!" Emma shouted, not caring in the least about her parents' image. "You told me—!"

"I said we would think about it!" Mary Margaret cut off, knowing what her daughter was about to say. "And we did; your father and I took the boundary issue into consideration. But in the end, this was what was best for the town, and what was best for our family. Regina poisons everything she touches, Emma; it's in your and Henry's best interest that she be purged from your lives."

Emma shook with rage, her eyes flashing as she pointed furiously towards the door. "You know, if Regina was even half the woman that you claim she is, she would have already taken Henry and burned this whole damn town to the ground! She cursed you all for twenty eight years, and yeah, I get you're pissed about that, but she had all that time to… I don't know, torture you or something – hell, even kill you – but did she? No." Emma took a step towards the slender brunette, her voice dangerously low as she finished, "Have you even bothered to ask yourself why that is, or is your head stuck so far up your own ass that you can't see anything but yourself?"

"Emma!" Mary Margaret exclaimed, horrified by the way her daughter was speaking to her. She looked wounded by it, yet tried to continue with reason, as though her decision held any real justification. "Look, I… I understand that you're upset about this, and I'm sorry, but Regina only being a shadow of what she once was neither changes the things that she has done, nor what she is capable of doing in the future, should she choose. She's dangerous, and she has to answer for her crimes."

"But she didn't have to in this way!" Emma responded heatedly. "I know it doesn't change what she's done, believe me, but there was another way to handle this and yet instead, because you have some age-old vendetta against her, you did this." The blonde shook her head, looking disgusted by the choices her former friend had made. "You can say it was for Henry and me all you want, but at the end of the day, it isn't going to be this that finally makes us a family. If anything, it's going to be what tears us apart."

Mary Margaret looked crushed at her words. "Emma…" But the blonde held up her hands, taking a step back from her.

"No. You made your decision, now you can figure out a way to live with it. In the meantime, I have to go tell my son that he may never see his mother again, thanks to you." Emma stepped away from her, heading towards the door. "I really hope you're happy with yourself."

Mary Margaret tried to call out to her, but she was ignored. Furious tears stung the back of Emma's eyes, but she wouldn't allow them to fall as she quickly strode from City Hall, wishing beyond anything else that she had the power to fix what her… her damn parents had screwed up.

But God… she really didn't have the first clue on how to start.

TBC…