A/N- There are two things I want to address. I was feeling glum when I heard the SQ news, and that set me down a notch for finishing this chapter (the other part was work and planning to go to a Con this weekend, sorry guys). I will always be a SQ shipper (OTP is RedBeauty), and I love you all for supporting the writers, the fans, and the people who aren't shippers but know we deserve anything but being swept under the rug. I'm not going to give up on this story, its followers, its favorites, its reviewers, or those who are reading it now. I truly believe there are more of us hiding at different parts in the world than we know. We beat RumBelle (no offense guys) plenty of polling times, and in the total amount of Fanfics posted, so we are more than just a small fandom hiding in the darkness. And the recent events have proven that.
Secondly, this message is for the guest, Stefany, who posted a review that had me thinking the ENTIRE time I wrote this chapter. I appreciate the constructive criticism, and hope I have not lost you yet. There is more to come for our leading ladies, and maybe, just maybe you have helped me a bit in my skills as a writer. So for that, thank you :)
"What the hell?!" Emma sat on the bed, wide eyed as she realized how badly her body had betrayed her.
"I'm Emma-freaking-Swan and I do not just let some Evil Queen get her way because she's deciding to throw a temper tantrum!"
Starting to pace the room, the blonde stopped in her tracks when she saw something that enabled her heart to stop momentarily.
Her reflection in the mirror.
It wasn't her own.
It was his.
"Are you going to follow me everywhere I go?" Came the glare, but she was surprised when the figure answered her back.
No. Did you forget? I told you to call for me in despair. I didn't know that it would be this soon.
"All right, now I'm really not that envious of Mary Margaret, David, or hell even Ruby. Did they have to go through this crap when they realized who they actually were?"
The difference in it seems to be that those around you only woke up to find out their true identity.
Besides, I'm a part of you. A part that you've only recently discovered, but this is something you can't just up and run away from.
"I am not that person anymore! I am not someone who decides its best not to face my problems! And not until a while ago did I find out my true identity..."
You were me at one point.
Part of my soul has traveled on and now rests inside you.
"Spare me..Please. I know this already. Ok, so seriously, what's the deal? Now I manage to not only piss off the woman I care about, but don't even have the strength to go after her. That's not who I am, bub!"
The reflection went to speak, but she silenced that notion quickly.
"And another thing: Is this the person you want me to be that stable girl towards? Because I have some news for you, the Evil Queen gig? It's not worth it! It's not worth getting my heart broken over!"
I know what it's like.
The early onset of her demons. The fear of mistrust.
And it's completely my fault.
I betrayed her, in the worse way possible.
"You? How could you, the person she loved most in the entire world betray her?"
I died.
Emma's jaw went slack for a moment, her heart in her throat and hands trembling.
She knew it was her fate too, and that's what she feared.
Knowing that she had died once; that her soul had gone through something so tragic it stayed in slumber until a kiss brought its wake.
"That's not your fault though. That could never have been your fault. It was Cora, she..."
But he silenced her yet again with his questioning, something that was quick to make her think.
Have you ever wanted something so bad in this entire world you would do anything to accomplish the task of ensuring it?
The thoughts of Henry, finding her parents, surviving foster home after foster home, and being able to finally have Regina in her arms crossed through the blonde's mind.
The last thing, however, she tried to desperately shake from her thoughts.
You have. I can see that. I wanted it too. I wanted a life with this woman. I planned to run away with her.
Me! A nobody.
"But you weren't a nobody, you were the stable boy at the estate."
That was near nothing in my time.
I defied every set of law just to be with her. If we actually achieved what we did? We would both be accused of treason.
And if we were caught?
I'd most likely be beheaded and she'd still be forced to marry that man, locked away for all eternity.
Death seems like a joyous occasion now.
"So this true love crap? What, you faced a hurdle and now you realized all along you were glad you practically ran away from it? Heh, you really are me, aren't you..."
You don't understand.
I would've given the earth, the moon, the stars just to see her happy.
In the end...I thought maybe her mother could have accepted us.
She tricked that man's daughter, and she apparently fooled me.
I was young, and stupid. And I thought we could have finally been a family.
To that woman, everything was a clever ruse.
Including the way she treated those other than her own flesh and blood.
"She went back to Cora, not too long ago...She turned her back on me, on those who thought she could have been family. So tell me, what 'ruse' is that? I gave her redemption, but she threw it away like it were nothing!" Stomping her foot down, she quickly managed to put heated feelings aside and resume pushing the truth forward.
Poor girl.
You really are confused, aren't you?
How long ago was it when that woman tried to force your heart out of your chest?
Or did you not recognize the insanity in her eyes, and the fear in Regina's own?
You have a lot to learn, it seems.
Emma still retained the lost look upon her face, wondering how it was so easy for Regina to revert back to her evil ways.
She was sure it had something to do with the woman protecting her heart.
Or did she not notice the demon that lie cryptic inside Cora, waiting to strike at the happiness of everyone around her.
"She kissed me a few days ago. That's how I remembered who I really am. She didn't want us to stop...And then I hold her hand, show her just a bit of affection, and I get this? C'mon now. Who am I kidding? Maybe she didn't even want to kiss me, maybe this was just a ploy? I mean, what do you-?"
She turned her gaze towards the mirror, expecting an answer or a clever remark to any questions she had about the brunette.
But the only thing in the mirror now was her reflection.
Dammit.
"I guess these are one of those stupid things I have to find out on my own. Lucky me; my own past self can't even help me with my problems regarding the high-heeled, evilly regal pain in the ass also known as my son's other mother."
Rolling her eyes, the blonde plopped herself back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking of ways to take the other woman out of her comfort zone.
She would bring the woman she fell for back to her side, no matter what it took.
"Damn you, Emma Swan!" In her bedroom, Regina was pacing back and forth, a hundred things racing through her thoughts at once.
One sense of logic she couldn't get away from was the feeling that elicited from the blonde's act of affection.
The woman she had tried so hard not to become once more was whispering sweet nothings in her ear, things that made her deathly afraid to approach anyone offering a kindness like the Sheriff had.
The Evil Queen's words were sultry sweet; a promise of everything yet a result of nothing but destruction.
Go ahead, take her.
And then destroy her.
You know its in you.
You know its something you want.
Or...
Oh, I understand now..
The wicked Queen has become quite...Vulnerable...
Look at how she adores everything about you...What will you do to sabotage it next?
"Leave me be! You have no right to delegate anything regarding who I choose to put my feelings towards!"
Did you think you actually had a choice?
Look at these people around you.
It's not love.
They're terrified of you.
The past has come back to her, you say?
Well, I'm sure you'll have fun breaking such a kindred spirit.
That's what Mother did to Daniel, didn't she?
Rip his heart out?
Didn't it feel wonderful when you tried it yourself?
"That's enough!" The brunette stared in the mirror, watching a reflection of her broken self, and that's when her fist went through the glass.
The shattering noise alone prompted one extremely curious blonde to run towards the sound, gasping in horror at the sight of the woman kneeled on the ground, clutching a bleeding hand in pain.
"Regina, what the hell is.."
"Miss Swan, as much as I would love to answer your questions, I find myself bleeding out on the floor. Now if you would be so kind as to help me avoid my imminent death, that would be wonderful."
Rolling her eyes at the woman's apparent sarcastic manner, Emma quickly ran to the bathroom, looking in the cabinets underneath the sink until she found the first aid kit.
When she came back, she noticed how pale the woman's usually tan skin seemed to be, as if she were losing the glow of life.
"Let me see your hand."
"Miss Swan, seeing as a monkey has better patching skills than you, it would be easier to accomplish this myself. Hand me the kit-"
"Stop! Just stop already! I'm fixing your hand up, Madame Mayor. End of discussion. And after that, we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about how you so valiantly try to push me away after not only kissing me, but spending the night in the same bed so I wouldn't be alone.
Are you that sick and twisted that once you let someone in you have to run away as soon as their feelings develop? Did you do that with my past self too?"
"I loved Daniel! Never mistake what we had for anything else! You are a different story, or did you forget how you pleaded with me not to treat you like him?"
"I did! You're right! But how could I expect you to not see me as Daniel when all you have been towards me is the Evil Queen?! You always yell at me how I run away! How quickly I am to get out of your sight! News flash! That day at the stables? I helped you! I saved your life because that's what you do when you care about someone! And when I had those nightmares, when you stayed with me? What was that? Pity?"
"Miss Swan, I would absolutely love to argue the principles of why I do things the way I do, but alas, the open cuts on my hand do not delegate me to continue this conversation any further. Therefore, I will refuse to be so stubborn and actually allow you to help me."
"All right...Fine. Here..." Emma quickly wrapped the wound in a tourniquet and ran downstairs, fetching a lemon from the fruit basket upon the woman's counter.
"Funny, I couldn't have imagined you to have anything in that damn thing but apples..." The blonde murmured, then made her way upstairs.
The brunette sneered when she saw what the Sheriff was carrying. "Lemon juice in the wound? You have such a pragmatic way of thinking, Miss Swan. Perhaps Dr. Whale is in need of a new apprentice?"
"You really ought to shut up and pay attention, Madame Mayor, or maybe I should go back downstairs and fetch some salt?" When the woman rolled her eyes, Emma nodded. "Didn't think so. Now, hold this, tightly. When it hurts, you need to squeeze. I need to make sure there is no glass in your skin, and after that I will bandage you up."
Regina's eyes began to slightly water as Emma pulled tiny shards of glass out of her skin. She squeezed the lemon tightly, hoping to not crush it and enable the juice on her wood floors.
"There." Emma ran towards the bathroom, wetting a rag and washing the wound gently. Patching it up was the final easy part; and when
Regina was good and healed, the blonde leaned forward and placed a soft kiss upon the bandaging.
"Thank you, Miss Swan. You may exit now. I've no more need for your assistance."
But Emma stood her ground firmly, a glare upon her features.
"Ohhhh no, Madame Mayor, you're not getting away with this that easily. I want to know what's going on in that pretty head of yours."
Regina was having none of it, pushing Emma away with one hand and getting ready to walk away when a firm grasp kept her from leaving.
"Let me go, Miss Swan."
It wasn't a plea.
"Regina, why are you so content on leaving what we have in the dark? Is it him?"
"It has nothing to do with Daniel, if that's what you're implying...The past is in the past, Emma, and I'm not going to worry about revisiting it again."
"So this is about you?" Came the inquiry, as the brunette raised her eyebrow at the blonde's words.
"No."
"Don't lie to me! This is about how you feel. You're afraid. You're terrified. It's not that hard to figure out. So tell me, what is the great Regina Mills so afraid of?!"
"Losing you!" The words slipped from her lips so easily, it almost went unnoticed by the other woman in the room.
"Wha-"
"I lost your soul once, Emma! In front of my eyes! I held Daniel while he died, and I felt nothing but pain for eons after! And now that you're back? Now that you remember everything? You think people aren't going to know? My mother is still out there! And if she didn't realize it before when she couldn't pull your heart out, then she probably knows about it now! That crafty woman will kill you, and I will not go through that again!"
It was the care in the woman's voice that urged on the next question lingering in the air.
"Do you love me?" The words were out of the blue, but it was the only way the Sheriff was going to feel any sense of clarity; to know for sure the feelings surrounding the both of them.
When the brunette looked away, Emma's hand tucked under her chin, turning their gaze towards each other.
"Regina?"
They could both feel their breaths on each other's lips, the pull enabling them closer and closer to each other.
It would be a short time until they realized where the pull originated from, and why it was there.
The former Evil Queen pressed her lips into Emma's own, silencing her from the subject, but answering it in her own way.
Though she couldn't find the words to say it, a feeling was growing in Regina's heart.
Something that lay dormant for far too long.
"Tell me what you know!" The cloaked figure held Ruby high up in the air, by her throat, glaring into the wolf's eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" The waitress coughed, holding her neck in pain.
She was soon dropped to the floor, gasping for breath as she neared blackness, a fog cloaking her senses.
"There is a secret you are hiding from me regarding that damned, weak blonde woman you so easily call your Sheriff. And I will find out what it is. And since you won't tell me, for now?" The figure loomed over Ruby, thrusting her hand into the woman's chest and pulling her heart out.
"I'm borrowing this."
A pleased chuckle escaped the person's lips as they stared at the heart in awe.
"Well, well. The heart of a werewolf. I could definitely use this for a change..."
The last thing Ruby Lucas saw before passing out was a Cheshire grin, the clacking of heels against tile blared in her ears.