Thanks for reviews, favorites and follows. Sorry it took so long to write this chapter. I swear it was all in my head and then I tried putting it on paper and it sucked and then I completely forgot about it and then my muse decided to go on vacation and so I was stuck with writers block for this story. However, do not fear I will not abandon this story.
XXX
Emma ran her eyes over the brunette's frame. Sure she was the President of the United States but behind Emma's dark black glasses she was just a woman, a very beautiful, very hot, very sexy, very, very sex-
"Agent Swan please stop undressing me with your eyes." Regina spoke back to the penguin suited agent.
Emma's eyes snapped up to the back of Regina's head. Very, very powerful woman Emma reminded herself swallowing before she spoke, "So what did you find out?"
"Not much surprisingly," Regina turned to Emma, "But I managed to secure, security feed from camera's around the surrounding area and by going off what you told me and how he was dressed I have to say I was surprised to say when I came up with two different identifications."
"Two?" Emma asked.
"The photo resembles two people, Alice Pleasance Liddell and her twin brother Jefferson Liddell." Regina pointed to the two side by side photos.
"Well I definitely saw a guy, so we can scratch his sister of the list." Emma thought for a second before continuing, "Or we could use her."
"Way ahead of you Agent Swan," Regina smirked at the woman. "She's on her way here, along with his daughter."
"He has a daughter?" Emma asked. "Well that's news, what man tries to assassinate the President while they have a daughter?"
"A crazy, insane one."
Emma rubbed her eyes under her glasses. "Is that all?"
"For now. I have some leads but...they are very short and far in between, nothing solid yet. When I do you'll be first to know." Regina turned to face the head of her security detail. She allowed her eyes to travel briefly as the woman rubbed her temples more than likely to relieve a headache. She herself had, had one since this whole ordeal had begun and now, now with her mother being on White House premises she knew it was only going to escalate. "Perhaps sleep is verified, Agent Swan?"
Emma stopped the temple rubbing and looked towards the woman. With a shake of her head she quickly shot down the idea. "I'm fine, Madame President."
She stopped the shuffling of her papers and files and once again turned to face the blonde. In her normal business tone she responded to the dishelved looking agent. "I need my Agent's at full capacity. And I definitely can't have a tired agent running my security detail."
Emma cringed. She had a bad feeling about leaving Regina to the new agent. She didn't like it at all but she had to catch up, read his file, find out what she could about her mother, track down the bastard attempted assassin, and catch some sleep and all the while making sure her team wasn't falling to pieces in the recent problems.
Regina turned back to her desk, back to Emma. "Daniel is capable of watching me whilst you get a few hours sleep."
That got Emma's nerves jumping and she briefly wondered what type of history the two had. It was only a brief thought but it was there nonetheless. There was no solid rule against dating your charge, an unspoken rule sure, but not solid and she had heard about a few agents that had done just as such. It never ended well. Apparently an agent was only good for one thing in these 'high-almighty' people's eyes.
Emma acquiesced. "A couple of hours won't kill me."
"Might even help."
XXX
The blinding white flash of the camera blinded her briefly. She blinked as dark spots appeared in her field of vision. Then she heard it. The gunshot, like a crack of thunder as it tore it's way too its target. She stood rooted to her spot as she watched the President's legs give out, the woman's body fall forward into the arms of another agent, her face drained of all color, her clothes soaking up the blood that started to pool in the agent's hands and on the ground underneath her.
"Regina!"
Emma shot awake, coming awake almost instantly after years of having been trained to jump from deep sleep into immediate action. Yet, she was still perspiring and heavily heaving the life gas 'oxygen'. She looked around at the spare room that was set aside for the security detail; it was dark and more so resembled a hotel room than an actual bedroom. It was impersonal, just the way agents were supposed to keep themselves from their charges.
She reached over and picked up the incessant ringing device. Flipping it open she put it to her ear and answered sharply, just as she was taught to. "Swan."
"Agent Swan?" A male voice sounded through the line. "I have something you may want to see. We're waiting in the dining room for your presence as soon as possible, if you will."
The line went dead. Emma pulled the covers away from her body, swung her legs over the side of the bed and climbed to her feet, quickly strapping on her holster and retrieving her gun from the bedside table, slipping it into the neatly adjusted holster. The last thing she picked up was her jacket and instantly was flashed with an image of her holding the bleeding President in her arms as she pressed her jacket to the wound. It was gone just as quickly as it came. She shook her head and forgot about it instantly as she jumped it 'Agent' mode. Personal could wait. Business was now.
XXX
"What's going on?" Emma asked as she strode into the dining room to find her Agent's circling the large table, the President close by them as other' unnecessary' people stood around as well.
The young man she remembered as Daniel raised a plastic sealed envelope above his head. "The President just received a gift." He slipped on a pair of gloves and pulled the letter out, "We believe it's from the UNSUB."
Emma picked out a pair of gloves from the box, slipped them on and reached for the letter. She looked it over carefully back and front. Nothing seemed out of place, not even so much as a smudge or slant mark in the handwriting. "You won't get anything," she declared and finally turned back to read the words on the page.
"Why is that Agent?" Cora asked from across the table.
She raised her eyes towards Cora as she answered. "First of, this guy seems to be to...OCD, for me to believe he would have left fingerprints. This man is smart; I don't believe he would leave anything behind. He's more in it for the mission than the recognition. He doesn't want to be caught but he doesn't want to do this."
"I didn't know profiling was a specialty of yours, Agent Swan."
Emma turned and quickly shot an apology out to the President.
Regina held her hand up, silencing the Agent. "I don't want an apology, if you have any useful skills, I'd rather fully endorse them than let them go to waste." She paused and let it sink in to everyone around the table before pressing on, "What makes you think he doesn't want to do this?"
"Well his care for the paper and in his writing," she flipped the paper around and showed the table, "See. Not a smudge or a slant out of place, it looks like it could have been typed but it's easy to see it's not by the compression. Computers and type writers don't compress as hard." She flipped it back over and paced the length of the table, "He typed this up in a hurry. Perhaps fury, he either wanted to get this over and done with quickly or he really dislikes you." She looked up at the President.
The President's blood coagulated on the now stained red sidewalk. She clutched tighter to the President's limp body. Dead eyes staring straight ahead, it was no movie scene where the actor would slowly close his eyes and peace would reign in the viewers mind for the rest of the scene. No the body before her looked like a mannequin, felt like one, cold and hard. Reality was so far from fiction. Reality was a horrible thing.
Emma blinked as the image shook from her head. She continued, "If he wanted to get this over and done with quickly it may suggest he's not alone. He may be part of an organization."
"Gay hate?" Neal piped up with question.
Ruby nodded from beside him. "Yeah, Madame President took a pretty high stand 'for' and not 'against'. Some people have to hate that."
Regina looked down at her hands on the table when four sets of eyes fell on her and personally she only felt comfortable with one. She didn't up. Kept her attention focused on her hands.
Emma tore her eyes away from the woman and looked towards Ruby. "You think, enough to kill? Especially attempt to kill the President?"
Ruby gave a small shrug at the inquiry. "I don't know, but I can't think of anything else at the moment."
"Perhaps somebody from her past." August offered up.
Regina finally lifted her head and looked around the table, her eyes finally resting on Emma. "If necessary. You have my permission to dig as far back as you must."
Emma nodded. "We'll do it anyway. Just tying all ends Madame President."
"Of course. I expect when you aren't in my security detail for the day and aren't sleeping, you will all be on top of this." She didn't await a response she was already to drained."Dismissed." She waved her hand. "Agent Swan a word."
Emma gave small nods to her detail even receiving a few, from the few who actually liked her and after everything, the few that still trusted her. Daniel had given her a small one but she guessed that was more for show than anything else. She could be wrong. Cora and Gold slipped by her without as much as an acknowledgement. The door clicked behind her and she raised her eyes towards the President. "Ma'am."
Regina turned to the woman and motioned to the letter still held in the Agent's hand. "Have you read it?"
Emma looked back down at it and quickly skimmed over it;
Under a new world
We find the pits of hell
But freedom comes for the brave ones
Only time will tell
Emma looked back up at Regina. "Crap riddle?"
Regina ran her arm up over her shoulder. "Everything I say here remains in here. If you can't accept that you're free to leave. I shouldn't even be thinking about telling you this."
Emma nodded but stood her ground, so Regina continued forward.
"When I won the election, I met with the Congress on a deal for foreign weaponry." She looked away and folded her arms around herself. "I didn't back it but as new President I didn't have many supporters. They backed the deal, shipped over whatever these foreign countries wanted and in return we got our...weaponry. If you can call it that."
Emma squinted and tilted her head to the side. "You believe someone knows about this?"
"It wasn't guns, Agent." Regina turned back to Emma. "The future of Warfare doesn't rest solely on weapons we can see, touch and combat."
"You're talking Biological?" Emma asked not even trying to suppress the shock.
"Yes. Not zombies or anything, Agent, so erase those thoughts right now. I'm talking pathogens that can cause numerous different diseases."
"What did they want in return?"
Regina ran through the mental list she had copied in her head when she had looked over the sheet. "Metals, oils, minerals. Things that most countries want."
"You didn't find this odd?" Emma asked incredulously.
Regina snapped back. "Of course I did."
Emma jerked back and straightened up. She had to remember who she was talking to. Clearing her throat she asked, "You really think they found out and are blaming you?"
Regina shook her head. "I don't know what to believe but it's hardly a surprise that once it had passed through congress that exact same day I'm shot at."
Emma nodded. Once again the image of the President's limp body in her arms was at the forefront of her mind. "No. It doesn't seem like a coincidence."
Okay I'm done with this chapter and I have to say I'm sort of actually happy with the writing in this one. Hopefully my muse will cooperate this time and work on the next chapter.
