Warning for angst lol and need to thank PerditusFic for helping with this chapter :)
Chapter fifteen
-One month ago-
Steady beeping was a familiar sound to Peter.
Even if he had lived for hundreds of years, he felt as though his entire existence either consisted of protecting his clan from the now surprisingly reinvigorated Order or visiting his comatose daughter.
The longer Rowan went without waking up, the more the man considered that he should simply take her off life support, but that was more easily said than done. Rowan may have been alive almost as long as he had, but there would never be a point when he would be willing to let her go. After all, it was never something that he would have thought that he would have to face.
"Sir?" someone asked timidly.
Peter looked away from his baby girl's rather peaceful face and to the terrified man standing at the entrance to the infirmary.
He was very aware that since Talia's betrayal, the clan hadn't been quite what it used to be.
He no longer trusted any new vampires to join since Emma left and without Rowan to help, everything seemed to fall apart. Beyond providing protection and basic necessities, they were no longer what they once were.
Before everything, he would have hated the thought that one of his subordinates were afraid of him, but he couldn't really find it within himself to care anymore. Not when he was told that there was now only a ten percent chance that Rowan would ever wake up.
"What is it?" Peter asked.
The man shifted uncomfortably before he replied, "you asked to be informed if Talia made any moves and she has gone to Maine."
Peter drew his eyebrows together.
Usually when Talia and the Order made some kind of move, it was in pursuit of some supernatural creature. Apparently, her twisted mind thought that she could be both the leader of the Order and the very creature she tasked them with hunting. Probably thinking it would somehow have made her parents proud.
He had to assume that it would make sense in Talia's tangled mind.
However, there were no chapters of the clan in Maine, and it wasn't really her MO to go after vampires who were just trying to live their lives outside of the clan.
"Do you know where in Maine?" he asked.
"It's unclear, sire, her route does not appear to lead anywhere specific. Perhaps she is simply travelling?" he asked.
Peter nodded, though he still had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, "thank you," the leader replied and nodded again by way of dismissing him.
He looked more than relieved as he turned and left without another word.
Peter turned back to Rowan and ran a hand over his face both out of exhaustion and exasperation.
"I should never have accepted vampires into the clan just because you was attracted to one of them," he sighed.
"Emma was really cute though."
The man's eyes widened and they shot up to Rowan's. For the first time in six years he saw the stormy grey that reminded him so much of his late wife.
He shot up out of the chair, which fell down to the ground.
"Rowan?!" he asked in disbelief, bringing a hand to her warm cheek as if it would confirm that she was in fact awake.
Rowan smiled at him, but furrowed her brow as she pushed herself up on her elbows to look at the heart monitor.
Her hand came up to her chest and she let out a breath when she felt the distinct beat of her heart underneath her fingers. Something she couldn't remember having felt. She had been a vampire since she was only nineteen after all.
She looked up at her father, who just looked absolutely flabbergasted. He had long ago given up on the idea of her actually waking up, even if he had been incapable of giving in to this sense of helplessness.
"Am I…human?" she asked, trying to take in just how strange it was to actually need to breathe.
Peter swallowed hard and nodded, images of that day running through his mind. Of Emma interrupting his meeting to tell him what Talia had done to his daughter. Arriving at the dungeon to try something that almost everyone had advised him against.
"As a human, you had a better chance of surviving your injuries," he replied in close to a whisper, "we have been developing a cure for the couple decades…I didn't know if it worked and there was always a chance that you would never wake up even if it did…"
Rowan placed a hand onto his arm to squeeze it, though she felt her heart clench at the prospect of being mortal.
However, she decided that she could deal with the existential questions at a later date, most likely over a bottle of something very alcoholic.
Instead, she decided to focus on something more pressing, "how long have I been out?"
Peter bit the inside of his cheek. This news wouldn't be quite so devastating if she was still immortal, but he hardly thought there was any reason to hide the truth. It wasn't as if she wouldn't find out the moment she left the room anyway.
"Six years," he replied after a moment of silence.
Rowan's eyes widened and she pulled herself up so that her legs were now touching the floor, but she was stopped from standing when her father placed his hand on her shoulder.
"You need someone to check you over before you go anywhere," he said quickly.
"Emma…I need to make sure she's okay…" Rowan argued.
"Emma left the clan after…what Talia did, she is no longer under our protection," Peter said firmly.
The woman narrowed her eyes at him and he released her shoulders. Logically he knew that he shouldn't be afraid of her now that she was human, but there was still something very intimidating about that stare.
"I need to make sure she's okay," Rowan shot back.
"How will you find her?" he asked.
She frowned as she considered this, but something occurred to her. She'd woken up just in time to hear that Talia was going to Maine and if Emma was still alive, she could only assume that she the insane vampire was still after her affections.
She closed her eyes as she she had done many times in the past when trying to find someone and she drew her eyebrows together as she prayed that some of her powers still worked. If they did, then her connection to Emma should give her a location.
At first nothing happened, but then something close to a whisper ran through her mind and she shot to her feet as she announced, "We need to find Storybrooke."
Regina frowned with her eyes still closed.
The last thing she remembered was deciding to let Emma sleep in while she took Henry to school.
Since she didn't really have any work to do until the afternoon she had thought she could take advantage of the hour before Emma had to go to work. But apparently she didn't get past the stairs on her way to her girlfriend.
The former queen tried to moisten her mouth to only a little bit of success and she forced her eyes open.
At first, her vision was completely blurry and she quickly became aware of the fact that her arms were tied above her head. The next thing that hit her was the thick cold air against her face and then the very distinctive sound of a neighing horse closer than she had heard in a long time.
Admittedly, she would like to go to the stables more often, but certainly not under these circumstances.
She swallowed hard but found that she couldn't struggle against her binds and the usual buzz of magic in every fibre of her being was eerily missing. Regina felt exhausted and drained, but also too afraid to close her eyes and fall back to sleep. She needed to focus on finding a way out of this so that she could get back to Emma and Henry.
The first part of that would involve finding out who did this to her and she had a pretty good idea of who would be capable of getting the drop on her.
"Talia?" she called, failing to keep her voice intimidating as it cracked from the sheer dryness of her throat.
She was instantly met with an almost maniacal laugh and she closed her eyes as a sharp pain bloomed in the side of her head.
When Regina opened her eyes, she found her vision was rapidly clearing, though she still felt heavy-headed and somewhat nauseous. Later, she would realise that she most likely had a concussion, but right now, she needed to focus on getting free.
"Talia, is that you?" Regina tried again as she squinted through the darkness surrounding it. Despite her clearing vision, it was almost impossible to see.
"Hello Regina," the vampire said and Regina blinked again as Talia seemed to step out of the shadow and into the light, "I hope you're comfortable," she said and leaned closer, invading her personal space.
Regina sneered at her, mostly because there wasn't much else that she could do right now and Talia laughed again as she leaned back.
"What do you care if I'm comfortable?" the former Evil Queen spat.
"I want you to enjoy the show," Talia said as if it were obvious.
Before Regina could ask her what the hell she was talking about, but she was treated to an answer before she could even open her mouth.
Unfortunately, it was a familiar sight.
A younger version of herself was embraced in Daniel's arms, both of them falling to notice the woman about to step in on the scene and ruin every plan that she had ever made with the stable boy. The three of them were currently frozen in time, which was somehow much worse since she knew what was about to happen.
Talia tilted her head at the woman and smirked at the pure and smirked at the pure anguish on her face, it was almost as delicious as she had imagined.
"Well you clearly don't want to talk to me," she said with her hand over her heart, as if she was genuinely hurt by that fact, "how about you finally get that conversation you've wanted for so long?"
Regina frowned and forced her gaze away from the frozen scene of possibly the worst moment of her life.
"What are you talking about?" the mayor asked.
Talia didn't say anything as she snapped her fingers and took a step so that she was out of the former queen's eye line. A moment later, Daniel seemed to reanimate as he took a step away from the frozen younger Regina. The man frowned for a moment as if he was trying to remember why he was here.
However, when his gaze fixed onto the older Regina, he took a step closer and tilted his head at the restrained woman.
Regina drew her eyebrows together as she inspected the silent man before her. There was something really off about him, but her groggy mind couldn't quite figure out what it was. All she could focus on right now was the fact that she was looking at the man who she had lost twice. The man who could have very well have been her True Love if the universe (or Rumplestiltskin) hadn't decided that she was destined to become the Evil Queen.
Finally, she decided that the silent staring was too much and she asked, "Daniel?"
He frowned again, but actually replied, "I would ask how you are but I can see that you have been quite happy in my absence."
Regina bit the inside of her cheek harshly in the hopes that it would stop her from crying. It was one thing to think about almost every day how she had ruined Daniel's life so that she could eventually end up with Emma, but was was an entirely other thing to actually hear the words coming from his mouth. The stabbing pain it caused in her chest stopped her from processing the fact that this was quite obviously a trick on Talia's behalf.
"I'm not…I'm not happy in your absence," she said while taking in a sharp breath.
"Oh really?" he asked mockingly, in a tone that she has never heard Daniel Colter use, "you have a son and a girlfriend who you love. You have finally made peace with Snow White and Prince Charming and the town you cursed no longer hates you. With your mother gone, I'm struggling to see what about your life is not better than it was when I was in it."
"I…" Regina began but she trailed off. Honestly, what could she say? It was very hard to deny the fact that she was currently the happiest she had ever been, but that was only because there were no longer any controlling forces in her life. With her mother gone and Rumple having had finally found his son, there was no one in her life who was trying to guide her in a certain way to achieve their own ends.
It was hardly Daniel's fault that he wasn't born to be the Saviour of Storybrooke.
"You must admit that you love Emma Swan more than you could have ever loved me," he sneered, definitely nothing like Daniel.
"No, that's not true…" Regina argued, though she couldn't think of a single thing to back up her argument. She by no means wanted to say that she didn't love Emma as much as she love Daniel because she knew that just wasn't true.
Her relationship with Daniel had been amazing and the first great thing that had happened to her but they had been mere teenagers when it first happened. It consisted of longing glances and stolen kisses when she was sure that her mother wouldn't get suspicious. What she had with Emma was a loving and functional relationship between two adults who shared a son.
The relationships each represented different parts of her life, but she had no idea what she would do if Daniel was to ever inexplicably return.
She had spent so long trying to bring him back that she had never considered the possibility that he wasn't the person she was supposed to be with.
It was all something that would probably be better sorted out in a session with Archie instead of while she was imprisioned by a psychotic vampire.
"I thought you would be a better liar than that, Regina," Talia said, tearing the woman's attention away from the stable boy. The mayor narrowed her eyes at the vampire as best she could, but she was sure that it was not quite as intimidating as she would have liked it to be. Talia was clearly enjoying this scene far too much to be the least bit afraid of the restrained woman before her.
Regina swallowed hard and looked back over to Daniel who had seemed to magically return to his position embracing her younger self.
"Wh…why am I here?" Regina asked, dropping any pretence that she wasn't upset as she allowed a couple of tears to fall down her cheek. She certainly didn't expect her biggest insecurities to be presented to her today.
"Well, I wanted to test something," she replied, "save Daniel and you will have everything you wanted when you was a teenager, all you have to do is give up Emma and Henry."
Talia's smirk widened as she looked at the other woman staring longingly at Daniel. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall as she watched Regina stare longingly at the apparitions she had pushed into her mind.
She really did love just how susceptible human minds were.
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