"What about Gold?"
Regina was propped up with pillows, watching Emma scrawl on a notepad. The blonde had practically lived in that chair for the past day, guarding Regina while the mayor recovered from surgery. Regina had needed a lot of coaxing, a little from the doctors and more from Emma, to consent to let them operate, but the pain was bad and the suggestions of what might happen if they didn't deal with the internal damage were worse. And while Regina wasn't about to admit it, the tears Emma had tried to keep hidden were what had convinced her.
Now she was fully awake and in more pain than she'd ever admit, immobilized in bed while she waited for the incisions to scar, the broken ribs to heal, the bruises to fade. And Emma, unable to get anything more from her about the attack, had decided instead to make a list of everyone's fairytale personas.
"Rumplestiltskin," Regina told her.
"Granny?"
"Red's grandmother," Regina said, rolling her eyes. "You really couldn't figure that one out on your own?"
Emma smiled at her, always glad for any indication that Regina was remotely like herself. "Sidney?"
"This isn't even about the curse," he said. Regina was blindfolded, could hardly tell which direction that voice was coming from, but she knew it well. "This is about everything you did to me before and after."
"I'll give you anything you want," Regina said, her voice as low and seductive as she could manage given how shaken she was. Given how much everything hurt, how desperately she needed to get away. "I'll reinstate you, I'll up your salary, I'll…"
The slap was unexpected. Regina really hadn't thought Sidney could do it, not after all these years of devotion. But there was suddenly blood in her mouth, and then he stuffed something cottony in it to shut her up.
"You're out of chances, Regina," he said, and she felt a hand grasping her neck. "You're going to regret having me locked up. You're going to regret everything you've ever done." His grip tightened, and Regina wondered if he could really be the one to do it. The one to end her.
It was early enough that she wasn't hoping for death yet. It was early enough that she struggled to keep breathing, to spit out the gag, to get away. It was early enough that, when she came to, it took her a moment to remember where she was.
"I know why you're doing this," Regina snapped.
Emma tapped the pen on the paper. "Yeah, so I know who everyone is."
"So you can see my reactions and figure out who attacked me. I told you I didn't want to talk about it anymore."
Emma stared at her for a moment, astonished. "I didn't think of that, Regina, I swear. I'm sorry."
Regina crossed her arms, wincing at the pain the movement caused. "Well, now you know. Sidney." She gingerly touched her tongue to a cut on her lip.
Emma put her pen and paper down and sat looking at Regina intensely. "What do you want to talk about, then?"
"Nothing. Just be quiet." Regina closed her eyes, not wanting to betray the pain or the fear and sadness welling up in her. She stayed still and silent long enough that Emma turned off the light, and she heard the blonde trying to find a comfortable position in her chair. Regina opened her eyes to see Emma twisting herself around like a cat and couldn't help laughing softly. "Come here."
"I don't want to hurt you," Emma said apologetically, as if sorry that even her inability to get comfortable was disturbing Regina.
"You won't." Regina slid over as best she could to make space for Emma. The blonde tentatively climbed up beside her, rolling onto her side and facing Regina in order to fit.
"Thank you," she whispered, leaning forward and pressing her lips lightly against Regina's temple. "If you're too crowded you'll let me know?"
"I'll let you know," Regina promised. She felt for Emma's hand and held it loosely. "Sidney was originally a genie, but ended up trapped in my mirror for a long time."
"You don't have to…"
"He was there," Regina continued. "He knocked me around a little, but I passed out and I don't know what else happened."
Emma nodded, taking Regina's hand firmly between both of hers. "Maybe that's for the best. We know he was part of it, but you don't have to remember."
"I could guess."
"Don't guess," Emma said, more authoritative than she usually was with Regina. "Don't think about it more than you have to. Stay here with me."
Regina nodded, closing her eyes and giving in to the exhaustion. "I'm here with you," she whispered, and neither woman said anything more before falling asleep.
Regina added the last name to Emma's list, checking over it to see who she'd missed. But she hadn't missed anyone. She knew Storybrooke backwards and forwards, could call everyone by both their names.
Emma was still asleep beside her, apparently exhausted from sleepless nights in the little hospital chair and the stress of it all. Finding out that the people she'd spent the past few months with were cartoon characters, that she had a destiny, that she had a family...
Regina had to admit she felt guilty for that part. Emma had finally gotten her parents back, but she was here with the woman who'd torn them apart in the first place when she probably should be spending time with them. There was a time Regina would have reveled in that fact, but not after all Emma had done for her. However much she wanted to punish the woman's parents, Regina knew that she never wanted to take anything away from Emma again.
She ran her hand over the sheriff's blonde hair gently, fondly, doing her best to ignore the way Emma's balled-up fist was digging right into one of the worst of Regina's bruises.
"Not so high and mighty today, Your Majesty, are we?" Gold pulled the blindfold away so he could revel in Regina's glare. "Never fear, dearie, I'm just here to chat. You see, Belle-you remember Belle, don't you? The one you kept locked up for 28 years in, if I'm not mistaken, this very room?"
Regina wished he'd taken out the gag while he was at it. There were a million things she wanted to say to him. None that would have helped her situation any, but she felt as though she were bursting with venom and needed to spit it out at him.
"Well, she didn't want me getting my hands dirty. I just wanted to see this for myself." He brought the tip of his cane up beneath Regina's chin and tilted her head up for a better view. "How does it feel, Regina? Knowing that no one is going to come save you. That you'll die alone down here and no one will miss you."
Regina wrenched away from him, not making it far but managing to get free from the cane, at least. That wasn't true. Henry might hate her, but he couldn't want her dead. Could he?
Gold just grinned, pleased as always that he'd found a sore spot. "You know, Regina, I'm usually a man of my word. But what Belle doesn't know can't hurt her." He moved faster than she'd known he could with that limp, and before she could attempt to move away again his foot connected with her ribs with a sickening crunch. As Regina curled in on herself, he made his way to the door without a word.
"Hey."
Regina blinked down at Emma, surprised to see the blonde half awake and smiling at her. "Hey."
Emma took the list from her and glanced over it. "You finished it for me?"
"It went a lot faster without your incessant questions."
Emma ran her finger down the margin of the page, noting the little Xs Regina had left next to some of the names. Whale, Sidney, Jefferson, Leroy...
"Gold just taunted me and kicked me, so I wasn't sure how to mark him down," Regina said, fixing her eyes at a distant spot on the ceiling.
Emma considered and then drew a sad face next to Gold's name. "He witnessed what happened and didn't report it. He's going down, too."
Regina turned back towards Emma. "You're going to arrest people who just knew but didn't do anything?"
Emma noted Regina's furrowed brow. "Why? Who are you worried about?"
"No one," Regina answered quickly, reaching out and poking at the paper. "She did a lot of damage."
"Mother Superior? She was in on this?"
"She and I have a long history," Regina muttered.
Emma put an X beside the woman's name. "Don't think I didn't notice that you changed the subject."
Thankfully, Emma's phone rang before she could ask any more questions. The blonde got out of bed and hurried out into the hall, and Regina took a deep breath. She smoothed her hand over the list, staring at it until the names seemed to blur together.
She wanted them punished, the ones who hurt her. Even the ones who stood by and watched as it happened. She could feel a hint of that familiar old anger in the depths of her stomach, the desire to once again watch a whole town burn.
Regina glanced out the door to see Emma leaned up against the opposite wall. She folded the paper carefully, methodically, and set it on the table beside the bed, the anger abating when Emma's eyes flicked up and met her own.