Authors Note: My apologies to those whom I told that this chapter was going to be posted a few days ago. My boss is under the delusion that I'm supposed to do work at work. Who woulda thought? That, and classes have started up once more so I've found myself with very little time for my personal writing.

That being said..I'm not satisfied with chapter at all so please be kind with your criticisms. I'm hoping that this chapter will clear up a few things about the nature of Emma's poisoning. I'd just like to say that I'm totally awestruck by the amount of followers I've gotten with only two chapters posted...you guys rock!

And as always...I own nothing in regards to Once Upon A Time (unfortunately).

Chapter Three: Without Warning

"Is that a threat, Madame Mayor?" The blonde asked from her sprawled position on the bed.

Regina found herself wondering if the Sheriff's quite uncomfortable looking position was typical for the young woman. If so, she was bound to have back problems in the near future. She was lying, half on her side and half on her stomach, with her arms thrown out in a wide spread above her head.

Deciding to ignore the blonde's drollery, Regina just sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, feeling a little uncomfortable having the insouciant blonde lying so casually on her bed. It was an odd feeling. A feeling that Regina was sure would be a frequent visitor over the next week, though she desperately hoped against that little notion.

"How exactly did you come into possession of this?" Regina interrogated her, removing the bottle once more from her pocket and shoving it into the younger woman's face. Cocoa eyes studied the Sheriff's face, silently daring her to lie.

"Oh…well…hmm…" Emma began and furrowed her brows in deep concentration. She brought her thumb and forefinger to her chin, grabbing it as she thought through the haze in her mind. "Some guy gave it to me when I left the bar," she finally admitted with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.

"What did he look like?" Regina questioned firmly. A blank stare was her only response. "Well?"

Emma blinked her eyes rapidly before dopey looking smile parted those pretty pink lips.

"Hey, if you're playing Sheriff, can I play Mayor?" Emma giggled and forced herself to sit up on the bed, pointedly ignoring the glower from Regina. She scooted closer to Regina and attempted to keep her face as impassive as possible. "Hear ye hear ye, from this day forth I do decree that – "

"Do shut up, dear," Regina's snarky response was quick and decisive causing Emma to snap her mouth shut almost instantaneously with an audible click of her teeth.

Emma rolled her eyes and flopped backwards so that she was lying across the width of the bed with her knees bending over the edge of the mattress. Legs spread ever so slightly, but with her lithe frame, the gap between her thighs resembled the distance between San Francisco and Ocean City.

"Debbie downer," she mumbled under her breath.

"I'm sorry?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow at the younger woman, turning her upper body slightly to look at her. Emma just shook her head indicating that she hadn't said anything but the guilty look on her face told Regina otherwise.

Regina felt her patience wearing thin. Dealing with the infuriating Sheriff on an average day was enough to make her blood boil but dealing with her now...well, it was even worse. If that was even possible. She already had a child, a child that she loved above all else. She sure as hell didn't need another one. A grown one that was idiotic enough to drink a concoction handed to her by a stranger on the streets. Though if she had to guess, this probably wasn't the first time the blonde stumbled into an unfortunate situation because of her lack of proper judgment. The demeaning thought brought a smirk of satisfaction to the Mayor's lips.

"He wore a hat," Emma's voice was quiet, barely audible. "A weird one. Like, the Monopoly guy." She mused and then seemed to become lost in her thoughts.

Regina thought for a moment about the mysterious Monopoly guy but her keen mind was quick to conjure up a picture of the little bald man on the box of one of Henry's favorite board games. She had already suspected that Jefferson was behind this, having dealt with this mess before, but now she knew for certain. She sighed.

Relief? No, absolutely not.

"I'll deal with him tomorrow," Regina spoke adamantly.

"My savior!" Emma giggled and clasped her hands together, beating her eyelashes together like a jubilant child.

"Miss Swan, could you at least attempt to understand the severity of the situation you're in?" Regina growled irritably. Emma sat up on the edge of the bed once more, resting her forearms on her thighs and leaning forward slightly. Her blonde waves cascading down past her shoulders, shrouding her face in a blanket of golden tresses.

"Am I going to die?" Emma's voice was trembling. Green eyes looked at Regina with all the sadness of a puppy. "I don't want to die…" she trailed off.

"This particular poison will not kill you, no. It does much worse. It is a slow moving toxin, and judging by your size, it should take about a week to clear you system..." Regina trailed off, unsure of just how much information she should divulge the blonde with. Her face was sternly set as she looked straight ahead, not wanting to look at Emma. Not when she knew all too well the harrowing side effects of the poison.

"There's something worse than death?" Emma questioned. The hell? What's worse than death? Double-death? The normally confident posture the Sheriff exhibited was long gone. She slumped forward, wringing her hands in a nervous manner. Though she wasn't quite sure why she was so nervous. She supposed part of her was slightly worried about the poison but the euphoric haze in her mind denied her brain the ability to properly filter the fear she knew she should be feeling.

Then there was the other factor weighing heavily on her mind; much more heavily than the fact that a noxious poison was laying siege on her body.

Regina.

What luck. Emma scoffed in annoyance. Of all people, of all fucking people...why the Mayor? Wasn't it bad enough that perfect Regina already viewed her as an incompetent, immoral slob? Way to put the icing on the cake, Swan.

"There are...many things worse than death, Sheriff."

The Mayor's lurid voice broke her inner-monologue. Emma turned her head to look at the sharply dressed woman sitting on the bed with impeccable posture; something that would be impossible for the younger woman to pull off. Emma shot an eyebrow up in question.

"Death is...easy. It's quick. It's permanent." Regina continued, sensing that the woman sitting next to her was practically begging for an explantino. She lowered her head further, still refusing to look at the young Sheriff. "Life - living, that is - is so much harder. To live, day in and day out consumed with pain, anger, regret..worry and uncertainty. To be tortured by the past and haunted by the future..."

"Way to be a buzz kill," Emma murmured before rolling her eyes. Regina looked as though she had been slapped. Her wide eyes blinked a couple times before setting themselves back to their accusatory glare. Rising from the bed with alien fluidity, Regina was standing above Emma once more, eyes narrowed and lip curled. A hand shot out and grabbed Emma's chin - none too gently - and yanked her head up with considerable force until Emma's clouded saccharine eyes were level with her own.

Emma gasped at the feeling of soft, but strong, fingers on her fevered skin. The only thing not pleasurable about the situation was the dull pain produced from french-manicured nails pressing into the sparse skin of her chin.

Not pleasurable? Don't kid yourself, Swan.

"You listen to me, Miss Swan. In the next several days, you are going to see things and feel things that will make you want to kill yourself." The Mayor's full lips were moving at a quick pace, yet effectively enunciating every syllable of her sentence. A quick jerk of her head to the right willed some errant strands of hair back into place. She brought herself closer, just mere inches from Emma's face.

"You will feel anger so intense, every muscle in your body will tighten to the point that it becomes so excruciatingly painful to even breathe. You will feel sadness so profound that you'll want to slice that pretty porcelain skin over and over, watching while the life bleeds out of you, and smiling because you think that this is the only way to rid yourself of soul-crushing depression," Regina snarled.

Emma was listening, well...she heard the words, but found herself focusing primarily on the cursory flashes of white behind sanguine lips. It was truly amazing how the Mayor was able to paint her lips so perfectly and never a smudge marred those flawless ivories.

It didn't take long for Regina to notice where the Emma's eyes had fallen. With an unnecessarily rough jerk of her hand, she cast Emma's head to the side before quickly putting some distance between them. As she stalked across the room to the large, but simple black-brown wooden dresser, adorned with a simple black-framed mirror above it, Regina crossed her arms in front of her chest. She struggled to continue her explanation of the poisons effect, almost hoping that if she just ignored it then maybe, just maybe, Emma wouldn't reach that point. The mind is a powerful instrument, capable of producing physical manifestations of mental thoughts.

Quantum mechanics?

Emma studied the Mayor's august profile as she stood primly in her most uncomfortable looking heels. Her face - what she could see of it at least - was strained with...apprehension? Discomfort? Annoyance? She couldn't be sure.

"So..." Emma started, trying to make sense of all that Regina said. And when no sense could be made from it, Emma surmised that the entire ordeal was simply...nonsensical. "I'm gonna get mad...and depressed? That's it?"

Regina's shoulders rose slowly and fell much faster as she breathed in a lung full of air and exhaled it quickly, her vexation with the blonde increasing with each passing second.

"Oh, no, dear...there's more." Regina smirked. And while she knew the poison was one most foul, she couldn't help but feel as though Emma's poisoning was a higher form of justice. Like Fate intervening on her behalf to punish those who had hurt her in the past. The best part? Her hands were completely clean in the matter. She was innocent; she couldn't be blamed in the least. This was not a malicious scheme forged from hatred. No planning. No deceit. Just pure, unadulterated innocence.

"Hallucinations," Regina all but blurted, finally turning to face the blonde again. She sauntered over to stand in front of Emma once more. "Can you imagine the inability to differentiate reality from fantasy every minute of the day? Can you grasp the fact that right now, at this very moment, you could be hallucinating?"

An awestruck Emma found the strength to raise herself from the bed. Slowly wobbling to stand directly in Regina's personal space, and looking like a new born calf as she did so, Emma gazed into chocolate eyes. And before she could stop herself, Emma raised a frail hand and ran it through the darker woman's coffee colored tresses.

The instant her nails grazed Regina's scalp, she swore she saw a light flicker behind those stonewalled eyes. Even if for a fleeting, infinitesimal second, Emma knew that the Mayor had a reaction to the contact.

"Tell me then, Madame Mayor, is this a hallucination?" Emma husked through hooded eyes. When the brunette failed to speak, Emma conjured the most seductive smirk Regina had ever seen on her face.

The Sheriff trailed a sharp-nailed finger down her jaw line ever so lightly until it grazed gently across her lower lip and finally came to rest upon her chin.

Damn.

Try as she might, Regina was unable to resist the natural reaction to lower her eyes to Emma's moist lips. It was only for the briefest second but Emma didn't miss the instantaneous change. Nor did she miss the way Regina's eyes widened in realization of her body's betrayal.

Regina cleared her throat and swallowed even despite the arid atmosphere of her mouth. She was completely baffled at how just one look, just one touch from the blonde caused her to stop in her tracks. The world seemed to pause, everything blurred, and it was just the two of them…alone.

Nonsense.

And with that damning confirmation, Regina set her shoulders straight. One blink of her eyelids and avarice consumed her eyes once more. Taking a measured step backwards from the blonde, the Mayor composed herself.

"What in the world are you doing, Miss Swan?" she questioned, disgust dripping from her lips. Disenchantment spread across the blonde's face at Regina's question.

The hell? Wasn't I just sitting…over there? Emma turned from Regina and looked towards the bed, then back to Regina again, eyes pleading to understand what in the hell just happened.

"I…uh…well...I," Emma stammered, trying to piece together the past minute in her mind. The last thing she remembered was Regina droning on about how terribly the poison would affect her and blah, blah, blah. But then...? Emma tried to recall every detail...

Hadn't she come to me? She pulled me to my feet, brought me close to her…right?

...and failed miserably.

"Oh shit."

"Oh shit indeed, dear."

"I'm sorry…I…I didn't know…"

Regina crossed her arms protectively in front of her chest before dismissing the blonde's worry with an elegant wave of her hand. Inwardly, Regina cursed.

So much for hope.

"Are you still warm, Sheriff?" Regina surprised herself with the question. Since when did she care about anyone's comfort other than her own? Unfortunately, the question had already been asked and Emma nodded her head before sinking back onto the bed, a look of shame and disbelief plaguing her previously rapturous face.

Drawn closer to the younger woman – perhaps it was the sadness in her eyes or maybe the contrite expression emblazoned on her face - Regina extended a hand to her.

"Come, I'll draw you a cold bath. That should help. Afterwards, you would benefit from some rest." Regina instructed. Her tone, although commanding, was far from it's usual callousness.

Emma stared at the outstretched hand before her and chewed on the inside of her lip in contemplation, unsure if this was a palpable gesture or just one she'd conjured up in her mind. Not having an answer, Emma's head slumped downwards. She figured it was best not to act upon impulses – no matter how tempting they may be.

"Maybe…I should just go?" Emma whispered.

"I've always had my doubts about your intelligence Miss Swan and you've yet to persuade me otherwise."

"I just tried to fucking seduce you Regina. I mean, seriously?" Emma threw her hands up in frustration. "What the hell!?"

Sensing the emotions building in the blonde, Regina took her outstretched hand and placed it on one of Emma's in an attempt to help her reign in her emotions.

"Shh, dear, it's expected."

Her reassuring gesture did little to calm Emma's effervescent anxiety.

"How can you say that?" Emma demanded, staring furiously into the older woman's eyes. "I don't even know if this is real right now?"

Regina sighed. She wished it hadn't come to this. Not one to disclose personal information, Regina found herself torn. Tell Emma the truth? Sure, she could. And she could rest assured that the blonde would torture herself until the end of time wondering if it really was the truth. Or, she could keep it inside, locked away with the rest of her secrets and lie to the frazzled woman who was mere seconds away from melting down in front of her.

She deserves the truth.

The Mayor frowned as this thought passed through her mind.

Like hell she does.

"Emma…"

The blondes breath hitched in her throat when the sounds of her name passing through Regina's lips hit her ears. A genuflection the brunette didn't miss.

"How do you know all this? About the poison? Did you do this to me!?" Emma wailed. Of course she must have…this was right up her alley. Henry was right about her. Fucking evil queen. Panic washed upon her as if the floodgates of hell had just been released. Within seconds, her whole body was shaking with rage. Darkened eyes fell upon Regina's unguarded form.

The last thing Emma saw before blackness consumed her was a look of sheer terror on the Mayor's perfect fucking face.