Meg is extremely helpful in getting Cora and Cruella drunk. The temporary bartender keeps the drinks coming and the two deceased villains laugh together and into their drinks as they talk about past crimes and stupid people. They sit close together on their stools, too close for Regina's comfort, and she notices that every so often her mother will drape a hand over Cruella's shoulder and play with her hair. It's strange. Her mother has never been even remotely nice to other women and always used herself and her own daughter to get, and stay, ahead in life. But Hell seems to have changed her, and maybe at that point in time it's only the alcohol that makes her extra friendly. Regina doesn't care why she's acting the way she's acting. She's just happy not to be criticized. Although, she could do without all the touching.
Cruella leans into Cora's side and purrs as she talks about "delicious encounters", her words, and Cora relives some of her youth. And that's when Regina wants to burn her eyes with the next drink Meg serves her.
"Eva used to know just how to get to me," Cora growls and stares ahead with dark, intense eyes. "She thought she was so much better than me."
Cruella hums and nods her head before she says, "I imagine she was quite the pain."
"The worst kind. Even giving birth to both of my daughters was less painful than how irritating she was."
Regina tenses as she watches Cora throw back the rest of her drink and swallow while Cruella lifts a cigarette to mouth and has a drag, her cheek pressed to Cora's shoulder. She doesn't know what's coming, but she doesn't feel prepared for whatever it is.
Cora's eyes soften and her lips curl into a twisted smirk as she lowers her glass on the bar. And then she confesses, "I used to sneak her handmaiden into her bedchamber when she was too busy being an insipid little princess and I fucked her help good and hard."
Regina chokes on her drink and spits it back into her glass. She cringes at the information she wishes she never knew, but still has to suffer through the confession as Cora continues.
"She never knew that the handmaiden and I dirtied her sheets over and over. I made sure the maiden didn't clean up and then Eva would sleep in our filth.
"Years later, I finally killed the bitch and I don't think I've ever felt as satisfied."
"Mother," she finally scolds the woman. Her eyes are wide with discomfort and shock.
"What," her mother asks in her response as she laughs at Regina's expression.
"You did all of that, but I couldn't have a life with Daniel?"
"It was before I met your father," Cora explains with a casual, dismissive wave of her hand before she gulps down the rest of her and places the empty glass on the bar. "There were no expectations and I still had a chance to get some less decent revenge. So I did. With the handmaiden. My gods, that girl had an incredible body."
"Please stop," she loudly begs and shoots off her own barstool.
"Oh, ease up, dahling," Cruella says. "Don't pretend you didn't want to fuck the cute little blonde on her mother's bed a few times for all kinds of sweet revenge."
"Sick revenge. That's what that would have been," she insists.
Cruella uncharacteristically shrugs and then grins before she says with a raspy voice, "You didn't deny it."
"My, my, Regina. Maybe there's hope for you yet," Cora says with a wicked glint in her eyes that reminds her of Zelena at her most insane. Her sister wasn't raised by Cora at all, but apparently she'd picked up on a few things simply through biology. She supposes that's also true of Henry and Emma, but she doesn't want to think about them.
She also doesn't want to think about her mother having sex. At all. Not with men or women and certainly not with her father. To avoid thinking about any of those things, she backs away from the bar and looks over the counter at Meg. The other woman looks at her sympathetically before she slides a drink down the bar to another customer. Once the drink is out of her hand, Meg walks out from behind the bar. The other woman touches her elbow and starts to gently pull her away from Cora and Cruella.
On their move away from the bar, they spot Hades and Meg shouts at him, "I'm taking a break."
Hades rolls his eyes and Regina thinks she hears him grunt, but she can't hear over the music as they make their way onto the dance floor. Cora pouts like it's so upsetting that her daughter doesn't want to stick around for more sex stories, but her pout turns into a grin as soon as the elder woman notices how Meg is touching her and where she's taking Regina.
The song changes and Meg smiles as she takes both of Regina's wrists in her hands before she slides them up Regina's arms to briefly settle on the brunette's shoulders.
"I'm not the greatest dancer, but sometimes I've got just to move," Meg says, and starts to sway in time to the beat.
Regina sighs with relief and smiles back at the other woman. "Thank you."
"I figured you'd ask for bleach if I left you there listening to her go on any longer."
"You're absolutely right," she chuckles and matches her movements to the song's rhythm. She places her hands on Meg's hips as they move together and then slide just a little bit closer every few seconds. "I'm...glad my mother isn't...like she was before, but I don't-I don't prefer to hear stories of her love life."
"Love life? Please, you and I both know it's her sex life."
She shivers in Meg's arms and closes her eyes as she shakes her head. She wills away the mental images of her mother in bed with people to the best of her ability, but it's not entirely successful, and all she can see is flashes of Cora hatefucking the handmaiden as a stand-in for Eva. She scrunches up her face and shudders.
Meg quietly chuckles and pulls her in closer so the other woman's lips graze her cheekbone. Hot breath blows against a few strands of hair that cover Regina's temple and Meg slides one of her hands around to cup the back of her neck.
"Just focus on this moment. Right here," Meg breathes into her ear. "No one else exists. It's just you and me and this dance floor."
In that moment, however, it's not just her and Meg. It's her and Meg, a friendly woman in a throng of strangers to replace the one person she wishes more than anyone—aside from Henry—was there with her. She just wants Emma to hold her and sway to the music with her, wants Emma to be the one whispering in her ear and telling her to focus on the small, but incredible, moment.
But Meg isn't Emma, and Regina stiffens in the other woman's arms as Meg's lips graze her cheek again before placing a soft, chaste kiss against her alcohol-heated skin. She frowns and furrows her brow as she wonders why it's so hard to just let this happen. She has nothing else, and despite knowing Meg has a husband and children, she knows nothing they do on the dance floor will lead to them heading upstairs to Regina's room. She knows Meg just needs a break sometimes because that's what the woman had said, but she knows she can't do this. She can't even pretend, not for a second, that she wants to be wrapped up like this, or a little less innocently tangled up, in her room with anyone other than Emma.
She puffs out a sharp and heavy sigh against Meg's shoulder as she dips her head and squeezes her eyes shut.
"I'm sorry," Meg says and pulls back to look her in the eyes. "You're still stuck on someone. The Savior?"
"Emma," she corrects in an almost reverent tone before she searches Meg's eyes and sees more sympathy. She looks back over at the bar and sees Cruella and Cora touching each other's faces and picking at their shirt sleeves like two horny drunks seeking comfort in another's physical affection. She has a version of her mother that wants to see her succeed in a way that would make her happy and not sad, but she can't talk to Cora while she's feeling up Cruella. She can't cry on her mother's shoulder, so it's nothing new. She's never been able to do that. But she needs someone to talk to. More than that, she needs Emma, but that's the one thing she can't have and she just wants, wants, wants. "I- I should go."
She flicks her wrist and realizes for the first time since coming here that she's without magic. She's even more disappointed than before and frowns before she rushes on foot toward the stairs. If she was more like Emma, she would have taken them each two at time. She's not like Emma, though. She just hurries up to her room as fast as she can and does it step by single step. She throws open the door to her floor and pauses in the threshold to catch her breath.
She's on the verge of tears and needs to control her emotions before she breaks down in the hallway. When she feels comfortable enough to make it the rest of the way to her room, she slowly pushes herself off the door frame and trudges down the hall. Almost as soon as she reaches her door, she feels a chill run through her and lifts her head from where her eyes are focused on the lock as she hesitates to turn the key in it.
Her eyes focus on the silver numbers of her apartment and she watches a shadow move from left to right as it grows in size. Immediately, she knows she's not alone and whoever is in the hall with her is on their way toward her. She removes her key from the lock and holds it tightly in her hand as she whips around to face the other person. When she turns, she's surprised to see someone she recognizes and loosens her grip on her key.
"It's you," she says.
The woman in front of her smiles and says, "Can't get anything past you, dead or alive."
"Wh-what are you doing here," she asks. "How did you get here?"
"That seems like kind of a long story when I think about it," Ursula answers. "And really, neither one of us really wants to catch up. I just want to know if you've seen Cruella."
"Oh, yes. She's...downstairs with my mother."
"At the bar?" Ursula looks both confused and surprised, but Regina ignores it.
"Was that you Hades was showing around earlier?"
Ursula sighs and nods. "Yeah, that was me."
"You- Em- Were you alone?"
"Tell me exactly where Cruella is and I can answer that for you," Ursula replies.
She shakes her head. It can't be true. What she saw...it couldn't be real. She couldn't have seen- No. It's just not possible. It's just a trick of the imagination. It's just a wish, a desire, a far off dream she could never have and should never want. It's—
"Emma," she exhales. It's a breathy sound, but the blonde's name carries so much weight with it no matter how it's spoken.
Ursula tilts her head to the side and flashes her a knowing smile. The other woman crosses her arms over her chest and cocks a hip before she repeats," Cruella's at the bar?"
"Yes," Regina quickly answers before she just as quickly steps into Ursula's personal space. "She's here? Emma's here?"
Ursula's knowing smile widens. "Next floor," she says as she points to the ceiling. "Room four eleven."
She doesn't think. She just goes. She accidentally bumps Ursula's shoulder as she runs past the other woman on her way back to the stairs. She gracelessly yanks open the door and then does something so unlike her. She takes the steps two at a time until she's on Emma's floor, gasping for breath from the exertion, while she looks left and then right in search of 411. She can barely make out any of the numbers on the door and just thinks of Emma, Emma, only Emma, until she's standing in front of room 411.
She gulps and raises a shaky hand before she knocks a few times and then waits. It's unbearable and it feels like a lifetime before the door opens to a blonde in a sleeveless black shirt and tight pants. The black leather jacket the other woman seems fond of as the Dark One is abandoned somewhere beyond Regina's direct line of sight, which is currently Emma. That's it. That's all she sees. Just as it was downstairs. This is that moment Meg was talking about. In that moment it's just her and Emma and the doorway they're standing in.
Both women stare at each other with wide eyed expressions and parted lips. They both seem a little breathless, and while Regina knows her main reason for being so out of breath is her sprint up the stairs, she also knows a large part of it has to do with seeing Emma there. She's astounded, but she also thinks she should scream at the younger woman because this wasn't the plan. She didn't make such a big sacrifice for Emma to risk her life, yet again, to save her.
She knows she should scream, should argue with Emma about what's right and wrong and ask where Henry is because that's extremely important to know. But she can't. She doesn't. Instead of lecturing and arguing and asking question after question, she just lunges forward and closes the small remaining space between them.
She crashes her lips against Emma's and takes both of them by surprise with a hard and desperate kiss. She cups the back of Emma's neck with one hand and lightly scrapes her nails against it as her fingers tangle in blonde tresses free from the bun the other woman has been styling her hair in for the past month.
She gasps into a second kiss and tugs at Emma's hair as she pulls the younger woman closer against her. Their bodies melt together, but they still don't feel close enough, so she backs Emma against the door frame and nips at the woman's bottom lip. She slips her tongue between slightly parted lips and pushes her way into Emma's hot mouth. She moans against the blonde's lips before she feels Emma wrap both arms around her waist and pull them further into the room. Her mind hardly registers the sound of the door closing before she feels herself pinned against it and then hoisted into the air by strong arms.
Their lips break apart as her back slides up the length of the door before she instinctively wraps her legs around Emma's waist. She uses her legs to pull Emma back in and immediately feels the younger woman's breasts firmly against her own, her clothed sex pressed directly against Emma's torso.
Emma places a hand on her hip and slides it up her side. She groans when the blonde reaches her breast and squeezes. It's then she remembers Emma's still the Dark One because the younger woman growls and claws at her sides and hips while Emma yanks her away from the door.
She pants against Emma's mouth and cheeks a moment before she hits the bed. As soon as she opens her eyes, she sees Emma hovering over her with gorgeous green eyes and an open, vulnerable expression on her face. She bit her lip as she stared at the other woman and basked in her beauty. And then she breaks the moment and pushes Emma away with her hands pressed to the blonde's chest before they can kiss again.
Emma grunts and stumbles a few steps back while Regina sits up and scoots to the edge.
"What's wrong," Emma asks with a frown. "You kissed me. Why did you stop?"
"Because you're not supposed to be here," she immediately answers. "What the hell happened?!"
"I came here to bring you home," Emma replies with a sad pout.
"Did you let yourself get killed to do that? What about Henry? Honestly, Miss Swan—"
"Two seconds ago I was Emma. And you were very happy to see me."
"Yes, well, that was before you went out of your way to come here. The whole point of taking the sword for you was because l—"
She stops herself. She's already explained why she moved in front of Emma. The blonde knew she'd given up everything to repay the favor. And there was more to it than that, but they just kissed so she really doesn't think the other reason needs vocalizing.
"Regina? Tell me what's going on? Why are you suddenly so upset?"
"Because I asked you to take care of Henry, but instead you left him."
"With my parents! And I'm not dead. I can get back just fine. It's you I'm worried about."
"Why? I did this for you!"
"Well, you shouldn't have!"
They stare at each other, wide eyed and a little breathless from the fight they didn't realize they started. She's not entirely sure when or why she started yelling at Emma, but apparently the lecture she didn't give earlier has come later rather than not at all.
"I thought you didn't like being the Savior, having everyone count on you, or always look to you for solutions to their problems instead of just treating you like a person. With feelings." Emma sighs, but Regina just continues to talk. "But now you're saying I can't help you? That I'm always going to be the only one that needs help out of the two of us? I'm not defenseless."
"I know that," Emma says with a partially guilty expression.
"Then what exactly are you trying to tell me? Why shouldn't I have stepped in front of you?"
"Because I...I might not be nothing, but I- You should be the one to stay."
She opens and closes her mouth before she blows out a heavy sigh. "I can't."
"Why not? You're not... You didn't die, Regina. There's still a chance."
She pops up her head and stares at Emma with shock written across her features. She feels her jaw drop and part her lips while she stands there and searches green eyes for further explanation, but all says is, "You can come back."
"Wh-what if I don't want to," she quietly asks in the room that was once ripe with a fresh start and is now quickly filling with tension.
Emma frowns. The blonde's entire face falls and she looks hurt. If there's even something she wants to say about Regina's response, she doesn't because there's suddenly a knock on the younger woman's door. The blonde walks away to answer it and Regina's left on the bed to straighten out her clothes and collect herself.
"Hey, is Regina here," the brunette overhears and swallows as she hurries to stand and then shuffles awkwardly in front of the bed before Ursula barges into the room. When the other woman locks eyes on her, she looks furious. And yet there's a sense of surprise and unease about her as well. "What the hell is your mother doing here?"
Regina feels a little bit of relief that Ursula's not upset with her, especially because talking about Cora's presence being a shock is something she can understand. "I have no idea. Cruella said they met somewhere in another part of this realm and they found a way over here. They didn't waste any time with details about when and how, but Cruella mentioned they're bored."
"That woman is unbelievable. I know I have no right to ask this of anyone, because it's not my decision to make, but I really need you to get Cora the hell away from Cruella."
"Oh no," she says and nearly feels herself turn pale. "What's she doing? Do I even want to know?"
"She's all over her," Ursula answers.
"What," Emma loudly jumps back into the conversation.
"You always had such a flare for timing, dear. Glad to see that hasn't changed, despite all the other things that have changed about you recently," Regina says to the younger woman.
She takes Ursula by the arm and ushers her out of Emma's room. She brushes past the blonde on the way, but doesn't look at her and doesn't say anything. Emma, of course, is incapable of keeping her mouth shut and does say something as she makes her way into the hallway with Ursula.
"We're not done talking, Regina."
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she lets go of Ursula and turns back around to face the younger woman. "If I want to talk to you, I know where to find you," she says and then makes a point to shut Emma's door behind her with a steely gaze directed at the woman on the other side of it.
There's more to be said, more they need to talk about, and Regina can agree with that much. She won't, however, let Emma barrel into her life again. This time she'll set the pace and she'll decide when they talk and what they discuss. Right now, she doesn't want to do that so she closes the door on Emma in hopes that the younger woman will keep her distance, for now.
She really shouldn't have thought that would be possible, though. It's Emma she's dealing with, and that woman never lets anything go. So, she shouldn't be surprised when the blonde refuses to sit back and shut up. And yet, she's still completely blown away by how Emma Swan manages, yet again, to burst into her world and break down everything she's built up around herself.
Emma sighs as she sits on her bed. Whatever she expected to happen with Regina when she arrived in Hell, it wasn't that. The brunette surged into her room almost as soon as the door was open and crashed into her. On purpose.
The kiss had so many emotions behind it, but the most notable thing about it was that Regina had initiated it. Emma's known Regina long enough to know she goes after what she wants, but she's also extremely hesitant. She doesn't like surprises, so she most likely isn't much of a risk taker. Well, not anymore. Casting the Dark Curse because there was a possibility she would be happy on the other side of it was a pretty big risk. But now? Now, she waits for tattoos and pixie dust and fate and gets upset when things don't work out in her favor, despite all the supposed signs that it's her happily ever after.
Oh god. Regina was with Robin. It wouldn't have been her first time getting involved with someone who's taken, but she didn't start whatever it was Regina had started. Or finished? Were they finished? Regina ran out of the room like she'd made the biggest mistake of her life. Her face had shown a completely different feeling than had been expressed during their series of hot and heavy kisses.
Emma thinks it's a miracle that Regina was that happy to see her. She thinks it's a miracle Regina even touched her at all whether or not happiness or relief was involved. She also thinks she's never felt better than she did holding Regina, feeling their lips pressed together and their hands all over each other's bodies in desperate need to be closer and more connected.
She looks down at her lap and sees her hands, hands that only seconds ago were memorizing Regina Mills' curves. And then she sees the blood red ring on her finger. It's big and bulky and weighs a ton, weighs her down. She's suffocated by the thick metal as well as the reminder it brings when she looks at it.
She remembers sad stories told in Camelot and remembers the sympathy she felt after hearing them, even though the truth behind what he'd given her was a trophy from a tragedy. Hook slipped one of his rings on her finger like it meant something; like he'd given her a part of himself, no matter how ugly that part might have been. Because he trusted her with every side of himself; the pirate, the drunk, the villain.
But the ring was one of the few he adorned, each taken off someone he killed. She accepted his past and believed there was still good in him. He believed there was good in her, even with all that darkness stirring inside her. And after that, there had been the field. She gave him more than he gave her and she thought it was good. She thought it was okay.
It wasn't. None of what's happened since she became the Dark One has been okay. It's been more pain and suffering and stupid false hope.
But with Regina, when they kissed, it was... Everything felt right. She felt safe and lighter than she has in months. She doesn't regret anything she's done for Regina, but she regrets almost everything else, and apparently Regina regrets ever having come to her door.
So she sits there in a strange room in a place far from home and feels worse by the second. She's there to bring Regina back, and while she hadn't expected the brunette to do any of what she'd done, she's still going to fight to save her. She's used to being abandoned and left feeling unwanted, but that's never stopped her from wanting to be good for the people that passed her off or forgot about her. And she wants to be good, for Regina. For Henry. She's there to do everything she can to make Regina want to live, convince her to go back to Henry and have that damn happy ending she's wanted for so long.
She doesn't even realize she's crying until she has to blink away tears that well up while she's thinking about everything she could have had, and wants to have, with Regina. It's fine. She's given up a lot of things for the other woman and she knows Regina doesn't owe her. She doesn't want Regina to owe her, or even feel like she needs to repay a favor. That's how so many relationships, if Emma could even call them that, started in her life, and none of them ever ended well. Most recently her relationship with Hook.
But Regina had been the one to kiss her. It wasn't a thank you kiss. There was no gratitude or repayment behind Regina's actions. Maybe she read too much into it, but there had been more to it than owing someone. She's confused, though, and that's on her. She can't blame Regina for kissing her if that was some kind of accident. It didn't feel like it at the time, but she knows from experience that her own accident was ever giving Hook a chance. She shouldn't have let him in, shouldn't have stayed with him as long as she did, and she definitely shouldn't have fooled herself into thinks she could find love and happiness like her parents. No one's ever really loved her like that, and after being tossed aside like a used tissue one too many times, she's closed herself off to plenty of opportunities and opened herself up to all the wrong ones. It's just how it is. It's how she is. She might not be a hero, and she's not really the Savior anymore, but anyone held to a higher standard is usually meant to suffer in silence and be alone.
She thinks about why she basically sold her soul to save Regina that night when the darkness surrounded her and she shouted, "There has to be another way!"
"You've worked too hard to have your happiness destroyed."
Not long before that she'd seen Regina dying in those leaves to protect Henry. She'd heard Regina say to him, "I couldn't let you die" even though she didn't know and never believed it when Emma and Henry told her she was his mother. She wouldn't have had to see Henry die if she'd just gone inside the chapel and stopped the wedding, which Emma thought she would do. Because Regina's happy ending isn't a man, but it would be a nice—and damn powerful thing—to have someone in her life that made her feel loved every day by doing even the smallest of things, like bringing her breakfast in bed and giving her space when she needs it, or just believing her. Even if what she's saying sounds as crazy as "your recently revived wife is actually my wicked half-sister." Instead, she chose Henry, and Emma was sure that no matter what happened, Regina would always choose Henry. It's one of many things they have in common and it's so selfless. It's so goddamn selfless and Emma wants nothing but the best for that amazing woman, because she deserves it. She deserves so much.
Emma would give her anything she wants just to see her smile. So she imagines what life would be like back in Storybrooke, imagines Regina happy and healthy with Henry, and maybe Robin and Roland or maybe with someone else. She imagines being able to see Regina live the life she's fought so hard for the last couple decades. Even if she's never Regina's choice, first or otherwise, she's determined to give Regina as many chances at happiness as she can. She's thought about what that might mean for her, especially after cheating death a few times already, and she's willing to make that final sacrifice if it means Regina has all that she's been looking for.