Notes:
*Evil Grin* #sorrynotsorry
Emma whimpered when the doorbell rang out and startled both women mid-grope. "Hold that thought." Emma whispered and detangled herself from the queen's insistent grasp. Emma trotted out into the foyer and tried to ignore the damage to the walls and opened the door.
Two dozen long stem red roses greeted her on the porch and Emma looked puzzled for a moment until the roses lowered slightly and exposed the face of the person holding them.
"Oh uh.. hey Sidney." Emma stumbled. The shock on the man's face was clear and she felt the anger off of him almost instantly.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded and Emma felt put off by his questioning and figured she would let Regina deal with the squirrelly little man. Not my circus. Not my monkeys.
"Gina?" Emma called back into the hall without inviting the man in, mainly because he always skeeved her out, but partly because Regina had yet to fix the foyer and she correctly assumed Regina wouldn't want anyone outside of their family to see the destruction. Regina was buttoning up her blouse as she walked towards the blonde, "Who is it dear?"
"Uh Sidney Glass from the newspaper." Emma replied then opened the door only wide enough for the brunette to slide herself in front of her.
Regina had irritation in her voice as she questioned the man, "Sidney what are you doing here?"
"My queen!" he spoke gallantly, "I heard you had been assaulted by the savior and I felt it was my duty to come aid you in your time of need!"
Regina instantly took a step back and folded her arms around herself. Emma could feel the nervous energy pouring off of the brunette and she placed a protective hand around the woman's waist and pulled her against herself.
"Are you alright your majesty?" Sidney asked looking at the blonde with disgust. "I came to unbind your magic!" he announced with chivalrous pride.
Regina turned green with nausea and turned to the blonde who held her securely, "I-I don't feel well." she mumbled and Emma saw the serious look on the woman's face and nodded. She guided her back into the house and then stood in the door blocking the little man when he questioned where the mayor was going and tried to push past the blonde to follow the brunette. Emma stood firm and took up the entirety of the open door. "You know it is illegal to print hearsay in your paper right?" the blonde pinned the man back with her cool green eyes. He stammered and she spoke over him. "Now isn't a good time." before he could object Emma Swan shut the door on the dejected man still holding the flowers he bought for his queen.
Emma called out to Regina then took the stairs two at a time and headed straight for the woman's bedroom. The door was shut so she called out once more for the brunette. When she didn't receive an answer she cautiously opened the door and poked her head in surprised at what she saw.
Regina was leaning over her vanity, she was shaking and her hands gripped the side of the table so tight her knuckles were white with strain. Emma saw in the reflection the anguished look the woman held and thick tears silently streaming down her face.
"Regina!" Emma exclaimed and quickly rushed to the woman's side. Regina instantly turned and was wrapped in the safety of Emma Swan's arms. "Hey! It's okay. We're okay! I'm here, you're safe."
Regina's body trembled in the savior's arms and she let go of the emotion she held and sobbed into the savior's chest. "Woah, hey it's okay Regina. I got you." Emma felt the brunette stiffen and pull herself from the blonde. Regina grabbed Emma with urgency and silently pulled the blonde from the bedroom. Emma quickly followed and when she started to protest Regina looked back at her and pressed a finger to her own lips effectively silencing the savior.
Emma allowed herself to be led down into the basement of the mansion and looked around curiously as she had never been in this part of her son's house before. Regina let go of the savior's hand and then disappeared around a corner. A light switched on in the corner but for a moment then switched back off and then she came back just as quick. Emma could feel the nervousness pouring off the brunette once again and she offered comfort by resting her hands on the upper arms of the mayor. "What's going on?"
"Shhhh!" the queen barked. "It was him." Regina whispered and her body started to tremble again. Emma could see the rage in the queen's eyes and quickly realized the woman was not only frightened, she was angry.
"What?" Emma whispered back.
"It was Sidney! He accosted you Emma!" Regina whispered then tears started to fall once again and Emma pulled the woman back into her embrace still stunned over the words the woman had just spoken.
"How do you know?"
"Unless your idiot parents have opened their big fat mouths, which to be honest your mother has a habit of doing, I haven't told anyone who attacked me!"
"What about hospital staff? Or Rumple, he knows."
"No. I was treated for my injuries, they didn't need to know what happened and the dark one knows better. Miss Lucas knew some details, would she run her mouth?"
"Normally, yes, but not about this. She maybe Snow's friend, but she is my friend too she wouldn't talk shit about me." Emma whispered defending her friend.
"I swear on all that is dark in this world Emma Swan if your mother…"
Emma placed a delicate finger on the queen's lips. "She wouldn't tell people I assaulted you. She knows I wouldn't do that. He said 'the savior assaulted you.' Right?" Regina nodded her head silently and began to tremble as her original thoughts came back around to the forefront of her mind. "Then it was him. Sidney accosted you Emma. He did this to me."
"Why are we in the basement? And...why didn't you say something while he was on your porch? We let him get away?" Emma whispered absently as each question came to mind.
"He is the magic mirror from your fairy tales Emma."
"Like 'mirror mirror on the wall'?" Emma asked finding her normal talking voice only to be shushed by the mayor once again. "Who's the fairest one of all?" Emma whisper shouted in her exasperation.
"Well I certainly did not need him to tell me how beautiful I am, my eyes are functional! But essentially yes." Regina quipped with an eye roll. "It's a long story, but we are down here because there are no mirrors in my basement. He has magic, or really he is magic and can use any mirror, not just the one he was trapped in."
"What do you mean he is magic?" Emma stroked her hands up and down the brunette's back soothing the queen in her arms.
Regina hugged the blonde closer and whispered into her ear, "He was the genie in the lamp before he was my magic mirror."
"Like Aladdin's genie?"
Regina rolled her eyes and whispered, "I'm sure there was more than one, but it is possible he was the same one. The point is he has untold magical knowledge and if he was able to accost your person, he is no longer bound by the prison I banished him in, and once again has access to that knowledge. We need a plan to capture him."
Emma held the brunette to her chest mostly to comfort her, but partially so the queen did not see the look of sheer terror on her face as she took in Regina's words.
"Okay we can't stay in the basement for the rest of our lives so can we get rid of the mirrors? Is it just mirrors or any reflective surface?"
"Just mirrors, he was actually trapped in the silver film that backs the glass." Regina whispered absently then looked up into the savior's eyes and Emma could see pain in those dark orbs.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked quietly.
"This is my fault. I brought this on myself. On us."
"No." Emma bristled her green eyes set aflame.
"It is." Regina insisted. "I-"
"I don't give a rats ass what you did to him Regina Mills, no one deserves what he did to you, to us!" Emma demanded loudly, effectively stopping the queen's explanation. The queen could feel the protective anger pulse off of the blonde and she simply nodded, not entirely agreeing with Emma's view but completely unwilling to argue her point with the blonde at that very moment.
After several minutes Regina cleared her throat, "There's an enchantment we can do to disconnect the mirrors in the house from the quicksilver realm." She looked up to the savior when she didn't respond and rolled her eyes at the questioning look she got in reply. "To protect the mirrors from being used as a looking glass." Emma nodded in understanding and Regina asked, "Would you like to give it a try? You need practice controlling your power."
"If you think I can, sure." Emma replied then listened to Regina's dumbed down explanation and followed the techniques laid out by the brunette.
While she was digging within herself to pull up her magic, her mind started to wander. She thought of that snivelling little shit and what he did to them, what he did to Regina and how he had tried to push his way into the house, his frail frame stood no chance against Emma's stronger, taller stature, but yet he tried . He tried because he felt he had a right to Regina. He felt his right to the brunette surpassed Emma's. Fuck that weasley little shit! She is not 'your queen' you pussy ass bitch! She is MY queen so fuck you buddy! Emma's mind started to swirl with the rage she felt and she let it flow out of her.
They were both startled with a loud explosion as every mirror in the house imploded simultaneously.
"Emma!" Regina looked up at her wide eyed.
"Um… oops?" Emma had the good sense to genuinely feel remorse for the sharded disaster that was now every inch of the mansion and Regina rolled her eyes.
"Alright, well, at least you were able to focus on all of the correct objects at the same time. You're still learning. That's still a good step forward, but I think maybe that's enough magic for you for today."
Emma's heart warmed when even in the face of her failure Regina still managed to encourage her. A sheepish smile parted the savior's lips, "I'm sor-" Emma started, but Regina pressed her index finger to the blonde's pink lips.
"Forbidden." The brunette said simply and smiled when Emma pursed her lips and kissed her finger. The savior's pinky wrapped itself around a matching digit on Regina's hand and the blonde huffed, "I don't even want to know how much bad luck that's going to bring me!"
Regina cast a spell that not only mended the broken mirrors but protected them from being available to Sidney. "We make our own luck Miss Swan, but next time you'll be practicing on your mother's mirrors." Regina quipped. Emma chuckled and agreed. "Did you fix it? Are we safe?"
Regina nodded her response then added, "I would like to put a protection spell on the house, I think the spell that moth used on me would be effective enough to bind Sidney's powers long enough to capture him. I need to speak with the dark one on a permanent solution for him."
Emma watched as the mayor's dark eyes flicked back and forth as she spoke aloud her thoughts. "I should probably tell David we know who did this.." Emma started and Regina's eyes locked with the savior's. "Make sure he knows not to go after him. He is extremely dangerous and very powerful Emma." Regina warned.
Emma creased her brow and a pang of jealousy spiked through the savior, "How powerful?"
Regina's mouth quirked up in a flirty little smirk, "No where near as powerful as you my dear, but far more powerful than I."
"How exactly did you trap him then?' Emma questioned.
"I- I used his lust for me against him." Regina dropped her eyes and explained how Sidney became her magic mirror. She told Emma about the plot to murder the king, how she manipulated the man and twisted his affection for her to get him to do her bidding. "He was a means to an end, and even though I did not lie to him, I did stretch the truth and play against his greatest weakness. My life with the king wasn't ideal, I had reason other than simple wickedness for wanting that man dead. I used his pity and his affection to manipulate him. I had already lost the love of my life twice at that point, and I will admit my hatred of your mother fueled my descent into dark magic, because she had wronged me." Regina's eyes finally met Emma's who had never broke her gaze upon the queen. "Looking back now, I can see how perhaps it was more my mother's plotting, and the king's mistreatment and Rumple's meddling that led me down the path I chose. Sidney was just a bystander."
Regina took a deep shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around herself. "So you see I really did cause.."
Emma pressed her lips to Regina's effectively cutting the woman's sentence off. "If I'm forbidden to apologize, you are forbidden from blaming yourself for other's actions. He did what he did of his own free will." Emma said when she pressed her forehead to the queen's and broke the embrace.
"Had I not manipulated his affection, he wouldn't have killed the king."
"You don't know that." Emma said quietly. "He is obsessed with you, that fact is clear. Yeah you saw an opportunity to get out of a bad situation using a man who was willing to kill another human being for the chance to bed the man's wife!" Emma shook her head, "No Regina, you are not the blame for everyone else's mistakes."
The queen saw the stark conviction and stone cold seriousness in the green eyes that studied her own features and felt the need to move away from the topic of that man and her guilt. "You just kissed me!" Regina accused.
Emma panicked, "You kissed me first! You know… before!" she thumbed behind her towards the stairs.
"Yes dear, but you just kissed me in order to shut me up!" Regina mock scowled.
Emma smiled and relaxed seeing the playfulness in the brunette's eyes. "Not just . It worked didn't it?"
"Are we going to talk about this?" Regina asked nervously.
"Do you regret it?" Emma countered, the fear of the answer written plainly across her face. Regina shook her head no.
"Do you want to keep doing stuff like getting shut up kissed?" Emma smirked, but the fear hadn't fully dissipated. Regina nodded her head yes, but her eyes watered up and she buried herself into the chest of the savior. How will I react when she wants to touch me? The brunette thought to herself as the blonde wrapped her arms around her, that feeling was back, the feel of the woman's healing magic and Regina let it envelop her. If only she had been able to heal my emotional scars as well as the cosmetic. She takes a deep breath and lets out a calming breath. When did this become my favorite place to be?
Emma seemingly able to see right through the brunette added, "I want those things too." she kissed the crown of Regina's head and whispered, "We can go as slow or as fast as you want. I'm not going anywhere."