The Evil Queen has come out to play, and she demands Rumplestiltskin's participation.
"Don't fall asleep."
"I'm just resting my eyes!"
Emma huffed, jutting out her lower lip in a dramatic pout as Regina rolled her eyes. The group had set out in the morning to hunt down the demons again, but four hours later and they still hadn't found a thing, hence why they were now in the diner having lunch. Well, everyone else was having lunch, while Emma sat across from Regina with their hands linked, magical energy buzzing across their skin with the brunette's spell. They were attempting a more powerful tracking spell since the demons' cloaking abilities were stronger than ever.
"You have to use your magic too, Emma."
"I am! It's just hard to concentrate when I'm hungry," the blonde complained, giving Regina her most imploring pout. The brunette sighed and released her hands with a little shake of her head.
"Oh, fine. Go eat. You're hopeless on an empty stomach." It was said in jest and there was a glimmer of teasing amusement in those brown eyes as Emma stood and grinned.
"You need to eat too. I'll ask Granny if she's got salad in the kitchen." She turned to the counter to find Granny Lucas already sliding a sandwich and a grilled chicken salad towards her.
"Took you long enough," the older woman snorted. Emma flashed an appreciative smile and took the food back to their booth only to find that her parents had joined them; Snow sitting next to Regina and David across from them. Emma slid in next to her father and pushed the salad towards Regina.
"Mom, Dad," Emma greeted cautiously, in that bemused tone of voice that said This is out of the ordinary, what's going on? Regina looked just as weary, especially at the smile that threatened to split Snow's cheeks. David's grin wasn't any more comforting.
"We've been thinking," David began.
"Don't strain yourself," Regina said, lip quirking as Snow elbowed her in the side. David rolled his eyes and continued.
"Since we've got Neal, there's definitely a lot less room in the loft. And now that you two are soulmates-"
"Are you kicking me out?" said Emma, incredulous. There was the barest hint of hurt in her eyes that she quickly suppressed.
"No, no," said Snow hurriedly. "We love having you with us at the loft."
"Just suggesting," David added. "It's going to happen eventually-"
"Just because we're soulmates doesn't mean we should skip straight to living together," Regina deadpanned. "You didn't propose to Snow right after your True Love's Kiss, did you?"
"Well not immediately after-"
"Mostly because someone was threatening my life," Snow added with a sarcastic tilt of her head in Regina's direction. The brunette snorted.
"Regardless, we're not in the Enchanted Forest anymore, so I would like to take my relationship slowly, thank you very much."
"Besides, I am so not a U-haul lesbian," Emma muttered.
"A what?" Snow asked, as Regina scrunched her face in distaste at the title. Emma shook her head emphatically.
"Nevermind. Just- no. God. Can we eat our lunch in peace?"
"Fine," Snow huffed, sliding out of the booth to go chat with Ruby. David, trapped between Emma and the wall, just settled back with his mug of coffee and made himself comfortable. Once the women had eaten, they returned to their attempts at a tracking spell.
"Relax," Regina murmured, giving Emma's fingers a squeeze. The blonde breathed in deeply and eased the tension in her hands, focusing on the softness of Regina's palms against her fingertips. Magic rippled across their skin, warming them to the bone and radiating outwards in a sort of invisible yet comforting aura. David watched, enraptured, his blue eyes curious. There was no physical manifestation for him to see but he could definitely feel it in the air.
"Anything?" he asked softly, not wanting to break the quiet murmur of sound in the diner. Emma kept her lips pursed with concentration while Regina responded.
"I think I may know where they are," she said slowly, brown eyes unfocused as she blinked down at their conjoined hands. The spell heightened her awareness of magical energy, as if all the energy in the town was now a part of her. She felt outwards, tentatively probing for a clue, feeling herself drawn towards the west where the energy grew darker. "Somewhere along the far woods past the stream, to the west," she said absently, as if regarding the spread of energy like a map of the town. Water always contained magical properties and she could feel it now, a trickle of magic somewhere to her left, making a jagged path through the forestry where she knew a stream ran towards the beach.
She inhaled slowly, then pulled back her magic, gently untangling it from Emma's until the only thing left connecting them were their hands. Emma's eyes refocused and she gave a shy little smile at the intimacy of their conjoined magic; like two glowing strands twined around each other, the white-gold magic of the Savior and the red-fuchsia magic of the Queen.
"That was different," she said after a moment, holding onto Regina's hands as if they were still tied together by an ethereal force.
"Some spells require a much more focused and intricate joining of magic." Regina gave her hand a squeeze before carefully detaching their fingers. Emma frowned as their last physical link was cut and Regina had to resist grabbing her hand again, as if it was suddenly cold and empty to be without the other's touch. "That was certainly… new. For me as well."
It was as much of an admission as she would get. Regina had only ever used such delicate magic once before and that had been under Rumplestiltskin's tutelage, and that was certainly a very different and far less pleasant experience. The mere memory of her magic twining with his made her shudder. Such spellwork was far too intimate to do with just anyone.
"So we've got a location?" David interjected softly, his expression open and hopeful as always. His hand had fallen to rest against Emma's back, and normally Emma would have leaned in to the touch, but after her magical connection with Regina she didn't feel quite right leaning against her father. She slid out of the booth and pretended to stretch out stiff limbs instead.
"We do," Regina confirmed, dark gaze dragging over the blonde's extended limbs before remembering that the woman's father was right there. She smoothed out her dress pants and cleared her throat. "If you'd like to rally the troops-" Emma snickered. "-we can get going."
"Sure thing." David flashed a smile and hopped out of the booth to get everyone moving. Regina stood, only to find herself immediately enveloped in Emma's arms.
"Touchy today, aren't we?" she asked, amused, settling her hands on the blonde's hips.
"Well, that whole magic thing - that was pretty intense, right?"
"That it was."
"Can we do it again?"
Regina lifted a brow. "We already know where the demons are holed up."
"I know, I just mean… y'know, combining our magic like that, in some other way. We could do it again in the future, couldn't we?"
"I suppose I could think of something." Regina reached up a hand to stroke her fingers against Emma's cheek, watching green eyes flutter shut. "It was rather intimate, wasn't it?"
"Understatement of the year," Emma chuckled, turning her head to kiss Regina's hand. David cleared his throat to get their attention and the group was once again on the move, this time with a destination in mind. The mood was relatively relaxed until they were hiking through the forest and saw the stream up ahead. Snow notched an arrow and David unsheathed his sword.
"They're up there?" David asked.
"Apparently so," Regina confirmed, feeling Emma walk even closer by her side. The blonde had her hands hanging loose by her sides, shoulders tense and ready to spring into action. She just hoped their magic lessons were enough.
The group nodded to each other before fanning out, a silent agreement that it was likely a better idea than standing close together in a huddle. Ruby took point on the far right while Leroy took point on the left, swinging his axe over his shoulder. The Swan-Mills-Charmings took the lead, the group forming a wide arrowhead as they approached the site. Magical or not, everyone could feel the unnatural chill in the air and automatically tensed, anticipating an attack.
"Think they opened Pandora's Box?" Emma murmured, her voice low. Regina shifted beside her, frowning.
"Let's hope not."
Slowing to a stop in the middle of the clearing by the stream, the group warily surveyed the area. Emma approached a little rise of hill, no taller than her shoulder, in which one side of it was rock and dirt and the other side was grass. She scuffed her boot into the wet pile of leaves at the base, knocking grime off of what she had hoped wasn't Pandora's Box. No such luck.
"They opened the box," she sighed, reaching down to pluck the now useless contraption from the ground. Black soot came off on her fingers, and she found a deep gouge through the magical symbol that had once trapped the demons inside. Regina came up next to her to examine it.
"Can we still use it?" David questioned, thumping over to take a look. The rest of their group moved into a circular formation, facing outwards, on guard. Regina rotated the box in her hands for another minute before scowling and tossing it to the forest floor.
"It's useless crap now," she growled, cleaning the soot from her hands with a snap of her fingers. Emma did the same before settling a reassuring hand on Regina's lower back.
"Hey, we can still do this without the box."
"We haven't even figured out how to kill these things yet."
"We will." Emma's lips twisted into a grin. "Have a little faith. We're Regina and Emma. The Queen and the Savior. Batgirl and Spoiler!"
Regina quirked a brow at her.
"Henry would get it," Emma pouted.
"Oh, I get the reference, Miss Brown. I just prefer Batwoman."
"Understood, Miss Gordon." Those dimples reappeared on Emma's cheeks, absolutely delighted that Regina was a bigger geek than she let on. She'd have to thank Henry for somehow dragging the uptight brunette into the world of comic book heroes. Regina just rolled her eyes and turned to the group.
"The demons have to be around here somewhere. Let's spread out and force them out of hiding. Just don't stray too far. If they appear, lead them back here and call for backup."
There were curt nods everywhere, then people moved off in pairings, slowly combing the surrounding area with weapons drawn. Snow and David took off in one direction, Leroy with Nova, Ruby and Granny, August with Tink and Belle. Emma bounded after Regina.
"Where do you think those hellhound things are?"
"Gone, I hope. They don't belong in this world, so hopefully their summoning was only temporary."
"I hope so. To be honest, they were worse than the demons." The memory of Grayson's body torn and bloodied by razor-sharp teeth and claws came unbidden to her mind, causing a shiver to ripple up her spine. The demons didn't maul flesh, at least.
Regina laughed abruptly, voice thick with humor. Emma turned to look quizzically at her, only to find Regina staring back in confusion. The eerily familiar laughter continued, but it wasn't coming from the brunette.
"Oh hell," Emma managed, before they both located the source of the laughter. The demon incarnation of Regina lurked only a short distance from them, her hip leaning against a tree, every curve accentuated by tight leather clothes only the Evil Queen would have worn. She lowered one hand to stroke the head of the hellbeast standing by her side, its teeth bared in a terrible smile.
"Worse than me? I don't know about that, dear," the demon purred in Regina's voice. Emma couldn't help but shiver at the pure seduction in her tone. Demon or not, it sounded just like Regina, and damned if that voice didn't make her weak in the knees.
"Why don't you use your own face instead of mine?" Regina barked, agitated.
"Oh, but that's not nearly as fun." The demon grinned, moving to cross her arms under her ample cleavage. Emma's gaze flickered past the demon, and then around them, searching for other potential dangers.
"Where are your 'friends'?"
"Right here," the demon replied, at the same time motioning at her own body with a proud little smile. "Now there is only me." And Emma realized why this demon seemed different from the first time they saw her. She was entirely solid, flesh and blood with dark magic crackling over her skin, no longer partially made of shadows. Vaguely Emma thought that meant perhaps she could strike her with a physical weapon - but the sheer amount of power oozing from the demon Regina's pores made her think twice.
"How…?"
"Well you certainly delayed my progress, trapping some of us in that infernal box of yours," the demon sneered, crimson red lips twisting with disdain. "But all is well now that we've finally regained our strength and become one - thus I'll give you one chance, savior. Leave now, and we can go about our own business."
Emma blinked, still too stunned and confused to make sense of what was being said. (What was this whole merging-into-one bullshit?) Regina was quicker on the uptake.
"You're affecting my town, so no, we're not leaving you alone." Regina brought forth a fireball, quickly mimicked by Emma and her handheld tornado once she snapped back to attention. The demon just shrugged, ever so casual and at ease.
"As you wish."
She turned away dismissively at the same time the hellbeast lunged forward. Regina and Emma flung their magic at the same time, knocking the creature out of the air. It landed with a heavy thud and recovered enough to stand between them and the retreating demon, though she wasn't really retreating so much as she was sashaying away.
Green eyes met brown and they both nodded ever so subtly, a silent agreement: don't let her get away.
"Hey! I'm not done with you!" Emma shouted tauntingly at the demon's back as Regina stepped forward and blasted the hellhound aside with another barrage of energy, sending it skittering a few yards away. The demon paused and glanced over her shoulder, lifting a brow at Emma in a very Regina-like way.
"Shouldn't you be more worried about your friends?" she asked innocently.
"What did you do?" Emma asked instinctively, feeling the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up at what was clearly a veiled threat. The demon's eyes flickered from Emma to somewhere off in the distance. Then she smiled.
Emma whipped her head around to check behind her, squinting to make out the others in the distance, and could immediately see more of the giant hellhounds charging through the forest. Her knee-jerk reaction was to run towards them to help, to be nearer to her friends and family in case they needed her. The sound of Regina's struggle as the brunette battered the nearby hellhound into the ground brought her attention back.
"Regina," she called out, voice anxious. Regina set the hellhound up in flames before bringing up another pair of fireballs in her hands.
"Focus, Emma!" She hurled her magic at the demon, shielding her eyes when the demon swung her arm and brought up a shield that absorbed the blow with a great flash of light. Emma quickly joined the fray, their combined magic pushing the demon back, each attack a burst of gold and rose against the demon's ashy black. The demon was indeed being pushed back, losing ground simply because Emma and Regina kept pushing forward with each blast of magic, but neither side was actually doing any damage. Emma just hoped the demon's magic reserves would dwindle and run out eventually, or this tug of war was going to last a long time.
Emma paused in her barrage, eyes skittering to a tree just behind the demon, and instead of another energy ball she focused on the tree, imagined her magic gripping the trunk and - with her hands out in a grabbing motion - pulled it down and towards herself with as much force as she could muster. There was a groan and the snap of roots as it tore free from the ground and came crashing down upon its intended target. The demon spun around with a snarl, swinging out her arm to redirect the tree coming down on her. Regina's fireball caught her in the spine at the same time she swung the tree through the air with a violent wave, crashing it into Emma and Regina with Emma taking the brunt of it, just about arm-barred across the gut.
They hit the ground hard as the demon hissed and writhed to put out the flames licking at her dress and hair. With a burst of magic, Regina threw the tree off of them, glad that it wasn't a very large one, no more than half a foot in diameter. Still it winded Emma, the blonde rolling over and struggling to catch her breath after the blow to her solar plexus. The brunette was on her feet faster, already reaching for a spell she hadn't used since Henry tried climbing out of his bedroom window once upon a time. Tree branches snatched up the demon by her limbs, swinging her up into suspension. The demon fought back with a flash of her own fire, dropped suddenly to the ground when the tree branches shrunk back with audible hisses. She and Regina squared off against each other with another colliding blast of magic when an explosion rocked them backwards, sending the demon skittering away and Regina landing on her ass again.
"Regina?" Emma called, wincing beneath the shower of dirt and bits of flying bark. A scuffle to her right came from Leroy as he flung another vial, watching it arc through the air before shattering by the demon's feet and exploding. The demon was flung backwards again, snarling and cursing as she rolled across the ground. "Leroy!"
"Kill it faster!" he shouted impatiently, gripping his axe tightly in one hand. "The hellbeasts are tearing us down!"
Springing to her feet and stumbling towards the dwarf, Emma yanked a spare dagger from his belt and then ran to help Regina to her feet, alert green eyes meeting brown ones. "Get me close enough!"
"Are you crazy? You're going to stab it?"
"It's flesh and blood," Emma insisted. "We have to try! Our current tactic isn't getting us anywhere and the others can't keep this up forever!"
Regina growled her reluctant agreement before they rushed after the demon again, holding their breaths to avoid inhaling the lingering smoke from the exploding potion. Regina grabbed Emma's forearm and squeezed, her hand suddenly clenching shut into a fist when the blonde disappeared from her grip in a blur of purple smoke. Her other hand shot forward with a blast of fire that the demon summoned a shield against. Still Regina charged forward like a bull, crashing fireball after fireball against the shimmering shield. The demon sneered and held up her barrier with one hand while magic encased her other hand, jagged black shadows spinning in a vortex within her palm. She raised her hand, waiting for the moment to strike once Regina was close enough, but Emma struck before she had the chance.
In one swift motion, the blonde had reappeared behind the demon and swung her dagger in an inward arc, slamming it up to its hilt in the demon's chest where she assumed its heart might be. More than likely it did not have a heart, but surely it would still do damage.
The spurt of dark red blood hitting her hand surprised her enough that she didn't pull away immediately, one arm still wrapped around the demon. In the next second she felt herself flung back so hard that she didn't even have time to shout before colliding with the forest floor in a flurry of disturbed leaves, her shoulderblades taking the brunt of it. Regina was shouting something and there was another flash of magic, then a furious Evil Queen was snarling in Emma's face as she was lifted off the ground and sailing through the air again, the front of her sweater gripped in the demon's clawed hands.
"How dare you bleed me?" she hissed, shaking Emma violently even as she carried her through the air in flight. Emma flailed with newfound fear, seeing nothing but trees zooming past them. She made the mistake of turning her head and looking down, finding the ground zipping by beneath her at a speed and height that made her stomach flip, knowing full well that the demon need only let go of her sweater to send her falling.
"You messed with the wrong town," Emma retorted with more bravado than she felt, grabbing hold of the dagger - still buried to the hilt in the demon's chest - and twisting it fiercely. More blood sprayed out, soaking her sweater, and the demon's grip faltered enough that Emma suddenly dropped an inch before being dragged back up again, so close that their noses brushed.
They were suddenly swinging around in the air, so fast that Emma nearly lost her breakfast as she was dipped and then lifted again, slamming backwards into the thick trunk of a tree with the demon pinning her there, ten feet above the ground. Somehow the dagger had been pulled free of the demon's chest, thick red oozing down the tight Evil-Queen dress, dagger clutched in her free hand while the other fisted Emma's sweater and kept her crushed against the tree.
"Remember, I had offered you a chance, Savior," the demon hissed, bringing the dagger back in a wide arc, blade glistening a bright crimson red in the sunlight.
Emma was only vaguely aware of Regina screaming her name before the whistle of the blade came down, a red hot pain searing directly into her ribs and forcing what little breath was left in her lungs out in a gasp.
The demon yanked the dagger back. Emma watched the spray of red mist follow the dagger's arc with a detached sort of morbid fascination. It took a moment for her brain to connect the spray with the odd feeling of heat in her ribs. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would; in fact, she hardly felt it as she reached up to press her fingers into the wound on the demon's chest, imagining lightmagic piercing the wound further. The demon gave a shriek of agony, flesh burning beneath the Savior's fingertips. Emma thought she saw a white-gold light bleed into the wound like poison, but then she was soaring through the air again, this time a cry of real terror ripping its way from her throat.
"Regina!" she sobbed for help, her voice lost to the rush of air as she fell, the ground rushing up to meet her. There was screaming, a mixture of familiar voices all shouting out at once, one of which might have been her own. Emma hit the treeline and collided into branch after branch, sent battered and tumbling and twisting with each snap of wood until all she saw was the ground's sudden approach at such a rapid speed that she knew, knew, death was inevitable. This was going to kill her.
Green eyes squeezed shut, breath held as she tensed for impact, a tiny part of her hoping that she landed just so, so that perhaps her neck would snap cleanly and her death would be quick and painless at least.
Impact never came. Her breath left her in a rattling gust as something cushioned her in the air and slowly lowered her the remaining distance to the ground. Emma's eyes skittered to the side and she saw Regina running towards her with her arms thrown out, a look of terrified concentration on her face. When her back finally touched the forest floor, a pain shot through Emma's ribcage so suddenly that she forgot to breath, and in the next moment, she blacked out.
"Emma!"
She heard screaming, a high pitched keen that was full of pain and despair.
For a moment, Emma thought it was herself. She'd been in so much pain after all. But this scream- it couldn't be her, could it? She didn't feel the pain anymore. The cold lump in her stomach had spread through her body until everything was numb and tingly, almost like she was just floating there, painless. Except for her ribcage. There was a strange heat there, not quite painful - just a line of heat from her flesh straight into her body. She was pretty sure her lips were pressed shut. She definitely wasn't the one screaming.
The scream came again. Her name. Over and over again. Emma! Emma!
Emma forced open her eyelids and blinked in the blurry swarm of colours before her. She didn't remember when she'd closed her eyes. Her head lolled to one side and there was a hint of pressure at her jaw. Someone was grabbing her face.
"Emma!"
Her sense of hearing returned all at once as if her eardrums had popped, overwhelming her with the realization of Hey, I can hear again. Holy shit, it's really loud out here. She could recognize that voice anywhere, but she'd never heard it sound so heartbroken before. She blinked a little harder and Regina's face came into focus.
The brunette's hair was a mess, tousled as if she'd just walked through a hurricane, some strands sticking to her forehead with sweat. Emma thought her signature red lipstick had smeared everywhere too, until she realized it wasn't lipstick at all. Regina's face was spattered with blood.
"R'... gina…?" Her voice came out as a wet gurgle, eyebrows slowly creasing together with concern, not for herself but for the brunette. She knew Regina so well that it didn't surprise her when the mayor choked out a startled laugh.
"I'm not the one you should be worried about, idiot," Regina admonished, though the tremor in her voice betrayed her. Emma thought the brunette's eyes looked suspiciously shiny. She would have jokingly said, "Hey, don't cry, you're gonna make me cry" if she were able to talk properly. As it were, her chest hurt and she couldn't seem to convince her lungs to take in enough oxygen to speak again. She coughed weakly and closed her eyes to rest for a moment, only for Regina to jostle her shoulders a little too violently for her liking.
"Don't sleep! Emma!"
Emma looked up at the brunette again, exasperated.
I just want to rest my eyes for a minute, damn it.
"No! Stay with me. You have to stay awake." Could the woman read minds now too? Emma wanted to grunt. What left her lips was a wet, sad sounding wheeze, accompanied by darkness creeping into the edges of her waning eyesight. Gods, she felt so tired.
Something landed on her cheek. She refocused her eyes and saw tears running down Regina's cheek.
"Don't leave me, Emma," she pleaded, her voice a broken whisper. "I need you."
The pain in her upper arm was a dull ache compared to the absolute agony in her chest. Snow ignored the steady trickle of blood running down her arm as she pulled back another arrow and let it loose, skittering backwards with David at her side, matching her pace. They'd been separated from the others by a pair of hellbeasts but not far enough that she didn't see the demon dragging Emma through the air like a ragdoll. They lost sight of her in the treelines, but Regina's sudden screaming set off the alarm bells in her mind. Emma was hurt. Her daughter was hurt.
"Move!" Someone was shouting. David yanked on Snow's arm and she turned to follow him, breaking out into a run when Granny motioned for them to bypass her. She and Red, the younger woman in full wolf form, covered their retreat as they rushed to the Savior's side. August, Nova, Tink, and Leroy hurried to help hold the line with the werewolves.
"Emma!" Snow shouted, dropping ungracefully to the ground next to her unconscious daughter. Regina didn't even bother looking up at her, her hands pressing down hard on Emma's ribs where blood had soaked through her sweater and now pooled around her fingers.
"I - I can't heal it, I don't know what the knife hit-" Regina's voice was weak as she stared at Emma's face, silently begging her to open her eyes. Belle paced just next to her, snapping commands into her phone.
"I know it's- Yes, internal bleeding. I'm sure. Just be ready, Whale!" She ended the call and dropped down, gripping Regina by her forearm. "I called the hospital. You have to teleport Emma there now!"
"But-"
Brown eyes lifted to meet Belle's, startled, then turned conflicted as she looked across Emma's body to Snow and David. She couldn't teleport everyone, and that meant leaving them here to the demon and the hellbeasts.
"Go, Regina," Snow demanded, her voice hard.
"None of you are a match for the demon," Regina said, voice and expression blank. The demon was nowhere to be seen - it had fled after Emma's attacks - but the threat remained nonetheless.
"It doesn't matter." David reached out and gripped her shoulder, his eyes wide. "She's going to bleed out if you don't take her now!"
As if deferring, Regina looked to Snow once more, startled by the genuine concern she felt for her once mortal enemy. If Emma could be so wounded, what would happen to the others? To Snow? But Snow just stared back with the fierce stubbornness that she had possessed for as long as Regina could remember, with green eyes that she had so clearly passed down to Emma. Green eyes that had, time and time again, believed in Regina's ability to do the right thing, to change. Green eyes that believed in her.
"Take care of my daughter," said Snow, speaking around the lump in her throat.
Regina blinked. Set her jaw. Nodded. Then she and Emma disappeared in a swirl of purple smoke, leaving behind nothing but a small pool of blood staining the dirt where Emma had been lying just a moment ago.
Snow stood and felt David squeezing her wrist, a touch of reassurance. Belle was already moving back towards the others with a vial of black dust in her hand.
"Emma must have really injured the demon; it fled and hasn't returned," she said when the Charmings tailed her.
"Then we kill the hellbeasts for now," David grunted, swinging his sword and feeling the tension in his arms relax from the familiar motion. Snow tossed her bow and quiver aside - having run out of arrows - and unsheathed her short sword, the blade giving a hiss as it slid free of its scabbard.
The second visit to the hospital was far worse than the first. This time Regina felt truly alone, as even Emma had long stopped responding to her voice. The nurses didn't bother trying to separate them, actually hoisting Regina up onto the gurney so that she could straddle Emma's hips and keep pressure on her wound as they were wheeled quickly down the hall and into an operating room. Whale was prepped and waiting, and went to work as soon as they shifted Emma onto the table, Regina still attached to her side.
"How long has she been unresponsive?" he asked between snapping out orders to his assistants.
"Three- four minutes?" Regina grabbed Emma's cold hand with her own blood-coated ones, ignoring the tackiness on her skin. A mask went over the blonde's face and her jacket and sweater were cut away to uncover the stab wound. It continued to bleed at an alarming rate, making Emma paler than she thought possible, white as a corpse. The mere thought of losing the blonde on the operating table struck ice in Regina's veins, threatening to freeze over her heart and shatter it. This - this was worse than losing Daniel. Emma was tied to her, her soulmate, the other half of her very being. And Henry. Henry. He couldn't lose his other mother. And Snow and Charming, this was their daughter, their child.
Regina's voice was oddly steady as she looked up at the doctor, brown eyes hollow.
"If she dies-"
"You'll kill me, yeah, I know," Whale grunted. He glanced up, startled by the look on Regina's face. Lost. Lost and afraid.
"-I'll be devastated," she finished in a whisper, as if Henry and Snow and Charming's pain all rested upon her shoulders, her guilt to carry if Emma died. Whale hesitated, breathed in, nodded.
"Then help me save her."
"You need medical assistance, your Majesty!"
"No I don't! I need to see my daughter!"
Snow all but pushed the nurse away with a huff of frustration, David and the others hot on her heels as they rushed their way through the hospital, far too familiar with its halls at this point. Leroy, August, and Tinkerbell walked with varying limps while Ruby left a tiny trail of blood droplets in her wake. Nurses chased after the group in dismay.
They'd managed to dispatch most of the hellbeasts, though the remaining ones retreated once more when it was clear the demon was not returning for them. Belle was quite sure that Emma had managed to do some lasting damage, though whether the damage lasted or meant they now had an advantage over the demon was yet to be known. Still, feeling as though they'd finally made an impact instead of fighting a losing war, they hurried to the hospital with less despair. Snow and David were the only ones truly concerned, having seen Emma's wounds up close, her blood pooling over Regina's hands.
When they made it into the wing in which one of the nurses had grudgingly directed them to, the entire group stumbled to a stop.
Just down the hall, a nurse led a dazed looking Regina in their direction. Her hair a mess, her face spattered with flecks of red, and her pantsuit and hands entirely stained with blood, she lifted her gaze and blinked unseeingly at them. Snow stumbled back against David's chest.
"Emma?" she asked aloud, her voice weak. For a moment she feared the worst when Regina just stared at her, void of emotion. Then her eyes seemed to refocus and she breathed in slowly, clearing the cobwebs from her mind.
"She's alive," she said, feeling the group's relief wash over her swiftly. "She's… Whale said she'll recover."
The next thing she knew, Snow was rushing over to draw her into her arms, whispering an unsteady 'thank you' into her ear as she squeezed her tightly. Regina left her arms hanging limp by her sides, too afraid to move her hands, not wanting the tackiness on her skin to remind her of how much blood she was covered in.
"Where were you taking her?" David questioned the nurse standing by. She made a nervous gesture at the state Regina was in.
"I was going to take her to get cleaned up and into some spare scrubs."
"I'll take her," Snow said, drawing back only enough to hold Regina by her arms. The older brunette just nodded mutely, allowing the nurse to direct them all. They were taken to a room with showers and lockers, offered fresh scrubs and disinfectants, a few nurses remaining with them to help clean out wounds and bandage them up. Snow tended to Regina, inwardly relieved that the other brunette accepted the assistance. She was nearly scrubbed raw to get all the blood off her skin and out from under her fingernails, but at least she felt clean again once they all sat around in scrubs and with coffee cups in hand.
"When can we see her?" Snow finally asked aloud, prompting Regina to lift her head with a small sigh.
"I don't know. Whale sent me away to get cleaned up when he didn't need my help anymore. They were still working on her when I left."
"She's out of surgery now, actually," said Whale, entering the room with an assistant at his heels. The poor man looked haggard from exhaustion, but made a crack at humor when he lifted a brow at the group. "We all really need to stop meeting like this."
"How is she?" asked Snow, rising to her feet.
"Alive and recovering far better than I would've thought possible, thanks to Regina," he admitted, tilting his head in Regina's direction. "Emma's liver was punctured and she was bleeding out internally, but with my direction and Regina's magic, we were able to stop the bleeding almost immediately and get her on a transfusion. We've closed her up and have her on a drip now. I imagine the incision can be easily healed by magic too, once Regina's regained her energy."
"Of course," Regina agreed quietly, nodding her head. She still looked somewhat out of it, not quite alert, and Snow gently squeezed her shoulder.
"Can we see her, doctor Whale?"
"Family, yes."
Snow and David stood immediately. Regina glanced up at them, dark gaze almost uncertain.
"You heard him," Snow said softly, holding out a hand. "Family."
With her hand clasped in Snow White's, Regina was led down to HCU where they had moved Emma. She half expected to see Emma lying deathly still in bed, white as a sheet. Instead, they opened the door to find the blonde examining the IV in her arm with a childish pout.
"Emma!" Snow exclaimed, nearly dragging Regina forward in her eagerness to see that her child was indeed recovering. "How are you feeling?"
Emma smiled crookedly, blinking up at them like she couldn't quite focus her gaze. "Hi. I'm fine, Mom. Super high right now."
Her green eyes dragged sluggishly over to Regina before settling on dark brown orbs, seeing the clear hurt in them. She held out her hand for Regina's, mindful of her IVs, and then gently brought the woman's hand to her lips to place a kiss on her knuckles.
"Sorry," she murmured, lips stretching into a wry smile. "That didn't exactly go as planned."
A watery laugh escaped the brunette, her head shaking as she stroked her thumb over Emma's clumsy fingers. "No, no it didn't." Her jaw tightened as she forced a smile. "I almost wanted to kill you myself for scaring me like that."
"Sorry," Emma said again, pressing another kiss to her knuckles, eyelashes fluttering as she closed her eyes and simply held Regina's hand to her lips. "I'll be more careful next time."
Regina said nothing, simply squeezing her fingers. After a moment, she leaned down to kiss Emma's temple. "I just need a moment. I'll be right back."
She pulled away and slipped from the room before the drug-addled blonde could formulate a response. Emma's mouth opened and closed before she directed a confused look to her parents.
"She'll be fine, just give her a minute," Snow reassured her, smiling gently. David nodded in agreement.
"You scared her, you scared all of us there for a moment. Regina just needs time to process."
Dumbly, Emma nodded, allowing her parents to coddle her for the time being.
Outside, Regina made her way halfway down the corridor before sinking against the wall, arms curled protectively around her stomach, hands clenched into fists. She could almost still feel the stickiness of her fingers glued together with blood, the slide of crimson ooze across her skin. A shiver ran up her spine at the phantom texture. She'd killed in the past, yes, with magic, or by long distance means. Her hands had never been slick with blood before though, not like this.
She sucked in a deep breath to calm herself - this was no big deal, the Evil Queen wasn't traumatized by a little blood after all - when she realized the air was unnaturally cold. She straightened up only to be shoved back down against the wall by her own doppelganger, feeling as if she were staring into a mirror from the past. Dark eyes heavily ringed with black makeup were narrowed and crimson red lips twisted into a snarl. A hand pinned her to the wall by her throat and for a moment Regina could only gasp in shock, scrabbling at the vice-like grip tightening around her airway.
"Listen very carefully, because I will say this only once," the demon hissed, pressing ever closer. Regina startled at something warm smearing her elbow. Her gaze fell to take in the ugly wound in the demon's chest, still oozing fresh blood. "I want Rumplestiltskin. Bring him back into town and I will spare the life of your mate. Fail me, and I'll crush her heart before your very eyes."
The pressure around her neck tightened suddenly. Regina wheezed, struggling for air. Then the demon was gone in a swirl of black smoke, and Regina slumped to the ground with her heart pounding fiercely in her chest all over again, five fresh bruises marking her throat.