Comments are really appreciated. Even though this story is already finished I would really want to know your opinions about it and this little world. Thank you!

Chapter 3

Ruby was right, it was pretty bad, so bad the sight of the young girl -20 at most, on top of the metallic table was enough for Emma to wish for not having eaten seconds at Regina's. The brunette's own stoic yet pale face spoke volumes as well at Emma's side.

From eyes, nose and ears gold ichor had already solidified, her expression distorted as her body seemed completely covered in the same liquid that wrote lines following the trace of her veins up her arms and neck until no even her clothes were free from it. Shuddering at the sight, Emma glanced at Regina, the brunette nodding imperceptivity at her.

That, however, looking at her in the medical examiner's room, was easier, much easier, than picking the body up as quick as possible as they worked against the clock, trying to fight the rumor of a lost girl obviously very far from her own area lying in the middle of one of the busiest streets of the rich part of Storybrooke; the place in where men and women seemed to be gifted with obscene amounts of gold just by existing.

Obviously, the sight of a dead girl would be considered a scandal. The hypocrisy of them all made Emma blood boil but she had kept herself as professional as possible as they started trying to get any clue about the possibility that the body of this girl could be related with the other one they were already investigating. The similarities were fairly obvious; they had been found in a very similar way, presenting the same signs. The differences, however, were what irked them the most.

Who, for example, was the girl? Had she known who was their John Doe? Were the two of them related in any way that could help them to find who could have sell the doses necessary to do something like this?

Growling, they had picked the body and any other clue they could find almost an hour after arriving, when the first carriages came back to their respective houses from long parties that would end up appearing on the newspapers, echoes of laughter and the scent of far too expensive perfume clouding the, until then, limpid air. "Royalty" had already arrived and it was their turn to start asking around.

But first, of course, came the dreaded autopsy, the one they were now attending to, eyes trained on every single clue they thought they could be helpful to the investigation. That, however, had proven to be difficult since nothing but "overdose" seemed to come from the first autopsy results.

If this should have been their first murder Emma would already have declared the whole thing off. However, there were signs, more than several, that spoke of something different; once the examiner started to get rid of the ichor- which took her several minutes since the substance was almost as thick as caramel and just as hard to get out once solidified, the blacks and purples of bruises began to appear. The girl, contrary to their John Doe, had fought back against whatever had happened to her and as Regina first and Emma second moved closer to the table, trying to see anything else, the shadow of digits in the forms of bruises started to be seen around the upper arms, as if someone had tried to grab the girl closer.

At Emma's side, Regina narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms as she looked at the bruises and to the way the examiner moved the flaccid flesh around as more and more ichor left the girl's body. Restless, the brunette swallowed thickly, the sour smell of the dried ichor cutting through the air, speaking to her of the moments she had once spent with the feeling of magic caressing her subconscious, prickling through her body as it spoke of another kind of world destroyed forever ago.

"What do you think?"

The question woke her up from her reverie and she found herself staring back at Emma as the blonde glanced at her with barely hidden concern. Regina hummed and shook her head minutely, an almost hidden sign of her to be alright.

She wondered yet again if Leopold hadn't given them this case in order to punish them. Letting out a shuddering breath she shook her head yet again with her eyes closed this time; they didn't have the time to think about it, they had a murder to investigate.

Instead of answering to Emma's question, Regina directed her gaze to the medical examiner, smiling inwardly at the sudden nervousness of the specialist. The mechanical glasses mounted atop her head almost looked seemed to be shivering as she nodded earnestly once she realized that she was being watched. The intricate design of glass and metal alongside with the receptacle for the Mix moved wildly through her auburn tresses and there was a second Regina almost felt like telling her to breathe.

Nevertheless, the examiner finally pointed at where the major bruise could be seen peeking through the veins of ichor she still needed to clean from the skin. The flesh around the bruise had a sickly yellowish color the examiner prodded expertly before clearing her throat.

"This were done in the same timeframe than we suspect she died. Perhaps an hour before. The others seem to have been done a day or two ago."

"Signs of rape?" Emma began to ask after a few tense seconds in where it became clear that Regina didn't think on asking. The medical examiner shook her head just as quickly, the glasses jingling and clicking yet again as they caught the orange gleam of the light that illuminated the room the three of them and the girl were in.

"Nothing. We are still clearing her skin from the ichor so any study done won't be completely reliable until we don't have any kind of interference but we can safely say that she wasn't."

Emma nodded her head and glanced at Regina as the voice of the medical examiner trailed off. The brunette was playing with her gauntlet, the copper lines that linked her bracelet to the tips of her fingers gleaming between her fingers as she caressed them incessantly; a nervous tic.

"It seems that your theory of being forced to eat the Dust is closer to the truth than we thought it was."

The examiner pretended to busy herself as Regina nodded slowly, eyes trained onto the dead girl's face. Once she spoke, she did so with an almost broken tone, as if her mind was still very far away.

"The question is to discover why." Turning towards the examiner, Regina pointed towards the girl, the bracelet letting out a quiet yet clear sound of protest as it became closer to the remaining ichor that tinted the girl's face. "Can you run by the needed orders so we can check if the girl is in the system? After you've finished the examination of the body, of course."

After that, and without waiting for her to answer, Regina turned and left the dimly lighted room, the echo of her footsteps coloring Emma's sigh as she, too, left the room with a barely muttered excuse done above her shoulder to the blinking owlishly examiner.

Regina was waiting her outside, eyes narrowed as she absentmindedly played with the pendant she wore around her neck. The corridor was almost empty due to the late -or perhaps early- hour and as Emma approached her the blonde could see she was shivering ever so slightly.

Glancing around them, the blonde took care on being sure that no one could see them before

caressing Regina's arm, the gesture being met with Regina's warning look before the two of them took a step back.

"I can talk with White in a few hours, ask him if we can be left out of the case." Emma said softly to only be cut short by Regina's "no"

"He will use it against us, especially after what happened with Hades." The brunette elaborated as she began to walk to the other side of the corridor in where the long stairs towards the bullpen awaited them. "We need to discover what's happening with those kids… and if we are going to encounter more end it before it jumps to the newspapers."

"I doubt this will worry the high-socialite of Storybrooke." Emma answered back as she followed Regina, a small yawn tensing the muscles around her mouth. She definetely needed some coffee.

Regina smiled briefly at the yawn but hummed gravely at the blonde's comment. It was true, of course, a couple of nobodies wouldn't alter the nobles that did their bidding with the money the extraction of the dust at Storybrooke's mines brought with it. The upturn of the Dust, however, was something that could caught the interest of them as well. And that was something she didn't want to face. Emma followed her, knowing very well Regina didn't plan on answering her.

As they came back to the almost empty bullpen in where nothing but two officials filled the empty, dust caked space, Regina went directly towards her desk and began reading the small notes she had jotted down as Ruby had directed them to the body. A few feet behind her Emma rubbed her eyes furiously, her bracelet glowing silver on the slowly raising light that began to fill the place.

"I think we need to ask around as we talked." She spoke, leaning on the desk's edge. "See if we can find the one who sold the Dust and if they remember how was like the one they sold to."

Regina nodded absentmindedly before looking back to Emma, her right hand hovering over her notes. "You think we will manage to make them talk to us?"

Emma shrugged, arms crossed over her chest. She wasn't a fool; drug dealers, or almost no one from the part of the town they were talking to enter, didn't talk with the Division. At all. With, perhaps, one notable exception, one she didn't plan on using unless she was forced to. They, however, didn't have anything else to start.

"If we go right now by breakfast we will know if we need to try something else." She answered, her aloof expression not fooling Regina who glanced at her with a small yet amused exasperate smirk curving her lips.

"You are…"

She, however, was cut short by the jarring of Regina's mailbox. Curiously, the two of them glanced at the single sheet of paper the machine had produced in where the numbers that signaled it as coming from forensics made them frown.

What was written on the page, however, made them pause.

Ashley Boyd. The page said, a blurry picture that resembled the girl downstairs displayed next to that name. Behind it a small list of several small theft cases was written down alongside with two lines in where it was written how the girl had had a difficult relationship with her stepmother and stepsisters.

"Seems that we know who our Jane Doe is." Regina said sadly, picking the paper and writing down the girl's name.

Emma sighed and did the same, looking at the time displayed beneath the picture it had been taken several years ago, since, even as blurry as it was, the Ashley displayed there didn't seem to be more than 18 and the girl downstairs looked slightly older.

"What happened to you?"

Both had been right, of course. By the time, they had arrived to the docks the grey light of morning had already started to turn golden and the wooden footbridges that linked one dock's end to the others were already packed to the brim with sailors and workers alike that seemed to be anything but interested on answering the questions of two Divisioners. It didn't matter how sweetly or forcefully both Emma and Regina tried to make them talk; the description and name of both the John Doe and Ashley were met with grunts, several shrugs or utter silence as the bustling action around them kept on growing.

If their badges were enough to make the ones at the docks glance at them distrustingly, the glint of their bracelets and occasionally Emma's pendant were the final straw. As one short, stocky man with short salt-peppered beard told them; the docks were ruled outside their "pretty, little laws" and no Divisioners were welcomed there. Tired and angry after tense hours it was Emma the one who finally turned towards Regina and admitted defeat.

"Maybe we need to see if he knows something." She said while moving away from a few children, not older than ten that carried with them what seemed to be parts of a machine, grease staining their clothes.

Regina pursed her lips for a moment before nodding once. Emm cracked the joints of her fingers.

"I hate this". She muttered. They, however, didn't have any more options and they both knew it.

And if they knew him well, Rupert Gold probably knew it already as well.