Chapter 3

Reluctantly Regina walks back towards the living room, and quickly changes the channel to something a little more sophisticated. Emma heads toward the kitchen, and soon the banging sounds somewhat settle, and the smell of eggs and bacon fill the air. Regina's thoughts start to drift to her recently deceased beloved as she listens to the loud noises coming from the kitchen. A particularly loud bang sends her bolting towards the kitchen in fear that Emma blew something up.

Upon entering the once immaculately clean kitchen, she is disconcerted by the unearthly mess that is before her.

"What on earth are you doing in here? It sounds like a herd of elephants is stampeding through my kitchen."

Emma smiles awkwardly. "Breakfast for dinner. Henry loves it when he isn't feeling well, so I thought it might make you feel better."

She places a full plate of pancakes, eggs, and bacon in front of the queen.

Regina hesitatingly picks up her fork and is completely surprised that the food is actually delicious. Emma plops down next the her on the bar with a full plate for herself as well. The women eat quietly for a few minutes both just enjoying the silence when Emma lets out a soft chuckle.

Curious Regina looks over to her with a questioning look. "What?"

"Scrambled," Is her short reply, before she lets out another snicker, this one a little louder than the first.

"Okay, what's wrong with that?" Regina asks with slight annoyance written on her face.

Giggling, Emma replies, "Nothing, I just never would've thought of you as a scrambled egg person. I guess I pictured your queenliness as more of a sunny side up type of gal. I guess I just imagined you with a more elegant egg choice. Which then made me think that it was weird for me to guess what kind of egg a person would prefer to begin with. "

Regina glares at Emma with skepticism for a brief moment before bursting into a short fit of giggles herself.

Emma smiles to herself. "There it is. I knew the breakfast for dinner would help!" She exclaims wiping her face with a napkin watching as the smile she worked so hard for slowly dissipated.

Regina stands slowly and heads to the sink to start to clear up the disastrous mess of the kitchen. Emma jumps up immediately and places her hand on Regina's shoulder. "I got this. Why don't you go lay down and we can watch a movie of your choice?"

"Don't be ridiculous. You cooked, I'll clean. Though with a disarray like this it's bound to take me all night," Regina says as she starts scrubbing the dirty pan from the stove. Emma looks under the cabinet and grabs something to clean and wipe down the counter with. Both ladies work in complete silence until the kitchen is spotless once again.

"Well, I'm exhausted to say the least. Thank you for dinner Emma, but I'm going to head to bed now. If you need me you know where I'm at," Regina says just above a whisper.

Emma looks into those big brown eyes, wishing she could offer some comfort to the hurting woman, or at least get her to talk. "Okay. Same goes for you, if you need to talk," She says to the retreating figure leaving the kitchen.

Once alone in her room, Regina succumbs to the horror of what happened earlier. Images of the horrible scene play over and over in her head. Deciding that it's going to be impossible for her to fall asleep without any help, she gets up and heads to the bathroom. Reaching for some sleeping pills and painkillers, she sees a stranger's reflection looking back at her. Taking one last glance of the women in the mirror, she takes the medicine and turns off the light.

She wakes up in her office alone. She looks around frantically, wondering how she got there. She searches every corner of the room, checking to make sure she's truly alone. Her office was once a sanctuary, a place she felt safe and protected when she needed quiet and solitude. Now, all that remains of her peaceful and calming home away from home is her own personal hell on earth. That sleek black couch that she had spent hours searching for now holds a story that is no fairy tale, but a nightmare.

Everything looks the same, but somehow, the feeling in the room is making her nauseous. It's as if the walls are telling the story of what happened.

Why didn't my magic work? She wonders to herself, swallowing the bile that was burning her throat as she walks toward the door wanting to get out of that room.

She can feel she's not alone in the room. She can feel his breath on the back of her neck and all the small hairs start to stand. As soon as she starts to move toward the door, she feels hands on her neck pulling her to the ground.

"You're not going anywhere," He says with so much hate, as if the words themselves have a punch to them. He places a hand over her mouth.

He shakes her and slams her head up against the corner of the couch. The shaking won't stop; she hears screaming but it's not hers.

It can't be hers? Can it?

"Regina wake up, please!" Emma screams, trying to gently shake her awake. Regina jumps awake, a fireball ready to explode against her attacker. She throws it sharply and misses hitting Emma by mere inches. "Gina it's me, you were having a bad dream."

Regina stares at the Savior, a lost look in her eyes. Trembling and not answering, Regina bolts to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet to throw up her previous meal. Emma follows her with a look of terror written all over her face. "Gina," Emma mutters softly.

"Please don't look at me, Em."

"What can I do to help?" Emma asks her voice trembling. She's never seen the queen so distraught and vulnerable.

"Water," Regina croaks out, her voice hoarse from the acid of her previous endeavor.

Emma nods her head and turns to run to the kitchen for some cold water to help soothe her throat, but before leaving the bathroom Emma notices the bruises along Regina's back. She quickly bolts down the stairs to the kitchen and returns promptly with a cold bottle of water. She sits down next to the dry heaving female and opens the water bottle to hand to her. Regina accepts it gratefully.

The two girls sit in stillness for a few minutes before Emma couldn't hold it in any longer. "Gina, what happened?"

"Isn't it obvious? I got sick from eating when I wasn't hungry," She says as her strong façade starts faltering slightly.

"Then why is your back bleeding?"

Absolute terror crosses the queen's strong features.

"Gina, I saw the bruise on your back. What happened? Who hurt you?" Emma asks tenderly as she places her hand delicately on the queen's back.

"I was attacked, okay? I don't want to discuss it any further," Regina says as a single tear starts to fall from her eyes. She wipes it away quickly and sniffles, holding any more back and trying hard to hold on to what little dignity she has left.

Emma grabs the older women and pulls her into her arms, holding her with concern. Emma recognizes that she's in shock, but is not sure how to further pursue. She decides it's time for her to bite her tongue and let her heart do the talking.

"Gina, you don't have to talk about it right now, but we do need to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," Comes the short reply. "I just have a horrible headache, and I want to go back to bed."

Emma nods and puts her hands out to help Regina off the floor. Noticing the wince of pain, Emma helps lower her down onto the toilet seat. "Can I at least take a look and make sure you're really okay? I also need to clean the cut on your back and get it to stop bleeding."

Regina nods in agreement, not having the strength to argue any longer. Emma reaches under the sink and pulls out the first aid kit. Slowly, she turns to Regina and asks her, "May I lift your shirt?" Regina's eyes are filled with fresh, unfallen tears as she nods with acceptance. Slowly, Emma lifts up her shirts and has to stifle a cry that is threatening to leave her throat.

There are black and purple bruises covering her best friend's delicate skin. There are obvious hand prints leaving angry, red, painful-looking marks all over her chest and along her back. Emma has no idea how the queen could even be moving around with so many injuries. Emma bites her lip to keep from letting her own tears fall as she sees a distinctive bite mark along her friend's collar bone. Taking a cool rag to Regina's back, Emma carefully cleans the gash along the other woman's side.

"The bleeding has slowed down, but I'm pretty sure you need stitches. Your rib cage is terribly bruised as well. We need to get to a hospital. I can bandage your back up for now, but I don't think the bleeding will stop unless we get some help," Emma says gently, worried that if she speaks to loudly, the truth of what had happened would sink in and cause her to break down. She knew she needed to stay strong for her friend.

Knowing that the sheriff was right, Regina starts to stand, but sways and almost falls backwards onto the toilet seat.

"Whoa there, I got you," Emma says as she reaches for the mayor's arms to help steady her. Emma helps her sit back down.

"I'll go get you some daytime clothes and some shoes so we can both change out of our pajamas."

Calmly, Emma exits the room and makes sure she's nowhere near the queen's sightline. Once out of view she takes a few deep breaths to collect herself and continues into the mayor's room to retrieve some clothes. Shocked to find that she actually owned some blue jeans and t-shirts, Emma grabs clothes for the both of them and heads back to the bathroom.

When she returns, she's shocked to see Regina sitting there with a stone-cold look upon her face. The beautiful, healthy glow Regina naturally had was no longer there. Instead, in its place, there was nothing. No sparkle, no smile that could light up a room, nothing but a shell.

Emma hesitates for a moment before placing a soft smile on her face. "I know you said that I would only be getting that shirt a few years back at the hospital, but I hope you don't mind me borrowing some clothes. I was actually shocked to find a normal civilian outfit," She rambles and lets out a small chuckle.

"Miss Swan, of course I own everyday clothes. I just prefer to look cultivated," She answers back without any energy behind the words.

"Okay, well, let's get dressed and get going," Emma says as she takes off her shirt. She sees the look that Regina is giving her.

"What?" Emma exclaims. "I'm changing in the bathroom like you previously requested."

With the best eye roll the queen could muster, she too starts to untie her pajama bottoms. Biting her lip to keep from screaming out in pain, she struggles to bend to pull her pants down.

Emma, seeing this, was hesitant to come to her rescue. "Can I help?" She asked as she finished buttoning her jeans.

In obvious defeat, Regina nods, not meeting the blonde's eyes. Emma reaches over slowly, as if not to startle a frightened deer, and gently pulls Regina's pajama pants to the floor. Regina holds onto her shoulders as Emma quickly helps Regina into her blue jeans. Emma tries desperately to keep her eyes averted from the bruises along her best friend's legs. As soon as her pants were where she could reach them, Regina buttons her jeans and turns around to face the wall. Reaching slowly to the edges of her black silk top, she starts to lift her shirt, but stops at the burning sensation from her ribs. Instinctively, she reaches to her side.

"How about you unbutton the shirt from the front, and I can pull this one down from back here?" Emma suggests. Quietly, Regina does as she's told. Emma tenderly helps her with her t-shirt from behind the woman's back.

Shaking, Regina turns around eyes glazed. "Thank you, Em," She says as she slips beside the Savior and walks out the door.

Emma follows behind her and grabs the keys to her yellow bug.

"Since you're so persistent of me going to the hospital. I have one request," Regina says, gathering some composure now that she wasn't confined to the bathroom walls. "I refuse to go to the hospital here in Storybrooke. Dr. Whale will not come anywhere near me for all we know he will try to assemble something to my lady business."

Emma lets out a snort after "lady business" but quickly recovers at Regina's no-nonsense glare, the severity of the situation hitting her like a huge wave. Swallowing down her stomach contents, Emma nods in agreement.

"Regina, if we head out of town you stand the chance of losing your magic. I mean I don't think it is a good idea," Emma answers reluctantly.

"I don't think that it would matter much anyways Em, my power let me down when I needed it the most anyways," Regina answers in defense.

"What are you talking about?"

"Just...please Emma," Regina says with sad pleading eyes.

"Okay," Emma says after a moment of hesitation.

The girls head off to find a hospital about an hour out of town. Exhaustion overtakes Regina, and she falls into a restless sleep. Once Emma realizes her best friend is asleep, she allows her own tears to finally fall, the events of the day replaying over and over in her head. The strongest person she knew, her best friend, was hurt, and there was nothing she could do about it. Her tears seemed to be falling faster than the rain falling outside on a cold stormy night.

As soon as she drove past the Storybrooke Maine sign, Regina's hands flickered to life, engulfed in a bright purple magic glow that seemed to be letting off small sparks of electricity.

Emma gasped in surprise, suddenly losing control of the car as it begins hovering a few inches off the ground.

TBC…