I recently realized that between this and Back to the Beginning, I've neglected Behind Enemy Lines, so I'll be putting up a chapter for that one in a few days. Boop. Hope you guys are still hanging in there.

David sat up quickly at the sound of a pair of footsteps. He knew immediately that something was up, because the second sound of footsteps more closely resembled someone being pulled along. It would have made sense if they were leaving the cell, but that wasn't the case. Regina should be happy to return and be free of that disgusting man that had visited them twice now.

The worry turned to fear as they finally came into view, and he got his first glimpse of a broken Regina. She looked nothing like she had when she'd been taken away. Yes, she'd looked fearful, but she still had fire in her eyes. They were now completely full of fear, jumping around the room as if looking for something that would attack her at any second. She was crying, and when the guard reached to uncuff her, she jumped and cried out as if she'd been electrocuted.

Oh, god.

David had no idea what exactly had happened, but he could now make out the name Owen in the mumblings of a terrified Regina, and it didn't take much for him to hazard a guess at the approach used to bring her to this breaking point.

"Hey!" he yelled, when the guard roughly shoved Regina back into her cell and secured the door. He found that he'd moved to the wall and was now leaning with his fists braced against it in anger.

In response, the guard only looked at him and smirked. He gave a little wave and David slammed his palms against the wall, furious that he could treat an obviously suffering woman with such disregard and be amused about it.

He heard the door shut, indicating the guard was finally gone, and he moved sideways against the wall, not breaking hand contact, until he was standing directly across from where Regina was piled on the floor in a heap. "Regina?" he called out softly, trying not to scare her. "Regina, can you hear me?"

He could only hear her crying in response.

Abby watched as Sean, a guard she'd always hated working with, shoved a barely aware Regina back into her cell. She had time to give Reid a quick glance before the door opened and Dr. Valery swept in.

Swallowing back his disgust, it was Reid who asked the question; "What did you do to her?" He managed to sound merely curious, as opposed to horrified, which is what he was currently feeling. Judging by the look that Abby had given him just before the doctor had walked in, she felt the same.

"I reminded her of a recent experience," he said simply.

"But why?" Abby asked. "What was the point? You weren't gone long enough to ask her any questions. Why torture her if you weren't planning on getting anything from her?"

"Oh, it wasn't for nothing, trust me." Valery smiled. "I know that these cells were designed very specifically for many different circumstances, and I'd like to utilize that now."

"What do you mean?" Reid asked.

"I want you to seal off the hallway and open up the doors to their cells."

Reid and Abby both turned to him in shock. No one had ever opened the doors between prisoners' cells before. Then again, they hadn't had two prisoners at once before; at least, not since either Reid or Abby had started working there.

"Are you both hard of hearing?" Valery snapped. "Open the doors."

Reid turned around and glanced at the control board. He'd been shown complete operations during his training, but he'd never actually used this function and it had been a while since his training. Finally, he found the right sequence, and managed to perform the task.

"Good," Valery said. "I have things I need to attend to, but I expect a full update on what's said in there." He pointed at the screens.

"Yes, sir," Reid nodded.

Valery disappeared again and Abby let out the breath she'd been holding. "He tortured her so that he could get David's sympathy," she said quietly, disgusted at the realization. "He wants to use her pain to get them to start talking."

"At least she has someone to comfort her," Reid tried.

Abby looked at the small containers of food that she and Reid had started in on before Valery had returned, and pushed hers away. "I'm not hungry anymore."

David didn't leave his place at the wall when he saw a similar one sliding into place in the hallway at the edges of his cell; they were being completely sealed off. He wondered why they thought they needed the extra security. It wasn't like he and Regina would be able to get out of their cells anyway.

But then the door slid open.

David pushed himself off the wall, but didn't move toward the now open door. Regina's had opened as well, and he couldn't quite bring himself to believe it.

After a moment of just staring, David carefully moved forward, afraid that if he moved too quickly, they'd close the doors again. He made it into the hallway, however, and from there, he hurried into Regina's cell, not wanting anyone to change their minds before he could make it to her.

She was still lying on the floor, crying, and he wondered how to approach her without scaring her. Finally realizing that it probably wasn't possible, he moved in slowly and as gently as he could, placed a hand on her shoulder. "Regina."

She jumped, and she raised her head to look at him, but he could tell that her eyes were looking past him, seeing something else.

"Regina," he tried again. He lowered himself to sit on the floor in front of her and when she didn't further acknowledge his presence, he lowered himself to lie next to her on the ground. "Regina, it's me. It's David. Do you know who I am?"

She looked at him briefly, but then squeezed her eyes shut. "David?" she whispered.

"Yes, it's me."

"Why?"

He furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean? Regina, do you know where you are?"

"Greg…" she started with a shaky voice, but David shook his head and reached out to touch her wrist before she could continue.

"No, Regina. Greg's not here."

She jumped at the contact and cringed, but when her eyes opened again, she seemed to focus on him, unlike before. "He's not?"

David noticed the marks circling her small wrist after her pained look and he pulled it gently between them so that he could smooth his thumbs over the nearly broken skin, trying to massage the pain away. The guard had made the cuffs far too tight. "No. Greg's gone. You and I were captured, though. We're in some kind of prison. Remember?"

Slowly, Regina began to nod. She watched David's fingers as he soothed the pain in her wrist, mesmerized by the small movements. The memories of the last day finally returned to her, and she closed her eyes again. She didn't want to remember any of it. She was angry that Dr. Valery had been able to break her so easily, and she was humiliated that she'd shown how weak she could be. When she opened them, she expected to see David's eyes full of pity, and she readied herself to snap at him that she didn't need it. But instead, she found he was focused entirely on her wrist, and instead of pity, he was frowning.

"Why would they do this?" he asked.

"What?"

"Torture you?" he explained, still not looking at her.

"I imagine they're hoping that I'll slip up and tell them something that would help them to get to the people in Storybrooke."

"But you weren't gone very long. Did he ask you anything?"

"I think it's more long-term than that," she told him. "He said he wanted to get to know me first." Her voice wavered on the words, and David paused his movements and finally looked up.

Again, there was no pity, only concern, and Regina suddenly realized the position they were in. David was still lying next to her on the floor of her cell, her hand grasped carefully in his, and with him looking at her that way, she felt self-conscious. This was not the mask of indifference she normally wore in front of him.

She sat up quickly, pulling her hand from his grasp, but the movement made her dizzy and she had to brace herself to keep from falling over again.

"Careful," David said, pushing himself to his feet. He wrapped his arms gently under hers and helped her to her feet. When she didn't fight him off, he knew that she was still suffering the after-effects of whatever had happened. He guided her back to her bed and set her down. "You should rest," he told her. "We need to start thinking about how we can get out of here, and you won't be much help until you've had some sleep."

"I already slept!" she said angrily, but she could already feel the pull of unconsciousness. Despite her statement, she allowed David to help her lie down on her bed.

"We've dealt with a lot of stress," he said as her eyes started to close. "It's alright to be tired. When you wake up, we can talk about how we'll get back home."

Regina wanted to argue further, but she felt David lift her other injured wrist and begin the same soothing patterns he'd traced on the first. As she drifted to sleep, her mind finally processed the fact that David was somehow in her cell. Her thoughts became a tired mass of jumbled confusion as she tried to decipher how that was possible, and she decided it had to be a dream. She felt the pain floating away as David's gentle fingers rubbed her wrist, and her final thought before falling asleep was that in place of the nightmares that had recently plagued her, at least it was finally a pleasant one.