Chapter 5 – So It Begins
Then, Year 5 of the Curse
Regina had first realised he was different when he had noticed.
He had noticed that she'd left.
The curse had been torment. Day in, day out, year after year the same. She had been crazed to begin with and then she'd been locked into a never ending loop of banality with the faces of the people she had thought to subjugate turned her tormentors.
So she'd left.
Packed her things into her car, filled the tank with gas, gathered her documentation, got behind the wheel and started to drive. It hadn't really mattered where. Away was what she had been going for and it had been wonderful.
To start with.
It had started slowly. A shortness of breath when she least expected it. Dizzy spells harsh enough to knock her on her ass in the middle of a crowded store. Then the pain had begun.
She'd been gone barely a week before she'd realised it was going to kill her.
Withdrawal, she had realised as she'd driven erratically back towards what was now destined to be her home for the rest of her days. She might not have command over the magic in Storybrooke, but it seemed to have a tight grip on her. Tight enough for her to physically need it.
She supposed it made sense. Before casting the curse, Regina had been steeped in magic. Now that she had been magically frozen in a state of biological ennui, she had to be made of more magic than she was blood and bone. That and the curse needed her to function. It would only make sense that –as a curse- it would make her suffer for abandoning it.
The black Mercedes roared past the green sign welcoming her back to her prison so fast that it wobbled in the backdraft. She was barely in control of it behind the wheel, careening down the twisting road, into the valley, into the town.
She'd had no clear idea of where she was going until her car mounted the kerb outside the diner. Granny's.
Regina literally fell out the door, landing hard with a groan of pain.
Eat something. She had to eat something.
She had to eat something from Storybrooke. The food was replenished magically. Generated by the curse, probably what kept everybody else in the constant stupor of looping memories they were snared in. If she ate the food, it would get the magic back into her system that much faster.
Regina forced her legs under her, she'd survived agony before, she'd do it again. She had to use the white picket fence outside the diner to haul herself upright but she did it.
Unfortunately for her, she had no idea how to get from the fence to the diner itself without damn well crawling.
"Regina!"
Regina blearily turned, seeing a fuzzy shape advancing on her in a symphony of brown.
It was the smell that alerted her to his identity.
Earth and coffee and pine and syrup.
Graham.
"God, love, what happened to you?!" His arms came around her and he scooped her up off the ground with an ease that would have been alarming had it not been exactly what she needed. "I'm taking you to the hospital."
"No!" She found the strength to speak from somewhere. "Food. I need…to eat. Now." Regina could barely see straight, she clutched at his jacket and tried feebly to tug him towards the diner.
"Food?" Graham hesitated.
"I need…please."
"Alright, hold on." Graham spun on his heel and carried her up into the diner. He kicked open the door with one foot and started to bark orders like the captain of the guard he had once been.
"Granny, I need juice or soda and a pastry, pie, anything that's sugary. NOW!"
Regina was blearily aware of people rushing around her, sent to scurrying by the sheriff's apparently non-existent temper flaring to life. She was in and out until his hand took hers, pushing a glass of something into her grip and helping her lift it to her mouth when she shook too hard.
Regina gulped it down. It was orange soda, she hated orange, but she drank it like water after a trek across the desert. She drank until she had to breathe or drown in it and then flopped back against Graham's chest, gasping for breath.
"Here, eat this." Graham practically shoved the doughnut into her mouth and Regina fell on it like she hadn't eaten in months.
The relief was almost immediate. She felt the stomach cramps lessen, her vision ceased to blur and the tremors died away to almost nothing.
It was only then she noticed her audience.
She had apparently arrived back in the diner in time for the lunch rush and everyone –everyone- had eyes only for her.
Regina was intensely aware of how she looked, rumpled, dishevelled and now covered in sugar. She was also sitting on the Sheriff's lap.
"Bugger off, the lot of ye." Graham all but snarled and she blinked at the tone.
Everyone else did a hell of a lot more than blink. As one, they found places elsewhere to be and other things to stare at. As soon as they had a modicum of privacy, Graham's hand spanned the back of her neck and he turned her to face him.
"Where the hell have you been?!"
"What?" Regina stared at him.
"You've been gone for days! I was about to send out bloody search parties. Where did you GO?!"
"I…" Regina was caught completely unawares by his tone. It had been decades since anyone had dared speak to her in such a way and from her Huntsman of all people?
Regina grunted in surprise when his arms engulfed her and he clutched her close to his chest.
"I was so bloody worried." He spoke into her hair. "Don't ever do that again."
"You have no right to…" Regina shoved at his chest. Trying to put some distance between them. Put him in his place.
"I have every right." He all but snarled and she actually gaped at him. He was so biddable here. Never fought her on anything. More of a pet than he had ever been. What the hell was this?
"I'm the sodding Sheriff. I am responsible for the safety of everyone in this town including stubborn little Mayors that can't be arsed to leave a sodding NOTE to tell their lover where they're fucking going!"
"Don't you swear at me." She hissed. "I am beholden to you in no way at all."
"You've made that abundantly clear." Graham growled at her but his arm was still tight about her waist. She was pointedly not noticing that she had yet to pull away from him. "A week, Regina. A week without sight of hide nor hair of you. I went to your house. You'd taken all your clothes. Were you really going to leave without a word?"
"I…you noticed?"
"What?" Graham stared down at her like she was the one not making sense. "Of course I noticed! Even had I not woken up to you being gone one morning, you're kind of a public figure."
"But no one else noticed." Regina murmured.
"Well, you know them, they only notice when things start to go poorly. Then they can blame you for it."
Regina blinked. That had been dangerously close to a personality there.
"You noticed me…"
"I notice you every day. Even when you're not around." Graham huffed a sigh and muttered the next. "Especially then."
Regina felt a pang in her chest and pressed a hand to her heart, wincing at the pressure. He saw her pain and reacted, wrapping her in his arms and tugging her close.
Regina…let him.
Despite the audience, despite the public setting and the stares, despite how she was supposed to be strong, unbeatable, untouchable…she let him hold her. She let him hold her and she tilted into his chest and rested her head on his shoulder and buried her face in his neck. Slowly, treacherously, her arms crept around him and she held him back.
"You remembered me."
He chuckled, resting his chin on top of her head.
"Love, you are unforgettable."
Regina smiled and let herself pretend –what was the point in all this if she couldn't do at least that after all? She rested in his arms and let herself pretend that he was truly hers. That he really did care. That he was actually happy to see her and that he was on her side.
Just for now, just for today, she would pretend.
By the next day –for him at least- it was as if none of it had happened.
She remembered.
Now, the Hospital…
It wasn't even a week later that Regina was discharged from the hospital.
Whale was stunned at how quickly she had healed. Regina hadn't been.
The curse might be faltering, breaking, but there was still enough of it left to reset its caster back to her original settings. The same spell that had kept them all frozen at the same age was at work when it came to healing the hole in her midriff. She was by no means ready to go running any marathons any time soon, but she had been weaned off the morphine and onto something lighter. Of course, any thoughts on how quick her recovery had been were put into perspective when she tried to dress herself.
Quick recovery or not, it had still been only five days since she'd had a hunting knife investigating her thoracic cavity.
Graham had brought her clothes twenty minutes ago and all she had managed was her underwear. She had point blank refused to even attempt to bend over and put on her stockings as reaching back to clasp her bra shut had nearly knocked her out cold.
As it was, she was grey and trembling but stubbornly refused to give up. She was going home. Today. She'd had more than enough of being put on display for the masses and if she had to dodge one more visit from Sidney, she was going to bite someone to death.
She very nearly whimpered in relief when she found that Graham had brought her a dress that she could simply pull on with a minimum of wiggling.
That relief was short lived when she realised it wasn't her dress. She had never seen it before. It was her style, a pencil skirt that would hug everything, the bodice resembling a waistcoat with a button down front and a dramatic collar that would span her from shoulder to shoulder…but it was blue.
A deep jewel blue with a silver frost-like pattern that made it shimmer. Far more eye catching than she would usually wear. Purple ribbon edged the collar and the slanted hem of the skirt.
Closer examination revealed that there was no tag, it had been hand stitched –in fact- it had been handmade.
Regina was delighted and suspicious all at the same time. However, further rummaging in the bag Graham had brought her revealed nothing but pantsuits and skirt and shirt ensembles that she deemed far too much effort. So she unbuttoned the bodice, torturously dragged it on over her legs and found the mystery dress to fit her with a surprisingly flattering ease. She hadn't had something this well-tailored since the Enchanted Forest and that had been achieved through magic.
Regina mustered a set of black high heels, which were familiar to her, and a black blazer but put neither on as they required a level of movement that she hadn't steeled herself for yet. She tortured herself into packing everything away into the bag and then just sat and tried not to topple over with exhaustion.
She was almost regretting chasing the nurse out of the room –insisting she didn't need help- when a brief knock heralded her next trial of the day.
"You decent?"
Graham didn't wait for an answer and Regina swallowed her vicious retort when she saw the reason for his banter.
Miss Swan.
Regina wanted very much to groan.
"Mom!" Henry brightened her mood when he pushed past Emma and hurled himself up onto the bed beside Regina. "You ready to come home?"
"More than." Regina lifted her arm, ignoring the bite of pain to her sternum, and smoothed his hair back. Taking that as permission, Henry favoured her with a gentle hug.
Her little man had taken to treating her like she was made of glass and she found it almost as adorable as she did infuriating. She was not supposed to be breakable in his eyes. She was supposed to be strong, someone he could lean on, not someone who would have to lean on him just to get into the car.
"Graham's gonna drive us home." Henry smiled.
"Ah. How delightful." Regina rubbed his shoulders and looked over at Miss Swan, who looked about as welcome as a bastard at a family reunion. She rubbed at her arm and offered some kind of grimace that might have been mistaken for a smile.
"Emma's here for some follow up questions." Graham answered the unspoken query. He approached the bed and Regina tried to calm the twisting her stomach gave. He smirked at her as if aware of the storm of emotion swirling through her.
Her heart felt like lead in her chest.
"More questions?" Regina folded one leg over the other when he went to one knee and picked up one of her heels.
"Aye. Questions that are better left between women, apparently." Graham glanced up at her, his hands gentle on her ankle and calf to switch her legs over so he could slip the other heel on for her.
Regina's chin kicked up and she looked at Emma –who looked as uncomfortable as she felt- with dawning comprehension. Well, she supposed it was standard procedure.
"Henry, why don't you help Graham take my things to the car? Miss Swan should be done by the time you get back."
"Aye, Henry, your mom's bags are heavy." Graham's hand rested briefly on Regina's knee as he stood, Regina felt a thrill go through her when his fingers glanced just under the hem of her skirt and she looked sharply away from him when his eyes found hers.
She should be over this. More than over it. He had tried to kill her, very nearly succeeded in fact. Not only that, she was recovering from his attempted murder and should not be entertaining the prospect of how soon she was recovered enough for all the ideas that his fingers at her hemline generated.
Graham briefly squeezed her knee and rose to his full height, scooping her toiletries bag up and passing it to Henry.
"You take the heavy one." He told the boy and hefted Regina's holdall with casual strength.
Henry clutched his burden to his chest and hopped down off the bed. He smiled back at Regina, told her he'd be right back and followed Graham out of the room.
Leaving Regina with just Miss Swan and a hefty dose of awkward silence for company.
Regina heaved a sigh that finished on a grimace when her wound protested. Good grief, she'd never missed magic more.
Emma cleared her throat.
"Are you alright?"
Regina opened her eyes and favoured the younger woman with an arched eyebrow.
"I mean, you look like you're in pain. Do you need a doctor?"
"No." Regina thought about getting off the bed and realised falling flat on her face would only add insult to injury. "I'm fine."
"Right." Emma nodded and tacked on hurriedly. "Good."
"Out with it, Miss Swan. I haven't all day." Well, she did, but she didn't want that to give the deputy any ideas.
"I need to ask you some questions with regards to the attack." Emma slipped into a more professional tone.
"I already gave my statement to the Sheriff."
"Yes, but I need one too. Sheriff Humbert isn't exactly impartial. He's technically a witness too."
Regina favoured her with a stony glare but finally nodded. They had rehearsed their story. Regina knew more than enough about telling the truth and still not being honest to get around this mysterious lie detection skill of Emma's. It would be a pain in the ass –something Swan excelled at- but Regina could handle it.
"Ask away."
"Where did the attack happen?" Emma surprised Regina by pulling out small tape recorder and setting it on the table at the end of the bed where both of them might clearly be heard.
"I'm not sure exactly where. It's a little hazy, but close to the Sheriff's house." All true.
"At what time?"
"About two in the morning."
"You were walking?"
"Yes, I'd had some of my cider." Regina stalled the next question. "Not drunk, but over the legal limit."
"What were you doing out so late?"
"As you well know, Graham and I have been…troubled. I was going to see if I could fix things."
"At two in the morning?"
"I had to wait until Henry was asleep. He's been staying up later and later reading that book of his. Plotting my downfall." Regina gave a slight smirk which Emma didn't share. "Once he was asleep, I left him a note on the fridge telling him that he could call my cell if he needed to get to me. As per our agreement."
"You leave him in the middle of the night?"
"I'm the Mayor, burst water pipes, fires, gas leaks, my job only pretends to be nine to five. If I have to go, I tell him that I am gone and where he can get hold of me." Regina's tone was clipped, daring Emma to pick a fight. "I don't make a habit of it."
"This wasn't exactly a town emergency."
"When you have a question pertaining to the case, feel free to ask it, Miss Swan."
Chastised, Emma cleared her throat and glanced out the window, recovering herself.
"Alright, so, you were walking to Sheriff Humbert's house, you were attacked close by at two in the morning. Can you describe your assailant?"
"It was a man. He surprised me so I didn't have time to get a proper look. He grabbed my arm first," Regina held up her cast to show which, "then he threw me to the ground. Doctor Whale tells me that's when my shoulder must have dislocated. He picked me up by my hair and stabbed me."
Emma was watching her carefully.
"You seem very…calm about all this."
"What you see and what I feel are not always synonymous, Miss Swan. You have no right to view my personal feelings about anything. Why would I share them with you?"
"Fair enough." Emma toyed with the recorder a moment, shifting it so it was closer to Regina. "Did you see anything about him? A distinguishing feature? Scars? Tattoos? Anything."
"Nothing. I didn't even see his clothes. The only thing I saw with any clarity was his eyes and…" Regina halted then, haunted by what she had seen in Graham's eyes, she bit her lip without meaning to and then shook it off. "They were vacant."
"Vacant?"
"Devoid of reason or sense." Regina clarified, trying not to show how much that had terrified her. "Mad. His eyes were…mad."
Emma watched her for a long moment, surprised to have seen the Mayor affected by anything, let alone madness. Especially when Emma considered her to be madder than a bag of cats herself.
"I have to ask; were you assaulted in any other way?"
"Are you asking if I was raped?" Regina didn't enjoy the flinch it evinced from the other woman.
"Or any kind of sexual assault." Emma nodded.
"No." Regina shook her head. "He did not rape me or grope me or anything of the kind. Being stabbed was more than enough."
Emma looked away and clenched her jaw.
"That's not what I meant."
"I know." Regina's voice –surprisingly even to herself- held no satisfaction in making Emma uncomfortable about such things.
"Fine." Emma shook it off and continued. "So he stabbed you and just…left?"
"He must have thought I was dead or dying." Regina shrugged and regretted the move when her stitches tugged. "I don't remember him leaving but I don't remember how I could have gotten to Graham's house in such a state either." Which was true only because it hadn't happened at all.
"You let yourself in?"
"Yes."
"With a key?"
"Yes."
"Where is it?"
"What?" Regina blinked, that one had thrown her.
"The key. The one that Sheriff Humbert gave to you to get into his house. Where is it?"
Regina was silent a long moment, caught completely off guard. She hadn't expected Swan to focus on that one detail when there were so many other blood soaked ones on offer.
"I have no idea." Regina slowly shook her head. "I haven't seen it." Another thing that was true because it didn't exist. Regina might well have a key, she had keys for everywhere, but Graham had never given her one.
"Okay." Emma nodded, appearing to make a mental note. "So you got to his house, through his front door, then what?"
"I made my way to his bedroom and woke him. He took me to the hospital."
"You had the knife sticking out of you the whole time?"
"It was the only thing that stopped me from bleeding to death."
"Can you explain why Sheriff Humbert's fingerprints are all over it?"
"I imagine mine are as well." Regina frowned. "I wanted to pull it out, he had to stop me."
"Why would you want to pull it out? If you knew it was plugging the wound." Emma tilted her head.
"Have you ever been stabbed, Miss Swan?"
"No."
"Then believe me when I tell you that the experience is far from enjoyable. It is one thing to academically know that the knife perforating my chest was ironically the only thing keeping me alive, it is quite another to be able to withstand the agony of it being there. I wanted it out because it hurt more than anything else I've ever had to endure."
"That was a lie."
Regina raised her eyebrows and Emma blinked, surprised at herself. She pressed her lips together.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
"Fair enough." Regina spoke over her. "I have survived worse but it ranks in the top five."
Emma silenced herself so quickly her teeth clipped together and she nodded once.
"One more thing…"
Emma silenced herself when the door swung open to allow Graham and Henry back in.
"Are you guys finished?" Henry looked between the two women.
"No." Emma spoke before Regina could. "I have one more question."
Graham looked unhappy, straightening from the wheelchair he had pushed into the room, but settled his hand on Henry's shoulder, prepared to steer him outside again.
"Out with it, Miss Swan." Regina ordered her.
"Do you know why you were attacked?"
Regina tilted her head, surprised – now that she thought on it- that the question hadn't come up before now.
"Aren't you supposed to ask me if I have any enemies?"
"I don't have time for the list." Emma spoke before she could stop herself.
"Emma!" Henry hissed at her.
"It's alright. I know I'm not well liked." Regina smiled for Henry and looked about herself, plotting how to get down off the bed without crumpling into a heap on the floor. "In answer to your question; I cannot know exactly, but I suspect he attacked me because he was very –very- angry and wanted to hurt me."
Henry stepped closer to her and she smiled for him.
"Don't worry. I'm alright." Regina carefully, very carefully, lowered herself to the floor and tested her weight on her legs. She wobbled and leaned against the bed rather than try and walk just yet. "Now, if you're done?"
"For now." Emma scooped up the tape recorder and ended the recording, stuffing it into her pocket.
"Good." Regina reached for her blazer and pulled it carefully on, freezing when Graham stepped forward and helped her into it. His arms going around her in a move that was as familiar as it was rattling.
"I've filled out all the paperwork." Graham murmured to her, straightening her blazer gently –certainly not the first time he had helped her dress- and used it to tug her upright and away from the bed. Measuring the way she weaved a little with dark eyes. "You can go home."
"About time." Regina waved him out of her way and worked herself up into trying to walk. She stilled when Graham pushed the wheelchair in front of her. "No."
"Regina…"
"No." She spoke more firmly.
"Just to the car."
"No." Regina reiterated. "I've been seen as enough of an invalid as it is. I don't need it."
She might need a Tramadol or six by the time she got to the car, but she wasn't going in a damn wheelchair.
"Mom, please."
Regina softened a little but didn't waver.
"Henry, I've spent the last four days lying, sitting or variations along the theme. I'm done with it. I want to walk."
"If you pull your stitches you'll wind up right back here." Graham told her coolly. Unimpressed with her antics.
Which made her mad.
"I'm not planning on doing any cartwheels, I'm just going to walk to the damn car!" Regina mustered herself under control abruptly. Where had that come from? She was usually better at controlling herself than that.
"Fine." Graham straightened and pushed the wheelchair out of the way. "You won't go in the chair?"
"No." Regina would have folded her arms over her chest had the very prospect not made her ache.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"I can't talk you into it.?"
"Not a chance."
"Well," Graham glanced down at Henry with an almost smirk on his mouth, "I suppose there's only one thing left to do."
Regina squeaked in surprise when he suddenly scooped her up into his arms and held her as easily as if she weighed no more than a kitten.
"Grahamputmedown!" Regina clutched at his neck.
"Why? Does it hurt?"
"No, it's…"
"Then I don't care." Graham turned, heading for the door and Regina gasped in outrage even as Emma opened the door for them to let them out into the hallway.
"This is embarrassing." Regina hissed at him.
"Not as embarrassing as falling flat on your face in front of the entire hospital, I'll wager." Graham smirked at her.
Bastard.
"Put me down. Now." Regina tried to command him and he just snorted at her.
"You don't control me, pet."
"Pet?!" Her voice lowered to a dangerous growl.
"Pet." He smirked at her, speaking in a tone only she could hear. "The leash is on the other neck, majesty. You'd best learn to live with it."
"You'll pay for that." She warned him.
"I've paid for more than enough. It's time to collect." Graham strode out of the hospital hallways and into the lobby, ignoring the stares they attracted.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I'm in charge," Graham met her furious gaze with a smug one of his own, "and you're not."