Brief mentions of past non-consensual sex between Regina and Leopold.
Maleficent had fallen asleep in the early afternoon, before he'd been home, and when she woke up, Henry sat on the floor in front of her, playing some game that involved slaughtering everything in his path. This boy certainly enjoyed killing for being the child of the saviour. She had a vague awareness of the concept of video games, as if she'd heard the term, but it was fake knowledge, and her mind had always been terribly resistant to such things.
She yawned, and to her relief, she had the strength to lift her hand and cover her mouth, which she hadn't been able to do yesterday. So that was a victory, and it meant Regina was right and she should probably keep eating the ridiculous things Regina thought were healthy. Regina insisted on too many vegetables, green things had never been a part of her diet before and she didn't see why she had to eat them now. As fun as it was to argue with Regina, she hated making her sad, or Emma, because both of them put far too much emotion in their eyes, and she was weak, so she ate what they gave her.
That was her recuperative state, of course, and she'd be less sensitive to their feelings later, she hoped. Soon she should be able to hold a book and read it, or do something other than watch the moving pictures on Regina's television set, again, that was fake knowledge and it itched within her mind. She blinked a few times, trying to clear it, or at least help it settle. The Dark Curse had put many things in her head that she hadn't known before: electricity, Post Offices, the correct way to fill out a tax document, and microwaves, and it was all in her head, but not part of her, and it ached.
Pain of course, was relative, after twice breaking her ribs trying to cough up the remnants of that forsaken curse, she couldn't really complain about a headache, especially when it was almost nice to have that be her biggest concern. She was also hungry, but Regina and Emma, would certainly have some idea for dinner and would fuss over her, which she hated.
Not really hated.
They were kind of sweet. It was undignified to need to be helped, or coaxed to eat, because she hadn't eaten human food for decades, and it was all so mushy, cooked (not burnt, as food should be), and strange. She tried to appease her caretakers, because they all meant well and if she didn't eat one thing they'd keep offering until she'd eaten something, yet they never offered a fresh rabbit, crisped with fire.
When she had her strength back... Maleficent allowed herself to daydream about the taste of fresh blood and scorched flesh, someday.
"There's aspirin on the coffee table if your head hurts," he- the boy- Henry said.
He was speaking to her, because aspirin wouldn't have helped him in his video game. She knew what aspirin was, and the implanted knowledge meant she knew that it was in the little plastic bottle with the screw off lid. She was also never going to get that open, because her fingers still didn't clench right.
"Thank you," she replied, staring at the bottle before lifting her eyes to his game. "Why don't you cast that ice spell? It worked well before."
"I'm out of mana," Henry said, directing his tiny avatar in a quick circle around the myriad threatening creatures. "It has to recharge."
Waiting to recharge was indeed frustrating, so she watched, and eventually he did use the ice spell she'd seen before. It was a nice spell, not right, of course, because it would never flow outward so neatly, but it was a reasonable rendition of magic.
The game stopped, and the word 'paused' flashed on the screen. She stared from that to Henry, confused. "You haven't achieved victory."
"You didn't take your aspirin."
She sighed, why did he have to be Regina's son? "I believe opening the container is beyond my abilities at the moment."
"They're supposed to be child-proof," Henry said, picking it up and twisting the cap off. "Not dragon-proof."
"I don't know how many delicate things you've tried to accomplish with claws like daggers, but I hope you'll believe me when I tell you that it is a difficult thing."
He handed her two little white aspirin, and held up a glass of water, again with a straw, because still no one counted on her to be able to hold anything. "Granny says you can take two now, but you'll have to wait until supper to have any more, and if your head still hurts then, you should tell my mom."
Taking the water he offered her, she swallowed the two bitter little pills and most of the water. Henry returned the glass back to the table and watched her, curious, but not pushing. "Do you need anything else?"
"No, thank you."
"I'm Henry."
"So I'm told."
He smirked, and Maleficent wasn't sure whom he reminded her more of, the saviour or her little queen. "My moms were really worried about you. I'm glad you're getting better."
Getting better was certainly relative, but if they trusted her to be alone with a child, she must have been stronger. She was herself again, much weaker than she cared to admit, but no longer having to struggle so fiercely against the intrusive curse. Her senses were even starting to return. She knew there was the flesh of a steer in the kitchen, and it almost smelt good. It would be overdone, of course, because they cooked everything far too long, but they meant well.
Satisfied that she didn't need anything more from him, Henry returned to his game, and because she had nothing else to occupy her mind, she watched as he decimated all the creatures that blocked his way. It seemed pleasant enough to continue the slaughter of different ranks of villains, all intent on destroying him. He seemed happy.
"Mom's getting home at five. She's trying to stay at the office for the whole day and get back to 'normal'. Mama keeps making fun of her, because it's not like she needs to sit in her office to make the town run, it runs just fine, but she thinks she needs to, so we're not allowed to make her feel bad for it." He paused several times as he spoke, distracted by the brightly coloured mayhem on the screen.
Regina would be the first one, the one who felt she had a duty to be in her office, even unnecessarily, because she'd always been so driven.
"And Emma?" Mal asked, waiting for an answer until Henry finished killing the larger, obviously more difficult monster.
"She's doing sheriff stuff," he answered, full of pride from his victory as the creature exploded into a mass of riches on the screen. "She said something keeps getting into people's kitchens, making a mess. Might be raccoons or rats or something."
Mal chuckled, and he turned to look at her, startled by the sound. "Your sheriff hunts rats?"
"Well yeah, sometimes, we don't really have a designated rat catcher or anything like that. Sometimes David, my grandfather, or Ruby helps, because she has werewolf senses and they're really useful, but today it's Mama- Emma."
"I realised." Mal smiled to herself, and the back of his head, because picturing Regina on a rat hunt was an adorable thought. She watched his little avatar run up a fictional snow covered mountain and thought of her home, far away in another land. The house Regina had magicked into existence for her was pleasant enough, and she liked the location, and again, the fake memories insisted that it was her home. It was certainly as lonely as her castle had been, and as quiet. Her child had been to neither of them, so what did it matter where she lived?
Henry returned to his camp, judging by the change from antagonists everywhere to the quiet. He set down the controller and stretched, before he turned around and looked at her, as if searching for something. He looked down at his hands, just like his mother, before he met her eyes. "I'm sorry that your child is missing, and my mom's, but they'll find her. They're really good at finding people, stopping curses, making things better."
His genuine concern for her emotional state was touching, and he reminded her so much of her little, naive queen who'd been so determined to get her revenge that she'd stood up to a dragon. He had the same kind of bravery.
"I'll live," she replied, letting her eyes shut, because being awake for any amount of time was tiring, especially if anyone wanted her to think.
He nodded and turned back to his game. She listened instead of watching, focusing on the music instead of the sounds of death and destruction. She must have fallen asleep again because he was in another world when she looked, somewhere with water fountains and paths in the sky instead of snow.
"What was her name?" he asked, letting the question float, as if it did not need to be answered, but could drift away, if it was too painful.
Mal bit back her sigh, and kept her eyes shut, lest they betray her. He deserved to know, she was his sister. "Lily, her name is Lily."
Drumming her fingers on her desk, Regina checked her phone again for messages and found it blank, still. Blank was good, but she'd check again in a few minutes, because she couldn't let it go. Mal was much better, and they'd had her down in the living room yesterday, and today, and she was healing. Still slept most of the time, but she was eating now and could stand, a little, if someone held her. Granny and Cruella were watching her, and Henry had only been home from school an hour. They were fine, because if they weren't, she'd know. Granny and Cruella would contact her and Emma, immediately, but that didn't make it any easier to sit at her desk and pretend everything was fine.
Everything was fine, Regina forced herself to repeat. She could make it to the end of the day, be the mayor; take care of the town. She stared at the clock on her desk and cursed the sixty-seven minutes between the moment and five o'clock. Yes, she could easily leave, go home, sit in the room with her son and Mal, watch them both be okay, which they would be until five. There was no reason for her to go home, so she should stay and do her job, let others look after her family for another sixty-six minutes.
She picked up her empty coffee mug and moved the paper one Emma had brought her at lunch into the garbage behind her desk. Thinking of Emma made her smile, and she shut her eyes. Lunch with Emma was always a bright spot in her day, and breakfast with Henry and Emma had been lovely that morning. She'd gotten up early to try and convince a very irritable patient that oatmeal wasn't really that bad and that it she had to eat it, but she hadn't made much headway until she'd told Mal how much she'd needed her well. Then she'd eaten, complained at length, but eaten.
Emma had made enough oatmeal for all of them and though it was a little lumpy, sitting with her and Henry had a kind of perfection in its mundaneness. She looked down at the clock again and berated herself for being distracted. Sixty-four minutes left, and she dragged her eyes away, perhaps she could lose herself in planning for the summer roadworks, or trying to decide what holidays they were going to celebrate because the Fourth of July really wasn't part of their culture, but everyone liked fireworks.
The knock on the door startled her away from the Blue Fairy's request that the curse breaking be considered a holiday and Regina trying to decide if she could lead those celebrations without being too sarcastic.
"Regina? Am I interrupting anything?" Snow White stood just inside of her office, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"No," Regina said, shutting the folder and bracing her hands on her desk. She'd been expecting and dreading this conversation for the last few days and tried to calm the knot of anger on Emma's behalf that already stirred in her stomach. "What can I do for you, Snow?"
Snow took a step before she started talking, "I wanted to apologise. I know it doesn't mean much, but I like to think that we're different now, and I know what it's like to be separated from your child," she stopped and managed to make eye contact, and for once, Regina didn't think of the little girl who'd ruined her life, but Emma. "I'm sorry, Regina. I'm so sorry," Snow finished.
Regina kept their eyes locked, even though her stomach ached, and it wasn't just sympathy for Emma. She was angry, not as angry as she'd been before, or could be, but she'd lost a child, and after what she'd gone through to keep Henry… She kept her tone clipped and cool: "you didn't know she was mine."
Snow shuddered, breaking their connection and staring at the floor as if she was about to be ill. "I don't know if that would have mattered to me if I had."
That rang true, and guilt mixed with the heat of Regina's anger. If she'd been different, been better, she could have helped Maleficent, been there- but that would have meant no Henry, no curse, no Emma. With great effort, she softened her tone and forced down her treacherous emotions. "Because a child of myself and a dragon, was most definitely evil, and you probably would have been more determined to use that child to protect Emma."
"Yes." Snow's tears overwhelmed her eyes, which Regina had, oddly enough, been expecting. How many times had she comforted Snow when she was a young woman, playing the kindly older sister while she relished every tear? Too many to count, but this time, Snow's misery did nothing but add to her own.
Regina folded her hands in her lap, to keep them from betraying her. "What I still don't understand about all this, is how could you possibly worry that Emma would be anything but good? If Maleficent's- our child was meant for evil because of what Maleficent and I are, how could you and Charming make anything but an angel together?" She shouldn't have been sarcastic, but she was angry and old spite filled her mouth with bitterness.
Snow nodded, accepting Regina's stinging words, as if she deserved it, which really took all the joy out of it. "Charming and I found a unicorn, and I had a vision, of Emma, and she was evil. She looked right through me, ripped out my heart-"
"Hearts can be put back," Regina reminded her, her voice cold and tight. She still remembered the heat of Snow's heart in her hand, and the spreading darkness growing within it. "It couldn't just because of a vision. You wouldn't take a child from her mother because of a bad dream."
Snow shifted her weight again, profoundly lost even though Regina hadn't moved from her desk. "There was a prophecy, the Blue Fairy said that breaking the curse required two children: a saviour and a destroyer. Both would travel through the tree. 'One to darkness, one to light, two shall pass beyond magic's sight.' The first one would be the destroyer, and the second, the saviour, and we had to protect Emma, because she couldn't be the destroyer, we couldn't do that to her, she had to be good, she had to be."
Regina slowly drew herself to her feet, still resting her hands on the desk in front of her because it kept them from moving and giving away her weakness. "So you took a child you knew was that of a villain? Because evil is born that way?"
Snow shook her head. "No, it's not like that."
Regina circled the desk, cutting the space between them, and to her credit, Snow didn't step back. "Then explain it to me."
"We didn't have much time," she began. "I was pregnant, your curse was coming any day, and if I went through first, without someone else, I would have been alone with Emma as she slipped into darkness. We needed a baby," she stopped, her face filled with regret, but none of the self-loathing Regina expected. "There were peasants nearby, living in hovels. I almost took one of their children, a scrawny little thing no one wanted. She was probably exposed on the hillside for the wolves, if she even lived for long after we passed through their village. But then I heard that Maleficent was nesting in the forest, and I knew- I mean- she'd told me she was pregnant when she asked for my help and I knew it had to be her child, because she's a killer, and a monster."
Regina folded her arms over her chest, trembling with rage even as she blamed herself for not ending Snow when she'd had the chance. It was a foolish idea, because this world needed Henry, the Dark Curse and Emma, and she'd have none of the people she loved without Snow, yet she wanted to hate her as she had before. She couldn't dredge it up, no matter how hard she tried; she was more sad than angry. "Have you seen her kill?"
"Well, yes, three guards, and she did it so callously, there must have been more that she's killed."
Regina swallowed, forcing herself to keep her eyes clear and dry. She wouldn't give Snow the satisfaction, even though it would only make Snow feel worse if she cried. "I hope you realised that she didn't kill Stefan, whom she hated, or Aurora, or any of his knights, and when she came to your palace, she used the sleeping curse."
Snow met her eyes again, as stubborn and convinced of her rightness as she'd always been. "She's still a villain, and a killer."
"I shouldn't have to remind you that being a killer doesn't seem to be enough to lose your position as a hero," Regina said, watching the guilt flash across Snow's face as she thought of Cora. "So, you'd seen Maleficent kill three guards, and because of that you decided she was evil enough to lose her child?"
Snow's lip trembled, but she remained defiant. "There was another way than killing those men."
It would have been so easy to sink back into hating her, yet, Regina couldn't. That well of stinging blackness just wasn't there anymore. "But her child was in danger, from me and the Dark Curse. She was desperate enough to go to you for help, because her child was the only thing that mattered to her. How many would you kill to protect Emma? How many have you killed, hero?" She made the words into a lash, wishing the pain as they landed could take away some of her own.
Snow took a step forward, losing her guilt, if just for a moment. "As many as it takes," she whispered, her voice nearly a growl. "You'd do the same for Henry."
Regina nodded, and almost laughed. "And you wanted to imprison me for it, forever! It may surprise you to learn, that I loved Maleficent, as much as I could love anyone after I lost Daniel, and she was my only escape from the castle I hated, and your father-"
"He wasn't cruel-" Snow interrupted. "I never understood why you hated him so, he never mistreated you."
Regina finally laughed, but it had more sobbing in it. "The first time a man touched you, it was your precious Charming, and he loved you. When your father came to my bed, he told me I was beautiful and told me not to cry, and I didn't. Never in front of him. I was stoic, and quiet, and when it hurt, he never knew. I lived with that, for years, while you grew more beautiful and he stopped taking the time to even mention that I was pretty to me before he took off my nightgown and took what he wanted." She sank back against the desk, needing its support. "Can you understand what that was like? How much I loathed him, and you, for that gilded cage? Maleficent was the first one to notice that I was stiff and cold, and terrified. She was kind and gentle with me because she wanted me to enjoy being with her. She taught me what making love was, when I'd only ever known pain and silence." She'd lost control of her tears, and her emotions, but it didn't matter, because these things had to be said. "She cared for me, as I was, not what I pretended to be, and for awhile, she took me away from the loneliness."
Snow took a step towards her, reaching out. "I wanted to be your friend. You could have told me about my father. I could have-"
Regina shook her head. "I couldn't see you as anything but a killer, and I was wrong then, because you hadn't killed anyone, yet, but even then, when I was at my worst, I never took your child from you."
Snow moved closer. "You didn't know about her until a few days ago."
Regina wasn't sure if she wanted to hug her or reach for her blackened half-heart and crush it in her hand. "Does that make her any less mine? What was she like? What colour were her eyes? Did she cry when you lifted her from her bed? Maleficent told me that you came while she slept, that having the baby exhausted her, then you and Charming went through Ursula and Cruella, and then stole the baby when she couldn't fight back."
Snow's lips thinned into a line, and her jaw set. "And we saved Emma, and I will never feel bad for that, ever. No matter how awful it was, how awful I was, Emma is good, and she's here, and she saved us from your curse. So, no, I won't regret it."
Snow's half-heart was within her reach and she could have taken it, crushed it for being so self-righteous and sure, but she didn't. Regina stood from the desk and wiped her tears from her face. "Well, thanks to you, there's one person that Emma has yet to save, and we're going to find her. Emma and I will leave as soon as Maleficent recovers her strength. Mulan will be in charge of Storybrooke as deputy mayor in my absence and Charming can run the sheriff's station. Henry will stay with Ruby and Granny Lucas, and you're free to tell him what you wish about your past misdeeds, Emma and I haven't told him what you did."
Retreating back behind the desk, Regina grabbed her coat and her handbag. To hell with the time, she was going home, and she would have the satisfaction of seeing Snow leave her office. Everything else, she'd deal with at home, even if Cruella, Ursula, Ruby and Henry all saw her current state. She wanted to go home, because Emma would be there and tell her it would be all right and she needed that as much as oxygen.
"So that's it?" Snow asked, following her to the door with her hands in her pockets. "You and Emma are going to find the destroyer, and bring her here, another dragon-"
Regina threw up a hand and cut her off, advancing into Snow's self-righteous bubble. "We're going to find my daughter! Because she belongs here, with her family, so unless there's something else that you need to discuss?"
"No, Regina, thank you for your time," Snow said, heading for the door ahead of Regina, slightly battered, but still right, because she was always convinced that she was right.
Shaking her head, Regina sighed and stared at the floor. There was one more thing. "I don't hate you, if that's what you're thinking. Neither does Emma, not really."
Snow turned with her hand on the door. "So you're together then?"
"How did you-?"
"It's written all over Emma's face when she talks about you. We've barely seen her since she started staying with- moved in with you, and I know what falling for someone fast and hard looks like. You'll look after her," Snow finished, and let herself out, because that final thought wasn't a question.
Wanting to hate her, Regina stood in her office, alone, holding her coat, because Snow White, who'd ruined so much of her life and taken one of Regina's children, had just trusted her with Emma. She put on her coat, then fingered her car keys, letting them hang from her hand. She didn't even have words for the molten twist of emotions stirring in her stomach, and she might start crying again at any moment. She'd pull herself together in the car, and Emma would make it okay.
Emma threw the black garbage bag with her samples of the problem of the day: unidentifiable giant beetles, which she had not signed up to deal with, into the trunk of her patrol car and sighed. She'd found the same hideous creatures, four or five inches long, mostly black, with big, nasty jaws that they used to eat through everything: boxes, bags- whatever food was in. At first they thought it was mice, maybe rats, but so much food had been eaten that it would have to be a horde of rats that really wouldn't be able to hide.
Then, in one of the farmhouses on the outskirts of town, she caught up to them: flying, hungry, eating everything they could find in the pantry of the poor house, nasty beetles. It was still chill spring outside, so they were a magic thing, not a Maine thing. Which meant there wasn't much Emma could do, except document the damage, suggest everyone started keeping their food in metal footlockers for the moment, and collect specimens. She could blast them, and she'd killed at least a hundred in the backyard of the last house, but they stank when they were dead, and they travelled in a black river, where as many as she killed, more seemed to be there. They'd retreated into the deep woods, where the underbrush was thick. She wasn't wearing the right boots to go tromping after devouring beetles, whatever they were, and so far, they were only interested in food.
The diner and the other restaurants in town were going to be busy until she sorted this out, but that was okay, everyone was nice about it and kept giving her coffee while she listened to their stories. She'd had so much coffee by the last house that her fingertips were a little shaky. Regina was probably worse, because she'd been sleeping badly and making up for it with coffee all week, and she was trapped at her desk, trying to act like everything was normal.
Her phone made that laser beam sound, which was Henry's text tone, because it was his favourite, and she picked it up.
When are you coming back? Mom came home early, upset.
On my way, kid. She wrote back, wondering what had convinced Regina to leave her office before five. Our dragon okay?
She's fine. Nice. Sleeps a lot. Likes it when I level up.
You better not be too far ahead of me. Emma sent back and tossed her phone onto the passenger seat. They were trying to keep two of their characters around the same level, so they could go through the game together. It meant Henry had about eight other characters that he played without her, but their knight-and-wizard duo was special. It was kind of their thing.
Backing out of the driveway, Emma pulled onto the little dirt road that led to the farmhouses and thought about Regina as she drove. If Maleficent was all right, Emma could think of one big reason for Regina to leave her office early, upset, and she hit the steering wheel in frustration.
"Dammit, Mom," she said to the empty car. "Can't you just leave her alone? She's got enough going on without you making it worse." It made perfect sense, her mother would have wanted to apologise, or tell Regina her side, and she would have gone straight to the office, and there was so much more history there than Emma even knew. They'd only just started talking about the past, Regina's past with Snow's father (Emma couldn't think of him as her grandfather, not after what he'd done to Regina), and Maleficent, and it didn't speak well of life in the castle if being with a grumpy dragon had been Regina's first time feeling safe after Daniel.
She turned onto steadily larger roads, speeding up when she hit the paved ones and headed home. Her dad had the evening shift, because he needed to sleep in, so the town would be looked after. He could beetle hunt for awhile, though it seemed they attacked at night, so maybe their newest deputies would have to deal with it. They'd be fine, they'd been in Robin's little band of outlaws and were better trackers than Emma. They'd solve the beetle problem, eventually, on top of everything else. She skipped the station, leaving her Bug there for the night and took the patrol car home. They had enough, and she was sheriff, that had to come with some perks.
Parking on the street in front of Regina's house, Emma grabbed her keys, locked the car and took the bag of dead beetles from the trunk. Wrapping them up in plastic had kept most of the smell in, but even through the bag, the beetles smelt of rot, and something else too sweet, ugly. She wasn't sure what it was, but most of the experts on evil things happened to be in Regina's house at the moment, so someone would know. She sighed, found a smile, and headed in, because if Cruella and Ursula were still there (which they probably were) and Regina had talked to her mom, she'd need back up, and Emma was going to be the one that it was easy to talk to. She was going to be Regina's optimism until she had some of her own; Regina needed that.
When she opened the door, she smelt roast chicken, and realised Granny must have put it in, which was good, because Ursula could make vegetables just fine, and she did a good soup, but anything else thatlived on land was out of her limited cooking skills. Cruella usually just ordered in, but this smelt like herbs Regina would approve of. Which was good, because if the food wasn't going well, that would just add to the meltdown of the day.
Leaving the bag of beetles on the porch, so it didn't stink up the house, Emma opened the brand new front door.
"I'm home-" Emma said, realising abruptly that she'd said 'home' not 'back' as she intended. It was home now, because whenever she went to the loft she just took more stuff of hers, and the way things were going with her parents, she'd have to get most of her stuff out while they weren't there so she didn't have to talk to them, because she needed to avoid that for awhile longer. Maybe a lot longer.
"Welcome back, darling," Cruella called from the kitchen. "Did you get more wine?"
Emma kicked herself, mentally. She had picked up more wine, because Ursula and Cruella had gone through most of the good reds, and Regina liked red better, and on the off chance she needed a glass, Emma had wanted wine for her. She'd even purchased the same bottles that she'd found in the recycling, so Regina would like them.
"It's in the car," she answered, sighing. "I'll get it."
"I got it," Henry volunteered from the den. He emerged, smiling at Emma, obviously relieved that she was home. "Mom's in there with the dragon-lady," he said in a low voice.
"Wine's in the trunk," Emma said, handing him the keys. She pulled off her boots, hung up her coat in the hall closet and headed into the den. Henry had paused his level, and Emma recognised his wizard on the television set. "Level thirty-four? Don't you have homework, kid?" she muttered to herself. The lights hadn't been turned on, and the sun was setting behind the trees. Maleficent sat on the sofa, a blanket around her shoulders and another piled on her lap. She looked better than she had that morning, her eyes shone brighter and there was more pink in her lips.
"He did his homework first," Maleficent replied to Emma's question. "He assured me."
Emma smiled, because she wasn't sure Maleficent knew what homework was, but Henry had been good, which she should have suspected. Regina's blazer hung on the chair near the television, but Emma didn't see Regina until her eyes adjusted. The dark shape sharing the sofa with Maleficent was her. Regina's head was nearly in Maleficent's lap, and her legs were pulled up under one of the many blankets spread over the sofa.
"Everything okay?" Emma asked, sinking down to perch on the coffee table and lean closer to Regina. There were used tissues balled up on the table, the skin around Regina's eyes looked puffy, and Emma couldn't help picturing Regina crying on Maleficent's shoulder until she'd fallen asleep.
"She had an unpleasant encounter with Snow White," Maleficent explained, her hand protectively on Regina's shoulder.
"Sorry," Emma said before she thought.
"For your mother?" Maleficent shook her head. "Hardly your fault, dear. We don't get to chose."
"Yeah," Emma agreed. "I wish she'd leave Regina alone for awhile."
"Snow White will go to great lengths to justify her behaviour," the dragon said, sighing, and Emma's protective side stirred. "We all do."
"I think she's a bigger culprit then some," Emma said. She rested her hand on Regina's cheek, smiling down. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." Regina stirred a little, but she didn't wake. Looking back up at Maleficent, she glanced back at Henry's game. "Did she cry in front of him?"
"Tried not to," Maleficent answered, and her blue eyes softened with affection. "It has been much for her to take in. Knowing our daughter is out there, somewhere, is a fresh wound for her."
Emma heard the part she didn't say, that missing their daughter was an older, deeper wound for her. She put her other hand on Maleficent's knee for support without thinking about it.
Maleficent tilted her head towards the sound of the door opening as Henry returned. "He's a good kid, definitely her son. The way he sees people is so much like her."
Emma's smile grew, oddly proud that Regina hadn't hid her emotions from Henry. "Yeah, I suppose they do have that in common." Leaning down, she kissed Regina's forehead to wake her. "Hey," she whispered.
Regina's eyes opened slowly, but when she saw Emma, she sat up, reaching for her so quickly that Emma almost lost her balance between the coffee table and the sofa.
"Missed you too," Emma said, holding Regina tight while Maleficent looked on, an eyebrow raised in amusement.
"Emma-"
"Rough day?"
Regina nodded into Emma's shoulder, running her hands over Emma's back until she dug her fingers in. Emma didn't ask, because Regina would tell her when she was ready, and it seemed like she'd talked enough about terrible things for one day.
"I chased beetles all day," Emma said, talking about nothing so Regina could relax and think about something else. "Some kind of nasty, black, eat-everything-in-the-house beetles, that came out of the woods and got into the pantries of a bunch of the farmhouses. So I've been tracking beetles through the mud. Brought some home."
"How lovely," Regina answered, her reply muffled by Emma's shoulder.
"They're dead," Emma said, because somehow that made it better.
"You brought me dead beetles?" Regina broke their hug and looked at Emma, half-horrified, half-amused.
"I thought someone here would know what they were," Emma answered, squeezing Regina's arms and trying to chase up a smile. "Your house is kind of full of magical experts at the moment."
"About the size of your palm, murky black, and they stink like rotten flesh?" Maleficent asked, shifting so the blanket was a little tighter around her shoulders.
"See?" Emma tilted her head towards the dragon-lady. "She knows."
"Lurco perennis," Maleficent said, frowning. "Forever-eaters. They eat themselves to death and then those still living devour their dead kin. Charming creatures."
Emma looked from Regina to Maleficent, her hands still in Regina's lap. She ignored the reference to the awful beetles by her father's nickname, because at the moment, her parents had earned the comparison. "Are they dangerous?"
Maleficent struggled to sit up away from the back of the sofa, trying to find the strength to hold herself up on her own. "Only if they run out of food."
"Okay," Emma said, patting Regina's thighs before she took her hands reluctantly back. "How do we get rid of them?"
"Wait for them to run out of food and eat each other," Maleficent said, she took a slow breath, then forced herself to the edge of the sofa. "Burn their nest, if you can find it."
"Mal-" Regina warned, putting her arm around Maleficent's back. "Be careful. They're just beetles, Emma and I can stop them."
"They're not just beetles," Maleficent said, frowning. She started to force herself to her feet, and Emma and Regina rushed to their feet to support her, trying to help keep her balanced on her feet if she made it that far. Which, after an impressive effort, she did. Standing drained the blood from her face, and she definitely had to fight to remain upright, even with Emma and Regina's shoulders to cling to. "They're related to blood scarabs. They're cursed creatures."
Emma's confusion must have frustrated her, and Maleficent sighed.
"Cursed creatures have to be conjured into being by a powerful sorcerer," Regina explained, sharing a concerned look with Maleficent. "They don't just appear, someone has to use magic to bring them into existence."
"And it's a complicated, difficult spell to invoke," Maleficent said, taking one step towards the kitchen. She swayed on her feet, because she was pushing herself, which officially made her just as bad as Regina. What was so hard about reasonable limits when you were getting over an illness? Or recovering from being tortured?
"Be careful," Emma said, in case either of them decided to listen to her. "I don't think I can magic you better if you fall and give yourself a concussion."
"You can," Maleficent insisted, unfazed by the thought, or too stubborn to care. "Standing up is far from complicated."
"Actually," Regina corrected, "it's one of the harder things we do, considering how hard it is to balance on two legs."
"I'd shift and use four if I could." Smirking, Maleficent turned to put both hands on Regina's shoulders. Emma watched, because Regina was so small next to the dragon-lady, and there was something precious about the way she stared her down with absolute authority. "I know I frightened you both, and I'm sorry. I know I'm pushing myself harder than you would like, and yes, these creatures aren't dangerous, but whatever brought them here is."
"And if you two intend to leave the warrior princess in charge and go find the baby," Ursula interrupted from the door to the kitchen, "we need Mal."
"But healthy," Emma insisted. Granny and Ursula were behind Cruella, listening in, and even Henry was in the other doorway. "Regina and I can't leave if you're just going to get sick again."
"She's correct," Cruella pointed out, wine in hand. "Ursula and I can't heal the way these two do. They're not leaving until you can stand up on your own, darling."
Maleficent didn't even try to protest that, because she needed both her arms on Regina just to maintain her balance. She still glared, and Emma tried to bury her smile, because the whole thing was kind of endearing. Here she was, having an argument with four classic Disney villains and a werewolf about how to keep their town safe and rescue a dragon princess at the same time.
"Fine," Maleficent finally agreed, and she reluctantly allowed Regina and Emma to lead her into the dining room. "But I want to see the dead beetles you brought back, Emma."
"They're on the porch in a garbage bag," Emma said, backing towards the dining room so Maleficent could use her for balance on the way to the table. "They stink, so maybe we don't want them in the house before dinner."
"I'll get them," Henry offered from the hallway. "I still have my shoes on."
"Just cast a-" Maleficent started, and Ursula waved her hand. Some kind of mist filled the air for a moment, then vanished.
"Done," Ursula said, pouring Regina and Emma glasses of wine. "You won't be able to smell them"
"Can you teach me that?" Emma asked. "That would be really helpful."
"It's a basic control of fog spell, scent is usually carried by droplets in the air, I'm sure you can pick it up in no time." Ursula explained as she handed over the wine. Regina still hovered over Maleficent's chair, but Emma sat and took the wine, because it was going to be a long evening.
Granny put a large baking tray on the table in front of Maleficent. "To keep the beetles off of the table," she said, nodding to Regina.
Henry returned with the bag, wrinkling his nose at the stench of it until he got into the dining room and it vanished. "That's cool," he said, looking at all of them. "You made it not stink."
"Useful spell when you're on a pirate ship," Ursula joked. She started to pour a glass of wine for Henry too and Emma caught her eye and shook her head.
"He's too young," Emma mouthed, because Regina would certainly have a fit if the sea witch gave Henry wine. Ursula seemed mystified by that, but headed back into the kitchen for a soda for Henry.
Maleficent had to rest both of her arms on the table to keep herself sitting up straight, but determined to examine the beetles, she nodded to Regina to open the bag.
Regina frowned in disgust as she poured several beetle corpses onto the baking tray. Their black shells shone dully and their spindly legs pointed in all directions, broken by their time in the bag. Their jaws were just as huge, serrated and ugly.
Emma took a large sip of her wine and the warmth of it in her throat comforted her. "There were hundreds of them," she said.
"Forever-eaters," Maleficent repeated, frowning at the beetles. "Cruella, could you please?"
Cruella leaned over Maleficent's shoulder and breathed on one of the dead beetles, a cloud of green enveloped it, then it twitched. Everyone around the table, except the two of them, jumped back, including Regina, which made Emma feel a little better for her surprise. The hideous little thing drew itself up on mostly useless legs and looked up at Cruella as if waiting for instructions.
"You brought it back?" Henry asked. Regina's eyes flew to him, as she needed to protect him from seeing this kind of magic, and Emma reached for her arm to calm her.
Cruella waved a hand lazily. "Oh, not back from the dead, darling, just animated it so Mal can ask it a few questions."
"You can do that?" Henry wondered aloud before he went to Regina's side, because he too had sensed her nerves so he stopped asking questions and watched, quietly.
"Simple things are much easier to animate, there's not much going on if it doesn't have a brain," Cruella explained over the rim of her glass. "Insects aren't at all complex."
"Especially when they're part of a hive," Maleficent added, watching the beetle. Emma wasn't sure what she was intending to do, other than stare it down, which, if that magnitude of look had been directed at Emma, would have made her reveal her secrets.
Granny shifted the rolling pin in her hands, ready to squash the zombie beetle if it made a move off of the baking tray. Regina wrapped one arm around Henry and kept the other on the back of Maleficent's chair. Emma sat next to her and stared in awe at the dead beetle as it lifted its grotesque head to look at Maleficent.
The dragon-lady opened her mouth and that trick of the light where her teeth looked too sharp happened again. Ever so gently, she blew a thin tendril of fire around the not-quite-dead beetle and it twitched, then rose into the air. It turned, spinning to the left until its head pointed off into the deep forest, far from the town. It turned back, still floating in front of Maleficent as if it wanted her to be pleased with the knowledge it had communicated. Cruella inhaled green smoke from it again and it collapsed back to the baking tray, instantly motionless.
Even that tiny amount of fire called to Emma, reminding her of the power it held, of family and safety, and she caught herself staring far too long at Regina and her perfect lips before she shook herself out of it. Later, she reminded herself. She'd be with Regina later and she could ask all her questions about Cruella bringing beetles back to life and how Maleficent could use one as a nest-finding compass. Thought it was more likely that she'd forget about all of that and want to kiss Regina senseless because merely being in the presence of dragon fire was worse than tequila shots.
"They have a nest in a woods," Maleficent said, leaning forward to collect herself because whatever she'd done had taken energy that she didn't have. "Whatever summoned them didn't give them a task, so they're marauding, eating what they can find. You'll need to burn the nest to stop them. You can-"
Regina caught her shoulder. "Cruella can enchant one of them to lead us to it, tomorrow," she insisted. "You need to eat, and rest so you heal. Emma and I aren't going off into the woods in the dark to hunt down rampaging beetles. If they're not going to hurt anyone, it can wait until tomorrow."
"Granny made chicken," Ursula said, making the offer sound like a bribe. "I can even have her burn some of it for you."
Emma caught Henry grinning and shared his glee, because of course a dragon would want her meat blackened. Maybe she did it herself when she was feeling better. Thinking of fire, and roasted meat, for an instant, Emma slipped into a memory that wasn't hers: of a nest of rocks, the warmth of the bodies of dragons all around her, the whisper of scales against stone and the tantalising scent of flesh, scorched and black. In that half a moment, she remembered sisters, brothers, the sensation of her mother curled around her.
Just as quickly, it vanished, ending like a soap bubble. It wasn't her memory, it couldn't have been. Was it Maleficent's? Did she have a family once, long ago? Was it some kind of collective dragon memory that she'd remembered from the spicy scent of dragon fire? Without thinking, Emma put her hand on Maleficent's shoulder and the warmth of her skin radiated through her nightgown and robe. Maleficent looked up at her, blue eyes soft and dark with buried pain. She'd lost that warmth, that family, and been cold and alone for long years, maybe centuries. Emma couldn't tell because her perception of time was limited to a pathetic handful of years, but she shared that pain of being separated, and alone. She knew the acute misery of loneliness that couldn't fade, wouldn't dull, no matter how much time passed.
Emma's magic slipped into Maleficent like a static shock that she couldn't control, because the dragon needed her strength, and Emma had spare. It shot through them both, and Maleficent's breathing steadied immediately. Setting down her wine glass, Emma looked from her to Regina.
"You'll need to learn to control that," Maleficent said, smiling in gratitude. "Not that I don't appreciate it."
"What did I?" Emma asked.
"You heal too easily, Emma," Regina explained. "You're all right because you have power you don't understand yet, but you need to be careful or you'll give too much." She brought her hand to Emma's and they both rested against Maleficent's shoulder. "We'll work on it."