This chapter contains descriptions of blood, gore and dead bodies.
Thanks again to Race for continuing to be fantastic and so supportive.
Maleficent loved the darkness. Not the insipid human metaphor for evil, but those hours when the sun was gone from the sky, letting her see the vastness of the cosmos above. Dragons were more comfortable than humans with the idea of being tiny and alone in a great universe, so while the puny people of the town scuttled from light source to light source, Maleficent walked unafraid. With the street lights out and the magical replacements not as painfully bright, the stars could be seen, twinkling above. How they constantly sought to deny themselves this sight was beyond her understanding.
Perhaps Regina could be reasoned with that the warm, welcoming globes of light that Reul Ghorm, and her otherwise useless troupe of glittering minions, had conjured should stay. To aid her decision, Maleficent waved her hand and did away with the ugly metal and wooden posts that held the old lights and replaced them with delicate, curled poles that were much more pleasing.
She sensed him long before the soft chuckle reached her ears, had in fact been waiting for him ever since she felt him in the diner as she flew over head. She could 'see' the tracking and protection spells Regina had woven into every stitch of his clothing - likely the only reason she let her son out of her sight - but it was dark, and humans were small, even brave boys with their mothers' courage. So Mal waited and enjoyed the stars overhead.
"Eventually someone will notice that you keep changing things."
She turned her head and caught his smirk, eyes able to see him easily even in the soft light. "They're much nicer."
Henry nodded and waited for her to stand from the bench. "Yeah, and they don't need power, and even though they're pretty, I bet they're stand up to a hurricane if they need to."
Mal dropped her hand to his shoulder. "You'd agree that the precedent has been set, has it not?"
"Yeah, sturdy is definitely good." He turned towards home, but didn't walk. He knew she'd teleport them. Concern softened his face, the young boy returned, if only for a moment. "Is everything okay?"
Mal nodded. "Your mothers are fine, everything seems to be quiet. Lily is spending some time away from fragile creatures."
"Dragon time?" Henry asked, eyes lighting up. His acceptance of them in his life was a balm Maleficent hadn't realized she'd needed. She had long since ceased to care for him solely because he was Regina's son.
Teleporting them to Regina's garden with a lazy thought, Maleficent nodded, following him up the stairs to the back door. "If she understands that side of herself better, it will be easier for her to be the other. The high forest along the cliffs is far from town, and full of game, she'll be safe there and I'll join her soon."
Henry stopped in front of the door, turning to her. "And my mom? Did you help Emma cast that spell yet? Is she still sick?" The strength in his words brought a smile to her lips. Not such a young boy at all.
"The spell is demanding, not of me, but of your mothers and it will be kinder to them if they cast it in the morning. No matter her symptoms, Regina is strong, and the magic between her and Emma is equally so. I know it's difficult to watch and know you can't help her-"
"Like you did." He had a mind like dragon's teeth, this one.
She sighed. Even with her long memory, some thoughts of Regina were still acute. "I did. And it hurt a great deal, but in the end she didn't need me. Regina brought herself out of pain and darkness, in no small part because of you, I think."
A human wouldn't have been able to see him flush, but she could feel his pride and slight embarrassment. Mal kept herself from smiling at his discomfort. "And she is not alone. You're young and may not understand Henry, the power of just having others who care about you. Regina has you, and and Emma-"
"And you and Lily."
Seeing no reason to deny it, Mal simply nodded. "Yes, we have a strange nest but nothing is more important, you know that."
"Nest?" Henry asked with a hint of a smile and a raised eyebrow that was the absolute mirror of Regina.
She rolled her eyes. So much Regina lived in this boy. "Those that you trust to sleep beside you, family is an imprecise term but it's as close as your human tongue comes."
His smile took over his face. "So our nest is safe?"
"Yes, now, lets check on your mothers."
Waking up to concerned faces above her was becoming irritatingly common. This time Mal's bright blue eyes stared down at her. "Regina?"
Her headache seemed to come and go at random, and had been thankfully absent for days, was now back in full force. Even without moving her head pounded, although for the moment, she wasn't nauseated, so she called that victory.
Groggy, Regina blinked, trying to grasp her surroundings through the sticky fog of sleep. Emma had made dinner, and then they'd sat in the living room with a fire and the ball of magelight she and Emma cast, waiting for Henry to come home. Emma had been reading - Regina's blurry eyes found the abandoned book, resting on the sofa by her legs - and she'd had her head in Emma's lap again because that pressure behind her eyes had started not long after they sat down. Emma had offered a head rub and the last thing Regina remembered was gentle fingers on her scalp.
Now it was obviously late enough that Henry was home. He watched them and the corner of his mouth twitched upward and he seemed amused, which Regina took as grateful proof she looked better than she felt. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth and her pulse was like a hammer in her skull.
"It's nine-twenty, Mom," Henry said. "You didn't have to wait up for me."
"We're not really up," Emma said from above her, voice thick and a little slurred. Apparently they'd both been asleep.
"How's your head?" Mal asked, kneeling down in front of her.
"It feels like the dwarves are mining in my skull," she muttered, rubbing her hand over her face.
Mal merely nodded, unsurprised, and reached out to stroke gentle fingers against her temple. "I can take it away, for awhile, though it might feel strange for a moment."
"Let her help." Emma coaxed, fingers in her hair stroking gently.
"It's all right, Mom," Henry said from behind Mal. "Its just like you always tell me to take my cold medicine." Of course he'd use her own words against her.
Making a noise of disgust, she agreed. "You three ganging up on me is worse than the symptoms." It wasn't, it really wasn't, because they cared, all of them. It was just so much, and she still struggled to accept their affection. Regina pretended not to see the fond, knowing looks Emma exchanged with her son and Mal.
"Fine," Regina sighed, shutting her eyes before Mal did whatever she was about to do. For a moment there was nothing, then the scent of fire rose, magic brushing against Regina's skin as if she stood near a flame. Soft lips against her forehead were at once burning hot and cooling then a pulse of magic, as if she'd just stepped from her house into the searing hot midday sun.
It was over as soon as it started, the brightness behind her eyes faded, leaving only a lingering warmth in her veins, similar to what she felt when Emma was near her but much more focused. Mal's magic lingered in her, protective and golden. When she opened her eyes, a tiny curl of smoke drifted from Mal's lips, the smell of fire still hanging in the air. Regina blinked. The pounding in her head evaporated.
Regina sat up, unable to stop the sigh of relief.
"Better?" the question was rhetorical, but Regina glanced at Henry and understood.
"Much," she smiled at Mal, straightening her clothes. "Thank you."
Maleficent merely inclined her head and stood. "I'm spending the night with Lily in the woods, we'll be back in the morning," she promised. "We should talk about the binding spell. I found the siren's scales along the coast. You and Emma will be ready tomorrow," Mal said. Standing, she held her hand out to Regina who took it, Mal's palm soft and overly-warm beneath her own. The room was steady when she stood, her stomach happy for once and Regina almost sighed in relief.
She blamed the sheer novelty of feeling completely like herself again for why it took her a few moments for Mal's words to sink in.
"Siren's scales?" Those must have taken hours of scouring the beach to find. "I thought it was a simple joining spell?" she asked, brows pulling down. Behind her, Emma yawned, stretching and levered herself up.
"We need what now?" she asked, still obviously half asleep, running her hand through her hair which only served to make it more of a mess.
"It's a binding spell, dear, not joining." Mal said as if that should have been obvious. "Scales will serve to focus the transfer, although I suppose it's not strictly necessary, we could do this ourselves, but the spell takes a great deal less effort." Smiling softly, she reached out, brushing a finger across Regina's cheek. "Sharing magic that intimately is intense, but the two of you are ready for it." Her voice was so soft.
"Ready?" Regina just stared, her mind refusing to grasp what Mal was saying.
"Your connection now will ease your symptoms, now, and last, so that if this should happen again..." Mal paused, smirking down at them both. "Carrying this child, and any other the two of you might manage to bring into existence, will be easier. You'll be connected for the rest of your lives. This isn't like the dragon fire - although it will be intense initially - it will never completely fade unless you make an effort to break the bond. Your magic is incredible compatible, or you wouldn't be in this charming situation," her blue eyes sparkled with humor before she grew serious again. "I haven't known two humans quite like the pair of you." Mal took both of their hands and brought them together within hers. "It's quite remarkable really." She sounded almost awed and Regina just stood there stunned. Mal was sharp and sarcastic and grudging, she was not awed.
It was too much then, Regina's chest tightened, like there wasn't enough air in the room. Why hadn't she realized Mal meant a permanent binding spell?
"Regina? You okay?" Emma, gentle and worried, her eyes so green in the warm light of the room. Emma, who reached out to her, concern pulling the corners of her mouth down. Emma, whom she loved and wanted with a ferocity that terrified her because, because she knew what happened when she loved like that. Knew that her mother might have been wrong that love was a weakness, but it was dangerous all the same.
Especially her love.
"I'm fine," she forced a smile, nodded at Mal. "Tomorrow, we'll talk."
Pushing everything else aside she hugged Henry, sending him off to bed with a promise not to stay up too late reading by flashlight.
She didn't see the look Mal and Emma exchanged as she walked upstairs.
Regina went through the motions of getting ready for bed on autopilot, washing her face without actually feeling the water against her skin, brushing her teeth and slipping into silk pajamas until there was nothing left to do and she drifted to a stop, the inertia carrying her forward bleeding away. She didn't so much get into bed as sink into it, seeing but not quite processing the empty side that seemed to stretch too far in front of her without Emma now. She'd gotten used to Emma being with her, gotten used to 'their' not 'her,' the change in possessive case so much greater than a shift in language, it had changed how she looked at the world. Imagining not being able to turn her head and see Emma beside her was like - was like those days knowing Henry wasn't sleeping down the hall anymore. It hurt, and Regina had never responded to pain well.
What if the spell was a step too far? A binding spell…Cora's voice and magic restraints and being too far off the ground and a wedding dress with a corset so tight she couldn't breathe; vines around Henry and 'you're grounded' and 'I don't know how to love very well.' Was this the right choice? Emma didn't need to give up so much. The dragon fire had been one thing, the situation had been desperate, and that spell didn't have long lasting effects, nor restrictions. Dragons were independent, they left or returned to their mates when they wished. That connection was fluid, without demands. It served a purpose, but the mark was like a scar, something of the past, proof that something had healed and was stronger for it. This binding would live with them: a melding of their magic, part of them until one of them broke it - probably with painful consequences, and wasn't that just the perfect metaphor for a relationship?
Lost in her thoughts, Regina was hardly aware of Emma moving around the bedroom until she returned from the bathroom in a worn t-shirt and boxers, sliding under the covers, mattress dipping until she was there, warm and solid and close, but not touching. With a wave of her hand, Emma dimmed the small magic spheres they'd been using for lights until there was only enough light to see the outline of her, pale against the darkness.
"Hey," soft and careful. Regina swallowed.
"Hey."
"Why so quiet?" Emma's fingers reached out, just brushing her knuckles in the softest touch, but she didn't move closer.
"Maybe we shouldn't cast the spell."
Silence, her heartbeat too loud in her ears, but Emma's voice when she spoke was gentle, light. "Planning on calling in sick to get out of more meetings? " Another touch at the back of her hand, fingertips tracing her knuckles. "If you want to play hooky, you don't need to actually be sick, that kind of ruins the fun."
Now it was Regina's turn to be silent, reaching passed the tightness of her throat to try and find the right words.
"Emma," her hand curled away from Emma's touch and her skin felt cold in its absence. "Emma, this is - more involved than dragon fire. This is a binding spell. It's permanent."
The silence that followed was fragile.
"I don't understand." 'but I want to' went unsaid. Regina heard it anyway and a part of her wanted to explain, wanted to finally give voice to these fears, but words have power, and giving voice to them would make them real.
"Regina? I'm not going anywhere."
"But what if you wanted to?" She cursed the way her voice shook, swallowed and tried again. "When Mal said a spell I thought - I thought she meant something temporary, like she did this evening with my headache, but what she's talking about will bind our magic together. Permanently. Unless we break the bond."
"Are you, you're saying you don't want that?" In the darkness Emma's voice was small and hesitant and Regina didn't think, she just reacted, reaching out and wrapping her hands around the fingers still waiting for her touch, gripping fiercely.
"No, no, that's not-" a slow breath. "I do want it. What Mal is talking about, it's not - it's not even possible for most people, even magic users. It's-" Mal's eyes and voice resonating in her memory from that evening, "Remarkable."
"But," Emma pressed when Regina trailed off. She hadn't pulled away though.
"But," how was she supposed to explain this to Emma when she didn't even entirely understand it herself. "It means that our magic, that we would always be linked."
"What like a Vulcan mind meld?"
The strangled noise that escaped her throat was supposed to be a laugh but Regina bit it back. She was in love with an idiot.
"No, nothing so Star Trek. Definitely no mind reading. But there would be an awareness. We'd be more powerful too. Things like pain or exhaustion can be shared."
"What about pleasure?"
An immature idiot.
"Yes, Emma," Regina sighed, but her lips pulled up into a smile and she squeezed the fingers clasped in her own. "The sex would be amazing."
"Okay then, what's the problem? I am really not seeing the downside here." And Emma was teasing but she wasn't. Regina could feel it in the strength of her grip, in the way she inched just a little bit closer, as if she wanted to hold Regina but sensed her need for space.
How did she explain what holding on to the ones she loved had done to her? What she had done in the name of that love? Regina had held on to Daniel and destroyed countless lives. She'd held on to Henry and nearly destroyed her own. She thought of Emma's anger at her own parents, at how she ran when things became too much, how even now she struggled with the burden of being the Savior.
"Regina?"
A slow inhale before she spilled all the cracked and broken pieces of herself. "I don't always love very well, Emma. I hold too tightly and I'm selfish, what if - "
"Stop."
She stopped, heartbeat loud in the silence because the word was sharp, almost angry.
Emma shifted and for the space of three, four, five utterly terrifying heartbeats, Regina thought she was going to get up and leave. Instead she rolled onto her back and opened her arms. "Let me hold you, please?" Emma asked, all the sharpness gone from her voice now and Regina went, letting her body fit against Emma's side, those slim strong arms around her shoulders. Fingers stroked up and down her spine and she could feel the expansion and contraction of Emma's ribs as she breathed.
"Six homes," Emma spoke after a moment. "Seven, I guess if you count the castle where I was born as a home. That's how many times someone sent me away."
Regina stiffened as if struck, but Emma's arms tightened carefully.
"Emma-"
"No, don't apologize okay? This isn't about you. Well, not this part. I know our history, Regina. You didn't put me in a tree or lie to my parents about how much space there was. You didn't send me back when you got pregnant with your own kid. You weren't there in those foster homes."
"But-"
A kiss pressed to the top of her head. "No buts, just, please let me get this out." So Regina bit her lip and stayed quiet.
For a while Emma was silent too, only the sound of her breathing and her heartbeat beneath Regina's ear in the quiet.
"The first home, well second. They sent me away because they wanted a 'real' kid - their kid. The couple of homes after that, no one wants a kid who cries a lot and wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. One of them really didn't appreciate little girls who fought back." She bit the words out and Regina tensed again, aching with realization and understanding, but Emma sighed and continued the gentle motion of her hands on Regina's spine and she stayed quiet, because Emma asked. "After that, I already had a pretty good rep, started stealing, and fighting. Hanging with a bad crowd. The kind of homes that take kids like that are the ones who think they can 'straighten you out.'" Emma snorted bitterly.
Regina tightened the arm around Emma's waist.
"Then I met Lily," Regina heard the pain and longing so clearly. "By that time I was so angry. I hurt her as much as she hurt me. And then there was Ingrid." They both shuddered at the name.
"By the time Neal came along, I was a mess. Looking back...I can't regret him because we have Henry, but I was barely seventeen and he was just the last in a string of bad choices. I was so damn starved for someone to give a damn and he did. Right up until the moment he let me go to fucking prison for my destiny," she spit the word, body going rigid. Regina felt Emma take a deep breath and carefully let it out, slowly relaxing again. She was quiet for a while, but when she spoke again, Regina felt something splinter and shatter inside her chest.
"My whole life, no one ever wanted me enough to keep me. Until Henry. And you."
Regina could only lie there, stunned. Henry, she understood, but her? But Emma was already speaking again.
"Henry wanted me, fought for me. And I know - he went about it wrong, and I let him. And I will always be sorry for how that hurt you." Another gentle kiss to the top of her head. Regina wanted to say it was okay but it wasn't, in the same way Emma growing up in this world wasn't okay. They both made choices and they'd both hurt each other, and they both lived with it because they understood, and forgave. "But he kept me here and so did you." Emma actually chuckled then, soft and low in her chest.
"You know if you'd have just been boring and nice I would have packed up town and left the next day. But you had to go and be a pain in the ass," and Regina could hear the smile in Emma's voice. Idiot. Except she smiled too, just a little. Emma's arms had looked magnificent in that tank top when she took that chainsaw to Regina's apple tree. "You pissed me off and challenged me and that made me stay. And then you pulled us back from that other realm. And you brought us back from New York."
"I let you go, though, to New York," Regina whispered.
"Yeah, and you were there with us, the whole time. I only realized it once I came back but that whole year, every time Henry or I almost set three places at the dinner table. Every time I ordered a salad instead of fries, all the memories of his childhood, everything - that was you. Even when we didn't remember, even when you were worlds away. You never let go."
"Emma," her voice cracked because, because it was all true but she'd never thought
"You kept me Regina. I know it was about Henry too, but you," she faltered, sucking in a shaky breath and letting it out, ragged and broken. "Your love is so amazing. Henry and me and our baby, Mal and Lily, we're so lucky to be loved by you."
A soft touch at her chin tilted Regina's face up until she could see Emma. In the dim light her eyes were colorless, but Regina could see the shine of tears and she had to blink against the sudden sting in her own. "I want this," Emma said, low and harsh and breaking under the weight of emotion Regina could feel in the tension of the body beneath hers, in the way Emma's hand trembled beneath her chin. "I'm already yours, Regina. No spell can change that. This is home and I want you, and our family and-"
She didn't get to finish because Regina surged up and kissed her, hard and bright then softer, softer until she was pressing tiny kisses to Emma's mouth, her cheeks, the tip of her nose, until their foreheads were pressed together, both of them breathing a little too hard.
"I'm keeping you, Emma Swan. Always. I'm keeping you," Regina promised and took Emma's shuddering breath into herself when she kissed her again and again.
When she finally put her head down to sleep, the slow steady beat of Emma's heart beneath her ear was the last sound she heard.
The sun was already well over the horizon, streaming through the curtains when they both woke the next morning. Her head still clear and her stomach quiet for the moment. Regina reluctantly gave up the warmth of Emma's body and slipped from bed. She tucked the covers back up around Emma's chin but it was too late, green eyes, unfocused and squinting in the morning light, opened and found her.
"Go back to sleep, I'm just going to make breakfast."
The inhuman grunt she got in reply was terribly endearing, but she wasn't surprised when Emma shook her head and rolled out of bed to join her downstairs a few moments later.
Regina made it through a mug of tea and a most of a bowl of oatmeal with apples before her stomach apparently woke up enough to be upset. With a sigh, she pushed the bowl away, curling her hands around the still-hot ceramic, contenting herself with watching Emma wolf down toast with her oatmeal.
"Stomach acting up?"
Regina just nodded. "When does this usually end?"
Emma gave her a sympathetic look but shrugged. "Its different for everyone. For me? About month four."
"I read everything about infants before I adopted Henry," Regina said softly, breathing in the steam from her tea. "I had a stack of books in the trunk of the car when I picked him up. I thought I was ready. I've never read a book about being pregnant. I don't even own one."
Emma smiled, teasing and fond, and shook her head. "Why am I not surprised?"
Regina sniffed, but smiled too. "Some of us like to be prepared, Miss Swan."
Emma merely licked her spoon, an action that she could tell annoyed Regina but dark eyes couldn't seem to leave her lips. Victory. "The library survived the storm. We can go check out the whole section if you want, but then Belle would know. The internet might be a better idea."
Regina's gaze unfocused, lost in thought. She hadn't truly considered the logistics involved in hiding the pregnancy. Unconsciously, her hand strayed to rest on her stomach. In front of her, Emma pushed her oatmeal away and stood, coming around the counter to stand behind Regina, carefully wrapping her arms around her and pressing her palms over Regina's where it rested over the baby. Regina softened, leaning back in Emma's hold, smiling at the lips pressed against her shoulder.
"I think we could trust Belle. She's become very close to Henry and he's an excellent judge of character."
Emma made a noise of agreement. "She'll probably recommend twenty books, and you'll read them all and ask for twenty more," she said, a smile in her voice. Regina rolled her eyes but she couldn't disagree. "Wait," Emma said, mocking horror creeping into her tone. "You're going to give me homework, aren't you? I did this, once, you know I did," she whined playfully.
"Emma," a warning, but Regina couldn't help the smile. Her idiot.
Sure enough Emma sighed as if being asked to do the most onerous task. "Fiiine. I will read stuff, even though I still think the Cliffs' Notes version is just fine."
Regina didn't even dignify that with a response and Emma chuckled. Shifting, Emma slipped her hand beneath Regina's splaying gently across her belly and Regina felt Emma's magic rise, enveloping her and reaching out. Wrapping her fingers around Emma's wrist she held tight, losing herself in the feel of Emma around her, in her.
"Whatever happens," Emma said, lips brushing her jaw. "We'll be okay. All of us."
The knock on the front door startled them both and they broke apart. Henry had a key. Mal didn't knock. She had Regina's spare key, which she rarely used because doors weren't important to someone who could teleport. Lily would be with Mal or Henry.
Emma pressed a kiss to Regina's temple. "I'll get it," she sighed. If it was someone else complaining about how long it took to fix the electricity…
It wasn't anyone complaining about the electricity.
"Apologies for disturbing you," Mulan said. She stood perfectly straight on the steps in the morning sun. While Emma didn't really care if her deputies dressed in uniform, Mulan seemed to prefer it and Emma had to admit the tan and dark brown looked good on her. Her gun wasn't a sword but Mulan had adapted quickly to modern firearms, only making a dry comment about ease of aiming. Emma hadn't asked. Although Emma didn't consider them 'friends' yet, she liked Mulan and trusted her. She had gotten pretty good at reading the woman. She looked serious, but not overly alarmed, so whatever it was it wasn't a social call but it wasn't an emergency.
"Coffee?" Emma asked, waving Mulan in.
"No, thank you," Mulan answered, following Emma inside. Regina's shoulders relaxed, just a little as the two entered the kitchn. Mulan wasn't a threat. "The dawn patrol discovered a body in the harbour that has not yet been identified."
Emma froze almost mid step and Regina stared.
"A body?"
"He was found this morning just after six. Male, older, perhaps with gray hair."
"Perhaps?" Regina pressed.
"The body was severely damaged, most likely by a boat propeller, though none of the fishing boats report anything out of the ordinary. It's been taken to the hospital, Deputy Lucas has gone to Dr. Whale's home so that he can assist us in the identification."
Emma, who had edged in front of Regina while Mulan talked, suddenly seemed to realize what she'd done and flushed slightly. Grabbing her coffee cup, she downed the last couple of swallows and nodded at Mulan. "Okay, let's-"
"I'm coming with you," Regina said, setting her own mug in the sink.
"Regina-"
"Of course, Mayor," Mulan said carefully neutral.
Unseen by Regina, Emma glared. Mulan gave her a look that said very clearly she knew exactly who was the boss in that room and it wasn't the Sheriff. Emma couldn't even get mad. It was totally true.
"Just let me leave a note for Henry and Mal," Regina said, grabbing a pad of sticky notes from a drawer and scrawling a quick note, her penmanship still somehow ridiculously neat.
"Did you drive here?" Emma asked, grabbing her jacket and badge and reaching for her car keys in the bowl beneath the shelf, just in case. Behind her, Regina waved her hands and was suddenly dressed in one of her numerous suits, a slim black trench coat over it, with low booted heels. Emma had to work very hard not to stare. Mulan caught her doing it anyway, shaking her head at how useless her boss was.
"I took the patrol car."
Emma sighed. Nothing like spending the morning in the back of a patrol car.
Fairies in their blue uniforms filled the hospital. Emma couldn't remember so many nuns working as nurses before the curse broke, but maybe it made sense now. The hospital needed repairs and fairies were workaholics. It was a little strange though. No one else really seemed to be working.
"Sheriff, thank goodness you're here," Blue said, meeting them in the corridor. She wrung her hands and focused on Emma, giving Regina only a curt nod. "I've never seen anything like it. The poor man's been mangled."
Emma had seen a lot of weird crap since she came to Storybrooke but this sounded less fairy tale and more...Criminal Minds. The look of distaste on Mulan's face echoed what Emma was thinking.
"Mangled?" Emma asked, her hand resting on the grip of her gun. "By what?"
"We were hoping Dr. Whale could help us find out," Blue said, her eyes moving between Mulan and Emma. The way she ignored Regina made Emma set her jaw. Emma was tempted to call her on it, but held her tongue. The general level of chaos and tension around them said this wasn't the time. "Ruby's not back yet," she continued. "What do you think is keeping her?"
"We have the radios functioning, and the station has power, but most of the phones in town ran out of batteries days ago," Mulan reported. She took a step back and tapped her radio. "Deputy Fa to Deputy Lucas, come in Lucas."
"I'm here, I mean, Lucas here," Ruby's voice replied over the radio. "Dr. Whale hasn't answered his door. Belle's just arrived with the keys. Mulan, his car's out front but there's no answer inside."
"Keep us updated, Fa out."
Emma had to smile because Mulan had discovered the radios had protocols and stuck to them to the letter. Everyone else just kind of went with it, but Mulan seemed to enjoy it. "Should we take a look?"
"I just want you to prepare yourselves," Blue warned, looking down before she met Emma's eyes. "It's not pleasant."
"Corpses rarely are," Regina said, her words heavy with too much knowledge. It was easy to forget she'd probably seen more death than anyone else here. Logic didn't stop Emma from wishing they were alone so she could ask if Regina would be okay with a dead, potentially nasty body, though. Her stomach hadn't been bad this morning so maybe she would be fine, and it wasn't as though Regina would admit it in front of Blue even if she was bothered, but Emma couldn't help it. She worried.
As if sensing the direction of her thoughts, Regina's fingers nudged her own, and Emma realised - too late - that Mulan had seen the whole silent exchange. She flushed but Mulan just turned and followed Blue, giving them the courtesy of pretending she hadn't seen anything. Better her than Blue, anyway. Regina's smile was gentle before she composed her features into the disinterested professional mask of the Mayor. Her fingers touched Emma's one more time, though, and Emma knew her worrying had been noted, and appreciated.
They followed Blue down the corridor to the tiny morgue of Storybrooke hospital. The tiny room was all steel and tile, easily cleaned, and the body lay in the middle of it, beneath a sheet on the table.
The smell wasn't so bad, kind of metallic, not yet starting to rot, and mostly covered with brine. Thank goodness for that.
"Are we sure that scavengers didn't get him?" Emma asked, wishing she had more experience with this than Law and Order reruns.
"Yes," Blue said, and her simple response filled the room, ominous and heavy. "Something evil did this."
She pulled back the sheet, revealing what was left of a torso and Emma had to admit the assessment might have been appropriate. Whatever had gotten to George, it wasn't ocean scavengers, and it was definitely horrible. Even expecting it, Emma's gorge rose and she heard Mulan make a noise of disgust, quickly silenced. Regina said nothing but she didn't need to. Emma sensed the tension coiling in her.
The damage was so extensive that it actually took Emma's brain a few seconds to make sense of what she saw, putting back the pieces of the badly scattered flesh puzzle. She almost wished she hadn't.
Something thick and sharp had removed the head, leaving the neck a gaping mass of now-bloodless flesh and bright, splintered bone. Beneath that the ribs were severed, split open, again by something thick and sharp, like a sword or talons. A third mark exposed the belly and dark remnants of organs, and the fourth trailed intestines, as if, as if a huge set of claws had ripped across him, shredding him with one blow.
The hair remaining on his arms, and what was left of his chest was grey, which narrowed his identity down. His trousers were pleated, well tailored, and Emma recognised expensive cloth. She lived with Regina, after all. His shoes - well shoe, one was missing - were leather, fashionable, well kept. Even after being in the ocean, the polish held up.
"It's Albert Spencer," Regina said, her voice level and certain. "King George."
"How do you know?" Mulan asked, following Regina's eyes.
"He has the crest on his cufflinks custom made," Regina explained, indicating the remaining bit of metal still on one bloodstained cuff. "It's his coat of arms from the Enchanted Forest. No one else would have that."
Emma looked over at Regina. She wasn't too pale, didn't look green and she hadn't set her jaw in that most determined fashion which meant that she was really hiding how awful she felt. Of the four women in the room, Regina looked far and away the most composed and Emma mentally kicked herself. Keep it together Swan, she chastised herself, forcing her attention back to Blue and the body of Albert Spencer. She could freak out and pout a little until Regina let her cuddle on the couch later. Now she had a damned job to do.
"Well, that...is a help. Thank you," Blue ground out tersely, taking the sheet and moving it back over Spencer's remains all without actually looking at Regina. Instead she hesitated just for a moment before letting the sheet fall, and when Spencer was covered Blue continued to stare at the misshapen lump for a moment.
What the hell was she doing? Emma wondered. Praying? Did the fairies still take their cursed positions so seriously?
Before she could ask, however, Mulan's radio crackled, interrupting Emma's thoughts. "Mulan? Are you there?" Ruby's worry cut through the static, protocol forgotten.
"I'm here," Mulan replied, calm and controlled. Hearing the obvious distress in the other woman's voice she didn't chastise Ruby, just let her talk. "What's wrong?"
"Whale's dead," Ruby answered, her voice cracking. "He was, he's, well he's in the yard behind his house, in a tree."
Blue gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. Emma and Regina shared a look and something in the pit of Emma's stomach twisted, hard and cold.
"The body is in a tree?" Mulan asked, her expression still composed. Only the slight whitening of her knuckles where her fingers wrapped around the radio suggested she was unsettled too.
"It's been placed there, like something was returning later for their kill," Ruby said, and her tone dropped, brushing against the wolf beneath. "It's pretty torn up. It looks like he came out back before he was attacked. Maybe it lured him out somehow or-"
Mulan looked to Emma before she gave her orders. "Stay with the body. I'll send the team, and we'll be there shortly."
The radio hissed. "We have a team for this?" Ruby asked, her voice still too high and shaky. Emma made a note to check on her, maybe send her home. Ruby was still new at being a deputy and for all the magic and craziness of Storybrooke, people rarely stayed dead.
"Doc and a few of the dwarves," Mulan said. She looked to Regina to explain. "They volunteered, and they're respectful, hardworking."
Regina nodded, approval obvious. With the table and Mulan safely between them and Blue, Emma reached for her fingers, stroking them tentatively with her own. Regina squeezed her hand tight. Her skin was warm but not feverish and dry, suggesting she was still fine, which Emma was deeply thankful for, even as she silently admitted that of the two of them, she was probably more likely to be sick than Regina right now.
"I can transport us all by magic, if you wish," Regina offered. Emma wanted to object but bit her lip. In front of Blue, Regina would never admit any kind of weakness but she also wouldn't take unnecessary risks. The fingers holding Emma's squeezed gently and Emma caught the slightest quirk of Regina's lips. She was so busted.
Mulan nodded easily but Blue jerked back as if slapped before getting herself under control. "No. I'll transport myself. Thank you." The last was said almost between gritted teeth and Emma only barely stopped herself from saying something pointed.
She could feel Regina's amusement as familiar purple magic surrounded the three of them.
They'd appeared just outside Whale's house, and started inside. The door was open and Ruby's patrol car sat waiting on the street.
"No one spoke to Whale this morning?" Emma asked, keeping her dread in check. When the the harpies and beetles had attacked the town, inanimate things, animals. This - whatever it was - was attacking people. Living ones. Rotten ones so far, but that didn't mean they deserved to die.
"I'll construct a timeline of his movements," Mulan said. "Perhaps they were near each other when this happened?"
"And Whale ended up hanging in a tree and George in the harbour?" Emma asked, unwilling to imagine something that would do that kind of damage.
Blue appeared a moment later in a shower of glittering dust the same colour as her name. It was certainly showier than Regina's magic. "If poor Dr. Whale's body is in a tree, maybe we're looking for something that flies?" Blue suggested, almost cautiously. "Most demons, like that Chernobog, have four claws and can fly, and dragons, of course."
"Dragons aren't demons," Regina reminded her sharply.
"Of course not, I just meant they have similar claws," Blue corrected herself. "King George-"
"The former king George," Regina interrupted. Emma hadn't seen her face this cold for long time.
"Former king George," Blue repeated, "Didn't have any family left unless we count David-"
"Which we won't, as he tried to kill him and Snow several times," Regina shot back, her words clipped and short. "He can be cremated and his ashes interred at the town cemetery. His land has a history of funeral pyres, we wouldn't want to take that from him. Dr. Whale, I believe, also has no next of kin. The town will also arrange for his cremation and take care of both. After the Sheriff's department releases the remains, of course."
"Right," Emma agreed with a quick nod. "Once we get Whale back to the morgue we can compare the wounds, make sure this is the same beast." Hopefully, it was, because she didn't want two things with huge and terrible claws roaming the town.
She glanced at Regina and saw the same knowledge in dark eyes. They weren't that lucky.
Ruby met them in the living room of Whale's sparsely furnished house. His taste was acceptable, like he'd gotten everything out of the same nice catalogue, but it had no personality. It matched because it was designed to match. Somehow that didn't surprise Emma. He always struck her as shallow and vain - he'd wanted it to look good, but hadn't put much thought into how. What had Snow seen in him during their brief few dates?
"Doc and his crew just got here a few minutes ago," Ruby said as soon as they entered the house. Her grim expression and pale face suggested the body would be more unpleasant than that of former king George. Great. "They were about to take the body down, but I thought you'd want to see it in place. It would probably be easier for everyone if one of you could bring it, him, down with magic," Ruby added.
"It'll be no problem to bring down," Blue said, and Emma glanced at Regina. People didn't usually volunteer to do things that Regina could do (probably do better) in front of her.
Regina shook her head, almost imperceptibly. Emma got the message. Not worth it.
"That would be helpful, thanks," Emma replied to Blue, stretching her mouth into something she hoped resembled a grateful smile. She didn't risk looking at Regina again to see if she'd failed.
Following Mulan into the backyard they were all hit with the smell, thick and metallic, almost cloying. Even from several yards away, the body stank of blood, and something more putrid that she didn't want to think about. She swallowed hard, Ruby wrinkled her nose and turned positively green and Regina's expression became stone, immobile and cold.
Blue held back, covering her mouth in shock and disgust and she blinked, as if fighting tears. Emma watched and something in the back of her mind wondered if Whale and Blue had really been that close.
The body was indeed worse than George. What was left of it wore Whale's blue shirt that Emma remembered from the day before and what remained of it clung in tatters to his skin. His torso had also been torn open, and the smell must have come from his shredded bowels. Unlike George, Whale's head was still attached, but barely. It hung down on the exposed bone of his neck and a few remaining strips of muscle. His face had been so coated in blood and other fluids that it was barely recognisable as him, but when she made herself look, it was.
The wounds were similar, deep, and vicious. She knew next to nothing about demons and what their claws were like. Emma had no idea where to even start investigating demonic murder in a town full of fairy tale characters that didn't even have an coroner.
Sneezy snapped a few more pictures and nodded to Doc. "Done."
Doc looked up from the paper in his hand before he directed Sneezy.
Emma took a step closer and recognised it as a crime scene checklist she'd written for her deputies, because she wasn't really a Sheriff but no one else knew what they were doing at all. She'd constructed it off the internet and crime shows on Netflix and outdated procedural manuals left over from the casting of the first curse - because actual Law Enforcement seminars required credentials, and there had never been time, or reason, to sit with Regina and Snow and determine the limits of the spell still bounding Storybrooke. It was possible that Emma would indeed be recognised as a legitimate officer of the law. It was equally possible that her inquiries would raise all kinds of red flags with the State government that Storybrooke couldn't afford. Besides, no one had really ever died in this town in a way that actually needed to be investigated. So for - despite the high body count - people died in Storybrooke because they were magical villains, or trying to hurt Henry and there was no mystery about how they died.
This was… brutal and real in a way not even Cora's death or Neal's death had been. Emma's attempts to provide some updated structure to the Storybrooke Police department had been meant to handle stolen pumpkins and fairytale property disputes and drunks bumbling into the wrong property and sleeping it off in the roses. Murder hadn't even been on her radar, especially not murder by some kind of beast or someone wielding magic in this way.
Emma added 'Actual Police Training' to her mental list of 'Things That Would Get Done After This Crisis Is Over And Before The Next One' so basically...never.
Once Doc gave the okay, Blue brought the body down from the tree. The wound pattern was similar, Emma didn't want to call it the same, but four huge claws had ripped through his body, opening his organs, splitting his neck. One powerful blow and he was dead. His eyes stared at her through dried blood, milky beneath. One of the dwarves made a move to cover the face but Emma shook her head. They needed to see everything for now. Besides, the real problem was the stench, not the sight. The reek of blood and the stench of open intestines made it hard to breath and Emma seriously regretted breakfast this morning. Regina's face had become so pale that her skin could have been marble but she didn't waver. Torn between wanting to take her home, now, and knowing that the town needed them both, Emma turned away to focus on the body. She'd never let Emma drag her away.
"It's the same creature, isn't it?" Emma asked, crouching as low as she dared and covering her nose. It didn't do any good.
"It's likely," Regina said. She touched Emma's shoulder, almost in passing, but it was enough to say that she was okay. Her fingers were cool at least, so whatever Mal had done last night was still protecting her from the worst of it. She waved her hand over the body and tiny flashes of light traced the wounds, as if reading them. The light coalesced into a purple ball then headed quickly towards the hospital to compare the wound patterns.
"Ever see anything like this in the other world?"
Regina nodded once, carefully and Emma's arm ached to reach out and touch her. A glance at Blue though, stilled Emma's motion. The fairy looked quickly away but something about her manner had been setting off Emma's instincts all day. Was she staring at them? Emma's gut wouldn't settle and it had nothing to do with the corpse.
Then again she'd been on edge long before Blue. Silently kicking herself, Emma tried to focus on the body. Maybe once they performed the bonding spell she would be less anxious.
Regina's ball of purple light returned, hovered over Whale for a moment, then sank into the wounds, marking them with purple light.
"Same creature?" Emma asked.
"Yes, but I don't know what it is." Regina frowned and brushed her hands against her legs. "That spell should have given us an idea."
"Perhaps you'll need a more powerful spell," Blue offered, her voice just barely not snide as she stood over the body. "I imagine most of your magic isn't concerned with tracking dark creatures."
Emma opened her mouth but a nearly imperceptible shake of Regina's head and she stopped. She wouldn't pick a fight.
"If you're done here, we're ready to move the body," Doc said, indicating a stretcher they must have brought from the hospital.
"Yeah, we're good." Emma headed for the tree, studying the heavy forked branch where Whale's legs had been hung. "What kind of thing hangs a body from a tree?"
"It's a fairly common behaviour in some carnivores, keeping the kill away from other predators," Regina answered, standing beside Emma.
Emma forced herself not to smirk. "Thanks, Animal Planet." Trying to imagine how big something would have to be to move a body that high, she discounted the harpies. Maybe in numbers they could have done that, but if there had been a swarm, his body would have been covered in smaller, shallower wounds. "So what from the other world is a carnivore that would kill something and come back later?"
Regina turned her head without speaking and she met Emma's eyes. They knew two large carnivores that had enough strength to lift a body into a tree, and carry one out over the ocean. Emma hadn't been that close to Lily or Maleficent's claws, but she knew without needing to see them they would be huge and sharp.
"Did George and Whale know each other?" Emma asked, keeping her voice low. "Would they have been together last night? Smoking cigars?"
Regina's lips curled in an expression of disgust. Emma couldn't blame her. The two men on their own were bad enough. Imagining them as colleagues was unpleasant to say the least. "They know - knew each other, but they weren't friends. Perhaps we should ask your mother, I hear she knows Whale fairly well."
Emma winced. "Not a conversation I wanted to have."
Regina's eyes twinkled before she sobered, turning back to study the tree and letting Emma think.
"Other than me wanting to smack them both in the town meeting yesterday, I can't think of any reason they'd both be victims of whatever this is."
Regina touched her shoulder and they stared up at the blood staining the bark. Her touch reminded Emma that she wasn't to blame, that she couldn't have stopped this. "I doubt your annoyance did this."
"Do you have any idea what did?"
Regina shook her head, taking a step closer, her hand slipping into Emma's. "Nothing good."
It wasn't like Emma expected anything differently but the urge to to bang her head against the nearest tree was still pretty strong.