A/N: Those of you who follow my tumblr will know how very hard this chapter was for me to write. I actually had it all nice and finished and sent off to my lovely and patient beta killer-elephants last week, and then I realized that I hated it and demanded of her not to read it, and completely re-wrote most of it. In other words: I'm exceedingly sorry for the length of time this took to update. I will try very, very hard to keep it from happening again, and hope the chapter makes up for it. As a side note, this chapter officially marks the point at which this story turned from a novella into a novel. yay!

Drop me a line if you like it, I love hearing what you have to say.

~M

Chapter XII: I'll Keep You Warm Against the Cold Night Air

Storybrooke

"What do you mean you're 'going to give it to her'?" Emma's hands were on her hips, watching as Regina began pacing again, if you could call it that. Whooshing from corner to corner of the front of the school, pausing for half a second, and then whooshing back.

"Just what I said, Miss Swan," she spat out in answer, coming to a halt before the Hunter. "Cora," and there was such venom in the tone around that one word that Emma actually took a step back, "has my son. If she wants me in exchange for him, then that's exactly what she'll get."

Emma raised an eyebrow, not believing what she was hearing. "You can't honestly be considering just waltzing up to her once we find her and just giving yourself to her!" she exclaimed. Her hands were clenching and unclenching over and over, fingers itching with the need to do something. Or, preferably, kill something.

"Do you have a better idea?!" Regina spat.

"Hell, yeah! We go in, find our son, get him and get out!"

The Queen's arms wrapped around her own shoulders again, and it almost looked to Emma that she was fighting the urge to rock herself like a child. "It isn't that simple," she finally said, quietly. Her voice was tiny again. Fear... or memories, were taking over.

Quickly, Emma moved closer. Her hands reached out, lightly placing themselves on either of Regina's shoulder, stopping her in her pacing so she could lock eyes with the vampire. "Yeah," she assured her. "It is. We are going to get him back, Regina. I don't care how dangerous she is or what she's done in the past, but we are going to kill this bitch and get our son home. ...Together." Her mouth fumbled around that last word as if even the taste was something foreign, but she managed to get it out, taking a deep breath and squeezing Regina's shoulders in what she hoped was reassurance.

A tremor rippled through the Queen. Emma watched as the darkness receded a bit from brown eyes, her higher brain functions seeming to return. Regina sighed and finally nodded. If she was going to say something else, she was stopped when a sudden whoosh of motion came into the periphery of their vision.

Regina jerked away from Emma's touch as if it physically burned, just in time for the blur to slow enough to reveal itself to be Sidney. Her gaze instantly hardened when no wolves came running up in the moments following. "Well?" she snarled. "Where's Eugenia?"

Looking incredibly uncomfortable, Sidney swallowed visibly, speaking in a quiet, halting voice. "...She's... dead, my Queen."

"What?!" Emma couldn't be sure if it was her voice or Regina's that made the vampire cringe, but they'd both whirled on him and glared with demanding eyes, so it may well have been both.

Sidney couldn't even stammer out a reply, his eyes bulged wide in their sockets. "Sh-she..."

Regina snarled, cutting him off with a wave of her hand and a snap of her fangs. "Never mind, you idiot! Move, now!"

Jumping to comply, Sidney sped off in the direction of the diner. It was only a moment for Emma to wrap her arms around Regina is a position that was really becoming far more comfortable than it had any right to be, and they were whooshing off after him.

…

Somewhere outside of Storybrooke

Henry had never been afraid of the dark. It probably came from the fact that he spent most of his life in it, but darkness itself had always been a good thing- the beginning of the day, rather than the end. The time to wake up and play and go to school and see his moms.

But he was beginning to truly dread the light. The dark was the only thing there had been in the small room he'd awoken in, alone. He'd screamed at the door for a while, once he had found it, and pounded his fists against it in an effort to knock it down. When that had proved ineffective, he'd huddled himself against the wall and tried to be brave and wait. His mothers would come for him. His faith in that was unwavering.

His voice, however, was not, when the other screams started- the sobbing, wrenching pleading and bargaining and frantic cries of 'oh god, no!' His tears slipped quietly down his face as he imagined another Grace. They fell even more when the screams ended abruptly, fizzling out into the dark. And he was still alone.

And then came the light. It was only jarring, at first- a sudden blaze of blinding white to eyes that had become so used to darkness. His corneas felt on fire, and he hastily shielded his eyes, hissing in pain from the brightness alone.

It took a while for the other effects of the UV to kick in. And he knew that was what it was when the faint sensation of buzzing began beneath his skin. There was no shelter to be found in the room, nothing but him and the glaring, stinging overhead light. The knowledge was unsettling, but did not make him afraid. Not yet. He could endure it in silence for hours before it became anything more than uncomfortable. He'd fed recently, after all.

Now, the itching was getting unbearable. His hands clenched into fists so tight he drew blood in small crescents from his own palms, desperately trying to avoid the itch to scratch at himself. His mind was growing fuzzy, and it was becoming increasingly hard to stay conscious. He felt dazed, swooning a bit against the wall, but on one point, his mind stayed resolute:

His mothers would come. They had to.

…

The door to the back room was hanging open on its hinges, the papers Emma had been going through not hours before now scattered around every horizontal surface.

As soon as her feet had once again hit solid ground, Emma was out of Regina's arms and rushing toward the fallen form of Granny Lucas. Beside her hand, the Alpha's trusty crossbow was snapped in two.

Regina had a different destination in mind, quickly zooming around the room and frantically rifling through sheaves of papers. She gave a soft cry of relief and clutched a box to her chest before tucking it safely away inside her blazer. The box, Emma realized, that contained the daguerreotype of herself and Daniel.

"Regina," Emma called over her shoulder, her own hands busy gently rolling the fallen woman onto her back and checking for a pulse. She fought the urge to cringe. Granny's chest was awash with blood, a fist-sized hole ripped into the front of her sweater. Her neck was also bleeding. Bite marks.

"Vampire," the Hunter diagnosed with a snarl, and her hand instantly went to her gun, pulling the pistol out and cocking it. "Cora?"

Regina's attention now back to the real task at hand, the Queen knelt down at Emma's side, lightly brushing the Hunter's hands away so she could inspect the wounds herself. She gave a faint hiss. It only took a glance to know it hadn't been Cora. Regina shook her head, "No, but we're meant to think so. This was done by the same vampire who attacked Mary Margaret. The heart's been exposed and tugged, but it's still in place." One of her hands hovering above the wound, Regina closed her eyes. "...She's alive."

Forgotten just outside the door, Sidney gaped. "She is?"

Regina's eyes snapped back open, falling on him. "Fetch Graham and Ruby. And be careful. The attacker can't have gotten far." She closed her eyes again, raising both hands over the wound now. Her lips began to move, but no sound fell from them.

Shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other, Sidney looked extremely uncomfortable, but cleared his throat again."...Perhaps I should stay with you, my Queen? It might be-"

Hissing at being interrupted, Regina's attention clicked back into place, focusing on her lackey. The Queen glared at him with all the intensity of the wall of light she and Maleficent had conjured only a few nights ago."Are you disobeying me, Sidney?"

"...Of course not, your majesty."

She nodded, not pleasantly. "I thought not. Go."

He went.

Emma titled her head, frowning. A memory was tugging at the corners of her mind, just out of reach, but whatever it was eluded her grasp.

Taking a moment to center herself, Regina's eyes once again closed, and her concentration began anew. Emma didn't even watch, her mind whirling in a haze of its own jumbled thoughts. She tried to make sense of them while Regina worked.

Palms once more raised above the bleeding werewolf, Regina slowed her mind, thinking of little but the warmth of the sun. The sun was the source for all life on the planet, and even when set, its presence could be seen and felt in all living things. It took a skilled hand to know how to utilize that presence, how to draw the energy like poison from a wound and mold it, shape it into something that could be used. Regina had centuries of practice. In mere moments, her hands began to glow.

With a choked gasp, Granny suddenly inhaled sharply, sitting up quickly enough that she smacked her head against Regina's.

Shocked out of her spell, Regina gave a squeak of pain and roughly shoved her hand down over the Alpha's collarbone. "Stay down, damn you," she groused, nursing a bonked nose that was already perfectly healed. "I'm not finished." She gave another small snarl and attempted to find her energies again, to draw them back to her after they'd been so forcibly scattered.

Granny seemed dazed, blinking her eyes open slowly and looking down at the hand on her chest. As if she expected to see it pass right through flesh that was newly knit back together. "...You healed me?" she gasped in wonder.

"Obviously." Had Regina not been busy, she may well have shrugged. As it was, her fingers flexed, and the remaining solar energies slid back into Eugenia, repairing the rest of the damage. When finished, she sagged a bit, weary. Healing always took a large toll on her.

Granny found it in her to smile, hesitantly raising her own hand to her recent injury and inspecting the not-damage."Why, Regina," she gave a small, knowing chuckle. "Getting soft in your old age?"

Rolling her eyes, the Queen found it hard not to smile back, and instead shook her head, tossing any stray hairs back into place. "Hardly," she mused, and smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her shirt. "But it's taken me this long to get used to you." Her tone of voice could almost have been playful, repeating lines Granny herself had used only a few nights prior. "I'd hate to have to find myself a new Alpha," she smirked.

"Hah!"

Smiling in earnest, Regina sat back on her heels and rose to her feet. Or attempted to. She swooned dizzily, and dulled reflexes barely caught the edge of the table to pull herself upright.

Granny frowned, rising herself and pulling the ragged edges of her clothes together over her chest. "You look tired," she said again. "I'll get you a pick-me-up. I think I have some in the kitchen."

"That won't be neces-" Regina began, steadying herself enough to release the table and turning back to see the old werewolf already gone. She shook her head, another faint little smile on her lips. And only then did she notice Emma.

The blonde was sitting on the floor, her long legs folded under herself. Her lips were pursed, brow lined deeply in thought. Carefully, the Queen made her way over, and debated putting a hand on the other woman's shoulder before decided against it. Still, she'd prefer to avoid healing twice in the same night, and so very lightly asked, "Miss Swan? ...What are you doing?"

Emma didn't look up. "I'm thinking. Something doesn't add up."

Another smile slid itself over Regina's features, and she leaned against the edge of the table. "Well, don't strain yourself, dear."

Uneasy silence filled the room and the Queen began to get antsy again. Damn Eugenia and her caretaker urges. She needed the wolf to get back so they could get on with finding their son. Or, she mused, Sidney would be back with Graham and Ruby soon. Maybe they could...

"Sidney," Emma finally said, the suddenness of it forcing a small spasm to rush through Regina's spine. She blinked, almost afraid that the blonde had read her mind before she shook off the idea as nonsense.

Looking at the brunette fully now, Emma's face was completely earnest, as if this was a life or death matter that would finally jar the jumbled mess of her thoughts into place. "You asked if he was disobeying you. Does he have that option?"

Nodding, Regina gave a faint little shrug. "If he truly wished to. He's not mine, I didn't Turn him. What does that have to do with-?"

There! Green eyes grew wide in shock, and then promptly clouded over. Emma fell forward onto the ground, unconscious.

…

"Has he stopped fighting?" The door to the room next to Henry's opened, letting a faint bit of light from the hall spill in as booted feet scuffed quietly over the floors, breaking the silence that had filled the space since the screams had died down.

Keeping her eyes on the boy illuminated in a circle of UV light just on the other side of her silvered and shielded one-way mirror, Cora simply nodded in answer, holding out her hand to accept the glass of blood she knew was being offered. He handed it over immediately. Sipping from it, the Queen and her companion watched the boy in relative silence, taking supreme interest in the resolutely firm look on the boy's face, on the twitching of his lower jaw as his skin finally began to crack.

After a moment, the glass was drained. "So tell me, Hook." She pressed a finger to her lips, wiping off the last traces of blood and allowing her tongue to dart out to collect it from her fingertip. "What do you think of my grandson?"

The man beside her tilted his head as if to study the boy more closely. In the semi-dark, his eyes glinted yellow just for a moment before returning to their more normal brown. "He's got a hell of a lot of spirit, I'll give him that. Though I think it's safe to say that your little poisoning trick didn't work on him at all."

Cora scoffed, her grip on the now-empty glass of blood tightening in her irritation. "My spy was obviously incompetent. It's a wonder my daughter's put up with him for so long."

Raising an eyebrow, a faint smirk fell over Hook's lips, and he came close to chuckling. "Did he poison your daughter instead, do you think?"

"I doubt it," she sneered, as if such a mistake was beyond thought. "He's incompetent, yes. But he cares for her, the fool." She shook her head, close to laughing at the absurdity of it all. "I'm sure he made very certain there was no chance of her being poisoned."

"Is he? Well, that's enough to make one wonder why he attempted it in the first place."

"He had little choice, dear. I ordered it of him." Cora smirked, finally tiring of holding the cup and reaching her hand out to force him to take it again. He did, of course, unthinking.

Blinking and twirling the empty cup between his fingers, the werewolf actually laughed, surprised. "I didn't think you could give orders to vampires that weren't yours... majesty." The title was an afterthought, a quick appeasement to her vanity to get her to overlook the rest of his roguish behavior.

She was silent a long moment before answering, a long-nailed hand coming up to caress over her own face, as if in thought. Her fingers brushed over skin still tender and scarred from the UV lamp, and she sneered, her eyes locked onto the boy in the room before them. "They always have an option of disobeying. As I was ...reminded last night. But it takes a greater strength of character than our little poisoner possesses. And don't forget, dear: He isn't Regina's, either."

She turned away from the shielded glass, glancing at an operative in the corner. "Turn it off. He's had enough for now."

…

She was dreaming again. She had to be. Around her shimmered the threads of a hundred different memories, each gleaming and echoing throughout... whatever space she was in. Her mind, maybe. She was moving too fast to make sense of any of it, though, and Emma spun around, dazed and disoriented. It all became a jumble, like the papers at Granny's. The memories crowded in around her, fighting for dominance and precedence, and it was all too much to understand or even try to sort through on her own. She screamed, but no sound emerged.

And then it stopped. She got the distinct impression she was no longer alone. She felt it in the periphery of her consciousness, and looked around to see.

Kathryn stood above her. She said nothing. The silence was blissful. She was was smiling, holding out a hand.

Slowly, hesitantly, Emma took it, and Kathryn pulled her through the mire of her own memory, leading them as if with a definite goal. She'd have questioned it, but Emma now knew that she could not actually speak in this realm. Or her mind, or wherever the hell they were. So she simply followed. Kathryn led her to one memory in particular, keeping her from drifting on to others long enough to hear and see it. It was Regina, talking to her about Gold: "We had our... disagreements, and goodness knows a great number of people here detested him, but Gold was a Queen, and he was very much beloved by at least two people in this town."

She was led to another memory: killing Gold. And then another- Regina telling her that she only knew of two other Queens who knew about Storybrooke, that one of them had lived there. The other, of course, was Cora. Eyes widening, Emma understood the significance. Gold and Regina had been the only two Queens in the town.

Finally, she was led to look upon a last memory- a conversation with Kathryn herself that cemented everything, over drinks early one morning when Ruby and Mary Margaret had gone to bed. Emma listened as she was told how Sidney had been Claimed a long time ago. How he'd been turned, and his Queen had suddenly left in the middle of the night, leaving him with no one to turn to but Regina.

She whirled to look at the Kathryn beside her, mouth gaping open in shock.

Her friend only smiled at her again, the hand on her shoulder squeezing lightly in camaraderie. "Do you understand now, Emma?"

"Emma?"

"Emma!" Regina was gripping her shoulders, shaking her, and giving light slaps to her face.

Groggily, Emma felt her eyes fluttered open, staring up into a very concerned pair of brown eyes. "...Hey beautiful," she half-murmured, her brain struggling to catch up with what it had just processed. Then, with a start, Emma shot up, gripping Regina with bruising intensity. "Sidney! It was Sidney!"

"What are you-?!" Regina's words died in her throat. A thin line of blood was dripping down from the corner of Emma's eyes, so terribly, tauntingly close to her own. The scent flooded her nostrils, overwhelming senses that were bone-weary from healing. Her fangs instantly extended, her tongue was past her lips before she could tell herself no. She propelled herself to close the rest of the distance between them and her tongue dragged itself along the red track.

The first taste of Emma's blood flooded into her mouth, buzzing over her tastebuds like the finest of wines.

With a nearly-pained sounding squeal, she realized far too late what she was doing, and dropped her grip. The startled Hunter toppled forward from her arms into an undignified heap. And then it was suddenly Regina's mind that was buzzing, aflame with thoughts and images not her own. Emma's thoughts coursed through her body, traveling into her with the blood she'd just tasted.

Her mind was ablaze with images and one glaring accusation- Sidney.

Sidney, who had always been so loyal, so eager to please despite not really being hers. Sidney, who was supposed to have been guarding the wall the night of the attack, and who had struggled for long hours reportedly trying to get the grid back online. Allowing others to get inside the wall and provide a diversion to give him ample time to poison Regina's blood supply. Sidney, who had the means to do so, as he'd been invited into Regina's home, informing her of the attack in her own bedroom. Sidney, who was there when Regina's strength had given out after the sunburst in the field, who had asked, alarmed, why Emma would not give the Queen her own blood. And, once he realized, had rushed off to get his Queen blood from his own, untainted supply.

Sidney, who had been charged with guarding Henry while he was at school tonight, and had taken him, attacking Mary Margaret in the process. Sidney, who had likewise obviously attacked Eugenia when he'd been ordered to fetch her.

Because he had not been Turned by Regina.

Regina collapsed onto hands and knees beside Emma, and then threw her head back and screamed. Granny came running into the room, blood bag in her hand. Seeing Regina and Emma both in states of collapse on the floor, she ran to them, glancing at Emma first to see if she was injured and then turning to the Queen once she'd affirmed she was not. The bag of blood was ripped open, and wordlessly handed over to an extremely disoriented Regina.

Dazed but otherwise okay, Emma knelt up, the back of her hand scrubbing away a mix of her own blood and the Queen's saliva from her cheek. Her eyes were glazed but trying to focus on the Queen, confused and incredibly disoriented about what the hell had just happened. "...Regina?" The question was tentative, her fingers hesitant as the weren't quite sure whether to reach for her or not. "...Are you-?"

Draining the bag dry, Regina's head fell to one side. Tears were falling in heavy drops from the vampire's eyes, her chest heaving as she glared daggers at the Hunter. "What," she gasped. "The Hell. Did you do?!"

The Hunter shook her head, as baffled by her experience as Regina was. "I don't-"

"Never mind." Taking note of Granny's presence, Regina seemed to shake herself, quickly rising to her feet and brushing herself off. "Later," she promised Emma with an almost wary glance. She swallowed, looking as though about a thousand thoughts were still running through her mind, but she was electing to give attention to only one or two. She nodded her thanks to Granny, now on her feet and looking better than ever. "Whatever it was, Miss Swan, we'll deal with it later." She growled with her fangs bared, brown eyes slipping away to be consumed by inky blackness. "We have a traitor to catch."

The Hunter felt her shoulders slump just a little in defeat, but she nodded nonetheless, forcing herself into readiness much the same as the Queen had just done. Their son was still missing. Everything else could wait.

…

Sidney's end, Emma thought, had come too quickly. Granny had sniffed him out within minutes, holding him down with big wolf paws and sinking her canines deep into his legs when he'd tried to fight her off. She hadn't taken well to his attempt at ripping out her heart.

He'd admitted it all too easily, blubbering and sometimes screaming about how Gold had been his maker, how he'd fallen so easily in love with him, but his attentions were always elsewhere. When he wasn't obsessed with his quest to make more Sunwalkers, his focus had always been on Belle- his other Claimee. Sidney was always overlooked, taken only because he was a useful lackey to have in Gold's pocket. But still, he would not relent in his affections for the male Queen. He'd begged and pleaded for him to finally Turn him, hoping that once Gold had seen him as a vampire, he'd see how valuable an asset he truly was, and his affections could be returned.

It hadn't gone well, and then Gold had died. And it was all Henry's fault, because if he hadn't brought back the damn kid, and Gold hadn't succeeded in finally making another Sunwalker, then he never would have left again to find the birthmother. He'd snarled at Emma, then, telling her it was all her fault, that Gold had been so excited to learn she hadn't died, and had run off, determined to recreate his success.

And Sidney had been left all alone to turn to Regina instead. Regina, who was wonderful, and had taken him close into her confidence despite not being the one who had made him. He could forgive Regina for raising the boy who had been responsible for driving away his true Queen.

But Henry... he could not forgive him. Especially not when he went off and brought back the very reason Gold had died. He spat at Emma then, and she nearly had to be pulled off by Regina when she pulled out her nearest gun.

When Cora had approached him, Sidney told them, he'd had no problem obeying the orders of the Queen, so long as it was only Henry who suffered. But he'd put his foot down on the point that Regina would not be actually harmed. He'd also demanded that Emma be killed in the attack. And while it had certainly been attempted, no one had accounted for her skills. Her survival was, he said, a fluke. One he'd intended to correct himself, after Henry had been successfully taken.

It had been worth it, Emma decided, for the look on his face when she told him she'd been the one who had killed his precious Queen. His struggles against Granny's hold on him had been considerable, then, and Emma almost wished he'd broken free, just so she could have an excuse to kill him right there.

With a nod, Regina ordered the Alpha to let go.

Snarling, Sidney had lunged for Emma. A single shot and a puddle later, and now Emma was left with a sigh, thinking that it had really ended far too quickly.

Regina's hand on her shoulder brought her out of the reverie she was in, staring at the puddle.

Blinking, she looked up, noting the look of approval, if not a small twinge of sadness, in the Queen's eyes.

"Let's find our son."

Emma nodded.