Chapter Four
"I did what you asked. He's gone." Vivien stared into the distance, refusing to let her eyes track the predatory movements of her master. Mistress. Same thing.
"I know. I felt it. Did you think I wasn't watching?" the dulcet tone was always at the edge of laughter, teetering on the brink of madness.
"I wouldn't want you to doubt." She dropped her eyes to her feet, unable to stare at the wall any longer before her vision blurred.
"I never doubted you at all, my dear!" laughter; cold, unfeeling giggles, "I also saw all you learned. Clever little minx; seducing all those tricks and spells out of the fool. Did you think they'd help you?"
"I," Vivien swallowed a lump of despair as truth overwhelmed her, "I hoped."
"Of course you did. That was probably what made you so endearing. Our chivalric heroes do so love a damsel in distress, don't they? Yet for all you learned you're still here."
"I tried." She bit the words, wishing she could pour her hate into a more physical form.
"And you did everything I hoped. Even when you didn't want to! Delightful. Now you're back here where you belong. Don't forget this, child. You are mine and no magic in the world will free you," the ageless visage took on a pouting expression, "Fortunate for me you are so pretty to look at. Heavens know your mind is useless. Now, let's see how you can make up for your absence."
Vivien burst out of bed with such a violent shock that she rolled to the floor. She wrestled and struggled with the sheets before realizing that no other occupant was attacking her. She lay panting on the floor for some minutes, staring at the ceiling as she fought the bile back down her throat.
This was not her bedroom. After 28 years in StoryBrooke she knew quite a few of the local bedrooms and this wasn't one she'd ever seen before. She rose unsteadily and noticed that she was still in her clothes from the previous night. The jeans were stiff from the dried sweat of her night's dreams. The room held only a single bed. Good, that meant she hadn't done anything too stupid last night. Voices were floating up from the floor beneath her feet. Many of them raised in argument. Granny, Ruby, the Sheriff, a handful of others.
Vivien marched into the bathroom to freshen up. She didn't know how she'd come to be tucked in at Granny's Inn but it was a relief nonetheless. Only feeling vaguely human, she made her way downstairs. The sheriff was absorbed in an argument with Ruby and her grandmother. On the sidelines stood a petite brunette and a blonde man – David! Vivien recognized in surprise. She hadn't seen him since his comatose days in the hospital. He looked fully conscious now, and moderately pissed.
"We are going to help her. I promised Henry!" Swan was almost shouting at the Lucas'.
"That thing is an instrument of justice. Regina is to blame for all of us being here. Rumplestiltskin is right; let the soul sucker have her! If it can even find a soul in that evil shell." Granny grumbled completely unfazed by the percolating temper.
"She's right, Emma. I saw that thing; way closer than I would've liked. It's suicide going up against it!" Ruby seconded. That was when Vivien had the misfortune of hitting the noisy stair. Everyone looked up in – well, that wasn't surprise; not exactly fear either. They all looked ready to launch an attack, muscles coiled to a hair trigger.
"Vivien! You saw it! Tell them it's crazy to fight that thing!" Ruby grabbed Lake's resisting arm and hauled her into the conversation. All she really wanted to do was get somewhere quiet and contemplate the facts that were spinning in her head. Regina was responsible somehow. Everyone made that clear. But what and how were total blanks.
"I don't remember much of last night." Vivien dodged artfully. The best lies had a lot of truth.
"You must remember that soul sucking thing! It was less than three feet from your face!" Ruby insisted. Damn the girl. Hints were as effective on her as water balloons on a tank.
"You encountered the wraith?" the small brunette spoke up for the first time. She was impressively in control given the way the whole town seemed to be unraveling. Vivien vaguely remembered her from the hospital as well. Sometimes she'd be there talking to David while the PT took his limbs through standard exercises. School teacher. That was it.
"Just for a second." Vivien desperately wished she could squirm away from all their gazes.
"Whatever. She nearly touched the thing!" Ruby announced, unwilling to relinquish her ace.
"That's gutsy." The sheriff finally turned her full attention on the therapist. Penetrating. There was no other word for those blue eyes. Damn. No wonder even Regina occasionally regarded this woman as an equal.
"Not really. They do a lot of damage but soul ea- suckers," she corrected herself at the last moment, "Can't directly attack anyone other than prey. The rest is all bark."
"And no bite? Interesting," Emma's eyes narrowed and she inspected Lake on a microscopic level, "Well, there you have it. We're at no risk helping Regina. Even if we were, I'm not breaking my promise to Henry. If the soul sucker wants her, it's going to go through us."
There were sighs and grumbles of surrender from Ruby and her grandmother but no further argument. The school teacher and David busied themselves with some strategy planning. Emma was about to turn away and join them when Vivien caught her arm.
"Sheriff Swan? I wanted to thank you." Lake spoke before her nerves got the best of her.
"Everyone keeps doing that," Emma's eyes rolled slightly in irritation, "I really didn't know I was breaking the curse! I appreciate all the gratitude but you're all giving me way too much credit."
"I didn't mean the curse," Vivien interrupted the rant, "I actually might've preferred that life. I meant thank you for protecting Regina. Yesterday and today, whatever it is you're planning."
"You're a friend of Regina?" Swan stared in absolute wonder. Apparently Vivien was the first. Not totally unexpected. She wished it were true.
"No. I don't think she allows herself friends. But I," careful, girl, don't betray client privilege, "I know her better than most. I don't think she's what everyone assumes."
Vivien saw that piercing gaze turned on again and realized that the sheriff was surgically analyzing her words, her very thoughts, looking for the lies. Finding none, the blue eyes took on a slightly friendlier shimmer.
"Well, I don't know this Evil Queen people keep talking about but the Mayor can be a real bitch on wheels."
"I think we all can." Vivien replied before she even realized she was speaking. It must've been the right thing to say because Swan hesitated, pondering the statement before she replied.
"Yeah. I guess so." The blonde chuckled her reply before excusing herself with David and the schoolteacher.
Vivien sagged against a wall. She felt like she'd just been through trial by ordeal and barely skated through on the skin of her teeth. It was worth it though; apparently the blonde sheriff had decided some of her thoughts were worth pondering.
"Hey, you passed out last night and I don't know where you stay. Hope you don't mind I brought you here." Ruby appeared in front of her with a mug of steaming coffee.
"If you give me that cup I'd forgive you dumping me in a sewer." Lake held out one beseeching hand. Normally a born tease the waitress was wise enough this time to show mercy and just pushed the coffee into her desperate hands.
"You think Regina deserves protecting? You definitely aren't from our world." Ruby leaned against the wall, a little too close to Vivien's space bubble but she was used to that with the flirty brunette.
"I," Vivien paused again, trying to gauge how much she could safely give away and how much to keep private, "I only know her as Mayor Mills."
The less said the better.
"Really?! Everyone knows the Queen! Sit back, girl. I'll fill you in!" Ruby popped her gum once and proceeded to launch into an epic story. Except it wasn't an epic as much as it was a soap opera. Vivien listened through a haze of disbelief as petty wrongs were traded, mistakes made, vendettas born of betrayal, crimes exacerbating each other; all to the grand culmination of a vengeance so selfish it could only be born of a broken heart. Vivien kept taking sips of coffee to cover over her urge to laugh. She focused on the part with the curse. That was the only bit that mattered to her. When Ruby finally finished she was regarding Lake with an expression expecting marvel, possibly even righteous indignation.
"Fascinating." Was Vivien's less than enthusiastic review.
"That's it? Come on! You have to be at least a little pissed that Regina's stupid revenge ripped you away from your home." Ruby was still digging for the expected reaction.
"I wasn't home at the time. Thanks for filling me in, Ruby, I appreciate it. Oh, and I'll owe you for the coffee." Vivien thrust the empty mug back at her.
"On the house." Ruby muttered, but only the jangling bell of the door answered.
The sheriff's office was still in chaos from the attack last night. Papers were everywhere, desks overturned, all the furniture tossed around the room like toys in a children's playhouse. The only point of calm and order was, ironically, within the occupied cell. Regina was as composed as ever. She was sitting on the bed, back against a wall, apparently staring into the distance. Vivien wasn't fooled. She knew the mayor's body had tensed up the moment she heard someone approach and was currently tracking her every footstep. There had always been something supernatural about Regina's vigilance. Some part of the woman never let go.
She'd come to the jail to ask questions, to get information about the curse. She needed to know about the land everyone had come from and more importantly whether her own land had been affected. Were there others here she might know? How had she been drawn into something so foreign?
The questions had all silenced as soon as she saw the familiar dignity of the Mayor. Everything in the last 24 hours faded to the background and Vivien was simply looking at a patient. One with a long history of pain.
Vivien had pegged her as an abuse victim from early on. She'd never been able to find out much, just the occasional vague answer dismissing old injuries. Professional ethics prevented her from prying but right now she felt the curiosity turning into an urgent demand. The story of the curse had been awfully one-sided. There was lots of sympathy and praise for the virtuous Snow White and very little explanation about the wicked step-mother. Every fiber of Lake's being knew that couldn't be where the story began.
"Can I help you, Miss Lake?" Regina finally spoke, turning eyes full of impatient irritation on her. Vivien hadn't realized that she'd just been standing at the bars staring. She blushed.
"So formal, Mayor Mills. I came to check that you weren't hurt last night." Lake wasn't going to be rattled by the cold greeting. It was part of the routine.
"This doesn't look like your office." Regina pulled that perfect arch of an eyebrow that she so often used to tell the whole world they were inferior simpletons.
"The world is my office, Regina. I once had to bring my equipment down here to work on Leroy's jaw so he could give his statement about starting a brawl." Vivien shrugged and pulled a chair over to sit facing the cell.
"Your dedication is touching but I assure you I'm fine." Regina stated firmly and then closed her eyes, ending the conversation.
"Right. You've been mobbed, imprisoned and attacked by a wraith. I'm sure everything is just peachy." She allowed the sarcasm to roll out. That was routine too. It seemed to make Regina more comfortable.
"I've survived worse." The mayor simply shrugged.
"I know. I've worked on the injuries. Honestly, they make more sense now. 'Car accident,' my ass. You probably were off wrestling ogres. The rotator cuff damage, was that your sword hand?" Vivien leaned forward, making sure she could watch for the glint of amusement in those brown eyes. There it was!
"I left monster-baiting to Charming's people. They had such an affinity for crude tactics. I prefer my battles to have more finesse." Regina turned to her with a smirk.
"So you dislocated your shoulder repeatedly with finesse! Of course! I should've known." Vivien popped her fingers, her expression of mock astonishment pushing the Mayor's smirk closer to a smile.
"Magic can be very physically demanding."
"Then it suits you. Everything about you is demanding. Mostly of patience. Are you going to let me see your shoulder or not?"
"Vivien-," she was starting to object again.
"Ah-ha! You do remember my name. Good! Now, do you remember how these arguments used to go? Do you remember who always won?" Lake rose and began stretching her hands, ready to get to work.
She knew she was going to win. It was too ingrained. Her first year treating the Mayor had been one never-ending argument about schedules, self-care, maintenance and re-injury. Eventually, though, even the high-and-mighty Mayor Mills had realized she functioned better when she wasn't in nagging pain. Not that she'd ever acknowledged being in pain. She was the type of woman who'd suppressed everything down to such a level of denial that you could've stabbed her and she'd just ask if you filed the proper paperwork for the assault.
"Why on earth would you still want to help me?" Regina rose and regarded her through the bars, her words dripping with haughty cynicism. Ah, the distrust. There had been a lot of that early on as well. That had taken even longer to conquer.
"You helped me get my start in this town," literally, "I'd like to keep you as an ally."
The Mayor gazed at her silently for a few seconds; weighing her words, analyzing the person behind them. Odd, it was almost the same as Emma's scrutiny. Both women had such heavy armor around themselves and they dissected everyone that came in their path. Friend or foe? Enemy or ally? Vivien wondered if either woman had ever experienced a single moment of complete safety. Or if they had and knew it could be destroyed.
"All right. But please remember I need to use this arm tonight." Regina finally gave in and turned around.
"I promise you'll still be able to kick soul sucker butt." Vivien agreed and reached through the bars.
She'd never had to work in these exact circumstances but adaptability was one of her assets. She tested out the shoulder for movement, limitations, tender points, strengths; the attack had definitely aggravated the old injury. Her occasional command to move was obeyed with grudging sarcasm or a slight hiss of pain. Little by little she felt the restrictions loosen. Movement became easier, more fluid. Even the pain was decreasing, if the fact that Regina's shoulders weren't hiking towards her ears anymore meant anything. Funny, her body always gave away all the things her face didn't. Like the fact that she was actually relaxing.
"Good. Now we can just smooth it out." Vivien commented more to herself, moving into her cool down routine with some light massage into the neck and shoulders.
"I think you just wanted to get your hands on me again." Regina teased. Vivien didn't need to see her face to know she was smiling. She always became more playful towards the end of a treatment.
"Who wouldn't? Sadly, I don't think I'm your type." Vivien sighed wistfully. It would've been more convincing if she didn't chuckle at the end.
"Is that so? And what, pray tell, is my type?" Regina turned slightly, just enough so Lake could see the challenge in her face. Challenge. That was what the woman thrived on. Thus far only one person had presented any.
"Blonde." Vivien answered before thinking. That wasn't good because when she didn't think she tended to say something honest. Usually something that shouldn't be said. The tension that shot into the Mayor's shoulders was like an electric shock. She went from soft and malleable to rock solid in an instant.
"I believe that will be adequate treatment." Regina took a firm step away and spun, nailing Vivien to her spot with a white hot glare. Lake winced a little, not so much from the glower but from the way the Mayor's body had gone whip tight again. It would be pointless to try to apologize. Regina's eyes made it very clear that she felt the whole conversation should be erased.
"I guess it'll have to do," Vivien took a step back, "For now. But once you're out of here I expect to see you for a full session."
"I'll take it under advisement." The armor wasn't budging an inch. Vivien turned to leave, then swung back when a particular realization finally hit.
"You called me Vivien."
"A careless lapse in formality, I assure you." The Mayor's hand moved dismissively. Well, that was regal enough.
"You don't know me by any other name?" she stepped back to the bars again, wanting to get as close as she could to watch for any hint of surprise or deception.
"My dear, I could hardly be bothered to know the names of every life my curse ruined." The eye roll was second to her brow arch for pointedly telling people they were fools. That statement was certainly true enough. Regina Mills was at her most sincere when trivializing the plight of others.
There was noise in the corridor, a set of footsteps approaching. A couple in fact. Vivien shot a look over her shoulder before turning back to the bars a final time.
"You didn't ruin my life. I think you might've saved it." she was gratified to see a hint of puzzle flicker over the Mayor's usually unflappable expression before she turned away. She got to the doorway just as Sheriff Swan and Henry walked in.
"Hi, Viv! Who are you?" the boy greeted her happily. He'd often come with his mother to her treatments when he was younger. He'd loved playing with all the bones she kept for reference.
"I haven't decided yet, buddy." She smiled and ruffled his hair. The demurral went unnoticed by the child but not the sheriff. No time to analyze though, the boy was already running over to his mother in the cell. Vivien smiled at the way Regina melted at the sight of Henry. He always was her soft spot. Emma hovered over them both, hands nervously jammed into her pockets. Henry was full of concern at first, checking that his adoptive mother hadn't been hurt. That segued into a discussion about the wraith and the attack and their battle plans.
"Can I help?" Henry was almost vibrating with excitement.
"No!" both mothers answered in unison. That led to an awkward eye contact between the two women. It drew out for a few seconds longer than comfortable until Regina looked down and Emma ran a hand through her hair. More conversations erased.
Feeling like she was intruding Vivien exited as quietly as possible. Behind her she could hear Emma and Regina arguing on the safest place for Henry to stay until the wraith was dealt with.