Chapter Eight
Vivien half expected to find Regina lounging in her office chair like she owned the space. She'd met Fauna at the door and the head nurse was obviously feeling grievously offended by the Mayor's refusal to be cowed to her authority. Apparently the orderlies had been trying to clean Vivien's office and Regina had grown irritated and announced that if they didn't stop scurrying around scratching at things she would turn them all into mice.
The office was therefore currently half cleaned and occupied with only the Mayor's imperious form. Regina was pacing. Vivien had heard the clicking of her pristine heels all the way down the corridor. She could tell by the pace that the woman was simmering, nerves or emotions building to a boil. It was the same rhythm of family waiting for surgeries to end, defendants anticipating a verdict, prisoners hoping for pardon. Regina's stride was the impatience of being stuck on the edge between life and death.
Vivien didn't even have time to offer a greeting. The moment she stepped through the doorway Regina spun and dominated her personal space as only someone used to getting their way can.
"Can you write prescriptions?" the Mayor bypassed any of their more traditional greeting rituals. Not even any sarcasm? Damn, this is serious. Vivien frowned. She hadn't seen Regina for several days, not since their conversation at the mansion. She knew the Mayor didn't respond well to nagging and so had given her space. It hadn't served her well. Regina looked pale beneath her makeup and Vivien could see the circles beneath her eyes that spoke of lost sleep.
"I have an advanced RN certification and prescription pads." Vivien answered carefully. Hell, I got the extra certification just so I could write my own! She'd become far too expert at forgeries and even now the sight of a blank prescription sheet excited her with ideas of cocktail chemistry. A huge fan of drugs herself, she was just hypocrite enough to prefer her patients not take any.
"Good. I need something and that damn Cricket wouldn't help." From this close Lake could tell Regina's breath was twitchy, halted. Her pulse was throbbing in the artery by her throat at a rapid staccato. Vivien felt an uncomfortable pang of sympathy.
"Anything in particular?" the therapist was mentally running through all the drugs she imagined Regina could use. Sedatives for sleep. An SSRI for her temper. Benzo's for the anxiety, no, make that a tranquilizer.
"Something that will stop me from peeling off my skin." The words were coarse and harsh with the pain of admission. She wasn't in control and she did not like it. Vivien bit her lip and nodded. She remembered all too clearly the days of feeling trapped in her own body, the way the air felt heavy and itchy and she was desperately tired yet couldn't hold still.
"This isn't exactly standard withdrawal so I don't think you need opiate blockers," Vivien went to her desk and began rummaging in the drawers, "A tricyclic antidepressant would help with the emotional reactions and stabilize your moods."
"I'm not depressed, I'm angry! I can't blow people through walls or rip out hearts so I may have to start punching them instead!" Regina's fists were already clenched, awaiting a victim.
"Just don't use your right arm; the shoulder needs to stay relaxed." Vivien glanced up at her with a smirk. Even in her agitated state the brunette noticed the joke and managed a weak smile.
"I can't keep feeling like this. I have to be better for Henry!" She had resumed pacing, her hands worrying each other as though she could wring the feelings out through her fingers. Vivien found what she'd been searching for in the back of her bottom file drawer.
"You will be. You can do this, Regina. Look, I can give you clonidine; it'll settle you down and take the edge off your nerves. But honestly, what helped me the most when I was getting off pills was this stuff." She tossed the bottle and the Mayor didn't even flinch, snatching it out of air like prey.
"Oil?" she eyed the contents skeptically.
"It's a lot of stuff, mostly natural. My worst problem was that I couldn't sleep. I was wound so tight I could barely breathe. Just add a good amount of that to a bath before bed or apply it directly to your skin. It'll help you relax, make your skin feel like it fits again." Vivien hoped that 'mostly' natural was enough. She actually wasn't altogether sure of a lot of the ingredients. She'd wrought havoc in her medicine chest one night when she'd wanted to rip her eyes out and had just blended everything that felt and smelled right. The resulting concoction would probably have the FDA and the natural healing people both in fits but it bloody well worked.
Regina unscrewed the cap of the bottle and sniffed, probably expecting the scent of lavender and cannabis. Her eyes closed for a moment as she concentrated on picking apart the complicated scent. The effect was almost instantaneous: her face relaxing, the furrow between her brows vanishing, every muscle in her body releasing from its spastic coil. When she opened her eyes again there was a glitter of surprised revelation.
"Now I know something new about you, Miss Lake. You're a healer." Regina's lips had curled slightly in relief and now widened to a cocky smile.
"Physical therapist." Vivien pointed out, gesturing to the office.
"I don't mean here. I mean who you were before. This balm, I don't know the names of the ingredients here but I recognize it. A very skilled and practiced healer used to be paid a great deal of money to make this ointment for my mother." There was no denying that the Mayor was enjoying having found a clue to Vivien's past.
"I guess the tension is hereditary then?" Lake's natural humor defenses came to her aid. Deflect, distract and when all else fails, deny. It hadn't occurred to her that her old skills might've been bleeding through to her that night. She certainly hadn't been herself – either of her selves.
"But the woman who made this concoction before was very old and supposedly the only one in the world to know the recipe. Now, either she left it behind with someone younger to carry on her practice or . . ." Regina left the sentence hanging. They both knew the answer but Vivien had to be the one to say it. She had to admit the fact or else be caught trying to lie.
"I'm not from your world." She conceded with a casual shrug. If she didn't make a big deal out of it, perhaps no one else would.
"And you have no intention of telling me your origins." Regina leaned against the desk with her arms crossed. The balm had already done wonders for soothing her nerves, putting her back in charge of herself and the situation.
"Not yet. I can't."
"I imagined as much." The Mayor tilted her head a fraction, acknowledging Vivien's honesty and acquiescing to her right for privacy. For now.
"I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you. I just to have to find out a few things first." Lake could feel the other woman's respectful restraint pulling words out of her more effectively than any question ever could.
"Anything I can help with?" what would've been a casual offer from anyone else was laden with significance between them. Regina wasn't offering the same superficial, easy assistance she might give any citizen as mayor. Despite her casual tone she was proffering the whole of her abilities, anything that might be necessary. The meaning was underlined in the way they could only hold eye contact for a few seconds, mutually looking away.
"Yeah, tell my why the hell this town doesn't have a bookstore?" Vivien rose from her chair for no reason. That was stupid. She wanted to pace but couldn't; it would give away her mental agitation.
"Having people read about the outside world would be a dangerous pastime. They might go and get ideas of traveling. Hardly safe considering what happened to anyone that crossed the town line under curse."
"Some of us would've liked to buy a cookbook now and then." Vivien joked but didn't really feel the humor.
"Rumple asked for the key to the library the other day. I imagine it will be opening for public use shortly." Regina volunteered, triumphant with her ace.
"You gave it to him? In exchange for what?!" Vivien felt a fusion of fear and bile turning her stomach. Gold had a price for everything. His deals always cost more than anyone expected.
"Nothing," Regina looked far away for a moment, "It wasn't for him. I owed Belle that much."
A dozen questions leaped to Lake's mouth but the expression on the Mayor's face held them back. The woman was still coming to terms with her demons; she didn't need anyone else reaching in and poking with a stick. The silence was broken by an offended huff from the doorway.
"You're still here?" Fauna demanded, "Don't you have other lives to go ruin?"
The head nurse stomped over to Regina and squared herself for a fight. It wasn't the most intimidating aspect seeing as she barely came to the other woman's chin.
"Don't you have other useless bimbos to enable?" The Mayor retaliated with her sweetest smile.
"Hey, play nice!" Vivien put a hand on Fauna's shoulder to pull her away. She really didn't know what would happen when a fairy godmother fought with an evil queen but since Regina wasn't using magic there was a very good chance someone was going to get punched. And Fauna's demeanor was more grandmother than cage fighter. (Unless a doctor yelled at one of her nurses.)
"You know, Maleficent told me you three could be annoying. I always assumed it was just the family feud. Now I see she wasn't exaggerating at all." Regina's smile was always more genuine when tinged with malice. Fauna's face ran through a startling gamut of colors; first shocked white, then embarrassed red and now building into a raging purple.
"You leave her out of this!" the head nurse's voice was a dark rasp.
"I tried. She insisted on tagging along and bringing you three as well. Friends close but enemies closer, hmm?"
Gods this woman loves pushing buttons. She doesn't even need magic to control people! Vivien felt a shift in the air as Fauna began gathering a spell. It felt like . . . a power surge? Not good! It's different here! Lake grabbed the nurse's wrist just as she raised it, forcing the spell into the wall. The room shuddered and whatever order had been restored fell to chaos again. All her reference books fell off their shelves, her diplomas crashed to the floor and ceiling plaster rained down on them in crumbles.
"No magic! You could've blown all three of us to pieces." Vivien growled. Everything was too unpredictable here. Never mind that dark magics and power spells were harder to control anyway.
"It – it shouldn't have done that!" Fauna stared at her hand. The wall had a massive scorch ring where the spell had hit.
"I think you should go have a cup of tea and check on everyone's rounds. You know how the orderlies like to slack when you aren't watching." Lake put an arm around Fauna's shoulder and guided her to the door.
"Yes. Yes they do." The nurse could barely rip her eyes away from the damaged wall but managed to wander out of the office in a daze. She was probably going to be nervous using her hands for days now. Nothing like finding out you have lethal weapons you can't control.
"You have excellent reflexes." Regina was still completely poised and collected. The light dusting of plaster on her suit jacket didn't even register. Vivien looked around her office. Maybe I should just switch to a different room.
"You didn't have to push her that far." Lake gave her a rebuking glance. She'd never seen Fauna lose her temper like that. For a moment she'd looked truly capable of killing someone. Everyone.
"I hardly expected that sharp a reaction. How was I to know the old wounds were still so fresh?" The Mayor brushed the responsibility away like an annoying fly. What was it that made Fauna just lose it like that? The mention of Maleficent, ok, yeah they were enemies. And some reference to her bringing the three of them. No, before that. Fauna had gone pale when Regina mentioned . . .
"They were family?" Vivien suddenly remembered.
"After a fashion. All Fay are related. Even darling Blue has to confess kinship with our former 'Mistress of All Evil.'" Regina definitely enjoyed that little irony.
"I don't think Blue would have tried to kill you for bringing her up." Then again, Lake hadn't thought Fauna had that kind of rage in her either. Who else might have explosive tempers festering beneath the surface?
"Granted, it is more of a tender point for the godmothers," Regina acknowledged with a cluck of her tongue, "I gather the four were closer to being sisters once. You know Maleficent used to be a godmother as well? That is until she decided to swap her wand for a staff. They've been working against each other ever since. Well, until now, obviously. You'd think they'd be relieved."
Vivien thought of her sisters. Would they know where she was or did they just assume she was dead? Would that thought make them happy?
"I'm pretty sure that spell suggests otherwise." Vivien nodded to the scorch mark. It was a physical, blackened testimony to the fact that some bonds could never be erased. No betrayal or rivalry hurt as much as the pain of loss. Up to the moment of death there can still be hope. Losing that hurts worse than anything.
Regina must've sensed the shift in Vivien's thoughts and mood. She moved to leave without a word but paused at the doorway.
"You know a few barrier runes and a dampening ring would stop anyone from using magic in this room. Your treatments might be less . . .sensational." She made it sound as if all the damage had been caused by some overly-enthusiastic children.
"I hadn't thought of that." Lake could've slapped herself for having forgotten something so basic. Protection spells were Magic 101. Before you could think about hurting others you had to know how to shield yourself. A lot of bad beginners usually blew themselves up. Survival of the fittest, after all.
"You would've. And Vivien?" Regina only paused like that when she was about to be honest. It was always harder for her; she had to work up to it.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you." She held up the bottle of balm but the simple words encompassed a lot more.
"Anytime." Vivien smiled. It wasn't the first time she'd ever heard the Mayor say the words, but she was pretty sure it was the first time she'd meant them.