Trigger warning: Implied abuse

A/N:

Hey guys!

It's a Sunday and Sundays mean updates (although this is really late, sorry). This chapter directly carries on from the one before with poor Emma in a slightly precarious position and some feelings being realised along the way. Reviews are, as always, very much appreciated! We're getting quite a way through this story now and I'd love to know what you guys think is gonna happen as it goes along.

Happy reading!

Rosie xx

(I do not own Once or any of its characters, no copyright intended).

Henry and Regina sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen; Henry doing his homework and Regina reading a book. Dinner had been ready for almost half an hour but it was currently keeping warm in the oven whilst they patiently waited for Emma to return from work. The two sat in silence, the same look of concentration on both their faces. Even though Henry wasn't Regina's biological child there were many similarities in their behaviour, combined with their matching dark hair, that would convince strangers that they were in fact related. Henry was the first to break the quiet contentment.

"Where's Ma? I'm getting really hungry, I wish she'd hurry up," he said, looking up at his mother from his homework.

"I don't know Henry, she should have been home a while ago. I'm sure she's just caught up in something at the station with your grandfather."

"Hmm okay…I'm reaaaally hungry though Mom…can I have a pre-dinner snack to keep me going?" he asked cheekily, pulling out the wide, pleading eyes that he most certainly had not inherited from Regina; that was all Emma's work.

Regina feigned shock before breaking out into a small smile, "No you may certainly not young man, you can wait. I will call her now and see where she is, okay?"

"Okay," Henry said dejectedly before returning to his work.

Regina placed her book down on the counter face down and picked up her phone from beside her. Unlocking it she quickly found Emma's name in her recent contacts alongside a picture the blonde had insisted on adding as her contact photo a few weeks ago. It was just a funny selfie Emma had taken but it caused the corners of Regina's mouth to lift upwards just the same. The brunette pressed the number and held the phone to her ear. She listened to it ring, and ring and ring. Emma's voice came onto the end of the line after a long while but it was her voicemail, and not the woman herself.

'Hey you've reached Emma Swan, Sheriff and Saviour extraordinaire. Obviously I'm off doing something cooler than answering my phone right now, like saving the world, so leave a message after the beep.'

Regina sighed. Not only did the blonde not have the decency to answer her phone but she insisted on making the brunette listen to that ridiculous message every time she didn't. Typical.

"Did she not answer?" Henry asked to Regina's chagrin. Obviously if she had then the brunette wouldn't have the look on her face that she did right now, but she stilled the beating of her heart and tried to reply with as much optimism as she could muster at that moment. Unfortunately, it just came out angry.

"No she did not, clearly something is more important than the dinner I've slaved over for half the day," she snapped. It wasn't that she was actually angry per se, but she thought that with everything going on right now Emma would at least have the decency to inform her of her whereabouts.

"Does this mean I can eat dinner now?" Henry requested again, not realising that there might be more important implications to Emma's silence than dinner being late.

"If she still isn't back by the time your homework is finished then yes, we can eat," Regina replied. She hoped beyond anything that Emma was home by then, because if not she might just have to send out a search party, no matter how desperate that would make her look.

"Fine," Henry whined, receiving a look of 'don't test me' from his mother.

It was about ten minutes later when Regina's phone vibrated against the table, she had been attempting to read her book but the words hadn't been going in. She was sure she just read the same paragraph ten times. Her eyes moved but her mind was elsewhere.

Hey, sorry. Stuck at station. Will be back later, save me some food. E. The former Queen read. Yet again, typical, she thought. The woman seemed mostly unconcerned about her lateness and more concerned about having her stomach filled when she returned home.

"Was that her?" The words jumped out of Henry's mouth as soon as Regina's phone hit the counter.

"Yes," Regina replied with a faked smile, "she's going to be late so your wish is granted my prince, its dinner time for us."

"Woop!" Henry shouted, "finally!"

Regina chuckled at her son as she pulled their plates out of the oven, "if anyone didn't know any better they'd think I starve you," the brunette japed with raised eyebrows.

She and Henry ate dinner happily, laughing and joking with each other. However there was something that felt off to Regina. It was probably just the fact that she had grown used to having Emma here for dinner, sitting and eating like a family. But there was something else; a niggling feeling that something wasn't right. She ignored it for now in favour of enjoying an evening alone with her son but it continued to play on her mind.

Somewhere in the distance Emma heard her phone ringing. It was Regina's ringtone, 'O fortuna'. Usually it made her laugh; she had set it as Regina's ringtone years ago when she had hated her, and when a phone call from the woman had come with an unparalleled sense of foreboding. She hadn't changed it because it was the epitome of everything Regina; intense, intimidating, epic. But now, drifting in and out of consciousness, plagued with memories of some of the worst times of her life all Emma wanted to do was make it stop. No, that wasn't entirely true. All she wanted to do was pick up the phone and speak to the woman on the other end but that was physically impossible right now. Her tired arms stretched out blindly towards the source of the noise but as always she was met with the cold mechanical resistance of chains around her wrists, tethering her to the ground like a criminal, like an animal.

"Stop," Emma whispered through her tears, "stop…..stop….stop..stop..stop stopstopstopstop,". She screwed her eyes shut as tight as she could and clutched her fists to her temples but it did nothing to help. It made everything worse. Because the words she had said out loud had been said before, in another time, another place. Her voice still as despairing, only more innocent, less filled with resentment and more full of pure unadulterated sorrow. Finally the music stopped and not long after Emma drifted back into the deepest darkest regresses of her mind, her dreams plagued with images whose reality she couldn't determine. When she realised she was dreaming, she awoke, as one tends to do, but when she was awake the things from her dreams continued to wreak havoc on her psyche. She couldn't decide which state was less torturous so she allowed herself to succumb to her mind's whim, to drift aimlessly between the past and the present. Occasionally there were other images; Regina, Henry, happiness. She knew she was awake when these came but all they did was make her sad with the realisation that she may never get to experience such things again. The time spent with her son had been so relatively little that it broke her in two to think that four years may be all the time she got with him on this earth. This hurt the most, but there was also a yearning in Emma's chest for things which she hadn't yet had the pleasure of experiencing. The blonde wanted to know what it felt like to be held by Regina; she imagined that it would be like electricity running through her soul, that any bad thing that had ever happened to her could be wiped away like chalk from a slate when Regina looked at her. She wished that just for a moment she could see those beautiful chocolate brown eyes, that face which was so hardened to the outside world yet sometimes, somehow, managed to illuminate itself in Emma's presence and make her feel more power than she did even when practising magic. These thoughts made her happy for a time but inevitably she was dragged backwards again into the bottomless pool that was her subconscious.

There was a figure standing above her, towering over her like she was a tiny insignificant creature about to get crushed without a second thought. She knew who he was. It had been years but she could smell the stench like it had been yesterday. He reeked of stale liquor, cigarettes, sweat and dirt. It made her feel dirty just being in proximity to him. He bent down closer, over shadowing her and the smell increased tenfold. His breath was ragged and rancid, the product of a bottle of whiskey and a twenty pack of smokes, and that was only the beginning of his night. He nudged Emma with his hand and she flinched, curled up into herself as tight as she could. She could see the outline of his face through the blackness but then it began to morph into something else, someone else.

The smell disappeared and was replaced with a overwhelming feeling of darkness. Emma could feel it spilling into her veins like huge crashing waves pushing their way onto the shore in the dead of night. But she could still see a face in front of her and thats when she realised for sure that she was experiencing real life now. The face in front of her eyes wasn't covered in stubble with jowls hanging down, rancid smelling paired with a powerful and burly body, it was smooth and curved, womanly. It was her. Emma blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light coming from across the room.

"Why hello there, Saviour," the woman said too sweetly, "how lovely of you to join me."

"Let me go," Emma croaked weakly, her eyes drooping significantly. The woman spoke like many people from the Enchanted Forest did but with her it was different. Her tone was light and polite yet the woman did not match her voice. Where you expected kind soft eyes you got malicious green ones filled with jealously and care for little else than herself. The woman above her laughed.

"Now now, that would be no fun at all, would it? We haven't even gotten to know each other yet."

Emma didn't even have the energy to reply. She felt like all her life-force had been drained from her. She tried to pull herself up into sitting position but in doing so her arm got caught and pulled her back to the ground. She had no idea why this was affecting her so much. She had been in a jail cell, in handcuffs for more time than she cared to think about, she should be stronger than this, but there was something making it impossible.

"I have to say," she continued as she paced in front of Emma, "I expected a little more fight from the Saviour. I've heard such wonderful things about you. My my my you are a disappointment."

Zelena walked over to Emma's jacket which was slung haphazardly over a chair in the corner of the small room which Emma hadn't seen before due to the absolute darkness. There still wasn't enough light for Emma to see the whole room, but she could make out some of the things around her now which made her feel slightly better at first, but after looking around it made her feel worse. The room was tiny and clearly hadn't been use in a long, long time. Some of the walls had white fabric hanging off them and there was what looked like it had once been cushion stuffing in far corners. Now, however, it just looked like nothing more than a pile of dust and dirt. The woman retrieved Emma's phone from the pocket of her jacket and pressed the screen.

"Oh what do we have here? A missed call from my pathetic little sister. How sweet, she's concerned about your whereabouts. I suppose we should let her know that you're safe and sound shouldn't we? Wouldn't want her or Henry to worry," Zelena said with a cackle and a smirking face, half shadowed from Emma's view by the lack of light allowed to enter the small room.

Suddenly something snapped inside Emma, she pulled herself up and strained against her shackles, "stay the fuck away from them. You can have me, but leave Regina and Henry alone," the blonde snarled, like a caged animal. Emma heard the buttons on her phone make a sound as a message was typed out.

"Leave Regina alone?" Zelena said nonchalantly. "Oh Dear, are you even more of an imbecile than I thought? You are certainly in for quite a shock when all comes into the light". The witch walked towards her and knelt down to Emma's eye level, "I will do whatever I want with the both of them. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You are finished, she is finished and your poor, unsuspecting son? I'm sure I can find some use for him."

The blonde felt her head smack against the hard concrete as magic pinned her with almighty force against the wall. Her eyes slammed shut in response and she heard footsteps move away from her. She managed to breathe through the pain and open her eyes again just as the light was disappearing, the faint line on the floor caused by the open door shrinking as it was shut tightly again.

"No, please," Emma begged, unaware of what was coming out of her mouth at that moment as the fear of being trapped in with her own thoughts sprang to life again. "Please, don't, please."

"Have fun," was the only response she received before she was subjected to drown in the darkness once again. Emma kicked out, hard. She felt the clasps around her ankles dig into her skin painfully. She screamed and yelled and cried as hard and as loud as she physically could. She focused everything she had left on gathering her magic inside of her and pushing it outwards but it was useless. Her voice was horse by the time she gave up screaming. She slumped back against the wall and let the tears fall; nothing she did would make a difference.

"Oh god Regina, I'm sorry," Emma said out loud resting the side of her head against the concrete, "I'm so sorry. I'm so stupid. So fucking stupid. You probably won't even realise I'm gone will you? Fuck. FUCK." The blonde curled back up into a ball and began to cry again. All she wanted was to know that Regina and Henry were safe. If anything happened to them then she didn't even care if she died in there, at the hands of that evil maniac, there would be nothing left for her anyway. And maybe if it did happen, Regina would be able to move on with Robin, find true love and get her happy ending. Maybe this was meant to happen. Maybe Emma had to die so Regina could live.

Dinner and homework had been finished and Henry was in his room reading a book. Emma still wasn't home and a tight constricting feeling began to brew in Regina's chest as she walked down the stairs, when a knock at the door startled her from her thoughts and she breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was fine; Emma was back. Why did she always insist on losing the keys Regina had made for her?

Regina made her way to the front door, not even bothering to glance through the peephole before she unlocked and opened it. The face she was met with, however, was not the one she had been expecting.

"Tinkerbell," Regina said in shock, "what are you doing here?" Firstly, the brunette had expected a different blonde to be behind the door and secondly, Regina wasn't sure she trusted this woman, not after what she had seen in town the other day, and especially not when there was definitely more to Robin Hood than she was currently aware of.

"Hi Regina," the fairy answered as she looked expectantly into the house, "I'm sorry to call so late but I need to talk to you about something."

Immediately Regina's suspicion increased; though she didn't have Emma's superpower she liked to think she was pretty adept at reading people, and this woman definitely had something to hide. Her intrigue could wait, however, as she heard her phone ring from the kitchen.

"Come in, by all means," the mayor said sarcastically, "you're here now. I just need to answer this call." She moved through the lobby and under the arch into the kitchen with Tink at her heels, making it to her phone just in time to swipe the screen. It was only when she heard a male voice through the microphone that she realised she hadn't checked the caller ID and that yet again, she just just assumed it was the blonde. Tink stood in awkward silence picking at her fingernails while Regina spoke.

"Hi Regina," she heard David say.

"Hello Charming," she answered.

"Hey, um, Emma wasn't picking up her phone so can you just let her know that Snow has a-"

Regina's heart leapt into her throat, "Excuse me?"

"Regina? Is everything okay?" Charming said, obviously confused.

"I just don't understand why you feel the need to call me… if Emma isn't picking up her phone why didn't you just call the station?"

The two women in the kitchen shared a brief glance before Regina looked away and turned her back.

"What? Emma is at home with you…isn't she?" The tone of his voice immediately dropping, "she told me she was going home to check on you and Henry around 3pm."

Regina's breath caught in her throat and her voice hitched, "I…I haven't seen her since this morning…since I dropped her off after we went into the woods. I received a text from her several hours ago telling me she was stuck at the station."

"Oh, god. I left the station at 5 and she definitely never came back," David replied. Regina could hear Snow on the other end of the line too.

"Charming whats happening?"

"Snow, just let me talk to Regina, okay?" she heard, berating the woman's inability to ever just be quiet for a second.

"What do you mean she never came back, back from where?" Regina demanded, leaning on the counter with one hand on the phone and the other propping her head up as she tried to stop panicking quite so much, and trying to pretend that the fairy wasn't there listening to this conversation right now.

Charming realised that he had dropped Emma right in it, but that was the least of his worries at that moment. "We got a call just after lunchtime. Someone called about green smoke over by Jefferson's place so Emma went to check it out. She insisted she'd be fine. She text me telling me everything was clear and that she was going home to check on you two, but I guess she never did." David finished and sat in silence as he waited for the onslaught he was obviously about to get from Regina.

The brunette squeezed her fingernails into her temples as she attempted to slow the incessant beating of her heart, her panicked intake of breath. Emma was gone. Gone. And it was all her fault. Zelena wanted her not Emma, she was only doing this because somehow she had found out how much Emma meant to her.

"There's a wicked witch on the loose who is after anyone and anything that is even remotely connected to me and you let her go out there on her own," Regina iterated with such rage that David was one hundred percent sure he was speaking to the Evil Queen, only the Evil Queen had never cared this much about anyone but herself.

"I'm sorry Regina, she said she'd be fine. I shouldn't have let her go…I just…"

The former Queen didn't even let him finish his sentence before she interrupted him.

"We don't have time for apologises right now Charming although I sure as hell will be demanding them later. Right now you both need to come here. Snow can stay with Henry while we go and look for Emma. Call the dwarves, I will call Granny and Ruby. See you in ten minutes."

Regina ended the call and slammed her phone, and fists, down on the surface in front of her.

"Tinkerbell, I think it would be best if you leave now. I trust this can wait?" she asked harshly.

"Yes….uh sorry Regina. Can I do anything to help?" she asked timidly.

"No, thank you. Just see yourself out."

Regina didn't even look up from staring at her phone until she heard the front door click shut, then she let her emotions out. She didn't know whether to scream or cry.

How could she be so stupid?! Regina mentally berated Emma. Stupid, brave, rash, Charming IDIOT. She can't just go and get herself killed. Not after she's made me lo-. But the brunette didn't finish that thought because if Emma really was dead, she didn't want to think about her feelings for her ever again. It was too much too soon. What mattered now was finding her, if they could find her, that was.

The Mayor was exhausted as she slid into the comforting softness of her bed, only there wasn't much comfort left in the world when she still had absolutely no idea where Emma was. She glanced over at the clock and groaned. It was 4:34 am. They had been out searching for the blonde for over 7 hours and they were still no closer to discovering where Zelena had taken her.

First they had gone to Jefferson's mansion, Emma last known whereabouts; they searched it top to bottom but found nothing other than old beer cans and cigarette butts and some evidence of teenage vandalism. They then headed to the barn that Emma and Ruby had discovered, with the wolf leading the way, but found nothing there also. They checked almost every inch of town between the eleven of them, or at least every place that you could hide a person without anyone seeing. Their last stop had been Zelena's house in the woods. They all waited in the cover of the trees while Ruby snuck in, her feet so light on the ground that she made no noise at all. She sniffed and sniffed for Emma but found nothing. Regina even had her go and check the underground room she had noticed when she was snooping around before but even only by shining a light through the doors and holding her nose up to them Ruby could tell that Emma wasn't in there. So they gave up their search for the night, much to Regina's distaste. She was insistent that they should carry on looking but Charming and all the others agreed that it was best to go and get some rest and start again in the morning, with fresh eyes and daylight on their side.

Regina had returned to the mansion with Charming who had taken to the guest room - Emma's room - to find his wife, while she had retired to her bed which felt cold and empty. It wasn't as if Emma would have slept in there anyway, but waking up next to a warm body for the first time in years just a few mornings before made it feel like something was missing, and she was missing. Regina didn't think she would be able to sleep for the worry. She curled up in a ball on her side and pulled a pillow into her chest, trying to build a dam against the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes. It was all her fault; her fault that Emma was gone. Not only was the woman who had captured her after Regina's happiness and everything that entailed but Emma had been in a strange mood when they departed that morning, despite the success of their magic lesson, and she hated to think that it was her fault that Emma had thought it would be okay to go out there alone. More than anything, Emma was probably scared that Regina would be angry at her when they found her for being so rash and stupid and she was angry, but that seemed to take a backseat because her unhappiness about Emma's decision was nothing in comparison to her undeniable need to find the woman, if it was the last thing she ever did. She couldn't help but consider that Emma was probably in pain right now, scared and in pain, and thats if she was even alive. Regina simply wanted Emma to be with her, free of any hurt or any fear. She wanted to wrap Emma up in her arms and drift to sleep attached to the blonde. She had always thought that once you sleep with someone like that you might as well be bound to them for life and that was precisely why she had never allowed anyone to hold her in such a way. However, Regina would allow Emma this privilege if the blonde wanted it. She would allow her this and much, much more; that was a promise.