Double trouble

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

― L.P. Hartley

Chapter 3 'Caught'

After dinner Em had a request for Regina. Although she was grateful for everything she'd been given so far, she was always a pusher of boundaries and was more than equal to the task of asking for more and seeing how much she could wrangle.

"Hey Regina? Can I have a shower and borrow some clothes?"

"Of course. I'll show you where everything is. I'm not sure if I'll have anything you'll like but you're welcome to whatever you find."

"Thanks," said Em awkwardly. "I don't wanna have to see her again wearing this and being all grotty-looking like some kinda streetkid."

While Em was changing in the bathroom, Regina dug inside her own closet and then Henry's closet. She came up with a pair of too-small jeans she'd forgotten to return, a tanktop, and a sports jacket of Henry's in navy with white stripes down the arms. She grabbed some new underwear and socks and a pair of Henry's Cons and went to knock on the bathroom door. The door was laying ajar and Em stood at the mirror in her underwear. She was even thinner than she appeared when dressed and her ribs were showing alarmingly.

Regina gasped at the sight of the enormous angry-red graze that covered Em's entire back, like she'd come off a motorcycle or had been dragged across a gravel road by the foot. She pushed through the door and automatically reached out to her.

"Em, what happened to you?" gasped Regina.

Em flinched. "Don't! Don't touch me."

Regina drew back immediately and held up a palm. "Ok. I won't. But are you hurt?"

Em wrapped her arms around her thin middle. "Whatever. It's nothing ok."

That injury was definitely not nothing, Regina thought. Most likely abuse at the hands of one of her foster parents and it filled in a piece of Emma's empty past. She didn't want to press for details or insist on seeking medical care in case it scared Em off altogether though. Regina decided to leave it for now, but that rash was going to sting badly when the girl got in the shower.

"It looks painful. I can give you something to put on it?" offered Regina.

"It's nothing," Em insisted.

"I can help you-"

"Listen you've been real nice to me, but I don't trust you. I don't trust anyone so just drop it ok?"

"I brought you some clothes." Regina held the items out like a peace offering.

"Thanks," Em smiled weakly and took off her thick black glasses to set them on the sink.

Over at Mary Margaret's apartment, a similar scene was going on. Emma was sitting on top of the toilet seat and Mary Margaret was on the edge of the bath. Both of them were trying to convince a teenage Regina to have a bath but she was being stubbornly reluctant for some reason.

"Are you sure you don't want a shower?" offered Emma again.

"No no," young Regina said shiftily. "It's fine. I know I smell like horse - I was riding - but don't worry. I'll bathe when I get home."

"It really is ok," said Mary Margaret, trying to convince the shy girl and fearing that it might be some time before they managed to get her home.

"But you can't afford it!" blurted out the girl, and then clapped her hands over her mouth. "I am so sorry - I'm sorry!"

Emma tried not to laugh, but she was confused. "Why do you think we can't afford it?"

"Because you don't have any servants," said young Regina, with a fire-red face. "And you all live in this small loft. But I don't mind really! I'm not above lowering from my station. I'm grateful to you for everything you've done for me."

Mary Margaret took pity on the naive girl and explained. "Things are different here in this land. People don't have servants anymore. It may not seem like it but we're more well-off than most."

"Oh," the young brunette said in a small voice. "I've never been away from my father's estate. My mother says poor people live like dirty savages in tiny hovels."

Emma tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at her curiously. She wasn't going to miss an opportunity to get at some of Regina's secrets. It had never sat right with her that Regina had sided with her mother the minute she'd turned up in town - why would she have done that when Cora had killed the love of her life? And had only just framed her for a murder that didn't even happen? It didn't make sense.

"Do you always do what your mother tells you?" asked Emma casually.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" young Regina said, sounding confused by the question.

"You seemed afraid when you saw Regina perform magic earlier. Your mother uses magic doesn't she?"

The teenager looked at the tiled bathroom floor sadly. "I don't like magic. Why would I ever learn?"

Emma glanced warily at Mary Margaret, heading into dangerous territory. "You uh, had something you wanted to accomplish."

"No. I would never do that. Anything worth having can be gotten without magic," young Regina said with conviction, sounding more mature than she had yet.

"Wish you'd convince yourself of that," said Emma dryly. "Regina doesn't seem to get it."

"Ok we need to find something else to call you," said Mary Margaret to the teen, trying to keep the names straight. "This is getting confusing."

Yeah right, Emma thought to herself. Like we'd confuse this scaredycat little waif for the Evil Queen - caster of the curse to end all curses! Or the Mayor who manipulated and bullied everyone around till she got her own way...This girl is nothing like Regina.

"Em calls me 'princess'?" said the teenage Regina.

"How about Gina? Or Ginny?" suggested Mary Margaret.

"Hell. No." said Emma firmly.

"Ri," said the teenager with a smile. "Then I match Em."

"There we go," Emma put on a plastered smile and punched the air lightly. "Now how about that bath, Ri?"

In the middle of the night, Em threw off the covers of the bed revealing her still-fully dressed self and grabbed her Cons from the floor. She opened the door to the guest room softly and peeked down the hall. The door to Regina's bedroom was open, so Em crept down the dark hall without making a sound and made her way out of the mansion.

Once her feet hit the pavement outside she broke into a jog, her breath clouded in front of her in the chilly night air as she headed across town. She only stopped once on the way, to retrieve something special she spied behind a shop window - nothing stood in the way of an experienced thief with nothing to lose. Not to mention one armed with a brick. The alarm didn't go off so Em took what she wanted and continued on her way.

Inside the apartment, Em tip-toed through the dark until she found who she was looking for. She found her easily, sleeping peacefully under a blanket on the couch in the living room. All was dead quiet, dark, and still in the apartment.

Em leaned on one knee beside the lounge and trailed the back of her fingers down the girl's cheek.

"Princess?" whispered Em.

Ri woke up and her eyes went wide. "Em! Wh-"

"Shhh! Quiet." Em held a finger to her lips, just visible in the dim light.

"-sorry," whispered Ri as she sat up. "I'm so glad to see you, Em!"

Em looked her over and groaned. "Oh my god, what have they done to you... Snoopy pyjamas!"

"Aren't they sweet? Look at these little dog pictures and the fabric is so soft. I wonder where it-"

Em cut her off. "Focus, Regina! I have to get you out of here. You're coming back to Regina's with me."

Ri shrank, afraid to tell her the truth. "Em, I don't want to."

"Why? You can't stay here with these jerks. Come to Regina's. Please?"

"But they've been really nice to me. And I'm not going where there's magic, Em. I'm sorry."

"That's ok." Em smiled and stroked her cheek. "But nothing will stop me seeing you. Finding people is kinda my thing... so is finding ways around people. I had to see you."

Em held out a single red rose.

Emma groaned when her phone rang underneath her pillow wrenching her from sleep. She grabbed it quickly before it could wake Henry (dead to the world as usual) and answered the call.

"Regina, what the hell? It's 3am," hissed Emma into the phone at a whisper.

"Is Em there with you?"

"What? No," said Emma annoyed, getting out of bed to pace. "You abducted her this afternoon, remember? Don't tell me you've lost her already-"

"She's not here anymore. I'm worried about her."

"She can take care of herself. For god's sake, I said not to trust that girl as far as you can throw her but did anyone listen to me?!"

"Emma, she needs help. I think she was abused."

Emma clenched her jaw tightly. "News flash. She's me. I know what happened."

"Then you should have some sympathy!"

"Oh please, she'll get over it. She's a bad kid anyway."

"Don't you dare say that in front of her! She already thinks that. You and your parents are so close-minded, you think everything you do is right and everything I do is-"

"Do not make this about you, Regina. Oh and by the way, since you haven't asked, your younger self is fine, thanks to me-"

"Of course she is."

"- except for the fact that she jumps when anyone comes near her. She's terrified of her mother and of magic and of the entire world! She's so afraid of not being a good girl, she was beside herself thinking she was gonna miss dinner and her mother would find out. She acts like she's twelve, not eighteen. She asked us what the correct way to bathe was - like she'd never been trusted to do it herself before! What the hell happened to you, Regina?!... Regina!"

Emma heard Regina's line go silent as she hung up on her.

Ri took the rose from Em's hand. "It's pretty. As far as I can tell in the dark."

"Not as pretty as you," said Em nervously.

"I think you're really pretty too," said Ri shyly. "I never thought that about a girl before. Well, I haven't really met anyone my age before - boy or girl - so I don't know..."

Em sat on the couch next to Ri, as close as she could get.

"I know I'm kind of an idiot," admitted Em. "No-one ever wants to get to know me ... but I really like you, princess."

Ri smiled happily. "I want to know you better too, Em."

Em smiled nervously and took one of Ri's hands and laced their fingers together.

"It's weird huh? We only met today but I already feel like we should be together. But something strange is going on here - we don't belong here I don't think. And we might have to go back to where we came from one day soon."

"Maybe we're both in a place we don't belong."

"And even if we were together I got nothing to offer you."

"I don't care! I really don't. There's only one thing I dream of."

"What's that," Emma said hopefully, immediately deciding that whatever it was, whatever it cost, if it was in any way possible she'd get it for her.

"I don't want to say yet," Ri said softly.

"Bummer," said Em, a little disappointed. "That's gonna make my search doubly hard."

"You're close," hinted Ri.

Emma's eyes dropped to Ri's lips and she leaned in closer. "How close?"

"Very," giggled Ri.

A tiny distance away from her lips, Em cupped Ri's face gently and whispered. "Can I kiss you?"

Emma stared angrily at her phone after Regina had hung up on her and clenched her fists.

Seconds later, a cloud of purple smoke appeared in front of her and then Regina stood there in the bedroom. She was dressed in slate-coloured satin pyjamas with a dark grey robe belted around her middle. Regina was distracted for a moment by the sight of Henry sleeping in the bed and then glared malevolently at Emma.

"Regina, what the hell are you doing here?" hissed Emma at a whisper.

"Emma, whatever you think-"

"You can't just magic yourself around and appear in someone's bedroom like a creepy stalker!"

"I came to get Em. She is here! I know it," Regina whispered forcefully.

"Even if she is... you are not taking her back. The girls are staying here with us."

"No. I'm taking them both this time!"

Emma growled in frustration, glancing at Henry to see if he'd woken. She grabbed Regina's elbow and marched her out of the bedroom as quietly as she could while still being rather rough.

"Regina, we can not let the girls be together. If they're from the past it could mess up the future, the present - everything could be ruined -"

Emma's jaw dropped and Regina was hardly less shocked at her side as they stared at the sight on the couch in horror.

Em and Ri were making out like a couple of teenagers.