Hi friends! Sorry again that it's been so long! Life is crazy and now I'm working three jobs so there's that. However, with the help of the lovely Fiona I managed to give you chapter 7! Hopefullyyyyy chapter 8 won't take me nearly as long to update. Please keep reviewing and commenting I love getting your feedback and I'm always open to suggestions on things. I may not use them but I just might you never know!
There is a trigger warning for mentions of the abuse in the last chapter and self harm just to warn you all. I love you all, thank you for sticking with me and putting up with my taking forever to update! Enjoy and let me know what you think!
It had been at least 10 years since Regina had been down this way she wasn't even sure she could still remember how to get there. She was relieved that she had somewhere safe to turn to.
Regina slammed her fist into her steering wheel, was all her fault. She pushed Emma to come down here. This is why she doesn't let herself grow feelings for people. They get hurt. People she lets herself care about get hurt. She forgets how vulnerable humans are. How easily harmed they are. Regina glanced up into her rear view mirror and saw Emma's unconscious form on her back seat and she pressed the pedal down harder speeding through the back roads.
Regina got a little lost but she managed to find where she was looking for. Throwing her car in park she jumped out and removed Emma from the back seat. She carefully shifted Emma so that her weight was in one arm. Regina tried to push the thought of just how light Emma was from her mind as she currently had more pressing matters at hand. She hurriedly knocked on the door willing whoever was on the other side of the door to hurry. Finally the door opened. The girl who opened the door stood blinking for a moment with a confused look on her face.
"Aunt Gina..?" The girl questioned. "What..? What are you doing here?"
"Ruby, you remember me! Thank goodness. Please, tell me your mother is home. We need her help." Regina lifted her arms a bit indicating the girl in her arms.
Ruby's face drained of all color. "Emma.." It came out as barely a whisper.
"You know h-" Regina was cut off.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!? WHY DID YOU HURT HER!?" Ruby yelled.
"Hey! Drop the accusations and let me in she needs your mothers help! It wasn't me! Now, step aside so that your mother can heal her!" Regina didn't wait for Ruby to move. She stepped forward relieved when she crossed the threshold without problem. She was still welcome here. She continued into the living room to set Emma down on the couch.
Regina heard a voice from the other room. "Ruby? Who was at the door? I swore I heard-" the woman talking from the other room had made her way into the living room and stopped short taking in the scene in her living room.
"Regina Mills, as I live and breathe.."
"Sarah, please, you have to help her."
Sarah's eyes widened when she realized just who it was laying unconscious on her couch but she only nodded and set off into the other room to grab some things to begin healing her daughters best friend. Regina began to pace back and forth waiting for Sarah to return but was cut short when Ruby stepped in front of her.
"What happened?" Ruby spat angrily.
"Ruby, I told you, this wasn't me. I didn't hurt Emma."
"Then why did you show up here with her unconscious in your arms!?"
"You honestly think if I wanted to cause her harm I would have brought her here for your mother to help!?" Regina rose her voice and her eyes began to darken allowing her face to begin to change.
"Enough you two!" Came a voice from behind them. Sarah had returned with the things she needed to fix Emma up. "Ruby, I'm going to need your help."
Ruby simply nodded and followed her mother to Emma's side.
"Is there anything I can do?" Regina asked.
"You can start by telling me just what did happen that left poor Emma in this state so I know what I'm working with."
Regina nodded. "She hit her head, I think. And she may have some broken ribs and internal bleeding from being kicked."
"What about this black eye?"
"I- I think he hit her I'm not really sure."
"What do you mean you're not really sure? Where did you find her?"
"We were at her fathers house.."
"Both of you? What were you doing there?" Ruby had just finished helping her mother put the gauze on Emma's head and sat back listening intently to Regina.
Regina let out a sigh before launching into the story of how she wound up down here in Redding with Emma. She told Sarah how she was teaching at the college again and how Emma had something important to discuss with her father and how it wound up going south when Neal proposed and Emma turned him down.
"She what!?" Ruby half shouted. "But she loves him..why would she do that.." she trailed off. Regina struggled to not roll her eyes. How could she not have seen it.
"After seeing him grab Emma and talk to her the way he did..I'm not surprised she turned him down. He was abusive, Ruby. He wasn't good for her."
"That must have really made James upset. He wanted Emma to marry him. He wanted them engaged at graduation. He's the one who did this to her, isn't he?" Ruby asked. Regina only nodded.
"What was it that Emma had to come down here to tell him?"
Regina took a deep breath before answering. "That's hers to tell if and when she's ready. I'm going to go back there and compel them both to forget this visit ever happened and compel Neal to leave Emma be."
"Ruby" her mother spoke "why don't you run upstairs and get some clothes for Emma to wear. Ruby nodded and headed upstairs.
"You cannot go and compel them."
"And why not? She doesn't want him around."
"They can't be compelled. They know of our kind. They're on vervain. This whole town is!"
"What? How?!"
"Gold. He's here. He's the mayor and oversees the water treatment plant and has vervain running through the water in the town." she paused. "Neal is his son."
"No wonder the kid is such a prick." Regina shook her head. "Why didn't you tell me he was here?"
"Well, it's not like I've heard from you in almost 10 years I didn't even know how to get in touch with you! Ugh, but that isn't the point. It's not safe here. As soon as Emma is healed enough you need to take her and leave. Go back to campus. And hope Gold doesn't come for you."
Sarah finished rubbing a salve on Emma's stomach that would help the possible bleeding in her stomach and hopefully make for a smoother recovery for her ribs.
"You know," Sarah began, "She would heal a lot faster with your blood.." Regina shook her head.
"No, she doesn't know. I don't want to scare her off...I mean..I don't need some freshman blabbing my secret all over campus." Sarah laughed slightly.
"Ah, so that's what this is really about. It seems that Regina Mills, the infamous, cold hearted, evil, vampire, lesbian is growing feelings for a human girl." Regina only let out a growl of frustration in reply. "Just, don't hurt her Gina. She's young and very fragile." Sarah patted Regina's knee before standing up to start to cleaning up.
"She should be just fine. She just needs time and some rest. I gave her a sedative that will make her stay out a little longer to allow her body to rest. I'll go grab an extra blanket for you since knowing you you won't leave her side till she wakes." Ruby had just come back downstairs with some sweatpants and a t-shirt.
"I'll stay up with her. I don't mind." she said.
"No, Ruby, you need to be helping Toby get ready for what's to come." Her mother replied.
"ugh, fine." Ruby rolled her eyes at the command but listened anyway
Regina grabbed the clothes from Ruby and contemplated what she wanted to do.
'Should she change her out of those clothes? Would that be weird?' Regina thought about it for a minute before deciding she'll wait a little longer to see if Emma would wake up and be able to change herself. Setting the clothes down Regina got up and went to her car to get her bag full of papers to grade from her classes. About an hour later the Lucas family had all said their goodnights and left Regina downstairs with Emma. Sarah checked on the dressing on her head and added some more salve to her stomach. She gave Regina an extra blanket and pillow and told her to come get her when Emma wakes up.
It was getting close to midnight and Emma still hadn't woken up so Regina decided she would go ahead and get her into something more comfortable. She felt ridiculous for being nervous about this. Shaking her head and pushing her nerves aside she undid Emma's jeans and began sliding them down but she stopped just above her knees. Regina let out a sharp gasp and had to force the feeling of hunger that quickly flashed through her when she saw all the angry red marks across Emma's leg. "Oh, Emma.." Regina said quietly as she reached out and gently ran her hand across them. Seeing goose bumps starting to form on her legs Regina finished removing her jeans and wiggled the sweat pants onto her. Regina moved closer towards Emma's head to try and get her shirt off of her to change her into the one Ruby had brought down. She got it half way up when she could have sworn she felt Emma shift. She paused when she heard a small groan. "Emma?" Regina asked. Again Regina heard another groan though this one was a bit louder.
"What..what happened?" Emma asked. "Where am I?" Emma tried to sit up to take in her surroundings but was met with a sharp pain in her side causing her to cry out.
"Hey, hey take it easy you're alright. You're safe now. We're at Ruby's."
"Regina? Why are we at Ruby's? How did I get here?"
"I know her family. We..we go way back..I brought you here after your father attacked you. But you're safe now."
"My father! Oh no..he's so angry..wait how did you stop him..? I-I thought for sure he was going to kill me.." Emma trailed off.
"Shh, don't worry about that now. You need to rest. I'll go let Sarah know you're conscious."
Regina stood up and grabbed the blanket to pull it up over Emma but hesitated when she saw fear cross Emma's face.
"Hey, Emma, what is it? What's wrong?"
"These aren't the pants I was wearing..how did I get into these sweatpants?" Emma asked shakily.
Sighing Regina sat back down. "I changed them." She paused a moment seeing the tears forming in Emma's eyes. "No, no. None of that now. I'm not upset and I'm certainly not going to tell your father. You are an adult. I'm going to drop it for now but pretty soon you and I need to talk about it. Understand?"
Emma let out a huge sigh of relief and just nodded. With that out of the way Regina set off upstairs to get Sarah. She was about halfway up the stairs when her ears picked up the sound of gravel being driven over. The gravel out in the driveway. She turned back to go look out the window to get a look at who it was. Not even half a moment later Sarah, Ruby, and Jacob were heading down the stairs as well.
"It's James." Sarah said as she followed her husband and daughter down the stairs.
"Emma, you're awake!" Ruby yelled as she ran to her side. Sarah smiled, relieved that she was obviously improving some.
"Ruby, grab some pillows and blankets and take Emma and Regina into the basement. Your father and I will handle James." Nodding Ruby gathered the things in her arms and made her way to the kitchen, where the door to the basement was located. Regina didn't wait for Emma to try and stand, she quickly made her way to the couch and picked her up and followed after Ruby down the stairs and into hidden closet under the stairs.