One month later:
David Nolan awoke suddenly as he heard a scream. He turned the light on and saw Regina gasping for breath. She was rapidly breathing, eager to find air. She then hid her face with her hands, hoping to gain control of her tears.
Oh my! What is going on with her? She's terrified. Charming bolted from the couch to the bed. She screamed once again as he got on the bed, trying to stop her panick. Her eyes shut tight as she sensed another on the bed with her. "Leave me alone! Please! Don't hurt me! Not today! Not again! Please! I'll be good! I promise I'll be good today! Please don't! Get away from me!" She begged as she forcibly fought David away from her. Her arms pushed David's away as she swung them aimlessly until she started hitting him.
"Regina, Regina." He kept repeating her name as he grabbed her hands tightly. "It's David. He's not here. You're safe. You are safe in my apartment away from him."
She only flinched at his touch now and slowly opened her eyes. Shame instantly stained her face as she saw it was David. "Charming." She softly spoke leaning into him, putting her head on his chest and his arms wrapped around her body. He softly held her in his arms. "I'm sorry." She whispered.
It shook him to his core; the way she said his name. She never once said that name unless it was taunting him. Even after they became friends, she would make fun of him. She would make a sarcastic remark or be uptight. She never said his name like that, like how Snow did. He knew that was probably the only time he would ever hear the woman speak his name like that again, so he savored the moment. What made him so astonished though was the fact he could hear his old wife's broken voice within hers.
"Shhh, don't be sorry. It's going to be okay. I'm here."
Her words echoed in his mind. He couldn't comprehend that the former Evil Queen, the woman who always wanted to be in control, always wanted power, revenge, and even his death was gasping for air as she held him because of how truly frightened she was.
He continued to hug her, hoping it would bring her comfort. He then let her go, and stared back at her. "This is all my fault! I should have protected Snow and my own daughter." David paused thinking about the reason why she woke up with fright. He saw it before, with his wife. "You. Now my own wife died because I failed. Now you are hurting because I failed."
"Don't blame yourself." Regina used his own words. "There was nothing you could have done. He had a gun with him. He would have shot you easily."
There was a long pause as the man asked her, concerned. "Did he- did he ever shoot her?" He referenced his wife.
"No. Plenty of times he threatened to." She casually said. "He shot me once in the leg and the other in the arm. He usually would only threaten us with that. Instead he would use-" she paused. "A knife." She said. "Or just his bare hands."
The man gulped. "I'm sorry he hurt you."
Tears started to form in her eyes. "There's nothing you could have done. He would have probably killed you if you were with us."
"Regina, I don't mean to be rude but you were different before. Something changed in you and I don't know exactly but something did. You are so-"
You're so broke. I wish I could fix you somehow and I wish you could fix me.
"Weak I know-"
"I would say troubled. Emma and Snow seemed so distant." He paused and then looked straight in her eyes. "I know you never talk much about what happened but I want to know. What did he do to y'all? It's been months since you returned. You know you can tell me anything."
Regina replied. "It was horrible. It was so horrible. I couldn't stop him from hurting me or Mary Margaret. I could only stop him from using Emma at the expense of my own suffering." She said numbly, deeply in thought. "Which wasn't even me stopping it, because I was forced."
"I'll listen if you want someone to talk to."
A tear dropped from her cheek. "Alright. Please don't tell anyone about this. I don't want anyone in this town to think I'm fragile."
"You're not. You're strong."
She ignored his words as her eyes watered. "He treated us in different ways. None of us he treated the same. He treated Emma the best. I do believed he loved her, in some twisted way, he did. Just as Rumplestiltskin loved Belle, he loved Emma. He never physically hurt her. He slept with her many times in a span of about two months because-." She paused as the feeling made her and David sick to their stomachs. "Of that day. It was the day he slit Mary Margaret's arms because we tried escaping, the day he shot me in the thigh, and the day Mary Margaret felt most guilty about. She blamed herself when Emma agreed to sleep with him in exchange for her life."
David's eyes watered as Regina continued. "But that was all he had ever done to hurt Emma, except hurting her mom and I of course."
He asked in a worrisome way with a tear forming. "What about Snow? Did he ever-" There was pain and fear in his voice. "Ra-"
"As far as I know he never did. He would always threatened to hurt her if we didn't cooperate though. She ended up close to death multiple times from the torture and pain she went through." She sighed. "Usually with her it involved a knife, cutting usually but sometimes he would stab her. It was on very few occasions but he did."
Charming sobbed underneath his breath. How could he do that to my own wife?
"She was just a pawn to make sure we were not going to escape. She was a means to an end- same as me, just more slowly."
David finally asked the questioned she dreaded. "And you?"
She couldn't believe she was actually about to tell him something so personal distressing. "He hated me the most and wanted me to suffer because of what the Evil Queen did to his daughter." She let out a breath. "He would starve me. He would beat me and take his anger about his daughter out on me. He would do and say humiliating things to me. There were so many times he told me that I was nothing. He would say that I was his and only his. He would say that no one would ever love me or ever even care."
She was anxious at the thought of what Charming would think. She couldn't imagine even the thought of David to think of her as weak. "When I found out Emma was pregnant, I hated what he did to her. He forced me to take her place."
Tears dripped down her face landing on the bed sheets. "I guess he just wanted to feel powerful. I understand how that is. When I was the Evil Queen all I wanted was revenge and power. He just had a certain way of taking it, differently than how I did. I killed people in an instant, he wanted to do it slowly. He just wanted to show us that he was in control because he lost himself. He didn't know who he was, that's why he did this. I understood him, David because I was him in the past. I deserved what he did to me, though. I killed countless people, I raped a man, I manipulated and destroyed many." She put her hands over her face, continuing to wipe tears off her cheeks. "Please don't tell anyone about this." She added.
How could he do that to her? He was insane to hurt her like that.
"Of course I won't." He calmly told her as he reached out to hold her. He pulled her close. She wrapped her arms around him tightly listening to his voice. "And you didn't deserve any of that. You've changed. I'm sorry he did that to you." He looked in her eyes as she looked back at him. "He has no power over you anymore. Both you and Emma are free from him, you understand?" She nodded as a tear flowed down her cheek. His voice was so calming, so reassuring.
"David, will you-" she couldn't understand why she asked him. In a way, she felt terrible for asking. "Will you stay with me?" She hoped her words didn't scare him off.
He nodded. "Of course." He moved to the other side of the bed, wrapping the covers around him and her. He didn't know how close she was comfortable with him in the same bed. As the seconds went on, he felt her lean back into him. He stared at her as she slowly rested her head slightly on his chest. He tried going to sleep and but couldn't keep his eyes off of the woman. His mind swirled with delight as he imagined the woman turning the other way, staring at him as he caressed her hair, kissing one another softly. Then the kissing slowly turning into something much more passionate. What is wrong with me? It's like I'm going crazy without Snow here. He thought as he drifted off asleep.
Regina, on the other side of the bed, wondered why a man like him would want to help someone like her. Someone who was broken and someone who used to be more evil than her kidnapper. Yet, she knew she changed. She knew his own daughter and dead wife was broken like her. She couldn't help but think that he was just as broken after his wife's suicide.