XXIV. The secret of the farm

…

A frosty wind welcomed Regina in front of the clinic. She pulled up the collar of her coat and marched hurriedly across the parking area to her Benz. In her mind, Zelena's words reeled over and over, while the meaning behind them filtered through slowly. Their first encounter outside the town hall had been months ago, but she remembered well that Freek had then introduced Zelena to her as his wife, just as naturally as she had referred to him as her husband. Startled, Regina jolted up in her seat as the shrill ring of her cell phone shattered the silence in the car. She hesitantly stared for a moment at the display, which showed Emma's grinning face, because she was completely overwhelmed right now and didn't know what to say to her friend. First she had to realize the events of this evening herself. Shortly after, the mobile rang again and this time she answered the call.

"Finally!" Emma exclaimed upset through the phone. "I've been trying to reach you! Why don't you pick up or at least answer my messages?"

"Take it easy. I'm not deaf, I understand you perfectly when you talk to me at a normal volume."

Emma gasped audibly. "I was fucking worried! You were going to check on Zelena at least three hours ago and call me right back then. Henry had no idea you'd be gone that long either. What the hell was going on?"

"Don't worry. Freek wasn't home and Zelena is fine so far. I just had the right intuition, but I ht'd rather tell you that tomorrow when I see you." Drained, she rubbed her temples, where it throbbed uncomfortably. "I'm still in the car, and I'd like to go home now. I'm cold and I'm very tired."

"Wait a minute. Have you been with her until now? What have you been up to?"

"Tomorrow, Miss Swan!"

"All right," Emma grumbled impatiently. "Breakfast at Granny's?"

Regina was about to say yes, but then she decided that she would visit Zelena first to make sure that she and the baby were all right. First of all, she really needed to talk to her about what she had revealed to her. She had suspected something was wrong, but it was beyond her imagination.

"I can't. Come by my office during your lunch break if you have time."

"As you want."

Her girlfriend's oddly occupied-sounding voice made Regina frown. "Don't be jealous, you have no reason to be. You're incredibly important to me, you know."

"I care about you, too. I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm sorry."

"Bygones." A smile found its way to Regina's lips. "I'll think of you later, when I'm lying in bed and imagine you're with me. Then I'll sleep well."

"Sweet dreams. I'm glad I have you."

Those words still echoed in Regina's ears long after the conversation had ended and she was steering the Benz through the deserted nighttime streets of Storybrooke. Emma gave her so much strength and confidence, for which she was infinitely grateful.

…

Nervously exhausted, Regina finally arrived home and put the Benz in the garage. Inside the house, she was already impatiently greeted by Henry, who had been waiting for her on the couch in his pajamas. Normally she sent him to bed by nine-thirty at the latest when he had to go to school the next day, but she couldn't blame him for staying awake. The dull pain behind her temples increased.

"There you are finally, Mom!" Relieved, he hugged her. "You said you'd only be gone for a little while, and you didn't answer my messages at all."

"I didn't expect it to take this long. I just didn't get a chance to look at my phone because everything was so hectic. When I got to the farm, Zelena was not well at all. I had to take her to the hospital because she was in so much pain. The surprise couldn't have been bigger. She gave birth to a baby girl."

"Okay, but why was it so surprising? You know that, don't you?" The boy raised a brow questioningly, something he had no doubt picked up from her. "You should check on Emma, she's worried too, because she can't reach you."

"I don't know, it seems to happen to some women. You can hardly tell by looking at them, either, because they don't get very round." In her mind, Regina pulled her phone out of her pocket to let her friend know she had gotten home okay. "I talked to her on the phone earlier. Now go to bed, Henry, you have school tomorrow. Don't forget to brush your teeth."

Reluctantly, he finished his glass of orange juice. "While you were gone, I read the book and thought of something. Robin Hood and the Evil Queen are soul mates, but that doesn't mean they have to be a couple, does it? After all, you and Robin are best friends, too. Now if the Wicked Witch wasn't her sister, they could have their happy ending together because they understand each other better than anyone else could. Like Emma and you. They've both been through so much. That's so cool, don't you think?"

"Interesting idea, you really put a lot of thought into it," Regina returned appreciatively. "Maybe a happy ending doesn't always have to mean true love. It can also consist of finding the place in life where you belong, which would make it a new beginning. I love that they're sisters, I made that up back when I was a kid, but unfortunately my dad and I didn't get around to finishing the story. You could try that with your imagination - tomorrow. It really is bedtime now!"

Knowing that any contradiction was pointless, he retreated to his room without a murmur. As long as he was getting ready for bed, she put on tea water before following him to wish him a good night. She knew her son well enough to know that he usually read under the covers with his cell phone lamp for a few more minutes until his eyes fell shut. Instead of reprimanding him for that, she let him think he was a nose ahead of her. In the bathroom, she first went under the shower and enjoyed the pleasantly warm water splashing evenly on her skin for a few minutes. Sitting on the bed in her pajamas and holding a cup of tea, she finally felt a little relaxed, at least physically, but her thoughts were jumbled. Zelena's confession gave her no peace. Only gradually did she grasp its full meaning.

It had been clear to her for a long time that something was wrong on Birch Hill, but she had really hoped to be mistaken and to misinterpret the signs. The truth was possibly even more disturbing than she had ever dared to thin of. Freek was abusing Zelena physically and emotionally, but that was as far as she had ever thought, which seemed to her to be rather naive by now, since sexual violence often was a thing in such a toxic relationship. She could think of no reason for her father to pretend to be her husband unless there was something to hide. Clearly she recalled the scene she had witnessed weeks ago in the backyard of the Rabbit Hole. The way he treated Zelena made her believe he wouldn't tolerate her seeing a man and even less starting a relationship. Robin told her how evasive she was toward him. However, only one other possibility occurred to her, and it was so unimaginable that it made her nauseous. The child was Freek's, which meant he had raped and impregnated his own daughter. An ice cold tremor ran down her spine as she continued to think that this kind of abuse was rarely a one-time thing. If she was correct in her assumption, it must have started years ago, when Zelena was still a young girl. She didn't understand how no one had noticed all this time what had been quite obvious to her. Why had no one ever helped Zelena?

She was far too distressed to find sleep, so she picked up her phone and opened the browser to search the internet for articles that would help her sort through the chaos in her head. Some of the reports she found only disturbed her more. There were lots of frightening cases of abuse out there and too many of them had come to tragic ends. She couldn't let this happen; she had to protect Zelena and the baby. The letters were already blurring in front of her eyes when she read an article, in which a criminal psychologist described it as a kind of substitute action when a father took from his adolescent daughter what he no longer got from his wife. This made frightening sense to her, since Zelena's mother had died early and she had apparently been all alone with Freek since then. She imagined a very young Zelena, perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old, who used to have hopes and dreams before her own father had taken them away from her forever with her innocence. The silence in her bedroom suddenly seemed unbearable to her. She longed to hear Emma's warm voice, but at this late hour she didn't want to wake her friend, so she opened the most recent voice memo she had received from her that very morning.

Good morning, dear! I'm on my way to the station right now and I'm thinking about you. So first of all, I need a coffee before I can even think, but I'm picturing your face right after I get up. I think you're cute when you're sleepy and your hair is disheveled. Have a pleasant day.

After listening to the message three times in a row, her heart felt a little lighter. She put the phone away and drank the rest of her tea, which had gone cold, before snuggling into bed. She left the lamp on the nightstand on. It wasn't so much the darkness that worried her, but the frightening thoughts that were still running through her head. In retrospect, it made sense that Zelena had been freaked out in the delivery room when Whale had gotten too close to her, being anything but empathetic. It underscored that she had indeed been abused. If her father had been raping her for many years, how possible could it be that this had been her first pregnancy after so long? She had no older children, but that didn't have to mean that her daughter really was the only baby she had given birth to. How far would this man go to keep his terrifying secret? At the hospital under the staff's watchful eye, Zelena and the little girl were safe for now, but there was no way she could return to Birch Hill when she was allowed to leave. Her father must not touch her ever again. Regina vowed to prevent that at all costs. She needed Emma by her side.

Her dreams were dark that night. She crouched on the cold stone floor of a dark room. Through a narrow hatch strip of light fell in that was just enough to cover the corners and the walls in billowing shadows. She had the feeling that something threatening lurked there and if it reached for her, she was helpless at the mercy of it. A sound brought her out of her rigidity all at once. It was the crying of an infant. In the direction from which it came, she noticed a half-open door, where it was brighter. The near escape gave her new strength and she stood up. Her footsteps echoed through the darkness. On the other side of the passage there was a hallway vaguely familiar to her. She followed the wailing cry to the upper floor of the farmhouse, where a door led into the nursery. The cradle inside was empty except for a pink baby blanket, however, so she continued on to the large bedroom next door, which was also deserted. Icy wind beat against her because the window was wide open. Shivering, she marched towards it to close it, being able to look out onto the field behind the house. Down there lay a twisted lifeless figure whose pale skin barely stood out against the snow in contrast to the curtain of tangled red hair that hid her face. As fast as her trembling legs carried her, she stormed back the way she had come, down the hall and out of the house. The icy air stung her lungs as she circled the building until she reached the field. She sank into a crouch beside Zelena and found that it was too late. Her body was freezing, she couldn't help her anymore. Dropped like a piece of useless garbage, it flashed through her mind and she swallowed hard. The baby was silent.